A FOOL 
 FOR LOVE 
 
 BY 
 
 F R A NCI S 
 
 L Y N D E 
 
/* 
 
 UM 
 

 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2008 with funding from 
 
 Microsoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/foolforloveOOIyndrich 
 
A FOUL 70R LOYE 
 
 By 
 XAi CIS LYNDE 
 
 Author of 
 
 The Grafters 
 
 The Master of Appleby, etc 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE NEW YORK BOOK CO. 
 
 1913 
 
Copyright 1905 
 The Bobbs-Merrill (Company 
 
 September 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I In Which We Take Passage on the Limited 
 
 II In Which an Engine is Switched 
 
 III In Which an Itinerary is Changed 
 
 IV The Crystalline Altitudes 
 V The Landslide 
 
 VI The Rajah Gives an Order 
 VII The Majesty of the Law 
 VIII The Greeks Bringing Gifts 
 IX The Block Signal 
 X Spiked Switches 
 XI The Right of Way 
 
 M578537 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 IN WHICH WE TAKE PASSAGE ON THE IJMITED 
 
 It was a December morning, — the Missouri 
 December of mild temperatures and saturated 
 skies, — and the Chicago and Alton's fast train, 
 chipping from the rush through the wet night, 
 had steamed briskly to its terminal track in 
 the Union Station at Kansas City. 
 
 Two men, one smoking a short pipe and the 
 other snapping the ash from a scented cigar- 
 ette, stood aloof from the hurrying throngs on 
 the platform, looking on with the measured 
 interest of those who are in a melee but not 
 of it. 
 
 "More delay," said the cigarettist, glancing 
 at his watch. "We are over an hour late now. 
 Do we get any of it back on the run to Den- 
 ver?" 
 
 1 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 The pipe-smoker shook his head. 
 
 "Hardly, I should say. The Limited is a 
 pretty heavy train to pick up lost time. But 
 it won't make any particular difference. The 
 western connections all wait for the Limited, 
 and we shall reach the seat of war to-morrow 
 night, according to the Boston itinerary." 
 
 Mr. Morton P. Adams flung away the un- 
 burned half of his cigarette and masked a 
 yawn beliind his hand. 
 
 "It's no end of a bore, Winton, and that is 
 the plain, unlacquered fact," he protested. "I 
 think the governor owes me something. I wor- 
 ried through the Tech because he insisted that 
 I should have a profession ; and now I am go- 
 ing in for field work with you in a howling 
 winter wilderness because he insists on a prac- 
 tical demonstration. I shall ossify out there 
 in those mountains. It's written in the book." 
 
 "Humph ! it's too bad about you," said the 
 other ironically. He was a fit figure of a man, 
 clean-cut and vigorous, from the steadfast out- 
 look of the gray cms and the firm, smooth- 
 sliaven jaw to the square finger-tips of the 
 2 
 
ON THE LIMITED 
 
 strong hands, and his smile was of good-na- 
 tured contempt. "As you say, it is an outrage 
 on filial complaisance. All the same, with the 
 right-of-way fight in prospect, Quartz Creek 
 Canyon may not prove to be such a valley of 
 dry bones as — Look out, there !" 
 
 The shifting-engine had cut a car from the 
 rear of the lately-arrived Alton, and was send- 
 ing it down the outbound track to a coupling 
 with the Transcontinental Limited. Adams 
 stepped back and let it miss him by a hand's- 
 breadth, and as the car was passing, Winton 
 read the name on the paneling. 
 
 "The Rosemary: somebody's twenty -ton 
 private outfit. That cooks our last chance of 
 making up any lost time between this and to- 
 morrow — " 
 
 He broke off abruptly. On the square rear 
 observation platform of the private car were 
 three ladies. One of them was small and blue- 
 eyed, with wavy little puffs of snowy hair 
 peeping out under her dainty widow's cap. 
 Another was small and blue-e} T ed, with wavy 
 masses of flaxen hair caught up from a face 
 3 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 which might have served as a model for the 
 most exquisite bisque figure that ever came out 
 of France. But Winton saw only the third. 
 
 She was taller than either of her companions 
 — tall and straight and lithe ; a charming em- 
 bodiment of health and strength and beauty : 
 clear-skinned, brown-eyed — a very goddess 
 fresh from the bath, in Winton's instant sum- 
 ming up of her, and her crown of red-gold 
 hair helped out the simile. 
 
 Now, thus far in his thirty-year pilgrimage 
 John Winton, man and boy, had lived the in- 
 tense life of a working hermit, so far as the 
 social gods and goddesses were concerned. Yet 
 he had a pang — of disappointment or point- 
 less jealousy, or something akin to both — 
 when Adams lifted his hat to this particular 
 goddess, was rewarded by a little cry of recog- 
 nition, and stepped up to the platform to be 
 presented to the elder and younger Bisques. 
 
 So, as we say, Winton turned and walked 
 
 away as one left out, feeling one moment as 
 
 though he had been defrauded of a natural 
 
 right, and deriding himself the next, as a sen- 
 
 4 
 
ON THE LIMITED 
 
 sible man should. After a bit he was able to 
 laugh at the "sudden attack," as he phrased 
 it, but later, when he and Adams were settled 
 for the day-long run in the Denver sleeper, 
 and the Limited was clanking out over the 
 switches, he brought the talk around with a 
 carefully assumed air of lack-interest to the 
 party in the private car. 
 
 "She is a friend of yours, then?" he said, 
 when Adams had taken the baited hook open- 
 eyed. 
 
 The Technologian modified the assumption. 
 
 "Not quite in your sense of the word, I 
 fancy. I met her a number of times at the 
 houses of mutual friends in Boston. She was 
 studying at the Conservatory." 
 
 "But she isn't a Bostonian," said Winton 
 confidently. 
 
 "Miss Virginia? — hardly. She is a Car- 
 teret of the Carterets; Virginia-born-bred- 
 and-named. Stunning girl, isn't she?" 
 
 "No," said Winton shortly, resenting the 
 slang for no reason that he could have set" 
 forth in words. 
 
 5 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 Adams lighted another of the scented vil- 
 lainies, and his clean-shaven face wrinkled it- 
 self in a slow smile. 
 
 "Which means that she has winged you at 
 sight, I suppose, as she does most men." Then 
 he added calmly, "It's no go." 
 
 "What is 'no go'?" 
 
 Adams laughed unfeelingly, and puffed 
 away at his cigarette. 
 
 "You remind me of the fable about the 
 head-hiding ostrich. Didn't I see you staring 
 at her as if you were about to have a fit? But 
 it is just as I tell you: it's no go. She isn't 
 the marrying kind. If you knew her, she'd 
 be nice to you till she got a good chance to 
 flay you alive — " 
 
 "Break it off!" growled Winton. 
 
 "Presently. As I was saying, she would 
 miss the chance of marrying the best man in 
 the world for the sake of taking a rise out of 
 him. Moreover, she comes of old Cavalier 
 stock with an English earldom at the back of 
 it, and she is inordinately proud of the fact ; 
 while you — er — you've given me to under- 
 6 
 
ON THE IIMITED 
 
 stand that you are a man of the people, 
 haven't you?" 
 
 Winton nodded absently. It was one of his 
 minor fads to ignore his lineage, which ran 
 decently back to a Colonial governor on his 
 father's side, and to assert that he did not 
 know his grandfather's middle name — which 
 was accounted for by the very simple fact that 
 the elder Winton had no middle name. 
 
 "Well, that settles it definitely," wa^ the 
 Bostonian's comment. "Miss Carteret is of 
 the sang azur. The man who marries her 
 will have to know his grandfather's middle 
 name — and a good bit more besides." 
 
 Winton' s laugh was mockingly good-na- 
 tured. 
 
 "You have missed your calling by some- 
 thing more than a hairs-breadth, Morty. 
 You should have been a novelist. Give you a 
 spike and a cross-tie and you'd infer a whole 
 railroad. But you pique my curiosity. Where 
 are these American royalties of yours going 
 in the Rosemary?" 
 
 "To California. The car belongs to Mr. 
 7 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 Somerville Darrah, who is vice-president and 
 manager in fact of the Colorado and Grand 
 River road: the 'Rajah,' they call him. He is 
 a relative of the Carterets, and the party is 
 on its way to spend the winter on the Pacific 
 coast." 
 
 "And the little lady in the widow's cap : is 
 she Miss Carteret's mother?" 
 
 "Miss Bessie Carteret's mother and Miss 
 Virginia's aunt. She is the chaperon of the 
 party." 
 
 Winton wa6 silent while the Limited was 
 roaring through a village on the Kansas side 
 of the river. When he spoke again it was not 
 of the Carterets ; it was of the Carterets' kins- 
 man and host. 
 
 "I have heard somewhat of the Rajah," he 
 said half-musingly. "In fact, I know him, by 
 sight. He is what the magazinists are fond 
 of calling an 'industry colonel,' a born leader 
 who has fought his way to the front. If the 
 Quartz Creek row is anything more than a stiff 
 bluff on the part of the C. G. R. it will be 
 quite as well for us if Mr. Somerville Darrah 
 8 
 
ON THE LIMITED 
 
 is safely at the other side of the conti- 
 nent — and well out of ordinary reach of the 
 wires." 
 
 Adams came to attention with a half-heart- 
 ed attempt to galvanize an interest in the busi- 
 ness affair. 
 
 "Tell me more about this mysterious jangle 
 we are heading for," he rejoined. "Have I 
 enlisted for a soldier when I thought I was 
 only going into peaceful exile as assistant en- 
 gineer of construction on the Utah Short 
 Line?" 
 
 "That remains to be seen." Winton took a 
 leaf from his pocket memorandum and drew a 
 rough outline map. "Here is Denver, and 
 here is Carbonate," he explained. "At present 
 the Utah is running into Carbonate this way 
 over the rails of the C. G. R. on a joint 
 track agreement which either line may ter- 
 minate by giving six months' notice of its in- 
 tention to the other. Got that?" 
 
 "To have and to hold," said Adams. "Go 
 on." 
 
 "Well, on the first day of September the C. 
 9 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 G. R. people gave the Utah management no- 
 tice to quit." 
 
 "They are bloated monopolists," said Ad- 
 ams sententiously. "Still I don't see -why 
 there should be any scrapping over the line in 
 Quartz Creek Canyon." 
 
 "No? You are not up in monopolistic 
 methods. In six months from September first 
 the Utah people will be shut out of Carbonate 
 business, which is all tliat keeps that part of 
 their line alive. If they want a share of that 
 traffic after March first, they will have to have 
 a road of their own to carry it over." 
 
 "Precisely," said Adams, stifling a yawn. 
 "They are building one, aren't they?" 
 
 "Trying to," Winton amended. "But, un- 
 fortunately, the only practicable route 
 through the mountains is up Quartz Creek 
 Canyon, and the canyon is already occupied 
 by a branch line of the Colorado and Grand 
 River." 
 
 "Still I don't see why there should be any 
 scrap." 
 
 "Don't you? If the Rajah's road can keep 
 10 
 
ON THE LIMITED 
 
 the new line out of Carbonate till the six 
 months have expired, it will have a monopoly 
 of all the carrying trade of the camp. By 
 consequence it can force every shipper in the 
 district to make iron-clad contracts, so that 
 when the Utah line is finally completed it 
 won't be able to secure any freight for a year, 
 at least." 
 
 "Oho! that's the game, is it? I begin to 
 savvy the burro: that's the proper phrase, 
 isn't it? And what are our chances?" 
 
 "We have about one in a hundred, as near 
 as I could make out from Mr. Callowell's 
 statement of the case. The C. G. R. peo- 
 ple are moving heaven and earth to obstruct 
 us in the canyon. If they can delay the work 
 a little longer, the weather will do the rest. 
 With the first heavy snow in the mountains, 
 which usually comes long before this, the Utah 
 will have to put up its tools and wait till next 
 summer." 
 
 Adams lighted another cigarette. 
 
 "Pardon me if I seem inquisitive," he said, 
 "but for the life of me I can't understand 
 11 
 
— _ - 
 
 _1 
 
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 " . .. - 
 
 — — 
 
 : 
 
 
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 :. : 
 
II 
 
 IN WHICH AN ENGINE IS SWITCHED 
 
 " 'Scuse me, sah ; private cyah, sail." 
 
 It was the porter's challenge in the vestibule 
 of the Rosemary. Adams found a card. 
 
 "Take that to Miss Carteret— Miss Vir- 
 ginia Carteret," he directed, and waited till 
 the man came back with his welcome. 
 
 The extension table in the open rear third 
 of the private car was closed to its smallest 
 dimensions, and the movable furnishings were 
 disposed about the compartment to make it a 
 comfortable lounging room. 
 
 Mrs. Carteret was propped among the 
 cushions of a divan with a book. Her daugh- 
 ter occupied the undivided half of a tete- 
 a-tete chair with a blond athlete in a clerical 
 coat and a reversed collar. Miss Virginia was 
 sitting alone at a window, but she rose and 
 came to greet the visitor. 
 14 
 
AN ENGINE SWITCHED 
 
 "How good of you to take pity on us !" she 
 said, giving him her hand. Then she put him 
 at one with the others: "Aunt Martha you 
 have met; also Cousin Bessie. Let me pre- 
 sent you to Mr. Calvert: Cousin Billy, this is 
 Mr. Adams, who is responsible in a way for 
 many of my Boston-learned gaucheries." 
 
 Aunt Martha closed the book on her finger. 
 "My dear Virginia!" she protested in mild 
 deprecation; and Adams laughed and shook 
 hands with the Reverend William Calvert and 
 made Virginia's peace all in the same breath. 
 
 "Don't apologize for Miss Virginia, Mrs. 
 Carteret. We were very good friends in Bos- 
 ton, chiefly, I think, because I never objected 
 when she wanted to — er — to take a rise out of 
 me." Then to Virginia : "I hope I don't in- 
 trude?" 
 
 "Not in the least. Didn't I just say you 
 were good to come? Uncle Somerville tells us 
 we are passing through the famous Golden 
 Belt, — whatever that may be, — and recom- 
 mends an easy-chair and a window. But I 
 haven't seen anything but stubble-fields — dis- 
 15 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 mall j wet stubble-fields at that. Won't you 
 sit down and help me watch them go by ?" 
 
 Adams placed a chair for her and found one 
 for himself. 
 
 " 'Uncle Somerville' — am I to have the 
 pleasure of meeting Mr. Somerville Darrah?" 
 
 Miss Virginia's laugh was non-committal. 
 
 "Quien sabe?" she queried, airing her one 
 Westernism before she was fairly in the longi- 
 tude of it. "Uncle Somerville is a law unto 
 himself. He had a lot of telegrams and things 
 at Kansas City, and he is locked in his den 
 with Mr. Jastrow, dictating answers by the 
 dozen, I suppose." 
 
 "Oh, these industry colonels !" said Adams. 
 "Don't their toilings make you ache in sheer 
 sympathy sometimes ?" 
 
 "No, indeed," was the prompt rejoinder; 
 "I envy them. It must be fine to have large 
 things to do, and to be able to do them." 
 
 "Degenerate scion of a noble race!" jested 
 Adams. "What ancient Carteret of them all 
 would have compromised with the necessities 
 by becoming a captain of industry r" 
 16 
 
AX ENGINE SWITCHED 
 
 "It wasn't their metier, or the metier of 
 their times," said Miss Virginia with convic- 
 tion. "They were sword-soldiers merely be- 
 cause that was the only way a strong man 
 could conquer in those days. Now it is differ- 
 ent, and a strong man fights quite as nobly in 
 another field — and deserves quite as much 
 honor." 
 
 "Think so? I don't agree with you — as to 
 the fighting, I mean. I like to take tilings 
 easy. A good club, a choice of decent the- 
 aters, the society of a few charming young 
 women like — " 
 
 She broke him with a mocking laugh. 
 
 "You were born a good many centuries too 
 late, Mr. Adams; you would have fitted so 
 beautifully into decadent Rome." 
 
 "No — thanks. Twentieth-century America, 
 with the commercial frenzy taken out of it, is 
 good enough for me. I was telling Winton a 
 little while ago — " 
 
 "Your friend of the Kansas City station 
 platform?" she interrupted. "Mightn't you 
 introduce us a little less informally?" 
 17 
 
A FOOL FOB, LOTiI 
 
 "Beg pardon, I'm sure — yours and Jack's : 
 Mr. John Winton, of New York and the world 
 at large, familiarly known to his intimates — 
 and they are precious few — as 'Jack W.' As 
 I was about to say — " 
 
 But she seemed to find a malicious satisfac- 
 tion in breaking in upon him. 
 
 " 'Mr. John Winton' : it's a pretty name, 
 as names go, but it isn't as strong as he is. 
 He is an 'industry colonel,' isn't he? He looks 
 it." 
 
 The Bostonian avenged himself at Win- 
 ton's expense for the unwelcome interrup- 
 tion. 
 
 "So much for your woman's intuition," he 
 laughed. "Speaking of idlers, there is your 
 man to the dotting of the 'i'; a dilettante 
 raised to the nth power." 
 
 Miss Carteret's short upper lip curled in 
 undisguised scorn. 
 
 "I like men who do things," she asserted 
 
 with pointed emphasis; whereupon the talk 
 
 drifted eastward to Boston, and Winton was 
 
 ignored until Virginia, having exhausted the 
 
 18 
 
AN ENGINE SWITCHED 
 
 reminiscent vein, said, "You are going on 
 through to Denver?" 
 
 "To Denver and beyond," was the reply. 
 "Winton has a notion of hibernating in the 
 mountains — fancy it; in the dead of winter! 
 — and he has persuaded me to go along. He 
 sketches a little, you know." 
 
 "Oh, so he is an artist?" said Virginia, with 
 interest newly aroused. 
 
 "No," said Adams gloomily, "he isn't an 
 artist — isn't much of anything, I'm sorry to 
 say. Worse than all, he doesn't know his 
 grandfather's middle name. Told me so him- 
 self." 
 
 "That is inexcusable — in a dilettante," said 
 Miss Virginia mockingly. "Don't you think 
 so?" 
 
 "It is inexcusable in any one," said the 
 Technologian, rising to take his leave. Then, 
 as a parting word: "Does the Rosemary set 
 its own table? or do you dine in the dining- 
 car?" 
 
 "In the dining-car, if we have one. Uncle 
 Somerville lets us dodge the Rosemary's cook 
 19 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 ■whenever we can," was the answer; and with 
 this bit of information Adams went his way 
 to the Denver sleeper. 
 
 Finding Winton in his section, poring over 
 a blue-print map and making notes thereon 
 after the manner of a man hard at work, 
 Adams turned back to the smoking-compart- 
 ment. 
 
 Now for Mr. Morton P. Adams the salt of 
 life was a joke, harmless or otherwise, as the 
 tree might fall. So, during the long after- 
 noon which he wore out in solitude, there grew 
 up in him a keen desire to see what would be- 
 fall if these two whom he had so grotesquely 
 misrepresented each to the other should come 
 together in the pathway of acquaintanceship. 
 
 But how to bring them together was a prob- 
 lem which refused to be solved until chance 
 pointed the way. Since the Limited had 
 lost another hour during the day then- was a 
 rush for the dining-car as soon as the an- 
 nouncement of its taking-on had gone through 
 the train. Adams and Winton were of this 
 rush, and so were the members of Mr. Somer- 
 20 
 
AN ENGINE SWITCHED 
 
 ville Darrah's party. In the seating the party- 
 was separated, as room at the crowded tables 
 could be found ; and Miss Virginia's fate gave 
 her the unoccupied seat at one of the duet 
 tables, opposite a young man with steadfast 
 gray eyes and a firm jaw. 
 
 Winton was equal to the emergency, or 
 thought he was. Adams was still within call 
 and he beckoned him, meaning to propose an 
 exchange of seats. But the Bostonian mis- 
 understood wilfully. 
 
 "Most happy, I'm sure," he said, coming 
 instantly to the rescue. "Miss Carteret, my 
 friend signals his dilemma. May I present 
 him?" 
 
 Virginia smiled and gave the required per- 
 mission in a word. But for Winton self-pos- 
 session fled shrieking. 
 
 "Ah — er — I hope you know Mr. Adams 
 well enough to make allowances for his — for 
 his — " He broke down helplessly and she had 
 to come to his assistance. 
 
 "For his imagination?" she suggested. "I 
 do, indeed ; we are quite old friends." 
 91 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 Here was "well enough," but Winton was a 
 man and could not let it alone. 
 
 "I should be very sorry to have you think 
 for a moment that I would — er — so far forget 
 myself," he went on fatuously. "What I had 
 in mind was an exchange of seats with him. I 
 thought it would be pleasanter for 3-ou ; that 
 is, I mean, pleasanter for — " He stopped 
 short, seeing nothing but a more hopeless in- 
 volvement ahead; also because he saw signals 
 of distress or of mirth flying in the brown 
 eyes. 
 
 "Oh, please !" she protested in mock humil- 
 ity. "Do leave my vanity just the tiniest lit- 
 tle cranny to creep out of, Mr. Winton. I'll 
 promise to be good and not bore you too des- 
 perately." 
 
 At tins, as you would imagine, the pit of 
 utter self-abasement yawned for Winton, and 
 he plunged headlong, holding the bill of fare 
 wrong side up when the waiter asked for his 
 dinner order, and otherwise demeaning him- 
 self like a man taken at a hopeless disadvan- 
 tage. She took pity on him. 
 22 
 
AN ENGINE SWITCHED 
 
 "But let's ignore Mr. Adams," she went on 
 sweetly. "I am much more interested in this," 
 touching the bill of fare. "Will you order 
 for me, please ? I like — " 
 
 When she had finished the list of her lik- 
 ings, Winton was able to smile at his lapse into 
 the primitive, and gave the dinner order for 
 two with a fair degree of coherence. After 
 that they got on better. Winton knew Bos- 
 ton, and, next to the weather, Boston was the 
 safest and most fruitful of the commonplaces. 
 Nevertheless, it was not immortal ; and Winton 
 was just beginning to cast about for some 
 other safe riding road for the shallop of small 
 talk when Miss Carteret sent it adrift with 
 malice aforethought. 
 
 It was somewhere between the entrees and 
 the fruit, and the point of departure was Bos- 
 ton art. 
 
 "Speaking of art, Mr. Winton, will you 
 tell me how you came to think of sketching in 
 the mountains of Colorado at this time of 
 year? I should think the cold would be posi- 
 tively prohibitive of anything like that." 
 23 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 Winton stared — open-mouthed, it is to be 
 feared. 
 
 "I — I beg your pardon," he stammered, 
 with the inflection which takes its pitch from 
 blank bewilderment. 
 
 Miss Virginia was happy. Dilettante he 
 might be, and an unhumbled man of the world 
 as well; but, to use the Reverend Billy's 
 phrase, she could make him "sit up." 
 
