. " 
 
 .
 
 THE SINGLE TRACK
 
 The single track railroad was indeed assuming form and a semblance 
 
 of reality
 
 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 BY 
 
 DOUGLAS GRANT 
 
 AUTHOB Of 
 
 " THE FIFTH ACE," " BOOTY," etc. 
 
 Frontispiece by 
 DOUGLAS DUER 
 
 NEW YORK 
 W. J. WATT & COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY 
 W. J. WATT & COMPANY 
 
 PRESS or 
 
 BRAUNWOHTH & CO. 
 
 BOOK MA>JU-ACTUHEB8 
 
 BROOKLYN. N. Y.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 YEARS OF DISCRETION ............ 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE I. W. W. THING ............ . . . ....... ..... 12 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 JANNETTA DECIDES ...................... ....... 2 6 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE FAR TRAIL ................... . ..... ....... 37 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 KATALAK .............................. ....... 60 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE I. W. W. THING AGAIN ..... . . . ........... . 73
 
 vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 AN ENEMY AND A FRIEND.. , 86 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 JANE ROLLS UP HER SLEEVES 100 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE MAN IN THE SHADOW 114 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PlETRO ,. .. 128 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 HARVE DUGDALE COUNTS TEN 142 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL 157 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 "J. BARNABY HOYT" 171 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 REDDENED SKIES 186 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE MESSAGE 199
 
 CONTENTS vii 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE COMING OF THE "GREY GULL" . ... 214 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 THE WIDENED BREACH .. . .. - ' 22 7 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 THE CALL TO ARMS 2 43 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 THE BATTLE AT THE TRESTLE ....... ; 2 55 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 THE RIGHT OF WAY ...*........ 
 
 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 .281
 
 THE SINGLE TRACK
 
 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 YEARS OF DISCRETION 
 
 JANETTA crossed her pretty feet and then con- 
 sidering that posture undignified for an attorney's 
 office, uncrossed them again and jingled her 
 platinum mesh bag in impatience much as a child would 
 twiddle its pencil in the last trying hour of school. 
 
 "I came because you said I must, Uncle Andy, but 
 it's perfectly silly to talk to me, for I don't understand 
 a thing about mines and stocks and dividends!" She 
 glanced with a little pout at the lawyer's dour face. 
 "Besides it's my birthday, and I think it is mean ' 
 
 "It is precisely because it is your birthday, my dear 
 Janetta, your twenty-first birthday, that it is necessary 
 for you to take your mind from frocks and frills and 
 flummery long enough to try to understand your finan- 
 cial situation," Andrew Geddes interrupted sternly. 
 "You are no longer a child in the eyes of the law and 
 the time has come for you to take an active and in- 
 telligent interest in your own affairs." 
 
 Janetta glanced at the jeweled watch on her slender 
 wrist and sighed. She would certainly be late for that
 
 2 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 luncheon ! Then hopefully she favored Mr. Geddes with 
 a swift, engaging smile. 
 
 "But Uncle Andy, I prefer to leave everything in 
 your hands and Ollie's; I do, really! You've always 
 managed so splendidly since grandfather died that I 
 would much rather just trust you." 
 
 "You'd trust anybody, if it saved you from bother and 
 responsibility!" the lawyer snapped, but there came a 
 little tender twinkle into his shrewd eyes. "It won't do 
 you a bit of good to smile at me like that, Janetta 
 Gildersleeve ! You got my watch away from me that 
 way and smashed it when you were a matter of three 
 years old, but you can't wheedle me now. Of course, 
 you'd rather leave everything in my hands and go on 
 leading your butterfly existence; but you may find that 
 it will last just about as long as the existence of a but- 
 terfly does! What then?" 
 
 A certain grimness had crept into his tone, the twinkle 
 disappeared, and Janetta looked again at him in bland 
 bewilderment. 
 
 "What do you mean, Uncle Andy?" she asked won- 
 deringly. "A butterfly lives about six weeks, doesn't it? 
 What has that got to do with dividends and things?" 
 
 "I mean, Janetta, that sometimes property depreciates, 
 and dividends stop coming." Andrew Geddes paused 
 and then added : "You must try to understand my dear 
 do you even know what a dividend is?" 
 
 She nodded brightly. 
 
 "Of course, Uncle Andy! It's the money from the 
 mine, and it comes every three months and I get my 
 share on the fifth "
 
 YEARS OF DISCRETION 3 
 
 "And spend it !" Mr. Geddes interrupted. "Now sup- 
 pose that next dividend didn't come; what would 
 happen ?" 
 
 "Oh, I should be most fearfully in debt!" Janetta 
 shrugged. "You would probably give me a dreadful 
 scolding and countermand the order for my new 
 car " 
 
 "New car !" There was a note of exasperation in the 
 tone he had tried to keep very gentle, and he brought 
 his hand down emphatically upon the desk top. "There'll 
 be no new car! Now, Janetta, listen to me. I tried to 
 explain to you a year ago about the formation of the 
 new Northern Star Mining Company " 
 
 "You did!" agreed Janetta tearfully. "You explained 
 till my head ached and all I remember is that the North- 
 ern Star is a new copper mine at some unpronounceable 
 place in Alaska and that Ollie and I own it, though it 
 isn't called the Gildersleeve Copper Company any more. 
 I don't see why. Grandfather " 
 
 "The Gildersleeve Copper Company failed a year and 
 a half ago," Andrew Geddes said slowly. 
 
 "Failed !" Janetta repeated in a whisper. The flippant, 
 petulant look was gone. "But that was all we had! 
 Where did the dividends come from since?" 
 
 "Yours, you mean, my dear." The lawyer spoke with 
 unwonted gentleness once more. "Against my better 
 judgment you have received your same allowance regu- 
 larly, but it came from your brother's share of the 
 capital that was saved from the wreck." 
 
 "Oh, I love Ollie for it, but you shouldn't have per- 
 mitted him to do it ! You ought to have told me 1 You
 
 4 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 know I would never have taken his money, like a selfish 
 little beast!" The words came in a quick sobbing rush. 
 "So that's why he sold his polo ponies and his racing 
 car! If I had only known!" 
 
 '"He never meant that you should. He wanted you 
 to have all the fun you could, but there are more in- 
 portant things in this world than fun and it is time you 
 learned the truth. Before your brother went to France 
 I was weak enough to allow him to persuade me against 
 my better judgment, but now I feel that the situation 
 must be revealed to you." 
 
 The girl whirled upon him. Her blue eyes, still wet 
 with tears had narrowed swiftly, and her soft chin stood 
 out in belligerent firmness. 
 
 "Uncle Andy, you said that my allowance had been 
 paid from Ollie's share of what was left. Have I a 
 share, too?" 
 
 The old man nodded, watching her keenly. 
 
 "Of course. An equal share, but yours is intact." 
 
 "How much have you given to me since the failure?" 
 
 "Um! Let me see." He paused. "Six quarterly 
 dividends at six thousand; a matter of thirty-six thou- 
 sand, my dear. The Gildersleeve Company was rated 
 before the smash-up came at well over a million and 
 your brother wouldn't cut you down." 
 
 "Well, Uncle Andy, I want you to take thirty-six 
 thousand dollars from my money and pay it straight 
 back to Ollie!" Her eyes flashed and then changed 
 quickly as she saw the look upon his face. Her voice 
 came f alteringly, almost in a whisper once more : "You 
 mean you mean that I haven't thirty-six thousand left?"
 
 YEARS OF DISCRETION 5 
 
 "My dear, you may have a mere pittance or millions. 
 It all depends upon the next three months." The lawyer 
 drew forward a chair and patted it reassuringly. "Sit 
 down and try to compose yourself. You haven't asked 
 me yet how the failure came about." 
 
 "It doesn't matter, does it?" The girl cried as she 
 sank limply into the chair. "As long as it did hap- 
 pen " 
 
 "It didn't 'happen'," Andrew Geddes remarked crisply. 
 "It was brought about deliberately, relentlessly, by a man 
 who carried his enmity against the family down to you 
 children; Gordon Winfield." 
 
 "Heavens ! And I danced with his son Ronald at the 
 Cheevers' last night!" Janetta exclaimed, adding vi- 
 ciously: "I I wish I had trodden on him!" 
 
 "I didn't know you knew him." The lawyer's face 
 had darkened. 
 
 "I don't; I met him then for the first time and I I 
 didn't like him !" She flushed. "What caused the enmity 
 between our family and Gordon Winfield?" 
 
 "When your father was alive and in the mining game 
 with your grandfather, they caught Winfield in a crooked 
 deal and threw him out of the company. He prospered 
 as such rascals sometimes do, and became a formidable 
 adversary. He's been after us for a long while and 
 finally he got us. You wouldn't understand the details 
 now; it is enough that we fought fair and he didn't." 
 The lawyer removed his glasses and tapped the desk 
 thoughtfully with them as he went on: "We saved 
 enough from the wreck, however, after reserving your 
 allowance for a limited period, to purchase the new,
 
 6 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 undeveloped Northern Star mine, which had just been 
 discovered up near Katalak. We sent experts there and 
 their report was more than favorable ; your brother went 
 up himself last spring and looked it over you remember, 
 he was there when we declared war and went in for 
 his commission immediately upon his return. We bought 
 the Northern Star, forming a dummy company under 
 the name of the mine itself." 
 
 "And it's it's turned out to be not any good after 
 all?" Janetta asked, with a piteous little droop to her 
 lips. 
 
 "On the contrary, it is a wonder!" Mr. Geddes re- 
 torted dryly. "But you see, Janetta, it is thirty miles 
 up country in the mountains. We need a railroad to 
 get the ore down to Katalak Bay, and wharfage there 
 for steamers to take it to the smelting centers at 
 Tacoma." 
 
 "Then build one!" Janetta's foot tapped the floor 
 impatiently. "Haven't we enough money, Uncle Andy ?" 
 
 "It isn't that, my dear. But another mine has been 
 discovered not far from the Northern Star, and the 
 company which owns it, the Unatika, also want that 
 railroad into Katalak and waterfront properties there." 
 
 "Isn't there room enough for two? Goodness, I 
 thought Alaska was big enough!" 
 
 Andrew Geddes shook his head. 
 
 "Only one can have the right of way and the company 
 which establishes its railroad first obtains possession. 
 If the Unatika Company beat us to the port we can 
 have no transportation facilities and the Northern Star 
 will be unworkable. They are trying to do it, by fair
 
 YEARS OF DISCRETION 7 
 
 means or foul, because they know that if they succeed 
 we will have only one recourse left to sell the Northern 
 Star mine to them at their own price. And that means 
 virtual ruin." 
 
 He had explained patiently as though to a child and 
 Janetta sat motionless, her eyes fixed upon the square, 
 bronze- framed calendar on the desk from which the 
 date "April 23rd, 1918" stared uncompromisingly back 
 at her. A tiny red spot was beginning to glow in her 
 cheeks and at the last words she tossed her head. 
 
 "But we are going to beat them, aren't we? We're 
 going to get our railroad established first?" 
 
 "I don't know. We are going to try our level best, 
 but they are endeavoring to beat us by fair means and 
 foul ; mostly foul. There's queer work going on up 
 there, crooked work, Janetta. These Unatika people 
 will stop at nothing to gain their ends." 
 
 ''Who are they?" Janetta's tone was undaunted, but 
 one hand went to her breast as though she felt a little 
 sinking sensation there. 
 
 "A group of copper operators here in Wall Street. 
 They have always kept within the law but they have 
 been mixed up in so many shady transactions that they 
 have no standing among the big fellows, although they 
 are sound enough as far as capital goes." 
 
 "Like Mr. Winfield?" She paused and then asked 
 suddenly: "Is Mr. Winfield one of them? I mean, is 
 he in this Unatika Company?" 
 
 "Good Lord, no!" The lawyer stirred impatiently in 
 his chair. "They are just a ring of the smaller fry." 
 
 "What sort of of crooked work are they doing?"
 
 8 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "Well, we have had a lot of delays and accidents, 
 too many to have occurred in the natural course of 
 events. I am convinced although we have no actual 
 proof that the Unatika people bribed our engineer. 
 Anyway we sacked him and now I am sending up a 
 younger, less experienced chap to take charge. He seems 
 efficient and he has a good clean record; all we can 
 hope for is that he will maintain it." 
 
 Janetta twisted her watch bracelet about on her wrist 
 reflectively. 
 
 "Are you positive that those mishaps weren't real 
 accidents ?" She looked up at the lawyer. "What makes 
 you think that the Unatika Company want the Northern 
 Star any more than we want their old mine? If we win 
 out, won't we have them in the same position as that 
 into which they are trying to put us?" 
 
 Andrew Geddes chuckled. 
 
 "There spoke your grandfather! I knew his blood 
 would show out in you sooner or later underneath all 
 this society frippery! Yes, my dear! If we win out 
 we'll have them at our mercy, but we'll play fair; they 
 won't. That is the difference. As to their wanting the 
 Northern Star, they have tried to juggle it away from 
 us by every other means under the sun. Now it has 
 come down to a race for that railroad. We are ahead 
 of them, so far, in spite of their chicanery; we have 
 our equipment partly assembled, but that is all. The 
 real work hasn't begun." 
 
 "But it will take money, heaps and heape of it, won't 
 it? I don't mean only the railroad and wharves but 
 developing the mine itself." Janetta clenched her small
 
 YEARS OF DISCRETION 9 
 
 fists. "That thirty-six thousand oh, you shouldn't have 
 given it to me ! You ought to have told me before, and 
 so should Ollie! I feel like like a criminal!" 
 
 "We didn't need it, my dear," the lawyer assured 
 her consolingly. "There are a few thousand left still 
 of the amount we had set aside for your allowance and 
 we were sure that the Northern Star would begin to 
 pay dividends, real ones, before that was exhausted. 
 It would, too, if it hadn't been for the interference of 
 this Unatika crowd. Now, if our road isn't established 
 first, all the money you have spent would 'have been of 
 no use in saving the Northern Star." 
 
 "Well, there will be no more spent !" Janetta declared 
 with vehemence. "I'll countermand the order for my 
 new car myself, and I'll sell my electric and the little 
 roadster, too. It's funny I didn't hear of the failure 
 of our own company; goodness knows I hear all the 
 other gossip of our set. I suppose no one dared men- 
 tion it to me when they saw I was keeping everything 
 up just as we always had. I believe Persis Cheever 
 did try to talk to me once or twice about economizing, 
 but I only laughed at her!" 
 
 "No one but Winfield himself knew how closely we 
 had been driven to the wall." Andrew Geddes smiled 
 grimly. "I took care of that. Most people thought 
 we closed out to reorganize." 
 
 "They won't think so any longer." Janetta's chin be- 
 came once more in evidence. "When I told you that 
 if the next dividends, as you let me believe them to 
 be, were stopped I should be fearfully in debt I didn't 
 mean that I had spent all the last; I meant for what
 
 TO THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 I intended to buy. Now I am going to close that big 
 house; it's been ridiculous, anyway, to keep it open all 
 this long time that Ollie has been away. I'll get rid 
 of Mrs. Everton; I've been more of a chaperone for 
 her than she has for me, anyway," Janetta continued. 
 "I can go to stay with the Cheevers for a while until 
 we know how the road is coming out." 
 
 "You are right," Andrew Geddes replied emphatically. 
 "If we lose to the Unatika crowd you cannot begin to 
 retrench too quickly. That was why I decided that you 
 must be told to-day; I thought you had it in you to 
 be sensible. Not that I believe they will succeed in 
 their game, but I don't count on a thing until it has 
 gone through, and with your brother fighting off there 
 in France I did not dare take the responsibility of 
 keeping you longer in ignorance. I don't want you to 
 be downhearted, though, my child. Our equipment will 
 all be assembled before theirs has begun to arrive, and 
 then the fun will commence." 
 
 Janetta drew a deep breath. 
 
 "Can you trust this young engineer you are sending 
 up there?" 
 
 "We must," the lawyer responded tersely. "We can 
 only hope that he is on the level and has nerve and 
 brains enough to put the road through in spite of them. 
 Try to retrench all you can, and I will take care of 
 you." 
 
 "Don't worry about me, or the mine either!" In 
 spite of her efforts her voice had begun to tremble and 
 her smile wavered, but it was with a smile, for all 
 that, that she faced him as she rose. "Our road will
 
 YEARS OF DISCRETION ii 
 
 go through, I know it, and when Ollie when Ollie 
 comes back, we'll both be rich ! Uncle Andy, may I go 
 now, please? I I want to go home." 
 
 "Yes, my dear. I'll see you to-morrow." Andrew 
 Geddes' own voice was suspiciously husky, and he 
 averted his face as he fumbled with some papers on 
 the desk before him. 
 
 Janetta took his hand and gripped it very tightly for 
 a moment, but no words came. Then she turned, her 
 small head held high, and walked slowly from the 
 room.
 
 CHAPTER IT 
 THE I. W. W. THING 
 
 THE luncheon given in her honor was wholly for- 
 gotten, and when she reached home Janetta 
 crept to her own room and burst into a flood 
 of tears. Being a very human girl and having known 
 little beyond the butterfly existence of which Andrew 
 Geddes had spoken, she felt a sense of flat desolation. 
 Her brother had had to go to war, of course, but to 
 have had everything swept away from her in this past 
 year; her brother, and now her home, the comfortable 
 income which had seemed as sure as the ages! It was 
 too awful, and on her birthday, too! 
 
 A maid tapped with patient insistence at the door, 
 summoning her to the telephone, but Janetta only sniffed 
 and told her to go away. An hour later a more authori- 
 tative knock sounded, and with a sigh the girl rose and 
 admitted an older woman, tall, and sinuously slender, 
 whose delicately pretty face was marred by an expres- 
 sion of petulant impatience. 
 
 "Good heavens, Janey! What on earth do you mean 
 by sulking in your room and refusing to answer the 
 'phone and spoiling Persis Cheever's luncheon? It was 
 
 most embarrassing and everyone " Mrs. Everton 
 
 paused, and her manner softened quickly at the sight 
 
 12
 
 THE I. W. W. THING 13 
 
 of the girl's tear-stained face. "Why, my dear! What 
 has happened?" 
 
 "I have a frightful headache, Adele." Janetta turned 
 away from the other's searching eyes. "And I'm ter- 
 ribly lonely without Ollie on my birthday. Nothing 
 seems to matter, somehow. I the world is just simply 
 turned upside down. He's all I have, you know." 
 
 "You have me," Mrs. Everton ventured plaintively, 
 but she sighed as though that fact were not a wholly 
 welcome one for her own contemplation. "With all 
 these war charities and things which have kept you 
 busy from morning to night I should think you could 
 manage to kill time quickly enough until it is all over 
 and he comes back." 
 
 "It isn't only that." Janetta's tears had long since 
 ceased and the new look of firmness born of the revela- 
 tions of the morning had returned to her face. "I don't 
 want to kill time any longer. I want to make "use of 
 it, Adele; make it count for something. I should like 
 to go in for some real, practical war work, to feel that 
 I were helping, too; helping Ollie." 
 
 "I think that is a splendid idea." Mrs. Everton's 
 face lighted and she went on with suspicious enthusiasm. 
 "Now, if you could get in some nice, clean, really smart 
 private hospital, and take a course in nursing " 
 
 " 'Nursing?' " Janetta eyed her curiously. 
 
 "Oh, I don't mean the messy part, of course, but 
 reading to the convalescents and arranging flowers, and 
 smoothing their foreheads and being nice and comfort- 
 ing generally," Mrs. Everton explained vaguely but 
 eagerly. "It is quite the thing now, you know, and
 
 14 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 so much more feminine than the motor corps. Heaps 
 of the nicest girls have taken it up. There is a three- 
 month's course intensive, they call it and you could 
 stay right there at the hospital " 
 
 "Adele, do you mean that you have other plans for 
 yourself?" Janetta interrupted her suddenly. "You are 
 tired of our arrangement? Of chaperoning me, I 
 mean ?" 
 
 "Heavens, no, child ! Whatever put such an idea into 
 your head? I wouldn't think of leaving you, especially 
 now while Ollie is in France." There was a hurried 
 insincerity in her protestation which confirmed the girl's 
 thought. 
 
 "But if Ollie were here?" Janetta queried. 
 
 "Well, I thought it would be nice if you decided to 
 take up hospital work for the next few months. It 
 would occupy your mind and all that, and then if you 
 stayed there for the course you wouldn't need me." 
 The lady paused in evident confusion and added : "You 
 see, a friend has asked me to take a long trip West 
 with her in her uncle's car; but it really doesn't matter. 
 I should not have mentioned it " 
 
 "Why not?" Janetta spoke very slowly. Had Mrs. 
 Everton an inkling of the truth? Was she deserting 
 the sinking ship? "The change would be splendid for 
 you, Adele." 
 
 Mrs. Everton flushed. 
 
 "I wouldn't dream of it under the circumstances, my 
 dear ! I declined twice, but Grace Winfield is so in- 
 sistent " 
 
 "Grace Winfield?" Janetta repeated sharply. 
 
 "Yes. We were at school together, although she was
 
 THE I. W. W. THING 15 
 
 in a younger class. I don't think you know her; she 
 has been living with relatives in Baltimore since the 
 war drove her home from abroad. You met her cousin 
 Ronald last night." 
 
 "Then she is Gordon Winfield's niece? It is his 
 private car in which you are going West " 
 
 "But I am not going, Janey! How can you think I 
 would leave you alone?" Mrs. Everton cried reproach- 
 fully. 
 
 "It really doesn't matter about me and I think it is 
 a trip which you would enjoy," replied Janetta. "I 
 won't need a chaperone for the next few months, in 
 any case. We'll talk it over with Mr. Geddes when 
 he comes to-morrow. Whether I go into hospital work 
 or not I mean to do something real and I shan't have 
 any time for social things." 
 
 The mention of the Winfields had sealed her lips 
 as to the other change which had come into her life. 
 Whether Adele Everton had been aware of the actual 
 failure of the Gildersleeve Company and its cause or 
 not, it seemed to Janetta that the other had gone over 
 to the erstwhile enemy, and although nothing more than 
 a surface fondness existed between the girl and her 
 professional chaperone she felt a fresh pang of sundered 
 ties. She would have been compelled, in any event, 
 to dispense with Mrs. Everton's social services and she 
 tried to console herself with the thought that the way 
 had been providentially paved for her, but it brought no 
 comfort. 
 
 Everything that; had been familiar and commonplace 
 and secure seemed all at once to be sweeping from her 
 on a resistless tide and the shock left her bewildered
 
 16 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 and numb. The future which only that morning had 
 appeared so certain as to merit no consideration now 
 loomed blackly before her, a hideous waste of desolation 
 with unknown pitfalls of loneliness and possible poverty, 
 and she could only gaze upon it with a blank stare of 
 unbelief. 
 
 Yet when Mrs. Everton had left her, all other 
 thought was crowded from Janetta's mind by the pros- 
 pect of her brother's possible return to face financial 
 ruin. He had not only gone to the supreme hazard, 
 but his very absence at this crucial time in his affairs 
 placed his future, if he did ijeturn, in jeopardy. Woman- 
 like, she lost for the moment the greater vision in the 
 lesser, nearer one. There were so many who had set 
 their houses in order and left with a high heart se- 
 cure in the future if death passed them by, but what 
 if Ollie were to return maimed, perhaps, to find himself 
 ruined and her a useless burden on his hands? 
 
 Janetta sprang up and paced the floor of her room. 
 Ollie would come back to her, whole and sound; she 
 must not permit herself to think of any other possi- 
 bility. And the road would go through, up there in 
 Alaska ! That new, young engineer could not fail ! Her 
 remembrance of Ollie's sacrifice in providing for her 
 from his own capital during the past anxious months 
 brought a blur of tears to her eyes, but she brushed 
 them angrily aside. She would show him, and Uncle 
 Andy, too, that she was not the mere butterfly they 
 thought her. She would learn to do some real work 
 and then if that horrid rival company did swallow up 
 the Northern Star mine, after all, she would prove her- 
 self a help and not a burden!
 
 THE I. W. W. THING 17 
 
 That she was totally untrained in any but the social 
 graces which her position demanded of her Janetta did 
 not stop to consider; she only realized with an un- 
 precedented revulsion of feeling that the whole order of 
 her existence had become shallow, futile and odiously 
 repugnant. Even the dinner dance which was being 
 given in honor of her birthday that evening and to which 
 she had looked forward even after a long and crowded 
 season with joyous anticipation, now seemed an ordeal 
 impossible to be faced, and impulsively she called up 
 her prospective hostess and pleaded an indisposition, 
 much to Mrs. Everton's disgust when that lady heard 
 of her decision. 
 
 "It is ridiculous for you to take Ollie's absence on 
 your birthday in such a silly, tragic fashion !" she ex- 
 claimed. "It is positively selfish to spoil everyone else's 
 pleasure. Ollie would be the last to want you to make 
 a martyr of yourself." 
 
 "My remaining at home need not interfere with you, 
 Adele," the girl responded rather wearily. "I really 
 want to be alone, if you don't mind, and I will just 
 have something sent up on a tray " 
 
 "On your birthday, of all times!" Mrs. Everton 
 shrugged. "I never found you difficult to understand 
 before, but I must say your moods are beyond me 
 to-day." 
 
 She departed and Janetta dined miserably alone in her 
 room. If this was what it meant to reach years of 
 discretion, this sudden heaping up of troubles and re- 
 sponsibilities and downright disaster, then she wished 
 with all her sore heart that she had never had to grow 
 iup! Why couldn't she buck up and be brave and un-
 
 i8 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 selfish? Was she really only the butterfly, one of the 
 army of women whom a hothouse existence had made 
 useless and utterly frivolous? 
 
 The sense of self-disgust brought with it a combative 
 spurt of energy, and the silence of the house seemed to 
 stifle her. If she dared she would send for the little 
 roadster and go for a long spin alone in the cool night 
 air. Mrs. Everton would be horrified, of course, but 
 a chaperone would soon be of small moment in her 
 life, and no one need ever know, anyway. 
 
 She 'phoned for the car, then slipping on a warm 
 coat and heavy veil she stole down the stairs. Caution 
 was useless, however, for Peddar, the old butler who 
 had served her grandfather, came padding along the 
 hall, looking the question he was too well trained to ask. 
 
 "Has the car come yet ?" Janetta spoke with assumed 
 indifference. 
 
 "Car, miss?" Peddar's tone was respectfully in- 
 quiring, but he eyed her with the same look of suspicion 
 as when he had caught her in the pantry years before. 
 "I wasn't aware that Mrs. Everton was to send it 
 back " 
 
 "I mean the roadster," Janetta interrupted. 
 
 "Roadster?" Peddar repeated, his eyes bulging. "Oh, 
 miss, does Mrs. Everton know?" 
 
 "She doesn't, and neither do you, Peddar," Janetta 
 informed him firmly. "There's the car, now. You 
 haven't seen me leave my room." 
 
 "Very good, miss." Peddar's accents were resigned, 
 but he sighed lugubriously as he closed the door after 
 the exit of his young mistress. To his mind this noc- 
 turnal expedition boded mischief.
 
 THE I. W. W. THING 19 
 
 The little car ran like a breeze, and the soft spring 
 air was as exhilarating as wine to the girl's drooping 
 spirits. She headed north, skimming daringly between 
 and around the occasional careening taxis, and when 
 she reached the outskirts of the city unconsciously in- 
 creased her speed, her thoughts busied with the difficult 
 months before her. 
 
 She did not realize that the time was passing even 
 as her little car was eating up the road ahead, and that 
 the lights were diminishing in the suburban cottages she 
 flew by. When at length the lateness of the hour dawned 
 upon her, she was far on the Post road and to return the 
 way she had come would take a longer time than she 
 cared to consider. 
 
 Just ahead she knew that there was a short cut, nar- 
 row and deeply rutted from the frost of the late winter, 
 but every inch of it was familiar ground to her, and she 
 decided to chance it. 
 
 She swung about the sharp turn and bumped along 
 over the rough road, her mind once more fixed upon 
 her own problem. Yet had she but known it, a decision 
 was upon her far more immediately momentous than 
 that of her problematic future. The road was dark and 
 narrow and densely tree-lined, and no warning save a 
 belated shout reached her consciousness as she swept 
 around a forgotten turn, head on into an approaching 
 car. 
 
 There was one alternative a mad dash into that tree- 
 bordered side path. Even as the headlights of the other 
 car flashed into her eyes, the girl gritted her small 
 teeth and flung the wheel over. 
 
 The dark pillar of a tree trunk rose menacingly be-
 
 20 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 fore her and instinctively she swerved to avoid it, set- 
 ting her brakes with a reckless disregard of gears, then 
 femininely closing her eyes to await the inevitable 
 smash-up. But it did not come. Instead, above the 
 shriek of protesting metal there reached her ears a 
 sharp human cry, a hideous crunching, and the roadster 
 came to a stop with its headlights a bare inch or two 
 from a stone wall. 
 
 She heard a volley of shouts and imprecations, and 
 opened her eyes to see the other car speeding away, its 
 occupants vociferating their indignation until their voices 
 were lost in the distance. 
 
 She had missed them by a miracle! But if they were 
 unhurt, what had that horrible cry meant which still 
 rang in her ears? 
 
 Janetta glanced behind her and saw that at the foot 
 of that tree which she herself had just escaped a dark 
 huddled form lay, while a tall figure bent above it, and 
 groans in a reassuringly hearty voice burst upon the air. 
 
 "Get out of that car and bring a lamp here!" a voice 
 ordered none too gently. Its accents bore traces of 
 unmistakable education, however, and Janetta climbed 
 out of the roadster and meekly complied. 
 
 As the lamp flashed upon the pair beneath the tree, 
 the standing figure straightened with an exclamation of 
 surprise. 
 
 "A girl, eh? Might have known it would take a 
 woman to turn a fool trick like that." 
 
 Janetta's blue eyes flashed angrily up into a pair of 
 contemptuously stormy brown ones and then down to 
 the man lying at her feet, and a little cry of horrified 
 contrition escaped her.
 
 THE I. W. W. THING 21 
 
 "Oh, is he dead?" 
 
 The question was obviously superfluous, for the deep 
 groans issuing from the unshaven lips of the fallen 
 man had continued with unabated fervor, but they gave 
 way now to speech. 
 
 "It's killed entirely I am! What is this country 
 comin' to when a decent man can't lie down f'r a bit 
 of a sleep without the rich comin' along and ridin' over 
 him? My head's broke and my back ouch! Call f'r 
 th' ambulance, call f'r the police " 
 
 The accents were thick, and as she bent over him the 
 reek of liquor assailed the girl. She drew back, relieved 
 but still shuddering, for there was a cut upon the man's 
 stubby chin which to her frightened gaze seemed like a 
 murderous gash. 
 
 "I don't think he is badly hurt," the young man who 
 had called to her volunteered. "We'll lift him up and 
 see. If you will take his arm " 
 
 "Oh, I couldn't!" Janetta drew back instinctively. 
 "There there is blood all over his face " y 
 
 "Afraid of it, are you?" The young man's tone was 
 almost deliberately insulting in its contempt. "You 
 caused it, you know. But keep back; don't soil your 
 hands ! I can manage without your help." 
 
 "But I want to help!" Janetta wailed indignantly. 
 "You have no right to speak so to me ! I I never saw 
 blood before; anyone hurt like this, I mean. I have 
 my purse back in the car. I'll give him some money " 
 
 "That would be about your idea of practical help, 
 wouldn't it?" The young eyed her with open insolence, 
 yet of a curiously impersonal sort. "Stand aside, 
 please."
 
 22 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 As he assisted the tramp to his feet it was evident that 
 the latter individual did not share the younger man's 
 contempt for financial amelioration. His small eyes 
 gleamed avidly at the girl, and he mumbled: 
 
 "Hand over the money. I'm hurt bad and I could 
 make a lot of trouble for you, young lady, but if you 
 give me a good big wad I " 
 
 "Here, none of that !" the young man interrupted, 
 but Janetta had already flown back to the roadster. 
 She had left the motor lamp on the ground by the tree, 
 and she was compelled to fumble about for a moment 
 or two before her fingers touched the cold meshes of her 
 platinum bag. 
 
 When she returned she found a first aid kit lying 
 beside the lamp, and saw that the young man was giving 
 the finishing touches to a neat white bandage about 
 her victim's head. 
 
 "He'll do now," the former announced, adding hastily : 
 "Here, what are you doing?" 
 
 For the girl had opened her bag and was pouring its 
 contents into the grimy outstretched hands of the tramp. 
 The young man deliberately took it from her, ignoring 
 alike her exclamation of surprise and the protestations 
 of the eager recipient. 
 
 Stooping down to the light he counted the bills, 
 selected two and handed them to the tramp, returning 
 the rest to the bag. 
 
 "No, you don't!" The surly voice was raised men- 
 acingly. "You gimme the wad, or I'll have the law 
 on the young woman for runnin' me down. I know 
 my rights " 
 
 "Please give it to him!" Janetta pleaded with unac-
 
 THE I. W. W. THING 23 
 
 customed meekness. The accident had shaken her out 
 of her usual poise, and she had never met anyone quite 
 like this rude, masterful young person who treated her 
 as if she might have been just nobody. "Give him 
 all of it and get rid of him, if he really isn't hurt !" 
 
 "I am hurt, and bad, too !" the tramp asserted. "You 
 gimme that money or it'll be the worse for the two of 
 you !" 
 
 The young man apparently had not heard Janetta's 
 urging cry. His brown eyes were flashing ominously 
 as he faced the tramp, and pointed down the road. 
 
 "There's a place where you can get a drink and a 
 bed about a quarter of a mile that way," he said shortly. 
 "That's all the money you'll get, and if you don't beat 
 it without any more talk I'll hurt you worse than the 
 lady's car did, savez?" 
 
 To Janetta's amazement the tramp, after one threat- 
 ening glance, picked up his battered hat, placed it 
 ludicrously atop the immaculately bandaged head, and 
 turning, made off down the road. 
 
 With his going a measure of composure returned to 
 Janetta, and with it a sense of resentment against her 
 companion. As he handed the bag to her she nodded 
 distantly. 
 
 "Thank you," she said with pronounced hauteur. "It 
 was quite unnecessary for you to interfere in my gift 
 to that poor man, however." 
 
 "You were going to give him over two hundred 
 dollars." The young man seemed in no way discom- 
 posed by her change of manner. "I'll get your car back 
 into the road for you " 
 
 "Please don't bother!" she interrupted frigidly.
 
 24 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "Nonsense! You can't do it by yourself. You have 
 no right to be riding about the country alone at night 
 with all that money, but I suppose it doesn't mean much 
 to you." His tone was maddeningly cool. "If an officer 
 had come along and that fellow had had you arrested 
 for running him down, it would probably have cost you 
 a lot more, though. The judge might have made an 
 example of you. It doesn't do to go around running 
 over people, you know, even if they are only tramps." 
 
 "You don't think I knew he was asleep there behind 
 that tree, do you?" Janetta demanded angrily, forgetting 
 her dignity in her resentment. "I had to avoid crashing 
 into that other car " 
 
 "You wouldn't have, if you had been on the right 
 side of the road," her tormentor interrupted in his turn. 
 "That's the trouble with you society women; you think 
 you can do anything you like and get away with it, 
 but the rules of the road were made for everyone, even 
 the common people." 
 
 "You you I. W. W. Thing!" Janetta exclaimed 
 wrath fully, but the young man had turned abruptly and 
 left her. She watched him speechlessly as he rolled the 
 light roadster out into the road and started the motor 
 with a practiced hand. When he returned and picked 
 up his first-aid kit, she saw for the first time that a 
 motor cycle stood against the wall a few feet away. 
 
 Then he remembered her lamp and came forward, 
 but she snatched it up and retreated to her car. Courtesy 
 demanded that she thank him for his undeniable services, 
 but all that she could bring herself to accomplish was 
 a stiff little bow. 
 
 ''Good-night," he said cheerfully. "It doesn't really
 
 THE I. W. W. THING 25 
 
 matter what you think of me, of course, but I don't 
 happen to be a member of the Brotherhood, as you 
 called me. I'm just a workingman." 
 
 "'Good-night," Janetta found herself repeating, and 
 then angry that she had been betrayed into that small 
 concession she jumped into her car and sped off into 
 the darkness.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 JANETTA DECIDES 
 
 THE next day Janetta's best friend, Persis Cheever, 
 found her dry-eyed and resolute of face, perched 
 upon the end of her chaise-lounge with a pencil 
 and a paper which contained a formidable row of 
 figures. 
 
 "What in the name of goodness are you doing, Janey?" 
 she demanded. 
 
 "Adding," replied Janetta succinctly. "I'm trying to 
 find out what I've spent in the last month and where 
 it has all gone to. I'm glad you came, Persis; I want 
 to have a serious talk with you. I am going to work." 
 
 "That is what every one of the girls in our set are 
 saying, my dear," Mrs. Cheever responded lightly. "It's 
 only a spasm. You'll get over it." 
 
 "But a lot of them have done things and are doing 
 them now splendidly," protested Janetta. "Motor corps 
 and nursing and cooking and waiting on people in the 
 service huts, and even clerical work in Washington." 
 
 "Can you cook?" Mrs. Cheever demanded with the 
 frankness of intimacy. "Heaven help the boys who 
 would drink your coffee; I know, for I've tried it. Can 
 you run a typewriter or take shorthand, or manage an 
 office? You know you are not sufficiently strong for 
 nursing, and if you think you can run a car efficiently 
 
 enough to join the Corps " 
 
 26
 
 JANETTA DECIDES 27 
 
 "Oh, I know I can't!" Janetta closed her eyes with 
 a shudder, as visions of the escapade of the night before 
 returned to her. With them came unaccountably the 
 memory of those flashing, rudely contemptuous brown 
 eyes, and the hint of hidden mockery in the voice which 
 assured her that its owner was a "workingman." 
 
 "Well, then," Mrs. Cheever resumed, "don't be silly 
 and start something you can't finish." 
 
 "Of course, he couldn't have been!" Janetta observed 
 in absolute irrelevance. "Not with that well-bred voice, 
 in spite of his impertinence " 
 
 "Janey, what are you talking about?" her visitor de- 
 manded. "Whose voice, and who was impertinent?" 
 
 "No one," replied Janetta in some confusion, adding 
 hastily: "But, Persis, there must be something of real 
 practical use that I can do." 
 
 "Oh, yes, of course," Mrs. Cheever admitted help- 
 fully. "You can dance and ride and swim and play 
 golf and tennis; all of them passably, but they are not 
 much in demand just now. The most practical thing 
 that I have ever seen you do well was to sell goods 
 over a counter at the Red Cross bazaar. I believe you 
 could sell anything to anybody if you once fixed your 
 mind on it! But do give up these heroic ideas and 
 just play about with the rest of us. Knit and roll 
 bandages if you like, but for Heaven's sake don't try 
 to go in for anything that you have had no training 
 for." 
 
 When her friend had left her Janetta sat with cold 
 dismay clutching at her heart. Persis had spoken with 
 brutal candor, but in truth; there was nothing that 
 she could do, nothing that really counted. For the first
 
 28 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 time her uselessness was borne in upon her, and Janetta 
 shuddered at the future. There were plenty of trained 
 women, no doubt, for the great work in hand, but what 
 of herself and her own future? What if the mine in 
 Alaska actually fell into the enemy's hands; must Ollie 
 return to find her a helpless burden upon him? 
 
 Persis Cheever's careless words: "The most prac- 
 tical thing that I have even seen you do well was to 
 sell goods over a counter," returned to the girl's mind 
 and she shivered at the thought. To be a shopgirl ! 
 She, Janetta Gildersleeve ! Was that the possible future 
 that awaited her? 
 
 Then her thoughts turned again to her brother and 
 his sacrifice for her, that she might not know until the 
 last possible moment the burden of anxiety and care 
 that had weighed upon him for the past year and more, 
 and a passionate longing to help him rose again within 
 her. 
 
 If only she might go to Alaska in his stead! If only 
 she had paid attention when Uncle Andy had tried so 
 patiently in the past to tell her something of the mines 
 from which she had so indifferently drawn the luxuries 
 of her futile existence ! 
 
 The announcement that Mr. Geddes was in the draw- 
 ing-room interrupted her reflections and Janetta de- 
 scended with her mind filled with her new idea. 
 
 "Uncle Andy," she began impetuously, much to that 
 good man's amazement, "why doesn't someone else go 
 up there to the mine in Ollie's place, and watch over 
 the work?" 
 
 "The mine! You're a real Gildersleeve, after all!" 
 the old man chuckled.
 
 JANETTA DECIDES 29 
 
 "Uncle Andy, why couldn't Mr. MacLeod leave the 
 office here in charge of someone else and go up there? 
 If the road doesn't go through there won't be any need 
 of a New York office, will there?" 
 
 Andrew Geddes shook his head soberly. 
 
 "We have thought of all that, my dear," he said. 
 "Adam is a good man, and staunch and dependable 
 as they make them, but he couldn't see beyond the length 
 of his own nose though the Lord knows that is long 
 enough in all conscience ! He only knows the office end 
 of the game, not the practical workings of it on the 
 ground, and what we're up against there is guerrilla 
 warfare, no less ! I'd go myself but I'm too old and 
 I find my perceptions are not so keen as they used to 
 be. If that new young engineer is all that his record 
 seems, he's loyal and honest to the backbone, and effi- 
 cient enough, too, although this is his first real chance. 
 There is no one who can take Oliphant's place. We'll 
 just have to trust in the Lord and Barney Hoyt." 
 
 "Is that the new engineer's name?" Janetta asked. 
 "I think it is rather nice, don't you? It sounds de- 
 pendable, anyway. Just what would Ollie have done if 
 he had been here in America and able to go to that 
 place what is its name?" 
 
 "Katalak," Andrew Geddes responded. "He would 
 have kept his eye on things and put a stop to the 
 crooked work of the Unatika people." 
 
 "But that sounds so vague," Janetta objected. "Of 
 course, his presence as the owner of the Northern Star 
 might have had a sort of restraining influence on those 
 horrid people that own the other mine, but " 
 
 "It would not," interrupted the lawyer grimly. "It
 
 30 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 would have brought open warfare. And remember, 
 Janetta, that no one knows a Gildersleeve is connected 
 with the Northern Star Mining Company. We want to 
 wait and spring it on old Winfield and his crowd when 
 there is no chance of his jumping on us again. We 
 are out to do him, my dear, just as the Unatika people 
 are out to do us, only we fight fair; we want to catch 
 him here on the market when we have got something 
 back of us to fight with, and put him out of business." 
 
 "Then if Ollie had gone up to er, Katalak, isn't it? 
 he would have gone as somebody else, and under a 
 different name ?" Janetta asked slowly, her brow wrinkled 
 in a thoughtful frown. 
 
 "Exactly, my dear. Hoyt would have known him, 
 of course, but he could have been depended upon to 
 keep the secret." 
 
 "Surely others at the mine would have recognized 
 him, too," Janetta observed, adding: "When Ollie was 
 there with the expert last spring " 
 
 "There would not have been need for him to go near 
 the mine," Andrew Geddes interrupted again. "No 
 work is going on there now; ho more can until the road 
 goes through. There is no working force there, only 
 a guard of picked men to see that the Unatika crowd 
 do not start some mischief in the mine itself. The 
 real job lies thirty miles away, down in the town of 
 Katalak on the waterfront, where the road building must 
 start. Oliphant would have lain low and studied the 
 gangs, to see if there was a man among them in the 
 pay of the Unatika people; he would have gotten in 
 with that crowd too, if he could, and tried to find out
 
 JANETTA DECIDES 31 
 
 what crooked work they were planning, in order to 
 stop it in time." 
 
 "But isn't there any law up there, Uncle Andy?" 
 This time Janetta raised her eyes. "If they are caught 
 causing any of these so-called accidents that have been 
 happening, can't they be put in prison?" 
 
 "The nearest representative of law and order is the 
 United States Marshal at Juneau, as I understand it," 
 replied Andrew Geddes dryly. "And they are under 
 cover, remember; they are much too clever to be caught 
 in any overt act at this stage of the game. It's rough 
 work, my dear, and rough characters putting it over; 
 they would stop at nothing short of murder, and if they 
 could get away with that under the guise of 'accident' 
 they would not hesitate to wipe out any man who stood 
 in their path." 
 
 "The new engineer; would they murder him in cold 
 blood?" Janetta demanded in shocked amazement. 
 
 The lawyer shrugged. 
 
 "He is taking his own chances," he replied. "He 
 knows what he's up against, and I think that young 
 man can be depended upon to take care of himself in 
 an emergency." 
 
 The lawyer chuckled again, and Janetta said impul- 
 sively : 
 
 "I should like to meet him and talk to him before 
 he goes. Couldn't you bring him up, Uncle Andy? Is 
 he the presentable sort?" 
 
 "There spoke this generation!" Andrew Geddes 
 snorted. "Your grandfather, .my dear, would not have 
 asked if the man who was sweating blood and risking 
 his life in his service was 'presentable/ I'll have you
 
 32 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 know! Any man who worked for him and fought 
 for his interests tooth and nail would be plenty good 
 enough to break bread with him!" 
 
 Janetta hung her head, but more from force of habit 
 when facing her erstwhile guardian's customary scold- 
 ings than from contrition at her question. That rude 
 young wayfarer with his horrid socialistic ideas returned 
 again to her thoughts and she shuddered. Could her 
 benign old grandfather really have held with a like 
 doctrine? She glanced up at Andrew Geddes with a 
 trace of mischief in her eyes. 
 
 "I don't remember meeting any horny-handed sons of 
 toil at grandfather's table here, Uncle Andy, but do 
 bring this Barney Hoyt to dinner, anyway; I don't care 
 if he eats with his knife or not! It will be a good 
 experience for Mrs. Everton." 
 
 "Thanks, my dear, but he'll not be able to accept your 
 kind invitation," the old man responded witheringly. 
 "He is not hanging around New York waiting for 
 society to take him up he is on his way out to his 
 work now, and within two weeks he'll have it started 
 full blast." 
 
 "Clh, I hope he succeeds! I don't mean it so much 
 on my own account as on Ollie's. It would be dreadful 
 to have him come home and find everything gone !" She 
 paused, and then added: "Uncle Andy, I meant every 
 word I said in your office that day when you told me the 
 real condition of affairs. I am going to close up the 
 house here almost at once. Peddar must be provided 
 for, of course, but the other servants must go." 
 
 "And Mrs. Everton ?" queried the lawyer. 
 
 "Mrs. Everton has already given notice." Janetta
 
 JANETTA DECIDES 33 
 
 smiled with a little crooked twist to her lips. "She is 
 going on a trip West, and Uncle Andy, who do you 
 suppose she is going with ? The Winfields !" 
 
 "Not you don't mean Gordon Winfield?" Andrew 
 Geddes glared in astonishment. 
 
 Janetta nodded. 
 
 "In his private car; his niece, Grace Winfield, invited 
 her." She hesitated and added slyly: "Mr. Winfield 
 himself is a widower, isn't he?" 
 
 The lawyer nodded in his turn, but his face was very 
 stern. 
 
 "He would be a rare catch for the Everton person, 
 but I'm wondering if there may not be something else 
 back of it. You have not mentioned the Northern Star 
 to her, have you, Janetta?" 
 
 "No. Besides, she told me of her decision, in a nice 
 tentative way, of course, yesterday, just after you in- 
 formed me of the existence of the Northern Star." 
 
 Andrew Geddes still frowned. 
 
 "I don't like it," he said at last. "If I had known 
 that she was a friend of the Winfields, she would 'have 
 been sent packing long ago." 4 
 
 "But, Uncle Andy, one cannot discharge a chaperone 
 like a housemaid, you know " Janetta began. 
 
 "There are spies enough at the mine; we want none 
 in the household," he retorted. "Has she ever mentioned 
 them to you before?" 
 
 "No. She and this Grace Winfield were at school 
 together, I understand, but they haven't seen much of 
 each other of late years. Aside from spoiling the sur- 
 prise you want to spring on Mr. Winfield in the stock
 
 34 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 market later, what would happen if he should learn that 
 the Northern Star is really owned by Ollie and me?" 
 
 "He would find out who owns the Unatika mine if 
 it cost him half he possesses, and spend the other half 
 buying in on that proposition, just to have a hand in 
 winning out once more against the Gildersleeve blood!" 
 the old man announced impressively. "You have no 
 conception of what an implacable enemy he is. He drove 
 the old company to the wall and he's waiting now for 
 you and Oliphant to live out the last few thousand you 
 managed to save from the wreck so that he may see 
 you in poverty ! I'll wager that he is laughing in his 
 sleeve at this moment because your brother has been 
 for so long in the service, thinking that he will not have 
 even a chance to try to recoup." 
 
 "What a a beast!" Janetta clenched her hands. 
 "His own son, that Ronald, didn't go to war, I observe ! 
 Uncle Andy, why do you suppose they are all going 
 West just now?" 
 
 "Winfield owns mining property from Nevada to the 
 coast; he takes a trip out every summer," replied An- 
 drew Geddes. "The best thing you can do, Janetta, is 
 to close the house and let Mrs. Everton go as soon as 
 possible. I've never approved of the lady, as you know, 
 and I would not put it past her to accept a commission 
 from Winfield to try to find out if there is anything 
 in the wind if you have invested the money any way 
 that he might get at it, or whether you are just living 
 on the capital, hoping for something to turn up. To tell 
 you the truth, that was one of the reasons I consented 
 to your brother's extravagant plan to pay you your 
 supposed dividends from the capital in order to fool
 
 35 
 
 Winfield and let him think you were living the remains 
 of your fortune out." 
 
 Janetta's brow wrinkled. 
 
 "I don't quite like it, Uncle Andy," she said. "This 
 skulking and hiding from an enemy I don't think it 
 would be grandfather's way, do you? Why not come 
 straight out in the open, let everyone know that we 
 Gildersleeves own the Northern Star, and dare Mr. Win- 
 field to rob us of it if he can?" 
 
 "It would not be your grandfather's way, provided 
 he had equal weapons to fight with, my dear, but when 
 he was fighting against such an unscrupulous enemy as 
 this he could prove himself the canniest old Scot alive, 
 and did many a time." He rose. "You don't under- 
 stand about these things, and I should not have told 
 you all this, but it was a positive pleasure to me to see 
 you take an interest at last in the things which concern 
 your own future. I suppose it isn't natural to expect 
 a young girl like you to have a business head on your 
 shoulders, so just think no more about it. I've no doubt 
 but that the road will go through all right, and a year 
 from now the Northern Star will be paying dividends 
 enough to buy you all the pretty things your heart de- 
 sires. But when you close up here, where will you go, 
 Janetta?" 
 
 "Oh, the Pembrokes have asked me out to Great Neck 
 for June, and the Carterets want me to come to them 
 at Southampton, but I think I shall just stay in town 
 with the Cheevers for awhile anyway," Janetta re- 
 sponded indifferently. "Don't worry about me, Uncle 
 Andy. I shall let you know, of course, what I decide.
 
 36 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 I will come down to see you about settling up affairs 
 here." 
 
 When Mr. Geddes had taken his departure, Janetta 
 paced the floor deep in a new and daring thought which 
 had come to her. He would never permit it, of course, 
 nor would Ollie, but would it be necessary for them to 
 know? Surely some plan would present itself by means 
 of which she could, escape the care and watchfulness 
 that had hedged her in all her life, and prove, if only to 
 herself, that she was not the useless parasite she seemed. 
 There was nothing here for her to do; she could not 
 indefinitely accept her friends' hospitality, nor could she 
 face, false though such pride was, the thought of the 
 hypocritical sympathy which would surround her at the 
 news of her changed fortunes. 
 
 But she could and would take Ollie's place herself ! 
 Whatever the Katalak of her vague and shrinking 
 imaginings might prove to be, whatever the trials and 
 privations and dangers that might assail her, whatever 
 the difficulties that stood in her path, Janetta had come 
 to a decision. She would go to Alaska!
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE FAR TRAIL 
 
 THE office of the Northern Star Mining Company 
 was a modest and inconspicuous one, in an 
 antiquated building huddled between two tower- 
 ing skyscrapers on a narrow, alley-like side street which 
 just invaded the outskirts of the financial district. No 
 prospective investor had ever passed through its grimy 
 door, rarely was mail slipped beneath it, and indeed it 
 remained locked for days at a time until the entire 
 office staff, in the person of Mr. MacLeod, put in a 
 periodic appearance. The Northern Star Mining Com- 
 pany was quite obviously lying low. 
 
