ss-----"

"Say it!"

"Unless Black joined this outfit with the express purpose of
queering all the work of the entire corps as he could easily
do. Harry, do you think that Black could possibly be serving
with this outfit as the paid tool of the rival road, the W.C.
& A.? Can he be the enemy's spy within our lines---sent to prevent
our finishing the road on time?"

CHAPTER X

THINGS BEGIN TO GO DOWN HILL

"I suppose I'm thick," Harry murmured. "How would Black, by turning
in some wrong backsights and foresights, expect to delay the building
of the road, even if he wanted to do it?"

"How?" repeated Tom Reade, showing an amount of heat and excitement
that he rarely displayed. "Why, Harry, this same old Section
Nineteen is one of the hard spots on the road. A lot of excavating
has to be done before the tracks can be laid here. It's not a
mere matter of scooping up dirt and removing it, either. A large
amount of solid rock has to be blasted out here before the roadbed
can be laid."

"I know it," Harry nodded.

"Well, then, at the present moment our chief, Mr. Thurston, is
preparing the estimates for the work that must be done. On his
estimates will be based the strength of the laboring gangs that
must come forward to do the work."

"Yes."

"Then, suppose that Mr. Thurston has been misled into making a
certain estimate as to the number of thousand cubic yards of stuff
that must be taken out of the outs that are to be made. After
he gets his laborers here, and at work, he finds that he has at
least three times as much rock and dirt to get out-----"

"I see," cried Hazelton. "Before the chief could get men and
wagons, and make all necessary changes in the work, the time would
have slipped by so far that the finishing of the road would be
blocked."

"And the S.B. & L. would lose its charter," finished Tom grimly.

"It's mighty lucky that we came out here today, then," exclaimed
Hazelton, now fully alive to the danger that menaced their employers.
"Come, we must hustle back to camp and show Mr. Thurston how
he has been imposed on. There can't be a doubt that 'Gene Black
has been deliberately crooked."

"Go slowly," advised Tom. "Don't be in a rush to call any other
man a crook. Mr. Thurston can hear our report. Then he can look
into it himself and form his own opinion. That's as far as we
have any right to go in the matter."

"Thurston is at fault in not having come out here himself,