to keep our nerve and our confidence with us."

"Yet you are really sure?"

"Oh! yes," Reade answered. "We have looked the quicksand over, and we
feel sure that we see a way of stopping the Man-killer, and forcing it
to sustain railroad ties and steel rails."

"How are you going; to go about it?" questioned still another interested
citizen. These men of Paloma had good reason for being interested.
When the iron road was finished, Paloma would be an intimate part of the
now outside world. It was certain that Paloma real estate would rise to
three or four times its present value.

"I know you'll excuse us," replied Tom, still speaking pleasantly, "if
we don't go into precise details."

"Then you are going to make a secret of your plans?" inquired another
barber-shop idler. His tone expressed merely curiosity; Arizona men are
proverbially as polite as they are frank.

"We're somewhat secretive--yes, sir," Tom replied. "That is only
because we regard the method we are going to use as being mainly the
concern of the A., G. & N. M. No offense meant, sir, either."

"No offense taken," replied the late questioner.

Tom had already, within a few minutes, made an excellent impression on
the majority of these Arizona men present.