 The day after Janetta had reached her decision chanced 
 to be the occasion of one of the managerial visitations, 
 and Adam had scarcely seated himself behind the in- 
 congruously massive mahogany desk a relic of the de- 
 funct Gildersleeve Copper Company when to his amaze- 
 ment there came a swish of silken skirts and clicking 
 of tiny heels down the musty hall, and a dainty white 
 gloved hand tapped at the not immaculate glass panel 
 of the door. 
 
 Ever a punctilious man, Adam MacLeod rose and 
 flung it open with an angular flourish. 
 
 "Madam, you have made a mista " The words 
 
 died in his throat, and his lean jaw dropped when he 
 beheld the apparition which confronted him. 
 
 37
 
 38 THE 3INGLE TRACK 
 
 "No I haven't this time, Mr. MacLeod, though I 
 thought I should never find the right place!" Janetta 
 glanced about her and sniffed. "And is this the office of 
 the Northern Star ! It isn't very much like the old days, 
 is it?" 
 
 "It will be again, Miss Gildersleeve," responded the 
 amazed manager staunchly when he could find his voice. 
 "This is only temporary, you know." 
 
 "I know." Janetta nodded. "Until the road goes 
 through if it does!" 
 
 "You know, then " 
 
 "Uncle Andy told me." Janetta dimpled suddenly. 
 "May I sit down, please? And you used to call me 
 'Janey,' if I remember." 
 
 "Excuse me!" Adam wheeled forward one of the 
 huge leather armchairs and surreptitiously wiped it with 
 his sleeve. "You've grown to be such a big young lady 
 now, that I hardly see the little Janey in you." 
 
 "I am glad you appreciate that fact, Mr. MacLeod, 
 for I have come to talk business with you." Janetta 
 seated herself gingerly, and smiled upon him. 
 
 "Did Mr. Geddes send you to me?" the manager asked 
 with native caution. 
 
 "Oh, no, indeed !" she replied sweetly. "He doesn't 
 even know I came, and he isn't going to know. This 
 is strictly confidential." 
 
 Mr. MacLeod looked alarmed. 
 
 "But wouldn't it be better I mean, if you went to 
 him he could tell you more about what you want to 
 know " 
 
 "How do you know what I want to know if you 
 won't let me tell you?" Janetta's smile clenched the
 
 THE FAR TRAIL 39 
 
 unanswerable argument, and she went on : "He has told 
 me everything there is to tell about the Gildersleeve 
 failure, and Gordon Winfield's part in it, and all about 
 the new Northern Star and the Unatika people who are 
 racing us and fighting us for the single-track road down 
 to Katalak. Now, what sort of a man is this new con- 
 struction engineer, Barney Hoyt ?" 
 
 Her glibness had taken Mr. MacLeod's breath away, 
 but at the sudden question his eyes narrowed shrewdly. 
 
 "Well," he began slowly, "I've always been at the 
 office and er, Janey, and I don't pretend to know the 
 field operations, but he seems all right to me. A bit 
 young for so much responsibility, maybe, but they tell 
 me that he's a capable engineer, and he looks to be a 
 good fighter. He's keen for the work and acts as if 
 he were going to eat it up. We'll just have to wait and 
 see how he tackles it when he gets up there." 
 
 " 'A capable engineer and a good fighter,' " Janetta 
 repeated. "But that isn't all we need, is it? Do you 
 think he is a young man to be trusted?" 
 
 "You mean, can he be bought out by the Unatika 
 people? Not in a thousand years, Janey! I'm a slow 
 body to bank on any man's character, but if young Hoyt 
 had a yellow streak he would have shown it on his last 
 job. It was a bridge in Canada, and I know for a fact 
 that he was offered thousands, and a position that he 
 couldn't work up to in ten years in his profession if he 
 Would turn a crooked trick with it." 
 
 "He refused?" 
 
 "And beat the man who approached him with the offer 
 within an inch of his life! That's why Mr. Geddes 
 selected him for this job over more experienced men."
 
 40 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "You know, of course, that if Ollie hadn't entered 
 the service he meant to have gone to Katalak himself 
 without anyone except this engineer knowing that he 
 was the owner of the Northern Star, and watched to 
 prevent the Unatika people from injuring our road?" 
 Janetta asked, after a pause. At MacLeod's nod she 
 went on: "Uncle Andy says that there is no one to 
 take his place, no one to sort of make friends with the 
 men so that they wouldn't be suspicious and find out if 
 there is not a traitor perhaps among our own employees 
 who has enabled the Unatika people to cause so many 
 of these so-called 'accidents' which have delayed the 
 work at the mine." 
 
 "That's so," the manager agreed. "It's hard enough 
 to find men for any sort of work up there now, let 
 alone a confidential job of this kind. The war has taken 
 most of them." 
 
 Janetta drew a deep breath. 
 
 "Women have taken men's places all over the coun- 
 try," she said slowly. "Isn't there some sort of a 'job,' 
 as you call it, that a woman could do? I don't mean 
 manual labor or clerical work either exactly, but some- 
 thing that would bring her in touch in a plausible way 
 with the men employed?" 
 
 "Well, I don't know as to that," MacLeod rubbed his 
 chin reflectively. "I did hear from the general superin- 
 tendent that they were hard put to it for an assistant 
 storekeeper, but I hardly think he would consider a 
 woman for the post." 
 
 "What is an assistant storekeeper?" Janetta's eyes 
 were shining. 
 
 "Why, the company your company maintains a
 
 THE FAR TRAIL 41 
 
 sort of general store right at the works where the men 
 can buy what they need clothing and tobacco, and 
 razors and candy and all that. The storekeeper takes 
 care of the ordering of supplies and the books and the 
 assistant sells the stuff to the men. But what in the 
 world put the idea in your head of sending a woman 
 up there, Janey? No woman would be any matter of 
 use, especially now that there's trouble and likely to be 
 more." 
 
 But Janetta had not heard the query. Persis Cheever's 
 words of the previous day returned once more to her 
 thoughts and this time they brought no misgiving. The 
 one practical thing that she could do well was to sell 
 goods over a counter! 
 
 "Mr. MacLeod," she rose, and going to him held out 
 her hand, "I want your solemn word of honor that what 
 I am going to say to you now you will never repeat to 
 Uncle Andy or my brother when he comes back, or 
 or anyone." 
 
 The gaunt figure rose also and a bony hand gripped 
 hers. 
 
 "Of course, you have my word, Janey. I'll tell no 
 one. But what " 
 
 "I'm so glad." Janetta drew herself up to her slim 
 height before him. "Because, you see Mr. MacLeod, 
 I'm going up there myself ! I'm going to be that assistant 
 storekeeper !" 
 
 "You're you're daft!" Adam MacLeod's pale eyes 
 seemed fairly to pop out of his head. "You go to 
 that rough mining town, a young lady that's been brought 
 up as you've been! It would never be allowed for a
 
 42 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 moment ! A dainty young thing in a hole like that ! 
 You cannot know what you are saying, Janey!" 
 
 "Nevertheless, I am going, and you are going to help 
 me," Janetta announced, and the Gildersleeve chin was 
 very prominent now. "No one will know who I am 
 and the Unatika people would never suspect a woman 
 spy. Besides what better chance would anyone have to 
 get in with the men " 
 
 "It couldn't be done, not by a lady " the horri- 
 fied manager was beginning, but she cut him short un- 
 ceremoniously. 
 
 "I'm not going as a lady! I'm going just as an em- 
 ployee of the company like themselves. You can fix it 
 for me " 
 
 "Never while there's breath in my body!" declared 
 MacLeod vehemently. "You don't know what you're 
 talking about, Janey! You haven't the least conception 
 of the sort of men you would come in contact with; 
 and the women in a place like that! Whatever put 
 such a daft notion into your head?" 
 
 "Mr. MacLeod, what are you doing here in this dingy 
 little office that a fifteen-dollar-a-week clerk could run? 
 You, whose services would be worth many thousands a 
 year to any mining stock company on the Street?" 
 Janetta demanded unexpectedly. 
 
 MacLeod gazed at her in a bewildered fashion. 
 
 "Why, where else would I be while there's a Gilder- 
 sleeve ?" 
 
 "That is just what I mean!" she exclaimed tri- 
 umphantly. "Don't you suppose we realize what you 
 are sacrificing for us because you feel that you are a 
 part of us because you have been with the company
 
 THE FAR TRAIL' 43 
 
 all your life? Are you going to fail us now? There's 
 work up there that only a Gildersleeve can do. My 
 brother is doing a bigger thing and I must take his 
 place. Oh, can't you see! Uncle Andy treats me still 
 as a child but I thought you would understand. He 
 wants to keep me wrapped in cotton wool all my life, 
 but I have my grandfather's blood in me, and I'm going 
 to prove it ! I'll come to no harm, Mr. MacLeod ; the 
 men may be rough and all that, but I can take care 
 of myself. Don't you see I've simply got to go?" 
 
 MacLeod shook his head stubbornly. 
 
 "It's unthinkable," he said. "I'll be no party to any 
 such outrageous scheme!" 
 
 "Very well." Janetta walked a few steps away and 
 then suddenly whirled upon him. "I suppose you know 
 that I'm twenty-one years old, that I am half owner in 
 the Northern Star mine, and that nothing on earth can 
 prevent me from going up there and being my own store- 
 keeper if I want to? If you try to stop me, if you 
 give me away to anybody you will be a traitor to the 
 company !" 
 
 "But Janey!" pleaded MacLeod, "you don't realize 
 what the life is up there, I'm telling you ! You couldn't 
 you wouldn't be safe! I ought to be shot if I lent 
 myself to such a mad whim!" 
 
 "Then don't!" retorted Janetta coldly. "I imagine 
 the general superintendent will recognize my authority 
 if I find it necessary to take him into my confidence!" 
 
 "I'll go to Andrew Geddes " declared the harassed 
 
 MacLeod. 
 
 "You can't!" Janetta fairly danced a step or two in 
 her jubiliation. "You gave me your hand and your
 
 44 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 solemn word of honor that you wouldn't tell a single 
 soul !" 
 
 "You took advantage of me!" MacLeod pounded the 
 desk indignantly. "I might have known you were up 
 to some mischief when you walked in here this morning ! 
 Rather than have it on my soul that I helped you to take 
 such a reckless, dangerous step, I'll I'll order the gen- 
 eral superintendent to exclude all women from the pay- 
 roll of the company and he'll think I have gone clean 
 daft, for never a woman has applied !" 
 
 "You do, and I'll go to Katalak if I have to go as 
 one of those dance-hall girls!" Janetta's eyes were 
 blazing now, and at his shocked gaze she added with 
 confident assurance: "Oh, you needn't think I don't 
 know all about things up there ; I've been to the movies ! 
 I tell you I mean to go and try to protect Ollie's property 
 and my own if I have to walk every step of the way!" 
 
 MacLeod groaned and dropped helplessly into his 
 chair. 
 
 "I know you are of age, Janey, but just stop and 
 think for a moment. What could you do ? Suppose you 
 should find decent lodgings, which I very much doubt, 
 you'd be on your feet all day, cooped up in a rough- 
 board shack behind a counter selling blankets and plug 
 cut to a lot of ruffians who at the least would be making 
 eyes at you! You wouldn't see a thing that was going 
 on outside or understand it if you did !" 
 
 "They work sometimes, don't they?" asked Janetta 
 slyly. "I didn't suppose they had all day to do their 
 shopping in, and I guess I could stand their making 
 eyes at me other men have, you know! Besides, you 
 could help me "
 
 THE FAR TRAIL 45 
 
 "I could! Away off here in New York!" MacLeod 
 exclaimed in bitter sarcasm. 
 
 "You could order the head storekeeper, if that is what 
 you call him, to lay in a stock of extra nice things in the 
 line that the men most require, and sell it to them 
 below cost a better grade of tobacco I mean, nicer candy 
 and clothes. What nationality are they, for the most 
 part?" 
 
 "Italians and Russians and Hungarians and Chinese, 
 I believe," he replied almost mechanically, staring at her 
 as if he thought she had taken leave of her senses. 
 
 Janetta clapped her sands. 
 
 "Oh, good ! I know just the sort of things to appeal 
 to them that I'm sure the storekeeper never even thought 
 of!" 
 
 MacLeod's own national prudence asserted itself. 
 
 "But why below cost?" he inquired. "We would be 
 losing money for no purpose. The men are satisfied 
 now " 
 
 "Because they can get nothing better. If that Unatika 
 company are so mean as to try any crooked trick to 
 delay the building of our road, it isn't probable that they 
 treat their men as well as we do, is it? Their company 
 store may be selling them more inferior stuff and cheat- 
 ing them at that. Now, if you could just suggest to our 
 storekeeper and whoever is superior to him that it is 
 the owners' wish that the men of the other company 
 be allowed to sneak in now and then and buy something 
 they mustn't know they are being allowed, you see, 
 they must think that we mistake them for some of our 
 own men " 
 
 "Great stuff!" ejaculated MacLeod. "You mean to
 
 46 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 win them over, undermine their satisfaction with the 
 people they work for " 
 
 "I mean to fight fire with fire!" Janetta declared, her 
 blue eyes snapping. "Short of actual crooked dealing, 
 I mean to play their own game and beat them at it! I 
 have some money of my own left from my last quarterly 
 allowance, and I'll leave it with you to pay for the extra 
 goods. If Uncle Andy comes snooping around to find 
 out what it means, supposing that young engineer or 
 the superintendent or somebody should write to him 
 about it, just tell him that it is a little experiment you 
 decided upon yourself." 
 
 "Janey, I should never have suspected you of such 
 duplicity!" MacLeod groaned in shocked sincerity. 
 "How are you going to explain your absence, supposing 
 that I should consent to listen for a minute to your wild 
 notion? Mind, I haven't said that I would! It would 
 be a fine scandal -to get out in society that Miss Janetta 
 Gildersleeve was missing!" 
 
 "I haven't decided yet on the details, but they will 
 come to me," Janetta responded serenely. "I have a 
 girl friend who will help me out. Of course, I shall 
 have to fib to her, too, but I don't want a person on 
 earth to know where I am but just you." 
 
 "I can't do it!" MacLeod rose -precipitately once 
 more. "I got carried way for the moment by that scheme 
 of yours to win the men of the other company over, but it 
 is no use, Janey ! When I think of that place, and every 
 man of them taking his life in his hands with that 
 murderous gang after them and then think of you all 
 alone up there, exposed to all the dangers they are and
 
 THE FAR TRAIL 47 
 
 a thousand worse, I I can't take the responsibility ! I'll 
 break my word first, and go to Andrew Geddes!" 
 
 Janetta read defeat in the stern implacable lines about 
 his grim mouth, and with a wisdom beyond her years 
 forbore to urge her cause further. Instead she sat 
 for long minutes lost in demure reflection, while the 
 unhappy MacLeod paced the floor hoping fervently that 
 she would go without making a renewed attack upon 
 him. 
 
 All at once a swift gleam of inspiration flashed across 
 the girl's face, and a little smile flitted for an instant 
 about her lips. It was gone with the next breath, and 
 she said meekly: 
 
 "Mr. MacLeod, will you help me to go if I promise 
 to take someone with me who is years and years older 
 than I am and deadly I mean, eminently respectable? 
 Someone who is perfectly qualified to look after me and 
 see that I don't get into any mischief? Someone whom 
 we can trust to keep our secret absolutely?" 
 
 "Who is it?" He eyed her suspiciously. "Is it some- 
 one your brother and Andrew Geddes approve of?" 
 "It is someone they both love; at least, Ollie does! 
 But I shan't tell you unless you promise first, for you 
 have been so mean about my going alone beside threat- 
 ening to break your word! Of course," she added 
 sweetly, "you realize that your going to Uncle Andy 
 wouldn't make the slightest difference if I were really 
 determined to act without your help, except to make a 
 lot of trouble for both of you, for even Ollie couldn't 
 prevent my going, I have a half interest in the mine, as 
 you know. However, I would so much rather do it with 
 your approval!"
 
 48 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "Ahem!" MacLeod temporized. "You say someone 
 who is much older, and able to take care of you, and 
 your brother trusts her? We-ell, I promise." 
 
 "And you promise not to break your promise?" 
 
 He nodded solemnly, and Janetta gave a deep sigh of 
 satisfaction. 
 
 "I knew you would agree!" she said blandly. "Only, 
 it isn't a 'her.' I shall take Peddar !" 
 
 "Peddar!" exclaimed MacLeod in dismay. "I might 
 have known you would play some trick on me! What 
 earthly good would that doddering old butler of yours 
 be to protect you in a rough crow*d like that?" 
 
 "I didn't say he would," Janetta corrected him gently. 
 "I said he was years and years older than I am, and 
 respectable, and Ollie loved him, and we could trust him 
 absolutely. That's all true, isn't it?" 
 
 MacLeod was speechless, and she went on: 
 
 "When I said that he was perfectly qualified to look 
 after me and see that I didn't get into mischief well, 
 he's been doing that for twenty years, and if he isn't 
 qualified after all that practice I don't know who is !" 
 
 "Nobody on this earth can do that!" MacLeod as- 
 serted with feeling. "I do not know what to say to 
 you " 
 
 "Then let me tell you of a perfectly lovely plan I 
 have that would be the greatest assurance of protection 
 and propriety and all that sort of thing, if you are still 
 worrying for fear I can't take care of myself. I shall 
 go up there as his daughter ! Then I won't have to live 
 in lodgings; we can get some sort of a little shack and 
 Peddar can take care of it while I am away at the 
 store. That will explain him, too, and you won't have
 
 THE FAR TRAIL 49 
 
 to find any work .for him to do." She paused and 
 added coaxingly: "Don't you think that would be a 
 splendid arrangement ?" 
 
 "I don't say that it mightn't be done if you are abso- 
 lutely set on this mad idea of yours," MacLeod admitted 
 reluctantly. "But what name " 
 
 "His own, of course ! He could never remember 
 another at his age. And I shall be a Peddar, too ; Jane 
 Peddar! It sounds very quaint, doesn't it?" 
 
 "Janey, I never thought you had it in you! It's the 
 original Mother Eve, I expect, that makes wells of 
 duplicity of the youngest of you !" MacLeod shook his 
 head, but the ghost of a smile hovered about his dour 
 mouth, and Janetta knew that she triumphed. 
 
 "Alaska, miss?" Peddar quavered, his eyes fairly 
 bulging from their sockets when she told him. "You 
 and me, and no one to know? I'm sure I don't know 
 what to say to you, miss ! We'll both catch our deaths 
 in all that ice and snow, to say nothing of getting bit, 
 may be, by a seal " 
 
 "Nonsense!" Janetta snapped. "We're not going to 
 the Arctics, Peddar! Katalak is warm and pleasant, 
 at this time of year, anyway, and it will be just the thing 
 for your rheumatism. They grow flowers and vegetables 
 and everything up there just as we do, Mr. MacLeod 
 says, and it's a nice little town." 
 
 Peddar sighed. 
 
 "Man and boy, I've been in the service of the Gilder- 
 sleeves for nearly fifty years, but never have I thought
 
 50 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 to see this day! Many a wild prank of yours and Mr. 
 Oliphant's I've covered up, if you'll excuse me for say- 
 ing so, miss, when you were little and it was my duty, 
 maybe, to tell on you, but to be joining you in one now 
 at my time of life " 
 
 "It's not a wild prank, Peddar. Can't you under- 
 stand ? I'm going there to look after my brother's busi- 
 ness for him while he is away." 
 
 "I'd follow you to the ends of the earth, miss, and 
 well you know it, if you needed me, but I would feel 
 a lot easier in my mind if it was Mr. Geddes and not 
 Mr. MacLeod that was sending us! If you would just 
 let me speak to him " 
 
 "No. If you would rather stay at home I'll go alone, 
 but I forbid you to say one word to Mr. Geddes," 
 Janetta commanded, adding mendaciously: "You know 
 it must be all right or Mr. MacLeod would not have 
 suggested it, and he would not hear of anyone going 
 with me except you. He said there was no one else 
 whom he would trust, not only to look out for me but 
 to keep our secret; not to tell anyone why we were up 
 there. You see, it is a very confidential matter." 
 
 "I'm sure I am obliged to Mr. MacLeod for the con- 
 fidence he has in me." Peddar straightened with simple 
 dignity. "I'll do my best by you, miss, and I'll open 
 my mouth to no one." 
 
 He sighed again and shook his head as he glanced 
 about the dismantled library, and added: 
 
 "But I'll ask you kindly to remember that this journey 
 is none of my doing. I'm against it from the start, and 
 I feel in my bones that something will happen." 
 
 It was the last night in the old Gildersleeve house.
 
 THE FAR TRAIL 51 
 
 Mrs. Everton, with an expression of injury not unmixed 
 with indignation, had taken herself off that afternoon, 
 a full month before it suited her own plans to depart; 
 the servants with the exception of Peddar had been 
 dismissed with a month's wages in lieu of notice, and 
 as Janetta, too, glanced about her the house seemed 
 already to have ceased to be home. The rugs rolled back 
 from the bare floors, the furniture swathed in linen and 
 stacked against the wall, the blank spaces where the 
 portraits and mirrors had hung all gave to the room the 
 forlorn air of a place long untenanted. 
 
 Would it ever be home to her again, she wondered 
 vaguely. Would she and Peddar return to it in the 
 autumn and would life go on as before, or would 
 strangers come to live beneath her grandfather's roof 
 while she the race for the single-track road lost and 
 the mine taken from them waited in ignominous poverty 
 for Ollie's return, to tell him that she had failed in the 
 task she had assumed? 
 
 The foreboding of an utter change in existence was 
 heavy upon her, greater than the project in Alaska, with 
 all its unknown perils, could account for, but she threw 
 it off resolutely. She must not, could not fail! If the 
 young engineer could accomplish his part of the task, 
 surely she could discover what evil machinations were 
 at work to wrest the mine from them, and sound the 
 warning that they might be frustrated. 
 
 "If you please, miss, is all your personal luggage to 
 go with you to-morrow to Mrs. Cheever's?" Peddar's 
 voice broke in upon her musing. "Some of it appears 
 to be empty, and I fancied it might have been meant 
 for the storage warehouse with the packing cases."
 
 52 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "No. That square trunk, the steamer trunk, and the 
 old sal f skin bag, which are empty, are the only ones I am 
 going to use on our trip, Peddar, and I want you to 
 send them out to-morrow to have the initials painted out, 
 and replaced by 'J. P.' in small, neat letters." 
 
 " 'J. P.', miss?" Peddar repeated. 
 
 "Yes. I'm not traveling as 'Miss Janetta Gildersleeve 
 and and butler, New York,' you know." She laughed. 
 "I'm 'Jane Peddar' and you're my father and we're from 
 where are we from, Peddar?" 
 
 Peddar raised his hands in horrified expostulation. 
 
 "Like criminals running away from the law!" he 
 gasped. 
 
 "Not you; it's only I who am changing my name to 
 yours. You don't mind adopting me, do you, Peddar?" 
 Janetta asked demurely. 
 
 "Your family would turn in their graves !" declared 
 the old man in trembling tones. "I'm sure I'm honored, 
 miss, by your using my name, but I can't think that 
 even Mr. MacLeod would approve of it ! There could 
 be no right reason in the world for a Gildersleeve " 
 
 "No one up there must know who I am ; no one must 
 know that a Gildersleeve has any interest whatever in 
 Alaska," Janetta explained patiently. "Now do you see, 
 Peddar?" 
 
 "No, miss." He shook his head again dolefully. "I 
 don't see anything but that we're doing a wild and reck- 
 less thing, and nothing but mischief and trouble will 
 come of it!" 
 
 "We'll start J:wo weeks from to-morrow, remember," 
 Janetta observed, ignoring his dismal tone. "I'll give 
 you a check in the morning to buy some new clothes;
 
 THE FAR TRAIL 53 
 
 you can't go up there looking like a pallbearer, as you 
 have all these years in that funereal black!" 
 
 Peddar glanced down ruefully at the garb of his 
 service. 
 
 "I'll need no money, Miss. I've a bit put by, and 
 some decent gray clothes, though not good enough to 
 travel with you " 
 
 Janetta laughed once more. 
 
 "Wait till you see me !" she exclaimed. "We are going 
 as poor people, Peddar. You haven't heard the worst 
 yet! I'm going to wofk in a store!" 
 
 "Never, miss! I'll not see it! What can Mr. Mac- 
 Leod be thinking of ! A Gildersleeve " 
 
 He paused aghast, and Janetta cried impatiently: 
 
 "For goodness sake, forget the Gildersleeves ! From 
 the time we leave New York I am your daughter 'Jane' 
 and you've got to treat me as if I were. Just do 
 exactly what I tell you, Peddar, and remember, not a 
 word to a soul!" 
 
 Peddar departed shocked beyond effort to protest 
 further, and Janetta was completing her final survey of 
 the room prior to retiring when an open packing case 
 filled with books met her eye, and idly she turned over 
 the topmost ones. They were part of an encyclopedia 
 which her brother had purchased only a month before 
 his departure and with the first volume in her hands she 
 paused, wrinkling her small nose. Mrs. Everton would 
 be the last person in the world to seek knowledge or 
 diversion from such a source, and yet surely it was a 
 touch of her own particular perfume, and none other, 
 which seemed to float out upon the air from the opened 
 book.
 
 54 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 Janetta ruffled the pages, and as she did so she saw 
 a small scrap of paper stuck between the leaves of what 
 seemed to be a map. It was the map of Alaska! With 
 a murmured exclamation, she drew out the slip of 
 paper. 
 
 Upon it, in Adele's unmistakable hand was written: 
 "Northern Star." The paper fluttered from the girl's 
 fingers, and she sank into the nearest chair. So Mrs. 
 Everton had known all the time of the true owners of 
 the dummy company ! She must have done so ; the coin- 
 cidence was too impossible to be considered. She had 
 never mentioned it, and in a month she was going west 
 with the Winfields! 
 
 Dazed from the unexpected revelation Janetta held 
 the book closer to the light and examined the map with 
 minute care. It had not occurred to her before to look 
 up the little town to which her mission was taking her, 
 yet she would have had no difficulty in locating it, for 
 a circle had been drawn with a faint pencil stroke around 
 the little star labeled "Katalak." 
 
 Could it have been Ollie himself who had so marked 
 it ? Andrew Geddes' remark when she told him of Mrs. 
 Everton's opportunely revived friendship with the niece 
 of the man who was their implacable enemy recurred 
 to her: "I would not put it past her to accept a com- 
 mission from Winfield to try to find out if there is 
 anything in the wind." 
 
 He had said, too, that he would have sent her packing 
 long before if he had known that she was a friend of 
 theirs, and he was no alarmist. Perhaps he should be 
 told now of the evening's discovery. 
 
 Even as the thought came to her, however, Janetta
 
 THE FAR TRAIL 55 
 
 negatived it. She would not take anyone into her con- 
 fidence. With Adam MacLeod's reluctant backing and 
 Peddar's moral support she would see her self-appointed 
 task through alone. 
 
 Persis and William Cheever welcomed her whole- 
 heartedly the next day, but before the week was out 
 her hostess was conscious of a change in the girl, subtle 
 but unmistakable. She was no longer the flippant, 
 frivolous Janey of the past two seasons ; there was a 
 glow of serious purpose in her eyes, a new dignity which 
 seemed to forbid an intrusion upon her unwonted ret- 
 icence. 
 
 "The infant has something on her mind," Billy re- 
 marked one evening to his wife. "I'm hanged if I don't 
 think there is something queer about the whole business, 
 her closing up the house like this, and shaking that 
 Everton woman and coming to you. Has she told you 
 anything, Sis?" 
 
 "Not a word!" Mrs. Cheever exclaimed. "I cannot 
 understand her these days at all. She won't play about 
 with us any more but keeps going off every day on 
 private expeditions of her own and claims that it is 
 business. What in the world has Jane to do with busi- 
 ness? Old Mr. Geddes takes care of all their affairs. 
 She used to tell me everything and now I can scarcely 
 set a word out of her. I mean to try to-morrow, 
 though. This mysterious air of hers is getting on my 
 nerves." 
 
 Yet when the opportunity came while they were having 
 tea alone together on the following afternoon Mrs. 
 Cheever did not find it easy to approach the subject. 
 Janetta with that new and maddening preoccupation of
 
 56 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 hers was staring straight before her and roused only 
 when her hostess leaned forward and laid an impulsive 
 hand upon her arm. 
 
 "Janey dear, what is it that is troubling you?" 
 
 "Nothing, Persis ; what should there be ?" 
 
 "Well, I didn't know, but you have seemed so changed 
 since you came to us, I was afraid that perhaps I had 
 offended you that day when you told me you wanted 
 to do something really practical to help and I discouraged 
 you." 
 
 Janetta laughed lightly. 
 
 "You didn't. If you only knew it, you gave me just 
 the right advice." She paused and added: "If I seem 
 rather quiet and absent-minded, please don't mind me. 
 It is because I am trying to plan something out, and 
 there are difficulties in the way." 
 
 "Couldn't I help, dear?" Mrs. Cheever asked meekly. 
 
 "Perhaps, but the trouble is that I can't tell you the 
 whole truth. You see, it isn't my own secret. If you 
 did help me you would have to act rather in the dark." 
 
 "I don't mind that, Janey. You can be trusted not to 
 do anything foolish. Of course, I am simply dying with 
 curiosity, but perhaps you can tell me everything some 
 time. What is it that you want me to do?" 
 
 "You are going to open your camp up in Maine on 
 the first of June, aren't you? I wonder if you will mail 
 some letters for me from there." 
 
 " 'Mail letters for you !' you mean " Mrs. 
 
 Cheever sat very straight in her chair and eyed the girl 
 before her in growing wonder. ! 
 
 "Yes. You are going to be there all summer, aren't 
 you ?" At her hostess' nod Janetta continued hurriedly :
 
 THE FAR TRAIL 57 
 
 "I would like to have sent to you once a month from 
 New York a plain manila envelope with your address 
 typed upon it. Inside you will find a batch of letters from 
 me addressed to Ollie and to Mr. Geddes. There will 
 be a little date written very faintly in pencil on the 
 corner of each. Will you erase that and mail them on 
 the dates named? And for goodness sake, don't get 
 them mixed!" 
 
 "You mean, of course, that you want them to think 
 you are with me all summer? But Janey, child, where 
 are you going? What are you going to do? Surely you 
 can tell me that." 
 
 Janetta shook her head. 
 
 "That is just what I cannot tell you, Persis. Only 
 you may be sure I am not going to do anything very 
 dreadful. It is just something which Mr. Geddes with 
 his old-fashioned ideas would not approve of, and he 
 would be sure to stir up Ollie and make him unhappy 
 over there when there is really no occasion for it. I 
 am of age and have a perfect right to do as I please, 
 you know, but I simply don't want any fuss made 
 about it." 
 
 "Janey, I Of course, I am willing to do anything 
 
 I can for you, but I do want to be sure that you are 
 acting wisely." Mrs. Cheever was plainly disturbed. 
 "Couldn't you just give me an inkling of the sort of thing 
 you are contemplating? You know, I shall have to fix 
 Billy, too, for he is bound to come to town and run 
 into Mrs. Geddes, and he will have to pretend that you 
 are in camp with me. Billy isn't very good at pre- 
 tending." 
 
 "I can tell you this much. I have found some real
 
 58 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 practical work for myself in spite of, or rather because 
 of, what you said to me that day, in a way. It is some- 
 thing that will really help, Persis, and you will be help- 
 ing, too, if you will mail those letters for me, and coach 
 Billy." 
 
 "But where is this work? Here in New York?" 
 
 "No, but you mustn't worry about me. I shall have 
 the very best of chaperones." Janetta sighed and added 
 in a monotonous tone as though she were repeating a 
 lesson: "Someone years and years older than I am, 
 and eminently respectable, someone whom Ollie loves and 
 trusts implicitly. Does that assurance satisfy you, 
 Persis?" 
 
 "It will have to, Janey." Mrs Cheever smiled. "I 
 am doing a perfectly mad thing in consenting to this, 
 and if Mr. Geddes ever finds it out I suppose he will 
 all but eat me, but I will do it." 
 
 A week later in the bright sunshine of an early May 
 morning Janetta took leave of her friend. At the curb 
 a taxi burdened with two battered trunks and an ancient 
 bag stood chugging impatiently. 
 
 As Mrs. Cheever's arms folded about the girl in her 
 strangely shabby suit, she felt her trembling. 
 
 "Oh, Janey, can't you tell me what it is all about, 
 dear ?" she implored for the last time. "I am so worried 
 and anxious about you! I feel that there is something 
 underneath all this which I should understand. Won't 
 you, at least, write to me?" 
 
 "Yes, I will slip a little note for you in one of those 
 manila envelopes now and then. Buck up, Persis, I'll 
 come back with flying colors, you'll see ! Good-by." 
 
 Yet it was a suddenly miserable Janetta who huddled
 
 THE FAR TRAIL 59 
 
 in a corner of the taxi and fought back the tears behind 
 her neat, dark blue veil. Through all the time of wait- 
 ing and planning she had been rilled with confidence, 
 but now with the moment actually at hand a feeling of 
 utter dismay swept over her. What possible qualifica- 
 tion had she for the task which she had set herself? 
 Dared she face the immediate future? 
 
 Then in a swift revulsion of feeling she straightened 
 herself with a little shake. Ollie was doing his share, 
 she would do hers. As to qualifications, well, she could 
 at least "sell goods over a counter." 
 
 She carefully smoothed down the blue suit of two 
 seasons ago, wriggling her fingers at the unaccustomed 
 touch of the silk gloves which encased them, and when 
 the station was reached it was Jane Peddar who de- 
 scended from the taxi and started upon the far trail.
 
 CHAPTER y 
 KATALAK 
 
 TEAMER in s5 S ht >' et? " J ud Pittinger came to 
 the door of the company store as a tall, lanky 
 figure paused for a moment in the slanting 
 drizzle of rain outside. "She's late again, by cracker! 
 Well, I don't care if she never comes this time !" 
 
 "What's eatin' you, Jud ?" The tall figure looked down 
 on the shorter, rotund one with slowly dawning amuse- 
 ment. "You're always a-lookin' for the old boat as if 
 your best girl was comin' on it." 
 
 Jud's rudely countenance flushed a deep crimson. 
 
 "I been naterally anxious, about my new stock, with 
 you boys whoopin' around for stuff that'd run out a 
 month before she opened up," he asserted with dignity. 
 "Wish I had your job now, Harve, in spite o' that jolt 
 you got the other night. Find out yet who it was you 
 almost caught trying to bore holes in your pile driver?" 
 
 "No, but the left his ship's auger behind 
 
 him, and it don't belong to any of our outfit." Harve Dug- 
 dale swore with picturesque fluency as he glanced down 
 at his bandaged hand and arm. "I'd have dropped him, 
 too, orders or no orders, if he hadn't been close enough 
 to bring that auger down on my wrist !" 
 
 "What does the new chief say about it?" the store- 
 keeper asked curiously. 
 
 60
 
 KATALAK 61 
 
 "Not much of anything. He's lay in' low, I reckon, 
 till they show their hand a leetle mite more." Harve 
 shrugged. "But what's the matter with your job here 
 that you're so anxious to change? You act like bad 
 news was comin' in on this here steamer." 
 
 "Bad news is right!" responded the storekeeper with 
 unwonted bitterness. "I ain't said anything about it 
 until the last minute, because I knew gosh blamed well 
 how you boys would give me the laugh, but my new 
 assistant is gettin' in one her to-day so I might's well 
 let it out. Harve, what do you think the Big Boss 
 has wished on me?" 
 
 "Dunno." The superintendent of dock construction 
 shifted his quid impartially from one leathery cheek to 
 the other and gazed out over the swarming horde of 
 workmen at the waterfront to the sparkling blue of the 
 bay beyond. 
 
 "It's a girl! A lady assistant!" Unmitigated shame 
 and disgust sounded in the little man's tones. 
 
 Harve Dugdale nearly swallowed his quid, but by a 
 mighty gulp retrieved it. 
 
 "A what ?" he demanded incredulously. 
 
 "A female!" Jud Pittinger amplified, for the benefit 
 of his astounded listener. "Hell, ain't it?" 
 
 The last observation would have been staggering under 
 other circumstances, for the storekeeper was known 
 throughout the outfit for his religious avoidance of any 
 but the most innocuous of expletives, but it passed un- 
 noticed under the spell of his cataclysmic disclosure. 
 
 "A woman!" Harve gasped. "You you feeling all 
 right this morning, Jud? Ain't been hittin' up the red- 
 eye over at the Full Blast t have you?"
 
 62 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "Wish I had!" Jud retorted recklessly. "What in 
 time I'm going to do with a girl in here on Saturday 
 nights, when all the wops and Chinks and Polacks pile 
 in to get rid of some of their dough before the Full 
 Blast gets it is more than I know ! Remember the night 
 they tried to rush me? That would have been a fine 
 time to have a hysterical female hidin' behind the counter, 
 wouldn't it?" 
 
 "There's plenty of 'em hanging around the Full Blast 
 and the Happy Days that wouldn't have batted an 
 eye " 
 
 "Not this kind," declared Jud firmly. "She's a lady; 
 leastways that's what the Big Boss says." 
 
 "The hell he does!" Harve remarked soberly. What 
 the general superintendent said usually carried weight. 
 "What the put the notion in his head of gettin' a 
 woman up here for, anyway?" 
 
 "Well, he says it's on account of the shortage of men, 
 and you know yourself what a time we've had gettin' 
 an outfit together, but I guess maybe it's a poor relation 
 of somebody higher up. I've got to teach her the busi- 
 ness, too!" Jud added indignantly. "Bet I won't know 
 where half of the stock is inside of a week!" 
 
 "A lady!" repeated Harve, adding in some alarm: 
 "How old is she, Jud? What'll we do with her? She'll 
 have to go to Ma Heaney's; I can't take a single man 
 off the job to knock up a shack for her." 
 
 "She's young, I guess," Jud hazarded gloomily. 
 "Young enough to have a father living, anyway. He's 
 comin' up with her." 
 
 "Has the Big Boss got a job lined up for him?" de- 
 manded Harve with sudden interest of quite another
 
 KATALAK 63 
 
 sort. "I can use him, if he's out of a wheel-chair! 
 I'm as shorthanded as " 
 
 "Don't know nothin' about that," the storekeeper in- 
 terrupted sourly. "I got my own troubles ! I keep this 
 place neat as I can with the gang tromping in an' out, 
 but what if she's one of these here death-on-dirt females? 
 This ain't any dod-gasted department store!" 
 
 "We've got to turn out and give her a reception, any- 
 ways," Harve remarked. "Got any open-faced shirts in 
 stock, Jud? We'll have to " 
 
 He broke off as running feet sounded upon the plank 
 sidewalk and both men turned to see a snapper hastening 
 toward them. 
 
 "What is it, Bert?" 
 
 "Loam in the concrete sand again!" the snapper an- 
 nounced. "Joe Zurak swears it was all right when they 
 knocked off at seven last night, and he's about ready 
 to knife somebody! Ivan Mirko, on the night shift, 
 don't know anything about it. Says it's the third tine 
 this week." 
 
 "I'll have to see the new chief !" Harve 
 
 hurried off, his assistant foreman at his heels, and his 
 curses died away in the sudden clatter of the pile- 
 driver. 
 
 Jud stood still where they had left him, staring out 
 through the rain upon the familiar scene at the water- 
 front, where the bustling activity never ceased even for 
 the short two hours of semi-twilight which separated 
 one long day from another during the summer season 
 which was just upon them. 
 
 At the end of Main Street where formerly it had 
 meandered down to the bay, the land had been filled in
 
 64 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 A 
 
 to meet the new dock for which the last of the piles 
 were being driven, and across the way almost at the 
 water's edge the Northern Star storage yard was stacked 
 high with kegs and boxes, lumber, girders and all the raw 
 material which would go into the building of the single- 
 track road. 
 
 In its midst the full swing crane reared its head, the 
 creak of the long boom as it sorted the material with 
 mechanical precision breaking in upon the incessant 
 rattle and clamor of the pile driver. 
 
 And everywhere there were men. On the stringpiece 
 near the government breakwater, where the company 
 barges were moored, in the storage yard, swarming over 
 the half-planked dock ; Russians and Chinese, Italians and 
 Hungarians; with here and there the leathery, lantern- 
 jawed face of the Yankee. Low above them all through 
 the misty drizzle hung the smoke from the salmon can- 
 nery just beyond. 
 
 It was a scene for the master hand of a Pennell, but 
 to Jud Pittinger's accustomed eyes it meant merely the 
 dreary monotony of every-day existence, and he gazed 
 once more seaward. 
 
 There was still no sign of the belated steamer, and 
 Jud turned and re-entered the store preparatory for the 
 three-o'clock shift, which would bring fresh trade. He 
 was piling pouches of tobacco on the shelf behind him, 
 when a heavy step sounded on the door-sill and a deep, 
 hearty voice hailed him. 
 
 "Hello, Jud. Steamer's late again." 
 
 Jud turned and greeted the general superintendent 
 with an air of reproachful resignation. 
 
 "Yes. I ain't particular 'bout this boat, Mr. Bowers:
 
 KATALAK 65 
 
 we got up the supplies we needed most by the other two 
 that came in since the season opened," he replied. 
 
 "Well, you're getting some new brands up with this 
 cargo; class of goods you never saw in a company store 
 before, Jud. Regular white man's cigars, and high-grade 
 candy and razors with honest-to-God steel blades." 
 
 Jim Bowers was the biggest man in the Northern Star 
 outfit : standing six feet six, his breadth of shoulder and 
 depth of chest would have been worthy of a Hercules 
 and now as he leaned over the counter and stared down 
 at the astonished little storekeeper, his deep-throated 
 laugh boomed out above the vibrating roar and rattle of 
 the machinery outside. 
 
 "What for?" Jud demanded. "The boys are satisfied 
 now, and only the other day a feller sneaked in that I 
 hadn't seen before and tried to get some flannel shirts. 
 I had a hunch that he belonged to the Unatika outfit 
 and I sidetracked him." 
 
 The general superintendent's heavy, good-natured face 
 grew serious. 
 
 "I guess that's what for, between you and me," he 
 said confidentially. "You hit the nail on the head, Jud. 
 When I got notice from the New York office in the last 
 mail that the goods were coming up, together with the 
 inventory and the fixed prices we were to sell them for, 
 I saw that it was a little below cost, even back home. 
 There was a quiet tip handed me to pass on to you, 
 too, that if any of the other outfit should get wind of 
 the new stock and try to edge: in, you were to sell to them, 
 letting on you thought they belonged to our crowd." 
 
 "Well, may I be eternally hanged !" Jud ejaculated. 
 "Is that bunch crazy back at the head office? What
 
 66 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 in time do they want to sell to that rotten gang for, 
 and below cost at that ?" 
 
 "Search me!" Jim Bowers shrugged. "Orders are 
 orders, that's all I know. You're to keep this under 
 your hat, you know, Jud, and be kind of sparing with 
 the new lot at first, if you don't want the store 
 stampeded." 
 
 "I'll be sparing of it!" Jud promised grimly, adding: 
 "I s'pose the flossy candy is for my new assistant ! Say, 
 Mr. Bowers, what did you hang her on me for, anyway ? 
 Ain't I got enough on my hands as it is?" 
 
 "Don't kick until you see how she turns out," the 
 superintendent advised. "Here's your list of the new 
 stuff that is coming in." 
 
 Jud glanced hastily over it and groaned. 
 
 "Only a while ago I said to Harve that we weren't 
 runnin' a department store, and now look at this ! What 
 do they think this place is, Paris ? Neckties ! Silk hand- 
 kerchiefs! Tea! Tea!" he repeated bitterly. "I'd like 
 to know who the lunatics are that we're working for, 
 anyway !" 
 
 "The Northern Star is all I know." Jim Bowers 
 straightened as the whistle blew. "See you when the 
 'Queen' comes up the bay." 
 
 For the next half -hour Jud was kept busily employed 
 by his patrons, but soon the slouching crowd of weary 
 workmen disappeared to seek their bunks, and the clatter 
 of the pile driver and creak of the long-boomed whirley 
 which had momentarily ceased shattered the stillness 
 once more. Jud set his counters and shelves to rights 
 and then with an eye to the arrival of his new assistant 
 he swept the freshly accumulated mud scrapings carefully
 
 KATALAK 67 
 
 from the door before taking up his post again at the 
 door. 
 
 As he did so a young man emerged from the main 
 office of the company, which was situated between the 
 store and the waterfront, and nodded pleasantly to him. 
 
 "The 'Queen' is just in sight," he said. "She'll warp 
 in before supper." 
 
 Jud shaded his eyes with one leathery hand and descry- 
 ing a small dark -object trailing a plume of smoke behind 
 it far out on the sullen gray waters, he nodded in his 
 turn, but gloomily. 
 
 "Reckoned she'd get in to-day, Mr. Hoyt," he as- 
 sented. "You've heard about my new assistant who's 
 comin' in on her?" 
 
 The chief engineer smiled, showing a flash of white 
 teeth in his brown face. 
 
 "Yes, you are going to have a saleslady, I hear. I 
 wish I could remedy the deficiencies in my organization 
 as easily, Jud." 
 
 "Looka 5 here, Mr. Hoyt," the storekeeper observed 
 eagerly, "if there's any place in any of your crews that 
 a woman could fill you can take her and welcome. I 
 don't need her no more'n a cat needs two tails. It was 
 just an idee of the general superintendent." 
 
 "No, thank you," Barney Hoyt laughed. "I've got 
 enough trouble right now in the outfit without intro- 
 ducing any new elements." 
 
 "I heard you had." Jud's face sobered. "Bert said 
 Joe Zurak found loam in the concrete sand this morning 
 that wasn't there last night, and Mr. Hoyt, Zurak's a 
 pretty steady man. Before you come " 
 
 "I know." The chief engineer spoke shortly, and the
 
 68 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 boyishness died out of his face, leaving a look of grim 
 tenacity. "We'll get that road built though, Jud make 
 no mistake about that." 
 
 As he turned with a brisk gesture and crossed the 
 street for a word with the boss of the bull gang in the 
 storage yard, the storekeeper watched him with an ex- 
 pression half admiring, half commiserating. The new 
 engineer was there, all right. He had nerve and un- 
 daunted courage, and he had sailed in to his job with 
 an assurance of conscious efficiency which many an older, 
 more experienced executive might well have lacked. But 
 he was little more than a boy and the influences at work 
 against him were strong and ruthless. 
 
 Jud Pittinger was not by nature a timorous man, but 
 he had seen enough of the machinations of the Unatika 
 outfit since he had been storekeeper for the Northern 
 Star to realize that trouble lay ahead. 
 
 Would the boy be equal to the emergency? Brief as 
 had been the time since his arrival to take charge of 
 the outfit, he seemed already to have attained a definite 
 degree of popularity amid the horde of mixed races and 
 nationalities. But would they follow his leadership in 
 a moment of possible stress and violence if it came to 
 a show-down between the two factions at war for that 
 single-track road to the mines? 
 
 The trail of smoke upon the horizon grew steadily 
 nearer, the dark object resolved itself into the outlines 
 of the sturdy little "Queen of Alaska," and just as the 
 seven o'clock whistle sounded from the cannery the 
 steamer drew in and anchored as near as she dared to 
 the breakwater. The men from bunkhouse and mess 
 crowded down with one accord to the waterfront, joined
 
 KATALAK 69 
 
 by the employees of the canning factory, and Jud Pit- 
 tinger locked the door of the company store and fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 The hatches were open and the crane was already 
 bringing the cargo from the hold to pile it upon the decks 
 of the steamer, but as Jud reached the filled-in ground 
 behind the dock space a horse cage swung out from 
 the side of the "Queen" to the stringpiece and a shout 
 rang out from many brawny throats. 
 
 Harve Dugdale clutched his arm. 
 
 "Here she comes !" he shouted in Jud's ear. "Here's 
 your new assistant. By , it's only a girl !" 
 
 Willing hands moored the cage close to the end of 
 the stringpiece and there emerged first an elderly man 
 of dignified appearance and a decided paunch, who 
 stepped gingerly out and looked about him with be- 
 wildered, shocked gaze. A little impatient push made 
 him step quickly aside and extend his arm, but the trim, 
 slender figure in blue spurned his aid and with a gay, 
 little gesture for him to follow, tripped down the string- 
 piece to the shore. 
 
 The men drew back, eying her curiously, but from 
 among them one stepped forward with outstretched 
 hand. 
 
 "Is this Miss Peddar? Glad to meet you, Miss. I'm 
 Jim Bowers, the general superintendent." 
 
 The girl laid her hand in his powerful grip and favored 
 him with a smile which brought a deep, crimson flush to 
 his broad face before she turned and beckoned to the 
 reluctantly approaching elderly man, 
 
 "This is my father, Mr. Bowers. He he's a little 
 upset from the trip. It was rather rough." A little
 
 TO THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 unmistakable giggle escaped her. "But he will be all 
 right by to-morrow. Will I will it be necessary for 
 me to start work to-night?" 
 
 "No, indeed." Could it be the Big Boss speaking in 
 such dulcet tones? "Take your time and get rested up, 
 Miss. You've come a long way. You can start with 
 the seven o'clock shift to-morrow morning, if you like. 
 Glad to know you, too, Mr. Peddar. You'll like it here 
 first rate. Katalak's small, but it's wide open, and if 
 you'd like a job yourself later on I can fix you up." 
 
 Peddar surreptitiously wriggled his fingers as they 
 emerged from that crushing grasp, and regarded the 
 smiling giant before him with eyes of honest horror. 
 
 "This is Katalak?" he asked feebly. "This all of 
 it?" 
 
 "You said it," Jim acquiesced with pardonable pride. 
 "You can't see it all from here, but up Main Street there 
 we've got two saloons with as stiff a game going as any 
 north of the line, and a restaurant and general store 
 beside the cannery you see over there. There's nothing 
 
 slow about us and when the railroad goes through ' 
 
 He broke off and added : "But you'll want to be getting 
 on up to your lodgings. Sorry there's no shack ready 
 for you, but I've been short-handed ever since Mr. Mac- 
 Leod's letter came. You'll be all right at Ma Heaney's, 
 though. She'll take right good care of your daughter 
 and make it comfortable for you till you can get quarters 
 of your own." 
 
 "You are very kind, Mr. Bowers," the girl spoke with 
 an air of finality, "but you mustn't take any extra trouble 
 on our account. I've come up to work for you just like 
 any other employee of the outfit, and I we we'll get
 
 KATALAK 71 
 
 along all right. Where is this Mrs. Heaney's? Is it 
 a boarding house?" 
 
 "Lodging house," the superintendent corrected her. 
 "It's just up Main Street ; I'll show you. Your baggage 
 will come off in the next trip of the cage." 
 
 The men who had crowded about again, drinking in 
 every word, fell back silently and made a path between 
 the storage yard and the shore line as big Jim Bowers 
 turned and led the way. 
 
 "Peddar father!" The girl gave the elderly man's 
 arm a little shake. "Come along and don't look so 
 shocked !" 
 
 "Yes, miss, but I'd have a few words to say to Mr. 
 MacLeod if he was here! To send you to a heathen 
 place like this. Oh, miss, we shall never be able " 
 
 "'Jane!'" the girl whispered fiercely. "How often 
 have I told you not to call me, 'miss?' Play up; you 
 know how much depends on you father." 
 
 A hollow groan was her only answer as Peddar fol- 
 lowed her to the planked sidewalk on Main Street, where 
 the mud oozed up between the boards upon his im- 
 maculate shoes, and strange, rough-looking characters in 
 nondescript costumes of toil eyed him with what he 
 took be baleful antagonism on every hand. 
 
 The Full Blast was living up to its name as they 
 passed. Through the swinging door the rattle of chips 
 and odor of stale liquor drifted out to them, and above 
 the clink of glass and shuffle of feet a raucous voice was 
 already raised in unmelodious and decidedly ribald 
 song. 
 
