chief of
detectives for the company, at a salary of something like six
thousand a year.

"He is, oh?" gulped down Sheriff Grease. "I'll bet he won't. I'll
protest against that, right from the start."

"Dave will be our chief of detectives, if you protest all night
and some more in the morning," returned Tom Reade. "And Dave,
I reckon, is going to need a force of at least forty men under
him. Dave will be rather important in the county, won't he, sheriff,
if he has forty men under him who feel a good deal like voting the
way that Dave believes? A forty-man boss is quite a little figure
in politics, isn't he, sheriff?"

Grease turned nearly purple in the face, choking and sputtering
in his wrath.

"Come along, Dave, and see if that job as chief detective is open
today," urged Tom, drawing one arm through Fulsbee's. "If you're
interested in knowing the news, sheriff, you might wait."

"I'll-----" ground out Grease, gritting his teeth and clenching
one fist. Tom waited patiently for the county officer to finish.
Then, as he didn't go further, Reade rejoined, half mockingly:

"Exactly, sheriff. That's just what I thought you'd do."

Then Tom dragged Dave down to the headquarters tent, where they
found the president of the road.

"Mr. Newnham," began Tom gravely, "the sheriff has just come to
camp and has discharged Fulsbee from his force of deputies, just
because Fulsbee acted as a real law officer and stopped the raid
on the road. I have told Mr. Fulsbee, before Sheriff Grease, that
you are going to make him chief of detectives for the road at a
salary of about six thousand a year."

Mr. Newnham displayed his astonishment very openly, though he
did not speak at first.

"That's all right," replied President Newnham. "Mr. Fulsbee,
do you accept the offer of six thousand as chief detective for
the road,"

"Does a man accept an invitation to eat when he's hungry?" replied
Dave rather huskily.

"Then it's settled," put in Tom, anxious to clinch the matter,
for he had a very shrewd idea that he would need Dave badly ere
long. "Now, Mr. Newnham, until we get everything running smoothly,
Mr. Fulsbee ought to have a force of about forty men. They will
cost seventy-five dollars a month, per man, with an allowance
for horses, forage, etc. Hadn't Mr. Fulsbee better get his force
together as soon as possible? For I am certain, sir, that the
next move by the opposition will be to tear up and blow up our
t