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kind of suspense; they were not altogether sure they would not be fired upon from the bushes. As the scoop men jerked their sweating mules around in a great circle they called to each other when opportunity offered, "Well, ain't nothin' happened yit?"

"Naw, guess it was mostly bluff."

"Well, by God, they ain't got a sign o' justice on their side. The idyah we kain't take a job they throwed down!"

"That Shallburger feller talked 'em into it—they won't do nothin'."

"Jest you fellers wait," grumbled a pessimist, "the meetin' ain't over till the shoutin's done."

After he had got into the swing of his work again, Abner went around and around through the loose dirt with the inner voices of his mind pursuing their different interests. It was odd to think that Nessie and Belshue lived in the old manor the tip of whose chimneys he could see over the brow of the hill. Then he mused that all this slowly lengthening railroad would one day belong to him. His thought of marriage with Adelaide always took the form of property.

Presently Sim Pratt came by with his water wagon and Abner pondered Beatrice Belle and the little drug clerk. His thoughts drifted on and on. When a man is at physical work out of doors all themes are on a parity in his mind. They are like suits before a bar of justice: the most trivial causes are heard as gravely as the most momentous. Philosophy was born out of doors. Yet in the midst of this mental meandering, Abner swore at his mules, jerked their bits, and occasionally snatched up a stone and flung at their heads, in a word, "fought them."

That night Sheriff Bascom posted guards about the camp; and as he had no authority to detail his men for any duty, he was forced to go about asking this one and that one to "sit up" during the night and watch the camp.

A number of men told the sheriff that they did not consider a guard necessary that night; others said they were not a good hand at sitting up; still others declared they were paid