Then the paymaster and his assistants worked rapidly in paying off.
That railroad pay day proved a time of gloom to many in the town of Paloma.

The returning pay train carried the bank officials and twenty-four thousand dollars that had been deposited as new accounts from the men.

Of the money that remained in camp much of it was carried in the pockets of men who meant to keep it there until they received something worth while it exchange.
True, this did not trouble the majority of people in Paloma, who were sober, decent American citizens engaged in the proper walks of life.
But Jim Duff and a few others held an indignation meeting that night.
"We've been robbed!" complained one indignant saloon keeper.
"Gentlemen," observed Jim Duff, in his oiliest tones, though his face was ghastly white, "you have a new enemy, who threatens your success in business.

How are you going to deal with him ?" "We'll run him off the desert, or bury him there!" came the snarling response.
"I can't believe that boy, Reade, will ever succeed in laying the railroad tracks across the Man-killer," smiled Jim Duff darkly within himself..