Neither Tom nor Harry was stupid enough to be wholly unafraid over
the threats of the day. Both realized that Jim Duff and the latter's
associates were ugly and treacherous men who would fight sooner than
be deprived of their chance to fleece the railway workmen. Yet neither
young engineer had any intention of being scared into flight.
“They'll put up a lot of trouble for us,” said Tom that afternoon, as
the two chums talked the matter over. “They may even go to extremities,
and--”
“Shoot us?” smiled Hazelton, though there was a serious look under his
smile.
“Yes; they may even try that,” I nodded Tom. “Though they won't make an
open attempt. They may try to get us from ambush at night. They will
be desperate, though not over brave. Recollect, Harry, that the better
element in Paloma won't stand much nonsense. There are no braver men in
the world than are found right in Arizona, and no men more decent.”
“Barring Duff and his gang,” laughed Hazelton.
“They're not real Arizona men. They're the kind of human vultures who
flock after large pay rolls in any place where men work without having
their families in near-by homes. If Duff had enough men of his own way
of thinking, they might try to ride out here to camp and clean us out.
If they did, then all the decent men in this part of Arizona would
take to the saddle and drive Duff and his crew into hiding. After what
happened to-day you won't find Duff daring to do anything too open.”
“Excuse me, Sir, but there's a train coming,” reported Foreman Rivers,
thrusting his head in at the doorway of the little office building.
“Not a construction train?” Reade asked.
“Can't make it out yet, sir. The whistle was reported a minute ago.”
Tom and Harry, chafing a good deal under their enforced idleness while
waiting for materials, hastened outdoors. Soon the train was close
enough to be made out. It consisted of an engine, baggage car and one
private car.
“It's one or more of the road's officials,” murmured Harry.
“I hope it's Mr. Ellsworth,” replied Reade, as the chums walked briskly
down to the spot where the train would have to halt.
It turned out to be the general manager, a big and capable-looking man
of fifty, with a belt-line just a trifle too large for comfort, who
swung himself to the ground the instant that the train stopped.
“I'm glad you're here, Reade,” nodded the general manager, as he caught
sight of his two young engineers. “Come back into my car. We can talk
better there.”
Tom and Harry mounted to the platform of the car, following Mr.
Ellsworth down the carpeted aisle of a very comfortable private Pullman
car. The general manager pointed to seats, threw himself into another,
and then said:
“Now, tell me all about the row that you've started with the town.”
Harry's lips closed tightly, but Tom launched at once into a plain,
truthful account of the affair, bringing it down to the noonday meal of
the present day.
“It's not clear to me just why you should feel called upon to interfere
so forcefully,” said the general manager, a little fretfully. “The
workmen are all twenty-one years of age and upwards. Couldn't they
protect themselves if they wanted protection?”
“Yes, sir, certainly,” Tom admitted. “However, letting that fellow Duff
put up his tents right on the railroad property would almost make it
look as though the road shared, or at least approved, his enterprise.”
“Oh, doubtless you were right to order the fellow off the railroad
property,” assented Mr. Ellsworth. “But why did you go to such trouble
to get the men to start new bank accounts and thus send most of their
money out of town?”
“May I answer that question, sir, by asking another?” asked Reade
respectfully. “Did you wish the men to spend it in Paloma?”
“I don't care a hang what they do with it,” retorted the general manager
half peevishly. “It's their own money.”
“It was you, Mr. Ellsworth, whom I wired yesterday morning, asking that
you send down a representative of a savings bank who could open accounts
with such of the men as desired.”
“Yes, and I sent you a couple of bank men. I didn't have any idea,
however, that you'd get the whole town of Paloma by the ears.”
“I haven't, sir. I assure you of that. I've hurt only a few parasites--a
flock of human vultures. The decent people of the town don't side with
them.”
“I wish I could be sure that we haven't offended the town as a whole,”
mused Mr. Ellsworth, “The good will of the people along our line is a
great asset.”
“You're acquainted with a lot of the real people in Paloma, aren't you,
Mr. Ellsworth?”
“With some of them, yes.”
“Then, while you're here, sir, I'd be glad if you'd look up some of
these acquaintances in town and find out for yourself just how the
sentiment stands. We don't wish you to feel that we're a pair of
trouble-makers who are doing our best to ruin the road with its future
customers.”
“I believe I will go into town,” mused Mr. Ellsworth. “Is there an
automobile anywhere about here?”
“No, sir; but our telegraph operator can wire into town for one. It will
take but a few minutes to have a car here.”
“Send for it, then.”
“Would you like to see Mr. Hawkins while you're waiting, sir?” Tom
suggested, rising. “You know Hawkins, and probably you'll be satisfied
with his judgment.”
“Send Hawkins along.”
“Yes, sir; and we won't return for the present, unless you send for us,”
Reade replied, going toward the forward end of the car.
Superintendent Hawkins was closeted with the general manager until the
arrival of the automobile. There was a frown on Mr. Ellsworth's face as
they started townward.
“Well,” asked Harry Hazelton, with a grin on his face, as he watched the
departing car, “are we going to be fired or praised?”
“We're going to lay the track across the Man-killer,” returned Reade
resolutely.
