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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16630-8.txt b/16630-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..76f8b1b --- /dev/null +++ b/16630-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10477 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Empire Builders, by Francis Lynde, +Illustrated by Jay Hambidge + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Empire Builders + + +Author: Francis Lynde + + + +Release Date: August 31, 2005 [eBook #16630] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMPIRE BUILDERS*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 16630-h.htm or 16630-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/6/3/16630/16630-h/16630-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/6/3/16630/16630-h.zip) + + + + + +EMPIRE BUILDERS + +by + +FRANCIS LYNDE + +Author of +The Quickening, The Grafters +A Fool for Love, etc. + +With Illustrations by Jay Hambidge + +Indianapolis +The Bobbs-Merrill Company +Publishers +Press of +Braunworth & Co. +Bookbinders and Printers +Brooklyn, N.Y. + +1907 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "I won't attempt to apologize--it's beyond all that"] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I A MASTER OF MEN 1 + + II A SPIKED SWITCH 13 + + III LOSS AND DAMAGE 30 + + IV COLD STORAGE 38 + + V WANTED: THIRTY-FIVE MILLIONS 47 + + VI THE AWAKENING OF CHARLES EDWARD 59 + + VII HAMMER AND TONGS 66 + + VIII THE AUTOMATIC AIR 75 + + IX THE RACE TO THE SLOW 90 + + X THE SINEWS OF WAR 100 + + XI HURRY ORDERS 120 + + XII THE ENTERING WEDGE 141 + + XIII THE BARBARIANS 155 + + XIV THE DRAW-BAR PULL 166 + + XV AN UNWILLING HOST 177 + + XVI THE TRUTHFUL ALTITUDES 186 + + XVII A NIGHT OF ALARMS 198 + +XVIII THE MORNING AFTER 217 + + XIX THE RELUCTANT WHEELS 238 + + XX THE CONSPIRATORS 254 + + XXI THE MILLS OF THE GODS 271 + + XXII THE MAN ON HORSEBACK 285 + +XXIII THE DEADLOCK 311 + + XXIV RUIZ GREGORIO 325 + + XXV THE SIEGE OF THE NADIA 336 + + XXVI THE STAR OF EMPIRE 362 + + + + +EMPIRE BUILDERS + + +I + +A MASTER OF MEN + + +Engine Number 206, narrow gauge, was pushing, or rather failing to push, +the old-fashioned box-plow through the crusted drifts on the uptilted +shoulder of Plug Mountain, at altitude ten thousand feet, with the +mercury at twelve below zero. There was a wind--the winter day above +timber-line without its wind is as rare as a thawing Christmas--and it +cut like knives through any garmenting lighter than fur or leather. The +cab of the 206 was old and weather-shaken, and Ford pulled the collar of +his buffalo coat about his ears when the grunting of the exhaust and the +shrilling of the wheels on the snow-shod rails stopped abruptly. + +"Gar-r-r!" snarled Gallagher, the red-headed Irish engineer, shutting +off the steam in impotent rage. "The power is not in this dommed ould +camp-kittle sewin' machine! 'Tis heaven's pity they wouldn't be givin' +us wan man-sized, fightin' lokimotive on this ind of the line, Misther +Foord." + +Ford, superintendent and general autocrat of the Plug Mountain branch of +the Pacific Southwestern, climbed down from his cramped seat on the +fireman's box and stood scowling at the retracting index of the +steam-gauge. When he was on his feet beside the little Irishman, you saw +that he was a young man, well-built, square-shouldered and athletic +under the muffling of the shapeless fur greatcoat; also, that in spite +of the scowl, his clean-shaven face was strong and manly and good to +look upon. + +"Power!" he retorted. "That's only one of the hundred things they don't +give us, Mike. Look at that steam-gauge--freezing right where she +stands!" + +"'Tis so," assented Gallagher. "She'd be dead and shtiff in tin minutes +be the clock if we'd lave her be in this drift." + +Ford motioned the engineer aside and took the throttle himself. It was +the third day out from Cherubusco, the station at the foot of the +mountain; and in the eight-and-forty hours the engine, plow and crew of +twenty shovelers had, by labor of the cruelest, opened eleven of the +thirteen blockaded miles isolating Saint's Rest, the mining-camp +end-of-track in the high basin at the head of the pass. + +The throttle opened with a jerk under the superintendent's hand. There +was a snow-choked drumming of the exhaust, and the driving-wheels spun +wildly in the flurry beneath. But there was no inch of forward motion, +and Ford gave it up. + +"We're against it," he admitted. "Back her down and we'll put the +shovelers at it again while you're nursing her up and getting more +steam. We're going to make it to Saint's Rest to-day if the Two-six has +to go in on three legs." + +Gallagher pulled the reversing lever into the back gear and sent the +failing steam whistling into the chilled cylinders with cautious little +jerks at the throttle. The box-plow came out of the clutch of its snow +vise with shrillings as of a soul in torment, and the bucking outfit +screeched coldly down over the snowy rails to the "let-up," where the +shovelers' box-car had been uncoupled. + +Ford swung off to turn out the shoveling squad; and presently the +laborers, muffled to the eyes, were filing past the 206 to break a path +for the plow. Gallagher was on the running-board with his flare torch, +thawing out an injector. He marked the cheerful swing of the men and +gave credit where it was due. + +"'Tis a full-grown man, that," he commented, meaning Ford. "Manny's the +wan would be huggin' the warm boiler-head these times, and shtickin' his +head out of the windy to holler, 'G'wan, boys; pitch it out lively now, +and be dommed to yez!' But Misther Foord ain't built the like o' that. +He'll be as deep in that freezin' purgatory up yander in th' drift as +the foremist wan of thim." + +The Irishman's praise was not unmerited. Whatever his failings, +and he groaned under his fair human share of them, Stuart Ford had +the gift of leadership. Before he had been a month on the branch +as its "old man" and autocrat, he had won the good-will and loyalty +of the rank and file, from the office men in the headquarters to the +pick-and-shovel contingent on the sections. Even the blockade-breaking +laborers--temporary helpers as they were--stood by him manfully in the +sustained battle with the snow. Ford spared them when he could, and they +knew it. + +"Warm it up, boys!" he called cheerily, climbing to the top of the +frozen drift to direct the attack. "It's been a long fight, but we're in +sight of home now. Come up here with your shovels, Olsen, and break it +down from the top. It's the crust that plugs Mike's wedge." + +He looked the fighting leader, standing at the top of the wind-swept +drift and crying on his shovelers. It was the part he had chosen for +himself in the game of life, and he quarreled only when the stake was +small, as in this present man-killing struggle with the snowdrifts. The +Plug Mountain branch was the sore spot in the Pacific Southwestern +system; the bad investment at which the directors shook their heads, and +upon which the management turned the coldest of shoulders. It barely +paid its own operating expenses in summer, and the costly snow blockades +in winter went to the wrong side of the profit and loss account. + +This was why Ford had been scheming and planning for a year and more to +find a way of escape; not for himself, but for the discredited Plug +Mountain line. It was proving a knotty problem, not to say an insoluble +one. Ford had attacked it with his eyes open, as he did most things; and +he was not without a suspicion that President Colbrith, of the Pacific +Southwestern, had known to the full the hopelessness of the mountain +line when he dictated the letter which had cost one of the great Granger +roads its assistant engineer in charge of construction, transferring an +energetic young man with ambitions from the bald plains of the Dakotas +to the snow-capped shoulders of the Rockies. + +Originally the narrow gauge had been projected and partly built by a +syndicate of Denver capitalists, who were under the hallucination, then +prevalent, that any railroad penetrating the mountains in any direction, +and having Denver for its starting point, must necessarily become at +once a dividend-paying carrier for the mines, actual or to be +discovered. + +Failing to tap their bonanza freight-producer on the route up Blue +Canyon, the projectors--small fish in the great money-pool--had talked +vaguely of future extensions to Salt Lake, to San Francisco, to Puget +Sound, or to some other of the far-beyonds, and had even gone the length +of surveying a line over Plug Pass and down the valley of the Pannikin, +on the Pacific slope of the range. But they had prudently stopped +building; and the pause continued until the day of the great silver +strike at Saint's Rest. + +The new carbonate beds chanced to lie within easy rifle-shot of the +summit of Plug Pass; in other words, they were precisely on the line of +the extension survey of the narrow gauge. The discovery was a piece of +sheer luck for the amateur railroad builders. For a time, as all the +world knows, Saint's Rest headed the mining news column in all the +dailies, and the rush for the new camp fairly swamped the meager +carrying facilities of the incomplete line and the stages connecting its +track-end with the high-mountain Mecca of the treasure-seekers. + +Then, indeed, the Denver syndicate saw its long deferred opportunity and +grasped it. Long purses might be lacking, but not shrewd heads. The +unfinished Plug Mountain was immediately bonded for more than it ever +promised to be worth, and in the hottest heat of the forwarding strife +it was extended at the rate of a mile a day until the welcome screech of +its locomotive whistles was added to the perfervid clamor of the new +camp in the Plug Pass basin. + +The goal reached, the Denver folk took a fresh leaf out of the book of +shrewdness. Holding the completed line only long enough to skim the +cream of the rush earnings, they sold their stock at a sound premium to +the Pacific Southwestern, pocketed their winnings cannily, and escaped a +short half-year before the slump in silver, and the consequent collapse +of Saint's Rest, came to establish the future Waterloo for Napoleonic +young superintendents in the Southwestern's service. + +This was all ancient history when Ford left the Granger road to climb, +at President Colbrith's behest, into the Plug Mountain saddle; and a +round half-dozen of the young Napoleons had been broken before he put +foot in stirrup for the mounting. While his attacking of the problem had +been open-eyed, he had not stopped to specialize in the ancient history +of the Plug Mountain branch. When he did specialize, his point of view +was pretty clearly defined in a letter to Mr. Richard Frisbie, of St. +Paul, written after he had been for six months the master of the Plug +Mountain destinies. + +"I'm up against it, good and solid," was the way he phrased it to +Frisbie. "My hundred and fifty miles of 'two streaks of rust and a +right-of-way' has never paid a net dollar since the boom broke at +Saint's Rest, and under present conditions it never will. If I had known +the history of the road when President Colbrith went fishing for me--as +I didn't--I wouldn't have touched the job with a ten-foot pole. + +"But now I'm here, I'm going to do something with my two streaks of rust +to make them pay--make a spoon or spoil a horn. Just what shall be done +I haven't decided fully, but I have a notion in the back part of my +head, and if it works out, I shall need you first of all. Will you come? + +"Have I told you in any of my earlier letters that I have personally +earned the ill-will of General Manager North? I have, and it is distinct +from and in addition to his hostility for the unearning branch for which +I am responsible. I'm sorry for it, because I may need his good word for +my inchoate scheme later on. It came up over some maintenance-of-way +charges. He is as shrewd as he is unscrupulous, and he knows well how to +pile the sins of the congregation on the back of the poor scapegoat. To +make a better showing for the main line, and at the same time to show +what a swilling pig the Plug Mountain is, he had the branch charged up +with a lot of material we didn't get. Naturally, I protested--and was +curtly told to mind my own business, which had no ramifications reaching +into the accounting department. Then I threatened to carry it over his +head to President Colbrith; whereupon I gained my point temporarily, and +lost a possible stepping-stone to success. + +"None the less, I am going to win out if it costs me the best year of +my life. I'm going to swing to this thing till I make something out of +it, if I have to put in some more winters like the one I have just come +through--which was Sheol, with ice and snow in the place of the +traditional fire and brimstone. If I have one good quality--as I +sometimes doubt--it's the inability to know when I am satisfactorily and +permanently licked." + +Stuart Ford was shivering through the second of the winters on the gray, +needle-winded day when he stood on the crusted drift, heartening his men +who were breaking the way for further rammings of the scrap-heap 206 and +her box-plow. During the summer which lay behind the pitiless storms and +the blockading snows he had explored and planned, studied and schemed; +and now a month of good weather would put the finishing touches +preparatory upon the "notion" hinted at in the letter to Frisbie. + +"That'll do, boys; we'll let Gallagher hit it a few times now," he sang +out, when he saw that the weaker ones among the shovelers were stumbling +numbly and throwing wild. "Get back to the car and thaw yourselves out." + +The safety-valve of the 206 was stuttering under a gratifying increase +of steam pressure when the superintendent climbed to the canvas-shrouded +cab. + +"Ha! two hundred and fifty pounds! That looks a little more like it, +Michael. Now get all the run you can and hit her straight from the +shoulder," he ordered, mounting to his seat on the fireman's box, and +bracing himself for what should come. + +Gallagher released the driver-brakes and let the 206 and the plow drift +down the grade until his tender drawhead touched the laborers' car. Then +the reversing lever went forward with a clang, and the steam squealed +shrilly in the dry-pipe. For a thunderous second or two the +driving-wheels slipped and whirled futilely on the snowy rails. +Gallagher pounced upon the sand lever, whereat the tires suddenly bit +and held and a long-drawn, fire-tearing exhaust sobbed from the stack. + +"You've got her!" shouted Ford. "Now hit it--hit it hard!" + +Swiftly the huge mass of engine and plow gathered headway, the pounding +exhausts quickening until they blended in a continuous roar. The little +Irishman stayed himself with a foot against the boiler brace; the +fireman ducked under the canvas curtain and clung to the coal bulkhead; +and Ford held on as he could. + +The shock came like the crashing blow of a collision. The box-plow +buckled and groaned with fine cracklings as of hard-strained timbers, +and an avalanche of snow thrown up from its inclined plane buried engine +and cab and tender in a smothering drift. Ford slid his window and +looked out. + +"Good work, Michael; good work! You gained a full car-length that time. +Try it again." + +Gallagher backed the plow carefully out of the cutting, and the fireman +opened the blower and nursed his fire. Again and again the wheeled +projectile was hurled into the obstruction, and Ford watched the +steadily retrograding finger of the steam-gauge anxiously. Would the +pressure suffice for the final dash which should clear the cutting? Or +would they have to stop and turn out the wretched shovelmen again? + +The answer came with the fourth drive into the stubborn barrier. There +was the same nerve-racking shock of impact; but now the recoil was +followed by a second forward plunge, and Gallagher yelled his triumph +when the 206 burst through the remaining lesser drifts and shot away on +the clear track beyond. + +Ford drew a long breath of relief, and the engineer checked the speed of +the runaway, stopped, and started back to couple on the car-load of +laborers. + +Ford swung around and put his back to the open window. + +"Let's hope that is the worst of it and the last of it for this winter, +Mike," he said, speaking as man to man. "I believe the weather will +break before we have any more snow; and next year--" + +The pause was so long that Gallagher took his chance of filling it. + +"Don't be tellin' me the big boss has promised us a rotary for next +winter, Misther Foord. That'd be too good to be thrue, I'm thinking." + +"No; but next winter you'll be doing one of two things, Michael. You +will be pulling your train through steel snow-sheds on Plug Mountain--or +you'll be working for another boss. Break her loose, and let's get to +camp as soon as we can. Those poor devils back in the box-car are about +dead for sleep and a square meal." + + + + +II + +A SPIKED SWITCH + + +Ford's hopeful prophecy that the snow battles were over for the season +proved true. A few weeks later a warm wind blew up from the west, the +mountain foot-trails became first packed ice-paths and then slippery +ridges to trap the unwary; the great drifts began to settle and melt, +and the spring music of the swollen mountain torrents was abroad in the +land. + +At the blowing of the warm wind Ford aimed the opening gun in his +campaign against fate--the fate which seemed to be bent upon adding his +name to the list of failures on the Plug Mountain branch. The gun-aiming +was a summons to Frisbie, at the moment a draftsman in the engineering +office of the Great Northern at St. Paul, and pining, like the Plug +Mountain superintendent, for something bigger. + +"I have been waiting until I could offer you something with a +bread-and-meat attachment in the way of day pay," wrote Ford, "and the +chance has come. Kennedy, my track supervisor, has quit, and the place +is yours if you will take it. If you are willing to tie up to the most +harebrained scheme you ever heard of, with about one chance in a +thousand of coming out on top and of growing up with a brand new country +of unlimited possibilities, just gather up your dunnage and come." + +This letter was written on a Friday. Frisbie got it out of the carriers' +delivery on the Sunday morning; and Sunday night saw him racing +westward, with the high mountains of Colorado as his goal. Not that the +destination made any difference, for Frisbie would have gone quite as +willingly to the ends of the earth at the crooking of Ford's finger. + +It was the brightest of May days when the new supervisor of track +debarked from the mountain-climbing train at Saint's Rest, stretched his +legs gratefully on _terra firma_, had his first deep lungful of the +ozonic air of the high peaks, and found his welcome awaiting him. Ford +would have no talk of business until he had taken Frisbie across to the +little shack "hotel," and had filled him up on a dinner fresh from the +tin; nor, indeed, afterward, until they were smoking comfortably in the +boxed-off den in the station building which served as the +superintendent's office. + +"I've been counting on you, Dick, as you know, ever since this thing +threatened to take shape in my head," Ford began. "First, let me ask +you: do you happen to know where you could lay hands on three or four +good constructing engineers--men you could turn loose absolutely and +trust implicitly? I'm putting this up to you because the Plug Mountain +exile has taken me a bit out of touch." + +"Why--yes," said Frisbie, taking time to call the mental roll. "There +are Major Benson and his son Jack--you know 'em both--just in off their +job in the Selkirks. Then there is Roy Brissac; he'd be a pretty good +man in the field; and Chauncey Leckhard, of my class,--he's got a job in +Winnipeg, but he'll come if I ask him to, and he is the best office man +I know. But what on top of earth are you driving at, Stuart?" + +Ford cleared his pipe of the ash and refilled it. + +"I'll go into the details with you a little later. We shall have plenty +of time during the next month or six weeks, and, incidentally, a good +bit more privacy. The thing I'm trying to figure out will burst like a +bubble if it gets itself made public too soon, and"--lowering his +voice--"I can't trust my office force here. _Savez?_" + +"I _savez_ nothing as yet," laughed the new supervisor, "but perhaps I +shall if you'll tell me what is going to happen in the next month or six +weeks." + +"I'm coming to that, right now. How would you like to take a hunting +trip over on the wilderness side of the range? There are big woods and +big game." + +Frisbie grinned. He was a little man, with sharp black eyes shaded by +the heaviest of black brows, and it was his notion to trim his mustaches +and beard after the fashion set by the third Napoleon and imitated +faithfully by those who sing the part of Mephistopheles in _Faust_. +Hence, his grin was handsomely diabolic. + +"You needn't ask me what I'd like; you just tell me what you want me to +do," he rejoined, with clansman loyalty. + +"So I will," said Ford, taking the reins of authority. "We leave here +to-morrow morning for a trip over the Pass and down the Pannikin on the +other side, and if anybody asks you why, you can say that we expect to +kill a deer or two, and possibly a bear. Your part of the outsetting, +however, is to pack your surveying instruments on the burro saddles so +they'll pass for grub-boxes, tent-poles, and the like." + +"Call it done," said Frisbie. "But why all this stage play? Can't you +anticipate that much without endangering your bubble?" + +Ford lowered his voice again. + +"I gave you the hint. Penfield, my chief clerk--his desk is just on the +other side of that partition--is an ex-main-line man, shoved upon me +when I didn't want him. He was General Manager North's stenographer. +For reasons which will be apparent to you a little later on, I want to +blow my bubble in my own way; or, to change the figure, I'd like to fire +the first volley myself." + +Frisbie's grin was rather more than less diabolic. + +"Then I'd begin by firing Mr. Penfield, himself," he remarked. + +"No, you wouldn't," said Ford. "There are going to be obstacles enough +in the way without slapping Mr. North in the face as a preliminary. +Under the circumstances, he'd take it that way; Penfield would make sure +that he took it that way." + +It was at this point in the low-toned conference that the ingenious +young man in the outer office put down the desk telephone ear-piece long +enough to smite with his fist at some air-drawn antagonist. Curiosity +was this young man's capital weakness, and he had tinkered the wires of +the private telephone system so that the flicking of a switch made him +an auditor at any conversation carried on in the private office. He was +listening intently and eagerly again when Ford said, still in the same +guarded tone: + +"No, I can't fire Penfield, and I don't particularly want to. He is a +good office man, and loyal to his salt: it's my misfortune that it is +Mr. North's salt-cellar, and not mine, that he dips into. Besides, I'd +have trouble in replacing him. Saint's Rest isn't exactly the paradise +its name implies--for a clean-cut, well-mannered young fellow with +social leanings." + +"Now, what in the mischief does all that mean?" mused the chief clerk, +when Ford and his new track man had gone out. "A month's hunting trip +over the range, with the surveying instruments taken along. And last +summer Mr. Ford spent a good part of his time over there--also hunting, +so he said. Confound it all! I wish I could get into that private drawer +of his in the safe. That would tell the story. I wonder if Pacheco +couldn't make himself an errand over the Pass in the morning? By +George!" slapping his thigh and apostrophizing the superintendent, "I'll +just go you once, Mr. Ford, if I lose!" + +Now the fruit, of which this little soliloquy was the opening blossom, +matured on the second day after Ford and Frisbie had started out on the +mysterious hunting trip across the range. Pacheco, the half-breed +Mexican who freighted provisions by jack train to the mining-camps on +the head waters of the Pannikin, came in to report to the chief clerk. + +"Well, 'Checo, what did you find out?" was the curt inquiry. + +The half-breed spread his palms. + +"W'at I see, I know. Dey'll not gone for hunt much. One day out, dey'll +make-a da camp and go for squint t'rough spy-glass, so"--making an +imaginary transit telescope of his hands. "Den dey'll measure h-on da +groun' and squint some more, so." + +Penfield nodded and a gold piece changed hands silently. + +"That's all, 'Checo; much obliged. Don't say anything about this over in +the camp. Mr. Ford said he was going hunting, and that's what we'll say, +if anybody asks us." + +That night the chief clerk sent a brief cipher telegram to the general +manager at Denver. + + Ford and his new track supervisor, who is really a high-priced + constructing engineer, gone over the range for a month's absence. + Gave it out here that they were going after big game, but they took + a transit and are picking up the line of the old S. L. & W. + extension in the upper Pannikin. + +It was late in the month of June when Ford and Frisbie, tanned, +weathered and as gaunt as pioneers, returned to Saint's Rest; and for +those who were curious enough to be interested, there were a couple of +bear-skins and one of a mountain lion to make good the ostensible object +of the absence. + +But the most important trophies of the excursion were two engineers' +note-books, well filled with memoranda; and these they did not exhibit. +On the contrary, they became a part of the collection of maps, +statistics, estimates and private correspondence which Chief Clerk +Penfield was so anxious to examine, and which Ford kept under lock and +key when he and Frisbie were not poring over some portion of it in the +seclusion of the private office. + +None the less, Penfield kept his eyes and ears open, and before long he +had another detail to report by cipher telegram to the general manager. +Ford was evidently preparing for another absence, and from what the +chief clerk could overhear, he was led to believe that the pseudo +supervisor of track would be left in charge of Plug Mountain affairs. + +It was on the day before Ford's departure for Denver that a letter came +from General Manager North. Ford read it with a scowl of disapproval and +tossed it across the double desk to Frisbie. + +"A polite invitation for me to stay at home and to attend to my +business," he commented. + +"Had you written him that you were going away?" inquired Frisbie. + +"No; but evidently somebody else has." + +Frisbie read the letter again. + +"'So that all heads of departments may be on duty when the president +makes his annual inspection trip over the lines,'" he quoted. "Is Mr. +Colbrith coming out this early in the summer?" + +"No, of course not. He never comes before August." + +"Then this is only a trumped-up excuse to make you stay here?" + +"That's all," Ford replied laconically. + +Mr. Richard Frisbie got up and walked twice the length of the little +room before he said: + +"This Denver gentleman is going to knock your little scheme into a +cocked hat, if he can, Stuart." + +"I am very much afraid we'll have to reckon upon that. As a matter of +fact, I've been reckoning upon it, all along." + +"How much of a pull has he with the New York money-people?" + +"I don't know that: I wish I did. It would simplify matters somewhat." + +Frisbie took another turn up and down the room, with his head down and +his hands in his pockets. + +"Stuart, I believe, if I were in your place, I'd enlist Mr. North, if I +had to make it an object for him," he said, at length. + +"Certainly, I mean to go to him first," said Ford. "That is his due. But +I am counting upon opposition rather than help. Wait a minute"--he +jerked the door open suddenly and made sure that the chief clerk's chair +was unoccupied. "The worst of it is that I don't trust North," he went +on. "He is a grafter in small ways, and he'd sell me out in a minute if +he felt like it and could see any chance of making capital for himself." + +"Then don't go to him with your scheme," urged Frisbie. "If you enlist +him, you won't be sure of him; and if you don't, you'll merely leave an +active opponent behind you instead of a passive one." + +"I guess you're right, Dick; but I'll have to be governed by conditions +as I find them. Aside from North's influence with Mr. Colbrith, which is +considerable, I believe, he can't do much to help. But he can do a +tremendous lot to hinder. I think I shall try to choke him with butter, +if I can." + +Notwithstanding the general manager's letter, Ford took the train for +Denver the following morning, and the chief clerk remarked that he +checked a small steamer trunk in addition to his hand baggage. + +"Going to be gone some time, Mr. Ford?" he asked, when he brought the +night mail down for the superintendent to look over. + +"Yes," said Ford absently. + +"You'll let me know where to reach you from time to time, I suppose?" +ventured Penfield. + +Ford looked up quickly. + +"It won't be necessary. You can handle the office work, as you have +heretofore, and Mr. Frisbie will have full charge out of doors." + +Penfield looked a little crestfallen. + +"Am I to take orders from Mr. Frisbie?" he asked, as one determined to +know the worst. + +"Just the same as you would from me," said the superintendent, swinging +up to the step of the moving car. And the chief clerk went back to his +office busily concocting another cipher message to the general manager. + +On the way down the canyon Ford was saying to himself that he was now +fairly committed to the scheme over which he had spent so many toilful +days and sleepless nights, and that he would have it out with Mr. North +to a fighting conclusion before he slept. + +But a freight wreck got in the way while the down passenger train was +measuring the final third of the distance, and it was long after office +hours in the Pacific Southwestern headquarters when Ford reached Denver. + +By consequence, the crucial interview with the general manager had to be +postponed; and the enthusiast was chafing at his ill luck when he went +to his hotel--chafing and saying hard words, for the waiting had been +long, and now that the psychologic moment had arrived, delays were +intolerable. + +Now it sometimes happens that seeming misfortunes are only blessings in +disguise. When Ford entered the hotel café to eat his belated dinner, he +saw Evans, the P. S-W. auditor, sitting alone at a table-for-two. He +crossed the room quickly and shook hands with the man he had meant to +interview either before or after the meeting with North. + +It was after they had chatted comfortably through to the coffee that +the auditor said, blandly: "What are you down for, Ford?--anything +special?" + +"Yes. I am down to get leave of absence to go East," said Ford warily. + +"But that isn't all," was the quiet rejoinder. "In fact, it's only the +non-committal item that you'd give to a _Rocky Mountain News_ reporter." + +Ford was impatient of diplomatic methods when there was no occasion for +them. + +"Give it a name," he said bluntly. "What do you think you know, Evans?" + +The auditor smiled. + +"There is a leak in your office up at Saint's Rest, I'm afraid. What +sort of a bombshell are you fixing to fire at Mr. North?" + +Ford grew interested at once. + +"Tell me what you know, and perhaps I can piece it out for you." + +"I'll tell you what Mr. North knows--which will be more to the purpose, +perhaps. For a year or more you have been figuring on some kind of a +scheme to pull the company's financial leg in behalf of your +good-for-nothing narrow gauge. A month ago, for example, you went all +over the old survey on the other side of the mountains and verified the +original S. L & W. preliminaries and rights-of-way on its proposed +extension." + +Ford's eyes narrowed. He was thinking of the warning letter he would +have to write to Frisbie. But what he said was: + +"I'd like to know how the dickens you guessed all that. But no matter; +supposing I did?" + +"It's no good," said the auditor, shaking his head. "I'm talking as a +friend. North doesn't like you, personally; and if he did, you couldn't +persuade him to recommend anything in the way of an experiment on the +Plug Mountain. So far from extending your two-by-four branch--if that is +what you have in mind--he'd be much more likely to counsel its +abandonment, if the charter didn't require us to keep it going." + +Ford found a cigar for the auditor, and lighted one for himself. + +"From all of which I infer that the semiannual report of the Pacific +Southwestern is going to be a pretty bad one," he said, with carefully +assumed indifference. + +Evans regarded him shrewdly. + +"Are you guessing at that? Or is there a leak at our end of the line as +well as at yours?" + +"Oh, it's a guess," laughed Ford. "Call it that, anyhow. At least, I +haven't any of your confidential clerks in my pay. But just how bad is +the report going to be?" + +The auditor shook his head. + +"Worse than the last one. Perhaps you have noticed that the stock has +dropped six points in the past week. You're one of the official family: +I don't mind telling you that we are in the nine-hole, Ford." + +"Of course we are," said Ford, with calm conviction. "That much is +pretty evident to a man who merely reads the Wall Street news bulletins. +What is the matter with us--specifically, I mean?" + +Evans shrugged. + +"Are you a division superintendent on the system and don't know?" he +demanded. "We are too short at both ends. With our eastern terminal only +half-way to Chicago, we can't control the east-bound grain which grows +on our own line; and with the other end stopping short here at Denver, +we can't bid for west-bound transcontinental business. It's as simple as +twice two. Our competitors catch us going and coming." + +"Precisely. And if we don't get relief?" + +The auditor smiled grimly. + +"As I've said, you're one of us, Ford, and I don't mind speaking freely +to you. A receivership is looming in the distance, and the not very dim +distance, for the P. S-W." + +"I thought so. How near is it?" + +"I don't know--nobody knows definitely. If we had a man of resources at +the head of things--as we have not--it might be stood off for another +six months." + +"I'm on the way to stand it off permanently, if I can get any backing," +said Ford quietly. + +"You!" was the astonished reply. + +"Yes, I. Listen, Evans. For two years I have been buried up yonder in +the hills, with not enough to do in the summer season to keep me out of +mischief. I am rather fond of mathematics, and I am telling you I have +this thing figured out to the fourth decimal. If President Colbrith and +his associates can be made to see that the multiplication of two by two +gives an invariable resultant of four, there will be no receivership for +the P. S-W. this year, or next." + +"Show me," said the auditor. + +Ford hesitated for a moment. Then he took a packet of papers, estimates, +exhibits and fine-lined engineer's maps from his pocket and tossed it +across the table. + +"That is for you, personally--for David Evans; not the P. S-W. auditor. +You've got to keep it to yourself." + +The auditor went through the papers carefully, shifting his cigar slowly +from one corner of his mouth to the other as he read and examined. When +he handed them back he was shaking his head, almost mournfully. + +"It's a big thing, Ford; the biggest kind of a thing. And it is +beautifully worked out. But I know our people, here and in New York. +They will simply give you the cold stare and say that you are crazy." + +"Because it can't be financed?" + +"Because it doesn't come from Hill or Harriman or Morgan, or some other +one of the big captains. You'll never be able to stand it upon its feet +by your single-handed lonesome." + +Ford set his teeth, and his clean-cut face seemed to grow suddenly older +and harder as the man in him came to the fore. + +"By heavens! if I put my back under it, it's got to stand upon its feet! +I'm not going into it with the idea that there is any such thing in the +book as failure." + +The auditor looked darkly into the cool gray eyes of the man facing him. + +"Then let me give you a word of advice before you start in. Skip North, +absolutely; don't breathe a word of it to him. Don't ask me why; but do +as I say. And another thing: drop into my office to-morrow before you +leave. I'll show you some figures that may help you to stir things up +properly at the New York end. Do you go direct from here?" + +"No; I shall have to stop over a few days in Chicago. I know pretty well +where to put my hands on what I need; I have laid the foundations from +the bottom up by correspondence. But I want to go over the situation on +the ground before I make my grand-stand play before Mr. Colbrith and the +board of directors." + +"Well, come in and get the figures, anyway: come to the private door of +my office and rap three times. It will be just as well if it isn't +generally known that you are confabbing with me. Our semiannual report +will probably be in New York ahead of you, but it won't hurt if you have +the information to work with." Evans was pushing his chair from the +table when he added: "By the way, you happened upon the exact +psychological moment to make your raid; the report coming out, and +things going to the dogs generally." + +Ford's laugh was genially shrewd. + +"Perhaps it wasn't so much of a happening as it appears. Didn't I tell +you that I had figured this thing out to the fourth decimal place? +Psychological moments are bigger arguments than dollars and cents, +sometimes." + +The auditor had taken his hat from the waiter and was shaking hands with +his dinner companion. + +"I'd like to believe you're a winner, Ford; you deserve to be. Come and +see me--and make your call upon Mr. North as brief as possible. He'll +probe you if you don't." + +This was how it came about that the next morning, when Ford went to call +upon the sallow, heavy-faced, big-bodied man who sat behind the glass +door lettered "General Manager, Private,"--this after half an hour spent +in Auditor Evans' private office,--it was only to ask for leave of +absence to go East--on business of a personal nature, he explained, when +Mr. North was curious enough to ask his object. + + + + +III + +LOSS AND DAMAGE + + +At this period of his existence, Stuart Ford troubled himself as little +as any anchorite of the desert about the eternal feminine. + +It was not that he was more or less than a man, or in any sense that +anomalous and impossible thing called a woman-hater. On the contrary, +his attitude toward women in the mass was distinctly and at times +boyishly sentimental. But when a young man is honestly in love with his +calling, and is fully convinced of its importance to himself and to a +restlessly progressive world, single-heartedness becomes his watchword, +and what sentiment there is in him will be apt to lie comfortably +dormant. + +For six full working-days Ford had been immersed to the eyes in the +intricacies of his railway problem, acquiring in Chicago a valiseful of +documentary data that demanded to be classified and thoroughly digested +before he reached New York and the battle-field actual. This was why he +was able to ride all day in studious abstraction in his section of the +Chicago-New York Pullman, without so much as a glance for the young +woman in the modest gray traveling coat directly across the aisle. + +She was well worth the glance, as he admitted willingly enough +afterward. She was the dainty type, with fluffy bright brown hair, eyes +the color of wood violets, a nose tilted to the precise angle of +bewitching piquancy, and the adorable mouth and chin familiarized to two +continents by the artistic pen of the Apostle of the American Girl. How +he could have ridden within arm's reach of her through all the daylight +hours of a long summer day remained as one of Ford's unanswered enigmas; +but it required an accident and a most embarrassing _contretemps_ to +make him aware of her existence. + +The accident was one of the absurd sort. The call for dinner in the +dining-car had been given, and Ford was just behind the young woman in +the rear of the procession which filed forward out of the Pullman. The +train had at that moment left a way station, and the right-hand +vestibule door was still open and swinging disjointedly across the +narrow passage. Ford reached an arm past the young woman to fold the +two-leaved door out of her way. As he did it, the door-knob hooked +itself mischievously in the loop of her belt chatelaine, snatched it +loose, and flung it out into the backward-rushing night. + +Whereupon: "Oh!--my purse!" with a little gasp of sudden bereavement, +and a quick turning to face the would-be helper. + +Ford was honestly aghast when the situation fully enveloped him. + +"Heavens and earth! Did you ever see such idiotic clumsiness!" he +ejaculated. And then, in deepest contrition: "I won't attempt to +apologize--it's beyond all that. But you must let me make your loss +good." + +In all the pin-pricking embarrassment of the moment, he did not fail to +remark that she quickly recovered the serenity which belongs to the +well-bred. She was even smiling, rather ruefully, when she said: + +"Fortunately, the conductor has my passes. But really"--and now she +laughed outright--"I am afraid I shall have to go hungry if I can't +borrow enough to pay for my dinner." + +Another man, a man less purposefully lost in the purely practical +labyrinth of professional work, would have found something fitting to +say. But Ford, having discovered a thing to do, did it painstakingly and +in solemn silence. There was an unoccupied table for two in the +dining-car; he seated her, gave her his purse, called a waiter, and +would have betaken himself forthwith to another table if she had not +detained him. + +"No," she said decisively, with a charming little uptilt of the adorable +chin. "I do not forget that you were trying to do me a kindness. Please +sit down here and take your purse. I'm sure I don't want it." + +He obeyed, still in somber silence, gave his dinner order after she had +given hers, and was wondering if he might venture to bury himself in a +bundle of the data papers, when she spoke again. + +"Are you provoked with yourself, or with me?" she asked--rather +mockingly, he thought. + +"Neither," he said promptly. "I was merely saying to myself that my +wretched awkwardness didn't give me an excuse for boring you." + +"It was an accident--nothing more or less," she rejoined, with an air of +dismissing finally the purse-snatching episode. Then she added: "I am +the one who ought to be embarrassed." + +"But you are not," he returned quickly. "You are quite the mistress of +yourself--which is more than most women would be, under the +circumstances." + +"Is that a compliment?" she asked, with latent mockery in the violet +eyes. "Because if it is, I think you must be out of the West; the--the +unfettered West: isn't that what it is called?" + +"I am," Ford acknowledged. "But why do you say that? Was I rude? I beg +you to believe that I didn't mean to be." + +"Oh, no; not rude--merely sincere. We are not sincere any more, I think; +except on the frontier edges of us. Are we?" + +Ford took exceptions to the charge for the sheer pleasure of hearing her +talk. + +"I'd be sorry to believe that," he protested. "The conventions account +for something, of course; and I suppose the polite lie which deceives no +one has to have standing-room. But every now and then one is surprised +into telling the truth, don't you think?" + +"If I can't fully agree with you, I can at least admire your point of +view," she said amiably. "Is it Western--or merely human?" + +He laughed. + +"Shall we assume that the one implies the other? That would be in +accordance with your point of view, wouldn't it?" + +"Yes; but it would be a distinct reversal of yours. Truth belongs to +another and simpler time than ours. We are conventional first and +everything else afterward." + +"Are we?" he queried. "Some few hundreds or thousands of us may be; but +for the remainder of our eighty-odd millions the conventions are things +to be put on and off like Sunday garments. And even the chosen few of +us brush them aside upon occasion; ignore them utterly, as we two are +ignoring them at this moment." + +She proved his assertion by continuing to talk to him, and the +dining-car was emptying itself when they realized that there is an end +even to a most leisurely dinner. Ford paid the steward as they left the +car, but in the Pullman he went back to first principles and insisted +upon some kind of a definite accounting for the lost purse. + +"Now you will tell me now much I threw away for you, and I'll pay my +debt," he said, when she had hospitably made room for him in the +opposing seat of her section. + +"Indeed, you will do nothing of the kind!" she asserted. "You will give +me your card--we're going back to the conventions now--and when we reach +the city you may lend me enough money to take me up-town. And to-morrow +morning my brother will pay you back." + +He gave in because he had to. + +"You are much more lenient than I deserve. Really, you ought to stick me +good and hard for my awkwardness. It would serve me right." + +"I am considering the motive," she said almost wistfully, he fancied. +"We have drifted very far from all those quiet anchorages of courtesy +and helpfulness. If we lived simpler lives--" + +He smiled at the turn she was giving it. + +"Are you, too, bitten with the fad of the moment, 'the simple life'?" he +asked. "Let me assure you that it is beautiful only when you can look +down upon it from the safe altitude of a comfortable income. I know, +because I've been living it for the past two years." + +She looked as if she were sorry for him. + +"That is rank heresy!" she declared. "Our forefathers had the better of +us in many ways, and their simpler manner of living was one of them. +They had time for all the little courtesies and kindnesses that make +life truly worth living." + +Ford's laugh was boyishly derisive. + +"Yes; they certainly had plenty of time; but they didn't have much else. +Why, just think, for a moment, of what our own America would be if +merely one of the modern civilizers, the railroads, had never existed. +There simply wouldn't be any America, as we know it now." + +"How can you say that?" + +"Because it is so. For nearly two centuries we stood still, because +there were no means of locomotion--which is another word for progress +and civilization. But in less than fifty years after the first railroad +was built we had become a great nation." + +She was silenced, if not wholly convinced; and a few minutes later the +train drew into the Forty-second Street Station. When the parting time +came, Ford dutifully gathered her belongings, said good-by, and put her +on a north-bound subway; all this without remembering that he did not +know her name. The recollection came, however, when the subway train +shot away into the tunnel. + +"Of all the blockheads!" he growled, apostrophizing his own unreadiness. +"But I'll find her again. She said she'd send her brother to the hotel +with the dinner money, and when I get hold of him it will go hard with +me if I don't manage some way to get an introduction." + +This was what was in his mind when he sought the down-town hotel whose +name he had written on his card for her; it was his latest waking +thought when he went to sleep that night, and his earliest when he awoke +the following morning. + +But when he went to the clerk's desk, after a leisurely breakfast, to +get his mail, he found that the sure thread of identification had broken +in his fingers. There was a square envelope among the other letters in +his key-box containing the exact amount of the young woman's +indebtedness to him; this, with a brief note of thanks--unsigned. + + + + +IV + +COLD STORAGE + + +If courage, of the kind fitted to lead forlorn hopes, or marchings +undaunted up to the muzzles of loaded cannon, be a matter of gifts and +temperament, it is also in some degree a matter of environment. + +Stuart Ford was Western born and bred; a product of the wider breathing +spaces. Given his proper battle-field, where the obstacles were +elemental and the foes to be overcome were mere men of flesh and blood +fighting freely in the open, he was a match for the lustiest. But New +York, with its submerging, jostling multitudes, its thickly crowding +human vastness, and, more than all, its atmosphere of dollar-chasing, +apparent and oppressive even to the transient passer-by, disheartened +him curiously. + +It was not that he was more provincial than he had to be; for that +matter, there is no provincialism so rampant as that of the thronging, +striving, self-sufficient city. But isolation in any sort is a thing to +be reckoned with. The two pioneering years in the Rockies had done their +work,--of narrowing, as well as of broadening,--and the plunge into the +chilling sea of the money-mad metropolis made him shiver and wish he +were out. + +This feeling was really at the bottom of the late rising and the +leisurely breakfast, making him temporize where he had meant to be +prompt, energetic and vigorously aggressive. Having pocketed the young +woman's unsigned note, he glanced at his watch and decided that it was +still too early to go in search of President Colbrith. + +"I don't suppose he'll be in his office for an hour yet," he mused +reflectively; "and anyway, I guess I'd better go over the papers again, +so I can be sure to speak my piece right end to. By Jove! I didn't +suppose a couple of thousand miles of easting would take the heart out +of things the way it does. If I didn't know better, I should think I'd +come here to float the biggest kind of a fake, instead of a life-boat +for the shipwrecked people in the Pacific Southwestern. It is beginning +to look that way in spite of all I can do." + +Going once again over his carefully tabulated argument did not help +matters greatly. He was beginning to realize now how vastly, antipodally +different the New York point of view might be from his own. It came to +him with the benumbing effect of a blow that his own ambitions had +persistently looked beyond the mere money-making results of his scheme. +Also, that President Colbrith and his fellow-investors might very easily +refuse to consider any other phase of the revolutionary proposition he +was about to lay before them. + +By ten o'clock postponement was no longer a tenable city of refuge: the +plunge had to be taken. Accordingly, he fared forth to present himself +at the Broadway address given in the Pacific Southwestern printed matter +as the New York headquarters of the company. + +The number proved to be a ground floor, with the business office of the +eastern traffic representative in front, and three or four private +desk-rooms in the rear, one of them labeled "President" in inconspicuous +gilt lettering. Entering, with less assurance than if he had been the +humblest of place-seekers out of a job, Ford was almost relieved to find +only a closed desk, and a young man absently scanning a morning paper. + +Inquiry developed a few facts, tersely stated but none the less +enlightening. Mr. Colbrith was not in: the office was merely his nominal +headquarters in the city and he occupied it only occasionally. His +residence? It was in the Borough of the Bronx, pretty well up toward +Yonkers--locality and means of access obligingly written out on a card +for the caller by the clerk. Was Mr. Ford's business of a routine +nature? If so, perhaps, Mr. Ten Eyck, the general agent, could attend to +it. Ford said it was not of a routine nature, and made his escape to +inquire his way to the nearest subway station. To pause now was to lose +the precious impetus of the start. + +It was worth something to be whirled away blindly out of the stifling +human vortex of the lower city; but Ford's first glimpse of the Colbrith +mansion depressed him again. The huge, formal house had once been the +country residence of a retired dry-goods merchant. It fronted the river +brazenly, and the fine old trees of a ten-acre park shamed its +architectural stiffness. Ford knew the president a little by family +repute and more particularly as a young subordinate knows the general in +command. It struck him forcibly that the aspect of the house fitted the +man. With the broad river and the distant Palisades to be dwelt upon, +its outlook windows were narrow. With the sloping park and the great +trees to give it dignity, it seemed to assume an artificial, plumb-line +dignity of its own, impressive only as the product of rigid measurements +and mechanical uprightness. + +From the boulevard there was a gravelled driveway with a stone portal. +The iron gates were thrown wide, and at his entrance Ford stood aside to +let an outgoing auto-car have the right of way. Being full of his +errand, and of the abstraction of a depressed soul, Ford merely remarked +that there were two persons in the car; a young man driving, and a young +woman, veiled and dust-coated, in the mechanician's seat beside him. +None the less, there floated out of the mist of abstraction an instantly +vanishing phantom of half-recognition for the Westerner. Something in +the pose of the young woman, the way she leaned forward and held her hat +with the tips of her gloved fingers, was, for the fleeting moment, +almost reminiscent. + +If Ford had wished to speculate upon abstruse problems of identity, +there was neither time nor the mental aptitude. A little later he had +given his card to the servant at the door and was waiting in a darkened +and most depressive library for the coming of the master of the house. +The five minutes of waiting nearly finished him. As the absurdly formal +clock between the book-cases ticked off the leaden-winged seconds, his +plan for the rescue of Pacific Southwestern took the form of a crass +impertinence, and only the grim determination to see a lost cause +decently coffined and buried kept the enthusiast with his face to the +front. + +After all, the beginning of the interview with the tall, thin, +gray-haired and hatchet-faced old man, who presently stalked into the +library and gave his hand with carefully adjusted cordiality to the son +of one of his college classmates, was only a little more depressing: it +was not mortal. Ford had been born in Illinois; and so, something better +than a third of a century earlier, had the president. Moreover, Mr. +Colbrith had, in the hey-day of his youth, shared rooms with the elder +Ford in the fresh-water university which had later numbered the younger +Ford among its alumni. These things count for somewhat, even when the +gap to be bridged is that between the president of a railroad and one of +his minor officials. + +But when the revolutionary project was introduced, the president's +guarded cordiality faded like a photographic proof-print in the +sunlight, and the air of the darkened library grew coldly inclement. + +"So you came to talk business, did you?" said the high, rasping voice +out of the depths of the easy-chair opposite; and Ford raged inwardly at +the thought that he had clearly placed himself at a disadvantage by +becoming even constructively the guest of the president. "As a rule, I +positively refuse to discuss such matters outside of their proper +environment; but I'll make an exception for Douglas Ford's son. Your +plan is simply impossible. I can understand how it may appear possible, +and even attractive, to a young man, and especially to the young man who +has invented it. But as an investment for capital--my dear young sir, go +back to your division, and strive by faithful service to rise in the +accepted and time-honored way. You are wasting your time in New York." + +Curiously enough, Ford found his evaporated courage recrystallizing +under opposition. + +"I can not believe that I have made the plan, and the present condition +of the system, sufficiently clear to you," he insisted; whereupon he +went patiently and good-naturedly over the argument again, emphasizing +the desperate straits to which the Pacific Southwestern was reduced. + +"We know all that, Mr. Ford," was the unyielding reply. "But granting it +to be the fact, don't you see the absolute futility of asking for +thirty-five millions additional capital at such a crisis?" + +"No, I don't," said Ford stubbornly. "I know--as I can not explain to +you in detail in a half-hour interview--that this plan of mine can be +made successful. For two years, Mr. Colbrith, I have been the man on the +ground: no word that I am saying to you is speculative. Every clause of +the proposition has a carefully established fact behind it." + +"No doubt it seems so to you," came the rasping voice from the +chair-depths. "But thirty-five millions!"--with a quavering gasp. "And +at a time when our earnings are falling off steadily and the stock is +going down day by day. It's--it's simply preposterous! I must really +decline to discuss it any further." + +Ford had his packet of data in hand. + +"I have all the exhibits here, carefully tabulated and condensed. Won't +you reconsider far enough to examine them, Mr. Colbrith?" + +A thin white hand of negation and protest waved out of the depths of +the engulfing easy-chair. + +"I am sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Ford. I knew your father, and we were +great friends. You are like him," he added reminiscently. "He might have +died rich if he had gone into corn-buying with me when we were +graduated, as I wanted him to. But he was too enthusiastic. He wanted to +turn the world upside down--just as you do, my dear young man; just as +you do." + +Ford got upon his feet. The time had arrived for the firing of the shot +of last resort, and he aimed it deliberately. + +"I came first to you, Mr. Colbrith, because it was my duty as a +subordinate, and your own appointee, and because you were my father's +friend so many years ago. I may say, frankly, that I did it against good +advice. Men who profess to know you have counseled me to appeal directly +to the board. What I wish to know now is if you are willing to take the +entire responsibility of turning this plan of mine down. Will it not +relieve you of all responsibility if you will call a meeting of the +directors, and let me lay this absurd proposal of mine before it? You +can surely have no fears for the result." + +The shot told. The president struggled to his feet and took a nervous +turn up and down the long room. When he replied, it was with the +indecisive man's reluctance to commitment of any sort. + +"If I call the meeting, I shall be ridiculed; and if I don't call it, I +suppose you'll go to Brewster and Magnus and tell them I've muzzled you. +Have it your own way. I'll issue the call for ten o'clock, the day after +to-morrow, in McVeigh and Mackie's offices in Broad Street. But I warn +you in advance, Mr. Ford, I shall not be able to help you in the least. +And I may add this: that when you reach that part of your proposal where +you call for thirty-five millions additional capital, you may as well +put on your hat and go home. That will be the end of it." + +"And of me," laughed the enthusiast. But in spite of the cold comfort, +and of the still colder promise of opposition, he took his leave with a +lighter heart, refusing Mr. Colbrith's rather perfunctory invitation to +stay to luncheon. + +And on the gravelled drive, where he again had to make way for the +auto-car purring in on its return, he did not so much as look up at the +pair in the driving-seat. + + + + +V + +WANTED: THIRTY-FIVE MILLIONS + + +The offices of McVeigh and Mackie, brokers and financial agents, are in +Broad Street, and the windows of the room used for board meetings look +down upon the angle where beats the money pulse of the nation. + +Ford had successfully resisted the temptation to lobby for his scheme +during the one-day interval between his conference with Mr. Colbrith and +the date of the called meeting of the directors. It was not any mistaken +sense of loyalty to the president that restrained him; on the contrary, +he decided that Mr. Colbrith's declaration of war left him free to fight +as he would. But upon due consideration he concluded to set the +advantage of an assault _en masse_ over against the dubious gain of an +advanced skirmish line, and when he turned out of Broadway into Wall +Street on the morning of destiny the men whom he was to meet and +convince were still no more to him than a list of names in the _Poor's +Manual_, consulted within the hour for the purpose. + +He was early on the battle-ground; much too early, he thought, when a +clerk ushered him into the board room in the rear of the brokers' +offices. As yet there was only one person present--a young man who was +lounging in the easiest of the leather-covered chairs and yawning +dismally. At the first glance the face seemed oddly and strikingly +familiar; but when the young man marked the new-comer's entrance, the +small hand-bag in which the amateur promoter carried his papers, and got +up to shake hands, Ford found the suggestive gropings baffled. + +"My name is Adair," said the lounger genially; "and I suppose you are +the Mr. Ford Uncle Sidney has been telling us about. Pull up a chair and +sit by the window. It's the only amusement you'll have until the clan +gathers." + +Ford looked at his watch. + +"I seem to be ahead of time," he remarked. "I understood Mr. Colbrith to +say that the meeting would be called for ten o'clock." + +"Oh, that's all right; and so he did," rejoined the other cheerfully. +"But that means anything up to noon for a directors' meeting in New +York." Then, after a pause: "Do you know any of us personally, Mr. +Ford?" + +Ford was rummaging in his memory again. "I ought to know you, Mr. +Adair. It isn't very decent to drag in resemblances, but--" + +"The resemblance is the real thing, this time," said Adair. "You saw me +day before yesterday, driving out of the Overlook grounds as you were +going in." + +Ford shook his head. + +"No; it goes back of that; sometime I'll remember how and where. But to +answer your question: I know Mr. Colbrith slightly, but I've never met +any of the directors." + +"Well, you are meeting one at this moment," laughed the young man, +crossing his legs comfortably. "But I am the easiest mark of the lot," +he added. "I inherited my holdings in Pacific Southwestern." + +Ford was crucially anxious to find out how the battle was likely to go, +and his companion seemed amiably communicative. + +"Since you call Mr. Colbrith 'Uncle Sidney,' I infer that you know what +I am here for, Mr. Adair. How do you think my proposition is likely to +strike the board?" + +Again the young man laughed. + +"Fancy your asking me!" he said. "I haven't talked with any one but +Uncle Sidney; and the most I could get out of him was that you wanted +thirty-five million dollars to spend." + +"Well," said the Westerner anxiously, "am I going to get it?" + +"You can search me," was the good-natured rejoinder. "But from my +knowledge of the men you are going presently to wrestle with, I should +say 'no' and italicize it." + +"Perhaps it might help me a little if I could know in advance the +particular reason for the italics," Ford suggested. + +"Oh, sure. The principal reason is that your name isn't Hill or Harriman +or Morgan or Gates. Money is ridiculously sheepish. It will follow a +known leader blindly, idiotically. But if it doesn't hear the familiar +tinkle of the leader's bell, it is mighty apt to huddle and run back." + +Ford's smile was grim. + +"I don't mind saying to you, Mr. Adair, that this is one of the times +when it will be much safer to huddle and run forward. Have you seen the +half-yearly report?" + +"I? Heaven forbid! I have never seen anything out of the Pacific +Southwestern--not even a dividend." + +Ford would very willingly have tried to share his enthusiasm with the +care-free young man, whose face was still vaguely but persistently +remindful of some impression antedating the automobile passing; but now +the other members of the board were dropping in by twos and threes, and +privacy was at an end. + +Just before President Colbrith took his place at the head of the long +table to call the meeting to order, Adair leaned forward to say in low +tones: "I couldn't give you the tip you wanted, Mr. Ford, but I can give +you another which may serve as well. If your good word doesn't win out, +scare 'em--scare 'em stiff! I don't know but you could frighten half a +million or so out of me if you should try." + +"Thank you," said Ford. "I may take you at your word,"--and just then +Mr. Colbrith rose in his place, fingering his thin white beard rather +nervously, Ford thought, and rapping on the table for silence. + +It was admitted on all hands that the president of the Pacific +Southwestern was a careful man and a thrifty. It was these qualities +which had first determined his election. There were many small +stock-holders in the company, and it is the foible of small +stock-holders to believe that rigid economy counts for more than +adventurous outreachings in the larger field. + +"Gentlemen," he began, his high, raucous voice rasping the silence like +the filing of a saw, "this meeting is called, as you have probably been +informed, for the purpose of considering a plan for betterments +submitted by Mr. Stuart Ford, who is at the present time superintendent +of our Plug Mountain Division. + +"In making this unusual innovation, and in introducing Mr. Ford, I +desire to say that I have been actuated by that motive of prudence +which, while it stands firmly upon its own feet, is willing to consider +suggestions from without, even when these suggestions appear to be +totally at variance with a policy of careful and judicious financiering. + +"In presenting Mr. Ford as the son of an old friend, long since gone to +his reward, I wish it distinctly understood that I am in no sense +committed to his plan. The policy of this company under the present +administration has been uniformly cautious and prudent: Mr. Ford would +throw caution and prudence to the winds. Our best efforts have been +directed toward the saving of the ultimate dollar of expense: Mr. Ford +urges us to spend millions. We have been trying to dispose of some of +our non-paying branches: Mr. Ford would have us acquire others and build +new lines." + +While Mr. Colbrith was speaking, Adair was rapidly characterizing the +members for Ford, checking them off upon his fingers. + +"The little man at Uncle Sidney's right is Mackie, and the miserly +looking one next to him is McVeigh," he whispered. "One of them will +furnish your coffin, and the other will drive the nails into it. The big +man with the beard is Brewster--a multimillionaire; and the one who +looks like Senator Bailey is Magnus, president of the Mohican National. +Connolly, the fat Irishman, is a politician--wads of money, but not much +interest in the game. The other three--" + +But now the president had made an end and was beckoning to Ford. + +The young engineer rose, feeling much as if a bucket of ice-water had +been suddenly emptied down the back of his neck. But one of his saving +qualities was the spring-like resilience which responds instantly to a +shock. Spreading his papers on the table, he began with a little +apology. + +"I didn't come here this morning prepared to make a promoter's speech; +and perhaps it is just as well, since my gift, if I have one, lies in +doing things rather than in talking about them. But I can lay a few +facts before you which you may deem worthy of consideration." + +From this as a beginning he went on swiftly and incisively. The Pacific +Southwestern, in its present condition, was a failure. It was an +incomplete line, trying vainly to hold its own against great and +powerful systems overlapping it at either end. The remedy lay in +extension. The acquisition of a controlling interest in three short +roads, which, pieced together, would bridge the gap between the Missouri +River and Chicago, would place the Pacific Southwestern upon an equal +footing with its competitors as a grain carrier. By standardizing the +Plug Mountain narrow gauge and extending it to Salt Lake and beyond, the +line would secure a western outlet, and would be in a position to demand +its share of transcontinental business. + +To finance these two extensions a capital of thirty-five million +dollars would be needed; five million dollars for the purchase of the +majority stock in the three short roads, and the remainder for the +western outlet. These assertions were not guesses: by referring to +exhibits marked "a" "b" and "f," his hearers would find accurate +estimates of cost, not only of construction, but also of stock +purchases. + +As to the manner of providing the capital, he had only a suggestion to +offer. The five million dollars necessary for the acquirement of a +controlling interest in the three short roads would be a fair +investment. It could be covered immediately by a reissue--share for +share--of the reorganization stock of the P. S-W., which would amply +secure the investors, since the stock of the most prosperous of the +three local roads was listed at twenty-eight, ten points lower than the +present market quotation of P. S-W. + +The thirty million dollar extension fund might be raised by issuing +second mortgage bonds upon the entire system, or the new line itself +could be bonded mile for mile under a separate charter. Ford modestly +disclaimed any intention of dictating the financial policy; this was not +in his line. But again he would submit facts. The grain crop in the West +was phenomenally large in prospect. With its own eastern terminal in +Chicago, the Pacific Southwestern could control the grain shipments in +its own territory. With the moving of the grain, the depressed P. S-W. +stock would inevitably recover, and on a rising market the new issue of +bonds could doubtless be floated. + +The enthusiast closed his argument with a hasty summing-up of the +benefits which must, in the nature of things, accrue. From being an +alien link in the great transcontinental chain, the Pacific Southwestern +would rise at a bound to the dignity of a great railway system; a power +to be reckoned with among the other great systems gridironing the West. +Its earnings would be enhanced at every point; cross lines which now fed +its competitors would become its allies; the local lines to be welded +into the eastern end of the system would share at once in the prosperity +of a strong through line. + +For the western extension he could speak from personal knowledge of the +region to be penetrated. Apart from the new line's prime object--that of +providing an outlet for the system--there was a goodly heritage of local +business awaiting the first railroad to reach the untapped territory. +Mines, valueless now for the lack of transportation facilities, would +become abundant producers; and there were many fertile valleys and mesas +to attract the ranchman, who would find on the western slopes of the +mountains an unfailing water supply for his reservoirs and ditches. Ford +did not hesitate to predict that within a short time the extension would +earn more, mile for mile, than the grain-belt portion of the system. + +When he sat down he felt that his cause was lost. There was no +enthusiasm, no approval, in the faces of his auditors. After a short and +informal discussion, in which the engineer was called on to explain his +plans and estimates in detail to one and another of the members, Magnus, +the bank president, sufficiently summed up the sense of the meeting when +he said: + +"There is no question about the ingenuity of your plan, Mr. Ford. You +must have given a great deal of time and thought to it. But it is rather +too large for us, I'm afraid, and there are too many contingencies. Your +province, I understand, is the building and operating of railroads, and +it is nothing to your discredit that you are unfamiliar with the +difficulties of financing an undertaking as vast as this proposal of +yours." + +"I don't deny the difficulties," said Ford. "But they wouldn't seem to +be insuperable." + +"Not from your point of view," rejoined the banker suavely. "But you +will admit that they are very considerable. The opposition on the part +of the competing systems would be something tremendous. No stone would +be left unturned in the effort to dismount us. To go no further into the +matter than the proposed purchase of the majority stocks in the three +short roads: at the first signal in that field you would find those +stocks flying skyward in ten-point advances, and your five millions +wouldn't be a drop in the bucket. In view of the difficulties, I think I +voice the conviction of the board when I say that the plan is too +hazardous." + +The nods of assent were too numerous to leave Ford any hope of turning +the tide in his favor. He rose, gathered up his papers, and reached for +his hat. + +"It is very pointedly your own funeral, gentlemen," he said curtly. +"'Nothing venture, nothing have' is an old proverb, but it is as true +now as it was when it was coined. With P. S-W. stock at thirty-eight and +steadily declining; with another dividend about to be passed; and with +the certainty that the July interest on the bonds will have to be +defaulted unless some compromise can be effected with the bondholders--" + +"What's that you're saying?" broke in Mackie, whose P. S-W. holdings were +large. + +Ford drew a folded paper from his pocket and laid it on the table. + +"I was merely quoting from the auditor's semiannual report, of which +that is a summary," he said, indicating the folded paper. "The report +itself will doubtless reach you in a day or two. It would seem to an +unprejudiced observer that the present condition spells something like a +receivership, unless you have the bondholders with you." + +"One moment, Mr. Ford," interposed the banker member; but Ford was +working up to his climax and refused to be side-tracked. + +"Of course, as an officer of the company, I have felt in duty bound to +bring my grist first to the company's mill. But if you gentlemen don't +wish to grind it, it will be ground, notwithstanding. I could very +easily have found a market for my proposal without coming to New York." + +With which parting shot, and a word of apology for having taken the time +of the board to no good purpose, he bowed himself out, closing the door +upon a second attempt on the part of the banker member to renew the +argument. + + + + +VI + +THE AWAKENING OF CHARLES EDWARD + + +Ford went directly to his hotel from the meeting in the Broad Street +board room, paid his bill, and had himself shot up to the fifth floor to +prepare for a swift retreat from the scene of his humiliating defeat. It +was hardly in keeping with his boast of persistence that he should +suffer himself to be thus routed by a single reverse, however crushing. +But in a world where every problem contains its human factor, red wrath +accounts for much that is otherwise unaccountable. + +Ford was thoroughly and unreasoningly angry and disgusted when he began +to fling his belongings into the small steamer trunk, and it was only +natural that he should turn with a little brow-wrinkling of resentment +when, a little later, Mr. Charles Edward Adair, following his card up to +the fifth floor front, lounged good-naturedly into the room. + +"Beg pardon, I'm sure," said the intruder easily. "Didn't know you were +busy. I thought maybe you'd like to know the effect of your little +double-headed bombshell, and I couldn't be sure Uncle Sidney would take +the trouble to tell you." + +Ford made no effort to conceal his contempt for the financial gods. + +"I don't imagine it will take you very long to tell it," he retorted. +"Nothing short of a combined earthquake and volcanic eruption would have +any effect upon that crowd." + +"Oh, but you're wrong!" protested Adair. "That shot of yours with the +semiannual summary for a projectile stirred 'em up good. It seems that +Uncle Sidney and Hertford and Morelock--they're the executive committee, +you know--have had the auditor's figures for some days, but they hadn't +thought it necessary to harrow the feelings of the other members of the +board with the cataclysmic details. So there was a jolly row. Magnus +wanted to know, top-loftily, why a small official from the farther end +of the system should be the first to bring the news; and Mackie was so +wrathy that he inadvertently put the hot end of his cigar in his mouth. +Even Connolly woke up enough to say that it was blanked bad politics." + +"But nothing came of it?" said Ford, hope rising in spite of the +negative query. + +"No; nothing but a general hand-out of pretty sharp talk. What was +needed right then was a unifier--somebody who could take command and +coax or bully the scrapping factions into line. Magnus tried it, but +he's too smooth. Brewster was the man, but he has too many other and +bigger irons in the fire to care much about P. S-W. Connolly could have +done it if the scrap had been a political split, but he was out of his +element." + +"Humph!" growled Ford. "It didn't occur to me that there were any +differences of opinion to be reconciled. The entire board sat on my +proposition--as a unit." + +Adair laughed with imperturbable good-humor. + +"The factions were there, just the same. You see, it's like this: +Brewster and Magnus and two or three more are pretty well-to-do, and +their holdings in P. S-W. don't cut much of a figure with them, one way +or another. The others have more stock in the company, and fewer +millions. When the jangle came, Brewster and the heavy men said, 'Oh, +let it go; it isn't worth bothering with.' Naturally, the little +fellows, with more to lose and less money-nerve, said, 'No.'" + +"It spells the same word for me, in any event," Ford commented, and went +on pitching things into his steamer trunk. + +Adair got upon his feet and strolled away to the window. + +When he turned again to face the beaten one he said: + +"If I wasn't so infernally lazy, Mr. Ford, I more than half believe that +I could pull this thing off for you, myself. But that is the curse of +being born with too much money. I can take a plunge into business now +and then--I've done it. But my best friend couldn't bet on me two days +in succession." + +Ford looked up quickly. + +"Then don't put your hand to this plow, Mr. Adair. I'll be frank with +you. I can fit the mechanical parts of this scheme of mine together, so +that they will run true and do business. But I, or any man in my place, +would have to have solid backing here in New York; a board that would be +as aggressive as a handful of rebels fighting for life, and every man of +it determined to win out or smash something. Mr. Magnus spoke of the +opposition we should encounter from our competitors. He might have said +more. What the Transcontinental, for example, wouldn't do to obliterate +us needn't be catalogued. How do you suppose the present P. S-W. board +would fare in such a fight?" + +The youngest member of the flouted board laughed again. + +"You mustn't say in your wrath that all men are liars--or cowards. There +is plenty of fight in our crowd; and plenty of money, too, if you could +only get it sufficiently scared." + +"I've done my best," said Ford, slamming the lid of the trunk and +buckling the straps vigorously. "The next time I'll find my market first +and build my scheme afterward." + +"Well, if I can say it without offense, I'm honestly sorry for you, Mr. +Ford; you've been butchered to make a Broad Street holiday," said Adair, +lounging toward the door. "You are going back to the West, I suppose?" + +"Yes." + +"What line?" + +"Pennsylvania; five-ten this afternoon." + +"That is a long time between drinks. Suppose you come up to the club and +have luncheon with me?" + +Ford hesitated, watch in hand. + +"I was about to lie to you, Mr. Adair, and plead business; but I shan't. +I'll tell you the plain truth. I'm too sore just now to be any good +fellow's good company." + +"Which is precisely the reason why I asked you," laughed the golden +youth. "Come on; let's go now. You can take it out on me as much as you +like, you know. I shan't mind." + +But the club luncheon ignored the business affair completely, as Adair +intended it should. Ford came out of the shell of disappointment with +the salad course, and by way of reparation for his former attitude +talked rather more freely of himself than he was wont to do on such +short acquaintance with any one. The young millionaire met him quite +half-way on this road to a better understanding, contrasting with mild +envy Ford's well-filled, busy life with his own erratic efforts at +time-killing. + +"You make me half sorry for myself," he said, when they went to the +smoking-room to light their cigars. "It's no less than a piteous +misfortune when a fellow's father has beaten all the covers of +accomplishment for him." + +Ford could laugh now without being bitter. + +"The game isn't all corralled, even for you, Mr. Adair. There was +excellent good shooting for you in that directors' meeting this morning, +but you wouldn't take the trouble." + +"That's the fact," was the easy-going rejoinder. "That is just what my +sister is always telling me--that I won't take the trouble. And yet I do +take the trouble to begin a lot of things; only they never seem worth +while after a few days' dip into them." + +"Pick out bigger ones," suggested Ford. "My trouble is just the other +way about; I am always tackling things that are worlds too big for +me--just as I have this time." + +"It isn't too big for you, Mr. Ford. It was too big for Colbrith, +Magnus, _et al_. And, besides, you're not going to give it up. You'll +drop off in Chicago, hunt up some meat-packer or other Croesus, and +land your new railroad independently of the P. S-W." + +It was a measure of the sincerity of Ford's liking for his host when he +said: "That little shot of mine at your colleagues was merely a long +bluff. If my scheme can't be worked with the P. S-W., it can't well be +worked without it. We are lacking the two end-links in the chain--which +I could forge. But my two end-links without the middle one wouldn't +attract anybody." + +It was quite late in the afternoon when they left the club, and Ford had +no more than time to check his luggage and get to his train. He wondered +a little when Adair went with him to the ferry, and was not ungrateful +for the hospitality which seemed to be directed toward a lightening of +the burden of failure. But Adair's word of leave-taking, flung across +the barrier when the chains of the landing-stage were rattling to their +rise, was singularly irrelevant. + +"By the way, Mr. Ford; what time did you say your train would reach +Chicago?" + +"At eight forty-five to-morrow evening," replied the beaten one; and +then the boat swung out of its slip and the retreat without honor was +begun. + + + + +VII + +HAMMER AND TONGS + + +It was raining dismally the evening of the following day when Ford saw +from his Pullman window the dull sky-glow of the metropolis of the +Middle West. It had been a dispiriting day throughout. When a man has +flung himself at his best into a long battle which ends finally in +unqualified loss, the heavens are as brass, and the future is apt to +reflect only the pale light of the past failure. + +It was after the train had entered the suburbs of Chicago that a +blue-coated messenger boy came through the Pullman, with the car +conductor for his guide. Ford saw himself pointed out, and a moment +later was reading a telegram, with a tumult, not of the drumming car +wheels, roaring in his ears. + + Had a talk with my sister and made up my mind to see you + through--if I don't get tired and quit, as usual. Secure + options on that short-road stock quick, and wire me care McV. & M. + Funds to your credit in Algonquin National, Chicago. Another + directors' meeting to-day, and things look a little less chaotic. + Answer. ADAIR. + +For some time Ford could only read and re-read the exciting telegram, +scarcely trusting the evidence of his senses. That the coldly +indifferent members of the P. S-W. board, with a man like President +Colbrith at their head, could be swung into line in the short space of a +single day by a young fellow who seemed to be little more than a spoiled +son of fortune, was blankly incredible. + +But he was not long in realizing that the cherished scheme for which he +had studied and struggled was actually beginning to stagger to its feet; +or in reaching the equally stirring conclusion that his part in the +suddenly reopened game called instantly for shrewd blows and the +swiftest possible action. + +The stock-holders in the three local roads which were to be united to +bridge the Chicago-Missouri River gap were scattered all over the Middle +West. To secure the necessary options on working majorities of the stock +would be a task for a financial diplomat, and one who could break the +haste-making record by being in a dozen different places at one and the +same moment. Moreover, secrecy became a prime factor in the problem. If +the opposition, and particularly the Transcontinental people, should +get wind of the move, it would take fifteen millions to do the work of +five, as Banker Magnus had intimated. + +Notwithstanding the thickly marshaled obstacles, Ford had his plan of +campaign pretty well thought out by the time his train was slowing into +the Union Station. Before going to New York he had painstakingly +"located" the required holdings of the three stocks. Some of them were +in Chicago, but the greater number of the men to be bargained with were +local capitalists living in the smaller cities along the lines of the +three short railroads. + +In his bag was a carefully compiled list of these stock-holders, with +their addresses and the amounts of their respective holdings. At the +worst, he concluded, it should mean nothing more formidable than a deal +of quick traveling, some anxious bargaining, perhaps, and a little +finesse to keep his object in securing the options safely in the +background. + +This was how it appeared in the prospect; and the young engineer had yet +to learn that the securing of options is a trade by itself--a trade by +no means to be caught up in passing, even by the most gifted of tyros. + +Hence, it was extremely fortunate for this particular tyro--more +fortunate than he could possibly know at the moment--that his telephone +message sent from the first telephone he could reach after his train +stopped in the Union Station, caught Kenneth at the Green Bag Club. It +was a mere chance that he knew that Kenneth, the senior member of the +firm of attorneys having general oversight of the Pacific Southwestern's +legal department, was at the moment in Chicago; a chance hanging upon +the fact that he had met Kenneth as he was passing through on his way +eastward. But it was not by chance that the first familiar face he saw +on entering the rotunda of the Grand Pacific Hotel was that of Kenneth. +The sight was merely the logical result of Ford's urgent request +telephoned to the lawyer's club. + +"By Jove, Kenneth; this comes within two inches of being a miracle!--my +catching you here before you had started West," Ford ejaculated. And +then: "When are you going back?" + +"I am supposed to be on the way now," was the lawyer's reply. "I had +made all my arrangements to start back to-night on the slow train, but I +dined with some friends on the North Side and made a miss. Where have +you been?" + +"I'm just in from New York. Let me register and get a room; and you put +away any lingering notion you may have of heading westward to-night. +I've got to have your ear for a few hours to begin with, and the whole +of you for the next few days. No; don't probe me here. Wait, and I'll +unload on you gradually. You won't be sorry you missed your train." + +Fifteen minutes later Ford had his adviser safely behind a closed door, +and had put him succinctly in possession of the world-subverting facts, +as far as they went. When he concluded, the lawyer was shaking his head +dubiously, just as Auditor Evans had done. + +"Ford, have you any adequate idea of what a tremendous proposition you +are up against?" he asked quietly, helping himself to a cigar out of the +engineer's freshly opened box. + +"I don't believe I have underrated the difficulties, any of them," said +Ford, matching the attorney's gravity. "There are bones all the way +along, but I think I have struck the biggest of them just here. I ought +to be in a dozen places at once, and not later than to-morrow noon. +That's something I can't quite compass." + +"Getting these options, you mean? That is very true; but it isn't all of +it, by long odds. There are the thousand and one mechanical details to +be worked out: the coupling up of these three local lines at their +connecting points, the securing of proper trackage or trackage rights at +these junctions, the general ordering of things so that a through line +may be opened immediately when the stock is secured. If there were ten +of you, you couldn't get things licked into shape in time to get in on +the grain carrying this season." + +Ford had relighted his cigar, which had gone out in the explanatory +interval, and was blowing smoke-rings toward the ceiling. + +"I may be the biggest ass this side of the jack trails, and the most +conceited, Kenneth; but you're over on my side of the ring when you talk +about the mechanical obstacles. What I'm worrying about now is the fact +that I can't do two things at once. The options must be secured before +we can make the fifth part of a move in the other field; and the Lord +only knows how long that will take. To hurry is to lose out." + +The lawyer nodded. "And not to hurry is to lose out, too," he qualified. +Then he smoked in thoughtful silence for five full minutes before he +said, abruptly: "Give me your list of stock-holders and turn the option +business over to the legal department, where it properly belongs. That +will leave you foot-loose to go after the mechanical matter. How does +that suit you?" + +Ford sprang to his feet. + +"By Jove, Kenneth, you're a man and a brother; I'm not forgetting that +you are taking this entire fairy tale on my personal say-so; and I +shan't forget it, either. It's what I wanted to ask--and was afraid to +ask, after I got you safely jailed up here." + +The attorney's smile was grim but friendly. + +"I'm not forgetting how you took a sick man over into the Pannikin +wilderness on a two-months hunting trip last fall and made a well man of +him, Ford," he said. "Any man who can shoot as straight as you do +wouldn't be sitting here telling me lies about a trifling little matter +involving the expenditure of a beggarly thirty-five millions. But to +come down to earth again: you haven't shifted any considerable part of +the burden, you know. I can do this bit of routine work; but the main +thing is up to you, just as it was before I said yes." + +Ford rose, stretching himself like a man who has just been relieved of a +burden whose true weight was appreciable only in its lifting. + +"I know," he said cheerfully. "It has been up to me, all along. In the +morning we'll go around to the Algonquin National, and I'll put you into +the financial saddle. Then I'll get out on the line, and by the time you +have the stock corralled, we'll be practically ready to pull through +freight--if not passengers--from Denver to Chicago. Oh, I know what I am +talking about," he added, when the general counsel smiled his +incredulity. "This is no affair of yesterday with me. I have every mile +of these three short roads mapped and cross-sectioned; I have copies of +all their terminal and junction-point contracts. I know exactly what we +can do, and what we can't do." + +The lawyer's comment was frankly praiseful, not to say flattering. + +"You're a wonder, Ford--and that's no figure of speech. How on earth did +you manage to do it all at such long range?" + +Ford's smile was reminiscent of the obstacles. + +"It would take me all night to tell you in detail, Kenneth. But I did +it. It's no mere brag to say that I could walk into the Chicago, Peoria +& Davenport general offices here to-morrow morning and organize a +through service over the P. S-W. and the three stub lines within +twenty-four hours, if I had to." + +"Well, that part of it is far enough beyond me," said the attorney. "The +stock-chasing is more in my line. I hope we can keep quiet enough about +it so that the opposition won't guess what we are trying to do. You're +sure it won't be given away from the New York end?" + +It was the engineer's turn to shake his head and to look dubious. + +"Now you are shouting, Kenneth. I can't tell anything about it. You'll +remember that when I left New York the board had turned the plan down, +definitely and permanently, as I supposed. I should say that our only +safety lies in lightning speed. When you get the options on those +controlling stock majorities snugly on deposit in the Algonquin +National, we can draw our first long breath. Isn't that about the way it +strikes you?" + +"It is, precisely," agreed the general counsel, rising and finding his +hat. "And because it does strike me that way, I think I'll go down and +do a little telegraphing to-night." + +"Hold on a minute," said Ford, "and I'll give you a message to take +down, if you don't mind. I must answer Adair, and it won't do any harm +to prod him a little--on the secrecy side." + +Kenneth waited, with his hand on the door-knob, as it chanced. Hence the +opening of the door a minute or two later was quite without any +preliminary stir of warning in the room of conference. That was possibly +the reason why the lawyer almost fell over a man crouching in the +corridor. + +"Hello, there!" said Kenneth; "I beg your pardon." + +The man got upon his feet, exhibiting all the signs of intoxication. + +"Beg yoursh, I'm sure," he mumbled, and was lurching crookedly away when +the lawyer suddenly came to his senses and grabbed at him. The clutching +hand fell short, and there was an agile foot-race down the corridor, +fruitless for Kenneth, since the fugitive suddenly developed sobriety +enough to run like a deer. Beaten in the foot-race, Kenneth went back +for a word with Ford. + +"The battle is on," was the form the word took. "There was a man here, +listening at the key-hole, when I opened the door. How much he overheard +we'll be likely to find out to-morrow when we begin to pull the strings. +Thought I'd give you the pointer. Good night, again." + + + + +VIII + +THE AUTOMATIC AIR + + +Set out in cold type, Ford's itinerary for the four days following his +conference with Kenneth would read like the abbreviated diary of a man +dodging the sheriff. His "ticker" memorandum for that period is still in +existence, but the notes are the hurried strokes of the pen of haste, +intelligible, we may say, only to the man who made them. To quote: + +"Thursday, nine a.m., Peoria--see Sedgwick; ten--make trackage +contract with T.P. & W.; eleven a.m., Davenport--inventory +motive power--see chief despatcher--get profiles and maps--get copies of +yard contracts--get crossing rights--get total tonnage of grain cars. +Three p.m., Hannibal--see Berdan and whip him into line--inspect +shops--get contracts--get--" + +But the string of "gets" fills the page, and is vital now to no living +soul of man, least of all to us who are interested only in finding out +if our young captain of industry actually did make good his boast of +flogging the three short roads into some semblance of a through line in +the brief interval at his disposal; and this without advertising to the +railroad world at large who he represented and what he was doing. + +He did it, and without a slip for which he could be held responsible. It +was a wire from the chief office of the Transcontinental in New York, a +telegram inspired by sundry leakages from Pacific Southwestern sources, +that gave him a silent and observant follower in all of his dodgings. Of +this, however, he was in blissful ignorance. Twice, indeed, he sat in +the same Pullman section with his "shadow," quite without suspecting it; +and once he was saved from disaster--also without suspecting it. + +It was at a way station in Missouri, and the section-sharing traveling +companion, who had paid only for an hour's ride in the Pullman, was +leaving the train. His hand-bag chanced to be the exact counterpart of +Ford's: what more natural than that he should make the mistake of taking +the wrong one? Ford caught him in the vestibule, and there was a +reëxchange, accompanied by grateful acknowledgments and profuse +apologies from the debarking one. Ford, immersed fathoms deep in his +problems, thought nothing of it; but a moment lost would have been a +cause lost, if he had guessed it. For the mistake was no mistake, and +the hand-bag rescued contained documents for which the Transcontinental +Company would have paid a month's salary of its board of +vice-presidents, charging the amount, not to profit and loss, but rather +to salvage. + +It was on the fourth day of the campaign, while Ford was working his way +on an inspection trip over the third link in the short-lines chain, that +two telegrams overtook him. + +One was from Adair, announcing the tardy, but now certain triumph of the +expansionist faction in the board of P. S-W. directors, and begging +pathetically for news of the option-getting. The other was signed "K," +and Ford had a sharp attack of joy when he read it. The attorney had +been successful at all points. The necessary stock majorities were +secured and the certificates were safely on deposit in the Algonquin +National Bank, in Chicago. What remained was only a matter of routine, +provided the P. S-W. bidders would furnish the capital for the purchases. + +Ford swamped the local operator at the next way station with a thick +sheaf of "rush" telegrams, left the west-bound train at the first +cross-road junction, and caught a night express on a fast line for +Chicago. Kenneth was waiting for him at the hotel; and after breakfast +there was another telegram from Adair. Matters were still progressing +favorably, and President Colbrith, traveling in his private car, +"Nadia," _via_ the Lake Shore, would be in Chicago the following +morning to take final action in the stock purchases. + +Ford gave the message to Kenneth, and the attorney drummed softly on the +table with his finger-tips when he read the announcement. + +"We are in for it now," he said with a grimace of dismay. "If Mr. +Colbrith doesn't manage to queer the whole deal, it will be because he +has suffered a complete change of heart." + +Ford answered the grimace with a scowl, and the masterful side of him +came uppermost. + +"What in the name of common sense were they thinking of to send him out +here?" he gritted. + +The general counsel laughed. + +"You don't know Mr. Colbrith as well as I do, I fancy," he suggested. +"He is rather hard to suppress. He'll be president until his successor +is elected--or he'll know all the reasons why." + +"Well, I hope you've got everything straight in the option business," +said Ford. "If there is so much as a hair displaced, he will be sure to +find it." + +"It is all straight enough," was the confident rejoinder. "Only I had to +bid five points over the market on odd lots of the stock. I'm not sure, +but I think the Transcontinental people got wind of us during the last +day or two and bid against us." + +"But you have safe majorities?" + +"Oh, yes; we are all in." + +"Good," said Ford. "That puts it up to Mr. Colbrith, at all events. And +now, while we have a clear day before us, I want to go over these +C. P. & D. terminal contracts with you. Right here in Chicago is where +the Transcontinental will try hardest to balk us. The C. P. & D. has +trackage rights to the elevators; but I want to be sure that the +contracts will hold water under a transfer of ownership." + +Subjected to legal scrutiny, the contracts promised to be defensible, +and Ford came through the day with his apprehensive burdens considerably +lightened. After dinner he took his papers to Kenneth's room, and +together they went carefully over all the legal points involved in the +welding of the three local lines into the Pacific Southwestern system, +Ford furnishing the data gathered by him during the four days. + +Kenneth was shrewdly inquisitive, as his responsibilities constrained +him to be, and it was deep in the small hours when Ford made his escape +and went to bed. By consequence, he was scarcely more than half awake +the next morning, when he dressed hurriedly and hastened over to the Van +Buren Street station to see if the president's car had arrived. + +The Nadia was in and side-tracked, with a sleepy porter on guard. Ford +climbed to the platform and asked for the president. + +"Yas, suh; dis is Mr. Colbrith's cyar; but he don't see no newspapuh +men--no, suh. Besides, dey's just gettin' up," was the rebuff; but Ford +ignored it. + +"'They?' Then Mr. Colbrith isn't alone?" + +"No, suh; got a pahty 'long with him--a young gentleman and two ladies; +yes, suh. Mr. Colbrith nebber goes nowhah's 'dout he teks a pahty in de +cyar." + +"Heavens!" groaned Ford, under his breath; "as if the thing wasn't +complicated enough without making a picnic of it!" Then aloud. "I wish +to go in. My name is Ford, and Mr. Colbrith is expecting me." + +"Sho' you isn't a newspapuh man?" + +"Of course not," said Ford shortly. + +"All right, suh," said the negro; and he made way and opened the door. + +The Nadia was a commodious hotel on wheels, with a kitchen and buffet +forward, four state-rooms opening upon a narrow side vestibule, and a +large dining and lounging room looking out through full-length windows +upon a deep, "umbrella-roofed" platform at the rear. + +There was no one in the large compartment when Ford reached it; but a +moment later a door opened and closed in the vestibule, and Adair made +his appearance. Ford drew a breath of relief and shook hands with his +backer. + +"I'm glad it's you, Mr. Adair. I've been scenting all sorts of +hindrances since the porter told me there was a party aboard." + +The young man without an avocation dropped into the easiest of the +wicker chairs and felt in his pockets for his cigarette case. + +"Your prophetic soul didn't deceive you any," he laughed. "The +hindrances are here in full force. It is one of Uncle Sidney's notions +never to travel without a tail like a Highland chieftain's. I had a +foreboding that he'd ask somebody, so I took it upon myself to fill up +his passenger list with Aunt Hetty, my sister, and my uncle's nephew." + +"I understand," said Ford, and would have plunged forthwith into the +business pool; but Adair stopped him with a gesture of dismay. + +"Not before breakfast, if you love me, my dear fellow!" he protested, +with a little grimace that instantly set the reminiscent part of Ford's +brain at work. "After I've had something to eat--" + +The interruption was the noiseless entrance of a motherly little lady in +gray, with kindly eyes and a touch of silver in the fair hair drawn +smoothly back from her forehead. + +"This is Mr. Stuart Ford, I am sure," she said, giving her hand to the +young engineer before Adair could introduce him. "You look enough like +your father to make me recognize you at once." + +Ford was a little embarrassed by the gratefully informal greeting. + +"Ought I to remember you, Mrs. Adair?" he asked ingenuously. + +"Oh, no, indeed. I knew your father as a young man before he married and +went to the farther West. The Fords and the Colbriths and the Stanbrooks +are all from the same little town in central Illinois, you know." + +"I didn't know it," said Ford, "though now I recall it, I used often to +hear my father speak of Miss Hester Stanbrook." Then he was going on to +say that trite thing about the smallness of the world when Adair broke +in. + +"I'd like to know what is keeping Uncle Sidney and Alicia. _I_ haven't +had breakfast yet." + +As if his protest had evoked her, a young woman drew the portičre of the +vestibule--a young woman with bright brown hair, eyes like dewy wood +violets, and an adorable chin. Ford stared helplessly, and Adair +laughed. + +"Shocked, aren't you?" he jested. "But you needn't be alarmed. I have +persuaded my sister not to prosecute in the case of the snatched purse. +Alicia, this is Mr. Stuart Ford, and he desires me to say that he is not +often reduced to the necessity of robbing unprotected young women for +the sake of scraping an acquaintance." + +Ford lost sight of the Pacific Southwestern exigencies for the moment, +and surely the lapse was pardonable. If the truth must be told, this +young woman, who had been discovered and lost in the same unforgetable +evening, had stirred the neglected pool of sentiment in him to its +profoundest depths, and thoughts of her had been dividing time pretty +evenly with some parts of the strenuous business affair. Indeed, the +hopelessness of any effort toward rediscovering her had been one of his +reasons for hurrying away from New York. He knew himself--a little--and +that quality of unreasoning persistence which other people called his +strong point. The search he had been half-minded to make once begun-- + +"I hope you haven't forgotten me so soon, Mr. Ford," she was saying; and +he recovered himself with a start. + +"Forgotten you? No, indeed!"--this with almost lover-like emphasis. +"I--I think I am just a trifle aghast at my good luck in finding you +again. It seemed so utterly hopeless, you know. Don't you think--" + +But now the president had stalked in, and his high querulous voice was +marshaling the party breakfastward. Ford manoeuvered skilfully in the +pairing off, and so succeeded in securing Miss Adair for a companion on +the short walk across to the Grand Pacific. + +"You were about to ask me something when Uncle Sidney interrupted you," +she prompted, when they were clear of the throng in the station +vestibule. + +"Yes; I was going to ask if you don't think it was unnecessarily cruel +to send me that note of thanks unsigned." + +"Cruel?" she echoed, and her laugh was so exactly a replica of her +brother's that Ford wondered why the reminiscent arrow had not gone at +once to its mark. "How absurd! What possible difference could it make?" + +"It made a lot of difference to me," said Ford, refusing to be brushed +aside. "How did you expect I was ever going to be able to find you +again, without even your name as a clue?" + +She glanced up at him with unfeigned interest. The men of her world were +not altogether unappreciative; neither were they so primitively +straightforward as this young industry captain out of the West. + +"It is not impossible that I never thought of your finding me again," +she said, and only the tone saved it from being a small slap in the +face. + +Ford took the rebuff as a part of the day's work. + +"Perhaps you didn't," he admitted. "But I mean to go on hoping that you +did." + +"The idea!" she scoffed; but this time she blunted the keen edge of the +rebuke by adding: "I thought, perhaps, we might meet again, sometime. +You see, we are all stock-holders in the Pacific Southwestern; my +brother, Aunt Hetty and I; and Uncle Sidney had shown us a letter--it +was from Mr. North, I think--saying that you were likely to come to New +York with some kind of a plan of reorganization. So when you gave me +your card, I knew at once who you were." + +Ford made an immediate mental note of the bit of information implicating +Mr. North, but did not allow himself to be diverted by the business +affair. + +"Yes, I know; but that didn't help me a little bit," he protested, +wishing that the distance to the hotel were twice as far. + +"That was just because it happened so; you ran away before my brother +had a chance to offer you any hospitality," she explained. Then, before +he could say any more straightforward things: "Tell me, Mr. Ford; are +you really going to find something to interest brother?--something that +will keep him actually and enthusiastically busy for more than a few +days at a time?" + +Ford laughed. "I fancy he hasn't been bored for the lack of work since I +left New York, has he?" + +"No; and it has made such a difference! Won't you please try and keep +him going?" + +"You may rest assured that I shall do what I can. But you see he has +quit already." + +"By coming to Chicago with us? Oh, no, indeed; you are quite mistaken. +He is here to help you to--to 'minimize' Uncle Sidney; I think that is +the word he used. He was afraid you had been finding Uncle Sidney rather +difficult. Have you?" + +"I have, for a fact," said Ford, out of the depths of sincerity. And, +again out of a full heart: "Your brother is a brick, Miss Adair." + +"Isn't he?" and she laughed in sheer good comradeship. "If you can only +manage to make him rise to his capabilities--" + +"He'll never be able to live the simple life for a single waking hour," +said the engineer, finishing the sentence for her. + +"Oh, but that is a mistake!" she objected. "The very first requirement +is work; plenty of work of the kind one can do best." + +The short walk to the hotel, where Kenneth was waiting to go to +breakfast with the president's party, came to an end, and the social +amenities died of inanition. For one thing, President Colbrith insisted +upon learning the minutest ins and outs of the business matter, making +the table-talk his vehicle; and for another, Miss Adair's place was on +the opposite side of the table, and two removes from Ford's. Time and +again the young engineer tried to side-track business in the interests +of something a little less banal to the two women; but the president was +implacable and refused to be pulled out of the narrow rut of details; +was still running monotonously and raspingly in it when Kenneth glanced +at his watch and suggested that the time for action was come. + +After breakfast the party separated. Mrs. Adair and Miss Alicia were to +spend the day with friends in South Chicago, and Mr. Colbrith carried +the attorney off to his room to dig still deeper into the possible legal +complications which might arise out of the proposed transfer of the +three short roads. Ford and Adair sat in the lobby and smoked while they +were waiting for the president and the general counsel to conclude their +conference, and the young millionaire gave his companion the story of +the fight in the directory. + +"We have Brewster to thank for the lift which finally pulled our wheel +out of the mud," said the young man, modestly effacing himself in the +summing up. "Or rather I should say that we have the enemy to thank for +stirring Brewster into action. Brewster's got some copper mines out in +Utah that he nurses like a sick child. Just at the critical moment some +of the people who control the Transcontinental began to worry his copper +stock. In the hot part of it he came to me and said, 'Adair, will that +western extension of yours be able to fry any fat out of +Transcontinental?' I told him it would, most assuredly; that next to +making money for ourselves, and, incidentally, saving the Pacific +Southwestern from going smash, our chief object was to give the +Transcontinental a wholesome drubbing." + +"You are progressing rapidly," said Ford, with a grin of appreciation. +"Did that fetch him?" + +"It did, for a fact. He looked like one of those old bushy-bearded +vikings when he said, 'By thunder, I'm with you, young man! And I'll +answer for Scott and Magnus and Harding. Get your board together, and +we'll settle it to-day." + +Ford looked up quickly. "If Mr. Colbrith wasn't the chief of your family +clan, Adair, I could wish that we had this Mr. Brewster at the head of +things." + +The rejoinder was heartily prompt. "You don't wish it any more fervently +than I do, Ford. That is why I am here to-day. The board, in spite of +all that our handful of revolutionaries could do, has armed Uncle Sidney +with almost dictatorial powers in this stock-purchasing deal; and if he +doesn't contrive to strangle things by the slow process, it will be +simply and solely because you and Kenneth and I are here to see that he +does not. Do you know what the men call him out on the main line? When +they see the Nadia trundling in, they say, 'Here comes old Automatic +Air-Brakes.' And it fits him." + +"But I don't quite understand why he should want to put the brakes on +here and now," Ford interposed. "I know he is against the scheme, +personally; but he is here as the representative of a majority which has +committed itself to the expansion measure, isn't he?" + +"Oh, yes; and he has no thought of playing the traitor--you mustn't +think that of him. But it isn't in his nature to facilitate things. In +the present crisis he will feel that he is personally responsible for +the expenditure of five million dollars. He will examine and +investigate, and probe and pry, and will want to worry through every +pen-scratch which has been made up to date." + +"Well, there is one comfort; he can't take much time for his worrying," +said Ford. "Some of the options expire to-morrow noon." + +Adair sat up as one who suddenly takes notice. + +"What?--to-morrow? Land of glory! but you two fellows took short +chances! Why, any little hitch--" + +"I know," said the engineer evenly. "But we took what we could get--and +were thankful. Somebody was bidding against us, and prices began to +jump. Incidentally, I may say that Kenneth deserves to be made a +vice-president of the new company, at the very least. He has done ten +men's work in the last three or four days." + +"I don't doubt it. Neither do I suspect you of loafing. For that matter, +I've been hustling a few lines, myself, since I sent you that first +telegram." + +"Do you find it exciting enough to keep you interested, as far as you've +gone?" inquired Ford, mindful of Miss Alicia's longings. + +"It's the best yet," declared the idler. "Only, you mustn't lean too +heavily on me, you know. I'm the most uncertain quantity you ever +experienced. But here comes Uncle Sidney, with a cowed and brow-beaten +Kenneth in tow--say your prayers, and get ready for the battle royal." + + + + +IX + +THE RACE TO THE SLOW + + +Adair's prophecy that President Colbrith would prove himself an +obstructor of the stubbornest was amply fulfilled during the short +interval which remained for decisive action. Truly, in the battle for +business celerity the odds were three to one against Mr. Colbrith; yet +the three were as those who buffet the wind. The president must see and +feel, know and fully understand; and at the very last moment, when the +shortest of the options had no more than an hour to live, he was +proposing to summon General Manager North from Denver to make a fifth in +the council of discord. + +It was Adair who took the bull by the horns when the president's caution +was about to turn victory into defeat. What was said or done after the +young man drew Mr. Colbrith into the private committee-room at the bank +and shut the door, Ford and Kenneth, who were excluded, could only +surmise. But whatever was done was well done. When the two, uncle and +nephew, came out of the room of privacy, the old man was shaking his +head and the young one was smiling serenely. So it came about that +between eleven and twelve o'clock, when Ford, grimly battling to the +last, fought as one without hope, a few strokes of the pen opened the +doors upon the new creation; five million dollars, more or less, changed +hands, and the Pacific Southwestern took the long leap eastward from the +Missouri River to its new base in Chicago. + +"It's you for the hustle now, Ford," said Adair, linking arms with the +engineer when the quartet left the bank. "How soon do you think you can +get that first train-load of grain in transit?" + +"I wish I could tell you," said Ford. + +"Why can't you?" + +"Because it will depend very largely upon the authority Mr. Colbrith or +the board sees fit to give me. At present, you will remember, I am still +only a division superintendent--Mr. North's subordinate, in fact, and--" + +"Say it out loud," encouraged Adair. + +"I don't like to, but I suppose it can't be helped. Up to now I have +been acting under special orders, as you may say, in a purely financial +transaction. But my commission expired five minutes ago when the stock +deal went through. When it comes to issuing orders in the operating and +transportation department, I have no authority whatever. Mr. North is +general manager, and I suppose his jurisdiction will now be extended to +cover the new line, won't it?" + +"Not much!" retorted the amateur promoter. "You are going to be given a +free hand in this from the word go. From what I can learn, North has +been an obstructor, all along, hasn't he?" + +"I can't say that," said Ford, just, even to an enemy. "To be right +honest about it, I shall have to confess that I slurred him +entirely--went over his head." + +"For good reasons, no doubt, only you are too charitable to give them. +Never mind: as I say, you are going to have a free hand. This is your +pie and nobody else is going to cut it for you." And when the party +reached the hotel there was another conference of two behind closed +doors, in which Ford and the general counsel did not participate. + +An hour later, when Adair came down from the president's room, he thrust +a sheaf of penciled printers' copy into Ford's hands. + +"There you are," he said. "I've done the best I could for you on such +short notice--with Uncle Sidney trying his level best to get a cross +reference to the board before taking action. Get these circulars through +a print shop and into the mails. You'll see that one of them announces +your appointment, effective to-day, as Assistant to the President. That +was as far as Uncle Sidney could be dragged. It doesn't give you a +straight flush; but your hand will beat North's if it comes to a +show-down between you. Just the same, I shouldn't quarrel with North, if +I were you. Uncle Sidney thinks the sun rises and sets in him." + +Ford nodded, and while he was reading hastily through the sheaf of +pencilings a boy brought him a telegram. When he opened the envelope, +Kenneth had turned away. But Adair was looking on, and he did not fail +to remark the startling effect of the few typewritten words upon the +engineer. + +"Whereabouts does it hit us this time?" he inquired, lighting a fresh +cigarette. + +"In the neck," said Ford curtly. "The possibility occurred to me +yesterday--Pacific Southwestern stock being so badly scattered among +small holders. I wired a broker, a good friend of mine, to pick up a few +shares on my account. Here is what he says: 'Market bone dry. No +offerings of P. S-W. at any price.'" + +Adair whistled softly. "That's getting next to us with a vengeance!" he +commented. "And it can be done, too. Half a dozen of the small +stock-holders have been to me since the fire was lighted, trying to get +me to take their stock at market." + +"How much do we control--that we are sure of?" Ford asked. + +"I don't know--in figures. Not more than two-fifths, I should say. At +the last board meeting I proposed that we make a safe majority pool +among ourselves, but Uncle Sidney sat on me. Said his own personal +constituency among the little people was big enough amply to secure us." + +Ford swore pathetically. + +"The one single instance when his caution might have steered him +straight--and it went to sleep!" he raged. + +"Exactly," laughed Adair. "And now the Transcontinental moguls are +buying up a majority of their own, meaning to capture the main-line dog +and leaving us to wag the extension tail which we have just acquired. +Say, Ford; doesn't that appeal to your sense of humor?" + +"No, it doesn't," said Ford savagely. To see one's air-castles crumbling +at the very moment when they were to be transmuted into solid realities +is apt to provoke a reversion to type; and Ford's type was Gothic. + +"That's a pity," said Adair, absently rolling his cigarette between his +thumb and finger. "Also, it's another pity that I am such a hopeless +quitter. I believe I could pull this thing out yet, if I could only get +up sufficient steam." + +"For heaven's sake, tell me what you burn, and I'll furnish the fuel," +said Ford desperately. + +"Will you? I guess I need something pretty inflammatory." + +"Lord of love! haven't you good and plenty, without calling upon me? +Are you going to let these stock-jobbing land-pirates on 'Change gibbet +you as a solemn warning to aspiring young promoters?" + +Adair paused with the cigarette half way to his lips. "Ah," he said, +after a thoughtful moment. "Perhaps that was what I needed. No; they +will not gibbet any of us to-day; and possibly not to-morrow." Then, +with a sudden dropping of the mask of easy-going indifference: "Give me +the key to your room, and find me a swift stenographer. Then go over to +the Lake Shore headquarters and ask to have the Nadia coupled to the +evening train for New York." + +"But the president?" Ford began. "Didn't he say something about going +over these new lines on an inspection trip?" + +"Never mind Uncle Sidney: on this one occasion he will change his plans +and go back to New York with us," said Adair curtly. + +"Good," said Ford approvingly. "And how about opening the new through +line for business? Do we go on? Or do we hang it up until we find out +where we are 'at'?" + +"Don't hold it up a single minute. Drive it for all the power you can +get behind it. If we have to collide with things, let's do it with the +throttle wide open. Now find me that shorthand person quickly, will +you?" + +By what means the president was persuaded or coerced into doing the +thing he had not planned to do, Ford was not to know. But for that +matter, after carrying out Adair's instructions the engineer plunged at +once into his own Herculean task of reorganization, emerging only when +he made a tardy sixth at the president's dinner table in the hotel café +in the evening. + +The dinner, which the young engineer had been fondly counting upon as a +momentary relaxation from the heart-breaking business strain, was a +dismal failure on its social side. President Colbrith, as yet, it +appeared, in blissful ignorance of the latest news from New York, had +reserved the seat of honor for his new assistant, and the half-hour was +filled to overflowing with minute and cautionary definitions of the +assistant's powers and duties. + +Ford listened with a blank ear on that side. There was work to do, and +one man to do it. He did not care particularly to hear instructions +which he would probably have to disregard at the first experimental dash +into the new field. He meant to hold himself rigidly to account for +results; more than this he thought not even Mr. Colbrith had a right to +require. + +After dinner he indemnified himself for the kindergarten lecture by +boldly taking possession of Miss Adair for the short walk over to the +private car. The entire world of work was still ahead, and a corps of +expert stenographers was at the moment awaiting his return to the C. P. +& D. offices, where he had established temporary headquarters; but he +shut the door upon the exigencies and listened to Miss Alicia. + +"I am so sorry we are not going to be here to see your triumph," she was +saying; adding: "It is a triumph, isn't it?"' + +"Only a beginning," he amended. "And it won't be spectacular, if we can +help it. Besides, this east-end affair is only a preliminary. A little +later on, if our tackle doesn't break, we shall land the really big fish +for which this is only the bait." + +"Shall you never be satisfied?" she asked jestingly. And then, more +seriously: "What is your ambition? To be able to buy what your neighbor +can not afford?" + +"Big money, you mean? No, I think not. But I like to win, as well as +other men." + +"To win what?" + +"Whatever seems worth winning--this fight, in the present instance, and +the consequent larger field. Later, enough money to enable me to think +of money only as a stepping-stone to better things. Later still, +perhaps--" + +He stopped abruptly, as though willing to leave the third desideratum in +the air, but she would not let him. + +"Go on," she said. "Last of all?" + +"Last of all, the love of a true woman." + +"Oh!" she scoffed, with a little uptilt of the admirable chin. "Then +love must come trailing along at the very end, after we have skimmed +the cream from all the other milk pans in orderly succession." + +"No," he rejoined gravely. "I put it clumsily--as I snatch purses. As a +matter of sober fact, love sets the mile-stones along any human road +that is worth traversing." + +She glanced up at him and the blue eyes were dancing. Miss Alicia Adair +knew no joy to compare with that of teasing, and it was not often that +the fates gave her such a pliable subject. + +"Tell me, Mr. Ford; is--is she pretty?" + +"She is beautiful; the most beautiful woman in the world, Miss Adair." + +"How fine! And, of course, she is a paragon of all the virtues?--an +angel without the extremely inconvenient wings?" + +"You have said it: and I have never doubted it from the moment I first +laid eyes on her." + +"Better and better," she murmured. Then: "She has money?" + +"I suppose she has; yes, she certainly has money. But that doesn't make +any difference--to her or to me." + +"It is simply idyllic!" was the ecstatic comment. "After all this there +remains but one other possible contingency. Has she a willing mind, Mr. +Ford?" + +They had reached the steps of the Nadia, and the others had gone within. +Ford looked soberly into the depths of the laughing eyes and said: "I +would give all my chances of success in this Pacific Southwestern affair +to be able to say 'yes' to that." + +The station gong was clanging the departure signal for the New York +train, and he swung her lightly up to the step of the car. + +"Good-by," she said, turning to smile down upon him. And then, "I don't +believe you, you know; not the least bit in the world." + +"Why don't you?" he demanded. + +"Because the woman doesn't live who would be worth such a sacrifice as +that would be--to Mr. Stuart Ford." + +And this was her leave-taking. + + + + +X + +THE SINEWS OF WAR + + +The general offices of the C. P. & D. Railway were crowded into a +half-dozen utilitarian rooms on the second floor of the company's +freight station building in the Chicago yards. In two of these rooms, +with a window outlook upon a tangle of switching tracks with their +shifting panorama of cars and locomotives, Ford set up his standard as +chief executive of the three "annexed" roads, becoming, in the eyes of +three separate republics of minor officials and employees, the arbiter +of destiny. + +Naturally, the announcement that their railroads had been swallowed +whole by the Pacific Southwestern had fallen as a thunderclap upon the +rank and file of the three local companies; and since, in railway +practice, a change of owners usually carries with it a sweeping change +in department heads, the service was instantly demoralized. + +During the first few hours of Ford's administration, therefore, the +wires were buzzing with hasty resignations; and those whose courage was +not whetted to the quitting point took a loose hold upon their duties +and waited to see what would happen. Under such chaotic conditions Ford +took his seat in the mean little office over the freight station, and +flung himself ardently into the task of bringing order out of the sudden +confusion. Effectively to support Adair and the reconstructionists on +the board it was critically necessary that there be immediate and +cheering news from the front. + +It was in the preliminary wrestle with disintegration that the young +engineer's gift of insight and his faculty of handling men as men stood +him in good stead. He was fresh from his trip over the new extension, on +which he had met and shrewdly appraised the men who were now his +subordinates. With the human field thus mentally mapped and +cross-sectioned he was enabled to make swift and sure selections, +cutting out the dead timber remorselessly, encouraging the doubtful, +reassuring the timid, assorting and combining and ordering until, at the +close of the second day of fierce toil, he was ready to make his first +report to Adair. + + Track connections at junction points completed to-day. General and + division operating and traffic departments in the saddle and + effectively organized. With proper coöperation on part of General + Manager North, grain should begin to move eastward to-morrow. Can + get no satisfactory replies from North. Have him disciplined from + your end. Answer. FORD. + +To this telegram there was a prompt and voluminous reply from the seat +of war in the East. In a free fight on the Stock Exchange, a battle +royal generaled by Brewster and Magnus in which every inch of ground had +been sharply contested by brokers buying up P. S-W. in the interest of +principals unnamed, a majority of the Southwestern stock--safe but +exceedingly narrow--had been secured by the reconstructionists. + +In accordance with Ford's suggestion, North had been "called down" by +wire, and Ford was instructed to report instantly any failure of effort +on the part of the Denver headquarters to set the grain trains in +motion. + +Otherwise, and from the New York point of view, the situation remained +most hopeful. The fight in the Street had unified the factions in the +board of directors, and even the timid ones were beginning to clamor for +an advance into the territory of the enemy. + +Ford read Adair's letter-length and most unbusiness-like telegram with +the zest of the fine wine of triumph tingling in his blood. With the +Chicago outlet fairly open and in working order, and a huge tributary +grain crop to be moved, it should be only a matter of days until the +depressed Pacific Southwestern stock would begin to climb toward the +bonding figure. + +This was the first triumphant conclusion, but afterward came reaction +and a depressive doubt. Would the stock go up? Or would the enemy devise +some assault that would keep it down in spite of the money-earning, +dividend-promising facts? Upon the expected rise hung the fate of Ford's +cherished ambition--the building of the western extension. Without a +dividend-paying Chicago-Denver main line, there could be no bond issue, +no thirty millions for the forging of the third and most important link +in the great traffic chain. + +Ford walked the floor of his office, called by courtesy, "private," for +an anxious hour, balancing the probabilities, and finally determined to +take the desperate chance. There was a vast mountain of preliminary work +to be leveled, huge purchasing expenses to be incurred, before the first +step could be taken in the actual building of the western extension; and +the summer was advancing day by day. He did not hope to get the +extension completed in a single season. But to get it over into the +promising mining field on the lower Pannikin before snow-flying meant +work of the keenest, without the loss of a single day. Could he afford +to play the safe game and wait until the building capital should be +cannily in Mr. Magnus' bank vaults? + +He decided that he could not; and when he reached a decision, Ford was +not the man to hesitate before taking the plunge. On the morning of the +third day he called Truitt, sometime superintendent of the C. P. & D., +and now acting manager of the Chicago Extension, and gave him his +instructions. + +"You say there are three grain trains moving on the line now, Mr. +Truitt: there will be three more before night. Keep them coming, and +give them the right of way over everything but the United States mails. +Can you handle this without help from me?" + +"We'll give it a pretty stiff try," was the prompt rejoinder. "But you +are not going to leave us, are you, Mr. Ford?" + +"No; but for the next forty-eight hours I am going to lock my door, and +I don't want to be disturbed for anything less than a disaster or a wire +from New York. Please give orders accordingly, will you?" + +The orders were given; and, left with his force of stenographers, Ford +began to walk the floor, dictating right and left. Letters and telegrams +to steel mills, to contractors, to bridge builders, to the owners of +grading outfits, and to labor agencies, clicked out of the typewriters +in a steady and unbroken stream, and the din was like that of a +main-line telegraph office on a hot piece of track. + +All day long, and far into the night, the office force wrought +unceasingly, digging away at the mountain of preliminary correspondence; +and by the next morning the wire replies were beginning to come in. + +Then came the crux. To insure prompt delivery of material, definite +orders must be placed immediately. A delay of a single day might entail +a delay of weeks in the shipments. Yet the risk of plunging the company +into debts it might never be able to pay was appalling. What if the +stock should not go up as prefigured?--if the bonds could not be +floated? + +It was with the feeling that he might well be signing his own +death-warrant that Ford put his name to the first order for two hundred +thousand dollars' worth of steel rails for immediate delivery to the +company's line in Chicago. But after the first cold submergence it came +more easily, and when he left the office an hour before midnight, a cool +million would not have covered the obligations he had assumed during the +strenuous day. + +Kenneth was sitting up for him when he reached his hotel, and the +usually impassive face of the general counsel reflected trouble. + +"Out with it," said Ford wearily; and suddenly the new million of +indebtedness became a mountain weight to grind him to powder. + +"We're blocked," was the brief announcement. "Two of the grain trains +are in, and the Transcontinental lawyers have won the toss. We're +enjoined by the court from using the service tracks to the elevators. +Didn't your local people tell you?" + +"No," said Ford. "I had given orders that I was not to be disturbed. But +what of it? You expected something of the sort, didn't you?" + +"Yes; and I provided for it. The injunction will be dissolved when we +have our final hearing; but long before that time the mischief will be +irreparable, I'm afraid." + +"How?" + +"It will be blazoned far and wide that we can't deliver the goods--that +the opposition has done us up. I've tried to keep it out of the +newspapers, or, rather, to persuade them not to make too much of it. But +it wouldn't go. The Transcontinental has all the pull in this town, it +appears." + +"And you think it will affect the price of the stock?" + +"It is bound to, temporarily, at least. And coming upon the heels of +to-day's sudden tumble--" + +"What's that?" demanded Ford, dry-lipped, adding: "I haven't seen a +paper since morning." + +Kenneth wagged his head gloomily. "It's pretty bad. P. S-W. closed at +thirty-three--five points off yesterday's market." + +"Good Lord!" Ford's groan was that of a man smitten down in the heat of +the fight. "Say, Kenneth, within a single sweep of the clock-hands I +have contracted for more than a million dollars' worth of material for +the western extension--more than a million dollars' worth!" + +"Well, I'm afraid you have sinned in haste to repent at leisure," said +the lawyer, with a weary man's disregard for the amenities. Then he +added: "I'm going to bed. I've had about all I can stand for one day." + +Ford went to the room clerk for his key; reeled would be the better +word, since his brain was whirling. There was a telegram in his box, and +he tore it open with fresh and sharper misgivings. It was from Adair. + + The sick man's getting sicker. What is the matter with your + prescription? Stock gone off five points, and the bears are + squeezing us to beat the band. Stories flying on the Street that we + are a kite without an effective tail; that the courts will keep us + out of the elevators. What do you say? + +Ford consulted his watch. There was barely time to catch the midnight +train for New York, and his determination was taken on the spur of the +moment. It was all or nothing, now. + +Hastily writing a wire to the cashier of the Denver bank where he kept +his personal account, and another to Adair, and leaving brief notes for +Kenneth and Truitt, he took a cab and had himself driven at a gallop to +the Union Station. He was the last man through the platform gates, but +he made his train, and was settling himself in the sleeper when another +telegram was thrust into his hand. This was from Frisbie, at Saint's +Rest; and that it brought more bad news might be argued from the way in +which he crushed it slowly in his hand and jammed it into his pocket. On +this day, if never before, he was proving the truth of the old adage +that misfortunes do not come singly. + +Upon arriving in New York late the following evening, he had himself +driven to the Waldorf, where he found Adair waiting for him. A few words +sufficed to outline the situation, which the lapse of another day had +made still more desperate. So far from recovering, the falling stock had +dropped to twenty-nine and a half, and there was every indication that +the bottom was not yet reached. + +"How do you account for it?" asked Ford, when the dismal tale had been +told. + +"Oh, it's easy enough, when you know how," was the light-hearted +rejoinder. "As I wired you, there was something of a scramble on the +floor of the Exchange last week when we were fighting to find out +whether we should control our own majority or let the Transcontinental +have it. Our pool got its fifty-one per cent. all right, but in the +nature of things the enemy stood as the next largest stock-holder in +P. S-W., since they'd been buying right and left against us. Now, since +we don't need any more, and nobody else wants it, all the +Transcontinental people have to do is to unload on the market, and down +she goes." + +Ford looked incredulous, and then wrathful. + +"Adair, tell me: did I have to stop my work when my time is worth fifty +dollars a minute, and come all the way to New York to tell you folks +what to do?" he demanded. + +Adair's laugh was utterly and absolutely care-free. + +"It looks that way, doesn't it? Have you got the compelling club up your +sleeve, as usual?" + +"A boy might carry it--and swing it, too," was the disgusted answer. +"When does the board meet again? Or has it concluded to lie down in the +harness?" + +"Oh, it gets together every morning--got the meeting habit, you know. +Everybody's in a blue funk, but we still have the daily round-up to swap +funeral statistics." + +"All right. Meet me here in the morning, and we'll go and join the +procession. Can you make it nine o'clock?" + +"Sure. It's too late to go home, and I'll stay here. Then you'll be +measurably certain that I can't escape. May I see the tip end of the +club?" + +"No," said Ford grumpily. "You don't deserve it. Go to bed and store up +a head of steam that will carry you through the hardest day's work you +ever hoped to do. Good night." + +They met again at the breakfast-table the following morning, and Ford +talked pointedly of everything save the P. S-W. predicament. One of +Adair's past fads had been the collecting of odd weapons; Ford +discovered this and drew the young man skilfully into a discussion of +the medieval secrets of sword-tempering. + +"I've a bit of the old Damascus, myself," said the engineer. "Tybee--he +was on the Joppa-Jerusalem road in the building--picked it up for me. +Curious piece of old steel; figured and flowered and etched and inlaid +with silver. There were jewels in the pommel once, I take it; the +settings are still there to show where some practical-turned vandal dug +them out." + +Adair was quite at a loss to guess how old swords and their histories +could bear upon the financial situation, but he was coming to know Ford +better. Some one has said that it is only the small men who are careful +and troubled on the eve of a great battle. So the talk was of ancient +weapons until the time for action arrived; and a smooth-faced gentleman +sitting at a near-by table and marked down by Ford--though not by Ford's +companion--listened for some word of enlightenment on the railroad +situation, and was cruelly disappointed. + +"Why wouldn't you talk?" asked Adair, when they were driving down-town +in the young millionaire's auto. "Or rather, why did you persist in +keeping me to the old swords?" + +Ford laughed. + +"For one reason, I enjoy the old swords--as a relaxation. For another, +Mr. Jeffers Hawley, who was once one of the Transcontinental lawyers in +Denver, was sitting just behind you, with eager ears. You didn't know +that. Hold on a minute; tell your man to stop at the Chemical Bank. I +want you to introduce me to the cashier." + +"Now, what the deuce are you starting a New York bank account for?" +queried Adair, as they came out of the bank together and climbed into +the tonneau of the waiting touring car. "Couldn't you draw on the +treasurer? What's the use of your being the assistant to the president, +I'd like to know?" + +"Wait," was the answer; and the questioner waited, perforce. + +The board was already in session when the two young men were admitted to +the private room in the rear of the Broad Street offices, and Ford was +welcomed as a man who has recklessly steered the ship upon the rocks. +There were even some open recriminations, notably on the part of the +president; but Ford sat quietly under them, making no defense, and +folding and refolding a slip of paper in his fingers as he listened. + +When they gave him leave to speak, he still made no attempt to explain. +Instead, he rose, walked to the other end of the table, and tossed the +bit of folded paper across to Mackie, the broker. + +"I inherited a little money, and I have made and saved enough more to +make it an even twenty thousand dollars," he said. "I don't know of any +more promising investment just now than Pacific Southwestern at +twenty-nine and a half. Will you be good enough to buy for my account, +Mr. Mackie?" + +The effect was electrical. President Colbrith sat up very straight in +his chair; two or three of the anxious ones opened on Ford with a rapid +fire of questions; and Brewster, the copper magnate, sat back and +chuckled softly in his beard. + +"No, gentlemen; there is no change in the situation, so far as I know. +Of course, you are not so foolish as to let the newspaper talk of the +tie-up at the Chicago elevators influence you," Ford was saying to the +anxious inquirers. "And, apart from that, everything is going our way. +As I have remarked, our stock at the present figure is good enough for +me, and I only wish I had two hundred thousand, instead of twenty +thousand, to put into it." + +Brewster stopped chuckling long enough to hold up a finger to the +broker. "You may buy for my account, too, Mackie, while you are at +it--and keep on buying till I tell you to quit." + +This broke the deadlock instantly, and for a few minutes the board room +was as noisy as the wheat pit with a corner threatening. Brewster, still +laughing in his beard, pulled Ford out of the press at the broker's end +of the table. + +"I'm going to ask only one thing of you, young man," he began, his +shrewd little eyes twinkling. "Just let me know when you are going to +get out, so I can pull through without having to take the bankruptcy." + +[Illustration: "Will you be good enough to buy for my account, Mr. +Mackie"] + +"I'll do it, Mr. Brewster," laughed Ford. "Only I'm not going to get +out--unless you folks freeze me out." + +"Then it isn't a long bluff on your part?" + +"It is, and it isn't. We still stand to win if we have the nerve to hold +on--in which event P. S-W. at twenty-nine and a fraction is a gold mine. +That's one view of it, and the other is this: we've simply _got_ to +corner our own stock if we expect to sell thirty millions additional +bonds." + +"Well, I guess you've gone the right way about it. But are you sure +about these Chicago terminals? A legal friend of mine here says you'll +never get in." + +"He was possibly paid to say it," said Ford hotly. "There has never been +a shadow of doubt touching our trackage rights on the C. P. & D. +contracts, or upon our ability to maintain them. All the +Transcontinental people hoped to do was to make a newspaper stir to help +keep our stock down. They know what we are going to do to them over in +their western territory, and they won't stop at anything to block us." + +"Of course; I think we were all inclined to be a little short-sighted +and pessimistic here, Mr. Ford. When do you go back to your fighting +ground?" + +"To-night." + +"You won't wait to see what happens here?" + +"I don't need to, I am sure. And the minutes--my minutes--are worth +dollars to the company just now." + +"Well, go in and win--only don't forget to give me that tip. You +wouldn't want to see a man of my age going to the poorhouse." + +"One other word, Mr. Brewster," Ford begged, as the copper magnate was +pointing for the door of escape. "Please don't let any of these timid +gentlemen sell till we get our bonds floated. You mark my word: the +temptation to make a big killing is going to be very great, within a +week." + +The copper king laughed; openly, this time. + +"You overrate my influence, Mr. Ford; but I'll do what I can--by word of +mouth and by example. You can count on me--as long as you let me stay on +your side of the market." + +Ford had three several invitations to luncheon after the meeting +adjourned, but he accepted none of them. To Adair he made the +declination courteous while they were trundling back to the Waldorf in +the big touring car. + +"I have lost an entire day because I could not take the time to secure a +stenographer before leaving Chicago night before last. I must find one +now and go to work." + +"All right; if you must. But I was hoping I could take you out to +Overlook to dinner this evening. Can't you come anyhow, and take a later +train west?" + +"Don't tempt me," said Ford. And then: "The ladies are quite well, I +hope?" + +"Oh, yes; they are in town to-day, and we are all going to luncheon +together--though I shan't know just where until I go to the club. +Failing the dinner, won't you make a knife and fork with us at one +o'clock?" + +"I should like to--more than anything else in the world," Ford +protested, meaning it. "But you'll make my excuses to Mrs. Adair, won't +you? We've simply got to get a three-cornered hustle on now, if we want +to save the day in the West." + +"Why? Is there anything new in that quarter?" + +"There is: something that I didn't dare to mention back yonder in the +board meeting. You may remember that I told you I had left a man in my +place on the Plug Mountain--Frisbie? I had a wire from him, night before +last, just as I was leaving Chicago. As you know, the Pacific +Southwestern inherits, from the old narrow-gauge purchase, the +right-of-way over Plug Pass and down the valley of the Pannikin. Frisbie +wires that the Transcontinental people have begun massing building +material at the terminus of their Saguache branch, only twenty miles +from the Pass." + +"And that means?--I'm lame on geography." + +"It means that they'll cut in ahead of us, if they can. Plug Pass is the +only available unoccupied outlet through the mountains for thirty or +forty miles north or south; and if we don't get our building force on +the ground mighty suddenly, we'll find it fortified and held by the +enemy." + +The touring car had turned into Broadway, and the traffic roar precluded +further talk. But when Ford was dismounting from the tonneau at the +entrance to his hotel, Adair said: "There appears to be no rest for the +wicked. You ought to have some of that thirty million dollars to spend +right now." + +Ford's smile was little more than a sardonic grin. + +"Adair," he said, "I'm going to tell you something else that I didn't +dare tell those money-tremulous people in McVeigh and Mackie's private +office. I have been signing contracts and buying material by the +train-load ever since the first grain shipment was started eastward on +our main line. Also, I've got my engineering corps mobilized, and it +will take the field under Frisbie as its chief not later than to-morrow. +Putting one thing with another, I should say that we are something over +a fresh million of dollars on the wrong side of solvency for these +little antics of mine, and I'm adding to the deficit by the hundred +thousand every time I can get a chance to dictate a letter." + +Adair lighted a cigarette and made a fair show of taking it easily. But +a moment later he was lifting his hat to wipe the perspiration from his +forehead. + +"Lord! but you have the confidence of your convictions!" he said, +breathing hard. "If we shouldn't happen to be able to float the bonds--" + +"We are in too deep to admit the 'if.' The bonds must be floated, and at +the earliest possible moment that Magnus will move in it. You wanted +something big enough to keep you interested. I have been trying my best +to accommodate you." + +Adair leaned forward and spoke to his chauffeur. The man watched his +chances for room to turn in the crowded street. + +"Where are you going?" asked Ford. + +"Back to McVeigh and Mackie's--where I can watch a ticker and go broke +buying more Pacific Southwestern," was the reply, and just then the +chauffeur found his opening and the big car whirled and plunged into the +down-town stream. + +In the financial news the next morning there was a half-column or more +devoted to the sudden and unaccountable flurry in Pacific Southwestern. +Ford got it in the Pittsburg papers and read it while the picked-up +stenographer was wrestling with his notes. After the drop in the stock, +caused, in the estimation of the writer, by the company's sudden plunge +into railroad buying at wholesale, P. S-W. had recovered with a bound, +advancing rapidly in the closing hours of the day from the lower +thirties to forty-two, with a strong demand. The utmost secrecy was +maintained, but it was shrewdly suspected that one of the great +companies, of which the Pacific Southwestern was now a competitor on an +equal footing for the grain-carrying trade, had gone in to absorb the +new factor in trans-Missouri traffic. Other and more sensational +developments might be expected if the battle should be fought to a +finish. Then followed a brief history of the Pacific Southwestern, with +a somewhat garbled account of the late dash for a Chicago terminal, but +lacking--as Ford remarked gratefully--any hint of the company's designs +in the farther West. + +"If Adair and Brewster and the others only have the nerve to keep it +up!" said Ford to himself. Then he tossed the paper aside and dived once +more into the deep sea of extension building, working the picked-up +stenographer until the young man was ready with his resignation the +moment the final letter was filed for mailing in the Chicago station. + +Five days the young engineer waited for news from New York--waited and +worked like a high-pressure motor while he waited. Each day's financial +news showed the continued and growing success of the home-made "corner," +and now the reporters were predicting that the stock would go to par +before the price should break. + +Ford trembled for the good faith of his backers on the board. When one +has bought at twenty-nine and a half and can sell within the week for +eighty-seven, the temptation is something tremendous. But at the closing +hour of the fifth day the demand was still good; and when Ford reached +the hotel that night there was a telegram from Adair awaiting him. + +He tore it open and read it, with the blood pounding through his veins +and a roar which was not of the street traffic drumming in his ears. + + P. S-W. closed at ninety-two to-day, and a Dutch syndicate will take + the bonds. Success to you in the Western wilderness. Brewster wants + to know how soon you'll reach his Utah copper mines. ADAIR. + + + + +XI + +HURRY ORDERS + + +"I'm no cold-water thrower, Ford, as you know. But if I were a +contractor, and you were trying to get me to commit myself to any such +steeplechase, I should say no, and confirm it with a cuss-word." + +It was a week after the successful placing of the Western Extension +building-fund bonds with the Dutch syndicate, and Ford, having ordered +things to his liking on the newly opened Chicago line, had taken the +long step westward to Denver to begin the forging of the third link in +the great railway chain. + +Frisbie, now first assistant engineer in charge of construction, had +come down from Saint's Rest for a conference with his chief, and the +place of conferrings was a quiet corner in one of the balconies +overlooking the vast rotunda of the Brown Palace Hotel; this because the +carpenters were still busy in the suite of rooms set apart for the +offices of the assistant to the president in the Pacific Southwestern +headquarters down-town. + +"You mean that the time is too short?" said Ford, speaking to Frisbie's +emphatic objection. + +"Too short at both ends," contended the little man with the devilish +mustaches and chin beard. "The Copah mining district is one hundred and +twenty miles, as the crow flies, from the summit of Plug Pass--say one +hundred and forty by the line of our survey down the Pannikin, through +the canyon and up to the town. Giving you full credit for more +getting-ready than I supposed any man could compass in the three weeks +you've been at it, I still think it is impossible for us to reach Copah +this season." + +"You must change your belief, Dick," was the curt rejoinder. "This is to +be a campaign, not only of possibilities, but of things done. We go into +Copah with the steel gangs before snow flies." + +"I know; that's what you've been saying all along. But you're looking at +the thing by and large, and I'm figuring on the flinty details. For +example: you'll admit that we can't work to any advantage west of the +mountains until we have made a standard gauge out of the Plug Mountain +branch. How much time have you been allowing for that?" + +"No time at all for the delay: about three weeks, maybe, for the actual +changing of the gauge," said Ford coolly. + +"All right," laughed Frisbie. "Only you'll show us how. It doesn't lie +in the back of my head--or in Crapsey's, unless he's a better man than I +hired him for." + +"Who is Crapsey?" + +"He is a Purdue man that I picked up and started out on the branch to +make figures on the change of gauge. The other three parties, under +Major Benson, Jack Benson and Roy Brissac, are setting the grade stakes +down the Pannikin, and Leckhard is wrestling with the construction +material you've been dumping in upon us at Saint's Rest. That left me +short, and I hired Crapsey." + +"Good. If he is capable, he may do the broadening. Call him in and set +him at it." + +"But, man! Don't you want the figures first?" + +"My dear Dick! I've had those figures for two years, and there's nothing +very complicated about that part of our problem. Call your man in and +let him attack the thing itself." + +"Everything goes: you may consider him recalled. But broadening the Plug +Mountain to standard gauge doesn't put us into Copah this summer, does +it?" + +"No; our necessities will do that for us. See here; let me show you." +Ford took out his note-book and on a blank page of it outlined a rough +map, talking as he sketched. "Three weeks ago you wired me that the +Transcontinental people were massing building material at the terminus +of their Saguache branch." + +"So I did," said Frisbie. + +"And the day before yesterday you wired again to say that it was +apparently a false alarm. What made you change your mind?" + +"They are hauling the stuff away--over to their Green Butte line, I'm +told." + +"Why are they hauling it away?" + +"The bluff--their bluff--was called. We had got busy on Plug Pass, and +they saw there was no hope of cutting in ahead of us at that point." + +"Exactly. Now look at this map for a minute. Here is Saint's Rest; here +is the Copah district; and here is Green Butte, the junction of their +narrow gauge with the standard-gauge Salt Lake and Eastern. If you were +on the Transcontinental executive committee and saw an active competing +line about to build a standard-gauge railroad through the Copah district +and on to a connection with your narrow gauge's outlet at Green Butte, +what would you advise?" + +Frisbie nodded. "It's easy, when you know how, isn't it They'll +standardize their narrow gauge to Green Butte, make an iron-clad traffic +contract with the S. L & E. to exclude us, and build a branch from +Jack's Canyon, say, up into the Copah country." And then in loyal +admiration: "That's what I call the sure word of prophecy--your +specialty, Stuart. How many nights' sleep did you lose figuring that +out?" + +"Not any, as it happens," laughed Ford. "It was a straight tip out of +the East. The plan, just about as you've outlined it, was adopted by the +Transcontinental powers that be, sitting in New York last week. By some +means unknown to me, Mr. Adair got wind of it, and made a flying trip to +Chicago to put me on--wouldn't even trust the wire with it. Now you +understand why we've got to wake the Copah echoes with a locomotive +whistle this season." + +"Copah--yes," said Frisbie doubtfully. "But that is only a way station. +What we need is Green Butte and the Pacific coast outlet over the S. L & +E.; and they stand to euchre us out of that, hands down. What's to +prevent their making that traffic contract with the Mormon people right +now?" + +"Nothing; if the S. L & E. management were willing. But just here the +political situation in Mormondom fights for us. Last year the +Transcontinental folk turned heaven and earth over to defeat the Mormon +candidate for the United States Senate. The quarrel wasn't quite mortal +enough to stand in the way of a profitable business deal; but all things +being equal, the Salt Lake line will favor us as against its political +enemy." + +"You're sure of that?" queried Frisbie. + +"As sure as one can be of anything that isn't cash down on the +nail--with the money locked up in a safety deposit vault. By the +sheerest good luck, the Mormon president of the S. L & E. happened to +be in New York at the time when Adair had his ear to the +Transcontinental keyhole. Adair hunted him up and made a hypothetical +case of a sure thing: if our Western Extension and the Transcontinental, +standard-gauged, should be knocking at the Green Butte door at the same +time, what would the S. L & E. do? The Mormon answer was a bid for +speed; first come, first served. But Adair was given to understand, +indirectly, that on an equal footing, our line would be given the +preference as a friendly ally." + +"Bully for the Mormon! But you say Copah--this summer. When we reach +Copah we are still one hundred and forty miles short of Green Butte. And +if you can broaden the Plug Mountain in three weeks--which you'll still +allow me to doubt--the Transcontinental ought to be able to broaden its +Green Butte narrow gauge in three months." + +"If you had cross-sectioned both lines as I have, you wouldn't stumble +over that," said Ford, falling back, as he commonly did, upon the things +he knew. "We shall broaden the Plug Mountain without straightening a +curve or throwing a shovelful of earth on the embankment, from beginning +to end. On the other hand, the Green Butte narrow gauge runs for seventy +miles through the crookedest canyon a Rocky Mountain river ever got lost +in. There is more heavy rock work to be done in that canyon than on our +entire Pannikin division from start to finish." + +"That's bully for us," quoth the first assistant. "But, all the same, we +shouldn't stop at Copah, this fall." + +"We shall not stop at Copah," was the decisive rejoinder. "The winters +on the western side of the range are much milder than they are here, and +not to be spoken of in the same day with your Minnesota and Dakota +stamping-ground. If we can get well out of the mountains before the +heavy snows come--" + +Frisbie wagged his head. + +"I guess I've got it all, now--after so long a time. We merely break the +record for fast railroad building--all the records--for the next six +months or so. Is that about it?" + +"You've surrounded it," said Ford tersely. + +"Good enough: we're ready to make the break when you give the word. What +are we waiting for?" + +"Just at this present moment, for the contractors." + +"Why, I understood you had closed with the MacMorrogh Brothers," said +Frisbie. + +"No. At the last moment--to relieve me of a responsibility which might +give rise to charges of favoritism, as he put it--Mr. Colbrith took the +bids out of my hands and carried the decision up to the executive +committee. Hence, we wait; and keep a growing army of laborers here +under pay while we wait," said Ford, with disgust thinly masked. Then +he added: "With all due respect to Mr. Colbrith, he is simply a senile +frost!" + +Frisbie chuckled. + +"Been cooling your fingers, has he? But I understood from the +headquarters people down-town, that the MacMorroghs had a sure thing on +the grading and rock work. Their bid was the lowest, wasn't it?" + +"Yes; but not the cheapest for the company, Dick. I've been keeping tab +on the MacMorroghs for a good while: they are grafters; the kind of men +who take it out of the company and out of their labor in a thousand +petty little steals--three profits on the commissary, piece-work for +subs where they know a man's got to lose out, steals on the working +hours, fines and drawbacks and discounts on the pay-rolls, and all that. +You know how it's done." + +"Sure," agreed Frisbie, with his most diabolical grin. "Also, I know how +it keeps the engineering department on the hottest borders of Hades, +trying to hold them down. The good Lord deliver us!" + +"I wanted to throw their bid out without consideration," Ford went on. +"But again Mr. Colbrith said 'No,' adding that the MacMorroghs were old +contractors on the line, and that Mr. North had always spoken very +highly of them." + +"Ah; the fine Italian hand of Mr. North again," said Frisbie. "And that +reminds me: are we going to be at war with the main line operating +department?" + +Ford shook his head. "Not openly, at least. North was down to meet my +train when I came in last night, and you would never have suspected that +I left Denver six weeks ago without his blessing. And now I'm reminded. +I have a luncheon appointment with him at twelve, and a lot of letters +to dictate before I can keep it. Go down and do your wiring for Crapsey, +and if we lose each other this afternoon, I'll meet you here at dinner +this evening." + +It was while Ford was working on his mail, with one of the hotel +stenographers for a helper, that a thick-set, bull-necked man with +Irish-blue eyes and a face two-thirds hidden in a curly tangle of +iron-gray beard, stubbed through the corridor on the Pacific +Southwestern floor of the Guaranty Building, and let himself cautiously +into the general manager's outer office. The private secretary, a +faultlessly groomed young fellow with a suggestion of the Latin races in +his features, looked up and nodded. + +"How are you, Mr. MacMorrogh?" he said; and without waiting for a reply: +"Go on in. Mr. North is expecting you." + +The burly one returned the nod and passed on to the inner room. The +general manager, a sallow, heavy-visaged man who might have passed in a +platform gathering for a retired manufacturer or a senator from the +Middle West, swung in his pivot-chair to welcome the incomer. + +"Glad to see you, MacMorrogh. Sit down. What's the news from New York?" + +The contractor found a chair; drew it close to the general manager's +desk, and filled it. + +"I'm thinking you'll know more about that than I will, Misther North," +he replied, in a voice that accorded perfectly with the burly figure and +piratical beard. "Ford's fighting us with his fishtes." + +"Why?" asked the general manager, holding his chin in his hand--a +gesture known the entire length of the Pacific Southwestern as a signal +of trouble brewing, for somebody. + +"God knows, then; I don't," said the MacMorrogh. "I wint to Chicago to +see him when the bid was in, and d'ye think he would lave me talk it +over with him? Not him! Wan day he'd be too busy; and the next, I'd have +to call again. 'Twas good for him I was not me brother Dan. Dan would've +kicked the dure in and t'rown him out av the windy." + +The wan ghost of a smile flitted across the impassive face of the big +man at the desk. + +"Let me tell you something, MacMorrogh. If you, or your brother Dan, +ever find it necessary to go after Ford, don't give him notice by +battering down doors. You won't, I know. But about the contract: you +haven't heard from the executive committee?" + +"Not the half of wan wor-rd." + +"Have you any idea of what is causing the delay?" + +"'Tis dommed well I know, Misther North. Ford is keeping the wires hot +against us. If I could have Misther Colbrith here with you for wan five +minutes--" + +The general manager broke in, following his own line of thought. + +"Ford is in Denver; he came in from Chicago last night. Why don't you go +up to the Brown and have it out with him?" + +"Fight it out, d'ye mean?" + +"Certainly not. Make friends with him." + +The contractor sat back in his chair and plunged his stubby hands deep +into his pockets. + +"Give me the sthraight tip, Misther North." + +"It ought to suggest itself to you. This is a big job, with a great deal +of money passing. Your profits, over and above what you will make out of +the company, will be quite large. Ford is an ambitious young man, and he +is not building railroads for his health." + +The MacMorrogh was nodding slowly. Nevertheless, he made difficulties. + +"Me hand's not light enough for that, Misther North." + +Again the general manager smiled. + +"You require a deal of prompting, sometimes, Brian. What's the matter +with a trusty go-between?" + +"H'm, that's it, now. But where to lay me finger on the right man. 'Tis +a risk to run--with a yooung fire-brand like Ford holding the other end +iv the string." + +"Still I think the man can be found. But first we must make sure of your +contract, with or without Ford. Your suggestion about taking the matter +up with Mr. Colbrith in person strikes me favorably. Can you spare the +time to go to New York?" + +"Sure I can." + +"At once?" + +"The wan minute for sthriking is whin the iron's hot, Misther North." + +The general manager put aside the thick file of papers he had been +examining when MacMorrogh entered, and began to set his desk in order. + +"I have been thinking I might make it convenient to go with you. I +presume you have no objection to going as my guest in the Naught-Seven?" + +"'Tis an honor you're doing me, Misther North, and I'll not be +forgetting it." + +"Not at all. There are some matters connected with this contract that +I'd like to talk over with you privately, and if we can agree upon them, +I may be able to help you with Mr. Colbrith and the executive +committee." + +The general manager pressed one of the electric buttons on the side of +the desk, and to the clerk who answered gave a brief order: "Have the +Naught-Seven provisioned and made up to go east as a special at +twelve-ten to-day. Tell Despatcher Darby to make the schedule +fast--nineteen hours or less to the River." + +The clerk nodded and disappeared, and North turned again to MacMorrogh. + +"Now about that other matter: I'll find you a go-between to approach +Ford; but to be quite frank with you, you'll have to be liberal with the +young man for his services. When you go into the diplomatic field, you +have to spend money." He was pressing another of the electric buttons as +he spoke, and to the office boy who put his face in at the door, he +said: "Ask Mr. Eckstein to step in here a minute." + +It was the private secretary, the well-groomed young man with the alien +eyes and nose who answered the summons. North gave him his instructions +in a curt sentence. + +"Mr. MacMorrogh would like to have a little talk with you, Eckstein: +take him into the other room where you can be undisturbed." + +It was half an hour later when the door of the library opened to readmit +the private secretary and the contractor, and in the interval the +division superintendent's clerk had returned to say that the special +train schedule was made up, and that the Naught-Seven would be waiting +at the Union Station at twelve-ten. + +"Well?" said the general manager, lifting a slow eyebrow at MacMorrogh +and compressing into the single word his wish to know what had been done +in the conference of two. + +"'Tis all right, Misther North," said the contractor, rubbing his hands. +"'Tis a crown jewel ye have in this yooung--" + +North cut the eulogy short in a word to his secretary. + +"I go east, special, at twelve-ten, Eckstein, as Mr. MacMorrogh has +probably told you. I have a luncheon appointment at twelve with Mr. +Ford. Meet him when he comes, and make my excuses--without telling him +anything he ought not to know. If you can take my place as his host, do +so; but in any event, keep him from finding out where we have gone until +we are well on the way. That's all." + +This was why Ford, walking the few blocks from his hotel at noon to keep +his engagement with North, found the general manager's private office +closed, and a suave, soft-spoken young man with a foreign east of +countenance waiting to make his superior's excuses. + +"Mr. North was called out of town quite unexpectedly on a wire," was the +private secretary's explanation. "He tried to telephone you at the +Brown, but the operator couldn't find you. He left me to explain, and +I've been wondering if you'd let me take his place as your host, Mr. +Ford." + +Now Ford's attitude toward his opponents was, by reason of his gifts, +openly belligerent; wherefore he fought against it and tried to be as +other men are. + +"I am sure Mr. North is quite excusable, and it is good-natured in you +to stand in the breach, Mr. Eckstein," he said. "Of course, I'll be glad +to go with you." + +They went to Tortoni's, and to a private room; and the luncheon was an +epicurean triumph. Eckstein talked well, and was evidently a young man +of parts. Not until the cigars were lighted did he suffer the table-talk +to come down to the railroad practicalities; and even then he merely +followed Ford's lead. + +"Oh, yes; we have made arrangements to give you a clear deck in the +Denver yards for your material and supplies," he said, in answer to a +question of Ford's about side-track room and yard facilities at the +point which would have to serve as his base. "Following your orders, we +have been forwarding all that your Plug Mountain rolling stock could +handle, but there is considerable more of it side-tracked here. After +the MacMorrogh grading outfit has gone to the front, we shall have more +room, however." + +"The MacMorrogh outfit?" queried Ford. "Do they store it in our yards?" + +"Oh, no. They have a pretty complete railroad yard of their own at +their headquarters in Pueblo. But they have three train-loads of tools +and machinery here now, waiting for your orders to send them to the +front." + +Ford weighed the possibilities thoughtfully and concluded that nothing +could be lost by a frank declaration of principles. + +"They have given you folks a wrong impression, Mr. Eckstein," he said +mildly. "The contract for the grading on the Western Extension is not +yet awarded; and if I can compass it, the MacMorrogh Brothers' bid will +be thrown out." + +The private secretary tried to look mystified, with just the proper +touch of a subordinate's embarrassment. + +"I'm only a clerk, Mr. Ford," he said, "and, of course, I'm not supposed +to know more than I see and hear in the regular way of business. But I +understood that the MacMorroghs were in the saddle; that they were only +waiting for you to provide track-room at Saint's Rest for their tool +cars and outfit." + +"No," said Ford. "It hasn't got that far along yet." + +Eckstein looked at his watch. + +"Don't let me keep you, if there is anything else you want to do, Mr. +Ford; but I'll confess you've aroused my curiosity. What is the matter +with the MacMorroghs?" + +Ford answered the question by asking another. + +"Do you know them, Mr. Eckstein?" + +"Why--yes; as Mr. North's chief clerk would be likely to know the firm +of contractors which has been given a good share of the Pacific +Southwestern work for a number of years." + +"Do you know any good of them?" + +"Bless me! yes: I don't know anything else of them. Three hearty, bluff, +rough-tongued Irishmen; lacking diplomacy and all the finer touches, if +you like, but good fellows and hustlers of the keenest." + +Ford fastened his companion in a steady eye-grip. "One question, Mr. +Eckstein; do they play fair with all concerned?" + +"They are more than fair; they are generous--with the company, and with +the company's representatives with whom they have to do business. On two +contracts with us they have lost money; but I happen to know that in +both instances they kept their promises to the engineering department to +the letter." + +Ford had cast off the eye-grip and he appeared to be studying the fresco +design of the ceiling over the private secretary's head. + +"And those promises were--?" + +Eckstein laughed boyishly. "You needn't make a mystery of it with me, +Mr. Ford. I'm one of the family, if I haven't any initials after my +name. I know--we all know--that there are certain profits--not made out +of the company, of course--that a contractor is always willing to share +with his good friends, the engineers." + +Ford's attitude instantly became that of a freshman wishing to learn the +ropes. + +"Consider me, Mr. Eckstein," he said. "I'm new to the construction +business--or at least, I've never been at the head of it before. What +are these--er--perquisites?" + +The private secretary thought he had entered the thin edge of the wedge +and he drove it heartily. + +"They are perfectly legitimate, of course. The contractors run a +commissary to supply the workmen--nobody suspects them of doing it at +cost. Then there are the fines imposed to secure faithful work, the _per +capita_ commission paid on the labor sent in by the engineers, the +discounts on time-checks, the weekly hospital and insurance dues +collected from the men. All those things amount to a good round profit +on a contract like ours." + +"To about how much, in figures, should you say?" queried Ford, with an +air of the deepest interest. + +"To enough to make your share, as head of the construction department, +touch ten thousand a year, on a job as big as ours--with a liberal +provision for Mr. Frisbie, besides." + +Ford blew reflective smoke rings toward the ceiling for a full minute or +more before he said quietly: "Do I understand that you are authorized to +guarantee me ten thousand a year in commissions from the MacMorrogh +Brothers, Mr. Eckstein?" + +Eckstein laughed. + +"You forget that I'm only a clerk, and an onlooker, as you may say. But +if you accept MacMorrogh's bid, and he doesn't do the square thing by +you and Mr. Frisbie, you may call me in as a witness, Mr. Ford. Does +that clear up the doubt?" + +"Perfectly," was the quiet rejoinder. "Under these conditions, I suppose +it is up to me to wire the executive committee, withdrawing my +objections to the MacMorroghs, isn't it?" + +"That is the one thing Mr. MacMorrogh asks." The secretary whipped out a +note-book and pencil. "Shall I take your message? I can send it when I +go back to the office." + +"Thank you," said Ford; then he began to dictate, slowly and +methodically: "To S.J. Colbrith, care McVeigh and Mackie, New York. This +is to recall my objections to MacMorrogh Brothers, as stated in letter +of the twenty-fifth from Chicago. Further investigation develops the +fact that they are quite honest and capable, and that they will pay me +ten thousand dollars a year for withdrawing my opposition." + +Eckstein's pencil had stopped and he was gasping for breath. + +"Great Scott!" he ejaculated. "That won't do, Mr. Ford! You can't put +a thing like that into a telegram to the president!" + +[Illustration: Eckstein's pencil had stopped and he was gasping for +breath] + +"Why not?" was the cool inquiry. "You said it was perfectly legitimate, +didn't you?" + +"Yes, but--" the entrance of a waiter to clear the table provided a +merciful stop-gap, and Eckstein, hurriedly consulting his watch, +switched abruptly. "By Jove! I'm due at the office this minute to meet a +lot of cattlemen," he stammered, and escaped like a man hastening for +first aid to the mistaken. + +Ford laughed long and silently when he found himself alone in the +private dining-room; and he was still chuckling by fits and starts when, +after an afternoon spent with Auditor Evans, he recounted his adventure +to Frisbie over the Brown café dinner table that evening. But Frisbie +took all the humor out of the luncheon episode when he said soberly: + +"He laughs best who laughs last, Stuart. Eckstein took a fall out of you +one way, even if he did fail in the other; he kept you safely shut up at +Tortoni's while Mr. North and the chief of the MacMorroghs got away on a +special train for New York. Beard, the Union Station operator, told me. +Which means that they'll have a full day with Mr. Colbrith and the +executive committee before you can possibly get there to butt in." + +"No, it doesn't; necessarily," Ford contradicted, rising suddenly and +signaling a waiter. + +"What are you going to do?" queried Frisbie, dropping his knife and +fork and preparing to second his chief. + +"Come and see. I'm going to get out another special train and give Mr. +North a run for his money," was the incisive answer. "Hike down to the +despatcher's office with me and help cut out the minutes." + + + + +XII + +THE ENTERING WEDGE + + +Has civilized humanity, in the plenitude of twentieth century +sophistication, fully determined that there is no such thing as +luck?