Harry sprang forward, seizing the hand of Tim Griggs and shaking it with enthusiasm.
“Bully old Griggs! Lucky old Griggs!” Hazelton bubbled forth. “Mr. Griggs, you'll believe from now on what I've always believed—that it's a great piece of luck in itself to be one of Tom Reade's friends.”
“It surely has been great luck for me, sir,” Griggs answered. “The best part of all,” he added, with a husky note in his voice, “is what it means to that little girl of mine. When I get into town to-night I in going to sit down and write that little daughter a long letter all about the grand news. She'll be proud of her dad's good luck! She's only eight years old, but she's a great little reader, and she writes me letters longer than my own.”
“If you'll wait a minute, Mr. Griggs,” proposed Tom, “we'll be able to give you a ride into town. The general manager gave me authority to rent and use an automobile after this. It's out there waiting now.”
The new foreman gratefully accepted the invitation. Within five minutes the chauffeur had stopped the car in Paloma and Tim Griggs got out to go to his new boarding place in the town.
“God bless you, Mr. Reade!” he said huskily, holding out his band. “You've done a lot for me—and my little girl!”
“No more than you've done for me,” smiled Tom. “Anyway, you haven't received more than you deserve, and you never will in this little old world of ours.”
“I don't know about that,” replied the new foreman, a sudden flush rising to his weather-beaten face. “It all seems too good to be true.”
“You'll find it to be true enough when you draw your next pay, Griggs,” laughed Tom. “Then you'll realize that you aren't dreaming. In the meantime your dinner is getting cold at your boarding place. Don't let your new job spoil your appetite.”
When Tom and Harry rode into town at noon the following day they beheld a scene of great activity at the site of the destroyed Cactus House. All the blackened debris had been carted away during the morning by a large force of men. Now, derricks lay in place, to be erected in the afternoon. A steam shovel had been all but installed and a large stationary engine rested on nearly completed foundations.