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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41483 ***
+
+Transcriber's note
+
+Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been repaired. Variable spelling
+has been retained. A list of the changes made can be found at the end
+of the book.
+
+ Mark-up: _italics_
+
+
+
+
+THE YAZOO MYSTERY
+
+
+
+
+  THE
+
+  YAZOO MYSTERY
+
+  A Novel
+
+  BY
+
+  IRVING CRADDOCK
+
+  BRITTON PUBLISHING COMPANY
+  NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY
+  BRITTON PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
+  MADE IN U.S.A.
+
+  _All Rights Reserved_
+
+
+
+
+TO THOSE WHO LOVE ADVENTURE
+
+
+
+
+The Yazoo Mystery
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+THE harbor-master entered briskly but dubiously the room of the ship's
+first officer.
+
+"What about the five men for the _Domus_?" he bellowed.
+
+"All ready to sign, sir," assured the manager of the employment agency,
+pointing toward two saddle colored negroes, a Spaniard, and a limp
+figure half asleep, slouching in the corner on a narrow bench, one hand
+clutching an expensive leather bag.
+
+"It is the best I could do on such short notice," assured the agency man
+in an undertone, noticing that the first officer's inventory was not
+very encouraging.
+
+"Get them up here to sign. We're anchored in the stream, losing two
+thousand dollars every hour we stay here. We need five more
+firemen--anything that looks human," he added impatiently, spreading
+the ship's articles on the counter that reached across the smelly
+water-front den.
+
+"Come on and sign up, boys," said the agency man with assumed good
+nature.
+
+While the two negroes and the Spaniard were signing, the ship's first
+officer went to the sleeping figure in the corner, took up his free hand
+and felt of the palm, then dropped it disgustedly as he took the man by
+the shoulders and shook him vigorously.
+
+"Come on and sign up, Strong," he shouted into his ear.
+
+Strong labored with himself, still holding to his bag, half staggered to
+the counter and signed on the line indicated--"Hiram Strong, Jr."
+
+The signature was plain and businesslike. Evidently the Candidate had
+known better days.
+
+"He's been kicked out or disowned," muttered the first officer to me
+while he was signing up. "He won't be worth a cuss. Look--those hands
+never did a lick of work--but he will fill the list," he added, walking
+about nervously and sizing me up with apparent approbation.
+
+The agency man came up at once and held the pen towards me, and without
+hesitation I signed "Ben Taylor" on the line beneath. While I was thus
+engaged Hiram leaned against the counter weak and listless, his bag
+between his feet. We had both signed as firemen or stokers on the
+steamship _Domus_ for a round trip to an unnamed Gulf, or Mexican port.
+
+Although pretty well awake by this time Strong did not resent my taking
+his arm and helping him a bit. He made no comment at first, but after he
+got used to the lively walk along the dock, he began to show signs of
+saying something.
+
+"Old pal," he began, without turning his head, "I--I've got a
+headache--top's coming off--and my stomach is all jelly. It shakes as I
+walk and makes me sick," he ended under his breath.
+
+"You'll be all right after you get some sleep."
+
+"Y-e-s--I think--I h-h-ope so----I've had an awful time--an awful time,
+pardee--but this is my last--this is my last," he added, more to
+himself.
+
+His bloodless face and lips, pink lids and bloodshot eyes indicated a
+disordered system urgently rebelling against recent abuses.
+
+After we got aboard the harbor-master's tug, although very weak, he
+refused to sit down. Noting that I had found a seat, he lurched over to
+me.
+
+"Old pal, everything looks yellow to me, even the sun looks yellow--sort
+of faded. Does it look yellow to you?" he asked, blinking at the clear
+setting sun, and although his power to realize was at low ebb, he picked
+me out evidently as being different from the others. By that act he
+exercised a discrimination that predestined an exciting and almost
+unbelievable career.
+
+"The sun looks all right to me," I told him, smiling up in sympathy.
+
+"I guess it's me--it's terrible--but this is the last--I'm going to work
+now. Little Hiram is going to work for the balance of his life--I got
+to, that's all," he ended, with a dogged determination that I hoped
+would survive after he recovered from his unsettled and polluted
+condition. I steadied him a little when climbing the ladder from the tug
+to the ship, which attention he seemed to appreciate.
+
+"Old pal, I must go to bed. If I don't I will die," said he as we went
+forward to the firemen's sleeping quarters. There he tumbled into a
+lower bunk, not stopping to remove even the cheap cap he wore. In an
+incredibly short time he was "dead to the world" and snoring at a lively
+clip.
+
+Upon returning to the deck I heard a loud grunt from the Siren and at
+once the ship began to swing out into the stream, heading toward the
+Statue of Liberty and that great sea beyond the Narrows.
+
+The captain still leaned over the bridge, taking stock of his
+nondescript crew of firemen that loitered about, forward. His bulk
+evidenced a growing appetite and his almond shaped eyes suggested the
+prenatal influence of a Chinaman. It was hard to understand how so much
+tallow and bone, in a florid lumpy skin, ever became master of a big
+ship. Such luggage as Hiram Strong, Jr. and I had brought aboard might
+have told him a story, but he didn't care; all he wanted was thirty-five
+human machines, capable of shoveling coal--in four-hour shifts--in a
+temperature of a hundred and twenty-five degrees. He knew that his ship
+was marked as a "hell," and that no fireman would ship for a second
+trip.
+
+While standing beside the rail and studying the retreating outlines of
+Battery Park and its wonderful skyline, I was approached by the
+firemen's mess steward, who wore a dirty white jacket and apron.
+
+"I don't suppose that young feller will want anything to eat?"
+
+"No--I guess sleep is better now," I replied, interpreting in his round
+greasy face evident good-will.
+
+"The firemen are eating and you had better go in," he said, but
+seemingly in no hurry for me to tear myself away. The tip seemed a good
+one, so I made an opening for a better acquaintance.
+
+"Where are we bound, steward?"
+
+"We're bound out and back to this port, but at how many places we will
+call, God knows. I don't! When we start, lately, we never know when
+we'll get back. Sometimes we call at Key West, and usually at Galveston
+or New Orleans. Don't you know what you signed for?" he asked, without
+surprise, but grinning significantly.
+
+"Yes," I replied, hesitating somewhat. I wondered why he continued to
+grin. Then he again asked:
+
+"Are you coming down to mess yourself?"
+
+"Yes, I will come right down."
+
+Following him below, I crowded over on one of the nondescript crew to a
+seat on the end of a bench at a narrow, bare table, and received from
+the steward a half-gallon of thick soup dished up in an enameled pan
+from a galvanized-iron wash-tub. Later I was supplied from the same
+laundry utensil a liberal portion of what was intended for a meat stew,
+and a war allowance of bread. I was wondering how Hiram Strong, Jr.,
+accustomed to uptown dining, would relish this atmosphere with its
+filthy service and coarse food. The men along the bench beside me
+consumed the soup noisily, like Bowery bums, and bit from chunks of meat
+on the ends of their forks like swine with their forefeet in a trough.
+
+Sitting at one end, I was able to size up my fellow-firemen, twenty-five
+of whom were devouring food with great relish as they chattered like
+magpies, mostly in a foreign tongue. Negroes of all shades, Mexicans,
+Poles, Italians, Greeks, all sweated out, thin and bleached to the shade
+of a cadaver. I speculated again as to how young Strong would mix with
+this motley crew, and why he had allowed himself to choose stoking as a
+means of livelihood.
+
+After eating I went below, but Strong had not moved and it seemed that
+his thin white hands and expensive footwear were more out of place than
+ever. I wondered if he had any money left. Usually were to be found some
+light-fingered gentry among tramp-steamer firemen, so I took a small
+chain and padlock from my bag and chained his grip with mine to a bunk
+stanchion.
+
+Returning to the deck, it was something of a shock to note the ship in
+complete darkness, no light visible save the red and green signals on
+either side. Later I learned that the globes were removed from the
+passenger cabins to prevent even a flash from the rooms of any one
+disinclined to obey "Lights out" at seven p. m. by order of the Naval
+authorities.
+
+After clearing Sandy Hook and rounding Scotland lightship, by locating
+the North Star I saw that the skipper was heading a little east of south
+against a sharp, cold wind, close in to the Jersey coast, where lights
+were plainly visible. I was rather astonished to see all lifeboats
+lowered from their davits to the level of the steerage deck, and by
+edging down that way, saw they were provisioned with water, biscuits,
+lanterns and all necessary equipment for immediate use. Then I realized
+that young Strong had not only chosen an unusual occupation but a
+rather unpropitious time in which to sign up for duty on the high seas.
+
+But with visions of four o'clock in the morning, the hour assigned us to
+begin our work, I returned to the bunkroom to go to bed.
+
+Hiram Strong had moved neither hand nor foot, but his breathing was more
+normal. A dark blue light was the only illumination in the place, giving
+to everything a mere shadowy appearance. I was glad to notice that the
+place was well ventilated, fairly clean, and likely to be free from
+vermin.
+
+At three-thirty in the morning a heavy hand was laid on us, and we were
+told to roll out to go on watch. To my surprise, young Strong responded
+at once, with much yawning and stretching. Now and then he would sigh
+deeply, ending in a sort of dismal moan, hard to tell whether from
+resignation or abandon. He spoke for the first time after I had tumbled
+out and had begun pulling on my shoes. He seemed to recognize me in the
+uncertain light.
+
+"Do we get anything to eat before we go to work?" he asked, leaning
+against his bunk dressed in the correct street attire in which he had
+slept.
+
+"Yes, I think by going aft to the ship's kitchen we can get something;
+coffee, anyhow," I replied, stripping down to my underwear.
+
+"Is that the way you go to work?" he asked, quickly noticing my
+matter-of-fact preparations.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why?" he asked, surprised.
+
+"Well, it's pretty hot down there; and besides, it's very dirty," I
+replied, pleasantly but convincingly. "Shoes, pants and undershirt are
+about all you can stand," I added.
+
+I had to wait a while for him to remove all but those needful garments
+before starting for the kitchen, there to find good hot coffee and a
+dish of that same thick soup.
+
+He followed my lead again, silently, deliberately drinking two cups of
+coffee and eating the soup. Then it was time for us to go.
+
+He negotiated the several narrow iron stairs leading down to the
+boiler-room like a cat avoiding water, and looked ruefully at his hands
+blackened by contact with the greasy handrail. A pink silk undershirt
+and polished shoes contrasted strangely with the coarse, black pull-on's
+and dingy brogans of those at work. He must have noticed the contrast.
+Stripped, he showed a compact figure, with good lung capacity and likely
+a good heart, that being an absolute necessity in order to tolerate the
+extreme heat of a boiler-room.
+
+The engineer on watch asked me if I had ever fired, as though expecting
+an affirmative.
+
+"Yes," I replied.
+
+"But this young fellow is a 'greeny'?"
+
+"Yes--I think so."
+
+"You and him take the two end boilers on the left--they are as cool as
+any--and give him a few tips, will you, till he gets his hand in? Two
+hundred and eighty pounds on the gauge," he added, as a hint to keep the
+dial at that notch. He then told Strong I would show him what to do.
+
+As we moved down over the piles of coal between a battery of boilers
+facing the rather narrow corridor between them, Strong remarked to me,
+"I'll do the best I can, sir!"
+
+It did not seem so very hot when we first went in, but I noticed there
+was only one ventilator, which came down about midway.
+
+Strong followed me over to the end and watched me with interest when I
+took the twelve-foot poker--a one-inch steel bar with a big eye bent on
+one end and spatula shaped at the other--for the purpose of freeing the
+clinkers from the grates before shaking them down into the ash pan.
+
+"I will clean your fire for you this time and you can see how it's
+done," I suggested, and proceeded to do so. "You know, the first thing
+you do when going on watch is to clean the fire, but it must be done
+quickly to keep the steam from going down too much." He listened
+attentively and good-naturedly, but still silent, as one about to be
+initiated into a college fraternity and was waiting for something to
+happen.
+
+I handed him a scoop and told him to put in a half dozen scoop-loads at
+a time and to be sure and get it well back on the grates. I then
+proceeded to clean my own grate.
+
+Taking up the scoop, he filled it brimful, and started for the furnace
+door like a girl shoveling snow. He missed the narrow opening and the
+coal fell off into the ashes. He did not swear as I had expected but
+glanced sheepishly at me, then about him, to see if others noticed it,
+but we were all too busy with our own back-breaking jobs to pay heed to
+his worries.
+
+Determined to be successful, he walked close to the furnace door,
+exposing his face and hands to the glaring fire, and succeeded in
+getting the next shovelful pretty well back on the grates. After
+repeating this a half dozen times his face took on a "Turkey red" and he
+puffed like a lizard.
+
+After a few more trials and a little more instruction the novelty of
+doing it well seemed to interest him, and two hours wore away. He soon
+learned to watch the steam gauge above him and kept it pointing at the
+requisite two hundred and eighty.
+
+At the end of the shift he leaned heavily against the bulkhead next to
+his furnace, panting like a race-horse. The perspiration rolled off of
+him until even his well-tailored trousers were wet and his pink silk
+undershirt a sight to behold. His face was the shade of pickled beets
+mixed with coal dust, and his hands the color of the lobsters he was
+accustomed to eat after midnight, his palms blistered and sore, from the
+friction of the shovel handle.
+
+His neat black shoes, now grimy and rough, were full of water and
+pinched his feet. I did not give him the extra pair of soft cotton
+flannel gloves I had brought along for him until he asked me where I had
+got mine. Then I showed him how to cool off by standing under the
+ventilator, for which he seemed very grateful. He looked curiously at
+me, evidently discovering that he and I were the only ones down in the
+furnace room not of a hardened class. He seemed inclined to stay under
+the refreshing ventilator, and I noted the hands of his steam gauge drop
+back to two hundred and seventy, so I opened the door, cleaned the
+grates and spread over a fresh bed of coal.
+
+He came over while I was doing this, and I gave him some little tricks
+on how to spread the fuel and not expose his hands and face to the heat.
+
+He seemed to appreciate this and surprised me by his cleverness in
+making use of my tips. For a time he revived and I thought he was going
+to pull through his first watch all right, but at the end of another
+hour he became shaky on his legs, and his arms scarcely supported the
+empty shovel. The intense heat and effort had a telling effect on him
+and it did not surprise me when he toppled over on the coal pile in a
+dead faint.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+WHEN Hiram Strong collapsed it did not surprise the other firemen. It
+was not a rare occurrence for even seasoned firemen to faint. But it did
+amaze the engine-room crew at the ease with which I took him in my arms,
+for he weighed at least one hundred and sixty pounds. I laid him down
+beneath the ventilator, where the others had prepared a place for him. I
+then removed his cap and dashed a pail of cold water over his face and
+chest, coal dust and dirt having washed up in his black, wavy hair.
+
+For the first time since I had met him I got a good look at the
+youngster's face. Even during this temporary lapse the slightly upturned
+corners of his mouth and the red of his lips showed, lending the
+impression that he was about to break out into a sunny smile. There was
+nothing about his features to indicate the confirmed inebriate or
+debauchee. He had a good, honest ear, a clean neck and a generous
+breadth of shoulder. After making sure of his respiration and heart
+action, I returned to my post to feed his furnace and mine. To maintain
+two hundred and eighty pounds of steam on the gauge required constant,
+back-breaking shoveling. In a few minutes both furnaces were roaring,
+with one blowing off a notice to the engineer that, although one of the
+crew had fainted, the boilers were hot.
+
+It was perhaps a quarter of an hour before Strong raised himself to a
+sitting posture and looked over toward me. He was dazed, and blinked
+like an owl. I waved to him to stay where he was and rest. For answer he
+made a "cat's cradle" by clasping his hands before his knees, unmindful
+of the fact that he was seated in a pool of water and saturated coal
+dust.
+
+We evidently had a good head wind outside, for it rushed down through
+the big ventilator as though driven by an exhaust fan, thus rapidly
+reviving Strong. However, it would not be well for him to remain in the
+draft too long, so I crossed over and helped him to regain his feet. He
+reeled and stumbled as he walked back to his station, which took grit,
+but there was no evidence of self-pity.
+
+For the remainder of the watch Strong was unable to do much work. First
+he tried to shovel coal, but found he couldn't lift it. However, he
+insisted on staying around while I shoveled, occasionally opening and
+closing the furnace doors. All the while he maintained his attitude of
+silence, apparently taking it for granted that I understood the
+situation and was willing to help him. At last the eight o'clock relief
+crew came, and although still weak, he made the narrow iron stair to the
+deck much easier than when he descended four hours before. He was
+adapting himself to the conditions the best he could.
+
+Strong soon washed up and donned clean wear, which seemed to refresh
+him, but coal dust still showing about his eyes, ears and brow gave him
+the appearance of an actor made up for his part. At mess he devoured
+soup with relish, but when he tried the stew, made up of overdone neck,
+cuts of fried beef and cold potatoes, he tossed the pan and its contents
+overboard.
+
+"I need sleep more than that stuff," he said, and straightway made for
+his bunk.
+
+Six hours later I found him standing beside me at the rail in the waist
+of the ship and he appeared to be much improved. His fine skin glowed,
+but his hands looked as though they had been parboiled, with palms badly
+blistered. His trousers were dirty, dry, stiff, baggy and wrinkled. On
+the upper part of his body he wore nothing but a silk undershirt, and
+for his overworked feet he had pulled on a pair of sandals.
+
+It is quite as impossible to disguise a real man as it is for a
+make-believe to pass himself off for a gentleman. Though unaware of how
+to go about it, he began taking my measure quite as coldly as I was his,
+after which he spoke his first connected words since we came together.
+
+"It was mighty decent of you to help me out last night," he said,
+affably, holding a lighted cigarette contemplatively. Evidently his
+decision favored me.
+
+"Every one has to make a beginning; you did very well to stay there
+during the whole of your first watch," said I, ignoring his thanks.
+
+"Is it always as hot down there as it was last night?"
+
+"Yes; sometimes more so. You see, last night we had a head wind."
+
+"After my hands harden, and my stomach becomes accustomed to the food,
+I guess I'll be able to stand it all right." As he said this he looked
+at the palms of his hands ruefully. The backs were scarlet and glossy.
+
+"You can if you want to," I replied. "You have the build. The food is
+coarse, but perhaps the best for that kind of work. Four hours is not
+very long to stand anything; you have not worked lately?"
+
+"Lately?--never!" Then as though frightened at my reference to his past
+or even himself, he surprised me by asking, "How soon do we eat
+again?--I believe I could eat some of that horse-meat now."
+
+"You think it's horse-meat?"
+
+"Well, if it's not horse-meat, it came off a bull just behind the horns.
+However, my grates are clean and there's a good draft; I believe I can
+get up steam on it now," he ended with a reckless laugh, indicating
+that, although languid from his final fling in New York, he had noted
+fully how to proceed with his work in the boiler-room.
+
+"Perhaps by going back to the galley we can get a bite. It's nearly two
+hours before we go on watch, but it's better to give the stomach a
+chance before doing hard work," I suggested, leading the way to that
+mysterious quarter of the ship where the cook is king.
+
+This time we inherited mutton stew and the usual bread allowance, which
+we ate as we sat on the edge of a hatch.
+
+Looking across the water, I noted that we were still hugging shore, but
+were now far enough south to be free from the chill November winds of
+New York. We were now favored with a balmy, invigorating breeze.
+
+Strong's first question was not unexpected after he glanced at some
+curious passengers on the deck above us, amused at our sumptuous meal
+and manner of taking it.
+
+"How do you happen among this gang?" he asked, laying his bread
+allowance on the hatch and poising a knife and fork that came with the
+ship direct from the builders twenty years before.
+
+I looked at him squarely and knew I had to give a logical reply. His
+straight nose showed the power of logical analysis. The thought came to
+me that he had somehow robbed a marble image of Cleopatra of its nose
+and clapped it on his own face. There could be no question of his
+inherent refinement. Such a person one usually answers civilly, though
+the questions be frivolous.
+
+"Well, you see, in order to get a marine license you must do a certain
+amount of sea duty in the fire room."
+
+"Is a marine license so very desirable?"
+
+"Chief engineer is a pretty good berth, especially now. Those running in
+the war zone get good pay and a big bonus besides, you know."
+
+"Are we in the war zone?" he asked with some surprise.
+
+"Yes--don't you see those lifeboats swung out? One of the firemen told
+me last night that this line had lost two ships--both torpedoed."
+
+"And I suppose the firemen get the worst of it on account of being so
+far below?" he queried, glancing nervously at the dim shore line.
+
+"Yes. Then, you know, there are supposed to be mines all along the
+coast."
+
+Without comment he gnawed the last piece of meat from the bone and
+tossed the refuse overboard. Two young girls among the passengers above
+giggled at that. Strong flushed, but gave no other outward sign of
+annoyance.
+
+"Then we are liable to be plugged any time?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; there is a possibility."
+
+"Well, if I get another dose like I got last night I believe I would
+welcome it," he laughed, looking at his blistered hands.
+
+"You will soon learn how to favor yourself, and the work won't be so
+hard."
+
+"But you say the men who do the actual work get the worst of things."
+
+"Yes--I think so. Firemen are the feet of the ship, you know."
+
+"I think I was all feet last night," he replied, smiling dolefully. "I
+have heard professors rant about the dignity of labor," he replied,
+arising with the empty pan, having enjoyed the first full meal he had
+ever actually earned. "However, I have signed for a round trip and I'm
+going to stick if it kills me," he added, half to himself, as he went
+below.
+
+When he came on watch at four the fire of adventure had taken the place
+of Hiram Strong's glassy stare of debauchery. He cleaned and shook his
+grates without coaching, heaving the coal well back in the fire-box. I
+knew that every bone and muscle of his body was crying out in protest.
+Later I saw blood from the blisters show through the cotton gloves, but
+he worked stolidly, silent and grim. Surely he was game.
+
+We were getting farther south, the wind coming hot and the boiler-room
+an inferno. As Strong worked he perspired to the point of melting. I saw
+him grit his teeth, determined not to show another white feather, and
+when we were washing up at the end of that four-hour watch, there was
+something of unction in his remark, to himself: "Thank God, it didn't
+get me this time!" Sensibly he went to his bunk without eating.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+OUR shift was off at eight p. m. with duty ahead at four o'clock in the
+morning. But not feeling disposed to sleep just then, I began to study
+our position. Twenty-four hours ago we had cleared Scotland lightship,
+and I figured we were something like three hundred miles south of New
+York, off the Virginia capes.
+
+The ship, as on the previous night, was wrapped in complete darkness as
+we emerged from the boiler-room, and I could just make out the shadowy
+form of the officer on the bridge, who moved about nervously. I glanced
+across the expanse of water but no light could be seen in any direction.
+The only activity was the sounding lead which was thrown overboard
+occasionally.
+
+We still had the southern head wind which made it too hot for sleeping
+below, so I decided to bunk on deck, and went below for a blanket. Young
+Strong slept as though dead, even though the quarters were close and
+stuffy. I was glad to escape to the deck with my covering. As I laid
+down, expecting to doze off at once, I began to hear subdued voices. I
+heard some one say: "You know, we passed him this afternoon at three. He
+couldn't be over two hours behind us." At first I wasn't sure I was
+awake, for the voices were almost inaudible. I was sure I had slept some
+time.
+
+"Did the wireless say all were taken off?"
+
+I could now make out two officers talking near me, but they were unaware
+of my proximity. Then came the answer to the question:
+
+"Yes; the report came from the shore station where the lifeboats landed,
+but if the subs are operating up there, we're probably safe."
+
+Manifestly they referred to some ship that was torpedoed two or three
+hours behind us.
+
+"That's all right, but you know well enough that mines have been sown
+here for the Chesapeake traffic."
+
+"We're not due there yet, and it's a thousand-to-one shot that we'll get
+by. We've passed that spot many times. I believe that talk about mines
+is all bunk. Anyway, you know the Old Man changes his course at that
+point to keep the supposed mine field shoreward. Go to bed: you'll be
+bawled out quick enough if we hit anything."
+
+Then all became quiet, but now thoroughly awakened, I went down to the
+galley to cajole some food from the cook. There, to my surprise, I found
+young Strong on the same errand.
+
+"You had a good sleep?" was my greeting. I needn't have asked, for he
+looked rested and bright, even jaunty.
+
+"Five hours; it's past one now. Where did you sleep?--I did not see you
+in your bunk." His voice sounded rather chummy, as the cook relented and
+helped us liberally. We told him we had both gone off watch without
+eating.
+
+We took the food into the firemen's messroom, lighted by a single dark
+blue bulb, and sat opposite each other, a long, narrow, oak plank
+between us, picnic style. The cook enjoined us to shut the door, to
+cover even the dim illumination. The closed windows of the messroom were
+painted black so that not the slightest trace of light could escape.
+
+"How do you feel this morning?" I asked.
+
+"I am surprised at how well I do feel. If it wasn't for my hands I would
+feel fine," he replied cordially, sort of self-congratulatory, a half
+smile creeping about his non-secretive mouth.
+
+"Moisten the inside of your gloves with petroleum, and your hands will
+soon heal if you are careful," I advised quietly. "The oilers will give
+you some."
+
+"It is the first time in my life that my system has had the nicotine and
+other bug juices washed out of it; a cigarette tastes different now," he
+exulted, though evidently looking for sympathy.
+
+"Do you know," he continued, as he cornered a chunk of meat in the
+bottom of the pan and tried to sever it with the ancient cutlery, "I
+always thought I could work, and now I know it."
+
+"Then this is really your maiden labor sweat?" I asked, seemingly
+incredulous.
+
+"Say," he began, still laboring with the meat, "I think this ship bought
+a job lot of sheep, and there were some granddaddies in the lot." I
+smiled an assent.
+
+"If any one had told me a few days ago that I would be sitting on board
+a ship before an oak plank, eating old ram with relish, and out of a
+laundry vessel at that, I would have believed him insane."
+
+I laughed outright and mumbled something about "crises in every one's
+life."
+
+"My crisis came, all right, the other day. It was like the sidewalk
+coming up and hitting me in the face, it so upset me--oh, it was
+terrible. I am surprised that I can talk about it so soon." There was a
+ruefulness and disappointment in his tone.
+
+I smiled encouragingly as he went on.
+
+"I knew there was trouble ahead when the Governor called me into his
+office--there always was--but I expected, as usual, to win him over. I
+found for the first time why men called him a 'Gold-Beater.' I sat
+across a long table from him, never before realizing how big a man he
+was, his chest seemingly as broad as those of two ordinary men. He
+wasn't mad, just cold and immovable. He gave me some money and told me
+that was the last. I had to get out and work or starve. What I decided
+to do did not interest him. He said he didn't want to see me again and
+that he didn't care whether I went to hell or to work." Strong spoke as
+one recalling a nightmare.
+
+"I suppose you have not been able to figure out yet who is right?" I
+asked.
+
+"Oh, I think there is little doubt who is right, but just how long it
+will take me to recognize the fact is the question. You see, the
+Governor was never stingy or tight with me. That's why he was called a
+'Gold-Beater'; he has made money, but he owns the money instead of it
+owning him--at least that's what his cronies say. And there's no doubt
+about the fact that I should go to work, but in the two or three days I
+have had to think about it I can't see why he waited so long. It's
+downright wrong to allow a fellow to believe he's got nothing to do but
+spend money and get into trouble for years at a stretch, then stop
+everything all of a sudden. I think that's where the Governor's wrong.
+But, you see, I can work, and I'm going to fool the old man." Bending
+over toward me, he added, "But I don't know how I would have come out on
+my first try if it hadn't been for you."
+
+"Oh--I have done nothing but pass on to you what was done for me when I
+started. Later on you will perhaps admit that men who work with their
+hands, if approached right, are more kindly disposed and even more
+generous than others. But I am glad you speak English, to say nothing of
+finding a good fellow," I replied, approvingly.
+
+"Well, I am not only glad to find some one who uses English, but, like
+the kid I really am, I am glad you listen to me. I got such a jolt. You
+see, it was the first time I ever felt the lash of the paternal whip,
+and one or two cuts were enough. I now know why the Governor is such a
+power among men--he does things so thoroughly and quietly. There wasn't
+any row--he was ready for me and I don't realize yet how well he
+prepared things, or how much he apparently knows of my movements----" He
+hesitated with a sorrowful shake of his head and resumed eating.
+
+"You found he was checking you up pretty close?" said I, to urge him on.
+
+"He must have known just how many breaths I took. He said I was a poor
+investment: that since my mother died when I was three I had cost him
+about two hundred thousand, and he was closing out a poor proposition.
+He informed me that I was to consider myself no more a son of his; was
+even sorry I would have to use his name. And the two thousand, his
+share of fixing up a man that I, and three others, ran down in the park
+with an auto, was the last assessment he would stand; and before I knew
+what was really happening I was leaving without even a good-by. I knew I
+was going to work, but thought I would have a last grand night and then
+pull out. But do you know, that in less than an hour, wherever I went,
+every one knew that Hiram Strong, Jr., had been disinherited and kicked
+out. I then learned what New York thinks of a 'has-been.' I tried to
+drown the thought in liquor, but it floated in spite of my most frantic
+efforts. I guess there was a good deal of the last pickle in me when you
+saw me first?"
+
+I laughed and Strong continued:
+
+"Oh, I'm going to beat it--I've got to beat it," he said, closing his
+mouth savagely and tossing the empty pan down toward the other end of
+the table. "I guess it's about time for us to go to hell, isn't it?" he
+added, lighting a cigarette.
+
+"Yes--all we need down in that hole is the boss with a pitch-fork tail;
+we've got the shovel, coal and heat."
+
+"Say, Ben--I believe I heard them call you Ben--do you think the 'Old
+Boy' with the forked tail gives his furnace men four hours on and eight
+off, and great granddaddy sheep stew for eats and makes 'em sleep in
+tiers?" he asked, as we laughed our way to the boiler-room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+HIRAM Strong was in need of oil for his gloves, and, left to myself, my
+mind reverted to the conversation I had overheard between the ship's
+officers. Shoreward, about a half-mile, I could make out a lightship.
+Being somewhat familiar with the coast, I decided it must be the Cape
+Charles light. As soon as we were abreast of it, our ship changed its
+course several points to the west and seaward, just as the officer said
+it would. I observed this and recalled the other officer's cocksureness
+that the ship had been running by or through the supposed mine field for
+months. Nevertheless I confessed to myself a distinct feeling of anxiety
+as we went down into the region Hiram had properly designated as "Hell,"
+to begin another four-hour draft on endurance and vitality. Though
+silent, Strong remained cheerful and never for a moment allowed his
+steam gauge to drop. The draft was good, making the work easier.
+
+There is something about labor in intense heat that calls for silence,
+but after an extended stillness there comes an oppressive feeling that
+makes one want to break out into a yell. Often in a steel mill a weird
+howl will be started by some one, to be taken up by others until a
+bedlam is created among the thousands of workers. There is a certain
+rhythm in it, a sort of boisterous chant, a good-natured protest against
+conditions. Then, suddenly, it will die out just as quickly as it
+started and quiet will reign for an hour or two.
+
+Such a yell had been started by an Italian standing under the
+ventilator. Then it was that I learned that Hiram Strong had a voice,
+and although more than half our watch had passed, he felt vigorous
+enough to join in the general outbreak.
+
+As though in protest against the riotous exhibition, the engines
+stopped, a circumstance that regular firemen secretly desire, for it
+means a respite in their conflict with the blazing furnace and grates,
+with the excitement of uncertainty added. The pause may continue for a
+minute or an hour. At any rate the trouble in this case had been shifted
+to the engine room.
+
+Before the engines first stopped I thought I heard a noise, but it
+wasn't loud enough to attract the attention of others, so concluded it
+must have been a slight shift in the cargo near us and gave it no
+further thought.
