And on board the Rosemary? Winton, spent to the last breath, was lying prone on the railed platform, where he had fallen when the last twist had been given to the shrieking brakes.
“Run, Calvert! Run ahead and—stop—the—up-train!” he gasped; then the light went out of the gray eyes and Virginia wept unaffectedly and fell to dabbling his forehead with handfuls of snow.
“Help me get him in to the divan, Cousin Billy,” said Virginia, when all was over and the Rosemary was safely coupled in ahead of the upcoming train to be slowly pushed back to Argentine.
But Winton opened his eyes and struggled to his feet unaided.
“Not yet,” he said. “I've left my automobile on the other side of the creek; and besides, I have a railroad to build. My respects to Mr. Darrah, and you may tell him I'm not beaten yet.” And he swung over the railing and dropped off to mount the octopod and to race it back to the front.
Three days afterward, to a screaming of smelter whistles and other noisy demonstrations of mining-camp joy, the Utah Short Line laid the final rail of its new Extension in the Carbonate yards.
The driving of the silver spike accomplished, Winton and Adams slipped out of the congratulatory throng and made their way across the C. G. R. tracks to a private car standing along the siding. Its railed platform, commanding a view of the civic celebration, had its quota of onlookers—a fierce-eyed old man with huge mustaches, an athletic young clergyman, two Bisques, and a goddess.
“Climb up, Misteh Winton, and you, Misteh Adams; climb up and join us,” said the fierce-eyed one heartily. “Virginia, heah, thinks we ought to call one anotheh out, but I tell her—”
What the Rajah had told his niece is of small account to us. But what Winton whispered in her ear when he had taken his place beside her is more to the purpose of this history.