irt coming down on the teams, and he went back for them. Cut the
traces of one scraper--you can see the blame thing busted in the bottom
there; then there was a roar and she came down solid with a rush, while we
did the shouting when he brought them safe at a gallop out of the dust."

"That's a side issue," said Harry very gravely, "and the main one is
serious. Ralph, if all this slope is going to slip down it means disaster
to us. You see, after what was said when we took the contract, we couldn't
well back out of it, even if we wanted to. Hallo, here's his majesty the
surveyor on his trolley."

With a clatter of wheels the light frame raced down the slight incline,
and unloaded its occupants violently when it ran into the back of the
construction train which they had stopped just in time. We did not,
however, follow it, because we wanted time to think; and both our faces
were anxious when the surveyor returned.

"I'm afraid it's a hard case--one of those things no man can figure on
ahead--give you my word we never expected this," he said. "That bank
looked solid enough, but there's more of it just waiting to go, and the
whole track will have to be set back several yards or so. Anyway, it's
particularly hard on you. Remembering what I told you, have you settled
yet what you are going to do?"

"Yes," I answered slowly. "We made the agreement, and we mean to keep it.
We'll hire more men and teams if what we have won't do. Somehow we've got
to finish our bargain, and get our money back, and we'll come to the end
of the ravine some day. Isn't that your view, Harry?"

"Of course!" said Harry, as the surveyor turned in his direction. By this
time we had fallen into our respective parts. When there was need of
judicious speech or care in matters financial it was Harry's tact or
calculations that solved the difficulty, while when it came to a hard
grapple with natural difficulties I led the way. Again the surveyor
glanced from one to the other before he said:

"There's grit in both of you. After all, what you think does not affect
the question; a contract's a contract, and we hold the whip hand over you,
but I'm glad to see you take it that way."

The surveyor, as we were to learn, was a man of discernment, and he may
have been making an experiment, but my blood was up, and I answered
stiffly:

"The whip hand has nothing to do with it. We will carry out our agreement,
because we pledged ourselves to do so; if we hadn't