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diff --git a/30263-0.txt b/30263-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f287273 --- /dev/null +++ b/30263-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9068 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30263 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 30263-h.htm or 30263-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30263/30263-h/30263-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30263/30263-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/acaptaininthera00egglrich + + + + + +A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS + +A Romance of Affairs + +by + +GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON + +Author of "DOROTHY SOUTH," "RUNNING THE RIVER," "THE MASTER OF +WARLOCK," Etc. + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "You have saved the Railroad." Page 336.] + + + +A. L. Burt Company, +Publishers, New York + +Copyright, 1904, +by +A. S. Barnes & Co. + + + + +TO + +Mable + +_On her wedding day, I dedicate this story with affection_ + +September 8, 1904 + + + + +PREFACE + + +This story is intended to supplement the trilogy of romances in which I +have endeavored to show forth the Virginian character under varying +conditions. + +"Dorothy South" dealt with Virginia life and character before the +Confederate war. + +"The Master of Warlock" had to do with the Virginians during the early +years of the war, when their struggle seemed hopeful of success. + +"Evelyn Byrd" was a study of the same people as they confronted certain +disaster and defeat. + +The present story is meant to complete the picture. It deals with that +wonderful upbuilding of the great West which immediately followed the +war, and in which the best of the young Virginians played an important +part. + +The personages of the story are real, and its events are mainly facts, +thinly veiled. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I THE FINAL FIGHT 1 + + II ALONE IN THE HIGH MOUNTAIN 18 + + III THE NEW BIRTH OF MANHOOD 29 + + IV A PRIVATE IN THE ARMY OF WORK 38 + + V THE BEGINNING OF A CAREER 42 + + VI A CAPTAIN IN THE ARMY OF WORK 48 + + VII THE "SIZING UP" OF GUILFORD DUNCAN 59 + + VIII ON DUTY 64 + + IX ONE NIGHT'S WORK 70 + + X ALLIANCE, OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE 87 + + XI THE WAYS OF GUILFORD DUNCAN 100 + + XII BARBARA VERNE 107 + + XIII A BATTLE AND AN ACQUAINTANCE 119 + + XIV A SOCIAL ADVANCE 129 + + XV THE COMING OUT OF BARBARA 141 + + XVI A NEW ENEMY 146 + + XVII AN OLD FRIEND 160 + + XVIII DICK TEMPLE'S PLANS 168 + + XIX DICK TEMPLE'S STORY 175 + + XX IN THE SUMMER TIME 181 + + XXI AN INTERVIEW WITH NAPPER TANDY 188 + + XXII UNDER THE HONEYSUCKLES 198 + + XXIII CAPTAIN WILL HALLAM IN THE GAME 202 + + XXIV BARBARA'S ANSWER 214 + + XXV TEMPLE AND TANDY 224 + + XXVI A PACT WITH BARBARA 242 + + XXVII MRS. HALLAM HEARS NEWS 254 + + XXVIII THE BIRTH OF A GREAT RAILROAD 265 + + XXIX A SCRAP OF PAPER 274 + + XXX THE MYSTERY OF TANDY 285 + + XXXI ONLY A WOMAN 293 + + XXXII THE RIDDLE EXPLAINED 298 + + XXXIII AT CRISIS 304 + + XXXIV A CHEER FOR LITTLE MISSIE 316 + + XXXV THE END OF A STRUGGLE 323 + + + + +A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS + + + + +I + +THE FINAL FIGHT + +[Illustration] + + +The slender remnant of Lee's artillery swung slowly into position a few +miles west of Appomattox Court House. Wearily--but with spirit +still--the batteries parked their guns in a field facing a strip of +woodland. The guns were few in number now, but they were all that was +left of those that had done battle on a score of historic fields. + +Lee had been forced out of his works at Richmond and Petersburg a week +before. Ever since, with that calm courage which had sustained him +throughout the later and losing years of the war, he had struggled and +battled in an effort to retreat to the Roanoke River. He had hoped there +to unite the remnant of his army with what was left of Johnston's force, +and to make there a final and desperate stand. + +In this purpose he had been baffled. Grant's forces were on his southern +flank, and they had steadily pressed him back toward the James River on +the north. In that direction there was no thoroughfare for him. Neither +was there now in any other. Continual battling had depleted his army +until it numbered now scarcely more than ten thousand men all told, and +starvation had weakened these so greatly that only the heroism of +despair enabled them to fight or to march at all. + +The artillery that was parked out there in front of Appomattox Court +House was only a feeble remnant of that which had fought so long and so +determinedly. Gun after gun had been captured. Gun after gun had been +dismounted in battle struggle. Caisson after caisson had been blown up +by the explosion of shells striking them. + +Captain Guilford Duncan, at the head of eleven mounted men, armed only +with sword and pistols, paused before entering the woodlands in front. +He looked about in every direction, and, with an eye educated by long +experience in war, he observed the absence of infantry support. + +He turned to Sergeant Garrett, who rode by his side, and said sadly: + +"Garrett, this means surrender. General Lee has put his artillery here +to be captured. The end has come." + +Then dismounting, he wearily threw himself upon the ground, chewed and +swallowed a few grains of corn,--the only rations he had,--and sought a +brief respite of sleep. But before closing his eyes he turned to Garrett +and gave the command: + +"Post a sentinel and order him to wake us when Sheridan comes." + +This command brought questions from the men about him. They were +privates and he was their captain, it is true, but the Southern army was +democratic, and these men were accustomed to speak with their captain +with eyes on a level with his own. + +"Why do you say, 'when Sheridan comes'?" asked one of Duncan's command. + +"Oh, he will come, of course--and quickly. That is the program. This +artillery has been posted here to be captured. And it will be captured +within an hour or two at furthest, perhaps within a few minutes, for +Sheridan is sleepless and his force is not only on our flank, but in +front of us. There is very little left of the Army of Northern Virginia. +It can fight no more. It is going to surrender here, but in the meantime +there may be a tidy little scrimmage in this strip of woods, and I for +one want to have my share in it. Now let me go to sleep and wake me +when Sheridan comes." + +In a minute the captain was asleep. So were all his men except the +sentinel posted to do the necessary waking. + +That came all too quickly, for at this juncture in the final proceedings +of the war Sheridan was vigorously carrying out Grant's laconic +instruction to "press things." When the sentinel waked the captain, +Sheridan's lines were less than fifty yards in front and were pouring +heavy volleys into the unsupported Confederate artillery park. + +Guilford Duncan and his men were moved to no excitement by this +situation. Their nerves had been schooled to steadiness and their minds +to calm under any conceivable circumstances by four years of vastly +varied fighting. Without the slightest hurry they mounted their horses +in obedience to Duncan's brief command. He led them at once into the +presence of Colonel Cabell, whose battalion of artillery lay nearest to +him. As they sat upon their horses in the leaden hailstorm, with +countenances as calm as if they had been entering a drawing room, Duncan +touched his cap to Colonel Cabell and said: + +"Colonel, I am under nobody's orders here. I have eleven men with me, +all of them, as you know, as good artillerymen as there are in the army. +Can you let us handle some guns for you?" + +"No," answered Colonel Cabell; "I have lost so many guns already that I +have twenty men to each piece." Then, after a moment's pause, he added: + +"You, Captain, cannot fail to understand what all this means." + +"I quite understand that, Colonel," answered Duncan, "but as I was in at +the beginning of this war, I have a strong desire to be in at the end of +it." + +The Colonel's cannon were firing vigorously by this time at the rate of +six or eight shots to the minute from each gun, but he calmly looked +over the little party on horseback and responded: + +"You have some good horses there, and this is April. You will need your +horses in your farming operations. You had better take them and your men +out of here. You can do no good by staying. This fight is a formality +pure and simple, a preliminary to the final surrender." + +"Then you order me to withdraw?" asked Duncan. + +"Yes, certainly, and peremptorily if you wish, though you are not under +my command," answered Colonel Cabell. "It is the best thing you can do +for yourself, for your men, for your horses, and for the country." + +Duncan immediately obeyed the order, in a degree at least. He promptly +withdrew his men to the top of a little hillock in the rear and there +watched the progress of the final fight. His nerves were all a-quiver. +He was a young man, twenty-five years old perhaps, full of vigor, full +of enthusiasm, full of fight. He was a trifle less than six feet high, +with a lithe and symmetrical body, lean almost to emaciation by reason +of arduous service and long starvation. He had a head that instantly +attracted attention by its unusual size and its statuesque shape. He was +bronzed almost to the complexion of a mulatto, but without any touch of +yellow in the bronze. He was dark by nature, of intensely nervous +temperament, and obviously a man capable of enormous determination and +unfaltering endurance. + +He had not yet lost the instinct of battle, and it galled him that he +must sit idly there on his horse, with his men awaiting his orders, +simply observing a fight in which he strongly desired to participate. He +could see the Federal lines gradually closing in upon both flanks of the +artillery, with the certainty that they must presently envelop and +capture it. Seasoned soldier that he was, he could not endure the +thought of standing still while such a work of war was going on. + +Seeing the situation he turned to his men, who were armed only with +swords and pistols, and in a voice so calm that it belied his impulse, +he said to them: + +"This is our last chance for a fight, boys. I am going into the middle +of that mix! Anybody who chooses to follow me can come along!" + +Every man in that little company of eleven had two pistols in his saddle +holsters and two upon his hips, and every man carried in addition a +heavy cavalry saber capable of doing execution at close quarters. They +were gentlemen soldiers, all. The cause for which they had battled for +four long years was as dear to them now as it ever had been. More +important still, their courage was as unflinching in this obvious climax +and catastrophe of the war they had waged, as it had been at Bull Run in +the beginning of that struggle, or in the Seven Days' Fight, or at +Fredericksburg, or Chancellorsville, or Gettysburg, or Cold Harbor. +Duncan had not doubted their response for one moment, and he was not +disappointed in the vigor with which they followed him as he led them +into this final fight. As they dashed forward their advance was quickly +discovered by the alert enemy, and a destructive fire of carbines was +opened upon them. At that moment they were at the trot. Instantly Duncan +gave the commands: + +"Gallop! Charge!" + +With that demoniacal huntsman's cry which is known in history as the +"Rebel Yell," the little squad dashed forward and plunged into the far +heavier lines of the enemy. There was a detached Federal gun there doing +its work. It was a superb twelve-pounder, and Duncan's men quickly +captured it with its limber-chest. Instantly dismounting, and without +waiting for orders from him, they turned it upon the enemy with vigorous +effect. But they were so fearfully over-matched in numbers that their +work endured for scarcely more than a minute. They fired a dozen shots, +perhaps, but they were speedily overwhelmed, and in another instant +Duncan ordered them to mount and retire again, firing Parthian shots +from their pistols as they went. + +When he again reached the little hill to which he had retired at the +beginning of the action, Duncan looked around him and saw that only +seven of his eleven men remained. The other four had paid a final +tribute of their lives to what was now obviously "The Lost Cause." + +By this time the fight was over, and practically all that remained of +the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia was in possession of the +enemy. + +But that enemy was a generous one, and, foreseeing as it did the +surrender that must come with the morning, it made no assault upon this +wandering squad of brave but beaten men, who were sadly looking upon the +disastrous end of the greatest war in human history. + +Captain Duncan's party were on a bald hill within easy range of the +carbines of Sheridan's men, but not a shot was fired at them, and not so +much as a squad was sent out to demand their surrender. + +Night was now near at hand and Guilford Duncan turned to his men and +said: + +"The war is practically over, I suppose; but I for one intend to stick +to the game as long as it lasts. General Lee will surrender his army +to-night or to-morrow morning, but General Johnston still has an army +in the field in North Carolina. It is barely possible that we may get to +him. It is my purpose to try. How many of you want to go with me?" + +The response was instantaneous and unanimous. + +"We'll all stick by you, Captain, 'till the cows come home,'" they +cried. + +"Very well," he answered. "We must march to James River to-night and +cross it. We must make our way into the mountains and through Lynchburg, +if possible, into North Carolina. We'll try, anyhow." + +All night long they marched. They secured some coarse food-stuffs at a +mill which they passed on their way up into the mountains. There for a +week they struggled to make their way southward, fighting now and then, +not with Federal troops, for there were none there, but with marauders. +These were the offscourings of both armies, and of the negro population +of that region. They made themselves the pests of Virginia at that time. +Their little bands consisted of deserters from both armies, dissolute +negroes, and all other kinds of "lewd fellows of the baser sort." They +raided plantations. They stole horses. They terrorized women. They were +a thorn in the flesh of General Grant's officers, who were placed in +strategic positions to prevent the possible occurrence of a guerrilla +warfare, and who therefore could not scatter their forces for the +policing of a land left desolate and absolutely lawless. + +In many parts of the country which were left without troops to guard +them, at a time when no civil government existed, these marauders played +havoc in an extraordinary way. But the resoluteness of General Grant's +administration soon suppressed them. Whenever he caught them he hanged +or shot them without mercy, and with small consideration for +formalities. In the unprotected districts he authorized the +ex-Confederates, upon their promise to lend aid against the inauguration +of guerrilla warfare, to suppress them on their own account, and they +did so relentlessly. + +During the sojourn in the mountains, in his effort to push his way +through to Johnston, Guilford Duncan came upon a plantation where only +women were living in the mansion house. A company of these marauders had +taken possession of the plantation, occupying its negro cabins and +terrorizing the population of the place. When Duncan rode up with his +seven armed men he instantly took command and assumed the _rôle_ of +protector. First of all he posted his men as sentries for the protection +of the plantation homestead. Next he sent out scouts, including a number +of trusty negroes who belonged upon the plantation, to find out where +the marauders were located, and what their numbers were, and what +purpose they might seem bent upon. From the reports of these scouts he +learned that the marauders exceeded him in force by three to one, or +more, but that fact in no way appalled him. During a long experience in +war he had learned well the lesson that numbers count for less than +morale, and that with skill and resoluteness a small force may easily +overcome and destroy a larger one. + +He knew now that his career as a Confederate soldier was at an end. +Federal troops had occupied Lynchburg and all the region round about, +thus completely cutting him off from any possibility of reaching General +Johnston in North Carolina. He had no further mission as a military +officer of the Southern Confederacy, but as a mere man of courage and +vigor he had before him the duty of defending the women and children of +this Virginia plantation against about the worst and most desperate type +of highwaymen who ever organized themselves into a force for purposes of +loot and outrage. + +He sent at once for the best negroes on the plantation--the negroes who +had proved themselves loyal in their affection for their mistresses +throughout the war. Having assembled these he inquired of the women what +arms and ammunition they had. There were the usual number of shotguns +belonging to a plantation, and a considerable supply of powder and +buckshot. Duncan assembled the negroes in the great hall of the +plantation house and said to them: + +"I have seven men here, all armed and all fighters. I have arms enough +for you boys if you are willing to join me in the defense of the ladies +on this plantation against about the worst set of scoundrels that ever +lived on earth." + +Johnny, the head dining-room servant, speaking for all the rest, +replied: + +"In co'se we is. Jest you lead us, mahstah, and you'll see how we'll do +de wu'k." + +Then Duncan armed the negroes, every one of whom knew how to use a gun, +so that he needed not instruct them, and he led them forth with his own +seasoned soldiers at their head. + +"Now then," he said, "we are going to attack these fellows, and you know +perfectly well that they are a lot of cowards, and sneaks, and +scoundrels. If we are all resolute we can whip them out of their boots +within a few minutes. Either we must do that, or they will whip us out +of our boots and destroy us. I do not think there is much doubt about +which is going to whip. Come along, boys." + +The marauders had established themselves in four or five of the negro +quarters on the plantation, and in a certain sense they were strongly +fortified. That is to say, they were housed in cabins built of logs too +thick for any bullet to penetrate them. Four of these cabins were so +placed that a fire from the door and the windows of either of them would +completely command the entrance of each of the others. But to offset +that, and to offset also the superiority of numbers which the marauders +enjoyed, Guilford Duncan decided upon an attack by night. He knew that +he was outnumbered by two or three to one, even if he counted the +willing but untrained negroes whom he had enlisted in this service. But +he did not despair of success. It was his purpose to dislodge the +marauders in a night attack, when he knew that they could not see to +shoot with effect. He knew also that "He is thrice armed who knows his +quarrel just." + +Cautioning his men to maintain silence, and to advance as quickly as +possible, he got them into position and suddenly rushed upon the first +of the four or five negro quarters. Knowing that the door of this house +would be barricaded, he had instructed some of the negroes to bring a +pole with them which might be used as a battering ram. With a rush but +without any hurrah,--for Duncan had ordered quiet as a part of his plan +of campaign,--the negroes carried the great pole forward and instantly +crushed in the door. Within ten seconds afterwards Duncan's +ex-Confederate soldiers, with their pistols in use, were within the +house, and the company of marauders there surrendered--those of them who +had not fallen before the pistol shots. This first flush of victory +encouraged the negroes under his command so far that what had been their +enthusiasm became a positive battle-madness. Without waiting for orders +from him they rushed with their battering ram upon the other houses +occupied by the marauders, as did also his men, who were not accustomed +to follow, but rather to lead, and within a few minutes all of those +negro huts were in his possession, and all their occupants were in +effect his prisoners. + +At this moment Guilford Duncan, who had now no legal or military +authority over his men, lost control of them. Both the negroes and the +white men seemed to go mad. They recognized in the marauders no rights +of a military kind, no title to be regarded as fighting men, and no +conceivable claim upon their conquerors' consideration. Both the negroes +and the white men were merciless in their slaughter of the marauding +highwaymen. Once, in the _mêlée_, Guilford Duncan endeavored to check +their enthusiasm as a barbarity, but his men responded in quick, +bullet-like words, indicating their idea that these men were not +soldiers entitled to be taken prisoners, but were beasts of prey, +rattlesnakes, mad dogs, enemies of the human race, whose extermination +it was the duty of every honest man to seek and to accomplish as quickly +as possible. + +This thought was conveyed rather in ejaculations than in statements +made, and Guilford Duncan saw that there was neither time nor occasion +for argument. The men under his command felt that they were engaged in +defending the lives and the honor of women and children, and they were +in no degree disposed to hesitate at slaughter where so precious a +purpose inspired them. Their attitude of mind was uncompromising. Their +resolution was unalterable. Their impulse was to kill, and their victims +were men of so despicable a kind that after a moment's thought Guilford +Duncan's impulse was to let his men alone. + +The contest lasted for a very brief while. The number of the slaughtered +in proportion to the total number of men engaged was appalling. But this +was not all. To it was immediately added the hasty hanging of men to the +nearest trees, and Guilford Duncan was powerless to prevent that. The +negroes, loyal to the mistresses whom they had served from infancy, had +gone wild in their enthusiasm of defense. They ran amuck, and when the +morning came there was not one man of all those marauders left alive to +tell the story of the conflict. + + * * * * * + +In the meanwhile Guilford Duncan, by means of his men, had gathered +information in every direction. He knew now that all hope was gone of +his joining Johnston's army, even if that army had not surrendered, as +by this time it probably had done. He therefore brought his men +together. Most of them lived in those mountains round about, or in the +lower country east of them, and so he said to them: + +"Men, the war is over. Most of you, as I understand it, live somewhere +near here, or within fifty miles of here. As the last order that I shall +ever issue as a captain, I direct you now to return to your homes at +once. My advice to you is to go to work and rebuild your fortunes as +best you can. We've had our last fight. We've done our duty like men. +We must now do the best that we can for ourselves under extremely +adverse circumstances. Go home. Cultivate your fields. Take care of your +families, and be as good citizens in peace as you have been good +soldiers in war." + +There was a hurried consultation among the men. Presently Sergeant +Garrett spoke for the rest and said: + +"We will not go home, Captain Duncan, until each one of us has written +orders from you to do so. Some of us fellows have children in our homes, +and the rest of us may have children hereafter. We want them to know, as +the years go by, that we did not desert our cause, even in its dying +hours, that we did not quit the army until we were ordered to quit. We +ask of you, for each of us, a written order to go home, or to go +wherever else you may order us to go." + +The Captain fully understood the loyalty of feeling which underlay this +request, and he promptly responded to it. Taking from his pocket a +number of old letters and envelopes, he searched out whatever scraps +there might be of blank paper. Upon these scraps he issued to each man +of his little company a peremptory order to return to his home, with an +added statement in the case of each that he had "served loyally, +bravely, and well, even unto the end." + +That night, before their final parting, the little company slept +together in the midst of a cluster of pine trees, with only one sentry +on duty. + +The next day came the parting. The captain, with tears dimming his +vision, shook hands with each of his men in turn, saying to each, with +choking utterance: "Good-by! God bless you!" + +Then the spokesman of the men, Sergeant Garrett, asked: + +"Are you going home, Captain Duncan?" + +For twenty seconds the young Captain stared at his men, making no +answer. Then, mastering himself, and speaking as one dazed, he replied: + +"Home? Home? On all God's earth I have no home!" + +Instantly he put spurs to his horse, half unconsciously turning toward +the sunset. + +A moment later he vanished from view, over the crest of a hill. + + + + +II + +ALONE IN THE HIGH MOUNTAINS + + +The young man rode long and late that night. His way lay always upward +toward the crests of the high mountains of the Blue Ridge Range. + +The roads he traversed were scarcely more than trails--too steep in +their ascent to have been traveled by wagons that might wear them into +thoroughfares. During the many hours of his riding he saw no sign of +human habitation anywhere, and no prospect of finding food for himself +or his horse, though both were famishing. + +About midnight, however, he came upon a bit of wild pasture land on a +steep mountain side, where his horse at least might crop the early grass +of the spring. There he halted, removed his saddle and bridle, and +turned the animal loose, saying: + +"Poor beast! You will not stray far away. There's half an acre of grass +here, with bare rocks all around it. Your appetite will be leash enough +to keep you from wandering." + +Then the young man--no longer a captain now, but a destitute, starving +wanderer on the face of the earth--threw himself upon a carpet of pine +needles in a little clump of timber, made a pillow of his saddle, drew +the saddle blanket over his shoulders to keep out the night chill, +loosened his belt, and straightway fell asleep. + +Before doing so, however,--faint with hunger as he was, and weary to the +verge of collapse,--he had a little ceremony to perform, and he +performed it--in answer to a sentimental fancy. With the point of his +sword he found an earth-bank free of rock, and dug a trench there. In it +he placed his sword in its scabbard and with its belt and sword-knot +attached. Then drawing the earth over it and stamping it down, he said: + +"That ends the soldier chapter of my life. I must turn to the work of +peace now. I have no fireplace over which to hang the trusty blade. It +is better to bury it here in the mountains in the midst of desolation, +and forever to forget all that it suggests." + +When he waked in the morning a soaking, persistent, pitiless rain was +falling. The young man's clothing was so completely saturated that, as +he stood erect, the water streamed from his elbows, and he felt it +trickling down his body and his legs. + +"This is a pretty good substitute for a bath," he thought, as he removed +his garments, and with strong, nervous hands, wrung the water out of +them as laundresses do with linen. + +He had no means of kindling a fire, and there was no time for that at +any rate. Guilford Duncan had begun to feel the pangs not of mere +hunger, but of actual starvation--the pains that mean collapse and +speedy death. He knew that he must find food for himself and that +quickly. Otherwise he must die there, helpless and alone, on the +desolate mountain side. + +He might, indeed, kill his horse and live for a few days upon its flesh, +until it should spoil. But such relief would be only a postponing of the +end, and without the horse he doubted that he could travel far toward +that western land which he had half unwittingly fixed upon as his goal. + +He was well up in the mountains now, and near the crest of the great +range. The Valley lay beyond, and he well knew that he would find no +food supplies in that region when he should come to cross it. Sheridan +had done a perfect work of war there, so devastating one of the most +fruitful regions on all God's earth that in picturesque words he had +said: "The crow that flies over the Valley of Virginia must carry his +rations with him." + +In the high mountains matters were not much better. There had been no +battling up there in the land of the sky, but the scars and the +desolation of war were manifest even upon mountain sides and mountain +tops. + +For four years the men who dwelt in the rude log cabins of that +frost-bitten and sterile region had been serving as volunteers in the +army, fighting for a cause which was none of theirs and which they did +not at all understand or try to understand. They fought upon instinct +alone. It had always been the custom of the mountain dwellers to +shoulder their guns and go into the thick of every fray which seemed to +them in any way to threaten their native land. They went blindly, they +fought desperately, and they endured manfully. Ignorant, illiterate, +abjectly poor, inured to hardship through generations, they asked no +questions the answers to which they could not understand. It was enough +for them to know that their native land was invaded by an armed foe. +Whenever that occurred they were ready to meet force with force, and to +do their humble mightiest to drive that foe away or to destroy him, +without asking even who he was. + +It had been so in all the Indian wars and in the Revolutionary struggle, +and it was so again in the war between the States. As soon as the call +to arms was issued, these sturdy mountaineers almost to a man abandoned +their rocky and infertile fields to the care of their womankind and went +to war, utterly regardless of consequences to themselves. + +During this last absence of four years their homes had fallen into +fearful desolation. Those homes were log cabins, chinked and daubed, +mostly having earthen floors and chimneys built of sticks thickly +plastered with mud. But humble as they were, they were homes and they +held the wives and children whom these men loved. + +All that was primitive in American life survived without change in the +high mountains of Virginia and the Carolinas. In the Piedmont country +east of the Blue Ridge, and in the tide-water country beyond, until the +war came there were great plantations, where wealthy, or well-to-do, and +highly educated planters lived in state with multitudinous slaves to +till their fertile fields. + +West of the Blue Ridge and between that range and the Alleghenies lay +the Valley of Virginia, a land as fruitful as Canaan itself. + +In that Valley there dwelt in simple but abundant plenty the sturdy +"Dutchmen," as they were improperly called,--men of German descent,--who +had pushed their settlements southward from Pennsylvania along the +Valley, establishing themselves in the midst of fertile fields, owning +few slaves, and tilling their own lands, planting orchards everywhere, +and building not only their houses, but their barns and all their +outbuildings stoutly of the native stone that lay ready to their hands. + +That region was now as barren as Sahara by reason of the devastation +that Sheridan had inflicted upon it with the deliberate and merciless +strategic purpose of rendering it uninhabitable and in that way making +of it a no-thoroughfare for Confederate armies on march toward the +country north of the Potomac, or on the way to threaten Washington +City. + +The little mountain homesteads had been spared this devastation. But +their case was not much better than that of the more prosperous +plantations on the east, or that of the richly fruitful Valley farms on +the west. In war it is not "the enemy" alone who lays waste. Such little +cribs and granaries and smoke houses as these poor mountain dwellers +owned had been despoiled of their stores to feed the armies in the +field. Their boys, even those as young as fourteen, had been drawn into +the army. Their hogs, their sheep, and the few milch cows they +possessed, had been taken away from them. Their scanty oxen had been +converted into army beef, and those of them who owned a horse or a mule +had been compelled to surrender the animal for military use, receiving +in return only Confederate treasury notes, now worth no more than so +much of waste paper. + +Nevertheless Guilford Duncan perfectly understood that he must look to +the impoverished people of the high mountains for a food supply in this +his sore extremity. Therefore, instead of crossing the range by way of +any of the main-traveled passes, he pushed his grass-refreshed steed +straight up Mount Pleasant to its topmost heights. + +There, about noon, he came upon a lonely cabin whose owner had reached +home from the war only a day or two earlier. + +There was an air of desolation and decay about the place, but knowing +the ways of the mountaineers the young man did not despair of securing +some food there. For even when the mountaineer is most prosperous his +fences are apt to be down, his roof out of repair, and all his +surroundings to wear the look of abandonment in despair. + +Duncan began by asking for dinner for himself and his horse, and the +response was what he expected in that land of poverty-stricken but +always generous hospitality. + +"Ain't got much to offer you, Cap'n'," said the owner, "but sich as it +is you're welcome." + +Meanwhile he had given the horse a dozen ears of corn, saying: + +"Reckon 't won't hurt him. He don't look 's if he'd been a feedin' any +too hearty an' I reckon a dozen ears won't founder him." + +For dinner there was a scanty piece of bacon, boiled with wild mustard +plants for greens, and some pones of corn bread. + +To Guilford Duncan, in his starving condition, this seemed a veritable +feast. The eating of it so far refreshed him that he cheerfully answered +all the questions put to him by his shirt-sleeved host. + +It is a tradition in Virginia that nobody can ask so many questions as a +"Yankee," and yet there was never a people so insistently given to +asking questions of a purely and impertinently personal character as +were the Virginians of anything less than the higher and gentler class. +They questioned a guest, not so much because of any idle curiosity +concerning his affairs, as because of a friendly desire to manifest +interest in him and in what might concern him. + +"What mout your name be, Cap'n?" the host began, as they sat at dinner. + +"My name is Guilford Duncan," replied the young man. "But I am not a +Captain now. I'm only a very poor young man--greatly poorer than you +are, for at least you own a home and a little piece of the mountain top, +while I own no inch of God's earth or anything else except my horse, my +four pistols, my saddle and bridle and the clothes I wear." + +"What's your plan? Goin' to settle in the mountings? They say there'll +be big money in 'stillin' whisky an' not a-payin' of the high tax on it. +It's a resky business, or will be, when the Yanks get their-selves +settled down into possession, like; but I kin see you're game fer resks, +an' ef you want a workin' pardner, I'm your man. There's a water power +just a little way down the mounting, in a valley that one good man with +a rifle kin defend." + +"Thank you for your offer," answered Duncan. "But I'm not thinking of +settling in the mountains. I'm going to the West, if I can get there. +Now, to do that, I must cross the Valley, and I must have some +provisions. Can you sell me a side of bacon, a little bag of meal, and a +little salt?" + +"What kin you pay with, Mister?" + +"Well, I have no money, of course, except worthless Confederate paper, +but I have two pairs of Colt's 'Navy Six' revolvers, and I'd be glad to +give you one pair of them for my dinner, my horse's feed, and the +provisions I have mentioned." + +"Now look-a-here, Mister," broke in the mountaineer, rising and +straightening himself to his full height of six feet four. "When you +come to my door you was mighty hungry. You axed fer a dinner an' a hoss +feed, an' I've done give 'em to you, free, gratis, an' fer nothin'. No +man on the face o' God's yearth kin say as how he ever come to Si +Watkins's house in need of a dinner an' a hoss feed 'thout a gittin' +both. An' no man kin say as how Si Watkins ever took a cent o' pay fer a +entertainin' of angels unawares as the preachers says. Them's my +_principles_, an' when you offer to pay fer a dinner an' a hoss feed, +you insults my _principles_." + +"I sincerely beg your pardon," answered Duncan hurriedly. "I am very +grateful indeed for your hospitality, and as a Virginian I heartily +sympathize with your sentiment about not taking pay for food and +lodging, but----" + +"That's all right, Mister. You meant fa'r an' squa'r. But you know how +it is. Chargin' fer a dinner an' a hoss feed is low down Yankee +business. Tavern keepers does it, too, but Si Watkins ain't no tavern +keeper an' he ain't no Yankee, neither. So that's the end o' that +little skirmish. But when it comes to furnishin' you with a side o' +bacon an' some meal an' salt, that's more differenter. That's business. +There's mighty little meal an' mighty few sides o' bacon in these here +parts, but I don't mind a-tellin' you as how my wife's done managed to +hide a few sides o' bacon an' a little meal from the fellers what come +up here to collect the tax in kind. One of 'em found her hidin' place +one day, an' was jest a-goin' to confisticate the meat when, with the +sperrit of a woman, that's in her as big as a house, she drawed a bead +on him an' shot him. He was carried down the mounting by his men, an' +p'r'aps he's done got well. I don't know an' I keers less. Anyhow, we's +done got a few sides o' bacon an' a big bag o' meal an' a bushel o' +salt. Ef you choose to take one o' them sides o' bacon, an' a little +meal an' salt, an' give me one o' your pistols, I'm quite agreeable. The +gun mout come in handy when I git a little still a-goin', down there in +the holler." + +"I'll do better than that," answered Duncan. "I'll give you a pair of +the pistols, as I said." + +"Hold on! Go a leetle slow, Mister, an' don't forgit nothin'. You +preposed to gimme the p'ar o' pistols fer the bacon an' meal an' salt, +_an'_ fer yer dinner an' hoss feed. I've done tole you as how Si Watkins +don't never take no pay fer a dinner an' a hoss feed. So you can't offer +me the p'ar o' pistols 'thout offerin' to pay fer yer entertainment of +man an' beast, an' I won't have that, I tell you." + +"Very well," answered Duncan; "I didn't mean that. I'll give you one of +the pistols in payment for the supply of provisions. That will end the +business part of the matter. Now, I'm going to do something else with +the other pistol--the mate of that one." + +With that he opened his pocket knife and scratched on the silver +mounting of the pistol's butt the legend: "To Si Watkins, in memory of a +visit; from Guilford Duncan, Cairo, Illinois." + +Then handing the inscribed weapon to his host he said: + +"I have a right to make you a little present, purely in the way of +friendship, and not as 'pay' for anything at all. I want to give you +this pistol, and I want you to keep it. I don't know where I am going to +live and work in the West, and I don't know why I wrote 'Cairo, +Illinois' as my address. It simply came to me to do it. Perhaps it's a +good omen. Anyhow, I shall go to Cairo, and if I leave there I'll +arrange to have my letters forwarded to me, wherever I may be. So if +you're in trouble at any time you can write to me at Cairo. I am as poor +as you are now--yes, poorer. But I don't mean to stay poor. If you're in +trouble at any time, I'll do my best to see you through, just as you +have seen me through this time." + + + + +III + +THE NEW BIRTH OF MANHOOD + + +Half an hour later the young man resumed his journey westward, passing +down the farther slopes of the mountain. + +"Wonder why I wrote 'Cairo' as my address," he thought, as his trusty +horse carefully picked his way among the rocks and down the steeps. "I +hadn't thought of Cairo before as even a possible destination. I know +nobody there. I know absolutely nothing about the town, or the +opportunities it may offer. I'm not superstitious, I think, but somehow +this thing impresses me, and to Cairo I shall go--if only to receive Si +Watkins's letter when it comes," he added with a smile. + +Then he began a more practical train of thought. + +"I've food enough now," he reflected, "to last me scantily for a few +days. During that time I must make my way as far as I can toward the +Ohio River at Pittsburg or Wheeling or Parkersburg. When I reach the +River I must have money enough to pay steamboat fare to Cairo. There is +no money in these parts, but West Virginia is practically a Northern +State, and there are greenbacks there. I'll sell my remaining pistols +there. A little later I'll sell my horse, my saddle, and my bridle. The +horse is a good one, and so is the saddle. Surely I ought to get enough +for them to pay my way to Cairo." + +Then came another and a questioning thought: + +"And when I get to Cairo? What then? I've a good university education, +but I doubt that there is a ready market for education in any bustling +Mississippi River town, just now. I'm a graduate in law, but Heaven +knows I know very little about the profession aside from the broad +underlying principles. Besides, I shall have no money with which to open +an office, and who is going to employ a wandering and utterly destitute +stranger to take charge of his legal business?" + +For the moment discouragement dominated the young man's mind. But +presently there came to him a reflection that gave new birth to his +courage. + +"I'm six feet high," he thought, "and broad in proportion. I'm in +perfect physical health. I have muscles that nothing has ever yet tired. +Between the wilderness and Appomattox I have had an extensive experience +in shoveling earth and other hard work. I'm in exceedingly good +training--a trifle underfed, perhaps, but at any rate I carry not one +ounce of superfluous fat on my person. I am perfectly equipped for the +hardest kind of physical work and in a busy western town there is sure +to be work enough of that kind for a strong and willing man to do. I +can at the very least earn enough as a laborer to feed me better than +I've been fed for the four years of war." + +Curiously enough, this prospect of work as a day laborer greatly cheered +the young man. Instead of depressing his spirits, it for the first time +lifted from his soul that incubus of melancholy with which every +Confederate soldier of his class was at first oppressed. Ever since +Grant had refused in the Wilderness--a year before--to retire beyond the +river after receiving Lee's tremendous blows, Guilford Duncan and all +Confederates of like intelligence had foreseen the end and had +recognized its coming as inevitable. Nevertheless, when it came in fact, +when the army of Northern Virginia surrendered, and when the Confederacy +ceased to be, the event was scarcely less shocking and depressing to +their minds than if it had been an unforeseen and unexpected one. + +The melancholy that instantly took possession of such minds amounted to +scarcely less than insanity, and for a prolonged period it paralyzed +energy and made worse the ruin that war had wrought in the South. + +Fortunately Guilford Duncan, thrown at once and absolutely upon his own +resources, thus quickly escaped from the overshadowing cloud. + +And yet his case seemed worse than that of most of his comrades. They, +at least, had homes of some sort to go to; he had none. There was for +them, debt burdened as their plantations were, at least a hope that some +way out might ultimately be found. For him there was no inch of ground +upon which he might rest even a hope. + +Born of an old family he had been bred and educated as one to whom +abundance was to come by inheritance, a man destined from birth to +become in time the master of a great patrimonial estate. + +But that estate was honeycombed with hereditary debt, the result of +generations of lavish living, wasteful methods of agriculture, and +over-generous hospitality. About the time when war came there came also +a crisis in the affairs of Guilford Duncan's father. Long before the war +ended the elder man had surrendered everything he had in the world to +his creditors. He had then enlisted in the army, though he was more than +sixty years old. He had been killed in the trenches before Petersburg, +leaving his only son, Guilford, not only without a patrimony and without +a home, but also without any family connection closer than some distant +half-theoretical cousin-ships. The young man's mother had gently passed +from earth so long ago that he only dimly remembered the sweet nobility +of her character, and he had never had either brother or sister. + +He was thus absolutely alone in the world, and he was penniless, too, as +he rode down the mountain steeps. But the impulse of work had come to +him, and he joyfully welcomed it as something vastly better and +worthier of his strong young manhood than any brooding over misfortune +could be, or any leading of the old aristocratic, half-idle planter +life, if that had been possible. + +In connection with this thought came another. He had recently read Owen +Meredith's "Lucille," and as he journeyed he recalled the case there +described of the French nobleman who for a time wasted his life and +neglected his splendid opportunities in brooding over the downfall of +the Bourbon dynasty, and in an obstinate refusal to reconcile himself to +the new order of things. Duncan remembered how, after a while, when the +new France became involved in the Crimean war, the Frenchman saw a +clearer light; how he learned to feel that, under one regime or another, +it was still France that he loved, and to France that his best service +was due. + +"That," thought Guilford Duncan, "was a new birth of patriotism. Why +should not a similar new birth come to those of us who have fought in +the Confederate Army? After all, the restored Union will be the only +representative left of those principles for which we have so manfully +battled during the last four years--the principles of liberty and equal +rights and local self-government. We Confederates believe, and will +always believe, that our cause was just and right, that it represented +the fundamentals of that American system which our forefathers sealed +and cemented with their blood. But our effort has failed. The +Confederacy is eternally dead. The Union survives. What choice is left +to us who followed Lee, except to reconcile ourselves with our new +environment and help with all our might to preserve and perpetuate +within the Union and by means of it, all of liberty and self-government, +and human rights, that we have tried to maintain by the establishment of +the Confederacy? We must either join heart and soul in that work, or we +must idly sulk, living in the dead past and leaving it to our +adversaries to do, without our help, the great good that, if we do not +sulk, we can so mightily help in doing." + +He paused in his thinking long enough to let his emotions have their +word of protest against a reconciliation which sentiment resented as a +surrender of principle. + +Then, with a resolute determination that was final, he ended the debate +in his own mind between futilely reactionary sentiment and hopeful, +constructive, common sense. + +"I for one, shall live in the future and not in the past. I shall make +the best and not the worst of things as they are. I have put the war and +all its issues completely behind me. For half a century to come the men +on either side will organize themselves, I suppose, into societies whose +purpose will be to cherish and perpetuate the memory of the war, and to +make it a source of antagonism and bitterness. Their work will hinder +progress. I will have nothing to do with it. I am no longer a +Confederate soldier. I am an American citizen. I shall endeavor to do my +duty as such, wholly uninfluenced and unbiased by what has gone before. + +"Surely there can be no abandonment of truth or justice or principle in +that! It is the obvious dictate of common sense and patriotism. During +the war I freely offered my life to our cause. The cause is dead, but I +live. I have youth and strength. I have brains, I think, and I have +education. These I shall devote to such work as I can find to do, such +help as I can render in that upbuilding of my native land which must be +the work of all Americans during the next decade or longer! + +"Good-bye, Confederacy! Good-bye, Army! Good-bye, Lost Cause! I am +young. I must 'look forward and not backward--up and not down.' +Henceforth I shall live and breathe and act for the future, not for the +past! Repining is about the most senseless and profitless occupation +that the human mind can conceive." + +At that moment the young man's horse encountered a huge boulder that had +rolled down from the mountain side, completely blockading the path. With +the spirit and the training that war service had given him, the animal +stopped not nor stayed. He approached the obstacle with a leap or two, +and then, with mighty effort, vaulted over it. + +"Good for you, Bob!" cried the young man. "That's the way to meet +obstacles, and that's the way I am resolved to meet them." + +But the poor horse did not respond. He hobbled on three legs for a +space. His master, dismounting, found that he had torn loose a tendon of +one leg in the leap. + +There was no choice but to drive a bullet into the poor beast's brain by +way of putting him out of his agony. + +Thus was Guilford Duncan left upon the mountain side, more desolate and +helpless than before, with no possessions in all the world except a pair +of pistols, a saddle, a bridle, a side of bacon, a peck of corn meal, +and a few ounces of salt. + +The Valley lay before him in all its barrenness. Beyond that lay +hundreds of miles of Allegheny mountains and the region farther on. + +All this expanse he must traverse on foot before arriving at that great +river highway, by means of which he hoped to reach his destination, a +thousand miles and more farther still to the West. But the new manhood +had been born in Guilford Duncan's soul, and he was no more appalled by +the difficult problem that he must now face than he had been by the fire +of the enemy when battle was on. "Hard work," he reflected, "is the +daily duty of the soldier of peace, just as hard fighting as that of the +warrior." + +Strapping his saddle and bridle on his back he took his bacon and his +salt bag in one hand and his bag of meal in the other. Thus heavily +burdened he set out on foot down the mountain. + +"At any rate my load will grow lighter," he reflected, "every time I +eat, and I'll sell the saddle and bridle at the first opportunity. I'll +make the Ohio River in spite of all." + + + + +IV + +A PRIVATE IN THE ARMY OF WORK + + +It was a truly terrible tramp that the young man had before him, but he +did not shrink. So long as his provisions lasted he pushed forward, +stopping only in the woodlands or by the wayside for sleep and for +eating. By the time that his provisions were exhausted he had passed the +Valley and had crossed the crest of the Alleghenies. + +He was now in a country that had not been wasted by war, a country in +which men of every class seemed to be reasonably prosperous and hard at +work. + +There, by way of replenishing his commissariat, he sold the saddle he +was carrying on his back, and thus lightened his load. + +Fortunately it was a specially good saddle, richly mounted with silver, +and otherwise decorated to please the fancy of the dandy Federal officer +from whose dead horse Duncan had captured it after its owner had been +left stark upon the field in the Wilderness. It brought him now a good +price in money, and to this the purchaser generously added a little +store of provisions, including, for immediate use, some fresh meat--the +first that had passed Duncan's lips for more months past than he could +count upon the fingers of one hand. + +A little later the young man sold his pistols, but as he pushed onward +toward the Ohio River he found that both traveling and living in a +prosperous country were far more expensive than traveling and living in +war-desolated and still moneyless Virginia. + +His little store of funds leaked out of his pockets so fast that, +economize as he might, he found it necessary to ask for work here and +there on his journey. It was spring time, and the farmers were glad +enough to employ him for a day or two each. The wages were meagre +enough, but Duncan accepted them gladly, the more so because the farmers +in every case gave him board besides. Now and then he secured odd jobs +as an assistant to mechanics. In one case he stoked the furnaces of a +coal mine for a week. + +But he did not remain long in any employment. As soon as he had a trifle +of money or a little stock of provisions to the good, he moved onward +toward the river. + +His one dominating and ever-growing purpose was to reach Cairo. What +fortune might await him there he knew not at all, but since he had +scratched that address on the butt of a pistol, the desire to reach +Cairo had daily and hourly grown upon him until it was now almost a +passion. The name "Cairo" in his mind had become a synonym for +"Opportunity." + +It was about the middle of May when the toilsome foot journey ended at +Wheeling. There Duncan, still wearing his tattered uniform, made +diligent inquiry as to steamboats going down the river. He learned that +one of the great coal-towing steamers from Pittsburg was expected within +a few hours, pushing acres of coal-laden barges before her, and he was +encouraged by the information, volunteered on every hand, that the work +of "firing up" under the boilers of these coal-towing boats was so +severe that a goodly number of the stokers always abandoned their +employment in disgust of it, and deserted the boat if she made a landing +at Wheeling, as this approaching one must do for the reason that a +number of coal-laden barges had been left there for her to take in tow. + +It was Guilford Duncan's hope to secure a place on her as a stoker or +coal passer, to take the place of some one of the deserters. This might +enable him, he thought, to earn a little money on the way down the +river, instead of depleting his slenderly stocked purse by paying +steamboat fare. + +With such prospect in mind he ventured to go into the town and purchase +a pair of boots and a suit of clothes fit for wear when he should reach +Cairo. His worn-out uniform would answer all his purposes while serving +as a stoker. + +When the steamboat, with her vast fleet of barges, made a landing, +Guilford Duncan was the first man to leap aboard in search of work. +Unfortunately for him there were few or no deserters from in front