the tripod legs of your leveling instrument the other day, and
left a mark on the wood."

"Don't you try to be funny with me, you young hound!" hissed Black,
stepping so close that Tom gently pushed him back. "You young
idiot! Do you think you can fire me---and get away with it?"

"We won't talk about it any more," Tom answered. "Your time will
be all your own until the paymaster arrives. After you've received
your money you will leave camp."

"Are any of the others going?"

"No."

"Then you're discharging me for personal reasons!" snarled 'Gene
Black. "However, you can't do it! I'll wire the president of
the road, at New York."

"He won't receive your wire," Tom assured the irate one. "President
Newnham is on his way here. Probably he'll arrive here before
the paymaster does. You may take your case to President Newnham
in person if you wish."

"That's what I'll do, then!" breathed 'Gene Black fiercely.
"And I'll take your place in charge here, cub! If I don't, _you_
shall never finish the S.B. & L!"

CHAPTER XIV

BAD PETE MIXES IN SOME

Forty-Eight hours later Professor Coles arrived in camp with thirty
healthy, joyous young students of engineering.

It didn't take Tom half an hour to discover that he had some excellent
material here. As for the professor himself, that gentleman was
a civil engineer of the widest experience.

"I shall need you to advise me, professor," Tom explained. "While
I had the nerve to take command here, I'm only a boy, after all,
and you'll be surprised when you find out how much there is that
I don't know."

"It's very evident, Mr. Reade," smiled the professor, "that you
know the art of management, and that's the important part in any
line of great work."

The student party had brought their own tents and field equipment
with them. Their arrival had been a total surprise in camp, as
none of the other engineers, save Harry, had known what was in
the wind.

"If these boys don't make mistakes by wholesale," declared Jack
Butter, "we'll just boost the work along after this. I wonder
why Mr. Thurston never hit upon the idea of adding such a force?"

"It's very likely he has been thinking of it all along," Tom rejoined.
"The main point, however, is that we seem to have a bully field
force."

Four of the students had been selected to serve as map-making
force under Harry Hazelton. The rest were going out into the
field, some of them as engineers in emb