3. Chicken Hill

Complete story — includes the ending

Cullen and family arrive in Cheyenne. He assaults Marshal Jessup and Heckard when they seem threatening. Cullen then asks Durant for his former chief engineer job, but is denied when Durant states that Cullen is undependable. Psalms offers Cullen a job on the crew and his family a tent to live in. Durant decides to tunnel through a hill that impedes the railroad's progress. He debates the use of another hill with Campbell, who says it will be the future site of the statehouse, unless Durant establishes a structure on it within 24 hours, so Durant has Delaney erect chicken coops on it. Eva loses a game of poker at the casino but thinks the winner cheated. She later exchanges sex for cheating lessons from him. Cullen saves the rail crew when Delaney uses too much blasting powder on the hill, which contains methane-infused shale. Campbell offers to buy sundries for Naomi and later visits their tent to offer Cullen a better-paying job. Cullen declines, telling Naomi that all he has gone through means nothing if the railroad is not finished. Later, Cullen is beaten unconscious by Jessup and Heckard.