“We’ll find one,” said Neale, hopefully.

“Neale, you’re ambitious and you’ve the kind of spirit that never gives up.  I’ve watched your work from the start.  You’ll make a big position for yourself with this railroad, if you only live through the building of it.”

“Oh, I’ll live through it, all right,” replied Neale, laughing.  “I’m like a cat—­always on my feet—­and have nine lives besides.”

“You surely must!  How far did you fall this time?”

“Not far.  I landed in a tree, where my instrument stuck.  But I crashed down, and got a hard knock on the head.  When Larry found me I was unconscious and sliding for another precipice.”

“That Texan seems attached to you.”

“Well, if he wasn’t before he will be now,” said Neale, feelingly.  “I’ll tell you, General, Larry’s red-headed, a droll, lazy Southerner, and he’s made fun of by the men.  But they don’t understand him.  They certainly can’t see how dangerous he is.  Only I don’t mean that.  I do mean that he’s true like steel.”

“Yes, he showed that.  When the rope snapped I was sure he’d pull a gun on us....  Neale, I would like to have had you and Larry Red King with me through the war.”

“Thank you, General Lodge....  But I like the prospects now.”

“Neale, you’re hungry for wild life?”

“Yes,” replied Neale, simply.

“I said as much.  I felt very much the same way when I was your age.  And you like our prospects? ...  Well, you’ve thought things out.  Neale, the building of the U. P. will be hell!”

“General, I can see that.  It sort of draws me—­two ways—­the wildness of it and then to accomplish something.”

“My lad, I hope you will accomplish something big without living out all the wildness.”

“You think I might lose my head?” queried Neale.

“You are excitable and quick-tempered.  Do you drink?”

“Yes—­a little,” answered the young man.  “But I don’t care for liquor.”

“Don’t drink, Neale,” said the chief, earnestly.  “Of course it doesn’t matter now, for we’re only a few men out here in the wilds.  But when our work is done over the divide, we must go back along the line.  You know ground has been broken and rails laid west of Omaha.  The work’s begun.  I hear that Omaha is a beehive.  Thousands of idle men are flocking West.  The work will be military.  We must have the army to protect us, and we will hire all the soldiers who apply.  But there will be hordes of others—­the dregs of the war and all the bad characters of the frontier.  They will flock to the construction camp.  Millions of dollars will go along with the building.  Gold! ...  Where it’s all coming from I have no idea.  The Government backs us with the army—­that’s all.  But the gold will be forthcoming.  I have that faith....  And think, lad, what it will mean in a year or two.  Ten thousand soldiers in one camp out here in these wild hills.  And thousands of others—­honest merchants and dishonest merchants, whisky men, gamblers, desperadoes, bandits, and bad women.  Niggers, Greasers, Indians, all together moving from camp to camp, where there can be no law.”