 Peddar's gait quickened until he reached the side of 
 his self -elected daughter and her companion. Neither
 
 72 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 had noticed the figure which stood outside the main office 
 of the company across the way and gazed after them 
 with a speculative look in the deep brown eyes. 
 
 "Where in thunder have I seen that girl before?" 
 murmured the construction engineer, Barney Hoyt.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE I. W. W. THING AGAIN 
 
 THE huge, square, two-storied, unpainted shack 
 before which their guide paused reminded the 
 girl of a forlorn country orphanage which she 
 had once seen and involuntarily she gave a little shudder, 
 but a dolorous groan from Peddar warned her not to 
 betray her own sinking spirits lest he collapse altogether 
 from the accumulated shock of their journey's end. 
 
 With a reassuring pat upon his arm she started up 
 the shallow steps when the door flew open and its space 
 was veritably filled by a wide uncorseted figure which 
 promptly extended two fat arms in greeting. 
 
 "Come right in, dearie. This your Pa? We've been 
 expectin' you all day, but the 'Queen's' allus late. I'm 
 mighty glad you got here safe and sound!" 
 
 "Jane Peddar" suddenly found herself clasped in a 
 warm and none too clean embrace, from which a short 
 month ago she would have recoiled in amazed resentment, 
 but now a little inaudible sob welled up in her throat, 
 and for an instant her head drooped against the capa- 
 cious bosom. The coarsened voice held a motherly note 
 which struck a treacherously responsive chord in the 
 girl's lonely, dismayed heart and for the first and last 
 time she was perilously near a breakdown. 
 
 The next moment she had set her little teeth reso- 
 
 73
 
 74 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 lutely and drew herself with all gentleness from Ma 
 Heaney's welcoming arms. 
 
 "Thank you, Mrs. Heaney, I'm glad to be here." A 
 backward glance at Peddar's scandalized face brought a 
 hysterical giggle almost to her lips, but she fought it 
 down. "Come in, father." 
 
 "You, too, Jim," Ma Heaney supplemented hos- 
 pitably. "There's a little something behind the desk 
 that you know you're allus welcome to, and I guess a 
 couple of fingers wouldn't go bad for your Pa, either, 
 Miss Peddar; he looks sort o' done up." She led the 
 way into a dingy office walled with thin unpainted pine 
 boards and furnished with a few uncertain looking 
 chairs, a long counter which evidently served as a desk 
 and a huge stove from which a roaring fire sent out 
 cheering waves of heat. 
 
 "Take a drink if she offers it, Peddar; you've got to!" 
 Jane whispered in a peremptory aside and crossing to 
 the stove warmed herself while she watched the cere- 
 monial with amused eyes. 
 
 Ma Heaney produced a bottle and two glasses from 
 beneath the counter, poured a copious drink into each 
 and offered one to the miserable Peddar. Big Jim Bowers 
 lifted the other. 
 
 "Here goes !" he said, including the girl in a sweeping 
 wave of his arm. "Hope you'll like it here with us 
 in Katalak." 
 
 She nodded, smilingly, while Ma Heaney beamed and 
 Peddar, concealing a grimace, heroically drank the con- 
 tents of his glass in one desperate gulp. Instantly a 
 rich purple hue mounted to his brow and as a strangled
 
 THE I. W. W. THING AGAIN 75 
 
 gasp emanated from his outraged throat their hostess 
 turned to Jane. 
 
 "Come on up and I'll show you the room I got fixed 
 for you," she invited. "It ain't much, but it's clean, if 
 I do say it. Your Pa'll have to bunk in with the boys 
 to-night, but he looks plumb wore out, and I guess he 
 won't care so long as he gets some sleep. I've warned 
 'em not to start no rough-house with him." 
 
 The room to which Ma Heaney conducted the girl 
 was a narrow cell-like space thinly partitioned off from 
 the others in the long row after the manner of a dormi- 
 tory. Jane looked about at the iron cot, rickety wash- 
 stand and single chair which the room contained and her 
 fastidious soul rose in anguished protest. How could 
 she ever endure it? The whole episode of their arrival 
 seemed to her like some horrible nightmare from which 
 she must soon awaken to find herself back amid her 
 own familiar, luxurious surroundings once more. But 
 Ma Heaney's hoarse, good-natured voice brought her 
 back swiftly to the grim reality. 
 
 "You ain't never been 'round a mining town before, 
 have you?" 
 
 Jane shook her head. 
 
 "Well, if you hear a kind of a racket up here 'round 
 about eleven when the last shift goes off and the first 
 goes on of the Northern Star outfit that you're goin' to 
 work for, don't get scairt or nothin'. I got a few of 
 the foremen lodgin' here with me, and they're bound to 
 skylark a little though I warned 'em. There ain't a 
 mite of harm in 'em and they'll treat you right." Ma 
 Heaney broke off and added: "You don't look like 
 the kind of a girl that would pick out Katalak to work
 
 76 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 in when there's so many stores back home, but they 
 tell me there's no limit to what our seek is doing in 
 place of the men- folks now that they're all gone off to 
 war." 
 
 Jane braced herself warily. This was the first note 
 of suspicion. 
 
 "Well, you see my father has been dreaming of getting 
 up into this country ever since the first Klondike rush, 
 and the Northern Star people offered me such good 
 wages that we thought we would come and he could look 
 over the ground a little." Jane lied glibly. "Then when 
 my brother comes back from the war, maybe we could 
 stake out a claim somewhere." 
 
 "Good land! Your Pa got that notion too, at his 
 time o' life?" Ma Heaney sighed. "If you knowed how 
 many of 'em I'd seen come and go I've grubstaked 
 more'n one of 'em, too, when I was a newcomer you'd 
 get that idee out of his head ! This part o' the country 
 is staked out already like a buryin' ground ; and a buryin' 
 ground it's been for most o' the poor suckers." 
 
 "Yet a new copper mine was discovered up here only 
 recently right near the Northern Star, wasn't it?" Jane 
 glanced covertly at her landlady as she spoke. "The 
 'Una'-something it is called, isn't it?" 
 
 Ma Heaney thrust back a wisp of hair in which gray 
 battled with the glint of peroxide, and a certain grimness 
 made itself manifest about her generous mouth. 
 
 "Unatika," she supplied the name shortly. "Can't tell 
 how good it'll be yet, the ground ain't hardly scratched. 
 I'll go show your Pa where to wash up, and when you're 
 ready the eatin' house is right across the street." 
 
 Left alone, Jane approached the bed and turned it
 
 THE I. W. W. THING AGAIN 77 
 
 down with two shrinking fingers to inspect the thin red 
 blankets and coarse gray-looking sheets, then shudder- 
 ingly perched herself on the edge of the chair. Never, 
 never had she supposed that it would be as dreadful as 
 this! The impressions of the last hour had been so 
 vividly, deeply stamped upon her consciousness that 
 tkey had quite obliterated her vague preconception of 
 what had lain before her. 
 
 She had taken it for granted that there would be 
 many workmen about; workmen in neat overalls, brisk 
 and smiling and respectful. The sea of faces which 
 had pressed about her at the landing stage, Latin, Slavic 
 and Mongolian, but alike unshaven and lowering, had 
 struck the first dismay to her heart, and now this bare, 
 hideous place, and the common creature who presided 
 over it filled her with unutterable disgust and loathing. 
 Could she bring herself to live the life of these awful 
 people for the weeks and months which lay ahead? 
 
 But it was for Ollie! It was to do his work that 
 she had come! The thought made her straighten in 
 her chair, and her small chin thrust itself out dominantly. 
 What did dirt and squalor and loneliness and a horde 
 of savages matter when it meant taking up the task 
 which he had relinquished for a greater, higher one? 
 She could not fail now ; she had come far to keep watch 
 and ward over what was Ollie's and her own, and she 
 would not turn back like a coward at the first glimpse 
 of the field of her future work. 
 
 The thought of her brother reminded her that she 
 must hasten to apprise Peddar of the new addition to 
 his recently acquired family, and afterwards rearrang- 
 ing her hair she descended to the office. The superin-
 
 78 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 tendent had vanished, but Peddar, still lightly flushed 
 from the effects of his unusual libation, awaited her in 
 a stoical silence. 
 
 "Come along, father, we had better go and have 
 dinner, er, supper," Jane announced cheerfully. "The 
 restaurant is just across the street, Mrs. Heaney says." 
 
 As he allowed himself to be drawn toward the door 
 Peddar vouchsafed with the calmness born of despera- 
 tion : 
 
 "I've never gone against you, miss, but if your grand- 
 father was to see you now he would turn in his grave !" 
 
 "Oh, bother my grandfather!" Jane snapped. "You've 
 had all my ancestors turning in their graves ever since 
 we left New York! They must be a restless lot!" 
 
 "Miss Janey " Peddar halted, shocked at the sacri- 
 lege, but she dragged him remorselessly on. "When I 
 saw that impossible person put her arms about you, I 
 made up my mind to one thing. I shall write to Mr. 
 Geddes to-morrow. I know my dooty, miss " 
 
 "You'll do no such thing!" retorted his self-styled 
 daughter. "You're not thinking of me at all, Peddar, 
 or of Ollie's interests that are at stake ; you're just think- 
 ing of your own comfort! You want to go back to 
 New York, and you don't care what happens " 
 
 "Miss Janey Jane, I mean " His tone was filled 
 
 with honest reproach. "I'm thinking of what's due to 
 a Gil " 
 
 "If you are, you will stay right here and write nothing 
 to anyone," Jane interrupted firmly. "By the way, 
 Ollie's your son, too; I had to invent a brother who 
 was going to come up here and stake out a claim after
 
 THE I. W. W. THING AGAIN 79 
 
 the war, to account to Mrs. Heaney for our presence 
 here now." 
 
 Peddar's only answer was a faint groan, as they en- 
 tered the Elite Restaurant and seated themselves at one 
 end of a long linoleum-covered table. 
 
 Jane looked about her with frank interest. The place 
 was sparsely filled at that hour, but scattered about at 
 the other tables she found many types wholly new and 
 strange to her. Near the door two heavily bearded men, 
 with the rain dripping from their rubber coats and 
 turned-back hat brims, lounged over the remains of their 
 meal, smoking villainous pipes and staring at her with 
 a wondering, compelling gaze. 
 
 She moved her eyes hastily to encounter the curious, 
 half -resentful glances of a girl seated alone at the next 
 table; a girl dressed in tawdry, cheap finery, who 
 shrugged her thin shoulders beneath the sleazy silk gown 
 in a gesture of utter weariness as she turned sullenly 
 away. There was an indefinable sense of pitiful youth 
 about her yet her eyes were as old as the world. Jane 
 wondered if this could be one of the dance-hall denizens 
 of whom she had spoken so airily to Adam MacLeod; 
 if it were, then the movies had revealed but a travesty 
 of the truth. 
 
 Through a swinging door she could see two impassive- 
 faced Chinamen moving with incredible swiftness from 
 stove to pantry shelves and a solitary waiter in a grimy 
 apron limped about the table at the rear, where a group 
 of brawny young men were eating with audible gusto. 
 Their collarless shirts rolled up at the elbows and turned 
 in at the throat revealed powerful brown arms and thick 
 necks upon which the muscles stood out like cords. Jane
 
 8o THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 wondered if they could be her workmen, hers and Ollie's, 
 and with the thought she felt a queer, democratic im- 
 pulse of friendliness steal over her. They looked so 
 young and strong; as if they could be good workers and 
 good fighters, too, if the need arose. 
 
 The waiter came to them and she ordered a simple 
 meal from the choice he submitted to her in a nasal 
 monotone, then turned to her companion. 
 
 "Isn't this fun, father?" 
 
 "Fun !" repeated Peddar sepulchrally. "It's a disgrace 
 for you to be in such a place! I don't know what's 
 come over you, miss Jane. I don't, indeed ! You 
 aren't the same young lady as you were; your brother 
 would never know you in the world ! To see you eating 
 with steel forks, from china that wouldn't be allowed in 
 your grandfather's kitchen and food that's enough to 
 poison you " 
 
 "Nonsense!" returned Jane briskly. "This salmon is 
 good, and as long as we don't know what the potatoes are 
 fried in " 
 
 She paused as a newcomer entered and after a cool 
 survey of the room advanced deliberately to their table 
 and pulled out a chair. He was tall and dark, with pale, 
 glinting eyes and the bluish tinge about his heavy jaw 
 showed that he was freshly shaven. He favored Jane 
 with an insolently appraising stare and as the blood 
 rushed indignantly to her cheeks she became aware that 
 the mingled clatter of voices and knives at the rear table 
 had ceased. 
 
 "Evenin', ol' timer." The man nodded casually to 
 Peddar, who bowed frigidly in response. "Good trip 
 on the 'Queen?'"
 
 THE I. W. W. THING AGAIN 81 
 
 Peddar cleared his throat. 
 
 "Very fair." 
 
 "You and the lady aimin' to stay here in Katalak or 
 hit the trail for the north?" The stranger leered at 
 Jane. "Not much around here to amuse a lady " 
 
 Peddar rose to the occasion and his feet with unex- 
 pected aplomb. 
 
 "My daughter has come here to work, sir." He beck- 
 oned to the waiter. "Come, Jane." 
 
 "Peddar, you old dear!" Jane squeezed his arm affec- 
 tionately as they emerged once more into the strange 
 eerie daylight. "You sat on him beautifully! What a 
 dreadful man!" 
 
 "It's only to be expected," Peddar responded mourn- 
 fully. "If we've got to stay in this wretched hole, 
 miss, you are not to go outside the door without me. 
 One step and I shall write to Mr. Geddes, I shall, in- 
 deed!" 
 
 "Don't you worry about me; I can take care of my- 
 self," she asserted, but her tone was a shade less con- 
 fident than before. 
 
 The insolent stare* of the man with the curiously light 
 eyes had shaken her more than she would have admitted 
 and long after she had carefully peeled the covering from 
 her bed and lain herself upon it beneath her steamer rugs 
 his leering face rose before her. 
 
 The task which she had assumed grew more and more 
 stupendous, more and more unlikely of achievement. 
 How could she, a mere girl, hope to discover and frus- 
 trate the power behind the men who were working to 
 delay the road and finally wrest it and the Northern Star 
 with it from Ollie and herself?
 
 82 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 This was a strange country, the people alien and hor- 
 rible! Even Ma Heaney, who meant to be kind, and 
 that bluff, hearty superintendent were impossible, as 
 Peddar had said. She had never come into contact in 
 all her sheltered existence with individuals of such a 
 class ; she did not know how to touch them, reach them ; 
 there was no common ground upon which they could 
 meet and she shrank from the thought of such a meeting. 
 
 The daylight which still flooded her room made sleep 
 impossible to her unaccustomed eyes and she waited in 
 terror for the eleven o'clock whistle which would mean 
 the change of shift. The partitions were so thin that 
 she could hear above the subdued but never ceasing 
 clatter of the pile-driver a chorus of snores in innumer- 
 able keys all about her. Ma Heaney had told her of 
 the "racket" that would ensue, but was that all she had 
 to fear? Suppose some blundering giant, drunk per- 
 haps, should come crashing through her flimsy door? 
 Where was Peddar? 
 
 With the first screech of the whistle she started up in 
 bed and then fell back, burying her face and head in 
 the thin pillow, but no pandemonium such as her ap- 
 prehensive fancy painted came to her. There was a 
 stir of movement and sound down the length of the 
 hall; boots scraping cautiously upon the floor, noisy 
 yawns as quickly suppressed, hoarse grumbling mono- 
 tones that were meant to be whispers and at last a 
 tread of heavy feet tiptoeing clumsily down the stairs. 
 Ma Heaney had warned them, she said : could it be that 
 they were keeping quiet because of her nearness? 
 
 Even as the thought came someone stumbled, and a 
 rumbling voice reached her ears.
 
 THE I. W. W. THING AGAIN 83 
 
 "Can that, you! Remember the lady!" 
 
 And they were the foremen of the Northern Star, her 
 foremen! Again that warm, comforting glow stole up 
 in her heart. Why, they were friends already! Surely 
 her task would not be impossible with such men to 
 back her up. 
 
 She did not realize the change which circumstances 
 had wrought, the miracle which was taking place within 
 her. The Janetta' Gildersleeve of a month before would 
 have taken it for granted that all things must be sub- 
 jugated to her will, all people subservient to her com- 
 fort, but Jane Peddar was grateful for the rough 
 chivalry of road-builders, nor did thought of caste dis- 
 turb the slumber into which she fell even before the 
 weary feet of the men of the last shifted plodded up 
 the stairs. 
 
 With the morning, although the dreary drizzle of rain 
 still fell uninterruptedly, Jane felt a reaction from the 
 despondency of the night before in a sweeping tide of 
 renewed courage, and she descended the stairs in high 
 spirits to find Peddar waiting doggedly below. 
 
 "Good-morning, father." She patted his head 
 roguishly and he submitted to the mutual indignity with 
 the meekness of resignation. "Did you have a nice 
 sleep?" 
 
 "Not a wink," he assured her gloomily. "What with 
 no night-time at all and the men all crowding in but 
 were you quite all right, miss Jane?" 
 
 "Absolutely, and I think you are an old fraud! You 
 look as if you had slept for a month! Nevertheless, I 
 think you had better look about to-day for a little shack
 
 84 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 where we can keep house. If you don't know how to 
 cook I can learn, and I don't like that restaurant." 
 
 "I'll have some sort of a place by nightfall I mean 
 the time that would be nightfall in a Christian country 
 if I have to turn out the people that are in it !" Peddar 
 promised darkly. "That restaurant is no place and 
 neither is this tramps' lodging house ! If they only knew 
 who you were, miss " 
 
 They were crossing the street and no one was in 
 earshot, but Jane pressed his arm warningly. 
 
 "You must be careful and try to remember not to call 
 me that," she said. "And Ma Heaney's is no tramps' 
 lodging house; those men are as self-respecting as you 
 or I, and of quite as much use in the world. I'm be- 
 ginning to see a lot of things that I've been blind to 
 before." 
 
 Peddar gasped at such rank heresy to the caste at 
 whose shrine he had worshiped all his conventional 
 life, but he made no direct comment. Instead he coughed 
 deprecatingly and remarked: 
 
 "I've not seen the young man that's in charge of it 
 all up here, yet; the new engineer you were mentioning 
 to me, m Jane." 
 
 "Why, that's so! I hadn't thought about him, every- 
 thing has been so new and strange." Jane paused, then 
 added with a little laugh. "We'll see him later, but we're 
 not important enough to meet him right away, you 
 know; we are only at least I am among the minor 
 workers, and quite beneath his notice." 
 
 Yet when they emerged from the eating-house after a 
 hasty breakfast amid a noisy crowd of laborers and 
 returning miners from up country hurrying to catch
 
 THE I. W. W. THING AGAIN 85 
 
 the "Queen," they found Jim Bowers waiting before 
 the door and he was not alone. A tall, young man, slight 
 in comparison with the superintendent's massive frame, 
 but with a lithe springiness about his easy poise which 
 bespoke the athlete, stood talking earnestly with him. 
 
 "Good-morning, miss." Jim Bowers swept off his 
 drenched rubber hat. "This is Mr. Hoyt, the construction 
 engineer and boss of the whole Northern Star works." 
 
 Jane placed her hand in the outstretched one and 
 glanced up with a smile to meet a pair of quizzical brown 
 eyes bent upon hers. One startled flash of memory and 
 the smile froze upon her lips. 
 
 There was no mistaking those brown eyes nor the 
 carriage of the head with its slightly curling chestnut 
 hair and clean-cut features. 
 
 It was the insufferably rude young man of that chance 
 encounter which might have been so tragic on that West- 
 chester road at midnight weeks before! The I. W. W. 
 Thing again!
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 AN ENEMY AND A FRIEND 
 
 JUD PITTINGER took one look at the vision in 
 the rubberized mackinaw with the red-gold hair 
 shimmering from beneath her waterproof hat and 
 dodged precipitately behind the counter as big Jim Bowers 
 led her forward. 
 
 "Mr. Pittinger," the superintendent began with due 
 ceremony, "this is your new assistant, Miss Peddar. I 
 told her you would take charge of her and show her the 
 ropes." 
 
 "Howdy, Miss." Jud drew a deep breath as he care- 
 fully wiped his hand on his trousers before extending 
 it to meet the little one held out to him. "Glad you 
 g-got here ; I've been terrible shorthanded." 
 
 "Where shall I put my hat and coat? On that peg 
 up there?" Jane asked in a business-like way, nodding 
 toward a row behind the counter. "Now I am ready 
 to start right in." 
 
 "Gosh!" Jud was still staring at her as if hypnotized 
 and his tone was filled with wondering admiration. Here 
 was a female that didn't make no fuss but got down 
 to brass tacks just like a man. She was a lady, too, a 
 regular 'lady, if he was any judge. What in tarnation 
 was she doing up here in a mining company's store? 
 
 The deep-throated voice of Jim Bowers awoke him 
 from his reverie. 
 
 86
 
 AN ENEMY AND A FRIEND 87 
 
 "Well, I got to get on down to the docks. 'That new 
 stock of yours that I told you about yesterday is all 
 unloaded and as soon as it's sorted out from the rest 
 I'll send it on up. So long, Miss Peddar; if there's 
 anything I can do for you just you let me know." 
 
 She smiled her thanks and then turned to the store- 
 keeper. 
 
 "How shall I begin?" she asked simply. 
 
 "Oh, I guess I better show you where things is and 
 give you the list of prices." Jud added in a careful tone: 
 "Ain't you ever worked in a store before?" 
 
 Jane started to shake her head and then a sudden 
 memory made her dimple. 
 
 "I I've sold things over a counter," she admitted. 
 
 "What sort of things?" Jud blinked at the glimpse 
 of that dimple but pressed home his question. 
 
 "All kinds; but it wasn't at all like this. I'm afraid 
 you will find me very stupid at first, Mr. Pittinger, 
 but if you'll just have patience with me I'll learn, I 
 know." 
 
 "Say!" observed Mr. Pittinger in utmost sincerity, 
 "you could be stupid, Miss, and it wouldn't make a mite 
 o' difference!" 
 
 Realizing that cryptic as his speech was he had paid 
 a bald compliment to this amazing young woman Jud 
 colored to the roots of his hair and covered his em- 
 barrassment by plunging into business at hand. 
 
 Jane listened to his directions, following him docilely 
 about the store and apparently examining the stock with 
 the greatest interest, but in reality her thoughts were 
 still busied with that encounter of a half-hour before. 
 That Barney Hoyt, the young engineer on whom Andrew
 
 88 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 Geddes had staked everything, should prove to have 
 been the same man upon whom she had, in a moment 
 of resentment, bestowed the most opprobrious epithet 
 which came to her mind, was a coincidence which in 
 her wildest dreams she could not have imagined. Her 
 cheeks burned at the memory of it, and it seemed to 
 her that she could hear again the good-humored un- 
 ruffled tones in which he had assured her that he was 
 just a workingman. 
 
 Had he recognized her? Nothing in his manner, or 
 smile, or the simple words with which he had greeted 
 her showed that he had, yet she felt that in any event 
 his bearing under the circumstances would have been 
 the same. She must find out. She must know! 
 
 "That's about all," Jud's voice broke in upon her medi- 
 tations. "Only we've got to make room some'eres here 
 for a lot of fool stuff that the Big Boss is sending in; 
 neckties and silk handkerchiefs and good cigars and such. 
 Never heard nothing to beat it in my life." 
 
 Jane suppressed a smile. 
 
 "Why, don't the men want some finery and a better 
 grade of tobacco and things now and then?" she asked. 
 
 " 'Tain't what they want, it's what they can get up 
 here," Jud responded. "There's never been any kick 
 from them unless the stock ran out. You don't know 
 anything about prices, do you?" 
 
 "Not on on men's things." Jane was busied with a 
 box of cheap razors and she did not look up. "They 
 make good money, don't they? They could afford to 
 pay for almost anything they wanted?" 
 
 "They can afford to pay the prices we're asking, that's
 
 AN ENEMY AND A FRIEND 89 
 
 sure." Jud broke off and grumbling half inaudibly he 
 moved to the back of the store. 
 
 Jane wondered how much of her little scheme had 
 been guessed by the rotund, easy-going shopkeeper. 
 Evidently it did not meet with his approval, whether he 
 divined its real purpose or not. She had seen the letter 
 which Adam MacLeod had written to the superintendent, 
 merely issuing the new orders without explanation in 
 the name of the company, but the genial clear-sighted 
 Jim Bowers was by no means a fool, and she suspected 
 that Jud Pittinger himself was more astute than appeared 
 on the surface. She must pretend ignorance, of course, 
 but meanwhile, she could feel her way. 
 
 "Mr. Pittinger, this store is only run for the men 
 employed by the company, isn't it? Do you sell to the 
 miners passing through and the townspeople, also ?" 
 
 "Not if I know it." Jud wheeled a heavy barrel across 
 the floor and deposited it with a resounding thump. 
 "I have hard enough work keeping enough in stock for 
 our own boys, the way the steamers are runnin' now." 
 
 "But there are so many of them !" Jane expostulated. 
 "When you're away, how am I going to tell if a man 
 comes in for something whether he belongs to the North- 
 ern Star outfit or not? Have they cards or anything?" 
 
 "They have, but I've got so that I know them all." 
 Mr. Pittinger seemed to remember something, and con- 
 tinued hurriedly: "Don't you worry your head about 
 that, Miss. It's a long time since any outsider tried to put 
 it over on me. If anybody comes in, they've got a right 
 to buy here." 
 
 Mr. Pittinger had evidently received his instructions, 
 and meant to obey them despite his personal disapproval.
 
 90 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 Would the scheme work? Would it serve to win the 
 confidence of any of the rival outfit and wean them 
 from their allegiance to the Unatika Company? 
 
 Unaccountably her thoughts drifted back to the man 
 who had tried to engage Peddar in conversation at the 
 restaurant the night before, and on an impulse she turned 
 again to her superior. 
 
 "Mr. Pittinger, you say that you know all the men 
 in the Northern Star outfit?" 
 
 "By sight, anyway." His voice came to her muffled 
 from behind a huge crate. 
 
 "Is there one among them very tall and dark with 
 bluish looking bristles on his chin, and queer, light eyes ? 
 He speaks like an American a Westerner, and he has 
 a way of staring - " 
 
 Jud's face popped up suddenly from behind the 
 and his sleepy eyes flashed. 
 
 "I know him all right, but he don't belong to our 
 outfit. He's Hugh Malison, general superintendent for 
 the Unatika people, and if I was you, Miss, I ahem 
 I wouldn't hold no truck with him. He ain't just fit for 
 a lady to speak to. Excuse me for not minding my own 
 business - " 
 
 "But I want you to advise me, Mr. Pittinger." Jane 
 smiled upon him. "You see, we don't know anything 
 about anybody up here, my father and I. He tried to 
 talk to us in the restaurant last night, but I somehow 
 I didn't like him." 
 
 "They're no good, any of them ; that Unatika crowd." 
 Jud waved a pudgy hand expansively. "There's bad 
 blood between them and us, Miss, as you would be 
 finding out soon enough."
 
 AN ENEMY AND A FRIEND 91 
 
 "Oh!" Jane caught her breath effectively. 
 
 "I don't want to scare you none, Miss, but you see 
 that gat under the counter?" 
 
 Jane looked where the fat finger pointed and shrank 
 back. 
 
 "A pistol !" 
 
 "Reg'lar gun." Jud spoke with evident pride. "I'm 
 heeled; that's only for emergencies. Now, if I shouldn't 
 be here and anybody conies in and tries to start some- 
 thing with you, just you reach under and bring that up 
 level with the counter as if you mean business, and 
 you'll see 'em fade away. Ain't afraid of it, are you?" 
 
 "N no." As if to reassure herself Jane took up the 
 ugly looking weapon gingerly and Jud promptly effaced 
 himself behind the crate. 
 
 "It's all right, you needn't bother about it now," he 
 assured her hurriedly. "You'll never have to fire it, 
 anyway. Just let 'em think you're going to blow 'em 
 to to kingdom come. Did you put it back?" 
 
 Jane replaced the revolver and the storekeeper rose. 
 
 " Tain't safe to get f oolin' 'round with it ; it might 
 go off," he warned. "Here comes the new stock now." 
 
 In single file a row of Chinese coolies were crossing 
 Main Street, each bent almost double beneath a heavily 
 weighted crate or box or barrel. 
 
 Jane viewed them with satisfaction. Here was the 
 concrete result of the long mornings during her stay 
 with Persis Cheever when she had ventured alone into 
 strange, foreign quarters of the city which she had not 
 known existed before. There she had found the 
 peculiar scented hair oil dear to all masculine Italian 
 hearts; tins of salty Russian food; lichee nuts and
 
 92 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 bamboo shoots for the Chinese, and the weird-looking 
 instruments which alone can bring out the true spirit 
 of the Czardas. 
 
 Jud Pittinger had decried the better grade of Ameri- 
 can goods; what would he think of these importations? 
 When the coolies had departed Jane watched him going 
 from crate to box, from box to barrel with bewilder- 
 ment written large upon his countenance and waited 
 for his comment, but none came. 
 
 Instead he knocked the top off a crate of cigars, 
 placed a box or two prominently on the counter and 
 then struggled into his rubber coat. 
 
 "I got to go see the Big Boss a minute," he an- 
 nounced. "The price of them cigars is a nickel apiece, 
 six for two bits, and no more'n six to a man. One 
 or two of the boys from the night shift may come 
 ramblin' in for a smoke but there '11 be no rush until 
 the three o'clock whistle. Think you can keep store for 
 awhile?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." Jane added the last word as an after- 
 thought, and Jud reddened. "I have the price list here 
 if they want anything else, and I can find whatever 
 it is." 
 
 When he departed into the warm rain Jane emerged 
 from behind the counter and made a round of inspection 
 on her own account, bringing up at the cases of new 
 stock at the rear. Mr. MacLeod had executed her order 
 faithfully; every item that she had chosen was before 
 her and she longed not to sell but to give of this bounty 
 to the men who had come so far from civilization to 
 work for what seemed to her to be so pitifully small
 
 AN ENEMY AND A FRIEND 93 
 
 a wage that she and her brother might retain possession 
 of the Northern Star. 
 
 That they might have resented such charity did not 
 enter her head. Sympathy had been born within her 
 but not understanding, and her mental attitude was still 
 that of Janetta Gildersleeve. The role that she was 
 playing pleased her by its sheer novelty despite the lone- 
 liness which tugged at her heart, but it was only a role; 
 she was not yet awakened to the forces allied here 
 against all her former theories of life, blissfully un- 
 conscious of the fire through which she must pass before 
 she could enter wholly into the spirit about her. 
 
 As she turned back to the counter she saw a man 
 striding rapidly along the plank walk pause, then sud- 
 denly wheel and enter. He was huddled in his coat with 
 up-turned collar and down-drawn hat, and not until he 
 swept off the latter in a slightly ironic bow did she see 
 his face. He was the man of the restaurant, Hugh 
 Malison, the superintendent of the Unatika ! 
 
 "Good-morning, Miss." He spoke civilly enough, and 
 Jane fancied there was a subtle change from the night 
 before, not only in his manner but in his mode of 
 speech. "So this is what your father meant when he 
 said you had come here to work !" 
 
 "My father?" Jane asked the question with her eye- 
 brows. 
 
 "In the Elite last night; you haven't forgotten," he 
 replied with easy confidence, resting one elbow on the 
 counter so that his pale, oddly bright eyes .were on a 
 level with her own. "I've been scouting around for you 
 all the morning but I didn't think I would find you 
 here."
 
 94 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "Why not?" Jane tossed her head and drew slightly 
 away from him. 
 
 "Well, it's pretty far for a little girl to come just 
 to tend store." There was an underlying significance 
 in his laugh which repelled her still more. "You're 
 something of an innovation, you know." 
 
 "There have to be pioneers everywhere." She tried 
 to speak lightly, but the words seemed to stick in her 
 throat. "Did you want to buy anything?" 
 
 "Perhaps." He glanced down the counter and a box 
 of the freshly opened cigars met his eye. "Hello, 
 Reina Dolores/ eh? Say, we're getting some class up 
 here." 
 
 "Nickel apiece, six for two bits," Jane announced 
 promptly, wondering at the same time what mysterious 
 coin the latter might be. 
 
 Malison whistled. 
 
 "That's what old Pittinger told you, is it?" His 
 shoulders shook with amusement. "I'll take a dollar's 
 worth." 
 
 "No you won't; only six at a time," she retorted. 
 "Are you one of the Northern Star outfit? I'm not 
 supposed to sell to anyone else." 
 
 A swift keen glance shot from the man's pale eyes, 
 but her face was blandly inquiring, and he shrugged. 
 
 "Sure. I'm one of the outfit that is going to put the 
 single-track road through." 
 
 If the girl sensed the ambiguity of his answer she 
 gave no sign but calmly took possession of the quarter 
 he spun upon the counter. 
 
 "Only six!" she cautioned as he helped himself from 
 the box. Then upon a swift impulse she leaned slightly
 
 AN ENEMY AND A FRIEND 95 
 
 toward him. "How long do you think the job will last 
 up here the road building, I mean?" 
 
 Again that searching glance swept her face. 
 
 "Ask the Chief; he can tell you better than I can. 
 You mean to stay till it's done?" 
 
 "That depends." Jane drew a deep breath and 
 plunged : "I hear there have been so many accidents, 
 and nobody seems to understand. It is almost as if 
 there were a jinx on the work, isn't it?" 
 
 "Maybe there is !" Malison leered and then leaned sud- 
 denly over the counter bringing his face close to hers. 
 "Say, little lady, don't something else go with these 
 cigars ?" 
 
 "Coupons?" Jane parried, retreating a step or two 
 until unseen her hand could reach to the narrow shelf 
 below. 
 
 "No. A kiss!" The man spoke in a low coarse tone 
 and he followed her swiftly with the counter between. 
 "Come now, will you give it to me or shall I take it?" 
 
 Jane regarded him critically although she could feel 
 her whole body trembling with the indignation and fear 
 which consumed her. 
 
 "I wouldn't if I were you," she said coolly. "You 
 see I have a a 'gat' I think they call it, right here in 
 my hand, and as I'm not very well acquainted with fire- 
 arms it might go off. I should hate to think of another 
 accident happening to any of the Northern Star outfit." 
 
 For a moment she thought that the man would seize 
 her, but she held him steadily with her eyes and some- 
 thing in them must have warned him that she was in 
 earnest. The quick menace which had leaped into his
 
 96 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 face burned itself out slowly, and he drew back with 
 a sneering laugh. 
 
 "Wild West stuff, eh?-" he drawled. "Don't get your- 
 self all excited, little lady, I can wait. But I'll have 
 that kiss yet!" 
 
 And he yanked up his coat collar and jerked down 
 the brim of the rubber hat, it seemed to Jane's horror 
 that the silent laughter, which shook him must be echo- 
 ing through the store. He turned without another word 
 and slouched out of the door almost colliding with the 
 bandaged arm of a tall lanky individual who edged in 
 with unaccustomed shyness, his leathery face dyed a 
 rich mahogany. He glanced absently after the man who 
 had just left and then his eyes returned to the girl as 
 if fascinated. 
 
 Jane was still flushed with ire at the late encounter, 
 but at sight of the newcomer's obvious embarrassment 
 she managed an encouraging smile. 
 
 "Good-morning," she said. "D did you want to buy 
 something? I'm the new assistant storekeeper." 
 
 The new arrival gulped. 
 
 "No'm Yes'm." He corrected himself and swore 
 softly beneath his breath. That smile had been his un- 
 doing. "Pretty day, ain't it?" 
 
 "Pretty wet one!" Jane laughed. "What do you call 
 bad weather up here in Katalak?" 
 
 "October till April." Harve found his voice with the 
 familiar topic. "Nothin* but snow and da dampness, 
 all the time. You'll see some sunshine if you stay long 
 enough, ma'am." 
 
 He had pulled off his hat and stood turning it while
 
 AN ENEMY AND A FRIEND 97 
 
 the rain dripped from it between his fingers and the 
 conversation lagged. 
 
 "I I expect to stay until the road goes through," Jane 
 observed at last. "Are you one of the " 
 
 She paused and her prospective customer announced 
 hastily : 
 
 "I'm Harve Dugdale, superintendent of dock con- 
 struction, ma'am." Then his eyes lighted upon the 
 opened box of cigars and slowly bulged. 
 
 Jane's glance followed his. 
 
 "This is some of the new stock Mr. Pittinger just 
 got in ; it came on the same steamer with my father and 
 me." She pushed the box toward him. "Try one, Mr. 
 Dugdale five cents." 
 
 Being wholly unable to express his amazement in 
 language fit for this new storekeeper's ears, Harve 
 mutely took one of the cigars, smelled it half incredu- 
 lously, then shaking his head replaced it. 
 
 "No, ma'am. I I don't like to counterdict a lady, 
 but I'd be cheatin' you." 
 
 "Oh, I know that's a little below what they sell for 
 at home, but I'm sure of my orders." Jane dimpled. 
 "Maybe the Northern Star people want to to take off 
 some of the price for the men who are putting through 
 the road for them." 
 
 Harve stared. 
 
 "I reckon you don't know much about mining com- 
 panies, ma'am," he remarked. "Has Jud got any more 
 new stock in?" 
 
 Not untruthfully had Persis Cheever said, on that day 
 which seemed a thousand years ago, that Janey could 
 sell anything to anybody. When Harve Dugdale turned
 
 98 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 at last reluctantly to the door his pockets were emptied 
 of everything save his penknife, his gat and a lonely 
 fragment of plug, but his arms were piled high with 
 strange and gaudy garments, boxes of candy and dried 
 fruit, highly scented soap and an astonishing new razor 
 in a leather case. 
 
 One resolve had emerged from the chaos of his mind : 
 if Jud had slyly laid in all this regalia in an- 
 ticipation of the lady's appearance on the scene, then 
 he, Harve, meant to be the first and best dressed man 
 in Katalak. 
 
 At the door, while he was struggling to replace his 
 hat with his lame arm, Jane overtook him and mo- 
 mentarily relieved him of his burdens. 
 
 "How did you get hurt?" she asked shyly. 
 
 "Just a little accident, ma'am." Harve reddened. 
 
 "One of the kind I've been hearing about on the 
 steamer coming up here, I mean?" Jane added hur- 
 riedly. "People were talking about some funny accidents 
 that have been happening ever since the road was 
 started." 
 
 "Yes'm." Harve paused and then said with a touch 
 of sudden roughness in his tone. "Excuse me, but there 
 ain't anybody up here like you, and your father is kind 
 of an old man. If if anybody says anything to you 
 or or just looks, you let me know. I'm pretty generally 
 on the job." 
 
 "Thank you !" There was a little catch in Jane's voice, 
 and as he departed she watched his lanky figure dis- 
 appear in the rain with a new warmth about her heart. 
 She had made a possible enemy of the man with the
 
 AN ENEMY AND A FRIEND 99 
 
 queer, light eyes, but she felt that at least she had made 
 one friend in this hulking, kindly fellow and the first 
 tentative move in the task she had set for herself was 
 accomplished.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 JANE ROLLS UP HER SLEEVES 
 
 " 'TpHERE ain't a mite of use talkin' to me, 
 
 dearie," Ma Heaney observed as she seated 
 
 herself heavily on Jane's groaning bed. "I 
 
 knew from the minute I laid eyes on you that you 
 
 wasn't fit for this kind of life, and woman to woman, 
 
 I think your pa was an old fool to bring you up here." 
 
 "But Mrs. Heaney, I like the store, and Mr. Pittinger 
 is so nice!" Jane protested, looking up from the bag 
 which she was unpacking before the other's frankly curi- 
 ous gaze. 
 
 Ma Heaney shook her head. 
 
 "They ain't all like Jud," she responded. "The Una- 
 tika outfit's the worst but the Northern Star ain't 
 exactly a celestial choir, and as for the miners and 
 
 hands from the cannery I come from a big city 
 
 myself Chicago and I've traveled some since, but this 
 town'll have 'em all backed off the map for trouble 
 when the real ruction starts." 
 
 "What er, reduction?" asked Jane. 
 
 "When them two outfits comes to grips," the other 
 explained. "I was thinkin' some of sellin 1 out myself 
 and mushin' down to Seattle, but I ain't never been run 
 out of any town yet, and I don't propose to vamoose 
 now just because there's liable to be a battle. It's no 
 place for a little soft thing like you, though. Now, if 
 
 too
 
 JANE ROLLS UP HER SLEEVES 101 
 
 you was to go down to Tacoma, and get in a nice, pretty 
 millinery store, or open an ice cream parlor " 
 
 Jane laughed. 
 
 "I'm not going to run away, either!" she declared. 
 "But do you really think it will come to an open fight, 
 Mrs. Heaney?" 
 
 "It's fixin'/' predicted her landlady. "There's been 
 no gunplay yet but when the work starts on the road 
 next week the Unatika people'll likely come out in the 
 open. My!" she broke off to exclaim, "those are sure 
 pretty things ! But what in time you brought 'em up 
 here to work in for " 
 
 Jane looked in some dismay at the plain but fine 
 lingeries which billowed out of the bag.- 
 
 "It's all very simple," she protested. 
 
 "So are them toilet things, but not for Katalak," re- 
 torted Ma Heaney. "Them dresses, too, that I took 
 out of your trunk this morning to keep from gettin' 
 rumpled if I was you, and you're lookin' to make some 
 real money, I'd sell 'em to the girls. You'll get three 
 times what you paid for 'em " 
 
 "What girls?" interrupted Jane. 
 
 Ma Heaney's voluminous bulk twisted somewhat un- 
 comfortably and her face reddened. 
 
 "Well, them that do what you'd call kind of a vaude- 
 ville act at the dance halls. I could sell 'em for you. 
 There's Etta and May and Pearl " 
 
 "Is one of them young and thin and tired-looking, 
 with rather pretty eyes?" queried Jane suddenly. "I 
 saw her at the restaurant last night." 
 
 Ma Heaney nodded. 
 
 "That's Etta Carney. She's stuck on Hugh Malison
 
 "'102 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 and he used to meet her in there reg'lar, but he's kinder 
 givin' her the cold shoulder now. He's got the same 
 job with the Unatika outfit that big Jim Bowers has 
 with the Northern Star and I suspicion that he knows 
 something one way or another, about them 'accidents' 
 that have been happenin'. But here I sit gossipin' when. 
 I got a hull floor to clean !" She rose and waddled re- 
 luctantly to the door. "You let me know, dearie, if you 
 decide to sell any of your things and I'll fix it for you." 
 
 Left alone, Jane sat still on the floor in the midst of 
 her belongings, thinking over what she had learned. So 
 that frail, weary-eyed girl was in love with Malison 
 Malison, that beast who had insulted her in the store 
 that morning. Jane shuddered anew at the memory of 
 the encounter. 
 
 And he was the general superintendent of the Una- 
 tika, the man who, in Ma Heaney's estimation at least, 
 knew something of the "accidents" which had delayed 
 the building of the road ! Jane shrewdly suspected from 
 the very way in which the buxom landlady had checked 
 herself in the flood tide of her garrulity that she knew 
 far more herself than she was willing to gossip about 
 of the machinations of the rival company, yet why she, 
 a townswoman and unconnected with either outfit, should 
 take sides with the Northern Star remained to be dis- 
 covered. 
 
 Of her sincerity the girl had no doubt; honesty shone 
 from her broad, good-natured countenance. But how 
 far she might be depended upon in a crisis, or to keep 
 
 a confidence Jane shook her head. She must trust 
 
 no one. 
 
 Ma Heaney's sharp eyes had already discerned in spite
 
 JANE ROLLS UP HER SLEEVES 103 
 
 of her dissimulation that she was not quite the type of 
 girl she pretended to be, and her curiosity if not her 
 suspicion was aroused. Jane was none too confident 
 that Peddar would not unconsciously betray them both 
 if he were artfully cross-examined, and she determined 
 to keep him as much under her eye as possible until 
 they had established themselves in a domicile of their 
 own. 
 
 She heard his voice in the office as she descended the 
 stairs, and the tones in which the response came made 
 her pause. Surely that must be the engineer, Barney 
 Hoyt. Had he recognized her ? Was he trying to pump 
 old Peddar? She stole softly down. 
 
 "No, sir." Peddar's tone had slipped dangerously 
 back into the subservient inflection of lifelong habit. 
 "We are not from New York, sir. I believe a Mr. 
 MacLeod engaged my daughter to come up here. She 
 can tell you about that. Did you say up three streets 
 and to the right past the er, Happy Days cafe, sir?" 
 
 "Yes, but don't let any of the boys hear you mention 
 a 'cafe' in Katalak, or you'll be mobbed." That laugh- 
 ing voice was unmistakably Barney Hoyt's, and Jane 
 realized with exasperation that he must have taken Ped- 
 dar's measure; he did not "Mr." him. Must she be 
 servile, too, in order that he should not discover the 
 difference in station between herself and her pseudo 
 father? She tossed her head rebelliously at the very 
 thought. This "workingman" should be put in his place ! 
 But she she was a "working girl" herself now! Why 
 couldn't she remember? 
 
 "Very good, sir." Jane could have slapped Peddar 
 at that moment! "I shall try to remember, but it is all
 
 104 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 very different up here from what I expected, sir. I'll 
 go and have a look at the cottage you speak of." 
 
 As Peddar crossed the hall and vanished down the 
 rickety steps Jane descended and entered the office with 
 her chin in the air. 
 
 "Good-afternoon," Barney Hoyt smiled with frank 
 pleasure. "Think you will like your job at the store, 
 Miss Peddar?" 
 
 Was there an ironic emphasis on the last two words? 
 Jane flushed hotly. 
 
 "I guess so," she responded cautiously checking the 
 imperious rejoinder that rose to her lips. She must not 
 give herself away to him, of all men. "There isn't much 
 difference in selling goods over one counter or another." 
 
 "You have worked in a store before, then ?" He eyed 
 her keenly. 
 
 "If you want my references, Mr. Hoyt, you can get 
 them from Mr. MacLeod in New York!" The retort 
 was irrepressible. "I should have brought them had I 
 thought they would be required here." 
 
 Hoyt's face grew grave, but there seemed to be an 
 underlying twinkle in his brown eyes. 
 
 "I did not mean to be curious," he assured her coolly. 
 "I know that it isn't quite the thing up here in Alaska 
 to ask personal questions, but since I am in charge of 
 the outfit, I did not think it amiss. And the outfit in- 
 cludes the company store, Miss Peddar." 
 
 "Over Mr. Pittinger?" she demanded. 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "And Jim Bowers," he supplemented. "You are just 
 as much a part of the outfit now as one of the track 
 layers or bull gang. But I came to ask you if you
 
 JANE ROLLS UP HER SLEEVES 105 
 
 would not like to let me show you where we start the 
 road work next week. We're bringing it around just 
 back of the bunk houses parallel with Main Street and 
 it's only a step or two." 
 
 A curt refusal was upon her tongue but again Jane 
 controlled herself. She must not let this chance to learn 
 a little about the work slip by. 
 
 "I'll be glad to go if you will wait while I get my 
 hat and cloak," she said quietly. "I must be back at the 
 store for the three o'clock shift." 
 
 She inwardly raged at herself as she sped upstairs. 
 How stupid of her to have allowed this odious young 
 man to put her again in the wrong! If she had only 
 known the identity of the chief engineer and that he 
 would have discretionary powers over even the store, 
 she would not have come one step of the way to Katalak, 
 not even if the hateful Unatika Company gobbled up the 
 Northern Star! 
 
 That he, of all people, should be in authority over 
 her! The idea was maddening, but with a quick re- 
 vulsion of feeling she giggled : why, if he only knew 
 it, the tables were turned! It was she who was in 
 absolute command now that Ollie was in France; she, 
 the half-owner of the Northern Star mine! She could 
 even order his dismissal if he became i.oo impossible! 
 
 Then a steadying thought brought a quick flush of 
 self-rebuke to her cheeks. If Peddar was drifting back 
 into the personality of other days was she not also in 
 danger of letting the old Janetta dominate over the 
 character she had assumed, and which she must retain 
 until the end if she were to play the game ? Could petty 
 personal spite toward a man who meant nothing to her,
 
 106 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 a mere employee, be allowed to mitigate against the 
 success of the work which meant not only her own 
 future but Ollie's? What a selfish, arrogant little beast 
 she was ! 
 
 Of course, this man Hoyt was right from his point 
 of view; in justice she had to admit that to herself, and 
 she ought to be glad that he was so conscientious. As 
 chief of the works he had to assure himself that every 
 employee was not only competent but quite what they 
 should be, especially in view of the underhand work with 
 which he had to contend. She herself might have been 
 a spy and confederate of the Unatika outfit, for all he 
 knew! 
 
 In a considerably more chastened frame of mind Jane 
 descended once more, and it was with a decidedly meek 
 tone that she observed: 
 
 "I understood from Mr. MacLeod that the work had 
 already started on the railroad. Of course, I don't know 
 anything about it." 
 
 "The preliminary survey had been made and the road 
 staked out before I came," Barney Hoyt responded. "I 
 don't think you'll need that rubber coat, for the rain 
 has stopped." 
 
 Jane laid the garment obdiently over a chair in the 
 office and thrust her hands in her sweater pockets as she 
 followed her guide to the door. The rain had indeed 
 ceased and a thin, pale sunlight was streaking down from 
 a rift in the clouds, glistening on the sea of mud and 
 tinting the pool's which filled the ruts in the street with 
 a faint opalescent color. 
 
 "You see, we've assembled all our equipment, chopped 
 down spruce for our ties and cut them up in the saw-
 
 JANE ROLLS UP HER SLEEVES 107 
 
 mill," the engineer continued as they set forth. "Now 
 we've got to start grading the first five miles of road- 
 bed but this must be all Greek to you !" 
 
 "What happened to Mr. Dugdale's arm?" Jane asked 
 irrelevantly. "He would only tell me that it was an 
 accident, but I have already heard about the accidents 
 that have been happening up here all the time since the 
 work Started, and about that other company who want 
 to put a road through, too. Do you anticipate any 
 trouble, Mr. Hoyt?" 
 
 He darted a swift sidelong glance at her, but her 
 face expressed only nai've inquiry and he shrugged. 
 
 "I expect almost anything on a job of this kind, but 
 we'll be ready to protect our own interests if the other 
 side start trouble, and we are going to push the road 
 through, all right." There was no hint of bragging in 
 his tone, but a quiet firmness which sent a little thrill 
 through Jane in spite of her late resentment. "Don't 
 let anyone frighten you, Miss Peddar. I don't think 
 they'll attempt any open rough stuff, and if they should 
 you will not be in it." 
 
 "If I had been afraid I wouldn't have come up here," 
 Miss Peddar asserted stoutly. "They have only done 
 just sneaking, underhand things so far, haven't they?" 
 
 "We don't actually know who is at the bottom of the 
 mischief yet." He spoke with a note of reserve. "We'll 
 turn down this lane here. You'll find it rather muddy, 
 I expect, but you will get used to that if you stay." 
 
 "I'll stay if I can do the work at the store all right," 
 Jane retorted. "I'm not a fine society lady, you know, 
 to be afraid of mud and roughing it and and soiling my 
 hands. I'm a working girl."
 
 io8 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 She added the last slyly and averted her face that he 
 might not read the lurking mischief in her eyes. If he 
 recognized her he must speak now. At least, he did not 
 know the name of the girl he had encountered on that 
 far-off night. 
 
 "Of course, but Katalak mud is different from that 
 in the East, and you are not accustomed to the life up 
 here," he remarked. "You'll find a lot of things very 
 different but you'll be fairly comfortable when you and 
 your father get settled." 
 
 It was Jane's turn for a surreptitious glance, but his 
 expression was inscrutable. 
 
 "Oh, father and I aren't a bit alike," she said care- 
 lessly. "He thinks he is adventurous but he isn't, at 
 all. He has been dreaming of getting to Alaska for years 
 and now that he is here, I think it all rather frightens 
 him. Is this where the road is to be?" 
 
 They had passed the last of the huddled shacks on 
 the side road which had ended in a vast stretch of mud, 
 in which here and there patches of moss and coarse, 
 stunted grass formed dank oases of green. Almost at 
 their feet were the stakes left by the surveyors and they 
 marched off, two and two, in a narrowing vista straight 
 into the foothills to the north. Beyond them the faint, 
 lofty line of the St. Elias range lifted snowy peaks 
 against the still lowering sky. 
 
