The Young Engineers in Colorado Part 30

Five hors.e.m.e.n belonging to the field party rode in furiously, Matt Rice at their head.

"It's a shame," yelled Rice, as he threw himself from his horse.

"I'd have stayed behind---so would the others---if we had had rifles with us. The scoundrels kept up a fire at a quarter of a mile range.

Then we pa.s.sed the men who are carrying Reynolds---they're almost here now---but it wouldn't have done any good for us to stand by them.

We'd have made the other party only a bigger mark. Where are the revolvers, Reader? We've got to make a stand here. We can't run away and leave our camp to fall into their hands."

"We're not going to run away," said Reade grimly. "But I'll tell you what a half dozen of you can do. Hustle for shovels and dig a deep hole here. This gentleman is Mr. Newnham, president of the company that employs us. If the camp is attacked we can't afford to have the president of the road killed."

"Mr. Newnham would do far better to ride down the trail as fast as he can go, and try to join the construction camp," offered Rutter.

The president of the S.B. & L. had been silent during the last few exciting moments. But now he opened his mouth long enough to reply very quickly:

"Mr. Newnham hasn't any thoughts of flight. I am not a fighting man, and never saw a shot fired in anger in my life, but I'm going to stand my ground in my own camp."

"Dig the hole, anyway," ordered Tom. "We'll want a safe place to put young Reynolds. We can't afford to leave him exposed to fire."

"Where are the revolvers?" Rice insisted, as others started to get shovels and dig in a hurry.

"Oh, never mind the revolvers," replied Tom. "We won't use 'em, anyway. We can't, for they wouldn't carry far enough to put any of the enemy in danger."

"Mr. Reade," remarked Mr. Newnham, in a quiet undertone, "does it occur to you that you are making no preparations to defend the camp!

That, in fact, you seem wholly indolent in the matter?"

"Oh, no; I'm not indolent, sir," smiled Tom. "You'll find me energetic enough, sir, I imagine, when the need for swift work comes."

"Of course you couldn't foresee the coming of any such outrage as this," Mr. Newnham continued.

"Oh, I rather guessed that this sort of thing was coming," Tom confessed.

"You guessed it---and yet the camp has been left undefended? You haven't taken any steps to protect the company's rights and property at this point?" gasped Mr. Newnham.

"You will find, sir, that I am not wholly unprepared," Reade remarked dryly, while the corners of his mouth drew down grimly.

Tom was apparently the only one in camp, after the excitement started, who had noted that Dave Fulsbee, at the first shots, had leaped to his horse and vanished down the trail to the eastward.

At this moment a party of a dozen, headed by Professor Coles, came in on foot, bearing young Reynolds with them.

"Harry, mount one of the saddled horses and rush down yonder for Doc Gitney," Tom ordered. "Give him your horse to come back on.

He must see to young Reynolds promptly."

Some of the field party came in on horseback, followed soon by still others on foot. Many of the field engineering party, in their haste, had left their instruments, rods and chains behind.

Tom, after diving into and out of the headquarters tent, held up a pair of powerful binocular field gla.s.ses. With these he took sweeping views of the near-by hills to the westward.

"The scoundrels haven't gotten in at close quarters yet, sir," Reade reported to President Newnham. "At least, I can't make out a sign of them on the high ground that commands this camp."

"This whole business of an armed attack on us is most incomprehensible to me," remarked Mr. Newnham. "I know, of course, that the W.C.

& A. haven't left a stone unturned to defeat our efforts in getting our road running within the limits set in the charter. However, the W.C. & A. people are crazy to send armed a.s.sa.s.sins against us in the field in this fashion. No matter, now, whether we finish the road on time, this rascally work by the opposition will defeat their hopes of getting the charter away from us."

"It might prevent them from doing so, sir," Tom rejoined quietly, "if you were able to prove that the scoundrels who fired on our engineering parties this morning were really employed by the W.C.

& A. railroad crowd."

"Prove it?" snorted the man from Broadway. "Who else would have any interest in blocking us?"

"Would that statement go in court, or before a legislature?" Tom pressed.

"No, it wouldn't," President Newnham admitted thoughtfully. "I see the point, Reade. After the scoundrels have done their worst against us, they can disperse, vanishing among the hills, and the W.C. & A.

people will simply deny that they were behind the attack, and will call upon us to prove it."

"Not only that, sir," continued the cub chief engineer, "but I doubt if any of the officials of the W.C. & A. have any real knowledge that such a move is contemplated. This trick proceeds from the fertile mind of some clever, well-paid scoundrel who is employed in the opposition railroad's gloom department. It is a cleverly thought-out scheme to make us lose three or four days of work, which will be enough to prevent us from finishing the road on time. So, the enemy think that we must lose the charter, sir."

"That trick will never work," declared Mr. Newnham angrily. "Reade, there are courts, and laws. If the State of Colorado doesn't protect us in our work, then we can't be held to am count for not finishing within a given time."

"That's as the legislature may decide, I imagine, sir," hazarded the young engineer. "There are powerful political forces working to turn this road's charter over to the W.C. & A. crowd. Your company's property, Mr. Newnham, is ent.i.tled to protection from the state, of course. The state, however, will be able to reply that the authorities were not notified, and could not send protection to us."

"But we have a telegraph running from here out into the world!"

cried the man from Broadway way, wheeling like a flash. "Reade, we're both idiots not to have remembered, at the first shots, to send an urgent message to Denver. Where's your operating tent?"

"Over there. I'll take you there, sir," offered Tom, after pointing.

"Still it won't do any good, Mr. Newnham, to think of telegraphing."

"Not do us any good?" echoed the other, aghast. "What nonsense are you talking, Reade? If we are hindered the feet of our having wired to the governor of the state will be our first proof of having appealed to the state for protection. Can't you see that, Reade?"

The pair now turned in at the operator's tent.

"Operator," said Reade, to the young man seated before the keys on a table, "this gentleman man is President Newnham, of the S.B. & L.

Send any messages that he dictates."

"Get Denver on the wire," commanded Mr. Newnham. "Hustle!"

Click-click-click! rattled the sounder.

"It won't do a particle of good," Tom uttered calmly. "'Gene Black, the engineer discharged from this camp, is serving the enemy.

Black has brains enough to see that our wire was cut before he started a thing moving."

Click-click-click! spoke the sounder again.

"I can't get a thing," explained the operator. "I can't even get a response from the construction camp. Mr. Reade must be right---our wire has been cut and we're shut off from the outside world."

CHAPTER XVII

THE REAL ATTACK BEGINS

Hearing the moving wheels of a wagon on the trail, Tom looked outside, then seized Mr. Newnham's arm rather roughly.