 "I beg yours, I'm sure," she said demurely. 
 "I didn't know it was a craft secret." 
 
 "Winton looked across the aisle to the table 
 where the Technologian was sitting opposite 
 a square-shouldered, ruddy-faced gentleman 
 with fiery eyes and fierce white mustaches, and 
 shook a figurative fist. 
 
 "I'd like to know what Adams has been tell- 
 ing you," he said. "Sketching in the moun- 
 9 in midwinter! that would be decidedly 
 
 ginal, to sa} T the least of it. And I think 
 I have never done an original thing in all my 
 life." 
 
 For a single instant the brown eyes looked 
 their pity for him: generic pity it was, of the 
 34 
 
AN ENGINE SWITCHED 
 
 kind that mounting souls bestow upon the 
 stagnant. But the subconscious lover in Win- 
 ton made it personal to him, and it was the 
 lover who spoke when he went on. 
 
 "That is a damaging admission, is it not? 
 I am sorry to have to make it — to have to con- 
 firm your poor opinion of me." 
 
 "Did I say anything like that?" she pro- 
 tested. 
 
 "Not in words ; but your eyes said it, and I 
 know you have been thinking it all along. 
 Don't ask me how I know it: I couldn't ex- 
 plain it if I should try. But you have been 
 pitying me, in a way — you know you have." 
 
 The brown eyes were downcast. Frank and 
 free-hearted after her kind as she was, Vir- 
 ginia Carteret was finding it a new and singu- 
 lar experience to have a man tell her baldly at 
 their first meeting that he had read her inmost 
 thought of him. Yet she would not flinch or 
 go back. 
 
 "There is so much to be done in the world, 
 and so few to do the work," she pleaded in ex- 
 tenuation. 
 
 25 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 "And Adams has told you that I am not 
 one of the few ? It is true enough to hurt." 
 
 She looked him fairly in the eyes. "What is 
 lacking, Mr. Winton — the spur?" 
 
 "Possibly," he rejoined. "There is no one 
 near enough to care, or to say 'Well done !' " 
 
 "How can you tell?" she questioned mus- 
 ingly. "It is not always permitted to us to 
 hear the plaudits or the hisses — happily, I 
 think. Yet there are always those standing 
 by who are ready to cry 'Io triumphe!' and 
 mean it, when one approves himself a good 
 soldier." 
 
 The coffee had been served, and Winton sat 
 thoughtfully stirring the lump of sugar in his 
 cup. Miss Carteret was not having a monop- 
 oly of the new experiences. For instance, it 
 had never before happened to John Winton 
 to have a woman, young, charming, and alto- 
 gether lovable, read him a lesson out of the 
 book of the overcomers. 
 
 He smiled inwardly and wondered what she 
 would say if she could know to what battle- 
 field the drumming wheels of the Limited 
 26 
 
AN ENGINE SWITCHED 
 
 were speeding him. Would she be loyal to her 
 mentorship and tell him he must win, at what- 
 ever the cost to Mr. Somerville Darrah and his 
 business associates? Or would she, woman- 
 like, be her uncle's partizan and write one 
 John Winton down in her blackest book for 
 daring to oppose the Rajah? 
 
 He assured himself it would make no jot of 
 difference if he knew. He had a thing to do, 
 and he was purposed to do it strenuously, in- 
 flexibly. Yet in the inmost chamber of his 
 heart, where the barbarian ego stands un- 
 abashed and isolate and recklessly contemp- 
 tuous of the moralities minor and major, lie 
 saw the birth of an influence which inevita- 
 bly must henceforth be desperately reckoned 
 with. 
 
 Given a name, this new-born life-factor was 
 love ; love barely awakened, and as yet no more 
 than a masterful desire to stand well in the 
 eyes of one woman. None the less, he saw the 
 possibilities : that a time might come when this 
 woman would have the power to intervene; 
 would make him hold his hand in the business 
 
 n 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 affair at the very moment, mayhap, when he 
 should strike the hardest. 
 
 It was a rather unnerving thought, and 
 when he considered it he was glad that their 
 ways, coinciding for the moment, would pres- 
 ently go apart, leaving him free to do battle 
 as an honest soldier in any cause must. 
 
 The Rosemary party was rising, anel Win- 
 ton rose, too, folding the seat for Miss Vir- 
 ginia and carefully reaching her wrap from 
 the rack. 
 
 "I am so glad to have met you," sho said, 
 giving him the tips of her fingers and going 
 back to the conventionalities as if they had 
 never been ignored. 
 
 But the sincerity in Wanton's reply tran- 
 scended the conventional form of it. 
 
 "Indeed, the pleasure has been wholly mine, 
 I assure you. I hope the future will be kind 
 to me and let me see more of you." 
 
 "Who knows?" she rejoined, smiling at him 
 level-eyed. "The world lias been steadily 
 growing smaller since Shakespeare called it 
 'narrow.' " 
 
 28 
 
AN ENGINE SWITCHED 
 
 He caught quickly at the straw of hope. 
 "Then we need not say good-by?" 
 
 "No; let it be auf Wiedersehen," she said; 
 and he stood aside to allow her to join her 
 party. 
 
 Two hours later, when Adams was reading 
 in his section and Winton was smoking his 
 short pipe in the men's compartment and 
 thinking things unspeakable with Virginia 
 Carteret for a nucleus, there was a series of 
 sharp whistle-shrieks, a sudden grinding of 
 the brakes, and a jarring stop of the Limited 
 — a stop not down on the time-card. 
 
 Winton was among the first to reach the 
 head of the long train. The halt was in a lit- 
 tle depression of the bleak plain, and the train- 
 men were in conference over a badh T -derailed 
 engine when Winton came up. A vast herd 
 of cattle was lumbering away into the dark- 
 ness, and a mangled carcass under the wheels 
 of the locomotive sufficiently explained the ac- 
 cident. 
 
 "Well, there's only the one thing to do," 
 was the engineer's verdict. "That's for somc- 
 3 29 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 bodv to mog back to Arroyo to wire for the 
 wreck-wagon." 
 
 "Yes, by gum ! and that means all night," 
 growled the conductor. 
 
 There was a stir in the gathering throng of 
 half I and all-curious passengers, and a 
 
 red-faced, white-mustached gentleman, whose 
 soft southern accent was utterly at variance 
 with his manner, hurled a question bolt-like at 
 the conductor. 
 
 "All night, you say, seh? Then we miss 
 ouh Denver connections r' 
 
 "You can bet to win on that," was the curt 
 reply. 
 
 "Damn !" said the ruddy-faced gentleman ; 
 and then in a lower tone : "I beg your pahdon, 
 my deah Virginia; I was totally unaware of 
 your presence." 
 
 Winton threw off his overcoat. 
 
 "If you will take a bit of help from an out- 
 sider, I think we needn't wait for the wreck- 
 ing-car," he said to the dubious trainmen. 
 "i-' I id, but not so bad as it looks. What 
 do you say r" 
 
 30 
 
AN ENGINE SWITCHED 
 
 Now, as every one knows, it is not in the na- 
 ture of operative railway men to brook inter- 
 ference even of the helpful sort. But they are 
 as quick as other folk to recognize the man in 
 essence, as well a9 to know the clan slogan 
 when they hear it. Winton did not wait for 
 obj ections, but took over the command as one 
 in authority. 
 
 "Think we can't do it? I'll show you. Up 
 on the tank, one of you, and heave down the 
 jacks and frogs. We'll have her on the steel 
 again before you can say your prayers." 
 
 At the hearty command, churlish reluctance 
 vanished and everybody lent a willing hand. 
 In two minutes the crew of the Limited knew 
 it was working under a master. The frogs 
 were adjusted under the derailed wheels, the 
 jack-screws were braced to lift and push 
 with the nicest accuracy, and all was ready for 
 the attempt to back the engine in trial. But 
 now the engineer shook his head. 
 
 "I ain't the artist to move her gently 
 enough with all that string o' dinkeys behind 
 her," he said unhopefully. 
 31 
 
•-.I '.It: 
 
 :u:i 
 
 I 
 
 A'. Hi ic- 
 
 i 
 
AN E N 6 I N E S W I T CUED 
 
 ward ; and a cheer from the onlookers marked 
 the little triumph of mind over matter. 
 
 Winton found Miss Carteret holding his 
 overcoat when he swung down from the cab, 
 and lie fancied her enthusiasm was tempered 
 with something remotely like embarrassment. 
 But she suffered him to walk back to the pri- 
 vate car beside her ; and in this sudden retreat 
 from the scene of action he missed hearing the 
 comments of his fellow craftsmen. 
 
 "You bet, he's no 'prentice," said the fire- 
 man. 
 
 "Not much!" quoth the engineer. "lie's 
 an all-round artist, that's about what he is. 
 Shouldn't wonder if he was the travelin' en- 
 gineer for some road back in God's country." 
 
 "Travelin' nothing!" said the conductor. 
 "More likely he's a train-master, 'r p'raps a 
 bigger boss than that. Call in the flag, Jim, 
 and we'll be getting a move. " 
 
 Oddly enough, the comment on Winton did 
 not pause with the encomiums of the train 
 crew. When the Limited was once more rush- 
 ing on its way through the night, and Vir- 
 33 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 ginia and her cousin were safe In the privacy 
 of their state-room, Miss Carteret added her 
 word. 
 
 "Do you know, Bessie, I think it was Mr. 
 Adams who scored this afternoon?" she said. 
 
 "How so?" inquired la petite Bisque, who 
 was too sleepy to be over-curious. 
 
 "I think he 'took a rise' out of me, as he 
 puts it. Mr. Winton is precisely all the kinds 
 of man Mr. Adams said he wasn't." 
 
 34 
 
Ill 
 
 IN WHICH AX ITINERARY IS CHANGED 
 
 It was late breakfast time when the Trans- 
 continental Limited swept around the great 
 curve in the eastern fringe of Denver, paused 
 for a registering moment at "yard limits," 
 and went clattering in over the switches to 
 come to rest at the end of its long westward 
 run on the in-track at the Union Depot. 
 
 Having wired ahead to have his mail meet 
 him at the yard limits registering station, 
 Winton was ready to make a dash for the tele- 
 graph office the moment the train stopped. 
 
 "That is our wagon, over there on the nar- 
 row-gage," he said to Adams, pointing out 
 the waiting mountain train. "Have the por- 
 ter transfer our dunnage, and I'll be with you 
 as soon as I can send a wire or two." 
 
 On the way across the broad platform he 
 saw the yard crew cutting out the Rosemary, 
 35 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 and had a glimpse of Miss Virginia clinging 
 to the hand-rail and enjoying enthusiastically, 
 he fancied, her first view of the mighty hills 
 to the westward. 
 
 The temptation to let the telegraphing wait 
 while he went to say good morning to her was 
 strong, but he resisted it and hastened the 
 more for the hesitant thought. Nevertheless, 
 when he reached the telegraph office he found 
 Mr. Somerville Darrah and his secretary there 
 ahead of him, and he observed that the ex- 
 plosive gentleman who presided over the des- 
 tinies of the Colorado and Grand River ap- 
 peared to be in a more than usually volcanic 
 frame of mind. 
 
 Now Winton, though new to the business of 
 building railroads for the Utah Short Line, 
 was not new to Denver or Colorado. Hence 
 when the Rajah, followed by his secretarial 
 shadow, had left the office, Winton spoke to 
 the operator as to a friend. 
 
 "What is the matter with Mr. Darrah, 
 Tom? He seems to be uncommonly vindictive 
 this morning." 
 
 36 
 
AN ITINERARY CHANGED 
 
 The man of dots and dashes nodded. 
 
 "He's always crankier this time than he was 
 the other. He's a holy terror, the Rajah is. 
 I wouldn't work on his road for a farm down 
 East — not if my job took me within cussing 
 distance of him. Bet a hen worth fifty dol- 
 lars he is up in Mr. Colbert's office right now, 
 raising particular sand because his special en- 
 gine wasn't standing here ready to snatch his 
 private car on the fly, so's to go on without 
 losing headway." 
 
 Winton frowned thoughtfully, and he let 
 his writing hand pause while he said, "So he 
 travels special from Denver, does he?" 
 
 "On his own road? — well, I should smile. 
 Nothing is too good for the Rajah; or too 
 quick, when he happens to be in a hurry. I 
 wonder he didn't have the T. C. pull him spe- 
 cial from Kansas City." 
 
 Winton handed in his batch of telegrams 
 and went his way reflective. 
 
 What was Mr. Somerville Darrah's par- 
 ticular rush? As set forth by Adams, the 
 plans of the party in the Rosemary contem- 
 37 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 plated nothing more hasty than a leisurely 
 trip to the Pacific coast — a pleasure jaunt 
 with a winter sojourn in California to 
 lengthen it. Win*, then, this sudden change 
 from Limited regular trains to unlimited 
 specials? Was there fresh news from the seat 
 of war in Quartz Creek Canyon? Winton 
 thought not. In that case he would have had 
 liis budget as well; and so far as his own ad- 
 vices went, matters were still as they had been. 
 A letter from the Utah attorneys in Carbon- 
 ate assured him that the injunction appeal 
 was not yet decided, and another from Chief 
 of Construction Evarts concerned itself main- 
 ly with the major's desire to know when he 
 was to be relieved. 
 
 But if Winton could have been an eaves- 
 dropper behind the door of Superintendent 
 Colbert's office on the second floor of the Union 
 Depot, his doubts would have been resolved 
 instantly. 
 
 The telegraph operator's guess went 
 straight to the mark. Mr. Darrah was "rais- 
 ing particular sand" because his wire order 
 38 
 
AN ITINERARY CHANGED 
 
 for a special engine had not been obeyed to 
 the saving of the ultimate second of time. But 
 between his objurgations on that score, he was 
 rasping out questions designed to exhaust the 
 chief clerk's store of information concerning 
 the status of affairs at the seat of war. 
 
 "Will you inform me, seh, why I wasn't 
 wired that this beggahly appeal was go- 
 ing against us?" he demanded wrathfully. 
 "What's that you say, seh? Don't tell me you 
 couldn't know what the decision of the cou'i 
 was going to be before it was handed down : 
 that's what you-all are heah for — to find out 
 these things! And what is all this about 
 Majah Eva'ts resigning, and the Utah's send- 
 ing East for a professional right-of-way 
 fighteh to take his place? Who is this new 
 man? Don't know? Dammit, seh! it's your 
 business to know! Now when do you faveh 
 me with my engine?" 
 
 Thus the Rajah; and the chief clerk, him- 
 self known from end to end of the Colorado 
 and Grand River as a queller of men, could 
 only point out of the window to where the 
 39 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 Rosemary stood cngined and equipped for the 
 race, and say meekly: "I'm awfully sorry 
 you've been delayed, Mr. Darrah ; very sorry, 
 indeed. But your car is ready now. Shall I 
 go along to be on hand if you need me?" 
 
 "No, sch!" stormed the irate master; and 
 the chief clerk's face became instantly ex- 
 pressive of the keenest relief. "You stay 
 right heah and see that the wires to Qua'tz 
 Creek are kept open — wide open, sch. And 
 when you get an ordeh from me — for an en- 
 gine, a regiment of the National Gyua'd, or 
 a train-load of white elephants — you fill it. 
 Do j-ou understand, seh ?" 
 
 Meantime, while this scene was getting it- 
 self enacted in the superintendent's office, a 
 mild fire of consternation was alight in the 
 gathering room of the Rosemary. As we have 
 guessed, Winton's packet of mail was not the 
 only one which was delivered by special ar- 
 rangement that morning to the incoming 
 Limited at the yard registering station. 
 There had been another, addressed to Mr. 
 Somerville Darrah; and when he had opened 
 40 
 
AN ITINERARY CHANGED 
 
 it there had been a volcanic explosion and a 
 hurried dash for the telegraph office, as re- 
 corded. 
 
 Sifted out by the Reverend Billy, and ex- 
 plained by him to Mrs. Carteret and Bessie, 
 the firing spark of the explosion appeared to 
 be some news of an untoward character from 
 a place vaguely designated as "the front." 
 
 "It seems that there is some sort of a right- 
 of-way scrimmage going on up in the moun- 
 tains between our road and the Utah Short 
 Line," said the young man. "It was carried 
 into the courts, and now it turns out that the 
 decision has gone against us." 
 
 "How perfectly horrid!" said Miss Bessie. 
 "Now I suppose we shall have to stay here in- 
 definitely while Uncle Somerville does things." 
 And placid Mrs. Carteret added plaintively: 
 "It's too bad! I think they might let him 
 have one little vacation in peace." 
 
 "Who talks of peace?" queried Virginia, 
 driven in from her post of vantage on the ob- 
 servation platform by the smoke from the 
 switching-engine. "Didn't I see Uncle Somer- 
 41 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 ville charging across to the telegraph office 
 with war written out large in every line of 
 him?" 
 
 "I am afraid you did," affirmed the Rever- 
 end Billy ; and thereupon the explanation was 
 rehearsed for Virginia's benefit. 
 
 The brown eyes flashed militant sympathy. 
 
 "Oh, I wish Uncle Somerville would go to 
 'the front,' wherever that is, and take us 
 along !" she cried. "It would be ever so much 
 better than Cali forma." 
 
 The Reverend William laughed; and Aunt 
 Martha put in her word of expostulation, as 
 in duty bound. 
 
 "Why, my dear Virginia — the idea ! You 
 don't know in the least what you are talking 
 about. I have been reading in the papers 
 about these right-of-way troubles, and the}' 
 perfectly terrible. One report said they 
 were arming the laboring men, and another 
 said the militia might have to be called o 
 
 "Well, what of it?" said Virginia, with all 
 the hardihood of youth and unkn< 
 "It's something like a burning building: one 
 42 
 
AN ITINBBABT CHANGED 
 
 doesn't want to be hard-hearted and rejoice 
 over other people's misfortunes ; but then, if 
 it has to burn, one would like to be there to 
 see." 
 
 Miss Bessie put a stray lock of the flaxen 
 hair up under its proper comb. 
 
 "I'm sure I prefer California and the 
 orange-groves and peace," she asserted. 
 "Don't you, Cousin Billy?" 
 
 What Mr. Calvert would have replied is no 
 matter for this history, since at this precise 
 moment the Rajah came in, "coruscating," as 
 Virginia put it, from his late encounter with 
 the superintendent's chief clerk. 
 
 "Give them the word to go, Jastrow, and 
 let's get out of heah," he commanded. And 
 when the secretary had vanished the Rajah 
 made his explanations to all and sundry. "I've 
 been obliged in a manneh to change ouh itin- 
 erary. Anotheh company is trying to fault 
 us up in Qua'tz Creek Canyon, and I am in a 
 meashuh compelled to be on the ground. We 
 shall be delayed only a few days, I hope; at 
 the worst only until the first snow-storm 
 43 
 
A FOOL FOB LOVE 
 
 comes; and, in the meantime, Calif o'nia won't 
 run away." 
 
 Virginia clapped her hands. 
 
 "Then we are really to go to 'the front' and 
 see a right-of-way fight? Oh, won't that be 
 perfectly intoxicating!" 
 
 The Rajah glared at her as if she had 
 said something incendiary. The picturesque 
 aspect of the struggle had evidently not ap- 
 pealed to him. But he smiled grimly when he 
 said : "Now there spoke the blood of the fight- 
 ing Carterets: hope you won't change your 
 mind, my deah." And with that he dived into 
 his working den, pushing the lately-returned 
 secretary in ahead of him. 
 
 Virginia linked arms with Bessie, the flaxen- 
 haired, when the wheels began to turn. 
 
 "We are off," she said. "Let's go out on 
 the platform and see the last of Denver." 
 
 It was while they were clinging to the hand- 
 rail, and looking back upon the jumble of rail- 
 way activities out of which they had just 
 emerged that the Rosemary, gaining headway, 
 overtook another moving train running 
 44 
 
AN ITINERARY CHANGED 
 
 smoothly on a track parallel to that upon 
 which the private car was speeding. It was 
 the narrow-gage mountain connection of the 
 Utah line, and Winton and Adams were on the 
 rear platform of the last car. So it chanced 
 that the four of them were presently waving 
 their adieus across the wind-blown interspace. 
 In the midst of it, or rather at the moment 
 when the Rosemary, gathering speed as the 
 lighter of the two trains, forged ahead, the 
 Rajah came out to light Ins cigar. 
 
 He took in the little tableau of the rear plat- 
 forms at a glance, and when the slower train 
 was left behind asked a question of Virginia. 
 
 "All — wasn't one of those two the young 
 gentleman who called on you yestehday after- 
 noon, my deah?" 
 
 Virginia admitted it. 
 
 "Could you faveh me with his name?" 
 
 "He is Mr. Morton P. Adams, of Boston." 
 
 "Ah-h! and his friend — the young gentle- 
 man who laid his hand to ouh plow and put 
 the engine on the track last night?" 
 
 "He is Mr. Winton — a — an artist, I be- 
 4 45 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 licve; at least, that is what I gathered from 
 what Mr. Adams said of him." 
 
 Mr. Somcrville Darrah laughed, a slow lit- 
 tle laugh, deep in his chest. 
 
 "Bless youh innocent soul — he a picchuh- 
 painteh? Not in a thousand yeahs, my dcah 
 Virginia. He is a railroad man, and a right 
 good one at that. Faveh me with the name 
 again; Winteh, did you say?" 
 
 "No; Winton— Mr. John Winton." 
 
 "D-d-devil !" gritted the Rajah, smiting the 
 hand-rail with his clenched fist. "Hah ! I beg 
 your pahdon, my deahs — a meah slip of the 
 tongue." And then, to the full as savagely : 
 "By Heaven, I hope that train will fly the 
 track and ditch him before eveh he comes with- 
 in ordering distance of the work in Qua'tz 
 Creek Canyon!" 
 
 " Why, Uncle Somcrville — how vindictive !" 
 cried Virginia. "Who is he, and what has he 
 done*'" 
 
 "He is Mistch John Winton, as you in- 
 formed me just now; one of the brainiest con- 
 structing engineers in tlus entiah country, and 
 46 
 
AN ITINERARY CHANGED 
 
 the hardest man in this or any otheh country 
 to down in a right-of-way fight — that's who 
 he is. And it's not what he's done, my deah 
 Virginia, it's what lie is going to do. If I 
 can't get him killed up out of ouh way," — 
 but here Mr. Darrah saw the growing terror 
 in two pairs of eyes, and realizing that he was 
 committing himself before an unsympathetic 
 audience, beat a hasty retreat to his strong- 
 hold at the other end of the Rosemary. 
 
 "Well!" said the flaxen-haired Bessie, 
 catching her breath. But Virginia laughed. 
 
 "I'm glad I'm not Mr. Winton," she said. 
 
