He's been there two months now, and I am
informed by his employer that old Mac hasn't taken a drink in all
that time. And what's more, he isn't going to take one again."
"How do you know?"
"Because I make it my business to find out. Mac was the finest woods-
boss this county ever knew; hence you do not assume that I would lose
the old scoundrel without making a fight for him, do you? Why, Buck,
he's been on the Cardigan pay-roll thirty years, and I only fired him
in order to reform him. Well, last week I sent one of Mac's old
friends down to Willits purposely to call on him and invite him out
'for a time'; but Mac wouldn't drink with him. No, sir, he couldn't
be tempted. On the contrary, he told the tempter that I had promised
to give him back his job if he remained on the water wagon for one
year; he was resolved to win back his job and his self-respect."
"I know what your plan is," Ogilvy interrupted. "You're going to ask
Duncan McTavish to waylay Pennington on the road at some point where
it runs through the timber, kidnap him, and hold him until we have
had time to clear the crossing and cut Pennington's tracks.
"We will do nothing of the sort," Buck continued seriously. "Listen,
now, to Father's words of wisdom. This railroad-game is an old one to
me; I've fought at crossings before now, and whether successful or
defeated, I have always learned something in battle.
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