|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 27
Before them the top layer of desert sand had sunk away, revealing a well
or sink, one hundred and fifty feet across and the bottom at least forty
feet below the general level.
"I always wondered why a suspension bridge wouldn't solve the problem
more easily and cheaply than any other construction," muttered Mr.
Ellsworth, after he had gotten over his first indignation.
"To avoid every possibility of lurking quicksand the suspension bridge
would have to be more than a mile long," Reade answered. "Beyond, there
are other treacherous little patches of quicksand. It would cost the
road millions to put up a suspension bridge that would hold.
"A short bridge would look all right and doubtless serve all right, for
a while. Then, some fine day, part of the structure would give, and a
trainload of passengers would be sucked down and out of sight by the
shifting sands of the Man-killer."
Mr. Ellsworth turned aside with a shudder.
"I'm glad I'm not an engineer," he said earnestly. "The responsibility
for safety of life at this point is all yours, Reade."
"And I'm willing enough to take it, sir, if you don't run trains over
the Man-killer until the new roadbed has stood tests that I'll put upon
it."
"It'll cost at least ten thousand dollars to repair the mischief that
the scoundrels have done to-night," figured Harry Hazelton thoughtfully.
"Then, if we can find out the guilty wretches for certain, we'll see
that they earn more than that amount by enforced labor in prison,"'
retorted the general manager grimly.
"Mr. Bell!" called Tom briskly.
"Here, sir," reported the foreman, coming forward..
"Mr. Bell, I wish you'd pick out twenty-one good men. Make the
brightest of the lot head of the new force of night watchmen. Place the
other twenty under his orders. Your gangs will come into play here
later than the others, so I'll let your shift of men have the first
chance at night-watchman duty."
"All right, sir," nodded Foreman Bell. "Any further orders?"
"None, except that your watchmen will do their best to guard both the
line of roadbed and the camp. Further, tell the night engineer to be
sure to have steam up so that he can blow a lot of signals at anytime in
the night."
"Very good, sir," and the foreman hurried away.
"I'm disgusted with myself for having been caught in this fashion," Tom
admitted to Mr. Ellsworth. "But I hadn't an idea that Paloma held any
dynamite. I can't imagine how a frontier town on the alkali desert
needs dynamite."
"It will probably be found that someone shipped it in a hurry,"
suggested Mr. Ellsworth.
"But how? Any fellow would be detected who had it brought in on our
trains. There has been no time to I stage I it from any other point
since the row with Duff started."
"It's a puzzle," admitted Mr. Ellsworth.
"It is, but it won't be for long," Reade declared confidently. "There
are ways of finding out how that dynamite got into Paloma, there must be
ways of finding out who caused it to be brought in."
Then, suddenly, Tom's eyes grew wider open and brighter.
"Mr. Ellsworth, I believe that dynamite was brought in before the
trouble opened."
"But who would have wished to bring dynamite here until the trouble
started?"
"Anyone might be interested in doing it who wanted to see trouble
start."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|