 Jane drew a deep breath. Somewhere there back of 
 those foothills lay the Northern Star mine, the fortune 
 which was to await Ollie on his return if only the man 
 beside her were able to finish his task. Where those 
 stakes led would lie an unbroken double line of gleam- 
 ing rails, and down them would come the ore cars bring-
 
 JANE ROLLS UP HER SLEEVES 109 
 
 ing the copper to the wharf, the first stage of the trip 
 to the smelters at Tacoma. 
 
 Could the miracle be wrought? It seemed a mere 
 trackless waste of desolation about her now. In a few 
 short months, at most, could that magic path of steel 
 be built which would lead to the mine? 
 
 Jane lifted a glowing face to the young engineer's to 
 find him gazing quizzically at her, and she lowered her 
 eyes hastily in unwonted confusion. 
 
 "It it seems like a tremendous job, doesn't it?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "Not here. Of course, it's only a little single track 
 jitney road anyway, but back up there we'll have to 
 trestle over a narrow glacier bed, and if the other gang 
 succeed in hampering us until they get their own equip- 
 ment assembled there will be a real race for it." He 
 turned. "We'd better be starting back now; there isn't 
 much to look at yet, but I thought you would like to 
 see where the actual work will commence." 
 
 "I'm glad I did," Jane replied. "I'm glad to feel that 
 I am a part of it all as you said, Mr. Hoyt. Part of 
 the work, I mean. It must bring- a real sense of achieve- 
 ment to complete a job of that sort, even if you only 
 help it along by selling things to the men who are do- 
 ing it." 
 
 "I wish you would tell me where you sold things be- 
 fore," Hoyt said suddenly. "The reason for asking 
 which I gave you back at Ma Heaney's wasn't all the 
 truth, Miss Peddar. You remind me of someone I saw 
 in the East not so very long ago, and yet you are unlike 
 her after all." 
 
 "Who was she ?" Jane asked audaciously.
 
 I io THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 Hoyt laughed and shook his head. 
 
 "The last sort of girl you would find roughing it up 
 here! But you don't belong, either, you know. Store- 
 keeping for a mining company is the last thing in the 
 world which I should think would have appealed to 
 you " 
 
 "That's just because father was able to give me a 
 little better schooling than he had himself, I guess." 
 Jane laughed, too, but it sounded hollow in her own 
 ears. What a dismal failure her attempt at dissimula- 
 tion must be, when everyone from Ma Heaney to the 
 head of the outfit could see through her like this ! Still, 
 he had not actually recognized her; there was a grain 
 of comfort in that. 
 
 They had turned the corner of Main Street once more 
 and were nearing the barracks-like bunk houses and mess, 
 when above the increasing hammer and clanking of the 
 pile driver and crane there came a hideous deafening 
 roar, and somewhere back of and beyond the company 
 store a flash of lurid red rose for an instant against 
 the sky and died like the blast of some huge furnace. 
 
 'Then came hoarse shouting and the heavy thud of 
 many rushing feet, but Jane was scarcely conscious of 
 it. At the first echo of the explosion Hoyt had dashed 
 forward and now she was following, running as she 
 had never run in all her life before. The bull gang 
 from the storage yard over the way and the dock hands 
 were converging in a crowd before what seemed to her 
 to be the main office just beyond the company store, 
 but as she neared it she saw that their interest was 
 centered on the group of miscellaneous shacks clustered
 
 JANE ROLLS UP HER SLEEVES in 
 
 behind it, from the midst of which a thin curl of smoke 
 was rising. 
 
 She wondered vaguely at she sped past them why 
 the men waited out there on the sidewalk, but she did 
 not hear the warning shouts which rang out as she 
 darted around the office shack and dashed through the 
 clinging mud which clutched at her ankles ; the chief had 
 gone that way. Why did they not follow? 
 
 She rounded another shack and halted suddenly. One 
 of the smaller ones, a mere shed, had collapsed utterly, 
 its rainsoaked boards blackened and smoking. Beside it 
 a solitary figure in overalls and rough flannel shirt lay 
 stretched upon the ground and Hoyt was bending 
 over it. 
 
 Changed as were the surroundings the scene brought 
 back in a darting flash of memory that other time when 
 Hoyt had ministered to the tramp her heedlessness had 
 injured, but she did not give herself time to "think of 
 that. 
 
 Rolling up the sleeves of her -sweater she sprang to 
 his side and kneeling in the mud she lifted in her arms 
 the bloody head of the unconscious man. 
 
 "Good God ! What are you doing here ?" cried Hoyt. 
 "Go back ! There may be another explosion " 
 
 But Jane was not even listening. With her inadequate 
 scrap of a handkerchief she was wiping away the warm 
 blood from the boy's face for he was only a boy, and 
 there was a look of Ollie about his sandy hair and firm, 
 square chin. 
 
 He was one of her own, one of her companions here 
 in the work they were all doing together, and their com- 
 mon enemy had done this to him! She did not for an
 
 ii2 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 instant question that there might not have been foul 
 play, and a wave of mingled compassion and rage shook 
 her from head to foot. 
 
 She clenched her teeth and sobbed through them. 
 
 "Those Unatika wretches ! G give me your hand- 
 kerchief, Mr. Hoyt! The poor boy! O oh, I'd like 
 to " 
 
 She was lifted bodily to her feet and spun about in 
 the mud on them. 
 
 "Get out of this!" Hoyt ordered sternly. "Quick! 
 I'll bring him !" 
 
 He picked the limp figure up in his arms and swung 
 it over his shoulder and Jane meekly followed. 
 
 She did not know why the men cheered when they 
 reached the sidewalk once more nor why that strained 
 listening look died so slowly from the conglomerate 
 mass of faces which clustered about them. The strange, 
 savage rage had left her and she shivered and drew 
 down her sleeves over her arms without noting the stains 
 with covered them. 
 
 "Jumping Jupiter!" A pudgy hand seized her and 
 dragged her aside. "What in Gosh-Almighty's world 
 do you mean by taking a chance of gettin' yourself 
 blown to Kingdom Come for a squarehead for !" It was 
 Jud Pittinger's voice raised in a wail of admiring pro- 
 test. "Don't you know there's dynamite stored all 
 around there?" 
 
 "Will that poor boy live?" Jane demanded anxiously. 
 
 "You come along back and wash up and 'tend store !" 
 Jud urged. "I never see the beat of it in my life! 
 Walked right into livin' death, you did !" 
 
 "Well, the chief did, too, didn't he?" Without pre-
 
 JANE ROLLS UP HER SLEEVES 113 
 
 meditation the words leaped from Jane's lips and she 
 did not note the change which her simple query brought 
 to the faces about her, as man after man glanced 
 shamedly at his neighbor and turned away. "What have 
 they done with the boy who was hurt ?" 
 
 "The doc will fix him up." Jud's good-natured face 
 was still stern, but a look of confused deference was 
 creeping over it. "I shouldn't have spoken so so fresh 
 to you just now but you scairt me ! Come in the store 
 and I'll get you a bucket of water before your father 
 sees you, Miss. You got yourself mussed up some." 
 
 Jane followed him down the lane which the dividing 
 crowd made for her, still dazed from the shock of the 
 affair, and once in the store she leaned against the 
 counter in the sudden limpness of reaction. It did not 
 occur to her numbed brain what swift impulse had 
 actuated her until a low voice at her side penetrated her 
 consciousness. 
 
 "Miss Peddar, I want to take back what I said to 
 you a little while ago, about your reminding me of 
 someone back East whom I had seen." It was Barney 
 Hoyt and he stood before her with a new look in his 
 eyes. "She could never have done what you did just 
 now." 
 
 Jane smiled faintly, and for the first time glanced 
 down at her reddened hands. 
 
 "You were right, though, when you said that every- 
 thing was different up here," she said. "How do you 
 know what she would have done in my place?"
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE MAN IN THE SHADOW 
 
 THE roar of the explosion reached Peddar at the 
 farther end of the town, but to his unaccus- 
 tomed ears, deafened by days and nights of 
 continuous noise and clamor of machinery it seemed 
 but a part of the general hubbub. 
 
 He was standing in a tiny front yard off the side 
 street where already a few straggling plants were bud- 
 ding, lost in a disparaging contemplation of the little 
 shack to which Hoyt had directed him, when a man 
 running heavily past yelled at him: 
 
 "Hey, old-timer ! Northern Star's got it again ! Com- 
 pany store's blown up !" 
 
 For one awful moment Peddar's senses reeled and the 
 little shack blurred and wavered before his eyes. The 
 next instant he had turned and was scuttling as fast 
 as his trembling old legs would carry him back to the 
 main street. He saw the crowd at the waterfront, and 
 the store building seemed still to be standing, but where 
 was his beloved young mistress? 
 
 As he swerved past the lodging house door Ma 
 Heaney bounced down the steps and seized him in an 
 ample grasp. 
 
 "She's all right, Mr. Peddar! She's in here!" 
 
 Peddar almost sobbed in his relief as his informant 
 half -dragged him up the steps and into the office where 
 
 114
 
 THE MAN IN THE SHADOW 115 
 
 Jane, very pale but quite composed, was talking with 
 the general superintendent. 
 
 "Oh, miss Jane, I mean you're safe? You're not 
 hurt?" he gasped. 
 
 "Of course not, father! I wasn't even near when the 
 accident occurred!" Jane explained hurriedly to cover 
 that almost inevitable slip. "No one was hurt except one 
 poor boy, and Mr. Bowers says that it isn't serious and 
 he will soon be well. It was just one of the little shacks 
 back of the store that went up in smoke. Was it an 
 accident, Mr. Bowers? I mean, was that young work- 
 man careless?" 
 
 Jim Bowers' face darkened and his great hands 
 clenched. 
 
 "It might have been his fault if he had been any- 
 where else but there!" he muttered. Then his anger 
 flamed out unguardedly. "That dynamite stick was 
 attached to a wire that trailed off east over the lots. I 
 traced it myself just now for about fifty feet and it 
 led to a battery somewhere like a fireblast. I lost the 
 wire where it ran into the ground, but it is bound to 
 have been cut away by now, and the battery may be 
 half a mile away. The murdering scoundrels!" 
 
 Jane's face went a shade paler to hear her own belief 
 confirmed. 
 
 "You mean it was the Unatika people at work again?" 
 she asked. 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "But they're not the only ones," he affirmed. "If 
 they touched it off a day sooner the whole works would 
 have gone up. There was enough dynamite in that shack 
 a few hours ago to have blown all Katalak into the
 
 ii6 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 bay! Hoyt and I got a hunch that it wasn't safe and 
 moved it just in time, but somebody knew it had been 
 there and told. We've got a traitor in camp." 
 
 Peddar shook in his shoes. 
 
 "If you've left it anywhere near the store still, Mr. 
 Bowers, miss my daughter shan't go back there again, 
 not if the " 
 
 "Father!" Jane interruptedly warningly. "You don't 
 suppose Mr. Bowers is taking any chances on the whole 
 plant, do you?" 
 
 "I'm not if I can help it!" the superintendent de- 
 clared. "But I'm going to get them with the goods yet 
 and when I do there won't be much work left for the 
 marshal from Juneau except to take me up for man- 
 slaughter! They're showing their hand pretty plainly, 
 and if I can once catch them in the act it will be all 
 up with them! But don't you worry, Miss Jane, we'll 
 take care of you all right if you'll just keep clear of 
 any racket you hear started." 
 
 Peddar wrung his hands as the harassed superin- 
 tendent took his departure. 
 
 "If you'd only give it up and come home " he 
 
 wailed. 
 
 "Home?" Jane's eyes flashed. "Home now, when I 
 see for myself what those wretches are trying to do, 
 and the lengths to which they will go to take everything 
 from us! I'm ashamed of you! Think of Ollie away 
 off there unable to do anything to protect the work, and 
 then you think I would run away " 
 
 She broke off as Ma Heaney bustled into the room. 
 
 "Well, there's no harm done, thank the Lord!" she 
 remarked cheerily. "That young squarehead will be
 
 THE MAN IN THE SHADOW 117 
 
 out in a week and none the worse. I hear you've been 
 looking at that shack Mr. Hoyt was goin' to take for 
 himself, Mr. Peddar. It's the best one around here; 
 Bud Sawyer built it for himself just before he got in 
 that little argument with the faro dealer at the Full 
 Blast, and it ain't been occupied since." 
 
 "What is it like?" asked Jane eagerly. 
 
 Peddar shuddered. 
 
 "Three rooms that would hardly be called closets, and 
 you can see through the walls," he responded gloomily. 
 "No running water except what comes through a hole 
 in the roof, tumbled-down steps, no latch on the door 
 and the floor gives with every step. When I think of 
 you in a place like that " 
 
 "Oh, Big Jim'll lend you a couple of men to put that 
 right, and you can get a stove and pans and some bed- 
 ding over at the miner's supply store," Ma Heaney in- 
 terrupted briskly. "I can lend you a table and some 
 chairs till you can order some up on the next trip of 
 the 'Queen' and you'll be more comfortable than most 
 up here. Time the flowers begin to grow " 
 
 "Oh, is there a garden?" cried Jane. "That settles 
 it, father. When can we move in?" 
 
 And it did settle it. In spite of Peddar's shocked 
 remonstrances, a few days later found them more or 
 less snugly ensconced in the little shack, and even he 
 was bound to admit that it was an improvement over 
 their former quarters. Big Jim Bowers had fulfilled 
 Ma Heaney's prediction and his men did the rough 
 carpentering well ; the new stove did not smoke unduly 
 and a lone Chinaman was found in the town who would 
 come in now and then and help with the work which
 
 ii8 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 neither the new settler nor his daughter wre capable 
 of accomplishing. 
 
 In the warm sunshine which streamed out between 
 the daily drizzle of rain Jane's straggling little garden 
 throve amazingly, and more than one shy offer of help 
 was made to her in varying dialects by the men who 
 came to purchase their meager luxuries of her at the 
 store. 
 
 She noted one slight but significant fact in the days 
 which immediately followed the explosion. She had 
 ceased to be "Miss Peddar." From the general superin- 
 tendent down to the lowliest of the bull gang she was 
 "Miss Jane" to one and all except Barney Hoyt, and 
 her heart wanned at the inference. In all respect and 
 deference they were taking her in, making her one of 
 themselves, one of the outfit. That rash unconsidered 
 moment when she had in all ignorance rushed in where 
 they had feared to go, even to follow their chief, had 
 placed her in their estimation where months of diplo- 
 matic kindliness in her store dealings with them would 
 not have done, and she realized it vaguely but thank- 
 fully. 
 
 She was beginning to recognize faces in the slouching 
 crowd, to remember strange, hardly pronounceable 
 names and to greet some of her customers with a per- 
 sonal word that brought a flush of pleasure to many a 
 swarthy, Slavic brow. Often as she watched them, awk- 
 ward, silent and furtive-eyed through sheer embarrass- 
 ment she wondered who the traitor could be; the traitor 
 of whom Jim Bowers was so sure, who must have dis- 
 closed the location of the dynamite to their enemies. 
 
 Back in the first days after her arrival Jane would
 
 THE MAN IN THE SHADOW 119 
 
 unhesitatingly have said that from appearances any of 
 them might well have been capable of it, but she was 
 learning discrimination; learning, however slowly, to 
 read the grim courage, and kindliness, and chivalry that 
 lay beneath the rough exterior. 
 
 It hurt her like an innuendo cast upon a friend to 
 feel that any of the Northern Star outfit could betray 
 his trust, and yet surely the superintendent's suspicions 
 must have been well founded or he would not have made 
 so positive a declaration. 
 
 The news of the higher grade stock and* the importa- 
 tions added to it at the unheard-of prices had spread like 
 wildfire, and had not Jud Pittinger carefully husbanded 
 it and doled it out to her it would all have been ex- 
 hausted in the first few days, but save for that surrepti- 
 tious visit of Malison, the superintendent of the Unatika 
 company, Jane could not ascertain that any of their 
 rivals had risen to the bait. 
 
 A week passed with no further indications of trouble. 
 The wharf and ore pockets were well on the way to 
 completion, the pile driver and crane were still, and work 
 had begun in earnest on the road. The clearing gang 
 toiled night and day, excavating and grading, the steam- 
 shovel chugged and rattled ceaselessly and every after- 
 noon when Jane, drawn by an irresistible fascination, 
 stole out to see how the work was progressing, it seemed 
 to her that the narrow trail-like path shored up and re- 
 claimed from the soft mud and tundra was lengthening 
 itself slowly but surely and stretching out toward the 
 foothills. The miracle was coming to pass! 
 
 She saw little of Hoyt. He seemed to be on the job 
 with every shift; sleepless, tirelessly vigilant and lend-
 
 120 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 ing his own strength in any emergency with a demo- 
 cratic camaraderie which yet brought with it no lessening 
 of the strictest authority. 
 
 One afternoon on her return from watching the clear- 
 ing gang at work, Jane found a bright-eyed, dark- 
 skinned laborer loitering about the door of the store, 
 but not until Jud's departure did he enter. Then he 
 came deprecatingly up to the counter and with an in- 
 gratiating nod and smile began fingering the sacks of 
 tobacco. 
 
 Jane watched him curiously. She was sure that she 
 had seen him before; even in the maze of faces which 
 rose before her there was something familiar and 
 pathetically appealing in the wistful smile and soft dark 
 eyes. He was an Italian, of course, and probably on 
 the night shift, yet she wondered to which of the gangs 
 he belonged. Why had he hesitated to enter when Jud 
 was there? Could it be that he was one of the rival 
 outfit ? Then all at once she recalled him and smiled. 
 
 "Did you like the silk handkerchief you bought last 
 week ?" she asked. 
 
 The man smiled with a flash of white teeth in his 
 thin face. 
 
 "Yes-a Mees! I come for see-a de raze, de raze in 
 de little-a box." 
 
 He glanced over his shoulder and then eagerly back 
 to her once more. 
 
 "You mean these?" Jane displayed the new razors in 
 their ornate boxes and the man took them up in his 
 hands with almost childish pleasure. "They are two 
 dollars, but we have some cheaper ones."
 
 THE MAN IN THE SHADOW 121 
 
 He shook his head at the suggestion and selecting one, 
 pulled out a slender roll of worn bills. 
 
 "This cut-a good," he announced and slipping it into 
 his pocket he turned to go, yet lingered. 
 
 "Wait a minute," Jane said on an impulse. "What is 
 your name?" 
 
 The man hesitated, embarrassed. 
 
 "Name Pietro." He paused and then came shyly to- 
 ward her once more. "You like-a see my bambino? 
 Got-a de pict, came last-a boat. I never see heem yet, 
 me." 
 
 He took a cheap card-mounted photograph from his 
 pocket and thrust it into her hands. It was none too 
 clean and bore traces already of much handling, but 
 Jane smiled warmly as she saw the face of a very young, 
 very swarthy baby wrapped in a multitude of shawls. 
 
 "Oh, your baby !" she exclaimed. "And you've never 
 seen it? It will be quite big when the road is finished 
 and you go back." 
 
 The Italian's smile faded and he averted his face as 
 he took the little photograph from her. 
 
 "Yes-a beeg," he assented simply. 
 
 "It is a lovely baby !" Jane was touched by the lonely 
 man's confidence. "You must tell me about it and about 
 your wife, sometime, Pietro. Where are they?" 
 
 But Pietro was casting uneasy glances over his 
 shoulder and sidling toward the door. 
 
 "Some-a time, Mees, t'anks. I go now; late-a for 
 de job." 
 
 He smiled wistfully once more, nodded and was gone 
 while Jane started contemplatively to pick up the re- 
 maining razors. The man must be one of the Unatika
 
 122 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 outfit; his apprehensive glances at the door, his palpable 
 furtiveness and haste all betrayed him as an interloper. 
 Yet he had been there before more than once, and he 
 had ventured against just to show her his baby's picture, 
 to gain a word of sympathy and friendliness in this 
 strange, bleak land. If she in turn had succeeded in 
 gaining his liking, his friendship, and personal confi- 
 dence had come, could she not later win his confidence 
 in other things, in the machinations perhaps of the com- 
 pany which employed him? 
 
 He had not looked like the sort of ruffian to be con- 
 sciously engaged in the treacherous work afoot, yet he 
 might be just stupid enough to do blindly what he was 
 told, and to reveal it with childlike candor later to any- 
 one whom he trusted. It might be that she had gained 
 a foothold at last in the task which she had undertaken. 
 
 So absorbed was she in her cogitations that Jane did 
 not observe when a tall figure darkened the doorway, nor 
 glance up until a hated, well-remembered drawl fell 
 upon her ears. 
 
 "Trade isn't very brisk to-day, is it, little lady?" 
 Malison lounged familiarly over the counter, his curi- 
 ously light eyes leering at her. 
 
 . "Brisk enough," she responded shortly. "What do you 
 want?" 
 
 "Nothing you've got to sell." He straightened and 
 edged nearer. "Just a word with you. Look here, you 
 got sore at me the other day but let's forget it and 
 be friends. I was only kidding and you're the only 
 girl around these diggings that I'd give a whoop for. 
 I don't mind telling you that you've got me going, and 
 I'm some hard to please. There ain't much a fellow
 
 THE MAN IN THE SHADOW 123 
 
 can do to show a girl a good time up in a hole like this, 
 but if you'll make up and shake hands on it the next 
 trip of the 'Queen' will bring up for you from Seattle 
 the prettiest " 
 
 "No, thank you." Jane shook her head. "I'm not 
 'sore' at you, as you say. I am here to sell goods, but 
 not to take any insolence, and I have no desire to shake 
 hands with you. If you don't want to buy anything 
 please go." 
 
 "What a little spitfire!" He chuckled and made no 
 move toward departure. "Mad still, are you? Danged 
 if I don't like your spirit, but what's the talk of a kiss 
 or two between friends? For we're going to be friends 
 yet, little lady. I had my eye on you from the first 
 day you landed, and if I started out wrong why, I'm 
 willing to admit it. Know what this is?" 
 
 He had reached into his pocket and tossed out upon 
 the counter a tiny object which gleamed with a score 
 of darts of fire. 
 
 "A diamond!" Jane exclaimed, startled in spite of 
 herself at the incongruity of the thing there among the 
 sacks of tobacco and boxes of razors. 
 
 "And a beauty !" Malison nodded. "Found her myself 
 in Brazil and had her cut two years ago in Frisco. 
 Haven't seen a girl yet I'd give it to until now, but if 
 you say the word it's yours." 
 
 He squared himself with an air of coming triumph, 
 and Jane smiled. 
 
 "I don't want it. Please take it off the counter; it 
 might get lost," she said. "Diamonds are a little out 
 of place up here in Alaska and if you want my friend-
 
 124 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 ship you will have to be a little more respectful than 
 you've been in the past, my good man." 
 
 The note of disdainful patronage was a momentary 
 and wholly unconscious reversion to the Jane of the 
 past, but Malison's face darkened evilly as he swept up 
 his rejected peace offering and dropped it into his 
 pocket. 
 
 "All right !" he muttered savagely. "But don't try any 
 of your fine lady airs on me! I know your kind and 
 I'll make you sorry for this before I'm through with 
 you!" 
 
 For an instant he lowered threateningly at her, then 
 his expression changed swiftly and turning he strode 
 from the store. 
 
 Jane gasped with relief and then smiled rather 
 tremulously as Jud appeared in the door. Malison's ear 
 must have been quicker than her own to detect the ap- 
 proach of her ally. 
 
 "Say, was that there Malison in here again, Miss 
 Jane?" demanded Jud. "He's about the worst feller 
 hangs around this town, besides being a Unatika man." 
 
 "I told him to go, but I couldn't very well put him 
 out, could I?" Jane asked. "I don't see how he dares 
 come in here in broad daylight with all your people 
 about, but I didn't let him know that I knew he wasn't 
 one of our own men." 
 
 "Well, you can the next time he shows his sneakin' 
 face in here, and mighty quick, too !" Jud growled in 
 unaccustomed wrath. "Orders is orders, but I ain't 
 goin' to have a feller like him pesterin' you, Miss Jane ! 
 That there gat behind the counter ain't any more use 
 to you than it would be to a kitten, and if I wasn't a
 
 THE MAN IN THE SHADOW 125 
 
 born fool I might've knowed it, but I'm going to get 
 you a watchman's whistle, and if he or anybody else 
 bothers you, just blow it. I'll tell the boys that if I 
 ain't around and they hear it they are to come in and 
 just naterally clean up the store!" 
 
 "I guess I I'd like to have it," Jane heard herself 
 reply, to her own consternation, and she mentally 
 berated her weakness. Had she not boasted that she 
 could take care of herself ? What had she to fear from 
 that man's idle threats? The whole thing seemed ab- 
 surdly melodramatic and unreal now that he had gone, 
 and rough as the town was she had met with no molesta- 
 tion elsewhere save in the store, where one scream would 
 have brought practically the whole outfit swarming to 
 her aid. 
 
 She put away the stock, told Jud of her single sale 
 of the razor and started home to supper with her little 
 chin held very high. She would not be a miserable 
 coward ! 
 
 As she left the store she paused for a moment to 
 look down toward the waterfront where the wharf, de- 
 serted now by the hive of workmen who had swarmed 
 over it only a week before, lay steaming in the sun- 
 light after the recent rain. The ore pockets which lined 
 its outer edge cast sharp, deep shadows backward, and 
 as Jane looked it seemed to her that a man darted from 
 one to the other of the pockets. She could not be sure, 
 the sun was so dazzling and the thick-set figure seemed 
 to have moved so quickly. 
 
 Her first impulse was to call to Jud, and she reflected 
 that it might be one of the watchmen on guard and did
 
 126 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 not want to appear officious. Jane decided to reconnoiter 
 herself. 
 
 She walked slowly down the wharf, her feet making 
 no sound on the mud which had sloughed up between 
 the loose boards of the sidewalk, and made her way 
 around the ore pocket at the end. No one was in sight 
 and she was on the point of concluding that her eyes 
 must have deceived her when, as she neared the third 
 pocket, a man came hastily around its corner and met 
 her face to face. 
 
 For a moment they stood staring, then the man nodded 
 surlily, and putting his hands in his pockets strolled 
 past her with an elaborate assumption of nonchalance. 
 
 Jane stood motionless, watching until his shambling 
 figure had crossed the wharf and started up Main Street 
 in the obvious direction of the Full Blast. She was 
 undecided what to do; his errand on the wharf might 
 have been a perfectly legitimate one and at the moment 
 she herself had no right to be there. Undoubtedly he 
 was an employee of the Northern Star; she had seen 
 him in the store frequently and about the storage yard 
 with the other members of the bull gang, and his face 
 with its lowering brow, nearset, deep sunken eyes and 
 wide, high cheekbones was not one which could be 
 easily forgotten, although she did not remember ever to 
 have heard his name. 
 
 Even should she report his presence there the girl 
 doubted that she would be able to pick him out posi- 
 tively from so many other Russian and Slavic employees 
 at the works if she were called upon to do so, and she 
 resolved for the time being at least to keep her own 
 counsel.
 
 THE MAN IN THE SHADOW 127 
 
 Yet as she made her way slowly home a disquieting 
 thought pervaded her consciousness and would not be 
 exorcised. What if he were the still undiscovered man 
 who had betrayed the location of the dynamite to their 
 enemies, the traitor to the Northern Star !
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PlETRO 
 
 THE little side street upon which stood the shack 
 where Peddar and Jane had taken up their 
 abode started like a narrow alley, with ram- 
 shackle frame buildings standing shoulder to shoulder 
 on either side, their porches crowding out over the single 
 plank which served as a walk. Further on the houses 
 thinned, with long gaps of open space between, and 
 where the unfortunate Bud Sawyer had built his home 
 only the deserted tumbled-down ruins of another shack 
 fifty feet away bore it company. 
 
 As Jane passed it, her thoughts still busied with the 
 man she had seen lurking in the shadows of the ore 
 pockets on the wharf, she heard a faint groan which 
 seemed to emanate from behind the heap of broken 
 weather-stained boards, and paused. The place was 
 eerie and deserted even in the paling light of the sun 
 which was already disappearing behind a murk of cloud 
 once more, and the Jane of a month ago would have 
 taken promptly to her trim high heels, but now she 
 hesitated. 
 
 If someone were ill or hurt, lying there all alone, 
 
 someone of her own outfit Even as the thought 
 
 came to her she heard another groan, deeper and more 
 prolonged than before, and waiting no longer she picked 
 
 lift
 
 < PIETRO 129 
 
 her way through the oozing mud around to the back of 
 the ruined shack. 
 
 A man was lying there, his limbs twisted as though 
 in pain, both arms crooked over his face and head as 
 if to ward off a blow, and as she stood looking at him 
 a sort of- broken sob tore its way from his throat. 
 
 "Oh, what is it? What is the matter?" Jane asked 
 pityingly, and then shrank back in horrified amazement 
 as the man's arm dropped and he essayed to rise. His 
 face was bloody and battered almost beyond recogni- 
 tion, one eye blackened and closed and a deep hideous 
 gash ran across his cheekbone. 
 
 "Mees!" The word came in a sobbing gulp, and as 
 he fell back again she saw that the knuckles of both 
 hands were abraised to mere pulp. "Mees ! Please-a 
 you go ! No place-a for you. Maybe he come-a back !" 
 
 "Pietro!" In spite of his mangled countenance there 
 was no mistaking that soft voice, wistful even in pain. 
 It was the lonely little Italian who had shown her the 
 picture of his "bambino" only an hour or two before 
 in the store. "Pietro, what has happened to you ? Who 
 has hurt you like this?" 
 
 There was silence for a minute, the silence of a race 
 which keeps its own counsel and seeks its own revenge. 
 Then reluctantly, through set teeth came the single word : 
 
 "Malison." 
 
 A partial light broke over Jane and with an involun- 
 tary shudder she glanced about her, but no one was in 
 sight and she said decisively: 
 
 "I can't leave you here like this, Pietro, and I won't ! 
 Come ! Try to get up and lean on me. My own home
 
 130 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 is only a little way and we must get the company 
 
 doctor " 
 
 "No-a doc! I not your company; I Unatika " 
 
 "I know that," Jane responded quietly. "It doesn't 
 matter though ; you must have some help. Try, Pietro." 
 
 The wretched man made a determined effort, but his 
 breath caught in a tearing sob and with one hand clasped 
 to his side he fell back once more. 
 
 "He kick-a me in de reeb after I fall-a down." The 
 voice came faintly as if ashamed of the confession. 
 "Please-a go, Mees ! He come-a back, maybe keel-a you. 
 He bad-a man!" 
 
 "He's a great, big, blustering coward !" Jane cried in- 
 dignantly, for the pitiable condition of the little Italian 
 wrung her heart. "I can't get you up alone by myself, 
 but you just lie here quietly for a minute and I'll bring 
 my father. Don't try to move ; your face is bleeding so !" 
 
 She turned up the skirt of her dress, tore a wide 
 strip from her petticoat and gently pressed it over the 
 gash in his cheek, then turned and plunged off heed- 
 lessly through the mud. Suppose Malison should return 
 to finish the work he had so dastardly commenced ? She 
 could have no inkling of the quarrel between the two, 
 but there was no thought now of self-interest in attempt- 
 ing to gain Pietro's- friendship: the wistful little man 
 had appealed irresistibly to her sympathies in the after- 
 noon, and now she felt that they were leagued against 
 a common enemy. She must get help, and quickly. 
 
 To Peddar, bending his dignified back over the un- 
 congenial task at the stove there entered a veritable 
 whirlwind, which seized him and bore him through the 
 door and breathlessly along in the mud, replying to
 
 PIETRO 131 
 
 his vociferous protestations by utterly incomprehensible 
 allusions to someone who was badly hurt and someone 
 else who ought to be shot, and ending with the impera- 
 tive and impossible injunctions to "hurry." 
 
 When at length they reached the recumbent figure, 
 Peddar drew back in horror. 
 
 "Oh, miss, it's murder as has been done! Whatever 
 are you mixing up in it for? Come straight away and 
 leave him to the " 
 
 "It's not! He has been terribly beaten and we are 
 going to take him home and help him!" Jane declared. 
 "I I know him; he is a friend of mine." 
 
 "A friend!" Peddar groaned. "If Mr. Geddes could 
 hear you, miss, I'm sure I don't know what he would 
 say, I don't indeed! And as for taking him home " 
 
 "You kneel down there, father, and slip your arm 
 under his shoulders," Jane ordered briefly. "I don't 
 give a a whoop what Mr. Geddes or anybody else would 
 say, and you ought to know it by now! Don't mind 
 about your clothes getting muddy help him up, I say! 
 Come, Pietro, try to help us." 
 
 Pietro only moaned faintly, but between them they 
 managed to get him upon his feet, although it was 
 evident that he was on the point of absolute collapse. 
 He set his teeth, but groan after groan forced its way 
 from him during the brief journey, and even Peddar's 
 protestations were shocked to silence by the man's evi- 
 dent suffering. 
 
 They eased him down upon the cot in the kitchen, 
 and Jane tore a sheet into strips for bandages while 
 Peddar heated water on the stove, and forced some 
 brandy between the man's bruised lips.
 
 132 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 He murmured broken, incoherent expressions of 
 gratitude for their ministrations and then lapsed into 
 silence, but as Jane was completing the bandage about 
 his battered head he started up from the cot in sudden 
 alarm. 
 
 Jane's eyes followed his frightened glance to the door 
 and she rose slowly to her feet. Barney Hoyt stood 
 on the threshold. 
 
 "Good-evening," he said. "I what has happened?" 
 
 "A friend of mine has been hurt," Jane explained 
 briefly. "Come, Pietro, lie down again. Mr. Hoyt won't 
 hurt you." 
 
 Uninvited, Hoyt entered and walking to the cot looked 
 down upon the man for a moment in silence. When 
 he spoke again there was a curiously repressed note in 
 his voice. 
 
 "He isn't one of our outfit." 
 
 "No. He is employed by the Unatika people," Jane 
 added. "Come out on the porch with me while Peddar 
 attends to his side and I will explain." 
 
 Hoyt followed her in a noncommittal silence, and 
 when she seated herself upon the steps and made room 
 for him shyly beside her, he did not accept the mute 
 
 
 
 invitation, but stood leaning against the rough spruce 
 post which upheld the shaky roof, and waited for her 
 to speak. 
 
 "You see, he's been buying things at the store 
 tobacco and handkerchiefs and that sort of thing and 
 I didn't know until to-day that he didn't belong to the 
 Northern Star outfit," Jane began, angry at herself for 
 proffering the explanation, and still angrier at her com- 
 panion for making her feel that one was necessary.
 
 PIETRO 133 
 
 "When he came in to-day he seemed so furtive and 
 hurried and so afraid that someone would come in and 
 find him there that I could not help noticing it, but 
 Mr. Pittinger had told me to sell to anyone who came 
 in, no matter who, without asking if they belonged to 
 our outfit or not. I sold him a razor and he showed me 
 his baby's picture and seemed so lonesome and longing 
 for a friendly world like a a dog that had been abused, 
 that I felt sorry for him." 
 
 She paused, but Hoyt merely said quietly: 
 "Go on, please. How does he come to be here?" 
 "I I found him just now back of that tumbled-down 
 shack in the next lot, groaning terribly and with his 
 face all beaten in. He said that Malison had done it, 
 *id had kicked him, too, when he was down! Just to 
 see if my suspicions about him were correct, I told him 
 I would get the company doctor, and he told me frankly 
 that he did not belong to the Northern Star outfit but 
 to the Unatika." Jane paused and added: "I haven't 
 been able to find out from him yet what the trouble 
 was about but I think it must have had something to 
 do with his coming to our store, for just after he had 
 left to-day Malison himself came in and he he was 
 impertinent." 
 
 "To you? What did he say?" Hoyt's voice was 
 sterner than she had ever heard it and Jane replied hur- 
 riedly : 
 
 "Oh, nothing worth repeating. He was trying to to 
 make friends with me, I think, but I don't like him and 
 besides he belongs to the outfit that has brought all this 
 trouble to the Northern Star." 
 
 "Yet you take another Unatika man into your home."
 
 134 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 Hoyt spoke with no suggestion of accusation, but as if 
 he were trying to understand, and Jane drew a deep 
 breath. 
 
 "Well, you see, Mr. Hoyt, he seemed so sort of 
 pathetically anxious for a friendly word and so lonely 
 this afternoon, that I thought he might be approachable 
 in time if I gave him cause to be grateful to me." 
 
 "Aproachable ?" The young engineer seated himself 
 suddenly on the step beside her and looked directly into 
 her eyes. "Just what do you mean, Miss Peddar?" 
 
 "Simply that if there is a traitor in our camp, as Mr. 
 Bowers says, it might be as well to have a friend in 
 theirs," Jane added hastily. "I don't mean to meddle 
 with things which do not concern me, Mr. Hoyt, but 
 this Pietro doesn't seem to be a bad sort, and a lonely 
 man will sometimes tell things to a girl who is sym- 
 pathetic and has been kind to him that he would not slip 
 to a man in the other organization. I know it sounds 
 despicable, but it's only fighting fire with fire, and after 
 that poor boy was hurt in that explosion last week I 
 thought almost any means would be fair enough to use 
 if it would be possible to learn their plans or something 
 that would directly implicate them." 
 
 "By Jove, you are right, and it was a very clever idea 
 of yours!" Hoyt caught himself up and added deliber- 
 ately. "If it was your idea, Miss Peddar?" 
 
 He put the remark in the form of so unmistakable a 
 question that Jane faced him squarely, with widened 
 eyes. 
 
 "Why, of course ! Who in the world would have sug- 
 gested it to me?" she asked with an assumption of 
 perfect candor, reflecting inwardly that she was at least
 
 PIETRO 135 
 
 telling the literal truth. It had been her own idea from 
 its inception in those far-off days in New York. "I 
 know I am only employed to tend store, but I thought 
 that if there were anything else which I might do to 
 help without meddling too much, no one would object. 
 We we're all just working together, aren't we?" 
 
 "That's the spirit!" Hoyt rose, his eyes shining, and 
 held out his hand. "Object? Miss Peddar, I would be 
 only too thankful to you if you can learn anything 
 which would help us to circumvent these scoundrels! I 
 don't mind telling you that there may be grave trouble 
 ahead; they are hindering us more than appears on the 
 surface, and they are only waiting for us to do some- 
 thing lawless in retaliation in order to get the marshal 
 from Juneau and stop our work altogether. But I will 
 go in now, with your permission, and have a look at 
 your patient to see if that brute Malison has injured 
 him seriously." 
 
 Jane waited, gazing out over the bleak, dismal prospect 
 to the foothills beyond with dreamy eyes. She was no 
 longer angry, but rather glad of the interview, glad that 
 she had explained her position to this masterful and yet 
 singularly attractive young man. To him, of course, she 
 was merely a little shop-girl and he must believe that the 
 idea of worming herself into Pietro's confidence had 
 only occurred to her on the spur of the moment. 
 
 He had approved, he had trusted her, and his hand- 
 clasp had been the most encouraging and comforting 
 thing that had happened to her since her arrival. It was 
 odd, she reflected, how a little thing like that, a mere 
 gesture from one of her own employees could so hearten 
 her for the task which all unknown to him lay before
 
 136 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 her. If he, with his queer socialistic ideas had suspected 
 who she was, of course, he wouldn't have shaken hands 
 with her for anything ! 
 
 He was frankly friendly with her because he thought 
 her merely a working girl, and he had been proud to 
 declare himself only a workingman, and yet he wasn't 
 at all. There was something beyond the unmistakable 
 university breeding which would crop out, something 
 beneath the purposely assumed roughness of his bearing 
 which told her that if not actually of her own world 
 he was at least beyond the class to which he almost 
 defiantly allied himself. 
 
 Of course, perfectly nice young men of good family 
 became construction engineers, but they would try to 
 appear at their best, to raise, not lower themselves, and 
 she shrewdly suspected that they would look largely and 
 patronizingly down upon a girl who came to a rough 
 Alaskan town to work in a mining company's store. It 
 was all very puzzling. 
 
 Peddar came to the door and roused her from her 
 reverie. 
 
 "J Jane," he stammered, mindful for once of the 
 listeners within, "Mr. Hoyt thinks I had better walk 
 down with the man to Mrs. Heaney's. He can't get 
 out to his own company's bunk-houses to-night, and 
 that's the only place for him to stay. Mrs. Heaney is 
 rather down on that other company, and I understand 
 I shall have to persuade her to take him in." 
 
 Peddar's tone suggested no pleasure at the prospect, 
 but Jane ignored it. 
 
 " 'His own bunk-houses !' " she repeated. "You don't 
 mean to say he is going back "
 
 PIETRO 137 
 
 "Yes. He says he must work as soon as he is able 
 until payday, so as to get the money that is coming to 
 him, if I can understand his lingo, and then he will go 
 home. Mr. Hoyt offered him a place on the Northern 
 Star, but he says they would kill him; the other people, 
 I mean!" Peddar's voice had sunken with horror. "I 
 I'm sure I hope they don't offer him any violence on 
 the way to Mrs. Heaney's, seeing him with me and 
 knowing we are connected with the company here, as 
 you might say." 
 
 "Of course they won't, father; don't be silly!" Jane 
 rose and turned to enter the shack. "Is he really able 
 to go? His ribs aren't broken, or anything?" 
 
 It was Hoyt who answered her. 
 
 "Not broken, but very badly bruised. He has taken 
 a terrific beating, but I can't get out of him what it 
 was all about." 
 
 Pietro, his swarthy skin pale beneath the bandages, 
 was sitting on the side of the cot and as he turned a 
 grateful eye upon the girl his swollen lips moved. 
 
 "He mad-a at me, maybe beat-a too if he know," he 
 muttered gesturing with one white-swathed hand toward 
 the engineer. 
 
 "No, Pietro, I'm sure he won't be angry, and I know 
 he wouldn't hurt you if he were," Jane responded en- 
 couragingly. "Was it because you bought things from 
 our store that Malison attacked you?" 
 
 Pietro nodded, half-fearfully. 
 
 "I bring them all-a back, all-a but de raze'!" he said 
 eagerly. "I no right to buy off-a you, but our stuff no 
 good, big- a price. Malison he see me dis-a afternoon. 
 I see heem go your store too but he come-a out queek
 
 138 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 and verra mad, black-a de look. He see me show de 
 raze' one our boys, he come after me, tak-a de raze' 
 away and do to me whatta you see. I theenk I die you 
 no come feex-a me up, Mees. I no t'ank-a you, I no 
 can t'ank " 
 
 "That is quite all right, Pietro, and you need not 
 return the things you bought. I am only glad that you 
 feel stronger now and are not in such pain." Jane 
 smiled at him. "My father will go with you to Ma 
 Heaney's and see that she takes you in. I hope that 
 you will not have any more trouble with your superin- 
 tendent." 
 
 Pietro shrugged. 
 
 "I tak-a de chance," he observed philosophically. 
 "When I get-a my pay I quit-a de comp'; no good, not 
 on de square." 
 
 Jane waited with a little catch in her breath, but he 
 said no more and she dared not question him in the 
 presence of Hoyt lest she lose what confidence the 
 Italian might have placed in her. 
 
 When he had departed leaning heavily upon Peddar's 
 arm she turned to the engineer. 
 
 "You will stay and have supper with us, won't you? 
 My father isn't a very -good cook, I am afraid, but we 
 have lots of canned things, and we would be so glad to 
 have you." 
 
 He shook his head smilingly.. 
 
 "Thank you, but I can only stay until your father 
 comes home," he replied. 
 
 "I suppose it wouldn't do," she answered mischiev- 
 ously. "It wouldn't be the thing for the chief of the
 
 PIETRO 139 
 
 Northern Star Company to accept the hospitality of the 
 humblest of his employees." 
 
 To her surprise he did not respond in like tone to her 
 raillery. Instead his face darkened again and he said 
 almost fiercely: 
 
 "You know that isn't the reason! Do you take me 
 for a snob, Miss Peddar? Position and place make 
 no difference up here, thank God. It is the work that 
 counts. But I've got to get back to the job." 
 
 "It's progressing, isn't it?" Jane asked. "The other 
 people have done nothing to interfere with you since 
 the explosion, have they ? I wish- they would let me go 
 to see that poor boy, but the doctor said it would not be 
 establishing a good precedent." 
 
 "Hansen is coming along nicely and we will have him 
 back at work in a few days, now." Hoyt paused and 
 then turned to her with a curious boyish impetuousness. 
 "I don't suppose you have any idea of it, Miss Peddar, 
 but I want to tell you how much you did for me that 
 day when you followed me to that demolished shack 
 where the men themselves were afraid to go." 
 
 Jane smiled. 
 
 "I didn't know there was any danger," she said with 
 naive honesty. "They shouted to me but I didn't stop 
 to hear what they said, or even to think." 
 
 "No," he repeated. "You didn't stop to hear or even 
 to think, and when Jud Pittinger asked you why you 
 had walked straight into danger, you said it was because 
 I had gone. Do you realize what effect that had upon 
 the men themselves? That you, a newcomer on the job, 
 a mere girl, would follow where I led, unquestioningly, 
 while they held back? I suppose I was fairly successful
 
 140 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 with them before that, but I am a comparative new- 
 comer myself, you know, and although they acknowl- 
 edged my authority and seemed to like me in a sort of 
 way I did not know how far I could trust them for 
 absolute loyalty in a crisis. You shamed them, Miss 
 Peddar, and I think' if I know men that they would 
 follow me into the very jaws of disaster." 
 
 "If they would, it is only your own personality which 
 has done it, Mr. Hoyt." Jane turned away to hide her 
 glowing eyes. "I hope they are loyal, but if there is 
 really a traitor among them " 
 
 "I am afraid there can be no question of that." 
 Hoyt's face grew swiftly grave once more. "So many 
 of these so-called accidents have occurred at or near the 
 time when they could do us the most harm, that they 
 must be obtaining inside information from some source. 
 Bowers and I have talked with the men and studied 
 them, but we cannot be sure and it is a pretty rotten 
 thing to hold an innocent man under suspicion." 
 
 "Tell me," Jane spoke quickly, as a sudden thought 
 returned to her, "who should have been around the 
 wharf and the ore pockets this afternoon, an hour or 
 so ago ?" 
 
 "No one but the watchman." Hoyt glanced at her 
 in surprise. 
 
 "Is he a Russian or a Slav? A thick-set man, with 
 sunken eyes close together, and high cheekbones?" 
 
 "No. He's Pat Culhane, a big, blond Irishman." 
 Hoyt's tone had quickened too. "Why do you ask ? You 
 didn't see such a man as you describe hanging about 
 there, did you?" 
 
 Jane nodded and told him briefly of the incident of
 
 PIETRO 141 
 
 the afternoon. He listened quietly, but when she had 
 finished he rose and began to pace the floor. 
 
 "That description might fit any one of twenty men on 
 the job," he remarked at last. "You are sure he is one 
 of our outfit?" 
 
 "Oh, yes. He has been in the store half a dozen 
 times with the others since I came, and I think I have 
 noticed him working over in the storage yard." 
 
 "One of the bull gang, eh? Would you know him 
 again if you saw him, Miss Peddar?" 
 
 "Yes, if I came face to face with him I think I 
 should, but I couldn't possibly point him out from among 
 the rest," Jane responded doubtfully. "Of course, I may 
 have been unduly suspicious of his actions " 
 
 "He had no right on the wharf, whoever he was," 
 Hoyt declared. "When he comes into the store again, 
 
 get his name if you can, please. I wonder " He 
 
 eyed her quizzically. "I wonder if this Mr. MacLeod, 
 who has your references, really sent you up here just 
 to tend store!" 
 
 Jane laughed frankly. 
 
 "He was rather dubious about my ability to do even 
 that satisfactorily after my rather limited previous ex- 
 perience, but I begged so hard for the position that he 
 finally engaged me." 
 
 "Why were you so anxious to come?" He had halted 
 before her, but after one flashing, mischievous glance 
 she averted her eyes. 
 
 "To see what it was like up here, of course, and then 
 father was so wild to get to Alaska himself " 
 
 A deferential cough from the doorway made them both 
 turn. Peddar had executed his mission.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE next morning when Jane came down Main 
 Street toward the store in time for the seven 
 o'clock shift she noticed idly that several men 
 seemed to be patrolling the wharf, but her thoughts were 
 busied with Pietro and his plight, and she gave little 
 heed. 
 
 Jud Pittinger met her at the door with an oddly grim 
 look about his usually smiling mouth, and it occurred 
 to her that his ruddy countenance had paled. 
 
 "Has anything happened, Mr. Pittinger?" she asked. 
 
 For answer he took her arm and turning her around 
 pointed to the wharf. 
 
 "You see them men, Miss Jane?" he demanded. 
 
 "Why, of course. What are they doing?" 
 
 "Lockin' the stable door!" Jud replied cryptically. 
 "Only this time the horse wasn't stole first." 
 
 "What do you mean?" Jane's mind flashed back to 
 her conversation of the previous night with the en- 
 gineer. 
 
 "Them rascals was layin' to blow up the wharf, same 
 as they did the dynamite shack last week, that's all!" 
 Jud retorted. "Beats all tarnation how they manage to 
 lay their wires right before our noses and no one gettin' 
 on to 'em, but last night Mr. Hoyt come down here and 
 
 142
 
 HARVE DUGDALE COUNTS TEN 143 
 
 found 'em all fixed ready to attach to the sticks. Come 
 dark, or what passes for dark up here between one 
 and three, and they would have finished the job and 
 touched her off, as sure as you're born, and when you 
 come down this mornin', Miss Jane, me and the store 
 would' ve been out in the middle of the bay; what was 
 left of us, that is." 
 
 "But the watchman!" Jane stammered. "Where was 
 he?" 
 
 "Snorin' like a bull alongside the third pocket. Said 
 he only took one nip out of his flask, though even that 
 ain't allowable, of course, and just keeled over. Looks 
 like he was tellin' the truth, too, for when the Doc ex- 
 amined his flask there wasn't more'n one drink gone out 
 of it, but the red-eye that was left was doped for fair: 
 somebody must have got at it in the bunk-house and 
 there don't any Unatika fellers dast poke their noses in 
 there." 
 
 "One of our own men!" Jane exclaimed. It was on 
 the tip of her tongue to mention the one she had seen 
 skulking about on the previous afternoon, but she thought 
 better of it. Hoyt had known and he had not taken 
 the loyal but garrulous little storekeeper into his con- 
 fidence. 
 
 "I'd like to get my hands on him !" Jud growled. "It's 
 bad enough to have a bunch of ornery coyotes like that 
 other gang hangin' around to run us out of town with- 
 out a skunk in our own yard ! When they find him the 
 boys will just about eat him alive !" 
 
 Still voicing his wrath, he turned the books over to 
 his assistant and went to the mess-house for breakfast, 
 and when the morning shift changed and the men came
 
 144 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 drifting in for tobacco and soap, Jane scrutinized each 
 face carefully as she waited upon them, but the swarthy, 
 sunken-eyed lounger of the wharf did not put in an 
 appearance. 
 
 There were so many who did resemble him, however, 
 that she despaired more than ever of being able to point 
 him out, and as the morning wore on she felt a sense 
 of dejection and discouragement stealing over her. To 
 have seen the man and not be able to identify him had 
 not been of much service to Barney Hoyt, after all, or 
 surely he would have come in to tell her so, no matter 
 how busy he might be. All unconsciously she watched 
 the door, but only the track layers and road builders of 
 the last shift came for supplies, and when Jud relieved 
 her she went slowly home to dinner through the ever- 
 lasting drizzle with a sense of disappointment which she 
 would not admit even to herself. 
 
 After all, she was only masquerading up here. In a 
 month or two, if the road went through she would go 
 back and be Janetta Gildersleeve once more, and dance 
 and play bridge and drive her car and forget that there 
 was such a hateful, rainy, lonesome place as Katalak 
 on the map ! Why should it matter to her whether this 
 young engineer, this hireling of her brother's, came to 
 thank her for warning him of the man on the wharf or 
 not? She had not done it for him, thank goodness, but 
 for herself and Ollie, to protect their own interests. 
 Why was she so silly as to bother about him anyway? 
 
