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@@ -1,36 +1,4 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Hallowell Partnership, by Katharine Holland Brown - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Hallowell Partnership - -Author: Katharine Holland Brown - -Release Date: October 14, 2012 [EBook #41052] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HALLOWELL PARTNERSHIP *** - - - - -Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41052 *** Transcriber's Note: @@ -3609,7 +3577,7 @@ were too shaky with relief to move or to speak. Sally Lou, the steady-willed, dependable Sally Lou, clung trembling to Marian, who in her turn leaned rather weakly against the rail. Roderick, ashen white, confronted Burford, who stood absently mopping his wet, smarting eyes -with Sally Lou's singed and dripping crepe scarf. Suddenly Burford +with Sally Lou's singed and dripping crêpe scarf. Suddenly Burford broke the tension with a strangled whoop. "Our--our daily reports to the company!" he gurgled. "President @@ -5197,7 +5165,7 @@ for a less impressive post." a competent book-keeper, Rod." "Exactly!" Rod laughed shortly. "But a 'competent' book-keeper is the -last employe that one can find for such hard, isolated work as this. +last employé that one can find for such hard, isolated work as this. What I need is not just a man to add columns for me. I need another brain, an extra pair of hands. I need the sort of first-aid that you have been giving me all these weeks, Sis. That's the sort of help that @@ -5330,365 +5298,7 @@ partner, bless her heart. 'Hallowell & Hallowell,' now and forever!" -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hallowell Partnership, by +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hallowell Partnership, by Katharine Holland Brown -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HALLOWELL PARTNERSHIP *** - -***** This file should be named 41052.txt or 41052.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/1/0/5/41052/ - -Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Hallowell Partnership - -Author: Katharine Holland Brown - -Release Date: October 14, 2012 [EBook #41052] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HALLOWELL PARTNERSHIP *** - - - - -Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - -Transcriber's Note: - - Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have - been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. - - - - - BOOKS BY KATHARINE HOLLAND BROWN - PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - - - THE HALLOWELL PARTNERSHIP. 12mo net, $1.00 - THE MESSENGER. 16mo net, .50 - PHILIPPA AT HALCYON. Illustrated. 12mo $1.50 - - - - -THE HALLOWELL PARTNERSHIP - - - - - [Illustration: MARIAN COULD ONLY LIE BY THE FIRE AND TEASE EMPRESS - AND FRET THE ENDLESS HOURS AWAY.] - - - - - THE HALLOWELL - PARTNERSHIP - - BY - KATHARINE HOLLAND BROWN - - AUTHOR OF "PHILIPPA AT HALCYON," ETC. - - _ILLUSTRATED_ - - NEW YORK - CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - 1912 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY - CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - - Published October, 1912 - - - - - To - THE HOUSE OF THE BROWN THRUSH - - - - -The author wishes to acknowledge the courtesy of _The Youth's -Companion_, in permitting this publication of "The Hallowell -Partnership." - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - Marian could only lie by the fire and tease Empress - and fret the endless hours away _Frontispiece_ - - FACING - PAGE - - On the edge of the opposite bank stood the quaintest, - prettiest group that her eyes had ever beheld 62 - - "Well, Captain Lathrop!" Commodore McCloskey's - voice rang merciless and clear 138 - - Marian was on her knees by his chair, clasping his - cold hands in her own 234 - - - - -The Hallowell Partnership - - - - -CHAPTER I - -WHEN SLOW-COACH GOT HIS FIGHTING CHANCE - - -"Rod!" - -No answer. - -"Rod, what did that messenger boy bring? A special-delivery letter? Is -it anything interesting?" Marian Hallowell pushed Empress from her -knee and turned on her pillows to look at Roderick, her brother, who -sat absorbed and silent at his desk. - -Roderick did not move. Only Empress cocked a topaz eye, and rubbed her -orange-tawny head against Marian's chair. - -"Rod, why don't you answer me?" Marian's thin hands twitched. A sharp, -fretted line deepened across her pretty, girlish forehead. It was not -a pleasant line to see. And through her long, slow convalescence it -had grown deeper every day. - -"_Roderick Hallowell!_" - -Roderick jumped. He turned his sober, kind face to her, then bent -eagerly to the closely written letter in his hand. - -"Just a minute, Sis." - -"Oh, very well, Slow-Coach!" Marian lay back, with a resigned sniff. -She pulled Empress up by her silver collar, and lay petting the big, -satiny Persian, who purred like a happy windmill against her cheek. -Her tired eyes wandered restlessly about the dim, high-ceiled old -room. Of all the dreary lodgings on Beacon Hill, surely Roderick had -picked out the most forlorn! Still, the old place was quiet and -comfortable. And, as Roderick had remarked, his rooms were amazingly -inexpensive. That had been an important point; especially since -Marian's long, costly illness at college. That siege had been hard on -Rod in many ways, she thought, with a mild twinge of self-reproach. In -a way, those long weeks of suffering had come through her own fault. -The college physician had warned her more than once that she was -working and playing beyond her strength. Yet she felt extremely -ill-used. - -"It wasn't nearly so bad, while I stayed in the infirmary at college." -She sighed as she thought of her bright, airy room, the coming and -going of the girls with their gay petting and sympathy, the roses and -magazines and dainties. "But here, in this tiresome, lonely place! How -can I expect to get well!" - -Here she lay, shut up in Rod's rooms, alone day after day, save for -the vague, pottering kindnesses of Rod's vague old landlady. At night -her brother would come home from his long day's work as cub -draughtsman in the city engineer's office, too tired to talk. And -Marian, forbidden by overstrained eyes to read, could only lie by the -fire, and tease Empress, and fret the endless hours away. - -At last, with a deep breath, Rod laid down the letter. He pulled his -chair beside her lounge. - -"Tired, Sis?" - -"Not very. What was your letter, Rod?" - -"I'll tell you pretty soon. Anything doing to-day?" - -"Isabel and Dorothy came in from Wellesley this morning, and brought -me those lovely violets, and told me all about the Barn Swallows' -masque dance last night. And the doctor came this afternoon." - -"H'm. What did he say?" - -Marian gloomed. - -"Just what he always says. 'No more study this year. Out-door life. -Bread and milk and sleep.' Tiresome!" - -Roderick nodded. - -"Hard lines, Sister. And yet--" - -He dropped his sentence, and sat staring at the fire. - -"Rod! Are you never going to tell me what is in that letter?" - -"That letter? Oh, yes. Sure it won't tire you to talk business?" - -"Of course not." - -"Well, then--I have an offer of a new position. A splendid big one at -that." - -"A new position? Truly?" Marian sat up, with brightening eyes. - -"Yes. But I'm not sure I can swing it." Rod's face clouded. "It -demands a mighty competent engineer." - -"Well! Aren't you a competent engineer?" Marian gave his ear a mild -tweak. "You're always underrating yourself, you old goose. Tell me -about this. Quick." - -Rod's thoughtful face grew grave. - -"It's such a gorgeous chance that I can't half believe in it," he -said, at length. "Through Professor Young, I'm offered an engineer's -billet with the Breckenridge Engineering and Construction Company. The -Breckenridge Company is the largest and the best-known firm of -engineers in the United States. Breckenridge himself is a wonder. I'd -rather work under him than under any man I ever heard of. The work is -a huge drainage contract in western Illinois. One hundred dollars a -month and all my expenses. It's a two-year job." - -"A two-year position, out West!" Marian's eyes shone. "The out-West -part is dreadful, of course. But think of a hundred-dollar salary, -after the sixty dollars that you have been drudging to earn ever since -you left Tech! Read Professor Young's letter aloud; do." - -Roderick squirmed. - -"Oh, you don't want to hear it. It's nothing much." - -"Yes I do, too. Read it, I say. Or--give it to me. There!" - -There was a short, lively scuffle. However, Marian had captured the -letter with the first deft snatch; and Roderick could hardly take it -from her shaky, triumphant hands by main force. He gave way, -grumbling. - -"Professor Young always says a lot of things he doesn't mean. He does -it to brace a fellow up, that's all." - -"Very likely." Marian's eyes skimmed down the first page. - -"'--And as the company has asked me to recommend an engineer of whose -work I can speak from first-hand knowledge, I have taken pleasure in -referring them to you. To be sure, you have had no experience in -drainage work. But from what I recall of your record at Tech, your -fundamental training leaves nothing to be desired. When it comes to -handling the mass of rough-and-ready labor that the contract employs, -I am confident that your father's son will show the needed judgment -and authority. It is a splendid undertaking, this reclamation of waste -land. It is heavy, responsible work, but it is a man's work, straight -through; and there is enough of chance in it to make it a man's game, -as well. If you can make good at this difficult opportunity, you will -prove that you can make good at any piece of drainage engineering that -comes your way. This is your fighting chance at success. And I expect -to see you equal to its heaviest demands. Good luck to you!' - -"That sounds just like Professor Young. And he means it. Every word." -Marian folded the letter carefully and gave it back to her brother. -"Honestly, Rod, it does sound too good to be true. And think, what a -frabjous time you can have during your vacations! You can run over to -the Ozarks for your week-ends, and visit the Moores on their big fruit -ranch, and go mountain-climbing--" - -Roderick chortled. - -"The Ozarks would be a trifling week-end jaunt of three hundred miles, -old lady. Didn't they teach you geography at Wellesley? As to -mountains, that country is mostly pee-rary and swamp. That's why this -contract will be a two-year job, and a stiff job at that." - -"What does district drainage work mean, anyway?" - -"In district drainage, a lot of farmers and land-owners unite to form -what is called, in law, a drainage district. A sort of mutual benefit -association, you might call it. Then they tax themselves, and hire -engineers and contractors to dig a huge system of ditches, and to -build levees and dikes, to guard their fields against high water. You -see, an Illinois farmer may own a thousand acres of the richest -alluvial land. But if half that land is swamp, and the other half lies -so low that the creeks near by may overflow and ruin his crops any -day, then his thousand mellow acres aren't much more use than ten -acres of hard-scrabble here in New England. To be sure, he can cut his -own ditches, and build his own levee, without consulting his -neighbors. But the best way is for the whole country-side to unite and -do the work on a royal scale." - -"How do they go about digging those ditches? Where can they find -laboring men to do the work, away out in the country?" - -"Why, you can't dig a forty-foot district canal by hand, Sis! That -would be a thousand-year job. First, the district calls in an -experienced engineer to look over the ground and make plans and -estimates. Next, it employs a drainage contractor; say, the -Breckenridge firm. This firm puts in three or four huge steam -dredge-boats, a squad of dump-carts and scrapers, an army of laborers, -and a staff of engineers--including your eminent C. E. brother--to -oversee the work. The dredges begin by digging a series of canals; one -enormous one, called the main ditch, which runs the length of the -district and empties into some large body of water; in this case, the -Illinois River. Radiating from this big ditch, they cut a whole family -of little ditches, called laterals. The main ditch is to carry off the -bulk of water in case of freshets; while the laterals drain the -individual farms." - -"It sounds like slow, costly work." - -"It is. And you've heard only half of it, so far. Then, following the -dredges, come the laborers, with their teams and shovels and -dump-carts. Along the banks of the ditch they build low -brush-and-stone-work walls and fill them in with earth. These walls -make a levee. So, even if the floods come, and your ditch runs -bank-full, the levee will hold back the water and save the crops from -ruin. Do you see?" - -"Ye-es. But it sounds rather tangled, Rod." - -"It isn't tangled at all. Look." Rod's pencil raced across the -envelope. "Here's a rough outline of this very contract. This squirmy -line is Willow Creek. It is a broad, deep stream, and it runs for -thirty crooked miles through the district, with swampy shores all the -way. A dozen smaller creeks feed into it. They're swampy, too. So you -can see how much good rich farm-land is being kept idle. - -"This straight line is the main ditch, as planned. It will cut -straight through the creek course, as the crow flies. Do you see, that -means we'll make a new channel for the whole stream? A straight, deep -channel, too, not more than ten miles long, instead of the thirty -twisted, wasteful miles of the old channel. The short lines at right -angles to the main ditch represent the little ditches, or laterals. -They'll carry off surplus water from the farm-lands: even from those -that lie back from the creek, well out of harm's way." - - [Illustration] - -"What will your work be, Rod?" - -"I'll probably be given a night shift to boss. That is--if I take the -job at all. The laborers are divided into two shifts, eleven hours -each. The dredges have big search-lights, and puff along by night, -regardless." - -"How will you live?" - -"We engineers will be allotted a house-boat to ourselves, and we'll -mess together. The laborers live on a big boat called the -quarter-boat. The firm furnishes food and bunks, tools, stationery, -everything, even to overalls and quinine." - -"Quinine?" - -"Yes. Those Illinois swamps are chock-full of chills and fever." - -"Cheerful prospect! What if you get sick, Rod?" - -"Pooh. I never had a sick day in all my life. However, the -farm-houses, up on higher ground, are out of the malaria belt. If I -get so Miss Nancy-fied that I can't stay in the swamp, I can sleep at -a farm-house. They say there are lots of pleasant people living down -through that section. It is a beautiful country, too. I--I'd like it -immensely, I imagine." - -"Of course you will. But what makes you speak so queerly, Rod? You're -certainly going to accept this splendid chance!" - -Rod's dark, sober face settled into unflinching lines. - -"We'll settle that later. What about you, Sis? If I go West, where -will you go? How will you manage without me?" - -"Oh, I'll go up to Ipswich for the summer. Just as I always do." - -Rod considered. - -"That won't answer, Marian. Now that the Comstocks have moved away, -there is nobody there to look after you. And you'd be lonely, too." - -"Well, then, I can go to Dublin. Cousin Evelyn will give me a corner -in her cottage." - -"But Cousin Evelyn sails for Norway in June." - -"Dear me, I forgot! Then I'll visit some of the girls. Isabel was -teasing me this morning to come to their place at Beverly Farms for -August. Though--I don't know----" - -Rod's serious young eyes met hers. A slow red mounted to his thatched -black hair. - -"I don't believe that would work, Sis. I hate to spoil your fun. -But--we can't afford that sort of thing, dear." - -"I suppose not. To spend a month with Isabel and her mother, in that -Tudor palace of theirs, full of man-servants, and maid-servants, and -regiments of guests, and flocks and herds of automobiles, would cost -me more, in new clothes alone, than the whole summer at Ipswich. But, -Rod, where can I stay? I'd go cheerfully and camp on my relatives, -only we haven't a relative in the world, except Cousin Evelyn. -Besides, I--I don't see how I can ever stand it, anyway!" Her fretted -voice broke, quivering. Mindful of Rod's boyish hatred of sentiment, -she gulped back the sob in her throat; but her weak hand clutched his -sleeve. "There are only the two of us, Rod, and we've never been -separated in all our lives. Not even for a single week. I--I can't let -you go away out there and leave me behind." - -Now, on nine occasions out of ten, Slow-Coach was Rod's fitting title. -This was the tenth time. He stooped over Marian, his black eyes -flashing. His big hand caught her trembling fingers tight. - -"That will just do, Sis. Stop your forebodings, you precious old -'fraid-cat. I'm going to pack you up and take you right straight -along." - -"Why, Roderick Thayer Hallowell!" - -Marian gasped. She stared up at her brother, wide-eyed. - -"Why, I couldn't possibly go with you. It's absurd. I daren't even -think of it." - -"Why not?" - -"Well, it's such a queer, wild place. And it is so horribly far away. -And I'm not strong enough for roughing it." - -"Nonsense. Illinois isn't a frontier. It's only two days' travel from -Boston. As for roughing it, think of the Vermont farm-houses where -we've stayed on fishing trips. Remember the smothery feather-beds, and -the ice-cold pickled beets and pie for breakfast? Darkest Illinois -can't be worse than that." - -"N-no, I should hope not. But it will be so tedious and dull!" - -"Didn't the doctor order you to spend a dull summer? Didn't he -prescribe bread and milk and sleep?" - -"Rod, I won't go. I can't. I'd be perfectly miserable. There, now!" - -Roderick gave her a long, grave look. - -"Then I may as well write and decline the Breckenridge offer, Sis. For -I'll take you with me, or else stay here with you. That's all." - -"Rod, you're so contrary!" Marian's lips quivered. "You must go West. -I won't have you stay here and drudge forever at office work. You must -not throw away this splendid chance. It isn't possible!" - -"It isn't possible for me to do anything else, Sis." Roderick's stolid -face settled into granite lines. Marian started at the new ring of -authority in his voice. "Haven't you just said that you couldn't stand -it to be left behind? Well, I--I'm in the same boat. I can't go off -and leave you, Sis. I won't run the chances of your being sick, or -lonely, while I'm a thousand miles away. So you'll have to decide for -us both. Either you go with me, or else I stay here and drudge -forever, as you call it. For I'd rather drudge forever than face that -separation. That's all. Run along to bed now, that's a good girl. -You'll need plenty of sleep if you are to start for Illinois with me -next week. Good-night." - -"Well, but Rod----" - -"Run along, I say. Take Empress with you. I want to answer this -letter, and she keeps purring like a buzz-saw, and sharpening her -claws on my shoes, till I can't think straight." - -"But, Rod, you don't understand!" Marian caught his arm. Her eyes -brimmed with angry tears. "I don't _want_ to go West. I'll hate it. I -know I shall. I want to stay here, where I can be with my friends, -where I can have a little fun. It's not fair to make me go with you!" - -"Oh, I understand, all right." Roderick's eyes darkened. "You will not -like the West. You'll not be contented. I know that. But, remember, -I'm taking this job for both of us, Sis. We're partners, you know. I -wish you could realize that." His voice grew a little wistful. "If -you'd be willing to play up----" - -"Oh, I'll play up, of course." Marian put her hands on his shoulders -and gave him a pettish kiss. "And I'll go West with you. Though I'd -rather go to Moscow or the Sahara. Come, Empress! Good-night, Rod." - -The door closed behind her quick, impatient step. Roderick sat down at -his desk and opened his portfolio. He did not begin to write at once. -Instead, he sat staring at the letter in his hand. He was a slow, -plodding boy; he was not given to dreaming; but to-night, as he sat -there, his sober young face lighted with eager fire. Certain phrases -of that magical letter seemed to float and gleam before his eyes. - ---"'A splendid undertaking ... heavy, responsible work, but a man's -work, and a man's game.... This is your fighting chance. If you can -make good.... And I expect to see you equal to its heaviest demands.'" - -Rod's deep eyes kindled slowly. - -"I'll make good, all right," he muttered. His strong hand clinched on -the folded sheet. "It's my fighting chance. And if I can't win out, -with such an opportunity as this one--then I'll take my name off the -_Engineering Record_ roster and buy me a pick and a shovel!" - - - - -CHAPTER II - -TRAVELLERS THREE - - -"Ready, Marian? The Limited starts in thirty minutes. We haven't a -minute to spare." - -"Y-yes." Marian caught up her handbag and hurried into the cab. "Only -my trunk keys--I'm not sure----" - -"Your trunk keys! You haven't lost them, of all things!" - -"No. Here they are, safe in my bag. But Empress has been so frenzied I -haven't known which way to turn." - -Poor insulted Empress, squirming madly in a wicker basket, glared at -Rod, and lifted a wild, despairing yowl. - -"You don't propose to leave Mount Vernon Street for the wilds of -Illinois without a struggle, do you, Empress?" chuckled Rod. "Never -you mind. You'll forget your blue silk cushion and your minced steak -and cream, and you'll be chasing plebeian chipmunks in a week. Look at -the river, Marian. You won't see it again in a long while." - -Marian followed his glance. It was a silver hoar-frost morning. The -sky shone a cloudless blue, the cold, delicious air sparkled, -diamond-clear. Straight down Mount Vernon Street the exquisite little -panel of the frozen Charles gleamed like a vista of fairyland. Marian -stared at it a little wistfully. - -"It will all be very different out West, I suppose. I wonder if any -Western river can be half as lovely," she pondered. - -Roderick did not answer. A sudden worried question stirred in his -thought. Yes, the West would be "different." Very different. - -"Maybe I've done the worst possible thing in dragging Marian along," -he thought. "But it's too late to turn back now. I can only hope that -she can stand the change, and that she'll try to be patient and -contented." - -Marian, on her part, was in high spirits. She had been shut up for so -long that to find herself free, and starting on this trip to a new -country, delighted her beyond bounds. At South Station, a crowd of -her Wellesley chums stormed down upon her, in what Rod described later -as a mass-play, laden with roses and chocolates and gay, loving -farewells. Marian tore herself from their hands, half-laughing, -half-crying with happy excitement. - -"Oh, Rod, I know we're going to have the grandest trip, and the most -beautiful good fortunes that ever were!" she cried, as he put her -carefully aboard the train. "But you aren't one bit enthusiastic. You -stodgy tortoise, why can't you be pleased, too?" - -"I'm only too glad if you like the prospect, Sis," he answered -soberly. - -Marian's spirits soared even higher as the hours passed. Roderick grew -as rapt as she when the train whirled through the winter glory of the -Berkshires. Every slope rose folded in dazzling snow. Every tree, -through mile on mile of forest, blazed in rainbow coats of icy mail. -The wide rolling New York country was scarcely less beautiful. - -At Buffalo, the next morning, a special pleasure awaited them. A party -of friends met them with a huge touring car, and carried them on a -flying trip to the ice-bridge at Niagara Falls. To Marian, every -minute spelled enchantment. She forgot her dizzy head and her aching -bones, and fairly exulted in the wild splendor of the blue ice-walled -cataract. Roderick, on his part, was so absorbed by the marvellous -engineering system of the great power-plant that for once he had no -eyes nor thought for his sister, nor for any other matter. - -Their wonderful day closed with an elaborate dinner-party, given in -their honor. Neither Marian nor Rod had ever been guests at so grand -an affair. As they dashed to their train in their host's beautiful -limousine, Marian looked up from her bouquet of violets and orchids -with laughing eyes. - -"If this is the West, Rod, I really think it will suit me very well!" - -Rod's mouth twisted into a rueful grin. - -"Glad you enjoy it, Sis. Gloat over your luxury while you may. You'll -find yourself swept out of the limousine zone all too soon. By this -time next week you'll be thankful for a spring wagon." - -By the next morning, Marian's spirits began to flag. All day they -travelled in fog and rain, down through a flat, dun country. Not a -gleam of snow lightened those desolate, muddy plains. There seemed no -end to that sodden prairie, that gray mist-blotted sky. Marian grew -more lonely and unhappy with every hour. She struggled to be -good-humored for Roderick's sake. But she grew terribly tired; and it -was a very white-faced girl who clung to Roderick's arm as their train -rolled into the great, clanging terminal at Saint Louis. - -Roderick hurried her to a hotel. It seemed to her that she had -scarcely dropped asleep before Rod's voice sounded at the door. - -"Sorry, Sis, but we'll have to start right away. It's nearly eight -o'clock." - -"Oh, Rod, I'm so tired! Please let's take a later train." - -"There isn't any later train, dear. There isn't any train at all. -We're going up-river on a little steamer that is towing a barge-load -of coal to our camp. That's the only way to reach the place. There is -no railroad anywhere near. There won't be another steamer going up -for days. It's a shame to haul you out, but it can't be helped." - -An hour later, they picked their way down the wet, slippery stones of -the levee to where the _Lucy Lee_, a tiny flat-bottomed -"stern-wheeler," puffed and snorted, awaiting them. As they crossed -the gang-plank, the pilot rang the big warning bell. Immediately their -little craft nosed its way shivering along the ranks of moored -packets, and rocked out into mid-channel. - -Marian peered back, but she could see nothing of the city. A thick icy -fog hung everywhere, shrouding even the tall warehouses at the river's -edge, and drifting in great, gray clouds over the bridges. - -"The river is still thick with floating ice," said the captain, at her -elbow. "The _Lucy_ is the first steam-boat to dare her luck, trying to -go up-stream, since the up-river ice gorge let go. But we'll make it -all right. It's a pretty chancy trip, yet it's not as dangerous as -you'd think." - -Marian twinkled. "It looks chancy enough to me," she confessed. She -looked out at the broad, turbid stream. Here and there a black patch -marked a drifting ice cake, covered with brush, swept down from some -flooded woodland. Through the mist she caught glimpses of high, muddy -banks, a group of sooty factories, a gray, murky sky. - -"I don't see much charm to the Mississippi, Rod. Is this all there is -to it? Just yellow, tumbling water, and mud, and fog?" - -"It isn't a beautiful stream, that's a fact," admitted Rod. Yet his -eyes sparkled. He was growing more flushed and alert with every turn -of the wheels that brought him nearer to his coveted work, his man's -game. "This is too raw and cold for you, Marian. Come into the cabin, -and I'll fix you all snug by the fire." - -"The cabin is so stuffy and horrid," fretted Marian. Yet she added, -"But it's the cunningest place I ever dreamed of. It's like a -miniature museum." - -"A museum? A junk-shop, I'd call it," Rod chuckled, as he settled her -into the big red-cushioned rocker, before the roaring cannon stove. - -The tight little room was crowded with solemn black-walnut cabinets, -full of shells and arrowheads, and hung thick with quaint, -high-colored old pictures. Languishing ladies in chignons and -crinoline gazed upon lordly gentlemen in tall stocks and gorgeous -waistcoats; "Summer Prospects," in vivid chromos fronted "Snow -Scenes," made realistic with much powdered isinglass. Crowning all, -rose a tall, cupid-wreathed gilt mirror, surmounted by a stern stuffed -eagle, who glared down fiercely from two yellow glass eyes. His mighty -wings spread above the mirror, a bit moth-eaten, but still terrifying. - -"Look, Empress. Don't you want to catch that nice birdie?" - -Poor bewildered Empress glared at the big bird, and sidled, back -erect, wrathfully sissing, under a chair. Travel had no charms for -Empress. - -"Will you look at that old yellowed pilot's map and certificate in the -acorn frame? '1857!'" chuckled Rod. "And the red-and-blue worsted -motto hung above it: 'Home, Sweet Home!' I'll wager Grandma Noah did -that worsted-work." - -"Not Grandma Noah, but Grandma McCloskey," laughed the captain. "She -was the nicest old lady you ever laid eyes on. She used to live on the -boat and cook for us, till the rheumatism forced her to live ashore. -Her husband is old Commodore McCloskey; so everybody calls him. He has -been a pilot on the Mississippi ever since the day he got that -certificate, yonder. He's a character, mind that. He shot that eagle -in '58, and he has carried it around with him ever since, to every -steamer that he has piloted. You must go up to the pilot-house after a -bit and make him a visit. He's worth knowing." - -"I think I'd like to go up to the pilot-house right away, Rod. It is -so close and hot down here." - -Obediently Rod gathered up her rugs and cushions. Carefully he and the -captain helped her up the swaying corkscrew stairs, across the dizzy, -rain-swept hurricane deck, then up the still narrower, more twisty -flight that ended at the door of the high glass-walled box, perched -like a bird-cage, away forward. - -Inside that box stood a large wooden wheel, and a small, twinkling, -white-bearded old gentleman, who looked for all the world like a Santa -Claus masquerading in yellow oilskins. - -"Ask him real pretty," cautioned the captain. "He thinks he runs this -boat, and everybody aboard her. He does, too, for a fact." - -With much ceremony Roderick rapped at the glass door, and asked -permission for his sister to enter. With grand aplomb the little old -gentleman rose from his wheel and ushered her up the steps. - -"'Tis for fifty-four years that I and me pilot-house have been honored -by the ladies' visits," quoth he, with a stately bow. "Ye'll sit here, -behind the wheel, and watch me swing herself up the river? Sure, 'tis -a ticklish voyage, wid the river so full of floatin' ice. I shall be -glad of yer gracious presence, ma'am. It will bring me good luck in me -steerin'." - -Marian's eyes danced. She fitted herself neatly into the cushioned -bench against the wall. The pilot-house was a bird-cage, indeed, -hardly eight feet square. The great wheel, swinging in its high frame, -took up a third of the space; a huge cast-iron stove filled one -corner. For the rest, Marian felt as if she had stepped inside one of -the curio-cabinets in the cabin below; for every inch of wall space in -the bird-cage was festooned with mementoes of every sort. A string of -beautiful wampum, all polished elks' teeth and uncut green turquoise; -shell baskets, and strings of buckeyes; a four-foot diamond-back -rattlesnake's skin, beautiful and uncanny, the bunch of five rattles -tied to the tail. Close beside the glittering skin hung even an odder -treasure-trove: a small white kid glove, quaintly embroidered in faded -pink-and-blue forget-me-nots. - -"Great-Aunt Emily had some embroidered gloves like that in her -trousseau," thought Marian. "I do wonder----" - -"Ye're lookin' at me keepsakes?" The pilot sighted up-stream, then -turned, beaming. "Maybe it will pass the time like for me to tell ye -of them. There is not one but stands for an adventure. That wampum was -given to me by Chief Ogalalla; a famous Sioux warrior, he was. 