This was not surprising, for both were good, sane, wholesome American boys, with no more than the average share of conceit, and neither believed himself to be as much of a wonder as some experienced railroad men credited them with being.
"Stranger, excuse me, but you're Reade, aren't you ?" inquired one of the men of Paloma who was present.
"Yes, sir," nodded Tom, looking up pleasantly from the weekly paper that he had been scanning.
"You're head of the new job on the Man-killer, aren't you ?" questioned the same man.

By this time every man in the barber shop was secretly watching the young engineers, a fact that was plain to Harry Hazelton, as he glanced up from a magazine.
"Yee, sir," Tom answered again.

"In a way I'm at the head of it, but my friend, Hazelton, is really as much at the head as I am.

We are partners, and we work together in everything." "Do you think, Reade, that you're going to win out on the job ?" inquired another man.
"Yes, sir," nodded Tom.
"You seem very confident about it," smiled another.
"It's just a way we have," Tom assented good-naturedly.

"We always try to keep our nerve and our confidence with us." "Yet you are really sure ?" "Oh! yes," Reade answered.