of +the furnaces on this trip. He could not secure employment as a stoker +earning wages, but after some persuasion the steamer's captain agreed to +let him "work his passage" to Cairo. That is to say, he was to pay no +fare, receive no wages, and do double work in return for his passage +down the river and for the coarse and unsavory food necessary for the +maintenance of his strength. + +"All this is a valuable part of my education," he reflected. "I am +learning the important lesson that in work as in warfare the man counts +for nothing--the service that can be got out of him is the only thing +considered by those in command. I must remember all that, if ever I am +in a position to make a bargain for the sale of my services." + +It was in this spirit that the young ex-Captain entered upon his new +career in the army of those that work. He was beginning at the bottom in +the new service, just as he had done in the old. "I set out as a private +in the army," he said to himself. "It was only when I had learned enough +to fit me for the command of others that I was placed in authority. Very +well, I'm beginning as a private again. I must learn all that I can, for +I mean to command in that army, too, some day." + + + + +V + +THE BEGINNING OF A CAREER + + +It was a little after sunset on Decoration Day--May 30, 1865--when young +Duncan went ashore from the tow boat at Cairo. The town was ablaze with +fireworks, as he made his way up the slope of the levee, through a +narrow passage way that ran between two mountainous piles of cotton +bales. At other points there were equally great piles of corn and oats +in sacks, pork in barrels, hams and bacon in boxes, and finer goods of +every kind in bales and packing cases. For Cairo was just at that time +the busiest _entrepôt_ in all the Mississippi Valley. + +The town was small, but its business was larger than that of many great +cities. The little city lay at the point where the Ohio River runs into +the Mississippi. From up and down the Mississippi, from the Ohio, from +the Tennessee and the Cumberland, and even from far up the Missouri, +great fleets of steamboats were landing at Cairo every day to load and +unload cargoes representing a wealth as great as that of the Indies. A +double-headed railroad from the North, carrying the produce of half a +dozen States, and connecting by other roads with all the great cities +of the land, made its terminus at Cairo. Two railroads from the +South--traversing five States--ended their lines at Columbus, a little +farther down the river, and were connected with the northern lines by +steamboats from Cairo. + +Cairo was the meeting place of commerce between the North and the South. +Out of the upper rivers came light-draught steamers. Plying the river +below were steamers of far different construction by reason of the +easier conditions of navigation there. At Cairo every steamboat--whether +from North or South--unloaded its freight for reshipment up or down the +river, as the case might be, upon steamboats of a different type, or by +rail. And all the freight brought North or South by rail must also be +transferred at Cairo, either to river steamers or to railroad cars. + +The South was still thronged with Northern troops, numbering hundreds of +thousands, who must be fed and clothed, and otherwise supplied, and so +the government's own traffic through the town was in itself a trade of +vast proportions. But that was the smallest part of the matter. Now that +the war was at an end, the South was setting to work to rebuild itself. +From the Cumberland and the Tennessee rivers, from the lower +Mississippi, from the Arkansas, the Yazoo, the Red River, the White, the +St. Francis, and all the rest of the water-ways of the South, energetic +men, of broken fortune, were hurrying to market all the cotton that they +had managed to grow and to save during the war, in order that they might +get money with which to buy the supplies needed for the cultivation of +new crops. + +Pretty nearly all this cotton came to Cairo, either for sale to eager +buyers there, or for shipment to the East and a market. + +In return the planters and the southern merchants through whom they did +business were clamorous for such goods as they needed. Grain, hay, pork, +bacon, agricultural implements, seed potatoes, lime, plaster, lumber, +and everything else necessary to the rebuilding of southern homes and +industries, were pouring into Cairo and out again by train loads and +steamboat cargoes, night and day. + +Even that was not all. For four years no woman in the South had +possessed a new gown, or new handkerchiefs, or a new toothbrush, or a +new set of window curtains, or a new comb, or new linen for her beds, or +new shoes of other than plantation make, or a new ribbon or bit of lace, +or anything else new. Now that the northern market was open for the sale +of cotton the country merchants of the South were besieged for all these +and a hundred other things, and their orders for goods from the North +added mightily to the freight piles on the levee at Cairo. + +As Guilford Duncan emerged from the alley-way between the cotton bales +and reached the street at top of the levee, a still burning fragment of +the fireworks fell upon a bale of which the bagging was badly torn, +exposing the lint cotton in a way very tempting to fire. With the +instinct of the soldier he instantly climbed to the top of the pile, +tore away the burning bunches of lint cotton, and threw them to the +ground, thus preventing further harm. + +As he climbed down again a man confronted him. + +"Are you a watchman?" asked the man. + +"No, I'm only a man in search of work." + +"Why did you do that, then?" queried the stranger, pointing to the still +burning cotton scattered on the ground. + +"On general principles, I suppose," answered Duncan. "There would have +been a terrible fire if I hadn't." + +"What's your name?" + +"Guilford Duncan." + +"Want work?" + +"Yes." + +"What sort?" + +"Any sort--for good wages." That last phrase was the result of his +stoker experience. + +"Well, do you want to watch this cotton to-night and see that no harm +comes to it, either from fire, or--what's worse--the cotton thieves that +go down the alleys, pulling out all the lint they can from the torn +bales?" + +"Yes, if I can have fair wages." + +"Will three dollars for the night be fair wages?" + +"Yes--ample. How far does your freight extend up and down the levee?" + +"It's pretty nearly all mine, but I have other watchmen on other parts +of it. This is a new cargo. Your beat will extend----" and he gave the +young man his boundaries. + +"You'll be off duty at sunrise. Come to me at seven o'clock for your +pay. I'm Captain Will Hallam. Anybody in Cairo will tell you where my +office is. Good-night." + +This was an excellent beginning, Duncan thought. Three dollars was more +money than he had carried in his pocket at any time since he had bought +his suit of clothes at Wheeling. Better still, the promptitude with +which employment had thus come to him was encouraging, although the +employment was but for a night. And when he reflected that he had won +favor by doing what seemed to him an act of ordinary duty, he was +disposed to regard the circumstance as another lesson in the new service +of work. + +The night passed without event of consequence. There were two or three +little fires born of the holiday celebration, but Guilford Duncan +managed to suppress them without difficulty. Later in the night the +swarm of cotton thieves--mainly boys and girls--invaded the levee, with +bags conveniently slung over their shoulders. As there were practically +no policemen in the town, and as his beat was a large one, young Duncan +for a time had difficulty in dealing with these marauders. But after he +had arrested half a dozen of them only to find that there were no police +officers to whom he could turn them over, he adopted a new plan. He +secured a heavy stick from a bale of hay, and with that he clubbed every +cotton thief he could catch. As a soldier it was his habit to adapt +means to ends; so he hit hard at heads, and seized upon all the stolen +goods. It was not long before word was passed among the marauders that +there was "a devil of a fellow" in charge of that part of the levee, and +for the rest of the night the pilferers confined their operations to +spaces where a less alert watchfulness gave them better and safer +opportunities. + +Thus passed Guilford Duncan's first night as a common soldier in the +great army of industry. + +In the morning, at the hour appointed, he presented himself to Captain +Will Hallam, and was taken into that person's private office for an +interview. + + + + +VI + +A CAPTAIN IN THE ARMY OF WORK + + +Captain Will Hallam Was a Man Of The Very Shrewdest sense, +fairly--though not liberally--educated, whose life, from boyhood onward, +had been devoted to the task of taking quick advantage of every +opportunity that the great river traffic of the fifties had offered to +men of enterprise and sound judgment. + +Beginning as a barefoot boy--about 1850, or earlier, he never mentioned +the date--he had "run the river" in all sorts of capacities until, when +the war came, temporarily paralyzing the river trade, he had a +comfortable little sum of money to the good. + +Unable to foresee what the course and outcome of the war might be, he +determined, as a measure of prudence, to indulge himself and his little +hoard in a period of safe waiting. He converted all his possessions into +gold and deposited the whole of it in a Canadian bank, where, while it +earned no interest, it was at any rate perfectly safe. + +Then he sought and secured a clerkship in the commissary department of +the army, living upon the scant salary that the clerkship afforded, and +meanwhile acquainting himself in minute detail with the food resources +of every quarter of the country, the means and methods of transportation +and handling, and everything else that could in any wise aid him in +making himself a master in commerce. + +Then one day in 1863, when he had satisfied himself that the fortunes of +war were definitely turning and that in the end the Union cause was +destined to triumph, he made a change. + +He resigned his clerkship. He recalled his money from Canada, and +considerably increased at least its nominal amount by converting the +gold into greatly depreciated greenbacks. + +With this capital he opened a commission and forwarding house at Cairo, +together with a coal yard, a bank, five wharf boats, half a dozen tugs, +an insurance office, a flour mill, and other things. He sent for his +brothers to act as his clerks and presently to become his partners. + +From the beginning he made money rapidly, and from the beginning he was +eagerly on the lookout for opportunities, which in that time of rapid +change were abundant. He quickly secured control of nearly all the +commission and forwarding business that centered at Cairo. By +underbidding the government itself he presently had contracts for all +the vast government business of that character. + +He was always ready to take up a collateral enterprise that promised +results. When the Mississippi River was reopened to commerce by the fall +of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Captain Will Hallam was the first to see +and seize the opportunity. He bought everything he could lay his hands +on in the way of steamboats and barges, and sent them all upon trading +voyages--each under charge of a captain, but each directed by his own +masterful mind--up and down the Mississippi, and up and down the Ohio, +and up and down every navigable tributary of those great rivers. + +This field was quickly made his own, so far as he cared to occupy it. If +a rival attempted a competition that might hurt his enterprises, Captain +Hallam quietly and quite without a ripple of anger in his voice, +dictated some letters to his secretary. Then freight rates suddenly fell +almost to the vanishing point, and after a disastrous trip or two, his +adversary's steamboats became his own by purchase at low prices, and +freight rates went up again. He bore no enmity to the men who thus +antagonized him in business and whom he thus conquered. His attitude +toward them was precisely that of a soldier toward his enemy. So long as +they antagonized him he fought them mercilessly; as soon as they fell +into his hands as wounded prisoners, he was ready and eager to do what +he could for them. + +Those of them who knew the river, and had shown capacity in business, +were made steamboat captains in his service, or steamboat clerks, or +wharf-boat managers, or agents, or something else--all at fair +salaries. + +It was Captain Will Hallam's practice to make partners of all men who +might render him service in that capacity. Thus when he saw how great a +business there must be at Cairo in supplying Pittsburg steam coal to the +government fleets on the Mississippi, and to the thousands of other +steamboats trafficking in those waters, he went at once to Pittsburg and +two days later he had made a certain Captain Red his partner in the +control of that vastly rich trade. + +Captain Red was the largest owner of the Pittsburg mines, and the +pioneer in the business of carrying coal-laden barges in acres and +scores of acres down the river, pushing them with stern-wheel steamers +of large power, but still of a power insufficient for the accomplishment +of the best results. + +Captain Red's fleet was unable to control the trade. Captain Hallam +pointed out to him the desirability of making it adequate and dominant. +Within two days the two had formed a partnership which included a number +of New York bankers and investors as unknown and silent stockholders in +the enterprise, and an abundant capital was provided. An order was given +for the hurried building of the Ajax, the Hector, the Agamemnon, the +Hercules, and half a dozen other stern-wheel steamers of power so great +that they could not carry the coal needed for their own furnaces, but +must tow it in barges alongside. + +These powerful steamers were to push vast fleets of coal-laden barges +down the river all the way from Pittsburg on the east to St. Louis on +the west, and New Orleans on the south. They were to supply, through +Hallam's agents, every town along the river and every steamboat that +trafficked to any part of it. Hallam was master of it all. Cairo was to +be the central distributing point, and if anybody along the river owned +a coal mine in Kentucky or Indiana, or elsewhere, he was quickly made to +understand that his best means of marketing his product at a profit was +to sell it through the Hallam yards at Cairo. + +In the meanwhile, as one region after another in the South was conquered +by the Union arms, Captain Hallam, whose long river service had brought +him into acquaintance with pretty nearly everybody worth knowing south +of Cairo, established agents of his own at every point where there was +cotton to be bought at extravagant prices, payable in gold, even while +the war was going on. These agents bought the cotton, the planters +agreeing to deliver it upon the banks of the rivers and leave it there +at Hallam's risk. Then Captain Hallam's steamboats, big and little, +would push their way up the little rivers, take the cotton on board, and +carry it to Cairo. + +At Cairo, while the war lasted, there were difficulties to be +encountered. Military authority was supreme, and just when the influx of +cotton was greatest, military authority arbitrarily decreed that no +cotton should be shipped from Cairo to the North or East without a +military permit. For a time this decree seriously embarrassed trade. The +warehouses in Cairo were choked and glutted with cotton. New ones were +built only to be choked in the same way. The levee was piled high with +precious bales. Even vacant lots and unoccupied blocks in the low-lying +town were rented and made storage places for cotton bales, piled into +veritable mountains of wealth. For cotton was worth forty or fifty cents +a pound, and even more, at that time, and scores of mills were idle for +want of raw material, both in England and in New England, while not a +bale could be shipped because the military authorities would issue no +permits. + +Will Hallam one day set himself down to think this thing out. "Why do +the military authorities deny us shipping permits?" he asked himself. +"The eastern buyers want the cotton, and we western holders of it want +to sell it to them. There is absolutely no military or other good reason +why the owner of cotton in one northern city should not be allowed to +ship it to other northern cities where it is needed." Then he saw a +light. + +"The military people, or some of them, want a slice of the profit. +That's what's the matter. I don't like to pay a bribe, but in a military +time like this, and while Cairo is under martial law, I suppose I must +submit to conditions as they are. I'm no theorist or moralist. I'm +fairly honest, I think, but I'm a practical business man. Besides, I've +a dozen partners interested in this cotton, and I owe it to them to get +it off to a market. If I don't, most of them will go to the bowwows, +financially. The military authorities have no right to forbid shipment +and ruin men in this way, but they have the power and they are +exercising it. What's that the Bible says about ploughing with the other +fellow's heifer, and making friends with the Mammon of unrighteousness? +I always play the game according to the rules, no matter whether I like +the rules or not. I'll play this hand in that way." + +Then turning to his secretary, he said: + +"Call the main office cashier by telegraph and tell him to come to me at +once, here at the house." + +There were no telephones in that day, but Captain Will Hallam was +accustomed to say that, living, as he did, in the nineteenth century, he +made free use of nineteenth century conveniences in his business. He had +laced the little city with telegraph wires, connecting his house not +only with his office, and many warehouses, but with the houses of all +the chief men in his employ, even to the head drayman. And he exacted of +every one of his employees a reasonable facility in the use of the Morse +telegraph. + +Captain Hallam had many rules for the governance of his own conduct. +Among them were these: + +"Never be a fool--look at the practical side of things. + +"Never let anything run away with you--keep cool. + +"Never be in a hurry--make the other fellows do the hustling. + +"Never let the men you work with know what you are doing--they might +talk, or they might do a little business on their own account. + +"Never be satisfied with anything as it is--there is always some way of +bettering it. + +"Never send good money after bad--it doesn't pay. + +"Never waste energy in regretting a loss--there's a better use for +energy. + +"Never hesitate to pay for your education as you get it--use the +telegraph freely, and keep in close communication with the men who are +likely to know what you want to know. + +"When you want a man to keep still, make it worth his while--but don't +say anything to him about it. That opens the way to blackmail. + +"Never take a drink--it unbalances the judgment. + +"Never get angry--that's worse than taking a dozen drinks. + +"Never do anything till you are ready to do it all over and clear +through." + +In obedience to the spirit of these rules, Captain Will Hallam, as soon +as he had sent off his telegraphic messages, went out into his garden +and hoed a while. Then he called John, his English gardener, and gave +him some minute instructions respecting the care of certain plants. John +resented the impertinence of course, but he obeyed the instructions, +nevertheless. It was the fixed habit of men who worked for Captain Will +Hallam to obey his commands. + +Presently the cashier presented himself, with check book in hand. + +"Draw a check for five thousand dollars," commanded Captain Hallam, +"payable 'to the King of Holland or Bearer'. Mind, I say 'bearer,' _not_ +'order.' Then draw another check for one hundred dollars, payable to +yourself." + +Not another word was said. No explanation of the gift to the cashier was +offered or asked. The cashier understood. He drew the checks and his +employer signed them. The smaller one he handed to his subordinate. The +vastly larger one he thrust into his vest pocket, as he moved around a +corner of the piazza to set his little girls swinging in a new +contrivance which he had purchased for their use. + +Presently he returned to his secretary and said: + +"Telegraph Mr. Kingsbury to make out an application in proper form for a +military permit to ship five thousand bales of cotton to New York. Tell +him to have it ready for me at two o'clock at the main office." + +Two hours later Captain Hallam found the application ready for him on +his office desk. After looking it over he signed and carefully folded it +after the fashion required for military documents, but as he did so he +slipped into it the check for five thousand dollars, payable to the +"King of Holland or Bearer." + +No mention of the check was made in the document. If the proceeding +should be resented at headquarters, the enclosure could be excused on +the plea of accident. + +Then the man of business bade his secretary envelop the package and send +it by messenger to military headquarters. + +It came back promptly with this endorsement on it: + +"Application denied. The proposed shipment is larger than this office +regards as proper _under existing circumstances_." + +The last three words were heavily and suggestively underscored. Captain +Hallam thought he understood. He was in the habit of understanding +quickly. He called the cashier, handed him the check, first tearing it +into four pieces, and bade him cancel the stub and draw a new check for +ten thousand dollars, payable as before, to "the King of Holland _or +Bearer_." + +Then he endorsed the application with the sentence: + +"As conditions have somewhat changed since this application was +rejected, I venture to ask a reconsideration." + +Half an hour later Captain Hallam was duly and officially notified that +his application for permission to ship five thousand bales of cotton was +granted. + +The check--without endorsement--was cashed next day--the bank teller +would never say by whom. But in the meanwhile Captain Hallam had said +to his secretary: + +"Telegraph the general freight agent at Chicago for freight cars, as +fast as he can let me have them. Say I have five thousand bales of +cotton awaiting shipment, with more to come as fast as I can get +permits." + +Then Captain Hallam mounted his horse and rode away for a +"constitutional." + +All this occurred a year or two before the time of Guilford Duncan's +arrival in Cairo; but it was peculiarly characteristic of Captain +Hallam's methods and the story of it is illustrative of his ideas. + + + + +VII + +THE "SIZING UP" OF GUILFORD DUNCAN + + +Captain Will Hallam was quick to make up his mind with regard to a man. +He was exceedingly accurate in his human judgments, too, and his +confidence in them had been strengthened by experience in successfully +acting upon them. As he phrased it, he "knew how to size a man up," and, +as the employer of multitudes of men in all parts of the country and in +all sorts of capacities, he had daily need of the skill he had acquired +in that art. It was as much a part of his equipment for the conduct of +his vast and varied enterprises as was his money capital itself. + +When young Duncan presented himself in the private office after his +night's vigil as a watchman, Captain Hallam asked him to sit. That was a +recognition of his social status as something better than his employment +of the night before might have suggested. Ordinarily a man employed as a +levee watchman would not have been told to come to the private office at +all. Nor would such a man have seen anybody higher than a junior clerk +in collecting his wages. + +But Captain Hallam had been impressed by this newcomer, and he wanted to +talk with him. + +He broke at once into a catechism. + +"Why did you do that little fire-extinguishing act last night?" + +He asked the question precisely as he might have done if he had resented +the saving of his wealth of cotton. + +"Oh, it was simple enough. The fire meant damage, and I was there. So, +of course, I put it out." + +"But why? The cotton wasn't yours, and you hadn't been hired to watch +it." + +"No, of course not. But when a gentle----I mean when any decent man +sees property afire he doesn't ask whose it is before putting out the +blaze." + +"You're a Virginian, I should say, from your voice--late of the rebel +army. What's your rank?" + +"None now. I've put the war completely behind me. I'm beginning life +anew." + +"Good! I wish everybody, north and south, would do the same. But fools +won't, and men are mostly fools, you know. When did you get to Cairo?" + +"About five minutes before you saw me putting out the fire. I came down +the river on the big tow boat." + +"Where's your baggage?" + +"On my back. I have no other clothes. I'll buy some when I earn some +money." + +"Where have you been since the surrender?" + +"Making my way West." + +"How?" + +"On foot to Wheeling. Then on the tow boat." + +"What fare did they make you pay?" + +"None. I worked my way as a stoker--fireman they call it out here." + +"No wages? Just passage and grub?" + +"That was all." + +"What have you got on your wheel house?" + +"I fear I don't understand." + +"Oh, that's river slang. You know every side-wheel steamer has a +statement of her destination painted on her wheel house. I meant to ask +what are your plans?" + +"To find work and do it." + +"What kind of work?" + +"Any kind that's honest." + +"You are educated, I suppose?" + +"Yes, in a way. I'm an A. M. and a graduate in law." + +"Know anything about business?" + +"No, but I shall learn." + +"If you can, you mean?" + +"Oh, I can. A capable man can learn anything if he really wants to." + +"I don't know about that. But I'll gamble on the proposition that you +can." + +"Thank you." + +"No thanks are needed. I wasn't complimenting. I was just expressing an +opinion." + +Scribbling a memorandum on a scrap of paper, Captain Hallam handed it to +Duncan, saying: + +"Give that to the cashier as you go out, and get your wages. Then you'd +better get your breakfast. I recommend you, while you're poor, to eat at +the little booths along the levee, where they sell very good sandwiches +and coffee cheap. After breakfast, if you choose to come back here I'll +try to find something for you to do. Oh, I forgot. You were up all +night, so you'll want to sleep." + +There was an interrogative note in the last sentence. Captain Hallam was +"sizing up" his man, and he closely scrutinized Duncan's face as the +answer came. + +"Oh, I'm used to night duty. I'm ready for a day's work if you can give +me one. As for breakfast, I've had it." + +"Then you had money?" + +"A very little; but I didn't spend any of it. I sawed and split a load +of wood for the keeper of a booth, and he gave me some bread and ham and +coffee for my work." + +"Oh, that's the way you managed it. Very well. Come back here in two +hours anyhow." + +After the young man had passed out, Captain Hallam said to one of his +partner brothers: + +"That fellow is a good sort. He has sand in his gizzard. When he comes +back set him at work at something or other--several things in succession +in fact--and find out what he can do." + +Such was Guilford Duncan's mustering into the new service of work. + + + + +VIII + +ON DUTY + + +During the next four or five days Guilford Duncan was kept busy with +various small employments, some of them out of doors and some of them in +the office. During this time Captain Hallam did not again engage him in +conversation, but Duncan knew that the man of business was closely +observing his work. He was not slow to discover that he was giving +satisfaction. He saw that with each day the work assigned him was of a +kind that required a higher intelligence than that of the day before. + +Every evening the cashier paid him his day's wages, thus reminding him +that he was not a salaried employee of the house, but a man working for +wages from day to day. + +Out of his first wages he had purchased a change of very cheap +underwear, a towel, and a cake of soap. Every morning about daylight he +went to a secluded spot on the levee, for a scrub and a swim. Then he +washed out his towel and placed it with his other small belongings, in a +storage place he had discovered in a great lumber pile. + +One morning when he entered the office Captain Hallam gave him several +business letters to answer from memoranda scribbled upon them by clerks +or others. He gave him also a memorandum in his own handwriting, saying: + +"Cut that down if you can and make a telegram of it. I'll be back in +half an hour or so. Have it ready for me." + +The case was this: A huge steamboat lay at the levee, loaded almost to +the water's edge with grain which Captain Hallam was more than anxious +to hurry to New Orleans to meet a sudden temporary and very marked +advance in that market. That morning the boat had been "tied up"--as the +phrase went--that is to say, she had been legally attached for debt, at +the suit of a firm in St. Louis. Until the attachment should be removed +the boat must lie at Cairo, in charge of a sheriff's officer. Captain +Hallam wished to secure her immediate release, and to that end he +purposed sending the telegram. + +When he returned to the office Duncan handed him for inspection and +signature the letters he had written. + +"Here is the telegram, also," he said, "but, if you will pardon the +impertinence, I think you had better not send it--at least in the form +you have given it." + +"What's the matter?" quickly snapped Hallam. + +"It binds you to more than I think you intend." + +"Go on! Explain!" + +"Why, I cannot help seeing that if you send this dispatch you will make +yourself legally responsible, not only for the claim for which the boat +is now attached, but also for every claim against her that may exist +anywhere. There may be none such, or there may be many. In any case I do +not think you intend to assume them all." + +"Go on! The boat must be got away. What do you advise?" + +"That you go on her bond for this claim--which seems to me so clearly +illegal that I think you can never be held upon the bond--and----" + +"Remind me, when this is over, that you are to come to my house to-night +for consultation on that point. Now go on." + +"Well, by going on her bond for this claim, instead of asking the +creditors to release the boat on your promise as made in the telegram, +you can secure her immediate release, making yourself liable, at worst, +for no more than the six hundred dollars claimed." + +"But if I do that, what is to prevent another tie-up at Memphis and +another at Vicksburg and others wherever the boat may happen to land. +She's in debt up to the top of her smokestacks, all along the river." + +"As you own the cargo, and she can't carry another ton, why should you +let her stop at all? I suppose the captain would do as you desire in +that matter. You might request him to run through without any +landings." + +"Request be hanged. I'll tell him what to do and he'll do it. He knows +where cargoes come from. Can you get the papers ready?" + +"I can, sir." + +"All right. Do it at once." Then turning to a shipping clerk he sent for +the captain of the steamer, to whom he said: + +"Get up steam at once. You are to leave in less than an hour. How much +coal have you?" + +The captain told him. + +"Take two light barges of coal in tow, one on each side, and draw on +them for fuel. When they're empty cast them loose with two men on each +to land them. You can pick them up on your return trip. You are to steam +to New Orleans without a landing anywhere. You understand?" + +The captain understood. By this time the papers were ready and after +half an hour spent in legal formalities the released steamboat cast +loose from the wharf and backed out into the river. + +Then Captain Hallam turned to Guilford Duncan and said: + +"I've an idea that you'll do. If you like I'll put you at regular work +at a monthly salary, and we'll see how we get on together." + +"I should like that." + +"Very well. Now, where are you boarding?" + +"Nowhere. I get what I want to eat at the booths down along the levee." + +"But where do you sleep?" + +"Among the big lumber piles down there on Fourth street." + +Captain Hallam looked at the young man for a moment with something like +admiration in his eyes. Presently he said: + +"You'll do. You've got grit and you'll 'make the riffle,' sure. But you +must live more regularly, now that you are to have a salary. I know what +it means to live as you've been doing. I used to do it myself. I could +tell to a cent the nutritive value of a pegged pie or a sewed one, and +at a single glance I could guess the probable proportions of the dog and +cat in a sausage. That sort of thing's all right for a little while, but +not for long, and as for the sleeping among lumber piles, it's risky. I +used to sleep in an empty sugar hogshead by preference, but sleeping out +of doors may give you rheumatism." + +"I've been doing it for four years," answered Duncan, smiling, "and I +still have the use of my limbs." + +"Yes, of course. I didn't think of that. But you must live better now. +There's a well-furnished room above the office. It was my brother's +quarters before he got married, and it is very comfortable. You can take +it for your own. Give Dutch John, the scrub boy, half a dollar a week to +take care of it for you and that's all the rent you need pay. As for +your meals, most young men in Cairo feed their faces at the hotel. But +that's expensive and what the proprietor calls his 'kuzene' is +distinctly bad. There's a lady, however,--Mrs. Deming,--who furnishes +very good 'square meals,' I hear, over in Walnut street. You'd better +try there, I think. She's what you would call a gentlewoman, but she +needs all the money you'll pay her." + +Duncan wondered a little what a 'square meal' might be, but he was +getting somewhat used to the prevalence in the West of those figurative +forms of expression which we call slang. So he took it for granted that +"square meals" were for some reason preferable to meals of any other +geometrical form, and answered simply that he would look up Mrs. +Deming's house after business hours should be over. + +"Remember," said Captain Hallam as he passed out of the office, "you are +to see me at my house to-night. Better come to supper--say at seven--and +after supper we'll talk over that law point you mentioned, and other +things." + +Duncan wondered a little that Captain Hallam should give him so intimate +an invitation when he knew so little of him. Everybody else in the +office understood. Captain Will was planning to "size up his man" still +further, in an evening's conversation. + + + + +IX + +ONE NIGHT'S WORK + + +As the weeks and months went on the results of Guilford Duncan's work +completely justified the confident assertion he had made to Captain +Hallam that _a capable man can learn anything if he really wants to_. + +He rapidly familiarized himself with the technicalities, as well as with +the methods and broad principles of business. He sat up till midnight +for many nights in succession, in order to learn from the head +bookkeeper the rather scant mysteries of bookkeeping. By observing the +gaugers who measured coal barges to determine their contents, he quickly +acquired skill in doing that. + +It was so with everything. He was determined to master every art and +mystery that in anywise pertained to business, whether the skill in +question was or was not one that he was ever likely to need or to +practice. + +His diligence, his conscientiousness in work, his readiness of resource, +his alert intelligence, and his sturdy integrity daily commended him +more and more to the head of the firm, and not many months had passed +before everyone in the office tacitly recognized the young Virginian as +the confidential adviser and assistant of Captain Hallam himself, though +no formal appointment of that kind had been made. + +But no advance of salary came to the young man as a result. It was one +of Captain Hallam's rules never to pay a man more for his services than +he must, and never to advance a man's salary until the advance was asked +for. + +Captain Hallam was in no fibre of his being a miser, but he acted always +upon those cold-blooded prudential principles that had brought him +wealth. It was not money that this great captain of commerce worshiped, +but success. Success was the one god of his idolatry. Outside of his +business he was liberal in the extreme. Even in his business operations +he never hesitated at lavish expenditure where such expenditure promised +good results. But he regarded all unnecessary spending as waste, of the +kind that imperils success. + +In his cynical moments, indeed, he sometimes said that "if you have a +valuable man in your employ, you must keep him poor; otherwise you'll +lose him." But in so saying he perhaps did himself an injustice. He was +apt to feign a heartless selfishness that he did not feel. + +Little by little Guilford Duncan had learned all this as he had learned +business methods. He had at first modestly proposed to himself nothing +more in the way of achievement than to make himself a valuable +subordinate--a private, or at most a corporal or a sergeant--in the +ranks of the great army of work. But before many months had passed his +modesty was compelled to yield somewhat to an increasingly clear +understanding of conditions and possibilities. Somewhat to his own +surprise he began to suspect himself of possessing capacities superior +to those of the men about him, and even superior to those of many men +who had risen to high place in commerce and finance. + +As Captain Hallam came more and more to rely upon the sagacity and +character of this his most trusted man, he more and more brought young +Duncan into those confidential conferences with the leading men of +affairs, which were frequently necessary in the planning and execution +of important enterprises, or in the meeting of difficulties and +obstacles. In that way Duncan was brought into personal contact with the +recognized masters--big and little--with railroad presidents, +financiers, bankers, capitalists, and other men whose positions were in +a greater or less degree commanding. + +At first he modestly held himself as nothing more than the tool and +servitor of these great men. But presently he began to suspect that they +were not very great men after all--to see that it was usually he himself +who devised and suggested the enterprises that these men undertook, and +he who saved them from mistakes in the execution of those enterprises. + +Guilford Duncan had never in his life kept a diary. He regarded that +practice as a useless puerility and usually an indulgence in morbid +self-communing and unwholesome self-consciousness. But it was his +practice, sometimes, late at night, to set down upon paper such thoughts +as had interested him during the day, for the sole sake of formulating +them in his own mind. Often he would in this way discuss with himself +questions concerning which he had not yet matured his opinion. + +He found the practice conducive to clear thinking and sound judgment. It +served for him the same purpose that the writing of intimate letters +might have done if he had had any intimates to whom to write letters. + +"I've been in conference this day," he wrote one night, "with half a +dozen nabobs--not great nabobs, but second rate ones. Mr. M---- was the +biggest one. He's a railroad president, and he always talks loftily of +his 'system' when he means the single railroad he presides over and its +little branches. Then there was D----. He's a General Freight Agent, and +he never forgets the fact or lets anybody else forget it. That's because +he was a small shipping clerk until less than two years ago. I don't +think much of his capacity. Yes, I do. He knows how to manage a big +traffic fairly well, and he has had _nous_ enough to climb out of his +small clerkship into a position of responsibility. What I mean is that +he has little education, no culture, and no intelligence outside of +business. But I begin to see that except in its very highest places, +business does not require anything better than good ordinary ability +inspired by inordinate selfishness. Perhaps that is the reason that the +novelists so rarely--I may say never--take a man of business for the +hero of a romantic story. + +"All this has put a new thought into my mind. Why should not I, Guilford +Duncan, make myself a leader, a captain, or even a commanding general of +affairs. I am far better educated than any of these men. They hold that +education is a hindrance rather than a help in business, but in that +they are mightily wrong, as I intend presently to show them. Other +things being equal, a man of trained mind should certainly achieve +better results, even in business, than a man of untrained mind. A man of +trained mind, if he has natural capacity and energy, _can do anything +that he chooses to do_. I must never forget that. + +"But the man who would do things of any consequence in business ways +must have money. The bank account is his tool chest. + +"I suggested some combinations to-night to those nabobs, and they are +going to carry them out. They would never have thought of the +combinations but for my suggestion. But they can and will carry them +out, with great credit and profit to themselves, because they have +command of money. _I_ could not even think of conducting such affairs, +simply because I have no command of money. + +"Very well, then. I shall proceed to get money, just as I should study +to acquire skill in a profession, or just as I should read up the law +pertaining to a matter with which I must deal. + +"I shall not learn to love money. That would degrade my soul. I shall +regard money always as a means--a mere tool with which to do such work +as I can in this great undeveloped country. + +"That also is something to be remembered. The era of development is just +beginning. These men are nation builders, though they don't know it, or +intend it, or care anything about that aspect of their activities. Their +motives are the sordid impulses of greed and selfish ambition alone. + +"At least that is true of all of them except Captain Hallam. He is a man +apart. His attitude is a peculiar one. He does not care for wealth in +itself and yet he scrambles for it as greedily and as hungrily as the +rest of them. Sometimes I think he regards the whole thing as a game +which he enjoys playing with superior skill, just as one might with +whist or chess. He likes to win, not for the sake of the winnings, but +for the sake of the winning. + +"I must go to bed now. To-morrow I'll begin thinking out plans for +getting money. One thing is sure. No man can get much money by working +for any other man. The man who gets rich is he who hires other men to +work for him for less than their work is worth. But it is only by +working for another man that one can get the first little capital--the +first rude but handy tool with which to achieve success. I'll go on +working as a hired man till I get a little hoard together. After +that--well, we shall see." + +Duncan was greatly admired but little understood by his fellows in the +service of the Hallam firm, or by the similar people who thronged the +town. His fellows, in and out of the office, were commonplace young men, +all looking to the main chance alone and pursuing it with only such +honesty of conduct as business prudence required. They felt no further +interest in their work than such as was necessary to enable them to +retain their places and their salaries. + +Therefore they did not understand Guilford Duncan. Neither could they. +They regarded with amazement and almost with incredulity his +manifestations of sensitive honor and of unselfish loyalty to duty. They +thought of him as a sort of freak, or what we should nowadays call a +crank. + +Of course they could not fail to recognize his ability, but they thought +him a good deal of a fool, nevertheless, for not taking selfish +advantage of the opportunities that so frequently came to him. They +could not understand why he should go out of his way, as he very often +did, to render services to the firm which were in no way required or +expected of him. Especially they could not understand why, when he had +rendered such services in a way to attract Captain Hallam's pleased +attention he didn't "strike for something better," as they phrased their +thought. + +In one especial case, their amazement over his neglect of an opportunity +bred something like contempt of him in their minds. It was the practice +of the Hallams to keep a fleet of heavily laden coal barges in a bend of +the river above the town, bringing them down one by one to the coalyards +at "The Point" below the city as they were needed. One day in the early +winter, a coal gauger being off duty, Duncan volunteered to go up to the +bend in his stead, and measure the coal in a great fleet of barges that +had just arrived. + +He found the barges unsafely bestowed, and suggested to the captain of +the Hallam yard tug boat that he should tow them into a securer +anchorage. As night was at hand the captain of the tug refused, saying +that he would attend to the matter on the morrow. + +That night the first storm of the winter broke upon the river, lashing +it to fury, and threatening with destruction every species of craft that +might venture away from moorings. + +About midnight one of Duncan's bedroom windows was blown in, scattering +glass and fragments of sash over his bed, and startling him out of +sleep. + +Instantly the thought of the exposed coal barges flashed into his mind. +He knew that they were utterly unfit to ride out a storm, being nothing +more than great oblong boxes, loaded nearly to their gunwales with coal. +He remembered, too, the exposed position in which they had been left for +the night. + +Hastily drawing on his clothing he hurried to the landing place of the +yard tug. He found no preparations making there for any attempt to save +the barges and their enormously rich cargoes, or even to rescue the +helpless men who had been left on board of them. The engineer of the +tug, who always slept on board, was there, and so were the two deck +hands and the fireman, but the fires were banked, and the captain had +not responded to the duty call of the tempest. + +As the immediate representative and chief lieutenant of Captain Hallam, +Guilford Duncan was recognized as a man somewhat entitled to give +orders. On this occasion he promptly assumed so much more of authority +as did not strictly belong to him. + +He instantly ordered the engineer to get up steam. He directed one of +the two deck hands to go hurriedly to the tug captain's bedroom and +order him to come to the tug at once. + +As he rattled off his orders for putting cable coils aboard, placing all +fenders in position, battening down the hatches, and doing all else that +might render the tug fitter for the perilous service that he intended +to exact of her, his voice took on the old ring of battle, and his +commands came quick, sharp, and penetrating from his set lips, like +those of an officer placing guns in position for a desperate fight. + +The captain, who was also sole pilot of the tug, so far obeyed the order +sent to him as to come to the tug landing. But when he looked out upon +the storm-lashed river, he positively refused to obey Duncan's order to +go to the wheel. + +"I'll never take the tug out in such a storm as this," he said doggedly. + +"But think, man! There are twenty men or more up there on those coal +barges, whose lives simply _must_ be saved. And there is a hundred +thousand dollars' worth of coal there that may go to the bottom any +minute." + +"I can't help that. I tell you the tug couldn't live a minute in such a +storm." + +"In other words," answered Duncan with measureless contempt in his tone, +"you are a miserable coward, a white-livered wretch, whose life wouldn't +be worth saving if it were in danger. Go back to your bed! Go to sleep! +or _go to hell_, damn you, for the cowardly whelp that you are!" + +Then turning to the engineer and the two deck hands, he asked hoarsely: + +"Will you men stand to your duty while I go to the wheel?" + +"We're with you while she floats, cap'n," said the engineer. "I always +did hate a coward." + +"Have you got steam enough?" + +"Yes, a hundred and fifty pounds pressure to the square inch, and she'll +need it all." + +"All right. Cast her off," commanded Duncan as he stepped to his post in +the pilot house. + +He knew, of course, that he was taking terrible risks. Having no pilot's +license he had no legal right to be at the wheel. Should disaster +overtake the tug he would be personally liable for the insurance +forfeited by his act in taking her out in contravention of the judgment +of her captain and pilot. Worse still, should any life be lost in the +adventure, Guilford Duncan would be held to answer for manslaughter. + +Well-educated lawyer that he was, he knew all these facts. He perfectly +understood the fearful responsibilities he was taking upon himself. Yet +he faltered not nor failed. There was no moment's hesitation in his +mind. There were lives in peril up there in the bend, and a vast +property exposed to destruction. There was a chance that by taking these +risks he might save both. All that is best in the soul-impulse of the +soldier was his inspiration. He would do his duty--though that duty was +in no wise his except as he had made it his--and let consequences look +out for themselves. + +This young fellow had often sniffed the breath of battle in his +nostrils. He had many times done and dared things that only a brave and +self-regardless man could have done and dared. To-night the old +enthusiasm of war came back to his soul, but with a difference. He had +often fought to destroy. He was facing danger now with saving and the +rescue of imperiled human lives for his purpose. + +As the tug quitted her moorings and began her voyage up the river, +Duncan caught a glimpse of Captain Hallam's form hurrying toward the +landing. Almost immediately the tug began to plunge in perilous fashion, +thrusting her head under the waves, and shipping water enough to dampen +the fires and diminish steam pressure in a way that threatened failure +to the enterprise. + +Failure in the work of rescue was the only thing that Guilford Duncan +feared. + +He had already had the hatches securely battened down so that no water +could find its way into the hold. But when he saw that water was rapidly +rushing with every sea into the furnace room, threatening with +extinction the fires that could alone give power to the vessel, he +called one of the deck hands to the wheel, and instructing him as to the +course to be laid, himself hurriedly inspected ship. With the aid of the +other deck hand he quickly removed from bow to stern everything that had +weight. Then he and the deck hand and the fireman, with some aid from +the engineer, proceeded to shovel the coal supply from its bunkers +forward of the fire room into the captain's cabin aft of the furnaces. + +This done, the tug no longer ran her prow into and under the tremendous +seas, but rode over them instead, shipping no further water. + +Then Duncan returned to the pilot house, and a few minutes later reached +the imperiled fleet of coal barges. + +There havoc had already begun. Three barges had gone down and two men +had been drowned. The rest of the barges were riding so uneasily that +their seams were opening, and the water that must presently swamp them +was finding its insidious way through their sides and bottoms. + +When the tug appeared, all the men on board the coal barges clamored +piteously to be taken off at once. + +"Stand to your duty, men!" shouted Duncan. "Don't be cowards. Do your +part of the work and we'll save all of you and all the coal. Only obey +orders promptly and I'll be responsible for the rest. Go to the pumps +and answer every command promptly." + +He then ordered flaming torches kindled on every barge, and in the light +thus created he was able to tow one after another of the coal boats into +that harbor of safety in which the tug captain should have moored them +during the day before, the men meanwhile pumping to keep the water +down. + +Then with his clothing drenched and frozen stiff upon him, he steered +the tug back to her landing place, through the now receding storm. + +Kennedy, the tug captain, was there, waiting. As Duncan came ashore +Kennedy said menacingly: + +"If I get my discharge for this I'll prosecute you for piloting without +a license." + +The ice-encased and half-frozen young man made no reply. He simply +hurried ashore. + +As he mounted to the top of the levee, though it was only a little after +daylight, Duncan encountered Captain Will Hallam, who stood there +waiting for him. + +"Go to the hotel," said the employer. "I've ordered a piping hot bath +for you there, and a blazing wood fire. There's nothing like a wood fire +after a chilling such as you've had. When you get good and warm, go to +bed. When you wake naturally, telegraph to the office for me, and we'll +breakfast together. I've ordered the breakfast--the hotel keeper thinks +it will bankrupt him or make his fortune to furnish it, but that doesn't +matter. Get warm and get some sleep. Sleep as long as you can." + +"I don't think I care for sleep," answered the half-frozen and wholly +exhausted young man. "But would you mind sending Dutch John to me at the +hotel? I'd like to have him rub me down with some Turkish towels after +my hot bath. Tell him I have a dollar for him if he rubs me well." + +"That fellow is certainly a new brand," muttered Captain Hallam to +himself as he walked away up the levee. "But he's 'triple X' for +endurance and modesty and courage, and all the rest of it. What a +fighter he must have been! I'd like to see him in a hot battle, if I +were bullet proof myself. I'll bet bonds to brickbats he got all the +fight there was in them out of his men. But why doesn't he look out for +his own interests, I wonder? I'm still paying him the salary on which he +began. Any other man in my employ who could have done one-tenth of what +he has done, would have made me pay three times as much by this time. +But then, that's the reason. It's just because he is that sort that he +hasn't bothered about an increase of salary. By George! I'll give it to +him without the asking! I never did such a thing before in all my life. +It will startle the office people out of their wits, but they need +startling, and as for their wits--well----" + +He didn't complete the sentence; for just then he met Dutch John. + +"Go down to the hotel at once," he commanded. "Go on the run. Go to Mr. +Duncan's room and rub all the skin off his body. He'll give you a dollar +for a good rub. I'll give you five dollars more if he is satisfied." + +"I must milk your cows first," answered the stolid German boy, whose +occupations were varied and sometimes conflicting. + +"Oh, let the cows go hang! Or let the half-dozen accomplished young +ladies whom my wife employs to keep her establishment in order, milk +them! You go to the hotel