he returned.

"That burro outfit in sight?" he called, as he neared the trail.

"No," answered Rutter. "But it's close. Once in a while I can
hear a burro clicking his hoofs against stones."

Harry appeared two minutes later, just as the foremost burro,
with Bob by its head, put in an appearance about fifty yards away.

"All ready for you, Bob," called Rutter good-humoredly.

"You gentlemen of the engineer corps are always ready," grunted
the cook's helper.

A quick stop was made, Bob unloading tin plates, bowls and cups.

"Soup!" cried Rutter in high glee. "This is fine living for buck
engineers, Bob!"

"There's even dessert," returned the cook's helper gravely, exposing
an entire apple pie.

There was also meat, still fairly warm, as well as canned vegetables
in addition to potatoes. A pot of hot coffee finished the repast
that Bob unloaded at this point.

"Everything but napkins!" chuckled Rutter, as he and the boys
quickly "set table" on the ground.

"No; something else is missing," answered Tom gravely. "Bob forgot
the finger-bowls."

The helper, beginning to feel that he was being "guyed," took
refuge in cold indifference.

"Just stack the things up at this point when you're through," directed
Bob. "I'll pick 'em up when I come back on the trail."

Rutter, like a good chief, saw to it that his two assistants and
the chainmen were started on their meal ere he himself began.
In half an hour every morsel of food and the final drop of coffee
had disappeared.

"Twenty minutes to loaf," advised Rutter, throwing himself on
the ground and closing his eyes. "I'll take a nap. You'd better
follow my example."

"Then who'll call us?" asked Tom.

"I will," gaped Rutter.

"Without a clock to ring an alarm?"

"Humph! Any real backwoods engineer can wake up in twenty minutes
if he sets his mind on it," retorted Jack.

This was a fact, though it was the first that Tom or Harry had
heard of it.

"See the time?" called Rutter, holding out his watch. "Twenty
minutes of one. I'll call you at one o'clock---see if I don't."

In that fine air, with all the warmth of the noon hour, there
was no difficulty in going to sleep. Truth to tell, Tom and Harry
had tramped so far that forenoon that they were decidedly tired.
Within sixty seconds both "cubs" were sound asleep.

"One o'clock!" called Rutter, sitting up and consulting his watch.
"Fall to, slaves! There is a big batch of work awaiting us.