Larry lifted her to the saddle, and she vanished into the gloom of the birches before he could speak to Miss Schuyler, who wheeled her horse and followed her. A few minutes more and he was riding towards Fremont as fast as his horse could flounder through the slushy snow, his face grown set and resolute again, for he knew he had difficult work to do. "I don't quite know what has come over you, Larry," Breckenridge said an hour or two later with a puzzled look at Grant as he lifted his eyes from the writing pad on his knee. "I haven't seen you so obviously contented for months, and yet the work before us may be grim enough. The most unpleasant point about it is that Clavering must have got hold of one of your warrant forms. It was a mistake to trust anybody with one not filled in." "Well, I feel that way too," Grant confessed, "and at the same time I'm desperately anxious. We are going to have trouble with the boys right along the line, and there is no man living can tell what will happen if any of them go down in an affair with the cavalry." "It wouldn't be difficult to guess what the consequences would be if they cut the track just before the stock train came through. You are quite sure they have not changed their minds again?" "Yes," said Larry quietly. "I bluffed it out of Harper. He would have taken a hand in, and only kicked when it came to taking lives. More of the others cleared out over that point, too, and as the rest were half-afraid of some of those who objected giving them away, they changed their plans; but it seems quite certain they mean to pull the rails up at the bend on the down grade by the bunch grass hollow. It is fortunate, any way. Cheyne and his cavalry will be watching the bridge, you see; but you had better get ready. I'll have the last instructions done directly, and it will be morning before you are through." Breckenridge poured himself out a big cup of coffee from the jug on the stove, put on a black leather jacket, and went out to the stable. When he came back, Grant handed him a bundle of notes. "You will see every man gets one and tell him all he wants to know. I dare not put down too much in black and white. They are to be round at the rise behind the depot at six Thursday night." "You believe they will come?" "Yes," Grant said firmly. "They are good men, and I'm thankful there are still so many of them, because just now they are all that is standing between this country and anarchy." Breckenridge smiled a little, but his voice was sympathetic. "Well," he said, "I am glad, on my own account, too. It's nicer to have the chances with you when you have to reckon with men of the kind we are going to meet, but I shall not be sorry when this trouble's through. It is my first attempt at reforming and a little of it goes a long way with me. I don't know that there is a more thankless task than trying to make folks better off than they want, or deserve, to be."