She apparently
paid no heed to him until, just as he
was moving away, he said something
mockingly, and with a nod of his
head back towards the bridge. She
did not look up even then, but her
face got hard and white, and, looking
back from the road, I saw her slipping
through the bushes into the dry bed of
the creek, to make sure that what the
half-breed told her was true.
The two men were working side by
side on the railroad when I saw them
again, but on the first pay-day the doctor
was called to attend the Malungian,
whose head was split open with
a shovel. I was one of two who went
out to arrest his assailant, and I had
no need to ask who he was. The
mountaineer was a devil, the foreman
said, and I had to club him with a
pistol-butt before he would give in.
He said he would get even with me;
but they all say that, and I paid no
attention to the threat. For a week he
was kept in the calaboose, and when I
passed the shanty just after he was
sent to the county-seat for trial, I
found it empty. The Malungian, too,
was gone. Within a fortnight the
mountaineer was in the door of the
shanty again.
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