A safe was put in the back part of a furniture store
behind a wooden partition and a bank was started. Up through the
Gap and toward Kentucky, more entries were driven into the coal,
and on the Virginia side were signs of stripping for iron ore. A
furnace was coming in just as soon as the railroad could bring it
in, and the railroad was pushing ahead with genuine vigor.
Speculators were trooping in and the town had been divided off
into lots--a few of which had already changed hands. One agent had
brought in a big steel safe and a tent and was buying coal lands
right and left. More young men drifted in from all points of the
compass. A tent-hotel was put at the foot of Imboden Hill, and of
nights there were under it much poker and song. The lilt of a
definite optimism was in every man's step and the light of hope
was in every man's eye.
And the Guard went to its work in earnest. Every man now had his
Winchester, his revolver, his billy and his whistle. Drilling and
target-shooting became a daily practice. Bob, who had been a year
in a military school, was drill-master for the recruits, and very
gravely he performed his duties and put them through the
skirmishers' drill--advancing in rushes, throwing themselves in
the new grass, and very gravely he commended one enthusiast--none
other than the Hon.
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