 47 
 
IV 
 
 THE CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 Morning in the highest highlands of the 
 Rockies, a morning clear, cold, and tense, with 
 a bell-like quality in the frosty air to make 
 the cracking of a snow-laden spruce-bough re- 
 sound like a pistol-shot. For Denver and the 
 dwellers on the eastern plain the sun is an 
 hour high; but the hamlet mining-camp of 
 Argentine, with its dovecote railway station 
 and two-pronged siding, still lies in the steel- 
 blue depths of the canyon shadow. 
 
 Massive mountains, dark green to the tim- 
 ber line and dazzling white above it, shut in 
 the narrow valley to right and left. A mimic 
 torrent, ice-bound in the quieter pools, drums 
 and gurgles on its descent midway between 
 two railway embankments, the one to which 
 the station and side-tracks belong, old and 
 well-settled, the otlicr new and as yet unbal- 
 48 
 
CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 lasted. Just opposite the pygmy station a 
 lateral gorge intersects the main canyon, mak- 
 ing a deep gash in the opposing mountain 
 bulwark, around which the new line has to find 
 its way by a looping detour. 
 
 In a scanty widening of the main canyon a 
 few hundred yards below the station a grad- 
 ers' camp of rude slab shelters is turning out 
 its horde of wild-looking Italians ; and on a 
 crooked spur track fronting the shanties blue 
 wood-smoke is curling lazily upward from the 
 kitchen car of a construction train. 
 
 All night long the Rosemary, drawn by the 
 sturdiest of mountain-climbing locomotives, 
 had stormed onward and upward from the val- 
 ley of the Grand, through black defiles and 
 around the shrugged shoulders of the mighty 
 peaks to find a resting-place in the white-robed 
 dawn on the siding at Argentine. The light- 
 est of sleepers, Virginia had awakened when 
 the special was passing through Carbonate; 
 and, drawing the berth curtain, she had lain 
 for an hour watching the solemn procession of 
 cliffs and peaks wheeling in stately and order- 
 49 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 1v array against the inky background of sky. 
 Now, in the steel-blue dawn, she was — or 
 thought she was — the first member of the 
 party to dress and steal out upon the railed 
 platform to look abroad upon the wondrous 
 scene in the canyon. 
 
 But her reverie, trance-like in its wordless 
 enthusiasm, was presently broken by a voice 
 behind her — the voice, namely, of Mr. Arthur 
 Jastrow. 
 
 "What a howling wilderness, to be sure, 
 isn't it?" said the secretary, twirling his eye- 
 glasses by the cord and looking, as he felt, in- 
 terminably bored. 
 
 "No, indeed; anything but that," she re- 
 torted warmly. "It i9 grander than anything 
 I ever imagined. I wish there were a piano 
 in the car. It makes me fairly ache to set it 
 in some form of expression, and music is the 
 only form I know." 
 
 "I'm glad if it doesn't bore you," he re- 
 joined, willing to agree with her for the sake 
 of prolonging the interview. "But to me it is 
 nothing more than a dreary wilderness, as I 
 50 
 
CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 say ; a barren, rock-ribbed gulch affording an 
 indifferent right of way for two railroads." 
 
 "For one," she corrected, in a quick upflash 
 of loyalty for her kin. 
 
 The secretary shifted his gaze from the 
 mountains to the maiden and smiled. She was 
 exceedingly good to look upon — high-bred, 
 queenly, and just now the fine fire of enthusi- 
 asm quickened her pulses and sent the rare 
 flush to neck and cheek. 
 
 Jastrow the cold-eyed, the business automa- 
 ton, set to go off with a click at Air. Somer- 
 ville Darrah's touch, had ambitions not au- 
 tomatic. Some day he meant to put the world 
 of business under foot as a conqueror, stand- 
 ing triumphant on the apex of that pyramid 
 of success which the Mr. Somerville Darrahs 
 were so painstakingly uprearing. When that 
 day should come, there would need to be an 
 establishment, a menage, a queen for the king- 
 dom of success. Summing her up for the hun- 
 dredth time since the beginning of the west- 
 ward flight, he thought Miss Carteret would 
 fill the requirements passing well. 
 51 
 
A FOOL FOS LOVE 
 
 But this was a divagation, and he pulled 
 himself back to the askings of the moment, 
 agreeing with her again without reference to 
 his private convictions. 
 
 "For one, I should have said," he amended. 
 "We mean to have it that way, though an un- 
 prejudiced onlooker might be foolish enough 
 to say that there is a pretty good present pros- 
 pect of two." 
 
 But Miss Carteret was in a contradictory 
 mood. Moreover, she was a woman, and the 
 way to a woman's confidence does not lie 
 through the neutral country of easy compli- 
 ance. 
 
 "If you won't take the other side, I will," 
 she said. "There will be two." 
 
 Jastrow acquiesced a second time. 
 
 "I shouldn't wonder. Our competitor's 
 road seems to be only a question of time — a 
 very short time, judging from the number of 
 men turning out in the track gang down yon- 
 der." 
 
 Virginia leaned over the railing to look past 
 the car and the dovecote station- shading her 
 St 
 
CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 eyes to shut out the snow-blink from the sun- 
 fired peaks. 
 
 "Why, they are soldiers!" she exclaimed. 
 "At least, some of them have guns on their 
 shoulders. And see — they are forming in 
 line!" 
 
 The secretary adjusted his eye-glasses. 
 
 "By Jove ! you are right ; they have armed 
 the track force. The new chief of construc- 
 tion doesn't mean to take any chances of being 
 shaken loose by main strength. Here they 
 come." 
 
 The end of track of the new line was diago- 
 nally across the creek from the Rosemary's 
 berth and a short pistol-shot farther down 
 stream. But to advance it to a point opposite 
 the private car, and to gain the altitude of the 
 high embankment directly across from the sta- 
 tion, the new line turned short out of the main 
 canyon at the mouth of the intersecting gorge, 
 describing a long, U-shaped curve around the 
 head of the lateral ravine and doubling back 
 upon itself to reenter the canyon proper at 
 the higher elevation. 
 
 53 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 The curve which was the beginning of this 
 U-shaped loop was the morning's scene of ac- 
 tion, and the Utah track-layers, two hundred 
 strong, moved to the front in orderly array, 
 with armed guards as flankers for the hand- 
 car load of rails which the men were pushing 
 up the grade. 
 
 Jastrow darted into the car, and a moment 
 later his place on the observation platform was 
 taken by a wrathful industry colonel fresh 
 from his dressing-room — so fresh, indeed, that 
 he was coatless, hatless, and collarless, and 
 with the dripping bath-sponge clutched like 
 a missile to hurl at the impudent invaders on 
 the opposite side of the canyon. 
 
 "Hah ! wouldn't wait until a man could get 
 into his clothes!" he rasped, apostrophizing 
 the Utah's new chief of construction. "Jas- 
 trow! Faveh me instantly, seh! Hustle up 
 to the camp there and turn out the constable, 
 town-marshal, or whatever he is. Tell him I 
 have a writ for him to serve. Run, seh !" 
 
 The secretary appeared and disappeared 
 like a marionette when the string has been 
 54 
 
CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 jerked by a vigorous hand, and Virginia 
 smiled— this without prejudice to a very acute 
 appreciation of the grave possibilities winch 
 were preparing themselves. But having her 
 share of the militant quality which made her 
 uncle what he was, she stood her ground. 
 
 "Aren't you afraid you will take cold, 
 Uncle Somerville?" she asked archly; and the 
 Rajah came suddenly to a sense of his incom- 
 pleteness and went in to finish his ablutions 
 against the opening of the battle actual. 
 
 At first Virginia thought she would follow 
 him. When Mercury Jastrow should return 
 with the officer of the law there would be trou- 
 ble of some sort, and the woman in her shrank 
 from the witnessing of it. But at the same in- 
 stant the blood of the fighting Carterets as- 
 serted itself and she resolved to stay. 
 
 "I wonder what uncle hopes to be able to 
 do?" she mused. "Will a little town con- 
 stable with a bit of signed paper from some 
 lawyer or judge be mighty enough to stop 
 all that furious activity over there? It's more 
 than incredible." 
 
 55 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 From that she fell to watching the activity 
 and the orderl}- purpose of it. A length of 
 steel, with men clustering like bees upon it, 
 would slide from its place on the hand-car to 
 fall with a frosty clang on the cross-ties. In- 
 stantly the hammermen would pounce upon it. 
 One would fall upon hands and knees to 
 "sight" it into place; two others would slide 
 the squeaking track-gage along its inner 
 edge; a quartet, working like the component 
 parts of a faultless mechanism, would tap the 
 fixing spikes into the wood ; and then at a sig- 
 nal a dozen of the heavy pointed hammers 
 swung aloft and a rhythmic volley of resound- 
 ing blows clamped the rail into permanence 
 on its wooden bed. 
 
 Ahead of the steel-layers were the Italians 
 placing the cross-ties in position to receive the 
 track, and here the foreman's badge of office 
 and scepter was a pick -handle. Above all the 
 clamor and the shoutings Virginia could hoar 
 the bull-bellow of this foreman roaring out his 
 commands — in terms happily not understand- 
 able to her ; and once she drew back with a lit— 
 56 
 
CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 tie cry of womanly shrinking when the pick- 
 handle thwacked upon the shoulders of one 
 who lagged. 
 
 It was this bit of brutality which enabled 
 her to single out Winton in the throng of 
 workers. He heard the blow, and the oath 
 that went with it, and she saw him run forward 
 to wrench the bludgeon from the bully's hands 
 and fling it afar. What words emphasized 
 the act she could not hear, but the little deed 
 of swift justice thrilled her curiously, and her 
 heart warmed to him as it had when he had 
 thrown off his coat to fall to work on the de- 
 railed engine of the Limited. 
 
 "That was fine !" she said to herself. "Most 
 men in his place wouldn't care, so long as the 
 work was done, and done quickly. I wonder 
 if — oh, you startled me !" 
 
 It was Mr. Somerville Darrah again, 
 clothed upon and in his right mind ; otherwise 
 the mind of a master of men who will brook 
 neither defeat at the hands of an antagonist 
 nor disobedience on the part of his following. 
 He was scowling fiercely across at the Utah 
 57 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 activities when she spoke, but at her exclama- 
 tion the frown softened into a smile for his 
 favorite niece. 
 
 "Startled you, eh? Pahdon me, my deah 
 Virginia. But as I am about to startle some 
 one else, perhaps you would better go in to 
 your aunt." 
 
 She put a hand on his arm. "Please let me 
 stay out here, Uncle Somerville," she said. 
 "I'll be good and not get in the way." 
 
 He shook his head, in deprecation rather 
 than in refusal. 
 
 "An officer will be here right soon now to 
 make an arrest. There may be a fight, or at 
 least trouble of a sort you wouldn't care to 
 see, my deah." 
 
 "Is it — is it Mr. Winton?" she asked. 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "What has he been doing — besides being 
 'The Enemy'?" 
 
 The Rajah's smile was ferocious. 
 
 "Just now he is trespassing, and directing 
 others to trespass, upon private property. Do 
 you see that dump up there on the mountain? 
 58 
 
CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 — the hole that looks like a mouth with a long 
 gray beard hanging below it? That is a mine, 
 and its claim runs down across the track where 
 Mist eh Winton is just now spiking his rails." 
 
 "But, I don't understand," she began ; then 
 she stopped short and clung to the strong 
 arm. A man in a wide-flapped hat and cow- 
 boy chaparejos, with a revolver on either hip, 
 was crossing the stream on the ice-bridge to 
 scramble up the embankment of the new line. 
 
 "The officer?" she asked in an awed whis- 
 per. 
 
 The Rajah made a sign of assent. Then, 
 identifying Winton in the throng of workers, 
 he forgot Virginia's presence. "Confound 
 him !" he fumed. "I'd give a thousand dollars 
 if he'd faveh me by showing fight so we could 
 lock him up on a criminal count!" 
 
 "Why, Uncle Somerville !" she cried. 
 
 But there was no time for reproaches. The 
 leather-breeched person parading as the Ar- 
 gentine town-marshal had climbed the em- 
 bankment, and, singling out his man, was 
 reading his warrant. 
 
 59 
 
A FOOL, FOR LOVE 
 
 Contrary to Mr. Darrah's expressed hope, 
 Winton submitted quietly. With a word to 
 his men — a word that stopped the strenuous 
 labor-battle as suddenly as it had begun — he 
 turned to pick his way down the rough hill- 
 side at the heels of the marshal. 
 
 For some reason that she could never have 
 set out in words Virginia was distinctly dis- 
 appointed. It was no part of her desire to 
 see the conflict blaze up in violence, but it net- 
 tled her to see Winton give up so easily. Some 
 such thought as this had possession of her 
 while the marshal and his prisoner were pick- 
 ing their way across the ice, and she was hop- 
 ing that Winton would give her a chance to 
 requite him, if only with a look. 
 
 But it was Town-Marshal Peter Biggin, 
 affectionately known to his constituents as 
 "Bigginjin Pete," who gave her the coveted 
 opportunity. Instead of disappearing decent- 
 ly with his captive, the marshal made the mis- 
 take of his life by marching Winton up the 
 track to the private car, thrusting him for- 
 ward, and saying: "Here's yer meat, Guv'nor. 
 60 
 
CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 What-all 'ud ye like fer me to do with hit 
 now I've got it?" 
 
 Now it is safe to assume that the Raj ah had 
 no intention of appearing thus openly as the 
 instigator of Winton's arrest. Hence, if a 
 fierce scowl .and a wordless oath could maim, 
 it is to be feared that the overzealous Mr. 
 Biggin would have been physically disquali- 
 fied on the spot. As it was, Mr. Darrah's 
 ebullient wrath could find no adequate speech 
 forms, and in the eloquent little pause Win- 
 ton had time to smile up at Miss Carteret and 
 to wish her the pleasantest of good-mornings. 
 
 But the Rajah's handicap was not perma- 
 nent. 
 
 "Confound you, seh!" he exploded. "I'm 
 not a justice of the peace ! If you've made an 
 arrest, you must have had a warrant for it, 
 and you ought to know what to do with your 
 prisoneh." 
 
 "I'm dashed if I do," objected the simple- 
 hearted Mr. Biggin. "I allowed you wanted 
 him." 
 
 Winton laughed openly. 
 5 61 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 "Simplify it for him, Mr. Darrah. "We all 
 
 know that it was your move to stop the work, 
 and you have stopped it — for the moment. 
 What is the charge, and where is it answera- 
 ble?" 
 
 The Rajah dropped the mask and spoke to 
 the point. 
 
 "The cha'ge, seh, is trespass, and it is an- 
 swerable in Judge Whitcomb's cou't in Car- 
 bonate. The plaintiff in this particular case 
 is John Doe, the supposable owneh of that 
 mining claim up yondeh. In the next it will 
 probably be Richa'd Roe. You are fighting 
 a losing battle, seh." 
 
 Winton's smile showed his teeth. 
 
 "That remains to be seen," he countered 
 coolly. 
 
 The Rajah waved a shapely hand toward 
 the opposite embankment, where the track- 
 layers were idling in silent groups waiting for 
 some one in authority to tell them what to do. 
 
 "We can do that ever} 7 day, Misteh Winton. 
 And each separate individual arrest will cost 
 your company twelve hours, or such a matteh 
 62 
 
CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 — the time required for you to go to Carbon- 
 ate to give bond for your appearance." 
 
 During this colloquy Virginia had held her 
 ground stubbornly, this though she felt intui- 
 tively that it would be the greatest possible 
 relief to all three of these men if she would go 
 away. 
 
 But now a curious struggle as of a divided 
 allegiance was holding her. Of course, she 
 wanted Mr. Somerville Darrah to win. Since 
 he was its advocate, his cause must be right- 
 eous and just. But against this dutiful con- 
 vincement there was a rebellious hope that 
 Winton would not allow himself to be beaten ; 
 or, rather, it was a feeling that she would 
 never forgive him if he should. 
 
 So it was that she stood with face averted 
 lest he should see her eyes and read the rebel- 
 lious hope in them. And in spite of the 
 precaution he both saw and read, and made 
 answer to the Rajah's ultimatum accordingly. 
 
 "Do your worst, Mr. Darrah. We have 
 some twenty miles of steel to lay to take us 
 into the Carbonate yards. That steel shall go 
 63 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 down in spite of anything you can do to pre- 
 vent it." 
 
 Virginia waited breathless for her uncle's 
 reply to this cool defiance. Quite contrary 
 to all precedent, it was mildly expostula- 
 tory. 
 
 "It grieves me, seh, to find } r ou so deter- 
 mined to cou't failure," he began ; and when 
 the whistle of the upcoming Carbonate train 
 gave him leave to go on : "Constable, you will 
 find transpo'tation for yourself and one in 
 the hands of the station agent. Misteh Win- 
 ton, that is your train. I wish you good- 
 morning and a pleasant journey. Come, Vir- 
 ginia, we shall be late to ouh breakfast." 
 
 Winton walked back to the station at the 
 heels of his captor, cudgeling his brain to de- 
 vise some means of getting word to Adams. 
 Happily the Technologian, who had been un- 
 loading steel at the construction camp, had 
 been told of the arrest, and when Winton 
 reached the station he found his assistant wait- 
 ing for him. 
 
 But now the train was at hand and time had 
 64, 
 
CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 grown suddenly precious. Winton turned 
 short upon the marshal. 
 
 "This is not a criminal matter, Mr. Biggin : 
 will you give me a moment with my friend ?" 
 
 The ex-cowboy grinned. "Bet your life I 
 will. I ain't lovin' that old b'iler-buster in 
 the private car none too hard." And he went 
 in to get the passes. 
 
 "What's up?" queried Adams, forgetting 
 his drawl for once in a way. 
 
 "An arrest — trumped-up charge of tres- 
 pass on that mining claim up } 7 onder. But 
 I've got to go to Carbonate to answer the 
 charge and give bonds, just the same." 
 
 "Any instructions?" 
 
 "Yes. When the train is out of sight and 
 hearing, you get back over there and drive 
 that track -laying for every foot there is in it." 
 
 Adams nodded. "I'll do it, and get myself 
 locked up, I suppose." 
 
 "No, you won't; that's the beauty of it. 
 The majesty of the law — all there is of it in 
 Argentine — goes with me to Carbonate in the 
 person of the town-marshal." 
 65 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 "Oh, good — succulently good ! Well, so 
 long. I'll look for you back on the evening 
 train?" 
 
 "Sure," was the confident reply, "if the 
 Rajah doesn't order it to be abandoned on 
 my poor account." 
 
 Ten minutes later, when the train had gone 
 storming on its way to Carbonate and the 
 Rosemary party was at breakfast, the clank 
 of steel and the chanteys of the hammermen 
 on the other side of the canyon began again 
 with renewed vigor. The Rajah threw up 
 his head like a war-horse scenting the battle 
 from afar and laid his commands upon the 
 long-suffering secretary. 
 
 "Faveh me, Jastrow. Get out there and 
 see what the}- are doing, seh." 
 
 The secretary was back in the shortest pos- 
 sible interval, and his report was concise and 
 business-like. 
 
 "Work under full headway again, in charge 
 of a fellow who wears a billy-cock hat and 
 smokes cigarettes." 
 
 "Mr. Morton P. Adams," said Virginia, 
 66 
 
CRYSTALLINE ALTITUDES 
 
 recognizing the description. "Will you have 
 him arrested too, Uncle Somerville?" 
 
 But the Rajah rose hastily without reply- 
 in o- and went to his office state-room, followed, 
 shadow-like, by the obsequious Jastrow. 
 
 It was some little time after breakfast, and 
 Virginia and the Reverend Billy were doing 
 a constitutional on the plank platform at the 
 station, when the secretary came down from 
 the car on his way to the telegraph office. 
 
 It was Virginia who stopped him. "What 
 do we do next, Mr. Jastrow?" she said; "call 
 in the United States Army?" 
 
 For reply he handed her a telegram, damp 
 from the copying press. It was addressed to 
 the superintendent of the C. G. R. at Car- 
 bonate, and she read it without scruple. 
 
 " Have the Sherifi of Vte County swear in a dozen 
 deputies and come with them by special train to 
 Argentine. Eevive all possible titles to abandoned 
 mining claims on line of the Utah Extension, and 
 have Sheriff Deckert bring blank warrants to cover 
 any emergency. " Dakrah, "S .-P. 
 
 "That's one of them," said the secretary. 
 "I daren't show you the other." 
 67 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 "Oli, please !" she said, holding out her 
 hand, while the Reverend Billy considerately 
 turned his back. 
 
 Jastrow weighed the chances of detection. 
 It was little enough he could do to lay her 
 under obligations to him, and. he was willing 
 to do that little as he could. "I guess I can 
 trust you," he said, and gave her the second 
 square of press-damp paper. 
 
 Like the first, it was addressed to the super- 
 intendent at Carbonate. But this time the 
 brown eyes flashed and her breath came quick- 
 ly as she read the vice-president's cold-blooded 
 after-thought: 
 
 " Town-Marshal Biggin will arrive in Carbonate 
 on Number 201 this a.m. with a prisoner. Have our 
 attorneys see to it that the man is promptly jailed in 
 default of bond. If he is set at liberty, as he is 
 likely to be, I shall trust you to arrange for his 
 rearrest and detention at all hazards. 
 
 "D." 
 
 68 
 
THE LANDSLIDE 
 
 Virginia took the first step in the perilous 
 path of the strategist when she handed the in- 
 cendiary telegram back to Jastrow. 
 
 "Poor Mr. Winton !" she said, with the real 
 sympathy in the words made most obviously 
 perfunctory by the tone. "What a world of 
 possibilities there is masquerading behind that 
 little word 'arrange.' Tell me more about it, 
 Mr. Jastrow. How will they ^arrange' it?" 
 
 "Winton's rearrest? Nothing easier in a 
 tough mining-camp like Carbonate, I should 
 say." 
 
 "Yes, but how?" 
 
 "I can't prophesy how Grafton will go 
 about it, but I know what I should do." 
 
 Virginia's smile was irresistible, but there 
 was a look in the deepest depth of the brown 
 eyes that was sifting Mr. Arthur Jastrow to 
 the innermost sand-heap of his desert nature. 
 69 
 
A FOOL F O It LOVE 
 
 "How would you do it, Mr. Napoleon Jas- 
 trow?" she asked, giving him the exact fillip 
 on the side of gratified vanity. 
 
 "Oh, I'd fix him. He is in a frame of mind 
 right now; and by the time the lawyers are 
 through drilling him in the trespass affair, 
 he'll be just spoiling for a row with some- 
 body." 
 
 "Do j'ou think so? Oh, how delicious! 
 And then what?" 
 
