“The boys here are not cowards,” replied the foreman with some spirit. “They're good, rugged chaps with grit in 'em. Turn 'em loose in a woods clearing a hundred miles from home and I'd match 'em man for man with any crowd that Gid Ward could herd together. I don't say they wouldn't fight here in their own door yards, Mr. Parker. They'd fight before they'd see their houses pulled down or their families troubled. But as to fighting for the property of this railroad company and then taking chances with the Gideonites afterward--well, I don't know about that! It's too near home!” Again the foreman shook his head dubiously. “As long as you can reckon safely that the old one is goin' to do something, the boys thought perhaps you'd notify the sheriff.” But Parker remembered his instructions. Reporting his predicament to the sheriff would mean sowing news of the Sunkhaze situation broadcast in the papers. “It isn't a matter for the sheriffs,” he replied shortly. “We'll consider that the men are hired to transport material and not to fight. We can only wait and see what will happen. But, Mank, I think that when the pinch comes you will find that my men can be as loyal to me, even if I am a stranger, as Ward's men are to the infernal old tyrant who has abused them all these years. I'm going to believe so at any rate.” He turned away and started out of doors into the crisp morning. “I'm going to believe that last as long as I can,” he muttered. “It'll help to keep me from running away.” He found his crew gathered in the railroad yard near the heaps of unloaded material for construction. The men eyed him a bit curiously and rather sheepishly. “I know how you stand, men,” he said cheerily. “I don't ask you to undertake any impossibilities. I simply want help in getting this stuff across Spinnaker Lake. Let's at it!” His tone inspired them momentarily. They were at least dauntless toilers, even if they professed to be indifferent soldiers. The sleds or skids were drawn up into the railroad yard by hand and loaded there. Then they were snubbed down to the lake over the steep bank. On the ice the “train” was made up. Even Parker himself was surprised to find what a load the little locomotive could manage. He made four trips the first day and at dusk had the satisfaction of beholding many tons of rails, fish-plates and spikes unloaded and neatly piled in the yarding place at the Spinnaker end of the carry. Between trips, while the men were unloading, he had opportunity to extend his right-of-way lines for his swampers and attend to other details of his engineering problem. 'Twas a swift pace he set!