"If Bill doesn't look out he'll lose his job, and it will be too bad," answered Frank Andrews, "because he won't be likely to get another such easy berth in a hurry. He gets good money for what little he does. He hired with the company as a first-class bookkeeper, but I understand he is only ordinary when it comes to handling big masses of figures." "Well, I didn't like him when I met him, and I'd be just as well satisfied if we didn't meet again," said Dave. But Dave's wish was not to be gratified. He was to meet William Jarvey in the future, and that meeting was to bring with it a great surprise. CHAPTER XXIV A MIDNIGHT ALARM "Well, Dave, we have been in this camp just a month to-day. How do you think you like it?" "I like it first-rate, Roger--in fact, better than I first thought I would. All the engineers and assistants are so kind and helpful." "That's what they are," returned the senator's son. "And I think we are getting along famously. Do you know, I am actually in love with the construction of this new Catalco bridge. I think it's going to be a dandy when it's completed." "Not only a dandy, Roger, but, unless I miss my guess, it will be a monument to the skill and ingenuity of the Mentor Construction Company. I've been reading up on all kinds of bridges, and I think the construction of this particular bridge goes ahead of most of them." "One thing is sure--Mr. Obray is very proud of the way things are going. I heard from Andrews that some of the other construction companies thought we would never be able to build this bridge the way it is going up." The talk between the two chums was held in the evening after work for the day had come to an end. Dave and Roger stood on an elevation of ground surveying the unfinished bridge--or rather chain of bridges--which spanned a river and the marshland beyond. It had been a great engineering feat to obtain the proper foundations for the bridge where it spanned the marshland, and make them impervious to the floods which came with great force during certain seasons of the year. The first week at the camp had been spent in the offices, but all the other time had been put in with the engineering gang that was superintending the construction of the far end of the bridge, and also the laying out of the railroad route through the hills and cuts beyond. The work had proved fascinating to the chums, and they were surprised to see how quickly the time passed. Dave and Roger had made a number of friends, but none more agreeable than Frank Andrews. Andrews occupied a room close to their own, and often spent an evening with them. About the end of the second week they had received word concerning William Jarvey. The bookkeeper in the offices at San Antonio had had a violent quarrel with Mr. Watson and had been discharged. He had gone off declaring that his being treated thus was unjustifiable, and that he was going to bring the Mentor Construction Company to account for it.