“I’ll watch them,” the youth had answered.
When the Christmas holidays arrived Dave went back to Crumville, where he and his folks resided with the Wadsworths. Directly after Christmas came a startling robbery of the Wadsworth jewelry works, and Dave and his chums by some clever work discovered that the crime had been committed by Merwell and Jasniff. After a sea voyage to Cave Island, Jasniff was captured and sent to jail, but Merwell at the last minute managed to make his escape.
The trip to Cave Island was followed by another to the great West, where Dave aided Roger Morr in locating a gold mine which had been lost through a landslide.
After this our hero went up to Bear Camp in the Adirondack Mountains, where he had a glorious time with all of his chums and also the girls. At that time Dave fell in with a young man named Ward Porton, who was almost our hero’s double in appearance. Porton proved to be an unscrupulous person, and caused our hero not a little trouble, he trying at one time to palm himself off as the real Dave Porter. This scheme, however, was exposed, and then Porton lost no time in disappearing.
Our hero had now graduated from Oak Hall, and he and Roger Morr had taken up the profession of civil engineering. In the midst of his studies Dave was startled by the news of the disappearance of some valuable miniatures which had been willed to his old friends, the Basswoods. It was discovered that Ward Porton was in this plot, and later on this evildoer, along with his disreputable father, was brought to justice.
As soon as their first examination in civil engineering had been passed, Dave and Roger had succeeded in obtaining through their instructor positions with the Mentor Construction Company, a large concern operating many branches throughout the United States and in foreign countries. They were assigned to a gang operating in Texas, building a railroad bridge near the Rio Grande. This construction camp was under the general management of Mr. Ralph Obray, assisted by a number of others, including a middle-aged man named Frank Andrews, who had speedily become a warm friend of the young civil engineers.
The work had proved absorbing from the start to Dave, and it must be said that the senator’s son was almost equally interested. Both kept up their studies every day and kept their eyes and ears wide open, and consequently made rapid progress. On more than one occasion Mr. Obray had given them encouraging words and shown his satisfaction, and Frank Andrews was enthusiastic.
“You fellows keep on the way you have started, and some day you’ll be at the top of the ladder,” was the way Andrews expressed himself.
The two young civil engineers had remained at work on the Catalco Bridge for nearly a year. Then the task had been turned over to another gang, and the Obray outfit, as it was commonly called, had been sent up from Texas into Montana, to take up the work of roadbed and bridge construction for the M. C. & D. Railroad.
This railroad was simply a feeder of one of the main lines, yet it was thought that in time it would become a highly important branch. The work to be undertaken was unusually difficult, and it was an open secret that several construction companies had refused even to give figures on it.