"Do you agree with your associate, Hazelton?" inquired Mr. Ellsworth.
"Absolutely," Harry proposed. "I have been watching Tom Reade to see if he was making the statement emphatic enough to suit my ideas. Gentlemen, the property we have staked off on this map is a good investment one that will soon make the American financial markets ring."
"I'm satisfied, on Reade and Hazelton's report," declared Mr. Haynes. "I know these young men, and I'd trust my life or my fortune to their honesty or their judgment alike."
"I'm satisfied, too," nodded Ellsworth.
"I can say the same," nodded Mr. Hippen.
"Then we hardly need to look or inquire further," laughed another of the intending investors, pleasantly.
From this will be seen how much frequently depends upon the reputation of an engineering firm for honor and judgment. In New York City, downtown, is an almost dingy suite of offices. It is the business headquarters of a firm of mining engineers known and trusted the world over. Probably the entire equipment of these offices, including the laboratories and assay rooms, could be purchased for seven or eight thousand dollars. The real asset of this firm is its reputation for splendid judgment and unfailing honor. Let this firm of engineers indorse a new mine sufficiently, and Wall Street will promptly raise twenty million dollars to finance the scheme. This firm of engineers, despite its rather dingy quarters, often earns a yearly income running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
These men of the A.G.& N.M. R.R. knew Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton as well and favorably as the mining world at large knows the New York firm which has been referred to above.
"It all looks good to me," declared President Haynes, speaking again.
"And to me," nodded several others of the visitors.