sort of thing for you-all down here, after all. It relieves you of
the river market and it gives you a double chance to get out your
cotton. You don't have to haul your cotton twelve miles back to the
boat any more. Here is your station right at your door, and you can
load on the cars any day you want to."

"Oh, that's all right, that's all right. But this killing of my
stock?"

"Well, that's so," said the other, facing the point and ruminatingly
biting a splinter between his teeth. "It does look as if we had
killed about everything loose in the whole Delta during the last
month or so."

"Are you on this railroad?" asked Blount, suddenly.

"I reckon I'll have to admit that I am," said the other, smiling.

"Passenger agent, or something of that sort, I reckon? Well, let me
tell you, you change your road. Say, there was a man down below here
last week settling up claims--Bill! Ah-h, _Bill!_ Where you gone?"

"Yes," said Eddring, "it certainly did seem that when we built this
road every cow and every nigger, not to mention a lot of white folks,
made a bee-line straight for our right-of-way. Why, sir, it was a
solid line of cows and niggers from Memphis to New Orleans. How could
you blame an engineer if he run into something once in a while? He
couldn't _help_ it."

"Yes. Now, do you know what this claim settler, this claim agent man