Chapter I. THE CUB ENGINEERS REACH CAMP

CHAPTER I

THE CUB ENGINEERS REACH CAMP

"Look, Tom! The re is a real westerner!"Harry Hazelton's eyes sparkled, his whole manner was one of intense interest.

"Eh?"queried Tom Reade, turning around from his distant view of a sharp, towering peak of the Rockies.

"The re's the real thing in the way of a westerner,"Harry Hazelton insisted in a voice in which there was some awe.

"I don't believe he is,"retorted Tom skeptically.

"You're going to say, I suppose, that the man is just some freak escaped from the pages of a dime novel?"demanded Harry.

"No; he looks more like a hostler on a leave of absence from a stranded Wild We st show,"Tom replied slowly.

The re was plenty of time for them to inspect the stranger in question. Tom and Harry were seated on a mountain springboard wagon drawn by a pair of thin horses. The ir driver, a boy of about eighteen, sat on a tiny make-believe seat almost over the traces. This youthful driver had been minding his own business so assiduously during the past three hours that Harry had voted him a sullen fellow. This however, the driver was not.

"Where did that party ahead come from, driver?"murmured Tom, leaning forward."Boston or Binghamton?"

"You mean the party ahead at the bend of the trail?"asked the driver.

"Yes; he's the only stranger in sight."

"I guess he's a westerner, all right,"answered the driver, after a moment or two spent in thought.

"The re! You see?"crowed Harry Hazelton triumphantly.

"If that fellow's a westerner, driver,"Tom persisted,"have you any idea how many days he has been west?"

"He doesn't belong to this state,"the youthful driver answered."I think he comes from Montana. His name is Bad Pete."

"Pete?"mused Tom Reade aloud."That's short for Peter, I suppose; not a very interesting or romantic name. What's the hind-leg of his name?"

"Meaning his surnames"drawled the driver.

"Yes; to be sure."

"I don't know that he has any surname, friend,"the Colorado boy rejoined.

"Why do they call him'Bad'?"asked Harry, with a thrill of pleasurable expectation.

As the driver was slow in finding an Answer, Tom Reade, after another look at the picturesque stranger, replied quizzically:

"I reckon they call him bad because he's counterfeit."

"The re you go again,"remonstrated Harry Hazelton."You'd better be careful, or Bad Pete will hear you."

"I hope he doesn't,"smiled Tom."I don't want to change Bad Pete into Worse Pete."

The re was little danger, however, that the picturesque-looking stranger would hear them. The axles and springs of the springboard wagon were making noise enough to keep their voices from reaching the ears of any human being more than a dozen feet away.

Bad Pete was still about two hundred and fifty feet ahead, nor did he, as yet, give any sign whatever of having noted the vehicle. Instead, he was leaning against a boulder at the turn in the road. In his left hand he held a hand-rolled cigarette from which he took an occasional reflective puff as he looked straight ahead of him as though he were enjoying the scenery. The road—-trail—-ran close along the edge of a sloping precipice. Fully nine hundred feet below ran a thin line of silver, or so it appeared. In reality it was what was left of the Snake River now, in July, nearly dried out.

Over beyond the gulch, for a mile or more, extended a rather flat, rock-strewn valley. Beyond that were the mountains, two peaks of which, even at this season, were white-capped with snow. On the trail, however, the full heat of summer prevailed.

"This grand, massive scenery makes a human being feel small, doesn't it?"asked Tom.

Harry, however, had his eyes and all his thoughts turned toward the man whom they were nearing.

"This—-er—-Bad Pete isn't an—-er—-that is, a road agent, is he?"he asked apprehensively.

"He may be, for all I know,"the driver answered."At present he mostly hangs out around the S.B. & L. outfit."

"Why, that's our outfits—-the one we're going to join, I mean,"cried Hazelton.

"I hope Pete isn't the cook, then,"remarked Tom fastidiously."He doesn't look as though he takes a very kindly interest in soap."

"Sh-h-h!"begged Harry."I'll tell you, he'll hear you."

"See here,"Tom went on, this time addressing the driver,"you've told us that you don't know just where to find the S.B. & L. field camp. If Mr. Peter Bad hangs out with the camp then he ought to be able to direct us."

"You can ask him, of course,"nodded the Colorado boy.

Soon after the horses covered the distance needed to bring them close to the bend. Now the driver hauled in his team, and, blocking the forward wheels with a fragment of rock, began to give his attention to the harness.

Bad Pete had consented to glance their way at last. He turned his head indolently, emitting a mouthful of smoke. As if by instinct his right hand dropped to the butt of a revolver swinging in a holster over his right hip.

"I hope he isn't bad tempered today!"shivered Harry under his breath.

"I beg your pardon, sir,"galled Tom,"but can you tell us——-"

"Who are ye looking at?"demanded Bad Pete, scowling.