'Twas -back in sixty-wan, and the string was the worth of two ponies in thim -days. Three of me mates an' meself was prospectin' down in western -Nebraska. There came a great blizzard, and Chief Ogalalla and three of -his men rode up to our camp, and we took them in for the night." - -"And he gave you the wampum in payment?" - -"Payment? Never! A man never paid for food nor shelter on the plains. -No more than for the air he breathed. 'Twas gratitude. For Chief -Ogalalla had a ragin' toothache, and I cured it for him. Made him a -poultice of red pepper." - -"Mercy! I should think that would hurt worse than any toothache!" - -"Maybe it did, ma'am. But at least it disthracted his attention from -the tooth itself. That rattlesnake, I kilt in a swamp near Vicksburg. -Me and me wife was young then, and we'd borrowed a skiff, an' rowed -out to hunt pond-lilies. Mary would go in the bog, walkin' on the big -tufts of rushes. Her little feet were that light she didn't sink at -all. But the first thing I heard she gave a little squeal, an' there -she stood, perched on a tuft, and not three feet away, curled up on a -log, was that great shinin' serpent. Just rockin' himself easy, he -was, makin' ready to strike. An' strike he would. Only"--the small -twinkling face grew grim--"only I struck first." - -Marian shivered. - -"And the little white glove?" - -The old pilot beamed. - -"Sure, I hoped ye'd notice that, miss. That glove points to the proud -day f'r me! It was the summer of '60. I was pilotin' the _Annie -Kilburn_, a grand large packet, down to Saint Louis. We had a -wonderful party aboard her. 'Twas just the beginnin' of war times, an' -'twould be like readin' a history book aloud to tell ye their names. -Did ever ye hear of the Little Giant?" - -"Of Stephen A. Douglas, the famous orator? Why, yes, to be sure. Was -he aboard?" - -"Yes. A fine, pleasant-spoke gentleman he was, too. But 'tis not the -Little Giant that this story is about. 'Twas his wife. Ye've heard of -her, sure? Ah, but I wish you could have seen her when she came -trippin' up the steps of me pilot-house and passed the time of day -with me, so sweet and friendly. Afterward they told me what a great -lady she was. Though I could see that for meself, she was that gentle, -and her voice so quiet and low, and her look so sweet and kind. I was -showin' her about, an' feelin' terrible proud, an' fussy, an' excited. -I was a young felly then, and it took no more than her word an' her -smile to turn me foolish head. An' I was showin' her how to handle the -wheel, and by some mischance, didn't I catch me blunderin' hand in the -frame, an' give it a wrench that near broke every bone! I couldn't -leave the wheel till the first mate should come to take me place. And -Madame Douglas was that distressed, you'd think it was her own hand -that she was grievin' over. She would tear her lace handkerchief into -strips, and bind up the cut, and then what does she do but take her -white glove, an' twist it round the fingers, so's to keep them from -the air, till I could find time to bandage them. I said not a word. -But the minute her silks an' laces went trailin' down the hurricane -ladder, I jerked off that glove an' folded it in my wallet. An' there -it stayed till I could have that frame made for it. And in that frame -I've carried it ever since, all these long years. - -"Those were the grand days, sure," he added, wistfully. "Before the -war, we pilots were the lords of the river. I had me a pair of -varnished boots, an' tight striped trousers, an' a grand shiny -stove-pipe hat, an' I wouldn't have called the king me uncle. It's -sad times for the river, nowadays." He looked away up the broad, -tumbling yellow stream. "Look at her, will ye! No river at all, she -is, wid her roily yellow water, an' her poor miry banks, an' her -bluffs, all washed away to shiftin' sand. But wasn't she the grand -stream entirely, before the war!" - -Marian looked at the framed river-chart above the wheel. She tried to -read its puzzle of tangled lines. The old man sniffed. - -"Don't waste yer time wid that gimcrack, miss. Steer by it? Never!" He -shrugged his shoulders loftily. "It hangs there by government request, -so I tolerate it to please the Department. I know this river by heart, -every inch. I could steer this boat from Natchez to Saint Paul wid me -eyes shut, the blackest night that ever blew!" - -Marian dimpled at his majestic tone. - -"Will you show me how to steer? I've always been curious as to how it -is done." - -"Certain I will." - -Keenly interested, Marian gripped the handholds, and turned the heavy -wheel back and forth as he directed. Suddenly her grasp loosened. -Down the stream, straight toward the boat, drifted a rolling black -mass. - -"Mercy, what is that? It looks like a whole forest of logs. It's -rolling right toward us!" - -"Ye're right. 'Tis a raft that's broke adrift. But we have time to -dodge, be sure. Watch now." - -His right hand grasped the wheel. His left seized the bell-cord. Three -sharp toots signalled the engine-room for full head of steam. -Instantly the _Lucy_ jarred under Marian's feet with the sudden heavy -force of doubled power. Slowly the steam-boat swung out of her course, -in a long westward curve. Past her, the nearest logs not fifty feet -away, the great, grinding mass of tree-trunks rolled and tumbled by, -sweeping on toward the Gulf. - -"'Tis handy that we met those gintlemen by daylight," remarked the -pilot, cheerfully. "For one log alone would foul our paddle-wheels and -give us a bad shaking up. And should all that Donnybrook Fair come -stormin' into us by night, we'd go to the bottom before ye could say -Jack Robinson." - -Marian's eyes narrowed. She stared at the dusk stormy yellow river, -the blank inhospitable shores. She was not by any means a coward. But -she could not resist asking one question. - -"Do we go on up-river after nightfall? Or do we stop at some landing?" - -"There's no landing between here and Grafton, at the mouth of the -Illinois River. We'll have to tie up along shore, I'm thinkin'." The -old man spoke grudgingly. "If I was runnin' her meself, 'tis little -we'd stop for the night. But the captain thinks different. He's young -and notional. Tie up over night we must, says he. But 'tis all -nonsense. Chicken-hearted, I'd call it, that's all." - -Marian laughed to herself. Inwardly she was grateful for the captain's -chicken-heartedness. - -A loud gong sounded from below. The pilot nodded. - -"Yon's your supper-bell, miss. I thank ye kindly for the pleasure of -yer company. I shall be honored if ye choose to come again. And soon." - -Marian made her way down to the cabin through the stormy dusk. The -little room was warm and brightly lighted; the captain's negro boy was -just placing huge smoking-hot platters of perfectly cooked fish and -steak upon the clean oil-cloth table. They gathered around it, an odd -company. Marian and Roderick, the captain, the _Lucy's_ engineer, a -pleasant, boyish fellow, painfully embarrassed and redolent of hot oil -and machinery; and two young dredge-runners, on their way, like Rod, -to the Breckenridge contract. Save the captain and Rod, they gobbled -bashfully, and fled at the earliest possible moment. Rod and the -captain were talking of the contract and of its prospects. Marian -trifled with her massive hot biscuit, and listened indifferently. - -"I hope your coming on the work may change its luck, Mr. Hallowell," -observed the captain. "For that contract has struggled with mighty -serious difficulties, so far. Breckenridge himself is a superb -engineer; but of course he cannot stay on the ground. He has a dozen -equally important contracts to oversee. His engineers are all well -enough, but somehow they don't seem to make things go. Carlisle is the -chief. He is a good engineer and a good fellow, but he is so nearly -dead with malaria that he can't do two hours' work in a week. Burford, -his aid, is a young Southerner, a fine chap, but--well, a bit -hot-headed. You know our Northern labor won't stand for much of that. -Then there is Marvin, who is third in charge. But as for Marvin"--he -stopped, with a queer short laugh--"as for Marvin, the least said the -soonest mended. He's a cub engineer, they call him; a grizzly cub at -that. He may come out all right, with time. You can see for yourself -that you haven't any soft job. With a force of two hundred laborers, -marooned in a swamp seven miles from nowhere, not even a railroad in -the county; with half the land-owners protesting against their -assessments, and refusing to pay up; with your head engineer sick, and -your coal shipments held up by high water--no, you won't find your -place an easy one, mind that." - -"I'm not doing any worrying." Rod's jaw set. His dark face glowed. -Marian looked at him, a little jealously. His whole heart and thought -were swinging away to this work, now opening before him. This was his -man's share in labor, and he was eager to cope with its sternest -demands. - -"Well, it's a good thing you have the pluck to face it. You will need -all the pluck you've got, and then some." The captain paced restlessly -up and down the narrow room. "Wonder why we don't slow down. We must -be running a full twelve miles an hour. Altogether too fast, when -we're towing a barge. And it is pitch dark." - -He stooped to the engine-room speaking-tube. "Hi, Smith! Why are you -carrying so much steam? I want to put her inshore." - -A muffled voice rose from the engine-room. - -"All right, sir. But McCloskey, he just rung for full speed ahead." - -"He did? That's McCloskey, all over. The old rascal! He has set his -heart on making Grafton Landing to-night, instead of tying up -alongshore. Hear that? He's making that old wheel jump. To be sure, he -knows the river channel like a book. But, even with double -search-lights, no man living can see ice-cakes and brush far enough -ahead to dodge them." - -"Let's take a look on deck," suggested Rod. - -Once outside the warm, cheerful cabin, the night wind swept down on -them, a driving, freezing blast. The little steamer fairly raced -through the water. Her deck boards quivered; the boom of the heavy -engine throbbed under their feet. - -"Thickest night I've seen in a year," growled the captain. "I say, -McCloskey! Slow down, and let's put her inshore. This is too dangerous -to suit me." - -No reply. The boat fled pitching on. - -"_McCloskey!_" - -At last there came a faint hail. - -"Yes, captain! What's yer pleasure, sir?" - -"The old rascal! He's trying to show off. He's put his deaf ear to the -tube, I'll be bound. Best go inside, Miss Hallowell, this wind is full -of sleet. McCloskey! Head her inshore, I say." - -On rushed the _Lucy_. Her course did not change a hair's breadth. - -"No wonder they call him Commodore McCloskey!" Rod whispered wickedly. -"Even the captain has to yield to him." - -"McCloskey!" The captain's voice was gruff with anger. "_Head her -inshore!_ Unless you're trying to kill the boat----" - -Crash! - -The captain's sentence was never finished. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -ENTER MR. FINNEGAN - - -With that crash the floor shot from under their feet. Stumbling and -clutching, the three, Marian, Rod, and the captain, pitched across the -deck and landed in a heap against the rail. The lighted cabin seemed -to rear straight up from the deck and lunge toward them. There was an -uproar of shouts, a hideous pounding of machinery. Marian shut her -eyes. - -Then, with a second deafening crash, the steamer righted herself; and, -thrown like three helpless ninepins, Marian, Rod, and the captain -reeled back from the rail and found themselves, bumped and dizzy, -tangled in a heap of freight and canvas. Rod was the first on his -feet. He snatched Marian up, with a groan. - -"Sister! Are you hurt? Tell me, quick." - -"Nonsense, no." Marian struggled up, bruised and trembling. "I whacked -my head on the rail, that's all. What has happened?" - -"We've struck another bunch of runaway logs. They've fouled our -wheel," shouted the captain. "Put this life-preserver on your sister. -Swing out the yawl, boys!" For the deck crew was already scrambling up -the stairs. "Here, where's Smith?" - -"He's below, sir, stayin' by the boiler. The logs struck us for'ard -the gangway. She's got a hole stove in her that you could drive an -ice-wagon through," answered a fireman. "Smith says, head her inshore. -Maybe you can beach her before she goes clean under." - -The captain groaned. - -"Her first trip for the year! The smartest little boat on the river! -McCloskey!" he shouted angrily up the tube. "Head her inshore, before -she's swamped. You hear that, I reckon?" - -"Ay, ay, sir." It was a very meek voice down the tube. - -Very slowly the _Lucy_ swung about. Creaking and groaning, she headed -through the darkness for the darker line of willows that masked the -Illinois shore. - -For a minute, Roderick and Marian stood together under the swaying -lantern, too dazed by excitement to move. On Marian's forehead a -cheerful blue bump had begun to rise; while Rod's cheek-bone displayed -an ugly bruise. Suddenly Marian spoke. - -"Rod! Where is Empress! She will be frightened to death. We must take -her into the yawl with us." - -The young fireman turned. - -"That grand big cat of yours, ma'am? You'll never coax a cat into an -open boat. They'll die first. But have no fear. We are not a hundred -yards from shore, and in shallow water at that. 'Tis a pity the _Lucy_ -is hurt, but it's fortunate for us that she can limp ashore." - -Marian felt a little foolish. She pulled off the cork jacket which Rod -had tied over her shoulders. - -"We aren't shipwrecked after all, Rod. We're worse frightened than -hurt." - -"I'm not so sure of that. Keep that life-preserver on, Sis." - -The _Lucy_ was blundering pluckily toward shore. But the deck jarred -with the thud and rattle of thrashing machinery, and at every forward -plunge the boat pitched until it seemed as if the next fling would -surely capsize her. - -Rod peered into the darkness. - -"We'll make the shore, I do believe. Shall I leave you long enough to -get our bags and Empress?" - -"Oh, I'll go too. You'll need me to pacify Empress. She will be -panic-stricken." - -Poor Empress was panic-stricken, indeed. The little cabin was a chaos. -The shock of the collision had overturned every piece of furniture. -Even the wall cabinets were upset, and their shells and arrowheads -were scattered far and wide. The beautiful old-time crystal -chandeliers were in splinters. Worst, the big gilt mirror lay on the -floor, smashed to atoms. Only one object in all that cabin held its -place: the stuffed eagle. And high on the eagle's outspread wing, -crouched like a panther, snarling and spitting, her every silky hair -furiously on end, clung poor, terrified Empress. Rod exploded. - -"You made friends with the nice bird, after all, didn't you, Empress! -Come on down, kitty. Let me put a life-preserver on you too." - -No life-preservers for Empress! Marian coaxed and called in vain. She -merely dug her claws into the eagle's back and growled indignant -refusal. - -"Let's go back on deck, Sis. She'll calm down presently." - -The _Lucy_ was now working inshore with increasing speed. But, as they -stepped on deck, the boat careened suddenly, then stopped, with a -sickening jolt. - -"Never mind, miss," the young fireman quickly assured her. "She has -struck a sand-bar, and there she'll stick, I fear. But we are safe -enough, for the water is barely six feet deep. We'll have to anchor -here for the night, but don't be nervous. She can't sink very far in -six feet of water." - -"I suppose not." Yet Marian's teeth chattered. Inwardly she -sympathized with Empress. What a comfort it would be to climb the -stuffed eagle and perch there, well out of reach of even six feet of -black icy water! - -The captain was still more reassuring. - -"Well, we're lucky that we've brought her this near shore." He wiped -his forehead with a rather unsteady hand. "Ten minutes ago my heart -was in my mouth. I thought sure she'd sink in mid-stream. You're -perfectly safe now, Miss Hallowell. Better go to your state-room and -get some sleep." - -"Yes, the _Lucy_ will rest still as a church now," said the young -fireman, with a heartening chuckle. "She's hard aground. Though that's -no thanks to our pilot. I say, McCloskey! Where were you trying to -steer us? Into a lumber-yard?" - -Down the hurricane deck came Mr. McCloskey, white beard waving, eyes -twinkling, jaunty and serene as a May morning. - -"This little incident is no fault of me steerin'," said he, with -delightful unconcern. "'Twas the carelessness of thim raftsmen, -letting their logs get away, no less. Sure, captain dear, I'd sue them -for damages." - -"I'll be more likely to sue you for running full speed after dark, -against orders," muttered the captain. Then he laughed. "I ought to -put you in irons. But the man doesn't live that can hold a grudge -against you, McCloskey. Take hold now, boys. Bank your fires, then -we'll patch her up as best we can for the night." - -Marian went to her state-room, but not to sleep. There was little -sleep that night for anybody. In spite of protecting sand-bar and -anchor, the boat careened wretchedly. Strange groans and shrieks rose -from the engine-room; hurrying footsteps came and went through the -narrow gangway. And the rush of the swift current, the bump of -ice-cakes, and the sweep of floating brush past her window kept her -aroused and trembling. It seemed years before the tiny window grew -gray with dawn. - -The captain's voice reached her ears. - -"No, the _Lucy_ isn't damaged as badly as we thought. But it will take -us two days of bulkheading before we dare go on. You'd best take your -sister up to the camp in my launch. It is at your service." - -"That's good news!" sighed Marian. "Anything to escape from this -sinking ship. I don't like playing Casabianca one bit." - -She swallowed the hot coffee and corn bread which the captain's boy -brought to her door, and hurried on deck. Their embarking was highly -exciting; for poor Empress, having been coaxed with difficulty from -the eagle's roost, where she had spent the night, promptly lost her -head at sight of the water and fled shrieking to the pilot-house. Rod, -the pilot, the engineer, and the young fireman together hunted her -from her fastness, and, after a wild chase, returned scratched but -victorious, with Empress raging in a gunny-sack. - -"Best keep her there till you're ashore, miss," laughed the young -fireman. And Marian took the precaution to tie the mouth of the sack -with double knots. - -Up-stream puffed the launch, past Grafton Landing into the narrower -but clearer current of the Illinois River. Now the black mud banks -rose into bluffs and wooded hills. Here and there a marshy backwater -showed a faint tinge of early green. But there was not a village in -sight; not even a solitary farm-house. Hour after hour they steamed -slowly up the dull river, beneath the gray mist-hooded sky. Marian -looked resentfully at her brother. He had unrolled a portfolio of -blue-prints, and sat over them, as absorbed and as indifferent to the -cold and discomfort as if he were sitting at his own desk at home. - -"He's so rapt over his miserable old contract that he is not giving me -one thought," Marian sulked to herself. "I just wish that I had put my -foot down, and had refused, flatly, to come with him. If I had dreamed -the West would be like this!" - -Presently the launch whistled. An answering whistle came from -up-stream. Rod dropped his blue-prints with a shout. - -"Look, Marian. There is the contract camp, the whole plant! See, -straight ahead!" - -Marian stared. There was not a house to be seen; but high on the right -bank stood an army of tents; and below, moored close to shore, lay a -whole village of boats, strung in long double file. Midway stood a -gigantic steam-dredge. Its vivid red-painted machinery reared high on -its black, oil-soaked platform, its strange sprawling crane spread its -iron wings, like the pinions of some vast ungainly bird of prey. -Around it were ranked several flat-boats, a trim steam-launch, a -whole regiment of house-boats. Rod's eyes sparkled. He drew a sharp -breath. - -"This is my job, all right. Isn't it sumptuous, Marian! Will you look -at that dredge! Isn't she magnificent? So is the whole outfit, barges -and all. That's worth walking from Boston to see!" - -"Is it?" Marian choked back the vicious little retort. "Well, I'd be -willing to walk back to Boston--to get away!" - -"Ahoy the launch! This is Mr. Hallowell?" A tall, haggard man in -oilskins and hip boots came striding across the dredge. "Glad to see -you, sir. We hoped that you would arrive to-day. I am Carlisle, the -engineer in charge." He leaned over the rail to give Rod's hand a -friendly grip. He spoke with a dry, formal manner, yet his lean yellow -face was full of kindly interest. "And this is your sister, Miss -Hallowell? You have come to a rather forlorn summer resort, Miss -Hallowell, but we will do our best to make it endurable for you." - -Roderick, red with pleasure, stood up to greet his new chief. Behind -Mr. Carlisle towered a broad-shouldered, heavily built young man, in -very muddy khaki and leggings, his blond wind-burnt face shining with -a hospitable grin. - -"This is our Mr. Burford, Mr. Hallowell. At present, you and he will -superintend the night shifts." - -Mr. Burford gave Roderick a hearty handshake, and beamed upon Marian. - -"Mr. Burford will be particularly glad to welcome you, Miss Hallowell, -on Mrs. Burford's account. She has been living here on the work for -several months, the only lady who has graced our camp until to-day. I -know that she will be eager for your companionship." - -Mr. Burford grew fairly radiant. - -"Sally Lou will be wild when she learns that you are really here," he -declared eagerly, in his deep southern drawl. "She has talked of your -coming every minute since the news came that we might hope to have you -with us. You will find us a mighty primitive set, but you and Sally -Lou can have plenty of fun together, I know. I'd like to bring her and -the kiddies to see you as soon as you feel equal to receiving us." - -"Thank you very much." Marian tried her best to be gracious and -friendly. But she was so tired that young Burford's broad smiling face -seemed to blur and waver through a thickening mist. "I'm sure I shall -be charmed----" - -"Hi, there!" An angry shout broke upon her words. "Mr. Carlisle, will -you look here! That foreman of yours has gone off with my skiff again. -If I'm obliged to share my boat with your impudent riffraff----" - -"Mr. Marvin, will you kindly come here a moment?" The chief's voice -did not lose its even tone; but his heavy brows narrowed. "I wish you -to meet Mr. Hallowell, who is your and Mr. Burford's new associate. -Miss Hallowell, may I present Mr. Marvin?" - -Marian bowed and looked curiously at the tall, dark-featured young man -who shuffled forward. She remembered the captain's terse -description--"a cub engineer, and a grizzly cub at that." Mr. Marvin -certainly acted the part. He barely nodded to her and to Roderick, -then clamored on with his grievance. - -"You know I've told the men time and again to leave my boat alone. -But your foreman borrows my launch whenever he takes the notion, and -leaves her half-swamped, or high and dry, as he chooses. If you won't -jack him up for it, I will. I'll not tolerate----" - -"I'll take that matter up later, Mr. Marvin." Marvin's sullen face -reddened at the tone in his chief's voice. "Mr. Hallowell, I have -found lodgings for your sister three miles up the canal, at the Gates -farm. Mr. Burford will take you to Gates's Landing, thence you will -drive to the farm-house. Your own quarters will be on the engineers' -house-boat, and we shall hope to see you here for dinner to-night. -Good-by, Miss Hallowell. I hope that Mrs. Gates will do everything to -make you comfortable." - -The launch puffed away up the narrow muddy canal. It was a straight, -deep stream of brown water, barely forty feet wide. Its banks were a -high-piled mass of mire and clay, for the levee-builders had not yet -begun work. Beyond rose clumps of leafless trees. Then, far as eye -could see, muddy fields and gray swampy meadows. Rod gazed, radiant. - -"Isn't it splendid, Marian! The finest equipment I ever dreamed of. -Look at those barges!" - -"Those horrid flat-boats heaped with coal?" - -"Yes. Think of the yardage record we're making. Five thousand yards a -day!" - -Marian rubbed her aching eyes. - -"I don't know a yardage record from a bushel basket," she sighed. -"What is that queer box-shaped red boat, set on a floating platform?" - -"That is the engineers' house-boat, where your brother is to live. -Mayn't we take you aboard to see?" urged Burford. - -Marian stepped on the narrow platform and peered into the cubby-hole -state-rooms and the clean, scoured mess-room. She was too tired to be -really interested. - -"And that funny, grass-green cabin, set on wooden stilts, up that -little hill--that play-house?" - -Burford laughed. - -"That's my play-house. Sally Lou insists on living right here, so that -she and the babies and Mammy Easter can keep a watchful eye on me. You -and Sally Lou will be regular chums, I know. She is not more than a -year or so older than you are, and it has been pretty rough on her to -leave her home and come down here. But she says she doesn't care; that -she'd rather rough it down here with me than mope around home, back in -Norfolk, without me. It surely is a splendid scheme for me to have her -here." He laughed again, with shy, boyish pride. "Sally Lou is a -pretty plucky sort. And, if I may say it, so are you." - -Marian managed to smile her thanks. Inwardly she was hoping that the -marvellous Sally Lou would stay away and leave her in peace. She was -trembling with fatigue. Through the rest of the trip she hardly spoke. - -At Gates's Landing they were met by a solemn, bashful youth and a -buckboard drawn by two raw, excited horses. They whirled and bumped -through a rutted woods road and stopped at last before a low white -farm-house. Marian realized dimly that Rod was carrying her upstairs -and into a small tidy room. She was so utterly tired that she dropped -on the bed and slept straight through the day. - -She did not waken until her landlady's tap called her to supper. Mr. -and Mrs. Gates, two quiet, elderly people, greeted her kindly, and set -a Homeric feast before her: shortbread and honey, broiled squirrels -and pigeon stew, persimmon jam and hot mince pie. She ate dutifully, -then crept back to her little room, with its mournful hair wreaths and -its yellowed engravings of "Night and Morning" and "The Death-bed of -Washington," and fell asleep again. - -The three days that followed were like a queer, tired dream. It rained -night and day. The roads were mired hub deep. Roderick could not drive -over to see her, but he telephoned to her daily. But his hasty -messages were little satisfaction. The heavy rains had overflowed the -big ditch, he told her. That meant extra work for everybody on the -plant. Carlisle was wretchedly sick, so Rod and Burford were sharing -their chief's watch in addition to their own duties. Worst, Marvin had -quarrelled with the head runner of the big dredge, and "We're having -to spend half our time in coddling them both for fear they'll walk off -and leave us," as Rod put it. In short, Roderick had neither time nor -thought for his sister. Marian realized that her brother was not -inconsiderate. He was absorbed in his work and in its risks. Yet she -keenly resented her loneliness. - -"It isn't Rod's fault. But if I had dreamed that the West would be -like this!" - -But on the fourth day, while she sat at her window looking out at the -endless rain, there came a surprising diversion. - -"A gentleman to see you, Miss Hallowell. Will you come downstairs?" - -"Why, Commodore McCloskey!" Marian hurried down, delighted. "How good -of you to come!" - -Commodore McCloskey, dripping from his sou'wester to his mired boots, -beamed like a drenched but cheery Santa Claus. - -"I've taken the liberty to bring a friend to call," he chuckled. "He's -young an' green, an' 'tis few manners he owns, but he's good stock, -an'--Here, ye rascal! Shame on ye, startin' a fight the minute ye -enter the house!" - -Marian gasped. Past her, with a wild miauw, shot a yellow streak. That -streak was Empress. Straight after the streak flew a fat, brown, -curly object, yapping at the top of its powerful lungs. Up the -window-curtain scrambled Empress. With a frantic leap she landed on -the frame of Grandpa Gates's large crayon portrait. Beneath the -portrait her curly pursuer yelped and whined. - -"Why, he's a collie puppy. Oh, what a beauty! What is his name?" - -"Beauty he is. And his name is Finnegan, after the poem, 'Off again, -on again, gone again, Finnegan.' Do ye remember? 'Tis him to the life. -He is a prisint to ye from Missis McCloskey and meself. An' our -compliments an' good wishes go wid him!" - -"How more than kind of you!" Marian, delighted, stooped to pat her new -treasure. Finnegan promptly leaped on her and spattered her fresh -dress with eager, muddy paws. He then caught the table-cover in his -teeth. With one frisky bounce he brought a shower of books and -magazines to the floor. Mr. McCloskey clutched for his collar. The -puppy gayly eluded him and made a dash for the pantry. Marian caught -him just as he was diving headlong into the open flour-barrel. - -"I do thank you so much! He'll be such a pleasure; and such a -protection," gasped Marian, snatching Mrs. Gates's knitting work from -the puppy's inquiring paws. - -"'Tis hardly a protector I'd call him," Mr. McCloskey returned. "But -he'll sure keep your mind employed some. Good-day to ye, ma'am. And -good luck with Finnegan." - -Poor Empress! In her delight with this new plaything, Marian quite -forgot her elder companion. Moreover, as Mr. McCloskey had said, -Finnegan could and did keep her mind employed, and her hands as well. - -"That pup is energetic enough, but he don't appear to have much -judgment," said Mrs. Gates, mildly. In two hours Finnegan had carried -off the family supply of rubbers and hid them in the corn-crib; he had -torn up one of Rod's blue-prints; he had terrorized the hen-yard; he -had chased Empress from turret to foundation-stone. At length Empress -had turned on him and cuffed him till he yelped and fled to the -kitchen, where he upset a pan of bread sponge. - -"Suppose you take him for a walk, down to the big ditch. Maybe the -fresh air will calm him down." - -Marian made a leash of clothes-line and marched Finnegan down the -sodden woods toward the ditch. She was so busy laughing at his droll -performances that she quite forgot the dull fields, the wet, gray -prospect. Crimson-cheeked and breathless, she finally dragged him from -the third alluring rabbit-hole, despite his pleading whines, and -started back up the canal. As she pushed through a hedge of willows a -sweet, high, laughing voice accosted her. - -"Good-morning, my haughty lady! Won't you stop and talk with us a -while?" - -Startled, Marian turned toward the call. Across the ditch, high on the -opposite bank, stood the quaintest, prettiest group that her eyes had -ever beheld. A tall, fair-haired girl of her own age, dressed in a -bewitching short-waisted gown of scarlet and a frilly scarlet bonnet, -stood in the leafless willows, a tiny white-clad child in her arms. -Behind her a stout beaming negress in bandanna turban and gay plaid -calico was lifting another baby high on her ample shoulder. - -Marian stared, astonished. The whole group might well have stepped -straight out of some captivating old engraving of the days before the -war. - -"Haven't you time to pass the time o' day?" the sweet, mischievous -voice entreated. "You are Miss Hallowell, I know. I'm Sarah Louisiana -Burford, and I am just perishin' to meet you. There is a board bridge -just a rod or so up the canal. We'll meet you there. Do please come, -and bring your delightful dog. March right along now!" - -And Marian, laughing with amusement and delight, marched obediently -along. