Dave Porter and His Double: or, The Disapperarance of the Basswood Fortune

“I agree with you, Roger,” answered Dave. “He looks like a chap who would be very dictatorial if he had the chance–one of the kind who loves to ride over those under him.”

“I can’t get over the way he kept looking at you, Dave. He acted as if he had met you before and was trying to place you.”

“I noticed he did look at me pretty closely a number of times,” answered our hero. “But I took it that he was only trying to size me up. You know some strangers have that habit.”

“Well, he didn’t look at me that way,” continued the senator’s son. “I believe he was doing his best to try to place you.”

“I wish I had asked him where he was from. Maybe that might have given us some sort of clue to his identity.”

“Let’s ask him if we get the chance.”

On the journey to San Antonio they had an opportunity to speak to William Jarvey a number of times, and once they sat at the same table with him in the dining-car. When asked where he came from, he replied rather evasively that he had lived for a great number of years in the Northwest, but that he had left that section of the country to try his fortunes in Mexico.

“I was interested in the mines down there, and then I got mixed up in one of their revolutions and got shot in the leg,” he added. “That was enough for me; so I crossed the Rio Grande into Texas, and by luck got the position I am now holding with the Mentor Company.”

“Are the Mexican revolutionists interfering at all with the work of the construction company near the border?” questioned Dave.

“Not very much. One gang, that was working on one of the railroad bridges not many miles from the Rio Grande, had a little run-in with some raiders who came across the river to steal cattle. They helped the ranchmen drive the raiders away, and in the fight one fellow was shot through the shoulder.”

“Well, that was trouble enough!” cried Roger. “It’s more than I’d like to see.”

“That’s right,” returned Dave. “We didn’t come down to fight the Mexicans. We came down to become civil engineers.”

“Oh, I don’t think you’ll run into any fighting,” answered William Jarvey. “But, of course, a good many of those greasers are very treacherous and there is no telling what they will do. They shoot down and rob anybody they meet in their own country, and then, when there is nothing in sight on that side of the river, they watch their chance and come over on this side. Of course, United States soldiers are on the lookout for them; so they don’t dare to make their raids very public.”

It developed that William Jarvey had been sent up to Denison on business for the construction company. He carried with him a heavy valise, and also a large roll of blue-prints.

“I should have been back to San Antonio yesterday,” he exclaimed. “But I was delayed in Denison. I suppose Perry Watson will be as mad as a hornet when I get back because I didn’t make it as quick as he expected. He expects an awful lot from those working under him.”

To this neither of the youths replied. They had noticed that William Jarvey smoked a great deal and that his breath smelled strongly of liquor, and they concluded that he was not a man who would be likely to kill himself with overwork.

“From what Jarvey has told us of Mr. Watson I am inclined to think the superintendent is a hustling sort of fellow,” remarked Dave, when he and Roger were left alone. “And, being that kind of man, he probably can’t stand for a fellow who wants to loaf around and drink and smoke.”

“I guess you’ve sized it up about right, Dave,” answered the senator’s son. “In these days the watchword seems to be ‘keep moving’; and a fellow has got to ‘get there’ if he wants to hold down his job.”

At last the train rolled into the city of San Antonio. Before this place was reached William Jarvey had met a number of other men who had boarded the train at a station some miles away; and he was so interested in what the newcomers had to tell him that he seemed to forget completely the presence of Dave and Roger.

“And I’d just as lief he would forget us,” said our hero to his chum. “I’d rather go to Mr. Watson alone than have that man introduce us.”

“Exactly the way I feel about it,” returned the senator’s son. “Come on, let’s see if we can’t slip away from him through the crowd.” This they did easily, and soon found themselves walking along one of the quaint streets of San Antonio bound for the building in which the Mentor Construction Company had its temporary offices.

Contrary to what William Jarvey had told them, they found Mr. Perry Watson a very pleasant man with whom to deal. There was little of nonsense about him, and he lost no time in finding out who the youths were and for what they had come. But his manner was courteous, and he made both Dave and Roger feel thoroughly at home.

