CHAPTER III

DICK & CO. AGAIN


"Hey, there, you galoot! You thin, long-drawn-out seven feet of
tin soldier!"

After having been home a week, Dick Prescott flushed as he wheeled
about to meet this jeering greeting.

In another instant every trace of his wrath had vanished.

"Tom Reade!" hailed Dick in great delight, turning and rushing
at his old High School chum. "And good little Harry Hazelton!"

It was, indeed, the young engineer pair, Reade and Hazelton, old-time
members of Dick & Co., the great High School crowd of Gridley.
Reade and Hazelton, after finishing at the High School, had gone
out to Colorado to serve under the engineer in charge of a great
piece of railway construction work. The adventures of Tom and
Harry, in the wild spots of the West, are fully set forth in the
volumes of the _Young Engineers Series_.

"The last fellow I expected to meet in Gridley!" cried Dick,
overflowing with delight as he stuck out both hands at once and
grasped theirs.

"Well, we are, aren't we?" demanded Reade.