"What is it?" Harry wanted to know.
"All of these fellows are smoking cigarettes. I am proud of myself to feel that I don't belong in their class."
"A year ago Alf Drew would have felt at home in this cigarette-puffing, sallow-faced lot, wouldn't be?" grinned Harry.
"I am glad to say that Alf now knows how measly a cigarette smoker looks," answered Tom.
Alf Drew, as readers of the preceding volume will remember, was a boy addicted to cigarettes, but whom Tom had broken of the stupid habit. Alf was now employed in the engineering offices of Reade & Hazelton.
"There's something coming," announced Reade, presently. "It sounds like a miniature railroad train."
"I wish it were a real one, and that we had our baggage aboard," muttered Harry, with a grimace.
One of the sentries had gone to intercept the approaching object. Instead the soldier now permitted the approaching object to roll into camp. It proved to be Don Luis's big touring car. In the tonneau sat the mine owner and Dr. Carlos Tisco.
"What is this, Senor Reade?" cried Don Luis Montez, in pretended astonishment. "In trouble? Lieutenant, these gentlemen are friends of mine. May I ask you what this means?"
Tom was not deceived by this by-play. He snorted mildly while the young army lieutenant explained why he had detained the engineers.