--that all things are ordered, if not by Providence, at least by an +unchangeable sequence of cause and effect? + +Stuart Ford was a firm believer in the luck of the energetic; which is +to say that he regarded obstacles only as things to be beaten down and +abolished. But in the dash to overtake and pass the general manager's +one-car special, the belief was shaken almost to its reversal. + +He knew the Pacific Southwestern locomotives--and something of the men +who ran them. The 1016 was one of the fast eight-wheelers; and Olson, +the engineer, who had once pulled passenger on the Plug Mountain, was +loyal and efficient. Happily, both the man and the machine were +available; and while Frisbie was calling up the division superintendent +at his house to ask the loan of his private car for the assistant to +the president, Ford was figuring the schedule with the despatcher, and +insisting upon speed--more speed. + +"What's come over you big bosses, all at once?" said Darby, to whom +Ford's promotion was no bar to fellowship or free speech. "First Mr. +North wants me to schedule a special that will break the record; and now +you want to string one that will beat his record." + +"Never mind my troubles, Julius," was the evasive reply. "Just you +figure to keep things out of my way and give me a clear track. Let's +see--where were we? Cheyenne Crossing at 2 a.m., water at Riddle Creek, +coal at Brockton--" + +The schedule was completed when Frisbie came back to say that the 1016, +with the superintendent's car attached, was waiting on track Six. Ford +went down, looked the gift horse in the mouth, and had the running gear +of the car overhauled under his own supervision before he would give +Olson the word to go, pressing the night car inspectors into service and +making them repack the truck journals while he waited. + +"I'm taking no chances," he said to Frisbie; and truly it seemed that +all the hindrances had been carefully forestalled when he finally +boarded the "01" and ordered his flagman to give Olson the signal. Yet +before the one-car train was well out of the Denver yards there was a +jolting stop, and the flagman came in to report that the engine had +dropped from the end of an open switch, blocking the main line. + +Ford got out and directed the reënrailment of the 1016, carefully +refraining from bullying the big Swede, whose carelessness must have +been accountable. It was the simplest of accidents, with nothing broken +or disabled. Under ordinary conditions, fifteen minutes should have +covered the loss of time. But the very haste with which the men wrought +was fatal. Enrailing frogs have a way of turning over at the critical +instant when the wheels are climbing, and jack-screws bottomed on the +tie-ends do not always hold. + +Eight several times were the jack-screws adjusted and the frogs clamped +into position; but not until the ninth trial could the perverse wheels +be induced to roll workmanlike up the inclined planes and into place on +the rails. Ford looked at his watch when his special was free of the +switches and Olson was speeding up on the first long tangent. With the +chase still in its opening mile, Mr. North's lead had been increased +from seven hours to eight. + +Leaving Denver on the spur of the moment, Ford had necessarily left many +things at a standstill; and his first care, after he had assured himself +that the race was fairly begun, was to write out a handful of telegrams +designed to keep the battle alive during his enforced absence from the +firing line. The superintendent's desk was hospitably unlocked, and for +a busy half-hour Ford filled blank after blank, steadying himself +against the pounding swing of the heavily ballasted car with a +left-handed grip on the desk end. When there remained no one else to +remind, he wrote out a message to Adair, forecasting the threatened +disaster, and urging the necessity of rallying the reconstructionists on +the board of directors. + +"That ought to stir him up," he said to himself, bunching Adair's +telegram with the others to be sent from the first stop where the +Western Union wires could be tapped. Then he whirled around in the swing +chair and scowled up at the little dial in the end of the car; scowled +at the speed-recorder, and went to the door to summon the flagman. + +"What's the matter with Olson?" he demanded. "Has he forgotten how to +run since he left the Plug Mountain? Climb up over the coal and tell him +that forty miles an hour won't do for me to-night." + +The flagman picked up his lantern and went forward; and in a minute or +two later the index finger of the speed-recorder began to mount slowly +toward the fifties. At fifty-two miles to the hour, Ford, sitting in the +observation end of the car where he could see the ghostly lines of the +rails reeling backward into the night, smelled smoke--the unmistakable +odor of burning oil. In three strides he had reached the rear platform, +and a fourth to the right-hand railing showed him one of the car-boxes +blazing to heaven. + +He pulled the cord of the air-whistle, and after the stop stood by in +sour silence while the crew repacked the hot box. Since he had made the +car inspectors carefully overhaul the truck gear in the Denver station, +there was no one to swear at. Olson bossed the job, did it neatly and in +silence, and no one said anything when the fireman, in his haste to be +useful, upset the dope-kettle and got its contents well sanded before he +had overtaken it in its rolling flight down the embankment. + +Ford turned away and climbed into his car at the dope-kettle incident. +There are times when retreat is the only recipe for self-restraint; and +in imagination he could see the general manager's special ticking off +the miles to the eastward while his own men were sweating over the +thrice-accursed journal-bearing under the "01." + +Now, as every one knows, hot boxes, besides being perversely incurable, +are the sworn enemies of high speed. At forty miles to the hour the +journal was smoking again. At forty-five it burst into flames. Once more +it was patiently cooled by bucketings of water drawn from the engine +tank; after which necessary preliminary Olson spoke his mind. + +"Ay tank ve never get someveres vit dat hal-fer-damn brass, Meester +Ford. Ay yust see if Ay can't find 'noder wone." And he rummaged in the +car lockers till he did find another. + +Unfortunately, however, the spare brass proved to be of the wrong +pattern; a Pullman, instead of a P. S-W. standard. Olson was a trained +mechanic and a man of resources, and he chipped and filed and scraped at +the misfit brass until he made it serve. But when he climbed again to +the cab of his engine, and Ford swung up to the steps of the car, the +white headlight eye of an east-bound freight, left at a siding a full +hour's run to the rear, came in sight from the observation platform of +the laboring special. + +These were the inauspicious beginnings of the pursuit; and the middle +part and the ending varied only in degree. All the way up to midnight, +at which hour a station of a bigness to supply a standard brass was +reached, the tinkered journal-bearing gave trouble and killed speed. Set +once more in running order upon its full quota of sixteen practicable +wheels, the special had fallen so far behind its Denver-planned schedule +as not only to be in the way of everything else on the division, but to +find everything else in its way. Ford held on stubbornly until the lead +of the train he was trying to outrun had increased to twelve hours. Then +he gave it up, directing his crew to turn the train on the nearest "Y," +and to ask for retracing orders to Denver. After which he went to bed in +the state-room of the borrowed car, and for the first time in his +experience was a man handsomely beaten by the perversity of insensate +things. + +The request for the retracing orders was sent from Coquina; and when it +came clicking into the despatcher's office at Denver, a sleep-sodden +young man with an extinct cigar between his teeth rose up out of his +chair, stretched, yawned, and pointed for the door. + +"Going to leave us, Mr. Eckstein?" said the trick despatcher who was +sitting at the train table. + +"Yes. If Mr. Ford has changed his mind, I may as well go home and go to +bed." + +"Reckon he forgot something, and has to come back after it?" laughed the +operator. + +"Maybe," said the private secretary, and he went out, shutting the door +behind him with the bat-like softness and precision that was his +distinguishing characteristic. + +The sounders were clicking monotonously when the trick man turned to the +relief operator who was checking Darby's transfer sheet. + +"What do you suppose Eckstein was up to, sitting here all night, Jim?" + +"Give it up," said the relief man. "Ask me something easy." + +"I'll bet a hen worth fifty dollars I can guess. He didn't want Mr. Ford +to make time." + +The relief man looked up from his checking. + +"Why? He didn't do anything. He was asleep more'n half the time." + +"Don't you fool yourself," said the other. "He heard every word that +came in about that hot box. And if the hot box hadn't got in the way, +I'll bet a cockerel worth seventy-five dollars, to go with that +fifty-dollar hen, that he would have tangled me up somehow till I had +shuffled a freight train or something in Mr. Ford's way. He's Mr. +North's man, body and soul; and Mr. North doesn't love Mr. Ford." + +"Oh, rats, Billy!" scoffed the relief man, getting up to fill his +corn-cob pipe from the common tobacco bag. "You're always finding a +nigger in the wood-pile, when there isn't any. Say; that's 201 asking +for orders from Calotte. Why don't you come to life and answer 'em?" + +Frisbie, breakfasting early at the Brown Palace on the morning following +the night of hinderings, was more than astonished when Ford came in and +took the unoccupied seat at the table-for-two. + +"Let me eat first," said the beaten one, when Frisbie would have whelmed +him with curious questions; and with the passing of the cutlets and the +coffee he told the tale of the hindrances. + +"I guess it was foreordained not to be," he admitted, in conclusion. "We +tried mighty hard to bully it through, but the fates were too many and +too busy for us." + +"Tricks?" suggested Frisbie, suspecting North of covering his flight +with special instructions to delay a possible pursuit. + +"Oh, no; nothing of that sort: just the cursed depravity of inanimate +things. Every man concerned worked hard and in good faith. It was luck. +No one of us happened to have a rabbit's foot in his pocket." + +"You don't believe in luck," laughed the assistant. + +"Don't I? I know I used to say that I didn't. But after last night I +can't be so sure of it." + +"Well, what's the cost to us?" inquired Frisbie, coming down out of the +high atmosphere of the superstitious to stand upon the solid earth of +railway-building fact. + +"I don't know: possibly failure. There is no guessing what sort of a +scheme North will cook up when he and MacMorrogh get Mr. Colbrith +_cornered_." + +"Oh, it can't be as bad as that. Take it at the worst--admitting that we +may have to struggle along with the MacMorroghs for our general +contractors; they can't addle the egg entirely, can they?" + +Ford tabulated it by length and breadth. + +"With the MacMorroghs in the forefront of things to steal and cheat and +make trouble with the labor, and Mr. North in the rear to back them up +and to retard matters generally, we are in for a siege to which +purgatory, if we ever go there, will seem restful, Richard my son. Our +one weapon is my present ranking authority over the general manager. If +he ever succeeds in breaking that, you fellows in the field would better +hunt you another railroad to build." + +"It's a comfort to know that you _are_ the big boss, Stuart. North can't +knock you out of that when it comes to a show-down." + +"I don't know," said Ford, whose night ride had made him pessimistic. "I +am Mr. Colbrith's appointee, you know--not an elected officer. And what +Mr. Colbrith has done, he may be induced to undo. Adair has been my +backer in everything; but while he is the best fellow in the world, he +is continually warning me that he may lose interest in the game at any +minute and drop it. He doesn't care a rap for the money-making part of +it--doesn't have to." + +"Wouldn't Adair be a good safety-switch to throw in front of Mr. North +and MacMorrogh in New York?" + +Ford nodded. "I thought of that last night, and sent a wire. We'll hear +from it to-day." + +Frisbie ate through the remainder of the breakfast in silence. +Afterward, at the pipe-lighting, he asked if Ford's wire instructions of +the night before still held good. + +"They do," was the emphatic reply. "We go on just as if nothing had +happened, or was due to happen. You say your man Crapsey will be in this +morning: gather up your laborers and turn the Plug Mountain into a +standard-gauge railroad while we wait. That's all, Dick; all but one +word--hustle." + +"Hustle it is. But say: you were going to give me a pointer on that +broad-gauging. I've been stewing over it for a day and a night, and I +don't think of any scheme that won't stop the traffic." + +"Don't you? That is because you haven't mulled over it as long as I +have. In the first place, you have no curves to straighten and no +cross-ties to relay--our predecessors having set the good example of +using standard length ties for their three-foot road. String your men +out in gangs as far as they'll go, and swing the three-foot track, as a +whole, ten inches out of center to the left. You can do that without +stopping trains, can't you?" + +"Sure." + +"All right. When you swing, spike the right-hand rail lightly. Then +string your gangs again and set a line of spikes for the outside of the +standard-gauge right-hand rail straight through to Saint's Rest. Got +that?" + +"Yes; I guess I've got it all. But go on." + +"Now you are ready for the grand-stand play. Call in all your +narrow-gauge rolling stock, mass your men at this end of the branch, +shove the right-hand rail over to the line of gauge spikes in sections +as long as your force will cover, and follow up with a standard-gauge +construction train to pick up the men and carry them forward as fast as +a section is completed. If you work it systematically, a freight train +could leave Denver two hours behind your track-gangs and find a +practical standard gauge all the way to Saint's Rest." + +"Of course!" said Frisbie, in workmanlike disgust for his own +obtuseness. "I'm going back to the Tech when your railroad is finished +and learn a few things. I couldn't think of anything but the old Erie +Railroad scheme, when it was narrowed down from the six-foot gauge. They +did it in one night; but they had a man to every second cross-tie over +the whole four hundred miles from New York to Buffalo." + +Ford nodded, adding: + +"And we're not that rich in labor. By the way, how are the men coming?" + +"A car-load or two, every little while. Say, Stuart, you must have had a +rabbit's foot with you when you touched up the eastern labor agencies. +Every other railroad in this neck of woods is skinned, and M'Grath is +having the time of his life trying to hold our levies together. There is +a small army of them under canvas at Saint's Rest, waiting for the +contractors, and another with between two and three hundred hands camped +at the mouth of the canyon." + +Ford knocked the ashes from his pipe so hard that the pipestem fell in +two. + +"Yes! all waiting on Mr. Colbrith's leisurely motions! Well, jump in on +the Plug Mountain. That will utilize some of the waste for a few days." + +Frisbie went down to the Plug Mountain yard office, and to a wire-end, +to begin the marshaling of his forces; and Ford, with three picked-up +stenographers to madden him, took up the broken threads of his +correspondence with a world which seemed to have become suddenly peopled +to suffocation with eager sellers of railroad material and supplies. + +Late in the afternoon, when he was tired enough to feel the full force +of the blow, a New York telegram came. It was from Miss Alicia Adair, +and Ford groaned in spirit when he read it. + + Brother left here yesterday in the Vanderdecken yacht for Nova + Scotia. Can not reach him by telegraph until next Friday or + Saturday. Aunt Hester wants to know if there is anything she can + do. + +One way to save a man's life at a crisis is to appeal to his sense of +humor. Miss Alicia's closing sentence did that for Ford, and he was +smiling grimly when he put the telegram away, not in the business file, +but in his pocket. + +Three days later, however, when Frisbie was half-way to Saint's Rest +with his preliminary track-swinging, another New York telegram found +Ford in his newly established quarters in the Guaranty Building. This +was from some one acting as President Colbrith's secretary, and its +wording was concisely mandatory. + + Contract has been awarded MacMorrogh Brothers. President directs + that you afford contractors every facility, and that you confer + with Mr. North in all cases of doubt. + + + + +XIII + +THE BARBARIANS + + +It was some little time after the rock had begun to fly from the +cuttings on the western slopes of the mountains that Kenneth, summoned +by Ford, made the run from Denver to Saint's Rest over the standardized +Plug Mountain branch and found the engineer-manager living in a +twenty-foot caboose car fitted as a hotel and an office-on-wheels. + +The occasion of Kenneth's calling was a right-of-way dispute on the +borders of the distant Copah mining district; some half-dozen mining +claims having been staked off across the old S. L & W. survey. The +owners, keen to make a killing out of the railroad company, threatened +injunctions if the P. S-W. persisted in trespassing upon private +property; and Ford, suspecting shrewdly that the mine men were set on by +the Transcontinental people to delay the work on the new line, made +haste to shift his responsibility to the legal shoulders. + +"If I hadn't known you for a pretty good mountaineer, Kenneth, +you would have missed this," he said, making his guest free of the +limited hospitality of the caboose-hotel. "Are you good for a +two-hundred-and-eighty-mile cayuse ride, there and back, on the same +trail we tramped over a year ago last spring?" + +"I'm good for everything on the bill of fare," was the heartening reply. +"How are things going?" + +Ford's rejoinder began with a non-committal shrug. "We're building a +railroad, after a fashion." + +"After a good fashion, I hope?" + +Another shrug. + +"We're doing as well as we can with the help we have. But about this +right-of-way tangle--" and he plunged his guest into a discussion of the +Copah situation which ran on unbroken until bedtime. + +They took the westward trail together in the morning, mounted upon wiry +little mountain-bred ponies furnished by one Pacheco, the half-breed +Mexican who had once earned an easy double-eagle by spying upon two men +who were out hunting with an engineer's transit. For seven weeks Frisbie +had been pushing things, and the grade from Saint's Rest to the summit +of the pass was already a practicable wagon road, deserted by the +leveling squads and ready for the ties and the steel. + +From the summit of the pass westward, down the mountain and through the +high-lying upper valley of the Pannikin, the grade work was in full +swing. The horse trail, sometimes a rough cart-road, but oftener a mere +bridle-path, followed the railroad in its loopings and doublings; and on +the mountain sections where the work was heaviest the two riders were +never out of sight of the heavily manned grading gangs. + +"To a man up a tree you appear to be doing a whole lot, and doing it +quickly, Ford," commented the lawyer, when they had passed camp after +camp of the workers. Then he added: "You are not having any trouble with +the MacMorroghs, are you?" + +"Not what the legal department would call trouble," answered Ford +evasively; and for ten other miles the narrowness of the bridle-path +discouraged conversation. + +Farther down in the valley of the Pannikin the activities were less +thickly sown. On many sections the work was light; no more than the +throwing up of an embankment in the park-like intervales, with now and +then a rock-or earth-cutting through some jutting spur of the inclosing +mountains. Here the men were bunched on the rock work and the fills, +though the camp sites were commonly in the park-like interspaces where +wood and water, the two sole commodities for which the contractors could +make no deductions on the pay-roll, lay conveniently at the doors of the +rude sleeping shacks. + +Since he was not required to talk, Kenneth had time to be curiously +observant of many things in passing. Each camp was the fellow of its +neighbor; a chaotic collection of hastily built bunk shanties, a mess +tent for those who, shunning the pay-devouring Scylla of the +contractors' "commissary," fell into the Charybdis of the common table, +and always, Kenneth remarked, the camp groggery, with its slab-built +bar, its array of ready-filled pocket bottles, and its sad-faced, +slouch-hatted, pistol-carrying keeper. + +"What is that Bible-saying about the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty +land?" said Kenneth, as they were passing one of the wilderness +bar-rooms buttressing a huge boulder by the trail side. "I should think +you'd rule those fellows emphatically and peremptorily out of the game, +Ford. They must make a lot of trouble for you, first and last." + +"They do," was the sober response. "But how would you go about it to +rule them out?" + +The lawyer laughed. "My writs don't run this far. But I thought yours +did. Why don't you fire 'em bodily; tell 'em their number is +23--skiddoo! Aren't you the Sublime Porte--the court of last resort--the +big boss--over here?" + +Ford pulled his horse down to a walk. + +"Kenneth, let me tell you: behind those barkeepers are the contractors; +behind the contractors is Mr. North; behind Mr. North, the president. My +little lever isn't long enough to turn the world over." + +"Pshaw!" said Kenneth. "Mr. Colbrith wouldn't stand for anything like +that! Why, he's a perfect fanatic on the whisky question." + +"That's all right," said Ford acidly. "It doesn't go as far as Mr. +Colbrith in the matter of the debauching particulars. It stops in +Denver; and Mr. Colbrith approves Denver in the lump--signs the vouchers +without looking at them, as Evans would say. I tell you what I +believe--what I am compelled to believe. These individual saloon-keepers +are supposed to be in here on their own hook, on sufferance. They are +not; they are merely the employees of a close corporation. Among the +profit sharers you'll find the MacMorroghs at the top, and Mr. North's +little ring of Denver officials close seconds." + +"Do you honestly believe that, Ford?" + +"I do. I can't prove it, of course. If I could, I'd go to New York and +fight it out. And the whisky isn't all of it, or even the worst: there +are women in some of these camps, and there would be more if Leckhard +didn't stand guard at Saint's Rest and turn them back." + +"Heavens--what a cesspool!" said the attorney. "Does a laboring man ever +get out of here with any of his earnings?" + +"Not if the MacMorroghs can help it. And you can figure for yourself +what the moral atmosphere must be. We are less than two months old on +the work, but already the Western Extension is a streak of crime; crime +unpunished, and at times tacitly encouraged. You may say that my +department isn't responsible--that this is the contractors' day and +game. If that is true now--which it isn't--it will no longer be true +when we come in with our own employees, the track-layers." + +But now Kenneth was shaking his head. + +"I can't believe it, Ford. You're blue because Mr. Colbrith has thrown +Mr. North into your boat as ballast. I don't blame you: but you mustn't +let it make you color-blind." + +Ford said nothing. The day was yet young, and the long journey was still +younger. It was at the noon halt, made at a subcontractor's camp near a +great earth-cutting and a huge fill, that Kenneth had his object lesson. + +They were standing at the door of the timekeeper's shanty--they had been +the timekeeper's guests for the noon meal--and the big gang of Italians, +with its inevitable Irish foreman, was already at work. Out at the head +of the great fill a dozen men were dumping the carts as they came in an +endless stream from the cutting. Suddenly there was a casting down of +shovels, a shrill altercation, a clinch, a flash of steel in the August +sunlight, and one of the disputants was down, his heels drumming on the +soft earth in the death agony. + +"Good God!" said Kenneth. "It's a murder!" and he would have rushed in +if Ford and the timekeeper had not held him back. + +The object lesson was sufficiently shocking, but its sequel was still +more revolting. Without one to kneel beside the dying man; indeed, +without waiting until the drumming heels were still; the men callously +put their shovels under the body, slid it over the lip of the dump and +left it to be covered by the tumbling cataract of earth pouring from the +tip-carts whose orderly procession had scarcely been interrupted by the +tragedy. + +Kenneth was silent for many minutes after they had left the camp of the +Italians. He was a Western man only by adoption; of Anglo-Saxon blood, +and so unable to condone the Latin's disregard for the sacredness of +human life. + +"That was simply terrible, Ford," he said finally, and his voice was +still in sympathy with the shaking hand that held the bridle-reins. +"Will nothing be done?" + +"Nothing; unless the murdered man chances to have relatives or clansmen +in one of the near-by camps--in which case there'll be another killing." + +"But the law," said Kenneth. + +"There is no law here higher than the caprice of Brian MacMorrogh. +Besides, it's too common--a mere episode; one of those which you said +you couldn't believe, a little while back." + +"But can't you make the MacMorroghs do a little police work, for common +decency's sake?" + +Ford shook his head. "They are quite on the other side of the fence, as +I told you in the beginning. By winking at lawlessness of all kinds, +their own particular brands of lawlessness, by which they and their +backers make money, go unquestioned. So far from helping, they'd make it +exceedingly difficult for any sheriff who should have the temerity to +come in here in the discharge of his duty." + +"You foresaw all this before the contract was awarded?" + +"Not all--though I had been told that the MacMorroghs ran 'open camps' +where the work was far enough from civilization to take the curse off. +What you've seen, and what I've been telling you, is bad enough, God +knows; but it will be worse before it is better. After we've had a few +pay-days, and the men begin to realize that they are here to toil and to +be robbed ... Kenneth, it will be hell on earth; and the company will +pay for it--the company always pays in the end." + +"I've got a notion," said the attorney, after another plodding mile of +reflection; but what it was he did not say. + +Ford and his companion reached Copah in the afternoon of the third day +out from Saint's Rest, and, singularly enough, the mine owners who were +disputing the extension right-of-way were found amenable to reason. What +Kenneth did to secure the P. S-W. right-of-way across the mining claims, +Ford did not know, or seek to know; though a word or two let fall by the +attorney led him to believe that the Transcontinental encouragement was +not quite specific enough in dollars and cents to warrant the +obstructors in holding out. + +Ford was for starting back the next morning: he had missed Brissac and +both of the Bensons on the way over. But Kenneth confessed to being +saddle-sore, and begged for another day's respite. Ford agreed without +giving the matter a second thought. Upon such unconsidered trifles--an +indifferent "yes" or "no"--turn the poised scales of life. For one other +day the two Southwestern representatives put up at the Grand Union, +Copah's tar-paper-covered simulacrum of a hotel; and during that day +Ford contrived to sell his birthright for what he, himself, valued at +the moment as a mess of pottage. + +It was in this wise. At this period of its existence Copah, the future +great, was merely a promise; a camp of magnificent prospects. Isolated +by one hundred and fifty miles of wagon-road and pack-trail from one +railroad base, and by forty miles of mountains from the other, its +future turned upon the hope of cheaper transportation. As a gold camp it +was an anomaly. With a single exception its ores were low grade, and the +wagon-road and pack-trail freightage made them practically profitless to +the miners. + +The single exception was the "Little Alicia," and it was the coincidence +of the name, rather than the eloquence of its impoverished owner, that +first attracted Ford. From first to last he did not know the exact +location of the mine. It was somewhere in the hills back of Copah, and +Grigsby, the prospector who had discovered and opened it, had an office +in the camp. + +It was in Grigsby's town office that Ford saw the ore specimens and the +certified assays, and listened not too credulously to Grigsby's +enthusiastic description of the Little Alicia. To be a half-owner in +this mine of mines was to be rich beyond the dreams of avarice--when the +railroad should come: if one might take Grigsby's word for it. + +It is a curious fever, that which seizes upon the new-comer in an +unexploited mining field. Ford was far from being money-mad; but there +were times when he could not help contrasting a railroad salary with +Miss Adair's millions. True, he had once said to her, in the fulness of +confident belief, that the money of the woman he loved would make no +difference--to her or to him. But the point of view, wise or foolish, is +not always the same. There were moments when the Adair millions loomed +large, and the salary of an assistant to the president--who was in fact +little more than a glorified chief of construction--shrank in +proportion. He was free of obligation and foot-loose. His twenty +thousand dollars invested in P. S-W. stock at twenty-nine and a half had +grown with the rising market to sixty-odd. What did it matter to any one +if he chose to put ten thousand of the sixty-odd on a turn of the +Little Alicia card? + +While it was gambling, pure and simple, he did not bet with his eyes +shut. Inquiry at the Bank of Copah established Grigsby's reputation for +truth-telling. The specimens and the assay certificates were beyond +doubt genuine. More than this, Grigsby had made a number of ore +shipments by freighters' wagon and jack train over the range, and the +returns had enabled him to keep a small force of men at work in the +mine. + +Ford made his bet through the bank. The cashier was willing to take a +P. S-W. official's note of hand, to be canceled when Ford could deposit +to the bank's credit in Denver, and to give Grigsby an open account for +his immediate needs. Grigsby accepted joyfully, and the thing was done. +Ford's mess of pottage was a deed of half-ownership in the Little +Alicia, executed and recorded in the afternoon of the day of stop-overs, +and he was far enough from suspecting that he had exchanged for it all +that a man of honor holds dearest. But, as a matter of fact, the +birthright had not yet been handed over: that came later. + + + + +XIV + +THE DRAW-BAR PULL + + +Attorney Kenneth had many more object-lessons in the study of "open +camps" on the three-day return ride to Saint's Rest. The day of +stop-over in Copah chanced to be the MacMorrogh Brothers' monthly +pay-day, and until the men's money was spent pandemonium reigned along +the line of the extension. + +Some of it they dodged, riding wide to pass the larger camps, and +hearing from afar the noise of carousal, the fierce drinking songs of +the Magyars, the fusillades of pistol-shots. So far as they could see, +all work appeared to be suspended; and Major Benson, whose camp of +engineers they picked up in one of the detours around a gulch head, +confirmed that conclusion. + +"It was the same way last month," raged the major, twisting his fierce +white mustaches and looking as if he would like to blot the name of +MacMorrogh from the roster of humanity. "It'll take a full week to get +them into the swing again, and MacMorrogh will be up with his estimates +just the same as if he had been working full time. I'll cut 'em; by the +gods, I'll cut 'em! And you must stand by me, Mr. Ford." + +There was the same story to be listened to at Brissac's tie camp; and +again at young Benson's headquarters, which were on the mountain +section. This last was on the third day, however, when the madness was +dying down. Some of the rock men were back on the job, but many of the +gangs were still grievously short-handed. Ford said little to Kenneth. +The pandemonium spoke for itself. But on the third night, when the long +ride was ended, and Pietro, Ford's cook and man-of-all-work, was serving +supper in the caboose office-on-wheels, some of the bitterness in Ford's +heart slipped into speech. + +"Can you see now how it takes the very marrow out of a man's bones, +Kenneth? You may think of an engineer as a man of purely bull-headed +purposes, merely trying, in a crass, materialistic way, to get a +material thing done. I want to do a big thing, and I'd like to do it in +a big way. It _is_ a big thing--the building of this extension. If it +doesn't add another star to the flag, it will at least make one state +twice as populous, twice as prosperous. It will add its quota to the +habitable surfaces; and it's a good quota--a land that some future +generation will love, and swear by, and fight for, if need be. And to +think that for one man's narrow-mindedness and another's greed we've got +to christen it in blood and muck and filth and dishonesty--it makes me +sore, Kenneth; sore and disheartened." + +"I don't blame you," said the lawyer, reveling, though he would never +have admitted it, in the comfort of the caboose headquarters journey's +end. "But you'll pull through; you'll build your railroad, and the +mistakes that are made won't be your mistakes. It's a horrible state of +affairs, that in the MacMorrogh camps; a blot on our boasted +civilization. But you can't help it. Or rather you will help it if, and +when, you can." + +Ford was shaking his head dejectedly. + +"I don't know, Kenneth. It's getting next to me, even at this early +stage of the game. Have you ever stood on the front car platform of a +train nearest to the engine and watched the jiggling draw-bar? It is +apparently loose; its hold on the engine seems to be no more than that +of the touch of clasped hands in a gipsy dance. Yet it never lets go, +and the drag of it is always there. By and by, when the coal is all +burned, and the fire is out, and the water is drained from the tank, +those gentle little multiplied jerks will pull the big engine down--kill +it--make it a mere mass of inert metal blocking the way of progress." + +"Well?" said the attorney. + +"It's an allegory. I'm beginning to feel the draw-bar pull. Sooner or +later, North and his clique will drag me down. I can't fight as the +under dog--I never learned how; and they've fixed it so that I can't +fight any other way." + +Kenneth had lighted his cigar and was lying back against the cushion of +the car-seat. After a little, he said: "Just after we saw the Italian +killed last week I told you I had a notion, Ford. I've got it yet, and +I've been turning it over in my mind and wondering if I'd better explode +it on you. On the whole, I think I'd better not. It's a case of surgery. +If the patient lives, you'll know about it. If the patient dies, you'll +be no worse off than you are now. Shall we let it rest at that?" + +Ford acquiesced. He was too utterly disheartened to be curious. But if +he could have foreseen the results of Kenneth's notion it is conceivable +that he would have been aroused to some effort of protest, as even in +deep waters one prays sometimes to be delivered from his friends. + +It was a week after this farewell supper in the caboose hotel at Saint's +Rest when Ford went down to Denver to borrow, on his P. S-W. stock, the +ten thousand dollars to be deposited to the credit of the Bank of Copah. +Following him, and only one train behind, came Frisbie, new from a +confirmatory survey of the extension beyond the Copah district. + +On his return from the Green Butte end of the proposed line, the little +man with the diabolical fashion of beard trimming had spent a week in +and around Copah, picking up yard rights-of-way, surveying approaches, +and setting grade stakes for the outlying MacMorrogh gangs. During that +week he had made a discovery, and since he believed it to be all his +own, he journeyed eastward to share it quickly with his chief. + +Ford was dining alone at the Brown Palace when Frisbie, coming straight +from the Plug Mountain train, found him. There was an entire western +desert to be talked over during the courses, and Frisbie held his +discovery in reserve until they had gone to smoke in a quiet corner of +the great rotunda. Even then he approached it indirectly. + +"In taking up the line down the Pannikin we have followed the old S. L & +W. survey pretty closely all the way from start to finish. What were +your reasons, Stuart?" he asked. + +"There didn't seem to be any good reason for not following it. Brandreth +made the S. L & W. preliminary, and there isn't a better locating +engineer in this country." + +"I know," said Frisbie. "But the best of us make mistakes, now and then. +Brandreth made a pretty sizable one, I think." + +"How is that?" + +"You know where the big rock-cutting is to be made in the lower canyon, +about ten miles this side of the point where we begin to swing south for +the run to Copah--a mile and a half of heavy work that will cost away +up into the pictures?" + +"Yes; I've estimated that rock work at not a cent less than two hundred +thousand dollars." + +"You're shy, rather than over, at that. And two hundred thousand would +build a number of miles of ordinary railroad, wouldn't it? But that +isn't all. The cliffs along that canyon are shale-topped and +shale-undermined, the shale alternating with loose rock about fifty feet +above our line of grade in quarter-mile stretches all along. That means +incessant track-walking day and night through the mile and a half of +cutting, and afterward--for all time afterward--a construction train +kept handy under steam to clear away débris that will never quit sliding +down on the embankment." + +"I'm afraid you are right," said Ford. "It's the worst bit on the entire +extension; the most costly to build, as it will be the most expensive to +maintain. But I guess Brandreth knew what he was about when he surveyed +it." + +"Brandreth is a short-line man. He wouldn't lengthen his line ten miles +to dodge an earthquake. Ford, we can save a hundred thousand dollars on +that piece of track in first cost--to say nothing of the future." + +"How? I'm always open to conviction." + +"By leaving the S. L & W. survey at Horse Creek, following up to the low +divide at Emory's Mine, and crossing to enter Copah from the southeast +instead of from the northeast. I came out that way from Copah five days +ago. It's perfectly feasible; straight-away, easy earth work for the +greater part, and the only objection is that it adds about twelve +running miles to the length of the extension. It's for you to say +whether or not the added distance will be warranted by the lessened cost +and the assurance of safety in operating. If we cut through that lower +canyon cliff it will be only a question of time until we bury somebody, +no matter how closely it is watched." + +Ford took time to consider the proposal. There were objections, and he +named one of them. + +"The MacMorroghs have based their bid on the present survey: they will +not want to let that piece of rock work drop out of sight." + +"They'll have to, if you say so. And you can afford to be pretty liberal +with them on the substituted twelve miles." + +"I'll have to think about it over night," was Ford's final answer. +"Arrange to give me an hour to-morrow morning and we'll go over the maps +and your notes together." + +Frisbie slept soundly on the gained inch, hoping to make it the coveted +ell in the morning. He knew the chief objection, which was that Ford, +too, was a "short-line" engineer; a man who would lay down his railroad +as the Czar of Russia did the St. Petersburg-Moscow line--by placing a +ruler on the map and drawing a straight mark beside it between the two +cities--if that were an American possibility. But he knew, too, that the +safety clause would weigh heavily with Ford, and there was no minimizing +the danger to future traffic if the canyon route should be retained. + +It turned out finally as the first assistant had hoped and believed it +would. Ford spent a thoughtful hour at his office in the Guaranty +Building before Frisbie came down--the little man being trail-weary +enough to sleep late in the comfortable room at the Brown Palace. The +slight change of route was hardly a matter to be carried up to the +executive committee, and Ford's decision turned upon quite another +pivot--the addition of twelve miles of distance. As against this, safety +and economy won the day; and when Frisbie came in the talk was merely of +ways and means. + +"Fix up the change with the MacMorroghs the best way you can," was +Ford's concluding instruction to his lieutenant. "They will kick, of +course; merely to be kicking at anything I suggest. But you can bring +them to terms, I guess." + +"By my lonesome?" said Frisbie. "Aren't you going over to see the new +route with your own eyes?" + +"No. I'm perfectly willing to trust your judgment, Dick. Besides, I've +got other fish to fry. I'm going east to-night to have one more tussle +with the steel mills. We must have quicker deliveries and more of them. +When I get back, we'll organize the track-layers and begin to make us a +railroad." + +"Good," said Frisbie, gathering up his maps and sketches of the detour +country; and so, in the wording of a brief sentence or two it came to +pass that Ford delivered himself bound and unarmed into the hands of his +enemies. + +A little light was thrown upon this dark passage that night in the +office of the general manager, after Ford's train had gone eastward, and +Frisbie was on his way back to the MacMorrogh headquarters on the lower +Pannikin. North was waiting when Eckstein came in, flushed as from a +rapid walk. + +"It's all settled?" asked the general manager, with a slow lift of the +eyebrow to betray his anxiety. + +"To the queen's taste, I should say," was the secretary's not too +deferential reply. "Ford's out of the way, to be gone ten days or a +fortnight, and Frisbie has gone back to dicker with MacMorrogh, and to +survey the new route up Horse Creek. Ford doesn't know; I doubt if he +will ever know until we spring the trap on him. The one thing I was most +afraid of was that he would insist upon going over the new line himself. +Then, of course, he would have found out--he couldn't help finding out." + +The general manager squared his huge shoulders against the back of the +chair. + +"You think he would call it off if he knew?" he queried. "You give him +credit for too much virtue, Eckstein. But I think we have him now. By +the time he returns it will be too late for him to hedge. MacMorrogh +will see to that." + +Eckstein nodded. "I made a point of that with Brian," he said. "The +minute the word is given he is to throw a little army of graders upon +the new roundabout. But Ford won't find out. He'll be too busy on this +end of the line with the track-layers. I'm a little nervous about +Merriam, though." + +"He's the man who talked Frisbie into championing the new route?" + +"Yes. He did it pretty skilfully: made Frisbie think he was finding it +out himself, and never let the little man out of his sight while they +were in Copah. But I am afraid Merriam himself knows too much." + +"Get him out of the country--before Ford gets back," was the crisp +order. "If he isn't here when the gun goes off, he can't tell anybody +how it was loaded." + +"An appointment--" Eckstein began. + +"That is what I mean," said the general manager, turning back to his +desk. "We need a traffic agency up in the Oregon country. See +Merriam--to-night. Find out if he'd like to have the general agency at, +say, twenty-five hundred a year; and if he agrees, get out the circular +appointing him." + +"He'll agree, fast enough," laughed the secretary. "But I'll nail +him--to-night." + +Ford spent rather more than two weeks in his round-up of the eastern +steel mills, and there was a terrific accumulation of correspondence +awaiting him when he reached Denver. At the top of the pile was an +official circular appointing one George Z. Merriam, a man whom Ford +remembered, or seemed vaguely to remember, as one of the MacMorrogh +bookkeepers, general agent of the P. S-W., with headquarters at Portland, +Oregon. And at the bottom of the accumulation was a second official +printing, bearing the approval of the president, this; and Ford's eyes +gloomed angrily when he read it. + + PACIFIC SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY CO. + + Office of the President. + + NEW YORK, August 24. + + To All Officials and Employees: + + At a called meeting of the stock-holders of this company, held in + New York, August 23, Mr. John C. North was elected First + Vice-President and General Manager of all lines of this company, + operative and under construction. All officers and employees will + govern themselves accordingly. + + By Order of the Executive Committee. + + Approved: + + SIDNEY J. COLBRITH, President. + + + + +XV + +AN UNWILLING HOST + + +Standing in the Pacific portal of Plug Pass, on the old snow-crust +which, even in midsummer, never entirely disappears at altitude ten +thousand feet, they could look away westward over a billowing sea of +mountain and mesa and valley breaking in far-distant, crystalline space +against the mighty rampart of the Wasatch range, two hundred and other +miles nearer the sunset. + +It was an outlook both inspiring and chastening; with the scenic +grandeurs to give the exalted uplift, and the still, gray-green face of +the vast mountainous desert to shrink the beholder to microscopic +littleness in the face of its stupendous heights and depths, its +immeasurable bulks and interspaces. Miss Alicia said something like this +to Ford, in broken exclamations, when she had taken her first quailing +eye-plunge from the lofty view-point. + +"Yes; quite so," Ford acquiesced, in the unresponsive tone of one who +says what he must, rather than what he would like to say. "It is all the +things you have been saying, and more--when one has the time and the +mind to be enthusiastic about it." + +Miss Adair stood up very straight, and her chin was a protest in +Praxitelean harmonies. She knew very well how reluctantly her companion +was doing the honors of the mountain vastnesses; how full of wrath he +was because President Colbrith had seen fit to precipitate the Nadia and +a private-car party into the midst of the strenuous building battle on +the western extension. But she argued that this was no reason why he +should be crustily impossible with her. Wherefore she said, merely to +see him boil over: + +"I should think you would come up here often for this glorious view, Mr. +Ford. You do, don't you?" + +"Come up here for the view? Oh, yes; I presume I have climbed up here a +hundred times, first and last, and always for the sake of the view. I +began it the first winter I spent in Saint's Rest, when the snow-shoeing +was at its best. Really to appreciate the scenery, you should take three +hours for the approach from the basin down yonder, dragging a pair of +Canadian raquettes by the toe-straps." + +The young woman laughed inwardly at the broadsword slash of his sarcasm. +It was so like the man; big and vigorous and energetic, and quite +without regard for consequences or for the insignificance of the thing +to be obliterated. But she would not spare him. + +"How enthusiastic you are!" she commented. "I don't believe I should be +equal to 'a hundred times, first and last,' or to the snow-shoes. But I +can admire such zeal in other people immensely." + +"Do you really think so small of a man's work in the world, Miss Adair?" +he demanded, not very coherently. "I'm not saying that the scenery +doesn't move me. It does; and the first time I stood here on this +summit, I presume I felt just as you do now. But my comings and goings +have been chiefly concerned with this"--kicking the rail of the new +track which threaded the shallow valley of the pass. "I am trying to +build a railroad; to build it quickly, and as well as I can. When I get +it finished, I may have time to admire the scenery." + +It was a little appeal for sympathy, apparent enough in spite of its +indirectness; but Miss Adair was still mindful of Ford's too evident +willingness to leave her behind at the deserted grading-camp half-way +down to Saint's Rest where the Nadia was temporarily side-tracked. + +"Another ideal gone," she lamented, in mock despair. "All those +trampings and toilings up this magnificent mountain merely to prepare +for the laying of some logs of wood in a row, with two strands of iron +to fasten them together!" + +He smiled at her definition of his railroad, and the keen edge of his +annoyance was a little blunted. He had been telling himself that she +might be twenty-four, or possibly twenty-five; but evidently she was +only a child, with a child's appreciation of a very considerable +industrial triumph. Old engineers, one of them an assistant on his own +staff, had shaken their heads and declared that the running of a +standard gauge railroad over Plug Pass was a sheer impossibility. Yet he +had done it. + +"I suspect I owe you an apology," he said, yielding a little to the love +which was fighting with discouragement and righteous anger for the first +place in his heart. "I'm afraid I have been taking you too seriously, +all along." + +Her laugh was a delicious little ripple of exultation. She had succeeded +in avenging herself. + +"I can forgive you now," she said, and the blue eyes were dancing. "But +you must admit that you were the aggressor. I have _never_ been made so +pointedly unwelcome in all my life. I believe you were going to refuse +to let me walk up here with you if Uncle Sidney had not commanded you +to." + +This time his smile was a grin, but it was not ill-natured. + +"I should, indeed," he confessed quite frankly. "To be brutally candid, +I had a decided attack of the 'unwelcomes' when I received Mr. +Colbrith's wire announcing his intention of bringing his picnic party +out here into the midst of things. We have little time, and none of the +civilized conveniences, for entertaining company." + +"I think we all understand that," she made haste to say. "Aunt Hetty +tried to dissuade Uncle Sidney, but he was bent on showing us how modern +railroad building is rushed at the 'front'--is that the right word?--and +so here we are." + +A small frown gathered between Ford's eyes. He was far enough from +suspecting that this was the outworking of Kenneth's "notion"; that Mr. +Colbrith's annual inspection tour over the Pacific Southwestern had been +extended to cover the new line at Kenneth's suggestion--a suggestion +arising out of purely reformatory motives. Nor would it have helped +matters much if he had known Kenneth's genuine distress when it +transpired that the suggestion bade fair to result in precipitating a +private car-load of pleasurers into the pandemonium of the +grading-camps. + +But the pleasurers were as yet only upon the borders of the pandemonium, +and Ford was torturing his ingenuity to devise some argument strong +enough to turn back the threatened invasion. There were reasons enough +why a party with women among its members should not be projected into +the grading and track-laying field. It was no place for women, Ford was +telling himself wrathfully; especially for the women of the president's +own household. + +In the little interval of silence Miss Adair was focusing her +field-glass and trying to trace the line of the descending grade into +the headwater valley of the Pannikin. Ford did not mean to be ungracious +to her--what lover ever means to be curt to the one woman in all the +world? But it is not easy to be angry in nine parts and loving-kind in +the tenth--anger being one of the inclusive emotions. Nevertheless, he +made the effort, for her sake. However inconsiderate Mr. Colbrith was, +she was blameless. + +"Let me show you," he said, taking the field-glass and adjusting it for +her. "Now hold it steadily and pick up the line in the great loop.... +Have you found it?... Now follow it slowly until you come to the point +where it turns into the valley, and you can trace it for miles by the +cuts and fills." + +She followed his directions until the line of the extension became a +vanishing thread in the distance, and then was content to let the glass +sweep the vastnesses beyond. When she spoke it was of the topographic +immensities. + +"I heard you telling brother at the dinner-table in Chicago that you +were able to see more in this wilderness than you have ever been able to +make any one else see. Can I see it with the glass?" + +"Hardly," he smiled. "I was trying to tell your brother of the +magnificent possibilities of the country lying between this and that +farthest mountain range; the country we are going to open up. It was a +gospel I had been trying to preach to the directors, but none of them +believed--not even your uncle." + +"I see nothing but vastness and cold gray grandeurs," she said, adding: +"and the very bigness of it makes me feel like a mere atom, or a +molecule--whichever is the smaller." + +"Yet it is a new empire in the rough," he rejoined, with a touch of the +old enthusiasm, "waiting only for the coming of this"--putting his foot +again upon the steel of the new railroad line. "What you are looking at +has been called a part of the Great American Desert--the most forbidding +part, in the stories of the early explorers. Notwithstanding, there will +come a time when you can focus your glass here on this mountain and look +out over what the promoters will then be advertising as a 'peopled +paradise,' and these 'logs of wood in a row, with two strands of iron to +fasten them together' will bring it to pass." + +There was a flash of the enthusiast's fire in the cool gray eyes to go +with the words, and Miss Adair wondered at it. He had stood for her as +an embodiment of things practical and prosaic; as one too keenly +watchful and alert on the purely industrial side to be in any sense a +dreamer of dreams. Some part of her thought slipped into speech. + +"No, I am not an enthusiast," he denied, in reply to her charge. "At +bottom, I'm only an engineer, with an ambition to build railroads. But +I should have learned no more than half of my trade if I couldn't tell +where it would be profitable to build them." + +"Never mind: you seem to have convinced Uncle Sidney and the directors +finally," she commented. + +"No; your uncle and the directors are not empire builders--meaning to +be," he objected. "They are after the present visible dollar in a +western outlet for the Pacific Southwestern. If we reach Green Butte +before our competitors can broaden their narrow gauge to that point, we +shall have a practicable line from Chicago to the Pacific coast." + +"I understand," she said. "But yours is the higher ideal--the true +American ideal." + +"It's business," he asserted. + +"Well, isn't business the very heart and soul of the American ideal?" +she laughed. + +This time he laughed with her, forgetting his troubles for the moment. + +"I guess it is, in the last analysis," he said. And then: "I'm sorry to +keep you waiting so long, if you are anxious to get back to the Nadia. +But I warned you beforehand. I must keep my appointment with Frisbie. Do +you see anything of him?" This because she was again sweeping the +western wilderness with the field-glass. + +"What am I to look for?" + +"The smoke of an engine." + +She focused the glass on the gorge at the foot of the pass. "I see it!" +she cried. "A little black beetle of a thing just barely crawling. Now +it is turning into the first curve of the great loop." + +"Then we shan't have very much longer to wait. Do you find the +ten-thousand-foot breeze chilly? Turn up the collar of your coat and +we'll walk a bit." + +It was his first appreciable concern for her comfort, and she gave him +full credit. Coquetry was no part of Miss Alicia's equipment, but no +woman likes to be utterly neglected on the care-taking side, or to be +transformed ruthlessly into a man-companion whose well-being may be +brusquely ignored. And this young athlete in brown duck shooting-coat +and service leggings, who was patiently doing a sentry-go beside her up +and down the newly-laid track at the summit of Plug Pass, was quite a +different person from the abashed apologist who had paid for her dinner +in the dining-car on the night of purse-snatchings. + + + + +XVI + +THE TRUTHFUL ALTITUDES + + +A low, tremulous shudder was beginning to lift itself, like the distant +growling of thunder, upon the tinnient air of the high summit. A moment +later a heavy construction engine shot around the final curve in the +westward climb, with Michael Gallagher hanging out of the cab window on +the engineer's side. + +The two at the summit faced about to watch the approach. The big engine +came lumbering and lurching dangerously over the unsurfaced track in a +fierce spurt for the mountain-top, its stack vomiting fire, its +cylinder-cocks hissing shrilly, and its exhaust ripping the spheral +silences like the barking detonations of a machine-gun. + +Ford glanced aside at his companion; her expressive face was a study in +delighted animation and he decided that he had again misjudged the +president's niece. She was beating time softly with her gloved hands and +singing the song of the locomotive: + +"'With a michnai--ghignai--shtingal! Yah! Yah! Yah! +Ein--zwei--drei--Mutter! Yah! Yah! Yah! + She climb upon der shteeple, + Und she frighten all der people, +Singin' michnai--ghignai--shtingal! Yah! Yah!'" + +she quoted; and Ford's heart went out to her in new and comradely +outreachings. + +"You read _Naught-naught-seven_?" he said: "you are one woman in a +thousand." + +"_Merci!_" she countered. "Small favors thankfully received. Brother +thinks there is only one person writing, nowadays, and the name of that +person is Kipling. I get a little of it by mere attrition." + +The brakes of the big engine were still gripping the wheels when a small +man with wicked mustaches and goatee dropped from the gangway. His khaki +suit was weather-faded to a dirty green, and he was grimy and perspiring +and altogether unpresentable; but he pulled himself together and tried +to look pleasant when he saw that his chief had a companion, and that +the companion was a lady. + +"I'm sorry if I have kept you waiting," he began. "Gallagher was +shifting steel for the track-layers when your wire found me, and the +engine couldn't be spared,"--this, of course, to Ford. Then, with an +apologetic side glance for the lady: "Riley's in hot water again--up to +his chin." + +"What's the matter now?" gritted Ford; and Alicia marked the instant +change to masterful command. + +"Same old score. The Italians are kicking again at the MacMorrogh +Brothers' commissary--because they have to pay two prices and get chuck +that a self-respecting dog wouldn't eat; and, besides, they say they +are quarrying rock--which is true--and getting paid by the MacMorroghs +for moving earth. They struck at noon to-day." + +The chief frowned gloomily, and the president's niece felt intuitively +that her presence was a bar to free speech. + +"It's straight enough about the rotten commissary and the graft on the +pay-rolls," said Ford wrathfully. "Is the trouble likely to spread to +the camps farther down?" + +"I hope not; I don't think it will--without whisky to help it along," +said Frisbie, with another apologetic side glance for Miss Adair. + +"Yes; but the whisky isn't lacking--there's Pete Garcia and his stock of +battle, murder and sudden death at Paint Rock, a short half-mile from +Riley's," Ford broke in. + +Frisbie's smile, helped out by the grime and the coal dust, was +triumphantly demoniacal. + +"Not now there isn't," he amended; adding: "Any fire-water at Paint +Rock, I mean. When Riley told me what was doing, I made a bee line for +Garcia's wickiup and notified him officially that he'd have to go out of +business for the present." + +"Oh, you did?" said Ford. "Of course he was quite willing to oblige you? +How much time did he give you to get out of pistol range?" + +[Illustration: "Miss Adair, you must let me introduce my friend, Mr. +Richard Frisbie"] + +Frisbie actually blushed--in deference to the lady. + +"Why--er--it was the other way round. He double-quicked a little +side-trip down the gulch while I knocked in the heads of his whisky +barrels and wrecked his bar with a striking hammer I had brought along." + +For the first time in the interview the chief's frown melted and he +laughed approvingly. + +"Miss Adair, you must let me introduce my friend and first assistant, +Mr. Richard Frisbie. He is vastly more picturesque than anything else we +have to show you at this end of the Pacific Southwestern. Dick--Miss +Alicia Adair, President Colbrith's niece." + +Frisbie took off his hat, and Miss Alicia gave him her most gracious +smile. + +"Please go on," she said. "I'm immensely interested. What became of Mr. +Garcia afterward?" + +"I don't know that," said Frisbie ingenuously. "Only, I guess I shall +find out when I go back. He is likely to be a little irritated, I'm +afraid. But there are compensations, even in Pete: like most Mexicans, +he can neither tell the truth nor shoot straight." Then again to Ford: +"What is to be done about the Riley mix-up?" + +"Oh, the same old thing. Go down and tell the Italians that the company +will stand between them and the MacMorroghs, and they shall have +justice--provided always that every man of them is back on the job again +to-morrow morning. Who is Riley's interpreter now?" + +"Lanciotto." + +"Well, look out for him: he is getting a side-cut from the MacMorroghs +and is likely to translate you crooked, if it suits his purposes. Check +him by having our man Luigi present when he does the talking act. Any +word from Major Benson?" + +"He was at the tie-camp on Ute Creek, yesterday. Jack Benson and Brissac +are lining the grade for the steel on M'Grath's section, and the bridge +men are well up to the last crossing of Horse Creek." + +"That's encouraging. How about the grade work on the detour--your new +line into Copah?" + +It was the assistant's turn to frown, but the brow-wrinkling was of +puzzlement. + +"There's something a bit curious about that--you don't mind our talking +shop like a pair of floor-walkers, do you, Miss Adair? You know we +expected the MacMorroghs would kick on the change of route and the loss +of the big rock-cut in the canyon. There wasn't a word of protest. If I +hadn't known better, I should have said that old Brian MacMorrogh knew +all about it in advance. All he said was: 'Sure, 'tis your railroad, and +we'll be buildin' it anywheres you say, Misther Frisbie.' And the very +next day he had a little army of men on that detour, throwing dirt to +beat the band. It'll be ready for the steel by the time we can get to it +with the track-layers." + +Ford nodded approvingly. "Speed is what we are paying for, and we're +thankful to get it whenever, and wherever, we can. Is the bridge timber +coming down all right now?" + +"Yes; and we are getting plenty of ties since the major put on his +war-paint and went after the MacMorrogh subs in the tie-camps. It is the +rock work that is holding us back." + +Ford nodded again. Then he tried a little shot in the dark. + +"The president's car is just below--at the basin switch. He wants to +have it taken to the front, and I have been trying to dissuade him. Is +the track safe for it?" + +Frisbie guessed what kind of answer was desired, and stretched the truth +a little. + +"I should say not. It's something fierce, even for the construction +trains." + +Miss Alicia's smile was seraphic. + +"You two gentlemen needn't tell fibs for the possible effect on me," she +said, with charming frankness. "Nothing I could say would carry any +weight with Uncle Sidney." + +"Stung!" said Frisbie, half to himself; and the two men laughed +shamefacedly. + +"Will it disarrange things so very much if the Nadia is taken to the +'front'?" asked Miss Adair. + +"Well, rather," said Frisbie bluntly. Then he tried to excuse himself +and made a mess of it. + +"Just why?" she persisted. "Forget the conventions, Mr. Frisbie, and +talk to me as you have been talking to Mr. Ford. Is there any good +reason, apart from the inconvenience, why our little pleasure party +shouldn't see your new railroad? I am appealing to you because Mr. Ford +won't tell me the truth." + +Ford stood aloof and let Frisbie worry with it alone. + +"There are a dozen reasons, Miss Adair; the track is fearfully +rough--really, you know, it isn't safe for a big car like the Nadia. +There are only a few sidings, and what there are, are filled up with +construction stuff and camp cars, and--" + +She was shaking her head and laughing at his strivings. + +"Never mind," she said; "you can't tell the truth, either, with Mr. Ford +looking on. But I shall find it out." + +Frisbie looked horrified. + +"You--you certainly will, Miss Adair; if Mr. Colbrith insists upon +having his car dragged over the range." Then, being quite willing to +make his escape, he turned to his chief. "Is there anything else? If +not, I'll be getting back to the Riley mix-up before the trouble has +time to grow any bigger." + +Ford shook his head, and Frisbie lifted his hat to Miss Adair and +turned to climb to his engine cab. But at the moment of brake-releasings +Ford halted him. + +"One minute," he said; and turning to his charge: "I'll borrow Dick's +engine and take you down to the Nadia's siding, if you'd rather ride +than walk." + +"Oh, will you? That would be fine! But oughtn't Mr. Frisbie to get back +to his work?" + +"Y-yes," Ford admitted. "Time is rather important, just now." + +"Then we'll walk," she said with great decision. + +"That's all, Dick," Ford called. "Keep an eye open for Garcia. He might +make a fluke and shoot straight, for once in a way." + +They stood in silence on the wind-swept summit until the curving +down-rush of the western grade had swallowed the retreating engine. Miss +Alicia was the first to speak when the iron clamor was distance-drowned. + +"I like your Mr. Frisbie," she said reflectively. "Isn't he the kind of +man who would have taken the message to the other Garcia?" + +"He is the kind of man who would stop a bullet for his friend, and think +nothing of it--if the bullet should happen to leave him anything to +think with," he returned warmly. And then he added, half absently: "He +saved my life four years ago last summer." + +There was genuine human interest in her voice when she said gently: + +"Would you mind telling me about it?" + +"It was up in the Minnesota pineries, where we were building a branch +railroad through the corner of an Indian reservation. A half-breed +pot-hunter for the game companies had a right-of-way quarrel with the +railroad people, and he pitched upon me as the proper person to kill. It +was a knife rush in the moonlight; and Dick might have shot him, only he +was too tender-hearted. So he got between us." + +"Well?" she prompted, when it became evident that Ford thought he had +finished. + +"That was all; except that it was touch and go with poor Dick for the +next six weeks, with no surgeon worthy of the name nearer than St. +Paul." + +Miss Alicia was more deeply impressed by the little story than she cared +to have her companion suspect. Her world was a world of the commonplace +conventions, with New York as its starting point and homing place; and +she thought she knew something of humankind. But it came to her suddenly +that the men she knew best were not at all like these two. + +"Shall we go back now?" she asked; and they were half-way down to the +siding and the private car before she spoke again. It took some little +time to compass sufficient humility to make amends, and even then the +admission came to no more than four words. + +"I'm sorry, Mr. Ford." + +"What for?" he asked, knowing only that he was coming to love her more +blindly with every added minute of their companionship. + +"For--for trying to be hateful." It was a humbler thing than any she had +ever said to a man, but the raw sincerity of time and place and +association was beginning to get into her blood. + +"If it comes to that, there were two of us," he rejoined, matching her +frankness. "And, as you remarked a while back, I was certainly the +aggressor. Shall we call it a truce for the present?" + +"If you will be generous enough." + +"Oh, I am generosity itself, under ordinary conditions; but just now +I'll admit that I am fearfully and wonderfully inhospitable. I can't +help wishing most fervently that something had happened to prevent your +uncle's coming." + +"Is it uncle who is in the way?--or the pleasure party?" + +"Both." + +"We are negligible," she said, meaning the pleasurers. + +"No, you are not; and neither is your Uncle Sidney." + +"Is he still formidable to you?" she laughed. + +"He is, indeed. But, worse than that, he is likely to prove a very +considerable disturbing element if I can't keep him from plunging in +upon us." + +She let half of the remaining distance to the end of the steep grade go +underfoot before she said: "I like to help people, sometimes; but I +don't like to do it in the dark." + +He would have explained instantly to a man for the sake of gaining an +ally. But he could not bring himself to the point of telling her the +story of graft and misrule in which the MacMorroghs were the principals, +and North--and her uncle, by implication--the backers. + +So he said: "It is rather a long story, and you would scarcely +understand it. We have been having constant trouble with the +MacMorroghs, the contractors, and there is a bad state of affairs in the +grading camps. It has come to a point where I shall have to fight the +MacMorroghs to some sort of a finish, and--well, to put it very baldly, +I don't want to have to fight the MacMorroghs and the president in the +same round." + +"Why should Uncle Sidney take the part of these men, if they are bad +men, Mr. Ford?" + +"Because he has always distrusted my judgment, and because he is loyal +to Mr. North, whom he has made my superior. Mr. North tells him that I +am to blame." + +"But it must be a very dreadful condition of things, if what Mr. Frisbie +said is all true." + +"Frisbie spoke of only one little incident. Trouble like this we're +having to-day is constantly arising. No money-making graft is too petty +or too immoral for the MacMorroghs to connive at. They rob and starve +their laborers, and cheat the company with bad work. I've got to have a +free hand in dealing with them, or--" + +He stopped abruptly, realizing that he was talking to her as he might +have talked to a specialist in his own profession. Hence he was not +disappointed when she said: + +"You go too fast for me. But I think I understand now why our coming is +inopportune. And it's comforting to know that the reason is a business +reason." + +He put shame to the wall and blurted out suddenly: "It is only one of +the reasons, Miss Adair. The--the camps are no fit place for a party +with women. You--you'll have to be blind and deaf if your uncle persists +in taking you with him." + +It was said, and he was glad of it, though he was wiping the +perspiration from his face when the thing was done. She was silent until +they were standing at the steps of the side-tracked private car. + +"Thank you," she said simply. "Of course, I'll do what I can to keep +Uncle Sidney from going--and taking us. What shall you say to him?" + +"I am going to tell him that our track isn't safe for the Nadia--which +is true enough." + +"Very well. I'll tell Aunt Hetty and Mrs. Van Bruce--which may be more +to the point. But don't be encouraged by that. I have reason to believe +that Uncle Sidney will have his way in spite of any or all of us." + + + + +XVII + +A NIGHT OF ALARMS + + +Ford put Miss Alicia up the steps of the Nadia and followed her into the +vestibule, meaning to fight it out with Mr. Colbrith on the spot, and +hoping he might have a private audience with the president for the doing +of it. + +The hope was not denied. Penfield, who was acting as private secretary +to Mr. Colbrith, _en route_, appeared in the passageway to say that Ford +was wanted in the president's state-room. + +"Well, Mr. Ford, what are we waiting for?" was the querulous demand +which served as Mr. Colbrith's greeting when Ford presented himself at +the door of the private compartment. + +Ford's reply lacked the deferential note. He had reached a point at +which his job was not worth as much as it had been. + +"I have just brought Miss Adair back from the top of the pass, where we +met Mr. Frisbie, my chief of construction. I wished to ask him if he +thought the track was safe for your car, and he says, most emphatically, +that it is not. I can not take the responsibility of sending the Nadia +to the end-of-track." + +The president's thin face was working irritably. "I haven't asked you to +assume any responsibility, Mr. Ford. If the track is safe for your +material trains, it is safe enough for my car. But I didn't send for you +to argue the point. I desire to have the Nadia taken to the front. Be +good enough to give the necessary orders." + +Ford tried again. In addition to the precarious track there were few or +no unoccupied sidings, especially near the front. Moreover, there was no +telegraph service which might suffice for the safe despatching of the +special train. There might be entire sections over which the Nadia would +have to be flagged by a man on foot, and-- + +The president cut him off with almost childish impatience. + +"I don't know what your object is in putting so many stumbling-blocks in +the way, Mr. Ford," he rasped. "A suspicious person might say that you +have been doing something which you do not wish to have found out." + +Ford was a fair-skinned man, and the blood burned hotly in his face. +But, as once before under the president's nagging, he found his +self-control rising with the provocation. + +"My work is open to inspection or investigation, now or at any time, +and I think we need not discuss that point," he said, when he could +force himself to say it calmly. "We were speaking of the advisability of +taking the Nadia and a pleasure party over a piece of raw construction +line, and into an environment which, to put it mildly, could hardly be +congenial to--to the ladies of the party. You know, or ought to know, +the MacMorroghs: their camps are not exactly models of propriety, Mr. +Colbrith." + +This was merely waving a red flag at an already exasperated bull. The +president got upon his feet, and his shrill falsetto cut the air like a +knife. + +"Mr. Ford, when I wish to be told what is or is not proper for me to do, +I'll ask you for an opinion, sir. But this is quite beside the mark. +Will you order this car out, or shall I?" + +Ford looked at his watch imperturbably. Now that the president was +thoroughly angry, he could afford to be cool. + +"It is now five o'clock; and our end-of-track is fully one hundred and +ten miles beyond the summit of the pass. Do I understand that you wish +to take the added risk of a night run, Mr. Colbrith? If so, I'll give +the order and we'll pull out." + +"I desire to go _now_!" was the irascible reply. "Is that sufficiently +explicit?" + +"It is," said Ford; and he left the presence to go forward to the cab +of the waiting engine. + +"You are to take the car over the mountain, Hector," he said briefly, to +the beetle-browed giant in blue denim, when he had climbed to the +foot-plate. "I'll pilot for you." + +"How far?" inquired the engineer. + +"Something like a hundred and ten miles." + +"Holy smoke! Over a construction track--in the night?" + +"It's the president's order--none of mine. Let's get a move." + +The big man got down from his box and made room for Ford. "I'll be +pilin' 'em in the ditch somewhere, as sure as my name's Bill Hector," he +said. "But we'll go, all the same, if he says so. I've pulled Mr. +Colbrith before. Down with you, Jimmy Shovel, and set the switch for +us." + +The fireman swung off and stood by the switch, and Hector backed his +one-car train from the siding. When he had picked up the fireman and was +ready to assault the mountain, Ford thrust a query in between. + +"Hold on a minute; how is the water?" he asked. + +Jimmy Shovel climbed over the coal to see, and reported less than half a +tankful. + +"That settles it," said the chief to Hector. "You'll have to back down +to Saint's Rest and fill up. You'll get no more this side of Pannikin +Upper Canyon. We haven't had time to build tanks yet." + +Hector put his valve-motion in the reverse gear and began to drop the +train down the grade on the air. A dozen wheel-turns brought a shrill +shriek from the air-signal whistle. Mr. Colbrith evidently wished to +know why his train was going in the wrong direction. Hector applied the +brakes and stopped in obedience to the signal. + +"Do we send back?" he asked. + +"No," said Ford sourly. "Let him send forward." + +Penfield was the bearer of the president's question. Would it be +necessary to discharge somebody in order to have his commands obeyed? + +Ford answered the petulant demand as one bears with a spoiled child. +They were returning to Saint's Rest for water. Let the president be +assured that his orders would be obeyed in due course. + +"He's a piker, the old man is," said the big engineer, once more giving +the 1012 the needful inch of release to send it grinding down the hill. +"I'd ruther pull freight thirty-six hours on end than run his car for a +hundred miles." + +There was trouble getting at the water-tank in the Saint's Rest yard. +Leckhard, acting as division engineer, telegraph superintendent, +material forwarder and yardmaster, found it difficult at limes to bring +order out of chaos in the forwarding yard. It was a full hour before +the jumble of material trains could be shunted and switched and juggled +to permit the 1012 to drop down to the water tank; and four times during +the hour Penfield climbed dutifully over the coal to tell Ford and the +engineer what the president thought of them. + +"Durn me! but you can take punishment like a man, Mr. Ford!" said +Hector, on the heels of the fourth sending, sinking rank distinctions in +his admiration for a cool fighter. "These here polite cussin's-out are +what I can't stand. Reckon we'll get away from here before the old man +throws a sure-enough fit?" + +"That's entirely with the yard crew," said Ford, calmly making himself +comfortable on the fireman's box. "We'll go when we can get water; and +we'll get water when the tank track is cleared. That's all there is to +it." Whereupon he found his cigar case, passed it to Hector, lighted up, +and waited patiently for another second-hand wigging from the Nadia. + +As it chanced the tank track was cleared a few minutes later; the 1012 +was backed down and supplied, and Ford instructed Leckhard to do what he +could with the single, poorly manned construction wire toward giving the +president's special a clear track. + +"That won't be much," said the hard-worked base-of-supplies man. "We've +got our own operator at Ten Mile, and Brissac and Frisbie have each a +set of instruments which they cut in on the line with wherever they +happen to be. I don't know where Brissac is, but Frisbie is down about +Riley's to-night, I think. After you pass him you'll have no help from +the wires." + +"I'll have what I can get," asserted Ford. "Now tell me what we're +likely to meet." + +Leckhard laughed. "Anything on top of earth, from Brissac or Jack Benson +or Frisbie chasing somewhere on a light engine, to Gallagher or Folsom +coming out with a string of empties. Oh, you're not likely to find much +dead track anywhere after you get over the mountain." + +Ford swung up beside Hector, who had been listening. "You see what we're +in for, Hector. Start your headlight dynamo and let's go," he said; and +five minutes farther on, just as Penfield was about to make his fifth +scramble over the coal in the tender, the 1012 took the upward road with +a deafening whistle shriek as its farewell to Saint's Rest. + +It was pocket-dark by the time the switch-stand at the basin siding +swung into the broad beam of the electric headlight. Ford got down from +the fireman's box and crossed over to the engineer's side to pilot +Hector. + +"How's your track from this on?" inquired the big engineman gruffly. + +"It is about as rough as it can be, and not ditch the steel trains. +You'll have to hold her down or we'll have results." + +"What in the name o' thunder is the old man's notion of goin' to the +front with a picnic party and makin' a night run of it, at that, d'ye +reckon?" + +"The Lord only knows. Easy around this curve you're coming to; it isn't +set up yet." The 1012 was a fast eight-wheeler from the main line, and +though the grade was a rising four per cent, the big flyer was making +light work of her one-car train. + +Ford sat gloomily watching the track ahead as the great engine stormed +around the curves and up the grades. The struggle against odds was +beginning to tell on him. The building of this new line, the opening of +the new country, was the real end for which all the planning and +scheming in the financial field had been only the necessary +preliminaries. For himself he had craved nothing but the privilege of +building the extension; of rejoicing in his own handiwork and in the new +triumph of progress and civilization which it would bring to pass. But +little by little the fine fire of workmanlike enthusiasm was burning +itself out against the iron barriers of petty spite and malice thrown up +at every turn by North and the Denver junta of obstructionists. + +He was at no loss to account for North's motive. It was no longer the +contemptuous disregard of a general manager for one of his subordinates +who had shown signs of outgrowing his job. It was a fight between +rivals--equals--and Ford knew that it must go on until one or the other +should be driven to the wall. Thus far, his antagonist had scored every +point. The MacMorroghs had been helped into the saddle and held there. +Mr. Colbrith had been won over; the authority given Ford by his +appointment as assistant to the president had been annulled by making +North the first vice-president with still higher authority. With a firm +ally in the president, and a legion of others in the MacMorroghs' camps, +North could discredit the best engineering corps that ever took the +field; and he was doing it--successfully, as Ford had reason to know. + +More than once Ford had been on the point of leaving his plow in the +furrow while he should go to New York for one more battle with the +directory--a battle which should definitely abolish North and Mr. +Colbrith--or himself. Again and again he had weighed the chances of +winning such a battle. With Brewster for a leader it might be done. The +time for the annual stock-holders' meeting was approaching, and an +election which should put the burly copper magnate into the presidency +would be an unmixed blessing, not only for a struggling young chief of +construction, but for the Pacific Southwestern stock-holders, who were +sure to pay in the end for the present policy of rule or ruin. + +Part of the time it seemed to Ford that it was clearly his duty to make +this fight against the grafters in the Denver management. North deserved +no consideration, and while Mr. Colbrith was honest enough, his blind +prejudice and narrow mentality made him North's unwitting accessory. +Three months earlier Ford would not have hesitated; but in the interval +a woman had come between to obscure all the points of view. A fight to +the death against the Colbrith administration meant the antagonizing of +the Adairs--of Alicia, at least. True, she had spoken lightly of her +uncle's peculiarities; but Ford made sure she would stand by him in the +conflict, if only for kinship's sake. + +All this he was turning over in his mind for the hundredth time while +the big 1012 hammered up the Plug Mountain grade under the guiding hand +of the giant in blue denim. Ford, glooming out upon the lighted stretch +ahead, was once more finding the crucial question answerless. Should he +draw out of the losing battle with North and his fellow grafters, and +thereby save his chance of winning Alicia Adair? Or should he sacrifice +his love upon the altar of ambition, abolish Mr. Colbrith and the crew +of buccaneers his mistaken policy was sheltering, and win the industrial +success and a quieted conscience? + +His decision was reached by the time Hector was easing the throttle +lever at the summit of Plug Pass. What must be done should be done +quickly. + +"Right here is where you begin to run on your nerves," he said to the +big engineer, as the heavy engine and car lunged over the summit of the +pass and began to gather gravity momentum on the downward rush. + +Hector nodded, and twitched the handle of the air-brake cock at shorter +intervals. Ford glanced back at the following car framed in the red glow +from the opened fire-box door. It was surging and bounding alarmingly +over the uneven track, not without threatenings of derailment. Ford was +willing to give the president the full benefit of his unreasonable +pertinacity; but there were others to be considered--and one above all +the others. + +"Easy, man; easy!" he cautioned. "If you leave the steel on this +goat-track there won't be anybody left to tell the story. It's a +thousand feet sheer in some places along here. Suppose you let me take +her to the bottom of the hill." + +The engineer stood aside with a good-tempered grin. He had seen the +chief of construction walking the one young lady of the party to the top +of Plug Pass and back, and it was not difficult to account for his +anxiety. + +Throughout the ten long miles of the mountain descent Ford crouched on +the driver's seat and put his mind into the business of getting down the +slides and around the sagging curves without having a wreck. The 1012's +brake equipment was modern, and the Nadia's gear was in perfect order. +Now and then on a tangent the big engine would straighten herself for a +race or a runaway, but always the steady hand on the air-cock brought +her down just before the critical moment beyond which neither brakes nor +the steadiest nerve could avail. Thrice in the long downward rush Ford +checked the speed to a foot-pace. This was in the rock cuttings where +the jagged faces of the cliffs thrust themselves out into the white cone +of the headlight, scanting the narrow shelf of the right-of-way to a +mere groove in the rock. He was afraid of the cuttings. One of the many +tricks of the MacMorroghs was to keep barely within the contract limits +on clearance widths, and once the Nadia, sagging mountainward on the +roughly leveled track at the wrong moment, touched one of the +out-hanging rocks in passing. Hector heard the touch, and so did Ford; +but it was the engineman who made a grim jest upon it, saying: "If she +does that more'n once or twice, there'll be a job for the car painters, +don't you reckon, Mr. Ford? And for the carpenters." + +Just below the doubling bend in the great loop they came in sight of the +first of the MacMorrogh camps. Since the night was frosty a huge bonfire +was burning beside the track; and when Hector blew his whistle, some one +flagged the train with a brand snatched from the fire. Ford stopped +because he dared not do otherwise. + +"Well, what's wanted?" he snapped, when the train came to a stand, and +the brand-swinger, backed by a dozen others, made as if he would climb +to the cab of the 1012. + +"Some of us fellies want to go down to Ten Mile--the liquor's out," said +the man, trying to get a fair sight of the strange engineman. + +"Get off!" said Ford; and Hector made the order effective by shoving the +intruder from the step. That was easy; but before the train had measured +twice its length, a pistol barked thrice and the glass in the cab window +on Ford's side fell in splinters. + +"Holy smoke!" said Hector. "Is them the kind of plug-uglies you've got +over here, Mr. Ford?" + +Ford nodded. His eyes were on the track again, and he was hoping +fervently that the three shots had all been aimed at the engine. A mile +farther on, Penfield came sliding over the coal to say that the +president wanted to know what the shooting was about. + +Ford turned the 1012 over to Hector. The track hazards of the mountain +grade were safely passed. + +"Did any of the shots hit the car?" he asked of Penfield. + +"No." + +"Well, if you have to say anything before the ladies it might be +advisable to make a joke of it. Signal torpedoes sound very much like +pistol-shots, you know." + +Penfield nodded. "But to Mr. Colbrith?" + +"To Mr. Colbrith you may say that a gang of drunken MacMorrogh +surfacers flagged us down, and when we wouldn't let them have the train, +made a little gun play." + +"Heavens!" said the clerk, whose curiosity stopped short at the farthest +confines of any battle-field. "Is that sort of thing likely to happen +again, Mr. Ford?" + +"Your guess is as good as anybody's," said Ford curtly. "Better get back +to the car as quickly as you can, before Mr. Colbrith whistles us down +to find out what has become of you." + +Below the camp of the surfacers there were a few miles of better track, +and Hector made fair time until the train circled the mountain shoulder +at the lower end of the great loop. Beyond this the roughnesses began +again, and there were more of the skimped rock cuttings. At Ten Mile, +which was a relay station in the upper canyon for the halting of +supplies and material for which there was no room at the ever-advancing +"front," they stopped to try for track-clearings. + +As Leckhard had foretold, the operator could give them little help. Two +hours earlier, a train of empties in two sections had left the +end-of-track, coming eastward. Whether it was hung up at one of the +intervening side-tracks, or was still coming, the operator could not +say; and there were no means of finding out. Also, Mr. Frisbie, who had +reached Riley's camp late in the afternoon, had left there after supper +and was somewhere on the line with his light engine--probably on his +way to the front, the operator thought. + +Hector removed his great weight from the telegraph counter and the +woodwork creaked its relief. What he said was indicative of his frame of +mind. + +"Humph!" he growled. "If we don't get tangled up with Mr. Frisbie's +light engine, it's us for a head-ender with the string of empties. Isn't +that about it, Mr. Ford?" + +"That's it, precisely." + +"Which means that Jimmy Shovel trots ahead of us for a hundred mile 'r +so, carryin' a lantern like a blame' Dio-geenes huntin' for an honest +man." + +"That is the size of it," said Ford; but just then the sounder on the +table began to click and the operator held up his hand for silence. + +"Hold on a minute," he interrupted, "here's a piece of luck--it's Mr. +Frisbie, cutting in with his field set from Camp Frierson. He is asking +Saint's Rest about you." + +"Break in and tell him we're here," said Ford; and when it was done: +"Ask him about that string of empties." + +The reply was apparently another piece of luck. Frisbie, going westward, +had passed the first section of the freight train at Siding Number +Twelve. It was hung up with a broken draw-head on the engine, and was +safe to stay there, Frisbie thought, until somebody came along with a +repair kit, which, it might be assumed, would not be before morning. + +At this point Ford went around the counter and took the wire for a +little personal talk with the first assistant. It ignored the stalled +freight train, and Ford's rapid clickings spelled out an order. Frisbie +was to drop everything else, and constitute himself the president's +_avant-courrier_ to the end-of-track camp, which, at the moment, +happened to be the MacMorroghs' headquarters at the mouth of Horse +Creek. All liquor-selling was to be stopped, the saloons closed, and the +strictest order maintained during the president's stay--this if it +should take the entire field force of the engineering department to +bring it to pass. + +"Don't," clicked Frisbie, from the other end of the long wire. And then +at the risk of giving it away to every operator on the line: "You're +doing yourself up. Let the president see for himself what he has let us +in for." + +Ford's reply was short and to the point. "The order stands. There are +others besides the president to be considered. Good night." + +"Well, we go to this here Siding Number Twelve, do we?" said Hector, +when they were clambering once more to the foot-plate of the 1012. + +"Safely, I think," said the chief, adding: "You can't run fast enough +over this track to get into trouble anyway." + +That was the way it appealed to Hector for the succeeding twenty miles. +When the track was not too rough to forbid speed, the cuts were too +numerous, and the big flyer had to be bitted and held down until some of +Hector's impatience began to get into the machinery. This shall account +as it may for what happened. A mile or two below Riley's, where the +lights were all out and the turmoil of the day of strikes had apparently +subsided, the canyon opened out into a winding valley, and when Ford +called across to Hector: "There are no rock cuts on this section, and we +are partly surfaced. You can let her out a little for a few miles," the +engineer took the permission for all it was worth and sent the +eight-wheeler flying down the newly-ballasted stretch. + +Two long curves were rounded in safety, and the special was approaching +a third, when to Ford, track-watching even more anxiously than Hector, a +dull red spot appeared in the exact center of the white field of the +electric. For a moment it puzzled him, but the explanation came with a +vigorous shock an instant later. It was the oil-lamp headlight of the +freight! + +Hector was huge enough to be slow, if bigness were a bar to celerity. +But no drill-master of the foot-plates could have brought the flying +train to a stand with the loss of fewer seconds. Happily, too, the +1012's electric headlight served as a danger signal seen from afar by +the engineer of the freight. So it chanced that the two great engines +merely put their noses together; and by the time Penfield came +scrambling over the coal with the inevitable query from the president, +the jolting stop was a thing of the past, and the train was in motion +again, following the freight, which was backing, at Ford's order, to the +nearest siding. + +"No more hurry for us to-night, Hector," was the boss's dictum, when the +obstructing string of empties was safely passed. "We take it slow and +sure from this on, with your fireman to flag us around the curves and +through the cuts. This was only the first section of the train that left +Horse Creek at eight o'clock--the section that was broken down at Siding +Twelve. We're due to pick up the second section anywhere between here +and the end-of-track." + +"Slow it is," said Hector. "I'm no hog, if I do take a little swill now +and then: I know when I've got enough." + +This was at ten-forty, while the night was still young. And for seven +other hours the one-car special inched its way cautiously toward the +goal, with Ford scanning every mile of the hazardous way as it swung +into the beam of the headlight arc, with Hector's left hand stiffening +on the brake-cock, and with a weary fireman dropping from his gangway at +every curve approach to flag for safety. + +It was not until three o'clock in the morning that they met and passed +the second section of empties, and the dawn of a new day was fully come +when the shacks and storehouses of the MacMorroghs' headquarters at the +mouth of Horse Creek came in sight. Ford got down from his seat on the +fireman's side and stretched himself as one relaxing after a mighty +strain. + +"That's the end of it for a little while, Billy," he said, addressing +the big engineer as a man and a brother. "Crawl in on the first siding +you come to, and go hunt you a bed. I don't think the president will be +perniciously active to-day--after such a night as we've had." + +But in this, as in other instances when Mr. Colbrith's activities had +figured as a factor, he reckoned without his host. + + + + +XVIII + +THE MORNING AFTER + + +Ford was awake for all day, and was colloguing with Frisbie about the +carrying out of the sumptuary order for the forcible camp-cleaning, when +Penfield came with the request that the chief report at once to the +president in the Nadia. + +"Tell him I'll be there presently," was the answer; and when Penfield +went to do it, the interrupted colloquy was resumed. + +"You say the camp has already gone dry?" said Ford incredulously. + +Frisbie nodded. "Everybody's on the water-wagon; here and at all the +camps above and below--bars not only closed, but apparently wiped out of +existence. I went for old Brian last night as soon as I reached here. He +looked at me reproachfully, and said: 'It's you to be always naggin' me +about thim whisky dives that I'm forever thryin' to run out, and can't. +Go and thry it yourself, Misther Frisbie, an' I'll stand at your back +till you're black in the face.' But when I went through the camp, +everything was quiet and orderly, and Jack Batters' bar was not only +closed--it was gone; vanished without leaving so much as a bad smell +behind it." + +"And then?" said Ford. + +"Then I got out my horse and rode up the creek and through some of the +camps on the Copah detour. The star-eyed goddess of reform had evidently +landed on that coast, too. Donahue's Hungarians were singing war-songs +around their camp-fire, as usual, and Contadini's Tuscans were out in +full force, guying the night-shift track-layers. But there was no bad +blood, and no whisky to breed it. You're done up again, Stuart." + +"I don't see that," said Ford, who, besides being short on sleep, was +rejoicing in the thought that Alicia and the other women of the +private-car party would not have to be blind and deaf. + +"Don't you? You've been protesting to beat the band about the +lawlessness and dissipation of the MacMorrogh camps. Accordingly, Mr. +Colbrith comes over here to see for himself: and what will he see? +Decency on a monument smiling reproachfully at her unprincipled +traducer. MacMorrogh will rub it into you good and hard. Can't you feel +the Sunday-school atmosphere right here in the headquarters this +morning? Look down yonder at the Nadia--wouldn't that soothe you, now?" + +Ford looked and the scowl which was coming to be a habit transformed +itself into a cynical smile. A hundred or more of the MacMorrogh +laborers, hats off and standing at respectful attention, were clustered +about the rear platform of the private car, and Mr. Colbrith was +addressing them; giving them the presidential benediction, as Frisbie +put it irreverently. + +"Don't you see how you are going to be hoisted with your own +ammunition?" the little man went on spitefully. "What becomes of all +your complaints of drunkenness and crime, when Mr. Colbrith can see with +his own eyes what truly good people the MacMorroghs are? And what +conclusion will he arrive at? There's only one, and it's a long-armed +one so far as your reputation is concerned: you are so desperately bent +on having your own way that you haven't scrupled to tell lies about +these angelic contractors." + +"Let up, Dick," said Ford gruffly. "I've got about all I can carry till +I catch up on sleep a little. But you're right: this is the place where +the fireworks come in. I think I'll go and light the fuses while I'm +keyed up to it." + +The crowd of laborers had dispersed by the time Ford reached the Nadia, +and the president, benign from the reactionary effect of his own +early-morning eloquence, was waiting for him. + +"Ah; we did reach the front safely, after all, didn't we, Mr. Ford?" was +Mr. Colbrith's mildly sarcastic greeting. And then: "Come aboard, sir; +we are waiting breakfast for you." + +Ford would have declined promptly, if the invitation had been anything +less than a command. He had met none of the members of the private-car +party save Miss Alicia, and he did not want to meet them, having the +true captain-of-industry's horror of mixing business with the social +diversions. But with one example of the president's obstinacy fresh in +mind, he yielded and climbed obediently to the railed platform. Whatever +happened, he should see Alicia again, a privilege never to be too +lightly esteemed, whatever it cost. + +The social ordeal was not so formidable. The private-car party was made +up of the president and his sister-in-law, the president's family +physician, Doctor Van Bruce, the doctor's wife, his sister, a maiden +lady of no uncertain age, and Alicia. These, with Penfield and Ford, +made the eight at table in the open compartment in the Nadia; and Ford, +in the seating, was lucky enough to find his place between Miss Van +Bruce, who was hard of hearing, and Miss Alicia, who was not. Luckily +again, Mr. Colbrith omitted all talk of business, drawing his end of the +table into a discussion of the effects of the dry altitudes in advanced +stages of tuberculosis. + +"What a dreadful night you must have had, Mr. Ford," said Alicia, when +the tuberculotic subject was well launched at the other end of the +table. "Were you on the engine all the time?" + +"Most of the time," he confessed. "But that was nothing. It wasn't my +first night in the cab, as it won't be the last, by many, I hope." + +"Why? Do you like it?" + +"Not particularly. But I hope to live a while longer; and while I live I +shall doubtless have to ride with the enginemen now and then." + +"Was it very bad--last night?" she asked. + +"I am afraid you know it was. Could you sleep at all?" + +"Oh, yes; I slept very well--after that terrible shaking up we had just +before bedtime. What was happening then?" + +"Nothing much. We were about to try the old experiment of passing two +trains on a single track." + +"Mercy!" she exclaimed. + +It was safely retrospective now, and Ford could smile at her belated +shock. + +"Were the others alarmed?" he asked. + +"Mrs. Van Bruce and Aunt Hetty were. But Uncle Sidney fairly coruscated. +He said that an engineer who would make such a stop as that ought to be +discharged." + +"Hector was willing to quit," laughed Ford. "He grumbled for a full hour +afterward about the wrenching he had given the 1012. You see he might +have taken about six feet more for the stop, if he'd only known it." + +Miss Alicia said "Mercy!" again. "Were we as near as that to a +collision?" she asked, in a hushed whisper. + +"We were, indeed. The freight was supposed to be on a siding--broken +down. The crew tinkered things up some way, and the train proceeded. +Luckily, the freight engineer saw our electric headlight farther than we +could see his oil lamp, and the track happened to be measurably +straight." + +Miss Adair was silent for a little time, waiting for the lapsed +tuberculotic discussion to revive. When it was once more in full swing, +she asked quickly: + +"What is the programme for to-day? Must we all stay in the car as you +intimated yesterday?" + +Ford glanced across the table to make sure that Penfield was not +eavesdropping. + +"It will not be necessary. Your coming--or the president's--has reformed +things wonderfully. Frisbie says--but never mind what he says: the +miracle has been wrought." + +He said it with such an evident air of dejection that she wondered. And +with Miss Alicia Adair the step from wonderment to investigation was +always short. + +"You say it as if you were sorry," she said. "Are you?" + +"Oh, no; I'm glad--for your sake. But I wonder if you could understand +if I say that it will make it a thousand times harder for me?" + +"I can understand when I'm told," she retorted. + +The table-for-eight was no place for confidences; and Ford knew +Penfield's weakness for soaking up information. Yet he took the risk. + +"You remember what I hinted at, yesterday," he said in low tones; "about +the rough-house we have been having in the camps. It hasn't stopped +short of murder. I objected to the MacMorroghs before the contract was +given to them; and since, I have fought the lawlessness as I could. Now +your uncle comes over here and doesn't find any lawlessness. What is the +inference?" + +"That you have been--" she took him up quickly, and there was swift +indignation in the blue eyes. + +"--lying to gain a personal end," he finished for her. + +Penfield had been apparently listening avidly to the president's praise +of the dry altitudes as a sure cure for consumption, but now he had his +face in his plate. Ford devoted himself for the moment to the deaf Miss +Van Bruce, and when he turned back to Alicia he was telegraphing with +his eyes for discretion. She understood, and the low-toned tęte-ŕ-tęte +was not resumed. Later, when they had a moment together in the +dispersion from the breakfast-table, he tried to apologize for what he +was pleased to call his "playing of the baby act." But she reassured him +in a low-spoken word. + +"Brother told me--I know more than you give me credit for, Mr. Ford. +Mr. North doesn't like you--he would be glad if you would resign. _You +must not resign!_" + +The others, personally-conducted by Mr. Colbrith, were crowding to the +rear platform for an after-breakfast view of the headquarters camp. Ford +and Alicia followed, but without haste. + +"You have chanced upon the word, Miss Adair," Ford was saying. "I +decided last night that I should resign." + +"No," she objected. + +"Yes; I must. Sometime I may tell you why." + +"I say you must not. That was the last word in brother's letter; and he +wished me to repeat it to you," she insisted. + +"Where is your brother?" he asked. + +"He was in London when he wrote." + +"He has thrown up his hand." Ford was pessimistic again. + +Miss Adair looked about her despairingly for some means of prolonging +the whispered confidence. Penfield, deferentially in the rear of the +platform group, was never safely out of earshot. + +"I want to see the engine that so nearly plunged us into a collision +last night," she said aloud; and Penfield's visible ear betrayed the +listening mind. + +Ford took his cue promptly. "We can go out the other way," he said; and +the secretary _pro tempore_ had no excuse for following. + +They found the cab of the 1012 deserted, with the steam in the huge +boiler singing softly at the behest of the banked fire. Miss Adair lost +her curiosity as soon as Ford had lifted her to the foot-plate. + +"Now you are to tell me all about it--quickly," she commanded. "Uncle +Sidney will be calling for you as soon as he misses you. Why are you so +foolish as to talk about resigning? Don't you see what they will say +then?--that you were afraid?" + +Ford was leaning against the centered reversing-lever, and his face was +gloomy again. + +"Possibly I am afraid," he suggested. + +"You should be more afraid of dishonor than of--of the other things. Do +you suppose Mr. North will be content with your resignation now?" + +Ford looked up quickly. Here was a new revelation--an unsuspected facet +of the precious gem. He could hardly believe that this steady-voiced, +far-seeing young woman was the insouciant, school-girlish--though none +the less lovable--young person with whom he had tramped to the +wind-swept summit of Plug Pass in the golden heart of the yesterday. + +"You mean--?" he began. + +"I mean that you will be discredited; disgraced if possible. Are you +sure you haven't been doing anything over here that you wouldn't want +Uncle Sidney to find out?" + +"Not consciously, you may be sure," he asserted unhesitatingly. + +"Think; think hard," she urged. "Is there nothing at all?" + +He could not help smiling lovingly at her scarce-concealed +anxiety--though it was merely the anxiety of a noble soul unwilling to +stand by and see injustice done. + +"My methods never get very far underground," he averred. "Not far enough +for my own safety, Frisbie says. If I had been keeping a diary, I think +I should be quite willing to let Mr. Colbrith read it--or print it, if +he cared to." + +"And yet there _is_ something," she asserted, and the straight brows +went together in a little frown of perplexity. "You don't ask me how I +know: I'm going to tell you, Mr. Ford--though it's rather shameful. +Three days ago, while we were in Denver, Mr. North came down to the car +to see Uncle Sidney." + +"Yes?" he encouraged. + +"They were closeted in Uncle Sidney's state-room for a long time," she +went on. "I--I was walking with Miss Van Bruce, up and down on the +station platform beside the Nadia, Uncle Sidney had told me not to go +very far away because we were likely to start at any moment. The--the +car windows were open--" + +Her embarrassment was growing painfully apparent, and Ford came to the +rescue. + +"You were not even constructively to blame," he hastened to say. "They +must surely have seen you passing and repassing, and if they wished for +privacy they might have closed the windows." + +"I didn't hear much: only a word or two, now and then. They were talking +about you and brother; and--" She stopped short and laid her hand on the +throttle-lever of the big engine: "What did you say this was for?" she +asked ingenuously. + +Ford's up-glance of surprise was answered by a glimpse of Penfield +sauntering past on the other side of the track. She could not have seen, +but she had doubtless heard his footsteps on the gravel. + +"It's the throttle," said Ford, answering her question. And then: +"Please go on: he is out of hearing." + +"They were speaking of you and brother; and--and of _me_. I can't repeat +a single sentence entire, but I know Mr. North was accusing you in some +way, and apparently implicating me. Perhaps I listened in self-defense. +Do you think I did, Mr. Ford?" + +"You certainly had a good right to," said Ford, who would have sworn in +her behalf that the morally black was spotlessly white. "But how could +you be implicated?" + +"That was what puzzled me then--and it is puzzling me still. They +said--or rather Mr. North said--that you--that you had _bought_ me!" + +Ford did not say that he would like to buy, beg, borrow or steal any +kind of right to call her his own, but if his lips did not form the +words they were lying at the bottom of the steady gray eyes for her to +take or leave as she chose. + +"I am sure you couldn't have heard that part of it quite straight," he +said, almost regretfully. + +"But I did, because it was repeated. Mr. North insisted that you had +bought me; and I didn't like the way in which he said it, either. He +called me 'the little Alicia'." + +"What!" said Ford; and then a flood of light burst in upon at least one +of the dark places. "It's only a mine," he said sheepishly. "And I did +buy it, or half of it." + +She was regarding him accusingly now. + +"Did you--did you name it?" she asked, and there was the merest breath +of frost in the air. + +He was glad to be able to tell the truth without flinching. + +"No; it is one of the earliest of the Copah prospects, and I suppose the +discoverer named it. I am willing to defend his choice, though. He +couldn't have found a prettier name." + +She went back to the matter in hand with womanly swiftness. "But the +mine: you had a right to buy it, didn't you?" + +"I should suppose so. I paid for it with my own money, anyway." + +"Then why should Mr. North use it as an argument against you in speaking +to Uncle Sidney? He did that--I am sure he did that." + +"Now the water has grown too deep for me," said Ford. "Why, North, +himself, is interested in Copah, openly. He owns half a dozen claims." + +"Near yours?" she queried. + +Ford stopped to consider. "To tell the truth, I don't know where mine +is," he confessed. "I bought it as the school-boys trade +pocket-knives--sight unseen. You wouldn't believe it of a grown man, +would you?" + +"What made you buy it at all?" + +Again he told the simple truth--and tried not to flinch. + +"You won't mind if I say that the name attracted me? I thought a mine, +or anything, that bore your name, ought to be good and--and desirable. +And it is a good mine; or it will be, by and by. Some morning I shall +wake up and find myself rich. At least that is what my partner, Grigsby, +assures me; and I believe him when I happen to remember it." + +She neither approved nor disapproved. When she spoke, it was of the +present necessity. "We must go back to the others now," she said. "Or +at least I must. Do you know what is to be done to-day?" + +Ford spread his hands. + +"Your uncle will set the pace. I wouldn't venture a guess, after last +night." + +He was handing her down from the engine step and she went back in a word +to the former contention. + +"You haven't promised me yet that you will not resign under fire--you +are under fire, you know." + +"Am I?" + +"Brother thinks you are." + +Once more he took the pessimistic view. + +"Your brother isn't losing any sleep over the Pacific Southwestern +situation. You said he was in England, didn't you?" + +"I said he was in London when he wrote." + +"London is a long way off: and what I do must be done to-day or +to-morrow. Mr. North will force the fighting, now that your uncle is on +the ground, and your brother safely on the opposite side of the earth. +And I can't afford to fight this time, Miss Alicia." + +"Why can't you?" + +They were walking slowly back toward the Nadia when he said: "Because a +victory would cost me more than I am willing to pay. There is no longer +room in this service for Mr. North and me. If we come to blows one of us +will have to go." + +"I can understand that," she said quietly. + +"And to obliterate Mr. North, I shall be obliged to efface--your uncle." + +She caught her breath. + +"Mr. Ford, you have intimated that Mr. North isn't an honest man. Do you +ask me to believe that Uncle Sidney is his accomplice?" + +"He is not, knowingly. But he will stand or fall with the man he has +made. I should have to ride him down before I could get at North." + +Her lip curled and the straight-browed little frown came again. "There +is no such thing as mercy in business, is there, Mr. Ford? My uncle is +an old man and his presidency means more to him--" + +"I understand that perfectly," said Ford soberly. "That is why I prefer +to step down and out and let some other man have the glory of finishing +the extension." + +She looked up quickly. + +"Would you do that for Uncle Sidney? He hasn't been very lenient with +you, has he?" + +Ford ignored the query. + +"He is your uncle, Miss Alicia; and I'd do it for your sake or not at +all." + +They had reached the steps of the private car, and Frisbie was waiting +with evident impatience for a word with Ford. Miss Adair's eyes signaled +emotion, and Ford thought it was resentment. But her parting word was +not resentful; it was merely a repetition. + +"Go to Mr. Frisbie," she said from the car step; "he is waiting for +you." And then: "Remember; whatever happens, _you must not resign_--not +even if Uncle Sidney asks you to." + +Frisbie's information, given after Miss Adair had gone in, was rather +mystifying. Young Benson, who was just in from the grade work beyond +Copah, brought word of a party of strange engineers running lines on the +opposite side of the river from the rejected S. L & W. short-cut through +the canyon of shale slides. Questioned by Benson, they had told what +Frisbie believed to be a fairy tale. The chief of the party claimed to +be the newly-elected county surveyor from Copah, running the lines for +some mining property recently filed for entry. Benson had not been over +curious; but he was observant enough to note that the tale was a misfit +in three important particulars. He saw no locating stakes, such as a +prospector always sets up conspicuously to mark his claim; and there +were no signs of the precious metal, and no holes to indicate an attempt +to find it. + +"What's your guess, Dick?" said Ford tersely. + +The assistant shook his head. + +"I haven't any coming to me. But I don't like mysteries." + +"Where was this party?" + +"About a mile and a half below here. It was going out toward Copah when +Jack met it--its work, whatever it was, all done, apparently." + +It was one of Frisbie's gifts to be suspicious; but Ford was lacking on +that side. + +"It's barely possible that the man was telling the truth, in spite of +Benson's failure to find any prospect holes," he remarked. "We'll let it +go at that until we know something different. It couldn't be a +Transcontinental party, this far from home, and we haven't anybody else +to fear." + +Frisbie dropped the subject as one of the abstractions and took up the +concrete. + +"What are the orders for to-day?" he asked. + +"I don't know. I'm waiting for Mr. Colbrith to say." + +"There are two buckboard teams here, in the MacMorrogh stables--came +over from Copah last night. What are they for?" + +"I don't know. Another of the president's little surprises, I suppose. +We'll know when he sends for me." + +The expected summons came at that precise moment, transmitted by +Penfield. Mr. Colbrith would like to see Mr. Ford in his private +state-room in the Nadia. The secretary had a sheaf of telegrams in his +hand, and wished to be directed to the wire office. Frisbie took him in +charge, and Ford went to obey the summons. + +The president was sitting very erect in his swing chair when the young +engineer let himself into the box-like compartment, and his voice was at +its thinnest when he said: "Be seated, Mr. Ford." + +Ford sat down on the divan-couch, and the president plunged at once into +business. + +"Some time ago, you advised me, as chairman of the executive committee, +that you had decided upon a change of route, Mr. Ford," he began +raspingly. "What were your reasons for making the change?" + +"I stated them in my letter of advice," said Ford; "economy in +construction and greater safety in operating, as against a slight +increase in the length of the line." + +"Twelve miles, I believe you said: that is a very considerable increase, +I should say. The great eastern companies are spending millions of +dollars, Mr. Ford, to shorten their lines by half-mile cut-offs." + +Ford had his reply ready. + +"The conditions are entirely different. It will be many years before a +fast through service is either practicable or profitable over the +extension; and when it comes to that, we shall still have the short line +from Denver to Green Butte by forty-two miles. But I explained all this +at the time, Mr. Colbrith, and I understood that I had the executive +committee's approval of the changed route." + +"Qualifiedly, Mr. Ford; only qualifiedly. Yet you have gone ahead in +your usual impetuous way, abandoning the short line through the canyon +and building the detour. Your motive for haste must have been a very +strong one--very strong." + +"It was. I am not here to kill time." + +"So it appears. But I am here, Mr. Ford, to consider carefully, and to +investigate. We shall go first over this route you have abandoned. I +wish to see for myself the difficulties you have so painstakingly +described." + +Ford shrugged. + +"I'm quite at your service, of course. But you will find it a hard trip. +Indeed, if we drive, we shall have to cross the river and take the other +side. The canyon on this side is impassable in places for a man on +foot." + +"I provided for that," said the president, letting his ferrety eyes rest +for a moment upon the reluctant one. "You will find two buckboards with +their drivers at the MacMorrogh headquarters. Be good enough to order +them around, and we'll start at once. No; no protests, Mr. Ford. My +responsibilities are not to be shirked. Penfield will drive with me, and +you may take Mr. Frisbie with you, if you see fit. I understand he is +implicated with you in this matter." + +Ford bridled angrily at the word. + +"There is no implication about it, Mr. Colbrith. You continually refer +to it as if it were a crime." + +"Ah! the word is yours, Mr. Ford. We shall see--we shall see. That is +all, for the present." + +Ford was raging when he found Frisbie and gave the order for the +vehicles. + +"He turned me out of his office state-room as if I had been a messenger +boy or tramp! Get those teams out, Dick, and give me a chance to cool +down. If my job is to last through this day--" + +Frisbie laughed. "Go and dip your head in the Pannikin while you wait. +Or, better still, chew on this. It's a cipher message that Durgin has +just been sending for Penfield to Vice-President North. Wouldn't that +make you weep and howl?" + +Ford was still puzzling over the meaningless code words when he took his +seat in the second of the two buckboards with Frisbie. The first +assistant waited until the horses had splashed through the shallows of +the river crossing; waited further until the president's vehicle had +gained a little start. Then he said: "Is it possible that you had +Penfield for a spy on you as long as you did without working out his +cipher code? Good Lord! I got that down before I did anything else--last +spring when you left me to run the Plug Mountain. Here's what he says to +North"--taking the code message and translating: "Ford suspects +something. Don't know how much. He and Miss Adair are putting their +heads together. She has authority of some kind from her brother. +President goes with Ford to examine abandoned route, as arranged. Will +wire result later.'" + +"'As arranged,'" was Ford's wrathful comment. + +"Apparently, everything is arranged for us. Some day, Dick, I'll lose my +temper, tie Penfield in a hard knot and throw him into the river! It's +like a chapter out of Lucretia Borgia!" + + + + +XIX + +THE RELUCTANT WHEELS + + +It was possibly an hour after Penfield's cipher message reached the +Southwestern Pacific headquarters in the Colorado capital, when a +fair-haired young man in London-cut clothes, and with a tourist's quota +of hand-luggage, crossed the Denver Union Station platform from the +Pullman of a belated Chicago train. + +Ascertaining from a gateman that the Plug Mountain day train had long +since gone on its way up the canyon, the young man left his many +belongings at the check-stand and had himself driven up-town to the +Guaranty Building. It was Eckstein who took his card in Mr. North's +outer office. The private secretary was dictating to a stenographer, and +was impatient of the interruption. But the name on the card wrought a +miracle. + +"Mr. North? Why, surely, Mr. Adair. He is always at liberty for you. +Right through this way"--holding the gate in the counter railing at its +widest--"we're mighty glad to see you in Denver, always." + +Adair had acquired the monocle habit on his latest run across the +Atlantic, and to keep in practice he gave the secretary the coldest of +stares through the disconcerting glass. "Really! I'm quite delighted. +Who is the other member of the 'we,' Mr.--er--er--" + +"Eckstein," prompted the secretary; but he said no more, being prudently +anxious to be quit of the transfixing stare before a worse thing should +befall. + +In the inner room the vice-president was less effusive, but no less +cordial. It was a rare thing to see one of the company's directors in +the Denver business offices. Mr. North was of the opinion that it would +be a good investment of time and effort for all concerned if the members +of the board used their privilege oftener. So on through half a dozen +polite time-killers to the reluctant query: What could the general +manager do for Mr. Adair? + +Given leave to speak, Adair stated his needs succinctly. He wanted a +special train to Saint's Rest; he wanted it suddenly, and he asked that +it be given the right of the road. + +"My dear sir!" protested the vice-president, "you mustn't ask +impossibilities! You shall have the train at once, of course: you shall +have my private car. But when it comes to the right of way, you'll have +to appeal to Mr. Ford. Why, he doesn't scruple to lay out the United +States mails for his material trains!" + +"Um," said Adair. "Where can I reach Ford?" + +Mr. North did not equivocate; he never lied when the truth would answer +the purpose equally well. + +"He is out on the extension; or more correctly speaking, somewhere +beyond the present end of the construction telegraph line. I'm afraid +you couldn't reach him by wire." + +"And the president?" queried the visitor. + +"Mr. Colbrith's car is at the end-of-track. You wished to join the party +in the Nadia?" + +"That is what I had in mind," said Adair, not too anxiously. + +Mr. North shook his head. + +"I don't think you'd enjoy the run over the construction track. Mr. +Colbrith went over it last night because--well, because he believes it +to be a presidential duty to inspect everything. If you leave to-day, +you will probably meet the Nadia coming out--possibly at Saint's Rest." + +Adair suddenly became wary. + +"Perhaps that would be the easy thing to do," he said. "I suppose the +engineers at Saint's Rest could put me up if I have to stay over night?" + +"You needn't ask them. You will have my car--with the best cook this +side of Louisiana. Keep it, live in it, till Mr. Colbrith picks you up +on his return." + +"All right. But you'll give me the special. And let it make as good +time as it can, Mr. North; I'm fierce when I have to ride a slow train." + +The vice-president's promise was freely given; and to expedite matters, +the division superintendent's chief clerk went down to the station with +Adair to see the special train properly equipped and started on the +mountain-climbing run. Adair left the details to this orderly from the +general offices; not knowing how to compass them himself, he had to. If +he could have seen the broad grins on the faces of his train crew when +Dobson, the clerk, gave them the despatcher's order--but at that moment +he was lounging in Mr. North's easiest chair in the central compartment +of the "01," reading for the twentieth time a crease-worn telegram. + +The telegram was from Alicia, and it was dated at Denver, three days +gone. It was not very explicit; on the contrary, it was rather +incoherent. + + "You would better come on as fast as you can if you want to save + your friend's life. He has been tried and found guilty--of just + what, I don't know--and will be hanged pretty soon--within a few + days, I think." + +"Now that's a nice way to stir a fellow up, isn't it?" soliloquized the +pleasure-lover. "Just as I was getting ready to go up to Mount Ptarmigan +for the shooting. She knew that, too. I'll bet a picayune it's just a +girl's scare. Ford's plenty good and able to take care of himself." + +That was Mr. Charles Edward Adair's care-free phrasing of it; but three +hours later, when the cook of the "01" served him the most appetizing of +luncheons in the big open compartment, and the steeply pitched walls of +the lower Blue Canyon were still stinting the outlook from the car +windows, he began to grow impatient. + +"Whereabouts are we now, Johnson?" he asked of the cook's second man. + +"Between Cutcliff and No-Horse; yes, sah. 'Bout forty mile from Denver." + +"Great Scott! Fifteen miles an hour? Say, Johnson, what do you do when +you want 'em to run faster--pull this string?" + +"Yes, sah; dat's it," grinned the negro. + +Adair pulled the air-cord, and it brought results--of a kind. Only the +train came to a sudden stop, instead of going ahead faster; and +Conductor Barclay, who had been riding on the engine, came back to see +what had happened. + +"Did you stop us, Mr. Adair?" he asked pleasantly. + +"Not meaning to, you may be sure," said Adair. "But now you're here, +I'll ask if there is any objection to my getting off and walking. I +could stop and rest and let you overtake me now and then, you know." + +The conductor tweaked the air-cord and the train moved on again. + +"I've been expecting you'd shout at us," he said good-naturedly. "But +we're doing the best we can. There's a freight wreck on ahead, and we've +been dallying along, hoping they'd get it picked up by the time we reach +it. I thought you'd rather keep moving than to be hung up for three or +four hours at the wreck." + +Adair saw his helplessness and made the best of it. He was in Mr. +North's hands, and if Mr. North was playing for delay, the delay would +be forthcoming. None the less, he contrived to make Barclay +uncomfortable. + +"I'm only a director in the Pacific Southwestern, and I suppose +directors don't count," he said nonchalantly. "Yet, I presume, if I +should ask it as a personal favor, I might get a conductor's or an +engineer's head to take home with me for a souvenir. How would that be? +Do you think I could make it win?" + +"You could do it, hands down, Mr. Adair. But I hope you won't feel as if +you'd got to go into the head-hunting business. It's like the boy +throwing stones into the pond; it's fun for the kid, but sort o' hard on +the toad-frogs." + +Adair laughed. He was not one of those who find it easy to bear malice. + +"You don't talk half as bad as you act," he said genially. "Down at +bottom I dare say you're a pretty good kind of a fellow. Had anything to +eat?" + +Barclay shook his head. "No; we was laying off to get coffee and sinkers +at Clapp's Mine, if we ever get there." + +"'Coffee and sinkers'," said Adair. "That doesn't sound very uplifting. +Sit down here and help me out with my contract." + +Barclay did it, rather unwillingly. He was not accustomed to eating at +the vice-president's table, but there was no resisting the curly-headed +young man when he chose to make himself companionable. Barclay sat on +the edge of his chair, ate with his knife or fork indifferently, and had +small use for the extra spoons and cutlery. But he made a meal to be +remembered. Afterward, the young man found a cigar-case, and his own box +of Turkish cigarettes; and still the special was going at the same slow +cow-gallop up the canyon. + +"How many are there of you up ahead?" asked Adair, when Barclay's cigar +was going like a factory chimney. + +"Only Williams and his fireman." + +"Dinner-buckets?" + +"No; neither one of 'em, as it happens. Hurry call to go out with you, +and both of 'em live too far to go home after the grub-cans." + +"Johnson," said the dispenser of hospitality, calling the second man. +"Think you could climb over the coal with some dinner for the enginemen? +No? Let me make it possible"--flipping a dollar into the ready palm. +"Tell the cook it's an order, and if he stints it there'll be +consequences." + +Barclay grinned his appreciation. The curly-headed young man was far +enough removed from any species of railway official hitherto known to +the conductor. But Adair was only paving the way. + +"Do you know," he said, after a little interval of tobacco-charmed +silence, "one of the things I am most anxious to see is a real railroad +wreck. Suppose you quicken up a little and let us have our dead time at +the scene of this disaster you speak of." + +Barclay was tilting uneasily in his chair. + +"I reckon they've about got it picked up and cleaned out o' the way by +this time, Mr. Adair. I shouldn't be surprised if we could hardly find +the place when we get there." + +"Nor I," said Adair; and he sat back and chuckled. "It's considerably +difficult to sit up and pull your imagination on a man who has been +decently good to you, isn't it, Barclay? Let me ask you: are you Mr. +North's man?" + +"Mr. North is the big boss." + +"But this Plug Mountain division is a part of Mr. Ford's line, isn't +it?" + +"It used to be all his. There's a white man for you, Mr. Adair." + +Adair saw his opportunity and used it. + +"Now see here, Barclay; I'm only a director, and I don't cut much ice +out this way. But back in New York I'm one of three or four people who +can tell Mr. North what he can do, and what he can't. You wouldn't want +to see Mr. Ford getting it in the neck, would you?" + +"By Jacks! There ain't a man in the service that wouldn't fight for him. +I tell you, he's _white_." + +"Well, Mr. Ford is in trouble: I don't know but he is likely to lose his +job, if I don't see the president before the big ax comes down. That is +between us two." + +The conductor sprang out of his chair. + +"By gravy! Why didn't you say that at first? Say, Mr. Adair, you stand +between us and Mr. North--tell him you gave the orders yourself--and +you'll have the ride of your life from here to Saint's Rest!" + +"Go it," said Adair; and two minutes after Barclay had let himself out +of the forward door of the "01," the train took a sudden start and +darted ahead at full speed. + +This bit of diplomacy on the part of Adair saved two full hours in the +run to Saint's Rest. Nevertheless, it was after dark when the "01" +pulled into the crowded material yard in the high mountain basin and +Leckhard came aboard to find out what had brought this second +private-car visitation. He was relieved not to meet North--to be +confronted only by a pleasant-faced young man who seemed to have the car +all to himself. + +"My name is Leckhard," announced the man-of-all-work, "and I represent +the engineering department. I saw it was Mr. North's car, and--" + +"And you came to see what you could do for the vice-president and +general manager," Adair finished for him. "Mighty sorry to disappoint +you, Mr. Leckhard, but my name isn't North; it's Adair, and I'm only a +director. How much authority is a director allowed--at this altitude and +distance from New York?" + +Leckhard laughed. + +"I reckon you might call yourself the ranking officer in the field, Mr. +Adair. What you say, goes." + +"Then I say 'go'; which means that I'd like to go--on to the end of the +extension." + +But now the engineer was shaking his head. + +"Ask me anything but that, Mr. Adair. None of our enginemen is at this +end of the line, and your man Williams, who brought you up from Denver, +doesn't know the way. More than that, if we had a man and an engine, I'd +be afraid to send you out for a night run. Mr. Ford made it last night +with Mr. Colbrith's car, and they used up ten hours in covering less +than a hundred and twenty miles, and came within six feet of killing +everybody." + +Adair had lighted a cigarette, and he did not reply until the match +flare had gone out. Then he said, in a way that made Leckhard his friend +for life: + +"I'm entirely in your hands, Mr. Leckhard; can't turn a wheel unless you +say so. And I believe you're telling me the truth, as man to man. Can +you reach Ford or Mr. Colbrith by wire?" + +"I'm sorry to say I can't. We have only the one wire, and it's on +temporary poles most of the way. It broke down on us this morning, and I +can't raise the end-of-track." + +"Block number two," said Adair cheerfully. "We seem to be out of luck +this evening." Then, with searching abruptness: "Do you call yourself +Ford's friend, Mr. Leckhard?" + +"Rather," said the Saint's Rest Pooh Bah. "He hired me; and when he +goes, I go." + +"Ah! now we are warming ourselves at the same fire. Let me invite your +confidence in one word, Mr. Leckhard. I dislike Mr. North." + +The burly engineer laughed again. + +"You have a geniusful way of putting your finger on the sore spot +without fumbling. We all dislike Mr. North at this end of things--with +reason." + +"And that reason is?" + +"That he'd fire the entire engineering department if he could find half +an excuse. I'm afraid he's going to do it, too, in the most effectual +way--by forcing Mr. Ford out. If Ford goes, every man in the department +will quit with him. I'm afraid it's coming to that." + +Johnson, the porter, had lighted the Pintsch globes and was laying the +covers for dinner. + +"Make it two, Johnson," said Adair; and, then to Leckhard: "You dine +with me--don't say no; I couldn't stand it alone." And when that point +was settled: "Now, sit down till we thresh, this out a bit finer. How +far has this forcing business gone? You're talking to the man who has +backed Ford from the first." + +"It has gone pretty far. North has obstructed, quietly but persistently, +ever since the first blow was struck on the extension. He has delayed +material, when he could do it unofficially, he scants us for rolling +stock and motive power, he stands in with the MacMorroghs and backs them +against Ford every time there is a dispute. Ford is a patient man, Mr. +Adair, but I think he has about reached the limit." + +"H'm. Do you attach any particular importance to the president's trip +over the extension?" + +Leckhard shook his head. "I'm only a passenger--I see what goes by the +car-windows. Mr. Colbrith was dead set on pushing over to the +end-of-track--wouldn't even wait for daylight. You probably know him +better than I do--" + +"He is my uncle," Adair cut in. + +"Oh; then I can't tell you anything about him. He was hot at Ford last +night; what for I don't know, unless it was because Ford opposed a night +run over a raw construction track with the Nadia. He was right about +that, though. If I had been in his place I would have thrown up my job +before I would have taken the risk." + +Adair appeared to be considering something, and when he had thought it +out, the porter had announced dinner and they had taken their places at +the table. + +"I have told you I am Ford's friend, Mr. Leckhard; I have ridden a +couple of thousand miles out of my way to give him a lift. Tell me +frankly; have you any reason to believe it will come to blows between +him and the president while they are together at the front?--Try this +celery; it's as good as you'd get at Sherry's." + +Leckhard helped himself to the relish, and waited until the negro, +Johnson, had gone back to the cook's galley. + +"The little I know comes in a roundabout way," he replied slowly. +"Penfield, who is known all over the Southwestern as Mr. North's private +detective and spy, is with Mr. Colbrith acting as the president's +secretary. Yesterday, while the Nadia was side-tracked here, Penfield +had a lot of telegraphing to do for Mr. Colbrith. He did it +himself--he's a lightning operator, among other things--and I happened +into the office just as he was finishing. His final message was a +cipher, to Mr. North, and he signed it with his own name." + +"Well?" said Adair. + +Again the engineer waited until the negro was out of hearing. + +"A little later, just as the Nadia was about to pull out, there came a +rush call from Denver for Penfield. I answered and said the car was on +the point of leaving, but that I'd take the message and try to catch +Penfield if I could. It came, on the run, and it was signed by Eckstein, +North's chief clerk. It wasn't ciphered--lack of time, I reckon--and +Eckstein took the chance that I wouldn't catch on." + +"You kept a copy?" suggested Adair. + +"I did. I wasn't able to deliver the original until the Nadia came back +from the foot of the pass in the evening to fill the engine tank. But I +couldn't make anything out of it. It was an order to Penfield not to let +anything interfere with the president's buckboard trip--whatever that +might be--with authority to incur any expense that might be necessary, +using the telegram as his credential with the MacMorrogh Brothers if +more money were needed." + +"To pay for the buckboards?" asked Adair. + +"You may search me," said Leckhard. "Only it could hardly be that--we +have an open account at the Bank of Copah for legitimate expenses. No; +there's a nigger in the woodpile, somewhere. Penfield is only a clerk; +but for some purpose he is given _carte blanche_ to spend money." + +Adair was absently stirring his black coffee. + +"All of which points to one conclusion, Mr. Leckhard. They are plotting +against Ford--without the president's connivance. But the president is +going to be made to swing the club. I know rather more than you do about +it--which isn't saying very much. My--a relative of mine who is with +the party in the Nadia wired me three days ago from Denver that Ford had +been tried and condemned, and was only waiting to be hanged. That's why +I am here to-night. You've got to get me to the end-of-track before it +comes to blows between Mr. Colbrith and Stuart Ford. I know both men, +Mr. Leckhard. If the iron comes to a certain heat, the past master of +all the peacemakers won't be able to patch things together." + +"Ford will resign," said the engineer. + +"That is what I'm afraid of; and we can't let him resign. That would +mean Mr. North for everything in sight, and the ultimate ruin of the +Pacific Southwestern. On the other hand, I can't have Ford fighting the +family--or my uncle--which is just what he will do if he gets his blood +up--and doesn't quit in a huff. It's up to you to trundle this car over +to the seat of war, Mr. Leckhard." + +The division engineer was thinking hard. + +"I can't see how it's to be done, right now, Mr. Adair. But I'll tell +you what I will do. Our empty material trains come back from the front +in the night, as a rule. When they get in, and I can be sure that the +track's clear, I'll double one of the construction engines out with you. +It will be along toward morning, I'm afraid; but, with nothing in the +way, you ought to make the run in four or five hours--say by late +breakfast time." + +That was the way it was left when Leckhard went back to his telegraph +den at ten o'clock; and some six hours later, Adair, sleepily conscious +of disturbances, wakened sufficiently to hear the wheels once more +trundling monotonously under the "01." + + + + +XX + +THE CONSPIRATORS + + +"How far do we go, and what do we do when we get there?" asked Frisbie +of his chief, when the two buckboards, heaving and lurching over the +rock-strewn talus at the foot of the canyon cliff, had passed beyond +sight and sound of the headquarters camp at the mouth of Horse Creek. + +"I'm not guessing any more," said Ford crustily. He was finding that his +temper deteriorated as the square of his distance from Alicia Adair +increased. "The president said he wanted to drive over this short-cut, +and he's doing it." + +"Humph!" growled Frisbie. "If he wanted to rub salt into your bruises, +why didn't he take you in the cart with him? And where do _I_ come in?" + +"You are 'implicated' with me; that was his word." + +Another mile passed in discomforting plungings. The trail had become all +but impassable for the staggering horses; yet the leading buckboard held +on doggedly. There were places where both drivers had to get out and +lead; bad bits where all save the president descended to walk. But +through the worst as well as the best, Mr. Colbrith clung to his seat +like a man determined to ride. It was well past noon when the two +vehicles reached the western portal of the canyon, and the dottings of +the Copah mine workings came in sight on the hillsides to the southward. +Ford's driver had fallen a little behind in the final half-mile, and +when the gap was closed up, the president was waiting. + +"Well, Mr. Ford," he began, somewhat breathless but triumphant, "are you +fully satisfied?" + +"I have learned nothing that I did not know before we began to build the +extension," was the non-committal rejoinder. + +"Oh, you haven't? You reported that canyon impracticable for a railroad, +and yet I have just driven through it without once dismounting from this +buckboard. Moreover, we shall find in Copah to-morrow a re-survey of the +line showing its entire practicability, Mr. Ford--a report not made by +your engineers." + +Ford and Frisbie exchanged swift glances of intelligence. The presence +of the strange engineering party in the canyon was sufficiently +explained. At first sight the president's expedient seemed childishly +puerile to Ford. Then suddenly in a flash of revealment he saw beyond +the puerilities--beyond the stubborn old man who, with all his narrow +self-will and obstinacy was merely playing the game for others. + +"We can discuss these matters later, if you wish," he said placably. "I +think you will find our ground well taken. Do you want to drive back as +we came? Or will you let me find you an easier road to the mouth of +Horse Creek?" + +But Mr. Colbrith was not to be balked or turned aside. + +"Mr. Ford, I wish to be fair and impartial. I desired to satisfy myself, +personally, that this route we have driven over is practicable, and it +was also my desire that the investigation should be conducted in your +presence. You will admit now that you made a mistake--a very costly +mistake for the company--in abandoning this short cut." + +"I admit nothing of the kind. The difficulties remain as they were, +quite unchanged by our pleasure trip from the end-of-track, Mr. +Colbrith. Assuming that the re-survey will report that the north bank of +the river is practicable, while the south bank is not, I have only to +say that the cost of the two bridges would offset the easier grading +conditions, while the danger to future traffic would remain the same. +But that is neither here nor there. You must either give us credit for +knowing our business, or you must discredit us entirely." + +Frisbie was grinding his heel into the hard soil of the mesa. The +argument was growing rather acrid; and Penfield and the two drivers were +interested listeners. It was high time for a diversion to be made, and +the assistant made it. + +"We have used five hours getting down here, and we'll need as many going +back," he put in. "Unless there is something more to be done on the +spot, I think we'd better take the road over the hills. It's with you, +Mr. Colbrith." + +The president signified his assent by climbing into his buckboard, and +the return journey was begun with the two engineers in the lead for +pathfinding purposes. Once safely out of earshot, Frisbie voiced his +disgust. + +"A wild goose-chase, pure and simple! Stuart, that old man is in his +second childhood." + +"Not at all," said Ford. "He is merely following out North's +suggestions. Dick, my name is Dennis." + +"Nonsense! Things are no worse than they have been all along." + +"My time with the Pacific Southwestern is shorter by just the number of +hours it has taken us to drive down here. Mr. Colbrith has convinced +himself that I was wrong in abandoning the canyon. To-morrow he will +convince himself that I was doubly wrong in approving the detour. I +shall hand in my resignation to-night." + +"So be it," said Frisbie shortly. "That means good-by to the extension. +I'm predicting that it will never get to Green Butte--never get beyond +Copah. And your name will go out to the railroad world as that of a man +who bit off a number of large things that he couldn't chew." + +"Confound you!" said Ford; and after that, Frisbie could get no more +than single-syllabled replies to his monologue of Job's comfortings. + +The returning route was a detour, winding, through the greater part of +it, among and over the swelling heights north of the Pannikin. On each +hilltop the vast sweep of the inter-mountain wilderness came into view, +and from the highest point in the trail, reached when the sun was +dipping toward the western horizon, the eye-sweep took in the broken +country lying between the Pannikin and the path of the Transcontinental +narrow gauge forty miles away. + +Jack's Canyon, the Transcontinental station nearest Copah, was the +beginning of a combined pack trail and stage road connecting the Copah +district with what had been, before the advent of the Southwestern +Extension, its nearest railroad outlet. Along this trail, visible to the +buckboarders as a black speck tittuping against the reddening background +of the west, galloped a solitary horseman, urging his mount in a way to +make Frisbie, getting his glimpse from the hilltop of extended views, +call Ford's attention. + +"Look at that brute, pushing his horse like that at the end of the day! +He ought to be--" + +But the hastening rider was getting his deserts, whatever they should +be, as he went along. For three hours, with three relays of fresh horses +picked up at the stage stations in passing, he had been galloping +southward, and to whatever other urging he might confess was added the +new one of fear, the fear that in the approaching day's-end he would +lose his way. + +Seen from the nearer point of view, the tittuping horseman seemed +curiously out of harmony with his environment. Instead of the cow-boy +"shaps," or overalls, he wore the trousers of civilization, which the +rapid night had hitched half-way to his knees. In place of the +open-breasted shirt with the rolled-up sleeves there were tailor-made +upper clothes, with the collar and cravat also of civilization, and the +hat--it was perhaps fortunate for the rider that he had not met any true +denizens of the unfettered highlands on the lonely trail from Jack's +Canyon. His hat was a Derby of the newest shape; and the cow-men beyond +the range are impatient of such head-gear. + +Recognition, after one has ridden hard for three hours over a dusty +road, is not easy; but there are faces one never forgets, and the +features, dust-grimed and sweat-streaked though they were, had still the +South-of-Europe outline, the slightly aquiline nose, and the piercing +black eyes of Mr. Julius Eckstein, whom we saw, on the morning of this +same road-wearying day, welcoming Adair over the counter railing in the +Denver office. How does it come that a few short hours later we find him +galloping tantivy over the dusty hills, no less than two hundred miles, +as the birds fly, from the counter railing of welcomings? + +That is the story of another, and a more successful special train than +Adair's. No sooner was the care-free young director safely on his way to +meet the delays so painstakingly prearranged for him than the wires +began to buzz with a cipher message of warning to Penfield. A precious +half-hour was lost in ascertaining that the wire connection to the +end-of-track was temporarily out of commission; but during that +half-hour Mr. North had held his chin in his hand to some good purpose. + +With the fresh complications promised by Adair's projection into the +field, a stronger man than Penfield should be in command on the firing +line. The vice-president decided swiftly that Eckstein was the man; but +how to get him to the MacMorrogh headquarters before Adair should +arrive? + +It proved to be simpler in the outcarrying than in the planning. A +special light engine over the Transcontinental to Jack's Canyon--an +exchange of courtesies which even fighting railroads make in war as well +as in peace--a wire request on the stage company for relays of saddle +horses, and the thing was done. And Eckstein, pushing his jaded beast +down the final hill in the dusk of the evening, and welcoming, as only +the saddle-tormented can welcome, the lights of the headquarters camp, +confessed in cursings quite barbaric in their phrasings that he, too, +was done. + +The conference held that night behind locked doors in the MacMorroghs' +commissary office was a council of five, with Eckstein, as the +mouthpiece of the vice-president, in the chair. Penfield was present, +with no vote, and the three MacMorroghs voted as one; but as to that, +there were no divisions. A crisis was imminent, and it must be met. + +"As I have said, I am here with power to act," said Eckstein, gripping +the chair with wincings after the day of torment. "The plan outlined at +first by Mr. North must go through as it was outlined. Part of it has +already been carried out, you say: Ford and the president have been over +the short-cut together. To-morrow the entire private-car party goes to +Copah over the detour. Are the buckboards here for that?" + +"They're here wid the drivers. I saw to that part of it myself." It was +the youngest of the three MacMorroghs who gave the assurance. + +"So far so good," commented the chairman. "The other thing we have to +provide for, or rather, to prevent, is the possibility of Mr. Adair's +reaching here in time to join the party. The last definite information +we had of Mr. Adair he was crawling up Blue Canyon, with a train crew +which was under orders to give him ample time to study the scenery. He +has probably reached Saint's Rest before this, however, and once there, +Leckhard will give him anything in sight. The question is, will he +attempt to run the extension to-night?" + +The middle MacMorrogh thought not, and his younger brother agreed with +him. But the senior partner voted aye, and stuck to it. Thereupon ensued +a conflict of opinion. Dan MacMorrogh pointed out that the construction +motive power was all at the west end, or in transit eastward; it would +be daylight of another day before an engineer familiar with the hazards +could be obtained for Adair's special over the construction line. But +Brian MacMorrogh argued with equal emphasis that this was a mere begging +of chances. Without a telegraph wire to verify the guess, no man could +say at what hour one of the trains of empties would pull through to +Saint's Rest; and whatever the hour, Leckhard would doubtless turn the +engine and crew to double back with Adair's car. + +Eckstein was gripping the arms of his chair and setting his teeth deep +into his cigar while the probabilities were getting themselves threshed +out. At the end of the dispute he said quietly: "It's a hell of a pity +we can't have the use of the wire for this one night. But, gentlemen, we +can't stop for trifles. There are five of us here in this room who know +how much is at stake. One of two things is due to happen. If we can keep +Adair out of it for another twelve hours, Ford will be disgraced and +asked to resign. If he gets to that point, we're safe. I know Ford's +temper. If Mr. Colbrith puts it as he is likely to put it, Ford will say +and do things that will make it impossible for Adair or any one else to +get him back into the service." + +"Thrue for you, Misther Eckstein; ye have 'im down to the crossin' of a +'t'," agreed the eldest of the brothers MacMorrogh. + +"That is one of the due things," Eckstein went on smoothly. "The other +isn't pretty to look at. If Adair gets here in time, it will be another +story. He can handle Ford; and he has proved once or twice that he can +handle Mr. Colbrith. If he hadn't been out of the way when you went to +New York with Mr. North, you'd never have seen the thin edge of this +contract, Brian. Well, then what happens? With Adair on the ground to +back him, Ford wins out. Do you know what that means? Investigations, +muck-rakings, and worse. There are two or three of us here, and some +more on the other side of the range, who won't get off with less than +ten years apiece. I'm willing to take the chance of a few more years +for another play on the red. How is it with the rest of you?" + +The elder MacMorrogh spread his hands. + +"It's all in the same boat we are. You've a notion in the back par-rt of +your head, Misther Eckstein; lave us have it." + +"As I've said, we can't stick at trifles. If Adair's train is on the +extension, it mustn't get here. Somebody goes up the line on a hand-car +to-night and stops it." + +"Is it to ditch it, ye mane?" asked the youngest of the brothers in a +hoarse whisper. + +Eckstein laughed cynically. "What a lot of crude cutthroats you are!" he +jeered. "Now if it were Ford, instead of Adair--but pshaw! a rail or two +taken up and flung into the river well beyond walking distance from this +camp does the business. Only the man who does it wants to make sure he +has gone far enough back to cover all the possible chances." + +"That's me," said Dan MacMorrogh; and he rose and let himself out, with +the younger brother to lock the door behind him. + +The door-keeping attended to, the younger brother drew closer into the +circle. + +"There's wan thing," he said, looking furtively at Eckstein. "I was in +Copah this day: I got the buckboards for Misther Colbrith. Goin' past +the bank, who would I see but our old bookkeeper, Merriam, chinnin' wid +the bank president. I thought he was out o' the way entirely." + +Stiff and saddle-sore as he was, Eckstein leaped out of his chair with +an oath. + +"Merriam? What the devil is he back here for? It's a put-up job!" + +It was the chief of the MacMorroghs who flung in the calming word. + +"'Tis only a happen-so, Misther Eckstein. Merriam owns a mine or two in +the Copah, and ye know the fever: a man can't keep away from thim." + +"That may be; but it's a cursed unlucky combination, just the same. I +tell you, Brian, he knows too much--this fellow Merriam. He knew what +was up when he was steering Frisbie. You told him too much. And +afterward, when we gave him the Oregon job, he knew why he was being +bribed to go away. You let us in for this: you've got to muzzle him, +some way." + +The MacMorrogh looked at his remaining brother meaningly. "'Tis up to +you, this time, Mickey, b'y. Find your way over to the minin' camp this +night, and make a clane job av it.'" + +Penfield was moving uneasily in his chair. The plotting waters were +deepening swiftly, much too swiftly for him. Loyalty to his superior +officer, the unquestioning loyalty that disregards motives entirely and +does not look too closely at methods, was his fetish. But these men +were not merely loyal to Mr. North. They were criminals--he stuck at the +word, but there was no other--fighting for their own hand. + +"I guess--I guess I'd better go back to the Nadia," he stammered, trying +to keep his voice steady. "Mr. Colbrith may need me." + +Eckstein turned on him like a snarling animal. + +"No you don't, Arthur, my boy. I know you like a book. You stay here +till you're in as deep as the rest of us. Like Merriam, you know too +damned much." + +Penfield sat still, with the cold chills running up and down his spine, +while Eckstein went on talking to the two MacMorroghs. + +"This Merriam business complicates things like hell"--he was growing +coarsely profane in the grinding mill of events. "But it shows us where +we stand. This thing has got to go through, and if it doesn't work out +the way we've planned it, it's for us to find another way." + +"There's always the wan other way," said the elder MacMorrogh slowly. +"'Tis but a drunken fight in wan o' the camps, and Ford tryin' to stop +it, as he always does: a bit of a shindy among the b'ys, and this--" +crooking his forefinger suggestively. + +"Bah!" said Eckstein. "You fellows ought to have lived in the stone age, +when a man pulled his enemy to pieces with his bare hands. If it comes +to that, there are easier ways--and safer. A premature blast in a rock +cut; a weak coupling-pin when he happens to be standing in the way of a +pulling engine: they tell me he is always indifferent to his personal +safety. But never mind the fashion of it; the point I'm making is that +if everything else fails, Ford mustn't live to be the head-foreman of +the outfit." + +Penfield's face was ashen, and he was cravenly thankful that the +lamplight was dim, and that his chair was in the shadow. This was more +than he had bargained for; more by the price of a man's life. + +Eckstein was lifting himself by painful inches from his chair. A silence +as of the grave had fallen upon the two MacMorroghs. It was the senior +partner who broke it. + +"'Tis as ye say, Misther Eckstein. A man--a safe man, that'll do what +he's told to do--will be at Ford's heels till this thing do be settled. +And now for yourself: 'tis betther that ye kape dark. Four of us know +that you're in the camp--no wan else need know. I've a room and a bed, +and ye'll be nadin' the lasht, I'm thinking." + +The two MacMorroghs were bestirring themselves, and Penfield was +slipping through the door into the commissary when Eckstein's fingers +closed upon his arm. + +"Your part is to keep tab on the programme," he whispered "Get word +instantly to Brian if there is any change. And if you weaken, Arthur, +I'll promise you just one thing: I'll pull you in with the rest of us if +I have to swear to a string of lies a mile long. Remember that." + +Penfield escaped at length, and stumbled through the littered +end-of-track yard to where the lighted windows of the Nadia marked the +berth of the president's car. Out of the shadow of the car a man rose up +and confronted him. It was Frisbie, and he asked a single question: + +"Say, Penfield, who was that fellow who rode around to the MacMorroghs' +back door just after dark?" + +"It was Eckstein." The secretary let slip the name before he could lay +hold of his discretion. + +"Oh: all right That's all," said the engineer; and he vanished. + +Climbing to the observation platform, Penfield let himself into the +cheerful central compartment of the Nadia quietly enough to surprise two +people who were sitting together on one of the broad divans. The two +were Ford and Miss Alicia Adair, with Aunt Hester Adair, reading under +the drop-light at the table, for the only other occupant of the +compartment. It was Miss Alicia who told the secretary that he was not +needed. + +"Mr. Colbrith was very tired, and he has gone to bed," she said; and +Penfield, still pallid and curiously unready of speech, said he believed +he'd go, too. + +Ford got up when Penfield had disappeared in the curtained vestibule +leading to the state-rooms. + +"I shall wait one more day, because you want me to," he said, resuming +the conversation which had been broken off by Penfield's incoming. "But +I'll tell the truth: I came here to-night to have it over with. We were +as near quarreling to-day as I want to come, and if Frisbie hadn't got +between--" + +"Good Mr. Frisbie!" she said. "Some day I hope to get a chance to be +very nice to him." + +Ford laughed. The evening had healed many of the woundings of the day. + +"If you don't get the chance it won't be Dick's fault--or mine. +Meantime, I'll be delighted to pose as his substitute." + +She had gone with him to the door, and his last word was a reminder. +"Don't forget," he said. "I'm to drive your buckboard to-morrow, +whatever happens." + +"You are the one who will forget," she retorted. "When Uncle Sidney +crooks his finger at you, you'll climb up obediently beside him and let +him scold you all the way over to Copah." + +"Wait and see," said Ford; and then he said good night, not as he wanted +to, but as he must, with Aunt Hester sitting within arm's reach. + +Frisbie was sitting up for him when he reached the white tents of the +engineers' camp pitched a little apart from the MacMorrogh +conglomeration of shacks and storehouses. + +"Just one question," said the first assistant, "and I've been staying +awake to ask it. Are you still my boss?" + +"For one more day," said Ford shortly. + +"Well, we can't live more than a day at a time, if we try. That will do +to sleep on." + +"All right; sleep on it, then." + +"In a minute; after I've freed my mind of one little news item. Do you +remember that fellow we saw riding in on the Jack's Canyon trail as we +were coming back this afternoon?" + +"Yes." + +"Have you any notion who it was?" + +"No." + +"It was Mr. Julius Eckstein; and he is at present lying doggo in the +MacMorrogh quarters. That's all. Now you can turn in and sleep a few +lines on _that_." + + + + +XXI + +THE MILLS OF THE GODS + + +It was merely by chance that Adair had Michael Gallagher for his +engineer when the "01" was made up for the after-midnight run from +Saint's Rest to the MacMorrogh headquarters. But it was a chance which +was duly gratifying to Leckhard. The little Irishman was Ford's most +loyal liegeman, and a word was all that was needed to put him on his +mettle. The word was spoken while he was oiling around for the +man-killing extra service. + +"Pretty well knocked out, Michael?" asked Leckhard, by way of preface. + +"I am thot, Misther Leckhard. 'Tis the good half of lasht night, all day +yestherday, and thin some." + +"It's tough. But if any of the other men were in, I should still ask you +to go. Mr. Ford is in a pinch, and Mr. Adair, your passenger, is going +to help him out. He can do it if you get him to Horse Creek in time; and +I know you'll get him there if the 956 and the '01' will stay on the +steel." + +"To help Misther Foord out? Thot's me," said Gallagher simply. + +"Not having a wire, I can't boost you any from this end. You'll meet +Folsom and Graham with the other two sections of empties where you can: +you'll run as fast as the Lord'll let you on such a track as you have: +but above all, you'll stay on the rails. If you ditch yourself, it'll go +hard with Mr. Ford." + +"I'll do all thim things and wan more--and thot wan is the shtiffest av +thim all: the saints aidin' me, Misther Leckhard, I'll shtay awake." + +There was a short siding at the summit of the pass, and by good hap, +Gallagher met Folsom with the first string of empties at that point: or +rather, giving the bit of good luck full credit, he heard the roaring of +Folsom's exhaust as the first of the opposing trains pounded up the +dangerous western grade, and hastily backed up and took the summit +siding. + +Pitching over the hill with the "01" the moment Folsom's tail-lights had +passed the outlet switch, Gallagher had a sharp attack of memory. The +day before, in the Horse Creek yard, he had seen and remarked a jagged +scratch on the side of the Nadia. Hence, he was watching for the narrow +rock cuttings, and the three passages perilous on the cliff face were +made in safety. + +Once off the mountain, however, the greater peril began to assert +itself. For a time the Irishman kept himself fully awake and alert by +pushing the 956 to the ragged edge of hazard, scurrying over the short +tangents and lifting her around the curves in breath-taking spurts. +Later this expedient began to lose its fillip. Since the train was +running wholly on the air-brakes there was nothing for the fireman to +do, and Jackson, the loyalest understudy Gallagher had ever known, +tumbled from his box in a doze, staggered across the gang-way into the +half-filled tender, and fell like a man anćsthetized full length on the +coal. Gallagher did not try to arouse him. + +"'Tis hell for wan, an' twice hell for two," he muttered; and then he +shifted his right hand to the brake-cock and grasped the hot throttle +lever with the ungloved left. And for a time the pain of the burn +sufficed. + +It was another piece of luck, good or bad, that made Ten Mile station +the special train's meeting point with the second train of empties. This +time it was Graham, the other engineer, who heard. He had stopped at Ten +Mile on the bare chance that the wire between that point and Saint's +Rest had been repaired; public opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, +an engineer does not run "wild" when he can help it. + +The engineer of the third section had come out of the night operator's +office disappointed, and was climbing to his engine to pull out, when he +heard, or thought he heard, the dull rumble of a train racing down the +canyon. It came in sight while he listened, and the yellow flare told +him that it was either Gallagher or Folsom doubling back on one of the +construction engines. What startled him was the fact that the coming +train appeared to be running itself; there was no warning whistle shriek +and no slackening of speed. + +Graham was a Scotchman, slow of speech, slow to anger, methodical to the +thirty-third degree. But in an emergency his brain leveled itself like a +ship's compass gimballed to hang plumb in the suddenest typhoon. Three +shrill whistle calls sent a sleepy flagman racing to set the switch of +the siding. With a clang the reversing lever came over and the steam +roared into the cylinders. + +The Scotchman had the grade to help him, which was fortunate. When he +had the string of empties fairly in retreat, the beam of Gallagher's +headlight was shining full in his face and blinding him. For a +heart-breaking second he feared that the opposing train would follow him +in on the siding; there was but an instant for the flicking of the +switch. But by this time the sleepy flagman was wide awake, and he +jerked the switch lever for his life the moment Graham's engine had +cleared the points. It was the closest possible shave. Gallagher's cab +ticked the forward end of the other engine's running board in passing, +and if Graham had not been still shoving backward with the throttle +wide open, the "01," being wider than its piloting engine, would have +had its side ripped out. + +Graham had a glimpse into the cab of the 956 as it passed and saw +Gallagher, sitting erect on his box with wide-staring eyes. He knew the +symptoms, and feared that he had only postponed the catastrophe. The +siding was a short one, and he knew that in backing down he must +inevitably have shoved the rear end of his train out upon the main line +at the lower switch. Once again the level brain righted itself to the +emergency. Four sharp shrieks of the whistle for switches, a jamming of +the whistle lever to set the canyon echoes yelling in the hope of +arousing Gallagher, and Graham slammed his engine into the forward +motion without pausing to close the throttle. There was a grinding of +fire from the wheels, a running jangle of slack-taking down the long +line of empties, and the freight train shot ahead, snatching its rear +end out of harm's way just as Gallagher, dreaming that his boiler had +burst and that all the fiends of the pit were screeching the news of it, +came to life and snapped on the air. + +When the stop was made, the little Irishman roused his fireman, got off +and footed it up the line to see what he had done. Graham had stopped +his engine when he was sure his train was clearing the lower switch, and +was on his way back to find out what had happened to Gallagher. The two +men met in the shadow of the halted material empties, and it was the +Irishman who began it. + +"Paste me wan, Scotchie," he said. "'Tis owin' to me." + +Without a word the Scotchman gave the blow, catching the little man full +in the chest and knocking him half a car-length. That was enough. +Gallagher picked himself up out of the gravel, the lust of battle hot +upon him. + +"Wan more like thot, ye divvle, and I cajo lick ye if ye wor +Fin-mac-Coul himself," he panted; and Graham gave it judiciously, this +time on the point of the jaw. For five bloody minutes it went on, give +and take, down and up; methodically on Graham's part, fiery hot on +Gallagher's. And in the end the Irishman had the heavier man backed +against the string of empties and yelling for quarter. + +"Are you full awake now, ye red-hot blastoderm?" gasped Graham, +struggling to free himself when Gallagher gave him leave. + +"I am thot, thanks to you, Sandy, lad. 'Twas a foine bit av a scrimmage, +an' I'm owin' ye wan. Good night to ye." + +"Ye've got a clear track from this," called Graham, swabbing his +battered face with a piece of cotton waste drawn from one of the pockets +of method. "But ye'd better not take any more cat-naps. Go on with ye, +ye wild Irishman; ye're obstructin' the traffic." + +For twenty miles below Ten Mile Gallagher sat on his box like a man +refreshed. Then the devil of sleep postponed beset him again. Once more +the fireman was asleep on the coal, and to the little Irishman's +bombardment of wrenches and other missiles he returned only sodden +groans. Gallagher nerved himself to fight it through alone. Mile after +mile of the time-killing track swung slowly to the rear, and there was +not even the flick of speed to help in the grim battle. + +Dawn came when the end-of-track camp was still forty miles away, but the +breaking day brought no surcease of strugglings. When it came to the +bitter end, when his eyelids would close involuntarily and he would wake +with a start to wonder dumbly how far the 956 had come masterless, +Gallagher took a chew of tobacco and began to rub the spittle into his +eyes--the last resort of the sleep-tormented engineman. Like all the +other expedients it sufficed for the time; but before long he was +nodding again, and dreaming that a thousand devils were burning his eyes +out with the points of their red-hot pitchforks. + +Out of one of these nightmares he came with a yell of pain to see what +figured for the moment as another nightmare. Three hundred feet ahead +the track seemed to vanish for three or four rail-lengths. It was +second nature to jam on the brakes and to make the sudden stop. Then he +sat still and rubbed his smarting eyes and stared again. The curious +hallucination persisted strangely. Fifty feet ahead of the stopped +engine the glistening lines of the steel ended abruptly, beginning again +a car-length or two beyond. Without disturbing the sleeping Jackson, +Gallagher got down and crept cautiously out to the break. It was a +break. He stooped and felt the rail ends with his hands. + +When he straightened up his passenger was standing beside him. + +"What is it?" asked Adair. "Have we lost something?" + +Gallagher waved a grimy hand at the gap. + +"The thrack," he said. "'Twas there whin I pulled me sthring av empties +out over ut lasht night. 'Tis gone now, else I'm thot near dead for +sleep I can nayther see nor feel sthraight." + +Adair was calmly lighting a cigarette. + +"Your senses are still in commission," he said; "there is a good-sized +piece of track missing. Who sniped it, do you suppose?" + +The engineer was shaking his fiery head. + +"'Tis beyond me, Misther Adair." + +"That's the deuce of it," smiled the young man. "It's beyond the train. +How is your engine--pretty good on the broad jump?" + +Gallagher was not past laughing. + +"She'll not lep thot, this day. But who'd be doin' this job betune dark +an' mornin', d'ye think?" + +"You will have to ask me something easy, I'm not up in all the little +practical jokes of the country. But if I should venture a guess, I +should say it was some one who didn't want me to answer the first call +for breakfast at your end-of-track camp this morning. What do we do?" + +Gallagher was thinking. + +"We passed a camp av surfacers tin mile back, and there'd be rails at +Arroyo Siding, tin mile back o' thot," he said reflectively. + +Adair had passed over to the river side of the line and was looking at a +fresh plowing of the embankment. + +"The rails have been dragged down here and they are probably in the +river," he announced. "If we had men and tools we might fish them out +and repair damages." + +"Come on, thin," cried the little Irishman, and when he ran back to +climb to the footboard of the 956, Adair climbed with him. + +Jackson, refreshed by his cat-naps on the coal, was sent to the rear end +of the "01" to flag back, and in due time the special picked up the gang +of surfacers just turning out to the day's work. An Irish foreman was in +command, and to him Gallagher appealed, lucidly but not too gently. The +reply was a volley of abuse and a caustic refusal to lend his men to +the track-laying department. + +Gallagher turned to Adair with his red-apple face wrinkling dismayfully. + +"'Tis up to me to push thot felly's face in, Misther Adair; and what wid +two nights and a day, shtandin', and wan fight wid a bully twice me +size, I'm not man enough." + +Adair tossed away the stump of his cigarette. + +"You're quite sure that is what is needed?" he queried. + +"To knock a grain av sinse into thot Wicklow man?" queried Gallagher. +"Sure, it is." And then whispering: "But not for you, Misther Adair; +he'd ate you in two bites. L'ave me have a thry wid him." + +But Adair was off and fronting the surly MacMorrogh foreman. + +"We need a dozen of your men and some tools," he said quietly. "Do we +get them?" + +"Not by a fistful!" retorted the surly one. "Maybe you think you're +enough of a ---- ---- ---- to take 'em." + +"I am a better man than you are," was the even-toned rejoinder. + +"Prove it, then." + +Gallagher, leaning from his cab window, fully awake now, and chuckling +and rubbing his hands together softly, saw the blow. It was clean-cut, +swift as the lightning's flash, true to a finger's breadth, and the +sound of it was as bone upon bone. At its impact the Wicklow man bounded +into the air, arched his back like a bow, and pitched on his head in the +ditch. When he rose up, roaring blasphemies and doubling his huge fists +for the fray, the quiet voice was assailing him again. "Do we get the +men and tools?" + +"Not--" + +Again the lightning-like passes of the hands, and the Wicklow man sat +down forcibly and gasped. The Italian surfacers threw aside their picks +and shovels and made a ring, dancing excitedly and jeering. The big +foreman, whose scepter of authority was commonly a pick-handle for the +belaboring of offenders, was not loved. + +"Kick-a da shin--kick-a da shin--he like-a da nigger-mans," suggested +one of the Italians, but there was no need. Being safely out of range of +the catapult fists, the foreman stayed there. + +"Take your track gang and be damned to you!" he snarled. + +Adair made a forward step and stood over him. + +"Are you quite convinced that I am the better man?" he asked very +gently. + +"It's a trick!" growled the Wicklow man savagely. "I could get onto it +in another whirl or two." + +"Get up," said the gentle voice. "You'll never have a better chance to +learn the trick." But the foreman had the saving grace to shun +anti-climaxes. + +"G'wan! Take the men, I say; all of 'em, if you like." + +"Thanks," said Adair pleasantly. "We'll do it, and we'll take you, as +well--to answer for their good behavior. Let me help you up," and he +stooped and snapped the big one to his feet as a man would collar a +reluctant boy. + +"Great judgment!" gasped the foreman. "Say, Mister +Cock-o'-the-walk--where do you hide all that muscle?" And without +waiting for an answer he piled a dozen of his men upon the engine and +followed them, still muttering. + +It was a partly surfaced ten miles over which the special train +thundered for the third time since dawn-breaking, and Gallagher took the +last wheel-turn out of the 956. None the less, the sun was reddening the +western mountains when the Italians took ground at the mysterious gap. +The rails were found in the stream, as Adair had predicted, and it was a +work of minutes only to snake them up the embankment and to spike them +lightly into place. But when Adair, for the healing of wounds, had +thrust a bank-note into the hand of the Wicklow man, and the special was +once more on its unhindered way westward, the sun had fairly topped the +eastern range, and Johnson, the porter of the "01," was shouting across +the rocketing tender that breakfast was served. + +The young man in the London-cut clothes might have climbed back to the +car over the coal; or Gallagher would have stopped for him. But he +elected to stay in the cab, and he was still there, hanging from the +open window on Jackson's side, when the one-car special woke the echoes +with its whistle, clattered in over the switches at Horse Creek, and +came to a stand opposite the MacMorroghs' commissary. + +It was Brian MacMorrogh who came across the tracks to greet Adair, and, +since this was their first meeting, he made the mistake of his life in +calling the young director by name. + +"The top of the morning to you, Misther Adair. Is it Misther Colbrith +you'd be looking for?" + +"It is," said Adair shortly, not failing to remark that the +barrel-bodied, black-bearded man seemed to recognize and to be expecting +him. + +"'Tis two hours gone they all are," was the oily-voiced explanation. "Up +the grade and over to Copah. But they'll be back to-morrow, Heaven +savin' thim, and we'll make you comfortable here--as comfortable as we +can." + +"That will be quickly done," said Adair, swinging down from the engine +step. "Just give me a horse and tell me which way they have gone, and +I'll overtake them." + +But here the barrel-bodied one spread his hands helplessly. + +"'Tis just our luck!" he protested, in the keenest self-reproach. "There +isn't a horse or a mule in camp that you could get a mile an hour out +of. In fact, I'm thinking there isn't anny horses at all!" + + + + +XXII + +THE MAN ON HORSEBACK + + +Since the weather was rather threatening, and the promise of October in +the inter-mountain region is not to be lightly trifled with, Mr. +Colbrith pressed for an early start on the seventeen-mile buckboard +jaunt to Copah over the detour survey. + +It was by his express command that the private-car party was called at +daybreak, and that breakfast was served in the Nadia at six o'clock. And +at seven sharp, which chanced to be the precise time of day when Adair's +commandeered Italians were spiking the last of the displaced rails into +position at the gap in the track thirty-three miles away, the buckboards +were drawn up at the steps of the president's car. + +For reasons charitable, as well as practical, Ford had planned to leave +Frisbie out of this second dance of attendance upon the president. The +track-layers were well up toward the head of Horse Creek gulch, with +Brissac to drive; but during the night the Louisianian had reported in +with a touch of mountain fever, and Ford had asked Frisbie to go up and +take his place. + +This was one of Ford's peg-drivings for the day; and another was timed +for the moment of outsetting. For conveyances for the party there were +the two double-seated buckboards used on the canyon trip the previous +day, and one other with a single seat; but there were only two drivers, +the third man, who had brought the single-seated rig from Copah, having +been prevailed upon by Ford to disappear. + +Ford directed the distribution of the trippers arbitrarily, and was +amazed when the president acquiesced without protest. Mr. Colbrith, the +doctor's wife, and Penfield, were to go in the leading vehicle; Aunt +Hester Adair, Miss Van Bruce, and the doctor, in the second; and Ford +drove the single-seated third, with Miss Alicia for his companion. + +"I think you must have taken Uncle Sidney unawares," said Alicia, when +the caravan was toiling at a slow footpace along the rough wagon road +paralleling the Horse Creek grade. + +"You mean that he might have objected to your driver? You are a whole +lot safer with me than you would be with one of those livery-stable +helpers up ahead." + +"Oh, no; I didn't mean just that. But you know he usually plans all the +little details himself, and--" + +"And the fact that somebody else plans them is sufficient excuse for a +rearrangement. That is one of the penalties he pays for being the big +boss," laughed Ford. Since the yesterday was now safely yesterday, and +to-day was his own, there was no room for anything but pure joy. + +"You are a 'big boss,' too, aren't you?" she said, matching his +light-hearted mood. + +"I was, in a way, until your uncle came over and eclipsed me." + +"And you will be again when Uncle Sidney moves a little farther along in +his orbit." + +"That remains to be seen. There is yet plenty of time for him to abolish +me, permanently, before he goes on his way rejoicing." + +"But you are not going to resign, you know," she reminded him. + +"Am I not?" Then he took his courage by the proper grip and went on with +sudden gravity: "That rests entirely with you." + +"Mr. Ford! Aren't you a little unfair?" She did not pretend to +misunderstand him. + +"I am open to convincement," he affirmed. + +"It is making me Uncle Sidney's executioner, on one hand; or yours, on +the other." + +He pressed the point relentlessly. + +"There are only two horns to the dilemma: either Mr. Colbrith, or a man +named Stuart Ford, will have to walk the official plank. Because Mr. +Colbrith is your relative, I'm willing to be the victim. But you must +say that it is what you wish. That is my price." + +"I say it is unfair," she repeated. "Why should you put the burden of +the decision upon poor me?" + +"Because, if you were not concerned, there would be, to put it in good +Hibernian, only one horn to the dilemma--and your uncle would be impaled +upon that one." + +"Mercy!" she shuddered, in mock dismay. "That sounds almost vindictive. +Are you vindictive, Mr. Ford?" + +"Terribly," he laughed. "The black-hearted villain of melodrama isn't a +patch on me when I'm stirred." And then, more seriously: "But it isn't +altogether a joke. There is another side to the thing--what you might +call the ethical, I suppose. There are a score or so of men in the +company's service--Frisbie and his subordinates--whose jobs hang upon +mine. A worse man than I ever aspired to be might be loyal to his +friends." + +"I wouldn't think of questioning your loyalty to your friends," she +admitted. + +"Also," he went on determinately, "there is the larger question of right +and wrong involved. Is it right for me to step aside and let an +organized system of graft and thievery go on unchecked? I know it +exists; I have evidence enough to go before a grand jury. I'm not posing +as a saint, or even as a muck-raker; but isn't something due to the +people who are paying the bills?" + +"Now you are involving Uncle Sidney again; and I can't listen to that." + +"He is innocent; as innocent as some hundreds of other narrow-minded, +short-sighted old men whom chance, or the duplicity of the real rascals, +puts at the head of corporations." + +"Yet you would make him suffer with the guilty." + +"Not willingly, you may be sure. Not at all, if he would listen to +reason. But he won't. He'll stand by North till the last gun is fired; +and while North stays, there'll be graft, big or little, as the +opportunities warrant." + +Alicia held her peace while the caravan was measuring another half-mile +of the boulder-strewn road. Then she said: "I feel so wretchedly +inadequate to help you, Mr. Ford. I wish you could wait until you have +talked it over with brother." + +"So do I. But I am afraid postponement doesn't lie with me, now. From +your uncle's manner and from what he said to me yesterday, I can't help +feeling that the crisis is right here. For two days Mr. Colbrith has +been very plainly leading up to some sort of dramatic climax. I can't +remotely guess what it is going to be; though I can guess that the plot +isn't his." + +Again she took time to consider, and when she spoke they were nearing +the scene of strenuous activities at the moving track-end. + +"You don't think you could postpone it?" she asked, almost wistfully, he +thought. "I think--I hope--my brother will become interested again. It +is your fault that he lost interest, Mr. Ford." + +"My fault?" reproachfully. + +"Certainly. You didn't give him enough to do. He was happy and contented +while you kept him hard at work. But after the bonds were placed and the +money raised--" + +"I'm a miserable sinner!" Ford confessed. "And I had promised you, too! +But the battle has been so fierce at this end of the line; and I +couldn't be in two places at one time. Your brother should have been +made first vice-president, instead of North. Perhaps we can bring it +about yet--if you don't call it all off." + +"There it is again," she retorted. "You are dragging me in--and trying +to bribe me, too!" + +"God forbid!" he said, so earnestly that she forgave him. And then: "I +wish your brother were here--now." + +"So do I," she admitted. Then she told him of the wire summons sent from +Denver, and of the shadowy hope she had based upon it. + +"Where was your brother then?" he asked. + +"I don't know, positively. I hope he was in New York. He was to come +over in the _Campania_, in time for the shooting at Mount Ptarmigan." + +"You've had no word from him?" + +"None." + +They were up with the track-layers, now, in a country of huge bare hills +and high-lying, waterless valleys; and the president had halted the +caravan to give his guests a chance to see a modern railroad in the +actual throes of evolution. + +In a specialist in the trade, Ford's genius might have invoked +enthusiasm. Speed was the end to which all of the young engineer's +inventive powers had been directed; and the pace was furious. On the +leveled grade ahead of the track-laying train an army of sweating +laborers marched and counter-marched like trained soldiers, placing the +cross-ties in position. On a train of specially constructed flat-cars +another army was bolting together a long section of track, clamping the +double line of rails at intervals to hold them to gauge. At the word, +"Ready!" a hauling chain, passing through an anchored pulley-block far +up the grade and back to the freed engine of the construction train, was +made fast to the forward end of the bolted section; a second word of +command, and the engine backed swiftly, dragging the prepared section +off over the rollers of the flat-cars and into place on the ties. With +the clanging fall of the final pair of rails, a third army, +spike-drivers these, fell upon the newly placed steel, shouting their +chantey as they swung the great pointed hammers; and in the midst of +this fresh turmoil the train, with its brigade of bolters deftly +preparing another section, was slowly pushed to the new front for +another advance. + +"It is like clockwork," was Miss Alicia's enthusiastic comment. "Did you +invent it, Mr. Ford?" + +Now the combination of flat-car bolting-table, and the shifting and +laying by sections, was Ford's invention, but he modestly stood from +under. + +"Frisbie gets the medal," he said. "It's all in the drill--every man +knowing what he has to do, and doing it at the proper moment. I'd give +something if I had Dick's knack in detail organizing." + +She looked up, laughing. "You have the funniest way of ducking to cover +if you think a bit of honest appreciation is coming your way, Mr. Ford. +You know you told Mr. Frisbie how to do it." + +"Did I? I suppose it wouldn't be polite to contradict you." + +"Or any use. Is Mr. Frisbie here now?