The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1909-08-19


within few years to be scattered far
and wide as constructionists with !
records made in the rebuilding opera
tons through the Rocky mountains,
none was less likely to attract atten-
ton than McCloud. Bucks. who. In
deed, could hardly he reckoned so
much of the company as its head, was
a man of commanding proportions
physically. Like Glover, Bucks was
giant In stature, and the two men,
when together, could nowhere escape
notice; they looked, in word their
part, fitted 10 cope with the ire
mendous undertakings that had fallen
to their lot. Callahan, the chess-play-
err on the Overland lines, the man who
could hold large combinations of traf
fic movement constantly In his head
and by intuition reach the result of
given problem before other men could
work 1t out was. like Morris Blood,
the master of tonnage, OF middle age.
But McCloud, when he went to the
mountain division in youthfulness Of
features was boyish. and when he left
he was still a boy, bronzed. but young
of face in spite of lifetime's pressure
and worry crowded into three years.
He himself counted this physical
makeup as disadvantage. 1T has
emhroiled me In no end of trouble, be.
cause couldn't convince men l was
in earnest until made good In some
hard way" he complained once to
Whispering Smith. II never could ac-
quire even a successful habit of swear
ing, so | had TO learn to fight"
When, one day in Boney street in
Medicine Bend, he threw open the
door of Marion Sinclair's shop, flung
his hat sailing along the show case
with his war cry, and called to her in
the back rooms, she thought he had
merely run In to say he was In town.
How do you do? What do you
think? You're going to have an old
boarder back he cried. I'm coming
to Medicine Bend superintendent of
the division."
Mr.. McCloud!" Marion Sinclair
clasped her hands and dropped into a
chair. Have they made you superin
tendent already?'
well, / like that! Do you want
them to wait till I'm gray-headed?"
Marion threw her hands to her own
head. "Oh, don't say anything about
gray hairs. My head won't bear in
spection. But i can't get over this
promotion coming so soon-this whole
big division! Well, congratulate yor
very sincerely"
ooh, but that isn't It! l suppose
anybody will congratulate me. Blu
where am / to board? Have you {
cook? You know how / went from bat
to worse after you left Cold Springs
May | have my meals here with you
as ! used to there?"
They laughed as they bantered
Marion Sinclair wore gold spectacles
but they did not hide the delightful
good.nature in her eyes. On the thir'
finger of her slender left hand sh
wore, too. a gold band that explained
the gray in her hair at &C.
This was the wife of Murray Sir
clair, whom he had brought to TIL
mountains from her far.away Wiscor
sin home. Within a year he ha
broken her heart so far as 1t lay i
him to do it. but he could not brea
her charm nor her spirit. She was to
proud to go back, when forced [
leave him. and had set about earnin
her own living in the country to whic
she had come as a bride. She put o
spectacles, she mutilated her heav
brown hair and to escape notice an
tbnt ,l,a
her name, Marion, became, over tn
h door of her millinery shop and in he
h business, only IN. Sinclair"
Cold Springs, where Sinclair ha
g first brought her when he had hea(
s quarters there as foreman of bridges
had proved a hopeless place for tn
&; millinery business-at least, in tn
e way that Marion ran it, She coult
however cook extraordinarily wei
and, with the aid of a servant-mai,
could always provide for a boarder c
\. two-perhaps railroad man or
mine superintendent to whom sh
could serve meals. and who, like a
mountain men, We're more than gene
=, Gus in their accounting with womel
McCloud McCloud had always bee
her friend, and when she left Col
y Springs and moved to Medicine Ben
10 to set up her little shop in Bone
street near Fort, she had lost hir
II Yet somehow, to compensate Mario
for other cruel things in the mou
N tains, Providence seemed to raise up
IT new friend for her wherever she wen
TT In Medicine Bend she did not know
soul, but almost the first custom,
i'd that walked into her shop-and 81
was customer worth while-w;
ie Dicksie Cunning of the CrawliI
ID Stone.
nd CHAPTER V.
I'd The Crawling Stone.