The new track, laid hastily and only freshly ballasted, was as rough as corduroy, and the lurching of the big diamond stack made the cab topple at every rail joint. But Sollers was not the runner to lose nerve under difficulties and did not lessen the pressure on the pistons. If Stanley, determined and silent, his lips set and hanging on for dear life as the cab jumped and swung under him, felt any qualms at the dangerous pace he had asked for, he betrayed none. With Bucks, open-eyed with surprise, hanging on in front of him, Stanley gave no heed to the bouncing, and the freight-engine pounded through the mountains like a steam-roller with a touch of crushed-stone delirium. Hour after hour the wild pace was kept up through the Sleepy Cat Mountains and across the Sweet Grass Plains. There was no easing up until the frantic machine struck the gorge of the Medicine River and whistled for the long yards above the roundhouse. Things had so quieted down by the time Stanley, springing up the stairs two steps at a time, reached the despatchers' office, that they were sorry they had sent in such haste for him. Stanley himself had no regrets. He knew better than those about him the temper of the crowd he had to deal with and felt that he needed every minute to prepare for what he had to do. Bucks was sent to bring in Dancing, Bob Scott, and the more resolute among the railroad men. A brief consultation was held, and the attitude of the gamblers carefully discussed. Scott, who had been up town since the murder, had collected sufficient proof that the chief outlaw, Levake, had done the shooting, and Stanley now sent Scott to Brush, the sheriff, with a verbal message demanding Levake's arrest. Every man that heard the order given knew what it meant. Every one that listened realized it was the beginning of a fight in which there could be no retreat for Stanley; that it would be a fight to a finish, and that no man could say where it would end. Bob Scott hitched his trousers at the word from his sandy-haired chief. For Bob, orders meant orders and the terror of Levake's name in Medicine Bend had no effect on him. "You might as well ask a jack-rabbit to tackle a mountain lion as to try to get Brush to arrest Levake," declared Dave Hawk cynically. But Stanley's hand struck the table like a hammer: "We are going to have a show-down here. We will go through the forms; this is the beginning--and I am going to follow it to the end. Either Levake has got to quit the town or I have." Dave Hawk looked around with a new idea. He bent his eyes on Bob: "Better get Brush to deputize _you_ to make the arrest." "That is it!" exclaimed Stanley. "Get him to deputize you, Bob, and we will clean up this town as it hasn't been cleaned since the flood." Scott shook his head: "I don't believe Brush has the sand for that. We will see."