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE MARTIN-BOX NEIGHBORS - - -Marian picked her way up the shore to the board bridge, with Finnegan -prancing behind her. She felt a little abashed as she remembered her -rather tart indifference to young Burford's cordial invitation of the -week before. But all her embarrassment melted away as she crossed the -little bridge and met Sally Lou's welcoming face, her warm clasping -hands. - -"You don't know how hungry I have been to see you," vowed Sally Lou, -her brown eyes kindling under the scarlet bonnet. - -"We've been counting the hours till we should dare to go to call on -Miss Northerner, haven't we, kiddies? This is my son, Edward Fairfax -Burford, Junior, Miss Hallowell. Three years old, three feet square, -and weighs forty-one pounds. Isn't he rather gorgeous--if he does -belong to me! And this is Thomas Tucker Burford. Eighteen months -old, twenty-six pounds, and the disposition of an angel, as long as he -gets his own way. And this is Mammy Easter, who came all the way from -Norfolk with me, to take care of the babies, so that I could live here -on the contract with Ned. Wasn't she brave to come out to this cold, -lonesome country all for me? And this martin-box is my house, and it -is anxious to meet you, too, so come right in!" - - [Illustration: ON THE EDGE OF THE OPPOSITE BANK STOOD THE QUAINTEST, - PRETTIEST GROUP THAT HER EYES HAD EVER BEHELD.] - -Marian climbed the high, narrow outside steps that led to the tiny -play-house on stilts, and entered the low, red doorway, feeling as if -she had climbed Jack's bean-stalk into fairyland. Inside, the -martin-box was even more fascinating. It boasted just three rooms. The -largest room, gay with Mother Goose wall-paper and rosy chintz, was -obviously the realm of Edward, Junior, and Thomas Tucker. The next -room, with its cunning miniature fireplace, its shelves of books, its -pictures and photographs, and its broad high-piled desk, was their -parents' abode; while the third room boasted fascinating white-painted -cupboards and sink, a tiny alcohol stove, and a wee table daintily -set. - -"Aren't you shocked at folks that eat in their kitchen?" drawled Sally -Lou, observing Marian with dancing eyes. "But all our baking and heavy -cooking is done for us, over on the quarter-boat. I brought the stove -to heat the babies' milk; and, too, I like to fuss up goodies for Ned -when he is tired or worried. Poor boys! They're having such an -exasperating time with the contract this week! Everything seems -possessed to go awry. We'll have to see to it that they get a lot of -coddling so's to keep them cheered up, won't we?" - -"Why, I--I suppose so. But how did you dare to bring your little -children down here? They say that this is the most malarial district -in the State." - -"I know. But they can't catch malaria until May, when the mosquitoes -come. Then I shall send them to a farm, back in the higher land. Mammy -will take care of them; and I'll stay down here with Ned during the -day and go to the babies at night. They're pretty sturdy little tads. -They are not likely to catch anything unless their mother is careless -with them. And she isn't careless, really. Is she, Tom Tucker?" She -snatched up her youngest son, with a hug that made his fat ribs -creak. "Come, now! Let's brew some stylish afternoon tea for the lady. -Get down the caravan tea that father sent us, Mammy, and the preserved -ginger, and my Georgian spoons. And fix some chicken bones on the -stoop for Miss Northerner's puppy. This is going to be a banquet, and -a right frabjous one, too!" - -It was a banquet, and a frabjous one, Marian agreed. Sally Lou's tea -and Mammy's nut-cakes were delicious beyond words. The bright little -house, the dainty service, Sally Lou's charming gay talk, the babies, -clinging wide-eyed and adorable to her knee, all warmed and heartened -Marian's listless soul. She was ravished with everything. She looked -in wonder and delight at the high sleeping-porch, with its double -mosquito bars and its duck screening and its cosey hammock-beds. ("Ned -sleeps so much better here, where it is quiet, than on that noisy -boat," Sally Lou explained.) She gazed with deep respect at the tiny -pantry, built of soap-boxes, lined with snowy oil-cloth. She marvelled -at the exquisite old silver, the fine embroidered table-linen, the -delicate china. And she caught her breath when her eyes lighted upon -the beautiful painting in oils that hung above young Burford's desk. -It was a magical bit of color: a dreamy Italian garden, walled in -ancient carved and mellowed stone, its slopes and borders a glory of -roses, flaunting in splendid bloom; and past its flowery gates, a -glimpse of blue, calm sea. She could hardly turn her eyes away from -the lovely vista. It was as restful as an April breeze. And across the -lower corner she read the clear tracing of the signature, a -world-famous name. - -Sally Lou followed her glance. - -"You surely think I'm a goose, don't you, to bring my gold teaspoons, -and my wedding linen, and my finest tea-set down to a wilderness like -this? Well, perhaps I am. And yet the very best treasures that we own -are none too good for our home, you know. And this _is_ home. Any -place is home when Ned and the babies and I are together. Besides, the -very fact that this place is so queer and ugly and dismal is the best -of reasons why we need all our prettiest things, and need to use them -every day, don't you see? So I picked out my sacredest treasures to -bring along. And that painting--yes, it was running a risk to bring so -valuable a canvas down here. But doesn't it just rest your heart to -look at it? That is why I wanted it with us every minute. You can look -at that blue sleepy sky, and those roses climbing the garden wall, and -the sea below, and forget all about the noisy, grimy boats, and the -mud, and sleet, and malaria, and the cross laborers, and the broken -machinery, and everything else; and just look, and look, and dream. -That is why I carted it along. Especially on Ned's account, don't you -see?" - -"Y-yes." At last Marian took her wistful eyes from the picture. "I -wish that I had thought to bring some good photographs to hang in -Rod's state-room. I never thought. But there is no room to pin up even -a picture post-card in his cubby-hole on the boat. I must go on now. I -have had a beautiful time." - -"There goes your brother this minute! In that little red launch, see? -He is going up the ditch. Ring the dinner-bell, Mammy, that will stop -him. He can take you and your dog up to Gates's Landing and save you -half an hour's muddy walk." - -Mammy's dinner-bell pealed loud alarm. Roderick heard and swung the -boat right-about. His sober, anxious face lighted as Marian and Sally -Lou gayly hailed him. - -"I'm glad that you've met Mrs. Burford," he said, as he helped Marian -aboard and hoisted Finnegan astern with some difficulty and many -yelps; for Finnegan left his chicken-bones only under forcible urging. -"She is just about the best ever, and I hope you two will be regular -chums." - -"I love her this minute," declared Marian, with enthusiasm. "Where are -you bound, Rod? Mayn't Finnegan and I tag along?" - -Rod's face grew worried. - -"I'm bound upon a mighty ticklish cruise, Sis. It is a ridiculous -cruise, too. Do you remember what I told you last week about the law -that governs the taxing of the land-owners for the making of these -ditches?" - -"Yes. You said that when the majority of the land-owners had agreed on -doing the drainage work, then the law made every owner pay his tax, -in proportion to the acreage of his land which would be drained by the -ditches, whether he himself wanted the drainage done or not. And you -said that some of the farmers did not want the ditches dug, and that -they were holding back their payments and making trouble for the -contractors; while others were making still more trouble by blocking -the right of way and refusing to let the dredges cut through their -land. But how can they hold you back, Rod? The law says that all the -district people must share in the drainage expenses, whether they like -to or not, because the majority of their neighbors have agreed upon -it." - -"The law says exactly that. Yes. But there are a lot of kinks to -drainage law, and the farmers know it. Burford says that two or three -of them have been making things lively for the company from the start. -But just now we have only one troublesome customer to deal with. And -she is a woman, that is the worst of it. She is a well-to-do, -eccentric old lady, who owns a splendid farm, just beyond the Gateses. -She paid her drainage assessment willingly enough. But now she says -that, last fall, the boys who made the survey tramped through her -watermelon-field and broke some vines and sneaked off with three -melons. At least, so she indignantly states. Maybe it is so; although -the boys swear it was a pumpkin-field, and that they didn't steal so -much as a jack-o'-lantern. Furthermore, she has put up barb wire and -trespass notices straight across the contract right of way; and she -has sent us notice that she is guarding that right of way with a gun, -and that the first engineer who pokes his nose across her boundary -line is due to receive a full charge of buckshot. Sort of a shot-gun -quarantine, see? Now we must start dredging the lateral that crosses -her land next Monday, at the latest. It must be done at the present -stage of high water, else we'll have to delay dredging it until fall. -Carlisle planned to call on her to-day, and to mollify her if -possible, but he's too sick. So I must elbow in myself, and see what -my shirt-sleeve diplomacy can do. I'm glad that I can take you along. -Perhaps you can help to thaw her out." - -"Of all the weird calls to make! What is the old lady like, Rod?" - -"Burford says that she is a droll character. She has managed her own -farm for forty years, and has made a fine success of it. Her name is -Mrs. Chrisenberry. She is not educated, but she is very capable, and -very kind-hearted when you once get on the right side of her. Yonder -is her landing. Don't look so scared, Sis. She won't eat you." - -Marian's fear dissolved in giggles as they teetered up the narrow -board walk to the low brick farm-house. They could not find a -door-bell; they rapped and pounded until their knuckles ached. -Finnegan yapped helpfully and chewed the husk door-mat. At last, a -forbidding voice sounded from the rear of the house. - -"You needn't bang my door down. Come round to the dryin' yard, unless -you're agents. If you're agents, you needn't come at all. I'm busy." - -Meekly Rod and Marian followed this hospitable summons. - -Across the muddy drying yard stretched rows of clothes-line, -fluttering white. Beside a heaped basket of wet, snowy linen stood a -very short, very stout little old lady, her thick woollen skirts -tucked up under a spotless white apron, her small nut-cracker face -glowering from under a sun-bonnet almost as large as herself. She took -three clothes-pins from her mouth and scowled at Rod. - -"Well!" said she. "Name your business. But I don't want no -graphophones, nor patent chick-feed, nor golden-oak dinin'-room sets, -nor Gems of Poesy with gilt edges. Mind that." - -Marian choked. Rod knew that choke. Tears of strangling laughter stood -in his eyes as he humbly stuttered his errand. - -"W-we engineers of the Breckenridge Company wish to offer our sincere -apologies for any annoyance that our surveyors may have caused you. We -are anxious to make any reparation that we can. And--er--we find -ourselves obliged, on account of the high water, to cut our east -laterals at once. We will be very grateful to you if you will be so -kind as to overlook our trespasses of last season, and will permit us -to go on with our work. I speak for the company as well as for -myself." - -The old lady stared at him, with unwinking, beady eyes. There was a -painful pause. - -"Well, I don't know. You're a powerful slick, soft-spoken young man. -I'll say that much for you." Marian gulped, and stooped hurriedly to -pat Finnegan. "And I don't know as I have any lastin' gredge against -your company. Them melons was frost-bit, anyway. But if you do start -your machinery on that lateral, mind I don't want no more tamperin' -with my garden stuff. And I don't want your men a-cavortin' around, -runnin' races on my land, nor larkin' evenings, nor comin' to the -house for drinks of water. One of them surveyors, last fall, he come -to the door for a drink, an' I was fryin' crullers, an' he asked for -one, bold as brass. Says I, 'Help yourself.' Well, he did that. There -was a blue platter brim full, and if he didn't set down an' eat every -single cruller, down to the last crumb! An' then he had the impudence -to tell me to my face that they was tolerable good crullers, but that -he'd wager the next platterful would taste better than the first, an' -he'd like to try and find out for sure!" - -"I don't blame him. I'd like to try that experiment myself," said Rod -serenely. The old lady glared. Then the ghost of a twinkle flickered -under the vasty sun-bonnet. - -"Well, as I say, I ain't made up my mind yet. But I'll let you know -to-night, maybe. Now you'd better be goin'. Looks like more rain." - -"Can't we help you with the clothes first?" asked Marian. The old lady -shook out a huge, wet table-cloth and stood on tip-toe to pin it -carefully on the line. - -"You might, yes. Take these pillow-cases. But don't you drop them in -the mud. My clothes-line broke down last week, and didn't I spend a -day of it, doin' my whole week's wash over again!" - -The strong breeze caught the big cloth and whipped it like a banner. -Finnegan, who had been waiting politely in the background, beheld this -signal with joy. With a gay yelp he bolted past Marian and seized a -corner of the table-cloth in his teeth. - -"Scat!" cried Mrs. Chrisenberry, startled. "Where did that pup come -from? Shoo!" - -Finnegan, unheeding, took a tighter grip, and swung his fat heavy body -from the ground. There was a sickening sound of tearing linen. Marian -stood transfixed. Rod, his arms full of wet pillow-slips, dashed to -the rescue. But he was not in time. - -"Scat, I say!" Mrs. Chrisenberry flapped her apron. - -Amiable creature, she wanted to play with him! Enchanted, the puppy -let go the table-cloth and dashed at her, under full steam. His sturdy -paws struck Mrs. Chrisenberry with the force of a young battering-ram. -With an astonished shriek she swayed back, clutching at the -table-cloth to steady herself. But the table-cloth and clothes-pins -could not hold a moment against the onslaught of the heavy puppy. By -good fortune, the basketful of clothes stood directly behind Mrs. -Chrisenberry. As the faithless table-cloth slid from the rope, back -she pitched, with a terrified squeal, to land, safely if forcibly, in -its snowy depths. - -Marian, quite past speech, sank on the porch steps. Rod stood gaping -with horror. Mrs. Chrisenberry rose up with appalling calm. - -"You! You come here. You--varmint!" - -Finnegan did not hesitate. Trustfully he gambolled up; gayly he -seized her apron hem in his white milk teeth and bit out a -feather-stitched scallop. Mrs. Chrisenberry stooped. Her broad palm -landed heavily on Finnegan's curly ear. - -Alas for discipline! Finnegan dodged back and eyed her, amazed. One -grieved yelp rent the air. Then, instantly repenting, he leaped upon -her and smothered her with muddy kisses. This was merely the lady's -way of playing with him. How could he resent it! - -Then Rod came to his wits. He seized Mr. Finnegan by the collar and -cuffed him into bewildered silence. He caught up the wrecked -table-cloth and the miry pillow-slips, he poured out regrets and -apologies and promises in an all but tearful stream. Mrs. Chrisenberry -did not say one word. Her small nut-cracker face set, ominous. - -"You needn't waste no more soft sawder," said she, at length. "I 'low -these are just the rampagin' doings I could look for every day if I -once gave you folks permission to bring your dredge on my land. So I -may's well make up my mind right now. Tell your boss that those -trespass signs an' that barb wire are still up, and that they'll most -likely stay up till doomsday. Good-mornin'." - -"Well! I don't give much for my shirt-sleeve diplomacy," groaned Rod, -as they teetered away, down the board walk. - -"I'm sorry, Rod." Then Marian choked again. Weak with laughter, she -clung to the gate-post. "It was j-just like a moving picture! And when -she vanished into the basket--Oh, dear--oh, dear!" - -"You better believe it was exactly like a moving picture," muttered -Rod. "It all went so fast I couldn't get there in time to do one -thing. It went like a cinematograph--Zip! And off flew all our chances -for all time. Finnegan, you scoundrel! Do you realize that your -playful little game will cost the company a lawsuit and a small -fortune besides?" - -Finnegan barked and took a friendly nip of Rod's ankle. Finnegan's -young conscience was crystal-clear. - -"Let's take the launch down to Burford's and tell them our -misfortunes," said Rod. "I need sympathy." - -The Burfords heard their mournful tale with shouts of unpitying joy. - -"Yes, I know, it's hard luck. Especially with Marvin in the sulks and -Carlisle sick," said Ned Burford, wiping his eyes. "But the next time -you start diplomatic negotiations, you had better leave that dog at -home. I'm going over to the house-boat to tell Mr. Carlisle. Poor sick -fellow, this story will amuse him if anything can." - -He jumped into the launch. A minute later Rod brought it alongside the -house-boat and Burford disappeared within. - -"Mr. Carlisle, sir!" They heard his laughing voice at the chief's -state-room door. "May I come in? Will I disturb you if I tell you a -good joke on Hallowell?" - -There was a pause. Then came a rush of feet. Burford dashed from the -cabin and confronted Rod and Marian. His face was very white. - -"Hallowell! Come aboard, quick!" he said, in a shaking voice. "Mr. -Carlisle is terribly ill. He's lying there looking like death; he -couldn't even speak to me. Hurry!" - - - - -CHAPTER V - -GOOSE-GREASE AND DIPLOMACY - - -Roderick leaped aboard. Marian followed, trembling with fear. - -Mr. Carlisle lay in his seaman's hammock beside the window. His gaunt -hands were like ice. His lean face was ashen gray. But he nodded -weakly and put out a shaking, courteous hand. - -"Too bad to alarm you thus," he gasped. "I--I was afraid of this. -Malaria plays ugly tricks with a man's heart now and then. You'd -better ship me to the hospital at Saint Louis. They can patch me up in -a week probably. Only, the sooner you can get me there, the better." - -"You call the foreman and tell him to get up steam on the big launch, -Hallowell." Burford, very pale, took command of the situation. "Miss -Hallowell, will you go and bring Sally Lou? I want her right away. -She's all kinds of good in an emergency." - -Marian fled, her own heart pounding in her throat. But Sally Lou, -after the first scared questions, rose to the occasion, steady and -serene. - -"Light the stove and make our soapstones and sand-bags piping-hot, -Mammy. Heat some bouillon and put it into the thermos bottle. Ned, you -and the foreman must take him down to Grafton Landing on the launch. -The _Lucy Lee_ is due to reach Grafton late this afternoon. I'll catch -the _Lucy's_ captain on the long-distance telephone at the landing -above Grafton, and tell him to wait at Grafton Landing till you get -there with Mr. Carlisle. Then you can put him aboard the _Lucy_. She -will make Saint Louis in half the time that you could make it with the -launch. Besides, the _Lucy_ will mean far easier travelling for Mr. -Carlisle." - -"I never thought of the _Lucy_! I'd meant to wait with him at the -Landing and take the midnight train. But the steam-boat will be a far -easier trip. Sally Lou, you certainly are a peach!" Young Burford -looked at his wife with solemn admiration. "Go and telephone, quick. -We'll have Carlisle ready to start in an hour." - -In less than an hour the launch was made ready, with cot and pillows -and curtains, as like an ambulance as a launch could well be. With -clumsy anxious pains Roderick and Burford lifted their chief aboard. -Marian hung behind, eager to help, yet too frightened and nervous to -be of service. But Sally Lou, her yellow hair flying under her ruffly -red bonnet, her baby laughing and crowing on her shoulder, popped her -flushed face gayly under the awning to bid Mr. Carlisle good-by. - -"If it wasn't for these babies I'd go straight along and take care of -you myself, Mr. Carlisle," she cried. "But the hospital will take -better care of you than I could, I reckon. And the week's vacation -will do you no end of good. Besides it will set these two lazybones to -work." She gave her husband a gentle shake. "Ned and Mr. Hallowell -will have to depend on themselves, instead of leaving all the -responsibility to you. It will be the making of them. You'll see!" - -"Perhaps that is true." Carlisle's gray lips smiled. He was white with -suffering, but he spoke with his unvarying kind formality. "I am -leaving you gentlemen with a pretty heavy load. But--I am not -apprehensive. I know that you boys will stand up to the contract, and -that you will carry it on with success. Good-by, and good luck to -you!" - -The launch shot away down-stream. Sally Lou looked after it. Marian -saw her sparkling eyes grow very grave. - -"Mr. Carlisle is mighty brave, isn't he? But he will not come back to -work in a week's time. No, nor in a month's time either if I know -anything about it. But there's no use a-glooming, is there, Thomas -Tucker! You two come up to my house and we'll have supper together and -watch for Ned; for if he meets the _Lucy_ at Grafton he can bring the -launch back by ten to-night." - -Sally Lou was a good prophet. It was barely nine when Ned's launch -whistled at the landing. Ned climbed the steps, looking tired and -excited. - -"Yes, we overhauled the _Lucy_, all right. Mr. Carlisle seemed much -more comfortable when we put him aboard. He joked me about being so -frightened and said he'd come back in a day or so as good as new. -But--I don't know how we'll manage here. With Carlisle laid up, and -Marvin gone off in the sulks, for nobody knows how long--Well, for the -next few days this contract is up to us, Hallowell. That is all there -is to that. And we've got to make good. We've got to put it through." - -"You certainly must make good. And it is up to us girls to help things -along," said Sally Lou, briskly. "Isn't it, Marian? Yes, I'm going to -call you Marian right away. It's such a saving of time compared to -'Miss Hallowell.' And the very first thing to-morrow morning we will -drive over to Mrs. Chrisenberry's, and coax her into letting you boys -start that lateral through her land." - -Three startled faces turned to her. Three astounded voices rose. - -"Coax her, indeed! On my word! When she drove Rod and me off the place -this very morning!" - -"Think you dare ask her to take down her barb-wire barricade and lay -away her shot-gun? 'Not till doomsday!'" - -"Sally Lou, are you daft? You've never laid eyes on Mrs. Chrisenberry. -You don't know what you're tackling. We'll not put that lateral -through till we've dragged the whole question through the courts. -Don't waste your time in dreaming, child." - -"I'm not going to dream. I'm going to act. You'll go with me, won't -you, Marian? We'll take the babies and the buckboard. But, if you -don't mind, we'll leave Mr. Finnegan at home. Finnegan's diplomacy is -all right, only that it's a trifle demonstrative. Yes, you boys are -welcome to shake your heads and look owlish. But wait and see!" - -"She'll never try to face that ferocious old lady," said Rod, on the -way home. - -"Of course not. She's just making believe," rejoined Marian. - -Little did they know Sally Lou! Marian had just finished her breakfast -the next morning when the yellow buckboard, drawn by a solemn, scraggy -horse, drove up to Mrs. Gates's door. On the front seat, rosy as her -scarlet gown and cloak, sat Sally Lou. From the back seat beamed -Mammy Easter, in her gayest bandanna, with Edward Burford, Junior, -dimpled and irresistible, beside her, and Thomas Tucker bouncing and -crowing in her arms. - -"Climb right in, Miss Northerner! Good-by, poor Finnegan! This time -we're going to try the persuasive powers of two babies as compared to -those of one collie. Here we go!" - -"Are we really going to Mrs. Chrisenberry's? Are you actually planning -to ask her for the right of way?" queried Marian. - -Sally Lou chuckled. Her round face was guileless and bland. - -"Certainly not. I am going to Mrs. Chrisenberry's to buy some -goose-grease." - -"To buy some _goose-grease_! Horrors! What is goose-grease, pray?" - -"Goose-grease is goose-grease. Didn't you ever have the croup when you -were young, Miss Northerner? And didn't they roll you in warm -blankets, and then bandage your poor little throat with goose-grease -and camphor and red pepper?" - -"An' a baked onion for your supper," added Mammy Easter. "An' a big -saucer of butterscotch, sizzlin'-hot. Dey ain't no croup what kin -stand before dat!" - -"Mercy, I should hope not. I never heard of anything so dreadful. You -aren't going to give goose-grease to your own babies, I hope?" - -Sally Lou surveyed her uproarious sons, and allowed herself a brief -giggle. - -"They've never had a sign of croup so far, I'm thankful to say. But -one ought to be prepared. And Mrs. Chrisenberry has the finest -poultry-yard in the country-side. We'll enjoy seeing that, too. Don't -look so dubersome. Wait and see!" - -Mrs. Chrisenberry was working in her vegetable garden as they drove -up. Her queer little face was bound in a huge many-colored "nuby," her -short skirts were kilted over high rubber boots. She leaned on her -spade and gave the girls a nod that, as Marian told Rod later, was -like a twelve-pound shot squarely across the enemy's bows. - -Sally Lou merely beamed upon her. - -"Wet weather for putting in your garden, isn't it?" she cried, gayly. -"I'm Mrs. Burford, Mrs. Chrisenberry. My husband is an engineer on -the Breckenridge contract." - -"H'm!" Mrs. Chrisenberry glared. Sally Lou chattered gayly on. - -"I'm staying down at the canal with these two youngsters, and I want -to buy some of your fine goose-grease. They've never had croup in all -their born days, but it's such a cold, wet spring that it is well to -be prepared for anything." - -"Goose-grease!" Mrs. Chrisenberry looked at her keenly. "For those -babies? Highty-tighty! Goose-grease is well enough, but hot mutton -taller is better yet. I've raised two just as fine boys as them, so I -know. Mutton taller an' camphire, that's sovereign." - -She put down her spade and picked her way to the buckboard. Edward -Junior hailed her with a shriek of welcome. Thomas Tucker floundered -wildly in Mammy's grasp and clutched Mrs. Chrisenberry around the neck -with a strangling squeeze. - -Marian gasped. For Mrs. Chrisenberry, grim, stern little nut-cracker -lady, had lifted Thomas to her stooped little shoulder and was -gathering Edward Junior into a lean strong little arm. Both babies -crowed with satisfaction. Thomas jerked off the tasselled nuby and -showered rose-leaf kisses from Mrs. Chrisenberry's tight knob of gray -hair to the tip of her dour little chin. Edward pounded her gleefully -with fists and feet. - -"They'll strangle her," Marian whispered, aghast. - -"Pooh, she doesn't mind," Sally Lou whispered back. "You mustn't let -them pull you to pieces, Mrs. Chrisenberry. They're as strong as -little bear cubs." - -"Guess I know that." Mrs. Chrisenberry shook Edward's fat grip loose -from her tatting collar. "They're the living images of my own boys, -thirty years ago. I hope your children bring you as good luck as mine -have brought me. They've grown up as fine men as you'd find in a day's -journey. Let me take 'em to see the hen yard. They'll like to play -with the little chickens, I know." - -Edward and Thomas Tucker were charmed with the hen yard. They fell -upon a brood of tiny yellow balls with cries of ecstasy. Only the -irate pecks and squawks of the outraged hen mother prevented them -from hugging the fuzzy peepers to a loving death. - -"They're a pretty lively team," remarked Mrs. Chrisenberry. "Let's -take 'em into the house, and I'll give them some cookies and milk. I -don't know much about new-fangled ways of feeding children, but I do -know that my cookies never hurt anybody yet." - -She led them through her shining kitchen into a big, bright -sitting-room. Again Marian halted to stare. This was not the customary -chill and dreary farm-house "parlor." Instead, she saw a wide, -fire-lit living-room, filled with flowering plants, home-like with its -books and pictures; and at the arched bay-window a beautiful upright -piano. - -Mrs. Chrisenberry followed her glance. - -"Land, I don't ever touch it," she said, with a dry little nut-cracker -chuckle. "My oldest boy he gave it to me, for he knows I'm that hungry -for music, and whenever my daughter-in-law comes to visit she plays -for me by the hour, and it's something grand. And now and then a -neighbor will pick out a tune for me. My, don't I wish I could keep -it goin' all the time! You girls don't play, I suppose?" - -Sally Lou's eyes met Marian's with a quick question. Marian's cheeks -grew hot. - -"I--I play a little. But I'm sure that Mrs. Burford----" - -"Mrs. Burford will play some other time," interrupted Sally Lou, -hastily. "Go on, that's a good girl!" - -Now, it bored Marian dismally to play for strangers. She refused so -habitually that few of her friends knew what a delightful pianist she -really was. But dimly she realized that Sally Lou's eyes were flashing -with anxious