"Gridley's a law to himself," said the trainmaster. "Sometimes I think he's all right, and at other times I catch myself wondering if he wouldn't tread on me like I was a cockroach, if I happened to be in his way." Having had exactly the same feeling, and quite without reason, Lidgerwood generously defended the absent master-mechanic. "That is prejudice, Mac, and you mustn't give it room. Gridley's all right. We mustn't forget that his department, thus far, is the only one that hasn't given us trouble and doesn't seem likely to give us trouble. I wish I could say as much for the force here in the Crows' Nest." "With a single exception, you can--to-day," said McCloskey quickly. "I've cleaned house. There is only one man under this roof at this minute who won't fight for you at the drop of the hat." "And that one is----?" The trainmaster jerked his head toward the outer office. "It's the man out there--or who was out there when I came through; the one you and I haven't been agreeing on." "Hallock? Is he here?" "Sure; he's been here since early this morning." "But how--" Lidgerwood's thought went swiftly backward over the events of the preceding night. Judson's story had left Hallock somewhere in the vicinity of the Wire-Silver mine and the wreck at some time about midnight, or a little past, and there had been no train in from that time on until the regular passenger, reaching Angels at noon. It was McCloskey who relieved the strain of bewilderment. "How did he get here? you were going to say. You brought him from somewhere down the road on your special. He rode on the engine with Williams." Lidgerwood pushed his chair back and got up. It was high time for a reckoning of some sort with the chief clerk. "Is there anything else, Mac?" he asked, closing his desk. "Yes; one more thing. The grievance committee is in session up at the Celestial. Tryon, who is heading it, sent word down a little while ago that the men would wreck every dollar's worth of company property in Angels if you didn't countermand your wire of this morning to Superintendent Leckhard." "I haven't wired Leckhard." "They say you did; and when I asked 'em what about it, they said you'd know." The superintendent's hand was on the knob of the corridor door. "Look it up in Callahan's office," he said. "If any message has gone to Leckhard to-day, I didn't write it." When he closed the door of his private office behind him, Lidgerwood's purpose was to go immediately to the _Nadia_ to warn the members of the pleasure-party, and to convince them, if possible, of the advisability of a prompt retreat to Copah. But there was another matter which was even more urgent. After the events of the night, it had not been unreasonable to suppose that Hallock would scarcely be foolhardy enough to come back and take his place as if nothing had happened. Since he had come back, there was only one thing to be done, and the safety of all demanded it.