“Oh, I didn’t get as far as that,” laughed the son of the Crumville real estate dealer. “Just the same, after your railroad gets into operation somebody might start a summer colony here.”
The visitors were shown around the camp, and at the ringing of the breakfast bell were led by Roger and Dave into the building where the meals were served. And there all did full justice to the cooking of Jeff and his assistant.
The youths had talked the matter over the evening before, and it had been decided to take an all-day trip on horseback along the line of the proposed railroad.
“We’ll show you just what we are trying to do,” Roger had said. “Then you’ll get some idea of what laying out a new railroad in a country like this means.”
“I wish I could have gone down to the Rio Grande when Ben went down,” remarked Phil. “I would like to have seen that new Catalco Bridge your company put up there.”
“It certainly was a fine bit of engineering work!” cried Ben. He turned to Dave. “You don’t expect to put up any bridge like that here, do you?”
“Not just like that, Ben. Here we are going to put up fifteen or twenty bridges. None of them, however, will be nearly as long as the Catalco Bridge. But some of them will be considerably higher. In one place we expect to erect a bridge three hundred feet long which, at one point, will be over four hundred feet high.”
A substantial lunch had been packed up for them by the cook, and with this stowed safely away in some saddlebags, the five youths set out from the construction camp, Dave, with Phil at his side, leading the way, and the others following closely.
Every one felt in tiptop spirits, and consequently the talk was of the liveliest kind, with many a joke and hearty laugh. Shadow Hamilton was allowed full sway, and told a story whenever the least opportunity presented itself.
“Some mountains around here, and no mistake,” observed Phil, after they had climbed to the top of one stretch of the winding trail and there come to a halt to rest the horses.