“Do you want me to quit, sir?” demanded Tom, looking steadily into his chief's eyes.
“I don't,” declared Mr. Ellsworth promptly. “If you and Hazelton were to quit me now I don't know where I could get another pair of men who could put into the work all the skill and energy that you two employ.”
“Did you have dinner in town, sir?” Tom asked.
“No, for I came out to take you two young men in. Hawkins will also be with us at dinner this evening. He has told me about the Mansion House affair, so the Cactus House shall be the railway house hereafter. That fellow Ashby is uneasy; I think he will be more than uneasy after a while.”
The dinner party motored back to town. Dinner was more like a reception that evening, for the news of Tom's plucky fight against the rough element had spread through the town. Nearly two score of men representing the better part of the population of Paloma called at the hotel to shake hands with the young engineers.
“They don't seem to care a hang about me, these men, do they, Hawkins?” laughed the general manager, as he and the superintendent stood in the background of the picture.
“That's because they're Arizona men, sir,” replied Hawkins. “Their interest is in the man who has done the thing, not in the boss.”
“I can understand why President Newnham, of the S. B. & L., recommended these young men so extravagantly. They're full of force and absolutely free from self-conceit.”
Finally the party motored back towards the camp. As it was after dark now, some of the citizens who had visited them escorted the slow moving car as far as the edge of the town, but none of Jim Duff's followers appeared on the streets through which they passed.
“Why are we going back to camp, anyway?” demanded Mr. Ellsworth. “Why not sleep at the hotel to-night?”