The Huttig news., 1909-08-14
 CHAPTER XII.
The Quarrel.


 The beginning of the Crawling Stone line marked the first determined effort under President Bucks, while under taking the reconstruction of the sys- tenn for through traffic. to develop the rich local territory tributary to the mountain division. New policies in construction dated from the same period. Glover, with an enormous capital staked for the new undertak- ings, gave orders 10 push the building every month in the year. and for the first time in mountain railroad build ing winter was to be ignored The older mountain men met the innova- tion as they met any departure from their traditions, with curiosity and dis trust. On the other hand. the new and younger blood took hold with con fidence, and when Glover called, "Yo, heave bo!" at headquarters, they bent themselves clear across the system for a hard pull together.
 McCloud, resting the operating on the shoulders of his assistant Ander 
 warding the construction plans. and his first clash over winter road build ing in the Rockies came with his own right-hand man. Mears McCloud put in a switch below Piedmont, opened a material yard and began track laying toward the lower Crawling Stone val ley. when Mears said il was time to stop work till spring. When MeCloud old him he wanted track across the divide and into the lower valley by spring, Mears threw up his hands. But there was metal in the old man, and he was for orders all the time. He kept up a running fire of protests and forebodings about the danger of ex. posing men during the winter season. but stuck to his post.
 Spring found the construction of the valley line well advanced and the grades nearing the lands of the Dun. ing ranch. Right-of=way men had been working for months with Lance Dun ming over the line and McCloud had been called frequently into eensusta. ton to adjust the surveys to 5obiec. tions raised by Dicksie's cousin to the | crossing of the ranch lands. Even l when the proceedings had been closed I strong current of discontent SC from the managing head of the Stone ranch Runors of Lance Dunning's l dissatisfaction often reached the rail road people Vague talk of an eyten sive irrigation scheme planned by Sin IL. ,x,-I;,, t1fSx, crept into the newspapers. and it was generally understood that Lance Dun ming had expressed himself fayorahly to the enterprise.
 Dicksie gave slight heed to matters as weighty as these. She spent much of her time on horseback with Jim under the saddle; and in Medicine Bend. where she rode with frequency. Marion's shop became her favorite lbiding place Dicksie ordered hats until Marion's conscience rose and she practically refused to supply any more. But the spirited controversy on this point. as on many others Dcksie's haughtiness and Marion's re. straint, quite unmoved by any show Of displeasure-ended always in drawing the two closer to each other.
 One March afternoon, coming home from Medicine Bend, she saw at some distance before her party of men on horseback She was riding trail leading from the pass road that fol. lowed the hills. and the party was coming up the bridge road from the lower ranch. Dicksie had good eyes. and something unusual in the riding of the men was soon apparent to her. Losing and regaining sight of them at different turns in the trail she made out. as she rode among the trees, that 'hey were cowboys of her own ranch. and riding, under evident excitement, about strange horseman. She rec. ognized in the escort Stormy German the ferocious foreman of the ranch. and Denison and Jim Baugh. two Of the most reckless of the men. These three carried rifles slung across their pommels, and in front of them rode the stranger.
 Fragments of the breakfast-table talk of the morning came back to Dicksie's mind. The railroad graders were in the valley below the ranch, and she had heard her cousin say a good deal on point she cared little about, as to where the railroad should cross the Stone ranch. Approaching the fork of the two roads toward which she and the cowboys were rid ing, she checked her horse in the shade of cottonwood tree. and as the party rode up the draw she saw the horseman under surveillance. It was George McCloud.
 Unluckily. as she caught a glimpse of him she was conscious that he was looking at her. She bent forward to hide momentary confusion. spoke briskly to her horse, and rode out of sight. At Marion's she had carefully avoided him Her precipitancy at their last meeting had seemed. on refec- tion, unfortunate. She felt that she must have appeared to him shockingly rude. and there was in her recalling Of the scene an unconfessed impression