 She found the mid-day meal which in courtesy they 
 called dinner only half cooked, and Peddar in a sadly 
 agitated condition.
 
 HARVE DUGDALE COUNTS TEN 145 
 
 "Oh, miss, there's been a man here to see you, a 
 horrible person, if you don't mind my saying so." 
 
 When they were alone together Peddar frequently re- 
 verted to the original status which had existed between 
 them in more normal days and although the girl usually 
 corrected him sharply to keep him in practice she had 
 not the heart to do so now at sight of his perturbed 
 face. 
 
 "Who was it, Peddar ? Don't rattle the stove-lids like 
 that!" 
 
 "I don't know, miss, but he said he was a friend of 
 yours, and he asked me questions that I wouldn't have 
 answered if I could; I'd call them personal even up 
 here, miss." Peddar's tone trembled with indignation. 
 "As for the stove-lids, I'm that shaky I can hardly hold 
 them ! He came in and sat down without being invited, 
 and when he saw that you wasn't here and he couldn't 
 get anything out of me for I as much as up and told 
 him to go at last he turned ugly." 
 
 Jane felt an odd sinking feeling in her breast, but she 
 would not for worlds have let Peddar know the premoni- 
 tion which his words had brought to her mind. 
 
 "What did he look like?" she asked. 
 
 "Tall and dark he was, with horrid, gleaming, fishy 
 eyes. If you ask me, miss, I think it was the same man 
 who came and sat at our table that night in the restaurant, 
 the first night we arrived. You remember him, don't 
 you, miss? I'm quite sure he couldn't be a friend of 
 yours though you have made some up here as would 
 make your grandfather turn in his grave " 
 
 Jane sat down in the nearest chair, feeling suddenly 
 weak. So it had been Malison! He had dared to in-
 
 146 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 trude upon her very home, dared to question her sup- 
 posed father, to attempt to bully an old man! To what 
 lengths would he not go in his annoyance of her? But 
 above all things she must not let Peddar know ; she could 
 not trust him not to fly in a panic to Big Jim Bowers 
 or Barney Hoyt and blurt out the truth about them both 
 in his anxiety to protect her. 
 
 She took her hat off and flinging it on the couch ran 
 her fingers lightly through her hair. 
 
 "Oh, you must surely be mistaken, Peddar," she said 
 as indifferently as she could. "I don't know that man. 
 The one who called here was probably someone of the 
 outfit whom you haven't seen before, and I don't believe 
 he meant to be ugly; that was just his way, perhaps. 
 You know when we first came you thought they were 
 all brigands and cut-throats at the very least." 
 
 "Barring Mr. Hoyt and the superintendent and one 
 or two more, I've seen no cause to change my opinion, 
 miss," Peddar retorted with dignity. "But this man 
 ruffian, I should call him was the worst I have met 
 since we came, although that is saying a great deal. He 
 wanted to know all about us; where we came from, 
 and why we came, and who engaged us and where you 
 had worked before. It was when he wanted to know 
 if you had a a gentleman friend, miss, that I hinted 
 he had better take himself off!" 
 
 "Did he," Jane chose her words with care, "did he 
 ask anything about last night? About our bringing that 
 poor Unatika man here and taking care of him after he 
 had been so brutally beaten?" 
 
 "He made some sort of a joke about it, but I was so 
 angry and worried about getting rid of him that I didn't
 
 HARVE DUGDALE COUNTS TEN 147 
 
 pay any attention." Pedclar flapped a thin cloth out 
 and laid it over the rough table. "I suppose that other 
 affair is all over town by now, and I must say it was 
 a very unwise thing to do, although Christian. I could 
 have got some men from one of those cafes and had 
 him carried off and saved all the bother, to say nothing 
 of the scene I had with that Mrs. Heaney." 
 
 "What did she do?" asked Jane absently, glad to get 
 his mind off his recent visitor. 
 
 "It wasn't so much what she did as what she said, 
 miss." Peddar's face went suddenly scarlet. "Brazen, 
 that's what she is! I really wouldn't repeat it, but to 
 
 think at my time of life " He broke off and pulled 
 
 out a chair from the table. "Dinner is served, miss." 
 
 Jane smiled in spite of the blank terror which had 
 turned her cold at the incongruity of the phrase in such 
 surroundings. 
 
 "You are forgetting, father" she said as she took her 
 seat and motioned to the one opposite. "If anyone 
 should come to the door now and see you waiting upon 
 me what would they think?" 
 
 "I shall never get used to it !" Peddar declared mourn- 
 fully, as he obeyed. "If we could only be ourselves 
 when we were by ourselves I shouldn't take it so hard, 
 miss, but I feel as if your grandfather's cold hand was 
 on me out of the grave every time I sit down here with 
 you! The beans are a trifle burned, I am afraid, miss, 
 but if you will try a bit of the cold ham and some 
 potatoes " 
 
 Jane essayed to eat but the food choked her. Had 
 Malison's visit been a mere bluff to frighten her, or 
 were they actually not safe from him here in the shack ?
 
 148 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 They were far from any other habitation, and Peddar 
 was old. She had seen a specimen of Malison's brutality 
 on the previous day; what if she were to come home 
 from the store some time to find poor Peddar like that? 
 What if 
 
 She pushed her chair back and rose. 
 
 "I can't eat any more and I must hurry back," she 
 said. "Mr. Pittinger asked me to be early to-day. Want 
 any supplies from town for supper?" 
 
 "They've nothing there that we haven't, except salmon, 
 miss, and I doubt that you'll ever be able to look one 
 in the face again." Peddar made a wry grimace. 
 "Thank heavens the steamer will be in with some fresh 
 meat and vegetables in a day or two." 
 
 Jane forced herself to walk slowly back, but when 
 she reached the cluster of buildings which bordered 
 Main Street she breathed more freely. 
 
 Was it safe to leave Peddar alone there all day? 
 Were they safe there together if Malison took it into 
 his head to annoy them with his presence? Of course, 
 they could go back to Ma Heaney's, but the thought of 
 acknowledging that the man had frightened them from 
 their home was as repugnant as the change itself would 
 be, and it was equally distasteful to her to appeal for 
 help from any of the outfit, most of all Barney Hoyt. 
 
 She had come there to take her place with the men 
 as far as possible and to ask no favors because of her 
 sex; must she admit her defeat because of a bullying 
 ruffian who was not only her enemy but her brother's, 
 who was one of the ringleaders in the plot to drive away 
 the Northern Star outfit and halt the road to the 
 mine?
 
 HARVE DUGDALE COUNTS TEN 149 
 
 Jud met her at the door of the store as in the morn- 
 ing, and she saw that this time he held a long string 
 of knotted cigar ribbons in his hand. 
 
 "Here, Miss Jane; I forgot to give it to you this 
 mornin', I was so het up about that business of the 
 wharf. You just wear it around your neck where you 
 can get at it in a hurry, and if anyone bothers you, 
 give it one blast and see what happens. I told the boys 
 to listen for it and come a-whoopin' !" 
 
 A brightly polished whistle hung from the end of the 
 ribbon and Jane accepted it thankfully. 
 
 "It's awfully good of you, Mr. Pittinger." She slipped 
 the loop over her head. "I don't want to be a trouble 
 to you." 
 
 "Ain't a mite o' trouble; tickled to death to have you 
 here," Jud declared stoutly. "Store's been like a dif- 
 ferent place since you come. There's one good thing 
 about that there whistle; it's got a different toot to it 
 than any other in town. I traded two of these here 
 neckties and a box of scented soap for it to a feller 
 who's goin' home from up country on the next steamer, 
 and it's worth it. If you was to blow this nobody would 
 mistake it for one of them the watchmen carry." 
 
 "Oh, I'm glad!" Jane exclaimed. "I wanted to ask 
 you, Mr. Pittinger, if I might use it any time; when 
 I'm not in the store, I mean? Do you suppose it could 
 be heard if I blew it as loud as I could from from 
 home?" 
 
 Jud's smiling face changed. 
 
 "What's the matter?" he demanded. "Anyone been 
 botherin' you or your father up at the shack?" 
 
 "No o," she temporized, "but we live so far from
 
 150 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 anyone else, and father isn't young, you know. I thought 
 it would be so nice to feel that we could get help if 
 we ever really needed it, though I don't suppose we 
 ever shall." 
 
 "You can hear that whistle half a mile, especially now 
 that the steam shovel is moving off along the road a 
 piece," Jud responded, but there was a curiously set 
 look about his mouth and he eyed her keenly. "Just 
 you cut loose on that once, and you'll have the whole 
 outfit at your door before you could say 'shoo' to a 
 yearling shorthorn! I got to see Harve Dugdale about 
 somethin' I forgot. I'll be back soon." 
 
 His precipitate departure might have caused Jane a 
 moment of surprise at any other time, but she was still 
 too perturbed over Malison's visit to give any thought 
 to it. As she went about her task of rearranging the 
 stock her hands unconsciously went more than once to 
 her breast where the whistle hung concealed; at least if 
 the need arose for its use help would come. 
 
 She was stooping beneath the counter removing the 
 litter which the storekeeper habitually left in his wake 
 when the voice for which she had unconsciously waited 
 all the morning sounded from the doorway. 
 
 "Anybody keeping store?" 
 
 Jane's face, flushed from her exertions, rose precipi- 
 tately to view. 
 
 "Oh," she remarked, "it's you !" 
 
 "I couldn't come before." Hoyt advanced to the 
 counter and Jane saw that there was a worn, weary look 
 about his brown eyes. "I tried to find an opportunity 
 all the morning but I had to stick on the job with the
 
 HARVE DUGDALE COUNTS TEN 151 
 
 clearing gang. Do you know what you did last night? 
 You saved the wharf!" 
 
 "Not I!" Jane smiled. "It was you; I heard how 
 you found the wires that had been laid to blow it up." 
 
 "But I should never have gone near the wharf if you 
 had not warned me. It isn't only what you have done 
 for the Company but what this means personally to me 
 that I have come to try to express my gratitude for. 
 My reputation was at stake in this; if they had suc- 
 ceeded in demolishing the work of weeks and months < 
 for the storage yard would have gone up, too I would 
 have been responsible." 
 
 "That is ridiculous!" Jane cried with unguarded 
 warmth. "The Company knew before they sent you up 
 here what odds you would have to fight against, and 
 they could not expect you to be everywhere at once and 
 guard the completed work as well as supervise the road 
 building! I don't believe you have had an hour's sleep 
 in the last thirty-six ! You look simply tired out !" 
 
 The last observation burst involuntarily from her lips 
 but he waved it aside with a gesture. 
 
 "How do you know what the Company expects of me 
 and what responsibilities I assumed in the way of trouble 
 when I took the job?" he asked with his customary dis- 
 concerting directness. 
 
 "Why Mr. Pittinger told me," Jane stammered. 
 "There was trouble from the Unatika outfit before you 
 came, when the first engineer was here. Do you think 
 that the man I saw yesterday was actually laying those 
 wires ?" 
 
 "Or keeping guard for a confederate," Hoyt replied. 
 "I'm having every Slav in the outfit watched, but it is
 
 152 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 bad business for it is bound to create disaffection among 
 the men. It is more than ever imperative that we find 
 the one who has been selling us out, of course, and I 
 know I need not ask you to keep a sharp look-out for 
 him. You are the only one with a chance of identifying 
 him, Miss Peddar, and everything depends upon you 
 now. When I send in my report to the Company I shall 
 see that you get full credit for what you have done." 
 
 "Oh, for goodness' sake, don't do that!" Jane ex- 
 claimed in alarm. "I didn't do anything, I just h hap- 
 pened to see that man and he may have had nothing 
 to do with the attempt to destroy the wharf! I don't 
 want any credit, I don't want to be mentioned at all!" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 Jane was aware that the young engineer was regarding 
 her steadily and a measure of caution returned to her, 
 but her heart was filled with dismay. That report would 
 go to Andrew Geddes and the name "Jane Peddar" would 
 reveal everything to him ! He would wire Hoyt to send 
 her home; he might even come after her himself in the 
 fullness of his anxiety and wrath at the trick she had 
 played upon him, and he would most assuredly cable 
 to Ollie and cause him boundless worry. Whatever hap- 
 pened, that report must not go in! 
 
 "Because I I know Mr. MacLeod, the man who en- 
 gaged me, and you don't at least I don't think you 
 do !" she floundered desperately. "He's a very hard man 
 and he told me specifically when I came up here what 
 my duties were to be and that I was not to overstep 
 them." 
 
 "But that is nonsense " Hoyt began. 
 
 "It isn't! Mr. Hoyt, if I do my work satisfactorily
 
 HARVE DUGDALE COUNTS TEN 153 
 
 here in the store it will not be necessary to mention me 
 at all, will it? You came in here to thank me for a 
 favor which I was able by sheer accident to do for 
 you ; will you grant me one now ? Please do not mention 
 me in your report. If you do I am certain to be recalled 
 and I do so want to stay and see the road go through !" 
 
 The note of absolute sincerity which rang through her 
 tones added to the bewilderment of the young engineer 
 and he could only gaze helplessly at her. After a long 
 moment he said quietly: 
 
 "It is rather irregular, you know, and I don't pretend 
 to understand, but if you put it that way of course I 
 must do as you ask, Miss Peddar. I merely wished to 
 give you your due credit in the eyes of the Company, 
 but if you don't want it that is your own affair. Why 
 you should be recalled for rendering them a service is 
 beyond my comprehension, but I do not want that to 
 happen above all things. Your being up here has made 
 a difference in everything. I I can't tell you " 
 
 He broke off suddenly and pulled up the collar of his 
 rubber coat. 
 
 "I must get back to the clearing gang. I'll keep my 
 word to you, Miss Peddar; you shan't be mentioned in 
 the report, and thank you for what you did last night." 
 
 He was gone, and Jane sank down on a low stool 
 behind the counter. What a narrow escape! The pos- 
 sible danger of a report going in to Andrew Geddes with 
 her own name and Peddar's involved had never oc- 
 curred to her, and she felt limp with the reaction from 
 her sudden scare. She must guard against that possible 
 contingency in future, whatever Barney Hoyt came to
 
 154 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 think of her. At least he must be sure of her loyalty, 
 and that was some comfort. 
 
 "So it's you and your damned supe, is it?" 
 
 A thick, sneering voice came on a whiff of brandy to 
 assail her senses and Jane looked up hastily and then 
 shrank back, one hand flying instinctively to the ribbon 
 about her neck. Malison, obviously drunk, stood before 
 her. 
 
 "That's why you turned me down, is it?" he went 
 on while she sat stunned. "Well, I'll show you and him, 
 too " 
 
 Jane's hand came down to her side and she rose. 
 
 "Mr. Malison," she said very distinctly, "you have no 
 right in this store. Leave it at once." 
 
 "I'll leave when I get good and ready and not before !" 
 He came close to her, but she did not flinch. "So you 
 know who I am, eh? Pietro told you that, I suppose! 
 Well, he's got more coming to him for that " 
 
 "Pietro told me nothing," Jane interrupted, still in an 
 even tone. "I knew you from the start, and I warn 
 you that if you come here or go to my home again and 
 annoy my father and me it will be the worse for you. 
 Now go." 
 
 "I'll go where I please in this man's town and no one 
 can stop me!" His furious, inflamed face was within a 
 few inches of hers across the counter. "You thought 
 you knew me, but you'll know me a damn sight better 
 before you're through, you little " 
 
 He never finished the sentence. Just as Jane's hand 
 was stealing again to the whistle a long, lanky figure 
 precipitated itself through the doorway, whirled him
 
 155 
 
 around and planted a huge fist with methodical precision 
 upon his jaw. 
 
 Malison sprawled his length on the floor, and it seemed 
 to Jane that in an instant the store was filled with men. 
 She shrank back as Harve Dugdale bent jeeringly over 
 the prostrate bully. 
 
 "Get up and put up your hands, you white-livered 
 dog!" he cried. "Women and poor little Dago runts, 
 
 that's about your meat, is it? Get up you, 
 
 or I'll pull you up!" 
 
 The men crowded about expectantly, but Malison only 
 cringed and tried to drag himself to the shelter* of the 
 counter. 
 
 "You won't, eh?" Harve straightened. "Look here, 
 
 boys, this don't show himself in town 
 
 again, understand?" A rising murmur of assent came 
 from the crowd. "If he does you'll know how to pick a 
 fight that the marshal can't kick at and anything goes 
 from rocks to gats! Clear the way to the door!" 
 
 They shuffled hastily into two separate lines, leaving 
 a narrow lane between, and Harve bent once more over 
 Malison. 
 
 "I'm going to start you on your way now, and count 
 'ten/ If there's hide or hair of you in sight when I 
 finish I'll set the boys on you !" 
 
 Malison whimpered, but Harve seized him by the 
 collar, dragged him to the door and with a well-placed 
 kick sent him tumbling out into the middle of the 
 street. 
 
 "One," began Harve. The men crowded to the door, 
 shutting out Jane's view of what was^ going on outside. 
 "Two three four five I thought you would,
 
 156 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 you! six seven eight nine ten! Look at him 
 plowin' up the mud, boys!" 
 
 A storm of growls and jeers burst from the men and 
 followed the fleeing fugitive up the street as Harve turned 
 with a trace of sheepishness to Jane. 
 
 "Too bad to muss up your store like this, Miss Jane." 
 He paused and added : "And I'm damn sorry I swore !"
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL 
 
 "TIT THEN Jane neared the shack that evening at 
 \/\/ suppertime an unusually appetizing odor of 
 good things drifted out to her, mingling with 
 the low-hanging smoke from the chimney, and she en- 
 tered to find Peddar seated in a corner with a scandal- 
 ized look upon his face while a stout, uncorseted figure 
 turned from the stove and greeted her with the wave of 
 a pancake turner. 
 
 "Hello, dearie !" Ma Heaney called cordially. "Kinder 
 thought you'd be along home soon. I come up to give 
 you and your Pa a decent meal." 
 
 "That's very kind of you." Jane spoke in all sin- 
 cerity. "Father has never done any cooking before, and 
 I I cannot seem to find time " 
 
 "I guess you ain't any too used to it, either," Ma 
 Heaney interrupted her with a shrewd, kindly glance. 
 "Just you. set 'down, and I'll have this grub ready in no 
 time. Say, that was a grand little battle while it lasted, 
 wasn't it?" 
 
 Jane motioned frantically from behind Peddar's back, 
 but her self-invited guest was oblivious. 
 
 "I was scrapin' the mud off my steps this afternoon 
 when I see that Malison come flyin' out o' your store 
 door and land in the middle of the street on the back
 
 158 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 of his neck," Ma Heaney continued. "Then Harve 
 showed himself and Malison got up and went kitin' 
 down street and made for the hills like a dog with a 
 tin can tied to him! Some of the boys told me about 
 it afterwards, but how did it start, dearie?" 
 
 "A fight in in the store?" Peddar quavered. "Were 
 you there?" 
 
 He turned horrified eyes on the girl and she smiled 
 reassuringly. 
 
 "It wasn't much of a fight, father. Mr. Malison came 
 in and of course he had no business there, being a Una- 
 tika man, so Mr. Dugdale put him out." 
 
 "I should think he did!" ejaculated the irrepressible 
 Ma Heaney. "He's been run out of town and I guess 
 you don't know what that means in a place like this. 
 It means that if he shows his face here again he'll get 
 drilled full of holes, and a good thing, too !" 
 
 "They'll k kill him?" gasped Peddar. 
 
 "Deader'n Daniel's cat, but he'll take no chances un- 
 less he comes back with his whole gang for a clean-up." 
 Ma Heaney slammed the oven door with a clang. "Etta 
 Carney's cuttin' up somethin' terrible. If I was you 
 I'd keep out of her way for a day or tv/o, Miss Jane." 
 
 " 'Etta Carney ?' " Jane repeated. 
 
 "Sure. You remember I told you about her. She was 
 Hugh Malison's girl, and although he was tired of her 
 before ever you come to Katalak, she just naterally 
 blames you for what happened this afternoon ; the whole 
 town knows by now why he's been sneakin' into your 
 company store." 
 
 "Do you mean " Jane drew herself up to all her 
 
 slim height. "Do you mean that / : "
 
 AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL 159 
 
 "Of course not, dearie!" Ma Heaney patted her 
 shoulder soothingly with one greasy hand. "But you 
 can't stop a man like Malison from lookin', unless you 
 run him out of town like the boys done." 
 
 "A fight! You, to be mixed up in a.fight!" Peddar 
 had been fortunately oblivious to the latter part of the 
 conversation. "I'm sure I don't know whatever will 
 happen next, but that store is no place for you, and I 
 shall certainly write " 
 
 "Now, father!" Jane cried, "I wasn't mixed up in 
 it, I tell you ! I was behind the counter all the time, 
 and it happened so quickly that I scarcely saw it. Please 
 don't let us discuss it any more. Mrs. Heaney, how is 
 Pietro?" 
 
 "That Eyetalian that Malison beat up? Oh, he's all 
 right, though banged up some. He went back to his 
 own outfit to-day. I never would have took him in at 
 all, only it was your Pa that asked it of me." Ma 
 Heaney turned a beaming eye on Peddar, who shud- 
 dered. "When I like folks I'm just naterally wax in 
 their hands, and can't say 'no.' I s'pose that's why 
 I've buried three husbands. Well, supper's ready." 
 
 "You don't like the Unatika outfit, do you, Mrs. 
 Heaney?" Jane asked as they took their places at the 
 table. 
 
 "Not so as it's noticeable!" Her wide, good-natured 
 mouth set grimly. "I had 'em when they first come, 
 and a wilder, tougher lot I never see! Not that that 
 bothers me, for I've lived through four gold rushes in 
 my time, but when they tried to cheat me out of what 
 was comin' to me I threw the whole lot out, and they 
 had to shift for themselves until they got their bunk-
 
 160 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 houses built, back there in the foothills a ways. They're 
 a bad crowd and Malison's one of the worst of 'em. 
 I thought he meant trouble when he came out here this 
 mornin', but I guess your Pa knew how to handle him; 
 them kind truckle down to a real gentleman every time." 
 
 "Came here !" Peddar dropped his fork. "Did you 
 say that this person came here, ma'am?" 
 
 "Well, nobody lives beyond you, and I don't know 
 who else he could have come out to see," she remarked. 
 "Lew Nagel, who tends bar at the Happy Days, said 
 he saw him comin' from here this mornin' and I thought 
 maybe he had been out to raise ructions about your 
 takin' that Pietro in." 
 
 "That was Malison!" Peddar wiped his trembling 
 chin and pushed back his chair. "If I had known it, I 
 should have dropped dead here before him ! It's a wonder 
 he didn't serve me as he did that Pietro ! And you said 
 you didn't know who it could have been !" He turned 
 to Jane. "I told you he looked like the man in the 
 restaurant the night we arrived." 
 
 "It never occurred to me that it could really have 
 been he," Jane evaded. "However, it doesn't matter 
 now; we shall not be troubled with him again." 
 
 "Unless he gets the whole gang back of him and starts 
 something in the open against the Northern Star outfit," 
 remarked Ma Heaney. "I shouldn't be surprised if he 
 did now, with or without orders from his own company, 
 but I guess Mr. Hoyt " 
 
 "Oh!" Jane rose as a low knock sounded upon the 
 door and opened it. "Come in, Mr. Hoyt. Mrs. Heaney 
 was just speaking of you." 
 
 "Thanks. You do look cozy. No." The visitor shook
 
 AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL 161 
 
 his head smilingly as Ma Heaney started to set another 
 place at the table. "I've had my supper. I just dropped 
 in to see if Miss Peddar would care to come and see 
 how the road is progressing." 
 
 "Run right along, dearie," Ma Heaney cried before 
 the girl could speak. "Your Pa and I can clean up in 
 no time, and you're cooped up all day in that store. I 
 was just sayin' that I thought you could handle Hugh 
 Malison if he starts something openly against your outfit 
 after what happened to him to-day. You heard about 
 it, Mr. Hoyt?" 
 
 The engineer nodded. 
 
 "It was coming to him, Mrs. Heaney. Harve Dug- 
 dale acted without authority, but he and the boys did 
 exactly the right thing. I was sorry to learn that you 
 had been subjected to such annoyance, Miss Peddar " 
 
 "That was one of the chances I took when father and 
 I decided to come up here, you know," Jane responded 
 lightly as she slipped into her coat. "I didn't mind, 
 really, and Harve Dugdale was splendid ! I I wouldn't 
 have missed it for worlds!" 
 
 He smiled at her as they left the shack and Peddar 
 to the tender mercies of Ma Heaney, and started down 
 the rain-soaked plank walk. 
 
 "I didn't know that you were such a boodthirsty young 
 woman," he said. 
 
 "I didn't, either! I never saw a fight before," Jane 
 confessed with a laugh, and then her face sobered. "I 
 feel as bloodthirsty as a savage when I think of the 
 Unatika people! If they only would come out in the 
 open and fight fairly one would have more respect for 
 them, but this way of striking in the dark is abominable !
 
 162 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 It makes one almost want to descend to their level and 
 hit back." 
 
 "When the time comes, perhaps we shall." Hoyt's 
 expression, too, had grown stern. "They are getting 
 their own storage yard ready a mile or so beyond the 
 other breakwater and that means that they will begin 
 soon to assemble the material for their road; perhaps 
 the first consignment may get in on the steamer which 
 is due to-morrow. When it comes I shall know whether 
 or not a certain suspicion of mine is founded on fact." 
 
 Jane glanced up at him quickly. 
 
 "You mean?" 
 
 "That I should not be surprised if the road they hope 
 to build would be of the most temporary character, just 
 stable enough for them to claim the right of way if they 
 succeed in laying their rails," he replied. "If they can 
 run a single engine and flat car over it for three months, 
 I have an idea that it will be the limit of their road's 
 endurance." 
 
 "Oh !" Jane exclaimed indignantly. "They hope to 
 run the Northern Star out in that time and get your 
 road as well as the mine?" 
 
 "Possibly, but I suspect that if they should succeed 
 in gaining possession of the Northern Star mine the 
 operations on the Unatika itself would be suspended 
 indefinitely. I have been hearing some queer rumors 
 about the value of their mine. I should not speak of 
 it to anyone else, and I don't know why I am telling 
 this to you now, Miss Peddar," he added. "I haven't 
 any proof yet, but the Unatika haven't tried to float any 
 stock, and from all one can see they have barely 
 scratched the ground. Their mine may be worthless;
 
 AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL 163 
 
 their claim merely a blind to give them an excuse to 
 gain possession of the right of way, and buy in the 
 Northern Star at a dead loss to our company." 
 
 "You have no idea who the owners of the Unatika 
 are?" Jane asked. 
 
 "No more than I have as to whom I am really work- 
 ing for myself," responded Hoyt. "Our own company 
 is as much under cover as the other outfit." 
 
 "Did Mr. MacLeod engage you, too?" Jane spoke 
 on a sly impulse. 
 
 Hoyt shook his head. 
 
 "It was someone else; an agent, I believe." His tone 
 was carelessly noncommital. "I know we're on the level, 
 though; know it from the instructions which were given 
 to me, from the very way the whole proposition was 
 put into my hands. If I hadn't assured myself of that 
 I wouldn't be here, and now that I am here I'm going 
 to put the road through in spite of the Unatika outfit." 
 
 "I'm sure you will !" Jane cried. "I only wish that 
 I were a man so that I might help more, too!" 
 
 "But you are helping. With your influence, the ex- 
 ample of your spirit you are worth any three men in 
 the outfit." Hoyt's tones were lowered and insensibly 
 he had drawn closer to her side on the narrow walk. 
 "The boys regarded you with a wondering sort of re- 
 spect for coming up here, but they worship you now 
 for your pluck and friendliness and cheerful comrade- 
 ship. They may be an ignorant, rough lot for the most 
 part, but they can recognize the difference between you 
 and the sort of woman one would expect to find in a 
 job like yours as quickly as I can. You have slipped 
 into the life here with wonderful ease in a way, and
 
 i64 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 yet it isn't your sort of life, nor anything like what 
 you have been accustomed to; anyone can see that." 
 
 "Well, I've always lived in civilization, you know," 
 Jane parried. "You you're sort of an anomaly, too, 
 Mr. Hoyt. You pride yourself on belonging to the 
 working classes to us, I mean and yet I don't think 
 you do really, or at least you haven't always. But I 
 forgot ! One mustn't be personal in Alaska, must one ?" 
 
 "I have always worked," the engineer replied slowly, 
 ignoring the latter part of her speech. "A construction 
 man on a job of this sort must eat and sleep and work 
 and live with his outfit, and he's got to get under the 
 skin to know them. But a woman especially a woman 
 like you on this job you've tackled, is up against a 
 more difficult proposition than I think you realize even 
 yet. I feel in a way responsible for you " 
 
 "So do all the boys, it seems!" Jane said hastily. 
 "And they are such dears! See what Mr. Pittinger 
 gave me to-day." 
 
 She pulled out the whistle and told him how it came 
 to be in her possession, and he listened with a very 
 grave face. 
 
 "I think I understand the motive behind that order 
 from headquarters to sell those goods below cost to 
 anyone who came into the store, but you should never 
 for instant have been subjected to the insults of a man 
 like Malison," Hoyt remarked. "If you had come to 
 me or Jim Bowers " 
 
 "But don't you see, I didn't want to go to anyone," 
 explained Jane. "If I could not take care of myself I 
 had no business to come up here at all, but I am grateful 
 for the kindness and protection of Mr. Pittinger and
 
 AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL 165 
 
 all of you! Somehow, I don't feel nearly as independent 
 as I did when I came. I am not a bit afraid of the 
 future, but I think I must have been at that time and 
 my attitude was just sheer bravado ! Now I I'm glad 
 of the friends I've made and the feeling that I am one 
 with you all. I never thought that men like these " 
 
 She stopped in some confusion, but Hoyt finished for 
 her. 
 
 "You never thought they would be chivalrous and 
 protective toward a good woman? Perhaps that's be- 
 cause you never thought about them at all, Miss Peddar. 
 You've never come into direct contact with them be- 
 fore." 
 
 "With working people, of course, but not just this 
 kind," Jane amended lamely. "I'm learning a lot, Mr. 
 Hoyt." 
 
 "And we are learning from you." His voice trembled 
 slightly. "We are learning what a real woman's in- 
 fluence means, and that there is a girl in the world 
 like you, plucky and staunch and truehearted, makes it 
 a better place to live in even here." 
 
 Jane gasped and stole a second shy glance at him, 
 but his face was deeply serious and for the first time 
 she noted a look of repressed bitterness about his clean- 
 cut mouth as though with his words had come a flash 
 of some reminiscent thought which was not without pain. 
 More than ever she longed to know his story, but she 
 dared not probe for it now. 
 
 "I'm not all that, I am afraid," she responded quietly. 
 "I'm just a girl trying to earn my living in rather 
 unusual surroundings and to make the best of them. 
 Q oh! The road! The railroad at last!"
 
 166 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 They had long since left the plank walk behind them 
 and, plowing through the mud, had come to the place 
 where he had brought her on the occasion of their first 
 walk together nearly a fortnight before. The double 
 row of stakes which she had seen had given way to a 
 hardpacked straight path crossed with the raw new 
 spruce ties upon which lay gleaming lengths of rails 
 waiting to be spaced and spoked into place, the fish- 
 plates already bolted over the connecting ends. The 
 single-track railroad was indeed assuming form and a 
 semblance of reality. The miracle was at hand ! 
 
 "It will be, in a few months," Hoyt replied, as much 
 to her unspdken thought as to her exclamation. "Ordi- 
 narily it would take three months to complete the first five 
 miles, but I'm running three shifts and putting on all the 
 pressure I can and in another month we'll be up to the 
 glacier bed there in the foothills. We'll have to trestle 
 that, but afterwards it will be plain sailing as far as 
 the Unatika people are concerned. If we can get the 
 road across that glacier bed it will be too late for them 
 to interfere further and the race will be practically run." 
 
 "In another month! And you say that they haven't 
 even got their materials assembled yet ?" Jane demanded. 
 "Why, they haven't a chance, have they?" 
 
 "Not unless they hamper us still more and bring down 
 some disaster upon us that we cannot avert," replied 
 her companion. "They know that as well as we do, 
 and the next month will be the crucial one." 
 
 "What is that thing up there with the long boom 
 sticking out of it, just beyond where the rails stop?" 
 Jane pointed in fine disregard of the manners of the 
 past.
 
 AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL 167 
 
 "That is the steam shovel. It is idle now, but to- 
 morrow I am going to run a flat car, the first over the 
 line, as far as the rails have been spiked into place 
 and clear out that pile of mud and gravel the clearing 
 gang have left behind them " 
 
 He paused as a slouching figure appeared up the track 
 and slowly approached. At the next moment the figure 
 halted, stood for a short space irresolutely, and then 
 came on. 
 
 "Who is it? The watchman?" Jane's tone had quick- 
 ened. "He came from around the boom of the steam 
 shovel." 
 
 "No, and I'd like to know why he's off his job!" 
 Hoyt exclaimed. "The rest of the clearing gang are 
 working up beyond. Oh, it's Mirko. He's not on in 
 this shift. He's a lazy fellow; wonder what he has 
 shown up for during his time off?" 
 
 The man neared them and would have passed with 
 a surly nod but the engineer drew him to one side for 
 a moment. After a low-toned colloquy the man went 
 on, but Jane's eyes followed him as long as he was in 
 sight. 
 
 "He had lost something and came back to look for 
 it," Hoyt rejoined her. "As near as I could make out 
 it was one of those little sacred images they carry about 
 with them as a sort of mascot. These Russians are 
 more superstitious than negroes." 
 
 "If I were you I would look for that little sacred 
 image myself, Mr. Hoyt," observed Jane quickly. "That 
 is the man I saw lurking about the wharf just before 
 you found the wires set for the explosion!" 
 
 "You are positive of it?" he asked eagerly.
 
 i68 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "Absolutely ! I could not be mistaken ; I have watched 
 for his face all day in the store, and I know that I am 
 right. His walk, his manner, everything is the same, 
 and I could not forget his sunken, close-set eyes." 
 
 "Then there is work for me to do here without a 
 minute's delay. Miss Peddar, do you mind going home 
 by yourself? You'll be quite safe " 
 
 "Of course, I don't mind!" Jane held out her hand. 
 "You'll come and tell me to-morrow if he has been up 
 to any further mischief, won't you?" 
 
 Hoyt promised and, shaking hands with her, strode off 
 rapidly down the newly made track. Jane watched him 
 until his figure had melted into the curtain of misty 
 rain which had begun once more to descend upon them, 
 then turned and made her way slowly home. Her dis- 
 covery of the Russian's identity had brought with it 
 no elation; it seemed almost unimportant beside that 
 strange, bitter look which she had surprised upon the 
 face of the young engineer on the very moment after 
 he had praised her with such amazing candor and 
 warmth. 
 
 Had she all unconsciously recalled to him some other 
 girl who had not been "staunch and truehearted ?" Was 
 another girl at the bottom of the mystery which she felt 
 surrounded him, or did that mystery exist only in her 
 own absurd interest in this young employee? He might 
 be only what he pretended, a quite ordinary boy who 
 had worked his way through an engineering course 
 somewhere, and the girl if there were a girl was prob- 
 ably a common little thing. 
 
 Jane shrugged as she slopped her way through, the 
 mud and drizzle. Barney Hpyt's possible love affairs
 
 AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL 169, 
 
 were nothing to her, of course; she was just lonely for 
 the city and her friends and the old life. Well, in a 
 month it would be over. He had said that the race 
 would be practically run when they reached the trestle, 
 and she realized that she need not stay for the com- 
 pletion of the road, after all. She could go to Persis 
 in Maine for the rest of the summer and not only make 
 good her alibi, but forget that she had ever seen 
 Katalak. 
 
 The next day, however, brought an event which drove 
 Hoyt and his affairs from her mind, and equally ban- 
 ished all thought of deserting her post. The "Queen" 
 arrived punctually with the tide and in a rare burst of 
 sunshine Jane stood in the door of the store watching 
 the landing of the few passengers she carried. 
 
 They appeared to be miners for the most part, on 
 their way up country, and Jane was turning away when 
 she heard a subdued guffaw from the men grouped 
 near the door and caught sight of a strange figure making 
 its way gingerly up the street. It was that of a young 
 man clothed in corduroy knickerbockers and a shooting 
 coat topped by a mackinaw of exaggerated London 
 make. His feet were womanishly small, and immaculate 
 leather leggings covered his exceedingly thin, long legs. 
 A checked cloth cap was perched at a rakish angle upon 
 his sleek head and the face beneath it, clean shaven and 
 none too strong of feature, seemed vaguely familiar to 
 Jane. 
 
 Where could she have seen this preposterous young 
 man before? Surely no one from the East would have 
 business in this out-of-the-way corner of Alaska, and 
 she could not place him among her acquaintances at
 
 170 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 home. She watched while he hesitated before Ma 
 Heaney's door and finally disappeared within. Who 
 could he be, and what was he doing here? 
 
 Jane returned to her place behind the counter in a 
 perplexity which deepened with every moment that 
 passed. She knew him unquestionably; the conviction 
 strengthened the more she sought to combat it, and afl 
 at once a scene returned to her mind. A ballroom, 
 lights and flowers and music and a young man who 
 danced abominably and flirted more abominably still. 
 
 The vision and the significance of it made her senses 
 whirl. It could not be! Memory was playing some 
 hideous trick upon her ! What could bring Ronald Win- 
 field, the son of the Gildersleeve's implacable enemy, 
 to Katalak?
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 "J. BARNABY HOYT" 
 
 OVERWHELMED by the shock of her discovery, 
 Jane sank down on the little stool which Jud 
 Pittinger had installed behind the counter for 
 her and rested her chin upon her hands. Another 
 memory returned now with sickening significance: 
 that scrap of paper with "Northern Star" written upon 
 it in Adele Everton's hand, which she had found on 
 the last night in the old home, slipped between the 
 leaves of the map of Alaska in Ollie's encyclopedia. 
 
 Her erstwhile chaperone was somewhere West now, 
 in Winfield's private car. She had known of their 
 ownership of the Northern Star mine and had undoubt- 
 edly betrayed them to their enemy! Ronald Winfield 
 must have been sent up here by his father to spy out 
 the land, to find out who was in charge of their opera- 
 tions and learn what could be done to wrest the mine 
 from them and drive them once more to the wall ! Per- 
 haps when he discovered the state of war which existed 
 between them and the Unatika outfit, his father would 
 buy a controlling interest in the latter mining company 
 and bring the fight into the open. Perhaps 
 
 As a swift, almost incredible thought came to her 
 Jane sprang to her feet. Had Uncle Andrew been 
 mistaken after all ? Every word of that momentous 
 conversation in the old attorney's office on her birthday 
 
 171
 
 172 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 came back to her as though it had taken place only the 
 day before, and she recalled his half impatient reply 
 when she had asked the identity of the Unatika Com- 
 pany: "A group of copper operators here in Wall Street 
 ... no standing among the big fellows . . . just a ring 
 of the smaller fry." 
 
 Her query as to Winfield's possible connection with 
 them had been carelessly denied and scorned, but Uncle 
 Andrew had known that their enemy was not yet satis- 
 fied with his revenge upon them, that he would go to 
 any length to beggar them. What if this fight meant 
 something more than the mere right of way for a single- 
 track railroad? Could it be that Gordon Winfield him- 
 self was the Unatika Mining Company? 
 
 Jane caught her breath sharply. If only Ronald failed 
 to recognize her! That one meeting in the Cheevers' 
 crowded ballroom, a single dance together, five minutes 
 in the dim conservatory; would his memory of it serve 
 to connect the shabby assistant storekeeper of Katalak 
 with the radiantly clad society girl of that evening? 
 She had recognized him, but she had had greater reason 
 to remember him after the revelations of the following 
 day, and here he was in no disguise save that provided 
 by his own bizarre idea of a proper outfit for his en- 
 vironment. 
 
 If he did recognize her the case would be hopeless, 
 
 but if he did not A daring plan had leaped fully 
 
 matured into her mind, and Jane felt that she must 
 put it to the test at the earliest possible moment. If 
 the Winfields were really back of the Unatika outfit she 
 must get word to Uncle Andrew at once through Adam 
 MacLeod, and how could she learn the truth save from
 
 "J. BARNABY HOYT" 173 
 
 Ronald? He was as snobbish as all social climbers, 
 fatuously vain, a braggart and a would-be Lothario; 
 this much she had gathered from their initial meeting. 
 If he were weak, as well, and his conceit could be touched 
 and played upon by the possible infatuation of an in- 
 significant little shopgirl with his august self, even 
 though she were in the employ of the rival company, 
 might he not reveal his mission in Katalak to add to 
 his aggrandizement in her eyes? 
 
 A little shudder swept over her at the thought of the 
 part she must play if she were to succeed. Could she 
 carry it through, deliberately attract the attention of 
 this bounder, permit his advances, lead him on to a 
 possible disclosure? She remembered that tete-a-tete in 
 the conservatory, and his insolent attempt at gallantry 
 which had so offended and repelled her even before she 
 knew what cause she had to detest any of his breed; if 
 he used such tactics with a girl of his own world how 
 would he approach one whom he considered a social 
 inferior? Could she school herself to a humble, admir- 
 ing acceptance of his condescending attentions until her 
 object was attained, in the event that he did not realize 
 her identity? 
 
 So engrossed was she in this newly arisen problem 
 that she was not aware that anyone had entered until a 
 voice almost beside her made her start. 
 
 "Are thoughts for sale here, Miss Peddar? I have 
 a penny " 
 
 It was Barney Hoyt, watching her with a quiet smile. 
 
 "That would be too high a price to pay for them, 
 Mr. Hoyt." She smiled back, conscious of a silly and 
 unaccountable flush which for no earthly reason had
 
 174 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 mounted to her brow. If he could know the plan which 
 had formed in her mind what would he think of her! 
 "Besides, the stock is sadly depleted, but if there is 
 anything else you wish to buy " 
 
 "I came to keep my promise ; to tell you about Mirko." 
 The bantering note was gone and his tones were lowered 
 and grave. 
 
 "Oh!" The encounter with the Russian on the 
 previous evening returned to her mind with something 
 of a shock. "Was he the man who has been betraying 
 you to the Unatika people ? Did you find out anything ?" 
 
 "Mirko is under guard in one of the bunk-houses ; he 
 will not be allowed to communicate with anyone until 
 he is put aboard the steamer for her return trip." Hoyt's 
 face was stern and his brown eyes flashed. "Thanks to 
 you again, Miss Peddar, I think we have found our 
 traitor. When I left you last night I examined the 
 steam shovel ; the bridle on the dipper had been loosened 
 deliberately by the removal of the cotter pin. I know 
 that doesn't convey anything to your mind, but it means 
 that when the boom is lowered and the dipper scoops 
 up a load of sand and is pulled up again it will slip 
 off in midair and whoever might be standing beneath 
 would be crushed to a pulp. I had Mirko seized and 
 searched and the cotter pin was found upon him." 
 
 "I knew it !" Jane cried. "I was sure he was the 
 man who had laid the wires to blow up the wharf the 
 minute I saw him! Did he confess? Did you learn who 
 had induced him to turn traitor?" 
 
 Hoyt shook his head. 
 
 "They're stubborn, these Russians, and they will take 
 a lot of punishment. I put him through a third degree
 
 "J. BARNABY HOYT" 175 
 
 that the old police system could not have surpassed but 
 he would not admit anything; swears he knows nothing 
 about the explosion at the dynamite shack or the at- 
 tempted one at the wharf, and hinted at a private 
 grievance against some member of the clearing gang, 
 but that of course is a mere subterfuge. When he was 
 searched a money belt containing more than four hun- 
 dred dollars in bills was found upon him and the most 
 casual computation proved that he could not have saved 
 more than a hundred from his wages since he came to 
 work for us." 
 
 "Could he not have brought some of it with him?" 
 Jane asked. 
 
 "No. He was broke when we took him on; we had 
 to advance him money to pay for his outfit and tobacco. 
 The scoundrel was bribed, of course, but he won't give 
 his confederates away." Hoyt paused and then added: 
 "However, we can count ourselves lucky in having found 
 him out and ridden the outfit of such carrion, and it 
 was all due to your quick eye and keen memory, Miss 
 Peddar. If you had not recognized him and warned 
 me we would have had a serious and perhaps fatal ac- 
 cident to-day when I put the steam shovel in operation 
 again. It would not have delayed us in the work on 
 the road, but it would have had a disastrous effect on 
 the morale of the men, and that is what the other side 
 are counting on to further retard the work. If they 
 could bring about a strike, or terrorize any number of 
 the outfit into deserting us the result would be quite 
 as much to their purpose as the destruction of our 
 buildings and materials. To keep the road from going 
 through ; that is their ultimate aim, but by heavens they:
 
 176 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 shan't do it! Not while I'm above ground and have 
 enough of an outfit left to man a single shift!" 
 
 Jane rejoiced at the fire in his eyes and the grim 
 determination which rang through his tones. Then like 
 a sudden stab came a realization of what his words 
 implied. 
 
 "While you are above ground?" she echoed. "You 
 don't mean you don't think they would harm you?" 
 
 "I haven't the least doubt that they will try if their 
 other efforts fail," he responded carelessly. "For the 
 sake of the road I shall take very good care that they 
 don't succeed." 
 
 "For the sake of your friends, your family " Jane 
 
 stammered. 
 
 "I have neither." There was no trace of bitterness 
 in his voice nor in the smile which accompanied the 
 admission. "There isn't a soul to care, thank fortune! 
 I don't have to lie awake nights worrying about how 
 anybody would feel if an accident should happen; it's 
 mighty convenient." 
 
 "Don't!" Jane cried impulsively. "It is dreadful to 
 talk to think that way! Why, everyone in the outfit, 
 at least, is your friend except that renegade you are 
 shipping back " 
 
 "And it is due to you that we discovered his treach- 
 ery." Hoyt seized with obvious eagerness upon the 
 opportunity to change the subject, as if he already re- 
 gretted his half -confidence. "I came only to tell you 
 and to thank you, and now I must be getting back. I 
 have the work geared up to the last notch, you know, 
 to bring the road up to the glacier bed on time and I
 
 "J. BARNABY HOYT" 177 
 
 must stick on the job myself. Thanks for your op- 
 portune help in spotting Mirko." 
 
 For some time after he had gone Jane stood staring 
 out the doorway with unseeing eyes. No friends, no 
 family, not a soul to care ! Her heart cried out in sym- 
 pathy even as she realized that he stood in no apparent 
 need of it. He was so self-reliant, so eminently able 
 to stand alone and so determined to shut everyone out 
 of his life that if he were indeed friendless it must be 
 from deliberate choice. She recalled his swift changes 
 of mood, the hard, stern repression which followed each 
 impulsive speech of more than casual cordiality to her- 
 self. Something, someone must have hurt him terribly 
 in the past. Could it have been another girl? 
 
 As she stood there in the door Jane became aware 
 that someone was gazing fixedly at her and raised her 
 eyes to see Ronald Winfield halted on the other side of 
 the street and staring straight into her face with a self- 
 conscious smirk. Did he recognize her? She shrank 
 back out of view, but not before a tide of crimson had 
 flooded her face and the young man, smiling broadly, 
 sauntered on down to the wharf. 
 
 That he would present return on her side of the street 
 Jane had no doubt. The crucial moment on which all 
 her future plans hung was at hand and her courage 
 rose to meet the test. Slowly she approached the door 
 once more but stood just within it where he could not 
 see her until he was abreast of it, and waited with a 
 wildly beating heart. 
 
 Her face felt as though it were burning up, but she 
 told herself recklessly that.it was just as well; if he 
 failed to connect her with Tanetta. Gildersleeve, he would
 
 178 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 think that she was blushing because of his gaze. She 
 shrank in self-disgust from the role she had assumed 
 but her determination did not abate. She must know if 
 their enemies were back of the Unatika antagonism. 
 
 At length she heard his swaggering step approaching 
 and lowered her eyes until he reached the doorway, 
 when she flashed a quick, upward glance at him and 
 turned away in well-simulated confusion. He paused, 
 stared boldly at her for a moment, and then stepped 
 within. 
 
 "Good-morning," he said. "Nice little store you have 
 here." 
 
 He had touched his cap but did not remove it, and 
 as she raised her eyes once more she saw that his were 
 alight with admiration and anticipatory interest. He 
 had not recognized her! He had stopped merely to 
 amuse himself by jollying the little shopgirl! The wave 
 of relief which swept over her was stemmed by the 
 cynical resolve that his wish should be fulfilled. 
 
 "It isn't a general store, sir," she replied demurely, 
 "it belongs to the mining company who built all that 
 out there, to sell supplies to their employees, you know." 
 
 She gestured vaguely toward the wharf, and he 
 nodded. 
 
 "You didn't think I wanted to buy any of this junk, 
 did you?" He laughed. "I wanted to say 'hello' to the 
 prettiest girl I've seen this side of the Rockies." 
 
 Jane retreated behind the counter, forcing a smile 
 which she took care to let him see. 
 
 "I'm only the assistant here," she murmured. "If the 
 storekeeper came in and found you k kidding me there
 
 "J. BARNABY HOYT" 179 
 
 would be trouble. Besides, my father doesn't let me 
 talk to people I don't know up here." 
 
 Ronald laughed at her prim tone. 
 
 "Good Lord! Conventions in this hole!" he scoffed. 
 "Say, what on earth do you do for amusement here, 
 anyhow? There isn't even a motion-picture house that 
 I've been able to discover, and I've been all over the 
 beastly place in the last hour." 
 
 "There will be one next month, I believe," Jane re- 
 plied. "The general superintendent is going to put up a 
 shack and get some reels from Ladysmith or Tacoma. 
 But you really must go; the storekeeper will be here 
 any minute." 
 
 Ronald leaned carelessly over the counter. 
 
 "Tell me your name and I will," he announced. 
 "You're the only live thing I've seen around here." 
 
 "Oh, no ! I mustn't ! Father would be so angry " 
 
 Jane shrank back with a shocked expression. "Please 
 go!" 
 
 Her tone was deprecatory and pleading, but not dis- 
 pleased and Ronald smiled again. 
 
 "All right. Don't want to get you into trouble, you 
 know," he conceded with maddening condescension in 
 his patronizing tone. "I'll bet you I will find out your 
 name within an hour, though !" 
 
 "I won't take you up on that." Jane smiled, too. 
 "Good-morning." 
 
 Ronald swaggered to the doorway and all but collided 
 with Jud Pittinger, who fell back in sheer astonishment 
 at the apparition. 
 
 "What in creation was that doing in here?" he de- 
 manded when Ronald had sauntered forth. "Saw him
 
 180 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 when he landed and couldn't scarcely believe my eyes. 
 Never see such a get-up in my life !" 
 
 "He thought this was a general store, but I told him 
 it belonged to the company," Jane responded. "He does 
 look sort of queer, doesn't he?" 
 
 "Queer!" Jud snorted. "If he don't get him some 
 regular clothes he's liable to be lynched! Looks as if 
 he stepped out of a comic opery! Well, you go along 
 home to dinner now, Miss Jane, and you needn't hurry 
 back if you've got any little fixin' to do for yourself 
 or your Pa around the house. I can attend to the three 
 o'clock shift." 
 
 Jane shook her head as she thrust her arms in the 
 sleeves of the coat he held gallantly for her. 
 
 "I'm not half earning my salary ! You are all spoiling 
 me, between you!" she declared. "I won't know how 
 to really work when we go home; it's just play up 
 here." 
 
 She left the store pondering on her late interview 
 with Ronald. If he had received the impression she 
 had attempted to convey he must think her a helpless, 
 unsophisticated little fool. At any rate, he was inter- 
 ested enough to want to know her name; it was a 
 beginning. She loathed him unspeakably, not only on 
 account of his blood but for what he himself was, yet 
 she loathed herself still more. A vampire in a silly 
 rubber hat and mackintosh, that was what she was! 
 The thought of the incongruity between character and 
 costume flashed upon her and she laughed in spite of 
 herself, but gravity descended swiftly once more. With- 
 out conceit she knew that he would seek her out again.
 
 "J. BARNABY HOYT" 181 
 
 How long would she have to keep up the wretched farce 
 before she learned the truth? 
 
