" Lidgerwood forced himself
to say it, though his lips were curiously dry. "We are going to have
discipline on this railroad while we stay here, Mac; there are no two
ways about that."
McCloskey tilted his hat to the bridge of his nose, his characteristic
gesture of displeasure.
"I promised myself that I wouldn't join the gun-toters when I came out
here," he said, half musingly, "but I've weakened on that. Yesterday,
when I was calling Jeff Cummings down for dropping that new
shifting-engine out of an open switch in broad daylight, he pulled on me
out of his cab window. What I had to take while he had me 'hands up' is
more than I'll take from any living man again."
As in other moments of stress and perplexity, Lidgerwood was absently
marking little pencil squares on his desk blotter.
"I wouldn't get down to the desert level, if I were you, Mac," he said
thoughtfully.
"I'm down there right now, in self-defence," was the sober rejoinder.
"And if you'll take a hint from me you'll heel yourself, too, Mr.
Lidgerwood. I know this country better than you do, and the men in it.
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