there is some way that we can stop the fleecing."

"There isn't any such way," declared Superintendent Hawkins, with an air
of conviction.

"You've surely been around rough railroading camps enough to know that,
Mr. Reade."

"I've seen a good deal of the life, Hawkins," Tom answered, "but of
course I don't know it all."

"Yet you know that you can't hope to stop railroad jacks from spending
their money in their own way. The saloons in Paloma will take in
thousands of dollars from our lads to-night and all day to-morrow. The
gamblers will swindle them out of a whole lot more. Day after to-morrow,
Mr. Reade, you wouldn't be able to borrow twenty dollars from
our whole force."

"It's a shame," burst from Tom indignantly, as the three turned to gaze
westward across the desert. "These men work as hard as any toilers in
the world. They receive good wages. Yet where do you find a railroad
jack who, after years and years of toil on these burning deserts, has
two or three hundred dollars of his own saved?"

Hawkins shrugged his shoulders.

"I know all about it," he responded, "and I grow angry every time I
think about it. Yet how is one going to protect these, men against
themselves?"