"That'd be fair, and it'd be easy," went on Tom. "We'll fix it up that-a-way, me and Miss Constance--not you. And as soon as we get to a telegraft office, we fire the general counsel, Mr. Barkley; don't we, Miss Constance?" The girl nodded grimly. "He's fired," said Tom. "You can take care of that the first thing you do, Mr. Ellsworth. Then you can make out my papers as yardmaster and general boss of the deepot. You can be clerk. "Now here we go, the railroad cars a choo-chooin' up our canon, same as down here at Sky Top. In the front car is the president, which is Miss Constance, with me clost along, the new yardmaster. Your pa is somewhere back on the train, Miss Constance, with the money to pay off the hands. He's useful, but not inderspensible." "Go on!" applauded Constance. "Who besides us and poor old dad?" Tom Osby turned and looked at her gravely. "And there comes down to meet us at the station," he concluded, "the only man we needed to help us put this thing through." Tom Osby finished his tea in silence. Constance herself made no comment. Her gaze was on the far-off mountains. "That there man," he resumed, shaking out the grounds from his tea-cup, "is the new division counsel for the road, the first mayor of Heart's Desire,--after Miss Constance,--and mighty likely the next Congressional delergate from this Territory. Now can you both guess who that man is?" "I'll admit he's a bigger man than Barkley," said Ellsworth, slowly. "That boy would make a grand trial lawyer. They couldn't beat him." "No," said Tom Osby, "they'd think he was square, and that means a lot. They _do_ think he's square; and the boys are goin' to do something for him if they can. Now if he gets back--" Constance turned upon him with a glance of swift appeal. "As I was sayin', _when_ he gets back," resumed Tom, "some of us fellers may perhaps take it up with him, and tell him what Miss Constance wants to have done." This was too much. The girl sprang to her feet. "You'll tell him nothing!" she cried. Ellsworth turned to Tom Osby with a sober face. "Young Anderson rode away from us the other morning," said he, "and he hardly troubled himself to say good-by. We used to know him back East; and he needn't have taken that affair of the railroad meeting so much to heart." "Come!" called Constance, "get ready and let's be going. I'm sick of this country!" She walked rapidly away from the others. "A woman can change some sudden, can't she, Mr. Ellsworth?" remarked Tom Osby, slowly. "Look here, Miss Constance," said he, presently, when he came nearer to her, standing apart from the wagon, "there's been mistakes and busted plans enough in here already. Now don't get on no high horse and break up my scheme." "Don't talk to me!" She stamped her foot. "Ma'am! ain't you ashamed to say them words?" She did not answer, and Tom Osby took the step for which he had been preparing throughout the entire morning.