--Oh, yes; there he is." And then, +in a half-awed whisper: "Who is that dreadful, Grand-Opera-villain +looking man he is talking to?" + +Ford's eyes sought and found Frisbie. He was standing a little apart +from the turmoil, talking to a man on horseback; a man with half-closed, +beady, black eyes, drooping mustaches, and a face reptilian in its +repulsiveness. + +"That is 'Mexican George'; the MacMorrogh Brothers' 'killer'," said Ford +evenly. "Have you ever heard of a professional man-killer, Miss Adair; a +man whose calling is that of a hired assassin?" + +She shuddered. "You are jesting, I know. But the word fits his face so +accurately. I saw him lounging about the store at the camp yesterday, +and it gave me the creeping shivers every time I looked at him. Do you +ever have such instantaneous and unreasoning hatreds at first sight?" + +"Now and then; yes. But I was not jesting about Mexican George. He is +precisely what the word implies; is hired for it and paid for it. +Nominally, he guards the commissary and stores, and is the paymaster's +armed escort. Really, it is his duty to shoot down any desperate laborer +who, in the MacMorroghs' judgment, needs to be killed out of the way." + +"Mercy!" Miss Alicia was shuddering again. "What hideously primitive +conditions! What is this terrible man doing out here?" + +"Oh, he is a free lance; comes and goes as he pleases. No, he's not +quarreling with Dick"--answering her look of anxiety. + +"How do you know he isn't?" + +Ford laughed. "Because Dick wouldn't let him get that near. He +knows--Hello; I wonder what your good uncle wants of us." + +Mr. Colbrith was standing up in his place in the leading buckboard and +making signals to the rear guard of two. Ford shook the reins over his +broncos and drove around. + +The president was fingering his thin beard and waving an arm toward the +track-layers. + +"Mr.--ah--Ford," he began critically, "is it necessary to have such a +vast army of men as that to lay the track?" + +"I don't think we are over-manned," said Ford good-naturedly. It was +comparatively easy to be patient with Alicia looking on and listening. + +But it was against Mr. Colbrith's principles to let a man off with a +single rebuttal. + +"I am not at all convinced of the worth of these new-fangled ideas, Mr. +Ford; not at all. We built the Pacific Southwestern main line in the +old, approved way--a rail at a time--with less than one-quarter of the +men you have over there." + +"I don't question it: and you were three years building some six hundred +miles in a prairie country. We are to-day just six weeks out of Saint's +Rest with the track gang, and in six more, if the weather holds, we +shall be laying the switches in the Green Butte yards. That is the +difference between the old way and the new." + +The president was turned aside but not stopped. + +"I understand," he objected raucously. "But your expense bills are +something tremendous; tre-_men_dous, Mr. Ford! You have spent more money +in three months than we spent in a full year on the main line." + +"Quite likely," agreed Ford, losing interest in the pointless +discussion. "But with us, time is an object; and we have the results to +show for the expenditure." + +At this, Mr. Colbrith took refuge in innuendo, as seemed to be his +lately acquired habit. + +"You are very ready with your answers, Mr. Ford; very ready, indeed. Let +us see if you can continue as you have begun." + +It was Miss Alicia who resented this final speech of the president's +when the buckboards were once more in motion, following the unrailed +grade around the swelling shoulders of the huge hills. + +"I think that last remark of Uncle Sidney's was rather uncalled for," +she said, after Ford had driven in grim silence at the tail of the +procession for a full mile. + +"It is one of a good many uncalled for things he has been saying to me +since the day before yesterday," was Ford's rejoinder. + +"Yet you can still assure me that you are not vindictive." + +"I am not--at the mere actors in the play. But I confess to an unholy +desire to get back at the prompter--the stage manager of the little +comedy. I am only waiting for your decision." + +"Please!" she said; and he saw that the blue eyes were growing wistful +again. + +"I'm done," he said quickly. "I shan't put it up to you any more. I'll +do what I think I ought to do, on my own responsibility." + +But now, woman-like, she crossed quickly to the other side. + +"No; you mustn't deprive me of my chance," she protested soberly. "After +a little while I shall tell you what I think--what I think you ought to +do. Only you must give me time." + +His smile came from the depths of a lover's heart. + +"You shall have all the time there is--and then some, if I can compass +it. Now let's talk about something else. I've been boring you with this +despicable business affair ever since you gave me leave on that +foot-race down Plug Mountain Tuesday afternoon." + +"What shall it be?" she inquired gaily. And then: "Oh, I know. One day +last summer--just as we were leaving Chicago in the Nadia--you had begun +to tell me about a certain young woman who had money, and who was--who +was--" + +"--who was without her peer in all this world," he finished for her. +"Yes; I remember." + +"Do you still remember her, as you do the conversation?" she went on +teasingly. + +"I have never lost a day since I first met her." + +"Good Sir Galahad!" she mocked. "And is she still worth all those +sacrifices you said you would be willing to make for her?" + +"All, and several more." + +Silence for a little time, while the hoof-beats of a horse fox-trotting +behind them drew nearer. It was the sinister-faced Mexican who ambled +into view, and when he overtook the rearmost of the buckboards he was a +long time in passing. + +"That dreadful man!" murmured Alicia; and she did not go back to the +suspended subject until he had trotted on past the caravan. Then she +said slowly, taking her companion's complete understanding for granted: +"It must be delicious to be away out over one's depth, like that!" + +"It is," said Ford solemnly. "It's like--well, I've never been sick a +day in my life since I can remember, but I should think it might be like +a--a sort of beneficent fever, you know. Haven't you ever had a touch of +it?" + +"Possibly--without recognizing it. Can you describe the symptoms?" + +"Accurately. One day I awoke suddenly to the realization that there was +one woman, in the world: before that, you know, there had always been a +good many, but never just one. Then I began to discover that this one +woman was the embodiment of an ideal--my ideal. She said and did and +looked all the things I'd been missing in the others. I wanted to drop +everything and run after her." + +"How absolutely idyllic!" she murmured. "And then?" + +"Then I had to come down to earth with a dull, stunning swat, of course. +There were a lot of commonplace, material things waiting to be done, and +it was up to me to do them. Before I saw her, I used to think that +nothing could divide time with a man's work: that there wouldn't be any +time to divide. Afterward, I found out my mistake. Sleeping or waking, +every day and all day, she was there: and the work went on just the +same, or rather a whole lot better." + +The long drive was in its final third, and the wagon track, which had +transferred itself to the top of the level railroad grade, admitted +speed. By degrees the caravan became elongated, with the president still +in the lead, the man on horseback indifferently ahead or behind, and the +other two vehicles wide apart and well to the rear. Their isolation was +complete when she said: + +"Do you want me to say that I don't recognize any of the symptoms, Mr. +Ford?" + +"Do I--No! Yes!--that is, I--Heavens! that is a terrible way to put it! +Of course I hope--I hope you are in love--with the right person. If +you're not, I--" + +She was weeping silently; weeping because it would have been a sin to +laugh. + +"You--called it a comedy a little while--ago," she faltered. "In another +minute it will be a tragedy. Don't you think we are getting too far +behind the others?" + +He whipped up obediently, but the horses were in no hurry. At the +rounding of the next shouldering hill the railroad grade entered a high, +broad valley, the swelling hills on either side dotted with the dumps +and tunnel-openings of the Copah gold-diggers. Ford had not been through +the upper part of the district since the previous summer of +pathfindings, and at that time it was like a dozen other outlying and +hardly accessible fields, scantily manned and languishing under the dry +rot of isolation. But now-- + +He was looking curiously across at the opposing hillsides. Black dots, +dozens of them, were moving from ledge to ledge, pausing here and there +to ply pick and shovel. Now and then from some one of the dry arroyos +came the echoes of a surface shot; dynamite cartridges thrust into the +earth to clear away the drift to bed-rock. Ford called his companion's +attention to the activities. + +"See what it does to a mining country when a railroad comes within +shouting distance," he said. "The last time I was over here, this valley +was like a graveyard. Now you'd think the entire population of Copah +was up here prospecting for gold." + +"Is that what they are doing?" she asked. Then suddenly: "Where is your +mine?--the mine with my name?" + +He laughed. + +"I told you the simple truth. I don't know where it is; though I suppose +it is up this way somewhere. Yes, I remember, Grigsby said it was on Cow +Mountain." + +The hill on their side of the valley threw out a long, low spur and the +railroad-grade driving track swept in a long curve around the spur and +crossed over to the foot of a slope dotted with the digging manikins. + +"By Jove!" said Ford, still wondering. "There are twice as many +prospectors out here as there were inhabitants in Copah the last time I +was over. The camp ought to vote bonds and give the railroad company a +bonus." + +Farther along, the grade hugged the hillside, skirting the acclivity +where the shaft-houses of some of the older mines of the district were +perched on little hillocks formed by their own dumps, within easy +tramming distance of the railroad. Opposite and directly below the +nearest of these shaft-houses the two leading buckboards had stopped; +and the president was once more standing up and beckoning vigorously to +the laggards in the single-seated vehicle. + +Ford spoke to his horses and grimaced as one who swallows bitter herbs. + +"I wonder what I've been doing now--or leaving undone?" he queried. + +He was not kept long in suspense. When they drove up, the president was +still standing, balancing himself with a hand on the driver's seat in +front. His thin face was working nervously and the aggressive chin +whiskers moved up and down like an accusing finger. + +"Dear me!" said Alicia, under her breath; "Uncle Sidney is really angry, +this time! What could have hap--" She glanced up at the mine buildings +perched above the roadway and smothered a little cry. Ford's eyes +followed hers. All across the slab-built shaft-house and the lean-to ore +sheds was stretched a huge canvas sign. And in letters of bright blue, +freshly painted and two feet high, ran the boastful legend: + + THE LITTLE ALICIA MINE + + THE ONLY PAYING PRODUCES IN THE DISTRICT + + Stuart Ford & John Grigsby, Props. + +The white-haired old man standing in the leading buckboard was trembling +with righteous indignation. Pointing a shaking finger at the +incriminating sign, he broke out in a storm of accusation. + +"So, Mr. Ford! This is why you changed the route of the extension and +added twelve miles to its length!" he raved. "This explains why you +suddenly found the shorter route impracticable! Answer me sir: when did +you become interested in this mine?" + +There was a little stir of consternation among the listeners; and it did +not help matters that the man on horseback ambled up at the moment and +drew rein behind the doctor's vehicle. Ford's hands were gripping the +reins until the stiff leathers were crumpled into strings; but it was +Alicia's touch on his arm that enabled him to reply coldly: + +"It was something over two months ago, I believe. I can give you the +exact date when we reach Copah, though you will permit me to say that it +is none of your business." + +Mr. Colbrith exploded like a hastily fired bomb. + +"I propose to make it some of my business! Was it before or after your +purchase here that you decided upon the change of route? Answer me that, +Mr. Ford!" + +Ford wheeled his bronchos and closed the shouting gap. + +"Sit down, Mr. Colbrith," he said half-menacingly. "If it is your +purpose to humiliate me before your guests, I shall drive on and leave +you." + +"You don't answer my question; you can not answer it! You instructed +your assistant to change the line of this railroad _after_ you had +bought this mine!" + +[Illustration: "Answer me, sir! When did you become interested in this +mine?"] + +"And if I did?" + +"You did. And by so doing, Mr. Ford, you diverted the company's money to +your own personal ends as wrongfully as if you had put your hands into +the treasurer's strong-box. In other words, you became what you have +accused others of being--a common grafter!" + +Ford's face was very white, and his lips were drawn into thin lines when +he opened them to reply. But the restraining hand was on his arm again, +and he obeyed it. + +"I don't care to talk with you, about this matter or any other, here and +now. Later on, perhaps, when you can speak without being abusive, I +shall take the liberty of telling you what I think of you." And at that, +he gave his horses the rein and drove on, swiftly, abruptly, leaving the +president and his guests to follow as they would. + +For some minutes neither of the two in the flying buckboard could find +words wherewith to bridge the miserable chasm so suddenly opened between +them. Miss Alicia's eyes were tear-brightened and unfathomable; Ford's +were hard, and there was a steely light in them. It was Alicia who spoke +first. + +"I know it is not true, of course--what Uncle Sidney accused you of," +she offered. "But tell me how it happened?" + +"I don't know--unless the devil planned it," said Ford bitterly. "I +bought the mine one day last summer when I was in Copah, without +premeditation, without seeing it--without knowing where it was situated, +just as I have told you. Some little time afterward, Frisbie came to me +with the plan for the change of route. I had considered it before, but +had made no estimates. Frisbie had made the estimates, and we decided +upon it at once. I haven't been over here since: it wasn't necessary, +and I had other things to do." + +"Did Mr. Frisbie know about your purchase of the mine?" + +"No. I don't think he knows of it yet. To tell the truth, I was a little +ashamed: it was a touch of the mining fever that everybody gets now and +then in a mining country. Dick would have guyed me." + +"But Mr. Frisbie must have been over the line a great many times: how +could he miss seeing that enormous sign?" she persisted. + +Ford shook his head. + +"I venture to say that the paint isn't yet dry on that sign. It was put +there for a purpose, and your uncle was told to look for it. Grigsby is +just the sort of fool to jump at the chance to advertise the mine, and +somebody suggested it and gave him the tip that the president of the +railroad was coming in this way. Mr. North is a very careful man. He +doesn't neglect any of the little details." + +The high valley was falling away into a broken gulch, and the +railway-grade driving-path clung closer to the hillsides. At the next +turn the town of Copah came into view, and the road became a shelf on +the slope two hundred feet above the main street and paralleling it. +Alicia was looking down upon the town when she said: + +"What shall you do?" + +Ford's laugh was not mirthful. + +"I have already done it. I shall perhaps be permitted to see you all +safely back to the Nadia, and over the rough track to Saint's Rest. More +than that I fancy Mr. Colbrith will not allow--and possibly not that +much." + +Miss Adair was still looking down upon the town; and now Ford looked. +Instantly he saw that something unusual was going on. Notwithstanding +the number of men afield on the hills, the main street of the camp was +restlessly alive. Horsemen were galloping back and forth; in front of +the outfitting stores freighters were hastily loading their pack +animals; at every gathering place there were knots of excited men +talking and gesticulating. + +Ford was puzzled. At another time he would quickly have put the obvious +two and two together to make the equally obvious four. But now he merely +said: "That's curious; mighty curious. Where do you suppose all those +people came from?" + +Alicia's rejoinder was not an answer to the half-mechanical query. + +"Mr. Ford, a little while ago I told you I must have time to consider: +I--I have considered. You must fight for your life and your good name. +You must make Uncle Sidney see things as they are--that they are not as +he thinks they are." + +"I can't," he said stubbornly. "Your condition reverses your decision. +If I am to fight with any hope of winning, after what has transpired +to-day, Mr. Colbrith will have to be eliminated." + +He had pulled the broncos down to a walk. There was a soft thudding of +hoofs on the yielding earth of the grade behind, but neither of them +heard. + +"You are disappointing me," she protested, and now the hesitation was +all gone. "A few minutes ago, before this miserable thing happened, you +were telling me of your ideal ... a woman may have an ideal, too, Mr. +Ford." + +"Yes?" he said eagerly. + +"My ideal is the knight without fear and without reproach--and also +without limitations. He will never say, 'I can not.' He will say, 'I +will,' and not for my sake, but because his own sense of justice and +mercy and loving-kindness will go hand in hand with his ambition." + +"One word," he broke in passionately; and now the soft thudding of hoofs +had drawn so near that the presence of the overtaking horseman might +have been felt. "My little allegory didn't deceive you; you are the one +woman, Alicia, dear. I didn't mean to tell you yet, though I think you +have known it all along: I had an idea that I wanted to do something +worthy--something big enough to be worth while--before I spoke. But you +have given me leave; don't say you haven't given me leave!" + +"You have taken it," she said softly, adding: "And that is what a woman +likes, I think. But you mustn't spoil my ideal, Stuart--indeed, you +mustn't. You are young, strong, invincible, as my knight should be. But +when you strike you must also spare. You say there is no way save the +one you have indicated; you must find a way." + +He smiled ruefully. + +"You give the cup of water only to take it away again. I'd rather build +ten railroads than to attempt to smash North and his confederates +through your uncle. You see, I'm frightfully handicapped right at the +start--with this mine business hanging over me. But if you say it has to +be done, it shall be. I'll win Mr. Colbrith over, in spite of all that +has happened; and he shall fire North and the MacMorroghs first and +prosecute them afterward. I've said it." + +It was just here that the broncos shied--inward, toward the hill. Ford +gathered the slack reins, and Miss Adair looked up and gave a little +shriek. Noiselessly, and so close upon the buckboard that he might have +touched either of its occupants with his rawhide quirt, rode the +Mexican. When they discovered him he was leaning forward, his +half-closed eyes mere slits with pin-points of black fire to mark them, +and his repulsive face a stolid mask. Ford's hand went instinctively to +the whip: it was the only available weapon. But the Mexican merely +touched his flapping sombrero and rode on at the shuffling fox-trot. + +"That man, again!" shivered Alicia, when the portent of evil had passed +out of sight around the next curve in the grade. + +But Ford's concern was deeper than her passing thrill of repulsion. + +"Did you notice his horse's hoofs as he went by?" he asked soberly. + +"No," she said. + +"I did. He dismounted somewhere behind us and covered them with +sacking." + +"What for?" she asked, shivering again with the nameless dread. + +"You recall what I was saying when the broncos shied: his object was to +creep up behind us and listen. He has done it more than once since we +left the end-of-track, and this time--" + +"Yes?" + +"This time he heard what he wanted to hear." + +Beyond the curve which had hidden the Mexican, the wagon-road left the +grade, descending abruptly upon the town. Ford looked back from the turn +and saw that the other two vehicles were not yet in sight. + +"Shall we wait for your aunt and the others?" he asked. + +Her smile was a sufficient reward for the bit of tactful forethought. + +"I'm sure we have left the conventions far enough behind not to be +unduly terrified by them. I am not afraid to go in unchaperoned. +Besides, I heard Uncle Sidney telling Doctor Van Bruce that our rooms at +the hotel had been engaged for us." + +Ford drove carefully down the steep side street which was the approach +to the hotel. An excited throng blocked the sidewalk, and the lobby +seemed to be a miniature stock exchange. Single-eyed, Ford fought a +passage through the crowd with Alicia on his arm, heeding nothing until +he had seen her safely above stairs and in the sitting-room of the +president's reservation, with a cheerful fire in the big sheet-iron +stove for her comforting. Then he went down and elbowed his way through +the clamorous lobby to the clerk's desk. + +"Suppose you take a minute or two off and tell me what this town has +gone crazy about, Hildreth," he said, with a backward nod toward the +lobby pandemonium. + +"Why, Great Scott! Mr. Ford--have you got this far into it without +finding out?" was the astounded rejoinder. "It's a gold strike on Cow +Mountain--the biggest since Cripple Creek! We've doubled our population +since seven o'clock this morning; and by this time to-morrow.... Say, +Mr. Ford; for heaven's sake, get your railroad in here! We'll all go +hungry within another twenty-four hours--can't get supplies for love or +money!" + +Ford turned away and looked out upon the stock-selling pandemonium with +unseeing eyes. The chance--the heaven-sent hour that strikes only once +in a life-time for the builders of empire--had come: and he was only +waiting for the arrival of the president to find himself rudely thrust +aside from the helm of events. + + + + +XXIII + +THE DEADLOCK + + +"No, Mr. Ford; there is no explanation that will explain away the +incriminating fact. This is a matter which involves the good name of the +Pacific Southwestern company, through its officials, and I must insist +upon your resignation." + +The battle was on, with the two combatants facing each other in the +privacy of the president's room in the Copah hotel. Since Alicia had +made him exchange the sword of extermination for the olive branch, Ford +was fighting on the defensive, striving good-naturedly and persistently +to keep his official head on his shoulders. + +"I've admitted that it looks pretty bad, Mr. Colbrith; but you will +concede the one chance in a hundred that no wrong was intended. I merely +did, on the ground, what thousands of investors in mining chances do the +world over--bought an interest in a mine without knowing or caring +greatly into what particular mountain the mine tunnel was driven." + +Mr. Colbrith frowned. He was of that elder generation of masters which +looked with cold disapproval upon any side ventures on the part of the +subordinate. + +"The company has paid you liberally for your time and your undivided +attention, Mr. Ford. No man can serve two masters. Your appointment as +assistant to the president did not contemplate your engaging in other +business." + +Ford carefully suppressed the smile which the bit of industrial +martinetry provoked. + +"As to that," he said placably, "I can assure you that the gold-digging +has been purely an investment on my part." + +"But an investment which you should not have made," insisted the +president judicially. "If it had not tempted you to the breach of trust, +it was still inexpedient--most undeniably inexpedient. An official high +in the counsels of a great corporation should be like Cćsar's +wife--above suspicion." + +This time Ford's smile could not be wholly repressed. "I grant you it +was foolhardy, in the economic point of view," he confessed. "I took a +long chance of going ten thousand dollars to the bad. But mine-buying is +a disease--as contagious as the measles. Everybody in a mining country +takes a flyer, at least once. The experienced ones will tell you that +nobody is immune. Take your own case, now: if you don't keep a pretty +tight hold on your check-book, Mr. Colbrith, Cow Mountain will--" + +The president frowned again; more portentously, this time. + +"This levity is most reprehensible, Mr. Ford," he said stiffly. "I trust +I know my duty as the head of a great railway company too well to be +carried away on every baseless wave of excitement that fires the +imagination of the mining-camp I chance to be visiting." Mr. Colbrith +was not above mixing metaphor when the provocation was sufficiently +great. + +"Baseless?" echoed Ford. "Surely you don't doubt ... Why, Mr. Colbrith, +this strike is the biggest thing that has happened in the mining world +since the discovery of the wedge-veins in Cripple Creek!" + +The president shrugged his thin shoulders as one whose mission in life +is to be sturdily conservative after all the remainder of mankind has +struck hands with frenzied optimism. + +"Nonsense!" he rasped contemptuously. "What happens? Two men come to +town with certain rich specimens which they claim to have taken out of +their prospect hole on Cow Mountain. That was at seven o'clock last +night, less than twenty-four hours ago, and some two or three thousand +lunatics have already rushed here in the belief--founded upon a mere +boast, it may be--that a great gold reef underlies Cow Mountain. By this +time to-morrow--" + +Ford took him up promptly. "Yes; and by this time to-morrow the Denver +Mining Exchange will be howling itself hoarse over Copah mining shares, +like those curb-stone fellows down-stairs; the hunt will be up, and +every feeder the Pacific Southwestern system has will be sending its +quota of gold-seekers to the new field. That isn't what you were going +to say, I know; but it is what is going to happen. Mr. Colbrith, it's +the chance of a century for the Pacific Southwestern company, and you +are deliberately trying to fire the one man who can make the most of +it." + +The president's lack of sense of humor made it hard for him at times. He +was sitting very erect in the straight-backed hotel chair when he said: +"Mr. Ford, there are occasions when your conceit is insufferable. Do you +imagine for a moment that you are the only engineer in the United States +who can build railroads, Sir?" + +"Oh, no." + +"Then perhaps you will be good enough to explain your meaning?" + +"It was a poor attempt at a jest," said the young man, rather lamely. +"Yet it had the truth behind it, in a way. I predict that this is the +beginning of one of the biggest mining rushes the world ever saw. We are +within one hundred and forty miles of Copah with a practicable railroad; +we are within twelve miles with a track which must be made practicable +while the band plays. If you discharge your entire engineering corps at +this crisis--" + +"I beg your pardon," interrupted the president crustily. "I have not +asked your force to resign." + +"Not meaning to, perhaps," countered the young man, maliciously +rejoicing in the hope that he had found one vulnerable link in the +president's coat of mail. "But if I go, the entire department will go. +Every man in it is my friend, as well as my subordinate; and they know +very well that if they shouldn't go, your new chief would fire them and +put in his own men." + +"Ha!" said the president, straightening up again. "Am I to understand +that you are threatening me, Mr. Ford." + +"No, indeed; I am only stating a fact. But it is a pretty serious fact. +Let us suppose, for the sake of the argument, that my prediction comes +true; that within thirty-six or forty-eight hours Saint's Rest is packed +with people trying to get to Copah. Your new chief, if you shall have +found him, will hardly be in the saddle. When he comes he will have to +reorganize the department, break in new men, learn by hard knocks what I +have been learning in detail--" + +Mr. Colbrith thrust out a thin lip of obstinate determination. + +"And if he does, your hypothetical rush will simply have to wait, Mr. +Ford. We have the key to the Copah door." + +"Don't you fool yourself!" snapped Ford, forgetting his rôle of the +humble one for the moment. "The Transcontinental is only forty miles +away at Jack's Canyon, with a pretty decent stage road. Long before you +can get the extension in shape to carry passengers, or even freight, the +other line will be known from Maine to California as the keyholder to +this district!" + +That shot told. The president was not yet convinced that the Copah boom +was real; but there was the chance that it might be--always the chance. +And to the over-cautious the taking of chances, however remote, is like +the handling of a snake: a thing to inspire creeping horrors. + +"If you could convince me, Mr. Ford, that your interest in that mine did +not influence you in changing the route of the extension," he began; but +Ford took him up sharply. "I can't; and I can say no more than I have +said." + +Mr. Colbrith got up and went to the window to look down upon the excited +throng in the street. It did look real. + +"Perhaps we might leave matters as they are, pending a future +investigation, Mr. Ford," he said, turning back to his victim, who was +methodically clipping the end from a cigar. + +"No," was the brittle rejoinder. + +Again the president took time to look down into the crowded street. His +next attack was from the rear. + +"But I have understood that you do not wish to resign. Let us be +magnanimous, Mr. Ford, and agree to hang this matter up until this +supposed crisis is past." + +"No," was the curt reply. "I have changed my mind. I don't think I want +to work for you any longer, Mr. Colbrith." + +"Not if I withdrew my--ah--objections?" + +"No." + +Silence again. The packed lobby of the hotel had overflowed upon the +plank sidewalk, and the din of the buyers and sellers rose like the +noise of a frantic street fight. Ford's half jesting remark about the +possibility of the microbe finding its way into the blood of the +president was not so pointless as the old man's retort sought to make it +appear. It was the wheat pit which had given Mr. Colbrith his first +half-million; and as he listened to the hoarse cries, the thing which he +hoped was safely caution-killed began to stir within him. Suddenly he +picked a word of two out of the sidewalk clamor that made him turn +swiftly upon the silent young man. + +"They are selling 'Little Alicia'--your stock--down there!" he gasped. +"Have you--have you--" + +"No; I haven't put mine on the market. It's some of my partner's, +Grigsby's, stock. I suppose he couldn't stand the push." + +Once more the president listened. Only an ex-wrestler in the wheat pit +could have picked intelligence out of the Babel of puts and calls. + +"It's up to a hundred and fifty!" he exploded. "What did you pay for +your shares, Mr. Ford?" + +"Twenty," said Ford coolly. + +"Good Heavens! I--I hope you hold a safe majority?" + +"No; we broke even, Grigsby and I. I have fifty per cent." + +The president groaned. + +"I--I'll excuse you, Mr. Ford. Get down there at once and buy that other +necessary share!" + +Ford shook his head with predetermined gloom. "No, Mr. Colbrith, I'm not +buying any more mining stock. What I did buy seems to have cost me my +job." + +"But, my dear young man! This is a crisis. You are likely to lose +control of your property! Or, at least, it is soaring to a point at +which you will never be able to secure the control." + +Ford came up smiling. "You forget that this is mere mad excitement, Mr. +Colbrith," he said, handing back the President's own phrase. "To-morrow, +I dare say, I shall be able to buy at twenty again." + +The president came away from the window and sat down. His face was +twitching and the thin white hands were tremulous. + +"There may be more in this gold discovery than I have been willing to +admit," he said abstractedly, "and in that case ... Mr. Ford, upon what +terms will you consent to go on and whip this line of ours into shape?" + +Ford came out of the fog of discouragement with a bound. + +"A complete change in the management of the Pacific Southwestern, Mr. +Colbrith. North and his grafters must go." + +The President did not fly into wrathful shards, as Ford fully expected. +On the contrary, he was fingering the white goat's-beard with one +nervous hand, and apparently listening half-absently to the clamor in +the street. + +"Don't be unreasonable, Mr. Ford," he said quite mildly. "You know we +can't consider anything like that at the present moment." + +"It must be considered," Ford persisted. "Ever since I quit being a +division superintendent, North has obstructed, lied about me, fought me. +The time has come when, if I stay, I must have a free hand. I can't have +it while he is out of jail." + +"That is strong language to apply to our first vice-president, Mr. Ford. +And I can only believe that you are prejudiced--unduly prejudiced. But +all this may be taken up later. As you suggest, we may be losing very +precious time." + +Ford got to his feet. + +"Promise me that you will give the Denver management as thorough an +investigation as you have given me, Mr. Colbrith; do that, and give me +absolute authority over the MacMorroghs and their men for one week; and +before the week's end we'll be hauling passengers and freight into Copah +over our own rails." + +For a moment the president seemed to be on the point of yielding. Then +his habitual caution thrust out its foot and tripped him. + +"I can't be pushed, Mr. Ford," he complained, with a return of the +irritated tone. "Let the matter rest for the present. And--and you may +consider yourself relieved from duty until I have gone a little deeper +into these charges against you. Mr. North accuses you, and you accuse +Mr. North. I must have time to approach those matters deliberately. I +don't know which of you to trust." + +It was a deadlock. Ford bowed and laid his hand on the door. + +"You are still the president of the Pacific Southwestern, Mr. Colbrith, +and while you remain president--" + +The old man's pride of office took fire like tow in a furnace. + +"What do you mean by that, Mr. Ford? Make yourself clear, sir!" he +quavered. + +"I mean just this: if your niece, Miss Alicia Adair, hadn't been good +enough to say that she will be my wife, I'd carry this thing up to the +board of directors and do my level best to have you put where you could +do the least harm." + +"You? Alicia?" the old man shrilled. And then, in an access of senile +rage that shook him like a leaf in the wind: "I said you were +suspended--you are discharged, sir--here and now! If you give another +order as an official of the Pacific Southwestern company, I'll--I'll put +you through the courts for it!" + +Ford opened the door and went out, leaving the president clutching his +chair with one hand and balling the other into a shaking fist. The die +was cast, and he had thrown a blank at the very moment when the game +seemed to be turning his way. What would Alicia say? + +As if the unspoken query had evoked her, the door of her room opened +silently and she stood before him in the corridor. + +"Tell me," she commanded. + +"We have fought it out, and I've had my beating," he said soberly. "When +I thought I had him fairly down,--he was actually begging me to stay on +with the company,--we got tangled up again over North, and he fired me +bodily." + +"Did you--did you tell him about our--" + +"Yes; and that was what set off the final fireworks." + +She put her hands on his shoulders and made him face her squarely. + +"Stuart, did you lose your temper?" + +"I--I'm afraid I did--just at the last, you know. It's simply an +unspeakable state of affairs, Alicia, dear! At a moment when we should +be setting the whole world afire in a superhuman effort to flog this +piece of construction track into shape, your uncle paralyzes +everything!" + +The constraining touch of her hands became almost a caress. "What shall +you do, Stuart? Is there nothing to be done?" + +He took his resolution on the spur of the moment. + +"Yes, thank heaven! Your uncle has got to find a printing press, or at +least a telegraph wire, before he can make my discharge effective. +Before he can do that, or until he does it, I'm going to pull the +throttle wide open and race that discharge circular, if I go to jail for +it, afterward! Who knows but I shall have time to save the day for the +company after all? Good-by, dearest. In twenty minutes I shall be riding +for the MacMorroghs' camp, and when I get there--" + +"You are going to ride back?--alone? Oh, no, no!" she protested; and the +clinging arms held him. + +"Why, Alicia, girl--see here: what do you imagine could happen to me? +Why, bless your loving heart, I've been tramping and riding this desert +more or less for two years! What has come over you?" + +"I don't know; but--but--oh, me! you will think I am miserably weak and +foolish: but just as you said that, I seemed to see you lying in the +road with your horse standing over you--and you were--dead!" + +"Nonsense!" he comforted. "I'll be back here to-morrow, alive and well; +but I mustn't lose a minute now. It's up to me to reach Horse Creek +before the news of the gold strike gets there. There'll be a stampede, +with every laborer on the line hoofing it for Copah. Good-by, +sweetheart, and--may I?" He took her face between his hands and did it +anyhow. + +Five minutes later he was bargaining for a saddle horse at the one +livery stable in the camp, offering and paying the selling price of the +animal for the two days' hire. It was a rather sorry mount at that, and +when he was dragging it out into the street, Jack Benson, the youngest +member of his staff, rode up, that moment in from the tie-camp above Cow +Mountain. + +"Don't dismount, Jack," he ordered curtly. "You're just in time to save +me eight or ten miles, when the inches are worth dollars. Ride for the +end-of-track and Frisbie on a dead run. Tell Dick to hold his men, if he +has to do it at the muzzle of a gun, and to come on with the track, +night and day. He'll have to raise the pay, and keep on raising it--but +that's all right. It's an order. Rush it!" + +Benson nodded, set his horse at the path leading up to the railroad +grade, and spurred up the hill. Ford gave a final tug at his saddle +cinches, put up a leg and began to pick his way down the thronged +street in the opposite direction. + +Thirty seconds afterward a man wearing the laced trousers and broad +bullion-corded sombrero of a Mexican dandy came out of his hiding-place +behind the door of the livery stable office, thoughtfully twirling the +cylinder of a drawn revolver. + +"I take-a da mustang," he said to the boy who had held Ford's horse +during the short interview with Benson. And when the bronco was brought +out, the Mexican, like Ford, looked to the cinches, mounted, and rode +down the street leading to the lower mesa and the river. + + + + +XXIV + +RUIZ GREGORIO + + +He rode easily, as one born to the saddle, the leathers creaking +musically under him to keep time to the shuffling fox-trot of the wiry +little range pony. Once free of the mining-camp and out upon the mesa, +he found a corn-husk wrapper and his bag of dry tobacco and deftly +rolled a cigarette, doing it with one hand, cow-boy fashion. When the +cigarette was lighted, the horseman ahead was a mere khaki-colored dot, +rising and falling in the mellowing distance. + +With the eye of a plainsman he measured the trail's length to the broken +hill range where the Pannikin emerges from its final wrestle with the +gorges. Then he glanced up at the dull crimson spot in the murky sky +that marked the sun's altitude. There was time sufficient--and the trail +was long enough. He did not push his horse out of the shuffling trot. At +the portal hills the horseman now disappearing over the rim of the high +mesa would slacken speed. In the canyon itself a dog could not go faster +than a walk. + +On the lower mesa the Mexican picked up the galloping dot again, +holding it in view until it halted on the river bank a hundred yards +below the entrance to the canyon. Since the water was low in the ford, +the river bank hid the crossing, and the Mexican drew rein and waited +for the dot to reappear on the opposite shore. + +A slow minute was lost; then a second and a third. The man in the corded +sombrero and laced buckskins touched his horse's flank with a spur and +crept forward at a walk, keeping his eyes fixed upon the point where the +quarry ought to come in sight again. When three more minutes passed and +the farther shore was still a deserted blank, the Mexican dug both +rowels into his mustang and galloped down to the river, muttering curses +in the _patois_ of his native Sonora. + +Apparently the closing in had been delayed too long. There were fresh +hoof-prints in the marl of the hither approach to the shallow ford, but +none to match them on the farther side. The Mexican crossed hastily and +searched for the outcoming hoof-marks. The rocky bar which formed the +northern bank of the stream told him nothing. + +Now it is only in the imagination of the word-smith that the villain in +the play is gifted with supernatural powers of discernment. Ruiz +Gregorio Maria y Alvarez Mattacheco, familiarly and less cumbrously +known as "Mexican George," was a mere murderer, with a quick eye for +gun-sights and a ready and itching trigger finger. But he was no Vidoeq, +to know by instinct which of the two trails, the canyon passage or the +longer route over the hills, Ford had chosen. + +Having two guesses he made the wrong one first, urging his mustang +toward the canyon trail. A stumbling half-mile up the narrow cleft of +the river's path revealing nothing, he began to reconsider. Drawing a +second blank of the same dimensions, he turned back to the ford and +tried the hill trail. At the end of the first hundred yards on the new +scent he came again upon the fresh hoof-prints, and took off the +brow-cramping hat to swear the easier. + +Two courses were now open to him; to press hard upon the roundabout hill +trail in the hope of overtaking the engineer before he could reach the +Horse Creek camp, or to pass by the shorter route to the upper ford to +head him off at the river crossing. The Mexican gave another glance at +the dull red spot in the western sky and played for safety. The +waylaying alternative commended itself on several counts. The canyon +trail was the shorter and it could be traversed leisurely and in +daylight. Pressing his livery hack as he could, Ford would scarcely +reach the crossing at the mouth of Horse Creek before dusk. Moreover, it +would be easier to wait and to smoke than to chase the quarry over the +hills, wearing one's pinto to the bone. + +Ruiz Gregorio Maria set his horse once more at the task of picking a +path among the canyon boulders, riding loosely in the saddle, first in +one stirrup and then in the other, and smoking an unbroken succession of +the corn-husk cigarettes. + +One small cloud flecked the sky of satisfaction. His instructions had +been explicit. If Ford should resign, quit, wash his hands of the +Pacific Southwestern, he might be suffered to escape. If not--there was +only one condition attached to the alternative: what was done must be +done neatly, with despatch, and at a sufficient distance from any of the +MacMorrogh camps to avert even the shadow of suspicion. + +Now the upper crossing of waylayings was within a stone's throw of the +end-of-track yards; nay, within an amateur's pistol-shot of the +commissary buildings. But Ruiz Gregorio, weighing all the possibilities, +found them elastic enough to serve the purpose. A well-calculated shot +from behind a sheltering boulder, the heaving of the body into the swift +torrent of the Pannikin, and the thing was done. What damning evidence +might afterward come to the light of day, if, indeed, it should ever +come to light, would be fished out of the stream far enough from any of +the MacMorrogh camps. + +Thus Ruiz Gregorio Maria y Alvarez, lolling lazily in his saddle while +the hard-breathing mustang picked a toilsome path among the strewn +boulders and through the sliding shale beds. He went even further: an +alibi might not be needful, but it would be easy to provide one. Young +Jack Benson, if no other, would know that Ford had taken one of the +shorter trails from Copah to the camp at Horse Creek. _Bueno!_ He, Ruiz +Gregorio, could slip across the river in the dusk when the thing was +done, skirt the headquarters camp unseen, and present himself a little +later at Seńor Frisbie's camp of the track-layers, coming, as it were, +direct from Copah, almost upon the heels of Seńor Benson. After that, +who could connect him with the dead body of a man fished out of a river +twenty, fifty, a hundred miles away? + +There was a weak link in the chain. Ruiz Gregorio's child-like plot +turned upon one pivot of hazard--hazard most likely to be ignored by so +good a marksman as the "man-killer." One shot he might permit himself, +with little danger of drawing a crowd from the mess tent and the +sleeping shanties in the Horse Creek camp. Two would bring the men to +their doors. Any greater number would be taken as the signal of a free +fight needing spectators. Hence the first shot must suffice. + +The Mexican bore this in mind when, arriving at his post opposite the +camp in the early dusk, he chose his ambushing boulder so near the +descending hill trail that a stout club might have been substituted for +the pistol. The weather promise was for a starless night, but the +electric arc-lights were already scintillating at their mastheads in +the headquarters railroad yard across the Pannikin. Later, when the +daylight was quite gone and the electrics were hollowing out a bowl of +stark whiteness in the night, Ruiz Gregorio wished he had chosen +otherwise. The camp lights shone full upon him and on the mustang +standing with drooped head at his elbow, and the trail on the other side +of the boulder was in shadow. + +He was about to take the risk of moving farther up the hill-path to a +less exposed lurking place, was hesitating only because his indolent +soul rebelled at the thought of having to drag Ford's body so many added +steps to its burial in the river, when the clink of shod hoofs upon +stone warned him that the time for scene-shifting had passed. Pushing +the mustang out of the line of sight from the trail, he flattened +himself against the great rock and waited. + +Ford rode down the last declivity cautiously, for his horse's sake. The +trail came out of the hills abruptly, dropping into the rock-strewn +river valley within hailing distance of the camp. Well within the sweep +of the masthead lights across the stream, the boulder-strewn flat was as +light as day, save where the sentinel rocks flung their shadows; and +promptly at the first facing of the bright electrics, Ford's horse +stumbled aside from the path and began to take short cuts between the +thick-standing boulders for the river. This was how the Mexican, +instead of having his victim at a complete disadvantage, found himself +suddenly uncovered by the flank, exposed, recognized, and hailed in no +uncertain tones. + +"Hello, Mattacheco! what are you doing here?" Ford had a flash-light +picture of the horse standing with his muzzle to the ground; of the man +flattened against the rock. Then he saw the dull gleam of the lights +upon blued metal. "You devil!" he shouted; and unarmed as he was, +spurred his tired beast at the assassin. + +Here, then, was the weak link in Ruiz Gregorio's chain twisted to the +breaking point at the very outset. Instead of taking a deliberate +pot-shot at an unsuspecting victim, he was obliged to face about, to +fire hastily at a charging enemy, and to spring nimbly aside to save +himself from being ridden down. The saving jump was an awkward one: it +brought him into breath-taking collision with the upjerking head of the +mustang. When he had recovered his feet and his presence of mind, the +charging whirlwind had dashed through the shallows of the Pannikin, and +a riderless horse was clattering across the tracks in the railroad yard. + +The Mexican waited prudently to see what the camp would say to the +single shot. It said nothing; it might have been deserted for all the +indications there were of life in it. Ruiz Gregorio snapped the empty +shell from his weapon, replacing it with a loaded one, and mounted and +rode slowly through the ford. The riderless horse disappearing across +the tracks gave him good hope that the hasty shot had accomplished all +that a deliberate one might have. + +There was no dead man tumbled in a heap in the railroad yard, as he had +hoped to find. Silence, the silence of desertion, brooded over the +masthead arcs. Painfully the Mexican searched, at the verge of the +river, in the black shadows cast by the crowding material cars. Finally +he crossed over to the straggling street of the camp, walking now and +leading the spent mustang. Silence here, too, broken only by the +sputtering sizzle of the electrics. The huge mess tent was dark; there +were no lights, save in the closed commissary and in the president's +car: no lights, and not a man of the camp's crowding labor army to be +seen. + +At a less strenuous moment the man-killer would have been puzzled by the +unusual stillness and the air of desertion. As it was, he was alertly +probing the far-flung shadows. The engineer, if only wounded, would +doubtless try to hide in the shadows in the railroad yard. + +The Mexican left his horse in the camp street and made an instant search +between and under the material cars, coming out now and again to stare +suspiciously at the president's private car, standing alone on the +siding directly opposite the commissary. The Nadia was occupied. It was +lighted within, and the window shades were drawn down. Ruiz Gregorio +could never get far from the lighted car without being irresistibly +drawn back to it, and finally he darted back in time to see a man rise +up out of the shadow of the nearest box-car, spring to the platform of +the Nadia and kick lustily at the locked door. The door was opened +immediately by some one within, and the fugitive plunged to cover--but +not before the Mexican's revolver had barked five times with the rapid +staccato of a machine gun. + +When Ruiz Gregorio, dropping the smoking weapon into its holster, would +have mounted to put into instant action the plan of the well-considered +alibi, a barrel-bodied figure launched itself from the commissary porch, +and a vigorous hand dragged horse and man into the shadow of the +stables. + +"Off wid you now, you blunderin' dago divvle!" gritted the MacMorrogh +savagely. "It's all av our necks ye've put into a rope, this time, damn +you!" + +The Mexican had dismounted and was calmly reloading his pistol. + +"You t'ink-a he's not-a sufficiently kill? I go over to da car and +bring-a you da proof, _si_?" + +"You'll come wid me," raved the big contractor. "'Tis out av your clumsy +hands, now, ye black-hearted blunderin' cross betune a Digger Indian and +a Mexican naygur! Come on, I say!" + +The back room of the commissary to which the MacMorrogh led the way +held three men; Eckstein, and the two younger members of the contracting +firm. They had heard the fusillade in the camp street and were waiting +for news. Brian MacMorrogh gave it, garnished with many oaths. + +"The pin-brained omadhaun av a Mexican has twishted a rope for all av +us! He's let Ford come back, alive; let him get to the very dure av the +prisident's car! Then, begorra! he must mades show himself under the +electhrics and open fire on the man who was kicking at the dure and +looking sthraight at him!" + +Eckstein asked a single question. + +"Did he get him? If he's dead he can't very well tell who shot him." + +"That's the hell av it!" raged the big man. "Who's to know?" + +Eckstein spat out the extinct cigar stump he was chewing. + +"We are to know--beyond a question of doubt, this time. Who is in the +Nadia, besides Ford?" + +"The two naygurs." + +"No one else?" + +MacMorrogh shook his head. "No wan." + +"You are sure Mr. Adair and Brissac are out of the way?" + +"They got Gallagher to push them up to Frisbie's track camp in Misther +North's car an hour before dark." + +"None of your men are likely to drift in from the other way up the +line?" + +"Not unless somebody carries the news av the gold sthrike--and there's +nobody going that way to carry it. The camp's empty but for us." + +Eckstein rose and buttoned his coat. + +"You have held your own strikers--the men you can depend upon: how many +do we count, all told?" + +"Thirteen, counting the five av us here, and the felly that runs the +electhric light plant." + +"H'm; it's a hell of a risk: thirteen men knowing what only one should +know--and what that one should hurry to forget. But your butter-fingered +Mexican has left us no choice. Ford knows enough now to send some of us +over the road for life. If he got into that car alive, he must never +come out of it alive." + +Brian MacMorrogh had unlocked a cupboard in the corner of the room. It +was a well-filled gun-rack, and he was passing the Winchesters out to +his brothers. + +"'Tis so," he said briefly. Then: "There's the two naygurs in the car: +what av thim, Misther Eckstein?" + +Eckstein took one of the guns and emptied the magazine to make sure of +the loading. + +"We are thirteen to one; the negroes don't count," he replied coldly. +"Call in your men and we'll go and do what's got to be done." + + + + +XXV + +THE SIEGE OF THE NADIA + + +With a horse that could have been handled Ford would not have run away +when the charge upon the Mexican failed of its purpose. So far from it, +he tried to wheel and charge again while the man was reeling from his +collision with the rearing mustang. + +But the bronco from the Copah stable, with the flash and crash of the +pistol-shot to madden it, took the bit between its teeth and +bolted--safely through the shallows of the stream crossing and up to the +level of the railroad yard beyond, but swerving aside at the first of +the car shadows to fling its rider out of the saddle. Ford gathered +himself quickly and rolled under a car. His right arm had no feeling in +it, whether from the shot or the fall he could not determine. + +The numbness had become a prickling agony when he heard the Mexican +splashing through the river to begin his search. Ford's field of vision +was limited by the car trucks, but he kept the man in sight as he could. +It filled him with sudden and fiery rage to be hunted thus like a +defenseless animal, and more than once he was tempted to make a dash for +the engineers' quarters on the hillside above the commissary--a rifle +being the thing for which he hungered and thirsted. + +But to show himself under the lights was to invite the fate he had so +narrowly escaped. He knew Mattacheco's skill as a marksman: the Mexican +would not be rattled twice in the same half-hour. Ford gripped the +benumbed arm in impotent writhings. + +"Now, by recognizing him, I've fixed it so that he is obliged to kill +me," he muttered. "It's my life, or his neck for a halter, and he knows +it. The blood-thirsty devil! If I could only get to Brissac's +bunk-shanty and lay my hands on a gun ..." + +There seemed to be no chance of doing that most desirable thing. The +Mexican was now afoot and coursing the railroad yard like a baffled +hound. Ford saw that it was only a question of minutes until his +impromptu hiding-place would be discovered, and he began to look for +another. The Nadia was but a short distance away, and the lighted deck +transoms beckoned him. + +It was instinct rather than intention that made him duck and plunge +headlong through the suddenly opened door of the private car at the +glimpse of his pursuer standing beside his horse in the open camp +street. This was why the pistol barked harmlessly. Springing to his +feet, and leaving the frightened negro who had admitted him trying to +barricade the door with cushions from the smoking-room seats, Ford burst +into the lighted central compartment. + +It was not empty, as he had expected to find it. Two men, startled by +the shots and the crash of breaking glass, were prepared to grapple him. +It was Brissac, the invalided assistant, who cried, "Hold on, Mr. +Adair--it's Ford, and he's hurt!" + +Ford met the involuntary rush, gathered the two in his uncrippled arm +and dragged them to the floor. + +"That's in case my assassin takes a notion to turn loose on the +windows," he panted. Then he gasped out his story while Brissac got the +aching right arm out of its sleeve and looked for the injury. + +Adair listened to the story of the attempted murder awe-struck, as one +from the civilized East had a right to be. + +"By Jove!" he commented; "I thought I had bumped into all the different +varieties of deviltry since I left Denver yesterday morning, but this +tops 'em. Actually tried to kill you in cold blood? But what for, +Stuart?--for heaven's sake, what for?" + +"Because he was hired to: because his masters, the MacMorroghs, and +their master, North, have staked their roll on this last turn of the +cards. I know too much, Adair. The president was sent over here to get +rid of me. That failing, word was passed down the line that I was to be +effaced. A few hours ago this Mexican overheard me telling your sister +what I proposed to do to North and the MacMorroghs. That's why he--Ouch! +Roy; that is my arm you're trying to twist out of joint, man!" + +"It's all right," laughed the Louisianian; "it is only a crazy-bone bump +that you got when the bronc' threw you. Say, Ford; I thought you claimed +to know how to ride a horse!" + +Adair was feeling in his pockets for the inevitable cigarette case. + +"What he overheard you telling Alicia?" he mused. "I'm evidently two or +three chapters behind. But no matter; this is the now; the very +immediate now. Will your assassin keep on feeling for you?" + +Ford shook his head. "Not any more just at present, I guess. He has +waited too long. That fusillade of his will have turned the entire camp +out by this time, and the Macs don't want any inconvenient witnesses." + +"Witnesses?" echoed Adair. "Then you don't know--Say, Stuart; there +isn't a white man in this camp besides us three--unless you count the +MacMorroghs and their commissary garrison as white men. News of the +great gold strike got here about three o'clock, and every laborer within +hearing of it shouldered pick and shovel and lined out up the new track +for Copah." + +"What!" shouted Ford. "And these dash-_dashed_ MacMorroghs didn't try +to hold them?" + +"I don't know about that. I had Mr. Brissac, here, over in the '01'--I +came across the mountain in North's car, you know--dosing him with +things out of Doctor Van Bruce's traveling case, and trying to get him +in shape to show me the way to Copah. After the stampede, which took all +the four-legged horses as well as the two-legged asses, I persuaded your +man Gallagher to hitch his engine to our car to drag us up to Frisbie's +camp at the front. I thought Frisbie would probably be in communication +with you. Gallagher's intentions were good, but about three miles up +Horse Creek he ditched the car so thoroughly that we couldn't inhabit +it; so we got out and walked back." + +"All of which brings on more talk," said Ford gravely. "From what you +say, I gather that the MacMorroghs are still here. Did any one see you +come back?" + +"I don't know. It was after dark when we straggled in, and we didn't +ring any bells or blow any whistles." + +Ford stood up. + +"Does either one of you happen to have anything bigger than a +pocket-knife in the way of a weapon?" he asked. + +"Why? what are you going to do?" Adair demanded. + +"I am going to separate you two from my highly dangerous presence," said +Ford definitely. "The MacMorroghs' outfit of a dozen or fifteen +cutthroat scoundrels, captained, for the moment, by Eckstein, North's +right-hand man, are doubtless just across the way in the back room of +the commissary. You say the camp is otherwise deserted: the MacMorroghs +don't know that you are here; and they do know that I am, dead or alive. +Moreover, Mattacheco has doubtless told them by this time that I saw and +recognized him. Wherefore, it's up to them to see that I never get a +chance to go before a grand jury." + +"You sit down on the floor," said Adair. He had found a cigarette and +was crimping the end of it. "Have you a fraction of an idea that we are +going to allow you to make a Jonah of yourself for us? Sit down, I say! +Who's got a gun?" + +Brissac had crept to a window and was reconnoitering the deserted camp +street and the commissary through a peephole in the drawn shade. As +Adair spoke, he sprang back, tripped Ford and fell with him, crying: + +"Down! both of you!" + +At the cry there was a shot from without, and a window on the exposed +side of the Nadia fell in shivers. There were yells of terror from the +cook's pantry, and the two negroes came crawling through the side +vestibule, their eyes like saucers and their teeth chattering. Ford +jumped up and turned off the Pintsch lights; and he was barely down +again when another shot broke a second window. + +"Wouldn't that jolt you?" said Adair. "They are feeling for you with +both hands. What a heaven's pity it is that we haven't so much as a +potato popgun among us to talk back with. What did you see, Mr. +Brissac?" + +"A crowd of them bunched on the commissary porch. One of them was +sighting a Winchester at the car when I got busy." + +Adair was again lamenting the lack of arms when the negro porter +produced a pocket bulldog pistol of the cheap and uncertain sort. +"Y-y-y-yah you is, Mistuh Charles," he stuttered. + +"Ah, Williams--concealed weapons? That is fifty dollars fine in your +native Tennessee, isn't it?" Then to Brissac: "Please go to the farther +window and mark down for me, Mr. Brissac. I don't like to have those +fellows do all the bluffing." + +While the assistant was complying, a third bullet from the commissary +porch tore high through the car, smashing one of the gas globes. Adair +crawled to a broken window and the cheap revolver roared like an +overloaded musket. + +"Good shot!" said Brissac, from his marking post. "You got one of them: +he's down and they're dragging him inside. Now they have all ducked to +cover." + +"That settles any notion of a palaver and the pipe of peace, I guess," +said Adair, as indifferently as if he had just brought down a clay +pigeon. "Prophesy, Stuart: what comes next?" + +Ford shook his head. + +"They can't quit now till they are sure I am permanently obliterated; +they have gone too far. They'll credit me with that shot of yours, and +they will take it as a pretty emphatic proof that I still live. Hence, +more war." + +"Well, what do we do? You are the captain." + +"Picket the car and keep a sharp lookout for the next move. Brissac, you +take the forward end, and I'll take the rear platform. Adair, post your +Africans in here where they'll do the most good, and see that they don't +go to sleep on their jobs." + +The disposition of forces was quickly made, after which suspense set in. +Silence and the solitude of the deserted camp reigned unbroken; yet the +watchers knew that the shadows held determined enemies, alertly +besieging the private car. To prove it, Adair pulled down a portičre, +gave it bulk with a stuffing of berth pillows, and dropped the bundle +from one of the shattered windows. Three jets of fire belched from the +nearest shadow, and the dummy was riddled. Adair fired at one of the +flashes, resting the short-barreled pistol across the window ledge, and +the retaliatory shot brought Ford hurrying in from his post. + +"For heaven's sake, don't waste your ammunition!" he whispered. "One of +them has gone up to the powder-house after dynamite. I heard the +creaking of the iron door." + +Adair whistled softly. "Dynamite! That will bring things to a focus +beautifully, won't it? When they have blown us up, I wonder how they +will account to Uncle Sidney for the loss of his car?" + +Brissac had come running in at the sound of the firing. He missed the +grim humor in Adair's query. + +"Car, nothing!" he retorted. "Better say the entire camp and everything +in it! There's a whole box-car load of dynamite and caps out here in the +yard--sub-contractors' supplies waiting for the freighters' teams from +the west end. If they smash us, the chances are ten to one that there'll +be a sympathetic explosion out yonder in the yard somewhere that will +leave nothing but a hole in the ground!" + +"No," said Ford. "I gave orders myself to have that car set down below +the junction when the Nadia came in." + +"So you did; and so it was," Brissac cut in. "But afterward it got mixed +in the shifting, and it's back in the yard--I don't know just where." + +Adair turned to the cowering porter. + +"Have you any more cartridges for this cannon of yours, Williams?" he +asked. + +"N-n-no, sah." + +"Then we have three more chances in the hat. Much obliged for the +dynamite hint, Stuart. I'll herd these three cartridges pretty +carefully. Back to your sentry-boxes, you two, and make a noise if you +need the artillery." + +Another interval of suspense followed, thickly scored with pricklings of +anxiety for the besieged. Then an attempt was made from the rear. Ford +saw a dodging shadow working its way from car to car in the yard and +signaled softly to Adair. + +"Hold low on him," he cautioned, when the New Yorker was at his elbow, +"those cheap guns jump like a scared cow-pony." Then he added: "And pray +God you don't hit what he's carrying." + +Adair held low and bided his time. There was another musket-like roar, +and an instant though harmless reply from two rifles on the other side +of the Nadia. But the dodging shadow was no longer advancing. + +"I've stopped him for the time being, anyhow," said Adair, exulting like +a boy. "If we only had a decent weapon we could get them all, one at a +time." + +"This was crude," Ford commented. "Eckstein will think up something +better for the next attempt." + +It was a prophecy which found its fulfilment after another sweating +interval of watchfulness. This time it was Brissac who made the +discovery, from the forward end of the Nadia. The nearest of the +material cars was a box, lying broadside to the private car on the next +side-track but one. From behind the trucks of the box-car a slender +pole, headed with what appeared to be an empty oyster tin, and trailing +a black line of fuse, was projecting itself along the ground by slow +inchings, creeping across the lighted space between the two cars. +Brissac promptly gave the alarm. + +"This is where we lose out, pointedly and definitely," predicted Adair, +still cheerful. "Anybody want to try a run for it?" + +It was Ford who thought of the two negroes. + +"Tell them, Roy," he said to Brissac. "Perhaps they would rather risk +the rifles." + +Brissac crept back to the central compartment, and the two watchers +marked the progress of the inching pole, with its dynamite head and the +ominous black thread of communication trailing like a grotesque horn +behind it. At the crossing of the intervening track it paused, moving +back and forth along the steel like a living thing seeking a passage. +Finally the metallic head of it appeared above the rail, hesitated, and +came on slowly. At that moment there was a shout, and the two negroes, +hands held high, tumbled from the opposite step of the Nadia and ran +toward the commissary stables. Three shots bit into the silence, and the +fat cook ran on, stumbling and shrieking. But the man Williams stopped +short and fell on his face, rolling over a moment later to lie with arms +and legs outspread. + +"God!" said Ford, between his set teeth; "they saw who they were--they +couldn't help seeing! And there was no excuse for killing those poor +devils!" + +But there was no time for reprisals, if any could have been made. When +Brissac rejoined the two in the forward vestibule, the stiff-bodied +snake with its tin head and trailing horn was crossing the second rail +of the intervening siding. + +"We've got to think pretty swiftly," suggested Adair, still cool and +unruffled. "I might be able to hit that tin thing at this short +distance, but I suppose that would only precipitate matters. What do you +say?" + +Ford could not say, and Brissac seemed to have become suddenly petrified +with horror. He was staring at the lettering on the box-car +opposite--the one under whose trucks the dynamiters were hiding. + +"Look!" he gasped; "it's the car of explosives, and they don't know it!" +Then he darted back into the Nadia's kitchen, returning quickly with a +huge carving-knife rummaged from the pantry shelves. "Stand back and +give me room," he begged; and they saw him lean out to send the +carving-knife whistling through the air: saw it sever the head from the +stiff-bodied snake--the head and the trailing horn as well. + +"Good man!" applauded Adair, dragging the assistant engineer back to +safety before any of the sharpshooters had marked him down. "Where did +you learn that trick?" + +"It is my one little accomplishment," confessed the Louisianian. "An old +Chickasaw chief taught me when I was a boy in the bayou country." + +The peril was over for the moment. The severed pole was withdrawn, and +for what seemed like an endless interval the attack paused. The three +besieged men kept watch as they might, creeping from window to window. +Out under the blue glare of the commissary arc-light the body of the +negro porter lay as it had fallen. Once, Ford thought he heard groans +from the black shadow where the fat cook had disappeared, but he could +not be sure. On the other side of the private car, and half-way between +it and the forty-thousand-pound load of high explosives, the petard +oyster-tin lay undisturbed, with the carving-knife sticking in the sand +beside it. + +"What will they try next?" queried Adair, when the suspense was again +growing intolerable. + +"It is simple enough, if they happen to think of it," was Ford's +rejoinder. "A few sticks of dynamite in a plugged gas-pipe: cut your +fuse long enough, light it, and throw the thing under the car. That +would settle it." + +Adair yawned sleepily. + +"Well, they've got all night for the inventive part of it. There's no +rescue for us unless somebody--a good husky army of somebodies--just +happens along." + +"The army is less than eight miles away--over at Frisbie's camp," said +Ford. "With Dick to lead them, the track-layers would sack this place in +about five minutes. If I could only get to the wire!" + +Brissac heard the "if." + +"Let me try to run their picket line, Ford," he said eagerly. "If I can +get around to our quarters and into the telegraph tent--" + +"You couldn't do it, Roy. There is the proof of it," pointing to the +body of the slain negro. "But I have been thinking of another scheme. +The track-camp wire is bracketed across the yard on the light-poles. I +have my pocket relay. I wonder if we could manage to cut in on that +wire?" + +"Wait a minute," Brissac interrupted. He was gone but a moment, and when +he returned he brought hope with him. + +"The wire is down and lying across the front vestibule," he announced +excitedly. "They must have cut it up yonder by the telegraph tent and +the slack has sagged down this way." + +"Which gives us a dead wire without any batteries," said Ford gloomily; +and then: "Hold on--aren't there electric call-bells in this car, +Adair?" + +"Yes, several of them; one in each state-room." + +"Good! that means batteries of some sort," said Ford. "Rummage for +them, Brissac, while I get that wire in here." + +The wire was successfully pulled in through the front vestibule without +giving the alarm. Ford twisted it in two when he had enough of it to +reach the central compartment. Adair did sentry duty while the two +technicians wrought swiftly. The bell battery was found, the ground +connection made with a bit of copper wire stripped from one of the +state-rooms, and Ford quickly adjusted the delicate spring of the tiny +field relay. + +What he feared most was that the few dry-cells of the bell battery would +not supply the current for the eight miles of line up Horse Creek. For a +time, which lengthened to dragging minutes, the anxious experimenters +hung over the tiny field instrument. The sensitive magnet seemed wholly +dead. Then, suddenly, it began to tick hesitantly in response to Ford's +tapping of the key. + +"Thank God, the battery is strong enough," he exclaimed. "Now, if there +is somebody within hearing at Frisbie's end of the line ..." + +He was clicking persistently and patiently, "E-T," "E-T," "E-T," +alternating now and then with the Horse Creek call and his own private +code letter, when Adair came up from his post at one of the rear +windows. The golden youth was the bearer of tidings, but Ford held up +his hand for silence: some one was breaking in to reply from +Frisbie's--Frisbie, himself, as the minimized tickings speedily +announced. + +Ford snipped out his call for help in the fewest possible words: + + Arm M'Grath's gang and bring it by train to Horse Creek, quick. + MacMorroghs are trying to dynamite us in the Nadia. FORD. + +Almost without a break in the insect-like tickings the reply came: + + Stand them off; help coming. + +The thing done, the master workman in Ford snatched at the helm. + + Did you catch and hold the pick-and-shovel men from this camp? + +he clicked anxiously. + + Got them all herded here and ready to go back to work--for more + pay, + +answered Frisbie; and Ford ticked one more word, "Hurry," and closed the +key with a sigh of relief. Then, and not until then, Adair said: "Is +that all, for the present? If it is, I'm sorry to have to report that +the beggars outside have hit upon your gas-pipe scheme. They are rolling +a round, black thing with a string attached down upon us from the +commissary. The slant of the hill is just enough to keep it coming where +the ground is smooth." + +From sheer force of habit, Ford disconnected his field telegraph, cased +and pocketed it. Then there was an instant adjournment to the rear +windows on the camp side. Happily, the rolling bomb was as yet only on +the way. Pebbles and roughnesses intervened here and there to stop or to +turn it aside, and since it was out of reach of their longest pole, the +dynamiters would start it on again by throwing stones at it. + +Hereupon ensued a struggle which, under other conditions, would have +figured as horse-play. One after another the three men in the car heaved +cushions, pillows, obstructions of any sort, in the path of the rolling +menace. And behind the commissary barricade the dynamiters patiently +twitched the bomb by the firmly fastened fuse this way and that to avoid +the obstacles, or sent it forward under the impact of well-directed +missiles. + +Ford was the first of the three to recognize the futility of the cushion +barricades. + +"They'll beat us--they'll drop it in the ditch right here under us in +spite of fate!" he juried. "Brissac: go and break the glass in the +accident tool-case and bring me the ax, quickly!" And when he had it; +"Now get me a piece of that telegraph wire and bend a hook on the end +of it--jump for it; you'll have to twist it off with your fingers!" + +With an energy that made no account of the lamed arm, Ford tore up the +carpet and fell to work fiercely, cutting a hole through the car floor; +while Brissac broke a piece from the wire and bent a finger-shaped hook +on the end of it. Adair, with his eye at a hole in a window shade, gave +his attention to the attack. + +"They are getting it here, slowly but surely," he reported. "It is going +to roll under us just about where you are.... Now it has gone past my +line of sight." And a moment later, in the same drawling monotone: "They +have lighted the fuse, but there is a good long string of it to burn +through. Take your time--" then, with a sudden failure in the monotone: +"No, by Jove! you can't take your time! The fire is jumping across the +road to beat the band!" + +The hole was opened through the floor, and Ford was on his stomach with +his face and an arm in the aperture, fishing desperately for the loop in +the fuse. It was his success, his sudden drawing of the loop up into the +car, that had shocked Adair out of his pose. Brissac was ready with the +ax, and the instant the loop appeared it was severed, the burning end +cast off, and the other end, with the bomb attached, was safely drawn up +into the car. + +The perspiration was running from Ford's face in streams when he had +the engine of death securely in his hands. + +"Take it, Roy," he gasped. "Drop it into the water-cooler. That will be +the safest place for it if they fall back on the gun-play." + +As if his word had evoked it, a storm of rifle bullets swept through the +car, smashing windows, breaking the remaining gas globes and splintering +the wood-work. Again and again the flashes leaped out of the surrounding +shadows and the air was sibilant with whining missiles. + +Brissac had the infernal machine: at first he fell upon it and covered +it with his body; afterward he crawled with it into the nearest +state-room and muffled it in a roll of berth mattresses. + +When the storm ceased, as suddenly as it had begun, they crept together +in the vestibule farthest from the commissary lead-hurling volcano to +count the casualties. + +There was none; not even a bullet score or a splinter-wound to show for +the hot bombardment, though the side of the Nadia facing the commissary +was riddled. + +"I'm believing all I've ever read about its taking a hundred pounds of +lead to kill one man in a war battle," said the New Yorker, grimly +humorous to the last. "How do you two C. E.'s account for it?" + +"We don't," said Ford shortly. "We're merely thankful that all +humankind habitually shoots high when it's excited or in a hurry." + +[Illustration: Brissac hurled the skillet like a clumsy discus] + +Then he sprang afoot, secured his ax, and sent Brissac to the pantry to +rummage for other weapons. "A rush is the next thing in order," he +suggested; and they prepared as they could to meet it. + +But the rush did not come. Instead of it, one man, carrying what +appeared to be a bundle of dripping rags, came cautiously into the open +and approached the shattered car. The night wind sweeping down from the +upper valley was with him, and the pungent odor of kerosene was wafted +to and through the broken windows. + +"Oho!" said Adair. "Having safely shot you dead or disabled, they are +now going to give you Christian burial, Ford. Also, they will +comfortably obliterate all the marks and scars of this pleasant +evening's diversion. How near shall I let him come before I squander one +of the two remaining cartridges on him?" + +"Wait," said Brissac in a half-whisper. In his second pantry rummaging +he had found nothing more promising than a cast-iron skillet--promising +because it had weight and a handle to wield it by. The intending +incendiary was no more than a few yards from his goal when Brissac rose +up opposite the nearest shattered window and hurled the skillet like a +clumsy discus. His aim was true to a hand's-breadth: a bullet from +Adair's pistol could have done no more. With a cry that was fairly +shogged out of him by the impact of the iron missile, the man flung away +his burden, dropped in his tracks and lay groaning. + +They looked for another storm of lead to follow this, and hugged the +floor in readiness for it. When it did not come, Ford crept to the hole +in the car floor and listened long and intently. Half an hour he had +given Frisbie to get his track-layers together, and to cover the eight +miles of rough-laid rails with the construction train. What was delaying +him? + +"You said Gallagher ditched your car: did it block the track?" he asked +of Adair. + +"It did, didn't it, Brissac?" was the answer, and the assistant +confirmed it. + +"Then that is why Frisbie can't get to us. Was Gallagher's engine still +on the rails?" + +"It was." + +Ford sat up and nursed his knees. "Dick will make a way if he can't find +one ready made. But it may take hours. Meanwhile, if these devils have +scouts out--" + +"Yes?" said Adair. + +"They'll bring the warning, and there won't be much more time wasted in +experiments. They can do us up, if they get right down to business." + +"What are they doing now?" Adair asked of Brissac, who was on watch on +the commissary side. + +"I'll be hanged if I know. It looks like a young cannon, and it's +pointed this way. By George! it's coming--coming by its all alone, too!" + +By this time they were all watching the new menace. Brissac's +description fitted it accurately; a cylindrical object mounted upon a +pair of small wheels taken from the commissary store-room truck. It came +toward the Nadia by curious surges--a rush forward and a pause--trailing +what appeared to be a long iron rod behind it. + +Ford hit upon the explanation. The cylindrical thing was another +gas-pipe bomb; the iron tail was a smaller pipe containing and armoring +the fuse, and serving also as the means of propulsion. They were +coupling on additional lengths of the fuse-carrying pipe as they were +needed; hence the jerking advances and pauses. + +Adair's low laugh was as care-free as ever. + +"A practical illustration of the tail wagging the dog," he remarked. +"But the dog will wag us good and plenty when they get him where they +want him. You can't fish that thing up through the hole with your +wire--or crop the tail." + +"No; it's a run for it, this time," said Ford, rising and stripping his +coat. + +But Brissac was pointing to three or four men dodging from shadow to +shadow under the masthead lights and circling wide to tighten the line +of circumvallation. + +"We shan't run very far," he commented. + +It seemed a hair-graying age to the watchers at the Nadia's windows +before the men behind the commissary barricade got their infernal +machine placed to their liking. They stared at it, all three of them, +fascinated, deaf and blind to all else. A minimized shudder as of +drumming wheels or escaping steam was in the air when they saw the flare +of the match that betokened the firing of the fuse, but no one of the +three heard it. + +It was when the sputtering line of fire had buried itself in its tube +that they became suddenly alive to the unbelievable fact that a +locomotive was thundering down the yard on the Nadia's track. A rifle +cracked; then another and a third; but the engine came on as if its +driver bore a charmed life. + +Surely Michael Gallagher must have prayed to the saints that night. He +did not know that the very seconds had become priceless: he knew only +that Frisbie had sent him on ahead to snake the president's car out of +the Horse Creek yard as quickly as possible. Yet if he could have seen +the bomb and the sputtering fuse, he could not have slowed more deftly +to let the automatic couplers clutch each other, nor, at the touch and +clamp, could he have reversed and gathered headway with greater skill. + +The three occupants of the Nadia staggered to their feet as the private +car lunged ahead in the grasp of the big engine, increasing speed with +every wheel-turn. Mechanically, and as one man, they rushed to the rear +platform. The mock cannon stood where it had been thrust; but in the +camp street a handful of men were wrestling madly with the pipe +fuse-carrier, breaking it, wrenching it in pieces, and stamping futilely +upon the snake-like thing hissing and spitting under their feet. + +"Look!" sobbed Adair. "They know--they've discovered that box-car! Oh, +why in the name of the pitiful Christ don't they drop it and run?" + +This from the man who had laughed, and aimed and fired and laughed +again, in the heat of battle. But Ford's rejoinder was the bitter +malediction of the defeated industry captain. "Damn their worthless +lives!" he stormed. "In the next half-minute the Pacific Southwestern +stands to lose a quarter of a million dollars!" + +It was but a vanishing glimpse that they had of the handful of madmen +stamping and dancing under the masthead light in front of the +commissary; a glimpse withdrawing swiftly into a dim perspective as the +Nadia was whisked around the curve and up the Horse Creek grade. + +It was after Gallagher had picked up the lights of the waiting train of +armed track-layers, and was whistling to announce his success, that the +end came. For the three watchers on the rear platform of the president's +car the little constellation of arc-stars in the valley below was +suddenly blotted out in a skyward belching of gray flame; a huge +volcano-burst of momentarily illuminated dust. Instinctively they +braced themselves for the concussion that followed,--a bellowing +thunderclap and a rending of earth and air that shook the surrounding +hills and drowned the shriek of Gallagher's whistle. + +A blast of air, down-drawn from the heights to fill the dreadful vacuum, +was still rocking the stopped car when Frisbie climbed nimbly to the +railed rear platform and swung his lantern to light the faces of the +three men braced in the doorway. + +"A close call, gentlemen," was his only comment; and then he appealed +briefly to Ford for orders. + +"Back us down slowly," said Ford shortly, "and follow with your train. +We may need the men." + +Frisbie went forward through the wrecked private car, returning +presently to flag Gallagher along with the lantern swung over the +railing. Down in the valley of the Pannikin the heavy, sickening fumes +of the burned explosives hung in the air, and when the car swung in on +the straight line the red glare of a wrecked and burning oil tank +lighted the scene. + +The camp site was blankly unrecognizable. Where the ten-tracked yard had +been there was a vast depression, half-filled with distorted steel and +débris indescribable, twisted iron and splintered wood, with the water +from the river pouring into it. The commissary buildings and the +surrounding bunk-shanties were gone, swept away as with the stroke of a +mighty broom; and the trees on the hill-sides above were scorched and +shriveled as if a forest fire had blasted them. + +Frisbie was the first to speak after he had flagged Gallagher to a stand +on the farthermost edge of the devastation. + +"Any use to turn out the crew and hunt for them?" he asked. + +Ford shook his head. + +"No. Leave M'Grath and a few others to stand guard and to flag the +incoming steel trains, and let's get out of this. I'm sick; and so is +Mr. Adair." + + + + +XXVI + +THE STAR OF EMPIRE + + +A week, the most strenuous week in Copah's history, had passed, and +still the president's party delayed its return to what Miss Priscilla +Van Bruce constantly referred to as "civilization"; though the Farthest +West has always been slow to admit the derogatory comparison which the +word implies. + +During the strenuous week much had happened, and much more was scheduled +to happen. For one twenty-four-hour day the ex-speculator in Mr. +Colbrith held out against the sharp attacks of the reawakened lust of +conquest. Then, from Jack's Canyon on the Transcontinental, from +men-clustered construction trains on the extension, over the passes from +Summit Lakes, and across the brown plains from Green Butte, poured the +army of gold-seekers, and the president was swept away and into the very +vortex of the stock-jobbing whirlpool. + +It was not until the third day of the week that Adair came ambling into +Copah, riding a cart mule from Frisbie's camp. To his sister and his +aunt the young man told everything; to his uncle nothing. Between gasps +in the speculative frenzy Mr. Colbrith found time to complain bitterly +to his nephew of Ford's defection. + +"It was dastardly!" he shrilled. "We had some words; I don't deny that +we had some words. But he was most unreasonable. He should have gone +about his business and let me have time to consider. Here are thousands +of people pouring into this place, everything at famine prices, no +supplies for our miners, no railroad to bring them. What's this I hear +about an accident at Horse Creek? Why isn't Ford on the ground attending +to his railroad building and straightening things out? Have I got to +forfeit the money-making chance of a lifetime and go and drag that track +into Copah with my own hands?" + +Adair seemed suddenly to have lost his tongue, which was certainly glib +enough ordinarily. All he would say was that the engineering department +was still at work, he believed; that the track was approaching Copah, +slowly, perhaps, but pretty surely. + +"But without a head!" snapped the irate president. "Ford is a traitor to +the company. Tell him so from me, sir, if you know where he is +skulking." + +Adair did tell Ford, circumstantially, when he rode the cart mule out of +town the next morning and met the young engineer at the head of a +tremendously augmented track force, rushing the rails around the +swelling hills on the approach to the mining-camp-city. + +"Oh, he's still up in the air," laughed the director, when he had +repeated the president's wrathful outburst. "Frantic because the road +isn't finished; frantic because he can't get in on all the ground-floors +in all the mining deals; frantic some more because he has to live in a +shack hotel while he has a private car and a good cook, as he thinks, +only a few miles away. Which reminds me: the '01' has a pretty good +cook, and the incomparible Johnson,--don't let them escape. Have you +sent the Nadia back to Denver for repairs?" + +"Yes; Frisbie went over in it this morning." + +"Frisbie?" + +"Yes, I had to let him go. Word came from Leckhard as soon as we got the +wire reestablished, which was late last night. North was taken suddenly +ill the day after the explosion. He resigned at once by wire to the +executive committee in New York, and two days later he took a steamer +from Galveston for nobody knows where; health trip--doctor's +orders--Leckhard said. I sent Frisbie over to be acting manager of the +system, pending the president's--er--recovery from _his_ sudden illness. +Leckhard says the New York people are burning the wires trying to get +word to Mr. Colbrith." + +"They may go on burning them," said Adair calmly. "Uncle Sidney isn't +going to quit until he owns a good half of the Copah district--or gets +his armature burned out. And if he were ready to quit, we shouldn't let +him. But how are things working out on the extension?--that is what +interests me." + +"Bully!" was the enthusiastic reply. "We're spending money like water; +paying anything that's asked; and even then the men come and go like a +torchlight procession. But we are keeping the surfacing gangs neck-full +the entire length of the line, and Leckhard has already organized his +regular train service over the first hundred miles. That puts us on an +even footing with the Transcontinental at Jack's Canyon, and the tide is +fairly turned our way. When we lay the rails into Copah,--which will be +the day after to-morrow, if nothing pulls in two,--the first through +passenger train, with the '01' in tow, will be right behind us. Does the +report satisfy you?" + +"Your word fits it: it's bully." + +"Then I want my reward. When am I to be allowed to chase in and pay my +respects to your--er--aunt, and--and Miss Alicia?" + +Adair laughed. + +"My--er--aunt!" he mocked. "Much you care about Aunt Hetty. And I've a +thing or two to say about Alicia. Who gave you leave to fall in love +with my little sister, I'd like to know?" + +"She did," retorted Ford brazenly. "Don't tell me you are going to try +to kick it over at this late day. You can't, you know." + +Adair tilted his hat to the back of his head and thrust his hands into +his pockets. + +"I'm no such wild ass of the prairies," he declared. "But, my good +friend, you don't come into town till you bring your railroad with you. +I know how it will be: you'd linger for just one more last fond +farewell, and about that time Uncle Sidney would drop in on you +unexpectedly. Then there'd be a family row, after which my Pacific +Southwestern stock wouldn't be worth a whoop. No; you wait till I get +Uncle Sidney safely where I want him--properly in the nine-hole, and +then I'll flag you in." + +The chance for which the golden youth was waiting and working climaxed +on the day the extension rails came down the hill-side grade above the +town--a town now spreading into a wilderness of hastily built and +crowding structures. It was a simple pit he had digged for an old man +suddenly gone mad with the fever of mine-buying. From picking up stock +in a score of prospects, Mr. Colbrith had hedged by concentrating his +heavy investments in six or seven of the most promising of the partly +developed properties. Then, to make assurance reasonably sure, he had +sprung the modern method of combination upon his fellow stock-holders in +the producing mines. The promising group was to be merged in one giant +holding corporation, strong enough to control the entire Copah +situation. + +But there were obstacles in the way; obstructions carefully placed, if +the truth must be told, by an unscrupulous young manipulator in the +president's own household. The Little Alicia was in the group, was the +keystone in the combination arch, as it chanced, and unhappily Grigsby +had parted with a grievous block of his share of the stock--a block +which could neither be recovered nor traced to its present holder. Not +to make a mystery of the matter, the certificates were safely locked in +a safety-deposit box in the vault of the Bank of Copah, and the key to +the box rattled in Adair's pocket. And because the Little Alicia could +not be included, three other necessary votes were withheld when the +president tried to get action. + +Mr. Colbrith was in despair. A good many of his investments were +palpably bad; and they could be recouped only by the backing of the +combination. And the combination obstinately refused to combine unless +the Little Alicia could be gathered in. At the end of the ends Mr. +Colbrith appealed to his nephew. + +"You know where Ford is," he began accusingly. "You needn't deny it. I +was in hopes we wouldn't have to ask him to sell us more than one share +of his stock, which he couldn't decently refuse to do if we let him set +his own price. But since we can't trace that block that Grigsby let go, +we must have nearly all of Ford's. Find him: get his stock if you have +to pay twice par for it. If you don't, I--I shall be the heaviest loser +in this camp, Charles Edward." It was gall and wormwood to the old man, +but it had to be swallowed. + +"So you are coming around to ask a favor of Ford?" said the young man +unfeelingly. "He won't help you out. You mustn't forget that you kicked +him out of the family; or rather you kicked him to prevent his getting +into it." + +"But think of the profit to him!" protested the president. "He paid only +twenty cents for his half of the Alicia; he told me so himself. At two +hundred he'd clear ninety thousand; a magnificent amount for so young a +man!" + +"Ford doesn't care anything about money. You can't move him that way." + +"Well, then, find him for me and I'll--I'll apologize," said Mr. +Colbrith, pressed now to the last extremity. + +"He doesn't want your apologies, Uncle Sidney. Your little tiff was +between man and man, and he'd never think of holding you accountable for +anything you were foolish enough to say." + +"Then what in heaven's name does he want?"--irascibly. + +"Oh, a lot of things: reinstatement; your order to investigate the +Denver management; a chance to build his railroad unmolested; and, as a +side issue, a chance to whitewash your administration of Pacific +Southwestern by conducting the house-cleaning in your name--this last +because he thinks something of the family honor. He doesn't have to +consider us, you know. At the next annual meeting he can elect Brewster +president over your head: then you will have to stand for all the +grafting and deviltry that will be unearthed." + +The ground for this duel between President Colbrith and the determined +young pace-setter was the lobby of the tar-paper-covered hotel, cleared +now of the impromptu mining-stock exchange, which had moved into +permanent quarters. The old man rose stiffly and stood grasping the +chair-back. + +"The same reckless charges against Mr. North and his subordinates--and +now _you_ are making them!" he rasped. "They are groundless; groundless, +I tell you!" + +Adair looked at his watch, listened a moment as for some expected sound +from out-of-doors, and motioned toward the vacated chair. + +"Sit down, Uncle Sidney, and let me tell you what happened at Horse +Creek camp a week ago last night," he said evenly; and then he told the +story of the attempt upon Ford's life, of the siege of the Nadia, of the +terrible catastrophe which had involved all three of the MacMorroghs, +the commissary staff, Eckstein, and the headquarters camp. When he +finished, the president was shaking as if from a chill. Yet one thread +of the strong strand of loyalty still held. + +"It was horrible--fiendish!" he shuddered. "But it was the MacMorroghs' +fight. It does not necessarily incriminate North." + +"It does," said Adair, in the same even tone. "I told you that we left a +few men at the wrecked camp to warn the incoming material trains. They +found a single survivor of the thirteen men who tried to destroy us and +the Nadia. It was Eckstein, North's secretary, and before he died he +amply confirmed all of our guesses. They had plotted to have you quarrel +with Ford. Ford had bought his half of the Little Alicia without any +prompting, but from that as a starting point the entire scheme was +worked up. The MacMorroghs' bookkeeper, a man named Merriam--who is at +present in Copah, and whose deposition I have had taken before a justice +of the peace--was detailed to win Frisbie over to the change of +route--no difficult thing, since the change was for the better. But +Merriam's part was chiefly to keep Frisbie from finding out anything +about Ford's mine; which he did. Am I making it clear?" + +The president bowed his head. + +"Then, when you came West on your inspection trip, the trap was sprung. +You were told that Ford had been doing a dishonorable thing, and you +were urged to come over here and see for yourself. To make sure that +there should be no slips, Penfield was sent with you, ostensibly as +your acting secretary, but really as a spy--" + +"Oh, no; I can't think that of young Penfield," protested the president. + +"I say yes; and the proof is that Penfield has confessed. He was scared +into it when I told him what had happened at Horse Creek and gave him +his choice of telling me what he knew, or going to jail. Then I came on +the scene at the inopportune moment, and after North had carefully +issued instructions intended to delay me as much as possible, he sent +Eckstein in post-haste by way of Jack's Canyon and the stage trail to +get ahead of me. You see, he was afraid to trust matters to Penfield, +who would most certainly have stopped short of the desperate measures +Eckstein and the MacMorroghs finally took. It was decided at a council +in which Penfield was present, that Ford's elimination must go through. +If you didn't quarrel with him and drop him, he was to be murdered." + +Mr. Colbrith was silent for a long minute after Adair ceased speaking. +Then he looked up to say: "What was Ford doing at Horse Creek that +night? He had left me only a few hours before; and, as I have said, we +had--we had some words." + +Adair smiled. "He was about to begin doing what he has been doing ever +since: flogging the extension into shape night and day to get it ready +to carry passengers and freight. He conceived it to be his duty--to you +as well as to the other stock-holders. And he _has_ flogged it into +shape. Look out of that window, Uncle Sidney!" + +A long passenger train, crowded to the platforms, and with the private +car "01" in tow, was winding down the grade of the opposite hillside, +and as they stepped to the windows the engineer woke the echoes with the +engine whistle. + +"The first one of many, let us hope," said the young man, standing at +his uncle's elbow. Then, with quite a different note in his voice: "It's +Stuart's work, all of it. He has scarcely stopped to eat or sleep since +that horrible night in the Pannikin valley. And that night, Uncle +Sidney, I fought shoulder to shoulder with him--as a brother should; he +is a man, and--there are not many more--like him." + +The president's thin lips were drawn into straight lines, and the thin +goat's-beard stood out at the argumentative angle. Mr. Colbrith was +chary of his emotions. + +"Will he sell us that stock in the Little Alicia, Charles Edward?" + +Adair smiled at the determined return to the practical. + +"No," he said; "I don't think he will--I shouldn't, if I were in his +place. But he will do the next best thing: he will marry Alicia and so +bring it into the family. And on the railroad conditions I have named, +I am quite sure he will make you his voting proxy if you want to use it +in forcing the combine." + +The president took a turn as far as the clerk's counter and back. The +lobby was deserted, everybody having gone to welcome the first train +into Copah. + +"You seem to have North against the wall," he said when he came back. +"Yet, for the sake of--of, well of his wife and children, he must have +even-handed justice. I must insist upon that." + +It was the most lovable thing in the irascible old man--his undying +loyalty to a man in whom he had once believed. Adair slew the last hope +with reluctance. Drawing a thick packet of undelivered telegrams from +his pocket, he handed it to his uncle. + +"Justice is the one thing Mr. North is most anxious to dodge," he said +gravely. "When the news of the catastrophe reached him, he resigned by +wire--to New York; not to you--got his physician to order him out of the +country, and left Denver between two days. Ford has sent Frisbie to +Denver to hold things together, and there has been a number of +removals--subject, of course, to your approval. You will find the +history of all these minor happenings in those telegrams, which I have +been collecting--and holding--until you had leisure to look them over." + +"Where is Mr. Ford now?" asked the president crisply. + +"He is not very far away; in fact, he is up-stairs in the sitting-room +of our suite with Aunt Hetty and the two Van Bruce ladies and Alicia. +Incidentally,--quite incidentally, you understand,--he is waiting to be +asked to help you out in that mining deal." + +"Fetch him," was the curt command; and Mr. Colbrith sat down to wade +resignedly through the mass of delayed wire correspondence. + + * * * * * + +What remains of the story of the Pacific Southwestern is a chapter, as +yet unfinished, in the commercial history of the great and growing +empire of the West. + +Of the rush to the Copah gold field; of the almost incredible celerity +with which a stretch of one hundred and forty-odd miles of construction +track was opened for the enormous traffic which was instantly poured in +upon it; of the rapid extension of the line to a far western outlet; of +the steady advance of P. S-W. shares to a goodly premium: these are +matters which are recorded in the newspaper files of the period. + +For the typically American success of the Southwestern's dramatic upward +leap to the rank of a great railway system, President Colbrith has the +name and the fame. Yet here and there in the newspaper record there is +mention of one Stuart Ford, "our rising young railroad magnate," in the +unashamed phrase of the _Copah Megaphone_, first as the president's +assistant; later, as first vice-president and general manager of the +system, in the Chicago headquarters, with Mr. Richard Frisbie as his +second in command on the western lines, and Mr. Charles Edward Adair as +comptroller and chief of finances on the executive committee in New +York. + +Ford's prophecies predicting the development of the new empire first +traversed by the Western Extension have long since found ample +fulfilment, as all the world knows. Copah gave the region its first and +largest advertisement; but other mining districts, with their imperative +beckonings to a food-producing population, have followed in due course. + +It was early in June of the year marking the opening of the completed +Western Extension for through Pacific Coast traffic that a one-car +train, drawn by the smartest of passenger engines in charge of a +diminutive, red-headed Irishman, stormed bravely up the glistening steel +on the eastern approach to Plug Pass. The car was the rebuilt Nadia; and +in obedience to a shrill blast of the cab air-whistle, Gallagher brought +it to a stand on the summit of the mountain. + +Alicia looked more than ever the artist's ideal of the American womanly +felicities when Ford lifted her from the step of the Nadia. + +"You are quite sure Mr. Gallagher won't mind?" she was saying, as they +walked forward together. + +"Mind? Wait till you hear what he says. Michael is an Irish diamond in +the rough, and he knows when he is honored." + +They discovered the red-headed little man industriously "oiling around" +for the swift glide down the western declivities. + +"Michael," said the first vice-president, "Mrs. Ford thinks she would +like to take the Pannikin loop in the cab of the Six-eighty-eight. Can +you make room for us?" + +Gallagher snatched his cap from his fiery head. + +"Could we make room? 'Tis by the blessing av the saints that I'm a +little man, meself, Missis Foord, and don't take up much room in the +c-yab. And as f'r Johnny Shovel, he'll be riding on the coal f'r the +pure playsure av ut. My duty to ye, ma'am; and 'tis a pity ut isn't a +black night, whin the swate face av ye would be lighting the thrack f'r +us." + +Ford lifted Alicia to the gangway and made her comfortable on the +fireman's box, fixing a footbrace for her, and giving her his arm for a +shoulder rest when Gallagher sent the steam whistling through the +cylinder-cocks for the impulse needful to start the downward rush. + +"'With a michnai--ghignai--'" she began; but when the engine plunged +over the summit and the matchless view to the westward came suddenly +into, being, the quotation lapsed in a long-drawn, ecstatic "O-o-oh!" + +"You are not afraid, are you?" said the bridegroom, man-like, letting +her feel the support of his arm. + +"Afraid? No, indeed; I am just happy--happy! There lies the world before +us, Stuart; _our_ world, because, more than any other man's, yours were +the brain that conceived it and the hands that brought it to pass. Let +us go down quickly and possess it. Tell Mr. Gallagher that he may run as +fast as ever he dares." Then with a sigh of contentment and a +comfortable nestling into the hollow of the strong arm of protection: +"Was there ever another wedding journey just like ours, Stuart, dear?" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMPIRE BUILDERS*** + + +******* This file should be named 16630-8.txt or 16630-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/6/3/16630 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Empire Builders</p> +<p>Author: Francis Lynde</p> +<p>Release Date: August 31, 2005 [eBook #16630]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMPIRE BUILDERS***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (https://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><a name="Page_-3" id="Page_-3"></a><a name="Page_-4" id="Page_-4"></a></p> + + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.png" alt="Cover" title="Cover" /></div> + +<h1>EMPIRE BUILDERS</h1> + +<h4>By</h4> + +<h2>FRANCIS LYNDE</h2> + + +<p class='center'>Author of<br /> +The Quickening, The Grafters<br /> +A Fool for Love, etc.<br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class='center'>With Illustrations by<br /></p> +<h3>JAY HAMBIDGE<br /><br /><br /></h3> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h5>INDIANAPOLIS<br /></h5> +<h4>THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY<br /></h4> +<h5>PUBLISHERS<br /></h5> +<p><a name="Page_-2" id="Page_-2"></a></p> + + + + +<p class='center'> +<span class="smcap">1907</span> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">August</span><br /></p> + +<p class='center'>PRESS OF<br /> +BRAUNWORTH & CO.<br /> +BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS<br /> +BROOKLYN, N.Y.<br /></p> +<p><a name="Page_-1" id="Page_-1"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#I">I <span class="smcap">A Master of Men</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#II">II <span class="smcap">A Spiked Switch</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#III">III <span class="smcap">Loss and Damage</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#IV">IV <span class="smcap">Cold Storage</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#V">V <span class="smcap">Wanted: Thirty-Five Millions</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#VI">VI <span class="smcap">The Awakening of Charles Edward</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#VII">VII <span class="smcap">Hammer and Tongs</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#VIII">VIII <span class="smcap">The Automatic Air</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#IX">IX <span class="smcap">The Race to the Slow</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#X">X <span class="smcap">The Sinews of War</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XI">XI <span class="smcap">Hurry Orders</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XII">XII <span class="smcap">The Entering Wedge</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XIII">XIII <span class="smcap">The Barbarians</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XIV">XIV <span class="smcap">The Draw-Bar Pull</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XV">XV <span class="smcap">An Unwilling Host</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XVI">XVI <span class="smcap">The Truthful Altitudes</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XVII">XVII <span class="smcap">A Night of Alarms</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XVIII">XVIII <span class="smcap">The Morning After</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XIX">XIX <span class="smcap">The Reluctant Wheels</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XX">XX <span class="smcap">The Conspirators</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XXI">XXI <span class="smcap">The Mills of the Gods</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XXII">XXII <span class="smcap">The Man on Horseback</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XXIII">XXIII <span class="smcap">The Deadlock</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XXIV">XXIV <span class="smcap">Ruiz Gregorio</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XXV">XXV <span class="smcap">The Siege of the Nadia</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XXVI">XXVI <span class="smcap">The Star of Empire</span></a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/001.png"><img src="images/001-tb.png" alt="I won't attempt to apologise—it's beyond all that" title="I won't attempt to apologise—it's beyond all that" /></a></div> + +<h5>"I won't attempt to apologise—it's beyond all that"</h5> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></p> +<h2>EMPIRE BUILDERS</h2> + + +<h3><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h3> + +<h4>A MASTER OF MEN</h4> + + +<p>Engine Number 206, narrow gauge, was pushing, or rather failing to push, +the old-fashioned box-plow through the crusted drifts on the uptilted +shoulder of Plug Mountain, at altitude ten thousand feet, with the +mercury at twelve below zero. There was a wind—the winter day above +timber-line without its wind is as rare as a thawing Christmas—and it +cut like knives through any garmenting lighter than fur or leather. The +cab of the 206 was old and weather-shaken, and Ford pulled the collar of +his buffalo coat about his ears when the grunting of the exhaust and the +shrilling of the wheels on the snow-shod rails stopped abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Gar-r-r!" snarled Gallagher, the red-headed Irish engineer, shutting +off the steam in impotent rage. "The power is not in this dommed ould +camp-kittle sewin' machine! 'Tis heaven's pity they wouldn't be givin'<a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a> +us wan man-sized, fightin' lokimotive on this ind of the line, Misther +Foord."</p> + +<p>Ford, superintendent and general autocrat of the Plug Mountain branch of +the Pacific Southwestern, climbed down from his cramped seat on the +fireman's box and stood scowling at the retracting index of the +steam-gauge. When he was on his feet beside the little Irishman, you saw +that he was a young man, well-built, square-shouldered and athletic +under the muffling of the shapeless fur greatcoat; also, that in spite +of the scowl, his clean-shaven face was strong and manly and good to +look upon.</p> + +<p>"Power!" he retorted. "That's only one of the hundred things they don't +give us, Mike. Look at that steam-gauge—freezing right where she +stands!"</p> + +<p>"'Tis so," assented Gallagher. "She'd be dead and shtiff in tin minutes +be the clock if we'd lave her be in this drift."</p> + +<p>Ford motioned the engineer aside and took the throttle himself. It was +the third day out from Cherubusco, the station at the foot of the +mountain; and in the eight-and-forty hours the engine, plow and crew of +twenty shovelers had, by labor of the cruelest, opened eleven of the +thirteen blockaded miles isolating Saint's Rest, the mining-camp +end-of-track in the high basin at the head of the pass.</p> + +<p>The throttle opened with a jerk under the superin<a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>tendent's hand. There +was a snow-choked drumming of the exhaust, and the driving-wheels spun +wildly in the flurry beneath. But there was no inch of forward motion, +and Ford gave it up.</p> + +<p>"We're against it," he admitted. "Back her down and we'll put the +shovelers at it again while you're nursing her up and getting more +steam. We're going to make it to Saint's Rest to-day if the Two-six has +to go in on three legs."</p> + +<p>Gallagher pulled the reversing lever into the back gear and sent the +failing steam whistling into the chilled cylinders with cautious little +jerks at the throttle. The box-plow came out of the clutch of its snow +vise with shrillings as of a soul in torment, and the bucking outfit +screeched coldly down over the snowy rails to the "let-up," where the +shovelers' box-car had been uncoupled.</p> + +<p>Ford swung off to turn out the shoveling squad; and presently the +laborers, muffled to the eyes, were filing past the 206 to break a path +for the plow. Gallagher was on the running-board with his flare torch, +thawing out an injector. He marked the cheerful swing of the men and +gave credit where it was due.</p> + +<p>"'Tis a full-grown man, that," he commented, meaning Ford. "Manny's the +wan would be huggin' the warm boiler-head these times, and shtickin' his +head out of the windy to holler, 'G'wan, boys; pitch it out lively <a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>now, +and be dommed to yez!' But Misther Foord ain't built the like o' that. +He'll be as deep in that freezin' purgatory up yander in th' drift as +the foremist wan of thim."</p> + +<p>The Irishman's praise was not unmerited. Whatever his failings, and he +groaned under his fair human share of them, Stuart Ford had the gift of +leadership. Before he had been a month on the branch as its "old man" +and autocrat, he had won the good-will and loyalty of the rank and file, +from the office men in the headquarters to the pick-and-shovel +contingent on the sections. Even the blockade-breaking +laborers—temporary helpers as they were—stood by him manfully in the +sustained battle with the snow. Ford spared them when he could, and they +knew it.</p> + +<p>"Warm it up, boys!" he called cheerily, climbing to the top of the +frozen drift to direct the attack. "It's been a long fight, but we're in +sight of home now. Come up here with your shovels, Olsen, and break it +down from the top. It's the crust that plugs Mike's wedge."</p> + +<p>He looked the fighting leader, standing at the top of the wind-swept +drift and crying on his shovelers. It was the part he had chosen for +himself in the game of life, and he quarreled only when the stake was +small, as in this present man-killing struggle with the snowdrifts. The +Plug Mountain branch was the sore spot <a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>in the Pacific Southwestern +system; the bad investment at which the directors shook their heads, and +upon which the management turned the coldest of shoulders. It barely +paid its own operating expenses in summer, and the costly snow blockades +in winter went to the wrong side of the profit and loss account.</p> + +<p>This was why Ford had been scheming and planning for a year and more to +find a way of escape; not for himself, but for the discredited Plug +Mountain line. It was proving a knotty problem, not to say an insoluble +one. Ford had attacked it with his eyes open, as he did most things; and +he was not without a suspicion that President Colbrith, of the Pacific +Southwestern, had known to the full the hopelessness of the mountain +line when he dictated the letter which had cost one of the great Granger +roads its assistant engineer in charge of construction, transferring an +energetic young man with ambitions from the bald plains of the Dakotas +to the snow-capped shoulders of the Rockies.</p> + +<p>Originally the narrow gauge had been projected and partly built by a +syndicate of Denver capitalists, who were under the hallucination, then +prevalent, that any railroad penetrating the mountains in any direction, +and having Denver for its starting point, must necessarily become at +once a dividend-paying carrier for the mines, actual or to be +discovered.</p> + +<p>Failing to tap their bonanza freight-producer on the <a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>route up Blue +Canyon, the projectors—small fish in the great money-pool—had talked +vaguely of future extensions to Salt Lake, to San Francisco, to Puget +Sound, or to some other of the far-beyonds, and had even gone the length +of surveying a line over Plug Pass and down the valley of the Pannikin, +on the Pacific slope of the range. But they had prudently stopped +building; and the pause continued until the day of the great silver +strike at Saint's Rest.</p> + +<p>The new carbonate beds chanced to lie within easy rifle-shot of the +summit of Plug Pass; in other words, they were precisely on the line of +the extension survey of the narrow gauge. The discovery was a piece of +sheer luck for the amateur railroad builders. For a time, as all the +world knows, Saint's Rest headed the mining news column in all the +dailies, and the rush for the new camp fairly swamped the meager +carrying facilities of the incomplete line and the stages connecting its +track-end with the high-mountain Mecca of the treasure-seekers.</p> + +<p>Then, indeed, the Denver syndicate saw its long deferred opportunity and +grasped it. Long purses might be lacking, but not shrewd heads. The +unfinished Plug Mountain was immediately bonded for more than it ever +promised to be worth, and in the hottest heat of the forwarding strife +it was extended at the rate of a mile a day until the welcome screech of +its locomotive <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>whistles was added to the perfervid clamor of the new +camp in the Plug Pass basin.</p> + +<p>The goal reached, the Denver folk took a fresh leaf out of the book of +shrewdness. Holding the completed line only long enough to skim the +cream of the rush earnings, they sold their stock at a sound premium to +the Pacific Southwestern, pocketed their winnings cannily, and escaped a +short half-year before the slump in silver, and the consequent collapse +of Saint's Rest, came to establish the future Waterloo for Napoleonic +young superintendents in the Southwestern's service.</p> + +<p>This was all ancient history when Ford left the Granger road to climb, +at President Colbrith's behest, into the Plug Mountain saddle; and a +round half-dozen of the young Napoleons had been broken before he put +foot in stirrup for the mounting. While his attacking of the problem had +been open-eyed, he had not stopped to specialize in the ancient history +of the Plug Mountain branch. When he did specialize, his point of view +was pretty clearly defined in a letter to Mr. Richard Frisbie, of St. +Paul, written after he had been for six months the master of the Plug +Mountain destinies.</p> + +<p>"I'm up against it, good and solid," was the way he phrased it to +Frisbie. "My hundred and fifty miles of 'two streaks of rust and a +right-of-way' has never paid a net dollar since the boom broke at +Saint's Rest, and under present conditions it never will. If I had known +<a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>the history of the road when President Colbrith went fishing for me—as +I didn't—I wouldn't have touched the job with a ten-foot pole.</p> + +<p>"But now I'm here, I'm going to do something with my two streaks of rust +to make them pay—make a spoon or spoil a horn. Just what shall be done +I haven't decided fully, but I have a notion in the back part of my +head, and if it works out, I shall need you first of all. Will you come?</p> + +<p>"Have I told you in any of my earlier letters that I have personally +earned the ill-will of General Manager North? I have, and it is distinct +from and in addition to his hostility for the unearning branch for which +I am responsible. I'm sorry for it, because I may need his good word for +my inchoate scheme later on. It came up over some maintenance-of-way +charges. He is as shrewd as he is unscrupulous, and he knows well how to +pile the sins of the congregation on the back of the poor scapegoat. To +make a better showing for the main line, and at the same time to show +what a swilling pig the Plug Mountain is, he had the branch charged up +with a lot of material we didn't get. Naturally, I protested—and was +curtly told to mind my own business, which had no ramifications reaching +into the accounting department. Then I threatened to carry it over his +head to President Colbrith; whereupon I gained my point temporarily, and +lost a possible stepping-stone to success.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>"None the less, I am going to win out if it costs me the best year of +my life. I'm going to swing to this thing till I make something out of +it, if I have to put in some more winters like the one I have just come +through—which was Sheol, with ice and snow in the place of the +traditional fire and brimstone. If I have one good quality—as I +sometimes doubt—it's the inability to know when I am satisfactorily and +permanently licked."</p> + +<p>Stuart Ford was shivering through the second of the winters on the gray, +needle-winded day when he stood on the crusted drift, heartening his men +who were breaking the way for further rammings of the scrap-heap 206 and +her box-plow. During the summer which lay behind the pitiless storms and +the blockading snows he had explored and planned, studied and schemed; +and now a month of good weather would put the finishing touches +preparatory upon the "notion" hinted at in the letter to Frisbie.</p> + +<p>"That'll do, boys; we'll let Gallagher hit it a few times now," he sang +out, when he saw that the weaker ones among the shovelers were stumbling +numbly and throwing wild. "Get back to the car and thaw yourselves out."</p> + +<p>The safety-valve of the 206 was stuttering under a gratifying increase +of steam pressure when the superintendent climbed to the canvas-shrouded +cab.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>"Ha! two hundred and fifty pounds! That looks a little more like it, +Michael. Now get all the run you can and hit her straight from the +shoulder," he ordered, mounting to his seat on the fireman's box, and +bracing himself for what should come.</p> + +<p>Gallagher released the driver-brakes and let the 206 and the plow drift +down the grade until his tender drawhead touched the laborers' car. Then +the reversing lever went forward with a clang, and the steam squealed +shrilly in the dry-pipe. For a thunderous second or two the +driving-wheels slipped and whirled futilely on the snowy rails. +Gallagher pounced upon the sand lever, whereat the tires suddenly bit +and held and a long-drawn, fire-tearing exhaust sobbed from the stack.</p> + +<p>"You've got her!" shouted Ford. "Now hit it—hit it hard!"</p> + +<p>Swiftly the huge mass of engine and plow gathered headway, the pounding +exhausts quickening until they blended in a continuous roar. The little +Irishman stayed himself with a foot against the boiler brace; the +fireman ducked under the canvas curtain and clung to the coal bulkhead; +and Ford held on as he could.</p> + +<p>The shock came like the crashing blow of a collision. The box-plow +buckled and groaned with fine cracklings as of hard-strained timbers, +and an avalanche of snow thrown up from its inclined plane buried engine +and cab <a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>and tender in a smothering drift. Ford slid his window and +looked out.</p> + +<p>"Good work, Michael; good work! You gained a full car-length that time. +Try it again."</p> + +<p>Gallagher backed the plow carefully out of the cutting, and the fireman +opened the blower and nursed his fire. Again and again the wheeled +projectile was hurled into the obstruction, and Ford watched the +steadily retrograding finger of the steam-gauge anxiously. Would the +pressure suffice for the final dash which should clear the cutting? Or +would they have to stop and turn out the wretched shovelmen again?</p> + +<p>The answer came with the fourth drive into the stubborn barrier. There +was the same nerve-racking shock of impact; but now the recoil was +followed by a second forward plunge, and Gallagher yelled his triumph +when the 206 burst through the remaining lesser drifts and shot away on +the clear track beyond.</p> + +<p>Ford drew a long breath of relief, and the engineer checked the speed of +the runaway, stopped, and started back to couple on the car-load of +laborers.</p> + +<p>Ford swung around and put his back to the open window.</p> + +<p>"Let's hope that is the worst of it and the last of it for this winter, +Mike," he said, speaking as man to man. "I believe the weather will +break before we have any more snow; and next year—"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>The pause was so long that Gallagher took his chance of filling it.</p> + +<p>"Don't be tellin' me the big boss has promised us a rotary for next +winter, Misther Foord. That'd be too good to be thrue, I'm thinking."</p> + +<p>"No; but next winter you'll be doing one of two things, Michael. You +will be pulling your train through steel snow-sheds on Plug Mountain—or +you'll be working for another boss. Break her loose, and let's get to +camp as soon as we can. Those poor devils back in the box-car are about +dead for sleep and a square meal."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a></p> +<h3><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h3> + +<h4>A SPIKED SWITCH</h4> + + +<p>Ford's hopeful prophecy that the snow battles were over for the season +proved true. A few weeks later a warm wind blew up from the west, the +mountain foot-trails became first packed ice-paths and then slippery +ridges to trap the unwary; the great drifts began to settle and melt, +and the spring music of the swollen mountain torrents was abroad in the +land.</p> + +<p>At the blowing of the warm wind Ford aimed the opening gun in his +campaign against fate—the fate which seemed to be bent upon adding his +name to the list of failures on the Plug Mountain branch. The gun-aiming +was a summons to Frisbie, at the moment a draftsman in the engineering +office of the Great Northern at St. Paul, and pining, like the Plug +Mountain superintendent, for something bigger.</p> + +<p>"I have been waiting until I could offer you some<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>thing with a +bread-and-meat attachment in the way of day pay," wrote Ford, "and the +chance has come. Kennedy, my track supervisor, has quit, and the place +is yours if you will take it. If you are willing to tie up to the most +harebrained scheme you ever heard of, with about one chance in a +thousand of coming out on top and of growing up with a brand new country +of unlimited possibilities, just gather up your dunnage and come."</p> + +<p>This letter was written on a Friday. Frisbie got it out of the carriers' +delivery on the Sunday morning; and Sunday night saw him racing +westward, with the high mountains of Colorado as his goal. Not that the +destination made any difference, for Frisbie would have gone quite as +willingly to the ends of the earth at the crooking of Ford's finger.</p> + +<p>It was the brightest of May days when the new supervisor of track +debarked from the mountain-climbing train at Saint's Rest, stretched his +legs gratefully on <i>terra firma</i>, had his first deep lungful of the +ozonic air of the high peaks, and found his welcome awaiting him. Ford +would have no talk of business until he had taken Frisbie across to the +little shack "hotel," and had filled him up on a dinner fresh from the +tin; nor, indeed, afterward, until they were smoking comfortably in the +boxed-off den in the station building which served as the +superintendent's office.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>"I've been counting on you, Dick, as you know, ever since this thing +threatened to take shape in my head," Ford began. "First, let me ask +you: do you happen to know where you could lay hands on three or four +good constructing engineers—men you could turn loose absolutely and +trust implicitly? I'm putting this up to you because the Plug Mountain +exile has taken me a bit out of touch."</p> + +<p>"Why—yes," said Frisbie, taking time to call the mental roll. "There +are Major Benson and his son Jack—you know 'em both—just in off their +job in the Selkirks. Then there is Roy Brissac; he'd be a pretty good +man in the field; and Chauncey Leckhard, of my class,—he's got a job in +Winnipeg, but he'll come if I ask him to, and he is the best office man +I know. But what on top of earth are you driving at, Stuart?"</p> + +<p>Ford cleared his pipe of the ash and refilled it.</p> + +<p>"I'll go into the details with you a little later. We shall have plenty +of time during the next month or six weeks, and, incidentally, a good +bit more privacy. The thing I'm trying to figure out will burst like a +bubble if it gets itself made public too soon, and"—lowering his +voice—"I can't trust my office force here. <i>Savez?</i>"</p> + +<p>"I <i>savez</i> nothing as yet," laughed the new supervisor, "but perhaps I +shall if you'll tell me what is going to happen in the next month or six +weeks."</p> + +<p>"I'm coming to that, right now. How would you like <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>to take a hunting +trip over on the wilderness side of the range? There are big woods and +big game."</p> + +<p>Frisbie grinned. He was a little man, with sharp black eyes shaded by +the heaviest of black brows, and it was his notion to trim his mustaches +and beard after the fashion set by the third Napoleon and imitated +faithfully by those who sing the part of Mephistopheles in <i>Faust</i>. +Hence, his grin was handsomely diabolic.</p> + +<p>"You needn't ask me what I'd like; you just tell me what you want me to +do," he rejoined, with clansman loyalty.</p> + +<p>"So I will," said Ford, taking the reins of authority. "We leave here +to-morrow morning for a trip over the Pass and down the Pannikin on the +other side, and if anybody asks you why, you can say that we expect to +kill a deer or two, and possibly a bear. Your part of the outsetting, +however, is to pack your surveying instruments on the burro saddles so +they'll pass for grub-boxes, tent-poles, and the like."</p> + +<p>"Call it done," said Frisbie. "But why all this stage play? Can't you +anticipate that much without endangering your bubble?"</p> + +<p>Ford lowered his voice again.</p> + +<p>"I gave you the hint. Penfield, my chief clerk—his desk is just on the +other side of that partition—is an ex-main-line man, shoved upon me +when I didn't want him. He was General Manager North's stenographer.<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a> +For reasons which will be apparent to you a little later on, I want to +blow my bubble in my own way; or, to change the figure, I'd like to fire +the first volley myself."</p> + +<p>Frisbie's grin was rather more than less diabolic.</p> + +<p>"Then I'd begin by firing Mr. Penfield, himself," he remarked.</p> + +<p>"No, you wouldn't," said Ford. "There are going to be obstacles enough +in the way without slapping Mr. North in the face as a preliminary. +Under the circumstances, he'd take it that way; Penfield would make sure +that he took it that way."</p> + +<p>It was at this point in the low-toned conference that the ingenious +young man in the outer office put down the desk telephone ear-piece long +enough to smite with his fist at some air-drawn antagonist. Curiosity +was this young man's capital weakness, and he had tinkered the wires of +the private telephone system so that the flicking of a switch made him +an auditor at any conversation carried on in the private office. He was +listening intently and eagerly again when Ford said, still in the same +guarded tone:</p> + +<p>"No, I can't fire Penfield, and I don't particularly want to. He is a +good office man, and loyal to his salt: it's my misfortune that it is +Mr. North's salt-cellar, and not mine, that he dips into. Besides, I'd +have trouble in replacing him. Saint's Rest isn't exactly the paradise +its <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>name implies—for a clean-cut, well-mannered young fellow with +social leanings."</p> + +<p>"Now, what in the mischief does all that mean?" mused the chief clerk, +when Ford and his new track man had gone out. "A month's hunting trip +over the range, with the surveying instruments taken along. And last +summer Mr. Ford spent a good part of his time over there—also hunting, +so he said. Confound it all! I wish I could get into that private drawer +of his in the safe. That would tell the story. I wonder if Pacheco +couldn't make himself an errand over the Pass in the morning? By +George!" slapping his thigh and apostrophizing the superintendent, "I'll +just go you once, Mr. Ford, if I lose!"</p> + +<p>Now the fruit, of which this little soliloquy was the opening blossom, +matured on the second day after Ford and Frisbie had started out on the +mysterious hunting trip across the range. Pacheco, the half-breed +Mexican who freighted provisions by jack train to the mining-camps on +the head waters of the Pannikin, came in to report to the chief clerk.</p> + +<p>"Well, 'Checo, what did you find out?" was the curt inquiry.</p> + +<p>The half-breed spread his palms.</p> + +<p>"W'at I see, I know. Dey'll not gone for hunt much. One day out, dey'll +make-a da camp and go for squint t'rough spy-glass, so"—making an +imaginary transit <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>telescope of his hands. "Den dey'll measure h-on da +groun' and squint some more, so."</p> + +<p>Penfield nodded and a gold piece changed hands silently.</p> + +<p>"That's all, 'Checo; much obliged. Don't say anything about this over in +the camp. Mr. Ford said he was going hunting, and that's what we'll say, +if anybody asks us."</p> + +<p>That night the chief clerk sent a brief cipher telegram to the general +manager at Denver.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Ford and his new track supervisor, who is really a high-priced +constructing engineer, gone over the range for a month's absence. +Gave it out here that they were going after big game, but they took +a transit and are picking up the line of the old S.L. & W. +extension in the upper Pannikin. </p></div> + +<p>It was late in the month of June when Ford and Frisbie, tanned, +weathered and as gaunt as pioneers, returned to Saint's Rest; and for +those who were curious enough to be interested, there were a couple of +bear-skins and one of a mountain lion to make good the ostensible object +of the absence.</p> + +<p>But the most important trophies of the excursion were two engineers' +note-books, well filled with memoranda; and these they did not exhibit. +On the contrary, they became a part of the collection of maps, +statistics, estimates and private correspondence which Chief Clerk +Penfield was so anxious to examine, and which Ford <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>kept under lock and +key when he and Frisbie were not poring over some portion of it in the +seclusion of the private office.</p> + +<p>None the less, Penfield kept his eyes and ears open, and before long he +had another detail to report by cipher telegram to the general manager. +Ford was evidently preparing for another absence, and from what the +chief clerk could overhear, he was led to believe that the pseudo +supervisor of track would be left in charge of Plug Mountain affairs.</p> + +<p>It was on the day before Ford's departure for Denver that a letter came +from General Manager North. Ford read it with a scowl of disapproval and +tossed it across the double desk to Frisbie.</p> + +<p>"A polite invitation for me to stay at home and to attend to my +business," he commented.</p> + +<p>"Had you written him that you were going away?" inquired Frisbie.</p> + +<p>"No; but evidently somebody else has."</p> + +<p>Frisbie read the letter again.</p> + +<p>"'So that all heads of departments may be on duty when the president +makes his annual inspection trip over the lines,'" he quoted. "Is Mr. +Colbrith coming out this early in the summer?"</p> + +<p>"No, of course not. He never comes before August."</p> + +<p>"Then this is only a trumped-up excuse to make you stay here?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>"That's all," Ford replied laconically.</p> + +<p>Mr. Richard Frisbie got up and walked twice the length of the little +room before he said:</p> + +<p>"This Denver gentleman is going to knock your little scheme into a +cocked hat, if he can, Stuart."</p> + +<p>"I am very much afraid we'll have to reckon upon that. As a matter of +fact, I've been reckoning upon it, all along."</p> + +<p>"How much of a pull has he with the New York money-people?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know that: I wish I did. It would simplify matters somewhat."</p> + +<p>Frisbie took another turn up and down the room, with his head down and +his hands in his pockets.</p> + +<p>"Stuart, I believe, if I were in your place, I'd enlist Mr. North, if I +had to make it an object for him," he said, at length.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, I mean to go to him first," said Ford. "That is his due. But +I am counting upon opposition rather than help. Wait a minute"—he +jerked the door open suddenly and made sure that the chief clerk's chair +was unoccupied. "The worst of it is that I don't trust North," he went +on. "He is a grafter in small ways, and he'd sell me out in a minute if +he felt like it and could see any chance of making capital for himself."</p> + +<p>"Then don't go to him with your scheme," urged Frisbie. "If you enlist +him, you won't be sure of him; <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>and if you don't, you'll merely leave an +active opponent behind you instead of a passive one."</p> + +<p>"I guess you're right, Dick; but I'll have to be governed by conditions +as I find them. Aside from North's influence with Mr. Colbrith, which is +considerable, I believe, he can't do much to help. But he can do a +tremendous lot to hinder. I think I shall try to choke him with butter, +if I can."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the general manager's letter, Ford took the train for +Denver the following morning, and the chief clerk remarked that he +checked a small steamer trunk in addition to his hand baggage.</p> + +<p>"Going to be gone some time, Mr. Ford?" he asked, when he brought the +night mail down for the superintendent to look over.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Ford absently.</p> + +<p>"You'll let me know where to reach you from time to time, I suppose?" +ventured Penfield.</p> + +<p>Ford looked up quickly.</p> + +<p>"It won't be necessary. You can handle the office work, as you have +heretofore, and Mr. Frisbie will have full charge out of doors."</p> + +<p>Penfield looked a little crestfallen.</p> + +<p>"Am I to take orders from Mr. Frisbie?" he asked, as one determined to +know the worst.</p> + +<p>"Just the same as you would from me," said the superintendent, swinging +up to the step of the moving <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>car. And the chief clerk went back to his +office busily concocting another cipher message to the general manager.</p> + +<p>On the way down the canyon Ford was saying to himself that he was now +fairly committed to the scheme over which he had spent so many toilful +days and sleepless nights, and that he would have it out with Mr. North +to a fighting conclusion before he slept.</p> + +<p>But a freight wreck got in the way while the down passenger train was +measuring the final third of the distance, and it was long after office +hours in the Pacific Southwestern headquarters when Ford reached Denver.</p> + +<p>By consequence, the crucial interview with the general manager had to be +postponed; and the enthusiast was chafing at his ill luck when he went +to his hotel—chafing and saying hard words, for the waiting had been +long, and now that the psychologic moment had arrived, delays were +intolerable.</p> + +<p>Now it sometimes happens that seeming misfortunes are only blessings in +disguise. When Ford entered the hotel café to eat his belated dinner, he +saw Evans, the P. S-W. auditor, sitting alone at a table-for-two. He +crossed the room quickly and shook hands with the man he had meant to +interview either before or after the meeting with North.</p> + +<p>It was after they had chatted comfortably through to <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>the coffee that +the auditor said, blandly: "What are you down for, Ford?—anything +special?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I am down to get leave of absence to go East," said Ford warily.</p> + +<p>"But that isn't all," was the quiet rejoinder. "In fact, it's only the +non-committal item that you'd give to a <i>Rocky Mountain News</i> reporter."</p> + +<p>Ford was impatient of diplomatic methods when there was no occasion for +them.</p> + +<p>"Give it a name," he said bluntly. "What do you think you know, Evans?"</p> + +<p>The auditor smiled.</p> + +<p>"There is a leak in your office up at Saint's Rest, I'm afraid. What +sort of a bombshell are you fixing to fire at Mr. North?"</p> + +<p>Ford grew interested at once.</p> + +<p>"Tell me what you know, and perhaps I can piece it out for you."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what Mr. North knows—which will be more to the purpose, +perhaps. For a year or more you have been figuring on some kind of a +scheme to pull the company's financial leg in behalf of your +good-for-nothing narrow gauge. A month ago, for example, you went all +over the old survey on the other side of the mountains and verified the +original S.L. & W. preliminaries and rights-of-way on its proposed +extension."</p> + +<p>Ford's eyes narrowed. He was thinking of the warn<a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>ing letter he would +have to write to Frisbie. But what he said was:</p> + +<p>"I'd like to know how the dickens you guessed all that. But no matter; +supposing I did?"</p> + +<p>"It's no good," said the auditor, shaking his head. "I'm talking as a +friend. North doesn't like you, personally; and if he did, you couldn't +persuade him to recommend anything in the way of an experiment on the +Plug Mountain. So far from extending your two-by-four branch—if that is +what you have in mind—he'd be much more likely to counsel its +abandonment, if the charter didn't require us to keep it going."</p> + +<p>Ford found a cigar for the auditor, and lighted one for himself.</p> + +<p>"From all of which I infer that the semiannual report of the Pacific +Southwestern is going to be a pretty bad one," he said, with carefully +assumed indifference.</p> + +<p>Evans regarded him shrewdly.</p> + +<p>"Are you guessing at that? Or is there a leak at our end of the line as +well as at yours?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's a guess," laughed Ford. "Call it that, anyhow. At least, I +haven't any of your confidential clerks in my pay. But just how bad is +the report going to be?"</p> + +<p>The auditor shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Worse than the last one. Perhaps you have noticed that the stock has +dropped six points in the past week.<a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a> You're one of the official family: +I don't mind telling you that we are in the nine-hole, Ford."</p> + +<p>"Of course we are," said Ford, with calm conviction. "That much is +pretty evident to a man who merely reads the Wall Street news bulletins. +What is the matter with us—specifically, I mean?"</p> + +<p>Evans shrugged.</p> + +<p>"Are you a division superintendent on the system and don't know?" he +demanded. "We are too short at both ends. With our eastern terminal only +half-way to Chicago, we can't control the east-bound grain which grows +on our own line; and with the other end stopping short here at Denver, +we can't bid for west-bound transcontinental business. It's as simple as +twice two. Our competitors catch us going and coming."</p> + +<p>"Precisely. And if we don't get relief?"</p> + +<p>The auditor smiled grimly.</p> + +<p>"As I've said, you're one of us, Ford, and I don't mind speaking freely +to you. A receivership is looming in the distance, and the not very dim +distance, for the P. S-W."</p> + +<p>"I thought so. How near is it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know—nobody knows definitely. If we had a man of resources at +the head of things—as we have not—it might be stood off for another +six months."</p> + +<p>"I'm on the way to stand it off permanently, if I can get any backing," +said Ford quietly.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>"You!" was the astonished reply.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I. Listen, Evans. For two years I have been buried up yonder in +the hills, with not enough to do in the summer season to keep me out of +mischief. I am rather fond of mathematics, and I am telling you I have +this thing figured out to the fourth decimal. If President Colbrith and +his associates can be made to see that the multiplication of two by two +gives an invariable resultant of four, there will be no receivership for +the P. S-W. this year, or next."</p> + +<p>"Show me," said the auditor.</p> + +<p>Ford hesitated for a moment. Then he took a packet of papers, estimates, +exhibits and fine-lined engineer's maps from his pocket and tossed it +across the table.</p> + +<p>"That is for you, personally—for David Evans; not the P. S-W. auditor. +You've got to keep it to yourself."</p> + +<p>The auditor went through the papers carefully, shifting his cigar slowly +from one corner of his mouth to the other as he read and examined. When +he handed them back he was shaking his head, almost mournfully.</p> + +<p>"It's a big thing, Ford; the biggest kind of a thing. And it is +beautifully worked out. But I know our people, here and in New York. +They will simply give you the cold stare and say that you are crazy."</p> + +<p>"Because it can't be financed?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>"Because it doesn't come from Hill or Harriman or Morgan, or some other +one of the big captains. You'll never be able to stand it upon its feet +by your single-handed lonesome."</p> + +<p>Ford set his teeth, and his clean-cut face seemed to grow suddenly older +and harder as the man in him came to the fore.</p> + +<p>"By heavens! if I put my back under it, it's got to stand upon its feet! +I'm not going into it with the idea that there is any such thing in the +book as failure."</p> + +<p>The auditor looked darkly into the cool gray eyes of the man facing him.</p> + +<p>"Then let me give you a word of advice before you start in. Skip North, +absolutely; don't breathe a word of it to him. Don't ask me why; but do +as I say. And another thing: drop into my office to-morrow before you +leave. I'll show you some figures that may help you to stir things up +properly at the New York end. Do you go direct from here?"</p> + +<p>"No; I shall have to stop over a few days in Chicago. I know pretty well +where to put my hands on what I need; I have laid the foundations from +the bottom up by correspondence. But I want to go over the situation on +the ground before I make my grand-stand play before Mr. Colbrith and the +board of directors."</p> + +<p>"Well, come in and get the figures, anyway: come to the private door of +my office and rap three times. It <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>will be just as well if it isn't +generally known that you are confabbing with me. Our semiannual report +will probably be in New York ahead of you, but it won't hurt if you have +the information to work with." Evans was pushing his chair from the +table when he added: "By the way, you happened upon the exact +psychological moment to make your raid; the report coming out, and +things going to the dogs generally."</p> + +<p>Ford's laugh was genially shrewd.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it wasn't so much of a happening as it appears. Didn't I tell +you that I had figured this thing out to the fourth decimal place? +Psychological moments are bigger arguments than dollars and cents, +sometimes."</p> + +<p>The auditor had taken his hat from the waiter and was shaking hands with +his dinner companion.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to believe you're a winner, Ford; you deserve to be. Come and +see me—and make your call upon Mr. North as brief as possible. He'll +probe you if you don't."</p> + +<p>This was how it came about that the next morning, when Ford went to call +upon the sallow, heavy-faced, big-bodied man who sat behind the glass +door lettered "General Manager, Private,"—this after half an hour spent +in Auditor Evans' private office,—it was only to ask for leave of +absence to go East—on business of a personal nature, he explained, when +Mr. North was curious enough to ask his object.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a></p> +<h3><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h3> + +<h4>LOSS AND DAMAGE</h4> + + +<p>At this period of his existence, Stuart Ford troubled himself as little +as any anchorite of the desert about the eternal feminine.</p> + +<p>It was not that he was more or less than a man, or in any sense that +anomalous and impossible thing called a woman-hater. On the contrary, +his attitude toward women in the mass was distinctly and at times +boyishly sentimental. But when a young man is honestly in love with his +calling, and is fully convinced of its importance to himself and to a +restlessly progressive world, single-heartedness becomes his watchword, +and what sentiment there is in him will be apt to lie comfortably +dormant.</p> + +<p>For six full working-days Ford had been immersed to the eyes in the +intricacies of his railway problem, <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>acquiring in Chicago a valiseful of +documentary data that demanded to be classified and thoroughly digested +before he reached New York and the battle-field actual. This was why he +was able to ride all day in studious abstraction in his section of the +Chicago-New York Pullman, without so much as a glance for the young +woman in the modest gray traveling coat directly across the aisle.</p> + +<p>She was well worth the glance, as he admitted willingly enough +afterward. She was the dainty type, with fluffy bright brown hair, eyes +the color of wood violets, a nose tilted to the precise angle of +bewitching piquancy, and the adorable mouth and chin familiarized to two +continents by the artistic pen of the Apostle of the American Girl. How +he could have ridden within arm's reach of her through all the daylight +hours of a long summer day remained as one of Ford's unanswered enigmas; +but it required an accident and a most embarrassing <i>contretemps</i> to +make him aware of her existence.</p> + +<p>The accident was one of the absurd sort. The call for dinner in the +dining-car had been given, and Ford was just behind the young woman in +the rear of the procession which filed forward out of the Pullman. The +train had at that moment left a way station, and the right-hand +vestibule door was still open and swinging disjointedly across the +narrow passage. Ford reached an <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>arm past the young woman to fold the +two-leaved door out of her way. As he did it, the door-knob hooked +itself mischievously in the loop of her belt chatelaine, snatched it +loose, and flung it out into the backward-rushing night.</p> + +<p>Whereupon: "Oh!—my purse!" with a little gasp of sudden bereavement, +and a quick turning to face the would-be helper.</p> + +<p>Ford was honestly aghast when the situation fully enveloped him.</p> + +<p>"Heavens and earth! Did you ever see such idiotic clumsiness!" he +ejaculated. And then, in deepest contrition: "I won't attempt to +apologize—it's beyond all that. But you must let me make your loss +good."</p> + +<p>In all the pin-pricking embarrassment of the moment, he did not fail to +remark that she quickly recovered the serenity which belongs to the +well-bred. She was even smiling, rather ruefully, when she said:</p> + +<p>"Fortunately, the conductor has my passes. But really"—and now she +laughed outright—"I am afraid I shall have to go hungry if I can't +borrow enough to pay for my dinner."</p> + +<p>Another man, a man less purposefully lost in the purely practical +labyrinth of professional work, would have found something fitting to +say. But Ford, having discovered a thing to do, did it painstakingly and +in solemn silence. There was an unoccupied table for two <a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>in the +dining-car; he seated her, gave her his purse, called a waiter, and +would have betaken himself forthwith to another table if she had not +detained him.</p> + +<p>"No," she said decisively, with a charming little uptilt of the adorable +chin. "I do not forget that you were trying to do me a kindness. Please +sit down here and take your purse. I'm sure I don't want it."</p> + +<p>He obeyed, still in somber silence, gave his dinner order after she had +given hers, and was wondering if he might venture to bury himself in a +bundle of the data papers, when she spoke again.</p> + +<p>"Are you provoked with yourself, or with me?" she asked—rather +mockingly, he thought.</p> + +<p>"Neither," he said promptly. "I was merely saying to myself that my +wretched awkwardness didn't give me an excuse for boring you."</p> + +<p>"It was an accident—nothing more or less," she rejoined, with an air of +dismissing finally the purse-snatching episode. Then she added: "I am +the one who ought to be embarrassed."</p> + +<p>"But you are not," he returned quickly. "You are quite the mistress of +yourself—which is more than most women would be, under the +circumstances."</p> + +<p>"Is that a compliment?" she asked, with latent mockery in the violet +eyes. "Because if it is, I think you must be out of the West; the—the +unfettered West: isn't that what it is called?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>"I am," Ford acknowledged. "But why do you say that? Was I rude? I beg +you to believe that I didn't mean to be."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; not rude—merely sincere. We are not sincere any more, I think; +except on the frontier edges of us. Are we?"</p> + +<p>Ford took exceptions to the charge for the sheer pleasure of hearing her +talk.</p> + +<p>"I'd be sorry to believe that," he protested. "The conventions account +for something, of course; and I suppose the polite lie which deceives no +one has to have standing-room. But every now and then one is surprised +into telling the truth, don't you think?"</p> + +<p>"If I can't fully agree with you, I can at least admire your point of +view," she said amiably. "Is it Western—or merely human?"</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"Shall we assume that the one implies the other? That would be in +accordance with your point of view, wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but it would be a distinct reversal of yours. Truth belongs to +another and simpler time than ours. We are conventional first and +everything else afterward."</p> + +<p>"Are we?" he queried. "Some few hundreds or thousands of us may be; but +for the remainder of our eighty-odd millions the conventions are things +to be put on <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>and off like Sunday garments. And even the chosen few of +us brush them aside upon occasion; ignore them utterly, as we two are +ignoring them at this moment."</p> + +<p>She proved his assertion by continuing to talk to him, and the +dining-car was emptying itself when they realized that there is an end +even to a most leisurely dinner. Ford paid the steward as they left the +car, but in the Pullman he went back to first principles and insisted +upon some kind of a definite accounting for the lost purse.</p> + +<p>"Now you will tell me now much I threw away for you, and I'll pay my +debt," he said, when she had hospitably made room for him in the +opposing seat of her section.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, you will do nothing of the kind!" she asserted. "You will give +me your card—we're going back to the conventions now—and when we reach +the city you may lend me enough money to take me up-town. And to-morrow +morning my brother will pay you back."</p> + +<p>He gave in because he had to.</p> + +<p>"You are much more lenient than I deserve. Really, you ought to stick me +good and hard for my awkwardness. It would serve me right."</p> + +<p>"I am considering the motive," she said almost wistfully, he fancied. +"We have drifted very far from all those quiet anchorages of courtesy +and helpfulness. If we lived simpler lives—"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>He smiled at the turn she was giving it.</p> + +<p>"Are you, too, bitten with the fad of the moment, 'the simple life'?" he +asked. "Let me assure you that it is beautiful only when you can look +down upon it from the safe altitude of a comfortable income. I know, +because I've been living it for the past two years."</p> + +<p>She looked as if she were sorry for him.</p> + +<p>"That is rank heresy!" she declared. "Our forefathers had the better of +us in many ways, and their simpler manner of living was one of them. +They had time for all the little courtesies and kindnesses that make +life truly worth living."</p> + +<p>Ford's laugh was boyishly derisive.</p> + +<p>"Yes; they certainly had plenty of time; but they didn't have much else. +Why, just think, for a moment, of what our own America would be if +merely one of the modern civilizers, the railroads, had never existed. +There simply wouldn't be any America, as we know it now."</p> + +<p>"How can you say that?"</p> + +<p>"Because it is so. For nearly two centuries we stood still, because +there were no means of locomotion—which is another word for progress +and civilization. But in less than fifty years after the first railroad +was built we had become a great nation."</p> + +<p>She was silenced, if not wholly convinced; and a few minutes later the +train drew into the Forty-second Street Station. When the parting time +came, Ford <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>dutifully gathered her belongings, said good-by, and put her +on a north-bound subway; all this without remembering that he did not +know her name. The recollection came, however, when the subway train +shot away into the tunnel.</p> + +<p>"Of all the blockheads!" he growled, apostrophizing his own unreadiness. +"But I'll find her again. She said she'd send her brother to the hotel +with the dinner money, and when I get hold of him it will go hard with +me if I don't manage some way to get an introduction."</p> + +<p>This was what was in his mind when he sought the down-town hotel whose +name he had written on his card for her; it was his latest waking +thought when he went to sleep that night, and his earliest when he awoke +the following morning.</p> + +<p>But when he went to the clerk's desk, after a leisurely breakfast, to +get his mail, he found that the sure thread of identification had broken +in his fingers. There was a square envelope among the other letters in +his key-box containing the exact amount of the young woman's +indebtedness to him; this, with a brief note of thanks—unsigned.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a></p> +<h3><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h3> + +<h4>COLD STORAGE</h4> + + +<p>If courage, of the kind fitted to lead forlorn hopes, or marchings +undaunted up to the muzzles of loaded cannon, be a matter of gifts and +temperament, it is also in some degree a matter of environment.</p> + +<p>Stuart Ford was Western born and bred; a product of the wider breathing +spaces. Given his proper battle-field, where the obstacles were +elemental and the foes to be overcome were mere men of flesh and blood +fighting freely in the open, he was a match for the lustiest. But New +York, with its submerging, jostling multitudes, its thickly crowding +human vastness, and, more than all, its atmosphere of dollar-chasing, +apparent and oppressive even to the transient passer-by, disheartened +him curiously.</p> + +<p>It was not that he was more provincial than he had to be; for that +matter, there is no provincialism so <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>rampant as that of the thronging, +striving, self-sufficient city. But isolation in any sort is a thing to +be reckoned with. The two pioneering years in the Rockies had done their +work,—of narrowing, as well as of broadening,—and the plunge into the +chilling sea of the money-mad metropolis made him shiver and wish he +were out.</p> + +<p>This feeling was really at the bottom of the late rising and the +leisurely breakfast, making him temporize where he had meant to be +prompt, energetic and vigorously aggressive. Having pocketed the young +woman's unsigned note, he glanced at his watch and decided that it was +still too early to go in search of President Colbrith.</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose he'll be in his office for an hour yet," he mused +reflectively; "and anyway, I guess I'd better go over the papers again, +so I can be sure to speak my piece right end to. By Jove! I didn't +suppose a couple of thousand miles of easting would take the heart out +of things the way it does. If I didn't know better, I should think I'd +come here to float the biggest kind of a fake, instead of a life-boat +for the shipwrecked people in the Pacific Southwestern. It is beginning +to look that way in spite of all I can do."</p> + +<p>Going once again over his carefully tabulated argument did not help +matters greatly. He was beginning to realize now how vastly, antipodally +different the New York point of view might be from his own. It came to +him with the benumbing effect of a blow that his own <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>ambitions had +persistently looked beyond the mere money-making results of his scheme. +Also, that President Colbrith and his fellow-investors might very easily +refuse to consider any other phase of the revolutionary proposition he +was about to lay before them.</p> + +<p>By ten o'clock postponement was no longer a tenable city of refuge: the +plunge had to be taken. Accordingly, he fared forth to present himself +at the Broadway address given in the Pacific Southwestern printed matter +as the New York headquarters of the company.</p> + +<p>The number proved to be a ground floor, with the business office of the +eastern traffic representative in front, and three or four private +desk-rooms in the rear, one of them labeled "President" in inconspicuous +gilt lettering. Entering, with less assurance than if he had been the +humblest of place-seekers out of a job, Ford was almost relieved to find +only a closed desk, and a young man absently scanning a morning paper.</p> + +<p>Inquiry developed a few facts, tersely stated but none the less +enlightening. Mr. Colbrith was not in: the office was merely his nominal +headquarters in the city and he occupied it only occasionally. His +residence? It was in the Borough of the Bronx, pretty well up toward +Yonkers—locality and means of access obligingly written out on a card +for the caller by the clerk. Was Mr. Ford's business of a routine +nature? If so, perhaps, Mr. Ten Eyck, the general agent, could attend to +it. Ford said it <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>was not of a routine nature, and made his escape to +inquire his way to the nearest subway station. To pause now was to lose +the precious impetus of the start.</p> + +<p>It was worth something to be whirled away blindly out of the stifling +human vortex of the lower city; but Ford's first glimpse of the Colbrith +mansion depressed him again. The huge, formal house had once been the +country residence of a retired dry-goods merchant. It fronted the river +brazenly, and the fine old trees of a ten-acre park shamed its +architectural stiffness. Ford knew the president a little by family +repute and more particularly as a young subordinate knows the general in +command. It struck him forcibly that the aspect of the house fitted the +man. With the broad river and the distant Palisades to be dwelt upon, +its outlook windows were narrow. With the sloping park and the great +trees to give it dignity, it seemed to assume an artificial, plumb-line +dignity of its own, impressive only as the product of rigid measurements +and mechanical uprightness.</p> + +<p>From the boulevard there was a gravelled driveway with a stone portal. +The iron gates were thrown wide, and at his entrance Ford stood aside to +let an outgoing auto-car have the right of way. Being full of his +errand, and of the abstraction of a depressed soul, Ford merely remarked +that there were two persons in the car; a young man driving, and a young +woman, veiled and dust-<a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>coated, in the mechanician's seat beside him. +None the less, there floated out of the mist of abstraction an instantly +vanishing phantom of half-recognition for the Westerner. Something in +the pose of the young woman, the way she leaned forward and held her hat +with the tips of her gloved fingers, was, for the fleeting moment, +almost reminiscent.</p> + +<p>If Ford had wished to speculate upon abstruse problems of identity, +there was neither time nor the mental aptitude. A little later he had +given his card to the servant at the door and was waiting in a darkened +and most depressive library for the coming of the master of the house. +The five minutes of waiting nearly finished him. As the absurdly formal +clock between the book-cases ticked off the leaden-winged seconds, his +plan for the rescue of Pacific Southwestern took the form of a crass +impertinence, and only the grim determination to see a lost cause +decently coffined and buried kept the enthusiast with his face to the +front.</p> + +<p>After all, the beginning of the interview with the tall, thin, +gray-haired and hatchet-faced old man, who presently stalked into the +library and gave his hand with carefully adjusted cordiality to the son +of one of his college classmates, was only a little more depressing: it +was not mortal. Ford had been born in Illinois; and so, something better +than a third of a century earlier, had the president. Moreover, Mr. +Colbrith had, in the hey-<a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>day of his youth, shared rooms with the elder +Ford in the fresh-water university which had later numbered the younger +Ford among its alumni. These things count for somewhat, even when the +gap to be bridged is that between the president of a railroad and one of +his minor officials.</p> + +<p>But when the revolutionary project was introduced, the president's +guarded cordiality faded like a photographic proof-print in the +sunlight, and the air of the darkened library grew coldly inclement.</p> + +<p>"So you came to talk business, did you?" said the high, rasping voice +out of the depths of the easy-chair opposite; and Ford raged inwardly at +the thought that he had clearly placed himself at a disadvantage by +becoming even constructively the guest of the president. "As a rule, I +positively refuse to discuss such matters outside of their proper +environment; but I'll make an exception for Douglas Ford's son. Your +plan is simply impossible. I can understand how it may appear possible, +and even attractive, to a young man, and especially to the young man who +has invented it. But as an investment for capital—my dear young sir, go +back to your division, and strive by faithful service to rise in the +accepted and time-honored way. You are wasting your time in New York."</p> + +<p>Curiously enough, Ford found his evaporated courage recrystallizing +under opposition.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>"I can not believe that I have made the plan, and the present condition +of the system, sufficiently clear to you," he insisted; whereupon he +went patiently and good-naturedly over the argument again, emphasizing +the desperate straits to which the Pacific Southwestern was reduced.</p> + +<p>"We know all that, Mr. Ford," was the unyielding reply. "But granting it +to be the fact, don't you see the absolute futility of asking for +thirty-five millions additional capital at such a crisis?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't," said Ford stubbornly. "I know—as I can not explain to +you in detail in a half-hour interview—that this plan of mine can be +made successful. For two years, Mr. Colbrith, I have been the man on the +ground: no word that I am saying to you is speculative. Every clause of +the proposition has a carefully established fact behind it."</p> + +<p>"No doubt it seems so to you," came the rasping voice from the +chair-depths. "But thirty-five millions!"—with a quavering gasp. "And +at a time when our earnings are falling off steadily and the stock is +going down day by day. It's—it's simply preposterous! I must really +decline to discuss it any further."</p> + +<p>Ford had his packet of data in hand.</p> + +<p>"I have all the exhibits here, carefully tabulated and condensed. Won't +you reconsider far enough to examine them, Mr. Colbrith?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>A thin white hand of negation and protest waved out of the depths of +the engulfing easy-chair.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Ford. I knew your father, and we were +great friends. You are like him," he added reminiscently. "He might have +died rich if he had gone into corn-buying with me when we were +graduated, as I wanted him to. But he was too enthusiastic. He wanted to +turn the world upside down—just as you do, my dear young man; just as +you do."</p> + +<p>Ford got upon his feet. The time had arrived for the firing of the shot +of last resort, and he aimed it deliberately.</p> + +<p>"I came first to you, Mr. Colbrith, because it was my duty as a +subordinate, and your own appointee, and because you were my father's +friend so many years ago. I may say, frankly, that I did it against good +advice. Men who profess to know you have counseled me to appeal directly +to the board. What I wish to know now is if you are willing to take the +entire responsibility of turning this plan of mine down. Will it not +relieve you of all responsibility if you will call a meeting of the +directors, and let me lay this absurd proposal of mine before it? You +can surely have no fears for the result."</p> + +<p>The shot told. The president struggled to his feet and took a nervous +turn up and down the long room. When he replied, it was with the +indecisive man's reluctance to commitment of any sort.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>"If I call the meeting, I shall be ridiculed; and if I don't call it, I +suppose you'll go to Brewster and Magnus and tell them I've muzzled you. +Have it your own way. I'll issue the call for ten o'clock, the day after +to-morrow, in McVeigh and Mackie's offices in Broad Street. But I warn +you in advance, Mr. Ford, I shall not be able to help you in the least. +And I may add this: that when you reach that part of your proposal where +you call for thirty-five millions additional capital, you may as well +put on your hat and go home. That will be the end of it."</p> + +<p>"And of me," laughed the enthusiast. But in spite of the cold comfort, +and of the still colder promise of opposition, he took his leave with a +lighter heart, refusing Mr. Colbrith's rather perfunctory invitation to +stay to luncheon.</p> + +<p>And on the gravelled drive, where he again had to make way for the +auto-car purring in on its return, he did not so much as look up at the +pair in the driving-seat.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a></p> +<h3><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h3> + +<h4>WANTED: THIRTY-FIVE MILLIONS</h4> + + +<p>The offices of McVeigh and Mackie, brokers and financial agents, are in +Broad Street, and the windows of the room used for board meetings look +down upon the angle where beats the money pulse of the nation.</p> + +<p>Ford had successfully resisted the temptation to lobby for his scheme +during the one-day interval between his conference with Mr. Colbrith and +the date of the called meeting of the directors. It was not any mistaken +sense of loyalty to the president that restrained him; on the contrary, +he decided that Mr. Colbrith's declaration of war left him free to fight +as he would. But upon due consideration he concluded to set the +advantage of an assault <i>en masse</i> over against the dubious gain of an +advanced skirmish line, and when he turned out of Broadway into Wall +Street on the morning of destiny the men whom he was to meet and +convince were still no <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>more to him than a list of names in the <i>Poor's +Manual</i>, consulted within the hour for the purpose.</p> + +<p>He was early on the battle-ground; much too early, he thought, when a +clerk ushered him into the board room in the rear of the brokers' +offices. As yet there was only one person present—a young man who was +lounging in the easiest of the leather-covered chairs and yawning +dismally. At the first glance the face seemed oddly and strikingly +familiar; but when the young man marked the new-comer's entrance, the +small hand-bag in which the amateur promoter carried his papers, and got +up to shake hands, Ford found the suggestive gropings baffled.</p> + +<p>"My name is Adair," said the lounger genially; "and I suppose you are +the Mr. Ford Uncle Sidney has been telling us about. Pull up a chair and +sit by the window. It's the only amusement you'll have until the clan +gathers."</p> + +<p>Ford looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>"I seem to be ahead of time," he remarked. "I understood Mr. Colbrith to +say that the meeting would be called for ten o'clock."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's all right; and so he did," rejoined the other cheerfully. +"But that means anything up to noon for a directors' meeting in New +York." Then, after a pause: "Do you know any of us personally, Mr. +Ford?"</p> + +<p>Ford was rummaging in his memory again. "I ought <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>to know you, Mr. +Adair. It isn't very decent to drag in resemblances, but—"</p> + +<p>"The resemblance is the real thing, this time," said Adair. "You saw me +day before yesterday, driving out of the Overlook grounds as you were +going in."</p> + +<p>Ford shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No; it goes back of that; sometime I'll remember how and where. But to +answer your question: I know Mr. Colbrith slightly, but I've never met +any of the directors."</p> + +<p>"Well, you are meeting one at this moment," laughed the young man, +crossing his legs comfortably. "But I am the easiest mark of the lot," +he added. "I inherited my holdings in Pacific Southwestern."</p> + +<p>Ford was crucially anxious to find out how the battle was likely to go, +and his companion seemed amiably communicative.</p> + +<p>"Since you call Mr. Colbrith 'Uncle Sidney,' I infer that you know what +I am here for, Mr. Adair. How do you think my proposition is likely to +strike the board?"</p> + +<p>Again the young man laughed.</p> + +<p>"Fancy your asking me!" he said. "I haven't talked with any one but +Uncle Sidney; and the most I could get out of him was that you wanted +thirty-five million dollars to spend."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Westerner anxiously, "am I going to get it?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>"You can search me," was the good-natured rejoinder. "But from my +knowledge of the men you are going presently to wrestle with, I should +say 'no' and italicize it."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it might help me a little if I could know in advance the +particular reason for the italics," Ford suggested.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sure. The principal reason is that your name isn't Hill or Harriman +or Morgan or Gates. Money is ridiculously sheepish. It will follow a +known leader blindly, idiotically. But if it doesn't hear the familiar +tinkle of the leader's bell, it is mighty apt to huddle and run back."</p> + +<p>Ford's smile was grim.</p> + +<p>"I don't mind saying to you, Mr. Adair, that this is one of the times +when it will be much safer to huddle and run forward. Have you seen the +half-yearly report?"</p> + +<p>"I? Heaven forbid! I have never seen anything out of the Pacific +Southwestern—not even a dividend."</p> + +<p>Ford would very willingly have tried to share his enthusiasm with the +care-free young man, whose face was still vaguely but persistently +remindful of some impression antedating the automobile passing; but now +the other members of the board were dropping in by twos and threes, and +privacy was at an end.</p> + +<p>Just before President Colbrith took his place at the <a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>head of the long +table to call the meeting to order, Adair leaned forward to say in low +tones: "I couldn't give you the tip you wanted, Mr. Ford, but I can give +you another which may serve as well. If your good word doesn't win out, +scare 'em—scare 'em stiff! I don't know but you could frighten half a +million or so out of me if you should try."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Ford. "I may take you at your word,"—and just then +Mr. Colbrith rose in his place, fingering his thin white beard rather +nervously, Ford thought, and rapping on the table for silence.</p> + +<p>It was admitted on all hands that the president of the Pacific +Southwestern was a careful man and a thrifty. It was these qualities +which had first determined his election. There were many small +stock-holders in the company, and it is the foible of small +stock-holders to believe that rigid economy counts for more than +adventurous outreachings in the larger field.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," he began, his high, raucous voice rasping the silence like +the filing of a saw, "this meeting is called, as you have probably been +informed, for the purpose of considering a plan for betterments +submitted by Mr. Stuart Ford, who is at the present time superintendent +of our Plug Mountain Division.</p> + +<p>"In making this unusual innovation, and in introducing Mr. Ford, I +desire to say that I have been actuated by that motive of prudence +which, while it stands firmly <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>upon its own feet, is willing to consider +suggestions from without, even when these suggestions appear to be +totally at variance with a policy of careful and judicious financiering.</p> + +<p>"In presenting Mr. Ford as the son of an old friend, long since gone to +his reward, I wish it distinctly understood that I am in no sense +committed to his plan. The policy of this company under the present +administration has been uniformly cautious and prudent: Mr. Ford would +throw caution and prudence to the winds. Our best efforts have been +directed toward the saving of the ultimate dollar of expense: Mr. Ford +urges us to spend millions. We have been trying to dispose of some of +our non-paying branches: Mr. Ford would have us acquire others and build +new lines."</p> + +<p>While Mr. Colbrith was speaking, Adair was rapidly characterizing the +members for Ford, checking them off upon his fingers.</p> + +<p>"The little man at Uncle Sidney's right is Mackie, and the miserly +looking one next to him is McVeigh," he whispered. "One of them will +furnish your coffin, and the other will drive the nails into it. The big +man with the beard is Brewster—a multimillionaire; and the one who +looks like Senator Bailey is Magnus, president of the Mohican National. +Connolly, the fat Irishman, is a politician—wads of money, but not much +interest in the game. The other three—"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>But now the president had made an end and was beckoning to Ford.</p> + +<p>The young engineer rose, feeling much as if a bucket of ice-water had +been suddenly emptied down the back of his neck. But one of his saving +qualities was the spring-like resilience which responds instantly to a +shock. Spreading his papers on the table, he began with a little +apology.</p> + +<p>"I didn't come here this morning prepared to make a promoter's speech; +and perhaps it is just as well, since my gift, if I have one, lies in +doing things rather than in talking about them. But I can lay a few +facts before you which you may deem worthy of consideration."