“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.
“We're somewhat secretive—yes, sir,” Tom replied. “That is only because we regard the method we are going to use as being mainly the concern of the A., G. & N. M. No offense meant, sir, either.”
“No offense taken,” replied the late questioner.