ale.
Casey deliberated in spite of the necessity for haste. Then he took the
book from his pocket.

"B'gorra, yez niver can tell, an' thim U. P. R. throopers hev been known
to bury a mon widout searchin' his pockets," he said.

And he put the little book between the teeth that held his pipe. Then he
shoved off the tie and leaped.

30

Neale, aghast and full of bitter amaze and shame at himself, fled from
the gambling-hall where he had struck Beauty Stanton. How beside himself
with rage and torture he had been! That woman to utter Allie Lee's name!
Inconceivable! Could she know his story?

He tramped the dark streets, and the exercise and the cool wind calmed
him. Then the whistle of an engine made him decide to leave Benton at
once, on the first train out. Hurriedly he got his baggage and joined
the throng which even at that late hour was making for the station.

A regret that was pain burned deep in him--somehow inexplicable. He,
like other men, had done things that must be forgotten. What fatality in
the utterance of a single name--what power to flay!

From a window of an old coach he looked out upon the dim lights and pale
tent shapes.

"The last--of Benton!... Thank God!" he murmured, brokenly. Well he
realized how Providence had watched over him there. And slowly the train
moved out upon the dark, windy desert.

It took Neale nearly forty-eight hours to reach the new camp--Roaring
City. A bigger town than Benton had arisen, and more was going up--tents
and clapboard houses, sheds and cabins--the same motley jumble set under
beetling red Utah bluffs.

Neale found lodgings. Being without food or bed or wash for two days and
nights was not helpful to the task he must accomplish--the conquering
of his depression. He ate and slept long, and the following day he took
time to make himself comfortable and presentable before he sallied
forth to find the offices of the engineer corps. Then he walked on as
directed, and heard men talking of Indian ambushes and troops.

When at length he reached the headquarters of the engineer corps he was
greeted with restraint by his old officers and associates; was surprised
and at a loss to understand their attitude.

Even in General Lodge there was a difference. Neale gathered at once
that something had happened to put out of his chief's mind the interest
that officer surely must have in Neale's trip to Washington. And after
greeting him, the first thing General Lodg