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Title: The Young Train Master
Author: Stevenson, Burton Egbert
Language: English
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THE YOUNG TRAIN MASTER
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Works of
Burton E. Stevenson
♣
The Quest for the Rose of Sharon =$1.25=
♣
The Young Section-Hand =1.50=
The Young Train Dispatcher =1.50=
The Young Train Master =1.50=
♣
L. C. Page & Company, Publishers
New England Building———Boston, Mass.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: “LEAPED OUT INTO THE DARKNESS.”]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
YOUNG TRAIN
MASTER
------------------------------------
_By_ BURTON E. STEVENSON
Author of “The Young Section-Hand,” “The
Young Train Dispatcher,” “The Quest
for the Rose of Sharon,” etc.
------------------------------------
ILLUSTRATED BY
HENRY GOSS
------------------------------------
[Illustration: Publisher’s Logo]
_Boston_ ❧ L. C. PAGE & COMPANY ❧
_Mdccccix_
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_Copyright, 1909_
BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
-------
_All rights reserved_
First Impression, August, 1909
_Electrotyped and Printed by
THE COLONIAL PRESS
C.H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A._
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TO
_The “Beddy Magraw”_
WHOM I KNEW
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. OLD FRIENDS
II. NEW DUTIES
III. THE MIRACLE AT GREENFIELD
IV. AFTERMATH
V. THE NEW TIME-CARD
VI. THE LITTLE CLOUD
VII. A THREAT FROM MR. NIXON
VIII. MR. ROUND’S DECISION
IX. A BUBBLE BURSTS
X. IN THE SWITCH TOWER
XI. ALLAN’S EYES ARE OPENED
XII. THE INTERVIEW WITH NIXON
XIII. MR. SCHOFIELD’S BOMBSHELL
XIV. DECLARATION OF WAR
XV. IN CHARGE AT WADSWORTH
XVI. THE STRIKE BEGINS
XVII. EVENTS OF THE NIGHT
XVIII. THE DERELICT
XIX. THE OLD STONE HOUSE
XX. THE AWAKENING
XXI. “C. Q. D.”
XXII. THE MYSTERY SOLVED
XXIII. COMPLICATIONS
XXIV. ALLAN FINDS HIS MATE
XXV. THE DOWNFALL OF BASSETT
XXVI. NEMESIS
XXVII. THE BOMB
XXVIII. HUMMEL KEEPS HIS WORD
XXIX. THE YOUNG TRAIN MASTER
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-------
“LEAPED OUT INTO THE DARKNESS” _Frontispiece_
“THE NEXT INSTANT IT FLASHED INTO VIEW AROUND THE CURVE”
TIME-CHART
“CONTROLLING IT, AS IT WERE, BY A MOVEMENT OF A FINGER, STOOD JIM”
“HE EXPLAINED THE DIFFICULTY TO THE ENGINEER”
“THEN, WITH A HOARSE YELL OF RAGE, HURLED HIMSELF UPON THEM”
“HE HEARD THE BULLETS SING PAST HIS HEAD”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
YOUNG TRAIN MASTER
----------
CHAPTER I
OLD FRIENDS
NESTLING among the hills of the Scioto valley, in the south-central
portion of the state of Ohio, lies the little town of Wadsworth.
Venerable in its age, proud of its history, the first capital of its
state and the home of men famous in their time, it lives in the past
rather than in the present, and life there moves in a quiet and
dignified manner, conducive to peace but not to progress.
Its streets, shaded by the elms planted by the pioneers, show traces of
those early days; one of the old inns, with its swinging sign still
stands; no roar of traffic disturbs its Sabbath stillness. Just to the
east of it rises Mount Logan, named for the Indian chieftain known to
every train-service, and there is a legend that, standing on the summit
of that hill, the day before his death, he cast a spell over the
surrounding country, in order that the peace of his grave might never be
disturbed. However that may be, certain it is that a dreamy influence
pervades the atmosphere and gives to the town an air of leisure and calm
deliberateness which nothing can dispel.
It had been founded more than a century before, when the country for a
hundred miles around was an unbroken forest, by a little band of
pioneers who, acquiring title to unnumbered acres by virtue of their
service in the Revolution, pushed their way over the mountains from
Virginia. Some of them brought their slaves with them, only to free them
when they reached their new home. Other families from Virginia joined
the little settlement and lent their hands to the battle with the
wilderness. That southern flavour had never been lost, nor the southern
deliberateness and dislike of innovation, nor the southern preference
for agriculture rather than for manufacture.
By mere chance of geographical position, Wadsworth lies half way between
Parkersburg, a hundred miles away to the east, and Cincinnati, a hundred
miles away to the south-west; so, when the great P. & O. railway,
looking for new fields to conquer, purchased the local line which
connected those two cities, and which was fast degenerating into a
“streak of rust,” it saw that Wadsworth must be the centre of the new
division, since it was the most economical place from which to handle
the business of the division and at which to maintain the division
shops. All this, however, it carefully concealed from public view, but,
expressing a supreme indifference as to whether the shops were placed at
Wadsworth or somewhere else, offered to bring them there for a bonus of
a hundred thousand dollars. After long delay and hesitation, the town
was bonded for that amount, and the shops were formally established at
the spot where they must, of necessity, have been placed.
Here also were the division offices, from which the business of the
division was handled. They were upon the second floor of the dingy depot
building which has been described more particularly in “The Young Train
Dispatcher,” and need not be dwelt upon here, except to observe that the
passing years had added to its dinginess and disreputable appearance.
* * * * *
From these offices there descended, one bright October evening,
lunch-basket in hand, a young man, who, springing lightly across the
branching tracks of the yards, reached the street beyond and turned
eastward along it. It was noticeable that he seemed to know everyone
employed around the yards and that they seemed to know him, and greeted
him with a cordiality evidently genuine.
Ten minutes’ walk brought him to a trim cottage standing back from the
street, amid a bower of vines. Its grounds were ample, and well-kept. At
one side was a little orchard, whose trees showed the glint of ripening
fruit. Farther back, near the barn, a cow was grazing, and the busy
clatter of chickens came from an enclosure to the right. The place
somehow gave the impression that those who lived within were happy and
contented people; not rich, but able, by the labour of their hands, to
assure themselves a comfortable livelihood—which is, perhaps, the
happiest condition vouchsafed to human beings.
Through the gate of this house the young man turned, and went slowly up
the walk leading to the door. But as he stretched out his hand to turn
the knob, the door flew open and a girl of about sixteen fairly flung
herself into his arms.
“Why, Mamie!” he cried. “_Is_ it Mamie?” and he held her off for a
moment’s inspection. “When did you get back?”
“On Number Three,” she answered. “I had a notion to wait for you, and
then I thought it would be nicer to come home and surprise you.”
The words “Number Three” stamped both speakers as of the railroad. For
who but one raised in the atmosphere of the road would know that “Number
Three” was the west-bound flier?
“See how brown I am,” she added, holding her face up for his inspection.
“Yes,” he agreed, looking down at her, “you are. Did you have a good
time?”
“Only so-so,” she answered, smiling up at him. “I can have the best time
of all right here at home.”
“So can I,” he agreed. “It’s been a little lonesome with you away.”
“Has it, Allan?” she asked, quickly, her eyes shining with the glint of
sudden tears. “It’s nice of you to say that.”
“Well, it’s true: and it won’t hurt to say it, now you’re back. But I
didn’t dare tell you when I wrote. I wanted you to enjoy your visit. I
thought you were going to stay till Tuesday.”
“Oh, I couldn’t stay any longer than to-day!” she protested, quickly.
“Why not?” he asked, looking at her in surprise. “What’s going to happen
to-day?”
“Come in and you’ll see,” she answered, and led him triumphantly into
the house.
Through the hall they went, into the dining-room beyond, where a
bright-faced woman, just entering middle-age, was putting the finishing
touches to a table immaculately spread.
“Oh, there ye are!” she cried, turning as they entered. “What kept you
so long, Allan?”
“I’ve been out here gossiping with Mamie,” he explained, laughing.
“I was afeerd the supper would git stale,” she said. “I don’t like to
keep things warmed up; they ain’t got the same taste they have when
they’re cooked jest right and served right away.”
“You needn’t wait for me, if there’s company,” he said, seeing that an
extra place had been laid.
“Oh, I reckon the company’s willin’ to wait,” she retorted, with a
laugh. “Only don’t be no longer than ye kin help.”
“I won’t,” Allan promised and hurried away.
Five minutes later, he opened the door of the dining-room again, and saw
who the visitor was.
“Why, Reddy!” he cried, going quickly forward, his hand outstretched.
“How are you? I’m glad to see you.”
“The same here, Allan,” answered Reddy Magraw, warmly gripping the hand
outstretched to him in his own honest palm. “An’ mighty glad I was when
Jack asked me t’ be here t’-day.”
“To-day,” echoed Allan, glancing quickly around at the smiling faces.
“Why, what day is it?”
“Don’t you know?” asked Jack, his face all one broad grin. “Don’t you
know, boy?”
Mamie’s eyes were dancing, as she looked at Allan’s perplexed
countenance.
“Oh, it’s a disgrace, Allan, if you don’t remember!” she cried.
“I’ll tell you what day it is, me boy,” said Reddy, his face beaming.
“It’s jist eight year ago t’-day sence a little scalpeen named Allan
West come along out there on Section Twinty-one an’ asked the foreman,
Jack Welsh, fer a job. We’re meetin’ here t’-night t’ celebrate his good
jedgment in givin’ ye one.”
“’Tis the thing in all my life I’m most proud of,” said Jack.
“An’ the thing that has made me happiest,” added Mary.
“And I’d never have forgiven him, if he hadn’t,” cried Mamie, at which
they all laughed, a little uncertainly, and sat down, their hearts very
tender.
“Can it really be eight years?” asked Allan, after a moment’s silence.
“It doesn’t seem possible. And yet when one thinks what has happened—”
“They has a lot happened,” agreed Reddy. “An’ many a happy day we had
out there on Section Twinty-one. Not that I don’t like the work now,
Jack,” he added. “But my gang don’t seem t’ be loike the old one. Mebbe
it’s because I’m gittin’ old an’ don’t see things with quite so much
gilt on ’em as I used to.”
“Old! Nonsense!” cried Jack. “Why, you’re a young man, yet, Reddy.”
“No, I ain’t,” said Reddy. “I ain’t young by no means. An’ I’ve allers
thought that that belt I got on the head from that runaway ingine had
took some of the ginger out o’ me. But that’s all fancy, most likely,”
he added, hastily, seeing Allan’s eyes upon him.
“Look here, Reddy,” said Allan, “do you think my hitting you that time
had anything to do with it?”
“No, I don’t,” said Reddy. “I think that was the only thing that saved
me. I’ve told ye already that I wouldn’t have complained if ye’d kilt
me. Tell me about it ag’in, boy; I can’t hear that story too often.”
So Allan told again the story of that wild Christmas eve when, as
track-walker, he had found a gang of wreckers tearing up the rails, and
how the pay-car had been saved, and the lives of those in it.
“Oh, it must have been terrible!” cried Mamie, who had been listening
with starting eyes, as though she had never before heard the story.
“Think of creeping up alone on that gang of men! Weren’t you awfully
frightened, Allan?”
“No,” answered Allan, smiling at her earnestness. “I didn’t have time to
get frightened, somehow. But,” he added, laughing, “I don’t mind
confessing, now, that two or three days later, as I lay in bed thinking
the whole thing over, I was scared nearly to death. It’s a fact,” he
went on, seeing their puzzled countenances. “I just turned kind of faint
thinking about it.”
“An’ no wonder,” said Reddy. “’Twas enough t’ make anybody turn faint. I
remember jest sich another case. You knowed Tom Spurling, Jack?” he
added, turning to Welsh.
“Yes,” nodded Jack.
“Well, then you’ll remember what a hot-headed feller he was—he had a
head o’ red hair, by the way, purty nigh as red as mine. Well, one
evenin’ he was hurryin’ acrost the yards t’ git his train—he was
conductor on the west-bound accommodation. He was carryin’ his cap an’
his dinner-bucket an’ his lantern an’ his little red tin dickey-box, an’
he was hittin’ it up lively, bein’ a minute or two late. It was a kind
o’ foggy night, an’ jest as he got to the platform, Bill Johnson’s yard
ingine come up behind an’ poked him in the legs with its footboard.
Well, everybody expected t’ see Tom ground up in about two winks, but
some way the ingine throwed him up on the platform, where he fell
sprawlin’. Bill stopped the ingine an’ got down t’ see if Tom was
hurted. Tom was settin’ up rubbin’ his head an’ glarin’ down at the
lunch his missus had fixed up fer him an’ which was now scattered all
over the platform and purty well mixed with cinders.
“‘Are ye hurted, Tom?’ asked Bill.
“‘Hurted!’ roared Tom. ‘No, o’ course not, ye blame fool! But look at
them victuals!’
“‘Jumpin’ Jehosaphat!’ says Bill. ‘Ye ain’t worryin’ about them are ye?’
“‘Yes, I am!’ yells Tom, jumpin’ to his feet. ‘Why don’t ye look where
ye’re goin’ with thet ole mud turtle o’ yourn? Fer jest about half a
cent—’
“But some o’ the fellers got ’em apart, an’ Tom climbed on his train a
minute later, still cussin’ Bill fer the loss o’ his lunch.
“Well, sir, he run his train down t’ Cinci all right, an’ next mornin’
started back with her, an’ they’d got as fer back as Midland City, when
one o’ the passengers come an’ told the brakeman that the conductor was
sick. An’ mighty sick he was, layin’ in a seat, white as a sheet,
lookin’ like his last hour had come.
“‘Fer Heaven’s sake, Tom,’ says the brakeman, ‘what’s the matter?’
“‘Oh, I was nearly kilt!’ groans Tom, hoarse as a frog.
“‘Kilt!’ says the brakeman. ‘Where? Shall I holler fer a doctor? Mebbe
they’s one on board.’
“‘No,’ says Tom. ‘I ain’t hurted.’
“The brakeman thought he’d gone crazy.
“‘What you talkin’ about, anyhow?’ he says.
“‘No,’ goes on Tom, ‘but it’s God’s providence I wasn’t chewed into
mincemeat.’
“‘When?’ says the brakeman.
“‘Last night,’ says Tom, ‘by thet yard ingine at Wadsworth. It’s jest
come to me what a narrer escape I had.’
“Well, the brakeman told me, Tom was about the sickest man he ever seen
fer an hour or more, an’ then he peckered up a little, an’ finally was
all right ag’in.”
“I can imagine just how he felt,” said Allan, amid the laughter caused
by Reddy’s story. “I fancy it’s a good deal like seasickness. It just
swoops down on you and takes the nerve out of you and leaves you limp as
a rag.”
From one story, they passed to another—the wreck at Vinton, the fight at
Coalville, Dan Nolan’s death—stories which have already been told in the
earlier books of this series, and which need not be repeated here.
“Did ye ever hear anything more o’ that snake, Nevins, what I chased all
over creation that night he tried t’ wreck the president’s special?”
inquired Jack.
“Yes,” Allan answered, “I heard about him just the other day. Mr.
Schofield told me that he had seen him at Cincinnati—passed him on the
street.”
“What’s he doin’?” asked Jack, quickly.
“I don’t know. Earning an honest living, I hope. Mr. Schofield said he
was well-dressed and seemed to be prosperous.”
“Well, mebbe he _is_ earnin’ an honest livin’, but I doubt it,” said
Jack. “I don’t think he knows how. That reminds me. I heard this
arternoon that Hayes is goin’ to Springfield.”
“Yes,” said Allan. “He’s to be train master on the Illinois division.”
“Then that means that they’ll be a chief dispatcher to appoint here.
Who’ll get it? Goodwood?”
“Yes; he’s next in line.”
“An’ that’ll make you senior dispatcher?”
“Yes.”
“When I think,” said Jack, “that eight year ago, this here felly was a
kid lookin’ fer a job an’ that now he’s senior dispatcher, with a mighty
good chance o’ bein’ superintindent some day, I begin t’ believe that a
felly has a fair chance in this country, arter all. You know they’s
allers sayin’ we’re all ground down by wealth; but I’ve noticed that the
fellies who’s ground down are them that spends most o’ their time in
some bar-room hollerin’ about it.”
“That’s true,” Allan agreed. “And don’t forget that you’ve gone up from
section foreman to division roadmaster in the same time, and that you’re
not done yet.”
“Yes, I am, me boy,” said Jack, gravely. “I haven’t got th’ eddication
t’ go any furder. I’ve got the experience, but that’s only half the
equipment a felly has to have to reach the top. I don’t know jest how it
is, but eddication—the real thing—seems t’ kind o’ give a man a bigger
grasp of things. He kin put two and two together quicker—he kin see
furder.”
“Jack’s right,” said Reddy. “Now I’ve reached my limit in section
foreman. It’s as fur as I kin go. I ain’t complainin’. I’m contented.
But some of us is built fer speed, an’ some of us is built fer strength.
Some of us has to pull freight, and some gits to pull polished Pullmans,
but I reckon it all comes to th’ same thing in the end.”
“Yes,” said Allan, quietly, “passenger and freight all have the same
destination. And you know, as well as I do, that it’s the freight that
counts most when it comes to figuring results.”
The ringing of the telephone bell interrupted them, and Mamie ran to
answer it. She was back in a moment.
“Somebody wants you, Allan,” she said. “Mr. Schofield, I think.”
Anxious eyes followed him, as he arose and went to the ’phone. A call
from the superintendent might mean so many things—usually did mean
disaster of some kind. He was gone a long time, and as the minutes
lengthened, the shadow on the faces of those about the table deepened.
They tried at first to keep up a semblance of conversation, but that
finally dropped away and they sat silent. That it was something serious
was evident.
But Allan came back at last, and as he caught sight of their anxious
faces, he laughed outright.
“No, it’s not a wreck,” he said, “and I’m not fired.”
He sat down, and the others waited. If it was anything he could tell
them, they knew he would. If it was official business, they did not wish
to question him.
“The fact is,” he went on, slowly, watching
Mamie’s face with evident amusement, “a very unusual thing has
happened.”
“Oh, Allan!” Mamie burst out, “if you’re going to tell us, please hurry
and do it.”
“A very unusual thing,” Allan proceeded with provoking deliberation.
“You know I told you that Mr. Hayes is going to Springfield.”
“Yes,” said Mamie, encouragingly, bouncing in her seat.
“Ain’t he goin’?” asked Jack.
“Oh, yes; he’s going. He went this afternoon. But the fact is, Goodwood
don’t want his job.”
“Why?”
“He says the hours are too long, and the added responsibility more than
the added salary. He says he’s contented where he is.”
“Ho!” said Reddy. “Reached his limit jest like me, an’ knows it. Well,
it’s a wise man that knows when to let well enough alone.”
But Mamie’s face suddenly gleamed with understanding, and she jumped
from her seat and rushed around the table to Allan’s side.
“I know!” she cried. “I know! Oh, you stupid people! Don’t you see?
Allan’s to be chief dispatcher!”
They were all on their feet now.
“What, Allan! Is it?” cried Jack, incoherently.
“Yes,” answered Allan, “I guess it is.”
Jack came over to him and put his hands on his shoulders.
“Eight year ago to-day,” he said, looking him in the eyes. “I’m proud of
ye, me boy. But I don’t need t’ tell ye that.”
“And he’ll make the best chief this division ever had,” added Reddy with
conviction. “Where’s my hat?”
“But you ain’t goin’!” protested Mrs. Welsh. “It’s early yet.”
“I know it is,” said Reddy. “But I can’t stay. Not with this news in my
craw. I must tell the old woman and the boys. They ain’t a man on the
division that won’t be glad.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER II
NEW DUTIES
TWO days later, Allan West entered regularly upon his new duties as
chief dispatcher of the Ohio Division of the P. & O. railway. Meantime,
news of his promotion had got about, and it seemed as though every
employee of the division, high or low, had made it a point to seek him
out and congratulate him. For Allan, in the eight years he had been with
the road, had endeared himself to everyone by kindness and
considerateness, and even those engineers and conductors who had a
standing grievance against all dispatchers had come to confess that he
was the squarest one they had ever met.
The chief dispatcher’s office is a large and pleasant room, looking down
over the busy yards, and is shared by Mr. Plumfield, the train master. A
great desk stands between the front windows, one side of which belongs
to the train master and the other to the chief dispatcher. On it two
sounders clicked, and from the open door of the dispatchers’ office, at
Allan’s back, came the incessant clamouring of other instruments.
To one unaccustomed to it, this ceaseless noise would have been
perfectly distracting, but to the habitués of the offices it was
scarcely noticeable. And yet, though they seemingly paid no heed to it,
it had a meaning for them, and anything out of routine attracted their
attention instantly. For telegraphers develop a sixth sense, which takes
up and translates what the instruments are saying without interfering
with any of the others.
Perhaps you have seen an engineer sitting beside his engine, reading a
paper while the complicated mechanism whirls smoothly along at its
appointed task. Suddenly, without cause so far as you can see, he starts
up, snatches up an oil can or a wrench, and squirts a jet of oil upon a
bearing or tightens a nut somewhere. No sign of trouble has been audible
to you, but his trained ear, even though his brain was otherwise
engaged, had caught an unaccustomed burr or rattle and had called his
attention to it.
Such instances might be multiplied indefinitely. Everyone who works at a
certain task, or goes through a certain set of motions, becomes, after a
time, to some extent automatic. Physiologists call such motions
“reflex,” and tell us that in time the brain passes on such volitions to
the spinal cord and so frees itself for other work—one of the wise
provisions of our bodily mechanism, whose wonder and perfection very few
of us understand or appreciate.
Allan was, of course, acquainted, in a general way, with the duties of
his new position, and he lost no time in further familiarizing himself
with them. All of the operators along the line were under his control.
He assigned them to their duties, promoted them or discharged them as
occasion might arise, investigated any delinquency on their part, and
held them accountable for the proper performance of their duties. In
addition to this, he was required to see that empty freight cars were
furnished the various agents along the line, as they needed them, and
that loaded cars were taken up promptly and sent forward to their
destinations. Every day, each agent wired in his car requirements, and
it was the chief dispatcher’s business to see that these requirements
were filled as speedily as possible. He was also expected to see that
the dispatchers understood their duties, and to unravel any knotty point
which any of them might not understand.
Further than that, the clerical duties of the position were very heavy.
He must make daily reports of the amount of freight handled; and if any
freight crew was kept on the road more than sixteen hours, a special
report must be prepared for the Interstate Commerce Commission, giving
the facts in the case, and explaining why the crew had been kept out so
long; for it is unlawful to keep any crew on duty for more than that
length of time. A wise provision, for before this law was enacted, in
busy seasons, railroads sometimes kept their crews on duty for
twenty-four, thirty-six and even forty-eight hours at a stretch—an abuse
which inevitably resulted in accidents from the men going to sleep while
on duty, or being so exhausted by the long hours as to grow careless and
forgetful of orders.
These were the duties when everything was moving in regular order. At
other times, the supreme duty of every one connected with the office was
to get them back to regular order. For a great railroad system is like a
complicated machine—no part can run smoothly unless all are running
smoothly, and the throwing of the smallest cog out of gear cripples the
entire mechanism. Although the train master was the “trouble man,”—in
other words, the man whose especial duty it was to superintend the
clearing away of wrecks, and the straightening out of traffic—whenever
anything happened to interfere with it, all other work became
subordinate to that of restoring traffic to its normal condition.
* * * * *
On this morning, however, everything was moving in regular order; the
sounders clicked out the reports of trains on time; there were no calls
for cars which could not be answered promptly and no freight along the
line which the regular locals could not handle. Conductors came and
registered, compared their watches with the big electric clock which
kept official time for the division, and departed; others reported in;
trainmen loitered before the bulletin board, or gossiped in their
lounging-room across the hall; the typewriting machine of the train
master’s stenographer clicked steadily away; and there was about the
place a contented hum of industry, such as one hears about a bee-hive on
a warm day in late spring when the apples are in bloom.
“I heard some bad news about Heywood, while I was in Cincinnati
yesterday,” remarked Mr. Plumfield casually, in the course of the
morning, referring to the general superintendent.
“Bad news?” questioned Allan, looking up quickly.
“I don’t believe he’s making good. Nothing definite, you know; just a
general feeling of dissatisfaction with him. I shouldn’t be surprised if
he lost out.”
“What’s the matter with him?”
“You knew his wife died?”
“Yes.”
“She was a mighty sweet woman, and I imagine had lots of influence on
Heywood. Well, after her death, he seemed to go to pieces more or less.
His daughter, Betty, was away at school, or somewhere, and didn’t know
until she came home. You knew her?”
“Oh, yes; very well. I used to see her when they lived here.”
“Yes; I rather fancied, sometimes—”
“I thought a great deal of her and still do,” Allan interrupted.
Mr. Plumfield nodded.
“Well, she came home and tried to brace him up, and I dare say succeeded
pretty well for a while—”
He stopped. There was no need that he should say anything more.
Allan, staring at the report before him, remembered how kind Mr. Heywood
had been to him years before; remembered his first vision of Betty
Heywood, as she came bursting into her father’s office, one day when he
was there. He had not seen her for nearly four years—not since the night
when she had ridden away on the east-bound flyer to go to school in the
East. Had she changed, he wondered, or was she still the same
warm-hearted, impulsive girl whom he had known?
The sounder on Allan’s desk began to call him, and he came back to the
present with a start. He opened the key and replied with the quick ..,
.., which told that he was ready to receive the message.
* * * * *
“Chief dispatcher, Ohio Division,” clicked out the little instrument. “A
special train consisting of combination coach and private car will leave
Cincinnati east-bound about ten o’clock to-morrow morning. You will have
your best engines ready to take it through to Wadsworth, and from there
to Parkersburg. This special is to run without orders, its time to be
governed only by the maximum speed of the engine, and is to be given a
clear track with rights over everything. It must be expedited in every
way possible.”
A. G. ROUND,
“_General Manager_”
Mr. Plumfield whistled softly, as the message ended.
“Who do you suppose it is?” he asked. “The Emperor of Germany?”
“That’s certainly an unusual order,” agreed Allan.
“I never saw but one like it before,” added Mr. Plumfield. “That was
when the president of the road was somewhere in the west, and his wife
was reported dying back at Baltimore. We gave him right of way then.”
“Did he get there in time?” asked Allan.
“Oh, she didn’t die. Maybe it was his presence saved her. Anyway, his
train covered the two hundred miles from Cincinnati to Parkersburg at an
average speed of fifty-three miles an hour. That was going some.”
“We’ll see if we can beat it to-morrow,” Allan answered, and turned to
the task of clearing the track for the special.
As he knew only the approximate time that the special would leave
Cincinnati, it was necessary to prepare several plans, the one to be
adopted depending upon the exact time the train pulled out from the
Grand Central depot. From Cincinnati to Loveland he had a double track
to work with, but from Loveland east, only a single track, and it was
necessary to so arrange the schedule that no train would interfere with
the special and at the same time to provide that they be interfered with
as little as possible. Another difficulty arose from the fact that it
was impossible to tell exactly how fast the special would run, and
Allan’s brow wrinkled perplexedly as he bent above the time-card.
“I tell you what I’m going to do,” he said, at last, “I’m going over the
road with this train myself. I’m not going to take any chances.”
And that night, with the time-card in his pocket and his plans carefully
laid, Allan boarded the accommodation for Cincinnati.
* * * * *
The man in whose behalf this extraordinary order had been issued was no
less a personage than a candidate for the Presidency of the United
States. His election had been thought fairly certain, but hinged upon
New York State. This, he had been confidently assured by the party
leaders, he would carry without difficulty; and he had not visited it
except early in the campaign, for a few speeches. He had then devoted
his attention to some doubtful states in the middle west, when, with the
election only ten days off, he had received a message urging him to
reach New York at the earliest possible moment, that unexpected
opposition had developed there, and that every moment was precious. In
this strait, he had appealed to the railroads, and they had leaped to
his aid.
Not because of the man, nor because of the fact that he was a candidate
for the greatest office within the gift of the people of this republic;
but because they regarded his election as vital to their welfare. For
the railroads had fallen among troublous times. The business
regeneration of the past few years had affected them deeply. Whether
rightly or wrongly, the American public, or a large portion of it, had
come to believe that railroad management was corrupt and wasteful, that
it discriminated against its patrons and used its wealth and influence
to secure the passage of laws inimicable to public welfare. So severe
measures had been taken to curtail this power, and to protect the
interests of both the stockholders of the roads and of the people who
gave them business. The issuing of passes had been forbidden; a
commission had been established by the government to prevent and punish
any discrimination in favour of any shipper of freight; laws had been
passed curtailing the hours of railway employees; in many states the
legal fare to be charged passengers had been reduced by act of
legislature from three to two cents a mile, and there had sprung up a
wide-spread demand that freight rates be also regulated by law. Many
roads felt that ruin was staring them in the face, and an all-important
question with them was the election of a president who would regard them
with friendly eyes and who would throw his influence against any
revolutionary measures which might be aimed at them.
It was not wonderful, then, that they should have rushed to the
assistance of this man, since his opponent was pledged to work for the
very measures which the roads dreaded; and that, when his election
seemed in danger, they should have placed their resources absolutely at
his disposal, and have given him right of way over everything. He had
been hurried across the plains of Missouri, shot into Saint Louis, flung
across the prairies of Illinois and Indiana, and now, at 9.45 o’clock in
the morning, the train shot into the Grand Union station at Cincinnati,
and came to a stop with a jerk.
Ten minutes before, Allan, able at last to time the exact minute of its
arrival, had sent out the messages which would govern its movements from
Cincinnati to Wadsworth. There were to be no stops, except one for
water, and, if all went well, He was determined to cover the hundred
miles in a hundred minutes. He knew his engine and knew the
engineer—957, with Tom Michaels, lean, gray-haired, a bundle of nerves,
a man to take chances if necessary, yet never to take one that was
unnecessary; and he believed that the distance could be covered in that
time.
Three minutes were allowed in which to change engines, and half a dozen
men were waiting to make the change. The air-hose was uncoupled and the
old engine backed away. While the 957 was run down and coupled up, four
men with flaring torches had been making an examination of the coach and
private car, and in just three minutes, or at 9.48 A. M., the conductor
held up his hand and Michaels gently opened the throttle.
The old engineer’s face was gleaming. It was the first time in his long
life at the throttle that he had ever been given a free track and told
to go ahead. But he nursed her carefully over the network of tracks in
the yards, out through the ditch and past the stock-yards before he
really let her out. Then, slowly and slowly, he drew the throttle open,
and with every instant the great engine gathered speed, while the
fireman, equally interested and enthusiastic, nursed the fire until the
fire-box was a pit of white-hot, swirling flame.
Allan had ensconced himself on the forward end of the fireman’s seat,
and sat for a time, watch in hand. Then he looked over at Michaels and
nodded. They were making their mile a minute.
“It’s like ridin’ on a shootin’ star,” the fireman shouted up, as he
rested for a moment from his exertions, bracing himself, his feet wide
apart, against the swaying of the engine. “Right through the middle of a
white-hot comet,” he added, scraping the sweat from his forehead. “It
surely is a hot day.”
Then he bent again to his task. Every thirty-five seconds he threw three
scoops-full of coal into the fire-box, then closed the door for the same
length of time. And always he kept his eye on the indicator, to see that
the pressure never fell below the “popping-off” point. It may be that,
for this occasion, Michaels had hung a little extra weight on the lever
of his safety-valve. At any rate, no steam was wasted through it.
There was a block system as far as Loveland, but beyond that, they had
to trust to the observance of orders issued from division headquarters.
On and on sped the train, the speed creeping up to sixty-five miles an
hour, and once to seventy-four on a long down-grade. The whistle seemed
to shriek its warning almost continuously; stations seemed to crumble to
pieces with a crash as the train leaped past them; farm houses fluttered
by or wheeled in stately procession across the landscape. And always
Michaels sat, his hand on the throttle, his eyes on the track ahead,
swaying to the motion of the engine, as a rider sways to his steed; only
moving from time to time to glance at his watch or at the steam and
water gauge, to blow the whistle and open the injector which shot the
water from the tank to the boiler of the engine. The track ahead seemed
to be rushing toward them only to be swallowed up; the nearer landscape
was merely a gray blur; the telegraph poles flashed by “like the teeth
of a fine-tooth comb,” as the fireman remarked; and always there was the
roar of the great machine, the crash and rumble as the engine hurled
itself along the rails. It was a marvel that it kept them, or seemed
so—a marvel that it did not hurtle away cross-country at its own sweet
will.
At New Vienna they paused for water. Michaels, with the skill of a
magician, brought his engine to a stop with the tank-opening exactly
underneath the penstock beside the track. The fireman lowered it with a
clang and the water rushed and foamed down into the almost empty tank.
Then, as the penstock swung up into place, Michaels opened the throttle
and they were off again.
Allan, glancing across at the engineer, saw how the sweat was pouring
down his face; how his face had aged and lined under the strain; how the
lips had tightened. It was a hot day, unusually hot for so late in the
year, and the atmosphere was close with threatened storm—but it was not
the heat alone which brought out the sweat upon the engineer, nor the
discomfort which lined and aged his face. Yet he sat erect as ever, his
eyes glancing from the track ahead to the gauges, and back again. Once
he stooped from his seat to shout a warning word to the fireman, when
the needle for an instant dropped a notch. Allan, glancing back, saw
that the rear car was lost in a whirl of dust. It seemed as
insignificant as a tail—a mere appendage to be whipped hither and
thither as the engine willed. He had ridden in cabs before—many
times—but never under such conditions as these. He knew the track—he
knew the rattle of every target as they flashed past it, the roar of
every bridge as they rushed through it; and suddenly he remembered the
sharp curve just beyond Greenfield, and wondered if Michaels would slow
up for it.
The huddle of roofs that marked the town flashed into sight ahead, grew
and grew, was upon them. The rattle of switches told that they were in
the yards, but yard-limit speed had no bearing upon this case. He caught
a glimpse of the signal before the station, and saw with relief that it
was set at safety. Everything was working well, then, as he had planned
it. Twenty miles more and they would be at Wadsworth, with the first leg
of the journey covered. There was no need that he should go further with
the train—he had tested its capabilities—he would know how to provide
for it. Then the curve was upon them, and he braced himself for the jar
he knew must come as the engine struck it. Michaels, his face drawn and
tense, sat staring ahead, but made no move toward closing the throttle,
even a hair’s-breadth.
There was a mighty jolt, and the engine seemed to climb over the rails.
Allan could feel it lift perceptibly, but the wheels held. A moment
more—
And then, as they cleared the curve and caught a glimpse of the straight
track beyond, he saw steaming toward them, under full headway, not a
hundred yards away, another engine. Only for an instant he saw it; then,
as Michaels closed the throttle and jerked on the brakes, he closed his
eyes involuntarily, for he knew that no power on earth could stop the
train in time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER III
THE MIRACLE AT GREENFIELD
MEANWHILE, back in his private car, the great man, as was his custom in
any circumstance, had made himself as comfortable as might be. It was a
luxurious car, eighty feet in length, with bath, kitchen, lounging-room,
bedrooms, dining-room—in fact, everything that a modern home could have,
on a small and compact scale. Travel in this car was as luxurious as
travel could be. And even at the wild rate of speed at which it was
jerked forward, it maintained a long, steady roll, much like that of a
ship on a calm sea. Only when one glanced out the windows at the blurred
landscape was the speed apparent, unless, indeed, one kept one’s eyes on
the needle, which flickered ceaselessly up and down on the
speed-indicator.
Both of these things the great man studiously refrained from doing, but
turning his back alike to the windows and to the indicator, he devoted
his time to going through his correspondence, dictating to his
secretary, and meditating ways and means for holding New York in the
column of the “safe and sane.”
He sat up late into the night, as the train whirled across the Illinois
prairies, smoking meditatively, a wrinkle of perplexed anxiety between
his brows, for the path to the White House was proving more thorny than
he had thought possible. Not the least of his unexpected tribulations
was this record-breaking trip half across the continent. He was
naturally a nervous man, and this hurtling through space distressed him
acutely. He felt that he was being offered as a sacrifice upon the altar
of his country, and the sensation was anything but pleasant. His only
consolation was that his meteoric trip was being featured by the papers,
both friendly and unfriendly, and would prove an excellent
advertisement—more especially since the friendly papers were taking care
to point out how lightly the great man considered his own comfort—nay,
even his life—when his country called him! He smiled grimly to himself
as he thought of those headlines, for he was thoroughly conscious that
he was not in the least heroic, but merely an ordinary man with a
faculty of making friends, a power of keeping his mouth shut when it was
wise to do so, and a gift for rounded periods when rounded periods were
demanded.
He went to bed, at last, long after midnight, and it was not until
Cincinnati had been left far behind that he arose. He took his bath,
dressed himself leisurely, and finally sat down to breakfast. Sitting
thus, with his side to the window, he could not escape the vision of the
landscape, which was rushing madly past. Involuntarily his eyes rested
for an instant on the speed-indicator, and he started as he saw that the
needle showed an hourly speed of seventy-two miles. He closed his lips
firmly together and with a hand not altogether steady started to attack
his grapefruit.
Then suddenly the car lurched heavily and the next instant it seemed to
stand on end and buckle in the middle. The great man was thrown forward
across the table, which overturned with a crash; a negro waiter, who was
just entering with a tray of dishes, was hurled through a glass
partition and disappeared with a yell of terror. Every movable thing in
the car leaped toward the front end; what was breakable broke and the
orderly interior was transformed in an instant to an appalling chaos.
Of what happened in the next minute or two, the great man never had any
very definite recollection. He staggered to his feet at last and looked
dazedly around. Had there been a wreck? Was he badly injured?
Then he realized that the car was moving, that the landscape was
slipping past as rapidly as ever. His eyes fell again upon the needle of
the indicator. It stood at sixty-eight. He glared at it for a moment,
unable to believe his senses, then collapsed into a chair and buried his
head in his hands.
And it was in that position that his secretary found him.
* * * * *
Bill Higgins, the engineer, always claimed it was because the agent at
Roxabel had held him up for an hour waiting for a box-car to be loaded.
The car was for a friend of the agent’s, Bill explained, or he never
would have held the train. It wasn’t perishable goods, either—just some
household stuff, which the friend was having moved in from Roxabel to
Loveland.
Jim Burns, the conductor, said it was the heat—a really remarkable and
enervating heat for October, presaging a great storm brewing somewhere.
What the fireman said and the brakemen is immaterial, because when their
superiors went to sleep, it was to be expected that they would do
likewise. All of which came out when Train Master Plumfield had them “on
the carpet” for the investigation which followed. What happened was
really this:
Local freight west had started out from Wadsworth early in the morning,
to make the trip in to Cincinnati, picking up such cars as were waiting
for it along the way, and delivering others to the several stations. The
day was hot—there was no question of that—and the work was heavy, for
there was an unusual number of cars to deliver and pick up. Besides
which, came the delay at Roxabel, where the agent _did_ hold the train
for a while, until the work of loading a car could be finished. The
agent swore, however, that the delay on this account did not amount to
more than fifteen minutes. At Lyndon, came an order for the freight to
proceed to the gravel-pit siding east of Greenfield, and run in there
and await the passage of a special.
“Don’t say how long we’ll have to wait,” said Burns, as he and the
engineer compared notes. “Jest wait—time ain’t no object to nobody.
We’ll be mighty lucky if we get into Cincinnati before midnight.”
“Them dispatchers don’t know their business, an’ never did!” protested
Higgins, wiping the perspiration from his red face. “It’s an outrage to
keep a train on the road the way they’re keepin’ us. The government ort
t’ hear about it.”
“It sure ort,” agreed the conductor. “Well, I guess we’re ready,” and as
the train rattled slowly out of the siding, he swung himself aboard the
caboose, looked back to see that a yard-man closed the switch, and then,
having made up his report as far as he could, calmly laid himself down
in a berth and went to sleep.
The train rumbled on under the hot sun. The engineer, looking ahead,
could see the waves of heat rising from the rails and the pitch oozing
from the ties. Beside him, the fire beneath the boiler spat and roared;
the sun beat down upon the great locomotive, until Higgins almost
fancied it was turning red-hot before his eyes. The fireman, stripped to
the waist, swung the fire-box door open and shut as he ladled in the
coal, stopping now and then to dash the sweat from before his eyes or to
spray himself with water from the tank. For they were travelling with
the wind, not against it, and so lost the effect of any cooling breeze.
“Blamed if you’d think she’d need so much coal,” remarked the front
brakeman, who was riding in the cab. “You’d think this heat would purty
nigh git up steam without any help.”
“You don’t know this blamed old hog,” said the fireman, referring to the
engine. “She eats up coal like a trans-Atlantic liner. I’ve thought
sometimes they wasn’t no front end to her fire-box, an’ that I was jest
shovellin’ coal out into creation. She’s a caution, she is!”
“Oh, she ain’t so bad,” put in Higgins, who like all engineers, loved
his engine in spite of her faults. “You’re jest a-talkin’, Pinkey.”
“Huh!” grunted Pinkey. “You trade jobs with me awhile an’ see.”
But to this absurd proposal the engineer returned no answer. Instead, he
tooted the whistle for a crossing, and, his hand on the throttle,
watched a nervous farmer whip a team of horses across the track.
“Blamed fool!” he muttered. “Couldn’t wait till we got past! Well,
there’s the sidin’,” he added, and stopped until the brakeman had run
ahead and thrown the switch. Then he ran slowly in.
The brakeman closed the switch, and swung himself up into the caboose.
He found the conductor and rear brakemen peacefully sleeping, and
without disturbing them, clambered up into the cupola, intending to keep
a lookout for the special, and open the switch after it had passed, so
that the freight could pass out again upon the main track and proceed
upon its way. For a few minutes, his eyes remained fixed upon the track
ahead; then his lids gradually drooped, his head nodded, and finally
fell forward upon his arms.
Forward in the engine, the engineer and fireman settled themselves upon
their respective boxes.
“How long do we have t’ wait?” inquired the latter, after a few moments.
“Blamed if I know,” answered the engineer. “That fool dispatcher didn’t
say. But it can’t be more’n ten minutes. If it had been, he’d have let
us go on to Greenfield.”
The minutes passed; and, finally, lulled by the quiet breathing of the
engine, the purr of insects, and the distant rattle of a mowing machine,
both engineer and fireman nodded off.
Twenty minutes later, the engineer awoke with a start, just in time, as
he thought, to hear the roar of a train fade away in the distance. He
glanced at his watch, then got down from his seat, and shook the fireman
with no gentle hand.
“Goin’ t’ stay here all day, Pinkey?” he asked. “An’ what’s the matter
with them blame fools back there?” he added, savagely, and seizing the
whistle cord, blew three shrill blasts. A moment later, the front
brakeman, who had started awake at the first blast, came running forward
over the train and clambered down into the cab.
“Why don’t some o’ you ijits open that there switch back there,”
demanded Higgins, “so’s I kin back out? Or do you want t’ stay here the
rest o’ your natural lives?”
“Why don’t you pull straight out?” asked the brakeman. “What’s th’ use
o’ backin’ up?”
“Why, that there switch has been out o’ fix fer three months,” answered
Higgins, savagely. “I’ve reported it a dozen times, but much good it
does. Burns knows it. He knows we’ve got t’ back out. Why don’t he wake
up? Is he deef?” and he jerked the whistle fiercely again.
Conductor and brakeman in the caboose were having a discussion of much
the same tenor. Then Burns remembered about the broken switch.
“We’ve got t’ back out,” he said. “Higgins ’s right. Git her open,” and
as the brakeman threw the switch, he signalled the engineer to back up.
The front brakeman, meanwhile, being of an inquiring disposition, had
dropped off the engine and walked forward to the other switch, to see
just what the matter was with it. To his surprise, he found it in
perfect working order, for the section gang had repaired it the
afternoon before. Chuckling to himself, he opened and closed it two or
three times, thinking what a good joke he had on Burns and Higgins.
Then, looking back, he saw that his train had passed out upon the main
track and was steaming toward him.
[Illustration: “THE NEXT INSTANT IT FLASHED INTO VIEW AROUND THE
CURVE.”]
He closed the switch and was just about to lock it, when he heard
another sound that made his heart stand still—the roar of a train
approaching from the west. The next instant it flashed into view around
the curve, running, as the brakeman afterwards expressed it, about three
hundred miles a minute.
Without conscious thought, but seizing the one chance in a thousand to
avoid a terrible accident, he threw the switch open again and then
sprang aside as the special swept in upon the siding. He heard the
screaming of the brakes and saw the train fairly buckling upon itself in
an almost human effort to stop. But stop it could not, and out upon the
main track again it swept, through the switch at the farther end of the
siding, which the brakeman there had sense enough to open, and on toward
Wadsworth.
Staring after it, they saw it pick up speed again, and disappear.
And it was a mighty solemn train crew that took that local freight in to
Greenfield.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER IV
AFTERMATH
SHOULD Allan West live for a hundred years, he will never forget that
instant in which he closed his eyes and braced himself for the terrific
shock he knew must come. There was no time to think, no time even for
the sensation of fear to make itself felt; only a sort of dim
realization that the end was at hand.
Then he felt the engine give a mighty lurch, which almost tore it from
the rails; a roar sounded in his ears, there was another lurch, and
opening his eyes, at last, he saw only the straight track ahead of him,
and felt the engine gradually gaining speed as Michaels released the
brakes and slowly opened the throttle.
He sat erect with a gasp of amazement, and wiped the sweat from his
forehead with shaking hand. He looked down at the fireman, who had
phlegmatically resumed his duties; then over at the engineer, who was
gazing straight ahead of him, his face set and gray.
“What happened?” he shouted, as the fireman closed the fire-box and
stood resting for a moment.
“Blamed if I know,” the latter answered. “I was shovellin’ in coal, when
Bill clapped on the brakes and purty nigh throwed me into the fire-box.
Then we passed a freight an’ Bill let her out again. He must ’a’ thought
she was on the same track.”
“She _was_ on the same track,” said Allan.
“Well, we passed her, anyway,” retorted the fireman, philosophically,
and returned to his duties.
Then Allan remembered the switch and understood dimly what had happened.
But it was not until the investigation was held that he knew all the
details.
The crew of the freight were, of course, hauled up “on the carpet.” The
two brakemen who had opened the switches at the proper instant and
shunted the special past were commended for their prompt action, and
exonerated from blame, as the train was, of course, in charge of the
conductor and engineer. The two latter worthies were suspended
indefinitely without pay.
It was by no means the first time in the history of the road that a
freight crew had gone to sleep on a siding and waked up to find that
they no longer knew what their rights were. The proper thing to have
done, of course, was either to have flagged in to the next station, or
to have hunted up the nearest telephone and found out from the
dispatchers’ office just what their rights were.
“That front brakeman will make a good railroad man,” remarked Mr.
Plumfield, when the inquiry into the incident was over, taking a little
red, leather-bound book from a drawer of his desk. “He’s quick-witted—no
man ever lasted very long with a railroad who wasn’t.”
He ran down the index at the front of the book, turned to the names of
the four men who had just been on the carpet, and wrote a short sentence
after each of them. That record would stand to commend or condemn them
so long as they were connected with the road. The record of every man
was there, with all his merits and demerits. Train masters might
forget—might be promoted or discharged—but that record always remained.
“Yes,” went on the train master, restoring the book to its drawer, “if a
railroad man’s wits aren’t hung on hair-triggers and quicker than
greased lightning in action, he’s usually knocked into Kingdom Come
before he has a chance to realize he never was cut out for the work.”
And Mr. Plumfield was right. A railroad man must learn to act without
stopping to think—he seldom has time to think. Perhaps if he had, he
wouldn’t be so ready to risk his life as he is—for he risks his life a
thousand times to a soldier’s once—but he always does it in a hurry.
There is no long waiting under fire until the welcome order comes to
charge—if there were, the railroad man would probably run away, and so
would the soldier, but for the iron discipline that binds him. That’s
what discipline is for—to hold men firm in the face of realized and
long-continued danger—for there is nothing on earth more difficult than
to make men stand still and be shot at. The railroad man never has to
stand still—he has to jump, and jump quick. All men aren’t heroes, but
their first impulse is usually to do the brave and necessary thing.
Railroad men always act on that first impulse—and think about it and
shiver over it and wonder at themselves afterwards.
* * * * *
Despite the misadventure, the special swept into Wadsworth on time,
having covered ninety miles in ninety minutes—a record which has never
been equalled, or even, for that matter, very nearly approached. For
never since has a train been sent over the road under such orders.
A crowd had gathered at the Wadsworth station to receive the great man,
confident that he would, at least, favour them with one of those
scintillating three-minute talks for which he was so famous. So they
gathered about the rear platform of his car yelling “Speech! speech!”
For a time there was no response, then, finally, the door opened, but it
was not the great man who appeared. It was his secretary, looking very
white and shaky. He apologized for the great man in a thin and tremulous
voice; the trip had been a very trying one, and the great man was
suffering from the strain incident to the vigorous campaign he had been
waging. He was lying down, endeavouring to get some much-needed rest,
recognizing the necessity of saving himself for the final struggle which
was to bring New York safe into line and assure an administration whose
first effort it would be, etc., etc.
The crowd gave a few subdued cheers and melted away. Then the secretary
leaped down the steps of the car and rushed up to Allan, who was
watching the process of changing engines.
“Are you in charge here?” asked the secretary.
“I’m putting this special through, if that’s what you mean,” answered
Allan.
“Well,” said the secretary, “you’re wanted in the private car at once.”
“Very well,” said Allan, and sprang up the steps behind him.
The great man was half-sitting, half-lying in a large chair. His face
was gray and sunken and his eyes strangely bloodshot.
“This is the man in charge,” said the secretary, bringing Allan to a
halt before the chair.
“I just want to tell you one thing,” said the great man, hoarsely,
lifting a trembling finger, “and that is that if you’re all crazy out
here I’m not! The man who brought us over that last stretch of road
ought to be in an asylum.”
“We made the ninety miles in ninety minutes,” said Allan, with some
pride.
“Well, I won’t stand for anything more of that sort. Give me your word
not to exceed fifty miles an hour at any time, or I’ll get off the
train.”
“Very well, sir,” answered Allan. “Will you put it in writing?”
“In writing? What for?”
“My orders are to push the engines for all they’re worth.”
The great man swore a mighty oath.
“Jim, give me a sheet of paper,” he said to his secretary. And a moment
later the order was written, in a sprawly scribble:
“October 15, 19—
“This special will hereafter at no time exceed a speed of fifty (50)
miles per hour.
“Signed, ————”
And Allan still has that order, neatly framed, hanging over his desk.
