“I do,” fervently agreed Joshua. “But I’ll probably never get it. I expect my big idea will prove a frost.”
“I’ll see that you get a chance to try it, anyway,” Madge promised.
As she took her leave Dr. J. Miles Stanhope came in with Joshua’s slim mail—a scientific magazine and a letter from the land office. The letter informed him that his claim to a hundred and sixty acres in the San Antonio Mountains had been allowed.
CHAPTER XXII
HERCULES AND HIS FIREBRAND
TEN days after Shanty Madge visited Joshua Cole in the hospital he left that highly efficient institution and wended his slow way to Camp One. It was in the morning. He at once inquired for Mr. Demarest, and was told that he was at the Mundys’ Camp. Joshua was obliged to wait until afternoon, when a freighter would be traveling down the line, before continuing his journey to the scene of the slide, for he dared not attempt such a walk in his weakened condition.
He saw Bluenose and the other members of his crew and asked if they would go to the camp of Shanty Madge and work under his instructions, provided Demarest, Spruce and Tillou gave consent. He wanted men whom he knew and could in a measure place confidence in; and, though they laughed at him, all three promised to go if called upon.
At one o’clock in the afternoon the freighter set off, with Joshua perched on the high seat beside him, and shortly after two the passenger alighted and worked his slow way up to the tunnel in search of Demarest or Spruce.
He found both contractors at the tunnel’s mouth, talking with Shanty Madge and the engineers. The forest all about the grade had been laid low by axmen, and the great logs snaked into the tunnel in a vain effort to stem the tide of rotten stone and slush. Thousands upon thousands of dollars had been expended with no result, and in construction centers Shanty Madge’s tunnel had become famous for out-and-out obstinacy throughout the length and breadth of the land.
Madge saw him coming and ran to meet him, her brown hand outstretched. The engineers and the main contractors looked on with wide eyes, for Joshua, since he had been shot, had gained a certain prominence, and the men doubtless wondered what could be the connection between the girl and this construction stiff.
“Oh, but I’m glad to see you out again!” Madge was saying, and she permitted him to hold her hand rather longer than was necessary. But, then, Joshua had been wounded, it will be remembered. “There are your enemies, and they’re eyeing us rather oddly,” she whispered. “Buck right up to ’em, old kid! I think I’ll call you that now and then,” she laughed. “You and I are only kids, after all. And I, for one, have become tired of playing grown up. Go right at Demarest with your proposition. I’ll back you up. I’m still manager of this camp.”