and rub that man into condition. Damn the +cows!" + +Obviously, young Duncan's performance of that stormy night had awakened +Captain Hallam to enthusiasm. He was not much given to enthusiasms, but +this one was thoroughly genuine. + +"Yes, by George!" he said between his clenched teeth, "I'll multiply +that fellow's salary by three and let the office people wonder! Perhaps +it will give them a hint. No, it won't. Or at least they won't take the +hint. But anyhow, I'll do it, if only for what the newspapers call +'dramatic effect.'" + +Entering the office, where, at this hour, the clerks were assembling, +Captain Hallam said, in his figurative fashion: + +"That fellow Duncan has got more cogs in his gearing wheels than all the +rest of you put together. You call him a freak; you call him eccentric, +because he isn't like you. Now let me tell you that that's a sort of +eccentricity that you'll do well to cultivate. The less you are like +yourselves and the more you're like him, the better it will be for you. +He thinks. You don't. He does all he can. You do as little as you can. +He shall have his reward. He shall have a salary three times that of the +best man in the office. And more than that, he shall have the right to +command here. Whatever orders he gives shall be obeyed, just as if they +were my own. He is your model to imitate, so far as you can. But most of +you can't. Most of you care only to get through a day's work for a day's +wages. You have no loyalty, no concern for the business. Not a man jack +of you thought of the storm last night as a circumstance that imperiled +human life and my property. He did. You lay still in your beds listening +to the rain on the roof, and sinking into sweet slumbers to the tune of +its pattering. He was up and out, and risking his life to meet the +emergency. Can't you see that that makes all the difference between a +successful man and an unsuccessful one? Can't you understand that--oh, +pshaw! What's the use of talking to stumps?" + +That was the very longest speech that Captain Will Hallam had ever made +in his life. It was not without effect. It did not inspire any of the +clerks to fresh endeavor, or to a more conscientious service. But it +made every one of them an implacable enemy of Guilford Duncan, and +inflamed every one of them with an insatiable desire to injure him +whenever occasion might offer. + +Thus, by his night's heroic endeavor, Guilford Duncan had succeeded not +only in making an enemy of Captain Kennedy, but in making himself +_anathema_ _maranatha_ in the Hallam office besides. + +He was taking a bath, however, at that time, and not thinking of these +matters. + + + + +X + +ALLIANCE, OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE + + +"How did you come to do that?" + +That was the first question Captain Hallam fired at Duncan after the +hotel waiter had quitted the room to bring a further supply of coffee +and broiled bacon. + +"Why, it's simple enough," answered Duncan, with a touch of +embarrassment in his tone. "You see, I was up there yesterday gauging +coal. I knew the barges were anchored in a dangerous position, and so +when the storm broke, there wasn't anything else to do but get into my +clothes and send the tug up there to the rescue." + +"But it wasn't your business to look after the coal up in the bend?" + +Duncan slowly drank three sips of coffee before answering that eagerly +questioning remark. Then he leant forward and said, slowly and with +emphasis: + +"I conceive it to be my business, and my duty as well as my pleasure, to +do all that I can to promote the interest of the man who employs me." + +"But that was a risky thing to do. You took your life in your hands, you +know?" + +"I suppose I did, but that's a small matter. There were twenty other +lives in danger. And what is one man's life when there is a duty to be +done? We've all got to die sometime." + +Captain Hallam did not utter the thought that was in him. That thought +was: + +"Well, of all the queer men I have ever had to deal with, you are +certainly the queerest! Still, I think I understand you, and that's +queerer still." + +Instead of speaking he sipped his coffee. Then he rose and "tickled the +denunciator." That was his phrase for ringing for a servant. + +"Put some more wood on the fire," he commanded when the servant came. + +"I've put it all on, a'ready," answered the man. + +"Well, bring some more." + +"It'll be extry charge, sir." + +"Never mind that," said Captain Hallam. "Do as you are told, and when +the thing is over I'll issue a loan, raise some money, and pay the bill. +You know who I am, don't you?" + +"No, sir. You see, I've just come to Cairo." + +"Very well, then. Go to the office of the hotel and tell the people +there that Captain Will Hallam is ordering more wood than you think he +can pay for. They'll tell you what to do. In the meantime, here's a +quarter for you." + +This by-play with the serving man relieved Captain Hallam of a sense of +embarrassment which he felt in approaching the next thing he had in +mind. + +"What do you want, Duncan, for last night's work?" + +Duncan looked at his companion for half a minute before answering. Then +he said: + +"I want that tug captain of yours discharged." + +"Why?" + +"Because he's a coward and an utterly unfit man. Human life may depend +upon his courage at any moment, and he has no courage." + +"Is that _all_ you want?" + +"Yes. That's all." + +"Why don't you demand an increase in your salary? Anybody else would. +But, perhaps you don't care for a bigger salary? You're a queer sort, +you know." + +"Oh, yes; I care very much for an increase," answered Duncan. + +"Then why didn't you seize upon the opportunity to ask for it?" + +"Must I tell you, frankly?" + +"I wish you would. It might help me to understand you." + +"Well, it is simple enough. You gave me employment when I was +desperately in need of it. I should be an ingrate if I did not consider +your interests in all that I do. I think I ought to have a larger +salary than you are now paying me. I think I earn it, and it has been +my purpose to ask for it when the proper time should come." + +"Then why haven't you been in a hurry to ask for it now? There couldn't +be a better time." + +"Pardon me, but I cannot agree with you. It so happens that just at this +moment I have several very important matters of yours in my charge. You +have entrusted them to me, and they have come so exclusively under my +control that nobody else--not even you--could conduct them to a +successful issue so well as I can. Under such circumstances, of course, +I cannot make any personal demand upon you, without indecency. To do so +would be to take advantage of your necessities. It would amount to a +threat that, if you refused my demands, I would abandon these +enterprises and leave you to get out of all their difficulties as best +you could. Don't you see, Captain Hallam, that under such circumstances, +I simply could not make a demand upon you for more salary, or for +anything else of personal advantage to myself?" + +"No, I don't see it at all. And yet, somehow, I seem to understand you. +If I were in your place I'd regard these circumstances as trump cards, +and I'd lead them for all they are worth. So would any other man in the +Mississippi Valley--or anywhere else, I think." + +"That may perhaps be so, and I suppose I am 'queer,' as you say. But to +me it would seem a despicable thing to take advantage of the fact that +you need me in these affairs of yours. You have bidden me be frank. I +will be so. When I came to Cairo I sought work of the hard, physical +kind, at the small wages that such work commands. You quickly gave me +better work and larger pay than I had expected to earn for months to +come. Little by little you have advanced me in your regard until now I +seem to enjoy your confidence. When you first brought me into contact +with the big men of affairs--more or less big--I was oppressed with an +exaggerated sense of their greatness. Presently, I discovered that while +you are always deferential toward them, you are distinctly their +superior in intellect and in your grasp of affairs. You allow them to +think that they are your masters, while in fact you never fail to have +your way, and to compel them and the many millions of other people's +money whose use they control, to your own purposes." + +At this point Hallam uttered a low chuckle. + +"A little later I discovered another fact," continued Duncan. "It slowly +dawned upon my mind that you put me forward in your conferences with +them, because you valued my suggestions and my initiative more than you +did theirs. Thinking of that I came at last to the conclusion that I +must, in fact, be superior to these men in those qualities that +originate, execute, achieve. Otherwise, with your genius for affairs, +you would have suppressed me and listened to them." + +Again Hallam chuckled. + +"Then another thought occurred to me. The only reason why they can +execute plans that I conceive, while I cannot, is that they have +considerable money of their own and command of much greater sums not +their own, while I have neither. They have the tools and the materials. +I have neither. The clumsiest mechanic, who has tools and materials to +work with, can do things that the most skillful mechanic who has neither +tools nor materials, cannot do. + +"I have decided, therefore, to possess myself of tools and materials, in +order that I may make myself a master workman, and do my part in the +great nation-building enterprises of the time and country." + +"Would you mind explaining what you mean by that?" interrupted Hallam, +whose eagerness in listening had caused him to let his second cup of +coffee grow cold. + +Duncan arose, without answering, crossed the room, pressed the button, +and then said: + +"It is a subject that I very much wish to talk with you about. But your +coffee is cold. When you get a fresh cup, I'll explain." + +He said no more till the waiter came, served the coffee and left the +room. Then he began: + +"People who live all their lives in the mountains have no adequate +conception or perception of the grandeur of the scenery that surrounds +them. We never any of us fully understand the things against which we +'rub our eyes,' as a witty Frenchman has put it. It is for that reason, +perhaps, that what is going on here in the West does not impress you in +the same way in which it impresses me. You men of affairs are just now +beginning to do the very greatest work of nation building that has ever +been done since time began. But you are so close to your work that you +do not appreciate its collossal proportions. You have no perspective. In +that I have the advantage of you. Coming, as I do, out of the dead past, +contemplating the present as I do, and looking to the future as I must, +I see the grandeur to which your detailed work is tending, with a +clearness of vision impossible to you because of your nearness to it. +May I go on and set forth the whole of my thought?" + +"Yes, certainly. I want to hear. Go on!" + +"Well, then, let me explain and illustrate. A little while ago, in going +over your accounts, I discovered that the cotton and grain you shipped +from Cairo to New York must be five times transferred from one car to +another. That entailed enormous and needless expense in addition to the +delay. A few weeks ago I suggested to a conference of railroad nabobs at +your house that you should organize a line of through freight cars, +which should be loaded at Cairo, St. Louis, Chicago, or anywhere else +in the West, and hauled through to New York, Boston, or anywhere else in +the East, without breaking bulk. The saving of expense was so obvious +that you put a hundred thousand dollars into the line and the railroad +magnates made specially good terms for the hauling of the car. You +expect and will get dividends from your investment. The railroad men see +profit for their companies in the operation of the line. That is all +that you and they foresee of advantage. In my view that is the very +smallest part of the matter." + +"How do you mean?" + +"Why, taking cotton as a basis of reckoning, this through-line system of +transportation, owned independently of the railroads, will make an +important saving in the cost of raw materials to the owners of New +England mills. They will run more spindles and set more looms agoing +than they would have done without the through line's cheapening of raw +material. They will pay better wages and reap larger profits. They will +produce more goods, and they will sell them at a smaller price. The +farmer in the West will pay less for his cotton goods and get more for +his grain because of the through line's cheapening of transportation. He +and his wife and his children will dress better at less cost than they +otherwise could do. Bear in mind that the line's cars will carry other +things than cotton. The people of the East will get their breadstuffs +and their bacon and their beef far cheaper because of its existence than +they otherwise could. + +"That is one step in advance, and it is only one. The success of this +line is now assured. A dozen or a score of other through freight lines +will be organized and operated in competition with it. The present +line's rate of one and a half cents per ton per mile will presently be +cut down by competition to half a cent per ton per mile, or even less. I +shall not be surprised if, with the improvement of railroads and with +their closer co-operation the freight rate shall ultimately be reduced +even to one-fifth or one-tenth of a cent per ton per mile. + +"Now, again. A little while ago you were in Washington. You found it +necessary to execute certain papers and to file them in Chicot County, +Arkansas, before a certain fixed date. You ordered me by telegraph to +prepare the papers and bring them to you in Washington in the speediest +way possible, in order that I might carry them, within the time limit, +to their destination. I started for Washington within five minutes, by +the quickest possible route, preparing the papers on the train. I had to +change cars five times between Cairo and Washington, and seven times +more between Washington and Memphis. All that will presently be changed. +In our conference the other day with the railroad men, I suggested +something to the car builder, George M. Pullman, which will some day +bear fruit. At present every railroad runs its own sleeping cars and +runs them at a loss. Some of them have quit running them because they +lost money. The trouble is that the passenger must get up in the middle +of the night and transfer from one sleeping car to another. Therefore he +takes no sleeping car. I have suggested to the car builder, Pullman, +that he shall take the sleeping car service into his own hands and run +his cars through from every western to every eastern city without +change, he paying the railroads for hauling his cars and he collecting +the revenue that men will be willing to pay for the comfort of through +transportation. + +"Now, all this is merely a beginning. The railroads of this country, +together with the new ones now building, will presently be consolidated +into great systems. Transportation, both as to freight and as to +passengers, is now done at retail, and the cost is enormous. It will, +after a while, be done at wholesale, and at a proportionate reduction in +cost. + +"Now the thought that is in my mind is this: We have got to build this +great nation anew upon lines marked out by the events of the last few +years. The war has been costly--enormously costly. It has saddled the +country with a debt of about three billions of dollars, besides the +incalculable waste. But it has awakened a great national self +consciousness which will speedily pay off the debt, and, incidentally, +develop the resources of the country in a way never dreamed of before. +Those resources, so far as they are undeveloped, or only partially +developed, lie mainly in the West and South. It is our duty to develop +them. + +"The government is building a railroad to the Pacific coast. That, when +it is done, will annex a vast and singularly fruitful country to the +Union. The fertility of the soil there, and the favorable climatic +conditions, promise results that must presently astonish mankind. But in +the meanwhile it is our part of the nation-building work to develop the +resources of what we now call the West. Minnesota, in its eastern part, +is already producing wheat in an abundance that discourages all eastern +farmers and sets them to the culture of small fruits and to truck +gardening for the supply of the great cities there. There is great gain +even in that. Presently the Minnesota wheat farmers will extend their +limitless fields into the Dakotah country as soon as railroads are built +there--and a new era of development will begin." + +"Why do you not include the South in your reckoning?" asked Hallam. + +"I do. Under the new conditions the South will produce more cotton than +it ever did, and its coal and iron resources will be enormously +developed. But the South is, for the present, handicapped by disturbed +conditions and a disorganized labor system. It will be long before that +region shall take its full share in national development--in what I +call 'nation building.' + +"Pardon me for wandering so far afield. I have meant only to show you +what I regard as the true character of the work that you and your +associates are doing. Now, I wish and intend to do my share in that +work. To that end, I must have money of my own, and that control of +other people's money which comes only to men who have money of their +own. I don't care a fig for money for its own sake. I want it as a tool +with which I may do my work." + +"I think I understand you," answered Hallam, after a few minutes' +reflection. "You shall have the tools. You have already put away +two-thirds of your salary from month to month. I have to-day multiplied +that salary by three. You'll soon have 'grub stakes' for any enterprise +you may choose to enter upon. But that isn't all. If it were, it would +mean that I am to lose you presently. I don't mean to do that. You are +too good a man for a clerk. I propose to make of you a partner in all my +outside enterprises. I must go now. I've five people to meet at ten +o'clock. Come to me after that hour, if you're sufficiently rested, and +we'll talk business." + +"Oh, I'm sufficiently rested already. I'll join you at ten or a little +later, as I suppose you won't be free till then." + +Captain Will Hallam rose, grasped the hand of his companion, and, after +a look into his eyes, said: + +"You're the right sort. You have vim, force, pathos, and energy. You and +I, working together, will salivate things in a way that will make +Calomel ashamed of itself." + +"But how about Kennedy and his discharge?" asked Duncan. + +"Oh, that's settled. I've sent him his quittance papers, and he's your +enemy for all time. You can stand that." + +"Yes, so long as you are my friend." + + + + +XI + +THE WAYS OF GUILFORD DUNCAN + + +During all this time Guilford Duncan had been taking his meals at the +little boarding house of Mrs. Deming. The other boarders--a dozen in +all, perhaps--did not interest him at first, and for a time he took his +meals in silence, except for courteous "good-mornings" and +"good-evenings." His table companions were mainly young clerks of +various grades, with whose ideas and aspirations young Duncan was very +slightly in sympathy. + +After a time, however, he decided that it was his duty to cultivate +acquaintance with these table companions, in whom he recognized private +soldiers in the great army of work--the men upon whom the commanders of +all degrees must rely for the execution of their plans. + +Accordingly, Duncan began to take an active part in the conversations +going on about him, and little by little he injected so much of interest +into them that whenever he spoke he was listened to with special +attention. Without assuming superiority of any kind, he came to be +recognized as in fact superior. He came to be a sort of Autocrat of the +Breakfast Table, directing the conversations there into new channels and +better ones. + +It was his practice to buy and read all the magazines as they appeared, +including the particularly interesting eclectic periodicals of that +time, in which the best European thought was fairly represented. + +His reading furnished him many interesting themes for table talk, and +presently the brightest ones among his companions there began to +question him further concerning the subjects he thus mentioned. After a +little while some of them occasionally borrowed reading matter of him, +by way of still further satisfying their interest in the matters of +which he talked at table. + +A little later still, these brighter young men, one by one, began to +visit Duncan's room in the evenings. In the free and easy fashion of +that time and region, he made them welcome without permitting their +coming or going to disturb his own evening occupations in any serious +way. His room was very large, well warmed, and abundantly lighted, for +he had almost a passion for light. There was always a litter of new +magazines, weekly periodicals, and the like on the big table in the +centre of the room, and there were always piles of older ones in the big +closet. Still further there was a stand of bookshelves which was +beginning to be crowded with books bought one by one as they came out, +or as Duncan felt the need of them. Literature was the young man's only +extravagance, and that was not a very expensive one. + +"Welcome! Help yourself! Read what you like and you won't disturb me." +That was the spirit of his greeting to all these his friends whenever +they entered his door, and it was not long before the room of the young +Virginian became a center of good influence among the young men of the +town. + +How greatly such an influence was needed the bank officers and other +"solid" men of the city well knew and strongly felt. Few of them ever +thought of reading anything themselves except the commercial columns of +the newspapers, but they had reasons of their own for recognizing the +good work Guilford Duncan was quietly doing, by cultivating the reading +habit among their clerks. + +Cairo was an ill-organized community at that time. The great majority of +its people were "newcomers," from all quarters of the country, who had +as yet scarcely learned to know each other. War operations had filled +the town for several years past with shifting crowds of adventurers of +all sorts, who found in disturbed conditions their opportunity to live +by prey. There were gambling houses and other evil resorts in dangerous +numbers, where soldiers and discharged soldiers on their way through the +place were tempted to their ruin by every lure of vice and every ease of +opportunity to go astray. + +The solid men deplored these conditions, but were as yet powerless to +better them. After the rush of discharged soldiers through the town +ceased, the evil influences began to operate more directly upon the +clerks and other young men of the city itself. Some who had begun life +there with every prospect of worthy careers had sunk into degradation +through vicious indulgence. Others who still managed to hold their +places in business and to do their work tolerably were manifestly +falling into habits that darkened their futures. In two or three +instances young men of good bringing up, who had earned enviable +reputations for diligence and good conduct, were lured into the gambling +dens, robbed there, and at last were tempted to defalcations and even +sheer robberies of the employers who trusted them. In one conspicuous +case a youth who had won special regard among the better people by the +tender care he was taking of his mother, and by diligence and +faithfulness in his work, fell a victim to the passion of gambling, +robbed money packages that passed through his hands as a cashier in an +express office, was caught, convicted, and sentenced to prison as a +common felon, to the saddening of all the town. + +Under such circumstances even the least cultivated of the hard-headed +business men could not fail to regard with special pleasure the silent +work that Duncan was doing for the salvation of at least a considerable +group of young men who might otherwise have fallen victims to the evil +conditions that beset them. + +Apart from his association with the young men who frequented his room, +Duncan had no social life at all. He never visited at any house, except +that Captain Hallam frequently had him to a meal over which the two +might "talk business," or where he might meet and help entertain +prominent men of affairs from other cities, whose visits were inspired +by commercial purposes far more than by considerations of a social +nature. + +It created some little astonishment, therefore, when one day at the +boarding house table, Duncan said to those about him: + +"I hear that you fellows are organizing some sort of club for social +purposes. Why haven't you given me a chance to join?" + +"We didn't think you would care for such things. You never go out, you +know, and----" + +"What is the purpose of your organization, if you don't mind my asking?" + +"Oh, certainly not. We're simply making up a little group, which we call +'The Coterie,' to have a few dancing parties and amateur concerts, and +the like, in the big hotel dining room, during the winter. We've a +notion that the young people of Cairo ought to know each other better. +Our idea is to promote social intercourse and so we're all chipping in +to pay the cost, which won't be much." + +"Well, may I chip in with the rest?" + +Seeing glad assent in every countenance, he held out his hand for the +subscription paper, and put down his name for just double the largest +subscription on it. Then passing it back he said: + +"I think I may be able to secure some support for so good an +undertaking, from the business men of the city and from others--the +lawyers, doctors, and the like. Your entertainments certainly ought to +have the benefit of their countenance. At any rate, I'll see what I can +do. I don't know that I shall myself be able to attend the dances and +the like--in fact, I'm sure I shall not--but I'll do what I can to help +the cause along." + +He did what he could, and what he could was much. The solid men, when he +brought the subject to their attention, felt that this was an extension +of that work of Duncan's for the betterment of the town, which they so +heartily approved. They subscribed freely to the expense, and better +still, they lent personal countenance to the entertainments. + +Guilford Duncan also attended one of the entertainments, though it had +been his fixed purpose not to do so. The reason was that Guilford Duncan +was altogether human and a full-blooded young man. From the time of his +arrival at Cairo until now, he had not had any association with women. +When such association came to him he accepted it as a boon, without +relaxing, in any degree, his devotion to affairs. + +It was the old story, related in a thousand forms, but always with the +same purport, since ever the foundations of the world were laid. + +"Male and female created he them." "And God saw that it was good." + +All of human history is comprehended in those two sentences quoted from +the earliest history of mankind. + + + + +XII + +BARBARA VERNE + + +The person who had originated and who conducted Mrs. Deming's boarding +house--famous for its fare--was, in fact, not Mrs. Deming at all. That +good lady would pretty certainly have scored a failure if she had tried +actively to manage such an establishment. She had never in her life +known necessity for work of any kind, or acquired the least skill in its +doing. She had been bred in luxury and had never known any other way of +living until a few months before Guilford Duncan went to take his meals +at what was known as her "table." + +She had lived in a spacious and sumptuously furnished suburban house +near an eastern city, until two years or so before the time of this +story. + +When Barbara Verne, her only sister's child, was born and orphaned +within a single day, and under peculiarly saddening circumstances, the +aunt had adopted her quite as a matter of course. + +No sooner had Barbara ceased to be an infant in arms than she began to +manifest strong and peculiar traits of character. Even as a little child +she was wondered at as "so queer--so old fashioned, don't you know?" + +She had a healthy child's love for her dolls, and though the persons +around her had not enough clearness of vision to see that she was +fruitfully and creatively imaginative in her peculiar way, her dolls' +nursery was full of wonderful stories, known only to herself and the +dolls. Every doll there had a personality, a history, and a character of +its own. Barbara was the intimate of all of them--the confidential +friend and companion, who listened to their imagined recitals of griefs +and joys with a sympathetic soul, counseled them in a prematurely old +way, chided them gently but firmly for their mistakes, commended good +conduct whenever she discovered it in them, and almost mercilessly +rebuked such shortcomings as common sense should have spared them. For +common sense was Barbara's dominant characteristic. + +She never told their stories to anybody. That, she felt, would have been +to betray their confidence shamefully. It was only by eavesdropping on +the part of her nursery maid, and by casual overhearings of her talk +with her dolls that their life stories became known to anybody except +herself. + +And Barbara quickly put an end to the eavesdropping when she discovered +it. She had a French nursery governess, Mathilde, whose double function +it was to look after the child and to teach her French by talking to her +only in that tongue. The maid, in fact, made the child teach her +English, by talking with her chiefly in that language. + +That, however, was an offense the child did not consider. She did not +greatly value instruction in French--"English is so much better," she +used to say to her aunt. "And besides, nobody ever talks in French. So +why should we bother about it? Of course, I like to have La Fontaine's +Fables read to me, and I like to read them to my dolls, because the +dolls always enjoy them." + +"How do you know that, Barbara?" + +"Why, because they never interrupt. When I tell them 'make up' stories +of my own, they often interrupt me. They 'want to know,' and sometimes I +can't tell them. But with La Fontaine's stories it is never so. Still I +don't think French is of much consequence." + +That was the ill-informed and immature judgment of a child of seven or +eight years. Perhaps the other judgment with which that same child +coupled it in the lectures she sometimes gave her French nursery +governess was sounder. + +"Mathilde, you are an eavesdropper," she solemnly said to the girl one +night. "You hide behind the door and listen while Phillida tells me +about the way Corydon treats her. And you listen while I tell Phillida +not to be foolish, and while I talk to Corydon about his behavior. I +shouldn't mind that so much, Mathilde, if you didn't laugh at the dolls +and their troubles. I don't like that." + +But, notwithstanding the child's imaginative gift, she was intensely +practical, in a quick-witted way that often astonished those about her. +She had an eager desire to learn domestic arts, and her peculiar +conscientiousness in the doing of whatever she undertook to do, usually +resulted in a skill superior to that of her teachers. + +She loved to haunt the kitchen, where her courtesy won even the +cantankerous cook for a friend, and from her the girl learned so much of +her art that the cook could teach her no more. In the laundry the +good-natured Irish woman who presided over that department of household +economy gave her always so warm a welcome that the child came to think +of the faithful woman as one of her choicest friends. Working with her +over a little ironing board, Barbara quickly became expert in all the +finer and more delicate operation of her art, or as the laundress +herself said: + +"Shure, the blissed choild puts the raal Oirish accint into the doin' up +of a pretty frock." + +When she grew a little older, Barbara's French nursery governess left +her, and from that hour, almost without knowing it, the child took her +education largely into her own hands, and her aunt stood too much in awe +of her almost preternatural resoluteness, to interfere in any serious +way. She provided masters for the child, but it was the girl herself and +not the masters who decided what she should learn. + +In that early time it was not generally thought necessary, or even +desirable, to send girls away from home to study in colleges in company +with boys--to learn Latin, Greek, mathematics, and basketball--to read +the indecencies of classic literature--and to mould themselves into an +unlovely similitude to men. But there were frivolities in the education +of women then which were almost as conspicuous as are the masculinities +that have since taken their place. + +In Barbara's case neither of these influences was felt. Without quite +knowing what her own thought was, the girl early made up her mind that +she would learn thoroughly all things that a woman must practice in +life, that she would make herself fit to do a woman's part in the world +without any pretense whatever. + +She was set at one time to learn the piano, as in that day every girl +was, to the saddening of human existence and the torturing of human +nerves. After taking a few lessons Barbara was shrewd enough to discover +that she had no musical gifts worth cultivating. She therefore promptly +requested her aunt to dismiss her music master. + +"Oh, but you must learn to play, you know, dear." + +"Why must I, auntie?" + +"Oh, well, every girl must, you know." + +"But why, auntie?" persisted the little female Socrates. + +"Why, it's a necessary part of every girl's education, you know." + +"Oh, I know they all do it," answered the girl, "but most of them would +do better to leave it alone. You often say that it tortures you to hear +girls 'pound the piano' when they want to show off. Now, I haven't the +gift for music, and I don't want to show off. Why should I learn to +'pound the piano' and make other people miserable?" + +So the argument went on, and it ended at last, as it was predestined to +end, in the abandonment of the piano lessons, leaving Barbara to grow up +in complete ignorance of an art which, in that half-barbaric time, was +deemed a necessary "accomplishment" of every young woman who had +fingers, whether she had any perception of music or not. + +For the rest, Barbara educated herself upon lines which she deemed +womanly. There was no art of kitchen or laundry or sewing room in which, +as she grew older, she did not make herself the superior of the highly +paid servitors whose skill her aunt employed to perform such functions. +For explanation she said only: + +"I am to be a woman. I must know how to do all womanly things. If I +don't know all that better than the servants do, I must always be +dependent upon servants. I think that would be humiliating." + +In the same spirit she took up such school studies as she deemed proper +to her womanhood and only such. But she gave to each a degree of +conscience that always surprised her teachers. She had not the gift of +learning easily, but her devotion was such that she learned thoroughly +in spite of all the difficulties. She early conceived the notion that +she must know her own language well--how to spell it, how to pronounce +it, and, still more, how to use it simply, honestly, and effectively in +the expression of her thought. Her over-mastering devotion to truth +would not let her rest content with any loose or inaccurate expression. +"No," she would say, "that isn't the word I want. It doesn't say just +what I mean," and she would never be satisfied until she found the word +she did want. + +The handwriting to which she schooled herself was in like manner +scrupulously truthful. The writing masters of that time cared far more +for ornateness than for verity, or even legibility. They laboriously +taught their pupils to make "hair" lines for upstrokes and heavily +"shaded" ones for down. They decorated their capital letters with +meaningless flourishes, and they did many other things equally useless +and unworthy. + +Barbara would have nothing to do with such insincerities. She would not +even try to learn them. She studied the essential form of each letter, +and, discarding everything else, she wrote, as she herself said, "so +that other people might read easily." The result was a dainty little +round-lettered text, which had truth for its basis and uncompromising +sincerity for its inspiration. + +Arithmetic gave her a good deal of trouble. Had the mastery of that +science been an "accomplishment," she would have put it aside as one for +which she had no gift, as she had done with music. But she realized that +one must acquire a certain facility in calculation, and she did all the +work necessary to acquire that facility. She puckered her pretty +forehead over the "sums" that she had to do, and she often, all her +life, employed roundabout methods in doing them. But in the end she got +the "answers" right, and that was all that the little truth worshiper +cared for in the case. + +She early became fond of reading such books as appealed to her. She +would never consent to believe that she _ought_ to read books that did +not find a response in her mind, merely on the ground that their reading +was deemed a proper part of every young person's education. + +"All that sort of thing is 'show off,'" she used to say. "It is a false +pretense;" and she scorned all false pretenses. + +Yet she was by no means an idly self-indulgent reader. She diligently +mastered some books that did not particularly interest her, because she +believed them to contain information or instruction or counsel that +might benefit her. + +When she was only a dozen years old or so, the little woman took upon +herself the duties of housekeeper in her aunt's mansion, and kept order +there in a way that won something like local fame for herself. It was +not art, or intuition, or rule that inspired her. It was temperament. + +Absolute cleanliness was to her a religion, and the servant who fell in +the remotest way short of that was quickly made to think of herself as +an unregenerate sinner. Absolute neatness was another requirement which +the budding little woman insisted upon with relentless persistence. Then +again it seemed to her that there was no possible excuse for any cooking +short of the best. + +"Why should a beefsteak be scorched?" she would ask protestingly. "It is +only a question of attention and honesty. Why should the aroma be boiled +out of a pot of coffee? Again, it is only a matter of attention and +honesty." That was her attitude always, and the servant who hoped to +please her must ceaselessly recognize it. + +Sometimes her aunt would plead for a little lenity in these matters, but +the girl would grant none. "The servants are employed to do things +right. Why should I let them do things wrong? They profess to have skill +in such work. Surely, they ought to do it as well as I can, who have no +skill. And besides, it wouldn't be good for them to let them off with +less than the best. They would degenerate. They have their living to +make by work, and the better work they do the better work they can do." + +A few years later the aunt's husband met with misfortune and went to the +West. Presently he died, and Barbara's aunt was widowed and +impoverished at one and the same time. + +Then it was that Barbara rose in the strength of her practical wisdom, +and met the emergency with all of character that she had built up. Her +aunt was helpless, so Barbara took matters into her own hands. She was +nearly twenty years old then, and her capacities as a housekeeper had +ripened through use until she felt modestly confident of herself. +"Besides," she argued, "there is nobody else to do things if I don't." + +She persuaded her aunt to take a little house with a big sunny dining +room, and there she offered to the young bachelors of the town--in her +aunt's name--better meals than they could get at the pretentious hotel, +and she charged them scarcely more than half the hotel rate. + +One by one the best of the young men in the town were drawn to Barbara's +table until the dining room was filled. After that anyone who wished to +join the circle must put his name upon a waiting list, and bide his time +till there should be a vacancy. For Barbara held that it would be unjust +to crowd present boarders in order to take new ones, and she hated all +injustice. The waiting list was always long, for the fame of Barbara's +table was great. + +When her friends suggested an increase in her charges, she promptly said +them nay. "I'm charging enough," she answered. "The gentlemen pay us +enough to keep auntie and me comfortable. They have to work hard for +their money, and it would be very mean to charge them more, merely +because they'll pay it rather than get their meals anywhere else." + +"Perhaps so," answered Captain Will Hallam, who had pressed this advice +upon the girl. "But it's always good business, you know, to get what you +can. A thing is worth what it will sell for, and your good dinners, Miss +Barbara, would sell for a good deal more than you are charging for +them." + +But Barbara would not listen to the wisdom of "business." Hers was the +wisdom of a white soul, and it controlled her absolutely. + +And it really was her own skill that made her table famous. She hired a +cook, of course, after her little business became prosperous, and +sometimes for a brief while she trusted to the cook's skill. Then her +conscience beset her because the breakfasts and dinners and suppers were +not prepared in that perfection which alone could satisfy this +conscientious little woman's soul. "You see, it isn't honest, aunty," +she would say in explanation whenever she returned to the kitchen and +gave personal attention to every detail. "We are charging these young +gentlemen for their meals, and it seems to me dishonest if we give them +less than the best that we can. They come to us because they have heard +that we serve the best meals that can be had in Cairo. How mean and +wrong it would be for us to trade upon that reputation and give them +meals of an inferior quality! I simply can't get a cook who will do +things at their best, and so I must do most of the cooking myself, and +then I'll know it is well done." + +She hired a "neat-handed Phyllis," in a cambric gown--which Barbara +insisted must be fresh and clean every day--to wait upon the table. She +hired a handy negro boy to wash dishes, scrub, and prepare vegetables +under her own direction. She did all the more important part of the +cooking herself, and the negro boy, Bob, simply worshiped the girl whom +he always addressed as "Little Missie." + + + + +XIII + +A BATTLE AND AN ACQUAINTANCE + + +There were boys in Cairo, of course, and equally of course some of them +were bad. The bad ones used to do things to annoy Robert's "Little +Missie." Robert proceeded to thrash them upon every proper occasion, and +he did it with a thoroughness that left nothing to be desired +thereafter. When Robert had thrashed a boy, that boy went to bed for +repairs. And he was apt to be reticent as to where and how he had +received his bruises. That was because Robert always ended a fist +encounter with a warning. + +"Ef you don't want a double dose o' dis here you'll prehaps obstain f'um +mentionin' de name o' de culled gentleman wot gib it ter you." + +And the victim usually "obstained." If he didn't it was presently the +worse for him. + +Robert had been born in the South. He had lived there till his +fourteenth year. He had there imbibed certain doctrines of pugnacious +chivalry. There had been bred in his bone the conviction that it was +every strong man's duty to protect every woman, and to punish any +disrespect shown to her. + +In Robert's view there was only one gentlewoman in Cairo--his "Little +Missie"--and it seemed to him as clearly a matter of duty to protect her +against annoyance as it was to scrub the kitchen floor or to wash the +dishes. + +It was through one of Robert's battles that Guilford Duncan became +acquainted with his hostess, Barbara Verne. That young woman very rarely +appeared in the dining room, and so the young Virginian had scarcely +more than met her, when one morning on his way to breakfast he came upon +a battle between Robert--"free man of color," as he loved to call +himself--and three Cairo boys who had waylaid him in order to avenge the +punishment he had given a few days before to one of them who had +playfully hurled half a brick through Barbara's kitchen window. + +When Duncan came upon the battlefield, Robert was backed up against a +dead wall. Two of his adversaries had gone to grass, and the third was +hesitating to prosecute the attack alone. Seeing his hesitation, +Bob--great strategist that he was--instantly decided to convert his +successful defense into a successful offense, without delay. Quitting +his defensive position against the wall, he rushed upon his remaining +adversary, who promptly retreated without waiting to reckon up the +casualties. + +Then Bob jumped upon his other and slowly rising antagonists, knocked +them down again and hurriedly exacted of each a "wish-I-may-die" promise +to let "Little Missie" alone from that day forth. + +"Good for you, Bob!" exclaimed young Duncan. "But we'll make that +promise more binding. Help me and I'll take these young ruffians before +Judge Gross and compel them to give bonds for good behavior." + +It didn't take long to arraign the culprits, prove that they had thrown +a brickbat through Barbara's window, and secure an order of the court +requiring them to give considerable bonds for good behavior in future. + +This brought their parents into court and subjected them to a good deal +of annoyance and trouble. They had to give bonds, and more troublesome +still, they had to control their boys. Then again the newspapers +published the facts. + +In this way Guilford Duncan multiplied his enemies in Cairo. But he had +a deep-seated conviction that it is worth a man's while to make enemies +by doing right. In this matter he had done only right. He had invoked +the law for the protection of a woman, and he had completely +accomplished his purpose. He cared nothing for the revilings that +ensued, but Ober, the man of brains and character who edited the +principal newspaper of the town, took the matter up and made much of it. + +"This town is barbaric," he wrote in his editorial columns, "It owes +sincere thanks to Mr. Guilford Duncan for teaching it that law is +supreme, that it is to the law we should appeal in every case of wrong +doing. The parents of the young hoodlums who have been bound over to +keep the peace have long needed this lesson. This newspaper rejoices +that the lesson has been given in so emphatic and conspicuous a manner. +It congratulates its young fellow citizen, Mr. Duncan, upon the quality +of his citizenship, and upon the results of its activity." + +Within an hour after that editorial appeared, three columns of +advertisements were angrily withdrawn from Ober's newspaper. + +Within the next hour Captain Will Hallam quietly sent in nineteen +columns of advertisements, and wrote to Ober: "Stand by your guns and +I'll stand by you. If the damned fools think they can squelch you or +Duncan in such a case as this, we'll teach them better. Spread my +advertisements all over the paper and send bills to me. Keep it up. +We'll make Cairo a better town to live in, or we'll know why. The thing +to do now is to make a systematic campaign against abuses. Do it with +all your might, and I'll stand by you. + +"I'll get Duncan to help you. He's a queer fellow, but he knows how to +use vitriol instead of ink, and it's vitriol we need just now." + +In the meanwhile the entire talk of the little city was of Duncan's +activity in haling the hoodlum sons of highly "respectable" parents +before a magistrate, as a consequence of their battle with a "nigger." +On that subject tongues wagged busily, pro and con. The friends of the +aggrieved parents who had been forced to give bonds for the good +behavior of their ill-regulated offspring, indignantly made a "race +issue" of a matter which had nothing whatever to do with race prejudice. + +They could not understand how a southerner and an ex-Confederate soldier +could thus have taken the part of a "nigger" against "respectable white +boys." Others who were clamorous for the "rights of the negro," rejoiced +in Duncan as a convert to their doctrine. + +Both were wrong, of course. Neither in the remotest way recognized the +real impulses of his act, namely, the impulse to protect a woman and the +impulse of a law-loving citizen to insist upon the equal enforcement of +the law, for the sake of good order in the community. But Duncan +concerned himself with none of these things. He had done his simple duty +as a man and as a citizen, and he had no care whatever for consequences. + +And yet the consequences were such as vitally affected his entire career +in more ways than one. His performance brought him, for one thing, into +close acquaintance with a certain young woman whom he had scarcely known +before, and whose destiny it was to influence the entire future course +of his life. + +It was Duncan's habit to sit long and smoke over his final cup of coffee +at the evening meal. The other table boarders were accustomed to hurry +away as soon as they had swallowed their supper, leaving him in sole +possession of the dining room. + +On the evening of the day on which the events already related occurred, +he sat as usual, smoking, sipping his coffee, and reading Ober's evening +newspaper. Presently Barbara Verne entered, and with a manner in which +extreme shyness was mingled with a resolute determination to do the duty +that lay before her, approached young Duncan and held out her hand. As +he rose deferentially to greet her, taking her proffered hand in his, +the girl said: + +"I've come to thank you, Mr. Duncan. It was very kind of you--to protect +Robert, you know--and me. I'm Barbara Verne. Thank you, ever so much." + +As she made her little speech the brave but timid girl looked him in the +eyes with the embarrassed front of a child set to do a duty, mingled +with the calm composure of a woman who knows and cherishes the dignity +of her womanhood. + +Duncan protested that no thanks were due him for doing his simple duty, +and, after a word or two more, the girl quitted the room, while Duncan, +gallantly bowing, held the door open for her. + +The little interview lasted for less than two minutes, and not an +unnecessary word was spoken on either side. Yet it seemed to Duncan an +event of consequence, as indeed, it proved to be. + +Something in the girl's voice, or manner, or something in her eyes, or +something in her grace of movement, her bearing, her mingled simplicity +and dignity--or something in all these combined--had mightily impressed +him. He had seen little of women in any intimate way, and while he +honored womanhood and deferred to it, as every sound-souled man must, he +had thought himself quite indifferent to women in their individual +personality. But somehow he could not feel so with Barbara Verne, and +later in the evening he scourged himself for his folly in continuing to +think of her to the interruption of the reading he had set himself to +do. + +"What's the matter with me?" he asked himself almost with irritation, as +at last he laid down the volume of Herbert Spencer's Social Statics, +over which he had been laboring in vain. "I can't read a single +paragraph with understanding. I can't keep my attention upon the lines +as I read them. I must be tired out--though I don't know what has tired +me. Fortunately I've no visitors to-night. They have all gone to hear +the Swiss Bell Ringers at the Athenæum. I wonder if anybody took Barbara +Verne?" + +Thus his thought came back again to the girl and he was annoyed with +himself for having permitted that. + +"I do not know the girl at all," he reflected. "Except to bow a distant +'good-morning' or 'good-evening' at infrequent intervals, I never spoke +to her until this evening, and then the interview was one of purely +formal courtesy. And yet here I am thinking about her so persistently +that even Herbert Spencer cannot win my attention." + +Then he sat for a time trying to think of something else, or trying, +with renewed resolution, to concentrate his attention upon his book. + +The effort was a dismal failure. Barbara Verne's eyes gazed softly at +him out of the page, her gentle voice echoed in his ears, and the +simple, straight-forward words of thanks that she had spoken thrust out +of his mind the words of the great philosopher, as the youth endeavored +to read them. + +He was sitting, in his dressing gown, with his slippered feet resting +upon a stool. In the large grate a mass of Pittsburg coal blazed and +flickered restfully. At his elbow softly burned a shaded student lamp, +on a table covered with a scarlet and black cloth, and littered with +books. The curtains--inexpensive, but heavy--were closely drawn to shut +out every suggestion of the wintry night outside. + +"Confound it," muttered the young man aloud, as he again threw down the +book, this time without marking his place; "if I weren't so supremely +comfortable here, I'd get myself into my clothes again and go out to +fight the night for a while. That would be the right thing to do, but +I'm too self-indulgent to do it. Wonder if Barbara Verne ever shirked a +duty for the sake of comfort?" + +Thus he began again to think of the girl. + +"She's a new type to me," he thought, as he gazed into the fire. "She +seems almost a child, and yet altogether a woman. Wonder what her life +has been. I fancy she felt, when she came in to thank me, like a child +who has been naughty and is required to make a proper apology. There was +certainly a suggestion of that sort of thing in her manner, just at +first. Then the strong woman in her mastered the child, and she carried +out her determination resolutely. It is very charming, that combination +of shy child-likeness, with the self-control of a strong woman." + +At this point Guilford Duncan impatiently kicked over his footrest, rose +to his feet and began dressing for the out of doors. "What an idiot I +am!" he thought. "Here I am presuming to analyze the moods and motives +of a young woman of whose life and character I know nothing whatever, +and with whom I have exchanged not more than a dozen or twenty sentences +in all my life. You need a drenching in the storm, Guilford Duncan, and +you shall have it, in the interest of your sanity." + +Donning his boots and overcoat, and pulling his slouch hat well down +over his eyes and ears, the young man strode out into the storm. + +When he came back at midnight, drenched and chilled, his fire had burned +itself out. After he had rubbed his damp skin into a healthful glow, he +extinguished the lamp and crawled into bed. + +In spite of all, however, Guilford Duncan was still thinking of Barbara +Verne, when, at last, he sank to sleep. His final thought of her took +the form of a resolution: + +"I will call upon her, and become really acquainted with her. That will +cure me of this strange and utterly absurd fascination. Of course the +girl must be commonplace in the main, and when I come to realize that, +the glamour will fade away." + + + + +XIV + +A SOCIAL ADVANCE + + +Guilford Duncan carried out his purpose, as he thought, with a good deal +of tact. He began by calling, not upon Barbara, but upon three or four +other young women--a thing he had never done before. He thought in this +way to make his call upon Barbara, when it should come, an inconspicuous +event. To his surprise, his entrance thus into society created something +of a flutter among the women-folk, especially the married women who had +marriageable daughters, or who were matchmakingly interested in other +young women, not their daughters. + +For Guilford Duncan, the moment he was thought of as a social factor, +and a matrimonial possibility, was seen to be the "best catch" in the +little city, the most desirable young man in the town. He was young and +distinctly handsome. He was a man of education, culture, and superior +intelligence. His manners were easy, polished, and very winning. +Especially he treated women with a certain chivalric deference, that +pleased them even more than they knew. Captain Will Hallam's wife, who +was the social leader of the city, said to him one day: + +"You must be careful what you do in the way of paying attention to young +women. A very little attention on your part is apt to mean a great deal +to a girl--and still more to her mamma." + +"But why should it?" asked Duncan, in unfeigned astonishment. "Why +should ordinary social courtesy on my part mean more than the same thing +means in the case of any other young man?" + +"I don't know that I can tell you," she answered. "At least, I don't +know that I can make you understand." + +"I sincerely wish you would try. I certainly do not want to----" He +hesitated, and did not complete the sentence. + +"Oh, I know all that. I know what you mean, because it is what I mean. I +tell you that if you pay more than just a little, and a very casual, +attention to any girl, the girl, and, worse still, all her elderly +female relatives, are likely to misconstrue your motives. You are in +serious danger of breaking some tender hearts, and winning for yourself +the reputation of being that most detestable thing--a male flirt." + +"But really, Mrs. Hallam," interrupted the perplexed young man, "I don't +understand----" + +"Of course you don't, and of course I'm glad you don't. You'd be a +detestably conceited popinjay if you did. But I do, and in a strictly +limited way I'm going to explain it to you for your own good, and as a +warning. I can't explain it fully without treason to my own sex. But +I'll tell you this much: you have a singularly pleasing, soothing, +caressing, and most winning manner with women--all women. You are +respectful--no, that isn't the word. You are courteously gentle and +deferential, and solicitous to give pleasure. Anyhow, you please women. +Then, again, you have made yourself the most conspicuous young man in +Cairo, and everybody counts upon your success as certain. There, I'm not +going to explain further; I only warn you." + +"But, Mrs. Hallam, I have not called more than twice upon any one girl, +and----" + +"Well, don't. That's all I've got to say." + +Duncan went away puzzled. He had intended to be very shrewd and +circumspect in this matter. He had intended, by calling once or twice +upon each of several young women, to deprive the calls he intended to +make upon Barbara of any look of significance, and now, before he had +even begun to cultivate acquaintance with Barbara, he found his small +preparatory callings the subject of curiosity and gossip. + +He was resolved not to be balked of his purpose, however. He saw no +reason to permit that. He would go that very evening to see Barbara, and +he would repeat the visit from time to time, until a fuller +acquaintance with the girl should cure him of his fascination. +Acquaintance must do that, he was persuaded. + +He carried out his part of the program resolutely. If the results were +not precisely what he expected, and intended, the fault was not his own. + +Barbara Verne was not accustomed to receive visits from young men. She +was almost too young, for one thing, or, at least, she had been almost +too young until about this time. Moreover, her life was unusually +secluded. She devoted all her time to her exacting household duties. +Except that she attended church once each Sunday, she was never seen in +any public place, or anywhere else, outside of her aunt's house, or the +house of her single friend--Mrs. Richards--a retiring matron, who +neither received company nor went out anywhere. These two--the young +girl and the middle-aged matron--were somewhat more than intimate in +their affection, but apart from this one friend, Barbara visited nobody. +The young women of the town did not think of her, therefore, as one of +themselves at all. They regarded her rather as a child than as a young +woman, though if they had troubled to think about the matter, they would +have remembered that she was as old as some of themselves. + +When Guilford Duncan made his first call upon Barbara, therefore, that +young person was very greatly astonished, but she was in no way +embarrassed. It was her nature to meet all circumstances and all events +frankly, and to do with conscientious faithfulness whatsoever she +conceived to be her duty. So when Guilford Duncan called upon her, she +promptly put away her surprise, and entered the little parlor to greet +him. + +She did not keep him waiting, and he specially liked that. He was apt to +be impatient of waiting. She did not think it necessary to change her +gown. It was her habit to dress with exceeding simplicity and extreme +neatness. She could not afford anything pretentious in dress, and she +would make no false pretense. Besides, she owned no better gown than the +one of French calico, which she was already wearing. + +So, without a minute's wait, Barbara walked into the parlor and greeted +her visitor, not without some lingering trace of surprise at the honor +done her, but with no touch of foolish embarrassment in her manner. +Barbara was simply her own sweet, natural self, and when Duncan went +away, after his call, the glamour of her personality was more strongly +upon him than ever. + +"She, at least," he thought as he walked toward the levee, "will not +misconstrue my call, as Mrs. Hallam suggests. She is too womanly, too +sincere, too genuine for that. I shall call again very soon, though, +now that I think of it, she forgot to ask me to do so. Never mind. I'll +manufacture some excuse--oh, by Jove, I have it! 