"
"And the material, even if delivered within the promised time, is still
two days away," remarked Reade. "I'll confess that I don't like to see
the railroad lose so much through paying men for idle time."
"It can't be helped, sir," replied the superintendent. "Of course, if
you like, you can set the laborers at work shoveling in more dirt at the
points where the last slide of the quicksand occurred. But, then,
shoveling dirt in, without the timbers and the hollow steel piles will
do no good," continued Hawkins, with a shake of his head. "It would be
worse than wasted work."
"I know all that," Tom admitted. "To tell you the truth, Mr. Hawkins, I
wouldn't mind the men's idleness quite so much if it weren't that the
pay train comes in this afternoon. An idle man, not over-nice about his
habits, and with a lot of money in his pockets, is a source of danger.
We're going to have five hundred such danger spots as soon as the men
are paid off."
"Don't know that, sir!" demanded Superintendent Hawkins.
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