General Lodge rode beside Colonel Dillon at the head of the troops.

They left camp on a trot, raising a cloud of dust, and quickly

disappeared round the curve of the hill. The troopers who were left

behind stacked their guns and sallied out after railroad ties with

which to build defenses. Anderson, the scout, rode up the slope to a

secluded point from which he was to keep watch. The women were

instructed to stay inside the log cabin that adjoined the flimsy

quarters of the engineers. Baxter, with his assistants, overhauled

the guns and ammunition left; and Neale gathered up all the maps and

plans and drawings and put them in a bag close at hand.

Time passed swiftly, and in another half-hour the graders began to

arrive. They came riding in bareback, sometimes two on one horse,

flourishing their guns--a hundred or more red-faced Irishmen

spoiling for a fight. Their advent eased Neale's dread. Still, a

strange feeling weighed upon him and he could not understand it or

shake it. He had no optimism for the moment. He judged it to be

over-emotion, a selfish and rather exaggerated fear for Allie's

safety.

Lieutenant Brady then departed with his soldiers, leaving the noisy

laborers to carry ties and erect bulwarks. The Irish, as ever,

growled and voiced their complaints at finding work instead of

fighting.

"Hurry an' fetch on yez dirn Sooz!" was the cry sent after Brady,

and that request voiced the spirit of the gang.

In an hour they had piled a fence of railroad ties, six feet high,

around the engineers' quarters. This task had scarcely been done

when Anderson was discovered riding recklessly down the slope.

Baxter threw up his hands.

"We're going to have it," he said. "Neale, I'm not so young as I

was."

Anderson rode in behind the barricade and dismounted. "Sioux!"

The graders greeted this information with loud hurrahs. But when

Anderson pointed out a large band of Sioux filing down from the

hilltop the enthusiasm was somewhat checked. It was the largest

hostile force of Sioux that Neale had ever seen. The sight of the

lean, wild figures stirred Neale's blood, and then again sent that

cold chill over him. The Indians rode down the higher slope and

turned off at the edge of the timber out of rifle-range. Here they

got off their mustangs and apparently held a council. Neale plainly

saw a befeathered chieftain point with long arm. Then the band

moved, disintegrated, and presently seemed to have melted into the

ground.