command. She opened the piano. - -She ran through the airs from the "Tales from Hoffmann," then played a -romping folk-dance, and, at last, the lovely magic of the "Spring -Song." - -Mrs. Chrisenberry hardly breathed. She sat rigidly in her chair, her -knotted little hands shut tight, her beady eyes unwinking. - -"My, but that goes to the place," she sighed, as the last airy harmony -died away. "Now I'll bring your cookies and milk, you lambs, and then -you'd better be starting home. It looks like rain." - -Marian and Sally Lou fell behind in the procession to the carriage. -Edward Junior toddled down the board walk, clinging to his hostess's -skirt. Thomas Tucker laughed and gurgled in her arms. Mrs. -Chrisenberry put Thomas on Mammy's lap, then picked up Edward, who, -loath to depart, squeezed her neck with warm, crumby little hands and -snuggled his fat cheek to her own. Mrs. Chrisenberry looked down at -him. Her grim little nut-cracker face quivered oddly. A dim pink -warmed her brown, withered cheek. - -"It's nice while they're little, isn't it?" she said, with a queer, -wistful smile. "Though I dassent complain. My boys are the best sons -anybody ever had, and they treat me like a queen. Here, son, stop -pulling my ears so hard; it hurts. Now, I'll send you a whole bowlful -of mutton taller to-morrow; and a jar of goose-grease the very next -rendering I make. Didn't you say you're living on the drainage job? -Well"--the dim pink grew bright in her cheek--"well, you tell your -man that he kin go right ahead and cut his ditch through my land. I'll -not stand in the way no longer. Though tell him that I'll expect him -to see that his men don't tramp through my garden nor steal my -watermelons. Mind that." - -"I know I can promise that, always." Sally Lou's eyes were brown -stars. "And thank you more than tongue can tell, Mrs. Chrisenberry. -You don't know what this will mean to my husband, and I never can tell -you how much we shall appreciate your kindness. Packed in all right, -Mammy? Come, Edward, son. Good-by!" - -They drove away in the silence of utter, astonished joy. - -"Your goose-grease worked that miracle, Sally Lou!" - -"Nonsense! It was your music that carried the day. But oh, I was so -afraid you were going to say no!" - -Again Marian's cheeks flushed hot, with queer, vexed shame. - -"Well, I did all but refuse. I do hate to play for anybody, especially -for strangers." - -"Why?" Sally Lou looked hopelessly puzzled. "But when it gives them so -much pleasure! And besides, if you want a selfish reason, think how -you have helped the boys. There they come now." - -With a joyful call Sally Lou waved her scarf to the two figures -plodding up the canal road. Then as the flimsy silk could not do -justice to her feelings, she caught up little Thomas Tucker and -flourished him, a somewhat ponderous banner. The boys hurried to meet -them. They listened to the girls' excited tale, at first unbelieving, -then with faces of amazement and relief. - -"Well, you two girls deserve a diamond medal," declared Burford, -heartily. His flushed, perturbed face brightened. "You don't know what -a load you have taken off our shoulders." He looked at Roderick. "This -is a real sterling-silver lining to our cloud, isn't it, Hallowell? So -big that it fairly bulges out around the edges." - -"A silver lining to what cloud, Ned?" demanded Sally Lou, promptly -curious. "Has something gone wrong with the work? Another break in the -machinery? Or trouble among the laborers, or what?" - -The two boys looked at each other. Marian studied their faces. Burford -was flushed and excited. Rod's stolid, dark face was frowning and -intent. - -"Own up!" commanded Sally Lou, sternly. "Don't you dare try to keep -your dark and dreadful secrets from us!" - -The boys laughed. But a quick warning glance flashed from one to the -other. Then Burford spoke. - -"Don't conjure up so many bogies, Sally Lou. We--we've had bad news -from Mr. Carlisle. His doctor told me, over the long-distance, that he -would not be able to leave the hospital for a fortnight. And he must -not come back on the work for two months at the best." - -Sally Lou sobered. - -"That is bad news. Poor Mr. Carlisle! But is that all that you have to -tell me, Ned?" - -Burford jumped. He reddened a little. - -"Y-yes, I reckon that's all. You girls will have to excuse us now. -Hallowell and I are going back to our boat-house to fix up our March -reports." - -"Anything we two can help about?" - -"You two have put in a mighty good day's work in securing that right -of way. Though if you're hunting for a job you might verify the -yardage report I left on your desk. Run along now, we're going to be -busy." - -"Such is gratitude," remarked Sally Lou, with ironic philosophy, as -she drove away. "'Run along, we're busy.' Just like a boy!" - -Roderick and Ned looked after the buckboard, a little shame-faced at -Sally Lou's parting shot. - -"Just the same, it does no good to tell them all our ill-luck," said -Burford. - -"And Marvin's threatening to quit is even worse luck than Carlisle's -illness. For his quarrel with the foreman has started half a dozen -quarrels among the workmen. Queer, isn't it? A grouch like that will -spread like wild-fire through a whole camp." - -"Marvin is waiting on the house-boat for us this minute." Ned peered -through a telescope of his hands. "Now we'll listen to a tale of woe!" - -Marvin did not wait till they could reach the boat. His angry voice -rang out across the canal. - -"Well, _Mister_ Hallowell! I just got the note that you so kindly -sent me. So you and Mr. Burford here think that I ought to stand by -the job, hey, 'and not let my private quarrels influence me into -deserting the contract?' Thank you, _Mister_ Hallowell, for your kind -advice. But I rather guess I can get along without any orders from -either of you two swells. No, nor criticisms, either." - -"We're not giving orders, and you know that, Marvin." Rod spoke -sharply. "But you're never going to throw down your billet just -because of a two-cent fuss with the foreman. Think what a hole you'd -leave the company in! Carlisle sick, high water holding back our -freight, coal shipments stalled, everything tied up----" - -"And you're directly responsible to the company for that berm -construction," broke in Burford hotly. "You know well enough that we -can't watch that work and oversee the ditch-cutting at one and the -same time. You're not going to sneak out and play quitter----" - -"I'm going to play quitter, as you call it, whenever I choose. That -happens to be right now. You two silk-stockings can like it, or lump -it. Mulcahy!" he yelled to the camp commissary man, who was just -starting down the canal in his launch on his way to Grafton for -supplies. "Wait, I'm going with you. Here, take this." - -He bolted into his cabin, then dashed back, carrying a heavy -suit-case. He heaved it into the launch, then sprang in beside the -open-mouthed steward. - -"Now, I'm off!" He blazed the words at the two boys staring from the -bank. "You can run this contract to suit yourselves, gentlemen. I'll -send my resignation direct to the company. I don't have to take orders -from you two swells another hour. Good-morning, gentlemen!" - -The steward grinned sheepishly at sight of his superior officer -behaving himself like a spunky small boy. With a rueful nod toward -Roderick he headed the launch down the canal. - -Burford expressed himself with some vim. - -"Well, he's gone. Good riddance, I call it. The surly hound!" - -"I don't know about that," muttered Rod. "It was my fault, maybe, -writing him that letter. I was too high and mighty, I suppose." - -"You needn't blame yourself," returned Burford bluntly. "We've put up -with his insolence and his scamped work and his everlasting wrangling -long enough. Mr. Carlisle won't blame us; neither will the company." - -"We ought to wire company head-quarters at Chicago, and report just -how things stand; then they'll send us a supervising engineer to take -Mr. Carlisle's place. And a new scrub, too, instead of Marvin." - -"You're right, Hallowell. You wire them straight off, will you? I'm -going up to the first lateral to watch the afternoon shift." - -Early that evening Roderick received the answering wire from -head-quarters. He read it carefully. His sober young face settled into -grim lines. - -An hour later Burford turned up, tired, but in high spirits, for his -dredge had made a flying start on the lateral. Roderick handed him the -despatch. - -The two boys stared at each other. A deep flush burned to Burford's -temples. Rod's hard jaw set. - -The message was curt and to the point. - - "THE BRECKENRIDGE ENGINEERING COMPANY. - OFFICE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT. - - RODERICK HALLOWELL, ESQ. - _c/o Contract Camp, Grafton, Illinois._ - -_Sir:_ Your report received. Consider yourself and Burford as jointly -in command till further orders. I shall reach camp on route inspection -by 26th inst. Kindly report conditions daily by wire. - - BRECKENRIDGE." - -"So we're made jointly responsible. Put in charge by Breckenridge. By -Breck the Great, his very self. H'm-m." Burford looked out at the -crowded boats, the muddy, half-built levee, stretching far as eye -could see; the night shift of laborers, eighty strong, shuffling -aboard the quarter-boat for their hot supper; the massed, powerful -machinery, stretching its black funnels and cranes against the red -evening sky. "So we're the two Grand Panjandrums on this job. -Responsible for excavation that means prosperity or ruin for half the -farmers in the district, according as we do or don't finish those -laterals before the June rise; responsible for a pay-roll that runs -over four hundred dollars a day; responsible for a time-lock contract -that will cost our company five hundred dollars forfeit money a day -for every day that we run over our time limit. Well, Hallowell?" - -"It strikes me," said Rod, very briefly, "that it's up to us." - -"Yes, it is up to us. But if we don't make good----" - -"Don't let that worry you." Rod's jaw set, steel. "Don't give that a -thought. We'll make good." - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE CONTRACT'S RECEIVING DAY - - -"Hello, Sis!" It was Roderick's voice over the telephone. "How are you -feeling this fine, muggy morning?" - -"Pretty well, I suppose. How are you, Rod? Where are you telephoning -from?" - -"From Burford's shack. We're in a pinch down here, Marian. We need you -to help out. Can't you ask Mr. Gates to hitch up and bring you down to -camp right away? Or if you'll walk down to Gates's Landing I'll send -Mulcahy with the launch, to bring you the rest of the way. And put on -your very best toggery, Sis. War paint and feathers and all that. That -pretty lavender silk rig will do. But don't forget the gimcracks. Put -on all the jewelry you own." - -"Why, Roderick Hallowell! What can you mean? Dress up in my best, and -come down to camp at nine in the morning, and on Sunday morning at -that?" - -"I mean just what I say." Then Roderick chuckled irresistibly. "Poor -Sis, I don't wonder you're puzzled. But Sunday is the contract's day -at home, and we want you to stand in line and receive; or pour tea, -whichever you prefer to do. Do you see?" - -"No, I don't see. All I do see is that you're talking nonsense. And I -don't intend to come down to the camp. It is such a hot, horrid -morning, I don't propose to stir. I want you to come up and spend the -day here instead. Mrs. Gates wants you, too, she says, for dinner and -for supper as well. And yesterday the rural-delivery man brought a -whole armful of new magazines. We'll sit on the porch, and you can -read and I'll write letters, and we'll have a lovely, quiet day -together." - -There was a pause. When Roderick spoke again, his voice was rather -quenched. - -"Sorry, Sis, but it isn't possible for me to come, even for dinner. -I'll be hard at it here, every minute of the day." - -"You mean that you must work on the contract all day Sunday? When you -have worked fourteen hours a day, ever since you came West?" Marian's -voice was very tart. "Can't you stop long enough to go to church with -me, even? There's a beautiful little church four miles away. It's just -a pleasant drive. Surely you can give up two hours of the morning, if -you can spare no more time!" - -"It isn't a question of what I'm willing to do. And I am not planning -to work on Sunday. As you know, Sis, we bank our fires Saturday night -and give the laborers a day off. Nearly all the men left for town last -night to stay till Monday. But listen. Burford tells me that, on every -clear Sunday, we can expect a visit from most of the land-owners for -miles around. And not just from the land-owners themselves: their -sisters, and their cousins, and their aunts; and the children, and the -neighbors, and the family cat. They want to see for themselves just -how the work is going on. When you stop to think, it's their own work. -Their money is paying for every shovelful of dirt we move, and every -inch of levee-work. And they're paying every copper of our salaries, -too. They have a right to see how their own investment is being used, -Sis." - -"So you have to treat these country people as honored guests! Cart -them up and down the canal, and show them the excavations, and let -them pry into your reports, and ask you silly questions! Of all the -tiresome, preposterous things!" - -"That's pretty much what we'll do. But there is nothing preposterous -about it; it's their right. And we fellows want to do the decent -thing. Now, more than ever, we want to do everything properly because -Carlisle is sick and away. Burford says that Carlisle was more -exacting about these visits of inspection than about anything else on -the plant. He said that when a man builds a house to protect his -family he has the right to oversee every inch of the construction, if -he likes. On the same principle, these farmers who are digging canals -and putting up levees to protect their lands should have the right to -watch the work, step by step. Burford says, too, that Carlisle, with -his everlasting patience and courtesy, was steadily winning over the -whole district; even the men who had fought the first assessments -tooth and nail. It is the least we boys can do to keep up the good -feeling that Carlisle has established." - -"Well, I think it is all very absurd. Why should I come down to the -work? These people do not even know that I exist. And if you really -need somebody to talk to their wives and be gracious and all that, why -can't Mrs. Burford do it better than I? She is right on the ground, -anyway." - -"Yes, she's right on the ground. And so is Thomas Tucker's newest -tooth. The poor little skeezicks howled half the night, Burford says. -He has stopped yelling just now, but he won't let his mother out of -his sight for one minute. Mrs. Burford is pretty much worn to a -frazzle. But I don't want to pester you, Marian." There was a worried -note in Rod's voice now. "I wouldn't have you come for any -consideration, if it were to make you ill or tired. So perhaps we'd -better not think of it." - -Marian shrugged her shoulders. An odd, teasing question stirred in her -mind. - -"I rather think I can stand the day if you can. Finnegan and I will be -at the landing in half an hour. I, and my best beads and wampum, and -my new spring hat. There, now!" - -Not waiting for Rod's delighted reply, she hurried away to dress. A -whimsical impulse led her to put on her freshest and daintiest gown, a -charming lilac silk, with a wide, tilting picture hat, heaped with -white and purple lilacs. She was standing at the little pier, tugging -at her long gloves, when the duty-launch, with Rod himself at the -wheel, shot round the bend. Rod waved his hand; then, at sight of her -amazing finery, he burst into a whoop of satisfaction. - -"Will you look at that! Marian Hallowell, you're the best ever. I -might have known you'd play up. Though I was scared stiff, for fear -you'd think that just every-day clothes would do. My, but you're -stunning! You're looking stronger, too, Sis. You're not nearly so wan -and spooky as you were a week ago." - -"I'm feeling better, too." Marian's color rose. Even her sulky humor -must melt under Rod's beaming approval. "Now give me my sailing -orders, Rod. How many callers will we have? What sort of people will -they be? Tart and grim, like Mrs. Chrisenberry, I suppose, or else -kindly and bashful and 'woodsy,' like the Gateses? Will they stop by -on their way home from church, or will they come promptly after dinner -and spend the afternoon?" - -Rod laughed. "No telling, Sister. We may have ten callers, we may have -a hundred. You'll find all kinds of people among them; precisely as -you'll find all kinds of people on Mount Vernon Street, Boston, -Massachusetts. There'll be nice, neighborly folks who'll drive up the -canal road in Bond Street motoring clothes and sixty-horse-power cars. -There'll be other nice, neighborly folks who'll ride in through the -woods on their plough horses, wearing slat sunbonnets and hickory -shirts. And they'll be friendly, and critical, and enthusiastic, and -dubersome, all in a heap. You'll need all your social experience, and -all your tact, and all the diplomacy you can muster. See?" - -"Yes, I'm beginning to see." Marian's eyes were thoughtful. Then she -sprang up to wave her lilac parasol in greeting to the martin-box and -Sally Lou. - -"Isn't this the most mournful luck that ever was!" Sally Lou sat with -Thomas Tucker, a forlorn little figure, planted firmly on her knee. -"To think that my son must spend his first afternoon of the season in -cutting a wicked double tooth! Maybe it'll come through by -dinner-time, though. Then he'll go to sleep, and I can slip over and -help you entertain our people--Why, Marian Hallowell! Oh, what a -lovely, lovely gown! You wise child, how did you know that to wear it -to-day was precisely the wisest thing that you could possibly do!" - -"I didn't know that. I just put it on. Partly for fun, and--well, -partly to provoke Rod, I suppose." Marian felt rather foolish. But she -had no time for further confidences. - -Up the muddy canal road came a roomy family carriage, drawn by a -superbly matched black team. That carriage was packed solid to the -dashboard. Father, two tall boys, and a rosy little daughter crammed -the front seat; mother, grandmother, and aunty were fitted neatly -into the back; and a fringe of small fry swung from every direction. - -"Morning." The father reined in and gave everybody a friendly nod and -smile. "How are you, Mr. Burford? Glad to meet you, Mr. Hallowell. No, -thank you, we're on our way to Sunday-school and church, so we haven't -a minute to stop. But I have been wanting to know how you think -lateral four will work out; the one that turns down past my farm. Will -that sand cut give you much trouble?" - -"It will make slower dredging, Mr. Moore. But we'll put it through as -fast as we can." - -"Um. I'm in no hurry to see it go through. The high water isn't due -for a month, anyway. Now, I don't know much about sand-cutting. But -I've been told that your worst trouble in a sand streak is with the -slides. After your dredge-dipper has dumped the stuff ashore, it won't -stay put. It keeps tobogganing back into the channel and blocking your -cut. So sometimes you have to hoist it out two or three times over." - -"That's exactly the case, Mr. Moore. Usually our levee gangs follow -along and tamp the sand down, or else spread it back from the berm -where it has no chance to slide. But it is getting so near the time -set for the completion of our upper lateral cut that we are obliged to -keep our levee shift at work on the upper laterals and take our -chances on the sand staying where we pile it." - -"Just what I'd supposed. Now, I shall need a lot of that sand, in a -week or so, for some cement work. S'pose I send you a couple of teams -and half a dozen hands to-morrow, to cart off the sand under your -direction. Would that help things along?" - -"Help things along? I should say it would!" Rod beamed. "It would be -the most timely help we could ask." - -"But won't it put you to a lot of trouble, sir," asked Burford, "to -take the hands off their regular farm-work in that way?" - -"W-well, no. Anyway they can haul sand for a day or so without making -much difference. And it will be a heap handier for you boys to have -the stuff carted off as fast as you throw it ashore." - -"It surely will. That's the best news we've heard in one while!" The -boys stood smiling at each other, completely radiant. Mr. Moore -nodded and turned his horses. - -"Glad if it will be any accommodation. Well, good day to you all. My -good wishes to Mr. Carlisle. Tell him I said he left a couple of -mighty competent substitutes, but that his neighbors will be glad to -see him coming back, just the same." - -The big carriage with its gay load rolled away. - -"So Moore will send men and teams to help us on that sand cut!" -Burford, fairly chortling with satisfaction, started toward the -martin-box. "If all our land-owners treated us with half the -consideration that he always gives, our work would be a summer's -dream. I'm going up to tell Sally Lou." - -He had hardly reached the martin-box before he turned with a shout. - -"There come our next visitors, Hallowell. The commodore and Mrs. -McCloskey, in that fat little white launch. See?" - -Commodore McCloskey it was, indeed. Finnegan's wild yelp of delighted -greeting would have told as much. Marian promptly joined the hilarious -race to the pier. The commodore, crisp and blinding-white in his -starchy duck, stood at his launch wheel, majestic as if he stood on -the bridge of an ocean liner. But Mrs. McCloskey, a dainty, soft-eyed, -little old lady, with cheeks like Scotch roses, and silky curls white -as dandelion down blowing from under her decorous gray bonnet, won -Marian's heart at the first glance. She was as quaint and gentle and -charming as an old-time miniature. - -While the boys took the commodore up and down the laterals that he -might see their progress since his last visit, Mrs. McCloskey trailed -her soft old black silk skirts to the martin-box door and begged for a -glimpse of the baby. - -"He's crosser than a prickly little porcupine," protested Sally Lou, -handing him over reluctantly. - -"Oh, but he'll come to me just the minute! Won't you, lamb?" - -And like a lamb Thomas Tucker forgot his sorrows and snuggled happily -into her tender arms, while his relieved mother bustled about and -helped Marian to make a generous supply of lemonade; for half a dozen -carriage loads of visitors were now coming up the road. - -"'Tis amazin'. Where do they all come from?" observed Mrs. McCloskey. -"Yet there's nigh three hundred land-owners in this district. And the -commodore, he passed the word yesterday that there's close on two -hundred thousand acres of land that will be protected by this one -drainage contract. Think of that, Miss Marian. Is it not grand to know -that your brother is giving the power of his hands and his brains to -such a big, helping work as all that?" - -"Why, I suppose so." Marian spoke absently. - -"And ye will be a help to him, too, I can see that." Mrs. McCloskey -put out a hesitating little hand in a quaint old silken mitt and -patted Marian's fluffy gown. "'Tis not everybody makes as bould as -meself to tell you in so many words of your pretty finery. But sure -'tis everybody that will appreciate it, an' be pleased an' honored -with the compliment of it." - -Marian looked utterly puzzled. - -"You think that I can be a help to Rod? Why, I don't know the least -thing about his work. I really don't understand----" - -"Well, aren't you a magic-maker, Auntie McCloskey!" Sally Lou put -down the lemon-squeezer and stared. "Look at that precious baby! Sound -asleep in your lap! While I haven't been able to pacify him for one -minute, though I walked and sang all night!" - -"'Tis the cruel tooth has come through, I'm thinkin'." Mrs. McCloskey -laid the peaceful little porcupine tenderly into his crib. "Now, I'll -stay and watch him while you two go and meet your guests. I'll call -you the minute he chirps." - -The two girls hurried to greet their callers, to offer them chairs on -the shady side of the quarter-boat, to serve them with iced tea and -lemonade. Much to Marian's surprise, she found herself chattering away -vigorously and actually enjoying it all. As Rod had said, the slow -stream that came and went all day included all sorts and conditions of -folk. There were the gracious old clergyman and his sweet, motherly -wife, who stopped for a pleasant half-hour, then jogged on across the -country to his "afternoon meeting," twelve miles out in the lowlands. -There were the two brisk young plutocrats from the great Kensington -stock farm up-river, who flashed up in a stunning satiny-gray French -car, for a brief exchange of courtesies. There were two of the -district commissioners, quiet, keen-eyed gentlemen. One of these men, -Rod told his sister later, was doing valuable service to the community -by his experiments in improving the yield of corn throughout the -district. The other commissioner was a lawyer of national reputation. -Mrs. Chrisenberry stopped by, too: a brusque little visitor, sitting -very stiff and fine in her cushioned phaeton, her beady eyes darting -questions through her shrewd spectacles. Marian, feeling very real -gratitude, devoted herself to Mrs. Chrisenberry. That lady, however, -hardly spoke till just as she was starting to go. Then she leaned -forward in her carriage. She fixed Marian with a gimlet eye. - -"It's agreeable to see that you think we district folks _is_ folks," -she said, very tartly indeed. "I'd some mistrusted the other day, but -I guess now that you know what's what. Good-afternoon, all." - -"Well, Sally Lou! Will you tell me what she meant?" - -Sally Lou nodded wisely. - -"Your pretty dress, I suspect. Didn't you hear Mrs. McCloskey praise -it, too?" - -"Oh!" And now Marian's face was very thoughtful indeed. - -Late in the afternoon came the one disagreeable episode of the day. - -The drainage district, upon which Roderick and Burford were employed, -had become part of a huge league known as the Central Mississippi -Drainage Association. This league had recently been organized. Its -object was the cutting of protective ditches on a gigantic scale, and -its annual expenditures for this work would run well past the million -mark. Naturally there was strong competition between all the great -engineering firms to win a favorable standing in the eyes of this new -and powerful corporation. The Breckenridge Company, because of its -superior record, was easily in the lead. None the less, as Rod had -remarked a day or so before, it was up to every member of the -Breckenridge Company, from Breck the Great down to the meekest cub -engineer, to keep that lead. - -Burford jeered mildly at Rod for taking his own small importance to -the company so seriously. - -"Just you wait and see," retorted Roderick. - -"Oh, I'll wait, all right," laughed Burford. To-day, however, he was -destined to see; and to see almost too clearly for his own peace of -mind. - -A sumptuous limousine car whirled up the muddy road. Its lordly door -swung open; down stepped a large, autocratic gentleman, in raiment of -startling splendor, followed by a quiet, courteous elderly man. - -"I am Mr. Ellingworth Locke, of New York. I am the acting president of -the Central Mississippi Drainage Association," announced the -magnificent one. "You gentlemen, I take it, are the--ah--the junior -engineers left in charge by Mr. Carlisle?" - -Roderick and Burford admitted their identity. - -"This is Mr. Crosby, our consulting engineer. Now that this district -has joined the association, it comes under our direct surveillance. -Mr. Crosby and I desire to go over your laterals and get an idea of -your work thus far." - -"We are honored." Burford bowed low and welcomed his guests with -somewhat flamboyant courtesy. He led the way to the duty-launch. -Roderick followed, bringing the cushions and the tarpaulin which the -quick-witted Sally Lou hastily commanded him to carry aboard for the -potentate's comfort. - -Of all their guests, that long day, the acting president was the sole -critic. At every rod of the big ditch, at every turn of the laterals, -he found some petty fault. The consulting engineer, Mr. Crosby, -followed him about in embarrassed silence. He was obviously annoyed by -his employer's rudeness. However, for all Mr. Locke's strictures, it -was evident that he could find no serious fault with the work. Yet -both boys were tingling with vexation and chagrin when the regal -limousine rolled away at last. - -"What does ail his highness? Did ever you see such a beautiful -grouch?" Rod mopped his forehead and stared belligerently after the -car. - -"Nothing ails him but a badly swelled head." Burford's jaw set hard. -"The fact of it is, that the worshipful Mr. Ellingworth Locke hasn't -two pins' worth of practical knowledge of dredging. He is a New York -banker, and he has no understanding of conditions west of the Hudson. -His bank is to make the loans for the association's drainage, and he -has bought a big tract of land in this district. That is why he was -elected acting president. Do you see?" - -"Yes, that helps to explain things." - -"So he struts around and tries to pick flaws with the most trifling -points of our construction, to keep us from guessing how little he -really knows about the big underlying principles. Gentle innocent, he -tries to think he's an expert!" Burford waved a disrespectful muddy -paw after the flying car. "All that an acting president is good for, -anyway, is to wear white spats and to put on side." - -"Well, that engineer knows his job." - -"Crosby? Yes, he's an engineer all right. And a gentleman, too. Just -the same, I'm glad we kowtowed to Mr. Locke. His opinion is so -influential that his approval may mean a tremendous advantage to the -Breckenridge Company some day." - -"I'm hoping that Breckenridge himself will come before long and give -us a looking over." - -"I'm hoping for that myself. Half an hour of Breck will swing -everything into shape. You want to know Breckenridge if ever you get -the chance, Hallowell. He's the grandest ever. Just to watch him tramp -up and down a ditch, great big silent figure that he is, and hear him -fire off those cool, close-mouthed questions of his at you, brings you -bristling up like a fighting-cock. He's a regular inspiration, I call -him." - -"I'm banking on the chance that I shall know him some day." Rod's eyes -lighted. He remembered the words of his old professor, "To work under -Breckenridge is not only an advantage to any engineer. It is an -education in itself." - -It was nearly six o'clock when their last callers arrived. They were -not an interesting carriage load: a gaunt, silent, middle-aged man; a -sallow-cheeked young woman, in cheap, showy clothes, her rough hands -glittering with gaudy rings; and a six-year-old girl--a pitiful little -ghost of a girl--who looked like a frail little shadow against Sally -Lou's lusty, rosy two-year-old son. Her warped, tiny body in its -forlorn lace-trimmed pink silk dress was braced in pillows in her -mother's arms. Her dim black eyes stared listlessly with the -indifference of long suffering. - -Marian was always shaken and repelled by the sight of pain. But by -this time Thomas Tucker was awake and loudly demanding his mother; so -Marian must do her shrinking best, to make the new-comers feel -themselves welcomed. - -"No, Mamie she don't drink lemonade. No, she don't want no milk, -neither. We'll just set here in the cool and rest a while till pappy -gets through lookin' around." The young, tired mother sat down on the -little pier. She settled the wan little creature carefully into her -arms again. "No, there's nothing you can get for her; nothing at all." - -"Doesn't she like to look at pictures? I have some new magazines," -ventured Marian. - -"She does like pictures once in a while. Want to see what the lady's -got for you, Mamie?" - -Mamie roused herself and looked silently at the books that Marian -piled before her. Bent on pleasing the little wraith, Marian cut out -several lovely ladies, and on a sudden inspiration added rosy cheeks -from Rod's tray of colored pencils. - -Those red and blue and purple pencils caught Mamie's listless eye. She -even bestirred herself to try and draw a portrait or so with her own -shaky little fingers. - -"Beats all," sighed her mother. A little pleased color rose in her -cheeks. "I haven't seen her take such an interest for months. Not even -in her dollies. We buy her all the playthings we can think of. Her -pappy, he don't ever go to town without he up and brings her a whole -grist of candy and toys and clutter. But we never once thought of the -pencils for her. Nor of paper dolls, either. My, I'm glad we stopped -by. And her pappy, he'll be more pleased than words can tell. He's -always so heart-set for Mamie to have a little fun." - -"She must take these pencils home with her. Rod has a whole boxful." -Marian tied up not only the pencils, but a generous roll of Rod's -heavy drawing-paper, expressly adapted to making paper dolls that -would stand alone. The child clutched the bundle in her little lean -hands without a word of thanks. But her white little face was -eloquent. So was her father's face when he came to carry her away, and -heard her mother's story of the new pleasure. - -"Well, this day has meant hard work all right, even though it was a -day of rest from my regular work," said Roderick. He was swinging the -launch up the canal to the Gates's Landing. "It's a queer way to spend -Sunday, isn't it, Sis? But it seems to be the only way for me just at -present. And you can be sure that we're obliged to you, old lady, for -the way that you've held up your end." - -"I didn't mind the day, nor did I mind meeting all those people nearly -as much as I'd imagined that I would," pondered Marian. "Especially -the McCloskeys, the dear things! And that poor little crippled child, -too. I wish I could do something more for her. Y-yes, as you say, it -was pretty hard work. I'm rather tired to-night. But the day was well -worth while." - -But just how worth while that day had been, neither Rod nor Marian -could know. