"These missing men, however,
have shown their willingness to become our enemies by leaving camp and
seeking their pleasures in the strongholds of the scoundrels who are
fighting to break us up."
"That's another way of looking at the matter," assented the general
manager.
"I'd much rather have our enemies outside of camp than inside," Reade
continued. "If we took these absentees back after they've been in the
company of rascals, then we wouldn't have any means of knowing how many
of the absentees had agreed to do treacherous things within the camp.
It would hardly be a wise plan to encourage the breeding of rattlesnakes
within the camp limits."
It was nearly noon when the first batch of laborers, some American and
some Mexican, returned to camp. These men started to go by the
checker's hut at a distance, but keen-eyed Superintendent Hawkins saw
them and ordered them around to the hut.
"You'll have to wait here until your foremen are called," declared the
checker.
"Say, what's the trouble here!" demanded one American belligerently.
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