d seen 'Gene Black in the brush.

The presence of that scoundrel persuaded Tom that someone working
in the interests of the W.C. & A. Railroad Company was still employing
Black in an attempt to block the successful completion of the
S.B. & L.

Moreover, the news that Dave Fulsbee received from Denver showed
that two of the officials of the W.C. & A. were in that city,
apparently ready to proceed to get possession of the rival road.

Politicians asserted that it was a "cinch" that the new road would
fall short of the charter requirement in the matter of time.

"All this confidence on the part of the enemy is pretty fair proof
that the scoundrels are up to something," Tom told Mr. Newnham.

"Or else they're trying to break down our nerve so that we'll
fail through sheer collapse," replied the president of the S.B.
& L., rubbing his hands nervously. "Reade, why should there be
such scoundrels in the world?"

"The president is all but completely gone to pieces," Reade confided
to his chum. "Say, but I'm glad Mr. Newnham himself isn't the
one who has to get the road through in time. If it rested with
him I'm afraid he'd fizzle. But we'll pull it through, Harry,
old chum---we'll pull it through."

"If this thing had to last a month more I'm afraid good old Tom
would go to pieces himself," thought Harry, as he watched his
friend stride away. "Tom never gets to his cot now before eleven
at night, and four thirty in the morning always finds him astir
again. I wonder if he thinks he's fooling me by looking so blamed
cheerful and talking so confidently. Whew! I'd be afraid for
poor old Tom's brain if anything should happen to trip us up."

Harry himself was anxious, but he was not downright nervous.
He did not feel things as keenly as did his chum; neither was
Hazelton directly responsible for the success of the big undertaking.

Mile after mile the construction work stretched. Trains were
running now for work purposes, nearly as far as the line extended.

The telegraph wires ran into the temporary station building at
Lineville, and the several operators along the line were busy
carrying orders through the length of the wire service.

Back at Stormburg, where the railroad line began, three trains
lay on side tracks. These were passenger trains that were to
run the entire length of the road as soon as it was opened.

Back at Stormburg, also, the new general superintendent slept
at his office that he might r