It was getting dark and noisy blast-lamps threw up pillars of white
fire. The line had sunk in the afternoon and it was necessary to lift
the rails and fill up the subsidence before the next gravel train
arrived. Lister was angry and puzzled, for he had pushed the road-bed
across to near the other side, but the rails had not sunk in the new
belt but in ground over which the trains had run.

By and by a man joined him and remarked: "The boys have got the ties up,
but I reckon they won't fix the track for three or four hours. Looks as
if the blamed muskeg was going to beat us."

"She can't beat us," Lister rejoined impatiently. "The trouble is,
hauling the stuff she swallows runs up construction costs, and that
counts against us. Did you leave Willis with the gang?"

The other laughed. "I did not. He was tired. Wanted something at the
office and allowed he'd stop and take a smoke."

"Hustle him out when you go along, Kemp. I'd sooner our chiefs down East
had kept that young man. The job's not soft enough for him. However, I
s'pose he lighted the lamp across the bridge?"

"Willis has friends," Kemp remarked meaningly, and indicated a
reflection behind the trees. "The lamp's burning."

Lister glanced at the trembling light. "I expect it's good enough for
the engineer, but the flame's not steady. Willis hasn't bothered to get
the pressure right. It's possible he didn't wait until she warmed the
oil."