laugh. Hazelton glided
into the tent, grinning.

"Tom, be careful not to string Bad Pete so hard, or, one of these
days, you'll get him so mad that he won't be able to resist drilling
you through with lead."

"Let's go over to the cook tent and either beg or steal something
to eat," proposed Reade.

It was two hours later when a rodman rode hurriedly into camp.

"Hey, you cubs," he called, "come and help me get Mr. Blaisdell's
bed ready for him. He's coming back sick."

"Sick?" demanded Reade, thunderstruck. "Why, he looked healthy
enough when he went out of camp a little while ago."

"He's sick enough, now," retorted the rodman.

"What ails Mr. Blaisdell?" asked Harry.

"It's mountain fever, I reckon," rejoined the rodman. "Blaisdell
must have been off color for days, and didn't really know it."

All three worked rapidly getting everything in readiness for the
coming of the assistant engineer. Then Mr. Blaisdell was brought
in, on a stretcher rigged between two ponies. The acting chief
is face was violently flushed, his eyes seemed bright as diamonds.

"Reade," said the acting chief thickly, as they lifted him from
the litter to his cot, "if I'm not better by morning you'll have
to get word to the chief."

"Yes, sir," assented Reade, placing a hand on Blaisdell's forehead.
It felt hot and feverish. "May I ask, sir, if you verified any
of the sights on Nineteen?"

"I---I took some of 'em," replied the acting chief hesitatingly.
"Reade, I'm not sure that I remember aright, but I think---I
think---you and Hazelton were correct about that. I---wish I
could---remember."

Bill Blaisdell closed his eyes, and his voice trailed off into
murmurs that none around him could understand. Even Reade, with
his very slight experience in such matters, realized that the
acting chief was a very sick man.

"You cubs better clear out of here now," suggested one of the
rodmen. "I know better how to take care of men with mountain fever."

"I hope you do know more about nursing than I do, Carter," replied
Tom very quietly. "In the future, however, don't forget that,
though I may be a cub, I am an engineer, and you are a rodman.
When you speak to me address me as Mr. Reade. Come, men, all
out of here but the nurse."

Once in the open Tom turned to Harry with eyes ablaze.

"Harry, could anything be tougher? The chief away, the acting
chief down with fever and on the verge of delirium---and a crooked
engineer