Yellowstone monitor. [volume] (Glendive, Mont.) 1905-1928, 1909-09-30
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-
TEN 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 undertake
ings, gave orders to 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-
ton 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-
fdence, and when Glover called, "Yo,
heaye ho!" at headquarters, they bent
themselves clear across the system for
a hard pull together.
McC1oud, resting the operating on
the shoulders of his assistant Ander-
son, devoted himself wholly to for
warding the construction plans, and
his first clash over winter roadbilild-
ing in the Rockies came with his own
rfght-hand man, Mears. McCloud put
in switch below Piedmont, opened a
material yard and began track laying
toward the lower Crawling Stone val
lev. when Mears said it was time to
stop work till spring. When McCloud
told 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 consulta-
ton to adjust the surveys to objec-
tons raised by Dicksie's cousin to the
| crossing of the ranch lands Even
when the proceedings had been closed,
a strong current Of discomfort set
from the managing head OF the Stone
ranch. Rumors OF Lance Dunning's
dissatisfaction often reached the rail-
road people. Vague talk Of an extern
sive irrigation scheme planned by Sim
clair for the Crawling Stone valley
crept into the newspapers, and it was
generally understood that Lance Dun
ming had expressed himself faYorably
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 fayorite
abiding 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
Dicksie's haughtiness and Marion's re-
straint, quite unmoyed by any show OF
dispIeasure- always in drawing
the two closer to each other.
One March afternoon, coming home
from Medicine Bend, she saw at some
distance before her a 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. Dfcksie 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
they were cowboys Of her own ranch,
and riding, under evident excitement,
| about a strange norseman. She rec
| ognized in the escort Stormy German,
| the feroeious foreman Of the ranch,
and Denison and Jim Baugh, two OF
the most reckless Of the men. These
three carried rifles s1Ing across their
pomme1s, and In front OF them rode
| the stranger
fragments OF the breakfast-table
| talk Of the morning came back to
Dicksfe'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 I'D the draw she saw
the horseman under surveillance. Il
was George McCIoud.
UnlucKily, as she caught glimpse
OF him she was conscious that he was
looking at her She bent forward to
hide . momentary confusion, spoke
briskly 70 her horse, ard rode out OF
sight. At Marion's she had carefully
avoided him. Her preeipitancy al their
I last meeting had seemed, on refIec-
ton, unfortunate. She felt that she
must have appeared to him shockingly
rude, and there was Ii her recalling 81
III