+
+Hiram accompanied me to the far end of the furnace room for water, after
+which we returned and sat down on the hot, iron-sheeted floor against
+the bulkhead that flanked our station, from which point we viewed the
+whole length of the narrow corridor between the battery of blazing
+furnaces that generated the ship's power.
+
+"Did you ever read Dante's Inferno?" he surprised me by asking.
+
+"Yes, but not recently."
+
+"A tutor made me read it as punishment. You know, I never would study. I
+guess that's what makes the Governor so sore. I tried three colleges and
+flunked. I was so infernally worthless that I wouldn't even go in for
+athletics; but what I started to say was that I believe Dante must have
+known about the furnace room of a steamship, when the engines were at a
+standstill." He said all this with a sleepy grin.
+
+I could see what he meant. The engines had been stopped but a few
+minutes when the entire fire-room crew succumbed to a lethargic sleep. A
+serrated ridge of coal two feet high extended the entire length of the
+room, on which they had disposed themselves in all sorts of
+postures--some curled up like animals going into hibernation, others
+sprawled out full length, and there were many who lay as though stricken
+dead while in a reclining position. Most of the crew who worked in
+overalls, with bodies bared above the waist, black and grimy to the
+tousled hair now matted with sweat, laid carelessly about as in death
+from convulsions. In some cases they were in such a position that the
+fierce light from the cracks in the furnace doors gave their faces a
+weird, deathly appearance, and after noting this, I glanced at Hiram and
+saw that he, too, had succumbed, his head resting heavily against the
+supporting bulkhead.
+
+A sweet, irresistible languor now dulled my perseverance to keep awake.
+How long I slept was uncertain, but I do know that I was awakened with a
+start by dreaming of an immense wave, much higher than the ship, a solid
+perpendicular wall of green sea bearing us down--a veritable tidal wave.
+I was sure the ship could not survive. Hiram was tugging at my sleeve.
+
+"Ben--Ben, wake up; we have struck something and the ship is sinking!"
+He did not seem frightened, just urgent.
+
+"What!--What's that?" I asked, wondering if I was still dreaming.
+
+"We've been asleep an hour. The ship's deserted; I can't find a living
+soul on board! Passengers, crew, and boats are all gone!" he cried,
+catching me by the arm and helping me to rise hastily. "Nobody on board
+but the engine-room shift."
+
+If the effect of this information on me was magical, it was electrical
+on other firemen and the coal passers. One and all seemed to hear it
+instantly and made a rush for the narrow, iron stairs leading up, which
+could accommodate but one at a time. Here they fought, as if in death's
+last throes.
+
+With a fiendishness indescribable, twelve or fifteen men massed
+seemingly into one great squirming monster, all legs and arms, kicking,
+striking, biting, shouldering and trampling each other, emitting groans
+and execrations in all languages. The struggle was to determine who
+should ascend the stairs first.
+
+Young Strong seemed deeply moved by this exhibition, but stood beside
+me, superior, contemptuous, little impressed with the danger. He turned
+toward me, saying--
+
+"Let 'em fight it out; she isn't going to sink at once; she has floated
+an hour. It's full daylight and good weather. Did you ever see human
+beings so quickly turned into writhing snakes?"
+
+"Suppose we turn the water on them," I suggested, and we both ran for an
+inch hose used to wet down the coal.
+
+Hiram aimed the nozzle at the struggling mass while I opened the valve
+releasing the high pressure stream which shot forth upon their bodies.
+This had a cooling effect upon all but two who were lost to their own
+safety in the vicious fight over a screaming woman. These we shoved
+aside, while the prospective victim escaped. We then hurried up the
+three flights of stairs to the main deck where others were attempting to
+lower one of two remaining lifeboats.
+
+Strong, cool and collected, said, "The bow sunk an hour ago. The sea is
+washing over it." The damage was located ahead of the forward bulkheads
+and the ship would probably float until they gave way.
+
+"We must get our bags, Strong," said I, starting forward to our steerage
+quarters. He followed, though a little dubious about taking the time.
+Our quarters, though not flooded, were very wet.
+
+Strong grabbed up all of his belongings that were outside of his bag,
+while I attempted to free the chain that held them to the stanchion
+against possible larceny. It seemed an interminable time before I found
+the key. Then we hurried back to where a mass of fighting men were
+lowering a lifeboat.
+
+"Good God, Ben; what is this?" exclaimed Hiram, as we rounded the
+deckhouse to where the boats had been hanging. All but one had been
+lowered and apparently all would be saved but ourselves and one officer
+in uniform--he was the captain! There was no mistaking his great bulk,
+lumpy skin and small piggish eyes.
+
+As we approached he turned upon us as though we had done him great
+injury and swore like a pirate. He held in his hand a pistol of ancient
+pattern as big as an anchor shank.
+
+"I don't believe they would have stopped if I had killed every damned
+one of 'em!" he shouted, as if to overawe us, "but you needn't think you
+are going to get away. You've got to stay," he added, gritting his teeth
+as he moved toward us, holding the aged shooting-iron down at his hip as
+clumsily as the usual officer of a merchantman.
+
+I was greatly reassured by his presence on the ship, and also the
+remaining lifeboat. We were two against one and I was inclined to
+consider the humor of the situation.
+
+"Why should we stay when every one else has gone, captain?" Hiram asked
+this question respectfully enough, glancing at me; then placed his grip
+against the deckhouse and deliberately laid across it his shirt, coat,
+necktie, hat and shoes.
+
+The captain continued to focus his two ferocious eyes upon us, and took
+full time in which to answer Strong's question.
+
+"Because this ship ain't goin' to sink, and you've got to help work it
+over to the beach!" he fairly shouted, unable to control himself. He was
+evidently of the old school and as appropriate on a passenger ship as a
+pig in a parlor. He was unable to see in us anything more than ordinary
+firemen.
+
+"How can two men run a big ship like this?" Strong asked, keeping
+himself well in hand, though there was a glitter in his eye as he
+glanced at me, while advancing toward the captain, who still held the
+firearm in a hip position against his six feet and two hundred and fifty
+pounds of flesh.
+
+"That's for me to say," he shot back threateningly, "an' if you don't do
+it I'll put you in irons."
+
+"We can't see it that way, captain; besides, I'm afraid----" Then
+something happened which indicated that Strong had acquired the art of
+jiujitsu.
+
+With the litheness of a cat he sprang violently forward, struck the
+captain's wrist that held the gun, and the immense revolver dropped to
+the deck with a thud. Strong quickly kicked it overboard with the same
+agility.
+
+"Captain, I was just going to say that you seemed to handle that gun
+awkwardly and I feared it might go off accidentally," he said, as he
+jumped back beyond reach. The captain's florid, lumpy face now ran
+scarlet, his eyes glaring like those of an old dog in futile rage. He
+swallowed hard but could not articulate.
+
+"You allowed the passengers and crew to leave, but left the firemen down
+in that hell hole to drown like rats. We are inclined to hold that
+against you, captain," said Strong, quietly enough. "There is one boat
+left and we are going along, too," he said, turning to me as I edged
+over toward the boat.
+
+"Didn't I stay?" the captain was finally able to say in a shaky voice,
+with some trace of a plea.
+
+"Yes, you stayed, because you would be put down for a coward if you
+hadn't, and if there is any profit or glory you get it. I've traveled on
+ships before when I wasn't firing," Strong replied forcefully, but with
+no trace of anger, coming over to where I was engaged in placing our
+baggage in the lifeboat.
+
+"But we can save the ship if you'll help--I'm willing to pay you extra
+if you'll stay," said the captain, pleading outright now.
+
+"Well, that sounds different--how much will you give us to stay and take
+chances?" Strong asked quickly, assuming a bargaining attitude, but
+still assisting me to lower the boat.
+
+"Why, I'll--I'll give you fifty dollars apiece," he offered, as though
+making a tremendous sacrifice.
+
+"Fifty dollars don't look good to me--how about it, Ben?" he asked, as
+we halted the boat a few feet from the water. "The news headlines will
+state that the captain went down with the ship, but two firemen drowning
+with him wouldn't be worth an agate line."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+HIRAM STRONG, JR., amazed me. Surely this was an outcropping of the
+Gold-Beater's blood. He may not ever be a Gold-Beater as the term was
+applied to his male parent, but he was destined to be a gold-getter, for
+he displayed evidence of that trait when he stood there actually
+dickering with the captain for a sum beyond a month's wages as a
+fireman.
+
+The seas breaking over the sunken bow of the vessel, and a cargo in the
+hold worth at least a million and a half, he had only the captain's word
+that the ship would not sink at any moment. However, he saw by my
+attitude that I also thought that the wreck could be salvaged.
+
+And he also saw that the ship was wallowing in the trough of the sea,
+while the lifeboat was near the water on the lea side, and he knew that
+I could handle it.
+
+"You see, captain, we have only your word that she isn't going to sink,
+and we have lost confidence in you. You left us three stories down
+there to drown like rats. You got everybody else off and never thought
+of your firemen."
+
+"I couldn't think of everything, and I tell you she is not going to
+sink," shouted the captain, coming closer and pounding the rail with his
+big fat hand. "I've got to get her to anchorage or on the beach, and
+you've got to help. Fifty dollars is enough; that's nearly a month's
+wages," he added, trying to avoid his usual overbearing.
+
+"Why did you let the crew go?" Hiram shot at him.
+
+"I didn't know the for'd bulkhead was holding then. You know if the
+for'd head holds she can't sink," he said vehemently, appealing to me
+this time. But before I could answer Hiram was after him again.
+
+"And you left us to drown! Our lives are just as valuable to us as any
+of the rest of the crew, and maybe more than some of them," he said,
+looking meaningly at the captain, who squirmed visibly, now realizing
+that we were not ordinary firemen.
+
+"I'll give you a hundred apiece. Now stop talking and come on. We'll
+have to run her stern fore-most, and if we can keep the wheel going
+enough for steerage way, the wind will blow us in," haggled the captain
+like an old market woman.
+
+"A hundred dollars will not interest me; how about you, Ben?" Hiram
+turned to me and began taking the lifeboat's rope from the cleet and I
+did the same. "You can stay here and drown if you want to, but we're
+going. The water here looks pretty deep, and I understand when a ship
+goes down it makes a pretty big hole into which we might fall," he added
+as we began to lower the boat.
+
+"How much do you want? I've got to save her," he pleaded now, walking
+back and forth like a caged hyena.
+
+"If you hadn't let your wireless man go you would have had a tug or
+another ship here by this time and they would take as salvage only about
+a quarter of a million," suggested Hiram with a cynical smile, stopping
+the descent of the boat and making fast again. "We'll stay, but you've
+got to pay. Ben here knows something about the engines and I will shovel
+the coal, but you've got to give us two-fifty apiece," he added, taking
+away my breath and almost prostrating the captain.
+
+The captain began to pace the deck again, then pausing in front of
+Hiram, he said, as though imbued with a big idea: "All right, I guess
+I'll have to do it, but you've got to hustle." Moving over to me, he
+asked if I knew how to start the engines, to which I nodded an
+affirmative.
+
+"But, Captain," interrupted Hiram forcibly, "it's got to be cash," and
+there came to his mirthful mouth a certain hardness that surprised me,
+and again started incipient apoplexy within the captain.
+
+"If I say you'll get it, you'll get it. Isn't my word good for that
+much?" he blurted out, trying to control his rage.
+
+"Captain, you left us to drown just like kittens you would like to be
+rid of. Your word isn't worth a counterfeit dollar. I wouldn't trust you
+for shoestrings. We've got to have the cash--now!" There was genuine
+bitterness in Hiram's voice.
+
+"I haven't that much cash on the ship," pleaded the captain, but with a
+sort of wolfish gleam in his eyes.
+
+"All right, then. Come on, Ben, let's get out of this. I wouldn't take
+his word for one of his firemen's rations of soup and lumpy stew, and if
+he gave us the company's I. O. U., we wouldn't get it for a month, and
+they'd red-tape it to death," he ended, starting for the ropes again.
+
+"Wait a minute and I'll see," coaxed the captain, starting up to his
+quarters nearby.
+
+"The old liar; he's got it, all right. Say, Ben, do you really think she
+will float--it seems to me the bow is farther down than it was?" he
+queried me with something of a chuckle.
+
+"Yes, I think it will. The sea is a little higher than it was, and that
+makes the ship seem lower, but if it gets worse there may be some
+danger."
+
+"Do you think we can afford to take the chance?"
+
+"I think we can get away in the lifeboat if the ship gets lower. I'll
+watch closely, but if we take the money we are bound to take the risk."
+
+"Oh, if we take the money we will deliver the goods, but hang the money
+if the risk is too big."
+
+"It's a fair bet. If we back in it will take the strain off the
+bulkhead, but if it does not hold, we'll have time to get away."
+
+"Watch this old jockey; he'll come rushing back with part of the money,
+saying that's all he could find." Hiram, Jr., had hardly finished when
+the captain came rushing down and gave us in bills the exact amount,
+cheerfully, and apparently disposed to treat us as equals.
+
+"Now, boys, we're only about twenty miles off Hampton Roads, and if you
+can keep a couple of boilers hot, we'll be there in three hours, and
+your job's done. The tide is right and we might be able to get clear
+in."
+
+We hauled the lifeboat up so that the sea would not wash over it, but
+left our belongings in it, and then hurried below. There was enough
+steam left in the boilers to swing the ship, stern shoreward, and
+matters looked well. I hurried to the furnace room, where I found Hiram
+stripped to the waist, working as if the ship belonged to him. He had
+wisely selected the four boilers beside which was the most coal, and
+seemed to forget that his hands were sore and his body all too green for
+such an effort. I aided him as much as I could and then ran back to the
+engines, repeating this operation for two hours. I noticed that the
+lightship off the harbor was gradually growing plainer. The upper part
+of our propeller blades were exposed because of the ship's nose dip. We
+were losing a great deal of power due to that fact. Soon we picked up a
+pilot and in another two hours we slowly made the harbor on less than
+one leg, and we were through.
+
+"The greatest job ever pulled off! No salvage on this ship or cargo,"
+the captain chuckled, rubbing his hands. "Now, let's go ashore and get
+some food," he added as cheerfully as would a miser fingering gold. He
+had not left the wheel house or given an order since we started.
+However, before we got through washing up Hiram began to droop and was
+hardly able to walk to a Turkish bath after we got ashore at Norfolk.
+
+He did not improve much, even with a good rub-down after the bath, and I
+knew it was the hospital for him. Before the doctors got through with
+his examination he was in a wild delirium and they shook their heads. It
+was a bad case of exhaustion, and nothing but a strong heart would save
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+THE newspapers spread on the wreck story next morning and I read about
+it while sitting by Hiram Strong's bedside in the hospital. The captain
+got the glory and credit, although the man, a mere boy, now tossing
+unconscious on the pillow, was the one to whom all credit belonged. In
+his delirium he muttered from time to time. Every now and then he would
+say--"Ben, he was going to let us drown--drown like rats in a trap!"
+
+The nurse gently unbandaged his hands to show me their condition. The
+palms were cooked--black and seamy--like an overdone roast. But he was
+now clean, and handsome, his dark, wavy hair mounting high against the
+white pillow, all trace of dissipation having disappeared from his skin.
+That was fair and clear, though slightly flushed with fever. The smile
+hovering about his mouth appeared to be at the point of breaking out
+into a hearty laugh.
+
+Surely his first attempt at a useful life was not a success, for which
+I held myself partly to blame. If I had said "no" to the captain's
+proposal we would have come away like the rest of the crew.
+
+Three days found him much better, and when I came to see him he
+delighted me with his cheerful manner.
+
+"Hello, Ben!" he chanted with an infectious smile. "I would like to
+shake, but my hands are wrapped up just like a petrified mummy."
+
+Naturally I looked pleased that matters were no worse, and he continued
+to talk.
+
+"Say, Ben, it was good of you to stick, bring me here, and then come
+every day to see me. I woke up in the night and the nurse--God bless
+her--she is a kind soul--she told me all about it."
+
+"Hiram, as we were sort of partners in crime I had to stick."
+
+"But say, we brought the ship in, didn't we? Sit around nearer the foot
+of the bed where I can see you. My tongue is about the only part of me I
+can move. Every bone in my body feels as though it was broken twice, and
+every rib creaks when I breathe. Job never had anything on me." He
+tried to laugh, but brought up short, ending with a groan.
+
+"You'll be all right in a day or two if you take things easy."
+
+"Oh, I'll not stay here long, Doc or no Doc. I'm only sore and that
+doesn't count for much. Ben, do you know what I would like to have right
+now?--a porterhouse steak, thick as a flagstone, smothered in mushrooms,
+and I'm going to have it if there's one in the town. By the way, what
+town are we in, Ben?"
+
+"Better stick here till to-morrow anyway, then we will see how you
+feel," I said, ignoring his question.
+
+"All right, old partner, but not a minute longer--they're mighty good to
+me, but I don't like the carbolic odor that comes floating down the
+hall. It makes me think of a Long Island fertilizing plant, or a
+morgue."
+
+The next morning he put on his clothes, which had been renovated and
+pressed, with many "Oh's" and "Ah's" and "Ouch's," but withal he was
+good-natured and smiling. Then we started after the much coveted
+porterhouse and mushrooms. At first he toddled like an aged man,
+holding on to me. The effort was painful, but in a short time his
+locomotion was normal and likewise his good nature.
+
+After a prodigious meal and a favorite cigarette he again surprised me
+by putting a question that was hard to answer.
+
+"Where do we go from here?" he asked, looking inside his hands, which
+were still in a deplorable state.
+
+"What--so soon?" I parried.
+
+"Yes--after I came out of my luny funk at the hospital, I had time to
+think things over, duly and truly and soberly. You know, I haven't had a
+drink since we left New York, and I don't want one. This strenuous life
+rather appeals to me now that I have found I have a good body--as good
+as any one's--and it's got to work without getting sore or fluffing up
+with blisters. Besides, the Governor gave me the toe of his shoe and
+said I wasn't worth a 'cuss,' and I am going to show him." There was
+great determination in the manner in which he blew out the smoke of his
+cigarette.
+
+"I think we will find an employment office here," I suggested mildly.
+
+"Take me to it. I'm ready now," he said quickly, though hardly able to
+sit up in bed, but when we came to the employment office he hung back,
+insisting that I should be the spokesman. The face of the man in charge
+was heavy and florid. He might easily have passed for a gambler,
+confidence man, or race-horse tout. He sized us up critically before he
+replied:
+
+"The only man I need is quartermaster--ship bound for New Orleans to
+take on cotton. You can sign again there for Liverpool if you want to."
+
+Strong heard what was said and I moved toward him inquiringly.
+
+"I don't care what it is, so long as you think it's all right. It can't
+be any worse than firing."
+
+I explained to him in an undertone that the quartermaster steered the
+vessel, the hardest part of the job being to remain on one's feet four
+to six hours at a time, to which he replied quickly:
+
+"That sounds good if I can do it."
+
+"I can teach you in a few hours."
+
+"All right, let's sign," he said, coming over.
+
+We went to a second-hand store, found a book on practical seamanship,
+and I spent the afternoon familiarizing him with his duties, after
+which we went aboard. He seemed keen to know everything about a ship.
+
+The captain, a jolly good fellow, asked us a few questions, seemed
+pleased, winked knowingly, and gave us a room to ourselves on deck just
+back of the officers' quarters, and told us to arrange the watches to
+suit ourselves. It was to be six hours on, six off, and we would sail at
+eight that night.
+
+The next five days went by speedily. Our course was down the coast
+through the Straits of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the bar; thence
+to the little white lighthouse at the entrance of the Mississippi, over
+a hundred miles from New Orleans.
+
+I wondered at Hiram constantly. He was so alert and apt that he never
+came in for a reprimand, never again referred to his father or his
+future plans, or craved liquor--an ample supply of his favorite
+cigarettes seemed to satisfy him. He had no time for stories, nor did he
+speak of women, or of any escapades in which he may have been involved.
+He was actually glad to be making his way by toil. With hands all healed
+he became quite normal, and was altogether a fine minded man. While
+such a rapid change might not be permanent, he appeared not only to have
+turned over a new leaf, but to have lost all taste for the habits and
+customs of his previous life.
+
+Things went well with us and we sped along at a lively clip. I was at
+the wheel on the last watch that would take us into dock at New Orleans
+about midnight.
+
+"Pop has been talking some"--Strong, from the beginning, had referred to
+the captain as Pop--"and wants us to sign up for a round trip to
+Liverpool. He says it's sixty dollars and fifty per cent extra for going
+the submarine zone."
+
+"Then I guess we must have done our work all right," I replied,
+noncommittal. "What do you----"
+
+"Ben," he interrupted, "why are you married to the sea?"
+
+"I never considered that I was--I have never been blessed or cursed by
+being married to any one or anything--one has to make a living somehow."
+It was perfectly dark in the wheel-house with the exception of the tiny
+hooded light over the compass, and I couldn't see Hiram's face.
+
+"A fireman can become an engineer and stops there?" he surprised me by
+putting forth a question in just that way. I paused before replying.
+
+"Yes--usually."
+
+"A seaman can become captain, and then his road gets very narrow and
+steep toward further advancement?" he persisted.
+
+"Yes," I replied, wondering what was on his mind.
+
+"It strikes me a man of your ability is wasting his time at sea--I don't
+see any future--what about wireless men?"
+
+"They get ninety dollars a month," I replied, amused and still
+wondering.
+
+"What about telegraphing?" he then asked.
+
+"Some of our best men started as operators, Edison, for instance. I am
+inclined to think it's the methodical drill they get that helps."
+
+"Ben, are you going to sign up for the other side?" he asked, as though
+expecting a negative answer.
+
+"Well, I think the subs are getting quite plentiful--more than they tell
+us about. Don't you?" At last I knew what he had been driving at.
+
+"That settles it," said he. "I won't, either. We've got a stake now and
+can afford to look around a little."
+
+"Our stake won't last long unless we get busy," I warned.
+
+"Oh, I'm willing to work, and I don't expect to go up on an escalator or
+an express elevator--but I do want to know that the stairs lead
+somewhere worthwhile. Do you get me, Ben?" he laughed. "I'll tell Pop
+we're not anxious to play hide-and-seek with the subs."
+
+I did not reply, but wondered what effect "a stake" would have on an
+idle man like him in New Orleans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+TO Strong's mind satisfactory quarters meant rooms of good size, and
+well lighted. We finally found connecting space in a private house. He
+seemed anxious to see New Orleans, and started out while I looked up
+some old acquaintances, but I found him awaiting me at our lodgings in
+the early evening.
+
+"Ben, I have done it. I've paid out the money, and I'm going to see it
+through," was his greeting.
+
+"Paid for what?" I asked, unable to avoid smiling at his cheerful
+optimism.
+
+"Fifty dollars to learn telegraphy. They say I can do it in sixty days,
+and when I have completed my course I will get a job. New Orleans looks
+to me like a regular place. I like it."
+
+For a moment I thought he might have been indulging in some of the
+mixtures for which the Southern Metropolis is noted, but it was only the
+wine of youthful credulity that did the talking.
+
+"That's good," I assented quickly. "When do you commence?"
+
+"Oh, I have already started in. I took my first lesson this afternoon.
+How did you make out? Can you get a job here?" There could be no doubt
+of his keen desire to have me stay near him.
+
+"Yes--two or three things turned up to-day."
+
+"And any one of them better than going to sea, I'll bet?"
+
+"Yes, as far as the money goes," I replied, reservedly.
+
+"Bully, old boy!" he shouted, seizing my hand in a vise-like grip. From
+then on the days were full of interest for both of us. Hiram's intention
+to master telegraphy became almost an obsession with him. From the
+moment he started in he seemed to forget everything else, and he worked
+as though his welfare in this world and the world to come depended upon
+his learning telegraphy in the shortest possible time. He ate, drank,
+inhaled, and absorbed the Morse system during every waking moment, and
+in less than three weeks he was substituting for a sick operator on the
+Yazoo & Mississippi Railroad.
+
+Strong's was undoubtedly an intensive nature; the height and especially
+the width of his forehead clearly indicated power of concentration,
+which, apparently, he had done nothing to build up. It was the same way
+when he met the girl, Anna Bell Morgan, and when an intensive man meets
+a comprehensive girl there is apt to be trouble, or a wedding, or
+something equally interesting. If he had spent money with the same
+tenacity of purpose that he set about learning telegraphy I do not
+wonder that Hiram Strong, Sr., became tired to the bone of his folly and
+would have no more of it.
+
+After working a week as a substitute he blew into quarters one evening
+like a cyclone and gave me a thump on the back that made me grunt.
+
+"I've got it!--I've got it!--I've got it!" he shouted, his face aglow
+and his eyes snapping.
+
+This time I was sure he had broken over into old habits, especially when
+I well knew the lure of that celebrated New Orleans gin fizz to which
+all newcomers seemed to succumb. But again I was wrong. Strong had
+simply boiled over with exuberant spirits and he certainly had a jag on
+board. His ardor not in the least dampened by my hesitation, he grabbed
+my hand and shook it vigorously, then capered about in front of me as a
+boy in his teens might do.
+
+"Congratulate me, Old Man, I've got it!" he roared. "The Yazoo Railroad
+has offered me a station. Quarrytown, Ben--Quarrytown, Louisiana, is my
+address after to-morrow!"
+
+Of course, that was pleasant news to me and naturally I became as
+excited as he, so much so that I became fearful we would jeopardize our
+joint reputations for sobriety.
+
+"There's only one thing, and you've got to fix that--eh? I don't know
+just how: I must have a surety bond for a thousand dollars and also
+three first-class references--can we do it, Ben? Can you do it?" he
+repeated.
+
+I hesitated a moment, wondering how I was going to get three first-class
+references for a man who had spent a big part of his twenty-four years
+in riotous living, even to the point of being disowned. But there was no
+such thing as resisting him now.
+
+"Oh, I don't have to wait for it; that can be done any time. But we can
+fix it some way, can't we, Ben?--I've got to," he added with emphasis.
+
+"Yes, if we have a little time I think it can be arranged," said I,
+soberly, wondering somewhat over the details of the job. But he hardly
+waited for my assurance before he seized me by the hand and began
+dragging me about the room.
+
+"Come on, let's get out--out in the air--let's go out and have a good
+time," he commanded as he got my hat and jammed it down over my head.
+"It's up the river, only about a hundred miles. You can come up Sunday.
+It's big enough to have a day and night man, and I get the day job!" he
+added, loud enough for the whole house to hear him as we passed
+downstairs to the street.
+
+The following Sunday I went to see him. His station was delightfully
+located. There was enough level space between the river and its very
+high bluffs for two long sidetracks convenient for the meeting of
+freight trains, which made a night and day operator necessary.
+
+Hiram was expecting me and waved his arms wildly as I stepped off the
+train, but as he was busy rushing mail, express, and trunks into the
+baggage car, there was no chance for a handshake for the time being.
+
+The depot looked like the cabin in which De Soto died from malaria and
+disappointment in 1539, although somewhat modernized and adapted to the
+needs of railroading.
+
+Quarrytown was a rambling village around D. R. Morgan's General Store,
+and he was Anna Bell's father. Near the ancient depot was a considerable
+stone quarry, high clay bluffs, and the Mississippi River. Pickaninnies,
+starved dogs, mules, razorback hogs and malaria seemed to thrive along
+with the willow and pepper trees. The question of moment was how long
+would Hiram Strong, Jr., late of Broadway, Sherry's, and Delmonico's, be
+satisfied here? In the place of porterhouse steaks there would be
+sow-belly and corn bread, and a very dry section to live in.
+
+As soon as the train was out of the way Hiram came rushing over to me.
+
+"Ben, old man, you look good to me!" he exclaimed. "I'm getting away
+with it; haven't made a bull yet. Excuse me a little bit until I take
+this mail over, then I'm through." Thus he greeted me, enthusiastic and
+confident, then rushed away with the small mail bag to Morgan's store
+and the post office.
+
+While awaiting his return I examined a two-wheeled baggage truck he had
+left standing after being loaded from the train. This contained an old
+trunk fastened with a clothes line, a bunch of bananas, some castings
+for a cotton gin, three boxes of chill-and-fever remedy, and five cases
+of dynamite.
+
+As Strong hurried across the street his eyes shone with anticipation
+from under the visor of a cheap cap that had replaced the jaunty derby.
+
+"Say, how do you like my new station? All the white people here are
+mighty nice," said he, pushing the truck toward the depot.
+
+I nodded approval and helped him to push the load up a steep incline
+into the freight house adjoining the ticket office.
+
+"Do you get much of that stuff?" I asked, pointing to the dynamite.
+
+"Yes--the quarry uses quite a bit, but it usually comes by freight and I
+don't have to handle it," he said, locking the door and leading the way
+to the ticket and telegraph office, located in a small bay-windowed
+room facing the track. We walked through a dingy waiting-room, in the
+center of which stood a wooden box, half filled with sand, which stood
+permanent duty as a cuspidor.
+
+"You see, there is no hotel here, and Mr. Morgan has kindly taken me to
+board with him. The night man stays there also. Sunday is such a busy
+day, especially for freights, that I can't leave for my dinner, so they
+send it over to me. They'll send enough for two to-day. You won't mind,
+will you?"
+
+Before I could reply the dispatcher called him and he began taking a
+train order while I sat down upon the one remaining sixty-nine-cent
+chair.
+
+Opposite the bay-window was the regulation standing-counter, a
+ticket-cabinet, and little window opening out to the waiting-room, aged
+and dingy, especially the floor.
+
+"That chair will go down with you some time," I suggested, when he
+turned about after copying the order,--and setting a red signal for the
+train.
+
+"It looks as though it had served its full time," he replied, laughing,
+as he arose in answer to a tap on the waiting-room door. A darky boy
+with a market basket and a white pitcher stood grinning outside with
+our dinner.
+
+"Ben, this dinner is not like some we've had, but it's better than the
+soup and mutton stew we got on the boat. Do you know, I would rather be
+dead and in torment than fire again on that boat, but I would have
+stayed, though, if you had," said he, opening the basket and setting out
+a liberal portion of fried chicken and hot biscuit on the small
+instrument table.
+
+"We can tell only by comparison when we are well off," I replied.
+
+"That's beginning to dawn on me, also," said he, dryly.
+
+We had hardly begun eating when a big panting Mogul stopped with her
+nose opposite the window and the conductor came trotting up and signed
+for the orders. He gave one copy to the engineer and scuttled away.
+
+"I was telling you about the white people here," he began, as we resumed
+eating. "Old Mr. Morgan, who runs the store and post office, is about
+the biggest man here, and his daughter, Anna Bell! Say, boy, she is as
+pretty as any woman I ever saw." Then, for some reason, he checked
+himself on the "Anna Bell" subject and became absorbed in the
+well-cooked dainties spread before us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+IT was not what Hiram Strong said about Anna Bell Morgan, but the tone
+in which he said it, that raised the big interrogation point in my mind.
+Matters as they stood suggested the possibility that the youngster had
+plans in mind to "face the Governor" and that Quarrytown was a place
+quite good enough to settle down in if Anna Bell said the right word.
