The field work was done. Yet the field engineers were not dismissed. Instead, they were sent back along the line. The construction gang was still twelve miles out of Lineville, and the time allowed by the charter was growing short. At Denver certain politicians seemed to have very definite information that the S.B. & L. R.R., was not going to finish the building of the road and the operating of the first through train within charter time. Where these politicians had obtained their news they did not take the trouble to state. However, they seemed positive that, under the terms of the charter, the state would take over as much of the railroad as was finished, pay an appraisal price for it, and then turn the road over to the W.C. & A. promoters to finish and use as part of their own railway system. These same politicians, by the way, were a handful of keen, unscrupulous men who derived their whole income from politics, and who had always been identified with movements that the better people of the state usually opposed. Mr. Thurston and his assistant, Blaisdell, were now able to be up and to move about a little, but were not yet able to travel forward to the point that the construction force had now reached. Neither Thurston nor Blaisdell was in fit shape to work, and would not be for some weeks to come. Mr. Newnham, who had learned in these weeks to ride a horse, came along in saddle as Tom and Harry stood watching the field camp that was now being rapidly taken down by the few men left behind. “Idling, as usual, Reade?” smiled the president of the road. “This time I seem to have a real excuse, sir,” chuckled Tom. “My work is finished. There isn’t a blessed thing that I could do, if I wanted to. By tomorrow I suppose you will be paying me off and letting me go.” “Let you go---before the road is running?” demanded Mr. Newnham, in astonishment. “Reade, have you noted any signs of my mind failing lately?” “I haven’t, sir.” “Then why should you imagine that I am going to let my chief engineer go before the road is in operations” “But I was acting chief, sir, only of the field work.” “Reade,” continued Mr. Newnham, “I have something to tell you. Thurston has left our employ. So has Blaisdell. They are not dissatisfied in any way, but neither man is yet fit to work. Besides, both are tired of the mountains, and want to go east together as soon as possible and take up some other line of engineering work. So---well, Reade, if you want it, you are now chief engineer of the S.B. & L. in earnest.” “Don’t trifle with me, sir!” begged Tom incredulously. “I’m too far from home.” “No one has ever accused me of being a humorist,” replied Mr. Newnham dryly. “Now tell me, Reade, whether you want the post I have offered you?” “Want it?” echoed Tom. “Of course I do. Yet doesn’t it seem too ‘fresh’ in a cub like myself to take such a post?”