 "Miss Jane! Oh, Miss Jane!" a hearty voice hailed 
 her from across the street, and she looked up to see 
 Ma Heaney standing on the steps of her lodging house 
 with Ronald beside her smirking triumphantly. "Come 
 over here for a minute, dearie." 
 
 "I I have to get home for dinner." Jane paused 
 irresolutely. It was evident that Ronald had wasted no 
 time, but perhaps it would be just as well. The quicker 
 their acquaintanceship ripened the better for her plan. 
 
 She crossed the street with evident reluctance. 
 
 "Dearie, shake hands with Mr. Winfield. He's been 
 askin' about you, and I told him he wouldn't find a nicer 
 little lady in his own home town than Miss Jane Ped- 
 dar!" Ma Heaney performed the social rite with 
 aplomb. "I was just directin' him to the barber's but 
 I guess you can show him, bein' as it's on your way 
 home." 
 
 "How do you do, Miss Peddar." Ronald spoke with 
 mock ceremony as he held out a flabby hand. "I will 
 be very much obliged if you will show me the way." 
 
 "I I'll be very glad to," she murmured, conscious 
 of Ma Heaney 's astonished gaze at her unwontedly shy 
 demeanor. "I'm late, though, and I must hurry back 
 to the store. If you don't mind " 
 
 "Certainly. I'll get my umbrella." 
 
 He turned back into the house and Ma Heaney an- 
 nounced in a stage whisper: 
 
 "He's a real swell, Miss Jane. You can tell that by 
 his clothes even if they do look kind o' funny up here, 
 and ain't he got the grandest manner? He asked me
 
 182 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 who the pretty girl in the company store was and he 
 seemed real taken with you." 
 
 "What is he in Katalak for?" Jane ignored the com- 
 pliment. "He's not going prospecting up North in those 
 clothes, is he?" 
 
 "I expect he's just tourin' around," Ma Heaney re- 
 sponded. "I declare it's a long time since a real gentle- 
 man like him came to this town. I hope you and 
 him'll be good friends." 
 
 Ronald reappeared at this juncture and as they set 
 forth he raised his umbrella. 
 
 "Don't hold it over me, Mr. Winfield," Jane pro- 
 tested. "I'm used to the rain and I like it ; it can't hurt 
 my clothes." 
 
 "Does it rain all the time here?" he asked. 
 
 "Almost. Is this your first trip up?" Jane met his 
 eyes with a bland stare. 
 
 "Yes." He lowered the umbrella and turned up the 
 collar of his coat. "Aren't you glad you didn't bet with 
 me? I told you I would find out who you were, and 
 I haven't any intention of going near the barber shop. 
 Filthy place! I passed it this morning." 
 
 "Oh," Jane paused, adding innocently, "then why did 
 you come out in the rain if you didn't want to go 
 there?" 
 
 "So that I could talk to you." He rose promptly to 
 the bait. "It's devilish lonely up here, and the minute 
 I saw you standing in the store doorway I made up 
 my mind that I'd get to know you somehow. I think 
 I arranged it rather neatly, what ?" 
 
 "But you are a a swell, Mrs. Heaney says." Jane 
 looked down. "I I guess I'm not in your class."
 
 "J. BARNABY HOYT" 183 
 
 "You're a very nice little girl." He pressed her arm, 
 and instinctively she shrank away. "I'm going to see 
 a lot of you, if you'll only be kind to me. A chap must 
 have someone to play about with, you know, and ' 
 
 He broke off abruptly and halted. Jane glanced up 
 in surprise and saw that he was staring in equal astonish- 
 men at a figure which was approaching them ; the figure 
 of Barney Hoyt. 
 
 "Well, of all the Hello, Hoyt!" 
 
 The engineer flashed a quick glance at Jane, bowed 
 coldly and passed by without stopping or seeming to 
 see the half -outstretched hand of Ronald. The latter 
 flushed darkly as it fell once more to his side. 
 
 "Do you know Mr. Hoyt?" Jane asked as though she 
 had noted no significance in their meeting. 
 
 "Know him?" Ronald echoed. "He was in my class 
 at college, worked his way through the last two years. 
 I don't wonder he doesn't care to remember me!" 
 
 He laughed sneeringly. 
 
 "Why? Did he fail?" 
 
 "No, but I don't believe he's any too anxious to recall 
 those days." The ugly note in his voice made Jane's 
 blood boil, but she controlled herself. "I wonder what 
 he is doing up here ?" 
 
 "Why, he is the construction engineer for the road 
 the company I work for is building," Jane replied. 
 
 "He is? J. Barnaby Hoyt, Junior, digging ditches 
 in sackcloth and ashes, eh? By Gad, that's rich!" he 
 chuckled, and the girl beside him felt a sudden, savage 
 impulse to strike the sound from his lips. "And he's 
 working for the Northern Star? What a joke!" 
 
 J. Barnaby Hoyt ! What was it that the name recalled
 
 184 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 vaguely to her mind? It was familiar, not as that of 
 anyone whom she had known but she must have heard 
 it talked about. The thought eluded her and although 
 she hated herself for discussing the young engineer with 
 the cad beside her whom he had so obviously cut, she 
 felt that she must know. 
 
 "Why did he work his way through the last two 
 years at college? Did he lose his money?" 
 
 "His father did. I don't know where you come from 
 and I don't suppose you ever heard of him, but the old 
 man was a big broker; Wall Street, if that means any- 
 thing to you. He failed after trying to buck up against 
 my well, some friends of mine; failed for every dollar 
 he owned and a lot that belonged to other people, I've 
 heard. J. Barnaby, Junior, this fellow here didn't 
 have the grace to disappear. He stuck it out and 
 brazened his way through the rest of his course at 
 college, even after his father killed himself. Say, what's 
 the matter?" 
 
 For Jane had stopped abruptly and held out her hand. 
 She was smiling steadily, but there was an odd glint in 
 her eyes. 
 
 "My road turns off here, and I couldn't let you see 
 me home, Mr. Winfield. You've only just come, and 
 father wouldn't understand; he's very strict." 
 
 "You'll be at the store later?" He tried to hold her 
 hand, but she drew it away. 
 
 "Yes, but you mustn't come there, you know. It is 
 only for employees of the company, and strangers 
 aren't allowed." .Her voice trembled slightly. "Thank 
 you for walking so far with me." 
 
 "But you'll meet me somewhere ?" Ronald urged.
 
 "J. BARNABY HOYT" 185 
 
 "Perhaps, sometime." Jane forced herself to glance 
 back at him over her shoulder as she moved off alone 
 along the walk. "Katalak isn't such a very big place, 
 Mr. Winneld!" 
 
 She was aware that he stod still watching her and 
 she felt an impulse to run from his detestable presence. 
 She remembered now. The failure and suicide had 
 been a nine-days' sensation when she was a very young 
 girl, and she had often heard Uncle Andy and her grand- 
 father mention it. She knew now also the secret of 
 that strange, embittered streak in the young engineer's 
 nature which had seemed so foreign to it, and her heart 
 overflowed with sympathy for him, even as her ad- 
 miration rose. He had not run away! He had stayed 
 and finished his work at college, and if the rest of his 
 classmates were of Ronald's caliber, she could imagine 
 the torture he must have undergone! Poor Barney 
 Hoyt! 
 
 Then another, more immediate recollection came to 
 Jane; that look he had flashed upon her when he passed 
 her in Ronald's company, and a sense of guilt burned 
 within her. What must he think? What would he 
 think in the future when he saw her accepting the at- 
 tention of the man he evidently hated? A little shiver 
 swept over her, but she forced the question back. What- 
 ever he thought, however he judged her, she must play 
 the game, as he himself had done when everything was 
 against him. For Ollie's sake more than her own, for 
 the sake of the fight they were all making she must 
 know if Gordon Winfield was the owner of the Unatika 
 mine!
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 DURING the days that followed Jane saw little 
 of "Barney" Hoyt. He did not come near 
 the store, but she caught occasional glimpses 
 of him on the way to and from the grassy plain where 
 the rails were creeping out in an ever-lengthening double 
 line to the foothills beyond. The girl wondered anew 
 when he slept, for he seemed to be tirelessly on the job 
 day and night, and her heart ached with the longing 
 to say a word of comfort to him for the wretched past 
 which had so saddened and embittered him, even though 
 she realized with what surprise and resentment he would 
 receive such an overture on her part. 
 
 He was avoiding her, of course, because she was 
 evincing so lively an interest in the newcomer, the man 
 whom she knew he must regard with contempt and 
 loathing as an utter cad, and his attitude showed plainly 
 enough what he thought of her. 
 
 Others, too, noted her growing friendship with Ronald 
 and it was hard indeed for her to meet the disapproving, 
 almost reproachful gaze of Jud Pittinger, and the 
 changed bearing of the men themselves toward her. By 
 her association with a man whom they considered a 
 rank outsider of a particularly objectionable sort she 
 had alienated herself from their kind and the cha^^ 
 
 186
 
 REDDENED SKIES 187 
 
 between her and themselves which she had bridged with 
 such painstaking effort during the first weeks was widen- 
 ing again imperceptibly but surely. 
 
 However, she was as surely making headway with 
 Ronald. Jane tried to gain what comfort she could 
 from that knowledge. Every waking moment which 
 found her freed from her duties at the store brought 
 him to her side, and soon not only the Northern Star 
 outfit but the townsfolk of Katalak as well were watch- 
 ing the affair with interest. 
 
 Peddar was the most bewildered of all. Ordered to 
 be especially gracious to the young man, he was at the 
 same time warned so impressively to guard his tongue, 
 and threatened with such dire results if he did not, that 
 he did not know whether to be pleased or dismayed 
 at the advent of this new factor in a situation already 
 complicated enough to try his soul. Young Mr. Win- 
 field was evidently a gentleman of their own sort and 
 from their own world, and it was natural, he told him- 
 self, that his mistress should like the society of the kind 
 of person to whom she was accustomed, but she seemed 
 to be losing all interest in the progress of the railroad 
 and the whole outfit. She could find plenty of young 
 gentlemen like Mr. Winfield at home; had they come 
 all this weary way and endured such hardships for her 
 to relinquish her purpose for a mere flirtation? 
 
 He felt older by twenty years than when they had 
 left New York; older and unable to cope with the 
 situation. It was one thing to act as guardian for Miss 
 Janey on this wild mission which she had undertaken, 
 but quite another to chaperone her during a possible 
 love affair. He dared not approach her directly on the
 
 i88 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 subject, but when Big Jim Bowers, the superintendent, 
 dropped in one evening for a smoke with him, he at- 
 tempted as cautiously as his guileless nature would allow 
 to sound him on the matter. 
 
 "We don't see much of young Mr. Hoyt any more," 
 he ventured as an opening wedge. 
 
 "Guess not. He's right busy, I reckon," Big Jim re- 
 sponded laconically. 
 
 "He used to find time to get around now and then." 
 
 "Before this city fellow came up." The superin- 
 tendent spoke dryly. "I don't thing he cares much for 
 that kind." 
 
 "I I'm quite sure Mr. Winfield is a perfect gentle- 
 man," Peddar quavered, shocked at the implied dis- 
 paragement of the representative of a class before which 
 he bowed. 
 
 "Do you know what he is up here for? Does any- 
 body?" Big Jim knocked the ashes from his pipe and 
 reached for his tobacco sack. 
 
 "Janey says he is just traveling around to see this part 
 of the country," Peddar replied somewhat doubtfully. 
 
 "Then why don't he travel?" demanded the other. 
 "He's been here more than a fortnight now and no signs 
 of taking himself off. I've caught him snooping around 
 our works more than once and he is forever disappear- 
 ing into the foothills on that horse he bought from Lew 
 Nagle, and always going in one direction, too; toward 
 the Unatika outfit. I'm not quite sure of that young 
 man." 
 
 "How is Janey getting on at the store ?" Peddar asked 
 suddenly. 
 
 "All right." Big Jim's loquacity seemed as suddenly
 
 REDDENED SKIES 189 
 
 stemmed. "Guess she's there whenever Jud Pittinger 
 needs her." 
 
 The insinuation was not lost upon his host. 
 
 "Do you mean that she isn't there as much as she 
 used to be?" Peddar's tone was filled with unconcealed 
 anxiety. "She she's spending too much time with Mr. 
 Winfield?" 
 
 "Well, you're her boss," Big Jim responded slowly. 
 
 "I only wish I was!" The anxiety changed to bitter- 
 ness as Peddar recalled the past weeks of tribulation 
 now seemingly gone for naught. "When she was a 
 little thing I could manage her in a way of speaking, 
 but she was always a handful! Now nobody, not 
 even " 
 
 He caught himself up with belated caution, but Big 
 Jim nodded understandingly. 
 
 "Guess girls mostly are," he remarked sagely. "Of 
 course, she's naturally kind of flattered that a swell like 
 this Winfield should take notice of her, but a fellow 
 of his sort don't mean anything serious with a girl who 
 works in a company store. I thought Miss Jane was 
 more level headed than to let it get turned, but she's 
 young yet. If you ask me, Mr. Peddar, I'd keep my 
 eye on her." 
 
 "Flattered? Her!" Peddar choked. "There there's 
 nothing in Mr. Winfield's attentions that could flatter 
 M my daughter !" 
 
 "Right you are!" Big Jim agreed, misreading the 
 other's indignation. "She is too fine a girl to waste 
 her time with a fellow who is only fooling around and 
 amusing himself. Why don't you kind of talk to her?" 
 
 "It wouldn't be any Use," Eeddar retorted gloomily,
 
 190 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "I've tried but she just says that she knows what she 
 is doing, and there you are. Now, if you was to tell 
 her that she ought to stay around the store more, maybe 
 she would listen." 
 
 "I'm no hand at that kind of thing!" Big Jim pro- 
 tested in some alarm. 
 
 "Still, she's working for you, isn't she?" Peddar in- 
 sisted. "You might hint to Mr. Pittinger that I would 
 like to have her kept to the work she came up here to 
 do. I'm sure I wish that we had never come, I do, 
 indeed!" 
 
 At that precise moment Jane, mounted on a bony, 
 spavined horse that she would have disdained at home, 
 was cantering slowly through the grove of cotton wood 
 trees which lined the river valley three miles above 
 where it emptied into Katalak Bay, and Ronald was 
 beside her. 
 
 She was in a mood bordering on exasperation for 
 although there was no question of Ronald's subjuga- 
 tion, she seemed not a whit nearer gaining his con- 
 fidence than when he had come. Again and again she 
 had led as adroitly as she could up to the subject of 
 the mines, but he showed no interest in either of them, 
 and when she questioned his reason for remaining so 
 long in Katalak his reply was invariably in the form 
 of an insolently fulsome compliment. 
 
 It had been as much as she could do to keep him 
 from making open love to her, and she told herself 
 fiercely that not for a hundred mines could she endure 
 that! Still, he could not be held off forever, and the 
 thought of possible failure was maddening. 
 
 They emerged upon the mossy plain and slowed to a
 
 REDDENED SKIES 191 
 
 walk to pick their way between the tufts of stunted 
 grasses, and Jane's eyes turned eagerly toward the 
 railroad. 
 
 "We are getting on to the glacier bed, aren't we?" 
 she cried exultantly, forgetful of the need of caution 
 in her joy at sight of the progress which had been made 
 since last she had passed that way. 
 
 "Are you so much interested in the work of the 
 Northern Star Company, Jane?" Ronald pressed his 
 mount close to hers. "They don't regard you as any- 
 thing more than an insignificant cog in their machine, 
 you know. Why should you care?" 
 
 "Well, I'm working for them," Jane responded half- 
 apologetically. "Mr. Hoyt showed me the start of the 
 work and it was really interesting although I didn't un- 
 derstand a thing about it, of course. Mr. Hoyt tried 
 to explain " 
 
 "Look here!" he interrupted. "Wasn't it Hoyt and 
 not the road that was interesting? Were you playing 
 about with him before I came?" 
 
 Jane lowered her eyes to keep him from seeing the 
 sudden fire of indignation which glowed in them. 
 
 "What if I was?" she asked with a poor attempt at 
 coquetry, but Ronald was not in a mood to be critical. 
 
 He laughed that short, ugly laugh of his. 
 
 "It's a good thing for you that I appeared on the 
 scene before you lost your heart to him, little one," he 
 remarked complacently. "I told you a few things about 
 him that first day, but there's something you don't know. 
 You wouldn't have stood a chance with him, my dear; 
 he was stung once, and he'll never look at another girl 
 again as long as he lives."
 
 i 9 2 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 Jane's heart leaped and then seemed to stop dead in 
 her breast. So there was another girl after all ! It had 
 been something more than the tragedy and disgrace of 
 the past which had brought that embittered look to his 
 face! 
 
 "Oh, I suppose people all have love affairs that they 
 think they will never get over." Could that be her own 
 voice speaking with such casual carelessness? 
 
 "Not Hoyt. He was hit so hard that he won't forget 
 it," Ronald chuckled. "It was my own cousin, too. She 
 is two or three years older than he, but a stunner, if a 
 chap likes the dark, imperious kind. They were engaged 
 and she liked him well enough to marry him, I fancy, 
 before the smash came; you see, she hasn't a penny of 
 her own and old Hoyt was reputed to be worth mil- 
 lions. When he failed and killed himself, J. Barnaby, 
 Junior, had the nerve to expect her to wait for him; 
 wait until he had finished college, and then marry him 
 and go away to some hole like this while he dug ditches 
 and laid rails ! If you had ever seen my cousin Grace 
 you would realize what chance there was of her looking 
 forward to such a future! She told him where he got 
 off without mincing matters, and it was a facer for him, 
 I can tell you! Shouldn't be surprised if he cared for 
 her even now." 
 
 Jane had tried to interrupt him, to silence that sneer- 
 ing, heartless voice that was laying bare another man's 
 soul, but no sound came from her lips. She was scarcely 
 conscious of having taken in half that he had said; the 
 fact that there had been another girl had overshadowed 
 his statement that it was his cousin and not until he
 
 REDDENED SKIES 193 
 
 mentioned the name "Grace" did it have any significance 
 for her. 
 
 So it had been Grace Winfield, Adele Everton's friend 
 whom she was even now chaperoning! She had meant 
 to marry him for his money, and threw him over when 
 that dream was dispelled! Jane felt a rising rage and 
 contempt against this girl whom she had never seen 
 which surpassed even her secret antagonism to the man 
 beside her. What a wicked, heartless, abominable 
 creature ! 
 
 She was aware that Ronald had turned in his saddle 
 and was regarding her curiously and she shrugged. 
 
 "Maybe he does care for her still ; what is it to me ?" 
 she asked. "I had plenty of fellows before we came 
 up here." 
 
 "You've got me, now," Ronald announced in a quick 
 undertone. "Gad, but I should say you have got me! 
 I never thought I should fall so hard, but you're different 
 to any of the rest of them. I'd swear you were leading 
 me on, you little witch, only you never let me even hold 
 your hand! I can't make out what kind of a girl you 
 are!" 
 
 "Well, I don't know anything about you, you know." 
 She laughed back at him, but her heart was like lead 
 within her. "I never met anyone like you, either. I 
 just know your name and that you come from New 
 York." 
 
 "I fancy my name would be enough if you had ever 
 known many people back in the East; that is, people 
 who er " 
 
 "In society, you mean?" Jane queried demurely.
 
 194 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "What chance have I ever had to meet them until you 
 came? You'll be going away soon " 
 
 "I'll stay as long as you are here." He leaned so 
 near that his breath fanned her cheek. "Don't you know, 
 Jane, that I'm mad about you? Won't you be a little 
 kind to me?" 
 
 "I think I am, spending time with you when I ought 
 to be at work in the store, and neglecting father and 
 the house," she retorted, adding quickly: "Let's swing 
 around and come in the upper end of Main Street." 
 
 They had reached the outskirts of Katalak, and Jane 
 was spared any further demonstration on the part of 
 her companion. When she dismounted Peddar was 
 waiting anxiously at the open door of the shack, and 
 there was opportunity only for a formal good-night, for 
 which she was profoundly thankful. Her head ached 
 throbbingly and every nerve in her body seemed on edge. 
 
 "Oh, for goodness sake, let me alone!" she cried im- 
 patiently, in response to Peddar's admonition to come 
 in out of the dampness. "I don't mean to be cross, but 
 you are so stupid sometimes, Peddar! Do go to bed; I 
 want to stay out here on the porch awhile and think." 
 
 Peddar sighed reproachfully and closed the door, and 
 Jane sank down on the lowest step, elbows resting on 
 knees and her small chin cupped in her hands. 
 
 Grace Winfield had never married; she had lived 
 abroad for years and then in Baltimore. Evidently she 
 had not succeeded yet in ensnaring a rich man as she 
 had supposed Barney Hoyt to be. How could he ever 
 have been taken in by a designing thing like that? He 
 seemed so clear-eyed, so sure of himself ! But she was 
 a stunner, Ronald had said, of the dark, imperious kind.
 
 REDDENED SKIES 195 
 
 Jane tossed her own red-gold head. Older than Barney 
 Hoyt, too, and he was only a boy then in college. But 
 sometimes those early affairs lasted all one's life; per- 
 haps he was in love with her still, would always love 
 her. 
 
 All at once that moment in the store on the day of 
 Ronald's first appearance in Katalak returned to Jane's 
 mind, when Barney Hoyt had told her that he had 
 neither family nor friends and there was "no one to 
 care." Had he been thinking at that very minute of the 
 girl who had cast him aside when trouble and disgrace 
 that was none of his doing came to him? He didn't 
 look like the sort of man who would forget, ever. What 
 a hideous muddle the world was! 
 
 Jane did not realize how long she sat there until the 
 gray gloom slowly darkened to the dusky twilight which 
 meant that their two short hours of night were at hand. 
 One o'clock ! Peddar must long since have been asleep, 
 or he would have reappeared and besought her to 
 come in. 
 
 She rose stiffly and turned to enter the shack, when 
 the sound of footsteps on the plank walk made her 
 pause. Who could be coming that way at such an hour ? 
 A swift fear that it might be Malison returned for 
 vengeance clutched at her heart, and she waited with 
 her hand on the doorknob, ready to spring within and 
 draw the bolts if it were. 
 
 Then she remembered her whistle, and was just reach- 
 ing for it, when two figures advanced toward her out of 
 the dusk, and to her astonishment she recognized Big 
 Jim Bowers and Barney Hoyt. 
 
 They were talking together in low but excited tones
 
 196 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 and she caught the words: "Knifed in the back, too, 
 poor devil ! . . . Thought that scoundrel Malison had 
 been quiet too long. . . . Case for a deputy marshal." 
 
 "Oh, what is it?" Jane cried, advancing to the steps. 
 
 "You up still, Miss Jane?" It was the superintendent 
 who replied to her. Hoyt glanced away. "Sorry to have 
 to disturb your father at this hour, but we have a mes- 
 sage for you." 
 
 "For me?" faltered Jane. "From whom?" 
 
 "From the man you befriended; Pietro. It was too 
 serious a matter to wait till morning." 
 
 "Come in." She turned and opening the door led the 
 way into the shack. "Will it be necessary to awaken 
 father? I don't like to alarm him " 
 
 "No." Hoyt spoke for the first time. "Miss Peddar, 
 I am afraid our news will be something of a shock to 
 you, but we dare not waste a moment's time in trying 
 to prepare you for it. Pietro is dead. He was found 
 just now lying close to the rails a quarter of a mile 
 up our line, stabbed in the back. When the body was 
 searched this envelope addressed to you was discovered 
 in one of his pockets." 
 
 He held out the missive as he spoke, but Jane did 
 not seem to see it. Her eyes had blurred with tears, 
 the first she had shed since coming to Katalak, and she 
 cried brokenly : 
 
 "Dead ! Poor Pietro ! And the baby ! The little baby 
 he had never seen!" 
 
 "Miss Peddar, will you please read this at once or 
 give me leave to do so." Hoyt's tone was cutting, 
 dominant in its command, and there was a harsh, un- 
 feeling quality in it that she had never heard before.
 
 REDDENED SKIES 197 
 
 Big Jim seemed not unaware of it, for he supple- 
 mented : 
 
 "You see, Miss Jane, we think it may be a warning 
 of danger to you, and we believe he may have been 
 followed and killed to prevent his telling you. He prob- 
 ably anticipated that, and planned for the note to reach 
 you if he couldn't." 
 
 Brushing away her tears Jane took the grimy, crum- 
 pled envelope from the engineer's hand, as if in a daze, 
 and tore it open. 
 
 One startled glance at its contents and the mist cleared 
 from before her eyes. 
 
 "Good Heavens! Listen! 'Gracious Signorina. No 
 go store to-night. Death !' signed 'Pietro !' What can it 
 mean?" She raised horrified eyes to the two men. 
 "Surely Malison would not dare attempt murder just 
 because I " 
 
 "Pietro was murdered," Hoyt interrupted grimly. 
 "What do you make of it, Jim?" 
 
 "I'm going down to the store and see," the superin- 
 tendent announced. "Pietro has been dead for some 
 hours ; it may be that they meant to waylay Miss Jane as 
 she went back to her work early this evening, but it don't 
 seem likely that they would try it in daylight. I think 
 they mean mischief down at the store, but there's time 
 yet to stop it." 
 
 He turned to the door and Hoyt called after him: 
 
 "Send a couple of the boys up here at once. I'll wait 
 until they come." 
 
 Jane ventured a timidly grateful glance at him, but 
 he had not looked directly at her since he came and she
 
 198 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 stiffened. He was only doing his duty. Why should 
 she humble herself to thank him? 
 
 A wild yell from Big Jim made them both wheel 
 about in alarm. He had stepped out upon the porch, 
 and stood looking toward Main Street and the harbor, 
 his mighty figure outlined in a lurid red haze. 
 
 "My God! They've fired the storehouse!"
 
 CHAPTER XY 
 THE MESSAGE 
 
 JANE and Hoyt sprang through the doorway. The 
 red rain drops fell slowly like dripping blood, and 
 reddened, too, was the arch of the sky. At the 
 harbor's edge a huge crimson flare shot up, mingled with 
 the sharp writhing tongues of flame, and bathed the 
 whole town and the bay in its vivid, sinister light. 
 
 Peddar's startled, quavering tones sounded from be- 
 hind them, but Jane did not hear. 
 
 "Jud Pittinger !" she gasped. "He'll never leave while 
 a bit of the stock is left in the store, and they may have 
 planted dynamite again !" 
 
 "Stay here !" Hoyt ordered as he and Big Jim leaped 
 down the steps. "I'll send someone back to guard 
 you " 
 
 "It's my store!" Jane flamed back at him and would 
 have started after, but Peddar appeared and seized her 
 arm. 
 
 "You'll do as Mr. Hoyt says, miss !" he declared with 
 amazing firmness. "Whatever happens to the store or 
 anyone in it, you'll not go down there this night to be 
 killed ! I've charge of you and it's my duty " 
 
 "Let me go!" Jane tore herself from his grasp, and 
 dashing down the steps started off hatless and coatless 
 through the rain. 
 
 199
 
 200 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 It seemed miles to Main Street. The wet planks were 
 slippery and treacherous under foot and the clinging mud 
 seemed to suck her down with each step, but she ran 
 doggedly on, her eyes fixed upon that lurid glow ahead. 
 
 Subdued shouting came to her ears and the rushing 
 clatter of feet, and as she turned the corner of Main 
 Street at last Jane paused, appalled yet fascinated by 
 the scene before her. 
 
 The company warehouse, in one side of which the 
 store was situated, had become a roaring furnace from 
 which flames leaped high and great clouds of turgid 
 smoke billowed forth to hang low in a dense, smothering 
 blanket over the town. The men of the company aug- 
 mented as it seemed by everyone in town were drawn 
 up in a circle about the burning building as near as they 
 dared approach, and the emergency fire apparatus sent 
 feeble, pitifully inadequate streams of water into the 
 holocaust only to have then turn to a hissing spray of 
 steam. 
 
 At that distance Jane's eyes were smarting, and a 
 sharp pain darted through her lungs. She turned up the 
 sodden woolen collar of her sweater and pressing it 
 across her mouth and nose, started down the street, but 
 as she passed the lodging house Ma Heaney hailed her. 
 
 "Miss Jane! What in the world are you doing here? 
 Dearie, there ain't a mite o' use your goin' any further, 
 you couldn't get near the store anyway ; it's gone !" 
 
 Jane looked up. Ma Heaney was seated on the top 
 step philosophically regarding the conflagration, and be- 
 side her lounged Ronald. He was watching the scene 
 absorbedly, and in the red glare it seemed to Jane that 
 he was smiling.
 
 THE MESSAGE 201 
 
 "Jud Pittinger! Is he safe?" 
 
 At the sound of Jane's cry Ronald turned quickly and 
 sprang to his feet. 
 
 "Miss Peddar ! Come up here and sit with us if you 
 can stand the smoke. I had no idea that you would 
 come out at this hour or I would have gone to your 
 home for you. You really must not go any nearer the 
 blaze ; it's not safe !" 
 
 Jane paused irresolutely, but the crowd and the smoke 
 which eddied up the street warned her that it would 
 be impossible to approach the burning building and re- 
 luctantly she mounted the steps and seated herself be- 
 side them. 
 
 "The wind is from the north, what there is of it, 
 thank the Lord!" Ma Heaney observed. "If 'tweren't, 
 likely the whole place would go. I've seen it start this 
 way in a boom town in Nevada, and when it died out 
 there wasn't so much as a wall standin'." 
 
 "But is there really no danger that some of the other 
 houses may catch fire?" Jane asked nervously. "The 
 smoke seems to be rolling up this way." 
 
 "I guess not," replied Ma Heaney. "It's been rainin' 
 pretty steady, you know, and they're all well soaked. 
 I ain't worryin' none, myself. Nothing's likely to catch 
 of its own accord." 
 
 Jane glanced sharply at her. 
 
 "You mean that the store was set on fire?" she asked 
 in a lowered tone. Could it be that other warning had 
 reached the town beside that poor pitiful little note of 
 Pietro's? 
 
 Ma Heaney shrugged her ample shoulders. 
 
 "Don't you smell something else on the air besides
 
 202 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 the .smoke?" she demanded. "Somethin' queer, like a 
 hospital smell?" 
 
 "Heavens, Mrs. Heaney!" Ronald turned quickly to 
 her. "How could anyone possibly get a whiff of any- 
 thing else? I suppose they have medical supplies and 
 disinfectants stored in the warehouse, along with all the 
 rest of the stuff, but you couldn't detect the odor of 
 any one thing burning." 
 
 "Don't talk to me, young man !" retorted Ma Heaney. 
 "You see those green and yellow and blue flames mixed 
 with the red ones, when the fire creeps to a fresh spot 
 low down on the wall near the ground ? That's creosote 
 burning creosote that's been put there to help the blaze 
 along. That there fire's been set, as sure as you're alive !" 
 
 "But who would do it?" There was amused in- 
 credulity in Ronald's tone, and Jane watched his face 
 with steady eyes. "Surely the Northern Star is not 
 so hard up that they have more need of their insurance 
 money than their materials and supplies ?" 
 
 Jane caught her breath indignantly, but checked the 
 hasty words which rose to her lips at his cool insolence. 
 
 "No, I reckon the Northern Star ain't exactly hard 
 up, but there's them that would like to see them so," 
 Ma Heaney replied dryly. "You're a stranger here, Mr. 
 Winfield, but there's been a lot o' crooked work goin' 
 on, and we've all got a pretty clear notion o' who's at 
 the bottom of it. Those of us who like fair play are 
 kind o' bettin' on the Northern Star." 
 
 Jane could have hugged her, but instead she asked 
 once more: 
 
 "Have you seen Mr. Pittinger? Doesn't anybody 
 know whether he is safe or not?"
 
 THE MESSAGE 203 
 
 "Don't you worry about him, dearie." Ma Heaney 
 pressed her hand. "Before you showed up I seen him 
 workin' like blazes with the other men, getting what 
 part of his stock out that he could, and when the store 
 got too hot for him he went to help save some of the 
 materials from the warehouse. The last I saw of him, 
 he was dancin' around a bunch o' dagos, drivin' them 
 to work faster. Jud's all right." 
 
 "Was was anybody hurt, do you know?" Jane felt 
 that there was a mental reservation in the older woman's 
 emphasis of the storekeeper's name, and a swift fear 
 made her whole body tense. 
 
 "Well, they do say that when the back wall o' the 
 store fell somebody got caught underneath it. One o' the 
 boys hollered it to me from across the street, but maybe 
 it ain't so." 
 
 "Did he say who it was?" Jane cried in an agony of 
 anxiety. "Ma Heaney, I've just got to know !" 
 
 "It wasn't Hoyt, at any rate !" Ronald turned to her 
 with a sudden sneer which curled back his lips from his 
 teeth. "He and the superintendent arrived on the scene 
 late enough to be perfectly safe !" 
 Jane ignored the slur. 
 
 "I was thinking of the others," she dissembled. 
 "They're all friends of mine, you know. Oh, there's 
 Mr. Dugdale! I'll ask him!" 
 
 She jumped to her feet and darted down the steps 
 and across the street in vast relief, fearful that if she 
 stayed a moment longer in Ronald's presence she would 
 be unable to contain herself. , 
 
 Harve Dugdale saw her coming and paused in sur- 
 prise.
 
 204 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "Holy mackerel, Miss Jane, I thought you was home 
 and asleep!" he exclaimed. "There's nothin' more to 
 be done but to let her burn out, and see that no other 
 shack don't catch." 
 
 "Who was hurt?" she demanded breathlessly. "Ma 
 Heaney said that someone was caught under a falling 
 wall!" 
 
 Harve grinned sheepishly. 
 
 "Nobody but me, I guess, and I ain't hurt a mite, 
 only singed some. The boys pulled me out." 
 
 Jane looked quickly up and saw that where the 
 rivulets of sweat had washed the soot from his face his 
 leathery skin was strangely pale and his heavy brows 
 and the hair above them were gone. 
 
 "Oh, are you sure you are not burned, not in pain?" 
 she asked pityingly. 
 
 "Not a mite!" he responded cheerfully. "I'm goin' 
 to see you home if you'll let me, Miss Jane. I don't 
 guess your Pa would want you to be around town alone 
 this time o' night, and there ain't a thing you can 
 do." 
 
 Jane suffered herself to be convoyed home, but after 
 she had quieted Peddar's fears and lain down upon her 
 bed sleep was long in coming to her. The tragedy of 
 Pietro's death in her service, even more than the disaster 
 to the warehouse and store weighed upon her spirits, 
 although it might be that the latter would retard the 
 road building for many precious, vital weeks to come. 
 If only she might have seen Barney Hoyt again, even 
 for a moment down there! 
 
 But what word of comfort could she have offered him 
 in this hour of his greatest trial? The old camaraderie
 
 THE MESSAGE 205 
 
 between them was gone forever, the budding friendship 
 killed by the blight of Ronald's presence, and in her 
 own heart she felt a certain constraint towards the young 
 engineer. He was in love with Grace Winneld, and 
 nursing that love in spite of its futility. If she went 
 out of her way to try to comfort him in this disaster 
 he might think that she, the assistant storekeeper, was 
 smitten with him! 
 
 Jane buried her face in the thin pillow in shame at 
 the thought. Why should she care how he felt now 
 in this trouble? He had fought his way alone through 
 the world for eight years, and he was in no need of 
 friendship and its consolations. She must put him from 
 her thoughts, for there was work still for her to do, 
 rendered even more vital by the night's event. 
 
 Had that really been a triumphant smile on Ronald's 
 countenance as he watched the destruction of the ware- 
 house and store, or was it merely a figment of her 
 imagination, a distortion seen through the smoke? His 
 slurs at the Northern Star outfit could be accounted for 
 easily enough in view of the fact that his father was 
 their enemy, but had he a guilty knowledge beforehand 
 that the fire was to take place ? 
 
 The next morning early found Jane at the scene of 
 the ruins. Huge, blackened heaps of debris which still 
 smoldered and smoked viciously were all that was left 
 of the building, and her heart sank within her. The men 
 could get along somehow without their stores until a 
 steamer could bring a fresh supply, but what of the kegs 
 of spikes and bolts and the rest of the material without 
 which the road could not go on? Were they to be de- 
 feated no.w when a bare fortnight or so would have
 
 206 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 brought the road up to the glacier bed which Barney 
 Hoyt had said was the crucial spot? 
 
 While she stood forlornly contemplating the ruined 
 mass, Jud Pittinger appeared across the street and 
 waddled quickly over to her. 
 
 "I guess you're out of a job, Miss Jane." He tried 
 to smile, but his fat face was drawn and twisted, and 
 his mild eyes flashed. 
 
 "They did it, the Unatika!" Jane exclaimed. "You 
 have heard about the note poor Pietro tried to bring 
 to me when they killed him?" 
 
 Jud nodded. 
 
 "If I was a swearin' man, Miss Jane, I could maybe 
 tell you a little of how I feel!" he confided. "I man- 
 aged to save the company books and most of the tobacco, 
 but all that was left of that new-fangled stock has gone 
 with the rest of the supplies. And the worst of it is, 
 nobody knows how they did it, consarn them! I was 
 waitin' on two or three of the clearin' gang that had 
 got off the three o'clock shift and had been sweepin' up 
 since, when all at once the whole outside of the store 
 seemed to bu'st into flame! Seemed like there was a 
 lot of little explosions, too. It was creosote all right, 
 mixed with kerosene and a little powder here and there. 
 I'm a God-fearin' man, Miss Jane, but I certainly would 
 like to get my hands on them that did it, just once!" 
 
 "If you saved the tobacco, can't we open up a little 
 stall somewhere and sell it to the men, Mr. Pittinger?" 
 Jane asked suddenly. "Wouldn't it rather counteract 
 the discouragement they must feel in their work if they 
 could realize that we weren't quite wiped out?" 
 
 "Well, I swan !" Jud gazed at her admiringly. "What
 
 THE MESSAGE 207 
 
 do you know about your thinkin' of what Mr. Hoyt calls 
 their morale, too ! We're going to do just that. Big 
 Jim says he'll knock up a shack in the next couple of 
 days here, and you and me will be doin' business right 
 at the old stand. But meantime there ain't a thing you 
 can do around here, Miss Jane, and your young man 
 is waitin' on Ma Heaney's steps for you " 
 
 "If you mean Mr. Winfield, he's not my young man!" 
 Jane retorted hotly. "I wouldn't have him if he were 
 the last one on earth!" 
 
 "I'm certainly glad to hear it !" Jud said in a relieved 
 fashion. "That spindle-shanked dude ain't your style, 
 Miss Jane, if you'll excuse me for sayin' so. It beats 
 all, though, how you girls can fritter your time away!" 
 
 Jane laughed at him. 
 
 "You let me know when you are ready to open up 
 shop and I'll be on hand!" she announced. "Don't 
 you worry about me, Mr. Pittinger !" 
 
 But her spirits sank as she turned and started back 
 up the street once more. She was in no mood to en- 
 counter Ronald just then, yet it seemed inevitable, for 
 at her approach he crossed and stood waiting for her. 
 
 "Good-morning !" he said gayly. "It's an ill wind that 
 blows nobody good, isn't it? Since the store exists no 
 longer, you will have an indefinite sort of holiday, won't 
 you?" 
 
 A wift inspiration came to Jane and summoning all 
 her determination, she smiled. 
 
 "Not for long, I am afraid, for they saved some of 
 iheir stock and they are going to put up a temporary 
 shack, but I'll have a few days, anyway! You don't
 
 208 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 know how glad I am to get away from behind that old 
 counter !" 
 
 "I should think so, a girl like you !" Ronald fell into 
 step beside her. "Why do you stay here, anyway? It 
 is no place for you, and I don't believe the Northern 
 Star people will ever complete that road." 
 
 "Why not?" Jane's heart was beating fast. "They 
 are a big company, aren't they?" 
 
 "Don't you know?" He replied to her question with 
 another. "Don't you even know who you are working 
 for?" 
 
 "Just that it's the Northern Star," Jane responded in- 
 nocently. "I suppose it is some big combination back 
 East." 
 
 Ronald laughed. 
 
 "It's only a couple of kids the last of a family that 
 went to the wall two years ago," he informed her. "They 
 bought in the Northern Star mine on a shoe-string, and 
 they haven't enough to finance it or even finish the road, 
 now that their materials are gone. If you stick you 
 will be out of a job in a few weeks anyway, and I wish 
 you would come back to the States. I'll find something 
 more suitable for you to do, with a bigger salary and 
 then, too, I can see you sometimes. What is the good 
 of waiting until the crash comes?" 
 
 "How do you know all this?" Jane asked in a curi- 
 ously repressed voice. 
 
 "Oh, I've been talking to the Unatika people ; the outfit 
 working for the other company, you know," replied 
 Ronald, carelessly. "They say yours hasn't a chance. 
 Besides, one of their men was killed last night by a 
 Northern Star gang and they are out for blood; they've
 
 THE MESSAGE 209 
 
 sent for the marshal from Juneau, and when he starts 
 an inquiry, I fancy your people will lie down and take 
 their medicine. Say, where are we going?" 
 
 They had passed the end of Main Street and while 
 he talked Jane had led him out along the old sledge 
 track which wound away to the north over the tundra. 
 No habitations lay before them, but just a little way 
 beyond was a secluded group of cottonwood trees which 
 she had investigated once on a solitary ramble. The 
 conversation had started propitiously. Ronald was in 
 a confidential mood, and if she could lead him on to 
 divulge the knowledge which she sought, this wretched 
 farce might end once and for all. 
 
 "I'd love to take a good walk, wouldn't you?" She 
 looked smilingly into his eyes. "It hasn't rained to-day 
 and I think the sun is trying to come out. There is the 
 darlingest little brook up there among the cottonwood 
 
 trees 
 
 "Oh, all right," Ronald agreed. "I'm not crazy about 
 this mud but I'll go anywhere with you, Jane. I was 
 afraid I had offended you last night, when I tried to 
 tease you about Hoyt. Of course, I know you don't 
 really care anything about him." 
 
 "I should think not!" Jane tossed her head. "I 
 didn't like your knocking the outfit, but I thought a great 
 big company was back of us. Father and I would not 
 have come all this way if we had known it was only 
 just somebody who was likely to fail any time and leave 
 us stranded. I believe I will speak to him about going 
 
 home, but Brooklyn is a long way off " 
 
 "So you live in Brooklyn! You never would tell me 
 before!" Ronald cried triumphantly. "I'll be home my-
 
 210 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 self in the early autumn and we can see each other a 
 lot if only you won't stick up here. I'll take you to 
 places in town you've never seen, and we'll have some 
 wonderful times! Say that you will come back, Jane! 
 I cando.a lot for you and I will, if you are only nice 
 to me." 
 
 "But I cannot leave unless I'm perfectly sure that the 
 Northern Star is going to fail," Jane objected. "I I'd 
 love to be back in the East and have some good times 
 with you! It would be wonderful! I never had a 
 chance before. Would you take me to a theater on 
 Broadway and one of those great big restaurants where 
 all the rich people go?" 
 
 She was afraid that she was overdoing it, but Ronald 
 smirked fatuously. 
 
 "Take you anywhere your little heart desires!" he 
 promised. "I'm crazy about you, dear, I tell you ! It 
 will be like heaven after this mud and squalor! I will 
 give you a letter to a friend of mine who will place 
 you in a much better position right away. Get your 
 father to leave with you on the next steamer and I'll 
 go with you as far as Ladysmith. Will you, Jane?" 
 
 "But the company," Jane faltered. "Suppose it 
 weren't true? These Unatika people may have been 
 lying to you. Why should they tell all that to you, a 
 stranger ?" 
 
 "Oh, they know who I am, all right," Ronald said 
 loftily. 
 
 Jane shook her head. 
 
 "I couldn't think of dragging father all the way back 
 so soon after we came unless I had better proof than 
 that. Of course, I don't doubt your word," she added
 
 THE MESSAGE 211 
 
 hastily, "but we don't trust the Unatika people, you 
 know." 
 
 "Not the employees, maybe." Ronald paused and then 
 went on impetuously. "I understand there has been 
 bad blood between them and the Northern Star outfit, 
 but if you won't say anything about it, I will tell you 
 something you will believe. My father owns the Unatika 
 mine." 
 
 Jane drew a deep breath. So her suspicions had been 
 right after all and they were indeed in the hands of the 
 enemy ! 
 
 "You don't mean he owns it now, do you? Perhaps 
 he is going to buy it, and that's why you came up here?" 
 She must be sure! 
 
 "He developed it from the beginning; as soon as he 
 learned about the Northern Star he sent a man up here 
 who discovered the Unatika right beside it and Dad 
 bought it in. Now will you believe me when I tell you 
 that the other outfit are bound to fail?" 
 
 They had reached the clump of cottonwoods and Jane 
 advanced beneath them and then drew back. 
 
 "Oh, dear! We can't go on! It's too wet and the 
 trees are dripping! Of course I believe you, and I 
 I'll speak to father the minute I get home. I won't tell 
 him what you have told me, but just that I'm tired of 
 it up here, and I'll try to persuade him to go back 
 East." 
 
 "Wait!" Ronald tried to draw her back beneath the 
 dripping shelter of the cottonwoods once more, but she 
 laughingly eluded him, and if there was a feverish 
 quality in her gayety, he was too infatuated to observe it. 
 
 "We must go back or I don't know what father will
 
 212 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 say, and we don't want him to be angry now," she said. 
 "He knows I haven't any work at the store, when there 
 isn't any store to work in ! Will you take me for a ride 
 this afternoon?" 
 
 An hour later Jane, breathless and disheveled of hair, 
 confronted Big Jim Bowers at the door of the general 
 office. 
 
 "Mr. Bowers, I want you to do something for me 
 and and ask no questions." She was very pale and 
 there was a curious gleam in her eyes. "There is some- 
 thing that Mr. MacLeod must know immediately; it is 
 of the utmost importance to the Northern Star Com- 
 pany, and the mails are too slow. Mr. MacLeod said 
 that if ever I required any special service of you I was 
 to give you this." 
 
 She held out an envelope, and the amazed superin- 
 tendent took it and broke the seal. 
 
 "Dear Mr. Bowers:" he read, in Adam MacLeod's 
 small precise hand. "Give the young lady who presents 
 this to you any assistance that lies in your power and 
 discuss it with no one. She has the fullest confidence 
 of the company, and is on a special, private mission." 
 
 "I might have known, Miss," he said slowly as he 
 looked up at her once more. "I'm to say nothing to 
 Mr. Hoyt?" 
 
 "Not unless I give you leave, Mr. Bowers. I want 
 your most trustworthy man to go immediately by the 
 fastest route to the nearest wireless station, and relay 
 a message to Mr. MacLeod." 
 
 "That will be Juneau." Big Jim seemed still dazed 
 by the revelation which had been made to him. "I'll 
 send Harve Dugdale, if he will suit you, Miss."
 
 THE MESSAGE 213 
 
 "He will do splendidly, if he has quite recovered from 
 last night," she replied. "You must give some excuse 
 to Mr. Hoyt; tell him that the Unatika people have 
 sent for a marshal from Juneau and mean to accuse 
 some of our men of poor Pietro's murder. It's true, 
 too. Say that you're sending a message to the marshal 
 yourself. And please don't call 'Miss' like that; I'm 
 still just Jane Peddar." 
 
 Big Jim held out his hand. 
 
 "Whoever you are, I I want to shake hands with 
 you," he said somewhat unsteadily. "I am at your ser- 
 vice always Miss Jane !" 
 
 In half an hour Harve Dugdale was floundering 
 through the mud toward Juneau in a crazy jitney im- 
 pounded from the proprietor of the Full Blast and the 
 message he bore read : 
 
 "Winfield owns Unatika, Warn Geddes, Janey."
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 THE COMING OF THE "GREY GULL" 
 
 RONALD waited in vain that afternoon for the 
 capricious Jane to appear and finally mounted 
 his own horse and rode off in high dudgeon. 
 He would keep away from the little minx for a few 
 days and teach her a lesson; she must learn that she 
 could not play fast and loose with him as though he 
 were a mere counter-jumper in her own class! 
 
 Meanwhile, Jane was curled up comfortably on the 
 cot in the kitchen-living room of the shack, watching Ma 
 Heaney at her self-imposed task of pie making. At the 
 arrival of their visitor Peddar had hurriedly departed 
 for the town, and the two women were alone. 
 
 "I tell you, if I was Mr. Hoyt I wouldn't wait for 
 no more 'accidents' to happen. After that note that 
 poor Pietro wrote to you, I'd just get a posse o' my 
 own men together and sail right in and clean out the 
 whole Unatika outfit!" Ma Heaney gesticulated ex- 
 pressively with her floury hands. 
 
 "If he did that they could appeal to the authorities 
 at Juneau and put the Northern Star out of business," 
 Jane smiled. "Mr. Hoyt can do the same thing, of 
 course, when once he can catch any of them in the act, 
 but unfortunately that note was too vague to serve as 
 actual proof that the Unatika people set fire to the 
 
 214
 
 THE COMING OF THE "GREY GULL" 215 
 
 warehouse and store last night, and no one saw them 
 do it. Malison must be at the back of it, and I think 
 someone else had a guilty knowledge that it was going 
 to be done; it would surprise you very much if I could 
 tell you who, Mrs. Heaney." 
 
 Ma Heaney stared. 
 
 "Nothin' would surprise me that any o' them pulled 
 off," she remarked. "I've got them to thank for it that 
 my house is all smoked out, the dirty rats ! I'm lettin' 
 it air now ; thank the Lord the sun's out." 
 
 "You don't think Malison started the fire himself?" 
 Jane asked. 
 
 "Not him! He won't have the nerve to show himself 
 in Katalak again unless he had a gang o' his men with 
 him. There's a lot o' scum in his outfit, though, that 
 will do the dirty work for him if he pays them well 
 enough, and I guess the Unatika people themselves have 
 give him orders to drive the Northern Star out at all 
 costs. Did you hear about Etta Carney?" 
 
 "The girl who was in love with Malison? No. What 
 about her?" Jane glanced up in sudden interest. 
 
 "I told you she cut up somethin' terrible when he was 
 run out of town." Ma Heaney lifted the pie plate on 
 the tips of five pudgy fingers and cut the superfluous 
 dough from its rim. "Well, she was always kind o' 
 a nice little thing as them girls go; she worked as 
 capper for Cliff Bishop over at the Full Blast " 
 
 "What is 'capper?'" Jane interrupted. 
 
 "Cliff Bishop is the faro dealer," Ma Heaney ex- 
 plained. "Etta used to get talkin' to the strangers at 
 the bar, and steer 'em over to the game and get her 
 percentage if they lost."
 
 216 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "Goodness !" ejaculated Jane. "And you call her a 
 'nice little thing !' " 
 
 "Well, so she is. Her fall guys didn't always lose, 
 by a long sight, for Cliff deals a straight game, and as 
 far as any of 'em ever got with her was a drink and 
 a smile. Then Malison came along and she fell in love 
 with him, but I guess he got cold feet when she went 
 around bragging to the other girls that they was goin' 
 to be married. She just wouldn't give him up, though, 
 and when the boys run him out she went all to pieces. 
 She wasn't any too well before, what with this climate 
 and all, and now she's took to her bed." 
 
 "Poor thing!" Jane cried softly. "Where does she 
 live?" 
 
 "She shares a shack with Pearl Sparkes at the end 
 of Harbor Street. Pearl dances at the Happy Days, 
 you know." Ma Heaney added: "If she'd only get up 
 enough spunk to go back to Frisco where she come 
 from, the boys would pass the hat for her ticket, but 
 her nerve's gone. I took her in some broth the other 
 day, but she wouldn't even speak to me and just turned 
 her face to the wall. You can't do nothin' with a girl 
 like that." 
 
 Jane wondered if the last statement were true. 
 Surely there must be some way of helping a girl like 
 Etta Carney ; a girl who could keep her self-respect, dis- 
 torted as her conception of it might be, even in a gam- 
 bling saloon. She tried to visualize what it must be 
 like to be wretchedly unhappy, ill and destitute and 
 alone in a strange land, and the mental picture made 
 her shudder. 
 
 Peddar returned and they sat down to Ma Heaney's
 
 THE COMING OF THE "GREY GULL" 217 
 
 bountiful supper, but Jane ate little, and she was un- 
 usually silent and thoughtful while she helped the older 
 woman to clear away the dishes. 
 
