comforts he had enjoyed at the
farm, but he felt strangely at home.

Kerr took supper with him, and afterwards threw some papers on the table
and lighted his pipe. Half an hour later Festing looked up.

"I imagine I've got the hang of things, and I'll make a start to-morrow.
Your way of underpinning the track is pretty good, but I don't like
that plan. You can't hold up the road long with lumber; the work won't
stand."

"I don't know if your objection springs from artistic delight in a good
job or British caution. Anyhow, you ought to know that in this country
we don't want work to stand; our aim is to get it finished. If the track
holds up until we can start the freight traffic running, it's as much as
we expect. We'll improve it afterwards as the dollars come in."

"A freight train in a Canadian river isn't a very uncommon object,"
Festing rejoined. "However, it's my business to cut the logs and do the
underpinning as well as I can. On the whole, and barring accidents, I
see some profit on the job. I'm grateful to you for putting it in my
way."

"Your thanks are really due to somebody else. The head contractor is not
allowed to sub-let work without our approval, and although I recommended
your being given a chance, the decision rested with another man."

"Who's that?"

"He'll probably look you up to-night," Kerr replied with a twinkle.
"They sent him from headquarters to see how we're getting on. But I'll
leave you the plans. We're working nights with the blast-lamps, and I've
got to be about when the new shift makes a start."

He went away and Festing studied the drawings. He had undertaken to
cut and dress to size the heavy logs required for the lower posts
of trestles and foundation piles. So far, he did not apprehend much
difficulty, but he would run some risk over the underpinning of part of
the track. In order to make a secure and permanent road-bed, it would
have been necessary to cut back the hillside for some distance and then
distribute the spoil about the slope below, but the engineers had chosen
a quicker and cheaper plan. Heavy timbers would be driven into the face
of the hill to make a foundation for the track, which would be partly
dug out of, and partly built on to, the declivity. Where the main piles
reached the rock the plan would be safe, but where they were bedded in
gravel there was danger of their giving way under a heavy load. Festing
knew he must share the risk of this happening with