intervals a train would rumble in the distance, slowly coming nearer,
until with a roar that swallowed all the other noises it was past. The arc
lamps glowed and buzzed over the heads of the sweating, grunting men, as
they came along the path, gang after gang, lifting an end of a heavy stick
to the level of the steadily rising pile, and sliding it home.

Bannon knew from long experience how to pile the different sizes so that
each would be ready at the hands of the carpenters when the morning
whistle should blow. He was all about the work, giving a hand here, an
order there, always good-humored, though brusque, and always inspiring the
men with the sight of his own activity.

Toward the middle of the evening Vogel came up from the wharf with a
question. As he was about to return, Bannon, who had been turning over in
his mind the incident of the section boss, said:--

"Wait a minute, Max. What about this railroad business--have they bothered
you much before now?"

"Not very much, only in little ways. I guess it's just this section boss
that does it on his own hook. He's a sort of a fool, you know, and he's
got it into his head that we're trying to do him some way."

Bannon put his hands into his pockets, and studied the checkered pattern
in the ground shadow of the nearest arc lamp. Then he slowly shook his
head.

"No," he said, "that ain't it. He's too big a fool to do much on his own
hook. He's acting on orders of some sort, and that's just what I don't
understand. As a general thing a railroad's mighty white to an elevator.