LITMIR.BIZ

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      "No," said Holman, slowly, "I don't know that I was. I thought perhaps the matter might be adjusted, and I'd like to ask your advice. Now, if you were locomotive foreman and you found that the foreman of this shop, in a dirty, low, underhanded fashion was discrediting you with the men, and furthermore flatly disobeyed your orders, what would you do, Mr. Rafferty?"

      By the time Holman had completed his arraignment, Rafferty was mad—fighting mad. "I'll tell you fwhat I'd do," he yelled, shaking a great horny fist under Holman's nose. "I'd plug him good an' hard, that's fwhat I'd do! See!"

      "Rather drastic," Holman commented after a pause, during which Rafferty drew back and with hands on hips stood scowling belligerently. "But ​desperate cases sometimes require desperate remedies, and I don't know—but—that—" his fist shot out and caught Rafferty fairly on the point of the jaw—you're right!"

      Rafferty, staggering back from the impact of the blow, set the table whirling. His feet went out from under him and he fell sprawling to the floor. As he picked himself up, Holman sprang toward him and swinging twice landed two vicious smashes on Rafferty's face. Then, except for a confused recollection of a rush of men, that was all Holman remembered until he opened his eyes to find himself in his bunk at headquarters with Carleton bending over him.

      "You're a sight," Carleton commented grimly. "What was the muss about?"

      Holman explained. "I took Rafferty's advice and plugged him, you see, and after that——"

      "After that if it hadn't been for old Joe, the turner, running over here to tell us, they'd have killed you. Don't you know any better than to stack up against Rafferty like that, let alone the whole gang? Did you expect to do them all up?"

      "No, not exactly. I expected there'd be something coming to me, but I had to do it. I'll admit, Carleton, I was in a blue funk, but I just had to. Moral effect, you know."

      "Yes," said Carleton savagely, "the moral effect is great! It will be as much as your life is worth to put your head inside those shops again. You don't know the men you're dealing with out here."

      ​"You're wrong, dead wrong, Carleton, I do. You said it was man to man, didn't you? Well, then, either I'm running the shops or Rafferty is. Rafferty has the men with him because he's a bully and they're afraid of him. It was mere force of habit made them pile on to me. You wait until they're cooled off a bit and see."

      But Carleton shook his head. "You're a bloomin' fool," he summed up judicially, "but here, shake! You've got your grit with you, if you did leave your sense behind."

      For the rest of the morning Holman nursed his injuries, but at one o'clock he was at his desk again. Five minutes afterward Rafferty came in. He was not a pretty sight with his cut lip and battered eye as he limped past both Spence and Holman. With a vindictive glare at the latter he marched straight across the room to where Carleton sat. He leaned both hands on the super's desk.

      "Ut'll be just a show-down, Mr. Carleton, that's all there is to ut. Me or him, which?" he announced.

      Carleton tilted his chair back, put his feet up on the desk and his thumbs in the armholes of his vest. "State your case, Rafferty," he said calmly.

      "Case!" Rafferty spluttered. "Case is ut? I'm sick av bein' bossed bye kids out av school that was buildin' blocks whin I was buildin' enjines. I quit or he does!" Rafferty jerked his thumb in Holman's direction.

      "Is that all you have to say, Rafferty?"

      "That's about the size av ut."

      ​"Very well, Rafferty, you can get your time," said Carleton quietly.

      For a moment Rafferty stared as though he had not heard aright, then he swung round on his heel only to turn again and face the super with a short laugh. "All right, Mr. Carleton, you're the docthor. It's satisfied I am. Whin I go out, every bloomin' man in the shops 'ull go out wid me!"

      Carleton's feet came off the desk like a shot, his chair came down to the floor with a bang, and the next instant he was standing in front of the boss fitter.

      "See here, Rafferty," he blazed, "you know me—the men know me. While I've held the bank there's been fifty-two cards in the case and every mother's son of you has had a square deal. You know it, don't you? No man on this division ever came to me with just cause for complaint but had a chance to state his grievance on a clear track and no limit on his permit either. Now, I'm entitled to the same line of treatment I hand out, and I won't stand for threats!"

      Rafferty shifted uneasily and to hide his confusion reached for his "chewing." "We've nothin' agin you, Mn Carleton, an' I'm givin' you fair warnin'," he mumbled as his teeth met in the plug.

      "When you make trouble on this division you make trouble for me," said Carleton bluntly. "As for warning, I give you warning now that if you start any disturbance in those shops it will be the worse for you. Now go!"

      They watched him through the windows as he ​crossed the tracks. Finally, as he disappeared inside the shops, Carleton turned with a grave face.

      "I'm afraid it's going to be a bad business," he said.

      "You don't mean to say," Holman burst out, "that the men are fools enough to quit just because one man with a grouch says so, do you?"

      "I told you that you didn't know the class of men out here—they're partisan to the core—it's bred in them. I'm not blaming you, Holman—not for a minute! As I said this morning, I've seen it coming for a long while—long before Williams gave up the ghost. Now it's here, we'll face the music, what?"

      "It's mighty good of you to say so, old man," said Holman, slowly, "but I've put you in a bad hole, and it's up to me to get you out of it. Inside of two weeks with the repair shops on strike our rolling stock won't be able to handle the traffic." He put on his hat and started for the door.

      "Where are you going?" Carleton demanded.

      "Rafferty's not going to have this all his own way. The men have no grievance, and I don't believe they'll follow him out if they're talked to right. I'm going over."

      "Not if I know it, you're not," said Carleton grimly. "There may be a coroner's inquest before this affair is settled, perhaps more than one if things get nasty, but I'm hanged if I propose starting in that way this afternoon."

      "That's all right," Holman replied doggedly. ​"Just the same, I'm—Eh? What's up, Carleton? What's wrong?"

      Spence had bent suddenly over the key, and Carleton, with a startled exclamation, was staring at the words the dispatcher was hastily scribbling on the pad. Holman leaned over the super's shoulder and even as he saw Carleton reach to plug in the telephone connection with the roundhouse, he read the message: "Number Two wrecked Eagle Pass. Send wrecker and medical assistance at once." The next instant he was flying across the yard to the shops.

      As he burst in through the door he was greeted with a snarl. The men were massed in a body around one of the locomotives in the fitting-shop, and Rafferty, from the cab, was talking in fierce, heated tones. At sight of the master mechanic he stopped short and with an oath leaped from his perch straight for Holman. The crowd divided, making a lane between the two men, then, with startling suddenness, breaking the ominous silence that had fallen, there came three short blasts from the shop whistle—the wrecker's signal. It halted Rafferty when but an arm's-length from the locomotive foreman. Then Holman spoke:

      "You hear that, men? Number Two has gone to glory up in Eagle Pass. You, Rafferty, get the wrecking crew together, quick! The rest of you get back to work."

      "You're a liar!" Rafferty yelled. "A measly, putty-faced, starch-shirted liar, d'ye hear? Ut's a plant! You can't work any sharp trick loike that on me!"

      ​There was a low, menacing growl from the men and they edged in close. But Holman gave them no heed; he took a step nearer Rafferty, looking straight into the other's eyes.

      "Rafferty," he said quietly, "you've a wife and kids, haven't you? And you're a railroad man, aren't you? Well, there's wives and kids and mates up there

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