ped up toward the snow, which now crept lower to meet them
every day. It was strewn with massy boulders and bare outcrops of rock,
while the pines which managed to find a foothold here and there glittered
with frost crystals every morning. Below, a wide blue lake filled half the
hollow, and shingled roofs peeped out among the cedars that spread their
rigid branches over its placid waters, while the roar of a frothing
torrent rose hoarsely from the forest behind. Beyond this, and walled off
by stupendous mountains from the outer world, lay an auriferous region,
and a wooden town whose inhabitants had long struggled for an existence,
hampered by the cost of bringing in stores and machinery by pack-horse
train.

Railroad-building in such a land is an arduous task, needing a bold
conception and a reckless execution, while no line is ever driven that is
not partly paid for with the adventurous legion's blood. Our share,
however, was one of the safest, for it consisted in hewing logs out of the
forest for framing the spidery trestles and snow-sheds, hauling sawn
lumber into position, and doing general teamster's work. Risks there were
of course--the rush of a charging boulder, or a sudden descent of shale,
while occasionally a partly grubbed out trunk came thundering down before
it was expected to. Comparatively few trained mechanics could be found
among all the men about us, and, as usual, the hardest part of the
struggle devolved upon the reckless free-lances--sailor-men deserters,
unfortunate prospectors, forest ranchers whose possessions were mortgaged
to the hilt, and others of the kind, who are always to the front when at
the risk of life and limb a new way for civilization is hewn through the
forests of the Pacific Slope.

One morning, when I rested my team a few moments, talking to Harry and the
surveyor after hauling a heavy log, Johnston came up chuckling, with a
strip of cedar bark on which a notice was written.

"We have an ardent reformer among our ranks, and, everything considered, I
admire his pluck," he said. "You'll notice you're all invited if you
listen to this--'A temperance meeting will be held outside the Magnolia
saloon to-night, when Fanny Marvin and Adam Lee will turn the flash-light
upon the evils of drink and gamblin'. Every sensible man is requested to
step along.'"

"I thought there was something brewing," said Harry. "Lee has lately
foregathered with certain sober-faced individuals from Ontari