ever be able to build this bridge the way
it is going up."

The talk between the two chums was held in the evening after work
for the day had come to an end. Dave and Roger stood on an elevation
of ground surveying the unfinished bridge--or rather chain of
bridges--which spanned a river and the marshland beyond. It had been
a great engineering feat to obtain the proper foundations for the
bridge where it spanned the marshland, and make them impervious to
the floods which came with great force during certain seasons of the
year.

The first week at the camp had been spent in the offices, but all the
other time had been put in with the engineering gang that was
superintending the construction of the far end of the bridge, and also
the laying out of the railroad route through the hills and cuts
beyond. The work had proved fascinating to the chums, and they were
surprised to see how quickly the time passed.

Dave and Roger had made a number of friends, but none more agreeable
than Frank Andrews. Andrews occupied a room close to their own, and
often spent an evening with them.

About the end of the second week they had received word concerning
William Jarvey. The bookkeeper in the offices at San Antonio had had a
violent quarrel with Mr. Watson and had been discharged. He had gone
off declaring that his being treated thus was unjustifiable, and that
he was going to bring the Mentor Construction Company to account for
it.

"I guess he's nothing but a bag of wind," was Roger's comment, on
hearing this. "The company is probably much better off to have such a
chap among the missing."

"I don't see what he can do to hurt the company," had been Dave's
answer. "He was probably discharged for good cause."

Although so far away from home, it must not be supposed that Dave and
Roger had forgotten the folks left behind. They had sent numerous
letters telling of their various experiences and of what they hoped to
do in the future. In return Roger had received one letter from his
father and another from his mother, and Dave had gotten communications
from his sister Laura and from Jessie, and also a long letter from
Ben.

Of these the letter received from Jessie was to our hero the most
important, and it must be confessed that he read it a number of times.
The girl was greatly interested in all that he had told her about his
work, and she said she hoped he would become a great civil engineer,
and that she certainly trusted he w