+
+A chicken leg in one hand and a hot biscuit piled with jam in the other,
+he stood facing me, with an excited glitter in his eyes. Continuing, he
+said in a tense undertone:
+
+"The night man is half gone on her, but he is a German--at least has a
+German name--and this place is intensely patriotic. As I told you, he
+boards there and when he is not sleeping he hangs----"
+
+At this moment a north-bound freight rushed by, and with the noise of
+the locomotive and banging of the trucks over a poor railroad joint
+opposite the wide-open window, together with the slapping of brake
+beams, made further conversation impossible. He turned, watching it as
+though expecting something, and as the way car passed something did
+happen. I heard a metallic thud on the floor, at which Hiram dropped his
+food and began to hunt for the thing that caused the noise. Finally, by
+getting down on all fours, he brought out from between the old iron safe
+and the letter press a rail spike to which was fastened by a rubber band
+a piece of white paper which he carefully unfolded. It was a train order
+reporting train No. 192 passing at that time with two cars picked up at
+a siding below where there was no telegraph office. Strong sprang to his
+instrument and dispatched the message forthwith. I wondered if he
+realized the danger to himself from messages thrown in upon him that
+way. A railroad spike weighs about a pound, and while he was
+telegraphing I speculated on what would happen if one struck him, or if
+by any chance it struck one of the fifty-pound cases of dynamite that
+had come by express.
+
+"The conductor drops his reports that way to save time," he said, calmly
+resuming his seat.
+
+Hiram's days were full of things to do, therefore we never had ten
+minutes' connected conversation. I would have been glad to learn the
+situation inside the fellow's active mind. I don't think he knew. He was
+doing honest, useful work, and received its immediate reward in full
+satisfaction--his first real satisfaction--that intoxicating lure that
+fans a spark of ambition into a flame.
+
+Later in the day, at a hint from Hiram, the conductor of a refrigerator
+train invited me to ride to New Orleans with him.
+
+"He makes better time than the passenger," said Hiram, who in less than
+a week knew all the road employees by their first names. Somehow he took
+it for granted that I had satisfactory employment and never asked me
+what it was. As a matter of fact I was employed in connection with the
+American Defense League, a patriotic organization, which was destined to
+throw me in contact with Hiram Strong very often and sometimes
+unexpectedly. Ours was not the kind of friendship to end through mere
+separation.
+
+We exchanged letters frequently. He asked me to send him a typewriter,
+which, though not required in the service, was "the only way to do
+things right," he wrote me. I noted that his letters avoided any
+reference to the night man or Anna Bell Morgan. I wondered if it was an
+oversight or intentional evasion.
+
+The Yazoo Railroad had reported, as required by law, that they had
+shipped ten cases of dynamite, but only nine were delivered. As soon as
+I had time I was asked to look it up, as fifty pounds of dynamite in bad
+hands would make a great deal of excitement in or about the shipping of
+New Orleans.
+
+I was astonished to find, upon examination of the papers, that the
+explosive had been shipped to the quarries at Quarrytown, together with
+an affidavit by the train conductor that he had delivered ten cases on
+the platform there. This put it squarely up to the agent, Hiram Strong,
+Jr.
+
+On arriving at Quarrytown I found Hiram as busy as ever, but overjoyed
+to see me. He was considerably surprised when I inquired about the lost
+dynamite, but he was not worried and evidently had not been. He was
+looking splendid; hard work and regular hours had accomplished wonders,
+and he seemed completely unmindful of discomforts. As to the explosive,
+he took me out on the platform to where it had been unloaded.
+
+"It came here," said he, "in the evening, along with half a car of mixed
+merchandise about the time I was going off duty. I had to work overtime
+to put it all in the freight house. The next morning the quarry man came
+for it and signed for the nine cases which I had delivered to him.
+That's all I could find and I believe that is all that was unloaded,
+although the way bill called for ten," he admitted.
+
+"The stuff was locked up, wasn't it?" I enquired.
+
+"Oh, yes, I locked the warehouse myself, and carry the only keys," he
+replied, as we returned to his office.
+
+The place looked to me darker and more dingy than before, but the day
+was gloomy. The rickety kitchen chair had finally collapsed and was
+substituted by a box covered with a burlap bag, with some padding on the
+end for a cushion.
+
+"How about this door?" I asked, pointing to the one leading into the
+freight house.
+
+"That has no lock, but I never leave here until the night man comes on.
+It couldn't get away through here."
+
+"How about this night man; who is he?"
+
+"He's been here for two years. The company must know he is all right.
+His name is Gus--Gus Schlegel. I think he is too stupid to be crooked;
+he knows enough to report trains at night."
+
+At that moment a dark boy came to the ticket window and reported three
+cars of granite on the quarry siding, and Hiram sat down on the
+burlapped box in front of his instruments and notified the dispatcher
+that three cars were ready. He then took up a pad of blank bills of
+lading and began to fill them out rapidly, though in the attitude of
+listening.
+
+"One of your chairs went on strike?" I observed, eyeing the artistic
+arrangement of the burlap.
+
+"Yes; Gus's avoirdupois finally carried it down. He found an old
+molasses box that was so sticky he had to cover it with burlap. I
+believe I like it better than the chair; it requires less room," he
+added, looking up, while changing his carbon paper.
+
+The thought occurred to me that it might be the missing case of
+dynamite, but I decided that was quite impossible. If Gus had really
+driven nails into a case filled with dynamite, he would be at that
+moment in Kingdom Come and an architect busy with plans for a new
+station.
+
+"How is his love affair progressing with Anna Bell Morgan?" I asked,
+without great show of interest.
+
+"Oh, I know she hates his name, and I think--I think she hates him, too;
+but these Southern girls are so polite and considerate of one's
+feelings, I can't tell for sure; besides, she is pretty deep," said he,
+as one having given the matter much consideration.
+
+Hiram scratched a match on the burlap covering and lit a cigarette.
+
+"He both sleeps and eats there, doesn't he?" I was beginning to consider
+Gus Schlegel in connection with the disappearance of the case of
+explosive.
+
+"Yes, he eats and rooms there, but lately he doesn't sleep much. Why, he
+came in here the other afternoon and sat where you are and cried like a
+baby. He said he didn't think she cared anything for him, and that he
+loved her so much he couldn't live without her--even hinted at suicide."
+
+Here Hiram Strong, Jr., looked up and laughed--a cynical laugh--as he
+glanced at me. His eyes showed that he was in earnest, and evidenced a
+combination of amusement and anger. He brushed the ashes from his
+cigarette on the box and continued: "I told him the river water was nice
+and warm and muddy, and that the alligators would finish the job cheaper
+than an undertaker."
+
+"And do you know," he continued with a smile creeping about his mouth,
+"it went completely over his head, didn't even penetrate the tallow. I
+don't believe a German has any sense of humor--they only laugh at
+something ribald or salacious--they make a terrible mess of simulating
+virtue. Then he asked me to advise him."
+
+"Did you?"
+
+"Yes--I told him he had been there nearly two years and that was long
+enough for her to learn to appreciate him--that the only way was for him
+to ask her and thus settle the question for good and all."
+
+"Did he take your advice?" I asked.
+
+"He wanted to know if he shouldn't speak to her father first, but I
+told him the preliminary skirmish should be with her. He decided on the
+spot to do that and if she refused him he was going to leave."
+
+"I suppose he got his answer?"
+
+"He went over immediately--what happened there I never learned, exactly,
+but I do know he came back in about an hour squealing like a razorback
+pig kicked in the ribs by a mule, and wired in his resignation. He was
+an awfully poor loser," Hiram added, as he sealed the big yellow
+envelope for the auditor. "Why, the poor dub was so sorry for himself,
+he snuffled and groaned, and his breath back-fired like a four-cylinder
+motor hitting only on two."
+
+"Who are his associates here, and does he have any one come to see him?"
+I asked, detecting something like resentment in his tone.
+
+"No one has been here to see him since I came. No; he is just a big
+boob, with this love-stuff working overtime."
+
+"Has anything whatever--however insignificant--happened that would
+connect him with the disappearance of the dynamite?"
+
+"No, not the least thing--the claim agent and I went over that several
+times. There is a certain low cunning in him, a disposition to be tricky
+in small things, but there's nothing to him--just grease. Of course, he
+has the wires here all night, and I may underestimate him. By the use of
+a code he might pull off something."
+
+"Did the company accept his resignation?"
+
+"Yes; they had to."
+
+"And you don't attach any importance to his going now, further than this
+love affair?"
+
+Before he could reply the train he flagged for orders pulled past the
+station. He obligingly took the tissue order pad out on the platform for
+the conductor to sign. While he was gone I raised the burlap skirt
+covering from the box. It stuck and I had to pull it loose to get it up.
+It was undoubtedly a molasses case, a can that had fermented or been
+punctured and had run out at the corners, but to be sure I took my
+pencil point, gouged some of the stuff off the side, sniffed and then
+tasted it. It was mixed with grit and dirt, but it tasted sweet and I
+was satisfied.
+
+"Ben, take a walk over to the quarry switch with me. I've got to get
+the numbers of three cars standing there. I will introduce you to the
+head quarry man and he will tell you all he knows about it--and that's
+nothing at all. Still you might get a pointer there," he added.
+
+To this I assented without comment, but wondered why he was so careful
+to put everything in the safe and lock it; also the office door, when
+the big center sash of the bay-window facing the main track was entirely
+raised.
+
+"You have light-fingered gentry here?" I queried.
+
+"Oh, if anything were left lying around loose it might disappear. I
+don't take any chances because I leave that window open so that the
+conductors can throw their reports inside. There's one coming now," he
+said, looking up the line as we picked our way over the main track and
+two switches, toward the quarry under the bluff, about two hundred yards
+distant.
+
+"Hiram, have you any theory at all about the disappearance of this case
+of dynamite?" I insisted.
+
+"I don't believe it ever came here--I know the waybill called for ten
+cases, and the conductor of the local checks up everything as it comes
+out of the car on the platform, and they're careful and good fellows,
+but that day he had a lot of freight; he must have checked in another
+case to make up his ten--you know there's a lot of goods packed in cases
+about that size. I'm not worried; that case of dynamite never came here,
+and will show up somewhere else," he said definitely, and with complete
+candor, as we approached the three flat cars loaded with granite on the
+short quarry switch.
+
+While he was taking the numbers I stopped and looked back at the
+disreputable-looking station house and D. R. Morgan's store and
+residence beyond, the pepper trees along the highway, and the dwindling
+sized houses behind them. Two or three mule teams with cotton bales
+could be seen creeping toward the station.
+
+"Do you want to come over to the office and see the boss here? I must go
+in and give him a copy of these bills," he explained, looking over at a
+board shanty they called an office some distance away.
+
+"No--I think not. Where do they store their explosives, Hiram?" I
+asked, not noticing the usual isolated brick or stone receptacle.
+
+"They tunneled into the granite bluff about four hundred feet down the
+track. This road leads to it," he replied, pointing to a cart-track
+which led in that direction.
+
+"You go and deliver your bills--I will stay and make a little diagram or
+map of the place." He glanced up the track at a heavily loaded
+locomotive laboring down toward the station, but when the engineer gave
+no signs of stopping he went over to the quarry office, while I took out
+my pencil and pad to make my map and notes.
+
+As I drew with my pencil the full length of the pad to represent the
+railroad running midway between the river and the bluff, a most
+extraordinary thing occurred. I could not believe my senses. The point
+of my pencil sputtered like a parlor match, but before it reached the
+end of the pad it exploded like a firecracker and blackened the paper.
+In an instant I recalled having used my pencil to gouge some of the
+sticky stuff off the box Hiram, Jr., was using as a seat. I then knew
+positively it was the lost case of dynamite.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+IN an instant my senses were flogged into a stupendous state of
+excitement, and my eyes must have bulged when I looked again at the
+blackened pad and then at the pencil point that had been blown off as
+though it had itself exploded. Then I thought of that crazy, love-sick
+Gus who had been driving nails into the case, and I sickened. Surely
+there is a Divine Providence that protects fools at least. Hiram had
+scratched matches against that case!
+
+My knees shook and my hand trembled, and I do not think I could have
+uttered a sound. I looked for Strong. He was just coming out of the
+quarry office. I took one long step to rush back to the station, but saw
+the locomotive approaching, laboring hard with its immense load and
+throwing clouds of black smoke from its stack that slowly expanded into
+an immense dirigible in the still, sluggish atmosphere.
+
+Should the conductor fling his report in at the window fastened to a
+spike or a piece of granite and hit that case of dynamite--what would
+happen? This had been done many times, and nothing occurred, but the law
+of average must prevail in due time. A sickening sensation took
+possession of me, and I became as rigid as stone. I felt as though ten
+pounds of lead was in the pit of my stomach; my mind was filled with
+monstrous forebodings, for one hundred persons were within easy range of
+that case of explosive--including Anna Bell. I could not prevent Hiram's
+arrest and trial for criminal negligence if the facts became known. But
+Gus was the culprit, if any one.
+
+As I looked back, Hiram was approaching. Somehow I did not want to tell
+him. It seemed unnecessary, and I could save him that much apprehension.
+I must have looked strange to him when he came up to where I stood as
+one ossified. He took hold of my arm, and said fraternally: "Come on,
+Ben; you look as white as if you had seen a ghost." But I could not
+move. I only stared at the passing train.
+
+Hiram plucked my sleeve. "Ben, you look as though you were standing
+before a firing squad--just as I must have looked when the Gold-Beater
+told me to 'git up and git.'"
+
+I could only raise my hand warningly and stare at the passing train. It
+seemed to me the longest train I ever knew one locomotive to haul, and
+though it was moving at least twenty miles per hour it appeared to
+creep.
+
+I raised my hand to my forehead and found it dripping with perspiration;
+Hiram grabbed my shoulders with both hands and shook me.
+
+"Ben, have you gone stark mad?"
+
+I had forgotten he was there and scarcely heard or felt him. I saw the
+way-car emerge from the trees and approach the station. I could not help
+raising my arm and point that way and did not lower it until we were
+both thrown violently to the ground.
+
+It is useless to try to describe the crashing of the intonation on my
+ears. I thought my hearing was destroyed. Before the concussion threw us
+prone there was a fleeting impression of a dense red flame that came
+from the station. The instant the way-car passed it was lifted from the
+track. I afterward learned it was detached from the cars ahead and
+rolled over twice.
+
+The man who said there are words to describe everything groveled in
+ignorance. I saw Hiram running toward the station; he fairly flew, his
+legs moving rapidly as though motor-driven. I saw he did not even relax
+his speed when he ran around the deep hole where the station had stood a
+few moments before, but continued to D. R. Morgan's store and beyond
+that to the residence--or maybe he was going to the river to do as he
+had advised the love-sick Gus. I only know what he told me about it
+afterward. How the conductor and rear brakeman, after being rattled
+about in the way-car as dice in a box, escaped with only bruises and
+cuts was a wonder to me, and when I finally learned that the fatalities
+were confined to a team of mules forced through the front of Morgan's
+store, my relief was immense.
+
+Gus escaped from the Morgan house in his night shirt, and ran down under
+the river bank, cowering and cringing, along with most of the black
+population. It was difficult to convince him he could go back to bed in
+safety. The darkies eventually realized that it was not Gabriel's last
+call, and were coaxed away from the protecting bank to help remove the
+mules from the front of Morgan's wrecked store.
+
+When Hiram returned from the Morgan residence he was fairly composed. He
+came to me at once.
+
+"This is pretty bad business; was any one killed?" he asked, bracing
+himself.
+
+"No, but it is a marvel."
+
+"They will blame me?"
+
+"Yes, likely, at first. Make no statement to any one. Was your safe
+locked? How about cash and station records?"
+
+"Yes, it is always locked; kept everything there since Gus acted luny;
+but hasn't it been destroyed?"
+
+"We'll go and see."
+
+The hole where once stood the depot would easily contain a freight house
+and more. Rails of the main track were ripped up and twisted as though
+made of wheat straw. We found the safe apparently intact, sticking out
+of the débris.
+
+Railroad tickets were scattered about like fallen leaves. When he found
+his ticket stamp he was greatly relieved and almost laughed. How had he
+suddenly acquired such fortitude and acumen? Was it the Gold-Beater's
+blood unleashed by work and decent living? When we found parts of the
+new typewriter he laughed grimly, tossing his head backward.
+
+I thought it best for Hiram that he should not know how it happened
+until after he was grilled, as I knew he would soon be.
+
+The Yazoo railroad did one thing quickly and well. In less than an hour
+they had a wrecker on the job, and by utilizing the outside track had
+established a detour which let Superintendent Kitchell's "special"
+through from the north.
+
+The wrecker reached into the débris with its long steel arm, picked up
+the safe, and swung it into the superintendent's car. He told Hiram and
+Gus they were relieved, and to come with him to New Orleans.
+
+Hiram obeyed the order without a murmur, but nevertheless took plenty of
+time to pack all of his belongings. He seemed to know he was through in
+Quarrytown. I suspected he was rather deliberate in bidding the Morgan
+family good-by, taking some time to do it, and was apparently much
+excited and flushed when he boarded the superintendent's car and waved a
+cordial good-by to a girlish figure who stood in front of the Morgan
+store waving back at him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+THERE is something about the duties and ambitions of a railroad
+superintendent that make him wish to appear inscrutable. The reason,
+perhaps, is the man behind him who wants his job, or the man ahead whose
+job he wants--or both. Anyhow, an attempt at inscrutability is the
+typical refuge for the ignorant and the smaller the road the more futile
+the attempt. Though I established my identity and purpose beyond a
+doubt, he at first refused to allow me passage to New Orleans in his
+car. He seemed to be suspicious of me, perhaps that I intended to
+burglarize the safe, make off before his eyes with a locomotive or some
+of the numerous scrap iron along the right-of-way. However, he finally
+became rational and reversed himself.
+
+His car was divided about the center, one end being private to himself
+and his clerk. The other part was sort of a reception room, the
+"anxious" seat for subordinates. In this apartment they had placed the
+safe.
+
+After we left Quarrytown, his undersized clerk emerged from the private
+quarters and requested Hiram to open the safe, which he did promptly and
+with a firm hand. The clerk took the contents to the superintendent.
+Meanwhile Gus wore a very red face and sighed repeatedly, as though
+already on the way to the penitentiary instead of New Orleans.
+
+After examination of Hiram's records Gus was called in before the
+Superintendent and given the third degree. When he came out he was
+muchly upset and perspiring. Hiram, disgusted, looked upon him with
+contempt, which feeling was intensified when the flabby Gus dropped into
+a chair and glared back at him ominously. It may have been because of
+the high speed of the light engine and the solitary car, but I surely
+saw Gus's knees knock together from sheer fright. He had likely
+overstated his alibi in an abandoned and frantic attempt to protect
+himself to Hiram's disadvantage.
+
+When the superintendent's clerk finally came to the door and beckoned
+Hiram, the latter's attitude pleased me. Neither defiant nor
+disrespectful, he walked into the presence of his superior, and when he
+emerged from the interview he had not changed a hair.
+
+Presently the little clerk stuck his head out of the dividing door and
+beckoned to me in the same curt manner he had signaled the two men who
+were under suspicion. I had no notion of being placed in the same
+category and made it clear to the clerk that such was the case. At once
+he became civil and led the way.
+
+When I entered his sanctum the superintendent sat facing me at the flat
+top desk in the corner of the car. He was a short, stocky man, and
+evidenced much perturbation of mind by mopping his florid face. A
+Flounder had been clapped on his head and when it came away it brought
+all the hair under it, leaving only a slight fringe. His lips and
+cherubic mouth were pursed and screwed up to simulate an executive air.
+As he jerked his thumb indicating a wicker chair opposite him, I noticed
+the little clerk sat at a small desk at the side of the car, with
+notebook and pencil poised significantly.
+
+"What have you to say about this matter?" he asked without delay,
+withdrawing his eyes and winking violently as soon as they met mine.
+
+"Nothing," I answered good naturedly.
+
+"I understand you were here investigating the loss of the dynamite when
+the explosion occurred. Have you no theory as to how it occurred?"
+
+"No, I have no theory: I _know_ how it occurred."
+
+"Would you"--he hesitated, looking down and bringing his chubby hands
+together before him--"would you mind telling me what you know about it?"
+
+"My information will not be available to the railroad through me, but if
+you will dismiss your clerk, I will give you, as man to man, enough
+information to ease your mind." In saying this I was thinking only of
+Hiram.
+
+After some hesitation, he nodded to the expectant clerk, who rose
+instantly and left the apartment.
+
+"Mr. Taylor--I believe you said your name was Taylor--this matter has
+upset me, and I may have been rude," he apologized, and lapsed into the
+attitude of a very decent fellow with troubles of his own. I then gave
+him enough details to put Hiram right. He was immensely relieved and
+pleased to gain such valuable information.
+
+"You seem to know something of this young Strong?" he queried. My reply
+was that I thought I had a very good line on Hiram Strong, Jr.
+
+"His cash and station records are as clean and straight as a pin--he
+seems to be rather under-classed and is capable of better things. What
+are his antecedents?" The superintendent's interest was aroused.
+
+"My knowledge does not extend beyond his father, a Southerner, now a
+prominent financier in New York. It appears he decided that the only way
+to make something of this boy was to throw him out entirely on his own
+resources, and apparently the old gentleman's reasoning was good."
+
+"I believe you are right; there is good blood in him. Our big trouble is
+in making good railroad men from material without any blood base. We
+frequently have to make 'a silk purse from a sow's ear,' which is
+generally considered impossible--but we do it. Now the case of this
+other fellow--can you conceive of a full grown man with no better sense
+than to take a fifty-pound case of dynamite, drive nails into it, and
+then use it as a chair? But I am greatly relieved to know just how it
+happened, and if I can ever be of any service to you, don't fail to
+make it known--will you?" he asked, rising formally, to end the
+audience.
+
+When I came out Hiram glanced at me searchingly, as though he would
+learn something from my attitude. He had been absorbing information from
+the train conductor. Hiram had developed a penchant for burrowing into
+the confidence of every one and getting inside knowledge of their
+difficulties.
+
+At this time we succeeded in running around a freight train that had
+been holding us back, and entered New Orleans so fast that conversation
+was quite impossible.
+
+Before we reached the station the clerk came out and told Hiram and Gus
+to report at the office at nine the next morning, at which Hiram became
+thoughtful, but not downcast.
+
+He was able to get his old room next to mine, which pleased him, and
+after opening the connecting door and cleaning up a bit, he came in and
+gave me one of his strenuous whacks between my shoulders.
+
+"Old man Ben, what do I draw to-morrow morning at nine?"
+
+"Hiram, I don't know," I truthfully replied, working my shoulders where
+he had hit me, "but I think you will be drawn and quartered and made
+into good fertilizer; that's all you're fit for." At this he began to
+cavort and caper about like a colt.
+
+"Well, I don't mind telling you how I feel--I don't give a Continental
+sou Marquis what I draw. I feel like fighting wild cats and buzz-saws.
+Now that Anna Bell Morgan has promised to marry me, nothing else
+matters."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+HIRAM and I were soon ready for the next thing in order--something to
+eat.
+
+"I suppose now you will want a porterhouse as big as Rhode Island----"
+
+"And as thick as a London fog, with enough mushrooms to choke an
+alligator," he broke in joyously. "Ben--I want you to know right now
+that I think you are an infernal scoundrel. You know why my brand-new
+typewriter blew up this morning and started the whole of Quarrytown over
+into the river, incidentally putting the main line on the bum--and won't
+tell me!" he added, squaring himself in front of me.
+
+"You'd better wait until to-morrow and see what your sentence is before
+you begin to accuse me," I replied, with a solemn wink which he couldn't
+quite fathom.
+
+"Oh, I suppose the 'Sauerkraut' and I will get bounced incontinently.
+But what do I care? Had it not been for what happened this morning I
+wouldn't know that a perfectly sweet and innocent girl really loves me.
+I don't care if this part of the world comes to an end, you can't get me
+into the doldrums. Besides, I know my hands are clean, and I have done
+nothing for which they should blame me, but they may be looking for a
+horrible example--a railroad is a railroad--eh, Ben?"
+
+Then, assuming a more serious attitude, he continued:
+
+"I've got a trade now--a way of making a living. I can walk up the
+street and look any man or woman in the eye, as one who can account for
+himself, who can do something useful, and at the same time possess the
+love of a good girl--it's great, Ben! Do you know anything about such
+things? I shall be no man's dog in the future. Already I've kicked the
+can off of my tail, to use a figure of speech."
+
+"I don't quite understand you, Hiram," said I, recalling the fact that
+this was the second time he had referred to some such handicap.
+
+"I've been up there on the river where it's so quiet that one's own
+thoughts are as loud as grand opera, and I have figured it out," he
+began, inserting his thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest and moving
+over to look out of the window. "Of course, you understand, I used the
+word dog as a figure of speech, but what I mean is that the Gold-Beater,
+instead of making me work and learn something at the right time, gave me
+money to spend, and then, along with old women and maidens, old men, and
+gentry in general, he winked knowingly, indulgently, as I was
+toboganning to Hades; then of a sudden, inside of a day, I am kicked
+out, and told to go to work or--Blazes--he didn't care which--me with my
+head as empty as a base drum and muscles as soft as a jelly fish. Oh,
+I'm not exactly sore on the Gold-Beater--he did no worse than a million
+others, but it's all wrong, Ben," he emphasized, turning his eyes upon
+me.
+
+I preferred not to take him seriously.
+
+"Hiram, there's a store on the corner where we can get a soap box, and
+I'll try to arrange with the police for a place in the square----"
+
+"Oh, I see you are like the rest of them; your head is like a
+cocoanut--a shell that you have to open with a hatchet; then some soft,
+indigestible stuff, and real brains no more than the milk space inside.
+Come on, let's get some food," he sneered, grabbing me by the arm, and
+fairly rushing me out on the street.
+
+He spent most of the evening talking about Anna Bell Morgan and his
+plans. Like every man in love, he gave me a poor idea of her--but I
+inferred she was about twenty-two, and from my distant view of her I
+knew she did not run to flesh. I was ready to give her a high mark on
+that score.
+
+"Suppose you'll marry her at once?" said I, arching my brows knowingly.
+
+"Oh, no; not yet; she says I must make good before she will marry me,"
+he replied in answer to my query, "and besides, she has plans. She wants
+to learn something, too. She is coming down to New Orleans to go to
+school--her father has promised her that for a long time. Perhaps that
+mule team going through the front of the store may delay things, but not
+long. Anna Bell has been helping with his books and knows a lot for one
+who has always been shut in."
+
+The next evening when I heard him coming up the stairs four steps at a
+time I backed into a corner. When he felt that way I knew I would get a
+thump on my back equal to being kicked by an ox.
+
+"Ben, you scoundrel, come out of there; I want to hit you. I've got
+it--I've got it this time right!" he began, reaching for me excitedly,
+and playful as a young lion. "I believe it's all your work--I'm
+promoted--I didn't get bounced; the big chief did the handsome
+thing--right here in New Orleans!" This was as coherent as he was able
+to make himself.
+
+"Sit down, Hiram;--what is he going to give you?"
+
+"Going to give me? I've already got it; been at work all day. Four
+tracks on the wharf. Got charge of all the perishable freight--meat
+incoming and fruit outgoing--office to myself on the dock. First thing I
+did was to wire Anna Bell--then went to it. Great job, Ben, and I'm
+going to like it. Got a new typewriter to replace the one I lost. Beats
+Quarrytown, and twice the money. Why don't you warm up and congratulate
+me?" he almost shouted, rising quickly from the chair and reaching for
+my shoulders again, but I dodged him.
+
+"Already received a wire from Anna Bell," he continued. "She's a great
+girl; the best ever. You sly old dog, you knew it was the box we were
+using for a stool; I can see it now, but do you know, I somehow feel
+sorry for Gus; he was just love-sick--he didn't know half the time what
+he was doing. He was not so much to blame, but Anna Bell wasn't to
+blame, either, for she never led him on."
+
+"What did they do for him?" I interrupted, fearful that he would lose
+his breath entirely.
+
+"I did all I could to save him, and they didn't fire him. They gave him
+another night station somewhere in the swamps. But say, I've got to step
+pretty lively to keep up with this job--however, it won't be so bad when
+I get things straightened out," he bubbled. At first I was afraid he had
+been drinking, but it was just Hiram Strong, Jr., finding himself.
+
+I had something special on for that night, or I think he would have
+talked me to sleep. He made me promise to come around the next day and
+see his layout. As I left him, he began writing to Anna Bell, telling
+her all about everything.
+
+When I saw him the next afternoon, he had on a hickory jumper and cap,
+and was bossing the final cleaning of a long, roofed-over wharf, strewn
+with broken cases, trash and dirt--the accumulation of years.
+
+As soon as he saw me he began to smile. He was full of energy, urging
+the negro laborers to take away the last load, so that he could leave on
+time. He pointed out how he had charge of the tracks on the wharf. The
+worst feature of the situation was that he had to be there at 4.30 a. m.
+with Government meat inspectors, to let the packing-house people have
+their meat early, but he was through about the middle of the afternoon,
+as soon as the north-bound fruit was loaded.
+
+"That means you must get out about four in the morning?"
+
+"Yes, but I don't mind that."
+
+"Hiram, it is not so long ago that you did not think seriously of going
+to bed until that time."
+
+"Yes, that's a fact--but," said he, sobering, "it seems an age and
+appears to me now like a nightmare. Say, do you want to make an
+investment?" he asked, changing the subject abruptly, and assuming the
+air of good-natured bargaining that seemed so natural with him.
+
+"Yes, what is it?"
+
+"There is a barrel of filings the agent told me to sell for junk. He
+says a foundry can use it to melt up. It's been kicking around here for
+years. It weighs seven hundred pounds net; give me a cent a pound and
+you can have it," said he, walking over to one side of the dock, a sort
+of warehouse, and giving an old dingy barrel, lying on its bilge, a
+shove with his foot.
+
+Mechanically I did the same, and wondered why filings were packed in
+that kind of a barrel. I leaned over to examine it more closely, and
+noted the word "Filings" marked on each head. Then I suddenly recalled
+that very day I had been asked to look inside of a storage place nearby,
+the same being suspected of contraband operations, and this would offer
+a genuine excuse. I examined the barrel more closely. It was very
+strong, and old, scarred, mysterious. I planned to send it to a certain
+suspected warehouse, and later would go there to draw a sample, thereby
+gaining admittance without revealing my real mission.
+
+"Will you deliver it, Hiram?"
+
+"Yes, deliver anywhere you want; will put it on the back of that cart
+right now," he replied, with a bantering smile.
+
+"All right; here is your money; give me a receipted bill as the
+railroad's agent," I said, walking around the barrel.
+
+Hiram grabbed the money from my hand, and after a parting injunction to
+the laborers went to his little office in the corner. I gave the heavy
+barrel a shove with my foot and rolled it over. I wet my finger, pressed
+it close to the chimes on a slight sifting that might be sand, but when
+I brought my finger away it had turned black at the point of contact and
+violet at the edges where the contact was less firm.
+
+I was examining it critically when Hiram returned with the change and a
+receipted bill. After giving the dray directions where to take the
+barrel, and saying that he would be there soon to get the warehouse
+receipt, Hiram intimated that he was through for the day.
+
+"Wait until I change my clothes and I will go with you," he said,
+hurrying to the little office.
+
+"You see, this is a great system," he began to explain enthusiastically,
+when he returned in his street attire. "These tracks hold a train of
+refrigerator cars containing meat that comes in every morning on
+passenger trains. The packing-house agents get it out first thing in the
+morning while it is cool, for the early market. Then, you see, fruit
+steamers from Gulf and South American ports come alongside the wharf,
+load bananas, oranges, and so on, into the same cars. The refrigerator
+system keeps them cool in the summer and prevents freezing in the
+winter. Then they return north as special, fast, perishable. The
+packing-house centers at Memphis, Chicago, Kansas City, and Missouri and
+Mississippi River points get fresh fruit each twenty-four to thirty
+hours. The train has got to be out of here before three p. m., after
+which I'm through. Looks pretty nice when it's all cleaned up," he
+enthused, waving his arm about the wide dock about eight hundred feet
+long, paralleling the river, now swept and clean.
