“Do you know—is he well?”
“Yes, sir, I believe so. I saw him yesterday; he went up to Port Lenox.”
“Thank you, my boy, thank you. Do you happen to know whether he objects to having a railroad in the gap?”
“I think he does. I heard him say last night that—that—”
“Well?”
“Well, I don’t think he wants a railroad across his property. I think he’d like to see all the railroad stakes pulled out.”
“I’m sorry.”
After that, for some minutes, there was silence. The man seemed to be in deep thought, and Dannie pondered long over a question he desired to ask. At last he found courage to ask it.
“Is it wrong—is it against the law to pull out railroad stakes?”
“Well, I think the court would deal pretty severely with a person convicted of pulling out or destroying stakes set by an engineer.”