 "Then I'd hire some plug-ugly to stumble 
 up against him and pick a quarrel with him. 
 He'd do the rest — and land in the lock-up." 
 
 Those who knew her best said it was a warn- 
 ing to be heeded in Miss Virginia Carteret 
 when her eyes were downcast and her voice 
 sank to its softest cadence. 
 
 "Why, certainly ; how simple !" she said, 
 taking her cousin's arm again ; and the secre- 
 tary went in to set the wires at work in Win- 
 ton's affair. 
 
 Now Miss Carteret was a woman in every 
 fiber of her, but among her gifts she might 
 have counted some that were, to say the least, 
 70 
 
THE LANDSLIDE 
 
 super-feminine. One of these was a measure 
 of discretion which would have been fairly 
 creditable in a past master of diplomacy. 
 So, while the sympathetic part of her was 
 crying out for a chance to talk Winton's 
 threatened danger over with some one, she 
 lent herself outwardly to the Reverend Billy's 
 mood — which was one of scenic enthusiasm; 
 this without prejudice to a growing determi- 
 nation to intervene in behalf of fair play for 
 Winton if she could find a way. 
 
 But the way obstinately refused to discover 
 itself. The simple thing to do would be to 
 appeal to her uncle's sense of justice. It was 
 not like him to fight with ignoble weapons, 
 she thought, and a tactful word in season 
 might make him recall the order to the super- 
 intendent. But she could not make the appeal 
 without betraying Jastrow. She knew well 
 enough that the secretary had no right to 
 show her the telegrams; knew also that Mr. 
 Somerville Darrah's first word would be a de- 
 mand to know how she had learned the com- 
 pany's business secrets. Regarding Jastrow 
 71 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 as little as a high-bred young woman to whom 
 sentiment is as the breath of life can regard 
 a man who is quite devoid of it, she was still 
 far enough from the thought of effacing him. 
 
 To this expedient there was an unhopeful 
 alternative : namely, the sending, by the Rev- 
 erend Billy, or, in the last resort, by herself, 
 of a warning message to Winton. But there 
 were obstacles seemingly insuperable. She 
 had not the faintest notion of how such a 
 warning should be addressed; and again, the 
 operator at Argentine was a Colorado and 
 Grand River employee, doubtless loyal to his 
 salt, in which case the warning message would 
 never get beyond his waste-basket. 
 
 "Getting too chilly for you out here? Want 
 to go in ?" asked the Reverend Billy, when the 
 scenic enthusiasm began to outwear itself. 
 
 "No ; but I am tired of the sentry-go part 
 of it — ten steps and a turn," she confessed. 
 "Can't we walk on the track a little way?" 
 
 Calvert saw no reason why they might not, 
 and accordingly helped her over to the snow- 
 encrustod path between the rails. 
 72 
 
THE LANDSLIDE 
 
 "We can trot down and have a look at their 
 construction camp, if you like," he suggested, 
 and thitherward they went. 
 
 There was not much to see, after all, as the 
 Reverend Billy remarked when they had 
 reached a coign of vantage below the curve. 
 A string of use-worn bunk cars ; a "dinkey" 
 caboose serving as the home on wheels of the 
 chief of construction and his assistant ; a 
 crooked siding with a gang of dark-skinned 
 laborers at work unloading a car of steel. 
 These in the immediate foreground; and a 
 little way apart, perched high enough on the 
 steep slope of the mountain side to be out of 
 the camp turmoil, a small structure, half plank 
 and half canvas — to wit, the end-of-track tele- 
 graph office. 
 
 It was Virginia who first marked the boxed - 
 up tent standing on the slope. 
 
 "What do you suppose that little house-tent 
 is for?" she asked. 
 
 "I don't know," said Calvert. Then he 
 saw the wires and ventured a guess which hit 
 the mark. 
 
 73 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 "I didn't suppose they -would have a tele- 
 graph office," she commented, with hope rising 
 again. 
 
 "Oh, yes ; they'd have to have a wire — one 
 of their own. Under the circumstances they 
 could hardly use ours." 
 
 "No," she rejoined absently. She was scan- 
 ning the group of steel-handlers in the hope 
 that a young man in a billy-cock hat and with 
 a cigarette between his lips would shortly re- 
 veal himself. She found him after a time and 
 turned quickly to her cousin. 
 
 "There is Mr. Adams down by the engine. 
 Do you think he would come over and speak 
 to us if he knew we were here?" 
 
 The Reverend Billy's smile was of honest 
 admiration. 
 
 "How could you doubt it? Wait here a 
 minute and I'll call him for you." 
 
 He was gone before she could reply — across 
 the ice-bridge spanning one of the pools, and 
 up the rough, frozen embankment of the new 
 line. There were armed guards here, too, as 
 well as at the front, and one of them halted 
 74 
 
THE LANDSLIDE 
 
 him at the picket line. But Adams saw and 
 recognized him, and presently the two were 
 crossing to where Virginia stood waiting for 
 them. 
 
 "Eheu ! what a little world we live in, Miss 
 Virginia ! Who would have thought of meet- 
 ing you here?" said Adams, taking her hand 
 at the precise elevation prescribed by good 
 form — Boston good form. 
 
 "The shock is mutual," she laughed. "I 
 must say that you and Mr. Winton have 
 chosen a highly unconventional environment 
 for your sketching-field." 
 
 "I'm down," he admitted cheerfully; 
 "please don't trample on me. But really, it 
 wasn't all fib. Jack does do things with a pen- 
 cil — other tilings besides maps and working 
 profiles, I mean. Won't you come over and 
 let me do the honors of the studio?" — with a 
 grandiloquent arm-sweep meant to include the 
 construction camp in general and the "dink- 
 ey" caboose-car in particular. 
 
 It was the invitation she would have angled 
 for, but she was too wise to assent too readily. 
 75 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 "Oh, no; I think we mustn't. I'm afraid 
 Mr. Winton might not like it." 
 
 "Not like it? If you'll come he'll never 
 forgive himself for not being here to 'shoot 
 up' the camp for you in person. He is away, 
 you know ; gone to Carbonate for the day." 
 
 "Ought we to go, Cousin Billy?" she asked, 
 shifting, not the decision, but the responsibil- 
 ity for it, to broader shoulders. 
 
 "Why not, if you care to?" said the athlete, 
 to whom right-of-way fights were mere mat- 
 ters of business in no wise conflicting with the 
 social ameliorations. 
 
 Virginia hesitated. There was a thing to 
 be said to Mr. Adams, and that without delay ; 
 but how could she say it with her cousin stand- 
 ing by to make an impossible trio out of any 
 attempted duet confidential? A willingness to 
 sec that Winton had fair play need not carry 
 with it an open desertion to the enemy. She 
 must not forget to be loyal to her salt; and, 
 besides, Mr. Somcrvillc Darrah's righteous 
 indignation was a possibility not lightly to be 
 ignored. 
 
 76 
 
THE LANDSLIDE 
 
 But the upshot of the hesitant pause was a 
 decision to brave the consequences — all of 
 them ; so she took Calvert's arm for the slip- 
 pery crossing of the ice-bridge. 
 
 Once on his own domain, Adams did the 
 honors of the camp as thoroughly and consci- 
 entiously as if the hour held no care heavier 
 than the entertainment of Miss Virginia Car- 
 teret. He explained the system under which 
 the material was kept moving forward to the 
 ever-advancing front ; let her watch the rhyth- 
 mic swing and slide of the rails from the car 
 to the benches ; took her up into the cab of the 
 big "octopod" locomotive; gave her a chance 
 to peep into the camp kitchen car; and con- 
 cluded by handing her up the steps of the 
 "dinkey." 
 
 "Oh, how comfortable!" she exclaimed, 
 when he had shown her all the space-saving 
 contrivances of the field office. "And this is 
 where you and Mr. Winton work ?" 
 
 "It is where we eat and sleep," corrected 
 Adams. "And speaking of eating : it is hope- 
 lessly the wrong end of the day, — or it would 
 6 77 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 be in Boston, — but our Chinaman won't know 
 the difference. Let me have him make you a 
 dish of tea," — and the order was given before 
 she could protest. 
 
 "While we are waiting for Ah Foo I'll show 
 you some of Jack's sketches," he went on, find- 
 ing a portfolio and opening it upon the draw- 
 ing-board. 
 
 "Are you quite sure Mr. Winton won't 
 mind?" she asked. 
 
 "Mind? He'd give a month's pay to be 
 here to show them himself. He is peacock 
 vain of his one small accomplishment, Winton 
 is — bores me to death with it sometimes." 
 
 "Really?" was the mocking rejoinder, and 
 they began to look at the sketches. 
 
 They were heads, most of them, impres- 
 sionistic studies in pencil or pastel, with now 
 and then a pen-and-ink bearing evidence of 
 more painstaking after-work. They were 
 made on bits of map paper, the backs of old 
 litters, and not a few on leaves torn from an 
 engineer's note-book. 
 
 "They don't count for much in an artistic 
 78 
 
THE LANDSLIDE 
 
 way," said Adams, with the brutal frankness 
 of a friendly critic, "but they will serve to 
 show you that I wasn't all kinds of an em- 
 broiderer when I was telling you about Win- 
 ton's proclivities the other day." 
 
 "I shouldn't apologize for that, if I were 
 you," she retorted. "It is well past apology, 
 don't you think?" And then: "What is this 
 one?" 
 
 They had come to the last of the sketches, 
 which was a rude map. It was penciled on 
 the leaf of a memorandum, and Adams recog- 
 nized it as the outline Winton had made and 
 used in explaining the right-of-way entangle- 
 ment. 
 
 "It is a map," he said ; "one that Jack drew 
 day before yesterday when he was trying to 
 make me understand the situation up here. I 
 wonder why he kept it? Is there anything on 
 the other side?" 
 
 She turned the leaf, and they both went 
 
 speechless for the moment. The reverse of the 
 
 scrap of cross-ruled paper held a very fair 
 
 likeness of a face which Virginia's mirror had 
 
 79 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 oftencst portrayed: a sketch setting forth in 
 a few vigorous strokes of the pencil the im- 
 pressionist's ideal of the "goddess fresh from 
 the bath." 
 
 "By Jove!" exclaimed Adams, when he 
 could find the word for his surprise. Then he 
 tried to turn it off lightly. "There is a good 
 bit more of the artist in Jack than I have been 
 giving him credit for. Don't you know, he 
 must have got the notion for that between two 
 half-seconds — when you recognized me on the 
 platform at Kansas City. It's wonderful !" 
 
 "So very wonderful that I think I shall 
 keep it," she rejoined, not without a touch of 
 austerity. Then she added: "Mr. Winton 
 will probably never miss it. If he does, you 
 will have to explain the best way you can." 
 And Adams could only say "By Jove !" again, 
 and busy himself with pouring the tea which 
 Ah Foo had brought in. 
 
 In the nature of things the tea-drinking in 
 the stuffy "dinkey" drawing-room was not 
 prolonged. Time was flying. Virginia's er- 
 rand of mercy was not yet accomplished, and 
 80 
 
THE LANDSLIDE 
 
 Aunt Martha in her character of anxious 
 chaperon was not to be forgotten. Also, Miss 
 Carteret had a feeling that under his well-bred 
 exterior Mr. Morton P. Adams was chafing 
 like any barbarian industry captain at this 
 unwarrantable intrusion and interruption. 
 
 So presently they all forthfared into the 
 sun-bright, snow-blinding, out-of-door world, 
 and Virginia gathered up her courage and 
 took her dilemma by the horns. 
 
 "I believe I have seen everything now ex- 
 cept that tent-place up there," she asserted, 
 groping purposefully for her opening. 
 
 Adams called up another smile of acquies- 
 cence. "That is our telegraph office. Would 
 you care to see it?" He was of those who 
 shirk all or shirk nothing. 
 
 "I don't know why I should care to, but I 
 do," she replied, with charming and childlike 
 wilfulness; so the three of them trudged up 
 the slippery path to the operator's den on the 
 slope. 
 
 Not to evade his hospitable duty in any 
 part, Adams explained the use and need of a 
 81 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 "front" wire, and Miss Carteret was properly 
 interested. 
 
 "How convenient!" she commented. "And 
 you can come up here and talk to anybody 
 you like — just as if it were a telephone?" 
 
 "To any one in the company's service," 
 amended Adams. "It is not a commercial 
 wire." 
 
 "Then let us send a message to Mr. Win- 
 ton," she suggested, playing the part of the 
 capricious ingenue to the very upcast of a 
 pair of mischievous eyes. 'Til write it and 
 you may sign it." 
 
 Adams stretched his complaisance the nec- 
 essary additional inch and gave her a pencil 
 and a pad of blanks. She wrote rapidly: 
 
 " Miss Carteret has been here admiring your draw- 
 ings. She took one of them away with her, and I 
 couldn't etop her without being rude. You shouldn't 
 have done it without asking her permission. She 
 says " 
 
 "Oh, dear! I am making it awfully long. 
 Does it cost so much a word ?" 
 
 "No," said Adams, not without an effort. 
 82 
 
THE LANDSLIDE 
 
 He was beginning to be distinctly disappoint- 
 ed in Miss Virginia, and was inwardly wonder- 
 ing what piece of girlish frivolity he was ex- 
 pected to sign and send to Iris chief . Mean- 
 wliile she went on writing : 
 
 " 1 am to tell you not to get into any fresh 
 
 trouble — not to let any one else get you into trouble ; 
 by which I infer she means that some attempt will 
 be made to keep you from returning on the evening 
 train." 
 
 "There, can you send all that?" she asked 
 sweetly, giving the pad to her host. 
 
 Adams read the first part of the letter- 
 length telegram with inward groanings, but 
 the generous purpose of it struck him like a 
 whip-blow when he came to the thinly-veiled 
 warning. Also it shamed him for his un- 
 worthy judgment of Virginia. 
 
 "I thank you very heartily, Miss Carteret," 
 he said humbly. "It shall be sent word for 
 word." Then, for the Reverend William's 
 benefit: "Winton deserves all sorts of a snub- 
 bing for taking liberties with your portrait. 
 I'll see he gets more when he comes back." 
 83 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 Here the matter rested; and, having done 
 what she conceived to be her charitable duty, 
 Virginia was as anxious to get away as heart 
 — the heart of a slightly bored Reverend Bil- 
 ly, for instance — could wish. 
 
 So they bade Adams good-by and r i 
 their way down the frozen embankment and 
 across the ice-bridge : down and across and 
 back to the Rosemary, where they found a 
 perturbed chaperon in a flutter of solicitude 
 ng upon their mysterious disappearance 
 and long absence. 
 
 '"I 1 may be just as well not to tell any of 
 them where we have been," said Virginia in an 
 aside to her cousin. And so the incident of 
 tea -drinking in the enemy's camp was safely 
 put away like a little personal note in its en- 
 velop with the flap gummed dowm 
 
 S± 
 
VI 
 
 THE RAJAH GIVES AN ORDER 
 
 While Adams was dispensing commissary 
 tea in iron-stone china cups to his two guests 
 in the "dinkey" field office, his chief, taking 
 the Rosemary's night run in reverse in the 
 company of Town-Marshal Biggin, was turn- 
 ing the Rajah's coup into a small Utah profit. 
 
 Having come upon the ground late the 
 night before, and from the opposite direction, 
 he had seen nothing of the extension grade 
 west of Argentine. Hence the enforced jour- 
 ney to Carbonate only anticipated an inspec- 
 tion trip which he had intended to make as 
 soon as he had seated Adams firmly in the 
 track-laying saddle. 
 
 Not to miss his opportunity, at the first 
 curve beyond Argentine he passed his cigar- 
 case to Biggin and asked permission to ride 
 on the rear platform of the day-coach for in- 
 spection purposes. 
 
 85 
 
A FOOL, FOR LOVE 
 
 \\ pardncr, what do you take mc fer, 
 anyhow?'' was the reproachful rejoinder. 
 
 'Tor a gentleman in disguise," said "Win- 
 ton promptly. 
 
 "Sim'larly, I do you; savvy? You tell me 
 you ain't goin' to stampede, and you ride any- 
 where you blame please. See? This here C. 
 G. R. outfit ain't got no surcingle on me." 
 
 Winton smiled. 
 
 "I haven't any notion of stampeding. As 
 it happens, I'm only a day ahead of time. I 
 should have made tins run to-morrow of my 
 own accord to have a look at the extension 
 grade. You will find me on the rear platform 
 when you want mc." 
 
 "Good enough," was the reply ; and Winton 
 went to his post of observation. 
 
 Greatly to his satisfaction, he found that 
 the trip over the C. G. R. answered every 
 purpose of a preliminary inspection of the 
 Utah grade beyond Argentine. For seventeen 
 of the twenty miles the two lines were scarcely 
 more than a stone's throw apart, and when 
 Biggin joined him at the junction above Car- 
 86 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AH OEDER 
 
 bonate he had his note-book well filled with 
 the necessary data. 
 
 "Make it, all right?" inquired the friendly 
 bailiff. 
 
 '•'Yes. thanks. Have another cigar?" 
 
 "Don't care if I do. Say, that old fire- 
 eater back yonder in the private car has got 
 a mighty pretty gal, ain't he?" 
 
 "The young lady is Ins niece," said Winton, 
 wishing that Mr. Biggin would find other 
 food for comment. 
 
 "I don't, care ; she's pretty as a Jersey two- 
 year-old-" 
 
 "It's a fine day," observed Winton: and 
 then, to background Miss Carteret effectually 
 as a topic: "How do the people of Argentine 
 feel about the opposition to our line?" 
 
 "They're red-hot : you can put your money 
 on that. The C. G. R.'s a sure-enough 
 tail-twister where there ain't no competition. 
 Your road'll get every pound of ore in the 
 camp if it ever gets through." 
 
 Winton made a mental note of tins up-cast 
 of public opinion, and set it over against the 
 87 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 friendly attitude of the official Mr. Biggin. 
 It was very evident that the town-marshal was 
 serving the Rajah's purpose only because he 
 had to. 
 
 "I suppose you stand with your townsmen 
 on that, don't you?" he ventured. 
 
 "Now you're shouting : that's me." 
 
 "Then if that is the case, we won't take this 
 little holiday of ours any harder than we can 
 help. When the court business is settled — it 
 won't take very long — you are to consider 
 yourself my guest. We stop at the Bucking- 
 ham." 
 
 "Oh, we do, do we? Say, pardner, that's 
 white — mighty white. If I'd 'a' been an inch 
 or so more'n half awake this morning when 
 that old b'iler-buster's hired man routed me 
 out, I'd 'a' told him to go to blazes with his 
 warrant. Ncx' time I will." 
 
 Winton shook his head. "There isn't going 
 to be any 'next time,' Peter, my son," he 
 prophesied. "When Mr. Darrah gets fairly 
 down to business he'll throw bigger chunks 
 than the Argentine town-marshal at us." 
 88 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AN ORDER 
 
 By this time the train was slowing into Car- 
 bonate, and a few minutes after the stop at 
 the crowded platform they were making their 
 way up the single bustling street of the town 
 to the court-house. 
 
 "Ever see so many tin-horns and bunco 
 people bunched in all your round-ups?" said 
 Biggin, as they elbowed through the uneasy 
 shifting groups in front of the hotel. 
 
 "Not often," Winton admitted. "But it's 
 the luck of the big camps : they are the dump- 
 ing-grounds of the world while the high pres- 
 sure is on." 
 
 The ex-range-rider turned on the court- 
 house steps to look the sidewalk loungers over 
 with narrowing eyes. 
 
 "There's Sheeny Mike and Big Otto and 
 half a dozen others right there in front o' the 
 Buckingham that couldn't stay to breathe 
 twice in Argentine. And this town's got a 
 po-lice !" — the comment with lip-curling 
 scorn. 
 
 "It also has a county court which is prob- 
 ably waiting for us," said Winton ; whereupon 
 89 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 they went in to appease the offended majesty 
 of the law. 
 
 As Winton had predicted, his answer to the 
 court summons was a mere formality. On 
 parting with his chief at the Argentine station 
 platform, Adams' first care had been to wire 
 news of the arrest to the Utah headquarters. 
 Hence Winton found the company's attorney 
 waiting for him in Judge Whitcomb's court- 
 room, and his release on an appearance bond 
 was only a matter of moments. 
 
 The legal affair dismissed, there ensued a 
 weary interval of time-killing. There was no 
 train back to Argentine until nearly five 
 o'clock in the afternoon, and the hours 
 dragged heavily for the two, who had nothing 
 to do but wait. Biggin endured his part of it 
 manfully till the midday dinner had been dis- 
 cussed; then he drifted off with one of Win- 
 ton's cigars between Vs teeth, saying that he 
 should "take poison" and shoot up the town 
 if he could not find some more peaceful means 
 of keeping his blood in circulation. 
 
 It was a little after three o'clock, and Win- 
 90 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AN ORDER 
 
 ton was sitting at the writing-table in the 
 lobby of the hotel elaborating his hasty note- 
 book data of the morning's inspection, when 
 a boy came in with a telegram. The young 
 engineer was not so deeply engrossed in his 
 work as to be deaf to the colloquy. 
 
 "Mr. John Winton? Yes, he is here some- 
 where," said the clerk in answer to the boy'9 
 question; and after an identifying glance: 
 "There he is — over at the writing-table." 
 
 Winton turned in his chair and saw the boy 
 coming toward him; also he saw the ruffian 
 pointed out by Biggin from the court-house 
 steps and labeled "Sheeny Mike" lounging 
 up to the clerk's desk for a whispered ex- 
 change of words with the bediamonded gen- 
 tleman behind it. 
 
 What followed was cataclysmic in its way. 
 The lounger took three staggering lurches to- 
 ward Winton, brushed the messenger boy 
 aside, and burst out in a storm of maudlin in- 
 vective. 
 
 "Sign yerself 'Winton' now, do ye, ye low- 
 down, turkey-trodden — " 
 91 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 "One minute," said Winton curtly, taking 
 the telegram from the boy and signing for it. 
 
 "I'll give ye more'n ye can carry away in 
 less'n half that time — see?" was the minatory 
 retort; and the threat was made good by an 
 awkward buffet which would have knocked the 
 engineer out of his chair if he had remained 
 in it. 
 
 Now Winton's eyes were gray and stead- 
 fast, but his hair was of that shade of brown 
 which takes the tint of dull copper in certain 
 lights, and he had a temper which went with 
 the red in his hair rather than with the gray 
 in his eyes. Wherefore his attempt to placate 
 his assailant was something less than diplo- 
 matic. 
 
 "You drunken scoundrel !" he snapped. "If 
 you don't go about your business and let me 
 alone, I'll turn you over to the police with a 
 broken bone or two !" 
 
 The bully's answer was a blow delivered 
 
 straight from the shoulder — too straight to 
 
 harmonize with the fiction of drunkenness. 
 