“I know Mr. Ramsdell very well. He’s a fine fellow,” said the superintendent of the construction company. “I had a personal letter from him in regard to you, and I’m going to put you out under one of the best men we have down here in Texas, Mr. Ralph Obray, who is now working on the construction of the new Catalco bridge to the west of this place. He is expecting some new helpers, and he asked me to send him the two best fellows I could find, so I am going to send you,” and Mr. Watson smiled slightly.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Watson,” answered Dave.

“Oh, you don’t have to thank me, Porter,” returned the superintendent, quickly. “You just go out and make good. That is all this company asks of any one it employs.”

“When do you want us to start, Mr. Watson?” questioned Roger.

“You can suit yourselves about that, although the sooner you report to Mr. Obray the better I think he’ll be pleased.”

The superintendent walked to a back door of his office and called to some one without.

“I’ll turn you over to one of our clerks and he will give you all the details regarding your positions,” he explained.

The clerk proved to be a young man only a few years older than Dave and Roger, and the youths took to him at once. He explained in detail where they were to go and what the construction camp located near the new Catalco bridge consisted of, and also told them what their work would probably be for the first few months.

“Of course, you’ve got to start at the bottom of the ladder,” he explained. “But you’ll find Mr. Obray a splendid man to be under, and you’ll probably learn more under him than you would under any of our other head engineers.”

“In that case I’m mighty glad Mr. Watson assigned us to Mr. Obray’s gang,” answered Dave.

It was arranged that Dave and his chum should start westward early the following morning. This would give them a part of an afternoon and an evening in San Antonio in which to look around and take in the sights of that quaint town.

During the conversation with Mr. Watson and the clerk, Dave had been rather surprised because William Jarvey had not shown himself, because on the train he had said he was behindhand; and they had naturally supposed he would come to the offices without delay. Just as they were preparing to leave they heard an angry discussion going on in Mr. Watson’s private office, and they heard the voices of the superintendent and the man they had met on the train.

“I gave you strict orders to come right back, Jarvey,” they heard Mr. Watson say. “You knew we were waiting for those blue-prints.”

“I was delayed,” growled William Jarvey in return. “You see, there were some things about the prints–”

“I don’t want any excuses,” broke in Mr. Watson. “The blue-prints were all right and were waiting for you. You took a day off simply to go and have a good time. Now I want to warn you for the last time. If such a thing happens again I’ll discharge you.”

CHAPTER XXIII

AT THE ENGINEERING CAMP

“I can understand now why that man Jarvey spoke against Mr. Watson,” remarked Dave, as he and his chum walked along the main street of San Antonio. “Mr. Watson evidently has no use for a fellow who doesn’t attend to business.”

“I think he’s all right, Dave,” returned Roger. “Of course, he’s business clean through. But that is what you’ve got to expect from a man who holds such a position.”

“Exactly, Roger. The fellow who takes his own time and does things about as he pleases has no place in the modern business world.”

The two youths had received full instructions regarding what they were to do. They were to take a train westward early in the morning for a small place known as Molona, situated but a short distance from the Rio Grande. There they were to report to Mr. Ralph Obray. Mr. Watson had asked them regarding what they had brought along in the way of baggage, and on being questioned had advised them to purchase several other things before starting for the engineering camp.

“This is certainly an odd sort of place–quite different from a New England town,” was Dave’s comment, as he and his chum went from one shop to another in San Antonio in quest of the things they wished to buy.

“Seems to me that it has quite a Mexican flavor to it,” remarked Roger. “Just see all the big hats and the fringed trousers.”

Now that they had come so far the chums were eager to get to the camp, and they could scarcely wait until the following morning. They found a comfortable hotel, had an early breakfast, and by seven o’clock were on their way westward.

“Now we are almost on the border,” remarked Roger, as they stopped at a place called Del Rio. He was studying a railroad map. “At the next place, called Viaduct, we will be on the Rio Grande, with Mexico just across from us.”

“It isn’t such a very grand river after all,” remarked Dave, when they came in sight of the stream. “It looks more like a great big overgrown creek to me.”

“You can’t compare these rivers with the Hudson or the St. Lawrence, Dave. But I suppose at certain seasons of the year this river gets to be pretty big.”

Soon their train rolled into Molona and the youths alighted. The station was a primitive affair, consisting of a small platform and a building not over ten feet square.