tie you an' pack you out there on a hoss."

Neale said no more. If he had said another word he would have betrayed
himself to his friend. He yearned for his old work. To think that the
engineer corps needed him filled him with joy. But at the same time he
knew what an effort it would take to apply himself to any task. He
hated to attempt it. He doubted himself. He was morbid. All that day he
wandered around at Larry's heels, half oblivious of what was going on.
After dark he slipped away from his friend to be alone. And being alone
in the dark quietness brought home to him the truth of a strange, strong
growth, out of the depths of him, that was going to overcome his morbid
craving to be idle, to drift, to waste his life on a haunting memory.

He could not sleep that night, and so was awake when Larry lounged in,
slow and heavy. The cowboy was half-drunk. Neale took him to task, and
they quarreled. Finally Larry grew silent and fell asleep. After that
Neale likewise dropped into slumber.

In the morning Larry was again his old, cool, easy, reckless self, and
had apparently forgotten Neale's sharp words. Neale, however, felt a
change in himself. This was the first morning for a long time that he
had not hated the coming of daylight.

When he and Larry went out the sun was high. For Neale there seemed
something more than sunshine in the air. At sight of Campbell, waiting
in the same place in which they had encountered him yesterday, Neale's
pulses quickened.

Campbell greeted them with a bright smile. "I'm back," he said.

"So I see," replied Neale, constrainedly.

"I've a message for you from the chief," announced Campbell.

"The chief!" exclaimed Neale.

Larry edged closer to them, with the characteristic hitch at his belt,
and his eyes flashed.

"He asks as a personal favor that you come out to see him," replied
Campbell.

Neale flushed. "General Lodge asks that!" he echoed. There was a slow
heat stirring all through him.

"Yes. Will you go?"

"I--I guess I'll have to," replied Neale. He did not feel that he was
deciding. He had to go. But this did not prove that he must take up his
old work.

Larry swung his hand on Neale's shoulder, almost staggering him. The
cowboy beamed.

"Go in to breakfast," he said. "Order for me, too. I'll be back."

"You want to hurry," rejoined Campbell. "We've only a half-hour to eat
an' catch the work-train."

Larry strode back toward the lodging-house. And it was Cam