 Winton saw the sober purpose in it and went 
 
 92 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AN ORDER 
 
 battle-mad, as a hasty man will. Being a 
 skilful boxer, — which his antagonist was not, 
 — he did what he had to do neatly and with 
 commendable despatch. Down, up; down, 
 up ; down a third time, and then the bystand- 
 ers interfered. 
 "Hold on !" 
 "That'll do!" 
 
 "Don't you see he's drunk ?" 
 "Enough's as good as a feast — let him go." 
 Winton's blood was up, but he desisted, 
 breathing threatenings. Whereat Biggin 
 shouldered Ms way into the circle. 
 
 "Pay your bill and let's hike out o' this, 
 
 pronto!" he said in a low tone. "You ain't got 
 
 no time to fool with a Carbonate justice shop." 
 
 But Winton was not to be brought to his 
 
 senses so easily. 
 
 "Run away from that swine? Not if I 
 know it. Let him take it into court if he wants 
 to. I'll be there, too." 
 
 The beaten one was up now and apparently 
 looking for an officer. 
 
 "I'm takin' ye all to witness," he rasped. 
 7 93 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 "I was on'y askin' him to cash up what he 
 lost to mc las' night, and he jumps me. Bat 
 I'll stick him if there's any law in this camp." 
 
 Now all tlus time Winton had been holding 
 the unopened telegram crumpled in his fist, 
 but when Biggin pushed him out of the circle 
 and thrust him up to the clerk's desk, he be- 
 thought him to read the message. It was Vir- 
 ginia's warning, signed by Adams, and a sin- 
 gle glance at the closing sentence was enough 
 to cool hini suddenly. 
 
 "Pay the bill, Biggin, and join me in the 
 billiard-room, quick!" he whispered, pressing 
 money into the town-marshal's hand and los- 
 ing himself in the crowd. And when Biggin 
 had obeyed his instructions: "Now for a 
 back way out of this, if there is one. We'll 
 have to take to the hills till train time." 
 
 They found a way through the bar and out 
 into a side street leading abruptly up to the 
 spruce-clad hills behind the town. Biggin held 
 his peace until they were safe from immediate 
 d.mger of pursuit. Then his curiosity got 
 the better ot him. 
 
 94 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AX ORDER 
 
 "Didn't take you more'n a week to change 
 your mind about pullin' it off with that tin- 
 horn scrapper in the courts, did it?" 
 
 "No," said Winton. 
 
 " 'Tain't none o' my business, but I'd like 
 to know what stampeded you." 
 
 "A telegram," — shortly. "It was a put- 
 up job to have me locked up on a criminal 
 charge, and so hold me out another day." 
 
 Biggin grinned. "The old b'iler-buster 
 again. Say, he's a holy terror, ain't he?" 
 
 "He doesn't mean to let me build my rail- 
 road if he can help it." 
 
 The ex-cowboy found his sack of chip to- 
 bacco and dexterously rolled a cigarette in a 
 bit of brown wrapping-paper. 
 
 "If that's the game, Mr. Sheeny Mike, or 
 his backers, will be most likely to play it to a 
 finish, don't you guess ?" 
 
 "How?" 
 
 "By havin' a po-liceman layin' for you at 
 the train." 
 
 "I hadn't thought of that." 
 
 "Well, I can think you out of it, I reckon. 
 95 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 The branch train is a 'commodation, and it'll 
 stop most anywhere if } r ou throw up your 
 hand at it. We can take out through the 
 woods and across the hills, and mog up the 
 track a piece. How'll that do ?" 
 
 "It will do for me, but there is no need of 
 your tramping when you can just as well ride." 
 
 But now that side of Mr. Peter Bifjjnn 
 which endears him and his kind to every man 
 who has ever shared his lonely round-ups, or 
 broken bread with him in his comfortless 
 shack, came uppermost. 
 
 "What do you take me fcr?" was the way 
 it vocalized itself; but there was more than a 
 formal oath of loyal allegiance in the curt 
 question. 
 
 "For a man and a brother," said Winton 
 heartily ; and they set out together to waylay 
 the outgoing train at some point beyond the 
 danger limit. 
 
 It was accomplished without further mis- 
 
 luip, and the short winter day was darkening 
 
 to twilight when the train came in sight and 
 
 the engineer slowed to their signal. They 
 
 96 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AN ORDER 
 
 climbed aboard, and when they had found a 
 seat in the smoker the chief of construction 
 spoke to the ex-cowboy as to a friend. 
 
 "I hope Adams has knocked out a good 
 day's work for us," he said. 
 
 "Your pardner with the store hat and the 
 stinkin' cigaroots? — he's all right," said Big- 
 gin ; and it so chanced that at the precise mo- 
 ment of the saying the subject of it was stand- 
 ing with the foreman of track-layers at a gap 
 in the new line just beyond and above the 
 Rosemary's siding at Argentine, his day's 
 work ended, and his men loaded on the flats 
 for the run down to camp over the lately-laid 
 rails of the lateral loop. 
 
 "Xot such a bad day, considering the new- 
 ness of us and the bridge at the head of the 
 gulch," he said, half to himself. And then 
 more pointedly to the foreman: "Bridge- 
 builders to the front at the first crack of dawn, 
 Mike. Why wasn't this break filled in the 
 grading?" 
 
 "Sure, sorr, 'tis a dhrain it is," said the 
 Irishman; "from the placer up beyant," he 
 97 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 added, pointing- to a washed-out excoriation 
 on the steep upper slope of the mountain. 
 "Major Evarts did be tellin' us we'd have the 
 lawyers afthcr us hot-fut again if we didn't 
 be lavin' ut open the full width." 
 
 "Mmph !" said Adams, looking the ground 
 over with a critical eye. "It's a bad bit. It 
 wouldn't take much to bring that whole slide 
 down on us if it wasn't frozen solid. Who 
 owns the placer?" 
 
 "Two fellies over in Carbonate. The com- 
 pany did be thryin' to buy the claim, but the 
 sharps wouldn't sell — bein' put up to hold ut 
 by thim C. G. R. divils. It's more throu- 
 ble we'll be havin' here, I'm thinking." 
 
 While they lingered a shrill whistle, echo- 
 ing like an cldrich laugh among the cliffs of 
 the upper gorge, announced the coming of a 
 train from the direction of Carbonate. Adams 
 looked at his watclL 
 
 "I'd like to know what that is," he mused. 
 "It's an hour too soon for the accommoda- 
 tion. By Jove!" 
 
 The exclamation directed itself at a one-car 
 98 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AN ORDEIl 
 
 train which came thundering down the canyon 
 to pull in on the siding beyond the Rosemary. 
 The car was a passenger coach, well-lighted, 
 and from his post on the embankment Adams 
 could see armed men filling the windows. Mi- 
 chael Branagan saw them, too, and the fight- 
 ing Celt in him rose to the occasion. 
 
 " 'Tis Donnybrook Fair we've come to this 
 time, Misther Adams. Shall I call up the b'ys 
 wid their guns ?" 
 
 "Not yet. Let's wait and see what hap- 
 pens." 
 
 What happened was a peaceful sortie. Two 
 men, each with a kit of some kind borne in a 
 sack, dropped from the car, crossed the creek, 
 and struggled up the hill through the un- 
 bridged gap. Adams waited until they were 
 fairly on the right of way, then he called 
 down to them. 
 
 "Halt, there ! you two. This is corporation 
 property." 
 
 "Not much it ain't!" retorted one of the 
 trespassers gruffly. "It's the drain-way from 
 our placer up yonder." 
 99 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 "What arc you going to do up there at this 
 time of night?" 
 
 "None o' your blame business !" was the ex- 
 plosive counter-shot. 
 
 "Perhaps it isn't," said Adams mildly. 
 "Just the same, I'm thirsting to know. Call 
 it vulgar curiosity if you like." 
 
 "All right, you can know, and be cussed to 
 you. We're goin' to work our claim. Got 
 anything to say against it ?" 
 
 "Oh, no," rejoined Adams; and when the 
 twain had disappeared in the upper darkness 
 he went down the grade with Branagan and 
 took his place on the man-loaded flats for the 
 run to the construction camp, thinking more 
 of the lately-arrived car with its complement 
 of armed men than of the two miners who had 
 calmly announced their intention of working 
 a placer claim on a high mountain, without 
 water, and in the dead of winter! By which it 
 will be seen that Mr. Morton P. Adams, C. E. 
 M. I. T. Boston, had something yet to learn 
 in the matter of practical field work. 
 
 By the time Ah Foo had served him his 
 100 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AN ORDER 
 
 solitary supper in the dinkey he had quite 
 forgotten the incident of the mysterious placer 
 miners. Worse than this, it had never oc- 
 curred to him to connect their movements with 
 the Rajah's plan of campaign. On the other 
 hand, he was thinking altogether of the car- 
 load of armed men, and trying to devise some 
 means of finding out how they were to be em- 
 ployed in furthering the Rajah's designs. 
 
 The means suggested themselves after sup- 
 per, and he went alone over to Argentine to 
 spend a half-hour in the bar of the dance-hall 
 listening to the gossip of the place. When 
 he had learned what he wanted to know, he 
 forthfared to meet Winton at the incoming 
 train. 
 
 "We are in for it now," he said, when they 
 had crossed the creek to the dinkey and the 
 Chinaman was bringing Winton's belated sup- 
 per. "The Rajah has imported a carload of 
 armed mercenaries, and he is going to clean 
 us all out to-morrow: arrest everybody from 
 the gang foremen up." 
 
 Winton's eyebrows lifted. "So? that is a 
 101 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 pretty large contract. Has he men enough 
 to do it?" 
 
 "Not so many men. But they are sworn-in 
 deputies, with the sheriff' of Ute County in 
 command — a posse, in fact. So he has the 
 law on his side." 
 
 "Which is more than he had when he set 
 a thug on me this afternoon at Carbonate," 
 said Winton sourly ; and he told Adams about 
 the misunderstanding in the lobby of the 
 Buckingham. His friend whistled under his 
 breath. "By Jove! that's pretty rough. Do 
 you suppose the Rajah dictated any such Lu- 
 cretia Borgia thing as that?" 
 
 Winton took time to think about it and ad- 
 mitted a doubt, as he had not before. Believ- 
 ing Mr. Somerville Darrah fit for treasons, 
 stratagems, and spoils in his official capacity 
 of vice-president of a fighting corporation, he 
 was none the less disposed to find excuses for 
 Miss Virginia Carteret's uncle. 
 
 "I did think so at first, but I guess it was 
 only the misguided zeal of some understrap- 
 per. Of course, word has gone out all along 
 102 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AN ORDER 
 
 the C. G. R. line that we are to be delayed 
 by every possible expedient." 
 
 But Adams shook his head. 
 
 "Mr. Darrah dictated that move in his 
 own proper person." 
 
 "How do you know that?" 
 
 "You had a message from me this after- 
 noon?" 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "What did you think of it?" 
 
 "I thought you might have left out the 
 first part of it; also that you might have 
 made the latter half a good bit more explicit." 
 
 A slow smile spread itself over Adams' 
 impassive face. 
 
 "Every man has his limitations," he said. 
 "I did the best I could. But the Rajah knew 
 very well what he was about — otherwise there 
 would have been no telegram." 
 
 Winton sent the Chinaman out for another 
 cup of tea before he said, "Did Miss Carteret 
 come here alone?" 
 
 "Oh, no; Calvert came with her." 
 
 "What brought them here?" 
 103 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 Adams spread his hands. 
 "What makes any woman do precisely the 
 most unexpected thing?" 
 
 Winton was silent for a moment. Finally 
 he said : "I hope you did what you could to 
 make it pleasant for her." 
 
 "I did. And I didn't hear her complain." 
 "That was low-down in you, Morty." 
 Adams chuckled reminiscently. "Had to 
 do it to make my day-before-yestcrday lie 
 hold water. And she was immensely taken 
 with the scrawls, especially with one of them." 
 Winton flushed under the bronze. 
 "I suppose I don't need to ask which one." 
 Adams' grin was a measure of his compla- 
 cence. 
 
 "Well, hardly." 
 "She took it away with her?" 
 "Took it, or tore it up, I forget which." 
 "Tell me, Morty, was she very angry.-" 
 The other took the last hint of laughter 
 out of his eyes before he said solemnly: 
 "You'll never know how thankful I was that 
 you were twenty miles away." 
 104 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AX ORDER 
 
 Winton's cup was full, and he turned the 
 talk abruptly to the industrial doings and 
 accomplishments of the day. Adams made a 
 verbal report which led him by successive 
 steps up to the twilight hour when he had 
 stood with Branagan on the brink of the 
 placer drain, but, strangely enough, there 
 was no stirring of memory to recall the inci- 
 dent of the upward-climbing miners. 
 
 When Winton rose he said something about 
 mounting a night guard on the engine, which 
 was kept under steam at all hours ; and shortly 
 afterward he left the dinkey ostensibly to do 
 it, declining Adams' offer of company. But 
 once out-of-doors he climbed straight to the 
 operator's tent on the snow-covered slope. 
 Carter had turned in, but he sat up in his 
 bunk at the noise of the intrusion. 
 
 "That you, Mr. Winton? Want to send 
 something?" he asked. 
 
 "No, go to sleep. I'll write a wire and 
 leave it for you to send in the morning." 
 
 He sat down at the packing-case instru- 
 ment table and wrote out a brief report of the 
 105 
 
1 
 
 ■ 
 
 II 
 
 1 
 
 1 I 
 
 11 
 
 1 1 
 
■ : : i ■ : 
 
 ; 
 -a \ralk: ore 
 
 : 
 
 ■ - ■ • ■ 
 
 : 
 
 > 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 v 
 
 his present surroundings, he might have re- 
 marked two tiny stars of lantern-light high 
 on the placer ground above the embankment ; 
 or, failing the sight, he might have heard the 
 dull, measured slumph of a churn-drill bur- 
 rowing deep in the frozen earth of the slope. 
 
 As it was, a pair of brown eves blinded 
 him, and the tones of a voice sweeter than the 
 songs of Oberon's sea-maid filled his cars. 
 Wherefore he neither saw nor heard ; and tak- 
 ing the short cut across the mouth of the lat- 
 eral gulch back to camp, he boarded the 
 dinkey and went to bed without disturbing 
 Adams. 
 
 The morning of the day to come broke 
 clear and still, with the stars paling one by 
 one at the pointing finger of the dawn, and 
 the frost-rime lying thick and white like a 
 snowfall of erect and glittering needles on 
 iron and steel and wood. 
 
 Obedient to orders, the bridge-builders were 
 
 getting out their hand-car at the construction 
 
 camp, the wheels shrilling merrily on the 
 
 fronted rails, and the nun stamping and 
 
 108 
 
THE RAJAH GIVES AN ORDER 
 
 swinging their arms to start the sluggish 
 night-blood. Suddenly, like the opening gun 
 of a battle, the dull rumble of a mighty ex- 
 plosion trembled upon the still air, followed 
 instantly by a sound as of a passing ava- 
 lanche. 
 
 Winton was out and running up the track 
 before the camp was fairly aroused. What 
 he saw when he gained the hither side of the 
 lateral gulch was a sight to make a strong 
 man weep. A huge landslide, starting from 
 the frozen placer ground high up on the west- 
 ern promontory, had swept every vestige of 
 track and embankment into the deep bed of 
 the creek at a point precisely opposite Mr. 
 Somerville Darrah's private car. 
 
 109 
 
VII 
 
 THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW 
 
 Virginia was up and dressed when the sul- 
 len shock of the explosion set the windows 
 jarring in the Rosemary. 
 
 She hurried out upon the observation plat- 
 form and so came to look upon the ruin 
 wrought by the landslide while the dust-like 
 smoke of the dynamite still hung in the air. 
 
 "Rather unlucky for our friends the 
 enemy," said a colorless voice behind her; 
 and she had an uncomfortable feeling that 
 Jastrow had been lying in wait for her. 
 
 She turned upon him quickly. 
 
 "Was it an accident, Mr. Jastrow?" 
 
 "How could it be anything else?" he in- 
 quired mildly. 
 
 "I don't know. But there was an explo- 
 sion: I heard it." 
 
 "It is horribly unfair," she went on. "I 
 110 
 
THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW 
 
 understand the sheriff is here. Couldn't he 
 have prevented this?" 
 
 The secretary's rejoinder was a platitude: 
 "Everything is fair in love or war." 
 
 "But this is neither," she retorted. 
 
 "Think not?" he said coolly. "Wait, and 
 you'll see. And a word in your ear, Miss 
 Carteret: you are one of us, you know, and 
 you mustn't be disloyal. I know what you 
 did yesterday after you read those tele- 
 grams." 
 
 Virginia's face became suddenly wooden. 
 Until that moment it had not occurred to her 
 that Jastrow's motive in showing her the two 
 telegrams might have been carefully calcu- 
 lated. 
 
 "I have never given you the right to speak 
 to me that way, Mr. Jastrow," she said, with 
 the faintest possible emphasis on the courtesy 
 prefix; and with that she turned from him 
 to focus her field-glass on the construction 
 camp below. 
 
 At the Utah stronghold all was activity of 
 the fiercest. Winton had raced back with his 
 111 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 news of the catastrophe, and the camp was 
 alive with men clustering like bees and swarm- 
 ing upon the flat-cars of the material-train to 
 be taken to the front. 
 
 While she looked, studiously ignoring the 
 man behind her, Virginia saw the big octopod 
 engine clamoring up the grade. In a twink- 
 ling the men were off and at work. 
 
 Virginia's color rose and the brown eyes 
 filled swiftly. One part of her ideal was 
 courage of the sort that rises the higher for 
 reverses. But at the instant she remembered 
 the secretary, and, lest he should spy upon 
 her emotion, she turned and took refuge in 
 the car. 
 
 In the Rosemary the waiter was laying the 
 plates for breakfast, and Bessie and the Rev- 
 erend William were at the window, watching 
 the stirring industry battle now in full swing 
 on the opposite slope. Virginia joined them. 
 
 "Isn't it a shame!" she said. "Of course, 
 I want our side to win; but it seems such a 
 pity that we can't fight fairly." 
 
 Calvert said, "Isn't what a shame?" there- 
 112 
 
 
THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW 
 
 by eliciting a crisp explanation from Virginia 
 in which she set well-founded suspicion in the 
 light of fact. 
 
 The Reverend Billy shook his head. 
 
 "Such things may be within the law — of 
 business; but they will surely breed bad 
 blood—" 
 
 The interruption was the Rajah in his 
 proper person, bustling out fiercely to a con- 
 ference with his Myrmidons. By tacit con- 
 sent the three at the window fell silent. 
 
 There was a hasty mustering of armed 
 men under the windows of the Rosemary, and 
 they heard Sheriff Deckert's low-voiced in- 
 structions to his posse. 
 
 "Take it slow and easy, boys, and don't 
 get rattled. Now, then; guns to the front! 
 Steady!" 
 
 The Reverend Billy rose. 
 
 "What are you going to do?" said Virginia. 
 
 "I'm going to give Winton a tip if it's the 
 last thing I ever do." 
 
 She shook her head and pointed eastward 
 to the mouth of the lateral gulch. Under 
 113 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 cover of a clump of evcrgrccn-scrub a man 
 in a wideflappcd hat and leather breeches was 
 climbing swiftly to the level of the new line, 
 cautiously waving a handkerchief as a peace 
 token. "That is the man who arrested Mr. 
 Winton yesterday. This time he is going to 
 fight on the other side. He'll carry the 
 warning." 
 
 "Think so?" said Calvert. 
 
 "I am sure of it. Open the window, please. 
 I want to see better." 
 
 As yet there was no sign of preparation on 
 the embankment. For the moment the rifles 
 of the track force were laid aside, and every 
 man was plying pick or shovel. 
 
 Winton was in the thick of the pick-and- 
 shovel mc4ee, urging it on, when Biggin ran 
 up. 
 
 "Hi !" he shouted. "Fixin' to take another 
 play-day in Carbonate? Lookcc down 
 yonder!" 
 
 Winton looked and became alive to the pos- 
 sibilities in the turning of a leaf. 
 
 "Guns!" he yelled; and at the word of 
 114 
 
THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW 
 
 command the tools were flung aside, and the 
 track force, over two hundred strong, became 
 an army. 
 
 "Mulcahey, take half the men and go up 
 the grade till you can rake those fellows with- 
 out hitting the car. Branagan, you take the 
 other half and go down till you can cross-fire 
 with Mulcahey. Aim low, both of you; and 
 the man who fires before he gets the word 
 from me will break his neck at a rope's end. 
 Fall in !" 
 
 "By Jove !" said Adams. "Are you going 
 to resist? That spells felony, doesn't it?" 
 
 Winton pointed to the waiting octopod. 
 
 "I'm going to order the Two-fifteen down 
 out of the way : you may go with her if you 
 like." 
 
 "I guess not !" quoth the assistant, calmly 
 lighting a fresh cigarette. And then to the 
 water-boy, who was acting quartermaster: 
 "Give me a rifle and a cartridge-belt, Chunky, 
 and I'll stay here with the boss." 
 
 "And where do I come in?" said Biggin to 
 JVinton reproachfully. 
 115 
 
A FOOL FOB LOVE 
 
 "You'll stay out, if your head's level. 
 You've done enough already to send you to 
 Canyon City." 
 
 "I ain't a-forgettin' nothing," said Peter 
 cheerfully, casting himself flat behind a heap 
 of earth on the dump-edge. 
 
 While the sheriff's posse was picking its 
 way gingerly over the loose rock and earth 
 dam formed by the landslide, the window went 
 up in the Rosemary and Winton saw Vir- 
 ginia. Without meaning to, she gave him his 
 battle-word. 
 
 "We are a dozen Winchesters to your one, 
 Mr. Deckcrt, and we shall resist force with 
 force. Order 3'our men back or there will be 
 trouble." 
 
 Winton stood out on the edge of the cut- 
 ting, a solitary figure where a few minutes 
 before the earth had been flying from a hun- 
 dred shovels. 
 
 The sheriff's reply was an order, but not 
 for retreat. 
 
 "He's one of the men we want ; cover him !" 
 he commanded. 
 
 11G 
 
THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW 
 
 Unless the public occasion appeals strongly 
 to the sympathies or the passions, a picked-up 
 sheriff's posse is not likely to have very good 
 metal in it. Peter Biggin laughed. 
 
 "Don't be no ways nervous," he said in an 
 aside to Winton. "Them professional veniry 
 chumps couldn't hit the side o' Pacific Peak." 
 
 Winton held his ground, while the sheriff 
 tried to drive his men up a bare slope com- 
 manded by two hundred rifles to right and 
 left. The attempt was a humiliating failure. 
 Being something less than soldiers trained to 
 do or die, the deputies hung back to a man. 
 