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE COAL AND THE COMMODORE - - -"Ready for breakfast, Miss Hallowell?" Mrs. Gates's pleasant voice -summoned her. - -"Just a minute." Marian loitered at the window, looking out at the -transformed woods and fields. She could hardly believe her eyes. Two -weeks ago only stark, leafless branches and muddy gray earth had -stretched before her. But in these fourteen days, the magic of early -April had wrought wonders. The trees stood clothed in shining new -leaves, thick and luxuriant as a New England June. The fields were -sheets of living green. - -"It doesn't seem real," she sighed happily. "It isn't the same country -that it was when I first came." - -"No more are you the same girl." Mrs. Gates nodded approvingly behind -the tall steaming coffee-pot. "My, you were that peaky and piney! But -nowadays you're getting some real red in your cheeks, and you eat more -like a human being and less like a canary-bird." - -Marian twinkled. - -"Your brother is gettin' to be the peaky one, nowadays," went on Mrs. -Gates, with her placid frankness. "Seems to me I never saw a boy look -as beat out as he does, ever since that big cave-in on the canal last -week. I'm thankful for this good weather for him. Maybe he can make up -for the time they lost digging out the cave-in if it stays clear and -the creeks don't rise any higher. He's a real worker, isn't he? Seems -like he'd slave the flesh off his bones before he'd let his job fall -behind. But I don't like to see him look so gaunt and tired. It isn't -natural in a boy like him." - -Marian looked puzzled. - -"Why, Rod is always strong and well." - -"He's strong, yes. But even strong folks can tire out. Flesh and blood -aren't steel and wire. You'd better watch him pretty sharp, now that -hot weather is coming. He needs it." - -Marian pushed back her plate with a frown. Her dainty breakfast had -suddenly lost its savor. - -"Watch over Rod! I should think it was Rod's place to watch over me, -instead. And when I have been so ill, too!" she said to herself. - -Yet a queer little thorn of anxiety pricked her. She called Mr. -Finnegan and raced with him down through the wet green woods to the -canal. Roderick stood on the dredge platform, talking to the head -dredge-runner. He hailed Marian with a shout. - -"You're just in time to see me off, Sis. I'm going to Saint Louis to -hurry up our coal shipment." - -"The coal shipment? I thought a barge-load of coal was due here -yesterday." - -"Due, yes. But it hasn't turned up, and we're on our last car-load -this minute. That's serious. We'll have to shut down if I can't hurry -a supply to camp within thirty-six hours." - -Marian followed him aboard the engineers' house-boat and watched him -pack his suit-case. - -"Why are you taking all those time-books, Rod? Surely you will not -have time to make up your week's reports during that three-hour trip -on the train?" - -"These aren't my weekly reports. These are tabulated operating -expenses. President Sturdevant, the head of our company, has just -announced that he wants us to furnish data for every working day. He's -a bit of a martinet, you know. He wants everything figured up into -shape for immediate reference. He says he proposes to follow the cost -of this job, excavation, fill, everything, within thirty-six hours of -the time when the actual work is done. He doesn't realize that that -means hours of expert book-keeping, and that we haven't a book-keeper -in the camp. So Burford and I have had to tackle it, in addition to -our regular work. And it's no trifle." Roderick rolled up a formidable -mass of notes. There was a worried tone in his steady voice. - -"Why doesn't the company send you a book-keeper?" - -"Burford and I are planning to ask for one when the president and -Breckenridge come to camp on their tour of inspection." - -"Could I do some of the work for you, Rod?" - -"Thank you, Sis, but I'm afraid you'd find it a Chinese puzzle. I get -tangled up in it myself half the time. We must set down every solitary -item of cost, no matter how trifling; not only wages and supplies, but -breakdowns, time losses, even those of a few minutes; then calculate -our average, day by day; then plot a curve for each week's work, -showing the cost of the contract for that week, and set it against our -yardage record for that week. Then verify it, item by item, and send -it in." - -"All tied up in beautiful red-tape bow-knots, I suppose," added -Marian, with a sniff. She poked gingerly into the mass of papers. "The -idea of adding book-keeping to your twelve-hour shift as -superintendent! And in this stuffy, noisy little box!" She looked -impatiently around the close narrow state-room. The ceiling was not -two feet above her head; the hot morning sunlight beat on the flat tin -roof of the house-boat and dazzled through the windows. "How can you -work here?--or sleep, either?" - -Rod rubbed his hand uncertainly across his eyes. - -"I don't sleep much, for a fact. Too hot. Sometimes I drop off early, -but the men always wake me at midnight when the last shift goes off -duty." - -"But the laborers are all across on their own quarter-boat. They don't -come aboard your house-boat?" - -"No, but the quarter-boat is only fifty feet away. The cook has their -hot supper ready at twelve, and they lark over it, and laugh and shout -and cut up high-jinks, like a pack of school-boys. I wouldn't mind, -only I can't get to sleep again. I lie there and mull over the -contract, you see. I can't help it." - -"Why don't you come up to the Gates farm-house and sleep there?" - -"I couldn't think of that. It's too far away. I must stay right here -and keep my eye on the work, every minute. You have no idea what a -dangerously narrow margin of time we have left; 'specially for those -north laterals, you know, Sis." His voice grew sharp and anxious. -Marian looked at him keenly. For the first time she saw the dull -circles under his eyes, the drawn, tired lines around his steady -mouth. - -Then she glanced up the ditch. High on its green stilts, Sally Lou's -perky little martin-box caught her eye. - -"I have it, Rod! Tell some of your laborers to build a cabin for you, -like the Burfords'! Then I'll come down and keep house for you." - -Roderick shrugged his shoulders. - -"I can't spare a solitary laborer from the contract, Marian; not for a -day. We're short-handed as it is. No, I'll stay where I am. I'm doing -well enough. Steam up, Mulcahy? Good-by, Sis. Back to-morrow!" - -Marian watched the launch till it disappeared in the green mist of the -willows. Then she sat down to her brother's desk and began to sort the -clutter of papers. But sorting them was not an easy matter. To her -eyes they were only a bewildering tangle. Marian knew that she -possessed an inborn knack at figures, and it piqued her to find that -she could not master Roderick's accounts at the first glance. She -worked on and on doggedly. The little state-room grew hot and close; -the dull throb of the dredge machinery and the noisy voices from -without disturbed her more and more. - -At last she sprang up and swept the whole mass into her hand-bag. Then -she ran up the hill to the martin-box. - -Sally Lou, very fresh and cool in pink dimity, sat in her screened -nest, with the babies playing on the scrubbed floor. She nodded in -amused sympathy at Marian's portentous armful. - -"Aren't those records a dismal task! Yes, I've found a way to sift -them, though it took me a long time to learn. Start by adding up the -time-book accounts; verify each laborer's hours, and see whether his -pay checks correspond to his actual working time. Roderick has fifty -men on his shift, so that is no small task. Then add up his memoranda -of time made by the big dredge; and also the daily record of the two -little dredges up at the laterals. Then run over the steward's -accounts and see whether they check with his bills----" - -Marian stared at Sally Lou, astonished. - -"Well, but Sally Lou! Think how much time that will mean! Why, I would -have to spend all afternoon on the time-books alone." - -Sally Lou raised her yellow head and looked at Marian very steadily. -A tiny spark glinted in her brown eyes. - -"Well, what if it does take all afternoon? Have you anything better to -do?" - -There was a minute of silence. Then Marian's cheeks turned rather -pink. - -"I suppose not. But it is horridly tedious work, Sally Lou. On such a -warm day, too." - -"It certainly is." Sally Lou's voice was quite dry. She caught up -Thomas Tucker, who was trying laboriously to feed Mr. Finnegan with a -large ball of darning cotton. "You'd find it even more tedious if you -were obliged to work at it evenings, as your brother does. Can't you -stay to lunch, Marian? We'll love to have you; won't we, babies?" - -"Thank you, no. Mrs. Gates will expect me at home." - -Marian walked back through the woods, her head held high. The glint in -Sally Lou's eyes had been a bit of a challenge. Again she felt her -cheeks flush hot, with a queer puzzled vexation. - -"I'll show her that I can straighten Rod's papers, no matter how -muddled they are!" she said to herself, tartly. And all that warm -spring afternoon she toiled with might and main. - - * * * * * - -Roderick, meanwhile, was spending a hard, discouraging day. Arriving -at Saint Louis, he found the secretary of the coal-mining company at -his office. Eager and insistent, he poured out his urgent need of the -promised barge-load of coal. The consignment was now a week overdue. -The dredges had only a few hundred bushels at hand; in less than -forty-eight hours the engines must shut down, unless he could get the -fuel to camp. - -"You can't be any more disturbed by this crisis than I am, Mr. -Hallowell," the secretary assured him. "Owing to a strike at the mines -we have been forced to cancel all deliveries. I can't let you have a -single ton." - -Roderick gasped. - -"But our dredges! We don't dare shut down. Our contract has a -chilled-steel time-lock, sir, with a heavy forfeit. We must not run -over our date limits. We've got to have that coal!" - -"You may be able to pick up a few tons from small dealers," said the -secretary, turning back to his desk. "You'll be buying black diamonds -in good earnest, for the retail price has gone up thirty per cent -since the news came of the mines strike. Wish you good luck, Mr. -Hallowell. Sorry that is all that I can do for you." - -Roderick lost no time. He bought a business directory and hailed a -taxicab. For six hours he drove from one coal-dealer's office to -another. At eight o'clock that night he reached his hotel, tired in -every bone, but in royal high spirits. Driblet by driblet, and paying -a price that fairly staggered him, he had managed to buy over four -hundred tons. - -"That will keep us going till the strike is settled," he told Burford -over the long-distance. - -"Bully for you!" returned Burford, jubilant. "But how will you bring -it up to camp?" - -"Oh, the railroad people have promised empties on to-morrow morning's -early freight to Grafton. Then we can carry it to camp on our own -barges. I shall come up on that freight myself. I shall not risk -losing sight of that coal. Mind that." - -At five the next morning Roderick went down to the freight yards. His -coal wagons were already arriving. But not one of the promised -"empties" could he find. - -"There is a mistake somewhere," said the yard-master. "Can't promise -you a solitary car for three days, anyway. Traffic is all behindhand. -You'd better make a try at head-quarters." - -"I have no time to waste at head-quarters," retorted Rod. He was white -with anger and chagrin. This ill luck was a bolt from a clear sky. -"I'll go down to the river front and hire a barge and a tow-boat. I'll -get that coal up to camp to-morrow if I have to carry it in my -suit-case." - -His hunt for a barge proved a stern chase, but finally he secured a -large flat-boat at a reasonable rental. But after searching the river -front for miles, he found only one tow-boat that could be chartered. -The tow's captain, noting Roderick's anxiety, and learning that he -represented the great Breckenridge Company, promptly declared that he -would not think of doing the two-days' towing for less than five -hundred dollars. - -"Five hundred dollars for two days' towing! And I have already paid -three times the mine price for my coal!" Roderick groaned inwardly. - -Suddenly his eye caught two trim red stacks and a broad familiar bow -not fifty yards away. It was the little packet, the _Lucy Lee_. She -was just lowering her gang-plank, making ready to take on freight for -her trip up-stream. - -"I'll hail the _Lucy_. Maybe the captain can tell me where to find -another tow-boat. Ahoy, the _Lucy_! Is your captain aboard? Ask him to -come on deck and talk to Hallowell, of the Breckenridge Company, will -you?" - -"The captain has not come down yet, sir. But our pilot, Commodore -McCloskey, is here. Will you talk with him?" - -"Will I talk to the commodore? I should hope so!" Rod's strained face -broke into a joyful grin. He could have shouted with satisfaction when -Commodore McCloskey, trim as a gimlet in starchy white duck, strolled -down the gang-plank and gave him a friendly hand. - -"Sure, I don't wonder ye're red-hot mad," he said, with twinkling -sympathy. "Five hundred dollars for two days' tow! 'Tis no better than -a pirate that tow-boat captain is, sure. But come with me. I have a -friend at court that can give ye a hand, maybe. Hi, boy! Is Captain -Lathrop, of the _Queen_, round about?" - -"The _Queen_? Why, her captain is the very man who demanded the five -hundred dollars!" blurted Rod. - -At that moment the captain's head popped from the cabin door. He -stared at Roderick. He stared at Commodore McCloskey. Then he had the -grace to duck wildly back, with a face sheepish beyond words to -describe. - -"Well, Captain Lathrop!" Commodore McCloskey's voice rang merciless -and clear. "Tell me the truth. Is it yourself that's turned highway -robber? Five hundred dollars for twenty hours' tow! Sure, ye must be -one of thim high fin-an-ciers we read about in the papers. Why not -make it five hundred dollars per ton? Then ye could sell the _Queen_ -and buy yourself a Cunarder for a tow-boat instead." - -Captain Lathrop squirmed. - -"How should I know he was a friend of yours, commodore? I'll take his -coal all the way to camp, and gladly, for three hundred, seein' as -it's a favor to you." - -"For three hundred, is it?" The commodore began a further flow of -eloquence. But Rod caught his arm. - -"Three hundred will be all right. And I'm more obliged to you, -commodore, than I can say. Now I'm off. If ever I can do you a good -turn, mind you give me the chance!" - -It was late the next night when Roderick reached the camp landing with -his precious black diamonds. He was desperately tired, muddy, and -begrimed with smoke and coal-dust, hungry as a wolf, and hilarious -with relief at his hard-earned success. Marian, Sally Lou, and Burford -were all waiting for him at the little pier. Sally Lou dragged him up -to the martin-box for a late supper. Afterward Marian, who was to -spend the night with Sally Lou, walked back with him to his -house-boat. - - [Illustration: "WELL, CAPTAIN LATHROP!" COMMODORE McCLOSKEY'S VOICE - RANG MERCILESS AND CLEAR.] - -"Yes, yes, I'm all right, Sis. Don't fidget over me so." Roderick -stepped into his state-room and dropped down into his desk chair. -"Whew! I'm thankful to get back. I could go to sleep standing up, if -it wasn't for making up the records for President Sturdevant. Run away -now, that's a good girl, and let me straighten my accounts. Then I -can go to bed." - -Even as he spoke Rod's glance swept his desk. Instead of the heaped -disorder of the day before, he saw now rows of neatly docketed papers. -He gave a whistle of surprise. - -"Who has been overhauling my desk? Burford? Why--why, did _you_ do -this for me, sister? Well, on my word, you are just the very best -ever." His big fingers gripped Marian's arm and gave her a grateful -little shake. "You've squared up every single account, haven't you! -And your figuring is always accurate. This means two hours' extra -sleep for me. Maybe you think I won't enjoy 'em!" - -"I might have been keeping your accounts for you all these weeks," -returned Marian. She was a little mortified by Roderick's astonished -gratitude. "It is not hard work for me. I really enjoyed doing it." - -"Maybe you think I don't enjoy having you do it!" Rod chuckled -contentedly. "I've dreaded those accounts all day. Now I shall sleep -the sleep of the loafer who has let his sister do his work for him. -Good-night, old lady!" - -Marian tucked herself comfortably into her corner of the martin-box, -but not to sleep. Try her best, she could not banish Rod's tired face -from her mind. Neither could she forget the look of his little -state-room. True, she had made it daintily fresh and neat. But the -tiny box was hot and stuffy at best. What could she do to make Rod's -quarters more comfortable? - -At last she sat up with a whispered exclamation. - -"Good! I'll try that plan. Perhaps it won't do after all. But it -cannot hurt to try. And if my scheme can make Rod the least bit more -comfortable, then the trying will be well worth while!" - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -THE BURGOO - - -Very early the next morning, Marian set to work upon her brilliant -plan for Roderick's comfort. The coast was clear for action. Both -Roderick and Ned Burford had gone up the canal to oversee the -excavation at the north laterals. Sally Lou had packed Mammy and the -babies into the buckboard and had driven away to the nearest -farm-house for eggs and butter. So Marian had a clear field. And she -made eager use of every moment. - -Perhaps two hundred yards from the canal bank, set well up on a little -knoll where it could catch every passing breeze, stood a broad wooden -platform. High posts, built to hold lanterns, were set at the four -corners and half-way down each side. - -"The young folks of the district built that platform for their picnic -dances," Burford had told Marian. "But this year our dredges have -torn up this whole section and have made the creek banks so miry and -disagreeable that no picnic parties will come this way till the -contract is finished and the turf has had time to grow again." - -Marian measured the platform with a calculating eye. - -"It is built of matched boards, as tight and sound as if they had put -it up yesterday. It will make a splendid floor for Rod's house. But -when it comes to building the house itself--that's the question." - -The contract supplies, she knew, were kept in a store-room built -astern of Roderick's house-boat. For a hot, tiresome hour she poked -and pried through high-piled hogsheads and tiers of boxes, hoping that -she might find a tent. But there was no such good fortune for her. She -dragged out bale after bale of heavy new canvas. But every one of the -scores of tents provided by the company was already pitched, to form -the summer village occupied by the levee laborers. At last, quite -vexed and impatient, she gave up her search. - -"Although, if I had any knack at all, I could sew up a tent from -these yards on yards of canvas," she reflected. - -She carried one bolt of cloth on deck and unrolled it. - -"This is splendid heavy canvas. It is just the solid, water-proof sort -that the fishermen at the lake last summer used for walls and roof of -their 'open-faced camp,' as they called it. Now, I wonder. Why can't I -lash long strips of canvas to the four posts of the platform for -walls; then fasten heavy wires from one post to another and lash a -slanting canvas roof to that! I can canopy it with mosquito-bar--a -double layer--for there are dozens of yards of netting here. It would -be a ridiculously funny little coop, I know that. But it would be far -cooler and quieter than the boat. I believe Rod would like it. Anyway, -we'll see!" - -Jacobs, the commissary man, came aboard a few minutes later with a -basket of clean linen. He looked at Marian, already punching -eyelet-holes in the heavy duck, with friendly concern. - -"Best let me give you a lift at that job, miss," he urged, when Marian -had told him her plans. "I have an hour off, and I shall be pleased to -help, if you will permit me. I'm an old sailor and I have my needle -and palm in my kit. That kind of fancy work is just pastime to me. -Indeed, I'd enjoy doing anything, if it's for Mr. Hallowell. We've -never had a better boss, that's certain. You lace those strips of -duck, then I'll hang them for you. We'll curtain off just a half of -the platform. That will leave the other half for a fine open porch. -We'll have this house built in two jiffies. Then I'll put Mr. -Hallowell's canvas cot and his desk and his chair into place, all -ready; so when he comes home to-night he will find himself moved and -settled." - -It took longer than two jiffies to lash up the canvas shack, to hang -mosquito bar, and to move Roderick's simple furniture. Returning from -their drive, Sally Lou and Mammy Easter hurried to help; and, thanks -to many willing hands, the tiny new abode was finished by afternoon; -even to the brackets for Rod's lamp, which Jacobs screwed into a -corner post, and the rack for his towels. - -At six o'clock, Roderick, fagged out and spattered with mud, came down -the canal. He would have gone directly aboard his house-boat if -Marian had not called him ashore. - -"March up here and see my out-door sitting-room," she commanded, with -laughing eyes. - -"Oh, you and Sally Lou have made a play-house of that platform? That's -all very nice. But wait till I can scrub up and swallow a mouthful of -supper, Sis. My skiff tipped over with me up the canal, and I'm -soaking wet, and dead tired besides." - -"Oh, no, Rod. Please come up right away. I can't wait, Slow-Coach. You -really must see!" - -Roderick was well used to Marian's imperious whims. Reluctantly he -climbed the slippery bank. Obediently he poked his head past the flap -which Marian held back for him. - -There he saw his own cot spread white and fresh under its cool screen; -his tidy desk; and even a "shower-bath," which clever Jacobs had -contrived from a tiny force-pump and a small galvanized tank, borrowed -from the company's store-room. - -For a long minute he stared about him without one word. Then his tired -face brightened to a glow of incredulous delight. - -"Marian Hallowell! Did you rig up this whole contrivance, all for me? -Well!" He sank down on the cot with a sigh of infinite satisfaction. -"You certainly are the best sister I ever had, old lady. First you -take my book-keeping off my hands. Next you build me a brand-new -house, where I can sleep----whew! Won't I sleep like a log to-night, in -all this quiet and coolness! On my word, I don't believe I could stand -up to my work, Sis, if you didn't help me out as you do." - -Marian grew radiant at his pleasure. - -"Building it was no end of fun, Rod. I never enjoyed anything more." - -"Only I hope you haven't tired yourself out," said her brother, -suddenly anxious. "You haven't the strength to work like this." - -"Nonsense! You don't realize how much stronger I am, Rod." - -"You surely do look a hundred per cent better than you did a month -ago." Roderick looked at her with keen satisfaction. "But you must not -overtire yourself." - -"Don't be so fussy, brother. It was just a trifle, anyway." - -"It won't mean a trifle to me. Quiet and sleep will give me a chance -to get my head above water and breathe. Hello, neighbors!" For Sally -Lou and Ned were poking their unabashed heads through the fly. "Come -in and see my new mansion. Guess I'll have to give a house-warming to -celebrate. What do you say?" - -"There's a celebration already on the way," laughed Burford. -"Commodore McCloskey has just called me up on the long-distance. He -says that he and Mrs. McCloskey will stop at the camp bright and early -to-morrow morning to escort your sister and Sally Lou to the Barry -County burgoo. I accepted the invitation for both you girls, for a -'burgoo,' whatever it means, sounds like a jolly lark; especially -since the commodore is to be your host. But I'll admit that I'm -puzzled. What do you suppose a burgoo may be?" - -The four looked at each other. - -"It sounds rather like a barbecue," ventured Sally Lou. - -"Hoots! It is far too early in the spring for a barbecue." - -"Burgoo? _Barbecue?_" Marian spoke the mystic words over, bewildered. -"What is a barbecue, pray? Two such grim, ferocious words I never -heard." - -"A barbecue is a country-side picnic, where the company unite to buy a -huge piece of beef; sometimes a whole ox. Then they roast it in a -trench floored with hot stones. The usual time for a barbecue is in -August. Then they add roasting ears and new potatoes to the beef, and -have a dinner fit for a king." - -"Or for an ogre," returned Marian. "It sounds like a feast for giants. -Yet a burgoo sounds even fiercer and more barbaric. I shall ask the -commodore what it means, the minute he comes. Wasn't he a dear to -think of taking us?" - -Bright and early, even as he had promised, Mr. McCloskey's trig little -launch puffed up to the camp landing. The commodore, arrayed as -Solomon in snowy linen, a red tie, and a large Panama, waved greeting. -Beside him sat Mrs. McCloskey, her sweet little old face beaming under -her crisp frilled sunbonnet. - -The two girls stepped aboard, with Finnegan prancing joyfully after. -For to-day the Burford babies were to stay at home with Mammy, while -Finnegan was to attend the burgoo, a specially bidden guest. - -"And now, Mr. McCloskey! Tell us quick! What may a burgoo be?" - -"A burgoo?" Commodore McCloskey reflected. "Well, then, so ye don't -know a burgoo by experience. Wherever was ye brought up? A burgoo is a -burgoo, sure. 'Tis the only word in the English language that -describes it. 