"Appleton, you're all right! I admire your loyalty, even though it happens to be for a mistaken cause. I always liked you. I admire loyalty--It's something I need in my business. What I need I pay for, and I pay well." "So your man Linn told us." "I never really discharged you. In fact, I intended to re-employ you, for I need you badly. You can name your own salary and go to work any time." "In other words, you mean you'll pay me well to let you through." "Fix your own price and I'll double it." "Will you come with me up this trail a little way?" Dan inquired. "Certainly." "There's a spot where I'd like to have you stand. I'll save you the trouble of walking back to your men--you'll beat the echo." There was a pause while Gordon digested this. "Better think it over," he said at length. "I'll never let O'Neil build his road, not if it breaks me, and you're merely laying yourself open to arrest by threatening me." "Please come with me!" urged Appleton. "You'll never know what hit you." With a curse the promoter wheeled and walked swiftly down the trail by which he had come. "Get ready to shoot," Dan ordered when he had returned to his vantage-point. A few moments later he saw the invading party approach, but he withheld his warning shout until it was close at hand. Evidently Gordon did not believe he would have the reckless courage to carry out his threat, and had determined to put him to the test. The engineer gauged his distance nicely, and when the new-comers had fairly passed within the danger zone he gave the signal to fire. A blast heavier than the one which had discouraged Gordon's advance followed his command, and down upon the new-comers rained a deluge which sent them scurrying to cover. Fortunately no one was injured. An hour later the invaders had pitched camp a mile below, and after placing a trusted man on guard Appleton sent his weary men to bed. It was Curtis Gordon himself who brought O'Neil the first tidings of this encounter, for, seeing the uselessness of an immediate attempt to overcome Dan's party by force, he determined to make formal protest. He secured a boat, and a few hours later the swift current swept him down to the lower crossing, where McKay put a locomotive at his disposal for the trip to Omar. By the time he arrived there he was quite himself again, suave, self-possessed, and magnificently outraged at the treatment he had received. O'Neil met him with courtesy. "Your man Appleton has lost his head," Gordon began. "I've come to ask you to call him off." "He is following instructions to the letter." "Do you mean that you refuse to allow me to run my right-of-way along that hillside? Impossible!" His voice betokened shocked surprise. "I am merely holding my own survey. I can't quit work to accommodate you." "But, my dear sir, I must insist that you do." O'Neil shrugged. "Then there is but one way to construe your refusal--it means that you declare war."