“By gravy!  Why didn’t you say that at first?  Say, Mr. Adair, you stand between us and Mr. North—­tell him you gave the orders yourself—­and you’ll have the ride of your life from here to Saint’s Rest!”

“Go it,” said Adair; and two minutes after Barclay had let himself out of the forward door of the “01,” the train took a sudden start and darted ahead at full speed.

This bit of diplomacy on the part of Adair saved two full hours in the run to Saint’s Rest.  Nevertheless, it was after dark when the “01” pulled into the crowded material yard in the high mountain basin and Leckhard came aboard to find out what had brought this second private-car visitation.  He was relieved not to meet North—­to be confronted only by a pleasant-faced young man who seemed to have the car all to himself.

“My name is Leckhard,” announced the man-of-all-work, “and I represent the engineering department.  I saw it was Mr. North’s car, and—­”

“And you came to see what you could do for the vice-president and general manager,” Adair finished for him.  “Mighty sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Leckhard, but my name isn’t North; it’s Adair, and I’m only a director.  How much authority is a director allowed—­at this altitude and distance from New York?”

Leckhard laughed.

“I reckon you might call yourself the ranking officer in the field, Mr. Adair.  What you say, goes.”

“Then I say ‘go’; which means that I’d like to go—­on to the end of the extension.”

But now the engineer was shaking his head.

“Ask me anything but that, Mr. Adair.  None of our enginemen is at this end of the line, and your man Williams, who brought you up from Denver, doesn’t know the way.  More than that, if we had a man and an engine, I’d be afraid to send you out for a night run.  Mr. Ford made it last night with Mr. Colbrith’s car, and they used up ten hours in covering less than a hundred and twenty miles, and came within six feet of killing everybody.”

Adair had lighted a cigarette, and he did not reply until the match flare had gone out.  Then he said, in a way that made Leckhard his friend for life: 

“I’m entirely in your hands, Mr. Leckhard; can’t turn a wheel unless you say so.  And I believe you’re telling me the truth, as man to man.  Can you reach Ford or Mr. Colbrith by wire?”

“I’m sorry to say I can’t.  We have only the one wire, and it’s on temporary poles most of the way.  It broke down on us this morning, and I can’t raise the end-of-track.”

“Block number two,” said Adair cheerfully.  “We seem to be out of luck this evening.”  Then, with searching abruptness:  “Do you call yourself Ford’s friend, Mr. Leckhard?”

“Rather,” said the Saint’s Rest Pooh Bah.  “He hired me; and when he goes, I go.”

“Ah! now we are warming ourselves at the same fire.  Let me invite your confidence in one word, Mr. Leckhard.  I dislike Mr. North.”