'Tis sack-races, an' pole-climbin', an' merry-go-rounds, -an' pink limonade, an' a brass band, an' kettles full of b'iled -chicken an' gravy, an' more mortial things to eat than the tongue of -man can name. Ye must see it to understand the real po'try of it. For -the half of it could not be told to you." - -The commodore was quite right. The burgoo was all that he had claimed, -and more. At least two hundred people, gay in their Sunday best, had -already gathered at the county picnic grounds, a beautiful open -woodland several miles up the Illinois River. Vendors of candy and -popcorn, toy balloons and pink lemonade, shouted their wares. A vast -merry-go-round wheezed and sputtered; the promised brass band awoke -the river echoes. And, swung in a mighty rank above a row of -camp-fires cleverly built in a broad shallow trench, the burgoo -kettles sizzled and steamed. - -"Burgoo," the girls soon learned, is the local name for a delicious -stew of chicken and bacon and vegetables, cooked slowly for hours, -then served in wooden bowls with huge dill pickles and corn pone. -Sally Lou, housekeeper born, wheedled the head cook, a courteous, -grizzled old negro, into giving her the recipe. Marian, chuckling -inwardly, heard his painstaking reply. - -"Yes'um. I kin tell you jest how to go about makin' burgoo. First you -want sixteen, maybe twenty, pounds of bacon, cut tolerable fine. Then -four dozen chickens won't be too many. Start your meats a-b'ilin'. -Then peel your taters--I used three bushel for this batch. Then put in -tomatoes. I reckon two dozen cans might do, though three would be -better. Then cabbage, an' beans, an' onions, if you like. Two dozen -head of cabbage is about right. An' two bushels of beans----" - -Just then Sally Lou dropped her pencil in despair. - -"I'll be no more than a head of cabbage myself, if I keep on trying to -reduce this recipe to the needs of two people," she groaned in -desperation. "Come along, Marian, let's climb on the merry-go-round a -while and see if it won't clear my addled brain." - -The merry-go-round proved delightfully thrilling, especially to Mr. -Finnegan, who rode round and round in a gilded sea-shell, barking -himself hoarse in dizzy ecstasy. - -Just before noon the crowd, now astonishingly large, gathered at the -little running track to watch the sports. First came the sack-races; -then the pole-climbing; then the potato-race. Finnegan, by this time -delirious with excitement, had to be held down by main force to -discourage his wild ambition to take an active part in each event. -Last on the programme came the greased-pig race. - -Now, the greased-pig race dates back a hundred years and more, to the -days when the Kentucky pioneers met for their rare frolics of -house-raising or corn-husking. It is a quaint old sport, very rough, -very grimy and breathless, very ridiculously funny. A lively little -pig is chosen and greased with melted tallow from head to tail. Then -he is set free on the running-track. Half a minute later, the -starting-gun booms the signal for his hunters to dash in pursuit. The -winner must capture piggy with his bare hands and carry the squirming, -slippery armful back to the judges' stand. If piggy escapes en route, -the race must be run over again from the very start. - -The competitors are boys and young men. Only the fleet-footed can hope -for a chance at success. But even as the starter stood calling the -race through his big red megaphone, a tall, elderly man shouldered up -to their group and hailed Mr. McCloskey. - -"Good-day, commodore! You're here to see the greased-pig race? My -faith, do you remember the race that we two ran, down in Pike County -in '63?" - -The commodore beamed at his old neighbor. - -"'Deed an' I do. And it was meself that captured that elegant pig, I -remember." - -"You did that. But it was by accident entirely. For I had all but -laid my hand on the pig when you snatched it from under my grasp. I've -grudged ye that pig ever since." - -The little commodore's eyes snapped. He bristled from the crest of his -white head to the toes of his polished boots. His voice took on an -ominously silver tone. - -"By my word, I'm sorry to learn that that small pig has stood between -us all these years, Mister Jennings. If it could give you -satisfaction, I'd beg you to run that race over again with me. Or, we -might race each other in the contest that is just about to take place. -What do ye say?" - -For a minute, the astounded Mr. Jennings found nothing whatever to -say. - -"Now, commodore!" protested gentle Mrs. McCloskey, round-eyed with -reproach. "You'd not think of runnin' a half mile this hot noon in the -face of all your friends an' neighbors, an' all for one small pig! And -you seventy last month, an' that suit of clothes bought new from Saint -Louis not the fortnight ago!" - -"You don't understand, Mary. I'd run the race if there was no pig at -all under consideration, so it would give my friend Mister Jennings -peace of mind," said the little commodore hotly. "What do ye say, sir? -Will you join me, an' prove once more which one of us is the rale -winner?" - -Very red and disconcerted, Mr. Jennings stood on one foot, then the -other, in a torture of indecision. Then he threw off his coat. - -"I've never taken a dare like that yet, McCloskey. And I don't begin -now. Come along." - -"Commodore!" Poor Mrs. McCloskey's shocked voice pursued him. But the -commodore would not hear. Mr. Jennings was already clambering the rail -to the running-track. Lightly as a boy, the commodore vaulted after -him. Shoulder to shoulder the two joined the group before the judges' -stand. - -There ran a ripple of question through the crowd, then a storm of -delighted cheers and laughter. Mr. Jennings wriggled in sheepish -torment. The commodore, sparkling and debonair, bowed to the throng -and hung his Panama on a fence-post. - -Then down the running-track fled a small, shiny black object, -squealing in glad escape. Instantly a shot crashed; then came a -thundering shout: - -"Ready--go!" - -With whoops and yells the group of runners raced away down the track. -The commodore kept well in the lead. He ran as lightly and as easily -as did the boys that forged alongside him. Mr. Jennings puffed and -pounded farther in the rear at every turn. They made the first lap of -the race. At the second turn the commodore, only third from the lead, -waved his hand to Mrs. McCloskey and the girls with a flourish of -mischievous triumph. Marian and Sally Lou, tearful and choking with -delight, clasped hands and swayed together in helpless rapture. Thus -completely absorbed in the spectacle, they let go of Mr. Finnegan's -leash. - -That was all that Finnegan wanted. With one glad yelp he hurled -himself through the fence and bounced like a ball, straight into the -midst of the fray. Far in advance fled a shiny black object. Finnegan -knew his duty. The commodore was hurrying to catch that object. It was -Finnegan's part to aid in that capture at all costs. Yelping madly, -he tore away down the track. - -"Oh, it's Finnegan! Oh, the little villain! If I had only left him at -home!" Poor Marian strove to call him back. But against the uproar of -the crowd her voice could not make a sound. "Oh, the naughty little -sinner, he will catch that pig himself and spoil the race for -everybody. Look, Sally Lou! He has almost caught up with the pig this -minute!" - -Even as she spoke, Finnegan, running at top speed, shot ahead of the -fleeing pig. Then, with a frenzied bark, he whirled and charged -straight at the prize. - -This front attack was too much for any pig's self-control. Not content -with galloping murderously at his heels, his pursuers had set this -ferocious brute to destroy him! With a squeal of mortal panic the -little fellow turned right-about and bolted. Shrieking, he dashed -back, straight into the crowd of runners. - -"Oh--oh! He's right under the commodore's hand! Oh, if he wasn't so -slippery--Look, quick, Marian!" - -"Well, will you look at that now!" Mrs. McCloskey's mild voice rose in -a laugh of triumph. "Sure, I never yet knew the commodore to fail if -once he'd set his head to do a thing!" - -"If only he can keep fast hold of the pig till he reaches the judges' -stand," whispered Sally Lou. All three gazed in pale suspense at the -commodore, now striding gayly up the race-track, the pig squirming and -squealing wildly in his arms. - -"I'm mistrustin' that myself," said Mrs. McCloskey, nervously, "for -the little animal is not so convenient to hold, bein' he's so glassy -smooth. But trust the commodore. He'll not fail, now." - -The commodore did not fail. Calm and majestic, as if he strode a -quarter-deck, he paced down the track and halted before the judges' -stand, his shrieking prize held high. As the umpire bent forward to -give him the champion's blue ribbon, the crowd broke loose. No Olympic -victor ever received his laurel in the face of a more enthusiastic -tumult. - -"I give up," puffed Mr. Jennings, fanning himself with his hat. "You -caught that pig fair an' square, commodore. The honors are yours." - -"Tut, tut, 'twas no great matter," declared the commodore modestly, as -the girls heaped him with praises. "'Twas just a moment's divarsion. -And it took no skill whatever, though I will own that to carry the -little felly back to the judges' stand demanded some effort on me -part. You will observe that a pig furnishes but few handholds, -particularly when he's that slippery and excited-like. Yes, Mary, -perhaps we'd best be startin' home, as it's so near sundown." - -"Well, but these girls must not go home empty-handed," urged Mrs. -McCloskey. "Think of your poor boys, who could not take a day off for -the burgoo! We must carry home a taste for them. Go to yonder booth -and buy a market-basket, commodore. Then we'll pack in a few samples." - -Marian and Sally Lou looked on in silent amaze while Mrs. McCloskey -packed the few samples, including a tall jar of the delicious burgoo, -a dazzling array of cookies and preserves, and a fat black-currant -pie. Meanwhile the commodore was fitting his treasured pig neatly into -a small crate, much to the dismay of the pig and the keen joy of a -large group of on-lookers. - -At last basket and crate were made ready. Tired out by their long, -absurd, delightful day, the party settled themselves aboard the -commodore's launch and started home. The trip downstream to camp was -made in rapid time. It was just dusk when they reached their own -landing. Roderick and Ned Burford had heard the commodore's whistle -and were waiting to help them ashore. - -"What sort of a day was it, Sis?" - -"Yes, tell us, quick, if you had any fun. We have put in a gruelling -day of it here," added Burford. "Three break-downs on the little -dredge and a threatened cave-in on the first lateral! Go on and tell -us something cheerful." - -Marian and Sally Lou stole a glance backward. The commodore was just -putting his boat into mid-stream. He was safely out of earshot. With -almost tearful laughter the two girls poured out the story of the day. - -"You brought home the best of the day to us," said Ned, as they spread -the "samples" on a tiny deck table, picnic-fashion. "We fellows only -laid off our levee shifts a few minutes ago. We're rushing that -construction before the creeks rise any higher. So neither of us has -eaten a mouthful since noon. This luncheon will taste like manna in -the desert. S'pose Mammy Easter would make us a pot of coffee, Sally -Lou? Then we could ask no more." - -"I'll go to the cabin and coax her to do it. I want a peep at the -babies, anyway." - -Sally Lou sprang up and started toward the gangway. At the cabin door -she stopped short. Her voice rang out, a frightened cry. - -"Ned Burford! Come quick! What is that blazing light away up the -ditch? Is it--Oh, it is one of the boats--it is the big dredge! And it -is on fire!" - -Ned Burford leaped up. His startled voice echoed Sally Lou's cry. - -"Hallowell! It's the big dredge, the giant Garrison! Wake up and pitch -in. Hurry!" - -Days afterward Marian would try to recall just what happened during -those wild moments; but the whole scene would flicker before her -memory, a dizzy blur. She remembered Roderick's shout of alarm; the -rush of the day-shift men from their tents; the clatter of the racing -engine as Rod pushed them into the launch, then sent the little boat -flying away up the canal. Then, directly ahead, she could see that -dense black pillar of smoke rising straight up from the dredge deck, -shot through with spurts of flame. - -Burford's half-strangled voice came back to them as he groped his way -across the deck. - -"It's a pile of burning waste, right here by the capstan. Bring the -chemical-extinguishers ... no time to wait for the hose.... Wet your -coats, boys, and let's pound her out.... Whe-ew! I'm 'most -strangled.... Sally Lou Burford! _You clear out!_ You and Marian, too. -Go away, I tell you. This is no place for you!" - -Sally Lou and Marian stood doggedly in line passing the buckets of -water which one of the laborers was dipping up from over the side. -Roderick, stolid as a rock, stood close by that choking column of -smoke and flame and dashed on the water. Burford rushed about, -everywhere at once, half mad with excitement, yet giving orders with -unswerving judgment. - -"Can't you start the pumping engine, boys? Swing out that emergency -hose, quick. There you are! Now turn that stream on those oil barrels -yonder--and _keep_ it there. Start the big force-pump and train a -stream on the deck near the engines. The fire mustn't spread to the -hoisting-gear. Mind that. Mulcahy, give me that chemical-tank. Wet my -handkerchief and tie it over my mouth, Sally Lou. No, give me your -scarf. That's better. I'm going to wade right in. Aha! See that?" - -The smoke column wavered, thinned. A shower of water, soot, and -chemicals drenched everybody on deck. Nobody noticed the downpour, for -the smoke column was sinking with every moment. - -Burford staggered back, half smothered. The extinguisher fell from his -hand. But the force-pumps were working now at full blast. Stream after -stream of water poured on the fire, then flooded across the deck. Two -minutes more of frantic, gasping work and not a spark remained--nothing -save the heap of quenched, still smoking waste. - -Dazed, Marian found herself once more on the house-boat deck. Ashore -the laborers were flocking back to their tents, laughing and -shouting. For them it had been a frolic rather than a danger. But the -four on the house-boat deck looked at each other without a word. They -were too shaky with relief to move or to speak. Sally Lou, the -steady-willed, dependable Sally Lou, clung trembling to Marian, who in -her turn leaned rather weakly against the rail. Roderick, ashen white, -confronted Burford, who stood absently mopping his wet, smarting eyes -with Sally Lou's singed and dripping crêpe scarf. Suddenly Burford -broke the tension with a strangled whoop. - -"Our--our daily reports to the company!" he gurgled. "President -Sturdevant wants every day's detail. Let's put it all in. 'I have the -honor to report that while your engineers were stoking with burgoo and -black-currant pie, Garrison Dredge Number Three was observed to be on -fire. Your engineers, assisted by their partners, said engineers' wife -and sister, all of whom displayed conspicuous bravery, attacked the -fire. Thanks to their heroic efforts, the conflagration was -extinguished. I beg further to report that damages are confined to one -pile of waste, one smooched pink silk scarf, and'"--he passed his -hand over his smutty forehead--"'and one pair of eyebrows.'" - -"I'm going straight home to bed," vowed Marian, as the laughter died -away in exhausted chuckles. "This day has brought so many thrilling -events that it will take me at least a week to calm myself down. Do -let us hope that nothing whatever will happen for a while. I'm longing -for monotony--days, months, ages of monotony, at that!" - -And, even as she spoke, there was a shout from the pier. Mulcahy came -running toward them at top speed. - -"Will you look at Mulcahy, sprinting up from the ditch! I'll wager he -has some more bad news for us. Come, Hallowell. Hurry!" - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE MAGIC LEAD-PENCIL - - -"Bad news, is it?" puffed Mulcahy. "Indeed, sir, I'm sorry to be the -one to bring it to you. Lateral Four has caved in again." - -"Lateral Four! The cut where we've spent more time and work, filling -in, than we've spent anywhere else on the whole ditch!" - -"Yes, Lateral Four. The ungrateful piece of fill she is! And when you -have shored up the margins with brush, twice over!" - -"How far up is the cave-in, Mulcahy?" - -"Half a mile from the mouth. Right where Mr. Ellingworth Locke's land -begins, sir." - -"Right on President Locke's land! Will you hear that, Hallowell? And -he's the biggest grumbler in the whole district! And the most powerful -grumbler, too. Of all the hard luck!" - -"I do hear. And I'm going to get busy." Rod pulled himself together -with a grim little chuckle. "It's an all-night job, Burford. Or else -we can add one more calamity to our head-quarters report. 'One bad -cave-in, on lateral draining land owned by H. R. H., the acting -president of the Central Mississippi Association.' Do you see us -putting in that cheery news?" - -"No, I don't. Not just yet." Burford wiped the last soot-streak from -his chin and jumped into the launch. "Here we go!" - -"Wait a jiffy, Burford. You'd better stay by the dredge an hour or so. -Keep the men at work flooding her deck. We can't be certain-sure that -the fire is completely out. There's always a risk." - -"That's a fact. You go up to the cave-in and set the levee crews to -work. I'll follow in an hour." - -Rod started his engine, but Marian stopped him. - -"Wait, Rod. Take me up to the lateral, too." - -"Take you up to the cave-in, you mean? Why on earth should you go? At -this time of night----" - -"Because I want to see just what you have to do. I'm getting very -much interested in the work, truly. Please, brother." - -"Of all the notions!" Rod looked completely puzzled. Yet a warm little -gratified smile brightened his tired face. Again he felt the -heart-warming satisfaction that he had felt on the day he had come -home, fagged and blue, to find that Marian had sorted all his accounts -and cleared up his reports for him. It was wonderfully pleasant to -find that his sister could show such real comradeship in his work. - -"Of course you shall go with me if you wish, dear. Hop in. Careful!" - -"Let me steer, Rod." - -"Think you can see all right?" - -"With this big search-light? I should hope so. Lie down on the -cushions and rest for two minutes. I'll run very carefully." - -"Good enough." Rod stretched his weary bones on the seat. At the end -of the six-mile run he sat up, with a shamed grin. - -"Lazy sinner I am, I dropped off the minute I struck those cushions. -My, that snooze makes one thirsty for more! Put the launch inshore, -Sis. Hello there, boys! Is that Dredge A crew? Why, how did you swing -the dredge downstream so quickly?" - -"We had steam up, so we dropped down the lateral the minute we got -word of the cave-in," answered the dredge foreman. "It was Mister Jim -Conover who happened by and saw the landslip, sir. He came a-gallopin' -over with his horse all lather, and brought us the news, not fifteen -minutes after it happened. Then he called his own hired men and a -crowd of neighbors, and they all set to to shore up the bank, above -and below the break, with sand-bags and brush. They're workin' at it -now, sir, lickety-cut." He pointed up the lateral to a dim glow of -torch-light. "Shovellin' away like beavers they are, sir. There won't -be another slump in that margin, you can depend on that. They've saved -you and the company two days' work and five hundred dollars clear in -damages alone, I'm thinkin'." - -"Five hundred damages? It would have been nearer a thousand if they -hadn't stopped that slide on the double-quick." Roderick sat staring -at the hurrying figures in the dull glow of smoky light. He could -hardly grasp this amazing stroke of fortune. "But how--why--I never -heard of such a royal piece of kindness!" - -"It's all Conover's doing. He said you folks had done mighty -neighborly by him, and that he wanted to show his appreciation." - -"_Conover!_ Why, I never even heard the man's name till now!" - -"Conover?" Marian screwed up her forehead. A vague recollection -flickered in her mind. - -"Yes, sir, Conover. He has a good-sized farm back here a piece. Likely -you've forgotten. There's him and his wife and his little girl. -Crippled she is, the poor child. Mamie, they call her." - -"Mamie Conover--Oh! The poor little soul who was so delighted with -your red pencils, Rod! That visitors' Sunday, don't you remember?" - -"Oh, to be sure. You're better at remembering than I am, Sis. Well, -I'm going up to thank him, this minute. Then we'll ship the dredge -into trim and begin digging out the channel again. Think it will take -us all night?" - -"Now that Conover's gang has stopped the slide so good and square for -us, we ought to be able to cut out and tamp down, too, by daybreak, -sir. Maybe sooner. Here comes Conover this minute." - -Coated with mud, squashing heavily into the sodden crest of the bank -with every step, Conover tramped down the ditch. In that shambling -figure, Marian instantly recognized little Mamie's father. Vividly she -remembered his deep, weary look at her, the infinite tenderness with -which he had lifted the little frail body from her arms. - -In the white glare of the search-light, his gaunt face was radiant -with friendly concern. - -"We've done what little we could, Mr. Hallowell," he said, in reply to -Rod's eager thanks. "Little enough at that. But now if you'll put in a -few hours' dredging to get out that slide, your ditch will be all -right again. Mr. Locke there, whose land borders on this lateral, is a -little--well, a little fussy, you know. That's why we fellows kinder -butted in and set to work without waitin' to hear from you. Land, it -wasn't nothing to thank us for. Just a little troke between neighbors. -You here, Miss Hallowell? My buckboard is right up-shore. Can't I -drive you to Mr. Gates's? It's right on my way home--only a mile or -so off my road, that is." - -"Run along, Sis. Please. It's late and damp, and chilly besides. -Scoot, now." - -"But I don't want to go, Rod. I want to stay and see the dredge make -the cut over again. This is the most interesting performance I ever -dreamed of." - -"I'd much rather have you go home, old lady. You can't see much in -this half-light. And you can't help me. Worse, you'll catch cold sure -and certain." Yet that odd little glow warmed Rod's heart once more. -It was a wonderful satisfaction to hear Marian speak with such keen -interest of his beloved work. - -"Well, then--" reluctantly Marian scrambled ashore. Mr. Conover wiped -his muddy hands on the lap-robe and helped her into the buckboard, -with awkward care. They drove swiftly away, up the wide country road, -between the dark, level fields. - -Neither spoke for some minutes. At last Marian began, rather clumsily, -to tell him of their exciting day. - -The man made no comment. Still more clumsily, she tried to thank him -for his generous and timely aid to Roderick. - -Suddenly Mr. Conover turned to her. In the faint starlight she saw -that his dull face was working painfully. - -"So you want to thank me for this job, eh? Why, if I'd done ten times -as much, I wouldn't have begun to do what I want to do for you and -your brother. I've been aimin' to come over and tell you, long ago. -But seems like I never get around to it. Don't you mind about them red -pencils?" - -"Those red and blue pencils of Rod's, you mean? What of them?" - -"What of them? My, if you could see Mamie with them, you wouldn't -ask!" The color burned in his thin face. His eyes were shining now. -"They're the one pleasure that ain't never failed her. If I could ever -tell you what they've meant! I've sent to the city and bought her -three or four dozen assorteds, so's to be sure she never gets short of -all the colors. No matter how bad her back hurts, she'll set there in -her pillows and mark away, happy's a kitten. Seems like long's she's -workin' with those pencils, she forgets everything, even the pain. And -that's the best we can ever do for our baby." His voice broke on a -terrible and piteous note. "The only thing we can do--help her -forget." - -There was a long silence. - -"An' then you talk as if what I did to-night could count for -anything--alongside of _that_!" - -Marian's own lips were quivering. She did not dare to reply. - -Yet as she put out her bedroom candle and stood looking out on the -dark starlit woods, the narrow black ribbon of the canal, a whimsical -wonder stirred in her thought. - -"I'll tell Rod to-morrow that his red pencils must have the credit of -it all. It's the story of the little Dutch hero who stuffed his thumb -into the crack in the dike and saved the city, right over again. Only -this time it's something even tinier than a thumb that has saved the -day. It's just a little red lead-pencil. And, oh, how glad I am for -Roderick's sake! The dear, stodgy old slow-coach, I'm proud of every -inch of his success. Though maybe Slow-Coach isn't just the fitting -name for Rod nowadays. Sometimes the slow coaches are the very ones -that win the race--in the long run." - - - - -CHAPTER X - -HONORED GUESTS - - -Marian's wish for quiet and monotonous days was promptly granted. Only -too promptly and too thoroughly, she owned ruefully. The next morning -dawned bleak and gray, with a chill east wind and a driving rain. Held -prisoner in the house by the storm, Marian amused herself through the -long dreary day as best she could. At supper-time, feeling very lonely -indeed, she called Roderick up on the telephone; but their -long-distance visit gave her little satisfaction. - -Roderick had spent a hard day, hurrying from one lateral to another, -crowding the levee work to the highest possible speed; for in this -wide-spread rain the creeks to the north were rising an inch an hour, -and every inch meant danger to his half-built embankments. Marian -sympathized eagerly and declared that she would come down to the canal -the next day and help him with his reports. - -"Not if it rains you won't," croaked Roderick hoarsely. "Don't let me -catch you outside the house. You'll catch cold just as I have done, -wading through this swamp. Mind, now. Don't you dare leave the -farm-house unless it clears." - -Marian promised. When the morning came, dark and drizzly, she found it -hard to keep her word. The hours went on leaden feet. The downpour -never slackened. It was impossible for her to go out-doors even as far -as the driveway. In that flat, low country a two-days' rain means an -inundation. Meadows and fields were like flooded marshes. Sheets of -water spread through the orchards; the yard paths were so many brooks, -the barn-yard was an infant lake. - -"It won't last very long," Mrs. Gates consoled her. "A year ago we'd -have been heart-broken at the sight of such a rain. It would have -meant ruin for all the crops. The surplus water would not have drained -off in a fortnight. But since they began digging the ditches, we know -that our crops will be safe, even if it rains for a week." - -"I'm glad to learn that Rod's hard work counts for something," said -Marian impatiently. She flattened her downcast face against the pane. -"In the meantime, I feel like a marooned pirate. If I can't get out of -doors for some fresh air before long, I'll develop a pirate's -disposition, too." - -At dusk she tried again to call Roderick on the telephone, to demand -sympathy for her imprisonment. But to her astonishment she could get -no reply from central. - -"The wires are all down, I dare say," said Mrs. Gates cheerfully. -"It'll be three or four days before the line-men can get around to -repair damages. The roads are hub deep. No telling when they can haul -their repair wagons through. You'll see." - -Marian did see. The district roads had been all but impassable ever -since her coming. Now, thanks to this downpour, they would be -bottomless pits of mire. - -"Well! It's worse this morning, if anything," Mrs. Gates announced -cheerfully, as Marian appeared on the third gray morning. "'Pears to -me that you won't get out-doors again before the Fourth of July." - -"But I must have some air. I can't stay cooped up forever," cried -Marian. "If you'd only lend me your rubber boots, Mrs. Gates; the ones -you wear when you're gardening. Then I could put on my mackintosh and -my rubber bathing-cap and splash about beautifully. Besides, I must go -down to the canal. I must see how Rod is getting on. Think, it has -been two days since I have heard one word from him. Yet he is barely -two miles away!" - -Mrs. Gates yielded at last to her coaxing. Soon Marian started out, -wearing the borrowed boots and Mr. Gates's oil-skin coat. She stumbled -and splashed away through the dripping woods, with Finnegan romping -gayly behind. Rainy weather held no melancholy for Finnegan. Shut in -the house, he had made those three days memorable for the household, -especially for poor irate Empress, who had taken refuge at last on the -top rafter of the corn-bin. On the way to camp he flushed three -rabbits, chased a fat gray squirrel into chattering fury, and dragged -Marian knee-deep into a bog, in his wild eagerness to dig out an -imaginary woodchuck. - -"I wish I had a little of your vim, Finnegan." Marian sat down, soaked -and breathless, on the step of Sally Lou's martin-box. From that -eminence she surveyed the canal and its swarms of laborers. Her eyes -clouded. - -In spite of her growing interest in Roderick's work, to look upon that -work always puzzled her and disheartened her. The slow black water; -the ugly mud-piled banks; the massive engines throbbing night and day -through a haze of steam; the gigantic dredge machines, swinging their -great steel arms back and forth, up and down, lifting tons of earth -from the bottom of the ditch and placing it on the waiting barge with -weird, unerring skill. Most of all, the heavy tide of hurry and -anxiety that seemed to rise higher every day. All these things vexed -her and harassed her. When Rod talked over his work with her with all -his eager enthusiasm, she could share his triumph or lament his -disappointment, as the case might be. But the work itself was so huge, -so complicated, that she could never quite grasp it. She could never -understand her brother's passionate interest. - -"Although I don't despise the very sight of camp, as I did at first," -she reflected. "It is rather queer that I don't, too. Perhaps one can -get used to anything. And I do want to learn more about Rod's work, -for he loves it so dearly, and I know he wants me to enjoy it too. -Though how anybody can enjoy such a life! To spend day after day, -month on month, toiling like a slave in a steaming marsh like this!" - -A brisk finger tapped on the window-pane above her. - -"Come in, Miss Northerner! Poor dear, you're all but drowned. Stand on -the oil-cloth and drip till Mammy can help you to take off those boots -and put on my slippers." - -Marian entered the dry, warm little house with a sigh of pleasure. -Presently she sat at the window with Thomas Tucker bouncing on her -knee. Thomas Tucker had charms that could cheer the most pensive -spirit. Yet Marian stared soberly past his bobbing yellow head at the -swarming camp below. - -"Don't look so droopy, Miss Northerner. Perk up, do!" Sally Lou gave -her ear a gentle nip. "You and I will have to manufacture -cheerfulness in car-load lots this week, to counterbalance our -partners' gloom." - -"Why? Have the boys met with more ill-luck on the contract?" - -"More ill-luck!" Sally Lou checked off point by point on her slim -fingers. "Day before yesterday--the morning after the fire--the -district inspector was due here to pass judgment on the two upper -laterals. As you know, the contract provides that the inspector must -look over every yard of excavation and approve it before it can be -considered as actually done. Lo and behold, no inspector appeared. The -boys were wild with anxiety to start their levee-work before the rain -should wash the soft new banks down into the canal; for the company is -responsible for every cave-in, and every slide of land means double -labor in digging all that soil out of the ditch again. By noon the -inspector had not been heard from, but two small cave-ins had -occurred, and the company was losing money at the rate of thirty -dollars an hour, because of the enforced idleness of the laborers and -the shutting down of the machinery. Finally Roderick took his launch -and started out in search of the inspector. At Grafton he managed to -get telephone connections with his office, and he was cheerfully -assured that the inspector would appear on the scene 'as soon as the -rain stops.'" - -"'As soon as the rain stops?' Why, Sally Lou! Then he hasn't come at -all!" - -"Precisely. Back came poor Rod, very cross and doleful indeed. Then he -and Ned gave up work on the laterals and set the men to hacking away -at the regular excavation. The laborers are sulky accordingly. -Yesterday they threatened a strike. I don't blame them. The -bank-cutting is all very well in dry weather, but in this rain it is a -miserable task." - -"Well, Rod can keep the men pacified. He's a splendid manager." - -"Yes; and the men like him. But the work is terribly wearing on both -the boys. And the third calamity arrived last night. The dipper-handle -broke." - -"The dipper-handle? On the big dredge? Sally Lou, how dreadful!" - -"Yes, it is dreadful. It means, of course, that twenty of the -laborers will stop work and enjoy a vacation at the company's expense -while the new handle is being made and put in. Luckily the boys have -one set of duplicate chains and timbers, and the company blacksmith is -wonderfully capable. But it will cost the company a lump loss of a -thousand dollars. Imagine, Marian, how those poor boys will groan when -they make out their week's reports for President Sturdevant. 