was situated five miles
farther up the line, and the third six miles beyond that. None of them
had been there when she made her horseback trip. Close to the first
camp that they reached, that of the Washburn-Stokes Construction
Company's, the inevitable rag town had sprung up.

Already there were a dozen or more tents, most of them housing saloons,
dance halls, and gamblers' layouts, and here and there a board or
corrugated iron structure was under process of building. Only the
three construction camps, as yet, had arrived on this portion of the
work; the next camp beyond this group was fifty miles to the north.

Jerkline Jo knew, however, that before many days had passed camps large
and small would be dotted along the right of way, and that all must be
supplied by some one.

She stood talking to Mr. Washburn, the head of the firm, while his
freight was being stacked before the huge commissary tent, when Mr.
Tweet approached her.

"I'd like a word with you, Miss Modock, when you're at liberty," he
said politely.

"Why, I'm just loafing with Mr. Washburn now," she said lightly, and
turned away with him.

"Will you please tell me again what you did a few days back about the
camp at Demarest, Spruce & Tillou?" he asked. "Explain it all,
please--just why you think the tent town will eventually be located in
a different place than it is now."

"Why, it's simple," she told him. "It's this way: Demarest, Spruce &
Tillou have the main contract here--a hundred miles, I've heard. When
a big company like that contracts to build a hundred miles of grade,
they at once begin to sublet portions to smaller contractors. Some
take a mile; some two miles, some five--according to the nature of the
work and the respective capacities of their outfits. Understand?"

"Yes--I got that."

"Well, it's natural, then, that the most difficult pieces--the biggest
work--will be the most difficult to sublet. Consequently when the main
contractors can sublet no more, they move in and get at the difficult
pieces that remain on their hands.

"Now, I've seen a good bit of this line, and I've talked with the
engineers. Also I know the names of most of the subcontractors who
have figured on the job. I know that none of them have adequate
equipment to tackle the big rock cut that will be necessary through
that chain of buttes, twelve miles to the south of here."

She pointed to the buttes, blue and hazy in the evening light of the
d