</p> + +<p>From this as a beginning he went on swiftly and incisively. The Pacific +Southwestern, in its present condition, was a failure. It was an +incomplete line, trying vainly to hold its own against great and +powerful systems overlapping it at either end. The remedy lay in +extension. The acquisition of a controlling interest in three short +roads, which, pieced together, would bridge the gap between the Missouri +River and Chicago, would place the Pacific Southwestern upon an equal +footing with its competitors as a grain carrier. By standardizing the +Plug Mountain narrow gauge and extending it to Salt Lake and beyond, the +line would secure a western outlet, and would be in a position to demand +its share of transcontinental business.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>To finance these two extensions a capital of thirty-five million +dollars would be needed; five million dollars for the purchase of the +majority stock in the three short roads, and the remainder for the +western outlet. These assertions were not guesses: by referring to +exhibits marked "a" "b" and "f," his hearers would find accurate +estimates of cost, not only of construction, but also of stock +purchases.</p> + +<p>As to the manner of providing the capital, he had only a suggestion to +offer. The five million dollars necessary for the acquirement of a +controlling interest in the three short roads would be a fair +investment. It could be covered immediately by a reissue—share for +share—of the reorganization stock of the P. S-W., which would amply +secure the investors, since the stock of the most prosperous of the +three local roads was listed at twenty-eight, ten points lower than the +present market quotation of P. S-W.</p> + +<p>The thirty million dollar extension fund might be raised by issuing +second mortgage bonds upon the entire system, or the new line itself +could be bonded mile for mile under a separate charter. Ford modestly +disclaimed any intention of dictating the financial policy; this was not +in his line. But again he would submit facts. The grain crop in the West +was phenomenally large in prospect. With its own eastern terminal in +Chicago, the Pacific Southwestern could control the grain shipments <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>in +its own territory. With the moving of the grain, the depressed P. S-W. +stock would inevitably recover, and on a rising market the new issue of +bonds could doubtless be floated.</p> + +<p>The enthusiast closed his argument with a hasty summing-up of the +benefits which must, in the nature of things, accrue. From being an +alien link in the great transcontinental chain, the Pacific Southwestern +would rise at a bound to the dignity of a great railway system; a power +to be reckoned with among the other great systems gridironing the West. +Its earnings would be enhanced at every point; cross lines which now fed +its competitors would become its allies; the local lines to be welded +into the eastern end of the system would share at once in the prosperity +of a strong through line.</p> + +<p>For the western extension he could speak from personal knowledge of the +region to be penetrated. Apart from the new line's prime object—that of +providing an outlet for the system—there was a goodly heritage of local +business awaiting the first railroad to reach the untapped territory. +Mines, valueless now for the lack of transportation facilities, would +become abundant producers; and there were many fertile valleys and mesas +to attract the ranchman, who would find on the western slopes of the +mountains an unfailing water supply for his reservoirs and ditches. Ford +did not hesitate to predict that within a short time the extension would +earn <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>more, mile for mile, than the grain-belt portion of the system.</p> + +<p>When he sat down he felt that his cause was lost. There was no +enthusiasm, no approval, in the faces of his auditors. After a short and +informal discussion, in which the engineer was called on to explain his +plans and estimates in detail to one and another of the members, Magnus, +the bank president, sufficiently summed up the sense of the meeting when +he said:</p> + +<p>"There is no question about the ingenuity of your plan, Mr. Ford. You +must have given a great deal of time and thought to it. But it is rather +too large for us, I'm afraid, and there are too many contingencies. Your +province, I understand, is the building and operating of railroads, and +it is nothing to your discredit that you are unfamiliar with the +difficulties of financing an undertaking as vast as this proposal of +yours."</p> + +<p>"I don't deny the difficulties," said Ford. "But they wouldn't seem to +be insuperable."</p> + +<p>"Not from your point of view," rejoined the banker suavely. "But you +will admit that they are very considerable. The opposition on the part +of the competing systems would be something tremendous. No stone would +be left unturned in the effort to dismount us. To go no further into the +matter than the proposed purchase of the majority stocks in the three +short roads: at the first signal in that field you would find those +stocks <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>flying skyward in ten-point advances, and your five millions +wouldn't be a drop in the bucket. In view of the difficulties, I think I +voice the conviction of the board when I say that the plan is too +hazardous."</p> + +<p>The nods of assent were too numerous to leave Ford any hope of turning +the tide in his favor. He rose, gathered up his papers, and reached for +his hat.</p> + +<p>"It is very pointedly your own funeral, gentlemen," he said curtly. +"'Nothing venture, nothing have' is an old proverb, but it is as true +now as it was when it was coined. With P. S-W. stock at thirty-eight and +steadily declining; with another dividend about to be passed; and with +the certainty that the July interest on the bonds will have to be +defaulted unless some compromise can be effected with the bondholders—"</p> + +<p>"What's that you're saying?" broke in Mackie, whose P. S-W. holdings were +large.</p> + +<p>Ford drew a folded paper from his pocket and laid it on the table.</p> + +<p>"I was merely quoting from the auditor's semiannual report, of which +that is a summary," he said, indicating the folded paper. "The report +itself will doubtless reach you in a day or two. It would seem to an +unprejudiced observer that the present condition spells something like a +receivership, unless you have the bondholders with you."</p> + +<p>"One moment, Mr. Ford," interposed the banker <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>member; but Ford was +working up to his climax and refused to be side-tracked.</p> + +<p>"Of course, as an officer of the company, I have felt in duty bound to +bring my grist first to the company's mill. But if you gentlemen don't +wish to grind it, it will be ground, notwithstanding. I could very +easily have found a market for my proposal without coming to New York."</p> + +<p>With which parting shot, and a word of apology for having taken the time +of the board to no good purpose, he bowed himself out, closing the door +upon a second attempt on the part of the banker member to renew the +argument.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a></p> +<h3><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h3> + +<h4>THE AWAKENING OF CHARLES EDWARD</h4> + + +<p>Ford went directly to his hotel from the meeting in the Broad Street +board room, paid his bill, and had himself shot up to the fifth floor to +prepare for a swift retreat from the scene of his humiliating defeat. It +was hardly in keeping with his boast of persistence that he should +suffer himself to be thus routed by a single reverse, however crushing. +But in a world where every problem contains its human factor, red wrath +accounts for much that is otherwise unaccountable.</p> + +<p>Ford was thoroughly and unreasoningly angry and disgusted when he began +to fling his belongings into the small steamer trunk, and it was only +natural that he should turn with a little brow-wrinkling of resentment +when, a little later, Mr. Charles Edward Adair, following his card up to +the fifth floor front, lounged good-naturedly into the room.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>"Beg pardon, I'm sure," said the intruder easily. "Didn't know you were +busy. I thought maybe you'd like to know the effect of your little +double-headed bombshell, and I couldn't be sure Uncle Sidney would take +the trouble to tell you."</p> + +<p>Ford made no effort to conceal his contempt for the financial gods.</p> + +<p>"I don't imagine it will take you very long to tell it," he retorted. +"Nothing short of a combined earthquake and volcanic eruption would have +any effect upon that crowd."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but you're wrong!" protested Adair. "That shot of yours with the +semiannual summary for a projectile stirred 'em up good. It seems that +Uncle Sidney and Hertford and Morelock—they're the executive committee, +you know—have had the auditor's figures for some days, but they hadn't +thought it necessary to harrow the feelings of the other members of the +board with the cataclysmic details. So there was a jolly row. Magnus +wanted to know, top-loftily, why a small official from the farther end +of the system should be the first to bring the news; and Mackie was so +wrathy that he inadvertently put the hot end of his cigar in his mouth. +Even Connolly woke up enough to say that it was blanked bad politics."</p> + +<p>"But nothing came of it?" said Ford, hope rising in spite of the +negative query.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>"No; nothing but a general hand-out of pretty sharp talk. What was +needed right then was a unifier—somebody who could take command and +coax or bully the scrapping factions into line. Magnus tried it, but +he's too smooth. Brewster was the man, but he has too many other and +bigger irons in the fire to care much about P. S-W. Connolly could have +done it if the scrap had been a political split, but he was out of his +element."</p> + +<p>"Humph!" growled Ford. "It didn't occur to me that there were any +differences of opinion to be reconciled. The entire board sat on my +proposition—as a unit."</p> + +<p>Adair laughed with imperturbable good-humor.</p> + +<p>"The factions were there, just the same. You see, it's like this: +Brewster and Magnus and two or three more are pretty well-to-do, and +their holdings in P. S-W. don't cut much of a figure with them, one way +or another. The others have more stock in the company, and fewer +millions. When the jangle came, Brewster and the heavy men said, 'Oh, +let it go; it isn't worth bothering with.' Naturally, the little +fellows, with more to lose and less money-nerve, said, 'No.'"</p> + +<p>"It spells the same word for me, in any event," Ford commented, and went +on pitching things into his steamer trunk.</p> + +<p>Adair got upon his feet and strolled away to the window.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>When he turned again to face the beaten one he said:</p> + +<p>"If I wasn't so infernally lazy, Mr. Ford, I more than half believe that +I could pull this thing off for you, myself. But that is the curse of +being born with too much money. I can take a plunge into business now +and then—I've done it. But my best friend couldn't bet on me two days +in succession."</p> + +<p>Ford looked up quickly.</p> + +<p>"Then don't put your hand to this plow, Mr. Adair. I'll be frank with +you. I can fit the mechanical parts of this scheme of mine together, so +that they will run true and do business. But I, or any man in my place, +would have to have solid backing here in New York; a board that would be +as aggressive as a handful of rebels fighting for life, and every man of +it determined to win out or smash something. Mr. Magnus spoke of the +opposition we should encounter from our competitors. He might have said +more. What the Transcontinental, for example, wouldn't do to obliterate +us needn't be catalogued. How do you suppose the present P. S-W. board +would fare in such a fight?"</p> + +<p>The youngest member of the flouted board laughed again.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't say in your wrath that all men are liars—or cowards. There +is plenty of fight in our crowd; and plenty of money, too, if you could +only get it sufficiently scared."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>"I've done my best," said Ford, slamming the lid of the trunk and +buckling the straps vigorously. "The next time I'll find my market first +and build my scheme afterward."</p> + +<p>"Well, if I can say it without offense, I'm honestly sorry for you, Mr. +Ford; you've been butchered to make a Broad Street holiday," said Adair, +lounging toward the door. "You are going back to the West, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"What line?"</p> + +<p>"Pennsylvania; five-ten this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"That is a long time between drinks. Suppose you come up to the club and +have luncheon with me?"</p> + +<p>Ford hesitated, watch in hand.</p> + +<p>"I was about to lie to you, Mr. Adair, and plead business; but I shan't. +I'll tell you the plain truth. I'm too sore just now to be any good +fellow's good company."</p> + +<p>"Which is precisely the reason why I asked you," laughed the golden +youth. "Come on; let's go now. You can take it out on me as much as you +like, you know. I shan't mind."</p> + +<p>But the club luncheon ignored the business affair completely, as Adair +intended it should. Ford came out of the shell of disappointment with +the salad course, and by way of reparation for his former attitude +talked rather more freely of himself than he was wont to do on such +short acquaintance with any one. The young <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>millionaire met him quite +half-way on this road to a better understanding, contrasting with mild +envy Ford's well-filled, busy life with his own erratic efforts at +time-killing.</p> + +<p>"You make me half sorry for myself," he said, when they went to the +smoking-room to light their cigars. "It's no less than a piteous +misfortune when a fellow's father has beaten all the covers of +accomplishment for him."</p> + +<p>Ford could laugh now without being bitter.</p> + +<p>"The game isn't all corralled, even for you, Mr. Adair. There was +excellent good shooting for you in that directors' meeting this morning, +but you wouldn't take the trouble."</p> + +<p>"That's the fact," was the easy-going rejoinder. "That is just what my +sister is always telling me—that I won't take the trouble. And yet I do +take the trouble to begin a lot of things; only they never seem worth +while after a few days' dip into them."</p> + +<p>"Pick out bigger ones," suggested Ford. "My trouble is just the other +way about; I am always tackling things that are worlds too big for +me—just as I have this time."</p> + +<p>"It isn't too big for you, Mr. Ford. It was too big for Colbrith, +Magnus, <i>et al</i>. And, besides, you're not going to give it up. You'll +drop off in Chicago, hunt up some meat-packer or other Croesus, and +land your new railroad independently of the P. S-W."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>It was a measure of the sincerity of Ford's liking for his host when he +said: "That little shot of mine at your colleagues was merely a long +bluff. If my scheme can't be worked with the P. S-W., it can't well be +worked without it. We are lacking the two end-links in the chain—which +I could forge. But my two end-links without the middle one wouldn't +attract anybody."</p> + +<p>It was quite late in the afternoon when they left the club, and Ford had +no more than time to check his luggage and get to his train. He wondered +a little when Adair went with him to the ferry, and was not ungrateful +for the hospitality which seemed to be directed toward a lightening of +the burden of failure. But Adair's word of leave-taking, flung across +the barrier when the chains of the landing-stage were rattling to their +rise, was singularly irrelevant.</p> + +<p>"By the way, Mr. Ford; what time did you say your train would reach +Chicago?"</p> + +<p>"At eight forty-five to-morrow evening," replied the beaten one; and +then the boat swung out of its slip and the retreat without honor was +begun.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a></p> +<h3><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h3> + +<h4>HAMMER AND TONGS</h4> + + +<p>It was raining dismally the evening of the following day when Ford saw +from his Pullman window the dull sky-glow of the metropolis of the +Middle West. It had been a dispiriting day throughout. When a man has +flung himself at his best into a long battle which ends finally in +unqualified loss, the heavens are as brass, and the future is apt to +reflect only the pale light of the past failure.</p> + +<p>It was after the train had entered the suburbs of Chicago that a +blue-coated messenger boy came through the Pullman, with the car +conductor for his guide. Ford saw himself pointed out, and a moment +later was reading a telegram, with a tumult, not of the drumming car +wheels, roaring in his ears.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Had a talk with my sister and made up my mind to see you +through—if I don't get tired and quit, as usual. Secure<a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a> +options on that short-road stock quick, and wire me care McV. & M. +Funds to your credit in Algonquin National, Chicago. Another +directors' meeting to-day, and things look a little less chaotic. +Answer. <span class="smcap">Adair.</span></p></div> + +<p>For some time Ford could only read and re-read the exciting telegram, +scarcely trusting the evidence of his senses. That the coldly +indifferent members of the P. S-W. board, with a man like President +Colbrith at their head, could be swung into line in the short space of a +single day by a young fellow who seemed to be little more than a spoiled +son of fortune, was blankly incredible.</p> + +<p>But he was not long in realizing that the cherished scheme for which he +had studied and struggled was actually beginning to stagger to its feet; +or in reaching the equally stirring conclusion that his part in the +suddenly reopened game called instantly for shrewd blows and the +swiftest possible action.</p> + +<p>The stock-holders in the three local roads which were to be united to +bridge the Chicago-Missouri River gap were scattered all over the Middle +West. To secure the necessary options on working majorities of the stock +would be a task for a financial diplomat, and one who could break the +haste-making record by being in a dozen different places at one and the +same moment. Moreover, secrecy became a prime factor in the problem. If +the opposition, and particularly the Transcontinental peo<a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>ple, should +get wind of the move, it would take fifteen millions to do the work of +five, as Banker Magnus had intimated.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the thickly marshaled obstacles, Ford had his plan of +campaign pretty well thought out by the time his train was slowing into +the Union Station. Before going to New York he had painstakingly +"located" the required holdings of the three stocks. Some of them were +in Chicago, but the greater number of the men to be bargained with were +local capitalists living in the smaller cities along the lines of the +three short railroads.</p> + +<p>In his bag was a carefully compiled list of these stock-holders, with +their addresses and the amounts of their respective holdings. At the +worst, he concluded, it should mean nothing more formidable than a deal +of quick traveling, some anxious bargaining, perhaps, and a little +finesse to keep his object in securing the options safely in the +background.</p> + +<p>This was how it appeared in the prospect; and the young engineer had yet +to learn that the securing of options is a trade by itself—a trade by +no means to be caught up in passing, even by the most gifted of tyros.</p> + +<p>Hence, it was extremely fortunate for this particular tyro—more +fortunate than he could possibly know at the moment—that his telephone +message sent from the first telephone he could reach after his train +stopped in the Union Station, caught Kenneth at the Green Bag<a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a> Club. It +was a mere chance that he knew that Kenneth, the senior member of the +firm of attorneys having general oversight of the Pacific Southwestern's +legal department, was at the moment in Chicago; a chance hanging upon +the fact that he had met Kenneth as he was passing through on his way +eastward. But it was not by chance that the first familiar face he saw +on entering the rotunda of the Grand Pacific Hotel was that of Kenneth. +The sight was merely the logical result of Ford's urgent request +telephoned to the lawyer's club.</p> + +<p>"By Jove, Kenneth; this comes within two inches of being a miracle!—my +catching you here before you had started West," Ford ejaculated. And +then: "When are you going back?"</p> + +<p>"I am supposed to be on the way now," was the lawyer's reply. "I had +made all my arrangements to start back to-night on the slow train, but I +dined with some friends on the North Side and made a miss. Where have +you been?"</p> + +<p>"I'm just in from New York. Let me register and get a room; and you put +away any lingering notion you may have of heading westward to-night. +I've got to have your ear for a few hours to begin with, and the whole +of you for the next few days. No; don't probe me here. Wait, and I'll +unload on you gradually. You won't be sorry you missed your train."</p> + +<p>Fifteen minutes later Ford had his adviser safely be<a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>hind a closed door, +and had put him succinctly in possession of the world-subverting facts, +as far as they went. When he concluded, the lawyer was shaking his head +dubiously, just as Auditor Evans had done.</p> + +<p>"Ford, have you any adequate idea of what a tremendous proposition you +are up against?" he asked quietly, helping himself to a cigar out of the +engineer's freshly opened box.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe I have underrated the difficulties, any of them," said +Ford, matching the attorney's gravity. "There are bones all the way +along, but I think I have struck the biggest of them just here. I ought +to be in a dozen places at once, and not later than to-morrow noon. +That's something I can't quite compass."</p> + +<p>"Getting these options, you mean? That is very true; but it isn't all of +it, by long odds. There are the thousand and one mechanical details to +be worked out: the coupling up of these three local lines at their +connecting points, the securing of proper trackage or trackage rights at +these junctions, the general ordering of things so that a through line +may be opened immediately when the stock is secured. If there were ten +of you, you couldn't get things licked into shape in time to get in on +the grain carrying this season."</p> + +<p>Ford had relighted his cigar, which had gone out in the explanatory +interval, and was blowing smoke-rings toward the ceiling.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>"I may be the biggest ass this side of the jack trails, and the most +conceited, Kenneth; but you're over on my side of the ring when you talk +about the mechanical obstacles. What I'm worrying about now is the fact +that I can't do two things at once. The options must be secured before +we can make the fifth part of a move in the other field; and the Lord +only knows how long that will take. To hurry is to lose out."</p> + +<p>The lawyer nodded. "And not to hurry is to lose out, too," he qualified. +Then he smoked in thoughtful silence for five full minutes before he +said, abruptly: "Give me your list of stock-holders and turn the option +business over to the legal department, where it properly belongs. That +will leave you foot-loose to go after the mechanical matter. How does +that suit you?"</p> + +<p>Ford sprang to his feet.</p> + +<p>"By Jove, Kenneth, you're a man and a brother; I'm not forgetting that +you are taking this entire fairy tale on my personal say-so; and I +shan't forget it, either. It's what I wanted to ask—and was afraid to +ask, after I got you safely jailed up here."</p> + +<p>The attorney's smile was grim but friendly.</p> + +<p>"I'm not forgetting how you took a sick man over into the Pannikin +wilderness on a two-months hunting trip last fall and made a well man of +him, Ford," he said. "Any man who can shoot as straight as you do +wouldn't be sitting here telling me lies about a trifling <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>little matter +involving the expenditure of a beggarly thirty-five millions. But to +come down to earth again: you haven't shifted any considerable part of +the burden, you know. I can do this bit of routine work; but the main +thing is up to you, just as it was before I said yes."</p> + +<p>Ford rose, stretching himself like a man who has just been relieved of a +burden whose true weight was appreciable only in its lifting.</p> + +<p>"I know," he said cheerfully. "It has been up to me, all along. In the +morning we'll go around to the Algonquin National, and I'll put you into +the financial saddle. Then I'll get out on the line, and by the time you +have the stock corralled, we'll be practically ready to pull through +freight—if not passengers—from Denver to Chicago. Oh, I know what I am +talking about," he added, when the general counsel smiled his +incredulity. "This is no affair of yesterday with me. I have every mile +of these three short roads mapped and cross-sectioned; I have copies of +all their terminal and junction-point contracts. I know exactly what we +can do, and what we can't do."</p> + +<p>The lawyer's comment was frankly praiseful, not to say flattering.</p> + +<p>"You're a wonder, Ford—and that's no figure of speech. How on earth did +you manage to do it all at such long range?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>Ford's smile was reminiscent of the obstacles.</p> + +<p>"It would take me all night to tell you in detail, Kenneth. But I did +it. It's no mere brag to say that I could walk into the Chicago, Peoria +& Davenport general offices here to-morrow morning and organize a +through service over the P. S-W. and the three stub lines within +twenty-four hours, if I had to."</p> + +<p>"Well, that part of it is far enough beyond me," said the attorney. "The +stock-chasing is more in my line. I hope we can keep quiet enough about +it so that the opposition won't guess what we are trying to do. You're +sure it won't be given away from the New York end?"</p> + +<p>It was the engineer's turn to shake his head and to look dubious.</p> + +<p>"Now you are shouting, Kenneth. I can't tell anything about it. You'll +remember that when I left New York the board had turned the plan down, +definitely and permanently, as I supposed. I should say that our only +safety lies in lightning speed. When you get the options on those +controlling stock majorities snugly on deposit in the Algonquin +National, we can draw our first long breath. Isn't that about the way it +strikes you?"</p> + +<p>"It is, precisely," agreed the general counsel, rising and finding his +hat. "And because it does strike me that way, I think I'll go down and +do a little telegraphing to-night."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>"Hold on a minute," said Ford, "and I'll give you a message to take +down, if you don't mind. I must answer Adair, and it won't do any harm +to prod him a little—on the secrecy side."</p> + +<p>Kenneth waited, with his hand on the door-knob, as it chanced. Hence the +opening of the door a minute or two later was quite without any +preliminary stir of warning in the room of conference. That was possibly +the reason why the lawyer almost fell over a man crouching in the +corridor.</p> + +<p>"Hello, there!" said Kenneth; "I beg your pardon."</p> + +<p>The man got upon his feet, exhibiting all the signs of intoxication.</p> + +<p>"Beg yoursh, I'm sure," he mumbled, and was lurching crookedly away when +the lawyer suddenly came to his senses and grabbed at him. The clutching +hand fell short, and there was an agile foot-race down the corridor, +fruitless for Kenneth, since the fugitive suddenly developed sobriety +enough to run like a deer. Beaten in the foot-race, Kenneth went back +for a word with Ford.</p> + +<p>"The battle is on," was the form the word took. "There was a man here, +listening at the key-hole, when I opened the door. How much he overheard +we'll be likely to find out to-morrow when we begin to pull the strings. +Thought I'd give you the pointer. Good night, again."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a></p> +<h3><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h3> + +<h4>THE AUTOMATIC AIR</h4> + + +<p>Set out in cold type, Ford's itinerary for the four days following his +conference with Kenneth would read like the abbreviated diary of a man +dodging the sheriff. His "ticker" memorandum for that period is still in +existence, but the notes are the hurried strokes of the pen of haste, +intelligible, we may say, only to the man who made them. To quote:</p> + +<p>"Thursday, nine <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, Peoria—see Sedgwick; ten—make trackage +contract with T.P. & W.; eleven <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, Davenport—inventory +motive power—see chief despatcher—get profiles and maps—get copies of +yard contracts—get crossing rights—get total tonnage of grain cars. +Three <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, Hannibal—see Berdan and whip him into line—inspect +shops—get contracts—get—"</p> + +<p>But the string of "gets" fills the page, and is vital now to no living +soul of man, least of all to us who are <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>interested only in finding out +if our young captain of industry actually did make good his boast of +flogging the three short roads into some semblance of a through line in +the brief interval at his disposal; and this without advertising to the +railroad world at large who he represented and what he was doing.</p> + +<p>He did it, and without a slip for which he could be held responsible. It +was a wire from the chief office of the Transcontinental in New York, a +telegram inspired by sundry leakages from Pacific Southwestern sources, +that gave him a silent and observant follower in all of his dodgings. Of +this, however, he was in blissful ignorance. Twice, indeed, he sat in +the same Pullman section with his "shadow," quite without suspecting it; +and once he was saved from disaster—also without suspecting it.</p> + +<p>It was at a way station in Missouri, and the section-sharing traveling +companion, who had paid only for an hour's ride in the Pullman, was +leaving the train. His hand-bag chanced to be the exact counterpart of +Ford's: what more natural than that he should make the mistake of taking +the wrong one? Ford caught him in the vestibule, and there was a +reëxchange, accompanied by grateful acknowledgments and profuse +apologies from the debarking one. Ford, immersed fathoms deep in his +problems, thought nothing of it; but a moment lost would have been a +cause lost, if he had guessed it. For the mistake was no mistake, and +the hand-bag rescued <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>contained documents for which the Transcontinental +Company would have paid a month's salary of its board of +vice-presidents, charging the amount, not to profit and loss, but rather +to salvage.</p> + +<p>It was on the fourth day of the campaign, while Ford was working his way +on an inspection trip over the third link in the short-lines chain, that +two telegrams overtook him.</p> + +<p>One was from Adair, announcing the tardy, but now certain triumph of the +expansionist faction in the board of P.S-W. directors, and begging +pathetically for news of the option-getting. The other was signed "K," +and Ford had a sharp attack of joy when he read it. The attorney had +been successful at all points. The necessary stock majorities were +secured and the certificates were safely on deposit in the Algonquin +National Bank, in Chicago. What remained was only a matter of routine, +provided the P. S-W. bidders would furnish the capital for the purchases.</p> + +<p>Ford swamped the local operator at the next way station with a thick +sheaf of "rush" telegrams, left the west-bound train at the first +cross-road junction, and caught a night express on a fast line for +Chicago. Kenneth was waiting for him at the hotel; and after breakfast +there was another telegram from Adair. Matters were still progressing +favorably, and President Colbrith, traveling in his private car, +"Nadia," <i>via</i> the Lake Shore, <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>would be in Chicago the following +morning to take final action in the stock purchases.</p> + +<p>Ford gave the message to Kenneth, and the attorney drummed softly on the +table with his finger-tips when he read the announcement.</p> + +<p>"We are in for it now," he said with a grimace of dismay. "If Mr. +Colbrith doesn't manage to queer the whole deal, it will be because he +has suffered a complete change of heart."</p> + +<p>Ford answered the grimace with a scowl, and the masterful side of him +came uppermost.</p> + +<p>"What in the name of common sense were they thinking of to send him out +here?" he gritted.</p> + +<p>The general counsel laughed.</p> + +<p>"You don't know Mr. Colbrith as well as I do, I fancy," he suggested. +"He is rather hard to suppress. He'll be president until his successor +is elected—or he'll know all the reasons why."</p> + +<p>"Well, I hope you've got everything straight in the option business," +said Ford. "If there is so much as a hair displaced, he will be sure to +find it."</p> + +<p>"It is all straight enough," was the confident rejoinder. "Only I had to +bid five points over the market on odd lots of the stock. I'm not sure, +but I think the Transcontinental people got wind of us during the last +day or two and bid against us."</p> + +<p>"But you have safe majorities?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>"Oh, yes; we are all in."</p> + +<p>"Good," said Ford. "That puts it up to Mr. Colbrith, at all events. And +now, while we have a clear day before us, I want to go over these C.P. & +D. terminal contracts with you. Right here in Chicago is where the +Transcontinental will try hardest to balk us. The C. P. & D. has +trackage rights to the elevators; but I want to be sure that the +contracts will hold water under a transfer of ownership."</p> + +<p>Subjected to legal scrutiny, the contracts promised to be defensible, +and Ford came through the day with his apprehensive burdens considerably +lightened. After dinner he took his papers to Kenneth's room, and +together they went carefully over all the legal points involved in the +welding of the three local lines into the Pacific Southwestern system, +Ford furnishing the data gathered by him during the four days.</p> + +<p>Kenneth was shrewdly inquisitive, as his responsibilities constrained +him to be, and it was deep in the small hours when Ford made his escape +and went to bed. By consequence, he was scarcely more than half awake +the next morning, when he dressed hurriedly and hastened over to the Van +Buren Street station to see if the president's car had arrived.</p> + +<p>The Nadia was in and side-tracked, with a sleepy porter on guard. Ford +climbed to the platform and asked for the president.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>"Yas, suh; dis is Mr. Colbrith's cyar; but he don't see no newspapuh +men—no, suh. Besides, dey's just gettin' up," was the rebuff; but Ford +ignored it.</p> + +<p>"'They?' Then Mr. Colbrith isn't alone?"</p> + +<p>"No, suh; got a pahty 'long with him—a young gentleman and two ladies; +yes, suh. Mr. Colbrith nebber goes nowhah's 'dout he teks a pahty in de +cyar."</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" groaned Ford, under his breath; "as if the thing wasn't +complicated enough without making a picnic of it!" Then aloud. "I wish +to go in. My name is Ford, and Mr. Colbrith is expecting me."</p> + +<p>"Sho' you isn't a newspapuh man?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not," said Ford shortly.</p> + +<p>"All right, suh," said the negro; and he made way and opened the door.</p> + +<p>The Nadia was a commodious hotel on wheels, with a kitchen and buffet +forward, four state-rooms opening upon a narrow side vestibule, and a +large dining and lounging room looking out through full-length windows +upon a deep, "umbrella-roofed" platform at the rear.</p> + +<p>There was no one in the large compartment when Ford reached it; but a +moment later a door opened and closed in the vestibule, and Adair made +his appearance. Ford drew a breath of relief and shook hands with his +backer.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad it's you, Mr. Adair. I've been scenting all <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>sorts of +hindrances since the porter told me there was a party aboard."</p> + +<p>The young man without an avocation dropped into the easiest of the +wicker chairs and felt in his pockets for his cigarette case.</p> + +<p>"Your prophetic soul didn't deceive you any," he laughed. "The +hindrances are here in full force. It is one of Uncle Sidney's notions +never to travel without a tail like a Highland chieftain's. I had a +foreboding that he'd ask somebody, so I took it upon myself to fill up +his passenger list with Aunt Hetty, my sister, and my uncle's nephew."</p> + +<p>"I understand," said Ford, and would have plunged forthwith into the +business pool; but Adair stopped him with a gesture of dismay.</p> + +<p>"Not before breakfast, if you love me, my dear fellow!" he protested, +with a little grimace that instantly set the reminiscent part of Ford's +brain at work. "After I've had something to eat—"</p> + +<p>The interruption was the noiseless entrance of a motherly little lady in +gray, with kindly eyes and a touch of silver in the fair hair drawn +smoothly back from her forehead.</p> + +<p>"This is Mr. Stuart Ford, I am sure," she said, giving her hand to the +young engineer before Adair could introduce him. "You look enough like +your father to make me recognize you at once."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>Ford was a little embarrassed by the gratefully informal greeting.</p> + +<p>"Ought I to remember you, Mrs. Adair?" he asked ingenuously.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, indeed. I knew your father as a young man before he married and +went to the farther West. The Fords and the Colbriths and the Stanbrooks +are all from the same little town in central Illinois, you know."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know it," said Ford, "though now I recall it, I used often to +hear my father speak of Miss Hester Stanbrook." Then he was going on to +say that trite thing about the smallness of the world when Adair broke +in.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to know what is keeping Uncle Sidney and Alicia. <i>I</i> haven't +had breakfast yet."</p> + +<p>As if his protest had evoked her, a young woman drew the portière of the +vestibule—a young woman with bright brown hair, eyes like dewy wood +violets, and an adorable chin. Ford stared helplessly, and Adair +laughed.</p> + +<p>"Shocked, aren't you?" he jested. "But you needn't be alarmed. I have +persuaded my sister not to prosecute in the case of the snatched purse. +Alicia, this is Mr. Stuart Ford, and he desires me to say that he is not +often reduced to the necessity of robbing unprotected young women for +the sake of scraping an acquaintance."</p> + +<p>Ford lost sight of the Pacific Southwestern exigencies <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>for the moment, +and surely the lapse was pardonable. If the truth must be told, this +young woman, who had been discovered and lost in the same unforgetable +evening, had stirred the neglected pool of sentiment in him to its +profoundest depths, and thoughts of her had been dividing time pretty +evenly with some parts of the strenuous business affair. Indeed, the +hopelessness of any effort toward rediscovering her had been one of his +reasons for hurrying away from New York. He knew himself—a little—and +that quality of unreasoning persistence which other people called his +strong point. The search he had been half-minded to make once begun—</p> + +<p>"I hope you haven't forgotten me so soon, Mr. Ford," she was saying; and +he recovered himself with a start.</p> + +<p>"Forgotten you? No, indeed!"—this with almost lover-like emphasis. +"I—I think I am just a trifle aghast at my good luck in finding you +again. It seemed so utterly hopeless, you know. Don't you think—"</p> + +<p>But now the president had stalked in, and his high querulous voice was +marshaling the party breakfastward. Ford manoeuvered skilfully in the +pairing off, and so succeeded in securing Miss Adair for a companion on +the short walk across to the Grand Pacific.</p> + +<p>"You were about to ask me something when Uncle Sidney interrupted you," +she prompted, when they were clear of the throng in the station +vestibule.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I was going to ask if you don't think it was un<a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>necessarily cruel +to send me that note of thanks unsigned."</p> + +<p>"Cruel?" she echoed, and her laugh was so exactly a replica of her +brother's that Ford wondered why the reminiscent arrow had not gone at +once to its mark. "How absurd! What possible difference could it make?"</p> + +<p>"It made a lot of difference to me," said Ford, refusing to be brushed +aside. "How did you expect I was ever going to be able to find you +again, without even your name as a clue?"</p> + +<p>She glanced up at him with unfeigned interest. The men of her world were +not altogether unappreciative; neither were they so primitively +straightforward as this young industry captain out of the West.</p> + +<p>"It is not impossible that I never thought of your finding me again," +she said, and only the tone saved it from being a small slap in the +face.</p> + +<p>Ford took the rebuff as a part of the day's work.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you didn't," he admitted. "But I mean to go on hoping that you +did."</p> + +<p>"The idea!" she scoffed; but this time she blunted the keen edge of the +rebuke by adding: "I thought, perhaps, we might meet again, sometime. +You see, we are all stock-holders in the Pacific Southwestern; my +brother, Aunt Hetty and I; and Uncle Sidney had shown us a letter—it +was from Mr. North, I think—saying that you were likely to come to New +York with <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>some kind of a plan of reorganization. So when you gave me +your card, I knew at once who you were."</p> + +<p>Ford made an immediate mental note of the bit of information implicating +Mr. North, but did not allow himself to be diverted by the business +affair.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know; but that didn't help me a little bit," he protested, +wishing that the distance to the hotel were twice as far.</p> + +<p>"That was just because it happened so; you ran away before my brother +had a chance to offer you any hospitality," she explained. Then, before +he could say any more straightforward things: "Tell me, Mr. Ford; are +you really going to find something to interest brother?—something that +will keep him actually and enthusiastically busy for more than a few +days at a time?"</p> + +<p>Ford laughed. "I fancy he hasn't been bored for the lack of work since I +left New York, has he?"</p> + +<p>"No; and it has made such a difference! Won't you please try and keep +him going?"</p> + +<p>"You may rest assured that I shall do what I can. But you see he has +quit already."</p> + +<p>"By coming to Chicago with us? Oh, no, indeed; you are quite mistaken. +He is here to help you to—to 'minimize' Uncle Sidney; I think that is +the word he used. He was afraid you had been finding Uncle Sidney rather +difficult. Have you?"</p> + +<p>"I have, for a fact," said Ford, out of the depths of <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>sincerity. And, +again out of a full heart: "Your brother is a brick, Miss Adair."</p> + +<p>"Isn't he?" and she laughed in sheer good comradeship. "If you can only +manage to make him rise to his capabilities—"</p> + +<p>"He'll never be able to live the simple life for a single waking hour," +said the engineer, finishing the sentence for her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but that is a mistake!" she objected. "The very first requirement +is work; plenty of work of the kind one can do best."</p> + +<p>The short walk to the hotel, where Kenneth was waiting to go to +breakfast with the president's party, came to an end, and the social +amenities died of inanition. For one thing, President Colbrith insisted +upon learning the minutest ins and outs of the business matter, making +the table-talk his vehicle; and for another, Miss Adair's place was on +the opposite side of the table, and two removes from Ford's. Time and +again the young engineer tried to side-track business in the interests +of something a little less banal to the two women; but the president was +implacable and refused to be pulled out of the narrow rut of details; +was still running monotonously and raspingly in it when Kenneth glanced +at his watch and suggested that the time for action was come.</p> + +<p>After breakfast the party separated. Mrs. Adair and Miss Alicia were to +spend the day with friends in South<a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a> Chicago, and Mr. Colbrith carried +the attorney off to his room to dig still deeper into the possible legal +complications which might arise out of the proposed transfer of the +three short roads. Ford and Adair sat in the lobby and smoked while they +were waiting for the president and the general counsel to conclude their +conference, and the young millionaire gave his companion the story of +the fight in the directory.</p> + +<p>"We have Brewster to thank for the lift which finally pulled our wheel +out of the mud," said the young man, modestly effacing himself in the +summing up. "Or rather I should say that we have the enemy to thank for +stirring Brewster into action. Brewster's got some copper mines out in +Utah that he nurses like a sick child. Just at the critical moment some +of the people who control the Transcontinental began to worry his copper +stock. In the hot part of it he came to me and said, 'Adair, will that +western extension of yours be able to fry any fat out of +Transcontinental?' I told him it would, most assuredly; that next to +making money for ourselves, and, incidentally, saving the Pacific +Southwestern from going smash, our chief object was to give the +Transcontinental a wholesome drubbing."</p> + +<p>"You are progressing rapidly," said Ford, with a grin of appreciation. +"Did that fetch him?"</p> + +<p>"It did, for a fact. He looked like one of those old bushy-bearded +vikings when he said, 'By thunder, I'm <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>with you, young man! And I'll +answer for Scott and Magnus and Harding. Get your board together, and +we'll settle it to-day."</p> + +<p>Ford looked up quickly. "If Mr. Colbrith wasn't the chief of your family +clan, Adair, I could wish that we had this Mr. Brewster at the head of +things."</p> + +<p>The rejoinder was heartily prompt. "You don't wish it any more fervently +than I do, Ford. That is why I am here to-day. The board, in spite of +all that our handful of revolutionaries could do, has armed Uncle Sidney +with almost dictatorial powers in this stock-purchasing deal; and if he +doesn't contrive to strangle things by the slow process, it will be +simply and solely because you and Kenneth and I are here to see that he +does not. Do you know what the men call him out on the main line? When +they see the Nadia trundling in, they say, 'Here comes old Automatic +Air-Brakes.' And it fits him."</p> + +<p>"But I don't quite understand why he should want to put the brakes on +here and now," Ford interposed. "I know he is against the scheme, +personally; but he is here as the representative of a majority which has +committed itself to the expansion measure, isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; and he has no thought of playing the traitor—you mustn't +think that of him. But it isn't in his nature to facilitate things. In +the present crisis he will feel that he is personally responsible for +the expenditure <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>of five million dollars. He will examine and +investigate, and probe and pry, and will want to worry through every +pen-scratch which has been made up to date."</p> + +<p>"Well, there is one comfort; he can't take much time for his worrying," +said Ford. "Some of the options expire to-morrow noon."</p> + +<p>Adair sat up as one who suddenly takes notice.</p> + +<p>"What?—to-morrow? Land of glory! but you two fellows took short +chances! Why, any little hitch—"</p> + +<p>"I know," said the engineer evenly. "But we took what we could get—and +were thankful. Somebody was bidding against us, and prices began to +jump. Incidentally, I may say that Kenneth deserves to be made a +vice-president of the new company, at the very least. He has done ten +men's work in the last three or four days."</p> + +<p>"I don't doubt it. Neither do I suspect you of loafing. For that matter, +I've been hustling a few lines, myself, since I sent you that first +telegram."</p> + +<p>"Do you find it exciting enough to keep you interested, as far as you've +gone?" inquired Ford, mindful of Miss Alicia's longings.</p> + +<p>"It's the best yet," declared the idler. "Only, you mustn't lean too +heavily on me, you know. I'm the most uncertain quantity you ever +experienced. But here comes Uncle Sidney, with a cowed and brow-beaten +Kenneth in tow—say your prayers, and get ready for the battle royal."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a></p> +<h3><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h3> + +<h4>THE RACE TO THE SLOW</h4> + + +<p>Adair's prophecy that President Colbrith would prove himself an +obstructor of the stubbornest was amply fulfilled during the short +interval which remained for decisive action. Truly, in the battle for +business celerity the odds were three to one against Mr. Colbrith; yet +the three were as those who buffet the wind. The president must see and +feel, know and fully understand; and at the very last moment, when the +shortest of the options had no more than an hour to live, he was +proposing to summon General Manager North from Denver to make a fifth in +the council of discord.</p> + +<p>It was Adair who took the bull by the horns when the president's caution +was about to turn victory into defeat. What was said or done after the +young man drew Mr. Colbrith into the private committee-room at the bank +and shut the door, Ford and Kenneth, who were excluded, could only +surmise. But whatever was done was well done. When the two, uncle and +nephew, came out <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>of the room of privacy, the old man was shaking his +head and the young one was smiling serenely. So it came about that +between eleven and twelve o'clock, when Ford, grimly battling to the +last, fought as one without hope, a few strokes of the pen opened the +doors upon the new creation; five million dollars, more or less, changed +hands, and the Pacific Southwestern took the long leap eastward from the +Missouri River to its new base in Chicago.</p> + +<p>"It's you for the hustle now, Ford," said Adair, linking arms with the +engineer when the quartet left the bank. "How soon do you think you can +get that first train-load of grain in transit?"</p> + +<p>"I wish I could tell you," said Ford.</p> + +<p>"Why can't you?"</p> + +<p>"Because it will depend very largely upon the authority Mr. Colbrith or +the board sees fit to give me. At present, you will remember, I am still +only a division superintendent—Mr. North's subordinate, in fact, and—"</p> + +<p>"Say it out loud," encouraged Adair.</p> + +<p>"I don't like to, but I suppose it can't be helped. Up to now I have +been acting under special orders, as you may say, in a purely financial +transaction. But my commission expired five minutes ago when the stock +deal went through. When it comes to issuing orders in the operating and +transportation department, I have no au<a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>thority whatever. Mr. North is +general manager, and I suppose his jurisdiction will now be extended to +cover the new line, won't it?"</p> + +<p>"Not much!" retorted the amateur promoter. "You are going to be given a +free hand in this from the word go. From what I can learn, North has +been an obstructor, all along, hasn't he?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say that," said Ford, just, even to an enemy. "To be right +honest about it, I shall have to confess that I slurred him +entirely—went over his head."</p> + +<p>"For good reasons, no doubt, only you are too charitable to give them. +Never mind: as I say, you are going to have a free hand. This is your +pie and nobody else is going to cut it for you." And when the party +reached the hotel there was another conference of two behind closed +doors, in which Ford and the general counsel did not participate.</p> + +<p>An hour later, when Adair came down from the president's room, he thrust +a sheaf of penciled printers' copy into Ford's hands.</p> + +<p>"There you are," he said. "I've done the best I could for you on such +short notice—with Uncle Sidney trying his level best to get a cross +reference to the board before taking action. Get these circulars through +a print shop and into the mails. You'll see that one of them announces +your appointment, effective to-day, as Assistant to the President. That +was as far as Uncle Sidney could be <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>dragged. It doesn't give you a +straight flush; but your hand will beat North's if it comes to a +show-down between you. Just the same, I shouldn't quarrel with North, if +I were you. Uncle Sidney thinks the sun rises and sets in him."</p> + +<p>Ford nodded, and while he was reading hastily through the sheaf of +pencilings a boy brought him a telegram. When he opened the envelope, +Kenneth had turned away. But Adair was looking on, and he did not fail +to remark the startling effect of the few typewritten words upon the +engineer.</p> + +<p>"Whereabouts does it hit us this time?" he inquired, lighting a fresh +cigarette.</p> + +<p>"In the neck," said Ford curtly. "The possibility occurred to me +yesterday—Pacific Southwestern stock being so badly scattered among +small holders. I wired a broker, a good friend of mine, to pick up a few +shares on my account. Here is what he says: 'Market bone dry. No +offerings of P. S-W. at any price.'"</p> + +<p>Adair whistled softly. "That's getting next to us with a vengeance!" he +commented. "And it can be done, too. Half a dozen of the small +stock-holders have been to me since the fire was lighted, trying to get +me to take their stock at market."</p> + +<p>"How much do we control—that we are sure of?" Ford asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't know—in figures. Not more than two-fifths,<a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a> I should say. At +the last board meeting I proposed that we make a safe majority pool +among ourselves, but Uncle Sidney sat on me. Said his own personal +constituency among the little people was big enough amply to secure us."</p> + +<p>Ford swore pathetically.</p> + +<p>"The one single instance when his caution might have steered him +straight—and it went to sleep!" he raged.</p> + +<p>"Exactly," laughed Adair. "And now the Transcontinental moguls are +buying up a majority of their own, meaning to capture the main-line dog +and leaving us to wag the extension tail which we have just acquired. +Say, Ford; doesn't that appeal to your sense of humor?"</p> + +<p>"No, it doesn't," said Ford savagely. To see one's air-castles crumbling +at the very moment when they were to be transmuted into solid realities +is apt to provoke a reversion to type; and Ford's type was Gothic.</p> + +<p>"That's a pity," said Adair, absently rolling his cigarette between his +thumb and finger. "Also, it's another pity that I am such a hopeless +quitter. I believe I could pull this thing out yet, if I could only get +up sufficient steam."</p> + +<p>"For heaven's sake, tell me what you burn, and I'll furnish the fuel," +said Ford desperately.</p> + +<p>"Will you? I guess I need something pretty inflammatory."</p> + +<p>"Lord of love! haven't you good and plenty, without <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>calling upon me? +Are you going to let these stock-jobbing land-pirates on 'Change gibbet +you as a solemn warning to aspiring young promoters?"</p> + +<p>Adair paused with the cigarette half way to his lips. "Ah," he said, +after a thoughtful moment. "Perhaps that was what I needed. No; they +will not gibbet any of us to-day; and possibly not to-morrow." Then, +with a sudden dropping of the mask of easy-going indifference: "Give me +the key to your room, and find me a swift stenographer. Then go over to +the Lake Shore headquarters and ask to have the Nadia coupled to the +evening train for New York."</p> + +<p>"But the president?" Ford began. "Didn't he say something about going +over these new lines on an inspection trip?"</p> + +<p>"Never mind Uncle Sidney: on this one occasion he will change his plans +and go back to New York with us," said Adair curtly.</p> + +<p>"Good," said Ford approvingly. "And how about opening the new through +line for business? Do we go on? Or do we hang it up until we find out +where we are 'at'?"</p> + +<p>"Don't hold it up a single minute. Drive it for all the power you can +get behind it. If we have to collide with things, let's do it with the +throttle wide open. Now find me that shorthand person quickly, will +you?"</p> + +<p>By what means the president was persuaded or co<a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>erced into doing the +thing he had not planned to do, Ford was not to know. But for that +matter, after carrying out Adair's instructions the engineer plunged at +once into his own Herculean task of reorganization, emerging only when +he made a tardy sixth at the president's dinner table in the hotel café +in the evening.</p> + +<p>The dinner, which the young engineer had been fondly counting upon as a +momentary relaxation from the heart-breaking business strain, was a +dismal failure on its social side. President Colbrith, as yet, it +appeared, in blissful ignorance of the latest news from New York, had +reserved the seat of honor for his new assistant, and the half-hour was +filled to overflowing with minute and cautionary definitions of the +assistant's powers and duties.</p> + +<p>Ford listened with a blank ear on that side. There was work to do, and +one man to do it. He did not care particularly to hear instructions +which he would probably have to disregard at the first experimental dash +into the new field. He meant to hold himself rigidly to account for +results; more than this he thought not even Mr. Colbrith had a right to +require.</p> + +<p>After dinner he indemnified himself for the kindergarten lecture by +boldly taking possession of Miss Adair for the short walk over to the +private car. The entire world of work was still ahead, and a corps of +expert stenographers was at the moment awaiting his return to <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>the C.P. +& D. offices, where he had established temporary headquarters; but he +shut the door upon the exigencies and listened to Miss Alicia.</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry we are not going to be here to see your triumph," she was +saying; adding: "It is a triumph, isn't it?"'</p> + +<p>"Only a beginning," he amended. "And it won't be spectacular, if we can +help it. Besides, this east-end affair is only a preliminary. A little +later on, if our tackle doesn't break, we shall land the really big fish +for which this is only the bait."</p> + +<p>"Shall you never be satisfied?" she asked jestingly. And then, more +seriously: "What is your ambition? To be able to buy what your neighbor +can not afford?"</p> + +<p>"Big money, you mean? No, I think not. But I like to win, as well as +other men."</p> + +<p>"To win what?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever seems worth winning—this fight, in the present instance, and +the consequent larger field. Later, enough money to enable me to think +of money only as a stepping-stone to better things. Later still, +perhaps—"</p> + +<p>He stopped abruptly, as though willing to leave the third desideratum in +the air, but she would not let him.</p> + +<p>"Go on," she said. "Last of all?"</p> + +<p>"Last of all, the love of a true woman."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she scoffed, with a little uptilt of the admirable chin. "Then +love must come trailing along at the very <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>end, after we have skimmed +the cream from all the other milk pans in orderly succession."</p> + +<p>"No," he rejoined gravely. "I put it clumsily—as I snatch purses. As a +matter of sober fact, love sets the mile-stones along any human road +that is worth traversing."</p> + +<p>She glanced up at him and the blue eyes were dancing. Miss Alicia Adair +knew no joy to compare with that of teasing, and it was not often that +the fates gave her such a pliable subject.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, Mr. Ford; is—is she pretty?"</p> + +<p>"She is beautiful; the most beautiful woman in the world, Miss Adair."</p> + +<p>"How fine! And, of course, she is a paragon of all the virtues?—an +angel without the extremely inconvenient wings?"</p> + +<p>"You have said it: and I have never doubted it from the moment I first +laid eyes on her."</p> + +<p>"Better and better," she murmured. Then: "She has money?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose she has; yes, she certainly has money. But that doesn't make +any difference—to her or to me."</p> + +<p>"It is simply idyllic!" was the ecstatic comment. "After all this there +remains but one other possible contingency. Has she a willing mind, Mr. +Ford?"</p> + +<p>They had reached the steps of the Nadia, and the others had gone within. +Ford looked soberly into the <a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>depths of the laughing eyes and said: "I +would give all my chances of success in this Pacific Southwestern affair +to be able to say 'yes' to that."</p> + +<p>The station gong was clanging the departure signal for the New York +train, and he swung her lightly up to the step of the car.</p> + +<p>"Good-by," she said, turning to smile down upon him. And then, "I don't +believe you, you know; not the least bit in the world."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Because the woman doesn't live who would be worth such a sacrifice as +that would be—to Mr. Stuart Ford."</p> + +<p>And this was her leave-taking.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a></p> +<h3><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h3> + +<h4>THE SINEWS OF WAR</h4> + + +<p>The general offices of the C.P. & D. Railway were crowded into a +half-dozen utilitarian rooms on the second floor of the company's +freight station building in the Chicago yards. In two of these rooms, +with a window outlook upon a tangle of switching tracks with their +shifting panorama of cars and locomotives, Ford set up his standard as +chief executive of the three "annexed" roads, becoming, in the eyes of +three separate republics of minor officials and employees, the arbiter +of destiny.</p> + +<p>Naturally, the announcement that their railroads had been swallowed +whole by the Pacific Southwestern had fallen as a thunderclap upon the +rank and file of the three local companies; and since, in railway +practice, a change of owners usually carries with it a sweeping change +in department heads, the service was instantly demoralized.</p> + +<p>During the first few hours of Ford's administration, therefore, the +wires were buzzing with hasty resigna<a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>tions; and those whose courage was +not whetted to the quitting point took a loose hold upon their duties +and waited to see what would happen. Under such chaotic conditions Ford +took his seat in the mean little office over the freight station, and +flung himself ardently into the task of bringing order out of the sudden +confusion. Effectively to support Adair and the reconstructionists on +the board it was critically necessary that there be immediate and +cheering news from the front.</p> + +<p>It was in the preliminary wrestle with disintegration that the young +engineer's gift of insight and his faculty of handling men as men stood +him in good stead. He was fresh from his trip over the new extension, on +which he had met and shrewdly appraised the men who were now his +subordinates. With the human field thus mentally mapped and +cross-sectioned he was enabled to make swift and sure selections, +cutting out the dead timber remorselessly, encouraging the doubtful, +reassuring the timid, assorting and combining and ordering until, at the +close of the second day of fierce toil, he was ready to make his first +report to Adair.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Track connections at junction points completed to-day. General and +division operating and traffic departments in the saddle and +effectively organized. With proper coöperation on part of General +Manager North, grain should begin to move eastward to-morrow. Can +get no satisfactory replies from North. Have him disciplined from +your end. Answer. <span class="smcap">Ford.</span> </p></div> + +<p><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>To this telegram there was a prompt and voluminous reply from the seat +of war in the East. In a free fight on the Stock Exchange, a battle +royal generaled by Brewster and Magnus in which every inch of ground had +been sharply contested by brokers buying up P. S-W. in the interest of +principals unnamed, a majority of the Southwestern stock—safe but +exceedingly narrow—had been secured by the reconstructionists.</p> + +<p>In accordance with Ford's suggestion, North had been "called down" by +wire, and Ford was instructed to report instantly any failure of effort +on the part of the Denver headquarters to set the grain trains in +motion.</p> + +<p>Otherwise, and from the New York point of view, the situation remained +most hopeful. The fight in the Street had unified the factions in the +board of directors, and even the timid ones were beginning to clamor for +an advance into the territory of the enemy.</p> + +<p>Ford read Adair's letter-length and most unbusiness-like telegram with +the zest of the fine wine of triumph tingling in his blood. With the +Chicago outlet fairly open and in working order, and a huge tributary +grain crop to be moved, it should be only a matter of days until the +depressed Pacific Southwestern stock would begin to climb toward the +bonding figure.</p> + +<p>This was the first triumphant conclusion, but afterward came reaction +and a depressive doubt. Would the stock go up? Or would the enemy devise +some assault <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>that would keep it down in spite of the money-earning, +dividend-promising facts? Upon the expected rise hung the fate of Ford's +cherished ambition—the building of the western extension. Without a +dividend-paying Chicago-Denver main line, there could be no bond issue, +no thirty millions for the forging of the third and most important link +in the great traffic chain.</p> + +<p>Ford walked the floor of his office, called by courtesy, "private," for +an anxious hour, balancing the probabilities, and finally determined to +take the desperate chance. There was a vast mountain of preliminary work +to be leveled, huge purchasing expenses to be incurred, before the first +step could be taken in the actual building of the western extension; and +the summer was advancing day by day. He did not hope to get the +extension completed in a single season. But to get it over into the +promising mining field on the lower Pannikin before snow-flying meant +work of the keenest, without the loss of a single day. Could he afford +to play the safe game and wait until the building capital should be +cannily in Mr. Magnus' bank vaults?</p> + +<p>He decided that he could not; and when he reached a decision, Ford was +not the man to hesitate before taking the plunge. On the morning of the +third day he called Truitt, sometime superintendent of the C.P. & D., +and now acting manager of the Chicago Extension, and gave him his +instructions.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>"You say there are three grain trains moving on the line now, Mr. +Truitt: there will be three more before night. Keep them coming, and +give them the right of way over everything but the United States mails. +Can you handle this without help from me?"</p> + +<p>"We'll give it a pretty stiff try," was the prompt rejoinder. "But you +are not going to leave us, are you, Mr. Ford?"</p> + +<p>"No; but for the next forty-eight hours I am going to lock my door, and +I don't want to be disturbed for anything less than a disaster or a wire +from New York. Please give orders accordingly, will you?"</p> + +<p>The orders were given; and, left with his force of stenographers, Ford +began to walk the floor, dictating right and left. Letters and telegrams +to steel mills, to contractors, to bridge builders, to the owners of +grading outfits, and to labor agencies, clicked out of the typewriters +in a steady and unbroken stream, and the din was like that of a +main-line telegraph office on a hot piece of track.</p> + +<p>All day long, and far into the night, the office force wrought +unceasingly, digging away at the mountain of preliminary correspondence; +and by the next morning the wire replies were beginning to come in.</p> + +<p>Then came the crux. To insure prompt delivery of material, definite +orders must be placed immediately. A delay of a single day might entail +a delay of weeks <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>in the shipments. Yet the risk of plunging the company +into debts it might never be able to pay was appalling. What if the +stock should not go up as prefigured?—if the bonds could not be +floated?</p> + +<p>It was with the feeling that he might well be signing his own +death-warrant that Ford put his name to the first order for two hundred +thousand dollars' worth of steel rails for immediate delivery to the +company's line in Chicago. But after the first cold submergence it came +more easily, and when he left the office an hour before midnight, a cool +million would not have covered the obligations he had assumed during the +strenuous day.</p> + +<p>Kenneth was sitting up for him when he reached his hotel, and the +usually impassive face of the general counsel reflected trouble.</p> + +<p>"Out with it," said Ford wearily; and suddenly the new million of +indebtedness became a mountain weight to grind him to powder.</p> + +<p>"We're blocked," was the brief announcement. "Two of the grain trains +are in, and the Transcontinental lawyers have won the toss. We're +enjoined by the court from using the service tracks to the elevators. +Didn't your local people tell you?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Ford. "I had given orders that I was not to be disturbed. But +what of it? You expected something of the sort, didn't you?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>"Yes; and I provided for it. The injunction will be dissolved when we +have our final hearing; but long before that time the mischief will be +irreparable, I'm afraid."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"It will be blazoned far and wide that we can't deliver the goods—that +the opposition has done us up. I've tried to keep it out of the +newspapers, or, rather, to persuade them not to make too much of it. But +it wouldn't go. The Transcontinental has all the pull in this town, it +appears."</p> + +<p>"And you think it will affect the price of the stock?"</p> + +<p>"It is bound to, temporarily, at least. And coming upon the heels of +to-day's sudden tumble—"</p> + +<p>"What's that?" demanded Ford, dry-lipped, adding: "I haven't seen a +paper since morning."</p> + +<p>Kenneth wagged his head gloomily. "It's pretty bad. P. S-W. closed at +thirty-three—five points off yesterday's market."</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" Ford's groan was that of a man smitten down in the heat of +the fight. "Say, Kenneth, within a single sweep of the clock-hands I +have contracted for more than a million dollars' worth of material for +the western extension—more than a million dollars' worth!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm afraid you have sinned in haste to repent at leisure," said +the lawyer, with a weary man's disre<a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>gard for the amenities. Then he +added: "I'm going to bed. I've had about all I can stand for one day."</p> + +<p>Ford went to the room clerk for his key; reeled would be the better +word, since his brain was whirling. There was a telegram in his box, and +he tore it open with fresh and sharper misgivings. It was from Adair.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The sick man's getting sicker. What is the matter with your +prescription? Stock gone off five points, and the bears are +squeezing us to beat the band. Stories flying on the Street that we +are a kite without an effective tail; that the courts will keep us +out of the elevators. What do you say? </p></div> + +<p>Ford consulted his watch. There was barely time to catch the midnight +train for New York, and his determination was taken on the spur of the +moment. It was all or nothing, now.</p> + +<p>Hastily writing a wire to the cashier of the Denver bank where he kept +his personal account, and another to Adair, and leaving brief notes for +Kenneth and Truitt, he took a cab and had himself driven at a gallop to +the Union Station. He was the last man through the platform gates, but +he made his train, and was settling himself in the sleeper when another +telegram was thrust into his hand. This was from Frisbie, at Saint's +Rest; and that it brought more bad news might be argued from the way in +which he crushed it slowly in his hand and jammed it into his pocket. On +this day, if never <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>before, he was proving the truth of the old adage +that misfortunes do not come singly.</p> + +<p>Upon arriving in New York late the following evening, he had himself +driven to the Waldorf, where he found Adair waiting for him. A few words +sufficed to outline the situation, which the lapse of another day had +made still more desperate. So far from recovering, the falling stock had +dropped to twenty-nine and a half, and there was every indication that +the bottom was not yet reached.</p> + +<p>"How do you account for it?" asked Ford, when the dismal tale had been +told.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's easy enough, when you know how," was the light-hearted +rejoinder. "As I wired you, there was something of a scramble on the +floor of the Exchange last week when we were fighting to find out +whether we should control our own majority or let the Transcontinental +have it. Our pool got its fifty-one per cent. all right, but in the +nature of things the enemy stood as the next largest stock-holder in +P. S-W., since they'd been buying right and left against us. Now, since +we don't need any more, and nobody else wants it, all the +Transcontinental people have to do is to unload on the market, and down +she goes."</p> + +<p>Ford looked incredulous, and then wrathful.</p> + +<p>"Adair, tell me: did I have to stop my work when my time is worth fifty +dollars a minute, and come all the <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>way to New York to tell you folks +what to do?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>Adair's laugh was utterly and absolutely care-free.</p> + +<p>"It looks that way, doesn't it? Have you got the compelling club up your +sleeve, as usual?"</p> + +<p>"A boy might carry it—and swing it, too," was the disgusted answer. +"When does the board meet again? Or has it concluded to lie down in the +harness?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it gets together every morning—got the meeting habit, you know. +Everybody's in a blue funk, but we still have the daily round-up to swap +funeral statistics."</p> + +<p>"All right. Meet me here in the morning, and we'll go and join the +procession. Can you make it nine o'clock?"</p> + +<p>"Sure. It's too late to go home, and I'll stay here. Then you'll be +measurably certain that I can't escape. May I see the tip end of the +club?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Ford grumpily. "You don't deserve it. Go to bed and store up +a head of steam that will carry you through the hardest day's work you +ever hoped to do. Good night."</p> + +<p>They met again at the breakfast-table the following morning, and Ford +talked pointedly of everything save the P. S-W. predicament. One of +Adair's past fads had been the collecting of odd weapons; Ford +discovered this and drew the young man skilfully into a discussion of +the medieval secrets of sword-tempering.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>"I've a bit of the old Damascus, myself," said the engineer. "Tybee—he +was on the Joppa-Jerusalem road in the building—picked it up for me. +Curious piece of old steel; figured and flowered and etched and inlaid +with silver. There were jewels in the pommel once, I take it; the +settings are still there to show where some practical-turned vandal dug +them out."</p> + +<p>Adair was quite at a loss to guess how old swords and their histories +could bear upon the financial situation, but he was coming to know Ford +better. Some one has said that it is only the small men who are careful +and troubled on the eve of a great battle. So the talk was of ancient +weapons until the time for action arrived; and a smooth-faced gentleman +sitting at a near-by table and marked down by Ford—though not by Ford's +companion—listened for some word of enlightenment on the railroad +situation, and was cruelly disappointed.</p> + +<p>"Why wouldn't you talk?" asked Adair, when they were driving down-town +in the young millionaire's auto. "Or rather, why did you persist in +keeping me to the old swords?"</p> + +<p>Ford laughed.</p> + +<p>"For one reason, I enjoy the old swords—as a relaxation. For another, +Mr. Jeffers Hawley, who was once one of the Transcontinental lawyers in +Denver, was sitting just behind you, with eager ears. You didn't know +<a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>that. Hold on a minute; tell your man to stop at the Chemical Bank. I +want you to introduce me to the cashier."</p> + +<p>"Now, what the deuce are you starting a New York bank account for?" +queried Adair, as they came out of the bank together and climbed into +the tonneau of the waiting touring car. "Couldn't you draw on the +treasurer? What's the use of your being the assistant to the president, +I'd like to know?"</p> + +<p>"Wait," was the answer; and the questioner waited, perforce.</p> + +<p>The board was already in session when the two young men were admitted to +the private room in the rear of the Broad Street offices, and Ford was +welcomed as a man who has recklessly steered the ship upon the rocks. +There were even some open recriminations, notably on the part of the +president; but Ford sat quietly under them, making no defense, and +folding and refolding a slip of paper in his fingers as he listened.</p> + +<p>When they gave him leave to speak, he still made no attempt to explain. +Instead, he rose, walked to the other end of the table, and tossed the +bit of folded paper across to Mackie, the broker.</p> + +<p>"I inherited a little money, and I have made and saved enough more to +make it an even twenty thousand dollars," he said. "I don't know of any +more promising investment just now than Pacific Southwestern at +<a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>twenty-nine and a half. Will you be good enough to buy for my account, +Mr. Mackie?"</p> + +<p>The effect was electrical. President Colbrith sat up very straight in +his chair; two or three of the anxious ones opened on Ford with a rapid +fire of questions; and Brewster, the copper magnate, sat back and +chuckled softly in his beard.</p> + +<p>"No, gentlemen; there is no change in the situation, so far as I know. +Of course, you are not so foolish as to let the newspaper talk of the +tie-up at the Chicago elevators influence you," Ford was saying to the +anxious inquirers. "And, apart from that, everything is going our way. +As I have remarked, our stock at the present figure is good enough for +me, and I only wish I had two hundred thousand, instead of twenty +thousand, to put into it."</p> + +<p>Brewster stopped chuckling long enough to hold up a finger to the +broker. "You may buy for my account, too, Mackie, while you are at +it—and keep on buying till I tell you to quit."</p> + +<p>This broke the deadlock instantly, and for a few minutes the board room +was as noisy as the wheat pit with a corner threatening. Brewster, still +laughing in his beard, pulled Ford out of the press at the broker's end +of the table.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to ask only one thing of you, young man," he began, his +shrewd little eyes twinkling. "Just let <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>me know when you are going to +get out, so I can pull through without having to take the bankruptcy."</p> + + +<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/002.png"><img src="images/002-tb.png" alt="Will you be good enough to buy for my account, Mr. +Mackie" title="Will you be good enough to buy for my account, Mr. +Mackie" /></a></div> +<h5>"Will you be good enough to buy for my account, Mr. +Mackie"</h5> + +<p>"I'll do it, Mr. Brewster," laughed Ford. "Only I'm not going to get +out—unless you folks freeze me out."</p> + +<p>"Then it isn't a long bluff on your part?"</p> + +<p>"It is, and it isn't. We still stand to win if we have the nerve to hold +on—in which event P. S-W. at twenty-nine and a fraction is a gold mine. +That's one view of it, and the other is this: we've simply <i>got</i> to +corner our own stock if we expect to sell thirty millions additional +bonds."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess you've gone the right way about it. But are you sure +about these Chicago terminals? A legal friend of mine here says you'll +never get in."</p> + +<p>"He was possibly paid to say it," said Ford hotly. "There has never been +a shadow of doubt touching our trackage rights on the C.P. & D. +contracts, or upon our ability to maintain them. All the +Transcontinental people hoped to do was to make a newspaper stir to help +keep our stock down. They know what we are going to do to them over in +their western territory, and they won't stop at anything to block us."</p> + +<p>"Of course; I think we were all inclined to be a little short-sighted +and pessimistic here, Mr. Ford. When do you go back to your fighting +ground?"</p> + +<p>"To-night."</p> + +<p>"You won't wait to see what happens here?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>"I don't need to, I am sure. And the minutes—my minutes—are worth +dollars to the company just now."</p> + +<p>"Well, go in and win—only don't forget to give me that tip. You +wouldn't want to see a man of my age going to the poorhouse."</p> + +<p>"One other word, Mr. Brewster," Ford begged, as the copper magnate was +pointing for the door of escape. "Please don't let any of these timid +gentlemen sell till we get our bonds floated. You mark my word: the +temptation to make a big killing is going to be very great, within a +week."</p> + +<p>The copper king laughed; openly, this time.</p> + +<p>"You overrate my influence, Mr. Ford; but I'll do what I can—by word of +mouth and by example. You can count on me—as long as you let me stay on +your side of the market."</p> + +<p>Ford had three several invitations to luncheon after the meeting +adjourned, but he accepted none of them. To Adair he made the +declination courteous while they were trundling back to the Waldorf in +the big touring car.</p> + +<p>"I have lost an entire day because I could not take the time to secure a +stenographer before leaving Chicago night before last. I must find one +now and go to work."</p> + +<p>"All right; if you must. But I was hoping I could take you out to +Overlook to dinner this evening. Can't you come anyhow, and take a later +train west?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>"Don't tempt me," said Ford. And then: "The ladies are quite well, I +hope?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; they are in town to-day, and we are all going to luncheon +together—though I shan't know just where until I go to the club. +Failing the dinner, won't you make a knife and fork with us at one +o'clock?"</p> + +<p>"I should like to—more than anything else in the world," Ford +protested, meaning it. "But you'll make my excuses to Mrs. Adair, won't +you? We've simply got to get a three-cornered hustle on now, if we want +to save the day in the West."</p> + +<p>"Why? Is there anything new in that quarter?"</p> + +<p>"There is: something that I didn't dare to mention back yonder in the +board meeting. You may remember that I told you I had left a man in my +place on the Plug Mountain—Frisbie? I had a wire from him, night before +last, just as I was leaving Chicago. As you know, the Pacific +Southwestern inherits, from the old narrow-gauge purchase, the +right-of-way over Plug Pass and down the valley of the Pannikin. Frisbie +wires that the Transcontinental people have begun massing building +material at the terminus of their Saguache branch, only twenty miles +from the Pass."</p> + +<p>"And that means?—I'm lame on geography."</p> + +<p>"It means that they'll cut in ahead of us, if they can. Plug Pass is the +only available unoccupied outlet through the mountains for thirty or +forty miles north <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>or south; and if we don't get our building force on +the ground mighty suddenly, we'll find it fortified and held by the +enemy."</p> + +<p>The touring car had turned into Broadway, and the traffic roar precluded +further talk. But when Ford was dismounting from the tonneau at the +entrance to his hotel, Adair said: "There appears to be no rest for the +wicked. You ought to have some of that thirty million dollars to spend +right now."</p> + +<p>Ford's smile was little more than a sardonic grin.</p> + +<p>"Adair," he said, "I'm going to tell you something else that I didn't +dare tell those money-tremulous people in McVeigh and Mackie's private +office. I have been signing contracts and buying material by the +train-load ever since the first grain shipment was started eastward on +our main line. Also, I've got my engineering corps mobilized, and it +will take the field under Frisbie as its chief not later than to-morrow. +Putting one thing with another, I should say that we are something over +a fresh million of dollars on the wrong side of solvency for these +little antics of mine, and I'm adding to the deficit by the hundred +thousand every time I can get a chance to dictate a letter."</p> + +<p>Adair lighted a cigarette and made a fair show of taking it easily. But +a moment later he was lifting his hat to wipe the perspiration from his +forehead.</p> + +<p>"Lord! but you have the confidence of your convic<a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>tions!" he said, +breathing hard. "If we shouldn't happen to be able to float the bonds—"</p> + +<p>"We are in too deep to admit the 'if.' The bonds must be floated, and at +the earliest possible moment that Magnus will move in it. You wanted +something big enough to keep you interested. I have been trying my best +to accommodate you."</p> + +<p>Adair leaned forward and spoke to his chauffeur. The man watched his +chances for room to turn in the crowded street.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?" asked Ford.</p> + +<p>"Back to McVeigh and Mackie's—where I can watch a ticker and go broke +buying more Pacific Southwestern," was the reply, and just then the +chauffeur found his opening and the big car whirled and plunged into the +down-town stream.</p> + +<p>In the financial news the next morning there was a half-column or more +devoted to the sudden and unaccountable flurry in Pacific Southwestern. +Ford got it in the Pittsburg papers and read it while the picked-up +stenographer was wrestling with his notes. After the drop in the stock, +caused, in the estimation of the writer, by the company's sudden plunge +into railroad buying at wholesale, P. S-W. had recovered with a bound, +advancing rapidly in the closing hours of the day from the lower +thirties to forty-two, with a strong demand. The utmost secrecy was +maintained, but it was <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>shrewdly suspected that one of the great +companies, of which the Pacific Southwestern was now a competitor on an +equal footing for the grain-carrying trade, had gone in to absorb the +new factor in trans-Missouri traffic. Other and more sensational +developments might be expected if the battle should be fought to a +finish. Then followed a brief history of the Pacific Southwestern, with +a somewhat garbled account of the late dash for a Chicago terminal, but +lacking—as Ford remarked gratefully—any hint of the company's designs +in the farther West.</p> + +<p>"If Adair and Brewster and the others only have the nerve to keep it +up!" said Ford to himself. Then he tossed the paper aside and dived once +more into the deep sea of extension building, working the picked-up +stenographer until the young man was ready with his resignation the +moment the final letter was filed for mailing in the Chicago station.</p> + +<p>Five days the young engineer waited for news from New York—waited and +worked like a high-pressure motor while he waited. Each day's financial +news showed the continued and growing success of the home-made "corner," +and now the reporters were predicting that the stock would go to par +before the price should break.</p> + +<p>Ford trembled for the good faith of his backers on the board. When one +has bought at twenty-nine and a <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>half and can sell within the week for +eighty-seven, the temptation is something tremendous. But at the closing +hour of the fifth day the demand was still good; and when Ford reached +the hotel that night there was a telegram from Adair awaiting him.</p> + +<p>He tore it open and read it, with the blood pounding through his veins +and a roar which was not of the street traffic drumming in his ears.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>P. S-W. closed at ninety-two to-day, and a Dutch syndicate will take +the bonds. Success to you in the Western wilderness. Brewster wants +to know how soon you'll reach his Utah copper mines. <span class="smcap">Adair</span>.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h3> + +<h4>HURRY ORDERS</h4> + + +<p>"I'm no cold-water thrower, Ford, as you know. But if I were a +contractor, and you were trying to get me to commit myself to any such +steeplechase, I should say no, and confirm it with a cuss-word."</p> + +<p>It was a week after the successful placing of the Western Extension +building-fund bonds with the Dutch syndicate, and Ford, having ordered +things to his liking on the newly opened Chicago line, had taken the +long step westward to Denver to begin the forging of the third link in +the great railway chain.</p> + +<p>Frisbie, now first assistant engineer in charge of construction, had +come down from Saint's Rest for a conference with his chief, and the +place of conferrings was a quiet corner in one of the balconies +overlooking the vast rotunda of the Brown Palace Hotel; this because the +carpenters were still busy in the suite of rooms set apart for the +offices of the assistant to the president in the Pacific Southwestern +headquarters down-town.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>"You mean that the time is too short?" said Ford, speaking to Frisbie's +emphatic objection.</p> + +<p>"Too short at both ends," contended the little man with the devilish +mustaches and chin beard. "The Copah mining district is one hundred and +twenty miles, as the crow flies, from the summit of Plug Pass—say one +hundred and forty by the line of our survey down the Pannikin, through +the canyon and up to the town. Giving you full credit for more +getting-ready than I supposed any man could compass in the three weeks +you've been at it, I still think it is impossible for us to reach Copah +this season."</p> + +<p>"You must change your belief, Dick," was the curt rejoinder. "This is to +be a campaign, not only of possibilities, but of things done. We go into +Copah with the steel gangs before snow flies."</p> + +<p>"I know; that's what you've been saying all along. But you're looking at +the thing by and large, and I'm figuring on the flinty details. For +example: you'll admit that we can't work to any advantage west of the +mountains until we have made a standard gauge out of the Plug Mountain +branch. How much time have you been allowing for that?"</p> + +<p>"No time at all for the delay: about three weeks, maybe, for the actual +changing of the gauge," said Ford coolly.</p> + +<p>"All right," laughed Frisbie. "Only you'll show us <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>how. It doesn't lie +in the back of my head—or in Crapsey's, unless he's a better man than I +hired him for."</p> + +<p>"Who is Crapsey?"</p> + +<p>"He is a Purdue man that I picked up and started out on the branch to +make figures on the change of gauge. The other three parties, under +Major Benson, Jack Benson and Roy Brissac, are setting the grade stakes +down the Pannikin, and Leckhard is wrestling with the construction +material you've been dumping in upon us at Saint's Rest. That left me +short, and I hired Crapsey."</p> + +<p>"Good. If he is capable, he may do the broadening. Call him in and set +him at it."</p> + +<p>"But, man! Don't you want the figures first?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Dick! I've had those figures for two years, and there's nothing +very complicated about that part of our problem. Call your man in and +let him attack the thing itself."</p> + +<p>"Everything goes: you may consider him recalled. But broadening the Plug +Mountain to standard gauge doesn't put us into Copah this summer, does +it?"</p> + +<p>"No; our necessities will do that for us. See here; let me show you." +Ford took out his note-book and on a blank page of it outlined a rough +map, talking as he sketched. "Three weeks ago you wired me that the +Transcontinental people were massing building material at the terminus +of their Saguache branch."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>"So I did," said Frisbie.</p> + +<p>"And the day before yesterday you wired again to say that it was +apparently a false alarm. What made you change your mind?"</p> + +<p>"They are hauling the stuff away—over to their Green Butte line, I'm +told."</p> + +<p>"Why are they hauling it away?"</p> + +<p>"The bluff—their bluff—was called. We had got busy on Plug Pass, and +they saw there was no hope of cutting in ahead of us at that point."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Now look at this map for a minute. Here is Saint's Rest; here +is the Copah district; and here is Green Butte, the junction of their +narrow gauge with the standard-gauge Salt Lake and Eastern. If you were +on the Transcontinental executive committee and saw an active competing +line about to build a standard-gauge railroad through the Copah district +and on to a connection with your narrow gauge's outlet at Green Butte, +what would you advise?"</p> + +<p>Frisbie nodded. "It's easy, when you know how, isn't it They'll +standardize their narrow gauge to Green Butte, make an iron-clad traffic +contract with the S.L. & E. to exclude us, and build a branch from +Jack's Canyon, say, up into the Copah country." And then in loyal +admiration: "That's what I call the sure word of prophecy—your +specialty, Stuart. How many nights' sleep did you lose figuring that +out?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>"Not any, as it happens," laughed Ford. "It was a straight tip out of +the East. The plan, just about as you've outlined it, was adopted by the +Transcontinental powers that be, sitting in New York last week. By some +means unknown to me, Mr. Adair got wind of it, and made a flying trip to +Chicago to put me on—wouldn't even trust the wire with it. Now you +understand why we've got to wake the Copah echoes with a locomotive +whistle this season."</p> + +<p>"Copah—yes," said Frisbie doubtfully. "But that is only a way station. +What we need is Green Butte and the Pacific coast outlet over the S.L. & +E.; and they stand to euchre us out of that, hands down. What's to +prevent their making that traffic contract with the Mormon people right +now?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing; if the S.L. & E. management were willing. But just here the +political situation in Mormondom fights for us. Last year the +Transcontinental folk turned heaven and earth over to defeat the Mormon +candidate for the United States Senate. The quarrel wasn't quite mortal +enough to stand in the way of a profitable business deal; but all things +being equal, the Salt Lake line will favor us as against its political +enemy."</p> + +<p>"You're sure of that?" queried Frisbie.</p> + +<p>"As sure as one can be of anything that isn't cash down on the +nail—with the money locked up in a safety deposit vault. By the +sheerest good luck, the Mormon <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>president of the S.L. & E. happened to +be in New York at the time when Adair had his ear to the +Transcontinental keyhole. Adair hunted him up and made a hypothetical +case of a sure thing: if our Western Extension and the Transcontinental, +standard-gauged, should be knocking at the Green Butte door at the same +time, what would the S.L. & E. do? The Mormon answer was a bid for +speed; first come, first served. But Adair was given to understand, +indirectly, that on an equal footing, our line would be given the +preference as a friendly ally."</p> + +<p>"Bully for the Mormon! But you say Copah—this summer. When we reach +Copah we are still one hundred and forty miles short of Green Butte. And +if you can broaden the Plug Mountain in three weeks—which you'll still +allow me to doubt—the Transcontinental ought to be able to broaden its +Green Butte narrow gauge in three months."</p> + +<p>"If you had cross-sectioned both lines as I have, you wouldn't stumble +over that," said Ford, falling back, as he commonly did, upon the things +he knew. "We shall broaden the Plug Mountain without straightening a +curve or throwing a shovelful of earth on the embankment, from beginning +to end. On the other hand, the Green Butte narrow gauge runs for seventy +miles through the crookedest canyon a Rocky Mountain river ever got lost +in. There is more heavy rock work to be <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>done in that canyon than on our +entire Pannikin division from start to finish."</p> + +<p>"That's bully for us," quoth the first assistant. "But, all the same, we +shouldn't stop at Copah, this fall."</p> + +<p>"We shall not stop at Copah," was the decisive rejoinder. "The winters +on the western side of the range are much milder than they are here, and +not to be spoken of in the same day with your Minnesota and Dakota +stamping-ground. If we can get well out of the mountains before the +heavy snows come—"</p> + +<p>Frisbie wagged his head.</p> + +<p>"I guess I've got it all, now—after so long a time. We merely break the +record for fast railroad building—all the records—for the next six +months or so. Is that about it?"</p> + +<p>"You've surrounded it," said Ford tersely.</p> + +<p>"Good enough: we're ready to make the break when you give the word. What +are we waiting for?"</p> + +<p>"Just at this present moment, for the contractors."</p> + +<p>"Why, I understood you had closed with the MacMorrogh Brothers," said +Frisbie.</p> + +<p>"No. At the last moment—to relieve me of a responsibility which might +give rise to charges of favoritism, as he put it—Mr. Colbrith took the +bids out of my hands and carried the decision up to the executive +committee. Hence, we wait; and keep a growing army of laborers here +under pay while we wait," said Ford, <a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>with disgust thinly masked. Then +he added: "With all due respect to Mr. Colbrith, he is simply a senile +frost!"</p> + +<p>Frisbie chuckled.</p> + +<p>"Been cooling your fingers, has he? But I understood from the +headquarters people down-town, that the MacMorroghs had a sure thing on +the grading and rock work. Their bid was the lowest, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but not the cheapest for the company, Dick. I've been keeping tab +on the MacMorroghs for a good while: they are grafters; the kind of men +who take it out of the company and out of their labor in a thousand +petty little steals—three profits on the commissary, piece-work for +subs where they know a man's got to lose out, steals on the working +hours, fines and drawbacks and discounts on the pay-rolls, and all that. +You know how it's done."</p> + +<p>"Sure," agreed Frisbie, with his most diabolical grin. "Also, I know how +it keeps the engineering department on the hottest borders of Hades, +trying to hold them down. The good Lord deliver us!"</p> + +<p>"I wanted to throw their bid out without consideration," Ford went on. +"But again Mr. Colbrith said 'No,' adding that the MacMorroghs were old +contractors on the line, and that Mr. North had always spoken very +highly of them."</p> + +<p>"Ah; the fine Italian hand of Mr. North again,"<a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a> said Frisbie. "And that +reminds me: are we going to be at war with the main line operating +department?"</p> + +<p>Ford shook his head. "Not openly, at least. North was down to meet my +train when I came in last night, and you would never have suspected that +I left Denver six weeks ago without his blessing. And now I'm reminded. +I have a luncheon appointment with him at twelve, and a lot of letters +to dictate before I can keep it. Go down and do your wiring for Crapsey, +and if we lose each other this afternoon, I'll meet you here at dinner +this evening."</p> + +<p>It was while Ford was working on his mail, with one of the hotel +stenographers for a helper, that a thick-set, bull-necked man with +Irish-blue eyes and a face two-thirds hidden in a curly tangle of +iron-gray beard, stubbed through the corridor on the Pacific +Southwestern floor of the Guaranty Building, and let himself cautiously +into the general manager's outer office. The private secretary, a +faultlessly groomed young fellow with a suggestion of the Latin races in +his features, looked up and nodded.</p> + +<p>"How are you, Mr. MacMorrogh?" he said; and without waiting for a reply: +"Go on in. Mr. North is expecting you."</p> + +<p>The burly one returned the nod and passed on to the inner room. The +general manager, a sallow, heavy-visaged man who might have passed in a +platform <a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>gathering for a retired manufacturer or a senator from the +Middle West, swung in his pivot-chair to welcome the incomer.</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you, MacMorrogh. Sit down. What's the news from New York?"</p> + +<p>The contractor found a chair; drew it close to the general manager's +desk, and filled it.</p> + +<p>"I'm thinking you'll know more about that than I will, Misther North," +he replied, in a voice that accorded perfectly with the burly figure and +piratical beard. "Ford's fighting us with his fishtes."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked the general manager, holding his chin in his hand—a +gesture known the entire length of the Pacific Southwestern as a signal +of trouble brewing, for somebody.</p> + +<p>"God knows, then; I don't," said the MacMorrogh. "I wint to Chicago to +see him when the bid was in, and d'ye think he would lave me talk it +over with him? Not him! Wan day he'd be too busy; and the next, I'd have +to call again. 'Twas good for him I was not me brother Dan. Dan would've +kicked the dure in and t'rown him out av the windy."</p> + +<p>The wan ghost of a smile flitted across the impassive face of the big +man at the desk.</p> + +<p>"Let me tell you something, MacMorrogh. If you, or your brother Dan, +ever find it necessary to go after Ford, don't give him notice by +battering down doors.<a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a> You won't, I know. But about the contract: you +haven't heard from the executive committee?"</p> + +<p>"Not the half of wan wor-rd."</p> + +<p>"Have you any idea of what is causing the delay?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis dommed well I know, Misther North. Ford is keeping the wires hot +against us. If I could have Misther Colbrith here with you for wan five +minutes—"</p> + +<p>The general manager broke in, following his own line of thought.</p> + +<p>"Ford is in Denver; he came in from Chicago last night. Why don't you go +up to the Brown and have it out with him?"</p> + +<p>"Fight it out, d'ye mean?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not. Make friends with him."</p> + +<p>The contractor sat back in his chair and plunged his stubby hands deep +into his pockets.</p> + +<p>"Give me the sthraight tip, Misther North."</p> + +<p>"It ought to suggest itself to you. This is a big job, with a great deal +of money passing. Your profits, over and above what you will make out of +the company, will be quite large. Ford is an ambitious young man, and he +is not building railroads for his health."</p> + +<p>The MacMorrogh was nodding slowly. Nevertheless, he made difficulties.</p> + +<p>"Me hand's not light enough for that, Misther North."</p> + +<p>Again the general manager smiled.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>"You require a deal of prompting, sometimes, Brian. What's the matter +with a trusty go-between?"</p> + +<p>"H'm, that's it, now. But where to lay me finger on the right man. 'Tis +a risk to run—with a yooung fire-brand like Ford holding the other end +iv the string."</p> + +<p>"Still I think the man can be found. But first we must make sure of your +contract, with or without Ford. Your suggestion about taking the matter +up with Mr. Colbrith in person strikes me favorably. Can you spare the +time to go to New York?"</p> + +<p>"Sure I can."</p> + +<p>"At once?"</p> + +<p>"The wan minute for sthriking is whin the iron's hot, Misther North."</p> + +<p>The general manager put aside the thick file of papers he had been +examining when MacMorrogh entered, and began to set his desk in order.</p> + +<p>"I have been thinking I might make it convenient to go with you. I +presume you have no objection to going as my guest in the Naught-Seven?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis an honor you're doing me, Misther North, and I'll not be +forgetting it."</p> + +<p>"Not at all. There are some matters connected with this contract that +I'd like to talk over with you privately, and if we can agree upon them, +I may be able to help you with Mr. Colbrith and the executive +committee."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>The general manager pressed one of the electric buttons on the side of +the desk, and to the clerk who answered gave a brief order: "Have the +Naught-Seven provisioned and made up to go east as a special at +twelve-ten to-day. Tell Despatcher Darby to make the schedule +fast—nineteen hours or less to the River."</p> + +<p>The clerk nodded and disappeared, and North turned again to MacMorrogh.</p> + +<p>"Now about that other matter: I'll find you a go-between to approach +Ford; but to be quite frank with you, you'll have to be liberal with the +young man for his services. When you go into the diplomatic field, you +have to spend money." He was pressing another of the electric buttons as +he spoke, and to the office boy who put his face in at the door, he +said: "Ask Mr. Eckstein to step in here a minute."</p> + +<p>It was the private secretary, the well-groomed young man with the alien +eyes and nose who answered the summons. North gave him his instructions +in a curt sentence.</p> + +<p>"Mr. MacMorrogh would like to have a little talk with you, Eckstein: +take him into the other room where you can be undisturbed."</p> + +<p>It was half an hour later when the door of the library opened to readmit +the private secretary and the contractor, and in the interval the +division superintendent's clerk had returned to say that the special +train schedule <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>was made up, and that the Naught-Seven would be waiting +at the Union Station at twelve-ten.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said the general manager, lifting a slow eyebrow at MacMorrogh +and compressing into the single word his wish to know what had been done +in the conference of two.</p> + +<p>"'Tis all right, Misther North," said the contractor, rubbing his hands. +"'Tis a crown jewel ye have in this yooung—"</p> + +<p>North cut the eulogy short in a word to his secretary.</p> + +<p>"I go east, special, at twelve-ten, Eckstein, as Mr. MacMorrogh has +probably told you. I have a luncheon appointment at twelve with Mr. +Ford. Meet him when he comes, and make my excuses—without telling him +anything he ought not to know. If you can take my place as his host, do +so; but in any event, keep him from finding out where we have gone until +we are well on the way. That's all."</p> + +<p>This was why Ford, walking the few blocks from his hotel at noon to keep +his engagement with North, found the general manager's private office +closed, and a suave, soft-spoken young man with a foreign cast of +countenance waiting to make his superior's excuses.</p> + +<p>"Mr. North was called out of town quite unexpectedly on a wire," was the +private secretary's explanation. "He tried to telephone you at the +Brown, but the operator couldn't find you. He left me to explain, and +I've been <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>wondering if you'd let me take his place as your host, Mr. +Ford."</p> + +<p>Now Ford's attitude toward his opponents was, by reason of his gifts, +openly belligerent; wherefore he fought against it and tried to be as +other men are.</p> + +<p>"I am sure Mr. North is quite excusable, and it is good-natured in you +to stand in the breach, Mr. Eckstein," he said. "Of course, I'll be glad +to go with you."</p> + +<p>They went to Tortoni's, and to a private room; and the luncheon was an +epicurean triumph. Eckstein talked well, and was evidently a young man +of parts. Not until the cigars were lighted did he suffer the table-talk +to come down to the railroad practicalities; and even then he merely +followed Ford's lead.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; we have made arrangements to give you a clear deck in the +Denver yards for your material and supplies," he said, in answer to a +question of Ford's about side-track room and yard facilities at the +point which would have to serve as his base. "Following your orders, we +have been forwarding all that your Plug Mountain rolling stock could +handle, but there is considerable more of it side-tracked here. After +the MacMorrogh grading outfit has gone to the front, we shall have more +room, however."</p> + +<p>"The MacMorrogh outfit?" queried Ford. "Do they store it in our yards?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. They have a pretty complete railroad yard <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>of their own at +their headquarters in Pueblo. But they have three train-loads of tools +and machinery here now, waiting for your orders to send them to the +front."</p> + +<p>Ford weighed the possibilities thoughtfully and concluded that nothing +could be lost by a frank declaration of principles.</p> + +<p>"They have given you folks a wrong impression, Mr. Eckstein," he said +mildly. "The contract for the grading on the Western Extension is not +yet awarded; and if I can compass it, the MacMorrogh Brothers' bid will +be thrown out."</p> + +<p>The private secretary tried to look mystified, with just the proper +touch of a subordinate's embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"I'm only a clerk, Mr. Ford," he said, "and, of course, I'm not supposed +to know more than I see and hear in the regular way of business. But I +understood that the MacMorroghs were in the saddle; that they were only +waiting for you to provide track-room at Saint's Rest for their tool +cars and outfit."</p> + +<p>"No," said Ford. "It hasn't got that far along yet."</p> + +<p>Eckstein looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>"Don't let me keep you, if there is anything else you want to do, Mr. +Ford; but I'll confess you've aroused my curiosity. What is the matter +with the MacMorroghs?"</p> + +<p>Ford answered the question by asking another.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>"Do you know them, Mr. Eckstein?"</p> + +<p>"Why—yes; as Mr. North's chief clerk would be likely to know the firm +of contractors which has been given a good share of the Pacific +Southwestern work for a number of years."</p> + +<p>"Do you know any good of them?"</p> + +<p>"Bless me! yes: I don't know anything else of them. Three hearty, bluff, +rough-tongued Irishmen; lacking diplomacy and all the finer touches, if +you like, but good fellows and hustlers of the keenest."</p> + +<p>Ford fastened his companion in a steady eye-grip. "One question, Mr. +Eckstein; do they play fair with all concerned?"</p> + +<p>"They are more than fair; they are generous—with the company, and with +the company's representatives with whom they have to do business. On two +contracts with us they have lost money; but I happen to know that in +both instances they kept their promises to the engineering department to +the letter."</p> + +<p>Ford had cast off the eye-grip and he appeared to be studying the fresco +design of the ceiling over the private secretary's head.</p> + +<p>"And those promises were—?"</p> + +<p>Eckstein laughed boyishly. "You needn't make a mystery of it with me, +Mr. Ford. I'm one of the family, if I haven't any initials after my +name. I know—we all know—that there are certain profits—not made out +of <a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>the company, of course—that a contractor is always willing to share +with his good friends, the engineers."</p> + +<p>Ford's attitude instantly became that of a freshman wishing to learn the +ropes.</p> + +<p>"Consider me, Mr. Eckstein," he said. "I'm new to the construction +business—or at least, I've never been at the head of it before. What +are these—er—perquisites?"</p> + +<p>The private secretary thought he had entered the thin edge of the wedge +and he drove it heartily.</p> + +<p>"They are perfectly legitimate, of course. The contractors run a +commissary to supply the workmen—nobody suspects them of doing it at +cost. Then there are the fines imposed to secure faithful work, the <i>per +capita</i> commission paid on the labor sent in by the engineers, the +discounts on time-checks, the weekly hospital and insurance dues +collected from the men. All those things amount to a good round profit +on a contract like ours."</p> + +<p>"To about how much, in figures, should you say?" queried Ford, with an +air of the deepest interest.</p> + +<p>"To enough to make your share, as head of the construction department, +touch ten thousand a year, on a job as big as ours—with a liberal +provision for Mr. Frisbie, besides."</p> + +<p>Ford blew reflective smoke rings toward the ceiling for a full minute or +more before he said quietly: "Do I understand that you are authorized to +guarantee me ten <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>thousand a year in commissions from the MacMorrogh +Brothers, Mr. Eckstein?"</p> + +<p>Eckstein laughed.</p> + +<p>"You forget that I'm only a clerk, and an onlooker, as you may say. But +if you accept MacMorrogh's bid, and he doesn't do the square thing by +you and Mr. Frisbie, you may call me in as a witness, Mr. Ford. Does +that clear up the doubt?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly," was the quiet rejoinder. "Under these conditions, I suppose +it is up to me to wire the executive committee, withdrawing my +objections to the MacMorroghs, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"That is the one thing Mr. MacMorrogh asks." The secretary whipped out a +note-book and pencil. "Shall I take your message? I can send it when I +go back to the office."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Ford; then he began to dictate, slowly and +methodically: "To S.J. Colbrith, care McVeigh and Mackie, New York. This +is to recall my objections to MacMorrogh Brothers, as stated in letter +of the twenty-fifth from Chicago. Further investigation develops the +fact that they are quite honest and capable, and that they will pay me +ten thousand dollars a year for withdrawing my opposition."</p> + +<p>Eckstein's pencil had stopped and he was gasping for breath.</p> + +<p>"Great Scott!" he ejaculated. "That won't do, Mr. <a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>Ford! You can't put +a thing like that into a telegram to the president!"</p> + + +<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/003.png"><img src="images/003-tb.png" alt="Eckstein's pencil had stopped and he was gasping for +breath" title="Eckstein's pencil had stopped and he was gasping for +breath" /></a></div> +<h5>Eckstein's pencil had stopped and he was gasping for +breath</h5> + +<p>"Why not?" was the cool inquiry. "You said it was perfectly legitimate, +didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but—" the entrance of a waiter to clear the table provided a +merciful stop-gap, and Eckstein, hurriedly consulting his watch, +switched abruptly. "By Jove! I'm due at the office this minute to meet a +lot of cattlemen," he stammered, and escaped like a man hastening for +first aid to the mistaken.</p> + +<p>Ford laughed long and silently when he found himself alone in the +private dining-room; and he was still chuckling by fits and starts when, +after an afternoon spent with Auditor Evans, he recounted his adventure +to Frisbie over the Brown café dinner table that evening. But Frisbie +took all the humor out of the luncheon episode when he said soberly:</p> + +<p>"He laughs best who laughs last, Stuart. Eckstein took a fall out of you +one way, even if he did fail in the other; he kept you safely shut up at +Tortoni's while Mr. North and the chief of the MacMorroghs got away on a +special train for New York. Beard, the Union Station operator, told me. +Which means that they'll have a full day with Mr. Colbrith and the +executive committee before you can possibly get there to butt in."</p> + +<p>"No, it doesn't; necessarily," Ford contradicted, rising suddenly and +signaling a waiter.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>"What are you going to do?" queried Frisbie, dropping his knife and +fork and preparing to second his chief.</p> + +<p>"Come and see. I'm going to get out another special train and give Mr. +North a run for his money," was the incisive answer. "Hike down to the +despatcher's office with me and help cut out the minutes."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h3> + +<h4>THE ENTERING WEDGE</h4> + + +<p>Has civilized humanity, in the plenitude of twentieth century +sophistication, fully determined that there is no such thing as +luck?—that all things are ordered, if not by Providence, at least by an +unchangeable sequence of cause and effect?</p> + +<p>Stuart Ford was a firm believer in the luck of the energetic; which is +to say that he regarded obstacles only as things to be beaten down and +abolished. But in the dash to overtake and pass the general manager's +one-car special, the belief was shaken almost to its reversal.</p> + +<p>He knew the Pacific Southwestern locomotives—and something of the men +who ran them. The 1016 was one of the fast eight-wheelers; and Olson, +the engineer, who had once pulled passenger on the Plug Mountain, was +loyal and efficient. Happily, both the man and the machine were +available; and while Frisbie was calling up the division superintendent +at his house to ask the loan <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>of his private car for the assistant to +the president, Ford was figuring the schedule with the despatcher, and +insisting upon speed—more speed.</p> + +<p>"What's come over you big bosses, all at once?" said Darby, to whom +Ford's promotion was no bar to fellowship or free speech. "First Mr. +North wants me to schedule a special that will break the record; and now +you want to string one that will beat his record."</p> + +<p>"Never mind my troubles, Julius," was the evasive reply. "Just you +figure to keep things out of my way and give me a clear track. Let's +see—where were we? Cheyenne Crossing at 2 a.m., water at Riddle Creek, +coal at Brockton—"</p> + +<p>The schedule was completed when Frisbie came back to say that the 1016, +with the superintendent's car attached, was waiting on track Six. Ford +went down, looked the gift horse in the mouth, and had the running gear +of the car overhauled under his own supervision before he would give +Olson the word to go, pressing the night car inspectors into service and +making them repack the truck journals while he waited.</p> + +<p>"I'm taking no chances," he said to Frisbie; and truly it seemed that +all the hindrances had been carefully forestalled when he finally +boarded the "01" and ordered his flagman to give Olson the signal. Yet +before the one-car train was well out of the Denver yards there was a +jolting stop, and the flagman came in to report that the <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>engine had +dropped from the end of an open switch, blocking the main line.</p> + +<p>Ford got out and directed the reënrailment of the 1016, carefully +refraining from bullying the big Swede, whose carelessness must have +been accountable. It was the simplest of accidents, with nothing broken +or disabled. Under ordinary conditions, fifteen minutes should have +covered the loss of time. But the very haste with which the men wrought +was fatal. Enrailing frogs have a way of turning over at the critical +instant when the wheels are climbing, and jack-screws bottomed on the +tie-ends do not always hold.</p> + +<p>Eight several times were the jack-screws adjusted and the frogs clamped +into position; but not until the ninth trial could the perverse wheels +be induced to roll workmanlike up the inclined planes and into place on +the rails. Ford looked at his watch when his special was free of the +switches and Olson was speeding up on the first long tangent. With the +chase still in its opening mile, Mr. North's lead had been increased +from seven hours to eight.</p> + +<p>Leaving Denver on the spur of the moment, Ford had necessarily left many +things at a standstill; and his first care, after he had assured himself +that the race was fairly begun, was to write out a handful of telegrams +designed to keep the battle alive during his enforced absence from the +firing line. The superintend<a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>ent's desk was hospitably unlocked, and for +a busy half-hour Ford filled blank after blank, steadying himself +against the pounding swing of the heavily ballasted car with a +left-handed grip on the desk end. When there remained no one else to +remind, he wrote out a message to Adair, forecasting the threatened +disaster, and urging the necessity of rallying the reconstructionists on +the board of directors.</p> + +<p>"That ought to stir him up," he said to himself, bunching Adair's +telegram with the others to be sent from the first stop where the +Western Union wires could be tapped. Then he whirled around in the swing +chair and scowled up at the little dial in the end of the car; scowled +at the speed-recorder, and went to the door to summon the flagman.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with Olson?" he demanded. "Has he forgotten how to +run since he left the Plug Mountain? Climb up over the coal and tell him +that forty miles an hour won't do for me to-night."</p> + +<p>The flagman picked up his lantern and went forward; and in a minute or +two later the index finger of the speed-recorder began to mount slowly +toward the fifties. At fifty-two miles to the hour, Ford, sitting in the +observation end of the car where he could see the ghostly lines of the +rails reeling backward into the night, smelled smoke—the unmistakable +odor of burning oil. In three strides he had reached the rear platform, +and <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>a fourth to the right-hand railing showed him one of the car-boxes +blazing to heaven.</p> + +<p>He pulled the cord of the air-whistle, and after the stop stood by in +sour silence while the crew repacked the hot box. Since he had made the +car inspectors carefully overhaul the truck gear in the Denver station, +there was no one to swear at. Olson bossed the job, did it neatly and in +silence, and no one said anything when the fireman, in his haste to be +useful, upset the dope-kettle and got its contents well sanded before he +had overtaken it in its rolling flight down the embankment.</p> + +<p>Ford turned away and climbed into his car at the dope-kettle incident. +There are times when retreat is the only recipe for self-restraint; and +in imagination he could see the general manager's special ticking off +the miles to the eastward while his own men were sweating over the +thrice-accursed journal-bearing under the "01."</p> + +<p>Now, as every one knows, hot boxes, besides being perversely incurable, +are the sworn enemies of high speed. At forty miles to the hour the +journal was smoking again. At forty-five it burst into flames. Once more +it was patiently cooled by bucketings of water drawn from the engine +tank; after which necessary preliminary Olson spoke his mind.</p> + +<p>"Ay tank ve never get someveres vit dat hal-fer-damn brass, Meester +Ford. Ay yust see if Ay can't find 'noder <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>wone." And he rummaged in the +car lockers till he did find another.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, however, the spare brass proved to be of the wrong +pattern; a Pullman, instead of a P. S-W. standard. Olson was a trained +mechanic and a man of resources, and he chipped and filed and scraped at +the misfit brass until he made it serve. But when he climbed again to +the cab of his engine, and Ford swung up to the steps of the car, the +white headlight eye of an east-bound freight, left at a siding a full +hour's run to the rear, came in sight from the observation platform of +the laboring special.</p> + +<p>These were the inauspicious beginnings of the pursuit; and the middle +part and the ending varied only in degree. All the way up to midnight, +at which hour a station of a bigness to supply a standard brass was +reached, the tinkered journal-bearing gave trouble and killed speed. Set +once more in running order upon its full quota of sixteen practicable +wheels, the special had fallen so far behind its Denver-planned schedule +as not only to be in the way of everything else on the division, but to +find everything else in its way. Ford held on stubbornly until the lead +of the train he was trying to outrun had increased to twelve hours. Then +he gave it up, directing his crew to turn the train on the nearest "Y," +and to ask for retracing orders to Denver. After which he went to bed in +the state-room of the borrowed <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>car, and for the first time in his +experience was a man handsomely beaten by the perversity of insensate +things.</p> + +<p>The request for the retracing orders was sent from Coquina; and when it +came clicking into the despatcher's office at Denver, a sleep-sodden +young man with an extinct cigar between his teeth rose up out of his +chair, stretched, yawned, and pointed for the door.</p> + +<p>"Going to leave us, Mr. Eckstein?" said the trick despatcher who was +sitting at the train table.</p> + +<p>"Yes. If Mr. Ford has changed his mind, I may as well go home and go to +bed."</p> + +<p>"Reckon he forgot something, and has to come back after it?" laughed the +operator.</p> + +<p>"Maybe," said the private secretary, and he went out, shutting the door +behind him with the bat-like softness and precision that was his +distinguishing characteristic.</p> + +<p>The sounders were clicking monotonously when the trick man turned to the +relief operator who was checking Darby's transfer sheet.</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose Eckstein was up to, sitting here all night, Jim?"</p> + +<p>"Give it up," said the relief man. "Ask me something easy."</p> + +<p>"I'll bet a hen worth fifty dollars I can guess. He didn't want Mr. Ford +to make time."</p> + +<p>The relief man looked up from his checking.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>"Why? He didn't do anything. He was asleep more'n half the time."</p> + +<p>"Don't you fool yourself," said the other. "He heard every word that +came in about that hot box. And if the hot box hadn't got in the way, +I'll bet a cockerel worth seventy-five dollars, to go with that +fifty-dollar hen, that he would have tangled me up somehow till I had +shuffled a freight train or something in Mr. Ford's way. He's Mr. +North's man, body and soul; and Mr. North doesn't love Mr. Ford."</p> + +<p>"Oh, rats, Billy!" scoffed the relief man, getting up to fill his +corn-cob pipe from the common tobacco bag. "You're always finding a +nigger in the wood-pile, when there isn't any. Say; that's 201 asking +for orders from Calotte. Why don't you come to life and answer 'em?"</p> + +<p>Frisbie, breakfasting early at the Brown Palace on the morning following +the night of hinderings, was more than astonished when Ford came in and +took the unoccupied seat at the table-for-two.</p> + +<p>"Let me eat first," said the beaten one, when Frisbie would have whelmed +him with curious questions; and with the passing of the cutlets and the +coffee he told the tale of the hindrances.</p> + +<p>"I guess it was foreordained not to be," he admitted, in conclusion. "We +tried mighty hard to bully it through, but the fates were too many and +too busy for us."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>"Tricks?" suggested Frisbie, suspecting North of covering his flight +with special instructions to delay a possible pursuit.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; nothing of that sort: just the cursed depravity of inanimate +things. Every man concerned worked hard and in good faith. It was luck. +No one of us happened to have a rabbit's foot in his pocket."</p> + +<p>"You don't believe in luck," laughed the assistant.</p> + +<p>"Don't I? I know I used to say that I didn't. But after last night I +can't be so sure of it."</p> + +<p>"Well, what's the cost to us?" inquired Frisbie, coming down out of the +high atmosphere of the superstitious to stand upon the solid earth of +railway-building fact.</p> + +<p>"I don't know: possibly failure. There is no guessing what sort of a +scheme North will cook up when he and MacMorrogh get Mr. Colbrith +<i>cornered</i>."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it can't be as bad as that. Take it at the worst—admitting that we +may have to struggle along with the MacMorroghs for our general +contractors; they can't addle the egg entirely, can they?"</p> + +<p>Ford tabulated it by length and breadth.</p> + +<p>"With the MacMorroghs in the forefront of things to steal and cheat and +make trouble with the labor, and Mr. North in the rear to back them up +and to retard matters generally, we are in for a siege to which +purgatory, if we ever go there, will seem restful, Rich<a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>ard my son. Our +one weapon is my present ranking authority over the general manager. If +he ever succeeds in breaking that, you fellows in the field would better +hunt you another railroad to build."</p> + +<p>"It's a comfort to know that you <i>are</i> the big boss, Stuart. North can't +knock you out of that when it comes to a show-down."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Ford, whose night ride had made him pessimistic. "I +am Mr. Colbrith's appointee, you know—not an elected officer. And what +Mr. Colbrith has done, he may be induced to undo. Adair has been my +backer in everything; but while he is the best fellow in the world, he +is continually warning me that he may lose interest in the game at any +minute and drop it. He doesn't care a rap for the money-making part of +it—doesn't have to."</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't Adair be a good safety-switch to throw in front of Mr. North +and MacMorrogh in New York?"</p> + +<p>Ford nodded. "I thought of that last night, and sent a wire. We'll hear +from it to-day."</p> + +<p>Frisbie ate through the remainder of the breakfast in silence. +Afterward, at the pipe-lighting, he asked if Ford's wire instructions of +the night before still held good.</p> + +<p>"They do," was the emphatic reply. "We go on just as if nothing had +happened, or was due to happen. You say your man Crapsey will be in this +morning: gather <a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>up your laborers and turn the Plug Mountain into a +standard-gauge railroad while we wait. That's all, Dick; all but one +word—hustle."</p> + +<p>"Hustle it is. But say: you were going to give me a pointer on that +broad-gauging. I've been stewing over it for a day and a night, and I +don't think of any scheme that won't stop the traffic."</p> + +<p>"Don't you? That is because you haven't mulled over it as long as I +have. In the first place, you have no curves to straighten and no +cross-ties to relay—our predecessors having set the good example of +using standard length ties for their three-foot road. String your men +out in gangs as far as they'll go, and swing the three-foot track, as a +whole, ten inches out of center to the left. You can do that without +stopping trains, can't you?"</p> + +<p>"Sure."</p> + +<p>"All right. When you swing, spike the right-hand rail lightly. Then +string your gangs again and set a line of spikes for the outside of the +standard-gauge right-hand rail straight through to Saint's Rest. Got +that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I guess I've got it all. But go on."</p> + +<p>"Now you are ready for the grand-stand play. Call in all your +narrow-gauge rolling stock, mass your men at this end of the branch, +shove the right-hand rail over to the line of gauge spikes in sections +as long as your force will cover, and follow up with a standard-gauge +construc<a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>tion train to pick up the men and carry them forward as fast as +a section is completed. If you work it systematically, a freight train +could leave Denver two hours behind your track-gangs and find a +practical standard gauge all the way to Saint's Rest."</p> + +<p>"Of course!" said Frisbie, in workmanlike disgust for his own +obtuseness. "I'm going back to the Tech when your railroad is finished +and learn a few things. I couldn't think of anything but the old Erie +Railroad scheme, when it was narrowed down from the six-foot gauge. They +did it in one night; but they had a man to every second cross-tie over +the whole four hundred miles from New York to Buffalo."</p> + +<p>Ford nodded, adding:</p> + +<p>"And we're not that rich in labor. By the way, how are the men coming?"</p> + +<p>"A car-load or two, every little while. Say, Stuart, you must have had a +rabbit's foot with you when you touched up the eastern labor agencies. +Every other railroad in this neck of woods is skinned, and M'Grath is +having the time of his life trying to hold our levies together. There is +a small army of them under canvas at Saint's Rest, waiting for the +contractors, and another with between two and three hundred hands camped +at the mouth of the canyon."</p> + +<p>Ford knocked the ashes from his pipe so hard that the pipestem fell in +two.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>"Yes! all waiting on Mr. Colbrith's leisurely motions! Well, jump in on +the Plug Mountain. That will utilize some of the waste for a few days."</p> + +<p>Frisbie went down to the Plug Mountain yard office, and to a wire-end, +to begin the marshaling of his forces; and Ford, with three picked-up +stenographers to madden him, took up the broken threads of his +correspondence with a world which seemed to have become suddenly peopled +to suffocation with eager sellers of railroad material and supplies.</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon, when he was tired enough to feel the full force +of the blow, a New York telegram came. It was from Miss Alicia Adair, +and Ford groaned in spirit when he read it.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Brother left here yesterday in the Vanderdecken yacht for Nova +Scotia. Can not reach him by telegraph until next Friday or +Saturday. Aunt Hester wants to know if there is anything she can +do. </p></div> + +<p>One way to save a man's life at a crisis is to appeal to his sense of +humor. Miss Alicia's closing sentence did that for Ford, and he was +smiling grimly when he put the telegram away, not in the business file, +but in his pocket.</p> + +<p>Three days later, however, when Frisbie was half-way to Saint's Rest +with his preliminary track-swinging, another New York telegram found +Ford in his newly established quarters in the Guaranty Building. This +was <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>from some one acting as President Colbrith's secretary, and its +wording was concisely mandatory.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Contract has been awarded MacMorrogh Brothers. President directs +that you afford contractors every facility, and that you confer +with Mr. North in all cases of doubt. </p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h3> + +<h4>THE BARBARIANS</h4> + + +<p>It was some little time after the rock had begun to fly from the +cuttings on the western slopes of the mountains that Kenneth, summoned +by Ford, made the run from Denver to Saint's Rest over the standardized +Plug Mountain branch and found the engineer-manager living in a +twenty-foot caboose car fitted as a hotel and an office-on-wheels.</p> + +<p>The occasion of Kenneth's calling was a right-of-way dispute on the +borders of the distant Copah mining district; some half-dozen mining +claims having been staked off across the old S.L. & W. survey. The +owners, keen to make a killing out of the railroad company, threatened +injunctions if the P. S-W. persisted in trespassing upon private +property; and Ford, suspecting shrewdly that the mine men were set on by +the Transcontinental people to delay the work on the new line, made +haste to shift his responsibility to the legal shoulders.</p> + +<p>"If I hadn't known you for a pretty good mountain<a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>eer, Kenneth, you +would have missed this," he said, making his guest free of the limited +hospitality of the caboose-hotel. "Are you good for a +two-hundred-and-eighty-mile cayuse ride, there and back, on the same +trail we tramped over a year ago last spring?"</p> + +<p>"I'm good for everything on the bill of fare," was the heartening reply. +"How are things going?"</p> + +<p>Ford's rejoinder began with a non-committal shrug. "We're building a +railroad, after a fashion."</p> + +<p>"After a good fashion, I hope?"</p> + +<p>Another shrug.</p> + +<p>"We're doing as well as we can with the help we have. But about this +right-of-way tangle—" and he plunged his guest into a discussion of the +Copah situation which ran on unbroken until bedtime.</p> + +<p>They took the westward trail together in the morning, mounted upon wiry +little mountain-bred ponies furnished by one Pacheco, the half-breed +Mexican who had once earned an easy double-eagle by spying upon two men +who were out hunting with an engineer's transit. For seven weeks Frisbie +had been pushing things, and the grade from Saint's Rest to the summit +of the pass was already a practicable wagon road, deserted by the +leveling squads and ready for the ties and the steel.</p> + +<p>From the summit of the pass westward, down the mountain and through the +high-lying upper valley of the Pannikin, the grade work was in full +swing. The <a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>horse trail, sometimes a rough cart-road, but oftener a mere +bridle-path, followed the railroad in its loopings and doublings; and on +the mountain sections where the work was heaviest the two riders were +never out of sight of the heavily manned grading gangs.</p> + +<p>"To a man up a tree you appear to be doing a whole lot, and doing it +quickly, Ford," commented the lawyer, when they had passed camp after +camp of the workers. Then he added: "You are not having any trouble with +the MacMorroghs, are you?"</p> + +<p>"Not what the legal department would call trouble," answered Ford +evasively; and for ten other miles the narrowness of the bridle-path +discouraged conversation.</p> + +<p>Farther down in the valley of the Pannikin the activities were less +thickly sown. On many sections the work was light; no more than the +throwing up of an embankment in the park-like intervales, with now and +then a rock-or earth-cutting through some jutting spur of the inclosing +mountains. Here the men were bunched on the rock work and the fills, +though the camp sites were commonly in the park-like interspaces where +wood and water, the two sole commodities for which the contractors could +make no deductions on the pay-roll, lay conveniently at the doors of the +rude sleeping shacks.</p> + +<p>Since he was not required to talk, Kenneth had time to be curiously +observant of many things in passing. Each camp was the fellow of its +neighbor; a chaotic <a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>collection of hastily built bunk shanties, a mess +tent for those who, shunning the pay-devouring Scylla of the +contractors' "commissary," fell into the Charybdis of the common table, +and always, Kenneth remarked, the camp groggery, with its slab-built +bar, its array of ready-filled pocket bottles, and its sad-faced, +slouch-hatted, pistol-carrying keeper.</p> + +<p>"What is that Bible-saying about the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty +land?" said Kenneth, as they were passing one of the wilderness +bar-rooms buttressing a huge boulder by the trail side. "I should think +you'd rule those fellows emphatically and peremptorily out of the game, +Ford. They must make a lot of trouble for you, first and last."</p> + +<p>"They do," was the sober response. "But how would you go about it to +rule them out?"</p> + +<p>The lawyer laughed. "My writs don't run this far. But I thought yours +did. Why don't you fire 'em bodily; tell 'em their number is +23—skiddoo! Aren't you the Sublime Porte—the court of last resort—the +big boss—over here?"</p> + +<p>Ford pulled his horse down to a walk.</p> + +<p>"Kenneth, let me tell you: behind those barkeepers are the contractors; +behind the contractors is Mr. North; behind Mr. North, the president. My +little lever isn't long enough to turn the world over."</p> + +<p>"Pshaw!" said Kenneth. "Mr. Colbrith wouldn't <a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>stand for anything like +that! Why, he's a perfect fanatic on the whisky question."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," said Ford acidly. "It doesn't go as far as Mr. +Colbrith in the matter of the debauching particulars. It stops in +Denver; and Mr. Colbrith approves Denver in the lump—signs the vouchers +without looking at them, as Evans would say. I tell you what I +believe—what I am compelled to believe. These individual saloon-keepers +are supposed to be in here on their own hook, on sufferance. They are +not; they are merely the employees of a close corporation. Among the +profit sharers you'll find the MacMorroghs at the top, and Mr. North's +little ring of Denver officials close seconds."</p> + +<p>"Do you honestly believe that, Ford?"</p> + +<p>"I do. I can't prove it, of course. If I could, I'd go to New York and +fight it out. And the whisky isn't all of it, or even the worst: there +are women in some of these camps, and there would be more if Leckhard +didn't stand guard at Saint's Rest and turn them back."</p> + +<p>"Heavens—what a cesspool!" said the attorney. "Does a laboring man ever +get out of here with any of his earnings?"</p> + +<p>"Not if the MacMorroghs can help it. And you can figure for yourself +what the moral atmosphere must be. We are less than two months old on +the work, but already the Western Extension is a streak of crime; crime +unpunished, and at times tacitly encouraged. You may <a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>say that my +department isn't responsible—that this is the contractors' day and +game. If that is true now—which it isn't—it will no longer be true +when we come in with our own employees, the track-layers."</p> + +<p>But now Kenneth was shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"I can't believe it, Ford. You're blue because Mr. Colbrith has thrown +Mr. North into your boat as ballast. I don't blame you: but you mustn't +let it make you color-blind."</p> + +<p>Ford said nothing. The day was yet young, and the long journey was still +younger. It was at the noon halt, made at a subcontractor's camp near a +great earth-cutting and a huge fill, that Kenneth had his object lesson.</p> + +<p>They were standing at the door of the timekeeper's shanty—they had been +the timekeeper's guests for the noon meal—and the big gang of Italians, +with its inevitable Irish foreman, was already at work. Out at the head +of the great fill a dozen men were dumping the carts as they came in an +endless stream from the cutting. Suddenly there was a casting down of +shovels, a shrill altercation, a clinch, a flash of steel in the August +sunlight, and one of the disputants was down, his heels drumming on the +soft earth in the death agony.</p> + +<p>"Good God!" said Kenneth. "It's a murder!" and he would have rushed in +if Ford and the timekeeper had not held him back.</p> + +<p>The object lesson was sufficiently shocking, but its <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>sequel was still +more revolting. Without one to kneel beside the dying man; indeed, +without waiting until the drumming heels were still; the men callously +put their shovels under the body, slid it over the lip of the dump and +left it to be covered by the tumbling cataract of earth pouring from the +tip-carts whose orderly procession had scarcely been interrupted by the +tragedy.</p> + +<p>Kenneth was silent for many minutes after they had left the camp of the +Italians. He was a Western man only by adoption; of Anglo-Saxon blood, +and so unable to condone the Latin's disregard for the sacredness of +human life.</p> + +<p>"That was simply terrible, Ford," he said finally, and his voice was +still in sympathy with the shaking hand that held the bridle-reins. +"Will nothing be done?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing; unless the murdered man chances to have relatives or clansmen +in one of the near-by camps—in which case there'll be another killing."</p> + +<p>"But the law," said Kenneth.</p> + +<p>"There is no law here higher than the caprice of Brian MacMorrogh. +Besides, it's too common—a mere episode; one of those which you said +you couldn't believe, a little while back."</p> + +<p>"But can't you make the MacMorroghs do a little police work, for common +decency's sake?"</p> + +<p>Ford shook his head. "They are quite on the other side of the fence, as +I told you in the beginning. By <a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>winking at lawlessness of all kinds, +their own particular brands of lawlessness, by which they and their +backers make money, go unquestioned. So far from helping, they'd make it +exceedingly difficult for any sheriff who should have the temerity to +come in here in the discharge of his duty."</p> + +<p>"You foresaw all this before the contract was awarded?"</p> + +<p>"Not all—though I had been told that the MacMorroghs ran 'open camps' +where the work was far enough from civilization to take the curse off. +What you've seen, and what I've been telling you, is bad enough, God +knows; but it will be worse before it is better. After we've had a few +pay-days, and the men begin to realize that they are here to toil and to +be robbed ... Kenneth, it will be hell on earth; and the company will +pay for it—the company always pays in the end."</p> + +<p>"I've got a notion," said the attorney, after another plodding mile of +reflection; but what it was he did not say.</p> + +<p>Ford and his companion reached Copah in the afternoon of the third day +out from Saint's Rest, and, singularly enough, the mine owners who were +disputing the extension right-of-way were found amenable to reason. What +Kenneth did to secure the P. S-W. right-of-way across the mining claims, +Ford did not know, or seek to know; though a word or two let fall by the +attorney led <a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>him to believe that the Transcontinental encouragement was +not quite specific enough in dollars and cents to warrant the +obstructors in holding out.</p> + +<p>Ford was for starting back the next morning: he had missed Brissac and +both of the Bensons on the way over. But Kenneth confessed to being +saddle-sore, and begged for another day's respite. Ford agreed without +giving the matter a second thought. Upon such unconsidered trifles—an +indifferent "yes" or "no"—turn the poised scales of life. For one other +day the two Southwestern representatives put up at the Grand Union, +Copah's tar-paper-covered simulacrum of a hotel; and during that day +Ford contrived to sell his birthright for what he, himself, valued at +the moment as a mess of pottage.</p> + +<p>It was in this wise. At this period of its existence Copah, the future +great, was merely a promise; a camp of magnificent prospects. Isolated +by one hundred and fifty miles of wagon-road and pack-trail from one +railroad base, and by forty miles of mountains from the other, its +future turned upon the hope of cheaper transportation. As a gold camp it +was an anomaly. With a single exception its ores were low grade, and the +wagon-road and pack-trail freightage made them practically profitless to +the miners.</p> + +<p>The single exception was the "Little Alicia," and it was the coincidence +of the name, rather than the eloquence of its impoverished owner, that +first attracted<a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a> Ford. From first to last he did not know the exact +location of the mine. It was somewhere in the hills back of Copah, and +Grigsby, the prospector who had discovered and opened it, had an office +in the camp.</p> + +<p>It was in Grigsby's town office that Ford saw the ore specimens and the +certified assays, and listened not too credulously to Grigsby's +enthusiastic description of the Little Alicia. To be a half-owner in +this mine of mines was to be rich beyond the dreams of avarice—when the +railroad should come: if one might take Grigsby's word for it.</p> + +<p>It is a curious fever, that which seizes upon the new-comer in an +unexploited mining field. Ford was far from being money-mad; but there +were times when he could not help contrasting a railroad salary with +Miss Adair's millions. True, he had once said to her, in the fulness of +confident belief, that the money of the woman he loved would make no +difference—to her or to him. But the point of view, wise or foolish, is +not always the same. There were moments when the Adair millions loomed +large, and the salary of an assistant to the president—who was in fact +little more than a glorified chief of construction—shrank in +proportion. He was free of obligation and foot-loose. His twenty +thousand dollars invested in P. S-W. stock at twenty-nine and a half had +grown with the rising market to sixty-odd. What did it matter to any one +if he chose to put ten <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>thousand of the sixty-odd on a turn of the +Little Alicia card?</p> + +<p>While it was gambling, pure and simple, he did not bet with his eyes +shut. Inquiry at the Bank of Copah established Grigsby's reputation for +truth-telling. The specimens and the assay certificates were beyond +doubt genuine. More than this, Grigsby had made a number of ore +shipments by freighters' wagon and jack train over the range, and the +returns had enabled him to keep a small force of men at work in the +mine.</p> + +<p>Ford made his bet through the bank. The cashier was willing to take a +P. S-W. official's note of hand, to be canceled when Ford could deposit +to the bank's credit in Denver, and to give Grigsby an open account for +his immediate needs. Grigsby accepted joyfully, and the thing was done. +Ford's mess of pottage was a deed of half-ownership in the Little +Alicia, executed and recorded in the afternoon of the day of stop-overs, +and he was far enough from suspecting that he had exchanged for it all +that a man of honor holds dearest. But, as a matter of fact, the +birthright had not yet been handed over: that came later.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h3> + +<h4>THE DRAW-BAR PULL</h4> + + +<p>Attorney Kenneth had many more object-lessons in the study of "open +camps" on the three-day return ride to Saint's Rest. The day of +stop-over in Copah chanced to be the MacMorrogh Brothers' monthly +pay-day, and until the men's money was spent pandemonium reigned along +the line of the extension.</p> + +<p>Some of it they dodged, riding wide to pass the larger camps, and +hearing from afar the noise of carousal, the fierce drinking songs of +the Magyars, the fusillades of pistol-shots. So far as they could see, +all work appeared to be suspended; and Major Benson, whose camp of +engineers they picked up in one of the detours around a gulch head, +confirmed that conclusion.</p> + +<p>"It was the same way last month," raged the major, twisting his fierce +white mustaches and looking as if he would like to blot the name of +MacMorrogh from the roster of humanity. "It'll take a full week to get +them into the swing again, and MacMorrogh will be up with <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>his estimates +just the same as if he had been working full time. I'll cut 'em; by the +gods, I'll cut 'em! And you must stand by me, Mr. Ford."</p> + +<p>There was the same story to be listened to at Brissac's tie camp; and +again at young Benson's headquarters, which were on the mountain +section. This last was on the third day, however, when the madness was +dying down. Some of the rock men were back on the job, but many of the +gangs were still grievously short-handed. Ford said little to Kenneth. +The pandemonium spoke for itself. But on the third night, when the long +ride was ended, and Pietro, Ford's cook and man-of-all-work, was serving +supper in the caboose office-on-wheels, some of the bitterness in Ford's +heart slipped into speech.</p> + +<p>"Can you see now how it takes the very marrow out of a man's bones, +Kenneth? You may think of an engineer as a man of purely bull-headed +purposes, merely trying, in a crass, materialistic way, to get a +material thing done. I want to do a big thing, and I'd like to do it in +a big way. It <i>is</i> a big thing—the building of this extension. If it +doesn't add another star to the flag, it will at least make one state +twice as populous, twice as prosperous. It will add its quota to the +habitable surfaces; and it's a good quota—a land that some future +generation will love, and swear by, and fight for, if need be. And to +think that for one man's narrow-mindedness and another's greed we've got +to christen it in blood <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>and muck and filth and dishonesty—it makes me +sore, Kenneth; sore and disheartened."</p> + +<p>"I don't blame you," said the lawyer, reveling, though he would never +have admitted it, in the comfort of the caboose headquarters journey's +end. "But you'll pull through; you'll build your railroad, and the +mistakes that are made won't be your mistakes. It's a horrible state of +affairs, that in the MacMorrogh camps; a blot on our boasted +civilization. But you can't help it. Or rather you will help it if, and +when, you can."</p> + +<p>Ford was shaking his head dejectedly.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, Kenneth. It's getting next to me, even at this early +stage of the game. Have you ever stood on the front car platform of a +train nearest to the engine and watched the jiggling draw-bar? It is +apparently loose; its hold on the engine seems to be no more than that +of the touch of clasped hands in a gipsy dance. Yet it never lets go, +and the drag of it is always there. By and by, when the coal is all +burned, and the fire is out, and the water is drained from the tank, +those gentle little multiplied jerks will pull the big engine down—kill +it—make it a mere mass of inert metal blocking the way of progress."</p> + +<p>"Well?" said the attorney.</p> + +<p>"It's an allegory. I'm beginning to feel the draw-bar pull. Sooner or +later, North and his clique will drag me down. I can't fight as the +under dog—I never <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>learned how; and they've fixed it so that I can't +fight any other way."</p> + +<p>Kenneth had lighted his cigar and was lying back against the cushion of +the car-seat. After a little, he said: "Just after we saw the Italian +killed last week I told you I had a notion, Ford. I've got it yet, and +I've been turning it over in my mind and wondering if I'd better explode +it on you. On the whole, I think I'd better not. It's a case of surgery. +If the patient lives, you'll know about it. If the patient dies, you'll +be no worse off than you are now. Shall we let it rest at that?"</p> + +<p>Ford acquiesced. He was too utterly disheartened to be curious. But if +he could have foreseen the results of Kenneth's notion it is conceivable +that he would have been aroused to some effort of protest, as even in +deep waters one prays sometimes to be delivered from his friends.</p> + +<p>It was a week after this farewell supper in the caboose hotel at Saint's +Rest when Ford went down to Denver to borrow, on his P. S-W. stock, the +ten thousand dollars to be deposited to the credit of the Bank of Copah. +Following him, and only one train behind, came Frisbie, new from a +confirmatory survey of the extension beyond the Copah district.</p> + +<p>On his return from the Green Butte end of the proposed line, the little +man with the diabolical fashion of beard trimming had spent a week in +and around Copah, <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>picking up yard rights-of-way, surveying approaches, +and setting grade stakes for the outlying MacMorrogh gangs. During that +week he had made a discovery, and since he believed it to be all his +own, he journeyed eastward to share it quickly with his chief.</p> + +<p>Ford was dining alone at the Brown Palace when Frisbie, coming straight +from the Plug Mountain train, found him. There was an entire western +desert to be talked over during the courses, and Frisbie held his +discovery in reserve until they had gone to smoke in a quiet corner of +the great rotunda. Even then he approached it indirectly.</p> + +<p>"In taking up the line down the Pannikin we have followed the old S.L. & +W. survey pretty closely all the way from start to finish. What were +your reasons, Stuart?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"There didn't seem to be any good reason for not following it. Brandreth +made the S.L. & W. preliminary, and there isn't a better locating +engineer in this country."</p> + +<p>"I know," said Frisbie. "But the best of us make mistakes, now and then. +Brandreth made a pretty sizable one, I think."</p> + +<p>"How is that?"</p> + +<p>"You know where the big rock-cutting is to be made in the lower canyon, +about ten miles this side of the point where we begin to swing south for +the run to<a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a> Copah—a mile and a half of heavy work that will cost away +up into the pictures?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I've estimated that rock work at not a cent less than two hundred +thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"You're shy, rather than over, at that. And two hundred thousand would +build a number of miles of ordinary railroad, wouldn't it? But that +isn't all. The cliffs along that canyon are shale-topped and +shale-undermined, the shale alternating with loose rock about fifty feet +above our line of grade in quarter-mile stretches all along. That means +incessant track-walking day and night through the mile and a half of +cutting, and afterward—for all time afterward—a construction train +kept handy under steam to clear away débris that will never quit sliding +down on the embankment."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you are right," said Ford. "It's the worst bit on the entire +extension; the most costly to build, as it will be the most expensive to +maintain. But I guess Brandreth knew what he was about when he surveyed +it."</p> + +<p>"Brandreth is a short-line man. He wouldn't lengthen his line ten miles +to dodge an earthquake. Ford, we can save a hundred thousand dollars on +that piece of track in first cost—to say nothing of the future."</p> + +<p>"How? I'm always open to conviction."</p> + +<p>"By leaving the S.L. & W. survey at Horse Creek, following up to the low +divide at Emory's Mine, and crossing to enter Copah from the southeast +instead of <a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>from the northeast. I came out that way from Copah five days +ago. It's perfectly feasible; straight-away, easy earth work for the +greater part, and the only objection is that it adds about twelve +running miles to the length of the extension. It's for you to say +whether or not the added distance will be warranted by the lessened cost +and the assurance of safety in operating. If we cut through that lower +canyon cliff it will be only a question of time until we bury somebody, +no matter how closely it is watched."</p> + +<p>Ford took time to consider the proposal. There were objections, and he +named one of them.</p> + +<p>"The MacMorroghs have based their bid on the present survey: they will +not want to let that piece of rock work drop out of sight."</p> + +<p>"They'll have to, if you say so. And you can afford to be pretty liberal +with them on the substituted twelve miles."</p> + +<p>"I'll have to think about it over night," was Ford's final answer. +"Arrange to give me an hour to-morrow morning and we'll go over the maps +and your notes together."</p> + +<p>Frisbie slept soundly on the gained inch, hoping to make it the coveted +ell in the morning. He knew the chief objection, which was that Ford, +too, was a "short-line" engineer; a man who would lay down his railroad +as the Czar of Russia did the St. Petersburg-Moscow <a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>line—by placing a +ruler on the map and drawing a straight mark beside it between the two +cities—if that were an American possibility. But he knew, too, that the +safety clause would weigh heavily with Ford, and there was no minimizing +the danger to future traffic if the canyon route should be retained.</p> + +<p>It turned out finally as the first assistant had hoped and believed it +would. Ford spent a thoughtful hour at his office in the Guaranty +Building before Frisbie came down—the little man being trail-weary +enough to sleep late in the comfortable room at the Brown Palace. The +slight change of route was hardly a matter to be carried up to the +executive committee, and Ford's decision turned upon quite another +pivot—the addition of twelve miles of distance. As against this, safety +and economy won the day; and when Frisbie came in the talk was merely of +ways and means.</p> + +<p>"Fix up the change with the MacMorroghs the best way you can," was +Ford's concluding instruction to his lieutenant. "They will kick, of +course; merely to be kicking at anything I suggest. But you can bring +them to terms, I guess."</p> + +<p>"By my lonesome?" said Frisbie. "Aren't you going over to see the new +route with your own eyes?"</p> + +<p>"No. I'm perfectly willing to trust your judgment, Dick. Besides, I've +got other fish to fry. I'm going east to-night to have one more tussle +with the steel mills. We <a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>must have quicker deliveries and more of them. +When I get back, we'll organize the track-layers and begin to make us a +railroad."</p> + +<p>"Good," said Frisbie, gathering up his maps and sketches of the detour +country; and so, in the wording of a brief sentence or two it came to +pass that Ford delivered himself bound and unarmed into the hands of his +enemies.</p> + +<p>A little light was thrown upon this dark passage that night in the +office of the general manager, after Ford's train had gone eastward, and +Frisbie was on his way back to the MacMorrogh headquarters on the lower +Pannikin. North was waiting when Eckstein came in, flushed as from a +rapid walk.</p> + +<p>"It's all settled?" asked the general manager, with a slow lift of the +eyebrow to betray his anxiety.</p> + +<p>"To the queen's taste, I should say," was the secretary's not too +deferential reply. "Ford's out of the way, to be gone ten days or a +fortnight, and Frisbie has gone back to dicker with MacMorrogh, and to +survey the new route up Horse Creek. Ford doesn't know; I doubt if he +will ever know until we spring the trap on him. The one thing I was most +afraid of was that he would insist upon going over the new line himself. +Then, of course, he would have found out—he couldn't help finding out."</p> + +<p>The general manager squared his huge shoulders against the back of the +chair.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>"You think he would call it off if he knew?" he queried. "You give him +credit for too much virtue, Eckstein. But I think we have him now. By +the time he returns it will be too late for him to hedge. MacMorrogh +will see to that."</p> + +<p>Eckstein nodded. "I made a point of that with Brian," he said. "The +minute the word is given he is to throw a little army of graders upon +the new roundabout. But Ford won't find out. He'll be too busy on this +end of the line with the track-layers. I'm a little nervous about +Merriam, though."</p> + +<p>"He's the man who talked Frisbie into championing the new route?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He did it pretty skilfully: made Frisbie think he was finding it +out himself, and never let the little man out of his sight while they +were in Copah. But I am afraid Merriam himself knows too much."</p> + +<p>"Get him out of the country—before Ford gets back," was the crisp +order. "If he isn't here when the gun goes off, he can't tell anybody +how it was loaded."</p> + +<p>"An appointment—" Eckstein began.</p> + +<p>"That is what I mean," said the general manager, turning back to his +desk. "We need a traffic agency up in the Oregon country. See +Merriam—to-night. Find out if he'd like to have the general agency at, +say, twenty-five hundred a year; and if he agrees, get out the circular +appointing him."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>"He'll agree, fast enough," laughed the secretary. "But I'll nail +him—to-night."</p> + +<p>Ford spent rather more than two weeks in his round-up of the eastern +steel mills, and there was a terrific accumulation of correspondence +awaiting him when he reached Denver. At the top of the pile was an +official circular appointing one George Z. Merriam, a man whom Ford +remembered, or seemed vaguely to remember, as one of the MacMorrogh +bookkeepers, general agent of the P. S-W., with headquarters at Portland, +Oregon. And at the bottom of the accumulation was a second official +printing, bearing the approval of the president, this; and Ford's eyes +gloomed angrily when he read it.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><h4>PACIFIC SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY CO.</h4> + +<h5>Office of the President.</h5> + +<p class='author'><span class="smcap">New York</span>, August 24.</p> + +<p>To All Officials and Employees:</p> + +<p>At a called meeting of the stock-holders of this company, held in +New York, August 23, Mr. John C. North was elected First +Vice-President and General Manager of all lines of this company, +operative and under construction. All officers and employees will +govern themselves accordingly.</p> + +<p class='center'>By Order of the Executive Committee.</p> + +<p>Approved:</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sidney J. Colbrith</span>, President. </p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h3> + +<h4>AN UNWILLING HOST</h4> + + +<p>Standing in the Pacific portal of Plug Pass, on the old snow-crust +which, even in midsummer, never entirely disappears at altitude ten +thousand feet, they could look away westward over a billowing sea of +mountain and mesa and valley breaking in far-distant, crystalline space +against the mighty rampart of the Wasatch range, two hundred and other +miles nearer the sunset.</p> + +<p>It was an outlook both inspiring and chastening; with the scenic +grandeurs to give the exalted uplift, and the still, gray-green face of +the vast mountainous desert to shrink the beholder to microscopic +littleness in the face of its stupendous heights and depths, its +immeasurable bulks and interspaces. Miss Alicia said something like this +to Ford, in broken exclamations, when she had taken her first quailing +eye-plunge from the lofty view-point.</p> + +<p>"Yes; quite so," Ford acquiesced, in the unresponsive tone of one who +says what he must, rather than what he would like to say. "It is all the +things you have been <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>saying, and more—when one has the time and the +mind to be enthusiastic about it."</p> + +<p>Miss Adair stood up very straight, and her chin was a protest in +Praxitelean harmonies. She knew very well how reluctantly her companion +was doing the honors of the mountain vastnesses; how full of wrath he +was because President Colbrith had seen fit to precipitate the Nadia and +a private-car party into the midst of the strenuous building battle on +the western extension. But she argued that this was no reason why he +should be crustily impossible with her. Wherefore she said, merely to +see him boil over:</p> + +<p>"I should think you would come up here often for this glorious view, Mr. +Ford. You do, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Come up here for the view? Oh, yes; I presume I have climbed up here a +hundred times, first and last, and always for the sake of the view. I +began it the first winter I spent in Saint's Rest, when the snow-shoeing +was at its best. Really to appreciate the scenery, you should take three +hours for the approach from the basin down yonder, dragging a pair of +Canadian raquettes by the toe-straps."</p> + +<p>The young woman laughed inwardly at the broadsword slash of his sarcasm. +It was so like the man; big and vigorous and energetic, and quite +without regard for consequences or for the insignificance of the thing +to be obliterated. But she would not spare him.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>"How enthusiastic you are!" she commented. "I don't believe I should be +equal to 'a hundred times, first and last,' or to the snow-shoes. But I +can admire such zeal in other people immensely."</p> + +<p>"Do you really think so small of a man's work in the world, Miss Adair?" +he demanded, not very coherently. "I'm not saying that the scenery +doesn't move me. It does; and the first time I stood here on this +summit, I presume I felt just as you do now. But my comings and goings +have been chiefly concerned with this"—kicking the rail of the new +track which threaded the shallow valley of the pass. "I am trying to +build a railroad; to build it quickly, and as well as I can. When I get +it finished, I may have time to admire the scenery."</p> + +<p>It was a little appeal for sympathy, apparent enough in spite of its +indirectness; but Miss Adair was still mindful of Ford's too evident +willingness to leave her behind at the deserted grading-camp half-way +down to Saint's Rest where the Nadia was temporarily side-tracked.</p> + +<p>"Another ideal gone," she lamented, in mock despair. "All those +trampings and toilings up this magnificent mountain merely to prepare +for the laying of some logs of wood in a row, with two strands of iron +to fasten them together!"</p> + +<p>He smiled at her definition of his railroad, and the keen edge of his +annoyance was a little blunted. He had <a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>been telling himself that she +might be twenty-four, or possibly twenty-five; but evidently she was +only a child, with a child's appreciation of a very considerable +industrial triumph. Old engineers, one of them an assistant on his own +staff, had shaken their heads and declared that the running of a +standard gauge railroad over Plug Pass was a sheer impossibility. Yet he +had done it.</p> + +<p>"I suspect I owe you an apology," he said, yielding a little to the love +which was fighting with discouragement and righteous anger for the first +place in his heart. "I'm afraid I have been taking you too seriously, +all along."</p> + +<p>Her laugh was a delicious little ripple of exultation. She had succeeded +in avenging herself.</p> + +<p>"I can forgive you now," she said, and the blue eyes were dancing. "But +you must admit that you were the aggressor. I have <i>never</i> been made so +pointedly unwelcome in all my life. I believe you were going to refuse +to let me walk up here with you if Uncle Sidney had not commanded you +to."</p> + +<p>This time his smile was a grin, but it was not ill-natured.</p> + +<p>"I should, indeed," he confessed quite frankly. "To be brutally candid, +I had a decided attack of the 'unwelcomes' when I received Mr. +Colbrith's wire announcing his intention of bringing his picnic party +out here into the midst of things. We have little time, and none of the +civilized conveniences, for entertaining company."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>"I think we all understand that," she made haste to say. "Aunt Hetty +tried to dissuade Uncle Sidney, but he was bent on showing us how modern +railroad building is rushed at the 'front'—is that the right word?—and +so here we are."</p> + +<p>A small frown gathered between Ford's eyes. He was far enough from +suspecting that this was the outworking of Kenneth's "notion"; that Mr. +Colbrith's annual inspection tour over the Pacific Southwestern had been +extended to cover the new line at Kenneth's suggestion—a suggestion +arising out of purely reformatory motives. Nor would it have helped +matters much if he had known Kenneth's genuine distress when it +transpired that the suggestion bade fair to result in precipitating a +private car-load of pleasurers into the pandemonium of the +grading-camps.</p> + +<p>But the pleasurers were as yet only upon the borders of the pandemonium, +and Ford was torturing his ingenuity to devise some argument strong +enough to turn back the threatened invasion. There were reasons enough +why a party with women among its members should not be projected into +the grading and track-laying field. It was no place for women, Ford was +telling himself wrathfully; especially for the women of the president's +own household.</p> + +<p>In the little interval of silence Miss Adair was focusing her +field-glass and trying to trace the line of the <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>descending grade into +the headwater valley of the Pannikin. Ford did not mean to be ungracious +to her—what lover ever means to be curt to the one woman in all the +world? But it is not easy to be angry in nine parts and loving-kind in +the tenth—anger being one of the inclusive emotions. Nevertheless, he +made the effort, for her sake. However inconsiderate Mr. Colbrith was, +she was blameless.</p> + +<p>"Let me show you," he said, taking the field-glass and adjusting it for +her. "Now hold it steadily and pick up the line in the great loop.... +Have you found it?... Now follow it slowly until you come to the point +where it turns into the valley, and you can trace it for miles by the +cuts and fills."</p> + +<p>She followed his directions until the line of the extension became a +vanishing thread in the distance, and then was content to let the glass +sweep the vastnesses beyond. When she spoke it was of the topographic +immensities.</p> + +<p>"I heard you telling brother at the dinner-table in Chicago that you +were able to see more in this wilderness than you have ever been able to +make any one else see. Can I see it with the glass?"</p> + +<p>"Hardly," he smiled. "I was trying to tell your brother of the +magnificent possibilities of the country lying between this and that +farthest mountain range; the country we are going to open up. It was a +gospel<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a> I had been trying to preach to the directors, but none of them +believed—not even your uncle."</p> + +<p>"I see nothing but vastness and cold gray grandeurs," she said, adding: +"and the very bigness of it makes me feel like a mere atom, or a +molecule—whichever is the smaller."</p> + +<p>"Yet it is a new empire in the rough," he rejoined, with a touch of the +old enthusiasm, "waiting only for the coming of this"—putting his foot +again upon the steel of the new railroad line. "What you are looking at +has been called a part of the Great American Desert—the most forbidding +part, in the stories of the early explorers. Notwithstanding, there will +come a time when you can focus your glass here on this mountain and look +out over what the promoters will then be advertising as a 'peopled +paradise,' and these 'logs of wood in a row, with two strands of iron to +fasten them together' will bring it to pass."</p> + +<p>There was a flash of the enthusiast's fire in the cool gray eyes to go +with the words, and Miss Adair wondered at it. He had stood for her as +an embodiment of things practical and prosaic; as one too keenly +watchful and alert on the purely industrial side to be in any sense a +dreamer of dreams. Some part of her thought slipped into speech.</p> + +<p>"No, I am not an enthusiast," he denied, in reply to her charge. "At +bottom, I'm only an engineer, with an <a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>ambition to build railroads. But +I should have learned no more than half of my trade if I couldn't tell +where it would be profitable to build them."</p> + +<p>"Never mind: you seem to have convinced Uncle Sidney and the directors +finally," she commented.</p> + +<p>"No; your uncle and the directors are not empire builders—meaning to +be," he objected. "They are after the present visible dollar in a +western outlet for the Pacific Southwestern. If we reach Green Butte +before our competitors can broaden their narrow gauge to that point, we +shall have a practicable line from Chicago to the Pacific coast."</p> + +<p>"I understand," she said. "But yours is the higher ideal—the true +American ideal."</p> + +<p>"It's business," he asserted.</p> + +<p>"Well, isn't business the very heart and soul of the American ideal?" +she laughed.</p> + +<p>This time he laughed with her, forgetting his troubles for the moment.</p> + +<p>"I guess it is, in the last analysis," he said. And then: "I'm sorry to +keep you waiting so long, if you are anxious to get back to the Nadia. +But I warned you beforehand. I must keep my appointment with Frisbie. Do +you see anything of him?" This because she was again sweeping the +western wilderness with the field-glass.</p> + +<p>"What am I to look for?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>"The smoke of an engine."</p> + +<p>She focused the glass on the gorge at the foot of the pass. "I see it!" +she cried. "A little black beetle of a thing just barely crawling. Now +it is turning into the first curve of the great loop."</p> + +<p>"Then we shan't have very much longer to wait. Do you find the +ten-thousand-foot breeze chilly? Turn up the collar of your coat and +we'll walk a bit."</p> + +<p>It was his first appreciable concern for her comfort, and she gave him +full credit. Coquetry was no part of Miss Alicia's equipment, but no +woman likes to be utterly neglected on the care-taking side, or to be +transformed ruthlessly into a man-companion whose well-being may be +brusquely ignored. And this young athlete in brown duck shooting-coat +and service leggings, who was patiently doing a sentry-go beside her up +and down the newly-laid track at the summit of Plug Pass, was quite a +different person from the abashed apologist who had paid for her dinner +in the dining-car on the night of purse-snatchings.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h3> + +<h4>THE TRUTHFUL ALTITUDES</h4> + + +<p>A low, tremulous shudder was beginning to lift itself, like the distant +growling of thunder, upon the tinnient air of the high summit. A moment +later a heavy construction engine shot around the final curve in the +westward climb, with Michael Gallagher hanging out of the cab window on +the engineer's side.</p> + +<p>The two at the summit faced about to watch the approach. The big engine +came lumbering and lurching dangerously over the unsurfaced track in a +fierce spurt for the mountain-top, its stack vomiting fire, its +cylinder-cocks hissing shrilly, and its exhaust ripping the spheral +silences like the barking detonations of a machine-gun.</p> + +<p>Ford glanced aside at his companion; her expressive face was a study in +delighted animation and he decided that he had again misjudged the +president's niece. She was beating time softly with her gloved hands and +singing the song of the locomotive:</p> + +<p> +"'With a michnai—ghignai—shtingal! Yah! Yah! Yah!<br /> +Ein—zwei—drei—Mutter! Yah! Yah! Yah!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">She climb upon der shteeple,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Und she frighten all der people,</span><br /> +Singin' michnai—ghignai—shtingal! Yah! Yah!'"<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>she quoted; and Ford's heart went out to her in new and comradely +outreachings.</p> + +<p>"You read <i>Naught-naught-seven</i>?" he said: "you are one woman in a +thousand."</p> + +<p>"<i>Merci!