+
+A refreshing breeze came from Algiers across the wonderful Mississippi,
+now literally jammed with ocean-going and river vessels.
+
+"I imagine it is very interesting work, but will require great care and
+diligence," I suggested, as we walked out to Canal street and started
+uptown.
+
+"Yes, but not so hard. The fruit is easy, but the meat comes in with
+three seals--a Government seal, the shippers' seal, and the railroad
+seal. Three of us open the cars. A Government inspector breaks the
+Government seal, I break our seal and the packing-house agent breaks
+their seal. Then the car is checked on the spot. You see, there is not
+much chance for error that way; besides, meat is all billed 'Shipper's
+weight and count,' but the freight agent--you know I am under the New
+Orleans freight agent--has cautioned me to be very careful. From the way
+he acts and talks I think my predecessor got into some kind of trouble,
+but no more trouble for your Uncle Dudley. What could be worse than
+sitting on a case of dynamite every day and scratching matches on it?"
+
+We had now turned off Canal Street, and arrived at the warehouse where
+the barrel was sent. I was given a regular receipt, and we resumed our
+way uptown.
+
+"Hiram, there's something else in that barrel--it's not iron filings;
+it's something that may be worth much more, and now I'm going to take
+you in as a partner on it. Give me three-fifty, half what I paid, and we
+will go fifty-fifty," I said, with little apparent concern.
+
+Hiram stopped still and looked at me keenly, then gave me the money.
+
+"Ben, if you were to tell me to jump in the river I would, knowing I
+would get out and get something for it--after that deal at Quarrytown. I
+started to say what Anna Bell said about you in connection----" He was
+abruptly interrupted by our meeting a man from the Department who wanted
+me at once, so I told Hiram I would see him later.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+THE next day I returned to the warehouse, and with great formality drew
+samples from both ends of the barrel into small manila envelopes and, as
+anticipated, this resulted in quite a talk with the owner of the place,
+whom I interrogated closely, for I wanted to learn just what kind of a
+business he was doing, although it seemed legitimate enough. The
+Department said it was worth seven dollars to get that information, and
+I intended to return Hiram's money.
+
+The presumption was that some frugal machinist had saved his bench
+filings until he had a barrel full and sold it as junk. But how did it
+get there without an address marking?
+
+The big interrogation point was up on everything at that time, owing to
+the acute stage of the war. Steel filings were not soluble and would not
+blacken my finger. The stuff looked more like rifle powder. I finally
+decided to mail a sample to a chemist in New York for analysis.
+
+The whirligig of events took me out of New Orleans the next day to
+various Gulf ports and along the coast as far north as New York. In his
+first communication Hiram said he was doing fine, and the remainder of a
+six-page letter was a laudation of the charms of Anna Bell Morgan. There
+in New Orleans she was realizing her lifelong ambition, and taking a
+course, but he did not say what kind. Soon after I heard from him again
+and he hinted at trouble, but finished with a lengthy encomium of the
+Quarrytown young woman.
+
+The third letter was unmistakably a storm signal, a cry for relief he
+was sure I could give were I there; not a wail, but a courageous man's
+request for suitable weapons with which to battle. "When did I expect to
+get back?" Directly or indirectly he asked this question several times
+in his communication, but did not mention Anna Bell Morgan, and by which
+token I concluded his trouble lay in that quarter. When we did meet
+again there was no mistaking his concern about his troubles, and his
+esteem of my ability to aid him.
+
+Three months had worked a most remarkable change. There was no doubt
+that his buoyant optimism and sense of humor had received a shock.
+About his up-curving, laughing, clean-chiseled mouth had crept a curious
+drooping tendency. Fear, corroding, soul-destroying fear, had found a
+footing there. His eyes had retreated under a shelf and his black brows
+moved down, while his remarkably straight nose appeared more prominent;
+his upstanding, wavy raven hair evidenced neglect, and instead of a
+resounding whack on my back came the firm, sure, hearty grip of a man.
+
+He would not let me look over my hat full of mail, much of which bore
+many redirections and additional post-office stamps. I had retained my
+room adjoining his while away, and it was there we were now seated.
+
+"You know, Ben," he began, after leaning his chair back against the
+window sill--there was a sort of dogged intensity in the manner he
+raised both his feet to the corner of the table--"the general freight
+agent hinted at trouble down on the wharf when I went there. I didn't
+pay much attention because I knew I could do the work, and, being on the
+level, why should I care what had happened previously?
+
+"Well, for a month or more everything went on splendidly. Then I became
+aware that my work was being scrutinized closely. I learned by accident
+that all my records were checked and double checked, which was
+altogether unusual. I seemed to be getting under a cloud, and the cloud
+kept getting darker all the time. The specials came nosing about, first
+from the consigning packing houses, then the railroad and finally the
+Government inspectors from the Bureau of Animal Industry, under whose
+supervision all meat is shipped interstate. I paid no attention except
+to be more careful. If I did my work right, why should I care if the
+packing-house agents and meat inspectors that break the seals on the
+cars with me in the morning began looking at me as though I had horns
+and a forked tail concealed about me?
+
+"I lived quietly--in fact I had to. When you get out at three-thirty in
+the morning, you've got to be in bed before nine; besides, the old life
+doesn't appeal to me any more. In fact, I experience loathing and actual
+nausea when I happen to think of it. And then, while my salary is pretty
+good now, I had no money to spend when trying to save every cent. It is
+true that for a long time I had my dinners with Anna Bell--you know she
+is here--but lately I don't even do that.
+
+"Now the losses run up into the thousands--and--and I am
+suspected--suspected of being a thief, Ben----"
+
+"How do you know you are?" I asked abruptly.
+
+"Well, after a lot of this mysterious stuff, the agent, Mr. Powell--who
+appears to be a pretty nice fellow--came over to my office and let it
+out. He said he believed in me and had decided to tell me, but I think
+it was just a smooth plan to trap me--to make me the goat. I was shy and
+chary of him, and am yet.
+
+"He told me that since I came the meat cars were checking up short, and
+in one instance fresh hams were short ten or fifteen tons, and the
+packing-house people, the Government, and the road's inspectors, who
+have been working on it for months, were stumped.
+
+"No, he didn't accuse me--he asked me to see if I couldn't help find
+some clew to the crimes. But, Ben, maybe you can't quite see how much
+alone I feel. You were away, I don't see Anna Bell any more, and I
+haven't a soul to talk with about it."
+
+"Where is Anna--Miss Morgan--now?"
+
+"Oh, she's right here, and that is the devil of it. I was getting along
+fine and so was she, and she promised, after she got a little further
+advanced and I had saved a little money on which to start, we were to be
+married. But, after this infernal thing came up, I not only stopped all
+plans, but quit going to see her. I made up my mind not to go near her
+as long as I was suspected of being a thief."
+
+"Maybe you are going too far--are you sure she could not----"
+
+"This is no youthful escapade, to make young women smile and older ones
+nudge each other and the Gold-Beater pull his check book with a half
+hearted protest. This is a felony, a penitentiary offense. I may be
+railroaded up against bars and perhaps stripes.
+
+"Anna Bell Morgan is as pure as she is beautiful, and if I don't get out
+of this clean, I love her so much that I don't want it known that she
+ever knew me. It would be the act of a dog, and a downright
+coward--and, I am not a coward." He ended by glaring at me with burning
+eyes, as though I might have been the author of his troubles.
+
+"But, Hiram--it may be you are somewhat morbid, and magnify the gravity
+of the matter--there is always a way out for clean hands--pinch and kick
+yourself into a normal condition and answer a few questions as though it
+were another man's trouble."
+
+"Well, I will admit at the sight of you I do feel better," he said,
+still keeping his feet almost as high as his head, on the corner of my
+table. "I am on the rack--go ahead with your third degree stuff," he
+said, with a trace of a smile as though daring me, and pulling out a
+plebeian pipe, began filling it.
+
+"When did you see Miss Morgan last?"
+
+"Five weeks ago to-morrow."
+
+"Have you written or telephoned?"
+
+"Neither, I tell you----"
+
+"All right," I said, raising my hand in tolerant good humor; "you feel
+certain there were shortages before your time on the wharf?"
+
+"Yes, I know it--that's why my predecessor lost his job."
+
+"But you don't know just what has been done?" I asked, idly fingering my
+mail before me.
+
+"No, I don't; but Mr. Powell, the agent, said the packing-house and
+railroad specials were at a standstill, and the government was so short
+of men they could not do anything just now. He also said that he had
+personally asked the local office of the Department of Justice to take
+it up, and while it was something outside of their line, they promised
+to coöperate as soon as they had men available. Hang it!" he exclaimed,
+passing his fingers through his hair, "it ought not to be so hard to
+smoke 'em out."
+
+"Hiram, I will see what can be done to-morrow. In the meantime lose that
+'going-to-hell-sure' long face, and cheer up. I've been living at Barns
+& Sheds for three months, taking Greek insolence and grease at Greek
+restaurants until I feel polluted inside, and want one of those----"
+
+"Real porterhouse steaks," he interrupted, laughing as though they had
+become only a memory.
+
+"Give me a few moments to glance over this mail before we go--here,
+this ought to interest you, Hiram," I said, discovering one from the
+chemist to whom I had sent a sample from our partnership barrel in
+storage.
+
+"Why--how?" he asked, looking sharp as though expecting a joke.
+
+I tore open the letter, first noticing it was nearly three months old.
+The chemist had replied promptly. I read aloud:
+
+     "Your sample suffered a little in the mail and is too small. Will
+     you oblige me by forwarding a larger one by parcel post? If my
+     guess is right, the market is particularly bare of this class of
+     goods, and I can assure a prompt sale at fancy prices."
+
+"You mean that old barrel of junk--those filings you made me pay
+three-fifty for a half interest in your foolishness?" he asked, with an
+incredulous smile.
+
+"Hiram," I began jestingly, "that barrel will make us rich some day; but
+seriously, I do know it is not castings nor junk. However, this letter
+is now three months old, and perhaps our best chance has gone."
+
+That night I wired a certain person a code message to the effect that I
+was willing to handle the New Orleans case. It was either that or some
+day I'd miss being made best man at Anna Bell's wedding.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+THERE was little trouble getting the assignment; in fact, the
+authorities were glad some one was willing to tackle the case, for it
+had become a nightmare and a stench, but it was a case of "don't begin
+unless you can finish it." Others had given it up, perhaps because of
+the press of other work. I was amply warned that it was a hard nut to
+crack, and I had a fair chance of making a failure of it. Yes, the
+railroad and packing-house people would coöperate and do all they could.
+I was told to go over and see Mr. Powell, the New Orleans agent, who all
+but went crazy over it, and work out a plan with him.
+
+Before night I was on the payroll of the Yazoo, with a private office
+and a sub-title of some sort under the auditor, having decided to begin
+on the perishable freight records, or rather it was necessary for me to
+have them under my hand, as they were set down each day, though with
+little confidence that they would yield results.
+
+"I don't know what kind of a clerk I can give you, for the whole system
+is short of help, but I will do the best I can," Mr. Powell assured me,
+placing at my disposal the voluminous reports on the cases settled, and
+those that were still pending, unsettled, with the shippers.
+
+There was hardly room for the female clerk and myself to move about in
+the room after the perishable records were all in there--big volumes of
+yellow tissue made it look like a storehouse, though they only extended
+back to the time of the first loss.
+
+In addition to this arrangement it was generally given out that the
+night business on the wharf tracks had been so largely increased by the
+heavy movement of fruit that an extra man was to be put on to work
+opposite Hiram, who went on at four a. m., and came off at three p. m.
+As the general office was uptown, more than a mile from the dock tracks,
+it was unlikely that I would be noticed working in the dual capacity of
+night clerk on the wharf and something or other under the auditor in the
+general offices. But in this we soon found we had miscalculated.
+
+When Hiram learned the arrangement he was jubilant. In an incredibly
+short time he had come to look on my capacity to clear up a mystery as
+unlimited. The joy of anticipation supplanted fear, but he did not fully
+recover his old, buoyant, optimistic self.
+
+He never mentioned Anna Bell Morgan, but I was sure he thought of her
+about all the time he was not busy.
+
+"Ben," he began one night, laughing, "did you send your friend in New
+York another sample of those steel filings on which we are paying
+storage? I believe you will soon graduate into the 'Prince of conmen,'
+or a second-story worker. I tell you it takes a pretty good man to stop
+me in the middle of the street and subtract three-fifty from my jeans
+for a half-interest in a barrel of junk."
+
+"No, not yet, but I expect to soon."
+
+But after I had been working in the dual rôle of wharf night clerk and
+assistant auditor for a week and nothing happened, he began to get
+uneasy, but somehow did not doubt the final outcome.
+
+We usually ate dinner together, then we would come down to his little
+office in the corner of the wharf and he would stay with me until his
+early bed-time.
+
+"How long are you going to stand this night-and-day business? I don't
+see when you get any sleep?" he asked, evidently edging over for some
+information, not volunteered.
+
+"One doesn't need much sleep on a loafing job like this. You see, there
+is little to do here nights, and less in the day time, so I manage
+pretty well." I had told him little about my office work.
+
+"Why can't I stay here every other night for you, so that you can get
+more sleep? I can stand it."
+
+"I don't look as though I was getting thin, do I? By the way, who is
+that fat party I notice about here occasionally, who seems to be
+interested in loading for Becker & Co.?"
+
+"You mean that fellow whose face looks like over-ripe cow's liver, and
+waddles, and whose clothes are smelly?"
+
+"Yes, I think that is the man," I replied, smiling.
+
+"That is Becker himself. He buys all the rejects of the city's provision
+inspectors and almost anything that's got grease or fertilizer in it. He
+used to load that stuff during the day, but they got to making a fuss
+about his taking it through the street and made him handle it at night,
+when graveyards hold their noses. Gad, I always hate to see him coming."
+
+"Becker & Co., fertilizer works?"
+
+"Yes, somewhere up the river."
+
+The next morning I was late and was hurrying into the building occupied
+by the auditor, in which I had my office. It contained more than four
+stories, was about two hundred feet long, with a wide hall through the
+center of each floor. The room assigned to me was on the third floor,
+and was reached by narrow stairs.
+
+When I passed the second floor I saw Becker at the far end of the hall
+talking to a young woman clerk, and I was sure I saw him pinch her
+cheek, and furthermore, I was absolutely certain that the object of his
+frolicsome caress was my clerk, who entered the office immediately after
+me. She appeared to be somewhat flustered, and her cheeks flamed with
+color.
+
+The incident was not particularly significant, but enough to make me
+want to know all about Mr. Becker, of Becker & Co., fertilizer
+manufacturers, and also about the young woman who compiled my data and
+wrote my letters.
+
+I recalled that our association had been so perfunctory that I failed to
+remember her name. She took dictation well, was a good typist and her
+records were neat. Withal she worked hard. Like good oil on bearings,
+she made the wheels go round without attracting my attention.
+
+Ideal office assistants try to make themselves into humanized machines.
+Miss Bascom had accomplished this so well that I had to inquire about
+her name even after a week's service.
+
+My desk was near the hall entrance, while hers was over near the window,
+partially obscured by stacks of records. She was, on closer inspection,
+more than comely, and the way she punched the keys of the typewriter
+indicated she was purposeful--not an accident. That she could allow a
+greasy, uncouth man like Becker to make up to her seemed absurd. More to
+amuse Hiram, I mentioned the matter to him that night.
+
+"My Heavens," said he, holding his nose between finger and thumb, "it
+would take a pretty strong stomach to stand for that fellow--but you
+can't tell! Maybe there are enough dollar signs on his face to make up
+for his smelly clothes and age. But, even in my palmiest days of riot,
+the 'beauty and beast' idea was a shock--too much 'bargain and sale' to
+suit me"--and I believe he was wondering if Anna Bell Morgan would ever
+succumb to such a love for the sake of money.
+
+"Hiram, I don't quite sympathize with your attitude toward Miss Morgan.
+Are you sure you are doing the right thing?"
+
+"Perhaps not," he replied, thoughtfully, as we walked down the wharf.
+"It may be the pendulum has swung the other way and I am at the farthest
+point away from her. But after all, that is something one must settle
+for himself. She promised to wait in absolute silence until I had the
+matter straightened. And again, perhaps you don't understand--they have
+a different code here."
+
+I waited for him to continue, looking westward across the shipping in
+the river at the setting sun, now enlarged into a great ball of dull red
+fire. Another moment and it would perish from sight behind the waters of
+the Gulf.
+
+"You see, Ben, down here they have a way of making a man feel he is
+either something or nothing. If something, he respects women, and must
+protect them. Women are either good or bad. If good they receive every
+consideration; it is expected--demanded. The ways of New York would not
+be tolerated here, and it is perfectly right they should not be.
+
+"Mormonism, and other degeneracy, usually dubbed 'Bohemianism,' doesn't
+go here. Fathers, big brothers, or next of male kin stand guard for the
+women of the South. When they put a bullet through a licentious
+scoundrel the judge shakes hands with them. And it's the same way about
+honor. If a man's honesty is in question he has no business to
+compromise a good woman's name by forcing his attentions upon her. When
+he has cleared himself it is time enough to straighten things out. So,
+if our love will not stand the strain of waiting it's no good--not love,
+at all."
+
+The next day at the noon hour I saw my female clerk in a certain
+situation that led me into all sorts of information. Miss Bascom of the
+golden locks was openly dangling her feminine charms before Chief Clerk
+Burrell.
+
+I had only to glance through an open door from the hall on my floor into
+a long room occupied by a lot of clerks of which he had charge as chief.
+Evidently he was a married man, and of a species easily susceptible.
+
+I would have continued to think it was a case of old-fashioned man
+hunting to win free board and a little credit at the stores, had it not
+been reported by a man detailed at my request to see just what kind of
+smoke Mr. Becker was making during his stay in New Orleans. There was a
+lengthy conference that night between Burrell and Becker, of Becker &
+Company, with liberal quantities of gin fizz on the side, in a private
+room back of a prominent hotel bar.
+
+This was exceedingly interesting and filled with possibilities--a party
+of three, two men and a woman, an unusually attractive young woman at
+that, and all were interested in the movement of freight, with this
+difference, that Becker might be the chief beneficiary, and both men
+might be rising to the lure of beauty.
+
+I spent most of that night looking up the antecedents of this
+interesting trio and did not go down to the wharf, but went to bed just
+before Hiram arose to go to work. Burrell, I found, lived with his wife
+and two children and was inclined to be sporty; Becker was a rounder,
+and the girl was just a clerk before she came to me.
+
+I heard Hiram leaving the house and had not been sleeping long before a
+messenger came from him, requesting me to hurry down to the wharf. I had
+asked him to send for me the instant the next irregularity was observed.
+
+He was very much excited when I got there, as were also the Government
+meat inspector and the packing-house representative. The three of them,
+together as usual, had broken the seals of a Kansas City car of fresh
+sausages in ten-pound cartons, and about half of it, from the center of
+the car, was gone. This could be seen at a glance.
+
+The four of us went into Hiram's little office at the corner of the
+wharf. He was so furious that he had become stoical, even sullen, which
+was promptly misunderstood by the Government inspector and the
+packing-house agent as proof of guilt. In order to protect him and get
+a full expression from them I took the attitude of favoring their view.
+He did not quite understand this and felt it keenly.
+
+Each of them was ready, like dogs held in leash, to spring at his
+throat. But it might have been a sorry leap: Hiram was magnificent under
+such fire. Surely the Gold-Beater had given him good blood and a
+fighting spirit if nothing else.
+
+"Strong," I began, in a somewhat authoritative manner, "have you
+preserved the railroad's seal that was on this car?"
+
+"Yes--here it is--I have been saving and marking every one."
+
+Then it developed that the Government inspector and the packing-house
+agent had been doing the same thing, and all three were handed to me.
+After that, at my suggestion, we went out and removed the seals from the
+unopened door on the other side of the car, which I took charge of after
+they had been carefully marked. I then suggested they go about their
+duties and routine as though nothing had happened.
+
+I had decided on a secret, drastic inquisition. The ax must fall now
+and cut where it would, the details of which shall be avoided, only so
+far as they concern this son of a man who was given the credit of
+beating gold--who owned the gold instead of it owning him.
+
+I could still feel Hiram's flesh quiver under my touch when I tried to
+assure him, by a pressure on his arm, as I was leaving.
+
+Notwithstanding the fact that it was four o'clock in the morning, I
+began the job by summoning by telephone the rotund and hairless
+Superintendent Kitchell from his bed, and reminding him of his promise
+to help me at any time. Besides, this was his funeral anyhow, that was
+to be held at ten o'clock that morning in Hiram's little office on the
+wharf.
+
+I then demanded the presence of every man who had handled that car--the
+loaders, the icers, weighmasters, conductors, dispatchers and the
+yard-men between Kansas City and New Orleans, something over a thousand
+miles of road. Those who could not be there in so short a time must
+telegraph a transcript of their records, in affidavit form. The sworn
+records were finally decided on as the only thing possible in so short a
+time.
+
+"I will come down to the general office and start the necessary
+machinery, but the time, less than six hours, is too short--it can't be
+done," he said, evidently lashing himself out of the drowse and
+comprehending the magnitude of the order.
+
+"The iron is hot and now is the time to strike," I warned.
+
+"All right, we will do the best we can. I'll get the agent and be there
+anyhow."
+
+"No; that's just what I don't want. This investigation must not attract
+attention. Your presence there would only advertise it. After we are
+through you can have all the data, and do as you wish," I insisted,
+having in mind to assume an attitude that would allow Hiram to work out
+his own salvation if possible. The only way is to expose a weak or
+yellow spot, so that he would see it for himself.
+
+Superintendent Kitchell again demonstrated that he was not an accident.
+Before ten o'clock that morning he had accomplished almost the
+impossible. The wire that Hiram worked for a while was soon hot with
+sworn statements from every man who had anything to do with that car,
+from its loading until it landed on the wharf. It remained for Hiram,
+the Agent of the Bureau of Animal Industry, and the local packing-house
+agent to open the car.
+
+I glanced over the mass of stuff before handing it to Hiram.
+
+The shipping clerk of the packing-house swore that there was put in the
+car six thousand cartons, each ten pounds net weight, of prime loose
+sausages. This was verified by the affidavit of a checker, then a second
+and third checker, before the doors were sealed by agents of the
+Government, packing-house and railroad agents. The railroad
+weighmaster's figures on the track scale verified that. It was loaded
+and iced in zero weather, so that no delay was necessary for re-icing
+all the way to New Orleans.
+
+A verified transcript of train sheets of all the train dispatchers of
+both roads showed that the car came in a solid train of perishable
+provisions, over the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad to Memphis,
+without longer pause than to change engines at the end of each division,
+where it was delivered to the Yazoo and weighed again--which weight
+tallied with the Kansas City weight--and traveled into New Orleans on
+passenger time. All this without incident or delay of any kind, and
+delivered on the unloading wharf track at 2:30 a. m.
+
+When I took the records to Hiram and told him what they were, I found
+him going about his work as usual. His attitude was disconcerting. Were
+his hands clean? One could have taken him for a man who had been caught
+with the goods. If guilty, I had little chance to shield him.
+
+He carried his head erect, his stride was sure and determined, but he
+had a glitter that indicated a tumult inside, with an attitude of
+suspicious aloofness. The erstwhile mirthful smile on his lips was now
+supplanted by one of sarcastic severity, but a smile that evidently
+meant much. I would have given the world just then to know what.
+However, all he would say was: "Ben, this is a devil of a mess and I am
+in the center of it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+AFTER leaving the sworn records with Hiram I started for my temporary
+offices uptown. I wanted him to have time to thoroughly digest them.
+
+At that time we had not been at war long and the public mind of New
+Orleans was in a very excited condition. The big interrogation point was
+raised on every person whose acts did not bear instant analysis.
+Pacifists and enemy aliens were promptly and vigorously coerced into
+outward decency at least. No trifling was permitted.
+
+These continued thefts from the railroad might mean much more than a
+risky enterprise for profit. I was given to understand that while time
+enough would be allowed, definite results were expected soon.
+
+When I reached my office, my clerk, Miss Bascom, seemed to be expecting
+me. Her greeting, though intended to be casual, was so gladsome I
+wondered if she was trying to practice on me the same brand of coquetry
+she used on the chief clerk--Burrell--or was it to be a wheedling
+process? Surely I was justified in expecting something and I awaited the
+onset with great interest, convinced that she was playing a rôle. One of
+Miss Bascom's duties was to prepare for me each day a record of every
+car that arrived on Hiram's wharf or departed therefrom.
+
+The first sheets of outbound records of the day were of cars from Becker
+& Co. to Becker & Co., Becker's Landing, Louisiana, and the time of
+departure was marked 3:30. I began to wonder if it was purely accidental
+that they were on the top; then came an exciting moment when I recalled
+that a car of sausages arrived at 2:30. But the insuperable difficulty
+of making the transfer, replacing the seals, and the like, reassured me.
+
+I gave Miss Bascom the two slips and requested her to get me a memo of
+the contents of those two cars. As she went about the errand I wondered
+how such a refined looking young woman could ally herself with that
+carcass of rancid tallow whose very clothing emitted an odor which
+advertised his business.
+
+Miss Bascom returned in a few moments and laid the two slips before me
+without comment, hesitating at the end of my desk, indicating interest
+and willingness to be of further assistance. On the bottom of each slip
+was delicately penciled "Soap Grease." I knew that plebeian soap grease
+was worth more than prime lard had been a short time ago, but why the
+precaution of shipping in refrigerator cars?
+
+"Do you happen to know this shipper--Becker & Co.?" I decided to
+venture, uncertain whether Miss Bascom knew I had seen them together in
+the hall.
+
+Miss Bascom backed to the end of my desk and laid a very pretty elbow on
+top, the better to display her figure--palpable acting, so it seemed to
+me. Her speech had a Southern accent which lends itself to
+dissimulation. "Yes," she replied, "he is an important patron of the
+road, and is about the office considerably. Everybody knows him." She
+did not meet my eye, but looked at the door leading to the hall
+expectantly. At that moment a boy burst into the room wholly
+unannounced, laid a telegram addressed to me on my desk, and was gone as
+quickly as he came.
+
+"I wonder why they ship that kind of freight in refrigerator cars--the
+rate is much higher," I said, shoving the telegram back unopened.
+
+"I think I heard him tell Mr. Burrell one day he could afford to pay
+extra in order to receive his freight the same day," she replied with a
+naïveté difficult to simulate.
+
+"Miss Bascom, stop the work you are now on and prepare an abstract from
+these records of all freight sent by refrigerator cars to Becker & Co.
+during the last twelve months," I requested after weighing the chance
+that she might be working with Becker and Chief Clerk Burrell and the
+disadvantage of their knowing through her that an investigation was
+proceeding along those lines.
+
+Miss Bascom seemed unwilling to think the interview ended or perhaps was
+disappointed it had yielded so little, but finally removed her elbow,
+and, nonplussed, passed her small white hand over her eyes and hair, so
+unusually bronze that one might suspect that it was "chemically pure."
+As she slowly passed behind me to her desk she half murmured to herself,
+"I wish I were a man."
+
+"I suppose you would be wearing a soldier's uniform if you were," said
+I, assuming a semi-preoccupied attitude.
+
+"That's on the basis that a uniform makes a dull person look
+intelligent," she rejoined, looking seriously out of the window over her
+desk.
+
+I was reading my telegram and was too much astonished at its contents to
+reply. It was from the chemist in New York to whom I had sent a larger
+sample from the partnership barrel Hiram and I had in storage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+THE dispatch was very interesting indeed. I was about to go down and
+show the telegram to Hiram, the contents of which would astonish him
+more than it did me, at least cheer him up a bit, but when I reached the
+street something happened to intensify my interest in Becker & Co. I ran
+into a man I very much wanted to talk with.
+
+"Taylor, you are just the man I want to see," said he. "Come to lunch
+with me." It was the chief's assistant who grabbed me by the arm and led
+me into a nearby restaurant.
+
+"I have just left the chief," the assistant continued, after we had
+seated ourselves, "and he has given me a hard nut to crack; complaints
+have piled up from wholesale and retail dealers that bad meat, hams and
+lard--even horse-meat--have appeared in this market, which bear the
+genuine stamps and tags of the Bureau of Animal Industry, and it has
+started a devil of a row," he whispered across the table. "You are still
+working on that car robbery case, and I thought you might pick up
+something for me. Who is Becker & Co.?" He ended by asking this question
+so suddenly that I could scarcely conceal my astonishment.
+
+"I know there is a concern by that name, with a plant up the river
+somewhere. They are quite heavy shippers," I replied easily.
+
+"You can get the freight records and perhaps give me a line on their
+operations, can't you?"
+
+I knew then that Becker & Co. had been mentioned in some of the
+complaints. Before parting I promised to have some information for him
+by the next morning.
+
+I spent the rest of the afternoon obtaining commercial reports on them
+and making arrangements to have their mail censored, and I did not reach
+my room until dinner time.
+
+The door was open as usual between our rooms. Glancing into the other
+room, I saw Hiram lying on his bed asleep, which was something unusual
+for him, and there was something about his color that drew my attention
+at once. He did not stir when I came alongside the bed.
+
+He was lying on his back with his head comfortably pillowed and his
+arms relaxed at his sides like a corpse. His face was bloodless, and his
+high, wavy black hair intensified by the white pillow. It reminded me of
+the time I saw him in the hospital at Hampton, Virginia, after his
+fearful experience in firing on the steamer; but his body had now filled
+out and was even athletic.
+
+He was either very tired or--or had he lapsed into drink again--or was
+it drugs?
+
+Though usually a light sleeper, my touch on his wrist did not arouse
+him; his pulse was regular, and bending low, I could not detect the
+fumes of liquor. No, Hiram Strong, Jr., was just tired out--worried into
+fatigue that called for sleep. He was going through the fire that either
+refines or destroys. Would he stand it? That was my anxiety as I
+returned to my room to prepare for dinner.
+
+"Ben, is that you?" he called presently in a sleepy voice.
+
+For answer I came to the door, wiping my hands and looking interested.
+
+"I fell asleep waiting for you to come, Ben. I want to tell you that I
+acted the damned cad this morning." Then coming over, he put two strong
+hands on my shoulders and looked straight at me with clear eyes.
+
+"Ben," he continued, as though suddenly realizing he was taking himself
+too seriously, "I know you are on the square with me, I know you are
+doing everything you can for me, but your movements are maddeningly
+deliberate. You act as though you were an old-stager at the game and was
+going sure. But I feel like I was bound hand and foot with these fellows
+darting javelins into my skin every time they look at me; and you know I
+can't see Anna Bell Morgan until----" He dropped his hands from my
+shoulders and looked out of the window. "Perhaps I am expecting too
+much--you cleaned up that Quarryville matter so----"
+
+"But, Hiram, this is a big matter, reaching God only knows how far. It
+involves a number of men, clever in crookedness, and perhaps women.
+There's more to it than a bone-headed, love-sick German and a case of
+dynamite. The amounts involved are big, and it must move slowly. I know
+how you feel, but you've got to grin and bear it. But about Anna Bell
+Morgan, I think you are foolish. If she is the kind of girl you should
+marry she would want very much to stand by you. But if you adopt a
+drastic code of your own and insist on living up to it, how can she or
+any one help you in that respect?"
+
+"Ben," he began deliberately, after taking a chair and cocking himself
+back against the window-sill, "I know that Anna Bell Morgan wants to
+help me. I am nursing the delusion, perhaps, that she would give one of
+her hands--make any sacrifice--but I don't believe a real man, under
+similar circumstances, would bid for help from the woman whom he really
+loves. If this thought proves a delusion I must stand it somehow, but I
+don't believe I will ever have faith in a woman again. I am beginning to
+see things differently now. I can see more and more why the Gold-Beater
+was given that name by friend and enemy. He fought fair and in the open
+and took punishment without a whimper. Ben, he made a mistake with me,
+but he gave me a decent sense of honor, and lately I realize he has
+given me a good-sized body that will stand real punishment. No, sir, my
+'drastic code,' as you call it, has got to go. And now, with that out of
+my system, I am going to give you a real shock."
