ompany's rights and property
at this point?" gasped Mr. Newnham.

"You will find, sir, that I am not wholly unprepared," Reade remarked
dryly, while the corners of his mouth drew down grimly.

Tom was apparently the only one in camp, after the excitement
started, who had noted that Dave Fulsbee, at the first shots, had
leaped to his horse and vanished down the trail to the eastward.

At this moment a party of a dozen, headed by Professor Coles, came
in on foot, bearing young Reynolds with them.

"Harry, mount one of the saddled horses and rush down yonder for
Doc Gitney," Tom ordered. "Give him your horse to come back on.
He must see to young Reynolds promptly."

Some of the field party came in on horseback, followed soon by still
others on foot. Many of the field engineering party, in their haste,
had left their instruments, rods and chains behind.

Tom, after diving into and out of the headquarters tent, held up a
pair of powerful binocular field glasses. With these he took
sweeping views of the near-by hills to the westward.

"The scoundrels haven't gotten in at close quarters yet, sir," Reade
reported to President Newnham. "At least, I can't make out a sign
of them on the high ground that commands this camp."

"This whole business of an armed attack on us is most incomprehensible
to me," remarked Mr. Newnham. "I know, of course, that the W.C.
& A. haven't left a stone unturned to defeat our efforts in getting
our road running within the limits set in the charter. However,
the W.C. & A. people are crazy to send armed assassins against
us in the field in this fashion. No matter, now, whether we finish
the road on time, this rascally work by the opposition will defeat
their hopes of getting the charter away from us."

"It might prevent them from doing so, sir," Tom rejoined quietly,
"if you were able to prove that the scoundrels who fired on our
engineering parties this morning were really employed by the W.C.
& A. railroad crowd."

"Prove it?" snorted the man from Broadway. "Who else would have
any interest in blocking us?"

"Would that statement go in court, or before a legislature?" Tom
pressed.

"No, it wouldn't," President Newnham admitted thoughtfully. "I see
the point, Reade. After the scoundrels have done their worst against
us, they can disperse, vanishing among the hills, and the W.C. & A.
people will simply deny that they were behind the attack, and will
call upon us to prove it."