</i>" she countered. "Small favors thankfully received. Brother +thinks there is only one person writing, nowadays, and the name of that +person is Kipling. I get a little of it by mere attrition."</p> + +<p>The brakes of the big engine were still gripping the wheels when a small +man with wicked mustaches and goatee dropped from the gangway. His khaki +suit was weather-faded to a dirty green, and he was grimy and perspiring +and altogether unpresentable; but he pulled himself together and tried +to look pleasant when he saw that his chief had a companion, and that +the companion was a lady.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry if I have kept you waiting," he began. "Gallagher was +shifting steel for the track-layers when your wire found me, and the +engine couldn't be spared,"—this, of course, to Ford. Then, with an +apologetic side glance for the lady: "Riley's in hot water again—up to +his chin."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter now?" gritted Ford; and Alicia marked the instant +change to masterful command.</p> + +<p>"Same old score. The Italians are kicking again at the MacMorrogh +Brothers' commissary—because they have to pay two prices and get chuck +that a self-respect<a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>ing dog wouldn't eat; and, besides, they say they +are quarrying rock—which is true—and getting paid by the MacMorroghs +for moving earth. They struck at noon to-day."</p> + +<p>The chief frowned gloomily, and the president's niece felt intuitively +that her presence was a bar to free speech.</p> + +<p>"It's straight enough about the rotten commissary and the graft on the +pay-rolls," said Ford wrathfully. "Is the trouble likely to spread to +the camps farther down?"</p> + +<p>"I hope not; I don't think it will—without whisky to help it along," +said Frisbie, with another apologetic side glance for Miss Adair.</p> + +<p>"Yes; but the whisky isn't lacking—there's Pete Garcia and his stock of +battle, murder and sudden death at Paint Rock, a short half-mile from +Riley's," Ford broke in.</p> + +<p>Frisbie's smile, helped out by the grime and the coal dust, was +triumphantly demoniacal.</p> + +<p>"Not now there isn't," he amended; adding: "Any fire-water at Paint +Rock, I mean. When Riley told me what was doing, I made a bee line for +Garcia's wickiup and notified him officially that he'd have to go out of +business for the present."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you did?" said Ford. "Of course he was quite willing to oblige you? +How much time did he give you to get out of pistol range?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/004.png"><img src="images/004-tb.png" alt="Miss Adair, you must let me introduce my friend, Mr. +Richard Frisbie" title="Miss Adair, you must let me introduce my friend, Mr. +Richard Frisbie" /></a></div> + +<h5>"Miss Adair, you must let me introduce my friend, Mr. +Richard Frisbie"</h5> + +<p><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>Frisbie actually blushed—in deference to the lady.</p> + +<p>"Why—er—it was the other way round. He double-quicked a little +side-trip down the gulch while I knocked in the heads of his whisky +barrels and wrecked his bar with a striking hammer I had brought along."</p> + +<p>For the first time in the interview the chief's frown melted and he +laughed approvingly.</p> + +<p>"Miss Adair, you must let me introduce my friend and first assistant, +Mr. Richard Frisbie. He is vastly more picturesque than anything else we +have to show you at this end of the Pacific Southwestern. Dick—Miss +Alicia Adair, President Colbrith's niece."</p> + +<p>Frisbie took off his hat, and Miss Alicia gave him her most gracious +smile.</p> + +<p>"Please go on," she said. "I'm immensely interested. What became of Mr. +Garcia afterward?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know that," said Frisbie ingenuously. "Only, I guess I shall +find out when I go back. He is likely to be a little irritated, I'm +afraid. But there are compensations, even in Pete: like most Mexicans, +he can neither tell the truth nor shoot straight." Then again to Ford: +"What is to be done about the Riley mix-up?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the same old thing. Go down and tell the Italians that the company +will stand between them and the MacMorroghs, and they shall have +justice—provided always that every man of them is back on the job again +to-morrow morning. Who is Riley's interpreter now?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>"Lanciotto."</p> + +<p>"Well, look out for him: he is getting a side-cut from the MacMorroghs +and is likely to translate you crooked, if it suits his purposes. Check +him by having our man Luigi present when he does the talking act. Any +word from Major Benson?"</p> + +<p>"He was at the tie-camp on Ute Creek, yesterday. Jack Benson and Brissac +are lining the grade for the steel on M'Grath's section, and the bridge +men are well up to the last crossing of Horse Creek."</p> + +<p>"That's encouraging. How about the grade work on the detour—your new +line into Copah?"</p> + +<p>It was the assistant's turn to frown, but the brow-wrinkling was of +puzzlement.</p> + +<p>"There's something a bit curious about that—you don't mind our talking +shop like a pair of floor-walkers, do you, Miss Adair? You know we +expected the MacMorroghs would kick on the change of route and the loss +of the big rock-cut in the canyon. There wasn't a word of protest. If I +hadn't known better, I should have said that old Brian MacMorrogh knew +all about it in advance. All he said was: 'Sure, 'tis your railroad, and +we'll be buildin' it anywheres you say, Misther Frisbie.' And the very +next day he had a little army of men on that detour, throwing dirt to +beat the band. It'll be ready for the steel by the time we can get to it +with the track-layers."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>Ford nodded approvingly. "Speed is what we are paying for, and we're +thankful to get it whenever, and wherever, we can. Is the bridge timber +coming down all right now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and we are getting plenty of ties since the major put on his +war-paint and went after the MacMorrogh subs in the tie-camps. It is the +rock work that is holding us back."</p> + +<p>Ford nodded again. Then he tried a little shot in the dark.</p> + +<p>"The president's car is just below—at the basin switch. He wants to +have it taken to the front, and I have been trying to dissuade him. Is +the track safe for it?"</p> + +<p>Frisbie guessed what kind of answer was desired, and stretched the truth +a little.</p> + +<p>"I should say not. It's something fierce, even for the construction +trains."</p> + +<p>Miss Alicia's smile was seraphic.</p> + +<p>"You two gentlemen needn't tell fibs for the possible effect on me," she +said, with charming frankness. "Nothing I could say would carry any +weight with Uncle Sidney."</p> + +<p>"Stung!" said Frisbie, half to himself; and the two men laughed +shamefacedly.</p> + +<p>"Will it disarrange things so very much if the Nadia is taken to the +'front'?" asked Miss Adair.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>"Well, rather," said Frisbie bluntly. Then he tried to excuse himself +and made a mess of it.</p> + +<p>"Just why?" she persisted. "Forget the conventions, Mr. Frisbie, and +talk to me as you have been talking to Mr. Ford. Is there any good +reason, apart from the inconvenience, why our little pleasure party +shouldn't see your new railroad? I am appealing to you because Mr. Ford +won't tell me the truth."</p> + +<p>Ford stood aloof and let Frisbie worry with it alone.</p> + +<p>"There are a dozen reasons, Miss Adair; the track is fearfully +rough—really, you know, it isn't safe for a big car like the Nadia. +There are only a few sidings, and what there are, are filled up with +construction stuff and camp cars, and—"</p> + +<p>She was shaking her head and laughing at his strivings.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," she said; "you can't tell the truth, either, with Mr. Ford +looking on. But I shall find it out."</p> + +<p>Frisbie looked horrified.</p> + +<p>"You—you certainly will, Miss Adair; if Mr. Colbrith insists upon +having his car dragged over the range." Then, being quite willing to +make his escape, he turned to his chief. "Is there anything else? If +not, I'll be getting back to the Riley mix-up before the trouble has +time to grow any bigger."</p> + +<p>Ford shook his head, and Frisbie lifted his hat to<a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a> Miss Adair and +turned to climb to his engine cab. But at the moment of brake-releasings +Ford halted him.</p> + +<p>"One minute," he said; and turning to his charge: "I'll borrow Dick's +engine and take you down to the Nadia's siding, if you'd rather ride +than walk."</p> + +<p>"Oh, will you? That would be fine! But oughtn't Mr. Frisbie to get back +to his work?"</p> + +<p>"Y-yes," Ford admitted. "Time is rather important, just now."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll walk," she said with great decision.</p> + +<p>"That's all, Dick," Ford called. "Keep an eye open for Garcia. He might +make a fluke and shoot straight, for once in a way."</p> + +<p>They stood in silence on the wind-swept summit until the curving +down-rush of the western grade had swallowed the retreating engine. Miss +Alicia was the first to speak when the iron clamor was distance-drowned.</p> + +<p>"I like your Mr. Frisbie," she said reflectively. "Isn't he the kind of +man who would have taken the message to the other Garcia?"</p> + +<p>"He is the kind of man who would stop a bullet for his friend, and think +nothing of it—if the bullet should happen to leave him anything to +think with," he returned warmly. And then he added, half absently: "He +saved my life four years ago last summer."</p> + +<p>There was genuine human interest in her voice when she said gently:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>"Would you mind telling me about it?"</p> + +<p>"It was up in the Minnesota pineries, where we were building a branch +railroad through the corner of an Indian reservation. A half-breed +pot-hunter for the game companies had a right-of-way quarrel with the +railroad people, and he pitched upon me as the proper person to kill. It +was a knife rush in the moonlight; and Dick might have shot him, only he +was too tender-hearted. So he got between us."</p> + +<p>"Well?" she prompted, when it became evident that Ford thought he had +finished.</p> + +<p>"That was all; except that it was touch and go with poor Dick for the +next six weeks, with no surgeon worthy of the name nearer than St. +Paul."</p> + +<p>Miss Alicia was more deeply impressed by the little story than she cared +to have her companion suspect. Her world was a world of the commonplace +conventions, with New York as its starting point and homing place; and +she thought she knew something of humankind. But it came to her suddenly +that the men she knew best were not at all like these two.</p> + +<p>"Shall we go back now?" she asked; and they were half-way down to the +siding and the private car before she spoke again. It took some little +time to compass sufficient humility to make amends, and even then the +admission came to no more than four words.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, Mr. Ford."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>"What for?" he asked, knowing only that he was coming to love her more +blindly with every added minute of their companionship.</p> + +<p>"For—for trying to be hateful." It was a humbler thing than any she had +ever said to a man, but the raw sincerity of time and place and +association was beginning to get into her blood.</p> + +<p>"If it comes to that, there were two of us," he rejoined, matching her +frankness. "And, as you remarked a while back, I was certainly the +aggressor. Shall we call it a truce for the present?"</p> + +<p>"If you will be generous enough."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am generosity itself, under ordinary conditions; but just now +I'll admit that I am fearfully and wonderfully inhospitable. I can't +help wishing most fervently that something had happened to prevent your +uncle's coming."</p> + +<p>"Is it uncle who is in the way?—or the pleasure party?"</p> + +<p>"Both."</p> + +<p>"We are negligible," she said, meaning the pleasurers.</p> + +<p>"No, you are not; and neither is your Uncle Sidney."</p> + +<p>"Is he still formidable to you?" she laughed.</p> + +<p>"He is, indeed. But, worse than that, he is likely to prove a very +considerable disturbing element if I can't keep him from plunging in +upon us."</p> + +<p>She let half of the remaining distance to the end of <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>the steep grade go +underfoot before she said: "I like to help people, sometimes; but I +don't like to do it in the dark."</p> + +<p>He would have explained instantly to a man for the sake of gaining an +ally. But he could not bring himself to the point of telling her the +story of graft and misrule in which the MacMorroghs were the principals, +and North—and her uncle, by implication—the backers.</p> + +<p>So he said: "It is rather a long story, and you would scarcely +understand it. We have been having constant trouble with the +MacMorroghs, the contractors, and there is a bad state of affairs in the +grading camps. It has come to a point where I shall have to fight the +MacMorroghs to some sort of a finish, and—well, to put it very baldly, +I don't want to have to fight the MacMorroghs and the president in the +same round."</p> + +<p>"Why should Uncle Sidney take the part of these men, if they are bad +men, Mr. Ford?"</p> + +<p>"Because he has always distrusted my judgment, and because he is loyal +to Mr. North, whom he has made my superior. Mr. North tells him that I +am to blame."</p> + +<p>"But it must be a very dreadful condition of things, if what Mr. Frisbie +said is all true."</p> + +<p>"Frisbie spoke of only one little incident. Trouble like this we're +having to-day is constantly arising. No money-making graft is too petty +or too immoral for the MacMorroghs to connive at. They rob and starve +their <a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>laborers, and cheat the company with bad work. I've got to have a +free hand in dealing with them, or—"</p> + +<p>He stopped abruptly, realizing that he was talking to her as he might +have talked to a specialist in his own profession. Hence he was not +disappointed when she said:</p> + +<p>"You go too fast for me. But I think I understand now why our coming is +inopportune. And it's comforting to know that the reason is a business +reason."</p> + +<p>He put shame to the wall and blurted out suddenly: "It is only one of +the reasons, Miss Adair. The—the camps are no fit place for a party +with women. You—you'll have to be blind and deaf if your uncle persists +in taking you with him."</p> + +<p>It was said, and he was glad of it, though he was wiping the +perspiration from his face when the thing was done. She was silent until +they were standing at the steps of the side-tracked private car.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she said simply. "Of course, I'll do what I can to keep +Uncle Sidney from going—and taking us. What shall you say to him?"</p> + +<p>"I am going to tell him that our track isn't safe for the Nadia—which +is true enough."</p> + +<p>"Very well. I'll tell Aunt Hetty and Mrs. Van Bruce—which may be more +to the point. But don't be encouraged by that. I have reason to believe +that Uncle Sidney will have his way in spite of any or all of us."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII</h3> + +<h4>A NIGHT OF ALARMS</h4> + + +<p>Ford put Miss Alicia up the steps of the Nadia and followed her into the +vestibule, meaning to fight it out with Mr. Colbrith on the spot, and +hoping he might have a private audience with the president for the doing +of it.</p> + +<p>The hope was not denied. Penfield, who was acting as private secretary +to Mr. Colbrith, <i>en route</i>, appeared in the passageway to say that Ford +was wanted in the president's state-room.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Ford, what are we waiting for?" was the querulous demand +which served as Mr. Colbrith's greeting when Ford presented himself at +the door of the private compartment.</p> + +<p>Ford's reply lacked the deferential note. He had reached a point at +which his job was not worth as much as it had been.</p> + +<p>"I have just brought Miss Adair back from the top of the pass, where we +met Mr. Frisbie, my chief of con<a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>struction. I wished to ask him if he +thought the track was safe for your car, and he says, most emphatically, +that it is not. I can not take the responsibility of sending the Nadia +to the end-of-track."</p> + +<p>The president's thin face was working irritably. "I haven't asked you to +assume any responsibility, Mr. Ford. If the track is safe for your +material trains, it is safe enough for my car. But I didn't send for you +to argue the point. I desire to have the Nadia taken to the front. Be +good enough to give the necessary orders."</p> + +<p>Ford tried again. In addition to the precarious track there were few or +no unoccupied sidings, especially near the front. Moreover, there was no +telegraph service which might suffice for the safe despatching of the +special train. There might be entire sections over which the Nadia would +have to be flagged by a man on foot, and—</p> + +<p>The president cut him off with almost childish impatience.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what your object is in putting so many stumbling-blocks in +the way, Mr. Ford," he rasped. "A suspicious person might say that you +have been doing something which you do not wish to have found out."</p> + +<p>Ford was a fair-skinned man, and the blood burned hotly in his face. +But, as once before under the president's nagging, he found his +self-control rising with the provocation.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>"My work is open to inspection or investigation, now or at any time, +and I think we need not discuss that point," he said, when he could +force himself to say it calmly. "We were speaking of the advisability of +taking the Nadia and a pleasure party over a piece of raw construction +line, and into an environment which, to put it mildly, could hardly be +congenial to—to the ladies of the party. You know, or ought to know, +the MacMorroghs: their camps are not exactly models of propriety, Mr. +Colbrith."</p> + +<p>This was merely waving a red flag at an already exasperated bull. The +president got upon his feet, and his shrill falsetto cut the air like a +knife.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ford, when I wish to be told what is or is not proper for me to do, +I'll ask you for an opinion, sir. But this is quite beside the mark. +Will you order this car out, or shall I?"</p> + +<p>Ford looked at his watch imperturbably. Now that the president was +thoroughly angry, he could afford to be cool.</p> + +<p>"It is now five o'clock; and our end-of-track is fully one hundred and +ten miles beyond the summit of the pass. Do I understand that you wish +to take the added risk of a night run, Mr. Colbrith? If so, I'll give +the order and we'll pull out."</p> + +<p>"I desire to go <i>now</i>!" was the irascible reply. "Is that sufficiently +explicit?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>"It is," said Ford; and he left the presence to go forward to the cab +of the waiting engine.</p> + +<p>"You are to take the car over the mountain, Hector," he said briefly, to +the beetle-browed giant in blue denim, when he had climbed to the +foot-plate. "I'll pilot for you."</p> + +<p>"How far?" inquired the engineer.</p> + +<p>"Something like a hundred and ten miles."</p> + +<p>"Holy smoke! Over a construction track—in the night?"</p> + +<p>"It's the president's order—none of mine. Let's get a move."</p> + +<p>The big man got down from his box and made room for Ford. "I'll be +pilin' 'em in the ditch somewhere, as sure as my name's Bill Hector," he +said. "But we'll go, all the same, if he says so. I've pulled Mr. +Colbrith before. Down with you, Jimmy Shovel, and set the switch for +us."</p> + +<p>The fireman swung off and stood by the switch, and Hector backed his +one-car train from the siding. When he had picked up the fireman and was +ready to assault the mountain, Ford thrust a query in between.</p> + +<p>"Hold on a minute; how is the water?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Jimmy Shovel climbed over the coal to see, and reported less than half a +tankful.</p> + +<p>"That settles it," said the chief to Hector. "You'll have to back down +to Saint's Rest and fill up. You'll <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>get no more this side of Pannikin +Upper Canyon. We haven't had time to build tanks yet."</p> + +<p>Hector put his valve-motion in the reverse gear and began to drop the +train down the grade on the air. A dozen wheel-turns brought a shrill +shriek from the air-signal whistle. Mr. Colbrith evidently wished to +know why his train was going in the wrong direction. Hector applied the +brakes and stopped in obedience to the signal.</p> + +<p>"Do we send back?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No," said Ford sourly. "Let him send forward."</p> + +<p>Penfield was the bearer of the president's question. Would it be +necessary to discharge somebody in order to have his commands obeyed?</p> + +<p>Ford answered the petulant demand as one bears with a spoiled child. +They were returning to Saint's Rest for water. Let the president be +assured that his orders would be obeyed in due course.</p> + +<p>"He's a piker, the old man is," said the big engineer, once more giving +the 1012 the needful inch of release to send it grinding down the hill. +"I'd ruther pull freight thirty-six hours on end than run his car for a +hundred miles."</p> + +<p>There was trouble getting at the water-tank in the Saint's Rest yard. +Leckhard, acting as division engineer, telegraph superintendent, +material forwarder and yardmaster, found it difficult at limes to bring +order out <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>of chaos in the forwarding yard. It was a full hour before +the jumble of material trains could be shunted and switched and juggled +to permit the 1012 to drop down to the water tank; and four times during +the hour Penfield climbed dutifully over the coal to tell Ford and the +engineer what the president thought of them.</p> + +<p>"Durn me! but you can take punishment like a man, Mr. Ford!" said +Hector, on the heels of the fourth sending, sinking rank distinctions in +his admiration for a cool fighter. "These here polite cussin's-out are +what I can't stand. Reckon we'll get away from here before the old man +throws a sure-enough fit?"</p> + +<p>"That's entirely with the yard crew," said Ford, calmly making himself +comfortable on the fireman's box. "We'll go when we can get water; and +we'll get water when the tank track is cleared. That's all there is to +it." Whereupon he found his cigar case, passed it to Hector, lighted up, +and waited patiently for another second-hand wigging from the Nadia.</p> + +<p>As it chanced the tank track was cleared a few minutes later; the 1012 +was backed down and supplied, and Ford instructed Leckhard to do what he +could with the single, poorly manned construction wire toward giving the +president's special a clear track.</p> + +<p>"That won't be much," said the hard-worked base-of-supplies man. "We've +got our own operator at Ten Mile, and Brissac and Frisbie have each a +set of instru<a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>ments which they cut in on the line with wherever they +happen to be. I don't know where Brissac is, but Frisbie is down about +Riley's to-night, I think. After you pass him you'll have no help from +the wires."</p> + +<p>"I'll have what I can get," asserted Ford. "Now tell me what we're +likely to meet."</p> + +<p>Leckhard laughed. "Anything on top of earth, from Brissac or Jack Benson +or Frisbie chasing somewhere on a light engine, to Gallagher or Folsom +coming out with a string of empties. Oh, you're not likely to find much +dead track anywhere after you get over the mountain."</p> + +<p>Ford swung up beside Hector, who had been listening. "You see what we're +in for, Hector. Start your headlight dynamo and let's go," he said; and +five minutes farther on, just as Penfield was about to make his fifth +scramble over the coal in the tender, the 1012 took the upward road with +a deafening whistle shriek as its farewell to Saint's Rest.</p> + +<p>It was pocket-dark by the time the switch-stand at the basin siding +swung into the broad beam of the electric headlight. Ford got down from +the fireman's box and crossed over to the engineer's side to pilot +Hector.</p> + +<p>"How's your track from this on?" inquired the big engineman gruffly.</p> + +<p>"It is about as rough as it can be, and not ditch the steel trains. +You'll have to hold her down or we'll have results."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>"What in the name o' thunder is the old man's notion of goin' to the +front with a picnic party and makin' a night run of it, at that, d'ye +reckon?"</p> + +<p>"The Lord only knows. Easy around this curve you're coming to; it isn't +set up yet." The 1012 was a fast eight-wheeler from the main line, and +though the grade was a rising four per cent, the big flyer was making +light work of her one-car train.</p> + +<p>Ford sat gloomily watching the track ahead as the great engine stormed +around the curves and up the grades. The struggle against odds was +beginning to tell on him. The building of this new line, the opening of +the new country, was the real end for which all the planning and +scheming in the financial field had been only the necessary +preliminaries. For himself he had craved nothing but the privilege of +building the extension; of rejoicing in his own handiwork and in the new +triumph of progress and civilization which it would bring to pass. But +little by little the fine fire of workmanlike enthusiasm was burning +itself out against the iron barriers of petty spite and malice thrown up +at every turn by North and the Denver junta of obstructionists.</p> + +<p>He was at no loss to account for North's motive. It was no longer the +contemptuous disregard of a general manager for one of his subordinates +who had shown signs of outgrowing his job. It was a fight between +rivals—equals—and Ford knew that it must go on until one <a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>or the other +should be driven to the wall. Thus far, his antagonist had scored every +point. The MacMorroghs had been helped into the saddle and held there. +Mr. Colbrith had been won over; the authority given Ford by his +appointment as assistant to the president had been annulled by making +North the first vice-president with still higher authority. With a firm +ally in the president, and a legion of others in the MacMorroghs' camps, +North could discredit the best engineering corps that ever took the +field; and he was doing it—successfully, as Ford had reason to know.</p> + +<p>More than once Ford had been on the point of leaving his plow in the +furrow while he should go to New York for one more battle with the +directory—a battle which should definitely abolish North and Mr. +Colbrith—or himself. Again and again he had weighed the chances of +winning such a battle. With Brewster for a leader it might be done. The +time for the annual stock-holders' meeting was approaching, and an +election which should put the burly copper magnate into the presidency +would be an unmixed blessing, not only for a struggling young chief of +construction, but for the Pacific Southwestern stock-holders, who were +sure to pay in the end for the present policy of rule or ruin.</p> + +<p>Part of the time it seemed to Ford that it was clearly his duty to make +this fight against the grafters in the Denver management. North deserved +no consideration, <a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>and while Mr. Colbrith was honest enough, his blind +prejudice and narrow mentality made him North's unwitting accessory. +Three months earlier Ford would not have hesitated; but in the interval +a woman had come between to obscure all the points of view. A fight to +the death against the Colbrith administration meant the antagonizing of +the Adairs—of Alicia, at least. True, she had spoken lightly of her +uncle's peculiarities; but Ford made sure she would stand by him in the +conflict, if only for kinship's sake.</p> + +<p>All this he was turning over in his mind for the hundredth time while +the big 1012 hammered up the Plug Mountain grade under the guiding hand +of the giant in blue denim. Ford, glooming out upon the lighted stretch +ahead, was once more finding the crucial question answerless. Should he +draw out of the losing battle with North and his fellow grafters, and +thereby save his chance of winning Alicia Adair? Or should he sacrifice +his love upon the altar of ambition, abolish Mr. Colbrith and the crew +of buccaneers his mistaken policy was sheltering, and win the industrial +success and a quieted conscience?</p> + +<p>His decision was reached by the time Hector was easing the throttle +lever at the summit of Plug Pass. What must be done should be done +quickly.</p> + +<p>"Right here is where you begin to run on your nerves," he said to the +big engineer, as the heavy engine <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>and car lunged over the summit of the +pass and began to gather gravity momentum on the downward rush.</p> + +<p>Hector nodded, and twitched the handle of the air-brake cock at shorter +intervals. Ford glanced back at the following car framed in the red glow +from the opened fire-box door. It was surging and bounding alarmingly +over the uneven track, not without threatenings of derailment. Ford was +willing to give the president the full benefit of his unreasonable +pertinacity; but there were others to be considered—and one above all +the others.</p> + +<p>"Easy, man; easy!" he cautioned. "If you leave the steel on this +goat-track there won't be anybody left to tell the story. It's a +thousand feet sheer in some places along here. Suppose you let me take +her to the bottom of the hill."</p> + +<p>The engineer stood aside with a good-tempered grin. He had seen the +chief of construction walking the one young lady of the party to the top +of Plug Pass and back, and it was not difficult to account for his +anxiety.</p> + +<p>Throughout the ten long miles of the mountain descent Ford crouched on +the driver's seat and put his mind into the business of getting down the +slides and around the sagging curves without having a wreck. The 1012's +brake equipment was modern, and the Nadia's gear was in perfect order. +Now and then on a tangent the big engine would straighten herself for a +race or a <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>runaway, but always the steady hand on the air-cock brought +her down just before the critical moment beyond which neither brakes nor +the steadiest nerve could avail. Thrice in the long downward rush Ford +checked the speed to a foot-pace. This was in the rock cuttings where +the jagged faces of the cliffs thrust themselves out into the white cone +of the headlight, scanting the narrow shelf of the right-of-way to a +mere groove in the rock. He was afraid of the cuttings. One of the many +tricks of the MacMorroghs was to keep barely within the contract limits +on clearance widths, and once the Nadia, sagging mountainward on the +roughly leveled track at the wrong moment, touched one of the +out-hanging rocks in passing. Hector heard the touch, and so did Ford; +but it was the engineman who made a grim jest upon it, saying: "If she +does that more'n once or twice, there'll be a job for the car painters, +don't you reckon, Mr. Ford? And for the carpenters."</p> + +<p>Just below the doubling bend in the great loop they came in sight of the +first of the MacMorrogh camps. Since the night was frosty a huge bonfire +was burning beside the track; and when Hector blew his whistle, some one +flagged the train with a brand snatched from the fire. Ford stopped +because he dared not do otherwise.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's wanted?" he snapped, when the train came to a stand, and +the brand-swinger, backed by a <a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>dozen others, made as if he would climb +to the cab of the 1012.</p> + +<p>"Some of us fellies want to go down to Ten Mile—the liquor's out," said +the man, trying to get a fair sight of the strange engineman.</p> + +<p>"Get off!" said Ford; and Hector made the order effective by shoving the +intruder from the step. That was easy; but before the train had measured +twice its length, a pistol barked thrice and the glass in the cab window +on Ford's side fell in splinters.</p> + +<p>"Holy smoke!" said Hector. "Is them the kind of plug-uglies you've got +over here, Mr. Ford?"</p> + +<p>Ford nodded. His eyes were on the track again, and he was hoping +fervently that the three shots had all been aimed at the engine. A mile +farther on, Penfield came sliding over the coal to say that the +president wanted to know what the shooting was about.</p> + +<p>Ford turned the 1012 over to Hector. The track hazards of the mountain +grade were safely passed.</p> + +<p>"Did any of the shots hit the car?" he asked of Penfield.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you have to say anything before the ladies it might be +advisable to make a joke of it. Signal torpedoes sound very much like +pistol-shots, you know."</p> + +<p>Penfield nodded. "But to Mr. Colbrith?"</p> + +<p>"To Mr. Colbrith you may say that a gang of drunken<a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a> MacMorrogh +surfacers flagged us down, and when we wouldn't let them have the train, +made a little gun play."</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" said the clerk, whose curiosity stopped short at the farthest +confines of any battle-field. "Is that sort of thing likely to happen +again, Mr. Ford?"</p> + +<p>"Your guess is as good as anybody's," said Ford curtly. "Better get back +to the car as quickly as you can, before Mr. Colbrith whistles us down +to find out what has become of you."</p> + +<p>Below the camp of the surfacers there were a few miles of better track, +and Hector made fair time until the train circled the mountain shoulder +at the lower end of the great loop. Beyond this the roughnesses began +again, and there were more of the skimped rock cuttings. At Ten Mile, +which was a relay station in the upper canyon for the halting of +supplies and material for which there was no room at the ever-advancing +"front," they stopped to try for track-clearings.</p> + +<p>As Leckhard had foretold, the operator could give them little help. Two +hours earlier, a train of empties in two sections had left the +end-of-track, coming eastward. Whether it was hung up at one of the +intervening side-tracks, or was still coming, the operator could not +say; and there were no means of finding out. Also, Mr. Frisbie, who had +reached Riley's camp late in the afternoon, had left there after supper +and was somewhere on <a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>the line with his light engine—probably on his +way to the front, the operator thought.</p> + +<p>Hector removed his great weight from the telegraph counter and the +woodwork creaked its relief. What he said was indicative of his frame of +mind.</p> + +<p>"Humph!" he growled. "If we don't get tangled up with Mr. Frisbie's +light engine, it's us for a head-ender with the string of empties. Isn't +that about it, Mr. Ford?"</p> + +<p>"That's it, precisely."</p> + +<p>"Which means that Jimmy Shovel trots ahead of us for a hundred mile 'r +so, carryin' a lantern like a blame' Dio-geenes huntin' for an honest +man."</p> + +<p>"That is the size of it," said Ford; but just then the sounder on the +table began to click and the operator held up his hand for silence.</p> + +<p>"Hold on a minute," he interrupted, "here's a piece of luck—it's Mr. +Frisbie, cutting in with his field set from Camp Frierson. He is asking +Saint's Rest about you."</p> + +<p>"Break in and tell him we're here," said Ford; and when it was done: +"Ask him about that string of empties."</p> + +<p>The reply was apparently another piece of luck. Frisbie, going westward, +had passed the first section of the freight train at Siding Number +Twelve. It was hung up with a broken draw-head on the engine, and <a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>was +safe to stay there, Frisbie thought, until somebody came along with a +repair kit, which, it might be assumed, would not be before morning.</p> + +<p>At this point Ford went around the counter and took the wire for a +little personal talk with the first assistant. It ignored the stalled +freight train, and Ford's rapid clickings spelled out an order. Frisbie +was to drop everything else, and constitute himself the president's +<i>avant-courrier</i> to the end-of-track camp, which, at the moment, +happened to be the MacMorroghs' headquarters at the mouth of Horse +Creek. All liquor-selling was to be stopped, the saloons closed, and the +strictest order maintained during the president's stay—this if it +should take the entire field force of the engineering department to +bring it to pass.</p> + +<p>"Don't," clicked Frisbie, from the other end of the long wire. And then +at the risk of giving it away to every operator on the line: "You're +doing yourself up. Let the president see for himself what he has let us +in for."</p> + +<p>Ford's reply was short and to the point. "The order stands. There are +others besides the president to be considered. Good night."</p> + +<p>"Well, we go to this here Siding Number Twelve, do we?" said Hector, +when they were clambering once more to the foot-plate of the 1012.</p> + +<p>"Safely, I think," said the chief, adding: "You can't <a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>run fast enough +over this track to get into trouble anyway."</p> + +<p>That was the way it appealed to Hector for the succeeding twenty miles. +When the track was not too rough to forbid speed, the cuts were too +numerous, and the big flyer had to be bitted and held down until some of +Hector's impatience began to get into the machinery. This shall account +as it may for what happened. A mile or two below Riley's, where the +lights were all out and the turmoil of the day of strikes had apparently +subsided, the canyon opened out into a winding valley, and when Ford +called across to Hector: "There are no rock cuts on this section, and we +are partly surfaced. You can let her out a little for a few miles," the +engineer took the permission for all it was worth and sent the +eight-wheeler flying down the newly-ballasted stretch.</p> + +<p>Two long curves were rounded in safety, and the special was approaching +a third, when to Ford, track-watching even more anxiously than Hector, a +dull red spot appeared in the exact center of the white field of the +electric. For a moment it puzzled him, but the explanation came with a +vigorous shock an instant later. It was the oil-lamp headlight of the +freight!</p> + +<p>Hector was huge enough to be slow, if bigness were a bar to celerity. +But no drill-master of the foot-plates could have brought the flying +train to a stand with the loss of fewer seconds. Happily, too, the +1012's electric <a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>headlight served as a danger signal seen from afar by +the engineer of the freight. So it chanced that the two great engines +merely put their noses together; and by the time Penfield came +scrambling over the coal with the inevitable query from the president, +the jolting stop was a thing of the past, and the train was in motion +again, following the freight, which was backing, at Ford's order, to the +nearest siding.</p> + +<p>"No more hurry for us to-night, Hector," was the boss's dictum, when the +obstructing string of empties was safely passed. "We take it slow and +sure from this on, with your fireman to flag us around the curves and +through the cuts. This was only the first section of the train that left +Horse Creek at eight o'clock—the section that was broken down at Siding +Twelve. We're due to pick up the second section anywhere between here +and the end-of-track."</p> + +<p>"Slow it is," said Hector. "I'm no hog, if I do take a little swill now +and then: I know when I've got enough."</p> + +<p>This was at ten-forty, while the night was still young. And for seven +other hours the one-car special inched its way cautiously toward the +goal, with Ford scanning every mile of the hazardous way as it swung +into the beam of the headlight arc, with Hector's left hand stiffening +on the brake-cock, and with a weary fireman dropping from his gangway at +every curve approach to flag for safety.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>It was not until three o'clock in the morning that they met and passed +the second section of empties, and the dawn of a new day was fully come +when the shacks and storehouses of the MacMorroghs' headquarters at the +mouth of Horse Creek came in sight. Ford got down from his seat on the +fireman's side and stretched himself as one relaxing after a mighty +strain.</p> + +<p>"That's the end of it for a little while, Billy," he said, addressing +the big engineer as a man and a brother. "Crawl in on the first siding +you come to, and go hunt you a bed. I don't think the president will be +perniciously active to-day—after such a night as we've had."</p> + +<p>But in this, as in other instances when Mr. Colbrith's activities had +figured as a factor, he reckoned without his host.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII</h3> + +<h4>THE MORNING AFTER</h4> + + +<p>Ford was awake for all day, and was colloguing with Frisbie about the +carrying out of the sumptuary order for the forcible camp-cleaning, when +Penfield came with the request that the chief report at once to the +president in the Nadia.</p> + +<p>"Tell him I'll be there presently," was the answer; and when Penfield +went to do it, the interrupted colloquy was resumed.</p> + +<p>"You say the camp has already gone dry?" said Ford incredulously.</p> + +<p>Frisbie nodded. "Everybody's on the water-wagon; here and at all the +camps above and below—bars not only closed, but apparently wiped out of +existence. I went for old Brian last night as soon as I reached here. He +looked at me reproachfully, and said: 'It's you to be always naggin' me +about thim whisky dives that I'm forever thryin' to run out, and can't. +Go and thry it yourself, Misther Frisbie, an' I'll stand at your back +till <a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>you're black in the face.' But when I went through the camp, +everything was quiet and orderly, and Jack Batters' bar was not only +closed—it was gone; vanished without leaving so much as a bad smell +behind it."</p> + +<p>"And then?" said Ford.</p> + +<p>"Then I got out my horse and rode up the creek and through some of the +camps on the Copah detour. The star-eyed goddess of reform had evidently +landed on that coast, too. Donahue's Hungarians were singing war-songs +around their camp-fire, as usual, and Contadini's Tuscans were out in +full force, guying the night-shift track-layers. But there was no bad +blood, and no whisky to breed it. You're done up again, Stuart."</p> + +<p>"I don't see that," said Ford, who, besides being short on sleep, was +rejoicing in the thought that Alicia and the other women of the +private-car party would not have to be blind and deaf.</p> + +<p>"Don't you? You've been protesting to beat the band about the +lawlessness and dissipation of the MacMorrogh camps. Accordingly, Mr. +Colbrith comes over here to see for himself: and what will he see? +Decency on a monument smiling reproachfully at her unprincipled +traducer. MacMorrogh will rub it into you good and hard. Can't you feel +the Sunday-school atmosphere right here in the headquarters this +morning? Look down yonder at the Nadia—wouldn't that soothe you, now?"</p> + +<p>Ford looked and the scowl which was coming to be a <a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>habit transformed +itself into a cynical smile. A hundred or more of the MacMorrogh +laborers, hats off and standing at respectful attention, were clustered +about the rear platform of the private car, and Mr. Colbrith was +addressing them; giving them the presidential benediction, as Frisbie +put it irreverently.</p> + +<p>"Don't you see how you are going to be hoisted with your own +ammunition?" the little man went on spitefully. "What becomes of all +your complaints of drunkenness and crime, when Mr. Colbrith can see with +his own eyes what truly good people the MacMorroghs are? And what +conclusion will he arrive at? There's only one, and it's a long-armed +one so far as your reputation is concerned: you are so desperately bent +on having your own way that you haven't scrupled to tell lies about +these angelic contractors."</p> + +<p>"Let up, Dick," said Ford gruffly. "I've got about all I can carry till +I catch up on sleep a little. But you're right: this is the place where +the fireworks come in. I think I'll go and light the fuses while I'm +keyed up to it."</p> + +<p>The crowd of laborers had dispersed by the time Ford reached the Nadia, +and the president, benign from the reactionary effect of his own +early-morning eloquence, was waiting for him.</p> + +<p>"Ah; we did reach the front safely, after all, didn't we, Mr. Ford?" was +Mr. Colbrith's mildly sarcastic <a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>greeting. And then: "Come aboard, sir; +we are waiting breakfast for you."</p> + +<p>Ford would have declined promptly, if the invitation had been anything +less than a command. He had met none of the members of the private-car +party save Miss Alicia, and he did not want to meet them, having the +true captain-of-industry's horror of mixing business with the social +diversions. But with one example of the president's obstinacy fresh in +mind, he yielded and climbed obediently to the railed platform. Whatever +happened, he should see Alicia again, a privilege never to be too +lightly esteemed, whatever it cost.</p> + +<p>The social ordeal was not so formidable. The private-car party was made +up of the president and his sister-in-law, the president's family +physician, Doctor Van Bruce, the doctor's wife, his sister, a maiden +lady of no uncertain age, and Alicia. These, with Penfield and Ford, +made the eight at table in the open compartment in the Nadia; and Ford, +in the seating, was lucky enough to find his place between Miss Van +Bruce, who was hard of hearing, and Miss Alicia, who was not. Luckily +again, Mr. Colbrith omitted all talk of business, drawing his end of the +table into a discussion of the effects of the dry altitudes in advanced +stages of tuberculosis.</p> + +<p>"What a dreadful night you must have had, Mr. Ford," said Alicia, when +the tuberculotic subject was <a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a>well launched at the other end of the +table. "Were you on the engine all the time?"</p> + +<p>"Most of the time," he confessed. "But that was nothing. It wasn't my +first night in the cab, as it won't be the last, by many, I hope."</p> + +<p>"Why? Do you like it?"</p> + +<p>"Not particularly. But I hope to live a while longer; and while I live I +shall doubtless have to ride with the enginemen now and then."</p> + +<p>"Was it very bad—last night?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you know it was. Could you sleep at all?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; I slept very well—after that terrible shaking up we had just +before bedtime. What was happening then?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing much. We were about to try the old experiment of passing two +trains on a single track."</p> + +<p>"Mercy!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>It was safely retrospective now, and Ford could smile at her belated +shock.</p> + +<p>"Were the others alarmed?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Van Bruce and Aunt Hetty were. But Uncle Sidney fairly coruscated. +He said that an engineer who would make such a stop as that ought to be +discharged."</p> + +<p>"Hector was willing to quit," laughed Ford. "He grumbled for a full hour +afterward about the wrenching he had given the 1012. You see he might +have <a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>taken about six feet more for the stop, if he'd only known it."</p> + +<p>Miss Alicia said "Mercy!" again. "Were we as near as that to a +collision?" she asked, in a hushed whisper.</p> + +<p>"We were, indeed. The freight was supposed to be on a siding—broken +down. The crew tinkered things up some way, and the train proceeded. +Luckily, the freight engineer saw our electric headlight farther than we +could see his oil lamp, and the track happened to be measurably +straight."</p> + +<p>Miss Adair was silent for a little time, waiting for the lapsed +tuberculotic discussion to revive. When it was once more in full swing, +she asked quickly:</p> + +<p>"What is the programme for to-day? Must we all stay in the car as you +intimated yesterday?"</p> + +<p>Ford glanced across the table to make sure that Penfield was not +eavesdropping.</p> + +<p>"It will not be necessary. Your coming—or the president's—has reformed +things wonderfully. Frisbie says—but never mind what he says: the +miracle has been wrought."</p> + +<p>He said it with such an evident air of dejection that she wondered. And +with Miss Alicia Adair the step from wonderment to investigation was +always short.</p> + +<p>"You say it as if you were sorry," she said. "Are you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; I'm glad—for your sake. But I wonder if <a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>you could understand +if I say that it will make it a thousand times harder for me?"</p> + +<p>"I can understand when I'm told," she retorted.</p> + +<p>The table-for-eight was no place for confidences; and Ford knew +Penfield's weakness for soaking up information. Yet he took the risk.</p> + +<p>"You remember what I hinted at, yesterday," he said in low tones; "about +the rough-house we have been having in the camps. It hasn't stopped +short of murder. I objected to the MacMorroghs before the contract was +given to them; and since, I have fought the lawlessness as I could. Now +your uncle comes over here and doesn't find any lawlessness. What is the +inference?"</p> + +<p>"That you have been—" she took him up quickly, and there was swift +indignation in the blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"—lying to gain a personal end," he finished for her.</p> + +<p>Penfield had been apparently listening avidly to the president's praise +of the dry altitudes as a sure cure for consumption, but now he had his +face in his plate. Ford devoted himself for the moment to the deaf Miss +Van Bruce, and when he turned back to Alicia he was telegraphing with +his eyes for discretion. She understood, and the low-toned tête-à-tête +was not resumed. Later, when they had a moment together in the +dispersion from the breakfast-table, he tried to apologize for what he +was pleased to call his "playing of the baby act." But she reassured him +in a low-spoken word.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>"Brother told me—I know more than you give me credit for, Mr. Ford. +Mr. North doesn't like you—he would be glad if you would resign. <i>You +must not resign!</i>"</p> + +<p>The others, personally-conducted by Mr. Colbrith, were crowding to the +rear platform for an after-breakfast view of the headquarters camp. Ford +and Alicia followed, but without haste.</p> + +<p>"You have chanced upon the word, Miss Adair," Ford was saying. "I +decided last night that I should resign."</p> + +<p>"No," she objected.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I must. Sometime I may tell you why."</p> + +<p>"I say you must not. That was the last word in brother's letter; and he +wished me to repeat it to you," she insisted.</p> + +<p>"Where is your brother?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"He was in London when he wrote."</p> + +<p>"He has thrown up his hand." Ford was pessimistic again.</p> + +<p>Miss Adair looked about her despairingly for some means of prolonging +the whispered confidence. Penfield, deferentially in the rear of the +platform group, was never safely out of earshot.</p> + +<p>"I want to see the engine that so nearly plunged us into a collision +last night," she said aloud; and Penfield's visible ear betrayed the +listening mind.</p> + +<p>Ford took his cue promptly. "We can go out the other <a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a>way," he said; and +the secretary <i>pro tempore</i> had no excuse for following.</p> + +<p>They found the cab of the 1012 deserted, with the steam in the huge +boiler singing softly at the behest of the banked fire. Miss Adair lost +her curiosity as soon as Ford had lifted her to the foot-plate.</p> + +<p>"Now you are to tell me all about it—quickly," she commanded. "Uncle +Sidney will be calling for you as soon as he misses you. Why are you so +foolish as to talk about resigning? Don't you see what they will say +then?—that you were afraid?"</p> + +<p>Ford was leaning against the centered reversing-lever, and his face was +gloomy again.</p> + +<p>"Possibly I am afraid," he suggested.</p> + +<p>"You should be more afraid of dishonor than of—of the other things. Do +you suppose Mr. North will be content with your resignation now?"</p> + +<p>Ford looked up quickly. Here was a new revelation—an unsuspected facet +of the precious gem. He could hardly believe that this steady-voiced, +far-seeing young woman was the insouciant, school-girlish—though none +the less lovable—young person with whom he had tramped to the +wind-swept summit of Plug Pass in the golden heart of the yesterday.</p> + +<p>"You mean—?" he began.</p> + +<p>"I mean that you will be discredited; disgraced if possible. Are you +sure you haven't been doing anything <a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>over here that you wouldn't want +Uncle Sidney to find out?"</p> + +<p>"Not consciously, you may be sure," he asserted unhesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"Think; think hard," she urged. "Is there nothing at all?"</p> + +<p>He could not help smiling lovingly at her scarce-concealed +anxiety—though it was merely the anxiety of a noble soul unwilling to +stand by and see injustice done.</p> + +<p>"My methods never get very far underground," he averred. "Not far enough +for my own safety, Frisbie says. If I had been keeping a diary, I think +I should be quite willing to let Mr. Colbrith read it—or print it, if +he cared to."</p> + +<p>"And yet there <i>is</i> something," she asserted, and the straight brows +went together in a little frown of perplexity. "You don't ask me how I +know: I'm going to tell you, Mr. Ford—though it's rather shameful. +Three days ago, while we were in Denver, Mr. North came down to the car +to see Uncle Sidney."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" he encouraged.</p> + +<p>"They were closeted in Uncle Sidney's state-room for a long time," she +went on. "I—I was walking with Miss Van Bruce, up and down on the +station platform beside the Nadia, Uncle Sidney had told me not to go +very far away because we were likely to start at any moment. The—the +car windows were open—"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>Her embarrassment was growing painfully apparent, and Ford came to the +rescue.</p> + +<p>"You were not even constructively to blame," he hastened to say. "They +must surely have seen you passing and repassing, and if they wished for +privacy they might have closed the windows."</p> + +<p>"I didn't hear much: only a word or two, now and then. They were talking +about you and brother; and—" She stopped short and laid her hand on the +throttle-lever of the big engine: "What did you say this was for?" she +asked ingenuously.</p> + +<p>Ford's up-glance of surprise was answered by a glimpse of Penfield +sauntering past on the other side of the track. She could not have seen, +but she had doubtless heard his footsteps on the gravel.</p> + +<p>"It's the throttle," said Ford, answering her question. And then: +"Please go on: he is out of hearing."</p> + +<p>"They were speaking of you and brother; and—and of <i>me</i>. I can't repeat +a single sentence entire, but I know Mr. North was accusing you in some +way, and apparently implicating me. Perhaps I listened in self-defense. +Do you think I did, Mr. Ford?"</p> + +<p>"You certainly had a good right to," said Ford, who would have sworn in +her behalf that the morally black was spotlessly white. "But how could +you be implicated?"</p> + +<p>"That was what puzzled me then—and it is puzzling <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>me still. They +said—or rather Mr. North said—that you—that you had <i>bought</i> me!"</p> + +<p>Ford did not say that he would like to buy, beg, borrow or steal any +kind of right to call her his own, but if his lips did not form the +words they were lying at the bottom of the steady gray eyes for her to +take or leave as she chose.</p> + +<p>"I am sure you couldn't have heard that part of it quite straight," he +said, almost regretfully.</p> + +<p>"But I did, because it was repeated. Mr. North insisted that you had +bought me; and I didn't like the way in which he said it, either. He +called me 'the little Alicia'."</p> + +<p>"What!" said Ford; and then a flood of light burst in upon at least one +of the dark places. "It's only a mine," he said sheepishly. "And I did +buy it, or half of it."</p> + +<p>She was regarding him accusingly now.</p> + +<p>"Did you—did you name it?" she asked, and there was the merest breath +of frost in the air.</p> + +<p>He was glad to be able to tell the truth without flinching.</p> + +<p>"No; it is one of the earliest of the Copah prospects, and I suppose the +discoverer named it. I am willing to defend his choice, though. He +couldn't have found a prettier name."</p> + +<p>She went back to the matter in hand with womanly <a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>swiftness. "But the +mine: you had a right to buy it, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"I should suppose so. I paid for it with my own money, anyway."</p> + +<p>"Then why should Mr. North use it as an argument against you in speaking +to Uncle Sidney? He did that—I am sure he did that."</p> + +<p>"Now the water has grown too deep for me," said Ford. "Why, North, +himself, is interested in Copah, openly. He owns half a dozen claims."</p> + +<p>"Near yours?" she queried.</p> + +<p>Ford stopped to consider. "To tell the truth, I don't know where mine +is," he confessed. "I bought it as the school-boys trade +pocket-knives—sight unseen. You wouldn't believe it of a grown man, +would you?"</p> + +<p>"What made you buy it at all?"</p> + +<p>Again he told the simple truth—and tried not to flinch.</p> + +<p>"You won't mind if I say that the name attracted me? I thought a mine, +or anything, that bore your name, ought to be good and—and desirable. +And it is a good mine; or it will be, by and by. Some morning I shall +wake up and find myself rich. At least that is what my partner, Grigsby, +assures me; and I believe him when I happen to remember it."</p> + +<p>She neither approved nor disapproved. When she spoke, it was of the +present necessity. "We must go <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a>back to the others now," she said. "Or +at least I must. Do you know what is to be done to-day?"</p> + +<p>Ford spread his hands.</p> + +<p>"Your uncle will set the pace. I wouldn't venture a guess, after last +night."</p> + +<p>He was handing her down from the engine step and she went back in a word +to the former contention.</p> + +<p>"You haven't promised me yet that you will not resign under fire—you +are under fire, you know."</p> + +<p>"Am I?"</p> + +<p>"Brother thinks you are."</p> + +<p>Once more he took the pessimistic view.</p> + +<p>"Your brother isn't losing any sleep over the Pacific Southwestern +situation. You said he was in England, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"I said he was in London when he wrote."</p> + +<p>"London is a long way off: and what I do must be done to-day or +to-morrow. Mr. North will force the fighting, now that your uncle is on +the ground, and your brother safely on the opposite side of the earth. +And I can't afford to fight this time, Miss Alicia."</p> + +<p>"Why can't you?"</p> + +<p>They were walking slowly back toward the Nadia when he said: "Because a +victory would cost me more than I am willing to pay. There is no longer +room in this service for Mr. North and me. If we come to blows one of us +will have to go."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>"I can understand that," she said quietly.</p> + +<p>"And to obliterate Mr. North, I shall be obliged to efface—your uncle."</p> + +<p>She caught her breath.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ford, you have intimated that Mr. North isn't an honest man. Do you +ask me to believe that Uncle Sidney is his accomplice?"</p> + +<p>"He is not, knowingly. But he will stand or fall with the man he has +made. I should have to ride him down before I could get at North."</p> + +<p>Her lip curled and the straight-browed little frown came again. "There +is no such thing as mercy in business, is there, Mr. Ford? My uncle is +an old man and his presidency means more to him—"</p> + +<p>"I understand that perfectly," said Ford soberly. "That is why I prefer +to step down and out and let some other man have the glory of finishing +the extension."</p> + +<p>She looked up quickly.</p> + +<p>"Would you do that for Uncle Sidney? He hasn't been very lenient with +you, has he?"</p> + +<p>Ford ignored the query.</p> + +<p>"He is your uncle, Miss Alicia; and I'd do it for your sake or not at +all."</p> + +<p>They had reached the steps of the private car, and Frisbie was waiting +with evident impatience for a word with Ford. Miss Adair's eyes signaled +emotion, and<a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a> Ford thought it was resentment. But her parting word was +not resentful; it was merely a repetition.</p> + +<p>"Go to Mr. Frisbie," she said from the car step; "he is waiting for +you." And then: "Remember; whatever happens, <i>you must not resign</i>—not +even if Uncle Sidney asks you to."</p> + +<p>Frisbie's information, given after Miss Adair had gone in, was rather +mystifying. Young Benson, who was just in from the grade work beyond +Copah, brought word of a party of strange engineers running lines on the +opposite side of the river from the rejected S.L. & W. short-cut through +the canyon of shale slides. Questioned by Benson, they had told what +Frisbie believed to be a fairy tale. The chief of the party claimed to +be the newly-elected county surveyor from Copah, running the lines for +some mining property recently filed for entry. Benson had not been over +curious; but he was observant enough to note that the tale was a misfit +in three important particulars. He saw no locating stakes, such as a +prospector always sets up conspicuously to mark his claim; and there +were no signs of the precious metal, and no holes to indicate an attempt +to find it.</p> + +<p>"What's your guess, Dick?" said Ford tersely.</p> + +<p>The assistant shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I haven't any coming to me. But I don't like mysteries."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>"Where was this party?"</p> + +<p>"About a mile and a half below here. It was going out toward Copah when +Jack met it—its work, whatever it was, all done, apparently."</p> + +<p>It was one of Frisbie's gifts to be suspicious; but Ford was lacking on +that side.</p> + +<p>"It's barely possible that the man was telling the truth, in spite of +Benson's failure to find any prospect holes," he remarked. "We'll let it +go at that until we know something different. It couldn't be a +Transcontinental party, this far from home, and we haven't anybody else +to fear."</p> + +<p>Frisbie dropped the subject as one of the abstractions and took up the +concrete.</p> + +<p>"What are the orders for to-day?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I'm waiting for Mr. Colbrith to say."</p> + +<p>"There are two buckboard teams here, in the MacMorrogh stables—came +over from Copah last night. What are they for?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Another of the president's little surprises, I suppose. +We'll know when he sends for me."</p> + +<p>The expected summons came at that precise moment, transmitted by +Penfield. Mr. Colbrith would like to see Mr. Ford in his private +state-room in the Nadia. The secretary had a sheaf of telegrams in his +hand, and wished to be directed to the wire office. Frisbie took him in +charge, and Ford went to obey the summons.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>The president was sitting very erect in his swing chair when the young +engineer let himself into the box-like compartment, and his voice was at +its thinnest when he said: "Be seated, Mr. Ford."</p> + +<p>Ford sat down on the divan-couch, and the president plunged at once into +business.</p> + +<p>"Some time ago, you advised me, as chairman of the executive committee, +that you had decided upon a change of route, Mr. Ford," he began +raspingly. "What were your reasons for making the change?"</p> + +<p>"I stated them in my letter of advice," said Ford; "economy in +construction and greater safety in operating, as against a slight +increase in the length of the line."</p> + +<p>"Twelve miles, I believe you said: that is a very considerable increase, +I should say. The great eastern companies are spending millions of +dollars, Mr. Ford, to shorten their lines by half-mile cut-offs."</p> + +<p>Ford had his reply ready.</p> + +<p>"The conditions are entirely different. It will be many years before a +fast through service is either practicable or profitable over the +extension; and when it comes to that, we shall still have the short line +from Denver to Green Butte by forty-two miles. But I explained all this +at the time, Mr. Colbrith, and I understood that I had the executive +committee's approval of the changed route."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>"Qualifiedly, Mr. Ford; only qualifiedly. Yet you have gone ahead in +your usual impetuous way, abandoning the short line through the canyon +and building the detour. Your motive for haste must have been a very +strong one—very strong."</p> + +<p>"It was. I am not here to kill time."</p> + +<p>"So it appears. But I am here, Mr. Ford, to consider carefully, and to +investigate. We shall go first over this route you have abandoned. I +wish to see for myself the difficulties you have so painstakingly +described."</p> + +<p>Ford shrugged.</p> + +<p>"I'm quite at your service, of course. But you will find it a hard trip. +Indeed, if we drive, we shall have to cross the river and take the other +side. The canyon on this side is impassable in places for a man on +foot."</p> + +<p>"I provided for that," said the president, letting his ferrety eyes rest +for a moment upon the reluctant one. "You will find two buckboards with +their drivers at the MacMorrogh headquarters. Be good enough to order +them around, and we'll start at once. No; no protests, Mr. Ford. My +responsibilities are not to be shirked. Penfield will drive with me, and +you may take Mr. Frisbie with you, if you see fit. I understand he is +implicated with you in this matter."</p> + +<p>Ford bridled angrily at the word.</p> + +<p>"There is no implication about it, Mr. Colbrith. You continually refer +to it as if it were a crime."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>"Ah! the word is yours, Mr. Ford. We shall see—we shall see. That is +all, for the present."</p> + +<p>Ford was raging when he found Frisbie and gave the order for the +vehicles.</p> + +<p>"He turned me out of his office state-room as if I had been a messenger +boy or tramp! Get those teams out, Dick, and give me a chance to cool +down. If my job is to last through this day—"</p> + +<p>Frisbie laughed. "Go and dip your head in the Pannikin while you wait. +Or, better still, chew on this. It's a cipher message that Durgin has +just been sending for Penfield to Vice-President North. Wouldn't that +make you weep and howl?"</p> + +<p>Ford was still puzzling over the meaningless code words when he took his +seat in the second of the two buckboards with Frisbie. The first +assistant waited until the horses had splashed through the shallows of +the river crossing; waited further until the president's vehicle had +gained a little start. Then he said: "Is it possible that you had +Penfield for a spy on you as long as you did without working out his +cipher code? Good Lord! I got that down before I did anything else—last +spring when you left me to run the Plug Mountain. Here's what he says to +North"—taking the code message and translating: "Ford suspects +something. Don't know how much. He and Miss Adair are putting their +heads together. She has authority of some kind <a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a>from her brother. +President goes with Ford to examine abandoned route, as arranged. Will +wire result later.'"</p> + +<p>"'As arranged,'" was Ford's wrathful comment.</p> + +<p>"Apparently, everything is arranged for us. Some day, Dick, I'll lose my +temper, tie Penfield in a hard knot and throw him into the river! It's +like a chapter out of Lucretia Borgia!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX</h3> + +<h4>THE RELUCTANT WHEELS</h4> + + +<p>It was possibly an hour after Penfield's cipher message reached the +Southwestern Pacific headquarters in the Colorado capital, when a +fair-haired young man in London-cut clothes, and with a tourist's quota +of hand-luggage, crossed the Denver Union Station platform from the +Pullman of a belated Chicago train.</p> + +<p>Ascertaining from a gateman that the Plug Mountain day train had long +since gone on its way up the canyon, the young man left his many +belongings at the check-stand and had himself driven up-town to the +Guaranty Building. It was Eckstein who took his card in Mr. North's +outer office. The private secretary was dictating to a stenographer, and +was impatient of the interruption. But the name on the card wrought a +miracle.</p> + +<p>"Mr. North? Why, surely, Mr. Adair. He is always at liberty for you. +Right through this way"—holding the gate in the counter railing at its +widest—"we're mighty glad to see you in Denver, always."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>Adair had acquired the monocle habit on his latest run across the +Atlantic, and to keep in practice he gave the secretary the coldest of +stares through the disconcerting glass. "Really! I'm quite delighted. +Who is the other member of the 'we,' Mr.—er—er—"</p> + +<p>"Eckstein," prompted the secretary; but he said no more, being prudently +anxious to be quit of the transfixing stare before a worse thing should +befall.</p> + +<p>In the inner room the vice-president was less effusive, but no less +cordial. It was a rare thing to see one of the company's directors in +the Denver business offices. Mr. North was of the opinion that it would +be a good investment of time and effort for all concerned if the members +of the board used their privilege oftener. So on through half a dozen +polite time-killers to the reluctant query: What could the general +manager do for Mr. Adair?</p> + +<p>Given leave to speak, Adair stated his needs succinctly. He wanted a +special train to Saint's Rest; he wanted it suddenly, and he asked that +it be given the right of the road.</p> + +<p>"My dear sir!" protested the vice-president, "you mustn't ask +impossibilities! You shall have the train at once, of course: you shall +have my private car. But when it comes to the right of way, you'll have +to appeal to Mr. Ford. Why, he doesn't scruple to lay out the United +States mails for his material trains!"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>"Um," said Adair. "Where can I reach Ford?"</p> + +<p>Mr. North did not equivocate; he never lied when the truth would answer +the purpose equally well.</p> + +<p>"He is out on the extension; or more correctly speaking, somewhere +beyond the present end of the construction telegraph line. I'm afraid +you couldn't reach him by wire."</p> + +<p>"And the president?" queried the visitor.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Colbrith's car is at the end-of-track. You wished to join the party +in the Nadia?"</p> + +<p>"That is what I had in mind," said Adair, not too anxiously.</p> + +<p>Mr. North shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I don't think you'd enjoy the run over the construction track. Mr. +Colbrith went over it last night because—well, because he believes it +to be a presidential duty to inspect everything. If you leave to-day, +you will probably meet the Nadia coming out—possibly at Saint's Rest."</p> + +<p>Adair suddenly became wary.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps that would be the easy thing to do," he said. "I suppose the +engineers at Saint's Rest could put me up if I have to stay over night?"</p> + +<p>"You needn't ask them. You will have my car—with the best cook this +side of Louisiana. Keep it, live in it, till Mr. Colbrith picks you up +on his return."</p> + +<p>"All right. But you'll give me the special. And let <a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a>it make as good +time as it can, Mr. North; I'm fierce when I have to ride a slow train."</p> + +<p>The vice-president's promise was freely given; and to expedite matters, +the division superintendent's chief clerk went down to the station with +Adair to see the special train properly equipped and started on the +mountain-climbing run. Adair left the details to this orderly from the +general offices; not knowing how to compass them himself, he had to. If +he could have seen the broad grins on the faces of his train crew when +Dobson, the clerk, gave them the despatcher's order—but at that moment +he was lounging in Mr. North's easiest chair in the central compartment +of the "01," reading for the twentieth time a crease-worn telegram.</p> + +<p>The telegram was from Alicia, and it was dated at Denver, three days +gone. It was not very explicit; on the contrary, it was rather +incoherent.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"You would better come on as fast as you can if you want to save +your friend's life. He has been tried and found guilty—of just +what, I don't know—and will be hanged pretty soon—within a few +days, I think." </p></div> + +<p>"Now that's a nice way to stir a fellow up, isn't it?" soliloquized the +pleasure-lover. "Just as I was getting ready to go up to Mount Ptarmigan +for the shooting. She knew that, too. I'll bet a picayune it's just a +girl's scare. Ford's plenty good and able to take care of himself."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a>That was Mr. Charles Edward Adair's care-free phrasing of it; but three +hours later, when the cook of the "01" served him the most appetizing of +luncheons in the big open compartment, and the steeply pitched walls of +the lower Blue Canyon were still stinting the outlook from the car +windows, he began to grow impatient.</p> + +<p>"Whereabouts are we now, Johnson?" he asked of the cook's second man.</p> + +<p>"Between Cutcliff and No-Horse; yes, sah. 'Bout forty mile from Denver."</p> + +<p>"Great Scott! Fifteen miles an hour? Say, Johnson, what do you do when +you want 'em to run faster—pull this string?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sah; dat's it," grinned the negro.</p> + +<p>Adair pulled the air-cord, and it brought results—of a kind. Only the +train came to a sudden stop, instead of going ahead faster; and +Conductor Barclay, who had been riding on the engine, came back to see +what had happened.</p> + +<p>"Did you stop us, Mr. Adair?" he asked pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"Not meaning to, you may be sure," said Adair. "But now you're here, +I'll ask if there is any objection to my getting off and walking. I +could stop and rest and let you overtake me now and then, you know."</p> + +<p>The conductor tweaked the air-cord and the train moved on again.</p> + +<p>"I've been expecting you'd shout at us," he said good-<a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a>naturedly. "But +we're doing the best we can. There's a freight wreck on ahead, and we've +been dallying along, hoping they'd get it picked up by the time we reach +it. I thought you'd rather keep moving than to be hung up for three or +four hours at the wreck."</p> + +<p>Adair saw his helplessness and made the best of it. He was in Mr. +North's hands, and if Mr. North was playing for delay, the delay would +be forthcoming. None the less, he contrived to make Barclay +uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>"I'm only a director in the Pacific Southwestern, and I suppose +directors don't count," he said nonchalantly. "Yet, I presume, if I +should ask it as a personal favor, I might get a conductor's or an +engineer's head to take home with me for a souvenir. How would that be? +Do you think I could make it win?"</p> + +<p>"You could do it, hands down, Mr. Adair. But I hope you won't feel as if +you'd got to go into the head-hunting business. It's like the boy +throwing stones into the pond; it's fun for the kid, but sort o' hard on +the toad-frogs."</p> + +<p>Adair laughed. He was not one of those who find it easy to bear malice.</p> + +<p>"You don't talk half as bad as you act," he said genially. "Down at +bottom I dare say you're a pretty good kind of a fellow. Had anything to +eat?"</p> + +<p>Barclay shook his head. "No; we was laying off to get coffee and sinkers +at Clapp's Mine, if we ever get there."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a>"'Coffee and sinkers'," said Adair. "That doesn't sound very uplifting. +Sit down here and help me out with my contract."</p> + +<p>Barclay did it, rather unwillingly. He was not accustomed to eating at +the vice-president's table, but there was no resisting the curly-headed +young man when he chose to make himself companionable. Barclay sat on +the edge of his chair, ate with his knife or fork indifferently, and had +small use for the extra spoons and cutlery. But he made a meal to be +remembered. Afterward, the young man found a cigar-case, and his own box +of Turkish cigarettes; and still the special was going at the same slow +cow-gallop up the canyon.</p> + +<p>"How many are there of you up ahead?" asked Adair, when Barclay's cigar +was going like a factory chimney.</p> + +<p>"Only Williams and his fireman."</p> + +<p>"Dinner-buckets?"</p> + +<p>"No; neither one of 'em, as it happens. Hurry call to go out with you, +and both of 'em live too far to go home after the grub-cans."</p> + +<p>"Johnson," said the dispenser of hospitality, calling the second man. +"Think you could climb over the coal with some dinner for the enginemen? +No? Let me make it possible"—flipping a dollar into the ready palm. +"Tell the cook it's an order, and if he stints it there'll be +consequences."</p> + +<p>Barclay grinned his appreciation. The curly-headed <a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>young man was far +enough removed from any species of railway official hitherto known to +the conductor. But Adair was only paving the way.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," he said, after a little interval of tobacco-charmed +silence, "one of the things I am most anxious to see is a real railroad +wreck. Suppose you quicken up a little and let us have our dead time at +the scene of this disaster you speak of."</p> + +<p>Barclay was tilting uneasily in his chair.</p> + +<p>"I reckon they've about got it picked up and cleaned out o' the way by +this time, Mr. Adair. I shouldn't be surprised if we could hardly find +the place when we get there."</p> + +<p>"Nor I," said Adair; and he sat back and chuckled. "It's considerably +difficult to sit up and pull your imagination on a man who has been +decently good to you, isn't it, Barclay? Let me ask you: are you Mr. +North's man?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. North is the big boss."</p> + +<p>"But this Plug Mountain division is a part of Mr. Ford's line, isn't +it?"</p> + +<p>"It used to be all his. There's a white man for you, Mr. Adair."</p> + +<p>Adair saw his opportunity and used it.</p> + +<p>"Now see here, Barclay; I'm only a director, and I don't cut much ice +out this way. But back in New York I'm one of three or four people who +can tell Mr. North <a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a>what he can do, and what he can't. You wouldn't want +to see Mr. Ford getting it in the neck, would you?"</p> + +<p>"By Jacks! There ain't a man in the service that wouldn't fight for him. +I tell you, he's <i>white</i>."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Ford is in trouble: I don't know but he is likely to lose his +job, if I don't see the president before the big ax comes down. That is +between us two."</p> + +<p>The conductor sprang out of his chair.</p> + +<p>"By gravy! Why didn't you say that at first? Say, Mr. Adair, you stand +between us and Mr. North—tell him you gave the orders yourself—and +you'll have the ride of your life from here to Saint's Rest!"</p> + +<p>"Go it," said Adair; and two minutes after Barclay had let himself out +of the forward door of the "01," the train took a sudden start and +darted ahead at full speed.</p> + +<p>This bit of diplomacy on the part of Adair saved two full hours in the +run to Saint's Rest. Nevertheless, it was after dark when the "01" +pulled into the crowded material yard in the high mountain basin and +Leckhard came aboard to find out what had brought this second +private-car visitation. He was relieved not to meet North—to be +confronted only by a pleasant-faced young man who seemed to have the car +all to himself.</p> + +<p>"My name is Leckhard," announced the man-of-all-work, "and I represent +the engineering department. I saw it was Mr. North's car, and—"</p> + +<p>"And you came to see what you could do for the <a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a>vice-president and +general manager," Adair finished for him. "Mighty sorry to disappoint +you, Mr. Leckhard, but my name isn't North; it's Adair, and I'm only a +director. How much authority is a director allowed—at this altitude and +distance from New York?"</p> + +<p>Leckhard laughed.</p> + +<p>"I reckon you might call yourself the ranking officer in the field, Mr. +Adair. What you say, goes."</p> + +<p>"Then I say 'go'; which means that I'd like to go—on to the end of the +extension."</p> + +<p>But now the engineer was shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"Ask me anything but that, Mr. Adair. None of our enginemen is at this +end of the line, and your man Williams, who brought you up from Denver, +doesn't know the way. More than that, if we had a man and an engine, I'd +be afraid to send you out for a night run. Mr. Ford made it last night +with Mr. Colbrith's car, and they used up ten hours in covering less +than a hundred and twenty miles, and came within six feet of killing +everybody."</p> + +<p>Adair had lighted a cigarette, and he did not reply until the match +flare had gone out. Then he said, in a way that made Leckhard his friend +for life:</p> + +<p>"I'm entirely in your hands, Mr. Leckhard; can't turn a wheel unless you +say so. And I believe you're telling me the truth, as man to man. Can +you reach Ford or Mr. Colbrith by wire?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>"I'm sorry to say I can't. We have only the one wire, and it's on +temporary poles most of the way. It broke down on us this morning, and I +can't raise the end-of-track."</p> + +<p>"Block number two," said Adair cheerfully. "We seem to be out of luck +this evening." Then, with searching abruptness: "Do you call yourself +Ford's friend, Mr. Leckhard?"</p> + +<p>"Rather," said the Saint's Rest Pooh Bah. "He hired me; and when he +goes, I go."</p> + +<p>"Ah! now we are warming ourselves at the same fire. Let me invite your +confidence in one word, Mr. Leckhard. I dislike Mr. North."</p> + +<p>The burly engineer laughed again.</p> + +<p>"You have a geniusful way of putting your finger on the sore spot +without fumbling. We all dislike Mr. North at this end of things—with +reason."</p> + +<p>"And that reason is?"</p> + +<p>"That he'd fire the entire engineering department if he could find half +an excuse. I'm afraid he's going to do it, too, in the most effectual +way—by forcing Mr. Ford out. If Ford goes, every man in the department +will quit with him. I'm afraid it's coming to that."</p> + +<p>Johnson, the porter, had lighted the Pintsch globes and was laying the +covers for dinner.</p> + +<p>"Make it two, Johnson," said Adair; and, then to Leckhard: "You dine +with me—don't say no; I couldn't <a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a>stand it alone." And when that point +was settled: "Now, sit down till we thresh, this out a bit finer. How +far has this forcing business gone? You're talking to the man who has +backed Ford from the first."</p> + +<p>"It has gone pretty far. North has obstructed, quietly but persistently, +ever since the first blow was struck on the extension. He has delayed +material, when he could do it unofficially, he scants us for rolling +stock and motive power, he stands in with the MacMorroghs and backs them +against Ford every time there is a dispute. Ford is a patient man, Mr. +Adair, but I think he has about reached the limit."</p> + +<p>"H'm. Do you attach any particular importance to the president's trip +over the extension?"</p> + +<p>Leckhard shook his head. "I'm only a passenger—I see what goes by the +car-windows. Mr. Colbrith was dead set on pushing over to the +end-of-track—wouldn't even wait for daylight. You probably know him +better than I do—"</p> + +<p>"He is my uncle," Adair cut in.</p> + +<p>"Oh; then I can't tell you anything about him. He was hot at Ford last +night; what for I don't know, unless it was because Ford opposed a night +run over a raw construction track with the Nadia. He was right about +that, though. If I had been in his place I would have thrown up my job +before I would have taken the risk."</p> + +<p>Adair appeared to be considering something, and <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>when he had thought it +out, the porter had announced dinner and they had taken their places at +the table.</p> + +<p>"I have told you I am Ford's friend, Mr. Leckhard; I have ridden a +couple of thousand miles out of my way to give him a lift. Tell me +frankly; have you any reason to believe it will come to blows between +him and the president while they are together at the front?—Try this +celery; it's as good as you'd get at Sherry's."</p> + +<p>Leckhard helped himself to the relish, and waited until the negro, +Johnson, had gone back to the cook's galley.</p> + +<p>"The little I know comes in a roundabout way," he replied slowly. +"Penfield, who is known all over the Southwestern as Mr. North's private +detective and spy, is with Mr. Colbrith acting as the president's +secretary. Yesterday, while the Nadia was side-tracked here, Penfield +had a lot of telegraphing to do for Mr. Colbrith. He did it +himself—he's a lightning operator, among other things—and I happened +into the office just as he was finishing. His final message was a +cipher, to Mr. North, and he signed it with his own name."</p> + +<p>"Well?" said Adair.</p> + +<p>Again the engineer waited until the negro was out of hearing.</p> + +<p>"A little later, just as the Nadia was about to pull out, there came a +rush call from Denver for Penfield. I answered and said the car was on +the point of leaving, but <a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a>that I'd take the message and try to catch +Penfield if I could. It came, on the run, and it was signed by Eckstein, +North's chief clerk. It wasn't ciphered—lack of time, I reckon—and +Eckstein took the chance that I wouldn't catch on."</p> + +<p>"You kept a copy?" suggested Adair.</p> + +<p>"I did. I wasn't able to deliver the original until the Nadia came back +from the foot of the pass in the evening to fill the engine tank. But I +couldn't make anything out of it. It was an order to Penfield not to let +anything interfere with the president's buckboard trip—whatever that +might be—with authority to incur any expense that might be necessary, +using the telegram as his credential with the MacMorrogh Brothers if +more money were needed."</p> + +<p>"To pay for the buckboards?" asked Adair.</p> + +<p>"You may search me," said Leckhard. "Only it could hardly be that—we +have an open account at the Bank of Copah for legitimate expenses. No; +there's a nigger in the woodpile, somewhere. Penfield is only a clerk; +but for some purpose he is given <i>carte blanche</i> to spend money."</p> + +<p>Adair was absently stirring his black coffee.</p> + +<p>"All of which points to one conclusion, Mr. Leckhard. They are plotting +against Ford—without the president's connivance. But the president is +going to be made to swing the club. I know rather more than you do about +<a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a>it—which isn't saying very much. My—a relative of mine who is with +the party in the Nadia wired me three days ago from Denver that Ford had +been tried and condemned, and was only waiting to be hanged. That's why +I am here to-night. You've got to get me to the end-of-track before it +comes to blows between Mr. Colbrith and Stuart Ford. I know both men, +Mr. Leckhard. If the iron comes to a certain heat, the past master of +all the peacemakers won't be able to patch things together."</p> + +<p>"Ford will resign," said the engineer.</p> + +<p>"That is what I'm afraid of; and we can't let him resign. That would +mean Mr. North for everything in sight, and the ultimate ruin of the +Pacific Southwestern. On the other hand, I can't have Ford fighting the +family—or my uncle—which is just what he will do if he gets his blood +up—and doesn't quit in a huff. It's up to you to trundle this car over +to the seat of war, Mr. Leckhard."</p> + +<p>The division engineer was thinking hard.</p> + +<p>"I can't see how it's to be done, right now, Mr. Adair. But I'll tell +you what I will do. Our empty material trains come back from the front +in the night, as a rule. When they get in, and I can be sure that the +track's clear, I'll double one of the construction engines out with you. +It will be along toward morning, I'm afraid; but, with nothing in the +way, you ought to make the run in four or five hours—say by late +breakfast time."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a>That was the way it was left when Leckhard went back to his telegraph +den at ten o'clock; and some six hours later, Adair, sleepily conscious +of disturbances, wakened sufficiently to hear the wheels once more +trundling monotonously under the "01."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX</h3> + +<h4>THE CONSPIRATORS</h4> + + +<p>"How far do we go, and what do we do when we get there?" asked Frisbie +of his chief, when the two buckboards, heaving and lurching over the +rock-strewn talus at the foot of the canyon cliff, had passed beyond +sight and sound of the headquarters camp at the mouth of Horse Creek.</p> + +<p>"I'm not guessing any more," said Ford crustily. He was finding that his +temper deteriorated as the square of his distance from Alicia Adair +increased. "The president said he wanted to drive over this short-cut, +and he's doing it."</p> + +<p>"Humph!" growled Frisbie. "If he wanted to rub salt into your bruises, +why didn't he take you in the cart with him? And where do <i>I</i> come in?"</p> + +<p>"You are 'implicated' with me; that was his word."</p> + +<p>Another mile passed in discomforting plungings. The trail had become all +but impassable for the staggering horses; yet the leading buckboard held +on doggedly.<a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a> There were places where both drivers had to get out and +lead; bad bits where all save the president descended to walk. But +through the worst as well as the best, Mr. Colbrith clung to his seat +like a man determined to ride. It was well past noon when the two +vehicles reached the western portal of the canyon, and the dottings of +the Copah mine workings came in sight on the hillsides to the southward. +Ford's driver had fallen a little behind in the final half-mile, and +when the gap was closed up, the president was waiting.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Ford," he began, somewhat breathless but triumphant, "are you +fully satisfied?"</p> + +<p>"I have learned nothing that I did not know before we began to build the +extension," was the non-committal rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you haven't? You reported that canyon impracticable for a railroad, +and yet I have just driven through it without once dismounting from this +buckboard. Moreover, we shall find in Copah to-morrow a re-survey of the +line showing its entire practicability, Mr. Ford—a report not made by +your engineers."</p> + +<p>Ford and Frisbie exchanged swift glances of intelligence. The presence +of the strange engineering party in the canyon was sufficiently +explained. At first sight the president's expedient seemed childishly +puerile to Ford. Then suddenly in a flash of revealment he saw beyond +the puerilities—beyond the stubborn old man <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>who, with all his narrow +self-will and obstinacy was merely playing the game for others.</p> + +<p>"We can discuss these matters later, if you wish," he said placably. "I +think you will find our ground well taken. Do you want to drive back as +we came? Or will you let me find you an easier road to the mouth of +Horse Creek?"</p> + +<p>But Mr. Colbrith was not to be balked or turned aside.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ford, I wish to be fair and impartial. I desired to satisfy myself, +personally, that this route we have driven over is practicable, and it +was also my desire that the investigation should be conducted in your +presence. You will admit now that you made a mistake—a very costly +mistake for the company—in abandoning this short cut."</p> + +<p>"I admit nothing of the kind. The difficulties remain as they were, +quite unchanged by our pleasure trip from the end-of-track, Mr. +Colbrith. Assuming that the re-survey will report that the north bank of +the river is practicable, while the south bank is not, I have only to +say that the cost of the two bridges would offset the easier grading +conditions, while the danger to future traffic would remain the same. +But that is neither here nor there. You must either give us credit for +knowing our business, or you must discredit us entirely."</p> + +<p>Frisbie was grinding his heel into the hard soil of <a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a>the mesa. The +argument was growing rather acrid; and Penfield and the two drivers were +interested listeners. It was high time for a diversion to be made, and +the assistant made it.</p> + +<p>"We have used five hours getting down here, and we'll need as many going +back," he put in. "Unless there is something more to be done on the +spot, I think we'd better take the road over the hills. It's with you, +Mr. Colbrith."</p> + +<p>The president signified his assent by climbing into his buckboard, and +the return journey was begun with the two engineers in the lead for +pathfinding purposes. Once safely out of earshot, Frisbie voiced his +disgust.</p> + +<p>"A wild goose-chase, pure and simple! Stuart, that old man is in his +second childhood."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said Ford. "He is merely following out North's +suggestions. Dick, my name is Dennis."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! Things are no worse than they have been all along."</p> + +<p>"My time with the Pacific Southwestern is shorter by just the number of +hours it has taken us to drive down here. Mr. Colbrith has convinced +himself that I was wrong in abandoning the canyon. To-morrow he will +convince himself that I was doubly wrong in approving the detour. I +shall hand in my resignation to-night."</p> + +<p>"So be it," said Frisbie shortly. "That means good-<a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a>by to the extension. +I'm predicting that it will never get to Green Butte—never get beyond +Copah. And your name will go out to the railroad world as that of a man +who bit off a number of large things that he couldn't chew."</p> + +<p>"Confound you!" said Ford; and after that, Frisbie could get no more +than single-syllabled replies to his monologue of Job's comfortings.</p> + +<p>The returning route was a detour, winding, through the greater part of +it, among and over the swelling heights north of the Pannikin. On each +hilltop the vast sweep of the inter-mountain wilderness came into view, +and from the highest point in the trail, reached when the sun was +dipping toward the western horizon, the eye-sweep took in the broken +country lying between the Pannikin and the path of the Transcontinental +narrow gauge forty miles away.</p> + +<p>Jack's Canyon, the Transcontinental station nearest Copah, was the +beginning of a combined pack trail and stage road connecting the Copah +district with what had been, before the advent of the Southwestern +Extension, its nearest railroad outlet. Along this trail, visible to the +buckboarders as a black speck tittuping against the reddening background +of the west, galloped a solitary horseman, urging his mount in a way to +make Frisbie, getting his glimpse from the hilltop of extended views, +call Ford's attention.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>"Look at that brute, pushing his horse like that at the end of the day! +He ought to be—"</p> + +<p>But the hastening rider was getting his deserts, whatever they should +be, as he went along. For three hours, with three relays of fresh horses +picked up at the stage stations in passing, he had been galloping +southward, and to whatever other urging he might confess was added the +new one of fear, the fear that in the approaching day's-end he would +lose his way.</p> + +<p>Seen from the nearer point of view, the tittuping horseman seemed +curiously out of harmony with his environment. Instead of the cow-boy +"shaps," or overalls, he wore the trousers of civilization, which the +rapid night had hitched half-way to his knees. In place of the +open-breasted shirt with the rolled-up sleeves there were tailor-made +upper clothes, with the collar and cravat also of civilization, and the +hat—it was perhaps fortunate for the rider that he had not met any true +denizens of the unfettered highlands on the lonely trail from Jack's +Canyon. His hat was a Derby of the newest shape; and the cow-men beyond +the range are impatient of such head-gear.</p> + +<p>Recognition, after one has ridden hard for three hours over a dusty +road, is not easy; but there are faces one never forgets, and the +features, dust-grimed and sweat-streaked though they were, had still the +South-of-Europe outline, the slightly aquiline nose, and the pierc<a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>ing +black eyes of Mr. Julius Eckstein, whom we saw, on the morning of this +same road-wearying day, welcoming Adair over the counter railing in the +Denver office. How does it come that a few short hours later we find him +galloping tantivy over the dusty hills, no less than two hundred miles, +as the birds fly, from the counter railing of welcomings?</p> + +<p>That is the story of another, and a more successful special train than +Adair's. No sooner was the care-free young director safely on his way to +meet the delays so painstakingly prearranged for him than the wires +began to buzz with a cipher message of warning to Penfield. A precious +half-hour was lost in ascertaining that the wire connection to the +end-of-track was temporarily out of commission; but during that +half-hour Mr. North had held his chin in his hand to some good purpose.</p> + +<p>With the fresh complications promised by Adair's projection into the +field, a stronger man than Penfield should be in command on the firing +line. The vice-president decided swiftly that Eckstein was the man; but +how to get him to the MacMorrogh headquarters before Adair should +arrive?</p> + +<p>It proved to be simpler in the outcarrying than in the planning. A +special light engine over the Transcontinental to Jack's Canyon—an +exchange of courtesies which even fighting railroads make in war as well +as <a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a>in peace—a wire request on the stage company for relays of saddle +horses, and the thing was done. And Eckstein, pushing his jaded beast +down the final hill in the dusk of the evening, and welcoming, as only +the saddle-tormented can welcome, the lights of the headquarters camp, +confessed in cursings quite barbaric in their phrasings that he, too, +was done.</p> + +<p>The conference held that night behind locked doors in the MacMorroghs' +commissary office was a council of five, with Eckstein, as the +mouthpiece of the vice-president, in the chair. Penfield was present, +with no vote, and the three MacMorroghs voted as one; but as to that, +there were no divisions. A crisis was imminent, and it must be met.</p> + +<p>"As I have said, I am here with power to act," said Eckstein, gripping +the chair with wincings after the day of torment. "The plan outlined at +first by Mr. North must go through as it was outlined. Part of it has +already been carried out, you say: Ford and the president have been over +the short-cut together. To-morrow the entire private-car party goes to +Copah over the detour. Are the buckboards here for that?"</p> + +<p>"They're here wid the drivers. I saw to that part of it myself." It was +the youngest of the three MacMorroghs who gave the assurance.</p> + +<p>"So far so good," commented the chairman. "The other thing we have to +provide for, or rather, to pre<a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a>vent, is the possibility of Mr. Adair's +reaching here in time to join the party. The last definite information +we had of Mr. Adair he was crawling up Blue Canyon, with a train crew +which was under orders to give him ample time to study the scenery. He +has probably reached Saint's Rest before this, however, and once there, +Leckhard will give him anything in sight. The question is, will he +attempt to run the extension to-night?"</p> + +<p>The middle MacMorrogh thought not, and his younger brother agreed with +him. But the senior partner voted aye, and stuck to it. Thereupon ensued +a conflict of opinion. Dan MacMorrogh pointed out that the construction +motive power was all at the west end, or in transit eastward; it would +be daylight of another day before an engineer familiar with the hazards +could be obtained for Adair's special over the construction line. But +Brian MacMorrogh argued with equal emphasis that this was a mere begging +of chances. Without a telegraph wire to verify the guess, no man could +say at what hour one of the trains of empties would pull through to +Saint's Rest; and whatever the hour, Leckhard would doubtless turn the +engine and crew to double back with Adair's car.</p> + +<p>Eckstein was gripping the arms of his chair and setting his teeth deep +into his cigar while the probabilities were getting themselves threshed +out. At the end of the <a name="Page_269" id="Page_269"></a>dispute he said quietly: "It's a hell of a pity +we can't have the use of the wire for this one night. But, gentlemen, we +can't stop for trifles. There are five of us here in this room who know +how much is at stake. One of two things is due to happen. If we can keep +Adair out of it for another twelve hours, Ford will be disgraced and +asked to resign. If he gets to that point, we're safe. I know Ford's +temper. If Mr. Colbrith puts it as he is likely to put it, Ford will say +and do things that will make it impossible for Adair or any one else to +get him back into the service."</p> + +<p>"Thrue for you, Misther Eckstein; ye have 'im down to the crossin' of a +'t'," agreed the eldest of the brothers MacMorrogh.</p> + +<p>"That is one of the due things," Eckstein went on smoothly. "The other +isn't pretty to look at. If Adair gets here in time, it will be another +story. He can handle Ford; and he has proved once or twice that he can +handle Mr. Colbrith. If he hadn't been out of the way when you went to +New York with Mr. North, you'd never have seen the thin edge of this +contract, Brian. Well, then what happens? With Adair on the ground to +back him, Ford wins out. Do you know what that means? Investigations, +muck-rakings, and worse. There are two or three of us here, and some +more on the other side of the range, who won't get off with less than +ten years apiece. I'm willing to take the chance of a <a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a>few more years +for another play on the red. How is it with the rest of you?"</p> + +<p>The elder MacMorrogh spread his hands.</p> + +<p>"It's all in the same boat we are. You've a notion in the back par-rt of +your head, Misther Eckstein; lave us have it."</p> + +<p>"As I've said, we can't stick at trifles. If Adair's train is on the +extension, it mustn't get here. Somebody goes up the line on a hand-car +to-night and stops it."</p> + +<p>"Is it to ditch it, ye mane?" asked the youngest of the brothers in a +hoarse whisper.</p> + +<p>Eckstein laughed cynically. "What a lot of crude cutthroats you are!" he +jeered. "Now if it were Ford, instead of Adair—but pshaw! a rail or two +taken up and flung into the river well beyond walking distance from this +camp does the business. Only the man who does it wants to make sure he +has gone far enough back to cover all the possible chances."</p> + +<p>"That's me," said Dan MacMorrogh; and he rose and let himself out, with +the younger brother to lock the door behind him.</p> + +<p>The door-keeping attended to, the younger brother drew closer into the +circle.</p> + +<p>"There's wan thing," he said, looking furtively at Eckstein. "I was in +Copah this day: I got the buckboards for Misther Colbrith. Goin' past +the bank, who would I see but our old bookkeeper, Merriam, chinnin'<a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a> wid +the bank president. I thought he was out o' the way entirely."</p> + +<p>Stiff and saddle-sore as he was, Eckstein leaped out of his chair with +an oath.</p> + +<p>"Merriam? What the devil is he back here for? It's a put-up job!"</p> + +<p>It was the chief of the MacMorroghs who flung in the calming word.</p> + +<p>"'Tis only a happen-so, Misther Eckstein. Merriam owns a mine or two in +the Copah, and ye know the fever: a man can't keep away from thim."</p> + +<p>"That may be; but it's a cursed unlucky combination, just the same. I +tell you, Brian, he knows too much—this fellow Merriam. He knew what +was up when he was steering Frisbie. You told him too much. And +afterward, when we gave him the Oregon job, he knew why he was being +bribed to go away. You let us in for this: you've got to muzzle him, +some way."</p> + +<p>The MacMorrogh looked at his remaining brother meaningly. "'Tis up to +you, this time, Mickey, b'y. Find your way over to the minin' camp this +night, and make a clane job av it.'"</p> + +<p>Penfield was moving uneasily in his chair. The plotting waters were +deepening swiftly, much too swiftly for him. Loyalty to his superior +officer, the unquestioning loyalty that disregards motives entirely and +does not look too closely at methods, was his fetish. But <a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a>these men +were not merely loyal to Mr. North. They were criminals—he stuck at the +word, but there was no other—fighting for their own hand.</p> + +<p>"I guess—I guess I'd better go back to the Nadia," he stammered, trying +to keep his voice steady. "Mr. Colbrith may need me."</p> + +<p>Eckstein turned on him like a snarling animal.</p> + +<p>"No you don't, Arthur, my boy. I know you like a book. You stay here +till you're in as deep as the rest of us. Like Merriam, you know too +damned much."</p> + +<p>Penfield sat still, with the cold chills running up and down his spine, +while Eckstein went on talking to the two MacMorroghs.</p> + +<p>"This Merriam business complicates things like hell"—he was growing +coarsely profane in the grinding mill of events. "But it shows us where +we stand. This thing has got to go through, and if it doesn't work out +the way we've planned it, it's for us to find another way."</p> + +<p>"There's always the wan other way," said the elder MacMorrogh slowly. +"'Tis but a drunken fight in wan o' the camps, and Ford tryin' to stop +it, as he always does: a bit of a shindy among the b'ys, and this—" +crooking his forefinger suggestively.</p> + +<p>"Bah!" said Eckstein. "You fellows ought to have lived in the stone age, +when a man pulled his enemy to pieces with his bare hands. If it comes +to that, there are easier ways—and safer. A premature blast in a rock +<a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a>cut; a weak coupling-pin when he happens to be standing in the way of a +pulling engine: they tell me he is always indifferent to his personal +safety. But never mind the fashion of it; the point I'm making is that +if everything else fails, Ford mustn't live to be the head-foreman of +the outfit."</p> + +<p>Penfield's face was ashen, and he was cravenly thankful that the +lamplight was dim, and that his chair was in the shadow. This was more +than he had bargained for; more by the price of a man's life.</p> + +<p>Eckstein was lifting himself by painful inches from his chair. A silence +as of the grave had fallen upon the two MacMorroghs. It was the senior +partner who broke it.</p> + +<p>"'Tis as ye say, Misther Eckstein. A man—a safe man, that'll do what +he's told to do—will be at Ford's heels till this thing do be settled. +And now for yourself: 'tis betther that ye kape dark. Four of us know +that you're in the camp—no wan else need know. I've a room and a bed, +and ye'll be nadin' the lasht, I'm thinking."</p> + +<p>The two MacMorroghs were bestirring themselves, and Penfield was +slipping through the door into the commissary when Eckstein's fingers +closed upon his arm.</p> + +<p>"Your part is to keep tab on the programme," he whispered "Get word +instantly to Brian if there is any <a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a>change. And if you weaken, Arthur, +I'll promise you just one thing: I'll pull you in with the rest of us if +I have to swear to a string of lies a mile long. Remember that."</p> + +<p>Penfield escaped at length, and stumbled through the littered +end-of-track yard to where the lighted windows of the Nadia marked the +berth of the president's car. Out of the shadow of the car a man rose up +and confronted him. It was Frisbie, and he asked a single question:</p> + +<p>"Say, Penfield, who was that fellow who rode around to the MacMorroghs' +back door just after dark?"</p> + +<p>"It was Eckstein." The secretary let slip the name before he could lay +hold of his discretion.</p> + +<p>"Oh: all right That's all," said the engineer; and he vanished.</p> + +<p>Climbing to the observation platform, Penfield let himself into the +cheerful central compartment of the Nadia quietly enough to surprise two +people who were sitting together on one of the broad divans. The two +were Ford and Miss Alicia Adair, with Aunt Hester Adair, reading under +the drop-light at the table, for the only other occupant of the +compartment. It was Miss Alicia who told the secretary that he was not +needed.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Colbrith was very tired, and he has gone to bed," she said; and +Penfield, still pallid and curiously unready of speech, said he believed +he'd go, too.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a>Ford got up when Penfield had disappeared in the curtained vestibule +leading to the state-rooms.</p> + +<p>"I shall wait one more day, because you want me to," he said, resuming +the conversation which had been broken off by Penfield's incoming. "But +I'll tell the truth: I came here to-night to have it over with. We were +as near quarreling to-day as I want to come, and if Frisbie hadn't got +between—"</p> + +<p>"Good Mr. Frisbie!" she said. "Some day I hope to get a chance to be +very nice to him."</p> + +<p>Ford laughed. The evening had healed many of the woundings of the day.</p> + +<p>"If you don't get the chance it won't be Dick's fault—or mine. +Meantime, I'll be delighted to pose as his substitute."</p> + +<p>She had gone with him to the door, and his last word was a reminder. +"Don't forget," he said. "I'm to drive your buckboard to-morrow, +whatever happens."</p> + +<p>"You are the one who will forget," she retorted. "When Uncle Sidney +crooks his finger at you, you'll climb up obediently beside him and let +him scold you all the way over to Copah."</p> + +<p>"Wait and see," said Ford; and then he said good night, not as he wanted +to, but as he must, with Aunt Hester sitting within arm's reach.</p> + +<p>Frisbie was sitting up for him when he reached the white tents of the +engineers' camp pitched a little apart <a name="Page_276" id="Page_276"></a>from the MacMorrogh +conglomeration of shacks and storehouses.</p> + +<p>"Just one question," said the first assistant, "and I've been staying +awake to ask it. Are you still my boss?"</p> + +<p>"For one more day," said Ford shortly.</p> + +<p>"Well, we can't live more than a day at a time, if we try. That will do +to sleep on."</p> + +<p>"All right; sleep on it, then."</p> + +<p>"In a minute; after I've freed my mind of one little news item. Do you +remember that fellow we saw riding in on the Jack's Canyon trail as we +were coming back this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Have you any notion who it was?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"It was Mr. Julius Eckstein; and he is at present lying doggo in the +MacMorrogh quarters. That's all. Now you can turn in and sleep a few +lines on <i>that</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI</h3> + +<h4>THE MILLS OF THE GODS</h4> + + +<p>It was merely by chance that Adair had Michael Gallagher for his +engineer when the "01" was made up for the after-midnight run from +Saint's Rest to the MacMorrogh headquarters. But it was a chance which +was duly gratifying to Leckhard. The little Irishman was Ford's most +loyal liegeman, and a word was all that was needed to put him on his +mettle. The word was spoken while he was oiling around for the +man-killing extra service.</p> + +<p>"Pretty well knocked out, Michael?" asked Leckhard, by way of preface.</p> + +<p>"I am thot, Misther Leckhard. 'Tis the good half of lasht night, all day +yestherday, and thin some."</p> + +<p>"It's tough. But if any of the other men were in, I should still ask you +to go. Mr. Ford is in a pinch, and Mr. Adair, your passenger, is going +to help him out. He can do it if you get him to Horse Creek in time; and +I know you'll get him there if the 956 and the '01' will stay on the +steel."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278"></a>"To help Misther Foord out? Thot's me," said Gallagher simply.</p> + +<p>"Not having a wire, I can't boost you any from this end. You'll meet +Folsom and Graham with the other two sections of empties where you can: +you'll run as fast as the Lord'll let you on such a track as you have: +but above all, you'll stay on the rails. If you ditch yourself, it'll go +hard with Mr. Ford."</p> + +<p>"I'll do all thim things and wan more—and thot wan is the shtiffest av +thim all: the saints aidin' me, Misther Leckhard, I'll shtay awake."</p> + +<p>There was a short siding at the summit of the pass, and by good hap, +Gallagher met Folsom with the first string of empties at that point: or +rather, giving the bit of good luck full credit, he heard the roaring of +Folsom's exhaust as the first of the opposing trains pounded up the +dangerous western grade, and hastily backed up and took the summit +siding.</p> + +<p>Pitching over the hill with the "01" the moment Folsom's tail-lights had +passed the outlet switch, Gallagher had a sharp attack of memory. The +day before, in the Horse Creek yard, he had seen and remarked a jagged +scratch on the side of the Nadia. Hence, he was watching for the narrow +rock cuttings, and the three passages perilous on the cliff face were +made in safety.</p> + +<p>Once off the mountain, however, the greater peril <a name="Page_279" id="Page_279"></a>began to assert +itself. For a time the Irishman kept himself fully awake and alert by +pushing the 956 to the ragged edge of hazard, scurrying over the short +tangents and lifting her around the curves in breath-taking spurts. +Later this expedient began to lose its fillip. Since the train was +running wholly on the air-brakes there was nothing for the fireman to +do, and Jackson, the loyalest understudy Gallagher had ever known, +tumbled from his box in a doze, staggered across the gang-way into the +half-filled tender, and fell like a man anæsthetized full length on the +coal. Gallagher did not try to arouse him.</p> + +<p>"'Tis hell for wan, an' twice hell for two," he muttered; and then he +shifted his right hand to the brake-cock and grasped the hot throttle +lever with the ungloved left. And for a time the pain of the burn +sufficed.</p> + +<p>It was another piece of luck, good or bad, that made Ten Mile station +the special train's meeting point with the second train of empties. This +time it was Graham, the other engineer, who heard. He had stopped at Ten +Mile on the bare chance that the wire between that point and Saint's +Rest had been repaired; public opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, +an engineer does not run "wild" when he can help it.</p> + +<p>The engineer of the third section had come out of the night operator's +office disappointed, and was climbing to his engine to pull out, when he +heard, or thought he <a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"></a>heard, the dull rumble of a train racing down the +canyon. It came in sight while he listened, and the yellow flare told +him that it was either Gallagher or Folsom doubling back on one of the +construction engines. What startled him was the fact that the coming +train appeared to be running itself; there was no warning whistle shriek +and no slackening of speed.</p> + +<p>Graham was a Scotchman, slow of speech, slow to anger, methodical to the +thirty-third degree. But in an emergency his brain leveled itself like a +ship's compass gimballed to hang plumb in the suddenest typhoon. Three +shrill whistle calls sent a sleepy flagman racing to set the switch of +the siding. With a clang the reversing lever came over and the steam +roared into the cylinders.</p> + +<p>The Scotchman had the grade to help him, which was fortunate. When he +had the string of empties fairly in retreat, the beam of Gallagher's +headlight was shining full in his face and blinding him. For a +heart-breaking second he feared that the opposing train would follow him +in on the siding; there was but an instant for the flicking of the +switch. But by this time the sleepy flagman was wide awake, and he +jerked the switch lever for his life the moment Graham's engine had +cleared the points. It was the closest possible shave. Gallagher's cab +ticked the forward end of the other engine's running board in passing, +and if Graham had <a name="Page_281" id="Page_281"></a>not been still shoving backward with the throttle +wide open, the "01," being wider than its piloting engine, would have +had its side ripped out.</p> + +<p>Graham had a glimpse into the cab of the 956 as it passed and saw +Gallagher, sitting erect on his box with wide-staring eyes. He knew the +symptoms, and feared that he had only postponed the catastrophe. The +siding was a short one, and he knew that in backing down he must +inevitably have shoved the rear end of his train out upon the main line +at the lower switch. Once again the level brain righted itself to the +emergency. Four sharp shrieks of the whistle for switches, a jamming of +the whistle lever to set the canyon echoes yelling in the hope of +arousing Gallagher, and Graham slammed his engine into the forward +motion without pausing to close the throttle. There was a grinding of +fire from the wheels, a running jangle of slack-taking down the long +line of empties, and the freight train shot ahead, snatching its rear +end out of harm's way just as Gallagher, dreaming that his boiler had +burst and that all the fiends of the pit were screeching the news of it, +came to life and snapped on the air.</p> + +<p>When the stop was made, the little Irishman roused his fireman, got off +and footed it up the line to see what he had done. Graham had stopped +his engine when he was sure his train was clearing the lower switch, and +was on his way back to find out what had happened to<a name="Page_282" id="Page_282"></a> Gallagher. The two +men met in the shadow of the halted material empties, and it was the +Irishman who began it.</p> + +<p>"Paste me wan, Scotchie," he said. "'Tis owin' to me."</p> + +<p>Without a word the Scotchman gave the blow, catching the little man full +in the chest and knocking him half a car-length. That was enough. +Gallagher picked himself up out of the gravel, the lust of battle hot +upon him.</p> + +<p>"Wan more like thot, ye divvle, and I cajo lick ye if ye wor +Fin-mac-Coul himself," he panted; and Graham gave it judiciously, this +time on the point of the jaw. For five bloody minutes it went on, give +and take, down and up; methodically on Graham's part, fiery hot on +Gallagher's. And in the end the Irishman had the heavier man backed +against the string of empties and yelling for quarter.</p> + +<p>"Are you full awake now, ye red-hot blastoderm?" gasped Graham, +struggling to free himself when Gallagher gave him leave.</p> + +<p>"I am thot, thanks to you, Sandy, lad. 'Twas a foine bit av a scrimmage, +an' I'm owin' ye wan. Good night to ye."</p> + +<p>"Ye've got a clear track from this," called Graham, swabbing his +battered face with a piece of cotton waste drawn from one of the pockets +of method. "But ye'd <a name="Page_283" id="Page_283"></a>better not take any more cat-naps. Go on with ye, +ye wild Irishman; ye're obstructin' the traffic."</p> + +<p>For twenty miles below Ten Mile Gallagher sat on his box like a man +refreshed. Then the devil of sleep postponed beset him again. Once more +the fireman was asleep on the coal, and to the little Irishman's +bombardment of wrenches and other missiles he returned only sodden +groans. Gallagher nerved himself to fight it through alone. Mile after +mile of the time-killing track swung slowly to the rear, and there was +not even the flick of speed to help in the grim battle.</p> + +<p>Dawn came when the end-of-track camp was still forty miles away, but the +breaking day brought no surcease of strugglings. When it came to the +bitter end, when his eyelids would close involuntarily and he would wake +with a start to wonder dumbly how far the 956 had come masterless, +Gallagher took a chew of tobacco and began to rub the spittle into his +eyes—the last resort of the sleep-tormented engineman. Like all the +other expedients it sufficed for the time; but before long he was +nodding again, and dreaming that a thousand devils were burning his eyes +out with the points of their red-hot pitchforks.</p> + +<p>Out of one of these nightmares he came with a yell of pain to see what +figured for the moment as another nightmare. Three hundred feet ahead +the track seemed to vanish for three or four rail-lengths. It was +<a name="Page_284" id="Page_284"></a>second nature to jam on the brakes and to make the sudden stop. Then he +sat still and rubbed his smarting eyes and stared again. The curious +hallucination persisted strangely. Fifty feet ahead of the stopped +engine the glistening lines of the steel ended abruptly, beginning again +a car-length or two beyond. Without disturbing the sleeping Jackson, +Gallagher got down and crept cautiously out to the break. It was a +break. He stooped and felt the rail ends with his hands.</p> + +<p>When he straightened up his passenger was standing beside him.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Adair. "Have we lost something?"</p> + +<p>Gallagher waved a grimy hand at the gap.</p> + +<p>"The thrack," he said. "'Twas there whin I pulled me sthring av empties +out over ut lasht night. 'Tis gone now, else I'm thot near dead for +sleep I can nayther see nor feel sthraight."</p> + +<p>Adair was calmly lighting a cigarette.</p> + +<p>"Your senses are still in commission," he said; "there is a good-sized +piece of track missing. Who sniped it, do you suppose?"</p> + +<p>The engineer was shaking his fiery head.</p> + +<p>"'Tis beyond me, Misther Adair."</p> + +<p>"That's the deuce of it," smiled the young man. "It's beyond the train. +How is your engine—pretty good on the broad jump?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285"></a>Gallagher was not past laughing.</p> + +<p>"She'll not lep thot, this day. But who'd be doin' this job betune dark +an' mornin', d'ye think?"</p> + +<p>"You will have to ask me something easy, I'm not up in all the little +practical jokes of the country. But if I should venture a guess, I +should say it was some one who didn't want me to answer the first call +for breakfast at your end-of-track camp this morning. What do we do?"</p> + +<p>Gallagher was thinking.</p> + +<p>"We passed a camp av surfacers tin mile back, and there'd be rails at +Arroyo Siding, tin mile back o' thot," he said reflectively.</p> + +<p>Adair had passed over to the river side of the line and was looking at a +fresh plowing of the embankment.</p> + +<p>"The rails have been dragged down here and they are probably in the +river," he announced. "If we had men and tools we might fish them out +and repair damages."</p> + +<p>"Come on, thin," cried the little Irishman, and when he ran back to +climb to the footboard of the 956, Adair climbed with him.</p> + +<p>Jackson, refreshed by his cat-naps on the coal, was sent to the rear end +of the "01" to flag back, and in due time the special picked up the gang +of surfacers just turning out to the day's work. An Irish foreman was in +command, and to him Gallagher appealed, lucidly but not too gently. The +reply was a volley of <a name="Page_286" id="Page_286"></a>abuse and a caustic refusal to lend his men to +the track-laying department.</p> + +<p>Gallagher turned to Adair with his red-apple face wrinkling dismayfully.</p> + +<p>"'Tis up to me to push thot felly's face in, Misther Adair; and what wid +two nights and a day, shtandin', and wan fight wid a bully twice me +size, I'm not man enough."</p> + +<p>Adair tossed away the stump of his cigarette.</p> + +<p>"You're quite sure that is what is needed?" he queried.</p> + +<p>"To knock a grain av sinse into thot Wicklow man?" queried Gallagher. +"Sure, it is." And then whispering: "But not for you, Misther Adair; +he'd ate you in two bites. L'ave me have a thry wid him."</p> + +<p>But Adair was off and fronting the surly MacMorrogh foreman.</p> + +<p>"We need a dozen of your men and some tools," he said quietly. "Do we +get them?"</p> + +<p>"Not by a fistful!" retorted the surly one. "Maybe you think you're +enough of a —— —— —— to take 'em."</p> + +<p>"I am a better man than you are," was the even-toned rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"Prove it, then."</p> + +<p>Gallagher, leaning from his cab window, fully awake now, and chuckling +and rubbing his hands together <a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"></a>softly, saw the blow. It was clean-cut, +swift as the lightning's flash, true to a finger's breadth, and the +sound of it was as bone upon bone. At its impact the Wicklow man bounded +into the air, arched his back like a bow, and pitched on his head in the +ditch. When he rose up, roaring blasphemies and doubling his huge fists +for the fray, the quiet voice was assailing him again. "Do we get the +men and tools?"</p> + +<p>"Not—"</p> + +<p>Again the lightning-like passes of the hands, and the Wicklow man sat +down forcibly and gasped. The Italian surfacers threw aside their picks +and shovels and made a ring, dancing excitedly and jeering. The big +foreman, whose scepter of authority was commonly a pick-handle for the +belaboring of offenders, was not loved.</p> + +<p>"Kick-a da shin—kick-a da shin—he like-a da nigger-mans," suggested +one of the Italians, but there was no need. Being safely out of range of +the catapult fists, the foreman stayed there.</p> + +<p>"Take your track gang and be damned to you!" he snarled.</p> + +<p>Adair made a forward step and stood over him.</p> + +<p>"Are you quite convinced that I am the better man?" he asked very +gently.</p> + +<p>"It's a trick!" growled the Wicklow man savagely. "I could get onto it +in another whirl or two."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288"></a>"Get up," said the gentle voice. "You'll never have a better chance to +learn the trick." But the foreman had the saving grace to shun +anti-climaxes.</p> + +<p>"G'wan! Take the men, I say; all of 'em, if you like."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," said Adair pleasantly. "We'll do it, and we'll take you, as +well—to answer for their good behavior. Let me help you up," and he +stooped and snapped the big one to his feet as a man would collar a +reluctant boy.</p> + +<p>"Great judgment!" gasped the foreman. "Say, Mister +Cock-o'-the-walk—where do you hide all that muscle?" And without +waiting for an answer he piled a dozen of his men upon the engine and +followed them, still muttering.</p> + +<p>It was a partly surfaced ten miles over which the special train +thundered for the third time since dawn-breaking, and Gallagher took the +last wheel-turn out of the 956. None the less, the sun was reddening the +western mountains when the Italians took ground at the mysterious gap. +The rails were found in the stream, as Adair had predicted, and it was a +work of minutes only to snake them up the embankment and to spike them +lightly into place. But when Adair, for the healing of wounds, had +thrust a bank-note into the hand of the Wicklow man, and the special was +once more on its unhindered way westward, the sun had fairly topped the +<a name="Page_289" id="Page_289"></a>eastern range, and Johnson, the porter of the "01," was shouting across +the rocketing tender that breakfast was served.</p> + +<p>The young man in the London-cut clothes might have climbed back to the +car over the coal; or Gallagher would have stopped for him. But he +elected to stay in the cab, and he was still there, hanging from the +open window on Jackson's side, when the one-car special woke the echoes +with its whistle, clattered in over the switches at Horse Creek, and +came to a stand opposite the MacMorroghs' commissary.</p> + +<p>It was Brian MacMorrogh who came across the tracks to greet Adair, and, +since this was their first meeting, he made the mistake of his life in +calling the young director by name.</p> + +<p>"The top of the morning to you, Misther Adair. Is it Misther Colbrith +you'd be looking for?"</p> + +<p>"It is," said Adair shortly, not failing to remark that the +barrel-bodied, black-bearded man seemed to recognize and to be expecting +him.</p> + +<p>"'Tis two hours gone they all are," was the oily-voiced explanation. "Up +the grade and over to Copah. But they'll be back to-morrow, Heaven +savin' thim, and we'll make you comfortable here—as comfortable as we +can."</p> + +<p>"That will be quickly done," said Adair, swinging down from the engine +step. "Just give me a horse and <a name="Page_290" id="Page_290"></a>tell me which way they have gone, and +I'll overtake them."</p> + +<p>But here the barrel-bodied one spread his hands helplessly.</p> + +<p>"'Tis just our luck!" he protested, in the keenest self-reproach. "There +isn't a horse or a mule in camp that you could get a mile an hour out +of. In fact, I'm thinking there isn't anny horses at all!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII</h3> + +<h4>THE MAN ON HORSEBACK</h4> + + +<p>Since the weather was rather threatening, and the promise of October in +the inter-mountain region is not to be lightly trifled with, Mr. +Colbrith pressed for an early start on the seventeen-mile buckboard +jaunt to Copah over the detour survey.</p> + +<p>It was by his express command that the private-car party was called at +daybreak, and that breakfast was served in the Nadia at six o'clock. And +at seven sharp, which chanced to be the precise time of day when Adair's +commandeered Italians were spiking the last of the displaced rails into +position at the gap in the track thirty-three miles away, the buckboards +were drawn up at the steps of the president's car.</p> + +<p>For reasons charitable, as well as practical, Ford had planned to leave +Frisbie out of this second dance of attendance upon the president. The +track-layers were well up toward the head of Horse Creek gulch, with +Brissac to drive; but during the night the Louisianian <a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"></a>had reported in +with a touch of mountain fever, and Ford had asked Frisbie to go up and +take his place.</p> + +<p>This was one of Ford's peg-drivings for the day; and another was timed +for the moment of outsetting. For conveyances for the party there were +the two double-seated buckboards used on the canyon trip the previous +day, and one other with a single seat; but there were only two drivers, +the third man, who had brought the single-seated rig from Copah, having +been prevailed upon by Ford to disappear.</p> + +<p>Ford directed the distribution of the trippers arbitrarily, and was +amazed when the president acquiesced without protest. Mr. Colbrith, the +doctor's wife, and Penfield, were to go in the leading vehicle; Aunt +Hester Adair, Miss Van Bruce, and the doctor, in the second; and Ford +drove the single-seated third, with Miss Alicia for his companion.</p> + +<p>"I think you must have taken Uncle Sidney unawares," said Alicia, when +the caravan was toiling at a slow footpace along the rough wagon road +paralleling the Horse Creek grade.</p> + +<p>"You mean that he might have objected to your driver? You are a whole +lot safer with me than you would be with one of those livery-stable +helpers up ahead."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; I didn't mean just that. But you know he usually plans all the +little details himself, and—"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293"></a>"And the fact that somebody else plans them is sufficient excuse for a +rearrangement. That is one of the penalties he pays for being the big +boss," laughed Ford. Since the yesterday was now safely yesterday, and +to-day was his own, there was no room for anything but pure joy.</p> + +<p>"You are a 'big boss,' too, aren't you?" she said, matching his +light-hearted mood.</p> + +<p>"I was, in a way, until your uncle came over and eclipsed me."</p> + +<p>"And you will be again when Uncle Sidney moves a little farther along in +his orbit."</p> + +<p>"That remains to be seen. There is yet plenty of time for him to abolish +me, permanently, before he goes on his way rejoicing."</p> + +<p>"But you are not going to resign, you know," she reminded him.</p> + +<p>"Am I not?" Then he took his courage by the proper grip and went on with +sudden gravity: "That rests entirely with you."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ford! Aren't you a little unfair?" She did not pretend to +misunderstand him.</p> + +<p>"I am open to convincement," he affirmed.</p> + +<p>"It is making me Uncle Sidney's executioner, on one hand; or yours, on +the other."</p> + +<p>He pressed the point relentlessly.</p> + +<p>"There are only two horns to the dilemma: either Mr.<a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"></a> Colbrith, or a man +named Stuart Ford, will have to walk the official plank. Because Mr. +Colbrith is your relative, I'm willing to be the victim. But you must +say that it is what you wish. That is my price."</p> + +<p>"I say it is unfair," she repeated. "Why should you put the burden of +the decision upon poor me?"</p> + +<p>"Because, if you were not concerned, there would be, to put it in good +Hibernian, only one horn to the dilemma—and your uncle would be impaled +upon that one."</p> + +<p>"Mercy!" she shuddered, in mock dismay. "That sounds almost vindictive. +Are you vindictive, Mr. Ford?"</p> + +<p>"Terribly," he laughed. "The black-hearted villain of melodrama isn't a +patch on me when I'm stirred." And then, more seriously: "But it isn't +altogether a joke. There is another side to the thing—what you might +call the ethical, I suppose. There are a score or so of men in the +company's service—Frisbie and his subordinates—whose jobs hang upon +mine. A worse man than I ever aspired to be might be loyal to his +friends."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't think of questioning your loyalty to your friends," she +admitted.</p> + +<p>"Also," he went on determinately, "there is the larger question of right +and wrong involved. Is it right for me to step aside and let an +organized system of graft and thievery go on unchecked? I know it +exists; I have evidence enough to go before a grand jury. I'm not posing +<a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a>as a saint, or even as a muck-raker; but isn't something due to the +people who are paying the bills?"</p> + +<p>"Now you are involving Uncle Sidney again; and I can't listen to that."</p> + +<p>"He is innocent; as innocent as some hundreds of other narrow-minded, +short-sighted old men whom chance, or the duplicity of the real rascals, +puts at the head of corporations."</p> + +<p>"Yet you would make him suffer with the guilty."</p> + +<p>"Not willingly, you may be sure. Not at all, if he would listen to +reason. But he won't. He'll stand by North till the last gun is fired; +and while North stays, there'll be graft, big or little, as the +opportunities warrant."</p> + +<p>Alicia held her peace while the caravan was measuring another half-mile +of the boulder-strewn road. Then she said: "I feel so wretchedly +inadequate to help you, Mr. Ford. I wish you could wait until you have +talked it over with brother."</p> + +<p>"So do I. But I am afraid postponement doesn't lie with me, now. From +your uncle's manner and from what he said to me yesterday, I can't help +feeling that the crisis is right here. For two days Mr. Colbrith has +been very plainly leading up to some sort of dramatic climax. I can't +remotely guess what it is going to be; though I can guess that the plot +isn't his."</p> + +<p>Again she took time to consider, and when she spoke <a name="Page_296" id="Page_296"></a>they were nearing +the scene of strenuous activities at the moving track-end.</p> + +<p>"You don't think you could postpone it?" she asked, almost wistfully, he +thought. "I think—I hope—my brother will become interested again. It +is your fault that he lost interest, Mr. Ford."</p> + +<p>"My fault?" reproachfully.</p> + +<p>"Certainly. You didn't give him enough to do. He was happy and contented +while you kept him hard at work. But after the bonds were placed and the +money raised—"</p> + +<p>"I'm a miserable sinner!" Ford confessed. "And I had promised you, too! +But the battle has been so fierce at this end of the line; and I +couldn't be in two places at one time. Your brother should have been +made first vice-president, instead of North. Perhaps we can bring it +about yet—if you don't call it all off."</p> + +<p>"There it is again," she retorted. "You are dragging me in—and trying +to bribe me, too!"</p> + +<p>"God forbid!" he said, so earnestly that she forgave him. And then: "I +wish your brother were here—now."</p> + +<p>"So do I," she admitted. Then she told him of the wire summons sent from +Denver, and of the shadowy hope she had based upon it.</p> + +<p>"Where was your brother then?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, positively. I hope he was in New<a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"></a> York. He was to come +over in the <i>Campania</i>, in time for the shooting at Mount Ptarmigan."</p> + +<p>"You've had no word from him?"</p> + +<p>"None."</p> + +<p>They were up with the track-layers, now, in a country of huge bare hills +and high-lying, waterless valleys; and the president had halted the +caravan to give his guests a chance to see a modern railroad in the +actual throes of evolution.</p> + +<p>In a specialist in the trade, Ford's genius might have invoked +enthusiasm. Speed was the end to which all of the young engineer's +inventive powers had been directed; and the pace was furious. On the +leveled grade ahead of the track-laying train an army of sweating +laborers marched and counter-marched like trained soldiers, placing the +cross-ties in position. On a train of specially constructed flat-cars +another army was bolting together a long section of track, clamping the +double line of rails at intervals to hold them to gauge. At the word, +"Ready!" a hauling chain, passing through an anchored pulley-block far +up the grade and back to the freed engine of the construction train, was +made fast to the forward end of the bolted section; a second word of +command, and the engine backed swiftly, dragging the prepared section +off over the rollers of the flat-cars and into place on the ties. With +the clanging fall of the final pair of rails, a third army, +spike-drivers these, fell upon <a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"></a>the newly placed steel, shouting their +chantey as they swung the great pointed hammers; and in the midst of +this fresh turmoil the train, with its brigade of bolters deftly +preparing another section, was slowly pushed to the new front for +another advance.</p> + +<p>"It is like clockwork," was Miss Alicia's enthusiastic comment. "Did you +invent it, Mr. Ford?"</p> + +<p>Now the combination of flat-car bolting-table, and the shifting and +laying by sections, was Ford's invention, but he modestly stood from +under.</p> + +<p>"Frisbie gets the medal," he said. "It's all in the drill—every man +knowing what he has to do, and doing it at the proper moment. I'd give +something if I had Dick's knack in detail organizing."</p> + +<p>She looked up, laughing. "You have the funniest way of ducking to cover +if you think a bit of honest appreciation is coming your way, Mr. Ford. +You know you told Mr. Frisbie how to do it."</p> + +<p>"Did I? I suppose it wouldn't be polite to contradict you."</p> + +<p>"Or any use. Is Mr. Frisbie here now?—Oh, yes; there he is." And then, +in a half-awed whisper: "Who is that dreadful, Grand-Opera-villain +looking man he is talking to?"</p> + +<p>Ford's eyes sought and found Frisbie. He was standing a little apart +from the turmoil, talking to a man on horseback; a man with half-closed, +beady, black eyes, <a name="Page_299" id="Page_299"></a>drooping mustaches, and a face reptilian in its +repulsiveness.</p> + +<p>"That is 'Mexican George'; the MacMorrogh Brothers' 'killer'," said Ford +evenly. "Have you ever heard of a professional man-killer, Miss Adair; a +man whose calling is that of a hired assassin?"</p> + +<p>She shuddered. "You are jesting, I know. But the word fits his face so +accurately. I saw him lounging about the store at the camp yesterday, +and it gave me the creeping shivers every time I looked at him. Do you +ever have such instantaneous and unreasoning hatreds at first sight?"</p> + +<p>"Now and then; yes. But I was not jesting about Mexican George. He is +precisely what the word implies; is hired for it and paid for it. +Nominally, he guards the commissary and stores, and is the paymaster's +armed escort. Really, it is his duty to shoot down any desperate laborer +who, in the MacMorroghs' judgment, needs to be killed out of the way."</p> + +<p>"Mercy!" Miss Alicia was shuddering again. "What hideously primitive +conditions! What is this terrible man doing out here?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he is a free lance; comes and goes as he pleases. No, he's not +quarreling with Dick"—answering her look of anxiety.</p> + +<p>"How do you know he isn't?"</p> + +<p>Ford laughed. "Because Dick wouldn't let him get <a name="Page_300" id="Page_300"></a>that near. He +knows—Hello; I wonder what your good uncle wants of us."</p> + +<p>Mr. Colbrith was standing up in his place in the leading buckboard and +making signals to the rear guard of two. Ford shook the reins over his +broncos and drove around.</p> + +<p>The president was fingering his thin beard and waving an arm toward the +track-layers.</p> + +<p>"Mr.—ah—Ford," he began critically, "is it necessary to have such a +vast army of men as that to lay the track?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think we are over-manned," said Ford good-naturedly. It was +comparatively easy to be patient with Alicia looking on and listening.</p> + +<p>But it was against Mr. Colbrith's principles to let a man off with a +single rebuttal.</p> + +<p>"I am not at all convinced of the worth of these new-fangled ideas, Mr. +Ford; not at all. We built the Pacific Southwestern main line in the +old, approved way—a rail at a time—with less than one-quarter of the +men you have over there."</p> + +<p>"I don't question it: and you were three years building some six hundred +miles in a prairie country. We are to-day just six weeks out of Saint's +Rest with the track gang, and in six more, if the weather holds, we +shall be laying the switches in the Green Butte yards. That is the +difference between the old way and the new."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"></a>The president was turned aside but not stopped.</p> + +<p>"I understand," he objected raucously. "But your expense bills are +something tremendous; tre-<i>men</i>dous, Mr. Ford! You have spent more money +in three months than we spent in a full year on the main line."</p> + +<p>"Quite likely," agreed Ford, losing interest in the pointless +discussion. "But with us, time is an object; and we have the results to +show for the expenditure."</p> + +<p>At this, Mr. Colbrith took refuge in innuendo, as seemed to be his +lately acquired habit.</p> + +<p>"You are very ready with your answers, Mr. Ford; very ready, indeed. Let +us see if you can continue as you have begun."</p> + +<p>It was Miss Alicia who resented this final speech of the president's +when the buckboards were once more in motion, following the unrailed +grade around the swelling shoulders of the huge hills.</p> + +<p>"I think that last remark of Uncle Sidney's was rather uncalled for," +she said, after Ford had driven in grim silence at the tail of the +procession for a full mile.</p> + +<p>"It is one of a good many uncalled for things he has been saying to me +since the day before yesterday," was Ford's rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"Yet you can still assure me that you are not vindictive."</p> + +<p>"I am not—at the mere actors in the play. But I <a name="Page_302" id="Page_302"></a>confess to an unholy +desire to get back at the prompter—the stage manager of the little +comedy. I am only waiting for your decision."</p> + +<p>"Please!" she said; and he saw that the blue eyes were growing wistful +again.</p> + +<p>"I'm done," he said quickly. "I shan't put it up to you any more. I'll +do what I think I ought to do, on my own responsibility."</p> + +<p>But now, woman-like, she crossed quickly to the other side.</p> + +<p>"No; you mustn't deprive me of my chance," she protested soberly. "After +a little while I shall tell you what I think—what I think you ought to +do. Only you must give me time."</p> + +<p>His smile came from the depths of a lover's heart.</p> + +<p>"You shall have all the time there is—and then some, if I can compass +it. Now let's talk about something else. I've been boring you with this +despicable business affair ever since you gave me leave on that +foot-race down Plug Mountain Tuesday afternoon."</p> + +<p>"What shall it be?" she inquired gaily. And then: "Oh, I know. One day +last summer—just as we were leaving Chicago in the Nadia—you had begun +to tell me about a certain young woman who had money, and who was—who +was—"</p> + +<p>"—who was without her peer in all this world," he finished for her. +"Yes; I remember."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303"></a>"Do you still remember her, as you do the conversation?" she went on +teasingly.</p> + +<p>"I have never lost a day since I first met her."</p> + +<p>"Good Sir Galahad!" she mocked. "And is she still worth all those +sacrifices you said you would be willing to make for her?"</p> + +<p>"All, and several more."</p> + +<p>Silence for a little time, while the hoof-beats of a horse fox-trotting +behind them drew nearer. It was the sinister-faced Mexican who ambled +into view, and when he overtook the rearmost of the buckboards he was a +long time in passing.</p> + +<p>"That dreadful man!" murmured Alicia; and she did not go back to the +suspended subject until he had trotted on past the caravan. Then she +said slowly, taking her companion's complete understanding for granted: +"It must be delicious to be away out over one's depth, like that!"</p> + +<p>"It is," said Ford solemnly. "It's like—well, I've never been sick a +day in my life since I can remember, but I should think it might be like +a—a sort of beneficent fever, you know. Haven't you ever had a touch of +it?"</p> + +<p>"Possibly—without recognizing it. Can you describe the symptoms?"</p> + +<p>"Accurately. One day I awoke suddenly to the realization that there was +one woman, in the world: before <a name="Page_304" id="Page_304"></a>that, you know, there had always been a +good many, but never just one. Then I began to discover that this one +woman was the embodiment of an ideal—my ideal. She said and did and +looked all the things I'd been missing in the others. I wanted to drop +everything and run after her."</p> + +<p>"How absolutely idyllic!" she murmured. "And then?"</p> + +<p>"Then I had to come down to earth with a dull, stunning swat, of course. +There were a lot of commonplace, material things waiting to be done, and +it was up to me to do them. Before I saw her, I used to think that +nothing could divide time with a man's work: that there wouldn't be any +time to divide. Afterward, I found out my mistake. Sleeping or waking, +every day and all day, she was there: and the work went on just the +same, or rather a whole lot better."</p> + +<p>The long drive was in its final third, and the wagon track, which had +transferred itself to the top of the level railroad grade, admitted +speed. By degrees the caravan became elongated, with the president still +in the lead, the man on horseback indifferently ahead or behind, and the +other two vehicles wide apart and well to the rear. Their isolation was +complete when she said:</p> + +<p>"Do you want me to say that I don't recognize any of the symptoms, Mr. +Ford?"</p> + +<p>"Do I—No! Yes!—that is, I—Heavens! that is a <a name="Page_305" id="Page_305"></a>terrible way to put it! +Of course I hope—I hope you are in love—with the right person. If +you're not, I—"</p> + +<p>She was weeping silently; weeping because it would have been a sin to +laugh.</p> + +<p>"You—called it a comedy a little while—ago," she faltered. "In another +minute it will be a tragedy. Don't you think we are getting too far +behind the others?"</p> + +<p>He whipped up obediently, but the horses were in no hurry. At the +rounding of the next shouldering hill the railroad grade entered a high, +broad valley, the swelling hills on either side dotted with the dumps +and tunnel-openings of the Copah gold-diggers. Ford had not been through +the upper part of the district since the previous summer of +pathfindings, and at that time it was like a dozen other outlying and +hardly accessible fields, scantily manned and languishing under the dry +rot of isolation. But now—</p> + +<p>He was looking curiously across at the opposing hillsides. Black dots, +dozens of them, were moving from ledge to ledge, pausing here and there +to ply pick and shovel. Now and then from some one of the dry arroyos +came the echoes of a surface shot; dynamite cartridges thrust into the +earth to clear away the drift to bed-rock. Ford called his companion's +attention to the activities.</p> + +<p>"See what it does to a mining country when a railroad comes within +shouting distance," he said. "The last time I was over here, this valley +was like a graveyard. Now <a name="Page_306" id="Page_306"></a>you'd think the entire population of Copah +was up here prospecting for gold."</p> + +<p>"Is that what they are doing?" she asked. Then suddenly: "Where is your +mine?—the mine with my name?"</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"I told you the simple truth. I don't know where it is; though I suppose +it is up this way somewhere. Yes, I remember, Grigsby said it was on Cow +Mountain."</p> + +<p>The hill on their side of the valley threw out a long, low spur and the +railroad-grade driving track swept in a long curve around the spur and +crossed over to the foot of a slope dotted with the digging manikins.</p> + +<p>"By Jove!" said Ford, still wondering. "There are twice as many +prospectors out here as there were inhabitants in Copah the last time I +was over. The camp ought to vote bonds and give the railroad company a +bonus."</p> + +<p>Farther along, the grade hugged the hillside, skirting the acclivity +where the shaft-houses of some of the older mines of the district were +perched on little hillocks formed by their own dumps, within easy +tramming distance of the railroad. Opposite and directly below the +nearest of these shaft-houses the two leading buckboards had stopped; +and the president was once more standing up and beckoning vigorously to +the laggards in the single-seated vehicle.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307"></a>Ford spoke to his horses and grimaced as one who swallows bitter herbs.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what I've been doing now—or leaving undone?" he queried.</p> + +<p>He was not kept long in suspense. When they drove up, the president was +still standing, balancing himself with a hand on the driver's seat in +front. His thin face was working nervously and the aggressive chin +whiskers moved up and down like an accusing finger.</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" said Alicia, under her breath; "Uncle Sidney is really angry, +this time! What could have hap—" She glanced up at the mine buildings +perched above the roadway and smothered a little cry. Ford's eyes +followed hers. All across the slab-built shaft-house and the lean-to ore +sheds was stretched a huge canvas sign. And in letters of bright blue, +freshly painted and two feet high, ran the boastful legend:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><h4>THE LITTLE ALICIA MINE</h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">the only paying producer in the district</span></h4> + +<p class='center'>Stuart Ford & John Grigsby, Props.</p></div> + +<p>The white-haired old man standing in the leading buckboard was trembling +with righteous indignation. Pointing a shaking finger at the +incriminating sign, he broke out in a storm of accusation.</p> + +<p>"So, Mr. Ford! This is why you changed the route of <a name="Page_308" id="Page_308"></a>the extension and +added twelve miles to its length!" he raved. "This explains why you +suddenly found the shorter route impracticable! Answer me sir: when did +you become interested in this mine?"</p> + +<p>There was a little stir of consternation among the listeners; and it did +not help matters that the man on horseback ambled up at the moment and +drew rein behind the doctor's vehicle. Ford's hands were gripping the +reins until the stiff leathers were crumpled into strings; but it was +Alicia's touch on his arm that enabled him to reply coldly:</p> + +<p>"It was something over two months ago, I believe. I can give you the +exact date when we reach Copah, though you will permit me to say that it +is none of your business."</p> + +<p>Mr. Colbrith exploded like a hastily fired bomb.</p> + +<p>"I propose to make it some of my business! Was it before or after your +purchase here that you decided upon the change of route? Answer me that, +Mr. Ford!"</p> + +<p>Ford wheeled his bronchos and closed the shouting gap.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Mr. Colbrith," he said half-menacingly. "If it is your +purpose to humiliate me before your guests, I shall drive on and leave +you."</p> + +<p>"You don't answer my question; you can not answer it! You instructed +your assistant to change the line of this railroad <i>after</i> you had +bought this mine!"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309"></a></p> + +<p><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310"></a><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311"></a>"And if I did?"</p> + +<p>"You did. And by so doing, Mr. Ford, you diverted the company's money to +your own personal ends as wrongfully as if you had put your hands into +the treasurer's strong-box. In other words, you became what you have +accused others of being—a common grafter!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/005.png"><img src="images/005-tb.png" alt="Answer me, sir! When did you become interested in this +mine?" title="Answer me, sir! When did you become interested in this +mine?" /></a></div> + +<h5>"Answer me, sir! When did you become interested in this +mine?"</h5> + +<p>Ford's face was very white, and his lips were drawn into thin lines when +he opened them to reply. But the restraining hand was on his arm again, +and he obeyed it.</p> + +<p>"I don't care to talk with you, about this matter or any other, here and +now. Later on, perhaps, when you can speak without being abusive, I +shall take the liberty of telling you what I think of you." And at that, +he gave his horses the rein and drove on, swiftly, abruptly, leaving the +president and his guests to follow as they would.</p> + +<p>For some minutes neither of the two in the flying buckboard could find +words wherewith to bridge the miserable chasm so suddenly opened between +them. Miss Alicia's eyes were tear-brightened and unfathomable; Ford's +were hard, and there was a steely light in them. It was Alicia who spoke +first.</p> + +<p>"I know it is not true, of course—what Uncle Sidney accused you of," +she offered. "But tell me how it happened?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know—unless the devil planned it," said Ford bitterly. "I +bought the mine one day last summer <a name="Page_312" id="Page_312"></a>when I was in Copah, without +premeditation, without seeing it—without knowing where it was situated, +just as I have told you. Some little time afterward, Frisbie came to me +with the plan for the change of route. I had considered it before, but +had made no estimates. Frisbie had made the estimates, and we decided +upon it at once. I haven't been over here since: it wasn't necessary, +and I had other things to do."</p> + +<p>"Did Mr. Frisbie know about your purchase of the mine?"</p> + +<p>"No. I don't think he knows of it yet. To tell the truth, I was a little +ashamed: it was a touch of the mining fever that everybody gets now and +then in a mining country. Dick would have guyed me."</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Frisbie must have been over the line a great many times: how +could he miss seeing that enormous sign?" she persisted.</p> + +<p>Ford shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I venture to say that the paint isn't yet dry on that sign. It was put +there for a purpose, and your uncle was told to look for it. Grigsby is +just the sort of fool to jump at the chance to advertise the mine, and +somebody suggested it and gave him the tip that the president of the +railroad was coming in this way. Mr. North is a very careful man. He +doesn't neglect any of the little details."</p> + +<p>The high valley was falling away into a broken gulch, <a name="Page_313" id="Page_313"></a>and the +railway-grade driving-path clung closer to the hillsides. At the next +turn the town of Copah came into view, and the road became a shelf on +the slope two hundred feet above the main street and paralleling it. +Alicia was looking down upon the town when she said:</p> + +<p>"What shall you do?"</p> + +<p>Ford's laugh was not mirthful.</p> + +<p>"I have already done it. I shall perhaps be permitted to see you all +safely back to the Nadia, and over the rough track to Saint's Rest. More +than that I fancy Mr. Colbrith will not allow—and possibly not that +much."</p> + +<p>Miss Adair was still looking down upon the town; and now Ford looked. +Instantly he saw that something unusual was going on. Notwithstanding +the number of men afield on the hills, the main street of the camp was +restlessly alive. Horsemen were galloping back and forth; in front of +the outfitting stores freighters were hastily loading their pack +animals; at every gathering place there were knots of excited men +talking and gesticulating.</p> + +<p>Ford was puzzled. At another time he would quickly have put the obvious +two and two together to make the equally obvious four. But now he merely +said: "That's curious; mighty curious. Where do you suppose all those +people came from?"</p> + +<p>Alicia's rejoinder was not an answer to the half-mechanical query.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314"></a>"Mr. Ford, a little while ago I told you I must have time to consider: +I—I have considered. You must fight for your life and your good name. +You must make Uncle Sidney see things as they are—that they are not as +he thinks they are."</p> + +<p>"I can't," he said stubbornly. "Your condition reverses your decision. +If I am to fight with any hope of winning, after what has transpired +to-day, Mr. Colbrith will have to be eliminated."</p> + +<p>He had pulled the broncos down to a walk. There was a soft thudding of +hoofs on the yielding earth of the grade behind, but neither of them +heard.</p> + +<p>"You are disappointing me," she protested, and now the hesitation was +all gone. "A few minutes ago, before this miserable thing happened, you +were telling me of your ideal ... a woman may have an ideal, too, Mr. +Ford."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" he said eagerly.</p> + +<p>"My ideal is the knight without fear and without reproach—and also +without limitations. He will never say, 'I can not.' He will say, 'I +will,' and not for my sake, but because his own sense of justice and +mercy and loving-kindness will go hand in hand with his ambition."</p> + +<p>"One word," he broke in passionately; and now the soft thudding of hoofs +had drawn so near that the presence of the overtaking horseman might +have been felt.<a name="Page_315" id="Page_315"></a> "My little allegory didn't deceive you; you are the one +woman, Alicia, dear. I didn't mean to tell you yet, though I think you +have known it all along: I had an idea that I wanted to do something +worthy—something big enough to be worth while—before I spoke. But you +have given me leave; don't say you haven't given me leave!"</p> + +<p>"You have taken it," she said softly, adding: "And that is what a woman +likes, I think. But you mustn't spoil my ideal, Stuart—indeed, you +mustn't. You are young, strong, invincible, as my knight should be. But +when you strike you must also spare. You say there is no way save the +one you have indicated; you must find a way."</p> + +<p>He smiled ruefully.</p> + +<p>"You give the cup of water only to take it away again. I'd rather build +ten railroads than to attempt to smash North and his confederates +through your uncle. You see, I'm frightfully handicapped right at the +start—with this mine business hanging over me. But if you say it has to +be done, it shall be. I'll win Mr. Colbrith over, in spite of all that +has happened; and he shall fire North and the MacMorroghs first and +prosecute them afterward. I've said it."</p> + +<p>It was just here that the broncos shied—inward, toward the hill. Ford +gathered the slack reins, and Miss Adair looked up and gave a little +shriek. Noiselessly, <a name="Page_316" id="Page_316"></a>and so close upon the buckboard that he might have +touched either of its occupants with his rawhide quirt, rode the +Mexican. When they discovered him he was leaning forward, his +half-closed eyes mere slits with pin-points of black fire to mark them, +and his repulsive face a stolid mask. Ford's hand went instinctively to +the whip: it was the only available weapon. But the Mexican merely +touched his flapping sombrero and rode on at the shuffling fox-trot.</p> + +<p>"That man, again!" shivered Alicia, when the portent of evil had passed +out of sight around the next curve in the grade.</p> + +<p>But Ford's concern was deeper than her passing thrill of repulsion.</p> + +<p>"Did you notice his horse's hoofs as he went by?" he asked soberly.</p> + +<p>"No," she said.</p> + +<p>"I did. He dismounted somewhere behind us and covered them with +sacking."</p> + +<p>"What for?" she asked, shivering again with the nameless dread.</p> + +<p>"You recall what I was saying when the broncos shied: his object was to +creep up behind us and listen. He has done it more than once since we +left the end-of-track, and this time—"</p> + +<p>"Yes?"</p> + +<p>"This time he heard what he wanted to hear."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317"></a>Beyond the curve which had hidden the Mexican, the wagon-road left the +grade, descending abruptly upon the town. Ford looked back from the turn +and saw that the other two vehicles were not yet in sight.</p> + +<p>"Shall we wait for your aunt and the others?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Her smile was a sufficient reward for the bit of tactful forethought.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure we have left the conventions far enough behind not to be +unduly terrified by them. I am not afraid to go in unchaperoned. +Besides, I heard Uncle Sidney telling Doctor Van Bruce that our rooms at +the hotel had been engaged for us."</p> + +<p>Ford drove carefully down the steep side street which was the approach +to the hotel. An excited throng blocked the sidewalk, and the lobby +seemed to be a miniature stock exchange. Single-eyed, Ford fought a +passage through the crowd with Alicia on his arm, heeding nothing until +he had seen her safely above stairs and in the sitting-room of the +president's reservation, with a cheerful fire in the big sheet-iron +stove for her comforting. Then he went down and elbowed his way through +the clamorous lobby to the clerk's desk.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you take a minute or two off and tell me what this town has +gone crazy about, Hildreth," he said, with a backward nod toward the +lobby pandemonium.</p> + +<p>"Why, Great Scott! Mr. Ford—have you got this far <a name="Page_318" id="Page_318"></a>into it without +finding out?" was the astounded rejoinder. "It's a gold strike on Cow +Mountain—the biggest since Cripple Creek! We've doubled our population +since seven o'clock this morning; and by this time to-morrow.... Say, +Mr. Ford; for heaven's sake, get your railroad in here! We'll all go +hungry within another twenty-four hours—can't get supplies for love or +money!"</p> + +<p>Ford turned away and looked out upon the stock-selling pandemonium with +unseeing eyes. The chance—the heaven-sent hour that strikes only once +in a life-time for the builders of empire—had come: and he was only +waiting for the arrival of the president to find himself rudely thrust +aside from the helm of events.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII</h3> + +<h4>THE DEADLOCK</h4> + + +<p>"No, Mr. Ford; there is no explanation that will explain away the +incriminating fact. This is a matter which involves the good name of the +Pacific Southwestern company, through its officials, and I must insist +upon your resignation."</p> + +<p>The battle was on, with the two combatants facing each other in the +privacy of the president's room in the Copah hotel. Since Alicia had +made him exchange the sword of extermination for the olive branch, Ford +was fighting on the defensive, striving good-naturedly and persistently +to keep his official head on his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I've admitted that it looks pretty bad, Mr. Colbrith; but you will +concede the one chance in a hundred that no wrong was intended. I merely +did, on the ground, what thousands of investors in mining chances do the +world over—bought an interest in a mine without knowing or caring +greatly into what particular mountain the mine tunnel was driven."</p> + +<p>Mr. Colbrith frowned. He was of that elder genera<a name="Page_320" id="Page_320"></a>tion of masters which +looked with cold disapproval upon any side ventures on the part of the +subordinate.</p> + +<p>"The company has paid you liberally for your time and your undivided +attention, Mr. Ford. No man can serve two masters. Your appointment as +assistant to the president did not contemplate your engaging in other +business."</p> + +<p>Ford carefully suppressed the smile which the bit of industrial +martinetry provoked.</p> + +<p>"As to that," he said placably, "I can assure you that the gold-digging +has been purely an investment on my part."</p> + +<p>"But an investment which you should not have made," insisted the +president judicially. "If it had not tempted you to the breach of trust, +it was still inexpedient—most undeniably inexpedient. An official high +in the counsels of a great corporation should be like Cæsar's +wife—above suspicion."</p> + +<p>This time Ford's smile could not be wholly repressed. "I grant you it +was foolhardy, in the economic point of view," he confessed. "I took a +long chance of going ten thousand dollars to the bad. But mine-buying is +a disease—as contagious as the measles. Everybody in a mining country +takes a flyer, at least once. The experienced ones will tell you that +nobody is immune. Take your own case, now: if you don't keep a pretty +tight hold on your check-book, Mr. Colbrith, Cow Mountain will—"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321"></a>The president frowned again; more portentously, this time.</p> + +<p>"This levity is most reprehensible, Mr. Ford," he said stiffly. "I trust +I know my duty as the head of a great railway company too well to be +carried away on every baseless wave of excitement that fires the +imagination of the mining-camp I chance to be visiting." Mr. Colbrith +was not above mixing metaphor when the provocation was sufficiently +great.</p> + +<p>"Baseless?" echoed Ford. "Surely you don't doubt ... Why, Mr. Colbrith, +this strike is the biggest thing that has happened in the mining world +since the discovery of the wedge-veins in Cripple Creek!"</p> + +<p>The president shrugged his thin shoulders as one whose mission in life +is to be sturdily conservative after all the remainder of mankind has +struck hands with frenzied optimism.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" he rasped contemptuously. "What happens? Two men come to +town with certain rich specimens which they claim to have taken out of +their prospect hole on Cow Mountain. That was at seven o'clock last +night, less than twenty-four hours ago, and some two or three thousand +lunatics have already rushed here in the belief—founded upon a mere +boast, it may be—that a great gold reef underlies Cow Mountain. By this +time to-morrow—"</p> + +<p>Ford took him up promptly. "Yes; and by this time <a name="Page_322" id="Page_322"></a>to-morrow the Denver +Mining Exchange will be howling itself hoarse over Copah mining shares, +like those curb-stone fellows down-stairs; the hunt will be up, and +every feeder the Pacific Southwestern system has will be sending its +quota of gold-seekers to the new field. That isn't what you were going +to say, I know; but it is what is going to happen. Mr. Colbrith, it's +the chance of a century for the Pacific Southwestern company, and you +are deliberately trying to fire the one man who can make the most of +it."</p> + +<p>The president's lack of sense of humor made it hard for him at times. He +was sitting very erect in the straight-backed hotel chair when he said: +"Mr. Ford, there are occasions when your conceit is insufferable. Do you +imagine for a moment that you are the only engineer in the United States +who can build railroads, Sir?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no."</p> + +<p>"Then perhaps you will be good enough to explain your meaning?"</p> + +<p>"It was a poor attempt at a jest," said the young man, rather lamely. +"Yet it had the truth behind it, in a way. I predict that this is the +beginning of one of the biggest mining rushes the world ever saw. We are +within one hundred and forty miles of Copah with a practicable railroad; +we are within twelve miles with a track which must be made practicable +while the band plays. If you discharge your entire engineering corps at +this crisis—"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323"></a>"I beg your pardon," interrupted the president crustily. "I have not +asked your force to resign."</p> + +<p>"Not meaning to, perhaps," countered the young man, maliciously +rejoicing in the hope that he had found one vulnerable link in the +president's coat of mail. "But if I go, the entire department will go. +Every man in it is my friend, as well as my subordinate; and they know +very well that if they shouldn't go, your new chief would fire them and +put in his own men."</p> + +<p>"Ha!" said the president, straightening up again. "Am I to understand +that you are threatening me, Mr. Ford."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed; I am only stating a fact. But it is a pretty serious fact. +Let us suppose, for the sake of the argument, that my prediction comes +true; that within thirty-six or forty-eight hours Saint's Rest is packed +with people trying to get to Copah. Your new chief, if you shall have +found him, will hardly be in the saddle. When he comes he will have to +reorganize the department, break in new men, learn by hard knocks what I +have been learning in detail—"</p> + +<p>Mr. Colbrith thrust out a thin lip of obstinate determination.</p> + +<p>"And if he does, your hypothetical rush will simply have to wait, Mr. +Ford. We have the key to the Copah door."</p> + +<p>"Don't you fool yourself!" snapped Ford, forgetting <a name="Page_324" id="Page_324"></a>his rôle of the +humble one for the moment. "The Transcontinental is only forty miles +away at Jack's Canyon, with a pretty decent stage road. Long before you +can get the extension in shape to carry passengers, or even freight, the +other line will be known from Maine to California as the keyholder to +this district!"</p> + +<p>That shot told. The president was not yet convinced that the Copah boom +was real; but there was the chance that it might be—always the chance. +And to the over-cautious the taking of chances, however remote, is like +the handling of a snake: a thing to inspire creeping horrors.</p> + +<p>"If you could convince me, Mr. Ford, that your interest in that mine did +not influence you in changing the route of the extension," he began; but +Ford took him up sharply. "I can't; and I can say no more than I have +said."</p> + +<p>Mr. Colbrith got up and went to the window to look down upon the excited +throng in the street. It did look real.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we might leave matters as they are, pending a future +investigation, Mr. Ford," he said, turning back to his victim, who was +methodically clipping the end from a cigar.</p> + +<p>"No," was the brittle rejoinder.</p> + +<p>Again the president took time to look down into the crowded street. His +next attack was from the rear.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325"></a>"But I have understood that you do not wish to resign. Let us be +magnanimous, Mr. Ford, and agree to hang this matter up until this +supposed crisis is past."</p> + +<p>"No," was the curt reply. "I have changed my mind. I don't think I want +to work for you any longer, Mr. Colbrith."</p> + +<p>"Not if I withdrew my—ah—objections?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>Silence again. The packed lobby of the hotel had overflowed upon the +plank sidewalk, and the din of the buyers and sellers rose like the +noise of a frantic street fight. Ford's half jesting remark about the +possibility of the microbe finding its way into the blood of the +president was not so pointless as the old man's retort sought to make it +appear. It was the wheat pit which had given Mr. Colbrith his first +half-million; and as he listened to the hoarse cries, the thing which he +hoped was safely caution-killed began to stir within him. Suddenly he +picked a word of two out of the sidewalk clamor that made him turn +swiftly upon the silent young man.</p> + +<p>"They are selling 'Little Alicia'—your stock—down there!" he gasped. +"Have you—have you—"</p> + +<p>"No; I haven't put mine on the market. It's some of my partner's, +Grigsby's, stock. I suppose he couldn't stand the push."</p> + +<p>Once more the president listened. Only an ex-wrestler <a name="Page_326" id="Page_326"></a>in the wheat pit +could have picked intelligence out of the Babel of puts and calls.</p> + +<p>"It's up to a hundred and fifty!" he exploded. "What did you pay for +your shares, Mr. Ford?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty," said Ford coolly.</p> + +<p>"Good Heavens! I—I hope you hold a safe majority?"</p> + +<p>"No; we broke even, Grigsby and I. I have fifty per cent."</p> + +<p>The president groaned.</p> + +<p>"I—I'll excuse you, Mr. Ford. Get down there at once and buy that other +necessary share!"</p> + +<p>Ford shook his head with predetermined gloom. "No, Mr. Colbrith, I'm not +buying any more mining stock. What I did buy seems to have cost me my +job."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear young man! This is a crisis. You are likely to lose +control of your property! Or, at least, it is soaring to a point at +which you will never be able to secure the control."</p> + +<p>Ford came up smiling. "You forget that this is mere mad excitement, Mr. +Colbrith," he said, handing back the President's own phrase. "To-morrow, +I dare say, I shall be able to buy at twenty again."</p> + +<p>The president came away from the window and sat down. His face was +twitching and the thin white hands were tremulous.</p> + +<p>"There may be more in this gold discovery than I have <a name="Page_327" id="Page_327"></a>been willing to +admit," he said abstractedly, "and in that case ... Mr. Ford, upon what +terms will you consent to go on and whip this line of ours into shape?"</p> + +<p>Ford came out of the fog of discouragement with a bound.</p> + +<p>"A complete change in the management of the Pacific Southwestern, Mr. +Colbrith. North and his grafters must go."</p> + +<p>The President did not fly into wrathful shards, as Ford fully expected. +On the contrary, he was fingering the white goat's-beard with one +nervous hand, and apparently listening half-absently to the clamor in +the street.</p> + +<p>"Don't be unreasonable, Mr. Ford," he said quite mildly. "You know we +can't consider anything like that at the present moment."</p> + +<p>"It must be considered," Ford persisted. "Ever since I quit being a +division superintendent, North has obstructed, lied about me, fought me. +The time has come when, if I stay, I must have a free hand. I can't have +it while he is out of jail."</p> + +<p>"That is strong language to apply to our first vice-president, Mr. Ford. +And I can only believe that you are prejudiced—unduly prejudiced. But +all this may be taken up later. As you suggest, we may be losing very +precious time."</p> + +<p>Ford got to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Promise me that you will give the Denver manage<a name="Page_328" id="Page_328"></a>ment as thorough an +investigation as you have given me, Mr. Colbrith; do that, and give me +absolute authority over the MacMorroghs and their men for one week; and +before the week's end we'll be hauling passengers and freight into Copah +over our own rails."</p> + +<p>For a moment the president seemed to be on the point of yielding. Then +his habitual caution thrust out its foot and tripped him.</p> + +<p>"I can't be pushed, Mr. Ford," he complained, with a return of the +irritated tone. "Let the matter rest for the present. And—and you may +consider yourself relieved from duty until I have gone a little deeper +into these charges against you. Mr. North accuses you, and you accuse +Mr. North. I must have time to approach those matters deliberately. I +don't know which of you to trust."</p> + +<p>It was a deadlock. Ford bowed and laid his hand on the door.</p> + +<p>"You are still the president of the Pacific Southwestern, Mr. Colbrith, +and while you remain president—"</p> + +<p>The old man's pride of office took fire like tow in a furnace.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that, Mr. Ford? Make yourself clear, sir!" he +quavered.</p> + +<p>"I mean just this: if your niece, Miss Alicia Adair, hadn't been good +enough to say that she will be my wife, I'd carry this thing up to the +board of directors and do <a name="Page_329" id="Page_329"></a>my level best to have you put where you could +do the least harm."</p> + +<p>"You? Alicia?" the old man shrilled. And then, in an access of senile +rage that shook him like a leaf in the wind: "I said you were +suspended—you are discharged, sir—here and now! If you give another +order as an official of the Pacific Southwestern company, I'll—I'll put +you through the courts for it!"</p> + +<p>Ford opened the door and went out, leaving the president clutching his +chair with one hand and balling the other into a shaking fist. The die +was cast, and he had thrown a blank at the very moment when the game +seemed to be turning his way. What would Alicia say?</p> + +<p>As if the unspoken query had evoked her, the door of her room opened +silently and she stood before him in the corridor.</p> + +<p>"Tell me," she commanded.</p> + +<p>"We have fought it out, and I've had my beating," he said soberly. "When +I thought I had him fairly down,—he was actually begging me to stay on +with the company,—we got tangled up again over North, and he fired me +bodily."</p> + +<p>"Did you—did you tell him about our—"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and that was what set off the final fireworks."</p> + +<p>She put her hands on his shoulders and made him face her squarely.</p> + +<p>"Stuart, did you lose your temper?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330"></a>"I—I'm afraid I did—just at the last, you know. It's simply an +unspeakable state of affairs, Alicia, dear! At a moment when we should +be setting the whole world afire in a superhuman effort to flog this +piece of construction track into shape, your uncle paralyzes +everything!"</p> + +<p>The constraining touch of her hands became almost a caress. "What shall +you do, Stuart? Is there nothing to be done?"</p> + +<p>He took his resolution on the spur of the moment.