The big man wheeled and squinted at the droves of men sweating under the unseasonably hot sun; he peered keenly at each clump of laborers, some of them scarcely distinguishable knots of humanity in the distance. "Not very short," he stated comfortably. "I don't claim to be a wholly competent judge, but it looks to me as though they would be in one another's way if there were any more of them. What's wrong?" The chief engineer's answer was drawling in its deliberation. "I wish I knew," he replied. "I wish I could be positive. And there aren't too many of them; they are altogether too few. We're going to need them, and more, too, before we finish, Mr. Allison. Perhaps I'd better figure on--perhaps if they continue to quit on us, by twos and threes, as they have in the last week--I'll have to----" His pause seemed almost an invitation that the other suggest a remedy; and whether it was or not Dexter Allison was quick to seize the opening. His suggested solution was heartily bluff. "Import some more," he said. "When you've employed these men as long as I have--the type of man who has worked all his life on the river--you'll know as well as I do just how uncertain and unreliable they are. What you need is a gang that doesn't want to think for itself. This crowd has too much imagination for a grind like this." Steve nodded very thoughtfully. "If it is all imagination," he wondered. "But they're not merely discontented, you see, Mr. Allison. They--they are misleading themselves. They seem to think, from what I've gathered from McLean and a few with whom I have talked, that they are working themselves out of a job for good, when they help to build this strip of railroad. They think so--they have been convinced that such is the truth. Personally, however, I feel sure that between us, we can correct that impression." Even though he was looking in the direction of a heavy smoke-cloud that had followed a sharp blast to the north of them, Steve felt the weight of Allison's questioning glance. "We," he echoed. "Where do I figure in it?" The younger man's upward glance was seemingly surprised. "You? Why, you're a stockholder. It means as much to you as it does to Mr. Ainnesley and Mr. Elliott." Allison interrupted him. "Of course," he exclaimed. "Surely! I see! What I mean was how in the world can I make them understand that such a fool idea is all wrong? So far as this constructive work is concerned, I'm not an active member. I--I had that understood with Elliott when I went into this thing!"