ortable hotel, had an early breakfast, and by seven o'clock were
on their way westward.

"Now we are almost on the border," remarked Roger, as they stopped at
a place called Del Rio. He was studying a railroad map. "At the next
place, called Viaduct, we will be on the Rio Grande, with Mexico just
across from us."

"It isn't such a very grand river after all," remarked Dave, when they
came in sight of the stream. "It looks more like a great big overgrown
creek to me."

"You can't compare these rivers with the Hudson or the St. Lawrence,
Dave. But I suppose at certain seasons of the year this river gets to
be pretty big."

Soon their train rolled into Molona and the youths alighted. The
station was a primitive affair, consisting of a small platform and a
building not over ten feet square.

Word had been sent ahead that they were coming, and among the several
Texans and Mexicans who had gathered to watch the train come in, they
found a middle-aged man on a burro with two other burros standing
behind.

"Are you the young fellows for the Mentor camp?" he questioned, as
Dave and Roger approached him.

"We are," returned our hero, quickly. "Did you come for us?"

"I did. Mr. Watson sent a wire that you were coming, so the boss sent
me here to get you, thinking you wouldn't know the way. Porter and
Morr, I believe--but which is which?"

"I am Dave Porter," answered Dave, "and this is my chum, Roger Morr."

"Glad to know you. My name is Frank Andrews. I am from Scranton,
Pennsylvania. I suppose you can ride?"

"Oh, yes," answered Roger. "We did more or less riding when we were
out on Star Ranch."

"Good enough! Some of the young fellows who come out here can't ride
at all, and they have some trouble getting around, believe me! This,
you know, is the country of magnificent distances," and Frank Andrews
laughed.

"How many have you in the camp here?" questioned Dave, after he and
Roger had mounted the two waiting burros and were riding off beside
the man from the engineering camp.

"There are twenty of us in the engineering gang, and I think they have
about seventy to eighty men in the construction camp, with forty or
fifty more on the way. You see, they have been bothered a great deal
for hired help lately on account of the trouble with the Mexican
bandits and revolutionists. Lots of men are afraid to come down here
to work for fear some bandits will make a raid across the border and
shoot them down."

"Have