ers.

"Come on, Harry," Tom replied. "We'll see if we can't make a way through
the crowd." The two young engineers placed themselves at the head of the
squad, and succeeded quickly in opening up a passage through a crowd that
seemed to be at least half hostile.

Thus Tom found himself soon face to face with an American.

"Evarts!" Reade cried, angrily. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here by permission," snarled the discharged foreman.

"Whose permission?" Tom insisted, briskly.

"Mr. Bascomb's," replied Evarts, with a leer so full of satisfaction that
Reade didn't doubt the truth of the statement.

"Mr. Bascomb," Tom called, "did you tell Evarts that he might visit this
camp?"

"Yes; I did," admitted the president of the company, stiffly.

"Then I'm sorry to say that Evarts has been misinformed," Tom went on.
"He _can't_ visit this camp. He's too much of a trouble-maker here."

"Shut up your talk!" jeered Evarts roughly. "Don't try to give orders to
the president of the company that hires and pays you."

"Mr. Bascomb is the head of the company that employs me," Tom assented.
"But I am in charge here, and am responsible, with Mr. Hazelton, for the
good order of the camp and the success of the work. Therefore, Evarts,
you'll leave camp now, and you won't come back again under pain of being
punished for trespass."

"Oh, now see here, Reade---" began Mr. Bascomb angrily, as he started
forward. But Treasurer Prenter caught Bascomb by the arm, whispering in
his ear.

"Waiting for you, Mr. Bascomb," called Evarts.

"I guess you'd better go," called the president, rather shamefacedly, after
his talk with Mr. Prenter. "I guess maybe Reade is right. At all events
his contract places him in charge of this camp."

"Humph, Evarts, a lot of good you can do us here, can't you?" sneered the
sallow-faced fellow.

Tom looked first at one, and then at the other of the pair.

"So," guessed Reade shrewdly, "Evarts has been at the head of this game of
unlawful liquor selling in this camp. There are other vendors here, too,
are there?"

"You lie!" yelled the discharged foreman.

"You may prove that, at your convenience," Reade replied, without even a
heightening of his color. "For the present, though, you're going to get
out of camp and stay out."

"I called you a liar," sneered Evarts, "and you haven't the sand to fight
about it."

"Fighting with one of your stripe isn't worth the while," Tom retorted,