ched its height at
noon-time, and had never been more heated than now, it being the day
before election. "Here is prosper tee," laughed Lucien, holding up a
half-pint bottle of _vin rouge_.

"Yes," Burke retorted, "an' ye have four pound of cotton waste in the
bottom o' that bucket to trow the grub t' the top. Begad, I'd vote for
O'Bryan wid an empty pail--er none at all--before I'd be humbugged."

"Un I," said Lucien, "would pour Messieur Rousveau vote if my baskett
shall all the way up be cotton."

"Sure ye would," said Shea, "and ate the cotton too, ef your masther
told ye to. 'Tis the likes of ye, ye bloomin' furreighner, that kapes
the thrust alive in this country."

When they were like to come to blows, Kelly, with a mild show of
superiority, which is second nature to a section boss, would interfere
and restore order. All day they worked and argued, lifting low joints
and lowering high centres; and when the red sun sank in the tree-tops,
filtering its gold through the golden leaves, they lifted the car onto
the rails and started home.

When the men had mounted, Lucien at the forward handle and Burke and
Shea side by side on the rear bar, they waited impatiently for Kelly to
light his pipe and seat himself comfortably on the front of the car, his
heels hanging near to the ties.

There was no more talk now. The men were busy pumping, the "management"
inspecting the fish-plates, the culverts, and, incidentally, watching
the red sun slide down behind the trees.

At the foot of a long slope, down which the men had been pumping with
all their might, there was a short bridge. The forest was heavy here,
and already the shadow of the woods lay over the right-of-way. As the
car reached the farther end of the culvert, the men were startled by a
great explosion. The hand-car was lifted bodily and thrown from the
track.

The next thing Lucien remembers is that he woke from a fevered sleep,
fraught with bad dreams, and felt warm water running over his chest. He
put his hand to his shirt-collar, removed it, and found it red with
blood. Thoroughly alarmed, he got to his feet and looked, or rather
felt, himself over. His fingers found an ugly ragged gash in the side of
his neck, and the fear and horror of it all dazed him.

* * * * *

He reeled and fell again, but this time did not lose consciousness.

Finally, when he was able to drag himself up the embankment to where the
car hung cro