 Virginia could not forbear a smile. The 
 sheriff burst into caustic profanity. Where- 
 upon Mr. Peter Biggin rose up and sent a 
 bullet to plow a little furrow in the ice within 
 an inch of Deckert's heels. 
 
 "Ex-cuse me, Bart," he drawled, "but no 
 cuss words don't go." 
 
 The sheriff ignored Peter Biggin as a per- 
 son who could be argued with at leisure and 
 turned to Winton. 
 
 "Come down !" he bellowed. 
 117 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 Winton laughed. 
 
 "Let me return the invitation. Come up, 
 and you may read your warrants to us all 
 
 Deckert withdrew his men, and at Winton's 
 signal the track-layers came in and the earth 
 began to fly again. 
 
 Virginia sighed her relief, and Bessie 
 plucked up courage to go to the window, 
 which she had deserted in the moment of im- 
 pending battle. 
 
 "Breakfast is served," announced the 
 waiter as calmly as if the morning meal were 
 the only matter of consequence in a world of 
 happenings. 
 
 They gathered about the table, a silent trio 
 made presently a quartet by the advent of 
 Mrs. Carteret, who had neither seen nor 
 heard any tiling of the warlike episode with 
 which the day had begun. 
 
 Mr. Darrah was late, so late that when he 
 came in, Virginia was the only one of the four 
 who remained at table. She stayed to pour 
 his coffee and lo bespeak peace. 
 118 
 
THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW 
 
 "Uncle Somerville, can't we win without 
 calling in these horrid men with their guns?" 
 
 A mere shadow of a grim smile came and 
 went in the Rajah's eyes. 
 
 "An unprejudiced outsideh might say that 
 the 'horrid men with their guns' were on top 
 of that embankment, my deah — ten to ouh 
 one," he remarked. 
 
 "But I should think we might win in some 
 other way," Virginia persisted undauntedly. 
 
 Mr. Darrah pushed his plate aside and 
 cleared his throat. 
 
 "For business reasons which you — ah — 
 wouldn't undehstand, we can't let the Utah 
 finish this railroad of theirs into Carbonate 
 this winteh." 
 
 "So much I have inferred. But Mr. Win- 
 ton seems to be very determined." 
 
 "Mmph ! I wish Mr. Callowell had favehed 
 us with some one else — any one else. That 
 young fellow is a bawn fighteh, my deah." 
 
 Virginia had a bright idea, and she ad- 
 vanced it without examining too closely into 
 its ethical part. 
 
 119 
 
A FOOL FOB LOVE 
 
 "Mr. Winton is working for wages, isn't 
 
 she asked. 
 "Of cou'se: big money, at that. His sawt 
 come high." 
 
 hy can't you hire him away from 
 the other people? Mr. Callowell might not 
 •j fortunate next time." 
 
 :ack in his chair and re- 
 garded her thoughtfully, 
 e asked. 
 "Nothing my deah — nothing at all. I wa* 
 just wondering how a woman's — ah — sense of 
 proportion was put togetheh. But your plan 
 has merit. Do I understand that you will 
 faveh me with your help ; " 
 
 rtainly, if 1 he as- 
 
 sented, not without dub. " "'I \. d is, I'll 
 be nice t 
 
 "That is precisely what I mean, my deah. 
 'A begin by having him heah to dinneh 
 :.ing, him and the otheh young man — 
 what's his name? — Adam 
 
 And the upshot of the matter was a dainty 
 note which found its way by the hands of the 
 120 
 
THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW 
 
 private-car porter to Winton. laboring man- 
 fully at his task of repairing the landslide 
 damages. 
 
 "Mr. Sonierville Darrah's compliments to Mr. 
 John THnton and Mr. Morton P. Adams, and he 
 will be pleased if they will dine with the party in 
 the car Rosemary ar seven o'clock. 
 
 'Informal. 
 
 "Wednesday, December the Ninth." 
 
 121 
 
VIII 
 
 THE GREEKS BRINGING GIFTS 
 
 Adams said "By Jove !" in his most cynical 
 drawl when Winton gave him the dinner- 
 bidding to read: then he laughed. 
 
 Winton recovered the dainty note, folding 
 it carefully and putting it in his pocket. The 
 handwriting was the same as that of the tele- 
 gram abstracted from Operator Carter's 
 sending-hook. 
 
 "I don't see anything to laugh at," he ob- 
 jected. 
 
 "No? First the Rajah sends the sheriff's 
 posse packing without striking a blow, and 
 now he invites us to dinner. 
 
 "You make me exceedingly tired at odd 
 moments, Morty. Why can't you give Mr. 
 Darrah the credit of being what he really is 
 at bottom — a right-hearted Virginia gentle- 
 man of the old school?" 
 122 
 
GREEKS BRINGING GIFTS 
 
 "You don't mean that you are going to 
 accept!" said Adams, aghast. 
 
 "Certainly; and so are you." 
 
 There was no more to be said, and Adams 
 held his peace while Winton scribbled a line 
 of acceptance on a leaf of his note-book and 
 sent it across to the Rosemary by the hand 
 of the water-boy. 
 
 Their reception at the steps of the Rose- 
 mary was a generous proof of the aptness of 
 that aphorism which sums up the status post 
 helium in the terse phrase, "After war, 
 peace." Mr. Darrah met them; was evi- 
 dently waiting for them. 
 
 "Come in, gentlemen; come in and be at 
 home," — this with a hand for each. "Vir- 
 ginia allowed you wouldn't faveh us, but I as- 
 sured her she didn't rightly know men of the 
 world: told her that a picayune business 
 affair in which we are all acting as corpora- 
 tion proxies needn't spell out anything like a 
 blood feud between gentlemen." 
 
 For another man the informal table gather- 
 ing might have been easily prohibitive of con- 
 123 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 fidcnces a deux, even with a Virginia Carteret 
 to help, but Winton was far above the tram- 
 melings of time and place. He had eyes and 
 ears only for the sweet-faced, low-voiced 
 young woman beside him, and some of his 
 replies to the others were irrelevant enough 
 to send a smile around the board. 
 
 "How very absent-minded Mr. Winton 
 seems to be this evening!" murmured Bessie 
 from her niche between Adams and the Rev- 
 erend Billy at the farther end of the table. 
 "He isn't quite at his best, is he, Mr. Adams?" 
 
 "Xo, indeed," said Adams, matching her 
 undertone, "very far from it. He has been a 
 bit off all day : touch of mountain fever, I'm 
 afraid." 
 
 "But he doesn't look at all ill," objected 
 Miss Bessie. "I should say he is a perfect 
 picture of rude health." 
 
 The coffee was served, and Mrs. Carteret 
 was rising. Whereupon Miss Virginia 
 handed her cup to Adams, and so had him for 
 her companion in the tete-a-tete chair, leaving 
 Winton to shift for himself. 
 124 
 
GREEKS BRINGING GIFTS 
 
 The shifting process carried him over to 
 the Rajah and the Reverend Billy, to a small 
 table in a corner of the compartment, and the 
 enjoyment of a mild cigar. 
 
 Later, when Calvert had been eliminated 
 by Miss Bessie, Winton looked to see the true 
 inwardness of the dinner-bidding made mani- 
 fest by his host. 
 
 But Mr. Darrah chatted on, affably non- 
 committal, and after a time Winton began to 
 upbraid himself for suspecting the ulterior 
 motive. And when he finally rose to excuse 
 himself on a letter-writing plea, his leave- 
 taking was that of the genial host reluctant 
 to part company with his guest. 
 
 "I've enjoyed your conve'sation, seh; en- 
 joyed it right much. May I hope you will 
 faveh us often while we are neighbors?" 
 
 Winton rose, made the proper acknowl- 
 edgments, and would have crossed the com- 
 partment to make his adieus to Mrs. Carteret. 
 But at that moment Virginia came between. 
 
 "You are not goir? j yet, are you, Mr. Win- 
 ton? Don't hurry. If you are dying to 
 9 125 
 
 ri 
 
\ r OOl i »» I LOT! 
 
 k pipe, M I . \<1 mis mi\ I 
 
 out I'll tin pi ttionn. It ianM too ooldi 
 
 . be uitiful night," 
 he baat< I I" Ip 3 ou ■ ith 
 
 So preeentlj tYtatou haxl hia heart*a d 
 which waa to t><- alone with Virginia. 
 
 nerved bcreelf for the plunge, her 
 oncle*i plunge, 
 
 "Your part in the building oi Ihif other 
 mill . n< l\ i buaineai affair, ii it not 
 
 •• m 5 \> Quite ao; a mere 
 
 matter >»f dollars and centa, jou m 
 
 "If j i ihould have another offer, 
 pany — M 
 
 ••'l'i inu-nt ; it if Mr. 
 
 D n Sfou Icnon well enough what ia m- 
 
 \ olved : honor, int.- •-! t v i, • 1 1 i t- 
 thing a iii-iii raluea, or ihould value, I 
 
 ou a ould aaV iu< h I me 
 
 » in.iii. 
 
 '"Iihl. . .1, 1 do not aak it, M r, \\ inton 
 it ia onlt fair th it \ ou ihould ba • 
 
vi.--. . M; .22:2. ~1 -l-^ 2: ;-.::: 
 
 K= r:, :-- .:.:,..:r 212.: ih: - - 12 
 
 212 :-.: z- '■: -.I- v 21- :2.2: : -"--"" 
 
 I 2:22: :.i22 I ■■ -._ i| - -.. :: -..; 2.1; 
 
 I ::i2 : -2 I lC L-vi-j :h 2_j 2:2" • ; • : 
 
 
 ir 
 
IX 
 
 THE BLOCK SIGXAL 
 
 If Mr. John Winton, C.E., stood in need 
 of a moral tonic, as Adams had so delicately 
 intimated to Miss Bessie Carteret, it was ad- 
 ministered in quantity sufficient before he 
 slept on the night of dinner-givings. 
 
 For a clear-eyed theorist, free from all 
 heart-trammelings and able to grasp the un- 
 sentimental fact, the enemy's new plan of 
 campaign wrote itself quite legibly. With 
 lii> pick and choice among the time-killing ex- 
 pedients the Rajah could scarcely have found 
 one more to his purpose than the private car 
 Rosemary, including in its passenger list a 
 Bliss Virginia Carteret. 
 
 128 
 
THE BLOCK SIGNAL 
 
 All of which Adams, substituting friendly 
 frankness for the disciplinary traditions of 
 the service, set forth in good Bostonian Eng- 
 lish for the benefit and behoof of his chief, 
 and was answered according to his deserts 
 with scoffings and deridings. 
 
 "I wasn't born yesterday, Morty, and I'm 
 not so desperately asinine as you seem to 
 think," was the besotted one's summing-up. 
 "I know the Rajah doesn't split hairs in a 
 business fight, but he is hardly unscrupulous 
 enough to use Miss Carteret as a cat's-paw." 
 
 But Adams would not be scoffed aside so 
 easily. 
 
 "You're off in your estimate of Mr. Dar- 
 rah, Jack, 'way off. I know the tradition: 
 that a Southern gentleman is all chivalry when 
 it comes to a matter touching his woman- 
 kind, and I don't controvert it as a general 
 proposition. But the Rajah has been a fight- 
 ing Western railroad magnate so long that 
 his accent is about the only Southern asset he 
 has retained. If I'm any good at guessing, 
 he will stick at nothing to gain his end." 
 129 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 Winton admitted the impeachment without 
 prejudice to his own point of view. 
 
 "Perhaps you are right. But forewarned 
 is forearmed. And Miss Virginia is not go- 
 ing to lend herself to any such nefarious 
 scheme." 
 
 "Not consciously, perhaps; but you don't 
 know her yet. If she saw a good chance to 
 take the conceit out of you, she'd improve it 
 — without thinking overmuch of the possible 
 consequences to the Utah company." 
 
 "Pshaw !" said Winton. "That is another 
 of your literary inferences. I've met her only 
 twice, yet I venture to say I know her better 
 than you do. If she cared anytlung for me 
 — which she doesn't — " 
 
 "Oh, go to sleep!" said Adams, who was 
 not minded to argue further with a man be- 
 sotted ; and so the matter went by default for 
 the time. 
 
 But in the days that followed, days in which 
 the sun rose and set in cloudless winter splen- 
 dor and the heavy snows still held aloof, Ad- 
 ams' prediction wrought itself out into sober 
 130 
 
THE BLOCK SIGNAL 
 
 fact. After the single appeal to force, Mr. 
 Darrah seemed to give up the fight. None 
 the less, the departure of the Rosemary 
 was delayed, and its hospitable door was al- 
 ways open to the Utah chief of construction 
 and his assistant. 
 
 It was very deftly done, and even Adams, 
 the clear-eyed, could not help admiring the 
 Rajah's skilful finesse. Of formal dinner- 
 givings there might easily have been an end, 
 since the construction camp had nothing to 
 offer in return. But the formalities were stu- 
 diously ignored, and the two young men were 
 put upon a footing of intimacy and encour- 
 aged to come and go as they pleased. 
 
 Winton took his welcome broadly, as what 
 lover would not ? and within a week was spend- 
 ing most of his evenings in the Rosemary — 
 this at a time when every waking moment of 
 the day and night was deeply mortgaged to 
 the chance of success. For now that the 
 Rajah had withdrawn his opposition, Nature 
 and the perversity of inanimate things had 
 taken a hand, and for a fortnight the work 
 131 
 
A TOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 of track-laying paused fairly within sight of 
 the station at Argentine. 
 
 First it was a carload of steel accidentally 
 derailed and dumped into Quartz Creek at 
 precisely the worst possible point in the lower 
 canyon, a jagged, rock-ribbed, cliff -bound 
 gorge where each separate piece of metal had 
 to be hoisted out singly by a derrick erected 
 for the purpose — a process which effectually 
 blocked the track for three entire days. Next 
 it was another landslide (unhclped by dyna- 
 mite, this) just above the station, a crawling 
 cataract of loose, sliding shale which, pains- 
 takingly dug out and dammed with plank 
 bulkhead during the day, would pour down 
 and bury bulkhead, buttresses, and the very 
 right of way in the night. 
 
 In Ins right mind — the mind of an ambi- 
 tious young captain of industry who sees de- 
 feat with dishonor staring him in the face — 
 Winton would have fought all the more des- 
 perately for these hindrances. But, unfor- 
 tunately, he was no longer an industry cap- 
 tain with an eye single to success. He was 
 182 
 
THE BLOCK SIGNAL 
 
 become that anomaly despised of the working 
 world — a man in love. 
 
 "It's no use shutting our eyes to the fact, 
 Jack," said Adams one evening, when his 
 chief was making ready for his regular de- 
 scent upon the Rosemary. "We shall have to 
 put night shifts at work on that shale-slide if 
 we hope ever to get past it with the rails." 
 
 "Hang the 6hale!" was the impatient re- 
 joinder. "I'm no galley slave." 
 
 Adams' slow smile came and went in cyni- 
 cal ripplings. 
 
 "It is pretty difficult to say precisely what 
 you are just now. But I can prophesy what 
 you are going to be if you don't wake up and 
 come alive." 
 
 Having no reply to this, Adams went back 
 to the matter of night shifts. 
 
 "If you will authorize it, I'll put a night 
 gang on and boss it myself. What do you 
 
 say 
 
 v» 
 
 "I say you are no end of a good fellow, 
 Morty. And that's the plain fact. I'll do as 
 much for you some time." 
 133 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 "I'll be smashed if you will — you'll never 
 get the chance. When I let a pretty girl 
 make a fool of me — " 
 
 But the door of the dinkey slammed behind 
 the outgoing one, and the prophet of evil was 
 left to organize his night assault on the shale- 
 slide, and to command it as best he could. 
 
 So, as we say, the days, days of stubborn 
 toil with the enthusiasm taken out, slipped 
 away unfruitful. Of the entire Utah force 
 Adams alone held himself up to the mark, and 
 being only second in command, he was unable 
 to keep the bad example of the chief from 
 working like a leaven of inertness among the 
 men. Branagan voiced the situation in rich 
 brogue one evening when Adams had exhaust- 
 ed his limited vocabulary of abuse on the force 
 for its apathy. " 'Tis no use, ava, Misther 
 Adams. If you was the boss himself 'twould 
 be you as would put the comether on thim too 
 quick. But it's 'like masther, like mon.' The 
 b'ys all know that Misther Winton don't care 
 a damn ; and they'll not be hurtin' thimselves 
 wid the wurrk." 
 
 134 
 
THE BLOCK SIGNAL 
 
 And the Rajah? Between his times of 
 smoking high-priced cigars with Winton in 
 the lounging-room of the Rosemary, he was 
 swearing Jubilates in the privacy of his work- 
 ing-den state-room, having tri-daily weather 
 reports wired to him by way of Carbonate and 
 Argentine station, and busying himself in the 
 intervals with sending and receiving sundry 
 mysterious telegrams in cipher. 
 
 Thus Mr. Somerville Darrah, all going 
 well for him until one fateful morning when 
 he made the mistake of congratulating his 
 ally. Then — but we picture the scene: Mr. 
 Darrah late to his breakfast, being just in 
 from an early-morning reconnaissance of the 
 enemy's advancings ; Virginia sitting opposite 
 to pour his coffee. All the others vanished to 
 some limbo of their own. 
 
 The Rajah rubbed his hands delightedly. 
 
 "We are coming on famously, famously, 
 my deah Virginia. Two weeks gone, heavy 
 snows predicted for the mountain region, and 
 nothing, practically nothing at all, accom- 
 plished on the otheh side of the canyon. When 
 135 
 
A FOOL, FOR LOVE 
 
 you marry, my deah, you shall have a block 
 of C. G. R. preferred stock to keep you in 
 pin-money." 
 
 "I?" she queried. "But, Uncle Somer- 
 ville, I don't understand — " 
 
 The Rajah laughed. 
 
 "That was a very pretty blush, my deah. 
 Bless your innocent soul, if I were young 
 Misteh Winton, I'm not sure but I should con- 
 sideh the game well lost." 
 
 She was gazing at him wide-eyed now, and 
 the blush had left a pallor behind it. 
 
 "You mean that I— that I—" 
 
 "I mean that you are a helpeh worth hav- 
 ing, Miss Carteret. Anotheh time Misteh 
 Winton won't pay cou't to a cha'ming young 
 girl and try to build a railroad at one and the 
 same moment, I fancy. Hah !" 
 
 The startled eyes veiled themselves swiftly, 
 and Virginia's voice sank to its softest ca- 
 dence. 
 
 "Have I been an accomplice," she began, 
 "in this — this despicable thing, Uncle Somer- 
 ville?" 
 
 136 
 
THE BLOCK SIGNAL 
 
 Mr. Darrah began a little to see his mis- 
 take. 
 
 "Ah — an accomplice? Oh, no, my deah 
 Virginia, not quite that. The word smacks 
 too much of the po-lice cou'ts. Let us say 
 that Misteh Winton has found your company 
 mo' attractive than that of his laborehs, and 
 commend his good taste in the matteh." 
 
 So much he said by way of damping down 
 the fire he had so rashly lighted. Than Jas- 
 trow came in with one of the interminable 
 cipher telegrams and Virginia was left alone. 
 
 For a time she sat at the deserted break- 
 fast-table, dry-eyed, hot-hearted, thinking such 
 thoughts as would come crowding thickly upon 
 the heels of such a revelation. Winton would 
 fail: a man with honor, good repute, his en- 
 tire career at stake, as he himself had ad- 
 mitted, would go down to miserable oblivion 
 and defeat, lacking some friendly hand to 
 smite him alive to a sense of his danger. And, 
 in her uncle's estimation, at least, she, Vir- 
 ginia Carteret, would figure as the Delilah tri- 
 umphant. 
 
 137 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 She rose, tingling to her finger-tips with 
 the shame of it, went to her state-room, and 
 found her writing materials. In such a crisis 
 her methods could be as direct as a man's. 
 Winton was coming again that evening. He 
 must be stopped and sent about his business. 
 
 So she wrote him a note, telling him he must 
 not come — a note man-like in its conciseness, 
 and yet most womanly in its failure to give 
 even the remotest hint of the new and binding 
 reason why he must not come. And just be- 
 fore luncheon an obliging Cousin Billy was 
 prevailed upon to undertake its delivery. 
 
 When he had found Winton at the shale- 
 slide, and had given him Miss Carteret's man- 
 date, the Reverend Billy did not return direct- 
 ly to the Rosemary. On the contrary, he ex- 
 tended his tramp westward, stumbling on aim- 
 lessly up the canyon over the unsurfaccd em- 
 bankment of the new line. 
 
 Truth to tell, Virginia's messenger was not 
 unwilling to spend a little time alone with the 
 immensities. To put it baldly, he was be- 
 ginning to be desperately cloyed with the 
 138 
 
THE BLOCK SIGNAL 
 
 sweets of a day-long Miss Bessie, ennuye on 
 the one hand and despondent on the other. 
 
 Why could not the Cousin Bessies see, -with- 
 out being told in so many words, that the heart 
 of a man may have been given in times long 
 past to another woman? — to a Cousin Vir- 
 ginia, let us say. And why must the Cousin 
 Virginias, passing by the lifelong devotion of 
 a kinsman lover, throw themselves — if one 
 must put it thus brutally — fairly at the head 
 of an acquaintance of a day ? 
 
 So questioning the immensities, the Rever- 
 end Billy came out after some little time in a 
 small upland valley where the two lines, old 
 and new, ran parallel at the same level, with 
 low embankments less than a hundred yards 
 apart. 
 
 Midway of the valley the hundred-yard in- 
 terspace was bridged by a hastily-constructed 
 spur track starting from a switch on the Colo- 
 rado and Grand River main line, and crossing 
 the Utah right of way at a broad angle. On 
 this spur, at its point of intersection with the 
 new line, stood a heavy locomotive, steam up, 
 139 
 
A FOOL FOB, LOVE 
 
 and manned in every inch of its standing-room 
 by armed guards. 
 
 The situation explained itself, even to a 
 Reverend Billy. The Rajah had not been 
 idle during the interval of dinncr-givings and 
 social divagations. He had acquired the right 
 of way across the Utah's line for his blockad- 
 ing spur; had taken advantage of Winton's 
 inalertness to construct the track; and was 
 now prepared to hold the crossing with a live 
 engine and such a show of force as might be 
 needful. 
 
