nd the situation was not pleasant. Neale had
observed many engineers come and go during his experience on the road;
and that fact, together with the authority given him and his loyalty
to, the chief, gave him cause for worry. He hoped, and he was ready to
believe, that these engineers had done their best on an extremely knotty
problem.

"We got Lodge's telegram last night," said Coffee. "Kinda sudden. It
jarred us."

"No doubt. I'm sorry. What was the message?"

"Lodge never wastes words," replied the engineer, shortly. But he did
not vouchsafe the information for which Neale had asked.

Neale threw his note-book upon the dusty table and, sitting down on the
box, he looked up at the men. Both engineers were studying him intently,
almost eagerly, Neale imagined.

"Number Ten's a tough nut to crack, eh?" he inquired.

"We've been here three months," replied Blake.

"Wait till you see that quicksand hole," added Coffee.

"Quicksand! It was a dry, solid stream-bed when I ran the line through
here and drew the plans for Number Ten," declared Neale.

Coffee and Blake stared blandly at him. So did the lineman Somers.

"You? Did YOU draw the plans we--we've been working on?" asked Coffee.

"Yes, I did," answered Neale, slowly. It struck him that Blake had paled
slightly. Neale sustained a slight shock of surprise and antagonism. He
bent over his note-book, opening it to a clean page. Fighting his first
impressions, he decided they had arisen from the manifest dismay of the
engineers and their consciousness of a blunder.

"Let's get down to notes," Neale went on, taking up his pencil. "You've
been here three months?"

"Yes."

"With what force?"

"Two hundred men on and off."

"Who's the gang boss?"

"Colohan. He's had some of the biggest contracts along the line."

Neale was about to inquire the name of the contractor, but he refrained,
governed by one of his peculiar impulses.

"Anybody working when you got here?" he went on.

"Yes. Masons had been cutting stone for six weeks."

"What's been done?"

Coffee laughed harshly. "We got the three piers in--good and solid
on dry bottom. Then along comes the rain--and our work melts into the
quicksand. Since then we've been trying to do it over."

"But why did this happen in the first place?"

Coffee spread wide his arms. "Ask me something easy. Why was the
bottom dry and solid? Why did it rain? Why did solid earth turn into
quicksand?"

Neale slapped t