turned his pony's head about,
watching eagerly the on-coming train.

For two weeks the laborers had been working on the roadbed now running
over the Man-killer. Ties had been laid and rails fastened down.
Apparently the Man-killer had done its worst and had been balked, a
seemingly secure roadbed now resting on the once treacherous quicksand.

Construction trains, short and lightly laden, had been moving out over
the newly filled in soil for many days, but the train now starting at
the edge of the terrible Man-killer was heavier than any equipment that
had before been run over the ground.

The president of the A., G. & N. M. R. R. was there, flanked by half a
dozen of the leading directors of the road. There were other officials
there, including General Manager Ellsworth.

"I see Hazelton out yonder," murmured the president of the road. "But
where's that young man Reade, now at the moment when the success of his
work is being tested?"

"Goodness knows," rejoined Mr. Ellsworth. "As likely as not he's back in
the office, taking a nap after having given the engineman his signal."

"Asleep!" repeated the president. "Can he be so indolent or so
indifferent as that?"

"You may always depend upon Tom Reade to do something that wouldn't be
expected of him," laughed Mr. Ellsworth. "It isn't that he slights big
duties, or even pretends to do. If he has vanished, and has gone to
sleep, then it is because he feels so sure of his work that he takes no
further interest in the test that is being made."

"But if an accident should happen?" asked the president of the A. G. &
N. M. R. R.

"Then I can promise you that you'd see Reade, on his pony, shooting
ahead as fast as he could go to the scene of the trouble."

These more important railroad officials had come out to camp in
automobiles. Now they followed on foot as the train rolled on to the
land reclaimed from the Man-killer.

Superintendent Hawkins and his foremen also went along on foot to
observe whether the track sank ever so little at any point.

It was none of Harry Hazelton's particular business to watch whether the
tracks sank slightly. That duty could be better performed by the foremen
who had had charge of the track laying. Yet Hazelton, as he watched,
found himself growing impatient.

"Here!" Harry called to a near-by laborer. "Take my horse, please."

In another instant the young assistant engineer was on foot, following
the slowly moving train as it rol