'One -fire. One delay and two cave-ins, due to non-appearance of district -inspector. One strike. One smashed dipper-handle.' Think what a dismal -task the writing of that report will be!" - -"Don't let me hear any more croaking, Sally Lou," came a wrathful -voice from the door. "For we're facing the worst smash yet. What do -you suppose this telegram says?" - -Sally Lou shook a small fist at the yellow slip in his hand. - -"Don't you dare tell me that it's some new misfortune!" - -"Two of 'em. That lordly, gloomy grouch, Mr. Ellingworth Locke, acting -president of the Central Mississippi Association, is headed for this -luckless camp. He's on his way up-river this identical minute. With -him comes Crosby. Crosby, consulting engineer for the whole Valley -Association. Coming on a tour of inspection, _if_ you please. Just -think of the lovely job that they have come a thousand miles to -inspect!" - -There was a stricken pause. - -"President Locke! That--that potentate! Ned, you don't mean it! And -Mr. Crosby, whose word is law on every question of engineering!" - -"And they're coming to-day! To 'inspect' this soaking, miry, -half-baked camp!" - -"And just this minute I've had some more news, Burford." Roderick -bolted up the steps and entered the room. He tried to wrench his face -into a reassuring grin; but beneath the grin he was the picture of -angry dismay. "A big white launch is just coming up the canal, with -two passengers aboard. If I'm not mistaken, they are our honored -guests. Come along, Burford, and help me welcome them." - -Burford, pop-eyed with amazement, meekly obeyed. Wordless, the two -girls watched the boys pelt away toward the landing. - -"Well!" - -Sally Lou and Marian looked at each other eloquently. - -"Well! I could find it in my heart to wish that the boys were not -obliged to unfold quite so many tales of misery! Then the broken -machinery and the quarrelling laborers! But we mustn't let ourselves -fidget over it, Marian. It will come out all right, somehow." - -Roderick and Burford pounded down to the shore. The white launch was -just putting into the landing. At the bow sat Mr. Ellingworth Locke, -wrapped in a huge storm coat. Evidently he was scolding the launch -pilot with some energy. Behind him stood Crosby, his gray, keen eyes -searching every inch of the ditch construction. - -"His Jove-like Majesty looks even grumpier than usual," whispered -Burford the irreverent. "Come along, Hallowell. It is our professional -duty to welcome them with heart and soul." - -"Mr. Burford?" Mr. Locke stepped upon the landing and put out a plump -gloved hand. "Ah, Mr. Hallowell? How goes it? We hope that you have -no ill news of the contract to give us." He led the way up the shore, -with ponderous dignity. "The three contracts in central Illinois, -which we have just inspected, have shown deplorable results from the -high water. I trust that you have no such misfortunes to report." - -"We haven't anything but misfortunes to report," muttered Burford. -Aloud he said, "We have not been able to bring the work to the desired -point, sir. We have had several accidents and delays. If you can face -the discomforts of a boat trip in this rain, perhaps you will make a -tour of inspection and see how matters stand." - -The honorable Mr. Locke hesitated. The canal looked very muddy and -uninviting. The sky was black with rain clouds. - -"Perhaps it would be as well for us to confer with you. Then we could -go back to Saint Louis immediately." - -"Beg pardon, Mr. Locke." Mr. Crosby spoke for the first time. His gray -face had no particular expression; but his voice held an oddly -pleasant note. "You go back right away, if you like. But I'll look -over this excavation with my own eyes. I want to discuss it with the -executive committee day after to-morrow." - -"Oh, of course, if you insist!" Mr. Locke turned impatiently to -Burford. "Where is your boat, sir? Let us start at once." - -That tour of inspection! Silent, humiliated, miserable, Roderick and -Burford plodded after the two Olympians, up and down the narrow -laterals, back and forth through the maze of seeping, half-cut -channels. Every question that they must answer told of some unlucky -happening. Every report was apologetic, unsatisfactory. - -"This ruinous high water isn't our fault. Neither is Carlisle's -illness, nor the broken dipper-handle, nor the district inspector's -delay. Just the same I feel like a penny-in-the-slot machine for -grinding out explanations," whispered Roderick to Burford. Burford -merely scowled in reply. - -Thus far, Mr. Crosby had had nothing to say. He strode on ahead, his -keen eyes judging, his shrewd mouth shut hard. President Locke made up -for his silence. He hectored the boys with fretful questions and -complaints. He criticised the laborers, the equipment, the weather. - -"Your company's losses, indeed! The Breckenridge Company will be -fortunate, Mr. Burford, if, under the present management, this -contract does not bring forfeitures as well as loss. As for the -land-owners in this district, their dissatisfaction can be only too -readily imagined." - -Just then the president caught Mr. Crosby's eye. - -"Do you not agree with me, Mr. Crosby? Is not this a most -disheartening outlook? On my word, sir, the company has no chance to -complete those laterals before the great June freshets. That calamity -will mean ruin for the farmers and for the contract alike. To finish -this work would be difficult with a full quota of experienced men. And -with only cub engineers--" He threw out both fat hands, with a gesture -of despairing scorn. - -Burford bit his lip and turned fiery red with mortification. -Roderick's stolid face did not flinch. But his heart sank leaden to -his miry boots. What an infuriating humiliation for the company! His -company, the pride of his boy heart! And Breckenridge, Breck his hero, -would have to hear it all! - -"You think it's as bad as all that?" Mr. Crosby spoke with slow, -bland unconcern. Then he looked at the two boys. For one moment his -lean gray face lighted with a curious, kindly sparkle. "H'm! Strikes -me that their company is mighty lucky to have cub engineers employed -on this job." - -"'Lucky?' Why, sir? Why?" - -"Well, because they're the only kind that any company can depend upon -to have nerve enough and grit enough to swing such a forlorn hope of a -contract through." - -He tramped on, up the landing. Burford threw back his shoulders. The -blood flamed to his ears. Roderick's heart suddenly leaped up to its -normal altitude and began to pound. His lagging feet swung into a -jaunty stride. He met Burford's red, delighted face with a shamefaced -grin. That vote of confidence had fairly set them afire. - -"At what time had we best start back to Saint Louis?" asked Mr. Locke. - -"By leaving camp at nine-thirty you will meet the north-bound limited -at Grafton, sir." - -"Then, Crosby, we will stay here until that hour. But where shall we -dine?" - -"It will be a pleasure to Mrs. Burford and myself if you and Mr. -Crosby will dine with us at our cabin," interposed Burford eagerly. - -The stout potentate graciously accepted, and Burford fled to break the -news to Sally Lou. - -"Mercy, Sally Lou, how can you manage it!" cried Marian, as Burford -popped his head through the window, shouted his news, then hastily -departed. "How on earth can you entertain such high mightinesses?" - -"Well, I should hope that I could give them one meal at least." - -"But you haven't enough dishes. That is, you haven't cups that -match----" - -"Cups that match, indeed! H'm. They can be thankful to get any cups at -all in this wilderness. I've promised Mammy Easter my pink beads if -she'll make us some beaten biscuit, and I have sent Mulcahy to Mrs. -Gates's for three chickens, and I'll open two jars of my white peach -preserve. I don't care if they're the Grand Mogul and the Czar of all -the Russias, they can surely condescend to eat Mammy's fried -chicken." - -"Yes, they'll be sure to like chicken," conceded Marian. - -"They'd better like it. It's all they're going to get. Chicken and -potatoes and biscuit, preserves and coffee, that's all. Yes, and -lashin's and lavin's of cream gravy. It'll be fit for a king. Even his -Highness, the acting president, won't dare complain!" - -If any complaints as to Sally Lou's hospitality were spoken, they were -not audible to the human ear. As Roderick said afterward, it was -fortunate that nobody kept the beaten biscuit score; while one grieves -to relate that in spite of Sally Lou's generous preparation, poor -Mammy Easter was obliged to piece out an exceedingly skimpy meal from -the fragments of the supper, instead of the feast that she had -anticipated. Even the pink beads proved a barely adequate consolation. - -The hour that followed, spent before the Burfords' tiny hearth-fire, -was the best of all. For a while, the men worked over the mass of -blueprints that recorded the excavation made during the month past. -Here President Locke, the magnificent figure-head, gave way, promptly -and meekly, before Crosby's wider experience. Roderick and Burford -listened, all ears, to the elder man's shrewd illuminating comment, -his quiet suggestion, his amused friendly sympathy. Both groaned -inwardly when the launch whistled from below, a warning that their -guests must be off to meet the north-bound train. - -President Locke bowed over Sally Lou's hand with majestic courtesy. - -"A most delightful hour you have given us, Mrs. Burford. We shall -remember it always and with deep pleasure. But one thing is lacking in -your hospitality. You have not given us the special pleasure of -meeting your young sons." - -Then Sally Lou, the poised stately young hostess, colored pink to her -curly fair hair. - -"It is high time that my sons were sound asleep," said she. "But if -you really wish to see them, and can overlook their informal attire, -Mammy Easter shall bring them in." - -In came two small podgy polar bears, wide-eyed at the marvel of -company, and up-at-Nine-o'clock, dimpling, crimson-cheeked. Roderick -and Burford stood gaping, to behold their august superiors now -stooping from their heights to beguile small Edward and shy Thomas -Tucker with clumsy blandishments. - -"_Where_ did you learn to handle a baby like that?" gasped Sally Lou, -so astonished at Mr. Crosby's dexterous ease that she forgot all -convention. - -"Six of my own," returned the eminent engineer, capably shifting -small, slippery Thomas Tucker on his gaunt shoulder. "All grown up, I -regret to say. My baby girl is a junior at Smith this year. Try him. -Isn't he a stunner for a year old?" He plumped the baby into the arms -of the lordly president, who was already jouncing Edward Junior on his -knee and showing him his watch. - -"A whale," approved President Locke, with impressive emphasis. He -stood up, gaining his footing with some difficulty; for both the -babies were now clambering over him delightedly, while Finnegan yapped -and nipped his ankles with cordial zest. "I wish we might spend -another hour with these most interesting members of your household, -Mr. Burford." His stern, arrogant face was beaming; he was no longer -the exacting official, but the gracious, kindly gentleman. "Since we -must go, we will leave behind us our good wishes, as well as our -thanks for your most charming hospitality. And we will take with -us"--his eye sought Mr. Crosby's; there passed between the two men a -quick, satisfied glance--"we shall take with us our hearty certainty -that these good wishes for your husband's work, as well as for his -household, will be abundantly fulfilled." - - * * * * * - -In the flickering torchlight of the landing Roderick and Ned watched -their launch start away. Then they looked at each other. - -"Well! Do you feel like tackling your job again, Burford?" - -"Feel like tackling it!" Ned chuckled, softly. "When I know they're -going to give their executive committee a gilt-edged report of our -company and its work! When Crosby himself said that we were the right -men on the right job! Feel like tackling it? Give me a shovel and I'll -tackle the Panama Canal." - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -A LONG PULL AND A STRONG PULL - - -"What is the latest bulletin, Sally Lou?" - -Ned Burford, hot, muddy, breathless, ran up the martin-box steps and -put his head inside the door. - -Sally Lou sat at Ned's desk, her brown eyes intent, her cheeks a -little pale. A broad map lay spread before her. One hand steadied -small Thomas Tucker, who clung against her knee. The other hand -grasped the telephone receiver. - -"What's the news, I say? Doesn't central answer? Wires down again, do -you s'pose?" - -"Yes, central answered, and we reached the operator at Bates Creek an -hour ago. She says that the smaller streams below Carter's Ford have -not risen since daybreak, but that Bates Creek itself has risen three -inches in the last four hours." - -"Whew! Three inches since morning! That sounds serious. What about -Jackson River?" - -"Below Millville the Jackson has flooded its banks. Above Millville -the men are patrolling the levees and stacking in sand bags and brush -to reinforce the earthwork." - -"That means, another crest of water will reach us to-morrow, early. -Well, we are ready to face it, I'm thankful to say." Ned settled back -in his big chair with a sigh of relief. "That is, unless it should -prove to be more than a three-foot rise. And there is practically no -danger that it will go beyond that stage. Our upper laterals are -excavated to final depth. Our levee is growing like magic, and -Hallowell is putting in splendid time on the lower laterals with the -big dredge. So we needn't worry. As soon as he finishes all the -lateral excavation, he will bring the dredges down to the main ditch -and start in to deepen the channel to its final depth. When that -second excavation is done, the channel will allow for a six-foot rise. -That channel depth, of course, will put us far out of any danger of -overflow. Then when the June floods come, the creeks can rise four -inches or forty inches if they like. We won't care." - -Sally Lou looked sharply at his grimy, cheerful face. Her own did not -reflect his contentment. She put down the receiver and bent frowning -over the map. Her pencil wandered over the maze of fine red lines that -marked the excavation. - -"Hallowell and I had nothing but bad luck on this contract until two -weeks ago, when Locke and Crosby came on their inspection tour," Ned -went on serenely. "But since their visit, we've had two solid weeks of -the best fortune any engineer could ask. It has been almost too good; -it's positively uncanny. Not a break in the machinery; only one -cave-in, and that a trifle; not a solitary quarrel among the -laborers--the shifts have moved like clock-work. It was Crosby's -doing, I suppose. His coming heartened us all up; all of us; even to -the dredges themselves. Though, on my word, Sally Lou, I'm almost -afraid of such unchanging good luck. It's no' canny." - -Sally Lou turned to him suddenly. Her fingers tapped the desk with -nervous little clicks. - -"Listen, Ned. Have you finished the upper laterals? Are they safe, no -matter how high the water may rise?" - -"N-no. They are excavated, but the bank is nothing but heaped mud, you -know. Still, it would stand anything short of a flood." - -"What about the lower laterals?" - -"Same state of affairs there. Only that the two lowest ditches aren't -cut at all. Why?" - -Sally Lou swung round in the desk chair and faced her husband. Her -eyes were very dark and anxious now. - -"One more question, Ned. Could the work stand a three-foot rise?" - -Ned stared. - -"A three-foot rise? No, it could not. A three-foot rise would stop our -levee-building. A rise of four feet or more would put us out of the -game. We'd be washed out, smashed, ruined. But why do you ask such -questions? What makes you imagine----" - -"I'm not imagining, Ned. I had a telephone call not five minutes ago -from the district inspector. Yes, I know you think he's always -shouting 'Wolf!' but this time he may be right. He says that he has -just come down from Chicago on the Central, and that the whole -mid-section of the State is fairly submerged by these endless rains. -Worse, the storm warnings are up for further rains. And he believes -that there will be a rise of three feet within two days. That is, -unless the rains stop." - -Ned started to his feet. - -"A rise of three feet! What is the man talking about? Don't you -believe one word, Sally Lou. That inspector is a regular hoot-owl. -He'd rather gloom and forebode than breathe. But maybe I'd better go -and tell Hallowell. Perhaps we can ginger up our excavation. Yet the -men and the machines are working up to their limit." - -He shuffled into his wet oilskins once more. - -"Where is Roderick, Ned?" - -"He just came in off his watch. He's sound asleep in the hammock over -at his shack. Marian is over there too. She made Mr. Gates bring her -down at five this morning, and she has worked like a Turk every -minute. She spent the morning with Hallowell, up the laterals. She has -learned to run his launch better that he can, so he lets her manage -the boat for him. Then she takes all his notes, and does all his -telephoning, and passes along his orders to the commissary men, and -seconds him at every turn. Did you ever in all your life see anybody -change as she has done? When I remember the listless, useless, fretful -specimen that she was, those first weeks, then look at her now, I can -hardly believe my eyes." - -Sally Lou listened a little impatiently. - -"Yes, I know. Ned, please go and tell Roderick about the inspector's -message. He surely ought to know." - -"All right, I'm going." Ned put down his frolicking small sons -reluctantly. Sally Lou laughed at his unwilling face. Yet she looked -after him anxiously as he sauntered away. Then her eyes turned to the -brimming canal. Tree branches and bits of lumber, washed down from the -upper land by the heavy storm, rolled and tumbled past. The sky was -thick and gray, the wind blew straight from the east. - -"I hate to fidget and forebode. But I--I almost wish that I could make -Ned forebode a little. I'm afraid he ought to worry. And Roderick -ought to be a little anxious, too." - -Suddenly the telephone bell rang. Sally Lou sprang to answer it. - -"Yes, this is the contract camp. A Chicago call? Is it--Is it -head-quarters? Oh, is this _Mr. Breckenridge_ who is speaking? Shall I -call Mr. Burford?" - -Strong and clear across two hundred miles of storm the voice reached -her, a hurrying command. - -"Do not call your husband. No time. Operator says the wind raging here -may break connections at any minute. Tell him that we have positive -word that a tremendous rise is on the way. A cloudburst north of -Huntsville started this new crest two hours ago. Moreover, a storm -belt extends across the State, covering a district thirty miles wide -directly north of you. Tell our engineers to spare neither money nor -effort in making ready. Tell them, whatever else they must neglect, to -save----" - -Click! - -The receiver dropped from Sally Lou's shaking hand. Not another sound -came over the wire. She signalled frantically. - -"Oh, if he had only told me! 'To save'--to save _what_? The machinery, -the levee, the laterals--Oh, central, please, please!" - -Still no sound. At last central's voice, a thin little whisper. - -"Chicago connections broken ... terrible storm ... sorry can't -reach----" - -The thin little whisper dropped to silence. - -"Mammy, take these babies. I'm going away." Sally Lou rolled Thomas -Tucker off her lap and dashed away to Roderick's shack. Trembling, she -poured out her ill news. - -"This means business." Roderick, heavy-eyed and stupid, struggled into -hip boots and slicker. "Breckenridge isn't frightening us for nothing. -We daren't lose a minute. Come along, Burford." - -"Come along--where?" Burford stood stunned before this bewildering -menace. "What more can we do? Aren't we rushing the whole plant to the -danger notch of speed as it is?" - -"There is one thing we must do. Decide what part of the work we can -abandon. Then put our whole force, men, machinery, and all, to work at -the one point where it will do the most good." - -"What can we abandon? It's all equally important." - -"That is for you and me to decide. Come along." - -"If Breck had only finished his sentence! 'To save--' Surely he meant -for us to save the dredges?" - -Again the boys looked at each other. - -"To save the dredges, maybe. But that doesn't sound like Breckenridge. -'To save the land-owners from loss,' that's more like what he'd say." - -"If we could only reach him, for even half a minute----" - -"That is precisely what we can't do." Roderick's big shoulders lifted. -His heavy face settled into lines of steel. "We'll bring all three of -the machines down stream, and put up our fight on the main ditch. If -we can cut through to the river, before the rise gets here, we will -save the crops for most of the land-owners, anyway. That will check -any danger of the water backing up into the narrow laterals and -overflowing them." - -Burford frowned. - -"Do you realize that by making that move we shall risk wrecking the -dredges? We will have to tow them down in this rough, high water -against this heavy wind. We may smash and sink all three. And they -cost the company a cool twenty thousand apiece, remember." - -Roderick's jaw set. - -"I realize just that. But it is up to us to decide. If we stop our -excavation and huddle the machines back into the laterals, we will -save our equipment from any risk. But the overflow will sweep the -whole lower district and ruin every acre of corn. On the other hand, -if we bring the dredges down here and start in full tilt to deepen the -channel, we may wreck our machines--and we may not. But, whatever -happens, we will be giving the land-owners a chance." - -Burford held back, but only for a moment. Then he put out his hand to -Roderick, with a slow grin. - -"I'm with you, Hallowell. I'll take your lead, straight through. It's -up to us, all right. We've got to shoulder the whole responsibility, -the whole big, hideous risk. But we'll put it through. That's all." - -Together the boys hurried away. Left behind, the girls set to work -upon their share of the plan with eager spirit. - -"You go with the boys and run the launch for them, Marian. I'll turn -the babies over to Mammy and stay right here to watch the telephone -and keep the time-books, although time-books could wait, in such a -pinch as this. We'll all pull together. And we will pull out safely, -never fear." - -Sally Lou was right. They all pulled together. Machines, laborers, -foremen and all swung splendidly into line. As Ned said, the contract -had never shown such team-work. Everybody worked overtime. Everybody -faced the rain, the mud, the merciless hurry with high good-humor. The -thrill of danger, the daring risk, the loyal zeal and spirit for the -company, all spurred them on. - -Side by side with Roderick, Marian worked through the day. She had -long since forgotten her frail health. She had forgotten her hatred of -the dun western country, her dislike of Roderick's work, her -weariness, her impatience. With heart and soul she stood by her -brother. Only the one wish ruled every act: her eager desire to help -Roderick, to stand by him through to the end of this tremendous -strain. - -"We'll make it!" Roderick grinned at her, tired but content, as he -came into the shack for his late supper. "Sally Lou finally reached -Springfield on the telephone. The rain has stopped; so while the rise -will come, sure as fate, yet it may not be as high as Breckenridge -feared. At any rate, we have made splendid time with the big dredge -to-day. There is barely an eighth of a mile more cutting to be done. -Then we'll reach the river, and we'll be safe, no matter what freshets -may happen along. Burford says I'm to take six hours' sleep; then I'll -go on watch again. Twelve more hours of working time will see our -land-owners secure." - -"Ned Burford is running up the shore this minute." Marian peered -through the tent flap. "Mulcahy is coming with him. They're in a -hurry. I wonder what has happened." - -"They'd better not bring me any bad news till I have eaten my supper," -said Roderick grimly. - -Burford and Mulcahy galloped up the knoll. Headlong they plunged into -the tent. Burford was gray-white. Mulcahy stared at Roderick without -a word. - -"What has happened? Burford, what ails you?" - -Burford sat down and mopped his sweating forehead. - -"The worst break-down yet, Hallowell. The dipper-bail on the big -dredge has snapped clear through." - -The three stared at each other in helpless despair. Marian broke the -silence. - -"The dipper-bail broken _again_? Why, it's not two weeks since you put -on the new handle!" - -"True for you, miss. Not two weeks since it broke," said Mulcahy -wrathfully. "And its smash means a tie-up all along the line. Not one -stroke of ditch-work can be done till it's replaced. Who ever saw a -dipper break her bail twice on the same job? 'Tis lightnin' strikin' -twice in the same place. But 'tis no use cryin' over spilt milk. One -of you gentlemen will have to go to Saint Louis and have a new bail -welded at the steam forge. It will cost twenty-four hours' time, but -it is the only way. I'll keep the boys hot at work on the levee -construction meanwhile." - -"Go to Saint Louis to-night! And neither of you two have had a night's -sleep this week!" Marian looked at Burford. His sodden clothes hung on -him. His round face was pinched and sunken with fatigue. She looked at -her brother. He had slumped back in his chair, limp and haggard. He -was so utterly tired that even the shock of ill news could not rouse -him to meet its challenge. - -Then she looked out at the weltering muddy canal, the dark stormy sky. - -"Never mind, Rod. We'll manage. You and Ned make out the exact figures -and dimensions for the new bail. Then Mulcahy can take me to Grafton -in the launch. There I'll catch the Saint Louis train. I'll go -straight to the steam forge and urge them to make your bail at once. -Then I'll bring it back on the train to-morrow night." - -Promptly both boys burst into loud, astonished exclamations. - -"Go to Saint Louis alone! I guess I see myself letting you do such a -preposterous thing. I'll start, at once." - -"Stop that, Hallowell. You can't possibly go. You're so sleepy that -you haven't half sense. I'll go myself." - -"Oh, you will. Then what about your watch to-night? Shall I take it -and my own, too?" - -Burford stopped, quenched. He reddened with perplexity. - -"We can't either of us be spared, that's the fact of it. But Miss -Marian must not think of going." - -"Certainly not. I would never allow it." - -"Yes, Rod, you will allow it." Marian spoke quietly, but with -determination. "The trip to Saint Louis is perfectly safe. Once in the -city, I'll take a carriage to the College Club and stay there every -minute, except the time that I must spend in giving orders for the -bail. No, you two need not look so forbidding. I'm going. And I'm -going this identical minute." - -Later Marian laughed to remember how swiftly she had overruled every -protest. The boys were too tired and dazed to stand against her. It -was hardly an hour before she found herself flying down the river, in -charge of the faithful Mulcahy, on her way to catch the south-bound -train. - -"The steam-forge people will do everything in their power to serve -you," Roderick had said, as he scrawled the last memoranda for her -use. "They know our firm, and they will rush the bail through and have -it loaded on the eight-o'clock train. I'll see to it that Mulcahy and -two men are at the Grafton dock to meet your train. But if anything -should go wrong, Sis, just you hunt up Commodore McCloskey and ask him -to help you; for the commodore is our guardian angel, I am convinced -of that." - -The trip to the city was uneventful. She awoke early, after a good -rest, and hurried down to the forge works, a huge smoky foundry near -the river. The shop foreman met her with the utmost courtesy and -promised that the bail should be made and delivered aboard the -afternoon train. Feeling very capable and assured, Marian went back to -the club and had spent two pleasant hours in its reading-room when she -was called to the telephone. - -"Miss Hallowell?" It was the voice of the forge works foreman. -"I--er--most unluckily we have mislaid the slip of paper which gave -the dimensions of the bail. We cannot go on until we have those -dimensions. Do you remember the figures?" - -Poor Marian racked her brain. Not one measurement could she call to -mind. - -"I'll ask my brother over the long-distance," she told the foreman. -But even as she spoke, she knew that there was no hope of reaching -Roderick. All the long-distance wires were down. - -"And not one human being in all Saint Louis who can tell me the size -of that bail!" she groaned. "Oh, why didn't I measure it with my own -tape-measure--and then learn the figures by heart! Yet--I do wonder! -Would Commodore McCloskey know? He has been at the camp so often, and -he knows everything about our machinery. Let's see." - -Presently Commodore McCloskey's friendly voice rang over the wire. - -"Well, sure 'tis good luck that ye caught me at the dock, Miss Marian. -The _Lucy_ is just startin' up-river. Two minutes more and I'd have -gone aboard. So ye've lost the bail dimensions? Well, well, don't talk -so panicky-like. I'll be with ye in two minutes, an' we'll go to the -forge together. 'Tis no grand memory I have, but I can give them a -workin' idea." - -"Oh, if you only will, commodore! But the _Lucy_! How can you be -spared?" - -"Hoot, toot. The _Lucy_ can wait while I go shoppin' with you. Yes, -she has a time schedule, I know well. But, in high wather, whoever -expects a Mississippi packet to be on time? Or in low wather, either, -for that matter. I'll come to ye at once." - -The commodore was as good as his word. Soon he and Marian reached the -forge works. There his shrewd observation and his wise old memory -suggested dimensions which proved later to be correct in every detail. -Moreover, he insisted upon staying with Marian till the bail should be -welded. Then, under his sharp eyes, it was loaded safely on the -Grafton train. As he escorted Marian elegantly into the passenger -coach, she ventured, between her exclamations of gratitude, to reprove -him very gently. - -"You have been too good to me, commodore. But when I think of the poor -deserted _Lucy_! And the captain--what will he say?" - -"He'll say a-plenty." The little commodore smiled serenely. "'Tis an -unchivalrous set the steam-boat owners are, nowadays. If he were half -as obligin' as the old captains used to be in the good days before the -war, he'd be happy to wait over twenty-four hours, if need be, to -serve a lady. But nowadays 'tis only time, time that counts. Sure, -he's grieved to the heart if we make a triflin' loss, like six hours, -say, in our schedule." - -"And I'm not thanking you for myself alone," Marian went on, flushing. -"It is for Rod, too. You don't know how much it means to me to be able -to help him, even in this one small way." - -Then the little commodore bent close to her. His shrewd little eyes -gleamed. - -"Don't I know, sure? An' by that token I'm proud of this day, and -twice proud of the chance that's led me to share it. For, sure, I've -always said it--the time would certain come when you--_when you'd wake -up_. Mind my word, Miss Marian. Don't ye forget! Don't ye let go--and -go to sleep again." - -The train jarred into motion. His knotted little hand gripped hers. -Then he was off and away. - -"The dear little, queer little commodore!" Marian looked after him, -her eyes a bit shadowy. "Though what could he mean! 