He hurried away and modified the train-orders, so that Clem Johnson, the
engineer who was to take the special from Wadsworth to Parkersburg,
suddenly lost all interest in life and climbed into his cab in a
towering rage.
“Lost his nerve,” he said to his fireman, with a jerk of his head toward
the private car. “An’ I don’t suppose they’ll be any runnin’ on the same
road with Michaels no more—he’ll have the swell-head so bad. It’s tough
luck—that’s what I call it—mighty tough luck.”
“Them fellers never do have any sand,” observed the fireman,
contemptuously. “We’d ’a’ beat Michaels’s time easy.”
“O’ course we would!” growled the engineer. “An’ now we’ve got t’ crawl
along like a funeral percession. I’ll show him!” and he pulled the
throttle open viciously, so that the train started with a jerk that
caused the great man to jump with alarm.
The engineer observed his orders not to exceed fifty miles an hour, but
the trip was not a pleasant one, for all that; for he took a savage
delight in banging and jerking the train, so that even the great private
car felt the uneven motion, and swayed and groaned and jumped in a
manner which reduced its distinguished occupant to the verge of
prostration. Finally he called the conductor.
“What’s the matter with this track, anyway?” he demanded. “I feel like I
was riding over a corduroy road. Has there been an earthquake, or what?”
“No, sir,” answered the conductor, who understood what the engineer was
doing and was delighted thereat. “There ain’t been no earthquake. The
track is perfectly smooth, sir. I don’t think the engine’s working just
right—a little uneven.”
“Uneven!” repeated the great man. “Is that the best word you can find
for it? It reminds me of a bucking broncho! Heavens!” and he buried his
face in his hands again.
“Huh!” grunted the conductor to himself, as he withdrew. “Lost his
nerve!”
It was true. The great man had lost his nerve. Not for weeks did he
regain his usual tone. The leaders in New York were greatly disappointed
by his lack of “ginger;” his speeches did not have that telling quality
they had possessed of old—in a word, he lost New York State and the
Presidency—and all, perhaps, because a freight crew went to sleep on a
siding out in Ohio. An incident, surely, to rank with the spider that
saved Mahomet or the whinny which made Darius King of Persia.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER V
THE NEW TIME-CARD
SO, day by day, the work at the dispatchers’ office went on in its
accustomed routine. Always there was the clatter of the keys, always the
trains pulling in and out of the yards, always the coming and going of
men like a mighty and well-disciplined army. They were servants of the
mightiest industrial force in the world, the thing which had done most
for the development of commerce, the advancement of trade—the thing
without which, in a word, the world of to-day would not be possible. Few
people realize the tremendous business done by the railroads of the
world. In the United States alone, in a single year, besides the eight
hundred million passengers carried, a billion and a half tons of freight
are moved, the total passenger and freight mileage reaching the
inconceivable total of two hundred and forty-two billion, for which the
roads received nearly two and a half billion dollars, or more than twice
the amount of the national debt. Figures like that, of course, make no
impression on the mind—they are too vast, too grandiose for human
comprehension.
And the gigantic task of moving this freight and these passengers goes
on from day to day, from hour to hour, in the usual course of things,
just as the sun rises and sets, almost as though operated by a law of
nature and not by man’s exertion, by the law of gravitation and not in
defiance of it. And just as people grow accustomed to the miracle of
sunrise and cease to wonder at it, so they grow accustomed to the
miracle of steam. Only those who, day by day, do battle to keep the
great machine in operation realize fully what a desperate battle it is.
Allan West was soon to have a personal experience with a vital part of
the mechanism with which he had never before come in contact.
“Allan,” Superintendent Schofield said one morning, stopping beside his
desk, “we’ve got our new time-card about ready, and I wish you’d arrange
to-morrow so you can come and help us string the chart.”
“String the chart?” repeated Allan.
“Yes. It’ll interest you—besides, it’s something you ought to know.
We’re going to throw Number Two half an hour later, and make one or two
other changes.”
Allan knew that the “time-card meeting” had been held at Cincinnati a
few days before. Indeed, Mr. Schofield had talked over with him the
projected changes, and the reasons for them.
For it must be understood that railroads everywhere are striving
ceaselessly to arrange their time-cards to meet the needs of the public
and to secure the greatest possible economy of operation. It is foolish
for a road to run two trains when one will do, but while the number of
trains is cut to a minimum, they must be run at such hours as will be
convenient to the public which they serve, otherwise they won’t get the
traffic. A certain number of people, of course, have to travel every
day, whether the trains run at convenient hours or not; but with a much
greater number travel is a matter of pleasure, of choice, and with them
convenience has great weight—much greater than one would suppose.
Thus, in the vicinity of a great city, there must be locals going in in
the morning and coming out in the afternoon, so that “commuters” may get
back and forth to work, and shoppers may be accommodated. These trains
must be sufficient in number to meet the demand, and must be run at such
hours as will suit the different classes of people they serve. If the
train-service is bad, the “commuters” will move, if they can, to a place
where it is better—where they can get to and from work more cheaply and
easily. Rents will go down in the district which is badly served, real
estate will decrease in value, an undesirable class of people will move
into it, and the traffic from it will drop away to little or nothing. So
the road, by carelessness at the beginning, brings its own punishment
surely at the end.
Further, it is immaterial as to the time that the through trains pass
these points, since they gather practically no traffic from them. A
through train considers only its terminals—when is the best time for it
to leave New York and arrive at Cincinnati. Can such a train be arranged
to leave New York after business hours and arrive at Pittsburgh before
them? Two great roads are at the present time running trains between New
York and Chicago with the boast that one can go from one city to the
other without losing an hour of the business day.
So with through trains, the most important object is to shorten the
running time as much as possible. The “locals” can take care of the
short-haul traffic, and their hours can be accommodated to it; but the
through trains must get from terminus to terminus, with regard only to
the time of leaving and arriving.
In consequence, time-cards are constantly changing. Perhaps a curve has
been straightened, or a tunnel completed that saves a long detour;
perhaps a grade has been lowered, an old bridge replaced with a new
one—such changes as these every road is constantly making. And
time-cards change with them.
Or perhaps faster and heavier engines are purchased, and a complete
change of time-card is at once rendered necessary. For every through
train runs as fast as it can run with safety. And as a road grows older,
and time-card after time-card is made out, the running time of the
trains is made more and more perfect, until there are long stretches
where the engineer does not have to touch his throttle, so exactly does
the running time of the train correspond with the best the engine can
do. The passenger who remarks to a companion upon the smoothness of the
running, and who glances with approbation at his watch as the train
pulls into its destination exactly on time, does not know what patient
and long experimenting it took to achieve that result.
* * * * *
“Ya-as,” drawled old Bill Williams, sarcastically, when I read the above
paragraph to him. “Ya-as, that’s all very pretty in theory—but how about
the practice, my boy?”
I had to confess that I was weak in practice. But I knew that Bill was
strong, for he had served over forty years at the throttle before an
affection of the eyes had caused him to retire from active service and
to open a railroad boarding-house, by means of which he still managed to
keep in touch with the life of the road.
“Wa-al,” he went on, taking a deliberate chew of tobacco, and putting
his feet up on the railing of the veranda which ran across the front of
the Williams House, “theory an’ practice air two mighty different
things. Time-cards is usually built on theory, an’ it’s up to the
engineer t’ maintain ’em in practice. The trouble is that time-cards is
made out fer engines in puffect condition, which not one in ten is. So
the engineer has to make up fer the faults of his engine—a good deal
like a good rider’ll lift his hoss over a five-barred gate, where a bad
one’ll come a cropper every time. So when y’ see a train that’s come a
thousand mile, pull in on time to the minute, don’t you go an’ make the
mistake o’ thinkin’ it was the engine, or the time-card, or even the
dispatchers what did it, ’cause it wasn’t. It was the crews what brought
thet there train through in spite o’ wind an’ weather an’ other folkses
mistakes.”
* * * * *
Nevertheless, even Bill would admit, I think, the necessity of carefully
and intelligently prepared time-cards, and certainly there was no one
item in the operation of the road to which the officials gave such close
and continued attention. Two or three meetings were held at the general
offices at Cincinnati, at which all of the officials of the
transportation department, as well as the general officials, were
present. Here, with data carefully collected, it was decided how many
passenger and freight trains were to be run, what changes of time were
desirable, and at what hour and minute each train was to leave and
arrive at the termini of the division. It now remained to provide the
meeting-points for these trains, and this task was left to the division
officials at Wadsworth. It was this ceremony, known as “stringing the
chart,” at which Allan had been invited to assist.
The chart itself was a large map about five feet high by eight wide,
covered with numberless parallel lines. Across the top and bottom of the
board, at equal distances, were twenty-four numbers, representing the
twenty-four hours. They began at twelve midnight, ran up to twelve noon,
and then to twelve midnight again. From top to bottom of the board,
connecting these numbers, perpendicular lines were drawn. The space
between the numbers was then divided into twelve equal parts, and
lighter lines drawn connecting them. The space between every two of
these lines therefore represented five minutes, and there were 288 of
them running across the board from top to bottom.
On each side of the board at the top, and on a line with the top row of
numbers, the word “Cincinnati” was printed. At the bottom of the board,
on either side, and in line with the numbers there, was the word
“Parkersburg.” These are the termini of the division, and they are 195.3
miles apart. Then along each side of the board the names of all the
stations of the line were printed, the distances between them and the
termini being carefully figured out so that the distances on the board
should be exactly proportionate to the real distances. Horizontal lines
were then drawn across the board, connecting the names of the same
station, and the time-chart was complete.
Usually it was stored in a back room, out of the way, carefully covered
so that it would be kept clean. On the morning in question, however, it
was uncovered, carefully wiped off, and then wheeled into the
superintendent’s office, where the ceremony of stringing it was to be
performed. Mr. Schofield was there, and the train master, and Allan,
eager to see the process. On the superintendent’s desk lay two balls of
string, one white and one red, and a note-book in which had been jotted
down the time assigned to each train.
“Well, I guess we’re ready to begin,” said Mr. Schofield, picking up the
white ball and stepping before the chart. “We’ll string the east-bound
trains first,” he added.
Let it be said here that east-bound trains are always indicated by even
numbers and west-bound trains by odd ones. Thus, on any road, “Number
Four,” for instance, will always be an east-bound train, and “Number
Three” will always be a west-bound one. In addition to which, it should
be remembered that east-bound trains always have right of way over
west-bound trains of the same class. That is to say, when an east-bound
and west-bound first-class passenger train meet, it is the west-bound
train which runs in on a siding and waits until the other sweeps by on
the main track.
“Now,” continued Mr. Schofield, “we’ll begin with Number Four, which has
rights over everything. Look at those notes, Allan, and tell me at what
time it is to leave Cincinnati.”
“At 12.15 P. M.,” said Allan, picking up the note-book.
“Correct. Now this line running up and down across the centre of the
board is for twelve o’clock noon. This third line after it is for 12.15,
five minutes for each line. This line across the top of the board is for
Cincinnati, so I drive a pin there and loop the end of this cord around
it, so,” and he suited the action to the word. “Now, at what time does
Number Four reach Wadsworth?”
“At 3.05,” answered Allan, looking at the notes.
“Well—see, here is the 3.05 line, and here, running across the board,
about midway down, is the Wadsworth line. I drive another pin at the
intersection of these two lines, draw the cord tight and loop it about
this second pin. And now what?”
“The train stops at Wadsworth five minutes to change engines,” said
Allan.
“So I drive a third pin right out along this Wadsworth line at the
intersection of it and the 3.10 o’clock line. Now, what time does it
reach Parkersburg?”
“At 5.50 P. M.”
“Well, here’s the 5.50 line, and here, at the bottom of the board, is
the Parkersburg line. I drive a fourth pin there, draw the cord tight
and tie it. Then I cut it off, and tie at the end this little tag marked
‘Number Four.’ Now what does that cord indicate?”
Allan, looking at the board, saw a line that ran roughly like this:
[Illustration: (For complete time-table, see diagram facing page 60)]
“Why,” he answered, after a moment, his eyes shining, “the cord
indicates the exact time that the train passes every station along the
line.”
“Exactly,” assented Mr. Schofield. “Now, just by way of illustration,
we’ll put on a west-bound train next,” and he picked up the red ball.
“We’ll take Number Three. At what time does it leave Parkersburg?”
“At 11.40 A. M.”
“So I drive the pin here. When does it reach Wadsworth?”
“At 2.20 P. M.”
“So the pin goes here. It stays there five minutes, doesn’t it?”
“Yes—just like Number Four.”
“So another pin goes here. When does it reach Cincinnati?”
“At 5.35 P. M.”
“And here’s the fourth pin—and there’s your red string across the board,
indicating Number Three. Now look at them.”
Here is what Allan saw:
[Illustration: Time-Table]
“You notice the two strings cross at the 2.45 line,” continued Mr.
Schofield, “between Musselman and Roxabel. What does that mean?”
“It means the trains will meet there.”
“But they can’t meet out there on a single track. They’ve got to meet at
a station where there’s a siding. So we’ve got to hold Number Three at
Musselman three minutes until Number Four can get past—in other words,
we’ve got to change the red string a little, like this,” and he drove
another pin on the 2.42 line at Musselman, and tied the red string to
it. “That provides a meeting place for those two trains. Now let’s go
ahead with the others.”
White strings representing all the east-bound passenger trains were put
on the board in the same way. All of them ran more or less parallel with
each other, the faster trains inclining more toward the perpendicular
and the slower trains more toward the horizontal. To each string was
attached a little tag bearing the number of the train, and that being
done, the superintendent declared it was time to adjourn for lunch.
An hour later, the work of stringing the west-bound passenger trains was
taken up, the red cord being used to represent them. As they necessarily
ran in the opposite direction, these strings crossed the strings
representing the east-bound trains, and each of these crossings
indicated a meeting-point. When the strings were first put on the board,
it was found that many of them, as had been the case with those
representing trains Three and Four, crossed between stations, and as it
is against the rules of all railroading to permit two trains going in
opposite directions to meet on the same track, the running time of the
trains had to be so altered that the meetings occurred at a station, or
at least at a place where there was a siding, so that one train could
pull in out of the way of the other. The through passenger trains, which
are given preference, were so timed that they could run from end to end
of the division without getting out of the way of anything; the
accommodations usually had two or three short waits, but so carefully
were these timed that their passengers would never notice it. In fact,
wherever it was possible, the running time of the train was extended a
few minutes, so that the delay would be only a minute or two.
After all the passenger trains had been placed on the board and the
meeting-points provided for, the freight trains were added.
Meeting-points with the freight trains had also to be arranged, but this
was comparatively easy, as it was simply a question of the freight
heading in at the last siding it could reach in advance of the
passenger, and then waiting for the passenger to go by.
When every train had been placed on the board and every meeting-point
provided for, the time at which every train arrived at and left every
station was carefully noted down.
“And that’s done,” said Mr. Schofield, with a sigh of satisfaction.
“It’s a big job, and I’m mighty glad we won’t have to do it soon again.
What do you think of it?”
“It’s great,” Allan answered. “Who thought it out?”
“I don’t know. It’s been in use for a long time—practically all roads
‘string the chart,’ just as we have done. It’s the safest system that
has ever been devised.”
[Illustration: On this chart only the more important trains are shown.
Dotted lines have been used to represent white cords, or east-bound
trains, and solid lines to represent red cords, or west-bound trains.]
“I don’t see how any could be safer,” said Allan. “And I’m awfully glad
you showed me how it works.”
“Oh, I’d do that, of course,” laughed the superintendent. “I want you to
know everything there is to know about railroading. It will all come in
handy some day. Now, I’ll turn these notes over to the printer, and
we’ll have another bout when we get the proofs.”
In a few days, the first proof of the new time-card was returned to Mr.
Schofield, and he and Allan went over it carefully, comparing it with
the chart to make certain that there was no error in figures and that
every meeting-point was provided for. With the chart to go by, it was
impossible that any meeting-point could be overlooked. A second proof
was treated in the same way, and finally O.K’d. Then the time-cards were
printed—not at all in the form with which the public is acquainted with
them, but as large oblong pamphlets of twenty-four pages,—distributed to
the road’s employees, and at twelve o’clock midnight on December 21st,
the new card went into effect. All the public knew of it was a few lines
in the newspapers announcing that this train or the other would arrive a
few minutes later or earlier than it had been doing, and most people
wondered, if they thought about it at all, why it had been necessary to
get out a new time-card at all for changes so unimportant.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER VI
THE LITTLE CLOUD
THE installing of a new time-card is not so simple a thing as one might
imagine. For that one night, every engineer and conductor has to bear in
mind two schedules, the old one and the new one. For, though the new one
goes into effect, technically, at midnight, it is, of course, impossible
that it should do so in reality. A train, for instance, which started
under the old schedule at 10.50 P. M. and which, under the new one,
would start fifteen or twenty minutes earlier, could not, once it was
out on the road, make up that time, so it was compelled to run by the
old schedule until it had finished its trip, even though that carried it
over the time after which the new schedule went into effect. In other
words, every train which was on the road at midnight, must continue
under the old schedule until it reached its destination.
So that night was always one of anxiety. Trainmen, who often get mixed
on a single schedule, are only too likely to do so on a double one!
It so happened, however, that the exciting events of that night were not
due to forgetfulness, but to a danger which no one could foresee or
guard against, and which is, in consequence, one most feared by railroad
men. And it developed the latent heroism in two men in a way which is
still talked of on the rail, where these tales are passed on from mouth
to mouth wherever trainmen congregate.
The night was a cold and windy one, with a swirl of snow now and then,
just sufficient to obscure the slippery track ahead, and yet not dense
enough to cause the engineer to abandon in despair the task of trying to
see what he was driving into. As a consequence, Engineer Jim Adams,
pulling first section of through freight No. 98, had strained his eyes
until they ached, in the effort to descry track and signals. More than
once his hand had trembled on the throttle, as he fancied he saw another
headlight gleaming through the mist ahead, but which, at the last
instant, resolved itself into a reflection of his own. So when an
unmistakable red glow did appear there, he waited an instant and batted
his eyes savagely once or twice before he threw on the brakes.
“It’s the Jones Run bridge!” yelled the front brakeman, who, perched on
the fireman’s seat, had seen the glare at the same instant. “Git out o’
here!” And jumping to the floor of the cab, he balanced himself an
instant in the gangway and then sprang out into the darkness.
The fireman took one look at the swirling flames ahead and followed him.
Then the engineer, having set the brakes and closed the throttle, also
leaped out into the darkness. But even as he leaped, he suddenly
realized that the train had just impetus enough to carry it to the
bridge. It would stop there, be consumed, and the loss to the company
would be thousands and thousands of dollars.
By a supreme effort, he landed on his feet, and then, running a step or
two, managed to catch the hand-hold on the first freight car, as it
passed him. In a minute, he had clambered up the ladder, over the coal
in the tender and down into the cab again, where he released the brakes,
opened the throttle wide, and started on a wild run for the bridge. In
an instant, the flames were around him and he felt the bridge shake and
sway, but it held, and the train crossed in safety.
Meanwhile, back in the caboose, a strange scene was enacting. The
brakeman and conductor, who had been cosily sleeping in their bunks,
were suddenly thrown out to the floor by a terrific impact, and every
loose object seemed to be hurling itself toward the front end of the
car. It took a minute for them to disentangle themselves and get to
their feet again. Then they made a simultaneous rush for the door, just
as the brakes were released and the train jerked forward again. The
conductor opened the door and started to put his head out to see what
was the matter, when he suddenly found himself surrounded by a swirl of
flame.
“Gosh all whittaker!” he yelled, and slammed the door shut again. Then
he jumped for the box of fusees which every caboose carries.
The brakeman, who was green, was too frightened even to be interested.
Otherwise he would have seen the conductor jerk out two fusees, and
then, opening the door again, drop off the train just as it cleared the
bridge. He scrambled down the bank, and, holding the fusees high over
his head, plunged into the icy water without an instant’s hesitation,
and then, stopping only to light one of the fusees at a glowing ember,
raced wildly away down the track, waving it above his head. For he had
remembered the second section following close behind; he knew that the
bridge would be so weakened that another train could not cross it;
feared that, in the swirling snow, the engineer might not see the flames
until too late; and instantly took the only effective means to stop the
oncoming train.
Stop it he did, of course, and after making sure the bridge could not be
saved, both trains flagged their way to the nearest stations to give
word of the disaster. Ten hours later, a temporary bridge replaced the
old one, and traffic was running as usual.
An investigation of the cause of the fire followed a few days later, but
nothing definite concerning it could be discovered. It might have
started, as so many do, from ashes dropped from the fire-box of a
passing train; or it might have been set on fire by tramps, either by
accident or design. Orders were at once sent in for an iron bridge to
replace the wooden one, so that a repetition of the accident would be
impossible.
One thing, however, resulted from the investigation—the indication of
possible carelessness on the part of another engineer. Half an hour
before the first section of ninety-eight had passed, the evening
accommodation had crossed the bridge. It seemed impossible that the fire
should have got such a headway in that time, and the presumption
strongly was that the bridge was on fire when the passenger train
crossed it, and that the engineer was not attending to his duties, or he
would have seen it. The fireman, engaged in shovelling coal into the
fire-box, and blinded by the glare of the flames, would probably not
have noticed it, and on a passenger train no brakeman rides in the cab;
but it could not have escaped the eyes of the engineer if he had been
watching the tracks. It was, of course, possible that he had seen it,
but had not stopped his train or given warning through some motive of
hate or personal revenge; and inquiry, indeed, developed the fact that
there was a bitter quarrel of long standing between him and Jim Adams,
the engineer of first ninety-eight—but this may have been merely a
coincidence.
At any rate, Mr. Plumfield hesitated to think that any man would have
passed the fire from such a motive, and preferred to believe that the
engineer of the accommodation had merely been remiss. The engineer, a
burly fellow named Rafe Bassett, stoutly denied that this was the case,
and declared that he had noticed the bridge especially and that it was
all right.
Something in his demeanour, however, aroused Mr. Plumfield’s suspicions.
Bassett was perhaps a trifle too emphatic in his denials. At any rate,
he was suspended without pay.
The day after this happened, Mr. Schofield paused beside the train
master’s desk.
“What was the trouble with Bassett, George?” he asked.
“Well, I can’t say, exactly,” answered Mr. Plumfield. “But he struck me
as being not altogether on the square. You know he’s been in trouble
before,” and he brought out the little red book.
Mr. Schofield nodded.
“Yes, I know,” he said. “I’m afraid this is going to make trouble,” he
added, after a moment. “You know Bassett is a great brotherhood man, and
is one of those big-mouthed agitators who are always talking about the
wrongs of labour. His lodge is calling a special meeting to-night to
consider his case.”
“Is it?” asked Mr. Plumfield, grimly. “Well, I suppose there’ll be a
grievance committee to wait on me in the morning.”
And there was. Scarcely had he seated himself at his desk next day, when
three engineers, cap in hand, appeared at the door and requested an
audience.
“All right, boys; come in,” said the train master. “What’s the trouble?”
“It’s about Bassett,” explained the spokesman. “He’s laid off, I hear.”
“Yes,” said the train master. “Laid off till further notice.”
“What for?” asked the spokesman.
Mr. Plumfield hesitated. It was rather difficult to formulate the charge
against Bassett.
“For knowing more about the burning of the Jones Run bridge the other
night than he’s willing to tell.”
“Do you mean he set it on fire?” inquired one of the men, incredulously.
“Oh, no; but I think he ran past it after it was on fire and didn’t stop
to put it out, as he should have done.”
“Does Bassett admit it?”
“No, of course not.”
“Why should he run past the fire?”
“Maybe he was asleep and didn’t see it.”
“And have you any evidence?”
“None but his manner,” answered Mr. Plumfield frankly.
“Well,” said the spokesman, twirling his cap in his hands, “all I can
say is that that’s mighty poor evidence, it seems to me. We had a
meetin’ at the lodge last night, and we was appointed a committee to see
you and demand that Bassett be reinstated at once.”
“All right,” said Mr. Plumfield, “I’ll consider it.”
“And when can we have our answer?”
“This afternoon at three o’clock,” answered the train master sharply.
“All right, sir,” said the spokesman of the committee, and the three men
filed out.
Mr. Plumfield looked over at Allan, after a moment, with a little laugh.
“I’m afraid those fellows have got me,” he said. “I’m morally convinced
that Bassett’s crooked, but there’s no way to prove it. I’m afraid I’ll
have to back down. I made a mistake in suspending him in the first
place, but the man’s manner irritated me.”
And so, that afternoon, when the committee reappeared, it was informed
that Bassett had been reinstated as requested.
They filed out with ill-concealed triumph on their faces, and Mr.
Plumfield felt uncomfortably that his mistake had been a serious one. In
gaining a victory, Bassett had enthroned himself more firmly than ever
in the confidence of his associates.
Three hours later, in the dusk of the early winter evening, Mr.
Plumfield left his office and started toward his home. As he crossed the
tracks, and came opposite a saloon which occupied the corner nearest the
station, the door suddenly swung open and two or three men stumbled out.
They were talking loudly, and as they came under the glare of the street
lamps, Mr. Plumfield saw that one of them was Bassett. The engineer saw
him at the same moment.
“Why, here’s the train master,” he cried, lurching forward. “Well, so ye
had t’ crawfish, didn’t ye, me bird? An’ well fer ye ye did!”
“Bassett,” said Mr. Plumfield, quietly, “you’re drunk. Take care, or
you’ll get a dose a good deal worse than the last one.”
“Oh, I will, will I?” cried Bassett, coming closer. “Well, you jest try
it! You jest try it!”
“All right,” said Mr. Plumfield. “You don’t need to report any more.
You’re not in the employ of the P. & O. any longer.”
“Ain’t I?” cried Bassett. “Well, we’ll see what the boys say to that!
You heerd this, boys—”
But without waiting to hear more, Mr. Plumfield went on his way. This
time, he felt, he would have to stick to his decision, no matter what
happened. And he felt, too, that he was right.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER VII
A THREAT FROM MR. NIXON
THE storm was not long in bursting. Again there was a special meeting of
the lodge; again a grievance committee waited on Mr. Plumfield, but it
met a very different reception from that which had been given the former
one.
“I have just one thing to tell you,” he said, when he had listened to
their complaint, “and that is that Rafe Bassett will never be given a
job on this road while I’m train master. He was drunk the other night,
and you know it.”
“He denies it,” said the chairman of the committee. “He admits he’d had
a glass or two of beer, but that ain’t a penitentiary offence.”
“Especially when a man ain’t on duty,” chimed in another.
“And he says he thought he was still suspended,” chimed in a third, “and
he supposed he could do as he pleased.”
“He didn’t think anything of the sort,” said Mr. Plumfield, sharply.
“The first words he said to me were that I’d had to crawfish. So he knew
he’d been reinstated. But he’ll never be reinstated again.”
“Are them your last words, Mr. Plumfield?” inquired one of his auditors,
ominously.
“Yes, they’re my last words,” retorted the train master, and turned to
his work, while the committee filed out.
He foresaw, of course, what would happen, but he felt that to reinstate
Bassett would for ever destroy discipline among the men under him. He
stated the case to Mr. Schofield, and that official agreed with him that
Bassett could never be reinstated, but that the matter must be fought
out to a finish.
Hostilities were not long in commencing. The local lodge made a
report—more or less biased—of the occurrence to the general officials of
the order, and one of the latter came posthaste to the scene. A day or
two later, Mr. Schofield received the following letter:
“WADSWORTH, OHIO, January 16, 190-
“MR. R. E. SCHOFIELD,
“_Superintendent Ohio Division_,
“_P. & O. Railway_.
“_Dear Sir_:—As a representative of the Grand Lodge of the Independent
Order of Railway Engineers, I ask a conference with you at the earliest
possible moment.
“Yours truly,
“H. F. NIXON,
“_Special Delegate_.”
Mr. Schofield answered at once, setting the conference for next day and
asking both Mr. Plumfield and Allan to be present. For he desired some
witnesses of the interview.
Nixon showed up promptly at the appointed time. He was a heavy-set man
with a red face and big black moustache. He wore a sweeping fur
overcoat, and, when he drew off his gloves, a big seal-ring with diamond
settings was visible upon the little finger of his right hand. Mr.
Schofield greeted him courteously, invited him to take off his overcoat
and sit down, and then stepped to the door.
“Bob,” he called to his office boy, “ask Mr. Plumfield and Mr. West to
step this way at once, will you?”
Nixon, who had thrown his overcoat across a chair and got out a big
black cigar, paused with it halfway to his lips.
“Not calling the company for me, are you?” he asked.
“Why, yes,” said the superintendent, quietly. “You’ve come about the
Bassett business, haven’t you?”
Nixon nodded.
“Well, Mr. Plumfield is the one with whom Bassett had the trouble. I
thought you’d like to hear his story.”
“Oh, all right,” said Nixon, sitting down and lighting his cigar. “Only
I know the story already.”
“Maybe you’ve only heard one side of it,” suggested Mr. Schofield,
smiling.
“Well, maybe I have,” assented Nixon, and when Mr. Plumfield and Allan
entered, he greeted them with a fair degree of cordiality.
“And now, Mr. Plumfield,” said the superintendent, when the
introductions were over, “I wish you would tell Mr. Nixon exactly what
happened between you and Bassett.”
So the train master told the story of his encounter with the drunken
engineer, while Nixon sat back in his chair puffing his cigar
meditatively, and nodding from time to time.
“You know, of course,” he said, when Mr. Plumfield had finished, “that
Bassett denies he was drunk, and so do the boys who were with him. He
admits that he’d had a glass or two of beer, but there’s nothing against
that, is there, when a man’s off duty?”
“There’s a rule against the use of intoxicants,” replied the
superintendent, slowly, “and against a man’s being impudent on duty or
off.”
“And there’s no prospect of your taking Bassett back?” asked Nixon.
“Not the slightest,” answered Mr. Schofield.
“I suppose you know what that means?” inquired Nixon, blowing out a puff
of smoke and gazing at it with half-closed eyes, as it floated slowly
upwards.
“What does it mean?”
“It means a strike.”
“Is the brotherhood as foolish as all that?”
“The brotherhood is bound to protect the interests of all its members.”
“Even those who don’t deserve it?”
“The brotherhood must decide who’s worthy and who’s not. It can’t let
outsiders do it.”
“Well, all right,” said Mr. Schofield. “It’s up to you. I guess we can
get some more engineers.”
“Oh, you’ll need more than engineers,” said Nixon, easily. “You’ll need
firemen and brakemen and conductors and switchmen—the whole force, in
fact.”
The superintendent sat staring at his visitor, his brows knitted.
“You mean they’ll strike in sympathy?” he asked, at last.
“Exactly,” and Nixon smiled blandly.
“What kind of fools are railroad men anyhow?”
“I’ll tell you how it is,” said Nixon. “Railroad men realize that
they’ve got to stand together. You remember those spell-binders who used
to go around hollering ‘My country, right or wrong!’ Well, that’s our
principle. Besides, the time’s ripe for a strike.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean there hasn’t been a real strike for some time an’ the boys are
ready for a little excitement. You see, we’ve found a better way than
strikin’, but not half so interestin’.”
“I think I know what you mean,” said Mr. Schofield, slowly.
“Yes—I guess you do. We’ve found out that we can get legislatures to
pass most any law we want. It’s different from the old days, when the
railroads carried the legislatures in their pockets. The pendulum’s
swung the other way. Now it’s as much as a man’s life’s worth to vote
for a railroad measure or against one that railroad employees ask for.
So things come our way easy. Besides, that anti-pass law has hurt you
bad.”
“Yes, it has,” Mr. Schofield agreed, with a grim smile.
“It was a mighty cheap and convenient way of buyin’ influence,”
continued Nixon. “For a thousand or two miles of mileage, you got
seven-eighths of the legislatures without further expense. They didn’t
consider it takin’ a bribe. Now even money won’t do the trick. You’re up
a tree.”
“Yes, we are,” agreed the superintendent, “until the pendulum swings
back again. You fellows are too eager. You’re killing the goose.”
“Well, I guess we’ll get our share of the eggs,” grinned Nixon. “Have
you heard of the latest?”
“The latest?”
“The caboose bill?”
“No,” said Mr. Schofield. “What’s that?”
“Well,” said Nixon, chuckling to himself, “the railroads, as you know,
never waste a thought on the comfort or safety of their employees—”
“No, of course not,” agreed Mr. Schofield, ironically.
“All they think of is earnings an’ big salaries for the officers. One of
the most inhuman afflictions which freight conductors and brakemen have
to put up with in modern times is the caboose. Have you ever ridden in a
caboose?”
“Hundreds of times!”
“Oh, I forgot,” said Nixon, grinning, “I thought I was addressin’ the
legislature. I was goin’ to paint for them the torture of ridin’ in a
caboose, the impossibility of sleepin’ there; how a few years of it
wrecks a man’s health, and so forth.”
“I see you’re a good hand at fancy pictures,” said the superintendent,
drily.
“A man has to be to hold my job,” said Nixon, with a broad grin. “But,
cuttin’ all that out, the bill compels the railroads to use no caboose
less’n forty feet in length. The berths must be comfortable an’
sanitary, with the sheets changed every trip. There must be all the
toilet conveniences—”
“Why not compel us to hitch a Pullman to every freight train, with
porter and everything complete?” inquired the superintendent.
“Oh, no,” protested Nixon, waving his hand. “We’re reasonable. We don’t
want anything but our rights.”
Mr. Schofield’s face was flushed and he opened his lips for an angry
retort, but thought better of it and closed them again. Then he laughed.
“All right,” he said. “Go ahead. Kill the goose. But were you serious
about that strike?”
“Never more serious in my life.”
“When will it be called?”
“When I give the word,” said Nixon, “not before.”
And he cast at the superintendent a glance full of meaning.
The latter stared at him, then down at his desk, drumming with absent
fingers.
“Well,” he said, at last, looking up, “don’t call it for a couple of
days. I’ll have to ask instructions from headquarters.”
“All right,” agreed Nixon, rising and slipping into his coat. “Let me
see—this is Wednesday. I’ll come in Friday morning at this time for your
answer. How’ll that suit?”
Mr. Schofield nodded curtly, and with a bland wave of the hand to the
others, Nixon went to the door and let himself out.
The superintendent gazed moodily at the closed door for a moment, then
he rose and walked to the window and stared down over the yards.
“Well,” he said at last, turning back to the others, “there are three
courses open.”
“Three?” repeated Mr. Plumfield, in evident surprise.
“Yes, three. In the first place, we can back down and reinstate
Bassett.”
“Yes.”
“In the second place, we can refuse to do it and fight it out.”
“Yes.”
“And in the third place we can avoid either.”
“How?”
“By bribing Nixon.”
“Bribing Nixon?”
“Yes. You heard him say that there wouldn’t be any strike until he
called it?”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t see how he looked at me when he said it. If ever a man
invited a bribe, without putting the invitation in so many words, he
did. A thousand dollars would do it.”
“But you won’t offer it!” cried Allan eagerly. “You won’t do that!”
“No,” said Mr. Schofield, smiling as he looked at the flushed face. “I
won’t do it. I’m going to advise a fight. But the decision doesn’t rest
with me. I’ll have to go to Cincinnati in the morning and take it up
with the general manager.”
“But to give a bribe—” Allan began.
“Sounds bad, doesn’t it? And yet I don’t think the general manager will
waste much time thinking about the moral side of it. That’s not what
he’s there for. He’s there to work for the best interests of the road. A
strike is sure to cost us a good many times a thousand dollars—how many
times nobody can tell till it’s over. Which is best for the road?”
Allan’s head was whirling. After all, there was truth in what Mr.
Schofield said. The only question for the general manager to consider
was just that—what was best for the road.
Mr. Schofield turned from the window and looked at him again.
“I tell you what,” he said, suddenly, “I’d like to have you go along.
Will you?”
“Go along?”
“And hear the other side of it. It’ll do you good, and maybe it’ll do us
good to have you,” he added.
“I’ll be glad to,” answered Allan, his face flushing suddenly, and
hastened back to his desk to get things in shape so that he could be
absent on the morrow.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER VIII
MR. ROUND’S DECISION
AND so it happened that Allan arose next morning about two hours earlier
than usual, in order to catch the five o’clock train for Cincinnati. It
reminded him of the far-off days when he was taking his trick of
track-walking in the early morning. As he came down the stairs, he saw a
yellow band of light under the kitchen door, and he heard somebody
clattering about within. He opened the door to find Mary already busy
with the kitchen stove.
“Why, Allan,” she said, “what’re ye doin’ up so early?”
“I’ve got to go to Cincinnati on Number One,” he answered. “I’ll be back
on Two to-night.”
“Why didn’t ye tell me last night?” she demanded. “I’d ’a’ had your
breakfast ready.”
“I know you would,” Allan answered, looking at the patient, kindly face.
“That’s the reason I didn’t say anything. I’ll get breakfast on the
diner. Good-bye,” and snatching up hat and overcoat, he was off.
He reached the station just as the train was pulling in and found Mr.
Schofield awaiting him. Together they clambered into the Pullman and
took their seats in the smoking compartment.
It was still quite dark, but a faint band of gray over the hills to the
east told that the dawn was not far distant. The train rolled out of the
yards, through the deserted streets, along the embankment by the dark
river, past the twin bridges spanning canal and highway at the city
limits, up the long grade that led to the slate cut, through the cut,
over the bridge spanning the deep ravine beyond, and so on toward
Cincinnati. For some time, neither Allan nor Mr. Schofield spoke, but
sat silently staring out of the window, for every foot of the way had
some association for them. It was that embankment which they had
laboured so hard to save in time of flood, when the mighty current of
the river was slowly seeping over it; it was in that cut that Allan had
encountered Reddy Magraw, half crazed, one wild night; it was from the
bridge beyond that a gang of wreckers had attempted to hurl the pay-car.
How familiar it all was—how near, and yet how far-away, those days
seemed!
Then, as the dawn lightened, a tousle-headed man came in, coat, collar
and shoes in hand, and made a hasty toilet.
“Couldn’t sleep a wink last night,” he said, when he had got his hands
and face washed, his collar on and his tie tied. “This road certainly
has got ’em all beat for curves.”
“It _does_ wind a little as it comes through the mountains,” agreed Mr.
Schofield, smiling.
“Wind!” exclaimed the stranger. “It corkscrews!”
“You see, it has to follow the streams,” explained the superintendent.
“Well, the streams must ’a’ been drunk when they struck out their path,
then. Well, well,” he added, glancing through the window at the
frost-whitened fields, “that’s the first time I’ve seen any frost for
two years.”
“Where’ve you been?” inquired Mr. Schofield.
“Down at Panama. I run an engine on the Isthmus railroad.”
“Do you?” and Mr. Schofield looked at him with interest. “How are things
getting along down there?”
“The dirt is certainly flying some. But it’s an almighty big job we’ve
tackled.”
“Oh, by the way,” Mr. Schofield added, “there used to be a brakeman on
this road named Guy Kirk, who went to Panama about a year and a half
ago. Did you ever hear of him?”
“Hear of him? I guess I did. He’s a conductor, now, freight, and
everybody thinks a whole lot of him. And he gets around mighty lively
considerin’ what he went through.”
“Went through? How do you mean?”
“Well, sir,” said the stranger, getting out a darkly-coloured brier and
filling it from a red-leather pouch, “it was this way. There’s a mighty
mean grade going down into Ancon—mighty mean. It’s steep and it’s got a
sharp curve at the bottom. It’s pretty ticklish getting down sometimes,
especially when the rails are slippery and the road-bed squashy after
one of them heavy tropical rains. One night a heavy freight, on which
Kirk was front brakeman, started down that grade. The engineer threw on
his air, but there wasn’t any, and the first thing he knowed they were
scootin’ down that grade at forty miles an hour. The engineer whistled
five or six times to warn the crew in the caboose and then he and his
fireman jumped.”
“And what did Kirk do?” asked Mr. Schofield, deeply interested.
“Well, sir,” answered the narrator, slowly exhaling a long puff, “Kirk
didn’t jump. Instead o’ that, he hustled out on that train an’ began to
set the hand-brakes. The first eight or ten cars were full of nut coal.
Kirk only got about two brakes set, when the train hit the curve. The
rails spread, o’ course; Kirk hit the ground first an’ the ten cars o’
nut coal piled up on top of him. Nobody ever expected to see him alive
again, but when they dug the coal off, blamed if there he didn’t set in
a kind o’ little hut the cars had made over him as they fell. Only both
his legs was caught below the knee an’ broke so bad that they never did
get quite straight again. But it wasn’t long after that he got his
promotion.”
Other occupants of the sleeper had come in while the story was in
progress, and a few minutes later came the first call to breakfast.
Allan, at least, was ready for it, and he and Mr. Schofield lost no time
in seeking the diner.
Perhaps no other one improvement in railway service has added as much to
the comfort and convenience of the travelling public as has this, which
enables the passengers on any first-class train to eat their meals at
leisure, when they want them, and to procure well-cooked and appetizing
food, temptingly served amid pleasant surroundings. It is not so many
years since the passenger was dependent for his food either on such
supplies as he had brought with him, or upon hasty lunches in dirty
depot dining-rooms, where the cold and unpleasant food was bolted in
fear and trembling lest the train puffing outside pull away. Not that
the proprietors of the dining-rooms themselves were wholly to blame for
this condition, for they never knew how many customers they were going
to have, trains were often late, fifteen or twenty minutes was the
utmost time allowed for a meal by the management of any road, and not
more than half of that was available for actual eating, while to keep
free from soot and smoke and cinders a dining-room in a depot building
was a task beyond human ingenuity.
After the meal, Mr. Schofield led the way to the rear of the diner,
where, from the platform, they could watch the track spinning backwards
from under them.
“Notice the absence of dust,” he said, and, indeed, as the train swept
onward, there was practically no dust behind it. “We’ve accomplished
that by washing the gravel before we use it as ballast, instead of
dumping it in just as it comes from the gravel-pit, as we used to do. It
only costs about half a cent a yard to wash it, and it makes it as clean
as crushed stone.”
“It certainly makes it a lot cleaner back here,” remarked the man in
charge of the dining-car. “We can keep the back door open now. The only
time we have to shut it,” he added, suiting the action to the word, “is
when we pass the stock-yards. Nobody can enjoy a meal with that scent
blowing in upon them.”
The stock-yards consisted of long rows of flimsy frame buildings, lining
either side of the tracks for perhaps half a mile just outside of
Cincinnati. Here the thousands and thousands of steers, hogs, and sheep
shipped in from the west were loaded and unloaded. Narrow runways led
from the pens up to the level of the freight-car doors, and up and down
these, incoming or outgoing stock was constantly ascending or
descending, urged by prods in the hands of the stock-yard men. It was
not a pleasant sight, and our two friends contemplated it silently as
the train sped past.
“Man has a good deal to answer for in this world,” remarked Mr.
Schofield, “and I sometimes think he’ll be called to account pretty
severely for the suffering of those poor steers. They are bred out on
the prairies, you know, are left absolutely shelterless in winter and
freeze or starve to death by thousands. Those that manage to survive,
are crowded into the stock-cars and shipped east. There’s a law
requiring that they be fed and watered every so often, and that they be
taken out of the cars after so long a time. But there’s nobody to
enforce the law, and it’s pretty generally disregarded. It’s always been
a wonder to me that the stock reaches the eastern markets at all.”
“What can be done about it?” asked Allan, soberly.
“The railroads can’t do anything. But the government could compel all
stockmen to furnish adequate shelter and food for their stock in winter,
and the torture of this long-distance shipping could be avoided if the
big slaughter-houses were out in the stock-raising district, so that
only the meat need be shipped. Do you remember,” he added, after a
moment, “in Bellamy’s ‘Looking Backward,’ how incomprehensible and
repulsive the thought of flesh-eating had become? Well, I believe
Bellamy was right. Already there is a rapidly growing feeling against
meat-eating, and the day is not so very far distant when it will be
practically abolished. And a good thing, too.”
The train had run under the great train-shed, as they were talking, and
five minutes later, Mr. Schofield and Allan were shown into the office
of General Manager Round. It was a plainly-furnished, business-like
room, typical of the man who occupied it—a man who had risen from the
ranks and who had endeared himself to every man under him by justice,
kindness and square-dealing.
“How are you, boys?” he said, shaking hands with both of them heartily.
“Glad to see you. Sit down. Now, Ed, what’s this I hear about a strike?”
“Well,” said Mr. Schofield, “it looks a good deal like we were going to
have one.”
“Let’s have the story,” said Mr. Round, settling back in his chair, and
he listened with half-closed eyes while Mr. Schofield told the story of
the trouble with Bassett and the interview with Nixon.
“And you really think there’ll be a strike?” he asked, when Mr.
Schofield had finished.
“Of course Nixon may have been bluffing,” answered the latter slowly,
“but I don’t believe it. I think there’ll be a strike, unless—”
“Unless what?” asked Mr. Round, as the superintendent paused.
“Well, we can reinstate Bassett.”
“No, we can’t,” said Mr. Round. “We can’t reinstate Bassett and preserve
any discipline on this division. So count that out.”
“I agree with you, of course,” said Mr. Schofield. “There’s a second
course open.”
“What is it?”
“We can bribe Nixon.”
“You think he’s bribable?”
“I know he is.”
“And what’s his price?”
“I don’t know that exactly. But I should say about a thousand dollars.
Of course, a general strike would cost us a great deal more than that.”
Mr. Round nodded. Then he happened to glance at Allan West’s burning
face.
“What do you think about it, Allan?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t bribe a man if it kept the road from being tied up for a
year,” answered Allan, impetuously. “Besides, you’re not really helping
matters—the thing will have to be fought out sooner or later. Let’s
fight it out now. We’ll get out trains through in spite of them. We’ll
have the law back of us.”
“The law isn’t much of a protection,” remarked Mr. Round. “It doesn’t so
much prevent crime, as punish it. And it isn’t much of a compensation to
a railroad, after it has had two or three hundred thousand dollars’
worth of property destroyed, to have the fellows who did it sent to
jail. Besides, what’s the use of being so horror-stricken at the idea of
bribery? We’re always giving or taking bribes. When you tipped the
waiter in the diner this morning, you bribed him to give you better
service than he gave the other people he was serving.”
“I didn’t tip him,” said Allan, smiling, “and that was just the reason.
I agree with you that tipping is petty bribery, and diminishes the
self-respect of both the giver and receiver.”
“You’ve hit it,” approved Mr. Round. “To give a bribe diminishes one’s
self-respect. But has a corporation like a railroad any self-respect?”
“It ought to have.”
“Most people seem to think it hasn’t even common honesty, because it has
had to fight with such weapons as came to hand. Good Lord! does anybody
suppose the railroads _wanted_ to give passes and contribute to campaign
funds, and maintain a lobby, and pay bribes? But they couldn’t get what
they wanted any other way!”
Allan smiled.
“Sometimes they wanted things they hadn’t any business with,” he said,
“and they’re suffering for it now. But I guess they’ll pull through. The
public will see after a while that they’re not so black as they’re
painted. And right here’s a chance to keep this one clean.”
Again Mr. Round nodded. Then he wheeled his chair around and for some
moments sat staring thoughtfully out of the window. Then he wheeled
sharply back.
“Schofield,” he said, “you tell Nixon to go ahead and call a strike, if
he wants to.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER IX
A BUBBLE BURSTS
ALLAN was on his feet, his eyes shining.
“That’s great!” he said. “That’s great.”
Mr. Round motioned him to sit down again.
“It isn’t altogether on high moral grounds I’m deciding this way,” he
said. “It’s because I don’t think a strike, starting from such a fool
cause, will hurt us. I think it will help us. We need public sympathy
and public confidence. The public has been weaned away from us by a lot
of muck-rakers. Here’s a chance to get it back. And now, Ed,” he added,
“you’ve got to make a grand-stand play.”
“All right,” agreed Mr. Schofield. “What is it?”
“You’ve got to bribe Nixon.”
“Bribe Nixon?”
“And show him up.”
A light broke over Mr. Schofield’s face.
“Oh!” he said. “I see.”
“You and I will talk it over,” said Mr. Round. “But it’s lunch time,” he
added, looking at his watch. “Of course you’re coming with me.”
So the three went out to lunch together, and for a time forgot the cares
of railroading. Only once was the road referred to.
“I’ve got to see Mr. Heywood before I go back,” Mr. Schofield remarked.
“There’s one or two little matters I want to take up with him.”
Mr. Round’s face darkened.
“You won’t see him to-day,” he said.
“Why not?” questioned Mr. Schofield.
“The fact of the matter is,” said Mr. Round, after a moment’s
hesitation, “Heywood hasn’t been at his office for three days.”
“Hum!” said Mr. Schofield, his face darkening too. “Has it got that bad?
I’d heard stories, of course, but I’d hoped they were exaggerated.”
“He’s been getting worse and worse, and I don’t believe he’ll hold his
job much longer. He may be let down easy, because he’s been a good
man—and he’d be a good man yet if he could let drink alone. But it’s
getting more and more hold on him all the time. He knows it and is
ashamed of it, but he don’t seem to have strength enough to break away
from it. It’s too bad.”
“Yes, it is,” agreed Mr. Schofield. “What I hate about it most is the
humiliation his daughter must suffer. I don’t know whether you knew her
or not—Betty Heywood—but she was a mighty nice girl.”
“No, I didn’t know her,” said Mr. Round. “But she seems to have saved
herself. I heard the other day that she was going to get married.”
Allan’s heart bounded suddenly, and his face reddened, but neither of
his companions noticed his agitation.
“That’s a good thing,” said Mr. Schofield. “Who’s the man?”
“I don’t remember his name,” answered Mr. Round. “I heard some of the
boys talking about it the other day—of course there may be nothing in
it.”
“Well, I hope it’s so,” remarked the other. “It would solve a mighty
unpleasant situation. Now, I’m going to turn you loose for the
afternoon, Allan,” he added. “Meet me in time to catch Number Two and
we’ll have dinner together on the diner.”
“Very well, sir,” said Allan, welcoming the opportunity to be alone with
his thoughts. “I’ll be there.”
He walked slowly up the street, seeing nothing of the busy life about
him, turning over and over in his mind the bit of gossip which Mr. Round
had repeated. Could it be true, he wondered. Suppose it were, what would
it mean to him? It had been years since he had seen Betty Heywood; it
was very probable that the girl whose image lived in his heart was very
different from the reality. At any rate, it was absurd to suppose that
she would have anything more than the faintest of remembrances of the
boy she had befriended in years gone by.
Shaking such thoughts away, at last, he considered for a moment where he
should spend the afternoon. He decided in favour of the Art Museum, and
boarding a car, started on the long, beautiful ride to Eden Park. The
route carried him up one of the long inclines, which are a unique
feature of Cincinnati’s street railway system. The city proper is built
in the valley along the river, and is surrounded by hills two or three
hundred feet in height, where the most exclusive residence sections are.