+
+Then, with exasperating deliberation, he lighted his pipe, drew his
+feet up on the lower front rungs of his chair, meanwhile watching me as
+I walked back and forth before him intensely interested.
+
+"I am going to quit the railroad and----"
+
+"No, you are not--not now----" I warned. But he interrupted me as I
+paused in front of him, pointing a finger at him, and I soon saw that I
+might as well have raised my arm to stay the flood of Niagara.
+
+"I expected you to protest until----"
+
+"But they will think----"
+
+"I don't care a damn what they think now. I've got to do it and you've
+got to help me," he said with set jaw.
+
+"But just now that would be suicide----"
+
+"No--not after I explain--I don't intend to run away--I am going to stay
+right here the remainder of my life if necessary and clear this thing
+up; I've got to. But I can't do it working all day until I'm woozy. Now,
+you have got to help me."
+
+"But I think you are hasty----"
+
+"You won't think so after I have stated my case. I am going to
+constitute you the court, attorney for the prosecution and defense, and
+the jury; in fact, give you all constitutional rights except my right
+of appeal; that will enable a quick decision and that's what I'm after
+right now--before we go to dinner," he ended with his wonderfully
+contagious smile that seemed impossible only a few minutes ago.
+
+He continued to sit cocked back in his chair against the window-sill
+with his legs drawn up so his feet rested on the lower rungs, blowing
+smoke at me, as I paced back and forth before him across the room.
+
+"Well--go ahead," I said finally.
+
+"First let me tell you why you've got to help me. You have the know-how
+and more general experience, and can do it. I take it you are 'in right'
+in New Orleans. You can help me when you are helping yourself. I believe
+in you thoroughly--except--except perhaps when you go off on a little
+tangent, like you did when you put that barrel of iron filings in
+storage, and made me pay half----" He hesitated, smiling broadly. I did
+not reply, and he continued, "but even that has its advantages, because
+it makes me smile whenever I think of it and that's worth something. And
+that brings me to the second reason why you must help me. There is
+something about your long nose that seems to smell out things pretty
+well, your general attitude toward me and everything, that awakens a
+sense of humor. If they put me in jail, and you come to see me, I
+believe I could see the humorous side of that, even. Now do you
+understand?" he asked, relieved and confident.
+
+"I am waiting to hear why you propose to resign," I insisted, ignoring
+his complimentary terms as directed toward me.
+
+"I'll make that short enough--as long as I stay at work there I don't
+have time or ginger to do anything else. I believe that Becker is the
+head of the stealing--I have got several tips lately and I believe he's
+the man. Several train-men, who learned I was in trouble, informed me
+that his place up the river is queer. In ordinary water it is an island,
+between the track and the river, the switch running to it over piles,
+and several times when they rode cars into his unloading doors they have
+seen things they believe will bear investigation. But it's going to be
+hard to get into the old fox's place. He receives by rail from here and
+the north, too, but ships out everything by an old boat on the river."
+
+"Now"--hesitated Hiram shrewdly--"that car of sausage that was short
+the other night sat on track One--exactly opposite two cars that were
+loaded for him on track Two. The space between cars on those two tracks
+is so narrow that I was nearly killed one day between them; the time
+between the arrival of the sausage car and the departure of his cars was
+only a little more than half an hour, but it was between 2:30 and 3:30
+a. m., when no one was there, and I believe the transfer was made in
+that time--do you follow me?"
+
+"Yes--go ahead. But what about the three seals being intact when you
+opened the car?"
+
+"I knew you would ask that--but I believe, with help from those 'higher
+up,' and the seals could be had--stolen of course. There are two hard
+nuts to crack; one is the seals, and the other is to get into his
+place--and that's where you must help."
+
+"Now here is another funny thing." Hiram hesitated to bring from his hip
+pocket an envelope. "Some one who knew my full name sent this to me,
+care of the office," and he read from a typewritten slip of paper,
+
+"Why does Becker & Co. get freight by rail and ship out only by water?"
+
+I stopped in front of him and reached for the slip to examine it
+critically.
+
+"Hiram--let me keep this?" It looked like railroad stationery.
+
+"Yes--help yourself."
+
+"Have you any plan to get into Becker & Co.'s plant?" I asked, recalling
+that I had not mentioned that I suspected them, and that this was the
+third definite lead in that direction.
+
+"He is a foxy old rat and would take any ordinary bait off a trap and
+send it to you by mail. The only thing I can think of is a boat--maybe I
+didn't tell you it is a fertilizer plant and uses lots of dead animals.
+With a boat to take him some of this stock, one might finally get to
+carrying his river freight at a cut price and that would open the door
+wide."
+
+"But boats that will carry even a little freight are scarce now."
+
+"Yes, I know that--but we've got to have a boat. Buy it, build it, or
+dig one out of the mud somewhere."
+
+"You have made out a pretty good case, Hiram. I will think it over--in
+the meantime this may interest you," I said, handing him the telegram I
+had received from the chemist. Though half fearing it a joke, he sprang
+from his chair and took it eagerly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+STANDING in the middle of the floor Hiram read the missive several
+times. He seemed amazed as well as incredulous. Finally, as he read it
+with evident desire to grasp its meaning thoroughly, his face lighted up
+with joy. "Bully stuff!" he exclaimed. Then he read it aloud:
+
+     "The larger sample of color received. The market just now is
+     particularly bare of this grade. Can get you unusual price of a
+     dollar a pound. If satisfactory ship Morgan Line, send memo. of
+     weight and will forward check at once.
+
+                                     "MORGENSTEIN & BRUN."
+
+"Then it's not steel filings--you never told me," he said finally,
+laughingly grasping my shoulders.
+
+"You insisted it was filings, your railroad insisted it was junk, and
+you sold it for junk as instructed, so why the argument?"
+
+"No argument at all, Ben; the Morgan Line steamer sails to-morrow. Sell
+the stuff and buy a boat. I've saved some money, but boats are scarce
+and high. I haven't enough--what d'ye say, eh?"
+
+"You haven't found a boat to buy yet, and maybe you will not need
+one--besides, if Morgenstein & Brun offer a dollar a pound and are in a
+hurry, it may be worth more--I only asked them for an analysis to know
+for certain what it was. I didn't ask for a market," I insisted
+formally.
+
+"But you may miss the only chance--and--we need the money. We've got to
+have a boat," he said, visibly disappointed.
+
+"So far we are out less than a ten-dollar bill and can afford to take a
+chance--as I say, we must first decide definitely that a boat is
+necessary, and then the hardest part comes--everything from a row-boat
+up is working overtime now."
+
+"Maybe you are right, but if it was up to me I would sell it so
+infernally quick it would make 'em dizzy," he replied, manifestly
+consumed with the single idea of releasing himself from suspicion.
+
+"Don't resign, Hiram," I said, hesitating, before going out of the room
+to dine, "until I have had a chance to speak to the Super to-morrow. I
+think I will be able to arrange it so that you can be released to
+devote all of your time to clearing up this matter and remain in the
+employ of the company. You will see the decided advantage of the plan,
+later."
+
+"All right, Ben--but bear in mind that as soon as I get out of this I am
+going to quit 'em for good; there's something else for me to do in this
+town. The railroad game is too strenuous at best for the returns. It's
+good drill and I'm glad to get the experience and discipline, but the
+returns are a minus quantity."
+
+During the meal he mentioned his father several times, to whom he always
+referred as "the Gold-Beater," but he more frequently mentioned Anna
+Bell Morgan. In fact, had I not purposely changed the subject he would
+have talked of her constantly. I could not tell him I thought it a great
+error for him to completely suspend communication with her. A big city
+offers enticements that a country-bred girl does not always understand
+at first. I could see he writhed under the stigma of being thought a
+member of a gang of crooks, and was most powerfully propelled by two
+most laudable motives. He wanted to redeem himself in his father's eyes,
+but most compelling was his desire to be able to go back to Anna Bell
+Morgan with clean hands. His affection for her was deep and sincere, a
+mighty thing to him, accounted for in his prominent, broad, round chin,
+but difficult to harmonize with his conduct during his first score of
+years.
+
+He seemed to sense my perplexity.
+
+"Ben," he began, with every evidence of chastened bigness, "I have been
+trying to discover one single good reason why I should impose my
+personal affairs on you, unless it is because you let me. So far, I have
+been unable to reciprocate in a single instance. I feel at times as
+though I am a great care and trial to you--a responsibility the
+Gold-Beater would assume if things were right. I feel as though I were
+on my way but with some one else at the wheel and compass, with a
+disturbing and perhaps ungrateful feeling that the navigator is on
+uncharted waters, and is himself in doubt. I think I must have a yellow
+streak up my back as broad as the moral law."
+
+At this I chose to assume a lighter attitude. Scanning him smilingly, I
+replied, "Can't you see that just now, at least, my professional
+reputation is at stake?"
+
+"That's so, Ben. You take to investigation as a duck to water and I
+believe you are much better suited for that than sea life. But, my dear
+fellow, you move so maddeningly slow and deliberate," said he; but I
+made no reply. I could have said:
+
+"Real genius and cleverness apparently do move so slow and deliberate
+that most any one would feel as though he could do much better." But I
+merely laughed as we arose to leave the little French restaurant where
+we had dined.
+
+There was no difficulty in arranging for Hiram's release and also for
+transportation good on any passenger, freight or work train of the
+entire system, in order to work out a solution of the robberies that had
+spread over the entire system from Kansas City and St. Louis to Chicago,
+where the consignments originated.
+
+His first suggestion was that he should take a look at Becker & Co.'s
+plant, and he purposely boarded a train that had a car for delivery to
+them.
+
+After he left I went to my office in the main building to find both an
+extended report and a short one from a man assigned to watch Becker's
+movements while in New Orleans, and as I began to read I could feel my
+hair rigidly standing on end.
+
+My clerk, Miss Bascom, had met Becker in a private room, known to but
+few, back of the bar of a prominent hotel. For the purpose of detecting
+enemy aliens many dictaphones had been installed by the Government in
+such places and with a certainty, almost uncanny, the Government
+possessed itself of information that could not have been gained in any
+other way.
+
+As soon as I reached Miss Bascom's name in the report I stopped short
+and looked at her at work over by the window, less than twenty feet
+away. If she was conscious of my undisguised wonder she gave no sign of
+it. She worked so fast and dexterously as to give the impression that
+she fully lived up to the axiom promulgated by well governed
+corporations:
+
+     "If you never do more than you are paid for, you will never get
+     paid for more than you do."
+
+As I looked upon her I decided that although Becker was exceedingly
+ambitious, his taste was discriminating, indeed. Miss Bascom in a good
+light revealed a velvety skin and a neck, rising column-like from her
+plump chest and shoulders as though chiseled from rare white marble. A
+tiny ear peeped from under a plethora of wonderful hair, tastefully
+arranged, and I noticed that her nose, chin and lips were perfect. I
+wondered why I had overlooked these points of feminine charm when she
+first came to me. Seemingly oblivious to everything but the work she was
+doing, I wondered how she could maintain the attitude after such an
+affair as had occurred the night before. There was no evidence of
+fatigue or loss of sleep, or over-indulgence of any kind. I was
+astounded that a woman of her general charm could fall for the Becker
+type, and I shuddered at the knowledge that she had gone with him to
+such a place. My next thought was that she might have given out some
+very confidential information. There was but one thing to do, and at
+once--find out how she came to be sent to me.
+
+I rushed through the several pages of close typing, then began again for
+detail and analysis.
+
+She drank nothing intoxicating according to the report. His brutal
+proposal, that came in due course, she met with astonishing diplomacy
+and succeeded in staving off time and place. But the details, recorded
+minutely, indicated that she was compelled to submit to his embrace. The
+record revealed that the young woman had exclaimed, "Don't--don't, Mr.
+Becker," indicating that the fossilized degenerate of fifty years was
+trying to caress her. It required little tax on the imagination to know
+that his big, greasy hands were drawing her tightly to his huge frame.
+Why had she laid herself liable to his advances? What kind of a game was
+she playing? I was on the point of calling her over and demanding an
+explanation, but there was the second report to analyze--concerning
+Burrell, the chief clerk. I decided to wait.
+
+When Miss Bascom left Becker the night before at the side door of the
+hotel, he entered the lobby and joined Burrell in a pretty wet dinner,
+spending several hours thereafter at a questionable resort. Evidently
+Miss Bascom knew something of their whereabouts, for here she was
+standing at Burrell's desk in close conversation with him, occasionally
+laughing as though recalling some ludicrous incident. There was nothing
+to do but await events. She was up to something and I determined I would
+lose no time in arriving at the facts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+WHEN Hiram returned late that night he looked as disreputable as a bull
+dog that had been out all night in the rain and mud, defending his title
+as a neighborhood boss. He had evidenced some cleverness in preparing
+for such a trip, but when he got through he looked as though he had
+overdone it. An unbecoming cap of Bolshevik origin, nine cents pre-war
+push-cart cost, flannel shirt, open at the neck, and covered with mud
+from head to foot, he reminded me of a smuggler or bootlegger who had
+taken to the swamps to avoid capture. But his enthusiasm seemed to blind
+him to his appearance and to the fact that he had not eaten since
+morning.
+
+"Well," he began, "I believe I am right--not so much on account of what
+I saw to-day, but of what I didn't see."
+
+"Yep," said I. "Go on with it."
+
+"Their plant is on an island except at very low stages of the river and
+then it's swamp on one side. It is a big place but mostly one-story.
+Their switch, of course, is on a trestle built by them, and some one has
+to come out and unlock a high gate before a car can be set in. The man
+at the gate stated that they do this so that there will always be a man
+there to warn the train crew that the trestle is not strong enough to
+support the engine." He looked at me somewhat knowingly while filling
+his pipe.
+
+"Well, I went inside on the car we had for them and saw all there was to
+see--which wasn't much. Their black help live in cabins on the island.
+Becker is building a big addition--the car we set in contained cement
+for that purpose, presumably. All of the train-men believe that the
+place is phony.
+
+"We saw a packet coming down the river and the train boy slowed up a
+trifle to let me off near a landing, but I made a bad jump, rolled over
+twice in soft mud and came out like a cray-fish, but I made the packet
+coming to town and just arrived."
+
+"Fine, go on," I encouraged.
+
+"The fertilizer plant shows nothing from the river but a floating wharf.
+On the way down we passed Becker's boat going up. It isn't much of a
+craft, and the packet captain said it wouldn't carry five tons and has
+hardly power enough to beat the five-mile current of the river, even
+when empty. A boat, Ben!--a boat is all we need to catch that fellow,
+and he's the boy we're after. If some one would offer to carry all the
+material he will need for that new construction he will fall for it--and
+say, I believe I am on track of one."
+
+"But you are not sure of anything yet."
+
+"Yes--I am sure they got the two refrigerator cars that sat alongside
+the car that was robbed of fifteen tons of sausage, and that they use
+anything that contains grease. Of that I am as certain as any one can be
+without being able to prove it, and we've got to get him, and we can't
+get him until we get inside of the plant," he insisted, his jaws coming
+together with a snap.
+
+"He has a regular castle--moat and all," Hiram continued, "and we can't
+storm it. His people are all black and speak only Creole."
+
+"What about this boat you are on track of--but wait, Hiram, don't you
+want something to eat?"
+
+"Yes, I'm hungry as a wolf. I've seen the time I would give ten dollars
+for the appetite I now have--but wait till I tell you about the boat.
+For some time past there has been an old fellow coming down to the
+wharf to pick up bananas, those that break from the bunches when they
+come out of a ship on the carriers. After a while I noticed that he
+talked good English, Creole, Spanish, French, in fact he seemed to be
+able to talk with almost any of the rats that work on the fruit
+steamers. After I had talked with him I asked what he did with the
+bananas. He said he kept them until ripe and ate them. Later he told me
+he lived on a boat as caretaker and had not seen his boss lately.
+Evidently he has run out of money. He hinted that if he could get his
+back wages he did not care what became of the boat. I saw him again
+to-day and he says he has starved long enough, and I am going to see the
+boat in the morning. It is not in the river, but is in the canal just
+above the Yazoo station. And say, I've got another scheme to make all
+the money we want after this matter is settled," said he, coming to his
+feet as though unloosed by a steel spring.
+
+"What is it, Hiram?" I asked, amused.
+
+"Wait until I clean up a bit. Then I want you to come out with me and
+watch a real hungry man eat. I have a long story, and a good scheme.
+Your blood will be on my hands if you say it isn't. How much is a
+thousand feet of lumber?" he called to me through the communicating
+door, just after I heard his wet, muddy shoes go down like a cord of
+wood on the floor.
+
+"A thousand feet of lumber is a thousand square feet an inch thick. In
+boards a foot wide and an inch thick they would reach a thousand feet,"
+I explained.
+
+"That's what I thought, but I can't recall ever having been told."
+
+After seating ourselves in the restaurant, Hiram, his mind filled with
+many notions, began to talk.
+
+"I never see a cargo of lumber go by that I don't think of it as
+something immensely valuable. I don't understand it, unless--well--of
+course, I can't figure out who is to blame, but do you realize I
+actually don't know what business my--I mean the Gold-Beater--is in? I
+never knew whether he ran a pawn-shop, a gambling-house, or a real
+business; my knowledge of his activities is limited to a vague
+impression I have, an indistinct memory of hearing him talk one night at
+our house with some man--and he was some man, too, if the Gold-Beater
+brought him home--about stumpage, stump land and market conditions. I
+don't recall much, for then I was about as much interested in it as I
+would now be in a divinity student's theory on Heaven and the other
+place.
+
+"I don't know whether it's in my blood, but anyhow, a nice, newly sawed,
+clean board of timber looks better to me than anything--except a certain
+girl. I figured it out to-day, that she is the only one I don't want to
+disgrace. The Gold-Beater has nothing better coming to him--if I have to
+go to jail in the clean-up of this gang----"
+
+"Come to the point, Hiram. You're wandering all around Robin Hood's
+barn," said I laughingly.
+
+"I know I'm long-winded, Ben, but I've got to speak my prologue, or you
+won't understand. You know I have stood on the dock day after day and
+have seen the river carry down big trees and big logs, some real
+saw-logs, some days lots of them, and to-day, up the river, I saw a
+great many floating along down stream. Some of the bayous are full of
+them. There's a mass of logs in that moat back of Becker's smell
+factory."
+
+"Well,--what is the answer?" I asked languidly.
+
+"Here's what I propose: Arrest these fugitive logs, cut 'em into lumber
+and put 'em to work. I saw logs up the river that will make a thousand
+feet of lumber and they tell me even rough lumber is worth fifty dollars
+a thousand. It won't take many of them to amount to the hundred and
+twenty-five dollars per that I'm pulling down monthly from the
+railroad--eh? You know, just as soon as I get out of this I'm going to
+marry, and----"
+
+"But they tell me those logs have been in the water so long they are
+dead sea fruit, rotten in the center?" I interposed.
+
+"I noticed that in some of them, but many are first class--you watch me
+after I get out. Do you know, I feel sure this river is going to make me
+some money. I'm going to be out to-night, down on the wharf. The packet
+men say that Becker's old tub, the one we met going up this
+afternoon,--called the _Turgia_--and she is well named--goes up there
+every afternoon and brings down a load in the night. I've got to find
+out where she lands and what she brings down. I forgot to tell you he
+gets dead animals from the city, in barges, and has to hire a tug to
+take them up. A good chance for a deal there, if we have a boat big
+enough to do his work, don't you think so?" he asked, pausing from his
+food.
+
+"He seems to have an eye for bargains--why not in towing?" I agreed,
+much impressed with his determination, amounting to a mania.
+
+"Now, there is another thing, Ben. Suppose this old half-starved
+geezer's story is right, and they owe him a lot of wages, and the boat
+is something we can use, isn't there some quick, legal way in which we
+can get possession of it?"
+
+"He would be classed as a seaman, with wages due, and I think there is a
+Federal statute to reach such a case quickly--I will find out, Hiram."
+
+"Do that, Ben, and if I don't show up in the morning you will know I got
+knocked in the head by the water-front gang, but I'm going to see what
+Becker sends down here in the night, or die in the attempt."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+I HAD to be up that night too, and I had not been in long before he
+arrived--just before daylight.
+
+"Ben--Ben, awake, and get up! I've got it--I've got it--see here!" he
+persisted, holding a piece of cardboard before my eyes now dazzled by
+the sudden light. "Do you know what that is?" he roared, standing on
+tiptoes while I gazed at it. He was more energetic and enthusiastic than
+the night before, although he had not been to bed. His eyes appeared to
+be a bit bloodshot.
+
+Raising up in bed, I took the piece of cardboard and sat blinking at it
+when, all of a sudden, Hiram lost patience.
+
+"Damn it, Ben, can't you see what it is?--that's a piece of a ten-pound
+sausage carton, and it came from Becker's place. Now then, we've got
+'em," he said with suppressed voice. What he handed me was
+unquestionably a part of a folding box, one of the corner locks, and a
+part of the end on which there was tell-tale printing.
+
+"You see, this sausage that was stolen was in ten-pound boxes, and this
+is part of one of them," he insisted.
+
+"Where did you get this, Hiram?" I finally managed to ask.
+
+"I had to lie on one of the wharfs upstream until after midnight when
+Becker's _Turgid_ came slipping down the current, like a thief, and I
+had to leg it hard to keep up with her. About a mile below she slid in
+alongside a Mexican, bound for Vera Cruz, unloaded a hundred and fifteen
+tubs of something--it went down on the manifest as lard, and I guess it
+was grease, anyhow. On her deck there still remained five bales of
+something. I wanted to know what it was. The _Turgia_ then slid
+downstream to the Southern Pacific docks and unloaded there. They billed
+five bales of waste paper to New York. Yes, I got the name of the
+consignee--Cassinis & Cassinis, Water Street--but I wondered how Becker
+collected waste paper up there in that swamp and I didn't believe it was
+waste paper. It was covered with burlap and baled tight.
+
+"Do you see what this crafty old crook has done? He took the sausage out
+of the folding boxes, which he laid out flat, then baled them carefully
+and is shipping them to New York to get the best price and put such
+evidence clear out of the way. Well, it cost me I don't know how many
+drinks of water-front whiskey to get those watchmen in condition--there
+were two of them--before I could dig into one of the bales for a sample.
+I know it was tough on the watchmen, but there you are, and as sure as
+shooting Becker & Co. got the stolen sausages and we've got to get
+Becker before he has a chance to try to hang it on me, or some other
+boob clerk.
+
+"Ben, are you awake? do you understand what I am saying?" he asked,
+giving my shoulder a tap that made me sway as though kicked by a mule.
+
+"Yes, Hiram, I understand. Was there a Southern Pacific ship at the
+dock?" I asked, rubbing my shoulder.
+
+"No--the next ship is due to-morrow, and they're always late now."
+
+"I believe you have something really tangible. I'll stop that shipment
+this morning, but you'd better get to bed. And," I hastily added, "we
+must have more than empty sausage cartons to make a case against him."
+
+"I know that, and there is nothing doing in the way of sleep for me
+now. The old man is down at a rummy, waiting to take me up to the canal
+to see that boat. If the boat looks good to me, will you come and look
+it over?" he asked, getting up and walking the floor like a caged lion.
+
+"Yes--meet me here at noon, and in the meantime I'll try to learn
+something about the matter----" But before I had time to finish he was
+out of the room, going downstairs two steps at a time.
+
+When I told Superintendent Kitchell that morning in his office as much
+as I thought good for him to know at that time, and especially about
+Hiram's plans and what he had already accomplished, his face began to
+glow, and he otherwise evidenced intense interest.
+
+"Taylor," he began, without any attempt now at inscrutability, "I would
+give ten years of my life to have that robbery matter ferreted out
+quickly. All the other division superintendents on the system are
+laughing at me and the General Super and President are raising Hell. It
+seems to me that the boy's theory as to how to round up the gang is
+good, and I will help you all I possibly can. I've looked at Becker's
+plant several times while passing and I think the boy is right. You
+can't really get the goods on him without getting into his plant, and
+that must be done by starting some kind of trade. Do you think he has
+any chance of getting a boat?"
+
+"He will, or rather may have, something definite about that before
+night."
+
+"I wonder----" hesitated the man of many troubles; "when I was up in
+Memphis the other day I met the man in charge of the Illinois division.
+He happened to mention that the state was killing whole herds of
+tubercular-infected cattle there. I wonder if I couldn't get a few
+carloads sent here and let the boy--Strong, did you say his name
+was?--get in by boating them up to him--but you are not sure of
+obtaining a boat?"
+
+"I feel sure we can get some kind of a boat."
+
+"Here is something--Ever since we entered the war Central and South
+America have been revolution incubators, especially for Mexico. Some
+never hatch but die in the shell, others hatch but die before they can
+walk, then once in a while, out of the great number one of them grows
+big enough to buy all sorts of ridiculous stuff they think they need or
+want, and ship it down here. Then they get shot, macheted, put in prison
+or exiled, and a lot of this stuff is never claimed, so we have to sell
+it for freight charges. We've got a whole warehouse of that kind of junk
+we should have disposed of long ago. Go down and look it over--anything
+you can use I will see that you get it pronto. We've had about
+everything except industry, virtue and honesty."
+
+"Wire the Illinois division regarding the slaughtered cattle, and I will
+look over your unclaimed freight. I may find something----"
+
+"And do you think," he interrupted, sore to the bone at the thought,
+"that it involves any one in the offices?"
+
+I hesitated, recalling that I had not mentioned either Chief Clerk
+Burrell or Miss Bascom, or their conversations with Becker. "Yes--Becker
+couldn't work without some one to give him information about arrivals
+and keep him posted at the river."
+
+"Rotten--rotten!" he exploded; "just think of it, a mess like this
+putrefying right under our noses and we don't get wise until they smell
+it in Kansas City and Chicago. And now, Ben Taylor, while I feel sure
+you are on the right track at last, and are going to make good, you seem
+to be moving so maddeningly slow and deliberate." He said this with a
+deep sigh from the depths of his waistband, his chubby hand fingering a
+number of yellow slips used for official railroad messages and reminding
+me of the mysterious one sent to Hiram about Becker & Co. receiving
+freight by rail, but invariably shipping out by water.
+
+"But, Mr. Kitchell, haste in this matter will be fatal to final
+results," I said casually.
+
+"Yes, perhaps--at any rate I hope that's so, but I'm so damnably worked
+up over this matter that I am about wild. Then another thing, I don't
+quite understand why you have so much confidence in this young Strong,
+though I'll admit he shows good mettle. I recall at our first interview
+you said he was well connected in the North?" said he, still glancing
+nervously over the messages on his desk.
+
+"Hiram Strong is well connected. He has inherited a great pride and
+along with it what seems to be honor. He feels keenly the onus cast upon
+him in this matter, but has withal a saving sense of humor. He is
+working out his own salvation and feels he is heading off an attempt to
+make him the goat--to him it is simply a matter of keeping out of jail.
+He has, I believe, demonstrated that he can do head work as well as leg
+work, and I feel like giving him room to turn around," I insisted,
+perhaps too testily.
+
+"I wonder if he is kin of this man Hiram Strong, who was reported this
+morning as coming in on our system at Chicago in his private car. Do you
+know, Taylor, I wish every private car was in hell--as though we didn't
+have enough trouble already! Our passenger engines are loaded with every
+pound they can keep rolling and every once in a while we get a private
+car of some millionaire pork-sticker or quick-rich, who wants to come
+down here to shoot ducks or some other fool thing. Do you think it is
+the same man?" he demanded.
+
+"It might be."
+
+"Do you suppose the boy has got word to him, and he is coming down here
+to raise the devil?" he asked, eyeing me as though I might have
+something to do with it.
+
+"As I understand it, from the boy, he was thrown out entirely on his own
+resources--disinherited--and as far as appearances go, is completely
+estranged from his father."
+
+"Well, by Heaven, if he shows up here with a chip on his shoulder, I'm
+going to turn him over to you--do you understand?--I'll turn him over to
+you. You know all about it, and I've had a stomachful of educating rich
+men's sons, and all the other troubles I want," he insisted,
+disgustedly, as I started to go to my office.
+
+"I will be glad to do all I can for you, Mr. Kitchell. Let me know as
+far as possible in advance."
+
+"I can tell you that right now. He is hooked to Number Seven, and is due
+here to-morrow at 11:15, unless his old special car makes her late."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+SO far I had regarded Miss Bascom as one of the hundreds of others that
+just chanced to take the place of the men who had been drafted from the
+railroad employees. They came from everywhere, cities, villages and
+rural districts, and substitutes for man-power were in such demand that
+"no questions" was the rule; no disposition to "look a gift horse in the
+mouth" or even to see if they had a spavin, ringbone, or inflicted with
+"string halt."
+
+Very likely she may have written the anonymous suggestion to Hiram. I
+did know that she entered the back room of a hotel with Becker and had
+received his embraces and proposals, which would surely shock a maiden's
+ears, but admittedly she did not drink, and she had acted with singular
+astuteness.
+
+I knew she was flirting with Burrell, the chief clerk, and that Becker
+and Burrell frequented low places together. Altogether it looked as
+though she was playing a double rôle and I was not at all sure just
+where I fitted into the planning going on in her head, although I'll
+admit the latter was very attractive.
+
+At once I decided to put her to a test that would make each blonde hair
+stand without support, and the opportunity came sooner than I expected.
+
+As the warehouse to which Superintendent Kitchell referred was not far
+away, I went there before keeping my noon appointment with Hiram. It
+was, as he said, a veritable graveyard of disappointed hopes and plans
+gone wrong--bleached, grinning skeletons of blue-sky finance and
+religio-political scheming reduced to the irreducible. They couldn't
+even pay the freight to New Orleans, not to mention their Gulf and
+Caribbean destinations.
+
+Shippers always receive money in advance for antiquated or experimental
+devices from their "bone-yard" and therefore they had no further
+interest. Cannon, more deadly at the breech, airships that would do
+everything but fly, rifles rejected by shop inspectors, cartridges that
+wouldn't explode, and so on. Threshing machines and engines, sawmills
+and agricultural implements, cases of rifles and cartridges and other
+war-like material in astonishing abundance--but nothing apparently for
+our purpose. I did observe a big case made of two-inch lumber, heavily
+iron-bound, that might contain an engine or motor, but I needed help to
+reach it.
+
+When Hiram returned to the room, a little ahead of time, his pep and
+ginger seemed to have been largely augmented. His energy appeared to
+have no limit, but with it all there was a shade of disappointment, or
+apprehension. He began at once about the boat.
+
+"_Fearsome_ is her name," said he. "She is just what we want, a dandy
+for our purpose, but I'm afraid she's too big. While fitted with a
+propeller and rudder, and steers from a chicken-coop up front, she has
+no power. But she's a peach for size and width!" he exclaimed, with
+breath no faster from running up the stairs three steps at a time. "How
+the devil are we going to get something to make her go?" he added,
+sitting down in front of me, holding his left knee between his hands,
+and looking appealingly at me.
+
+"How big a boat is it?" I asked, suppressing my amusement.
+
+"About a hundred and fifty feet long and twenty five or thirty beam.
+Not deep in the water, but she draws enough. She looks like an overgrown
+canal boat. But I brought the captain along; he can tell you more; do
+you want to see him? It's only a matter of getting power into her."
+
+"How much will it cost to get possession of her?"