 Ma Heaney departed to set her aired-out lodging house 
 to rights, and Peddar was smoking peacefully on the 
 porch enjoying the pale sunshine, when Jane made her 
 appearance with a basket on her arm. 
 
 "I'm going down town for a little while," she an- 
 nounced. "Don't wait up for me if you want to go to 
 bed." 
 
 "I'll go with you, miss " Peddar half rose. 
 
 "No; I'm going alone." She spoke decidedly. "You 
 needn't act like an old policeman, Peddar! I shan't get 
 into any trouble." 
 
 "I'm not so sure." Peddar sighed heavily. "You're 
 a changed young lady since we came up here, miss, if you 
 don't mind my saying so, and I'm not at all sure that 
 Mr. Geddes would approve of this Mr. Winfield." 
 
 "I'm quite sure he wouldn't!" Jane retorted with a 
 little chuckle. "However, Peddar dear, I'm twenty-one, 
 you know, and I can marry Jud Pittinger if I like!" 
 
 Peddar's groan followed her down the walk, but she 
 paid no heed. The interview before her presented some 
 unpleasant possibilities, yet she did not falter. Here 
 was just another girl like herself, but a girl who needed 
 care and a little friendliness. Jane knew that she would 
 be the least welcome of perhaps anyone in Katalak, yet 
 surely there must be some way in which she could over- 
 come the other's sadly misplaced jealousy and an- 
 tagonism. 
 
 She found the little habitation at the end of Harbor 
 Street a miserable z weather-beaten shack with its roof
 
 2i8 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 partly caved in and knocked at the door. There was 
 no response although she tried again and again, and 
 finally she turned the knob and entered. 
 
 A couch with a faded, once gay cover stood against 
 the wall, a few chairs in various stages of dilapidation 
 were scattered about and in the center of the room was 
 a table with a filthy red cloth on which stood a half- 
 empty whiskey bottle and a plate containing fragments 
 of cold, greasy food. The walls were hung with cheap 
 lithographs. Ashes and cigarette ends littered the floor 
 and the rusty stove in the corner smoked dismally. 
 
 Jane shuddered as she glanced about her. The room 
 was empty, but from a half -opened door adjoining there 
 came a rustle as though something had moved within. 
 
 Summoning all her courage Jane stepped to the door. 
 A chest of drawers with a cracked mirror first met 
 her gaze, then a narrow cot with a chair beside it on 
 which was a glass containing watered condensed milk 
 and a saucer of limp crackers. On the cot lay a girl 
 with dark, disheveled hair and eyes which burned into 
 hers in half-incredulous surprise and resentment. 
 
 "G good-evening," Jane stammered, with a tremulous 
 smile. "Ma Heaney told me that you were ill and I 
 thought you might like something light and dainty to 
 eat " 
 
 The girl sat up suddenly and pointed with a thin out- 
 flung arm to the door. 
 
 "You go!" Her voice was low and trembled with 
 passion. "I don't want anything you've got or anything 
 to do with you! How dare you come here, you of all 
 people ?" 
 
 "Because," Jane's voice was steady now, and very
 
 THE COMING OF THE "GREY GULL" 219 
 
 sweet, "because I think girls ought to be friendly and 
 help each other when they're all alone in a place like 
 this, don't you? I know you dislike me, and blame me 
 for what happened to your friend but indeed, indeed 
 it was not my fault! You don't believe me now, of 
 course, but you don't even know me. Won't you wait 
 until you do before you pass judgment? If the men 
 can practice fair play " 
 
 "Fair play!" Etta Carney repeated with a derisive 
 laugh which ended in a sob. "You to talk of fair play! 
 If you didn't want him yourself, why did you take him 
 away from me?" 
 
 "I didn't, and he didn't want me, really." Jane sup- 
 pressed a shudder. "It was just a a new face, don't 
 you see? I wasn't responsible for what the boys did. 
 But don't let us talk about that. Won't you let me help 
 you just as I would want you to help me if I were ill 
 and alone?" 
 
 The girl fell back weakly upon her dingy pillow. 
 
 "Well, you are a queer one !" she sighed. "I wouldn't 
 have come near you if I died for it! What do you 
 want with me, anyway?" 
 
 The anger in her voice had given way to wonderment, 
 and Jane put down her basket and advanced to the cot. 
 
 "Just to make you comfortable. If you'll let me, I'm 
 going to heat some water and bathe you and then change 
 your bed; you'll sleep ever so much better in fresh 
 sheets." 
 
 Etta laughed drearily. 
 
 "I don't know where you think you are !" she ex- 
 claimed. "There isn't such a thing in the shack ! I used 
 to try to keep things halfway decent, for Pearl never
 
 220 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 would bother, but I don't care any more; I don't even 
 care if I am dirty ! I wish you would go away and let 
 ane alone! That's all I want; to be left alone! Ma 
 Heaney is an interfering old busybody !" 
 
 "With a great big heart." Jane smiled again. "You 
 don't care now because you are ill, and of course, you 
 want to be left alone. I'll be as quick as ever I can. 
 I rather thought your friend Pearl would be too busy 
 to look after you and keep things clean and all, so I 
 brought along some fresh linen and my best night-dress. 
 It always helped me to get well, to look as pretty as 
 possible." 
 
 Etta stared but made no further objection, and Jane 
 went about her ministrations with real joy in her heart. 
 
 When the sick girl, clean and refreshed, was back in 
 the newly made cot, Jane brushed her short dark hair and 
 then uncovered the dishes she had brought. 
 
 "There isn't much," she said apologetically. "One 
 can't manage very much up here that is tempting, but 
 there is some jelly and I'm going to heat the broth " 
 
 She vanished into the kitchen and when she reappeared 
 Etta was crying softly. Jane affected not to observe her 
 tears but fed her and chattered cheerfully until she 
 brought the ghost of a smile to the pale face. 
 
 The basket repacked, she approached the cot once 
 more and held out her hand. 
 
 "Good-night," she said, "I'll come to-morrow, if you 
 will let me. We have some eggs that are almost fresh 
 and some canned peaches " 
 
 The girl clasped the outstretched hand in her own 
 burning one and drew Jane down close to her. 
 
 "I wasn't fair!" she sobbed. "I blamed you because
 
 THE COMING OF THE "GREY GULL" 221 
 
 I wouldn't admit even to myself that he hadn't meant 
 what he said! I couldn't bear the thought that he was 
 tired ! He'd promised to marry me and take me back 
 to 'Frisco when the job was done here and I had just 
 lived in that promise, trying to shut my eyes even when 
 I saw what a beast he wasl If I could be glad of any- 
 thing, I'd be almost glad now that I didn't marry him, 
 but I don't want to go on!" 
 
 "You will, though, as soon as you are stronger, and 
 I'll see that you get back to 'Frisco if yoa would like 
 to go. Now good-night, and try to rest. I will be over 
 in the morning." 
 
 Jane went happily home, but the next day, as with 
 basket replenished she took her way to the little shack 
 on Harbor Street, she encountered Big Jim and the 
 superintendent's labored air of surprise warned her that 
 the meeting was no accidental one. 
 
 "Miss Jane," he began, awkwardly enough, "a girl 
 named Pearl Sparkes has spread it all over town that you 
 have been doing things for her sick friend Etta Carney, 
 and I hope you won't take it amiss if I say a word. It 
 is mighty good of you to do it, but that Etta well, she's 
 straight enough but she's tough and not your sort. I 
 wouldn't interfere only after that note of Mr. MacLeod's 
 I know you aren't just the assistant storekeeper; I would 
 have seen from the first if I had had eyes in my head 
 that you were a lady, and I feel sort of responsible 
 for you " 
 
 "So does Fed father, and Jud Pittinger and ever so 
 many more!" she laughed. "I appreciate your motive, 
 Mr. Bowers, but Etta is just a girl, and sick and alone, 
 and I don't believe I will be contaminated ! How is the
 
 222 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 work on the road getting on? They didn't have to 
 suspend operations because of the fire, did they?" 
 
 "No, thank God ! We managed to save enough from 
 the warehouse to go on with until a new supply of mate- 
 rial can be brought up, and Harve is going to send a 
 special wire from Juneau." 
 
 "Do you know what was in the one he is sending for 
 me?" Jane asked suddenly. "I am going to trust you, 
 Mr. Bowers, for I've been thinking it over and I have 
 come to the conclusion that you ought to know. You 
 must all have thought it very strange for me to take up 
 with a stranger like Ronald Winfield, and neglect my 
 work at the store, but you see he wasn't a stranger; I 
 knew who he was the minute I saw him, and I guessed 
 why he had come, but I meant to find out from his own 
 lips if I had to make him fall in love with me to do it! 
 Do you know why he is here? It's to push the fight 
 against us, and I am morally certain he knew beforehand 
 that the warehouse was to be set on fire, if he didn't 
 actually order it. The message I sent to Mr. MacLeod 
 said : 'Winfield owns Unatika.' " 
 
 "Good God! That little skunk " 
 
 "No. His father, and a greater scoundrel than Ronald. 
 Have you ever heard of Gordon Winfield?" 
 
 Big Jim emitted a long, low whistle. 
 
 "So he's the nigger in the woodpile! Biggest crook 
 in the game ! I'm mighty glad you told me, Miss Jane ; 
 this Ronald boy won't be out of sight of one or another 
 of our men for the rest of his stay here. And to think 
 I told your father that he ought to speak to you about 
 going around so much with him !" The superintendent's
 
 honest face flushed. "I might have known you had some- 
 thing up your sleeve!" 
 
 "I don't see how you could!" Jane cried gayly. "If 
 I wasn't the most infatuated girl north of Seattle it was 
 because I am not a good enough actress, but I fooled 
 Ronald !" 
 
 "You sure did!" Big Jim's face sobered. "Don't yau 
 think that Hoyt should know? Can't I just tell him who 
 owns the Unatika and what this bright lad is here for, 
 without letting on where I learned it?" 
 
 "Perhaps it would be best." Jane acquiesced some- 
 what reluctantly. "But I don't wish anyone to know 
 my part in it except you; this is as important as that 
 message yesterday." 
 
 "I understand and I will obey instructions, Miss Jane," 
 he responded. "Only look out for trouble when that 
 young pinhead realizes that we are on his trail." 
 
 Two days passed before Ronald suspected that he was 
 shadowed ; two long, self -centered days during which he 
 sulked and waited for Jane to approach him and humbly 
 beg his pardon for the broken engagement. No doubt 
 as to the state of her feeling for him entered his mind ; 
 she was merely too sure of him, and trying the clumsy 
 coquetry of her class. 
 
 But gradually it was borne in upon him that wherever 
 he went by day the same lantern- jawed Yankee in rough 
 working clothes seemed to be in the immediate vicinity, 
 and at night a certain beetle-browed Hungarian appeared 
 to have nothing better to do than to patrol the walk in 
 front of Ma Heaney's. 
 
 Ronald had hung about town in the hope of catching 
 a glimpse of Jane, but on the third day, in a state of
 
 224 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 nerves bordering on panic, he determined to put his 
 suspicions as to the espionage upon him to the test. 
 
 Taking his horse he rode out over the tundra by a 
 circuitous route to the clump of cottonwoods where Jane 
 had led him on their walk together, and in their shelter 
 he waited. Presently the lantern- jawed Yankee ap- 
 peared, his long legs hunched up to keep from dragging 
 the ground on either side of his shaggy little mount, and 
 drawing rein calmly a few yards away, produced a 
 "chaw" of tobacco. 
 
 Ronald rode furiously up to him. 
 
 "What's the meaning of this ?" he fumed. "How dare 
 you follow me about?" 
 
 "Easy there, stranger," the other drawled. "One white 
 man don't use that tone to another up here. I'm takin' 
 a leetle ride for my health, and the road's free." 
 
 "That's a lie!" Ronald cried rashly. "You've been 
 following me for days, and I want to know what you 
 are after!" 
 
 The Yankee sighed and dismounted by the simple 
 process of putting one foot down on the ground and 
 swinging the other leg over his saddle. 
 
 "When folks talk 'lies' in this part of the country, 
 they back it up with somethin' more than hot air," he 
 announced. "Get off that plug before you're yanked off, 
 and put up your hands." 
 
 It was a brief and inglorious combat and at its con- 
 clusion the lantern-jawed victor lifted Ronald, bloody 
 and limp and weeping with impotent rage, into his saddle 
 once more and gravely followed him back to town. 
 
 Meanwhile, Jane's ministrations had worked an almost 
 miraculous cure, and Etta was about again, weak and
 
 THE COMING OF THE "GREY GULL" 225 
 
 tottery, but with a hint of color in her wan cheeks, and 
 an unwontedly soft glow in her eyes. 
 
 Peddar was virtuously shocked when she appeared 
 shyly one day at the shack to thank her new friend, but 
 warned by Jane's manner that he must make her feel 
 welcome, he soon grew to accept her as he had the vari- 
 ous other phenomena which in the past six weeks had 
 turned his settled views of life into chaos. 
 
 Ronald appeared no more on the street of Katalak, 
 but remained in his room at Ma Heaney's waiting in 
 voluble impatience for the next steamer out. The Una- 
 tika people had made no further move, the temporary 
 store was nearing completion, and save for the fact that 
 she saw no more of the young engineer Jane was light 
 of heart, when all at once the final blow fell. 
 
 "There's a beautiful boat in the harbor, Miss Jane," 
 Etta announced one morning when she came to bring 
 her a tiny plant which she had been fostering. "You 
 ought to see it! It's called the 'Grey Gull' and Lew 
 Nagle saws it is a schooner yacht, a private one. A little 
 rowboat came off from it, and brought a fine-looking 
 gentleman and two ladies, and they had on the grandest 
 clothes! Lew was down near the breakwater and they 
 stopped and asked him where they could find a young 
 man named Winfield, and he directed them to Ma 
 Heaney's. He says it was worth two bits to see their 
 faces the ladies', I mean when they saw what kind 
 of a place it was! Why, what's the matter?" 
 
 For Jane had turned suddenly pale, and her hands 
 gripped the nearest chairback as if for support. 
 
 "Did you see them yourself, Etta?" she asked. "Was
 
 226 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 one of the ladies dark and handsome, and the other tall 
 and slender and blonde?" 
 
 "I didn't see them, but that's the way Lew described 
 them, only not just in those words. Do you know 
 them?" 
 
 "I know of them." Jane passed her hand across her 
 eyes. "Etta, will you do something for me?" 
 
 "Anything in this world!" Etta cried. "I'm just 
 aching to do something to make up for how horrid I was 
 to you!" 
 
 "You weren't, dear, but please go as quickly as you 
 feel able to and bring Mr. Bowers here. No matter 
 where he is or what he is doing I must see him at once. 
 He will understand. Don't say anything to anyone 
 else " 
 
 But Etta had already gone and Jane sank limply into 
 the chair. The Winfields had arrived en masse, and the 
 unequal battle for the Northern Star had been brought 
 into the open at last!
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 THE WIDENED BREACH 
 
 HOW long she sat there inert Jane never knew. 
 She roused herself only to send Peddar on 
 an errand that would keep him out of the 
 way for an hour, and then sank again into an apathy 
 of dismay. She had never seen Gordon Winfield, but 
 the very name filled her with fear. He had been so 
 ruthless, so tenacious in his scheme of vengeance upon 
 them, and with the mine protected as he thought only 
 by the outfit there were no lengths to which he would 
 not go to drive them out and stop the building of the 
 road. 
 
 And she was helpless to prevent him from carrying 
 out his plan! With Juneau and its representatives of 
 the law miles away he would have free scope for his 
 operations. She dared not even show herself in the 
 streets of Katalak again lest Adele Everton catch sight of 
 her and betray her presence. She could only warn the 
 superintendent and sit idly by! 
 
 But gradually as she waited the old fighting blood that 
 was Jane's heritage asserted itself, and fear gave way 
 to rage and an indomitable defiance. The first cargo 
 of Winfield's materials had arrived and his surveyors 
 
 227
 
 228 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 had been noticeably active on a line parallel with the 
 Northern Star single track, but he could not start work 
 yet and every day those shining rails were creeping up 
 nearer and nearer to the glacier bed. Perhaps they had 
 already reached it, for the time limit which Hoyt had 
 fixed was at hand ! She must not despair yet ; there was 
 still a fighting chance ! 
 
 So it was that when Big Jim's massive tread sounded 
 upon the porch she sprang up with flashing eyes and a 
 bright spot of color in either cheek. 
 
 "Mr. Bowers, have you seen the schooner yacht in 
 the harbor Oh!" She uttered the exclamation ki the 
 sudden realization that he was not alone. 
 
 A thick-set, burly-looking man with a deeply tanned 
 face and rather stern, dark eyes accompanied him, and 
 now stood gazing keenly at Jane. 
 
 "Miss Peddar, this is Henry Rawlins, deputy marshal 
 from Juneau," Big Jim announced. "He's come to look 
 into the murder of that Italian, Pietro. I told him how 
 you befriended the man, and the circumstances under 
 which his body was found and if you have kept the note 
 addressed to you that was on him, I wish you would 
 show it to the deputy marshal. I told him, too, about 
 the fire and the other dirty work that has been going on 
 here, and I guess there will be no more of it." 
 
 Jane took the pitiful little note from the drawer in 
 the table and handed it to the official who read it and 
 nodded slowly. 
 
 "I think that about cleans it up," he said in a deep, 
 husky voice. "Thank you, Miss. There isn't much 
 chance of proving the murder on any of them, for no-
 
 THE WIDENED BREACH 229 
 
 body saw it done and they'll all stick together, but at 
 least they can't put it off on any of the Northern Star 
 outfit. I'd better be getting back to town now and size 
 up the situation in regard to these other outrages. See 
 you later, Bowers." 
 
 He bowed to Jane and departed. She waited until 
 the sound of his footsteps had died away and then 
 turned to the superintendent. 
 
 "Did you meet Etta?" 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "Thought I'd bring the deputy marshal along in case 
 you wanted him." 
 
 "No. I would rather tell you first and you can let 
 him know as much as is necessary later, but not a word 
 more. And you must tell nothing, absolutely nothing, 
 to Mr. Hoyt." 
 
 With Grace Winfield there in that very town, perhaps 
 talking to him at that moment Jane felt that she would 
 rather die than call upon the young engineer in this 
 emergency. 
 
 "I understand," Big Jim nodded again gravely. "What 
 is it, Miss Jane? Something about that yacht?" 
 
 "It belongs to Gordon Winfield. He and his niece 
 and her companion are at Ma Heaney's now, conferring 
 with Ronald." 
 
 Big Jim whistled. 
 
 "He's come up to see the finish, eh? Well, we'll try 
 to make it as interesting as we can for him," he declared. 
 "He won't run us out without the biggest battle that 
 Alaska ever saw, and that's going some!" 
 
 "There is something greater behind it all than you
 
 230 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 know yet, Mr. Bowers, something that means far more 
 to him than beating us out on the road." 
 
 "The road means the mine. Of course, I know 
 that " 
 
 "The Unatika and Northern Star are both dummy com- 
 panies," Jane spoke quickly. "I'm going to tell you all 
 I can. Winfield is the deadliest personal enemy of the 
 people who own the Northern Star, and when he found 
 out who were back of that company he sent an expert 
 up here who discovered the Unatika mine and Winfield 
 bought it in to get the others out by hook or crook and 
 wrest the mine from them. Now do you see? He will 
 stop at nothing to gain his ends and there will be no 
 time to notify the representatives of the Northern Star 
 in New York, nor is there anything that they can do. 
 You'll have to fight it out with Winfield alone." 
 
 "I see," the superintendent replied thoughtfully. "I 
 know his reputation as a shrewd customer and a hard 
 one, and if a question of personal enmity is involved 
 well, I guess we'll have our work cut out for us, but 
 he won't beat us, at that! I don't see why the owners 
 of the Northern Star don't come up themselves if they 
 knew what's in the wind and take a hand." 
 
 Jane turned her head away. 
 
 "The principal owner is fighting in France," she said 
 very softly. 
 
 "Oh !" Big Jim straightened and threw back his mas- 
 sive shoulders. "That's where I would be only they 
 wouldn't take me, for all I'm a husk ; got a heart's that's 
 on the bum, they tell me, but it'll stick for the big show
 
 THE WIDENED BREACH 231 
 
 here. Say, Miss Jane, did he go knowing what might 
 happen up here?" 
 
 "I I believe so," Jane murmured. "I suppose he 
 thought it was his higher duty." 
 
 "Let me tell the boys just that, will you?" He took 
 a quick step toward her. "Just let me tell them where 
 their real boss is and why he went, risking everything. 
 When they know that, if it conies to a battle they'll be 
 worth ten men of the other outfit." 
 
 "Do you think it will make such a difference?" Jane 
 asked. "They are mostly foreigners, aren't they?" 
 
 "They are Americans in theory, even the Hungarians ! 
 We had a few Bolsheviks among the Russians, but I 
 reformed them." Big Jim clenched his mighty fist and 
 glanced down at it retrospectively. "Let them know 
 that while their boss is fighting for them he expects 
 them to fight for him if it's necessary, and a whole 
 army couldn't stop them ! It's the personal element, don't 
 you see, Miss Jane? They've been working for their 
 pay, and they'd stick up for their own outfit to a certain 
 point because they like young Hoyt and they are dead 
 sore at the Unatika crowd for the dirty work they have 
 been putting over, but the stuff that'll make them fight 
 to the last ditch is in what you told me just now !" 
 
 "Very well, you may tell them then if you think best, 
 but no one must know where you learned it," Jane 
 warned him. "I've told you all I can, and there is 
 nothing more that I can do to help. I'm going to be 
 very ill." 
 
 "What's the matter?" Big. Jim's face changed with 
 almost comical swiftness, but Jane did not smile.
 
 232 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "I've got to be," she said grimly. "I never saw 
 Gordon Winfield in my life, but there is someone in his 
 party who would recognize me and it would make 
 trouble. Just tell all the boys that I'm ill, but I don't 
 want the company doctor; I only need rest. Don't let 
 even Mr. Hoyt know the truth." 
 
 "All right, Miss Jane. I'll run up and tell you the 
 news as often as I can, but if things get kind of hot 
 and I can't leave I suppose Etta will bring you a 
 message ?" 
 
 "Yes, you can trust her, I'm sure." Jane held out 
 her hand. "Good-by and good luck, Mr. Bowers. Tell 
 the men I wish I could be with them, whatever comes." 
 
 When Peddar returned he found to his alarm that Jane 
 was in bed. 
 
 "Oh, miss, whatever is it? I knew that coming up 
 here would be the death of you ! I knew it !" 
 
 "I'm just as well as you are this minute, but I've got 
 to pretend I'm ill and if it could be done I'd make you 
 go to bed, too!" Jane sat up. "As it is you mustn't 
 go near Main Street again even for supplies, and I don't 
 think you had better leave the house. Peddar, do you 
 know who is here in Katalak?" 
 
 "No, miss. They do say that a party came in on a 
 yacht this morning " 
 
 "And Mrs. Everton is with them!" Jane interrupted. 
 "If she sees either you or me, Peddar, it will spoil 
 everything !" 
 
 "Mrs. Everton here !" he gasped. "You can't mean it, 
 miss! Whatever brought her to Katalak?" 
 
 "Her friendship with the people on the yacht." Jane's
 
 THE WIDENED BREACH 233 
 
 lips tightened. "I told you that no one here must know 
 who I am, or that the Gildersleeves own the Northern 
 Star. Mrs. Everton found out at home that the mine 
 was ours, and she sold us out, Peddar; she betrayed us 
 to the only enemy that Ollie and I have on earth! She 
 is here with him and his party now, and he means to 
 get the mine away from us if he can. He was my 
 grandfather's enemy as well as ours, and his name is 
 Gordon Winfield." 
 
 "Winfield!" Peddar ejaculated. "Not that young 
 man's " 
 
 "His father." 
 
 "But I thought it was the other mining company, the 
 Unatika, who were trying to prevent the road from being 
 built." 
 
 "Gordon Winfield owns the Unatika. His son told 
 me, and that it what I went about with him for; to find 
 out." 
 
 "Well, I must say I wish you had taken me into your 
 confidence, miss, for I've had many an upset hour about 
 you, I have indeed!" Peddar spoke in an injured tone. 
 "I'm put in charge of you, and then I'm left in the dark ! 
 And that Mrs. Everton ! After all your goodness to 
 her she went and gave you and Mr. Ollie away? Well, 
 I can't say as I am surprised, miss. I never trusted her, 
 as you might say." 
 
 "It can't be helped now. We must only keep out of 
 her way." Jane added: "Of course, she may hear our 
 names mentioned, but it is hardly likely except from 
 Ma Heaney, and she would scarcely hold any conversation 
 with her. Ronald would be the last to speak of me, for
 
 234 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 he'd be afraid his father would find out what he had 
 told, and none of them will come in contact with any 
 of our outfit. Besides, even if Mrs. Everton did hear 
 the name Teddar' I doubt if she would connect it with 
 us, for she thinks I am doing war work somewhere, and 
 never in her wildest dreams would she expect to find us 
 here." 
 
 In the meantime, Barney Hoyt had left the general 
 office after a protracted conference with the superin- 
 tendent and was making his way to the track where an 
 engine waited to take him to the end of the road. It 
 had reached the glacier bed and work was already begun 
 on the trestle, but what he had just learned had turned 
 his elation to grim foreboding. He knew now what the 
 coming of Gordon Winfield portended, but the knowl- 
 edge only steeled his determination to put the road 
 through if it cost him his life. 
 
 He had not heard that any women were in the party 
 from the yacht, and when he reached the end of the 
 street and looking out along the track and saw a girl 
 coming slowly toward him, his heart almost stood still. If 
 it were Jane, she must have been looking for him; the 
 first time she had sought him out since Ronald Winfield 
 had appeared on the scene! He quickened his pace for 
 a few strides and then abruptly halted, for the approach- 
 ing girl was not Jane, after all. She was taller and 
 more mature, and the hair beneath the jaunty red tarn 
 o' shanter was not red-gold, but a smooth, glossy black. 
 
 She was still too far off for him to distinguish her 
 features clearly, but there was something in her stately 
 carriage and the lithe undulation of her walk which
 
 THE WIDENED BREACH 235 
 
 brought a memory back swiftly through the years, and 
 warned him of the almost unbelievable truth. 
 
 The woman caught sight of him, paused and then 
 came forward quickly with both hands outstretched. 
 
 "Barney !" 
 
 "How do you do, Grace?" He spoke quietly and 
 without visible surprise or constraint as he shook hands. 
 
 "I heard that you were here, and I have been looking 
 everywhere for you !" She was flushing and paling, and 
 her dark eyes glowed. "Isn't it wonderful to meet again 
 like this in such a far-off corner of the world! Take 
 me somewhere where we can talk; there is so much to 
 say!" 
 
 "Is there?" He looked steadily at her and there was 
 no answering fire in his eyes. "I'm sorry, but there is 
 nowhere I can take you except the office of Mrs. Heaney's 
 lodging house ; there are no tea-rooms in Katalak." 
 
 "Barney! Have you no warmer welcome for me 
 after all these years?" she asked, and then hurried on 
 as if fearful of his answer. "You do not seem sur- 
 prised to see me." 
 
 "I presume you came with your uncle on his yacht." 
 
 "Yes, and I have a message for you from him." 
 Grace hesitated, and then added slowly: "Barney, you 
 were never ungenerous in the old days. Uncle Win 
 wants you to let bygones be bygones and come and dine 
 with us on the yacht to-night. Will you?" 
 
 "It is impossible." Hoyt frowned. "You forget that 
 I have my work to do." 
 
 "But just this one evening, for a holiday!" Her tone 
 was soft, with a wooing, compelling quality in it and she
 
 236 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 laid her hand upon his sleeve. "You don't look as 
 though you had many holidays, Barney." 
 
 "I am sorry." He ignored her last observation. 
 "Please convey my regrets to your uncle." 
 
 "You are still angry with me? Barney, I was a little 
 beast, but we were both children. You see I have 
 waited, as you asked me to, after all." Her studied com- 
 posure was shaken and her rich, contralto voice broke 
 oddly. "I know this sounds hideously bold, but if you 
 knew how I have suffered you would soften and be the 
 old Barney once more ! My uncle is as anxious to make 
 amends as I for the inadvertent part he took in bringing 
 about your trouble long ago; he is in a position to do 
 much for you " 
 
 "So that is it !" Hoyt spoke softly, and his lip curled 
 with contempt. "That is the game ! Upon my soul, I 
 didn't think that you would stoop so low!" 
 
 "I?" Grace Winfield drew herself up and her eyes 
 flashed. "I don't think that I quite understand." 
 
 "I gave you a message for your uncle in response to 
 his invitation." Hoyt paused and then added deliber- 
 ately: "I should like to change it. Please say to him 
 that I am not open to a bribe." 
 
 The woman paled, but she held her head high, and 
 returned his gaze. 
 
 "You must be mad! Why should my uncle wish to 
 bribe you ? We came up here for Ronald, who has been 
 touring about, and when we found that you too were 
 
 here Oh, Barney, don't you see? I wounded you 
 
 deeply in the past, but my uncle knows how bitterly I
 
 THE WIDENED BREACH 237 
 
 regret and he wishes only my happiness now. He can 
 make the career of the man I " 
 
 "Stop, Grace." Before the sternness in his tone she 
 dropped her eyes. "I cannot let you go on with your 
 lies! He must have made it well worth your while 
 for you to so humble yourself to do his dirty work for 
 him! I know this sounds brutal, but I feel brutal. I 
 wish to God that you were a man! Go back and tell 
 your uncle, the owner of the Unatika mine, that I am 
 here to fight him and all his crooked, cowardly gang to 
 the last ditch! He cannot bribe me with his niece or 
 his money and influence. I keep faith with the Northern 
 Star, and the road goes through!" 
 
 The woman drew in her breath sharply between her 
 parted lips, and for a moment there was silence between 
 them. Neither saw the girl who had come out of a 
 miserable shack farther up the street and drawn near 
 watching them. 
 
 At last Grace raised her head and faced him once 
 more, and her eyes glistened with tears. 
 
 "Very well, Barney, I will carry your message. I 
 don't know how you knew, but it is true, and I did 
 my uncle's bidding gladly ! Do you know why ? It was 
 not for the reason that you think, not because he loaded 
 me, a poor relation, with favors, but because after weary, 
 lonely, bitter years I thought I saw the happiness which 
 I had thrown away once more almost within my grasp, 
 and I clutched desperately at the chance to atone, to 
 live!" She drew a deep breath. "It is too late; I 
 realize that now, but I don't want you to think any
 
 238 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 worse of me than you must. I love you, Barney. I 
 always have, and I always shall. Good-by." 
 
 She held out her hand again with a little smile that 
 was infinitely weary and Hoyt's expression softened. 
 
 "I am sorry, Grace, deeply sorry." The eavesdropper 
 had turned and sped away on noiseless feet, and only 
 the engine puffing impatiently far up the track betrayed 
 a sign of life about them. "I wish you had not told me !" 
 
 "Why not?" Grace shrugged. "Perhaps some small 
 measure of vengeance is due to you. I shall return to 
 my uncle and tell him that I have failed. Will you try 
 to think a little kindly of me, when you think of me 
 at all?" 
 
 Wordlessly he pressed her hand, but she drew it 
 slowly away and bowing her head turned and left him. 
 
 "What do you think? Why, where's Miss Jane?" 
 Etta demanded, as she flew past Peddar on the porch 
 and into the empty livingroom. 
 
 "Here, dear," Jane called from her open bedroom 
 door. "What is it? Has anything happened?" 
 
 "You're sick!" Etta hesitated at the door, and then 
 advanced to the bed. "Oh, what is the matter ?" 
 
 "I think I must have caught a little cold," responded 
 Jane evasively. "It isn't serious. But tell me what has 
 happened." 
 
 "Nothing, only you know those two ladies that I told 
 you about, who came off the yacht?" 
 
 Jane nodded and raised herself upon one elbow in the 
 bed. 
 
 "Well, one of them it must have been the dark, 
 y
 
 THE WIDENED BREACH 239 
 
 handsome one that Lew Nagle described she knows the 
 engineer of the company you work for Mr. Hoyt." 
 Etta halted as if uncertain how to proceed and then 
 plunged on: "I had a row with Pearl, and was leaving 
 the shack when I saw a girl dressed all in white with 
 a red tam, out near where the track begins, and she was 
 talking to a man. I knew she didn't belong in Katalak, 
 and supposed she must be one of that party from the 
 yacht so I went nearer to have a look at her. Then I 
 saw that she had her hand on the man's sleeve and was 
 looking up into his face and it was Mr. Hoyt. They 
 didn't know I was on earth, and I got up real close to 
 them. Honestly, I didn't mean to listen ' 
 
 "Etta !" Jane stopped her with a little cry. "It wasn't 
 nice of you, and you mustn't tell me. I will not 
 listen " 
 
 "Well, if people talk out their private affairs like that 
 in public anybody might hear them !" Etta retorted in an 
 injured voice. "I was crazy about Hugh Malison, but 
 at least I didn't go around telling him that I loved him, 
 like that girl did! 'I love you, Barney/ She said it 
 just as plain as day and then I turned to beat it; I 
 knew it wasn't any place for me ! Think of it ! Him 
 in all his rough clothes and she looking as though she 
 stepped out of a picture, except for the mud on her 
 shoes. What's the matter? Do you feel real sick, Miss 
 Jane?" 
 
 For Jane had closed her eyes and sank back upon her 
 pillows. At the question she put one hand quickly to 
 her forehead. 
 
 "My head aches a little; it's this daylight all the time,
 
 240 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 I think. I'm not accustomed to it yet." She spoke in 
 almost feverish haste. "I'll be all right to-morrow. 
 Etta, you mustn't tell anyone else what you heard; it 
 isn't quite fair, you know, and you shouldn't have 
 listened." 
 
 "I won't," Etta promised. "I'll let you sleep now, but 
 if you are not better when I come to-morrow I'm going 
 to stay here and nurse you the way you did me." 
 
 When she had gone Jane got up and slipping on a 
 warm dressing-gown went to prepare supper. She told 
 herself fiercely that the news which Etta had brought 
 was only what she should have expected, and the love 
 affairs of the young engineer were no concern of hers, 
 but somehow the idea of lying there inactive was in- 
 tolerable to her. She did not want to be alone with 
 her own thoughts, and even Peddar's company was better 
 than none. 
 
 "You've eaten nothing, miss; you'll be really sick the 
 first thing you know," Peddar ventured, after manfully 
 cleaning his own plate. "If you'd let me make you a 
 cup of tea maybe it would taste better to you; you've 
 made this in the coffee pot." 
 
 Jane pushed back her chair, and walking over to the 
 couch flung herself upon it. 
 
 "I don't want anything, Peddar. You clean up; I'm 
 tired." 
 
 "Of course, miss." He spoke reproachfully. "I 
 wouldn't think of allowing you to touch the dishes, and 
 it was no wish of mine for you to soil your hands get- 
 ting supper. What with the dreadful way we have lived 
 up here I doubt that we'll ever get back in our own
 
 THE WIDENED BREACH 241 
 
 proper station again. Demoralizing, I call it. Think of 
 it, miss, if after we go home I should forget and call 
 you 'Jane!'" 
 
 The horror in Peddar's face was so genuine that Jane 
 smiled in spite of herself. 
 
 "It will be worse when I call you 'father,' as I prob- 
 ably shall!" She sighed wearily. "We may never go 
 back to the old life, Peddar. If the road doesn't go 
 through Ollie and I will be poor, you know." 
 
 "Well, it can't be worse than this, miss," observed 
 Peddar philosophically. "We'd be among gentlefolk, 
 anyway, and I've no doubt Mr. Ollie would make good 
 like his father and grandfather before him. It's the 
 family, not money that counts. Was that a knock ?" 
 
 He was at the door before Jane could make her 
 escape, and at sight of the visitor she stood rooted to 
 the spot. It was Barney Hoyt who stood upon the 
 threshold. 
 
 "I have only just heard that you were illl" He did 
 not seem to see Peddar, who stood before him the pic- 
 ture of outraged propriety. "Isn't there something I 
 can do? The company doctor isn't much good, but if 
 you like I'll send to Juneau ; I I'd go myself " 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Hoyt.". Jane's voice was crisply cool 
 as she drew her dressing-gown closely about her. "I 
 don't need any doctor. It was very kind of you to call 
 and inquire, but there is nothing you can do. I only need 
 rest and to be undisturbed." 
 
 Hoyt's face crimsoned. 
 
 "I beg your pardon," he said stiffly. "I did not mean 
 to intrude; I thought that I might be of some service.
 
 242 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 I trust you will be better soon. Good-night, Mr. 
 Peddar." 
 
 He bowed and turning on his heel walked off the porch 
 and away, while Jane went blindly to her room. She 
 lay there for long staring into the uncanny brightness 
 of the night, and the voice of that other woman which 
 she had never heard seemed to ring in her ears : "I love 
 you, Barney." 
 
 She buried her head in the pillow to keep out the 
 sound but it was no use. He had come to show an act 
 of kindness to the little storekeeper, but his heart was 
 with this woman of her enemy's people. Gordon Win- 
 field's revenge was greater than he knew.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 THE CALL TO ARMS 
 
 A WEEK passed and Hoyt came not again to the 
 little shack, but Jim Bowers, who appeared 
 nearly every day, reported that he was working 
 day and night and the temporary trestle, strong enough 
 to hold a timber car, was almost completed. 
 
 Jane kept Peddar religiously within doors and that 
 faithful servitor began to look worn from the strain of 
 coping with his little mistress' uncertain temper. He had 
 been accustomed since her nursery days to sudden 
 flares-up and as quick repentance, but to see her sit for 
 hours in what he mentally termed "the sulks" only to 
 rise and pace the shaky floor of the kitchen as though 
 she were caged proclaimed a mood which was new to 
 him. 
 
 "Whatever's come over her, sir?" he asked Big Jim 
 one day, with an apprehensive glance over his shoulder. 
 "She never answers me at all except it's to take my head 
 off, and she doesn't eat nor yet sleep, for I hear her 
 tossing about all night. I doubt but that she'll be really 
 sick if this keeps up." 
 
 Jane had explained to him that the superintendent had 
 been taken into their confidence sufficiently to make him 
 
 243
 
 244 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 believe that she was in Katalak as a sort of private agent 
 of the owners of the Northern Star, and that her illness 
 was a ruse to avoid an encounter with some member of 
 the Winfield party, but he was not entirely sure of his 
 ground with the keen-eyed vistor, and nervousness made 
 him revert unconsciously to the servile attitude of less 
 complex days. 
 
 It was not lost upon Big Jim, but the latter merely 
 nodded. 
 
 "Don't you mind," he said consolingly. "She's kind 
 of worried, I guess. We all are. It seems as if we 
 were all sitting on a big lid that was liable to blow off 
 any minute and land us sky high. That Unatika outfit 
 has been too quiet and there's trouble brewing, sure. 
 We'll almost feel better when it comes, for then we'll 
 know where we stand." 
 
 It was true. With the arrival of the Winfields a 
 tension had appeared in the air which heightened with 
 each day that passed. The men themselves felt it and 
 they needed no urging to work with might and main, 
 especially after the little speech which the superintendent 
 had made to the assembled outfit in which he told them 
 that the man for whom they were working was in 
 France. His psychology had been sound and their inter- 
 est now was a matter of personal, individual account. 
 
 The week had not been uneventful even in the little 
 shack, for Etta brought news and Ma Heaney, when 
 she heard of Jane's supposed illness, fairly camped upon 
 the doorstep, nor were Peddar's broadest hints of avail 
 to dislodge her. 
 
 "I don't care if she is your daughter," she remarked
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS 245 
 
 good-humoredly on the occasion of her second visit, two 
 days after the appearance of the "Grey Gull" in the 
 harbor. "No man ain't capable of takin' care o' sick- 
 ness. My three husbands were every one of 'em ready 
 for a scrap any time, against any odds, but let 'em get 
 a cold in the head and they thought they was gone, 
 sure. There ain't anythin' the matter with Miss Jane 
 as I see, but maybe your cookin', and I don't wonder 
 at it ! The lodgers can look out for themselves, now I 
 got that snivelin' young swell off my hands. Oh, Miss 
 Jane!" 
 
 "Yes, Ma Heaney?" Jane called invitingly albeit with 
 a rueful face. 
 
 "What do you think is all over town?" Ma Heaney 
 brushed Peddar aside unceremoniously and advanced into 
 the bedroom. "That young man's father who come on 
 the yacht owns the Unatika mine ! He ain't makin' any 
 secret of it; come ashore and hired Hank's jitney yes- 
 terday and drove out to the outfit as bold as brass. 
 He wanted it to-day but Hank told him it was bu'sted; 
 guess it would have been if he'd let him have it again 
 for the Northern Star men are fightin' mad. Anyway, 
 Hank said he'd be shot only he put it stronger if he'd 
 do a favor to any man that had all but burned the 
 Happy Days down over his head when the warehouse 
 was set on fire. It's as well that party sleeps on the 
 yacht, for there'd be no room for 'em under my roof, 
 and I only wisht I'd known what I do now when that 
 Ronald was with me! To think of him sittin' along- 
 side o' me while the warehouse and store went up in 
 smoke, and his father's own outfit responsible for it!"
 
 246 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "But the ladies that came with Mr. Winfield; are 
 they ashore very much?" asked Jane. 
 
 "Not since the day before yesterday, just after the 
 yacht anchored. When Ronald met 'em in my office 
 he called one of 'em 'Cousin Grace/ but he didn't know 
 the other at all, and Cousin Grace introduced 'em. You 
 can bet I was listenin' with all my ears, but I didn't 
 catch the name, just 'Mrs. Ever' something. I tried to 
 make myself pleasant but they was as stuck-up as a 
 sour-dough with his first pay-dirt and I let 'em alone. 
 I saw Cousin Grace goin' up Main Street by herself 
 that afternoon, and in an hour she come back lookin' 
 like somethin' had fell on her, and went on down to 
 the rowboat that was waitin' for her at the breakwater. 
 Neither of 'em has showed up since." 
 
 Jane pondered for long after Ma Heaney's departure. 
 Would a girl who was just reconciled to the man she 
 loved after years of estrangement look "as if something 
 had fallen on her?" Could it be that Etta had been 
 mistaken, had not heard aright? No doubt of Hoyt's 
 loyalty to the cause of the Northern Star entered Jane's 
 mind, but the fact that he was at swords' points with 
 the Winfields would not have militated against his re- 
 newed love for their relative. Perhaps they had de- 
 cided not to meet again under the present conditions, 
 and that would account for her troubled look. 
 
 Jane could not know, of course, why Gordon Winfield 
 had put aside all subterfuge and allowed the knowledge 
 of his ownership of the Unatika to become public, but 
 it looked as though the crisis were indeed at hand. 
 
 Etta came in on the eighth day after Winfield's ar-
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS 247 
 
 rival and announced with a giggle that she had been 
 sent to prepare the way for another visitor. 
 
 "It's your storekeeper, Jud Pittinger," she announced. 
 "Just wait till you see him, Miss Jane ! He's all dressed 
 up in regular clothes and he looks for all the world like 
 a minister! He stopped me outside the Full Blast and 
 told me to ask you if you felt able to see him. I do 
 wish I knew what was the matter with you !" she added 
 irrelevantly. "You look sick enough, but you won't stay 
 in bed " 
 
 "Jud Pittinger is a dear! Of course, I'll see him." 
 Jane rose and started to arrange her hair. "How soon 
 will he be here?" 
 
 "When the barber gets through with him, I expect. 
 He's gone there to get polished off. Cliff Bishop hardly 
 knew him when he came up as we were talking " 
 
 "Etta," Jane interrupted her. "This Cliff Bishop is 
 the the faro dealer at the Full Blast, isn't he? I hear 
 that you used to work for him." 
 
 Etta flushed. 
 
 "There was nothing crooked about it," she protested. 
 "A fellow had better lose his money that way than over 
 the bar, and he always got a square deal. Cliff's the 
 whitest gambler in Alaska." 
 
 "I don't question that, but wasn't there some other 
 way for you to earn a living?" Jane asked gently. "It 
 doesn't seem the sort of thing you would want to do, 
 somehow." 
 
 "I worked in a store once, like you," Etta volun- 
 teered. "It was down in 'Frisco, and I would have been 
 there yet, I suppose, if a man I met hadn't told me that
 
 248 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 I had a voice, and put me on to sing between reels at a 
 movie house. After a while I heard that there was big 
 money in singing up here and so I came, but the climate 
 took away what voice I had, and my savings were gone. 
 I had to do something. I didn't think a capper was so 
 dreadful; you can get used to a lot of things." 
 
 "Do you feel yet that you want to go back to San 
 Francisco? I told you that I would help you if you 
 did," Jane reminded her. 
 
 "I know, and it's awfully good of you, Miss Jane, 
 but I think I would rather go East by and by." The 
 girl hesitated. "You see, I talked a lot about what a 
 success I was going to make of it up here, and I would 
 hate to go home with my voice gone, and hunt for a 
 job." 
 
 "I know how you must feel," Jane smiled. "Perhaps 
 you can come with us when my father and I go home." 
 
 Etta's enthusiastic reply was cut short by a timid knock 
 upon the door and Jane herself opened it. 
 
 "This is very kind of you, Mr. Pittinger," she said. 
 "Come right in. Father, give Mr. Pittinger that chair; 
 it's the only sound one in the house." 
 
 Jud shook hands solemnly with her and Peddar, 
 coughed and seated himself gingerly in the chair in- 
 dicated. 
 
 "Just thought I'd drop in and see how you was, Miss 
 Jane." He ran a fat forefinger between his neck and 
 the collar which girded it. "I opened up shop yesterday 
 in the new shack and the boys all but mobbed me. They 
 kept comin' in from each shift askin' about you and it's
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS 249 
 
 my opinion the whole outfit would have been out here 
 if Big Jim hadn't warned 'em off." 
 
 "Oh, I'm glad they thought of me!" Jane's eyes 
 shone. "I wish I could be back now behind the counter 
 with you. Going, Etta?" 
 
 The girl had appeared pulling on her coat. 
 
 "Yes. I didn't tell you, but Ma Heaney told me to 
 come in to-day and see about helping her with the lodging 
 house. It's it's better than the Full Blast. Good-by." 
 
 "Turned out to be a right nice girl, didn't she?" Jud 
 gazed approvingly after her, and Peddar, with the wist- 
 ful longing of a shut-in for a bit of gossip, followed 
 her out to the porch. "There's lots o' good in everybody 
 if folks would only help it to come out. I tried to 
 preach that in my sermons years ago " 
 
 He paused, reddening, but it was too late. 
 
 "Etta said you looked like a minister, all dressed up 
 as you are now!" Jane exclaimed. It seemed to be her 
 day for confidence. "That is why you never swear ?" 
 
 Jud nodded. 
 
 "Had a little church back in Arkansas," he said. 
 "Don't say anything to the boys about it, Miss Jane, for 
 you know how they would all give me the laugh! I 
 never meant to let it out." 
 
 "I won't," Jane assured him and hesitated. One must 
 not ask too many questions in Alaska. 
 
 As if divining her thought Jud said hurriedly: 
 
 "I come up here first as a missionary though you'd 
 never think it but the gold fever hit me hard, and 
 when that gets you, preacher or no, you've just naterally 
 got to get it out of your system. I fought against it,
 
 250 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 but the Lord knew best, I guess; I was a mighty poor 
 preacher, anyway," he added naively. "I wrote back 
 to the convention and resigned and then started mushin' 
 North, but I never struck pay dirt. When I got clean 
 discouraged I took a job as company storekeeper for 
 some fellers that did, and that's how I come to be here." 
 
 "But why didn't you go back to your church?" Jane 
 asked. 
 
 "I didn't feel the call," responded Jud simply. Then 
 as Peddar opened the door he added : "I didn't come to 
 pester you with past history, Miss Jane. When will you 
 feel able to get back to the store ? I found that the boys 
 managed to save some other stuff from the fire; boots 
 and clothes and those boxes of fancy razors, and I kind 
 o' need your help. Seems like I couldn't hardly get along 
 without you much longer." 
 
 Jane's heart warmed at the kindly lie, but she shook 
 her head. 
 
 "I don't know, Mr. Pittinger. I feel tired and head- 
 achey all the time and I shouldn't be much good to you, 
 I am afraid. I'll be all right in a week or so, I think, 
 and the new stock won't come up before then, will it?" 
 
 "A week or so," Jud repeated slowly. "I guess the 
 Unatika will show their hand before then, and maybe 
 give us a chance to run the whole outfit out o' the 
 country the way we run Malison out o' Katalak. That 
 deputy marshal is stickin' close, but I hear that Winfield 
 has bought more than one jury in the East, and he'll be 
 willin' to take his chances at squarin' himself with the 
 Juneau outfit for any trouble he raises here. It looks 
 like things were comin' to a showdown."
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS 251 
 
 Jane's eyes flashed. 
 
 "I hope they do!" she exclaimed. "Mr. Bowers says 
 that the outfit is loyal to a man, and their fighting blood 
 is up ; besides the trestle is almost finished. Winfield has 
 tried every legal resource in the last year, in the name 
 of the Unatika, of course, to oust the Northern Star, and 
 there is nothing left to him but open violence. Anything 
 would be better than this waiting!" 
 
 Jud visibly hesitated. 
 
 "It's hard to know just where meanness stops and 
 righteousness begins, in this world," he remarked. "I 
 allus used to preach agin talebearing an' scandal, but a 
 feller off that there yacht o' Winfield's told me some- 
 thin' mighty curious last night. It kinder bears on that 
 old rapscallion's methods up here an' as long as I don't 
 know no names to mention, I guess mebbe it won't do 
 no harm to tell you." 
 
 "A fellow off the yacht?" repeated Jane wonderingly. 
 
 "One of the sailors. He'd been hittin' it up at the 
 Happy Days and he stopped at the door o' the shack 
 I'm usin' for a store, just plumb bu'stin' to talk to any- 
 body that would listen. It's a good thing for him none 
 o' the boys was there, but bein' alone I let him ramble on. 
 
 "It seems that on the evenin' o' the day they anchored 
 he was out on deck near one o' the little windows o' 
 a room he called the 'saloon,' when he heard loud talking 
 and looked in. One o' the ladies the dark complected 
 one was facin' the old man across the table, an' both 
 o' 'em was madder'n grizzlies. The old feller yelled: 
 'Did you show him what I could do for him if he would
 
 252 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 be sensible?' an* the lady smiled in a sneerin' kind o* 
 way. 
 
 " 'I obeyed your instructions, an' he gave me this mes- 
 sage for you,' she says. 'He told me to tell you, the 
 owner o' the Unatika mine, that he's here to fight your 
 crooked, cowardly gang to the last ditch, an' you can't 
 bribe him with your niece or your money. He keeps 
 faith with the Northern Star an' the road goes through.' 
 Now, what do you make o' that, Miss Jane?" 
 
 "Oh!" Jane's voice sounded oddly choked and she 
 averted her eyes lest the shrewd, kindly ex-preacher read 
 the sudden radiance in them. "I suppose Gordon Win- 
 field must have tried to bribe somebody, but how can 
 we know " 
 
 "My Gawd! Where is everybody!" The front door 
 crashed open and Ma Heaney's voice reverberated 
 through the little shack. "Oh, Mr. Peddar, it's come! 
 The fight's on !" 
 
 "What?" Jane sprang through the doorway and con- 
 fronted her, and the trembling, white- faced Etta. 
 
 "They're fixin' for a pitched battle out at the trestle! 
 Joe Zurak rode in on an engine for help and he says 
 Mr. Hoyt's leadin' the men, but they're almost hope- 
 lessly outnumbered, for the Unatika outfit is nearly twice 
 as big and that devil Winfield has even got the sailors 
 off the yacht to reinforce 'em. Every man- jack in Kata- 
 lak, gamblers and sour-doughs and all, are loadin' up 
 on the flat cars to go out and fight for the Northern 
 Star, but they may not get there in time !" Ma Heaney 
 paused to draw breath and then added: "It's five miles 
 or more, and Joe says they've undermined the track in
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS 253 
 
 spots. Folks thought it was funny that the Unatika 
 knocked off work around their warehouse last night and 
 not a soul was seen there this morning 'except the watch- 
 man, but nobody thought of this. Why, Miss Jane! 
 Wh*t are you going to do?" 
 
