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The Young Engineers in Arizona

Chapter 2 DUFF ASSERTS HIS "RIGHTS"

Word Count: 2376    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

Tom Reade, as the engineer chums finished the noonda

rives," rejoined young Hazelton. "We're promised the material

ustler, if I ever met one. When we wired to him what we needed, he wired back that enough of the material would be here w

rry, as the two young engineers rose from table. "Hawkins, our superintendent of co

k the jobs with the understandi

workmen is a big item of loss wh

y train will be here this afternoon and the men will have a lot of money by evening. This town of Pa

have no control over the way in which

u a secret?" whispe

interesting one

men spend their money. But I'm going to give them some earnest advi

eyes rather wide. "Don't put yourself in bad

General Manager Ellsworth will know where to find others for us. Few of our men are skill

u've no

us. What I mean to do is to offer them some very straight talk. I shall also warn them that we are quite ready to discharge any foolish fellows who may happen to go

horses?" asked a stable boy, comin

nodde

re brought around. Tom and Harry mount

nsom looked down upon them,

game, Duff," hi

ce," laughed the gambler. "I've a clever

companion's ears, at which Ranso

Duff," grinned the

to judge most people at first sight. You shall soon see whether I d

west of the town of Paloma. In the course of a quarter of an hour Tom and Harry

ifty, with snapping eyes that contrasted with

led the horses away to the shade of a st

de, that our gangs would soon eat up the little work that you left us. Out there, by the last cav

till two days away," remarked Reade. "I'll confess that I don't lik

more dirt at the points where the last slide of the quicksand occurred. But, then, shoveling dirt in, without the timbers an

t weren't that the pay train comes in this afternoon. An idle man, not over-nice about his habits, and with a lot of money

ancing on sand-paper, it's so uneasy about getting its hand into the pile of more than

to be fleeced to-night. Some of our men will be so badly done up that it will be a we

eclared Superintendent Hawkin

rough railroading camps eno

fe, Hawkins," Tom answered, "but

oma will take in thousands of dollars from our lads to-night and all day to-morrow. The gamblers will swindle them out

n work as hard as any toilers in the world. They receive good wages. Yet where do you find a railroad jack wh

rugged his

angry every time I think about it. Yet how is one

's a way," spoke

then, Mr. Reade," retor

te, I'm go

, Mr. Reade?" demanded th

h me, won't yo

ith us, shoulde

ly will, M

en? You can de

ven to the Mexican foreman, Mendoza. He's a greaser,

then-all except Payson

s strolled away, but within ten minutes he was back

entered the office building. "They've stopped a quarter of a mile belo

t the superintendent had described. One of the tents had just been

" Reade asked. "Who

clothes-who looks like Jim Duff," replied

r?" asked T

e s

tent on the railroa

s,

'll have a look

t the young engineers, the superinten

ar tent, some forty feet in diameter. The second

s work?" asked Tom in h

as he moved forward to meet the party. "Dock, come here. I wa

n as Dock Bemis, an unprepossessing, shabbily dressed man of thi

anted," Tom continued, with an easy smile.

airs," assented the gambler. "I've a stock of liquors

se to do with all

d off this afternoon they'll want to go somewhere to enjoy themselves. As the day is very hot I thought it w

and fleece them more easily?" asked Tom

angrily. Then his

r answered, in a voice choked with anger. "I am going to offer your men a little amusement. It's w

out a hundred railroad lab

r, "can you show any proof of your author

, Mr. Reade, would be as conv

ave you any authority or warr

I a permit from the

y well what I

somewhat sharper, his sm

y objection to my coming here,"

on the railroad's land's?" per

o see how reasonable it is that your men should b

ckly as you can accomplish it," di

smiling dangerously and displa

emove them from railroad property. I am not seeking trouble with you, sir; I don't want trouble. But, as lo

, his smile fading, "do you objec

eclared. "But it wo

rd with you alone,"

mbler to a distance of a hundred feet o

ney out of this tent outfit,

dollar out of it-on railway pr

make the whole deal with you, and if no one else is allowed to bother me,

what was happening, Duff had presse

his?" dema

u'll find two hundred dollars there, in bills. That'

e hound!" exclai

bank notes left Tom's hand, lan

rned white. His hand flew back to a

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