"Come along, sir, and come quickly, if you want to see something that will beat a carload of telegrams," urged the cub engineer.
Having gotten the president of the road outside, Tom let go of his arm and raced on before that astonished man from Broadway.
"Here, you fellows," called Tom, almost gayly, as he ran to where engineers and chainmen men were standing in little groups, talking gloomily over the forenoon"s work. "Get in line, here---a whole crowd of you!"
Dave Fulsbee was now riding briskly toward the centre of the camp, ahead of the wagon for which he had gone down the trail. Laughing quietly, Tom hustled group after group of young men into one long line.
"Hold up your right hands!" called out the young cub engineer.
Wondering, his subordinates obeyed. Fulsbee reined up, dismounting before the line.
"They"re all ready for you, friend," called Tom gayly.
"Listen, boys!" commanded Dave Fulsbee, as he faced the line on foot. "You do each and all of you, singly and severally, hereby swear that you will serve truly and well as special deputy sheriffs, and obey all lawful orders, so help you G.o.d?"
Almost in complete silence the hands fell as their owners nodded.
Both the engineers and rodmen felt a trifle dazed. Why was this solitary deputy sheriff before them, and with what did he expect them to fight! Were they to stand and throw rocks at an enemy armed with rifles?
But just then the wagon was driven in front of them.
"Hustle the cases out, boys! Get "em open!" commanded Dave, though he spoke without excitement. "Forty rifles and ten thousand cartridges, all borrowed from the National Guard of the State. Get busy!
If the coyotes down to the westward try to get busy around here we will talk back to them!"
"Whoop!" yelled the college boys. They pushed and crowded about the wooden cases that were now unloaded.
"See here," boomed in the deep voice of Professor Coles, "I wasn"t sworn in, and I now insist that I, too, be sworn."
"Mr. Newnham, tell the professor that fighting is a boy"s business, and that there isn"t any call for him to risk himself," appealed Tom. "There are plenty of youngsters here to do the fighting and to take the chances."
"Surely, there appear to be enough men," chuckled President Newnham, who, since he realized that rifles and ammunition were at hand, appeared to be wonderfully relieved. "Professor, don"t think of running yourself into any danger. Look on, with me."
"Rifles are all given out, now, anyway," called Dave Fulsbee coolly.
"Now, youngsters, I"m going to show you where to station yourselves.
Mr. Reade, have you seen anything through the gla.s.ses that looks interesting?"
"By Jove," Tom admitted, flushing guiltily, "I quite forgot to keep the lenses turned on the hills to the west."
He now made good for his omission, while Fulsbee led his young men away, stationing them in hiding places along the westward edge of the camp. Each man with a rifle was ordered not to rise from the ground, or to show himself in any way, and not to fire unless orders were given. Then Dave hurried back to the wagon. Something else was lifted out, all canvas covered, and rushed forward to a point just behind a dense clump of bushes.
"Reade, I want to apologize to you," cried the man from Broadway, moving quickly over to where Tom stood surveying the hills beyond through his gla.s.s. "I thought, for a few minutes, that you had suspected some such rascally work afoot, and that you had failed to take proper precautions."
"If I had failed, sir," murmured Tom, without removing the gla.s.s from before his eyes, "you would have arrived just in time, sir, to turn out of the camp a man who wasn"t fit to be in charge.
Yet it was only accident, sir, that led me to suspect what might be in the air."
Thereupon Tom hastily recounted to the president of the company the story of how he had accidentally overheard fragments of talk between "Gene Black and Bad Pete.
"That gave me a hint of how the wind was blowing," Tom continued, "though I couldn"t make out enough of their talk, on either occasion, to learn just what was happening. I telegraphed to the nearest town that had a sheriff in it, and that put me in touch with Fulsbee.
Then Dave, over the wire, offered to bring arms here and to help us to defend our camp."
"Mr. Reade," exclaimed President Newnham hoa.r.s.ely, "you are a wonderful young man! While seeming to be idle yourself, you have rushed the work through in splendid shape." Even when our enemies plot in the dark, and plan incredible outrages against us, you fully inform yourself of their plans. When the cowards strike you are ready to meet them, force for force. You may be only a cub engineer, but you have an amazing genius for the work in which chance has placed you out here."
"You may be guilty, Mr. Newnham, of giving me far more credit than I deserve," laughed Tom gently. "In the matter of finding out the enemy"s designs, I didn"t, and I don"t know fully yet what the other side intends to do to us. What I did learn was by accident."
"Very few other young men would have been equal to making the greatest and best use of what accident revealed," insisted Mr.
Newnham warmly.
Harry Hazelton came now, from the hole in the ground, to report that Dr. Gitney had done all he could for the comfort of poor young Reynolds.
"Gitney says that Reynolds ought to come along all right, as far as the mere wound itself is concerned," Hazelton added. "What will have to be looked out for is suppuration. If pus forms in and around the wound it may carry Reynolds off, for there are no hospital conveniences to be had in this wild neck of the woods."
"Is the doctor staying with Reynolds?" Tom asked, still using the gla.s.ses on the hilly country that lay ahead.
"No; he has gone back to Mr. Thurston and Mr. Blaisdell," Hazelton answered. "Doc says he"ll have to be with them to quiet them in case the firing gets close. He says both men will become excited and try to jump out of bed and come over here. Doc says he"s going to strap "em both down."
"Dr. Gitney may be badly needed here, if a fight opens," Tom mused aloud.
"He says, if we need him, to send for him."
"Come through a hot fire?" Tom gasped.
"Surely! Doc Gitney is a Colorado man, born and bred. He doesn"t mind a lead shower when it comes in the line of duty," laughed Harry. "Now, if you"re through using me as a messenger, I"m going to find a rifle."
"You won"t succeed," Tom retorted. "Every rifle in camp already has an amateur soldier behind it."
"Just my luck!" growled Harry.
"You"re a good, husky lad," Tom continued. "If you want to be of real use, just lie down hug the earth, take good care not to be hit, and-----"
"Fine and manly!" interjected Hazelton with contempt.
"Now, don"t try to be a hero," urged Tom teasingly. "There are altogether too many green, utterly inexperienced heroes here at present. Be useful, Harry, old chum, and let those who are good for nothing else be heroes."
"Following your own advice?" asked Hazelton. "Is that why you haven"t a rifle yourself?"
"Why do I need a rifle?" demanded Reade. "I"m a non-combatant."
"You-----"
"Box the chatter, Harry, and ship it east," Tom interposed, showing signs of interest. Then, in a louder voice, Tom called:
"Dave Fulsbee!"
"Here," answered the deputy sheriff from his hiding place in the brush.
"Do you see that bald k.n.o.b of rock ahead, to your left; about a quarter of a mile away?"
"I do."
"I make out figures crawling to the cover of the line of brush just to the right of the bald k.n.o.b," Tom continued. "There are eight of them, I think."