he term,
but now his comment was an explosive exclamation naming the conventional
place of future punishment. It was the only word he could find
adequately to express his feelings.

The superintendent changed the subject.

"Who is your foreman, Mac?" he inquired, as a huge mass of the tangled
scrap was seen to rise at the end of the smaller derrick's grapple.

"Judson," said McCloskey shortly. "He asked leave to come along as a
laborer, and when I found that he knew more about train-scrapping than I
did, I promoted him." There was something like defiance in the
trainmaster's tone.

"From the way in which you say it, I infer that you don't expect me to
approve," said Lidgerwood judicially.

McCloskey had been without sleep for a good many hours, and his
patience was tenuous. The derby hat was tilted to its most contentious
angle when he said:

"I can't fight for you when you're right, and not fight against you when
I think you are wrong, Mr. Lidgerwood. You can have my head any time you
want it."

"You think I should break my word and take Judson back?"

"I think, and the few men who are still with us think, that you ought to
give the man who stood in the breach for you a chance to earn bread and
meat for his wife and babies," snapped McCloskey, who had gone too far
to retreat.

Lidgerwood was frowning when he replied: "You don't see the point
involved. I can't reward Judson for what you, yourself, admit was a
personal service. I have said that no drunkard shall pull a train on
this division. Judson is no less a drink-maniac for the fact that he
arrested Rufford when everybody else was afraid to."

McCloskey was mollified a little.

"He says he has quit drinking, and I believe him this time. But this job
I've given him isn't pulling trains."

"No; and if you have cooled off enough, you may remember that I haven't
yet disapproved your action. I don't disapprove. Give him anything you
like where a possible relapse on his part won't involve the lives of
other people. Is that what you want me to say?"

"I was hot," said the trainmaster, gruffly apologetic. "We've got none
too many friends to stand by us when the pinch comes, and we were losing
them every day you held out against Judson."

"I'm still holding out on the original count. Judson can't run an engine
for me until he has proved conclusively and beyond question that he has
quit the whiskey. Whatever other work you can find for him----"

McCloskey