These are reached by inclines, where the cars are hoisted and lowered by
means of massive wire cables.
As the car rose slowly up the incline, Cincinnati lay spread below him,
a charming city, marred only by the haze of coal smoke which a
too-indulgent city government made little effort to suppress. Half an
hour later, he was at his destination and entered the museum, whose
collection of paintings, statuary and other works of art is one of the
most famous in the middle west. He spent a most enjoyable hour wandering
from room to room, and was about ready to go, when, in one of the far
galleries, he noticed a woman at work before an easel, and, strolling
nearer, saw that she was making a copy of one of the larger paintings.
He was about to turn away, fearing that he was intruding, when she
glanced up and saw him.
“Why, Allan West,” she cried, and started up, hand outstretched, and he
saw that it was Betty
Heywood. “It _is_ Allan West, isn’t it?” she asked, as he stood for an
instant chained to the spot.
“It certainly is,” he answered, clasping the welcoming hand. “But I
didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Nor I to see you,” she broke in. “What has a train dispatcher to do
with picture galleries?”
“Mighty little, I’m sorry to say. I didn’t know you were an artist!”
“I’m not,” she said, laughing merrily. “I’m only a copyist. What do you
think of it?” she added, with a gesture toward the picture on the easel.
Allan gazed at it with unfeigned admiration, though to a more critical
eye, its shortcomings would have been evident enough.
“It’s fine,” he said. “It’s splendid! Where did you learn how?”
Again she laughed, though her cheeks flushed a little at his praise.
“I’ve been working at it for a long time,” she said. “But don’t deceive
yourself—it isn’t a work of art—it’s merely a pot-boiler.”
“A what?”
“A pot-boiler—designed, in other words, not for fame, but to furnish
food and raiment. But, come,” she added, “I’ve worked enough for one day
and I need some fresh air. Will you come along?”
“I certainly will!” he said, his face lighting, and he watched her while
she stowed her paints away in a box, giving them, together with the
easel and the unfinished painting, into the care of one of the
attendants.
“Now wait till I get my hat and coat,” she said, “and off we go.”
She was back in a few moments, her piquant face set off by a most
becoming toque, and her painting apron replaced by a long wrap.
“All right,” she said, and a moment later they were walking down the
steps together.
Not till then did he have an opportunity to look at her, and he was
struck with a sudden sense of strangeness. This was not the Betty
Heywood he had known, but a woman brighter, more dashing, more
self-assured. He was surprised, in a way, to find that there was no
shadow of her father’s failure on her. He had expected to find her
labouring with that sorrow, or at least showing visible traces of it,
and he wondered how she had escaped so completely.
She glanced at him once or twice, as they turned together along one of
the paths of the park, and opened her lips to speak, but closed them
again, as though hesitating how to begin.
“You’re still at Wadsworth?” she asked, at last.
“Oh, yes.”
“In the dispatchers’ office?”
“Chief dispatcher now,” he said.
“Are you?” she said. “Isn’t that fine! But I knew you’d work your way
right up. Do you know, you’ve developed into just the sort of man that
you were a boy.”
“Doesn’t everybody?”
“Oh, no indeed. Very few people do. Most of us grow crooked—there’s
always something in the path that throws us out of line. Sometimes it
throws us up and sometimes it throws us down, but you’ve grown right
straight ahead. Now I can tell by the way you look at me that I’m not at
all the kind of woman you expected I would be.”
He was a little disconcerted at this frankness.
“No,” he said, at last, “you’re right there. I can’t quite make you
out.”
“I’ve had obstacles, you see,” she said, her face clouding for an
instant. “I’ve grown crooked.”
“I heard of your mother’s death,” he said, gently. “I shall never forget
her, though I met her only once.”
“Yes—dear mother. She thought a great deal of you. So did father.”
“Your father was very kind to me,” he said.
She looked quickly into his face.
“Things have not been well with us,” she said, with a little catch in
her voice. “I had to go to work. I found I had some little artistic
talent, and I turned it to account. And I’ve made a lot of good friends
here.”
She looked at him again.
“You’ve heard that I’m going to be married?” she asked, suddenly.
“Yes,” he answered, as evenly as he could. “Mr. Round said something
about it to-day.”
“It’s going to be next month. His name’s Knowlton—Robert Underwood
Knowlton—he’s a lawyer, and the dearest fellow that ever was. I wish you
could meet him. I know you’d like him,” she went on, rapidly. Then she
stopped suddenly and looked at him.
“See here, Allan,” she said, her hand on his arm. “Don’t look like that.
It’s not I you’re in love with—you’re not in love with anybody. You
never have been with me. You happened to meet me when you were lonely,
and you gave me a little niche in your heart. But you don’t love
me—that’s not what love is. I’m not at all the kind of woman you
imagined—you’ve seen that already. Now you mustn’t be foolish—shake
hands, like a brother.”
He looked down into her face, and suddenly it seemed as though a veil
were swept away, and he saw that she was right. It wasn’t love he felt
for her—it was only affection. Her eyes, watching him anxiously,
brightened as she saw the change in his face.
“You’re the dearest girl that ever was,” he said, clasping her hand,
“and the bravest. I’m not sure that I’m not falling in love with you
now.”
“No, you’re not!” she cried, patting him on the arm. “I knew I was
right!” she added, her face beaming. “You’ve made me so happy—for I
couldn’t help worrying a little, sometimes. Will you come to the
wedding, if I ask you?”
“Ask me and see,” he retorted, laughing.
“Miss Elizabeth Heywood requests the favour of Mr. Allan West’s
attendance at her wedding, February 16th, at two o’clock P. M. R. S. V.
P.”
“Mr. Allan West acknowledges the receipt of Miss Heywood’s kind
invitation and accepts with pleasure.”
“Good!” she cried, clapping her hands. “Then you’ll meet Bob and you’ll
see what a lucky girl I am.”
“I think I’ll be more apt to see what a lucky fellow he is.”
“Well, we’re both lucky, and we’re going to be very, very happy.”
“I hope you will,” he said, heartily.
“Thank you, Allan; I know you do. And now here comes my car. Stop it for
me. Good-bye,” she added, as the car came to a stop opposite them. “And
I can’t tell you how glad I am I met you this afternoon. Good-bye!”
She waved her hand to him from the platform, and was gone.
He stood for a moment, watching the car, then turned slowly back toward
the museum. He, also, was glad that he had met Betty Heywood—glad that
she had been brave enough and clear-sighted enough to set him right with
her and with the world.
And yet he realized dimly that there was suddenly a place vacant in his
heart.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER X
IN THE SWITCH TOWER
WITHOUT pausing at the museum, Allan boarded a car back to the city.
After all, he reflected, Betty Heywood was right—train-dispatching had
little to do with art and artists. He realized that he had looked at the
paintings and the statuary from the outside, as it were; he had been
interested in them, it is true, as he would have been interested in a
play or a novel. They had entertained him, they had helped him to pass a
pleasant hour, and that was all. He did not feel that they were vital to
him—vital in the sense that a thorough knowledge of railroading was.
In a word, he was narrowing into a specialist, as every man who really
accomplishes anything in the world must do. His work had become the only
really necessary and vital thing to him. He had found his groove, and
while he still possessed the power to climb out of his groove
occasionally and to look about the world and find amusement in it, it
was in his groove that he felt most at home, that he was strongest and
most efficient and most contented.
For his efficiency—the knowledge that he was really doing something in
the world—rejoiced him and moved him to stronger effort.
So his feet naturally led him back to the great depot which formed the
Union terminal for all the lines of railroad entering Cincinnati. It was
a place which might well be interesting to any one, so crowded was it
with life and well-directed skill. To any one looking at it
understandingly it was more than interesting. It was engrossing. Nowhere
else did the life-blood of traffic pulse quite so strongly; nowhere else
was there quite such an opportunity to study human nature; and nowhere
else was perfection of organization in railroading so necessary and so
evident.
It was this latter point which interested Allan most of all, and so,
with merely a fleeting glance at the crowds hurrying past him, he bent
his steps along one of the narrow cement platforms which ran out under
the train-shed like long, gray fingers. In the midst of the tangle of
tracks just beyond the train-shed, stood a tall, box-like structure, its
upper story entirely enclosed in glass. Dodging an outgoing train, Allan
hastened toward this queer tower, climbed the narrow stair which led to
its upper story, opened the door and looked in.
“Hello, Jim,” he said, to a man in shirt-sleeves who stood looking down
upon the busy yards. “May I come in?”
The man turned quickly and held out his hand.
“Sure, Mr. West,” he said. “Come in and sit down,” and he motioned
toward a chair.
Just then a bell overhead rang sharply.
“That’s the Pennsylvania limited,” he said. “Give her track number
twelve, Sam.”
There were two other shirt-sleeved men in the little room, standing
before a long board from which projected what appeared to be a series of
little handles like those one sees on water-cocks. At the words, one of
the men turned one of these little handles.
Again the bell rang.
“Number seventeen for the accommodation,” said the man Allan had
addressed as Jim, and another little handle was turned, while still a
third, which had been turned, sprang back to its original position.
“There goes that school-teachers’ special from eleven,” added Jim. “Fix
her, Nick,” and the third man turned a handle at his end of the board.
Allan, meanwhile, had taken a seat, and gazed down over the network of
tracks. Trains were arriving and departing almost every minute. Busy
little yard-engines were hustling strings of coaches about, pulling them
out from under the great train-shed or backing them up into it. Down the
long cement walks beneath the shed, arriving and departing passengers
were hurrying to and fro; trucks piled high with luggage or groaning
under a load of mail-sacks or express matter were being propelled back
and forth with almost superhuman skill; engineers were “oiling round,”
blue-coated conductors were reading their orders, hostlers with flaring
torches were taking a last look at wheels and connections—in a word, the
busy life of a great terminal was at full blast.
And above it all, controlling it, as it were, by a movement of a finger,
stood Jim—James Anderson Davis, if you care for his full name—gazing
down upon it nonchalantly, and giving a terse order now and then. For
Jim is the chief towerman, than whom, in his sphere, no autocrat is more
autocratic and no czar more absolute.
* * * * *
It is a fearful and wonderful thing, this controlling the trains that
arrive at and depart from a great terminal—almost too fearful and
wonderful to be put upon paper. But at least we will make the effort.
Most modern terminals resemble each other in general plan. Railroads
have found it not only convenient for the public but economical for
themselves to build “union stations” in the larger cities, wherever
possible. That is, a suitable site is selected, as near the business
centre of the city as it is possible to get, and the roads join together
in providing the money necessary to purchase it and erect the station
building, the cost being pro-rated in proportion to the amount of
traffic which each road gets from the station.
[Illustration: “CONTROLLING IT, AS IT WERE, BY A MOVEMENT OF FINGER,
STOOD JIM.”]
The side fronting upon the street is usually handsomely embellished, for
it is this side which the public sees as it approaches, and all
railroads know that to make a good impression is to do good advertising.
So with the main waiting-room, which always lies directly behind the
street doors. Here marble, mosaic and gilding are always in evidence and
no opportunity is lost to impress the travelling public with the wealth
and magnificence of the road which it is using. On either side of the
main waiting-room are smaller waiting- and retiring-rooms, there is a
row of ticket-booths, a news-stand, telephone booths, baggage-rooms, a
dining- and lunch-room and, of course, inevitably, the long rows of
seats, back to back, where the waiting public spends so many weary
minutes.
In the stories overhead are the executive offices of the various
roads—as many of them as there is room for—but to these the general
public seldom penetrates.
Beyond the swinging doors along the side of the waiting-room opposite
the entrance is the main platform or concourse, and from it, stretching
down between the tracks like long fingers, are the narrow cement
platforms upon which the passengers alight or from which they mount to
their trains. The tracks are laid in pairs, and a platform extends
between every pair, each platform thus serving two tracks, one on either
side. Overhead is the great echoing vault of the train-shed with its
mighty ribs of steel, stretching in one enormous arc across the tracks
beneath—a marvel of engineering skill, if not of architectural beauty.
This is what is known as the head-house plan, and is the ideal one for
the passenger, since it permits him to go to and from his train without
crossing any tracks or climbing to any overhead bridges. It is, however,
expensive for the railroads since, of course, all through trains must be
backed out and switched around until they are headed on their way
again—a process which requires no little expenditure of time and energy,
as well as money. However, in a great city, a right of way which would
enable the through trains to continue straight onward toward their
destination is frequently so expensive that it is cheaper to back them
out the way they came in, and send them by a detour around the city.
And upon no one is this backing-out process more wearing than on the
towerman, for the trains must be handled twice over the same track, and
of course the track must be kept clear until the train is out again and
safely on its way. Now there is never any surplusage of tracks in a
terminal. Indeed, as one sees the tracks narrow and narrow as the
terminal is approached, until they are merged into those which plunge
beneath the train-shed, one is apt to think they are all too few. Yet
their number has been calculated with the greatest care; there is not
one more than is needed by the nicest economy of operation—nor one less.
The number is just right for the station’s needs—so long as the towerman
knows his business and keeps his head.
And now to return to the glass-enclosed perch where, for eight hours of
every day, Jim Davis and his two assistants send the trains in and out
over the network of tracks. That long row of little handles is the last
word in switch-control. Time was—and is, in all but the most important
stations—when the towerman opened or closed the yard-switches by means
of great levers. To throw one of these levers was no small athletic
feat, especially if the switch it controlled was at some distance, and
to keep at it eight hours at a time reduced the strongest man to mental
and physical exhaustion. When the towerman left his work at the end of
his trick, he was, in the expressive parlance of the day, “all in.” Now
when men are “all in,” they are very apt to make mistakes, hence in a
busy terminal under the old system, accidents more or less serious were
of almost every-day occurrence. Besides which, the number of levers
which one man was physically able to operate was comparatively small, so
that there must be many men and a consequent divided responsibility and
opportunity for confusion.
The tower itself had been an evolution, for, at first, these
yard-switches had been controlled by a brigade of switchmen, each of
whom had two or three under his supervision, which he turned by hand
whenever he saw a train coming his way. Then the hand switchmen were
supplanted by a cluster of levers in a tower, operated by a single man.
The tower was so located that its occupant had a general view of the
yards, and the levers were connected by steel rods with the switches and
signals which protected them. For every switch must have its signal—that
is, a device by which the engineer of the approaching train may see
whether the switch is properly set—the old standards showing yellow when
the switch was open and red when it was closed—and since replaced by
arms, or semaphores, which hang down when the train may pass and bar the
way when it must stop.
This grouping of the levers in the tower simplified the control of the
yard and placed the responsibility upon a more intelligent and more
highly paid man than the average switchman, and consequently broadened
the margin of safety. But terminals grew and yards grew and switches
increased in number, until even this system was unable to meet the
demands made upon it.
It was at a time when this state of affairs seemed seriously to threaten
the safety of operation of great terminals that some genius invented the
pneumatic control. Instead of a row of great levers requiring the
strongest muscles, the towerman found himself confronting a battery of
tiny ones, operated by the touch of a finger. And that finger-touch
against the slender lever is instantly magnified to the pull of a giant
arm against a switch half a mile or more away.
How? By a bewildering intricacy of cogs and valves, by the aid of the
electric current and of compressed air, for, in order to perfect this
mechanism, man has harnessed the whirlwind and the lightning. That
finger-touch brings instantly an electric touch; the electric touch
raises a valve which releases the compressed air from a cylinder into
which it has been pumped; and the air thus withdrawn from the cylinder
in the tower basement is also in the same instant withdrawn from a
cylinder opposite the switch-point, by means of a slender pipe which
connects the two; and a plunger in the cylinder at the switch moves the
switch-point and the signals which protect it.
That seems enough for any mere machine to do—but it does much more. For,
by a series of interlocking devices, the switches are so controlled by
each other that no signal for a train to proceed can be given until all
the other switches over which the train will pass have been properly set
and locked, nor can any switch be moved as long as any signal is
displayed which gives right of way over it. Thus was the margin of
safety further broadened, and the control of a great terminal brought
down to three men on each eight hour trick, representing the very cream
of their profession.
Approaching trains announce their coming by ringing an electric gong,
the chief towerman, of course, knowing just which train is due at that
particular instant—knowing, too, if any train is late, and how late and
with what other trains it conflicts. He must know the precise second of
departure of each train from the shed, and every train must glide
smoothly in and out without let or hindrance. He must _know_; he mustn’t
merely think he knows, for this is one of the positions in which a man
never has a chance to make two mistakes. For, while the tower machinery
is wonderfully adapted to its purpose, it is, after all, the mind of the
chief towerman which controls and directs it.
* * * * *
It was not by any means the first time that Allan West had sat watching
this fascinating scene, but it had never grown uninteresting and he had
never ceased to wonder at it.
“I used to think train-dispatching was a pretty nerve-racking business,”
he remarked, after a while, “but it’s child’s play compared with this.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said Jim, his eyes on a through train threading
its way cautiously out of the terminal and over the network of switches.
“We don’t have to worry about big accidents up here—the interlocking
takes care of that. We can’t have a head-end collision, for instance—at
least, not while the signals are working properly. What we’ve got to
look out for is tangles. If we have to hold one train two or three
minutes, that means that two or three other trains will be held up, and
before you know it, you’ve got a block ten miles long. Then’s when
somebody up here has to do some tall thinking and do it quick. The only
way to keep things straight is to keep ’em moving. Sixteen,” he added to
his assistants, as the overhead bell rang.
They watched the train as it rolled in, saw it disgorge its load of
passengers, saw the baggage and express and mail matter hustled off, saw
the yard-engine back up and couple on to the rear coach, and slowly drag
the train out from under the train-shed.
“I never watch that done,” added Jim, as the train disappeared down the
yards, “but what my heart gets right up in my throat. You don’t know
what a way those pesky little yard-engines have of jumping switches.
Open sixteen, Sam,” he added, as the big engine which had brought the
train in rolled sedately down the yards on the way to the round-house,
to be washed out and raked down and coaled up. “Ring off thirteen,
Nick,” he said, and Nick touches one of the little handles, a blade on a
signal bridge opposite the end of the train-shed drops, there is a sharp
puff, puff, of a locomotive, and another train starts slowly from the
train-shed on its journey east or west, north or south, as the case may
be.
Meanwhile, the little switch-engine has set its train of coaches in upon
one of the innumerable sidings away down the yards where passenger cars
are stored—and one would scarcely believe how many miles of such storage
track every great terminal requires—has uncoupled and started back
toward the train-shed for another load—her movements, by the way, as
well-known to and thoroughly understood by the chief towerman as are
those of the most glittering through train. Already the train of coaches
is in the hands of the cleaners and stockers, for it will start out
again presently upon another trip. Modern passenger cars represent too
much money to be allowed to repose on a siding a minute longer than
necessary.
The cleaners swarm into the coaches, dusty and dirty and foul after the
long journey, dragging behind them long lines of hose. The hose carries
compressed air, and in half an hour those cars are sucked clean of dirt
and are as fresh and sweet as when they first came from the shops. Other
cleaners are washing the windows and polishing the metal fittings.
Trucks pull up loaded with ice, with clean linen, and the stockers see
that every car is supplied. Farther along is the diner, and to it come
the butcher’s cart, the baker’s cart, the grocer’s cart; dozens and
dozens of napkins and table-cloths are taken aboard, and already the
chef is making out the menu for the dinner which will be served in an
hour or two somewhere out on the road. It is all wonderful—fearful and
wonderful, when one stops to think of it—impossible to set on paper
except in broad suggestive splashes, as an impressionist paints a
sunset.
* * * * *
“Are you going back on Two?” asked Jim.
“Yes,” said Allan, glancing at the tower clock.
“Well, there she comes,” said Jim, and motioned toward a cut of coaches
being backed into the train-shed by one of the ever-present
switch-engines.
“All right,” said Allan. “I’ll go down and hunt up Mr. Schofield. He’s
going back with me. This is a great place, Jim.”
“Come again,” said Jim heartily. “You’re always welcome. He’s a fine
young fellow,” he continued, as Allan went down the stairs. “He’ll have
his office up yonder one of these days,” and he motioned toward the
towering stories of the terminal building. “Number eight, Sam,” he
added, as the bell rang. “There comes the St. Louis express.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XI
ALLAN’S EYES ARE OPENED
THE return trip to Wadsworth was accomplished without incident, and,
bidding Mr. Schofield good-bye, Allan ran up to his office to assure
himself that everything was all right, and then, after writing a
necessary order or two, turned his steps homeward. The night was still
and clear and it seemed to him that his steps rang on the pavement more
loudly than usual. Certainly, as they turned in at the gate, they must
have been heard within the Welsh home, for a moment later, the front
door was opened and Mamie stood there, light in hand, to welcome him.
Allan looked at her smiling down at him, with a strange little stirring
of the heart. She had grown up almost without his noticing it; he had
been so absorbed in his work that he had not seen the change from
girlhood into young maidenhood. He knew, of course, that she had
progressed through the graded schools and at last, triumphantly, through
the High school; he knew, when he stopped to think of it, that she would
soon be seventeen; but she had continued, to all intents and purposes,
the child he had snatched from death in the first days of their meeting.
Now, somehow, all that was changed, and he gazed up into her face,
seeing clearly, for the first time, what a winsome face it was.
“So you’re back!” she cried, standing aside that he might enter. “But I
heard Number Two whistle in half an hour ago.”
“Yes,” said Allan. “I had a little work to do before I could come home.
Do you know, Mamie,” he added, pausing beside her in the little hall,
and looking down at her, “I’d never noticed before what a pretty young
woman you’ve been growing into.”
The colour in Mamie’s cheeks deepened a little, but the blue eyes lifted
to his did not waver, nor was there a trace of self-consciousness in her
laugh.
“Look at these freckles,” she cried, her finger on them.
“Beauty spots!”
“And this pug nose.”
“A love of a nose!”
“And this big mouth.”
“I should like to kiss it,” he said, and then stopped with a sudden
burning consciousness that the words should not have been uttered.
“Forgive me, Mamie,” he said, quickly. “I didn’t mean that—or, rather, I
did mean it, but I shouldn’t have said it.”
“Why shouldn’t you have said it?” she inquired, seriously, looking up at
him with a little pucker of perplexity in her forehead. “Why shouldn’t
you kiss me, if you like?”
He trembled a little before this trusting innocence, and searched around
in his mind somewhat miserably for a reply.
“I don’t quite know,” he answered, at last. “I’ll think it over. But
you’ll freeze to death here, with no wrap on,” and without looking at
her, he led the way into the sitting room beyond.
Mamie followed him, and, placing the lamp upon a table, sat down
thoughtfully before the fire.
“So you’re back, Allan?” said Jack, laying aside the local evening
paper, which he had been reading aloud to Mary.
“And hungry, too,” added Mary, hastily rolling her knitting into a ball.
“I’ll have ye a snack in a minute, Allan.”
“No you won’t,” retorted Allan, placing his hands on her shoulders and
holding her in her chair as she started to rise. “I had dinner in the
diner with Mr. Schofield, and really ate more than I should. I’m not the
least hungry.”
And feeling Mary subside under his hands, he released her and sat down.
“What’s the news?” he added, turning to Jack.
“Oh, nothin’ much,” replied the latter. “I’ve heard a good deal of talk
to-day about that court decision on the employers’ liability act. One
section-man dropped a heavy tie on another section-man—an’ the feller
that was hurt sued the railroad under the law. Now the court holds that
the law don’t apply, and some of the boys are sayin’ that nothin’ that
helps the labourin’ man ever does apply when it gits up to the supreme
court.”
“Yes—I’ve heard of the case,” said Allan. “But look here, Jack—do you
think the road ought to be made to pay, because one of its men injures
another through carelessness? It wasn’t the road injured him. Suppose
you hired two men to build a chimney and one of them let a brick fall on
the other and killed him. Would you think you were to blame, or that you
ought to pay damages?”
“No,” said Jack. “Sure not. But somehow a case against a corporation
looks different to most people.”
“I know it does,” agreed Allan. “And there are a lot of people who
wouldn’t steal from an individual who don’t hesitate to steal from a
corporation. It’s a queer state of public morals. But who was doing the
talking?”
“Well,” said Jack, “most of it was done by a big fellow with a black
moustache named Nixon. Somebody said he’d come on to make the road take
Rafe Bassett back.”
The disgust in his voice told how unfavourably he considered such a
proposition.
“Well, don’t you be afraid,” said Allan, “the road won’t take him back.”
“I’m glad to hear it. I know Rafe Bassett—he’s low down trash—he’s
always got a hammer out fer somebody. I never did understand how he got
the pull he’s got with his lodge.”
“Well, he’ll need a pull before he gets through this,” said Allan, “but
let’s talk about something else, Jack. Oh,” he added, suddenly, “who do
you think I saw in Cincinnati to-day? I had the afternoon to myself and
I went out to the Art Museum—and there, painting a picture, sat Betty
Heywood.”
A sudden wave of colour flooded Mamie’s face, but no one saw it.
“Paintin’ a picture?” repeated Mrs. Welsh. “Is she a painter?”
“Yes, and a mighty good one, so far as I was able to judge, though she
laughed at me and said she wasn’t. She seemed glad to see me and we took
a little walk together.”
He paused a moment, for there was an unaccountable difficulty, somehow,
in telling what he had to tell. Mamie’s eyes were on his face, and she
was deadly pale.
“She told me about her work,” he went on. “She said she’d had to do
something for a living, and had done well with her paintings. I should
think she would.”
“Had to do something for a livin’?” echoed Mrs. Welsh. “Where’s her
father?”
“He’s going down grade,” answered Allan, soberly, and told what he had
heard of Mr. Heywood’s dissipation.
“I’m mighty sorry t’ hear that,” remarked Jack, when Allan had finished.
“Mr. Heywood was a good man an’ a square man. I’ve seen better
superintendents—we’ve got a better one now—but, all the same, I liked
Mr. Heywood.”
“So did I,” said Allan. “I wish something could be done.”
Jack shook his head.
“When drink gits its grip on a man as old as him,” he said, “they ain’t
much hope.”
“Thank goodness his wife’s dead,” added Mrs. Welsh. “It’s the wife that
it’s allers the hardest on.”
“It’s hard enough on the daughter,” broke in Mamie, softly.
“Well, she won’t have to stand it much longer,” said Allan, seizing the
opening Mamie’s remark gave him. “She’s going to be married next month.”
Mamie gave a quick gasp, which she tried to change into a cough, and
bent again toward the fire, hiding her throbbing face in her hands.
Mary was staring at Allan, as though scarcely able to believe her ears.
“Married?” she repeated. “Who to? Allan, do you mean—”
“She’s going to marry a young lawyer named Knowlton,” broke in Allan,
evenly. “It’s to be on the sixteenth, and she asked me to come.”
Mary bent again to her knitting, with a sort of hiss that sounded
suspiciously like “the hussy.”
“She seems to be very happy over it,” Allan went on, anxious that these
dear friends should understand, and yet fearing to say too much. “She’s
a splendid girl, and beautiful as ever; but she’s changed, too. She’s
not the same girl I used to know.” Mamie was looking at him now, with
intense eyes. So was Mrs. Welsh. “She saw it in my face, somehow, and we
laughed over it.”
“Well,” said Jack, heavily, “I used t’ think you was kind o’ sweet on
her yerself, Allan.”
“I thought so, too,” answered Allan, smiling. “But I guess it was just
girls in general—you know she was about the only one I ever met. I’m
mighty glad she’s going to be happy. I’m going to the wedding. Why,
where’s Mamie?” he added, looking around at the sound of a softly closed
door. “She not going to bed already?”
“Already!” echoed Mrs. Welsh. “Do you know it’s after eleven o’clock?
Time everyone of us was a-bed. Come, now, off wid ye!”
Allan laughed and arose, stretching himself lazily.
“I hadn’t any idea it was so late,” he said. “Good-night,” and he
mounted to his room.
He went immediately to bed—but not to sleep. The events of the day had
been many and interesting. He closed his eyes, and called up again the
minutes he had passed with Betty Heywood—he heard her voice, he saw her
face—but somehow another face kept slipping in between—a face with a
freckled, tip-tilted nose, and tender, sympathetic mouth. Something
within him seemed to warm and gladden, and he dropped off to sleep, at
last, with a smile upon his lips.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XII
THE INTERVIEW WITH NIXON
SUPERINTENDENT SCHOFIELD was at his desk bright and early next morning,
for the purpose of getting out of the way the thirty-six hours’
accumulation of routine business, before the approaching momentous
interview with Nixon. Only one familiar with the executive offices of a
railroad has any idea of the immense amount of correspondence,—reports,
complaints, requests for information and instructions—which that stretch
of time can accumulate, but the superintendent waded into the pile of
letters and telegrams with a rapidity born of long practice, and when he
finally leaned back in his chair, with a sigh of relief, it wanted still
some minutes of nine o’clock.
“That’s all, Joe,” he said, to the stenographer, and that young man
gathered up the letters, closed his note-book, and left the room.
Mr. Schofield swung around in his chair and stared down over the yards,
his forehead wrinkled thoughtfully.
He and Mr. Round had, the afternoon before, gone over carefully every
detail of the approaching interview, and yet it was very possible that
some trivial incident might spoil it all. Most unpleasant of all loomed
the possibility that he had been mistaken in his estimate of Nixon.
Perhaps the man would not take a bribe—perhaps he was honest. Should
that prove to be the case, any such attempt as Mr. Schofield was about
to undertake could not but result most unpleasantly to himself and to
the railroad. He could already see the newspaper headlines which would
announce it—for the press of the country had, as a rule, followed the
crowd and joined in the yelp at the heels of the “conscienceless
corporations.”
ATTEMPT TO BRIBE!
--------------
Schofield, of the P. & O., Gives Convincing
Evidence of Corporation Methods
--------------
Offers Special Delegate Nixon a Thousand
Dollars to Betray His
Trust
--------------
Believes All Men May be Bought, but
Is Shown that Labour Is Unpurchasable—
Grand Jury to
Investigate
He realized that he must feel his way with the utmost caution, and yet
as he recalled Nixon’s words, and the significant glance which
accompanied them, he could not believe that he had been mistaken. But
the man was adroit and suspicious—a single false movement and he would
be on his guard.
A tap at the door interrupted his thoughts.
“Come in,” he called, and an instant later, the door opened and Nixon
entered the room.
“On time, I see,” said Mr. Schofield, pleasantly, and motioned his
visitor to a chair.
“Yes,” said Nixon, taking off his luxurious overcoat and sitting down,
“I make it a point to be on time for little conferences like this. The
boys were inclined to get mad,” he went on, “because I gave you two days
to make up your mind. But I told them there wasn’t nothing to gain by
hurryin’ a thing like this. I told them I wanted to give you a fair
show. That’s me. I allers give everybody a fair show.”
Nixon was, at bottom, coarse and uneducated, and this coarseness and
ignorance would crop up in his talk at times, in spite of his efforts to
suppress them. Since his promotion to a high place in the brotherhood,
he had studied incessantly how best to make himself a “gentleman.”
Unfortunately, his conception of the meaning of that word was modelled
upon the demeanour of barbers, bar-tenders and hotel-clerks. He believed
a diamond scarf-pin and a seal-ring to be indispensable portions of a
gentleman’s attire, together with a shirt striped in loud colours,
glazed shoes, a fancy waistcoat, and a trace of perfume. He also
believed that a gentleman invariably wore his hat cocked over one eye,
to prove himself a knowing fellow and man of the world. He had laboured
with the utmost diligence to form himself upon this model and was
entirely satisfied with the result. That he was not a gentleman, and
that anyone who met him would not so consider him, never for an instant
entered his mind.
“Yes,” he repeated, “I insisted that you be given a fair show, and
finally they saw that I was right. I don’t believe in no snap judgments.
I heard that you was down to Cinci yesterday and saw Round.”
It may be added that another point in Nixon’s conception of gentlemanly
conduct was that he should call men in exalted positions by their last
names to show his sense of equality, or by their first names to prove
his easy familiarity with them.
“Yes,” said Mr. Schofield, “Mr. Round and I had a conference about the
matter.”
“Well,” demanded Nixon, gazing at him from under lowered lids, “what’s
the answer?”
“We won’t reinstate Bassett,” answered Mr. Schofield, quietly.
“Then, by God, it’s fight!” cried Nixon, his face turning purple, and he
brought his fist down on the desk with a crash. “Do you realize what all
this is going to cost you?”
“Tell me,” suggested Mr. Schofield. “And don’t hit my desk again like
that. Some of my men might think there was a fight, and come in. We
don’t want any intruders.”
“No,” agreed Nixon, “we don’t,” and he glanced sharply about the room.
Then he hitched his chair closer to the desk and leaned forward in his
earnestness. “This thing’ll cost you a hundred thousand dollars before
you’ve done with it, and no end of trouble. I’ve been lookin’ over the
field, and I know. First, I’ll call off the engineers.”
“We’ll replace them,” said Mr. Schofield, promptly.
“You’ll try to,” corrected Nixon, “but it won’t be so easy as you think.
Good engineers ain’t knockin’ around the country lookin’ fer scab
jobs—you know that as well as I do. The good men are all in the
brotherhood. All you’ll find is a few dubs who can run an engine after a
fashion and who don’t belong to the brotherhood or have been kicked
out—they’ll soon play hob with your engines.”
“No doubt they’re pretty bad if they’ve been kicked out,” observed Mr.
Schofield.
“But,” continued Nixon, impressively, paying no heed to the
interruption, “the minute this scab engineer climbs up into the cab,
that same minute the fireman will climb down. More than that, no union
conductor or brakeman will help run a train which a scab engineer is
driving, no union switchman will throw a target for it, and no union
operator will give it orders. So there you are—fire Bassett, and you’ll
need mighty soon not only a new outfit of engineers, but of firemen,
conductors, brakemen, switchmen and operators. Maybe you think it’ll be
easy to find new men to take their places, but I don’t.”
“I don’t either,” agreed Mr. Schofield; “but just the same we won’t give
up the fight before it begins.”
“Well, your lines are bound to be tied up more or less, even at the
best,” said Nixon, “and right in the busy season, too. That will mean
considerable of a loss.”
“Yes,” nodded Mr. Schofield, “it will.”
“And some of the loss will be permanent. When traffic is turned aside
that way, if only for a short time, some of it always stays turned
aside. After you git things straightened out, you’ll have to git out and
hustle for business, or your earnings will show a permanent decrease.”
“I know that too,” said Mr. Schofield.
“And there’s another thing to consider,” went on Nixon, impressively.
“Union men are orderly and law-abiding. All they will do is to quit
their jobs and let you run the road if you can. They won’t interfere
with you—they never do.”
“So I have heard,” said Mr. Schofield, with a grim smile. “Surely it’s
no use repeating that fairy tale to me.”
“It’s no fairy tale,” protested Nixon, earnestly, but there was a
sardonic light in his eyes. “As I said, union men never make trouble.
But there’s always a lot of sympathizers and hangers-on who try to help,
and who always do make trouble, however hard the union men may try to
prevent it.”
“I don’t think the union men will lose any sleep trying to stop it.”
“Yes, they will,” contradicted Nixon, “but they won’t be able to. Wind
of this trouble has got about, you know; and just last night, as I was
passing a saloon over here, I heard two or three fellers talkin’ and one
of them remarked what a beautiful big blaze the stock-yards would make
and how easy it would be to start.”
“Is this a threat?” asked Mr. Schofield, looking fixedly at his visitor.
“A threat? Oh, dear, no; I’m simply telling you what I heard—I want you
to know what kind of trouble it is you’re walkin’ into. Of course, I
stopped right away and told those fellers we union men wouldn’t stand
for nothing like that.”
“Yes,” commented Mr. Schofield, “I’ve got a picture of you stopping.
Your righteous indignation is plainly apparent.”
“Well, anyway,” said Nixon, grinning, “there’s no telling what’ll happen
if you decide to let this strike go on.”
“I didn’t say that we had decided to do that,” said Mr. Schofield,
quietly. “I only said that we wouldn’t reinstate Bassett,” and he looked
Nixon straight in the eye.
That individual sustained the gaze for a moment, his colour deepening a
little; then he arose and made a deliberate circuit of the room,
assuring himself that all the doors were tightly closed, and also
glancing into the closet where the superintendent hung his hat and
overcoat. The inspection finished, he returned to his chair, and
produced two big black cigars, handing one to his companion and lighting
the other.
“Thanks,” said Mr. Schofield, taking the cigar with a little effort. He
lighted it, took a puff or two, and then looked critically at its fat,
black contour. “Good cigar,” he commented.
Nixon laughed complacently.
“Yes, I’m kind o’ pertick’ler about my tobacco,” he said. “These is a
private stock—I get ’em from a friend of mine. I’ll send you over a
couple of boxes.”
“They’re better cigars than I can afford to smoke,” remarked the
superintendent. “The job of special delegate must pay pretty well.”
Nixon laughed again.
“Oh, so, so,” he said, and tilting his chair back, rammed his hands deep
in his trousers’ pockets.
“How long have you held it?”
“Three years—an’ there’s never been a breath of complaint against me. If
any man stands square with the brotherhood, it’s me,” and again Nixon
grinned sardonically.
Mr. Schofield’s last trace of uncertainty had vanished. He knew his
ground now and could advance more surely.
“No,” he went on, slowly, “we won’t reinstate Bassett, and at the same
time we’re going to avoid a strike, if we can. I think you remarked the
other day that there would be no strike unless you called it.”
“There won’t,” said Nixon, briefly.
“What will happen, then?”
“I’ll make a report adverse to Bassett and he’ll be kicked out of the
brotherhood?”
“Won’t he make a howl?”
“Let him. What good will it do? My report goes.”
Mr. Schofield nodded, as he watched the cigar smoke float slowly upward.
“I see,” he commented, and there was a moment’s silence. “Suppose,” he
went on, at last, “that you were convinced that it was your duty to make
such a report, what assurance would we have that you would really make
it?”
“You’d have to take my word,” said Nixon. “You could count on me making
the report, all right, if I was properly convinced.”
“And I suppose,” continued Mr. Schofield, “that you would have to
be—ah—convinced in advance.”
This was a new experience for him and he was considerably the more
confused of the two.
“Sure thing,” answered Nixon, bluntly.
“Well, I’ll see if I can convince you. Bassett was drunk, he was
insolent to his superior officer; to reinstate him would mean the end of
discipline on this line. His offence falls clearly under rule
forty-three, which says that no employee of the road, on duty or off,
shall frequent saloons. In violating that rule, he laid himself liable
to discharge and discharged he was. He also violated rule sixty-one,
which says that insolence to a superior officer may be punished by
dismissal, at the discretion of the train master. The train master
exercised his discretion and dismissed him. When Bassett was employed by
the road he was given a copy of the rules and knew that he must obey
them if he wanted to hold his job. He disobeyed them, and lost it—so
he’s got nobody to blame but himself. That’s our position. Don’t you
think it’s a pretty strong one?”
“Yes,” agreed Nixon, slowly, “it looks pretty strong,” but he was
plainly waiting for something that was still to come.
“By the way,” continued Mr. Schofield, opening a drawer of his desk.
“After you left the other day, I found this package on the floor,” and
he took from the drawer a little packet, carefully wrapped and sealed,
and laid it on his desk. “It doesn’t belong to anyone around here, and I
thought maybe you’d dropped it.”
“Let’s see it,” said Nixon, and took it with eager fingers. He ripped
open the seal and drew out a little bundle of paper currency. He ran
through it rapidly and found it to consist of ten one hundred dollar
bills. “Yes,” he said, slipping them into an inside pocket. “It’s mine.
I’d been wondering what had become of it.”
“And you’re convinced?”
“Perfectly, I’ll report against Bassett.”
“When?”
Nixon glanced at his watch and started to his feet.
“Right away,” he said. “The meeting’s called for ten-thirty. I’ll just
have time to get there.”
He picked up hat and overcoat and started for the door. Mr. Schofield,
his finger hovering over an electric button, watched him with a
perplexed pucker of the forehead. Then his face cleared, and he took his
hand away from the button.
“Well, good-bye,” he said. “I’m glad we could settle it so easily.”
“Oh, nobody never has no trouble with me,” said Nixon, “if they talk
business,” and he opened the door and closed it after him.
Two men, who—so a single glance told him—were not railroad men, were
standing just across the hall, looking out of a window. They glanced
around, as he came out, but made no effort to molest him, and he hurried
away, the packet in his inside pocket pressing against his breast with a
most reassuring warmth.
And just as he disappeared down the stairs, the door of Mr. Schofield’s
room opened and the two strangers were called hastily inside.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XIII
MR. SCHOFIELD’S BOMBSHELL
THE meeting room of Scioto lodge, B. of L. E., was jammed to the doors.
Every member who was off duty and who could by any possibility attend,
was present. Many of them had come in from the road only a short time
before, and in the ordinary course of things, would have gone home, got
something to eat, and gone to bed; but the present crisis took the place
of food and sleep, and its excitement robbed them of desire for either.
The meeting hall was on the third floor of a brick building only a short
distance from the station. It was reached by two long flights of steep
and narrow stairs, and was cold and scantily furnished and uninviting.
At various points about the room, large arm chairs stood on little
platforms, these being the stations for the officers of the lodge, when
going through the intricacies of the ritual. Rows of smaller chairs were
pushed back along the walls, there was a table or two—and that was all.
On this bright morning in late January, as has been said, the hall was
crowded. A group had gathered around Bassett, who was declaiming
excitedly.
“It’s our chance,” he was saying. “Now’s the time t’show the road who’s
boss. You know well enough all the other orders’ll stand by us, an’
we’ll tie the division up so tight it can’t turn a wheel.”
The younger men nodded emphatically, but a few of the older ones looked
grave. They had been through strikes before, and knew that they did not
always turn out as the strikers anticipated.
“I don’t know,” put in one of them, hesitatingly. “I don’t believe we’ll
ever be able to boss the road. It don’t look right. If you had a
business, you’d want to run it, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,” flashed Bassett. “But I’d run it square.”
“O’ course; we kin do our best to make ’em run it square.”
“Well, that’s all we’re tryin’ to do now, ain’t it?”
“Some o’ you fellers seem to be hopin’ there’ll be a strike. Mebbe
they’ll reinstate Bassett.”
“Mebbe they will,” growled that worthy, “but I don’t believe it. They
ain’t got manhood enough to do that.”
In his heart, he knew that he had been wrong, and did not deserve
reinstatement; but this consciousness of guilt interfered in no way with
the bold face he turned to the world, and the loud voice in which he
proclaimed his wrongs. And a bold face and loud voice often have great
weight with the unthinking, who mistake them for the earmarks of
innocence.
“Well, I hope they will,” said another of the older men, wistfully. “I
ain’t in no sort o’ shape to stand a strike.”
“I ain’t either,” put in one of the younger men, boldly, “but that don’t
make no difference. I’d ruther starve ’n work fer a company as wouldn’t
do the right thing.”
“It’s all right to starve yourself,” rejoined the older man. “I used t’
feel that way, too; but when it comes t’ starvin’ yer family, it’s a
different matter—mighty different.”
“Yes,” added another, “an’ when a feller’s built a house an’ is payin’
fer it in the Buildin’ an’ Loan, a strike don’t look good, neither. If a
feller can’t make his payments, he loses his house, without any ifs or
ands about it.”
“Pshaw!” put in the young fellow, easily. “The brotherhood’ll take care
of you. You won’t starve nor lose your house, neither.”
“Mebbe not. But if I loses my job, a lot o’ good my house’ll do me,
won’t it?”
“Lose yer job? How kin you do that?”
“Easy enough. I’ve seen—”
But a sudden shout from the door interrupted him.
“Here’s Nixon! Here’s Nixon!”
And the great man was half-pushed, half-carried forward to the platform
at the end of the room.
He smiled about to those on the right and left of him, and finally
mounted the platform and deliberately removed overcoat and hat. A close
observer might have seen that he was very nervous, but he held himself
well in hand. The truth is, Nixon had not anticipated so large an
outpouring nor such intense interest in the case and in consequence,
found the task confronting him considerably more difficult than he had
thought it would be.
He took out his handkerchief and passed it over his moist moustache, for
he had stopped in the saloon on the first floor to take a single
“bracer,” then he held up his hand impressively for silence. Nixon
believed in doing a thing dramatically.
“Well, boys,” he announced, “I’ve seen Schofield.”
“What did he say?” shouted one of the men, impatient of Nixon’s
deliberate manner.
“Now, look here,” yelled Nixon, searching the offender out with
threatening forefinger, “I won’t be interrupted—I won’t! If another man
does that, I leave—an’ I’ll let y’ wait a week fer a letter from
headquarters. You don’t seem t’ realize what it means fer a man like me
t’ come down here t’ settle your rows.”
“That’s what you’re paid fer,” murmured one of the men, in a far corner,
but he lowered his voice carefully.
“Schofield an’ I went over the situation from a to izzard,” Nixon
continued, when quiet was restored, satisfied that there would be no
further interruptions. “He gave me the case from the road’s side, and I
gave him the case from our side, and I can’t deny that he had the best
of me.”
There was a little murmur at this, but Nixon stilled it instantly with
raised finger.
“The fact of the matter is,” he went on, raising his voice suddenly and
glowering at Bassett, who occupied a place in the front line, “this man
Bassett was drunk the other night, and every mother’s son of you knows
it.”
“It’s a lie!” yelled Bassett, white as death, and again there was a
murmur, but again Nixon managed to still it.
“I’ll answer _you_,” he said, pointing to Bassett, “after this meetin’
adjourns. I ain’t here to argue. I’m here to state facts. This man was
drunk an’ insulted his superior officer. The road had a right to fire
him on two counts—fer bein’ drunk an’ fer insubordination.”
He paused an instant and glowered around. There had been a little
movement at the door a few minutes before, and Mr. Schofield had stepped
quietly inside, followed by the two men whom Nixon had seen standing in
the hall outside the superintendent’s office. But so intent was everyone
on what Nixon was saying that no one observed them, and they stood
watching the proceedings without question or interference.
“Now, I’m going to give it to you fellers straight,” continued Nixon.
“You need it. You’ve been makin’ a little tin god of this feller and he
ain’t worth it. Now my advice to you is, drop him. Kick him out. At any
rate, the grand lodge won’t back you up if you try to call a strike
about this, and you know what that means. It means that your charter
will be taken away from you and the lodge disbanded. The grand lodge
will see every time that you get your rights, but it won’t back you up
when you’re as clearly in the wrong as you are now. Why, to call a
strike for a thing like that would be suicide. Let me tell you boys
something—you’ll never win any strike unless you have the public with
you. If the public’s against you, sooner or later you’ll be going back
to work like whipped curs—an’ you’ll be lucky if you kin get your old
jobs. An’ I guess that’s all,” he concluded, mopping his forehead with
his handkerchief.
Then his eyes rested on three men who had been gradually working their
way toward the stage, and he caught his breath sharply. But in an
instant, by a mighty effort, he had recovered his self-control.
“Boys,” he said, “here’s Mr. Schofield himself. I’m glad he’s with us. I
want to say that I’ve found him a square man.” There was a little
flutter of applause at this, for most of them had themselves found him
to be a square man. “We would all be glad to have Mr. Schofield address
us a few words,” added Nixon, but he glanced at the superintendent
apprehensively, as the latter, in response to the invitation, stepped
with alacrity upon the platform.
“Yes,” said Mr. Schofield, turning and facing the expectant audience, “I
want to say a few words to you. I have heard what Mr. Nixon has been
saying—I have listened to him with great pleasure. For I believe that
what he has told you is true—in the first place, that the road was right
in discharging Bassett and in refusing to reinstate him, and in the
second place that no strike can succeed unless it has the public behind
it.”
Here he glanced at Nixon, who had seated himself in the president’s
chair and who was nodding from time to time, as Mr. Schofield proceeded,
every trace of apprehension banished from his countenance.
“But before I go further,” Mr. Schofield continued, “I ought, perhaps,
to apologize for my presence here. I had intended, of course, to ask
permission to enter, but there wasn’t anybody at the door, nor anybody
to ask, so I just came in. I ask permission now.”
“That’s all right,” shouted one of the men, “go ahead,” and it was
evident from their smiling faces that everyone present concurred in the
invitation.
“Thank you,” said Mr. Schofield. “And now,” he continued, more
seriously, “I have something to say to you. As I said, I was glad to
hear Mr. Nixon’s sentiments and to see that, on the whole, you agreed
with him. I certainly think that the road was right in the stand it
took, and I believe all of you will agree with me when you think it
over. You have always found the road ready to meet you half way in any
reasonable demand, but we’ve got to maintain discipline or quit
business. And, after all—and here I’m talking very frankly to you—it’s
we who are running the road and not you. Of course, if you don’t like
the job, you can quit it—we don’t quarrel with that; but, if you are
really fair-minded, you will see our side, too, which is that if you
break the rules, you must take the consequences. When you take
employment with the road, you agree to obey the rules, and you can’t
object if the road holds you to the bargain.”
The superintendent was evidently carrying the crowd with him, and he
paused a moment before launching his bombshell. Should he launch it, he
asked himself, or should he let well enough alone? There would be no
strike, everything had been quietly smoothed over. Nixon had carried out
his agreement. Was it not wiser to stop now and let affairs take their
course? Then the remembrance of Allan West’s flushed and indignant face
rose before him and he nerved himself to go on.
“So I was interested to hear Mr. Nixon’s opinions,” he said, slowly,
“and I thought you might be interested in knowing how Mr. Nixon arrived
at them.”
At the words, Nixon turned livid and half-started from his chair, but
Mr. Schofield heard the movement and turned toward him sternly.
“Sit down,” he said, curtly, and the two men who had come in with him
moved closer to Nixon’s chair. “This representative of yours,” he
continued, impressively, “came to me this morning. I told him we had
decided not to reinstate Bassett. He said that in that case, there would
be a strike—a general strike—that would cost us thousands of dollars. He
hinted that the stock-yards would be set afire and other damage done to
the company’s property. But in the end, he agreed to report against
Bassett and prevent a strike, in consideration of the payment to him of
the sum of one thousand dollars.”
The room woke up at the words as though a cyclone had suddenly broken
loose. Nixon was on his feet, shaking his great fist at the speaker, who
was himself trembling with excitement.
“I paid him the money,” shouted Mr. Schofield, in a voice which
dominated even that tumult, “and he delivered the goods!”
The words fanned the flames anew, for a moment, and then a sudden
silence fell upon the crowd, as Bassett sprang to the platform.
“If this thing’s true,” he shouted, his face as white as Nixon’s, “we
want proofs. I’ve stood here an’ heard myself called a drunkard an’
liar, but I don’t care. I want proof.”
“And you shall have proof,” retorted Mr. Schofield, “if you’ll be quiet
a minute. That’s right—don’t let him get away,” he added, as Nixon tried
to slip from the platform and was promptly collared by the two
strangers.
