ready and willing to thrash
you?" cried Harry in exasperation.

"Please don't," Tom begged.

"Then tell me what you've been so mightily mysterious about."

"I will," returned Reade. "I'd have told you hours ago, Harry, only I'm
afraid you would have been demoralized with disappointment if the thing
had failed to go through. Harry, to-day I've been meddling in other
people's business. Congratulate me! I put it through without getting
myself thumped or even disliked, by anyone. Both sides to the deal are
'tickled to death,' as the saying runs."

"You said you were going to tell me," remarked Hazelton, trying hard to
restrain his curiosity for a minute or two longer.

"Sit down and listen," Tom urged his chum, handing him a chair in their
little shack of an office.

Then, indeed, Tom did pour forth the whole story. As Harry listened a
broad grin of contentment appeared on his face, for one of Hazelton's
lovable weaknesses was his desire to see other people get ahead.

Just as Tom finished, a figure darkened the doorway.

"I'm ready to go, sir," announced Tim Griggs.

"Go where?" inquired Harry.

"I've fired Griggs," observed Tom Reade.

"What! After all that he did for you the other night?" demanded
Hazelton, aghast. "After the man saved your--"

"Oh, I'm quite satisfied to be fired, Mr. Hazelton," Tim Griggs broke
in. "In fact, I'm very grateful to Mr. Reade. He has certainly given me
a big boost forward in the world."

"What are you going to do now, Griggs?" Harry asked.

"You'd better address him as 'Mr. Griggs,' Harry," Tom hinted. "He is a
foreman now, at six dollars a day, and entitled to his Mister."

"Foreman?" Harry repeated, while Gregg's grin broadened.

"Yes," Tom continued. "Mr. Griggs is to be foreman on the new job that
I've just been telling you about in town. After this, if Mr. Griggs is
careful to behave himself, he's likely always to be a foreman on some
job or other for the A., G. & N. M."

Harry sprang forward, seizing the hand of Tim Griggs and shaking it with
enthusiasm.

"Bully old Griggs! Lucky old Griggs!" Hazelton bubbled forth. "Mr.
Griggs, you'll believe from now on what I've always believed--that it's
a great piece of luck in itself to be one of Tom Reade's friends."

"It surely has been great luck for me, sir," Griggs answered. "The best
part of all," he added, with a husky note in his voice, "is what it
means to that little girl of mine. When I get into town to-night I