 Jud Pittinger had long since vanished, and Jane had 
 rushed back into her bedroom and was hastily pulling 
 on her warm outer clothes. 
 
 "I'm going to town," Jane replied through set teeth. 
 "Help me, Etta! My boots! Lace them any old way. 
 . . . Now my cloak. . . . Dear God, if I may only be 
 in time !" 
 
 "Oh, miss, you mustn't!" Peddar quavered, while the 
 eyes of Ma Heaney and Etta opened wide. "You mustn't 
 get in it ! Mr. Ollie would never forgive me " 
 
 "Ollie isn't here to take his place but I am! These 
 men are fighting for me! If you try to stop me now, 
 Peddar, I believe I'll kill you !" 
 
 He put out a futile, trembling arm, but she dashed 
 it aside and sprang out of the doorway. Peddar sunk 
 into a chair and buried his face in his hands and Ma 
 Heaney and Etta, after one look at each other, uncere- 
 moniously picked up their skirts and followed Jane. 
 
 She was still in sight, running with almost incredible 
 swiftness through the clogging mud, but she disappeared 
 around the corner of Main Street, and when they, too, 
 had turned it they came upon an astonishing scene. 
 
 Before the door of the lodging house stood the entire 
 party from the yacht, with Jud Pittinger unnoticed just 
 behind, and confronting them, rigid with defiance, stood 
 Jane. In the tension of the moment no one was aware
 
 254 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 that a large steamer, out of all keeping with her schedule, 
 had slipped into the harbor. 
 
 The Winfield party seemed petrified with astonishment, 
 but at last the blonde lady found her voice. 
 
 "Janetta Gildersleeve I"
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 THE BATTLE AT THE TRESTLE 
 
 "*\7" ES, Janetta Gildersleeve!" Jane's voice trembled 
 
 with wrath and contempt. "You found out 
 
 beneath our roof that my brother and I owned 
 
 the Northern Star and you sold your knowledge to this 
 
 man who is our enemy!" 
 
 Jud Pittinger's eyes nearly protruded from his head 
 and Ma Heaney gripped Etta's arm in a convulsive grasp 
 while Gordon Winfield, his face enpurpled, stepped 
 forward. 
 
 "You you are Janetta Gildersleeve?" he thundered. 
 
 Jane sent a fleeting glance at the chagrined Ronald 
 and then her eyes met those of his father in an answering 
 challenge. 
 
 "I am, and I have been here for weeks watching every 
 move of the crooked outfit working under your orders! 
 You bribed this woman who was eating our bread, but 
 neither you nor your niece could bribe Barney Hoyt, 
 thank God ! You thought you had ruined us once before 
 but you failed, just as you're going to fail now ! Your 
 outfit is fighting mine out at the trestle while you skulk 
 
 255
 
 256 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 here in safety, but I'm going out there to show my boys 
 that I'm with them ! Jud !" 
 
 She had caught sight of the storekeeper and beckon- 
 ing to him, turned and crossed the street while the 
 Winfields gazed after her speechlessly. 
 
 "Jud, you've got to get me out there out to the trestle, 
 I mean ! There isn't a minute to be lost !" 
 
 "But, ma'am!" Jud stammered, still in a daze from 
 the revelation which had come to him. "There ain't 
 a thing left to go in ! Every flat car on the open track 
 and all the wagons are gone, even to Hank's jitney! 
 I got left behind and was lookin' for some way o' gettin' 
 out there myself when I saw you." 
 
 "There must be some way!" Jane cried. "Look! 
 What is Etta pointing for?" 
 
 Etta had run back to the corner of Harbor Street and 
 now she waved frantically to them. 
 
 "There's an engine on the track with steam up!" she 
 screamed, when they had approached close enough to 
 hear her. "The smoke is curling up but I don't see any- 
 one near it!" 
 
 "Jud, can you drive an engine?" Jane demanded. 
 
 "I did once and by the Lord, I can again!" Jud set 
 off at a clumsy trot. "Come on!" 
 
 They were not aware of the breathless elderly figure 
 which tottered wildly along in their wake, for their eyes 
 were fixed upon the engine puffing and vibrating as 
 though it, too, were eager to be off to the scene of the 
 conflict. 
 
 "The feller drivin' it must have left it to go on the
 
 THE BATTLE AT THE TRESTLE 257 
 
 last timber car out," Jud remarked as he climbed in. 
 Don't know how I can fire her " 
 
 "I'll fire up for you!" Jane announced. "It only 
 means shoveling coal in, doesn't it? For God's sake 
 hurry! There are bad spots on the track, but if the 
 loaded timber cars got over it in safety we can !" 
 
 Jud fumbled for a moment with unaccustomed hands 
 and then slowly and jerkily the engine started. It had 
 scarcely moved its length when a hand clutched the rail, 
 and Peddar, exhausted but triumphant, swung himself 
 into the cab. 
 
 "Peddar!" 
 
 "Yes, miss," he gasped, wiping his streaming face 
 on his sleeve. "I'm going with you where you go, or 
 your blood would be on my head !" 
 
 "You take the shovel and fire up when you get your 
 breath, Peddar," Jud ordered. "I'm going to get all the 
 speed out of her I can." 
 
 The puffing had changed to a singing hum which in 
 turn gave place to a subdued roar as the old engine 
 gathered herself together and leaped forward. Jane re- 
 linquished the shovel to Peddar and fell back, clinging to 
 anything she could reach as they rocked perilously from 
 side to side. The tundra with its bunches of green, 
 stunted grasses flew past them in a blur, and the heat 
 of the furnace beat back in waves upon her face. 
 
 Jud Pittinger sat motionless with his hand upon the 
 throttle, and his eyes fixed upon the track ahead. He 
 had not spoken since that swift injunction to Peddar, 
 but all at once he gave a warning shout. 
 
 It was drowned in a grinding crash as the engine
 
 258 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 lurched sickeningly, tilted, wavered and finally righted 
 herself and plunged on. 
 
 "That was a close call!" Jud muttered, and then rais- 
 ing his voice: "That must have been one of those bad 
 spots in the track you spoke of, ma'am." 
 
 "Yes," Jane screamed back above the roar of the ex- 
 haust. "Joe Zurak said they'd undermined it." 
 
 Jud made no response, but his face set in even sterner 
 lines as he bent more closely to his task. The flat lands 
 were left behind them, and they were mounting steadily 
 into the foothills, but to Jane the miles seemed unending 
 and the minutes like so many hours. 
 
 Would they be in time? The question beat hammer 
 strokes upon her brain. Would they reach the trestle 
 only to find the battle lost? She had no tangible idea 
 as to the impulse which urged her on, only the unreason- 
 ing conviction that she must be there with the men who 
 were her comrades and who might even now be giving 
 their lives for her and her brother, that the road might 
 go through and the mine be saved ! 
 
 Yet one figure alone stood out before her mental 
 tvision. Barney Hoyt, faithful to his trust, facing that 
 bestial mob ! No word of love had passed between them 
 and until within the hour she had believed that his heart 
 was in another woman's keeping, but now in this moment 
 of stress an instinct surer than reason brought the truth 
 home to her. He was her man and he was in danger; 
 her place was by his side. 
 
 And now, mingling with the noise of the engine, there 
 came a new sound, a steady, ominous drone like the 
 humming of multitudinous, gigantic bees in some Gar-
 
 THE BATTLE AT THE TRESTLE 259 
 
 gantuan hive, and as they rounded a curve on screech- 
 ing, protesting wheels the trestle came into view. The 
 engine slowed and stopped with a jerk which almost 
 threw Jane off her feet, but she steadied herself mechan- 
 ically, her eyes fixed upon the scene before her. 
 
 Grouped at the nearer end of the trestle she saw the 
 men of the Northern Star outfit supplemented by those 
 who had been hastily recruited from the town. They 
 were massed together, tense and almost motionless, gazing 
 across the structure which was dotted with disordered 
 heaps of figures, writhing and still. Down the rough 
 sledge track on the other side of the glacier bed a vast 
 horde was moving steadily like an advancing wave, and 
 it was from their throats that the menacing drone issued, 
 the infernal diapason of mob-music vibrating with the 
 lust to kill. 
 
 "Stood 'em off once, thank God !" Jud exclaimed. 
 "They're comin' on again, though. Jehosaphat! Look 
 at the number of 'em! Rifles, too, the murderin' dogs!" 
 
 But Jane did not heed. After one comprehensive 
 glance in which the scene was imprinted on her brain 
 with photographic intensity, she leaped from the cab and 
 ran along the track to that waiting crowd, not a man 
 of which turned at the engine's approach. 
 
 One thought only dominated her mind, one desire ob- 
 sessed her ; Hoyt must be there on the trestle at the head 
 of his men facing that oncoming horde, and somehow 
 she must reach his side. 
 
 "Let me through!" she cried savagely, elbowing her 
 way into the press. "Let me pass !"
 
 260 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 The men turned with grunts of astonishment and 
 familiar faces surged about her. 
 
 "Ay, let her through, boys!" Jud roared behind her. 
 "Miss Jane's your real boss and you're fightin' for her. 
 She owns the Northern Star !" 
 
 It was doubtful if in the stress of the moment one- 
 tenth of those who heard him comprehended the import 
 of his speech, but those who did took up the cry and 
 a rising cheer mounted upon the surcharged air. 
 
 Mechanically they made a lane for her through which 
 Jane passed to the forefront of the crowd. Hoyt, Harve 
 Dugdale and Big Jim Bowers were standing shoulder to 
 shoulder awaiting the coming onrush, but they, too, 
 turned as the sound of cheering reached their ears, and 
 when the girl herself appeared they were petrified with 
 amazed consternation. 
 
 The enemy mob under the leadership of Hugh Mali- 
 son had reached the far end of the trestle and were 
 advancing slowly across it in a densely packed mass, 
 but at the sight of the feminine figure they halted despite 
 Malison's exhortations. 
 
 "Good God!" Hoyt groaned. "What are you doing 
 here? Get back! Boys, take her away!" 
 
 Jane tried to protest, but the cheer rose again deafen- 
 ingly behind her, and this time there was an answering 
 roar from the Unatika outfit as, their momentary 
 hesitation passed, they charged over the trestle. 
 
 Jane caught a fleeting glimpse of Malison just as he 
 raised his rifle and aimed pointblank at her. She did 
 not know that one of his own men knocked it aside 
 for Hoyt had caught her up and thrust her into the
 
 arms of a certain brawny, lantern-jawed Yankee who 
 stood just behind him. 
 
 "Pass her back!" he commanded. "See that she 
 reaches the rear and guard her !" 
 
 The lane had closed up and Jane found herself being 
 half-dragged and half-carried back through the surging 
 throng. Then came a fusillade of shots, a weaker an- 
 swering one, and the crowd dashed forward bearing her 
 with them as if upon a mighty wave of the sea. 
 
 Rocks and broken hunks of concrete were flying 
 through the air and all at once the arms of the man 
 who held her loosened and fell, and he stood for a 
 moment upheld by the crush with an expression of al- 
 most comical surprise on his face. Then as those about 
 him swept on he slipped gently to the ground and lay 
 motionless. 
 
 Jane gasped and staggered as a sensation of dizziness 
 assailed her, but she fought it resolutely down and turned 
 blindly, instinctively back to the fray. The civilization 
 bred of centuries had sloughed from her in that hour, 
 and it was the primitive woman seeking to aid and de- 
 fend her mate who plunged back, struggling and fighting 
 her way savagely through the serried crowd to the thick 
 of the conflict. 
 
 The two opposing factions had met in the middle of 
 the trestle, and were battling with whatever weapons 
 had come to their hands; guns, knives, crowbars, picks 
 and shovels all bore their part, and strange pictures pre- 
 sented themselves kaleidoscopically before the girl's eyes 
 as she pressed on. 
 
 She had forgotten her companions of that wild ride
 
 262 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 from Katalak and now as if in a dream she saw Peddar 
 armed with the shovel to which he had clung facing a 
 swarthy Italian in whose upraised hand something 
 gleamed. The hand descended and Peddar went down 
 like an ox just as Jud Pittinger felled his adversary with 
 a stout spruce club. 
 
 Harve Dugdale and Big Jim Bowers were the center 
 of a struggling ring of men and fighting with every 
 ounce of strength in their mighty bodies, but where was 
 Barney Hoyt? 
 
 The shots and shouts and curses and sound of blows 
 were mingled so indistinguishably in Jane's ears that 
 she did not hear a report close at hand nor realize what 
 the stinging pain in her shoulder meant. Her eyes were 
 searching everywhere in that struggling mass for Barney 
 Hoyt Had he fallen? Had they killed him? 
 
 She stumbled over something and stooped mechanically 
 to pick it up. It was a wrench, short but heavy enough 
 to be a formidable weapon in weaker hands than hers, 
 and as she straightened she saw the young engineer at 
 last ! He was far out on the trestle facing Malison alone 
 and between them and herself the main part of the battle 
 raged. But she must get through ! 
 
 Jane never afterward knew how she reached them. 
 She moved seemingly without conscious volition, ducking, 
 dodging, squirming between the combatants while blows 
 rained down about her and bullets whistled past her ears. 
 She saw only those two savagely contending figures 
 ahead. 
 
 Hoyt was fighting with his bare fists, but Malison had 
 clubbed his gun and was striving for an opening to bring
 
 THE BATTLE AT THE TRESTLE 263 
 
 it down upon his adversary's head. Could it be that 
 Barney was weakening? He seemed to be giving way 
 inch by inch, and he would get no quarter from Malison ! 
 
 A prayer rose to Jane's lips and her grasp of the 
 wrench tightened as she cleared the last group of 
 struggling men and raced down the trestle. She was 
 deaf to the heavy rumble and roar on the track behind 
 her, deaf to the mighty cheer which rose, and uncon- 
 scious of the fact that a sudden stunned silence had 
 fallen immediately thereafter upon the noise of conflict. 
 
 She only knew that even as the prayer died upon her 
 lips Barney Hoyt went down beneath a treacherous blow, 
 and Malison, with a hideous distorted smile, threw aside 
 his gun and reached into his pocket. 
 
 Before he could withdraw his hand a slender, sinuous 
 body had hurled itself upon him and the wrench de- 
 scended with crushing force upon his head. He crum- 
 pled and falling toppled over the edge of the trestle and 
 down upon the glacier bed far below. 
 
 With a shuddering sob Jane dropped the wrench and 
 fell upon her knees beside Hoyt's body. She tried to 
 speak to him but her voice sounded far away in her 
 own ears and a dark, whirling void opened before her. 
 She fought with her last strength against the rising faint- 
 ness which was fast overcoming her, striving to lift 
 Hoyt's head, but one arm hung limp and useless at her 
 side and the other, wavering, would not obey her will. 
 
 Slowly the darkness descended wholly, and her head 
 drooped until it rested upon his breast. 
 
 She could not know that the steamer which had stolen 
 silently into the harbor brought reinforcements from a
 
 264 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 far-off unlooked-for source; that they had arrived on 
 a string of timber cars at the last moment and the tide 
 of battle, changing, had become an utter rout for the 
 forces of the Unatika. 
 
 After countless ages she emerged for a brief space 
 from the void into which she had fallen, but she knew 
 that she must be delirious, for the stern face of Uncle 
 Andy, oddly distorted and glistening as with tears, 
 seemed to be within a few inches of her own, and Ollie 
 Ollie was there ! Then, as though upon a screen, Uncle 
 Andy faded out and the rough, homely countenance of 
 Adam MacLeod was superimposed. Jane smiled, and 
 smiling, drifted off once more into unconsciousness.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 THE RIGHT OF WAY 
 
 A3TRANGE, dual personality seemed to possess 
 Jane with her next coherent thought. She was 
 still delirious yet sane enough to know it and to 
 be distinctly annoyed with the state of affairs. She lay 
 with closed eyes trying to drive the mists from her 
 brain and silence the phantom voices which sounded in 
 her ears. 
 
 For that crazy dream of Ollie and Uncle Andy and 
 Adam MacLeod had changed to an even more impos- 
 sible one. Persis Cheever was thousands of miles the 
 width of a continent away, and yet it was Persis' low, 
 well-remembered tones which seemed to come from close 
 at hand and the voice of Billy Cheever which replied 
 to her. 
 
 "No. No change yet," Persis seemed to be saying. 
 "Tell them I'll let them know the moment there is." 
 
 "You're sure it is only loss of blood?" Jane thought 
 how strange it was that Billy's little trick of quick, 
 chopped-off speech should have lingered subconsciously 
 in her brain. She had not even thought of the Cheevers 
 for weeks! "Geddes is planning murder, I know, and 
 poor old Mac looks as if he could go hang himself!" 
 
 265
 
 266 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "Tell them to be patient, Billy-Bumpkins. There is 
 nothing to do but wait." 
 
 Then there came the sound of a softly closing door 
 and silence once more. 
 
 "Billy-Bumpkins" indeed! That was Persis' pet 
 name for her husband; why should it have come into 
 Jane's mind now, of all things? That was all a part 
 of delirium, of course, to remember silly little phrases 
 which never occurred to one normally. 
 
 But why on earth was she lying there and why should 
 she be delirious? She hadn't been ill; it must all be 
 simply a bad dream. 
 
 But it wasn't! She was assuredly lying on some kind 
 of a bed, but there was a strange, pungent odor in the 
 room and one of her arms seemed to be bound as if in 
 a vise. What in the world has happened? 
 
 Then in a searing flash of memory the battle at the 
 trestle came back to her, and the vision of Barney Hoyt 
 beaten, stricken down at her feet! 
 
 "Barney!" She thought that she screamed his name, 
 but it was the merest whisper which came from her 
 lips. 
 
 Instantly a cool hand was laid upon her forehead, 
 and Persis' voice came soothingly, unmistakably to her 
 ears. 
 
 "Janey ! What is it, dear ? This is Persis ; don't you 
 know me?" 
 
 Jane opened her eyes at last and knew that the un- 
 believable had happened, for it was really Mrs. Cheever 
 who stood beside her!
 
 THE RIGHT OF WAY 267 
 
 "Oh, Persis!" she sobbed. "Is he dead? Did they 
 kill him?" 
 
 "Who, dear?" The other's eyebrows went up ever so 
 slightly. 
 
 "Barney. Barney Hoyt ! I tried to get to him in 
 time but I couldn't! Malison had him down, and then 
 I struck Malison with the wrench and he fell off the 
 trestle ! Is Barney dead ?" 
 
 "No, dear, he's very much alive, if you mean the 
 young engineer. He was only cut and bruised a little, 
 and he will be all right again in no time." Persis hesi- 
 tated. "You may see him if you like, by and by, but you 
 must rest now. Drink this, dear." 
 
 She held a glass to the girl's lips and Jane drank 
 obediently, then fell back on her pillow with a bewildered 
 expression. 
 
 "What happened to my arm ?" she asked drowsily. "I 
 don't remember getting hurt." 
 
 "Oh, that is nothing!" Persis replied hastily, with 
 studied carelessness. "Just a sprain. Try to sleep, 
 Janey." 
 
 "But the road ! The right of way to the mine ! Win- 
 field " 
 
 "Winfield is beaten and the right of way is yours! 
 Now close your eyes, Janey. Go to sleep." 
 
 Jane smiled blissfully. Barney wasn't dead after all! 
 The fight was won, and somehow, miraculously, Persis 
 was here. Her lids dropped and a gentle warmth stole 
 through her veins. It was good to be alive. . . . 
 
 Andrew Geddes, Billy Cheever, Adam MacLeod and 
 a tall young man in khaki were grouped upon the porch
 
 268 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 of the little shack when Persis opened the door and 
 came out. 
 
 "Janey will be all right now," she announced. "She 
 was conscious but very weak, and I gave her that sleep- 
 ing stuff the doctor left. She's a real Gildersleeve, Mr. 
 Geddes, for her last question was about the road and 
 the right of way. Now what I want to know is : who 
 in this world is this young engineer, Barney Hoyt?" 
 
 After countless aeons of time Jane awoke once more 
 and drank the broth which Persis brought her. Then 
 she settled herself determinedly in her pillows. 
 
 "It will be no use for you to tell me to go to sleep 
 again, for I shall not close my eyes until you tell me 
 how you got here!" she declared. "And Billy's here, 
 too, for I heard his voice and thought I must be de- 
 lirious! Persis, what are you doing in Katalak?" 
 
 "Hadn't you better ask Mr. Geddes?" the other 
 laughed softly. "He brought us almost by the scruff 
 of our necks !" 
 
 "Uncle Andy!" Jane's eyes opened very wide. "I 
 thought I saw him there on the trestle and Mr. MacLeod, 
 but I was sure it couldn't be true, because Ollie seemed 
 to be there, too, and of course Ollie's in France." 
 
 "Suppose Ollie were not in France?" Persis spoke 
 very gently. "Suppose he were here in the next room ?" 
 
 Jane looked into her friend's eyes and then started 
 up with a wild cry of infinite longing. 
 
 "Ollie! Ollie!" 
 
 A khaki-clad figure appeared in the doorway and 
 Persis slipped out as he advanced with eager strides 
 to the bed and gathered the girl into his arms.
 
 THE RIGHT OF WAY 269 
 
 "Oh, Janey! I thought I had lost you!" 
 
 Later, when Janey had wiped away her happy tears 
 and Ollie had cleared his throat they found coherent 
 speech once more. 
 
 "I want to know !" demanded Jane. "How is it that 
 you are not in France?" 
 
 "Invalided home, worse luck !" her brother responded. 
 "After months of drilling and shifting about I saw about 
 five minutes of the Big Show and then Bingo! Out 
 of it for good !" 
 
 "Oh, Ollie! You weren't wounded?" 
 
 "Gassed," he explained cheerfully. "Couldn't get the 
 darned mask on in time and was laid by the heels before 
 I'd gone twenty yards over the top. That was early 
 in June, and I was as right as rain in no time, but my 
 leg had gone back on me, too that old football injury 
 and they wouldn't let me get in the game again. Now 
 I've come home to do the hero stunt only to find that 
 my little sister has beaten me to it! It wasn't fair of 
 you, Janey!" 
 
 She smiled at his bantering tone, and then her face 
 grew grave. 
 
 "I only tried to take your place," she said. 
 
 " 'Take my place' !" repeated Ollie. "Good heavens, 
 Janey, I couldn't have begun to do what you did! I've 
 been hearing all about it from a mob of battered, howl- 
 ing enthusiasts who apparently worship the ground you 
 walk on! How dared you do it? How dared you de- 
 ceive everybody and come up here all alone " 
 
 "I had Peddar. Oh, poor Peddar!" Jane started up
 
 270 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 in sudden contrition. "How could I have forgotten 
 him! I saw an Italian with a knife " 
 
 "Poor Peddar is in bed in the next room, with an 
 infinitesimal scratch on his side and enough of Uncle 
 Andy's precious Scotch in his tummy to make him weep 
 from sheer joy and relief that his troubles are over. 
 He did, actually. I fancy you led him rather a dance, 
 Janey." 
 
 "I'm afraid I did," Jane confessed. "Ollie, I don't 
 know whether I've been ill a day or a week, but do 
 you know any of the boys by name? Do you know who 
 were hurt or killed? You see, I've some particular 
 friends among them, and I'm almost afraid to ask, but 
 I must know! There's Jud Pittinger and Harve Dug- 
 dale and Big Jim Bowers " 
 
 "I know them all!" Ollie responded promptly. "Big 
 Jim nearly crushed my hand when he greeted me, and 
 that fat little man for whom you tended store has been 
 here twice to inquire about you. They are neither of 
 them very much the worse for wear, but your friend 
 Dugdale is laid up with a bashed head. However, a large, 
 beaming person whom everyone calls 'Ma' is looking 
 after him, and the doctor says he will pull through all 
 right. Janey," he hesitated. "Our construction en- 
 gineer, Barney Hoyt do you know him very well ?" 
 
 "Of course," Jane flushed. "Did Uncle Andy engage 
 him as 'Barney' Hoyt, Ollie? Do you know the rest 
 of his name? He is J. Barnaby Hoyt, Junior. Uncle 
 Andy will remember about his father." 
 
 Ollie whistled. 
 
 "I do, myself. He tried to buck Winfield and his
 
 THE RIGHT OF WAY 271 
 
 crowd, and went under. He paid off every cent, but 
 he couldn't come back, poor old chap, and so he killed 
 himself." 
 
 "He paid every cent? Then there wasn't anything 
 disgraceful about his failure?" Jane cried. 
 
 "Good Lord, no! He was the soul of honor!" Ollie 
 stared. "I wish I had known before that this' young 
 Hoyt was his son. Uncle Andy didn't make any mistake 
 when he picked him, did he? If it hadn't been for him 
 the road would never have gone through!" 
 
 "I know it. He's been splendid!" Jane's eyes shone. 
 "I thought he was killed, but Persis says he was not 
 badly hurt." 
 
 "He will be around in a day or two," prophesied 
 Ollie. "If ever there was a psychological moment it 
 was when we dropped anchor in the harbor here, wasn't 
 it? We were just in the nick of time at the trestle!" 
 
 "How did you happen to be here?" Jane demanded. 
 "Do call in Uncle Andy and Mr. MacLeod and the 
 Cheevers and let me hear about it from all of you !" 
 
 Andrew Geddes came first looking exceedingly stern, 
 but his lips trembled when he kissed her forehead. 
 
 "Janetta, you've been a wicked, deceitful girl and 
 after this trick you have played on us I misdoubt that 
 the truth is in you, but I'm proud of you for all that. 
 You're every inch a Gildersleeve !" 
 
 "You wouldn't have let me come if I had told you, 
 would you, Uncle Andy?" Jane laughed softly. "Some- 
 body else helped me, though " 
 
 ' 'Twas me," Adam MacLeod announced in sepulchral 
 tones as he came to the other side of the bed and
 
 272 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 grasped her hand. "I've not had a peaceful hour since 
 you cajoled me into that promise ! Well I knew that 
 trouble would come of it and I've pictured every way, 
 but never did I think to see you leading a riot !" 
 
 "I didn't expect to see myself doing it!" retorted 
 Jane. "I made up my mind when I came up here, 
 though, that I was going to see it through no matter 
 what happened." 
 
 "Hello, Janey!" Billy Cheever grinned at her cheer- 
 fully from the foot of the bed. "Nice mess you got 
 us all into, wasn't it? Everybody has been jumping on 
 me as if I planned the whole thing, and I never knew 
 what was going on at all !" 
 
 "Didn't Persis post you ?" demanded Jane. 
 
 "Only that you were doing some kind of war work 
 somewhere that Mr. Geddes wouldn't approve of, and 
 that I was not to intimate you weren't with us. Then 
 Ollie appeared at our place in Maine without any warn- 
 ing to surprise you and the fat was in the fire! Ollie 
 was the surprised one instead !" 
 
 "Not entirely so," Ollie smiled. "You see I had re- 
 ceived a letter in France from Janey dated July eleventh, 
 and telling me what a quiet Fourth you had all had, 
 but it was postmarked May twenty-second, and reached 
 me June nineteenth. I smelled a rat right there." 
 
 "Billy mailed that letter !" Persis shamelessly betrayed 
 her husband. "I ran down to Boston to do some shop- 
 ping and I warned him not to get them mixed ! Janey, 
 whatever put it into your head to come up here and 
 work in your own company store, of all things?" 
 
 "You did!" Jane laughed. "You told me that the
 
 THE RIGHT OF WAY 273 
 
 only practical thing in the world I could do was to sell 
 goods over a counter! But how did any of you dis- 
 cover that I was here?" 
 
 "We put two and two together," Andrew Geddes re- 
 sponded dryly. "Just before Oliphant came home I met 
 Mr. Cheever, and when I asked him about you his 
 manner was not what you might call convincing." 
 
 "I told you, Janey, that Billy wasn't very good at 
 dissembling!" Persis put in irrepressibly. 
 
 "Then Ollie came to me with the tale of that letter 
 and I sent him up to Maine to look into the matter, and 
 he soon learned from Mrs. Cheever that she didn't know 
 where you were and hadn't heard from you for weeks. 
 She could only tell him the little you had told her of 
 your plans, but it was enough to show us that 'twas no 
 war work you had in your bonnet, my dear. On top 
 of it all comes Adam MacLeod with the news that 
 Gordon Winfield owns the Unatika. He could never 
 have discovered that there in the East, for Winfield was 
 solidly entrenched behind his ring of dummies and 
 Adam MacLeod had to admit that the information had 
 reached him from here. 'Twas natural enough that we 
 should want to know which of the outfit had found it 
 out and the way he hemmed and hawed " 
 
 "I told the truth," Adam MacLeod interrupted with 
 dignity. "I said I had sent a special agent up here." 
 
 "You did, and it is the customary thing, I suppose, 
 for the manager of a New York office to send a special 
 agent out to the mine without the authority or even 
 knowledge of the company's representative!" Andrew 
 Geddes retorted. "Man, 'twould not hold water! Then
 
 274 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 Oliphant shot the accusation at him that you were the 
 agent, Janetta, and although he kept his promise to you 
 with his lips, his face gave him away. After that " 
 
 "After that," Persis broke in again, "two madmen ap- 
 peared at our camp and gave me twenty minutes to 
 pack! I've lived in one dressing-bag " 
 
 "And most of my suit case!" interpolated Billy. "I 
 have nothing in the world but a tooth brush and four 
 collars !" 
 
 "One dressing-bag," repeated Persis firmly, "for three 
 solid weeks, Janey, and if that is not friendship " 
 
 "I've made a lot of trouble for everybody," Jane said 
 penitently. "But oh, it is so good to see you all here!" 
 
 "You made most trouble for Winfield!" exclaimed 
 Ollie. "I would have given half of my interest in the 
 mine to have seen you vamping Ronald!" 
 
 "Oh, don't! He was the most frightful bore! But 
 Persis told me that they were beaten and the right of 
 way is ours. Do you suppose he will offer to sell us 
 the Unatika mine?" 
 
 Andrew Geddes chuckled grimly. 
 
 "There isn't any!" he remarked. "There never was. 
 Long ago, before you knew anything about the state of 
 affairs, Janetta, your brother and I had many a busi- 
 ness conference concerning the Northern Star at your 
 home, and your friend Mrs. Everton must have spied 
 and listened and carried the news to Gordon Winfield. 
 He sent a man up here, not to discover a mine, but to 
 manufacture the evidence of one as an excuse to fight 
 you for the right of way and if he succeeded, force you 
 to sell the Northern Star at his own price. That was
 
 THE RIGHT OF WAY 275 
 
 his only intention in forming the Unatika Company; 
 to ruin you children and get the Northern Star for 
 himself. It has cost him a pretty penny and more than 
 that, for when we have laid the report and proof of 
 his activities before the Boards of both exchanges in 
 New York, he will find himself ruled off, and barred 
 forever from operating under his own name. More- 
 over, there is law and justice in Alaska for the outrages 
 he has committed against the Northern Star and his out- 
 fit almost to a man is clamoring to turn state's evidence 
 now that the game is up. He'll be brought back " 
 
 "He has gone, then?" Jane asked. "He has left 
 Katalak?" 
 
 "His yacht sailed the morning after the fight at the 
 trestle." 
 
 "The morning after!" she ejaculated. "Why, what 
 day is this ? How long have I been ill ?" 
 
 "Three days, Janey," Persis replied soothingly. "This 
 is Saturday and the fight occurred Wednesday, you 
 know. You weren't really ill, just weak from loss of 
 blood." 
 
 "Blood!" Jane glanced down at her bandaged shoul- 
 der and arm. "You told me it was a sprain!" 
 
 "Persis did not want to frighten you," her brother 
 explained. "You must have been struck by a stray 
 bullet and in the excitement you never noticed it. It 
 isn't serious, Janey, just a flesh wound, but you have 
 taken all the wind out of my sails!" 
 
 "Did you tell me the truth about other things?" Jane 
 demanded, sitting up and eying her friend accusingly.
 
 276 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "You said that our our construction engin-^r, Mr. 
 Hoyt, was only cut and bruised a little " 
 
 "And so he was!" Persis retorted. "There's a little 
 cut on his head, I believe." 
 
 "Seven stitches !" supplemented Billy cheerfully. 
 "Looks like a prize fighter that had lost the purse, but 
 holy mackerel ! That chap is game ! The doctor couldn't 
 keep him in bed and it was he who went out yesterday 
 to the mines and discovered the truth about the Unatika. 
 He said he had suspected it for some time but couldn't 
 verify it while the other outfit were on the job ! There's 
 some class to his speed !" 
 
 "I think Janey's talked enough for now," Persis an- 
 nounced authoritatively. "She promised that she would 
 go to sleep again if I let her hear how we all came to 
 be here, and she looks a little tired." 
 
 "There is just one more thing that I must know." 
 Jane stayed the stir of departure. "I shall have to learn 
 it some time. Did did they find Malison?" 
 
 "The general superintendent of the Unatika? The 
 man you knocked off the trestle?" Ollie laughed. "No, 
 and they can't find the only jitney in town, either, but 
 the deputy marshal from Juneau has started off on his 
 trail. You only stunned him, Janey, and when he came 
 to, and found that the fight was over he didn't waste 
 any time in making himself scarce. They'll get him, 
 though, and he'll hang for the murder of that Italian, 
 Pietro Graziano." 
 
 "That is a pleasant little thought to put her to sleep 
 with," Persis observed, as she herded them out. "Tact- 
 ful creatures, men are!"
 
 THE RIGHT OF WAY 277 
 
 She closed the door and came over to the bed. 
 
 "Janey, would you like to see this Mr. Hoyt the next 
 time time he calls?" 
 
 "He has been here?" Jane asked with unconscious 
 eagerness. 
 
 "As soon as he could crawl on Thursday, and three 
 times yesterday. It is wonderful the amount of business 
 he has to discuss with Ollie and Mr. Geddes ! If you 
 are good and go to sleep now I will make you as pre- 
 sentable as I can, though there's not a bit of rouge in 
 the whole town! I know because I even asked Mr. 
 Pittinger, and he nearly fainted." 
 
 Jane smiled. 
 
 "I don't want any," she murmured. "I I'd rather 
 be just myself ; I'm going to be, from now on. I have 
 learned a lot since I came up here about the things 
 that really count, Persis, and nothing else matters." 
 
 She slept again, awakening only when Persis laid her 
 hand upon her forehead. 
 
 "Mr. Hoyt is here, dear. If you don't feel like seeing 
 him just now " 
 
 The dazed look was swept like magic from Jane's eyes 
 and she sat up in bed so suddenly that she all but 
 bumped her friend's head. 
 
 "Give me my hair brush," she demanded. "Oh, I 
 can't use it with only one hand! Don't drag my hair 
 back until it pulls my eyebrows up, whatever you do! 
 Am I so very pale?" 
 
 Persis made no response but she smiled quietly to 
 herself as she went about her ministrations. Janey had 
 evidently learned more in Katalak than she had toldj
 
 278 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 A few minutes later a young man with a bandaged 
 head and battered countenance appeared diffidently in 
 the doorway. 
 
 "Mrs. Cheever said that you wanted to see me, Miss 
 Gildersleeve," he said formally. "I did not wish to 
 intrude " 
 
 "Oh, dear!" Jane sighed. "I hoped you had for- 
 gotten how rude I was to you the day you called when 
 I only pretended to be ill. You were rude to me, though, 
 the last time we met; you declined my company in no 
 uncertain terms." 
 
 "On the trestle?" His lips tightened. "It was mad- 
 ness for you to come ! You might have been killed, but 
 instead you saved my life. Miss Gildersleeve, I do not 
 know what to say to you; I don't know how to ex- 
 press " 
 
 "Then don't, for goodness sake, call me 'Miss Gilder- 
 sleeve' in that horribly formal manner! I I just knew 
 you would do this !" Jane spoke in a decidedly aggrieved, 
 pouting tone. "I knew that as soon as you learned who 
 I was you would freeze up like the other time! When 
 you thought I was only Jane Peddar you were so nice 
 and friendly, and now it is all spoiled !" 
 
 "The other time?" Hoyt had taken a step nearer the 
 bed and a dawning light came into his eyes. 
 
 She looked up at him with a little smile. 
 
 "You I. W. W. Thing!" she said softly. 
 
 "So it was you !" Hoyt exclaimed. "I fancied so at 
 first but I thought I must be mad ! You were so differ- 
 ent to the fine little lady who was afraid to help the
 
 THE RIGHT OF WAY 279 
 
 man she had hurt because her hands might be soiled 
 with blood." 
 
 "I'm not different!" Jane protested. "It is only that 
 conditions are, and I had to learn, didn't I? I was on 
 the wrong side of the road that night because I was 
 careless and didn't think; I wouldn't have cared much 
 if I'd realized it. All my life I have felt that I had 
 the right of way in everything because I was Janetta 
 Gildersleeve ; I took it as a matter of course. It was 
 only when I saw my own little pampered, falsely secured 
 world falling down about my shoulders that I began 
 to think, and what you said to me that night made me 
 furious but it helped me later. I thought then that 
 you must be a socialistic faddist, but when I came up 
 here and got behind that counter I saw the other side 
 of things; kindness and generosity and chivalry from 
 people I had never even given a thought to before be- 
 cause they belonged to another world! Now do you 
 understand ?" 
 
 "I think I do," Hoyt said slowly. "I learned it, too, 
 years ago. But you will go back now and be Janetta 
 Gildersleeve once more." 
 
 He did not realize that in the innocent glance which 
 Jane bestowed upon him she was reading him like a 
 book. She sighed in queer exasperation, then seeing 
 that the initiative must be hers she drew a deep 
 breath. 
 
 "Do you want me to go?" she asked very softly. 
 
 The blank amazement in his eyes gave place to so 
 warm and tender a light that her own eyes drooped 
 before it
 
 280 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 "What do you mean?" he asked in turn, somewhat 
 unsteadily. "I your place is there " 
 
 "Is it? I wonder! I thought that perhaps I might 
 stay here in Katalak until the road is finished if you 
 wanted me to," she repeated in a voice that was little 
 more than a whisper. "Until the road is finished and 
 and we go on to another job." 
 
 "Jane!" He stooped swiftly and gathered her, in- 
 jured shoulder and all, in a close, infinitely tender em- 
 brace. "And I thought you didn't care ! I thought you 
 were like the others, in spite of how wonderfully you 
 had proved yourself up here! I had begun to feel that 
 perhaps Jane Peddar might care, but when she became 
 Janetta Gildersleeve I was sure it had been just a dream 
 of mine." 
 
 "Jane Peddar does care!" Her arm slipped up about 
 his neck in blissful contentment. "But she will never 
 as long as she lives forgive you for making her pro- 
 pose!"
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 ONE morning, a week later, in a rare burst of 
 sunshine, Jane was seated on the porch of the 
 little shack. She was still a trifle weak and 
 wan, but her pallor was shot now and then with vivid 
 blushes, and she hummed a little tuneless song to herself 
 as she swayed back and forth in the squeaky rocker 
 which Ma Heaney had sent up for her especial use. 
 
 "I don't see how you ever endured it up here all these 
 weeks!" Persis observed with a shiver. "It is desolate 
 enough in all conscience when the sun shines like this, 
 but when it rains, as it seems to do almost constantly, 
 it is the most unspeakably lonely, dreary place imagin- 
 able!" 
 
 "I haven't been lonely." Jane smiled as if to herself, 
 and then added hurriedly : "Too busy, you know. Then 
 I've made such good friends " 
 
 "That dreadful fat woman with the bleached hair, and 
 
 that common dance-hall creature " Persis began, but 
 
 Jane interrupted her indignantly. 
 
 "Ma Heaney is respected by everyone in Katalak, and 
 she has the biggest heart of anyone I know, while as 
 for Etta, I don't know what I should have done without 
 
 Hi
 
 282 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 her. She's just a girl like you or I, only she hasn't had 
 the advantages that have been ours, but I mean that she 
 shall have as soon as she reaches the East." 
 
 "Well, I must say it is a blessing that we are getting 
 you away from such associations," her friend retorted 
 vigorously. "I had no idea, Janey, that you could so 
 easily sink to the level of these surroundings! You 
 seemed so well-poised and self-contained for a girl who 
 had only been out two seasons that I would never have 
 believed you would so soon have forgotten your social 
 traditions." 
 
 "I haven't. I've simply risen above them," explained 
 Jane serenely. "We don't even think in the same language 
 any more, you and I, Persis. I don't understand, look- 
 ing back, how I ever could have been such a narrow- 
 minded, self-satisfied little snob !" 
 
 "If you mean to insinuate that I am one simply be- 
 cause I cannot fraternize with the riff-raff of a mining 
 town, I can only say that I think we came at a psy- 
 chological moment in more ways than one," Persis re- 
 marked with dignity. "I am glad for your own sake 
 that we are sailing to-rnorrow." 
 
 Jane drew a deep breath and turned to face her friend 
 squarely. 
 
 "I am not sailing with you. I shall be sorry to lose 
 you all, but I am going to remain here in Katalak!" 
 
 "You are absolutely mad !" Persis rose from her chair 
 in consternation. "Janey, you can't think what you are 
 saying! What in the world do you mean?" 
 
 "Just what I say." Jane smiled very steadily into 
 Mrs. Cheever's eyes, but a deep flush had mounted to
 
 THE SINGLE TRACK 283 
 
 her brow. "I never from the first had the slightest 
 intention of going back with you, but I decided not to 
 tell you until the last moment to avoid needless re- 
 monstrances." 
 
 The other woman stared half-incredulously at her, and 
 then turned impetuously toward the door of the shack. 
 
 "Ollie! Mr. Geddes! Billy !" she called. "Come here 
 this minute. What do you think Janey is trying to tell 
 me?" 
 
 Then as the three, followed by Adam MacLeod ap- 
 peared in the doorway, with Peddar's pale face hovering 
 in the background, she continued : 
 
 "She says that she will not sail with us to-morrow! 
 She means to stay on here in this awful place " 
 
 "Stuff and nonsense!" interrupted Andrew Geddes 
 testily. "She should never have been permitted to come, 
 but she accomplished what she set out to do and that 
 isn't any excuse for her to remain here another day! 
 What ridiculous notion is this, Janetta?" 
 
 "It isn't ridiculous, Uncle Andy." Jane smiled again 
 in that quiet, aloof way, and then she blushed as she 
 caught sight of a tall figure rapidly approaching. "My 
 work here has only just begun. Of course, we've beaten 
 the Unatika, and I think that Jud Pittinger can get 
 along without me in the store any longer, but I've ac- 
 cepted another position." 
 
 "Oh, Jane miss, I mean!" quavered Peddar. "I beg 
 pardon, I'm sure, miss, but you are never thinking " 
 
 William Cheever's low whistle of astonishment 
 drowned the old man's trembling tones and Adam Mac-
 
 284 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 Leod looked the question he could not utter, but Ollie 
 advanced to her chair. 
 
 "What sort of position, Little Sister?" he asked 
 gently. 
 
 She looked gratefully up at him through a mist of 
 happy tears, and then nodded to Barney Hoyt as he 
 hesitated at the foot of the steps. 
 
 "I am just telling the rest that they must sail without 
 me to-morrow," she explained to the new arrival. "I 
 told them that I had accepted another position up here, 
 Barney, but I didn't say that I had had to apply for 
 it myself !" 
 
 The young engineer's brown eyes traveled from one 
 to another of them and finally rested on Oliphant Gilder- 
 sleeve. 
 
 "Jane has promised to become my wife," he said 
 simply. 
 
 There was a moment of stunned silence, and then 
 Andrew Geddes burst out irrepressibly. 
 
 "Preposterous, young man! We'll admit that it is 
 through you her property was saved, but she's a Gilder- 
 sleeve " 
 
 "And he is the son of J. Barnaby Hoyt," Ollie in- 
 terrupted suddenly. "However, that wouldn't matter 
 to either of us, Uncle Andrew. He has proven up here 
 that he is better able to take care of her than any of 
 us have been, and she's proved, too, that she knows her 
 own mind. I am glad, Barney Hoyt, although it means 
 losing my little sister. You'll be good to her, I know." 
 
 He extended his hand and the engineer grasped it. 
 
 "I shall work for her and love he* all the rest of
 
 THE SINGLE TRACK 285 
 
 our two lives, Mr. Gildersleeve !" he announced solemnly. 
 
 Persis stooped impulsively and kissed Jane. 
 
 "I suspected something like this, dear. You talked 
 to me a little when you were half -delirious, you know. 
 But I thought that you meant to return with us and 
 have Mr. Hoyt follow when the road was finished." 
 
 She, too, held out her hand to Hoyt, and after a 
 moment Andrew Geddes and Adam MacLeod followed 
 suit, while Peddar looked on in shocked amazement. 
 
 "You've taken on an awful responsibility, young 
 man!" MacLeod remarked warningly. "I know by ex- 
 perience that she'll get what she wants in everything 
 and you may as well save your breath as try to dissuade 
 her." 
 
 "But that is what I want, too. To give her everything 
 that she desires, always, if it is in my power," the radi- 
 ant young man averred. 
 
 "I misdoubt, in spite of such a daft, reckless speech 
 that Janetta has found her master at lasi." Andrew 
 Geddes took off his glasses and wiped them clear of the 
 sudden mist which had fogged them. "There's one little 
 detail that has seemed to escape the minds of you 
 two children, however; has it occurred to you that there 
 is no minister nearer than Juneau, and we sail to- 
 morrow." 
 
 Jane looked questioningly at Barney Hoyt, who nodded 
 in laughing reassurance. 
 
 "We have a thoroughly authorized, perfectly good 
 preacher right here in Katalak," he announced. "I had 
 a talk with him yesterday and although he was somewhat
 
 286 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 reluctant to reveal his true character, I managed to per- 
 suade him. Here he is now, come to pay his respects." 
 
 They glanced up as two men made their appearance, 
 supporting between them a third whose head and eyes 
 were bandaged. 
 
 "Heavens, what a wedding!" groaned Persis. "Won't 
 you give up the idea of being married at once, and come 
 home and have a real function in St. Jude's, Janey?" 
 
 Jane's declination was lost in Ollie's sudden exclama- 
 tion: 
 
 "But these men they arc only Superintendent Bowers, 
 and Harve Dugdale and your storekeeper, Jud Pittinger, 
 Janey! Surely you cannot mean " 
 
 "The Reverend Judson Pittinger," Jane corrected him 
 softly. "He has taken care of me and guarded me 
 from all harm when he thought me just Peddar's 
 daughter, and I'd rather have him than the rector of 
 the most famous church in Christendom! I'm so glad 
 you came, Mr. Bowers; please put Harve Dugdale here 
 in this big chair. Mr. Pittinger, have you come to tell 
 me that you will officiate for us to-morrow?" 
 
 "It will be the greatest honor of my life, ma'am," he 
 responded, and when the embarrassed congratulations of 
 the newcomers had been delivered, he turned to Ollie 
 and Andrew Geddes as they stood a little apart. "I have 
 my papers here, gentlemen, and a a tribute from my 
 last congregation. I'm only a plain preacher, but if so 
 be that you think I am fitted " 
 
 "Oh, are we all crazy?" cried Persis once more. 
 "This is wonderfully romantic, of course, but for a girl 
 brought up as Janetta Gildersleeve has been, to be
 
 THE SINGLE TRACK 287 
 
 married in a dreadful little shack like this, with no 
 orange blossoms or organ recital, or bridesmaids or 
 supper " 
 
 Jud Pittinger turned mildly deprecating eyes upon her. 
 
 "Ma Heaney has the orange blossoms left from one 
 of her own er ceremonies, and she and the Chinamen 
 from the de Luxe eating-house are getting up the finest 
 supper that Katalak ever saw, ma'am. The boys have 
 fixed up a band amongst 'em you could hear 'em prac- 
 ticin' right now, if the wind was this way, and as for the 
 weddin' takin' place here " 
 
 "We're going to be married in the new storage ware- 
 house," Jane announced in low but very firm tones. "It's 
 the only building in town that will hold all the boys, and 
 I want them there, every one! They're all friends of 
 mine, and they risked their lives for Ollie and me ; they 
 have earned the right !" 
 
 "But if you would only listen to reason !" Persis urged 
 insistently. "What can we say to everyone at home? 
 If you would only return with us and let Mr. Hoyt fol- 
 low when the road is done, you would never have to 
 lead this rough, dreadful sort of life again. I'm sure 
 Mr. Geddes or Ollie could use their influence and get 
 hirn in some big firm as consulting engineer or some- 
 thing in town and you could live as you have always 
 been accustomed to." 
 
 Jane laughed up into her lover's eyes. Then her small 
 chin came out firmly and she turned to Persis. 
 
 "I told you that we didn't even think alike any more !" 
 she said. "I don't care what you tell the people at home, 
 nor what they think. I'm out of their lives for good
 
 288 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 or unless Barney has to enter a firm of that sort some- 
 time, but it must come through his own efforts alone. 
 We want no preferment or influence or graft. He is his 
 own man, thank God, and he will be so always! We 
 are going to stay here until the road and the terminal 
 are finished and then we are going on together to the 
 next real job that offers. I shall share with him what- 
 ever comes throughout our lives!" 
 
 From the point of view of Ma Heaney, at least, the 
 wedding was the greatest social event that Alaska had 
 ever witnessed. Under her able direction the boys had 
 scouted around the country for every flower that reared 
 its stunted but determined head, and the interior of the 
 storehouse was a huge bower of hemlock and Sitka 
 spruce branches. Bighorns and woodland caribou turned 
 on piles over the slow fires in the storage yard for the 
 barbecue, and there were good things galore made by 
 the Chinese cooks whose impassivity was for once lost 
 in expansive smiles. 
 
 Mrs. Cheever, making the best of the situation, un- 
 earthed a white gown from her husband's bursting suit- 
 case, and in spite of her remonstrances Jane had in- 
 sisted upon wearing not only Ma Heaney's slightly di- 
 lapidated orange blossoms, but a veil of doubtful origin 
 which that lady had produced at the final moment. 
 
 As if desiring to make up for the eternal drizzle of 
 her courtship, the sun shone in all its splendor for the 
 little bride as she walked on Andrew Geddes' arm be-
 
 THE SINGLE TRACK 289 
 
 neath turquoise skies to the transformed storehouse. 
 Within, she passed up the narrow lane between the 
 solidly packed masses of men who had fought for her 
 so well, but it is doubtful if she was conscious of the 
 adoring faces, Slavic and Latin, yellow and white and 
 brown, which were turned with one accord to her. Her 
 own eyes were fixed upon the temporary altar of bunt- 
 ing-draped packing cases where Jud Pittinger waited 
 and where before him stood her brother and that other, 
 the man whom she had once called an "I. W. W. Thing!" 
 
 But it was all over now. Ma Heaney had clasped 
 her in a stout embrace and shed copious tears of happi- 
 ness upon her, the feasting and celebrating were done 
 and Jane and Barney Hoyt stood alone together on the 
 wharf watching a great steamer disappear in the soft 
 haze where blue sky and bluer water met. 
 
 There were tears in her eyes and she clung rather 
 tightly to Barney's hand, but a little April smile curved 
 her lips. 
 
 "You are sure, my darling, that you won't regret? 
 You are sure that the time will not come before I can take 
 you back to it, when you will long for the old things 
 and the old life ?" He spoke very softly and low. "It is a 
 rough road that you have chosen to travel with me; a 
 lonely and weary and monotonous one! Your highway 
 has always been smooth and pleasant, peopled with 
 familiar friends and gay with amusement and joyous 
 excitement. It would kill me to think that I had taken 
 you from all that if you tire, dear!" 
 
 For answer Jane turned him gently away from the 
 last smudge of smoke which lingered on the horizon
 
 290 THE SINGLE TRACK 
 
 and pointed up-country, where two long lines of rails 
 gleamed side by side until they met and vanished in the 
 foothills. 
 
 "A rough road with you?" she repeated. "A shining 
 one, Barney ! The old life and the girl who lived it are 
 both dead. They may keep their crowded highway, but 
 I have chosen well; the single track, with you!" 
 
 FINIS.
 
 ,.!E?,9i!M RN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
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