“Who are you?” demanded the prisoner, white with rage. “Leggo me or I’ll
knock you down!”
“Oh, no, you won’t, Johnny,” rejoined one of them calmly, and showed his
shield.
“Detectives!” gasped Nixon.
“Exactly.”
“Let me set down,” said Nixon, faintly, and sank back into the chair
from which he had arisen.
“Now,” continued the superintendent, when that little by-play was ended,
“if you’ll listen a moment, I’ll give you your proof. I had intended to
have Nixon arrested as he left my office, but when he told me he was
coming right over here, I thought it would be more convincing to all of
you if I made the disclosure here. My proof is, that in the inside
pocket of Nixon’s coat there is a package of ten one hundred dollar
bills. They are notes issued by the First National Bank of this city,
and range from number A142320 to A142329. As a further mark of
identification, each of them has a small cross in red ink just over the
head of the eagle.”
Bassett sprang toward the crouching man.
“We’ll see!” he cried savagely, and ripping Nixon’s coat open plunged
his hand into the inside pocket.
An instant later, he snatched it out again, and waved the packet of
bills in the air over his head.
“It’s true!” he yelled. “He’s sold us!”
And he turned upon Nixon as though to rend him limb from limb, while the
mob pressed forward like so many maddened beasts.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XIV
DECLARATION OF WAR
FOR a moment, it looked as though summary vengeance would be taken upon
the special delegate. But the detectives were equal to the occasion. One
of them snapped a pair of handcuffs on the wrists of the cowering man,
while the other snatched out a revolver and faced the shrieking mob.
“Stand back!” he cried, and when Bassett pressed on, caught him by the
collar and flung him away. “Let the law deal with this man. Don’t make
fools of yourselves! You’ll be sorry for it afterwards!”
“He’s right!” shouted Mr. Schofield. “Keep your heads, men! Bassett, sit
down!” and he caught the engineer, who was literally foaming at the
mouth in a spasm of hate and anger, and flung him into a chair.
The frenzy was over in a moment; cooler heads went about among the crowd
counselling patience, and, in the end, Nixon was led away between the
two detectives, a very different man from the self-assured, impudent
fellow who had entered the room a short time before. Mr. Schofield
accompanied them, having first seen that one of the detectives secured
the packet of bills from Bassett to hold for evidence. And it may be
added here, in passing, since Nixon will not again appear in the pages
of this story, that he was, in due course, brought to trial, convicted
of blackmail and sentenced to a term of years in the penitentiary.
* * * * *
There was a moment’s silence after Nixon and his captors had left the
hall. None of the engineers followed them, but lingered behind, looking
inquiringly into each others’ faces, for they seemed to feel that there
was still something to be said.
Bassett seemed to feel so, too, for as soon as Mr. Schofield and the
detectives left the room, he made his way to the door, closed it
carefully, and placed a man on guard beside it.
“Now you stay there,” he said. “We don’t want no more interruptions.”
That done, he strode to the other end of the hall and mounted the
platform.
“Now, boys,” he said, “we’ve certainly had an eye-opener. Most of you
were against me half an hour ago, but maybe you feel different now.
We’ve allers known that there was some scoundrels among these special
delegates, but I guess there’s goin’ t’ be one less now, an’ anyway none
of ’em would dare try t’ work the same thing twice. I move that the
secretary be instructed to send an account of this thing to the grand
secretary, at once, an’ ask fer another delegate t’ be sent down.”
“Second the motion!” shouted some one, and it was carried with a roar.
“And now,” concluded Bassett, “I guess there ain’t nothing more to be
said at present. But this thing ain’t ended yet—not by no manner o’
means.”
“No, it ain’t!” shouted one of the men. “An’ there’s another thing.
After this, we’re back of Rafe Bassett—hey, boys?”
“You bet!” came the chorus.
And when Bassett stepped down from the platform, it was in the guise of
a hero. Everyone wanted to shake his hand and to protest undying
devotion. He was enthroned more firmly than ever in control of the
lodge, and everyone was anxious, as the saying is, to get into the
band-wagon.
Bassett was right in saying that the incident was not closed. Indeed, it
seemed that it had scarcely begun.
Nixon’s arrest and exposure created the biggest kind of a sensation.
Newspapers described it under display heads, commented upon it
editorially, and battledored and shuttlecocked it around until every
phase of it was exhausted. But, curiously enough, while every compliment
was paid Mr. Schofield for exposing Nixon, the whole affair seemed
rather to incline the public to sympathize with Bassett.
“This exposé,” as one paper expressed it, “in no way affects the merits
of the case. Indeed, it rather indicates that, without a bribe, the
special delegate would have reported in Bassett’s favour. While the
courage of the P. & O. in undertaking to expose the scoundrel cannot but
be commended, the public should not permit this grand-stand play, as it
were, to obscure the main issue. Whether the road was wrong, or whether
Bassett was wrong, is a question whose solution we must await with an
open mind.”
The labour papers were much more outspoken. While all of them rejoiced
ostentatiously in the detection and punishment of Nixon, they also took
care to add that the fact that the railroad had to bribe Nixon in order
to get a favourable report from him proved beyond a doubt that its case
was a bad one.
“This entire occurrence,” one of them continued, and not the most rabid
by any means, “moves us to inquire on how many occasions have the
railroads used bribery in order to accomplish their ends? No one can
doubt that the use of money for this purpose is habitual with them, and
we should not forget that the bribe-giver is as guilty as the
bribe-taker. No bribe is ever given to accomplish an honest purpose, and
the great corporations, which know so well how to take advantage of the
weaknesses of poor human nature, are more to be despised and abhorred
than the pitiable victims whom they have tempted to their ruin.”
It was in Mr. Round’s office at Cincinnati that Mr. Schofield was shown
this utterance, and the general manager watched him as he read it, a
cynical smile upon his lips.
“You see what’s coming, don’t you?” he inquired, when Mr. Schofield
looked up.
“What _is_ coming?”
“A strike—and public sympathy is going to be on the other side.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. I’m afraid we made a mistake, Schofield, in peaching on
Nixon.”
“Do you know,” said the superintendent, “I felt a sort of presentiment
of that sort when I started in to give him away. I came mighty near not
doing it.”
“I wish you hadn’t. Why didn’t you heed the presentiment?”
“Well,” answered Mr. Schofield, slowly, “in the first place, we had
mapped out the plan to follow, and I didn’t quite feel like discarding
it on my own motion. And in the second place—well—I’m almost ashamed to
tell you—just as I shut my mouth and got ready to sit down, I remembered
young West’s face as it looked when I spoke of bribery to him. Somehow,
I just had to go on.”
“It was scarcely the time to heed a young idealist,” said Mr. Round,
dryly. “But I’m not blaming you—the mistake was mine, and I take the
responsibility for it. I flattered myself that I adopted the course I
did from purely utilitarian motives, but I’m inclined to suspect that
West’s enthusiasm had something to do with my decision. You can’t mix
railroading and impractical idealism, Ed.; the railroading will suffer
every time.”
“Yes,” agreed Mr. Schofield, “I’m afraid it will. It certainly has this
time.”
“We’ve got to make the best of it, and do what we can to set things
right again. That’s mighty little. About all we can do is to get ready
for the strike, and to hope that the strikers will make some fool move
early in the game that will disgust thinking people. They’re pretty sure
to, and that’s what I’m counting on to help us win out.”
“And in the meantime?”
“We’ll keep our trains moving!” and Mr. Round closed his jaws with a
snap. “Here’s what I’m counting on. The engineers and firemen will
strike sure—the conductors and brakemen probably. The hardest to replace
will be the engineers, and I’m already getting some extra ones under my
hand. Within a week, I think we’ll have all we need, if we can protect
them. The firemen and brakemen won’t be so hard to get—there’s always a
lot hanging around who don’t belong to the union, and as for
conductors—well, I’m going to put as many men from these offices and
yours on the job as can be spared. Clerical work can wait a while. Our
secret service is lining up a lot of dependable men to be used as
special deputies, and in a week I think I’ll have everything in shape.
The only thing is,” he added, sadly, “we won’t have the public with us
from the start.”
“Of course, if it lasts long enough, there’ll be trouble,” observed Mr.
Schofield.
“That’s what I expect—that’s what I’m hoping for—for that’s what is
going to win us public sympathy. As soon as any trouble develops that
our men can’t handle, we’ll call for the state troops. The governor will
be with us,” he added; “that’s one mercy.”
“But I thought,” began Mr. Schofield, with a vivid remembrance of the
rabid anti-corporation campaign the governor had made, “I thought he was
all the other way.”
“He’s seen a light,” said Mr. Round, briefly, and while he made no
further explanation, it is safe to assume that it was this same light,
discovered by the governor soon after taking his seat, which led him
eventually to the senate of the United States.
“At any rate,” said Mr. Schofield, glancing at his watch and rising,
“I’m glad to know that you’ve got everything so well in hand. I fancy
the engineers will hustle things along as fast as they can.”
And they did, for the engineers realized, as well as the railroad, the
value of public opinion. Another delegate was sent from headquarters
without delay, and, fully cognizant of the way the wind was blowing,
announced that a strike would be called at once, if Bassett was not
reinstated.
The next morning, the delegate, accompanied by a local committee, waited
upon Mr. Schofield. The interview was short and to the point.
“I have gone over the case,” said the delegate, who was a very different
individual from Nixon, “and I find that you exceeded your rights in
discharging Bassett.”
“So there’s no use to argue the point, then,” said Mr. Schofield.
“None whatever.”
“Of course your decision was thoroughly unbiased?”
“Thoroughly so,” answered the delegate with perfect composure.
“Well?”
“We demand that Bassett be reinstated at once.”
“And we unqualifiedly refuse.”
“Very well, sir. You know, I suppose, that there is then only one course
open to us?”
“I suppose you mean you’ll call a strike?”
“Much as we regret to do so,” said the delegate with unction, “that is
what we shall have to do.”
“I have a picture of your regret,” said Mr. Schofield, grimly. “I’m
going to have it framed. When will the strike begin?”
“At noon to-morrow,” answered the delegate.
“You’ve figured this thing out? You know what it will mean to the men?”
“What will it mean?”
“It will mean that they’ll have to begin at the bottom again, so far as
this road is concerned. They’ll never get their old places back.”
“Is that a threat?” asked the delegate, flushing.
“No; it’s a statement of fact.”
“Well, I guess we can take the consequences. Of course, you’ve figured
it out from your side?”
“Thoroughly,” Mr. Schofield answered. “You say the strike begins at noon
to-morrow?”
“Yes.”
“All trains on the road, I suppose, will be taken on to their
destinations?”
“They will be taken to the terminus of the division.”
“And there will be no disorder or attempt to interfere with the
operation of the road?”
“Not if we can help it,” replied the delegate, smiling grimly. “The
brotherhood is always on the side of law and order. Come on, boys,” and
he led the committee from the room.
Two minutes later, Mr. Schofield had Mr. Round on the wire.
“I was just notified,” he wired, “that the strike will be called at noon
to-morrow.”
“All right,” flashed back the general manager. “We’ll be ready for them.
Will get orders forward to you soon as possible.”
“O. K.,” clicked Mr. Schofield. Then he sent his stenographer to summon
Mr. Plumfield and Allan West, and devoted the few minutes before they
appeared to the study of the time-card.
“Well, boys,” he began, when they were seated, “I suppose you know
there’s going to be a strike.”
“Yes,” nodded Mr. Plumfield, “it’s all over the place.”
“It starts at noon to-morrow. The engineers will go out and I suppose
the firemen will, too, right away. But how about the conductors and
brakemen?”
“I don’t believe the conductors will go out without orders from
headquarters,” said the train master reflectively. “And maybe they won’t
get orders. You know they have been mighty careful recently about
engaging in any sympathy strikes.”
“Yes, I know they have, and I suppose the brakemen will stay as long as
the conductors do. But it’s going to be quite a job to get engineers and
firemen to move our trains. We’ve got a total of sixty-two regular
trains in both directions every day, and thirty-eight of them are
passengers.”
“But a lot of them are suburban trains running between Cincinnati and
Loveland,” put in Allan.
“Yes,” agreed the superintendent, consulting the time-card. “Twenty of
them are. Of course they can be doubled back and forth, and some of them
can be taken off, if necessary. But there must be no interference with
the road’s through traffic. At 12.15 to-morrow—fifteen minutes after the
strike commences—Number Four, our through flier, leaves Cincinnati—and
it’s going to leave on time, if I have to take it out myself. I haven’t
forgotten how to run an engine, George.”
“Neither have I,” laughed the train master; “nor how to fire, either.
But that’s only one train.”
“Mr. Round has been getting some men together on the quiet. He knew this
thing was coming, and did his best to get ready for it. I only hope he’s
got enough.”
“Of course we’ll win,” said Allan, hopefully.
“If we don’t, it won’t be for lack of trying,” answered Mr. Schofield
grimly. “There’s Mr. Round,” he added, as the sounder on his desk
wakened suddenly to life.
“It’s Round,” chattered the instrument, when Mr. Schofield had given the
go-ahead signal. “I have ten crews here ready for duty. They will live
for the present in our offices. I will send eight more crews to
Wadsworth to-night. Arrange to lodge and board them in the
freight-house, also instruct local officer to swear in ten deputies to
protect them—more if necessary. Get as many more local men as you can.
You ought to be able to get a good many firemen among men out of work.
Eight crews will arrive at Parkersburg from east to-night. If any
symptom of trouble, notify sheriff. If he won’t act promptly, notify me
and I’ll get troops. Strikers must be kept away from new men at any cost
and company’s property protected. Arrest for trespass any found on
company’s property. Round.”
“O. K.,” Mr. Schofield clicked back. “I understand. Good work. That
makes a total of twenty-six crews,” he added, turning to his companions.
“And if by crews, he means conductors and brakemen too, we’re pretty
well fixed for the present. What do you think about getting local men,
George?”
“I wouldn’t do it unless it’s absolutely necessary,” answered the train
master. “You can’t keep local men shut up, and as sure as we let them go
home, the strikers will get them. It will be inviting trouble right
away.”
“I don’t know but what you’re right,” agreed Mr. Schofield, after a
moment’s thought. “We’ll let that go for the present. I’ve got plenty to
do as it is,” and he hastened away to give the orders necessary to
prepare the freight-house for the reception of the new men.
Fifty cots were secured, a cook-stove, tables and chairs, some light
bed-clothing and a lot of tin dishes. Rude shelves were nailed up along
the wall and a supply of canned vegetables, ham and bacon, coffee,
sugar, condensed milk, molasses, flour, cornmeal, potatoes and other
staples piled upon them, or heaped along the floor beneath. A cook from
a small up-town café was hired and the superintendent did not forget to
order in a case of tobacco, some decks of cards, dominoes, checkers, and
a lot of illustrated papers. For the success of almost any
strike-breaking depends on keeping the strike-breakers amused, in seeing
that they are well-fed, and in taking care that they hold no
communication with the strikers. Mr. Schofield proposed to take no
chances of failure in any of these directions.
While these preparations were being made, he called in the local
detective employed by the road—a tall, raw-boned fellow named Stanley, a
miracle of aggressiveness and nerve and with no little detective
ability—and explained the situation to him. An hour later, that worthy
marched into the mayor’s office at the head of ten husky men.
“I want to get these fellows sworn in, Your Honor,” he said. “I guess
you’ve heard about the strike.”
The mayor looked down from his desk in some perturbation. The railroad
element formed a very important portion of his clientele, and he was
anxious to do nothing to offend it.
“Now see here, Stanley,” he said, “you don’t need all this force. We’re
not going to have any fighting here. If you need help, I’ll furnish it.”
“Orders is orders, sir,” said Stanley. “I was told to git ten men, an’
I’ve got ’em.”
“What are you going to do with them?”
“Guard the company’s property, sir,” answered Stanley, promptly, for he
knew the proper answer.
“Is it in danger?” inquired the mayor, with irony.
“It will be after to-morrow noon, sir. Besides, we’re going to get in a
lot of strike-breakers to-night and we’re going to see that they’re not
interfered with. And then I’ve got to patrol the yards and keep out
trespassers. You see I’ve got a pretty big job on hand.”
The mayor considered gloomily for a moment; but he really had no choice
in the matter, so he reluctantly swore the men in, and handed each of
them a special officer’s badge.
“Now I just want to say one thing to you fellows,” he said, when this
ceremony was finished. “These badges and the oath you have just taken
give you authority to see that the law is observed—in other words, to
see that no right, either of property or person, is interfered with. But
they don’t give you a right to engage in a riot or to molest anybody who
isn’t molesting you. Above all, they don’t give you a right to use your
guns indiscriminately, and if any innocent person is hurt by you, some
of you are going to suffer. I’ll see to that. That’s all.”
Word of their presence at the mayor’s office had got about, and a little
crowd, principally of boys, awaited them outside. When they made their
appearance, they were greeted by a chorus of yells, mostly from the
aforesaid boys.
“Don’t mind ’em,” said Stanley, quietly. “It’s only a lot of kids,” and
he marched them off in the direction of the station.
The crowd followed, growing larger as it went, but it came to a halt
when the freight-house was reached and the deputies entered, closing the
door behind them. Two or three stones were thrown, but a couple of
policemen, sent by the mayor, soon arrived, and compelled the crowd to
disperse.
At nine o’clock that night, forty-eight strike-breakers alighted from a
special coach which had been attached to the east-bound flier, and were
conducted immediately to the freight-house. There was a crowd on the
station platform to see them alight, but no effort was made to interfere
with them, though again there was hooting and shouting. Train master and
superintendent watched this demonstration in silence, and then mounted
to their offices.
“What do you think of it?” asked the former.
“I don’t know,” answered Mr. Schofield, slowly. “But I’m afraid there’ll
be trouble. Just listen to that,” and he motioned toward the row of
saloons along the street opposite the yards.
Every one of them was ablaze with light, and every one was crowded,
apparently, from the jangle and roar of voices which came from them, and
which could be heard even above the noise of the yards. Evidently there
was much excitement in railroad-dom, and the prospect for peace upon the
morrow was not encouraging.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XV
IN CHARGE AT WADSWORTH
THE P. & O. freight-house at Wadsworth is a long, low, one-storied brick
building which stands just across the yards from the station. Like the
station, it is dingy and grimy and gritty, as well as inadequate to the
needs of the terminal; but no attempt was ever made to clean or
brighten—much less to enlarge—it, and its self-respect had long since
disappeared as a result of this neglect.
At one end of the building are the offices, where the freight agent and
his clerks labour with reports and receipts and bills of lading—a mass
and complexity of documents appalling and seemingly inextricable. The
offices are crowded and gloomy and ill-smelling, for here, too, the road
economizes at the expense of its employees’ health; but their condition
is order and cleanliness itself when compared with that of the great
echoing freight-shed which occupies three-fourths of the building. No
light penetrates to it except from the doors, for there is no room for
windows, and the doors are overhung by the wide, low roof which covers
the surrounding platform. As a result, the freight-shed resembles a
cavern in everything but atmosphere. In that, it resembles only itself;
for its atmosphere is a thing apart, a thing to be encountered nowhere
else, compounded as it is of a variety of odours which defy enumeration.
You have seen composite photographs? Well, the freight-house atmosphere
reminded one of a composite photograph of particularly ugly people. It
was something to flee from and wonder at and remember with awe.
A wide platform the height of a freight car door runs all around this
portion of the building, abutting on one side on the yards and on the
other on the street. Behind it, and stretching along between the yards
and the street, is a long platform, an extension of the one running
around the building. Beside this platform, a long line of freight cars
is always standing—loaded cars from which the freight is being yanked
out into the freight-house, or empties into which freight from the house
is being hustled. And so various it is—crates, boxes, barrels, kegs,
baskets, loose pieces of steel and iron, great sacks of burlap—it is
impossible to give any idea of it here. Imagine, if you can, all the
things you ever saw in all the stores in town, and all the raw material
which is used in your town’s manufactures, and you will find that nearly
all of it came through the freight depot; to say nothing of your town’s
products which go out again. It is a strenuous place, the freight depot,
and the men who labour there are big-armed and strong-backed and
deep-chested. For theirs is a job that demands brawn.
It was the echoing cavern of the freight-shed at Wadsworth which had
been selected by Mr. Round as headquarters for the strike-breakers, not
because it was particularly adapted to that use, but because it was the
only place available. So the freight on hand had to be carefully sorted
over, the larger articles taken out and stacked on the platform, the
smaller ones stacked up at the end of the room nearest the offices,
behind a flimsy board partition which had been hastily nailed up. Behind
this barrier the freight men were instructed to transact their business,
and orders were issued that on no account should any of them be
permitted any intercourse with the strike-breakers.
Then some attempt was made to clean the remainder of the room; the
tables and cots were put in place, the range installed, the cook put to
work arranging his pantry, and the place was ready for its occupants.
These, as has been said, arrived on the evening train, and were at once
marched over to the place which was to be their home for an indefinite
length of time.
Under the glare of the gas lights overhead, the place presented a
somewhat more attractive appearance than it did by day, and the
bountiful supper which was soon provided did its share toward putting
the newcomers in good humour with themselves and their surroundings. The
odour of cooking had served to mitigate the odour of the freight-house,
and a cloud of tobacco smoke soon wiped it out altogether. The
strike-breakers, under the softening influence of all this, began to
look around at each other and to take the first steps toward getting
acquainted.
For they were strangers to each other; they had been gathered together
hastily from many different sources, and were as diverse in appearance
and, no doubt, in character, as forty-eight men could be. None of them,
it was evident at once, would rank very high in the social scale. Most
of them were plainly failures, and a glance at their rubicund and
mottled faces revealed what the principal cause of failure had been.
“But then,” as Mr. Schofield was remarking to Mr. Plumfield and Allan
West, in his office across the yards, at that very moment, “we can keep
drink away from them for a time, or, at least, give them just enough to
keep them from losing their nerve. It will be easy enough for the first
two or three days, but after that we’ll have to look out. The drink
hunger will get some of them sure, and they’ll break away; but most of
them will stay, because we won’t give them any money till payday, and
they’re all broke. Those who want to go, we’ll have to let go, of
course, for we can’t hold them prisoners—though we’ll be accused of
doing it, no matter what happens. Now what I want to say is this—we need
a man we can trust to make his headquarters in that freight-house and to
keep his eye out for trouble. And, Allan, I’m going to give you charge
of the situation here. Mr. Plumfield and myself will have to be looking
after matters at other points on the line—I’m going to Cincinnati
to-morrow and George will go to Parkersburg. I don’t believe there’s as
much chance of trouble here as there is at Cincinnati, where a mob of
thugs and toughs can be collected in no time; or at a river town like
Parkersburg, where there are always a lot of roust-abouts looking for
trouble.”
“I don’t know,” said Mr. Plumfield, slowly. “There are more railroad men
here than at any other point on the division, since this is division
headquarters. And the entire police force consists of about a dozen
men.”
“I know that,” replied the superintendent; “but there’s mighty few of
the railroad men who will give us any trouble; even if they did want to,
in a small town like this everybody knows them, and a man doesn’t begin
to riot and destroy property where he’s generally known—he’s too likely
to be caught and punished. Anyway, Allan must take the job.”
“All right, sir,” said Allan. “I’ll do my best.”
“And now who’s the right man to put over there in the freight-house?”
“Reddy Magraw,” answered Allan, promptly. “He’s true blue and as sharp
as a steel trap.”
Mr. Schofield nodded his approval.
“The very man,” he agreed. “Will you see him?”
“Yes, sir; right away,” and a moment later he was hurrying away in the
direction of Reddy’s home.
It may be explained in passing that, in Reddy Magraw’s home, Allan West
was regarded with a degree of veneration and affection possible only to
warm Irish hearts.
In the old days, by an accident, it is true, he had brought Reddy out of
a dangerous condition of insanity, and, since that time, any member of
the Magraw household would have cheerfully risked life and limb for him.
So, when, in answer to his knock, Mrs. Magraw opened the door, her
honest Irish face lighted with pleasure at sight of him.
“Why, good avenin’, Mister West,” she cried. “Won’t ye come in?”
“I surely will,” said Allan. “But since when have I been ‘Mister’ West?”
he added, laughingly, as he stepped inside.
“Iver since you’ve been chief dispatcher,” answered Mrs. Magraw
promptly, leading the way and holding the lamp carefully so that he
could see. “Indade, we knows our place, sir, an’ it’s not fer the likes
of us t’ be gittin’ too familiar with the chief dispatcher.”
“Nonsense, Mrs. Magraw,” laughed Allan. “I’m just the same fellow I
always was—I haven’t changed a bit.”
“Not in yer heart, God bless ye. I know that ain’t changed an’ niver
will be. Reddy,” she added, opening the door and showing Allan into the
room which served as dining-room and sitting-room, “Reddy, here’s Mister
West.”
“Mister West?” echoed Reddy, looking up in surprise. “Who d’ye— Oh, how
are ye, Allan,” he cried, recognizing the visitor, and springing to his
feet with hand outstretched.
“First rate, thank you. And I’m glad you remember my first name,
anyhow.”
“Oh,” said Reddy, “the ole woman’s been so stuck up iver since ye got
your promotion you’d think it was me. It’s been Mister West this an’
Mister West that, till half the time I didn’t know who she was talkin’
about. Won’t you set down?”
“Yes,” answered Allan, getting out of his coat, which Mrs. Magraw was
waiting to receive. “I’ve come for a little talk. Oh, don’t send them
away, Mrs. Magraw,” he added quickly, for at his words, that lady had
begun to herd the children out of the room. “They won’t be in the way.”
“Yes, they will, sir,” she contradicted. “Besides, little pitchers has
big ears; though if I iver caught one o’ them kids repatin’ anything ye
didn’t want repated, I’d kill him, I would, an’ think it good riddance.
But it’s best t’ be on the safe side, an’ they’ll be very well off in
the kitchen.”
The two youngest were protesting somewhat lustily that they did not
think they would be at all well off in the kitchen, and immensely
preferred to remain where they could continue to gaze at the illustrious
visitor; but their mother was inexorable, and banished the whole herd
together.
“An’ now,” said Reddy, when that had been safely accomplished and the
door was shut, “what is it?”
“You know the strike begins to-morrow?”
“Yes.”
“And you know what it’s about?”
“Yes. But I can’t hardly believe it. Neither kin anybody else who knows
that drunken Rafe Bassett. It’s about him, ain’t it?”
“Yes—we’ve fired him.”
“An’ small blame to ye.”
“And we won’t take him back.”
“An’ right ye are. I hope ye’ll fight it out.”
“We intend to. Mr. Schofield has placed me in charge of the situation
here.”
“An’ they couldn’t ’a’ got anybody better,” put in Reddy, with
conviction.
“I’m going to do the best I can, anyway—and I want you to help.”
“I’m ready.”
“You know we brought in a lot of men to-night to take the place of the
strikers.”
Reddy nodded.
“We’ve got the freight-house fitted up for them, and Stanley has a
detail of men guarding it. You know as well as I do that the only way to
hold those men is to keep the strikers away from them. Stanley can keep
guard all right on the outside, but we’ve got to have somebody to keep
guard on the inside. I want you to go to work there as a kind of head
bottle-washer, and keep your eyes open for trouble. At the first sign of
it, let me know.”
Reddy nodded again.
“All right,” he said. “I ain’t much at bottle-washin’, but I knows how
t’ kape my eyes open an’ my ears too. When do I begin?”
“The sooner the better.”
“I’ll go over right away, then,” and Reddy took down his hat and put on
his coat. “Good-bye, old woman,” he added to his wife, who had been
sitting listening silently to all this. “Look fer me back whin ye see me
comin’.”
He patted her on the back and started for the door. Mrs. Magraw paused
to help Allan into his overcoat.
“You won’t be lettin’ nothin’ happen t’ him, Allan?” she asked,
anxiously, forgetting his new title in the emotion of the moment.
“That I won’t,” he assured her.
“I’ve got a sort o’ feelin’ that there’s goin’ t’ be trouble, an’ that
Reddy’ll be in it,” she added. “It come t’ me strong when I set there
listenin’.”
“Perhaps there will be trouble, Mrs. Magraw,” said Allan. “Indeed, I’ll
be surprised if there isn’t. But we’ll come through all right.”
“Oh, I hope so, sir!” she cried, and lighted him to the door.
She stood in the open doorway holding the lamp above her head as he and
Reddy started together down the path to the gate. They had almost
reached it, when Reddy suddenly paused, rubbed his forehead perplexedly,
and then glanced around at the figure in the doorway.
“I’ve got t’ go back a minute,” he said, apologetically. “You go ahead.
I’ll ketch up with you.”
Allan walked on slowly, then, at the gate, he looked around. Reddy was
holding Mrs. Magraw in his arms, kissing her as tenderly as any lover.
The quick moisture sprang to Allan’s eyes; he closed the gate behind
him, and started across the yards; for Reddy’s house was perched on an
embankment which had been left when the lower yards had been graded down
to their present level. A minute later, he heard quick steps behind him
and Reddy came running up.
“I jest had t’ go back,” he explained, a little shamefacedly. “I don’t
know what it was—but somethin’ kind o’ took me by the elbow an’ steered
me around. Mighty queer.”
They walked on together in silence to the freight-house. As soon as they
approached it, they were challenged sharply, and stopped by one of the
deputies. Stanley, attracted by the noise, came up a moment later and
passed them through.
“Nobody can come through that line, day or night, unless I say so,” he
explained. “I’m not going to take any chances.”
“That’s right,” agreed Allan heartily. “Mr. Stanley, this is Reddy
Magraw.”
“Yes,” said Stanley. “I know him. He’s all right.”
“I’m glad you think so. I’m putting him on the inside to keep his eyes
open. He’ll report to you, but you oughtn’t to be seen talking together
too much. You’ll report to me, or send him on to me, when you can.”
“All right, Mr. West. I’d suggest that he comes along after while and
asks the cook for a job. He’d better not make his first appearance with
you and me.”
“That’s a good idea. You wait here, Reddy, till you’re sent for.”
“Right,” agreed Reddy, and sat down on the platform.
Stanley opened the door of the freight-house and led the way in. It was
the first time Allan had seen it in its new incarnation, and it wasn’t
exactly what one would call an attractive scene. Indeed, it was
indescribably sordid. Some of the men had gone to bed; others were
sitting around the tables playing cards or listlessly turning the leaves
of the illustrated papers. The gas lights overhead flared dimly through
a haze of tobacco smoke. The odour of cooking still lingered in the air,
with onions striking the high note, and at one end of the room, the cook
was sullenly banging the tin dishes around, as he made a pretence of
washing them.
“He won’t know Reddy,” said Stanley, in an aside. “He ain’t been in town
long, an’ while he was here, he never stuck his nose outside that little
joint where he worked. Hello, Sam,” he added, in a voice which everyone
could hear. “It looks to me like you need some help.”
“Help!” snarled the cook. “No, I don’t need no help. That’s a mistake.
I’m a wonder, I am. I kin cook three meals a day fer fifty men, wash th’
dishes, make the beds, an’ do all the other work without turnin’ a hair.
I don’t need no help. I’m goin’ t’ quit,” he added, in another tone.
“There’s a feller outside askin’ fer a job, an’ I just happened to think
of you,” said Stanley, and strode to the door. “Here, you,” he called to
Reddy. “Step in here a minute. Here he is, Sam. What do you think of
him?”
“He ain’t no prize beauty,” said the cook, looking Reddy over
critically; “but he looks like he could work. Anybody’s better’n nobody.
I’ll try him,” and he led Reddy away and set him to work with the
dishes. It was all Allan could do to keep his face straight, as he saw
Reddy, with evident repugnance, tie a piece of burlap around his waist
for an apron and pick up a dish-cloth.
Stanley led the way to one of the groups around the tables.
“Boys,” he said, in a voice which made all within hearing look up, “this
is Mr. West, the chief dispatcher for this division. He’s in complete
charge of affairs here at Wadsworth, and he’ll see that you get a square
deal.”
As Allan looked down into the faces gazing up at him, his heart failed
him for an instant. How could any good work be done with such material?
But he shook the thought away.
“I’ll have your details ready to-morrow morning,” he said, “and we’ll
see that you are properly taken care of. We are going to fight this
thing through to a finish, and we rely on your help to break this
strike, for which there wasn’t the shadow of excuse. I don’t believe
there’ll be any trouble, but we’ll take every precaution and see that
you are thoroughly protected. And when the strike is over, a permanent
position will be open to every one of you who wants it and who has made
good. I hope that will mean all of you.”
There was a little feeble applause at this, but most of his listeners
knew, deep down in their hearts, that they would not make good, that
they were unfit to hold a permanent position anywhere.
“If you want anything,” Allan added, “ask for it. If you’re not
comfortable, say so. Be loyal to the road and the road will be loyal to
you. Good night.”
But as he left the place and walked slowly homeward, the futility of his
appeal sickened him. Why should they be loyal to the road—what incentive
was there? How could those weak and hopeless and degraded creatures be
loyal to anything, except their own desperate needs? They had taken the
job offered them for the money there was in it; or, perhaps, for the
excitement which might follow. They would be careless and incompetent—it
would be a tremendous task to get any results from them at all. He had
never before appreciated how difficult it would be. For the railroad was
a machine infinitely complicated, infinitely delicate. At noon on the
morrow, scores of smooth and nicely-fitting parts would be removed, to
be replaced by rough and ill-fitting ones. Who could expect the machine
to work smoothly—or, indeed, to work at all,—under such circumstances?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XVI
THE STRIKE BEGINS
THE first day of the strike dawned much as any winter day might—cold and
blustery, with a threat of snow in the air. It can not be denied that
Allan was exceedingly nervous as he hastened to work. He stopped first
at the freight-house, but both Stanley and Reddy Magraw reported that
everything there was serene, and that the strikers had made no effort to
interfere with the men who were to supplant them.
About the yards, too, everything was moving as usual, and Allan began to
wonder if he were the only one to whom the coming hours seemed
threatening and full of menace. He might almost have fancied he had
dreamed the whole thing but for the patrol on duty before the
freight-house. At his desk, he made out the detail of crews from among
the strike-breakers, using for this purpose the reports which Mr. Round
had secured of the past performances and experience of the strangers.
These reports were anything but trustworthy, since they had come from
the men themselves, but they were the only thing to be had, and he made
up his lists from them, giving the more important trains to the men who
seemed best fitted to handle them. One thing made the task somewhat
easier than it would otherwise have been. He knew that for a few days,
at least, there would be no need to supply the places of conductors and
brakemen; only engineers and firemen had to be provided now, but, even
at that, it was with no little uneasiness that he finally passed the
list over to his stenographer to be copied.
The first important train for which he must supply a crew was Number
Three, the west-bound flyer, leaving Wadsworth at 2.30 P. M. As
engineer, he had selected a man named Hummel, who, from the report,
seemed to have had an exceptional experience. But as the morning
progressed, Allan grew more and more uneasy over the prospect of
choosing the wrong man for this important post, and finally decided to
have a look at Hummel before announcing the detail. So he called up the
freight-house and asked that that individual be sent over to him.
Five minutes later, one of Stanley’s deputies ushered into the chief
dispatcher’s office a man from whom Allan shrank instinctively as from a
serpent. He was a thin, undersized fellow, with a face deeply pitted and
with the ghastly pallour which smallpox sometimes leaves behind it. But
it was not the complexion so much as the eyes which disgusted and
repelled. It is difficult to describe the effect they produced—they were
so venomous, so bloodshot, so reptilian.
“Is your name Hummel?” Allan asked, speaking with an effort not to show
his repulsion.
“Yes, sir.”
“You seem to have had a good deal of experience.”
“Ten years of it,” answered Hummel, confidently.
“What was the trouble?”
“What trouble?” demanded Hummel truculently.
“How does it come you’re here?”
“Oh! Well, I never got a square deal. I ain’t no bootlicker I guess is
the reason.”
There was already a trace of hostility in his tone, as though he dimly
felt the aversion his appearance had occasioned.
“All right,” said Allan, “that’s all I want to know. Thank you for
coming over.”
He turned back to his work, and Hummel, after one venomous glance,
stalked out the door. Allan watched him and his guard as they crossed
the tracks toward the freight-house; then he reached for his list and
scratched out Hummel’s name. But which name should be substituted? He
hesitated for a moment and then, snatching up his hat, hastened over to
the freight-house himself. Half an hour later he returned, with some
little information as to the appearance of the owners of the several
names. Fully half of them he had checked off as not to be sent out at
all, unless it should prove absolutely necessary. From the other half he
chose the men who would be needed during the next twenty-four hours.
So the morning passed and noon came, and the great division clock ticked
off the seconds as calmly as though this midday was just like any other.
To all appearances it was. The first train to start, Number Four, the
east-bound flyer, left Cincinnati at 12.15, promptly on time. The
regular engineer had, of course, failed to report for duty, and when a
special man, convoyed by Mr. Schofield, climbed up on the engine, the
fireman, as Nixon had predicted, climbed down. Another man was promptly
put in his place, and no further disaffection developed, both conductor
and brakeman remained on duty, nor did any switchman attempt to
interfere with the train as it rolled slowly out of the yards and on to
the main track. Mr. Schofield had chosen the best men at his command for
this train, and as it passed station after station on time, Allan’s
spirits rose perceptibly.
Other trains were started out without misadventure. At Wadsworth, the
strike-breakers were convoyed to and from their trains by two of
Stanley’s men, the remainder patrolling the yards and keeping them clear
of loiterers. It was soon evident, however, that ten men would not be
enough to handle this work night and day, and Allan instructed Stanley
to swear in ten more deputies.
So the first afternoon passed and the first evening came.
It was a raw and blustery night, very dark, with dashes of sleet and
snow, and, while everything had passed off serenely without sign of
trouble, Allan was not wholly at ease as he left his office and started
home to supper. In fact, things were _too_ serene, and Allan could
scarcely believe that the strikers would permit their places to be
filled so quietly. Something of this apprehension must have been
apparent in his face, as he sat down to supper, for Mamie, who was
always quick to note any change in him, looked at him anxiously and
started to ask a question, but thought better of it and closed her lips
again.
“You’re lookin’ real tired, Allan,” Mary observed.
“I _am_ a little tired,” he admitted. “A good supper will set me up
again. Where’s Jack?”
“He hasn’t come yet. Delayed out on the road somewheres, I reckon. He’s
mighty uncertain at his meals since he got his promotion. Here he comes
now,” she added, as a heavy foot sounded on the side porch, and the back
door opened.
They heard him moving around in the kitchen, evidently washing up after
the day’s work. Then he opened the door and came into the dining-room.
“Hello,” he said, nodding all around, and taking his seat. “It’s a bad
night for sure. How’s everything goin’, Allan?”
“Oh, all right. We haven’t had a bit of trouble.”
“I judged so,” said Jack, “from the way the trains passed. I was over
near Hamden lookin’ after that new switch. I don’t think there’ll be any
trouble among the section-men or switchmen, either. They seem t’ think
the thing’s a joke.”
“Well, I don’t,” said Allan gloomily. “I think it’s very different from
a joke.”
The responsibility of his position was beginning to oppress him.
Heretofore there had always been somebody higher up with whom, in any
unusual emergency, he could consult. Now, he was thrown entirely upon
his own resources, and an emergency might arise at any moment which
might involve much more than the welfare of the road. Human life might
be involved, and law and order—all these might hinge upon a single word,
the decision of a moment. If only it might be given him to speak the
right word, to decide wisely! He trembled inwardly at thought of the
crisis he might be called upon to face.
“I’ve got to go back,” he said, at last, pushing back his chair. “I
don’t know how long I’ll be,” he added, “so don’t wait up for me.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Jack, catching a telegraphic glance from Mamie
and hastily gulping down his coffee. “I want to take a look around an’
see how things are.”
“All right,” said Allan, “come along,” and together they went out into
the night.
The wind had increased in violence and the weather was turning much
colder. They needed all their breath, as they fought their way up the
street against the wind. At the freight-shed, Allan paused for a word
with one of the guards, who was stamping his feet and clapping his arms
against his sides in an effort to keep warm.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” answered the guard, recognizing his voice, “everything
serene. Not a sign of trouble anywhere.”
“That’s good,” said Allan, and started across the yards.
“I’m goin’ to look around a while,” said Jack. “I’ll look you up in half
an hour or so.”
“All right,” said Allan, and continued on to his office, while Jack’s
figure vanished instantly in the darkness.
Jack had turned back toward the freight-house, intending to ask a few
questions of the guard, but as he passed the platform at the lower end,
a voice hailed him.
“That you, Jack?”
“Yes,” Welsh answered, peering around, “but where are you?”
“Down here under the platform,” and as Jack stooped, the odour of
tobacco smoke assailed his nostrils.
“Oh, is it you, Reddy?” he asked.
“Yes. Come under an’ set down.”
Jack groped his way under and, guided by the glow of Reddy’s pipe, sat
down beside him. The quarters were rather cramped, but the cold wind did
not reach them and so they were fairly comfortable.
“What you doin’ out here?” Jack demanded.
“Oh,” said Reddy, “I got so tired lookin’ at them bums in there an’
listenin’ to their big mouths, that I jest had t’ git away by myself an’
have a quiet smoke. Did ye ever wash dishes?”
“Oh, once in a while,” Jack answered, laughing, and getting out his pipe
to keep Reddy company.
“Well, it’s a mighty poor way t’ earn a livin’,” said the latter. “If it
wasn’t fer Allan, I’d a-thrown up the job afore I took it—but they’s
goin’ t’ be trouble.”
“There is? When?”
“Most any time. Them fellers can’t do without whiskey any more’n you kin
do without air. They’re havin’ a meetin’ about it now.”
“They are? What for?”
“They want t’ go an’ come as they please—between the freight-house an’
them saloons over there. They say they’re bein’ kept prisoners.”
“But that’s all nonsense!”
“Don’t I know it,” said Reddy, scornfully, gazing at the lighted windows
across the yards which marked the chief dispatcher’s office. “But any
excuse’ll do when a man’s lookin’ fer trouble. I guess the strikers had
a pointer this was comin’—that’s the reason they’ve been so quiet.”
“You mean you think there’s somebody tippin’ things off to them?”
“Yes; but I ain’t dead sure, yet,” answered Reddy, knocking out his
pipe. “Drop in here every evenin’ an’ see me, Jack,” he added. “I’d like
t’ talk things over with ye. I must be gittin’ back. Hello, there goes
the messenger,” he went on, as a figure strode from the freight-shed
across the yards. “Good-night.”
“Good-night,” Jack answered, and he sat watching the messenger. He saw
him mount the stair that led to the division offices, and, a few minutes
later, saw him come down again, accompanied by Allan West. He watched
them cross the yards towards him, and mount the platform, heard a door
open and shut, and all was still.
“If I could only help!” he murmured to himself, with drawn lips. “But I
can’t—I can’t! An’ it’s a hard fight!”
* * * * *
Meanwhile, inside the freight-house a queer scene was enacting. As must
be the case when any body of men are thrown together, a leader had
developed, or had arrogated to himself the rights of leadership. In this
instance, the leader, strangely enough, was not one of the larger or
older men, but a small fellow whose livid pock-marked face and shifty
eyes told of life in city slums and not in God’s open air—told, too, of
a soul as well as body infected—in a word, Hummel. The personnel of the
men had changed somewhat during the afternoon. Ten or twelve crews had
been sent out, and as many had come in, but there was still present a
majority of those who had arrived the night before. Hummel, of course,
had been assigned to no run, and those that remained with him were the
undesirables, the ones against whose names Allan had placed a
check-mark. Among these, Hummel had been working quietly all day,
talking to them first singly, then in groups of two and three, and
finally, when they had finished supper, he had spoken out boldly.
“I don’t know how you fellers feel about it,” he said, getting to his
feet and pounding on the table to attract their attention, “but I feel a
good deal as though I was in a lock-up. Oh, I ain’t no hypocrite—I knows
how a lock-up feels, and I guess I ain’t the only one here as does. But
I didn’t hire out to this here road t’ be locked up, an’ I won’t stand
it. This is a free country—”
“Now, see here, brother,” interposed Stanley, who had come hurrying up,
“you ain’t locked up, an’ you know it. We’re treatin’ you right. We’re
givin’ you good grub an’ a good bed an’ we’ve got a lookout jest to make
sure you ain’t interfered with.”
“You mean t’ say I kin go out that door if I want to?” queried Hummel.
“You sure can.”
“An’ come back if I want to?”
“No,” said Stanley, sweetly. “You can’t come back. If you go out, you
lose your job.”
“That’s it!” shouted Hummel, banging the table again. “We kin go out,
but we can’t come back! Why can’t we come back?”
“You’ll have to ask Mr. West,” replied Stanley.
“Who’s he?”
“He’s the chief dispatcher, and in charge here.”
“That kid what sent for me this mornin’?”
“The same. But he ain’t a kid an’ I’d advise you not to monkey with
him.”
“Pooh!” said Hummel, contemptuously. “I guess I kin hold my own with a
purty boy like that. Where is he?”
“I’ve sent for him. He’ll be here in a minute,” and indeed, even as he
spoke the words, Allan entered.
Hummel, thoroughly angry, looked Allan up and down with a single glance
of the eye, and continued to stare at him impudently as he approached.
“What’s the trouble, Stanley?” Allan queried, for he had heard Hummel’s
excited voice as he opened the door.
“Oh, I guess this feller has gone without booze about as long as he can
stand it,” answered Stanley, with a wave of his hand toward the
white-faced protestant. “He wants to go out an’ git some, I reckon.”
“That’s a lie!” shouted Hummel, waving his arms in the air. “All I want
is my rights as a free American citizen. You can’t work no peonage
racket on me. You can’t keep me a prisoner—”
“Nobody wants to,” broke in Allan. “Take your coat and hat and get out.”
“And I will come back—”
“No, you won’t—you’re fired. Get out.”
“When do I get my wages?”
“Next payday—in about three weeks.”
“That’s justice, ain’t it! I kin afford t’ loaf around here three weeks,
can’t I, t’ git one day’s pay!”
“Leave your address and the check will be sent you,” said Allan.
But that was just what Hummel could not do, for he had no idea where he
would be in three weeks. Besides, a glance around at the faces of his
companions showed him that he was going too fast—that he had not secured
their sympathy.
“All right,” he said, after a moment, controlling himself by a mighty
effort. “I guess I kin stand it awhile longer. I just wanted t’ be sure
you weren’t tryin’ to keep us prisoners. I’ll stay.”
“No, you won’t,” retorted Allan, promptly. “I’ve already told you you’re
fired. Now get out, or I’ll have Stanley throw you out. I guess you can
do it, can’t you, Stanley?”
“Try me,” said Stanley, grinning down from his six feet upon the little
man before him. “Say the word.”
But Hummel didn’t wait for that. With one glance at the big officer, he
turned to the wall and took down his overcoat from a hook where he had
hung it. His face was livid and his lips were drawn back from his yellow
teeth in an ugly snarl, as he started for the door. Stanley followed him
and gave the sentry outside word to pass him. Hummel went down the steps
silently, save for a queer hissing in his throat, and Stanley stood and
watched him until he disappeared in the darkness. Then he went slowly
back into the freight-shed, his face very grave.
“That fellow means trouble,” he said to himself. “He means trouble.
Mebbe I’d ort to run him in.”
Could he have seen Hummel at that moment, he would have been more than
ever convinced that he was a dangerous man to be at large. For he had
stopped in the shadow of a box-car and waited until Stanley, re-entering
the building, closed the door behind him. Then, creeping closer, he
concealed himself behind a pile of ties. There he sat down, hugging his
knees with his arms.
“I’ll git him,” he muttered, over and over to himself. “I’ll git him.
Oh, I’ll git him,” and he sat staring at the freight-house door with
eyes like a wild beast’s.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XVII
EVENTS OF THE NIGHT
INSIDE the freight-house, meanwhile, Allan had called the men together
and was giving them a little talk.
“I want you men to understand,” he said, “that you are in no sense
confined here. You’re free to go at any time. But if you do go, you
can’t come back. And I think all of you will understand the necessity
for that rule. We are keeping you here, at considerable expense to
ourselves, in order to protect you from interference by the strikers. We
are trying to see that you are well fed and comfortably lodged, and we
are giving you this board and lodging without charge. Of course, this
isn’t all pure philanthropy on our part. We are doing it because we
believe that it is only in this way we can keep you together. If we
permitted you to board and lodge out in the town, we would never know
when you were going to show up for your run. There would always be the
danger that you would be prevented from coming, either by force or
persuasion. It would be impossible for us to run the road in that way.
The only way we can run it is to know certainly that you will be on hand
when needed, and the only way we can be certain of that is to keep you
together. When the strike is ended, there will be no further need of
doing that, and a permanent place will be offered every one of you who
makes good. If there are any of you who aren’t willing to work for the
present under those conditions, now is the time to say so. If you want
to quit, you are free to do so.”
He looked around over the circle of faces, and waited a moment to see if
there was any response.
“That’s fair enough,” said one of the men at last. “I ain’t got no kick
comin’,” and he walked over toward his cot, and began to make
preparations to turn in. Two or three others followed his example, and
finally the whole group broke up quietly.
“And _that’s_ all right,” said Stanley, with a sigh of relief. “I’m glad
we got rid of that other duck. He meant trouble—an’ he means it yet. You
look out for him, Mr. West.”
“All right,” answered Allan, with a laugh. “I guess I can look out for
myself.”
“You’ll need an eye in the back of your head t’ do it,” commented
Stanley. “He’s the style that hits from behind.”
“Well, I’ll keep my eyes open—and you keep yours open, too.”
“Trust me for that,” said the detective. “Good night, sir.”
“Good-night,” said Allan and stepped out into the darkness.
As his feet touched the platform outside the door he felt that it was
covered with sleet, and by the glint of a distant street lamp, he could
see that the sleet was still falling. He hesitated an instant, looking
up and down the street.
“Bad night for railroading,” he said to himself. “I guess I’d better see
how things are going,” and instead of descending the steps to the
street, he followed the platform around the building and started across
the tracks toward his office.
Jack Welsh, sitting under the platform where Reddy had left him, smoked
his pipe placidly and stared out across the maze of tracks which
separated him from the depot building across the yards. A sputtering arc
light hung before the station, revealing the groups of figures picking
their way carefully along the icy station platform. The rails gleamed
white with their coating of ice, and the storm of sleet fell
incessantly. Overhead Jack could hear the burdened wires creaking under
their load of ice. Occasionally the yard engine came slipping along,
vomiting sand on both rails in its effort to grip them, but freight was
light, and after awhile, its work ended for a time, it retired to the
lower yards, where it stood puffing on a siding. The east-bound flyer,
Number Two, was past due, but its failure to arrive caused Jack no
uneasiness, for he knew that it was impossible for any train to keep to
its schedule on such a night. Occasionally he heard overhead the tramp
of the guard going his rounds; far down the yards gleamed the red and
yellow lamps guarding the switches; a switchman’s lantern waved from
time to time. Jack, sitting cosily in his shelter, watched and
understood and revelled in all this; for your old railroad man—born and
bred amid these surroundings—finds his work grow more interesting, more
fascinating, from year to year, until any other employment seems pale
and savourless by comparison.
