loyal telegraphers who had promised McCloskey to stand by the
Lidgerwood management in case the rebellion grew into an organized
attempt to tie up the road. But the young man had, for his chief
weakness, a prying curiosity which had led him, in times past, to
experiment with the private office code until he had finally discovered
the key to it.

Hence, a little while after the sending of the Leckhard message,
Callahan, the train despatcher, hearing an emphatic "Gee whiz!" from
Dix's' corner, looked up from his train-sheet to say, "What hit you,
brother?"

"Nothing," said Dix shortly, but Callahan observed that he was hastily
folding and pocketing the top sheet of the pad upon which he had been
writing. Dix went off duty at eleven, his second trick beginning at
three in the afternoon. It was between three and four when McCloskey,
having strengthened his defenses in every way he could devise, rapped at
the door of his chief's sleeping-room. Fifteen minutes later Lidgerwood
joined the trainmaster in the private office.

"I couldn't let you sleep any longer," McCloskey began apologetically,
"and I don't know but you'll give me what-for as it is. Things are
thickening up pretty fast."

"Put me in touch," was the command.

"All right. I'll begin at the front end. Along about ten o'clock this
morning Davidson, the manager of the Copperette, came down to see Mr.
Brewster. He gave the president a long song and dance about the tough
trail and the poor accommodations for a pleasure-party up at the mine,
and the upshot of it was that Mr. Brewster went out to the mine with him
alone, leaving the party in the _Nadia_ here."

Lidgerwood said "Damn!" and let it go at that for the moment. The thing
was done, and it could not be undone. McCloskey went on with his report,
his hat tilted to the bridge of his nose.

"Taking it for granted that you mean to fight this thing to a cold
finish, I've done everything I could think of. Thanks to Williams and
Bradford, and a few others like them, we can count on a good third of
the trainmen; and I've got about the same proportion of the operators in
line for us. Taking advantage of the twenty-four-hour notice the
strikers gave us, I've scattered these men of ours east and west on the
day trains to the points where the trouble will hit us at twelve o'clock
to-night."

"Good!" said Lidgerwood briefly. "How will you handle it?"

"It will handle itself, barring too many broken heads. At midni