t. He went on:

"I'm not apologizing, you understand, and I'm not saying anything about
the rights of the ranchers or of my employers, one or the other. I
don't care about either. I'm just concerned with my own business."

"That is to say, the railway's," Sheila commented.

"I'm trying to point out that I'm a hired man, with no personal
interest. But of course I'll do what I'm paid to do--and more. I never
saw the time I didn't give full value for every dollar of my pay."

"I don't question it," said Sheila.

"You think I'm talking too much about myself," he said quickly. "That's
so. I'm sorry. You people have treated me well, no matter what you
thought, and I appreciate it. I've enjoyed the evening very much. I
wonder"--he hesitated for a moment--"I wonder if you'd mind my riding
over here once in a while?"

"Of course not--if you care to come," Sheila replied. Intuitively she
divined that she had interested him, and she guessed by his manner that
it was not his custom to be interested in young women. Apart from the
ranchers' grievance against the corporation he represented, she had no
reason for refusal. She rather liked his downrightness. Casey Dunne had
said that he was a bit of a bully, but not a bluff. His extreme
frankness, while it amused her, seemed genuine.

"Thank you!" he said. "I don't flatter myself that you want me
particularly, and I'm quite satisfied with the bare permission. I'm not
entertaining or pleasant, and I know it. I've been busy all my life. No
time for--for--well, no time for anything but work. But this little job
isn't going to keep me more than half busy. I've done all the hard work
of it now."

"I didn't know it was so nearly finished."

"I mean I've been over the ground and over the figures, and I know all
that is to be done. Now it's merely a question of bossing a gang. A
foreman could do that."

Sheila could find no fault with the last statement. Obviously it was a
fact. But the tone more than the words was self-assertive, even
arrogant. She was unreasonably annoyed.

"Naturally you consider yourself above foreman's work," she commented,
with faint sarcasm.

"I don't consider myself above any work when it's up to me to do it or
see it left undone," he replied. "I've held a riveter and driven spikes
and shimmed up ties before now. But a concern that pays a first-class
man to do third-class work is robbing itself. This is the last time
I'll do it. That's how I feel about it