As Welsh sat there musing, a quick step sounded on the platform over his
head, and a lithe figure jumped to the ground and started across the
tracks toward the offices.
“O’ course he’d be goin’ back there instead o’ goin’ home,” Jack
muttered to himself. “Now, what’d I better do? Hello, what’s that?”
He had caught the sound of a stealthy step overhead, and an instant
later, a slim form leaped to the ground and sprang after Allan as swift
and noiseless as a panther.
There was a menace in that crouched figure which brought Jack out from
under the platform with a jerk. Staring with startled eyes, he fancied
he caught a gleam as of a knife-blade in the air and a warning cry
leaped involuntarily to his lips.
“Hey, Allan. Look out!” he shouted.
And Allan, starting sharp around at the cry, found himself face to face
with Hummel.
The latter, stopping short in his swift career by a mighty effort, stood
for an instant, his face convulsed, one hand behind him.
“Well, what is it?” Allan asked, sharply, surveying him with
astonishment.
“I—I wanted t’ see you,” answered Hummel, thickly. “I—I—”
“Well, go on,” said Allan, impatiently, as the latter stopped.
“I was hurryin’,” Hummel gasped. “I’m out o’ breath. I wants me job
back.”
“You can’t have it. Now get out of these yards. If I catch you here
again, I’ll have you run in.”
Hummel’s face flushed, and he made a convulsive movement forward, but
stopped, as he heard rapid steps drawing near.
“Why, was it you who shouted, Jack?” asked Allan, in surprise, as the
latter came running up. “What was the matter?”
“I seen this feller sneakin’ acrost the yards after you,” Jack
explained, apologetically, “an’ I thought he meant trouble. I didn’t
know he was a friend o’ yours.”
“I jest wanted t’ speak t’ him,” said Hummel, gruffly, and started to
turn away.
But Jack caught him by the arm.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “Let’s look into this. Is he a friend o’
yours?”
“No,” Allan answered. “Quite the contrary. He’s a fellow I fired a while
ago.”
“Oh,” said Jack, and looked at Hummel more closely. “What’re ye holdin’
one hand behind your back for?” he demanded. “Let’s see it!”
He grabbed at the hidden hand, but at the same instant Hummel, supple as
an eel, slipped from his grasp, ducked, and sped down the yards like a
shadow.
Jack and Allan stood for an instant staring after him. Then the former,
with a sudden exclamation, raised his hand and looked at it. It was
covered with blood.
“I thought so!” he cried. “He had a knife! I saw it when he was runnin’
after you.”
“Are you hurt?” and Allan, snatching out his handkerchief, wiped away
the blood.
“Only a scratch. The knife got me when I grabbed at him. It’s nothin’.
You go ahead, an’ I’ll see if I can find him.”
Allan, examining the wound, saw that it was not a deep one.
“All right,” he said, wrapping his handkerchief about it. “I’ll wait for
you at the office.”
Jack nodded and hastened away down the yards in the direction Hummel had
taken. But search as he might, he found no trace of that worthy, who had
dived in among a lot of box cars stored on the sidings, and made good
his escape.
* * * * *
Allan, meanwhile, continued on to his office, and sat thoughtfully down
before his desk. The incident of the evening, his own narrow escape,
enlightened him as to the danger of the situation. Calm as it appeared
on the surface, it was perilous enough underneath, like a vast bed of
lava, apparently cool and firm, but ready, at any pin-prick, to burst
forth into white-hot flame. He shivered a little at thought of the days
to follow and the problems they would present.
But after a moment he shook such thoughts impatiently away. Time enough
to cross a bridge when he came to it. Now there were other matters
demanding his attention. For, as the night progressed, the load of sleet
burdened the wires more and more heavily, until some gave way and the
others sputtered and stuttered and sent operators and dispatchers alike
to the verge of frenzy.
Nothing disorganizes a railroad more quickly than impeded or inefficient
wires, for the reason that its operation depends wholly upon its
telegraph system. To interfere with that means inevitably to interfere
with traffic, to obstruct it is to obstruct traffic, and to stop it is
to stop traffic, or to compel it, at best, to creep painfully along from
station to station with one flagman walking in front of every train and
another following it a hundred yards in the rear. It may be added that
it was the telegraph which made modern railroading possible; and that it
becomes impossible at the moment when the dispatcher at headquarters
cannot, in some way, keep informed of the position of every train.
So to-night with the wires chattering unintelligible nonsense instead of
the usual crisp orders and reports, operators and dispatchers were at
their wits’ ends, traffic was delayed, the schedule abandoned and the
only hope was that some way, somehow, they would get through the night
without accident.
Allan stood for a moment at the door of the dispatchers’ office
listening to the crazy instruments.
“I’ve only got one wire left,” announced the dispatcher in charge of the
Parkersburg division, “and I might as well try to send a message over a
piece of clothes line as over it. I haven’t any idea where that extra
west is. It left Vigo half an hour ago, and hasn’t been seen since.”
“Where’s Number Two?” asked Allan.
“Number Two will be here in four or five minutes,” answered the other
dispatcher.
“And that freight ought to have been here ten minutes ago!” wailed the
first speaker. “Oh, its enough to drive a man crazy,” and he went on
calling Schooley’s.
The east bound flyer could not, of course, be permitted to leave
Wadsworth until the west-bound freight had pulled in, or had been
definitely located. It was lost as completely as though it had wandered
away to the farthest corner of the globe.
Allan stood for a moment with a line of perplexity between his eyebrows.
Then he looked up with a sudden interest as he heard the faint
click-click, click-click which told that the operator at Schooley’s had
answered at last.
“How about extra west?” clicked the dispatcher.
“Passed here at 9.22,” came the answer.
Allan glanced at the clock. It was 9.47; in other words, the train had
passed Schooley’s twenty-five minutes previously, and Schooley’s was
only seven miles out. That seven miles should have been covered in
fifteen minutes at the outside. What, then, had happened to delay the
train?
A long whistle in the distance told of the approach of the flyer, and a
minute later, it rumbled into the station and came wheezing to a stop.
The train would stop for five minutes to change engines. That it should
be held up longer than that by a freight train was heartrending. It was
over half an hour late already, and Allan had hoped that some of this
lost time might be made up on the run east to Parkersburg.
“There’s only one thing to be done,” he said, “and that’s to flag out
till we find that freight train,” and he hurried down the stairs to give
the necessary orders.
Already the new engine had been backed up and coupled onto the train.
Engineer and fireman were in their places, having been convoyed safely
across the yards by two of Stanley’s men, who remained in the cab to see
that they were not interfered with until the train should pull out.
[Illustration: “HE EXPLAINED THE DIFFICULTY TO THE ENGINEER.”]
At the foot of the stairs, Allan met the conductor, Andy Leaveland, one
of the oldest on the road. He was on his way up to register and get his
orders, when Allan stopped him.
“I’ve got the orders, Mr. Leaveland,” he said. “We’ll have to flag out.”
“_Flag_ out!” cried the veteran. “What’s the matter? Wires down?”
“There’s a freight lost somewhere between here and Schooley’s. We’ve got
to find it. You’d better start your brakeman out right away.”
“All right,” said Leaveland, and hurried away, while Allan walked
forward to the engine.
He explained the difficulty to the engineer, and a minute later, the
brakeman, armed with lantern, torpedoes and fusee, hurried past.
Leaveland gave him time to get two or three hundred yards ahead, and
then gave the signal to start.
The train crawled slowly out through the yards, past the shops and the
great coal chute, and finally emerged upon the main track. Far ahead,
Allan could see the brakeman’s lantern bobbing along. The ice on the
track rendered rapid walking impossible and more than once, the train
was brought to a stop to give the brakeman a chance to maintain his
distance. Back in the coaches, the passengers were fuming and fretting,
while the conductor was doing his best to pacify them.
“We’re going mighty slow,” he said. “Most roads would go faster. But
this road don’t take any chances. We won’t get you through on time, but
we’ll get you through safe and sound, without the slightest chance of
accident. I guess if we put it to a vote, most of you would vote for
safety rather than speed,” and he looked around at the passengers with a
smile.
“You bet we would,” assented one of the men, and there was less
grumbling after that.
And yet there are few things more trying to the nerves than to ride in a
train which may proceed no faster than a man can walk. An hour was
consumed in covering five miles, and not a trace of the missing freight
had been discovered. Another mile—and then Allan, staring forward
through the night, saw the brakeman’s lantern waving violently.
“He’s found something,” he said, and the engineer nodded.
The next moment, a fusee flared redly through the darkness, lighting up
the brakeman—and something on the track back of him—a dim shape—
“Why, it’s the train!” cried Allan. “And with its headlight out! And
with no brakeman out to protect it! I don’t understand it!” And he sat
with his brows knitted in thought as the train rolled slowly forward.
It stopped within thirty feet of the other train, and Allan swung
himself to the ground and ran forward.
“What’s happened?” he asked the brakeman, who came to meet him. “Where’s
the crew?”
“Blamed if I know,” answered the brakeman, in an awed voice. “There’s
the train, but nary a trace of her crew could I find. She’s deserted!”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XVIII
THE DERELICT
DRIFTING along the ocean currents of the world are scores of abandoned,
water-logged ships, washed by the waves and buffeted by the winds, yet
still, by some miracle, keeping afloat. Every one of them tells of some
tragedy of the sea—of some supreme moment of peril, when, thinking the
end at hand, the crew has taken to the boats and left their ship to its
fate. And there is no peril of the deep more dreaded by mariners, for it
is one that can not be foreseen nor guarded against. Lying low in the
waves, heavy and water-logged, these hulks drift down upon a ship unseen
in the watches of the night; there is a crash, a rush of water—and
another tragedy has been enacted.
Another tragedy which, only a few short years ago, too frequently meant
the loss of the ship and every soul on board. How often has some stately
vessel, thronged with happy people, set sail from a crowded harbour over
a fair summer sea, upon a voyage seemingly certain to prove prosperous
and pleasant—never to be seen again! How agonized those first days of
uncertainty when the ship did not appear at the port for which it had
set sail. Days passed, and still no word from it; days and days, during
which hope changed to doubt and doubt to despair; days and days, until
finally men knew that it would never appear—that it had vanished into
the deep—that it had struck an iceberg or a derelict and sunk with all
on board.
But science, with its giant strides, has changed all that. The ship may
go down, but at least she can give warning of her danger. For in a
little cubby-hole on the upper deck, his hand upon his instrument, sits
the wireless operator, flashing to the four winds of heaven the “C. Q.
D., C. Q. D.,” which tells of deadly peril and the need of instant aid.
And every ship within a hundred miles, catching that signal, turns in
her tracks and speeds, full steam ahead, to render what aid she can.
Truly, a fearful and wonderful thing, this wireless, with its slender
filaments and lofty masts and bursts of ether-compelling flame, yoking
to man’s service something more impalpable than the air itself, binding
ocean to ocean around the whole face of the earth. An accident may
happen—that ship may go down—the derelict may do its deadly work—but at
least the world will know. And if there is any vessel within reaching
distance, the passengers will be saved! Ill-fated _Bourgogne_, slowly
settling beneath the icy waters off the Grand Banks, with aid just
beyond the horizon, but all unconscious of her desperate need; ill-fated
_Naronic_, lost with all on board, how or where for all time unsolved
and unsolvable; ill-fated _Republic_, sending forth her cry for aid
through the night and through the fog, lost, indeed, but with every
living soul saved uninjured—a new tale and a new wonder on history’s
page!
* * * * *
But here was a derelict of a new kind—a derelict on land—no less deadly
than the derelict on sea; standing four-square in the way of traffic, a
threat and a mystery.
Some such thought as this ran through Allan’s mind, as he stood for an
instant staring in astonishment at the deserted train. Why was it here?
Why had it been abandoned? What stress of peril was it had compelled its
crew to leave it? What peril could there be to drive them not only from
the train, but from the neighbourhood? The question staggered the
reason. Above all, why had its headlight been extinguished? That seemed
to argue design—seemed to argue malicious intent—seemed to argue that
the missing crew were deserters, traitors—as much a traitor as the
soldier who deserts in the face of the enemy.
And then, as the steam popped off from the abandoned locomotive, he
awoke with a start to the necessity for instant action.
“We’ve got to get that train in on a siding,” he said to the brakeman.
“We’ll have to back up to Schooley’s. It’s only a mile. Ask Leaveland
and his engineer to come here right away.”
As the fireman hurried away, Allan ran forward and swung himself up into
the cab of the deserted engine. He glanced at the water gauge and saw
that there was plenty of water in the boiler, but he opened the door of
the fire-box as an extra precaution. Evidently the engine had been
abandoned only a short time before, for the fire was burning briskly. He
saw that the brakes had been applied and the throttle closed—
“What’s the matter?” asked Leaveland’s voice. “Is this the train?”
“Yes, this is the train, all right,” Allan answered, “but I don’t see
anything of the crew.”
“Well, I’ll be hanged!” and Leaveland scratched his head in perplexity.
“What do you suppose happened?”
“I don’t know. Let’s take a look at the caboose,” and jumping to the
ground, he started back along the train.
The door of the caboose was swinging open, and a glare of yellow light
came through it from the oil lamp, with polished tin reflector back of
it, which was attached to the front wall. Allan sprang up the steps,
with Leaveland after him, and both of them stopped in astonishment at
the open door. The caboose was empty, but two stools stood on the floor
before the stove, and between them a box on which was a checker-board
and checkers. Evidently the conductor and rear brakeman had been playing
together, but had been interrupted in their game and had left the board
just as it was, expecting to return to it. They had not returned,
however, but had vanished as completely as though the earth had opened
and swallowed them.
“Well, I’ll be hanged!” said Leaveland again. “There’s something mighty
queer about this. If I believed in ghosts, now—”
“No, I don’t think it’s ghosts,” laughed Allan. “But we can’t stop to
investigate. We’d better couple the two engines together, and let Number
Two push this train back to Schooley’s. You go ahead and have that done,
and I’ll stay here. I’ll burn a fusee if I want you to stop, but I don’t
think there’s any danger, because nothing will get past Schooley’s till
this train has been accounted for.”
“All right, sir,” assented Leaveland, and hurried back toward the
engine.
Allan, left to himself, made a careful inspection of the caboose, but
search as he might, he could find nothing that shed the slightest light
upon the disappearance of the train crew. It was evident that there had
been no struggle of any kind. He found the conductor’s report made up
ready to turn in at the end of the trip, and his lantern and dinner-pail
on the floor near the door. The more he examined the surroundings the
plainer it was that when the conductor and brakeman left the caboose,
they had expected to return to it in a minute or two. And that they had
left it only a short time before was evident from the fact that the fire
in their stove had just been renewed and was burning briskly.
He gave up the problem, at last, and getting a fusee out of the box
where they were kept, he stepped out upon the rear platform. As he did
so, he heard the cars of the train buckling toward him, and an instant
later the caboose caught the motion and started slowly up the track
toward Schooley’s. The mile was soon covered, and the train, coming to a
stop just outside the little town, was run in on a siding, while the
flyer proceeded on to the station. There Allan reported it, secured
orders for it, and sent it on its way. Then he proceeded to try to solve
the mystery of the abandoned freight train.
But there was little or nothing to be learned concerning it more than he
already knew. It had passed through Schooley’s without stopping, and the
operator there had observed nothing wrong with it. After half an hour’s
inquiry, Allan gave it up, ordered another crew sent out from Wadsworth,
and finally, after reporting the occurrence to Stanley, turned in at his
own gate about midnight, very tired and not a little worried.
As he entered the house, he was surprised to see a light burning in the
dining-room, and he opened the door softly and looked in. For a moment,
he saw no one, and thinking that the room was empty and that the light
had simply been left burning for him, he was about to turn it out, when
his eyes fell upon a figure curled up on the lounge which stood against
the wall under the windows.
“Why, it’s Mamie!” he said, half to himself, and took a step toward her.
“I wonder—”
And then he stopped suddenly, for, awakened by the noise of his entrance
or by the consciousness of his presence, she opened her eyes and looked
at him.
For a moment, she lay so, looking up, her lips parted in a smile. Then,
with a quick movement, she brushed her hand over her eyes and sat
upright, her cheeks crimson with a strange confusion.
“Why, Allan!” she cried. “Do you know, I—I must have been asleep!”
“Yes,” he agreed, laughing. “I don’t think there’s any doubt of it.
Since when have you taken to sleeping on this lounge?”
“I wasn’t at all sleepy to-night,” Mamie explained, “and I knew it
wasn’t any use to go to bed, so I thought I’d read awhile till I got
sleepy or till you—till you—”
“Or till I got home,” said Allan, finishing the sentence for her.
“Admit, Mamie, that you were sitting up for me!”
“Yes, I was!” confessed the girl, raising her eyes for one swift glance
at him. “Dad came home and told about that horrid man trying to kill
you, and I—I just couldn’t stand it to go to bed without seeing you.”
Allan took a quick turn up and down the room. That shy and timorous
glance had moved him strangely, as did the faltering words which
followed it.
“Suppose he had killed you!” she added, with a little gasp of horror at
the thought.
“But he didn’t,” said Allan, coming back to her. “So what’s the use of
supposing anything of the sort?”
“Dad says he’ll be sure to try it again. Dad says—”
“Dad says altogether too much,” broke in Allan. “Now, see here, Mamie,
I’m not going to have you worried like this. Wait till I see your
father!”
“Oh, but I want him to tell me! If you’re in danger, I want to know it!”
“But I’m not in any danger—as for that affair with Hummel, it happened
so long ago that I’d nearly forgotten it.”
“So long ago!” cried Mamie. “Why, it was only this evening!”
“Well, so much has happened since. Mamie, I’m worried to death,” he
added, with sudden weakness. “The queerest thing happened to-night you
ever heard of.”
“Tell me about it,” said Mamie, her face glowing with pleasure at this
call for sympathy and help; and she patted the lounge invitingly. I fear
there was some instinct of the coquette in Mamie, or she would not have
done that! Some true womanly instinct, too, or she would not have so
welcomed this chance to be of help.
Allan sat down, his pulses not wholly steady, and told of the strange
disappearance of the crew of the extra west, while Mamie listened
spell-bound.
“Well, if that doesn’t beat anything I ever heard!” she cried, when he
had finished. “What do you suppose happened?”
“I haven’t any idea. Only I’m sure the strikers must have had something
to do with it. I’m going to take Stanley out to look the place over in
the morning. Maybe we’ll discover something. Stanley is pretty shrewd,
you know.”
“But if the strikers had something to do with it,” Mamie protested,
“maybe they will be there yet! And you will walk right into them!”
“Well?” laughed Allan. “What if I do? Indeed, I hope I will!”
“Oh, but think what they will do to you!”
“They won’t do anything very bad! We’re not living in the Middle Ages,
Mamie. I believe you think we’re going to find the bloody corpses of
that train crew out there in a ditch, somewhere!”
“But if they aren’t dead, where are they?”
“Kidnapped. The strikers are taking that method of getting our men away
from us.”
Mamie thought it over a minute, and then shook her head.
“Maybe you’re right,” she said, “but it seems to me that the strikers
would be pretty foolish to do anything like that. Suppose they do take a
crew, that won’t matter much, will it?”
“No; not one crew; but suppose they keep on taking them?”
Mamie stared at him with wide-open eyes.
“Do you mean that’s what you think they’ll do?” she questioned.
“I don’t know—it’s a thought that came to me. But it seems foolish, too.
Well, we’ll find out in the morning. And now you must be getting to bed.
How about the beauty sleep?”
“Beauty sleep, indeed!” cried Mamie, tossing her head. “I don’t need any
beauty sleep!”
“No, you don’t!” agreed Allan, gazing at the piquant face. “Do you know,
Mamie, you’re growing up into the prettiest girl imaginable!”
“Growing up!” echoed Mamie. “I’ve grown up! Why, I’m nearly seventeen!”
“A tremendous age!”
“Old enough to know you’re talking nonsense!” she retorted, but with the
colour coming and going in her cheeks.
“I’m not!” he protested. “It’s true! If I was younger, Mamie, I’d be
falling in love with you!”
“Younger!”
“I’m twenty-seven.”
“A tremendous age!” she echoed, glancing up at him.
“Ten years older than you!”
“Pooh! What’s ten years?”
“Well, it’s a good deal,” said Allan, rising with an effort. “And I feel
considerably older than twenty-seven to-night—more like forty! You can
keep on sitting up, if you want to, but I’m going to bed. Good-night.”
Mamie had risen too, a strange light in her eyes. She watched him as he
turned away, and then, when his hand was on the knob of the door, she
called him.
“Allan.”
“Yes?” he said, turning and looking at her.
The lamplight sent little mocking shadows across her face and brought
out the glint of gold in her hair. He held on to the door-knob to keep
from going back to her.
“Promise me you’ll not run into any danger,” she said, softly.
“Of course I won’t—not unless I have to.”
“Not even if you have to!”
“What—run away?” he demanded, staring at her in astonishment. “You
wouldn’t have me do that, Mamie?”
“No,” she said, “I wouldn’t have you do that! Good-night, Allan.”
“Good-night,” he repeated, and opened the door and went resolutely up
the stair to his room.
And Mamie, standing listening until the sound of his steps died away, at
last flung herself down upon the lounge and buried her face in her arms.
Her eyes were wet with tears—but they were tears of joy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XIX
THE OLD STONE HOUSE
IT is doubtful if any sensation had ever stirred the staid little town
of Wadsworth from centre to circumference as did the news to which it
awoke next morning. The story of the missing train crew, of the
mysteriously abandoned train, flew from mouth to mouth, gaining always
in the telling some thrilling detail, the generally accepted version
being that the strikers had wrecked the train and butchered the crew,
the conductor and brakeman perishing in trying to protect the “scab”
engineer and fireman. There was no one to worry especially about the
latter, for they were strangers whose names were not even known, but the
conductor and the two brakemen all had families, to say nothing of
relatives and friends, and all of these were very properly exercised.
Allan, foreseeing this excitement, reached his office almost at
daybreak, but early as it was, he found three excited women awaiting
him, demanding information, hope, encouragement. Of information he had
little to give, but of hope and encouragement a-plenty.
“There’s absolutely no reason why you should be so worried,” he told
them, when he got them into his office and the door closed. “Your
husbands haven’t been injured in any way—I’m sure of it. They’ll be back
safe and sound in a day or two.”
“What makes you think they haven’t been hurt?” demanded one of the
women. “You don’t really know, do you?”
“No, I don’t really know. But it’s absurd to believe anything else.”
“But who did it?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you suspect! Oh, if I thought it was the strikers, I’d—I’d tear
their eyes out!”
And the other two women added that they would be glad to help.
“Now, see here,” broke in Allan, realizing that forceful measures were
necessary, “we mustn’t have any nonsense of that sort. I don’t know
whether it was the strikers or not—there’s nothing to show it was. If it
was, they’ll be punished—trust me for that. If it wasn’t, let’s not
accuse them. I want you to promise to leave this thing in my hands.
We’re going to do everything possible to clear it up. I want you to
promise me to go home and stay there and not do any talking for
forty-eight hours.”
“And if we do, what will you promise?”
Allan hesitated an instant.
“I’ll promise,” he said, drawing a deep breath, “that in forty-eight
hours the men will be back again.”
They gazed at him a moment—at the clear eyes, the firm lips, the
determined jaw—and something of his self-confidence communicated itself
to them. And they promised and left the office in much better spirits
than when they had entered it.
Almost before the door closed after them, Allan had summoned Stanley,
and while waiting for that worthy to appear, gave orders that no
information concerning the mystery, or concerning anything else
connected with the strike should be given out by anyone but himself. He
wanted to be left free, for a few hours, at least, to work on the case
in his own way.
Stanley, evidently knowing what was in the wind, lost no time in obeying
the summons. Allan told him, briefly, the story of the mystery, and laid
before him the theory which he had mentioned to Mamie the night
before—that this was only a preliminary move on the part of the
strikers. Stanley listened in silence, and sat for a moment thinking it
over when Allan had finished.
“I don’t know,” he said, at last. “I can’t say I think much of your
theory. It looks to me like a mighty bold thing for the strikers to
do—an’ what’s worse, a mighty foolish one. They can’t hope to capture
enough men to really cripple us. Where would they keep them?”
“I’m sure I don’t know. But what other explanation can there be?”
“Well,” said Stanley, “I’m always in favour of the simplest explanation.
Maybe the whole thing was just a plain robbery. Were the car seals
examined after the train got in?”
“Yes—I’d thought of that. None of the seals were broken.”
“It ain’t so much of a trick t’ doctor a seal, if a feller’s fixed for
it,” Stanley observed.
“But suppose it was a robbery—where is the crew? Nobody would want to
steal them?”
“I’d like to look over the ground before I do any more guessing,” said
Stanley. “Why can’t I run out there? Everything’s quiet here and I can
be back by night.”
“Just what I was thinking of,” agreed Allan. “And I’m going with you. We
can take the accommodation—I’ll get the conductor to drop us off at the
place we found the train.”
“All right,” said Stanley, rising. “I’ll just run over to the
freight-house an’ give my men a few orders. I’ll be back in five
minutes.”
“We’ve got fifteen,” said Allan, glancing at his watch. “I’ll meet you
down on the platform.” Then he called the office-boy from the outer
room. “Jim,” he said, “I’m going to be busy for a while and don’t want
to be disturbed. See that I’m not.”
“All right, sir,” said Jim, and retired to take his stand before the
door, like Cerberus before the gate of Hades.
For the next ten minutes, Allan devoted his whole mind to clearing away
the accumulated work which piled his desk. Fortunately, he had an
intelligent and efficient stenographer, and tossed the last letter to
him just as the accommodation pulled in.
“That’s all,” he said. “I’m going out to Schooley’s. You can catch me
there, if you need me, but I’ll probably be back by the middle of the
afternoon. Hello!” he added, as he reached for coat and hat, “what’s all
that noise?”
And, indeed, from the sounds, it seemed that a riot of some sort was
taking place in the outer office.
Allan flung open the door, and paused, amazed, on the threshold. For a
dozen men rushed at him with a violence which almost carried him off his
feet.
“Here; hold on!” he shouted. “What’s the matter with you fellows,
anyway?”
“We want to know—”
“Everybody says see you—”
“We must have the story—”
“Oh, reporters!” cried Allan, suddenly understanding. “I can’t give you
anything now, boys; I’ve got to catch a train. I’ll give you the whole
story as soon as I get back.”
“When will that be?”
“Sometime this afternoon.”
“But, look here,” began one of the men desperately; but Allan tore his
way through and sprang down the steps two at a time.
At the foot, another man was waiting for him, and Allan recognized the
special delegate.
“See here, Mr. West,” he began, excitedly, “I understand the
Brotherhood’s accused of having a hand in this thing, and I just want to
say to you that it didn’t—”
“All right,” said Allan, and swung himself on to the rear platform of
the train. “I’ll be back this afternoon. Drop in and talk it over.”
“I will. There isn’t a bit of truth in the—”
But the delegate’s voice was drowned by the rumble of the train as it
started.
Allan, entering the coach, found Stanley awaiting him. They dropped into
a seat together.
“Well, did they get you?” asked the detective, grinning.
“I managed to break away. But I nearly missed the train. Then that
fellow in charge of the strike held me up to say the Brotherhood hadn’t
anything to do with this thing.”
“Oh, no,” said Stanley, “of course the Brotherhood didn’t. But that
isn’t saying that none of its members did.”
The conductor came up at that moment and stopped for a moment’s chat.
“We want to drop off about a mile and a half this side of Schooley’s,”
said Allan. “I’ll show you the place.”
“All right. Going out to look over the ground?”
“Yes; and to solve the riddle if we can. By the way, I’m glad to see the
conductors and brakemen still at work. I hope you’re going to stick.”
“Well,” answered the other, “we had a meeting last night, but of course
I can’t tell you what happened there. I can say this, though—you don’t
need to lose any sleep over it yet awhile.”
“That’s good,” said Allan, his cheeks flushing with pleasure. “Here we
are!” he added, as he glanced out the window.
The conductor pulled the signal cord sharply and Allan and Stanley
dropped off as the train’s speed slackened. Then the conductor gave the
go-ahead signal, and the train sped eastward on its way.
They had been carried a little past the place where the derelict had
been discovered. Allan led the way back, pointed out the spot, as nearly
as he could—very nearly, however, for he found the fusee which the
fireman had burnt—and then sat down on the bank beside the roadway,
while Stanley prowled up and down like some sort of wild beast. His
great hooked nose seemed to grow longer and more hooked, and his little
close-set eyes sparkled with a strange brilliancy. For Stanley was
really a man of considerable ability and had been successful in clearing
up more than one abstruse problem. Allan watched him with a good deal of
curiosity, and the thought came to him that he would not care to have
this fellow on his trail.
“I can’t make much out of it,” Stanley said at last, stopping before
Allan. “Let’s look around the neighbourhood a little.”
The track, at this point, ran along a shallow cut, the bank on either
side rising to a height of two or three feet. The right of way, about
twenty-five feet in width, was bordered by rail fences, and back of them
was a stretch of scrubby woodland. Stanley, walking slowly along the
bank on the left, stopped suddenly and pointed to the ground.
“Look at that,” he said. “There’s been a wagon here. Two wagons,” he
added, a moment later, pointing to other traces.
“To take the prisoners away in,” ventured Allan.
“Maybe, maybe,” muttered his companion. “And maybe to take something
else away in. Let’s see where they went.”
The tracks could be followed without difficulty in the soft earth. They
led to a break in one of the fences and on through the strip of woodland
to a road on the farther side. There they turned westward and were lost
amid the ruts of the road.
“Well,” said Stanley, stopping and looking along it, “I think, if you
don’t mind, that I’d like to spend a day or two trying to run those
fellows down. I don’t see that I’m needed back at Wadsworth—everything’s
quiet there, and my men know their business. Besides, you can keep an
eye on them. This affair kind of worries me. There’s more in it than
appears on the surface. What do you say?”
“All right,” Allan agreed. “I’d like to have this thing cleared up. Do
you think you can do it?”
“I can try, anyway,” said Stanley. “And I’ll start right away. I don’t
want the trail to get any colder. Good by.”
“Good by,” said Allan; “and good luck.”
He stood watching Stanley’s gaunt figure until it disappeared around a
turn in the road, wishing absurdly that he could go along; then he
turned eastward toward the little station of Schooley’s, a mile or more
away. The road was one evidently not much used, for it was rutted and
uneven and in poor repair. The fall and winter rains had washed it
badly, and evidently no effort had been made to repair it. In fact, it
soon grew so bad that Allan began to doubt whether it was anything more
than a private road. The trees on either side grew closer and closer to
it, there was no vestige of a fence, and after a time it became apparent
that its direction had changed so that it was not leading him toward
Schooley’s at all. A glance at the sun showed him that it was past
midday, and his stomach began to warn him that he had eaten nothing
since breakfast early that morning.
He stopped for a moment in perplexity and considered what he would
better do. He might strike off into the woods in the direction in which
he thought Schooley’s to be, but he was by no means certain of the
direction, and the most probable result of such a course would be to get
lost and miss his way entirely. The road he was following must certainly
lead to a house; there were wagon tracks and hoof-prints on it which
seemed fresh, so he concluded that the best thing he could do was to
push forward as rapidly as possible, find the house to which the road
led, and then, if he was any considerable distance from Schooley’s, hire
a vehicle of some sort to take him on to his destination.
He walked on more rapidly, after that, following the road as it turned
and twisted among the trees. The ground grew uneven and at last actually
hilly, and the road grew worse and worse. Allan began to fear that it
led only to a wood-lot or outlying field, and was more than once tempted
to turn back, seek the railroad track and follow it into Schooley’s. But
always he resolved to go around the next corner and the next, and
finally his perseverance was rewarded.
For there, almost hidden behind a screen of trees, with hills protecting
it on either side, stood an old stone house.
Heartened by this discovery, Allan hurried forward, and yet, as he drew
near, he hesitated, for there was about the place something
indescribably desolate and dreary—something almost threatening. The
windows across the front of the house were all closed by heavy shutters.
There were five of them, one on either side of the door in the lower
story, and three in the story above. The house was square and solidly
built, but had fallen into neglect and decay. The roof was covered with
moss, and the path to the front door broken and uneven. There was a
tumble-down barn some distance back of it and one or two other decrepit
outbuildings, from which, however, came no sign of life.
Allan, for a moment, thought the house deserted, too; then his eyes
caught a faint streamer of smoke which drifted sluggishly upward from
one of the chimneys, and, encouraged by this sign of human occupancy, he
hastened forward and knocked at the front door.
There was no response, and he knocked again more loudly. Still there was
no response, though he fancied that he detected a sort of uneasy
movement inside the house, as though some one were moving cautiously
along the hall, and he had a sensation as though some one was staring
out at him. It was a sensation anything but pleasant, as every one who
has experienced it knows, and it required no little resolution for him
to carry his quest further. But he resolutely shook away the feeling of
uneasiness, and, leaving the front door, he proceeded around the house,
determined to try a door at the back. He knew that there was some one in
the house and he determined to have him out.
He found the rear of the house even more dilapidated and forbidding than
the front. A ramshackle porch ran across the back, in the last stages of
decay, its floor rotted through and its roof falling in. Near by was an
old pump which had evidently yielded no water for many years. This did
not seem to indicate that the house was occupied, but Allan picked his
way carefully across the porch, and knocked at the back door. Again
there was silence. He banged with his closed fist, and when there was no
response, he tried the door, rattling the knob fiercely. But the door
was locked. And then, suddenly, it seemed to him that he could hear a
confused sound of voices, faint and far-away. He listened intently, and
banged the door again, and again there came that confused murmur. After
all it might be only an echo, Allan told himself; no doubt the house was
cavernous and empty, and would re-echo strangely to any sound. Or the
house might be full of bats—or some strange creature might have its
dwelling place there.
He crossed the porch again and breathed a little easier as he stood once
more in the open air. Plainly, there was nothing for him to do but
retrace his steps to the railroad and follow it in to Schooley’s. He
sighed at thought of the weary way he had to go.
“I’ll have a look at the barn, first,” he murmured to himself, and
started toward it.
It was perhaps a hundred feet back of the house, and leaned so
dangerously to one side that it seemed in danger of falling at any
moment. There were two doors, a large one running upon an overhead rail,
and a smaller one swinging upon hinges. He tried the smaller one first,
and found that it yielded to his touch. Swinging it open, he stepped
inside the barn.
“Hello!” he called. “Is there any one here?”
There was no response, but he fancied that he heard a faint rustling at
the farther end of the structure. For a moment, in the semi-darkness, he
could see nothing, then, as his eyes grew more accustomed to it, he saw
that the place was empty. The stalls on either side had fallen to decay,
the roof had rotted away in places and the floor was wet and mucky and
covered with an ill-smelling litter. There had at one time been a loft,
but the planks which had composed the flooring had disappeared, stolen
no doubt by some one in the neighbourhood. Only at the farther end did
he find any indication of recent occupancy. Here in the mangers were
some fresh cobs from which the corn had evidently been eaten only a
short time before, and the floor was covered with a litter of straw,
which was tramped and soiled, indeed, but which was still comparatively
clean. Farther on, two boards had been laid across a manger and piled
with straw, which was pressed down as though it had been used for a bed.
It was from this, Allan concluded, that the rustling had proceeded,
doubtless from some rats running through it.
Satisfied that it was useless to look further, Allan turned back toward
the door. He was tired and discouraged. He felt that the day had been
wasted. The mystery of the abandoned train was no nearer solution than
it had been, unless Stanley—
What was it sent a sudden chill through him? What was it brought him
with a start out of this reverie?
He turned his head with a jerk and threw up his arm instinctively, as a
dark shadow seemed to loom over him; then a great blow fell upon his
head, the world reeled and turned black before him, and he fell forward
limply upon his face.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XX
THE AWAKENING
AT Wadsworth, the day had passed quietly enough, so far, at least, as
appearances went. The strikers gathered in groups in the neighbourhood
of the station, and watched the trains go in and out, with the new
engineers and firemen in the cabs, but they made no attempt to interfere
with them, beyond an occasional jeer. Simpson, the special delegate from
the grand lodge, had established his headquarters in the lodge room, and
a little group of men was constantly about him, talking over the
situation. It was noticeable that this group was composed of the older
and more experienced men, and it was evident that whatever Simpson had
to say had a great deal of weight with them.
Simpson, as has been said, was a very different man from Nixon. There
was nothing flashy or loud about him, his voice was low, but cool and
decisive, and his gray eyes gave one the impression that their owner was
a fighter—an impression which was further deepened by the long, cloven
chin. In a word, the grand secretary had picked out the very best man at
his disposal when the demand had come for a delegate to succeed Nixon,
for he felt that there must be no possibility of the situation at
Wadsworth being bungled a second time.
“There’s one thing sure, however,” he had said to Simpson, at parting;
“they’re bound to have a strike down there now, and there’s probably no
way to stop it.”
And Simpson had found this to be true. To have attempted to withstand
the white-hot fervour for a strike would have been worse than foolish,
and he had yielded to it and called the strike. Now he was bending every
effort to make the strike a success; or, at worst, to get out of the
situation with as little loss of prestige as possible.
But the strike had not tied up the road as he had hoped it would.
Conductors and brakemen had refused to go out without instructions
from headquarters; switchmen and operators had not even asked for such
instructions. And trains were running regularly, manned by a lot of
new men who seemed fairly efficient. If the strike had started out
with a mistake, Simpson was resolved that no others should be
committed—especially not the fatal mistake of violence. And so he was
taking care to establish himself in the liking and confidence of the
older and more conservative men. If it came to a fight, he must be
certain of his backing.
Over at the freight-house, the new men had got settled in their quarters
and seemed fairly contented with them. If truth were told, sordid and
unattractive as the surroundings were, most of the men had been
accustomed to much worse. The food, too, however carelessly served, was
at least clean and wholesome, and only a person unused to anything but
china and snowy linen would have quarrelled with the tin dishes and
oil-cloth covered tables.
It was evident that the principal source of disturbance had been removed
when Hummel had been compelled to leave the place; and yet there was no
telling when a second Hummel might arise and leaven the entire group of
men with discontent. Indeed, it was evident that many of them were not
wholly at ease. In the midst of these unusually comfortable
surroundings, they perhaps felt the same sense of disquiet which Jean
Valjean felt in the Bishop’s bed; they were accustomed to a plank and
could not sleep well upon springs and a mattress; but this was not the
sort of disquiet which would lead to any serious results.
And yet Reddy, who kept a keener eye than ever upon events in Stanley’s
absence, was not altogether satisfied. Indeed, Stanley’s absence of
itself puzzled him. Orders had been given that the adventure of the
abandoned train was to be kept quiet as long as possible, and no word
concerning it had been breathed inside the freight-house. So, as the day
wore on, Reddy grew more and more uneasy, especially when he noted that
Allan was also away. He suspected that something was wrong somewhere,
and it annoyed him that he should be shut up like this, away from all
communication with his fellow creatures. Certainly, he did not consider
the cook a fellow creature, and, in spite of himself, he could not help
feeling a sort of pitying contempt for the strike-breakers. For Reddy
was honest, was industrious, was temperate, and he felt that few of the
strike-breakers were any of these things.
“An’ a fine figger you cut here, don’t you,” he went on, following this
train of thought, “washin’ dishes an’ makin’ beds an’ waitin’ on table,
like a saloon loafer, instead o’ doin’ an honest man’s work! I’m goin’
t’ throw up the job. I ain’t doin’ no good here. These fellers are as
contented as a lot o’ hogs in the sunshine. I’ll jest tell Allan—”
“Say!” suddenly bawled a voice in his ear, “air ye goin’ t’ sleep on yer
feet? Wake up, an’ git a move!” and a heavy hand struck him a hard blow
on the shoulder.
Reddy turned with a start, and the dish he was wiping slipped from his
hands to the floor. Of course it did not break, as it was made of tin,
but it made a tremendous clatter.
“Stoopid!” yelled the cook, sticking his red face within a few inches of
Reddy’s and waving his arms violently. “Awkward! I never saw nothin’ to
beat you! You’re the limit!”
“Aw, shut up,” growled Reddy, not yielding an inch.
“An’ you calls yerself a dish-washer—”
“No, I don’t,” broke in Reddy. “An’ I never will now that I’ve seen
you!”
“What!” shouted the cook, growing purple. “I’ll show you—” and his arm
was drawn back to strike.
But at that instant, Reddy’s fist was raised with seeming slowness and
gentleness under the other’s jaw, and the cook, lifted by some
mysterious force cleanly off his feet, struck the floor with a thud.
“Good for you, turnip-top!” yelled one of the strike-breakers, as they
came crowding around, attracted by the noise of the altercation.
“Get up, cookie, get up!” yelled another. “You ain’t out yet—don’t show
yellow!”
And Reddy, fairly dancing with rage, added his insults to the others’.
“Strike a gentleman, would ye!” he cried. “Don’t lay there blinkin’ like
that! Stand up an take yer medicine like a man. Here, I’ll bring ye
around!” and snatching the pan of dirty dish water from the table, he
dashed it over his recumbent foe.
A roar of laughter arose from the spectators; this was the sort of thing
most of them delighted in; but their merriment acted on Reddy like a
cold shower. He took one glance at them and then fiercely tore off the
ragged piece of burlap he had been using as an apron.
“An’ now I’ll bid ye good-bye,” he said. “I was jest thinkin’ o’
quittin’—this job don’t suit me,” and catching up his hat, he plunged
through the door and past the astonished guard on the platform outside.
“Stop me if ye dare!” cried Reddy, and took off his hat and threw it
high in the air, but the guard, recognizing him, turned away with a
grin. “My, but it does feel good t’ be out in the air again an’ away
from them dishes. I never knew before how good air smelt.”
He filled his lungs to the limit and exhaled slowly, feeling as though a
great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Then he stopped and
looked about the yards.
“Not much doin’,” he added, seeing the empty sidings; and, indeed, for
fear it could not fulfil its engagements, the road was routing all the
freight business possible through Columbus by way of the Midland
division, instead of through Wadsworth, and was even handing some of it
over to competing lines. “Why, hello, Jack!” he cried, as Jack Welsh
suddenly turned the corner of the freight-house.
Jack stared at him in astonishment.
“Is it you, Reddy?” he asked. “When did you get out?”
“Faith,” said Reddy, his eyes twinkling, “it sounds like I’d been in the
workhouse an’ me niver arrested in me life! I’ve throwed up me job.”
“Throwed up your job?”
“Since when have ye turned into an echo?” demanded Reddy.
Jack laughed.
“I was too surprised t’ say anything original. What was the trouble?”
“I couldn’t stand it—I couldn’t stand them vermin, nor washin’ dishes
nor makin’ beds fer ’em—nor I couldn’t stand that varmint of a cook. He
got smart,” went on Reddy, growing angry again at thought of it, “so I
jest upper-cut him an’ throwed some dish water on him an’ come away.”
“But,” protested Jack, “what will Allan say?”
“I don’t care what he says,” retorted Reddy, doggedly. “I ain’t needed
in there—them fellers is like a flock of sheep—feed ’em an’ water ’em
an’ they’ll never give any trouble. Besides, where _is_ Allan—an’
where’s Stanley? Is there trouble somewheres, Jack?”
“Ain’t you heard about extra west last night?”
“Nary a word—a felly might as well be in his grave as in that
freight-shed. What about extra west?”
So Jack told him the story of the abandoned train and missing crew,
while Reddy stood listening with starting eyes and open mouth.
“Well, if that don’t beat anything I ever heard!” he said, when Jack had
finished. “But Allan and Stanley wasn’t there—”
“No; they went out this mornin’ t’ look over the ground. They was
expectin’ t’ come back this arternoon.”
A sudden shadow seemed to pass across Reddy’s face.
“What’s the matter?” asked Jack, noticing it.
“I was jest thinkin’,” said Reddy, speaking with some difficulty, “that
I’d ’a’ liked to gone along.”
“So would I, but I wasn’t asked.”
“Well, good-bye,” Reddy said, turning away. “I’ve got t’ go home an’ see
my missus, an’ git a decent meal. Jack,” he added, stopping and looking
back, “if they don’t come back, let’s go out ourselves in the mornin’.”
“Oh, they’ll be back,” said Jack, confidently. “Allan, anyway. He knows
he’s needed here.”
But the cloud had not lifted from Reddy’s face, as he walked away across
the yards in the direction of his home.
* * * * *
The afternoon passed, and nothing was heard from either Allan or
Stanley; evening fell, and still no sign of them. The disappointed
reporters champed and swore and tried to inveigle the story out of some
of the other employees of the office, but in vain; and finally, driven
to desperation, they concocted such accounts of the affair as their
several imaginations were capable of.
One thing they knew. The road’s chief dispatcher and detective were
absent. From an absence to a disappearance is but a step, and it was
with a certain satisfaction that they played up this feature of the
case. At least, they would get even with West for trying to keep the
news away from them. They described his career, his appearance, dwelt
upon Stanley’s well-known prowess and fearlessness, and drew the
conclusion that something extraordinary must have occurred to get the
best of him. It made a good story, and the public read and was
interested and mystified and wondered languidly how it would all turn
out—and passed on to the next sensation.
But in one home, at least, as the weary hours of the night wore on,
there was something more than languid interest and wonder. From her
snowy bed, Mamie Welsh lay staring up into the darkness, her face
flushed and feverish, her eyes red with weeping, striving to suppress
the sobs which shook her, so that her mother might not hear and
understand.
For she knew, by a sort of clairvoyance, as though his spirit called
through space to hers, that Allan West lay somewhere in great peril.
* * * * *
It was dark when Allan struggled back to consciousness,—not dark in the
ordinary sense, but pitch dark,—a blackness that oppressed and chilled
with the sense of some unknown and unspeakable peril. He lay for a long
time without moving, without thinking, just conscious in a dim way that
he existed. Gradually he became aware of an all-pervading pain, which
finally resolved into an aching head and an aching shoulder and cramped
legs and arms. Then, in a flash, life surged in on him and he remembered
the old stone house, the barn, the shadow, the blow which he had tried
to avoid.
He struggled to get to his feet, only to fall back with a groan of
anguish; for his hands were tied behind him and his feet were lashed
together. Even had he been free, his whirling, aching head would have
chained him down.
But his head grew clearer after a while and he could think connectedly.
Where was he? Not in the barn, that was certain, for he could feel
beneath him a floor of boards, instead of the wet and clammy dirt upon
which he had fallen. In the house, then—his unknown assailant had
carried him into the house, tied him hand and foot and left him.
For what purpose?
But that was a question for which he could find no reasonable answer;
nor could he even guess at his assailant’s identity. This murderous
assault had made the mystery more puzzling than ever, for he could guess
at no motive for it. Certainly he was not the victim of personal enmity,
for he knew that he had no enemies—Dan Nolan’s death had delivered him
from the only one he ever had who was capable of resorting to such
methods as this. Nor could he see how his being held a prisoner here
could possibly be of any benefit to anyone. Indeed, there was certain to
be a hue and cry after him if he was held a prisoner long. Stanley would
know where to look for him—and there were Jack and Reddy.
Allan’s eyes filled with tears as he thought of the anxiety they were
doubtless suffering. And Mamie—was she suffering, too? Somehow, the
thought of her was a very dear and moving one, and he whispered her name
over and over to himself. If only—
He felt singularly weak and helpless; he could do nothing but lie where
he was and await the will of his captors. He wondered vaguely what they
would do with him, and he turned the thought over in his mind with a
kind of impersonal interest as though it were not at all himself, but
someone else entirely who was principally concerned. It seemed almost as
though he were watching a drama in which he himself was an actor.
The cramped posture in which he lay became insupportable at last, and he
managed, with infinite suffering, to turn himself over on his side.
Then, finding himself somewhat easier, he at last dropped off to sleep.
He was awakened by a flash of light in his eyes. For a minute, he saw
only a dim figure holding a lantern, then, with clearing vision, he
found himself staring into a face which sent a chill of horror through
him. Never before had he seen a face so repulsive. The round head, set
low between the shoulders, was crowned by a dirty towsel of hair which
fell over the low forehead almost into the eyes. These, bloodshot and
venomous, were sunk deep into the head and ambushed under bristling
eyebrows. The nose, a mere unformed lump of flesh, overhung a mouth
whose pendulous, blackened lips were parted in a malicious grin. The
figure was squat and heavy, telling of great strength and even of a
certain agility; but to the figure Allan gave only a single glance, for
the face fascinated him as only superlatively ugly things can.
For a moment, this being stood shading his eyes from the lantern light
with a great, hairy hand, and staring down at his prisoner. Then, with a
hoarse grunt of satisfaction, he turned toward the door.
But Allan, mustering all his courage, shouted after him.
“Hold on!” he cried. “Hold on!”
The fellow hesitated for an instant, and then turned back, and stood
regarding Allan with that diabolical leer still upon his lips.
“What’s all this about?” demanded Allan, steeling himself to endure the
gaze of those crafty and threatening eyes. “How long am I going to be
kept here?”
His captor laughed, or rather emitted a low rumble.
“Not long,” he croaked, hoarsely. “Not long.”
“My friends will be after me in the morning.”
“Let ’em!” and again came that rumbling laughter.
“It will go hard with you if they find me here.”
“Don’t worry; they won’t find you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
But the other only laughed again by way of answer.
“Was it you who struck me out there in the stable?”
“It surely was.”
“What had I done?”
A spasm of hate crossed the ferocious face.
“You hadn’t no business out there nor around here.”
“Maybe not,” Allan admitted. “Let me go and I’ll clear out.”
The words were greeted by a burst of laughter, so wild that Allan was
suddenly convinced that he had to do with a wild man, a lunatic wholly
irresponsible for his actions. The thought sent a deeper chill through
him.
“Let me go,” he urged more gently. “I have done you no harm.”
“Ain’t you, though!” retorted his strange companion. “Well, you’ll never
do nobody else no harm, neither.”
And without heeding the entreaties Allan sent after him, he went out and
closed the door.
Allan heard his footsteps die away along the hall outside, and then,
after a moment, came that queer murmur of voices which he had heard from
the back door, only louder and clearer. And a sudden conviction leaped
into his mind.
The missing train crew was imprisoned here also.
He listened with bated breath as the murmur grew and grew, and finally
died away as though it had spent itself. He judged that his captor had
visited the other prisoners to make sure they were all safe, and had
then departed.
