Part 32 (1/2)

”How many have you in the camp here?” questioned Dave, after he and Roger had mounted the two waiting burros and were riding off beside the man from the engineering camp.

”There are twenty of us in the engineering gang, and I think they have about seventy to eighty men in the construction camp, with forty or fifty more on the way. You see, they have been bothered a great deal for hired help lately on account of the trouble with the Mexican bandits and revolutionists. Lots of men are afraid to come down here to work for fear some bandits will make a raid across the border and shoot them down.”

”Have you had any trouble lately?” questioned Roger, quickly.

”We had trouble about two weeks ago. A couple of dirty Mexicans came into camp and were caught trying to steal away that night with some of our belongings. One of the fellows got a crack on the head with a club, and the other we think was shot in the side. But both of them got away in the darkness.”

”That's interesting, to say the least,” remarked Dave, drily. ”I guess we've got to sleep with our eyes open, as the saying is.”

”You've certainly got to watch yourself while you're down here,”

answered Frank Andrews. ”There is more _talk_ about trouble than anything else, but the talk gets on some of the men's nerves, and we have had one civil engineer and two helpers leave us just on that account. They said they would prefer to work somewhere in the United States where they wouldn't be worried thinking the greasers might attack them.”

As the party rode along they had to cross a bridge which was comparatively new, and their guide explained that this structure was one erected by the Mentor Company. Then they went over a slight rise, and finally came into view of a long row of one-story buildings with several rows of adobe houses behind them.

”Here we are at the camp!” announced the guide. ”The engineering gang lives and does business in these houses here, and those huts at the back are used by the construction gangs.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”HERE WE ARE AT THE CAMP!” ANNOUNCED THE GUIDE.--_Page 225._]

It was all so new and novel to Dave and Roger that they were intensely interested. With their guide they rode up to the main building and dismounted. In a moment more they found themselves inside and confronted by Mr. Ralph Obray, the head of the camp.

”Glad to see you,” he said, shaking hands after they had introduced themselves. ”We are rather short of helpers just now; so you'll find plenty to do. I understand Mr. Ramsdell has given you a first-cla.s.s recommendation. I hope that you'll be able to live up to it,” and he smiled faintly.

”I'm going to do what I can, Mr. Obray,” answered Dave.

”And so am I,” added Roger.

Frank Andrews had already told them that a man with a wagon would be sent down to the station for their trunks and suitcases, all of which had been left in charge of the station-master. The youths were taken to one of the buildings not far from the office, and there a.s.signed to a room containing two cots.

”Of course, this isn't the Biltmore Hotel or the Waldorf Astoria,”

remarked Frank Andrews, with a grin. ”If you stay out here you'll have to learn to rough it.”

”We know something about roughing it already,” answered Dave. ”If the other fellows can stand it I guess we can.”

”You won't find it so bad when you get used to it,” answered the man.

”Of course, it's pretty hot during the day, but the nights are quite comfortable. We've got a first-cla.s.s colored cook, so you won't find yourselves cut short on meals.”

”That's good news,” answered the senator's son. ”I always thought that a good meal covered a mult.i.tude of sins,” and at this misquotation Frank Andrews laughed heartily.

The man had already been despatched to get the baggage, and after it arrived Dave and Roger proceeded to make themselves at home, each donning such clothing as they saw the others of the engineering corps wearing.

”It's good-bye to boiled s.h.i.+rts and stiff collars,” said Roger, ”and I'm not sorry for it.”

”Nor am I,” returned Dave. ”I'll feel much more like working in this comfortable outfit.”

Almost before they knew it, it was noon, and presently they saw a number of men, some of them quite young, coming in to dinner. Through Frank Andrews they were introduced to all the others, and then placed at one of the tables in the mess hall where a helper of Jeff, the cook, served them with a meal which, if not exactly elegant, was certainly well-cooked and substantial.

”I want you two young men to stay around the offices for the rest of this week,” announced Mr. Obray to them after the meal. ”That will give you a chance to familiarize yourselves with what we are doing in the way of constructions in this vicinity. Then next week you can go out with the gang and begin your regular field practice.”