“Don’t he want a railroad through his place?”
“Not ef the court knows herself, he don’t, nor through his gap nuther.”
“Does he own that gap?”
“Ain’t nobody else owned it fer forty year.”
The engineer looked back into the shadows cast by the beetling cliffs, and then up along his line of stakes.
“Well,” he replied, “all I have to say is, speaking from a railroad point of view, he’s got a valuable property.”
He glanced ahead at his flagman and directed him to a point farther up in the field, to which point, having fixed and recorded it, he himself hastened, followed by Gabriel and Dannie. Up to this moment the boy had not opened his mouth. Now, with the ring of rising indignation in his voice, he spoke up:—
“Has this railroad got a right to run through my gran’father’s land without his permission?”
Either the engineer was in haste and did not wish to be again interrupted, or else he did not think the boy of sufficient consequence to demand his attention; for, after looking him over for a moment, he went on with his work without replying.
Dannie repeated the question.