But who was this wild man? What sort of monster was this which had been
let loose upon the world? How, single handed, had he been able to
capture five men? And what was his object in doing so?
Here were three questions to which no reasonable answer seemed possible.
Allan felt almost as though he were living through some terrible
nightmare, from which he must presently awaken. Surely such things as
this could not happen here in Ohio, in the midst of a thickly populated
country! In the Middle Ages, perhaps; but not here in the twentieth
century!
The pain of his position had become excessive, and he rolled over on his
back, and sought to ease himself a little. He could feel that his hair
was clotted with blood, and from the pain in his shoulder he was
convinced that a bone had been broken—his collar-bone, probably. His
head grew giddy after a while and a deathly sickness came upon him. The
close and fetid atmosphere of the room seemed to stifle him. He shrieked
aloud, but there was no response, and presently he lapsed into a sort of
half-consciousness.
He fancied that he was stretched upon the rack, that black-hooded
inquisitors were advancing to the torture. He could feel the bonds about
hands and feet slowly tighten and stretch, and a pang of agony shot
through him. What was it they wanted him to confess? Something involving
Jack—something involving Mamie. No, he would never confess—after all,
there was nothing to confess—it was a lie they were trying to wring from
him. Again the cords tightened and stretched; he was being torn asunder,
but he clenched his teeth and crushed back the groan which would have
burst from him. Again—and this time there was no resisting, and he cried
aloud—
Cried aloud and opened his eyes, and, after a moment, realized where he
was. He was panting for breath, for the air was thick with smoke. Afar
off, he could hear a frantic shouting, which beat in upon his brain and
turned him faint, so agonized it was. They were torturing some one
else—they had left him for the moment to regain some measure of
strength. No, they had decided to suffocate him; they had started a fire
under him—it was to be the trial of flame! Mamie, Mamie—he would never
tell!
Then, suddenly, he understood. The house was on fire—that madman had
fired it—that shouting was from the other prisoners, who were perhaps
already being roasted alive! Roasted alive!
He wrenched frantically at his bonds, but they held as though of iron.
He struggled to a sitting posture, but could rise no further. By an
effort almost superhuman, he dragged himself to the door, and turning
his back to it, tore at it with his fingers. Then he managed to raise
himself so that his fingers clutched the latch; the door swung open and
he fell backward into the hall.
That fall racked him with agony, but, with sweat running down his face
in little rivulets, he managed to grovel forward, inch by inch, pushing
himself along by his legs, sparing his injured shoulder as much as he
could. One foot, two feet, three feet. Then, suddenly, he realized that
his head was hanging over an abyss—his shoulders were over—and in an
instant he had pitched forward wildly, and fell shrieking into the
darkness.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXI
“C. Q. D.”
IN the gray dawn of the winter morning, Mamie Welsh started wide awake
from the restless doze into which she had fallen. She sat up in bed, her
head to one side as though listening for some faint and distant sound.
Then, with a quick movement, she threw back the bed-clothes, slipped to
the floor, pulled a shawl about her, thrust her feet into a pair of
slippers, and ran to the door of the room where her father and mother
slept.
Mary Welsh, a light sleeper at all times, was awake at the first tap of
Mamie’s fingers.
“Who’s there?” she called.
“It’s me, Mamie.”
“What’s the matter, dearie?” cried Mrs. Welsh, jumping out of bed and
hastening to open the door. “What’s the matter?” she repeated, her arms
about her daughter. “Not sick?” For Mamie’s face in the dim light was
positively ghastly, so livid and drawn it was.
“No, I—I’m not sick,” sobbed Mamie, suddenly giving way and clinging
desperately to her mother. “I—I don’t know what it is, only I’m so
worried about Allan.”
And Mrs. Welsh, with a sudden tightening of the heart, understood.
“There, there,” she said, and she drew her daughter’s head down upon her
shoulder and patted her soothingly. “There, there; he’ll be back safe
an’ sound, dearie, never fear!”
“But oh! mother! I dreamed such a terrible dream. He was in some awful
danger, hurt and bleeding, in the dark, and a horrible man was torturing
him, and he called to me and held out his hands. I heard his voice,
mother, as plainly as I hear yours—it woke me up,” and Mamie shivered
convulsively at the remembrance.
Mrs. Welsh was no more superstitious than the ordinary Irish woman, but
there was something in the words—something in the voice which uttered
them—which somehow struck a responsive chord in her, and she shivered in
sympathy with the trembling figure she held in her arms.
Jack, meanwhile, disturbed by all this talking, suddenly awakened to
find his wife missing, and sat up in bed rubbing his eyes and staring at
the ghostly figures near the door.
“Who’s that?” he asked, but a convulsive sob from Mamie told who it was,
and thoroughly awakened at last, he was out of bed in an instant.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded. “What’s the matter with you women?”
“Mamie’s worried about Allan,” answered Mrs. Welsh, hugging tight the
shivering figure in her arms.
“Oh, dad!” sobbed Mamie. “I dreamed about him and he—he was calling me!”
“Calling you? What d’ye mean, Mamie?”
“He was calling me to come to him. Oh, dad, we must go!”
“Go?” repeated Jack, in amazement. “Go where?”
“Out to Schooley’s—or wherever it is—you will, won’t you, dad?”
She had her arms around her father, now, and there was a pathos, an
entreaty in her voice that wrung his heart.
“I was goin’ out this mornin’, anyway,” he said, smoothing her hair
gently, “an’ I guess I might as well start now.”
“And I’m going with you, dad.”
“No, no,” he protested. “What good would that do, Mamie?”
“Good!” she cried. “Why, dad, you don’t know where to find him!”
“And do you?”
Her face changed—seemed to whiten and harden—and her eyes stared past
them into the gloom.
“Yes!” she whispered, her hands clasped tight against her heart.
Mrs. Welsh, her hand grasping Jack’s arm, nodded to him to consent.
“All right,” he agreed, his voice not wholly steady. “All right, Mamie.
Jump into your clothes. Maybe we kin ketch first ninety-eight.”
Neither Jack Welsh nor his wife could ever explain the spirit of
desperate haste which suddenly possessed them. Mamie, apparently in a
sort of trance, returned to her room and dressed herself deliberately
and calmly, but with a wonderful celerity, as surely as she could have
done in broad daylight; while Jack, in the semi-darkness, bungled into
his clothes somehow, his fingers all thumbs.
Mrs. Welsh, meanwhile, throwing a wrapper around her, hastened
downstairs, and when the other two came down five minutes later—Mamie
having assisted her father in the last stages of his toilet—she had a
cup of hot coffee for each of them, and a lunch done up in a napkin for
them to take along. She kissed them both at the front door and stood
watching them until they were out of sight. Then she turned slowly back
into the house, blew out the lamp in the kitchen, and mounted to her
bedroom. But not to sleep. In the cold light of the dawn, she sank on
her knees beside the bed and buried her face in her hands.
* * * * *
Jack and Mamie reached the yards just as Bill Grimes, the conductor of
first ninety-eight, was raising his hand to give the signal to start. He
was charmed to have them as his guests, and hustled them into the
caboose, much to the embarrassment of an impressionable young brakeman,
who was just changing his shoes. He thought he had never seen anything
so lovely as Mamie, and stammered profuse apologies, which Mamie
acknowledged with an absent-minded nod. Poor fellow! her thoughts were
far away from him.
He cheerfully undertook to climb forward over the long train and to ask
the engineer to slow up at the spot where the abandoned train had been
discovered, and fifteen minutes later, at some risk to life and limb, he
was at the caboose steps to assist Mamie to alight.
As the train gathered speed again, conductor and brakeman shouted back
good wishes; then the rumble died away in the distance, and the train
disappeared in the morning mist.
“Well, and now what?” asked Jack Welsh, looking down at his daughter.
Something in her face arrested his gaze, a certain strained and fixed
expression, as though she were gazing inward instead of outward, as
though she were stretching every sense to catch the sound of some inward
voice, faint and far-away.
Jack felt a little shiver creep along his spine and up over his scalp,
as he noted that fixed gaze.
“Well, and now what?” he asked again. “What is it you’re listenin’ for,
Mamie?”
“His voice,” she answered, almost in a whisper. “‘Twill guide us.”
“Surely,” protested Jack, “you don’t expect—”
But without waiting for him to finish, Mamie turned abruptly away from
the railroad, and plunged into the strip of woodland which stretched
beside it. There was no semblance of a path, but she hurried forward
without pausing, and at the end of a few minutes they came to a road.
Without an instant’s hesitation, Mamie turned eastward along it.
“Toward Schooley’s,” Jack muttered to himself. “That’s all right. But
how the dickens did she know it was here?”
Mamie, meanwhile, looking neither to the right nor left, hurried along
the road as fast as her feet would carry her. It was hard and rutted and
anything but easy walking, yet the girl seemed to take no account of the
roughness of the way, and Jack, panting and stumbling along behind,
marvelled at the ease with which she hastened on. The sun had not yet
risen, and gray cold mist of the morning still lingered among the trees.
To the superstitious Irishman there seemed to be something ghostly and
supernatural in the air; he felt that some mysterious and unseen
influence was at work, and the thought brought a cold sweat out across
his forehead. Yet never for an instant did he think of trying to stop
her or of turning back himself.
Then suddenly, from afar off, Jack’s ears caught the sound of a faint
singing or crying, that rose and fell in a sort of weird cadence,
impossible to describe.
“What’s that?” he cried, and stopped short; but instead of pausing,
Mamie broke into a run, and would have been out of sight in a moment had
not Jack followed at top speed. In the end, his strength and agility
told even against the strange spirit that possessed her, and he gained
her side just as they reached the edge of a clearing, in the midst of
which stood an old stone house.
“Good God! It’s afire!” gasped Jack, and, indeed, a black swirl of smoke
was pouring from the broken windows at the front of the house, lighted
redly here and there from instant to instant by a tongue of flame.
“Wait, Mamie,” he added, grasping her arm as she started forward. “What
’r you goin’ t’ do?”
“He’s there!” Mamie cried, shaking him away, and without another word,
she started toward the house.
Jack, gritting his teeth tight together, followed her. There was need of
courage, for that weird sing-song chanting still persisted, and as they
neared the house, a strange figure appeared around the corner—a squat,
deformed figure, surmounted by a hideous face and great shock of dirty
hair. It was dancing in a clumsy and ungainly fashion and was emitting
from time to time the hoarse shouting which had set Jack’s nerves on
edge.
[Illustration: “THEN, WITH A HOARSE YELL OF RAGE, HURLED HIMSELF UPON
THEM.”]
For an instant, the fellow did not perceive them; then, as his bloodshot
eyes rested upon them, he stood for a breath as though carved in stone,
and then, with a hoarse yell of rage, hurled himself upon them.
How Mamie escaped that savage onrush, she never knew. Jack had a
confused recollection of seeing her spring aside to escape the madman’s
swinging arms, and in the next instant he found himself grappling with
him, hurled backward off his feet, with great, hairy hands tearing at
his throat. He felt himself helpless as a child in this powerful and
cruel grasp, and his heart turned faint within him as he stared upward
into the convulsed and hideous face glaring down at him. He dashed his
fists against it, with almost as little effect as though he had dashed
them against a rock, and ever those hands at his throat tightened and
tightened. The world danced red before him—it was no use—no use—
Then, suddenly, a thought flashed lightning-like into his brain—if he
failed her now, Mamie would be left alone with this monster—at his
mercy—
Mad with rage, fairly foaming at the mouth, fired with a strength almost
superhuman, Jack twisted his assailant to one side and tore his hands
from his throat. One full breath of the cold air—it was all he had time
for, before those hands closed upon him again. This was no human being,
he told himself despairingly; it was a monster against which he could
not hope to prevail; it wasn’t fair to put a man up against a thing like
this; nobody could blame him if he failed—but Mamie—there was Mamie—
His hand, flung out convulsively, touched something hard and round;
mechanically he grasped it—mechanically he struck with it at the face
above him—once—twice—thrice. And he felt the hands at his throat relax,
saw dimly the savage countenance running red with blood, felt the great
body lurch heavily forward across him—and lay gasping for breath, too
weak, for the moment, to throw it off.
But only for a moment; then, twisting the body to one side, he staggered
to his feet and stared first at it and then at the boulder he still
grasped in his hand; and not till then did he understand what had
happened—by what a slender chance he had been saved—and not he alone,
but Mamie—
Mamie! He turned to look for her. She was nowhere in sight, and
forgetting all else, he staggered forward toward the burning house. He
tried the front door and found it fastened, shook at it savagely without
effect, and then hastened around the house to the rear.
The back door was open, a flood of smoke pouring from it. And as he
stared stupidly at it, he saw a nebulous figure struggling through it.
The sight brought his senses back, brought his strength back. He sprang
forward, and in another moment, he and Mamie, between them, had dragged
Allan West out into the open air, bleeding, bound, unconscious.
“What they been doin’ to the boy?” cried Jack, a white-hot rage almost
choking him. “Have they kilt him—have the cowards kilt him?”
“Oh, no; oh, no!” sobbed Mamie, dropping on her knees beside him. “Oh,
look, dad, they’ve tied his hands and feet.”
“The scoundrels!” and Jack, whipping out his knife, had the bonds
severed in an instant. “His head’s all bloody,” he added, “an’ look how
that rope’s cut his wrists! Good God! What kind o’ fiends—”
But Mamie, with more self-control than he, laid a restraining hand upon
his arm.
“Don’t, dad,” she said. “Don’t think of that now. Time enough
afterwards.”
“You’re right,” and Jack mastered himself by a mighty effort.
“We must get some water,” said Mamie, and then as she looked down at the
white, bruised, unconscious face, a wave of misery swept over her, a
suffocating sense of her own helplessness. “We must do something!” she
cried wringing her hands in anguish. “We must—oh!—”
She stopped suddenly, and pressed her hands against her wildly-beating
heart, for Allan’s eyes slowly unclosed and he lay looking up at her.
Then his face brightened into a smile, and an instant later twitched
with the agony the slight movement cost him. His eyes were caught by the
cloud of smoke drifting upward from the house, and his expression
changed from agony to horror.
“We must get the others,” he gasped, and tried to rise.
“No, no,” protested Mamie, her arms about him. “Lie still—you must—”
But Allan had fainted dead away.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXII
THE MYSTERY SOLVED
THEY tell the story yet on the P. & O., and, indeed, everywhere that
railroad men foregather—they tell it with shining eyes and fast-beating
hearts—how Jack Welsh, grasping in an instant the meaning of Allan’s
words, tied his handkerchief over mouth and nose, and fought his way
inch by inch into that burning house, crawling on hands and knees with
his face close to the floor where the smoke was thinnest—fought his way
up the stairs and from room to room, until he found the one where five
men lay, bound and senseless, on the floor; and they tell how he dragged
them one by one to the open air, feeling the hot floor tremble under him
toward the end, and himself falling unconscious beside the last man as
he dropped him to the ground.
They tell the story with the proud consciousness that this man was one
of themselves, and that what he did was done in the way of duty, with no
thought of fame or reward, without pausing to count the risk.
But even this heroism might have been of small avail, had not Reddy
Magraw at that instant come upon the scene. Let him tell the story, as
he told it next day to Mrs. Welsh.
“You know, whin I come down to your house the first thing in the mornin’
an’ found Jack had gone out to Schooley’s, I was purty mad, fer we had
kind of arranged t’ go out there togither, if Allan didn’t show up; an’
it didn’t seem t’ me that he was playin’ just fair, though o’ course I
understand now that he didn’t have time t’ call me. Well, I made up my
mind I’d git out there as quick as I could, so I hopped the first train
I could ketch, which was second ninety-eight, and I reckon I must have
jumped off not more’n half an hour after Jack an’ Mamie did—though mind
you, you hadn’t said anything about Mamie goin’ along, an’ I reckon I
know why,” and here he stopped for a long look deep into Mrs. Welsh’s
eyes.
“Go ahead with the story,” she said. “Though I don’t say you ain’t
right.”
“O’ course I’m right,” said Reddy, confidently. “Well, as I was sayin’,
I got off the train an’ wandered around fer some time, an’ then struck
the road an’ started t’ foller it; an’ purty soon I seed smoke over the
tree-tops an’ after that I didn’t loiter none, I tell you.
“Well, sir, when I run around the corner o’ that house, I purty nigh
dropped dead in my tracks. There on the ground lay about a dozen men, as
it seemed to me; there was the lunatic, an’ a sight he was, with his
face all covered with blood; an’ there was Jack, an’ his face was
covered with blood, too, but not his own, the lunatic’s; and there was
Allan West, lookin’ deader ’n a salt mackerel; there was five other
fellys, some a-layin’ nice an’ still, an’ some kind o’ squirmin’ around
an’ moanin’; an’ there was Mamie, with Allan’s head in her lap a-lookin’
most dead herself; an’ when I see her settin’ there, I tell you my heart
jest seemed to swell up inside me like it was a-goin’ t’ bust.
“Well, I didn’t know no more what to do than a rabbit. There was eight
men whose lives depended on me, more or less; not that I’d ’a’ cared
about the lunatic, but even without him there was seven, an’ me no
doctor, neither. But Mamie certainly did show what was in her. Where she
learned it I don’t know, but she set me t’ pumpin’ them fellers’ arms up
an’ down n’ blowin’ down their throats—Jack an’ Allan first—an’ it
wasn’t a great while till Jack came around. He was kind o’ weak an’
giddy, but not fer long; an’ in ten or fifteen minutes, we had three
others all right; an’ jest about then, the lunatic began to come to, so
we tied his hands an’ feet t’ make sure he didn’t git away, or sneak up
on any of us from behind an’ cave our heads in. An’ when he did come to,
he laid there an’ cussed somethin’ frightful. I wanted t’ hit him with
the rock ag’in, but Mamie said no, to gag him, an’ we stuffed his mouth
full of his own dirty clothes, an’ I guess he wished he’d kept ’em
cleaner.
“But what worried us most of all was Allan. He jest laid there limp as a
rag, an’ Mamie workin’ with him, purty nigh as white as he was.”
“He can’t die!” she kept saying to herself, over and over. “He can’t
die! It was God brought me here to save him, and he can’t die now!”
The smoke and flames had burst up from the burning house, a beacon to
all the country-side, and assistance was at hand ere long; strong hands
and tender hearts; and presently two great wagons, bedded with straw to
take conscious and unconscious alike to Schooley’s, whither already a
swift rider had been dispatched to summon aid from Wadsworth. And at
Wadsworth, too, it may well be believed that no time was lost. A special
was got ready in a hurry; doctors and nurses summoned; and when the
little cavalcade reached Schooley’s, the special was waiting there for
it; and trained hands took over the work of relief.
Trained hands which worked swiftly and surely, and presently Allan
opened his eyes and looked up at Mamie and smiled at her.
“Dear Mamie!” he murmured and closed his eyes and slept.
And the overwrought girl, conscious for the first time of her utter
fatigue, reeled and would have fallen had not a strong arm caught her
and carried her to a cot.
I have wondered often what force it was drew Mamie from her bed, that
morning, with sure knowledge of Allan’s danger, and guided her to him
along that rutted country road. The human mind is a strange and
wonderful thing, with the seeming power of projecting itself through
space, at times, and summoning loved ones or conveying a message to
them.
Science seems to admit so much—or, at least, hesitates to deny it, in
face of the evidence. And I have sometimes thought that, as Allan fell
through the swirling smoke down that flight of stairs in the old stone
house, his last conscious thought of Mamie, that thought somehow flashed
to her across the miles that lay between them—a C. Q. D. signal of
distress, as it were, from him to her, on the wonderful wireless of the
mind.
At least, I have no other explanation—I only know it really happened
just as I have told it here.
* * * * *
A great crowd was waiting when that special pulled in to Wadsworth—a
crowd which cheered and cheered as Allan and Jack Welsh and Mamie were
borne to the carriages which were in waiting; a crowd from which three
women threw themselves upon the conductor and brakemen, weak but
smiling; a crowd which cursed the idiot and would have torn him from his
cot and committed I know not what violence but for the platoon of
police, assisted by Stanley’s specials, with Stanley himself, saturnine
yet smiling, at the head of them.
For Stanley had returned and with him three prisoners and a wagon load
of the richest silks ever shipped over an American railroad.
For the whole thing had been a case of robbery, after all, just as
Stanley had suspected.
It had been carefully planned. The conspirators—old hands at the
game—had learned that a shipment of silks of unusual richness had been
made by a New York house to its jobbers in Saint Louis—had even received
from some traitorous clerk the number of the car in which they were
carried—had flagged the train, took conductor and brakemen prisoners, as
they hurried forward to find out what the red light meant; had
afterwards secured the engineer and fireman at the point of a revolver,
extinguished the headlight, and looted the car at their leisure.
Then, after carefully sealing it up again so that the robbery would not
be discovered until the car arrived at its destination, they had
convoyed the prisoners to the old stone house, and committed them to the
care of the half-witted monster they had brought with them from the city
slums, with instructions that they be released in forty-eight hours, in
which time they fancied they would be able to get well beyond reach of
pursuit.
But they had not fully appreciated their confederate’s crazed condition;
they had not foreseen in what a horrible way he would carry out their
instructions—give them credit for that. Nor had they foreseen that,
within a very few hours, one of the keenest detectives in the middle
west would be after them. They had thought such search as would be made
would be for the missing men, and had hoped that, in the disorganized
condition of the road, no very effective search could be made at all.
How Stanley followed them, like the bloodhound that he was, and finally
ran them down need not be related in detail here. Stanley himself has
told the story in the book of memoirs which he published after he had
retired from active service. Once he had got his clue to them, the rest
was a question of only a few hours; for a wagon heavily laden cannot
proceed at any great rate of speed, nor can it pass along the roads
unseen. He had sworn in two deputies at a farm house, and with their
assistance, had no difficulty in surprising the robbers, as they jogged
along a country road, thinking themselves quite secure. It was merely
the matter of a levelled revolver and a stern command, and the
application of certain lengths of rope to wrists and ankles. Then,
turning the wagon about, he had driven in triumph back to Wadsworth,
reaching there just at dawn.
And the first news he had heard was of Allan’s disappearance. Puzzled
and worried, he had seen his prisoners lodged safely in the county jail,
and was just preparing to join the search himself, when news of the
rescue flashed in from Schooley’s.
Oh, but there were crazy people on Wadsworth’s streets that day—people
wild with excitement, telling the story over and over to each other,
shaking each other’s hands, repeating this detail or that as though they
would never tire of hearing it. And the reporters! Well, the wildest
stretch of their imaginations had conceived no such story as this! And
they flashed it forth to the four points of the compass, so that, next
morning, the whole country read the tale of the heroism of Jack Welsh
and his daughter, Mamie.
* * * * *
It was perhaps, a year afterwards that the postman, one morning, brought
a little registered package for John Welsh. Jack chanced to be at home
that morning, and opened the package in considerable surprise, for
registered packages were not of common occurrence with him.
“Why, what’s this?” he said, and held up what appeared to be a medal of
gold.
“Let’s see it,” said Mary, quickly, and examined it with eager eyes.
“Why, look!” she cried. “On one side is a woman holdin’ a wreath, an’ on
the other it says ‘To John Welsh, for valour, February 2, 1906.’ It’s
from the hayro fund!” she cried. “Jack—”
But Jack, looking very red and uncomfortable, had bolted from the house.
“I does my work,” he muttered angrily to himself, as he strode up the
street, “but I ain’t no hayro, an’ what’s more, I won’t be one! What do
they mean by sendin’ me a medal? Confound their impudence, anyway. Why
can’t they leave a feller alone? I don’t want their old medal!”
But Mary put it carefully away, and it is to this day her dearest
treasure, to be shown proudly whenever the story of Jack’s exploit is
told—provided, always, that Jack isn’t there!
* * * * *
And the robbers? Conviction followed, as a matter of course. There could
be no doubt of their guilt, and in the end they saw the wisdom of
confessing and throwing themselves upon the mercy of the court. The
madman was consigned to an asylum for the criminally insane, where he
remains to this day, occupying for the most part a straitjacket and a
padded cell, for he has never recovered from his lust of blood and
instinct to murder.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXIII
COMPLICATIONS
“WELL, well; wonders will niver cease!” remarked Reddy Magraw,
contemplating the newspaper he held in his hand—Reddy safe once more in
the bosom of his family, a hero if there ever was one, a czar whose
slightest word was law—and, all in all, as true and loyal and honest and
warm-hearted an Irishman as ever lived in this world.
“What is it?” asked Mrs. Magraw, looking over his shoulder.
“That,” answered Reddy, slapping the page with his open hand—a page
overflowing with heavy headlines and further embellished with a group of
photographs. “Now who’d ’a’ thought that anybody would iver want t’ put
my ugly mug in the paper?”
“Sure ’tis no uglier than lots of others,” protested Mrs. Magraw, gazing
at it fondly.
“Mebbe so; but this here picter don’t look nothin’ like what I see when
I looks in the glass.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Magraw, examining it critically, “it ain’t jest what
I’d call a perfect likeness; but the eyes are yours an’ the nose an’ the
mouth.”
“If they are, they ain’t put together right,” said Reddy. “I’ve often
wondered how a criminal could git away when the papers all over the
country was printin’ his picter, but I understand now. If I’d done
somethin’ an’ was runnin’ away an’ was arrested on suspicion, I could
prove by that picter that they’d got the wrong man.”
“Well, anyways,” said Mrs. Magraw, “we gits half a dozen cabinets fer
lettin’ ’em take it.”
“’Twas real generous,” agreed Reddy. “But I wish they was of the baby. I
niver thought that I’d iver ag’in face a cammery. The last picter I had
took, darlint, was whin I was courtin’ ye.”
“Yes, an’ I’ve got it yet, as ye know,” said Mrs. Magraw, “an’ a love of
a picter it is.”
“All that I raymimber about it is that me pants was very tight an’ me
shoes was killin’ me,” said Reddy, with a smile of reminiscence.
“However, I was ready an’ willin’ to suffer any torture—even to cuttin’
off me toes if ye thought me feet too big.”
“As if I iver looked at yer feet! It was in your honest blue eyes that I
looked, Reddy Magraw, an’ nowheres else.”
“Well, I reckon we didn’t either of us make no mistake, darlint,” said
Reddy comfortably. “We ain’t niver been bothered by a bank account, ’tis
true; but nayther have we starved or gone naked.”
Mrs. Magraw patted him on the shoulder as a token of her approval of the
sentiment.
“Let’s see the other picters,” she said. “There’s Jack Welsh an’
Stanley—trust him t’ have his picter ready.”
“Yes,” chuckled Reddy, “an’ anybody could recognize it a mile off by the
nose.”
“But where’s Allan?”
Reddy chuckled again.
“Didn’t have none; neither did Mamie—at least, that’s what they said.
But that didn’t trouble most o’ the papers none. They jest went ahead
an’ made ’em up. One feller must ’a’ cut his picter o’ Mamie out of a
fashion paper, an’ another used one of them skinny magazine girls, with
their hair all a-flyin’ around their faces. An’ Allan—he looks like one
of them young hayroes from the ready-made suit advertisements.”
“An’ does that look like the house?” asked Mrs. Magraw, indicating a
building, with smoke and flames pouring from it in a truly terrifying
manner, which further ornamented the newspaper’s account of the rescue.
“Well,” said Reddy, cautiously, “it does in a gineral way. It’s got four
walls an’ a roof an’ some windeys. Furder ’n that I wouldn’t keer t’
go.”
“An’ have ye read the story?”
“Yes; I’ve read it. An’ a very purty story it is—a very purty work of
the imagination. You should read it, an’ see what a liar yer husband is.
I allers did admire them newspaper felleys. T’ hear them tell the story,
you’d think they was right on the scene—an’ them that was there can’t
recognize the place.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Magraw, in amazement, “I allers thought I could
believe what I saw in the papers. What’ll I do now?”
“Do as I do, darlint,” replied her husband; “read the papers not fer
instruction but fer entytainment.”
* * * * *
The story of the abandoned train and the eleventh hour rescue of its
crew was a nine days’ wonder. There was the hearing of the case, the
robbers’ confession, the lapse into violent insanity of the murderous
idiot, the serious condition of two of the crew, and of the young chief
dispatcher who had risked his life searching for them. All these kept up
the interest from day to day, adding new fuel to the flames, and the
enterprising reporters made the most of them. The two brakemen
recovered, however, in a few days, but nearly a week had elapsed before
the doctor, coming down from the room where Allan West lay, pronounced
him out of danger.
“Careful nursing is all he needs now,” he said, “and I know he’ll get
that.”
“You kin be sure of it,” said Mary. “This ain’t the first time he’s
needed it an’ got it.”
“I know that,” and the doctor smiled. “It was I, you know, who took that
bullet out of him and who fixed those broken ribs. He’s surely had his
share.”
“An’ every time,” said Mary, with spirit, “it was a-doin’ some other
man’s work—a-doin’ somethin’ he thought was his duty, where the other
man would most likely have runned away.”
* * * * *
It was a very white and shaky, but thoroughly cheerful boy who smiled up
at Mary Welsh five minutes later, when she mounted the stairs with the
good news.
“Though it’s more ’n you deserve,” she added, with simulated wrath; “for
ever pokin’ your nose in where you ain’t no business to.”
“What!” protested Allan, “would you have had me let those five poor
fellows burn to death!”
“No; but when they’s detective work t’ do, let the detective do it.
What’s Stanley for?”
“He was busy doing something else. And that reminds me—I must see him
right away.”
“Right away, indade!” cried Mary, with an indignant snort. “Next week,
mebbe, if the doctor—”
“Then I guess I’ll have to get up and hunt him,” said Allan, and made a
movement as though to rise.
“Lay still; lay still,” said Mary hastily, “an’ I’ll send fer him,” but
Allan, smiling to himself, could hear her grumbling all the way down the
stairs.
Stanley lost no time in answering the summons, though Mrs. Welsh had
tried to persuade him to refuse to come, or, at least, to postpone his
visit until the next day.
“The lad’s in no shape to see you,” she said, over the telephone, “but I
had t’ promise t’ tell you, or he’d ’a’ been climbin’ out o’ bed, an’
him scarce able t’ stand.”
“I’ve got to come then, ma’am,” said Stanley politely, but with great
positiveness. “I’ve got to obey my superior officer. Besides, I’ve
pretty near got to see him, anyway. I was goin’ to come around in the
mornin’ myself.”
“Well, come on then, an’ bad cess to ye!” said Mary, and five minutes
later he was at the door. “Now don’t you go to excitin’ the lad,” she
added, before she let him in.
“I won’t, ma’am,” Stanley promised meekly. “I’ll be a reg’lar soothin’
syrup. It’ll do him good to see me—it really will.”
“Huh!” grunted Mary, “that’s more ’n it does me!”
But she let him in reluctantly, and led him upstairs to Allan’s bedroom.
“I’ll give you two ten minutes,” she announced, and closed the door
behind her.
Stanley, grinning, drew a chair up to the bedside and sat down.
“Something of a Tartar,” he observed.
“Yes, bless her, where I’m concerned. She’s the best woman on earth and
the biggest hearted. Now, what’s the news?”
“Well, sir,” said Stanley, crossing his legs deliberately, “this big
sensation sort of took people’s minds off the strike, and the situation
hasn’t been watched as close as it might have been. I’ve had to be away
a good deal, attendin’ the hearin’ an’ lookin’ after things, and I kind
of think some of the strikers got at our men.”
“How could they do that?”
“I suspect one of my men of givin’ us the double cross—I fired him
to-day.”
“But what makes you think the strikers got at the men?”
“Well, three more pulled out yesterday without waitin’ fer their pay,
and I hear they joined the brotherhood last night.”
Allan’s face cleared.
“If that’s all!” he said. “I guess we can spare three men. If no more
than that leave us, it shows the men are pretty well contented. Has Mr.
Schofield or Mr. Plumfield been here?”
“No,” Stanley answered, “and from what I hear, they ain’t likely to be.
They’ve both got their hands full. Somebody tried to set fire to the
stock-yards the other night and pretty near succeeded—in fact, did start
a lively blaze, but it was discovered and put out before much damage was
done—and mighty lucky it was that the night wasn’t a windy one. But ever
since, Mr. Schofield has had to patrol the whole approach to Cincinnati,
a matter of five or six miles.”
“Yes—and what about Mr. Plumfield?”
“Well,” said Stanley, “the same night, one of the track walkers happened
to find a big dynamite bomb on the Parkersburg bridge and dumped it over
into the river just in time. That means more patrollin’ at that end.”
“But who did it? Who started the fire and who placed the bomb?”
“You can search me! The strikers say it wasn’t them, and the brotherhood
is offering a reward of a thousand dollars for the arrest and conviction
of the guilty parties. I guess, though, their money’s in no danger,”
Stanley added, with a grin.
“You mean you think the strikers did it?” asked Allan, quickly.
“I don’t suppose anybody’s doin’ it fer their health.”
“But if that’s their game, what’s to prevent them from blowing up a
bridge or culvert somewhere out on the line any time they want to? We
can’t guard the whole right of way.”
“There ain’t a thing on earth to prevent them,” answered Stanley,
cheerfully. “You know as well as I do, that there never is any thing to
prevent any tramp or bum or scoundrel blowin’ up a bridge at any
time—but they never do—at least, mighty seldom, though to hear some of
’em talk, you’d think all they wanted was half a chance t’ blow up the
whole world. So I don’t look for anything of that sort now. In the first
place, scoundrels of that kind won’t operate far from a base of
supplies, which means a grog-shop. An’ in the second place, they’ve got
to operate in a mob, for they’re the biggest cowards on earth—and that
means a big town. I take back what I said a while ago. I don’t think the
strikers put that bomb on the bridge—I think it was some Russian or
Italian anarchist from the Parkersburg coal mines or steel works.
There’s plenty of ’em there. An’ I ain’t so dead sure they started the
stock-yards fire, either. I had a talk with Simpson, their special
delegate, yesterday, and he seems to be a pretty decent sort of feller.
I really believe he’s tryin’ to prevent trouble, and I could see that he
was considerable down in the mouth about the strike. I think he’s
gittin’ cold feet and would be glad to back out, if he could. I figger
it out this way—the brotherhood’s split up. The old, conservative men,
headed by Simpson, want to avoid trouble; the young, hot-headed ones,
headed by Bassett, are sp’ilin’ for a fight. And they’re roundin’ up all
the toughs they can find to help them.”
“Well,” said Allan, with a sigh of relief, “they won’t be able to find
many here to help them, and that’s a blessing!”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” said Stanley; “but I don’t think
there’ll be any trouble here—not for a few days, anyway.”
“A few days?” echoed Allan. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean,” answered Stanley, slowly, “that I don’t like the looks of
things. There’s too many strangers in town.”
“Too many strangers?”
“Yes—too many strangers. Why, the saloons are full of the toughest
lookin’ lot of men you ever saw. Where’d they come from—that’s what I
want to know—and what’s their business—and who’s payin’ for their
whiskey?”
“I don’t understand you yet, Stanley,” said Allan, a little impatiently.
“Tell me straight out what you’re afraid of.”
“I’m afraid that them fellers are bein’ brought in here to cause
trouble,” answered Stanley, bluntly. “And I believe that Bassett’s at
the bottom of the whole thing. And furthermore I believe he’s got that
little devil of a Hummel helpin’ him.”
“Hummel? Have you seen him?”
“Seen him! I guess not! If I did, I’d have him behind the bars so quick
’twould make his head swim. But I’ve got to have some more men, and the
trouble is that the more I get, the more danger there is of gettin’ some
strike sympathizers among them. I think I’d better patrol the yards and
track clear through to the city limits.”
“So do I,” Allan agreed. “I’d keep everybody out of the yards and off
the right of way who hasn’t business there. And if there’s any sign of
trouble, let me know at once.”
“I will,” Stanley promised; “I’m mighty glad to have somebody to talk
things over with. I’ve felt like I was goin’ to bust the last few days.
And I’m glad you’re gettin’ better.”
“Thank you,” Allan answered. “It’s just a question now of getting my
strength back.”
“Well, don’t you worry none; let me do that,” and the detective took his
leave, much to the satisfaction of Mrs. Welsh, who had been fuming
outside the door for the last five minutes, without daring to break in
upon the conversation.
“And now,” said Allan, cheerfully, when she returned from showing
Stanley out, “I wish you’d call Tom Murray, our chief lineman, and tell
him I want my instrument put on a board, so that I can use it here in
bed. Of course,” he added, as Mary frowned mutinously, “I could get up
and go over there to the table, but I thought maybe you’d rather I
stayed in bed.”
“Yes,” said Mary grimly, “it’ll save us the trouble o’ puttin’ you there
after you’ve kilt yerself,” but she went and summoned the lineman, and
in half an hour, the little instrument was removed from the table to a
board, and Allan was working it with his left hand, for his right arm
was incapacitated by reason of the broken collar-bone.
Ever since the day when he and Jim Anderson had rigged up a little
private line for the study of telegraphy, he had kept an instrument in
his room, connected with headquarters, so that he could be called at any
hour of the night, without anyone else in the house being disturbed. For
he had long since acquired that sixth sense of the telegrapher, which
responds to its call, even though its possessor may be sound asleep, and
awakens him much as an alarm clock might.
So now, with the instrument under his hand, he first called up the
offices and had a little chat with the dispatcher who was looking after
his work as chief—work which was not exacting since traffic was so
light; and then, calling Cincinnati, he asked for Mr. Schofield. But Mr.
Schofield was out somewhere, and Allan was forced to content himself for
the time being with the assurance of the man who answered him that
everything seemed to be all right.
He pushed the instrument away, at last, and lay back on the pillow,
wearier than he cared to confess, realizing how far from strong he was.
The shock of his terrible experience was one from which he would
probably be long in completely recovering, but he set his teeth and
resolved that he would not be chained to his bed an instant longer than
was absolutely necessary.
He dozed off, after a time, half-sleeping, half-waking, and Mary,
opening the door and glancing in at him, closed it softly and went away.
He heard her and smiled to himself and sank deeper among the pillows.
It was not exactly a dream that he had as he lay there—it was rather a
vision—a living over again of the incidents of that terrible day—living
them over, though, calmly; looking at them from the outside, as though
they were happening to someone else. He saw himself struck down in the
empty stable; saw his assailant stoop above him, and finally, after
reconnoitring to make sure he was not observed, drag his victim to the
house, in through the back door, and up the stairs to a room on the
floor above.
He saw himself lying there unconscious, and fear gripped his heart lest
he might die there without awaking; but the still figure stirred
presently, and opened its eyes. In the cellar beneath the house, he
could see a dim shape moving about, illumined only by the light of a
dirty lantern. It was gathering a pile of rubbish together and adding to
it some rotten boards which it tore from some shelving in one corner.
Then the figure mounted to the ground floor and collected a similar heap
there; then to the floor above, where it entered the room in which he
lay. He heard himself talking to it, questioning it, heard its savage
responses; then he saw it go out and shut the door and proceed to
another room near by where five figures lay bound upon the floor. They
cursed it, railed at it, implored it; but the fiend only laughed
sardonically and left them.
Then it descended leisurely to the floor below, and from a cupboard
produced some scraps of food, which it proceeded to consume, after which
it returned to the stable, extinguished the lantern, lay down upon its
bed of straw and slept. How long it slept, Allan could not tell, but at
last it arose, gathered the straw under one arm, and with the lantern
swinging from the other hand, returned to the house. A portion of the
straw was added to the pile of rubbish in the cellar, and the rest of it
to the pile on the floor above. Then, the idiot opened the lantern and
poured over the pile the kerosene which remained in it. Finally, with a
devilish leer, he struck a match and touched it to the straw.
For a moment he sat feeding the flames carefully, his face more demoniac
than ever in the red shadows which danced over it. Then, closing the
door, he proceeded to the cellar and set fire to the rubbish there, and,
finally, left the house and sat down on a little hummock of earth
outside. Allan watched the flame grow and grow, the straw throwing off a
dense cloud of smoke as it burned; he saw himself awaken, crawl to the
door, along the hall, to the stairs; saw himself pitch headforemost
through the darkness—
“Mamie!” he cried. “Mamie!”
And he started awake to find Mamie’s arms about him, and her dear face
above him—
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXIV
ALLAN FINDS HIS MATE
FOR an instant, Mamie bent above him, gazing down at him, her face very
tender; then she made as though to draw away, but Allan threw his arm
about her and held her tight.
“Is it a dream?” he asked, “or is it really you, Mamie?”
“Oh, it isn’t a dream,” she answered, laughing.
He drew a deep breath of relief as he looked up at her, and then glanced
about the familiar room.
“I’ve dreamed so many times,” he said, “and always you were bending over
me—a sort of guardian angel—‘guarding me, out of all the world.’”
Her colour heightened and her eyes grew bright.
“It’s sweet of you to say that,” she said.
“And you’re sure I’m not dreaming?”
“No—but you were; you were crying out—”
“Yes—I thought I was still in that old stone house. And I was crying for
you, Mamie!”
“For me?”
“Yes, for you—just as I have done a dozen times before.”
He stopped for an instant and gazed up into her eyes, and his lips were
trembling.
“Do you know why, Mamie?” he asked, at last. “Can’t you guess why?”
Something in his face brought the hot colour to her cheeks, and she
struggled to free herself from his arm.
“Let me go, Allan,” she pleaded. “You mustn’t—”
“Not yet. Not just for a moment. Do you know what you are to me, Mamie?
The dearest thing in life! And I’m going to kiss you.”
“No, no!” she cried. “Allan—”
But he drew her lips down to his—such tender lips they were, so sweet,
so dewy.
“And I’m going to marry you as soon as I get well,” he announced, his
cheek against hers. “And we’ll live happy ever after, like the prince
and princess in the fairy tale. That is, of course, provided the
princess is agreeable.”
She drew a quick, startled breath, and lay still for a moment, warm
against his heart; then she drew his hands away, raised herself and
looked down at him with shining eyes.
“Do you mean it, Allan?” she whispered.
“Mean it? I mean it as I never meant anything else. Put that little ear
of yours down to my lips, Mamie. I want to tell you something.”
“What?” asked Mamie, her eyes luminous.
“Put your ear down.”
And Mamie bent a pink ear to his lips.
“I love you!” he whispered into it, and kissed it.
Again a quick breath shook that gentle bosom—a breath of sheerest
ecstasy—then, with a quick movement, Mamie turned her head and laid her
lips to his.
“And I you!” she said. “And, oh, Allan, you have made me happy!”
“Nothing to what I am.”
“Oh, yes,” she contradicted, seriously. “Much happier. You see, I never
thought that you—that I—”
“Well, go on.”
“I never thought that I was good enough.”
“Good enough! You’re a thousand times too good. That’s what worries me,
Mamie.”
“I—I thought maybe, after you were married, you—you’d let me keep house
for you, or something of that sort, so that I could see you—”
“I won’t listen!” cried Allan, and stopped her lips.
“Oh, but you must,” she said, freeing herself, “because I want you to
know. I would have been quite happy doing that.”
“Poor little Cinderella!”
“But the Prince has come, and the slipper fits. I shall always believe
in fairy tales, after this,” she added, her eyes shining, “because I
know one that’s come true.”
They were silent for a moment, too full of their new happiness for any
need of words. Then she snuggled her cheek close to his.
“When did you begin to love me, Allan?” she whispered, shyly.
“That day when I picked you up from in front of the locomotive.”
“Seriously, Allan; tell me.”
“I don’t know,” he said, drawing back so that he could see her rosy,
tender face. “I started long before I knew it—away back when you were a
little girl, I guess. I can see now how it grew and grew and made its
foundation more and more secure, so that there was no shaking it; but I
never woke to it till that night I came home from Cincinnati and you met
me at the door. Then it struck me all of a sudden, and it was all I
could do to keep from taking you in my arms—”
Mamie gave a delighted little wiggle.
“I knew it!” she said. “I saw it—and—I’m ashamed to confess it, Allan!”
“To confess what?”
“How badly I wanted you to—and how I tried to make you.”
He laughed delightedly.
“Really? Why, you little siren!”
“Yes; but then, you know, I’d loved you much longer than you had me.”
“How much longer?”
“Oh, ages longer; since that very first time, I think. You know, I
kissed you then.”
“Yes, I seem to remember something of the sort.”
“Only, of course, at first,” she added, “I didn’t think about your
loving anybody else, or care.”
“You were afraid of that?”
“You did, you know,” she said, accusingly.
“Not really, Mamie,” he protested, earnestly. “Not like this—not in the
least like this. Betty Heywood was right when she said I was never in
love with her—it was with girls in general, but not with her.”
“I don’t know that that makes it any better,” pouted Mamie.
“Oh, yes, it does; it isn’t in the least like being in love with an
individual. Mamie,” he asked, suddenly, “I’ve never been able to
understand. What was it led you to me out there in that old house?”
“My love,” she answered, promptly. “I don’t think it the least strange,
Allan. When you fell down the stairs, you called me and I heard. How
could I have helped but hear?”
“Yes; I suppose that was it,” he agreed, holding her closer. “But it was
wonderful just the same.”
“I think anything else would have been wonderful. It seems to me the
most natural thing in the world. I shall always hear, when you call me,
Allan.”
“Will you? Well, we’ll see. When are we going to get married, Mamie?”
“Oh,” she said, and pulled herself away, and sat upright, with flaming
cheeks. “Not for a long time—two years, anyway. You know, I’m only
seventeen.”
“You thought that was a great age, not so very long ago.”
“It doesn’t seem so great now—and since we know we love each other, what
does anything else matter?”
“It matters a good deal. I’ll see about it just as soon as I can get
about.”
“Do you know,” she said, looking down at him critically, “I believe
you’re something of a tyrant?”
“I know I am,” he laughed, joyously; “I’m a good deal of a tyrant.
You’ll see!”
“Maybe I won’t marry you after all!”
“I’m not afraid. You’re dying for me—come now, own up.”
For an instant Mamie hesitated—the traditions of her sex held her back.
Then she flung herself forward upon him and hugged him tight.
“I am—I am,” she cried. “And it shall be whenever you say, Allan!”
And just then, Mary opened the door and looked in.
“Mamie,” she began, and then stopped astonished at the sight that met
her eyes.
But Mamie had rushed to her and thrown her arms around her neck and was
holding her tight.
“Oh, mummy, mummy!” she cried. “Guess! You could never guess!
Allan—we’re—”
She stopped, stammering with sheer joy, and Mary, taking her by the
shoulders, held her off and looked at her—at the starry eyes, at the
blushing cheeks, at the smiling lips; and then, for the first time in
her life, Mary Welsh quite gave way, collapsed into a chair, threw her
apron over her head and sobbed as though her heart would break.
“Why, mummy!” cried Mamie.
“It’s nothin’! It’s nothin’!” sobbed that good woman. “Let—let me
be—don’t you see it’s for joy, you foolish children,” and the storm
passing as quickly as it had come, she pulled her apron down again, and
kissed them both. “It’s the happiest day of my life—Oh, I have hoped for
it and prayed for it—but I never thought—wait till I tell Jack! An’ him
out on th’ road an’ not comin’ back till t’morrer night! Mamie,” she
added, eyeing her offspring sternly, “do you know where you ought t’ be?
You ought t’ be down on your knees thankin’ heaven fer such a man—the
best an’ kindest on God’s green earth!”
“Oh, come!” protested Allan, laughing. “No, he’s not; not by a good
deal.”
But Mary did not heed him.
“An’ if ever,” she continued, “you give him cause for sorrow or
misgivin’, you’ll answer to me, young lady—that you will!”
And then, suddenly relenting, she caught Mamie to her and kissed her
again.
“An’ now I guess I’d better take you away,” she added. “You’ll be
excitin’ the boy too much.”
“Oh, nonsense!” Allan cried. “Exciting me, indeed! Don’t you see I’m a
hundred per cent. better—there never was such medicine. Take her away,
and I’ll go into a decline right off!”
“Well, I’ll leave her, then,” said Mary; “but mind you take your
medicine!”
And she went out and closed the door after her.
Mamie came back and sat down by the bedside.
“I’ve got a lot to learn, you know, Allan,” she began seriously.
“There’s the cooking—”
“Why, you’re a splendid cook.”
“Not nearly so good as mummy. And I wouldn’t have you miss her cooking.”
“Why, I won’t miss anything, you little goose, if I have you. I’ll have
to look for a house. There’s a new one going up right back on Second
street—it looks pretty nice—”
But just then, his instrument began to call him.
“There’s Mr. Schofield,” he said, and answered, as Mamie handed the
board up to him.
“How are you?” was the first question.
“Coming along fine,” Allan answered. “Will be out in a day or two.”
“That’s great. We need you. Things here are in pretty bad shape, but I’m
hoping they will calm down. All the trouble is caused by a lot of
loafers, and I’m trying to find out who it is that’s behind them. You
heard about the fire at the stock-yards?”
“Yes, Stanley told me.”
“We’ve got the men who did that, and intend to put them through, but I’m
sure there’s somebody back of them, and we’re trying to get a
confession.”
“Do you think it’s the strikers?”
“No; or if it is, it’s a gang of the less scrupulous ones.”
“That’s what Stanley thinks. He says Bassett’s at the head of it.”
“That’s a good idea—worth working on, anyway. Suppose you tell Stanley
to have one of his best men keep an eye on Bassett. If he starts for
Cincinnati, let me know and I’ll have him shadowed at this end. How are
things at Wadsworth?”
“Stanley was just here and reported everything quiet. He says he’s
worried, though, by a lot of tough-looking strangers who have showed up
recently in the depot saloons.”
“Well, don’t take any chances. Swear in all the deputies you need. And
keep everybody out of the yards.”
“I’ve already ordered that. Have we men enough to run the trains?”
“We’re a little short, but there’s another squad coming on from the east
to-night. There have been a lot here looking for jobs, but I’m afraid to
hire them. Don’t hire anybody at Wadsworth, unless you’re sure of them.
We must hold our men together. I think the strikers are getting tired
and another week will see the end of it.”
“I hope so.”
“The only thing I’m afraid of and want to guard against is a flare-up at
the end. And that’s what I want you to watch for and try to prevent.
Some of the young fire-eaters may feel so sore when they know they’ve
lost the strike that they’ll try to take it out on us.”
“All right; and I’ll get out myself just as soon as I can.”
“Take your time—I don’t want you to get a relapse. I’ve heard all about
that adventure of yours. I’ll tell you what I think about it when I see
you.”
“I didn’t do anything. It was Jack Welsh and Reddy Magraw.”
“I’ve heard about them, too. And what’s this story about a young damsel
leading the rescuers?”
“That was Welsh’s daughter.”
“I want to meet her when I get back to Wadsworth.”
“All right; I’ll introduce you,” and Allan chuckled.
