36 The King of the Thundering Herd 



this was in 1910, for it was not. Had it 

 been the twentieth century, they would 

 have gone upon a train, and there would 

 have been no wild frontier in what is now 

 Nebraska and Dakota. But it was in 1871, 

 that eventful summer when those two 

 racing gangs of men carried the approach- 

 ing sections of the Union Pacific Railroad 

 to a splendid completion, and spiked down 

 the last gleaming rail of a system that 

 spanned a continent. 



It was a summer when great things were 

 in the air, events far-reaching in their con- 

 sequences to the vast plains, and perhaps 

 the boy of eleven years vaguely felt them 

 as he sat brooding by the camp-fire. 



Anyhow, it had been a wonderful sum- 

 mer to him, and he was fond of think- 

 ing over all the strange objects that he 

 had seen, as he watched the flames leap 

 high, or the embers of the camp-fire slowly 

 die out. His life hitherto had been so un- 



