"Get through with him, Tom" advised the other young engineer.
"I see Eb and Josh coming on the run. They'll have the guns.
We've got to look out for ourselves."
Tom flung the badly beaten man from him where he lay on the ground moaning over his hurts and vowing vengeance on Tom.
"Stand still, Harry, and I'll have you free in a jiffy," Tom proposed, hauling out his pocket knife.
"It won't do for us to stand still too long," urged Hazelton, as his chum began to slash at the cords. "The other scoundrels will kill us when they see what's been going on here."
"No, they won't," Tom promised calmly. "We'll take care of 'em both. You wait and see which one I take. Then you take the other. We'll handle 'em to the finish."
This seemed like foolhardy talk when it was considered that the other two men would return armed. But Harry had unlimited confidence in his friend, and so followed Tom, crouching, until they had hidden behind bushes along the trail.
"Where be you, Dolph?" called the voice of Eb, as the pair drew near.
"He's over there," spoke Reade, springing out of the bushes.
"You'll join him after a bit."
Neither Eb nor Josh was armed. Tom sailed into Eb, while Harry sprang at Josh. For a few minutes the trail was a scene of swift action, indeed. Shortly Eb and Josh tried to run away, as Gage had done, but each time the young engineers caught them and compelled them to renew the fight.
"My man's going to sleep, now, Harry!" Tom called, and drove in a knockout blow with his left.