pocket of
the engineer.

"You won't have to do anything like that to get the money, Pete.
Save your cartridges for other people. There, I've let go of
my gun. Come close and listen to what I have to say---but only
in your ear."

There followed some moments of whisperings Try as he would, Reade
could not make out a word of what was being said until at last
Bad Pete muttered audibly, in a low, hoarse voice:

"You're not doing that on your own account, Black?"

"No, Pete; I'm not."

"Then you must really be working for the road that wants to steal
the charter away---the W.C. & A.?"

"Perhaps so, Pete. You don't need to know that. All you have
to know is what I want done. I'm a business man, Pete, and money
is the soul of business. Here!"

Black peeled some banknotes from his roll.

"Ten twenties, Pete. That makes the two hundred I was talking
to you about. Understand, man, that isn't your pay. That's simply
your expense money, for you to spend while you're hanging about.
Stick to me, do things just as I want them done, and your pay
will run several times as high as your expense money."

"Do you know how long I've been looking for this sort o' thing,
pardner?" Pete inquired huskily.

"No; of course not," rejoined 'Gene Black rather impatiently.

"All my life," returned Bad Pete solemnly. "Pardner, I'll sell
myself to you for the money you've been talking about."

"Come along, then. We're too near the camp. I want to talk with
you where we're not so likely to be interfered with by people who
have too much curiosity."

"If that means me," quoth Tom Reade inwardly, "the shoe fits to
a nicety."

Tom followed the pair for a little way, with a stealth that was
born in him for the present need. Then the plotters stepped into
a rocky, open gully, where the cub engineer could not have followed
without being seen.

"Oh, dear! I never wanted to follow anyone as much in my life!"
groaned Reade in his disappointment.

There was nothing to do but to go back. Then, too, with a guilty
start, Tom remembered the great need of ice for poor, fever-tossed,
big-hearted Bill Blaisdell, who had been so kind to the two cubs
from the hour of their arrival in the field camp.

Just as he stepped into the camp area Tom espied Jack Rutter,
who also saw him and came quickly forward.

"I've been looking everywhere for you, Reade," said Rutter, in
a tone that was close to carrying reproach with it.

"I've been abs