In the round-house he found the switch-engine crew on duty, waiting
for steam in the boiler. The withdrawal of both locomotives, brief as
had been their absence, had caused a glut of logs at the Laguna
Grande landings, and Sexton was catching up with the traffic by
sending the switch-engine crew out for one train-load, even though it
was Sunday. The crew had been used to receiving orders from Rondeau,
and moreover they were not aware of his recent action; hence at his
command they ran the switch-engine out of the roundhouse, coupled up
the two flat-cars and the wrecking-car, and backed down to the
crossing. Upon arrival, Jules Rondeau leaned out of the cab window
and hailed Bryce. "M'sieur," he said, "do not bozzer to make zee
derrick. I have here zee wrecking-car--all you need; pretty soon we
lift him off zee crossing, I tell you, eh, M'sieur Cardigan?"

Bryce stepped over to the switch-engine and looked up at his late
enemy. "By whose orders is this train here?" he queried.

"Mine," Rondeau answered. "M'sieur Sexton I have tie like one leetle
pig and lock her in her office. I work now for M'sieur."

And he did. He waited not for a confirmation from his new master but
proceeded to direct operations like the born driver and leader of men
that he was. With his late employer's gear he fastened to the old
castings and the boiler, lifted them with the derrick on the
wrecking-car, and swung them up and around onto the flat-cars. By the
middle of the afternoon the crossing was once more clear. Then the
Cardigan crew fell upon it while Jules Rondeau ran the train back to
the Laguna Grande yards, dismissed his crew, returned to the mill-
office, and released the manager.