Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-12-03

epce with a world which seemed to
have become suddenly peopled to suf
location with eager sellers of railroad
material aud supplies.
Late in the afternoon wnen he was
tired enough to feel the full force of
the blow, 4 New York telegram came.
II was from Miss Alicia Adair, and
Ford gToaned in spirit when he read
| it,
Brother LETT here yesterday in the
| Nanderdecken yacht for Nova Scotia.
| Can not each him by telegraph IN
til next Friday Or Saturday. Aunt
! Hester wants to know if there is any
| thing she can do.
| One way 10 save a man s life at a
crisis is TO appeal to his sense Of hui.
NOR. Miss Alicias closing sentence
did that for Ford, and he was smiling
grimly when he put the telegram
away not IL the business file, but in
! his pocket.
/ Three days later however. when
/ Frisbie was half way to Saints Rest
with his preliminary track swinging.
another New York telegram found
Ford in his newly established quar-.
tiers in the Guaranty Building. This
| WIS from some one acting as Presi-
/ dent Colbriths secretary, and it's
| wording was concisely mandatory
/ Contract has been awarded Mac.
! Morrogh Brothers. President directs
that YOU afford contractors every ia,
/ cilitv and that YOU confer with Mr..
North in ali cases Of do@bt.
CHAPTER Mi.
II was some little, time after The
rock had begun 10 fly from the cut
tings on the western slopes of the
mountains hat Kenneth. summoned by
Ford. made the run from Denver TO
! Saints Rest over the standardized
| Plug Mountain branch and found tha
engineermanager living in twenty
! foot cabooSG car fitted as hotel and
an Office wheels.
| The occasion of kenneths calling
was right ofwav dispute on the Dor
ders of the distant Copah mining dis
trict: some half dozen mining claims
having been staked Off across the old
p. S-W. survey. The owners. keen to
make a killing out of railroad COM
pany, threatened njunctions if the P.
S-W. persisted in tresspassing upon
private property: and Ford. shrewdly
suspecting that the mine men were
set on by the Transcontinental people
TO delay the work on the new line,
made HASTE tosshift his responsibility
to the legal shoulders.
"If | hadn't known you for prett%
good mountaineer. Kenneth, You
would have missed this he said,
making his guest free of the Unite
hospitality Of the caboose-hotel. Are
YOU good for a two hundred and
eighty mile cayuse ride, there and
back, on the same trail we tramped
over a year ago last SPRING."
I'm good for everything on the bill
of fare" vas the heartening reply.
How are things going?"
Ford's raioinder began with a non
committal shrug 'We're building a
! railroad. after fashion,
After good fashion, I hope?'
| Another shrug.
Were doing as well as we can
with the help we have. But abort this
right-of-way tangle-" and he plunged
his guest into a discussion of the Co
! pab situation which ran on unbrolen
until bedtime.
! They took the westward trail to-
gether in tne morning. mounted upon
wiry little mountain-bred ponies fur
nished by one Pacheo, the half.breed
Mexican who had once earned an easy
double-eagic by spying upon two men
who We're out hunting with an eng;-
neer's transit. For seven weeks Fris-
bic had been pushing things. and the
grade from, Saints Rest to the summit
of the pass was already practicable
wagon road deserted by the leveling
squads and ready for the ties and
steel.
From the summit of the pass west
ward, down the mountain and through
the half-lying upper valley Of the Pan
iniRin. the grade work was in full
swing. The horse trail sometimes a
rough cart road. but oftener mere
hridle-path. followed the railroad in
its loopings and doublings; and on the
mountain section where the work was
| heaviest the two riders were never out
of sight as the heavily manned grading
gangs.
''To man up a tree you appear to
be doing a whole lot, and doing it
quickly, Ford commented the law
yer, Wuell luey udu pdSSeu camp dll-
er camp of the workers. Then he adj
ded: You are not having any trouble
with the MacGorroghs are you?"
mot what, the legal department
would call trouble" answered Ford
evasively; and for ten other miles the
narrowness of the bridle-path discour-
aged conversation.
Further down in the valley Of the
Pannikin. The activities were less
thickly sown. On many sections the
work was light: no more than the
throwing up of an embankment in the
park-like intervales. with now and
then a roGk-or earth cutting through
some iuttirs spur of the inclosing
mountains. Here the men were bunch
ed on the rock work and the fills,
though the composites were commonly
! in The park-like intcrspaces wnere
wood and water. the two sole com
moClties for which the contractors
could make no deductions from the
payroll. lay conveniently at the doors
of the rude sleeping shacks.
Since h was not required to talk.
II ON ct IN noI hn prri(I, ell "