“How about the gambler and his bad crowd? Are we going to beat them?”
“We're going to do whatever the general manager orders, just as long as
we remain here,” replied Tom. “He's our only source of authority. If he
tells me to let Jim Duff bring a cityful of tents out here and run night
or day--then that's all there will be to it.”
“I'd sooner quit,” growled Hazelton, “than knuckle to such a crew of
rascals.”
“So would I,” nodded Tom good-humoredly, “if it were my quit. But, if
Mr. Ellsworth gives such orders it will be his quit, not ours.”
Harry walked restlessly up and down the little office, but Tom threw
himself down at full length on a cot in the corner. Within two minutes
he was sound asleep.
“Humph!” growled Hazelton, as soon as he saw his chum's unconcern. Then
he went outside to finish his tramp.
It was toward the close of the afternoon when Mr. Ellsworth returned.
Harry was out of sight as the general manager stepped directly into the
office.
“Reade,” he began. Deep breathing from the corner greeted him. General
Manager Ellsworth gazed down at the sleeping form, and a new light of
admiration dawned in his eyes.
“So that's the young man whom they're talking of shooting, poisoning
or blowing into the next world with dynamite?” he thought. “A lot this
young man appears to think about his enemies! There's real courage in
this young man. Reade, wake up--if you can spare the time.”
Tom opened his eyes, rubbed them, then sat up, next springing to his
feet.
“Not having any real work to do makes me sleepy,” laughed Tom
good-naturedly. “I trust you didn't have to call me many times, Mr.
Ellsworth?”
The general manager held out his hand.
“Reade, I've just learned in town what a plucky thing you did, and
how coolly you went through it all. A young man with your courage and
purpose simply can't be fool enough to be very far wrong.”
“Then you learned that the real Arizona people over in Paloma don't find
any fault with what I did?” queried Tom.
“Reade, what I discovered is that you have a lot of the finest manhood
in Arizona just wild with respect for you,” declared Mr. Ellsworth. Then
the general manager lowered his voice before he resumed:
“At the same time, Reade, I've also learned that you've stirred up such
an evil nest of rattlers that you'll be fortunate if you escape with
your life. Candidly, if you feel that you'd like to leave here--”
“Do you want me to quit, sir?” demanded Tom, looking steadily into his
chief's eyes.
“I don't,” declared Mr. Ellsworth promptly. “If you and Hazelton were to
quit me now I don't know where I could get another pair of men who could
put into the work all the skill and energy that you two employ.”
“Did you have dinner in town, sir?” Tom asked.
“No, for I came out to take you two young men in. Hawkins will also be
with us at dinner this evening. He has told me about the Mansion House
affair, so the Cactus House shall be the railway house hereafter. That
fellow Ashby is uneasy; I think he will be more than uneasy after a
while.”
The dinner party motored back to town. Dinner was more like a reception
that evening, for the news of Tom's plucky fight against the
rough element had spread through the town. Nearly two score of men
representing the better part of the population of Paloma called at the
hotel to shake hands with the young engineers.
“They don't seem to care a hang about me, these men, do they, Hawkins?”
laughed the general manager, as he and the superintendent stood in the
background of the picture.
“That's because they're Arizona men, sir,” replied Hawkins. “Their
interest is in the man who has done the thing, not in the boss.”
“I can understand why President Newnham, of the S. B. & L., recommended
these young men so extravagantly. They're full of force and absolutely
free from self-conceit.”
Finally the party motored back towards the camp. As it was after dark
now, some of the citizens who had visited them escorted the slow moving
car as far as the edge of the town, but none of Jim Duff's followers
appeared on the streets through which they passed.
“Why are we going back to camp, anyway?” demanded Mr. Ellsworth. “Why
not sleep at the hotel to-night?”
“Why, I think it may be better for you to go back to the hotel, sir,”
Tom proposed. “As for Harry and myself, after what has happened in town
to-day, it may be as well if we are on hand at the camp to-night. There
may be some attempt to stampede our men. The crowd in Paloma are capable
of offering our men free drink, just to do us mischief. We've a lot of
strong men in our force, but there are some weak vessels who would be
caught by a free offer, and some of our work gangs would be demoralized
to-morrow.”
Mr. Ellsworth thereupon decided to return to the camp also, and,
arriving there, dismissed the car. A tent was pitched for him close to
the office, and a cot rigged up in it.
Then the party sat up, chatting, after most of the workmen had turned in
for the night.
“I'll be thankful when the material gets here,” sighed Tom. “I'm tired
of loafing.”
“It seems to me that you have been doing anything but loafing,” smiled
the general manager.
“I want to get to work on the Man-killer. Besides, idleness is costing
the road a lot of money in wages for these men.”
“I wired this afternoon,” stated Mr. Ellsworth, “to have the material
trains rushed forward on express schedule as soon as the stuff strikes
our lines.”
“Then--” began Hawkins slowly.
His next words were drowned out by a booming explosion to the westward
of the camp.
“The scoundrels!” gasped Tom Reade, leaping up. “This is more of our
friends' work! They have dynamited the most ticklish part of the work on
the Man-killer!”