“There is no need of our being severe with you any longer,” continued the man. “Our task is accomplished, our route is located, no one can interfere with us now. But you understand it was necessary, in order to carry out our scheme successfully, that we shouldn’t be disturbed until after we were through the gap. We couldn’t run the risk of having you go back up or down the road and rouse the country, or the other corps of engineers, or even the owner of this property. So we had to take you along with us. I am sorry to have caused you any inconvenience or anxiety, and I am sure I beg your pardon if I have done so; but really, you see, we couldn’t help it.” He had a very musical voice and winning manner, this big engineer, now that the stress of his work was off his mind; and Dannie felt at once the strange attraction of his presence. “Oh! it don’t matter very much,” he replied, “so long as I get home before daylight. They--they don’t know I’m out.” As he spoke he glanced back over his shoulder toward the eastern sky, already paling perceptibly at the horizon. “Do you live far from here?” inquired the man. “Not very far; just up the road a ways.” “At what house? I used to be somewhat acquainted about here years ago. Maybe I know your people.” “Why--why--well, if you please, I’d rather not tell.” “You needn’t. It’s none of my business anyway. But let me ask you just one question. Do you know Abner Pickett?” “Yes, sir, I do.” “Does he still own this gap?” “Yes, sir, he does.” “Do you know--is he well?” “Yes, sir, I believe so. I saw him yesterday; he went up to Port Lenox.” “Thank you, my boy, thank you. Do you happen to know whether he objects to having a railroad in the gap?” “I think he does. I heard him say last night that--that--” “Well?” “Well, I don’t think he wants a railroad across his property. I think he’d like to see all the railroad stakes pulled out.” “I’m sorry.” After that, for some minutes, there was silence. The man seemed to be in deep thought, and Dannie pondered long over a question he desired to ask. At last he found courage to ask it. “Is it wrong--is it against the law to pull out railroad stakes?” “Well, I think the court would deal pretty severely with a person convicted of pulling out or destroying stakes set by an engineer.” “Would such a person have to go to jail?” “I should think it very likely. Why do you ask?” “Oh! I knew a fellow once who--who--started to pull some out.” “It’s a good thing he didn’t get any farther with it. A county jail is not a pleasant place in which to spend one’s time.” Dannie knew that. He had visited the jail once, with his grandfather, and had seen the prisoners in their little iron-barred cells, and had thought how dreadful it must be to be locked up there, especially in the night-time. But there was one hope still left to him. “Suppose,” he suggested, “suppose the man who pulled out the stakes was the one who owned the land?”