"So I bought a railroad ticket to Des Moines from Pittsburgh and staged it to Omaha, and General Park gave me a job right away and sent me out on the first train to take this office, nights. I didn't even know where Medicine Bend was." "Don't believe you know yet. Now that's right, I don't believe you know yet. You're a good boy, but you talk too much." "How old are you, Bill?" "I am twenty." "Twenty!" echoed Bucks, as if that were not very much, either. "Twenty!" repeated the lineman. "But," he added, drawing himself up in his tremendous stature, with dignity, "I have been on the plains driving wagons and building telegraph lines for seven years----" "Seven years!" echoed Bucks, now genuinely admiring his companion. "My father was a Forty-niner. I was a line foreman when I was seventeen, for Edward Creighton, and we put the first telegraph line through from the Missouri River to the Pacific," continued Dancing, ready to back his words with blows if necessary. "You _are_ an old-timer," cried Bucks enviously. "Any good rabbit-shooting around here, Bill?" "Rabbit-shooting?" echoed Dancing in scorn. "The only rabbits they shoot around here, young fellow, are Pittsburgh rabbits, that don't keep their ears hid proper. When we go hunting, we go antelope-hunting, buffalo-hunting, grizzly-bear hunting, elk-hunting. Now I don't say I don't like you and I don't say you won't do. What I say is, you talk too much. I'll tell you what I've learned. I've learned not to say too much at a time. And when I say it, I don't say it very loud. And if you don't get killed, in advance, you will learn the same thing in the same way I learned it. Where are your blamed batteries?" "Bill, you are all right." "I am, am I?" "First help me enter these way-bills and check up the express packages so I can deliver them to this mob." "My business isn't checking up express; but I like you, young fellow, so, go ahead. Only you talk too much." "Just a moment!" At these words coming from the other end of the office, the lineman and the operator looked around. The military-looking man and his companion had entered the room unobserved and stood at the counter listening to the colloquy between the Eastern boy and the plainsman--for neither of the two were more than boys. Dancing saluted the new-comers. "It's Colonel Stanley and Bob Scott," he exclaimed. Bucks walked forward. Stanley handed him a message. "You are the night operator? Here is a despatch for General Park. Get it out for me right away, will you?" Dancing came forward to the railing. "How are you, Bill?" said Stanley, greeting the lineman as Bucks read the long message. "I am going up into the mountains next week, and I am just asking General Park for a cavalry detail." "Going to need me, Colonel?" "Better hold yourself ready. Can you read that, young man?" he asked, speaking to Bucks. "Yes, sir." "Lose no time in getting it off."