IN TEXAS AT LAST
"So you are going to join our engineering department, eh?" queried
William Jarvey. "Do you know anybody in that department?"
"We don't know any one down here," answered Dave. "We are utter
strangers. We obtained our positions through a Mr. Ramsdell, who was
our tutor."
"Oh, I see." The man had been looking rather sharply at Dave. "May I
ask where you come from?"
"We come from New England. I live in a town called Crumville. My
friend here is the son of United States Senator Morr."
"Oh, indeed!" William Jarvey showed increased interest. "The son of a
United States senator, eh? Well, that ought to help you a great deal.
The Mentor Construction Company often has to ask the government for
favors, you know," and he laughed lightly.
"I'm not going to trade on the fact that my father is a United States
senator," remarked Roger, somewhat shortly. "I am going to make my
own way."
"And I guess you will. You look like a pretty bright young man,"
returned William Jarvey, hastily.
"Are you a civil engineer?" questioned Dave.
"Oh, no! No such luck for me. I am connected with the bookkeeping and
the blue-print department. I wish I were a first-class civil engineer.
I might be earning a much larger salary;" and the man drew down his
mouth as he spoke. Evidently he was a fellow who was not at all
satisfied with his position in life.
"We are to report to a Mr. Perry Watson at San Antonio," explained
Roger. "He is to tell us where to go and what to do."
"Perry Watson, eh?" and the man scowled and showed his teeth in an
unpleasant manner.
"What's the matter--don't you like Mr. Watson?" asked Dave.
"Not much. Very few of the men do. He's terribly sharp on watching
everything a man does."
"I sincerely hope we don't have any trouble with him," was Roger's
comment. "We'd like to start right, you know."
"Well, you'll have to watch yourselves pretty closely," announced
William Jarvey.
The talk then became general, and the burly man told the youths much
about the work being done by the Mentor Construction Company. It
seemed that there were four gangs in the field, two operating south of
San Antonio, and the others to the westward.
"It's more than likely you'll be sent to the west," he said. "I think
the gangs in the south have all the helpers they need. I am going west
myself; so if you are sent that way perhaps we'll see more of each
other."
"Perhaps," answered Dave. He was not particularly elated over the
thought, for there was something about William Jarvey which did not
appeal to him. The man was evidently very overbearing and had an
exceedingly good opinion of himself.
"I'm going back to have a smoke," said the man, presently. "Will you
come and join me?"
"Thank you, but neither of us smokes," answered Roger.
"What! not even cigarettes?"
"No," returned Dave.
"Humph! I don't see how you can resist. I would feel utterly lost
without a cigar. Well, I'll see you later." And thus speaking William
Jarvey took himself off.
"I sincerely trust the rest of the men we meet will be of a better
sort than that fellow," remarked Roger. "I don't like his make-up at
all."
"I agree with you, Roger," answered Dave. "He looks like a chap who
would be very dictatorial if he had the chance--one of the kind who
loves to ride over those under him."
"I can't get over the way he kept looking at you, Dave. He acted as if
he had met you before and was trying to place you."
"I noticed he did look at me pretty closely a number of times,"
answered our hero. "But I took it that he was only trying to size me
up. You know some strangers have that habit."
"Well, he didn't look at me that way," continued the senator's son. "I
believe he was doing his best to try to place you."
"I wish I had asked him where he was from. Maybe that might have given
us some sort of clue to his identity."
"Let's ask him if we get the chance."
On the journey to San Antonio they had an opportunity to speak to
William Jarvey a number of times, and once they sat at the same table
with him in the dining-car. When asked where he came from, he replied
rather evasively that he had lived for a great number of years in the
Northwest, but that he had left that section of the country to try his
fortunes in Mexico.
"I was interested in the mines down there, and then I got mixed up in
one of their revolutions and got shot in the leg," he added. "That
was enough for me; so I crossed the Rio Grande into Texas, and by
luck got the position I am now holding with the Mentor Company."
"Are the Mexican revolutionists interfering at all with the work of
the construction company near the border?" questioned Dave.
"Not very much. One gang, that was working on one of the railroad
bridges not many miles from the Rio Grande, had a little run-in with
some raiders who came across the river to steal cattle. They helped
the ranchmen drive the raiders away, and in the fight one fellow was
shot through the shoulder."
"Well, that was trouble enough!" cried Roger. "It's more than I'd like
to see."
"That's right," returned Dave. "We didn't come down to fight the
Mexicans. We came down to become civil engineers."
