Taking General Casement, the chief “builder,” and General Rawlins, the guest of honor, and Division Engineer Evans, and the government officials, and the rest, including, of course, Terry, General Dodge proceeded west.
THE WAGON TRAIN
“By the time we return through here, there’ll be a town in full blast,” promised the general.
“We’re empire builders, not railroad builders,” laughed Mr. Corwith. “As we travel on, we leave towns where we tread.”
“I feel like a Columbus, myself,” young Mr. Duff declared. “Opening a new world.”
“Well, you know what Senator Benton said, twenty years ago. He proposed that where the first railroad crossed the Rocky Mountains the Government ought to carve a big figure of Christopher Columbus out of a peak, overlooking the rails east and west.”
“Yes, and when somebody called such a line a modern Colossus of Rhodes, another senator twisted it into Colossus of Rail-Roads!”
“When do we strike the pass, general?”
“We’ll be into it when we camp tonight. But I’ll wager that none of you will know the difference.”