"At a polished man of the world, I'm sure,"replied Reade smilingly."As I was saying, can you tell us just where we can find the S.B. & L.'s field camp of engineers?"

"What d'ye want of the camp?"growled Pete, after taking another whiff from his cigarette.

"Why, our reasons for wanting to find the camp are purely personal,"Tom continued.

"Now, tenderfoot, don't get fresh with me,"warned Pete sullenly.

"I haven't an idea of that sort in the world, sir,"Tom assured him."Do you happen to know the hiding-place of the camp?"

"What do you want of the camp?"insisted Pete.

"We ll, sir, since you're so determined to protect the camp from questionable strangers,"Tom continued,"I don't know that it will do any harm to inform you that we are two greenhorns—-tenderfeet, I believe, is your more elegant word—-who have been engaged to join the engineers'crowd and break in at the business."

"Cub engineers, eh, tenderfoot?"

"That's the full size of our pretensions, sir,"Tom admitted.

"Rich men's sons, coming out to learn the ways of the Rookies?"questioned Bad Pete, showing his first sign of interest in them.

"Not quite as bad as that,"Tom Reade urged."We're wholly respectable, sir. We have even had to work hard in order to raise money for our railway fare out to Colorado."

Bad Pete's look of interest in them faded.

"Huh!"he remarked."Then you're no good either why."

"That's true, I'm afraid,"sighed Tom."However, can you tell us the way to the camp?"

From one pocket Bad Pete produced a cigarette paper and from another tobacco. Slowly he rolled and lighted a cigarette, in the meantime seeming hardly aware of the existence of the tenderfeet. At last, however, he turned to the Colorado boy and observed:

"Pardner, I reckon you'd better drive on with these tenderfeet before I drop them over the cliff. They spoil the view. Ye know where Bandy's Gulch is?"

"Sure,"nodded the Colorado boy.

"Ye'll find the railroad outfit jest about a mile west o'there, camped close to the main trail."

"I'm sure obliged to you,"nodded the Colorado boy, stepping up to his seat and gathering in the reins.

"And so are we, sir,"added Tom politely.

"Hold your blizzard in until I ask ye to talk,"retorted Bad Pete haughtily."Drive on with your cheap baggage, pardner."

"Cheap baggage, are we?"mused Tom, when the wagon had left Bad Pete some two hundred feet to the rear."My, but I feel properly humiliated!"

"How many men has Bad Pete killed?"inquired Harry in an Awed voice.

"Don't know as he ever killed any,"replied the Colorado boy,"but I'm not looking for trouble with any man that always carries a revolver at his belt and goes around looking for someone to give him an excuse to shoot. The pistol might go off, even by accident."

"Are there many like Mr. Peter Bad in these hills nowadays?"Tom inquired.

"You'll find the foothills back near Denver or Pueblo,"replied the Colorado youth coldly"You're up in the mountains now."

"We ll, are there many like Peter Bad in these mountains?"Tom amended.

"Not many,"admitted their driver."The old breed is passing. You see, in these days, we have the railroad, public schools, newspapers, the telegraph, electric light, courts and the other things that go with civilization."

"The old days of romance are going by,"sighed Harry Hazelton.

"Do you call murder romantic?"Reade demanded."Harry, you came west expecting to find the Colorado of the dime novels. Now we've traveled hundreds of miles across this state, and Mr. Bad wore the first revolver that we've seen since we crossed the state line. My private opinion is that Peter would be afraid to handle his pistol recklessly for fear it would go off."

"I wouldn't bank on that,"advised the young driver, shaking his head.

"But you don't carry a revolver,"retorted Tom Reade.

"Pop would wallop me, if I did,"grinned the Colorado boy."But then, I don't need firearms. I know enough to carry a civil tongue, and to be quiet when I ought to."

"I suppose people who don't possess those virtues are the only people that have excuse for carrying a pistol around with their keys, loose change and toothbrushes,"affirmed Reade."Harry, the longer you stay west the more people you'll find who'll tell you that toting a pistol is a silly, trouble-breeding habit."

They drove along for another hour before a clattering sounded behind them.

"I believe it's Bad Pete coming,"declared Harry, as he made out, a quarter of a mile behind them, the form of a man mounted on a small, wiry mustang.

"Yep; it is,"nodded the Colorado boy, after a look back.

The trail being wider here Bad Pete whirled by them with a swift drumming of his pony's hoofs. In a few moments more he was out of sight.

"Tom, you may have your doubts about that fellow,"Hazelton remarked,"but there's one thing he can do—-ride!"

"Humph! Anyone can ride that knows enough to get into a saddle and stick there,"observed the Colorado boy dryly.