 Calvert turned back from the entrance of 
 the valley, and was minded, in a spirit of fair- 
 ness, to pass the word concerning the new ob- 
 struction on to the man who was most vitally 
 concerned. But alas! even a Reverend Billy 
 may not always rise superior to his hamper- 
 ings as a man and a lover. Here was defeat 
 possible — nay, say rather defeat probable — 
 for a rival, with the probability increasing 
 with each liour of delay. Calvert fought it out 
 by length and by breadth a dozen times be- 
 fore he came in sight c£ the track force toiling 
 110 
 
THE BLOCK SIGNAL 
 
 at the shale-slide. Should he tell Winton, and 
 so, indirectly, help to frustrate Mr. Darrah's 
 well-laid plan? Or should he hold his peace 
 and thus, indirectly again, help to defeat the 
 Utah company ? 
 
 He put it that way in decent self-respect. 
 Also he assured himself that the personal equa- 
 tion as between two lovers of one and the same 
 woman was entirely eliminated. But who can 
 tell winch motive it was that prompted him to 
 turn aside before he came to the army of toil- 
 ers at the slide: to turn and cross the stream 
 and make as wide a detour as the nature of 
 the ground would permit, passing well beyond 
 call from the other side of the canyon ? 
 
 The detour took him past the slide in silent 
 safety, but it did not take him immediately 
 back to the Rosemary. Instead of keeping 
 on down the canyon on the C. G. R. side, 
 he turned up the gulch at the back of Argen- 
 tine and spent the better half of the afternoon 
 tramping beneath the solemn spruces on the 
 mountain. What the hours of solitude brought 
 him in the way of decision let him declare as 
 10 m 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 lie sets his face finally toward the station and 
 the private car. 
 
 "I can't do it: I can't turn traitor to the 
 kinsman whose bread I eat. And that is what 
 it would come to in plain English. Beyond 
 that I have no right to go : it is not for me to 
 pass upon the justice of this petty war be- 
 tween rival corporations." 
 
 Ah, William Calvert ! is there no word then 
 of that other and far subtler temptation? 
 When you have reached your goal, if reach it 
 you may, will there be no remorseful looking 
 back to this mile-stone where a word from you 
 might have taken tlie fly from your pot of 
 precious ointment? 
 
 The short winter day was darkening to its 
 close when he returned to the Rosemary. By 
 dint of judicious manceuvering, with a too- 
 fond Bessie for an unconscious confederate, 
 he managed to keep Virginia from question- 
 ing him; tins up to a certain moment of 
 climaxes in the evening. 
 
 But Virginia read momentous things in his 
 face and eyes, and when the time was fully 
 142 
 
THE BLOCK SIGNAL 
 
 ripe she cornered him. It w^s the old story 
 over again, of a woman's determination to 
 know pitted against a truthful man's blunder- 
 ing efforts to conceal; and before he knew 
 what he was about Calvert had betrayed the 
 Rajah's secret — which was also the secret of 
 the cipher telegrams. 
 
 Miss Carteret said little — said nothing, in- 
 deed, that an anxious kinsman lover could lay 
 hold of. But when the secret was hers she 
 donned coat and headgear and went out on the 
 square-railed platform, whither the Reverend 
 Billy dared not follow her. 
 
 But another member of the Rosemary group 
 had more courage — or fewer scruples. When 
 Miss Carteret let herself out of the rear door, 
 Jastrow disappeared in the opposite direction, 
 passing through the forward vestibule and 
 dropping cat-like from the step to inch his 
 way silently over the treacherous snow-crust 
 to a convenient spying place at the other end 
 of the car. 
 
 Unfortunately for the spying purpose, the 
 shades were drawn behind the two great win- 
 143 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 dows and the glass door, but the starlight suf- 
 ficed to show the watcher a shadowy Miss Vir- 
 ginia standing motionless on the side which 
 gave her an outlook down the canyon, leaning 
 out, it might be, to anticipate the upcoming 
 of some one from the construction camp be- 
 low. 
 
 The secretary, shivering in the knife-like 
 wind slipping down from the bald peaks, had 
 not long to wait. By the time his eyes were 
 fitted to the darkness he heard a man coming 
 up the track, the snow crunching frostily un- 
 der his steady stride. Jastrow ducked under 
 the platform and gained a viewpoint on the 
 other side of the car. The crunching foot- 
 falls had ceased, and a man was swinging him- 
 self up to the forward step of the Rosemary. 
 At the instant a voice just above the spy's 
 head called softly, "Mr. Winton!" and the 
 new-comer dropped back into the snow and 
 came tramping to the rear. 
 
 It was an awkward moment for Jastrow; 
 but he made shift to dodge again, and so to 
 be out of the way when the engineer drew him- 
 144 
 
THE BLOCK SIGNAL 
 
 self up and climbed the hand-rail to stand be- 
 side his summoner. 
 
 The secretary saw him take her hand and 
 heard her exclamation, half indignant, wholly 
 reproachful : 
 
 "You had my note : I told you not to come !" 
 
 "So you did, and yet you were expecting 
 me," he asserted. He was still holding her 
 hand, and she could not — or did not — with- 
 draw it. 
 
 "Was I, indeed !" There was a touch of the 
 old-time raillery in the words, but it was gone 
 when she added: "Oh, why will you keep on 
 coming and coming when you know so well 
 what it means to you and your work ?" 
 
 "I think you know the answer to that bet- 
 ter than any one," he rejoined, his voice 
 matching hers for earnestness. "It is because 
 I love you; because I could not stay away if 
 I should try. Forgive me, dear; I did not 
 mean to speak so soon. But you said in your 
 note that you would be leaving Argentine im- 
 mediately — that I should not see you again: 
 so I had to come. Won't you give me a word, 
 145 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 Virginia? — a waiting word, if it must be 
 that?" 
 
 Jastrow held his breath, hope dying within 
 him and sullen ferocity crouching for the 
 spring if her answer should urge it on. But 
 when she spoke the secretary's anger cooled 
 and he breathed again. 
 
 "No: a thousand times, no!" she burst out 
 passionately ; and Winton staggered as if the 
 suddenly-freed hand had dealt him a blow. 
 
 146 
 
SPIKED SWITCHES 
 
 For a little time after Virginia's passionate 
 rejection of him Winton stood abashed and 
 confounded. Weighed in the balance of the 
 after-thought, his sudden and unpremeditated 
 declaration could plead little excuse in encour- 
 agement. And yet she had been exceedingly 
 kind to him. 
 
 "I have no right to expect a better answer," 
 he said finally, when he could trust himself to 
 speak. "But I am like other men: I should 
 like to know why." 
 
 "You can ask that?" she retorted. "You 
 say you have no right: what have you done 
 to expect a better answer?" 
 
 He shrugged. "Nothing, I suppose. But 
 you knew that before." 
 
 "I only know what you have shown me dur- 
 ing the past three weeks., and it has proved 
 147 
 
A FOOL FOU LOVE 
 
 that jou arc what Mr. Adams said you were — 
 though he was only jesting." 
 
 "And that is?" 
 
 "A faineant, a dilettante; a man with all 
 the God-given ability to do as lie will and to 
 succeed, and yet who will not take the trouble 
 to persevere." 
 
 Winton smiled, a grim little smile. 
 
 "You are not quite like any other woman I 
 have ever known — not like any other in the 
 world, I believe. Your sisters, most of them, 
 would take it as the sincerest homage that a 
 man should neglect his work for his love. Do 
 you care so much for success, then ?" 
 
 "For the thing itself — notliing, less than 
 nothing. But — but one may care a little for 
 the man who wins or loses." 
 
 He tried to take her hand again, tried and 
 failed. 
 
 "Virginia! — is that my word of hope?" 
 
 "No. Will you never see the commonplace 
 
 effrontery of it, Mr. Winton? Day after day 
 
 you have come here, idling away the precious 
 
 hours that meant everything to you, and now 
 
 148 
 
SPIKED SAV ITCHES 
 
 iffain to offer me a share in 
 what you have lost. Is that your idea of chiv- 
 alry, of true manhood?" 
 
 Again the grim smile came and went. 
 
 "An unprejudiced onlooker might say that 
 you have made me very welcome." 
 
 "Mr. Winton ! Is that generous ?" 
 
 "No; perhaps it is hardly just. Because I 
 counted the cost and have paid the price open- 
 eyed. You may remember that I told you that 
 first evening I should come as often as I dared. 
 I knew then, what I have known all along: 
 that it was a part of your uncle's plan to delay 
 my work." 
 
 "Kis and mine, you mean ; only you are too 
 kind — or not quite brave enough — to say so." 
 
 "Yours? Never! If I could believe you 
 capable of such a things — " 
 
 "You may believe it," she broke in. "It was 
 I who suggested it." 
 
 He drew a deep breath, and she heard his 
 
 teeth come together with a click. It was 
 
 enough to try the faith of the loyalest lover: 
 
 it tried bis sorely. Yet he scarcely needed her 
 
 149 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 low-voiced, "Don't you despise me as I de- 
 serve, now?" to make him love her all the 
 more. 
 
 "Indeed, I don't. Resentment and love can 
 hardly find room in the same heart at the same 
 time, and I have said that I love you," he re- 
 joined quickly. 
 
 She went silent at that, and when she spoke 
 again the listening Jastrow tuned Ins ear 
 afresh to lose no word. 
 
 "As I have confessed, I suggested it: it was 
 j ust after I had seen your men and the sheriff's 
 ready to fly at one another's throats. I was 
 miserably afraid, and I asked Uncle Somerville 
 if he could not make terms with you in some 
 other way. I didn't mean — " 
 
 He made haste to help her. 
 
 "Please don't try to defend your motive to 
 me ; it is wholly unnecessary. It is more than 
 enough for me to know that you were anxious 
 about my safety." 
 
 But she would not let him have the crumb 
 of comfort undisputed. 
 
 "There were other lives involved besides 
 150 
 
SPIKED SWITCHES 
 
 yours. I didn't say I was specially afraid for 
 you, did I?" 
 
 "No, but you meant it. And I thought 
 afterward that I should have given you a hint 
 in some way, though the way didn't offer at 
 the time. There was no danger of bloodshed. 
 I knew — we all knew — that Deckert wouldn't 
 go to extremities with the small force he had." 
 
 "Then it was only a — a — " 
 
 "A bluff," he said, supplying the word. "If 
 I had believed there was the slightest possibil- 
 ity of a fight, I should have made my men take 
 to the woods rather than let you witness it." 
 
 "You shouldn't have let me waste my sym- 
 pathy," she protested reproachfully. 
 
 "I'm sorry; truly, I am. And you have 
 been wasting it in another direction as well. 
 To-night will see the shale-slide conquered 
 definitely, I hope, and three more days of 
 good weather will send us into the Carbonate 
 yards." 
 
 She broke in upon him with a little cry of 
 impatient despair. 
 
 "That shows how unwary you have been! 
 151 
 
A FOOL FOE LOVE 
 
 Tell me: is there not a little valley just above 
 here — an open place where your railroad and 
 Uncle Somerville's run side by side?" 
 
 "Yes, it is a mile this side of the canyon 
 head. What about it?" 
 
 "How long is it since you have been up 
 there?" she queried. 
 
 Winton stopped to think. "I don't know— 
 a week, possibly." 
 
 "Yet if you had not been coming here every 
 evening, you or Mr. Adams would have found 
 time to go — to watch every possible chance of 
 interference, wouldn't you?" 
 
 "Perhaps. That was one of the risks I took, 
 a part of the price-paying I spoke of. If any- 
 thing had happened, I should still be unre- 
 pentant." 
 
 "Something has happened. While you have 
 been taking things for granted, Uncle Somer- 
 ville has been at work day and night. He has 
 built a track right across yours in that little 
 valley, and he keeps a train of cars or some- 
 thing, filled with armed men, standing there 
 all the time !" 
 
 152 
 
SPIKED SWITCHES 
 
 Winton gave a low whistle. Then he 
 laughed mirthlessly. 
 
 "You are quite sure of this?" he asked. 
 "There is no possibility of your being mis- 
 taken?" 
 
 "None at all," she replied. "And I can 
 only defend myself by saying that I didn't 
 know about it until a few minutes ago. 
 What is to be done ? But stop ; you needn't 
 tell me. I am not worthy of your confi- 
 dence." 
 
 "You are; you have just proved it. But 
 there isn't anything to be done. The next 
 thing in order is the exit of one John Winton 
 in disgrace. That spur track and engine 
 meaus a crossing fight which can be prolonged 
 indefinitely, with due vigilance on the part of 
 Mr. Darrah's mercenaries. I'm smashed, Miss 
 Carteret, thoroughly and permanently. Ah, 
 well, it's only one more fool for love. Hadn't 
 we better go in? You'll take cold standing 
 out here." 
 
 She drew herself up and put her hands be- 
 hind her. 
 
 153 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 "Is that the way you take it, Mr. Winton?" 
 
 The acrid laugh came again. 
 
 "Would you have me tear a passion to tat- 
 ters? My ancestors were not French." 
 
 Trying as the moment was, she could not 
 miss her opportunity. 
 
 "How can you tell when you don't know 
 your grandfather's middle name?" she said, 
 half crying. 
 
 His laugh at this was less acrid. "Adams 
 again? My grandfather had no middle name. 
 But I mustn't keep you out here in the cold 
 talking genealogies." 
 
 His hand was on the door to open it for her. 
 Like a flash she came between, and her fingers 
 closed over his on the door-knob. 
 
 "Wait," she said. "Have I done all this — 
 humbled myself into the very dust — to no pur- 
 
 pose 
 
 ?M 
 
 "Not if you will give me the one priceless 
 word I am thirsting for." 
 
 "Oh, how shameless you are!" she cried. 
 "Will nothing serve to arouse the better part 
 
 of you?" 
 
 154 
 
SPIKED SWITCHES 
 
 "There is no better part of any man than 
 his love for a woman. You have aroused 
 that." 
 
 "Then prove it by going and building your 
 railroad, Mr. Winton. When you have done 
 that—" 
 
 He caught at the word as a drowning man 
 catches at a straw. 
 
 "When I have won the fight — Virginia, let 
 me see your eyes — when I have won, I may 
 come back to you ?" 
 
 "I didn't say anything of the kind ! But I 
 will say what I said to Mr. Adams. I like 
 men who do things. Good night." And be- 
 fore he could reply she had made him open 
 the door for her, and he was left alone on the 
 square-railed platform. 
 
 In the gathering-room of the private car 
 Virginia found an atmosphere surcharged 
 with electrical possibilities, felt it and inhaled 
 it, though there was nothing visible to indicate 
 it. The Rajah was buried in the depths of 
 his particular easy-chair, puffing his cigar; 
 Bessie had the Reverend Billy in the tete-a- 
 155 
 
A FOOL, FOB. LOVE 
 
 tcte contrivance ; and Mrs. Carteret was read- 
 ing under the Pintsch drop-light at the table. 
 
 It was the chaperon who applied the firing 
 spark to the electrical possibilities. 
 
 "Didn't I hear you talking to some one out 
 on the platform, Virginia?" she asked. 
 
 "Yes, it was Mr. Winton. He came to make 
 his excuses." 
 
 Mr. Somerville Darrah awoke out of his to- 
 bacco reverie with a start. 
 
 "Hah !" he said fiercely. Then, in his most 
 courteous plirase : "Did I undehstand you to 
 say that Misteh Winton would not faveh us 
 to-night, my deah Virginia?" 
 
 "He could not. He has come upon — upon 
 some other difficulty, I believe," she stam- 
 mered, steering a perilous course among the 
 rocks of equivocation. 
 
 "Mmph!" said the Rajah, rising. "All — 
 where is Jastrow?" 
 
 The obsequious one appeared, imp-like, at 
 the mention of his name, and received a curt 
 order. 
 
 "Go and find Engineer McGrath and his 
 156 
 
SPIKED SWITCHES 
 
 fireman. Tell him I want the engine instant- 
 ly. Move, seh !" 
 
 Virginia retreated to her state-room. In a 
 few minutes she heard her uncle go out; and 
 shortly afterward the Rosemary's engine 
 shook itself free of the car and rumbled away 
 westward. At that, Virginia went back to 
 the others and found a book. But if waiting 
 inactive were difficult, reading was blankly 
 impossible. 
 
 "Goodness!" she exclaimed impatiently at 
 last. "How hot you people keep it in 
 here! Cousin Billy, won't you take a turn 
 with me on the station platform? I can't 
 breathe !" 
 
 Calvert acquiesced eagerly, scenting an op- 
 portunity. But when they were out under the 
 frosty stars he had the good sense to walk her 
 up and down in the healing silence and dark- 
 ness for five full minutes before he ventured to 
 say what was in his mind. 
 
 When he spoke it was earnestly and to the 
 purpose, not without eloquence. He loved 
 her ; had always loved her, he thought. Could 
 11 157 
 
A POOL FOE LOVE 
 
 she not, with time and the will to try, leam to 
 love him? — not as a cousin? 
 
 She turned quickly and put both hands on 
 his shoulders. 
 
 "Oh, Cousin Billy— don't!" she faltered 
 brokenly ; and he, seeing at once that he had 
 played the housebreaker where he would fain 
 have been the welcome guest, took his pun- 
 ishment manfully, drawing her arm in his 
 and walking her yet other turns up and down 
 the long platform until his patience and the 
 silence had wrought their perfect work. 
 
 "Does it hurt much?" she asked softly, 
 after a long time. 
 
 "You would have to change places with me 
 to know just how much it hurts," he answered. 
 "And yet you haven't left me quite desolate, 
 Virginia. I still have something left — all 
 I've ever had, I fancy." 
 
 "And that is—" 
 
 "My love for you, you know. It isn't at 
 all contingent upon your yes or no; or upon 
 possession — it never has been, I think. It has 
 never asked much except the right to be." 
 158 
 
SPIKED SWITCHES 
 
 She was silent for a moment. Then she 
 said : "Cousin Billy, I do believe that you are 
 the best man that ever lived. And I am 
 ashamed — ashamed !" 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 "If I have spoiled you, ever so little, for 
 some truer, worthier woman." 
 
 "You haven't," he responded ; "you mustn't 
 take that view of it. I am decently in love 
 with my work — a work that not a few wise 
 men have agreed could best be done alone. I 
 don't think there will be any other woman. 
 You see, there is only one Virginia. Shall we 
 go in now?" 
 
 She nodded, but when they reached the 
 Rosemary the returning engine was rattling 
 down upon the open siding. Virginia drew 
 back. 
 
 "I don't want to meet Uncle Somerville 
 just now," she confessed. "Can't we climb 
 up to the observation platform at the other 
 end of the car?" 
 
 He said yes, and made the affirmative good 
 by lifting her in his arms over the high rail- 
 159 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 ing. Once safely on the car, she bade him 
 leave her. 
 
 "Slip in quietly and they won't notice," she 
 said. "I'll come presently." 
 
 Calvert obeyed, and Virginia stood alone 
 in the darkness. Down in the Utah construc- 
 tion camp lights were darting to and fro; 
 and before long she heard the hoarse puffs of 
 the big octopod, betokening activities. 
 
 She was shivering a little in the chill wind 
 sliding down from the snow-peaks, yet she 
 would not go in until she had made sure. In 
 a little time her patience was rewarded. The 
 huge engine came storming up the grade on 
 the new line, pushing its three flat-cars, which 
 were black with clinging men. On the car 
 nearest the locomotive, where the dazzling 
 beam of the headlight pricked him out for 
 her, stood Winton, braced against the lurch- 
 ings of the train over the uneven track. 
 
 "God speed you, my — love !" she murmured 
 softly ; and when the gloom of the upper can- 
 yon cleft had engulfed man and men and 
 storming engine she turned to go in. 
 160 
 
SPIKED SWITCHES 
 
 She was groping for the door-knob in the 
 darkness made thicker by the glare of the 
 passing headlight when a voice, disembodied 
 for the moment, said: "Wait a minute, Miss 
 Carteret ; I'd like to have a word with you." 
 
 She drew back quickly. 
 
 "Is it you, Mr. Jastrow? Let me go in, 
 please." 
 
 "In one moment. I have something to say 
 to you — something you ought to hear." 
 
 "Can't it be said on the other side of the 
 door? I am cold — very cold, Mr. Jastrow." 
 
 It was his saving hint, but he would not 
 take it. 
 
 "Xo, it must be said to you alone. We 
 have at least one thing in common, Miss Car- 
 teret — you and I: that is a proper apprecia- 
 tion of the successful realities. I — " 
 
 She stopped him with a quick little gesture 
 of impatience. 
 
 "Will you be good enough to stand aside 
 and let me go in?" 
 
 The keen breath of the snow-caps was sum- 
 mer-warm in comparison with the chilling 
 161 
 
A FOOL FOR X, O V E 
 
 icincss of her manner; but the secretary went 
 on unmoved : 
 
 "Success is the only thing worth while in 
 this world. Winton will fail, but I slian't. 
 And when I do succeed, I shall marry a 
 woman who can wear the purple most becom- 
 ingly." 
 
 "I hope you may, I'm sure," she answered 
 wearily. "Yet you will excuse me if I say 
 that I don't understand how it concerns me, 
 or why you should keep me out here in the 
 cold to tell me about it." 
 
 "Don't you ? It concerns you very nearly. 
 You are the woman, Miss Carteret." 
 
 "Indeed? And if I decline the honor?" 
 
 The contingency was one for which the 
 suitor seemed not entirely prepared. Yet he 
 evinced a willingness to meet the hypothesis 
 in a spirit of perfect candor. 
 
 "You wouldn't do that, definitely, I fancy. 
 It would be tantamount to driving me to ex- 
 tremities." 
 
 "If you will tell me how I can do it 'defi- 
 nitely,' I shall be most happy to drive you 
 162 
 
SPIKED SWITCHES 
 
 to extremities, or anywhere else out of my 
 way," she said frigidly. 
 
 "Oh, I think not," he rejoined. "You 
 wouldn't want me to go and tell Mr. Darrah 
 how you hare betrayed him to Winton. I 
 had the singular good fortune to overhear 
 your conversation — yours and Winton's, you 
 know; ard if Mr. Darrah knew, he would cut 
 you out of his will with very little compunc- 
 tion, don't you think? And, really, you 
 mustn't throw yourself away on that Senti- 
 mental Tommy of an engineer, Miss Virginia. 
 He'll never be able to give you the position 
 you're fitted for." 
 
 Since French was a dead language to Mr. 
 Arthur Jastrow, he never knew what it was 
 that Miss Carteret named him. But she left 
 him in no doubt as to her immediate purpose. 
 
 "If that be the case, we would better go 
 and find my uncle at once," she said in her 
 softest tone: and before he could object she 
 had led the way to the Rajah's working-den 
 state-room. 
 
 Mr. Darrah was deep in one of the cipher 
 163 
 
A JOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 telegrams -when they entered, and he looked 
 up to glare fiercely at one and then the other 
 of the intruders. Virginia gave her perse- 
 cutor no time to lodge his accusation. 
 
