hat street was
Athens.

Several days after the invasion of Athens suggested itself to Miss Polly
Street in far-off Chicago, a prominent citizen strode from the offices in
the direction of the boarding-house. He moved with decision, for he was
hungry, and Mrs. Van Zandt was fastidious as to hours. The office force
ate its supper at six, and the fact that Marc Scott was the assistant
superintendent and, in the absence of the superintendent on affairs
matrimonial, in charge altogether, was no reason in the eyes of Mrs. Van
Zandt why he should be late to his meals.

Scott paused outside the boarding-house to look into the distance where an
accustomed but always interesting sight met his eyes. Away in the
distance, between two foothills, appeared the tiny thread of smoke which
marked the approach of the little train from Conejo. It was fascinating to
watch it; at first so indistinct, then plainer, and finally to see the
little engine puffing its way along, dragging the small cars. There would
be no one on it but the train gang and nothing more exciting than the
mail, but its bi-weekly arrival never lost interest for Marc Scott.

"Johnson's late to-night," he muttered, and pushed open the door which led
immediately to the dining-room. Three men had just begun eating. There was
Henry Hard, the chief engineer; Jimmy Adams, the bookkeeper, and Jack
Williams, who ran the company store; they, with young Street, Scott, the
doctor--who a month ago had taken an ailing wife back to Cincinnati--and
the train gang, formed the little group of Americans who had held the
mining camp together.

While their location had been freer from trouble than many parts of
Mexico, both in regard to bandit and federal persecution, they had borne a
part in the general unrest. Once the town had been attacked by Indians;
another time, lying in the path of one of Villa's hurried retreats, it had
endured a week-end visit from that gentleman, after which horses and
canned goods had been scarce for a while.

The worst trouble they had had, however, had been with labor. They worked
the mine with Mexicans, and the Mexicans were an uncertain quantity.
Athens was too far from the border to admit of hiring labor from the other
side and allowing it to go back and forth, and the men they got were a
discouraged lot, ready to abandon the job for anything that came up, from
joining the newest bandit to enlisting in the army. Fighting seemed their
_metier_ and most