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Page 13
There came from the crowd a gradually increasing murmur of rage.
"Throw this boy out, if you're men!" Duff jeered. "Throw him out, I
say, and send word to your railroad people to put a man here in his
place."
The murmurs increased, especially from the Mexicans, for the Mexican
peon, or laborer, is often a furious gambler who will stake even the
shirt on his back.
Foreman Mendoza, who understood his own people, started forward, but
Tom, with a signal, caused him to halt.
"Throw him out, I say!" yelled Duff shrilly. "Duff, I'm afraid you're
making a fool of yourself," remarked Tom, stepping forward, smiling
cheerfully.
Yet another murmur, now growing to a yell, rose from some of the men--a
few of the men, too, who were not Mexicans, and a half-hearted rush was
made in the young engineer's direction.
"Throw him out! Hustle the boy out!" Duff urged.
"Stop! Stop right in your tracks!" thundered Tom Reade, taking still
another step toward the now angrier crowd. "Men, listen to me, and
you'll get a proper understanding of this affair. Jim Duff wants me
thrown out of here--"
"Yes! And out you'll go!" roared a voice from the rear of the crowd.
"That's a question that the next few minutes will settle," Tom rejoined,
with a smile. "If Jim Duff wants me thrown out of here, why don't you
men tell him to do it himself?"
The force of this suggestion, with the memory of what they had recently
seen, struck home with many of the men. A shout of laughter went up,
followed by yells of:
"That's right--dead right!"
"Sail in, Jim!"
"Throw him out, Jim! We'll see fair play!"
Tom made an ironical bow in the direction of the gambler.
"Have you men gone crazy!" yelled Jim Duff hoarsely.
"Have you lost your nerve, Jim?" bawled a lusty American laborer. "You
want this boy, as you call him, thrown out, and we're waiting to see you
do it. It you haven't the nerve to tackle the job, then you're not a
man to give us orders!"
Tom's smiling good humor and his fair proposition had swung the balance
of feeling against the gambler. Duff saw that he had lost ground.
"Boy," called a few voices, "if Duff won't throw you out, then you turn
the tables and throw him out."
"It isn't necessary," laughed Tom. "After the tents are gone Duff won't
have any desire to remain around here. Mr. Duff, I ask you for the last
time, will you have your men take down the tents and remove them?"
"I won't!" snarled the gambler.
"Mr. Rivers!" called Tom.
"Yes, sir," replied the foreman, stepping forward.
"Mr. Rivers, take twenty-five laborers and bring the tents down at once.
Be careful to see that no damage is done. As soon as they are down you
will load them on the wagons."
"Yes, sir."
"On second thought, you had better take fifty men. See that the work is
done as promptly as possible."
The Mexicans, who were in the majority, and nearly all of whom were
wildly eager to gamble as soon as their money arrived, stirred uneasily.
They might have interfered, but Foreman Mendoza ran among his
countrymen, calling out to them vigorously in Spanish, and with so much
emphasis that the men sullenly withdrew.
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