</p> + +<p>"Yes, thank heaven! Your uncle has got to find a printing press, or at +least a telegraph wire, before he can make my discharge effective. +Before he can do that, or until he does it, I'm going to pull the +throttle wide open and race that discharge circular, if I go to jail for +it, afterward! Who knows but I shall have time to save the day for the +company after all? Good-by, dearest. In twenty minutes I shall be riding +for the MacMorroghs' camp, and when I get there—"</p> + +<p>"You are going to ride back?—alone? Oh, no, no!" she protested; and the +clinging arms held him.</p> + +<p>"Why, Alicia, girl—see here: what do you imagine could happen to me? +Why, bless your loving heart, I've been tramping and riding this desert +more or less for two years! What has come over you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know; but—but—oh, me! you will think I am miserably weak and +foolish: but just as you said <a name="Page_331" id="Page_331"></a>that, I seemed to see you lying in the +road with your horse standing over you—and you were—dead!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" he comforted. "I'll be back here to-morrow, alive and well; +but I mustn't lose a minute now. It's up to me to reach Horse Creek +before the news of the gold strike gets there. There'll be a stampede, +with every laborer on the line hoofing it for Copah. Good-by, +sweetheart, and—may I?" He took her face between his hands and did it +anyhow.</p> + +<p>Five minutes later he was bargaining for a saddle horse at the one +livery stable in the camp, offering and paying the selling price of the +animal for the two days' hire. It was a rather sorry mount at that, and +when he was dragging it out into the street, Jack Benson, the youngest +member of his staff, rode up, that moment in from the tie-camp above Cow +Mountain.</p> + +<p>"Don't dismount, Jack," he ordered curtly. "You're just in time to save +me eight or ten miles, when the inches are worth dollars. Ride for the +end-of-track and Frisbie on a dead run. Tell Dick to hold his men, if he +has to do it at the muzzle of a gun, and to come on with the track, +night and day. He'll have to raise the pay, and keep on raising it—but +that's all right. It's an order. Rush it!"</p> + +<p>Benson nodded, set his horse at the path leading up to the railroad +grade, and spurred up the hill. Ford gave a final tug at his saddle +cinches, put up a leg and <a name="Page_332" id="Page_332"></a>began to pick his way down the thronged +street in the opposite direction.</p> + +<p>Thirty seconds afterward a man wearing the laced trousers and broad +bullion-corded sombrero of a Mexican dandy came out of his hiding-place +behind the door of the livery stable office, thoughtfully twirling the +cylinder of a drawn revolver.</p> + +<p>"I take-a da mustang," he said to the boy who had held Ford's horse +during the short interview with Benson. And when the bronco was brought +out, the Mexican, like Ford, looked to the cinches, mounted, and rode +down the street leading to the lower mesa and the river.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV</h3> + +<h4>RUIZ GREGORIO</h4> + + +<p>He rode easily, as one born to the saddle, the leathers creaking +musically under him to keep time to the shuffling fox-trot of the wiry +little range pony. Once free of the mining-camp and out upon the mesa, +he found a corn-husk wrapper and his bag of dry tobacco and deftly +rolled a cigarette, doing it with one hand, cow-boy fashion. When the +cigarette was lighted, the horseman ahead was a mere khaki-colored dot, +rising and falling in the mellowing distance.</p> + +<p>With the eye of a plainsman he measured the trail's length to the broken +hill range where the Pannikin emerges from its final wrestle with the +gorges. Then he glanced up at the dull crimson spot in the murky sky +that marked the sun's altitude. There was time sufficient—and the trail +was long enough. He did not push his horse out of the shuffling trot. At +the portal hills the horseman now disappearing over the rim of the high +mesa would slacken speed. In the canyon itself a dog could not go faster +than a walk.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334"></a>On the lower mesa the Mexican picked up the galloping dot again, +holding it in view until it halted on the river bank a hundred yards +below the entrance to the canyon. Since the water was low in the ford, +the river bank hid the crossing, and the Mexican drew rein and waited +for the dot to reappear on the opposite shore.</p> + +<p>A slow minute was lost; then a second and a third. The man in the corded +sombrero and laced buckskins touched his horse's flank with a spur and +crept forward at a walk, keeping his eyes fixed upon the point where the +quarry ought to come in sight again. When three more minutes passed and +the farther shore was still a deserted blank, the Mexican dug both +rowels into his mustang and galloped down to the river, muttering curses +in the <i>patois</i> of his native Sonora.</p> + +<p>Apparently the closing in had been delayed too long. There were fresh +hoof-prints in the marl of the hither approach to the shallow ford, but +none to match them on the farther side. The Mexican crossed hastily and +searched for the outcoming hoof-marks. The rocky bar which formed the +northern bank of the stream told him nothing.</p> + +<p>Now it is only in the imagination of the word-smith that the villain in +the play is gifted with supernatural powers of discernment. Ruiz +Gregorio Maria y Alvarez Mattacheco, familiarly and less cumbrously +known as "Mexican George," was a mere murderer, with <a name="Page_335" id="Page_335"></a>a quick eye for +gun-sights and a ready and itching trigger finger. But he was no Vidoeq, +to know by instinct which of the two trails, the canyon passage or the +longer route over the hills, Ford had chosen.</p> + +<p>Having two guesses he made the wrong one first, urging his mustang +toward the canyon trail. A stumbling half-mile up the narrow cleft of +the river's path revealing nothing, he began to reconsider. Drawing a +second blank of the same dimensions, he turned back to the ford and +tried the hill trail. At the end of the first hundred yards on the new +scent he came again upon the fresh hoof-prints, and took off the +brow-cramping hat to swear the easier.</p> + +<p>Two courses were now open to him; to press hard upon the roundabout hill +trail in the hope of overtaking the engineer before he could reach the +Horse Creek camp, or to pass by the shorter route to the upper ford to +head him off at the river crossing. The Mexican gave another glance at +the dull red spot in the western sky and played for safety. The +waylaying alternative commended itself on several counts. The canyon +trail was the shorter and it could be traversed leisurely and in +daylight. Pressing his livery hack as he could, Ford would scarcely +reach the crossing at the mouth of Horse Creek before dusk. Moreover, it +would be easier to wait and to smoke than to chase the quarry over the +hills, wearing one's pinto to the bone.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336"></a>Ruiz Gregorio Maria set his horse once more at the task of picking a +path among the canyon boulders, riding loosely in the saddle, first in +one stirrup and then in the other, and smoking an unbroken succession of +the corn-husk cigarettes.</p> + +<p>One small cloud flecked the sky of satisfaction. His instructions had +been explicit. If Ford should resign, quit, wash his hands of the +Pacific Southwestern, he might be suffered to escape. If not—there was +only one condition attached to the alternative: what was done must be +done neatly, with despatch, and at a sufficient distance from any of the +MacMorrogh camps to avert even the shadow of suspicion.</p> + +<p>Now the upper crossing of waylayings was within a stone's throw of the +end-of-track yards; nay, within an amateur's pistol-shot of the +commissary buildings. But Ruiz Gregorio, weighing all the possibilities, +found them elastic enough to serve the purpose. A well-calculated shot +from behind a sheltering boulder, the heaving of the body into the swift +torrent of the Pannikin, and the thing was done. What damning evidence +might afterward come to the light of day, if, indeed, it should ever +come to light, would be fished out of the stream far enough from any of +the MacMorrogh camps.</p> + +<p>Thus Ruiz Gregorio Maria y Alvarez, lolling lazily in his saddle while +the hard-breathing mustang picked a toilsome path among the strewn +boulders and through <a name="Page_337" id="Page_337"></a>the sliding shale beds. He went even further: an +alibi might not be needful, but it would be easy to provide one. Young +Jack Benson, if no other, would know that Ford had taken one of the +shorter trails from Copah to the camp at Horse Creek. <i>Bueno!</i> He, Ruiz +Gregorio, could slip across the river in the dusk when the thing was +done, skirt the headquarters camp unseen, and present himself a little +later at Señor Frisbie's camp of the track-layers, coming, as it were, +direct from Copah, almost upon the heels of Señor Benson. After that, +who could connect him with the dead body of a man fished out of a river +twenty, fifty, a hundred miles away?</p> + +<p>There was a weak link in the chain. Ruiz Gregorio's child-like plot +turned upon one pivot of hazard—hazard most likely to be ignored by so +good a marksman as the "man-killer." One shot he might permit himself, +with little danger of drawing a crowd from the mess tent and the +sleeping shanties in the Horse Creek camp. Two would bring the men to +their doors. Any greater number would be taken as the signal of a free +fight needing spectators. Hence the first shot must suffice.</p> + +<p>The Mexican bore this in mind when, arriving at his post opposite the +camp in the early dusk, he chose his ambushing boulder so near the +descending hill trail that a stout club might have been substituted for +the pistol. The weather promise was for a starless night, but the +electric arc-lights were already scintillating at their <a name="Page_338" id="Page_338"></a>mastheads in +the headquarters railroad yard across the Pannikin. Later, when the +daylight was quite gone and the electrics were hollowing out a bowl of +stark whiteness in the night, Ruiz Gregorio wished he had chosen +otherwise. The camp lights shone full upon him and on the mustang +standing with drooped head at his elbow, and the trail on the other side +of the boulder was in shadow.</p> + +<p>He was about to take the risk of moving farther up the hill-path to a +less exposed lurking place, was hesitating only because his indolent +soul rebelled at the thought of having to drag Ford's body so many added +steps to its burial in the river, when the clink of shod hoofs upon +stone warned him that the time for scene-shifting had passed. Pushing +the mustang out of the line of sight from the trail, he flattened +himself against the great rock and waited.</p> + +<p>Ford rode down the last declivity cautiously, for his horse's sake. The +trail came out of the hills abruptly, dropping into the rock-strewn +river valley within hailing distance of the camp. Well within the sweep +of the masthead lights across the stream, the boulder-strewn flat was as +light as day, save where the sentinel rocks flung their shadows; and +promptly at the first facing of the bright electrics, Ford's horse +stumbled aside from the path and began to take short cuts between the +thick-standing boulders for the river. This was how the Mex<a name="Page_339" id="Page_339"></a>ican, +instead of having his victim at a complete disadvantage, found himself +suddenly uncovered by the flank, exposed, recognized, and hailed in no +uncertain tones.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Mattacheco! what are you doing here?" Ford had a flash-light +picture of the horse standing with his muzzle to the ground; of the man +flattened against the rock. Then he saw the dull gleam of the lights +upon blued metal. "You devil!" he shouted; and unarmed as he was, +spurred his tired beast at the assassin.</p> + +<p>Here, then, was the weak link in Ruiz Gregorio's chain twisted to the +breaking point at the very outset. Instead of taking a deliberate +pot-shot at an unsuspecting victim, he was obliged to face about, to +fire hastily at a charging enemy, and to spring nimbly aside to save +himself from being ridden down. The saving jump was an awkward one: it +brought him into breath-taking collision with the upjerking head of the +mustang. When he had recovered his feet and his presence of mind, the +charging whirlwind had dashed through the shallows of the Pannikin, and +a riderless horse was clattering across the tracks in the railroad yard.</p> + +<p>The Mexican waited prudently to see what the camp would say to the +single shot. It said nothing; it might have been deserted for all the +indications there were of life in it. Ruiz Gregorio snapped the empty +shell from his weapon, replacing it with a loaded one, and mounted <a name="Page_340" id="Page_340"></a>and +rode slowly through the ford. The riderless horse disappearing across +the tracks gave him good hope that the hasty shot had accomplished all +that a deliberate one might have.</p> + +<p>There was no dead man tumbled in a heap in the railroad yard, as he had +hoped to find. Silence, the silence of desertion, brooded over the +masthead arcs. Painfully the Mexican searched, at the verge of the +river, in the black shadows cast by the crowding material cars. Finally +he crossed over to the straggling street of the camp, walking now and +leading the spent mustang. Silence here, too, broken only by the +sputtering sizzle of the electrics. The huge mess tent was dark; there +were no lights, save in the closed commissary and in the president's +car: no lights, and not a man of the camp's crowding labor army to be +seen.</p> + +<p>At a less strenuous moment the man-killer would have been puzzled by the +unusual stillness and the air of desertion. As it was, he was alertly +probing the far-flung shadows. The engineer, if only wounded, would +doubtless try to hide in the shadows in the railroad yard.</p> + +<p>The Mexican left his horse in the camp street and made an instant search +between and under the material cars, coming out now and again to stare +suspiciously at the president's private car, standing alone on the +siding directly opposite the commissary. The Nadia was occupied. It was +lighted within, and the window shades <a name="Page_341" id="Page_341"></a>were drawn down. Ruiz Gregorio +could never get far from the lighted car without being irresistibly +drawn back to it, and finally he darted back in time to see a man rise +up out of the shadow of the nearest box-car, spring to the platform of +the Nadia and kick lustily at the locked door. The door was opened +immediately by some one within, and the fugitive plunged to cover—but +not before the Mexican's revolver had barked five times with the rapid +staccato of a machine gun.</p> + +<p>When Ruiz Gregorio, dropping the smoking weapon into its holster, would +have mounted to put into instant action the plan of the well-considered +alibi, a barrel-bodied figure launched itself from the commissary porch, +and a vigorous hand dragged horse and man into the shadow of the +stables.</p> + +<p>"Off wid you now, you blunderin' dago divvle!" gritted the MacMorrogh +savagely. "It's all av our necks ye've put into a rope, this time, damn +you!"</p> + +<p>The Mexican had dismounted and was calmly reloading his pistol.</p> + +<p>"You t'ink-a he's not-a sufficiently kill? I go over to da car and +bring-a you da proof, <i>si</i>?"</p> + +<p>"You'll come wid me," raved the big contractor. "'Tis out av your clumsy +hands, now, ye black-hearted blunderin' cross betune a Digger Indian and +a Mexican naygur! Come on, I say!"</p> + +<p>The back room of the commissary to which the Mac<a name="Page_342" id="Page_342"></a>Morrogh led the way +held three men; Eckstein, and the two younger members of the contracting +firm. They had heard the fusillade in the camp street and were waiting +for news. Brian MacMorrogh gave it, garnished with many oaths.</p> + +<p>"The pin-brained omadhaun av a Mexican has twishted a rope for all av +us! He's let Ford come back, alive; let him get to the very dure av the +prisident's car! Then, begorra! he must mades show himself under the +electhrics and open fire on the man who was kicking at the dure and +looking sthraight at him!"</p> + +<p>Eckstein asked a single question.</p> + +<p>"Did he get him? If he's dead he can't very well tell who shot him."</p> + +<p>"That's the hell av it!" raged the big man. "Who's to know?"</p> + +<p>Eckstein spat out the extinct cigar stump he was chewing.</p> + +<p>"We are to know—beyond a question of doubt, this time. Who is in the +Nadia, besides Ford?"</p> + +<p>"The two naygurs."</p> + +<p>"No one else?"</p> + +<p>MacMorrogh shook his head. "No wan."</p> + +<p>"You are sure Mr. Adair and Brissac are out of the way?"</p> + +<p>"They got Gallagher to push them up to Frisbie's track camp in Misther +North's car an hour before dark."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343"></a>"None of your men are likely to drift in from the other way up the +line?"</p> + +<p>"Not unless somebody carries the news av the gold sthrike—and there's +nobody going that way to carry it. The camp's empty but for us."</p> + +<p>Eckstein rose and buttoned his coat.</p> + +<p>"You have held your own strikers—the men you can depend upon: how many +do we count, all told?"</p> + +<p>"Thirteen, counting the five av us here, and the felly that runs the +electhric light plant."</p> + +<p>"H'm; it's a hell of a risk: thirteen men knowing what only one should +know—and what that one should hurry to forget. But your butter-fingered +Mexican has left us no choice. Ford knows enough now to send some of us +over the road for life. If he got into that car alive, he must never +come out of it alive."</p> + +<p>Brian MacMorrogh had unlocked a cupboard in the corner of the room. It +was a well-filled gun-rack, and he was passing the Winchesters out to +his brothers.</p> + +<p>"'Tis so," he said briefly. Then: "There's the two naygurs in the car: +what av thim, Misther Eckstein?"</p> + +<p>Eckstein took one of the guns and emptied the magazine to make sure of +the loading.</p> + +<p>"We are thirteen to one; the negroes don't count," he replied coldly. +"Call in your men and we'll go and do what's got to be done."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV</h3> + +<h4>THE SIEGE OF THE NADIA</h4> + + +<p>With a horse that could have been handled Ford would not have run away +when the charge upon the Mexican failed of its purpose. So far from it, +he tried to wheel and charge again while the man was reeling from his +collision with the rearing mustang.</p> + +<p>But the bronco from the Copah stable, with the flash and crash of the +pistol-shot to madden it, took the bit between its teeth and +bolted—safely through the shallows of the stream crossing and up to the +level of the railroad yard beyond, but swerving aside at the first of +the car shadows to fling its rider out of the saddle. Ford gathered +himself quickly and rolled under a car. His right arm had no feeling in +it, whether from the shot or the fall he could not determine.</p> + +<p>The numbness had become a prickling agony when he heard the Mexican +splashing through the river to begin his search. Ford's field of vision +was limited by the car trucks, but he kept the man in sight as he could. +It <a name="Page_345" id="Page_345"></a>filled him with sudden and fiery rage to be hunted thus like a +defenseless animal, and more than once he was tempted to make a dash for +the engineers' quarters on the hillside above the commissary—a rifle +being the thing for which he hungered and thirsted.</p> + +<p>But to show himself under the lights was to invite the fate he had so +narrowly escaped. He knew Mattacheco's skill as a marksman: the Mexican +would not be rattled twice in the same half-hour. Ford gripped the +benumbed arm in impotent writhings.</p> + +<p>"Now, by recognizing him, I've fixed it so that he is obliged to kill +me," he muttered. "It's my life, or his neck for a halter, and he knows +it. The blood-thirsty devil! If I could only get to Brissac's +bunk-shanty and lay my hands on a gun ..."</p> + +<p>There seemed to be no chance of doing that most desirable thing. The +Mexican was now afoot and coursing the railroad yard like a baffled +hound. Ford saw that it was only a question of minutes until his +impromptu hiding-place would be discovered, and he began to look for +another. The Nadia was but a short distance away, and the lighted deck +transoms beckoned him.</p> + +<p>It was instinct rather than intention that made him duck and plunge +headlong through the suddenly opened door of the private car at the +glimpse of his pursuer standing beside his horse in the open camp +street. This was why the pistol barked harmlessly. Springing to his +<a name="Page_346" id="Page_346"></a>feet, and leaving the frightened negro who had admitted him trying to +barricade the door with cushions from the smoking-room seats, Ford burst +into the lighted central compartment.</p> + +<p>It was not empty, as he had expected to find it. Two men, startled by +the shots and the crash of breaking glass, were prepared to grapple him. +It was Brissac, the invalided assistant, who cried, "Hold on, Mr. +Adair—it's Ford, and he's hurt!"</p> + +<p>Ford met the involuntary rush, gathered the two in his uncrippled arm +and dragged them to the floor.</p> + +<p>"That's in case my assassin takes a notion to turn loose on the +windows," he panted. Then he gasped out his story while Brissac got the +aching right arm out of its sleeve and looked for the injury.</p> + +<p>Adair listened to the story of the attempted murder awe-struck, as one +from the civilized East had a right to be.</p> + +<p>"By Jove!" he commented; "I thought I had bumped into all the different +varieties of deviltry since I left Denver yesterday morning, but this +tops 'em. Actually tried to kill you in cold blood? But what for, +Stuart?—for heaven's sake, what for?"</p> + +<p>"Because he was hired to: because his masters, the MacMorroghs, and +their master, North, have staked their roll on this last turn of the +cards. I know too much, Adair. The president was sent over here to get +<a name="Page_347" id="Page_347"></a>rid of me. That failing, word was passed down the line that I was to be +effaced. A few hours ago this Mexican overheard me telling your sister +what I proposed to do to North and the MacMorroghs. That's why he—Ouch! +Roy; that is my arm you're trying to twist out of joint, man!"</p> + +<p>"It's all right," laughed the Louisianian; "it is only a crazy-bone bump +that you got when the bronc' threw you. Say, Ford; I thought you claimed +to know how to ride a horse!"</p> + +<p>Adair was feeling in his pockets for the inevitable cigarette case.</p> + +<p>"What he overheard you telling Alicia?" he mused. "I'm evidently two or +three chapters behind. But no matter; this is the now; the very +immediate now. Will your assassin keep on feeling for you?"</p> + +<p>Ford shook his head. "Not any more just at present, I guess. He has +waited too long. That fusillade of his will have turned the entire camp +out by this time, and the Macs don't want any inconvenient witnesses."</p> + +<p>"Witnesses?" echoed Adair. "Then you don't know—Say, Stuart; there +isn't a white man in this camp besides us three—unless you count the +MacMorroghs and their commissary garrison as white men. News of the +great gold strike got here about three o'clock, and every laborer within +hearing of it shouldered pick and shovel and lined out up the new track +for Copah."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348"></a>"What!" shouted Ford. "And these dash-<i>dashed</i> MacMorroghs didn't try +to hold them?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that. I had Mr. Brissac, here, over in the '01'—I +came across the mountain in North's car, you know—dosing him with +things out of Doctor Van Bruce's traveling case, and trying to get him +in shape to show me the way to Copah. After the stampede, which took all +the four-legged horses as well as the two-legged asses, I persuaded your +man Gallagher to hitch his engine to our car to drag us up to Frisbie's +camp at the front. I thought Frisbie would probably be in communication +with you. Gallagher's intentions were good, but about three miles up +Horse Creek he ditched the car so thoroughly that we couldn't inhabit +it; so we got out and walked back."</p> + +<p>"All of which brings on more talk," said Ford gravely. "From what you +say, I gather that the MacMorroghs are still here. Did any one see you +come back?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. It was after dark when we straggled in, and we didn't +ring any bells or blow any whistles."</p> + +<p>Ford stood up.</p> + +<p>"Does either one of you happen to have anything bigger than a +pocket-knife in the way of a weapon?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Why? what are you going to do?" Adair demanded.</p> + +<p>"I am going to separate you two from my highly dangerous presence," said +Ford definitely. "The MacMor<a name="Page_349" id="Page_349"></a>roghs' outfit of a dozen or fifteen +cutthroat scoundrels, captained, for the moment, by Eckstein, North's +right-hand man, are doubtless just across the way in the back room of +the commissary. You say the camp is otherwise deserted: the MacMorroghs +don't know that you are here; and they do know that I am, dead or alive. +Moreover, Mattacheco has doubtless told them by this time that I saw and +recognized him. Wherefore, it's up to them to see that I never get a +chance to go before a grand jury."</p> + +<p>"You sit down on the floor," said Adair. He had found a cigarette and +was crimping the end of it. "Have you a fraction of an idea that we are +going to allow you to make a Jonah of yourself for us? Sit down, I say! +Who's got a gun?"</p> + +<p>Brissac had crept to a window and was reconnoitering the deserted camp +street and the commissary through a peephole in the drawn shade. As +Adair spoke, he sprang back, tripped Ford and fell with him, crying:</p> + +<p>"Down! both of you!"</p> + +<p>At the cry there was a shot from without, and a window on the exposed +side of the Nadia fell in shivers. There were yells of terror from the +cook's pantry, and the two negroes came crawling through the side +vestibule, their eyes like saucers and their teeth chattering. Ford +jumped up and turned off the Pintsch lights; and <a name="Page_350" id="Page_350"></a>he was barely down +again when another shot broke a second window.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't that jolt you?" said Adair. "They are feeling for you with +both hands. What a heaven's pity it is that we haven't so much as a +potato popgun among us to talk back with. What did you see, Mr. +Brissac?"</p> + +<p>"A crowd of them bunched on the commissary porch. One of them was +sighting a Winchester at the car when I got busy."</p> + +<p>Adair was again lamenting the lack of arms when the negro porter +produced a pocket bulldog pistol of the cheap and uncertain sort. +"Y-y-y-yah you is, Mistuh Charles," he stuttered.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Williams—concealed weapons? That is fifty dollars fine in your +native Tennessee, isn't it?" Then to Brissac: "Please go to the farther +window and mark down for me, Mr. Brissac. I don't like to have those +fellows do all the bluffing."</p> + +<p>While the assistant was complying, a third bullet from the commissary +porch tore high through the car, smashing one of the gas globes. Adair +crawled to a broken window and the cheap revolver roared like an +overloaded musket.</p> + +<p>"Good shot!" said Brissac, from his marking post. "You got one of them: +he's down and they're dragging him inside. Now they have all ducked to +cover."</p> + +<p>"That settles any notion of a palaver and the pipe of <a name="Page_351" id="Page_351"></a>peace, I guess," +said Adair, as indifferently as if he had just brought down a clay +pigeon. "Prophesy, Stuart: what comes next?"</p> + +<p>Ford shook his head.</p> + +<p>"They can't quit now till they are sure I am permanently obliterated; +they have gone too far. They'll credit me with that shot of yours, and +they will take it as a pretty emphatic proof that I still live. Hence, +more war."</p> + +<p>"Well, what do we do? You are the captain."</p> + +<p>"Picket the car and keep a sharp lookout for the next move. Brissac, you +take the forward end, and I'll take the rear platform. Adair, post your +Africans in here where they'll do the most good, and see that they don't +go to sleep on their jobs."</p> + +<p>The disposition of forces was quickly made, after which suspense set in. +Silence and the solitude of the deserted camp reigned unbroken; yet the +watchers knew that the shadows held determined enemies, alertly +besieging the private car. To prove it, Adair pulled down a portière, +gave it bulk with a stuffing of berth pillows, and dropped the bundle +from one of the shattered windows. Three jets of fire belched from the +nearest shadow, and the dummy was riddled. Adair fired at one of the +flashes, resting the short-barreled pistol across the window ledge, and +the retaliatory shot brought Ford hurrying in from his post.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352"></a>"For heaven's sake, don't waste your ammunition!" he whispered. "One of +them has gone up to the powder-house after dynamite. I heard the +creaking of the iron door."</p> + +<p>Adair whistled softly. "Dynamite! That will bring things to a focus +beautifully, won't it? When they have blown us up, I wonder how they +will account to Uncle Sidney for the loss of his car?"</p> + +<p>Brissac had come running in at the sound of the firing. He missed the +grim humor in Adair's query.</p> + +<p>"Car, nothing!" he retorted. "Better say the entire camp and everything +in it! There's a whole box-car load of dynamite and caps out here in the +yard—sub-contractors' supplies waiting for the freighters' teams from +the west end. If they smash us, the chances are ten to one that there'll +be a sympathetic explosion out yonder in the yard somewhere that will +leave nothing but a hole in the ground!"</p> + +<p>"No," said Ford. "I gave orders myself to have that car set down below +the junction when the Nadia came in."</p> + +<p>"So you did; and so it was," Brissac cut in. "But afterward it got mixed +in the shifting, and it's back in the yard—I don't know just where."</p> + +<p>Adair turned to the cowering porter.</p> + +<p>"Have you any more cartridges for this cannon of yours, Williams?" he +asked.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353"></a>"N-n-no, sah."</p> + +<p>"Then we have three more chances in the hat. Much obliged for the +dynamite hint, Stuart. I'll herd these three cartridges pretty +carefully. Back to your sentry-boxes, you two, and make a noise if you +need the artillery."</p> + +<p>Another interval of suspense followed, thickly scored with pricklings of +anxiety for the besieged. Then an attempt was made from the rear. Ford +saw a dodging shadow working its way from car to car in the yard and +signaled softly to Adair.</p> + +<p>"Hold low on him," he cautioned, when the New Yorker was at his elbow, +"those cheap guns jump like a scared cow-pony." Then he added: "And pray +God you don't hit what he's carrying."</p> + +<p>Adair held low and bided his time. There was another musket-like roar, +and an instant though harmless reply from two rifles on the other side +of the Nadia. But the dodging shadow was no longer advancing.</p> + +<p>"I've stopped him for the time being, anyhow," said Adair, exulting like +a boy. "If we only had a decent weapon we could get them all, one at a +time."</p> + +<p>"This was crude," Ford commented. "Eckstein will think up something +better for the next attempt."</p> + +<p>It was a prophecy which found its fulfilment after another sweating +interval of watchfulness. This time it was Brissac who made the +discovery, from the forward <a name="Page_354" id="Page_354"></a>end of the Nadia. The nearest of the +material cars was a box, lying broadside to the private car on the next +side-track but one. From behind the trucks of the box-car a slender +pole, headed with what appeared to be an empty oyster tin, and trailing +a black line of fuse, was projecting itself along the ground by slow +inchings, creeping across the lighted space between the two cars. +Brissac promptly gave the alarm.</p> + +<p>"This is where we lose out, pointedly and definitely," predicted Adair, +still cheerful. "Anybody want to try a run for it?"</p> + +<p>It was Ford who thought of the two negroes.</p> + +<p>"Tell them, Roy," he said to Brissac. "Perhaps they would rather risk +the rifles."</p> + +<p>Brissac crept back to the central compartment, and the two watchers +marked the progress of the inching pole, with its dynamite head and the +ominous black thread of communication trailing like a grotesque horn +behind it. At the crossing of the intervening track it paused, moving +back and forth along the steel like a living thing seeking a passage. +Finally the metallic head of it appeared above the rail, hesitated, and +came on slowly. At that moment there was a shout, and the two negroes, +hands held high, tumbled from the opposite step of the Nadia and ran +toward the commissary stables. Three shots bit into the silence, and the +fat cook ran on, stumbling and shrieking. But the man Williams <a name="Page_355" id="Page_355"></a>stopped +short and fell on his face, rolling over a moment later to lie with arms +and legs outspread.</p> + +<p>"God!" said Ford, between his set teeth; "they saw who they were—they +couldn't help seeing! And there was no excuse for killing those poor +devils!"</p> + +<p>But there was no time for reprisals, if any could have been made. When +Brissac rejoined the two in the forward vestibule, the stiff-bodied +snake with its tin head and trailing horn was crossing the second rail +of the intervening siding.</p> + +<p>"We've got to think pretty swiftly," suggested Adair, still cool and +unruffled. "I might be able to hit that tin thing at this short +distance, but I suppose that would only precipitate matters. What do you +say?"</p> + +<p>Ford could not say, and Brissac seemed to have become suddenly petrified +with horror. He was staring at the lettering on the box-car +opposite—the one under whose trucks the dynamiters were hiding.</p> + +<p>"Look!" he gasped; "it's the car of explosives, and they don't know it!" +Then he darted back into the Nadia's kitchen, returning quickly with a +huge carving-knife rummaged from the pantry shelves. "Stand back and +give me room," he begged; and they saw him lean out to send the +carving-knife whistling through the air: saw it sever the head from the +stiff-bodied snake—the head and the trailing horn as well.</p> + +<p>"Good man!" applauded Adair, dragging the assist<a name="Page_356" id="Page_356"></a>ant engineer back to +safety before any of the sharpshooters had marked him down. "Where did +you learn that trick?"</p> + +<p>"It is my one little accomplishment," confessed the Louisianian. "An old +Chickasaw chief taught me when I was a boy in the bayou country."</p> + +<p>The peril was over for the moment. The severed pole was withdrawn, and +for what seemed like an endless interval the attack paused. The three +besieged men kept watch as they might, creeping from window to window. +Out under the blue glare of the commissary arc-light the body of the +negro porter lay as it had fallen. Once, Ford thought he heard groans +from the black shadow where the fat cook had disappeared, but he could +not be sure. On the other side of the private car, and half-way between +it and the forty-thousand-pound load of high explosives, the petard +oyster-tin lay undisturbed, with the carving-knife sticking in the sand +beside it.</p> + +<p>"What will they try next?" queried Adair, when the suspense was again +growing intolerable.</p> + +<p>"It is simple enough, if they happen to think of it," was Ford's +rejoinder. "A few sticks of dynamite in a plugged gas-pipe: cut your +fuse long enough, light it, and throw the thing under the car. That +would settle it."</p> + +<p>Adair yawned sleepily.</p> + +<p>"Well, they've got all night for the inventive part of <a name="Page_357" id="Page_357"></a>it. There's no +rescue for us unless somebody—a good husky army of somebodies—just +happens along."</p> + +<p>"The army is less than eight miles away—over at Frisbie's camp," said +Ford. "With Dick to lead them, the track-layers would sack this place in +about five minutes. If I could only get to the wire!"</p> + +<p>Brissac heard the "if."</p> + +<p>"Let me try to run their picket line, Ford," he said eagerly. "If I can +get around to our quarters and into the telegraph tent—"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't do it, Roy. There is the proof of it," pointing to the +body of the slain negro. "But I have been thinking of another scheme. +The track-camp wire is bracketed across the yard on the light-poles. I +have my pocket relay. I wonder if we could manage to cut in on that +wire?"</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute," Brissac interrupted. He was gone but a moment, and when +he returned he brought hope with him.</p> + +<p>"The wire is down and lying across the front vestibule," he announced +excitedly. "They must have cut it up yonder by the telegraph tent and +the slack has sagged down this way."</p> + +<p>"Which gives us a dead wire without any batteries," said Ford gloomily; +and then: "Hold on—aren't there electric call-bells in this car, +Adair?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, several of them; one in each state-room."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358"></a>"Good! that means batteries of some sort," said Ford. "Rummage for +them, Brissac, while I get that wire in here."</p> + +<p>The wire was successfully pulled in through the front vestibule without +giving the alarm. Ford twisted it in two when he had enough of it to +reach the central compartment. Adair did sentry duty while the two +technicians wrought swiftly. The bell battery was found, the ground +connection made with a bit of copper wire stripped from one of the +state-rooms, and Ford quickly adjusted the delicate spring of the tiny +field relay.</p> + +<p>What he feared most was that the few dry-cells of the bell battery would +not supply the current for the eight miles of line up Horse Creek. For a +time, which lengthened to dragging minutes, the anxious experimenters +hung over the tiny field instrument. The sensitive magnet seemed wholly +dead. Then, suddenly, it began to tick hesitantly in response to Ford's +tapping of the key.</p> + +<p>"Thank God, the battery is strong enough," he exclaimed. "Now, if there +is somebody within hearing at Frisbie's end of the line ..."</p> + +<p>He was clicking persistently and patiently, "E-T," "E-T," "E-T," +alternating now and then with the Horse Creek call and his own private +code letter, when Adair came up from his post at one of the rear +windows. The golden youth was the bearer of tidings, but Ford held up +his hand for silence: some one was breaking in to <a name="Page_359" id="Page_359"></a>reply from +Frisbie's—Frisbie, himself, as the minimized tickings speedily +announced.</p> + +<p>Ford snipped out his call for help in the fewest possible words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Arm M'Grath's gang and bring it by train to Horse Creek, quick. +MacMorroghs are trying to dynamite us in the Nadia. <span class="smcap">Ford.</span></p></div> + +<p>Almost without a break in the insect-like tickings the reply came:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Stand them off; help coming. </p></div> + +<p>The thing done, the master workman in Ford snatched at the helm.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Did you catch and hold the pick-and-shovel men from this camp? </p></div> + +<p>he clicked anxiously.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Got them all herded here and ready to go back to work—for more +pay, </p></div> + +<p>answered Frisbie; and Ford ticked one more word, "Hurry," and closed the +key with a sigh of relief. Then, and not until then, Adair said: "Is +that all, for the present? If it is, I'm sorry to have to report that +the beggars outside have hit upon your gas-pipe scheme. They are rolling +a round, black thing with a string <a name="Page_360" id="Page_360"></a>attached down upon us from the +commissary. The slant of the hill is just enough to keep it coming where +the ground is smooth."</p> + +<p>From sheer force of habit, Ford disconnected his field telegraph, cased +and pocketed it. Then there was an instant adjournment to the rear +windows on the camp side. Happily, the rolling bomb was as yet only on +the way. Pebbles and roughnesses intervened here and there to stop or to +turn it aside, and since it was out of reach of their longest pole, the +dynamiters would start it on again by throwing stones at it.</p> + +<p>Hereupon ensued a struggle which, under other conditions, would have +figured as horse-play. One after another the three men in the car heaved +cushions, pillows, obstructions of any sort, in the path of the rolling +menace. And behind the commissary barricade the dynamiters patiently +twitched the bomb by the firmly fastened fuse this way and that to avoid +the obstacles, or sent it forward under the impact of well-directed +missiles.</p> + +<p>Ford was the first of the three to recognize the futility of the cushion +barricades.</p> + +<p>"They'll beat us—they'll drop it in the ditch right here under us in +spite of fate!" he juried. "Brissac: go and break the glass in the +accident tool-case and bring me the ax, quickly!" And when he had it; +"Now get me a piece of that telegraph wire and bend a hook on the <a name="Page_361" id="Page_361"></a>end +of it—jump for it; you'll have to twist it off with your fingers!"</p> + +<p>With an energy that made no account of the lamed arm, Ford tore up the +carpet and fell to work fiercely, cutting a hole through the car floor; +while Brissac broke a piece from the wire and bent a finger-shaped hook +on the end of it. Adair, with his eye at a hole in a window shade, gave +his attention to the attack.</p> + +<p>"They are getting it here, slowly but surely," he reported. "It is going +to roll under us just about where you are.... Now it has gone past my +line of sight." And a moment later, in the same drawling monotone: "They +have lighted the fuse, but there is a good long string of it to burn +through. Take your time—" then, with a sudden failure in the monotone: +"No, by Jove! you can't take your time! The fire is jumping across the +road to beat the band!"</p> + +<p>The hole was opened through the floor, and Ford was on his stomach with +his face and an arm in the aperture, fishing desperately for the loop in +the fuse. It was his success, his sudden drawing of the loop up into the +car, that had shocked Adair out of his pose. Brissac was ready with the +ax, and the instant the loop appeared it was severed, the burning end +cast off, and the other end, with the bomb attached, was safely drawn up +into the car.</p> + +<p>The perspiration was running from Ford's face in <a name="Page_362" id="Page_362"></a>streams when he had +the engine of death securely in his hands.</p> + +<p>"Take it, Roy," he gasped. "Drop it into the water-cooler. That will be +the safest place for it if they fall back on the gun-play."</p> + +<p>As if his word had evoked it, a storm of rifle bullets swept through the +car, smashing windows, breaking the remaining gas globes and splintering +the wood-work. Again and again the flashes leaped out of the surrounding +shadows and the air was sibilant with whining missiles.</p> + +<p>Brissac had the infernal machine: at first he fell upon it and covered +it with his body; afterward he crawled with it into the nearest +state-room and muffled it in a roll of berth mattresses.</p> + +<p>When the storm ceased, as suddenly as it had begun, they crept together +in the vestibule farthest from the commissary lead-hurling volcano to +count the casualties.</p> + +<p>There was none; not even a bullet score or a splinter-wound to show for +the hot bombardment, though the side of the Nadia facing the commissary +was riddled.</p> + +<p>"I'm believing all I've ever read about its taking a hundred pounds of +lead to kill one man in a war battle," said the New Yorker, grimly +humorous to the last. "How do you two C. E.'s account for it?"</p> + +<p>"We don't," said Ford shortly. "We're merely thank<a name="Page_363" id="Page_363"></a><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364"></a><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365"></a>ful that all +humankind habitually shoots high when it's excited or in a hurry."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/006.png"><img src="images/006-tb.png" alt="Brissac hurled the skillet like a clumsy discus" title="Brissac hurled the skillet like a clumsy discus" /></a></div> +<h5>Brissac hurled the skillet like a clumsy discus</h5> + +<p>Then he sprang afoot, secured his ax, and sent Brissac to the pantry to +rummage for other weapons. "A rush is the next thing in order," he +suggested; and they prepared as they could to meet it.</p> + +<p>But the rush did not come. Instead of it, one man, carrying what +appeared to be a bundle of dripping rags, came cautiously into the open +and approached the shattered car. The night wind sweeping down from the +upper valley was with him, and the pungent odor of kerosene was wafted +to and through the broken windows.</p> + +<p>"Oho!" said Adair. "Having safely shot you dead or disabled, they are +now going to give you Christian burial, Ford. Also, they will +comfortably obliterate all the marks and scars of this pleasant +evening's diversion. How near shall I let him come before I squander one +of the two remaining cartridges on him?"</p> + +<p>"Wait," said Brissac in a half-whisper. In his second pantry rummaging +he had found nothing more promising than a cast-iron skillet—promising +because it had weight and a handle to wield it by. The intending +incendiary was no more than a few yards from his goal when Brissac rose +up opposite the nearest shattered window and hurled the skillet like a +clumsy discus. His aim was true to a hand's-breadth: a bullet from +Adair's pistol could have done no more. With a cry that was <a name="Page_366" id="Page_366"></a>fairly +shogged out of him by the impact of the iron missile, the man flung away +his burden, dropped in his tracks and lay groaning.</p> + +<p>They looked for another storm of lead to follow this, and hugged the +floor in readiness for it. When it did not come, Ford crept to the hole +in the car floor and listened long and intently. Half an hour he had +given Frisbie to get his track-layers together, and to cover the eight +miles of rough-laid rails with the construction train. What was delaying +him?</p> + +<p>"You said Gallagher ditched your car: did it block the track?" he asked +of Adair.</p> + +<p>"It did, didn't it, Brissac?" was the answer, and the assistant +confirmed it.</p> + +<p>"Then that is why Frisbie can't get to us. Was Gallagher's engine still +on the rails?"</p> + +<p>"It was."</p> + +<p>Ford sat up and nursed his knees. "Dick will make a way if he can't find +one ready made. But it may take hours. Meanwhile, if these devils have +scouts out—"</p> + +<p>"Yes?" said Adair.</p> + +<p>"They'll bring the warning, and there won't be much more time wasted in +experiments. They can do us up, if they get right down to business."</p> + +<p>"What are they doing now?" Adair asked of Brissac, who was on watch on +the commissary side.</p> + +<p>"I'll be hanged if I know. It looks like a young can<a name="Page_367" id="Page_367"></a>non, and it's +pointed this way. By George! it's coming—coming by its all alone, too!"</p> + +<p>By this time they were all watching the new menace. Brissac's +description fitted it accurately; a cylindrical object mounted upon a +pair of small wheels taken from the commissary store-room truck. It came +toward the Nadia by curious surges—a rush forward and a pause—trailing +what appeared to be a long iron rod behind it.</p> + +<p>Ford hit upon the explanation. The cylindrical thing was another +gas-pipe bomb; the iron tail was a smaller pipe containing and armoring +the fuse, and serving also as the means of propulsion. They were +coupling on additional lengths of the fuse-carrying pipe as they were +needed; hence the jerking advances and pauses.</p> + +<p>Adair's low laugh was as care-free as ever.</p> + +<p>"A practical illustration of the tail wagging the dog," he remarked. +"But the dog will wag us good and plenty when they get him where they +want him. You can't fish that thing up through the hole with your +wire—or crop the tail."</p> + +<p>"No; it's a run for it, this time," said Ford, rising and stripping his +coat.</p> + +<p>But Brissac was pointing to three or four men dodging from shadow to +shadow under the masthead lights and circling wide to tighten the line +of circumvallation.</p> + +<p>"We shan't run very far," he commented.</p> + +<p>It seemed a hair-graying age to the watchers at the<a name="Page_368" id="Page_368"></a> Nadia's windows +before the men behind the commissary barricade got their infernal +machine placed to their liking. They stared at it, all three of them, +fascinated, deaf and blind to all else. A minimized shudder as of +drumming wheels or escaping steam was in the air when they saw the flare +of the match that betokened the firing of the fuse, but no one of the +three heard it.</p> + +<p>It was when the sputtering line of fire had buried itself in its tube +that they became suddenly alive to the unbelievable fact that a +locomotive was thundering down the yard on the Nadia's track. A rifle +cracked; then another and a third; but the engine came on as if its +driver bore a charmed life.</p> + +<p>Surely Michael Gallagher must have prayed to the saints that night. He +did not know that the very seconds had become priceless: he knew only +that Frisbie had sent him on ahead to snake the president's car out of +the Horse Creek yard as quickly as possible. Yet if he could have seen +the bomb and the sputtering fuse, he could not have slowed more deftly +to let the automatic couplers clutch each other, nor, at the touch and +clamp, could he have reversed and gathered headway with greater skill.</p> + +<p>The three occupants of the Nadia staggered to their feet as the private +car lunged ahead in the grasp of the big engine, increasing speed with +every wheel-turn. Mechanically, and as one man, they rushed to the rear +<a name="Page_369" id="Page_369"></a>platform. The mock cannon stood where it had been thrust; but in the +camp street a handful of men were wrestling madly with the pipe +fuse-carrier, breaking it, wrenching it in pieces, and stamping futilely +upon the snake-like thing hissing and spitting under their feet.</p> + +<p>"Look!" sobbed Adair. "They know—they've discovered that box-car! Oh, +why in the name of the pitiful Christ don't they drop it and run?"</p> + +<p>This from the man who had laughed, and aimed and fired and laughed +again, in the heat of battle. But Ford's rejoinder was the bitter +malediction of the defeated industry captain. "Damn their worthless +lives!" he stormed. "In the next half-minute the Pacific Southwestern +stands to lose a quarter of a million dollars!"</p> + +<p>It was but a vanishing glimpse that they had of the handful of madmen +stamping and dancing under the masthead light in front of the +commissary; a glimpse withdrawing swiftly into a dim perspective as the +Nadia was whisked around the curve and up the Horse Creek grade.</p> + +<p>It was after Gallagher had picked up the lights of the waiting train of +armed track-layers, and was whistling to announce his success, that the +end came. For the three watchers on the rear platform of the president's +car the little constellation of arc-stars in the valley below was +suddenly blotted out in a skyward belching of gray flame; a huge +volcano-burst of momentarily illumi<a name="Page_370" id="Page_370"></a>nated dust. Instinctively they +braced themselves for the concussion that followed,—a bellowing +thunderclap and a rending of earth and air that shook the surrounding +hills and drowned the shriek of Gallagher's whistle.</p> + +<p>A blast of air, down-drawn from the heights to fill the dreadful vacuum, +was still rocking the stopped car when Frisbie climbed nimbly to the +railed rear platform and swung his lantern to light the faces of the +three men braced in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"A close call, gentlemen," was his only comment; and then he appealed +briefly to Ford for orders.</p> + +<p>"Back us down slowly," said Ford shortly, "and follow with your train. +We may need the men."</p> + +<p>Frisbie went forward through the wrecked private car, returning +presently to flag Gallagher along with the lantern swung over the +railing. Down in the valley of the Pannikin the heavy, sickening fumes +of the burned explosives hung in the air, and when the car swung in on +the straight line the red glare of a wrecked and burning oil tank +lighted the scene.</p> + +<p>The camp site was blankly unrecognizable. Where the ten-tracked yard had +been there was a vast depression, half-filled with distorted steel and +débris indescribable, twisted iron and splintered wood, with the water +from the river pouring into it. The commissary buildings and the +surrounding bunk-shanties were gone, swept away as with the stroke of a +mighty broom; and the <a name="Page_371" id="Page_371"></a>trees on the hill-sides above were scorched and +shriveled as if a forest fire had blasted them.</p> + +<p>Frisbie was the first to speak after he had flagged Gallagher to a stand +on the farthermost edge of the devastation.</p> + +<p>"Any use to turn out the crew and hunt for them?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Ford shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No. Leave M'Grath and a few others to stand guard and to flag the +incoming steel trains, and let's get out of this. I'm sick; and so is +Mr. Adair."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372"></a></p> +<h3><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI</h3> + +<h4>THE STAR OF EMPIRE</h4> + + +<p>A week, the most strenuous week in Copah's history, had passed, and +still the president's party delayed its return to what Miss Priscilla +Van Bruce constantly referred to as "civilization"; though the Farthest +West has always been slow to admit the derogatory comparison which the +word implies.</p> + +<p>During the strenuous week much had happened, and much more was scheduled +to happen. For one twenty-four-hour day the ex-speculator in Mr. +Colbrith held out against the sharp attacks of the reawakened lust of +conquest. Then, from Jack's Canyon on the Transcontinental, from +men-clustered construction trains on the extension, over the passes from +Summit Lakes, and across the brown plains from Green Butte, poured the +army of gold-seekers, and the president was swept away and into the very +vortex of the stock-jobbing whirlpool.</p> + +<p>It was not until the third day of the week that Adair came ambling into +Copah, riding a cart mule from Fris<a name="Page_373" id="Page_373"></a>bie's camp. To his sister and his +aunt the young man told everything; to his uncle nothing. Between gasps +in the speculative frenzy Mr. Colbrith found time to complain bitterly +to his nephew of Ford's defection.</p> + +<p>"It was dastardly!" he shrilled. "We had some words; I don't deny that +we had some words. But he was most unreasonable. He should have gone +about his business and let me have time to consider. Here are thousands +of people pouring into this place, everything at famine prices, no +supplies for our miners, no railroad to bring them. What's this I hear +about an accident at Horse Creek? Why isn't Ford on the ground attending +to his railroad building and straightening things out? Have I got to +forfeit the money-making chance of a lifetime and go and drag that track +into Copah with my own hands?"</p> + +<p>Adair seemed suddenly to have lost his tongue, which was certainly glib +enough ordinarily. All he would say was that the engineering department +was still at work, he believed; that the track was approaching Copah, +slowly, perhaps, but pretty surely.</p> + +<p>"But without a head!" snapped the irate president. "Ford is a traitor to +the company. Tell him so from me, sir, if you know where he is +skulking."</p> + +<p>Adair did tell Ford, circumstantially, when he rode the cart mule out of +town the next morning and met the young engineer at the head of a +tremendously aug<a name="Page_374" id="Page_374"></a>mented track force, rushing the rails around the +swelling hills on the approach to the mining-camp-city.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's still up in the air," laughed the director, when he had +repeated the president's wrathful outburst. "Frantic because the road +isn't finished; frantic because he can't get in on all the ground-floors +in all the mining deals; frantic some more because he has to live in a +shack hotel while he has a private car and a good cook, as he thinks, +only a few miles away. Which reminds me: the '01' has a pretty good +cook, and the incomparible Johnson,—don't let them escape. Have you +sent the Nadia back to Denver for repairs?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; Frisbie went over in it this morning."</p> + +<p>"Frisbie?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I had to let him go. Word came from Leckhard as soon as we got the +wire reestablished, which was late last night. North was taken suddenly +ill the day after the explosion. He resigned at once by wire to the +executive committee in New York, and two days later he took a steamer +from Galveston for nobody knows where; health trip—doctor's +orders—Leckhard said. I sent Frisbie over to be acting manager of the +system, pending the president's—er—recovery from <i>his</i> sudden illness. +Leckhard says the New York people are burning the wires trying to get +word to Mr. Colbrith."</p> + +<p>"They may go on burning them," said Adair calmly. "Uncle Sidney isn't +going to quit until he owns a good <a name="Page_375" id="Page_375"></a>half of the Copah district—or gets +his armature burned out. And if he were ready to quit, we shouldn't let +him. But how are things working out on the extension?—that is what +interests me."</p> + +<p>"Bully!" was the enthusiastic reply. "We're spending money like water; +paying anything that's asked; and even then the men come and go like a +torchlight procession. But we are keeping the surfacing gangs neck-full +the entire length of the line, and Leckhard has already organized his +regular train service over the first hundred miles. That puts us on an +even footing with the Transcontinental at Jack's Canyon, and the tide is +fairly turned our way. When we lay the rails into Copah,—which will be +the day after to-morrow, if nothing pulls in two,—the first through +passenger train, with the '01' in tow, will be right behind us. Does the +report satisfy you?"</p> + +<p>"Your word fits it: it's bully."</p> + +<p>"Then I want my reward. When am I to be allowed to chase in and pay my +respects to your—er—aunt, and—and Miss Alicia?"</p> + +<p>Adair laughed.</p> + +<p>"My—er—aunt!" he mocked. "Much you care about Aunt Hetty. And I've a +thing or two to say about Alicia. Who gave you leave to fall in love +with my little sister, I'd like to know?"</p> + +<p>"She did," retorted Ford brazenly. "Don't tell me <a name="Page_376" id="Page_376"></a>you are going to try +to kick it over at this late day. You can't, you know."</p> + +<p>Adair tilted his hat to the back of his head and thrust his hands into +his pockets.</p> + +<p>"I'm no such wild ass of the prairies," he declared. "But, my good +friend, you don't come into town till you bring your railroad with you. +I know how it will be: you'd linger for just one more last fond +farewell, and about that time Uncle Sidney would drop in on you +unexpectedly. Then there'd be a family row, after which my Pacific +Southwestern stock wouldn't be worth a whoop. No; you wait till I get +Uncle Sidney safely where I want him—properly in the nine-hole, and +then I'll flag you in."</p> + +<p>The chance for which the golden youth was waiting and working climaxed +on the day the extension rails came down the hill-side grade above the +town—a town now spreading into a wilderness of hastily built and +crowding structures. It was a simple pit he had digged for an old man +suddenly gone mad with the fever of mine-buying. From picking up stock +in a score of prospects, Mr. Colbrith had hedged by concentrating his +heavy investments in six or seven of the most promising of the partly +developed properties. Then, to make assurance reasonably sure, he had +sprung the modern method of combination upon his fellow stock-holders in +the producing mines. The promising group was to be <a name="Page_377" id="Page_377"></a>merged in one giant +holding corporation, strong enough to control the entire Copah +situation.</p> + +<p>But there were obstacles in the way; obstructions carefully placed, if +the truth must be told, by an unscrupulous young manipulator in the +president's own household. The Little Alicia was in the group, was the +keystone in the combination arch, as it chanced, and unhappily Grigsby +had parted with a grievous block of his share of the stock—a block +which could neither be recovered nor traced to its present holder. Not +to make a mystery of the matter, the certificates were safely locked in +a safety-deposit box in the vault of the Bank of Copah, and the key to +the box rattled in Adair's pocket. And because the Little Alicia could +not be included, three other necessary votes were withheld when the +president tried to get action.</p> + +<p>Mr. Colbrith was in despair. A good many of his investments were +palpably bad; and they could be recouped only by the backing of the +combination. And the combination obstinately refused to combine unless +the Little Alicia could be gathered in. At the end of the ends Mr. +Colbrith appealed to his nephew.</p> + +<p>"You know where Ford is," he began accusingly. "You needn't deny it. I +was in hopes we wouldn't have to ask him to sell us more than one share +of his stock, which he couldn't decently refuse to do if we let him set +his own price. But since we can't trace that block that<a name="Page_378" id="Page_378"></a> Grigsby let go, +we must have nearly all of Ford's. Find him: get his stock if you have +to pay twice par for it. If you don't, I—I shall be the heaviest loser +in this camp, Charles Edward." It was gall and wormwood to the old man, +but it had to be swallowed.</p> + +<p>"So you are coming around to ask a favor of Ford?" said the young man +unfeelingly. "He won't help you out. You mustn't forget that you kicked +him out of the family; or rather you kicked him to prevent his getting +into it."</p> + +<p>"But think of the profit to him!" protested the president. "He paid only +twenty cents for his half of the Alicia; he told me so himself. At two +hundred he'd clear ninety thousand; a magnificent amount for so young a +man!"</p> + +<p>"Ford doesn't care anything about money. You can't move him that way."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, find him for me and I'll—I'll apologize," said Mr. +Colbrith, pressed now to the last extremity.</p> + +<p>"He doesn't want your apologies, Uncle Sidney. Your little tiff was +between man and man, and he'd never think of holding you accountable for +anything you were foolish enough to say."</p> + +<p>"Then what in heaven's name does he want?"—irascibly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, a lot of things: reinstatement; your order to investigate the +Denver management; a chance to build <a name="Page_379" id="Page_379"></a>his railroad unmolested; and, as a +side issue, a chance to whitewash your administration of Pacific +Southwestern by conducting the house-cleaning in your name—this last +because he thinks something of the family honor. He doesn't have to +consider us, you know. At the next annual meeting he can elect Brewster +president over your head: then you will have to stand for all the +grafting and deviltry that will be unearthed."</p> + +<p>The ground for this duel between President Colbrith and the determined +young pace-setter was the lobby of the tar-paper-covered hotel, cleared +now of the impromptu mining-stock exchange, which had moved into +permanent quarters. The old man rose stiffly and stood grasping the +chair-back.</p> + +<p>"The same reckless charges against Mr. North and his subordinates—and +now <i>you</i> are making them!" he rasped. "They are groundless; groundless, +I tell you!"</p> + +<p>Adair looked at his watch, listened a moment as for some expected sound +from out-of-doors, and motioned toward the vacated chair.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Uncle Sidney, and let me tell you what happened at Horse +Creek camp a week ago last night," he said evenly; and then he told the +story of the attempt upon Ford's life, of the siege of the Nadia, of the +terrible catastrophe which had involved all three of the MacMorroghs, +the commissary staff, Eckstein, and the headquarters camp. When he +finished, the president <a name="Page_380" id="Page_380"></a>was shaking as if from a chill. Yet one thread +of the strong strand of loyalty still held.</p> + +<p>"It was horrible—fiendish!" he shuddered. "But it was the MacMorroghs' +fight. It does not necessarily incriminate North."</p> + +<p>"It does," said Adair, in the same even tone. "I told you that we left a +few men at the wrecked camp to warn the incoming material trains. They +found a single survivor of the thirteen men who tried to destroy us and +the Nadia. It was Eckstein, North's secretary, and before he died he +amply confirmed all of our guesses. They had plotted to have you quarrel +with Ford. Ford had bought his half of the Little Alicia without any +prompting, but from that as a starting point the entire scheme was +worked up. The MacMorroghs' bookkeeper, a man named Merriam—who is at +present in Copah, and whose deposition I have had taken before a justice +of the peace—was detailed to win Frisbie over to the change of +route—no difficult thing, since the change was for the better. But +Merriam's part was chiefly to keep Frisbie from finding out anything +about Ford's mine; which he did. Am I making it clear?"</p> + +<p>The president bowed his head.</p> + +<p>"Then, when you came West on your inspection trip, the trap was sprung. +You were told that Ford had been doing a dishonorable thing, and you +were urged to come over here and see for yourself. To make sure that +there <a name="Page_381" id="Page_381"></a>should be no slips, Penfield was sent with you, ostensibly as +your acting secretary, but really as a spy—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; I can't think that of young Penfield," protested the president.</p> + +<p>"I say yes; and the proof is that Penfield has confessed. He was scared +into it when I told him what had happened at Horse Creek and gave him +his choice of telling me what he knew, or going to jail. Then I came on +the scene at the inopportune moment, and after North had carefully +issued instructions intended to delay me as much as possible, he sent +Eckstein in post-haste by way of Jack's Canyon and the stage trail to +get ahead of me. You see, he was afraid to trust matters to Penfield, +who would most certainly have stopped short of the desperate measures +Eckstein and the MacMorroghs finally took. It was decided at a council +in which Penfield was present, that Ford's elimination must go through. +If you didn't quarrel with him and drop him, he was to be murdered."</p> + +<p>Mr. Colbrith was silent for a long minute after Adair ceased speaking. +Then he looked up to say: "What was Ford doing at Horse Creek that +night? He had left me only a few hours before; and, as I have said, we +had—we had some words."</p> + +<p>Adair smiled. "He was about to begin doing what he has been doing ever +since: flogging the extension into shape night and day to get it ready +to carry passengers <a name="Page_382" id="Page_382"></a>and freight. He conceived it to be his duty—to you +as well as to the other stock-holders. And he <i>has</i> flogged it into +shape. Look out of that window, Uncle Sidney!"</p> + +<p>A long passenger train, crowded to the platforms, and with the private +car "01" in tow, was winding down the grade of the opposite hillside, +and as they stepped to the windows the engineer woke the echoes with the +engine whistle.</p> + +<p>"The first one of many, let us hope," said the young man, standing at +his uncle's elbow. Then, with quite a different note in his voice: "It's +Stuart's work, all of it. He has scarcely stopped to eat or sleep since +that horrible night in the Pannikin valley. And that night, Uncle +Sidney, I fought shoulder to shoulder with him—as a brother should; he +is a man, and—there are not many more—like him."</p> + +<p>The president's thin lips were drawn into straight lines, and the thin +goat's-beard stood out at the argumentative angle. Mr. Colbrith was +chary of his emotions.</p> + +<p>"Will he sell us that stock in the Little Alicia, Charles Edward?"</p> + +<p>Adair smiled at the determined return to the practical.</p> + +<p>"No," he said; "I don't think he will—I shouldn't, if I were in his +place. But he will do the next best thing: he will marry Alicia and so +bring it into the <a name="Page_383" id="Page_383"></a>family. And on the railroad conditions I have named, +I am quite sure he will make you his voting proxy if you want to use it +in forcing the combine."</p> + +<p>The president took a turn as far as the clerk's counter and back. The +lobby was deserted, everybody having gone to welcome the first train +into Copah.</p> + +<p>"You seem to have North against the wall," he said when he came back. +"Yet, for the sake of—of, well of his wife and children, he must have +even-handed justice. I must insist upon that."</p> + +<p>It was the most lovable thing in the irascible old man—his undying +loyalty to a man in whom he had once believed. Adair slew the last hope +with reluctance. Drawing a thick packet of undelivered telegrams from +his pocket, he handed it to his uncle.</p> + +<p>"Justice is the one thing Mr. North is most anxious to dodge," he said +gravely. "When the news of the catastrophe reached him, he resigned by +wire—to New York; not to you—got his physician to order him out of the +country, and left Denver between two days. Ford has sent Frisbie to +Denver to hold things together, and there has been a number of +removals—subject, of course, to your approval. You will find the +history of all these minor happenings in those telegrams, which I have +been collecting—and holding—until you had leisure to look them over."</p> + +<p>"Where is Mr. Ford now?" asked the president crisply.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384"></a>"He is not very far away; in fact, he is up-stairs in the sitting-room +of our suite with Aunt Hetty and the two Van Bruce ladies and Alicia. +Incidentally,—quite incidentally, you understand,—he is waiting to be +asked to help you out in that mining deal."</p> + +<p>"Fetch him," was the curt command; and Mr. Colbrith sat down to wade +resignedly through the mass of delayed wire correspondence.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>What remains of the story of the Pacific Southwestern is a chapter, as +yet unfinished, in the commercial history of the great and growing +empire of the West.</p> + +<p>Of the rush to the Copah gold field; of the almost incredible celerity +with which a stretch of one hundred and forty-odd miles of construction +track was opened for the enormous traffic which was instantly poured in +upon it; of the rapid extension of the line to a far western outlet; of +the steady advance of P. S-W. shares to a goodly premium: these are +matters which are recorded in the newspaper files of the period.</p> + +<p>For the typically American success of the Southwestern's dramatic upward +leap to the rank of a great railway system, President Colbrith has the +name and the fame. Yet here and there in the newspaper record there is +mention of one Stuart Ford, "our rising young railroad magnate," in the +unashamed phrase of the <i>Copah Megaphone</i>, first as the president's +assistant; later, as <a name="Page_385" id="Page_385"></a>first vice-president and general manager of the +system, in the Chicago headquarters, with Mr. Richard Frisbie as his +second in command on the western lines, and Mr. Charles Edward Adair as +comptroller and chief of finances on the executive committee in New +York.</p> + +<p>Ford's prophecies predicting the development of the new empire first +traversed by the Western Extension have long since found ample +fulfilment, as all the world knows. Copah gave the region its first and +largest advertisement; but other mining districts, with their imperative +beckonings to a food-producing population, have followed in due course.</p> + +<p>It was early in June of the year marking the opening of the completed +Western Extension for through Pacific Coast traffic that a one-car +train, drawn by the smartest of passenger engines in charge of a +diminutive, red-headed Irishman, stormed bravely up the glistening steel +on the eastern approach to Plug Pass. The car was the rebuilt Nadia; and +in obedience to a shrill blast of the cab air-whistle, Gallagher brought +it to a stand on the summit of the mountain.</p> + +<p>Alicia looked more than ever the artist's ideal of the American womanly +felicities when Ford lifted her from the step of the Nadia.</p> + +<p>"You are quite sure Mr. Gallagher won't mind?" she was saying, as they +walked forward together.</p> + +<p>"Mind? Wait till you hear what he says. Michael is <a name="Page_386" id="Page_386"></a>an Irish diamond in +the rough, and he knows when he is honored."</p> + +<p>They discovered the red-headed little man industriously "oiling around" +for the swift glide down the western declivities.</p> + +<p>"Michael," said the first vice-president, "Mrs. Ford thinks she would +like to take the Pannikin loop in the cab of the Six-eighty-eight. Can +you make room for us?"</p> + +<p>Gallagher snatched his cap from his fiery head.</p> + +<p>"Could we make room? 'Tis by the blessing av the saints that I'm a +little man, meself, Missis Foord, and don't take up much room in the +c-yab. And as f'r Johnny Shovel, he'll be riding on the coal f'r the +pure playsure av ut. My duty to ye, ma'am; and 'tis a pity ut isn't a +black night, whin the swate face av ye would be lighting the thrack f'r +us."</p> + +<p>Ford lifted Alicia to the gangway and made her comfortable on the +fireman's box, fixing a footbrace for her, and giving her his arm for a +shoulder rest when Gallagher sent the steam whistling through the +cylinder-cocks for the impulse needful to start the downward rush.</p> + +<p>"'With a michnai—ghignai—'" she began; but when the engine plunged +over the summit and the matchless view to the westward came suddenly +into, being, the quotation lapsed in a long-drawn, ecstatic "O-o-oh!"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387"></a>"You are not afraid, are you?" said the bridegroom, man-like, letting +her feel the support of his arm.</p> + +<p>"Afraid? No, indeed; I am just happy—happy! There lies the world before +us, Stuart; <i>our</i> world, because, more than any other man's, yours were +the brain that conceived it and the hands that brought it to pass. Let +us go down quickly and possess it. Tell Mr. Gallagher that he may run as +fast as ever he dares." Then with a sigh of contentment and a +comfortable nestling into the hollow of the strong arm of protection: +"Was there ever another wedding journey just like ours, Stuart, dear?"</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMPIRE BUILDERS***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 16630-h.txt or 16630-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/6/3/16630">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/3/16630</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Empire Builders + + +Author: Francis Lynde + + + +Release Date: August 31, 2005 [eBook #16630] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMPIRE BUILDERS*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 16630-h.htm or 16630-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/6/3/16630/16630-h/16630-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/6/3/16630/16630-h.zip) + + + + + +EMPIRE BUILDERS + +by + +FRANCIS LYNDE + +Author of +The Quickening, The Grafters +A Fool for Love, etc. + +With Illustrations by Jay Hambidge + +Indianapolis +The Bobbs-Merrill Company +Publishers +Press of +Braunworth & Co. +Bookbinders and Printers +Brooklyn, N.Y. + +1907 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "I won't attempt to apologize--it's beyond all that"] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I A MASTER OF MEN 1 + + II A SPIKED SWITCH 13 + + III LOSS AND DAMAGE 30 + + IV COLD STORAGE 38 + + V WANTED: THIRTY-FIVE MILLIONS 47 + + VI THE AWAKENING OF CHARLES EDWARD 59 + + VII HAMMER AND TONGS 66 + + VIII THE AUTOMATIC AIR 75 + + IX THE RACE TO THE SLOW 90 + + X THE SINEWS OF WAR 100 + + XI HURRY ORDERS 120 + + XII THE ENTERING WEDGE 141 + + XIII THE BARBARIANS 155 + + XIV THE DRAW-BAR PULL 166 + + XV AN UNWILLING HOST 177 + + XVI THE TRUTHFUL ALTITUDES 186 + + XVII A NIGHT OF ALARMS 198 + +XVIII THE MORNING AFTER 217 + + XIX THE RELUCTANT WHEELS 238 + + XX THE CONSPIRATORS 254 + + XXI THE MILLS OF THE GODS 271 + + XXII THE MAN ON HORSEBACK 285 + +XXIII THE DEADLOCK 311 + + XXIV RUIZ GREGORIO 325 + + XXV THE SIEGE OF THE NADIA 336 + + XXVI THE STAR OF EMPIRE 362 + + + + +EMPIRE BUILDERS + + +I + +A MASTER OF MEN + + +Engine Number 206, narrow gauge, was pushing, or rather failing to push, +the old-fashioned box-plow through the crusted drifts on the uptilted +shoulder of Plug Mountain, at altitude ten thousand feet, with the +mercury at twelve below zero. There was a wind--the winter day above +timber-line without its wind is as rare as a thawing Christmas--and it +cut like knives through any garmenting lighter than fur or leather. The +cab of the 206 was old and weather-shaken, and Ford pulled the collar of +his buffalo coat about his ears when the grunting of the exhaust and the +shrilling of the wheels on the snow-shod rails stopped abruptly. + +"Gar-r-r!" snarled Gallagher, the red-headed Irish engineer, shutting +off the steam in impotent rage. "The power is not in this dommed ould +camp-kittle sewin' machine! 'Tis heaven's pity they wouldn't be givin' +us wan man-sized, fightin' lokimotive on this ind of the line, Misther +Foord." + +Ford, superintendent and general autocrat of the Plug Mountain branch of +the Pacific Southwestern, climbed down from his cramped seat on the +fireman's box and stood scowling at the retracting index of the +steam-gauge. When he was on his feet beside the little Irishman, you saw +that he was a young man, well-built, square-shouldered and athletic +under the muffling of the shapeless fur greatcoat; also, that in spite +of the scowl, his clean-shaven face was strong and manly and good to +look upon. + +"Power!" he retorted. "That's only one of the hundred things they don't +give us, Mike. Look at that steam-gauge--freezing right where she +stands!" + +"'Tis so," assented Gallagher. "She'd be dead and shtiff in tin minutes +be the clock if we'd lave her be in this drift." + +Ford motioned the engineer aside and took the throttle himself. It was +the third day out from Cherubusco, the station at the foot of the +mountain; and in the eight-and-forty hours the engine, plow and crew of +twenty shovelers had, by labor of the cruelest, opened eleven of the +thirteen blockaded miles isolating Saint's Rest, the mining-camp +end-of-track in the high basin at the head of the pass. + +The throttle opened with a jerk under the superintendent's hand. There +was a snow-choked drumming of the exhaust, and the driving-wheels spun +wildly in the flurry beneath. But there was no inch of forward motion, +and Ford gave it up. + +"We're against it," he admitted. "Back her down and we'll put the +shovelers at it again while you're nursing her up and getting more +steam. We're going to make it to Saint's Rest to-day if the Two-six has +to go in on three legs." + +Gallagher pulled the reversing lever into the back gear and sent the +failing steam whistling into the chilled cylinders with cautious little +jerks at the throttle. The box-plow came out of the clutch of its snow +vise with shrillings as of a soul in torment, and the bucking outfit +screeched coldly down over the snowy rails to the "let-up," where the +shovelers' box-car had been uncoupled. + +Ford swung off to turn out the shoveling squad; and presently the +laborers, muffled to the eyes, were filing past the 206 to break a path +for the plow. Gallagher was on the running-board with his flare torch, +thawing out an injector. He marked the cheerful swing of the men and +gave credit where it was due. + +"'Tis a full-grown man, that," he commented, meaning Ford. "Manny's the +wan would be huggin' the warm boiler-head these times, and shtickin' his +head out of the windy to holler, 'G'wan, boys; pitch it out lively now, +and be dommed to yez!' But Misther Foord ain't built the like o' that. +He'll be as deep in that freezin' purgatory up yander in th' drift as +the foremist wan of thim." + +The Irishman's praise was not unmerited. Whatever his failings, +and he groaned under his fair human share of them, Stuart Ford had +the gift of leadership. Before he had been a month on the branch +as its "old man" and autocrat, he had won the good-will and loyalty +of the rank and file, from the office men in the headquarters to the +pick-and-shovel contingent on the sections. Even the blockade-breaking +laborers--temporary helpers as they were--stood by him manfully in the +sustained battle with the snow. Ford spared them when he could, and they +knew it. + +"Warm it up, boys!" he called cheerily, climbing to the top of the +frozen drift to direct the attack. "It's been a long fight, but we're in +sight of home now. Come up here with your shovels, Olsen, and break it +down from the top. It's the crust that plugs Mike's wedge." + +He looked the fighting leader, standing at the top of the wind-swept +drift and crying on his shovelers. It was the part he had chosen for +himself in the game of life, and he quarreled only when the stake was +small, as in this present man-killing struggle with the snowdrifts. The +Plug Mountain branch was the sore spot in the Pacific Southwestern +system; the bad investment at which the directors shook their heads, and +upon which the management turned the coldest of shoulders. It barely +paid its own operating expenses in summer, and the costly snow blockades +in winter went to the wrong side of the profit and loss account. + +This was why Ford had been scheming and planning for a year and more to +find a way of escape; not for himself, but for the discredited Plug +Mountain line. It was proving a knotty problem, not to say an insoluble +one. Ford had attacked it with his eyes open, as he did most things; and +he was not without a suspicion that President Colbrith, of the Pacific +Southwestern, had known to the full the hopelessness of the mountain +line when he dictated the letter which had cost one of the great Granger +roads its assistant engineer in charge of construction, transferring an +energetic young man with ambitions from the bald plains of the Dakotas +to the snow-capped shoulders of the Rockies. + +Originally the narrow gauge had been projected and partly built by a +syndicate of Denver capitalists, who were under the hallucination, then +prevalent, that any railroad penetrating the mountains in any direction, +and having Denver for its starting point, must necessarily become at +once a dividend-paying carrier for the mines, actual or to be +discovered. + +Failing to tap their bonanza freight-producer on the route up Blue +Canyon, the projectors--small fish in the great money-pool--had talked +vaguely of future extensions to Salt Lake, to San Francisco, to Puget +Sound, or to some other of the far-beyonds, and had even gone the length +of surveying a line over Plug Pass and down the valley of the Pannikin, +on the Pacific slope of the range. But they had prudently stopped +building; and the pause continued until the day of the great silver +strike at Saint's Rest. + +The new carbonate beds chanced to lie within easy rifle-shot of the +summit of Plug Pass; in other words, they were precisely on the line of +the extension survey of the narrow gauge. The discovery was a piece of +sheer luck for the amateur railroad builders. For a time, as all the +world knows, Saint's Rest headed the mining news column in all the +dailies, and the rush for the new camp fairly swamped the meager +carrying facilities of the incomplete line and the stages connecting its +track-end with the high-mountain Mecca of the treasure-seekers. + +Then, indeed, the Denver syndicate saw its long deferred opportunity and +grasped it. Long purses might be lacking, but not shrewd heads. The +unfinished Plug Mountain was immediately bonded for more than it ever +promised to be worth, and in the hottest heat of the forwarding strife +it was extended at the rate of a mile a day until the welcome screech of +its locomotive whistles was added to the perfervid clamor of the new +camp in the Plug Pass basin. + +The goal reached, the Denver folk took a fresh leaf out of the book of +shrewdness. Holding the completed line only long enough to skim the +cream of the rush earnings, they sold their stock at a sound premium to +the Pacific Southwestern, pocketed their winnings cannily, and escaped a +short half-year before the slump in silver, and the consequent collapse +of Saint's Rest, came to establish the future Waterloo for Napoleonic +young superintendents in the Southwestern's service. + +This was all ancient history when Ford left the Granger road to climb, +at President Colbrith's behest, into the Plug Mountain saddle; and a +round half-dozen of the young Napoleons had been broken before he put +foot in stirrup for the mounting. While his attacking of the problem had +been open-eyed, he had not stopped to specialize in the ancient history +of the Plug Mountain branch. When he did specialize, his point of view +was pretty clearly defined in a letter to Mr. Richard Frisbie, of St. +Paul, written after he had been for six months the master of the Plug +Mountain destinies. + +"I'm up against it, good and solid," was the way he phrased it to +Frisbie. "My hundred and fifty miles of 'two streaks of rust and a +right-of-way' has never paid a net dollar since the boom broke at +Saint's Rest, and under present conditions it never will. If I had known +the history of the road when President Colbrith went fishing for me--as +I didn't--I wouldn't have touched the job with a ten-foot pole. + +"But now I'm here, I'm going to do something with my two streaks of rust +to make them pay--make a spoon or spoil a horn. Just what shall be done +I haven't decided fully, but I have a notion in the back part of my +head, and if it works out, I shall need you first of all. Will you come? + +"Have I told you in any of my earlier letters that I have personally +earned the ill-will of General Manager North? I have, and it is distinct +from and in addition to his hostility for the unearning branch for which +I am responsible. I'm sorry for it, because I may need his good word for +my inchoate scheme later on. It came up over some maintenance-of-way +charges. He is as shrewd as he is unscrupulous, and he knows well how to +pile the sins of the congregation on the back of the poor scapegoat. To +make a better showing for the main line, and at the same time to show +what a swilling pig the Plug Mountain is, he had the branch charged up +with a lot of material we didn't get. Naturally, I protested--and was +curtly told to mind my own business, which had no ramifications reaching +into the accounting department. Then I threatened to carry it over his +head to President Colbrith; whereupon I gained my point temporarily, and +lost a possible stepping-stone to success. + +"None the less, I am going to win out if it costs me the best year of +my life. I'm going to swing to this thing till I make something out of +it, if I have to put in some more winters like the one I have just come +through--which was Sheol, with ice and snow in the place of the +traditional fire and brimstone. If I have one good quality--as I +sometimes doubt--it's the inability to know when I am satisfactorily and +permanently licked." + +Stuart Ford was shivering through the second of the winters on the gray, +needle-winded day when he stood on the crusted drift, heartening his men +who were breaking the way for further rammings of the scrap-heap 206 and +her box-plow. During the summer which lay behind the pitiless storms and +the blockading snows he had explored and planned, studied and schemed; +and now a month of good weather would put the finishing touches +preparatory upon the "notion" hinted at in the letter to Frisbie. + +"That'll do, boys; we'll let Gallagher hit it a few times now," he sang +out, when he saw that the weaker ones among the shovelers were stumbling +numbly and throwing wild. "Get back to the car and thaw yourselves out." + +The safety-valve of the 206 was stuttering under a gratifying increase +of steam pressure when the superintendent climbed to the canvas-shrouded +cab. + +"Ha! two hundred and fifty pounds! That looks a little more like it, +Michael. Now get all the run you can and hit her straight from the +shoulder," he ordered, mounting to his seat on the fireman's box, and +bracing himself for what should come. + +Gallagher released the driver-brakes and let the 206 and the plow drift +down the grade until his tender drawhead touched the laborers' car. Then +the reversing lever went forward with a clang, and the steam squealed +shrilly in the dry-pipe. For a thunderous second or two the +driving-wheels slipped and whirled futilely on the snowy rails. +Gallagher pounced upon the sand lever, whereat the tires suddenly bit +and held and a long-drawn, fire-tearing exhaust sobbed from the stack. + +"You've got her!" shouted Ford. "Now hit it--hit it hard!" + +Swiftly the huge mass of engine and plow gathered headway, the pounding +exhausts quickening until they blended in a continuous roar. The little +Irishman stayed himself with a foot against the boiler brace; the +fireman ducked under the canvas curtain and clung to the coal bulkhead; +and Ford held on as he could. + +The shock came like the crashing blow of a collision. The box-plow +buckled and groaned with fine cracklings as of hard-strained timbers, +and an avalanche of snow thrown up from its inclined plane buried engine +and cab and tender in a smothering drift. Ford slid his window and +looked out. + +"Good work, Michael; good work! You gained a full car-length that time. +Try it again." + +Gallagher backed the plow carefully out of the cutting, and the fireman +opened the blower and nursed his fire. Again and again the wheeled +projectile was hurled into the obstruction, and Ford watched the +steadily retrograding finger of the steam-gauge anxiously. Would the +pressure suffice for the final dash which should clear the cutting? Or +would they have to stop and turn out the wretched shovelmen again? + +The answer came with the fourth drive into the stubborn barrier. There +was the same nerve-racking shock of impact; but now the recoil was +followed by a second forward plunge, and Gallagher yelled his triumph +when the 206 burst through the remaining lesser drifts and shot away on +the clear track beyond. + +Ford drew a long breath of relief, and the engineer checked the speed of +the runaway, stopped, and started back to couple on the car-load of +laborers. + +Ford swung around and put his back to the open window. + +"Let's hope that is the worst of it and the last of it for this winter, +Mike," he said, speaking as man to man. "I believe the weather will +break before we have any more snow; and next year--" + +The pause was so long that Gallagher took his chance of filling it. + +"Don't be tellin' me the big boss has promised us a rotary for next +winter, Misther Foord. That'd be too good to be thrue, I'm thinking." + +"No; but next winter you'll be doing one of two things, Michael. You +will be pulling your train through steel snow-sheds on Plug Mountain--or +you'll be working for another boss. Break her loose, and let's get to +camp as soon as we can. Those poor devils back in the box-car are about +dead for sleep and a square meal." + + + + +II + +A SPIKED SWITCH + + +Ford's hopeful prophecy that the snow battles were over for the season +proved true. A few weeks later a warm wind blew up from the west, the +mountain foot-trails became first packed ice-paths and then slippery +ridges to trap the unwary; the great drifts began to settle and melt, +and the spring music of the swollen mountain torrents was abroad in the +land. + +At the blowing of the warm wind Ford aimed the opening gun in his +campaign against fate--the fate which seemed to be bent upon adding his +name to the list of failures on the Plug Mountain branch. The gun-aiming +was a summons to Frisbie, at the moment a draftsman in the engineering +office of the Great Northern at St. Paul, and pining, like the Plug +Mountain superintendent, for something bigger. + +"I have been waiting until I could offer you something with a +bread-and-meat attachment in the way of day pay," wrote Ford, "and the +chance has come. Kennedy, my track supervisor, has quit, and the place +is yours if you will take it. If you are willing to tie up to the most +harebrained scheme you ever heard of, with about one chance in a +thousand of coming out on top and of growing up with a brand new country +of unlimited possibilities, just gather up your dunnage and come." + +This letter was written on a Friday. Frisbie got it out of the carriers' +delivery on the Sunday morning; and Sunday night saw him racing +westward, with the high mountains of Colorado as his goal. Not that the +destination made any difference, for Frisbie would have gone quite as +willingly to the ends of the earth at the crooking of Ford's finger. + +It was the brightest of May days when the new supervisor of track +debarked from the mountain-climbing train at Saint's Rest, stretched his +legs gratefully on _terra firma_, had his first deep lungful of the +ozonic air of the high peaks, and found his welcome awaiting him. Ford +would have no talk of business until he had taken Frisbie across to the +little shack "hotel," and had filled him up on a dinner fresh from the +tin; nor, indeed, afterward, until they were smoking comfortably in the +boxed-off den in the station building which served as the +superintendent's office. + +"I've been counting on you, Dick, as you know, ever since this thing +threatened to take shape in my head," Ford began. "First, let me ask +you: do you happen to know where you could lay hands on three or four +good constructing engineers--men you could turn loose absolutely and +trust implicitly? I'm putting this up to you because the Plug Mountain +exile has taken me a bit out of touch." + +"Why--yes," said Frisbie, taking time to call the mental roll. "There +are Major Benson and his son Jack--you know 'em both--just in off their +job in the Selkirks. Then there is Roy Brissac; he'd be a pretty good +man in the field; and Chauncey Leckhard, of my class,--he's got a job in +Winnipeg, but he'll come if I ask him to, and he is the best office man +I know. But what on top of earth are you driving at, Stuart?" + +Ford cleared his pipe of the ash and refilled it. + +"I'll go into the details with you a little later. We shall have plenty +of time during the next month or six weeks, and, incidentally, a good +bit more privacy. The thing I'm trying to figure out will burst like a +bubble if it gets itself made public too soon, and"--lowering his +voice--"I can't trust my office force here. _Savez?_" + +"I _savez_ nothing as yet," laughed the new supervisor, "but perhaps I +shall if you'll tell me what is going to happen in the next month or six +weeks." + +"I'm coming to that, right now. How would you like to take a hunting +trip over on the wilderness side of the range? There are big woods and +big game." + +Frisbie grinned. He was a little man, with sharp black eyes shaded by +the heaviest of black brows, and it was his notion to trim his mustaches +and beard after the fashion set by the third Napoleon and imitated +faithfully by those who sing the part of Mephistopheles in _Faust_. +Hence, his grin was handsomely diabolic. + +"You needn't ask me what I'd like; you just tell me what you want me to +do," he rejoined, with clansman loyalty. + +"So I will," said Ford, taking the reins of authority. "We leave here +to-morrow morning for a trip over the Pass and down the Pannikin on the +other side, and if anybody asks you why, you can say that we expect to +kill a deer or two, and possibly a bear. Your part of the outsetting, +however, is to pack your surveying instruments on the burro saddles so +they'll pass for grub-boxes, tent-poles, and the like." + +"Call it done," said Frisbie. "But why all this stage play? Can't you +anticipate that much without endangering your bubble?" + +Ford lowered his voice again. + +"I gave you the hint. Penfield, my chief clerk--his desk is just on the +other side of that partition--is an ex-main-line man, shoved upon me +when I didn't want him. He was General Manager North's stenographer. +For reasons which will be apparent to you a little later on, I want to +blow my bubble in my own way; or, to change the figure, I'd like to fire +the first volley myself." + +Frisbie's grin was rather more than less diabolic. + +"Then I'd begin by firing Mr. Penfield, himself," he remarked. + +"No, you wouldn't," said Ford. "There are going to be obstacles enough +in the way without slapping Mr. North in the face as a preliminary. +Under the circumstances, he'd take it that way; Penfield would make sure +that he took it that way." + +It was at this point in the low-toned conference that the ingenious +young man in the outer office put down the desk telephone ear-piece long +enough to smite with his fist at some air-drawn antagonist. Curiosity +was this young man's capital weakness, and he had tinkered the wires of +the private telephone system so that the flicking of a switch made him +an auditor at any conversation carried on in the private office. He was +listening intently and eagerly again when Ford said, still in the same +guarded tone: + +"No, I can't fire Penfield, and I don't particularly want to. He is a +good office man, and loyal to his salt: it's my misfortune that it is +Mr. North's salt-cellar, and not mine, that he dips into. Besides, I'd +have trouble in replacing him. Saint's Rest isn't exactly the paradise +its name implies--for a clean-cut, well-mannered young fellow with +social leanings." + +"Now, what in the mischief does all that mean?" mused the chief clerk, +when Ford and his new track man had gone out. "A month's hunting trip +over the range, with the surveying instruments taken along. And last +summer Mr. Ford spent a good part of his time over there--also hunting, +so he said. Confound it all! I wish I could get into that private drawer +of his in the safe. That would tell the story. I wonder if Pacheco +couldn't make himself an errand over the Pass in the morning? By +George!" slapping his thigh and apostrophizing the superintendent, "I'll +just go you once, Mr. Ford, if I lose!" + +Now the fruit, of which this little soliloquy was the opening blossom, +matured on the second day after Ford and Frisbie had started out on the +mysterious hunting trip across the range. Pacheco, the half-breed +Mexican who freighted provisions by jack train to the mining-camps on +the head waters of the Pannikin, came in to report to the chief clerk. + +"Well, 'Checo, what did you find out?" was the curt inquiry. + +The half-breed spread his palms. + +"W'at I see, I know. Dey'll not gone for hunt much. One day out, dey'll +make-a da camp and go for squint t'rough spy-glass, so"--making an +imaginary transit telescope of his hands. "Den dey'll measure h-on da +groun' and squint some more, so." + +Penfield nodded and a gold piece changed hands silently. + +"That's all, 'Checo; much obliged. Don't say anything about this over in +the camp. Mr. Ford said he was going hunting, and that's what we'll say, +if anybody asks us." + +That night the chief clerk sent a brief cipher telegram to the general +manager at Denver. + + Ford and his new track supervisor, who is really a high-priced + constructing engineer, gone over the range for a month's absence. + Gave it out here that they were going after big game, but they took + a transit and are picking up the line of the old S. L. & W. + extension in the upper Pannikin. + +It was late in the month of June when Ford and Frisbie, tanned, +weathered and as gaunt as pioneers, returned to Saint's Rest; and for +those who were curious enough to be interested, there were a couple of +bear-skins and one of a mountain lion to make good the ostensible object +of the absence. + +But the most important trophies of the excursion were two engineers' +note-books, well filled with memoranda; and these they did not exhibit. +On the contrary, they became a part of the collection of maps, +statistics, estimates and private correspondence which Chief Clerk +Penfield was so anxious to examine, and which Ford kept under lock and +key when he and Frisbie were not poring over some portion of it in the +seclusion of the private office. + +None the less, Penfield kept his eyes and ears open, and before long he +had another detail to report by cipher telegram to the general manager. +Ford was evidently preparing for another absence, and from what the +chief clerk could overhear, he was led to believe that the pseudo +supervisor of track would be left in charge of Plug Mountain affairs. + +It was on the day before Ford's departure for Denver that a letter came +from General Manager North. Ford read it with a scowl of disapproval and +tossed it across the double desk to Frisbie. + +"A polite invitation for me to stay at home and to attend to my +business," he commented. + +"Had you written him that you were going away?" inquired Frisbie. + +"No; but evidently somebody else has." + +Frisbie read the letter again. + +"'So that all heads of departments may be on duty when the president +makes his annual inspection trip over the lines,'" he quoted. "Is Mr. +Colbrith coming out this early in the summer?" + +"No, of course not. He never comes before August." + +"Then this is only a trumped-up excuse to make you stay here?" + +"That's all," Ford replied laconically. + +Mr. Richard Frisbie got up and walked twice the length of the little +room before he said: + +"This Denver gentleman is going to knock your little scheme into a +cocked hat, if he can, Stuart." + +"I am very much afraid we'll have to reckon upon that. As a matter of +fact, I've been reckoning upon it, all along." + +"How much of a pull has he with the New York money-people?" + +"I don't know that: I wish I did. It would simplify matters somewhat." + +Frisbie took another turn up and down the room, with his head down and +his hands in his pockets. + +"Stuart, I believe, if I were in your place, I'd enlist Mr. North, if I +had to make it an object for him," he said, at length. + +"Certainly, I mean to go to him first," said Ford. "That is his due. But +I am counting upon opposition rather than help. Wait a minute"--he +jerked the door open suddenly and made sure that the chief clerk's chair +was unoccupied. "The worst of it is that I don't trust North," he went +on. "He is a grafter in small ways, and he'd sell me out in a minute if +he felt like it and could see any chance of making capital for himself." + +"Then don't go to him with your scheme," urged Frisbie. "If you enlist +him, you won't be sure of him; and if you don't, you'll merely leave an +active opponent behind you instead of a passive one." + +"I guess you're right, Dick; but I'll have to be governed by conditions +as I find them. Aside from North's influence with Mr. Colbrith, which is +considerable, I believe, he can't do much to help. But he can do a +tremendous lot to hinder. I think I shall try to choke him with butter, +if I can." + +Notwithstanding the general manager's letter, Ford took the train for +Denver the following morning, and the chief clerk remarked that he +checked a small steamer trunk in addition to his hand baggage. + +"Going to be gone some time, Mr. Ford?" he asked, when he brought the +night mail down for the superintendent to look over. + +"Yes," said Ford absently. + +"You'll let me know where to reach you from time to time, I suppose?" +ventured Penfield. + +Ford looked up quickly. + +"It won't be necessary. You can handle the office work, as you have +heretofore, and Mr. Frisbie will have full charge out of doors." + +Penfield looked a little crestfallen. + +"Am I to take orders from Mr. Frisbie?" he asked, as one determined to +know the worst. + +"Just the same as you would from me," said the superintendent, swinging +up to the step of the moving car. And the chief clerk went back to his +office busily concocting another cipher message to the general manager. + +On the way down the canyon Ford was saying to himself that he was now +fairly committed to the scheme over which he had spent so many toilful +days and sleepless nights, and that he would have it out with Mr. North +to a fighting conclusion before he slept. + +But a freight wreck got in the way while the down passenger train was +measuring the final third of the distance, and it was long after office +hours in the Pacific Southwestern headquarters when Ford reached Denver. + +By consequence, the crucial interview with the general manager had to be +postponed; and the enthusiast was chafing at his ill luck when he went +to his hotel--chafing and saying hard words, for the waiting had been +long, and now that the psychologic moment had arrived, delays were +intolerable. + +Now it sometimes happens that seeming misfortunes are only blessings in +disguise. When Ford entered the hotel cafe to eat his belated dinner, he +saw Evans, the P. S-W. auditor, sitting alone at a table-for-two. He +crossed the room quickly and shook hands with the man he had meant to +interview either before or after the meeting with North. + +It was after they had chatted comfortably through to the coffee that +the auditor said, blandly: "What are you down for, Ford?--anything +special?" + +"Yes. I am down to get leave of absence to go East," said Ford warily. + +"But that isn't all," was the quiet rejoinder. "In fact, it's only the +non-committal item that you'd give to a _Rocky Mountain News_ reporter." + +Ford was impatient of diplomatic methods when there was no occasion for +them. + +"Give it a name," he said bluntly. "What do you think you know, Evans?" + +The auditor smiled. + +"There is a leak in your office up at Saint's Rest, I'm afraid. What +sort of a bombshell are you fixing to fire at Mr. North?" + +Ford grew interested at once. + +"Tell me what you know, and perhaps I can piece it out for you." + +"I'll tell you what Mr. North knows--which will be more to the purpose, +perhaps. For a year or more you have been figuring on some kind of a +scheme to pull the company's financial leg in behalf of your +good-for-nothing narrow gauge. A month ago, for example, you went all +over the old survey on the other side of the mountains and verified the +original S. L & W. preliminaries and rights-of-way on its proposed +extension." + +Ford's eyes narrowed. He was thinking of the warning letter he would +have to write to Frisbie. But what he said was: + +"I'd like to know how the dickens you guessed all that. But no matter; +supposing I did?" + +"It's no good," said the auditor, shaking his head. "I'm talking as a +friend. North doesn't like you, personally; and if he did, you couldn't +persuade him to recommend anything in the way of an experiment on the +Plug Mountain. So far from extending your two-by-four branch--if that is +what you have in mind--he'd be much more likely to counsel its +abandonment, if the charter didn't require us to keep it going." + +Ford found a cigar for the auditor, and lighted one for himself. + +"From all of which I infer that the semiannual report of the Pacific +Southwestern is going to be a pretty bad one," he said, with carefully +assumed indifference. + +Evans regarded him shrewdly. + +"Are you guessing at that? Or is there a leak at our end of the line as +well as at yours?" + +"Oh, it's a guess," laughed Ford. "Call it that, anyhow. At least, I +haven't any of your confidential clerks in my pay. But just how bad is +the report going to be?" + +The auditor shook his head. + +"Worse than the last one. Perhaps you have noticed that the stock has +dropped six points in the past week. You're one of the official family: +I don't mind telling you that we are in the nine-hole, Ford." + +"Of course we are," said Ford, with calm conviction. "That much is +pretty evident to a man who merely reads the Wall Street news bulletins. +What is the matter with us--specifically, I mean?" + +Evans shrugged. + +"Are you a division superintendent on the system and don't know?" he +demanded. "We are too short at both ends. With our eastern terminal only +half-way to Chicago, we can't control the east-bound grain which grows +on our own line; and with the other end stopping short here at Denver, +we can't bid for west-bound transcontinental business. It's as simple as +twice two. Our competitors catch us going and coming." + +"Precisely. And if we don't get relief?" + +The auditor smiled grimly. + +"As I've said, you're one of us, Ford, and I don't mind speaking freely +to you. A receivership is looming in the distance, and the not very dim +distance, for the P. S-W." + +"I thought so. How near is it?" + +"I don't know--nobody knows definitely. If we had a man of resources at +the head of things--as we have not--it might be stood off for another +six months." + +"I'm on the way to stand it off permanently, if I can get any backing," +said Ford quietly. + +"You!" was the astonished reply. + +"Yes, I. Listen, Evans. For two years I have been buried up yonder in +the hills, with not enough to do in the summer season to keep me out of +mischief. I am rather fond of mathematics, and I am telling you I have +this thing figured out to the fourth decimal. If President Colbrith and +his associates can be made to see that the multiplication of two by two +gives an invariable resultant of four, there will be no receivership for +the P. S-W. this year, or next." + +"Show me," said the auditor. + +Ford hesitated for a moment. Then he took a packet of papers, estimates, +exhibits and fine-lined engineer's maps from his pocket and tossed it +across the table. + +"That is for you, personally--for David Evans; not the P. S-W. auditor. +You've got to keep it to yourself." + +The auditor went through the papers carefully, shifting his cigar slowly +from one corner of his mouth to the other as he read and examined. When +he handed them back he was shaking his head, almost mournfully. + +"It's a big thing, Ford; the biggest kind of a thing. And it is +beautifully worked out. But I know our people, here and in New York. +They will simply give you the cold stare and say that you are crazy." + +"Because it can't be financed?" + +"Because it doesn't come from Hill or Harriman or Morgan, or some other +one of the big captains. You'll never be able to stand it upon its feet +by your single-handed lonesome." + +Ford set his teeth, and his clean-cut face seemed to grow suddenly older +and harder as the man in him came to the fore. + +"By heavens! if I put my back under it, it's got to stand upon its feet! +I'm not going into it with the idea that there is any such thing in the +book as failure." + +The auditor looked darkly into the cool gray eyes of the man facing him. + +"Then let me give you a word of advice before you start in. Skip North, +absolutely; don't breathe a word of it to him. Don't ask me why; but do +as I say. And another thing: drop into my office to-morrow before you +leave. I'll show you some figures that may help you to stir things up +properly at the New York end. Do you go direct from here?" + +"No; I shall have to stop over a few days in Chicago. I know pretty well +where to put my hands on what I need; I have laid the foundations from +the bottom up by correspondence. But I want to go over the situation on +the ground before I make my grand-stand play before Mr. Colbrith and the +board of directors." + +"Well, come in and get the figures, anyway: come to the private door of +my office and rap three times. It will be just as well if it isn't +generally known that you are confabbing with me. Our semiannual report +will probably be in New York ahead of you, but it won't hurt if you have +the information to work with." Evans was pushing his chair from the +table when he added: "By the way, you happened upon the exact +psychological moment to make your raid; the report coming out, and +things going to the dogs generally." + +Ford's laugh was genially shrewd. + +"Perhaps it wasn't so much of a happening as it appears. Didn't I tell +you that I had figured this thing out to the fourth decimal place? +Psychological moments are bigger arguments than dollars and cents, +sometimes." + +The auditor had taken his hat from the waiter and was shaking hands with +his dinner companion. + +"I'd like to believe you're a winner, Ford; you deserve to be. Come and +see me--and make your call upon Mr. North as brief as possible. He'll +probe you if you don't." + +This was how it came about that the next morning, when Ford went to call +upon the sallow, heavy-faced, big-bodied man who sat behind the glass +door lettered "General Manager, Private,"--this after half an hour spent +in Auditor Evans' private office,--it was only to ask for leave of +absence to go East--on business of a personal nature, he explained, when +Mr. North was curious enough to ask his object. + + + + +III + +LOSS AND DAMAGE + + +At this period of his existence, Stuart Ford troubled himself as little +as any anchorite of the desert about the eternal feminine. + +It was not that he was more or less than a man, or in any sense that +anomalous and impossible thing called a woman-hater. On the contrary, +his attitude toward women in the mass was distinctly and at times +boyishly sentimental. But when a young man is honestly in love with his +calling, and is fully convinced of its importance to himself and to a +restlessly progressive world, single-heartedness becomes his watchword, +and what sentiment there is in him will be apt to lie comfortably +dormant. + +For six full working-days Ford had been immersed to the eyes in the +intricacies of his railway problem, acquiring in Chicago a valiseful of +documentary data that demanded to be classified and thoroughly digested +before he reached New York and the battle-field actual. This was why he +was able to ride all day in studious abstraction in his section of the +Chicago-New York Pullman, without so much as a glance for the young +woman in the modest gray traveling coat directly across the aisle. + +She was well worth the glance, as he admitted willingly enough +afterward. She was the dainty type, with fluffy bright brown hair, eyes +the color of wood violets, a nose tilted to the precise angle of +bewitching piquancy, and the adorable mouth and chin familiarized to two +continents by the artistic pen of the Apostle of the American Girl. How +he could have ridden within arm's reach of her through all the daylight +hours of a long summer day remained as one of Ford's unanswered enigmas; +but it required an accident and a most embarrassing _contretemps_ to +make him aware of her existence. + +The accident was one of the absurd sort. The call for dinner in the +dining-car had been given, and Ford was just behind the young woman in +the rear of the procession which filed forward out of the Pullman. The +train had at that moment left a way station, and the right-hand +vestibule door was still open and swinging disjointedly across the +narrow passage. Ford reached an arm past the young woman to fold the +two-leaved door out of her way. As he did it, the door-knob hooked +itself mischievously in the loop of her belt chatelaine, snatched it +loose, and flung it out into the backward-rushing night. + +Whereupon: "Oh!--my purse!" with a little gasp of sudden bereavement, +and a quick turning to face the would-be helper. + +Ford was honestly aghast when the situation fully enveloped him. + +"Heavens and earth! Did you ever see such idiotic clumsiness!" he +ejaculated. And then, in deepest contrition: "I won't attempt to +apologize--it's beyond all that. But you must let me make your loss +good." + +In all the pin-pricking embarrassment of the moment, he did not fail to +remark that she quickly recovered the serenity which belongs to the +well-bred. She was even smiling, rather ruefully, when she said: + +"Fortunately, the conductor has my passes. But really"--and now she +laughed outright--"I am afraid I shall have to go hungry if I can't +borrow enough to pay for my dinner." + +Another man, a man less purposefully lost in the purely practical +labyrinth of professional work, would have found something fitting to +say. But Ford, having discovered a thing to do, did it painstakingly and +in solemn silence. There was an unoccupied table for two in the +dining-car; he seated her, gave her his purse, called a waiter, and +would have betaken himself forthwith to another table if she had not +detained him. + +"No," she said decisively, with a charming little uptilt of the adorable +chin. "I do not forget that you were trying to do me a kindness. Please +sit down here and take your purse. I'm sure I don't want it." + +He obeyed, still in somber silence, gave his dinner order after she had +given hers, and was wondering if he might venture to bury himself in a +bundle of the data papers, when she spoke again. + +"Are you provoked with yourself, or with me?" she asked--rather +mockingly, he thought. + +"Neither," he said promptly. "I was merely saying to myself that my +wretched awkwardness didn't give me an excuse for boring you." + +"It was an accident--nothing more or less," she rejoined, with an air of +dismissing finally the purse-snatching episode. Then she added: "I am +the one who ought to be embarrassed." + +"But you are not," he returned quickly. "You are quite the mistress of +yourself--which is more than most women would be, under the +circumstances." + +"Is that a compliment?" she asked, with latent mockery in the violet +eyes. "Because if it is, I think you must be out of the West; the--the +unfettered West: isn't that what it is called?" + +"I am," Ford acknowledged. "But why do you say that? Was I rude? I beg +you to believe that I didn't mean to be." + +"Oh, no; not rude--merely sincere. We are not sincere any more, I think; +except on the frontier edges of us. Are we?" + +Ford took exceptions to the charge for the sheer pleasure of hearing her +talk. + +"I'd be sorry to believe that," he protested. "The conventions account +for something, of course; and I suppose the polite lie which deceives no +one has to have standing-room. But every now and then one is surprised +into telling the truth, don't you think?" + +"If I can't fully agree with you, I can at least admire your point of +view," she said amiably. "Is it Western--or merely human?" + +He laughed. + +"Shall we assume that the one implies the other? That would be in +accordance with your point of view, wouldn't it?" + +"Yes; but it would be a distinct reversal of yours. Truth belongs to +another and simpler time than ours. We are conventional first and +everything else afterward." + +"Are we?" he queried. "Some few hundreds or thousands of us may be; but +for the remainder of our eighty-odd millions the conventions are things +to be put on and off like Sunday garments. And even the chosen few of +us brush them aside upon occasion; ignore them utterly, as we two are +ignoring them at this moment." + +She proved his assertion by continuing to talk to him, and the +dining-car was emptying itself when they realized that there is an end +even to a most leisurely dinner. Ford paid the steward as they left the +car, but in the Pullman he went back to first principles and insisted +upon some kind of a definite accounting for the lost purse. + +"Now you will tell me now much I threw away for you, and I'll pay my +debt," he said, when she had hospitably made room for him in the +opposing seat of her section. + +"Indeed, you will do nothing of the kind!" she asserted. "You will give +me your card--we're going back to the conventions now--and when we reach +the city you may lend me enough money to take me up-town. And to-morrow +morning my brother will pay you back." + +He gave in because he had to. + +"You are much more lenient than I deserve. Really, you ought to stick me +good and hard for my awkwardness. It would serve me right." + +"I am considering the motive," she said almost wistfully, he fancied. +"We have drifted very far from all those quiet anchorages of courtesy +and helpfulness. If we lived simpler lives--" + +He smiled at the turn she was giving it. + +"Are you, too, bitten with the fad of the moment, 'the simple life'?" he +asked. "Let me assure you that it is beautiful only when you can look +down upon it from the safe altitude of a comfortable income. I know, +because I've been living it for the past two years." + +She looked as if she were sorry for him. + +"That is rank heresy!" she declared. "Our forefathers had the better of +us in many ways, and their simpler manner of living was one of them. +They had time for all the little courtesies and kindnesses that make +life truly worth living." + +Ford's laugh was boyishly derisive. + +"Yes; they certainly had plenty of time; but they didn't have much else. +Why, just think, for a moment, of what our own America would be if +merely one of the modern civilizers, the railroads, had never existed. +There simply wouldn't be any America, as we know it now." + +"How can you say that?" + +"Because it is so. For nearly two centuries we stood still, because +there were no means of locomotion--which is another word for progress +and civilization. But in less than fifty years after the first railroad +was built we had become a great nation." + +She was silenced, if not wholly convinced; and a few minutes later the +train drew into the Forty-second Street Station. When the parting time +came, Ford dutifully gathered her belongings, said good-by, and put her +on a north-bound subway; all this without remembering that he did not +know her name. The recollection came, however, when the subway train +shot away into the tunnel. + +"Of all the blockheads!" he growled, apostrophizing his own unreadiness. +"But I'll find her again. She said she'd send her brother to the hotel +with the dinner money, and when I get hold of him it will go hard with +me if I don't manage some way to get an introduction." + +This was what was in his mind when he sought the down-town hotel whose +name he had written on his card for her; it was his latest waking +thought when he went to sleep that night, and his earliest when he awoke +the following morning. + +But when he went to the clerk's desk, after a leisurely breakfast, to +get his mail, he found that the sure thread of identification had broken +in his fingers. There was a square envelope among the other letters in +his key-box containing the exact amount of the young woman's +indebtedness to him; this, with a brief note of thanks--unsigned. + + + + +IV + +COLD STORAGE + + +If courage, of the kind fitted to lead forlorn hopes, or marchings +undaunted up to the muzzles of loaded cannon, be a matter of gifts and +temperament, it is also in some degree a matter of environment. + +Stuart Ford was Western born and bred; a product of the wider breathing +spaces. Given his proper battle-field, where the obstacles were +elemental and the foes to be overcome were mere men of flesh and blood +fighting freely in the open, he was a match for the lustiest. But New +York, with its submerging, jostling multitudes, its thickly crowding +human vastness, and, more than all, its atmosphere of dollar-chasing, +apparent and oppressive even to the transient passer-by, disheartened +him curiously. + +It was not that he was more provincial than he had to be; for that +matter, there is no provincialism so rampant as that of the thronging, +striving, self-sufficient city. But isolation in any sort is a thing to +be reckoned with. The two pioneering years in the Rockies had done their +work,--of narrowing, as well as of broadening,--and the plunge into the +chilling sea of the money-mad metropolis made him shiver and wish he +were out. + +This feeling was really at the bottom of the late rising and the +leisurely breakfast, making him temporize where he had meant to be +prompt, energetic and vigorously aggressive. Having pocketed the young +woman's unsigned note, he glanced at his watch and decided that it was +still too early to go in search of President Colbrith. + +"I don't suppose he'll be in his office for an hour yet," he mused +reflectively; "and anyway, I guess I'd better go over the papers again, +so I can be sure to speak my piece right end to. By Jove! I didn't +suppose a couple of thousand miles of easting would take the heart out +of things the way it does. If I didn't know better, I should think I'd +come here to float the biggest kind of a fake, instead of a life-boat +for the shipwrecked people in the Pacific Southwestern. It is beginning +to look that way in spite of all I can do." + +Going once again over his carefully tabulated argument did not help +matters greatly. He was beginning to realize now how vastly, antipodally +different the New York point of view might be from his own. It came to +him with the benumbing effect of a blow that his own ambitions had +persistently looked beyond the mere money-making results of his scheme. +Also, that President Colbrith and his fellow-investors might very easily +refuse to consider any other phase of the revolutionary proposition he +was about to lay before them. + +By ten o'clock postponement was no longer a tenable city of refuge: the +plunge had to be taken. Accordingly, he fared forth to present himself +at the Broadway address given in the Pacific Southwestern printed matter +as the New York headquarters of the company. + +The number proved to be a ground floor, with the business office of the +eastern traffic representative in front, and three or four private +desk-rooms in the rear, one of them labeled "President" in inconspicuous +gilt lettering. Entering, with less assurance than if he had been the +humblest of place-seekers out of a job, Ford was almost relieved to find +only a closed desk, and a young man absently scanning a morning paper. + +Inquiry developed a few facts, tersely stated but none the less +enlightening. Mr. Colbrith was not in: the office was merely his nominal +headquarters in the city and he occupied it only occasionally. His +residence? It was in the Borough of the Bronx, pretty well up toward +Yonkers--locality and means of access obligingly written out on a card +for the caller by the clerk. Was Mr. Ford's business of a routine +nature? If so, perhaps, Mr. Ten Eyck, the general agent, could attend to +it. Ford said it was not of a routine nature, and made his escape to +inquire his way to the nearest subway station. To pause now was to lose +the precious impetus of the start. + +It was worth something to be whirled away blindly out of the stifling +human vortex of the lower city; but Ford's first glimpse of the Colbrith +mansion depressed him again. The huge, formal house had once been the +country residence of a retired dry-goods merchant. It fronted the river +brazenly, and the fine old trees of a ten-acre park shamed its +architectural stiffness. Ford knew the president a little by family +repute and more particularly as a young subordinate knows the general in +command. It struck him forcibly that the aspect of the house fitted the +man. With the broad river and the distant Palisades to be dwelt upon, +its outlook windows were narrow. With the sloping park and the great +trees to give it dignity, it seemed to assume an artificial, plumb-line +dignity of its own, impressive only as the product of rigid measurements +and mechanical uprightness. + +From the boulevard there was a gravelled driveway with a stone portal. +The iron gates were thrown wide, and at his entrance Ford stood aside to +let an outgoing auto-car have the right of way. Being full of his +errand, and of the abstraction of a depressed soul, Ford merely remarked +that there were two persons in the car; a young man driving, and a young +woman, veiled and dust-coated, in the mechanician's seat beside him. +None the less, there floated out of the mist of abstraction an instantly +vanishing phantom of half-recognition for the Westerner. Something in +the pose of the young woman, the way she leaned forward and held her hat +with the tips of her gloved fingers, was, for the fleeting moment, +almost reminiscent. + +If Ford had wished to speculate upon abstruse problems of identity, +there was neither time nor the mental aptitude. A little later he had +given his card to the servant at the door and was waiting in a darkened +and most depressive library for the coming of the master of the house. +The five minutes of waiting nearly finished him. As the absurdly formal +clock between the book-cases ticked off the leaden-winged seconds, his +plan for the rescue of Pacific Southwestern took the form of a crass +impertinence, and only the grim determination to see a lost cause +decently coffined and buried kept the enthusiast with his face to the +front. + +After all, the beginning of the interview with the tall, thin, +gray-haired and hatchet-faced old man, who presently stalked into the +library and gave his hand with carefully adjusted cordiality to the son +of one of his college classmates, was only a little more depressing: it +was not mortal. Ford had been born in Illinois; and so, something better +than a third of a century earlier, had the president. Moreover, Mr. +Colbrith had, in the hey-day of his youth, shared rooms with the elder +Ford in the fresh-water university which had later numbered the younger +Ford among its alumni. These things count for somewhat, even when the +gap to be bridged is that between the president of a railroad and one of +his minor officials. + +But when the revolutionary project was introduced, the president's +guarded cordiality faded like a photographic proof-print in the +sunlight, and the air of the darkened library grew coldly inclement. + +"So you came to talk business, did you?" said the high, rasping voice +out of the depths of the easy-chair opposite; and Ford raged inwardly at +the thought that he had clearly placed himself at a disadvantage by +becoming even constructively the guest of the president. "As a rule, I +positively refuse to discuss such matters outside of their proper +environment; but I'll make an exception for Douglas Ford's son. Your +plan is simply impossible. I can understand how it may appear possible, +and even attractive, to a young man, and especially to the young man who +has invented it. But as an investment for capital--my dear young sir, go +back to your division, and strive by faithful service to rise in the +accepted and time-honored way. You are wasting your time in New York." + +Curiously enough, Ford found his evaporated courage recrystallizing +under opposition. + +"I can not believe that I have made the plan, and the present condition +of the system, sufficiently clear to you," he insisted; whereupon he +went patiently and good-naturedly over the argument again, emphasizing +the desperate straits to which the Pacific Southwestern was reduced. + +"We know all that, Mr. Ford," was the unyielding reply. "But granting it +to be the fact, don't you see the absolute futility of asking for +thirty-five millions additional capital at such a crisis?" + +"No, I don't," said Ford stubbornly. "I know--as I can not explain to +you in detail in a half-hour interview--that this plan of mine can be +made successful. For two years, Mr. Colbrith, I have been the man on the +ground: no word that I am saying to you is speculative. Every clause of +the proposition has a carefully established fact behind it." + +"No doubt it seems so to you," came the rasping voice from the +chair-depths. "But thirty-five millions!"--with a quavering gasp. "And +at a time when our earnings are falling off steadily and the stock is +going down day by day. It's--it's simply preposterous! I must really +decline to discuss it any further." + +Ford had his packet of data in hand. + +"I have all the exhibits here, carefully tabulated and condensed. Won't +you reconsider far enough to examine them, Mr. Colbrith?" + +A thin white hand of negation and protest waved out of the depths of +the engulfing easy-chair. + +"I am sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Ford. I knew your father, and we were +great friends. You are like him," he added reminiscently. "He might have +died rich if he had gone into corn-buying with me when we were +graduated, as I wanted him to. But he was too enthusiastic. He wanted to +turn the world upside down--just as you do, my dear young man; just as +you do." + +Ford got upon his feet. The time had arrived for the firing of the shot +of last resort, and he aimed it deliberately. + +"I came first to you, Mr. Colbrith, because it was my duty as a +subordinate, and your own appointee, and because you were my father's +friend so many years ago. I may say, frankly, that I did it against good +advice. Men who profess to know you have counseled me to appeal directly +to the board. What I wish to know now is if you are willing to take the +entire responsibility of turning this plan of mine down. Will it not +relieve you of all responsibility if you will call a meeting of the +directors, and let me lay this absurd proposal of mine before it? You +can surely have no fears for the result." + +The shot told. The president struggled to his feet and took a nervous +turn up and down the long room. When he replied, it was with the +indecisive man's reluctance to commitment of any sort. + +"If I call the meeting, I shall be ridiculed; and if I don't call it, I +suppose you'll go to Brewster and Magnus and tell them I've muzzled you. +Have it your own way. I'll issue the call for ten o'clock, the day after +to-morrow, in McVeigh and Mackie's offices in Broad Street. But I warn +you in advance, Mr. Ford, I shall not be able to help you in the least. +And I may add this: that when you reach that part of your proposal where +you call for thirty-five millions additional capital, you may as well +put on your hat and go home. That will be the end of it." + +"And of me," laughed the enthusiast. But in spite of the cold comfort, +and of the still colder promise of opposition, he took his leave with a +lighter heart, refusing Mr. Colbrith's rather perfunctory invitation to +stay to luncheon. + +And on the gravelled drive, where he again had to make way for the +auto-car purring in on its return, he did not so much as look up at the +pair in the driving-seat. + + + + +V + +WANTED: THIRTY-FIVE MILLIONS + + +The offices of McVeigh and Mackie, brokers and financial agents, are in +Broad Street, and the windows of the room used for board meetings look +down upon the angle where beats the money pulse of the nation. + +Ford had successfully resisted the temptation to lobby for his scheme +during the one-day interval between his conference with Mr. Colbrith and +the date of the called meeting of the directors. It was not any mistaken +sense of loyalty to the president that restrained him; on the contrary, +he decided that Mr. Colbrith's declaration of war left him free to fight +as he would. But upon due consideration he concluded to set the +advantage of an assault _en masse_ over against the dubious gain of an +advanced skirmish line, and when he turned out of Broadway into Wall +Street on the morning of destiny the men whom he was to meet and +convince were still no more to him than a list of names in the _Poor's +Manual_, consulted within the hour for the purpose. + +He was early on the battle-ground; much too early, he thought, when a +clerk ushered him into the board room in the rear of the brokers' +offices. As yet there was only one person present--a young man who was +lounging in the easiest of the leather-covered chairs and yawning +dismally. At the first glance the face seemed oddly and strikingly +familiar; but when the young man marked the new-comer's entrance, the +small hand-bag in which the amateur promoter carried his papers, and got +up to shake hands, Ford found the suggestive gropings baffled. + +"My name is Adair," said the lounger genially; "and I suppose you are +the Mr. Ford Uncle Sidney has been telling us about. Pull up a chair and +sit by the window. It's the only amusement you'll have until the clan +gathers." + +Ford looked at his watch. + +"I seem to be ahead of time," he remarked. "I understood Mr. Colbrith to +say that the meeting would be called for ten o'clock." + +"Oh, that's all right; and so he did," rejoined the other cheerfully. +"But that means anything up to noon for a directors' meeting in New +York." Then, after a pause: "Do you know any of us personally, Mr. +Ford?" + +Ford was rummaging in his memory again. "I ought to know you, Mr. +Adair. It isn't very decent to drag in resemblances, but--" + +"The resemblance is the real thing, this time," said Adair. "You saw me +day before yesterday, driving out of the Overlook grounds as you were +going in." + +Ford shook his head. + +"No; it goes back of that; sometime I'll remember how and where. But to +answer your question: I know Mr. Colbrith slightly, but I've never met +any of the directors." + +"Well, you are meeting one at this moment," laughed the young man, +crossing his legs comfortably. "But I am the easiest mark of the lot," +he added. "I inherited my holdings in Pacific Southwestern." + +Ford was crucially anxious to find out how the battle was likely to go, +and his companion seemed amiably communicative. + +"Since you call Mr. Colbrith 'Uncle Sidney,' I infer that you know what +I am here for, Mr. Adair. How do you think my proposition is likely to +strike the board?" + +Again the young man laughed. + +"Fancy your asking me!" he said. "I haven't talked with any one but +Uncle Sidney; and the most I could get out of him was that you wanted +thirty-five million dollars to spend." + +"Well," said the Westerner anxiously, "am I going to get it?" + +"You can search me," was the good-natured rejoinder. "But from my +knowledge of the men you are going presently to wrestle with, I should +say 'no' and italicize it." + +"Perhaps it might help me a little if I could know in advance the +particular reason for the italics," Ford suggested. + +"Oh, sure. The principal reason is that your name isn't Hill or Harriman +or Morgan or Gates. Money is ridiculously sheepish. It will follow a +known leader blindly, idiotically. But if it doesn't hear the familiar +tinkle of the leader's bell, it is mighty apt to huddle and run back." + +Ford's smile was grim. + +"I don't mind saying to you, Mr. Adair, that this is one of the times +when it will be much safer to huddle and run forward. Have you seen the +half-yearly report?" + +"I? Heaven forbid! I have never seen anything out of the Pacific +Southwestern--not even a dividend." + +Ford would very willingly have tried to share his enthusiasm with the +care-free young man, whose face was still vaguely but persistently +remindful of some impression antedating the automobile passing; but now +the other members of the board were dropping in by twos and threes, and +privacy was at an end. + +Just before President Colbrith took his place at the head of the long +table to call the meeting to order, Adair leaned forward to say in low +tones: "I couldn't give you the tip you wanted, Mr. Ford, but I can give +you another which may serve as well. If your good word doesn't win out, +scare 'em--scare 'em stiff! I don't know but you could frighten half a +million or so out of me if you should try." + +"Thank you," said Ford. "I may take you at your word,"--and just then +Mr. Colbrith rose in his place, fingering his thin white beard rather +nervously, Ford thought, and rapping on the table for silence. + +It was admitted on all hands that the president of the Pacific +Southwestern was a careful man and a thrifty. It was these qualities +which had first determined his election. There were many small +stock-holders in the company, and it is the foible of small +stock-holders to believe that rigid economy counts for more than +adventurous outreachings in the larger field. + +"Gentlemen," he began, his high, raucous voice rasping the silence like +the filing of a saw, "this meeting is called, as you have probably been +informed, for the purpose of considering a plan for betterments +submitted by Mr. Stuart Ford, who is at the present time superintendent +of our Plug Mountain Division. + +"In making this unusual innovation, and in introducing Mr. Ford, I +desire to say that I have been actuated by that motive of prudence +which, while it stands firmly upon its own feet, is willing to consider +suggestions from without, even when these suggestions appear to be +totally at variance with a policy of careful and judicious financiering. + +"In presenting Mr. Ford as the son of an old friend, long since gone to +his reward, I wish it distinctly understood that I am in no sense +committed to his plan. The policy of this company under the present +administration has been uniformly cautious and prudent: Mr. Ford would +throw caution and prudence to the winds. Our best efforts have been +directed toward the saving of the ultimate dollar of expense: Mr. Ford +urges us to spend millions. We have been trying to dispose of some of +our non-paying branches: Mr. Ford would have us acquire others and build +new lines." + +While Mr. Colbrith was speaking, Adair was rapidly characterizing the +members for Ford, checking them off upon his fingers. + +"The little man at Uncle Sidney's right is Mackie, and the miserly +looking one next to him is McVeigh," he whispered. "One of them will +furnish your coffin, and the other will drive the nails into it. The big +man with the beard is Brewster--a multimillionaire; and the one who +looks like Senator Bailey is Magnus, president of the Mohican National. +Connolly, the fat Irishman, is a politician--wads of money, but not much +interest in the game. The other three--" + +But now the president had made an end and was beckoning to Ford. + +The young engineer rose, feeling much as if a bucket of ice-water had +been suddenly emptied down the back of his neck. But one of his saving +qualities was the spring-like resilience which responds instantly to a +shock. Spreading his papers on the table, he began with a little +apology. + +"I didn't come here this morning prepared to make a promoter's speech; +and perhaps it is just as well, since my gift, if I have one, lies in +doing things rather than in talking about them. But I can lay a few +facts before you which you may deem worthy of consideration." + +From this as a beginning he went on swiftly and incisively. The Pacific +Southwestern, in its present condition, was a failure. It was an +incomplete line, trying vainly to hold its own against great and +powerful systems overlapping it at either end. The remedy lay in +extension. The acquisition of a controlling interest in three short +roads, which, pieced together, would bridge the gap between the Missouri +River and Chicago, would place the Pacific Southwestern upon an equal +footing with its competitors as a grain carrier. By standardizing the +Plug Mountain narrow gauge and extending it to Salt Lake and beyond, the +line would secure a western outlet, and would be in a position to demand +its share of transcontinental business. + +To finance these two extensions a capital of thirty-five million +dollars would be needed; five million dollars for the purchase of the +majority stock in the three short roads, and the remainder for the +western outlet. These assertions were not guesses: by referring to +exhibits marked "a" "b" and "f," his hearers would find accurate +estimates of cost, not only of construction, but also of stock +purchases. + +As to the manner of providing the capital, he had only a suggestion to +offer. The five million dollars necessary for the acquirement of a +controlling interest in the three short roads would be a fair +investment. It could be covered immediately by a reissue--share for +share--of the reorganization stock of the P. S-W., which would amply +secure the investors, since the stock of the most prosperous of the +three local roads was listed at twenty-eight, ten points lower than the +present market quotation of P. S-W. + +The thirty million dollar extension fund might be raised by issuing +second mortgage bonds upon the entire system, or the new line itself +could be bonded mile for mile under a separate charter. Ford modestly +disclaimed any intention of dictating the financial policy; this was not +in his line. But again he would submit facts. The grain crop in the West +was phenomenally large in prospect. With its own eastern terminal in +Chicago, the Pacific Southwestern could control the grain shipments in +its own territory. With the moving of the grain, the depressed P. S-W. +stock would inevitably recover, and on a rising market the new issue of +bonds could doubtless be floated. + +The enthusiast closed his argument with a hasty summing-up of the +benefits which must, in the nature of things, accrue. From being an +alien link in the great transcontinental chain, the Pacific Southwestern +would rise at a bound to the dignity of a great railway system; a power +to be reckoned with among the other great systems gridironing the West. +Its earnings would be enhanced at every point; cross lines which now fed +its competitors would become its allies; the local lines to be welded +into the eastern end of the system would share at once in the prosperity +of a strong through line. + +For the western extension he could speak from personal knowledge of the +region to be penetrated. Apart from the new line's prime object--that of +providing an outlet for the system--there was a goodly heritage of local +business awaiting the first railroad to reach the untapped territory. +Mines, valueless now for the lack of transportation facilities, would +become abundant producers; and there were many fertile valleys and mesas +to attract the ranchman, who would find on the western slopes of the +mountains an unfailing water supply for his reservoirs and ditches. Ford +did not hesitate to predict that within a short time the extension would +earn more, mile for mile, than the grain-belt portion of the system. + +When he sat down he felt that his cause was lost. There was no +enthusiasm, no approval, in the faces of his auditors. After a short and +informal discussion, in which the engineer was called on to explain his +plans and estimates in detail to one and another of the members, Magnus, +the bank president, sufficiently summed up the sense of the meeting when +he said: + +"There is no question about the ingenuity of your plan, Mr. Ford. You +must have given a great deal of time and thought to it. But it is rather +too large for us, I'm afraid, and there are too many contingencies. Your +province, I understand, is the building and operating of railroads, and +it is nothing to your discredit that you are unfamiliar with the +difficulties of financing an undertaking as vast as this proposal of +yours." + +"I don't deny the difficulties," said Ford. "But they wouldn't seem to +be insuperable." + +"Not from your point of view," rejoined the banker suavely. "But you +will admit that they are very considerable. The opposition on the part +of the competing systems would be something tremendous. No stone would +be left unturned in the effort to dismount us. To go no further into the +matter than the proposed purchase of the majority stocks in the three +short roads: at the first signal in that field you would find those +stocks flying skyward in ten-point advances, and your five millions +wouldn't be a drop in the bucket. In view of the difficulties, I think I +voice the conviction of the board when I say that the plan is too +hazardous." + +The nods of assent were too numerous to leave Ford any hope of turning +the tide in his favor. He rose, gathered up his papers, and reached for +his hat. + +"It is very pointedly your own funeral, gentlemen," he said curtly. +"'Nothing venture, nothing have' is an old proverb, but it is as true +now as it was when it was coined. With P. S-W. stock at thirty-eight and +steadily declining; with another dividend about to be passed; and with +the certainty that the July interest on the bonds will have to be +defaulted unless some compromise can be effected with the bondholders--" + +"What's that you're saying?" broke in Mackie, whose P. S-W. holdings were +large. + +Ford drew a folded paper from his pocket and laid it on the table. + +"I was merely quoting from the auditor's semiannual report, of which +that is a summary," he said, indicating the folded paper. "The report +itself will doubtless reach you in a day or two. It would seem to an +unprejudiced observer that the present condition spells something like a +receivership, unless you have the bondholders with you." + +"One moment, Mr. Ford," interposed the banker member; but Ford was +working up to his climax and refused to be side-tracked. + +"Of course, as an officer of the company, I have felt in duty bound to +bring my grist first to the company's mill. But if you gentlemen don't +wish to grind it, it will be ground, notwithstanding. I could very +easily have found a market for my proposal without coming to New York." + +With which parting shot, and a word of apology for having taken the time +of the board to no good purpose, he bowed himself out, closing the door +upon a second attempt on the part of the banker member to renew the +argument. + + + + +VI + +THE AWAKENING OF CHARLES EDWARD + + +Ford went directly to his hotel from the meeting in the Broad Street +board room, paid his bill, and had himself shot up to the fifth floor to +prepare for a swift retreat from the scene of his humiliating defeat. It +was hardly in keeping with his boast of persistence that he should +suffer himself to be thus routed by a single reverse, however crushing. +But in a world where every problem contains its human factor, red wrath +accounts for much that is otherwise unaccountable. + +Ford was thoroughly and unreasoningly angry and disgusted when he began +to fling his belongings into the small steamer trunk, and it was only +natural that he should turn with a little brow-wrinkling of resentment +when, a little later, Mr. Charles Edward Adair, following his card up to +the fifth floor front, lounged good-naturedly into the room. + +"Beg pardon, I'm sure," said the intruder easily. "Didn't know you were +busy. I thought maybe you'd like to know the effect of your little +double-headed bombshell, and I couldn't be sure Uncle Sidney would take +the trouble to tell you." + +Ford made no effort to conceal his contempt for the financial gods. + +"I don't imagine it will take you very long to tell it," he retorted. +"Nothing short of a combined earthquake and volcanic eruption would have +any effect upon that crowd." + +"Oh, but you're wrong!" protested Adair. "That shot of yours with the +semiannual summary for a projectile stirred 'em up good. It seems that +Uncle Sidney and Hertford and Morelock--they're the executive committee, +you know--have had the auditor's figures for some days, but they hadn't +thought it necessary to harrow the feelings of the other members of the +board with the cataclysmic details. So there was a jolly row. Magnus +wanted to know, top-loftily, why a small official from the farther end +of the system should be the first to bring the news; and Mackie was so +wrathy that he inadvertently put the hot end of his cigar in his mouth. +Even Connolly woke up enough to say that it was blanked bad politics." + +"But nothing came of it?" said Ford, hope rising in spite of the +negative query. + +"No; nothing but a general hand-out of pretty sharp talk. What was +needed right then was a unifier--somebody who could take command and +coax or bully the scrapping factions into line. Magnus tried it, but +he's too smooth. Brewster was the man, but he has too many other and +bigger irons in the fire to care much about P. S-W. Connolly could have +done it if the scrap had been a political split, but he was out of his +element." + +"Humph!" growled Ford. "It didn't occur to me that there were any +differences of opinion to be reconciled. The entire board sat on my +proposition--as a unit." + +Adair laughed with imperturbable good-humor. + +"The factions were there, just the same. You see, it's like this: +Brewster and Magnus and two or three more are pretty well-to-do, and +their holdings in P. S-W. don't cut much of a figure with them, one way +or another. The others have more stock in the company, and fewer +millions. When the jangle came, Brewster and the heavy men said, 'Oh, +let it go; it isn't worth bothering with.' Naturally, the little +fellows, with more to lose and less money-nerve, said, 'No.'" + +"It spells the same word for me, in any event," Ford commented, and went +on pitching things into his steamer trunk. + +Adair got upon his feet and strolled away to the window. + +When he turned again to face the beaten one he said: + +"If I wasn't so infernally lazy, Mr. Ford, I more than half believe that +I could pull this thing off for you, myself. But that is the curse of +being born with too much money. I can take a plunge into business now +and then--I've done it. But my best friend couldn't bet on me two days +in succession." + +Ford looked up quickly. + +"Then don't put your hand to this plow, Mr. Adair. I'll be frank with +you. I can fit the mechanical parts of this scheme of mine together, so +that they will run true and do business. But I, or any man in my place, +would have to have solid backing here in New York; a board that would be +as aggressive as a handful of rebels fighting for life, and every man of +it determined to win out or smash something. Mr. Magnus spoke of the +opposition we should encounter from our competitors. He might have said +more. What the Transcontinental, for example, wouldn't do to obliterate +us needn't be catalogued. How do you suppose the present P. S-W. board +would fare in such a fight?" + +The youngest member of the flouted board laughed again. + +"You mustn't say in your wrath that all men are liars--or cowards. There +is plenty of fight in our crowd; and plenty of money, too, if you could +only get it sufficiently scared." + +"I've done my best," said Ford, slamming the lid of the trunk and +buckling the straps vigorously. "The next time I'll find my market first +and build my scheme afterward." + +"Well, if I can say it without offense, I'm honestly sorry for you, Mr. +Ford; you've been butchered to make a Broad Street holiday," said Adair, +lounging toward the door. "You are going back to the West, I suppose?" + +"Yes." + +"What line?" + +"Pennsylvania; five-ten this afternoon." + +"That is a long time between drinks. Suppose you come up to the club and +have luncheon with me?" + +Ford hesitated, watch in hand. + +"I was about to lie to you, Mr. Adair, and plead business; but I shan't. +I'll tell you the plain truth. I'm too sore just now to be any good +fellow's good company." + +"Which is precisely the reason why I asked you," laughed the golden +youth. "Come on; let's go now. You can take it out on me as much as you +like, you know. I shan't mind." + +But the club luncheon ignored the business affair completely, as Adair +intended it should. Ford came out of the shell of disappointment with +the salad course, and by way of reparation for his former attitude +talked rather more freely of himself than he was wont to do on such +short acquaintance with any one. The young millionaire met him quite +half-way on this road to a better understanding, contrasting with mild +envy Ford's well-filled, busy life with his own erratic efforts at +time-killing. + +"You make me half sorry for myself," he said, when they went to the +smoking-room to light their cigars. "It's no less than a piteous +misfortune when a fellow's father has beaten all the covers of +accomplishment for him." + +Ford could laugh now without being bitter. + +"The game isn't all corralled, even for you, Mr. Adair. There was +excellent good shooting for you in that directors' meeting this morning, +but you wouldn't take the trouble." + +"That's the fact," was the easy-going rejoinder. "That is just what my +sister is always telling me--that I won't take the trouble. And yet I do +take the trouble to begin a lot of things; only they never seem worth +while after a few days' dip into them." + +"Pick out bigger ones," suggested Ford. "My trouble is just the other +way about; I am always tackling things that are worlds too big for +me--just as I have this time." + +"It isn't too big for you, Mr. Ford. It was too big for Colbrith, +Magnus, _et al_. And, besides, you're not going to give it up. You'll +drop off in Chicago, hunt up some meat-packer or other Croesus, and +land your new railroad independently of the P. S-W." + +It was a measure of the sincerity of Ford's liking for his host when he +said: "That little shot of mine at your colleagues was merely a long +bluff. If my scheme can't be worked with the P. S-W., it can't well be +worked without it. We are lacking the two end-links in the chain--which +I could forge. But my two end-links without the middle one wouldn't +attract anybody." + +It was quite late in the afternoon when they left the club, and Ford had +no more than time to check his luggage and get to his train. He wondered +a little when Adair went with him to the ferry, and was not ungrateful +for the hospitality which seemed to be directed toward a lightening of +the burden of failure. But Adair's word of leave-taking, flung across +the barrier when the chains of the landing-stage were rattling to their +rise, was singularly irrelevant. + +"By the way, Mr. Ford; what time did you say your train would reach +Chicago?" + +"At eight forty-five to-morrow evening," replied the beaten one; and +then the boat swung out of its slip and the retreat without honor was +begun. + + + + +VII + +HAMMER AND TONGS + + +It was raining dismally the evening of the following day when Ford saw +from his Pullman window the dull sky-glow of the metropolis of the +Middle West. It had been a dispiriting day throughout. When a man has +flung himself at his best into a long battle which ends finally in +unqualified loss, the heavens are as brass, and the future is apt to +reflect only the pale light of the past failure. + +It was after the train had entered the suburbs of Chicago that a +blue-coated messenger boy came through the Pullman, with the car +conductor for his guide. Ford saw himself pointed out, and a moment +later was reading a telegram, with a tumult, not of the drumming car +wheels, roaring in his ears. + + Had a talk with my sister and made up my mind to see you + through--if I don't get tired and quit, as usual. Secure + options on that short-road stock quick, and wire me care McV. & M. + Funds to your credit in Algonquin National, Chicago. Another + directors' meeting to-day, and things look a little less chaotic. + Answer. ADAIR. + +For some time Ford could only read and re-read the exciting telegram, +scarcely trusting the evidence of his senses. That the coldly +indifferent members of the P. S-W. board, with a man like President +Colbrith at their head, could be swung into line in the short space of a +single day by a young fellow who seemed to be little more than a spoiled +son of fortune, was blankly incredible. + +But he was not long in realizing that the cherished scheme for which he +had studied and struggled was actually beginning to stagger to its feet; +or in reaching the equally stirring conclusion that his part in the +suddenly reopened game called instantly for shrewd blows and the +swiftest possible action. + +The stock-holders in the three local roads which were to be united to +bridge the Chicago-Missouri River gap were scattered all over the Middle +West. To secure the necessary options on working majorities of the stock +would be a task for a financial diplomat, and one who could break the +haste-making record by being in a dozen different places at one and the +same moment. Moreover, secrecy became a prime factor in the problem. If +the opposition, and particularly the Transcontinental people, should +get wind of the move, it would take fifteen millions to do the work of +five, as Banker Magnus had intimated. + +Notwithstanding the thickly marshaled obstacles, Ford had his plan of +campaign pretty well thought out by the time his train was slowing into +the Union Station. Before going to New York he had painstakingly +"located" the required holdings of the three stocks. Some of them were +in Chicago, but the greater number of the men to be bargained with were +local capitalists living in the smaller cities along the lines of the +three short railroads. + +In his bag was a carefully compiled list of these stock-holders, with +their addresses and the amounts of their respective holdings. At the +worst, he concluded, it should mean nothing more formidable than a deal +of quick traveling, some anxious bargaining, perhaps, and a little +finesse to keep his object in securing the options safely in the +background. + +This was how it appeared in the prospect; and the young engineer had yet +to learn that the securing of options is a trade by itself--a trade by +no means to be caught up in passing, even by the most gifted of tyros. + +Hence, it was extremely fortunate for this particular tyro--more +fortunate than he could possibly know at the moment--that his telephone +message sent from the first telephone he could reach after his train +stopped in the Union Station, caught Kenneth at the Green Bag Club. It +was a mere chance that he knew that Kenneth, the senior member of the +firm of attorneys having general oversight of the Pacific Southwestern's +legal department, was at the moment in Chicago; a chance hanging upon +the fact that he had met Kenneth as he was passing through on his way +eastward. But it was not by chance that the first familiar face he saw +on entering the rotunda of the Grand Pacific Hotel was that of Kenneth. +The sight was merely the logical result of Ford's urgent request +telephoned to the lawyer's club. + +"By Jove, Kenneth; this comes within two inches of being a miracle!--my +catching you here before you had started West," Ford ejaculated. And +then: "When are you going back?" + +"I am supposed to be on the way now," was the lawyer's reply. "I had +made all my arrangements to start back to-night on the slow train, but I +dined with some friends on the North Side and made a miss. Where have +you been?" + +"I'm just in from New York. Let me register and get a room; and you put +away any lingering notion you may have of heading westward to-night. +I've got to have your ear for a few hours to begin with, and the whole +of you for the next few days. No; don't probe me here. Wait, and I'll +unload on you gradually. You won't be sorry you missed your train." + +Fifteen minutes later Ford had his adviser safely behind a closed door, +and had put him succinctly in possession of the world-subverting facts, +as far as they went. When he concluded, the lawyer was shaking his head +dubiously, just as Auditor Evans had done. + +"Ford, have you any adequate idea of what a tremendous proposition you +are up against?" he asked quietly, helping himself to a cigar out of the +engineer's freshly opened box. + +"I don't believe I have underrated the difficulties, any of them," said +Ford, matching the attorney's gravity. "There are bones all the way +along, but I think I have struck the biggest of them just here. I ought +to be in a dozen places at once, and not later than to-morrow noon. +That's something I can't quite compass." + +"Getting these options, you mean? That is very true; but it isn't all of +it, by long odds. There are the thousand and one mechanical details to +be worked out: the coupling up of these three local lines at their +connecting points, the securing of proper trackage or trackage rights at +these junctions, the general ordering of things so that a through line +may be opened immediately when the stock is secured. If there were ten +of you, you couldn't get things licked into shape in time to get in on +the grain carrying this season." + +Ford had relighted his cigar, which had gone out in the explanatory +interval, and was blowing smoke-rings toward the ceiling. + +"I may be the biggest ass this side of the jack trails, and the most +conceited, Kenneth; but you're over on my side of the ring when you talk +about the mechanical obstacles. What I'm worrying about now is the fact +that I can't do two things at once. The options must be secured before +we can make the fifth part of a move in the other field; and the Lord +only knows how long that will take. To hurry is to lose out." + +The lawyer nodded. "And not to hurry is to lose out, too," he qualified. +Then he smoked in thoughtful silence for five full minutes before he +said, abruptly: "Give me your list of stock-holders and turn the option +business over to the legal department, where it properly belongs. That +will leave you foot-loose to go after the mechanical matter. How does +that suit you?" + +Ford sprang to his feet. + +"By Jove, Kenneth, you're a man and a brother; I'm not forgetting that +you are taking this entire fairy tale on my personal say-so; and I +shan't forget it, either. It's what I wanted to ask--and was afraid to +ask, after I got you safely jailed up here." + +The attorney's smile was grim but friendly. + +"I'm not forgetting how you took a sick man over into the Pannikin +wilderness on a two-months hunting trip last fall and made a well man of +him, Ford," he said. "Any man who can shoot as straight as you do +wouldn't be sitting here telling me lies about a trifling little matter +involving the expenditure of a beggarly thirty-five millions. But to +come down to earth again: you haven't shifted any considerable part of +the burden, you know. I can do this bit of routine work; but the main +thing is up to you, just as it was before I said yes." + +Ford rose, stretching himself like a man who has just been relieved of a +burden whose true weight was appreciable only in its lifting. + +"I know," he said cheerfully. "It has been up to me, all along. In the +morning we'll go around to the Algonquin National, and I'll put you into +the financial saddle. Then I'll get out on the line, and by the time you +have the stock corralled, we'll be practically ready to pull through +freight--if not passengers--from Denver to Chicago. Oh, I know what I am +talking about," he added, when the general counsel smiled his +incredulity. "This is no affair of yesterday with me. I have every mile +of these three short roads mapped and cross-sectioned; I have copies of +all their terminal and junction-point contracts. I know exactly what we +can do, and what we can't do." + +The lawyer's comment was frankly praiseful, not to say flattering. + +"You're a wonder, Ford--and that's no figure of speech. How on earth did +you manage to do it all at such long range?" + +Ford's smile was reminiscent of the obstacles. + +"It would take me all night to tell you in detail, Kenneth. But I did +it. It's no mere brag to say that I could walk into the Chicago, Peoria +& Davenport general offices here to-morrow morning and organize a +through service over the P. S-W. and the three stub lines within +twenty-four hours, if I had to." + +"Well, that part of it is far enough beyond me," said the attorney. "The +stock-chasing is more in my line. I hope we can keep quiet enough about +it so that the opposition won't guess what we are trying to do. You're +sure it won't be given away from the New York end?" + +It was the engineer's turn to shake his head and to look dubious. + +"Now you are shouting, Kenneth. I can't tell anything about it. You'll +remember that when I left New York the board had turned the plan down, +definitely and permanently, as I supposed. I should say that our only +safety lies in lightning speed. When you get the options on those +controlling stock majorities snugly on deposit in the Algonquin +National, we can draw our first long breath. Isn't that about the way it +strikes you?" + +"It is, precisely," agreed the general counsel, rising and finding his +hat. "And because it does strike me that way, I think I'll go down and +do a little telegraphing to-night." + +"Hold on a minute," said Ford, "and I'll give you a message to take +down, if you don't mind. I must answer Adair, and it won't do any harm +to prod him a little--on the secrecy side." + +Kenneth waited, with his hand on the door-knob, as it chanced. Hence the +opening of the door a minute or two later was quite without any +preliminary stir of warning in the room of conference. That was possibly +the reason why the lawyer almost fell over a man crouching in the +corridor. + +"Hello, there!" said Kenneth; "I beg your pardon." + +The man got upon his feet, exhibiting all the signs of intoxication. + +"Beg yoursh, I'm sure," he mumbled, and was lurching crookedly away when +the lawyer suddenly came to his senses and grabbed at him. The clutching +hand fell short, and there was an agile foot-race down the corridor, +fruitless for Kenneth, since the fugitive suddenly developed sobriety +enough to run like a deer. Beaten in the foot-race, Kenneth went back +for a word with Ford. + +"The battle is on," was the form the word took. "There was a man here, +listening at the key-hole, when I opened the door. How much he overheard +we'll be likely to find out to-morrow when we begin to pull the strings. +Thought I'd give you the pointer. Good night, again." + + + + +VIII + +THE AUTOMATIC AIR + + +Set out in cold type, Ford's itinerary for the four days following his +conference with Kenneth would read like the abbreviated diary of a man +dodging the sheriff. His "ticker" memorandum for that period is still in +existence, but the notes are the hurried strokes of the pen of haste, +intelligible, we may say, only to the man who made them. To quote: + +"Thursday, nine a.m., Peoria--see Sedgwick; ten--make trackage +contract with T.P. & W.; eleven a.m., Davenport--inventory +motive power--see chief despatcher--get profiles and maps--get copies of +yard contracts--get crossing rights--get total tonnage of grain cars. +Three p.m., Hannibal--see Berdan and whip him into line--inspect +shops--get contracts--get--" + +But the string of "gets" fills the page, and is vital now to no living +soul of man, least of all to us who are interested only in finding out +if our young captain of industry actually did make good his boast of +flogging the three short roads into some semblance of a through line in +the brief interval at his disposal; and this without advertising to the +railroad world at large who he represented and what he was doing. + +He did it, and without a slip for which he could be held responsible. It +was a wire from the chief office of the Transcontinental in New York, a +telegram inspired by sundry leakages from Pacific Southwestern sources, +that gave him a silent and observant follower in all of his dodgings. Of +this, however, he was in blissful ignorance. Twice, indeed, he sat in +the same Pullman section with his "shadow," quite without suspecting it; +and once he was saved from disaster--also without suspecting it. + +It was at a way station in Missouri, and the section-sharing traveling +companion, who had paid only for an hour's ride in the Pullman, was +leaving the train. His hand-bag chanced to be the exact counterpart of +Ford's: what more natural than that he should make the mistake of taking +the wrong one? Ford caught him in the vestibule, and there was a +reexchange, accompanied by grateful acknowledgments and profuse +apologies from the debarking one. Ford, immersed fathoms deep in his +problems, thought nothing of it; but a moment lost would have been a +cause lost, if he had guessed it. For the mistake was no mistake, and +the hand-bag rescued contained documents for which the Transcontinental +Company would have paid a month's salary of its board of +vice-presidents, charging the amount, not to profit and loss, but rather +to salvage. + +It was on the fourth day of the campaign, while Ford was working his way +on an inspection trip over the third link in the short-lines chain, that +two telegrams overtook him. + +One was from Adair, announcing the tardy, but now certain triumph of the +expansionist faction in the board of P. S-W. directors, and begging +pathetically for news of the option-getting. The other was signed "K," +and Ford had a sharp attack of joy when he read it. The attorney had +been successful at all points. The necessary stock majorities were +secured and the certificates were safely on deposit in the Algonquin +National Bank, in Chicago. What remained was only a matter of routine, +provided the P. S-W. bidders would furnish the capital for the purchases. + +Ford swamped the local operator at the next way station with a thick +sheaf of "rush" telegrams, left the west-bound train at the first +cross-road junction, and caught a night express on a fast line for +Chicago. Kenneth was waiting for him at the hotel; and after breakfast +there was another telegram from Adair. Matters were still progressing +favorably, and President Colbrith, traveling in his private car, +"Nadia," _via_ the Lake Shore, would be in Chicago the following +morning to take final action in the stock purchases. + +Ford gave the message to Kenneth, and the attorney drummed softly on the +table with his finger-tips when he read the announcement. + +"We are in for it now," he said with a grimace of dismay. "If Mr. +Colbrith doesn't manage to queer the whole deal, it will be because he +has suffered a complete change of heart." + +Ford answered the grimace with a scowl, and the masterful side of him +came uppermost. + +"What in the name of common sense were they thinking of to send him out +here?" he gritted. + +The general counsel laughed. + +"You don't know Mr. Colbrith as well as I do, I fancy," he suggested. +"He is rather hard to suppress. He'll be president until his successor +is elected--or he'll know all the reasons why." + +"Well, I hope you've got everything straight in the option business," +said Ford. "If there is so much as a hair displaced, he will be sure to +find it." + +"It is all straight enough," was the confident rejoinder. "Only I had to +bid five points over the market on odd lots of the stock. I'm not sure, +but I think the Transcontinental people got wind of us during the last +day or two and bid against us." + +"But you have safe majorities?" + +"Oh, yes; we are all in." + +"Good," said Ford. "That puts it up to Mr. Colbrith, at all events. And +now, while we have a clear day before us, I want to go over these +C. P. & D. terminal contracts with you. Right here in Chicago is where +the Transcontinental will try hardest to balk us. The C. P. & D. has +trackage rights to the elevators; but I want to be sure that the +contracts will hold water under a transfer of ownership." + +Subjected to legal scrutiny, the contracts promised to be defensible, +and Ford came through the day with his apprehensive burdens considerably +lightened. After dinner he took his papers to Kenneth's room, and +together they went carefully over all the legal points involved in the +welding of the three local lines into the Pacific Southwestern system, +Ford furnishing the data gathered by him during the four days. + +Kenneth was shrewdly inquisitive, as his responsibilities constrained +him to be, and it was deep in the small hours when Ford made his escape +and went to bed. By consequence, he was scarcely more than half awake +the next morning, when he dressed hurriedly and hastened over to the Van +Buren Street station to see if the president's car had arrived. + +The Nadia was in and side-tracked, with a sleepy porter on guard. Ford +climbed to the platform and asked for the president. + +"Yas, suh; dis is Mr. Colbrith's cyar; but he don't see no newspapuh +men--no, suh. Besides, dey's just gettin' up," was the rebuff; but Ford +ignored it. + +"'They?' Then Mr. Colbrith isn't alone?" + +"No, suh; got a pahty 'long with him--a young gentleman and two ladies; +yes, suh. Mr. Colbrith nebber goes nowhah's 'dout he teks a pahty in de +cyar." + +"Heavens!" groaned Ford, under his breath; "as if the thing wasn't +complicated enough without making a picnic of it!" Then aloud. "I wish +to go in. My name is Ford, and Mr. Colbrith is expecting me." + +"Sho' you isn't a newspapuh man?" + +"Of course not," said Ford shortly. + +"All right, suh," said the negro; and he made way and opened the door. + +The Nadia was a commodious hotel on wheels, with a kitchen and buffet +forward, four state-rooms opening upon a narrow side vestibule, and a +large dining and lounging room looking out through full-length windows +upon a deep, "umbrella-roofed" platform at the rear. + +There was no one in the large compartment when Ford reached it; but a +moment later a door opened and closed in the vestibule, and Adair made +his appearance. Ford drew a breath of relief and shook hands with his +backer. + +"I'm glad it's you, Mr. Adair. I've been scenting all sorts of +hindrances since the porter told me there was a party aboard." + +The young man without an avocation dropped into the easiest of the +wicker chairs and felt in his pockets for his cigarette case. + +"Your prophetic soul didn't deceive you any," he laughed. "The +hindrances are here in full force. It is one of Uncle Sidney's notions +never to travel without a tail like a Highland chieftain's. I had a +foreboding that he'd ask somebody, so I took it upon myself to fill up +his passenger list with Aunt Hetty, my sister, and my uncle's nephew." + +"I understand," said Ford, and would have plunged forthwith into the +business pool; but Adair stopped him with a gesture of dismay. + +"Not before breakfast, if you love me, my dear fellow!" he protested, +with a little grimace that instantly set the reminiscent part of Ford's +brain at work. "After I've had something to eat--" + +The interruption was the noiseless entrance of a motherly little lady in +gray, with kindly eyes and a touch of silver in the fair hair drawn +smoothly back from her forehead. + +"This is Mr. Stuart Ford, I am sure," she said, giving her hand to the +young engineer before Adair could introduce him. "You look enough like +your father to make me recognize you at once." + +Ford was a little embarrassed by the gratefully informal greeting. + +"Ought I to remember you, Mrs. Adair?" he asked ingenuously. + +"Oh, no, indeed. I knew your father as a young man before he married and +went to the farther West. The Fords and the Colbriths and the Stanbrooks +are all from the same little town in central Illinois, you know." + +"I didn't know it," said Ford, "though now I recall it, I used often to +hear my father speak of Miss Hester Stanbrook." Then he was going on to +say that trite thing about the smallness of the world when Adair broke +in. + +"I'd like to know what is keeping Uncle Sidney and Alicia. _I_ haven't +had breakfast yet." + +As if his protest had evoked her, a young woman drew the portiere of the +vestibule--a young woman with bright brown hair, eyes like dewy wood +violets, and an adorable chin. Ford stared helplessly, and Adair +laughed. + +"Shocked, aren't you?" he jested. "But you needn't be alarmed. I have +persuaded my sister not to prosecute in the case of the snatched purse. +Alicia, this is Mr. Stuart Ford, and he desires me to say that he is not +often reduced to the necessity of robbing unprotected young women for +the sake of scraping an acquaintance." + +Ford lost sight of the Pacific Southwestern exigencies for the moment, +and surely the lapse was pardonable. If the truth must be told, this +young woman, who had been discovered and lost in the same unforgetable +evening, had stirred the neglected pool of sentiment in him to its +profoundest depths, and thoughts of her had been dividing time pretty +evenly with some parts of the strenuous business affair. Indeed, the +hopelessness of any effort toward rediscovering her had been one of his +reasons for hurrying away from New York. He knew himself--a little--and +that quality of unreasoning persistence which other people called his +strong point. The search he had been half-minded to make once begun-- + +"I hope you haven't forgotten me so soon, Mr. Ford," she was saying; and +he recovered himself with a start. + +"Forgotten you? No, indeed!"--this with almost lover-like emphasis. +"I--I think I am just a trifle aghast at my good luck in finding you +again. It seemed so utterly hopeless, you know. Don't you think--" + +But now the president had stalked in, and his high querulous voice was +marshaling the party breakfastward. Ford manoeuvered skilfully in the +pairing off, and so succeeded in securing Miss Adair for a companion on +the short walk across to the Grand Pacific. + +"You were about to ask me something when Uncle Sidney interrupted you," +she prompted, when they were clear of the throng in the station +vestibule. + +"Yes; I was going to ask if you don't think it was unnecessarily cruel +to send me that note of thanks unsigned." + +"Cruel?" she echoed, and her laugh was so exactly a replica of her +brother's that Ford wondered why the reminiscent arrow had not gone at +once to its mark. "How absurd! What possible difference could it make?" + +"It made a lot of difference to me," said Ford, refusing to be brushed +aside. "How did you expect I was ever going to be able to find you +again, without even your name as a clue?" + +She glanced up at him with unfeigned interest. The men of her world were +not altogether unappreciative; neither were they so primitively +straightforward as this young industry captain out of the West. + +"It is not impossible that I never thought of your finding me again," +she said, and only the tone saved it from being a small slap in the +face. + +Ford took the rebuff as a part of the day's work. + +"Perhaps you didn't," he admitted. "But I mean to go on hoping that you +did." + +"The idea!" she scoffed; but this time she blunted the keen edge of the +rebuke by adding: "I thought, perhaps, we might meet again, sometime. +You see, we are all stock-holders in the Pacific Southwestern; my +brother, Aunt Hetty and I; and Uncle Sidney had shown us a letter--it +was from Mr. North, I think--saying that you were likely to come to New +York with some kind of a plan of reorganization. So when you gave me +your card, I knew at once who you were." + +Ford made an immediate mental note of the bit of information implicating +Mr. North, but did not allow himself to be diverted by the business +affair. + +"Yes, I know; but that didn't help me a little bit," he protested, +wishing that the distance to the hotel were twice as far. + +"That was just because it happened so; you ran away before my brother +had a chance to offer you any hospitality," she explained. Then, before +he could say any more straightforward things: "Tell me, Mr. Ford; are +you really going to find something to interest brother?