"We"ll sort this out and get it back to camp," Tom proposed.
"Alf, little hero, redeem yourself by buckling down to a good load. Come here; let me load you down."
Alf meekly submitted, cherishing a half hope that he would not be discharged from his new position after all.
At the end of an hour the stuff had all been taken back and the camp looked a good deal as it had looked that morning.
"Now, Alf," directed Tom in a milder, kinder tone, "you hustle over and break your back helping Mr. Ferrers to get supper ready.
We"re a famished lot. Understand?"
Alf was only too glad to be able to understand that his part in the dismantling of the camp had been overlooked. While Tom and Harry led their guests into one of the tents, young Drew hastened over to where Jim Ferrers was starting a fire in the camp stove.
"Now, put that stuff back in your pockets, or I"ll throw it in the fire!" sounded the angry voice of Ferrers. "You can"t use any of that stuff when you"re working around me."
"The poor little cigarette pest must have been trying to use his newly acquired "makings,"" grinned Tom.
While Ferrers was thus busied with preparation of the meal, Joe Timmins had taken the guide"s rifle and was keeping a watchful eye over the approaches to the neighborhood.
"So you young men think you could serve me satisfactorily as engineers,"
questioned Mr. Dunlop.
"I think we could," Tom answered.
"But I am afraid you young men have a rather large notion as to the pay you"re worth," continued the mine promoter.
"That"s right, sir," Reade nodded. "We have a good-sized idea on the pay question. Now, when you go to Dugout City next you might wire the president of the S.B. & L. railroad, at Denver, or the president of the A.G. & N.M., at Tucson, Arizona, and ask those gentlemen whether we are in the habit of making good on large pay."
"How much will you young men want?"
"For work of this character," replied Tom, after a few moments of thought, during which Harry Hazelton was silent, "we shall want six hundred dollars a month, each, with two hundred dollars apiece added for the fighting risk."
"The fighting risk?" questioned Mr. Dunlop.
"Well, we shall have Dolph Gage and his crowd to guard against, won"t we?" Reads counter-questioned.
"But such pay is absurd!" he protested.
"From your view-point, very likely, sir. From our view-point it will be very ordinary compensation, and nothing but our desire to learn more about mining will tempt us to go into it at the figure we have named."
"Your price puts your services out of the question for my company,"
replied Mr. Dunlop, with a shake of his head.
"Very good, sir," Tom rejoined pleasantly. "No harm done, and we need not talk it over any more. We wish you good luck in finding proper engineers for your work. You will probably motor back to Dugout tomorrow morning, won"t you?"
"We"ll have to," Mr. Dunlop answered. "We"re not safe here until we hire a few good men to come out here to keep Gage and his fellows at a distance."
"That"s true, sir," Tom nodded. "As you"ll need a good many men here by the time you start work on your mine you"ll do well to bring at least a score of them down at once. Twenty good, rough men, used to this life and not afraid of bullets, ought to make you feel wholly safe and secure on your own property."
There was more talk, but neither Tom nor Harry again referred to their serving the new company as engineers.
In due course of time Jim Ferrers, with such help as Alf was able to give, had supper ready to serve. It was a rough meal, of hard tack, pilot bread, potatoes, canned meats and vegetables, but outdoor life had given all a good appet.i.te and the meal did not long remain on the camp table.
For guard duty that night it was arranged that Jim Ferrers and Joe Timmins should relieve each other. Tom also offered to stay up with Ferrers, Harry taking the watch trick with Timmins, though neither of the young engineers was armed or cared to be.
Harry and Timmins were to take the first watch. The others retired early. Tom Reade was about to begin undressing when Hazelton came in for a moment.
While the chums were chatting, Alf Drew"s forlorn figure showed at the doorway of the tent.
"Say, boss," complained Alf, "I haven"t any place to sleep."
"What?" Reade demanded in pretended surprise, "with nearly all the ground in Nevada at your disposal?"
"But that isn"t a bed," contended Alf.
"Right you are there, lad" agreed Tom.
"Now, see here, boss, only one of you two is going to sleep at a time tonight. I"m tired---I ache. Why can"t I sleep on the other cot in this tent?"
"Come here," ordered Tom.
Alf wonderingly advanced.
Whiff! whiff! moved the young engineer"s nostrils.
"Just as I thought," sighed Reade. "You"ve been smoking cigarettes without any let-up ever since supper."
"Well, I have ter," argued Drew.
"And now you smell as fragrant as a gas-house, Alf. Mr. Hazelton is rather particular about the little matter of cleanliness.
If you were to sleep on his cot the smell of cigarettes would be so strong that I don"t believe Mr. Hazelton could stay on his cot when it came his time to turn in."
"But say! If you knew how dead, dog-tired I am!" moaned Alf.
"Oh, let him sleep on my cot," interposed Harry, good-heartedly.
"If I can"t stand the cot when I come to use it, then it won"t be the first night that I"ve slept on hard ground and rested well."
"All right, Alf, climb in," nodded Tom. "But see here. Cigarettes make you as nervous as a lunatic. If you have any bad dreams tonight, and begin yelling, then I"ll rise and throw you outdoors.
Do you understand?"
"Yes," mumbled the boy. "But I won"t dream. I"m not nervous now. It"s only when I can"t get enough cigs that I"m nervous."
"You should have seen him this afternoon," Tom continued, turning to his chum. "The lad and I took a walk. At every other step he kept imagining that he heard rattlesnakes rattling."
"And I did, too," contended Alf stoutly. "You know I did. You heard "em yourself, Mr. Reade."
"I didn"t hear a single rattler," Tom replied soberly.
"Let the tired little fellow go to bed in peace," urged Harry.
"All right," Tom agreed.