The Doctor : a Tale of the Rockies | Page 8

which was the occasion for
an outburst of exhortations on the part of the boss, more or less
sulphurous, although the presence of the ladies interfered very
considerably with Tom's fluency in this regard. He worked his men like
galley slaves, and rowed them unmercifully. But for the most part they
took it all with good humour, though some few who had the misfortune
to fall specially under his tongue began to show signs that the lash had
bitten into the raw. The timbers of the last bent were specially heavy,
and the men, more or less fagged with their hard driving, didn't spring
to their work with the alacrity that Tom deemed suitable.
"At it, min!" he roared. "Snatch it alive! Begob, ye'd think it was plate
glass ye're liftin', ye're so tinder about it! Now thin! Togither-r-r--heave!
Once again, heave! Ye didn't git it an inch that time! Stidy there a
minute! Here you min on that pike, what in the blank, blank are ye
bunchin' in one ind loike a swarm av bees on a cowld day! Shift over
there, will ye!"
In obedience to the word two pike-poles were withdrawn at the same
moment, leaving only a single pike with Big Angus and two others to
sustain the full weight of the heavy timbers. Immediately the bent
swayed backward as if to fall upon the throng below. Some of the men
sprang back from under the huge bent. It was a moment of supreme
peril.
"Howld there, fer yer lives, ye divils!" howled Tom, "or the hull of ye'll
be in hell in two howly minutes."

At the cry Barney and Rory sprang to Angus's side and threw
themselves upon the pike. Immediately they were followed by others,
and the calamity was averted.
"Up wid her now thin, me lads, God bliss ye!" cried Tom. But there
was a new note in Tom's voice, the note that is heard when men stand
in the presence of serious danger. There was no more pause. The bent
was walked up to its place, pinned and made secure. Tom sprang down
from the building, his face white, his voice shaking. "Give me yer hand,
Barney Boyle, an' yours, Rory Ross, for be all the saints an' the Blessid
Virgin, ye saved min's lives this day!"
Around the two crowded the men, shaking their hands and clapping
them on the back with varied exclamations. "You're the lads!" "Good
boys!" "You're the stuff!" "Put it there!"
"What are ye doin' to us?" cried Rory at last; "I didn't see anything
happen. Did you, Barney?"
"We did, though," answered the crowd.
For once Tom Magee was silent. He walked about among the crowd
chewing hard upon his quid of tobacco, fighting to recover his nerve.
He had seen as no other of the men the terrible catastrophe from which
the men had been saved. It was Charley Boyle that again relieved the
strain.
"Did any of you hear the cowbell?" he said. "It strikes me it's not
quitting time yet. Better get your captains, hadn't you?"
"Rory and Tom for captains!" cried a voice.
"Not me, by the powers!" said Tom.
"Oh, come on, Tom. You'll be all right. Get your men."
"All right, am I? Be jabbers, I couldn't hit a pin onct in the same place,
let alone twice. By me sowl, min, it's a splash of blood an' brains I've

jist been lookin' at, an' that's true fer ye. Take Barney there. He's the
man, I kin tell ye."
This suggestion caught the crowd's fancy.
"Barney it is!" "Rory and Barney!" they yelled.
"Me!" cried Barney, seeking to escape through the crowd. "I have never
done anything but carry pins and braces at a raising all my life."
There was a loud laugh of scorn, for no man in all the crowd had
Barney's reputation for agility, nerve and quickness.
"Carry pins, is it?" said Tom. "Ye can carry yer head level, me boy. So
at it ye go, an' ye'll bate Rory fer me, so ye will."
"Well then," cried Barney, "I will, if you give me first choice, and I'll
take Tom here."
"Hooray!" yelled Tom, "I'm wid ye." So it was agreed, and in a few
minutes the sides were chosen, little Ben Fallows falling to Rory as last
choice.
"We'll give ye Ben," said Tom, whose nerve was coming back to him.
"We don't want to hog on ye too much."
"Never you mind, Ben," said Rory, as the little Englishman strutted to
his place among Rory's men. "You'll earn your supper to-day with the
best of them."
"If I cawn't hearn it I can heat it, by Jove!" cried Ben, to the huge
delight of the crowd.
And now the thrilling moment had arrived, for from