--something that +will keep him actually and enthusiastically busy for more than a few +days at a time?" + +Ford laughed. "I fancy he hasn't been bored for the lack of work since I +left New York, has he?" + +"No; and it has made such a difference! Won't you please try and keep +him going?" + +"You may rest assured that I shall do what I can. But you see he has +quit already." + +"By coming to Chicago with us? Oh, no, indeed; you are quite mistaken. +He is here to help you to--to 'minimize' Uncle Sidney; I think that is +the word he used. He was afraid you had been finding Uncle Sidney rather +difficult. Have you?" + +"I have, for a fact," said Ford, out of the depths of sincerity. And, +again out of a full heart: "Your brother is a brick, Miss Adair." + +"Isn't he?" and she laughed in sheer good comradeship. "If you can only +manage to make him rise to his capabilities--" + +"He'll never be able to live the simple life for a single waking hour," +said the engineer, finishing the sentence for her. + +"Oh, but that is a mistake!" she objected. "The very first requirement +is work; plenty of work of the kind one can do best." + +The short walk to the hotel, where Kenneth was waiting to go to +breakfast with the president's party, came to an end, and the social +amenities died of inanition. For one thing, President Colbrith insisted +upon learning the minutest ins and outs of the business matter, making +the table-talk his vehicle; and for another, Miss Adair's place was on +the opposite side of the table, and two removes from Ford's. Time and +again the young engineer tried to side-track business in the interests +of something a little less banal to the two women; but the president was +implacable and refused to be pulled out of the narrow rut of details; +was still running monotonously and raspingly in it when Kenneth glanced +at his watch and suggested that the time for action was come. + +After breakfast the party separated. Mrs. Adair and Miss Alicia were to +spend the day with friends in South Chicago, and Mr. Colbrith carried +the attorney off to his room to dig still deeper into the possible legal +complications which might arise out of the proposed transfer of the +three short roads. Ford and Adair sat in the lobby and smoked while they +were waiting for the president and the general counsel to conclude their +conference, and the young millionaire gave his companion the story of +the fight in the directory. + +"We have Brewster to thank for the lift which finally pulled our wheel +out of the mud," said the young man, modestly effacing himself in the +summing up. "Or rather I should say that we have the enemy to thank for +stirring Brewster into action. Brewster's got some copper mines out in +Utah that he nurses like a sick child. Just at the critical moment some +of the people who control the Transcontinental began to worry his copper +stock. In the hot part of it he came to me and said, 'Adair, will that +western extension of yours be able to fry any fat out of +Transcontinental?' I told him it would, most assuredly; that next to +making money for ourselves, and, incidentally, saving the Pacific +Southwestern from going smash, our chief object was to give the +Transcontinental a wholesome drubbing." + +"You are progressing rapidly," said Ford, with a grin of appreciation. +"Did that fetch him?" + +"It did, for a fact. He looked like one of those old bushy-bearded +vikings when he said, 'By thunder, I'm with you, young man! And I'll +answer for Scott and Magnus and Harding. Get your board together, and +we'll settle it to-day." + +Ford looked up quickly. "If Mr. Colbrith wasn't the chief of your family +clan, Adair, I could wish that we had this Mr. Brewster at the head of +things." + +The rejoinder was heartily prompt. "You don't wish it any more fervently +than I do, Ford. That is why I am here to-day. The board, in spite of +all that our handful of revolutionaries could do, has armed Uncle Sidney +with almost dictatorial powers in this stock-purchasing deal; and if he +doesn't contrive to strangle things by the slow process, it will be +simply and solely because you and Kenneth and I are here to see that he +does not. Do you know what the men call him out on the main line? When +they see the Nadia trundling in, they say, 'Here comes old Automatic +Air-Brakes.' And it fits him." + +"But I don't quite understand why he should want to put the brakes on +here and now," Ford interposed. "I know he is against the scheme, +personally; but he is here as the representative of a majority which has +committed itself to the expansion measure, isn't he?" + +"Oh, yes; and he has no thought of playing the traitor--you mustn't +think that of him. But it isn't in his nature to facilitate things. In +the present crisis he will feel that he is personally responsible for +the expenditure of five million dollars. He will examine and +investigate, and probe and pry, and will want to worry through every +pen-scratch which has been made up to date." + +"Well, there is one comfort; he can't take much time for his worrying," +said Ford. "Some of the options expire to-morrow noon." + +Adair sat up as one who suddenly takes notice. + +"What?--to-morrow? Land of glory! but you two fellows took short +chances! Why, any little hitch--" + +"I know," said the engineer evenly. "But we took what we could get--and +were thankful. Somebody was bidding against us, and prices began to +jump. Incidentally, I may say that Kenneth deserves to be made a +vice-president of the new company, at the very least. He has done ten +men's work in the last three or four days." + +"I don't doubt it. Neither do I suspect you of loafing. For that matter, +I've been hustling a few lines, myself, since I sent you that first +telegram." + +"Do you find it exciting enough to keep you interested, as far as you've +gone?" inquired Ford, mindful of Miss Alicia's longings. + +"It's the best yet," declared the idler. "Only, you mustn't lean too +heavily on me, you know. I'm the most uncertain quantity you ever +experienced. But here comes Uncle Sidney, with a cowed and brow-beaten +Kenneth in tow--say your prayers, and get ready for the battle royal." + + + + +IX + +THE RACE TO THE SLOW + + +Adair's prophecy that President Colbrith would prove himself an +obstructor of the stubbornest was amply fulfilled during the short +interval which remained for decisive action. Truly, in the battle for +business celerity the odds were three to one against Mr. Colbrith; yet +the three were as those who buffet the wind. The president must see and +feel, know and fully understand; and at the very last moment, when the +shortest of the options had no more than an hour to live, he was +proposing to summon General Manager North from Denver to make a fifth in +the council of discord. + +It was Adair who took the bull by the horns when the president's caution +was about to turn victory into defeat. What was said or done after the +young man drew Mr. Colbrith into the private committee-room at the bank +and shut the door, Ford and Kenneth, who were excluded, could only +surmise. But whatever was done was well done. When the two, uncle and +nephew, came out of the room of privacy, the old man was shaking his +head and the young one was smiling serenely. So it came about that +between eleven and twelve o'clock, when Ford, grimly battling to the +last, fought as one without hope, a few strokes of the pen opened the +doors upon the new creation; five million dollars, more or less, changed +hands, and the Pacific Southwestern took the long leap eastward from the +Missouri River to its new base in Chicago. + +"It's you for the hustle now, Ford," said Adair, linking arms with the +engineer when the quartet left the bank. "How soon do you think you can +get that first train-load of grain in transit?" + +"I wish I could tell you," said Ford. + +"Why can't you?" + +"Because it will depend very largely upon the authority Mr. Colbrith or +the board sees fit to give me. At present, you will remember, I am still +only a division superintendent--Mr. North's subordinate, in fact, and--" + +"Say it out loud," encouraged Adair. + +"I don't like to, but I suppose it can't be helped. Up to now I have +been acting under special orders, as you may say, in a purely financial +transaction. But my commission expired five minutes ago when the stock +deal went through. When it comes to issuing orders in the operating and +transportation department, I have no authority whatever. Mr. North is +general manager, and I suppose his jurisdiction will now be extended to +cover the new line, won't it?" + +"Not much!" retorted the amateur promoter. "You are going to be given a +free hand in this from the word go. From what I can learn, North has +been an obstructor, all along, hasn't he?" + +"I can't say that," said Ford, just, even to an enemy. "To be right +honest about it, I shall have to confess that I slurred him +entirely--went over his head." + +"For good reasons, no doubt, only you are too charitable to give them. +Never mind: as I say, you are going to have a free hand. This is your +pie and nobody else is going to cut it for you." And when the party +reached the hotel there was another conference of two behind closed +doors, in which Ford and the general counsel did not participate. + +An hour later, when Adair came down from the president's room, he thrust +a sheaf of penciled printers' copy into Ford's hands. + +"There you are," he said. "I've done the best I could for you on such +short notice--with Uncle Sidney trying his level best to get a cross +reference to the board before taking action. Get these circulars through +a print shop and into the mails. You'll see that one of them announces +your appointment, effective to-day, as Assistant to the President. That +was as far as Uncle Sidney could be dragged. It doesn't give you a +straight flush; but your hand will beat North's if it comes to a +show-down between you. Just the same, I shouldn't quarrel with North, if +I were you. Uncle Sidney thinks the sun rises and sets in him." + +Ford nodded, and while he was reading hastily through the sheaf of +pencilings a boy brought him a telegram. When he opened the envelope, +Kenneth had turned away. But Adair was looking on, and he did not fail +to remark the startling effect of the few typewritten words upon the +engineer. + +"Whereabouts does it hit us this time?" he inquired, lighting a fresh +cigarette. + +"In the neck," said Ford curtly. "The possibility occurred to me +yesterday--Pacific Southwestern stock being so badly scattered among +small holders. I wired a broker, a good friend of mine, to pick up a few +shares on my account. Here is what he says: 'Market bone dry. No +offerings of P. S-W. at any price.'" + +Adair whistled softly. "That's getting next to us with a vengeance!" he +commented. "And it can be done, too. Half a dozen of the small +stock-holders have been to me since the fire was lighted, trying to get +me to take their stock at market." + +"How much do we control--that we are sure of?" Ford asked. + +"I don't know--in figures. Not more than two-fifths, I should say. At +the last board meeting I proposed that we make a safe majority pool +among ourselves, but Uncle Sidney sat on me. Said his own personal +constituency among the little people was big enough amply to secure us." + +Ford swore pathetically. + +"The one single instance when his caution might have steered him +straight--and it went to sleep!" he raged. + +"Exactly," laughed Adair. "And now the Transcontinental moguls are +buying up a majority of their own, meaning to capture the main-line dog +and leaving us to wag the extension tail which we have just acquired. +Say, Ford; doesn't that appeal to your sense of humor?" + +"No, it doesn't," said Ford savagely. To see one's air-castles crumbling +at the very moment when they were to be transmuted into solid realities +is apt to provoke a reversion to type; and Ford's type was Gothic. + +"That's a pity," said Adair, absently rolling his cigarette between his +thumb and finger. "Also, it's another pity that I am such a hopeless +quitter. I believe I could pull this thing out yet, if I could only get +up sufficient steam." + +"For heaven's sake, tell me what you burn, and I'll furnish the fuel," +said Ford desperately. + +"Will you? I guess I need something pretty inflammatory." + +"Lord of love! haven't you good and plenty, without calling upon me? +Are you going to let these stock-jobbing land-pirates on 'Change gibbet +you as a solemn warning to aspiring young promoters?" + +Adair paused with the cigarette half way to his lips. "Ah," he said, +after a thoughtful moment. "Perhaps that was what I needed. No; they +will not gibbet any of us to-day; and possibly not to-morrow." Then, +with a sudden dropping of the mask of easy-going indifference: "Give me +the key to your room, and find me a swift stenographer. Then go over to +the Lake Shore headquarters and ask to have the Nadia coupled to the +evening train for New York." + +"But the president?" Ford began. "Didn't he say something about going +over these new lines on an inspection trip?" + +"Never mind Uncle Sidney: on this one occasion he will change his plans +and go back to New York with us," said Adair curtly. + +"Good," said Ford approvingly. "And how about opening the new through +line for business? Do we go on? Or do we hang it up until we find out +where we are 'at'?" + +"Don't hold it up a single minute. Drive it for all the power you can +get behind it. If we have to collide with things, let's do it with the +throttle wide open. Now find me that shorthand person quickly, will +you?" + +By what means the president was persuaded or coerced into doing the +thing he had not planned to do, Ford was not to know. But for that +matter, after carrying out Adair's instructions the engineer plunged at +once into his own Herculean task of reorganization, emerging only when +he made a tardy sixth at the president's dinner table in the hotel cafe +in the evening. + +The dinner, which the young engineer had been fondly counting upon as a +momentary relaxation from the heart-breaking business strain, was a +dismal failure on its social side. President Colbrith, as yet, it +appeared, in blissful ignorance of the latest news from New York, had +reserved the seat of honor for his new assistant, and the half-hour was +filled to overflowing with minute and cautionary definitions of the +assistant's powers and duties. + +Ford listened with a blank ear on that side. There was work to do, and +one man to do it. He did not care particularly to hear instructions +which he would probably have to disregard at the first experimental dash +into the new field. He meant to hold himself rigidly to account for +results; more than this he thought not even Mr. Colbrith had a right to +require. + +After dinner he indemnified himself for the kindergarten lecture by +boldly taking possession of Miss Adair for the short walk over to the +private car. The entire world of work was still ahead, and a corps of +expert stenographers was at the moment awaiting his return to the C. P. +& D. offices, where he had established temporary headquarters; but he +shut the door upon the exigencies and listened to Miss Alicia. + +"I am so sorry we are not going to be here to see your triumph," she was +saying; adding: "It is a triumph, isn't it?"' + +"Only a beginning," he amended. "And it won't be spectacular, if we can +help it. Besides, this east-end affair is only a preliminary. A little +later on, if our tackle doesn't break, we shall land the really big fish +for which this is only the bait." + +"Shall you never be satisfied?" she asked jestingly. And then, more +seriously: "What is your ambition? To be able to buy what your neighbor +can not afford?" + +"Big money, you mean? No, I think not. But I like to win, as well as +other men." + +"To win what?" + +"Whatever seems worth winning--this fight, in the present instance, and +the consequent larger field. Later, enough money to enable me to think +of money only as a stepping-stone to better things. Later still, +perhaps--" + +He stopped abruptly, as though willing to leave the third desideratum in +the air, but she would not let him. + +"Go on," she said. "Last of all?" + +"Last of all, the love of a true woman." + +"Oh!" she scoffed, with a little uptilt of the admirable chin. "Then +love must come trailing along at the very end, after we have skimmed +the cream from all the other milk pans in orderly succession." + +"No," he rejoined gravely. "I put it clumsily--as I snatch purses. As a +matter of sober fact, love sets the mile-stones along any human road +that is worth traversing." + +She glanced up at him and the blue eyes were dancing. Miss Alicia Adair +knew no joy to compare with that of teasing, and it was not often that +the fates gave her such a pliable subject. + +"Tell me, Mr. Ford; is--is she pretty?" + +"She is beautiful; the most beautiful woman in the world, Miss Adair." + +"How fine! And, of course, she is a paragon of all the virtues?--an +angel without the extremely inconvenient wings?" + +"You have said it: and I have never doubted it from the moment I first +laid eyes on her." + +"Better and better," she murmured. Then: "She has money?" + +"I suppose she has; yes, she certainly has money. But that doesn't make +any difference--to her or to me." + +"It is simply idyllic!" was the ecstatic comment. "After all this there +remains but one other possible contingency. Has she a willing mind, Mr. +Ford?" + +They had reached the steps of the Nadia, and the others had gone within. +Ford looked soberly into the depths of the laughing eyes and said: "I +would give all my chances of success in this Pacific Southwestern affair +to be able to say 'yes' to that." + +The station gong was clanging the departure signal for the New York +train, and he swung her lightly up to the step of the car. + +"Good-by," she said, turning to smile down upon him. And then, "I don't +believe you, you know; not the least bit in the world." + +"Why don't you?" he demanded. + +"Because the woman doesn't live who would be worth such a sacrifice as +that would be--to Mr. Stuart Ford." + +And this was her leave-taking. + + + + +X + +THE SINEWS OF WAR + + +The general offices of the C. P. & D. Railway were crowded into a +half-dozen utilitarian rooms on the second floor of the company's +freight station building in the Chicago yards. In two of these rooms, +with a window outlook upon a tangle of switching tracks with their +shifting panorama of cars and locomotives, Ford set up his standard as +chief executive of the three "annexed" roads, becoming, in the eyes of +three separate republics of minor officials and employees, the arbiter +of destiny. + +Naturally, the announcement that their railroads had been swallowed +whole by the Pacific Southwestern had fallen as a thunderclap upon the +rank and file of the three local companies; and since, in railway +practice, a change of owners usually carries with it a sweeping change +in department heads, the service was instantly demoralized. + +During the first few hours of Ford's administration, therefore, the +wires were buzzing with hasty resignations; and those whose courage was +not whetted to the quitting point took a loose hold upon their duties +and waited to see what would happen. Under such chaotic conditions Ford +took his seat in the mean little office over the freight station, and +flung himself ardently into the task of bringing order out of the sudden +confusion. Effectively to support Adair and the reconstructionists on +the board it was critically necessary that there be immediate and +cheering news from the front. + +It was in the preliminary wrestle with disintegration that the young +engineer's gift of insight and his faculty of handling men as men stood +him in good stead. He was fresh from his trip over the new extension, on +which he had met and shrewdly appraised the men who were now his +subordinates. With the human field thus mentally mapped and +cross-sectioned he was enabled to make swift and sure selections, +cutting out the dead timber remorselessly, encouraging the doubtful, +reassuring the timid, assorting and combining and ordering until, at the +close of the second day of fierce toil, he was ready to make his first +report to Adair. + + Track connections at junction points completed to-day. General and + division operating and traffic departments in the saddle and + effectively organized. With proper cooeperation on part of General + Manager North, grain should begin to move eastward to-morrow. Can + get no satisfactory replies from North. Have him disciplined from + your end. Answer. FORD. + +To this telegram there was a prompt and voluminous reply from the seat +of war in the East. In a free fight on the Stock Exchange, a battle +royal generaled by Brewster and Magnus in which every inch of ground had +been sharply contested by brokers buying up P. S-W. in the interest of +principals unnamed, a majority of the Southwestern stock--safe but +exceedingly narrow--had been secured by the reconstructionists. + +In accordance with Ford's suggestion, North had been "called down" by +wire, and Ford was instructed to report instantly any failure of effort +on the part of the Denver headquarters to set the grain trains in +motion. + +Otherwise, and from the New York point of view, the situation remained +most hopeful. The fight in the Street had unified the factions in the +board of directors, and even the timid ones were beginning to clamor for +an advance into the territory of the enemy. + +Ford read Adair's letter-length and most unbusiness-like telegram with +the zest of the fine wine of triumph tingling in his blood. With the +Chicago outlet fairly open and in working order, and a huge tributary +grain crop to be moved, it should be only a matter of days until the +depressed Pacific Southwestern stock would begin to climb toward the +bonding figure. + +This was the first triumphant conclusion, but afterward came reaction +and a depressive doubt. Would the stock go up? Or would the enemy devise +some assault that would keep it down in spite of the money-earning, +dividend-promising facts? Upon the expected rise hung the fate of Ford's +cherished ambition--the building of the western extension. Without a +dividend-paying Chicago-Denver main line, there could be no bond issue, +no thirty millions for the forging of the third and most important link +in the great traffic chain. + +Ford walked the floor of his office, called by courtesy, "private," for +an anxious hour, balancing the probabilities, and finally determined to +take the desperate chance. There was a vast mountain of preliminary work +to be leveled, huge purchasing expenses to be incurred, before the first +step could be taken in the actual building of the western extension; and +the summer was advancing day by day. He did not hope to get the +extension completed in a single season. But to get it over into the +promising mining field on the lower Pannikin before snow-flying meant +work of the keenest, without the loss of a single day. Could he afford +to play the safe game and wait until the building capital should be +cannily in Mr. Magnus' bank vaults? + +He decided that he could not; and when he reached a decision, Ford was +not the man to hesitate before taking the plunge. On the morning of the +third day he called Truitt, sometime superintendent of the C. P. & D., +and now acting manager of the Chicago Extension, and gave him his +instructions. + +"You say there are three grain trains moving on the line now, Mr. +Truitt: there will be three more before night. Keep them coming, and +give them the right of way over everything but the United States mails. +Can you handle this without help from me?" + +"We'll give it a pretty stiff try," was the prompt rejoinder. "But you +are not going to leave us, are you, Mr. Ford?" + +"No; but for the next forty-eight hours I am going to lock my door, and +I don't want to be disturbed for anything less than a disaster or a wire +from New York. Please give orders accordingly, will you?" + +The orders were given; and, left with his force of stenographers, Ford +began to walk the floor, dictating right and left. Letters and telegrams +to steel mills, to contractors, to bridge builders, to the owners of +grading outfits, and to labor agencies, clicked out of the typewriters +in a steady and unbroken stream, and the din was like that of a +main-line telegraph office on a hot piece of track. + +All day long, and far into the night, the office force wrought +unceasingly, digging away at the mountain of preliminary correspondence; +and by the next morning the wire replies were beginning to come in. + +Then came the crux. To insure prompt delivery of material, definite +orders must be placed immediately. A delay of a single day might entail +a delay of weeks in the shipments. Yet the risk of plunging the company +into debts it might never be able to pay was appalling. What if the +stock should not go up as prefigured?--if the bonds could not be +floated? + +It was with the feeling that he might well be signing his own +death-warrant that Ford put his name to the first order for two hundred +thousand dollars' worth of steel rails for immediate delivery to the +company's line in Chicago. But after the first cold submergence it came +more easily, and when he left the office an hour before midnight, a cool +million would not have covered the obligations he had assumed during the +strenuous day. + +Kenneth was sitting up for him when he reached his hotel, and the +usually impassive face of the general counsel reflected trouble. + +"Out with it," said Ford wearily; and suddenly the new million of +indebtedness became a mountain weight to grind him to powder. + +"We're blocked," was the brief announcement. "Two of the grain trains +are in, and the Transcontinental lawyers have won the toss. We're +enjoined by the court from using the service tracks to the elevators. +Didn't your local people tell you?" + +"No," said Ford. "I had given orders that I was not to be disturbed. But +what of it? You expected something of the sort, didn't you?" + +"Yes; and I provided for it. The injunction will be dissolved when we +have our final hearing; but long before that time the mischief will be +irreparable, I'm afraid." + +"How?" + +"It will be blazoned far and wide that we can't deliver the goods--that +the opposition has done us up. I've tried to keep it out of the +newspapers, or, rather, to persuade them not to make too much of it. But +it wouldn't go. The Transcontinental has all the pull in this town, it +appears." + +"And you think it will affect the price of the stock?" + +"It is bound to, temporarily, at least. And coming upon the heels of +to-day's sudden tumble--" + +"What's that?" demanded Ford, dry-lipped, adding: "I haven't seen a +paper since morning." + +Kenneth wagged his head gloomily. "It's pretty bad. P. S-W. closed at +thirty-three--five points off yesterday's market." + +"Good Lord!" Ford's groan was that of a man smitten down in the heat of +the fight. "Say, Kenneth, within a single sweep of the clock-hands I +have contracted for more than a million dollars' worth of material for +the western extension--more than a million dollars' worth!" + +"Well, I'm afraid you have sinned in haste to repent at leisure," said +the lawyer, with a weary man's disregard for the amenities. Then he +added: "I'm going to bed. I've had about all I can stand for one day." + +Ford went to the room clerk for his key; reeled would be the better +word, since his brain was whirling. There was a telegram in his box, and +he tore it open with fresh and sharper misgivings. It was from Adair. + + The sick man's getting sicker. What is the matter with your + prescription? Stock gone off five points, and the bears are + squeezing us to beat the band. Stories flying on the Street that we + are a kite without an effective tail; that the courts will keep us + out of the elevators. What do you say? + +Ford consulted his watch. There was barely time to catch the midnight +train for New York, and his determination was taken on the spur of the +moment. It was all or nothing, now. + +Hastily writing a wire to the cashier of the Denver bank where he kept +his personal account, and another to Adair, and leaving brief notes for +Kenneth and Truitt, he took a cab and had himself driven at a gallop to +the Union Station. He was the last man through the platform gates, but +he made his train, and was settling himself in the sleeper when another +telegram was thrust into his hand. This was from Frisbie, at Saint's +Rest; and that it brought more bad news might be argued from the way in +which he crushed it slowly in his hand and jammed it into his pocket. On +this day, if never before, he was proving the truth of the old adage +that misfortunes do not come singly. + +Upon arriving in New York late the following evening, he had himself +driven to the Waldorf, where he found Adair waiting for him. A few words +sufficed to outline the situation, which the lapse of another day had +made still more desperate. So far from recovering, the falling stock had +dropped to twenty-nine and a half, and there was every indication that +the bottom was not yet reached. + +"How do you account for it?" asked Ford, when the dismal tale had been +told. + +"Oh, it's easy enough, when you know how," was the light-hearted +rejoinder. "As I wired you, there was something of a scramble on the +floor of the Exchange last week when we were fighting to find out +whether we should control our own majority or let the Transcontinental +have it. Our pool got its fifty-one per cent. all right, but in the +nature of things the enemy stood as the next largest stock-holder in +P. S-W., since they'd been buying right and left against us. Now, since +we don't need any more, and nobody else wants it, all the +Transcontinental people have to do is to unload on the market, and down +she goes." + +Ford looked incredulous, and then wrathful. + +"Adair, tell me: did I have to stop my work when my time is worth fifty +dollars a minute, and come all the way to New York to tell you folks +what to do?" he demanded. + +Adair's laugh was utterly and absolutely care-free. + +"It looks that way, doesn't it? Have you got the compelling club up your +sleeve, as usual?" + +"A boy might carry it--and swing it, too," was the disgusted answer. +"When does the board meet again? Or has it concluded to lie down in the +harness?" + +"Oh, it gets together every morning--got the meeting habit, you know. +Everybody's in a blue funk, but we still have the daily round-up to swap +funeral statistics." + +"All right. Meet me here in the morning, and we'll go and join the +procession. Can you make it nine o'clock?" + +"Sure. It's too late to go home, and I'll stay here. Then you'll be +measurably certain that I can't escape. May I see the tip end of the +club?" + +"No," said Ford grumpily. "You don't deserve it. Go to bed and store up +a head of steam that will carry you through the hardest day's work you +ever hoped to do. Good night." + +They met again at the breakfast-table the following morning, and Ford +talked pointedly of everything save the P. S-W. predicament. One of +Adair's past fads had been the collecting of odd weapons; Ford +discovered this and drew the young man skilfully into a discussion of +the medieval secrets of sword-tempering. + +"I've a bit of the old Damascus, myself," said the engineer. "Tybee--he +was on the Joppa-Jerusalem road in the building--picked it up for me. +Curious piece of old steel; figured and flowered and etched and inlaid +with silver. There were jewels in the pommel once, I take it; the +settings are still there to show where some practical-turned vandal dug +them out." + +Adair was quite at a loss to guess how old swords and their histories +could bear upon the financial situation, but he was coming to know Ford +better. Some one has said that it is only the small men who are careful +and troubled on the eve of a great battle. So the talk was of ancient +weapons until the time for action arrived; and a smooth-faced gentleman +sitting at a near-by table and marked down by Ford--though not by Ford's +companion--listened for some word of enlightenment on the railroad +situation, and was cruelly disappointed. + +"Why wouldn't you talk?" asked Adair, when they were driving down-town +in the young millionaire's auto. "Or rather, why did you persist in +keeping me to the old swords?" + +Ford laughed. + +"For one reason, I enjoy the old swords--as a relaxation. For another, +Mr. Jeffers Hawley, who was once one of the Transcontinental lawyers in +Denver, was sitting just behind you, with eager ears. You didn't know +that. Hold on a minute; tell your man to stop at the Chemical Bank. I +want you to introduce me to the cashier." + +"Now, what the deuce are you starting a New York bank account for?" +queried Adair, as they came out of the bank together and climbed into +the tonneau of the waiting touring car. "Couldn't you draw on the +treasurer? What's the use of your being the assistant to the president, +I'd like to know?" + +"Wait," was the answer; and the questioner waited, perforce. + +The board was already in session when the two young men were admitted to +the private room in the rear of the Broad Street offices, and Ford was +welcomed as a man who has recklessly steered the ship upon the rocks. +There were even some open recriminations, notably on the part of the +president; but Ford sat quietly under them, making no defense, and +folding and refolding a slip of paper in his fingers as he listened. + +When they gave him leave to speak, he still made no attempt to explain. +Instead, he rose, walked to the other end of the table, and tossed the +bit of folded paper across to Mackie, the broker. + +"I inherited a little money, and I have made and saved enough more to +make it an even twenty thousand dollars," he said. "I don't know of any +more promising investment just now than Pacific Southwestern at +twenty-nine and a half. Will you be good enough to buy for my account, +Mr. Mackie?" + +The effect was electrical. President Colbrith sat up very straight in +his chair; two or three of the anxious ones opened on Ford with a rapid +fire of questions; and Brewster, the copper magnate, sat back and +chuckled softly in his beard. + +"No, gentlemen; there is no change in the situation, so far as I know. +Of course, you are not so foolish as to let the newspaper talk of the +tie-up at the Chicago elevators influence you," Ford was saying to the +anxious inquirers. "And, apart from that, everything is going our way. +As I have remarked, our stock at the present figure is good enough for +me, and I only wish I had two hundred thousand, instead of twenty +thousand, to put into it." + +Brewster stopped chuckling long enough to hold up a finger to the +broker. "You may buy for my account, too, Mackie, while you are at +it--and keep on buying till I tell you to quit." + +This broke the deadlock instantly, and for a few minutes the board room +was as noisy as the wheat pit with a corner threatening. Brewster, still +laughing in his beard, pulled Ford out of the press at the broker's end +of the table. + +"I'm going to ask only one thing of you, young man," he began, his +shrewd little eyes twinkling. "Just let me know when you are going to +get out, so I can pull through without having to take the bankruptcy." + +[Illustration: "Will you be good enough to buy for my account, Mr. +Mackie"] + +"I'll do it, Mr. Brewster," laughed Ford. "Only I'm not going to get +out--unless you folks freeze me out." + +"Then it isn't a long bluff on your part?" + +"It is, and it isn't. We still stand to win if we have the nerve to hold +on--in which event P. S-W. at twenty-nine and a fraction is a gold mine. +That's one view of it, and the other is this: we've simply _got_ to +corner our own stock if we expect to sell thirty millions additional +bonds." + +"Well, I guess you've gone the right way about it. But are you sure +about these Chicago terminals? A legal friend of mine here says you'll +never get in." + +"He was possibly paid to say it," said Ford hotly. "There has never been +a shadow of doubt touching our trackage rights on the C. P. & D. +contracts, or upon our ability to maintain them. All the +Transcontinental people hoped to do was to make a newspaper stir to help +keep our stock down. They know what we are going to do to them over in +their western territory, and they won't stop at anything to block us." + +"Of course; I think we were all inclined to be a little short-sighted +and pessimistic here, Mr. Ford. When do you go back to your fighting +ground?" + +"To-night." + +"You won't wait to see what happens here?" + +"I don't need to, I am sure. And the minutes--my minutes--are worth +dollars to the company just now." + +"Well, go in and win--only don't forget to give me that tip. You +wouldn't want to see a man of my age going to the poorhouse." + +"One other word, Mr. Brewster," Ford begged, as the copper magnate was +pointing for the door of escape. "Please don't let any of these timid +gentlemen sell till we get our bonds floated. You mark my word: the +temptation to make a big killing is going to be very great, within a +week." + +The copper king laughed; openly, this time. + +"You overrate my influence, Mr. Ford; but I'll do what I can--by word of +mouth and by example. You can count on me--as long as you let me stay on +your side of the market." + +Ford had three several invitations to luncheon after the meeting +adjourned, but he accepted none of them. To Adair he made the +declination courteous while they were trundling back to the Waldorf in +the big touring car. + +"I have lost an entire day because I could not take the time to secure a +stenographer before leaving Chicago night before last. I must find one +now and go to work." + +"All right; if you must. But I was hoping I could take you out to +Overlook to dinner this evening. Can't you come anyhow, and take a later +train west?" + +"Don't tempt me," said Ford. And then: "The ladies are quite well, I +hope?" + +"Oh, yes; they are in town to-day, and we are all going to luncheon +together--though I shan't know just where until I go to the club. +Failing the dinner, won't you make a knife and fork with us at one +o'clock?" + +"I should like to--more than anything else in the world," Ford +protested, meaning it. "But you'll make my excuses to Mrs. Adair, won't +you? We've simply got to get a three-cornered hustle on now, if we want +to save the day in the West." + +"Why? Is there anything new in that quarter?" + +"There is: something that I didn't dare to mention back yonder in the +board meeting. You may remember that I told you I had left a man in my +place on the Plug Mountain--Frisbie? I had a wire from him, night before +last, just as I was leaving Chicago. As you know, the Pacific +Southwestern inherits, from the old narrow-gauge purchase, the +right-of-way over Plug Pass and down the valley of the Pannikin. Frisbie +wires that the Transcontinental people have begun massing building +material at the terminus of their Saguache branch, only twenty miles +from the Pass." + +"And that means?--I'm lame on geography." + +"It means that they'll cut in ahead of us, if they can. Plug Pass is the +only available unoccupied outlet through the mountains for thirty or +forty miles north or south; and if we don't get our building force on +the ground mighty suddenly, we'll find it fortified and held by the +enemy." + +The touring car had turned into Broadway, and the traffic roar precluded +further talk. But when Ford was dismounting from the tonneau at the +entrance to his hotel, Adair said: "There appears to be no rest for the +wicked. You ought to have some of that thirty million dollars to spend +right now." + +Ford's smile was little more than a sardonic grin. + +"Adair," he said, "I'm going to tell you something else that I didn't +dare tell those money-tremulous people in McVeigh and Mackie's private +office. I have been signing contracts and buying material by the +train-load ever since the first grain shipment was started eastward on +our main line. Also, I've got my engineering corps mobilized, and it +will take the field under Frisbie as its chief not later than to-morrow. +Putting one thing with another, I should say that we are something over +a fresh million of dollars on the wrong side of solvency for these +little antics of mine, and I'm adding to the deficit by the hundred +thousand every time I can get a chance to dictate a letter." + +Adair lighted a cigarette and made a fair show of taking it easily. But +a moment later he was lifting his hat to wipe the perspiration from his +forehead. + +"Lord! but you have the confidence of your convictions!" he said, +breathing hard. "If we shouldn't happen to be able to float the bonds--" + +"We are in too deep to admit the 'if.' The bonds must be floated, and at +the earliest possible moment that Magnus will move in it. You wanted +something big enough to keep you interested. I have been trying my best +to accommodate you." + +Adair leaned forward and spoke to his chauffeur. The man watched his +chances for room to turn in the crowded street. + +"Where are you going?" asked Ford. + +"Back to McVeigh and Mackie's--where I can watch a ticker and go broke +buying more Pacific Southwestern," was the reply, and just then the +chauffeur found his opening and the big car whirled and plunged into the +down-town stream. + +In the financial news the next morning there was a half-column or more +devoted to the sudden and unaccountable flurry in Pacific Southwestern. +Ford got it in the Pittsburg papers and read it while the picked-up +stenographer was wrestling with his notes. After the drop in the stock, +caused, in the estimation of the writer, by the company's sudden plunge +into railroad buying at wholesale, P. S-W. had recovered with a bound, +advancing rapidly in the closing hours of the day from the lower +thirties to forty-two, with a strong demand. The utmost secrecy was +maintained, but it was shrewdly suspected that one of the great +companies, of which the Pacific Southwestern was now a competitor on an +equal footing for the grain-carrying trade, had gone in to absorb the +new factor in trans-Missouri traffic. Other and more sensational +developments might be expected if the battle should be fought to a +finish. Then followed a brief history of the Pacific Southwestern, with +a somewhat garbled account of the late dash for a Chicago terminal, but +lacking--as Ford remarked gratefully--any hint of the company's designs +in the farther West. + +"If Adair and Brewster and the others only have the nerve to keep it +up!" said Ford to himself. Then he tossed the paper aside and dived once +more into the deep sea of extension building, working the picked-up +stenographer until the young man was ready with his resignation the +moment the final letter was filed for mailing in the Chicago station. + +Five days the young engineer waited for news from New York--waited and +worked like a high-pressure motor while he waited. Each day's financial +news showed the continued and growing success of the home-made "corner," +and now the reporters were predicting that the stock would go to par +before the price should break. + +Ford trembled for the good faith of his backers on the board. When one +has bought at twenty-nine and a half and can sell within the week for +eighty-seven, the temptation is something tremendous. But at the closing +hour of the fifth day the demand was still good; and when Ford reached +the hotel that night there was a telegram from Adair awaiting him. + +He tore it open and read it, with the blood pounding through his veins +and a roar which was not of the street traffic drumming in his ears. + + P. S-W. closed at ninety-two to-day, and a Dutch syndicate will take + the bonds. Success to you in the Western wilderness. Brewster wants + to know how soon you'll reach his Utah copper mines. ADAIR. + + + + +XI + +HURRY ORDERS + + +"I'm no cold-water thrower, Ford, as you know. But if I were a +contractor, and you were trying to get me to commit myself to any such +steeplechase, I should say no, and confirm it with a cuss-word." + +It was a week after the successful placing of the Western Extension +building-fund bonds with the Dutch syndicate, and Ford, having ordered +things to his liking on the newly opened Chicago line, had taken the +long step westward to Denver to begin the forging of the third link in +the great railway chain. + +Frisbie, now first assistant engineer in charge of construction, had +come down from Saint's Rest for a conference with his chief, and the +place of conferrings was a quiet corner in one of the balconies +overlooking the vast rotunda of the Brown Palace Hotel; this because the +carpenters were still busy in the suite of rooms set apart for the +offices of the assistant to the president in the Pacific Southwestern +headquarters down-town. + +"You mean that the time is too short?" said Ford, speaking to Frisbie's +emphatic objection. + +"Too short at both ends," contended the little man with the devilish +mustaches and chin beard. "The Copah mining district is one hundred and +twenty miles, as the crow flies, from the summit of Plug Pass--say one +hundred and forty by the line of our survey down the Pannikin, through +the canyon and up to the town. Giving you full credit for more +getting-ready than I supposed any man could compass in the three weeks +you've been at it, I still think it is impossible for us to reach Copah +this season." + +"You must change your belief, Dick," was the curt rejoinder. "This is to +be a campaign, not only of possibilities, but of things done. We go into +Copah with the steel gangs before snow flies." + +"I know; that's what you've been saying all along. But you're looking at +the thing by and large, and I'm figuring on the flinty details. For +example: you'll admit that we can't work to any advantage west of the +mountains until we have made a standard gauge out of the Plug Mountain +branch. How much time have you been allowing for that?" + +"No time at all for the delay: about three weeks, maybe, for the actual +changing of the gauge," said Ford coolly. + +"All right," laughed Frisbie. "Only you'll show us how. It doesn't lie +in the back of my head--or in Crapsey's, unless he's a better man than I +hired him for." + +"Who is Crapsey?" + +"He is a Purdue man that I picked up and started out on the branch to +make figures on the change of gauge. The other three parties, under +Major Benson, Jack Benson and Roy Brissac, are setting the grade stakes +down the Pannikin, and Leckhard is wrestling with the construction +material you've been dumping in upon us at Saint's Rest. That left me +short, and I hired Crapsey." + +"Good. If he is capable, he may do the broadening. Call him in and set +him at it." + +"But, man! Don't you want the figures first?" + +"My dear Dick! I've had those figures for two years, and there's nothing +very complicated about that part of our problem. Call your man in and +let him attack the thing itself." + +"Everything goes: you may consider him recalled. But broadening the Plug +Mountain to standard gauge doesn't put us into Copah this summer, does +it?" + +"No; our necessities will do that for us. See here; let me show you." +Ford took out his note-book and on a blank page of it outlined a rough +map, talking as he sketched. "Three weeks ago you wired me that the +Transcontinental people were massing building material at the terminus +of their Saguache branch." + +"So I did," said Frisbie. + +"And the day before yesterday you wired again to say that it was +apparently a false alarm. What made you change your mind?" + +"They are hauling the stuff away--over to their Green Butte line, I'm +told." + +"Why are they hauling it away?" + +"The bluff--their bluff--was called. We had got busy on Plug Pass, and +they saw there was no hope of cutting in ahead of us at that point." + +"Exactly. Now look at this map for a minute. Here is Saint's Rest; here +is the Copah district; and here is Green Butte, the junction of their +narrow gauge with the standard-gauge Salt Lake and Eastern. If you were +on the Transcontinental executive committee and saw an active competing +line about to build a standard-gauge railroad through the Copah district +and on to a connection with your narrow gauge's outlet at Green Butte, +what would you advise?" + +Frisbie nodded. "It's easy, when you know how, isn't it They'll +standardize their narrow gauge to Green Butte, make an iron-clad traffic +contract with the S. L & E. to exclude us, and build a branch from +Jack's Canyon, say, up into the Copah country." And then in loyal +admiration: "That's what I call the sure word of prophecy--your +specialty, Stuart. How many nights' sleep did you lose figuring that +out?" + +"Not any, as it happens," laughed Ford. "It was a straight tip out of +the East. The plan, just about as you've outlined it, was adopted by the +Transcontinental powers that be, sitting in New York last week. By some +means unknown to me, Mr. Adair got wind of it, and made a flying trip to +Chicago to put me on--wouldn't even trust the wire with it. Now you +understand why we've got to wake the Copah echoes with a locomotive +whistle this season." + +"Copah--yes," said Frisbie doubtfully. "But that is only a way station. +What we need is Green Butte and the Pacific coast outlet over the S. L & +E.; and they stand to euchre us out of that, hands down. What's to +prevent their making that traffic contract with the Mormon people right +now?" + +"Nothing; if the S. L & E. management were willing. But just here the +political situation in Mormondom fights for us. Last year the +Transcontinental folk turned heaven and earth over to defeat the Mormon +candidate for the United States Senate. The quarrel wasn't quite mortal +enough to stand in the way of a profitable business deal; but all things +being equal, the Salt Lake line will favor us as against its political +enemy." + +"You're sure of that?" queried Frisbie. + +"As sure as one can be of anything that isn't cash down on the +nail--with the money locked up in a safety deposit vault. By the +sheerest good luck, the Mormon president of the S. L & E. happened to +be in New York at the time when Adair had his ear to the +Transcontinental keyhole. Adair hunted him up and made a hypothetical +case of a sure thing: if our Western Extension and the Transcontinental, +standard-gauged, should be knocking at the Green Butte door at the same +time, what would the S. L & E. do? The Mormon answer was a bid for +speed; first come, first served. But Adair was given to understand, +indirectly, that on an equal footing, our line would be given the +preference as a friendly ally." + +"Bully for the Mormon! But you say Copah--this summer. When we reach +Copah we are still one hundred and forty miles short of Green Butte. And +if you can broaden the Plug Mountain in three weeks--which you'll still +allow me to doubt--the Transcontinental ought to be able to broaden its +Green Butte narrow gauge in three months." + +"If you had cross-sectioned both lines as I have, you wouldn't stumble +over that," said Ford, falling back, as he commonly did, upon the things +he knew. "We shall broaden the Plug Mountain without straightening a +curve or throwing a shovelful of earth on the embankment, from beginning +to end. On the other hand, the Green Butte narrow gauge runs for seventy +miles through the crookedest canyon a Rocky Mountain river ever got lost +in. There is more heavy rock work to be done in that canyon than on our +entire Pannikin division from start to finish." + +"That's bully for us," quoth the first assistant. "But, all the same, we +shouldn't stop at Copah, this fall." + +"We shall not stop at Copah," was the decisive rejoinder. "The winters +on the western side of the range are much milder than they are here, and +not to be spoken of in the same day with your Minnesota and Dakota +stamping-ground. If we can get well out of the mountains before the +heavy snows come--" + +Frisbie wagged his head. + +"I guess I've got it all, now--after so long a time. We merely break the +record for fast railroad building--all the records--for the next six +months or so. Is that about it?" + +"You've surrounded it," said Ford tersely. + +"Good enough: we're ready to make the break when you give the word. What +are we waiting for?" + +"Just at this present moment, for the contractors." + +"Why, I understood you had closed with the MacMorrogh Brothers," said +Frisbie. + +"No. At the last moment--to relieve me of a responsibility which might +give rise to charges of favoritism, as he put it--Mr. Colbrith took the +bids out of my hands and carried the decision up to the executive +committee. Hence, we wait; and keep a growing army of laborers here +under pay while we wait," said Ford, with disgust thinly masked. Then +he added: "With all due respect to Mr. Colbrith, he is simply a senile +frost!" + +Frisbie chuckled. + +"Been cooling your fingers, has he? But I understood from the +headquarters people down-town, that the MacMorroghs had a sure thing on +the grading and rock work. Their bid was the lowest, wasn't it?" + +"Yes; but not the cheapest for the company, Dick. I've been keeping tab +on the MacMorroghs for a good while: they are grafters; the kind of men +who take it out of the company and out of their labor in a thousand +petty little steals--three profits on the commissary, piece-work for +subs where they know a man's got to lose out, steals on the working +hours, fines and drawbacks and discounts on the pay-rolls, and all that. +You know how it's done." + +"Sure," agreed Frisbie, with his most diabolical grin. "Also, I know how +it keeps the engineering department on the hottest borders of Hades, +trying to hold them down. The good Lord deliver us!" + +"I wanted to throw their bid out without consideration," Ford went on. +"But again Mr. Colbrith said 'No,' adding that the MacMorroghs were old +contractors on the line, and that Mr. North had always spoken very +highly of them." + +"Ah; the fine Italian hand of Mr. North again," said Frisbie. "And that +reminds me: are we going to be at war with the main line operating +department?" + +Ford shook his head. "Not openly, at least. North was down to meet my +train when I came in last night, and you would never have suspected that +I left Denver six weeks ago without his blessing. And now I'm reminded. +I have a luncheon appointment with him at twelve, and a lot of letters +to dictate before I can keep it. Go down and do your wiring for Crapsey, +and if we lose each other this afternoon, I'll meet you here at dinner +this evening." + +It was while Ford was working on his mail, with one of the hotel +stenographers for a helper, that a thick-set, bull-necked man with +Irish-blue eyes and a face two-thirds hidden in a curly tangle of +iron-gray beard, stubbed through the corridor on the Pacific +Southwestern floor of the Guaranty Building, and let himself cautiously +into the general manager's outer office. The private secretary, a +faultlessly groomed young fellow with a suggestion of the Latin races in +his features, looked up and nodded. + +"How are you, Mr. MacMorrogh?" he said; and without waiting for a reply: +"Go on in. Mr. North is expecting you." + +The burly one returned the nod and passed on to the inner room. The +general manager, a sallow, heavy-visaged man who might have passed in a +platform gathering for a retired manufacturer or a senator from the +Middle West, swung in his pivot-chair to welcome the incomer. + +"Glad to see you, MacMorrogh. Sit down. What's the news from New York?" + +The contractor found a chair; drew it close to the general manager's +desk, and filled it. + +"I'm thinking you'll know more about that than I will, Misther North," +he replied, in a voice that accorded perfectly with the burly figure and +piratical beard. "Ford's fighting us with his fishtes." + +"Why?" asked the general manager, holding his chin in his hand--a +gesture known the entire length of the Pacific Southwestern as a signal +of trouble brewing, for somebody. + +"God knows, then; I don't," said the MacMorrogh. "I wint to Chicago to +see him when the bid was in, and d'ye think he would lave me talk it +over with him? Not him! Wan day he'd be too busy; and the next, I'd have +to call again. 'Twas good for him I was not me brother Dan. Dan would've +kicked the dure in and t'rown him out av the windy." + +The wan ghost of a smile flitted across the impassive face of the big +man at the desk. + +"Let me tell you something, MacMorrogh. If you, or your brother Dan, +ever find it necessary to go after Ford, don't give him notice by +battering down doors. You won't, I know. But about the contract: you +haven't heard from the executive committee?" + +"Not the half of wan wor-rd." + +"Have you any idea of what is causing the delay?" + +"'Tis dommed well I know, Misther North. Ford is keeping the wires hot +against us. If I could have Misther Colbrith here with you for wan five +minutes--" + +The general manager broke in, following his own line of thought. + +"Ford is in Denver; he came in from Chicago last night. Why don't you go +up to the Brown and have it out with him?" + +"Fight it out, d'ye mean?" + +"Certainly not. Make friends with him." + +The contractor sat back in his chair and plunged his stubby hands deep +into his pockets. + +"Give me the sthraight tip, Misther North." + +"It ought to suggest itself to you. This is a big job, with a great deal +of money passing. Your profits, over and above what you will make out of +the company, will be quite large. Ford is an ambitious young man, and he +is not building railroads for his health." + +The MacMorrogh was nodding slowly. Nevertheless, he made difficulties. + +"Me hand's not light enough for that, Misther North." + +Again the general manager smiled. + +"You require a deal of prompting, sometimes, Brian. What's the matter +with a trusty go-between?" + +"H'm, that's it, now. But where to lay me finger on the right man. 'Tis +a risk to run--with a yooung fire-brand like Ford holding the other end +iv the string." + +"Still I think the man can be found. But first we must make sure of your +contract, with or without Ford. Your suggestion about taking the matter +up with Mr. Colbrith in person strikes me favorably. Can you spare the +time to go to New York?" + +"Sure I can." + +"At once?" + +"The wan minute for sthriking is whin the iron's hot, Misther North." + +The general manager put aside the thick file of papers he had been +examining when MacMorrogh entered, and began to set his desk in order. + +"I have been thinking I might make it convenient to go with you. I +presume you have no objection to going as my guest in the Naught-Seven?" + +"'Tis an honor you're doing me, Misther North, and I'll not be +forgetting it." + +"Not at all. There are some matters connected with this contract that +I'd like to talk over with you privately, and if we can agree upon them, +I may be able to help you with Mr. Colbrith and the executive +committee." + +The general manager pressed one of the electric buttons on the side of +the desk, and to the clerk who answered gave a brief order: "Have the +Naught-Seven provisioned and made up to go east as a special at +twelve-ten to-day. Tell Despatcher Darby to make the schedule +fast--nineteen hours or less to the River." + +The clerk nodded and disappeared, and North turned again to MacMorrogh. + +"Now about that other matter: I'll find you a go-between to approach +Ford; but to be quite frank with you, you'll have to be liberal with the +young man for his services. When you go into the diplomatic field, you +have to spend money." He was pressing another of the electric buttons as +he spoke, and to the office boy who put his face in at the door, he +said: "Ask Mr. Eckstein to step in here a minute." + +It was the private secretary, the well-groomed young man with the alien +eyes and nose who answered the summons. North gave him his instructions +in a curt sentence. + +"Mr. MacMorrogh would like to have a little talk with you, Eckstein: +take him into the other room where you can be undisturbed." + +It was half an hour later when the door of the library opened to readmit +the private secretary and the contractor, and in the interval the +division superintendent's clerk had returned to say that the special +train schedule was made up, and that the Naught-Seven would be waiting +at the Union Station at twelve-ten. + +"Well?" said the general manager, lifting a slow eyebrow at MacMorrogh +and compressing into the single word his wish to know what had been done +in the conference of two. + +"'Tis all right, Misther North," said the contractor, rubbing his hands. +"'Tis a crown jewel ye have in this yooung--" + +North cut the eulogy short in a word to his secretary. + +"I go east, special, at twelve-ten, Eckstein, as Mr. MacMorrogh has +probably told you. I have a luncheon appointment at twelve with Mr. +Ford. Meet him when he comes, and make my excuses--without telling him +anything he ought not to know. If you can take my place as his host, do +so; but in any event, keep him from finding out where we have gone until +we are well on the way. That's all." + +This was why Ford, walking the few blocks from his hotel at noon to keep +his engagement with North, found the general manager's private office +closed, and a suave, soft-spoken young man with a foreign east of +countenance waiting to make his superior's excuses. + +"Mr. North was called out of town quite unexpectedly on a wire," was the +private secretary's explanation. "He tried to telephone you at the +Brown, but the operator couldn't find you. He left me to explain, and +I've been wondering if you'd let me take his place as your host, Mr. +Ford." + +Now Ford's attitude toward his opponents was, by reason of his gifts, +openly belligerent; wherefore he fought against it and tried to be as +other men are. + +"I am sure Mr. North is quite excusable, and it is good-natured in you +to stand in the breach, Mr. Eckstein," he said. "Of course, I'll be glad +to go with you." + +They went to Tortoni's, and to a private room; and the luncheon was an +epicurean triumph. Eckstein talked well, and was evidently a young man +of parts. Not until the cigars were lighted did he suffer the table-talk +to come down to the railroad practicalities; and even then he merely +followed Ford's lead. + +"Oh, yes; we have made arrangements to give you a clear deck in the +Denver yards for your material and supplies," he said, in answer to a +question of Ford's about side-track room and yard facilities at the +point which would have to serve as his base. "Following your orders, we +have been forwarding all that your Plug Mountain rolling stock could +handle, but there is considerable more of it side-tracked here. After +the MacMorrogh grading outfit has gone to the front, we shall have more +room, however." + +"The MacMorrogh outfit?" queried Ford. "Do they store it in our yards?" + +"Oh, no. They have a pretty complete railroad yard of their own at +their headquarters in Pueblo. But they have three train-loads of tools +and machinery here now, waiting for your orders to send them to the +front." + +Ford weighed the possibilities thoughtfully and concluded that nothing +could be lost by a frank declaration of principles. + +"They have given you folks a wrong impression, Mr. Eckstein," he said +mildly. "The contract for the grading on the Western Extension is not +yet awarded; and if I can compass it, the MacMorrogh Brothers' bid will +be thrown out." + +The private secretary tried to look mystified, with just the proper +touch of a subordinate's embarrassment. + +"I'm only a clerk, Mr. Ford," he said, "and, of course, I'm not supposed +to know more than I see and hear in the regular way of business. But I +understood that the MacMorroghs were in the saddle; that they were only +waiting for you to provide track-room at Saint's Rest for their tool +cars and outfit." + +"No," said Ford. "It hasn't got that far along yet." + +Eckstein looked at his watch. + +"Don't let me keep you, if there is anything else you want to do, Mr. +Ford; but I'll confess you've aroused my curiosity. What is the matter +with the MacMorroghs?" + +Ford answered the question by asking another. + +"Do you know them, Mr. Eckstein?" + +"Why--yes; as Mr. North's chief clerk would be likely to know the firm +of contractors which has been given a good share of the Pacific +Southwestern work for a number of years." + +"Do you know any good of them?" + +"Bless me! yes: I don't know anything else of them. Three hearty, bluff, +rough-tongued Irishmen; lacking diplomacy and all the finer touches, if +you like, but good fellows and hustlers of the keenest." + +Ford fastened his companion in a steady eye-grip. "One question, Mr. +Eckstein; do they play fair with all concerned?" + +"They are more than fair; they are generous--with the company, and with +the company's representatives with whom they have to do business. On two +contracts with us they have lost money; but I happen to know that in +both instances they kept their promises to the engineering department to +the letter." + +Ford had cast off the eye-grip and he appeared to be studying the fresco +design of the ceiling over the private secretary's head. + +"And those promises were--?" + +Eckstein laughed boyishly. "You needn't make a mystery of it with me, +Mr. Ford. I'm one of the family, if I haven't any initials after my +name. I know--we all know--that there are certain profits--not made out +of the company, of course--that a contractor is always willing to share +with his good friends, the engineers." + +Ford's attitude instantly became that of a freshman wishing to learn the +ropes. + +"Consider me, Mr. Eckstein," he said. "I'm new to the construction +business--or at least, I've never been at the head of it before. What +are these--er--perquisites?" + +The private secretary thought he had entered the thin edge of the wedge +and he drove it heartily. + +"They are perfectly legitimate, of course. The contractors run a +commissary to supply the workmen--nobody suspects them of doing it at +cost. Then there are the fines imposed to secure faithful work, the _per +capita_ commission paid on the labor sent in by the engineers, the +discounts on time-checks, the weekly hospital and insurance dues +collected from the men. All those things amount to a good round profit +on a contract like ours." + +"To about how much, in figures, should you say?" queried Ford, with an +air of the deepest interest. + +"To enough to make your share, as head of the construction department, +touch ten thousand a year, on a job as big as ours--with a liberal +provision for Mr. Frisbie, besides." + +Ford blew reflective smoke rings toward the ceiling for a full minute or +more before he said quietly: "Do I understand that you are authorized to +guarantee me ten thousand a year in commissions from the MacMorrogh +Brothers, Mr. Eckstein?" + +Eckstein laughed. + +"You forget that I'm only a clerk, and an onlooker, as you may say. But +if you accept MacMorrogh's bid, and he doesn't do the square thing by +you and Mr. Frisbie, you may call me in as a witness, Mr. Ford. Does +that clear up the doubt?" + +"Perfectly," was the quiet rejoinder. "Under these conditions, I suppose +it is up to me to wire the executive committee, withdrawing my +objections to the MacMorroghs, isn't it?" + +"That is the one thing Mr. MacMorrogh asks." The secretary whipped out a +note-book and pencil. "Shall I take your message? I can send it when I +go back to the office." + +"Thank you," said Ford; then he began to dictate, slowly and +methodically: "To S.J. Colbrith, care McVeigh and Mackie, New York. This +is to recall my objections to MacMorrogh Brothers, as stated in letter +of the twenty-fifth from Chicago. Further investigation develops the +fact that they are quite honest and capable, and that they will pay me +ten thousand dollars a year for withdrawing my opposition." + +Eckstein's pencil had stopped and he was gasping for breath. + +"Great Scott!" he ejaculated. "That won't do, Mr. Ford! You can't put +a thing like that into a telegram to the president!" + +[Illustration: Eckstein's pencil had stopped and he was gasping for +breath] + +"Why not?" was the cool inquiry. "You said it was perfectly legitimate, +didn't you?" + +"Yes, but--" the entrance of a waiter to clear the table provided a +merciful stop-gap, and Eckstein, hurriedly consulting his watch, +switched abruptly. "By Jove! I'm due at the office this minute to meet a +lot of cattlemen," he stammered, and escaped like a man hastening for +first aid to the mistaken. + +Ford laughed long and silently when he found himself alone in the +private dining-room; and he was still chuckling by fits and starts when, +after an afternoon spent with Auditor Evans, he recounted his adventure +to Frisbie over the Brown cafe dinner table that evening. But Frisbie +took all the humor out of the luncheon episode when he said soberly: + +"He laughs best who laughs last, Stuart. Eckstein took a fall out of you +one way, even if he did fail in the other; he kept you safely shut up at +Tortoni's while Mr. North and the chief of the MacMorroghs got away on a +special train for New York. Beard, the Union Station operator, told me. +Which means that they'll have a full day with Mr. Colbrith and the +executive committee before you can possibly get there to butt in." + +"No, it doesn't; necessarily," Ford contradicted, rising suddenly and +signaling a waiter. + +"What are you going to do?" queried Frisbie, dropping his knife and +fork and preparing to second his chief. + +"Come and see. I'm going to get out another special train and give Mr. +North a run for his money," was the incisive answer. "Hike down to the +despatcher's office with me and help cut out the minutes." + + + + +XII + +THE ENTERING WEDGE + + +Has civilized humanity, in the plenitude of twentieth century +sophistication, fully determined that there is no such thing as +luck?--that all things are ordered, if not by Providence, at least by an +unchangeable sequence of cause and effect? + +Stuart Ford was a firm believer in the luck of the energetic; which is +to say that he regarded obstacles only as things to be beaten down and +abolished. But in the dash to overtake and pass the general manager's +one-car special, the belief was shaken almost to its reversal. + +He knew the Pacific Southwestern locomotives--and something of the men +who ran them. The 1016 was one of the fast eight-wheelers; and Olson, +the engineer, who had once pulled passenger on the Plug Mountain, was +loyal and efficient. Happily, both the man and the machine were +available; and while Frisbie was calling up the division superintendent +at his house to ask the loan of his private car for the assistant to +the president, Ford was figuring the schedule with the despatcher, and +insisting upon speed--more speed. + +"What's come over you big bosses, all at once?" said Darby, to whom +Ford's promotion was no bar to fellowship or free speech. "First Mr. +North wants me to schedule a special that will break the record; and now +you want to string one that will beat his record." + +"Never mind my troubles, Julius," was the evasive reply. "Just you +figure to keep things out of my way and give me a clear track. Let's +see--where were we? Cheyenne Crossing at 2 a.m., water at Riddle Creek, +coal at Brockton--" + +The schedule was completed when Frisbie came back to say that the 1016, +with the superintendent's car attached, was waiting on track Six. Ford +went down, looked the gift horse in the mouth, and had the running gear +of the car overhauled under his own supervision before he would give +Olson the word to go, pressing the night car inspectors into service and +making them repack the truck journals while he waited. + +"I'm taking no chances," he said to Frisbie; and truly it seemed that +all the hindrances had been carefully forestalled when he finally +boarded the "01" and ordered his flagman to give Olson the signal. Yet +before the one-car train was well out of the Denver yards there was a +jolting stop, and the flagman came in to report that the engine had +dropped from the end of an open switch, blocking the main line. + +Ford got out and directed the reenrailment of the 1016, carefully +refraining from bullying the big Swede, whose carelessness must have +been accountable. It was the simplest of accidents, with nothing broken +or disabled. Under ordinary conditions, fifteen minutes should have +covered the loss of time. But the very haste with which the men wrought +was fatal. Enrailing frogs have a way of turning over at the critical +instant when the wheels are climbing, and jack-screws bottomed on the +tie-ends do not always hold. + +Eight several times were the jack-screws adjusted and the frogs clamped +into position; but not until the ninth trial could the perverse wheels +be induced to roll workmanlike up the inclined planes and into place on +the rails. Ford looked at his watch when his special was free of the +switches and Olson was speeding up on the first long tangent. With the +chase still in its opening mile, Mr. North's lead had been increased +from seven hours to eight. + +Leaving Denver on the spur of the moment, Ford had necessarily left many +things at a standstill; and his first care, after he had assured himself +that the race was fairly begun, was to write out a handful of telegrams +designed to keep the battle alive during his enforced absence from the +firing line. The superintendent's desk was hospitably unlocked, and for +a busy half-hour Ford filled blank after blank, steadying himself +against the pounding swing of the heavily ballasted car with a +left-handed grip on the desk end. When there remained no one else to +remind, he wrote out a message to Adair, forecasting the threatened +disaster, and urging the necessity of rallying the reconstructionists on +the board of directors. + +"That ought to stir him up," he said to himself, bunching Adair's +telegram with the others to be sent from the first stop where the +Western Union wires could be tapped. Then he whirled around in the swing +chair and scowled up at the little dial in the end of the car; scowled +at the speed-recorder, and went to the door to summon the flagman. + +"What's the matter with Olson?" he demanded. "Has he forgotten how to +run since he left the Plug Mountain? Climb up over the coal and tell him +that forty miles an hour won't do for me to-night." + +The flagman picked up his lantern and went forward; and in a minute or +two later the index finger of the speed-recorder began to mount slowly +toward the fifties. At fifty-two miles to the hour, Ford, sitting in the +observation end of the car where he could see the ghostly lines of the +rails reeling backward into the night, smelled smoke--the unmistakable +odor of burning oil. In three strides he had reached the rear platform, +and a fourth to the right-hand railing showed him one of the car-boxes +blazing to heaven. + +He pulled the cord of the air-whistle, and after the stop stood by in +sour silence while the crew repacked the hot box. Since he had made the +car inspectors carefully overhaul the truck gear in the Denver station, +there was no one to swear at. Olson bossed the job, did it neatly and in +silence, and no one said anything when the fireman, in his haste to be +useful, upset the dope-kettle and got its contents well sanded before he +had overtaken it in its rolling flight down the embankment. + +Ford turned away and climbed into his car at the dope-kettle incident. +There are times when retreat is the only recipe for self-restraint; and +in imagination he could see the general manager's special ticking off +the miles to the eastward while his own men were sweating over the +thrice-accursed journal-bearing under the "01." + +Now, as every one knows, hot boxes, besides being perversely incurable, +are the sworn enemies of high speed. At forty miles to the hour the +journal was smoking again. At forty-five it burst into flames. Once more +it was patiently cooled by bucketings of water drawn from the engine +tank; after which necessary preliminary Olson spoke his mind. + +"Ay tank ve never get someveres vit dat hal-fer-damn brass, Meester +Ford. Ay yust see if Ay can't find 'noder wone." And he rummaged in the +car lockers till he did find another. + +Unfortunately, however, the spare brass proved to be of the wrong +pattern; a Pullman, instead of a P. S-W. standard. Olson was a trained +mechanic and a man of resources, and he chipped and filed and scraped at +the misfit brass until he made it serve. But when he climbed again to +the cab of his engine, and Ford swung up to the steps of the car, the +white headlight eye of an east-bound freight, left at a siding a full +hour's run to the rear, came in sight from the observation platform of +the laboring special. + +These were the inauspicious beginnings of the pursuit; and the middle +part and the ending varied only in degree. All the way up to midnight, +at which hour a station of a bigness to supply a standard brass was +reached, the tinkered journal-bearing gave trouble and killed speed. Set +once more in running order upon its full quota of sixteen practicable +wheels, the special had fallen so far behind its Denver-planned schedule +as not only to be in the way of everything else on the division, but to +find everything else in its way. Ford held on stubbornly until the lead +of the train he was trying to outrun had increased to twelve hours. Then +he gave it up, directing his crew to turn the train on the nearest "Y," +and to ask for retracing orders to Denver. After which he went to bed in +the state-room of the borrowed car, and for the first time in his +experience was a man handsomely beaten by the perversity of insensate +things. + +The request for the retracing orders was sent from Coquina; and when it +came clicking into the despatcher's office at Denver, a sleep-sodden +young man with an extinct cigar between his teeth rose up out of his +chair, stretched, yawned, and pointed for the door. + +"Going to leave us, Mr. Eckstein?" said the trick despatcher who was +sitting at the train table. + +"Yes. If Mr. Ford has changed his mind, I may as well go home and go to +bed." + +"Reckon he forgot something, and has to come back after it?" laughed the +operator. + +"Maybe," said the private secretary, and he went out, shutting the door +behind him with the bat-like softness and precision that was his +distinguishing characteristic. + +The sounders were clicking monotonously when the trick man turned to the +relief operator who was checking Darby's transfer sheet. + +"What do you suppose Eckstein was up to, sitting here all night, Jim?" + +"Give it up," said the relief man. "Ask me something easy." + +"I'll bet a hen worth fifty dollars I can guess. He didn't want Mr. Ford +to make time." + +The relief man looked up from his checking. + +"Why? He didn't do anything. He was asleep more'n half the time." + +"Don't you fool yourself," said the other. "He heard every word that +came in about that hot box. And if the hot box hadn't got in the way, +I'll bet a cockerel worth seventy-five dollars, to go with that +fifty-dollar hen, that he would have tangled me up somehow till I had +shuffled a freight train or something in Mr. Ford's way. He's Mr. +North's man, body and soul; and Mr. North doesn't love Mr. Ford." + +"Oh, rats, Billy!" scoffed the relief man, getting up to fill his +corn-cob pipe from the common tobacco bag. "You're always finding a +nigger in the wood-pile, when there isn't any. Say; that's 201 asking +for orders from Calotte. Why don't you come to life and answer 'em?" + +Frisbie, breakfasting early at the Brown Palace on the morning following +the night of hinderings, was more than astonished when Ford came in and +took the unoccupied seat at the table-for-two. + +"Let me eat first," said the beaten one, when Frisbie would have whelmed +him with curious questions; and with the passing of the cutlets and the +coffee he told the tale of the hindrances. + +"I guess it was foreordained not to be," he admitted, in conclusion. "We +tried mighty hard to bully it through, but the fates were too many and +too busy for us." + +"Tricks?" suggested Frisbie, suspecting North of covering his flight +with special instructions to delay a possible pursuit. + +"Oh, no; nothing of that sort: just the cursed depravity of inanimate +things. Every man concerned worked hard and in good faith. It was luck. +No one of us happened to have a rabbit's foot in his pocket." + +"You don't believe in luck," laughed the assistant. + +"Don't I? I know I used to say that I didn't. But after last night I +can't be so sure of it." + +"Well, what's the cost to us?" inquired Frisbie, coming down out of the +high atmosphere of the superstitious to stand upon the solid earth of +railway-building fact. + +"I don't know: possibly failure. There is no guessing what sort of a +scheme North will cook up when he and MacMorrogh get Mr. Colbrith +_cornered_." + +"Oh, it can't be as bad as that. Take it at the worst--admitting that we +may have to struggle along with the MacMorroghs for our general +contractors; they can't addle the egg entirely, can they?" + +Ford tabulated it by length and breadth. + +"With the MacMorroghs in the forefront of things to steal and cheat and +make trouble with the labor, and Mr. North in the rear to back them up +and to retard matters generally, we are in for a siege to which +purgatory, if we ever go there, will seem restful, Richard my son. Our +one weapon is my present ranking authority over the general manager. If +he ever succeeds in breaking that, you fellows in the field would better +hunt you another railroad to build." + +"It's a comfort to know that you _are_ the big boss, Stuart. North can't +knock you out of that when it comes to a show-down." + +"I don't know," said Ford, whose night ride had made him pessimistic. "I +am Mr. Colbrith's appointee, you know--not an elected officer. And what +Mr. Colbrith has done, he may be induced to undo. Adair has been my +backer in everything; but while he is the best fellow in the world, he +is continually warning me that he may lose interest in the game at any +minute and drop it. He doesn't care a rap for the money-making part of +it--doesn't have to." + +"Wouldn't Adair be a good safety-switch to throw in front of Mr. North +and MacMorrogh in New York?" + +Ford nodded. "I thought of that last night, and sent a wire. We'll hear +from it to-day." + +Frisbie ate through the remainder of the breakfast in silence. +Afterward, at the pipe-lighting, he asked if Ford's wire instructions of +the night before still held good. + +"They do," was the emphatic reply. "We go on just as if nothing had +happened, or was due to happen. You say your man Crapsey will be in this +morning: gather up your laborers and turn the Plug Mountain into a +standard-gauge railroad while we wait. That's all, Dick; all but one +word--hustle." + +"Hustle it is. But say: you were going to give me a pointer on that +broad-gauging. I've been stewing over it for a day and a night, and I +don't think of any scheme that won't stop the traffic." + +"Don't you? That is because you haven't mulled over it as long as I +have. In the first place, you have no curves to straighten and no +cross-ties to relay--our predecessors having set the good example of +using standard length ties for their three-foot road. String your men +out in gangs as far as they'll go, and swing the three-foot track, as a +whole, ten inches out of center to the left. You can do that without +stopping trains, can't you?" + +"Sure." + +"All right. When you swing, spike the right-hand rail lightly. Then +string your gangs again and set a line of spikes for the outside of the +standard-gauge right-hand rail straight through to Saint's Rest. Got +that?" + +"Yes; I guess I've got it all. But go on." + +"Now you are ready for the grand-stand play. Call in all your +narrow-gauge rolling stock, mass your men at this end of the branch, +shove the right-hand rail over to the line of gauge spikes in sections +as long as your force will cover, and follow up with a standard-gauge +construction train to pick up the men and carry them forward as fast as +a section is completed. If you work it systematically, a freight train +could leave Denver two hours behind your track-gangs and find a +practical standard gauge all the way to Saint's Rest." + +"Of course!" said Frisbie, in workmanlike disgust for his own +obtuseness. "I'm going back to the Tech when your railroad is finished +and learn a few things. I couldn't think of anything but the old Erie +Railroad scheme, when it was narrowed down from the six-foot gauge. They +did it in one night; but they had a man to every second cross-tie over +the whole four hundred miles from New York to Buffalo." + +Ford nodded, adding: + +"And we're not that rich in labor. By the way, how are the men coming?" + +"A car-load or two, every little while. Say, Stuart, you must have had a +rabbit's foot with you when you touched up the eastern labor agencies. +Every other railroad in this neck of woods is skinned, and M'Grath is +having the time of his life trying to hold our levies together. There is +a small army of them under canvas at Saint's Rest, waiting for the +contractors, and another with between two and three hundred hands camped +at the mouth of the canyon." + +Ford knocked the ashes from his pipe so hard that the pipestem fell in +two. + +"Yes! all waiting on Mr. Colbrith's leisurely motions! Well, jump in on +the Plug Mountain. That will utilize some of the waste for a few days." + +Frisbie went down to the Plug Mountain yard office, and to a wire-end, +to begin the marshaling of his forces; and Ford, with three picked-up +stenographers to madden him, took up the broken threads of his +correspondence with a world which seemed to have become suddenly peopled +to suffocation with eager sellers of railroad material and supplies. + +Late in the afternoon, when he was tired enough to feel the full force +of the blow, a New York telegram came. It was from Miss Alicia Adair, +and Ford groaned in spirit when he read it. + + Brother left here yesterday in the Vanderdecken yacht for Nova + Scotia. Can not reach him by telegraph until next Friday or + Saturday. Aunt Hester wants to know if there is anything she can + do. + +One way to save a man's life at a crisis is to appeal to his sense of +humor. Miss Alicia's closing sentence did that for Ford, and he was +smiling grimly when he put the telegram away, not in the business file, +but in his pocket. + +Three days later, however, when Frisbie was half-way to Saint's Rest +with his preliminary track-swinging, another New York telegram found +Ford in his newly established quarters in the Guaranty Building. This +was from some one acting as President Colbrith's secretary, and its +wording was concisely mandatory. + + Contract has been awarded MacMorrogh Brothers. President directs + that you afford contractors every facility, and that you confer + with Mr. North in all cases of doubt. + + + + +XIII + +THE BARBARIANS + + +It was some little time after the rock had begun to fly from the +cuttings on the western slopes of the mountains that Kenneth, summoned +by Ford, made the run from Denver to Saint's Rest over the standardized +Plug Mountain branch and found the engineer-manager living in a +twenty-foot caboose car fitted as a hotel and an office-on-wheels. + +The occasion of Kenneth's calling was a right-of-way dispute on the +borders of the distant Copah mining district; some half-dozen mining +claims having been staked off across the old S. L & W. survey. The +owners, keen to make a killing out of the railroad company, threatened +injunctions if the P. S-W. persisted in trespassing upon private +property; and Ford, suspecting shrewdly that the mine men were set on by +the Transcontinental people to delay the work on the new line, made +haste to shift his responsibility to the legal shoulders. + +"If I hadn't known you for a pretty good mountaineer, Kenneth, +you would have missed this," he said, making his guest free of the +limited hospitality of the caboose-hotel. "Are you good for a +two-hundred-and-eighty-mile cayuse ride, there and back, on the same +trail we tramped over a year ago last spring?" + +"I'm good for everything on the bill of fare," was the heartening reply. +"How are things going?" + +Ford's rejoinder began with a non-committal shrug. "We're building a +railroad, after a fashion." + +"After a good fashion, I hope?" + +Another shrug. + +"We're doing as well as we can with the help we have. But about this +right-of-way tangle--" and he plunged his guest into a discussion of the +Copah situation which ran on unbroken until bedtime. + +They took the westward trail together in the morning, mounted upon wiry +little mountain-bred ponies furnished by one Pacheco, the half-breed +Mexican who had once earned an easy double-eagle by spying upon two men +who were out hunting with an engineer's transit. For seven weeks Frisbie +had been pushing things, and the grade from Saint's Rest to the summit +of the pass was already a practicable wagon road, deserted by the +leveling squads and ready for the ties and the steel. + +From the summit of the pass westward, down the mountain and through the +high-lying upper valley of the Pannikin, the grade work was in full +swing. The horse trail, sometimes a rough cart-road, but oftener a mere +bridle-path, followed the railroad in its loopings and doublings; and on +the mountain sections where the work was heaviest the two riders were +never out of sight of the heavily manned grading gangs. + +"To a man up a tree you appear to be doing a whole lot, and doing it +quickly, Ford," commented the lawyer, when they had passed camp after +camp of the workers. Then he added: "You are not having any trouble with +the MacMorroghs, are you?" + +"Not what the legal department would call trouble," answered Ford +evasively; and for ten other miles the narrowness of the bridle-path +discouraged conversation. + +Farther down in the valley of the Pannikin the activities were less +thickly sown. On many sections the work was light; no more than the +throwing up of an embankment in the park-like intervales, with now and +then a rock-or earth-cutting through some jutting spur of the inclosing +mountains. Here the men were bunched on the rock work and the fills, +though the camp sites were commonly in the park-like interspaces where +wood and water, the two sole commodities for which the contractors could +make no deductions on the pay-roll, lay conveniently at the doors of the +rude sleeping shacks. + +Since he was not required to talk, Kenneth had time to be curiously +observant of many things in passing. Each camp was the fellow of its +neighbor; a chaotic collection of hastily built bunk shanties, a mess +tent for those who, shunning the pay-devouring Scylla of the +contractors' "commissary," fell into the Charybdis of the common table, +and always, Kenneth remarked, the camp groggery, with its slab-built +bar, its array of ready-filled pocket bottles, and its sad-faced, +slouch-hatted, pistol-carrying keeper. + +"What is that Bible-saying about the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty +land?" said Kenneth, as they were passing one of the wilderness +bar-rooms buttressing a huge boulder by the trail side. "I should think +you'd rule those fellows emphatically and peremptorily out of the game, +Ford. They must make a lot of trouble for you, first and last." + +"They do," was the sober response. "But how would you go about it to +rule them out?" + +The lawyer laughed. "My writs don't run this far. But I thought yours +did. Why don't you fire 'em bodily; tell 'em their number is +23--skiddoo! Aren't you the Sublime Porte--the court of last resort--the +big boss--over here?" + +Ford pulled his horse down to a walk. + +"Kenneth, let me tell you: behind those barkeepers are the contractors; +behind the contractors is Mr. North; behind Mr. North, the president. My +little lever isn't long enough to turn the world over." + +"Pshaw!" said Kenneth. "Mr. Colbrith wouldn't stand for anything like +that! Why, he's a perfect fanatic on the whisky question." + +"That's all right," said Ford acidly. "It doesn't go as far as Mr. +Colbrith in the matter of the debauching particulars. It stops in +Denver; and Mr. Colbrith approves Denver in the lump--signs the vouchers +without looking at them, as Evans would say. I tell you what I +believe--what I am compelled to believe. These individual saloon-keepers +are supposed to be in here on their own hook, on sufferance. They are +not; they are merely the employees of a close corporation. Among the +profit sharers you'll find the MacMorroghs at the top, and Mr. North's +little ring of Denver officials close seconds." + +"Do you honestly believe that, Ford?" + +"I do. I can't prove it, of course. If I could, I'd go to New York and +fight it out. And the whisky isn't all of it, or even the worst: there +are women in some of these camps, and there would be more if Leckhard +didn't stand guard at Saint's Rest and turn them back." + +"Heavens--what a cesspool!" said the attorney. "Does a laboring man ever +get out of here with any of his earnings?" + +"Not if the MacMorroghs can help it. And you can figure for yourself +what the moral atmosphere must be. We are less than two months old on +the work, but already the Western Extension is a streak of crime; crime +unpunished, and at times tacitly encouraged. You may say that my +department isn't responsible--that this is the contractors' day and +game. If that is true now--which it isn't--it will no longer be true +when we come in with our own employees, the track-layers." + +But now Kenneth was shaking his head. + +"I can't believe it, Ford. You're blue because Mr. Colbrith has thrown +Mr. North into your boat as ballast. I don't blame you: but you mustn't +let it make you color-blind." + +Ford said nothing. The day was yet young, and the long journey was still +younger. It was at the noon halt, made at a subcontractor's camp near a +great earth-cutting and a huge fill, that Kenneth had his object lesson. + +They were standing at the door of the timekeeper's shanty--they had been +the timekeeper's guests for the noon meal--and the big gang of Italians, +with its inevitable Irish foreman, was already at work. Out at the head +of the great fill a dozen men were dumping the carts as they came in an +endless stream from the cutting. Suddenly there was a casting down of +shovels, a shrill altercation, a clinch, a flash of steel in the August +sunlight, and one of the disputants was down, his heels drumming on the +soft earth in the death agony. + +"Good God!" said Kenneth. "It's a murder!" and he would have rushed in +if Ford and the timekeeper had not held him back. + +The object lesson was sufficiently shocking, but its sequel was still +more revolting. Without one to kneel beside the dying man; indeed, +without waiting until the drumming heels were still; the men callously +put their shovels under the body, slid it over the lip of the dump and +left it to be covered by the tumbling cataract of earth pouring from the +tip-carts whose orderly procession had scarcely been interrupted by the +tragedy. + +Kenneth was silent for many minutes after they had left the camp of the +Italians. He was a Western man only by adoption; of Anglo-Saxon blood, +and so unable to condone the Latin's disregard for the sacredness of +human life. + +"That was simply terrible, Ford," he said finally, and his voice was +still in sympathy with the shaking hand that held the bridle-reins. +"Will nothing be done?" + +"Nothing; unless the murdered man chances to have relatives or clansmen +in one of the near-by camps--in which case there'll be another killing." + +"But the law," said Kenneth. + +"There is no law here higher than the caprice of Brian MacMorrogh. +Besides, it's too common--a mere episode; one of those which you said +you couldn't believe, a little while back." + +"But can't you make the MacMorroghs do a little police work, for common +decency's sake?" + +Ford shook his head. "They are quite on the other side of the fence, as +I told you in the beginning. By winking at lawlessness of all kinds, +their own particular brands of lawlessness, by which they and their +backers make money, go unquestioned. So far from helping, they'd make it +exceedingly difficult for any sheriff who should have the temerity to +come in here in the discharge of his duty." + +"You foresaw all this before the contract was awarded?" + +"Not all--though I had been told that the MacMorroghs ran 'open camps' +where the work was far enough from civilization to take the curse off. +What you've seen, and what I've been telling you, is bad enough, God +knows; but it will be worse before it is better. After we've had a few +pay-days, and the men begin to realize that they are here to toil and to +be robbed ... Kenneth, it will be hell on earth; and the company will +pay for it--the company always pays in the end." + +"I've got a notion," said the attorney, after another plodding mile of +reflection; but what it was he did not say. + +Ford and his companion reached Copah in the afternoon of the third day +out from Saint's Rest, and, singularly enough, the mine owners who were +disputing the extension right-of-way were found amenable to reason. What +Kenneth did to secure the P. S-W. right-of-way across the mining claims, +Ford did not know, or seek to know; though a word or two let fall by the +attorney led him to believe that the Transcontinental encouragement was +not quite specific enough in dollars and cents to warrant the +obstructors in holding out. + +Ford was for starting back the next morning: he had missed Brissac and +both of the Bensons on the way over. But Kenneth confessed to being +saddle-sore, and begged for another day's respite. Ford agreed without +giving the matter a second thought. Upon such unconsidered trifles--an +indifferent "yes" or "no"--turn the poised scales of life. For one other +day the two Southwestern representatives put up at the Grand Union, +Copah's tar-paper-covered simulacrum of a hotel; and during that day +Ford contrived to sell his birthright for what he, himself, valued at +the moment as a mess of pottage. + +It was in this wise. At this period of its existence Copah, the future +great, was merely a promise; a camp of magnificent prospects. Isolated +by one hundred and fifty miles of wagon-road and pack-trail from one +railroad base, and by forty miles of mountains from the other, its +future turned upon the hope of cheaper transportation. As a gold camp it +was an anomaly. With a single exception its ores were low grade, and the +wagon-road and pack-trail freightage made them practically profitless to +the miners. + +The single exception was the "Little Alicia," and it was the coincidence +of the name, rather than the eloquence of its impoverished owner, that +first attracted Ford. From first to last he did not know the exact +location of the mine. It was somewhere in the hills back of Copah, and +Grigsby, the prospector who had discovered and opened it, had an office +in the camp. + +It was in Grigsby's town office that Ford saw the ore specimens and the +certified assays, and listened not too credulously to Grigsby's +enthusiastic description of the Little Alicia. To be a half-owner in +this mine of mines was to be rich beyond the dreams of avarice--when the +railroad should come: if one might take Grigsby's word for it. + +It is a curious fever, that which seizes upon the new-comer in an +unexploited mining field. Ford was far from being money-mad; but there +were times when he could not help contrasting a railroad salary with +Miss Adair's millions. True, he had once said to her, in the fulness of +confident belief, that the money of the woman he loved would make no +difference--to her or to him. But the point of view, wise or foolish, is +not always the same. There were moments when the Adair millions loomed +large, and the salary of an assistant to the president--who was in fact +little more than a glorified chief of construction--shrank in +proportion. He was free of obligation and foot-loose. His twenty +thousand dollars invested in P. S-W. stock at twenty-nine and a half had +grown with the rising market to sixty-odd. What did it matter to any one +if he chose to put ten thousand of the sixty-odd on a turn of the +Little Alicia card? + +While it was gambling, pure and simple, he did not bet with his eyes +shut. Inquiry at the Bank of Copah established Grigsby's reputation for +truth-telling. The specimens and the assay certificates were beyond +doubt genuine. More than this, Grigsby had made a number of ore +shipments by freighters' wagon and jack train over the range, and the +returns had enabled him to keep a small force of men at work in the +mine. + +Ford made his bet through the bank. The cashier was willing to take a +P. S-W. official's note of hand, to be canceled when Ford could deposit +to the bank's credit in Denver, and to give Grigsby an open account for +his immediate needs. Grigsby accepted joyfully, and the thing was done. +Ford's mess of pottage was a deed of half-ownership in the Little +Alicia, executed and recorded in the afternoon of the day of stop-overs, +and he was far enough from suspecting that he had exchanged for it all +that a man of honor holds dearest. But, as a matter of fact, the +birthright had not yet been handed over: that came later. + + + + +XIV + +THE DRAW-BAR PULL + + +Attorney Kenneth had many more object-lessons in the study of "open +camps" on the three-day return ride to Saint's Rest. The day of +stop-over in Copah chanced to be the MacMorrogh Brothers' monthly +pay-day, and until the men's money was spent pandemonium reigned along +the line of the extension. + +Some of it they dodged, riding wide to pass the larger camps, and +hearing from afar the noise of carousal, the fierce drinking songs of +the Magyars, the fusillades of pistol-shots. So far as they could see, +all work appeared to be suspended; and Major Benson, whose camp of +engineers they picked up in one of the detours around a gulch head, +confirmed that conclusion. + +"It was the same way last month," raged the major, twisting his fierce +white mustaches and looking as if he would like to blot the name of +MacMorrogh from the roster of humanity. "It'll take a full week to get +them into the swing again, and MacMorrogh will be up with his estimates +just the same as if he had been working full time. I'll cut 'em; by the +gods, I'll cut 'em! And you must stand by me, Mr. Ford." + +There was the same story to be listened to at Brissac's tie camp; and +again at young Benson's headquarters, which were on the mountain +section. This last was on the third day, however, when the madness was +dying down. Some of the rock men were back on the job, but many of the +gangs were still grievously short-handed. Ford said little to Kenneth. +The pandemonium spoke for itself. But on the third night, when the long +ride was ended, and Pietro, Ford's cook and man-of-all-work, was serving +supper in the caboose office-on-wheels, some of the bitterness in Ford's +heart slipped into speech. + +"Can you see now how it takes the very marrow out of a man's bones, +Kenneth? You may think of an engineer as a man of purely bull-headed +purposes, merely trying, in a crass, materialistic way, to get a +material thing done. I want to do a big thing, and I'd like to do it in +a big way. It _is_ a big thing--the building of this extension. If it +doesn't add another star to the flag, it will at least make one state +twice as populous, twice as prosperous. It will add its quota to the +habitable surfaces; and it's a good quota--a land that some future +generation will love, and swear by, and fight for, if need be. And to +think that for one man's narrow-mindedness and another's greed we've got +to christen it in blood and muck and filth and dishonesty--it makes me +sore, Kenneth; sore and disheartened." + +"I don't blame you," said the lawyer, reveling, though he would never +have admitted it, in the comfort of the caboose headquarters journey's +end. "But you'll pull through; you'll build your railroad, and the +mistakes that are made won't be your mistakes. It's a horrible state of +affairs, that in the MacMorrogh camps; a blot on our boasted +civilization. But you can't help it. Or rather you will help it if, and +when, you can." + +Ford was shaking his head dejectedly. + +"I don't know, Kenneth. It's getting next to me, even at this early +stage of the game. Have you ever stood on the front car platform of a +train nearest to the engine and watched the jiggling draw-bar? It is +apparently loose; its hold on the engine seems to be no more than that +of the touch of clasped hands in a gipsy dance. Yet it never lets go, +and the drag of it is always there. By and by, when the coal is all +burned, and the fire is out, and the water is drained from the tank, +those gentle little multiplied jerks will pull the big engine down--kill +it--make it a mere mass of inert metal blocking the way of progress." + +"Well?" said the attorney. + +"It's an allegory. I'm beginning to feel the draw-bar pull. Sooner or +later, North and his clique will drag me down. I can't fight as the +under dog--I never learned how; and they've fixed it so that I can't +fight any other way." + +Kenneth had lighted his cigar and was lying back against the cushion of +the car-seat. After a little, he said: "Just after we saw the Italian +killed last week I told you I had a notion, Ford. I've got it yet, and +I've been turning it over in my mind and wondering if I'd better explode +it on you. On the whole, I think I'd better not. It's a case of surgery. +If the patient lives, you'll know about it. If the patient dies, you'll +be no worse off than you are now. Shall we let it rest at that?" + +Ford acquiesced. He was too utterly disheartened to be curious. But if +he could have foreseen the results of Kenneth's notion it is conceivable +that he would have been aroused to some effort of protest, as even in +deep waters one prays sometimes to be delivered from his friends. + +It was a week after this farewell supper in the caboose hotel at Saint's +Rest when Ford went down to Denver to borrow, on his P. S-W. stock, the +ten thousand dollars to be deposited to the credit of the Bank of Copah. +Following him, and only one train behind, came Frisbie, new from a +confirmatory survey of the extension beyond the Copah district. + +On his return from the Green Butte end of the proposed line, the little +man with the diabolical fashion of beard trimming had spent a week in +and around Copah, picking up yard rights-of-way, surveying approaches, +and setting grade stakes for the outlying MacMorrogh gangs. During that +week he had made a discovery, and since he believed it to be all his +own, he journeyed eastward to share it quickly with his chief. + +Ford was dining alone at the Brown Palace when Frisbie, coming straight +from the Plug Mountain train, found him. There was an entire western +desert to be talked over during the courses, and Frisbie held his +discovery in reserve until they had gone to smoke in a quiet corner of +the great rotunda. Even then he approached it indirectly. + +"In taking up the line down the Pannikin we have followed the old S. L & +W. survey pretty closely all the way from start to finish. What were +your reasons, Stuart?" he asked. + +"There didn't seem to be any good reason for not following it. Brandreth +made the S. L & W. preliminary, and there isn't a better locating +engineer in this country." + +"I know," said Frisbie. "But the best of us make mistakes, now and then. +Brandreth made a pretty sizable one, I think." + +"How is that?" + +"You know where the big rock-cutting is to be made in the lower canyon, +about ten miles this side of the point where we begin to swing south for +the run to Copah--a mile and a half of heavy work that will cost away +up into the pictures?" + +"Yes; I've estimated that rock work at not a cent less than two hundred +thousand dollars." + +"You're shy, rather than over, at that. And two hundred thousand would +build a number of miles of ordinary railroad, wouldn't it? But that +isn't all. The cliffs along that canyon are shale-topped and +shale-undermined, the shale alternating with loose rock about fifty feet +above our line of grade in quarter-mile stretches all along. That means +incessant track-walking day and night through the mile and a half of +cutting, and afterward--for all time afterward--a construction train +kept handy under steam to clear away debris that will never quit sliding +down on the embankment." + +"I'm afraid you are right," said Ford. "It's the worst bit on the entire +extension; the most costly to build, as it will be the most expensive to +maintain. But I guess Brandreth knew what he was about when he surveyed +it." + +"Brandreth is a short-line man. He wouldn't lengthen his line ten miles +to dodge an earthquake. Ford, we can save a hundred thousand dollars on +that piece of track in first cost--to say nothing of the future." + +"How? I'm always open to conviction." + +"By leaving the S. L & W. survey at Horse Creek, following up to the low +divide at Emory's Mine, and crossing to enter Copah from the southeast +instead of from the northeast. I came out that way from Copah five days +ago. It's perfectly feasible; straight-away, easy earth work for the +greater part, and the only objection is that it adds about twelve +running miles to the length of the extension. It's for you to say +whether or not the added distance will be warranted by the lessened cost +and the assurance of safety in operating. If we cut through that lower +canyon cliff it will be only a question of time until we bury somebody, +no matter how closely it is watched." + +Ford took time to consider the proposal. There were objections, and he +named one of them. + +"The MacMorroghs have based their bid on the present survey: they will +not want to let that piece of rock work drop out of sight." + +"They'll have to, if you say so. And you can afford to be pretty liberal +with them on the substituted twelve miles." + +"I'll have to think about it over night," was Ford's final answer. +"Arrange to give me an hour to-morrow morning and we'll go over the maps +and your notes together." + +Frisbie slept soundly on the gained inch, hoping to make it the coveted +ell in the morning. He knew the chief objection, which was that Ford, +too, was a "short-line" engineer; a man who would lay down his railroad +as the Czar of Russia did the St. Petersburg-Moscow line--by placing a +ruler on the map and drawing a straight mark beside it between the two +cities--if that were an American possibility. But he knew, too, that the +safety clause would weigh heavily with Ford, and there was no minimizing +the danger to future traffic if the canyon route should be retained. + +It turned out finally as the first assistant had hoped and believed it +would. Ford spent a thoughtful hour at his office in the Guaranty +Building before Frisbie came down--the little man being trail-weary +enough to sleep late in the comfortable room at the Brown Palace. The +slight change of route was hardly a matter to be carried up to the +executive committee, and Ford's decision turned upon quite another +pivot--the addition of twelve miles of distance. As against this, safety +and economy won the day; and when Frisbie came in the talk was merely of +ways and means. + +"Fix up the change with the MacMorroghs the best way you can," was +Ford's concluding instruction to his lieutenant. "They will kick, of +course; merely to be kicking at anything I suggest. But you can bring +them to terms, I guess." + +"By my lonesome?" said Frisbie. "Aren't you going over to see the new +route with your own eyes?" + +"No. I'm perfectly willing to trust your judgment, Dick. Besides, I've +got other fish to fry. I'm going east to-night to have one more tussle +with the steel mills. We must have quicker deliveries and more of them. +When I get back, we'll organize the track-layers and begin to make us a +railroad." + +"Good," said Frisbie, gathering up his maps and sketches of the detour +country; and so, in the wording of a brief sentence or two it came to +pass that Ford delivered himself bound and unarmed into the hands of his +enemies. + +A little light was thrown upon this dark passage that night in the +office of the general manager, after Ford's train had gone eastward, and +Frisbie was on his way back to the MacMorrogh headquarters on the lower +Pannikin. North was waiting when Eckstein came in, flushed as from a +rapid walk. + +"It's all settled?" asked the general manager, with a slow lift of the +eyebrow to betray his anxiety. + +"To the queen's taste, I should say," was the secretary's not too +deferential reply. "Ford's out of the way, to be gone ten days or a +fortnight, and Frisbie has gone back to dicker with MacMorrogh, and to +survey the new route up Horse Creek. Ford doesn't know; I doubt if he +will ever know until we spring the trap on him. The one thing I was most +afraid of was that he would insist upon going over the new line himself. +Then, of course, he would have found out--he couldn't help finding out." + +The general manager squared his huge shoulders against the back of the +chair. + +"You think he would call it off if he knew?" he queried. "You give him +credit for too much virtue, Eckstein. But I think we have him now. By +the time he returns it will be too late for him to hedge. MacMorrogh +will see to that." + +Eckstein nodded. "I made a point of that with Brian," he said. "The +minute the word is given he is to throw a little army of graders upon +the new roundabout. But Ford won't find out. He'll be too busy on this +end of the line with the track-layers. I'm a little nervous about +Merriam, though." + +"He's the man who talked Frisbie into championing the new route?" + +"Yes. He did it pretty skilfully: made Frisbie think he was finding it +out himself, and never let the little man out of his sight while they +were in Copah. But I am afraid Merriam himself knows too much." + +"Get him out of the country--before Ford gets back," was the crisp +order. "If he isn't here when the gun goes off, he can't tell anybody +how it was loaded." + +"An appointment--" Eckstein began. + +"That is what I mean," said the general manager, turning back to his +desk. "We need a traffic agency up in the Oregon country. See +Merriam--to-night. Find out if he'd like to have the general agency at, +say, twenty-five hundred a year; and if he agrees, get out the circular +appointing him." + +"He'll agree, fast enough," laughed the secretary. "But I'll nail +him--to-night." + +Ford spent rather more than two weeks in his round-up of the eastern +steel mills, and there was a terrific accumulation of correspondence +awaiting him when he reached Denver. At the top of the pile was an +official circular appointing one George Z. Merriam, a man whom Ford +remembered, or seemed vaguely to remember, as one of the MacMorrogh +bookkeepers, general agent of the P. S-W., with headquarters at Portland, +Oregon. And at the bottom of the accumulation was a second official +printing, bearing the approval of the president, this; and Ford's eyes +gloomed angrily when he read it. + + PACIFIC SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY CO. + + Office of the President. + + NEW YORK, August 24. + + To All Officials and Employees: + + At a called meeting of the stock-holders of this company, held in + New York, August 23, Mr. John C. North was elected First + Vice-President and General Manager of all lines of this company, + operative and under construction. All officers and employees will + govern themselves accordingly. + + By Order of the Executive Committee. + + Approved: + + SIDNEY J. COLBRITH, President. + + + + +XV + +AN UNWILLING HOST + + +Standing in the Pacific portal of Plug Pass, on the old snow-crust +which, even in midsummer, never entirely disappears at altitude ten +thousand feet, they could look away westward over a billowing sea of +mountain and mesa and valley breaking in far-distant, crystalline space +against the mighty rampart of the Wasatch range, two hundred and other +miles nearer the sunset. + +It was an outlook both inspiring and chastening; with the scenic +grandeurs to give the exalted uplift, and the still, gray-green face of +the vast mountainous desert to shrink the beholder to microscopic +littleness in the face of its stupendous heights and depths, its +immeasurable bulks and interspaces. Miss Alicia said something like this +to Ford, in broken exclamations, when she had taken her first quailing +eye-plunge from the lofty view-point. + +"Yes; quite so," Ford acquiesced, in the unresponsive tone of one who +says what he must, rather than what he would like to say. "It is all the +things you have been saying, and more--when one has the time and the +mind to be enthusiastic about it." + +Miss Adair stood up very straight, and her chin was a protest in +Praxitelean harmonies. She knew very well how reluctantly her companion +was doing the honors of the mountain vastnesses; how full of wrath he +was because President Colbrith had seen fit to precipitate the Nadia and +a private-car party into the midst of the strenuous building battle on +the western extension. But she argued that this was no reason why he +should be crustily impossible with her. Wherefore she said, merely to +see him boil over: + +"I should think you would come up here often for this glorious view, Mr. +Ford. You do, don't you?" + +"Come up here for the view? Oh, yes; I presume I have climbed up here a +hundred times, first and last, and always for the sake of the view. I +began it the first winter I spent in Saint's Rest, when the snow-shoeing +was at its best. Really to appreciate the scenery, you should take three +hours for the approach from the basin down yonder, dragging a pair of +Canadian raquettes by the toe-straps." + +The young woman laughed inwardly at the broadsword slash of his sarcasm. +It was so like the man; big and vigorous and energetic, and quite +without regard for consequences or for the insignificance of the thing +to be obliterated. But she would not spare him. + +"How enthusiastic you are!" she commented. "I don't believe I should be +equal to 'a hundred times, first and last,' or to the snow-shoes. But I +can admire such zeal in other people immensely." + +"Do you really think so small of a man's work in the world, Miss Adair?" +he demanded, not very coherently. "I'm not saying that the scenery +doesn't move me. It does; and the first time I stood here on this +summit, I presume I felt just as you do now. But my comings and goings +have been chiefly concerned with this"--kicking the rail of the new +track which threaded the shallow valley of the pass. "I am trying to +build a railroad; to build it quickly, and as well as I can. When I get +it finished, I may have time to admire the scenery." + +It was a little appeal for sympathy, apparent enough in spite of its +indirectness; but Miss Adair was still mindful of Ford's too evident +willingness to leave her behind at the deserted grading-camp half-way +down to Saint's Rest where the Nadia was temporarily side-tracked. + +"Another ideal gone," she lamented, in mock despair. "All those +trampings and toilings up this magnificent mountain merely to prepare +for the laying of some logs of wood in a row, with two strands of iron +to fasten them together!" + +He smiled at her definition of his railroad, and the keen edge of his +annoyance was a little blunted. He had been telling himself that she +might be twenty-four, or possibly twenty-five; but evidently she was +only a child, with a child's appreciation of a very considerable +industrial triumph. Old engineers, one of them an assistant on his own +staff, had shaken their heads and declared that the running of a +standard gauge railroad over Plug Pass was a sheer impossibility. Yet he +had done it. + +"I suspect I owe you an apology," he said, yielding a little to the love +which was fighting with discouragement and righteous anger for the first +place in his heart. "I'm afraid I have been taking you too seriously, +all along." + +Her laugh was a delicious little ripple of exultation. She had succeeded +in avenging herself. + +"I can forgive you now," she said, and the blue eyes were dancing. "But +you must admit that you were the aggressor. I have _never_ been made so +pointedly unwelcome in all my life. I believe you were going to refuse +to let me walk up here with you if Uncle Sidney had not commanded you +to." + +This time his smile was a grin, but it was not ill-natured. + +"I should, indeed," he confessed quite frankly. "To be brutally candid, +I had a decided attack of the 'unwelcomes' when I received Mr. +Colbrith's wire announcing his intention of bringing his picnic party +out here into the midst of things. We have little time, and none of the +civilized conveniences, for entertaining company." + +"I think we all understand that," she made haste to say. "Aunt Hetty +tried to dissuade Uncle Sidney, but he was bent on showing us how modern +railroad building is rushed at the 'front'--is that the right word?--and +so here we are." + +A small frown gathered between Ford's eyes. He was far enough from +suspecting that this was the outworking of Kenneth's "notion"; that Mr. +Colbrith's annual inspection tour over the Pacific Southwestern had been +extended to cover the new line at Kenneth's suggestion--a suggestion +arising out of purely reformatory motives. Nor would it have helped +matters much if he had known Kenneth's genuine distress when it +transpired that the suggestion bade fair to result in precipitating a +private car-load of pleasurers into the pandemonium of the +grading-camps. + +But the pleasurers were as yet only upon the borders of the pandemonium, +and Ford was torturing his ingenuity to devise some argument strong +enough to turn back the threatened invasion. There were reasons enough +why a party with women among its members should not be projected into +the grading and track-laying field. It was no place for women, Ford was +telling himself wrathfully; especially for the women of the president's +own household. + +In the little interval of silence Miss Adair was focusing her +field-glass and trying to trace the line of the descending grade into +the headwater valley of the Pannikin. Ford did not mean to be ungracious +to her--what lover ever means to be curt to the one woman in all the +world? But it is not easy to be angry in nine parts and loving-kind in +the tenth--anger being one of the inclusive emotions. Nevertheless, he +made the effort, for her sake. However inconsiderate Mr. Colbrith was, +she was blameless. + +"Let me show you," he said, taking the field-glass and adjusting it for +her. "Now hold it steadily and pick up the line in the great loop.... +Have you found it?... Now follow it slowly until you come to the point +where it turns into the valley, and you can trace it for miles by the +cuts and fills." + +She followed his directions until the line of the extension became a +vanishing thread in the distance, and then was content to let the glass +sweep the vastnesses beyond. When she spoke it was of the topographic +immensities. + +"I heard you telling brother at the dinner-table in Chicago that you +were able to see more in this wilderness than you have ever been able to +make any one else see. Can I see it with the glass?" + +"Hardly," he smiled. "I was trying to tell your brother of the +magnificent possibilities of the country lying between this and that +farthest mountain range; the country we are going to open up. It was a +gospel I had been trying to preach to the directors, but none of them +believed--not even your uncle." + +"I see nothing but vastness and cold gray grandeurs," she said, adding: +"and the very bigness of it makes me feel like a mere atom, or a +molecule--whichever is the smaller." + +"Yet it is a new empire in the rough," he rejoined, with a touch of the +old enthusiasm, "waiting only for the coming of this"--putting his foot +again upon the steel of the new railroad line. "What you are looking at +has been called a part of the Great American Desert--the most forbidding +part, in the stories of the early explorers. Notwithstanding, there will +come a time when you can focus your glass here on this mountain and look +out over what the promoters will then be advertising as a 'peopled +paradise,' and these 'logs of wood in a row, with two strands of iron to +fasten them together' will bring it to pass." + +There was a flash of the enthusiast's fire in the cool gray eyes to go +with the words, and Miss Adair wondered at it. He had stood for her as +an embodiment of things practical and prosaic; as one too keenly +watchful and alert on the purely industrial side to be in any sense a +dreamer of dreams. Some part of her thought slipped into speech. + +"No, I am not an enthusiast," he denied, in reply to her charge. "At +bottom, I'm only an engineer, with an ambition to build railroads. But +I should have learned no more than half of my trade if I couldn't tell +where it would be profitable to build them." + +"Never mind: you seem to have convinced Uncle Sidney and the directors +finally," she commented. + +"No; your uncle and the directors are not empire builders--meaning to +be," he objected. "They are after the present visible dollar in a +western outlet for the Pacific Southwestern. If we reach Green Butte +before our competitors can broaden their narrow gauge to that point, we +shall have a practicable line from Chicago to the Pacific coast." + +"I understand," she said. "But yours is the higher ideal--the true +American ideal." + +"It's business," he asserted. + +"Well, isn't business the very heart and soul of the American ideal?" +she laughed. + +This time he laughed with her, forgetting his troubles for the moment. + +"I guess it is, in the last analysis," he said. And then: "I'm sorry to +keep you waiting so long, if you are anxious to get back to the Nadia. +But I warned you beforehand. I must keep my appointment with Frisbie. Do +you see anything of him?" This because she was again sweeping the +western wilderness with the field-glass. + +"What am I to look for?" + +"The smoke of an engine." + +She focused the glass on the gorge at the foot of the pass. "I see it!" +she cried. "A little black beetle of a thing just barely crawling. Now +it is turning into the first curve of the great loop." + +"Then we shan't have very much longer to wait. Do you find the +ten-thousand-foot breeze chilly? Turn up the collar of your coat and +we'll walk a bit." + +It was his first appreciable concern for her comfort, and she gave him +full credit. Coquetry was no part of Miss Alicia's equipment, but no +woman likes to be utterly neglected on the care-taking side, or to be +transformed ruthlessly into a man-companion whose well-being may be +brusquely ignored. And this young athlete in brown duck shooting-coat +and service leggings, who was patiently doing a sentry-go beside her up +and down the newly-laid track at the summit of Plug Pass, was quite a +different person from the abashed apologist who had paid for her dinner +in the dining-car on the night of purse-snatchings. + + + + +XVI + +THE TRUTHFUL ALTITUDES + + +A low, tremulous shudder was beginning to lift itself, like the distant +growling of thunder, upon the tinnient air of the high summit. A moment +later a heavy construction engine shot around the final curve in the +westward climb, with Michael Gallagher hanging out of the cab window on +the engineer's side. + +The two at the summit faced about to watch the approach. The big engine +came lumbering and lurching dangerously over the unsurfaced track in a +fierce spurt for the mountain-top, its stack vomiting fire, its +cylinder-cocks hissing shrilly, and its exhaust ripping the spheral +silences like the barking detonations of a machine-gun. + +Ford glanced aside at his companion; her expressive face was a study in +delighted animation and he decided that he had again misjudged the +president's niece. She was beating time softly with her gloved hands and +singing the song of the locomotive: + +"'With a michnai--ghignai--shtingal! Yah! Yah! Yah! +Ein--zwei--drei--Mutter! Yah! Yah! Yah! + She climb upon der shteeple, + Und she frighten all der people, +Singin' michnai--ghignai--shtingal! Yah! Yah!'" + +she quoted; and Ford's heart went out to her in new and comradely +outreachings. + +"You read _Naught-naught-seven_?" he said: "you are one woman in a +thousand." + +"_Merci!_" she countered. "Small favors thankfully received. Brother +thinks there is only one person writing, nowadays, and the name of that +person is Kipling. I get a little of it by mere attrition." + +The brakes of the big engine were still gripping the wheels when a small +man with wicked mustaches and goatee dropped from the gangway. His khaki +suit was weather-faded to a dirty green, and he was grimy and perspiring +and altogether unpresentable; but he pulled himself together and tried +to look pleasant when he saw that his chief had a companion, and that +the companion was a lady. + +"I'm sorry if I have kept you waiting," he began. "Gallagher was +shifting steel for the track-layers when your wire found me, and the +engine couldn't be spared,"--this, of course, to Ford. Then, with an +apologetic side glance for the lady: "Riley's in hot water again--up to +his chin." + +"What's the matter now?" gritted Ford; and Alicia marked the instant +change to masterful command. + +"Same old score. The Italians are kicking again at the MacMorrogh +Brothers' commissary--because they have to pay two prices and get chuck +that a self-respecting dog wouldn't eat; and, besides, they say they +are quarrying rock--which is true--and getting paid by the MacMorroghs +for moving earth. They struck at noon to-day." + +The chief frowned gloomily, and the president's niece felt intuitively +that her presence was a bar to free speech. + +"It's straight enough about the rotten commissary and the graft on the +pay-rolls," said Ford wrathfully. "Is the trouble likely to spread to +the camps farther down?" + +"I hope not; I don't think it will--without whisky to help it along," +said Frisbie, with another apologetic side glance for Miss Adair. + +"Yes; but the whisky isn't lacking--there's Pete Garcia and his stock of +battle, murder and sudden death at Paint Rock, a short half-mile from +Riley's," Ford broke in. + +Frisbie's smile, helped out by the grime and the coal dust, was +triumphantly demoniacal. + +"Not now there isn't," he amended; adding: "Any fire-water at Paint +Rock, I mean. When Riley told me what was doing, I made a bee line for +Garcia's wickiup and notified him officially that he'd have to go out of +business for the present." + +"Oh, you did?" said Ford. "Of course he was quite willing to oblige you? +How much time did he give you to get out of pistol range?" + +[Illustration: "Miss Adair, you must let me introduce my friend, Mr. +Richard Frisbie"] + +Frisbie actually blushed--in deference to the lady. + +"Why--er--it was the other way round. He double-quicked a little +side-trip down the gulch while I knocked in the heads of his whisky +barrels and wrecked his bar with a striking hammer I had brought along." + +For the first time in the interview the chief's frown melted and he +laughed approvingly. + +"Miss Adair, you must let me introduce my friend and first assistant, +Mr. Richard Frisbie. He is vastly more picturesque than anything else we +have to show you at this end of the Pacific Southwestern. Dick--Miss +Alicia Adair, President Colbrith's niece." + +Frisbie took off his hat, and Miss Alicia gave him her most gracious +smile. + +"Please go on," she said. "I'm immensely interested. What became of Mr. +Garcia afterward?" + +"I don't know that," said Frisbie ingenuously. "Only, I guess I shall +find out when I go back. He is likely to be a little irritated, I'm +afraid. But there are compensations, even in Pete: like most Mexicans, +he can neither tell the truth nor shoot straight." Then again to Ford: +"What is to be done about the Riley mix-up?" + +"Oh, the same old thing. Go down and tell the Italians that the company +will stand between them and the MacMorroghs, and they shall have +justice--provided always that every man of them is back on the job again +to-morrow morning. Who is Riley's interpreter now?" + +"Lanciotto." + +"Well, look out for him: he is getting a side-cut from the MacMorroghs +and is likely to translate you crooked, if it suits his purposes. Check +him by having our man Luigi present when he does the talking act. Any +word from Major Benson?" + +"He was at the tie-camp on Ute Creek, yesterday. Jack Benson and Brissac +are lining the grade for the steel on M'Grath's section, and the bridge +men are well up to the last crossing of Horse Creek." + +"That's encouraging. How about the grade work on the detour--your new +line into Copah?" + +It was the assistant's turn to frown, but the brow-wrinkling was of +puzzlement. + +"There's something a bit curious about that--you don't mind our talking +shop like a pair of floor-walkers, do you, Miss Adair? You know we +expected the MacMorroghs would kick on the change of route and the loss +of the big rock-cut in the canyon. There wasn't a word of protest. If I +hadn't known better, I should have said that old Brian MacMorrogh knew +all about it in advance. All he said was: 'Sure, 'tis your railroad, and +we'll be buildin' it anywheres you say, Misther Frisbie.' And the very +next day he had a little army of men on that detour, throwing dirt to +beat the band. It'll be ready for the steel by the time we can get to it +with the track-layers." + +Ford nodded approvingly. "Speed is what we are paying for, and we're +thankful to get it whenever, and wherever, we can. Is the bridge timber +coming down all right now?" + +"Yes; and we are getting plenty of ties since the major put on his +war-paint and went after the MacMorrogh subs in the tie-camps. It is the +rock work that is holding us back." + +Ford nodded again. Then he tried a little shot in the dark. + +"The president's car is just below--at the basin switch. He wants to +have it taken to the front, and I have been trying to dissuade him. Is +the track safe for it?" + +Frisbie guessed what kind of answer was desired, and stretched the truth +a little. + +"I should say not. It's something fierce, even for the construction +trains." + +Miss Alicia's smile was seraphic. + +"You two gentlemen needn't tell fibs for the possible effect on me," she +said, with charming frankness. "Nothing I could say would carry any +weight with Uncle Sidney." + +"Stung!" said Frisbie, half to himself; and the two men laughed +shamefacedly. + +"Will it disarrange things so very much if the Nadia is taken to the +'front'?" asked Miss Adair. + +"Well, rather," said Frisbie bluntly. Then he tried to excuse himself +and made a mess of it. + +"Just why?" she persisted. "Forget the conventions, Mr. Frisbie, and +talk to me as you have been talking to Mr. Ford. Is there any good +reason, apart from the inconvenience, why our little pleasure party +shouldn't see your new railroad? I am appealing to you because Mr. Ford +won't tell me the truth." + +Ford stood aloof and let Frisbie worry with it alone. + +"There are a dozen reasons, Miss Adair; the track is fearfully +rough--really, you know, it isn't safe for a big car like the Nadia. +There are only a few sidings, and what there are, are filled up with +construction stuff and camp cars, and--" + +She was shaking her head and laughing at his strivings. + +"Never mind," she said; "you can't tell the truth, either, with Mr. Ford +looking on. But I shall find it out." + +Frisbie looked horrified. + +"You--you certainly will, Miss Adair; if Mr. Colbrith insists upon +having his car dragged over the range." Then, being quite willing to +make his escape, he turned to his chief. "Is there anything else? If +not, I'll be getting back to the Riley mix-up before the trouble has +time to grow any bigger." + +Ford shook his head, and Frisbie lifted his hat to Miss Adair and +turned to climb to his engine cab. But at the moment of brake-releasings +Ford halted him. + +"One minute," he said; and turning to his charge: "I'll borrow Dick's +engine and take you down to the Nadia's siding, if you'd rather ride +than walk." + +"Oh, will you? That would be fine! But oughtn't Mr. Frisbie to get back +to his work?" + +"Y-yes," Ford admitted. "Time is rather important, just now." + +"Then we'll walk," she said with great decision. + +"That's all, Dick," Ford called. "Keep an eye open for Garcia. He might +make a fluke and shoot straight, for once in a way." + +They stood in silence on the wind-swept summit until the curving +down-rush of the western grade had swallowed the retreating engine. Miss +Alicia was the first to speak when the iron clamor was distance-drowned. + +"I like your Mr. Frisbie," she said reflectively. "Isn't he the kind of +man who would have taken the message to the other Garcia?" + +"He is the kind of man who would stop a bullet for his friend, and think +nothing of it--if the bullet should happen to leave him anything to +think with," he returned warmly. And then he added, half absently: "He +saved my life four years ago last summer." + +There was genuine human interest in her voice when she said gently: + +"Would you mind telling me about it?" + +"It was up in the Minnesota pineries, where we were building a branch +railroad through the corner of an Indian reservation. A half-breed +pot-hunter for the game companies had a right-of-way quarrel with the +railroad people, and he pitched upon me as the proper person to kill. It +was a knife rush in the moonlight; and Dick might have shot him, only he +was too tender-hearted. So he got between us." + +"Well?" she prompted, when it became evident that Ford thought he had +finished. + +"That was all; except that it was touch and go with poor Dick for the +next six weeks, with no surgeon worthy of the name nearer than St. +Paul." + +Miss Alicia was more deeply impressed by the little story than she cared +to have her companion suspect. Her world was a world of the commonplace +conventions, with New York as its starting point and homing place; and +she thought she knew something of humankind. But it came to her suddenly +that the men she knew best were not at all like these two. + +"Shall we go back now?" she asked; and they were half-way down to the +siding and the private car before she spoke again. It took some little +time to compass sufficient humility to make amends, and even then the +admission came to no more than four words. + +"I'm sorry, Mr. Ford." + +"What for?" he asked, knowing only that he was coming to love her more +blindly with every added minute of their companionship. + +"For--for trying to be hateful." It was a humbler thing than any she had +ever said to a man, but the raw sincerity of time and place and +association was beginning to get into her blood. + +"If it comes to that, there were two of us," he rejoined, matching her +frankness. "And, as you remarked a while back, I was certainly the +aggressor. Shall we call it a truce for the present?" + +"If you will be generous enough." + +"Oh, I am generosity itself, under ordinary conditions; but just now +I'll admit that I am fearfully and wonderfully inhospitable. I can't +help wishing most fervently that something had happened to prevent your +uncle's coming." + +"Is it uncle who is in the way?--or the pleasure party?" + +"Both." + +"We are negligible," she said, meaning the pleasurers. + +"No, you are not; and neither is your Uncle Sidney." + +"Is he still formidable to you?" she laughed. + +"He is, indeed. But, worse than that, he is likely to prove a very +considerable disturbing element if I can't keep him from plunging in +upon us." + +She let half of the remaining distance to the end of the steep grade go +underfoot before she said: "I like to help people, sometimes; but I +don't like to do it in the dark." + +He would have explained instantly to a man for the sake of gaining an +ally. But he could not bring himself to the point of telling her the +story of graft and misrule in which the MacMorroghs were the principals, +and North--and her uncle, by implication--the backers. + +So he said: "It is rather a long story, and you would scarcely +understand it. We have been having constant trouble with the +MacMorroghs, the contractors, and there is a bad state of affairs in the +grading camps. It has come to a point where I shall have to fight the +MacMorroghs to some sort of a finish, and--well, to put it very baldly, +I don't want to have to fight the MacMorroghs and the president in the +same round." + +"Why should Uncle Sidney take the part of these men, if they are bad +men, Mr. Ford?" + +"Because he has always distrusted my judgment, and because he is loyal +to Mr. North, whom he has made my superior. Mr. North tells him that I +am to blame." + +"But it must be a very dreadful condition of things, if what Mr. Frisbie +said is all true." + +"Frisbie spoke of only one little incident. Trouble like this we're +having to-day is constantly arising. No money-making graft is too petty +or too immoral for the MacMorroghs to connive at. They rob and starve +their laborers, and cheat the company with bad work. I've got to have a +free hand in dealing with them, or--" + +He stopped abruptly, realizing that he was talking to her as he might +have talked to a specialist in his own profession. Hence he was not +disappointed when she said: + +"You go too fast for me. But I think I understand now why our coming is +inopportune. And it's comforting to know that the reason is a business +reason." + +He put shame to the wall and blurted out suddenly: "It is only one of +the reasons, Miss Adair. The--the camps are no fit place for a party +with women. You--you'll have to be blind and deaf if your uncle persists +in taking you with him." + +It was said, and he was glad of it, though he was wiping the +perspiration from his face when the thing was done. She was silent until +they were standing at the steps of the side-tracked private car. + +"Thank you," she said simply. "Of course, I'll do what I can to keep +Uncle Sidney from going--and taking us. What shall you say to him?" + +"I am going to tell him that our track isn't safe for the Nadia--which +is true enough." + +"Very well. I'll tell Aunt Hetty and Mrs. Van Bruce--which may be more +to the point. But don't be encouraged by that. I have reason to believe +that Uncle Sidney will have his way in spite of any or all of us." + + + + +XVII + +A NIGHT OF ALARMS + + +Ford put Miss Alicia up the steps of the Nadia and followed her into the +vestibule, meaning to fight it out with Mr. Colbrith on the spot, and +hoping he might have a private audience with the president for the doing +of it. + +The hope was not denied. Penfield, who was acting as private secretary +to Mr. Colbrith, _en route_, appeared in the passageway to say that Ford +was wanted in the president's state-room. + +"Well, Mr. Ford, what are we waiting for?" was the querulous demand +which served as Mr. Colbrith's greeting when Ford presented himself at +the door of the private compartment. + +Ford's reply lacked the deferential note. He had reached a point at +which his job was not worth as much as it had been. + +"I have just brought Miss Adair back from the top of the pass, where we +met Mr. Frisbie, my chief of construction. I wished to ask him if he +thought the track was safe for your car, and he says, most emphatically, +that it is not. I can not take the responsibility of sending the Nadia +to the end-of-track." + +The president's thin face was working irritably. "I haven't asked you to +assume any responsibility, Mr. Ford. If the track is safe for your +material trains, it is safe enough for my car. But I didn't send for you +to argue the point. I desire to have the Nadia taken to the front. Be +good enough to give the necessary orders." + +Ford tried again. In addition to the precarious track there were few or +no unoccupied sidings, especially near the front. Moreover, there was no +telegraph service which might suffice for the safe despatching of the +special train. There might be entire sections over which the Nadia would +have to be flagged by a man on foot, and-- + +The president cut him off with almost childish impatience. + +"I don't know what your object is in putting so many stumbling-blocks in +the way, Mr. Ford," he rasped. "A suspicious person might say that you +have been doing something which you do not wish to have found out." + +Ford was a fair-skinned man, and the blood burned hotly in his face. +But, as once before under the president's nagging, he found his +self-control rising with the provocation. + +"My work is open to inspection or investigation, now or at any time, +and I think we need not discuss that point," he said, when he could +force himself to say it calmly. "We were speaking of the advisability of +taking the Nadia and a pleasure party over a piece of raw construction +line, and into an environment which, to put it mildly, could hardly be +congenial to--to the ladies of the party. You know, or ought to know, +the MacMorroghs: their camps are not exactly models of propriety, Mr. +Colbrith." + +This was merely waving a red flag at an already exasperated bull. The +president got upon his feet, and his shrill falsetto cut the air like a +knife. + +"Mr. Ford, when I wish to be told what is or is not proper for me to do, +I'll ask you for an opinion, sir. But this is quite beside the mark. +Will you order this car out, or shall I?" + +Ford looked at his watch imperturbably. Now that the president was +thoroughly angry, he could afford to be cool. + +"It is now five o'clock; and our end-of-track is fully one hundred and +ten miles beyond the summit of the pass. Do I understand that you wish +to take the added risk of a night run, Mr. Colbrith? If so, I'll give +the order and we'll pull out." + +"I desire to go _now_!" was the irascible reply. "Is that sufficiently +explicit?" + +"It is," said Ford; and he left the presence to go forward to the cab +of the waiting engine. + +"You are to take the car over the mountain, Hector," he said briefly, to +the beetle-browed giant in blue denim, when he had climbed to the +foot-plate. "I'll pilot for you." + +"How far?" inquired the engineer. + +"Something like a hundred and ten miles." + +"Holy smoke! Over a construction track--in the night?" + +"It's the president's order--none of mine. Let's get a move." + +The big man got down from his box and made room for Ford. "I'll be +pilin' 'em in the ditch somewhere, as sure as my name's Bill Hector," he +said. "But we'll go, all the same, if he says so. I've pulled Mr. +Colbrith before. Down with you, Jimmy Shovel, and set the switch for +us." + +The fireman swung off and stood by the switch, and Hector backed his +one-car train from the siding. When he had picked up the fireman and was +ready to assault the mountain, Ford thrust a query in between. + +"Hold on a minute; how is the water?" he asked. + +Jimmy Shovel climbed over the coal to see, and reported less than half a +tankful. + +"That settles it," said the chief to Hector. "You'll have to back down +to Saint's Rest and fill up. You'll get no more this side of Pannikin +Upper Canyon. We haven't had time to build tanks yet." + +Hector put his valve-motion in the reverse gear and began to drop the +train down the grade on the air. A dozen wheel-turns brought a shrill +shriek from the air-signal whistle. Mr. Colbrith evidently wished to +know why his train was going in the wrong direction. Hector applied the +brakes and stopped in obedience to the signal. + +"Do we send back?" he asked. + +"No," said Ford sourly. "Let him send forward." + +Penfield was the bearer of the president's question. Would it be +necessary to discharge somebody in order to have his commands obeyed? + +Ford answered the petulant demand as one bears with a spoiled child. +They were returning to Saint's Rest for water. Let the president be +assured that his orders would be obeyed in due course. + +"He's a piker, the old man is," said the big engineer, once more giving +the 1012 the needful inch of release to send it grinding down the hill. +"I'd ruther pull freight thirty-six hours on end than run his car for a +hundred miles." + +There was trouble getting at the water-tank in the Saint's Rest yard. +Leckhard, acting as division engineer, telegraph superintendent, +material forwarder and yardmaster, found it difficult at limes to bring +order out of chaos in the forwarding yard. It was a full hour before +the jumble of material trains could be shunted and switched and juggled +to permit the 1012 to drop down to the water tank; and four times during +the hour Penfield climbed dutifully over the coal to tell Ford and the +engineer what the president thought of them. + +"Durn me! but you can take punishment like a man, Mr. Ford!" said +Hector, on the heels of the fourth sending, sinking rank distinctions in +his admiration for a cool fighter. "These here polite cussin's-out are +what I can't stand. Reckon we'll get away from here before the old man +throws a sure-enough fit?" + +"That's entirely with the yard crew," said Ford, calmly making himself +comfortable on the fireman's box. "We'll go when we can get water; and +we'll get water when the tank track is cleared. That's all there is to +it." Whereupon he found his cigar case, passed it to Hector, lighted up, +and waited patiently for another second-hand wigging from the Nadia. + +As it chanced the tank track was cleared a few minutes later; the 1012 +was backed down and supplied, and Ford instructed Leckhard to do what he +could with the single, poorly manned construction wire toward giving the +president's special a clear track. + +"That won't be much," said the hard-worked base-of-supplies man. "We've +got our own operator at Ten Mile, and Brissac and Frisbie have each a +set of instruments which they cut in on the line with wherever they +happen to be. I don't know where Brissac is, but Frisbie is down about +Riley's to-night, I think. After you pass him you'll have no help from +the wires." + +"I'll have what I can get," asserted Ford. "Now tell me what we're +likely to meet." + +Leckhard laughed. "Anything on top of earth, from Brissac or Jack Benson +or Frisbie chasing somewhere on a light engine, to Gallagher or Folsom +coming out with a string of empties. Oh, you're not likely to find much +dead track anywhere after you get over the mountain." + +Ford swung up beside Hector, who had been listening. "You see what we're +in for, Hector. Start your headlight dynamo and let's go," he said; and +five minutes farther on, just as Penfield was about to make his fifth +scramble over the coal in the tender, the 1012 took the upward road with +a deafening whistle shriek as its farewell to Saint's Rest. + +It was pocket-dark by the time the switch-stand at the basin siding +swung into the broad beam of the electric headlight. Ford got down from +the fireman's box and crossed over to the engineer's side to pilot +Hector. + +"How's your track from this on?" inquired the big engineman gruffly. + +"It is about as rough as it can be, and not ditch the steel trains. +You'll have to hold her down or we'll have results." + +"What in the name o' thunder is the old man's notion of goin' to the +front with a picnic party and makin' a night run of it, at that, d'ye +reckon?" + +"The Lord only knows. Easy around this curve you're coming to; it isn't +set up yet." The 1012 was a fast eight-wheeler from the main line, and +though the grade was a rising four per cent, the big flyer was making +light work of her one-car train. + +Ford sat gloomily watching the track ahead as the great engine stormed +around the curves and up the grades. The struggle against odds was +beginning to tell on him. The building of this new line, the opening of +the new country, was the real end for which all the planning and +scheming in the financial field had been only the necessary +preliminaries. For himself he had craved nothing but the privilege of +building the extension; of rejoicing in his own handiwork and in the new +triumph of progress and civilization which it would bring to pass. But +little by little the fine fire of workmanlike enthusiasm was burning +itself out against the iron barriers of petty spite and malice thrown up +at every turn by North and the Denver junta of obstructionists. + +He was at no loss to account for North's motive. It was no longer the +contemptuous disregard of a general manager for one of his subordinates +who had shown signs of outgrowing his job. It was a fight between +rivals--equals--and Ford knew that it must go on until one or the other +should be driven to the wall. Thus far, his antagonist had scored every +point. The MacMorroghs had been helped into the saddle and held there. +Mr. Colbrith had been won over; the authority given Ford by his +appointment as assistant to the president had been annulled by making +North the first vice-president with still higher authority. With a firm +ally in the president, and a legion of others in the MacMorroghs' camps, +North could discredit the best engineering corps that ever took the +field; and he was doing it--successfully, as Ford had reason to know. + +More than once Ford had been on the point of leaving his plow in the +furrow while he should go to New York for one more battle with the +directory--a battle which should definitely abolish North and Mr. +Colbrith--or himself. Again and again he had weighed the chances of +winning such a battle. With Brewster for a leader it might be done. The +time for the annual stock-holders' meeting was approaching, and an +election which should put the burly copper magnate into the presidency +would be an unmixed blessing, not only for a struggling young chief of +construction, but for the Pacific Southwestern stock-holders, who were +sure to pay in the end for the present policy of rule or ruin. + +Part of the time it seemed to Ford that it was clearly his duty to make +this fight against the grafters in the Denver management. North deserved +no consideration, and while Mr. Colbrith was honest enough, his blind +prejudice and narrow mentality made him North's unwitting accessory. +Three months earlier Ford would not have hesitated; but in the interval +a woman had come between to obscure all the points of view. A fight to +the death against the Colbrith administration meant the antagonizing of +the Adairs--of Alicia, at least. True, she had spoken lightly of her +uncle's peculiarities; but Ford made sure she would stand by him in the +conflict, if only for kinship's sake. + +All this he was turning over in his mind for the hundredth time while +the big 1012 hammered up the Plug Mountain grade under the guiding hand +of the giant in blue denim. Ford, glooming out upon the lighted stretch +ahead, was once more finding the crucial question answerless. Should he +draw out of the losing battle with North and his fellow grafters, and +thereby save his chance of winning Alicia Adair? Or should he sacrifice +his love upon the altar of ambition, abolish Mr. Colbrith and the crew +of buccaneers his mistaken policy was sheltering, and win the industrial +success and a quieted conscience? + +His decision was reached by the time Hector was easing the throttle +lever at the summit of Plug Pass. What must be done should be done +quickly. + +"Right here is where you begin to run on your nerves," he said to the +big engineer, as the heavy engine and car lunged over the summit of the +pass and began to gather gravity momentum on the downward rush. + +Hector nodded, and twitched the handle of the air-brake cock at shorter +intervals. Ford glanced back at the following car framed in the red glow +from the opened fire-box door. It was surging and bounding alarmingly +over the uneven track, not without threatenings of derailment. Ford was +willing to give the president the full benefit of his unreasonable +pertinacity; but there were others to be considered--and one above all +the others. + +"Easy, man; easy!" he cautioned. "If you leave the steel on this +goat-track there won't be anybody left to tell the story. It's a +thousand feet sheer in some places along here. Suppose you let me take +her to the bottom of the hill." + +The engineer stood aside with a good-tempered grin. He had seen the +chief of construction walking the one young lady of the party to the top +of Plug Pass and back, and it was not difficult to account for his +anxiety. + +Throughout the ten long miles of the mountain descent Ford crouched on +the driver's seat and put his mind into the business of getting down the +slides and around the sagging curves without having a wreck. The 1012's +brake equipment was modern, and the Nadia's gear was in perfect order. +Now and then on a tangent the big engine would straighten herself for a +race or a runaway, but always the steady hand on the air-cock brought +her down just before the critical moment beyond which neither brakes nor +the steadiest nerve could avail. Thrice in the long downward rush Ford +checked the speed to a foot-pace. This was in the rock cuttings where +the jagged faces of the cliffs thrust themselves out into the white cone +of the headlight, scanting the narrow shelf of the right-of-way to a +mere groove in the rock. He was afraid of the cuttings. One of the many +tricks of the MacMorroghs was to keep barely within the contract limits +on clearance widths, and once the Nadia, sagging mountainward on the +roughly leveled track at the wrong moment, touched one of the +out-hanging rocks in passing. Hector heard the touch, and so did Ford; +but it was the engineman who made a grim jest upon it, saying: "If she +does that more'n once or twice, there'll be a job for the car painters, +don't you reckon, Mr. Ford? And for the carpenters." + +Just below the doubling bend in the great loop they came in sight of the +first of the MacMorrogh camps. Since the night was frosty a huge bonfire +was burning beside the track; and when Hector blew his whistle, some one +flagged the train with a brand snatched from the fire. Ford stopped +because he dared not do otherwise. + +"Well, what's wanted?" he snapped, when the train came to a stand, and +the brand-swinger, backed by a dozen others, made as if he would climb +to the cab of the 1012. + +"Some of us fellies want to go down to Ten Mile--the liquor's out," said +the man, trying to get a fair sight of the strange engineman. + +"Get off!" said Ford; and Hector made the order effective by shoving the +intruder from the step. That was easy; but before the train had measured +twice its length, a pistol barked thrice and the glass in the cab window +on Ford's side fell in splinters. + +"Holy smoke!" said Hector. "Is them the kind of plug-uglies you've got +over here, Mr. Ford?" + +Ford nodded. His eyes were on the track again, and he was hoping +fervently that the three shots had all been aimed at the engine. A mile +farther on, Penfield came sliding over the coal to say that the +president wanted to know what the shooting was about. + +Ford turned the 1012 over to Hector. The track hazards of the mountain +grade were safely passed. + +"Did any of the shots hit the car?" he asked of Penfield. + +"No." + +"Well, if you have to say anything before the ladies it might be +advisable to make a joke of it. Signal torpedoes sound very much like +pistol-shots, you know." + +Penfield nodded. "But to Mr. Colbrith?" + +"To Mr. Colbrith you may say that a gang of drunken MacMorrogh +surfacers flagged us down, and when we wouldn't let them have the train, +made a little gun play." + +"Heavens!" said the clerk, whose curiosity stopped short at the farthest +confines of any battle-field. "Is that sort of thing likely to happen +again, Mr. Ford?" + +"Your guess is as good as anybody's," said Ford curtly. "Better get back +to the car as quickly as you can, before Mr. Colbrith whistles us down +to find out what has become of you." + +Below the camp of the surfacers there were a few miles of better track, +and Hector made fair time until the train circled the mountain shoulder +at the lower end of the great loop. Beyond this the roughnesses began +again, and there were more of the skimped rock cuttings. At Ten Mile, +which was a relay station in the upper canyon for the halting of +supplies and material for which there was no room at the ever-advancing +"front," they stopped to try for track-clearings. + +As Leckhard had foretold, the operator could give them little help. Two +hours earlier, a train of empties in two sections had left the +end-of-track, coming eastward. Whether it was hung up at one of the +intervening side-tracks, or was still coming, the operator could not +say; and there were no means of finding out. Also, Mr. Frisbie, who had +reached Riley's camp late in the afternoon, had left there after supper +and was somewhere on the line with his light engine--probably on his +way to the front, the operator thought. + +Hector removed his great weight from the telegraph counter and the +woodwork creaked its relief. What he said was indicative of his frame of +mind. + +"Humph!" he growled. "If we don't get tangled up with Mr. Frisbie's +light engine, it's us for a head-ender with the string of empties. Isn't +that about it, Mr. Ford?" + +"That's it, precisely." + +"Which means that Jimmy Shovel trots ahead of us for a hundred mile 'r +so, carryin' a lantern like a blame' Dio-geenes huntin' for an honest +man." + +"That is the size of it," said Ford; but just then the sounder on the +table began to click and the operator held up his hand for silence. + +"Hold on a minute," he interrupted, "here's a piece of luck--it's Mr. +Frisbie, cutting in with his field set from Camp Frierson. He is asking +Saint's Rest about you." + +"Break in and tell him we're here," said Ford; and when it was done: +"Ask him about that string of empties." + +The reply was apparently another piece of luck. Frisbie, going westward, +had passed the first section of the freight train at Siding Number +Twelve. It was hung up with a broken draw-head on the engine, and was +safe to stay there, Frisbie thought, until somebody came along with a +repair kit, which, it might be assumed, would not be before morning. + +At this point Ford went around the counter and took the wire for a +little personal talk with the first assistant. It ignored the stalled +freight train, and Ford's rapid clickings spelled out an order. Frisbie +was to drop everything else, and constitute himself the president's +_avant-courrier_ to the end-of-track camp, which, at the moment, +happened to be the MacMorroghs' headquarters at the mouth of Horse +Creek. All liquor-selling was to be stopped, the saloons closed, and the +strictest order maintained during the president's stay--this if it +should take the entire field force of the engineering department to +bring it to pass. + +"Don't," clicked Frisbie, from the other end of the long wire. And then +at the risk of giving it away to every operator on the line: "You're +doing yourself up. Let the president see for himself what he has let us +in for." + +Ford's reply was short and to the point. "The order stands. There are +others besides the president to be considered. Good night." + +"Well, we go to this here Siding Number Twelve, do we?" said Hector, +when they were clambering once more to the foot-plate of the 1012. + +"Safely, I think," said the chief, adding: "You can't run fast enough +over this track to get into trouble anyway." + +That was the way it appealed to Hector for the succeeding twenty miles. +When the track was not too rough to forbid speed, the cuts were too +numerous, and the big flyer had to be bitted and held down until some of +Hector's impatience began to get into the machinery. This shall account +as it may for what happened. A mile or two below Riley's, where the +lights were all out and the turmoil of the day of strikes had apparently +subsided, the canyon opened out into a winding valley, and when Ford +called across to Hector: "There are no rock cuts on this section, and we +are partly surfaced. You can let her out a little for a few miles," the +engineer took the permission for all it was worth and sent the +eight-wheeler flying down the newly-ballasted stretch. + +Two long curves were rounded in safety, and the special was approaching +a third, when to Ford, track-watching even more anxiously than Hector, a +dull red spot appeared in the exact center of the white field of the +electric. For a moment it puzzled him, but the explanation came with a +vigorous shock an instant later. It was the oil-lamp headlight of the +freight! + +Hector was huge enough to be slow, if bigness were a bar to celerity. +But no drill-master of the foot-plates could have brought the flying +train to a stand with the loss of fewer seconds. Happily, too, the +1012's electric headlight served as a danger signal seen from afar by +the engineer of the freight. So it chanced that the two great engines +merely put their noses together; and by the time Penfield came +scrambling over the coal with the inevitable query from the president, +the jolting stop was a thing of the past, and the train was in motion +again, following the freight, which was backing, at Ford's order, to the +nearest siding. + +"No more hurry for us to-night, Hector," was the boss's dictum, when the +obstructing string of empties was safely passed. "We take it slow and +sure from this on, with your fireman to flag us around the curves and +through the cuts. This was only the first section of the train that left +Horse Creek at eight o'clock--the section that was broken down at Siding +Twelve. We're due to pick up the second section anywhere between here +and the end-of-track." + +"Slow it is," said Hector. "I'm no hog, if I do take a little swill now +and then: I know when I've got enough." + +This was at ten-forty, while the night was still young. And for seven +other hours the one-car special inched its way cautiously toward the +goal, with Ford scanning every mile of the hazardous way as it swung +into the beam of the headlight arc, with Hector's left hand stiffening +on the brake-cock, and with a weary fireman dropping from his gangway at +every curve approach to flag for safety. + +It was not until three o'clock in the morning that they met and passed +the second section of empties, and the dawn of a new day was fully come +when the shacks and storehouses of the MacMorroghs' headquarters at the +mouth of Horse Creek came in sight. Ford got down from his seat on the +fireman's side and stretched himself as one relaxing after a mighty +strain. + +"That's the end of it for a little while, Billy," he said, addressing +the big engineer as a man and a brother. "Crawl in on the first siding +you come to, and go hunt you a bed. I don't think the president will be +perniciously active to-day--after such a night as we've had." + +But in this, as in other instances when Mr. Colbrith's activities had +figured as a factor, he reckoned without his host. + + + + +XVIII + +THE MORNING AFTER + + +Ford was awake for all day, and was colloguing with Frisbie about the +carrying out of the sumptuary order for the forcible camp-cleaning, when +Penfield came with the request that the chief report at once to the +president in the Nadia. + +"Tell him I'll be there presently," was the answer; and when Penfield +went to do it, the interrupted colloquy was resumed. + +"You say the camp has already gone dry?" said Ford incredulously. + +Frisbie nodded. "Everybody's on the water-wagon; here and at all the +camps above and below--bars not only closed, but apparently wiped out of +existence. I went for old Brian last night as soon as I reached here. He +looked at me reproachfully, and said: 'It's you to be always naggin' me +about thim whisky dives that I'm forever thryin' to run out, and can't. +Go and thry it yourself, Misther Frisbie, an' I'll stand at your back +till you're black in the face.' But when I went through the camp, +everything was quiet and orderly, and Jack Batters' bar was not only +closed--it was gone; vanished without leaving so much as a bad smell +behind it." + +"And then?" said Ford. + +"Then I got out my horse and rode up the creek and through some of the +camps on the Copah detour. The star-eyed goddess of reform had evidently +landed on that coast, too. Donahue's Hungarians were singing war-songs +around their camp-fire, as usual, and Contadini's Tuscans were out in +full force, guying the night-shift track-layers. But there was no bad +blood, and no whisky to breed it. You're done up again, Stuart." + +"I don't see that," said Ford, who, besides being short on sleep, was +rejoicing in the thought that Alicia and the other women of the +private-car party would not have to be blind and deaf. + +"Don't you? You've been protesting to beat the band about the +lawlessness and dissipation of the MacMorrogh camps. Accordingly, Mr. +Colbrith comes over here to see for himself: and what will he see? +Decency on a monument smiling reproachfully at her unprincipled +traducer. MacMorrogh will rub it into you good and hard. Can't you feel +the Sunday-school atmosphere right here in the headquarters this +morning? Look down yonder at the Nadia--wouldn't that soothe you, now?" + +Ford looked and the scowl which was coming to be a habit transformed +itself into a cynical smile. A hundred or more of the MacMorrogh +laborers, hats off and standing at respectful attention, were clustered +about the rear platform of the private car, and Mr. Colbrith was +addressing them; giving them the presidential benediction, as Frisbie +put it irreverently. + +"Don't you see how you are going to be hoisted with your own +ammunition?" the little man went on spitefully. "What becomes of all +your complaints of drunkenness and crime, when Mr. Colbrith can see with +his own eyes what truly good people the MacMorroghs are? And what +conclusion will he arrive at? There's only one, and it's a long-armed +one so far as your reputation is concerned: you are so desperately bent +on having your own way that you haven't scrupled to tell lies about +these angelic contractors." + +"Let up, Dick," said Ford gruffly. "I've got about all I can carry till +I catch up on sleep a little. But you're right: this is the place where +the fireworks come in. I think I'll go and light the fuses while I'm +keyed up to it." + +The crowd of laborers had dispersed by the time Ford reached the Nadia, +and the president, benign from the reactionary effect of his own +early-morning eloquence, was waiting for him. + +"Ah; we did reach the front safely, after all, didn't we, Mr. Ford?" was +Mr. Colbrith's mildly sarcastic greeting. And then: "Come aboard, sir; +we are waiting breakfast for you." + +Ford would have declined promptly, if the invitation had been anything +less than a command. He had met none of the members of the private-car +party save Miss Alicia, and he did not want to meet them, having the +true captain-of-industry's horror of mixing business with the social +diversions. But with one example of the president's obstinacy fresh in +mind, he yielded and climbed obediently to the railed platform. Whatever +happened, he should see Alicia again, a privilege never to be too +lightly esteemed, whatever it cost. + +The social ordeal was not so formidable. The private-car party was made +up of the president and his sister-in-law, the president's family +physician, Doctor Van Bruce, the doctor's wife, his sister, a maiden +lady of no uncertain age, and Alicia. These, with Penfield and Ford, +made the eight at table in the open compartment in the Nadia; and Ford, +in the seating, was lucky enough to find his place between Miss Van +Bruce, who was hard of hearing, and Miss Alicia, who was not. Luckily +again, Mr. Colbrith omitted all talk of business, drawing his end of the +table into a discussion of the effects of the dry altitudes in advanced +stages of tuberculosis. + +"What a dreadful night you must have had, Mr. Ford," said Alicia, when +the tuberculotic subject was well launched at the other end of the +table. "Were you on the engine all the time?" + +"Most of the time," he confessed. "But that was nothing. It wasn't my +first night in the cab, as it won't be the last, by many, I hope." + +"Why? Do you like it?" + +"Not particularly. But I hope to live a while longer; and while I live I +shall doubtless have to ride with the enginemen now and then." + +"Was it very bad--last night?" she asked. + +"I am afraid you know it was. Could you sleep at all?" + +"Oh, yes; I slept very well--after that terrible shaking up we had just +before bedtime. What was happening then?" + +"Nothing much. We were about to try the old experiment of passing two +trains on a single track." + +"Mercy!" she exclaimed. + +It was safely retrospective now, and Ford could smile at her belated +shock. + +"Were the others alarmed?" he asked. + +"Mrs. Van Bruce and Aunt Hetty were. But Uncle Sidney fairly coruscated. +He said that an engineer who would make such a stop as that ought to be +discharged." + +"Hector was willing to quit," laughed Ford. "He grumbled for a full hour +afterward about the wrenching he had given the 1012. You see he might +have taken about six feet more for the stop, if he'd only known it." + +Miss Alicia said "Mercy!" again. "Were we as near as that to a +collision?" she asked, in a hushed whisper. + +"We were, indeed. The freight was supposed to be on a siding--broken +down. The crew tinkered things up some way, and the train proceeded. +Luckily, the freight engineer saw our electric headlight farther than we +could see his oil lamp, and the track happened to be measurably +straight." + +Miss Adair was silent for a little time, waiting for the lapsed +tuberculotic discussion to revive. When it was once more in full swing, +she asked quickly: + +"What is the programme for to-day? Must we all stay in the car as you +intimated yesterday?" + +Ford glanced across the table to make sure that Penfield was not +eavesdropping. + +"It will not be necessary. Your coming--or the president's--has reformed +things wonderfully. Frisbie says--but never mind what he says: the +miracle has been wrought." + +He said it with such an evident air of dejection that she wondered. And +with Miss Alicia Adair the step from wonderment to investigation was +always short. + +"You say it as if you were sorry," she said. "Are you?" + +"Oh, no; I'm glad--for your sake. But I wonder if you could understand +if I say that it will make it a thousand times harder for me?" + +"I can understand when I'm told," she retorted. + +The table-for-eight was no place for confidences; and Ford knew +Penfield's weakness for soaking up information. Yet he took the risk. + +"You remember what I hinted at, yesterday," he said in low tones; "about +the rough-house we have been having in the camps. It hasn't stopped +short of murder. I objected to the MacMorroghs before the contract was +given to them; and since, I have fought the lawlessness as I could. Now +your uncle comes over here and doesn't find any lawlessness. What is the +inference?" + +"That you have been--" she took him up quickly, and there was swift +indignation in the blue eyes. + +"--lying to gain a personal end," he finished for her. + +Penfield had been apparently listening avidly to the president's praise +of the dry altitudes as a sure cure for consumption, but now he had his +face in his plate. Ford devoted himself for the moment to the deaf Miss +Van Bruce, and when he turned back to Alicia he was telegraphing with +his eyes for discretion. She understood, and the low-toned tete-a-tete +was not resumed. Later, when they had a moment together in the +dispersion from the breakfast-table, he tried to apologize for what he +was pleased to call his "playing of the baby act." But she reassured him +in a low-spoken word. + +"Brother told me--I know more than you give me credit for, Mr. Ford. +Mr. North doesn't like you--he would be glad if you would resign. _You +must not resign!_" + +The others, personally-conducted by Mr. Colbrith, were crowding to the +rear platform for an after-breakfast view of the headquarters camp. Ford +and Alicia followed, but without haste. + +"You have chanced upon the word, Miss Adair," Ford was saying. "I +decided last night that I should resign." + +"No," she objected. + +"Yes; I must. Sometime I may tell you why." + +"I say you must not. That was the last word in brother's letter; and he +wished me to repeat it to you," she insisted. + +"Where is your brother?" he asked. + +"He was in London when he wrote." + +"He has thrown up his hand." Ford was pessimistic again. + +Miss Adair looked about her despairingly for some means of prolonging +the whispered confidence. Penfield, deferentially in the rear of the +platform group, was never safely out of earshot. + +"I want to see the engine that so nearly plunged us into a collision +last night," she said aloud; and Penfield's visible ear betrayed the +listening mind. + +Ford took his cue promptly. "We can go out the other way," he said; and +the secretary _pro tempore_ had no excuse for following. + +They found the cab of the 1012 deserted, with the steam in the huge +boiler singing softly at the behest of the banked fire. Miss Adair lost +her curiosity as soon as Ford had lifted her to the foot-plate. + +"Now you are to tell me all about it--quickly," she commanded. "Uncle +Sidney will be calling for you as soon as he misses you. Why are you so +foolish as to talk about resigning? Don't you see what they will say +then?