Before I'm a very old man I expect to hear that several of our steel piles have shot up above the surface in China or India." Hearing the noise of horse's hoofs behind him, Tom turned.

He beheld Fred Ransom riding out to the spot on a mottled "calico" horse.
"Look who's here," Reade murmured to his chum.
"What are you going to do with him ?" asked Hazelton, after a quick look.
"Run him off the line ?" "I don't know," Tom answered slowly.

"Ransom is trying hard to earn a living, you know." Harry snorted.

That sort of estimation of Ransom, even as a joke, was a little too much for him.
"Mighty hot day, Reade," called Ransom, as he reined in near the young engineers.
"Yes," said Tom slowly.

"If I were enjoying myself beside a bottle of cold soda on the Mansion House porch I don't believe I'd have the energy to call for a horse and ride all the way out here in the heat." "Am I intruding ?" demanded Ransom, with a swift, keen glance at the young chief engineer.
"Oh, no, indeed!" came Tom's response.