“What is it, Allan?” asked Mamie. “I know you’re saying something about
me by the way you’re laughing.”
But Allan silenced her with a wave of the hand.
“You know what you ought to do,” added Mr. Schofield.
“What?”
“Marry her.”
“I’ll think about it,” answered Allan, chuckling again.
“Keep me posted about Bassett.”
“I will.”
“Good-bye.”
“Good-bye,” clicked Allan, and pushed the instrument away.
“I see I’ll have to learn telegraphy,” said Mamie. “I can’t have you
talking about me to people right before me and me not understanding a
word of it! What was he saying?”
“He said he wanted to meet the heroine.”
“Yes; and what else?”
“He said it was up to me to marry her.”
“And what did you tell him?”
“I told him she was willing, but I hadn’t made up my mind.”
“Yes,” said Mamie, reflectively, looking sternly at his laughing face,
“I’ll certainly have to learn telegraphy.”
“There’s only three words you need know,” said Allan. “Here they are,”
and, finger on key, he clicked off slowly, .. — .. ...-. .. .. . . ..-
“And what do they mean?”
“‘I love you,’” he answered.
“I think I like them better spoken,” said Mamie; “and I suppose I’ll
have to forgive you.”
* * * * *
Joy is a great restorer, and the next twenty-four hours worked a big
improvement in Allan’s condition. The wound on his head was healing
nicely, and he had almost recovered from the weakness which the loss of
blood had occasioned. A broken collar-bone is at no time a very
dangerous injury, and in the case of this young and vigorous fellow it
had already begun to knit, though, of course, his shoulder would stay in
splints for a fortnight yet. From the general shock which he had
suffered, his strong young body rallied quickly, and on the afternoon of
the day following the conversation just recorded, the doctor announced
that he might leave his bed and sit up a while.
“And to-morrow, doctor,” Allan added, “I’m going down to the office.”
“We’ll see,” said the doctor, laughing. “I don’t say you sha’n’t go; but
I hope it won’t be necessary. I’d like to keep you quiet here for a day
or two yet—you’ll gain by it in the end.”
It was in his chair that Stanley found him when he came to make his
report.
“No special developments,” he said. “A few more strangers, but none of
them has offered to give any trouble. I got the police to railroad a few
of them out of town. I think the mayor’s seein’ a light. You know, this
strike hasn’t been conducted any too well—or maybe it was because our
side of it has been handled right—but the strikers are sort of losin’
heart. Bassett’s made a blamed fool of himself since it started. He’s
been drunk most of the time, and had a fight last night, at the lodge
meetin’ with Jim Adams, one of the oldest engineers on the road. You
know he’s always had a grudge ag’in Adams, anyway—he’s tried t’ do fer
him afore this.”
“Yes,” said Allan. “We’ve always suspected he tried to send him through
the Jones Run bridge by running past it that night it was on fire.”
“I don’t doubt he did,” said Stanley. “Anyway, he got white-hot last
night. I hear that even the special delegate sided ag’in him, and told
him that if it happened ag’in, he’d be fired from the brotherhood. And I
hear that Bassett’s drunker’n ever to-day, and threatens t’ cause more
trouble at the meetin’ to-night. If he does, I think the jig’s up.”
“Well, we won’t count on it. Have you got enough men to patrol the yards
thoroughly?”
“I’ve got thirty—that ought to be enough. I’ve got a string all around
the yards. Nobody can git in who can’t show his business.”
“Not even after night?”
“Well, o’ course, my men ain’t owls, but they’ll keep open what eyes
they’ve got.”
“Are the trains moving all right?”
“On the dot—and another thing—I hear that the conductors have definitely
refused to join the strike. I guess they see which way the wind’s
blowin’.”
“I’m glad of that—if all the brotherhoods were as sensible.”
“Oh, they’ll make you pay fer it the next time they have a grievance,”
said Stanley, with a grin. “They’ll remind you how they stood by you,
and so will the brakemen.”
* * * * *
Evening came, and with it, Jack. Allan heard him coming up the stairs,
and called to him to come in before he had time to knock.
“Come in and sit down,” said Allan. “How’s everything out on the line?”
“Foine as silk. An’ it certainly does me good t’ see you settin’ up.
That doctor’s all right.”
“Oh, it wasn’t the doctor,” cried Allan. “Jack, don’t you know—didn’t
they tell you?”
Jack’s honest face was a-gleam, as he took Allan’s outstretched hand.
“Yes,” he said, “they told me. An’ it’s a happy man I am, Allan
West—happier ’n I ever thought I could be!”
“And it’s a happy man I am, Jack Welsh,” said Allan. “You can trust her
to me, Jack,” he added, earnestly. “I’ll be good to her.”
“Don’t I know it, boy! It’s a lucky girl she is—an’ a lucky family.
It’s—it’s—Allan, boy, if I’d thought an’ thought, I couldn’ ’a’ thought
of anything that would make me happier. Who’s that?” he added, as a
heavy step sounded on the stair.
“Faith, an’ it’s Reddy Magraw!” cried a familiar voice. “Your old woman
was jest tellin’ me, Jack, when I come in t’ ask after th’ boy,
there—tellin’ me about him an’ Mamie. An’ I jest couldn’t go away
without seein’ both of you. Jack Welsh,” he added, sternly, “what have
ye got t’ say?”
“Nothin’. I’m too full t’ say anything, Reddy.”
“Well, then, I’ll say it fer ye,” said Reddy; “an’ it’s this. I’d rather
have a darter of mine wife to that boy there than t’ the king of
England. Yes, an’ if I had a dozen darters, an’ he wanted ’em, I’d say
take ’em—an’ I’d be sorry I hadn’t more!”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXV
THE DOWNFALL OF BASSETT
SINCE the beginning of the strike, the engineers’ headquarters had
remained open continually, and, in addition to the informal meetings
during the day, a formal meeting was held every evening to discuss the
situation. These meetings, which the firemen also attended, had started
out peacefully enough, but two factions had soon developed, one led by
Simpson, the special delegate, and the other by Rafe Bassett. The
feeling between these factions had steadily increased in bitterness, and
had culminated the evening before, as Stanley had reported to Allan, in
an assault by Bassett on one of the oldest engineers in the road’s
employ.
Simpson, early recognizing Bassett’s violent and quarrelsome
disposition, had foreseen this development, and had lost no opportunity
to strengthen himself with the conservative element and to gain its
confidence. He had worked wisely and well, and the consequence was that
Bassett’s following had melted away so rapidly that Simpson at last felt
himself strong enough to administer a stinging warning to the offender.
In this victory, Simpson had been greatly aided by the course of events.
Many of the engineers had opposed the strike at the outset, but had been
over-borne by the younger element; as the days passed, more and more,
under Simpson’s careful guidance, had come to acknowledge that the
strike was a mistake and that public opinion was turning against them.
The older men were especially outspoken in their expressions of regret,
and while many of the younger men kept up a semblance of contentment, it
was plainly to be seen that they, too, were growing uneasy. Almost the
only one who was still openly pleased with the strike was Bassett
himself.
The discontent with the situation had found expression on the floor of
the lodge the night before, when Jim Adams had suggested that a
committee be appointed to wait upon the officials of the road, and see
whether an agreement to end the strike could not be reached. It was this
suggestion which had led to Bassett’s assault and to the subsequent
warning and reprimand which Simpson had given him.
In consequence of all this, everyone felt that affairs were reaching a
crisis, and the lodge room was even more crowded than usual, this
evening, as the hour for the meeting approached. The men gathered in
little groups and discussed in low tones the scene of the evening
before. It was evident that a new spirit had come over the men, and more
than one stated that it was his intention to approve the suggestion made
by Adams the night before, and that he would not allow Rafe Bassett to
roar him down. But none of them cared to provoke unnecessarily Bassett’s
open enmity, for he was universally recognized as a dangerous man, and
when, at last, he swaggered into the room, plainly under the influence
of liquor, an uneasy silence fell upon the crowd.
The meeting was called to order, and Simpson arose to make a few
announcements. He waited until Bassett, evidently spoiling for a fight,
swaggered noisily to a chair near the stage.
“There is no change in the situation,” he began. “The strike is
progressing quietly—”
“Too blame quietly,” Bassett broke in. “You’d think we was a lot o’
Sunday school kids by the way we set around with our hands folded,
actin’ like sugar wouldn’t melt in our—”
“Order! Order!” called the chairman, rapping with his gavel, and Bassett
subsided, growling, into his chair.
“As I was saying,” Simpson proceeded calmly, “the strike is progressing
quietly. One good piece of news I have—the fellows who tried to set fire
to the stock-yards have been arrested and turned out to be a couple of
saloon bums, who never worked on a railroad, or anywhere else, and of
course never belonged to the brotherhood. I’m mighty glad that this
effectually clears the brotherhood of any suspicion of being implicated
in the affair.”
“How do you know they’re the ones?” Bassett demanded.
“I understand they have confessed.”
“Been given the third degree, I guess. Who’s defendin’ ’em?”
“I don’t know, nor care. The brotherhood certainly won’t defend them. If
they haven’t any money, counsel for them will be appointed by the court,
I suppose, in the usual way.”
“And they’ll be railroaded to the pen, also in the usual way,” sneered
Bassett. “It makes me sick the way we go back on our friends.”
“They’re not our friends,” said Simpson, sharply. “They’re the worst
enemies we’ve got. We’re in no way responsible for them nor indebted to
them.”
“Ain’t we?” and Bassett was on his feet again. “Where’d they git the
whiskey they tanked up on afore they tackled the job? Who give it to
them?”
“I don’t know—some saloon-keeper, probably.”
“No, it wasn’t no saloon-keeper,” cried Bassett, “an’ you know it. What
would a saloon-keeper be givin’ away good whiskey fer? An’ more’n that,
where’d they git the twenty dollars that was found on each of ’em? Did a
saloon-keeper give ’em that, too?”
“Since you seem to know so much about it,” said Simpson, with ominous
calmness, “suppose you tell us.”
“All right, I _will_ tell you!” yelled Bassett, his self-control
suddenly slipping from him. “Though I won’t be tellin’ you no news, for
all your standin’ there lookin’ so goody-good. It’s sneaks like you an’
Jim Adams, what want t’ go crawlin’ back lickin’ the boots of the
railroad, that disgusts me with the brotherhood.”
“Sneak yourself!” cried Adams, jumping to his feet and starting for
Bassett, but two of his friends seized him and held him back.
“Let him come on!” shouted Bassett, fairly purple. “I’ll fix him this
time—I’ve been wantin’ to fer years. Let him come on!”
But Adams was pulled panting back into his chair.
“Did you hear what he said?” he demanded of those about him. “Did you
hear what he said? He as good as admitted he tried to do fer me that
night at Jones Run bridge!”
But they weren’t listening to him; they were listening to Bassett, who,
fairly livid with rage, had turned back to Simpson.
“Yes,” he shouted, “goody-goody sneaks like you an’ Adams—standin’ there
lettin’ on you don’t know who it was put them poor devils up to firin’
the stock-yards!”
“I’ve already asked you to tell me,” repeated Simpson, quietly.
“It was two members of this lodge!” yelled Bassett, quite beside
himself. “It was two members of this lodge what give the whiskey an’ the
cash, an’ they knowed what they was doin’, too!”
The place was in an uproar; angry voices demanded the names of the
offending members, denials were shouted across the room, fists were
shaken; but the chairman finally succeeded in beating down the din until
Simpson’s voice could be heard again. His face was flushed and there was
a dangerous light in his eyes as he turned to Bassett, who had subsided
into his seat again.
“Mr. Bassett,” he began, “you have said too much not to say more. I
demand the names of those two men.”
But Bassett had already said more than he had intended to say, and
heartily regretted his hasty tongue.
“I ain’t no tale-bearer,” he protested. “I know what I know; but it
don’t go no furder.”
“You refuse to tell?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then,” said Simpson, firmly, “by virtue of the authority vested in me
by the Grand Lodge, I suspend you from membership in the brotherhood
until a hearing of this case can be had.”
“What!” yelled Bassett, on his feet again, his face purple. “Suspend me!
Why, you—you snake! Boys,” he shouted, “do you stand fer this?” It’s
Nixon over ag’in! Oh, they’re all rotten! I tell you those fellers
layin’ in jail down at Cincinnati ought t’ be looked after by the
brotherhood—I tell you why—I speak as a man to men—I don’t believe in
lettin’ some corporation-owned Hamilton County judge railroad them to
the pen. It ain’t right, an’ every man of you knows it ain’t right. But
I ain’t no informer—I won’t say nothin’ more—an’ because I won’t, this
here whipper-snapper from headquarters says he’ll suspend me. Boys, I
tell you the Grand Lodge is rotten through an’ through. It’s owned by
the railroads. It’s time we turned the scoundrels out!”
It was a good talk, effectively delivered, and it carried some of the
younger men with it, as was shown by the subdued growl which ran around
the room. Not so very long before, it would have carried the whole lodge
with it, but sentiment had changed. Simpson, who had gone through just
such scenes before, never turned a hair.
“And I want to say to you,” he said, “that the Grand Lodge is devoted to
you, and you know it—deep down in your hearts, you know it. Yes, and I
want to add that I think we made a mistake in consenting to this strike,
and in my opinion the sooner we call it off the better. As to those
fellows at Cincinnati, so far from defending them, the brotherhood has
promised to pay, and will pay, a reward of five hundred dollars upon
their conviction, and it will pay the same reward for the conviction of
the scoundrel who tried to dynamite the bridge at Parkersburg.
“As for this man,” he added, pointing to Bassett, “he is no longer a
member of the brotherhood and will not be until he is reinstated—and if
that ever happens, which I don’t believe, it will certainly be against
my advice. As this lodge has further business to transact, I would
therefore ask Mr. Bassett to retire.”
“Retire yourself!” shouted Bassett, now thoroughly enraged. “If you want
me out, you’ll have to put me out, an’ I’d like to see you do it!”
“Oh, I’ll do it, if necessary,” retorted Simpson. “But before you go, I
want to say one thing to you for all these men to hear. It’s blackguards
like you who bring discredit upon the brotherhood and upon unionism
generally—blackguards who are always trying to get something they don’t
deserve, and to evade something they do deserve. It’s blackguards like
you who think the union cause is helped by violence, and who want every
strike to be accompanied by violence. Now, apart from any consideration
of right or wrong—”
“What is this, a sermon?” demanded Bassett, looking around with a
raucous laugh—but it found no echo.
“Yes,” retorted Simpson; “and a sermon you’ll do well to listen to.
Apart from any consideration of right or wrong, nothing hurts our cause
like violence—I think we’ve found that out—and the fellow who advocates
violence or assists in it is an enemy and not a friend. And I haven’t
the slightest doubt,” he added, wheeling upon Bassett, “that it was this
fellow here who was responsible for that fire at the stock-yards.”
Bassett, his face white and drawn with passion, could only sputter
inarticulately for a moment. Then, by a mighty effort, he regained
control of himself.
“You’re pipin’ a different tune,” he sneered, “from what you did when
you first come down here. Why? Have you been seen, like Nixon was? Have
you got a wad of railroad money in your pocket?”
“Sergeant-at-arms,” called Simpson, “this fellow is not a member of this
lodge. Remove him, so that the meeting can proceed.”
Then Simpson sat down and awaited the event with serene confidence. For,
as has been stated, he had been in just such a position more than once
before, and he had planned carefully to meet this crisis. The
sergeant-at-arms, instructed beforehand in his duties, summoned two
assistants and advanced upon Bassett. For a moment, it was evident that
that individual meditated resistance; then, as he sized up the three
stalwart men confronting him, he realized the futility of it.
“All right,” he said; “I’ll go. But don’t put your hands on me—I won’t
stand that. An’ I just want to say one thing: you’ll all of you regret
this night’s work.”
And catching up his overcoat, he followed the sergeant-at-arms to the
door, which closed after him a moment later.
The night’s experience had sobered him, but nevertheless he reeled
slightly as he went down the stairs—not with intoxication, but with a
kind of vertigo of rage. He paused at the foot of the stairs to recover
himself.
“They framed it up on me!” he muttered to himself. “The hounds! To think
of their framin’ it up on me!”
And he got out his handkerchief and mopped his forehead with shaking
hand. Then, entering the saloon on the ground floor of the building, he
asked for two quart bottles of whiskey.
The bartender, an old acquaintance, ventured to protest.
“Look here, Rafe,” he said, “you’re goin’ it too strong. Better let up a
little, old man.”
“Oh, this ain’t fer me,” answered Bassett, laughing grimly. “I’m givin’
a little blow-out to-night. This is fer the company,” and putting a
bottle in each coat-pocket, he hurried from the place.
The bartender gazed after him speculatively, for there was a strangeness
in his manner, a sort of menace, as of a man who has thrown down the
gauntlet to society, regardless of the consequences, but other customers
demanded attention, and the bartender soon forgot all about the
incident. Could he have followed Bassett, he would have been more and
more surprised; for the latter’s path did not lead him home, nor to any
place suggestive of a social function. Instead, he turned down the
nearest alley, came out upon the railroad track and followed it toward
the river. Once he passed a track-walker, but the latter did not
recognize the dark figure apparently hurrying toward home.
The road ran past back yards, from which an occasional dog saluted him,
crossed a street at an angle, skirted a row of tumble-down brick
buildings, and then emerged upon the river bank, which it skirted for
perhaps half a mile. Upon this bank, in the days when municipal
sanitation was not what it now is, a number of slaughter-houses had been
built, because of the convenience of running their refuse into the
river. This had been stopped some years before, and the buildings,
already decrepit and decayed, had fallen into a still more disreputable
condition.
A high board fence surrounded the little stretch of ground in front of
them, and before this Bassett paused, groped an instant, pulled aside a
loose board and slipped through. He let the board slide into place
behind him, crossed the dirty yard, and, producing a key from his
pocket, applied it to the lock of the first door he came to. An instant
later, he had opened the door and entered.
An odour incredibly foul and overpowering greeted him, and he paused to
catch his breath, as it were. Then, groping his way forward along the
wall, he came to another door, which he opened. Carefully closing it
behind him, he struck a match. Its glow revealed a black pit yawning
before him, into which plunged a steep and narrow stair. On a ledge at
the top was a candle-end, and lighting this and holding it before him,
Bassett descended the stair, which creaked and groaned ominously under
his weight. At the bottom he blew out his candle and placed it carefully
on the lowest step.
He could hear the ripple of the river close at hand, but no other sound,
for he was at the bottom of the shaft which led to the water’s edge. He
apparently knew the place well, for he felt his way forward until his
hands touched a board partition. Upon this he rapped sharply three times
and then, after an interval, a fourth.
Instantly there was a sharp click and a little door swung open,
disclosing a man holding a candle above his head and peering out into
the darkness—a little, shrivelled man, with livid, pock-marked face and
venomous eyes.
“All right, Hummel,” said Bassett, and stepped inside and drew the door
shut after him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXVI
NEMESIS
THE place which Bassett had entered was a squalid little enclosure,
eight or nine feet square, with the floor of the slaughter-house for a
roof, rough slabs for walls, and the earth of the river bank for a
floor. A rude fireplace of loose bricks had been built in one corner,
the smoke from which was conducted up through a stove-pipe into the
empty slaughter-house above. A little pile of coal, stolen from a
near-by coalyard, occupied one corner, and a dirty bed, formed by some
boards thrown across two boxes, another. Three boxes took the place of
chairs and table, and another box nailed against the wall, served as a
cupboard. The floor was littered with empty cans and whiskey bottles and
scraps of refuse, and was slippery and slimy with dampness from the
river.
Hummel placed the candle on one of the boxes and then turned to his
visitor, his face more loathsome than ever. Face, hands and clothing
were caked with dirt. His hands were trembling as though with palsy, and
it was evident that he was on the verge of delirium tremens.
Without waiting for him to speak, Bassett, seeing his condition at a
glance, drew from his pocket one of the bottles he had just purchased,
and held it out to him.
Hummel, with a low exclamation of relief and joy, seized it, knocked off
the head, and snatching up a dirty tumbler, filled it from the bottle
and drained the last drop. Then he set bottle and glass down beside him
with a sigh of satisfaction.
“That’s better,” he said. “You ain’t been treatin’ me right, Rafe. You
oughtn’t to let me run out.”
“Run out!” Bassett repeated. “Good Lord! I’ll have to start a distillery
t’ keep you from runnin’ out! I never see a man who could swill whiskey
like you kin—a gallon a day ain’t nothin’! Why, you’re a reg’lar tank,
with no bottom, at that!”
Hummel glared at him evilly, then poured out another glass full of the
liquor and swallowed it.
“What’s that to you?” he demanded. “You know what the bargain was—an’
I’m ready to do my part whenever you say the word.”
“An’ I’m ready t’ do mine,” declared Bassett, and drew the other bottle
from his pocket and set it on the ground. “Is that enough fer to-night?”
“Yes, I guess so,” said Hummel, sullenly. “But I’m gittin’ tired of
settin’ here in this hogpen, drinkin’ myself t’ death. I’ve got some
little spark of decency left in me, though you mayn’t think it. Why
don’t we do something?”
“We’ll do something to-night!” said Bassett, with sudden fury. “Where’s
the gang?”
“They’ve weakened,” said Hummel, glancing sullenly at the other. “Since
them fellers were crimped at Cincinnati fer that stock-yards business,
they won’t do nothin’.”
“They won’t, hey?” cried Bassett. “Then they don’t git no pay. They’ve
got all o’ my money they’re goin’ t’ git!”
“They know that!” sneered Hummel. “It wasn’t so awful much, anyway. They
skipped out to-night.”
“Skipped out?”
“Yes—caught a freight back to Cinci.”
Bassett pondered this a moment, with knitted brows.
“All right,” he said, at last. “We don’t need ’em. But I didn’t think
any friends o’ yourn would be so white-livered.”
“They ain’t white-livered, but they don’t like t’ git the double cross.”
“Who give ’em the double cross?” demanded Bassett, threateningly. “Do
you mean me?”
“Well,” replied Hummel, avoiding his eye, “I ain’t namin’ no names. But
somebody peached on them stock-yards fellers.”
“It wasn’t me. Why, just because I stood up fer ’em t’-night, I got
fired out o’ the brotherhood by that smooth snake of a Simpson.”
“Got fired out, did you?” queried Hummel, his eyes lighting with an evil
glint of satisfaction. “Then the jig’s up?”
“No, it ain’t up—not by a good deal. Rafe Bassett has got a lot o’ fight
in him yet. But first I’m goin’ t’ git even. Is everything ready?”
“Yes—been ready fer three days.”
“Kin we two carry it?”
“I kin carry it myself. It ain’t heavy.”
“An’ you’re sure it’ll work?”
“I made it—an’ it ain’t the first I’ve made by a blame sight.”
“All right,” said Bassett, looking at his companion with something like
respect. “Come on, then,” and he rose and buttoned his coat.
But Hummel sat still. His eyes were burning with a strange fire, and
Bassett looked at him with some uneasiness. He had never been quite sure
of Hummel; he regarded him a good deal as he might have done a deadly
snake which he was keeping in captivity to use against an enemy, but
always with the feeling that the snake might at any time turn against
himself.
“Well,” he added, after a moment, “ain’t you comin’?”
“Not just yet,” answered Hummel, calmly. “I want t’ talk t’ you a
little, first. Set down.”
“We’d better be gittin’ along,” Bassett protested, but he sat down
nevertheless.
“Now,” proceeded Hummel, deliberately, “you know after we pull this
thing off, I’ll want to git away, an’ git away quick. This won’t be a
healthy neighbourhood fer either of us. I don’t want t’ have t’ wait
around fer you, an’ mebbe miss you, at that.”
“Nobody wants you to,” broke in Bassett impatiently. “What is it you’re
drivin’ at, anyway?”
“I’m drivin’ at this,” said Hummel. “I want my pay here an’ now.”
Bassett sat for a moment contemplating him with hostile eyes.
“Half now an’ half afterwards,” he said, at last.
“No, sir!” Hummel objected positively. “Here an’ now, all of it. Else I
don’t go.”
“But look here,” Bassett protested, “suppose I do give you the money,
how do I know you’ll do your part?”
“Well,” said Hummel, grimly, “I guess you’ll have t’ trust me. But don’t
be afeerd—I’ll do it, an’ do it right!”
There was nothing to do but yield—Bassett recognized that plainly
enough, for Hummel, in his present mood, was not to be argued with;
besides, his demand was reasonable enough. The liquor was turning him
into a demon who would stop at nothing—the very thing which Bassett had
counted on it doing—and he was anxious to get the plot under way before
the inevitable reaction set in. So, reluctantly enough, for it
represented the last not only of his savings but of his credit, Bassett
put his hand in his pocket, drew out his wallet and slowly counted five
ten-dollar bills into Hummel’s outstretched hand.
“There,” he said, with an oath, “I hope you’re satisfied.”
Hummel folded the bills up and thrust them into an inside pocket.
“I am,” he said; “an’ I’m ready whenever you are. But don’t think I’m
doin’ this job fer this dirty money. I ain’t. I’ve got t’ have this t’
make my getaway, but I’m doin’ this t’ git even with that little snake
of a chief dispatcher, an’ t’ show these corporations that there’s some
people will stand up fer their rights. I’m an anarchist, I am,” he
continued, growing more and more excited from minute to minute. “I’m—”
But Bassett had had enough of it, and his hand closed savagely upon the
other’s arm.
“Cut it out!” he cried. “Don’t waste time in poppin’ off—do somethin’.
Where’s the stuff?”
“Here it is,” said Hummel, and sprang toward the pile of coal in one
corner. Clearing it away, he brought to light a box perhaps a foot
square. He snapped open the lid, and took out a small tube about nine
inches in length. “That’s a little one fer me, in case I need it,” he
said, his eyes gleaming, and thrust it into his pocket. “They’ll never
take me alive.”
“See here, Hummel,” protested Bassett, his face considerably paler than
usual, “don’t you do nothin’ foolish. That’s dangerous stuff to have
around you.”
“Oh, I know how t’ handle it! Better take a drink t’ keep up your
nerve—you’ll need it!”
Bassett, whose hands were shaking slightly, silently acknowledged the
wisdom of the advice and poured himself out a drink. Hummel waited till
he had finished, then poured the remainder of the contents of the bottle
into the glass, and drained it, throwing the empty bottle to join the
others on the floor.
“You go ahead,” he said, “an’ wait fer me under the lower end of the
freight platform. I’ll bring the stuff. We mustn’t be seen together.”
“All right,” Bassett assented, glad to get away from his dangerous
neighbourhood, and he went out, closing the door after him.
Hummel picked up the full bottle of whiskey, and getting out a knife
which had a corkscrew attachment, drew the cork. Then he replaced it
lightly and put the bottle in his pocket.
“I’ll need that,” he said to himself, and then, blowing out the candle,
he left the room and groped his way up the stairs and out of the
slaughter-house, the mysterious box under his arm.
He chose an alley which led away from the track, and then another which
crossed it at right angles, and at the end of five minutes came out
opposite the freight-house. He had met no one, for the night was dark
and windy, with a dash of rain now and then. He stood peering across the
street at the freight-house, until he saw a guard pass the circle of
light at the door and disappear around the corner of the building. Then,
tucking the box more firmly under his arm, he crossed the street like a
shadow and disappeared beneath the platform. He worked his way along to
the end of it, and nearly fell over Bassett, who was sitting under the
platform there awaiting him.
“For God’s sake, man, be careful!” Bassett whispered hoarsely, a cold
sweat breaking out upon him at thought of what would happen if Hummel
fell.
“Oh, I’m all right,” retorted Hummel, easily, and sat down beside the
other, placing the box beside him. “Suppose I just drop this little
feller right here,” he went on, pensively, taking the small tube from
his pocket. “That’ll set off the big one, too, an’ I reckon there’d be
considerable of a hole, without so much as a grease-spot left of you an’
me. What d’ you say to a jump into the next world, Rafe? We ain’t been
much of a success in this one!”
“Now, see here, Hummel,” protested Bassett, savagely, the cold chills
chasing each other up and down his spine, for he was not sure but that
Hummel, in his desperate mood, was capable of carrying out his threat,
“drop that nonsense. I’ve paid you t’ do certain work, an’ you’re goin’
t’ do it!”
“All right,” agreed the other, shortly. “I’ll plant the mine—”
He ceased abruptly as he heard the guard’s footsteps on the platform
overhead; but the sound passed without pausing.
“I’ve got a fuse that burns fifteen minutes—plenty of time for a
getaway. Good-bye, if I don’t see you again.”
“Good-bye,” answered Bassett. “But I’ll see you again all right.”
He listened while the other worked his way forward under the platform
toward the freight-shed, and then, when the sound had died away, he
stuck his head out from under the platform and looked around. The wind
had risen and was singing through the wires overhead.
“What a night fer a fire!” he muttered. “I’ve got time—fifteen minutes,
anyway—I’ll make a try fer it!”
A string of freight cars was drawn up beside the platform, and Bassett,
crawling cautiously forth, peered into them, one after another. Some
were empty, some were half-loaded, some were sealed ready to be sent
east or west. Once he heard footsteps approaching and skulked beneath a
car until they passed. Then he continued his quest, and at last, with a
chuckle of satisfaction, found what he was looking for, yet scarcely
expected to find—a car half-filled with barrels of oil. Evidently the
work of unloading had been uncompleted at nightfall and the car had been
left with the door only half-closed.
After a moment’s pause, to make certain that he was not observed,
Bassett drew himself up into the car, then, grasping the edge of the
door, he pulled it shut. Secure from observation, he struck a match,
and, shading it with his hand, looked around. The barrels had been
removed from the middle of the car, but were still stacked at each end.
They were dripping with oil and little puddles stood upon the floor.
Evidently the touch of a match would set the whole car aflame, and would
start a fire which no water would extinguish. There were cars to right
and left—and with that wind! He chuckled again as he thought of the
result. He would show them whether Rafe Bassett was to be treated like a
dog—insulted, kicked out—
He carefully extinguished the match, and then, after a moment’s thought,
drew a newspaper from his pocket, and, unfolding it, twisted it into a
long fuse. Then, lighting another match, he dabbled one end of the paper
in a puddle of oil and pressed it down with his foot until it was
sticking to the floor of the car. So intent was he on this that he
failed to note that the match had burnt down to his fingers, and as the
flame touched him, he involuntarily dropped it.
Instantly there was a flash and a roar and the whole car seemed to burst
into flame. Shielding his face with one arm, Bassett sprang to the door
and tried to push it back, but he jammed it in his haste and could not
move it. He saw his trousers afire and stopped to beat out the flame;
his trousers caught again—his coat—his hat—his hair—
Then he understood, and with a shrill scream of terror turned again to
the door, clawing at it, scratching at it, tearing at it like a wild
beast. Another moment, and the flames were swirling about him—another
moment and he could feel his flesh crisping under their white-hot touch;
another moment—and the door rolled back and he fell forward out of the
car, afire from head to foot.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXVII
THE BOMB
THE watchman in the upper yards, passing wearily on his rounds at eleven
o’clock of that windy February night, and deeply thankful that his trick
would end in half an hour, stopped suddenly, ears a-strain, fancying
that he had heard, above the shrieking of the wind, the shrieking of a
human voice coming from the string of cars which stretched down into the
lower yards. Then, deciding that it was only the wind, after all, he
started on his way again, only to be startled by another scream there
was no mistaking—a scream shrill, agonized, telling of the last
extremity of suffering and terror.
Drawing his revolver, he started toward the cars as fast as his legs
would carry him. As he drew nearer, the screams increased in shrillness
and agony, and it required no little will-power on the part of the
watchman to keep his legs moving in the right direction. The thought
flashed through his brain that a man was being slowly torn to pieces by
some ferocious wild beast, but just as he turned the end of the row of
cars, he saw a sudden burst of flame from one of them, and a blazing
figure pitched out headlong to the ground—a figure which, with a sudden
sense of sickness, the watchman recognized as a human being.
Blowing a shrill blast on his whistle, and pulling off his overcoat as
he ran, he hastened forward. In a moment he was beside the moaning,
struggling, blackened figure, and threw his overcoat over it, his heart
faint within him, smothering the flames and beating at them with his
gloves. Another watchman, summoned by the whistle, ran up at that
moment.
“What’s the trouble?”
“Man burned t’ death,” panted the other.
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know; but he’s done for, whoever he is. You ought to heard him
screamin’!”
They worked together feverishly for a moment longer, and beat out the
last of the flames, but it was evident that the unfortunate man at their
feet was far past human aid. He was still moaning and jerking
convulsively, but was mercifully unconscious and would no doubt remain
so to the end.
“We’ve got t’ git away from here, an’ that mighty quick,” said one of
the men, with a glance at the seething inferno beside them. “That car’s
loaded with oil, an’ it’s goin’ to blow up in about a minute.”
“How’re we goin’ to carry him?”
“Roll him on my overcoat—we can carry him that way.”
“I don’t want to touch him,” faltered the other. “He—he comes off on
your fingers.”
But the first watchman, with an exclamation of impatience, spread his
overcoat beside the blackened body and rolled it over with his foot.
“Now, take a hold of that end,” he said, “an’ git a move on.”
They gathered up the burden gingerly, and started away at a trot—not a
moment too soon, for they had gone scarcely a hundred feet, when the car
exploded with a mighty roar. Blazing oil was hurled over everything in
the neighbourhood, and instantly a dozen cars were afire—the flames
roaring and crackling furiously before the wind.
* * * * *
Stanley, awakened by the arrival of a crew from an incoming train and
the departure of another to take its place, lay for a while looking down
the room and watching the new arrivals prepare for bed. He was a
restless man and light sleeper at the best, and he devoutly hoped that
the strike was nearing an end. The strain was beginning to tell on his
nerves, never any too steady, and he longed for his comfortable and
quiet bed. The air in the freight-house had become fetid from the
exhalations of fifty men, not over dainty in their personal habits, and
with a sudden sense of disgust, Stanley threw back the covers and sat up
in bed.
As he did so, it seemed to him that he heard a faint knocking at the
wall underneath him. He listened a moment, but it was not repeated, and
he decided it was merely the vibration from a passing engine. But he was
burdened with a queer feeling of suffocation, and slipping into his
clothes, he went out to the platform for a breath of fresh air.
He was worried. He knew, somehow, that, during his absence in pursuit
and prosecution of the robbers, he had lost his grip of the situation.
It had got, in some subtle way, beyond his control, and he felt the
necessity of being “on the job” at every hour of the day and night. It
was as though he were shadowed by some impending calamity, which he
could not avoid.
He heard steps approaching along the platform and in a moment the
freight-house watchman emerged from the darkness.
“Everything quiet?” Stanley asked.
“Everything but the wind,” answered the watchman, laughing at his own
joke, and passed on his way.
“Blamed fool!” Stanley muttered to himself, for the jest and the laugh
jarred on him. “I’m gettin’ as nervous as a cat,” he added, and walked
slowly down the platform, trying to shake off the feeling of depression.
Another thing disturbed him. The tough-looking strangers whom he had
observed loitering about the depot-saloons for several days past, had
suddenly disappeared. He had made discreet inquiries, but no one seemed
to know who they were or what had become of them. Where had they gone,
he asked himself; where were they at this moment? He had heard some
vague rumours of the row at the brotherhood meeting, and he could
imagine Bassett’s rage and chagrin. He had always connected the
strangers with Bassett, in some indefinite way, and a little shiver
shook him at the thought that perhaps Bassett had taken them with him to
execute some fiendish project. Perhaps—
The piercing note of a watchman’s whistle shrilled through the night,
and Stanley, waking from this reverie with a start, saw a sudden burst
of flame from the cars just before him, and realized that the crisis he
had vaguely expected was at hand. And the realization made his nerves
taut and his head clear. Not even his worst enemies had ever accused
Stanley of cowardice in the face of danger.
“Call the fire department and the police and get out all our men!” he
shouted to the freight-house watchman, who had just come into view
again, and started with a jump toward the fire, which was growing
brighter every instant.
But suddenly he checked himself and swerved in his course, for from
beneath the platform almost at his feet, he saw a dim form emerge and
slink away through the darkness.
[Illustration: “HE HEARD THE BULLETS SING PAST HIS HEAD.”]
Stanley was off the platform and after him in an instant.
“Halt!” he shouted, drawing his revolver. “Halt, or I fire!”
And, as if in answer, phitt! phitt! came two flashes of flame out of the
darkness ahead, and he heard the bullets sing past his head.
“Take it, then!” he said, between his teeth, and fired at the legs of
the figure ahead.
The figure ran on, and Stanley raised his hand to fire again; but in a
moment he saw that this would not be necessary, for the fugitive was no
match for him in speed and he gained upon him rapidly. Apparently, the
stranger perceived the folly of flight, at last, for he stopped, one
hand against his side, and waited for his pursuer to overtake him. He
had not long to wait, for in an instant Stanley’s heavy hand fell upon
his shoulder.
“Drop that revolver!” said the detective, and knocked it with a quick
blow from his prisoner’s hand.
“Oh, it’s jammed,” said the other, with a little bitter laugh. “If it
hadn’t been fer that, I’d ’a’ got you!”
“What’s your game?” Stanley demanded, and swung his prisoner around so
that he could see his face. “Why,” he cried, chuckling with
satisfaction, “if it ain’t our old friend Hummel! This certainly is a
pleasant meeting. Welcome to our city!”
Hummel’s face was livid and his blackened and swollen lips were drawn
away from his teeth in an ugly snarl.
“Don’t be too gay!” he said, thickly. “Don’t be too gay! Mebbe you’ll be
laughin’ on the other side of your face afore long!”
“Well, one couldn’t tell which side you’re laughin’ on,” retorted
Stanley, “fer the dirt. Been livin’ with your friends the hogs?”
“Never you mind!” said Hummel, still more thickly, and reeled a little
and put his hands to his head. “Never you mind!”
“Why, I believe the man’s drunk!” said Stanley. “Come on back with me,
my friend, an’ I’ll send you up-town in style, behind two horses, with a
gong ringin’ in front. Come on,” and he started to lead his prisoner
back toward the freight-house.
But Hummel developed a sudden limpness and sat down suddenly upon the
pavement.
“What d’you want me fer?” he demanded, sullenly.
Stanley waved his hand toward the growing conflagration, which, at that
instant, burst, with a mighty report, into a fountain of flame.
“For that,” he said, sternly. “Come along, or I’ll find a way to make
you!”
“I didn’t do that,” protested Hummel, staring toward the fire, as though
conscious of it for the first time. “That must ’a’ been—”
“Who?” asked Stanley, as Hummel suddenly checked himself.
“No matter,” answered that worthy.
Stanley, his patience exhausted, jerked the little man to his feet and
struck him over the head with his revolver.
“Come on,” he said savagely, “I ain’t got no time to waste on you! Step
lively, or I’ll put you to sleep.”
Away in the distance, he could hear the growing rattle of the engine
gongs and knew, with a breath of relief, that the fire department was at
hand. He knew something else, too—that within a very few minutes, a
great mob would be upon the scene, which it would take the hardest kind
of work to control. The windows in the neighbourhood had been thrown up
at sound of the explosion—he could hear the hum of voices, the cries of
alarm. He had no time to fool with a reluctant prisoner, and he jerked
him again to his feet.
“Will you come?” he demanded.
“No,” answered Hummel, his face yellow with terror, struggling
desperately to free himself.
Then Stanley lost his temper and raised his arm to strike.
But even as he did so, a mighty roar seemed to rend the firmament above
him, the earth rocked, and a blinding flame leapt upwards towards the
heavens. There was an instant’s appalling silence, and then came the
sound of crashing walls, the rending of timbers—and again all was still.
Only for a breath—then the night was filled with yells and groans and
curses. And the whole neighbourhood, wakened by the roar, leaped from
bed and rushed out into the streets, white-lipped and trembling.
* * * * *
Allan West, having slept the greater part of the day and evening, found
himself restless and wakeful as the night progressed, and at last lay
staring up into the darkness above him, meditating with smiling lips, on
the events of the day. That this great happiness should have come to him
seemed almost past believing—he had done so little to deserve it, had
escaped so narrowly a nearly fatal blunder.
He cast his mind back over the years he had spent with the Welshes,
remembering how he had seen Mamie grow from a child of eight, through
all the stages of girlhood, to the radiant young womanhood she had
attained; he had seen her sweetness of disposition tested scores of
times; he knew how true and honest and loving she was, and he could not
but wonder at his own blindness, at his tardy awakening to his love for
her. Most wonderful of all it seemed that she should care for him, that
she—
The window rattled suddenly and sharply, the house seemed to quiver, as
though struck by some giant hand, and almost instantly there came a
deep, jarring roar. A moment later, Allan heard the distant ringing of
the fire alarm, heard excited footsteps along the street, and groped
blindly along the floor for the board to which his instrument was
attached.
He found it at last, seized it, pulled it up, and began calling the
dispatchers’ office. Fully a minute passed before the answer came, and
he knew that the dispatcher had not been at his key.
“This is West,” he clicked. “Any trouble up there?”
“Trouble!” flashed back the answer, in a staccato which told how excited
the sender was. “I should say so! All the cars in the yards are afire
and the freight-house is blown up!”
Allan gently replaced the instrument on the floor and slid out of bed.
He groped his way to the closet, got out his clothes and slipped into
them as quietly as he could. Shirt and coat gave him some trouble, but
he managed to get them on, gritting his teeth at the pain the movement
cost him. Then, without collar or tie, which he knew were beyond him,
even if he had cared to linger for such trifles, he took his shoes in
his hand, opened his door softly, and started down the stairs, hoping
that he might get away unseen.
But before he was half way down, he heard light steps behind him and a
low voice.
“Allan!” it called.
He turned as Mamie came flying down to him, visible only as a dim shape
in the darkness.
“You’re not going out!” she protested, her hands upon his shoulders.
“I must,” he said, bending and kissing her. “The strikers have fired the
yards and blown up the freight-house. I’ve got to go.”
“But you’re not able!”
“Oh, yes, I am,” he contradicted lightly, but he was grateful for the
darkness which hid his face from her anxious eyes.
“And there’ll probably be more trouble.”
“All the more reason I should be there. You wouldn’t have me be a
coward, Mamie!”
It was the one appeal to touch her, and he knew it.
“No,” she said, “I wouldn’t have you be a coward. Go if you must; but,
oh, Allan dear, be careful of yourself for my sake!”
“I will,” he promised and kissed her again, as she went with him down
the stairs. “I’ve got to put on my shoes,” he added. “I thought maybe I
could get away and be back and in bed again without anyone knowing.”
“Let me put them on,” she said quickly. “You can never manage it. You
know, in the old days, the ladies used to buckle on the armour of their
knights,” and she took the shoes from him, pressed him into a chair and
knelt before him.
“I’m sure no knight ever had a fairer lady,” and he caressed her hair
with tender hand.
He could feel the head lift proudly.
“Nor any lady a braver knight,” she said.
“‘I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honour more!’”
Allan hummed. “But what an imagination you’ve got, Mamie!”
“Yes—you know I’m Irish.”
“And what a warm, loyal heart!”
“That’s Irish, too, isn’t it? And there the armour’s on!” she added,
rising. “And now your overcoat, for it’s bitter cold, and this muffler
around your neck,” and she tucked the ends in under his coat. “There,”
she concluded, buttoning the last button, and raised herself on tip-toe
and kissed him. “Good-bye, Allan, and come back to me.”
“Good-bye, Mamie; never fear,” and he was off and away.
And Mamie, drawing closer about her the shawl she had thrown on when she
slipped out of bed, hurried up the stairs and knocked at the door of the
room where her parents slept. It was in the back wing of the house,
farthest from the street, which accounted for the fact that they had not
been awakened by the hurrying feet and excited talk of the
ever-increasing crowd running toward the fire. But Mamie’s knock
awakened Mary on the instant.
“What is it?” she called.
“It’s Mamie—the strikers have set the yards on fire and blown up the
freight-house—and Allan’s gone!”
“Gone!” echoed Mary, and sprang out of bed. “Jack!” she cried. “Wake
up!” and she repeated to him what Mamie had just told her.
Jack, with never a word, was out of bed and into his clothes, while his
wife, with trembling fingers, lighted a lamp and opened the door for
Mamie.
“How do you know he’s gone?” demanded Mary. “Did you see him?”
“Yes,” said the girl, her white face and trembling lips telling of her
struggle for self-control.
“And you let him go?”
“He had to go—it was his place to go.”
“She’s right, mother,” broke in Jack. “He had to go. I’m proud of the
boy. An’ I’ll see no harm comes to him.”
“Thank you, dad,” said Mamie, simply, and kissed him. “You’ll telephone
as soon as the danger’s over?”
“Yes,” Jack promised; “an’ don’t be worried.”
They heard the front door slam after him, and the house was still.
“I’m going to get dressed,” said Mamie; “then—then if anything happens,
we’ll be ready.”
She stole away to her room, but she did not proceed immediately to
dress. Instead, she slipped down beside her bed and threw her arms
forward across it and buried her face in them—and when, five minutes
later, she arose, it was with a countenance pale, indeed, but serene and
almost smiling.
She found her mother awaiting her in the dining-room, and they sat down
together and—waited. There is no harder task, and as the weary minutes
dragged along, they dared not look at each other, lest their
self-control slip from them. So half an hour passed, until Mrs. Welsh
could stand it no longer.
“I’m going to git some news,” she said, and went to the telephone, but
central could tell her little more than she already knew, for everything
was confusion as yet at the scene of the outrage. The dispatchers’
office was busy and refused to answer any call. So Mary hung up the
receiver again and came back to Mamie. “I’ll try again after a while,”
she said, and again they nerved themselves to wait.
But not for long.
For suddenly, the telephone rang sharply.
“I’ll go,” said Mary, and Mamie sat where she was, clutching blindly at
her chair, biting her lips until the blood came.
“He’s not hurt!” she said, over and over to herself. “He’s not hurt!
He’s not hurt! It can’t be! It sha’n’t be! He’s not hurt!”
“Is that you, Mary?” asked Jack’s voice.
“Yes; what’s the matter?—your voice don’t sound natural.”
“The boy’s hurted,” said Jack, his voice breaking in a sob. “Bring Mamie
an’ come quick.”
“Where to?”
“To Chestnut’s drugstore. I can’t tell you, Mary, but fer God’s sake,
come quick!”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXVIII
HUMMEL KEEPS HIS WORD
ALLAN, as he turned into the street before the house, was caught by a
fierce gust of wind, whirled against a tree at the edge of the pavement,
and would have fallen, had not a strong arm grasped him about the waist.
“Sure, an’ ’tis a reg’lar hurricane,” shouted a well-known voice, and
Allan found himself gazing into the cheerful face of Reddy Magraw.
“Why, Reddy,” he cried, “what are you doing here?”
“I was sent after you,” Reddy explained, “an’ it was well I was—ye niver
could have got up there by yerself.”
“Nonsense!” Allan protested. “I’m nearly as strong as I ever was. That
gust caught me unprepared, that’s all. Come on.” He didn’t ask who it
was had sent Reddy, but supposed of course it was Stanley.
“I’ll jest hold on to yer arm, anyways,” said Reddy. “Is this the well
one?”
“Yes; hold on to it, if you want to; maybe it’ll keep you from being
blown away;” but to himself Allan was forced to confess more than once
that Reddy’s arm was a welcome support. For he was weaker than he had
thought—weaker than he was willing to acknowledge, even to himself.
As for Reddy, he judged it best to say nothing as to how he had come to
be appointed Allan’s body-guard. He had been routed out of bed by Mrs.
Magraw at the first explosion. Across the yards from their front window
they could see the flames spreading, and Reddy jumped into his clothes
in a hurry.
“Now listen to me,” his wife had said, as this process was in progress,
“there’s jist one thing fer ye t’ do this night, Reddy Magraw, an’ that
is t’ kape yerself glued t’ Allan West an’ t’ see the boy don’t come t’
no harm. They’ll be gittin’ him out o’ bed the first thing, an’ him
scarce able t’ stand! Reddy Magraw, if any harm comes t’ him this night,
I’ll niver fegive ye!”
“Don’t ye fear, darlint,” Reddy assured her. “I’ll stick t’ him like
beeswax,” and, giving her a quick hug, he ran from the house and down
the path to the gate.
Mrs. Magraw opened her lips to call to him; but closed them again by a
mighty effort, and stood watching his dim figure until it vanished in
the darkness. Then, drawing a chair close to the front window, she sat
down and watched the flames grow and spread. Her face was very pale, and
her lips moved mechanically as she told over and over again the beads of
her rosary.
* * * * *
“There’s the very divil t’ pay,” Reddy went on, as he and Allan hurried
forward. “I didn’t stop t’ see much of it, but I saw enough.”
As a matter of fact, he hadn’t stopped at all, but had made a bee-line
for Allan’s gate, fearing that he would miss him.
“You kin see the fire now,” he added, a moment later, and Allan, looking
up, saw ahead of him a red glow against the sky, which spread and
brightened, even as he watched it.
All about them were people hastening in the same direction, and as they
neared the yards, they could hear the excited shouts of the crowd
already assembled, the clanging of the fire-engines, and finally, just
as they arrived, the swish and hiss of water as it was turned on the
flames.
But Allan paused for only a glance at the fire, serious as it appeared
to be. Mere property loss, however heavy, was a little thing in
comparison with the possible loss of life which the wrecking of the
freight-house involved, and he pushed his way forward through the crowd,
anxious to learn the worst at once. The town’s limited police force was
already on the scene, but the crowd was entirely beyond its control, and
the most it could accomplish was to keep clear a space on the freight
platform where two physicians were already busily at work, by the light
of an engine headlight.
Toward these, Allan made his way with a curious sinking of the heart.
The policemen recognized him and passed him through, and at that moment,
one of the doctors rose with a little gesture of despair.
“We can’t do anything for him,” he said. “The poor devil’s about out of
his misery.”
Allan, staring down at the blackened shape upon the platform, scarcely
recognized in it a human being.
“Who is it?” he asked.
“I don’t know him,” said the doctor, looking up and recognizing the
chief dispatcher. “Maybe you do,” and he knelt down again and turned the
distorted and blackened countenance so that the light shone full upon
it.
At the first sickened glance, Allan decided that he had never seen the
man, then a certain familiarity struck through to his consciousness.
“Why, it’s Rafe Bassett!” he cried.
“Rafe Bassett!” echoed a voice, and Allan turned to find that Stanley
had broken a way through the crowd. “Well, that’s justice for you!”
“Justice?” echoed Allan.
“It was him did all that,” said Stanley, with a wave of the hand toward
the burning cars. “Set fire to them an’ got burned up hisself!”
The crowd pressing upon the policemen heard the words and a low angry
murmur ran through it, for with that blackened shape before them, the
detective’s words sounded particularly heartless.
