" has been fully set forth
the extraordinary work of these young men at railroad building
through the mountains wilds. In "_The Young Engineers in Arizona_"
we have followed Tom and Harry through even more startling adventures,
and have seen how they handled even greater problems in engineering.

Up to date the careers of these two bright young men had not been
humdrum ones. The surroundings in which their professional lives
had been passed had been such as to supply them with far more
startling adventures than either young man had ever looked for.

And now they were in Nevada, the state famous for its gold and silver
mines. Yet they had come ere solely in search of a few weeks of rest.
Rest? There was anything but rest immediately ahead of the young
engineers, but the curtain had not been lifted.

Immediately after the completion of their great work in Arizona,
Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton had gone back east to the good old
home town of Gridley. While there they had encountered Dick Prescott
and Greg Holmes, their old school chums, at that time cadets at
the United States Military Academy. The doings of the four old
chums at that time in Gridley are set forth fully in "_Dick Prescott's
Third Year At West Point_."

During the weeks spent East, Tom and Harry had taken almost their
first steps in the study of metallurgy. They had succeed in mastering
the comparatively simple art of assaying gold and silver.

So now, with the summer past, we find our young engineers out in
Nevada, taking a little more rest just because no new engineering
task of sufficient importance had presented itself.

"If we're going to be engineers out West, though, Harry, we simply
must know a good deal about assaying precious metals," Tom had
declared.

So, though the chums were "taking a rest," as they phrased it, they
had brought with them a small furnace and the rest of the outfit for
assaying minerals in small quantities.

Today, however, was altogether too fine for thoughts of work. Just
after breakfast Harry Hazelton had borrowed the only horse in camp,
belonging to Jim Ferrers, their cook and guide, and had ridden away
for the day.

Barely had Hazelton departed when Alf Drew, hungry, lonely and
wistful, had happened along. He asked for "a job." There really
wasn't one for him, but good-natured Reade created one, offering
five dollars a month and board.

"No telling, young man, how long the job will last," Tom warned hi