Chapter 5
For the next several days, work moved along at a decent pace. They finished the basic track to the mine and began to work on the complex of Ys, short stubs, cross-overs, and sidings that would make up the mini-yard at the mine site. For Roane, the distance that had sprung up between him and Alden, as sudden and inexplicable as the burst of attraction, remained a nagging puzzle in the back of his mind.
He tried not to let it infringe on his work and, as far as he could tell, he succeeded. He could get no notion of what Alden thought or felt, and the older man seemed to avoid any chance for even a moment of private conversation. Alden also vanished on weekends as quickly as any of the other men on the crew. Roane went to Gallup with Willie and Jack one weekend for a big powwow bu