+
+"Well, that is another thing--the captain says that it's to be auctioned
+for the crew's wages. He hints that the owners may have gone to jail, or
+back to the mountains to resume their legitimate business as
+highwaymen."
+
+"Who is the captain you refer to?"
+
+"Captain Marianna--I told you about him. He's the caretaker, and has
+been living on her--starved out, is an Italian, has a shipmaster's
+license from the Government. He has it hanging in the boat. I'm sure he
+will stay with us if we want him. He is downstairs now--want to see
+him?" Then, coming toward me, he asked in an earnest undertone, "Can we
+raise the money to put some kind of power in her? I can root out the
+Becker crowd, clean my slate and then make a fortune with her if we
+can," he insisted with fierce determination.
+
+"When is it to be sold?" I queried.
+
+"The time is up now--I'd say to-morrow or next day."
+
+"I don't know, Hiram, it will be a pretty big lump to swallow. We don't
+know how high they will bid it up, but perhaps, with luck, we can manage
+it." I knew he was thinking of Anna Bell Morgan, and, as a close second,
+the Gold-Beater.
+
+The captain was undoubtedly an old salt, past middle age, looked
+dependable, repeated the same story about the boat, but not within
+Hiram's hearing would he tell from whence it came, or how, or why they
+brought it through the canal instead of up the river, the usual way of
+getting into New Orleans. However, I was doubtful about power.
+
+As soon as the captain had gone we started for the unclaimed freight
+warehouse to investigate further. While we were on the way Hiram caught
+me by the arm and, bringing his face nearly in front of mine, half
+whispered:
+
+"Ben, I have some money--I did not spend all the Gold-Beater gave me as
+my last dot. I've got the money we pried from the old captain who was
+going to drown us, and I have saved my wages, but the heck of it is to
+get some kind of power. No one will pay much for the boat. How about
+selling that barrel? The last offer was something like seven hundred
+dollars, wasn't it?" His tone was of the wheedling variety.
+
+"Perhaps I had forgotten to tell you, Hiram, that I have had some
+favorable news about that barrel of steel-filings," said I, at the same
+time giving him a gentle nudge. "But as soon as I can get in touch with
+the right market I expect to get a much better offer. I don't want to
+sell that just now, but I, too, have saved a little money we can use if
+necessary." I then explained the possibility of finding something in the
+way of a motor in the warehouse for which we were then bound, and if so,
+no immediate outlay would be necessary, but of course that was only a
+chance, and besides, we were not sure some fool would not bid it well
+up.
+
+"I don't care how fast it goes, just so it can beat the river current,"
+he urged. "Oh, she looks tough. No one will bid much, that's certain."
+
+"Have you figured on the fact that this boat is in the canal, and while
+only a mile from the river, you must go a long way by water to get
+there?"
+
+"Yes, I know it is two hundred miles or more, clear out through the
+Mississippi and Chandeleur Sound, but that won't take long if she can
+move at all," he replied without hesitation. "You see, it is practically
+inland water all the way," he added.
+
+"Hiram, are you still keeping away from Anna Bell Morgan? Don't you hear
+from her at all?" I asked this question suddenly, as we approached the
+warehouse, and the change of subject appeared to have startled him.
+
+"No--and, I never shall unless this matter is cleaned up completely. If
+I go to the bow-wows I won't take any one with me," he said, looking far
+away down the sidewalk.
+
+"You haven't seen her for some time. Are you cooling off?"
+
+"No, Ben, not one bit. That girl is the only one who has ever held me. I
+don't believe there is a half hour of the time that I am awake I do not
+think of her, and I believe it is the thought of her that makes me
+fight. I tell you it must be no halfway business. If they try to pin
+anything on me and have me arrested, which they may, some people will
+always believe me guilty even if I am acquitted. And if that comes to
+pass I don't believe I will ever see her again; in fact I told her so.
+It is a fearful thing to think of, and while we are making headway, the
+delay almost drives me wild when I stop to think about it," he said,
+still downcast.
+
+"You'll forget--most men do."
+
+"Yes--I may forget--I may not be different from other men, but I don't
+feel that way now, and I don't think I ever will," he replied with a
+certain convincing firmness. But when we got to the warehouse, the
+possibility of failure, suggested by the reference to Anna Bell Morgan,
+seemed to lend strength to his body. He lifted big cases with ease and
+smaller ones left his hands with a toss until we uncovered the big case
+that had attracted my attention.
+
+A sledge broke the iron binding and I lifted one of the thick planks.
+When I told Hiram it was a steam engine, and worthless to us, it was the
+first time I ever heard him use voluble profanity, to which I listened,
+amused.
+
+But in uncovering this case, bigger ones back of it were revealed. We
+went at them. The next one we opened contained an antiquated automobile,
+not worth the expense of packing for sea-shipment. Another case that
+had just been unloaded from a car that morning promised something and
+our hopes arose; it was much longer and larger than any of the others
+and readily answered to the blows of the sledge. It contained the body
+of an air-ship. Hiram was about to sulphurize the warehouse again but
+sat down instead, wet with perspiration.
+
+"Ben, that infernal thing contains a gasoline motor--is it possible to
+use it?" He waited expectantly for a reply.
+
+"Perhaps; rip off another plank so that I can see."
+
+Two more blows from the flying sledge sent another plank flying.
+
+"There you are!" he exulted.
+
+We were astonished to find a twelve-cylinder motor of standard
+manufacture, which I thought might be used in a boat. And, of course, a
+self-contained plant, ready for running.
+
+Hiram's spirits rose to the heights with this information and he began
+his habit of cavorting like a colt, apparently forgetting the sad
+disappointment of only a moment before. In many respects he was yet a
+boy.
+
+I called Mr. Kitchell on the telephone, told him briefly about the boat
+and of the motor in the air-plane.
+
+"Yes, take it, and anything there you can use; you know we can
+requisition anything we want when necessary. Take it quick if you can
+use it to get us out of this nightmare," he snapped back at me. "A
+complaint from Washington has reached the president of the road, who has
+passed it down the line with a stinger in every word. Both the railroad
+administration and the Bureau of Animal Industry are riding on my neck
+without a saddle. Go as far as you like, only hurry."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+HIRAM suggested that he and the captain would get the motor out on the
+floor and test it in order to make sure that another crooked
+revolutionist had not met a crooked manufacturer.
+
+While they were doing this I went to my office to get a better line on
+the traffic between that very interesting trio--Becker, Burrell and my
+clerk, Miss Bascom.
+
+Captain Marianna helped Hiram, so they soon had the motor on skids, and
+'phoned me to come down and try it out. The working test was
+satisfactory and after computing its horsepower, we decided it would
+drive the boat, and, possibly, at a fair speed. Before leaving the
+warehouse Hiram called my attention to a small portable sawmill outfit.
+
+"If this works out, that's mine, too," he whispered, evidently still
+clinging to the idea of capturing logs in the river.
+
+Hiram was right, nothing like the hull of the _Fearsome_ had ever been
+produced before. A hundred and fifty feet long, and over thirty foot
+beam, and with a bulwark not more than a foot high about the entire
+outside. It looked like an immense skimming dish. Hiram thought it came
+from the canals of Mars, possibly a cup challenger there. Captain
+Marianna assured us, though she didn't look it now, she was very sturdy
+and seaworthy and she did not leak even a little since he had been on
+her. No doubt it had previously had gasoline power in it, for there were
+left intact the foundation beams. Hiram said that the captain, now
+penniless and almost starving, if given some cash and a good job, would
+likely be distinctly different from now on. I told him I thought the
+fellow was a fair bet, and left them at work getting the motor ready to
+move on board. The captain assured me the sale was to take place at nine
+the next morning. No one had been around to see it and I felt sure it
+would go for very little.
+
+As I was up all night I did not see Hiram until the next morning. The
+sale looked as though it had been arranged for our benefit. The officer
+said the claims were nearly a thousand dollars, sold it promptly for
+that bid, got away as though in a hurry, and I attended to the details,
+leaving Hiram serious but jubilant.
+
+It was late that night when he returned, tired and hungry but
+enthusiastic. He took little interest in a letter awaiting him until he
+told me all about his progress in moving the motor and getting it aboard
+the boat.
+
+"We got the motor aboard late this evening and it fits as if made for
+the foundation beams, and it will connect with the propeller shaft and
+clutch with little trouble. But, say, the captain says we must have an
+air compressor for the whistle and an auxiliary gasoline tank,--and,
+say," he continued, while stripping down to wash--"I believe the captain
+is going to prove a jewel--he's all right."
+
+"You still think him reliable?"
+
+"Well, if he is as loyal to us as he was to his old employers he will be
+all right--and willing to turn his hand to anything."
+
+"Did you see the letter that came for you?"
+
+"Yes, I'm going to read it in a minute--it's nothing, for I don't know
+any one who would write to me. I've got something more important to do
+now than keeping up a line of correspondence," he said, as he finished
+his ablutions and buttoned his flannel shirt at the collar. Then he
+reached for the letter and as he opened it his face changed to
+astonished resentment.
+
+"Say, who the devil can it be that is writing me these notes? This is
+the second one I have received, not dated or signed by any one. I don't
+understand this one at all," he added, handing it to me.
+
+I took it and read from the same yellow paper and typed as the last one
+had been:
+
+     "Becker & Co. know of the Railroad's plan to ship slaughtered
+     cattle from Illinois to their plant."
+
+His astonishment was no greater than mine, for instantly I knew that
+only some one connected with the railroad and telegraph could learn
+anything regarding Superintendent Kitchell's plan. I also recalled that
+I had not mentioned anything about the plan to Hiram, or any other
+important thing concerning the case. I wanted him to move uninfluenced
+by anything I knew or suspected.
+
+After examining the note critically a few moments, I said:
+
+"Hiram, these notes may come from a woman--they have such earmarks. Do
+you know--have you anything to do with a woman?" I asked, really alarmed
+at the moment, and scrutinizing him closely.
+
+Hiram stood straight before me and looked me square in the eye with
+magnificent candor.
+
+"Ben, I have scarcely a speaking acquaintance with any woman in New
+Orleans except Anna Bell Morgan--and I have not seen her or communicated
+with her since--well, you know how long--ever since this damned thing
+came up like a black fog from Hades, out of which it seems impossible to
+get--and----"
+
+"The plan of getting into Becker's plant is yours. I mentioned it to
+Superintendent Kitchell. Getting some slaughtered tubercular cattle from
+Illinois is Kitchell's idea. He wired or wrote, or both, from his office
+and this is the result. Somebody inside, sure--somebody for them and
+somebody for you--who is it, Hiram?" I ended by demanding of him to
+speak only the truth.
+
+"I haven't mentioned one word to a soul other than you," he stoutly
+insisted, his face as open as a printed page.
+
+"Have you mentioned your boat scheme to any one?" I asked, fearful of
+the incaution of youth.
+
+"Not a person knows of it from me but you and Captain Marianna, and he
+doesn't know much yet. But this is absolute evidence our finger is on
+the right spot," he observed shrewdly, then added, less
+confidently--"they must have some organization."
+
+"Go ahead, Hiram, I still think your boat scheme a very good one, but be
+very discreet and see if you can think of any one who would send these
+notes to you," I added darkly, much puzzled and annoyed.
+
+"He is building and must have lumber--he'll fall for some cheap stuff
+and the river is full of logs--and it's perfectly feasible to saw
+them----"
+
+"Maybe so, Hiram--provided he doesn't keep on knowing what we have for
+breakfast. I will learn more in a day or two--go ahead as fast as you
+can about getting ready, but again I ask you to have an interrogation
+point in front of you all the time."
+
+"Ben"--he began, walking about the room nervously, as though he felt his
+soul in danger--righteously angered, but as one who showed real
+bigness--"I am convinced that they have power enough, so that when they
+get ready they can for a time make me the goat. I was in sole charge of
+that wharf when the big thefts were pulled off; what would be easier
+than to link me up with some poor teamster and send the two of us to
+slaughter, and even by arrest plant an imputation that could be cited
+against me all my life? I could take this Becker and tear his purple
+tallow person into bits with my bare hands and throw the pieces into his
+own rendering tanks with pleasure!" he shouted, and he looked as though
+he could do it.
+
+"Yes, Hiram, that possibility is present, but perhaps you magnify it."
+Then believing his efficiency would be augmented by a little less fear,
+I told him, for the first time, that the provision market was flooded
+with spurious goods bearing a genuine government stamp as having been
+inspected and passed, and that on this night I was going with a Federal
+party in a move against Becker for that.
+
+"What are you going to do?" he asked quickly.
+
+"Locate him as soon as he leaves his New Orleans office, then a safe
+expert, employed by the government in alien-enemy work, will open his
+safe for evidence, and possibly will find the stolen seals, stamps, and
+ink of the Department of Animal Industry."
+
+"I have figured the case in just that way and supposed you had, and that
+is why we must get inside his plant. Opening his safe may help--finding
+the seals don't prove the larceny--suppose they should secrete those
+seals about the wharf, or worse still, put them inside, or under my
+desk, in the wharf office, what chance would I have to escape the
+implication?" he asked, still walking about the room looking at the
+floor.
+
+"A dog having the bone will not prove he stole the ham," I suggested.
+
+"But that won't save the dog's ribs when he's found with it," he
+retorted, relaxing.
+
+"It is true, Hiram, their organization must begin in Kansas City--and is
+pretty well oiled--but perhaps not as efficient as you imagine; crooks
+always forget something with a certainty that suggests fatality."
+
+"Let us hope so. But these notes--what makes you think they are from a
+woman?" He stopped and looked squarely at me. "I don't like it," he
+finished with a snap of his jaws.
+
+"My reason just now is scarcely more than an impression, hardly more
+than 'because,'" I replied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+THAT night at dinner I asked Hiram how much he knew about gasoline
+engines, and he looked up at me sharply.
+
+"Not very much; very little, in fact. The Gold-Beater gave me a car
+once--a pretty good one--and I was learning about motors fairly fast
+when something happened. I knew motors needed water, oil and gasoline,
+and that when I did certain things it went, and sometimes it moved
+pretty fast. That was the trouble--I met a bigger car and we both went
+over in a man's front yard. I lost two wheels and other things--I never
+saw it again. The Gold-Beater and the insurance company settled somehow.
+
+"Do you know," he continued after a pause, "I don't blame the
+Gold-Beater much--two thousand was my share for putting an innocent
+pedestrian in the park on the bad side--I wonder he didn't get the
+marble heart sooner." As he said this his lips curled with
+self-criticism.
+
+"How soon will you have the motor ready to start? I am going to be very
+busy to-morrow. Can you and the captain manage to start it alone?"
+
+"To-morrow at noon we will have everything ready for a try-out and if I
+don't feel safe we will not attempt to start without you. Don't want to
+take any chances; there's too much at stake," he insisted with rare
+judgment.
+
+"Everything is fair in love and war," is the libertine's comfort in the
+case of a love contest--and in war it depends on the kind of an enemy we
+have. In this war any means of obtaining evidence against our enemy was
+justified. That was my firm belief. That night Becker & Co.'s office was
+entered as planned and his safe opened. While there was plenty of
+evidence that he was trading illicitly and with the enemy, I was
+disappointed in finding no evidence of his thieving propensity, except a
+letter he had received that day from the captain of a Swedish ship,
+_Sparticide_, then in port, who in poor English explained that he had
+"received the sample and thought it would do, though the price was
+altogether too high. If he would pack in half barrels and deliver as
+suggested, he would take the lot for cash, delivered alongside."
+
+This letter was carefully copied and replaced.
+
+When I reached home just before daylight, Hiram, Jr., was fast asleep,
+but when I awakened later in the day he had gone.
+
+I spent the greater part of the morning getting the five bales of waste
+paper that had been unloaded from Becker's boat on the steamship docks,
+into a private fireproof room in the storage warehouse where we had our
+barrel of "steel filings" stored, and secured an affidavit from the
+steamship company that they were received from Becker & Co.
+
+When I found leisure to examine them, I drew samples from each bale and
+carefully estimated the number, finding they checked up with the amount
+of filled sausage cartons stolen from the car.
+
+Before leaving the warehouse I had our barrel put into the same room and
+secured it with a special Government padlock. Recent correspondence had
+developed that it contained a very rare German aniline dye, which
+American manufacturers had as yet been unable to produce, and offers for
+it had risen to such a fabulous sum I was afraid to tell Hiram about it
+for the present.
+
+When I reached my office, my clerk, Miss Bascom, was out to luncheon,
+but I had not been there long before Superintendent Kitchell came in and
+formally introduced Mr. Hiram Strong, Sr., whom he had mentioned as
+being in transit over the system in his private car, and asked me to
+extend any possible courtesy, after which he bowed himself out
+obsequiously.
+
+I knew I was in the presence of a man. He was tall and his full chest
+and very broad shoulders impressed me as they had impressed Hiram. His
+hair was iron gray and his very hat seemed to be made to order for him.
+His eyes appeared to penetrate without effort the object on which they
+turned, and one knew instinctively that he could and would note any
+discrepancy between what a person thought and what he uttered.
+
+I saw at once how Hiram, Jr., had come by his nose piece, also his fine,
+clear skin and chiseled mouth.
+
+Superintendent Kitchell, contrary to his boast, had told him all he knew
+about Hiram, Jr. He did not seem to want to hear more from me, but did
+want some information about getting down the river to the Hunting Club,
+where he was going to shoot ducks.
+
+"I left New York supposing I could dispense with my secretary for a few
+weeks anyhow, but in that I am disappointed. Would it be too much
+trouble to obtain a stenographer to write some letters for me?"
+
+Hiram Strong, Sr., like his son, was one to whom anything within reason
+could not be refused.
+
+"Such talent is very scarce in New Orleans now, but if you can manage
+with my clerk, Miss Bascom, who is fairly efficient, you are welcome to
+her services--if she does not object," was the only thing I could say.
+
+"I think she will do; in fact, almost any one," he assured me.
+
+But somehow I felt that I was doing the wrong thing, for it suddenly
+occurred to me that Miss Bascom's attitude or position was so clouded
+and mysterious that, until I knew more, I should not trust her with
+anything important. But Hiram Strong, Sr., was not a man to be refused.
+
+When Miss Bascom came in I introduced her and was about to explain what
+was wanted, when I stopped in amazement. The moment I mentioned the name
+"Mr. Strong" her face became white as marble, she raised her hand as
+though to advance and greet him, but it fell and she stood as though
+petrified, while I explained what he desired.
+
+"I--I hope I will be able to serve you," she managed to say, while she
+gazed fixedly at him. I could not guess whether it was fear or other
+excitement.
+
+"My work is simple correspondence, and I am sure you will be able to
+manage it," he replied assuringly, and I was not certain whether he was
+admiring her quail-like figure and unusually pretty face, or, like
+myself, was trying to divine the unusual excitement under the light
+bronze hair.
+
+"I will do my best," she managed to say, beginning to edge away toward
+her desk by the window.
+
+"Would it be asking too much for you to come out to the car? It is just
+under the train shed."
+
+"Not at all, with Mr. Taylor's permission," she replied quickly, in a
+more natural tone. I nodded approval without looking at her, but did not
+relax my endeavor to see if Hiram Strong, Sr., had missed anything and
+decided he had not. He was not of that sort.
+
+She went to her desk, obtained notebook and pencils, and stood
+expectantly looking out of the window as though steeling herself for an
+ordeal.
+
+"I will undoubtedly see you again before I go, Mr. Taylor--I hope I will
+not greatly inconvenience you by taking away your clerk," he added
+suavely, going to the door and opening it as a sign for her to go with
+him.
+
+"Anything more I can do for you will be a pleasure, Mr. Strong," I said,
+meeting his eye and getting a full message from him.
+
+After they were gone I remained at my desk endeavoring to reach a
+logical conclusion as to the attitude of this girl, who, at that moment,
+I was ready to pronounce "infernal," probably because she had so far
+baffled me. It is true I had not given her any serious attention;
+perhaps I should have done so. I reviewed in my mind her traffic with
+Becker and the chief clerk, Burrell, and the fact that I was quite
+positive she was the author of the anonymous notes to Hiram. I decided
+to put a rod in pickle for her, at once.
+
+I asked that her movements be accounted for every hour, and something
+positive be dug up concerning her antecedents, as soon as I reached the
+Department office, which precaution was rewarded sooner than expected.
+
+The remainder of the afternoon was spent in securing an auxiliary
+gasoline tank and an air-compressor, which Hiram, Jr., had said he must
+have to complete his running outfit.
+
+"Old man," he began, as soon as he came in that evening, looking as
+dirty and disreputable as a longshoreman, "we have a dandy outfit--the
+captain says we can run away from anything. You've got the tank and
+air-pump? Fine, old man, we will soon kill off Becker and the whole
+crowd. All we need now is that saw-mill in the 'Dead Hoss' warehouse,
+and we are ready." He finished with great enthusiasm, stripping his
+upper body for a complete clean-up before eating dinner.
+
+"Did you start the engine, Hiram?"
+
+"No, but we are all ready. The captain wanted to, but I thought we'd
+better wait for you. You've got to go out there the first thing in the
+morning,--you can do that, can't you?"
+
+"Yes, maybe--but don't you think we had better give it a pretty good
+try-out before we put anything more into her?--she might prove a
+flivver."
+
+"Never on your life--she's going to run like a wolf--but maybe you are
+right about giving her a good trial--suppose we bring her around into
+the river?--that ought to be trial enough," he concluded, coming close
+and displaying a wonderfully well developed torso that with age would be
+as broad as his father's, which I had been admiring but a short time
+before. For a moment I speculated on how he would feel if he knew that
+his father was in New Orleans at that moment and that I had been talking
+with him.
+
+"Wake up, Ben; you seem to be dreaming. Did you hear what I said?" he
+insisted, making me dodge to escape a whack on the back.
+
+"I believe you said it was over two hundred miles through Ponchertrain
+around into the river?"
+
+"Yes, over two hundred miles by water, but by land, right through the
+city, only about a mile. But we've got to get into the river."
+
+"Yes, if she will go two hundred miles she will go any distance."
+
+"All right; I'm going to pack up to-night and move aboard to stay until
+Becker and his crew are all in limbo headed for the penitentiary--do you
+hear me, Ben?"
+
+I heard what he said, but was lost in considering plans which at that
+moment required radical change, and must be done with tact and judgment.
+
+Hiram became thoughtful and remained so throughout dinner, and as soon
+as we returned he began, without further comment, to get his belongings
+together and ready for transfer to the _Fearsome_, fully convinced that
+his abode there would last for a long time.
+
+I remained in the attitude of the "immortal," who waited for something
+to turn up, and I did not have long to wait.
+
+A messenger came with two rather startling bits of information; the
+_Sparticide_, the Swedish ship, had asked for her papers and wanted to
+clear at five the next morning, and the more mystifying knowledge--even
+to me--that my clerk, Miss Bascom, had arrived at that moment at the St.
+Charles hotel and was dining there with a distinguished stranger. Would
+I also check up the stranger?
+
+Both situations needed immediate attention and I could not be in two
+places at the same time. I called Hiram, Jr., from the room where he was
+busily packing.
+
+"Hiram, come here and sit down long enough for me to funnel a bit of
+instruction into your think tank," said I, recalling that I had not
+mentioned the _Sparticide_ matter to him.
+
+He came and sat down in front of me, the corners of his mouth slightly
+elevated, folded his hands in front of him and waited in a slightly
+humorous and bored attitude for some inkling of what he was about to
+draw.
+
+"Hiram, a Swedish ship, bound for Stockholm, is in the stream on the
+other side, just below Algiers, and is asking to be cleared to-morrow
+morning at five. It is thought she has, or will have to-night, a
+considerable quantity of Becker & Co.'s product on board. Foodstuffs of
+any sort to Sweden are forbidden, and if taken are contraband. His
+clearance papers are blocked until we are satisfied. Principally, what
+we want now is a liberal sample of what they take aboard from Becker.
+You will be there in an unofficial capacity, so use discretion, but get
+the samples. Here is a copy of the captain's letter closing the deal."
+
+I had not half finished when his eyes began to glitter and dance as
+though they might jump from their sockets, and I had barely completed my
+instructions when he grabbed the letter, threw on his coat and bounded
+down the stairs three steps at a time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+THOSE who say that any man will naturally fall for a pretty young woman
+are pessimistic. Age, unspoiled, will crave association with youth, but
+a young man will quite adequately fill the bill.
+
+When I reached the hotel I had no trouble in finding Hiram Strong, Sr.,
+the Gold-Beater, in a forest of millinery and subdued lights of the
+hotel dining-room. He was the most prominent figure in the big room, and
+sitting opposite him was my clerk, Miss Bascom.
+
+He was not a victim or an intended one--a lion who, with playful stroke,
+could crush the beautiful flower in front of him. His lids would narrow
+occasionally with intense interest or curiosity. I could not get close
+enough to hear what was said, but she was quite voluble. I had no
+immediate interest in him; he was fully able to care for himself, but my
+interest in her was intensified. It seemed to me that I could see on her
+beautiful shoulders, now bared in dinner garb, the mark of the huge,
+pudgy, filthy hand of Becker, in gross caress. The brand of suspicion
+was upon her the moment she had come into contact with him, when he
+pressed her to his vile self, and her lips were violated by contact with
+his lumpy, purple, filthy mouth as he kissed her. Could her ears ever be
+maidenly again after listening to his vile proposals?
+
+I was not at all sure of her relations with Chief Clerk Burrell, but I
+felt sure there was an understanding; nor could I account for her
+anonymous notes to Hiram, Jr. But here she sat comfortably dining with
+his father after six or eight hours' acquaintance, all of which was most
+disconcerting.
+
+Truly a remarkable young woman, whatever her impelling motive, was my
+thought. I felt that the time was fast approaching when I could compel
+her to hold up her last page for me to read.
+
+At a reasonable hour the Gold-Beater put her into a cab and sent her
+home. I hurried back to our rooms expecting to hear from Hiram, Jr. His
+mission was most difficult and important--would he be successful?
+
+There was no mistaking his bounding step on the stairs, some time after
+eleven, and I was not surprised when he grabbed my foot and dragged me
+from the bed where I was dozing.
+
+"Get up, Ben; I've got it--the Swede was a hard nut to crack, but I made
+him open up--I've got a whole barrel full downstairs.--It's the stuff we
+want, all right--come on and see it!" he exclaimed, greatly excited, but
+suppressing himself with discretion.
+
+"Are you sure?" I asked, barely awake.
+
+"Of course, I'm sure--come on down and see it--I wouldn't take his word
+for anything. I made him open up before he lowered it into my boat. He
+tried to play innocent--jockeyed for some time, but I finally showed him
+the copy of his letter and flatly told him, 'No sample, no sail, also
+jail and his ship interned.' A half barrel of that stuff is heavy and I
+had the devil of a time getting it out of the boat onto the levee. Then
+I got hold of Billy Swope's taxi--he's safe--I've known him about the
+docks for a long time. Where are we going to put it at this time of
+night? Come on--wake up--you act as if you'd been taking dope," he
+hissed, coming threateningly toward me, playful but intensely excited.
+
+"As a matter of fact I was planning, Hiram----Leave it in the cab--go
+down and tell the driver he is engaged for the night."
+
+When Hiram came back to the room he saw me taking two full-sized cartons
+from my drawer and asked with great excitement, "Where did you get
+them?"
+
+"From those five bales of waste-paper you saw come off of Becker's boat
+onto the S. P. wharf: didn't I tell you about it?" I asked, knowing I
+had not told him and that there was still a great deal more I could not
+tell him for the present.
+
+It took us a long time to locate the agent of the packing-house. The
+time seemed interminable before we could rout him out of bed to identify
+the goods as those that were stolen, but as soon as he knew what we
+wanted he was very much awake and ready for all requirements.
+
+He came out to the cab, drew a liberal sample from the barrel setting on
+end beside the driver, took it to the light, felt of it, tasted it raw,
+but before pronouncing it solemnly and unqualifiedly theirs, he cooked
+and tasted it. We then made him accompany us down to his plant, unlock
+his cold storage house and there we left the barrel in his charge to
+preserve as evidence, after I had filled a full carton for further use
+that night.
+
+We then drove back to the rooms where I had left Hiram to finish his
+preparations for going aboard the _Fearsome_.
+
+"By Heaven, one man now knows I didn't steal--and the rest of them have
+got to know before we get through," said Hiram, wringing my hand before
+I left him in order to drive to Superintendent Kitchell's residence and
+give him a bad half hour.
+
+Mr. Kitchell grumbled at first, but when he learned my mission he, too,
+was jubilant and unstinting in his praise. I had exhibited the full
+carton of sausage and told him as much as I thought necessary.
+
+"We can have warrants issued at once, can't we?" he asked.
+
+"No--no, not yet--the most important work is yet to be done. The
+evidence we now have would only convict Becker & Co. of receiving stolen
+property. How they were able to replace the Government, the railroad and
+the packer's seals on the car must be answered before we prove larceny.
+Young Strong's idea of getting into their plant is the best, and we are
+ready to try it."
+
+"Of course, you know best--we want to stop it for good and all by
+sending every one to the Pen. Taylor, have you made up your mind as to
+whom it is in our office that is working with them?" he inquired
+guardedly, wrapping his bathrobe about his shins.
+
+"Yes--pretty sure--but----"
+
+"Well, as I said, you know best--whatever you say goes a hundred per
+cent with me now--what do you want?" his bald spot taking on a deeper
+red.
+
+"Discontinue my office and give out freely that any further effort in
+the case has been abandoned as a failure. Besides, the robberies have
+stopped now. I am going with young Strong to try and get into their
+plant, and hope to secure the rest of the necessary evidence in that
+way."
+
+"Good idea; I will do what you ask to-day."
+
+"One thing more, Mr. Kitchell, it seems necessary, in fact extremely
+important for me not to lose sight of my clerk, Miss Bascom----"
+
+"I understand--I can attend to that easily," he assented, as I left him
+to spend the remainder of the morning getting ready to board the
+_Fearsome_.
+
+Hiram, Jr., was silent most of the time, but moved with such energy and
+determination that the thought of failure was terrifying. In fact, I
+began to feel almost as though I was getting on thin ice.
+
+So much depended on the new motor and many other sailing details
+impossible to think of at the time.
+
+Captain Marianna only claimed to be a navigator, but he displayed
+considerable knowledge about gasoline motors. He had attended to the
+many details and was waiting for us with a confidence that was
+reassuring.
+
+After breakfast aboard, we all took a hand in starting the motor.
+
+"It runs as though made for the job," exclaimed Hiram, hardly able to
+contain himself. He had not shaved for several days and with dirty
+working clothes he looked indeed a longshoreman, but was oblivious to
+the fact.
+
+When the motor had run long enough to get warm I told him to throw in
+the clutch that started the propeller, which he did without skill and so
+suddenly that the _Fearsome_ took up the slack of her lines and before
+I could stop the motor or get to the clutch she snapped them and was
+free from the wharf.
+
+Hiram realized he had blundered from inexperience and his face flushed.
+
+"Ben, will that hold us up? It was a devil of a thing for me to do," he
+said, catching my arm, greatly alarmed.
+
+"Captain, have you plenty of line aboard?" I called.
+
+"Yes, plenty," he assured.
+
+"Let's give her a few turns and if she moves all right we'll head for
+the entrance of the lake."
+
+"I think we're safe in that," he replied, and Hiram's look changed to
+one of confidence at once, evidently concluding his first blunder was
+not fatal to the enterprise in which his whole soul was wrapped.
+
+The captain took the wheel, while I gave the motor half speed and Hiram
+stood in wonder, watching as we moved swiftly up the canal, and when
+clear of it I gave the motor full speed and the captain without more ado
+squared away towards Mississippi Sound, the gulf to New Orleans on the
+river.
