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.