fact," he protested. "I think the governor owes me something. I
worried through the Tech because he insisted that I should have a
profession; and now I am going in for field work with you in a howling
winter wilderness because he insists on a practical 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
outlook of the gray eyes and the firm, smooth-shaven jaw to the square
fingertips of the strong hands, and his smile was of good-natured
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 sending 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 tomorrow--"

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-eyed, with wavy
masses of flaxen hair caught up from a face which might have served
as a model for the most exquisite bisque figure that ever came out