horseback."

The envelope, though a good one as to quality, was dirty on the outside.
Tom Reade hastily broke the seal and read:

"If you don't get away from Paloma pretty soon your presence will hold
the railroad up for a longtime to come! Get out, if you're wise, or the
railroad will suffer with you!"

"I reckon the fellow who wrote that was sincere enough," said Tom, as he
passed the letter over to his chum. "However, I don't like to feel that
I can be seared by any man who's too cowardly to sign his name to a
letter."

CHAPTER VI. THE GENERAL MANAGER "LOOKS IN"

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 m