“We've a hard afternoon ahead of us, Harry,” remarked Tom Reade, as the engineer chums finished the noonday meal in the public dining room of the Mansion House.
“Pshaw! We'll have more real work to do after our material arrives,” rejoined young Hazelton. “We're promised the material in four days. If we get it in a fortnight we will be lucky.”
“That might be true on some railroads,” smiled Tom. “But Mr. Ellsworth, the general manager of the A., G. & N. M., is a hustler, if I ever met one. When we wired to him what we needed, he wired back that enough of the material would be here within four days to keep us busy for some time. I believe Mr. Ellsworth never talks until he knows what he's talking about.”
“Well, I hope you can find some work for the men to do this afternoon,” murmured Harry, as the two young engineers rose from table. “Hawkins, our superintendent of construction, has about five hundred mechanics and laborers who will soon need work.”
“Yes,” agreed Tom. “The men took the jobs with the understanding that their pay would run on.”
“The day's wages for five hundred workmen is a big item of loss when we're delayed,” mused Hazelton.
“There's another consideration that's even worse than the loss,” Tom went on in a low voice. “The pay train will be here this afternoon and the men will have a lot of money by evening. This town of Paloma is going to be wide open to-night in the effort to get the money away from our five hundred men.”
“We can't stop that,” sighed Harry. “We have no control over the way in which the workmen choose to spend their money.”
“Want me to tell you a secret?” whispered Tom mysteriously.
“Yes, if it's an interesting one,” smiled Harry.