'The Coterie' is to +give a fancy dress dance a week from to-night. I'll invite her to go. I +wonder if she will accept. I hope so, but even if she doesn't, the +invitation will give me ample excuse for calling. I'll do it to-morrow +evening. I suppose women need a little time to get ready for such +functions. Anyhow, I'll call on her to-morrow evening and invite her. I +wonder if anybody else has anticipated me in that? No, I'll wager not. I +never heard of her going out, or even of anybody calling upon her. +Still," he reflected, as he mounted to his room and lighted his lamp and +his fire, "that sort of thing might happen." Then, after a pause: "I +reckon I'd better send her a note to prepare her. I'll write it +to-night, and leave it at breakfast in the morning. She never quits the +kitchen regions while breakfast is on. I wonder if she's as neat, and +trim, and pretty when she's making coffee, or doing whatever it is that +they do to ham, as she always is when she visits other parts of the +house?" + +Turning, he locked his door. That was a very unusual proceeding on his +part, as it was well understood that his "latchstring was always out" of +an evening, and the young men, who were in the habit of reading in his +room, were accustomed to open and enter at will, without the formality +of knocking. + +A moment later, some one confidently turned the door-knob. Instantly +Duncan realized the situation and came to his senses. He abandoned his +purpose of writing to Barbara, as an absurdity, and promptly unlocked +the door to the visitor, making some sort of excuse for his +forgetfulness in having fastened it. + +When he called upon Barbara the next evening, and asked her to attend +the dance under his escort, her astonishment was manifest, in spite of +her best endeavors to conceal it. She had never before been invited to +such a function, and she had not dreamed of this. That, however, was not +her greatest occasion for surprise. In her modesty she had never thought +of herself as in any way the fellow or equal of the other girls in town, +who were eagerly invited to attend everything in the way of +entertainments. If any other young man in town had asked her to be his +partner on this occasion, she would have regarded the occurrence as a +surprising one; to be asked by Guilford Duncan was more astonishing than +all. She knew the high place he had won for himself in Cairo. She knew +that he was everywhere regarded as altogether the superior of all the +other young men intellectually, morally, socially, and in all other +ways. She regarded him as an aristocrat among men, a man who had always +held aloof from the society around him, as if it were quite unworthy of +his attention. She had woman's instinct enough, too, to know how greatly +honored any other girl in the city would feel if asked by him to any +function. The fact that he had asked her instead of some other, puzzled +her almost to bewilderment. + +At first she gave him no answer. She was obviously thinking, and Duncan +let her think on. He thought she looked exceedingly pretty while +thinking. He observed a slight puckering of her forehead at the time, +which seemed to him to add interest to her face. After a little she aid: + +"Thank you, Mr. Duncan, for your invitation. I am more pleased with it +than I can say. But I think I must ask you to excuse me. I think I can't +possibly go to the dance." + +"May I ask why not? Do you not care for dancing and society?" + +"Oh, I care very much--or, rather," she added, with scrupulous fidelity +to truth--"I should care very much to attend this party--I should enjoy +it more than anything, but----" + +"Will you think me impertinent," Duncan asked, when she thus stopped in +the middle of her sentence, "will you think me impertinent if I ask you +what comes after that word 'but?'" + +"Oh, I think you mustn't ask me that. At least, I think I mustn't answer +you." + +"Very well," replied the young man, pleased with the girl's manner, in +spite of his disappointment over her hesitation. "May I make a +suggestion? If you had simply said 'no' to my invitation, of course I +should not think of urging it upon you. But what you have said shows me +that you would welcome it, if there were not something in the way. +Perhaps you can overcome the difficulty. Will you not try? Will you not +take a little time to think, and perhaps to consult with your friends?" + +"I should like to, but that would be unfair to you. It might deprive you +of an opportunity to ask someone else." + +"I shall ask no one else. I shall not attend the affair at all, unless I +am privileged to escort you. If I may, I will call to-morrow evening, +and every evening, until you can give me your decision." + +There was a certain masterfulness in his manner and utterance, which +seemed to leave no chance for further discussion. So Barbara simply +said: + +"Very well. I'll be ready to answer you to-morrow evening. I suppose I +am ready now, but you wish me to wait, and it shall be so." + +Duncan hurriedly took his leave. Perhaps he feared that if he stayed +longer, the girl might make her "no" a final one. Otherwise he hoped for +a better outcome. + +When he had gone, poor little Bab sat for a time in bewilderment. She +still could not understand why such a man as Guilford Duncan--whom +everybody regarded as the "coming man" in Cairo--should have chosen her, +instead of some other, as the recipient of his invitation. She could not +still a certain fluttering about her heart. She was full of joy, and +yet she was sorely grieved that she must put aside what seemed to her a +supreme opportunity to be happy for a time. + +It was always her way, when any emotion pleased or troubled her, to go +to her friend, Mrs. Richards, for strength and soothing. So, now she +suddenly sprang up, put on her hat and wraps, and hurried to her one +friend's home. The distance was so small that she needed no escort, +particularly as Robert, who happened to be at the gate, could see her +throughout the little journey. And she knew that the faithful negro boy +would wait there until her return. + +"You are all in a flurry, child," said her friend, for greeting. "What +is it about? Do you come to me for advice, or sympathy, or consolation?" + +For Mrs. Richards knew of Duncan's visit, and with a shrewd woman's wit +she guessed that Barbara's disturbance of mind was in some way connected +with that event. + +"No," answered the girl. "I didn't come to consult you--at least I think +I didn't--it is only that something has happened, and I want to tell you +about it." + +"Very well, dear. Go on." + +"Oh, it's nothing very important. I don't know why I feel about it as I +do, but----" + +"Perhaps if you tell me what it is, I may help you to solve your +riddles. What is it?" + +"Why, only that Mr. Guilford Duncan has asked me to go with him to the +party next week." + +"Well, go on. I see nothing strange in that." + +"Why--don't you understand, it is _Mr. Duncan_, and he has asked _me_." + +"I see nothing yet to wonder at," calmly replied her friend. "Indeed, it +seems to be quite natural. I have understood Mr. Duncan to be a +gentleman of uncommonly good taste. If he has made up his mind to attend +the dance, why shouldn't he choose for his partner, the best, the +dearest, and most charming girl in the city? Of course you are going?" + +"Why, no, of course I can't. I told him so, but he urged me to postpone +a final decision till to-morrow evening. I thought that would be +useless, and that the delay might make him miss a chance to engage some +other girl; but he insisted that he wasn't going at all unless I would +go with him, so just because he seemed to wish it, I promised to wait +till to-morrow evening before saying a final 'no.' Somehow you simply +have to do what Mr. Duncan wants you to do, you know." + +"Mr. Guilford Duncan is rising rapidly in my estimation," answered +Barbara's friend. "I have understood that he is a man of good sense and +good taste. Obviously he deserves that high repute. Your 'no' must be +'yes,' Bab." + +"Oh, but that's impossible!" + +"I don't see it." + +"Why, you _know_ I can't afford a gown." + +"I still don't see it. It's to be a fancy dress affair, I believe?" + +"Yes, of course." + +"Then you can go in any character you like. You've your drab-gray dress, +and it's as fresh as new. I'll go over to your house and alter it for +you. Then with a white cape of Bishop's lawn, and a white cap and apron, +we'll make you into the most charming little Quaker maiden imaginable. +The character will just suit you, because you suit it. That matter is +settled. Go home now and go to bed, and you mustn't dream of anything +but 'yes.'" + +So the good woman fended off thanks, and sent the happy girl home with +an enhanced sense of the value of friendship. + + + + +XV + +THE COMING OUT OF BARBARA + + +There was a flutter throughout the ballroom when Guilford Duncan, in the +costume of Hamlet, ushered in Barbara Verne, in her Quaker-maid's dress. +The impulses behind the flutter were various, but surprise was the +dominant one. + +Nobody had expected the reserved young Virginian to attend the function. +Nobody had dreamed of seeing Barbara Verne there. Still more certainly, +nobody had expected Duncan to escort "the daughter of his landlady," as +one of the chattering mammas spitefully called Barbara. + +"Upon my word, the girl is pretty, when she's made up that way," said +another. + +"She is more than pretty," quietly interposed Mrs. Will Hallam; "she is +the most beautiful girl in the room. And she is far less 'made up' than +any of the rest. Her costume is simplicity itself. I'm glad the dear +girl is here." + +The gracious lady presently beckoned to Duncan, who promptly responded. +Then taking some pains that those about her should hear every word, she +said: + +"Thank you, Duncan, for bringing Barbara, and my sincerest +congratulations on your good taste. I was just saying, when I caught +your eye, that she is the most beautiful girl in the room, and certainly +she is the most charming. You must bring her to me for a greeting and +congratulations, when the first set is over. There goes the music, now. +Don't stop to answer me." + +Mrs. Hallam's little speech, and the marked favor she showed to Barbara +throughout the evening, rather stimulated, than checked, the malicious +chatter of the half dozen women who were disposed, on behalf of their +daughters, to feel jealous of Bab. But they were at pains that Mrs. +Hallam should not hear them. For that lady was conspicuously the social +queen of the city and, gracious as she was, she had a certain clever way +of making even her politest speeches sting like a whip-lash when she was +moved to rebuke petty meanness of spirit. + +"What on earth can young Duncan mean?" asked one of them when the group +had placed distance between themselves and Mrs. Hallam, "by bringing +that girl here? She isn't in society at all." + +"I should say not. And Duncan is such an aristocrat, too." + +"Perhaps that's it. Maybe he has done this by way of showing his +contempt for Cairo society." + +"Oh, no," answered another. "He's simply amusing himself, like the male +flirt that he is. He has paid marked attention to half a dozen lovely +girls in succession, and now he brings Barbara Verne here just to show +them how completely he has dropped them." + +In the mean while Duncan was behaving with the utmost discretion. After +the first set was over, he danced with one after another of the young +women upon whom he had lavished so much of "marked attention" as may be +implied from one, or at most two, formal calls upon each. + +But this circumspection did not stop the chatter. + +"Wonder if Mrs. Hallam means to take the girl up? It would be just like +her to do that, she's so fond of Duncan, you know; if she does----" + +"Pardon me, but unless Mrs. Hallam has placed her character in your +hands for dissection, ladies, I must ask you not to discuss it further." + +That utterance came from Captain Will Hallam, who happened to be +standing by the wall, very near the woman who had last spoken. It was +like a thunderbolt in its effect, for there was not one of the gossips +whose husband's prosperity was not in some more or less direct way in +Will Hallam's hands. + +Instantly he turned and walked away to where Barbara shyly sat in a +corner, while half a dozen young men stood and talked with her. For +whatever the matrons might think, the young men all seemed eager for +Barbara's favor, and were making of her the belle of the evening by +their attentions. + +To the astonishment of all of them, Hallam asked Barbara for her dancing +card. Nobody had ever heard of the great man of business dancing. He was +middle-aged, absorbed in affairs, and positively contemptuous of all +frivolities. He had come to the party only to bring his wife. He had +quickly gone away again, and he had now returned only to escort Mrs. +Hallam home. Nevertheless, he asked Barbara for her card and, finding it +full, he turned to Duncan, saying: + +"I see that the next set is yours, Duncan. Won't you give it up to me, +if Miss Barbara permits?" + +Half a minute later the music began again and, to the astonishment of +the whole company, Captain Will Hallam led out the demure little +Quakeress, and managed to walk through a cotillion with her, without +once treading on her toes. + +That was Captain Will Hallam's way of emphasizing his displeasure with +the gossips, and marking his appreciation of Barbara. It was so +effective as to set the whole feminine part of the community talking for +a week to come. But of this the secluded girl heard not a word. The only +change the events of the evening made in the quiet routine of her life +was that all the best young men in the town became frequent callers upon +her, and that thereafter she was sure to receive more than one +invitation to every concert, dance, or other entertainment, as soon as +its occurrence was announced. + +But enough of the gossip reached Guilford Duncan's ears to induce angry +resentment and self-assertion on his part. + +"I told you how it would be, Duncan," said Mrs. Will Hallam to him not +long afterwards. "But I'm glad you did it. It was the manly, as well as +the kindly thing to do." + +"Thank you," the young man answered. "I mean to do more of the same +sort." + +He did not explain. Mrs. Hallam was in need of no explanation. + + + + +XVI + +A NEW ENEMY + + +It was about this time that Guilford Duncan managed to make a new enemy, +and one more powerful to work him harm, upon occasion, than all the rest +whom he had offended. + +Napoleon Tandy, president of the X National Bank,--whose name had been +first popularly shortened to "Nap Tandy" and afterwards extended again +into "Napper Tandy,"--was the only man in Cairo who had enough of +financial strength or of creative business capacity to be reckoned a +rival of Captain Will Hallam, or his competitor in commercial +enterprises. + +He had several times tried conclusions with Hallam in such affairs, but +always with results distinctly unsatisfactory to himself. Or, as Hallam +one day explained to Duncan, "He has got a good deal of education at my +hands, and he has paid his tuition fees." + +Tandy was not yet past middle age, but he was always called "Old Napper +Tandy," chiefly because of certain objectionable traits of character +that he possessed. He was reputed to be the "meanest man in Southern +Illinois." He was certainly the hardest in driving a bargain, the most +merciless in its enforcement. He was cordially hated and very greatly +feared. Cold, self-possessed, shrewd, and utterly selfish, his attitude +toward his fellow men, and toward himself, was altogether different from +that of his greater competitor, Hallam. He felt none of Hallam's +"sporting interest," as Duncan called it, in playing the game of +commerce and finance. He was quick to see opportunities, and somewhat +bold in seizing upon them, but no thought of popular or public benefit +to accrue from his enterprises ever found lodgment in his mind. He had +put a large sum of money into the Through Line of freight cars, but he +had done so with an eye single to his own advantage, with no thought of +anything but dividends. He had contemptuously called Duncan "a rainbow +chaser," because that young man had spoken with some enthusiasm of the +benefits which the cheapening of freight rates must bring to the people +East and West. + +"Well, he has a mighty good knack of catching his rainbows, anyhow," +answered Hallam; "and you'd better not let the idea get away with you +that he isn't a force to be reckoned with. He's young yet, and very new +to business, but you remember it was he who first suggested the Through +Line, and worked it out." + +In brief, Napper Tandy was a very greedy money-getter, and nothing else. +He hated Hallam with all that he had of heart, because Hallam was his +superior in the conduct of affairs, and because Hallam had so badly +beaten him in every case of competitive effort, and perhaps because of +some other things. + +On his part, Will Hallam, without hating, cordially detested the man +whom he had thus beaten and made afraid. + +Nevertheless, these two never quarreled. Each of them was too worldly +wise to make an open breach with one whose co-operation in great affairs +he might at any time need. + +"I never quarrel with a man," said Hallam to Duncan, by way of +explaining the situation. "I never quarrel with a man till he is in the +poor-house. So long as he's at large I may need him any day. It doesn't +pay for a man to cut off his own fingers." + +So between these two there was always an outward semblance of peace, +even when war was on between them, and it frequently happened that they +were closely associated in enterprises too large for either to conduct +so well alone. + +On the night of the ball, Hallam took Duncan aside and said to him: + +"I wish you'd take the seven o'clock train this morning and go up to the +mines for a few days. Everything there seems to be at sixes and sevens. +I can't make head or tail out of it all. All I know is that the +confounded mine is losing a good many thousands of my dollars every +month. I want you to go up and make a thorough investigation. If you +can't find a way out I'll shut up the hole in the ground and quit." + +Captain Hallam knew, of course, that Duncan could not get much sleep +that night, but he had long ago learned that Guilford Duncan utterly +disregarded personal comfort whenever duty called, and so he had no +hesitation in thus ordering his young lieutenant to take an early +morning train on the heels of a night of dancing. + +"Perhaps you'd better go up there with me," suggested Duncan. + +"No, that would embarrass matters. I've been up several times, and I +want you to bring a fresh mind to bear upon the trouble. I'll telegraph +the people there to put everything at your command. I want you to study +the situation and make up your mind, just as if the whole thing belonged +to you. Part of it does, you know, and more of it shall, if you find a +way out. If the thing can be made to go, I'll give you ten more of the +hundred shares, in addition to the five you already own. Good-night, and +good-bye till you're ready to report." + +Captain Will Hallam had recently bought this coal mine on a little +branch railroad in the interior of Illinois. He had not wanted to buy +it, but had done so by way of saving a debt. The mine had been badly +constructed at the beginning, and latterly it had been a good deal +neglected. There were other difficulties, as Duncan soon discovered, and +the coal resources of the property had never been half developed. In +recognition of his services in examining titles and other matters +connected with the purchase, Hallam had given the young man five per +cent. of the company's stock. He was thus, for the first time, working +in part for himself, when he was sent to study the situation. + +Quietly, but insistently, in face of the surly opposition of the +superintendent, who was also styled chief engineer, Duncan looked into +things. It was true, as the superintendent sullenly said, that this +young man knew nothing of coal mining; but it was also true, as Duncan +answered, that he knew how to learn. + +And he did learn. He learned so much that after three or four days, he +sent a telegram to Captain Will Hallam, saying: + + Give me a perfectly free hand here or call me home. I must have all + the authority you possess or I can be of no use. Answer by + telegraph. + +For response, Will Hallam telegraphed: + + Consider yourself the whole thing. I give you complete and absolute + authority. Hire or discharge men at will. Order all improvements + you think best. Draw on the bank here for any sum you need. Only + make the thing go if you can. + +Telegraphing was much more expensive in those days--forty years +ago--than it is now. And yet in neither of these dispatches was there +any seeming effort to spare words. That was Captain Will Hallam's rule +and practice. His frequent instruction to all his subordinates ran +somewhat in this wise: + +"Never save a word in telegraphing at the risk of being misunderstood. +Mistakes are the most costly luxuries that a man can indulge in. Never +forget that we live in the Nineteenth Century." + +In that spirit Captain Will sent a dozen other telegrams that day, +addressed to all the different men at the mines who had even the +smallest pretension to authority. In each of them he said: + + Guilford Duncan represents me fully and absolutely. His authority + is unlimited. Obey him or quit. Obey him with all good will. Help + him if you can, and in every way you can. There must be no + interference, no kicking, no withholding of information. These are + orders. + +Thus armed, Duncan set to work in earnest. + +"Why isn't your output of coal larger than it is?" he asked of Davidson, +the superintendent. + +"I can't make it larger under the circumstances." + +"What are the circumstances? What difficulties are there in the way? You +have miners enough, surely." + +"Well, for one thing, the mine is badly ventilated. Many of the best +galleries are filled with choke-damp, and must be kept closed." + +"Why don't you improve the ventilation? As an engineer you ought to +know how to do that much." + +"It isn't feasible, as you would know, Mr. Duncan, if you knew anything +about mining." + +"Oh, never mind my ignorance. It is your knowledge that I'm concerned +about just now. Do I understand you to say that a mine lying only +seventy-five feet or so below the surface cannot be ventilated?" + +"I suppose it might be if the business could afford the expense." + +"The business can and will afford any expense that may be necessary to +make it pay. If you know enough of engineering to devise a practicable +plan for ventilating the mine, I'll furnish you all the money you need +to carry it out." + +He had it in mind to add: "If you don't know enough for that, I'll find +a more competent engineer," but he kept his temper and refrained. + +"Twouldn't be of any use," answered Davidson, after a moment. "We're +producing more coal now than we can market." + +"How is that? I don't understand. Your order book--which I looked over +to-day--shows orders a full month ahead of shipments, besides many +canceled orders, countermanded because not filled promptly enough to +satisfy the customers. You're superintendent as well as engineer. I wish +you'd try to clear up this puzzle." + +"Oh, it's simple enough. The railroad people won't furnish us cars +enough. I could ship a hundred carloads to-morrow if I had the cars, but +I haven't got 'em, and I can't get 'em." + +"Do you mean that you are offering coal as freight to this railroad, and +the road is refusing it?" + +"Yes, that's about it. I've asked for cars and can't get 'em, except a +few each day." + +"Do the other mines along this little branch railroad have the same +trouble?" + +"There is only one other mine on this line." + +"Well, does it encounter the same difficulty in marketing its coal?" + +"No--at least not to so great an extent. You see somebody there is +standing in with the railroad people. I suppose they've had a little +block of stock given to them--the railroad people, I mean. So the +Quentin mines get all the cars they want, and we get only their +leavings." + +"Well, now, Mr. Davidson, I give you this order: Set to work at once and +bring out every ton of coal you've got ready in the mine. There'll be +cars here to haul it when you get it ready. Good-night, Mr. Davidson. +I'll talk with you another time about the other matters. I have a good +deal to do to-night, so I can't talk further with you now." + +Davidson went out after a grudging "good-night." Duncan did not yet know +or suspect, though he was presently to find out, that to Davidson, also, +the proprietors of the rival mine were paying a little tribute, as a +reward for silence and for making trouble. + +Duncan sat for an hour writing letters. The typewriting machine had not +been invented at that time, and even if it had been Duncan would have +preferred to write these letters himself. + +One of them was addressed to the General Freight Agent of the little +railroad on which the mine was situated. It read as follows: + + Within six days I shall have one hundred car loads of coal at the + mouth of this mine, ready for shipment upon orders. After that time + I shall have about sixty car loads ready for shipment each day. + Please see to it that an adequate supply of cars to move this + freight are side-tracked here on time. + +Duncan signed that letter with all needed circumspection. The signature +read: + + For the Redwood Coal and Iron Company; Guilford Duncan, Manager and + Attorney at Law and in Fact for the Company. + +That subscription was intended as an intimation. + +When on the next afternoon the General Freight Agent, who had several +times met Duncan at Captain Hallam's house, read the letter, his +attention was at once attracted--precisely as Guilford Duncan had +intended that it should be, by the elaborate formality of the signature. + +"So Hallam's got that smart young man of his at work, has he?" the +Freight Agent muttered. "Well, we'll see what we can do with him." But +he deliberately waited till nine o'clock that night before responding. +Then opening the telegraph key at his elbow, he called Duncan, and +Duncan, who had learned telegraphing, as he had learned many other +things, as a part of his equipment for work, promptly went to his key +and answered the call. The General Freight Agent spelled out this +message: + +"Simply impossible to furnish cars you ask. Haven't got them." + +Duncan responded: + +"The Quentin mine gets all cars needed. We demand our share and I shall +insist upon the demand." + +The reply came: + +"I tell you we can't do it. I'll run down to your place to-morrow or +next day and explain." + +"Don't want explanations," answered Duncan. "I want the cars." + +"But we simply can't furnish them." + +"But you simply must." + +"What if I refuse?" + +"Then I'll adopt other measures. But you won't refuse." + +"Why not?" + +"Because I know too much," answered Duncan. "I shall send to you by +special messenger, on the train that will pass here within an hour, a +letter making a formal tender of the freight. I make that tender by +telegraph now, and you may as well accept it in that way. Your road is +a chartered common carrier. Your lawyers will advise you that you cannot +refuse freight formally tendered to you for carriage, unless you can +show an actual inability; in that case you must show that you are doing +your best by all shippers alike; that you are treating them with an +equal hand. You perfectly well know you are not doing that. You know you +have cars in plenty. You know you are deliberately discriminating +against this mine, and in favor of its rival. I make formal demand, on +behalf of the company I represent, for all cars needed for the shipment +of this freight. If they are not forthcoming, as you say they will not +be, I give notice that I will dump the coal by the side of your loading +side-track and leave it there at your risk. Good-night." And Duncan shut +off the telegraph instrument and devoted himself to the preparation of +his letter of demand. + +It should be explained that the young man was not "making a bluff"--in +the figurative phrase of that time and country--when he telegraphed in +this way to the General Freight Agent. He had his facts well in hand. As +soon as Davidson's intimation had come to him to the effect that the +railroad officials were "standing in" with the proprietors of the +Quentin mine, he had telegraphed for Joe Arnold to come to him by a +train that would arrive at midnight. Joe Arnold was a detective of rare +gifts and, incidentally, a reporter on a Chicago newspaper. Captain +Will Hallam often had occasion to employ Joe, and thus Duncan had come +into acquaintance with the young man's peculiar abilities for finding +out things. Joe Arnold had an innocent, incurious, almost stupid +countenance that suggested a chronic desire for sleep rather than any +more alert characteristic. He had a dull, uninterested way of asking +questions which suggested the impulse of a vacuous mind to "keep the +talk going," rather than any desire to secure the information asked for. +Indeed, when he asked a question and it was not promptly answered, he +always hastened to say: + +"Oh, it's of no consequence, and it's none of my business." + +But before he quitted the presence of the man to whom the question had +been put, Joe Arnold usually had his answer. + +To this man, when he came by the midnight train, Duncan said: + +"I must know who are the stockholders in the Quentin mine--both those of +record and those whose names do not appear on the stock books. If +possible I must know also what each stockholder actually paid for his +shares. You must hurry. I must have this information by noon to-morrow. +You'll need to use money perhaps. Here's stake for expenses. Come back +on the noon train to-morrow." + +And Joe Arnold came back, bringing with him quite all the information +that Guilford Duncan wanted, and considerably more. For he brought with +him transcripts of all the correspondence that had passed between the +railroad people and the mine proprietors, including a dispatch which the +General Freight Agent had sent a little after midnight that morning to +Napoleon Tandy, saying: + + Hallam has got that sharp young fellow Duncan at work and, as you + are aware, he knows his business and his rights. I'm afraid he'll + make a formal proffer of freight and a demand for cars. I wish you + could come here, but of course you can't so long as you wish your + stockholdings in that mine down there and your relations with us to + be kept secret. Please telegraph any instructions you may wish. + +That dispatch, of course, had been sent not from the mines, but from the +General Freight Agent's office in another town. But there were always +men in those days who were deeply interested to learn what was going on +among the masters of finance, and one of these over-curious ones was a +certain telegraph operator. It was his practice to take off the wires +whatever dispatches there might be passing between Napper Tandy and the +railroad people. + +Thus it came about that Joe Arnold brought to Guilford Duncan a mass of +accurate and detailed information which enabled him to take the high +hand in his telegraphic controversy with the General Freight Agent, when +that person, late in the evening, called him up on the wire in answer to +his letter, received the night before. Thus was Duncan armed, +_cap-a-pie_, for the telegraphic controversy. And thus it came about +that during the next six days there were a hundred cars shunted to +Redwood side-tracks, where they were rapidly loaded with the coal output +of the Redwood mine. + + + + +XVII + +AN OLD FRIEND + + +From that hour forth the Redwood mine became a paying property and, as +Guilford Duncan liked to think, one which was contributing its share to +the public benefit and the welfare of the people. + +But Duncan's work there had only begun. Having solved the problem of +shipping coal as fast as the miners could dig it, he gave his attention +next to the equally pressing problem of increasing output. In the +solution of that a great help unexpectedly came to him. + +He was sitting late one night over the books and correspondence, when, +near midnight, a miner sought speech with him. + +He bade the man enter and, without looking up from the papers he was +studying, asked him to take a seat. Still without taking his eyes from +the papers, he presently asked of the man, who had not accepted the +invitation to sit: + +"Well, sir, what can I do for you?" + +"Nothing," answered the man. "I came to serve you, not to ask service." + +The voice seemed familiar to Duncan--almost startlingly familiar. He +instantly looked up and exclaimed: + +"Why, it's Dick Temple!" + +"Yes," answered the other. "You and I quarreled very bitterly once. The +quarrel was a very foolish one--on my side." + +"And on mine, too!" responded Duncan, grasping his former enemy's hand. +"Let us forget it, and be friends." + +"With all my heart. It was in that spirit that I came hither to-night--I +want to render you a service." + +Meanwhile Duncan had almost forced the miner into a chair. + +"Tell me," he said, "how is it that you----" + +"That I'm a miner? You think of me as an educated engineer, eh? Well, +that's a long story and not at all so sad a one as you might suppose. +I'll tell you all about it at another time. But it can wait, while there +are some other things that should be said now--things that vitally +affect the affairs you have in charge." + +"It is very good of you to come to me with suggestions, and they will be +very welcome, I assure you, and very helpful, I've no doubt. For I have +faith in your skill as an engineer." + +"My skill still remains to be proved," answered the other with the +merest touch of sadness in his utterance. "But, at any rate, I've had +the very best engineering education that the schools can give. Never +mind that--and never mind me. I didn't come here to talk of myself. I +want to talk to you about this mine." + +"Good. That is what I am here for. Go on." + +"Well, everything here is wrong. With your readiness of perception you +must have seen that for yourself. With the general management I have +nothing to do. I'm only one of the miners. But there is a problem of +ventilation here that ought to be solved, and I have come simply to +offer a solution, in the interest of the company that pays my wages and +still more in the interest of the miners. Two of them were killed by +choke-damp a little while ago, four of them are now ill from the same +cause, while all of them are earning less than they should because the +best and most easily accessible headings are closed." + +"Is there any very serious difficulty involved in the problem of +ventilating the mine?" + +"None whatever--at least no engineering difficulty." + +"Just what do you mean?" + +"I prefer not to say." + +"Perhaps I can guess," said Duncan. "I have myself discovered a very +serious difficulty in the personal equation of Mr. Davidson. He does +not want to ventilate the mine--he has his own reasons, of course. That +difficulty shall no longer stand in the way. I shall eliminate it at +once. Go on, please, and tell me of the engineering problem." + +"It scarcely amounts to a problem. The mine lies only about seventy-five +feet below the surface. At its extreme extension the depth is +considerably less, because of a surface depression there. What I suggest +is this: Dig a shaft at the extreme end, thus making a second opening, +and pass air freely through the mine from the one opening to the other. +The cost will be a mere trifle." + +"But will the air pass through in that way?" + +"Not without help. But we can easily give it help." + +"How? Go on. Explain your plan fully." + +"Well, we have here three or four of those big fans that the government +had made for the purpose of ventilating the engine rooms and stoke holes +of its ironclads. They utterly failed and were sold as junk. Captain +Hallam bought a lot of them at the price of scrap iron, and sent them +out here. Davidson tried one of them and reported utter failure as a +result. The failure was natural enough, both in the case of the +ironclads and in that of the mine." + +"How so?" + +"Why, in both cases an attempt was made to force air down into spaces +already filled with an atmosphere denser than that above. That was +absurdly impossible, as any engineer not an idiot should have known." + +"And yet you think you can use these fans successfully in ventilating +the mine?" + +"I do not think--I know. If Mr. Davidson will permit me to explain----" + +"Never mind Davidson. If this experiment is to be tried you shall +yourself be the man to try it. Go on, please." + +"But, Duncan, I simply mustn't be known in the matter at all." + +"Why not?" + +"I have a wife to care for. I can't afford to be discharged. Besides, +the miners like me and they think they have grievances against Davidson. +If he were to discharge me--as he certainly would if I were to appear in +this matter--the whole force would go on strike, no matter how earnestly +I might plead with them not to do so. I don't want that to happen. It +would be an ill return to the company that gave me wages when it was a +question of wages or starvation with me. Worse still, it would mean +poverty and suffering to all the miners and all their helpless wives and +children. No, Duncan, I must not be known in this matter, or have +anything to do with the execution of the plans I suggest. I want you to +treat them as your own; suggest them to Davidson, and persuade him to +carry them out. In that way all of good and nothing of harm will be +done." + +"Why, then, haven't you suggested your plans to Davidson?" + +"I have, and he has scornfully rejected them. Coming from you he may +treat them with a greater respect." + +"Now, before we go any further, Dick--for I like to call you by the old +nickname that alone I knew before our foolish quarrel came to separate +us--before we go any further, let me explain to you that I am absolute +master here. My word is law, to Mr. Davidson as completely and as +absolutely as to the old fellow who scrubs out this office--or doesn't +scrub it, for it's inexcusably dirty. Davidson can no more discharge you +than he can discharge me. I don't know yet what I shall do with +Davidson. But at any rate he has no longer the power to discharge you, +so you need have no fear in that direction. Go on, now, and tell me how +you purpose to ventilate the mine. I'm mightily interested." + +"Thank you," said Temple. "My plan is perfectly simple. You can't force +air down into a mine with any pump that was ever invented, or any pump +that ever will be devised by human ingenuity. But you can easily and +certainly draw air out of a mine. And when there are two openings to the +mine--one at either end--if you draw air out at one end fresh air will +of itself rush in at the other end to take its place. My plan is to sink +a shaft at the farther end of the mine, and to build an air-tight box at +the surface opening, completely closing it, except for an outflow pipe. +Then I shall put one of the big ironclad fans into that box _upside +down_. When it is set spinning it will suck air out of the mine, and +fresh air will rush in at the main shaft to take the place of the air +removed." + +Duncan was intensely interested. Very eagerly he bent forward as he +asked: + +"You are confident of success in this?" + +"More than confident. I'm sure." + +"Quite sure?" + +"More than quite sure; I'm absolutely certain. I've tried it." + +"Tried it? How?" + +"I've reconstructed the mine in miniature. I've made a little fan whose +suction capacity is in exact proportion to that of the big fan which I +propose to use in the mine. I have fully experimented, and I tell you +now, Guilford Duncan, that if you permit me to carry out the plan, I'll +create a breeze in that mine which will compel you to hold on to your +hat whenever you go into the galleries." + +Duncan rarely showed excitement. When he did so, it was in ways peculiar +to himself. At this point he rose to his feet, and with an unusually +slow and careful enunciation, said: + +"Go to work at this job early to-morrow morning, Dick--or this morning, +rather, for it is now one o'clock. Your wife is Mary, of course?" + +There was a choking sound in Duncan's voice as he uttered the words. + +"Yes, of course," answered the other, instinctively grasping Duncan's +hand and pressing it in warm sympathy. + +"Will you bear her a message from me?" + +"Yes, any message you are moved to send." + +"Tell her that Guilford Duncan has appointed you sole engineer of these +mines, with full salary, and that if you succeed in the task you have +undertaken, a far better salary awaits you." + +Temple hesitated a moment and at last resumed his seat before answering. +Then he said: + +"This is very generous of you. I will go to her now, and deliver your +message. She will be very glad. She was in doubt as to how you would +receive me. But may I come back? Late as it is, I have a good deal more +to say to you--about the mine, of course. You and I used often to talk +all night, in the old days, long ago, before--well before we quarreled." + +"Go!" answered Duncan with emotion. "Go! Tell Mary what I have said. +Then come back. One night's sleep, more or less, doesn't matter much to +healthy men like you and me." + + + + +XVIII + +DICK TEMPLE'S PLANS + + +When Richard Temple returned to the office of the mining company, his +always cheerful face was rippling with a certain look of gladness that +told its own story of love and devotion. Had he not borne good tidings +to Mary? Had he not, for the first time in months, been able to stand +before her in another character than that of a working miner, and to +offer her some better promise of the future than she had known before? + +Not that Mary ever thought of her position as one unworthy of her +womanhood, not that she had ever in her innermost heart allowed herself +to lament the poverty she shared with him, or to reproach him with the +obscurity into which her life with him had brought her. Richard Temple +knew perfectly that no shadow of disloyalty had ever fallen upon Mary +Temple's soul. He knew her for a wife of perfect type who, having +married him "for better or for worse," had only rejoicing in her loving +heart that she had been able to accept the "worse" when it came, to make +the "better" of it, and to help him with her devotion at a time when he +had most sorely needed help. + +He knew that his Mary was not only content, but happy in the miner's hut +which had been her only home since her marriage, and which, with loving +hands, she had glorified into something better to the soul than any +palace is where love is not. + +O, good women! All of you! How shall men celebrate enough your devotion, +your helpfulness, your loyalty, and your love? How shall men ever repay +the debt they owe to wifehood and motherhood? How shall civilization +itself sufficiently honor the womanhood that alone has made it possible? + +But while Richard Temple knew that there was never a murmur at her lot +in Mary's heart any more than there was complaining upon her lips, he +knew also how earnestly she longed for a better place in the world for +him, how intensely ambitious she was that he should find fit opportunity +and make the most of it in the way of winning that recognition at the +hands of men which her loving soul knew to be his right and his due. + +It was with gladness, therefore, that he had gone to her after midnight +with his news. It was with joy that he had wakened her out of her sleep +and told her of the good that had come to him. + +She wept as she sat there on the side of her bed and listened while the +moonlight, sifting through the vines that she had trained up over the +window of the miner's hut, cast a soft fleecy veil over her person, in +which Temple thought an angel might rejoice. But her tears were not born +of sorrow. They were tears of exceeding joy, and if a drop or two +slipped in sympathy from the strong man's eyes and trickled down his +cheeks, he had no cause to be ashamed. + +When he re-entered the company's office, Temple stood for a moment, +unable to control the emotion he had brought away from Mary's bedside. +When at last he regained mastery of himself, he took Duncan's hand and, +pressing it warmly, delivered Mary's message: + +"Mary bids me say, God bless you, Guilford Duncan. She bids me say that +two weeks ago to-night a son was born to us; that he has been nameless +hitherto; but that to-night, before I left, she took him from his cradle +and named him Guilford Duncan Temple." + +It is very hard for two American men to meet an emotional situation with +propriety. They cannot embrace each other as women, and Frenchmen, and +Germans do, and weep; a handclasp is all of demonstration that they +permit themselves. For the rest, they are under bond to propriety to +maintain as commonplace and as unruffled a front as stoicism can +command. So, after Guilford Duncan had choked out the words: "Thank you, +old fellow, and thank Mary," he turned to the table, pushed forward the +pipes and tobacco, and said: + +"Let's have a smoke." + + * * * * * + +"Now tell me the rest of it," said Duncan, after the pipes were set +going. "About the mine, I mean." + +"Well, it all seems simple. There are two hundred and seventy blind +mules in the mine----" + +"Blind? What do you mean?" + +"Blind; yes. Not one of them has seen the light of day since he entered +the mine, and some of them have been there for more than a dozen years. +Living always in the dark, they have lost the power to see." + +"Go on. What were you going to say?" + +"Why, that those mules represent an investment of twenty or twenty-five +thousand dollars, all absolutely needless. Their use involves also a +wholly unnecessary expense for stablemen, feed, and general care, while +the yearly deaths among them add heavily to the profit and loss account, +on the loss side. Not one of those mules is needed in the mine. The work +they do can be better done at one-tenth the cost--yes, it can be done at +no cost at all; while if the mules are brought out and sold, they will +bring from twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars." + +"Go on. Explain. What do the mules do, and how is their work to be done +without them?" + +"They do just two things; they haul coal to the bottom of the inclined +shaft, where it must be reloaded--at wholly unnecessary expense--in +order to be hauled by machinery up the incline to the surface. Half the +time they are employed in hauling water. The mine, you must understand, +declines from the foot of the shaft to the end of the main heading. The +very lowest level of all is there, where I propose to put in a +ventilating shaft, with a fan; all the water flows to that point, +flooding it. Under the antediluvian methods in use in this mine, all +this water must be pumped into leaky cars and hauled by mules to the +bottom of the the sloping shaft, whence it is drawn up by the engine, +spilling half of it before it reaches the surface. Now, when I sink that +ventilating shaft out there on the prairie, I must have an engine to +turn the fan. Very well, I've got it. Among the junk that Captain Hallam +bought when the war ended and the river navy went out of commission, +there are parts of many little steam engines. I've busied myself at +night in measuring these and fitting part of one to parts of another. +The result is that I have made an engine out of this rubbish, which will +not only drive the ventilating fan, but will also pump all the water out +of the mine." + +"But will not the mules be needed for hauling coal to the bottom of the +shaft?" + +"Not at all, if you are willing to spend a little money in an +improvement--say a fourth or a third of what the mules will bring in the +market--or considerably less than it costs to feed and curry them for a +year." + +"What is the nature of the improvement?" + +"Why, simply an extension to every part of the mine of the cable system +by which the engine now hauls the coal and water up the slope." + +"But where are we to get power?" + +"By using what we already have. Our great engine is a double one. We are +using only one of its cylinders. We have only to connect the other in +order to have all the power we need." + +"But what about steam?" + +"That's easy to make. We have several unused boilers, and as we burn +nothing under our boilers but culm--the finely slaked coal for which +there isn't a market, even at a tenth of a cent a ton--it will cost us +absolutely not one cent to make all the steam we need." + +"You seem to have thought it all out." + +"I have done more than that. I have _worked_ it all out. I must work all +day in a heading, of course, in order to make bread and butter. I have +worked at night over these problems." + +"And you are sure you've got the right answers?" + +"Greatly more than sure--absolutely certain!" + +"Very well. You are now chief engineer, or anything else you please, at +a chief engineer's salary. You are to go to work at once digging the new +ventilating and pumping shaft. You are to proceed at once to install +your other improvements, and, when you report to me that there is no +longer any use for the mules in the mine, I'll bring them all out and +sell them. I'll look to the payments incidental to your work. My mission +here is to make this mine a paying property. To that end, you are to +bear in mind, I have an entirely free hand, and all the money needed is +at my command. Now let that finish business for to-night. I want you to +spend the rest of the dark hours in telling me your story and Mary's. I +want to know all that has happened to both of you since--well, since she +told me she loved you and not--me. You don't mind sitting up for the +rest of the night?" + +"Certainly not. I've sat up with you on far smaller provocation." + +"But how about Mary?" + +"She will sleep, or, if she doesn't--and I suppose she won't--she is +entirely happy. She will be glad to have me spend the night with you." + +"Very well, then. Tell me the story of what has happened to you and Mary +since the day when we quarreled like a pair of idiots, and--like men of +sense--decided not to fight. I want to hear it all." + +"I'll tell it all," said the other. And he did. + + + + +XIX + +DICK TEMPLE'S STORY + + +This is the story that Richard Temple told to his friend in the small +hours of that night's morning. Let us dispense with quotation marks to +cover it. + +You know what my education was. My uncle, whose heir I was supposed to +be, spared no expense to equip me for my life's work. He sent me to the +best schools in the North, and afterwards to the best schools in Europe. +Just at the beginning of the war, and because of it, I returned to +Virginia. I secured a commission in the engineer corps, but I soon +resigned it, because at the beginning of the war there was no earnest +work for the engineer corps to do, and I foolishly thought there never +would be. I enlisted as a private in the artillery, and before the end +of the war I was a captain. + +A few months before the war ended, I married Mary. You, of course, +understand. Mary was the daughter of an ancient and honorable house, but +she was living as a dependent in the family of a very remote +relative--so remote that the kinship was rather mythical than real. + +At that time I owned, or was supposed to own, my ancestral plantation, +Robinet. My uncle at his death had left it to me. + +As a man abundantly able to provide for a wife, I asked Mary to marry +me, and to become the mistress of Robinet. + +We were married about the time Fort Harrison fell into the enemy's +hands. I remember that I had to delay the wedding in order to bombard +Fort Harrison with my mortars, in preparation for the infantry assault, +which it was hoped might recover the works. + +When that affair was over, and our lines were reconstructed, I got leave +of absence, and Mary and I were married. + +I was foolish enough to believe, even in the autumn and winter of 1864, +that we of the South were certain to win the war. As I look back now and +consider the conditions then existing, I wonder at my own stupidity in +not seeing what the end must be. However, that would have made no +difference in any case. I must take Mary out of her condition of +dependence, by marrying her, and I did so. + +When the end came, I went home for a little while. My uncle had died in +hopeless despondency. His estate, when I inherited it, was buried in +debt, and with the negroes no longer mine, the creditors clearly saw +that I could never pay out. They descended upon me in a swarm. There +was nothing for me to do but make complete surrender of my possessions +to them. These were sufficient to pay about forty cents on the dollar of +the hereditary debt. + +As soon as disaster thus came upon me, I set out to find employment in +my profession, promising myself that I should soon be able to pay all +the debts of which I had been acquitted as a bankrupt. + +I knew that I had as much of skill in my profession as a young man with +little practical experience could have. I saw that there must be a world +of work done by way of developing the resources of the country after +four years of paralyzing war. I thought there was pressing need of my +services and my skill, and I confidently counted upon quickly achieving +place and pay for myself. + +I didn't know the ways of men then, but I soon found them out. Wherever +there seemed to be an opening for me, I found that Somebody's son got +the place, because Somebody could influence its bestowal. + +Once I did get employment. There was a little stretch of railroad to be +built, by way of connecting one line with others. I applied for the +place of engineer, and was promptly informed that John Harbin had +already been appointed to it. You know John. You know what a blockhead +he is. I was graduated in the same class with him--he simply cheating +his way through. When I heard of his appointment, I was dumbfounded. I +knew that he simply could not do the work. He could not calculate a +curvature to save his life. As for the more difficult operations of +engineering, he was as helpless as a child. + +I was curious to learn how he intended to get through with his task. I +soon found out. He sent for me and asked me to become his "assistant." +The pay he offered was barely sufficient to keep me alive. In brief, the +arrangement was that I should do the work while he drew the pay and got +the credit. That was because John Harbin's father was president of the +railroad that was making the extension, and John Harbin's father had no +purpose to let any good thing go out of the family. + +I was rapidly getting my education in the ways of the world, and I was +paying a high price for it. For a few months I did the work of a +competent engineer on a salary that paid me less than a laborer's wage. +Finally I resigned in disgust and set out to find something better. I +tramped across country to every mine I could hear of--for in my studies +I had specialized in mining--but nowhere could I secure employment. +There was always some man with influence, where I had none, and always +the man with the influence got the place. + +At last I tramped my way out here. I had made up my mind to ask no +longer for employment as an engineer. I applied to Davidson for a +miner's place only. At first he refused, after looking at my hands and +satisfying himself that I had had no experience in practical mining. +But, as they pay miners here only by output--a certain price per ton for +the coal a miner gets out--I persuaded him at last to let me go into a +heading with a pick and a shovel, and a package of blasting powder. + +Then I wrote to Mary, telling her of my situation, and charging her that +she must from that day forth pay the cost of her living out of such +money as I could send her. In order that I might send her enough--for I +was determined that she should not be in any remotest way a dependent--I +instantly cut off all my personal expenses. I had my soldier blanket, +and my overalls. I needed no other clothes, for in the mine I always go +barefoot. I was well used to sleeping out of doors, so I slept on the +ground under the coal chutes. I took the job of cooking for a gang of +bachelor miners, who gave me my board for my services. + +In that way I planned to send all of my wages to Mary. But I didn't +really know Mary. I thought of her always as a tenderly nurtured girl, +who must be shielded at all hazards against hardship of every kind; and +I meant so to shield her. But presently she revealed herself in another +character. You know how it was in the army. The gentlemen soldiers, the +men of good breeding, the men who had lived in luxury from childhood, +with servants to anticipate every need, real or fancied, were the +readiest to meet hardship, and to do hard work. You and I have seen +such men drudging, willingly and cheerfully, in the half-frozen mud of +the trenches, while other men, who had never known anything better than +a log cabin for a home, bacon and greens for dinner, and a bed of straw +to sleep upon, were almost in mutiny because of the hardships they must +endure as soldiers. + +It is true that "Blood will tell," and it is as true with women as with +men. Blood asserted itself in Mary's case. Her answer was prompt to my +letter telling her I had taken work as a miner. She utterly repudiated +the thought that she was to go on living in idleness, while I should go +on toiling to furnish her the means of living so. I shall never forget +her words: + +"I am coming to you quickly, Richard, to convert your miner's cabin into +a home. Where the husband is, the wife should be with all she knows of +helpfulness and cheer." + +And she came. From that hour to this I have known what the word "home" +means, far better than I ever did in my life before. We have two +rooms--she built one of them, a little lean-to, with her own hands. And +her presence glorifies both of them. + +"I am very glad, Dick." + +That was all that Duncan could say. It was all there was need for him to +say. + + + + +XX + +IN THE SUMMER TIME + + +Six months came and went before Duncan's work at the mine was done. +Then, in mid-July, he returned to Cairo and gave an account of his +stewardship. With Temple in control as superintendent and engineer, the +mine had become a richly paying property, and with Temple there, there +was no further need for Duncan's presence. + +During that half year, Duncan had lived chiefly with the Temples in the +superintendent's house, which Mary Temple had quickly converted from a +barn-like structure, standing alone upon the face of the bald prairie, +into a home in the midst of a garden of flowers. + +During his long stay at the mine, Duncan had made frequent visits to +Cairo. These were brief in duration, usually covering a Sunday, but each +visit gave Guilford Duncan two opportunities that he desired. He could +sit late on Saturday evening, discussing his plans with Captain Will +Hallam, and on Sunday he had opportunity to become more and more closely +acquainted with Barbara. + +He made no formal calls upon her, and none were necessary. He simply +adopted the plan of remaining after the one o'clock Sunday dinner and, +little by little, Barbara came to feel that he expected her to join him +in the little parlor, after his cigar was finished. He seemed to like +the quiet conversations with her, while she regarded the opportunity to +talk with a man so superior in education, culture, and intellect, to any +other that she had known, as a privilege to be prized. + +Their attitude toward each other at this time was peculiar. They were +good friends, fond of each other's society, and seemingly, at least, +they were nothing more. The fascination that Duncan had from the first +felt in Barbara's presence was still upon him, but he accepted it more +calmly now, and it soothed his natural restlessness, where at first it +had excited it. + +To Barbara, Guilford Duncan's attitude seemed a gracious condescension, +which she did not dream that she deserved. She sometimes wondered that +this young man of rare quality, who was sure of a welcome wherever he +might go, should be content to sit with her throughout the Sunday +afternoons, instead of seeking company better fit to entertain him. +There were young women in Cairo who had been much more conventionally +educated than she--young women who had mingled in society in Chicago, +and in eastern cities. A few of them had even traveled in Europe--a +thing very rare among Americans, and especially among Western Americans +in the sixties. These young women knew all about operas and theaters. +They had heard great musicians play and great singers sing. They had +seen all the notable actors. They read the current literature of the +time--the lighter part of it at least--and above all, they were +mistresses of the "patter," which passes for brilliancy and sometimes +even for wit in fashionable life. + +Guilford Duncan visited none of these, and Barbara could not understand. + +"He is too tired, I suppose," was her reflection, "when he runs down to +Cairo for a Sunday rest. He doesn't want to see anybody or talk to +anybody. I can easily understand that. So he just sits here instead of +going out." + +Barbara's explanation was obviously defective at one point. If Duncan +did not care to see people, if he was too weary for conversation, how +came it about that he stayed and talked gently, but constantly, with +her, instead of going to the rooms he had fitted up for himself since +prosperity had come to him? She had heard much of those rooms, of the +multitude of books that he had put into them, of the bric-a-brac with +which he had rendered them homelike and beautiful. They were in fact +very simple rooms, inexpensively furnished. But Duncan had devoted a +good deal of attention and an unfailing good taste to their furnishing +and adornment, and thus, by the expenditure of a very little money he +had managed to create a bachelor apartment which was the talk of the +town. + +"He is alone when he goes there," the girl explained to herself, when at +last this question arose in her mind. "And I suppose he feels lonely. +But why doesn't he go somewhere, instead of just sitting here in our +little parlor or out in the porch?" + +It was a riddle that she could not read, and for the present, at least, +Duncan would not offer her any help in solving it. He knew now that +Barbara Verne was the woman he loved--the only woman in all the world +who could be to him what a wife must be to a man of his temperament, if +two souls are to be satisfied. + +But he saw clearly that Barbara Verne had no thought of that kind in her +mind--or, at least, no such conscious thought. She was accustomed to +think of herself as a very commonplace young woman, not at all the equal +of this very superior man, to whom everybody in Cairo paid a marked +deference. He understood Barbara as she did not at all understand +herself. He had looked upon her white soul and bowed his head in worship +of its purity, its nobility, its utter truthfulness. He knew the +qualities of a mind that had no just self-appreciation. He felt, rather +than knew, that no thought of his loving her--otherwise than as an elder +brother might love a little sister--had ever crossed her consciousness. +He felt that the abrupt suggestion of that thought would only shock and +distress her. + +"I'll find a way of making others suggest it, after a while," he +resolved. "In the meanwhile----" He didn't finish the sentence, even in +his own mind. But what he did in that "meanwhile" was to see as much as +possible of Barbara, to talk with her impersonally, gently, and +interestingly, to win her perfect trust and confidence, and, so far as +possible, to make his presence a necessary thing to her. He paid her no +public attention of any kind. But he paid no public or private attention +to any other young woman. It was well understood that for a time he was +living at the mine and coming to Cairo only for brief visits of a +business character, at infrequent intervals. His neglect of society, +therefore, seemed in need of no explanation, while his unostentatious +intimacy with Barbara attracted no attention. The only person who ever +spoke to him about it was Mrs. Will Hallam. + +"You are going to marry Barbara Verne, of course?" she half said, half +asked one day. + +"If I can, yes," he answered. + +"I'm very glad of that," and she said no more. + +On his final return to Cairo, however, Duncan found himself expected in +what is called society. Society was destined to disappointment, for +Duncan went nowhere--except that he usually sat for some hours every +Sunday afternoon in the vine-clad porch of the house in which he took +his meals. Barbara's aunt often sat there with him. Barbara always did +so, in answer to what seemed to be his wish. He made no calls. He +declined all invitations to the little excursions on the river, which +constituted the chief social activities of the summer time. He gave it +out that he was too busily engaged with affairs to have time for +anything else, and that explanation seemed for a time to satisfy public +curiosity. + +And that explanation was true. Guilford Duncan had begun to take upon +himself the duties of a leader--in an important way--in the work of +upbuilding which at that time was engaging the attention of all men of +affairs. He had accumulated some money, partly by saving, but more by +the profits of his little investments, and by being "let in on the +ground floor" of many large enterprises, in the conception and conduct +of which his abilities were properly appreciated by the capitalists who +undertook them. + +Except as a legal adviser, he was no longer a man employed by other men +now. His relations with Will Hallam were closer than ever, but they were +no longer those of secretary, or clerk, or employee in any other +capacity. In many enterprises he was Hallam's partner. In all, he was +his legal adviser, besides being employed in a like capacity by one or +two railroad companies and the like. He had offices of his own, and +while he was still not at all rich, or a man who was reckoned a +capitalist, he was everywhere recognized as a young man of power and +influence, whose brains had brought him into close association with the +greater men of affairs, not only in Cairo, but in all parts of the +country, and especially in New York. For that great city had by this +time made itself completely the financial capital of the country, and +its controlling hand was felt in every enterprise of large moment +throughout the land. + + + + +XXI + +AN INTERVIEW WITH NAPPER TANDY + + +For more than a year now Guilford Duncan had been diligently studying +those processes of upbuilding which were so rapidly converting the West +into an empire of extraordinary wealth and power. He had made many +suggestions that had commended themselves for immediate execution, +together with some that must wait for years to come. He had condemned +some projects that seemed hopeful to others, and he had induced +modifications in many. + +All these things had been done mainly in his letters and reports to +Captain Will Hallam, but the substance of those letters and reports had +been promptly laid before others, especially before those great +financiers of the East, upon whom all enterprises of moment throughout +the country depended for the means of their accomplishment. In that way +Guilford Duncan had become known to the "master builders" as he called +these men, and had won a goodly share of their confidence. He was +regarded as a young man of unusual gifts in the way of constructive +enterprise--a trifle overbold, some thought, overconfident, even +visionary, but, in the main, sound in his calculations, as results had +shown when his plans were adopted. On the other hand, some projectors, +whose enterprises he had discouraged as unsound or premature, complained +that so far from being a visionary, he was in fact a pessimist, a +discouraging force that stood in the way of that "development of the +country" from which they hoped for personal gain of one kind or another. +There were little towns that aspired to become larger towns, and +stretches of undeveloped country in which Guilford Duncan was regarded +as an arch enemy of progress--almost as a public enemy. The reason for +this was the fact that he had advised against the construction of +railroads, from which the little towns concerned, and the stretches of +thinly peopled country between, had hoped to benefit, and his advice had +been accepted as sound by the financiers to whom the projectors looked +for the means of securing what they wanted. + +Napper Tandy was Guilford Duncan's enemy from the hour in which Duncan +had forced that little branch railroad in the coal regions to haul +Hallam's coal on equal terms with his own. But Tandy had said nothing +whatever about that. He never published his enmities till the time came. +About the time of Duncan's return to Cairo, he added another to his +offenses against Tandy, in a way to intensify that malignant person's +hostility. + +Tandy was scheming to secure a costly extension of this branch railroad +through a sparsely settled and thin-soiled region, in a way that would +greatly enrich himself, because of his vast property holdings there. He +had well-nigh persuaded a group of capitalists to undertake the +extension when, acting cautiously as financiers must, they decided to +ask Duncan to study the situation and make a report upon the project. He +had already studied the question thoroughly during his stay at the +mines, and was convinced that nothing but loss could come of the +attempt. The region through which the line must run was too poor in +agricultural and other resources to afford even a hope of a paying +traffic. The line itself must be a costly one because of certain +topographical features, and finally another and shorter line, closely +paralleling this proposed extension, but running through a much richer +country, was already in course of construction. + +Tandy knew all these things quite as well as Guilford Duncan did. But +Tandy also knew many methods in business with which Duncan was not +familiar. + +As soon as he was notified by the capitalists with whom he was +negotiating that they had employed Duncan to examine and report, and +that their final decision would be largely influenced by his judgment, +Tandy, with special politeness, wrote to Duncan, asking him to call at +his house that evening "for a little consultation on business affairs +that may interest both of us." + +Duncan well knew that he had offended Tandy in the matter of the coal +cars, but as Tandy had made no sign, he could see no possible reason for +refusing this request for a business consultation. Moreover, Guilford +Duncan felt himself under a double responsibility. He felt that he must +not only guard and promote the interests of those who had employed him +to study this question, but that he was also under obligations to +consider carefully the interests involved on the other side. His +function, he felt, was essentially a judicial one. He knew one side of +the case. It was his duty to hear the other, and Tandy was the spokesman +of that other. + +Duncan's reception at Tandy's house was most gracious. The gentlewomen +of the family were present to greet him, and Mrs. Tandy said, in +welcoming him: + +"Sometimes I feel like hating business--it so dreadfully occupies you +men. But just now I am in love with business because it brings you to us +in our home. We have never before had the honor of even a call from you, +Mr. Duncan." + +"I have given little attention to social duties, Mrs. Tandy," Duncan +began apologetically. "I have done next to no calling. You see----" + +"Oh, yes, I know how it is. Mr. Tandy says you are the most 'earnest' +young man in Cairo, and of course we poor women folk understand that you +are too much engaged with what Mr. Tandy calls 'affairs,' to give any +time to us. But I am glad to greet you now, and to welcome you to our +home. Perhaps, some day, when you and Mr. Tandy and--and Captain +Hallam--have got all the things done that you want done, you will have +more time for social duties. Mr. Tandy tells me you have achieved a +remarkable success. He says you will soon be reckoned a rich man, and +that you are already a man of very great influence. Now, I shouldn't say +these things if I had any daughters to marry off. As I haven't any +daughters, of course I am privileged. But I seriously want to say that +you have won Mr. Tandy's regard in so great a degree that he is planning +to make you his partner and associate in all his enterprises. He says +you are to become one of our 'great men of affairs,' and that he means +to have you 'with him' in all his undertakings for the development of +our splendid western country." + +When the voluble woman ceased, Guilford Duncan wondered whence she had +got her speech. + +"Tandy could never have composed it," he was sure. "She must have done +it herself. But, of course, Tandy gave her the 'points.' She is a very +clever woman. I remember it was she who invited Barbara as a guest of +honor at some sort of a function three days after Barbara appeared at +the fancy dress ball. She had never noticed her before. That woman is of +a superior kind--in her way. I can't imagine a wife better 'fit' for a +man like Tandy. All the same I don't mean to let her 'take up' Barbara. +She's far too 'smart.' She isn't Barbara's sort." + +"Now, I've ordered coffee and cigars for you gentlemen," said Mrs. +Tandy, as she arose to leave. "Of course you want to 'talk business,' +and when business is on the tapis we women folk must retire to our +rooms. Business is our greatest rival and enemy, Mr. Duncan. On this +occasion I not only take myself out of the way, but I have bidden my two +sisters remain in the dining room until you two gentlemen shall have +finished your talk. After that--perhaps ten o'clock will suit you--you +are to come into the dining room, if you are gracious enough, and have a +little supper." + +Duncan bowed, in implication of a promise, which he was not destined to +fulfill. + +When the gracious gentlewoman had left the room, Napper Tandy came at +once to the subject in hand. + +"I'm more than glad, Duncan," he lyingly said, "that these financial +people have asked you to examine and report upon this scheme of +extension. You are so heartily in sympathy with every enterprise that +looks to the development of our western country, and your intelligence +is so superbly well informed that of course a project like this appeals +to you." + +"It does not appeal to me at all, Mr. Tandy," answered Duncan with a +frankness that was the more brutal because it was his first word after +Mrs. Tandy's flattering appeal. + +"I do not think well of the extension. It----" + +"Pardon me for interrupting," interposed Tandy, in fear that Duncan +might commit himself beyond recall against the scheme. "Pardon me for +interrupting, but you must see that the Redwood mines, in which, I +understand, you own fifteen per cent.----" + +"I own twenty-five per cent., for I have put my savings into that +enterprise," answered Duncan. + +"Well, so much the better. You must see that the Redwood mines, in which +you own twenty-five per cent., will benefit as much as the Quentin mines +do, by this extension of the railroad. It will give us two markets for +our coal instead of one. We can play one market against the other, you +see, and----" + +"That isn't the question that I am employed and paid to answer," +interrupted Duncan. "You have other and vastly greater interests than +those of the mines, that would be served by the extension of the +railroad. But the financiers who are asked to put their money into this +project will be in nowise benefited, either by the increased earnings of +your coal mine and ours, or by the development of your other and far +greater interests that are dependent upon this extension. So when they +employ me to report upon the project, I am not free to consider any of +these things. I must consider only their interests. I must ask myself +whether or not it will 'pay' them to undertake this extension. I _know_ +that it will not. I _know_ that the extended line cannot, within a +generation to come, pay even operating expenses, to say nothing of +interest on the cost of construction. I am bound to set forth those +facts in my report. They pay me to tell them what the facts are. Of +course, I shall tell them truly. Otherwise I should not be an honest +man. I should be a swindler, taking their money as pay for deceiving +them and inducing them to undertake a losing enterprise." + +"Now wait a while, Duncan. Listen to me. Your worst fault, and, in +business, your worst handicap, is a tendency to go off at half-cock. +You've learned a lot about business since you came to the West, but you +still have your old Southern notions, and they embarrass you. Let me +explain. I'm a business man, pure and simple. I haven't any ideas, or +prejudices, or foolishnesses of any kind. Neither have those fellows in +New York who have employed you to report on this scheme. They are +playing the game, to win or lose as the case may be. Generally, they +win, but now and then, in a little matter like this, they lose. Of +course, they don't mind. They take their losses and their winnings +together, and if the total result is on the right side they don't bother +about the times they have put their money on the wrong card. It's all a +gamble with them, you know." + +"Is it? Then why do they pay me a large fee to find out the facts and +report?" + +"Oh, well----" + +"Hear me out," interrupted Duncan. "These gentlemen have asked me for an +opinion, and they are paying me for it. Of course I must, as an honest +man, give them an honest judgment." + +"Oh, that's all right. But you might be mistaken, you know. You've +formed a judgment after a brief trip through the country. That country +seems poverty stricken just now, but that's because it hasn't enjoyed +the stimulating influence of a railroad. It is a better country than you +think, as I can convince you, if you'll let me take you through it in a +carriage. We can start at once--to-morrow morning--run out to the mines +by rail, and there take a carriage and drive through the country. I've +ordered the carriage, with abundant supplies, from Chicago. I want to +show you the resources of the country. I'll convince you, before we get +back, that the country will build up as soon as the railroad penetrates +it, and that there will be an abundant traffic for the road." + +"Pardon me," answered Duncan. "I've already been through that region. +I've questioned every farmer as to his crops. I've questioned every +merchant in every village as to his possible shipments by the railroad, +and as to the amount of goods he hopes to sell if the railroad is built. +Their replies are hopelessly discouraging. Taking their outside +estimates as certain, there cannot be enough traffic over such a line +for twenty years to come, to pay operating expenses. In the meantime the +men whom you are asking to build the road must lose not only the +interest on their investment, but the investment itself. I know all the +facts that bear upon the case." + +"All but one," answered Tandy. + +"What is that one?" + +"That a favorable report from you means a check, right now and here, +to-night, payable to 'Bearer,' for ten thousand dollars. My check is +supposed to be good for all it calls for. You can have it now and it +will be cashed to-morrow morning. Here it is. Payable to bearer as it +is, you needn't endorse it, and you need not be known in the matter in +any way. I'm talking 'business' now." + +Duncan scanned the face of his interlocutor for an instant. Then he rose +from his seat, and with utterance choked by emotion managed to say: + +"I quite understand. You would bribe me with that check. You would hire +me to betray the confidence of the men who are paying me a very much +smaller sum than ten thousand dollars. You propose to buy my integrity, +my honor, my soul. Very well. My integrity, my honor, and my soul are +not for sale at any price. I shall make an honest report in this matter. +Good-night, sir! Perhaps you will make my excuses to the ladies for not +joining them at supper as I promised to do. As for the rest, you may +explain to them that I am not such a scoundrel as you hoped I might be." + +And with that Guilford Duncan stalked out of the house, helping himself +to his hat as he passed the rack in the entry way. + + + + +XXII + +UNDER THE HONEYSUCKLES + + +If Guilford Duncan had been a little more worldly wise than he was, he +would have gone at once to Captain Will Hallam. He would have told that +shrewdest of shrewd men of the world all that had passed between himself +and Tandy, and he would have asked Will Hallam's advice as to what +course to pursue. + +Instead of that Guilford Duncan went at once to Barbara. He felt a need +of sympathy rather than a need of advice, and he had learned to look to +Barbara, above all other people in the world, for sympathy. + +He was still a good deal disturbed in his emotions when Barbara greeted +him in the little porch, and it was a rather confused account that he +gave her of what had happened. + +"I don't quite understand," said Barbara at last. "Perhaps if you have a +cup of tea you can make the matter clearer," and without waiting for +assent or dissent, she glided out to the kitchen, whence she presently +returned bearing a fragrant cup of Oolong. + +"Now," she said, after he had sipped the tea, "tell me again just what +has happened. You were too much excited, when you told me before, to +tell me clearly." + +"Well, it amounts to this," answered Duncan. "That scoundrel Tandy----" + +"Stop!" said Barbara, in an authoritative tone. "Never mind Tandy's +character. If you go off on that you'll never make me understand." + +In spite of his agitation, Duncan laughed. "How you do order me about!" + +"Oh, pardon me!" exclaimed the girl in manifest alarm. "I didn't mean to +do that. I would never think of doing such a thing. I only meant----" + +"My dear Miss Barbara, I fully understand. I need ordering about +to-night, and I heartily wish you would take me in hand." + +"Oh, but I could never presume to do that!" + +"I don't see why," answered Duncan. "You are my good angel, and it is +the business of my good angel to regulate me and make me behave as I +should." + +"But, Mr. Duncan----" + +"But, Barbara"--it was the first time he had ever addressed her by her +given name and without the "Miss"--"you know I love you--or you ought to +know it. You know I want you to be my wife. Say that you will, and then +I shall be free to tell you all my troubles and to take your advice in +all of them. Say that you love me, Barbara! Say that you will marry +me!" + +All this was in contravention of Guilford Duncan's carefully laid plans, +as a declaration of love is apt to be, so long as women are fascinating +and men are human. He had intended to put the thought of his love for +Barbara into her unsuspecting mind by ingenious "trick and device." It +had been his plan presently to escort her to church, to the concerts +that now and then held forth at the Athenæum, to Mrs. Hallam's for a +game of croquet, to Mrs. Galagher's for the little dances that that +gracious gentlewoman gave now and then, even in the heat of a southern +Illinois summer. He had even chartered a steamboat, and planned to give +a picnic in the Kentucky woodlands below Cairo, to which he should +escort Barbara. He had thought in these ways to set the tongues of all +the gossips wagging, and thus to force upon Barbara the thought of his +love for her. + +All was now spoiled, as he thought, when he so precipitately declared +his love there in the vine-clad porch. + +Barbara was obviously surprised. Duncan could not quite make out whether +she was shocked or not, whether his declaration of love pleased or +distressed her. + +For she made no answer whatever. Instead she nervously plucked +honeysuckles and still more nervously let them fall from her hands. + +Duncan was standing now, and in torture lest he had spoiled all by his +precipitancy. He waited, as patiently as he could, for the girl's +answer, but it came not. Her silence seemed ominous to him. It seemed to +mean that she was shocked and offended by a declaration of love, for +which he had not in any wise prepared her. + +But Duncan was a man of action. It was not his habit to accept defeat +without challenging it and demanding its reasons. So presently he +advanced, passed his arm around Barbara's waist, and gently caressed her +forehead, as a father or an older brother might have done. + +She accepted the caress in that spirit, seemingly, and then she turned +toward the hall door, saying: + +"Good-night!" + +But Duncan was not to be so baffled. He had blundered upon a declaration +of love--as most men do who really love--and he did not intend to go +away without his answer. + +"Don't say 'good-night' yet," he pleaded, again passing his arm around +her waist. "Tell me first, is it yes or no? Will you be my wife?" + +The girl turned and faced him. There was that in her eyes which he had +never seen there before, and which he could not interpret. At last her +lips parted, and she said: + +"I cannot tell, yet. You must wait." + +And with that she slipped through the door, leaving him no recourse but +to take his leave without other formality than the closing of the front +gate. + + + + +XXIII + +CAPTAIN WILL HALLAM IN THE GAME + + +The next morning, very early, Guilford Duncan's negro servant--for he +kept one now--brought him a note from Barbara. It read in this wise: + + I wish you would take your meals at the hotel for a few days, or a + week or two--till you hear from me again. + +There was no address written at top of the sheet, and no signature at +the bottom. There was nothing that could afford even a ground for +conjectural explanation. There was nothing that could call for a +reply--perhaps there was nothing that could warrant a reply or excuse +its impertinence. Nevertheless Guilford Duncan sent, by the hands of his +negro servitor, an answer to the strange note. In it he wrote: + + I have told you of my love. I tell you that again, with all of + emphasis that I can give to the telling. I have asked you to be my + wife. I ask it again with all of earnestness and sincerity, with + all of supplication, that I can put into the asking. Oh, Barbara, + you can never know or dream or remotely imagine how much these + things mean to me and to my life. + + I shall take my meals at the hotel--or not at all--until you bid me + come to you for my answer. + +Then, with resolute and self-controlled mind, Guilford Duncan set +himself to work. He prepared his report upon the proposed railroad +extension, condemning it and giving adequate reasons for his +condemnation. + +He was still indignant that Napper Tandy should have offered him a +bribe, and in the first draft of his report he had made a statement of +that fact as an additional reason for his adverse judgment. But upon +reflection he rewrote the report, omitting all mention of the bribe +offer. Then he wrote to Tandy--a grievous mistake--telling him that he +had sent in an adverse report, and that he had omitted to mention +Tandy's offer in it. + +This gave Tandy the opportunity he wanted and Guilford Duncan was not +long in discovering the fact. A week later Captain Will Hallam said to +him: + +"So you've been quarreling with Napper Tandy?" + +"Yes," answered Duncan. "He offered to bribe me to make a false report +in the railroad extension matter." + +"Why didn't you tell me about it?" + +"Oh, I didn't want to bother you with a whining. I rejected the bribe, +of course, and told him what I thought of him, and that seemed to me +enough." + +"Well, it wasn't. You ought to have told me. Then we could have made him +put his offer into writing, or make it in my presence. As it is, he's +got you where the hair is uncommonly short." + +"How do you mean?" + +"Why, he has written to the financiers, telling them that as soon as +they employed you, you went to him and demanded a payment of ten +thousand dollars as an inducement to you to make a favorable report; +that he refused, and that consequently your report was adverse. They +will refuse to build the railroad, but they have written to ask me as to +your integrity." + +"The infernal scoundrel! How----" + +"It doesn't pay to call him names. We must think out a way to meet this +thing." + +"I'll horsewhip him on the street!" exclaimed Duncan. + +"No, don't! That would only advertise the matter and do no good. A man +of your physique has no occasion for fear in horsewhipping a man like +Napper Tandy, and can show no courage by doing it. The only result would +be that people would say there must be something in his accusation, else +you wouldn't be so mad about it. You have made a good many enemies, you +know, and they will take pleasure in repeating Tandy's accusations. +Really, Duncan, you ought to have been more discreet. You ought to have +taken a witness with you, when you went to his house for consultation. +As it is, the financiers have so far believed in you as to reject his +scheme on your report, and in face of his accusation, but he'll do you a +mighty lot of damage in Cairo and elsewhere. I don't know what to do." + +"I do," answered Guilford Duncan resolutely. "A year ago you and Ober +wanted to make me mayor of this town. I explained to you that I was +ineligible then, not having been long enough a resident of the State. I +am eligible now, and I shall announce myself to-day as a candidate." + +"What good will that do?" + +"It will give the people of the city a chance to pass upon my +integrity--to say by their ballots what they think of me; and, +incidentally, it may give me an opportunity to say what I think and know +of Napper Tandy." + +"I don't know so well about that. You see, people don't always express +their opinions by their votes. They let their politics and their +prejudices have a say, and you know you have made a good many enemies. +Then again, what good will it do you to tell the public what you think +of Tandy? That won't convince a living soul who isn't convinced already. +The rest will say that you are naturally very angry with the man who +found you out--the man from whom you unsuccessfully tried to extort a +bribe. You see there were no witnesses present when your interview with +Tandy occurred. That was a capital mistake on your part. Then, too, you +went to his house for this business, and people will say that that, too, +looks bad. You have destroyed the invitation he sent you, and so you +have nothing to show that you didn't go to his house, as he says you +did, without invitation, in order to extort a bribe. It's a bad mix-up, +but for you to go into politics would only make it worse. We must find +another way out. Keep perfectly still, and leave the matter to me. I'll +plan something." Then suddenly a thought flashed into Captain Will +Hallam's mind. + +"By Jove! I've got it, I believe. Go down to our bank and ask the +cashier, Mr. Stafford, how many shares we can control in the X +National--Tandy's bank; he's president, you know." + +Without at all understanding Captain Hallam's purpose, Duncan went upon +this mission, returning presently with the information that in one way +and another the Hallam bank controlled forty-eight shares of the X +National's stock--or three shares less than a majority of the whole. He +brought also the message from Stafford that as Tandy himself controlled +the remaining fifty-two shares it would probably be impossible at +present to buy any more. + +"I don't know so well about that," said Hallam reflectively. "I've +managed in my time to get a good many impossible things done. I'm not a +very firm believer in the impossible." Then suddenly he turned to Duncan +and fired a question at him: + +"Have you a friend anywhere whom you can trust--one not known in Cairo?" + +"Yes, one." + +"You are sure you can trust him?" + +"Yes, absolutely." + +"You wouldn't hesitate to put a pile of money into his hands without a +scrap of paper to show that the money was yours, not his?" + +"I would trust him as absolutely as I would trust you, or you me." + +"All right, who is he?" + +"Dick Temple--the mining engineer and superintendent." + +"Telegraph him at once. Ask him to come down on the evening train. Tell +him to say nothing about knowing you or me, but to come to your rooms +this evening. I'll see him there." + +Duncan took up a pad of telegraph blanks and a pencil. He had scarcely +begun to write when Hallam stopped him. + +"Never do that," he exclaimed. "Never write a message on a pad, +especially with a pencil." + +"But why not?" + +"See!" answered Hallam, tearing off the blank on which Duncan had begun +to write, and directing attention to the blank that lay beneath. "The +impression made by the pencil on the under sheet is as legible as the +writing above. It would be awkward if Tandy should pick up that pad and +find out what you had telegraphed. Always tear the top blank off the +pad and lay it on the desk before you write on it." + +"Thank you! That's another of your wise precepts. I wonder I didn't +think of it before." + +"Oh, hardly anybody ever does think of such things, but they make +trouble." + +That night Hallam, Duncan, and Temple met in Duncan's rooms. Hallam +promptly took possession by requesting Duncan to "go away somewhere, +while I explain matters to Temple." + +When Duncan had taken his leave Hallam plunged at once into the heart of +things. + +"Duncan tells me you're his friend--one who will stand by him?" + +"I am all that, you may be sure, Captain Hallam." + +"Very good. Now is the time to show yourself such. Duncan has got +himself into something worse than a hole, and his whole career, to say +nothing of his honorable reputation, is in danger. You and I can save +him." + +"Would you mind telling me the exact situation? Not that I need to know +it in order to do anything you think would be helpful, but if I fully +understand the matter, I shall know better what to do in any little +emergency that may come about." + +"Of course, of course. It's simply this way. Duncan is so straight +himself that it never occurs to him that other people are different. +There are some things so utterly mean that he simply can't imagine any +man capable of doing them. So he doesn't take necessary precautions. It +was all right for him to offend Napper Tandy by doing his own best up +there at the mines. But he ought to have known enough of human nature +not to put himself in old Napper's power when he felt bound to offend +him worse than ever." + +Then Captain Will told in detail the story of the visit to Tandy, the +bribe offer, the adverse report, and the way in which Tandy had made the +whole affair appear to have been an effort on Duncan's part to extort a +bribe and betray those who had employed him. Temple readily grasped the +situation. + +"The worst of it is," he said, "Duncan can't even sue the old scoundrel +for libel without making matters worse. Tandy would stick to his story, +and as there were no witnesses that story would seem probable to people +who don't know Duncan. What are we to do, Captain Hallam?" + +"Well, it all depends upon your shrewdness and circumspection. Tandy is +president of the X National Bank, you know. That's his club to fight me +with. So, little by little, I've bought in there--through other people, +you understand--so that now Stafford and I own forty-eight of the bank's +hundred shares of stock, though on the books our names do not appear at +all. Tandy owns the other fifty-two shares, I suppose, or at least he +controls them. Indeed, whenever a stockholder's meeting occurs he votes +practically all the stock, for it has been my policy to hide my hand by +having the men who hold stock for me, give him their proxies as a blind. + +"Now, what I propose is, that you shall manage somehow to get hold of a +little block of the stock--three shares will be enough to give me the +majority, but I'd rather make it four or five shares. If we can get the +stock I'll surprise Tandy out of a year's growth by going into the +stockholders' meeting, which occurs about ten days from now, and +proceeding to elect a board of directors for the bank. I'll select the +men I want for directors, and the board will at once make Guilford +Duncan president of the bank, leaving old Napper a good deal of leisure +in which to enjoy life. He'll need it all to convince anybody that +there's anything shady in Guilford Duncan's character after it is known +that Will Hallam has made him president of a bank." + +Hallam chuckled audibly. He was enjoying the game, as he always did. + +"Indeed, he will. But everything, as I understand it, depends upon my +ability to secure the necessary shares of stock?" + +"Yes, it all hangs on that, and it will be a ticklish job. Tandy is as +wily as any old fox. You're sure he doesn't know you?" + +"Neither by sight nor by name." + +"You're sure nobody in his bank knows you and your relations with me?" + +"Yes, I am certain. I was never in this town before, and as for my +relations with you, why they have existed for so brief a time, at such a +distance from Cairo, and are so obscure in themselves, that I think +nobody knows them. Besides, you might discharge me, you know, if that +should become necessary." + +"We won't consider that as even possible. Now, as to ways and means. You +see I depend upon you alone, and of course you must have a free hand. +You mustn't consult me, or Stafford, or Duncan, or anybody else. You are +to act on your own judgment, furnish your own supply of sagacity, and +get that stock in your own way." + +"I'll do it, even if I have to resign from your service and hunt another +job. But I must have some money." + +"Of course. How much?" + +"Well, the stock will cost a trifle over par, I suppose--somewhat more +than a thousand dollars a share. I should be prepared to buy a block of +ten shares. You see, I might find a block of that kind which the owner +would sell 'all or none.' I should have, say, eleven or twelve thousand +dollars at instant command." + +"All right. I'll have Stafford open an account with you in our bank +to-morrow morning, with a credit balance of twelve thousand, and you +can check----" + +"Pardon me, but if I offer checks on your bank Tandy will suspect our +alliance." + +"That is true. You must have the greenbacks themselves. I'll send for +Stafford now and have him give you the money in large bills to-night." + +"Pardon me," answered Temple, "but if I go to him with so great a sum in +actual----" + +"Yes, I see. That would certainly arouse suspicion. What have you in +mind?" + +"Why, you or your bank must have banks in correspondence with you, banks +in Chicago, or better still, New York?" + +"Yes, of course." + +"Can you not telegraph to one of them and arrange to have them say in +response to a dispatch of inquiry from Tandy's bank, that my credit with +them is good for twelve thousand dollars, and that if I wish to make use +of some money in Cairo, they will pay my drafts up to that amount?" + +"That's it. That will be the best plan in every way. You'll need +identification, and I'll arrange that. You're stopping at the hotel, of +course?" + +"Yes." + +"Very well. I'll call by there on my way home, and tell the proprietor, +Jewett, to go to the bank and identify you whenever called upon." + +"Will he not talk?" + +"No. I'll tell him not to, and--well, you know, I'm just now arranging a +heavy loan for him. He is paying off the remaining purchase money for +the hotel in installments. That's all, I think. I'll send the Fourth +National Bank of New York a night message. It will be delivered before +banking hours to-morrow morning, but for fear of slips, you'd better +wait till noon before giving that bank as your reference. Good-night. +Remember that everything depends on you--including Guilford Duncan's +reputation for integrity." + +Temple sat for half an hour thinking and planning. He was determined to +make no mistakes that might imperil success. To that end he was trying +to imagine, in advance, every difficulty and every emergency that might +arise. At last he rose, took his hat, turned the lamp out, and left the +room. + +"This is the very toughest bit of engineering," he reflected, "that ever +I undertook. Well, so much the greater the credit if I succeed. But I +don't care for the credit. I care only for Guilford Duncan in this +case." + + + + +XXIV + +BARBARA'S ANSWER + + +When Duncan left his room on the evening of Temple's conference with +Will Hallam, he passed down the stairs and into the Hallam offices, +where he still had a little working den of his own, for use when he did +not care to see the people who sought him at his law office. + +As he entered he found a little note upon his desk, and he recognized +Barbara's small round hand in the superscription. Opening the envelope +eagerly he read the few lines within: + + You may come for your answer whenever it is convenient--any + evening, I mean, for I am at leisure only in the evenings. There is + a great deal for me to tell you, and it is going to be very hard + for me to tell it. But it is my duty, and I must do it, of course. + I'm afraid it won't be a pleasant evening for either of us. + +There was no address, but Duncan observed with pleasure, as a hopeful +sign, that the little missive was signed "Barbara." + +"She wouldn't have signed it in that informal way, with only her first +name, if she meant to break off the acquaintance," he argued with +himself. And yet the substance of the note was discouraging in the +extreme, so that Guilford Duncan was a very apprehensive and unhappy man +as he hurried to Barbara's home. He still held her note crushed in his +hand as he entered the house, and he read it over twice while waiting +for her to appear. For this time--the first in his acquaintance with +her--Barbara kept him waiting. She had not meant to do that, but found +it necessary because of her own agitation in anticipation of the +grievous task that was hers to do. She must resolutely bring herself +under control, she felt, before meeting this crisis. She even tried in +vain to "think out" the first sentences that she must speak. Finding +this impossible she gave it up at last, and with all of composure that +she could command, she entered the parlor and stood face to face with +Guilford Duncan. + +She could say no word as he stood looking eagerly into her eyes, as if +questioning them. He, too, was silent for perhaps a minute, when at +last, realizing the girl's distressing agitation, he gently took her +hand, saying in his soft, winning voice: + +"You are not well. You must sit down." + +"Oh, it isn't that," she answered, as she seated herself bolt upright +upon the least easy chair in the room. "It is what I must tell you." + +"What is it? I am waiting anxiously to hear." + +"You must be very patient then," she answered with difficulty. "It is +hard to say, and I don't know where to begin. Oh, yes, I know now. I +must begin where we left off when--well, that other time." + +Duncan saw that she needed assistance, and he gave it by speaking +soothingly to her, saying: + +"You are to begin wherever you find it easiest to begin, and you are to +tell me nothing that it distresses you to tell." + +"Oh, but all of it distresses me, and I must tell it--all of it." + +Again Duncan spoke soothingly, and presently the girl began again. + +"Well, first, I can never--I mean I mustn't--I mustn't say 'yes' to the +questions you asked me that other time." + +"You mean when I asked if you would be my wife?" + +"Yes. That's it. Thank you very much. That's the first thing I am to +tell you." + +"Who bade you tell me that?" + +"Oh, nobody--or rather--I mean nobody told me I mustn't say 'yes,' but +after I had made up my mind that I mustn't, then auntie said I was bound +to tell you about it all. I