"They're Reade and Hazelton, the very young engineers that the railroad
has just put in charge of the Man-killer job," whispered one knowing
citizen of Paloma. The news quickly spread about the barber shop.

Jim Duff already knew the boys by sight, since they were stopping at the
Mansion House. He uttered an almost inaudible "humph!" then passed on
outside.

Neither Tom Reade nor Harry Hazelton heard this exclamation, nor would
they have paid any heed to it if they had.

Yes; the two young men were our friends of old, the young engineers.
Our readers are wholly familiar with Tom and Harry as far back as their
grammar school days in the good old town of Gridley. Tom and Harry were
members of that famous sextet of schoolboy athletes known at home as
Dick & Co. The exploits of Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton, as of Dick
Prescott, Dave Darrin, Greg Holmes and Dan Dalzell, have been fully
told, first in the "Grammar School Boys Series," and then in the "High
School Boys Series."

After the close of the "High School Boys Series" the further adventures
of Dick Prescott and Greg Holmes are told in the "West Point Series,"
while all that befell Dave Darrin and Dan Dalzell has already been found
in the pages of the "Annapolis Series."

In the preceding volume of this series, "The Young Engineers in
Colorado," our readers were made familiar with the real start in working
life made by Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton. Back in the old High School
days Reade and Hazelton had been fitting themselves to become civil