"So I see," replied Neale, constrainedly.
"I"ve a message for you from the chief," announced Campbell.
"The chief!" exclaimed Neale.
Larry edged closer to them, with the characteristic hitch at his belt, and his eyes flashed.
"He asks as a personal favor that you come out to see him," replied Campbell.
Neale flushed. "General Lodge asks that!" he echoed. There was a slow heat stirring all through him.
"Yes. Will you go?"
"I--I guess I"ll have to," replied Neale. He did not feel that he was deciding. He had to go. But this did not prove that he must take up his old work.
Larry swung his hand on Neale"s shoulder, almost staggering him. The cowboy beamed.
"Go in to breakfast," he said. "Order for me, too. I"ll be back."
"You want to hurry," rejoined Campbell. "We"ve only a half-hour to eat an" catch the work-train."
Larry strode back toward the lodging-house. And it was Campbell who led Neale into the restaurant and ordered the meal. Neale"s mind was not in a whirl, nor dazed, but he did not get much further in thought than the remarkable circ.u.mstance of General Lodge sending for him personally.
Meanwhile Campbell rapidly talked about masonry, road-beds, washouts, and other things that Neale heard but did not clearly understand. Then Larry returned. He carried Neale"s bag, which he deposited carefully on the bench.
"I reckon you might as well take it along," he drawled.
Neale felt himself being forced along an unknown path.
They indulged in little further conversation while hurriedly eating breakfast. That finished, they sallied forth toward the station.
Campbell clambered aboard the work-train.
"Come on, Larry," he said.
And Neale joined in the request. "Yes, come," he said.
"Wal, seein" as how I want you-all to get on an" the rail-road built, I reckon I"d better not go," drawled Larry. His blue eyes shone warm upon his friend.
"Larry, I"ll be back in a day or so," said Neale.
"Aw, now, pard, you stay. Go back on the job an" stick," appealed the cowboy.
"No. I quit and I"ll stay quit. I might help out--for a day--just as a favor. But--" Neale shook his head.
"I reckon, if you care anythin" aboot me, you"ll sh.o.r.e stick."
"Larry, you"ll go to the bad if I leave you here alone," protested Neale.
"Wel, if you stay we"ll both go," replied Larry, sharply. He had changed subtly. "It"s in me to go to h.e.l.l--I reckon I"ve gone--but that ain"t so for you."
"Two"s company," said Neale, with an attempt at lightness. But it was a pretense. Larry worried him.
"Listen. If you go back on the job--then it "ll be all right for you to run in heah to see me once in a while. But if you throw up this chance I"ll--"
Larry paused. His ruddy tan had faded slightly.
Neale eyed him, aware of a hard and tense contraction of the cowboy"s throat.
"Well, what "ll you do?" queried Neale, shortly.
Larry threw back his head, and the subtle, fierce tensity seemed to leave him.
"Wal, the day you come back I"ll clean out Stanton"s place--jest to start entertainin" you," he replied, with his slow drawl as marked as ever it was.
A stir of anger in Neale"s breast subsided with the big, warm realization of this wild cowboy"s love for him and the melancholy certainty that Larry would do exactly as he threatened.
"Suppose I come back and beat you all up?" suggested Neale.
"Wal, thet won"t make a dam" bit of difference," replied Larry, seriously.
Whereupon Neale soberly bade his friend good-bye and boarded the train.
The ride appeared slow and long, dragged out by innumerable stops. All along the line laborers awaited the train to unload supplies. At the end of the line there was a congestion Neale had not observed before in all the work. Freight-cars, loaded with stone and iron beams and girders for bridge-work, piles of ties and piles of rails, and gangs of idle men attested to the delay caused by an obstacle to progress. The sight aggressively stimulated Neale. He felt very curious to learn the cause of the setback, and his old scorn of difficulties flashed up.
The camp Neale"s guide led him to was back some distance from the construction work. It stood in a little valley through which ran a stream. There was one large building, low and flat, made of boards and canvas, adjoining a substantial old log cabin; and cl.u.s.tered around, though not close together, were a considerable number of tents. Troopers were in evidence, some on duty and many idle. In the background, the slopes of the valley were dark green with pine and cedar.
At the open door of the building Neale met Baxter face to face, and that worthy"s greeting left Neale breathless and aghast, yet thrilling with sheer gladness.
"What"re you up against?" asked Neale.
"The boss "ll talk to you. Get in there!" Baxter replied, and pushed Neale inside. It was a big room, full of smoke, noise, men, tables, papers. There were guns stacked under port-holes. Some one spoke to Neale, but he did not see who it was. All the faces he saw so swiftly appeared vague, yet curious and interested. Then Baxter halted him at a table. Once again Neale faced his chief. Baxter announced something.
Neale did not hear the words plainly.
General Lodge looked older, sterner, more worn. He stood up.
"h.e.l.lo, Neale!" he said, offering his hand, and the flash of a smile went over his grim face.
"Come in here," continued the chief, and he led Neale into another room, of different aspect. It was small; the walls were of logs; new boards had been recently put in the floor; new windows had been cut; and it contained Indian blankets, chairs, a couch.
Here General Lodge bent a stern and piercing gaze upon his former lieutenant.
"Neale, you failed me when you quit your job," he said. "You were my right-hand man. You quit me in my hour of need."
"General, I--I was furious at that rotten commissioner deal," replied Neale, choking. What he had done now seemed an offense to his chief. "My work was ordered done over!"
"Neale, that was nothing to what I"ve endured. You should have grit your teeth--and gone on. That five miles of reconstruction was nothing--nothing."
In his chief"s inflexible voice, in the worn, shadowed face, Neale saw the great burden, and somehow he was reminded of Lincoln, and a pa.s.sion of remorse seized him. Why had he not been faithful to this steadfast man who had needed him!