"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.

"The town of Paloma is just dancing on sand-paper, it's so uneasy about getting its hand into the pile of more than thirty-eight thousand dollars that the pay train is going to bring in this afternoon." "I know," nodded Tom rather gloomily.

"I hate to see the men fleeced as they're likely to be fleeced to-night.

Some of our men will be so badly done up that it will be a week before they get back to work--unless 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.