s director of the Arizona road, being a friend
of President Newnham, of the S. B. & L. road, had written the latter,
asking whether the services of Tom and Harry could be secured. The reply
had been in the affirmative, and Tom and Harry had speedily traveled
down into Arizona. In the few days they had been at this little town of
Paloma, they had gone thoroughly over the ground, they had studied
the problem, and had expressed their opinion that the job could be
put through creditably at a cost not exceeding a quarter of a million
dollars.

"Go to it, then!" General Manager Curtis had replied. "You have our
road's credit at your command, and we look to you to make good. You are
both very young, but Newnham's word is quite good enough for us."

The day before this story opens this general manager had boarded one of
the rough-looking construction trains and had gone back to the road's
headquarters.

As they sat in the barber shop now Tom and Harry were quite unaware of
the interested notice they were receiving. This was not surprising, for
both were good, sane, wholesome American boys, with no more than the
average share of conceit, and neither believed himself to be as much of
a wonder as some experienced railroad men credited them with being.

"Stranger, excuse me, but you're Reade, aren't you?" inquired one of the
men of Paloma who was present.

"Yes, sir," nodded Tom, looking up pleasantly from the weekly paper that
he had been scanning.

"You're head of the new job on the Man-killer, aren't you?" questioned
the same man. By this time every man in the barber shop was secretly
watching the young engineers, a fact that was plain to Harry Hazelton,
as he glanced up from a magazine.

"Yee, sir," Tom answered again. "In a way I'm at the head of it, but
my friend, Hazelton, is really as much at the head as I am. We are
partners, and we work together in everything."

"Do you think, Reade, that you're going to win out on the job?" inquired
another man.

"Yes, sir," nodded Tom.

"You seem very confident about it," smiled another.

"It's just a way we have," Tom assented good-naturedly. "We always try
to keep our nerve and our confidence with us."

"Yet you are really sure?"

"Oh! yes," Reade answered. "We have looked the quicksand over, and we
feel sure that we see a way of stopping the Man-killer, and forcing it
to sustain railroad ties and steel rails."

"How are you going; to go about it?" questioned still a