Dave Porter and His Double Part 30

"Oh, I don't know about that, Dave," was the quick reply. "My father tells me that folks in the West and Southwest are usually very friendly. We found them so on our way to Star Ranch."

The boys continued to talk of the prospects ahead, and during the conversation the Mentor Construction Company was mentioned several times. Then Dave noticed that the burly man opposite had dropped his newspaper and was looking at them curiously. Finally the man arose and stepped across the aisle.

"Did I hear you young fellows speaking about the Mentor Construction Company?" he asked, not unpleasantly.

"You did," answered Dave.

"Are you connected with that concern?" went on the man.

"We are going to work for them," answered Roger. "We have just been appointed to the engineering department."

"You don't say!" cried the man in surprise. "I'm with that company myself. My name is William Jarvey. What is yours?"

The boys told him, and all shook hands. Then, as Roger crossed over to sit down beside Dave, the man sank down in the seat opposite.

CHAPTER XXII

IN TEXAS AT LAST

"So you are going to join our engineering department, eh?" queried William Jarvey. "Do you know anybody in that department?"

"We don't know any one down here," answered Dave. "We are utter strangers. We obtained our positions through a Mr. Ramsdell, who was our tutor."

"Oh, I see." The man had been looking rather sharply at Dave. "May I ask where you come from?"

"We come from New England. I live in a town called Crumville. My friend here is the son of United States Senator Morr."

"Oh, indeed!" William Jarvey showed increased interest. "The son of a United States senator, eh? Well, that ought to help you a great deal.

The Mentor Construction Company often has to ask the government for favors, you know," and he laughed lightly.

"I'm not going to trade on the fact that my father is a United States senator," remarked Roger, somewhat shortly. "I am going to make my own way."

"And I guess you will. You look like a pretty bright young man,"

returned William Jarvey, hastily.

"Are you a civil engineer?" questioned Dave.

"Oh, no! No such luck for me. I am connected with the bookkeeping and the blue-print department. I wish I were a first-cla.s.s civil engineer.

I might be earning a much larger salary;" and the man drew down his mouth as he spoke. Evidently he was a fellow who was not at all satisfied with his position in life.

"We are to report to a Mr. Perry Watson at San Antonio," explained Roger. "He is to tell us where to go and what to do."

"Perry Watson, eh?" and the man scowled and showed his teeth in an unpleasant manner.

"What's the matter--don't you like Mr. Watson?" asked Dave.

"Not much. Very few of the men do. He's terribly sharp on watching everything a man does."

"I sincerely hope we don't have any trouble with him," was Roger's comment. "We'd like to start right, you know."

"Well, you'll have to watch yourselves pretty closely," announced William Jarvey.

The talk then became general, and the burly man told the youths much about the work being done by the Mentor Construction Company. It seemed that there were four gangs in the field, two operating south of San Antonio, and the others to the westward.

"It's more than likely you'll be sent to the west," he said. "I think the gangs in the south have all the helpers they need. I am going west myself; so if you are sent that way perhaps we'll see more of each other."

"Perhaps," answered Dave. He was not particularly elated over the thought, for there was something about William Jarvey which did not appeal to him. The man was evidently very overbearing and had an exceedingly good opinion of himself.

"I'm going back to have a smoke," said the man, presently. "Will you come and join me?"

"Thank you, but neither of us smokes," answered Roger.

"What! not even cigarettes?"

"No," returned Dave.

"Humph! I don't see how you can resist. I would feel utterly lost without a cigar. Well, I'll see you later." And thus speaking William Jarvey took himself off.

"I sincerely trust the rest of the men we meet will be of a better sort than that fellow," remarked Roger. "I don't like his make-up at all."

"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 ident.i.ty."

"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."