+
+"She runs like a _greyhound_," Hiram said, after watching her go at full
+speed for a short time. "How fast is she running?" he asked, apparently
+forgetting his first disappointment, and consumed with a fierce
+satisfaction that his complete vindication and success was at hand.
+
+"Perhaps eight or ten knots," I replied evasively. As a matter of fact
+we were going over twelve and I had to stand over the new motor with oil
+can and grease bucket, so I paid no more attention to him.
+
+We got out into the sound before noon. It is unwise to run a new motor
+too far without stopping, so I advised that we make a port and appealed
+to the captain.
+
+"We can make Gulfport in a short time," he replied, to which we all
+assented and he changed his course. When we got there a most unlooked
+for incident occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+WAS the Gold-Beater's luck going to attend his very vigorous and now
+virile son? There is no such thing as luck; follow the smoke of the
+so-called "lucky" and we soon conclude that they earn what they get by
+sheer force of intense action.
+
+The captain had hardly reached the Gulfport dock before he was
+approached to take on a cargo for New Orleans. Lumber was piled
+everywhere, with no bottoms to move it to New Orleans.
+
+The captain referred them to Hiram, Jr., as the owner. He talked with
+them, then the three of us went below. We were bound for New Orleans;
+could we take a cargo of lumber?
+
+Hiram's eyes danced and glistened with the possibilities.
+
+"Ben, you know about our power; and you, captain, know how seaworthy she
+will be." He wisely interrogated both of us at the same time, looking
+from one to the other.
+
+"What do you think about the power, Ben?"
+
+"I think she will handle a load," I replied vaguely, and added, "for a
+thrown-together, patched-up affair, she performs wonderfully."
+
+Hiram looked at Captain Marianna, as a man born to lead. He wanted that
+officer's opinion.
+
+"Well," hesitated the captain, "I believe she is seaworthy and if you
+can get a load of timber we can fill the hold and even take a deck load.
+Timber loads and discharges quickly. Our course, nearly all the way is
+protected, and if a blow comes we can easily find shelter," he concluded
+with suppressed eagerness.
+
+"That's all right, but how about time? I don't want to lose a lot of
+time. We didn't start in to carry freight," said Hiram with
+determination.
+
+"Go and see how soon they can load and be careful to settle the freight
+rate," suggested the captain. Hiram sprang to the deck. His mind seemed
+to be working like a trip hammer.
+
+"Ben, can they do that?" he asked excitedly when he returned; but before
+I could reply he continued: "do you know, they threatened to commandeer
+our craft if we don't take timber to New Orleans. It's for Government
+work--can they do that?"
+
+"Yes, they can."
+
+"And they say we have nothing to say about the freight rate--that is
+fixed," he said, his eyes wide and keen with wonder at the new situation
+into which he had so suddenly plunged.
+
+"The freight rate will no doubt be liberal enough," I suggested.
+
+"Then we might just as well get the credit of doing it willingly," he
+wisely concluded, and was away again.
+
+In less than half an hour we moved up about a thousand feet, and all the
+men available were busy crowding timber into the _Fearsome_, continuing
+the work far into the night. The captain looked after the stowage and I
+was busy getting an emergency supply of gasoline, oil and sundry
+necessary supplies. Hiram provisioned and attended to other details. He
+was in an element natural to him and seemed to forget everything else.
+By daylight the next morning we had the hold full and a deck-load six
+feet high. In fact, the _Fearsome_ looked like a floating, sawed timber
+raft, bound and tied together with log chains.
+
+After breakfast as we were feeling our way out of the river into the
+sound, Hiram came down very soberly to where I was attending to the
+engine. He was evidently well pleased. Hands that but a short while ago
+were manicured twice a week were now broadened, manly, brown and
+grease-stained.
+
+"Don't you think we are short-handed?" he asked. "I tried to get some
+one but couldn't. I hate to have you stand by that motor long hours at a
+time. Perhaps I can help?"
+
+"If the weather is good we ought to make the mouth of the river by
+night, anchor there, get some sleep and complete the journey to New
+Orleans to-morrow in daylight."
+
+"Ben! do you mean to say we can make New Orleans in two days?" he asked
+in open-eyed wonder.
+
+"If we don't get bad weather."
+
+"Say, do you think I am awake--pinch me--take something and hit me on
+the head to be sure I am not astraddle a 'Night-Hoss,'" he suggested,
+pulling himself up on the head of one of the galvanized barrels of
+emergency gasoline near me, holding his head between his hands to keep
+his nerves from running away with him.
+
+I looked at him and smiled but did not reply.
+
+"Do you know we have two thousand dollars' worth of freight here, and
+you say we can get into New Orleans in two days? I must be dreaming."
+
+"But have you figured all the expenses--bar pilotage--river pilotage,
+dockage and everything?"
+
+"No--not all--but it can't possibly be five hundred dollars; and we can
+make the round trip in a week. Fifteen hundred dollars a week, Ben; and
+they say they have enough timber to be moved to keep us going for a
+year! Ben, I'm dreaming--a coke-eater's dream--and if it wasn't for that
+infernal Becker matter, how we could clean up!" He charged about
+savagely as though he had drunk mixed liquor and cocaine.
+
+"You were up all last night; better get some sleep," I suggested.
+
+"Yes, I haven't had a real night's sleep for a long time," he added,
+with a note of sadness, "and I don't want any yet."
+
+Elated with success, the Becker matter was emphasized as a knife in his
+heart, and it was keeping him away from Anna Bell Morgan. Success has a
+way of trying men's hearts in the most unexpected manner.
+
+We made the river as calculated and on the second morning were fast to
+the dock and the much needed timber going off as fast as it went on.
+Although busy and most of the time reticent, Hiram, Jr., never failed to
+call my attention to the numerous logs and floating trees in the river,
+which he insisted would make good lumber, and just for the taking. I
+hurried to our rooms as soon as possible to get my mail.
+
+There I found several notes of different dates from a man from New York
+then in New Orleans and waiting to see me about something very
+important. Entirely in the dark as to what he wanted, I arranged by
+telephone and met him at once at the Monteleon Hotel. I was disgusted.
+Great effort, loss of sleep and singleness of purpose to help Hiram, by
+cleaning up the case, made the business world appear as the full glare
+of a searchlight to eyes accustomed to thick darkness. It was about the
+barrel--he said he had come down from New York about it and exhibited
+one of the samples I had sent there. Bluntly, he said:
+
+"We want the stuff and want you to put a price on it."
+
+"But I don't want to be bothered about that stuff now." The fellow's
+lack of tact half angered me; his nervous eagerness undoubtedly whetted
+by his days of waiting for me did not fit in with my mood.
+
+"Well--we need that color badly on Government fabric orders and if you
+refuse to put a price on it we may have to find another way," he said,
+with deliberation which, engrossed as I was, insulted me. His New
+England drawl grated on me somehow.
+
+"Oh, if that is all you want, I'll name a price--you can have it for a
+hundred dollars a pound," I said, rising. I knew I was needed back on
+the _Fearsome_ as soon as possible.
+
+"Do you know that the pre-war price of that color was about seventy-five
+cents?" he quietly asked me.
+
+"I don't know what the pre-war price was, but that is our price now," I
+said, walking away abruptly. I felt that I had much more important
+matters to consider then, and hurried down to the wharf where I supposed
+the _Fearsome_ was being speedily unloaded.
+
+Before I got within a thousand feet of where the _Fearsome_ was I knew
+something was wrong. The boat was gone; Hiram Strong, Jr., sat on the
+end of a pile holding his head between both hands, and as I came still
+nearer I noted there was between Hiram's hands and head a paper folded
+like a legal document.
+
+I had lately found myself wondering how Hiram, Jr., would behave when
+Dame Fortune landed her knuckles between his eyes with a staggering
+blow. I knew it had to come. I had become so attached to him that I
+dreaded it as one dreads to see a lovable child punished, though to its
+manifest advantage.
+
+He did not say a word or move until I came up to him. There was
+something of a sneer and a contemptuous curl in his face when I looked
+the question I hesitated to ask. He sneered openly at the Jinx that had
+come to harass him.
+
+"Well, Ben, I guess we have made the fatal mistake of underestimating
+the resources of our enemies--they've got us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+HIRAM still retained his nerve, but his anger and disappointment had
+become stolid as he handed me the paper and pointed to the _Fearsome_
+across the river--the tug still alongside.
+
+I stood before him, astonished and silent, hastily examining the paper.
+It was an injunction the court had issued, restraining him from
+interfering with the lawful owners of the boat _Fearsome_, of which he
+had obtained possession by an irregular and fraudulent sale.
+
+"The officer has just left," Hiram volunteered. "The captain and I were
+on the dock checking up when the tug came alongside. I thought nothing
+until they slipped our lines and she was away before I could walk twenty
+feet," he said, letting his foot drop to the dock despondently.
+
+"Ben, I thought we had a right--she was sold for crew's wages. We had
+nothing to do with that. We only bid her in," he began, but with no note
+of censure, although I had attended to that detail.
+
+"We have to know that."
+
+"And has any one the right to take her--isn't that stealing?" he asked,
+suppressing his fierceness.
+
+"They have her now in their possession and you are enjoined by the court
+from interfering," I said, half to myself, trying to think if I had
+heard of any hint of this procedure.
+
+"Ben, do you suppose it is the Becker crowd--have they got wind of our
+plan, and are they doing this?" he asked, with wonderful
+self-possession.
+
+"It may be, Hiram, but I doubt it--I am afraid the owners have shown up
+and are trying to regain their property in this way, alleging an
+irregular sale. They had to make some such showing to get the
+injunction."
+
+"What can we do?" he snapped at me, as though becoming incensed at my
+deliberation.
+
+"My boy--when passing amid rocks the captain must----"
+
+"I beg your pardon, Ben--you can understand," he said quickly.
+
+"Whether they are right or wrong to fight the courts means months' and
+perhaps years' delay--the only thing possible is to compromise."
+
+"We must eat out of their hand Ben?" he started to heat up anew. We
+were so intent that we did not notice the approach of a quiet,
+middle-aged man who asked very politely for "Mr. Strong."
+
+"Mr. Strong, I come from the office of the plaintiffs' attorneys. They
+have decided that they do not wish to interfere with the unloading of
+freight for the Government, and we will bring the _Fearsome_ alongside
+and let the cargo be discharged, provided you or the captain do not go
+aboard her--that is, not to attempt to dispute our possession."
+
+"I was wondering how they were going to get away with that," Hiram
+jerked out impulsively.
+
+"No, sir--we don't want to interfere that way--and more, Mr. Strong, I
+am to say that if you will come to our office possibly something can be
+arranged."
+
+Then it was that impulsive youth and inexperience burst out, and while I
+was glad to hear him say it, I knew it was indiscreet. It was perhaps
+just what the Gold-Beater would have said at his age, and, in his
+present power, likely to do so now:
+
+"You can tell the attorneys for the plaintiffs to go to hell," he said,
+springing to his feet. "This is plain stealing and there's a
+penitentiary for them. No--we won't go aboard; that timber must come
+ashore," and he posted off to get the crew of longshoremen to work at
+unloading again.
+
+The quiet, polite man from the attorneys' office remarked to me: "The
+young man shows considerable mettle. If you are interested you had
+better come down to the office," handing me the firm's card and
+departing.
+
+In another half-hour the _Fearsome_ was in full mourning, black
+longshoremen swarming over it and the edge of the dock, but the tug
+remained lashed alongside. The long timber, sawed ten by ten and twelve
+by twelve, seemed to have some means of locomotion as though anxious to
+get on the wharf. I could see Hiram had a way of getting things done.
+
+During this time I sat on the end of the pile where I had found him and
+watched the operation, thinking that my job was getting rather
+strenuous. I was as completely in the dark as to this last move as was
+Hiram.
+
+Presently he came over to me. He had evidently been both working and
+thinking hard.
+
+"Say, do you still think this move is made by the owners to get value
+for their property, or is it a rascally deal to block us?" he asked
+doggedly.
+
+"I don't know--it may be one or the other, or even both--anyhow it's our
+next move."
+
+Hiram rubbed his stubbly chin with one hand and then the other, and
+looked at the _Fearsome_ as though in some way it had become a part of
+him.
+
+"Somehow I feel it is the owners--perhaps this is the only way they
+could proceed--of course, she is worth twenty times what we paid--if it
+is, they ought to be reasonable. The _Fearsome_ lying out there rotting,
+without power, and the _Fearsome_ with power and at work, is very
+different, but they may rightfully expect more than the crew's back
+wages."
+
+I nodded assent, wondering where his line of reasoning would lead.
+
+"Now it may be only money they want--as soon as this load is out of her
+we can collect two thousand freight--and, Ben--you--you have not said
+anything lately about that barrel--is it possible to sell that now?
+Whatever it will bring will come in handy to get time enough to pay
+this claim--there's lots of timber up there and they want it moved. If
+we can get enough help I believe we can make two trips a week instead of
+one. Three thousand a week will soon wipe them out--and sooner or later
+we've got to pay the railroad for that motor."
+
+"But, Hiram, what about Becker & Co.? We started out to get into their
+place and we must not lose sight of that now."
+
+"I know--I know--but if these men mean to be fair they must allow us
+time. Ben, you are a better diplomat; go down and see these attorneys."
+
+"All right, I'll go at once--also I'll see what I can do with the barrel
+of _steel filings_," I said, rising with a smile, and digging him in the
+ribs jokingly--he was in good humor now. But it occurred to me that in
+my shabby treatment of the prospective buyer I had been as indiscreet as
+Hiram when he invited the attorneys to brimstone land, whereas they
+possibly meant well enough.
+
+Hiram did not smile, but I was sure he felt a little relieved at my
+attitude when I left, intending to hunt up my caller from New York, who
+emphasized the first syllable of Bos'ton as though born to the manner
+of speech used in that great eastern port.
+
+On my way back to the rooms to clean up a bit, I decided to see the
+attorneys first, and was considerably irritated to find the man after
+our barrel standing at the foot of my stairs, waiting sentry-like for me
+as though I had committed a crime. Something about the undersized fellow
+aggravated me, though I knew I had great need of him now. The impulse
+was strong upon me to put my foot on his stomach and shove him across
+the street into a curio shop. I was sure he wanted that barrel of color,
+but I didn't like his face. If I didn't sell it to him I could
+elsewhere, so I was obdurate. One hundred dollars per pound, cash,
+current funds in hand, take it or leave it, but say so quick, was all he
+could get out of me, as I kept thinking all the time of the necessity of
+washing up and getting over to see the attorneys.
+
+He finally took me to his bankers, who told me his credit was
+practically unlimited with them, then he said he would take it on my
+terms. We went to the warehouse, got the barrel and weighed it
+carefully. He even paid me for the odd ounces and it was not until we
+went back to the bank and the money was actually in my possession, that
+I realized the size of the transaction. He then told me it was a very
+rare color and that only a small amount was required for blending, which
+was the reason they could pay so much.
+
+It took most of the day, but I did have time to go to the attorney's
+office, and begin more jockeying for position. I soon learned they
+wanted money, not the boat, were even willing to take it on the
+_excitement_ plan, as Hiram suggested. It was worth more but they would
+take twenty thousand dollars. I thought they were distinctly
+disappointed when I offered cash.
+
+I obtained some allowance for what we paid at the sale. I then returned
+to the rooms with a bill of sale for the vessel, knowing it would not be
+long before Hiram would come. I felt disposed to laugh. Some one's plans
+had miscarried.
+
+I heard his step on the first stair. He came up this time one step at a
+time, as though carrying weights on each foot, and when he came in I saw
+he was tired and hungry, but mystified and still fighting.
+
+He came by way of his room, through the communicating door, into my
+room, where I was busy looking over a considerable mail, placed a chair
+back toward me, sat down on it reverse way, resting his arms on the
+back, let fall his big unshaven chin and looked from under the visor of
+his cap like a young lion ready to spring.
+
+"Ben, you old dog, what have you been doing?" quick to gather assurance
+from my attitude. "Just before I left the dock the tug and all the men
+left, saying they were through so far as they knew."
+
+"Yes, the _Fearsome_ is released, and all claims against it settled."
+
+"Yes--yes--but how did you do it?" he demanded.
+
+Somehow at that moment it occurred to me that it might be best to tell
+the whole incredible story of the sale of the barrel of color which had
+been a standing joke between us. It was one of those extremely rare
+things that could happen only in war times, and I thought the flog of
+resistance better for him than the stimulant of easy success.
+
+"Well, I induced them to cut their claim down some----"
+
+"Yes--yes," he interrupted; "get to the point--how did you do it?"
+
+"Well," I began again, "this morning I was too busy to tell you that a
+man came all the way from New York to buy our barrel of steel
+filings,--he's been waiting about all the time we have been gone on our
+trip--when I got through with him I had enough money to release the
+_Fearsome_ and----"
+
+"Ben," he interrupted, his eyes glittering, "you are an infernal--no, I
+won't say liar, because I don't believe you would lie--but you are
+romancing now to make me feel good, but----"
+
+"All right, then, have it your way--all you need to know is that the
+_Fearsome_ is released and you are free to do with her as you like--but
+just now I advise a shave for you and some stimulating food--for
+instance a beefsteak as big as----"
+
+"Ben, it's got to be as big as the state of New Hampshire this time and
+as thick as the crust of the earth----" He interrupted himself by
+springing over the chair, as I thought to thump me on the back, but
+instead he grabbed my hand affectionately. He craved relief from a long
+strain; my information took effect upon him like the champagne he used
+to take, and at that moment refused to consider what it cost or its
+ultimate effect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+WE both cleaned up a bit and went out to dinner. I found he had done a
+good deal of planning. He knew what he wanted but did not know exactly
+how to get it. He was firm in the plan of getting the saw-mill we had
+seen in the unclaimed freight house onto the deck of the _Fearsome_ and
+going up the river for the double purpose of making lumber from the
+"floaters," but most of all to have an excuse for getting into Becker &
+Co.'s plant. He was very sober most of the time, even morose, but
+occasionally his youthful buoyancy and humor would break out in the most
+surprising and delightful way.
+
+We canvassed the details of using the motor to run the saw, and decided
+that we would try it the next day.
+
+"But, Hiram, suppose the timber people insist on your going back for
+another load? They can force you."
+
+"They know, or think, we are still tied up with litigation.
+Besides--can't you explain to some one--a few days will turn the
+trick," he reasoned. "After we get Becker we may want to see them as
+badly as they want to see us," he added, with an eye for the main
+chance.
+
+"Hiram, have you seen or heard from Anna Bell Morgan?" I asked suddenly
+to surprise him.
+
+"No, I haven't--but as the time approaches--and you know it is
+coming--when I can go back to her with clean hands, I feel as though I
+can hardly contain myself. That's what keeps me up and doing; of course,
+I want to make out the Gold-Beater as a damned poor prophet about my
+future, but the main thing is her. Do you know, I actually feel her
+beside me urging me on and making me do things. It will be my happiest
+day when I can go back to her clean--actually clean." While he spoke he
+was digging away at the remnants of the great steak he had consumed, and
+for the first time I saw the harbingers of real manhood as he looked at
+me through eyes unabashed and unashamed.
+
+The next day was a very busy one. He collected his freight and we moved
+the _Fearsome_ to dock near the unclaimed freight house. I arranged with
+Superintendent Kitchell by telephone to take the sawmill, and by night
+it was bolted to the deck, with power from the motor applied. A derrick
+with outrigging, so that a log could be grappled and brought to the deck
+by power, and laid on the saw carriage to be solidly locked down for its
+terrible shining fangs that become invisible in full career, moving
+through a dirty, slimy log.
+
+"Yes," Superintendent Kitchell had said to me when I asked him about my
+clerk, "I have taken Miss Bascom into my private office and found work
+for her there--perfectly safe any time you want her," he assured me,
+after getting a brief account of our progress.
+
+At the first sign of daylight the next morning we left the dock with our
+queer looking craft and started up the river. Through an employment
+agency Hiram had secured three additional men, a sawyer and two
+laborers.
+
+Hiram's interest amounted to intense excitement when the first log was
+cut. He had waited until he saw an unusually promising one go through.
+One of the laborers rowed to it, fastened the grapples and it seemed to
+want to come aboard, as though tired of life in the river, and there it
+lay quietly, without one flinch before the saw that passed through it.
+The sawyer understood his business, four slab cuts were made skillfully,
+the log squared and finally reduced to wide, clean, inch boards and
+stored below in less than ten minutes. Hiram found it hard to contain
+himself. His intense joy and elation threatened his dignity. He had made
+something useful, valuable, beautiful, with the delicate odor of the
+spring woods, from hitherto waste material. I knew what would have
+happened had we been alone. He would have tried to throw on me his now
+brawny person and pummel me from sheer exuberance.
+
+"Ben," he said, in a tense undertone, "over five hundred feet of lumber
+in that log that they will mob us to get at five cents a foot." I knew
+he wanted to cut a big caper and cavort. "Twenty-five dollars, Ben, in
+less than ten minutes. Say, if Becker don't fall for cheap lumber--well,
+we'll get him sure with such bait, and the bayou back of his place is
+full of logs--we won't be there an hour before he comes for it--just you
+watch. We can be there by to-morrow morning," he went on, his eyes
+roaming the river on both sides for another good log that had eluded
+the lumber men in the long reaches of the Mississippi as far back as the
+Great Lakes.
+
+That night we tied up at a bank across the river and a little below
+Becker & Co.'s plant. It had been a busy day and every one except Hiram
+was tired and glad to stop for supper. I was sitting aft smoking when I
+noticed him come up from below, looking for me.
+
+"I've been down taking stock and checking up the day," he began,
+squatting down before me on his heels, keeping his pipe in his mouth.
+"We captured just thirty-nine logs, you know a few of them had rotten
+centers, but we've got over twenty thousand feet of clear lumber besides
+nearly three thousand feet of culls. Figure it out at fifty
+dollars--it's worth more delivered--eleven hundred dollars--first
+day--all amateurs--we've got the big idea working."
+
+"Why do you say we, Hiram? I claim no credit or interest or wages; I'm
+paid--it is your plan--don't be so modest."
+
+"Yes, I did get the idea of capturing this waste, but how far would I
+have got alone--a hundred and twenty-five dollars per from the railroad
+and a certainty of being accused of stealing. In a thousand years I
+never will be charged with ingratitude--if we win, you've got----"
+
+"The weak spot, Hiram, is that you will soon clean the river of logs,
+and then what? Sit still and wait for the once-a-year highwater to bring
+them down?" I asked, interrupting him purposely.
+
+"Wait till we get Becker over there," he said, suddenly sobering and
+looking across the river, but making no other sign--something as a wolf
+looks at his prey within easy reach. "It's a hundred and fifty miles
+from here to the Gulf and lots of logs all the way. But with our big job
+done, once get actually free, and we run out of logs, something will
+turn up; in fact I've got another idea hatching. Do you see the
+foundation he has started over there? That's why he must have lumber.
+Doesn't his plant remind you of a quarantine station--or a pest house?"
+He asked this question as though he did not expect an answer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+THE next morning it occurred to me that, while our plans were made with
+great care, the weak point was, that if Becker himself was at the plant
+he might recognize either of us. I mentioned this to Hiram, and for once
+since I had met him he laughed loud and long.
+
+"I don't believe your mother would recognize you in that greasy,
+dirt-soaked, bifurcated night dress you wear," he yelled at me, "and the
+work you owe the barber, too; but look at me--I am worse yet, covered
+with mud and slime. Besides, I don't believe Becker ever had a good look
+at me, and if he did he couldn't pick me out as different from any other
+deckhand now," he said, grinning. Then he looked himself over, at his
+muddy shoes, browned hands, long hair and unshaved face, and it did seem
+to him as though, without effort, during the past few days, he had
+prepared a genuine disguise. Nevertheless we decided it would be safe to
+allow Captain Marianna to be the spokesman, although the captain should
+be kept in the dark concerning our real designs. Marianna should sell
+Becker lumber, cheap for cash, if he bit at our bait.
+
+We sawed one or two logs, then crossed the river and began working up
+the stream toward the bayou back of Becker's plant, apparently with no
+more interest in it than if it had been a cemetery. The bayou was, just
+as Hiram said, full of logs--enough to keep us there for a day at least.
+
+By the noon hour we had worked pretty well into the bayou and in back of
+the big fertilizer factory, with no apparent attention from it other
+than a terrible offense to our nostrils. If Becker was there he did not
+show himself and it began to look as if we would have to make overtures.
+
+But when we had suspended operations for noon-time, a negro with a boat
+made out from the Becker place and came alongside. He clambered on our
+deck, but no one paid any attention to him.
+
+"I wants to see de boss," said he to one of our blacks resting well aft.
+
+"You wants to see de Captain? He's up dere somewhares aroun' de
+wheel-house." We overheard this inquiry and the answer with great
+interest. This was likely to be the first nibble at our bait.
+
+When the captain was pointed out he acted well the part of a trader who
+had desirable goods with a liberal demand, but evidenced little interest
+in the emissary who approached him hat in hand.
+
+"Is you de cap'm?"
+
+"Yes, me da capitan," Marianna replied, assuming strong Italian accent
+without effort.
+
+"Yas'sa--yas'sa," the darky echoed, looking about the boat, wet, dirty
+and littered with bark, slabs, and sawdust. "My boss, Mista Becka, wants
+to know--would like to know," he corrected, "if you kain't cum ashore to
+see him."
+
+"Whata yo' boss want?--we start upa quick, gotta not much time."
+
+"Wal, he did'n zactly say, but I done reckon as how he wants to see you
+'bout somp'n pa'tic'lar."
+
+"Go back, tella da boss we starta to work soon--I talka with him here
+after we getta da start," the captain said, pointing toward the deck.
+
+"Yas, I'll tell him dat," replied the negro, fidgeting as though his
+mission had been a failure, but immediately started for his boat.
+
+"You tella heem we be here alla day; he come any time," Marianna called
+to him as he rowed away.
+
+In about an hour the negro made out again, but this time he had the
+bulky figure of the man we wanted to see above all others. Of course,
+while we were running I had to stand by the engine below constantly,
+while Hiram, anticipating Becker's visit, had taken to a boat ostensibly
+to look over the logs carefully before fastening the grapples that
+brought them aboard.
+
+Becker had not been aboard long before it was clear that Hiram had
+planned better than he knew. There is something about a saw in full
+career that the most blasé cannot resist. He stood watching it for some
+time. A huge wet and mud-laden log was hauled aboard, laid on the
+carriage, where steel teeth clenched it down. In a twinkling four side
+slabs came off and it was transformed into a square timber, clean and
+white, in strange contrast to the slimy thing it had been but a moment
+before. Then the whirling teeth began to travel through it with an ease
+that suggested a much softer material, laying out inch boards which
+disappeared below.
+
+Captain Marianna brought him below to see the stock on hand, and it
+seemed to fill the bill, but as he was leaving our big motor attracted
+his attention. Becker was not the debonaire Lothario he affected to be
+when in New Orleans. Now sadly unkempt, it seemed to me that his great
+midriff exuded grease, but it might have been sweat.
+
+He was greatly interested in learning how the big motor, originally
+intended for an air-plane, not only propelled a boat and ran a sawmill,
+but yanked in the logs, and hauled in our rigging.
+
+He finally came over to where I stood trying my best to look bored and
+tired.
+
+"Do you ever have any trouble with it?" he asked, jerkily pointing a
+pudgy thumb toward the motor.
+
+"No-o-o--but of course it's got to be watched."
+
+"I've got one over there running an ice machine, but I don't know
+whether its the nigger I've got running it, or whether it's overloaded,
+or no good, but it makes lots of trouble." I could see he wished to get
+some free technical instruction.
+
+"It's likely your man doesn't know all about it," I led him on.
+
+Our talk ended in my promise to go ashore that night and take a look at
+it.
+
+Yes, he wanted lumber and the captain's price seemed satisfactory. In
+addition he wanted some lumber sawed half an inch thick for crating--and
+more--he would like to have all the sawdust we could save for him. He
+needed it in some insulating work on a cooler room--so he said.
+
+That night we were to come alongside his wharf and he would have his
+negroes unload during the night what lumber we had so we would lose no
+time next morning.
+
+"Oh, yes, I've got lots of niggers to do it," he explained when leaving.
+
+When Hiram heard of the turn things had taken he could hardly contain
+himself. He acted like a man who had been in a dungeon for months and
+suddenly caught a glimmer of light. As for myself, I saw only that we
+were nearing the end of a very unpleasant bit of investigation.
+
+"Be careful, Hiram," I cautioned, "the least bad move will spoil it.
+This man has a low cunning--hypnotize yourself into thinking it is not
+of much importance and you have a year to do it. A show of haste will
+be fatal."
+
+Hiram was quick to see the point and began to grin. I knew he was about
+ready to jump out of his skin with excitement.
+
+"Do you know," said he, "it is now only a little after two and we have
+sawed more logs and made more good lumber than we did all day
+yesterday!" Evidently he was trying to control himself. "The sawyer
+tells me he must have nice clear logs to make half-inch lumber on
+Becker's order. I guess I'll spend the afternoon picking them out."
+
+It took longer than we thought to work our way out of the bayou and up
+to Becker's floating wharf. As soon as we were tied up he came down with
+a lot of negroes, who began at once to unload the lumber, carrying it
+piece by piece back near his building operations. Captain Marianna
+checked it as it left.
+
+Now on the windward side of the plant it was possible to eat. It was a
+long rambling building, painted the color of a freight car, occasionally
+rising to two stories; on one end were the posts driven in the ground
+for a considerable addition.
+
+After supper we sat smoking, well up on the bank. It soon became
+evident that Becker did not intend to lose a chance to get expert advice
+on his gas-engine troubles. He waddled over to us with some real Havanas
+and with little tact reminded me of my promise.
+
+Though the sun was low, Becker was still in his working togs, bareheaded
+and stripped to an undershirt. In this array he was a sight to behold,
+with his sagging jowls, from which great billows of fat formed rolls
+about his neck.
+
+"This boy here is my assistant, Mr. Becker--he has found engine trouble
+even when I couldn't," I said, pointing toward Hiram, as we got up to go
+with him.
+
+How vitally interested Hiram was in this move would be hard to estimate.
+Much more experienced, I could only contain myself and be natural by
+refusing to think of the tremendous importance of our acting now, and,
+without coaching, I think Hiram did the same thing. The slightest false
+move would render worse than useless planning that had consumed much
+time and large expenditure.
+
+Hiram walked beside Becker as nonchalantly as though strolling along
+Broadway, while I followed slightly in the rear. Hiram's now wonderfully
+developed physique seemed ready for action, ready to break loose with
+overpowering ferocity. I watched him furtively out of the corner of an
+eye to make sure he did not precipitate an affair that would "spill the
+beans."
+
+Becker led us around the outside of the buildings--I was sure there was
+a short cut through them--to a lean-to shed containing the troublesome
+engine now laboring with its burden as a locomotive starting to move an
+overload.
+
+"Ben, the engine is overcrowded," said Hiram, as we stood by it,
+addressing himself to me just loud enough for Becker to hear. Becker
+stood slightly apart from me as though he had turned a patient over to
+us for the time being. I was glad his big black engineer was not there.
+My policy was never to kill, but my duty was to get what I went after.
+
+We spent ten minutes examining the details of the engine, narrowly
+watched by Becker. Hiram's conduct was wonderful. He acted as though
+there was nothing under Heaven or on earth that interested him so much
+as discovering how we could help cure the sick motor. We asked to see
+the load on the driving belt that disappeared from the driving pulley
+through a board partition.
+
+Becker, fairly assured, took us inside into a dark space to a ten-ton
+ice machine, developing about half its capacity because of slow speed.
