|
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 5
Now, at last, they had been lured away from the S. B. & L. by the offer
of a new chance to overcome difficulties of the sort that all fighting
engineers love to encounter. The Arizona, Gulf & New Mexico Railroad--
more commonly known as the A., G. & N. M.--while laying its tracks in an
attempt at record-beating, had come afoul of the problem of the
quicksand, as already outlined. Three different sets of engineers had
attempted the feat of filling up the quicksand, only to abandon it.
There was little doubt that the Colthwaite Construction Company, a
contracting firm with years of successful experience, could have,
"stopped" the quicksand, but this Chicago firm wanted far more money for
the job than the railroad people felt they could afford to spend.
So, in a moment of doubt, and harassed by troubles, one of the directors
of the A., G. & N. M. had remembered the names and the performances of
Tom and Harry. This director of the Arizona road, being a friend of
President Newnham, of the S. B. & L. road, had written the latter,
asking whether the services of Tom and Harry could be secured. The
reply had been in the affirmative, and Tom and Harry had speedily
traveled down into Arizona. In the few days they had been at this
little town of Paloma, they had gone thoroughly over the ground, they
had studied the problem, and had expressed their opinion that the job
could be put through creditably at a cost not exceeding a quarter of a
million dollars.
"Go to it, then!" General Manager Curtis had replied. "You have our
road's credit at your command, and we look to you to make good. You are
both very young, but Newnham's word is quite good enough for us."
The day before this story opens this general manager had boarded one of
the rough-looking construction trains and had gone back to the road's
headquarters.
As they sat in the barber shop now Tom and Harry were quite unaware of
the interested notice they were receiving. This was not surprising, for
both were good, sane, wholesome American boys, with no more than the
average share of conceit, and neither believed himself to be as much of
a wonder as some experienced railroad men credited them with being.
"Stranger, excuse me, but you're Reade, aren't you?" inquired one of the
men of Paloma who was present.
"Yes, sir," nodded Tom, looking up pleasantly from the weekly paper that
he had been scanning.
"You're head of the new job on the Man-killer, aren't you?" questioned
the same man. By this time every man in the barber shop was secretly
watching the young engineers, a fact that was plain to Harry Hazelton,
as he glanced up from a magazine.
"Yee, sir," Tom answered again. "In a way I'm at the head of it, but my
friend, Hazelton, is really as much at the head as I am. We are
partners, and we work together in everything."
"Do you think, Reade, that you're going to win out on the job?" inquired
another man.
"Yes, sir," nodded Tom.
"You seem very confident about it," smiled another.
"It's just a way we have," Tom assented good-naturedly. "We always try
to keep our nerve and our confidence with us."
"Yet you are really sure?"
"Oh! yes," Reade answered. "We have looked the quicksand over, and we
feel sure that we see a way of stopping the Man-killer, and forcing it
to sustain railroad ties and steel rails."
"How are you going; to go about it?" questioned still another interested
citizen. These men of Paloma had good reason for being interested.
When the iron road was finished, Paloma would be an intimate part of the
now outside world. It was certain that Paloma real estate would rise to
three or four times its present value.
"I know you'll excuse us," replied Tom, still speaking pleasantly, "if
we don't go into precise details."
"Then you are going to make a secret of your plans?" inquired another
barber-shop idler. His tone expressed merely curiosity; Arizona men are
proverbially as polite as they are frank.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|