Back to the Mountains

As the stage, getting down the high bank, lurched carefully along the
scraper ways of the yellow bed, shovellers, drivers, and water-boys
looked curiously at the unusual sight, and patient mules nosed meekly
the alert, nervous horses that dragged the stage along the uneven way.

At the lower end of the cut a more formidable barrier interposed. A
pocket of gravel on the eastern bank had slipped, engulfing a steam
shovel, and a gang of men were busy about it. On a level overlooking
the scene, in corduroy jackets and broad hats, stood two engineers. At
times one of them gave directions to a foreman whose gang was digging
the shovel out. His companion, perceiving the approach of the stage,
signalled the driver sharply, and the leaders were swung to the right
of the shovellers so that the stage was brought out on a level some
distance away.

Bucks first recognized the taller of the two men. "There's Glover," he
exclaimed. "Hello!" he called across the canal bed. "I didn't look
for you here." Glover lifted his hat and walked over to the stage.

"I came up last night to see Ed Smith about running his flume under
Horse Creek bridge. They cross us, you know, in the cañon there," said
he, in his slow, steady way. "Just as we got on the ponies to ride
down, this slide occurred----"

"Glad you couldn't get away. We want to see Ed Smith," returned Bucks,
getting down. The women were already greeting Glover, and avoiding
Gertrude's eye while he included her in his salutation to all, he tried
to answer several questions at once. Smith, the engineer in charge of
the canal, was talking with Bucks and Mr. Brock. On top of the stage
Doctor Lanning was trying to persuade Gertrude not to get down; but she
insisted.