“Men,” cried Stanley, facing them, “this ain’t no guesswork. Rafe
Bassett was kicked out of the brotherhood t’-night, an’ decided t’ git
even this way. He set that car of oil on fire—_but he was inside the
car_—an’ before he could git the door open, this is what happened to
him. I pity the poor devil as much as any of you—an’ yet I say ’twas
justice.”
“He’s right,” nodded a man at the front of the crowd. “He’s right. Let’s
have no trouble here, men.”
Allan looked down again at the dim and shapeless mass.
“Is there an ambulance?” he asked.
“Yes,” answered one of the doctors. “Two of them.”
“Take him away, then; and see that he is cared for. After all, he’s
dead, Stanley.”
“An’ a blamed good thing, too,” muttered Stanley, whose stock of
sentiment was very small; but he took care that the crowd did not hear
the words. After all, there was no use in provoking trouble.
“And how about the others?” asked Allan.
“What others?”
“The men in the freight-house.”
“Oh,” answered Stanley, with a grin, “they was more scared than hurt.”
Allan drew a quick breath of relief.
“But didn’t the bomb wreck the place?” he asked.
“Oh, it wrecked it all right; at least this end of it; but by good luck,
it blew the end wall out, instead of in, and the roof didn’t fall until
everybody had scrambled out. I thought there’d been at least a dozen
killed by the way they hollered after the bomb went off, but nobody was
hurt beyond some cuts and bruises.”
“Well, that was good luck!” said Allan. “That takes the biggest kind of
a load off my heart.”
“Yes; and the best luck of all,” added Stanley dryly, “is that I caught
the man who did it.”
“The man who did it?” Allan stopped short in amazement to look at his
companion. “Do you mean it, Stanley?”
“Mean it? I should say I did. It was the merest luck—I fell right on to
him as he was gettin’ away, and when I started to take him back to the
freight-house he was scared to death—but he don’t deny it, fer that
matter.”
“Who was it?” asked Allan. “One of the strikers?”
“No,” said Stanley, grinning again. “One of the strike-breakers.”
Again Allan stopped to gaze in amazement at his companion.
“Hummel,” explained Stanley, his face fairly glowing with satisfaction.
“Oh, this has been a great night.”
“Where is he now?”
“I’ve got him under guard in the freight office—I’ll send him up to the
county jail pretty soon—but he said he wanted to see you first.”
“To see me? What for?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he wants to confess and tell who his pals were. Of
course we know Bassett was. I’ve got a sort of idea that Bassett was at
the head of the whole thing. There’s the freight-house. You kin see what
damage the bomb did.”
It was certainly a frightful looking place. The end wall of the building
had been blown out bodily, and a great section of the platform had also
been blown away. Evidently Hummel had placed the bomb just inside the
wall. There was, at either end of the building, a small square
ventilator near the ground, covered with a piece of perforated iron, as
such openings usually are. Later investigation showed that Hummel had
probably knocked out this plate, and as the ventilator was too small to
permit the passage of his body, he had placed the bomb as far inside as
he could reach, and had then attached and lighted the fuse. The position
of the bomb, by a fortunate chance, was such that the greatest force of
the explosion was directed outwards, and while the end wall had fallen,
it had fallen outward and not inward, and the side walls had remained
nearly intact. The roof had sagged badly, but had not fallen. The other
end of the freight-house, at which were the offices, had not been
injured at all.
Allan stood for a moment contemplating this wreckage, and as he turned
away, he felt a touch on his arm. He turned to find himself face to face
with Simpson, the special delegate.
“Mr. West,” said Simpson, “I hope I may have a few words with you.”
“Why, certainly,” said Allan. “What is it?”
“In the first place, I want to assure you that no brotherhood man had
anything to do with this,” and he waved his hand toward the wrecked
freight-house and the blazing cars.
“We know who did both,” said Allan quietly. “The man who set fire to the
cars was a union man.”
“Who was it?” asked Simpson quickly.
“Rafe Bassett.”
Simpson’s face grew a shade paler, and his eyes lighted with a grim
satisfaction, as he realized how this discovery vindicated the course he
had taken with regard to the strike.
“Bassett was not a union man; he was suspended from the lodge last
night,” he said, quietly. “He would never have been reinstated. I
suspect him of having had something to do with that outrage at
Cincinnati, and I believe all this was done simply to revenge himself on
the brotherhood and give it a black eye.”
“And you were going to carry on the strike for a man like that?”
“No, Mr. West, we were not,” answered Simpson earnestly. “After Bassett
was run out of the hall last night, a committee was appointed to wait
upon you in the morning and declare the strike off.”
Allan’s face brightened wonderfully.
“Without condition?” he asked.
“With only one condition—that the men be reinstated in their old
positions—all except Bassett.”
“We have promised to give permanent positions to any of the new men who
made good,” said Allan. “We must keep that promise.”
“We have no objection to that. Mighty few of them can hold a permanent
job. Mr. West, I’m going to be candid with you. This strike was begun
foolishly and without proper investigation. You know why—it was because
of your exposure of Nixon. Now we are anxious to make such amends as we
can, and we go further than we usually do. We agree, as I have said, to
your giving permanent places to as many of the strike-breakers as you
care to keep and as care to stay.”
Allan held out his hand quickly.
“Then I understand the strike is ended?”
“It will end at noon, if you say so.”
“I do say so.”
“Good!” cried Simpson, and grasped the hand held out to him.
Not more than half a dozen men were within hearing, but the news of the
great event passed like lightning from mouth to mouth, and the crowd was
soon cheering like mad.
“Well,” said Stanley, “I guess my job’s done. I’ll be mighty glad t’ git
back t’ my bed ag’in. Will you see Hummel before I send him up-town?”
“Yes; only I’ve got two or three things to do first. Let’s have a look
at the fire.”
They started together toward the lower yards, and Stanley, after
glancing back once or twice, leaned over and spoke in a carefully
repressed undertone.
“There’s a tough-lookin’ feller been follerin’ you around all night,” he
said. “He’s right behind us now. Glance around kind of careless-like an’
see if you know him.”
Allan glanced apprehensively over his shoulder, and then laughed
outright as he recognized his faithful body-guard.
“Why, that’s Reddy Magraw,” he said. “He thinks I’m going to keel over
any minute, and he’s ready to catch me when I do.”
“Oh,” said Stanley, in a chagrined tone; “I didn’t recognize him in the
dark.”
“Didn’t you send him after me?”
“Send him? Why, no. Did he say I did?”
“No, I don’t know that he said exactly that. But if you didn’t, who did?
I wonder—”
But they had reached the place where the cars were blazing, and the
matter was driven from Allan’s mind for the time being. It was soon
evident that all danger of the fire spreading further was over. The cars
in the neighbourhood had been jerked away to a place of safety, and
three or four lines of hose were playing upon the fire, with the result
that it was soon under control. Six cars and their contents had been
destroyed and twice as many more damaged to some extent, but this loss
seemed trifling to Allan beside what might have been.
“Now I’ve got a report to make, and then I’m done,” he said to Stanley.
“I’ll come over to the freight office just as soon as I can.”
“All right, sir,” said Stanley, and hurried away to provide fresh
quarters for the strike-breakers. He found them fraternizing with the
brotherhood men, and Simpson himself proposed a solution of the problem
of lodging them.
“Why not bring them up to the lodge room?” he said. “It’s plenty big
enough, and each man can bring his cot with him. We’ll see that
breakfast is ready for them in the morning and after that, I guess they
can get board around town somewhere. I hope you’ll approve,” he added to
Stanley. “We want to show we’re in earnest about this thing and that we
bear no grudge against anyone.”
“All right,” agreed Stanley; “I don’t see no objections; though of
course, I see your little game,” he added, in an undertone. “These
fellers’ll be union men inside of a week.”
Simpson made no reply, but smiled a diplomatic smile; and Stanley’s
prediction came true; for all of the strangers who secured permanent
positions, joined the brotherhood in a very short time. It may be added,
in passing, however, that not above eight or ten remained at Wadsworth.
Most of them had the wanderlust in their blood; they could be contented
in one place only for a very short time, and then must be moving on;
while the rest were victims of an even worse disease, which converted
them from men into brutes, and rendered them unfit to hold any position.
* * * * *
Allan, hurrying across the yards in the direction of his office, was
conscious of quick steps behind him, and turned to find that Jack Welsh
had joined Reddy Magraw.
“So here you are!” cried Jack. “Well, I certainly am glad to see you.
And you’re not hurted?”
“Hurt?” repeated Allan. “Why, no, of course not; why should I be?”
“And you’re about ready to go home? The women are jest naterally
worrited to death about you.”
“Oh, I’m all right,” Allan assured him, though he was conscious that
both head and shoulder were aching numbly. “Reddy’s been dogging me like
a shadow. I’ll be ready to go back before long. You’ve heard the news?”
“No. What?”
“The strike’s off. I’m just going to wire the news to Mr. Schofield.
Then I’ll be ready to go home. I must be up early in the morning.”
“We’ll wait fer you,” said Jack, and he and Reddy sat down on the bottom
step of the steep flight which led to the dispatchers’ office, while
Allan hurried up the stairs.
It took but a moment to get Mr. Schofield on the line. He had been sent
the first news of the disaster, and was anxious to know how serious it
was. Allan’s first words reassured him.
“Nobody hurt,” Allan flashed, “and not over six cars destroyed, though
some damage to others. Fire about out. Freight-house badly wrecked.
Bassett set fire to cars and was burned to death. We also have fellow
who set off bomb. Just saw Simpson, and arranged to have strike called
off at noon to-day. No conditions. Admits that strike was mistake and
says Bassett was fired from brotherhood last night. Willing to do most
anything to square himself. And I guess that’s all till I see you.”
There was an instant’s pause before Mr. Schofield answered.
“West,” he began, “this is the greatest night’s work you ever did. Are
you able to be up?”
“I’m aching some,” Allan answered, “but I’m going home to bed now.
Everything is well in hand. I guess there’s no further danger of
trouble.”
“Wait a minute,” came the answer.
Allan waited until his instrument began again to call him.
“All right,” he said.
“This is Round,” chattered the instrument. “Schofield has just been
telling me. I want to congratulate you—and order you to take at least a
month’s vacation.”
“I guess I’ll wait till my honeymoon,” answered Allan, and laughed to
himself at the thought.
“Are you engaged?”
“Yes. Tell Mr. Schofield I’ve taken his advice.”
“When is it to be?”
“Don’t know yet.”
“Well, mind you ask me.”
“I will.”
“And here’s my best wishes, my boy. Now go home and go to bed. I’ll be
at Wadsworth in a day or two, and will tell you then what I think about
your work.”
“All right; thank you. Good-bye.”
Allan closed his key with a click, and as he did so, he was conscious of
a throng around his desk. He looked up to see all the employees on duty
and some who weren’t on duty, but who had been got out of bed by the
disturbance, crowding around him.
“Shake!” they said. “Of course we heard that,” and Allan gripped one
hand after another, his eyes shining.
“Thank you, boys,” was all he could say. “Thank you.”
* * * * *
He rejoined Jack and Reddy, at last, at the foot of the stairs.
“Just one more errand and then I’m ready to go home,” he said.
“Seems to me they allers is one more,” rejoined Jack. “What is it now?”
“The fellow who blew up the freight-house wants to see me.”
“The fellow who blew up the freight-house? Have you got him?”
“Yes; Stanley nabbed him and has got him over there in the freight
office. I guess he’s kept it quiet for fear the fellow’d be mobbed.”
“An’ that’s more sense than Stanley usually shows,” said Reddy. “Who is
the varmint?”
“His name’s Hummel—you’ll remember him, Jack.”
“Did I iver see him?”
“He’s the fellow who ran after me across the yards that night—”
“An’ tried t’ knife ye,” added Jack, his face flushing darkly. “Bad cess
to him. What’s he want with ye now?”
“Stanley thinks maybe he wants to confess.”
“More likely he wants to take a shot at you. Don’t you go, Allan.”
“Oh, nonsense, Jack,” laughed Allan. “He’s under arrest. He can’t harm
me, even if he wants to. There he is now,” he added, as a little
procession emerged from the freight office.
Stanley had seen Allan coming across the tracks, and anxious to have the
interview over and get his prisoner away before any hint of his identity
should get about, had brought him out, surrounded by three or four
officers. The crowd had melted away considerably, and what there was
left of it was either watching the last embers of the fire, or
inspecting the ruined freight-house. So the little group came out into
the yards unnoticed, and stopped in the shadow of the building until
Allan and his two friends came up.
Allan, stopping close to Hummel, saw that he was handcuffed, and
therefore incapable of doing any one harm. He seemed bent and shrunken
and only half-conscious, as though on the verge of collapse.
“Well, Hummel,” he said, “you wanted to see me?”
Hummel lifted his eyes and stared at him coldly, for an instant, as
though not recognizing him; then his eyes brightened with rage.
“Yes,” he said, thickly, “I wanted t’ see you. I hope you’re satisfied
with this night’s work.”
“Why, yes,” said Allan with a smile. “Don’t you think I have reason to
be? Have you anything to tell me?”
“Yes,” said Hummel, his face growing more livid still, as he glared at
the other. “It’s this—I’ll be in hell to-night an’ so will you!”
And he suddenly raised his handcuffed hands.
Allan was dimly conscious of a heavy form hurling itself past him, of a
close grapple, of an instant’s pause broken only by oaths and hoarse
shouting; he seemed to see Reddy Magraw grappling with the anarchist;
then the world was blotted out in a white flash of flame.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXIX
THE YOUNG TRAIN MASTER
MARY WELSH and Mamie, hurrying with anxious hearts and pallid cheeks,
not daring to think of what awaited them, toward Chestnut’s drugstore,
in answer to Jack’s summons, were met outside the little triangular
frame building from which the drugstore stared out upon the tracks, by
Jack himself, his face gray and lined with suffering and
self-accusation.
“Wait a minute,” he said, hoarsely, and Mary, reading the suffering in
his eyes, put her hand quickly upon his arm.
“How is he?”
“I don’t know yet. The doctor’s just finishin’ with him.”
And then his self-control gave way, and a great sob shook him.
“A nice guardeen I am, ain’t I?” he asked, bitterly. “Oh, I could go an’
throw myself under the wheels of that engine there!”
“Don’t, Jack!” protested Mary, quickly. “Don’t take it so. Whatever
happened wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it was! I stood by like a dumb beast an’ let Hummel—Kin ye ever
forgive me, Mamie? Oh, but I’m shamed t’ look ye in the eyes!”
“Forgive you, dad?” cried the girl, her heart smitten as she looked at
him. “Why, dad, there’s nothing to forgive. I know you did your best.”
“Not like Reddy Magraw,” said Jack, the tears streaming down his face.
“Not like Reddy Magraw. Do you know what he did—he saw that varmint
fumblin’ at his pocket, an’ he must have guessed what was comin’—I was
lookin’, too, but I never thought of nothin’ like that—an’ Reddy jumped
fer him an’ grabbed him—an’ jest then the bomb went off—”
“He’s dead, ain’t he, Jack?” asked Mary.
“Yes,” said Jack, with a hoarse sob, “an’ so’s Reddy Magraw—an’ if our
boy lives, it’ll be because of Reddy, not because o’ me. That’s what it
makes me sick t’ think of!”
“Reddy dead!” gasped Mary, the tears starting to her eyes. “Does—”
“No,” said Jack. “You’ll have t’ tell her. I couldn’t to save my soul.”
“I’ll tell her,” said Mary, quietly. “She’ll be proud when she knows.”
And then the door opened and they saw the doctor standing on the
threshold.
“Come in,” he said softly. “You can see him now; and it’s all right.”
“You mean he ain’t dead?” asked Jack.
“No, nor going to die. Is this Mamie?” he added, turning to the young
woman.
“Yes,” she answered.
“He’s been asking for you. He mustn’t be excited,” he added, looking at
the others. “Is it necessary that you see him?”
Mary gulped back the indignant words which rose to her lips. Necessary
that she see her boy!
“No,” she said, steadily. “We’ll jest excite him. You go, Mamie. Jack’ll
wait fer ye,” and she held Jack by the hand until Mamie had entered and
the door had closed behind her.
“It’s her place, not mine,” she said. “An’ now I’ll go over t’ the
Magraws.”
“Mary,” said Jack, hoarsely, and put his arm around her, “you’re the
bravest little woman I iver knew. I’m proud of ye.”
But Mary felt anything but brave as, in the gray light of the dawn, she
slowly crossed the tracks and mounted the path to the door of the little
house. For, after all, what could she say to lighten the force of the
blow? What could anyone say? Suppose it was some one else coming to tell
her of Jack? She caught her breath sharply—
And then she was conscious that the door was open and when she looked
up, she saw Mrs. Magraw standing there and gazing down at her, a strange
light in her eyes.
“Come in,” she said, and led the way into the little parlour, from
which, during the night, she had watched the flames across the yards. “I
knowed ye’d come,” she added. “I knowed ye’d want t’ be the one t’ tell
me—an’ I thank ye, Mary Welsh.”
“You—you know?” gasped Mary, staring at her. “Somebody’s told you?”
“No, nobody’s told me; but I know. I knowed when I saw him goin’ away
that he was niver comin’ back.”
“An’ you let him go?”
“Yes, I sent him.”
“Sent him?”
“T’ guard the boy? Did he guard him?”
And Mary Welsh flung herself upon her knees before the other woman and
buried her face in her lap.
“He did!” she said, thickly. “With his life.”
* * * * *
Mr. Schofield, relieved of the stress of duty at Cincinnati, arrived at
Wadsworth on the early train next day, and at once took charge of the
situation. There was much to do. The whole train-service of the road had
to be reorganized, the ravelled ends gathered up again, the
freight-house rebuilt, traffic provided for; and for four days and
nights he thought of nothing else. Then, the first strain past, he put
on his hat one afternoon, and started back over the yards to a little
house which stood high on an embankment facing them.
He climbed the steep path, and paused for a moment to look down over the
yards before knocking at the door. His eyes gleamed with pride as he
watched the busy engines, the assembled cars, the evidences of orderly
and busy life.
Then he turned and knocked. An Irish woman well past middle-age, and
with hair snowy white, opened the door.
“Mrs. Magraw?” asked the visitor.
“Yis, sir.”
“My name’s Schofield.”
“I know ye, sir,” said Mrs. Magraw, quietly. “This ain’t the first toime
ye’ve been to see me.”
“No—but that was a good many years ago. If you don’t mind, I’ll sit down
here on the porch. I want to talk to you.”
“All right, sir,” said Mrs. Magraw, and tried to dust off the bench, but
Mr. Schofield was too quick for her.
“I’ve heard how your husband died,” he began gently, “and I want to say
this: no man ever died a nobler death.”
“I’m proud of him, sir,” said Mrs. Magraw, her eyes filling with tears.
“I’m prouder of him than I kin say.”
“We’re all proud of him. I’ve been proud of him for many years. It isn’t
the first time he’s proved the stuff he was made of.”
Mrs. Magraw nodded.
“But there’s no use for me to tell you that,” went on the
superintendent. “You knew him better than I did. Now here’s what I’ve
come to say. The road has pensioned you for life. You will receive a
check every month for thirty dollars.”
“Thirty dollars!” echoed Mrs. Magraw. “Why, sir,—”
“I know it isn’t very much—”
“Very much! It’s all the difference between starvin’ an’ livin’, sir.”
“I’m glad of that. How old is your oldest boy?”
“Thirteen, sir.”
“What do you want him to be?”
“Well, sir, he seems to have a taste fer mechanics.”
“All right; there’s a job waiting for him, and for all the other boys
when they’re old enough. The road wants to make life just as easy for
you as it can, Mrs. Magraw; and even at that, it feels that it has done
mighty little—so little that I was almost ashamed to come here to-day
and tell you. It’s not in any sense intended as a recompense—don’t think
it.”
“I understand, sir,” said Mrs. Magraw, and there was in her face a sweet
dignity. “An’ I’ve had my recompense—with the flowers an’ the men at the
funeral—the shop-men, sir, an’ the brotherhood—stretchin’ clear out t’
the street yonder, an’ cryin’, sir, as if ’twas their own brother—”
She stopped, her eyes gleaming.
“He was the brother of every one of us,” he said; and added, soberly, “I
wish I was as good a man!”
Mrs. Magraw watched him as he crossed the yards; watched him till a
corner of the round-house hid him from view; then she turned slowly back
into the house, her face shining.
“Oh, Reddy,” she said hoarsely to herself; “it’s a proud woman I am this
day; proud fer ye—proud fer ye—oh, an’ heart-broken, too.”
* * * * *
The next afternoon, Mr. Schofield called up Jack Welsh’s residence.
“How’s Allan getting along?” he asked of the woman’s voice which
answered the phone.
“He’s gittin’ along as well as could be expected.”
“Is he able to sit up?”
“Yes, sir; he sets up a little every day.”
“This is Schofield talking. I wonder if I could see him this afternoon?”
“Yes, sir; I guess so,” answered the voice, but without enthusiasm.
“Well, tell him I’ll be down in about an hour—and if he can’t see me yet
awhile, let me know.
“All right, sir.”
“It’s Mister Schofield wantin’ to see you,” Mary announced to Allan,
three minutes later. “Says he’ll be here in an hour. Hadn’t I better
tell him you ain’t able?”
“Oh, I guess I’m able,” said Allan, smiling up at her.
He was lying back in a great chair, with Mamie beside him.
“Well, it’s time he was askin’ after ye.”
“He’s been pretty busy, I suspect.”
Mary snorted.
“A good excuse! An’ I know what he’s comin’ fer.”
“What?” asked Allan, smiling broadly.
“He’ll be wantin’ to know when you’re comin’ back to work.”
“And I’ll tell him Monday.”
“Monday, indeed,” cried Mary and Mamie both.
“Why, I’m all right again,” Allan protested. “A little shaky and scary,
but I’ll get over that.”
“Well, we’ll see about it,” said Mamie, in a tone which told that she
was far from being convinced.
Mrs. Welsh went about her household work, leaving the two together, and
presently there came the expected knock at the door.
But when she opened it, it was not Mr. Schofield alone who stood there.
With him was a man with blue eyes and light hair and flowing blonde
moustache whom Mrs. Welsh had never seen before.
“How do you do, Mrs. Welsh,” said Mr. Schofield, shaking hands with her.
“This is Mr. Round,” he added, and Mr. Round also shook hands. “Can we
see the invalid?”
“Ye-yes, sir,” stammered Mary, more overwhelmed than she had ever been
in her life. “Right up these stairs, sir.”
She led the way and ushered them into Allan’s room.
He started and flushed when he saw who Mr. Schofield’s companion was.
“No,” said Mr. Schofield, smiling at Mrs. Welsh, “I didn’t come this
time to ask you when you’re coming back to work; but to say good-bye.”
“Good-bye?” echoed Allan. “You’re not going away?”
“He’s got too big for us,” said Mr. Round. “I’ve been afraid of it for a
long time. Let me introduce you to the new general superintendent of the
Rock Island.”
“What!” cried Allan, his face beaming. “Oh, but I’m glad!” and he held
out his hand eagerly. “Sorry, too,” he added. “You’ve been one of the
best friends I ever had.”
“And always will be,” said Mr. Schofield heartily. “We’re all proud of
you, Allan. Let me see, how old are you?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“Rather young for train master,” said Mr. Round, looking at him
quizzically.
“Train master?” Allan echoed, suddenly white.
“Though we’ll try you, anyway,” and Mr. Round smiled broadly. “That is,
if you accept.”
“Why,” stammered Allan, “I can’t—I don’t—”
“Don’t try. There’s no hurry, either. You know what I said to you about
a vacation?”
“Yes,” said Allan.
“And you said something about a honeymoon.”
Mamie flushed crimson, and even Allan reddened a little.
“Is this the young lady?” asked Mr. Round, looking at Mamie approvingly.
“Yes,” said Allan. “Mamie—Miss Welsh.”
“I congratulate you, my dear,” said Mr. Round, shaking her kindly by the
hand. “I’ve heard of that exploit of yours. The road is your debtor more
than I can say. I hate to think what would have happened if it hadn’t
been for you.”
“I take the credit of this match,” added Mr. Schofield, laughing. “I
told Allan it was the only proper thing to do.”
“I’d already arrived at the same conclusion,” said Allan, “and we’d just
settled it when you called up.”
“Well,” said Mr. Round, with another glance at Mamie’s rosy face, “I
think you’re to be congratulated too, Allan. You seem to have a knack of
falling on your feet. When is it to take place?”
“Next month,” answered Allan, boldly, without even glancing at Mamie.
That young lady opened her lips and stared at him in astonishment, but
closed them again without speaking.
“Where are you going for the honeymoon?”
“Oh, we haven’t decided. We haven’t much money to spend on a honeymoon,
you know.”
“Have you thought of California?”
“Of California? No, nor of the moon,” answered Allan, with a laugh.
“Palm Beach, maybe, if we can get transportation.”
“Oh, I guess you can,” said Mr. Round, with a little laugh. “But I’m
sorry you hadn’t thought of California. You see, when you spoke of the
honeymoon, I thought a little trip through the west would be just the
thing, so I pulled a few wires, and here,” he put his hand in his pocket
and brought out a thick envelope, “is the result. What shall I do with
it?”
“What is it?” asked Allan and Mamie in the same breath.
“An order from the President to place my private car at your disposal
for a month—transportation over the Southern Pacific going and the
Northern Pacific returning—what do you say, children?”
What could they say!
With a chuckle of sheer enjoyment, Mr. Round tossed the envelope into
Allan’s lap.
“Mind you ask me to the wedding,” he said, and caught up his hat. “Come
on, Schofield. We’re in the way.”
* * * * *
“How do you know I’m going to marry you next month?” demanded Mamie.
“I know you are—you can’t refuse—it might send me into a decline.”
“Decline, indeed,” sniffed Mamie.
“I knew you wouldn’t!” laughed Allan.
Mamie laughed too, and kissed him.
“Don’t you feel like a fairy god-child?” she asked. “I do.”
“What day is it?” he asked, suddenly.
“The fifteenth.”
“Then to-morrow’s Betty Heywood’s wedding—and I can’t be there—I haven’t
even sent a gift. What will she think of me?”
“Write and tell her,” suggested Mamie, and Allan did—told her more,
perhaps, than Mamie intended he should; and the answer came promptly two
days later.
“Dear Allan,” it ran, “Your letter was the dearest wedding gift of
all; to know that you had found the right girl and that you are
happy was just the one thing needed to give the crowning touch to my
own happiness. So you see that I was right! I’ve never doubted it
for an instant, but just the same I’m glad it’s proved. I’m
scribbling this at the last moment, for your letter just came;
there’s the wedding march—I must go. I’m very, very happy, Allan,
and I suppose that this is the last time I shall ever sign myself
BETTY HEYWOOD.”
Allan looked up from the letter, his eyes shining.
“She’s a dear girl,” he said.
“Yes,” agreed Mamie, a little doubtfully.
“But not the dearest,” added Allan smiling. “Come here. Look what a
beautiful sunset. Look at those crimson clouds along the horizon.”
“Who is the dearest?” asked Mamie, refusing to be led aside from the
question under discussion. “Can’t you guess?”
“I’m not good at guessing.”
“It’s the same one I jerked from in front of an engine years and years
ago; the same one I used to do sums for; the same one who saved my life
just the other day. Now can you guess?”
“Yes,” said Mamie, dimpling and snuggling close to him; “yes, I think I
can!”
* * * * *
And so we leave them.
What does the future hold? For one thing, be sure that it holds
happiness. Be sure, too, that the young train master will not always be
merely that. He can afford to wait—to grow and broaden, to learn his
business thoroughly; but the time will come when he will step up and up.
Yet, however high he climbs, those first years, whose history we know,
will be a sweet and ever-present memory, as years of trial always are
when one has emerged from them triumphant.
THE END.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
=BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE=
------------------------------------
THE LITTLE COLONEL BOOKS
(Trade Mark)
_By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON_
_Each 1 vol., large 12mo, cloth, illustrated, per vol._ $1.50
=THE LITTLE COLONEL STORIES=
(Trade Mark)
Being three “Little Colonel” stories in the Cosy Corner Series, “The
Little Colonel,” “Two Little Knights of Kentucky,” and “The Giant
Scissors,” put into a single volume.
=THE LITTLE COLONEL’S HOUSE PARTY=
(Trade Mark)
=THE LITTLE COLONEL’S HOLIDAYS=
(Trade Mark)
=THE LITTLE COLONEL’S HERO=
(Trade Mark)
=THE LITTLE COLONEL AT BOARDING SCHOOL=
(Trade Mark)
=THE LITTLE COLONEL IN ARIZONA=
(Trade Mark)
=THE LITTLE COLONEL’S CHRISTMAS VACATION=
(Trade Mark)
=THE LITTLE COLONEL, MAID OF HONOUR=
(Trade Mark)
=THE LITTLE COLONEL’S KNIGHT COMES RIDING=
(Trade Mark)
=MARY WARE: THE LITTLE COLONEL’S CHUM=
(Trade Mark)
_These ten volumes, boxed as a ten-volume set._ $15.00
=THE LITTLE COLONEL=
(Trade Mark)
=TWO LITTLE KNIGHTS OF KENTUCKY=
=THE GIANT SCISSORS=
=BIG BROTHER=
Special Holiday Editions
Each one volume, cloth decorative, small quarto, $1.25
New plates, handsomely illustrated with eight full-page drawings in
color, and many marginal sketches.
=IN THE DESERT OF WAITING=: THE LEGEND OF CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN.
=THE THREE WEAVERS=: A FAIRY TALE FOR FATHERS AND MOTHERS AS WELL AS FOR
THEIR DAUGHTERS.
=KEEPING TRYST=
=THE LEGEND OF THE BLEEDING HEART=
=THE RESCUE OF PRINCESS WINSOME=: A FAIRY PLAY FOR OLD AND YOUNG.
=THE JESTER’S SWORD=
Each one volume, tall 16mo, cloth decorative $0.50
Paper boards .35
There has been a constant demand for publication in separate form of
these six stories, which were originally included in six of the “Little
Colonel” books.
=JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE=: By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON. Illustrated by L.
J. Bridgman.
New illustrated edition, uniform with the Little Colonel Books, 1 vol.,
large 12mo, cloth decorative $1.50
A story of the time of Christ, which is one of the author’s best-known
books.
=THE LITTLE COLONEL GOOD TIMES BOOK=
Uniform in size with the Little Colonel Series. $1.50
Bound in white kid (morocco) and gold $3.00
Cover design and decorations by Amy Carol Rand.
The publishers have had many inquiries from readers of the Little
Colonel books as to where they could obtain a “Good Times Book” such as
Betty kept. Mrs. Johnston, who has for years kept such a book herself,
has gone enthusiastically into the matter of the material and format for
a similar book for her young readers. Every girl will want to possess a
“Good Times Book.”
=ASA HOLMES=: OR, AT THE CROSS-ROADS. A sketch of Country Life and
Country Humor. By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON.
With a frontispiece by Ernest Fosbery.
Large 16mo, cloth, gilt top $1.00
“‘Asa Holmes; or, At the Cross-Roads’ is the most delightful, most
sympathetic and wholesome book that has been published in a long
while.”—_Boston Times._
=THE RIVAL CAMPERS=: OR, THE ADVENTURES OF HENRY BURNS. By RUEL PERLEY
SMITH.
Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
A story of a party of typical American lads, courageous, alert, and
athletic, who spend a summer camping on an island off the Maine coast.
=THE RIVAL CAMPERS AFLOAT=: OR, THE PRIZE YACHT VIKING. By RUEL PERLEY
SMITH.
Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
This book is a continuation of the adventures of “The Rival Campers” on
their prize yacht _Viking_.
=THE RIVAL CAMPERS ASHORE=
By RUEL PERLEY SMITH.
Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
“As interesting ashore as when afloat.”—_The Interior._
=JACK HARVEY’S ADVENTURES=: OR, THE RIVAL CAMPERS AMONG THE OYSTER
PIRATES. By RUEL PERLEY SMITH. Illustrated $1.50
“Just the type of book which is most popular with lads who are in their
early teens.”—_The Philadelphia Item._
=PRISONERS OF FORTUNE=: A Tale of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. By RUEL
PERLEY SMITH.
Cloth decorative, with a colored frontispiece $1.50
“There is an atmosphere of old New England in the book, the humor of the
born raconteur about the hero, who tells his story with
the gravity of a preacher, but with a solemn humor that is
irresistible.”—_Courier-Journal._
=FAMOUS CAVALRY LEADERS.= By CHARLES H. L. JOHNSTON.
Large 12mo. With 24 illustrations $1.50
Biographical sketches, with interesting anecdotes and reminiscences of
the heroes of history who were leaders of cavalry.
“More of such books should be written, books that acquaint young readers
with historical personages in a pleasant informal way.”—_N. Y. Sun._
=FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS.= By CHARLES H. L. JOHNSTON.
Large 12mo, illustrated $1.50
In this book Mr. Johnston gives interesting sketches of the Indian
braves who have figured with prominence in the history of our own land,
including Powhatan, the Indian Cæsar; Massasoit, the friend of the
Puritans; Pontiac, the red Napoleon; Tecumseh, the famous war chief of
the Shawnees; Sitting Bull, the famous war chief of the Sioux; Geronimo,
the renowned Apache Chief, etc., etc.
=BILLY’S PRINCESS.= By HELEN EGGLESTON HASKELL.
Cloth decorative, illustrated by Helen McCormick Kennedy $1.25
Billy Lewis was a small boy of energy and ambition, so when he was left
alone and unprotected, he simply started out to take care of himself.
=TENANTS OF THE TREES.= By CLARENCE HAWKES.
Cloth decorative, illustrated in colors $1.50
“A book which will appeal to all who care for the hearty, healthy,
outdoor life of the country. The illustrations are particularly
attractive.”—_Boston Herald._
=BEAUTIFUL JOE’S PARADISE=: OR, THE ISLAND OF BROTHERLY LOVE. A sequel
to “Beautiful Joe.” By MARSHALL SAUNDERS, author of “Beautiful Joe.”
One vol., library 12mo, cloth, illustrated $1.50
“This book revives the spirit of ‘Beautiful Joe’ capitally. It is fairly
riotous with fun, and is about as unusual as anything in the animal book
line that has seen the light.”—_Philadelphia Item._
=’TILDA JANE.= By MARSHALL SAUNDERS.
One vol., 12mo, fully illustrated, cloth decorative, $1.50
“I cannot think of any better book for children than this. I commend it
unreservedly.”—_Cyrus Townsend Brady._
=’TILDA JANE’S ORPHANS.= A sequel to ’Tilda Jane. By MARSHALL SAUNDERS.
One vol., 12mo, fully illustrated, cloth decorative, $1.50
’Tilda Jane is the same original, delightful girl, and as fond of her
animal pets as ever.
=THE STORY OF THE GRAVELEYS.= By MARSHALL SAUNDERS, author of “Beautiful
Joe’s Paradise,” “‘Tilda Jane,” etc.
Library 12mo, cloth decorative. Illustrated by E. B. Barry $1.50
Here we have the haps and mishaps, the trials and triumphs, of a
delightful New England family, of whose devotion and sturdiness it
will do the reader good to hear.
=BORN TO THE BLUE.= By FLORENCE KIMBALL RUSSEL.
12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.25
The atmosphere of army life on the plains breathes on every page of this
delightful tale. The boy is the son of a captain of U. S. cavalry
stationed at a frontier post in the days when our regulars earned the
gratitude of a nation.
=IN WEST POINT GRAY=
By FLORENCE KIMBALL RUSSEL. $1.50
“Singularly enough one of the best books of the year for boys is written
by a woman and deals with life at West Point. The presentment of life in
the famous military academy whence so many heroes have graduated is
realistic and enjoyable.”—_New York Sun._
=FROM CHEVRONS TO SHOULDER STRAPS=
By FLORENCE KIMBALL RUSSEL.
12mo, cloth, illustrated, decorative $1.50
West Point again forms the background of a new volume in this popular
series, and relates the experience of Jack Stirling during his junior
and senior years.
=THE SANDMAN: HIS FARM STORIES=
By WILLIAM J. HOPKINS. With fifty illustrations by Ada Clendenin
Williamson.
Large 12mo, decorative cover $1.50
“An amusing, original book, written for the benefit of very small
children. It should be one of the most popular of the year’s books for
reading to small children.”—_Buffalo Express._
=THE SANDMAN: MORE FARM STORIES=
By WILLIAM J. HOPKINS.
Large 12mo, decorative cover, fully illustrated $1.50
Mr. Hopkins’s first essay at bedtime stories met with such approval that
this second book of “Sandman” tales was issued for scores of eager
children. Life on the farm, and out-of-doors, is portrayed in his
inimitable manner.
=THE SANDMAN: HIS SHIP STORIES=
By WILLIAM J. HOPKINS, author of “The Sandman: His Farm Stories,” etc.
Large 12mo, decorative cover, fully illustrated $1.50
“Children call for these stories over and over again.”—_Chicago Evening
Post._
=THE SANDMAN, HIS SEA STORIES=
By WILLIAM J. HOPKINS.
Large 12mo, decorative cover, fully illustrated $1.50
Each year adds to the popularity of this unique series of stories to be
read to the little ones at bed time and at other times.
=THE DOCTOR’S LITTLE GIRL=
By MARION AMES TAGGART, author of “Pussy-Cat Town,” etc.
One vol., library 12mo, illustrated $1.50
A thoroughly enjoyable tale of a little girl and her comrade father,
written in a delightful vein of sympathetic comprehension of the child’s
point of view.
=SWEET NANCY=
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE DOCTOR’S LITTLE GIRL. By MARION AMES
TAGGART.
One vol., library, 12mo, illustrated $1.50
In the new book, the author tells how Nancy becomes in fact “the
doctor’s assistant,” and continues to shed happiness around her.
=THE CHRISTMAS-MAKERS’ CLUB=
By EDITH A. SAWYER.
12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
A delightful story for girls, full of the real spirit of Christmas. It
abounds in merrymaking and the right kind of fun.
=CARLOTA=
A STORY OF THE SAN GABRIEL MISSION. By FRANCES MARGARET FOX.
Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by
Ethelind Ridgway $1.00
“It is a pleasure to recommend this little story as an entertaining
contribution to juvenile literature.”—_The New York Sun._
=THE SEVEN CHRISTMAS CANDLES=
By FRANCES MARGARET FOX.
Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by
Ethelind Ridgway $1.00
Miss Fox’s new book deals with the fortunes of the delightful Mulvaney
children.
=PUSSY-CAT TOWN=
By MARION AMES TAGGART.
Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors
$1.00
“Anything more interesting than the doings of the cats in this story,
their humor, their wisdom, their patriotism, would be hard to
imagine.”—_Chicago Post._
=THE ROSES OF SAINT ELIZABETH=
By JANE SCOTT WOODRUFF.
Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by
Adelaide Everhart $1.00
This is a charming little story of a child whose father was caretaker of
the great castle of the Wartburg, where Saint Elizabeth once had her
home.
=GABRIEL AND THE HOUR BOOK=
By EVALEEN STEIN.
Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by
Adelaide Everhart $1.00
Gabriel was a loving, patient, little French lad, who assisted the monks
in the long ago days, when all the books were written and illuminated by
hand, in the monasteries.
=THE ENCHANTED AUTOMOBILE=
Translated from the French by MARY J. SAFFORD.
Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by
Edna M. Sawyer $1.00
“An up-to-date French fairy tale which fairly radiates the spirit of the
hour,—unceasing diligence.”—_Chicago Record-Herald._
=O-HEART-SAN=
THE STORY OF A JAPANESE GIRL. By HELEN EGGLESTON HASKELL.
Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by
Frank P. Fairbanks $1.00
“The story comes straight from the heart of Japan. The shadow of
Fujiyama lies across it and from every page breathes the fragrance of
tea leaves, cherry blossoms and chrysanthemums.”—_The Chicago
Inter-Ocean._
=THE YOUNG SECTION-HAND=: OR, THE ADVENTURES OF ALLAN WEST. By BURTON E.
STEVENSON.
Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
Mr. Stevenson’s hero is a manly lad of sixteen, who is given a chance as
a section-hand on a big Western railroad, and whose experiences are as
real as they are thrilling.
=THE YOUNG TRAIN DISPATCHER.= By BURTON E. STEVENSON.
Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
“A better book for boys has never left an American press.”—_Springfield
Union._
=THE YOUNG TRAIN MASTER.= By BURTON E. STEVENSON.
Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
“Nothing better in the way of a book of adventure for boys in which the
actualities of life are set forth in a practical way could be devised or
written.”—_Boston Herald._
=CAPTAIN JACK LORIMER.= By WINN STANDISH.
Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
Jack is a fine example of the all-around American high-school boy.
=JACK LORIMER’S CHAMPIONS=: OR, SPORTS ON LAND AND LAKE. By WINN
STANDISH.
Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
“It is exactly the sort of book to give a boy interested in athletics,
for it shows him what it means to always ‘play fair’”—_Chicago Tribune._
=JACK LORIMER’S HOLIDAYS=: OR, MILLVALE HIGH IN CAMP. By WINN STANDISH.
Illustrated $1.50
Full of just the kind of fun, sports and adventure to excite the healthy
minded youngster to emulation.
=JACK LORIMER’S SUBSTITUTE=: OR, THE ACTING CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM. By WINN
STANDISH.
Illustrated $1.50
On the sporting side, this book takes up football, wrestling,
tobogganing, but it is more of a _school_ story perhaps than any of its
predecessors.
=CAPTAIN JINKS=: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SHETLAND PONY. By FRANCES HODGES
WHITE.
Cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
The story of Captain Jinks and his faithful dog friend Billy, their
quaint conversations and their exciting adventures, will be eagerly read
by thousands of boys and girls. The story is beautifully written and
will take its place alongside of “Black Beauty” and “Beautiful Joe.”
=THE RED FEATHERS.= By THEODORE ROBERTS.
Cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
“The Red Feathers” tells of the remarkable adventures of an Indian boy
who lived in the Stone Age, many years ago, when the world was young.
=FLYING PLOVER.= By THEODORE ROBERTS.
Cloth decorative. Illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull $1.00
Squat-By-The-Fire is a very old and wise Indian who lives alone with her
grandson, “Flying Plover,” to whom she tells the stories each evening.
=THE WRECK OF THE OCEAN QUEEN.= By JAMES OTIS, author of “Larry Hudson’s
Ambition,” etc.
Cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
“A stirring story of wreck and mutiny, which boys will find especially
absorbing. The many young admirers of James Otis will not let this book
escape them, for it fully equals its many predecessors in excitement and
sustained interest.”—_Chicago Evening Post._
=LITTLE WHITE INDIANS.= By FANNIE E. OSTRANDER.
Cloth decorative, illustrated $1.25
“A bright, interesting story which will appeal strongly to the
‘make-believe’ instinct in children, and will give them a healthy,
active interest in ‘the simple life.’”
=MARCHING WITH MORGAN.= HOW DONALD LOVELL BECAME A SOLDIER OF THE
REVOLUTION. By JOHN L. VEASY.
Cloth decorative, illustrated $1.50
This is a splendid boy’s story of the expedition of Montgomery and
Arnold against Quebec.
COSY CORNER SERIES
It is the intention of the publishers that this series shall contain
only the very highest and purest literature,—stories that shall not only
appeal to the children themselves, but be appreciated by all those who
feel with them in their joys and sorrows.
The numerous illustrations in each book are by well-known artists, and
each volume has a separate attractive cover design.
Each 1 vol., 16mo, cloth $0.50
_By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON_
=THE LITTLE COLONEL= (Trade Mark.)
The scene of this story is laid in Kentucky. Its heroine is a small
girl, who is known as the Little Colonel, on account of her fancied
resemblance to an old-school Southern gentleman, whose fine estate and
old family are famous in the region.
=THE GIANT SCISSORS=
This is the story of Joyce and of her adventures in France. Joyce is a
great friend of the Little Colonel, and in later volumes shares with her
the delightful experiences of the “House Party” and the “Holidays.”
=TWO LITTLE KNIGHTS OF KENTUCKY= WHO WERE THE LITTLE COLONEL’S
NEIGHBORS.
In this volume the Little Colonel returns to us like an old friend, but
with added grace and charm. She is not, however, the central figure of
the story, that place being taken by the “two little knights.”
=MILDRED’S INHERITANCE=
A delightful little story of a lonely English girl who comes to America
and is befriended by a sympathetic American family who are attracted by
her beautiful speaking voice. By means of this one gift she is enabled
to help a school-girl who has temporarily lost the use of her eyes, and
thus finally her life becomes a busy, happy one.
=CICELY AND OTHER STORIES FOR GIRLS=
The readers of Mrs. Johnston’s charming juveniles will be glad to learn
of the issue of this volume for young people.
=AUNT ’LIZA’S HERO AND OTHER STORIES=
A collection of six bright little stories, which will appeal to all boys
and most girls.
=BIG BROTHER=
A story of two boys. The devotion and care of Stephen, himself a small
boy, for his baby brother, is the theme of the simple tale.
=OLE MAMMY’S TORMENT=
“Ole Mammy’s Torment” has been fitly called “a classic of Southern
life.” It relates the haps and mishaps of a small negro lad, and tells
how he was led by love and kindness to a knowledge of the right.
=THE STORY OF DAGO=
In this story Mrs. Johnston relates the story of Dago, a pet monkey,
owned jointly by two brothers. Dago tells his own story, and the account
of his haps and mishaps is both interesting and amusing.
=THE QUILT THAT JACK BUILT=
A pleasant little story of a boy’s labor of love, and how it changed the
course of his life many years after it was accomplished.
=FLIP’S ISLANDS OF PROVIDENCE=
A story of a boy’s life battle, his early defeat, and his final triumph,
well worth the reading.
_By EDITH ROBINSON_
=A LITTLE PURITAN’S FIRST CHRISTMAS=
A story of Colonial times in Boston, telling how Christmas was invented
by Betty Sewall, a typical child of the Puritans, aided by her brother
Sam.
=A LITTLE DAUGHTER OF LIBERTY=
The author introduces this story as follows:
“One ride is memorable in the early history of the American Revolution,
the well-known ride of Paul Revere. Equally deserving of commendation is
another ride,—the ride of Anthony Severn,—which was no less historic in
its action or memorable in its consequences.”
=A LOYAL LITTLE MAID=
A delightful and interesting story of Revolutionary days, in which the
child heroine, Betsey Schuyler, renders important services to George
Washington.
=A LITTLE PURITAN REBEL=
This is an historical tale of a real girl, during the time when the
gallant Sir Harry Vane was governor of Massachusetts.
=A LITTLE PURITAN PIONEER=
The scene of this story is laid in the Puritan settlement at
Charlestown.
=A LITTLE PURITAN BOUND GIRL=
A story of Boston in Puritan days, which is of great interest to
youthful readers.
=A LITTLE PURITAN CAVALIER=
The story of a “Little Puritan Cavalier” who tried with all his boyish
enthusiasm to emulate the spirit and ideals of the dead Crusaders.
=A PURITAN KNIGHT ERRANT=
The story tells of a young lad in Colonial times who endeavored to carry
out the high ideals of the knights of olden days.
_By OUIDA_ (_Louise de la Ramee_)
=A DOG OF FLANDERS= A CHRISTMAS STORY
Too well and favorably known to require description.
=THE NURNBERG STOVE=
This beautiful story has never before been published at a popular price.
_By FRANCES MARGARET FOX_
=THE LITTLE GIANT’S NEIGHBOURS=
A charming nature story of a “little giant” whose neighbors were the
creatures of the field and garden.
=FARMER BROWN AND THE BIRDS=
A little story which teaches children that the birds are man’s best
friends.
=BETTY OF OLD MACKINAW=
A charming story of child life.
=BROTHER BILLY=
The story of Betty’s brother, and some further adventures of Betty
herself.
=MOTHER NATURE’S LITTLE ONES=
Curious little sketches describing the early lifetime, or “childhood,”
of the little creatures out-of-doors.
=HOW CHRISTMAS CAME TO THE MULVANEYS=
A bright, lifelike little story of a family of poor children with an
unlimited capacity for fun and mischief.
=THE COUNTRY CHRISTMAS=
Miss Fox has vividly described the happy surprises that made the
occasion so memorable to the Mulvaneys, and the funny things the
children did in their new environment.
_By MISS MULOCK_
=THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE=
A delightful story of a little boy who has many adventures by means of
the magic gifts of his fairy god-mother.
=ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE=
The story of a household elf who torments the cook and gardener, but is
a constant joy and delight to the children who love and trust him.
=HIS LITTLE MOTHER=
Miss Mulock’s short stories for children are a constant source of
delight to them, and “His Little Mother,” in this new and attractive
dress, will be welcomed by hosts of youthful readers.
=LITTLE SUNSHINE’S HOLIDAY=
An attractive story of a summer outing. “Little Sunshine” is another of
those beautiful child-characters for which Miss Mulock is so justly
famous.
_By MARSHALL SAUNDERS_
=FOR HIS COUNTRY=
A sweet and graceful story of a little boy who loved his country;
written with that charm which has endeared Miss Saunders to hosts of
readers.
=NITA, THE STORY OF AN IRISH SETTER=
In this touching little book, Miss Saunders shows how dear to her heart
are all of God’s dumb creatures.
=ALPATOK, THE STORY OF AN ESKIMO DOG=
Alpatok, an Eskimo dog from the far north, was stolen from his master
and left to starve in a strange city, but was befriended and cared for,
until he was able to return to his owner.
_By WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE_
=THE FARRIER’S DOG AND HIS FELLOW=
This story, written by the gifted young Southern woman, will appeal to
all that is best in the natures of the many admirers of her graceful and
piquant style.
=THE FORTUNES OF THE FELLOW=
Those who read and enjoyed the pathos and charm of “The Farrier’s Dog
and His Fellow” will welcome the further account of the adventures of
Baydaw and the Fellow at the home of the kindly smith.
=THE BEST OF FRIENDS=
This continues the experiences of the Farrier’s dog and his Fellow,
written in Mr. Dromgoole’s well-known charming style.
=DOWN IN DIXIE=
A fascinating story for boys and girls, of a family of Alabama children
who move to Florida and grow up in the South.
_By MARIAN W. WILDMAN_
=LOYALTY ISLAND=
An account of the adventures of four children and their pet dog on an
island, and how they cleared their brother from the suspicion of
dishonesty.
=THEODORE AND THEODORA=
This is a story of the exploits and mishaps of two mischievous twins,
and continues the adventures of the interesting group of children in
“Loyalty Island.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.
○ Unbalanced quotation marks were left as the author intended.
○ Typographical and hyphenation errors were silently corrected.
○ Dialect spelling was left as the author intended.
○ Spelling was made consistent when a predominant form was found in
this book; otherwise it was not changed.
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