ouldn't solve the problem
more easily and cheaply than any other construction," muttered Mr.
Ellsworth, after he had gotten over his first indignation.

"To avoid every possibility of lurking quicksand the suspension bridge
would have to be more than a mile long," Reade answered. "Beyond, there
are other treacherous little patches of quicksand. It would cost the
road millions to put up a suspension bridge that would hold.

"A short bridge would look all right and doubtless serve all right, for
a while. Then, some fine day, part of the structure would give, and a
trainload of passengers would be sucked down and out of sight by the
shifting sands of the Man-killer."

Mr. Ellsworth turned aside with a shudder.

"I'm glad I'm not an engineer," he said earnestly. "The responsibility
for safety of life at this point is all yours, Reade."

"And I'm willing enough to take it, sir, if you don't run trains over
the Man-killer until the new roadbed has stood tests that I'll put upon
it."

"It'll cost at least ten thousand dollars to repair the mischief that
the scoundrels have done to-night," figured Harry Hazelton thoughtfully.

"Then, if we can find out the guilty wretches for certain, we'll see
that they earn more than that amount by enforced labor in prison,"'
retorted the general manager grimly.

"Mr. Bell!" called Tom briskly.

"Here, sir," reported the foreman, coming forward..

"Mr. Bell, I wish you'd pick out twenty-one good men. Make the brightest
of the lot head of the new force of night watchmen. Place the other
twenty under his orders. Your gangs will come into play here later
than the others, so I'll let your shift of men have the first chance at
night-watchman duty."

"All right, sir," nodded Foreman Bell. "Any further orders?"

"None, except that your watchmen will do their best to guard both the
line of roadbed and the camp. Further, tell the night engineer to be
sure to have steam up so that he can blow a lot of signals at anytime in
the night."

"Very good, sir," and the foreman hurried away.

"I'm disgusted with myself for having been caught in this fashion," Tom
admitted to Mr. Ellsworth. "But I hadn't an idea that Paloma held any
dynamite. I can't imagine how a frontier town on the alkali desert needs
dynamite."

"It will probably be found that someone shipped it in a hurry,"
suggested Mr. Ellsworth.

"But how? Any fellow would be detected who had it brought in on our
trains. There has be