wanted to write it, but she said that +wouldn't be fair, and that I must tell you myself." + +"But why did you make up your mind that you mustn't say 'yes'? Can you +not love me, Barbara?" + +"Oh, yes--I mean no--or rather--I mustn't." + +"But if you can, why is it that you mustn't?" + +That question at last gave Barbara courage to speak. It seemed to nerve +her for the ordeal, and, at the same time, to point a way for the +telling. + +"Why, I mustn't love you, Mr. Duncan, because I cannot marry you. You +see, that would be very wrong. When you--well, when you asked me those +questions, it startled me, and I didn't know what to say, but after you +had gone away that night I saw clearly that I mustn't think of such a +thing. It would be so unfair to you." + +"But how would it be unfair? It would be doing the one thing in the +world that I want you to do. It would be giving me the one woman in the +world whom I want for my wife, the only woman I shall ever think of +marrying." + +"But you mustn't think of that any more. You see, Mr. Duncan, I am not +fit to be your wife. I should be a terrible drag upon you. You are +already a man of prominence and everybody says you are soon to become a +man of great distinction. You must have a wife worthy of such a man, a +wife who can help him and do him credit in society. Now you know I could +never become that sort of woman. I am only an obscure girl. I don't know +how. I can not talk brilliantly. I couldn't impress people as your wife +must. I am not even educated in any regular way. I've just grown up in +my own fashion--in the shade as it were--and the strong sunlight would +only emphasize my insignificance." + +Duncan tried to interrupt, but she quickly cut him short. + +"Let me go on, please. You are very generous, and you want to persuade +me that I undervalue myself. You would convince me, if you could, that I +am a great deal worthier than I think myself. I know better. You are +very modest, and you would like to make me believe that you will never +be a much more distinguished man than you are already, but again I know +better. Probably you wouldn't become much more than you are, if you were +to marry me, but that is because I should be a clog upon your life." + +"Will you let me say one word at this point, Barbara?" broke in Duncan, +in spite of her effort to prevent. + +"You are wronging yourself and you are wronging me. As God lives I tell +you there is no woman in the world so fit to be my wife as you are. My +only wish is that I were worthy to have such a wife! I intend, of +course, to achieve all that I can--to make the best use I can of such +faculties as I possess, but nothing imaginable could so greatly help me +to do that as the inspiration of your love, and the stimulus of knowing +that you were to be always by my side, to share in all the good that +might come to me, to cheer me in disappointment to help me endure, and +above all, to strengthen me for my work in the world by your wise and +loving counsel. For you are a very wise woman, Barbara, though you do +not know it. You look things squarely in the face. You think soundly +because you think with absolute and fearless sincerity. You are shy and +timid, and self-distrustful. Thank God, you will never grow completely +out of that, as so many women do. Your modesty will always remain a +crown of glory to your character. But as you grow older, retaining your +instinctive impulse to do well every duty that may lie before you, you +will acquire enough of self-confidence to equip you for all emergencies. +You are very young yet--even younger in feeling than in years. You will +grow with every year into a more perfect womanhood." + +An occasional tear was by this time trickling down the girl's cheeks. +How could it be otherwise when the man she loved and honored above all +others was so tenderly saying such things of her, and to her, with a +sincerity too greatly passionate to be open to any doubt? How could it +be otherwise when she knew that she must put aside the love of this man, +her hero--the only love, as she knew in her inmost soul, that she could +ever think of with rejoicing so long as she should live? + +She would have interrupted the passionate pleading if her voice had been +under control. As it was she sat silent, while he went on. + +"I have spoken of my ambitions first, and of your capacity to help +them, not because such things are first in my estimation, but because +you have treated them as worthy of being put first. There are much +higher things to be thought of. What a man _achieves_ is of far less +consequence than what a man _is_. That which I ask of you is to help me +_be_ the best that I am capable of being, and for you to _be_ it with +me. I want to make the most, the best, the happiest life for you that is +possible. If I am permitted to do that, with you to help me do it, it +will be an achievement of far greater benefit to the world than any +possible external success can be. The home is immeasurably more +important, as a factor in human life, and in national life, than the +mart, or the senate, or the pulpit, or any other influence can be. It is +in happy homes that the saving virtues of humanity are born and +nourished. From such homes, more than from all the pulpits, and all the +institutions of learning, there flows an influence for good that +sweetens all life, preserves morality, and keeps us human beings fit to +live. Oh, Barbara, you will never know how longingly I dream of such a +home with you at its head! You cannot know how absolutely the worthiness +of my life depends upon such a linking of it with yours." + +The girl had completely given way to her emotions now, but with that +resolute self-mastery which was a dominant note in her nature, she +presently controlled herself. The picture that his words had created in +her imagination was alluring in the extreme. But she was strong enough +to put the dream of happiness aside. + +"You do not know all," she said. "You have not heard all I have to tell +you. You haven't heard the most important part of it. I have only told +you what I thought on that evening when--when you asked--questions. I +still think that ought to settle the matter, but you seem to +think--perhaps you might have convinced me, or at least--oh, you don't +know! There are other reasons--stronger reasons, reasons that nothing +can remove." + +"Tell me of them. I can imagine no reason whatever that could satisfy +me." + +"It is very hard to tell. You know I never knew my parents. Both my +mother and my father died on the day I was born. I seem to know my +mother, because auntie loved her so much, and has talked to me so much +about her all my life. But she never talked to me much about my father. +His family was a good one--his father having been a banker, with some +reputation as an artist also, and my father was his partner in business. +But that is all I know of my father--no, that isn't what I meant to say. +I meant to say that that is all my aunt ever told me about him, and all +I knew until the night when you asked me--questions. After you went away +that evening, I went to my room and thought the matter out. I have +already told you what conclusions I reached. When I had decided, I went +to auntie's room and sat on the side of her bed and told her +everything. She cried very bitterly--I didn't understand why at first. +After a while she said she didn't at all agree with me in my +conclusions, and added: + +"'If the things you mention were all, Bab, I should tell you to stop +thinking of them, and let Mr. Duncan judge for himself. But there is +something else, Bab--something very dreadful. I never intended to tell +you of it, but now I must. You would find it out very soon, for Tandy's +wife knows it, and if she heard that there was anything between you and +Mr. Duncan, she would make haste to talk of it--particularly after what +has happened between Tandy and Mr. Duncan. Then you would never forgive +me for not telling you.' + +"She went on then, and told me what I must tell you. She told me, Mr. +Duncan, that I am the daughter of a Thief!" + +The girl paused, unable to go on. Duncan saw that she was suffering +acutely, and he determined to spare her. + +"You must stop now, Barbara," he said in a caressing tone. "You are +overwrought. I will hear the rest another time--when you feel stronger +and send for me. I am going to say good-night now, so that you may rest. +But before I go I want to say that nothing you have told me can make the +least difference in my feelings, or my desires, or my purposes. You +_are_ what you _are_. Nothing else matters. When you feel strong +enough, I will come again and persuade you to be my wife. Good-night!" + +As she stood facing him, with unutterable distress in every line of her +face, he leaned forward impulsively, but with extreme gentleness, and +reverently kissed her. + + + + +XXV + +TEMPLE AND TANDY + + +On the morning after his consultation with Captain Will Hallam, Richard +Temple had his first interview with Tandy. Jewett, the hotel proprietor, +walked with him to the X National Bank, took him into the bank parlor, +and introduced him to the president, intimating that he would probably +wish to do some business with the bank, and assuring Tandy that the +young man was "as square as they make 'em." + +Tandy welcomed the visitor cordially, and when Jewett had bowed himself +out, Temple opened negotiations, very cautiously and with every seeming +of indecision, as to what he might ultimately decide to do. + +"I have a little money, Mr. Tandy, that I may want to invest. I'm rather +a stranger in Cairo. I wonder if you, as a banker, would mind advising +me. Of course, if I make any investments, I shall do so through your +bank." + +"It is my business to advise investors, Mr. Temple, and in your case it +is also a pleasure, if I may be permitted to say so. What are your +ideas--in a general way, I mean?" + +"It would be somewhat difficult for me to----" + +"Oh, I quite understand. You haven't yet made up your mind. You want to +look about you, eh? Well, that's right. There's more harm done by haste +in making investments than by anything else. There are lots of 'cats and +dogs' on the market. Of course they're a good buy sometimes, if a man +wants to take long chances for the sake of big profits, and if he is in +a position to watch the market. But it's awfully risky. Still----" + +Tandy hesitated and did not complete his sentence for a time. He was +wondering just "how much of a sucker" this young man might be. Tandy +himself held some small blocks of securities which might very properly +be reckoned in the feline and canine class. He wondered if it might not +be possible to "work off" some of these, in company with some better +stocks, on this young man. He was closely scrutinizing Temple's visage, +trying to "size him up." After seeming to meditate for a brief space, he +resumed: + +"It is risky, of course. Still, if a man is in position to watch the +market closely, and sell out at the proper time, it sometimes turns out +well to buy a few inferior stocks, when buying a lot of better ones. +I've known it to happen that a lucky turn in the market enabled a man +to sell out his inferior stocks at a profit big enough to pay for the +good ones. You see the inferior stocks can be bought for so little on a +dull market, such as we have at present, that there can't be a very +great risk in buying them in moderate quantities, while buying better +securities in the main. And there's always a chance of a lucky turn in +the market, and with it a chance of great profits." + +Temple did not interrupt the flow of Tandy's financial exposition. He +had three reasons--all of them good--for wishing Tandy to talk on. In +the first place he was waiting for noonday, before mentioning his credit +in the Fourth National Bank of New York. In the second place it was his +"cue" to sit reverently at the feet of this great financier, and to make +as little display as possible of his own sagacity. Finally, he was +studying Tandy--"sizing him up"--finding out, for future use, all that +he needed to know about the man with whom he had to deal. This was the +result of the "sizing up," as it formulated itself in what might be +called a "first draft," in Temple's mind: + +"He's a smooth, plausible, conscienceless scoundrel; + +"He's so far filled with self-conceit that it sometimes blinds him; + +"He would gladly swindle me out of my eyes, if he could do so without +being caught; but if he can't swindle me, he will be glad to do business +with me 'on the square,' as he would put it." + +But Temple wanted to complete and revise and, if necessary, correct this +first draft of his "sizing up," and so he wanted Tandy to go on talking. + +"I am not much disposed to speculate in doubtful securities," he said. +"I can't afford it, for one thing, and, of course, I am not in position +to watch the market, as you say. What I would like is to put a few +thousands into some good, safe, dividend-paying security. Of course----" + +"You're right, of course. Still, if you choose to take some small risk, +I could watch the market for you. I often do that for customers of the +bank. I'm naturally in a position to know what's going on. By the way, +how much money have you to invest?" + +"I have twelve thousand dollars in New York----" + +"Where the interest rates are small," interrupted Tandy. "You want to +bring it West, where it will earn more. I understand. You're right in +that. The West is the place for men and money to do the best they can +for themselves. This part of the country is growing like Jack's +beanstalk. You must have noticed it." + +"I certainly have. Indeed, I suppose that never before in all history +did any region grow so fast or so solidly." + +"There! You've hit the nail on the head," said Tandy. "Solidly! And that +accounts for many things. The conservative people of the East never saw +anything like it, and they can't quite believe it. They don't realize +the wonderful soundness of things out here. They have learned to think +that high interest means poor security. In the East, where there is +plenty of money and very little development going on, it does. But here +in the West the case is different. Here, interest is high and dividends +large, simply because the country is growing so rapidly, and developing +its resources so wonderfully fast. Let me illustrate. My friend, Captain +Hallam, recently bought a mine up the State. It hadn't been properly +developed, so he bought it at a low price and capitalized it at cost, +adding a trifle for improvements. That mine is now paying twenty per +cent, dividends on its stock, in addition to a large expenditure every +month for improvements. Then, again, Captain Hallam is selling off the +farms on the surface at a price that will presently pay the whole first +cost of the mine. When that is done, the mine will stand him in just +nothing at all, and all the dividends the stockholders get will be just +like so much money found--picked up from the prairie grass, I might say. +Is there any danger in that sort of thing? Is a share of that stock a +doubtful security to the man who has already got back the entire +purchase price? True, it pays twenty per cent, dividends on its face, +and that scares the conservative galoots in New York. That's just +because they have got it ground into their minds that high interest +always means poor security. But, come, I want to take you for a drive +around Cairo, to show you what we are doing here and what we are +planning to do. I think when you see it you'll know for yourself where +to put your money. Can you go with me for a drive?" + +"Very gladly. But first, I want to arrange to bring to Cairo what money +I have. I may not want to invest it all here, but it will be handy to +have it here. I should like to put it into your bank as a deposit. But I +must draw on New York for it, and get you to take my draft. Won't you +direct your cashier to telegraph the Fourth National Bank of New York, +asking for what amount my drafts on that institution will be honored? +Then, when we get back from our drive, I'll draw for the money and place +it on deposit with your bank, where I can put my hands upon it when +necessary." + +The telegram was sent, and then Tandy took Temple in his carriage--one +of the best in Cairo at that time--and showed him all there was of +resource in the town, lecturing, meanwhile, on the prospects of Cairo as +a future great commercial and manufacturing center. He showed him all +there was to be shown, and then said to him: + +"Now, I'm an apostle of Western development, but still more I'm an +apostle of the development of Cairo. I'm a bull on the country, and a +bull on this city. There is much to be done, and it will require the +investment of a great deal of money. But the investments will pay as +nothing else promises to do. We must have grain elevators, and mills, +and all the rest of it. We've two big flour mills already, and there +will be two or three more within a year. They must have barrels by +thousands and tens of thousands. Now a man of your intelligence must see +that empty barrels, being bulky, are costly things to transport over +long distances, while the mills must buy them at the lowest possible +price. Otherwise they can't sell flour in competition with the mills of +other cities. So the necessity of having a big barrel factory here is +obvious, and so is the profit. I am just forming a company for that +purpose. We have abundant timber right at hand, just across the two +rivers, in Missouri and Kentucky. We can make barrels at less cost than +they can be had for in any other city, while we have a local market that +will be unfailing. The company is capitalized at twenty-five thousand +dollars, and a good part of it is already subscribed." + +He did not say that none of it had been paid for yet, and that he was +unsuccessfully trying to find buyers for it. + +"It's a sure thing. The profits will be large from the beginning, and +the stock, as soon as the factory is in operation, will jump up fifty +per cent, at least. If you want a thousand or so of it, I'll let you in +on the ground floor. Otherwise, I'll take it myself." + +"That impresses me very favorably," answered Temple truthfully. "It is +an enterprise based upon sound principles--one that offers a supply in +direct answer to a demand. I shall probably decide to take a little of +that stock, if I can get some other securities to go with it. But for a +part of the money I have to invest, I must get stock in some already +established and assured business--I should especially like bank stock, +either in your bank or Captain Hallam's. You see----" + +"Oh, yes, I see. You want a nest-egg that will certainly hatch out a +chicken. I'll find it for you. Let's leave that till to-morrow. Anyhow, +I'm an advocate of local investments. I'm putting every spare dollar +I've got into them, and I always advise investors to go into them. We're +planning--Hallam and I--to set up a gas plant here. The city needs it, +and it'll pay from the word go. I'll tell you about that to-morrow. You +see, I want you to know just what we're doing and planning, and then +we'll find the best places for you to put your money into. It's getting +late now, so we'll drive back to the bank. I told the cashier to wait +for us, though of course it's after banking hours." + +On their return to the bank each of these men felt that he had "put in a +good day's work." Tandy was sure that by letting the young man have a +few shares in firmly established enterprises, he could "rope him in," as +he phrased it in his mind, for the purchase of some more doubtful +things. Temple, in his turn, was convinced that by buying into some of +Tandy's more speculative enterprises, he could ultimately secure the +shares he had been set to buy in the X National. + +The telegraphic reply from the New York Bank had been received and was +altogether satisfactory. So, late as it was, Temple drew on New York for +twelve thousand dollars, and with the draft, opened a deposit account +for that amount in Tandy's bank. + +Then he went to his hotel. His first impulse was to send a message to +Captain Will Hallam, asking whether he might take the barrel-factory +stock, and perhaps some other things of like kind, in aid of success in +his mission, but upon reflection he decided to act upon his own +judgment, without consultation or advice. Hallam had given him a free +hand, leaving him to work out the problem in his own way. Any +communication between him and Hallam, or between him and Duncan, would +involve something of risk. So he sat alone in his hotel room, thinking +and planning. + +He did not know or dream how anxious Tandy was to draw him into some of +his schemes. He did not know that both the barrel factory and the gas +enterprise had recently become veritable white elephants on Tandy's +hands. He did not know that Tandy--in his eagerness to overreach +Hallam--had "stretched himself out like a string," as Hallam +picturesquely put it--by investing more money in these two companies, +and several others, than he could just then spare. Especially, he did +not know that Hallam had himself completely organized and capitalized +both a gas company and a barrel company, and that Tandy's two companies +represented an unsuccessful attempt to rival enterprises into which +Hallam had "breathed the breath of life." + +He was surprised, therefore, when a bell boy brought him Tandy's card, +as he sat there in his lonely hotel room, planning the morrow's +campaign. + +"I thought you might be lonely," said the banker, as he was ushered into +the room, "seeing that you're a stranger in town. So I have dropped in +for a chat." + +The "chat" very quickly fell into financial channels, and it did not +proceed far before shrewd Richard Temple discovered some things of +advantage to himself. Among the things discovered was the fact that +Tandy was somewhat over anxious to hasten the business in hand. +Apparently he feared that Temple might fall in with other advisers. He +seemed anxious to arrive at conclusions in a hurry, Temple thought, and +the thought served at once to put him on his guard and to give him his +opportunity. He listened with every indication of interest to all that +Tandy had to say concerning the two still unlaunched enterprises--the +barrel factory and the gas company. He asked interested questions +concerning them, and ventured the suggestion that the proposed +capitalization of the gas company was too small to admit of the best +results. + +"As an engineer," he said, "I know something of the cost of digging +trenches and laying mains, and it seems to me that in order to equip +itself for business this company will need a good deal more money than +you plan to put into it as capital stock." + +"I see your point," Tandy answered quickly, "and in any ordinary case it +would be sound enough, though of course a company of that kind doesn't +depend upon its subscribed capital alone, or even chiefly for its +working capital. It is the practice in establishing such companies to +issue and sell bonds enough to cover the cost of the plant, or very +nearly that. The profits are so certain and so great that the +bonds--even at so low a figure as five per cent. interest--go off like +hot cakes. But that isn't all. Here in Cairo we shall hardly have to +bond the company at all. You see we shall have almost no engineering +work to do. In other cities a gas company must dig deep trenches--often +through solid rock--in which to lay its mains. Here in Cairo we shall +have no digging at all to do. You observed, as we drove to-day, that the +city is built upon a tongue of very low-lying ground. A levee, +forty-five feet high, has been built around it, and contractors are now +busily filling in the streets so as to raise them nearly, though not +quite, to the grade of the levee. Every street is a long embankment. +Now, when we come to lay our mains, we shall put them along the sides of +these embankments, with no cost at all for digging." + +So Tandy went on for an hour. At the end of that time Temple felt +himself sufficiently sure of his ground to venture a little further: + +"I am inclined to think," he said, "that I shall want to take at least a +little of the barrel-factory stock to-morrow, and possibly I may +subscribe for some of the gas stock also; of that I am not yet sure. But +before I take either, I must invest four or five thousand dollars in +something absolutely secure. I have been going over the latest reports +of your bank, and the other one--Hallam's--and they have impressed me +with the conviction that the very best and safest investment a man of +small means, like myself, can make in this town, is in bank stock. This +city is a point at which so many lines of travel and traffic converge, +that the exchange business itself must be sufficient to pay a bank's +expenses. In fact it pays more, as the reports show. And then there is +the larger business--lending money on sound enterprises, financing +industrial companies, and especially advancing money on bills of lading +for goods in transit. In view of all this it surprises me to learn that +the stock in the two banks here stands only a trifle above par." + +"Oh, that's because of two things. People here have got it into their +heads that anything less than ten or twelve per cent., as a return for +money invested, is ridiculously small. So they don't want bank stocks. +On the other hand, the eastern capitalists have got it into their heads +that anything which pays more than four or five per cent. must be +risky, and so they don't set up banks here, as they surely would do but +for their foolish timidity. The prospect of a big return for their money +simply scares them out of their seven senses. So Hallam's bank and mine +have a monopoly of as pretty a business as you'll find in a day's walk. +Why, when the rush was on last winter, and twenty steamboats a day were +leaving Cairo with full cargoes--to say nothing of great fleets of grain +barges--- Hallam and I both went to New York with our pockets full of +government bonds, and borrowed money on them for sixty or ninety days. +We paid six per cent. per annum for the money, and got from one-half to +one per cent. a day on most of it by advancing on grain drafts, with +bills of lading attached. It was as easy as falling off a log, and as +safe as insuring pig-iron under water." + +"I have some notion of all that," answered Temple, "and that's the sort +of investment I'm looking for. I might take in some more speculative +things, but I greatly want to invest a few thousand dollars in the stock +of one or other of these two national banks. Could you find somebody +willing to sell?" + +Tandy had expected this, and had prepared himself for it. But he +pretended to think for a moment before replying. Then he said: + +"As to Hallam's bank, it's useless to try. Hallam and Stafford own the +whole thing, except that they have put a share or two into the hands of +members of their own families, just by way of qualifying them to serve +as directors, as the law requires. Neither one of them would sell a +share for twice its market price. The same thing is true, in a general +way at least, of our bank. The stock is so good a thing that nobody who +has got any of it ever wants to part with it. But it has always been our +policy to interest the people in the bank by letting them hold some of +its stock. So a good deal of it is held in small lots around town, and +now and then one of these is put into my hands for sale. I have four +shares now to sell. It belongs to a tug captain who is down on his luck +just now, and must sell. He wants more than the market price, but the +bank has lent him money on it nearly up to its face value, and so I can +do pretty much as I please with it. Ordinarily I should buy it myself, +but I'm in so many things just now, and besides, I'd like to have you +with us." + +Tandy did not say that since he had seen Temple in the afternoon, he had +taken in these four shares of stock for debt, at three per cent. below +par, with the fixed purpose of selling them to Temple at three per cent, +above par. + +"How many shares did you say there are of it?" asked Temple. + +"Four, if I remember right. I really oughtn't to let it slip through my +fingers, but--well, I'll tell you what I'll do--if you care to subscribe +for a few shares of the barrel company--say one or two thousand +dollars' worth--I'll let you have the bank stock at a hundred and three." + +Temple was eager to close the bargain, but he resolutely repressed his +eagerness. He asked a score of questions, as if in doubt, and at last he +hesitatingly agreed to make the purchase. The details were to be +arranged on the next day, and so Tandy took his leave, and Temple lay +awake all night, as he had done on the night before. + +At four o'clock the next afternoon Temple strolled into the Hallam +office to report results. He threw the papers upon a desk and sank into +a chair like one exhausted. He was in fact almost in a state of +collapse. He had not been conscious of strain at any time during his +negotiations. He had, indeed, rather enjoyed the playing of such a game +of wits with so wily an adversary as Tandy was. But all the while his +anxiety to succeed in what he had undertaken had kept his nerves so +tense that his mind had known no rest. All the time he had been +painfully conscious that the smallest slip on his part, the smallest +indiscretion, the slightest mistake in look, or tone, or act, would +bring failure as a consequence. And he had all the time been agonizingly +conscious of the fact that no less a thing than Guilford Duncan's +reputation was the stake he played for--that Guilford Duncan's entire +future was in his hands. There were reasons more vital to him than his +friendship for Duncan, for regarding success in this matter as an end +that must be achieved at all hazards, and at all costs. For years ago +these two had quarreled as rivals in love, after being friends of the +closest sort from infancy, and only Duncan's great generosity of mind +had made forgiveness and reconciliation possible. Dick Temple knew that +in the matter out of which the quarrel grew, he had grievously wronged +his friend, and that knowledge had been to him a veritable thorn in the +flesh, robbing even such happiness as had come to him of half its +quality of joy. He had longed above all other things for an opportunity +to make atonement, and that longing had been intensified since the +meeting at the mine, by the generous treatment he had received at +Duncan's hands. His Mary shared it in full measure, too, as she shared +every worthy impulse of his soul. It had been a grief to the gently +generous wife that the man she loved must live always under so +distressing an obligation to the friend who had so magnanimously +forgiven. + +When this opportunity of repayment came to him, therefore, his first +thought was of Mary. He wrote to her immediately after his first +conference with Hallam, telling her of the matter in a way that filled +her soul with gladness and fear--gladness that the opportunity was his +at last, and sleepless fear lest he should be baffled and beaten. So +when at last success was his, when he received from Tandy's hands the +papers that secured his purpose, his first act was to telegraph to Mary +the message: + + Glory to God in the highest! I have paid my debt to Guilford + Duncan. + +It was fire minutes later when he entered the Hallam offices and laid +the papers before the head of the house, saying only: + +"I've secured the stock." When he sank into the chair, Hallam was quick +to see his condition. + +"Go up to Duncan's rooms and go to bed," he urged. "You've not been +sleeping." + +Recovering himself quickly, Temple answered: + +"No, I think I'd rather not. If you've no further use for me, I think +I'll go home by the train that starts an hour hence. There'll be time +enough between now and then for me to render you an account of money +spent, and give you my check for the balance in Tandy's bank. I don't +want to see Duncan just now." + +Hallam understood. "Very well," he answered, as Temple turned to a desk. +"You've saved Duncan, and there's nothing more for you to do here. But +you must come back for the final grand tableau just a week hence. I'll +leave this stock in your name till then, and you shall walk with me into +the stockholders' meeting and help me salivate old Napper Tandy. We'll +teach him not to play tricks." + +Captain Hallam spoke no word of commendation for the way in which Temple +had done his work. Words were unnecessary. + +"I hope I made no mistake in subscribing for that barrel company +stock," said Temple as he passed the completed papers over to Hallam. +"At any rate, I'd like to keep that myself, if I may, whether it ever +proves to be worth anything or not. I've accumulated enough money to pay +for it." + +"Oh, as to that," answered Hallam lightly, "the stock will be good +enough. I'll make it so by taking a majority interest in the company and +consolidating it with my own. You see, we simply must do something for +Old Napper Tandy." + + + + +XXVI + +A PACT WITH BARBARA + + +That evening Guilford Duncan was summoned to Hallam's house for supper. +With only Mrs. Hallam for auditor, Hallam wished to tell the young man +all that had occurred, for Duncan had not been permitted to know aught +of it, since Hallam had turned him out of his room, in order that the +conference with Dick Temple might be a strictly private one. + +Nor had Duncan seemed very greatly concerned to inquire. He had not +expected Hallam and Temple to succeed in accomplishing anything, and at +this time his fate was at crisis in another and, to him, a dearer way. +His interview with Barbara had been held, as we know, at the precise +time when Hallam and Temple were in consultation with regard to the +matter of Tandy's accusation. In some degree, at least, the painful +character of that interview with Barbara, and its unsatisfactory result, +had dulled his mind to the other trouble. In view of Barbara's seemingly +final rejection of his wooing, he was not sure that he greatly cared +what might become of his reputation, or his career. He was too strong a +man in his moral character, however, to remain long in a state of such +indifference, but for the time being he found it impossible to regard +his future as a matter of much consequence, now that Barbara refused to +share that future with him. + +"There is still one more chance," he reflected, "one more interview with +Barbara, one more hope that I may win her. If that fails, the other +thing won't matter much. I'll horsewhip Tandy and then go away. No, I +won't go away. I won't desert in the presence of the enemy. I won't--oh, +I don't know what I will or won't do. All that must wait till I know my +fate with Barbara." + +This was on the morning after his evening with Barbara--the morning on +which Temple first made acquaintance with Tandy. Duncan was sitting idly +in his office, mechanically toying with a paper cutter. Presently he +overturned the inkstand, spilling its contents over some legal papers +that he had drawn upon the day before. + +"That's fortunate!" he ejaculated, as with blotting pads he sought to +save what he could of the documents. "It gives me something better to do +than sit here idly mooning. Those papers must go off by the afternoon +mail, and I must rewrite them first." + +He set to work at once, and close application to the task for several +hours brought him into a healthier condition of mind. When he had +finished the task and had taken the papers to the postoffice he +realized that his state of mind had been a morbid one. He realized, too, +that he must end the suspense as quickly as possible, in order that he +might take up work and grow sound of soul again. + +Returning to his office he sent a note to Barbara: + + I shall go to see you to-night, unless you forbid. I must hear what + more you have to tell me, and I must in my turn tell you something + of myself. When that is done, I shall renew my efforts to win you + to myself. Please send me word that I may come. + +For answer, he got the single word "Come," written in the middle of a +page, without address or signature. Thus it came about that while Temple +was sitting in his hotel room, in negotiation with Tandy over a matter +that involved Duncan's future more vitally than any other event had ever +done, Duncan himself sat with Barbara, trying to adjust another matter +which seemed to him of even greater consequence. + +Barbara had her emotions in leash, now. Without hesitation, and with a +bravely controlled utterance, she went at once to the marrow of the +matter. + +"I told you," she began, "that I am the daughter of a Thief. My father +was trusted absolutely by my grandfather. He betrayed the trust. He made +use of his authority as a member of the banking house, not only to wreck +it in speculation, but also to rob all the people who had entrusted +their money to it. I don't understand such matters very well, but, at +any rate, my father ruined the firm and robbed its customers. At a +single stroke he reduced his father to poverty and forever disgraced his +honorable name. When he found that the facts must become known at once, +my father went home and blew his brains out. I was born that day, and my +mother died of shock and grief within the hour. My poor grandfather +lived for a month, without speaking a word to anybody. Then he quit +living." + +"It is a terribly sad story," said Duncan. "I should not have let you +tell it, poor child." + +"Oh, but I was obliged to tell you," she interrupted. "It was my duty. +You see--well, you have been so good to me, and I am obliged to say 'no' +to what you asked me before you knew this horrible thing. It wouldn't +have been fair just to say 'no,' and not tell you of a thing that +explains, a thing that must make you wish you hadn't asked me that." + +"But it does not make me wish anything of the kind, Barbara. It makes me +more eager than ever to win you, in order that I may devote my life to +the loving task of making you forget the horror of this thing. Oh, +Barbara! I never loved you half so madly as I love you now. And you love +me. I know it, but you must say it. You love me, Barbara! Say it! Say +it--now!" + +The girl hesitated for no more than a moment, while her whole body +quivered. + +"God help me!" she said then, "I do love you! I love you too well to let +you link your life with mine, to let you take upon yourself the shadow +of my disgrace." + +"But you have no disgrace. You are innocent. The fault is not yours that +your father betrayed his trust a score of years ago--before you were +born." + +"Listen!" she interrupted with passionate determination. "If you were to +marry me I should become the mother of your children. That would make +them the grandchildren of a Thief." + +The two were standing now. + +"I want you to sit down while I answer you, Barbara," said Duncan, with +almost unimaginable tenderness in his tone. "No, not in that +straight-backed chair, for I want you to listen to all I have to say, +and to be at ease while you listen. Sit here," pushing an easy chair +forward, "sit here where you can see my face as I speak. I want you to +see in my eyes the sincerity of my soul." + +Barbara obeyed and listened. + +"I was born and brought up," he said, "in a region where all the old +traditions had full sway over the minds of men and women, enslaving +them. During four years of war I learned much, but I unlearned far more. +I learned to look facts in the face, and to accept them at their just +value. I learned to judge of others and of their worth by what they are, +not by what their fathers or grandfathers may have been. I unlearned +the false teaching of tradition that aught else than personal character +and personal conduct goes to the making up of any human being's account +with his fellow man. I had a true democracy forced upon me when I saw +men of the humblest extraction winning high place for themselves, and +being set to command men of the loftiest lineage--all because of +personal character and fitness, and in spite of their lack of caste. No +sane man can contemplate the character and career of Mr. Lincoln, for +example, without finding in it an object lesson in democracy which +should make a very laughing-stock of all the fables of aristocratic +tradition. I tell you truly that I have put all those things behind me, +as all Americans must who truly believe in the fundamental principles of +our Republic. Every man must be accepted for what he is, not for what +his father or his grandfather may have been. We read that lesson in the +lives of such men as Ben Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln, and Grant, and a +score of other notables. We read it even more clearly in everyday life. +No banker extends credit to a worthless man on the ground that he was +born to high social repute. No banker withholds credit from a man of +integrity because his father was not to be trusted. All day, every day, +men everywhere are acting upon a clear perception of the truth that each +human being must be judged by what he is, and not by what some other +person has been. + +"Now I know you, Barbara, for what you _are_, and I love you for that +alone. What your father may have done or been, twenty years ago, is to +me a matter of entire indifference, except that the knowledge of it +gives you pain and sorrow. It makes no difference to me; it in no way +alters or lessens my love for you, and it never will. Knowing it all, I +am more earnest than ever in my purpose to make you my wife if I can +persuade you to that after I have told you something about myself that +may very justly seem to you a real bar to my hopes." + +"Go on, please," said the girl. "Tell me what you will, but I shall +never believe anything ill of you. I _know_ better." + +"Thank you for saying that, dear," he responded with a tremor in his +tone. "But unhappily others may believe it. If they do, then the career +you have expected for me must be at an end at once. My reputation for +integrity will be gone for good, and I must be content to surrender all +my ambitions. That is why I must tell you of this ugly thing before +again asking you to be my wife." + +"Go on," she said again. "But I shall believe nothing bad of you, even +though an angel should tell me." + +"I told you the other night," he said, "that I had quarreled with Napper +Tandy; that he had tried to tempt me with a money bribe to do an +infamous thing. He now gives it out that it was I who proposed the +bribe; that I went to him with an offer to do that infamous thing for +hire, and that he indignantly rejected the offer." + +"He lies!" broke in the girl. + +"Yes, he lies, of course," answered Duncan, "but I have no way of +proving it. He and I were alone and in his house. There were no +witnesses. How, then, am I ever to clear my name of so foul an +accusation?" + +"There is no need," answered the girl. "Nobody who knows you will ever +believe the story. Captain Hallam would not think it worth asking a +question about." + +"No, Captain Hallam would not for a moment think of such a thing as even +possible. But that is because he knows me as few other men do or ever +will. But the accusation troubles him, because he knows that other +people will believe it. He and Richard Temple are at this moment busy +trying to find some way of clearing my name of the foul slander. They +will do all that two loyal and sagacious friends can do to accomplish +that purpose. But I cannot imagine any way in which they can succeed." + +"What is it they are doing?" + +"I do not know; they have refused to tell me. I only know that they can +never succeed." + +"Oh, you must not think that. You don't know what wonders Captain Hallam +can work when he is in earnest. You must have hope and confidence. +Besides, nobody who knows you will ever believe such a story as that. +Your enemies will pretend to believe it, and for a time the people who +love to gossip will repeat it to each other. But you will live it down. +Every act of your life will contradict the lie, and Tandy's reputation +is not of a kind to lead sensible people to believe his falsehood when +you have set the truth against it. You are depressed and despondent now. +The mood is unworthy of you." + +"Tell me what I should do." + +"First of all you should act like the brave, strong man that you are. +You should either take this slander by the throat and strangle it by +publishing a simple, direct statement of the facts, or you should ignore +it altogether, as a thing too absurd to need even a denial. Wait till +you see what Captain Hallam and Mr. Temple succeed in doing, and then +act as seems best. But in any case, you must be strong and courageous. +No other mood belongs to such a man as you." + +Duncan looked her full in the face for a space before speaking. Then he +said: + +"And yet you say you have no gift to help me--that if you were my wife +you would be a drag upon me! Oh, Barbara, you cannot know how greatly I +need the strength that the sympathy and counsel of such a woman as you +are must give to the man who loves and wins her. You have in this hour +rescued me from despondency; you have made me strong again; you have +shown me my duty, and inspired me with resolution to do it manfully." + +"I am very glad," she answered. + +"Then promise me that you will stand by my side always. Let me give you +the right to help. Say that you will be my wife!" + +His voice was full of tender pleading and for a moment the girl +hesitated. Finally she said: + +"I think I know how to answer now, but you mustn't interrupt. I feel as +though I couldn't stand much this evening." + +"I will not interrupt. I am too eager to hear." + +"I think I have a plan--for you and me. I still think what I thought +before--when I said 'no.' I still think you ought to have some better +woman for your wife, some woman more nearly your equal, some woman who +could help you to win a great place for yourself in the world and could +herself fill the place of a great man's wife with dignity. You ought to +marry a woman who knows, oh, ever so much that I shall never know--a +woman that you need never be ashamed to introduce as your wife. No, +don't interrupt!" she exclaimed, seeing that he was on the point of +doing so. "I know what you would say, and that is the only thing that +makes me doubt my own conviction about these matters. It seems to me a +wonderful thing that such a man as you should care for such a woman as I +am, but the fact that you do care for me almost makes me think sometimes +that maybe after all I misjudge myself, and that you are right. It +seems so hard to believe you wrong. Now, I must be perfectly frank, +because I know no other way of saying what I must. I have confessed that +I love you. You compelled me to do that. If I were sure of my capacity +to make you happy, not just for a little while, but throughout all your +life, I would say 'yes' to the questions you have asked. But I mustn't +make any mistake that might spoil your life, and so I must not say 'yes' +just now, at least, and you will not let me say 'no.' I am still very +young, as you know. You, too, are young enough to wait. So I think we'll +leave both the 'yes' and the 'no' unsaid for a long time to come--for a +year, perhaps--long enough, at any rate, for both of us to find out +which of us is right. During that time we must be the very best of +friends. You must tell me everything that concerns you, so that I may +practice helping you, and find out whether I can really do it or not. If +you find that I can't you shall be perfectly free to go away from me. If +I find that I can't, then I'll say 'no' and stick to it." + +Duncan was disposed to plead for better terms, but the little lady had +fully made up her mind and would accept no modification of the treaty. +Duncan had no choice but to accept an arrangement which, after all, had +much of joy and still more of promise in it. + +As they were on the point of parting, Barbara--with something like a +struggle--made an addition to the compact. + +"If that slander sticks to you, Guilford, I'll marry you at once and +give it the lie." + +What could the warm-blooded young man do but kiss her with fervor? + +"Surely you will forgive me," he began in fear, lest he had offended. + +"I don't mind--for once. But you mustn't do that again till--well, while +we continue to be just friends." + + + + +XXVII + +MRS. HALLAM HEARS NEWS + + +As Guilford Duncan sat late that night, recalling the events of the +evening, he felt himself more and more nearly satisfied with the outcome +of his wooing. It was true, of course, that Barbara had not promised to +become his wife, as he had hoped that she might do, but at any rate she +had confessed her love for him in a way that left nothing to conjecture. +With such a woman, he reflected, love is never lightly given, and once +given it can never be withdrawn. + +Moreover, as he reflected upon the compact, he saw how certainly the +close and intimate friendship for which it provided must daily and +hourly draw the two lovers closer and closer together, making each of +them more and more necessary to the other. In brief, there was so much +that was satisfactory in the compact that he put aside all the rest as +"not worth worrying over." + +As he realized the extent of his success in his wooing he planned to +perfect it in a hundred ways. He resolved to make every possible +opportunity for Barbara to help him, in order that she might learn how +helpful she could be. He determined to acquaint her with all his +affairs, in the utmost detail, in order that she might make herself more +and more a part of his life. His first thought was that he would +withhold from her knowledge everything that annoyed or distressed him, +thus sparing her all that he could of pain, while telling her freely of +every joyous thing. But he quickly saw how unfair that would be, and how +unlike what such a woman would desire. He had begun to catch something +of Barbara's own spirit, and to know that any reserves with her now +would be a cruel wrong to her loving desire for a helpful share in his +life. + +"I will be as frank with her," he resolved, "as if she were already my +wife. She shall share my sorrows as well as my joys. And what a comfort +her sympathy will be!" + +He slept little that night, yet on the morrow he went to his work with a +buoyancy of spirit such as he had not known since that evening when he +had first declared his love. + +It was in this mood of elation and hopefulness that he went to the +Hallams' an hour before the supper time. He did not yet know what Hallam +and Temple had been trying to do, and of course he knew nothing of the +success they had achieved. But in his present mood he was optimistic +enough to hope for some good result. He thought he might meet Temple at +supper if his work, whatever it was, had been finished, and when he +found that his friend was neither present nor expected, he satisfied +himself with the reflection that the task Temple had undertaken was very +probably one requiring a good deal more time than had elapsed since he +began it. A little later he got more definite information. + +"Temple isn't to be with us," he half said, half asked, after the +greetings were over. + +"No," answered Captain Will. "He has gone back to the mines. He is +rather done up with the work and anxiety and loss of sleep. I tried to +make him take possession of your rooms this afternoon, for a +straight-away sleep, but he thought he'd rather go back to his wife till +the tenth. He'll be here, however, in time to assist at the _grand +finale_, as the show people call it." + +"I'm afraid I don't understand," said Duncan with a look of inquiry. + +"Why, there's to be a meeting of the stockholders of the X National on +the tenth, you know." + +"I didn't know. But what of it?" + +"Why, only that your friend Temple wants to be there, when he and I +march into the meeting controlling a majority interest and elect a board +of directors for old Napper Tandy, leaving him completely out of it. Not +a word about that, however, to anybody, till the time comes. We want to +add to the dramatic effect by making the thing a complete surprise." + +If Captain Will Hallam had been a robust boy of ten, chewing upon a +particularly toothsome morsel, he could not have shown a greater relish +for what was in his mouth than he did for these sentences as he uttered +them. His manner had all of active satisfaction in it that an eager card +player manifests when he saves a doubtful game by throwing down a final +and unsuspected trump at the end of a hand that has seemed to be lost. + +But Duncan was still mystified, and in answer to his questions Captain +Hallam explained. + +"When you got yourself into trouble by monkeying with the accentuations +of a buzz saw," he said, "I could see only one way out, and that was to +put you into a position where even the disembodied spirit of Calumny +itself could not pretend to believe old Napper Tandy's yarn. You know +Tandy is fond of playing tricks, especially upon me, and as the +president and controlling spirit of a rather strong bank, he has been +able to give me a good deal of trouble now and then. A year ago Stafford +and I decided that it might some day be handy for us to control a +majority of the stock in Tandy's bank. There was a good deal of it lying +about loose--that is to say, a number of people held little blocks of +it, ranging from one share to five. All of these people were more or +less under Tandy's influence, and all of them were in the habit of +giving him proxies to vote their stock or else themselves going into the +stockholders' meeting and voting as he desired. Stafford and I quietly +set about buying up this loose stock--through other people, of course, +so that we shouldn't appear in the matter. We had got forty-eight per +cent. of it, when you got yourself into trouble with Tandy. It occurred +to me that if we could get three or four more shares and emphasize our +confidence in you by making you president of Tandy's own bank, and +turning him out to grass, he might see the point and stop his lies. I +flatter myself that Stafford and I are pretty well known all over the +West and among bankers in the East. We are not at all generally regarded +as a pair of sublimated idiots--which same we should certainly be if we +deliberately made a bank president out of a young man whose integrity +was open to any possibility of suspicion. Now, don't be in a +hurry!"