“You are doing better than I expected when Dalton sent you along.”

“I imagine my recent activity would surprise my friends, and you’re a stranger.  However, I suppose I’ve got to keep it up so long as I work on the road.”

“That’s sure,” said the other dryly.  “Well, I didn’t think it prudent to give you much at first, and now I’ll mark you up an extra fifty cents.”

He stopped a few minutes, and when he went out Charnock laughed.  “Not a bad sort, but I’m puzzled by my satisfaction at getting three dollars more a week.  If I wanted a check not long since, I’d only to look penitent and go to Sadie.”

After this, they sat smoking quietly for a time, and then Charnock drew up his legs and frowned.

“What’s the matter?” Festing asked.

“Nothing much,” said Charnock.  “I’ve got a bit of a weakness I don’t think you know about.  Neuralgic, I imagine; it grips me here.”  He indicated the region between his belt and chest.  “Comes and goes when I’m not quite up to my proper form.”

“Then I expect jumping into the river and standing about in wet clothes brought it on.”

“No; I have had it before.  Besides, I’ve often been as wet; so have you.  Anyhow, the pain’s going, and there’s a thing I forgot to mention.  I met Wilkinson this afternoon.”

Festing knitted his brows.  “Wilkinson!  What do you think has brought him?”

“Chance and Sadie’s scheming.  I’ve cause to suspect she forced him off his ranch, though she would probably wish she hadn’t meddled if she knew she’d sent him here.  As he looked surprised when he saw me, I imagine he’d no particular object in coming, except that he wanted a job.”

“Did you speak to him?”

“I did not.  It’s very possible he’d have resented my remarks.  Then I was on the company’s business and the foreman was about.”

“Well,” said Festing thoughtfully, “it might be better to keep out of his way as far as you can.  I don’t know that he’s likely to do us harm, but wish he had gone somewhere else.”

They let the matter drop and talked about other things until they went to bed.  Next morning broke bracingly cold, but thin mist rolled among the pines a few hundred feet above the track.  For the most part the climate of the interior of British Columbia is dry, and there are belts where artificial irrigation is employed, but some of the valleys form channels for the moist winds from the Pacific.  Except in the bitter cold-snaps, it was seldom that the white peaks above the track were visible, and now something in the atmosphere threatened heavy rain.

Charnock began his work as usual with the gravel gang.  It was his business to spread the ballast thrown off the cars by the plow that traveled along the train, and although the labor was not exhausting it had tried his strength at first.  His muscles, however, were hardening, and until the last few days, he had been able to scatter heavy shovelfuls of stones with a dexterous jerk that distributed them among the ties.