Page:Frank Packard - On the Iron at Big Cloud.djvu/37

 ; then as he closed his eyes again he muttered: "Tell Carleton I was right."

And he was, for two days afterward Rafferty publicly abdicated. He gathered the men in the fitting-shop and mounted to the cab of an engine jacked halfway up to the ceiling as before, only on this occasion it was at noon hour and not in the company's time. His words were few and to the point, delivered with a force and eloquence that was all his own:

"I sed he was a damned pink-faced dude, so I did. Well, I take ut back, d'ye moind? An' fwhat's more, I'll flatten the face av any man fwhat sez I iver sed ut!"