--seeing that Duncan was eager to ask questions, or to express +his appreciation of Captain Hallam's interest in himself--"don't be in a +hurry and don't interrupt. Let me tell you the whole story. At first I +didn't see any possible way in which to secure the three shares, without +which I could do nothing. I took pains to have the stock register of the +bank examined. I found that Tandy himself and the members of his +immediate family owned forty-eight shares, and that four more belonged +to Kennedy, the tug captain whom you discharged after calling him by a +picturesque variety of pet names. Of course it was of no use to approach +Kennedy, even through an outsider, as he is in Tandy's employ now, and +very deeply in Tandy's debt. I must explain that, as Stafford and I had +bought stock through agents of our own, we had kept our hands concealed +by leaving the several shares nominally in the hands of the men we had +employed to buy them and instructing those men to go on voting the stock +in whatever way Tandy wished. This made Tandy feel perfectly secure of +his control of the bank. Even if he had sold out half his own interest +he would have felt secure, seeing that all the floating stock was within +his voting control. You see I'm a rather good-natured man, on the whole, +and I never like to make a man feel uncomfortable unless I must. When +your trouble arose I thought I saw that there was nothing for it but to +make a strike for some of Tandy's own stock. I didn't much believe the +thing could be done, but I've seen so many miracles worked in my time +that I believe in them. You sent for Temple--and by the way, he's a +fellow that's built from the ground up--and I set him at work. I told +him what we wanted done and why, but I couldn't tell him how to do it, +because I didn't know. I gave him a free hand, and left him to use his +own wits. As they happened to be particularly good wits, he did the +trick within less than two days. He managed to buy Kennedy's four +shares, not from Kennedy, but from Tandy himself, so that now when the +stockholders' meeting comes, I'll march in, representing the two shares +that I'm known to own, and Temple will be with me, holding proxies for +all the rest of mine and Stafford's stock. We'll vote fifty-two against +forty-eight. We'll name all the directors, and they will make you +president at once. I'll put some shares in your hands to qualify you, +but you ought actually to own at least ten shares in your own right. +Have you got any money loose?" + +Captain Hallam knew very well that Duncan had a sufficient deposit +balance in the Hallam bank to cover the suggested purchase, but he +wanted to forestall and prevent the expression of Duncan's thanks. Hence +his question, and hence, also, the look he cast in Mrs. Hallam's +direction, in obedience to which that gracious and sagacious gentlewoman +broke at once and insistently into the conversation. + +"Now, if you two men have quite finished with business," she said, "I +want a small share of attention on my own part." + +"Will you excuse me for a little while, Duncan," interrupted Captain +Will, "while I give some orders at the stables and in the garden? I very +nearly forgot them. Mrs. Hallam will entertain you in my absence, I'm +sure." + +As soon as the head of the house had made his escape through the door, +Mrs. Hallam--whose friendship for Duncan had won all that is possible of +privilege for itself--turned to him and asked: + +"Why haven't you been taking Barbara to places? Why didn't you tell me +to invite her here for supper to-night? You know I have had her here a +dozen times, and you know how welcome she always is." + +"Your last question is easily answered," he replied. "I did not think of +asking you to invite her to supper this evening for the reason that +Captain Will sent me word that he had business affairs to talk over with +me." + +Mrs. Hallam's face was wreathed in smiles. + +"I wonder," she said, "if there ever was a young man clever enough to +hold his own with a woman at word fence. And I wonder if there was ever +one who didn't think he could." + +"I confess," he said quickly, "that I'm not clever enough to know what +you mean by those two wonderings of yours." + +"Oh, yes you do. You deliberately tried to shy off my first +question"--at this point she touched a bell--"by answering the second +first, and then omitting to answer the first at all." + +At this moment a servant appeared in answer to her ring. + +"Send word to John," she commanded, "to bring the carriage at once--the +open one with the bays. Now, Guilford Duncan, I have no time to talk +with you except the ten minutes before the carriage comes. For I'm going +to put on a hat and go after Barbara. Perhaps, between us, she and I can +prevent you two men from talking business at supper. Tell me----" + +"But can Barbara come on so short a notice?" + +"What sort of blunderer do you take me to be? I sent her a note two +hours ago saying I should go after her, and she sent me for reply, a +note saying she would be more than glad to come. But you mustn't grow +conceited over that. I didn't tell her you were to be here, or that I +meant to put you into the carriage to escort her home. It is quite +possible that if I had told her that she would have declined the +invitation. Now, answer my first question. Why haven't you been taking +Barbara to places--to church and all the rest of it?" + +"Must I tell you the truth?" + +"Yes, certainly. What would be the use of telling me anything else? I +should know if your fibbed." + +"I really believe you would." + +"Why, of course I should. What are a woman's wits for, anyhow?" + +"The carriage is at the door," said a servant, entering. + +"Very well. Let it wait. Now, Guilford Duncan, go on and tell me." + +"Well, the fact is, that I have not been in a position to ask Barbara to +accept my escort to public places." + +"Why not? Is it because of this Tandy affair?" + +"No." + +"Then what? Go on, and don't make me pump the information out of you, as +if you were a well or a leaky barge." + +"The fact is," Duncan spoke very seriously now, "that a little while ago +I was betrayed by own emotions into declaring my love for Barbara, much +sooner than I had intended--before she was prepared to hear it." + +"Oh, nonsense! As if a girl ever needed preparation for a declaration of +that sort from--- well, from the right sort of man. But go on, you know +the carriage is waiting. Tell me. Has she accepted you?" + +"No." + +"Has she rejected you?" + +"No." + +Here Mrs. Duncan again rang the bell, and a servant appeared so promptly +as to suggest that she had been listening just outside the door. + +"Tell my maid to get into the carriage and go and fetch Miss Barbara +Verne. Tell her to say that I am detained here, and am forced to send my +maid in my stead." + +The servant said, "Yes'm," and withdrew. Then Mrs. Duncan resumed her +questioning with manifest eagerness, but with as much of seriousness as +Duncan himself had shown. There was no touch of flippancy, or even of +lightness in either her words or her tone. For Mrs. Will Hallam was a +woman of deep and tender feeling, a woman to whom all holy things were +sacred. + +"Tell me about it all, Guilford. I do not understand, and I must know. I +need not tell you that my interest is not prompted by curiosity. I hold +you as my brother, and I love Barbara. Tell me." + +And Duncan did. As he outlined the compact that Barbara had insisted +upon, the smiles replaced solemn apprehension on Mrs. Hallam's face, as +though she foresaw all she desired as the outcome of such an +arrangement. + +But all that she said was: + +"I am greatly relieved." + + + + +XXVIII + +THE BIRTH OF A GREAT RAILROAD + + +Upon becoming president of a strong bank, and the close associate of +Hallam and Stafford in all their undertakings, Guilford Duncan became at +once a factor to be recognized and reckoned with in all enterprises with +which he had to do. He had brains, character, and indomitable energy, +and these had already won for him the respect of the men of affairs. Now +that he had control of money also, his power and influence were +multiplied many fold. + +The time was one of expansion. The flood of irredeemable and heavily +depreciated paper currency which had been issued under stress of war +necessities, was producing the usual effect of inflation. It gave a +false seeming of value to every purchasable thing. It caused rapid and +great fluctuations in all markets. It lured men everywhere into +speculation. It dangerously expanded credits and prompted men to +undertake enterprises far beyond their means. + +Very early in his career as a banker, Guilford Duncan discovered that +half the merchants in Cairo were young men of little capital and small +capacity, who ought to have remained salaried clerks. These had grown +ambitious, set up for themselves, and were carrying large stocks of +goods almost wholly upon credit. They were staggering under loads of +debt on which they were paying ruinous rates of interest. + +It was easy enough for him to protect his bank by gradually reducing its +loans to such men as these, but the prudence thus exercised added to the +number of his enemies. He cared little for that, so long as he knew his +course to be right. + +Looking further afield he saw that a like condition of things existed +all over the West, and was the inspiration of much greater undertakings +than those of the merchants and shopkeepers. + +He used often to talk of these things with Hallam. + +"You're quite right," said that sagacious financier. "The country has +gone on a big financial drunk, and of course the headache will come when +the spree is over. But it won't be over for a considerable time to come, +and in the meanwhile the country is getting a good deal of benefit from +it. + +"Fortunately, it is taking a better course than such sprees usually do. +Ordinarily the existence of an inflated, superabundant, and depreciated +currency results in a wild orgy of stock gambling, grain gambling, +cotton gambling, and all the rest of it. There is no more of good in +that--in fact, there is far more of harm in it to the country--than +there would be if everybody went to betting at roulette or faro. It +makes the lucky gamblers rich and the unlucky ones poor, but it produces +nothing, even incidentally. This time the gambling is taking a more +productive form. Instead of betting on market fluctuations, men are +putting money into factories, mines, mills, and railroads--especially +railroads. They are enormously overdoing the thing, but whenever they +build a railroad, even unwisely, the railroad will remain as something +to show for the money when the spree is over." + +"That is true enough," said Duncan, "and of course all this railroad and +other building is, incidentally, giving work and wages to great +multitudes of men. But are we not paying too high a price for the good +we get? We are building debts about forty per cent. faster than we are +building railroads. Every mile of track is constructed with borrowed +money, worth only about sixty cents on the dollar. Yet every dollar of +these borrowings must some day be paid off in gold. And in the meantime +the roads must pay a high interest rate on a dollar for every sixty +cents' worth of money borrowed. I do not see how the country can stand +it." + +"It can't, permanently, and you haven't mentioned the worst feature of +the matter." + +"What is that?" + +"Why, in the craze for building railroads, men are projecting and +building many lines that are not needed at all. In some cases two, or +even three, parallel roads are being built through regions that can +never support more than one. It is sheer waste, and of course it means +collapse sooner or later. But there is another side to the matter. The +country is growing enormously in wealth, and still more enormously in +productive capacity. Nothing helps such growth like the multiplication +and extension of railroads. They bring men near to their markets. They +make farming profitable where before it would have been a waste of +labor. They multiply farms and towns, swell the population, and in that +way make a market for manufactures. If we could cut out the parallel +lines and other foolishly projected roads, I firmly believe the growth +of the country in consequence of railroad building would more than +compensate for the extra cost entailed upon us by borrowing at a time of +depreciation in the currency. But we can't prevent fool projectors from +building foolishly, and some day the country's sound business must +shoulder all that load of bad investments. When a boy eats green apples +he is in for a colic, but he generally gets over the colic. It will be +so with the country." + +Then the talk turned into a more practical channel. + +"You feel sure, then," asked Duncan, "that we are making no mistake and +doing no harm in carrying out our project of a railroad that shall +bring Cairo closer to New York in the matter of railroad mileage?" + +"Perfectly sure. That railroad is imperatively needed. It will develop a +very rich agricultural region which has been practically shut off from +the world. There is traffic enough for the road already within sight to +make it pay. When it is built, it will compel a cheapening of freight +rates to the advantage of the whole country." + +"You are right, of course," answered Duncan reflectively. "I have gone +over that subject very conscientiously. I am convinced that the road can +carry the debt that must be incurred in building it, and that it will +pay its way. If I had any serious doubt of that, I should have nothing +to do with the thing." + +"As it is," responded Hallam, "you've got the heavy end of the log to +carry, so far as work is concerned. When are you going to begin your +campaign?" + +"Almost immediately. I've got everything in the bank into satisfactory +shape now, and three days hence I shall begin a speaking tour in the +interior counties. I'll make it even more a talking tour than a speaking +one. For while a public speech, if it is persuasive enough, may +influence many, it is the quieter talking to individuals and small +groups that does most to win votes. I've already secured the +co-operation of all the country editors, but they need stirring up, and +worse still they need somebody to tell them what to say and how to say +it in their newspapers. Of course you and Stafford and Tandy will take +care of Cairo and Alexander county." + +This proposed railroad was one clearly destined to be of the utmost +consequence to Cairo and to the region through which the line must run. +The method by which it was planned to secure its construction, was the +one then in general use throughout the West. It may be simply explained. +Everybody concerned was asked to subscribe to what might properly have +been called an inducement fund. The subscriptions were meant to be gifts +made to secure the benefit of the railroad's construction. More +important than these personal subscriptions, and vastly greater in +amount, were the subscriptions of counties, cities, and towns. Under the +law as it then existed each county, city, or town, if its people so +voted, could "lend its credit" to an enterprise of this kind by issuing +its own bonds. When a sufficient sum was raised in this way, an effort +was made, usually in New York, to secure the forming of a construction +company. The whole volume of the subscriptions was offered as an +inducement to such a construction company to undertake the building of +the road. Usually the construction company was to have in addition a +considerable share of the stock of the road when completed. The city, +county, and town subscriptions, of course, depended upon the results of +special elections held for that sole purpose. + +In this case the personal subscriptions had been satisfactory, and there +was no doubt that the two terminal cities, and the counties in which +they lay, would vote the bonds asked of them. But there was grave doubt +as to results in the rural counties, in each of which a special election +was to be held a month or two later. It was Guilford Duncan's task to +remove that doubt, to persuade the voters to favor the proposed +subscriptions, and incidentally to secure rights of way, station sites, +etc., by gift from the land owners. + +During the next two months he toiled ceaselessly at this task, going to +Cairo only once a week to keep in touch with his bank, and to pass the +Sundays with Barbara. + +Tandy also worked in the county towns, where he had a good deal of +influence. He had been made president of the proposed railroad, and was +supposed to be very earnestly interested in it. He was so--in his own +way, and with purposes of his own. + +Duncan's campaign was a tireless one, and it proved successful. When the +elections occurred every county and every town voted in favor of the +proposed subscription, but some of them did so by majorities so narrow +as to show clearly how great the need of Duncan's work had been. + +"Worse still," he said to Hallam, a few weeks later, "the smallness of +the majorities in two or three counties is a threat to us and a warning. +The county authorities are putting all sorts of absurd provisions into +their subscriptions, and they will give us trouble if our construction +company fails in the smallest particular to meet these requirements." + +"Just what are the conditions?" + +"Oh, every sort of thing. In every county it is provided that we shall +somewhere break ground for construction before the last of January--less +than two months hence--or forfeit the subscription. That gives us too +little time for organization, but we can meet that requirement by +sending a gang of men at our own expense to do a day's work somewhere on +the line. In two of the counties there is a peculiarly absurd provision. +There are rival villages there, one in each county, and the authorities +have stipulated that "a track shall be laid across the county line and a +car shall pass over said track from one county to the other" before the +fifteenth of March. Curiously enough, I learn that Tandy himself +suggested that stipulation to the county authorities. I hear he is +giving it out that he had to do so to save the election, but that's +nonsense, just as the provision itself is. Such a requirement will +greatly embarrass us in our negotiations with capitalists. For the line +will not be fully surveyed by that time, and nobody can tell, till that +is done, precisely where the road ought to cross that county line, or at +what grade. I can't imagine what Tandy meant by getting such a +provision inserted." + +"Neither can I," answered Hallam; "but we'll find out some fine morning, +and we must be prepared to meet whatever comes. He's up to some trick of +course." + + + + +XXIX + +A SCRAP OF PAPER + + +When Duncan assumed control of the bank as its president, his first care +was to acquaint himself minutely with its condition. In general he found +its affairs in excellent shape, for Tandy was a skillful banker and, on +the whole, a prudent one. There were many small loans to local +shopkeepers which Duncan could not approve, and these he called in as +they fell due, refusing to renew them. Beyond such matters he found +nothing wrong till he came to examine the record of Tandy's own dealings +with the bank. + +There he found that in carrying on his multifarious enterprises, Tandy +had been in the habit of borrowing and using the bank's funds in ways +forbidden by the law of national banking. Had Tandy anticipated his own +removal from control he would doubtless have set his account in order so +that no complaint could be made. As it was, Duncan found that he was at +that very time heavily in debt to the institution for borrowings made in +evasion though possibly not in direct violation of a law carefully +framed for the protection of stockholders and depositors. + +The matter troubled Duncan sorely, and acting upon the resolution he had +formed with regard to his relations with Barbara, he told her of it. + +"I really don't know what to do," he said in a troubled tone. "Of course +the money is perfectly safe. Tandy is good for two or three times the +amount. And I learn that it is a practice among bank officers sometimes +to stretch their authority and borrow their own bank's funds in this +way." + +"You say the thing is a violation of the law?" asked Barbara, going +straight to the marrow of the matter after her uniform fashion. + +"In effect, yes. I am not sure that it could be called a positive +violation of law--it is so well hedged about with little fictions and +pretenses--but it is plainly an evasion, and one which might get the +bank into trouble with the authorities at Washington." + +"You mean that it is something which the law intends to forbid?" + +"Yes. It is in violation of the spirit of the law." + +"Then I don't see why you should have any doubt as to what you ought to +do." + +"It is only that under the circumstances, if I press Tandy and call in +these loans, it might look like an unworthy indulgence in spite on my +part." + +"I think you have no right to consider that. You have taken an oath to +obey the law in the conduct of the bank, and----" + +"How did you know that, Barbara?" + +The girl flushed and hesitated. At last she said: + +"I've been reading the national banking laws." + +"What in the world did you do that for?" + +"Why, I'm to help, you know. So as soon as I heard you were to be +president of the bank I asked Mrs. Hallam to get Captain Hallam to lend +me the books." + +Duncan smiled and kept silence for a while. + +"Was that wrong, or very foolish, Guilford? I can really understand the +book." + +"Of course you can, and it was neither wrong nor very foolish in you to +try. It was only very loyal and very loving. But there was no occasion +for you to do anything of the sort." + +"But how can I help you if I don't try my best to understand the things +you are dealing with?" + +"As I said before," he answered tenderly, "it is very loyal and very +loving of you to think in that way, and I thank you for it. But that +isn't what I have had in mind when we have talked of your helping me. I +have never had a thought of burdening you with my affairs except to ask +for your sympathy when things trouble me, and your counsel on all points +of right and wrong, and all that. You see, you have two things that I +need." + +"What are they?" + +"A singularly clear insight into all matters of duty, and a conscience +as white as snow. In this matter of Tandy's account, for example, you +have helped me more than you imagine. You have seen my duty clearly, +where I was in doubt about it, and you have prompted me to the resolute +doing of it, regardless of my own feelings, or Tandy's, or of any other +consideration whatever. Moreover, it is an immeasurable help to me +simply to sit in your presence and feel that you want me to do right +always. I think association with you would keep any man in the straight +road. I _know_ that your love would do so." + +"I am very, very glad," the girl answered with misty eyes, "but I must +help in practical ways, too--in all ways. So I must do my best to +understand all the things that you have to manage." + +"God bless you!" + +That was all he said. It seemed to him quite all there was to say. But +early the next morning he sent a courteous note to Tandy, calling his +attention to the "irregularity" of his relations with the bank, and +asking him to call at once to set the matter right. + +After he had sent off the note he continued his examination of the +details of the bank's affairs. He had gone over the books very +carefully. He had examined the notes held for collection and the like. +It remained only for him to make a personal inspection of the cash and +securities held by the bank, and that was his task this morning. + +He had not gone far with it when he came upon a small three-cornered +slip of paper, with a memorandum penciled upon it. It lay in the midst +of a bundle of greenbacks. + +Looking at it carefully, Duncan turned sharply upon the teller who had +charge of the currency, and demanded: + +"What does this mean? Why did you not bring that to my attention +sooner?" + +Before the teller could reply with an excuse or explanation, Tandy was +announced as waiting in the bank parlor to see Mr. Duncan. + +Duncan slipped the scrap of paper into his vest pocket, saying to the +teller: + +"Make a memorandum that I have possession of this." + +Then he walked into the parlor. + +There he received Tandy with cold dignity and marked reserve--more of +coldness, more of dignity, and far more of reserve than he would have +thought necessary if he had not found that scrap of paper. + +Before seating himself, he called in one of the bookkeepers, saying: + +"Mr. Leftwich, I desire you to remain with Mr. Tandy and me, during the +whole of our interview." + +"Surely that is unnecessary, Duncan," said Tandy hastily. "I don't care +to discuss my private affairs in the presence of a clerk." + +"I have no intention to discuss your private affairs at all, Mr. Tandy," +Duncan replied. "The matter concerning which I have asked you to call +here, is not a private affair of yours or mine. It is a matter connected +with the administration of the bank. Be seated, Mr. Leftwich." + +"But I insist," said Tandy, with a good deal more of heat than he was +accustomed to permit himself to show, "I insist upon a confidential +interview." + +"You cannot have it. I do not regard myself as upon confidential terms +with you, nor do I think of you as a man with whom I desire to establish +confidential relations." + +"Do you mean to insult me in my own--in a bank that I founded, and in +which I am still a large stockholder?" + +"Perhaps you had better not press me to explain myself," answered Duncan +with a calmness that emphasized his determination. "I might feel it +necessary to mention some facts that otherwise there is no occasion for +Mr. Leftwich to know." + +"Oh, very well. I ought not to have expected courtesy at your hands." + +"I think I must agree with you in that," answered Duncan. "In view of +the circumstances--which, I may remind you, are of your own making--I +really think you ought not to have expected courtesy at my hands. +Suppose we get down to business instead. What have you to suggest by way +of arranging your affairs with the bank?" + +"I don't know. I came here hoping and expecting that in view of all the +circumstances you might be willing to let this matter of my loans from +the bank rest between ourselves for a time." + +Duncan was outwardly calm now, but inwardly he was in a towering rage, +for Tandy's presence reminded him bitterly of the way in which the +ex-banker had tried first to corrupt him and then to blast his +reputation with a lie; and Tandy's manner clearly enough indicated that +he had come to the bank in full expectation of warping him to his will +in another matter involving his duty and his honor. + +"How do you mean to 'let it rest'?" he asked, carefully controlling his +voice. + +"Oh, you understand, or you would if you knew anything of banking." + +"I will trouble you to omit all discussion of my knowledge or my +ignorance. Your account with this bank is at present in a shape +forbidden by law. It must be adjusted at once. That is all that concerns +me in the case. Please confine yourself to that." + +Tandy became placative and apologetic. + +"You must really pardon me, Mr. Duncan. This thing has knocked me out a +good deal--it came upon me so suddenly and unexpectedly. I make my +apologies if I have said anything to offend. But is there nothing I can +do to fix the thing up--so that the bank can carry it for me till I can +turn around? You see these things are so customary in banks that it +never occurred to me that you would insist upon the strict letter of the +law." + +"I have taken an oath," answered Duncan, "to obey and enforce the strict +letter of the law in the administration of this bank's affairs--just as +you did when you were president here. _I_, at least, intend to respect +my oath." + +"What do you require of me?" + +"For one thing, that you shall put your account into a shape permitted +by law and warranted by prudence. In doing that, you shall have all the +help the bank can properly lend you." + +"Tell me your exact terms," said Tandy, "and I will endeavor to comply +with them." + +"You must comply with them, as they will be only such as it is my duty +to insist upon." + +"What are they?" + +"First of all, you must to-day deposit fifteen thousand dollars, in cash +or securities, to make good that bit of paper," said Duncan, holding up +the three-cornered fragment of a letter sheet, on which there was +written in Tandy's hand: + + Good for $15,000--count this as cash. N. T., Pres't. + +"I found that in our cash assets only this morning, Mr. Tandy. Until it +turned up I had cherished the belief that your irregularities were only +such as you say are customary with bank officers. I believe it is not +customary, however, for the president of a bank to abstract fifteen +thousand dollars of the bank's cash and substitute for it a mere pencil +scribbling on a scrap of paper, signed with initials." + +Tandy sat gazing vacantly at Duncan, with livid lips and contorted +features. He had so long been accustomed to administer the bank's +affairs as suited his personal convenience that he had quite forgotten +this little transaction. Recovering himself, he said presently: + +"That was an oversight on my part, Mr. Duncan. It was merely a matter of +temporary convenience. You see, one evening after hours, I happened +suddenly to need that amount in currency. I came here to the bank and +got it, putting the mem. into the cash box in its stead, as there were +none of the bank's officers or clerks here to take my check. Besides, I +hadn't my check-book with me. I fully intended to arrange the matter +before the bank opened the next morning, but somehow I forgot it. It was +only an oversight, I assure you." + +"It was a felony," answered Duncan, in a tone as free from stress as if +he had merely said, "It is raining." Then he added: + +"Will you make a deposit now to clear that matter up? After you do so we +can go on and adjust the other matters." + +"Have mercy on me, Duncan! Give me a day or two to look about me! I've +been investing very heavily of late, and really I can't raise fifteen +thousand at a moment's notice. You know I am good for ten times the sum. +Why not let it rest for a week, say?" + +"Mr. Tandy," replied Duncan, enunciating every syllable as precisely as +if he had been reciting a lesson in a foreign tongue, "let me remind you +of something. Some time ago you offered to pay me a high price to commit +a crime. You remember the circumstance, I have no doubt. You remember +that I refused, and that you sought revenge by lying to the men who were +then employing me. You told an infamous lie that, if it had been +believed, would have blasted my good name forever. No, don't interrupt. +I had not intended to mention this matter, especially in Mr. Leftwich's +presence," bowing toward the bookkeeper, whose jaw had relaxed in +astonishment. "I had not intended to mention that matter, but you have +forced me to remind you of it, by trying now to persuade me to commit a +crime without any inducement whatever except such as may be implied in +my concern for your convenience. Until now I have been prepared to +consider your convenience so far as I could do so consistently with my +duty to the bank. I am now not disposed to consider it at all. You must +bring fifteen thousand dollars here within an hour, and redeem that +piece of paper, or I shall proceed against you criminally. After you +shall have done that, you must make such other deposits of cash or +acceptable securities as may be necessary to set your general account in +order. That is all I have to say. I give you one hour in which to take +up this paper, and I give you the rest of the day in which to adjust the +other matter. That ends our conference, and I must excuse myself. You +know your way out." + + + + +XXX + +THE MYSTERY OF TANDY + + +Tandy quitted the bank in very serious distress of mind. He was a +capitalist of large means, but even a great capitalist--and he could not +be reckoned as quite that--may sometimes find it inconvenient to raise +money in considerable sums upon the instant. It so happened that just at +this time Tandy's means were all employed and his credit stretched +almost to the point of breaking, by reason of his excessive and largely +concealed investments in a number of enterprises. + +On the moral side, it would have been difficult even for Tandy himself +to say just what measure of suffering he endured. His conscience was +casehardened, but his financial reputation was not only a valuable, but +an absolutely necessary part of his equipment for the businesses in +which he was engaged. That reputation was now in great danger. He +wondered if Duncan would tell the story of that scrap of paper. He +wondered still more, whether Duncan might not report the matter to the +comptroller of the currency at Washington, and thus bring about a +criminal prosecution, even after the sum irregularly borrowed had been +repaid. Then he remembered, with something like a spasm round his heart, +that the bookkeeper, Leftwich, had heard the whole conversation, and he +remembered also that he had been, as he put it, "rather hard on +Leftwich" upon several occasions in the past. If Leftwich cherished +resentment on that account, his malice now had its opportunity. + +On the whole, Napper Tandy could not recall another day in all his life +on which he had suffered so much in spirit as he did now. But there was +no time for brooding or lamenting. He felt that he was in Guilford +Duncan's clutches, and, while he knew little of conscientious scruples +by virtue of any soul experiences of that kind on his own part, he had +so far learned to understand Duncan as to know that he would, as a +matter of conscience alone, enforce the strict letter of his demand. + +He hastened to find Captain Will Hallam, and to him he made almost a +piteous appeal for a loan of fifteen thousand dollars through the Hallam +bank. + +"So Duncan carries too many guns for you, eh?" was the flippant remark +with which Captain Hallam received the appeal. + +"Will you let me have the money?" almost frantically pleaded the now +thoroughly frightened man. "You see time is precious. I've less than an +hour in which to raise the sum. You _must_ help me out, Hallam." + +"I really don't know whether I can arrange it or not. I'll see Stafford +and find out how far our loans are extended. What security can you give? +You know Stafford is very exacting as to the character of the security +on which he lends the bank's funds." + +"Yes, I know--and that is very awkward just now. I'm a good deal tied +up, you know. I've been buying property along the line of our proposed +railroad. I've bought rather heavily, and as I hadn't expected to be +called upon to raise money just now, I have gone in pretty deep on +credit. You know how impossible it is to realize on such property, even +at a loss, when a man must have money at once." + +"Then what can you offer?" + +"Well, I've a pretty large block of stock in the Memphis and Ohio River +Railroad----" + +"Not good collateral till the road is finished. You know we couldn't +touch that." + +Tandy mentioned some other securities that Hallam deemed insecure, and +by this time Hallam had begun to wonder what was the matter with Tandy. +He knew, or thought he knew, that the man must have greatly more money +invested somewhere than these things represented. He had a great +curiosity to know what the other investments were, but he did not find +out, for at last, within a brief while of the end of his hour of grace, +the troubled man said: + +"There is nothing for it but to hypothecate a part of my stock in the X +National. You know that is good." + +"Oh, yes, that's good. Stafford will accept that as collateral if the +bank is in a position to extend its loans. I'll go and see." + +When he told Stafford what the situation was, that astute banker--who +had been in many a financial fisticuff with Tandy--quietly said: + +"I don't see why we should make the loan. Why not refuse it, and then +have you offer to buy the stock outright at about par? He must sell, for +if I have correctly sized up our friend Duncan, he'll never let up on +his demand in this case. A man with a conscience like his simply can't +let up in such a matter." + +"That's the way we'll fix it," answered Hallam, with an amused twinkle +in his eye. "He's obviously in need of a little more education at my +hands, and he can afford to pay for it. I'll buy the stock at par--not a +cent more. I suppose it's worth a hundred and three?" + +"Yes--all of that, and it will be worth more presently under Duncan's +management. What a fellow that is, anyhow!" + +"I imagine Tandy thinks so by this time." + +As there was no other bank in Cairo, and nobody else who could make a +loan such as Tandy must have on the instant, he was simply compelled to +make the sale on Hallam's own terms. + +With Hallam's check in hand, he hurried to the X National, arriving +there just in time to meet Guilford Duncan's demand. + +Duncan received the check in the bank parlor, again insisting that +Leftwich should be present at the interview. + +"I'll take that paper, if you please," Tandy said, holding out his hand +for it. + +"Not until you shall have adjusted the other matter. The bank's books +show that, while you were still president of the institution, you made a +loan of thirty thousand dollars to yourself, on your unsecured note, +without even an endorsement. You know that in doing so, you violated the +law you were sworn to obey and enforce. With that I do not now concern +myself. What I ask is that you secure the bank for that loan, which +still stands. When that is done, Mr. Leftwich will return this paper to +you. In the meanwhile, I place it in his hands." + +"Really, Mr. Duncan"--for since the early part of that morning's +interview, Tandy had not ventured again upon the familiarity of +addressing Duncan without the "Mr."--"really, Mr. Duncan, you are +pressing me too hard. You must give me a few days----" + +"How can I? The law would hold me at fault if I should allow the bank to +close to-day with that loan unsecured. I have no right to give you +time." + +"You are persecuting me!" + +"No, I am not. If I were minded to do that, I should call the loan in at +once. As it is, I only ask you--as I must--to secure it as the law +requires. I will accept any fairly good collateral you may have to +offer. There is surely no hardship in that--no persecution in demanding +that you shall temporarily leave with the bank enough of the bonds or +stock certificates that you hold in plenty, to comply with the law +concerning loans by national banks. I have simply no choice but to +insist upon that." + +"But I tell you," answered Tandy, "that at present I have no bonds or +stocks conveniently available for such a purpose." + +"I will accept your insurance stock." + +"I've parted with that." + +"Well, as I certainly have no disposition to be hard upon you, I'll +accept your stock in the Atlantic and Mississippi Steamship Company, or +even your Mississippi Valley Transportation Company stock, though +neither can be reckoned a first-class security." + +"I've sold out of both companies," answered Tandy. + +By this time Duncan began to wonder what had happened to Tandy, in a +financial way, just as Hallam had done. + +"Wonder where he has been putting his money," he thought. "For surely he +had plenty of it a little while ago. He's been buying property along the +new railroad, but that isn't sufficient to tie up a man of Tandy's +wealth. Something must be the matter. I must be cautious." + +"I'll put up a hundred thousand in Memphis and Ohio River stock----" +began Tandy. + +"You know I can't consider that," said Duncan; "no sane banker could. +But if you choose, the bank will accept stock in your coal +mine--reckoned at fifty cents on the dollar--as security." + +"That's out of the question. I'm negotiating a sale of my interests +there, and it would embarrass me to have the stock hypothecated just +now." + +"Very well, then. What do you propose to do? Of course you have a large +block of stock in this bank. Why not put that up as security, and give +yourself all the time you need? Or if you don't want to hypothecate the +stock with this bank, you can arrange a loan on it with Stafford or +Hallam." + +Tandy hesitated for a time before answering. At last he said: + +"I've only thirty-three shares left. Why shouldn't the bank buy it +outright, putting the loan in as a principal part of the purchase +money?" + +"At what price will you sell?" + +"At 103. It's worth that and more." + +"I'll consider the offer. Come back in an hour for your answer." + +Duncan sent at once for Hallam and Stafford, as the principal +stockholders in the bank, other than Tandy, and told them all that had +happened. They advised the purchase, but suggested 102 as the price, +and an hour later Napper Tandy ceased to be a stockholder in the X +National Bank. + +A day or two later Stafford learned that by this sale of his bank stock, +Tandy had practically parted with the last investment he had in any +Cairo enterprise. + +He greatly wondered at that, and as he sat with Duncan and Hallam in +Hallam's parlor that night, the three indulged in many conjectures +concerning Tandy and his plans. The only conclusion they arrived at was +expressed by Captain Will: + +"He's up to mischief of some sort. We must watch him." + + + + +XXXI + +ONLY A WOMAN + + +In accordance with his custom, Duncan told Barbara the whole story of +the bank's dealings with Tandy, and explained to her his reasons for +suspecting, as Captain Hallam had said, that Tandy was "up to mischief" +of some kind and needed close watching. + +"Perhaps he has lost money heavily," suggested Barbara, "and is +struggling to keep his head above water." + +"That is extremely unlikely," answered Duncan, "particularly as his +standing at Bradstreet's is unimpaired. I asked Bradstreet's yesterday +for a special report on him, and they gave him four A's. That means that +he has ample capital and abundant resources somewhere within the +knowledge of Bradstreet's agents. I imagine that he is going quietly +into some big enterprise, and has so far invested his capital in it that +he was sorely embarrassed for ready money when suddenly called upon to +raise it. I would give a tidy little sum to find out what he is up to." + +But neither Duncan nor Hallam was destined to make that discovery as +yet. Soon after the bank matter was settled, Tandy seemed quite at ease +again financially. He resumed his purchases of property along the line +of the proposed railway, but only along the eastern half of it. He +bought none in Cairo or within fifty miles of that city. + +Two months later, after Duncan's campaign was over, and the elections +had been held, he and Barbara came back to the subject. Duncan told +Barbara of the queer provision that Tandy had persuaded the authorities +of two counties to put into their bond appropriation, and expressed his +curiosity to know the motive. + +"He didn't do that thing just for fun, Guilford," the girl said, after +she had thought the matter over for twenty-four hours. "He has some +interest to serve." + +"Of course. I'm very sure of that." + +"We must find out what it is," said the girl, whose apprehension was +strongly aroused. + +"But how, Barbara?" + +"I don't know how, at present, but I'm trying to find out a way. I don't +know enough about the facts as yet to make a good guess. You must tell +me some things." + +"Anything you like." + +"Is there any other railroad that might be injured by this one? Any +road, I mean, that he might be interested in enough to make him want +this project defeated?" + +"No, certainly not. On the contrary, he has a tremendous interest in the +building of our road. Of course his interests here in Cairo are +comparatively small, now that he is out of the bank, but as you know, he +has been buying property very heavily along our proposed line. Of +course, when the road is finished the towns along the line will grow, +and property there will go up. In view of that, he has been buying lots, +houses, and business buildings at all the places where principal +stations are likely to be located." + +It was two or three days later when Barbara returned to the subject by a +somewhat indirect route. + +"Tell me about Paducah, Guilford," she said to him suddenly. + +He laughingly answered: + +"Paducah is a thriving town in northwestern Kentucky. It lies on the +Ohio River about fifty miles above the mouth of that stream. It has a +small but ambitious population, and is a considerable market for the +sale of tobacco. That's about all I remember of what the gazeteer says +about the interesting burg." + +"And you know that isn't what I want you to tell me. Are there any +railroads there?" + +"One small one, running from the south, ends there, I believe, and the +Paducah people are trying to induce the company which is building the +Memphis and Ohio River Railroad to make its northern terminus there +instead of at Cairo. They are trying, too, to get a bridge built across +the Ohio at that point. They are unlikely to succeed in either project, +for the reason that they have no railroad connection north or east. +Railroads from the south running into Paducah would find no outlet +except by the river." + +Barbara was silent for some time. Then she asked: "Is Mr. Tandy +interested in any business at Paducah?" + +"I really don't know. He's in all sorts of things, you know. But why do +you ask?" + +Instead of answering, she asked another question: + +"Is he interested in the company you spoke of, that is building a line +from Memphis to the Ohio River?" + +"Yes. He's heavily in that. Indeed, he is president of it, I believe, or +something like that, just as he is of our company--well, no, the +parallel doesn't hold, for ours is only a projecting company, as yet, +while that is a full-fledged railroad company actually engaged in +building. I suppose that is one of the things that tied Tandy up at the +time of the bank trouble. He had put a pot of money into it, and he +could neither sell his stock nor raise money on it till the road should +be finished and in operation. But why do you ask about that, Barbara?" + +For answer, she crossed the room, and returning, spread out a map on a +table. + +"Look!" she said, putting her finger on the map. "At a point only a +little east of that county line concerning which Tandy got the strange +stipulation made, our proposed line will be much nearer to Paducah than +the distance from that point to Cairo. May it not be possible----" + +"By Jove, Barbara!" Duncan exclaimed, as he bent over the map, "you've +solved the riddle. What a splendid combination it is! And how we must +hustle to defeat it!" + +"You must be calm, then, and let us work it all out, and be sure of +everything before you tell Captain Will about it. I want you to have +full credit for the timely discovery." + +"Me? Why, it is all yours, Barbara, and you are to have all the credit +of it." + +"Oh, no. You told me the things that enabled me to guess it out, and +I've only been trying to help _you_. I'm glad if I have helped, but +positively my name mustn't be mentioned. I'm _only a woman_!" + +"Only a woman!" Duncan echoed. "_Only_ a woman! Barbara, God's wisdom +was never so wise as when he created 'only a woman' to be a 'helpmeet +for man.'" + + + + +XXXII + +THE RIDDLE EXPLAINED + + +The next half hour was spent, as Barbara expressed it, in "perfecting +the guess" she had made. + +"Tandy has gone into that Memphis and Ohio River enterprise up to his +eyes," said Duncan. "Naturally, he has got his controlling interest in +it at an extremely low price, as compared with the face value of the +stock and bonds, for the reason that the road ends at Paducah, which is +much the same thing as ending nowhere. + +"But if he can succeed in diverting our line to Paducah instead of +Cairo, thus securing an entirely satisfactory connection north and east, +his Memphis and Ohio road will become part of one of the greatest trunk +lines in this part of the country, and the advance in his stock and bond +holdings will make him one of the richest men in the West." + +"That is what I was thinking, Guilford, but I hardly dared suggest it--I +know so little. I didn't know that it would be possible to change our +line. I thought that maybe its charter compelled it to run to Cairo." + +"No, unfortunately, it doesn't. Tandy secured the charter in the first +place, before Hallam and Stafford went into the project. I wonder," he +added with a puzzled look, "I wonder if the old schemer was looking this +far ahead. At any rate, the charter, as Tandy had it drawn, requires +only that the line shall be so located and constructed as to connect the +railroads running east from its eastern terminus with the Mississippi +River--it doesn't say at what point. That requirement would be fully +met, of course, if the road should be diverted to Paducah, connecting +there with the line to Memphis." + +"But why did Tandy want that county line provision put into the bond +subscription?" + +"Look at the map again. Those two counties lie west of the point at +which the road must be turned south if it is to be diverted to Paducah. +If we fail to build across that county line by noon of the fifteenth of +next March, the subscriptions of both those counties will be forfeited. +Then Tandy will step in and offer the company that is building the line +a much larger subscription of some sort from Paducah and from his +Memphis road, as an inducement to shorten the line by taking it to +Paducah instead of Cairo." + +"That would ruin Cairo?" the girl asked, anxiously. + +"It would be a terrible blow to the city's prosperity. But," looking at +his watch, "I must lay this matter before Hallam and Stafford to-night, +late as it is." + +Then, going to the little telegraph instrument which, for his own +convenience, he had installed in Barbara's house, he called Captain +Hallam out of bed and clicked off the message: + + The milk in the cocoanut is accounted for. I must see you and + Stafford to-night, without fail. Summon him. I'll go up to your + house at once. + +It did not require much time or many words for Duncan to explain the +situation as he now understood it. Nor was there the slightest ground +for doubt that the solution reached was altogether the correct one. + +"It's a deep game he's been playing," said Hallam. + +"It is one of the finest combinations I ever heard of," responded +Stafford. "You've a mighty long head, Duncan, to work out such a +puzzle." + +"Don't be too complimentary to my head. I didn't work it out," responded +the younger man. + +"You didn't? Who did, then?" + +"Barbara Verne! She forbade me to mention her name, but I will not sail +under false colors." + +"Well, now, I want to say," said Stafford, "that you've a mighty long +head, anyhow, to make a counselor of such a girl as Barbara Verne. It's +the very wisest thing you ever did in your life, and the wisest you +ever will do till you make her your wife. Of course, that will come in +due time?" + +"I hope so, but I am not sure I can accomplish that." + +"Really?" + +"Really." + +"Why, I had supposed it was all arranged. Why haven't you----" + +"Perhaps I have. At any rate, the doubt I spoke of is not due to any +neglect of opportunity on my part. But we must get to business. It is +two o'clock in the morning. We've found out old Napper's game. Now, what +are we going to do about it?" + +During this little side conversation, Hallam had been pacing the floor, +thinking. He now began issuing his orders, like shots from a rapid-fire +gun. + +"Go to the instrument there, Duncan, and telegraph Temple to come to +Cairo by the first train. Tell him to give instructions to his assistant +as to the running of the mine during a long absence on his part." + +When Duncan had finished the work of telegraphing, Hallam turned to him, +saying: + +"You, Duncan, are to start for New York on the seven o'clock train this +morning. Leave your proxy with Stafford to vote your stock in the +present company, and----" + +"What's your plan, Hallam?" interrupted Stafford. + +"To give old Napper Tandy the very hardest lesson he's ever had to learn +at my hands. You and I will call a meeting of the company immediately, +and make Duncan president." + +"But how are we to get rid of Tandy?" + +"Ask him to resign, and kick him out if he doesn't. But listen! We've no +time to waste. We'll reorganize this company--making it a real railroad +company to build the road, instead of being the mere projecting company +it is now. You and I and Duncan will put all the money we can spare into +it, and we'll make every man in Cairo who's got anything beyond funeral +expenses put it in. All the subscriptions already made to the inducement +fund we'll convert into permanent stock subscriptions. Then, with the +county, city, and town subscriptions in hand, we'll have about four +millions of our stock subscribed. We must have twelve millions of stock +in all. It is for you, Duncan, to find the rest in New York. You must +see capitalists and persuade them to go in with us, as subscribers, +either to the stock or to the construction bonds that we'll issue. You +are to use your own judgment and we'll back you up." + +"What are you going to do with Temple?" + +"Make him chief engineer to the company, and set him at work surveying +and locating the line at once. It's now three o'clock. You must go and +pack your trunk, Duncan. I'll telegraph you in New York, telling you +everything you need to know. Take your copy of our private cipher code +with you, in case we should have confidential communications to make. +Go, now. I'll smooth your way by telegraphing our correspondents in New +York, and the officers of the Fourth National, asking them to help you. +Stafford, you'd better go home, now. You're getting along in life, you +know, and need your sleep." Stafford was about ten years younger than +Hallam. + +So ended a conference that was destined, by the success or failure of +its purpose, to decide the fate of a great enterprise and the future of +a thriving city--to say nothing of the career of a brilliant young man. + + + + +XXXIII + +AT CRISIS + + +It was December now, and winter had set in early. Temple found it +exceedingly difficult to secure the assistant surveyors, rodmen, +chainmen, and the rest, whose services were absolutely necessary, but by +dint of hard work, he at last completed the organization of his several +engineering corps, and set to work surveying the line, locating it, +establishing grades, and the like. + +Hurry it as he might, the work was very slow, because of the bad +weather, but at least it went forward, and early in January gangs of men +were sent into each county to make a show, at least, of construction +work, and thus to avoid all possibility of the forfeiture of the county +and town subscriptions. + +The greatest difficulty encountered was in meeting the requirement that +a car should actually cross the line between the two counties by noon of +the fifteenth of March. That part of the line was peculiarly difficult +of access. It could be reached only by a twenty-five mile journey across +country, over roads which, in the winter, were well-nigh impassable. In +order to build any sort of railroad line at the point involved, it was +necessary to carry across country all the tools, earth cars, and +construction materials, together with a large company of workmen. Huts +must be built to shield the men from the severity of the weather, and +provisions for them must be hauled over twenty-five miles of swamp +roads. In order to do so, streams must be bridged for the wagons, and in +many places the road must be "corduroyed" for many miles of its extent. +That is to say, it must be paved with unhewn logs, laid side by side +across it. + +It was near the end of February, therefore, before anything like +systematic construction at that point could be got under way. + +Meanwhile, Duncan's mission to New York had been successful, though it +was attended by much of difficulty. He had secured the necessary stock +subscriptions, and better still, he had succeeded in inducing one