But presently, from a point well in advance of that where rails already
had been laid and upon which his attention had been concentrated because
of the machinery there, there came a mighty boom of dynamite. It
startled him so greatly that he sprang up, bewildered, ready for
whatever might be coming, but wholly at a loss as to just what the
threatening danger might be. His fright gave rise to jeering laughter
from the men who had been watching with a covert eye the rough,
determined looking mountaineer, squatting on the stump with rifle on
his arm. He turned on them so fiercely that they shrank back, terrified
by the look they saw in his grey eyes.

Then, noting that the noise had not appalled them in the least and
assuming that what was surely safe for them was safe enough for him, he
sauntered down the line, attempting to seem careless in his walk, until
he reached the gang which was busy at destruction of a high, obstructive
cropping of grey granite.

For hours he sat there watching them with curiosity. He saw them pierce
the rocks with hammered drills; he saw them then put in a small, round,
harmless looking paper cylinder which, of course, he knew held something
like gunpowder; he saw them tamp it down with infinite care, leaving
only a protruding fuse; he saw them light the fuse and scamper off to a
safe distance while he watched the sputtering sparks run down the fuse,
pause at the tamping, then, having pierced it, disappear. The great
explosions which succeeded were, at first, a little hard upon his
nerves, but he saw that those who compassed them did not flinch when
they came, and, after he had dodged ridiculously at the first, received
the second with a greater calm, keyed himself to almost motionless
reception of the third, and managed to sit listening to the fourth with