ttle. Neale waited in the
crowd, standing there in his shirt-sleeves, with the familiar bustle and
color strong as wine to his senses. At last Reilly saw him and shoved
out a huge paw.

"Hullo, Neale! I'm glad to see ye.... They tell me ye did a dom' foine
job."

"Reilly, I need work," said Neale.

"But, mon--ye was shot!" ejaculated the boss.

"I'm all right."

"Ye look thot an' no mistake.... Shure, now, ye ain't serious about
work? You--that's chafe of all thim engineer jobs?"

"I want to work with my hands. Let me heave ties or carry rails or swing
a sledge--for just a few days. I've explained to General Lodge. It's a
kind of vacation for me."

Reilly gazed with keen, twinkling eyes at Neale. "Ye can't be drunk an'
look sober."

"Reilly, I'm sober--and in dead earnest," appealed Neale. "I want to go
back--be in the finish--to lay some rails--drive some spikes."

The boss lost his humorous, quizzing expression. "Shure--shure," replied
Reilly, as if he saw, but failed to comprehend. "Ye're on.... An' more
power to ye!"

He sent Neale out with the gang detailed to heave railroad ties.

A string of flat-cars, loaded with rails and ties, stood on the track
where the work of yesterday had ended. Beyond stretched the road-bed,
yellow, level, winding as far as eye could see. The sun beat down hot;
the dry, scorching desert breeze swept down from the bare hills, across
the waste; dust flew up in puffs; uprooted clumps of sage, like balls,
went rolling along; and everywhere the veils of heat rose from the
sun-baked earth.

"Drill, ye terriers, drill!" rang out a cheery voice. And Neale
remembered Casey.

Neale's gang was put to carrying ties. Neale got hold of the first tie
thrown off the car.

"Phwat the hell's ye're hurry!" protested his partner. This fellow was
gnarled and knotted, brick-red in color, with face a network of seams,
and narrow, sun-burnt slits for eyes. He answered to the name of Pat.

They carried the tie out to the end of the rails and dropped it on the
level road-bed. Men there set it straight and tamped the gravel around
it. Neale and his partner went back for another, passing a dozen couples
carrying ties forward. Behind these staggered the rows of men burdened
with the heavy iron rails.

So the day's toil began.

Pat had glanced askance at Neale, and then had made dumb signs to his
fellow-laborers, indicating his hard lot in being yoked to this new wild
man on the job. But his r