on it. You saw the little putterin' jobs they
did, Jo."

"I have an idea," replied the girl, "that when winter comes they'll be
quite busy. And it also occurs to me that, now that they've agreed to
maintain the road if given the franchise, we can make them do it down
to the letter, or render their franchise void."

"By golly, I bet you can at that, Jo!" put in Tom Gulick. "I've heard,
though, there's a rotten bunch of grafters runnin' this county. They'd
probably beat you out some way, so long as Drummond was puttin' up
cigar money for them."

Up until now Hiram Hooker had said nothing. Now came his soothing
drawl, and the others listened.

"I don't know much about automobiles and what they can do," he said.
"But I do know mountains and mountain roads, and somethin' about
mountain soil. And I've this to say: If Jo can hang on till winter
there'll be no trucks runnin' against her. Then if they still collect
for crossin' through the pass, all she's got to do is raise the freight
rate to meet the extra expense. There's exactly ten places on the road
where we're goin' to hook maybe thirty horses on every wagon to get
across next winter. And I'll bet my month's wages against a dollar of
Mr. Drummond's money that he'll be begging for teams to haul him out.
Then, of course, the price ought to be about fifty-six dollars a haul,
regardless of distance, hadn't it?"

"Good boy!" cried Keddie. "Listen to our Gentle Wild Cat pur! He's
right, too, I'll say. If we can hang on till winter, Jo can collect
back all she's paid out for tolls--and I'll say a little profit on the
deal wouldn't make me weep."'

"But winter's a long way off," Jim McAllen gloomily pointed out.

After this there was thoughtful silence.

To add to the misfortunes of the second trip to the camps, Jim McAllen
broke a reach when the train neared the foot of the grade. There were
spare reaches in the outfit, of course, but they had to unload the
wagon to substitute one, and it all took a great deal of time. Then a
horse became sick, and Jerkline Jo positively refused to work a sick
horse. The animal was taken out of harness and allowed to tag along
behind with his mate, who automatically became useless, too. A ton of
supplies was taken from the wagon to which the sick horse belonged, and
distributed among the other loads. This took more time, and night
overtook the outfit with several miles between them and the tank wagon
that awaited their