Part 19 (2/2)

Jo set the heavy brake and called to her ten to stop. Hearing her command, Hiram also halted his blacks. The rest of the skinners moved on slowly down the mountain, looking back for Jo's signal for them to stop. She gave none, however, so they continued on.

”Who is repairing this road, please?” Jo called from her wagon to a group of men.

One of them approached her a few steps. ”Fella called Drummond,” he replied.

”Isn't he the automobile-truck man from San Francisco?”

”Yeah.”

”Is he here?”

”No, ma'am. He come to Julia and got us to come over here in a machine and go to work, and he went back to Los Angeles, I think. Said he'd be out in a day or two.”

”Thank you,” said Jo, and threw off her brake.

There was no good opportunity for Hiram to talk over this matter with her until they had left the mountains and were in camp at the desert ranch. ”I don't quite like it,” Jo said then. ”It seems that Mr.

Drummond should have come to me in this matter, and if the road needed repairing to the extent that he is doing it we should share the expense between us.”

”Drummond?” queried Hiram. ”I think I know that man. I've seen him, anyway.”

”You! Where?”

”In San Francisco. It seems that Tweet was in a restaurant there talking to a--a waitress about coming down here. This Drummond he--he knew that waitress, and came in to see her while Tweet was there. They got to talking it over, I guess, and Tweet told him all about the new railroad. The waitress told me----”

”You mean Lucy?”

Hiram's face reddened. ”That was her name,” he admitted. ”I--I suppose Tweet told you about her.”

”A little. But I interrupted.”

”Well, Lucy said Drummond had been interested in what Tweet had to say, and he said he might look into the freighting possibilities of the new road. He's got a string of trucks, I was told.”

”What sort of a man is he, Hiram?”

”Big fellow--always seems to be having fun. He's as big as I am, but not so awkward, I guess. He wears fine clothes. But I don't know anything about him at all. I never spoke to him.”

The outfit reached Julia in the course of time, and found that ”Blacky”

Potts had set up his shop in a large circular tent, and was hammering away briskly on his anvil. Also he had made the camp snug and comfortable under whispering cottonwood, and had fenced off a corral with barbed wire.

Jo at once went to the Mulligan Supply Company to learn that a message had come to her, in their care, from Demarest. It stated that their big construction outfit was then on its way from northern California, and would cross to the new railroad from a point seventy-five miles to the north. In view of the long trip, they wished to travel as light as possible. Consequently there was another big order for Jo to freight in ahead of them at once. What interested Jo more, though, was the fact that Demarest ordered it delivered at the b.u.t.tes, asking that a watchman be camped there to guard the supplies, provided they arrived ahead of the outfit.

Immediately they went to work at the loading, and in the end six wagons were carrying capacity. The seventh lead wagon was an extra, which Jo had decided to use only in case of a breakdown. With thirty tons of hay, grain, case goods, and barreled provisions they started back early the following morning. Jo's heart was light, for this was exceedingly good business, and it was coming faster than she had dared to hope, with so few camps established. Still, she was puzzled over the repairing of the mountain road.

”Fellow called Drummond has a big order to haul in trucks,” the manager of the supply company had told her. ”It's for a store that's going to open up at Ragtown, I understand. Guess he'll get it out tomorrow or next day.”

All went well with the wagon train during the first lap of the desert trip. Hiram rode with his employer, and their migratory inst.i.tution of learning was in full swing. Then when they reached the beginning of the mountain pa.s.s they found a shock in store for them.

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