'Now you've waked -up.' I do wonder!" - -Yet her wonder was half pretended. A hot flush burned in her cheek as -she sat thinking of his words. - -"Well, I'm glad, too, that I've 'waked up,' although I wish that -something had happened to stir me earlier." - -The train crept on through the flooded country. It was past eight -o'clock when they reached Grafton. Marian hurried from the coach and -watched anxiously while two baggagemen hoisted the heavy bail from the -car. - -"Well, my share is done," she said to herself. "That precious bail is -here, safe and sound. But where is Mulcahy? And the launch? Rod said -that he would not fail to be here by train time." - -The train pulled out. From the dim-lit station the ticket agent called -to her. - -"You're expecting your launch, Miss Hallowell? There has been no boat -down to-day." - -"But my brother promised to send the launch," stammered Marian. -"Surely they knew I was coming to-night!" - -Then, in a flash of recollection, she heard Roderick's voice: - -"And Mulcahy will meet you on the eight-o'clock train." - -"Rod meant the train that leaves Saint Louis at eight in the morning! -Not this afternoon train. How could I make such a blunder! He does not -look for me to reach Grafton till to-morrow." - -She looked at the huge, heavy bail. - -"If that bail could reach camp to-night, they could ship it up and -start to cutting immediately. It would mean seven or eight hours more -of working time. But how to take it there!" - -"There's a man yonder who owns a gasolene-launch," ventured the agent. -"It's a crazy, battered tub, but maybe----" - -Marian looked out at the night: the black, sullen river; the ranks of -willows swaying in the heavy wind; the thunder that told of -approaching storm. - -"Call that man over, please. Yes, I shall risk the trip up-river. That -bail shall reach camp to-night." - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -PARTNERS AND VICTORIES - - -"What time is it, miss?" - -Marian put down the gallon tin with which she had bailed steadily, and -looked at her watch. - -"Almost midnight." - -"Only midnight!" - -The steersman gave a weary yawn and turned back to his wheel. Inwardly -Marian echoed his discouraged word. It seemed to her that she had -crouched for years in the stern of the crazy little motor-boat. Rain -and spray had drenched her to the skin. She ached in every half-frozen -bone. Yet she sat, wide awake and alert, watching her pilot keenly. - -He was a poor helmsman, she thought. However, an expert would have -found trouble in taking an overloaded launch up-stream against that -swollen current and in pitch darkness. Worse, the weight of the heavy -dredge-bail weighed the launch down almost to water level. Every tiny -wave splashed over the gunwale. Marian bailed on mechanically. - -She had had hard work to bribe the owner to risk the trip up-stream. -The men at Grafton had warned her, moreover, that she was running a -narrow chance of swamping the launch, and thus of losing her precious -piece of machinery, to say nothing of the danger to her own life. But -all Marian's old timidity had fled, forgotten. Nothing else mattered -if just she might serve her brother in his supreme need. - -Through these four dreary hours the old commodore's quaint, frank -words had echoed in her mind. And the commodore had been right, she -owned, with a quiver of shame. Always, since their mud-pie days, Rod -had done his part by her in full measure, generously, lovingly. Never, -until these last days, had she even realized what doing her own part -by Roderick might mean. - -"Although I have been slower than my blessed old Slow-Coach himself in -realizing what my life ought to count for. Well, as the commodore -said, I have waked up at last. And mind this, Marian Hallowell! _You -stay awake!_ Never, never let me catch you dozing off again!" - -"There's the camp light yonder," the steersman spoke at last, with a -sigh of satisfaction. - -Marian peered ahead through the cold, blinding mist. Away up-stream -shone a feeble glimmer, then a second light; a third. - -"Good! And--there are the dredge search-lights! Only a minute more and -we'll be there." - -Only a minute it seemed till the launch wheezed up to the landing and -swung with a thud against the posts. Marian stumbled ashore. - -"Mulcahy!" she called to the dark figure standing on the dredge deck. -"Send two men to unload the bail for us." - -"Marian Hallowell! Where under the shining sun did you come from?" -Roderick leaped from the deck to the shore and confronted his sister. -Then, in his horrified surprise at her daring risk, he pounced upon -her and administered a scolding of such vigor that it fairly made her -gasp. - -"Of all the outrageous, reckless----" - -"There, there, Rod! Look!" - -Still breathing threatenings and slaughter, Roderick turned. Then he -saw the huge new bail which the men were hoisting ashore. - -"So that's what it all means! That's why you came up on the early -train! You brought that bail yourself, all the way. You risked your -life in that groggy little boat! All on purpose to help us out! Marian -Hallowell, I'd like to shake you hard. And for two cents I'd kiss you -right here and now. You--you _peach_!" - -Burford, awakened by the launch whistle, was hurrying down the bank. -Reaching the landing his eye fell on the precious new bail. - -Utterly silent, he stared at it for a long rapt minute. Then, rubbing -his sleepy eyes, he turned to Marian and Rod with a grin that fairly -lighted up the dock. - -"Now," he said, with slow exultation, "now--we've got our chance to -win." - -And win they did. - -True, the water had already risen close to the dreaded three-foot -danger-mark. True, neither of the boys had had half a dozen hours of -sleep in three days. As for the laborers, they were fagged and -overworked to the limit of their endurance. But not one of these -things counted. Not a grumbling word was spoken. This was their -company's one chance. Not a man held back from seizing that chance and -making good. Not a man but felt himself one with the company, a living -vital element of that splendid struggling whole. - -Marian and Sally Lou stood on the shore watching the dredge as the -great dipper crunched its way through the last submerged barrier. The -canal rolled bank full. Little waves swashed over the platform on -which they stood. Pools of seep-water already gathered behind the mud -embankment, which was crumbling into miry avalanches with every sweep -of rising water against it. Not by any chance could the levee stand -another hour. But even as the dredge cut that narrow passage, the -heavy overflow boiled outward into the river beyond. Minute by minute -the rough surface of the canal was sinking before their watching eyes. -Now it had fallen from six inches above to high-water mark; now to -three inches below; now to mid-stage--and safety. - -As the freed stream rolled out into the river, a great cheer rose from -the laborers crowded alongshore. Roderick and Burford stayed aboard -the dredge until it was warped alongside the dock and safely moored. -Then they crossed to land and joined the girls. Neither of the boys -spoke one word. They did not seem to hear the shouts and cheers behind -them. There was no glow of success on their sober faces. Perhaps their -relief was so great that they were a little stunned before its wonder. -Victory was theirs; but victory won in the face of so great a danger -that they could not yield and feel assured of their escape. - -"We cannot reach head-quarters on the telephone, of course. But, by -hook or crook, one of you boys must get a despatch through to Mr. -Breckenridge. Think of being able to tell him that you have deepened -the canal straight through to the river, so that the whole lower half -of the district is safe from overflow! And that you have moved all -these costly, treacherous machines down-stream without one serious -accident, without so much as a broken bolt! It is too good to be -true." - -"I'll take a launch and sprint down to Grafton and wire our report -from there," said Burford. His tense face relaxed; he broke into a -delighted chuckle. "Think of it: this once I can actually enjoy -sending in my report to head-quarters! I'd like to write it out -instead of wiring it. I'd put red-ink curlycues and scroll-work -dewdabs all over the page. Think, Hallowell, you solemn wooden Indian! -The crest of this flood is only two hours away. By noon the highest -level will reach our canal. But it can't flood our district for us, -for--for we got there first!" - -His rosy face one glow of contentment, he started toward the pier. But -as he was about to step aboard the duty-launch, Roderick hailed him -sharply. - -"Wait, Burford. Somebody is coming up the big ditch. A large gray -launch, with a little dark-blue flag." - -"What!" - -Burford sprang back. He shaded his eyes and looked down the canal. -Then, to Rod's amazement, he sat down on a pile of two-by-fours and -rocked to and fro. - -"Whatever ails you, Burford?" - -"Whatever ails me, indeed!" Burford choked it out. His ears were -scarlet. His eyes were fairly popping from his head with delight. "Oh, -I reckon I won't bother to send that report to head-quarters, after -all. I'll just let the whole thing slide." - -Rod gaped at him. - -"Have you lost your last wit, Ned?" - -"Not quite. I'm going to give my report to my superior officer by word -of mouth. That big gray power-boat is one of our own company's -launches. That small blue flag is the company ensign. And that big -gray man standing 'midships is--Breckenridge! Breck the Great, his -very self." - -"Breckenridge!" - -"Breckenridge. All there, too--every splendid inch of him. Talk about -luck! Our levee is saved. Our dredges are all anchored, right yonder, -trim as a gimlet. Our schedule is put through up to the minute. And -here, precisely on the psychological moment, comes our chief on his -tour of inspection. Can you beat that?" - -Roderick merely stared down the canal. - -Close behind the launch pilot, scanning the bank intently as they -steamed by, towered a broad-shouldered, heavily built man, -gray-headed, yet powerful and alert in every movement. He was well -splashed with mud; his broad, heavily featured face was colorless with -fatigue. Yet as he stood there, with his big tense body, his tired, -eager face, he seemed like some magnificent natural force imprisoned -in human flesh. - -"Isn't he sumptuous, though?" said Burford, under his breath. "Look at -those shoulders! What a half-back he would make!" - -"Half-back? Why, he could make the All-American," Rod whispered back. -His eyes were glued to that tall approaching figure. His heart was -pounding in his breast. So this was Breckenridge the Great, his hero! -And, marvel of marvels, he looked the hero of all Rod's farthest -dreams. - -Breckenridge stepped from the launch and shook hands heartily with the -radiant and stammering Burford. He looked at Roderick with steady dark -eyes. He hardly spoke in reply to Burford's introduction. But the grip -of his big, muscular hand was warmly cordial. - -He asked a few brief questions. Then he listened, his heavy head bent, -his heavy-lidded eyes half closed, to Burford's eager account of -their struggles and their triumphs. Almost without speaking he -clambered into the launch again and motioned the boys to follow. - -For four consecutive hours the three went up and down the rough miry -channels. Roderick steered the launch. Burford answered Breckenridge's -occasional questions. Breckenridge stood, field-glass in hand, -sweeping first one bank, then another with tireless eyes. He made -almost no comment on Burford's explanations; but the slow occasional -nod of his massive head was eloquent. - -Finally they retraced the last lateral and brought the launch up to -the main landing. - -"No, I'll not stop to dine with you, much as I should enjoy it. I must -be getting on to the next contract. They're seeing heavy weather too." -Breckenridge stood up, stretching his big, cramped body. As he stood -there, brushing the clay from his coat, he seemed to loom. - -"I have nothing much to say to you fellows," he went on in his quiet, -casual voice, "only to remark that you must have worked like Trojans. -You have made a far larger yardage record than we had dared to -expect. You've put brains into your work, too. Can't say I'm surprised -at your success, by the way. I was pretty certain from what Crosby -said that you two would swing this contract, all right. Crosby and I -had a talk in Chicago a week or so ago. We were in Tech together. -Naturally he's quite a pal of mine, though nowadays we're opponents in -a business way. But his opinion weighs heavily with me. And now that I -have gone over the ground for myself, I am inclined to think that -Crosby rather--well, that he underestimated your services to the -company." Again his big head bent with that queer slow nod. For a -moment Breck himself, the real man, alert, just, keenly understanding, -flashed a glance from behind that heavy mask of splendid, impassive -flesh. "Later you will probably receive a more detailed explanation of -my opinion on your work. Good luck to you both, and good-by." - -He stepped into the launch. The powerful boat dashed away down the -rough yellow canal. - -The boys stood and looked after him. Burford was wildly exultant. But -Roderick was silent. A curious, deep satisfaction lighted his stolid, -boyish face. Every word that Breckenridge had spoken was tingling in -his blood. At last he had met his hero face to face, man to man. And -his hero had proven all that heart could ask. - -"I wish I knew what he meant by saying that you'd hear further as to -his opinion on your work," pondered Marian. - -Just two days later her wish was gratified. - - * * * * * - -It was a rainy, dreary day. Rod had spent the morning up the laterals -and had come home dripping. Marian was trying to dry his soaked -clothes before the smoky little oil-stove, but without much success. -Just before noon she heard a welcome whistle. She ran down the bank to -meet the rural delivery-man in his little spider-launch. The roads -were long since impassable; the mail and all the camp supplies must -come by water. - -"Stacks of letters, Rod. A fat official one for the Burfords and a -still fatter, more official one for you. Do read it and tell me your -news." - -"All right, Sis." Rod pushed aside his blueprints and set to opening -his mail. - -Marian looked over her own letters. They were all of a sort: pleasant, -affectionate notes from her friends at home. All, with one accord, -besought her to hurry back to college for commencement. All earnestly -pitied her for the tedious weeks that she was spending "in that rough, -dreadful western country." - -Marian's eyes twinkled as she read. At the bottom of the pile lay a -note from her good friend Isabel, begging her for the twentieth time -to spend August with her in her beautiful home at Beverly Farms. - -Marian read that letter twice. Her dark brows narrowed. - -Before her eyes gleamed Isabel's home, the great beautiful house, set -on a terraced emerald-green hill. Behind it, dark, cool, mysterious, -lay the pine woods; before it flashed and gleamed the sea. She could -see its wide, stately rooms, its soft-hued, luxurious furnishings. She -could feel the atmosphere of quiet contentment, of assured ease, which -was to Isabel and her mother the very air they breathed. - -Then she looked around her. - -Here she sat in a tiny canvas shack with a rough board floor. She -looked at its mended chairs, its rag-tag rug, and stringy curtains; -Rod's wet clothes, dripping before the little oil-stove; Rod's -battered desk, heaped with papers and blue-prints, a mass of -accumulated work. Then she looked through the tent-flap. Neither blue -ocean nor deep, still forest met her eyes. Only a narrow, muddy ditch; -a row of wind-torn willows; a dark, swollen river, hurrying on beneath -a dark, sinister sky. - -An exclamation from Rod startled her. He stooped to her, his tired -face burning. With unsteady fingers he put a letter into her hand. - -"Read that, Sis. No, I'll not read it aloud to you. Look at it with -your own eyes." - - THE BRECKENRIDGE ENGINEERING COMPANY. - OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT. - RODERICK T. HALLOWELL, C. E., - _c/o Contract Camp, Grafton, Illinois._ - -SIR: I beg to state that certain changes in the engineering force of -the company have brought about a change in the position occupied by -yourself with our firm. Beginning upon the first day of June, 1912, -you will be transferred to the post of assistant superintendent on a -large drainage contract in northern Iowa. While your position will be -second to that of Mr. McPherson, our supervising engineer, yet you -will be given entire charge of the assembling of the plant and its -construction. Your salary will be two thousand dollars. Payment -quarterly, as is our custom. - -Some objections to this promotion have been raised by members of our -company on the score of your limited experience. Mr. Breckenridge, -however, considers from his observation of your methods that you will -prove fully equal to this exacting and responsible position. - - I am, very respectfully, - THE BRECKENRIDGE ENGINEERING COMPANY. - _Per_ R. W. AUSTIN, _Sec'y_. - -Silent, wide-eyed, Marian read this amazing document. Then, with a cry -of surprise and delight, she turned to her brother. But before she -could speak, a storm of eager feet dashed up the cabin steps. In burst -Sally Lou and Ned, headlong. Ned, breathless with excitement, waved a -long official envelope. But Sally Lou, close at his heels with Thomas -Tucker crowing on her arm, poured out the wild tale. - -"Oh, Marian! Oh, Roderick! Oh, it's too good and grand and glorious to -be true! We're going home, home, straight back to Virginia!" - -"Yes, we're going home, we're fired," puffed Ned, as Sally Lou paused -for breath. He sank down on the bench with a sigh of ecstasy. "Don't -look so dazed, Hallowell. There is more news coming. We're ordered off -this contract. But we're not ordered out of the Breckenridge -Engineering Company. Not quite yet. Instead, I'm directed to report on -the Dismal Swamp Canal the first of the month. My position will be -practically the same as the one that I'm now holding. But we can live -at home. _At home_, I say! Right in Norfolk, right in the midst of all -Sally Lou's own home-folks, right around the corner from my own -father's house. Won't we have a glorious year of it! And won't Edward -Junior and Thomas Tucker be good and spoiled, though!" - -"We're so happy we can't even say it to each other!" Sally Lou sat -down suddenly, hiding her April face in Thomas Tucker's small -pinafore. "It took Mammy Easter to express our feelings for us. 'Land, -honey,' said she, 'I cert'n'y am thankful that we's goin' back to -civilization. I want to climb on a real street-car again. I want to -ride in an elevator. I don't care if I never sets foot in one of dem -slippery little launches again, long's I live. But most of all I want -to tote dese lambs out of this swamp and on to de dry land before dey -grows up plumb web-footed.'" - -In the midst of the laugh that followed, a launch whistled from down -the canal. - -"There's Mulcahy now. Hurry, Ned. Go down to Grafton and send your -telegram to head-quarters. Good-by, folks! Come over to the martin-box -to-night and we'll hold one last celebration." - -Sally Lou tossed her baby to her shoulder. Away she sped beside her -husband. Marian looked after the gay, hurrying figures. Then, still -bewildered, she turned to Roderick. - -"Well! What will happen next! Ned and Sally Lou ordered to Virginia; -you promoted--it takes my breath away! But, Rod!" Her voice rose with -a startled note. She looked up keenly at her brother's grave face. -"You--you dear, cold-blooded old slow-coach! How can you look so -pensive and perplexed? Of all the splendid, splendid news! How could -you keep still and not tell the Burfords? How can you keep still now? -If I wasn't so tired, I'd dance a jig right here on your desk!" - -"I ought to be dancing jigs myself," Roderick answered. "I don't half -deserve this magnificent chance, I know that. But I--I don't know what -to say. I'm facing a dead wall." - -"Rod, what do you mean? Of course you will accept this promotion. You -must. There can't be any question!" Marian was on her knees by his -chair now, clasping his cold hands in her own. Her voice rang sharp -with angry affection. "Don't halt and fumble so, brother! Don't you -remember, three months ago, how you fretted and hesitated about taking -the position that you are holding to-day? See how you have succeeded -in it! Yet look at you! To-day you are wavering and boggling and -hanging back, just as you did then." - -"I'm hanging back, yes. But not for the same reason." Roderick looked -down at her with dark, troubled eyes. "That time, I hesitated to -accept on your account. This time, I'm hesitating on my own." - -"Why, Roderick Hallowell! You are not afraid of hard work, nor of -taking chances, either. Rod, tell me this minute. Are you ill? What is -it, dear?" - -"Nonsense. I'm perfectly well. But I am tired out. I don't know how to -tell you what I mean. So tired that I dread the mere thought of going -on a new contract, and taking charge of a new crew, and breaking -myself in to a new piece of work. Yes, it does sound cowardly. But I -cannot see my way clear. I don't believe I dare take it up." - -Marian looked at him closely. - -"Sleep on this, Rod. A night's rest will give you a different light on -the matter." - -"A night's rest won't make any difference in the facts, Sis. The -position is too complicated for a greenhorn like me. I believe I could -assemble the plant, all right. And I think I could handle the -laborers. But the endless outside detail is what I'm afraid of. That, -and the responsibility, too. For instance, on a contract like this one -in Iowa, the engineers must act as paymasters, each for his division. -That means, reckon the men's time daily; make out their checks; handle -their wages for them; and so on. Then there are my tabulated -reports for the head office. Then my supplies. You have seen with your -own eyes how much time and work just the buying of coal and machinery -can demand. Then there would be a thousand smaller matters to look -after. Taking it all in all, I don't want to make a try at this offer, -then fail. So the sensible thing to do is, meekly to ask the company -for a less impressive post." - -"All that you would need for the extra work that you describe would be -a competent book-keeper, Rod." - -"Exactly!" Rod laughed shortly. "But a 'competent' book-keeper is the -last employé that one can find for such hard, isolated work as this. -What I need is not just a man to add columns for me. I need another -brain, an extra pair of hands. I need the sort of first-aid that you -have been giving me all these weeks, Sis. That's the sort of help that -you can't buy for love nor money. That's all." - - [Illustration: MARIAN WAS ON HER KNEES BY HIS CHAIR, CLASPING HIS - COLD HANDS IN HER OWN.] - -Marian studied her brother's face. When she spoke, her voice was very -gentle and low. - -"All right, Rod. Telegraph head-quarters that you will accept." - -"Why?" - -"Because--I am going to take that position as book-keeper. There, -now!" - -Roderick sat up with some vehemence. - -"Marian Hallowell, I think I see myself letting you do any more of my -work. You're going back to college next week, for commencement. Then -you may come West again, if you're determined to stay somewhere near -me. I'm mighty glad to have you within reach, I must admit that. But -you are not to live down in the woods any longer. And not another -stroke of my work shall you do." - -"Why not? Am I such a poor stenographer?" - -Roderick laughed at her injured tone. Pride and affection mingled in -that laugh. - -"You have been invaluable, Sis. You know that perfectly well. I'd -never have pulled through this month without you. You have been of -more real use than any three ordinary stenographers rolled together. -For you have used your own brains and will and courage. You have not -stood gracefully by and waited for orders. You have marched right on, -and you have done a man's work straight through. But our long pull is -over now. And you are well and strong again, I'm thankful to say. So -back to the East you go, old lady. No more contract jobs for you." - -Marian's eyes narrowed ominously. Deliberately she seated herself on -the arm of her brother's chair. Gently but firmly she seized him by -both ears. - -"Now, Roderick Hallowell, listen to me. Three months ago the company -offered you this position. I wanted you to accept it. But, of all -things, I did _not_ want to go West with you. I teased and coaxed and -whined. Much good my whining did me. For you just set that -Rock-o'-Gibraltar chin of yours, and took me firmly by the collar and -marched me along. - -"Now, Roderick Hallowell, look at me!" - -Chuckling and shamefaced, Roderick struggled to turn his face away; -but Marian's fingers gripped mercilessly tight. - -"Look at me, I say. Answer. Didn't you bully me into giving up to your -wishes, by threatening to refuse this position unless I'd come West -with you? Didn't you drag me out here willy-nilly? Very well. You have -had your way. You have brought me here, and--_you can't send me back_. -There now." - -"Marian, this is not fair." Roderick freed one ear and looked sternly -at his sister. "You must finish your education. I have no right to -keep you trailing around the country with me, wasting your time and -cutting you off from your friends and denying you any home comfort. -You shall not sacrifice yourself----" - -"Sacrifice myself, indeed!" Marian took a fresh grip. "All I ask is to -stay with you until next February. Then I'll go back and take up my -college work at the exact point where I laid it down. I cannot -graduate with my class, no matter how hard I try. My illness last -winter took too much time. So I may as well join the class following, -at mid-years'. In the mean time, we will have eight splendid months -together. No, I have waked up, Rod. You can't hush me off to my -selfish doze again." - -"But, Marian, I can't possibly permit----" - -"Yes, you can. And you will. As to home comforts--isn't it home, -wherever we two are together? As to being cut off from my -friends--aren't you the best chum I ever had? How do you suppose I -like being cut off from you, brother?" - -Rod did not answer. At last he looked up. The sober gratitude in his -eyes brought an answering radiance to Marian's own. - -"I give up, Sis. You shall stay with me for the summer, anyway. Then -we'll see. Now run away, you blessed old partner!" His big hands shut -on her shoulders with an eloquent grip. "I'm going to write to -head-quarters and accept that position before I have time to turn -coward again and change my mind." - -Marian gave him a vigorous hug of satisfaction, and ran away. Letter -in hand, Roderick went to his desk. - -Carefully he set down his formal, courteous acceptance. He read the -finished letter with critical care. Something was lacking. Yet he had -taken all possible pains. What more could his reply need? - -Suddenly his face brightened. He took up his pen. Slowly and -carefully he added a final paragraph: - -"In accepting this promotion, I wish to do so with the understanding -that my sister, Miss Hallowell, who has acted as my assistant during -the past month, shall continue to hold that position under the new -contract. As her work is to be counted as a part of my own, I will -request that my quarterly checks shall be made out, not to R. T. -Hallowell, but to 'Hallowell & Hallowell,' as the salary is to be -drawn by us on a basis of equal partnership." - - * * * * * - -He put down the finished sheet. His boyish face lighted with a slow, -triumphant glow. He looked out across the gray wet country, the -fog-banked river. To his eyes the dull scene was illumined. For his -steady vision could see past that gray dreariness, far up the broad -high-road of work and success that he had now set foot upon. These -three months of heavy toil had proven him. He had seized his fighting -chance, and he had made good. And now all the royal chances of his -profession were waiting at his call. - -"Though I never could have put it through without Marian," he said -under his breath. "My splendid, plucky little old Sis! No wonder I -made good, with such a partner. And from now on she shall be my real -partner, bless her heart. 'Hallowell & Hallowell,' now and forever!" - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hallowell Partnership, by -Katharine Holland Brown - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HALLOWELL PARTNERSHIP *** - -***** This file should be named 41052-8.txt or 41052-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/1/0/5/41052/ - -Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Hallowell Partnership - -Author: Katharine Holland Brown - -Release Date: October 14, 2012 [EBook #41052] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HALLOWELL PARTNERSHIP *** - - - - -Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41052 ***</div> <div class="tnbox"> <p class="center"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b></p> @@ -4952,7 +4914,7 @@ to Marian, who in her turn leaned rather weakly against the rail. Roderick, ashen white, confronted Burford, who stood absently mopping his wet, smarting eyes with Sally Lou's singed and -dripping crêpe scarf. Suddenly Burford broke the +dripping crêpe scarf. Suddenly Burford broke the tension with a strangled whoop.</p> <p>"Our—our daily reports to the company!" @@ -7053,7 +7015,7 @@ you describe would be a competent book-keeper, Rod."</p> <p>"Exactly!" Rod laughed shortly. "But a -'competent' book-keeper is the last employé that +'competent' book-keeper is the last employé that one can find for such hard, isolated work as this. What I need is not just a man to add columns for me. I need another brain, an extra pair of hands. @@ -7225,384 +7187,6 @@ good, with such a partner. And from now on she shall be my real partner, bless her heart. 'Hallowell & Hallowell,' now and forever!</p> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hallowell Partnership, by -Katharine Holland Brown - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HALLOWELL PARTNERSHIP *** - -***** This file should be named 41052-h.htm or 41052-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/1/0/5/41052/ - -Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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