Readers of the"_Grammar School Boys Series_"and of the"_High School Boys Series_", have already recognized in Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton two famous schoolboy athletes.

Back in old Gridley there had once been a schoolboy crowd of six, known as Dick & Co. Under the leadership of Dick Prescott, these boys had made their start in athletics in the Central Grammar School, winning no small amount of fame as junior schoolboy athletes.

Then in their High School days Dick & Co. had gradually made themselves crack athletes. Baseball and football were their especial sports, and in these they had reached a degree of skill that had made many a college trainer anxious to obtain them.

None of the six, however, had gone to college. Dick Prescott and Greg Holmes had secured appointments as cadets at the United States Military Academy, at We st Point. The ir adventures are told in the"_West Point Series_."Dave Darrin and Dan Dalzell, feeling the call to the Navy, had entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. The ir further doings are all described in the"_Annapolis Series_."

Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton, however, had found that their aspirations pointed to the great constructive work that is done by the big-minded, resourceful American civil engineer of today. Bridge building, railroad building, the tunneling of mines—-in a word, the building of any of the great works of industry possessed a huge fascination for them.

Tom was good-natured and practical, Harry at times full of mischief and at others dreamy, but both longed with all their souls to place themselves some day in the front ranks among civil engineers.

At high school they had given especial study to mathematics. At home they had studied engineering, through correspondence courses and otherwise. During more than the last year of their home life our two boys had worked much in the offices of a local civil engineer, and had spent part of their school vacations afield with him.

Finally, after graduating from school both boys had gone to New York in order to look the world over. By dint of sheer push, three-quarters of which Tom had supplied, the boys had secured their first chance in the New York offices of the S.B. & L. Not much of a chance, to be sure, but it meant forty dollars a month and board in the field, with the added promise that, if they turned out to be"no good,"they would be promptly"bounced."

"If'bounced'we are,"Tom remarked dryly,"we'll have to walk home, for our money will just barely take us to Colorado."

So here they were, having come by rail to a town some distance west of Pueblo. From the last railway station they had been obliged to make thirty miles or more by wagon to the mountain field camp of the S.B. & L.

Since daybreak they had been on the way, eating breakfast and lunch from the paper parcels that they had brought with them.

"How much farther is the camp, now that you know the way."Reade inquired an hour after Bad Pete had vanished on horseback.

"The re it is, right down there,"answered the Colorado youth, pointing with his whip as the raw-boned team hauled the wagon to the top of a rise in the trail.

Of the trail to the left, surrounded by natural walls of rock, was an irregularly shaped field about three or four acres in extent. Here and there wisps of grass grew, but the ground, for the most part, was covered by splinters of rock or of sand ground from the same.

At the farther end of the camp stood a small wooden building, with three tents near try. At a greater distance were several other tents. Three wagons stood at one side of the camp, though horses or mules for the same were not visible. Outside, near the door of one tent, stood a transit partially concealed by the enveloping rubber cover. Near another tent stood a plane table, used in field platting (drawing). Signs of life about the camp there were none, save for the presence of the newcomers.

"I wonder if there's anyone at home keeping house,"mused Tom Reade, as he jumped down from the wagon.

"The re's only one wooden house in this town. That must be where the boss lives,"declared Harry.

"Yes; that's where the boss lives,"replied the Colorado youth, with a wry smile.

"Let's go over and see whether he has time to talk to us,"suggested Reade.

"Just one minute, gentlemen,"interposed the driver."Where do you want your kit boxes placed? Are you going to pay me now?"

"Drop the kit boxes on the ground anywhere,"Tom answered."We're strong enough to carry'em when we find where they belong."

"And—-yes: we are going to pay you now. Eighteen dollars, isn't it?"

"Yes,"replied the young driver, with the brevity of the mountaineer.

Tom and Harry went into their pockets, each producing nine dollars as his share of the fare. This was handed over to the Colorado youth.

"'Bliged to you, gentlemen,"nodded the Colorado boy pocketing the money."Anything more to say to me?"

"Nothing remains to be said, except to thank you, and to wish you good luck on your way back,"said Reade.

"I wish you luck here, too, gentlemen. Good day."

With that, the driver mounted his seat, turned the horses about and was off without once looking back.

"Now let's go over to the house and see the boss,"murmured Tom.

Together the chums skirted the camp, going up to the wooden building. As the door was open, Tom, with a sense of good manners, approached from the side that he might not appear to be peeping in on the occupants of the building. Gaining the side of the doorway, with Harry just behind him, Reade knocked softly.

"Quit yer kidding, whoever it is, and come in,"called a rough voice.

Tom thereupon stepped inside. What he saw filled him with surprise. Around the room were three or four tables. The re were many utensils hanging on the walls. The re were two stoves, with a man bending over one of them and stirring something in a pot.