Adams, the plans of the party in the Rosemary contemplated nothing
more hasty than a leisurely trip to the Pacific coast--a pleasure
jaunt with a winter sojourn in California to lengthen it. Why, 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 his budget as well;
and so far as his own advices went, matters were still as they had
been. A letter from the Utah attorneys in Carbonate assured him that
the injunction appeal was not yet decided, and another from Chief of
Construction Evarts concerned itself mainly with the major's desire to
know when he was to be relieved.

But if Winton could have been an eavesdropper 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 "raising particular sand" because his wire order 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 going 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't
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 sending East for a professional
right-of-way fighteh to take his place? Who is this new man? Don't