"Oh, I don't think you'll run into any fighting," answered William
Jarvey. "But, of course, a good many of those greasers are very
treacherous and there is no telling what they will do. They shoot down
and rob anybody they meet in their own country, and then, when there
is nothing in sight on that side of the river, they watch their chance
and come over on this side. Of course, United States soldiers are on
the lookout for them; so they don't dare to make their raids very
public."
It developed that William Jarvey had been sent up to Denison on
business for the construction company. He carried with him a heavy
valise, and also a large roll of blue-prints.
"I should have been back to San Antonio yesterday," he exclaimed. "But
I was delayed in Denison. I suppose Perry Watson will be as mad as a
hornet when I get back because I didn't make it as quick as he
expected. He expects an awful lot from those working under him."
To this neither of the youths replied. They had noticed that William
Jarvey smoked a great deal and that his breath smelled strongly of
liquor, and they concluded that he was not a man who would be likely
to kill himself with overwork.
"From what Jarvey has told us of Mr. Watson I am inclined to think the
superintendent is a hustling sort of fellow," remarked Dave, when he
and Roger were left alone. "And, being that kind of man, he probably
can't stand for a fellow who wants to loaf around and drink and
smoke."
"I guess you've sized it up about right, Dave," answered the senator's
son. "In these days the watchword seems to be 'keep moving'; and a
fellow has got to 'get there' if he wants to hold down his job."
At last the train rolled into the city of San Antonio. Before this
place was reached William Jarvey had met a number of other men who
had boarded the train at a station some miles away; and he was so
interested in what the newcomers had to tell him that he seemed to
forget completely the presence of Dave and Roger.
"And I'd just as lief he would forget us," said our hero to his chum.
"I'd rather go to Mr. Watson alone than have that man introduce us."
"Exactly the way I feel about it," returned the senator's son. "Come
on, let's see if we can't slip away from him through the crowd." This
they did easily, and soon found themselves walking along one of the
quaint streets of San Antonio bound for the building in which the
Mentor Construction Company had its temporary offices.
Contrary to what William Jarvey had told them, they found Mr. Perry
Watson a very pleasant man with whom to deal. There was little of
nonsense about him, and he lost no time in finding out who the youths
were and for what they had come. But his manner was courteous, and he
made both Dave and Roger feel thoroughly at home.
"I know Mr. Ramsdell very well. He's a fine fellow," said the
superintendent of the construction company. "I had a personal letter
from him in regard to you, and I'm going to put you out under one of
the best men we have down here in Texas, Mr. Ralph Obray, who is now
working on the construction of the new Catalco bridge to the west of
this place. He is expecting some new helpers, and he asked me to send
him the two best fellows I could find, so I am going to send you," and
Mr. Watson smiled slightly.
"Thank you very much, Mr. Watson," answered Dave.
"Oh, you don't have to thank me, Porter," returned the superintendent,
quickly. "You just go out and make good. That is all this company asks
of any one it employs."
"When do you want us to start, Mr. Watson?" questioned Roger.
"You can suit yourselves about that, although the sooner you report to
Mr. Obray the better I think he'll be pleased."
The superintendent walked to a back door of his office and called to
some one without.
"I'll turn you over to one of our clerks and he will give you all the
details regarding your positions," he explained.
The clerk proved to be a young man only a few years older than Dave
and Roger, and the youths took to him at once. He explained in detail
where they were to go and what the construction camp located near the
new Catalco bridge consisted of, and also told them what their work
would probably be for the first few months.
"Of course, you've got to start at the bottom of the ladder," he
explained. "But you'll find Mr. Obray a splendid man to be under, and
you'll probably learn more under him than you would under any of our
other head engineers."
"In that case I'm mighty glad Mr. Watson assigned us to Mr. Obray's
gang," answered Dave.
It was arranged that Dave and his chum should start westward early the
following morning. This would give them a part of an afternoon and an
evening in San Antonio in which to look around and take in the sights
of that quaint town.
During the conversation with Mr. Watson and the clerk, Dave had been
rather surprised because William Jarvey had not shown himself,
because on the train he had said he was behindhand; and they had
naturally supposed he would come to the offices without delay. Just as
they were preparing to leave they heard an angry discussion going
on in Mr. Watson's private office, and they heard the voices of the
superintendent and the man they had met on the train.
"I gave you strict orders to come right back, Jarvey," they heard Mr.
Watson say. "You knew we were waiting for those blue-prints."
"I was delayed," growled William Jarvey in return. "You see, there
were some things about the prints--"
"I don't want any excuses," broke in Mr. Watson. "The blue-prints were
all right and were waiting for you. You took a day off simply to go
and have a good time. Now I want to warn you for the last time. If
such a thing happens again I'll discharge you."