“Any man who knows enough to shovel coal will do,” he said.
“But no one will want to take such long chances, Mr. Oakley. Baker said it was just plain suicide.”
“Hell!” and Dan swore like a brakeman out of temper, in the bad, thoughtless manner of his youth.
At the same moment a heavy, slouching figure emerged from the shadow at the opposite end of the freight car, and came hesitatingly towards the two men. Then a voice said, in gentle admonition:
“Don't swear so, Dannie. It ain't right. I'll go with you.”
It was his father.
CHAPTER XXIV
ANTIOCH had grown indifferent to forest fires, They were of almost annual recurrence, and the town had come to expect them each fall. As the Hon. Jeb Barrows remarked, with cheerful optimism, voicing a popular belief, if it was intended Antioch should go that way it would have gone long ago.