of the +great trunk lines of the East to guarantee a considerable bond issue on +the part of the new road, under an agreement that when completed it +should be made, in effect, an extension of the eastern company's lines. + +The only problem now was to prevent that diversion of the proposed line +which Tandy was openly trying to bring about. The New York capitalists +whom Duncan had secured as stockholders in the enterprise, were, many of +them, disposed to look upon the proposed change of terminus from Cairo +to the rival city with a good deal of favor. Such a change would +considerably shorten the line to be built, and the connection southwest +from Paducah to Memphis was in some respects a more desirable one than +that from Cairo. + +But Duncan had secured from the capitalists a trustworthy promise that +the line should be built to Cairo, as originally planned, provided the +Cairo people, with Duncan, Hallam, and Stafford at their head, should +protect the subscriptions of the two hesitating counties by meeting the +requirement imposed at Tandy's suggestion. Thus everything depended upon +the completion of a track across that county line before noon on the +fifteenth day of March. + +Temple had succeeded in getting the work started, but the task was a +Herculean one. Duncan hurried to the scene of action as soon as he +returned from New York to Cairo. He found that the space to be built +over was very low-lying, and that the nearest source of supply for earth +with which to build the high embankment required was nearly two miles +distant. + +Temple had begun work at that point. He was extending an embankment +thence toward the point where the county line must be crossed. On this +he was laying a temporary track as fast as it was extended, in order +that his earth cars might be pushed over it with their loads of filling +material. + +Duncan's first look at the progress of the work convinced him that it +could not be completed within the time allowed, unless a much larger +working force could be secured. + +He instantly telegraphed to Hallam: + + Must have more men immediately. If you can send two hundred at once + there is a bare possibility of success, provided weather conditions + do not grow worse. But without that many men failure is inevitable. + Why not send all your miners here? + +Hallam, in his habitual way, acted promptly and with vigor. Leaving +Stafford to hire all the men who could be secured in Cairo, he himself +hurried to the mines, and by promising double wages, induced most of the +men there to go for the time being into the work of railroad +construction. Within two or three days the total force at Duncan's +command numbered somewhat more than two hundred men. + +"We ought to have fifty or a hundred more," he said, "particularly as +the miners are new to this sort of work; but, as we can't get them, we +must do our best with the force we have." + +After consultation with Temple, he divided the force into three shifts, +and kept the work going night and day, without cessation. For a time the +rapid progress made gave Duncan confidence in his ultimate success. In +that confidence Temple shared, but with a reservation. + +"I'm afraid we're in for a freshet," he said. "The rivers are all +rising, and the rain is almost continuous now. All this region, except a +hill here and there, lies lower than the flood levels of the Ohio River +on one side, and the Mississippi on the other. If the rise continues, we +shall have both rivers on us within a few days." + +"Is there any way in which to meet that difficulty?" asked Duncan +anxiously. + +"Yes--possibly," Temple responded, slowly and hesitatingly. "We might +build a crib across the space still to be filled in, and make it serve +the purposes of a coffer dam in some degree. By doing that, we can keep +the work going, even if the overflow from the rivers comes upon us. But +the building of the crib will take time, and we've no time to waste, you +know." + +"Yes, I know that. Still, if it becomes necessary, we must build it. +I'll tell you this evening what is to be done." + +For convenience and quickness of communication, Duncan had strung a +telegraph wire from tree to tree through the woods to the point where +the work was in progress. He instantly telegraphed Hallam, saying: + + Find out and telegraph flood prospect. How long before the rise in + rivers will drown us out here? Everything depends on early and + accurate information as to that. + +The answer came back within half an hour. Hallam telegraphed: + + Have already made telegraphic inquiries at all points on all the + rivers. Reports very discouraging. Probability is you'll be flooded + within three days. I'll be with you to-morrow. + +The space to be cribbed, so that the work of filling might go on in +spite of floods, was comparatively small, but the task of cribbing it, +even in the rudest fashion, occupied nearly the whole working force +during three precious days and nights. Worse still, in order to hurry +it, Temple made the mistake of working the men overtime. As an +inducement, Hallam promised to increase the double wage per hour, which +the men were already receiving, to triple wages, on condition that they +should work in two, instead of three shifts. As the work was exhausting +in its nature, and must be done under a deluge of bone-chilling rain, +this overtasking of the men quickly showed itself in their loss of +energy and courage. Some of them threw up the employment and made their +way homeward. All of them were suffering and discouraged. But at the end +of the three days, the rude crib was so far finished that even should +the floods come, it would still be possible to continue the work of +filling in by running the dirt cars to the slowly advancing end of the +temporary track and dropping their contents into the crib. + +Thus the work went slowly on. The men daily showed, more and more, the +effects of their overwork--for each was working for twelve hours of each +twenty-four now. They grew sullen and moody of mind, and slow of +movement and of response. Every day a few more of them gave up the task +and Duncan began seriously to fear that a wholesale quitting would occur +in spite of the enormous wages he was paying. + +With his soldier experience, he knew the symptoms of demoralization from +overstrain, and he began now to recognize them in the conduct and +countenances of the men. His soldier life had taught him, also, how +large a part feeding plays in such a case as this. He, therefore, +minutely inspected the out-of-door mess kitchen, and found it in charge +of careless and incompetent negro women, who knew neither how to cook +nor how to make food attractive in appearance. + +"The men eat a good deal," he said to Temple, "but they are not properly +nourished. I must remedy that. We simply _must_ win this struggle, Dick, +and we've only six days more. If we can keep the men at work for six +days and nights more, we'll either finish or finally fail." + +It was Duncan's habit every evening to call up Barbara's house on the +telegraph and hold a little conversation with her over the wire. She was +thus kept minutely informed of how matters were going with him, and she +was well-nigh sleepless with anxiety lest he fail in this crowning +undertaking of his career. + +Turning away from Temple, he went to the telegraphic instrument, opened +the circuit and called Barbara. He explained his new difficulty to her, +and the vital importance of providing better and more abundant food, +better cooked. + +"The men have been living on mess pork and 'salt-horse' for weeks, and +both the meat and the half-baked dough served to them for bread are +enough to break the spirit even of veteran soldiers. Now, I want your +help in earnest. If we can keep the men at work for six days more, we +shall have a chance, at least, of success. If we can't, failure is +inevitable. I want you to buy a lot of the best fresh provisions you can +get in Cairo, and send them here early to-morrow morning, in charge of +somebody who knows how to hustle. Send one of my bank clerks if you +can't do better. Send some molasses, too, in kegs, not barrels--barrels +take too long to handle. Send eggs, butter, rice, macaroni, onions, +turnips, cheese, and above all, some really good coffee. The calcined +peas we've been using for coffee would discourage even Captain Hallam if +he dared drink the decoction. + +"Then, if possible, I want you to send me one or two cooks who really +know what cooking means. Don't hesitate about wages. We'll pay any price +if you can only find two cooks who know the difference between broiling +beef and burning it. Till your cooks come, I'm going to take charge of +the cooking myself. I have at least such culinary skill as we old rebel +soldiers could acquire when we had next to nothing to cook." + +And he did. Guilford Duncan, distinguished man of affairs, associate of +financial nabobs, bank president, and president of this railroad +company, sat hour after hour on a log, or squatted before an out-door +fire, doing his best to make palatable such food-stuffs as were to be +found in the camp. + +"It's a sorry task," he said to Temple. "The stuff isn't fit to eat at +best. I wonder who bought it. God help the commissary who should have +issued it as rations, even in the starvation days of the Army of +Northern Virginia. The men would have made meat of him. But I can at +least make it look a little more palatable, and perhaps improve its +flavor a little in the cooking, till Barbara sends fresh supplies and +some capable cooks." + +"What answer did she make to you when you telegraphed?" + +"Hardly any at all," he answered. "She clicked out--'I'll do my best,' +and then shut off the circuit, without even a word of encouragement or +sympathy. I'm seriously afraid she is ill. You know she shares our +anxiety, and she hasn't been sleeping much, I imagine, since our +troubles here reached a crisis." + +"That's your fault," said Temple. "You've told her too much of detail. +My Mary would be sleepless, too, if I had kept her minutely informed of +matters here. So I've only telegraphed her now and then, saying: 'Doing +our best, and hopeful. Love to the baby,' and she has responded: 'Your +best is always good. Go on doing it. Baby well,' or something like +that. If you ever get married, Duncan, you'll learn to practice certain +reserves with your wife--for her sake." + +"No I won't." + +"But why so sure?" + +"Because, if I ever marry, my wife will be a certain little woman whose +fixed determination it will be to share both my triumphs and my +perplexities--especially the perplexities. She will permit no +reserves--God bless her for the most supremely unselfish and heroically +helpful woman that He ever made!" + +"How women do differ in their ways!" said Temple, half musingly. + +"Yes, and how stupidly men blunder in not adequately recognizing and +respecting their varying attitudes and temperaments! Do you know, Dick, +I think life is fearfully hard upon women and very unjust to them, even +at its best; and it is my conviction that the hardship might be very +largely relieved and the injustice remedied, if men only had sense +enough to discover and grace enough to recognize the individualities and +idiosyncracies of the women with whom they are associated?" + +"I think the trouble is not there," responded Temple. "Most men +understand their womankind fairly well. The trouble is that instead of +respecting the individualities of women as something to which they have +a right, most men conceitedly assume that it is their duty to repress +those individualities, to mould their wives and daughters to a model of +their own shaping. The process is a cruel one when it succeeds. When it +fails, it means wretchedness all around. Indeed, I think that absolutely +all there is of human disagreement of an unpleasant sort, whether +between men and women, or between persons of the same sex, is ultimately +traceable to a failure duly to recognize and respect the rights of +individuality." + +"I'm inclined to agree with you," answered Duncan; "but now I've got to +dish up and carve this kettleful of corned beef, and you, I imagine, +might somewhat expedite the work of the earth shovelers by lending them +the light of your countenance for a time." + +Duncan had scarcely finished the dishing up of the unsavory corned beef, +the only merit of which was that it was sufficiently cooked, when a +dispatch came to him from the New York bankers whom he had left in +charge of the company's interests in the financial capital. They +telegraphed: + + Tandy reports that you have completely failed to build across + county line. The others give notice that if so, they will deflect + road to Paducah. Tandy offers subscriptions of vast sum from + counties, towns, Paducah, and his Memphis and Ohio road. What + answer shall we give? Answer by telegraph. + +This message acted like an electric shock. It quickened every pulse of +Duncan's being. It nerved him to new endeavor and renewed +determination. He promptly replied: + + Tell them to wait till time is up. They have given their promise + and I have given mine. I will keep mine. They must keep theirs. + Remind them I'm not dead yet. + +Then Duncan went to inspect the progress of the work. + + + + +XXXIV + +A CHEER FOR LITTLE MISSIE + + +It was after seven o'clock, and darkness had completely fallen, when +Barbara received Guilford Duncan's telegraphic appeal for help "in +earnest." She wasted no time--slow operator that she was on the +telegraph--in sending messages of sympathy and reassurance. She +laboriously spelled out the words: "I'll do my best," and closed the +instrument in order that she might attend to more pressing things than +telegraphic chatting. + +She summoned Bob to serve as her protector, and promptly sallied forth +into the night. The great groceries, known as "boat stores," were +accustomed to be open very late at night, and often all night, for the +accommodation of the stewards of steamboats landing at the levee. At +seven or eight in the evening they were sure to be open, with business +in unabated activity. But the clerks were full of curiosity when +Barbara, escorted only by the negro serving boy, presented herself and +began rattling off orders greater in volume than any they had ever +received, even from the steward of an overcrowded passenger steamer. +She began by ordering forty sugar cured hams and four hindquarters of +beef. She followed up these purchases with orders for four kegs of +molasses, six boxes of macaroni, a barrel of rice, and so on through her +list. Still more to the astonishment of the clerks, she gave scarcely a +moment to the pricing of the several articles, and seemed to treat her +purchases as matters of ordinary detail. They began to understand, +however, when she ordered the goods sent that night by express, to that +station on the Illinois Central Railroad which lay nearest the scene of +Guilford Duncan's operations, and directed that the bill be sent to him +at the X National Bank for payment. + +Barbara made short work of her buying. When it was done she hurried home +and packed a small trunk with some simple belongings of her own. At +seven o'clock the next morning, accompanied by the negro boy Robert, she +took the train and before noon found herself at the little station to +which she had ordered the freight sent. She was disappointed to find +that although she had ordered the goods sent by express, they had not +come by the train on which she had traveled. + +The railroad was run by telegraphic orders in those days, and so, even +at this small station, there was an instrument and an operator. Making +use of these, Barbara inquired concerning the freight, and was assured +of its arrival by a train due at four o'clock. + +She spent the intervening time in securing two wagons with four stout +horses to each, and when the freight came it was loaded upon these with +particular care, so that no accidents might occur to delay the journey. +If the roads had been even tolerably good, one of the wagons might have +carried the load, perhaps, but the roads were execrably bad and Barbara +was not minded to take any risks. + +When the loading was done, it was nearly nightfall, but the eager girl +insisted upon starting immediately, to the profound disgust of her +drivers. The first ten miles of road was the best ten miles, as the +drivers assured her, and by insisting upon a start that evening instead +of waiting for morning, she managed to cover that part of the distance +by eleven o'clock. Then she established a camp, saw the horses fed, gave +the drivers a hot and savory supper, and ordered them to be ready to +start again at sunrise. + +On resuming the journey in the morning, Barbara urged the teamsters to +their best endeavors, reinforcing her plea for haste with a promise of a +tempting money reward for each of them if they should complete the +journey that day. + +The drivers did their mightiest to earn the reward, but the difficulties +in the way proved to be much greater than even they had anticipated. For +the two great rivers had at last broken over their banks and their +waters were already spreading over the face of the land. The country +through which the road ran was slightly rolling. The small hillocks were +secure from overflow at any time, but the low-lying spaces between them +were already under water, the depth of which varied from a few inches to +two or three feet. The soft earth of the roadbed was now a mere +quagmire, through which the horses laboriously dragged the wagons hub +deep in mud. + +Worse still were those stretches of road which had been corduroyed with +logs. For there some of the logs were floating out of place, and some +were piled on top of those that were still held fast in the mud. + +In dragging the wagons through the mud reaches, it was necessary to stop +every few minutes to give the horses a breathing spell. On the corduroy +stretches it was often necessary to stop for half an hour or more at a +time, while the drivers and Bob, wading knee deep, made such repairs as +were possible and absolutely necessary. + +Bob, with his habitual exuberance of spirit, enjoyed all this mightily. +The drivers did not enjoy it at all. Several times, indeed, they wanted +to abandon the attempt, declaring that it was impossible to go farther. +But for Barbara's persuasive urgency, they would have unhitched the +horses and gone home, leaving the wagons to such fate as might overtake +them. As it was, the caravan moved slowly onward, with many haltings and +much of weariness. + +It was midnight when, at last, the flare of the torches told Barbara +that the journey was done. Not knowing whither the wagons should be +taken, Barbara bade Bob go and find Duncan. + +When the young man heard of Barbara's arrival, he and Dick Temple +hurried to her, full of apprehension lest the journey and the exposure +should have made her ill, and fuller still of fear that the conditions +of life in the camp might prove to involve more of hardship than she +could bear. For the first time in his life, Guilford Duncan felt like +scolding. + +"What on earth are you doing here, Barbara?" he asked, and before he +could add anything to the question, she playfully answered: + +"Just now, I'm waiting for you to tell the teamsters where to drive the +wagons." + +"But Barbara----" + +"Never mind the rest of your scolding. I've already rehearsed it in my +imagination till I know it all by heart--forwards and backwards. Tell +the men where the cooking place is." + +"But what are we to do with you, in all this flood and mud, and in the +incessant rain?" + +"Just let me alone while I 'help in earnest,' as you said in your +dispatch that you wanted me to do. You telegraphed me that you wanted +two good cooks, so here we are, Bob and I. For, really, Bob has learned +to cook as well as I can. I only wonder you didn't send for us sooner. +Now, we mustn't waste any more time talking. I've got to set to work if +the men are to have their breakfast on time, and there's a lot of +unloading to do before I can get at the things." + +The girl's voice was strained and her manner not quite natural. The long +anxiety and the cold and the weariness had begun to tell upon her. She +was strong and resolute still, and ready for any physical effort or +endurance that might be required of her. But she felt that she could +stand no more of emotional strain. So, speaking low to Duncan, in order +that his friend might not hear, she said: + +"Please, Guilford, don't say anything more that your tenderness +suggests. I can't stand it. Be just commonplace and practical. Show the +teamsters the way and let me get to work. I'll be happier then and +better." + +Duncan understood and was wise enough to obey. Half an hour later he and +Temple had gone back to the crib, leaving Barbara to direct the +unloading of the wagons. A little later still, Bob and the two negro +women who had hitherto done the cooking went out among the men at work, +bearing great kettles of steaming coffee for the refreshment of the +well-nigh exhausted toilers. Bob accompanied his share of the coffee +distribution by a little speech of his own devising: + +"Dar, now! Dat's coffee as is, an' it's hot an' strong, too. Little +Missie done mek it wif her own han's and she's de lady wot sen's it to +you. She's done come out inter de wilderness, jes to cook victuals fer +you men, and you jes bet yer bottom dollar you'll git a breakfas' in the +mawnin'." + +Realizing the situation, and stimulated by their deep draughts of +coffee, the men set up a cheer for "Little Missie," though they knew not +who she was, and thought of her chiefly as a source of food supply. But +they worked the better for the coffee, and for the promise it held out +of good things to come. + + + + +XXXV + +THE END OF A STRUGGLE + + +When Duncan and Temple went to Barbara's fire for their breakfast, after +the workmen had been served, both were quick-witted enough to see that +the little lady was in no condition to endure emotion of any kind. She +had slept little on the night before leaving Cairo, very little more at +the night camp during the journey, and not at all on the night of her +arrival. Her first words indicated a purpose on her part to fend off all +talk that might touch upon personal matters. + +"Good-morning, gentlemen," she said. "I'm very well, thank you, so you +needn't ask me about that, especially as there are more important things +to be discussed. I brought all the supplies I could, but after seeing +the men eat, I realize that we shall run short of food very soon. How +many more days are there?" + +"Four more--including to-day." + +"Then you must telegraph at once to Cairo for more beef, or we shall run +short. Please go and telegraph at once, Guilford. Then come back and +your breakfast will be ready." + +When he had gone, the girl turned to Temple and said: + +"Everything is ready for you two. Bob will serve it. I think I'll go and +sleep a little, now. Don't fail to wake me at ten o'clock, Bob, and have +the roasts cut and ready to hang over the fire when I get up." + +With that, she tripped away to the canvas-covered wagon, which Duncan +had detained at the camp to serve her as sleeping quarters. + +Late in the evening of that day, the two teamsters, who had started +early in the morning on their return journey with the other wagon, rode +back into camp on their horses. They reported the water as rising +everywhere. In addition to the incoming flood from the swollen rivers, +the nearly ceaseless rain had made raging torrents of all the creeks, +and lakes of all the valleys. The teamsters had been obliged to abandon +their wagon, wholly unable to make their way further. + +"Then we shall get no more provisions," said Barbara, in a sadly +troubled voice. + +"And that's a pity," answered Temple. "For the men's spirits have +greatly revived under the stimulus of your improved commissariat, Miss +Barbara. How long will your supplies last?" + +"I've enough coffee, flour, and molasses," she answered, "to last +through. But the fresh meat will be exhausted by to-morrow night. The +hams will help out, for breakfasts, but they won't go far among two +hundred men. I'm sorry I couldn't have brought more." + +"You could not have got through at all if your loads had been heavier," +said Duncan. "We must simply do the best we can with what we've got. The +coffee alone will go far to sustain the men, and the molasses will be a +valuable substitute for meat. I still have hopes that we shall win." + +"Oh, we _must_ win, you know. You mustn't allow yourself to think of +anything else." + +"We'll try, at any rate, and with your superb courage to help us, I +think we shall win." + + * * * * * + +It was six o'clock on the morning of the last day, when the night gave +its first intimation of a purpose to come to an end. In the slow-coming +gray of the dawn, the torches still flared, casting long and distorted +shadows of the work-weary men, as they continued their toil. During that +last night the entire company had been kept at work in a last desperate +effort to accomplish the end so vitally necessary. All night long Duncan +had done what he could to encourage the toilers, while Temple had given +his attention to such devices as might shorten the task, or otherwise +facilitate its doing. All night long Barbara had busied herself +furnishing limitless coffee as an atonement for the insufficient food +the men had had since her supplies of meat ran out, two days before. + +During the last half hour the rain had almost ceased, and Guilford +Duncan had indulged an anxious hope that the skies might clear away with +the sunrise, but just as the gray of morning began to give light enough +for the workmen to see without the aid of the torches, the downpour +began again, more pitilessly than ever. + +Its discouraging effect upon the already exhausted men was instantly +apparent. A dozen of them at once quitted work and doggedly sat down in +the mud of the embankment. Two or three others, reckless of everything +but their own suffering, stretched themselves at full length to sleep +where they were--too weary and hopeless, now, even to seek the less +uncomfortable spots in which to rest their worn-out bodies. + +"Six hours more," said Duncan, looking at his watch. "Only six hours +between us and triumph. Only six hours--and we must lose all, simply +because the men are done up." + +"We'll do it yet," answered young Temple. + +"We never can. Those fellows are done for, I tell you. I know the +symptoms. They've lost their _morale_, lost the ambition for success. +I've seen soldiers fall in precisely that way, too far gone even to +shelter themselves from a cannonade." + +For the first time in his life, Guilford Duncan realized that there is +such a thing as the Impossible. For the first time, he recognized the +fact that there may be things which even courage and determination +cannot achieve. + +The simple fact was that the long strain had at last begun to tell, even +upon his resolute spirit. For three days and nights now he had not +slept. For three days and nights he had not sat down. For three days and +nights he had been wading in water and struggling in mud, and exhausting +all his resources of mind and character in efforts to stimulate the men +to continued endeavor. + +He was playing for a tremendous stake, as we know. His career, his +future, all that he had ever dreamed of of ambition, hung upon success +or failure in this undertaking, and now at last, and in spite of his +heroic struggle, failure stared him in the face. + +And apart from these considerations of self-interest, there were other +and higher things to be thought of. If he failed now, an enterprise must +be lost in which he had labored for a year to induce others to invest +millions. If he failed, the diversion of this railroad from its original +course must become an accomplished fact, to the ruin of his adopted city +and the paralysis of growth in all that region, for perhaps ten years to +come. Thus his own career, the millions of other men's money, which had +been risked upon faith in his power to achieve, and, worst of all, the +development of all this fair, but very backward region--all of good to +others, of which he had dreamed, and for which he had hoped and +toiled--depended upon his success or failure in keeping two hundred +utterly worn-out men at work in the rain, the water, and the mud, for +six hours more. + +At last, this resolute man, whose courage had seemed unconquerable, was +discouraged. + +"Might as well give it up," said Will Hallam. "The men simply will not +work any longer." + +"It isn't a case of will not, but of cannot," answered Duncan. + +Barbara heard all, as she hovered over the fire of logs, and busied +herself with her tasks, regardless of rain and weariness, regardless of +every consideration of self. She wore no wraps or protection of any kind +against the torrents of rain. "They would simply bother me," she said, +when urged to protect her person. Her face was flushed by the heat of +the fire, but otherwise she was very pale, and her tightly compressed +lips were livid as she straightened herself up to answer Duncan's +despairing words. + +"You are wrong," she said. "They can work a little longer if they will. +It is for us to put will into them. Call them to the fire, a dozen or +twenty at a time, for breakfast. I've something new and tempting for +them--something that will renew their strength. You and Captain Hallam +and Mr. Temple must do the rest." + +A dozen of the men had already come with their tin cups to drink again +of the strong coffee that Barbara had been serving to them at intervals +throughout the night. She had something more substantial for them now. + +She had by her a barrel full of batter, and she and the negro boy, Bob, +each with two large frying pans, were making griddle cakes with +astonishing rapidity. To each of the men she gave one of the tin plates, +with half a dozen of the hot cakes upon it, bidding each help himself to +molasses from the half barrel, from which, for convenience of ladling, +Bob had removed the head. + +"This is breakfast," she said to the men, as they refreshed themselves. +"There'll be dinner, and a good one, ready for all of you at noon, when +the work is done." + +The men were too far exhausted to greet her suggestion with enthusiasm. +The few words they spoke in response were words of discouragement, and +even of despair. They did not tell her that they had decided to work no +more, but she saw clearly that they were on the point of such decision. +The breakfast she was serving comforted them and gave them some small +measure of fresh strength, but it did not give them courage enough to +overcome their weariness. The girl saw clearly that something more +effective must be devised and done. + +She puckered her forehead quizzically--after her manner when working out +a problem in arithmetic. After a little the wrinkles passed away, and +lifting her eyes for a moment from her frying pans, she called to +Captain Hallam: + +"Would you mind coming here a minute?" she asked. + +The man of affairs responded, wearily, but promptly. + +"What is it, Barbara?" + +"May I spend two thousand dollars, if I get this job done by +noon?--that's the last minute, Mr. Duncan tells me." + +"But how can you----" + +"Never mind how. May I have the two thousand dollars?" + +"Yes--twenty thousand--any amount, if only we succeed in pushing that +car on rails across the county line before the clock strikes twelve." + +"Very well. I'll see what I can do. Mr. Duncan, can you cook griddle +cakes?" + +"Happily, yes," answered he. "I'm an old soldier, you know." + +"Very well, then. Please come here and cook for a little while--just +till I get back. I won't be long." + +Duncan took command of her two frying pans. A little amused smile +appeared on his face as he did so, in spite of his discouragement and +melancholy. But to the common sense and sincerity of the girl, there +seemed nothing ludicrous in setting him thus to the undignified work. +Intent upon her scheme, she darted away to where the several gangs of +men were still making some pretense of working. To each gang, she said: + +"I've got two thousand dollars for you men, if you stick to your work +and finish it before noon to-day. I'll divide the money equally among +all the men who stick. It will be ten dollars apiece, or more. Of +course, you'll get your triple wages besides. Will you keep it up? It's +only for a few hours more." + +Her tone was eager, and her manner almost piteously pleading. Without +the persuasiveness of her personal appeal, it is doubtful that the men +would have yielded to the temptation of the extra earning. Even with her +influence added, more than a third of them--those who had already cast +their tools aside and surrendered to exhaustion--refused to go on again +with a task to which they felt themselves hopelessly unequal. But in +every gang she addressed, there was a majority of men who braced +themselves anew, and responded. The very last of the gangs to whom she +made her appeal put their response into the form of a cheer, and +instantly the other gangs echoed it. + +"What on earth has that girl said or done to the men to fetch a cheer +from them!" ejaculated Will Hallam. + +"Reckon Little Missie's jest done bewitched 'em," responded Bob, as he +poured batter into his pans. + +A moment later Barbara, with a face that had not yet relaxed its look of +intense earnestness, returned to the fire, and resumed her work over +the frying pans. + +"Thank you, Mr. Duncan," was all she said in recognition of his service +as a maker of griddle cakes. But she added: + +"The men will stick to work, now, I think--or most of them, at any rate. +Perhaps you and Mr. Temple can do something to shorten it--to lessen the +amount." + +Then, turning to Bob, she issued her orders: + +"Bring the hog, Bob, as quickly as you can. There's barely time to roast +it, before noon." + +The men had nearly all had their breakfasts now, so that the making of +griddle cakes had about ceased. Hallam, Duncan, and the young engineer, +Temple, taking new courage from Barbara's report concerning the +disposition of the men, were going about among the gangs, wading knee +deep in water and mud, and giving such directions as were needed. + +Duncan, especially, was rendering service. As an old soldier, who had +had varied experience in the hurried construction of earthworks under +difficulties, he was able in many ways to hasten the present work. One +thing he hit upon which went far to make success possible. That end of +the crib which reached and crossed the county line offered a cavernous +space to be filled in. It was thickly surrounded by trees, and Duncan +ordered all these felled, directing the chopping so that the trunks and +branches should fall into the crib. Then setting men to chop off such +of the branches as protruded above the proposed embankment level, and +let them fall into the unoccupied spaces, he presently had that part of +the crib loosely filled in with a tangled mass of timber and tree tops. + +Gangs of men were meanwhile pushing cars along the temporary track, and +dumping their loads of earth among the felled trees. Duncan, with a +small gang, was extending these temporary tracks along the crib as fast +as the earth dumped in provided a sufficient bed. + +This work of filling was very slow, of course, and when Duncan's watch +showed ten o'clock, he was well-nigh ready to despair. Under the strain +of his anxiety he had forgotten to take any breakfast, and the prolonged +exposure to water and rain had so far depressed his vitality that he now +found a chill creeping over him. He hurried to Barbara's fire for some +coffee and a few mouthfuls of greatly needed food. There for the first +time he saw what Barbara's promised dinner was to be. The two separated +halves of a dressed hog hung before and partly over the fire, roasting. + +"Where on earth did you get that?" he asked in astonishment. + +"Bob got it last night," she answered, "and dressed it himself." + +"But where, and how?" + +"I don't know yet. He laughs when I ask questions. I'm sorely afraid +Bob stole the hog from some farmer. I sent him out with some money to +buy whatever meat he could find, for I saw that the men must have +substantial food. He came back about daylight, and told me he had a +dressed hog 'out dar in de bushes.' He gave me back all the money I had +given him, and, as I say, he simply laughs when I ask questions. I'll +make him tell me all about it this afternoon. If he stole the hog, we +can pay for it. And meanwhile the men shall have their dinner. How is +the work getting on?" + +"Rapidly--but not rapidly enough, I fear. I must hurry back now." + +"I'll go with you," said the girl. "Bob can watch the roasting," for Bob +had reappeared at the fire. + +"But you can't go with me," replied Duncan. "The water's knee deep, and +more, between here and the crib." + +"It can't make me any wetter than I am now," replied the resolute girl, +as she set off in Duncan's company. + +At the crib she studied the situation critically. She knew nothing of +engineering, of course, but she had an abundance of practical common +sense, and in most of the affairs of this life, common sense goes a long +way as a substitute for skill. + +"What time is it now?" she asked, after she had watched the slow +progress of the work long enough to estimate the prospect. + +"Half past ten." + +"Then we've only an hour and a half more. It isn't enough. You can never +fill that hole in time." + +"I'm afraid we can't. I'm afraid we've lost in the struggle." + +"Oh, no, you mustn't feel that way. We simply must win this battle. If +we can't do it in one way, we must find another." + +Duncan made no answer. There seemed to him no answer to be made. The +girl continued to look about her. After a while she asked: + +"Is the end of the crib at the county line?" + +"Yes--or rather the line lies a little way this side of the end of the +crib." + +Again she remained silent for a time, before saying: + +"There are two big tree trunks lying longways there in the crib. They +extend across the county line. Why can't you jack them up into place, +and lay your rails along them, without filling the space, and without +using any ties?" + +For half a minute the young man did not answer. At last he exclaimed: + +"That's an inspiration!" + +Without pausing to say another word Duncan started at a run through the +water till he reached the mud embankment. Then he ran along that to the +point where Temple was superintending the earth-diggers. + +"Quit this quick!" he cried, "and hurry the whole force to the crib. I +see a way out. Order all the jack-screws brought, Dick, and come +yourself in a hurry!" + +The two great tree trunks were quickly cleared of their remaining +branches by the axmen. Then Temple placed the jack-screws under them, +and set to work to raise them into the desired position, so that they +should lie parallel with each other, at the track level, with a space of +about four and a half feet between their centers. + +As the jack-screws slowly brought them into position, Will Hallam and +Duncan, one at either end of the logs--directed men in the work of +placing log supports under them. + +At half past eleven Temple announced that the great tree trunks were in +place. Instantly twenty axmen were set at work hewing a flat place for +rails along the top of each log, while other men, as fast as the hewing +advanced, laid and spiked down the iron rails. + +At five minutes before noon, a gang of men, with shouts of enthusiastic +triumph, seized upon the dumping car, which stood waiting, and pushed it +across the line! As this last act in the drama began, Guilford Duncan +seized Barbara by the elbows, kissed her in the presence of all, lifted +her off her feet, and placed her in the moving car. + +"You have saved the railroad!" he said with emotion in his voice, "and +you shall be its first passenger." + + * * * * * + +It was ten days later when Barbara reached home again, after a wearisome +journey through the flooded district, under the escort of Duncan and +Captain Will Hallam, and with the assistance of Temple, at the head of a +gang of his ready-witted miners. + +That evening Duncan stood face to face with her in the little parlor. +Without preface, he asked: + +"Will you now say 'yes,' Barbara, to the question I asked you so long +ago?" + +"I suppose I must," she answered, "after--after what you did when you +set me in the car that last day of the struggle." + +THE END + + + + +Good Fiction Worth Reading. + +A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the +field of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and +diplomacy that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest. + + +A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. A story of American Colonial Times. By Chauncey +C. Hotchkiss. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. +Price, $1.00. + + A book that appeals to Americans as a vivid picture of + Revolutionary scenes. The story is a strong one, a thrilling one. + It causes the true American to flush with excitement, to devour + chapter after chapter, until the eyes smart, and it fairly smokes + with patriotism. The love story is a singularly charming idyl. + +THE TOWER OF LONDON. A Historical Romance of the Times of Lady Jane Grey +and Mary Tudor. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth. Cloth, 12mo. with four +illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00. + + This romance of the "Tower of London" depicts the Tower as palace, + prison and fortress, with many historical associations. The era is + the middle of the sixteenth century. + + The story is divided into two parts, one dealing with Lady Jane + Grey, and the other with Mary Tudor as Queen, introducing other + notable characters of the era. Throughout the story holds the + interest of the reader in the midst of intrigue and conspiracy, + extending considerably over a half a century. + +IN DEFIANCE OF THE KING. A Romance of the American Revolution. By +Chauncey C. Hotchkiss. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson +Davis, Price, $1.00. + + Mr. Hotchkiss has etched in burning words a story of Yankee + bravery, and true love that thrills from beginning to end, with the + spirit of the Revolution. The heart beats quickly, and we feel + ourselves taking a part in the exciting scenes described. His whole + story is so absorbing that you will sit up far into the night to + finish it. As a love romance it is charming. + +GARTHOWEN. A story of a Welsh Homestead. By Allen Raine. Cloth, 12mo. +with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00. + + "This is a little idyl of humble life and enduring love, laid bare + before us, very real and pure, which in its telling shows us some + strong points of Welsh character--the pride, the hasty temper, the + quick dying out of wrath.... We call this a well-written story, + interesting alike through its romance and its glimpses into another + life than ours. A delightful and clever picture of Welsh village + life. The result is excellent."--Detroit Free Press. + +MIFANWY. The story of a Welsh Singer. By Allan Raine. Cloth, 12mo. with +four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00. + + "This is a love story, simple, tender and pretty as one would care + to read. The action throughout is brisk and pleasing; the + characters, it is apparent at once, are as true to life as though + the author had known them all personally. Simple in all its + situations, the story is worked up in that touching and quaint + strain which never grows wearisome, no matter how often the lights + and shadows of love are introduced. It rings true, and does not tax + the imagination."--Boston Herald. + + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-58 Duane St., New York. + + + + +Good Fiction Worth Reading. + +A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the +field of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and +diplomacy that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest. + + +DARNLEY. A Romance of the times of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey. By +G. P. R. James. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. +Price, $1.00. + + In point of publication, "Darnley" is that work by Mr. James which + follows "Richelieu," and, if rumor can be credited, it was owing to + the advice and insistence of our own Washington Irving that we are + indebted primarily for the story, the young author questioning + whether he could properly paint the difference in the characters of + the two great cardinals. And it is not surprising that James should + have hesitated; he had been eminently successful in giving to the + world the portrait of Richelieu as a man, and by attempting a + similar task with Wolsey as the theme, was much like tempting + fortune. Irving insisted that "Darnley" came naturally in sequence, + and this opinion being supported by Sir Walter Scott, the author + set about the work. + + As a historical romance "Darnley" is a book that can be taken up + pleasurably again and again, for there is about it that subtle + charm which those who are strangers to the works of G. P. R. James + have claimed was only to be imparted by Dumas. + + If there was nothing more about the work to attract especial + attention, the account of the meeting of the kings on the historic + "field of the cloth of gold" would entitle the story to the most + favorable consideration of every reader. + + There is really but little pure romance in this story, for the + author has taken care to imagine love passages only between those + whom history has credited with having entertained the tender + passion one for another, and he succeeds in making such lovers as + all the world must love. + +CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE SCHOONER CENTIPEDE. By Lieut. Henry A. Wise, +U.S.N. (Harry Gringo). Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson +Davis. Price, $1.00. + + The re-publication of this story will please those lovers of sea + yarns who delight in so much of the salty flavor of the ocean as + can come through the medium of a printed page, for never has a + story of the sea and those "who go down in ships" been written by + one more familiar with the scenes depicted. + + The one book of this gifted author which is best remembered, and + which will be read with pleasure for many years to come, is + "Captain Brand," who, as the author states on his title page, was a + "pirate of eminence in the West Indies." As a sea story pure and + simple, "Captain Brand" has never been excelled, and as a story of + piratical life, told without the usual embellishments of blood and + thunder, it has no equal. + +NICK OF THE WOODS. A story of the Early Settlers of Kentucky. By Robert +Montgomery Bird. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson +Davis. Price, $1.00. + + This most popular novel and thrilling story of early frontier life + in Kentucky was originally published in the year 1837. The novel, + long out of print, had in its day a phenomenal sale, for its + realistic presentation of Indian and frontier life in the early + days of settlement in the South, narrated in the tale with all the + art of a practiced writer. A very charming love romance runs + through the story. This new and tasteful edition of "Nick of the + Woods" will be certain to make many new admirers for this + enchanting story from Dr. Bird's clever and versatile pen. + + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-58 Duane St., New York. + + + + +Good Fiction Worth Reading. + +A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the +field of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and +diplomacy that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest. + + +GUY FAWKES. A Romance of the Gunpowder Treason. By Wm. Harrison +Ainsworth. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank. +Price, $1.00. + + The "Gunpowder Plot" was a modest attempt to blow up Parliament, + the King and his Counsellors. James of Scotland, then King of + England, was weak-minded and extravagant. He hit upon the efficient + scheme of extorting money from the people by imposing taxes on the + Catholics. In their natural resentment to this extortion, a handful + of bold spirits concluded to overthrow the government. Finally the + plotters were arrested, and the King put to torture Guy Fawkes and + the other prisoners with royal vigor. A very intense love story + runs through the entire romance. + +THE SPIRIT OF THE BORDER. A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio +Valley. By Zane Grey. Cloth. 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson +Davis. Price, $1.00. + + A book rather out of the ordinary is this "Spirit of the Border." + The main thread of the story has to do with the work of the + Moravian missionaries in the Ohio Valley. Incidentally the reader + is given details of the frontier life of those hardy pioneers who + broke the wilderness for the planting of this great nation. Chief + among these, as a matter of course, is Lewis Wetzel, one of the + most peculiar, and at the same time the most admirable of all the + brave men who spent their lives battling with the savage foe, that + others might dwell in comparative security. + + Details of the establishment and destruction of the Moravian + "Village of Peace" are given at some length, and with minute + description. The efforts to Christianize the Indians are described + as they never have been before, and the author has depicted the + characters of the leaders of the several Indian tribes with great + care, which of itself will be of interest to the student. + + By no means least among the charms of the story are the vivid + word-pictures of the thrilling adventures, and the intense + paintings of the beauties of nature, as seen in the almost unbroken + forests. + + It is the spirit of the frontier which is described, and one can by + it, perhaps, the better understand why men, and women, too, + willingly braved every privation and danger that the westward + progress of the star of empire might be the more certain and rapid. + A love story, simple and tender, runs through the book. + +RICHELIEU. A tale of France in the reign of King Louis XIII. By G. P. R. +James. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, +$1.00. + + In 1829 Mr. James published his first romance, "Richelieu," and was + recognized at once as one of the masters of the craft. + + In this book he laid the story during those later days of the great + cardinal's life, when his power was beginning to wane, but while it + was yet sufficiently strong to permit now and then of volcanic + outbursts which overwhelmed foes and carried friends to the topmost + wave of prosperity. One of the most striking portions of the story + is that of Cinq Mar's conspiracy; the method of conducting criminal + cases, and the political trickery resorted to by royal favorites, + affording a better insight into the statecraft of that day than can + be had even by an exhaustive study of history. It is a powerful + romance of love and diplomacy, and in point of thrilling and + absorbing interest has never been excelled. + + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-58 Duane St., New York. + + + + +Good Fiction Worth Reading. + +A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the +field of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and +diplomacy that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest. + + +WINDSOR CASTLE. A Historical Romance of the Reign of Henry VIII., +Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth. Cloth, +12mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00. + + "Windsor Castle" is the story of Henry VIII., Catharine, and Anne + Boleyn. "Bluff King Hal," although a well-loved monarch, was none + too good a one in many ways. Of all his selfishness and + unwarrantable acts, none was more discreditable than his divorce + from Catharine, and his marriage to the beautiful Anne Boleyn. The + King's love was as brief as it was vehement. Jane Seymour, waiting + maid on the Queen, attracted him, and Anne Boleyn was forced to the + block to make room for her successor. This romance is one of + extreme interest to all readers. + +HORSESHOE ROBINSON. A tale of the Tory Ascendency in South Carolina in +1780. By John P. Kennedy. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. +Watson Davis. Price, $1.00. + + Among the old favorites in the field of what is known as historical + fiction, there are none which appeal to a larger number of + Americans than Horseshoe Robinson, and this because it is the only + story which depicts with fidelity to the facts the heroic efforts + of the colonists in South Carolina to defend their homes against + the brutal oppression of the British under such leaders as + Cornwallis and Tarleton. + + The reader is charmed with the story of love which forms the thread + of the tale, and then impressed with the wealth of detail + concerning those times. The picture of the manifold sufferings of + the people, is never overdrawn, but painted faithfully and honestly + by one who spared neither time nor labor in his efforts to present + in this charming love story all that price in blood and tears which + the Carolinians paid as their share in the winning of the republic. + + Take it all in all, "Horseshoe Robinson" is a work which should be + found on every book-shelf, not only because it is a most + entertaining story, but because of the wealth of valuable + information concerning the colonists which it contains. That it has + been brought out once more, well illustrated, is something which + will give pleasure to thousands who have long desired an + opportunity to read the story again, and to the many who have tried + vainly in these latter days to procure a copy that they might read + it for the first time. + +THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. A story of the Coast of Maine. By Harriet +Beecher Stowe. Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated. Price, $1.00. + + Written prior to 1862, the "Pearl of Orr's Island" is ever new; a + book filled with delicate fancies, such as seemingly array + themselves anew each time one reads them. One sees the "sea like an + unbroken mirror all around the pine-girt, lonely shores of Orr's + Island," and straightway comes "the heavy, hollow moan of the surf + on the beach, like the wild angry howl of some savage animal." + + Who can read of the beginning of that sweet life, named Mara, which + came into this world under the very shadow of the Death angel's + wings, without having an intense desire to know how the premature + bud blossomed? Again and again one lingers over the descriptions of + the character of that baby boy Moses, who came through the tempest, + amid the angry billows, pillowed on his dead mother's breast. + + There is no more faithful portrayal of New England life than that + which Mrs. Stowe gives in "The Pearl of Orr's Island." + + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-58 Duane St., New York. + + + + + *********************************************************************** + * Transcriber's Note: Dialect, and unusual and alternative spellings * + * have been retained as they appear in the original. * + *********************************************************************** + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30263 *** |