“I don’t care what his reason is. He’s got everybody steamed,” I said. “If he doesn’t let up soon, I don’t think I can keep a lid on.”

Finally it got bad enough I decided that I had to at least try to do something.

At Compton’s and my briefing meeting with Captain Hakes on a Tuesday toward the middle of the month, I said, “Sir, the fellows in my barracks could really use a break. It’s not right to ask them to keep going so hard.”

“According to whom?” Hakes said.

“Well, to me, I guess. I think—”

Compton cut me off. “I don’t see a problem. The men in A Barracks aren’t complaining.”

That was a flat-out lie, but the captain didn’t call him on it. “Of course they’re not,” he said. “Men’s attitudes reflect the attitude of their leaders.”

I tried again. “Sir, I don’t think that when Mr. Caldwell laid out the project he intended for us to—”

“You will leave coordination with Mr. Caldwell to me,” Hakes said. “Just worry about doing your own job, which is to make sure your men do theirs. Or is that asking too much?”

Then Captain Hakes did a sudden about-face.

Coming back from the field two days later, I stopped by headquarters office to see if Sam was ready to knock off. He motioned me to be quiet and listen.

The captain’s door was open, and Hakes and Pops were talking, neither one trying to keep their voices down.

Pops was saying our work schedule needed to ease up. “Pretty soon the boys are going to be talking mutiny,” he said.

Hakes said, “They wouldn’t dare.”

“And working them so hard is against regulations,” Pops went on. “The CCC specifies forty-hour workweeks for these boys.”

“Generally,” Hakes said. “Circumstances can justify asking more.”

“What you’re doing is way beyond that.”

“It is not.”

A silence followed that Pops broke. He said, “Then I guess we must have a different understanding of the regulations. Why don’t we just ask district headquarters for a clarification? Maybe I can do that before I leave for the spike camp tomorrow morning.”

The next morning, Friday, we got ordered back to five-day workweeks, plus we were promised use of the stake trucks Saturday afternoon to take anybody into town who wanted to go.

We put in the best working day we had since the push started, with everybody in high spirits. And back in camp later on, I again swung by to see Sam.

“Captain Hakes should come out to the site and see for himself how hard everybody works when they’re being treated fair,” I said.

“I doubt he’s going to do that,” Sam said. “He’s got a new worry on his mind now.”

“What’s that?”