Tom eyed her suspiciously. "He chewed gum incessantly, too, and declared that it never hurt anybody." "It never did," asserted Slater. "We pleaded, we argued, we did our best to save him, but--" She shook her blond head sadly. "What happened to him?" "What always happens? He lingered along for a time, stubborn to the last, then--" Turning abruptly to Dr. Gray, she asked, "Who is this man Linn, and what is he doing?" "He's an emissary of Curtis Gordon and he's hiring our men away from us," snapped the physician. "Why, Dan tells me Mr. O'Neil pays higher wages than anybody!" "So he does, but Linn offers a raise. We didn't know what the trouble was till over a hundred men had quit. The town is full of them, now, and it's becoming a stampede." "Can't you meet the raise?" "That wouldn't do any good." Tom agreed. "Gordon don't want these fellows. He's doing it to get even with Murray for those wo--" He bit his words in two at a glance from Gray. "What happened to the man that chewed gum?" he demanded abruptly. "Oh yes! Poor fellow! We warned him time and again, but he was a sullen brute, he wouldn't heed advice. Why don't you bounce this man Linn? Why don't you run him out of camp?" "Fine counsel from a champion of equal rights!" smiled Gray. "You forget we have laws and Gordon has a press bureau. It would antagonize the men and cause a lot of trouble in the end. What O'Neil could do personally, he can't do as the president of the S. R. & N. It would give us a black eye. "We've go to do something dam' quick," said Slater, "or else the work will be tied up. That would 'crab' Murray's deal. I've got a pick-handle that's itching for Linn's head." The speaker coughed hollowly and complained: "I've got a bad cold on my chest--feels like pneumonia, to me. Wouldn't that just be my luck?" "Do you have pains in your chest?" inquired the girl, solicitously. "Terrible! But I'm so full of pains that I get used to 'em". "It isn't pneumonia." Slater flared up at this, for he was jealous of his sufferings. "It's gumbago!" Eliza declared. Dr. Gray's troubled countenance relaxed into a grin as he said: "I'll give you something to rub on those leather lungs--harness-oil, perhaps." "Is this labor trouble really serious?" asked the girl. "Serious! It may knock us out completely. Go away now and let me think. Pardon my rudeness, Miss Appleton, but--" Slater paused at the door. "Don't think too long, Doc," he admonished him, "for there's a ship due in three days, and by that time there won't be a 'rough-neck' left on the job. It'll take a month to get a new crew from the States, and then it wouldn't be any good till it was broke in."