 "Uncle Somerville, Mr. Winton was here 
 an hour ago, as you know, and I told him 
 what you had done — what I had helped you 
 do. Also, I sent him about his business; 
 which is to win his railroad fight if he can. 
 Mr. Jastrow overheard the conversation, pur- 
 posely, and as he threatens to turn informer, 
 I am saving him the trouble. Perhaps I 
 ought to add that he offered to hold Iris peace 
 if I would promise to marry him." 
 
 What the unlucky Jastrow might have said 
 in his own behalf is not to be here set down in 
 peaceful black and wliite. With the final 
 word of Virginia's explanation the fierce old 
 master of men was up and clutching for the 
 secretary's throat, and the working comple- 
 ment of the Rosemary suffered instant loss. 
 
 "You'll spy upon a membeh of my family, 
 will you, sell!" he stormed. "Out with you, 
 bag and baggage, befo' I lose my tempch and 
 164. 
 
SPIKED SWITCHES 
 
 forget what is due to this young lady you 
 have insulted, seh, with your infamous pro- 
 posals! Faveh me instantly, while you have 
 a leg to run with ! Go !" 
 
 Jastrow disappeared; and when the door 
 closed behind him Virginia faced her irate 
 clan-chief bravely. 
 
 "He was a spy, and he would have been a 
 traitor. But I am little better. What will you 
 do to me?" 
 
 The Rajah's wrath evaporated quickly, 
 and a shrewd smile, not unkindly, wrinkled 
 the ruddy old face. 
 
 "So it was a case of the trappeh trapped, 
 was it, my deah? I'm sorry — right sorry. I 
 might have known how it would be ; a young- 
 eh man would have known. But you have 
 done no unpahdonable mischief : Misteh Win- 
 ton would have found out for himself in a 
 few hours, and we are ready for him now." 
 
 "Oh, dear! Then he will be beaten?" 
 
 "Unquestionably. Faveh me by going to 
 bed, my deah. Your roses will suffeh sadly 
 for all this excitement, I feah. Good night." 
 165 
 
XI 
 
 THE EIGHT OF WAY 
 
 It seemed to Virginia that she had but just 
 fallen asleep when she was rudely awakened 
 by the jar and grind of the Rosemary's 
 wheels on snow-covered rails. Drawing the 
 curtain, she found that a new day was come, 
 gray and misty white in the gusty swirl of a 
 mountain snow-squall. 
 
 Without disturbing the sleeping Bessie, she 
 dressed quickty and slipped out to see what 
 the early-morning change of base portended. 
 The common room was empty when she en- 
 tered it, but before she could cross to the door 
 the Reverend Billy came in, stamping the 
 snow from his feet. 
 
 "What is it?" she asked eagerly. "Are we 
 off for California?" 
 
 "No, it's some more of the war. Winton 
 166 
 
THE RIGHT OF WAY 
 
 has outgeneraled us. During the night he 
 pushed his track up to the disputed crossing, 
 'rushed' the guarded engine, and ditched it." 
 
 Virginia felt that she ought to be decorous- 
 ly sorry for relationship's sake, but the effort 
 ended in a little paean of joy. 
 
 "But Uncle Somervilie — what will he do?" 
 
 "He is with McGrath on the engine, get- 
 ting himself — and us — to the front in a hur- 
 ry, as you perceive." 
 
 "Isn't it too late to stop Mr. Winton now ?" 
 
 "I don't know. From what I could over- 
 hear I gathered that the ditched engine is 
 still in the way; that they are trying to roll 
 it over into the creek. Bless me! McGrath 
 is getting terribly reckless!" — this as a spite- 
 ful lurch of the car flung them both across the 
 compartment. 
 
 "Say Uncle Somervilie," she amended. 
 "Don't charge it to Mr. McGrath. Can't we 
 go out on the platform?" 
 
 "It's as much as your life is worth," he as- 
 serted, but he opened the door for her. 
 
 The car was backing swiftly up the grade 
 167 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 with the engine behind serving as a "pusher." 
 At first the fiercely-driven snow-whirl made 
 Virginia gasp. Then the speed slackened and 
 she could breathe and see. 
 
 The shrilling wheels were tracking around 
 a curve into a scanty widening of the canyon. 
 To the left, on the rails of the new line, the 
 big octopod was heaving and grunting in the 
 midst of an army of workmen swarming thick 
 upon the overturned guard engine. 
 
 "Goodness! it's like a battle!" she shud- 
 dered. As she spoke the Rosemary stopped 
 with a jerk and McGrath's fireman darted 
 past to set the spur-track switch. 
 
 The points were snow-clogged, and the 
 fireman wrestled with the lever, saying words. 
 The delay was measurable in heart-beats, but 
 it sufficed. The big octopod coughed thrice 
 like a mighty giant in a consumption; the 
 clustering workmen scattered like chaff to a 
 ringing shout of "Stand clear!" and the ob- 
 structing mass of iron and steel rolled, wal- 
 lowing and hissing, into the stream. 
 
 "Rails to the front ! Hammermen !" yelled 
 168 
 
THE SIGHT OF WAY 
 
 Winton; and the scattered force rallied in- 
 stantly. 
 
 But now the wrestling fireman had thrown 
 the switch, and at the Rajah's command the 
 Rosemary shot out on the spur to be thrust 
 with locked brakes fairly into the breach left 
 defenseless by the ditched engine. With a 
 mob-roar of wrath the infuriated track-layers 
 made a rush for the new obstruction. But 
 Winton was before them. 
 
 "Hold on !" he shouted, bearing them back 
 with outflung arms. "Hold on, men, for 
 God's sake ! There are women in that car !" 
 
 The wrathful wave broke and eddied mur- 
 murous while a square-shouldered old man 
 with fierce eyes and huge white mustaches, 
 and with an extinct cigar between his teeth, 
 clambered down from the Rosemary's engine 
 to say : 
 
 "Hah! a ratheh close connection, eh, Mis- 
 teh Winton? Faveh me with a match, if you 
 please, seh. May I assume that you won't 
 tumble my private car into the ditch?" 
 
 Winton was white-hot, but he found a light 
 169 
 
A FOOL FOE. LOVE 
 
 for the Rajah's cigar, easing his mind only 
 as he might with Virginia looking on. 
 
 "I shall be more considerate of the safety 
 of the ladies than you seem to be, Mr. Dar- 
 rah," lie retorted. "You are taking long 
 chances in this game, sir." 
 
 The Rajah's laugh rumbled deep in his 
 chest. "Not so vehy much longer tlian you 
 have been taking during the past fo'tnight, 
 my deah seh. But neveh mind; all's fair in 
 love or war, and we appeah to be having a 
 little of both now up heah in Qua'tz Creek, 
 hah?" 
 
 Winton flushed angrily. It was no light 
 thing to be mocked before his men, to say 
 nothing of Miss Carteret standing within 
 arm's reach on the railed platform of the 
 Rosemary. 
 
 "Perhaps I shall give you back that word 
 before we arc through, Mr. Darrah," he 
 snapped. Then to the eddying mob-wave: 
 "Tools up, boys. We camp here for break- 
 fast. Branagan, send the Two-fifteen down 
 for the cook's outfit." 
 
 170 
 
THE RIGHT OF WAY 
 
 The Rajah dropped his cigar butt in the 
 snow and trod upon it. 
 
 "Possibly you will faveh us with your com- 
 pany to breakfast in the Rosemary, Misteh 
 Winton — you and Misteh Adams. No? 
 Then I bid you a vehy good morning, gentle- 
 men, and hope to see you lateh." And he 
 swung up to the steps of the private car. 
 
 Half an hour afterward, the snow still 
 whirling dismally, Winton and Adams were 
 cowering over a handful of hissing embers, 
 drinking their commissary coffee and munch- 
 ing the camp cook's poor excuse for a break- 
 fast. 
 
 "Jig's up pretty definitely, don't you 
 think?" said Adams, with a glance around at 
 the idle track force huddling for shelter un- 
 der the lee of the flats and the octopod. 
 
 Winton shook his head and groaned. "I'm 
 a ruined man, Morty." 
 
 Adams found his cigarette case. 
 
 "I guess that's so," he said quite heartless- 
 ly. Then: "Hello! what is our friend the 
 enemy up to now?" 
 
 171 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 McGrath's fireman was uncoupling the en- 
 gine from the Rosemary, and Mr. Somer- 
 ville Darrah, complacently lighting his after- 
 breakfast cigar, came across to the hissing 
 ember fire. 
 
 "A word with you, gentlemen, if you will 
 faveh me," he began. "I am about to run 
 down to Argentine on my engine, and I pro- 
 pose leaving the ladies in your cha'ge, Misteli 
 Winton. Will you give me your word of 
 honeh, seh, that they will not be annoyed in 
 my absence?" 
 
 Winton sprang up, losing his temper 
 again. 
 
 "It's — well, it's blessed lucky that you 
 know your man, Mr. Darrah!" he exploded. 
 "Go on about your business — which is to 
 bring another army of deputy-sheriffs down 
 on us, I take it. You know well enough tliat 
 no man of mine will lay a hand on your car 
 so long as the ladies are in it." 
 
 The Rajah thanked him, dismissed the mat- 
 ter with a Chesterfieldian wave of his hand, 
 climbed to his place in the cab, and the engine 
 172 
 
THE RIGHT OF WAY 
 
 shrilled away around the curve and disap- 
 peared in the snow-wreaths. 
 
 Adams rose and stretched himself. 
 
 "By Jove! when it comes to cheek, pure 
 and unadulterated, commend me to a Vir- 
 ginia gentleman who has acquired the proper 
 modicum of Western bluff," he laughed. 
 Then, with a cavernous yawn dating back to 
 the sleepless night: "Since there is nothing 
 immediately pressing, I believe I'll go and 
 call on the ladies. Won't you come along for 
 a while?" 
 
 "No !" said Winton savagely ; and the as- 
 sistant lounged off by himself. 
 
 Some little time afterward Winton, gloom- 
 ing over his handful of spitting embers, saw 
 Adams and Virginia come out to stand to- 
 gether on the observation platform of the 
 Rosemary. They talked long and earnestly, 
 and when Winton was beginning to add the 
 dull pang of unreasoning jealousy to his 
 other hurtings, Adams beckoned him. He 
 went, not unwillingly, or altogether willingly. 
 
 "I should think you might come and say 
 12 173 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 'Good morning' to me, Mr. Winton. I'm not 
 Uncle Somerville," said Miss Carteret. 
 
 Winton said "Good morning," not too 
 graciously, and Adams mocked him. 
 
 "Besides being a bear with a sore head, 
 Miss Carteret thinks you're not much of a 
 hustler, Jack," he said coolly. "She knows 
 the situation ; knows that you were stupid 
 enough to promise not to lay hands on the 
 car when we could have pushed it out of the 
 way without annoying anybody. None the 
 less, she thinks that you might find a way to 
 go on building your railroad without break- 
 ing your word to Mr. Darrah." 
 
 Winton put his sore-heartedness far 
 enough behind him to smile and say: "Per- 
 haps Miss Virginia will be good enough to 
 tell me how." 
 
 "I don't know how," she rejoined quickly. 
 "And you'd only laugh at me if I should tell 
 you what I thought of." 
 
 "You might try it and see," he ventured. 
 "I'm desperate enough to take suggestions 
 from any one." 
 
 174 
 
THE RIGHT OF WAY 
 
 "Tell me something first: is your railroad 
 obliged to run straight along in the middle of 
 this nice little ridge you've been making for 
 it?" 
 
 "Why — no; temporarily, it can run any- 
 where. But the problem is to get the track 
 laid beyond this crossing before your uncle 
 gets back with a trainload of armed guards." 
 
 "Any kind of track would do, wouldn't it? 
 — just to secure the crossing?" 
 
 "Certainly; anything that would hold the 
 weight of the octopod. We shall have to re- 
 build most of the line, anyway, as soon as the 
 frost comes out of the ground in the spring." 
 
 The brown eyes became far-seeing. 
 
 "I was thinking," she said musingly. 
 "There is no time to make another nice little 
 ridge. But you have piles and piles of logs 
 over there," — she meant the cross-ties, — 
 "couldn't you build a sort of cobhouse ridge 
 with those between your track and Uncle's, 
 and cross behind the car? Don't laugh, 
 please." 
 
 But Winton was far enough from laughing 
 175 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 at her. Why so simple an expedient had not 
 suggested itself instantly he did not stop to 
 inquire. It was enough that the Heaven-born 
 idea had been given. 
 
 "Down out of that, Morty !" he cried. "It's 
 one chance in a thousand. Pass the word to 
 the men; I'll be with you in a second." And 
 when Adams was rousing the track force with 
 the bawling shout of "Ev-erybody!" Winton 
 looked up into the brown e} T es. 
 
 "My debt to you was already very great : 
 I owe you more now," he said. 
 
 But she gave him his quittance in a whip- 
 like retort. 
 
 "And you will stand here talking about it 
 when every moment is precious? Go!" she 
 commanded; and he went. 
 
 So now we are to conceive the maddest ac- 
 tivity leaping into being in full view of the 
 watchers at the windows of the private car. 
 Winton's chilled and sodden army, welcom- 
 ing any battle-cry of action, flew to the work 
 with a will. In a twinkling the corded piles 
 of cross-ties had melted to reappear in cob- 
 176 
 
THE RIGHT OF WAY 
 
 house balks bridging an angle from the Utah 
 embankment to that of the spur track in the 
 rear of the blockading Rosemary. In briefest 
 time the hammermen were spiking the rails on 
 the rough-and-ready trestle, and the Italians 
 were bringing up the crossing-frogs. 
 
 But the Rajah, astute colonel of industry, 
 had not left himself defenseless. On the con- 
 trary, he had provided for this precise con- 
 tingency by leaving McGrath's fireman in me- 
 chanical command on the Rosemary. If Win- 
 ton should attempt to build around the pri- 
 vate car, the fireman was to wait till the criti- 
 cal moment: then he was to lessen the pres- 
 sure on the automatic air-brakes and let the 
 car drop back down the grade just far enough 
 to block the new crossing. 
 
 So it came about that this mechanical lieu- 
 tenant waited, laughing in lus sleeve, until he 
 saw the Italians coming with the crossing- 
 frogs. Then, judging the time to be fully 
 ripe, he ducked under the Rosemary to 
 "bleed" the air-brake. 
 
 Winton heard the hiss of the escaping air 
 177 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 above all the industry clamor ; heard, and saw 
 the car start backward. Then he had a flit- 
 ting glimpse of a man in grimy overclothes 
 scrambling terror-frenzied from beneath the 
 Rosemary. The thing done had been over- 
 done. The fireman had "bled" the air-brake 
 too freely, and the liberated car, gathering 
 momentum with every wheel-turn, surged 
 around the circling spur track and shot out 
 masterless on the steeper gradient of the main 
 line. 
 
 Now, for the occupants of a runaway car 
 on a Rocky Mountain canyon line there is 
 death and naught else. Winton saw, in a 
 phantasmagoric flash of second sight, the 
 meteor flight of the heavy car; saw the Rev- 
 erend Billy's ineffectual efforts to apply the 
 hand-brakes, if by good hap he should even 
 guess that there were any hand-brakes ; saw 
 the car, bounding and lurching, keeping to 
 the rails, mayhap, for some few miles below 
 Argentine, where it would crash headlong into 
 the upward climbing Carbonate train, and all 
 would end. 
 
 178 
 
THE RIGHT OF WAY 
 
 In unreasoning misery, he did the only 
 thing that offered : ran blindly down his own 
 embankment, hoping nothing but that he 
 might have one last glimpse of Virginia cling- 
 ing to the hand-rail before she should be lost 
 to him for ever. 
 
 But as he ran a thought white-hot from the 
 furnace of despair fell into his brain to set it 
 ablaze with purpose. Beyond the litter of 
 activities the octopod was standing, empty of 
 its crew. Bounding up into the cab, he re- 
 leased the brake and sent the great engine fly- 
 ing down the track of the new line. 
 
 In the measuring of the first mile the de- 
 spair-born thought took shape and form. If 
 he could outpace the runaway on the parallel 
 line, stop the octopod and dash across to the 
 C. G. R. track ahead of the Rosemary, there 
 was one chance in a million that he might fling 
 himself upon the car in mid flight and alight 
 with life enough left to help Calvert with the 
 hand-brakes. 
 
 Now, in the most unhopeful struggle it is 
 often the thing least hoped for that comes to 
 179 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 pass. At Argentine, Winton's speed was a 
 mile a minute over a track rougher than a 
 corduroy wagon-road; yet the octopod held 
 the rail and was neck and neck with the runa- 
 way. Whisking past the station, Winton had 
 a glimpse of a white-mustached old man 
 standing bareheaded on the platform and gaz- 
 ing horror-stricken at the tableau ; then man 
 and station and lurching car were left behind, 
 and the fierce strife to gain the needed mile of 
 lead went on. 
 
 Three miles more of the surging, racking, 
 nerve-killing race and Winton had his hand's- 
 breadth of lead and had picked his place for 
 the million-chanced wrestle with death. It 
 was at the C. G. R. station of Tierra Blanca, 
 just below a series of sharp curves which he 
 hoped might check a little the arrow-like flight 
 of the runaway. 
 
 Twenty seconds later the telegraph oper- 
 ator at the lonely little way station of Tierra 
 Blanca saw a heroic bit of man-play. The 
 upward-bound Carbonate train was whistling 
 in the gorge below when out of the snow- 
 180 
 
THE EIGHT OF WAY 
 
 wreaths shrouding the new line a big engine 
 shot down to stop with fire grinding from the 
 wheels, and a man dropped from the high cab 
 to dash across to the station platform. 
 
 At the same instant a runaway passenger 
 car thundered out of the canyon above. The 
 man crouched, flung himself at it in passing, 
 missed the forward hand-rail, caught the rear, 
 was snatched from his feet and trailed 
 through the air like the thong of a whip-lash, 
 yet made good Ms hold and clambered on. 
 
 This was all the operator saw, but when he 
 had snapped his key and run out he heard the 
 shrill squeal of the brakes on the car and knew 
 that the man had not risked lus life for noth- 
 ing. 
 
 And on board the Rosemary? Winton, 
 spent to the last breath, was lying prone on 
 the railed platform, where he had fallen when 
 the last twist had been given to the shrieking 
 brakes. 
 
 "Run, Calvert! Run ahead and — stop — 
 the — up-train!" he gasped; then the light 
 went out of the gray eyes and Virginia wept 
 181 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 unaffectedly and fell to dabbling his fore- 
 head with handfuls of snow. 
 
 "Help me get him in to the divan, Cousin 
 Bill} 7 ," said Virginia, when all was over and 
 the Rosemary was safely coupled in ahead of 
 the upcoming train to be slowly pushed back 
 to Argentine. 
 
 But Winton opened his eyes and struggled 
 to his feet unaided. 
 
 "Not yet," he said. "I've left my auto- 
 mobile on the other side of the creek ; and, be- 
 sides, I have a railroad to build. My respects 
 to Mr. Darrah, and you may tell him I'm not 
 beaten yet." And he swung over the railing 
 and dropped off to mount the octopod and to 
 race it back to the front. 
 
 Three da} r s afterward, to a screaming of 
 smelter whistles and other noisy demonstra- 
 tions of mining-camp joy, the Utah Short 
 Line laid the final rail of its new Extension in 
 the Carbonate yards. 
 
 The driving of the silver spike accom- 
 plished, Winton and Adams slipped out of the 
 182 
 
THE EIGHT OF WAY 
 
 congratulatory throng and made their way 
 across the C. G. R. tracks to a private car 
 standing along the siding. Its railed plat- 
 form, commanding a view of the civic celebra- 
 tion, had its quota of onlookers — a fierce-eyed 
 old man with huge mustaches, an athletic 
 young clergyman, two Bisques, and a goddess. 
 
 "Climb up, Misteh Winton, and you, 
 Misteh Adams; climb up and join us," said 
 the fierce-eyed one heartily. "Virginia, heah, 
 thinks we ought to call one anotheh out, but I 
 tell her—" 
 
 What the Rajah had told his niece is of 
 small account to us. But what Winton whis- 
 pered in her ear when he had taken Ins place 
 beside her is more to the purpose of tins his- 
 tory. 
 
 "I have built my railroad, as you told me 
 to, and now I have come for my — " 
 
 "Hush!" she said softly. "Can't you 
 wait?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Shameless one !" she murmured. 
 
 But when the Rajah proposed an adjourn- 
 183 
 
A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 ment to the gathering-room of the car, and to 
 luncheon therein, he surprised them stand- 
 ing hand-in-hand and laughed. 
 
 "Hah, you little rebel !" he said. "Do you 
 think you dese've that block of stock I prom- 
 ised you when you should marry? Anseh me, 
 my deah." 
 
 She blushed and shook her head, but the 
 brown eyes were dancing. 
 
 The Rajah opened the car door with his 
 courtliest bow. 
 
 "Nevertheless, you shall have it, my deah 
 Virginia, if only to remind an old man of the 
 time when he was simple enough to make a 
 business confederate of a cha'ming young 
 woman. Straight on, Misteh Adams; afteh 
 you, Misteh Winton." 
 
 184 
 
FAMOUS AUTHORS AND THEIR BOOKS 
 INCLUDED IN THIS SERIES 
 
 ECCENTRIC MR. CLARK 
 
 By JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 
 
 Author of "An Old Sweetheart of Mine," etc 
 
 THE PRINCESS ELOPES 
 
 By HAROLD MacGRATH 
 
 Author of " The Man on the Box," etc. 
 
 AS THE HEART PANTETH 
 
 By HALLIE ERMINIE RIVES 
 
 Author of "The Valiants of Virginia," etc. 
 
 ROSALYNDE'S LOVERS 
 
 By MAURICE THOMPSON 
 
 Author of "Alice of Old Vincennes," etc 
 
 THE HOUSE IN THE MIST 
 
 By ANNA KATHARINE GREEN 
 
 Author of "The Leavenworth Case," etc. 
 
 TROLLEY FOLLY 
 
 By HENRY WALLACE PHILLIPS 
 
 Author of "Red Saunders," etc. 
 
 MOTORMANIACS 
 
 By LLOYD OSBOURNE 
 
 Author of "A Person of Some Importance," etc 
 
 THE FIFTH STRING 
 
 By JOHN PHILIP SOUSA 
 
 Author of " Pipetown Sandy," etc 
 
 CHIMES FROM A JESTER'S BELLS 
 
 By ROBERT J. BURDETTE 
 
 Author of "Old Time and Young Tom," etc 
 
 A GUEST AT THE LUDLOW 
 
 By BILL NYE 
 
 Author of "Baled Hay," etc. 
 
 FOUR IN FAMILY 
 
 By FLORIDA POPE SUMERWELL 
 A FOOL FOR LOVE 
 
 By FRANCIS LYNDE 
 
 Author of "The Grafters," etc