Then slowly he released her and the corded red of his neck subsided.  His action had been that of a man robbed of all he loved, who remembered, in a fury of violent longing, hate, and despair, what he had lost in life.  Allie was left alone.

She gazed around the room that she expected to be her prison for an indefinite length of time.  Walls and ceiling were sections, locking together, and in some places she could see through the cracks.  One side opened upon a tent wall; the other into another room; the small glass windows upon a house of canvas.  When Allie put her hand against any part of her room she found that it swayed and creaked.  She understood then that this house had been made in sections, transported to Benton by train, and hurriedly thrown together.

She looked next at the newspapers.  How strange to read news of the building of the U. P. R.!  The name of General Lodge, chief engineer, made Allie tremble.  He had predicted a fine future for Warren Neale.  She read that General Lodge now had a special train and that he contemplated an inspection trip out as far as the rails were laid.  She read that the Pacific Construction Company was reputed to be crossing the Sierra Nevada, that there were ten thousand Chinamen at work on the road, that the day when East and West were to meet was sure to come.  Eagerly she searched, her heart thumping, for the name of Neale, but she did not find it.  She read in one paper that the Sioux were active along the line between Medicine Bow and Kearney.  Every day the workmen would sight a band of Indians, and, growing accustomed to the sight, they would become careless, and so many lost their lives.  A massacre had occurred out on the western end of the road, where the construction gangs were working.  Day after day the Sioux had prowled around without attacking, until the hardy and reckless laborers lost fear and caution.  Then, one day, a grading gang working a mile from the troops was set upon by a band of swiftly riding warriors, and before they could raise a gun in defense were killed and scalped in their tracks.

Allie read on.  She devoured the news.  Manifestly the world was awakening to the reality of the great railroad.  How glad Neale must be!  Always he had believed in the greatness and the reality of the U. P. R. Somewhere along that line he was working—­perhaps every night he rode into Benton.  Her emotions overwhelmed her as she thought of him so near, and for a moment she could not see the print.  Neale would never again believe she was dead.  And indeed she did live!  She breathed—­she was well, strong, palpitating.  She was sitting here in Benton, reading about the building of the railroad.  She wondered with a pang what her disappearance would mean to Neale.  He had said his life would be over if he lost her again.  She shivered.

Suddenly her eye rested on printed letters, familiar and startling.  Allison Lee!