I made sure--"

"Hush!" whispered Allie, raising her face. She kissed him. Then she
sprang up like a bent sapling released. She met Slingerland's keen
gaze--saw him start--then rise as if the better to meet a shock.

"I am going back West with you," she said, coolly.

"Wal, I knowed you'd go."

"Divide that gold. I'll leave half for my father." Slingerland's great
hands began to pull at the pack.

"Thar's a train soon. I calkilated to stay over a day. But the sooner
the better.... Lass, will you run off or tell him?"

"I'll tell him. He can't stop me, even if he would.... The gold will
save him from ruin....He will let me go."

She stooped to pick up the little leather note-book and placed it in
her bosom. Her heart seemed to surge against it. The great river rolled
on--rolled on--magnified in her sight. A thick, rich, beautiful light
shone under the trees. What was this dance of her blood while she seemed
so calm, so cool, so sure?

"Does he have any idea--that I might return to him?" she asked.

"None, lass, none! Thet I'll swear," declared Slingerland. "When I left
him at Roarin' City the other day he was--wal, like he used to be. The
boy come out in him again, not jest the same, but brave. Sendin' thet
gold an' thet little book made him happy.... I reckon Neale found his
soul then. An' he never expects to see you again in this hyar world."

35

Building a railroad grew to be an exact and wonderful science with
the men of the Union Pacific, from engineers down to the laborers who
ballasted and smoothed the road-bed.

Wherever the work-trains stopped there began a hum like a bee-hive.
Gangs loaded rails on a flat-car, and the horses or mules were driven at
a gallop to the front. There two men grasped the end of a rail and began
to slide it off. In couples, other laborers of that particular gang laid
hold, and when they had it off the car they ran away with it to drop
it in place. While they were doing this other gangs followed with more
rails. Four rails laid to the minute! When one of the cars was empty it
was tipped off the track to make room for the next one. And as that next
one passed the first was levered back again on the rails to return for
another load.

Four rails down to the minute! It was Herculean toil. The men who fitted
the rails were cursed the most frequently, because they took time, a few
seconds, when there was no time.

Then the spikers! These brawny, half-naked, sweaty giant