--that you were afraid?" + +Ford was leaning against the centered reversing-lever, and his face was +gloomy again. + +"Possibly I am afraid," he suggested. + +"You should be more afraid of dishonor than of--of the other things. Do +you suppose Mr. North will be content with your resignation now?" + +Ford looked up quickly. Here was a new revelation--an unsuspected facet +of the precious gem. He could hardly believe that this steady-voiced, +far-seeing young woman was the insouciant, school-girlish--though none +the less lovable--young person with whom he had tramped to the +wind-swept summit of Plug Pass in the golden heart of the yesterday. + +"You mean--?" he began. + +"I mean that you will be discredited; disgraced if possible. Are you +sure you haven't been doing anything over here that you wouldn't want +Uncle Sidney to find out?" + +"Not consciously, you may be sure," he asserted unhesitatingly. + +"Think; think hard," she urged. "Is there nothing at all?" + +He could not help smiling lovingly at her scarce-concealed +anxiety--though it was merely the anxiety of a noble soul unwilling to +stand by and see injustice done. + +"My methods never get very far underground," he averred. "Not far enough +for my own safety, Frisbie says. If I had been keeping a diary, I think +I should be quite willing to let Mr. Colbrith read it--or print it, if +he cared to." + +"And yet there _is_ something," she asserted, and the straight brows +went together in a little frown of perplexity. "You don't ask me how I +know: I'm going to tell you, Mr. Ford--though it's rather shameful. +Three days ago, while we were in Denver, Mr. North came down to the car +to see Uncle Sidney." + +"Yes?" he encouraged. + +"They were closeted in Uncle Sidney's state-room for a long time," she +went on. "I--I was walking with Miss Van Bruce, up and down on the +station platform beside the Nadia, Uncle Sidney had told me not to go +very far away because we were likely to start at any moment. The--the +car windows were open--" + +Her embarrassment was growing painfully apparent, and Ford came to the +rescue. + +"You were not even constructively to blame," he hastened to say. "They +must surely have seen you passing and repassing, and if they wished for +privacy they might have closed the windows." + +"I didn't hear much: only a word or two, now and then. They were talking +about you and brother; and--" She stopped short and laid her hand on the +throttle-lever of the big engine: "What did you say this was for?" she +asked ingenuously. + +Ford's up-glance of surprise was answered by a glimpse of Penfield +sauntering past on the other side of the track. She could not have seen, +but she had doubtless heard his footsteps on the gravel. + +"It's the throttle," said Ford, answering her question. And then: +"Please go on: he is out of hearing." + +"They were speaking of you and brother; and--and of _me_. I can't repeat +a single sentence entire, but I know Mr. North was accusing you in some +way, and apparently implicating me. Perhaps I listened in self-defense. +Do you think I did, Mr. Ford?" + +"You certainly had a good right to," said Ford, who would have sworn in +her behalf that the morally black was spotlessly white. "But how could +you be implicated?" + +"That was what puzzled me then--and it is puzzling me still. They +said--or rather Mr. North said--that you--that you had _bought_ me!" + +Ford did not say that he would like to buy, beg, borrow or steal any +kind of right to call her his own, but if his lips did not form the +words they were lying at the bottom of the steady gray eyes for her to +take or leave as she chose. + +"I am sure you couldn't have heard that part of it quite straight," he +said, almost regretfully. + +"But I did, because it was repeated. Mr. North insisted that you had +bought me; and I didn't like the way in which he said it, either. He +called me 'the little Alicia'." + +"What!" said Ford; and then a flood of light burst in upon at least one +of the dark places. "It's only a mine," he said sheepishly. "And I did +buy it, or half of it." + +She was regarding him accusingly now. + +"Did you--did you name it?" she asked, and there was the merest breath +of frost in the air. + +He was glad to be able to tell the truth without flinching. + +"No; it is one of the earliest of the Copah prospects, and I suppose the +discoverer named it. I am willing to defend his choice, though. He +couldn't have found a prettier name." + +She went back to the matter in hand with womanly swiftness. "But the +mine: you had a right to buy it, didn't you?" + +"I should suppose so. I paid for it with my own money, anyway." + +"Then why should Mr. North use it as an argument against you in speaking +to Uncle Sidney? He did that--I am sure he did that." + +"Now the water has grown too deep for me," said Ford. "Why, North, +himself, is interested in Copah, openly. He owns half a dozen claims." + +"Near yours?" she queried. + +Ford stopped to consider. "To tell the truth, I don't know where mine +is," he confessed. "I bought it as the school-boys trade +pocket-knives--sight unseen. You wouldn't believe it of a grown man, +would you?" + +"What made you buy it at all?" + +Again he told the simple truth--and tried not to flinch. + +"You won't mind if I say that the name attracted me? I thought a mine, +or anything, that bore your name, ought to be good and--and desirable. +And it is a good mine; or it will be, by and by. Some morning I shall +wake up and find myself rich. At least that is what my partner, Grigsby, +assures me; and I believe him when I happen to remember it." + +She neither approved nor disapproved. When she spoke, it was of the +present necessity. "We must go back to the others now," she said. "Or +at least I must. Do you know what is to be done to-day?" + +Ford spread his hands. + +"Your uncle will set the pace. I wouldn't venture a guess, after last +night." + +He was handing her down from the engine step and she went back in a word +to the former contention. + +"You haven't promised me yet that you will not resign under fire--you +are under fire, you know." + +"Am I?" + +"Brother thinks you are." + +Once more he took the pessimistic view. + +"Your brother isn't losing any sleep over the Pacific Southwestern +situation. You said he was in England, didn't you?" + +"I said he was in London when he wrote." + +"London is a long way off: and what I do must be done to-day or +to-morrow. Mr. North will force the fighting, now that your uncle is on +the ground, and your brother safely on the opposite side of the earth. +And I can't afford to fight this time, Miss Alicia." + +"Why can't you?" + +They were walking slowly back toward the Nadia when he said: "Because a +victory would cost me more than I am willing to pay. There is no longer +room in this service for Mr. North and me. If we come to blows one of us +will have to go." + +"I can understand that," she said quietly. + +"And to obliterate Mr. North, I shall be obliged to efface--your uncle." + +She caught her breath. + +"Mr. Ford, you have intimated that Mr. North isn't an honest man. Do you +ask me to believe that Uncle Sidney is his accomplice?" + +"He is not, knowingly. But he will stand or fall with the man he has +made. I should have to ride him down before I could get at North." + +Her lip curled and the straight-browed little frown came again. "There +is no such thing as mercy in business, is there, Mr. Ford? My uncle is +an old man and his presidency means more to him--" + +"I understand that perfectly," said Ford soberly. "That is why I prefer +to step down and out and let some other man have the glory of finishing +the extension." + +She looked up quickly. + +"Would you do that for Uncle Sidney? He hasn't been very lenient with +you, has he?" + +Ford ignored the query. + +"He is your uncle, Miss Alicia; and I'd do it for your sake or not at +all." + +They had reached the steps of the private car, and Frisbie was waiting +with evident impatience for a word with Ford. Miss Adair's eyes signaled +emotion, and Ford thought it was resentment. But her parting word was +not resentful; it was merely a repetition. + +"Go to Mr. Frisbie," she said from the car step; "he is waiting for +you." And then: "Remember; whatever happens, _you must not resign_--not +even if Uncle Sidney asks you to." + +Frisbie's information, given after Miss Adair had gone in, was rather +mystifying. Young Benson, who was just in from the grade work beyond +Copah, brought word of a party of strange engineers running lines on the +opposite side of the river from the rejected S. L & W. short-cut through +the canyon of shale slides. Questioned by Benson, they had told what +Frisbie believed to be a fairy tale. The chief of the party claimed to +be the newly-elected county surveyor from Copah, running the lines for +some mining property recently filed for entry. Benson had not been over +curious; but he was observant enough to note that the tale was a misfit +in three important particulars. He saw no locating stakes, such as a +prospector always sets up conspicuously to mark his claim; and there +were no signs of the precious metal, and no holes to indicate an attempt +to find it. + +"What's your guess, Dick?" said Ford tersely. + +The assistant shook his head. + +"I haven't any coming to me. But I don't like mysteries." + +"Where was this party?" + +"About a mile and a half below here. It was going out toward Copah when +Jack met it--its work, whatever it was, all done, apparently." + +It was one of Frisbie's gifts to be suspicious; but Ford was lacking on +that side. + +"It's barely possible that the man was telling the truth, in spite of +Benson's failure to find any prospect holes," he remarked. "We'll let it +go at that until we know something different. It couldn't be a +Transcontinental party, this far from home, and we haven't anybody else +to fear." + +Frisbie dropped the subject as one of the abstractions and took up the +concrete. + +"What are the orders for to-day?" he asked. + +"I don't know. I'm waiting for Mr. Colbrith to say." + +"There are two buckboard teams here, in the MacMorrogh stables--came +over from Copah last night. What are they for?" + +"I don't know. Another of the president's little surprises, I suppose. +We'll know when he sends for me." + +The expected summons came at that precise moment, transmitted by +Penfield. Mr. Colbrith would like to see Mr. Ford in his private +state-room in the Nadia. The secretary had a sheaf of telegrams in his +hand, and wished to be directed to the wire office. Frisbie took him in +charge, and Ford went to obey the summons. + +The president was sitting very erect in his swing chair when the young +engineer let himself into the box-like compartment, and his voice was at +its thinnest when he said: "Be seated, Mr. Ford." + +Ford sat down on the divan-couch, and the president plunged at once into +business. + +"Some time ago, you advised me, as chairman of the executive committee, +that you had decided upon a change of route, Mr. Ford," he began +raspingly. "What were your reasons for making the change?" + +"I stated them in my letter of advice," said Ford; "economy in +construction and greater safety in operating, as against a slight +increase in the length of the line." + +"Twelve miles, I believe you said: that is a very considerable increase, +I should say. The great eastern companies are spending millions of +dollars, Mr. Ford, to shorten their lines by half-mile cut-offs." + +Ford had his reply ready. + +"The conditions are entirely different. It will be many years before a +fast through service is either practicable or profitable over the +extension; and when it comes to that, we shall still have the short line +from Denver to Green Butte by forty-two miles. But I explained all this +at the time, Mr. Colbrith, and I understood that I had the executive +committee's approval of the changed route." + +"Qualifiedly, Mr. Ford; only qualifiedly. Yet you have gone ahead in +your usual impetuous way, abandoning the short line through the canyon +and building the detour. Your motive for haste must have been a very +strong one--very strong." + +"It was. I am not here to kill time." + +"So it appears. But I am here, Mr. Ford, to consider carefully, and to +investigate. We shall go first over this route you have abandoned. I +wish to see for myself the difficulties you have so painstakingly +described." + +Ford shrugged. + +"I'm quite at your service, of course. But you will find it a hard trip. +Indeed, if we drive, we shall have to cross the river and take the other +side. The canyon on this side is impassable in places for a man on +foot." + +"I provided for that," said the president, letting his ferrety eyes rest +for a moment upon the reluctant one. "You will find two buckboards with +their drivers at the MacMorrogh headquarters. Be good enough to order +them around, and we'll start at once. No; no protests, Mr. Ford. My +responsibilities are not to be shirked. Penfield will drive with me, and +you may take Mr. Frisbie with you, if you see fit. I understand he is +implicated with you in this matter." + +Ford bridled angrily at the word. + +"There is no implication about it, Mr. Colbrith. You continually refer +to it as if it were a crime." + +"Ah! the word is yours, Mr. Ford. We shall see--we shall see. That is +all, for the present." + +Ford was raging when he found Frisbie and gave the order for the +vehicles. + +"He turned me out of his office state-room as if I had been a messenger +boy or tramp! Get those teams out, Dick, and give me a chance to cool +down. If my job is to last through this day--" + +Frisbie laughed. "Go and dip your head in the Pannikin while you wait. +Or, better still, chew on this. It's a cipher message that Durgin has +just been sending for Penfield to Vice-President North. Wouldn't that +make you weep and howl?" + +Ford was still puzzling over the meaningless code words when he took his +seat in the second of the two buckboards with Frisbie. The first +assistant waited until the horses had splashed through the shallows of +the river crossing; waited further until the president's vehicle had +gained a little start. Then he said: "Is it possible that you had +Penfield for a spy on you as long as you did without working out his +cipher code? Good Lord! I got that down before I did anything else--last +spring when you left me to run the Plug Mountain. Here's what he says to +North"--taking the code message and translating: "Ford suspects +something. Don't know how much. He and Miss Adair are putting their +heads together. She has authority of some kind from her brother. +President goes with Ford to examine abandoned route, as arranged. Will +wire result later.'" + +"'As arranged,'" was Ford's wrathful comment. + +"Apparently, everything is arranged for us. Some day, Dick, I'll lose my +temper, tie Penfield in a hard knot and throw him into the river! It's +like a chapter out of Lucretia Borgia!" + + + + +XIX + +THE RELUCTANT WHEELS + + +It was possibly an hour after Penfield's cipher message reached the +Southwestern Pacific headquarters in the Colorado capital, when a +fair-haired young man in London-cut clothes, and with a tourist's quota +of hand-luggage, crossed the Denver Union Station platform from the +Pullman of a belated Chicago train. + +Ascertaining from a gateman that the Plug Mountain day train had long +since gone on its way up the canyon, the young man left his many +belongings at the check-stand and had himself driven up-town to the +Guaranty Building. It was Eckstein who took his card in Mr. North's +outer office. The private secretary was dictating to a stenographer, and +was impatient of the interruption. But the name on the card wrought a +miracle. + +"Mr. North? Why, surely, Mr. Adair. He is always at liberty for you. +Right through this way"--holding the gate in the counter railing at its +widest--"we're mighty glad to see you in Denver, always." + +Adair had acquired the monocle habit on his latest run across the +Atlantic, and to keep in practice he gave the secretary the coldest of +stares through the disconcerting glass. "Really! I'm quite delighted. +Who is the other member of the 'we,' Mr.--er--er--" + +"Eckstein," prompted the secretary; but he said no more, being prudently +anxious to be quit of the transfixing stare before a worse thing should +befall. + +In the inner room the vice-president was less effusive, but no less +cordial. It was a rare thing to see one of the company's directors in +the Denver business offices. Mr. North was of the opinion that it would +be a good investment of time and effort for all concerned if the members +of the board used their privilege oftener. So on through half a dozen +polite time-killers to the reluctant query: What could the general +manager do for Mr. Adair? + +Given leave to speak, Adair stated his needs succinctly. He wanted a +special train to Saint's Rest; he wanted it suddenly, and he asked that +it be given the right of the road. + +"My dear sir!" protested the vice-president, "you mustn't ask +impossibilities! You shall have the train at once, of course: you shall +have my private car. But when it comes to the right of way, you'll have +to appeal to Mr. Ford. Why, he doesn't scruple to lay out the United +States mails for his material trains!" + +"Um," said Adair. "Where can I reach Ford?" + +Mr. North did not equivocate; he never lied when the truth would answer +the purpose equally well. + +"He is out on the extension; or more correctly speaking, somewhere +beyond the present end of the construction telegraph line. I'm afraid +you couldn't reach him by wire." + +"And the president?" queried the visitor. + +"Mr. Colbrith's car is at the end-of-track. You wished to join the party +in the Nadia?" + +"That is what I had in mind," said Adair, not too anxiously. + +Mr. North shook his head. + +"I don't think you'd enjoy the run over the construction track. Mr. +Colbrith went over it last night because--well, because he believes it +to be a presidential duty to inspect everything. If you leave to-day, +you will probably meet the Nadia coming out--possibly at Saint's Rest." + +Adair suddenly became wary. + +"Perhaps that would be the easy thing to do," he said. "I suppose the +engineers at Saint's Rest could put me up if I have to stay over night?" + +"You needn't ask them. You will have my car--with the best cook this +side of Louisiana. Keep it, live in it, till Mr. Colbrith picks you up +on his return." + +"All right. But you'll give me the special. And let it make as good +time as it can, Mr. North; I'm fierce when I have to ride a slow train." + +The vice-president's promise was freely given; and to expedite matters, +the division superintendent's chief clerk went down to the station with +Adair to see the special train properly equipped and started on the +mountain-climbing run. Adair left the details to this orderly from the +general offices; not knowing how to compass them himself, he had to. If +he could have seen the broad grins on the faces of his train crew when +Dobson, the clerk, gave them the despatcher's order--but at that moment +he was lounging in Mr. North's easiest chair in the central compartment +of the "01," reading for the twentieth time a crease-worn telegram. + +The telegram was from Alicia, and it was dated at Denver, three days +gone. It was not very explicit; on the contrary, it was rather +incoherent. + + "You would better come on as fast as you can if you want to save + your friend's life. He has been tried and found guilty--of just + what, I don't know--and will be hanged pretty soon--within a few + days, I think." + +"Now that's a nice way to stir a fellow up, isn't it?" soliloquized the +pleasure-lover. "Just as I was getting ready to go up to Mount Ptarmigan +for the shooting. She knew that, too. I'll bet a picayune it's just a +girl's scare. Ford's plenty good and able to take care of himself." + +That was Mr. Charles Edward Adair's care-free phrasing of it; but three +hours later, when the cook of the "01" served him the most appetizing of +luncheons in the big open compartment, and the steeply pitched walls of +the lower Blue Canyon were still stinting the outlook from the car +windows, he began to grow impatient. + +"Whereabouts are we now, Johnson?" he asked of the cook's second man. + +"Between Cutcliff and No-Horse; yes, sah. 'Bout forty mile from Denver." + +"Great Scott! Fifteen miles an hour? Say, Johnson, what do you do when +you want 'em to run faster--pull this string?" + +"Yes, sah; dat's it," grinned the negro. + +Adair pulled the air-cord, and it brought results--of a kind. Only the +train came to a sudden stop, instead of going ahead faster; and +Conductor Barclay, who had been riding on the engine, came back to see +what had happened. + +"Did you stop us, Mr. Adair?" he asked pleasantly. + +"Not meaning to, you may be sure," said Adair. "But now you're here, +I'll ask if there is any objection to my getting off and walking. I +could stop and rest and let you overtake me now and then, you know." + +The conductor tweaked the air-cord and the train moved on again. + +"I've been expecting you'd shout at us," he said good-naturedly. "But +we're doing the best we can. There's a freight wreck on ahead, and we've +been dallying along, hoping they'd get it picked up by the time we reach +it. I thought you'd rather keep moving than to be hung up for three or +four hours at the wreck." + +Adair saw his helplessness and made the best of it. He was in Mr. +North's hands, and if Mr. North was playing for delay, the delay would +be forthcoming. None the less, he contrived to make Barclay +uncomfortable. + +"I'm only a director in the Pacific Southwestern, and I suppose +directors don't count," he said nonchalantly. "Yet, I presume, if I +should ask it as a personal favor, I might get a conductor's or an +engineer's head to take home with me for a souvenir. How would that be? +Do you think I could make it win?" + +"You could do it, hands down, Mr. Adair. But I hope you won't feel as if +you'd got to go into the head-hunting business. It's like the boy +throwing stones into the pond; it's fun for the kid, but sort o' hard on +the toad-frogs." + +Adair laughed. He was not one of those who find it easy to bear malice. + +"You don't talk half as bad as you act," he said genially. "Down at +bottom I dare say you're a pretty good kind of a fellow. Had anything to +eat?" + +Barclay shook his head. "No; we was laying off to get coffee and sinkers +at Clapp's Mine, if we ever get there." + +"'Coffee and sinkers'," said Adair. "That doesn't sound very uplifting. +Sit down here and help me out with my contract." + +Barclay did it, rather unwillingly. He was not accustomed to eating at +the vice-president's table, but there was no resisting the curly-headed +young man when he chose to make himself companionable. Barclay sat on +the edge of his chair, ate with his knife or fork indifferently, and had +small use for the extra spoons and cutlery. But he made a meal to be +remembered. Afterward, the young man found a cigar-case, and his own box +of Turkish cigarettes; and still the special was going at the same slow +cow-gallop up the canyon. + +"How many are there of you up ahead?" asked Adair, when Barclay's cigar +was going like a factory chimney. + +"Only Williams and his fireman." + +"Dinner-buckets?" + +"No; neither one of 'em, as it happens. Hurry call to go out with you, +and both of 'em live too far to go home after the grub-cans." + +"Johnson," said the dispenser of hospitality, calling the second man. +"Think you could climb over the coal with some dinner for the enginemen? +No? Let me make it possible"--flipping a dollar into the ready palm. +"Tell the cook it's an order, and if he stints it there'll be +consequences." + +Barclay grinned his appreciation. The curly-headed young man was far +enough removed from any species of railway official hitherto known to +the conductor. But Adair was only paving the way. + +"Do you know," he said, after a little interval of tobacco-charmed +silence, "one of the things I am most anxious to see is a real railroad +wreck. Suppose you quicken up a little and let us have our dead time at +the scene of this disaster you speak of." + +Barclay was tilting uneasily in his chair. + +"I reckon they've about got it picked up and cleaned out o' the way by +this time, Mr. Adair. I shouldn't be surprised if we could hardly find +the place when we get there." + +"Nor I," said Adair; and he sat back and chuckled. "It's considerably +difficult to sit up and pull your imagination on a man who has been +decently good to you, isn't it, Barclay? Let me ask you: are you Mr. +North's man?" + +"Mr. North is the big boss." + +"But this Plug Mountain division is a part of Mr. Ford's line, isn't +it?" + +"It used to be all his. There's a white man for you, Mr. Adair." + +Adair saw his opportunity and used it. + +"Now see here, Barclay; I'm only a director, and I don't cut much ice +out this way. But back in New York I'm one of three or four people who +can tell Mr. North what he can do, and what he can't. You wouldn't want +to see Mr. Ford getting it in the neck, would you?" + +"By Jacks! There ain't a man in the service that wouldn't fight for him. +I tell you, he's _white_." + +"Well, Mr. Ford is in trouble: I don't know but he is likely to lose his +job, if I don't see the president before the big ax comes down. That is +between us two." + +The conductor sprang out of his chair. + +"By gravy! Why didn't you say that at first? Say, Mr. Adair, you stand +between us and Mr. North--tell him you gave the orders yourself--and +you'll have the ride of your life from here to Saint's Rest!" + +"Go it," said Adair; and two minutes after Barclay had let himself out +of the forward door of the "01," the train took a sudden start and +darted ahead at full speed. + +This bit of diplomacy on the part of Adair saved two full hours in the +run to Saint's Rest. Nevertheless, it was after dark when the "01" +pulled into the crowded material yard in the high mountain basin and +Leckhard came aboard to find out what had brought this second +private-car visitation. He was relieved not to meet North--to be +confronted only by a pleasant-faced young man who seemed to have the car +all to himself. + +"My name is Leckhard," announced the man-of-all-work, "and I represent +the engineering department. I saw it was Mr. North's car, and--" + +"And you came to see what you could do for the vice-president and +general manager," Adair finished for him. "Mighty sorry to disappoint +you, Mr. Leckhard, but my name isn't North; it's Adair, and I'm only a +director. How much authority is a director allowed--at this altitude and +distance from New York?" + +Leckhard laughed. + +"I reckon you might call yourself the ranking officer in the field, Mr. +Adair. What you say, goes." + +"Then I say 'go'; which means that I'd like to go--on to the end of the +extension." + +But now the engineer was shaking his head. + +"Ask me anything but that, Mr. Adair. None of our enginemen is at this +end of the line, and your man Williams, who brought you up from Denver, +doesn't know the way. More than that, if we had a man and an engine, I'd +be afraid to send you out for a night run. Mr. Ford made it last night +with Mr. Colbrith's car, and they used up ten hours in covering less +than a hundred and twenty miles, and came within six feet of killing +everybody." + +Adair had lighted a cigarette, and he did not reply until the match +flare had gone out. Then he said, in a way that made Leckhard his friend +for life: + +"I'm entirely in your hands, Mr. Leckhard; can't turn a wheel unless you +say so. And I believe you're telling me the truth, as man to man. Can +you reach Ford or Mr. Colbrith by wire?" + +"I'm sorry to say I can't. We have only the one wire, and it's on +temporary poles most of the way. It broke down on us this morning, and I +can't raise the end-of-track." + +"Block number two," said Adair cheerfully. "We seem to be out of luck +this evening." Then, with searching abruptness: "Do you call yourself +Ford's friend, Mr. Leckhard?" + +"Rather," said the Saint's Rest Pooh Bah. "He hired me; and when he +goes, I go." + +"Ah! now we are warming ourselves at the same fire. Let me invite your +confidence in one word, Mr. Leckhard. I dislike Mr. North." + +The burly engineer laughed again. + +"You have a geniusful way of putting your finger on the sore spot +without fumbling. We all dislike Mr. North at this end of things--with +reason." + +"And that reason is?" + +"That he'd fire the entire engineering department if he could find half +an excuse. I'm afraid he's going to do it, too, in the most effectual +way--by forcing Mr. Ford out. If Ford goes, every man in the department +will quit with him. I'm afraid it's coming to that." + +Johnson, the porter, had lighted the Pintsch globes and was laying the +covers for dinner. + +"Make it two, Johnson," said Adair; and, then to Leckhard: "You dine +with me--don't say no; I couldn't stand it alone." And when that point +was settled: "Now, sit down till we thresh, this out a bit finer. How +far has this forcing business gone? You're talking to the man who has +backed Ford from the first." + +"It has gone pretty far. North has obstructed, quietly but persistently, +ever since the first blow was struck on the extension. He has delayed +material, when he could do it unofficially, he scants us for rolling +stock and motive power, he stands in with the MacMorroghs and backs them +against Ford every time there is a dispute. Ford is a patient man, Mr. +Adair, but I think he has about reached the limit." + +"H'm. Do you attach any particular importance to the president's trip +over the extension?" + +Leckhard shook his head. "I'm only a passenger--I see what goes by the +car-windows. Mr. Colbrith was dead set on pushing over to the +end-of-track--wouldn't even wait for daylight. You probably know him +better than I do--" + +"He is my uncle," Adair cut in. + +"Oh; then I can't tell you anything about him. He was hot at Ford last +night; what for I don't know, unless it was because Ford opposed a night +run over a raw construction track with the Nadia. He was right about +that, though. If I had been in his place I would have thrown up my job +before I would have taken the risk." + +Adair appeared to be considering something, and when he had thought it +out, the porter had announced dinner and they had taken their places at +the table. + +"I have told you I am Ford's friend, Mr. Leckhard; I have ridden a +couple of thousand miles out of my way to give him a lift. Tell me +frankly; have you any reason to believe it will come to blows between +him and the president while they are together at the front?--Try this +celery; it's as good as you'd get at Sherry's." + +Leckhard helped himself to the relish, and waited until the negro, +Johnson, had gone back to the cook's galley. + +"The little I know comes in a roundabout way," he replied slowly. +"Penfield, who is known all over the Southwestern as Mr. North's private +detective and spy, is with Mr. Colbrith acting as the president's +secretary. Yesterday, while the Nadia was side-tracked here, Penfield +had a lot of telegraphing to do for Mr. Colbrith. He did it +himself--he's a lightning operator, among other things--and I happened +into the office just as he was finishing. His final message was a +cipher, to Mr. North, and he signed it with his own name." + +"Well?" said Adair. + +Again the engineer waited until the negro was out of hearing. + +"A little later, just as the Nadia was about to pull out, there came a +rush call from Denver for Penfield. I answered and said the car was on +the point of leaving, but that I'd take the message and try to catch +Penfield if I could. It came, on the run, and it was signed by Eckstein, +North's chief clerk. It wasn't ciphered--lack of time, I reckon--and +Eckstein took the chance that I wouldn't catch on." + +"You kept a copy?" suggested Adair. + +"I did. I wasn't able to deliver the original until the Nadia came back +from the foot of the pass in the evening to fill the engine tank. But I +couldn't make anything out of it. It was an order to Penfield not to let +anything interfere with the president's buckboard trip--whatever that +might be--with authority to incur any expense that might be necessary, +using the telegram as his credential with the MacMorrogh Brothers if +more money were needed." + +"To pay for the buckboards?" asked Adair. + +"You may search me," said Leckhard. "Only it could hardly be that--we +have an open account at the Bank of Copah for legitimate expenses. No; +there's a nigger in the woodpile, somewhere. Penfield is only a clerk; +but for some purpose he is given _carte blanche_ to spend money." + +Adair was absently stirring his black coffee. + +"All of which points to one conclusion, Mr. Leckhard. They are plotting +against Ford--without the president's connivance. But the president is +going to be made to swing the club. I know rather more than you do about +it--which isn't saying very much. My--a relative of mine who is with +the party in the Nadia wired me three days ago from Denver that Ford had +been tried and condemned, and was only waiting to be hanged. That's why +I am here to-night. You've got to get me to the end-of-track before it +comes to blows between Mr. Colbrith and Stuart Ford. I know both men, +Mr. Leckhard. If the iron comes to a certain heat, the past master of +all the peacemakers won't be able to patch things together." + +"Ford will resign," said the engineer. + +"That is what I'm afraid of; and we can't let him resign. That would +mean Mr. North for everything in sight, and the ultimate ruin of the +Pacific Southwestern. On the other hand, I can't have Ford fighting the +family--or my uncle--which is just what he will do if he gets his blood +up--and doesn't quit in a huff. It's up to you to trundle this car over +to the seat of war, Mr. Leckhard." + +The division engineer was thinking hard. + +"I can't see how it's to be done, right now, Mr. Adair. But I'll tell +you what I will do. Our empty material trains come back from the front +in the night, as a rule. When they get in, and I can be sure that the +track's clear, I'll double one of the construction engines out with you. +It will be along toward morning, I'm afraid; but, with nothing in the +way, you ought to make the run in four or five hours--say by late +breakfast time." + +That was the way it was left when Leckhard went back to his telegraph +den at ten o'clock; and some six hours later, Adair, sleepily conscious +of disturbances, wakened sufficiently to hear the wheels once more +trundling monotonously under the "01." + + + + +XX + +THE CONSPIRATORS + + +"How far do we go, and what do we do when we get there?" asked Frisbie +of his chief, when the two buckboards, heaving and lurching over the +rock-strewn talus at the foot of the canyon cliff, had passed beyond +sight and sound of the headquarters camp at the mouth of Horse Creek. + +"I'm not guessing any more," said Ford crustily. He was finding that his +temper deteriorated as the square of his distance from Alicia Adair +increased. "The president said he wanted to drive over this short-cut, +and he's doing it." + +"Humph!" growled Frisbie. "If he wanted to rub salt into your bruises, +why didn't he take you in the cart with him? And where do _I_ come in?" + +"You are 'implicated' with me; that was his word." + +Another mile passed in discomforting plungings. The trail had become all +but impassable for the staggering horses; yet the leading buckboard held +on doggedly. There were places where both drivers had to get out and +lead; bad bits where all save the president descended to walk. But +through the worst as well as the best, Mr. Colbrith clung to his seat +like a man determined to ride. It was well past noon when the two +vehicles reached the western portal of the canyon, and the dottings of +the Copah mine workings came in sight on the hillsides to the southward. +Ford's driver had fallen a little behind in the final half-mile, and +when the gap was closed up, the president was waiting. + +"Well, Mr. Ford," he began, somewhat breathless but triumphant, "are you +fully satisfied?" + +"I have learned nothing that I did not know before we began to build the +extension," was the non-committal rejoinder. + +"Oh, you haven't? You reported that canyon impracticable for a railroad, +and yet I have just driven through it without once dismounting from this +buckboard. Moreover, we shall find in Copah to-morrow a re-survey of the +line showing its entire practicability, Mr. Ford--a report not made by +your engineers." + +Ford and Frisbie exchanged swift glances of intelligence. The presence +of the strange engineering party in the canyon was sufficiently +explained. At first sight the president's expedient seemed childishly +puerile to Ford. Then suddenly in a flash of revealment he saw beyond +the puerilities--beyond the stubborn old man who, with all his narrow +self-will and obstinacy was merely playing the game for others. + +"We can discuss these matters later, if you wish," he said placably. "I +think you will find our ground well taken. Do you want to drive back as +we came? Or will you let me find you an easier road to the mouth of +Horse Creek?" + +But Mr. Colbrith was not to be balked or turned aside. + +"Mr. Ford, I wish to be fair and impartial. I desired to satisfy myself, +personally, that this route we have driven over is practicable, and it +was also my desire that the investigation should be conducted in your +presence. You will admit now that you made a mistake--a very costly +mistake for the company--in abandoning this short cut." + +"I admit nothing of the kind. The difficulties remain as they were, +quite unchanged by our pleasure trip from the end-of-track, Mr. +Colbrith. Assuming that the re-survey will report that the north bank of +the river is practicable, while the south bank is not, I have only to +say that the cost of the two bridges would offset the easier grading +conditions, while the danger to future traffic would remain the same. +But that is neither here nor there. You must either give us credit for +knowing our business, or you must discredit us entirely." + +Frisbie was grinding his heel into the hard soil of the mesa. The +argument was growing rather acrid; and Penfield and the two drivers were +interested listeners. It was high time for a diversion to be made, and +the assistant made it. + +"We have used five hours getting down here, and we'll need as many going +back," he put in. "Unless there is something more to be done on the +spot, I think we'd better take the road over the hills. It's with you, +Mr. Colbrith." + +The president signified his assent by climbing into his buckboard, and +the return journey was begun with the two engineers in the lead for +pathfinding purposes. Once safely out of earshot, Frisbie voiced his +disgust. + +"A wild goose-chase, pure and simple! Stuart, that old man is in his +second childhood." + +"Not at all," said Ford. "He is merely following out North's +suggestions. Dick, my name is Dennis." + +"Nonsense! Things are no worse than they have been all along." + +"My time with the Pacific Southwestern is shorter by just the number of +hours it has taken us to drive down here. Mr. Colbrith has convinced +himself that I was wrong in abandoning the canyon. To-morrow he will +convince himself that I was doubly wrong in approving the detour. I +shall hand in my resignation to-night." + +"So be it," said Frisbie shortly. "That means good-by to the extension. +I'm predicting that it will never get to Green Butte--never get beyond +Copah. And your name will go out to the railroad world as that of a man +who bit off a number of large things that he couldn't chew." + +"Confound you!" said Ford; and after that, Frisbie could get no more +than single-syllabled replies to his monologue of Job's comfortings. + +The returning route was a detour, winding, through the greater part of +it, among and over the swelling heights north of the Pannikin. On each +hilltop the vast sweep of the inter-mountain wilderness came into view, +and from the highest point in the trail, reached when the sun was +dipping toward the western horizon, the eye-sweep took in the broken +country lying between the Pannikin and the path of the Transcontinental +narrow gauge forty miles away. + +Jack's Canyon, the Transcontinental station nearest Copah, was the +beginning of a combined pack trail and stage road connecting the Copah +district with what had been, before the advent of the Southwestern +Extension, its nearest railroad outlet. Along this trail, visible to the +buckboarders as a black speck tittuping against the reddening background +of the west, galloped a solitary horseman, urging his mount in a way to +make Frisbie, getting his glimpse from the hilltop of extended views, +call Ford's attention. + +"Look at that brute, pushing his horse like that at the end of the day! +He ought to be--" + +But the hastening rider was getting his deserts, whatever they should +be, as he went along. For three hours, with three relays of fresh horses +picked up at the stage stations in passing, he had been galloping +southward, and to whatever other urging he might confess was added the +new one of fear, the fear that in the approaching day's-end he would +lose his way. + +Seen from the nearer point of view, the tittuping horseman seemed +curiously out of harmony with his environment. Instead of the cow-boy +"shaps," or overalls, he wore the trousers of civilization, which the +rapid night had hitched half-way to his knees. In place of the +open-breasted shirt with the rolled-up sleeves there were tailor-made +upper clothes, with the collar and cravat also of civilization, and the +hat--it was perhaps fortunate for the rider that he had not met any true +denizens of the unfettered highlands on the lonely trail from Jack's +Canyon. His hat was a Derby of the newest shape; and the cow-men beyond +the range are impatient of such head-gear. + +Recognition, after one has ridden hard for three hours over a dusty +road, is not easy; but there are faces one never forgets, and the +features, dust-grimed and sweat-streaked though they were, had still the +South-of-Europe outline, the slightly aquiline nose, and the piercing +black eyes of Mr. Julius Eckstein, whom we saw, on the morning of this +same road-wearying day, welcoming Adair over the counter railing in the +Denver office. How does it come that a few short hours later we find him +galloping tantivy over the dusty hills, no less than two hundred miles, +as the birds fly, from the counter railing of welcomings? + +That is the story of another, and a more successful special train than +Adair's. No sooner was the care-free young director safely on his way to +meet the delays so painstakingly prearranged for him than the wires +began to buzz with a cipher message of warning to Penfield. A precious +half-hour was lost in ascertaining that the wire connection to the +end-of-track was temporarily out of commission; but during that +half-hour Mr. North had held his chin in his hand to some good purpose. + +With the fresh complications promised by Adair's projection into the +field, a stronger man than Penfield should be in command on the firing +line. The vice-president decided swiftly that Eckstein was the man; but +how to get him to the MacMorrogh headquarters before Adair should +arrive? + +It proved to be simpler in the outcarrying than in the planning. A +special light engine over the Transcontinental to Jack's Canyon--an +exchange of courtesies which even fighting railroads make in war as well +as in peace--a wire request on the stage company for relays of saddle +horses, and the thing was done. And Eckstein, pushing his jaded beast +down the final hill in the dusk of the evening, and welcoming, as only +the saddle-tormented can welcome, the lights of the headquarters camp, +confessed in cursings quite barbaric in their phrasings that he, too, +was done. + +The conference held that night behind locked doors in the MacMorroghs' +commissary office was a council of five, with Eckstein, as the +mouthpiece of the vice-president, in the chair. Penfield was present, +with no vote, and the three MacMorroghs voted as one; but as to that, +there were no divisions. A crisis was imminent, and it must be met. + +"As I have said, I am here with power to act," said Eckstein, gripping +the chair with wincings after the day of torment. "The plan outlined at +first by Mr. North must go through as it was outlined. Part of it has +already been carried out, you say: Ford and the president have been over +the short-cut together. To-morrow the entire private-car party goes to +Copah over the detour. Are the buckboards here for that?" + +"They're here wid the drivers. I saw to that part of it myself." It was +the youngest of the three MacMorroghs who gave the assurance. + +"So far so good," commented the chairman. "The other thing we have to +provide for, or rather, to prevent, is the possibility of Mr. Adair's +reaching here in time to join the party. The last definite information +we had of Mr. Adair he was crawling up Blue Canyon, with a train crew +which was under orders to give him ample time to study the scenery. He +has probably reached Saint's Rest before this, however, and once there, +Leckhard will give him anything in sight. The question is, will he +attempt to run the extension to-night?" + +The middle MacMorrogh thought not, and his younger brother agreed with +him. But the senior partner voted aye, and stuck to it. Thereupon ensued +a conflict of opinion. Dan MacMorrogh pointed out that the construction +motive power was all at the west end, or in transit eastward; it would +be daylight of another day before an engineer familiar with the hazards +could be obtained for Adair's special over the construction line. But +Brian MacMorrogh argued with equal emphasis that this was a mere begging +of chances. Without a telegraph wire to verify the guess, no man could +say at what hour one of the trains of empties would pull through to +Saint's Rest; and whatever the hour, Leckhard would doubtless turn the +engine and crew to double back with Adair's car. + +Eckstein was gripping the arms of his chair and setting his teeth deep +into his cigar while the probabilities were getting themselves threshed +out. At the end of the dispute he said quietly: "It's a hell of a pity +we can't have the use of the wire for this one night. But, gentlemen, we +can't stop for trifles. There are five of us here in this room who know +how much is at stake. One of two things is due to happen. If we can keep +Adair out of it for another twelve hours, Ford will be disgraced and +asked to resign. If he gets to that point, we're safe. I know Ford's +temper. If Mr. Colbrith puts it as he is likely to put it, Ford will say +and do things that will make it impossible for Adair or any one else to +get him back into the service." + +"Thrue for you, Misther Eckstein; ye have 'im down to the crossin' of a +'t'," agreed the eldest of the brothers MacMorrogh. + +"That is one of the due things," Eckstein went on smoothly. "The other +isn't pretty to look at. If Adair gets here in time, it will be another +story. He can handle Ford; and he has proved once or twice that he can +handle Mr. Colbrith. If he hadn't been out of the way when you went to +New York with Mr. North, you'd never have seen the thin edge of this +contract, Brian. Well, then what happens? With Adair on the ground to +back him, Ford wins out. Do you know what that means? Investigations, +muck-rakings, and worse. There are two or three of us here, and some +more on the other side of the range, who won't get off with less than +ten years apiece. I'm willing to take the chance of a few more years +for another play on the red. How is it with the rest of you?" + +The elder MacMorrogh spread his hands. + +"It's all in the same boat we are. You've a notion in the back par-rt of +your head, Misther Eckstein; lave us have it." + +"As I've said, we can't stick at trifles. If Adair's train is on the +extension, it mustn't get here. Somebody goes up the line on a hand-car +to-night and stops it." + +"Is it to ditch it, ye mane?" asked the youngest of the brothers in a +hoarse whisper. + +Eckstein laughed cynically. "What a lot of crude cutthroats you are!" he +jeered. "Now if it were Ford, instead of Adair--but pshaw! a rail or two +taken up and flung into the river well beyond walking distance from this +camp does the business. Only the man who does it wants to make sure he +has gone far enough back to cover all the possible chances." + +"That's me," said Dan MacMorrogh; and he rose and let himself out, with +the younger brother to lock the door behind him. + +The door-keeping attended to, the younger brother drew closer into the +circle. + +"There's wan thing," he said, looking furtively at Eckstein. "I was in +Copah this day: I got the buckboards for Misther Colbrith. Goin' past +the bank, who would I see but our old bookkeeper, Merriam, chinnin' wid +the bank president. I thought he was out o' the way entirely." + +Stiff and saddle-sore as he was, Eckstein leaped out of his chair with +an oath. + +"Merriam? What the devil is he back here for? It's a put-up job!" + +It was the chief of the MacMorroghs who flung in the calming word. + +"'Tis only a happen-so, Misther Eckstein. Merriam owns a mine or two in +the Copah, and ye know the fever: a man can't keep away from thim." + +"That may be; but it's a cursed unlucky combination, just the same. I +tell you, Brian, he knows too much--this fellow Merriam. He knew what +was up when he was steering Frisbie. You told him too much. And +afterward, when we gave him the Oregon job, he knew why he was being +bribed to go away. You let us in for this: you've got to muzzle him, +some way." + +The MacMorrogh looked at his remaining brother meaningly. "'Tis up to +you, this time, Mickey, b'y. Find your way over to the minin' camp this +night, and make a clane job av it.'" + +Penfield was moving uneasily in his chair. The plotting waters were +deepening swiftly, much too swiftly for him. Loyalty to his superior +officer, the unquestioning loyalty that disregards motives entirely and +does not look too closely at methods, was his fetish. But these men +were not merely loyal to Mr. North. They were criminals--he stuck at the +word, but there was no other--fighting for their own hand. + +"I guess--I guess I'd better go back to the Nadia," he stammered, trying +to keep his voice steady. "Mr. Colbrith may need me." + +Eckstein turned on him like a snarling animal. + +"No you don't, Arthur, my boy. I know you like a book. You stay here +till you're in as deep as the rest of us. Like Merriam, you know too +damned much." + +Penfield sat still, with the cold chills running up and down his spine, +while Eckstein went on talking to the two MacMorroghs. + +"This Merriam business complicates things like hell"--he was growing +coarsely profane in the grinding mill of events. "But it shows us where +we stand. This thing has got to go through, and if it doesn't work out +the way we've planned it, it's for us to find another way." + +"There's always the wan other way," said the elder MacMorrogh slowly. +"'Tis but a drunken fight in wan o' the camps, and Ford tryin' to stop +it, as he always does: a bit of a shindy among the b'ys, and this--" +crooking his forefinger suggestively. + +"Bah!" said Eckstein. "You fellows ought to have lived in the stone age, +when a man pulled his enemy to pieces with his bare hands. If it comes +to that, there are easier ways--and safer. A premature blast in a rock +cut; a weak coupling-pin when he happens to be standing in the way of a +pulling engine: they tell me he is always indifferent to his personal +safety. But never mind the fashion of it; the point I'm making is that +if everything else fails, Ford mustn't live to be the head-foreman of +the outfit." + +Penfield's face was ashen, and he was cravenly thankful that the +lamplight was dim, and that his chair was in the shadow. This was more +than he had bargained for; more by the price of a man's life. + +Eckstein was lifting himself by painful inches from his chair. A silence +as of the grave had fallen upon the two MacMorroghs. It was the senior +partner who broke it. + +"'Tis as ye say, Misther Eckstein. A man--a safe man, that'll do what +he's told to do--will be at Ford's heels till this thing do be settled. +And now for yourself: 'tis betther that ye kape dark. Four of us know +that you're in the camp--no wan else need know. I've a room and a bed, +and ye'll be nadin' the lasht, I'm thinking." + +The two MacMorroghs were bestirring themselves, and Penfield was +slipping through the door into the commissary when Eckstein's fingers +closed upon his arm. + +"Your part is to keep tab on the programme," he whispered "Get word +instantly to Brian if there is any change. And if you weaken, Arthur, +I'll promise you just one thing: I'll pull you in with the rest of us if +I have to swear to a string of lies a mile long. Remember that." + +Penfield escaped at length, and stumbled through the littered +end-of-track yard to where the lighted windows of the Nadia marked the +berth of the president's car. Out of the shadow of the car a man rose up +and confronted him. It was Frisbie, and he asked a single question: + +"Say, Penfield, who was that fellow who rode around to the MacMorroghs' +back door just after dark?" + +"It was Eckstein." The secretary let slip the name before he could lay +hold of his discretion. + +"Oh: all right That's all," said the engineer; and he vanished. + +Climbing to the observation platform, Penfield let himself into the +cheerful central compartment of the Nadia quietly enough to surprise two +people who were sitting together on one of the broad divans. The two +were Ford and Miss Alicia Adair, with Aunt Hester Adair, reading under +the drop-light at the table, for the only other occupant of the +compartment. It was Miss Alicia who told the secretary that he was not +needed. + +"Mr. Colbrith was very tired, and he has gone to bed," she said; and +Penfield, still pallid and curiously unready of speech, said he believed +he'd go, too. + +Ford got up when Penfield had disappeared in the curtained vestibule +leading to the state-rooms. + +"I shall wait one more day, because you want me to," he said, resuming +the conversation which had been broken off by Penfield's incoming. "But +I'll tell the truth: I came here to-night to have it over with. We were +as near quarreling to-day as I want to come, and if Frisbie hadn't got +between--" + +"Good Mr. Frisbie!" she said. "Some day I hope to get a chance to be +very nice to him." + +Ford laughed. The evening had healed many of the woundings of the day. + +"If you don't get the chance it won't be Dick's fault--or mine. +Meantime, I'll be delighted to pose as his substitute." + +She had gone with him to the door, and his last word was a reminder. +"Don't forget," he said. "I'm to drive your buckboard to-morrow, +whatever happens." + +"You are the one who will forget," she retorted. "When Uncle Sidney +crooks his finger at you, you'll climb up obediently beside him and let +him scold you all the way over to Copah." + +"Wait and see," said Ford; and then he said good night, not as he wanted +to, but as he must, with Aunt Hester sitting within arm's reach. + +Frisbie was sitting up for him when he reached the white tents of the +engineers' camp pitched a little apart from the MacMorrogh +conglomeration of shacks and storehouses. + +"Just one question," said the first assistant, "and I've been staying +awake to ask it. Are you still my boss?" + +"For one more day," said Ford shortly. + +"Well, we can't live more than a day at a time, if we try. That will do +to sleep on." + +"All right; sleep on it, then." + +"In a minute; after I've freed my mind of one little news item. Do you +remember that fellow we saw riding in on the Jack's Canyon trail as we +were coming back this afternoon?" + +"Yes." + +"Have you any notion who it was?" + +"No." + +"It was Mr. Julius Eckstein; and he is at present lying doggo in the +MacMorrogh quarters. That's all. Now you can turn in and sleep a few +lines on _that_." + + + + +XXI + +THE MILLS OF THE GODS + + +It was merely by chance that Adair had Michael Gallagher for his +engineer when the "01" was made up for the after-midnight run from +Saint's Rest to the MacMorrogh headquarters. But it was a chance which +was duly gratifying to Leckhard. The little Irishman was Ford's most +loyal liegeman, and a word was all that was needed to put him on his +mettle. The word was spoken while he was oiling around for the +man-killing extra service. + +"Pretty well knocked out, Michael?" asked Leckhard, by way of preface. + +"I am thot, Misther Leckhard. 'Tis the good half of lasht night, all day +yestherday, and thin some." + +"It's tough. But if any of the other men were in, I should still ask you +to go. Mr. Ford is in a pinch, and Mr. Adair, your passenger, is going +to help him out. He can do it if you get him to Horse Creek in time; and +I know you'll get him there if the 956 and the '01' will stay on the +steel." + +"To help Misther Foord out? Thot's me," said Gallagher simply. + +"Not having a wire, I can't boost you any from this end. You'll meet +Folsom and Graham with the other two sections of empties where you can: +you'll run as fast as the Lord'll let you on such a track as you have: +but above all, you'll stay on the rails. If you ditch yourself, it'll go +hard with Mr. Ford." + +"I'll do all thim things and wan more--and thot wan is the shtiffest av +thim all: the saints aidin' me, Misther Leckhard, I'll shtay awake." + +There was a short siding at the summit of the pass, and by good hap, +Gallagher met Folsom with the first string of empties at that point: or +rather, giving the bit of good luck full credit, he heard the roaring of +Folsom's exhaust as the first of the opposing trains pounded up the +dangerous western grade, and hastily backed up and took the summit +siding. + +Pitching over the hill with the "01" the moment Folsom's tail-lights had +passed the outlet switch, Gallagher had a sharp attack of memory. The +day before, in the Horse Creek yard, he had seen and remarked a jagged +scratch on the side of the Nadia. Hence, he was watching for the narrow +rock cuttings, and the three passages perilous on the cliff face were +made in safety. + +Once off the mountain, however, the greater peril began to assert +itself. For a time the Irishman kept himself fully awake and alert by +pushing the 956 to the ragged edge of hazard, scurrying over the short +tangents and lifting her around the curves in breath-taking spurts. +Later this expedient began to lose its fillip. Since the train was +running wholly on the air-brakes there was nothing for the fireman to +do, and Jackson, the loyalest understudy Gallagher had ever known, +tumbled from his box in a doze, staggered across the gang-way into the +half-filled tender, and fell like a man anaesthetized full length on the +coal. Gallagher did not try to arouse him. + +"'Tis hell for wan, an' twice hell for two," he muttered; and then he +shifted his right hand to the brake-cock and grasped the hot throttle +lever with the ungloved left. And for a time the pain of the burn +sufficed. + +It was another piece of luck, good or bad, that made Ten Mile station +the special train's meeting point with the second train of empties. This +time it was Graham, the other engineer, who heard. He had stopped at Ten +Mile on the bare chance that the wire between that point and Saint's +Rest had been repaired; public opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, +an engineer does not run "wild" when he can help it. + +The engineer of the third section had come out of the night operator's +office disappointed, and was climbing to his engine to pull out, when he +heard, or thought he heard, the dull rumble of a train racing down the +canyon. It came in sight while he listened, and the yellow flare told +him that it was either Gallagher or Folsom doubling back on one of the +construction engines. What startled him was the fact that the coming +train appeared to be running itself; there was no warning whistle shriek +and no slackening of speed. + +Graham was a Scotchman, slow of speech, slow to anger, methodical to the +thirty-third degree. But in an emergency his brain leveled itself like a +ship's compass gimballed to hang plumb in the suddenest typhoon. Three +shrill whistle calls sent a sleepy flagman racing to set the switch of +the siding. With a clang the reversing lever came over and the steam +roared into the cylinders. + +The Scotchman had the grade to help him, which was fortunate. When he +had the string of empties fairly in retreat, the beam of Gallagher's +headlight was shining full in his face and blinding him. For a +heart-breaking second he feared that the opposing train would follow him +in on the siding; there was but an instant for the flicking of the +switch. But by this time the sleepy flagman was wide awake, and he +jerked the switch lever for his life the moment Graham's engine had +cleared the points. It was the closest possible shave. Gallagher's cab +ticked the forward end of the other engine's running board in passing, +and if Graham had not been still shoving backward with the throttle +wide open, the "01," being wider than its piloting engine, would have +had its side ripped out. + +Graham had a glimpse into the cab of the 956 as it passed and saw +Gallagher, sitting erect on his box with wide-staring eyes. He knew the +symptoms, and feared that he had only postponed the catastrophe. The +siding was a short one, and he knew that in backing down he must +inevitably have shoved the rear end of his train out upon the main line +at the lower switch. Once again the level brain righted itself to the +emergency. Four sharp shrieks of the whistle for switches, a jamming of +the whistle lever to set the canyon echoes yelling in the hope of +arousing Gallagher, and Graham slammed his engine into the forward +motion without pausing to close the throttle. There was a grinding of +fire from the wheels, a running jangle of slack-taking down the long +line of empties, and the freight train shot ahead, snatching its rear +end out of harm's way just as Gallagher, dreaming that his boiler had +burst and that all the fiends of the pit were screeching the news of it, +came to life and snapped on the air. + +When the stop was made, the little Irishman roused his fireman, got off +and footed it up the line to see what he had done. Graham had stopped +his engine when he was sure his train was clearing the lower switch, and +was on his way back to find out what had happened to Gallagher. The two +men met in the shadow of the halted material empties, and it was the +Irishman who began it. + +"Paste me wan, Scotchie," he said. "'Tis owin' to me." + +Without a word the Scotchman gave the blow, catching the little man full +in the chest and knocking him half a car-length. That was enough. +Gallagher picked himself up out of the gravel, the lust of battle hot +upon him. + +"Wan more like thot, ye divvle, and I cajo lick ye if ye wor +Fin-mac-Coul himself," he panted; and Graham gave it judiciously, this +time on the point of the jaw. For five bloody minutes it went on, give +and take, down and up; methodically on Graham's part, fiery hot on +Gallagher's. And in the end the Irishman had the heavier man backed +against the string of empties and yelling for quarter. + +"Are you full awake now, ye red-hot blastoderm?" gasped Graham, +struggling to free himself when Gallagher gave him leave. + +"I am thot, thanks to you, Sandy, lad. 'Twas a foine bit av a scrimmage, +an' I'm owin' ye wan. Good night to ye." + +"Ye've got a clear track from this," called Graham, swabbing his +battered face with a piece of cotton waste drawn from one of the pockets +of method. "But ye'd better not take any more cat-naps. Go on with ye, +ye wild Irishman; ye're obstructin' the traffic." + +For twenty miles below Ten Mile Gallagher sat on his box like a man +refreshed. Then the devil of sleep postponed beset him again. Once more +the fireman was asleep on the coal, and to the little Irishman's +bombardment of wrenches and other missiles he returned only sodden +groans. Gallagher nerved himself to fight it through alone. Mile after +mile of the time-killing track swung slowly to the rear, and there was +not even the flick of speed to help in the grim battle. + +Dawn came when the end-of-track camp was still forty miles away, but the +breaking day brought no surcease of strugglings. When it came to the +bitter end, when his eyelids would close involuntarily and he would wake +with a start to wonder dumbly how far the 956 had come masterless, +Gallagher took a chew of tobacco and began to rub the spittle into his +eyes--the last resort of the sleep-tormented engineman. Like all the +other expedients it sufficed for the time; but before long he was +nodding again, and dreaming that a thousand devils were burning his eyes +out with the points of their red-hot pitchforks. + +Out of one of these nightmares he came with a yell of pain to see what +figured for the moment as another nightmare. Three hundred feet ahead +the track seemed to vanish for three or four rail-lengths. It was +second nature to jam on the brakes and to make the sudden stop. Then he +sat still and rubbed his smarting eyes and stared again. The curious +hallucination persisted strangely. Fifty feet ahead of the stopped +engine the glistening lines of the steel ended abruptly, beginning again +a car-length or two beyond. Without disturbing the sleeping Jackson, +Gallagher got down and crept cautiously out to the break. It was a +break. He stooped and felt the rail ends with his hands. + +When he straightened up his passenger was standing beside him. + +"What is it?" asked Adair. "Have we lost something?" + +Gallagher waved a grimy hand at the gap. + +"The thrack," he said. "'Twas there whin I pulled me sthring av empties +out over ut lasht night. 'Tis gone now, else I'm thot near dead for +sleep I can nayther see nor feel sthraight." + +Adair was calmly lighting a cigarette. + +"Your senses are still in commission," he said; "there is a good-sized +piece of track missing. Who sniped it, do you suppose?" + +The engineer was shaking his fiery head. + +"'Tis beyond me, Misther Adair." + +"That's the deuce of it," smiled the young man. "It's beyond the train. +How is your engine--pretty good on the broad jump?" + +Gallagher was not past laughing. + +"She'll not lep thot, this day. But who'd be doin' this job betune dark +an' mornin', d'ye think?" + +"You will have to ask me something easy, I'm not up in all the little +practical jokes of the country. But if I should venture a guess, I +should say it was some one who didn't want me to answer the first call +for breakfast at your end-of-track camp this morning. What do we do?" + +Gallagher was thinking. + +"We passed a camp av surfacers tin mile back, and there'd be rails at +Arroyo Siding, tin mile back o' thot," he said reflectively. + +Adair had passed over to the river side of the line and was looking at a +fresh plowing of the embankment. + +"The rails have been dragged down here and they are probably in the +river," he announced. "If we had men and tools we might fish them out +and repair damages." + +"Come on, thin," cried the little Irishman, and when he ran back to +climb to the footboard of the 956, Adair climbed with him. + +Jackson, refreshed by his cat-naps on the coal, was sent to the rear end +of the "01" to flag back, and in due time the special picked up the gang +of surfacers just turning out to the day's work. An Irish foreman was in +command, and to him Gallagher appealed, lucidly but not too gently. The +reply was a volley of abuse and a caustic refusal to lend his men to +the track-laying department. + +Gallagher turned to Adair with his red-apple face wrinkling dismayfully. + +"'Tis up to me to push thot felly's face in, Misther Adair; and what wid +two nights and a day, shtandin', and wan fight wid a bully twice me +size, I'm not man enough." + +Adair tossed away the stump of his cigarette. + +"You're quite sure that is what is needed?" he queried. + +"To knock a grain av sinse into thot Wicklow man?" queried Gallagher. +"Sure, it is." And then whispering: "But not for you, Misther Adair; +he'd ate you in two bites. L'ave me have a thry wid him." + +But Adair was off and fronting the surly MacMorrogh foreman. + +"We need a dozen of your men and some tools," he said quietly. "Do we +get them?" + +"Not by a fistful!" retorted the surly one. "Maybe you think you're +enough of a ---- ---- ---- to take 'em." + +"I am a better man than you are," was the even-toned rejoinder. + +"Prove it, then." + +Gallagher, leaning from his cab window, fully awake now, and chuckling +and rubbing his hands together softly, saw the blow. It was clean-cut, +swift as the lightning's flash, true to a finger's breadth, and the +sound of it was as bone upon bone. At its impact the Wicklow man bounded +into the air, arched his back like a bow, and pitched on his head in the +ditch. When he rose up, roaring blasphemies and doubling his huge fists +for the fray, the quiet voice was assailing him again. "Do we get the +men and tools?" + +"Not--" + +Again the lightning-like passes of the hands, and the Wicklow man sat +down forcibly and gasped. The Italian surfacers threw aside their picks +and shovels and made a ring, dancing excitedly and jeering. The big +foreman, whose scepter of authority was commonly a pick-handle for the +belaboring of offenders, was not loved. + +"Kick-a da shin--kick-a da shin--he like-a da nigger-mans," suggested +one of the Italians, but there was no need. Being safely out of range of +the catapult fists, the foreman stayed there. + +"Take your track gang and be damned to you!" he snarled. + +Adair made a forward step and stood over him. + +"Are you quite convinced that I am the better man?" he asked very +gently. + +"It's a trick!" growled the Wicklow man savagely. "I could get onto it +in another whirl or two." + +"Get up," said the gentle voice. "You'll never have a better chance to +learn the trick." But the foreman had the saving grace to shun +anti-climaxes. + +"G'wan! Take the men, I say; all of 'em, if you like." + +"Thanks," said Adair pleasantly. "We'll do it, and we'll take you, as +well--to answer for their good behavior. Let me help you up," and he +stooped and snapped the big one to his feet as a man would collar a +reluctant boy. + +"Great judgment!" gasped the foreman. "Say, Mister +Cock-o'-the-walk--where do you hide all that muscle?" And without +waiting for an answer he piled a dozen of his men upon the engine and +followed them, still muttering. + +It was a partly surfaced ten miles over which the special train +thundered for the third time since dawn-breaking, and Gallagher took the +last wheel-turn out of the 956. None the less, the sun was reddening the +western mountains when the Italians took ground at the mysterious gap. +The rails were found in the stream, as Adair had predicted, and it was a +work of minutes only to snake them up the embankment and to spike them +lightly into place. But when Adair, for the healing of wounds, had +thrust a bank-note into the hand of the Wicklow man, and the special was +once more on its unhindered way westward, the sun had fairly topped the +eastern range, and Johnson, the porter of the "01," was shouting across +the rocketing tender that breakfast was served. + +The young man in the London-cut clothes might have climbed back to the +car over the coal; or Gallagher would have stopped for him. But he +elected to stay in the cab, and he was still there, hanging from the +open window on Jackson's side, when the one-car special woke the echoes +with its whistle, clattered in over the switches at Horse Creek, and +came to a stand opposite the MacMorroghs' commissary. + +It was Brian MacMorrogh who came across the tracks to greet Adair, and, +since this was their first meeting, he made the mistake of his life in +calling the young director by name. + +"The top of the morning to you, Misther Adair. Is it Misther Colbrith +you'd be looking for?" + +"It is," said Adair shortly, not failing to remark that the +barrel-bodied, black-bearded man seemed to recognize and to be expecting +him. + +"'Tis two hours gone they all are," was the oily-voiced explanation. "Up +the grade and over to Copah. But they'll be back to-morrow, Heaven +savin' thim, and we'll make you comfortable here--as comfortable as we +can." + +"That will be quickly done," said Adair, swinging down from the engine +step. "Just give me a horse and tell me which way they have gone, and +I'll overtake them." + +But here the barrel-bodied one spread his hands helplessly. + +"'Tis just our luck!" he protested, in the keenest self-reproach. "There +isn't a horse or a mule in camp that you could get a mile an hour out +of. In fact, I'm thinking there isn't anny horses at all!" + + + + +XXII + +THE MAN ON HORSEBACK + + +Since the weather was rather threatening, and the promise of October in +the inter-mountain region is not to be lightly trifled with, Mr. +Colbrith pressed for an early start on the seventeen-mile buckboard +jaunt to Copah over the detour survey. + +It was by his express command that the private-car party was called at +daybreak, and that breakfast was served in the Nadia at six o'clock. And +at seven sharp, which chanced to be the precise time of day when Adair's +commandeered Italians were spiking the last of the displaced rails into +position at the gap in the track thirty-three miles away, the buckboards +were drawn up at the steps of the president's car. + +For reasons charitable, as well as practical, Ford had planned to leave +Frisbie out of this second dance of attendance upon the president. The +track-layers were well up toward the head of Horse Creek gulch, with +Brissac to drive; but during the night the Louisianian had reported in +with a touch of mountain fever, and Ford had asked Frisbie to go up and +take his place. + +This was one of Ford's peg-drivings for the day; and another was timed +for the moment of outsetting. For conveyances for the party there were +the two double-seated buckboards used on the canyon trip the previous +day, and one other with a single seat; but there were only two drivers, +the third man, who had brought the single-seated rig from Copah, having +been prevailed upon by Ford to disappear. + +Ford directed the distribution of the trippers arbitrarily, and was +amazed when the president acquiesced without protest. Mr. Colbrith, the +doctor's wife, and Penfield, were to go in the leading vehicle; Aunt +Hester Adair, Miss Van Bruce, and the doctor, in the second; and Ford +drove the single-seated third, with Miss Alicia for his companion. + +"I think you must have taken Uncle Sidney unawares," said Alicia, when +the caravan was toiling at a slow footpace along the rough wagon road +paralleling the Horse Creek grade. + +"You mean that he might have objected to your driver? You are a whole +lot safer with me than you would be with one of those livery-stable +helpers up ahead." + +"Oh, no; I didn't mean just that. But you know he usually plans all the +little details himself, and--" + +"And the fact that somebody else plans them is sufficient excuse for a +rearrangement. That is one of the penalties he pays for being the big +boss," laughed Ford. Since the yesterday was now safely yesterday, and +to-day was his own, there was no room for anything but pure joy. + +"You are a 'big boss,' too, aren't you?" she said, matching his +light-hearted mood. + +"I was, in a way, until your uncle came over and eclipsed me." + +"And you will be again when Uncle Sidney moves a little farther along in +his orbit." + +"That remains to be seen. There is yet plenty of time for him to abolish +me, permanently, before he goes on his way rejoicing." + +"But you are not going to resign, you know," she reminded him. + +"Am I not?" Then he took his courage by the proper grip and went on with +sudden gravity: "That rests entirely with you." + +"Mr. Ford! Aren't you a little unfair?" She did not pretend to +misunderstand him. + +"I am open to convincement," he affirmed. + +"It is making me Uncle Sidney's executioner, on one hand; or yours, on +the other." + +He pressed the point relentlessly. + +"There are only two horns to the dilemma: either Mr. Colbrith, or a man +named Stuart Ford, will have to walk the official plank. Because Mr. +Colbrith is your relative, I'm willing to be the victim. But you must +say that it is what you wish. That is my price." + +"I say it is unfair," she repeated. "Why should you put the burden of +the decision upon poor me?" + +"Because, if you were not concerned, there would be, to put it in good +Hibernian, only one horn to the dilemma--and your uncle would be impaled +upon that one." + +"Mercy!" she shuddered, in mock dismay. "That sounds almost vindictive. +Are you vindictive, Mr. Ford?" + +"Terribly," he laughed. "The black-hearted villain of melodrama isn't a +patch on me when I'm stirred." And then, more seriously: "But it isn't +altogether a joke. There is another side to the thing--what you might +call the ethical, I suppose. There are a score or so of men in the +company's service--Frisbie and his subordinates--whose jobs hang upon +mine. A worse man than I ever aspired to be might be loyal to his +friends." + +"I wouldn't think of questioning your loyalty to your friends," she +admitted. + +"Also," he went on determinately, "there is the larger question of right +and wrong involved. Is it right for me to step aside and let an +organized system of graft and thievery go on unchecked? I know it +exists; I have evidence enough to go before a grand jury. I'm not posing +as a saint, or even as a muck-raker; but isn't something due to the +people who are paying the bills?" + +"Now you are involving Uncle Sidney again; and I can't listen to that." + +"He is innocent; as innocent as some hundreds of other narrow-minded, +short-sighted old men whom chance, or the duplicity of the real rascals, +puts at the head of corporations." + +"Yet you would make him suffer with the guilty." + +"Not willingly, you may be sure. Not at all, if he would listen to +reason. But he won't. He'll stand by North till the last gun is fired; +and while North stays, there'll be graft, big or little, as the +opportunities warrant." + +Alicia held her peace while the caravan was measuring another half-mile +of the boulder-strewn road. Then she said: "I feel so wretchedly +inadequate to help you, Mr. Ford. I wish you could wait until you have +talked it over with brother." + +"So do I. But I am afraid postponement doesn't lie with me, now. From +your uncle's manner and from what he said to me yesterday, I can't help +feeling that the crisis is right here. For two days Mr. Colbrith has +been very plainly leading up to some sort of dramatic climax. I can't +remotely guess what it is going to be; though I can guess that the plot +isn't his." + +Again she took time to consider, and when she spoke they were nearing +the scene of strenuous activities at the moving track-end. + +"You don't think you could postpone it?" she asked, almost wistfully, he +thought. "I think--I hope--my brother will become interested again. It +is your fault that he lost interest, Mr. Ford." + +"My fault?" reproachfully. + +"Certainly. You didn't give him enough to do. He was happy and contented +while you kept him hard at work. But after the bonds were placed and the +money raised--" + +"I'm a miserable sinner!" Ford confessed. "And I had promised you, too! +But the battle has been so fierce at this end of the line; and I +couldn't be in two places at one time. Your brother should have been +made first vice-president, instead of North. Perhaps we can bring it +about yet--if you don't call it all off." + +"There it is again," she retorted. "You are dragging me in--and trying +to bribe me, too!" + +"God forbid!" he said, so earnestly that she forgave him. And then: "I +wish your brother were here--now." + +"So do I," she admitted. Then she told him of the wire summons sent from +Denver, and of the shadowy hope she had based upon it. + +"Where was your brother then?" he asked. + +"I don't know, positively. I hope he was in New York. He was to come +over in the _Campania_, in time for the shooting at Mount Ptarmigan." + +"You've had no word from him?" + +"None." + +They were up with the track-layers, now, in a country of huge bare hills +and high-lying, waterless valleys; and the president had halted the +caravan to give his guests a chance to see a modern railroad in the +actual throes of evolution. + +In a specialist in the trade, Ford's genius might have invoked +enthusiasm. Speed was the end to which all of the young engineer's +inventive powers had been directed; and the pace was furious. On the +leveled grade ahead of the track-laying train an army of sweating +laborers marched and counter-marched like trained soldiers, placing the +cross-ties in position. On a train of specially constructed flat-cars +another army was bolting together a long section of track, clamping the +double line of rails at intervals to hold them to gauge. At the word, +"Ready!" a hauling chain, passing through an anchored pulley-block far +up the grade and back to the freed engine of the construction train, was +made fast to the forward end of the bolted section; a second word of +command, and the engine backed swiftly, dragging the prepared section +off over the rollers of the flat-cars and into place on the ties. With +the clanging fall of the final pair of rails, a third army, +spike-drivers these, fell upon the newly placed steel, shouting their +chantey as they swung the great pointed hammers; and in the midst of +this fresh turmoil the train, with its brigade of bolters deftly +preparing another section, was slowly pushed to the new front for +another advance. + +"It is like clockwork," was Miss Alicia's enthusiastic comment. "Did you +invent it, Mr. Ford?" + +Now the combination of flat-car bolting-table, and the shifting and +laying by sections, was Ford's invention, but he modestly stood from +under. + +"Frisbie gets the medal," he said. "It's all in the drill--every man +knowing what he has to do, and doing it at the proper moment. I'd give +something if I had Dick's knack in detail organizing." + +She looked up, laughing. "You have the funniest way of ducking to cover +if you think a bit of honest appreciation is coming your way, Mr. Ford. +You know you told Mr. Frisbie how to do it." + +"Did I? I suppose it wouldn't be polite to contradict you." + +"Or any use. Is Mr. Frisbie here now?--Oh, yes; there he is." And then, +in a half-awed whisper: "Who is that dreadful, Grand-Opera-villain +looking man he is talking to?" + +Ford's eyes sought and found Frisbie. He was standing a little apart +from the turmoil, talking to a man on horseback; a man with half-closed, +beady, black eyes, drooping mustaches, and a face reptilian in its +repulsiveness. + +"That is 'Mexican George'; the MacMorrogh Brothers' 'killer'," said Ford +evenly. "Have you ever heard of a professional man-killer, Miss Adair; a +man whose calling is that of a hired assassin?" + +She shuddered. "You are jesting, I know. But the word fits his face so +accurately. I saw him lounging about the store at the camp yesterday, +and it gave me the creeping shivers every time I looked at him. Do you +ever have such instantaneous and unreasoning hatreds at first sight?" + +"Now and then; yes. But I was not jesting about Mexican George. He is +precisely what the word implies; is hired for it and paid for it. +Nominally, he guards the commissary and stores, and is the paymaster's +armed escort. Really, it is his duty to shoot down any desperate laborer +who, in the MacMorroghs' judgment, needs to be killed out of the way." + +"Mercy!" Miss Alicia was shuddering again. "What hideously primitive +conditions! What is this terrible man doing out here?" + +"Oh, he is a free lance; comes and goes as he pleases. No, he's not +quarreling with Dick"--answering her look of anxiety. + +"How do you know he isn't?" + +Ford laughed. "Because Dick wouldn't let him get that near. He +knows--Hello; I wonder what your good uncle wants of us." + +Mr. Colbrith was standing up in his place in the leading buckboard and +making signals to the rear guard of two. Ford shook the reins over his +broncos and drove around. + +The president was fingering his thin beard and waving an arm toward the +track-layers. + +"Mr.--ah--Ford," he began critically, "is it necessary to have such a +vast army of men as that to lay the track?" + +"I don't think we are over-manned," said Ford good-naturedly. It was +comparatively easy to be patient with Alicia looking on and listening. + +But it was against Mr. Colbrith's principles to let a man off with a +single rebuttal. + +"I am not at all convinced of the worth of these new-fangled ideas, Mr. +Ford; not at all. We built the Pacific Southwestern main line in the +old, approved way--a rail at a time--with less than one-quarter of the +men you have over there." + +"I don't question it: and you were three years building some six hundred +miles in a prairie country. We are to-day just six weeks out of Saint's +Rest with the track gang, and in six more, if the weather holds, we +shall be laying the switches in the Green Butte yards. That is the +difference between the old way and the new." + +The president was turned aside but not stopped. + +"I understand," he objected raucously. "But your expense bills are +something tremendous; tre-_men_dous, Mr. Ford! You have spent more money +in three months than we spent in a full year on the main line." + +"Quite likely," agreed Ford, losing interest in the pointless +discussion. "But with us, time is an object; and we have the results to +show for the expenditure." + +At this, Mr. Colbrith took refuge in innuendo, as seemed to be his +lately acquired habit. + +"You are very ready with your answers, Mr. Ford; very ready, indeed. Let +us see if you can continue as you have begun." + +It was Miss Alicia who resented this final speech of the president's +when the buckboards were once more in motion, following the unrailed +grade around the swelling shoulders of the huge hills. + +"I think that last remark of Uncle Sidney's was rather uncalled for," +she said, after Ford had driven in grim silence at the tail of the +procession for a full mile. + +"It is one of a good many uncalled for things he has been saying to me +since the day before yesterday," was Ford's rejoinder. + +"Yet you can still assure me that you are not vindictive." + +"I am not--at the mere actors in the play. But I confess to an unholy +desire to get back at the prompter--the stage manager of the little +comedy. I am only waiting for your decision." + +"Please!" she said; and he saw that the blue eyes were growing wistful +again. + +"I'm done," he said quickly. "I shan't put it up to you any more. I'll +do what I think I ought to do, on my own responsibility." + +But now, woman-like, she crossed quickly to the other side. + +"No; you mustn't deprive me of my chance," she protested soberly. "After +a little while I shall tell you what I think--what I think you ought to +do. Only you must give me time." + +His smile came from the depths of a lover's heart. + +"You shall have all the time there is--and then some, if I can compass +it. Now let's talk about something else. I've been boring you with this +despicable business affair ever since you gave me leave on that +foot-race down Plug Mountain Tuesday afternoon." + +"What shall it be?" she inquired gaily. And then: "Oh, I know. One day +last summer--just as we were leaving Chicago in the Nadia--you had begun +to tell me about a certain young woman who had money, and who was--who +was--" + +"--who was without her peer in all this world," he finished for her. +"Yes; I remember." + +"Do you still remember her, as you do the conversation?" she went on +teasingly. + +"I have never lost a day since I first met her." + +"Good Sir Galahad!" she mocked. "And is she still worth all those +sacrifices you said you would be willing to make for her?" + +"All, and several more." + +Silence for a little time, while the hoof-beats of a horse fox-trotting +behind them drew nearer. It was the sinister-faced Mexican who ambled +into view, and when he overtook the rearmost of the buckboards he was a +long time in passing. + +"That dreadful man!" murmured Alicia; and she did not go back to the +suspended subject until he had trotted on past the caravan. Then she +said slowly, taking her companion's complete understanding for granted: +"It must be delicious to be away out over one's depth, like that!" + +"It is," said Ford solemnly. "It's like--well, I've never been sick a +day in my life since I can remember, but I should think it might be like +a--a sort of beneficent fever, you know. Haven't you ever had a touch of +it?" + +"Possibly--without recognizing it. Can you describe the symptoms?" + +"Accurately. One day I awoke suddenly to the realization that there was +one woman, in the world: before that, you know, there had always been a +good many, but never just one. Then I began to discover that this one +woman was the embodiment of an ideal--my ideal. She said and did and +looked all the things I'd been missing in the others. I wanted to drop +everything and run after her." + +"How absolutely idyllic!" she murmured. "And then?" + +"Then I had to come down to earth with a dull, stunning swat, of course. +There were a lot of commonplace, material things waiting to be done, and +it was up to me to do them. Before I saw her, I used to think that +nothing could divide time with a man's work: that there wouldn't be any +time to divide. Afterward, I found out my mistake. Sleeping or waking, +every day and all day, she was there: and the work went on just the +same, or rather a whole lot better." + +The long drive was in its final third, and the wagon track, which had +transferred itself to the top of the level railroad grade, admitted +speed. By degrees the caravan became elongated, with the president still +in the lead, the man on horseback indifferently ahead or behind, and the +other two vehicles wide apart and well to the rear. Their isolation was +complete when she said: + +"Do you want me to say that I don't recognize any of the symptoms, Mr. +Ford?" + +"Do I--No! Yes!--that is, I--Heavens! that is a terrible way to put it! +Of course I hope--I hope you are in love--with the right person. If +you're not, I--" + +She was weeping silently; weeping because it would have been a sin to +laugh. + +"You--called it a comedy a little while--ago," she faltered. "In another +minute it will be a tragedy. Don't you think we are getting too far +behind the others?" + +He whipped up obediently, but the horses were in no hurry. At the +rounding of the next shouldering hill the railroad grade entered a high, +broad valley, the swelling hills on either side dotted with the dumps +and tunnel-openings of the Copah gold-diggers. Ford had not been through +the upper part of the district since the previous summer of +pathfindings, and at that time it was like a dozen other outlying and +hardly accessible fields, scantily manned and languishing under the dry +rot of isolation. But now-- + +He was looking curiously across at the opposing hillsides. Black dots, +dozens of them, were moving from ledge to ledge, pausing here and there +to ply pick and shovel. Now and then from some one of the dry arroyos +came the echoes of a surface shot; dynamite cartridges thrust into the +earth to clear away the drift to bed-rock. Ford called his companion's +attention to the activities. + +"See what it does to a mining country when a railroad comes within +shouting distance," he said. "The last time I was over here, this valley +was like a graveyard. Now you'd think the entire population of Copah +was up here prospecting for gold." + +"Is that what they are doing?" she asked. Then suddenly: "Where is your +mine?--the mine with my name?" + +He laughed. + +"I told you the simple truth. I don't know where it is; though I suppose +it is up this way somewhere. Yes, I remember, Grigsby said it was on Cow +Mountain." + +The hill on their side of the valley threw out a long, low spur and the +railroad-grade driving track swept in a long curve around the spur and +crossed over to the foot of a slope dotted with the digging manikins. + +"By Jove!" said Ford, still wondering. "There are twice as many +prospectors out here as there were inhabitants in Copah the last time I +was over. The camp ought to vote bonds and give the railroad company a +bonus." + +Farther along, the grade hugged the hillside, skirting the acclivity +where the shaft-houses of some of the older mines of the district were +perched on little hillocks formed by their own dumps, within easy +tramming distance of the railroad. Opposite and directly below the +nearest of these shaft-houses the two leading buckboards had stopped; +and the president was once more standing up and beckoning vigorously to +the laggards in the single-seated vehicle. + +Ford spoke to his horses and grimaced as one who swallows bitter herbs. + +"I wonder what I've been doing now--or leaving undone?" he queried. + +He was not kept long in suspense. When they drove up, the president was +still standing, balancing himself with a hand on the driver's seat in +front. His thin face was working nervously and the aggressive chin +whiskers moved up and down like an accusing finger. + +"Dear me!" said Alicia, under her breath; "Uncle Sidney is really angry, +this time! What could have hap--" She glanced up at the mine buildings +perched above the roadway and smothered a little cry. Ford's eyes +followed hers. All across the slab-built shaft-house and the lean-to ore +sheds was stretched a huge canvas sign. And in letters of bright blue, +freshly painted and two feet high, ran the boastful legend: + + THE LITTLE ALICIA MINE + + THE ONLY PAYING PRODUCES IN THE DISTRICT + + Stuart Ford & John Grigsby, Props. + +The white-haired old man standing in the leading buckboard was trembling +with righteous indignation. Pointing a shaking finger at the +incriminating sign, he broke out in a storm of accusation. + +"So, Mr. Ford! This is why you changed the route of the extension and +added twelve miles to its length!" he raved. "This explains why you +suddenly found the shorter route impracticable! Answer me sir: when did +you become interested in this mine?" + +There was a little stir of consternation among the listeners; and it did +not help matters that the man on horseback ambled up at the moment and +drew rein behind the doctor's vehicle. Ford's hands were gripping the +reins until the stiff leathers were crumpled into strings; but it was +Alicia's touch on his arm that enabled him to reply coldly: + +"It was something over two months ago, I believe. I can give you the +exact date when we reach Copah, though you will permit me to say that it +is none of your business." + +Mr. Colbrith exploded like a hastily fired bomb. + +"I propose to make it some of my business! Was it before or after your +purchase here that you decided upon the change of route? Answer me that, +Mr. Ford!" + +Ford wheeled his bronchos and closed the shouting gap. + +"Sit down, Mr. Colbrith," he said half-menacingly. "If it is your +purpose to humiliate me before your guests, I shall drive on and leave +you." + +"You don't answer my question; you can not answer it! You instructed +your assistant to change the line of this railroad _after_ you had +bought this mine!" + +[Illustration: "Answer me, sir! When did you become interested in this +mine?"] + +"And if I did?" + +"You did. And by so doing, Mr. Ford, you diverted the company's money to +your own personal ends as wrongfully as if you had put your hands into +the treasurer's strong-box. In other words, you became what you have +accused others of being--a common grafter!" + +Ford's face was very white, and his lips were drawn into thin lines when +he opened them to reply. But the restraining hand was on his arm again, +and he obeyed it. + +"I don't care to talk with you, about this matter or any other, here and +now. Later on, perhaps, when you can speak without being abusive, I +shall take the liberty of telling you what I think of you." And at that, +he gave his horses the rein and drove on, swiftly, abruptly, leaving the +president and his guests to follow as they would. + +For some minutes neither of the two in the flying buckboard could find +words wherewith to bridge the miserable chasm so suddenly opened between +them. Miss Alicia's eyes were tear-brightened and unfathomable; Ford's +were hard, and there was a steely light in them. It was Alicia who spoke +first. + +"I know it is not true, of course--what Uncle Sidney accused you of," +she offered. "But tell me how it happened?" + +"I don't know--unless the devil planned it," said Ford bitterly. "I +bought the mine one day last summer when I was in Copah, without +premeditation, without seeing it--without knowing where it was situated, +just as I have told you. Some little time afterward, Frisbie came to me +with the plan for the change of route. I had considered it before, but +had made no estimates. Frisbie had made the estimates, and we decided +upon it at once. I haven't been over here since: it wasn't necessary, +and I had other things to do." + +"Did Mr. Frisbie know about your purchase of the mine?" + +"No. I don't think he knows of it yet. To tell the truth, I was a little +ashamed: it was a touch of the mining fever that everybody gets now and +then in a mining country. Dick would have guyed me." + +"But Mr. Frisbie must have been over the line a great many times: how +could he miss seeing that enormous sign?" she persisted. + +Ford shook his head. + +"I venture to say that the paint isn't yet dry on that sign. It was put +there for a purpose, and your uncle was told to look for it. Grigsby is +just the sort of fool to jump at the chance to advertise the mine, and +somebody suggested it and gave him the tip that the president of the +railroad was coming in this way. Mr. North is a very careful man. He +doesn't neglect any of the little details." + +The high valley was falling away into a broken gulch, and the +railway-grade driving-path clung closer to the hillsides. At the next +turn the town of Copah came into view, and the road became a shelf on +the slope two hundred feet above the main street and paralleling it. +Alicia was looking down upon the town when she said: + +"What shall you do?" + +Ford's laugh was not mirthful. + +"I have already done it. I shall perhaps be permitted to see you all +safely back to the Nadia, and over the rough track to Saint's Rest. More +than that I fancy Mr. Colbrith will not allow--and possibly not that +much." + +Miss Adair was still looking down upon the town; and now Ford looked. +Instantly he saw that something unusual was going on. Notwithstanding +the number of men afield on the hills, the main street of the camp was +restlessly alive. Horsemen were galloping back and forth; in front of +the outfitting stores freighters were hastily loading their pack +animals; at every gathering place there were knots of excited men +talking and gesticulating. + +Ford was puzzled. At another time he would quickly have put the obvious +two and two together to make the equally obvious four. But now he merely +said: "That's curious; mighty curious. Where do you suppose all those +people came from?" + +Alicia's rejoinder was not an answer to the half-mechanical query. + +"Mr. Ford, a little while ago I told you I must have time to consider: +I--I have considered. You must fight for your life and your good name. +You must make Uncle Sidney see things as they are--that they are not as +he thinks they are." + +"I can't," he said stubbornly. "Your condition reverses your decision. +If I am to fight with any hope of winning, after what has transpired +to-day, Mr. Colbrith will have to be eliminated." + +He had pulled the broncos down to a walk. There was a soft thudding of +hoofs on the yielding earth of the grade behind, but neither of them +heard. + +"You are disappointing me," she protested, and now the hesitation was +all gone. "A few minutes ago, before this miserable thing happened, you +were telling me of your ideal ... a woman may have an ideal, too, Mr. +Ford." + +"Yes?" he said eagerly. + +"My ideal is the knight without fear and without reproach--and also +without limitations. He will never say, 'I can not.' He will say, 'I +will,' and not for my sake, but because his own sense of justice and +mercy and loving-kindness will go hand in hand with his ambition." + +"One word," he broke in passionately; and now the soft thudding of hoofs +had drawn so near that the presence of the overtaking horseman might +have been felt. "My little allegory didn't deceive you; you are the one +woman, Alicia, dear. I didn't mean to tell you yet, though I think you +have known it all along: I had an idea that I wanted to do something +worthy--something big enough to be worth while--before I spoke. But you +have given me leave; don't say you haven't given me leave!" + +"You have taken it," she said softly, adding: "And that is what a woman +likes, I think. But you mustn't spoil my ideal, Stuart--indeed, you +mustn't. You are young, strong, invincible, as my knight should be. But +when you strike you must also spare. You say there is no way save the +one you have indicated; you must find a way." + +He smiled ruefully. + +"You give the cup of water only to take it away again. I'd rather build +ten railroads than to attempt to smash North and his confederates +through your uncle. You see, I'm frightfully handicapped right at the +start--with this mine business hanging over me. But if you say it has to +be done, it shall be. I'll win Mr. Colbrith over, in spite of all that +has happened; and he shall fire North and the MacMorroghs first and +prosecute them afterward. I've said it." + +It was just here that the broncos shied--inward, toward the hill. Ford +gathered the slack reins, and Miss Adair looked up and gave a little +shriek. Noiselessly, and so close upon the buckboard that he might have +touched either of its occupants with his rawhide quirt, rode the +Mexican. When they discovered him he was leaning forward, his +half-closed eyes mere slits with pin-points of black fire to mark them, +and his repulsive face a stolid mask. Ford's hand went instinctively to +the whip: it was the only available weapon. But the Mexican merely +touched his flapping sombrero and rode on at the shuffling fox-trot. + +"That man, again!" shivered Alicia, when the portent of evil had passed +out of sight around the next curve in the grade. + +But Ford's concern was deeper than her passing thrill of repulsion. + +"Did you notice his horse's hoofs as he went by?" he asked soberly. + +"No," she said. + +"I did. He dismounted somewhere behind us and covered them with +sacking." + +"What for?" she asked, shivering again with the nameless dread. + +"You recall what I was saying when the broncos shied: his object was to +creep up behind us and listen. He has done it more than once since we +left the end-of-track, and this time--" + +"Yes?" + +"This time he heard what he wanted to hear." + +Beyond the curve which had hidden the Mexican, the wagon-road left the +grade, descending abruptly upon the town. Ford looked back from the turn +and saw that the other two vehicles were not yet in sight. + +"Shall we wait for your aunt and the others?" he asked. + +Her smile was a sufficient reward for the bit of tactful forethought. + +"I'm sure we have left the conventions far enough behind not to be +unduly terrified by them. I am not afraid to go in unchaperoned. +Besides, I heard Uncle Sidney telling Doctor Van Bruce that our rooms at +the hotel had been engaged for us." + +Ford drove carefully down the steep side street which was the approach +to the hotel. An excited throng blocked the sidewalk, and the lobby +seemed to be a miniature stock exchange. Single-eyed, Ford fought a +passage through the crowd with Alicia on his arm, heeding nothing until +he had seen her safely above stairs and in the sitting-room of the +president's reservation, with a cheerful fire in the big sheet-iron +stove for her comforting. Then he went down and elbowed his way through +the clamorous lobby to the clerk's desk. + +"Suppose you take a minute or two off and tell me what this town has +gone crazy about, Hildreth," he said, with a backward nod toward the +lobby pandemonium. + +"Why, Great Scott! Mr. Ford--have you got this far into it without +finding out?" was the astounded rejoinder. "It's a gold strike on Cow +Mountain--the biggest since Cripple Creek! We've doubled our population +since seven o'clock this morning; and by this time to-morrow.... Say, +Mr. Ford; for heaven's sake, get your railroad in here! We'll all go +hungry within another twenty-four hours--can't get supplies for love or +money!" + +Ford turned away and looked out upon the stock-selling pandemonium with +unseeing eyes. The chance--the heaven-sent hour that strikes only once +in a life-time for the builders of empire--had come: and he was only +waiting for the arrival of the president to find himself rudely thrust +aside from the helm of events. + + + + +XXIII + +THE DEADLOCK + + +"No, Mr. Ford; there is no explanation that will explain away the +incriminating fact. This is a matter which involves the good name of the +Pacific Southwestern company, through its officials, and I must insist +upon your resignation." + +The battle was on, with the two combatants facing each other in the +privacy of the president's room in the Copah hotel. Since Alicia had +made him exchange the sword of extermination for the olive branch, Ford +was fighting on the defensive, striving good-naturedly and persistently +to keep his official head on his shoulders. + +"I've admitted that it looks pretty bad, Mr. Colbrith; but you will +concede the one chance in a hundred that no wrong was intended. I merely +did, on the ground, what thousands of investors in mining chances do the +world over--bought an interest in a mine without knowing or caring +greatly into what particular mountain the mine tunnel was driven." + +Mr. Colbrith frowned. He was of that elder generation of masters which +looked with cold disapproval upon any side ventures on the part of the +subordinate. + +"The company has paid you liberally for your time and your undivided +attention, Mr. Ford. No man can serve two masters. Your appointment as +assistant to the president did not contemplate your engaging in other +business." + +Ford carefully suppressed the smile which the bit of industrial +martinetry provoked. + +"As to that," he said placably, "I can assure you that the gold-digging +has been purely an investment on my part." + +"But an investment which you should not have made," insisted the +president judicially. "If it had not tempted you to the breach of trust, +it was still inexpedient--most undeniably inexpedient. An official high +in the counsels of a great corporation should be like Caesar's +wife--above suspicion." + +This time Ford's smile could not be wholly repressed. "I grant you it +was foolhardy, in the economic point of view," he confessed. "I took a +long chance of going ten thousand dollars to the bad. But mine-buying is +a disease--as contagious as the measles. Everybody in a mining country +takes a flyer, at least once. The experienced ones will tell you that +nobody is immune. Take your own case, now: if you don't keep a pretty +tight hold on your check-book, Mr. Colbrith, Cow Mountain will--" + +The president frowned again; more portentously, this time. + +"This levity is most reprehensible, Mr. Ford," he said stiffly. "I trust +I know my duty as the head of a great railway company too well to be +carried away on every baseless wave of excitement that fires the +imagination of the mining-camp I chance to be visiting." Mr. Colbrith +was not above mixing metaphor when the provocation was sufficiently +great. + +"Baseless?" echoed Ford. "Surely you don't doubt ... Why, Mr. Colbrith, +this strike is the biggest thing that has happened in the mining world +since the discovery of the wedge-veins in Cripple Creek!" + +The president shrugged his thin shoulders as one whose mission in life +is to be sturdily conservative after all the remainder of mankind has +struck hands with frenzied optimism. + +"Nonsense!" he rasped contemptuously. "What happens? Two men come to +town with certain rich specimens which they claim to have taken out of +their prospect hole on Cow Mountain. That was at seven o'clock last +night, less than twenty-four hours ago, and some two or three thousand +lunatics have already rushed here in the belief--founded upon a mere +boast, it may be--that a great gold reef underlies Cow Mountain. By this +time to-morrow--" + +Ford took him up promptly. "Yes; and by this time to-morrow the Denver +Mining Exchange will be howling itself hoarse over Copah mining shares, +like those curb-stone fellows down-stairs; the hunt will be up, and +every feeder the Pacific Southwestern system has will be sending its +quota of gold-seekers to the new field. That isn't what you were going +to say, I know; but it is what is going to happen. Mr. Colbrith, it's +the chance of a century for the Pacific Southwestern company, and you +are deliberately trying to fire the one man who can make the most of +it." + +The president's lack of sense of humor made it hard for him at times. He +was sitting very erect in the straight-backed hotel chair when he said: +"Mr. Ford, there are occasions when your conceit is insufferable. Do you +imagine for a moment that you are the only engineer in the United States +who can build railroads, Sir?" + +"Oh, no." + +"Then perhaps you will be good enough to explain your meaning?" + +"It was a poor attempt at a jest," said the young man, rather lamely. +"Yet it had the truth behind it, in a way. I predict that this is the +beginning of one of the biggest mining rushes the world ever saw. We are +within one hundred and forty miles of Copah with a practicable railroad; +we are within twelve miles with a track which must be made practicable +while the band plays. If you discharge your entire engineering corps at +this crisis--" + +"I beg your pardon," interrupted the president crustily. "I have not +asked your force to resign." + +"Not meaning to, perhaps," countered the young man, maliciously +rejoicing in the hope that he had found one vulnerable link in the +president's coat of mail. "But if I go, the entire department will go. +Every man in it is my friend, as well as my subordinate; and they know +very well that if they shouldn't go, your new chief would fire them and +put in his own men." + +"Ha!" said the president, straightening up again. "Am I to understand +that you are threatening me, Mr. Ford." + +"No, indeed; I am only stating a fact. But it is a pretty serious fact. +Let us suppose, for the sake of the argument, that my prediction comes +true; that within thirty-six or forty-eight hours Saint's Rest is packed +with people trying to get to Copah. Your new chief, if you shall have +found him, will hardly be in the saddle. When he comes he will have to +reorganize the department, break in new men, learn by hard knocks what I +have been learning in detail--" + +Mr. Colbrith thrust out a thin lip of obstinate determination. + +"And if he does, your hypothetical rush will simply have to wait, Mr. +Ford. We have the key to the Copah door." + +"Don't you fool yourself!" snapped Ford, forgetting his role of the +humble one for the moment. "The Transcontinental is only forty miles +away at Jack's Canyon, with a pretty decent stage road. Long before you +can get the extension in shape to carry passengers, or even freight, the +other line will be known from Maine to California as the keyholder to +this district!" + +That shot told. The president was not yet convinced that the Copah boom +was real; but there was the chance that it might be--always the chance. +And to the over-cautious the taking of chances, however remote, is like +the handling of a snake: a thing to inspire creeping horrors. + +"If you could convince me, Mr. Ford, that your interest in that mine did +not influence you in changing the route of the extension," he began; but +Ford took him up sharply. "I can't; and I can say no more than I have +said." + +Mr. Colbrith got up and went to the window to look down upon the excited +throng in the street. It did look real. + +"Perhaps we might leave matters as they are, pending a future +investigation, Mr. Ford," he said, turning back to his victim, who was +methodically clipping the end from a cigar. + +"No," was the brittle rejoinder. + +Again the president took time to look down into the crowded street. His +next attack was from the rear. + +"But I have understood that you do not wish to resign. Let us be +magnanimous, Mr. Ford, and agree to hang this matter up until this +supposed crisis is past." + +"No," was the curt reply. "I have changed my mind. I don't think I want +to work for you any longer, Mr. Colbrith." + +"Not if I withdrew my--ah--objections?" + +"No." + +Silence again. The packed lobby of the hotel had overflowed upon the +plank sidewalk, and the din of the buyers and sellers rose like the +noise of a frantic street fight. Ford's half jesting remark about the +possibility of the microbe finding its way into the blood of the +president was not so pointless as the old man's retort sought to make it +appear. It was the wheat pit which had given Mr. Colbrith his first +half-million; and as he listened to the hoarse cries, the thing which he +hoped was safely caution-killed began to stir within him. Suddenly he +picked a word of two out of the sidewalk clamor that made him turn +swiftly upon the silent young man. + +"They are selling 'Little Alicia'--your stock--down there!" he gasped. +"Have you--have you--" + +"No; I haven't put mine on the market. It's some of my partner's, +Grigsby's, stock. I suppose he couldn't stand the push." + +Once more the president listened. Only an ex-wrestler in the wheat pit +could have picked intelligence out of the Babel of puts and calls. + +"It's up to a hundred and fifty!" he exploded. "What did you pay for +your shares, Mr. Ford?" + +"Twenty," said Ford coolly. + +"Good Heavens! I--I hope you hold a safe majority?" + +"No; we broke even, Grigsby and I. I have fifty per cent." + +The president groaned. + +"I--I'll excuse you, Mr. Ford. Get down there at once and buy that other +necessary share!" + +Ford shook his head with predetermined gloom. "No, Mr. Colbrith, I'm not +buying any more mining stock. What I did buy seems to have cost me my +job." + +"But, my dear young man! This is a crisis. You are likely to lose +control of your property! Or, at least, it is soaring to a point at +which you will never be able to secure the control." + +Ford came up smiling. "You forget that this is mere mad excitement, Mr. +Colbrith," he said, handing back the President's own phrase. "To-morrow, +I dare say, I shall be able to buy at twenty again." + +The president came away from the window and sat down. His face was +twitching and the thin white hands were tremulous. + +"There may be more in this gold discovery than I have been willing to +admit," he said abstractedly, "and in that case ... Mr. Ford, upon what +terms will you consent to go on and whip this line of ours into shape?" + +Ford came out of the fog of discouragement with a bound. + +"A complete change in the management of the Pacific Southwestern, Mr. +Colbrith. North and his grafters must go." + +The President did not fly into wrathful shards, as Ford fully expected. +On the contrary, he was fingering the white goat's-beard with one +nervous hand, and apparently listening half-absently to the clamor in +the street. + +"Don't be unreasonable, Mr. Ford," he said quite mildly. "You know we +can't consider anything like that at the present moment." + +"It must be considered," Ford persisted. "Ever since I quit being a +division superintendent, North has obstructed, lied about me, fought me. +The time has come when, if I stay, I must have a free hand. I can't have +it while he is out of jail." + +"That is strong language to apply to our first vice-president, Mr. Ford. +And I can only believe that you are prejudiced--unduly prejudiced. But +all this may be taken up later. As you suggest, we may be losing very +precious time." + +Ford got to his feet. + +"Promise me that you will give the Denver management as thorough an +investigation as you have given me, Mr. Colbrith; do that, and give me +absolute authority over the MacMorroghs and their men for one week; and +before the week's end we'll be hauling passengers and freight into Copah +over our own rails." + +For a moment the president seemed to be on the point of yielding. Then +his habitual caution thrust out its foot and tripped him. + +"I can't be pushed, Mr. Ford," he complained, with a return of the +irritated tone. "Let the matter rest for the present. And--and you may +consider yourself relieved from duty until I have gone a little deeper +into these charges against you. Mr. North accuses you, and you accuse +Mr. North. I must have time to approach those matters deliberately. I +don't know which of you to trust." + +It was a deadlock. Ford bowed and laid his hand on the door. + +"You are still the president of the Pacific Southwestern, Mr. Colbrith, +and while you remain president--" + +The old man's pride of office took fire like tow in a furnace. + +"What do you mean by that, Mr. Ford? Make yourself clear, sir!" he +quavered. + +"I mean just this: if your niece, Miss Alicia Adair, hadn't been good +enough to say that she will be my wife, I'd carry this thing up to the +board of directors and do my level best to have you put where you could +do the least harm." + +"You? Alicia?" the old man shrilled. And then, in an access of senile +rage that shook him like a leaf in the wind: "I said you were +suspended--you are discharged, sir--here and now! If you give another +order as an official of the Pacific Southwestern company, I'll--I'll put +you through the courts for it!" + +Ford opened the door and went out, leaving the president clutching his +chair with one hand and balling the other into a shaking fist. The die +was cast, and he had thrown a blank at the very moment when the game +seemed to be turning his way. What would Alicia say? + +As if the unspoken query had evoked her, the door of her room opened +silently and she stood before him in the corridor. + +"Tell me," she commanded. + +"We have fought it out, and I've had my beating," he said soberly. "When +I thought I had him fairly down,--he was actually begging me to stay on +with the company,--we got tangled up again over North, and he fired me +bodily." + +"Did you--did you tell him about our--" + +"Yes; and that was what set off the final fireworks." + +She put her hands on his shoulders and made him face her squarely. + +"Stuart, did you lose your temper?" + +"I--I'm afraid I did--just at the last, you know. It's simply an +unspeakable state of affairs, Alicia, dear! At a moment when we should +be setting the whole world afire in a superhuman effort to flog this +piece of construction track into shape, your uncle paralyzes +everything!" + +The constraining touch of her hands became almost a caress. "What shall +you do, Stuart? Is there nothing to be done?" + +He took his resolution on the spur of the moment. + +"Yes, thank heaven! Your uncle has got to find a printing press, or at +least a telegraph wire, before he can make my discharge effective. +Before he can do that, or until he does it, I'm going to pull the +throttle wide open and race that discharge circular, if I go to jail for +it, afterward! Who knows but I shall have time to save the day for the +company after all? Good-by, dearest. In twenty minutes I shall be riding +for the MacMorroghs' camp, and when I get there--" + +"You are going to ride back?--alone? Oh, no, no!" she protested; and the +clinging arms held him. + +"Why, Alicia, girl--see here: what do you imagine could happen to me? +Why, bless your loving heart, I've been tramping and riding this desert +more or less for two years! What has come over you?" + +"I don't know; but--but--oh, me! you will think I am miserably weak and +foolish: but just as you said that, I seemed to see you lying in the +road with your horse standing over you--and you were--dead!" + +"Nonsense!" he comforted. "I'll be back here to-morrow, alive and well; +but I mustn't lose a minute now. It's up to me to reach Horse Creek +before the news of the gold strike gets there. There'll be a stampede, +with every laborer on the line hoofing it for Copah. Good-by, +sweetheart, and--may I?" He took her face between his hands and did it +anyhow. + +Five minutes later he was bargaining for a saddle horse at the one +livery stable in the camp, offering and paying the selling price of the +animal for the two days' hire. It was a rather sorry mount at that, and +when he was dragging it out into the street, Jack Benson, the youngest +member of his staff, rode up, that moment in from the tie-camp above Cow +Mountain. + +"Don't dismount, Jack," he ordered curtly. "You're just in time to save +me eight or ten miles, when the inches are worth dollars. Ride for the +end-of-track and Frisbie on a dead run. Tell Dick to hold his men, if he +has to do it at the muzzle of a gun, and to come on with the track, +night and day. He'll have to raise the pay, and keep on raising it--but +that's all right. It's an order. Rush it!" + +Benson nodded, set his horse at the path leading up to the railroad +grade, and spurred up the hill. Ford gave a final tug at his saddle +cinches, put up a leg and began to pick his way down the thronged +street in the opposite direction. + +Thirty seconds afterward a man wearing the laced trousers and broad +bullion-corded sombrero of a Mexican dandy came out of his hiding-place +behind the door of the livery stable office, thoughtfully twirling the +cylinder of a drawn revolver. + +"I take-a da mustang," he said to the boy who had held Ford's horse +during the short interview with Benson. And when the bronco was brought +out, the Mexican, like Ford, looked to the cinches, mounted, and rode +down the street leading to the lower mesa and the river. + + + + +XXIV + +RUIZ GREGORIO + + +He rode easily, as one born to the saddle, the leathers creaking +musically under him to keep time to the shuffling fox-trot of the wiry +little range pony. Once free of the mining-camp and out upon the mesa, +he found a corn-husk wrapper and his bag of dry tobacco and deftly +rolled a cigarette, doing it with one hand, cow-boy fashion. When the +cigarette was lighted, the horseman ahead was a mere khaki-colored dot, +rising and falling in the mellowing distance. + +With the eye of a plainsman he measured the trail's length to the broken +hill range where the Pannikin emerges from its final wrestle with the +gorges. Then he glanced up at the dull crimson spot in the murky sky +that marked the sun's altitude. There was time sufficient--and the trail +was long enough. He did not push his horse out of the shuffling trot. At +the portal hills the horseman now disappearing over the rim of the high +mesa would slacken speed. In the canyon itself a dog could not go faster +than a walk. + +On the lower mesa the Mexican picked up the galloping dot again, +holding it in view until it halted on the river bank a hundred yards +below the entrance to the canyon. Since the water was low in the ford, +the river bank hid the crossing, and the Mexican drew rein and waited +for the dot to reappear on the opposite shore. + +A slow minute was lost; then a second and a third. The man in the corded +sombrero and laced buckskins touched his horse's flank with a spur and +crept forward at a walk, keeping his eyes fixed upon the point where the +quarry ought to come in sight again. When three more minutes passed and +the farther shore was still a deserted blank, the Mexican dug both +rowels into his mustang and galloped down to the river, muttering curses +in the _patois_ of his native Sonora. + +Apparently the closing in had been delayed too long. There were fresh +hoof-prints in the marl of the hither approach to the shallow ford, but +none to match them on the farther side. The Mexican crossed hastily and +searched for the outcoming hoof-marks. The rocky bar which formed the +northern bank of the stream told him nothing. + +Now it is only in the imagination of the word-smith that the villain in +the play is gifted with supernatural powers of discernment. Ruiz +Gregorio Maria y Alvarez Mattacheco, familiarly and less cumbrously +known as "Mexican George," was a mere murderer, with a quick eye for +gun-sights and a ready and itching trigger finger. But he was no Vidoeq, +to know by instinct which of the two trails, the canyon passage or the +longer route over the hills, Ford had chosen. + +Having two guesses he made the wrong one first, urging his mustang +toward the canyon trail. A stumbling half-mile up the narrow cleft of +the river's path revealing nothing, he began to reconsider. Drawing a +second blank of the same dimensions, he turned back to the ford and +tried the hill trail. At the end of the first hundred yards on the new +scent he came again upon the fresh hoof-prints, and took off the +brow-cramping hat to swear the easier. + +Two courses were now open to him; to press hard upon the roundabout hill +trail in the hope of overtaking the engineer before he could reach the +Horse Creek camp, or to pass by the shorter route to the upper ford to +head him off at the river crossing. The Mexican gave another glance at +the dull red spot in the western sky and played for safety. The +waylaying alternative commended itself on several counts. The canyon +trail was the shorter and it could be traversed leisurely and in +daylight. Pressing his livery hack as he could, Ford would scarcely +reach the crossing at the mouth of Horse Creek before dusk. Moreover, it +would be easier to wait and to smoke than to chase the quarry over the +hills, wearing one's pinto to the bone. + +Ruiz Gregorio Maria set his horse once more at the task of picking a +path among the canyon boulders, riding loosely in the saddle, first in +one stirrup and then in the other, and smoking an unbroken succession of +the corn-husk cigarettes. + +One small cloud flecked the sky of satisfaction. His instructions had +been explicit. If Ford should resign, quit, wash his hands of the +Pacific Southwestern, he might be suffered to escape. If not--there was +only one condition attached to the alternative: what was done must be +done neatly, with despatch, and at a sufficient distance from any of the +MacMorrogh camps to avert even the shadow of suspicion. + +Now the upper crossing of waylayings was within a stone's throw of the +end-of-track yards; nay, within an amateur's pistol-shot of the +commissary buildings. But Ruiz Gregorio, weighing all the possibilities, +found them elastic enough to serve the purpose. A well-calculated shot +from behind a sheltering boulder, the heaving of the body into the swift +torrent of the Pannikin, and the thing was done. What damning evidence +might afterward come to the light of day, if, indeed, it should ever +come to light, would be fished out of the stream far enough from any of +the MacMorrogh camps. + +Thus Ruiz Gregorio Maria y Alvarez, lolling lazily in his saddle while +the hard-breathing mustang picked a toilsome path among the strewn +boulders and through the sliding shale beds. He went even further: an +alibi might not be needful, but it would be easy to provide one. Young +Jack Benson, if no other, would know that Ford had taken one of the +shorter trails from Copah to the camp at Horse Creek. _Bueno!_ He, Ruiz +Gregorio, could slip across the river in the dusk when the thing was +done, skirt the headquarters camp unseen, and present himself a little +later at Senor Frisbie's camp of the track-layers, coming, as it were, +direct from Copah, almost upon the heels of Senor Benson. After that, +who could connect him with the dead body of a man fished out of a river +twenty, fifty, a hundred miles away? + +There was a weak link in the chain. Ruiz Gregorio's child-like plot +turned upon one pivot of hazard--hazard most likely to be ignored by so +good a marksman as the "man-killer." One shot he might permit himself, +with little danger of drawing a crowd from the mess tent and the +sleeping shanties in the Horse Creek camp. Two would bring the men to +their doors. Any greater number would be taken as the signal of a free +fight needing spectators. Hence the first shot must suffice. + +The Mexican bore this in mind when, arriving at his post opposite the +camp in the early dusk, he chose his ambushing boulder so near the +descending hill trail that a stout club might have been substituted for +the pistol. The weather promise was for a starless night, but the +electric arc-lights were already scintillating at their mastheads in +the headquarters railroad yard across the Pannikin. Later, when the +daylight was quite gone and the electrics were hollowing out a bowl of +stark whiteness in the night, Ruiz Gregorio wished he had chosen +otherwise. The camp lights shone full upon him and on the mustang +standing with drooped head at his elbow, and the trail on the other side +of the boulder was in shadow. + +He was about to take the risk of moving farther up the hill-path to a +less exposed lurking place, was hesitating only because his indolent +soul rebelled at the thought of having to drag Ford's body so many added +steps to its burial in the river, when the clink of shod hoofs upon +stone warned him that the time for scene-shifting had passed. Pushing +the mustang out of the line of sight from the trail, he flattened +himself against the great rock and waited. + +Ford rode down the last declivity cautiously, for his horse's sake. The +trail came out of the hills abruptly, dropping into the rock-strewn +river valley within hailing distance of the camp. Well within the sweep +of the masthead lights across the stream, the boulder-strewn flat was as +light as day, save where the sentinel rocks flung their shadows; and +promptly at the first facing of the bright electrics, Ford's horse +stumbled aside from the path and began to take short cuts between the +thick-standing boulders for the river. This was how the Mexican, +instead of having his victim at a complete disadvantage, found himself +suddenly uncovered by the flank, exposed, recognized, and hailed in no +uncertain tones. + +"Hello, Mattacheco! what are you doing here?" Ford had a flash-light +picture of the horse standing with his muzzle to the ground; of the man +flattened against the rock. Then he saw the dull gleam of the lights +upon blued metal. "You devil!" he shouted; and unarmed as he was, +spurred his tired beast at the assassin. + +Here, then, was the weak link in Ruiz Gregorio's chain twisted to the +breaking point at the very outset. Instead of taking a deliberate +pot-shot at an unsuspecting victim, he was obliged to face about, to +fire hastily at a charging enemy, and to spring nimbly aside to save +himself from being ridden down. The saving jump was an awkward one: it +brought him into breath-taking collision with the upjerking head of the +mustang. When he had recovered his feet and his presence of mind, the +charging whirlwind had dashed through the shallows of the Pannikin, and +a riderless horse was clattering across the tracks in the railroad yard. + +The Mexican waited prudently to see what the camp would say to the +single shot. It said nothing; it might have been deserted for all the +indications there were of life in it. Ruiz Gregorio snapped the empty +shell from his weapon, replacing it with a loaded one, and mounted and +rode slowly through the ford. The riderless horse disappearing across +the tracks gave him good hope that the hasty shot had accomplished all +that a deliberate one might have. + +There was no dead man tumbled in a heap in the railroad yard, as he had +hoped to find. Silence, the silence of desertion, brooded over the +masthead arcs. Painfully the Mexican searched, at the verge of the +river, in the black shadows cast by the crowding material cars. Finally +he crossed over to the straggling street of the camp, walking now and +leading the spent mustang. Silence here, too, broken only by the +sputtering sizzle of the electrics. The huge mess tent was dark; there +were no lights, save in the closed commissary and in the president's +car: no lights, and not a man of the camp's crowding labor army to be +seen. + +At a less strenuous moment the man-killer would have been puzzled by the +unusual stillness and the air of desertion. As it was, he was alertly +probing the far-flung shadows. The engineer, if only wounded, would +doubtless try to hide in the shadows in the railroad yard. + +The Mexican left his horse in the camp street and made an instant search +between and under the material cars, coming out now and again to stare +suspiciously at the president's private car, standing alone on the +siding directly opposite the commissary. The Nadia was occupied. It was +lighted within, and the window shades were drawn down. Ruiz Gregorio +could never get far from the lighted car without being irresistibly +drawn back to it, and finally he darted back in time to see a man rise +up out of the shadow of the nearest box-car, spring to the platform of +the Nadia and kick lustily at the locked door. The door was opened +immediately by some one within, and the fugitive plunged to cover--but +not before the Mexican's revolver had barked five times with the rapid +staccato of a machine gun. + +When Ruiz Gregorio, dropping the smoking weapon into its holster, would +have mounted to put into instant action the plan of the well-considered +alibi, a barrel-bodied figure launched itself from the commissary porch, +and a vigorous hand dragged horse and man into the shadow of the +stables. + +"Off wid you now, you blunderin' dago divvle!" gritted the MacMorrogh +savagely. "It's all av our necks ye've put into a rope, this time, damn +you!" + +The Mexican had dismounted and was calmly reloading his pistol. + +"You t'ink-a he's not-a sufficiently kill? I go over to da car and +bring-a you da proof, _si_?" + +"You'll come wid me," raved the big contractor. "'Tis out av your clumsy +hands, now, ye black-hearted blunderin' cross betune a Digger Indian and +a Mexican naygur! Come on, I say!" + +The back room of the commissary to which the MacMorrogh led the way +held three men; Eckstein, and the two younger members of the contracting +firm. They had heard the fusillade in the camp street and were waiting +for news. Brian MacMorrogh gave it, garnished with many oaths. + +"The pin-brained omadhaun av a Mexican has twishted a rope for all av +us! He's let Ford come back, alive; let him get to the very dure av the +prisident's car! Then, begorra! he must mades show himself under the +electhrics and open fire on the man who was kicking at the dure and +looking sthraight at him!" + +Eckstein asked a single question. + +"Did he get him? If he's dead he can't very well tell who shot him." + +"That's the hell av it!" raged the big man. "Who's to know?" + +Eckstein spat out the extinct cigar stump he was chewing. + +"We are to know--beyond a question of doubt, this time. Who is in the +Nadia, besides Ford?" + +"The two naygurs." + +"No one else?" + +MacMorrogh shook his head. "No wan." + +"You are sure Mr. Adair and Brissac are out of the way?" + +"They got Gallagher to push them up to Frisbie's track camp in Misther +North's car an hour before dark." + +"None of your men are likely to drift in from the other way up the +line?" + +"Not unless somebody carries the news av the gold sthrike--and there's +nobody going that way to carry it. The camp's empty but for us." + +Eckstein rose and buttoned his coat. + +"You have held your own strikers--the men you can depend upon: how many +do we count, all told?" + +"Thirteen, counting the five av us here, and the felly that runs the +electhric light plant." + +"H'm; it's a hell of a risk: thirteen men knowing what only one should +know--and what that one should hurry to forget. But your butter-fingered +Mexican has left us no choice. Ford knows enough now to send some of us +over the road for life. If he got into that car alive, he must never +come out of it alive." + +Brian MacMorrogh had unlocked a cupboard in the corner of the room. It +was a well-filled gun-rack, and he was passing the Winchesters out to +his brothers. + +"'Tis so," he said briefly. Then: "There's the two naygurs in the car: +what av thim, Misther Eckstein?" + +Eckstein took one of the guns and emptied the magazine to make sure of +the loading. + +"We are thirteen to one; the negroes don't count," he replied coldly. +"Call in your men and we'll go and do what's got to be done." + + + + +XXV + +THE SIEGE OF THE NADIA + + +With a horse that could have been handled Ford would not have run away +when the charge upon the Mexican failed of its purpose. So far from it, +he tried to wheel and charge again while the man was reeling from his +collision with the rearing mustang. + +But the bronco from the Copah stable, with the flash and crash of the +pistol-shot to madden it, took the bit between its teeth and +bolted--safely through the shallows of the stream crossing and up to the +level of the railroad yard beyond, but swerving aside at the first of +the car shadows to fling its rider out of the saddle. Ford gathered +himself quickly and rolled under a car. His right arm had no feeling in +it, whether from the shot or the fall he could not determine. + +The numbness had become a prickling agony when he heard the Mexican +splashing through the river to begin his search. Ford's field of vision +was limited by the car trucks, but he kept the man in sight as he could. +It filled him with sudden and fiery rage to be hunted thus like a +defenseless animal, and more than once he was tempted to make a dash for +the engineers' quarters on the hillside above the commissary--a rifle +being the thing for which he hungered and thirsted. + +But to show himself under the lights was to invite the fate he had so +narrowly escaped. He knew Mattacheco's skill as a marksman: the Mexican +would not be rattled twice in the same half-hour. Ford gripped the +benumbed arm in impotent writhings. + +"Now, by recognizing him, I've fixed it so that he is obliged to kill +me," he muttered. "It's my life, or his neck for a halter, and he knows +it. The blood-thirsty devil! If I could only get to Brissac's +bunk-shanty and lay my hands on a gun ..." + +There seemed to be no chance of doing that most desirable thing. The +Mexican was now afoot and coursing the railroad yard like a baffled +hound. Ford saw that it was only a question of minutes until his +impromptu hiding-place would be discovered, and he began to look for +another. The Nadia was but a short distance away, and the lighted deck +transoms beckoned him. + +It was instinct rather than intention that made him duck and plunge +headlong through the suddenly opened door of the private car at the +glimpse of his pursuer standing beside his horse in the open camp +street. This was why the pistol barked harmlessly. Springing to his +feet, and leaving the frightened negro who had admitted him trying to +barricade the door with cushions from the smoking-room seats, Ford burst +into the lighted central compartment. + +It was not empty, as he had expected to find it. Two men, startled by +the shots and the crash of breaking glass, were prepared to grapple him. +It was Brissac, the invalided assistant, who cried, "Hold on, Mr. +Adair--it's Ford, and he's hurt!" + +Ford met the involuntary rush, gathered the two in his uncrippled arm +and dragged them to the floor. + +"That's in case my assassin takes a notion to turn loose on the +windows," he panted. Then he gasped out his story while Brissac got the +aching right arm out of its sleeve and looked for the injury. + +Adair listened to the story of the attempted murder awe-struck, as one +from the civilized East had a right to be. + +"By Jove!" he commented; "I thought I had bumped into all the different +varieties of deviltry since I left Denver yesterday morning, but this +tops 'em. Actually tried to kill you in cold blood? But what for, +Stuart?--for heaven's sake, what for?" + +"Because he was hired to: because his masters, the MacMorroghs, and +their master, North, have staked their roll on this last turn of the +cards. I know too much, Adair. The president was sent over here to get +rid of me. That failing, word was passed down the line that I was to be +effaced. A few hours ago this Mexican overheard me telling your sister +what I proposed to do to North and the MacMorroghs. That's why he--Ouch! +Roy; that is my arm you're trying to twist out of joint, man!" + +"It's all right," laughed the Louisianian; "it is only a crazy-bone bump +that you got when the bronc' threw you. Say, Ford; I thought you claimed +to know how to ride a horse!" + +Adair was feeling in his pockets for the inevitable cigarette case. + +"What he overheard you telling Alicia?" he mused. "I'm evidently two or +three chapters behind. But no matter; this is the now; the very +immediate now. Will your assassin keep on feeling for you?" + +Ford shook his head. "Not any more just at present, I guess. He has +waited too long. That fusillade of his will have turned the entire camp +out by this time, and the Macs don't want any inconvenient witnesses." + +"Witnesses?" echoed Adair. "Then you don't know--Say, Stuart; there +isn't a white man in this camp besides us three--unless you count the +MacMorroghs and their commissary garrison as white men. News of the +great gold strike got here about three o'clock, and every laborer within +hearing of it shouldered pick and shovel and lined out up the new track +for Copah." + +"What!" shouted Ford. "And these dash-_dashed_ MacMorroghs didn't try +to hold them?" + +"I don't know about that. I had Mr. Brissac, here, over in the '01'--I +came across the mountain in North's car, you know--dosing him with +things out of Doctor Van Bruce's traveling case, and trying to get him +in shape to show me the way to Copah. After the stampede, which took all +the four-legged horses as well as the two-legged asses, I persuaded your +man Gallagher to hitch his engine to our car to drag us up to Frisbie's +camp at the front. I thought Frisbie would probably be in communication +with you. Gallagher's intentions were good, but about three miles up +Horse Creek he ditched the car so thoroughly that we couldn't inhabit +it; so we got out and walked back." + +"All of which brings on more talk," said Ford gravely. "From what you +say, I gather that the MacMorroghs are still here. Did any one see you +come back?" + +"I don't know. It was after dark when we straggled in, and we didn't +ring any bells or blow any whistles." + +Ford stood up. + +"Does either one of you happen to have anything bigger than a +pocket-knife in the way of a weapon?" he asked. + +"Why? what are you going to do?" Adair demanded. + +"I am going to separate you two from my highly dangerous presence," said +Ford definitely. "The MacMorroghs' outfit of a dozen or fifteen +cutthroat scoundrels, captained, for the moment, by Eckstein, North's +right-hand man, are doubtless just across the way in the back room of +the commissary. You say the camp is otherwise deserted: the MacMorroghs +don't know that you are here; and they do know that I am, dead or alive. +Moreover, Mattacheco has doubtless told them by this time that I saw and +recognized him. Wherefore, it's up to them to see that I never get a +chance to go before a grand jury." + +"You sit down on the floor," said Adair. He had found a cigarette and +was crimping the end of it. "Have you a fraction of an idea that we are +going to allow you to make a Jonah of yourself for us? Sit down, I say! +Who's got a gun?" + +Brissac had crept to a window and was reconnoitering the deserted camp +street and the commissary through a peephole in the drawn shade. As +Adair spoke, he sprang back, tripped Ford and fell with him, crying: + +"Down! both of you!" + +At the cry there was a shot from without, and a window on the exposed +side of the Nadia fell in shivers. There were yells of terror from the +cook's pantry, and the two negroes came crawling through the side +vestibule, their eyes like saucers and their teeth chattering. Ford +jumped up and turned off the Pintsch lights; and he was barely down +again when another shot broke a second window. + +"Wouldn't that jolt you?" said Adair. "They are feeling for you with +both hands. What a heaven's pity it is that we haven't so much as a +potato popgun among us to talk back with. What did you see, Mr. +Brissac?" + +"A crowd of them bunched on the commissary porch. One of them was +sighting a Winchester at the car when I got busy." + +Adair was again lamenting the lack of arms when the negro porter +produced a pocket bulldog pistol of the cheap and uncertain sort. +"Y-y-y-yah you is, Mistuh Charles," he stuttered. + +"Ah, Williams--concealed weapons? That is fifty dollars fine in your +native Tennessee, isn't it?" Then to Brissac: "Please go to the farther +window and mark down for me, Mr. Brissac. I don't like to have those +fellows do all the bluffing." + +While the assistant was complying, a third bullet from the commissary +porch tore high through the car, smashing one of the gas globes. Adair +crawled to a broken window and the cheap revolver roared like an +overloaded musket. + +"Good shot!" said Brissac, from his marking post. "You got one of them: +he's down and they're dragging him inside. Now they have all ducked to +cover." + +"That settles any notion of a palaver and the pipe of peace, I guess," +said Adair, as indifferently as if he had just brought down a clay +pigeon. "Prophesy, Stuart: what comes next?" + +Ford shook his head. + +"They can't quit now till they are sure I am permanently obliterated; +they have gone too far. They'll credit me with that shot of yours, and +they will take it as a pretty emphatic proof that I still live. Hence, +more war." + +"Well, what do we do? You are the captain." + +"Picket the car and keep a sharp lookout for the next move. Brissac, you +take the forward end, and I'll take the rear platform. Adair, post your +Africans in here where they'll do the most good, and see that they don't +go to sleep on their jobs." + +The disposition of forces was quickly made, after which suspense set in. +Silence and the solitude of the deserted camp reigned unbroken; yet the +watchers knew that the shadows held determined enemies, alertly +besieging the private car. To prove it, Adair pulled down a portiere, +gave it bulk with a stuffing of berth pillows, and dropped the bundle +from one of the shattered windows. Three jets of fire belched from the +nearest shadow, and the dummy was riddled. Adair fired at one of the +flashes, resting the short-barreled pistol across the window ledge, and +the retaliatory shot brought Ford hurrying in from his post. + +"For heaven's sake, don't waste your ammunition!" he whispered. "One of +them has gone up to the powder-house after dynamite. I heard the +creaking of the iron door." + +Adair whistled softly. "Dynamite! That will bring things to a focus +beautifully, won't it? When they have blown us up, I wonder how they +will account to Uncle Sidney for the loss of his car?" + +Brissac had come running in at the sound of the firing. He missed the +grim humor in Adair's query. + +"Car, nothing!" he retorted. "Better say the entire camp and everything +in it! There's a whole box-car load of dynamite and caps out here in the +yard--sub-contractors' supplies waiting for the freighters' teams from +the west end. If they smash us, the chances are ten to one that there'll +be a sympathetic explosion out yonder in the yard somewhere that will +leave nothing but a hole in the ground!" + +"No," said Ford. "I gave orders myself to have that car set down below +the junction when the Nadia came in." + +"So you did; and so it was," Brissac cut in. "But afterward it got mixed +in the shifting, and it's back in the yard--I don't know just where." + +Adair turned to the cowering porter. + +"Have you any more cartridges for this cannon of yours, Williams?" he +asked. + +"N-n-no, sah." + +"Then we have three more chances in the hat. Much obliged for the +dynamite hint, Stuart. I'll herd these three cartridges pretty +carefully. Back to your sentry-boxes, you two, and make a noise if you +need the artillery." + +Another interval of suspense followed, thickly scored with pricklings of +anxiety for the besieged. Then an attempt was made from the rear. Ford +saw a dodging shadow working its way from car to car in the yard and +signaled softly to Adair. + +"Hold low on him," he cautioned, when the New Yorker was at his elbow, +"those cheap guns jump like a scared cow-pony." Then he added: "And pray +God you don't hit what he's carrying." + +Adair held low and bided his time. There was another musket-like roar, +and an instant though harmless reply from two rifles on the other side +of the Nadia. But the dodging shadow was no longer advancing. + +"I've stopped him for the time being, anyhow," said Adair, exulting like +a boy. "If we only had a decent weapon we could get them all, one at a +time." + +"This was crude," Ford commented. "Eckstein will think up something +better for the next attempt." + +It was a prophecy which found its fulfilment after another sweating +interval of watchfulness. This time it was Brissac who made the +discovery, from the forward end of the Nadia. The nearest of the +material cars was a box, lying broadside to the private car on the next +side-track but one. From behind the trucks of the box-car a slender +pole, headed with what appeared to be an empty oyster tin, and trailing +a black line of fuse, was projecting itself along the ground by slow +inchings, creeping across the lighted space between the two cars. +Brissac promptly gave the alarm. + +"This is where we lose out, pointedly and definitely," predicted Adair, +still cheerful. "Anybody want to try a run for it?" + +It was Ford who thought of the two negroes. + +"Tell them, Roy," he said to Brissac. "Perhaps they would rather risk +the rifles." + +Brissac crept back to the central compartment, and the two watchers +marked the progress of the inching pole, with its dynamite head and the +ominous black thread of communication trailing like a grotesque horn +behind it. At the crossing of the intervening track it paused, moving +back and forth along the steel like a living thing seeking a passage. +Finally the metallic head of it appeared above the rail, hesitated, and +came on slowly. At that moment there was a shout, and the two negroes, +hands held high, tumbled from the opposite step of the Nadia and ran +toward the commissary stables. Three shots bit into the silence, and the +fat cook ran on, stumbling and shrieking. But the man Williams stopped +short and fell on his face, rolling over a moment later to lie with arms +and legs outspread. + +"God!" said Ford, between his set teeth; "they saw who they were--they +couldn't help seeing! And there was no excuse for killing those poor +devils!" + +But there was no time for reprisals, if any could have been made. When +Brissac rejoined the two in the forward vestibule, the stiff-bodied +snake with its tin head and trailing horn was crossing the second rail +of the intervening siding. + +"We've got to think pretty swiftly," suggested Adair, still cool and +unruffled. "I might be able to hit that tin thing at this short +distance, but I suppose that would only precipitate matters. What do you +say?" + +Ford could not say, and Brissac seemed to have become suddenly petrified +with horror. He was staring at the lettering on the box-car +opposite--the one under whose trucks the dynamiters were hiding. + +"Look!" he gasped; "it's the car of explosives, and they don't know it!" +Then he darted back into the Nadia's kitchen, returning quickly with a +huge carving-knife rummaged from the pantry shelves. "Stand back and +give me room," he begged; and they saw him lean out to send the +carving-knife whistling through the air: saw it sever the head from the +stiff-bodied snake--the head and the trailing horn as well. + +"Good man!" applauded Adair, dragging the assistant engineer back to +safety before any of the sharpshooters had marked him down. "Where did +you learn that trick?" + +"It is my one little accomplishment," confessed the Louisianian. "An old +Chickasaw chief taught me when I was a boy in the bayou country." + +The peril was over for the moment. The severed pole was withdrawn, and +for what seemed like an endless interval the attack paused. The three +besieged men kept watch as they might, creeping from window to window. +Out under the blue glare of the commissary arc-light the body of the +negro porter lay as it had fallen. Once, Ford thought he heard groans +from the black shadow where the fat cook had disappeared, but he could +not be sure. On the other side of the private car, and half-way between +it and the forty-thousand-pound load of high explosives, the petard +oyster-tin lay undisturbed, with the carving-knife sticking in the sand +beside it. + +"What will they try next?" queried Adair, when the suspense was again +growing intolerable. + +"It is simple enough, if they happen to think of it," was Ford's +rejoinder. "A few sticks of dynamite in a plugged gas-pipe: cut your +fuse long enough, light it, and throw the thing under the car. That +would settle it." + +Adair yawned sleepily. + +"Well, they've got all night for the inventive part of it. There's no +rescue for us unless somebody--a good husky army of somebodies--just +happens along." + +"The army is less than eight miles away--over at Frisbie's camp," said +Ford. "With Dick to lead them, the track-layers would sack this place in +about five minutes. If I could only get to the wire!" + +Brissac heard the "if." + +"Let me try to run their picket line, Ford," he said eagerly. "If I can +get around to our quarters and into the telegraph tent--" + +"You couldn't do it, Roy. There is the proof of it," pointing to the +body of the slain negro. "But I have been thinking of another scheme. +The track-camp wire is bracketed across the yard on the light-poles. I +have my pocket relay. I wonder if we could manage to cut in on that +wire?" + +"Wait a minute," Brissac interrupted. He was gone but a moment, and when +he returned he brought hope with him. + +"The wire is down and lying across the front vestibule," he announced +excitedly. "They must have cut it up yonder by the telegraph tent and +the slack has sagged down this way." + +"Which gives us a dead wire without any batteries," said Ford gloomily; +and then: "Hold on--aren't there electric call-bells in this car, +Adair?" + +"Yes, several of them; one in each state-room." + +"Good! that means batteries of some sort," said Ford. "Rummage for +them, Brissac, while I get that wire in here." + +The wire was successfully pulled in through the front vestibule without +giving the alarm. Ford twisted it in two when he had enough of it to +reach the central compartment. Adair did sentry duty while the two +technicians wrought swiftly. The bell battery was found, the ground +connection made with a bit of copper wire stripped from one of the +state-rooms, and Ford quickly adjusted the delicate spring of the tiny +field relay. + +What he feared most was that the few dry-cells of the bell battery would +not supply the current for the eight miles of line up Horse Creek. For a +time, which lengthened to dragging minutes, the anxious experimenters +hung over the tiny field instrument. The sensitive magnet seemed wholly +dead. Then, suddenly, it began to tick hesitantly in response to Ford's +tapping of the key. + +"Thank God, the battery is strong enough," he exclaimed. "Now, if there +is somebody within hearing at Frisbie's end of the line ..." + +He was clicking persistently and patiently, "E-T," "E-T," "E-T," +alternating now and then with the Horse Creek call and his own private +code letter, when Adair came up from his post at one of the rear +windows. The golden youth was the bearer of tidings, but Ford held up +his hand for silence: some one was breaking in to reply from +Frisbie's--Frisbie, himself, as the minimized tickings speedily +announced. + +Ford snipped out his call for help in the fewest possible words: + + Arm M'Grath's gang and bring it by train to Horse Creek, quick. + MacMorroghs are trying to dynamite us in the Nadia. FORD. + +Almost without a break in the insect-like tickings the reply came: + + Stand them off; help coming. + +The thing done, the master workman in Ford snatched at the helm. + + Did you catch and hold the pick-and-shovel men from this camp? + +he clicked anxiously. + + Got them all herded here and ready to go back to work--for more + pay, + +answered Frisbie; and Ford ticked one more word, "Hurry," and closed the +key with a sigh of relief. Then, and not until then, Adair said: "Is +that all, for the present? If it is, I'm sorry to have to report that +the beggars outside have hit upon your gas-pipe scheme. They are rolling +a round, black thing with a string attached down upon us from the +commissary. The slant of the hill is just enough to keep it coming where +the ground is smooth." + +From sheer force of habit, Ford disconnected his field telegraph, cased +and pocketed it. Then there was an instant adjournment to the rear +windows on the camp side. Happily, the rolling bomb was as yet only on +the way. Pebbles and roughnesses intervened here and there to stop or to +turn it aside, and since it was out of reach of their longest pole, the +dynamiters would start it on again by throwing stones at it. + +Hereupon ensued a struggle which, under other conditions, would have +figured as horse-play. One after another the three men in the car heaved +cushions, pillows, obstructions of any sort, in the path of the rolling +menace. And behind the commissary barricade the dynamiters patiently +twitched the bomb by the firmly fastened fuse this way and that to avoid +the obstacles, or sent it forward under the impact of well-directed +missiles. + +Ford was the first of the three to recognize the futility of the cushion +barricades. + +"They'll beat us--they'll drop it in the ditch right here under us in +spite of fate!" he juried. "Brissac: go and break the glass in the +accident tool-case and bring me the ax, quickly!" And when he had it; +"Now get me a piece of that telegraph wire and bend a hook on the end +of it--jump for it; you'll have to twist it off with your fingers!" + +With an energy that made no account of the lamed arm, Ford tore up the +carpet and fell to work fiercely, cutting a hole through the car floor; +while Brissac broke a piece from the wire and bent a finger-shaped hook +on the end of it. Adair, with his eye at a hole in a window shade, gave +his attention to the attack. + +"They are getting it here, slowly but surely," he reported. "It is going +to roll under us just about where you are.... Now it has gone past my +line of sight." And a moment later, in the same drawling monotone: "They +have lighted the fuse, but there is a good long string of it to burn +through. Take your time--" then, with a sudden failure in the monotone: +"No, by Jove! you can't take your time! The fire is jumping across the +road to beat the band!" + +The hole was opened through the floor, and Ford was on his stomach with +his face and an arm in the aperture, fishing desperately for the loop in +the fuse. It was his success, his sudden drawing of the loop up into the +car, that had shocked Adair out of his pose. Brissac was ready with the +ax, and the instant the loop appeared it was severed, the burning end +cast off, and the other end, with the bomb attached, was safely drawn up +into the car. + +The perspiration was running from Ford's face in streams when he had +the engine of death securely in his hands. + +"Take it, Roy," he gasped. "Drop it into the water-cooler. That will be +the safest place for it if they fall back on the gun-play." + +As if his word had evoked it, a storm of rifle bullets swept through the +car, smashing windows, breaking the remaining gas globes and splintering +the wood-work. Again and again the flashes leaped out of the surrounding +shadows and the air was sibilant with whining missiles. + +Brissac had the infernal machine: at first he fell upon it and covered +it with his body; afterward he crawled with it into the nearest +state-room and muffled it in a roll of berth mattresses. + +When the storm ceased, as suddenly as it had begun, they crept together +in the vestibule farthest from the commissary lead-hurling volcano to +count the casualties. + +There was none; not even a bullet score or a splinter-wound to show for +the hot bombardment, though the side of the Nadia facing the commissary +was riddled. + +"I'm believing all I've ever read about its taking a hundred pounds of +lead to kill one man in a war battle," said the New Yorker, grimly +humorous to the last. "How do you two C. E.'s account for it?" + +"We don't," said Ford shortly. "We're merely thankful that all +humankind habitually shoots high when it's excited or in a hurry." + +[Illustration: Brissac hurled the skillet like a clumsy discus] + +Then he sprang afoot, secured his ax, and sent Brissac to the pantry to +rummage for other weapons. "A rush is the next thing in order," he +suggested; and they prepared as they could to meet it. + +But the rush did not come. Instead of it, one man, carrying what +appeared to be a bundle of dripping rags, came cautiously into the open +and approached the shattered car. The night wind sweeping down from the +upper valley was with him, and the pungent odor of kerosene was wafted +to and through the broken windows. + +"Oho!" said Adair. "Having safely shot you dead or disabled, they are +now going to give you Christian burial, Ford. Also, they will +comfortably obliterate all the marks and scars of this pleasant +evening's diversion. How near shall I let him come before I squander one +of the two remaining cartridges on him?" + +"Wait," said Brissac in a half-whisper. In his second pantry rummaging +he had found nothing more promising than a cast-iron skillet--promising +because it had weight and a handle to wield it by. The intending +incendiary was no more than a few yards from his goal when Brissac rose +up opposite the nearest shattered window and hurled the skillet like a +clumsy discus. His aim was true to a hand's-breadth: a bullet from +Adair's pistol could have done no more. With a cry that was fairly +shogged out of him by the impact of the iron missile, the man flung away +his burden, dropped in his tracks and lay groaning. + +They looked for another storm of lead to follow this, and hugged the +floor in readiness for it. When it did not come, Ford crept to the hole +in the car floor and listened long and intently. Half an hour he had +given Frisbie to get his track-layers together, and to cover the eight +miles of rough-laid rails with the construction train. What was delaying +him? + +"You said Gallagher ditched your car: did it block the track?" he asked +of Adair. + +"It did, didn't it, Brissac?" was the answer, and the assistant +confirmed it. + +"Then that is why Frisbie can't get to us. Was Gallagher's engine still +on the rails?" + +"It was." + +Ford sat up and nursed his knees. "Dick will make a way if he can't find +one ready made. But it may take hours. Meanwhile, if these devils have +scouts out--" + +"Yes?" said Adair. + +"They'll bring the warning, and there won't be much more time wasted in +experiments. They can do us up, if they get right down to business." + +"What are they doing now?" Adair asked of Brissac, who was on watch on +the commissary side. + +"I'll be hanged if I know. It looks like a young cannon, and it's +pointed this way. By George! it's coming--coming by its all alone, too!" + +By this time they were all watching the new menace. Brissac's +description fitted it accurately; a cylindrical object mounted upon a +pair of small wheels taken from the commissary store-room truck. It came +toward the Nadia by curious surges--a rush forward and a pause--trailing +what appeared to be a long iron rod behind it. + +Ford hit upon the explanation. The cylindrical thing was another +gas-pipe bomb; the iron tail was a smaller pipe containing and armoring +the fuse, and serving also as the means of propulsion. They were +coupling on additional lengths of the fuse-carrying pipe as they were +needed; hence the jerking advances and pauses. + +Adair's low laugh was as care-free as ever. + +"A practical illustration of the tail wagging the dog," he remarked. +"But the dog will wag us good and plenty when they get him where they +want him. You can't fish that thing up through the hole with your +wire--or crop the tail." + +"No; it's a run for it, this time," said Ford, rising and stripping his +coat. + +But Brissac was pointing to three or four men dodging from shadow to +shadow under the masthead lights and circling wide to tighten the line +of circumvallation. + +"We shan't run very far," he commented. + +It seemed a hair-graying age to the watchers at the Nadia's windows +before the men behind the commissary barricade got their infernal +machine placed to their liking. They stared at it, all three of them, +fascinated, deaf and blind to all else. A minimized shudder as of +drumming wheels or escaping steam was in the air when they saw the flare +of the match that betokened the firing of the fuse, but no one of the +three heard it. + +It was when the sputtering line of fire had buried itself in its tube +that they became suddenly alive to the unbelievable fact that a +locomotive was thundering down the yard on the Nadia's track. A rifle +cracked; then another and a third; but the engine came on as if its +driver bore a charmed life. + +Surely Michael Gallagher must have prayed to the saints that night. He +did not know that the very seconds had become priceless: he knew only +that Frisbie had sent him on ahead to snake the president's car out of +the Horse Creek yard as quickly as possible. Yet if he could have seen +the bomb and the sputtering fuse, he could not have slowed more deftly +to let the automatic couplers clutch each other, nor, at the touch and +clamp, could he have reversed and gathered headway with greater skill. + +The three occupants of the Nadia staggered to their feet as the private +car lunged ahead in the grasp of the big engine, increasing speed with +every wheel-turn. Mechanically, and as one man, they rushed to the rear +platform. The mock cannon stood where it had been thrust; but in the +camp street a handful of men were wrestling madly with the pipe +fuse-carrier, breaking it, wrenching it in pieces, and stamping futilely +upon the snake-like thing hissing and spitting under their feet. + +"Look!" sobbed Adair. "They know--they've discovered that box-car! Oh, +why in the name of the pitiful Christ don't they drop it and run?" + +This from the man who had laughed, and aimed and fired and laughed +again, in the heat of battle. But Ford's rejoinder was the bitter +malediction of the defeated industry captain. "Damn their worthless +lives!" he stormed. "In the next half-minute the Pacific Southwestern +stands to lose a quarter of a million dollars!" + +It was but a vanishing glimpse that they had of the handful of madmen +stamping and dancing under the masthead light in front of the +commissary; a glimpse withdrawing swiftly into a dim perspective as the +Nadia was whisked around the curve and up the Horse Creek grade. + +It was after Gallagher had picked up the lights of the waiting train of +armed track-layers, and was whistling to announce his success, that the +end came. For the three watchers on the rear platform of the president's +car the little constellation of arc-stars in the valley below was +suddenly blotted out in a skyward belching of gray flame; a huge +volcano-burst of momentarily illuminated dust. Instinctively they +braced themselves for the concussion that followed,--a bellowing +thunderclap and a rending of earth and air that shook the surrounding +hills and drowned the shriek of Gallagher's whistle. + +A blast of air, down-drawn from the heights to fill the dreadful vacuum, +was still rocking the stopped car when Frisbie climbed nimbly to the +railed rear platform and swung his lantern to light the faces of the +three men braced in the doorway. + +"A close call, gentlemen," was his only comment; and then he appealed +briefly to Ford for orders. + +"Back us down slowly," said Ford shortly, "and follow with your train. +We may need the men." + +Frisbie went forward through the wrecked private car, returning +presently to flag Gallagher along with the lantern swung over the +railing. Down in the valley of the Pannikin the heavy, sickening fumes +of the burned explosives hung in the air, and when the car swung in on +the straight line the red glare of a wrecked and burning oil tank +lighted the scene. + +The camp site was blankly unrecognizable. Where the ten-tracked yard had +been there was a vast depression, half-filled with distorted steel and +debris indescribable, twisted iron and splintered wood, with the water +from the river pouring into it. The commissary buildings and the +surrounding bunk-shanties were gone, swept away as with the stroke of a +mighty broom; and the trees on the hill-sides above were scorched and +shriveled as if a forest fire had blasted them. + +Frisbie was the first to speak after he had flagged Gallagher to a stand +on the farthermost edge of the devastation. + +"Any use to turn out the crew and hunt for them?" he asked. + +Ford shook his head. + +"No. Leave M'Grath and a few others to stand guard and to flag the +incoming steel trains, and let's get out of this. I'm sick; and so is +Mr. Adair." + + + + +XXVI + +THE STAR OF EMPIRE + + +A week, the most strenuous week in Copah's history, had passed, and +still the president's party delayed its return to what Miss Priscilla +Van Bruce constantly referred to as "civilization"; though the Farthest +West has always been slow to admit the derogatory comparison which the +word implies. + +During the strenuous week much had happened, and much more was scheduled +to happen. For one twenty-four-hour day the ex-speculator in Mr. +Colbrith held out against the sharp attacks of the reawakened lust of +conquest. Then, from Jack's Canyon on the Transcontinental, from +men-clustered construction trains on the extension, over the passes from +Summit Lakes, and across the brown plains from Green Butte, poured the +army of gold-seekers, and the president was swept away and into the very +vortex of the stock-jobbing whirlpool. + +It was not until the third day of the week that Adair came ambling into +Copah, riding a cart mule from Frisbie's camp. To his sister and his +aunt the young man told everything; to his uncle nothing. Between gasps +in the speculative frenzy Mr. Colbrith found time to complain bitterly +to his nephew of Ford's defection. + +"It was dastardly!" he shrilled. "We had some words; I don't deny that +we had some words. But he was most unreasonable. He should have gone +about his business and let me have time to consider. Here are thousands +of people pouring into this place, everything at famine prices, no +supplies for our miners, no railroad to bring them. What's this I hear +about an accident at Horse Creek? Why isn't Ford on the ground attending +to his railroad building and straightening things out? Have I got to +forfeit the money-making chance of a lifetime and go and drag that track +into Copah with my own hands?" + +Adair seemed suddenly to have lost his tongue, which was certainly glib +enough ordinarily. All he would say was that the engineering department +was still at work, he believed; that the track was approaching Copah, +slowly, perhaps, but pretty surely. + +"But without a head!" snapped the irate president. "Ford is a traitor to +the company. Tell him so from me, sir, if you know where he is +skulking." + +Adair did tell Ford, circumstantially, when he rode the cart mule out of +town the next morning and met the young engineer at the head of a +tremendously augmented track force, rushing the rails around the +swelling hills on the approach to the mining-camp-city. + +"Oh, he's still up in the air," laughed the director, when he had +repeated the president's wrathful outburst. "Frantic because the road +isn't finished; frantic because he can't get in on all the ground-floors +in all the mining deals; frantic some more because he has to live in a +shack hotel while he has a private car and a good cook, as he thinks, +only a few miles away. Which reminds me: the '01' has a pretty good +cook, and the incomparible Johnson,--don't let them escape. Have you +sent the Nadia back to Denver for repairs?" + +"Yes; Frisbie went over in it this morning." + +"Frisbie?" + +"Yes, I had to let him go. Word came from Leckhard as soon as we got the +wire reestablished, which was late last night. North was taken suddenly +ill the day after the explosion. He resigned at once by wire to the +executive committee in New York, and two days later he took a steamer +from Galveston for nobody knows where; health trip--doctor's +orders--Leckhard said. I sent Frisbie over to be acting manager of the +system, pending the president's--er--recovery from _his_ sudden illness. +Leckhard says the New York people are burning the wires trying to get +word to Mr. Colbrith." + +"They may go on burning them," said Adair calmly. "Uncle Sidney isn't +going to quit until he owns a good half of the Copah district--or gets +his armature burned out. And if he were ready to quit, we shouldn't let +him. But how are things working out on the extension?--that is what +interests me." + +"Bully!" was the enthusiastic reply. "We're spending money like water; +paying anything that's asked; and even then the men come and go like a +torchlight procession. But we are keeping the surfacing gangs neck-full +the entire length of the line, and Leckhard has already organized his +regular train service over the first hundred miles. That puts us on an +even footing with the Transcontinental at Jack's Canyon, and the tide is +fairly turned our way. When we lay the rails into Copah,--which will be +the day after to-morrow, if nothing pulls in two,--the first through +passenger train, with the '01' in tow, will be right behind us. Does the +report satisfy you?" + +"Your word fits it: it's bully." + +"Then I want my reward. When am I to be allowed to chase in and pay my +respects to your--er--aunt, and--and Miss Alicia?" + +Adair laughed. + +"My--er--aunt!" he mocked. "Much you care about Aunt Hetty. And I've a +thing or two to say about Alicia. Who gave you leave to fall in love +with my little sister, I'd like to know?" + +"She did," retorted Ford brazenly. "Don't tell me you are going to try +to kick it over at this late day. You can't, you know." + +Adair tilted his hat to the back of his head and thrust his hands into +his pockets. + +"I'm no such wild ass of the prairies," he declared. "But, my good +friend, you don't come into town till you bring your railroad with you. +I know how it will be: you'd linger for just one more last fond +farewell, and about that time Uncle Sidney would drop in on you +unexpectedly. Then there'd be a family row, after which my Pacific +Southwestern stock wouldn't be worth a whoop. No; you wait till I get +Uncle Sidney safely where I want him--properly in the nine-hole, and +then I'll flag you in." + +The chance for which the golden youth was waiting and working climaxed +on the day the extension rails came down the hill-side grade above the +town--a town now spreading into a wilderness of hastily built and +crowding structures. It was a simple pit he had digged for an old man +suddenly gone mad with the fever of mine-buying. From picking up stock +in a score of prospects, Mr. Colbrith had hedged by concentrating his +heavy investments in six or seven of the most promising of the partly +developed properties. Then, to make assurance reasonably sure, he had +sprung the modern method of combination upon his fellow stock-holders in +the producing mines. The promising group was to be merged in one giant +holding corporation, strong enough to control the entire Copah +situation. + +But there were obstacles in the way; obstructions carefully placed, if +the truth must be told, by an unscrupulous young manipulator in the +president's own household. The Little Alicia was in the group, was the +keystone in the combination arch, as it chanced, and unhappily Grigsby +had parted with a grievous block of his share of the stock--a block +which could neither be recovered nor traced to its present holder. Not +to make a mystery of the matter, the certificates were safely locked in +a safety-deposit box in the vault of the Bank of Copah, and the key to +the box rattled in Adair's pocket. And because the Little Alicia could +not be included, three other necessary votes were withheld when the +president tried to get action. + +Mr. Colbrith was in despair. A good many of his investments were +palpably bad; and they could be recouped only by the backing of the +combination. And the combination obstinately refused to combine unless +the Little Alicia could be gathered in. At the end of the ends Mr. +Colbrith appealed to his nephew. + +"You know where Ford is," he began accusingly. "You needn't deny it. I +was in hopes we wouldn't have to ask him to sell us more than one share +of his stock, which he couldn't decently refuse to do if we let him set +his own price. But since we can't trace that block that Grigsby let go, +we must have nearly all of Ford's. Find him: get his stock if you have +to pay twice par for it. If you don't, I--I shall be the heaviest loser +in this camp, Charles Edward." It was gall and wormwood to the old man, +but it had to be swallowed. + +"So you are coming around to ask a favor of Ford?" said the young man +unfeelingly. "He won't help you out. You mustn't forget that you kicked +him out of the family; or rather you kicked him to prevent his getting +into it." + +"But think of the profit to him!" protested the president. "He paid only +twenty cents for his half of the Alicia; he told me so himself. At two +hundred he'd clear ninety thousand; a magnificent amount for so young a +man!" + +"Ford doesn't care anything about money. You can't move him that way." + +"Well, then, find him for me and I'll--I'll apologize," said Mr. +Colbrith, pressed now to the last extremity. + +"He doesn't want your apologies, Uncle Sidney. Your little tiff was +between man and man, and he'd never think of holding you accountable for +anything you were foolish enough to say." + +"Then what in heaven's name does he want?"--irascibly. + +"Oh, a lot of things: reinstatement; your order to investigate the +Denver management; a chance to build his railroad unmolested; and, as a +side issue, a chance to whitewash your administration of Pacific +Southwestern by conducting the house-cleaning in your name--this last +because he thinks something of the family honor. He doesn't have to +consider us, you know. At the next annual meeting he can elect Brewster +president over your head: then you will have to stand for all the +grafting and deviltry that will be unearthed." + +The ground for this duel between President Colbrith and the determined +young pace-setter was the lobby of the tar-paper-covered hotel, cleared +now of the impromptu mining-stock exchange, which had moved into +permanent quarters. The old man rose stiffly and stood grasping the +chair-back. + +"The same reckless charges against Mr. North and his subordinates--and +now _you_ are making them!" he rasped. "They are groundless; groundless, +I tell you!" + +Adair looked at his watch, listened a moment as for some expected sound +from out-of-doors, and motioned toward the vacated chair. + +"Sit down, Uncle Sidney, and let me tell you what happened at Horse +Creek camp a week ago last night," he said evenly; and then he told the +story of the attempt upon Ford's life, of the siege of the Nadia, of the +terrible catastrophe which had involved all three of the MacMorroghs, +the commissary staff, Eckstein, and the headquarters camp. When he +finished, the president was shaking as if from a chill. Yet one thread +of the strong strand of loyalty still held. + +"It was horrible--fiendish!" he shuddered. "But it was the MacMorroghs' +fight. It does not necessarily incriminate North." + +"It does," said Adair, in the same even tone. "I told you that we left a +few men at the wrecked camp to warn the incoming material trains. They +found a single survivor of the thirteen men who tried to destroy us and +the Nadia. It was Eckstein, North's secretary, and before he died he +amply confirmed all of our guesses. They had plotted to have you quarrel +with Ford. Ford had bought his half of the Little Alicia without any +prompting, but from that as a starting point the entire scheme was +worked up. The MacMorroghs' bookkeeper, a man named Merriam--who is at +present in Copah, and whose deposition I have had taken before a justice +of the peace--was detailed to win Frisbie over to the change of +route--no difficult thing, since the change was for the better. But +Merriam's part was chiefly to keep Frisbie from finding out anything +about Ford's mine; which he did. Am I making it clear?" + +The president bowed his head. + +"Then, when you came West on your inspection trip, the trap was sprung. +You were told that Ford had been doing a dishonorable thing, and you +were urged to come over here and see for yourself. To make sure that +there should be no slips, Penfield was sent with you, ostensibly as +your acting secretary, but really as a spy--" + +"Oh, no; I can't think that of young Penfield," protested the president. + +"I say yes; and the proof is that Penfield has confessed. He was scared +into it when I told him what had happened at Horse Creek and gave him +his choice of telling me what he knew, or going to jail. Then I came on +the scene at the inopportune moment, and after North had carefully +issued instructions intended to delay me as much as possible, he sent +Eckstein in post-haste by way of Jack's Canyon and the stage trail to +get ahead of me. You see, he was afraid to trust matters to Penfield, +who would most certainly have stopped short of the desperate measures +Eckstein and the MacMorroghs finally took. It was decided at a council +in which Penfield was present, that Ford's elimination must go through. +If you didn't quarrel with him and drop him, he was to be murdered." + +Mr. Colbrith was silent for a long minute after Adair ceased speaking. +Then he looked up to say: "What was Ford doing at Horse Creek that +night? He had left me only a few hours before; and, as I have said, we +had--we had some words." + +Adair smiled. "He was about to begin doing what he has been doing ever +since: flogging the extension into shape night and day to get it ready +to carry passengers and freight. He conceived it to be his duty--to you +as well as to the other stock-holders. And he _has_ flogged it into +shape. Look out of that window, Uncle Sidney!" + +A long passenger train, crowded to the platforms, and with the private +car "01" in tow, was winding down the grade of the opposite hillside, +and as they stepped to the windows the engineer woke the echoes with the +engine whistle. + +"The first one of many, let us hope," said the young man, standing at +his uncle's elbow. Then, with quite a different note in his voice: "It's +Stuart's work, all of it. He has scarcely stopped to eat or sleep since +that horrible night in the Pannikin valley. And that night, Uncle +Sidney, I fought shoulder to shoulder with him--as a brother should; he +is a man, and--there are not many more--like him." + +The president's thin lips were drawn into straight lines, and the thin +goat's-beard stood out at the argumentative angle. Mr. Colbrith was +chary of his emotions. + +"Will he sell us that stock in the Little Alicia, Charles Edward?" + +Adair smiled at the determined return to the practical. + +"No," he said; "I don't think he will--I shouldn't, if I were in his +place. But he will do the next best thing: he will marry Alicia and so +bring it into the family. And on the railroad conditions I have named, +I am quite sure he will make you his voting proxy if you want to use it +in forcing the combine." + +The president took a turn as far as the clerk's counter and back. The +lobby was deserted, everybody having gone to welcome the first train +into Copah. + +"You seem to have North against the wall," he said when he came back. +"Yet, for the sake of--of, well of his wife and children, he must have +even-handed justice. I must insist upon that." + +It was the most lovable thing in the irascible old man--his undying +loyalty to a man in whom he had once believed. Adair slew the last hope +with reluctance. Drawing a thick packet of undelivered telegrams from +his pocket, he handed it to his uncle. + +"Justice is the one thing Mr. North is most anxious to dodge," he said +gravely. "When the news of the catastrophe reached him, he resigned by +wire--to New York; not to you--got his physician to order him out of the +country, and left Denver between two days. Ford has sent Frisbie to +Denver to hold things together, and there has been a number of +removals--subject, of course, to your approval. You will find the +history of all these minor happenings in those telegrams, which I have +been collecting--and holding--until you had leisure to look them over." + +"Where is Mr. Ford now?" asked the president crisply. + +"He is not very far away; in fact, he is up-stairs in the sitting-room +of our suite with Aunt Hetty and the two Van Bruce ladies and Alicia. +Incidentally,--quite incidentally, you understand,--he is waiting to be +asked to help you out in that mining deal." + +"Fetch him," was the curt command; and Mr. Colbrith sat down to wade +resignedly through the mass of delayed wire correspondence. + + * * * * * + +What remains of the story of the Pacific Southwestern is a chapter, as +yet unfinished, in the commercial history of the great and growing +empire of the West. + +Of the rush to the Copah gold field; of the almost incredible celerity +with which a stretch of one hundred and forty-odd miles of construction +track was opened for the enormous traffic which was instantly poured in +upon it; of the rapid extension of the line to a far western outlet; of +the steady advance of P. S-W. shares to a goodly premium: these are +matters which are recorded in the newspaper files of the period. + +For the typically American success of the Southwestern's dramatic upward +leap to the rank of a great railway system, President Colbrith has the +name and the fame. Yet here and there in the newspaper record there is +mention of one Stuart Ford, "our rising young railroad magnate," in the +unashamed phrase of the _Copah Megaphone_, first as the president's +assistant; later, as first vice-president and general manager of the +system, in the Chicago headquarters, with Mr. Richard Frisbie as his +second in command on the western lines, and Mr. Charles Edward Adair as +comptroller and chief of finances on the executive committee in New +York. + +Ford's prophecies predicting the development of the new empire first +traversed by the Western Extension have long since found ample +fulfilment, as all the world knows. Copah gave the region its first and +largest advertisement; but other mining districts, with their imperative +beckonings to a food-producing population, have followed in due course. + +It was early in June of the year marking the opening of the completed +Western Extension for through Pacific Coast traffic that a one-car +train, drawn by the smartest of passenger engines in charge of a +diminutive, red-headed Irishman, stormed bravely up the glistening steel +on the eastern approach to Plug Pass. The car was the rebuilt Nadia; and +in obedience to a shrill blast of the cab air-whistle, Gallagher brought +it to a stand on the summit of the mountain. + +Alicia looked more than ever the artist's ideal of the American womanly +felicities when Ford lifted her from the step of the Nadia. + +"You are quite sure Mr. Gallagher won't mind?" she was saying, as they +walked forward together. + +"Mind? Wait till you hear what he says. Michael is an Irish diamond in +the rough, and he knows when he is honored." + +They discovered the red-headed little man industriously "oiling around" +for the swift glide down the western declivities. + +"Michael," said the first vice-president, "Mrs. Ford thinks she would +like to take the Pannikin loop in the cab of the Six-eighty-eight. Can +you make room for us?" + +Gallagher snatched his cap from his fiery head. + +"Could we make room? 'Tis by the blessing av the saints that I'm a +little man, meself, Missis Foord, and don't take up much room in the +c-yab. And as f'r Johnny Shovel, he'll be riding on the coal f'r the +pure playsure av ut. My duty to ye, ma'am; and 'tis a pity ut isn't a +black night, whin the swate face av ye would be lighting the thrack f'r +us." + +Ford lifted Alicia to the gangway and made her comfortable on the +fireman's box, fixing a footbrace for her, and giving her his arm for a +shoulder rest when Gallagher sent the steam whistling through the +cylinder-cocks for the impulse needful to start the downward rush. + +"'With a michnai--ghignai--'" she began; but when the engine plunged +over the summit and the matchless view to the westward came suddenly +into, being, the quotation lapsed in a long-drawn, ecstatic "O-o-oh!" + +"You are not afraid, are you?" said the bridegroom, man-like, letting +her feel the support of his arm. + +"Afraid? No, indeed; I am just happy--happy! There lies the world before +us, Stuart; _our_ world, because, more than any other man's, yours were +the brain that conceived it and the hands that brought it to pass. Let +us go down quickly and possess it. Tell Mr. Gallagher that he may run as +fast as ever he dares." Then with a sigh of contentment and a +comfortable nestling into the hollow of the strong arm of protection: +"Was there ever another wedding journey just like ours, Stuart, dear?" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMPIRE BUILDERS*** + + +******* This file should be named 16630.txt or 16630.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/6/3/16630 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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