+
+Glancing about it for a moment, we returned to the engine room and went
+outside as though about to return to the dock, considering it a hopeless
+case. Becker followed us, greatly concerned.
+
+"Mr. Becker, it is a plain case of overload; you must lighten the work
+of your ice machine. You are attempting to make the motor do too much.
+The engine might be helped a little by readjusting, but that would not
+be enough," I said, with a sort of hesitating finality, as we both edged
+away in the direction we had come.
+
+Becker followed and came close up beside us.
+
+"How can I do that?--you see I am so far away up here I can get no one
+to do such things," he pleaded.
+
+"The only way is to reduce the circulating distance of the ammonia
+mixture, and then what you have left will cool more space than it does
+now," I said, actually feeling sure that was the case.
+
+"How can I do that?" he urged, noticing quickly our inclination to
+leave.
+
+"That might be very easy or it might be quite a job. We could not tell
+without examining your piping system," I replied as one who had done a
+big day's work and was thinking more of sleep than of his troubles,
+particularly since he had not offered us anything to remedy. Becker had
+enough sense to see this.
+
+He screwed up his face in a way that brought prodigious wrinkles upon
+his forehead. Then followed an attempt to be patronizingly generous.
+
+"Boys, I'll tell you what I'll do. I know you've been working all day
+and are tired, but if you will take time enough to look the whole system
+over and help it some, I will give you five dollars apiece--I must do
+something or I will have a lot of stuff spoiled--in fact, I have had
+some spoil already," he ended half to himself.
+
+Hiram glanced at me quickly, and Becker thought that this swift movement
+to take down his pipe was caused by the lure of his cash offer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+WE spent two hours examining the remotest part of the refrigerating
+plant, piloted and aided at first by Becker. As it grew darker he
+furnished us with a torch. By this time we had made certain adjustments
+to the engine, the necessity of which we had noted on first inspection,
+and left it running merrily away with its load like a horse relieved of
+a choking collar. Becker saw this, gave five dollars to each of us, and
+after the fashion of a boor, tried to appear grateful. Then he paid cash
+for all the lumber now stacked on the bank, with the understanding we
+were to bring as much more, after which he left us to go, as he thought,
+to our beds. But that was not our plan; we had work ahead of too much
+importance to think of sleep.
+
+While we were making the examination of a large part of Becker's plant,
+for that is what it amounted to, Hiram controlled himself and behaved
+like a veteran, but at times I think he shrewdly guessed that I
+displayed more skill than an amateur. In fact, I was so mightily
+interested in the outcome that I made no attempt to disguise the fact
+that under the guise of gasfitter, steamfitter, electrician, or
+refrigeration expert, I had gained access to the very bowels of
+buildings and manufacturing plants for a similar purpose.
+
+When Becker had gone Hiram presented a curious combination--elation and
+disappointment. He fairly trembled now with suppressed excitement. He
+turned fiercely upon me and whispered hoarsely:
+
+"Ben, we got a lot, but not the most important. We didn't find the
+seals, did we?" He asked this in a suppressed tone, but not until he had
+gone forward to make sure all the crew were on deck and asleep. Captain
+Marianna was snoring loudly in the pilot house.
+
+"No--but all those hams, dried meat--horse-meat--and tubs of
+lard--renderings from dead animals--were freshly stamped, 'Inspected and
+passed,' with a Government stamp, and with Government ink."
+
+"But the stamps and seals we want, Ben." I could not see his face in the
+dark, but his tone indicated that the day's hard work had not abated
+his tremendous energy one whit.
+
+"No, Hiram, but we have everything but the stamps and seals--we can
+convict him with what we now know--I mean with the addition of what we
+saw to-night--but that would not make a clean job. We have got to get
+the rest of the men with whom he must have been working, and who are
+most likely in the railroad service," I replied, rapidly analyzing.
+
+"Where can we go?--what can we do to get them?--the nearer I get to the
+end of this thing, I feel almost as though I would go insane," he
+whispered, at the same time grabbing me by the shoulder as would a
+petulant child, and shook me until I thought his last statement was
+conservative.
+
+"The old fox is very sly--doesn't trust any of his help--the stamps are
+not so important--the seals he keeps in or about his office in New
+Orleans--our next move is there. Hiram, can you stand a run to New
+Orleans to-night?" I replied, as though thinking aloud.
+
+He sprang to his feet like a cat and leaned over me.
+
+"I can stand to do anything, without eating or sleeping, if it takes a
+whole week," he replied with set jaws.
+
+The next morning we tied up at the wharf in New Orleans. During the
+night I had worked out a plan. There are times when cunning and
+strategical violations of the law must be matched in order to secure and
+convict criminals and the courts have uniformly justified it. I was
+going to take a big chance and finish the job quickly.
+
+I left Hiram on the boat and went to our rooms for the mail, and to get
+other bearings. When I returned he was walking up and down the wharf
+like a caged hyena, almost frothing at the mouth.
+
+"We are up against it again--it does beat the devil--why can't they
+leave us alone for a little while, anyhow?" he demanded, his eyes
+shooting fire as he stopped stolidly in front of me.
+
+"What is it now, Hiram?"
+
+"It's these damned shipping people--they say we can make two round trips
+a week to gulf ports for lumber, and if we don't do it willingly they
+will make us--just take the boat, that's all," he exploded in righteous
+wrath.
+
+"That pays, doesn't it?" I asked with a smile, more to arouse his sense
+of humor.
+
+"Yes, of course it pays, but haven't we got something more important--at
+that, it won't pay half as much as sawing logs from the river--and we
+can let the Government have the lumber," he replied--somewhat mollified.
+
+"Hiram, you will have to go--but let's get some breakfast while we talk
+it over there."
+
+We went below to where a darky was frying two big slabs of ham and a
+dozen eggs, also watching a large coffee pot steaming on a three-dollar
+gasoline stove. He prepared to serve the breakfast on a table made of
+the head of a tobacco tierce, with three square sticks for legs, placed
+in an open space back of the engine. The chairs were a four-inch cut-off
+from the end of a log, accoutered with legs as was the table, but all
+cleaned and trimmed, with good rustic effect. The entire hold of the
+boat had been washed, cleaned, and put in perfect order, and the men at
+that moment were scrubbing the upper deck. He must have everything clean
+and orderly.
+
+Hiram sat down opposite me at this rustic round table, and placed two
+bare arms upon it. A deep pink rim about his eyelids was the only
+evidence of fatigue after twenty-four hours of continuous work without
+sleep, and while he had combed his hair with his fingers, and still
+needed a shave, a novice could see in him a big man, with tremendous
+energy that chafed at delays.
+
+"Well----?" He looked eagerly the question as if to save words.
+
+"Hiram, have you stopped to take stock lately? Don't you think we have
+made pretty good progress in the last ten days?"
+
+"Indeed we have, Ben--don't think I am finding fault--what bothers me
+is--could we have done more?--have we worked up to the limit?--and it
+does worry me to think we have not done away with this man Becker, and
+squared away to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities, and--and
+you know the other thing--perhaps you cannot understand how fearfully
+anxious I am to go back to Anna Bell, clean--and successful."
+
+"I do believe I understand. We--well, I'd rather say you--you have done
+it pretty much yourself--you have been successful."
+
+"Heavens, yes--a month ago I was working for a hundred and twenty-five
+per, and no immediate prospects--and I would have been there yet, unless
+railroaded to prison as a goat for this crowd that you have----"
+
+"No more of that, Hiram," I interrupted, raising my hand in
+protest--"let us talk of our immediate movements--the way matters stand
+now. You are so near out of the woods you can easily see the clearing,
+but there is more work getting through the underbrush--where there may
+be some snakes or other reptiles--but that ought not to worry you.
+Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait."
+
+"But you have done the most----"
+
+"Never mind now who has done the most--we can talk of that later. The
+way the case now stands, we have been to the butcher, the baker and the
+grocer for the goods to provide a sumptuous meal for Becker and his
+crowd, and perhaps we have the cook, but to make 'em eat will require
+just a little more time and strategy. As far as your being clear of
+implication, every one knows it now--it remains only to make it a matter
+of record.
+
+"My plan for the next move may take a week or more, but doesn't require
+your presence, and as long as you are compelled to go anyhow, make a
+virtue of the necessity. Get away for Gulfport as soon as possible
+and--temper your anxiety and impatience by making money. Fifteen hundred
+a trip--two trips a week--is not so bad, is it?" I asked, smiling, as I
+saw a shade of old-time exuberance creeping about his mouth. He had
+followed my review with rising spirits. It may be that the great piece
+of ham and the half dozen eggs and steaming coffee set before him helped
+a little.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+WE sat and eyed each other for several quiet moments. Finally Hiram
+spoke. Said he, "Do you think I can help you here? If I can, we'll let
+them take the _Fearsome_--they'll have to pay well--then we can get
+another one. I won't rest well until this matter is cleaned up, lock,
+stock and barrel----"
+
+"No, my boy, that would be an unnecessary sacrifice--boats with any such
+carrying capacity and speed are scarce; in fact, are now unobtainable.
+While I am not going into details now--truth is, I haven't yet worked
+out the details--I think seeing you twice a week will be enough." It
+really seemed to me that he would be only in the way, but I thought it
+unwise to mention that to him.
+
+While I was looking up an engineer to take my place on the boat, Hiram
+went to the shippers and drove a hard bargain, arranging for loading and
+unloading at night so that he could make his run by daylight, requiring
+only one shift of the crew. Thus he surprised me again with his keen
+sense of things commercial. One would have thought he had spent years
+about the docks and shipping. In fact, Hiram Strong, Jr., had been a
+continuous surprise.
+
+When I returned with an engineer to explain and show him about, general
+merchandise was pouring into the _Fearsome_, with black stevedores
+swarming about like ants.
+
+"You see, I am going to take just enough of this merchandise to pay
+expenses of the trip, then our lumber freight will be all velvet--the
+freight will come out at one end while the lumber goes in at the other
+and we won't lose any time, see?"
+
+Yes, I did see, but didn't say much, for I was busy planning. I remained
+until I saw him off and waved to him as the _Fearsome_ headed down
+stream. I afterward learned that when they reached the locks into Lake
+Borgne, they found the _Fearsome_ could squeeze through and save over
+two hundred miles on the round trip and be running in inland water all
+the way. Surely nothing got away from that boy.
+
+I returned to my old room in the general railroad office and took
+possession again. I sent at once for Superintendent Kitchell, whom I
+knew was exceedingly anxious to hear of my progress. Nothing had been
+removed from my office except Miss Bascom's desk and typewriter.
+
+The superintendent came in puffing, and was slightly indignant that I
+had not come to him, until I explained that I did not want to take the
+slightest chance of our conversation being overheard.
+
+"We have been successful in getting pretty well all over Becker & Co.'s
+plant and have secured enough evidence against them to convict, but to
+finish the job and get the railroad men implicated I need some help from
+you," I said, as he looked at me with undisguised astonishment.
+
+"Mr. Taylor, anything but the road-bed is yours, to help you clean up
+this infernal mess. Only this morning the general superintendent wired
+me asking if I had anything new to report. I suppose he was only
+'passing the buck' that started away up--with the Government maybe----"
+
+"Tell them not to be in too big a hurry--it may clear up soon, and it
+may take time yet. Mr. Kitchell, can you invent a plausible excuse for
+sending your man Burrell out of town, some distance, for a few days?" I
+asked, casually.
+
+Had the points of a dozen pins been suddenly introduced into the bottom
+of his chair, the effect on him could not have been more electrical. He
+sprang to his feet, indignant and angry to the point of apoplexy.
+
+"You don't mean to say--you mean our chief clerk--you should be very
+cautious how you attempt to besmirch--do you actually mean him?" he
+fairly shouted, moving toward me menacingly.
+
+"He is either used as a tool or is directly implicated, and with him out
+of town I propose to find out which. If implicated, I want to know just
+how far, but he must be sent on a half-hour notice--without even a
+chance to telephone."
+
+"Well----!" he exploded, and began to polish his bare cranium with a big
+handkerchief. "I'll see--that must be arranged--it can't be done in a
+hurry----"
+
+"Just as soon as you can without arousing suspicion will do, but I can't
+move, however, until that is done," I interrupted.
+
+"I'm so astonished I can't think now--give me a little time."
+
+"All right--and another thing, I wish you would have Miss Bascom
+transferred back here to me immediately."
+
+"That's easy--I will have that done at once--the girl is all right, but
+Burrell," he said, shaking his head sadly--"Burrell takes my breath," he
+added as he went out, leaving the impression that the bed of a railroad
+superintendent was not bowered with roses.
+
+I went out to luncheon and, although in a crowd, not a face appeared
+distinct. I was so absorbed in formulating plans to force an immediate
+issue that I didn't know what I was eating.
+
+Upon my return I found Miss Bascom's desk in its accustomed place by the
+window. She bowed and greeted me as one whom she had not seen for a long
+time. I couldn't decide whether it was pleasure or disappointment. I was
+delighted to find a note from Superintendent Kitchell, saying he had
+found a way to hurry Burrell out on the twelve-thirty on a special
+errand to Kansas City that could be lengthened at will.
+
+Glancing over at Miss Bascom, I noted her hands in front of her as she
+sat looking out of the window, waiting for me to give her some work. I
+felt that her knell had rung, the supreme moment had arrived. Knowing
+that, I pitied her, for I proposed to tear away the mask and reveal to
+her the duality of her life.
+
+The sunlight fell on her reddish brown hair, which appeared unusually
+attractive that day. I smoked half of my cigar in an endeavor to keep my
+poise and steel myself against the pity I would have for her during a
+fiery ordeal. As I had promised myself, I would force her to hold up the
+last few pages of her life for me to read, and I would use her as a
+lure, an instrument, with which to fasten a crime where it
+belonged--even if upon herself.
+
+Swinging squarely about, I attracted her attention. She nodded, and
+supposing she was to take dictation, gathered her notebook and pencils
+and came to me at once. I had the decided advantage of a full light upon
+her face, while mine was shaded.
+
+"Miss Bascom, it is not letters I want, but a somewhat serious talk, and
+while I may ask some exceedingly personal questions, I would like you
+to feel it is not a desire to pry into your affairs."
+
+She took the advantage of remaining silent, looking fully and frankly at
+me, and I thought there was the slightest smile about her delicate lips
+which I had believed--but now wondered--if Burrell had ever touched
+them.
+
+"Miss Bascom, you know a Mr. Becker who has a plant up the river?"
+
+Her eyes only evidenced the shock of hearing his name, but without
+outward sign she replied simply--"Yes."
+
+"How well do you know him?"
+
+"I don't think I know him very well," she replied with attempted
+frankness.
+
+"You had not been here with me long until you knew I was investigating
+these railroad thefts, and that he was suspected?"
+
+"I was not quite sure--you let me know so very little," she replied with
+an ease that was somewhat exasperating.
+
+"Yet, during that time you were with me in--well, rather a confidential
+capacity--you went out with him to public places, drinking places, and
+could not be in ignorance of his real purpose; in fact, his proposals
+were outright?"
+
+"Y-e-s," she faltered, raising her eyes, now lighted with a fire I
+thought impossible. I could not determine whether from resentment toward
+me or the recalling of certain indignities she had experienced.
+
+"What is your attitude toward him now?"
+
+"The same as it has always been," she replied, her bosom heaving as a
+result of her mental agitation.
+
+I knew I was master now, so leisurely lit another cigar and blew a cloud
+of smoke between us, contemplatively.
+
+"What is his attitude toward you?"
+
+"I think the same as it has been." Then, looking down at her pretty
+hands in her lap, she half murmured, "Such a man does not change much."
+
+This admission sounded to me like a cannon shot and I immediately asked:
+
+"You say that your relations with him are the same as always, but you do
+not say what they were."
+
+This time she looked down at the toe of a very small, neat shoe which
+she raised slightly to contemplate. She remained silent for some
+moments, the veins in her forehead swelling until they showed blue
+through her delicate skin.
+
+"I--I--would like to see him punished--it seems to me that is what you
+want to know," she said in a low voice in which I thought there was
+resentment, but whether directed against me, Becker or some one else I
+could not determine. "I would do _anything_ to have him punished," she
+added with suppressed emphasis.
+
+"Miss Bascom, what are your relations with Chief Clerk Burrell?" I asked
+suddenly.
+
+Taken completely unawares from this quarter, she drew a very short but
+deep breath, recovering quickly.
+
+"They--well--I know Mr. Burrell," she admitted slowly.
+
+"You have carried on quite a flirtation with him?"
+
+"Yes--of course, you do not know--it would be hard to make you
+understand----"
+
+"Does Mr. Becker know of your attitude--rather, I mean, your relations
+with Mr. Burrell?" I interrupted.
+
+"I--well, he knows that I am well acquainted with Mr. Burrell, but I
+don't think he quite understands all," she admitted with some show of
+humility, inclining me to the conclusion that she loved Burrell and
+would save him. But I didn't care whom she wanted to save.
+
+I was perhaps somewhat brutal in saying, "I have your word you would do
+_anything_ to reach Mr. Becker--of course, with the understanding that
+you will be protected?"
+
+She opened her mouth, showing pure white teeth, then drew her lips
+tightly until no red was visible, all the while looking squarely at me
+as she repeated slowly, knowingly--
+
+"Yes, _anything_. I would go through Hell Fire!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+SPIRITED, maidenly purity will work itself into a sort of ecstatic,
+swaggering turbulence, similar to a hardened degenerate, frequently to
+the chagrin, disappointment and dismay of the most practiced.
+
+When through with Miss Bascom, I will confess I could not tell in which
+class she belonged. War had brought to our shores hideous flotsam, whom
+I did not care, did not want, to know. I wanted trap bait, and why not
+her? Had I mentioned my belief that she had sent the anonymous notes to
+Hiram, or that she had been seen dining with the Gold-Beater, Hiram
+Strong, Sr., after six hours' business acquaintance, her attitude would
+have instantly developed.
+
+A certain cold-blooded brutality in what I proposed must be admitted. I
+wanted to clear Hiram and finish a long-drawn-out case, and one doesn't
+want to know the pedigree of the lamb used as bait for a lion. But I
+proposed to save her from the fate of the lamb in such cases, although
+she had consented, without duress, to act. I felt that it was Burrell
+she wanted to save.
+
+I gave her some work that would occupy about all the afternoon, and took
+measures to prevent her leaving the building or telephoning without
+being overheard.
+
+Becker was in the city and about his office. His business was
+flourishing.
+
+With the coöperation of the hotel management two communicating rooms on
+the second floor were arranged for at the hotel frequented by Becker,
+and these were prepared for my purpose.
+
+At four o'clock when I asked her to dress for the street and come with
+me, she did so without hesitation--in fact, she seemed eager--but I
+could not be sure of that.
+
+As we walked silently down to the hotel she appeared to be sure of
+herself, and if she was surprised when we entered the ladies' entrance
+and walked up the one flight to the rooms, she gave no evidence of it. I
+felt assured she had the necessary self-control.
+
+She was quick to notice that the door between the two rooms was open,
+but made no comment, and apparently as though in her own lodgings,
+removed her hat, to make herself comfortable. She went to the glass,
+touched her wonderful hair here and there as though to add something to
+its alluring arrangement, impressing me anew that she was in point of
+beauty, at least, a most attractive girl, and I again complimented
+Becker's ambitious taste and selection. As for throwing herself away for
+the married, sporting Burrell, I pitied her for her lack of
+discrimination.
+
+She took the chair I pointed to in front of a writing desk on which was
+the room telephone. The way she rested her elbow on it and half turned
+toward me suggested that she awaited my signal of "what next?"
+
+"Miss Bascom," said I, taking a chair facing her, "I feel like warning
+you that you are undertaking a most delicate, difficult, and even
+dangerous enterprise. If you fail through inability, it will be
+understood, but if you fail by reason of half-heartedness or any sort of
+treachery, I will not be responsible. I am positively in no mood to
+condone such an offense, besides I am not the only one involved in this
+arrangement--there are others who are less likely to be trifled with
+than myself." I spoke good-naturedly and with something of a plea for
+her own welfare.
+
+"Mr. Taylor," she began, in quiet, sweet, Southern accent, "I have
+consented to act a part in good faith, and if I fail it will be because
+it cannot be done." Then, with charming assurance, she glanced into the
+other room and at the telephone before her, and said, "Explain just what
+you want me to do."
+
+She seemed almost too willing and a certain nervousness in her tone left
+some doubt. But we had arranged for duplicity, and though I felt the ice
+a little thin, decided to go ahead.
+
+"Miss Bascom, your motive in maintaining relations with Mr. Becker is
+something of a conjecture that I am not much interested in now. It may
+interest you, however, to know that I know of your meeting with him in a
+wine room of this hotel." Then taking from my pocket a typewritten
+report of the meeting, I continued, "The least sound that was made in
+that room at that time is here recorded as nearly as possible in words
+and sound of voice. I know what you drank, what he drank, that you
+submitted to his caresses, kisses, that he made salacious proposals,
+and there may have been subsequent meetings of which we do not know."
+
+She started visibly at this and moved uneasily in her chair, laid her
+chin in her palm and looked straight at me with eyes burning like
+fire--I thought slightly mixed with alarm and amusement, but she did not
+utter a word, so I continued:
+
+"In order that you proceed intelligently in this matter I will tell you
+that Becker is a criminal and that we have ample evidence to convict
+him, but in order to make it easier, and to reach others, I want you to
+get him to come up here to this room, then actually lure from him what
+we want."
+
+She made no sign and I went on:
+
+"There are times when fire must be met with fire, crime sometimes has to
+be uncovered by finesse, strategy, trick, even downright subterfuge, and
+this seems to be one of the times. His weakest point is his penchant for
+pretty women."
+
+Miss Bascom evidenced intense interest in what I said and seemed to
+weigh every word I uttered. But she did not appear to want to reply or
+suggest anything, though she seemed to take on an exultant attitude.
+
+"We have ample evidence to convict him of robbing cars of meat
+products, and to do this he must have in his possession the seals of the
+United States Bureau of Animal Industry, and the shippers of the goods
+in Kansas City, as well as the railroad seals, and the instruments for
+adjusting. These we want.
+
+"We believe that he has them secreted here in New Orleans. The plan is
+that by your protestation of interest, affection or whatnot, you will
+induce him to place them in your hands for safekeeping. We are certain
+he has been furnished these things with help from Kansas City. Do you
+think you can do it?" I ended by asking suddenly.
+
+"What will happen if I fail?" she surprised me by asking.
+
+"If you fail and can show a clean slate, nothing unpleasant will
+happen," I replied rather coldly, suggestive of what might happen if the
+reverse were true.
+
+"_I--think_--I may be able to make some headway, but it may take more
+time than you anticipate," she warned me quietly.
+
+"I don't care how much time you take, or how much expense, but it must
+be a continuous performance--nothing more than an intermission will be
+allowable. This telephone will be permanently connected with mine in the
+next room. If he wants you to drink, do so, and nothing containing
+alcohol will come to you, and though he is copper-lined, we will
+contrive to put him at a disadvantage and you can easily use the 'phone
+to ask for instructions when you are not sure." Then contemplating her
+critically for a moment, I added--"You said you were willing to do
+_anything_."
+
+"I know I did--and I will--and I begin to feel safe--you will protect
+me, won't you?" she asked me with a delightful appeal in her eyes that
+could not be refused.
+
+"Every precaution has been made for that--you will not be disturbed; the
+waiter who serves you is one of our men--but you must act, you must
+succeed. Becker is probably in his office now; call him up," I added,
+giving his number.
+
+There was no doubt about her eagerness and distinct intention to
+succeed, to do _anything_, but I could not decide whether she was moved
+by fear or a genuine desire to coöperate, get revenge, or to save
+Burrell.
+
+Becker fell incontinently during the first round.
+
+There was in every word a purr, a coo, an invitation--she assumed the
+attitude of permitting him to come up, to see her for just a little
+while at the hotel.
+
+Her low laugh of triumph was more of a chuckle as she turned to me for
+approbation.
+
+"Fine--so far very good," I commented as though the result was no more
+than expected and prepared to go into the other room and lock the door,
+where she did not know I could overhear every whisper that passed,
+though she may have suspected something of the sort.
+
+Becker's haste to get there was evidenced by the speed with which he
+came, and his entrance was Falstaffian. But the real Falstaff had no
+such intrigue arranged for him. He was not a criminal.
+
+The meeting between Bascom and Becker lasted over six hours. The
+stenographers at the dictaphone in my room made over a hundred pages of
+evidence to be used at the trial.
+
+When it was over, just before midnight, and I led Miss Bascom out of the
+hotel to a cab, her sturdy body seemed a wreck. She leaned heavily on me
+and seemed to have aged greatly. As she was about to enter the vehicle,
+she looked back into the building, horrified, as though reason was
+unseated by wild imaginations that she was pursued by a legion of
+dreaded devils. She did not utter a word until she was seated inside,
+when she reached her hand, delicate and soft, for mine, and with gentle
+pressure, exclaimed as though waking from a terrible nightmare:
+
+"Mr. Taylor, I have lived a hundred years in the last six
+hours--but--but"--she hesitated, gasping for breath--"I have done what
+I--we--what you wanted me to do."
+
+Of course, when Becker first came the overture was drink; it always is.
+Having full control of that through the waiter we saw that the first
+ones had more punch than he expected, but we gave her a mere counterfeit
+of what he thought she was drinking. The sumptuous food he ordered was
+carefully served. Later we had to weaken his potions so that his mad
+desire would run at its height, waiting on neither discretion nor
+reason. I heard every word, every sound. Her acting was perfection. The
+indignities she suffered were terrible and could not have been endured
+except for the reason that they were fortified by a deep, enduring,
+sacrificial tendency to be loyal. This conclusion forced itself upon me.
+His protestations were repeated over and over and merged into a plea for
+sympathy.
+
+Her generalship was superb. He promised her everything. She patiently,
+cautiously led him to the point where she told him, that by reason of
+her position in the office she knew he had been _led_ into certain
+transactions that might lead to her disgrace, in view of the alliance he
+proposed.
+
+"But that is all stopped," he reiterated a dozen times.
+
+Then, with wonderful acumen, she let him understand that she knew of the
+existence of various stamps and seals, finally that their very existence
+was a menace and she could not feel any security in his promise until
+she knew they were destroyed.
+
+"I will put them at the bottom of the river to-morrow morning."
+
+"But if you are really in earnest and mean well, you will do that now,
+this very night--let me see you do it, or bring them to me," she coaxed,
+wheedled, insinuated.
+
+And then finally with the blood fired by alcohol and that quality that
+makes men putty in the hands of beauty and sex lure, he ordered a cab
+and in an incredibly short time returned with quite a large package
+wrapped carefully in burlap. He left the room for a moment in his
+preparations for the anticipated night. I opened the door between the
+rooms, admitted her with the package, about all she could carry, and he
+never saw her again. The mad, inflamed bull was stalled with a ring in
+his nose.
+
+This blazed the trail to Kansas City, where I started on the next train,
+and did not return for more than a week.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+AS soon as I saw Hiram I knew he was a different man. It was not
+necessary for me to tell him. Details were published in every daily
+paper. He had gone back to Anna Bell Morgan clean, unsullied,
+unbesmirched--his conception of what a man should be, and prosperous
+beyond dreams. A solid, forceful man, ambitious without limit, he was
+much interested in the brief information I gave him of how I had
+successfully uncovered and apprehended in Kansas City all the others
+involved in the crime, who evidenced a power of organization which, if
+directed in legitimate channels, would have made them rich.
+
+He had rented and furnished offices, where I found him at work.
+
+"Had to have headquarters, Ben--just one room, with an adjoining one for
+you--let me introduce you to it," he said, putting his hand
+affectionately on my shoulder, leading through a connecting door into a
+big, well-lighted, expensively furnished office.
+
+"Sit down and see how it seems to have a home of your own," he went on,
+pushing me into a big leather chair and throwing up the top of a
+commodious mahogany desk. Everywhere showed evidence of the feminine
+touch.
+
+"You see, Ben, I could not have done so well. This is Anna Bell's idea
+and selection--I have told her so much of you she feels, in fact acts,
+as though she knew you as well as I do, but you will meet her soon and
+she will tell you about that herself. I never would have thought of the
+carpet, but she said carpet, and there was carpet," he mused
+reminiscently, as he pulled up a chair and sat down near me where he
+could look out of the window.
+
+"I've got to leave to-night again on the _Fearsome_ and there is so much
+to tell you--something I want to ask you about."
+
+I was too astonished and delighted with the enterprise and zeal of the
+fellow to know what to say.
+
+"Ben, why don't you say something--don't you like this?" he asked
+solicitously, leaning toward me and scanning my face. He was the boy
+again.
+
+"Hiram, give me a little time--I was wondering how you managed so
+quickly to do all this----"
+
+"There--that's better," said he, a relieved smile creeping about the
+upturned corners of his mouth. "I told you I didn't--I couldn't--have
+done it alone--you see, Ben, I am making three trips a week to Gulf port
+instead of two, and carrying enough general merchandise back to pay
+expenses," and then turning his chair so as to look squarely at me, he
+continued. "It is pouring prosperity, though we are making a willing,
+patriotic sacrifice while doing it, and we must hustle like sixty until
+the rain is over."
+
+I looked at him more astonished, as I felt sure something bigger was
+coming. Was there no limit?
+
+"We are making money pretty fast now, but this won't last--I know now
+the logs in the river will disappear soon after we get at them again,
+and you know we have got to look ahead. I can buy a tract of timber up
+there at Gulfport--cheap--enough timber to keep us sawing for years. Now
+don't look so alarmed--it will take a lot of money, but we've got to do
+it if it is possible. I've opened a bank account here and talked to the
+president about it--but everything now is going into Liberty bonds and
+you can't blame them--but it's got to be done, Ben," he repeated in a
+tense undertone, bringing his hard hand down on my knee with a loud
+slap.
+
+Looking at him in wonder for a moment, I finally asked,
+
+"How much will it take, Hiram?"
+
+"Now don't fall over when I tell you--that's why I got a big chair with
+a soft cushion, so that you could sustain a shock once in a while
+without injury. Ben, it will take about a hundred thousand dollars to
+get it, but it's got to come," he ended, passing his hand rapidly over
+his chin as though glad it was out.
+
+"You have not forgotten, Hiram, that you must settle with the railroad
+for the engine in the _Fearsome_ and the sawmill, too?"
+
+"I know we have, but I've got enough in the bank for that and more
+besides," he replied quickly. "What do you think, is it possible?" he
+asked, making me feel he was not to be resisted.
+
+"I don't know, Hiram; you are placing a pretty big order--we'll see--I
+don't believe I told you just how much I sold that barrel for, did I?"
+turning to him with an affected smile of derision.
+
+"Yes, I know you will have the laugh on me as long as you live about
+that barrel; in fact, I will laugh myself every time I think of it even
+if I am at a funeral, but that couldn't happen again in a million
+years," he replied, getting up and pacing the room, finally halting in
+the opposite corner, where he catapulted a question as though he might
+be coming along with it.
+
+"How much did you get for it, Ben?"
+
+"It was as you say, Hiram, a thousand-to-one shot that could not have
+happened and never will happen again--I don't claim any credit, except
+in discovering it was not junk, by a little leakage through the chimes
+which discolored my fingers."
+
+"I know--I know--you never claim anything," he interrupted.
+
+"You see, we had to pay something like twenty thousand to clear the
+_Fearsome_."
+
+"Yes, I know that."
+
+"Well, I think there is a balance in the bank of something about forty
+thousand more----"
+
+"You are joking again, Ben," he interrupted, charging over toward me,
+incredulous, as I took from my wallet a credit slip which he grasped and
+began to cavort and cut capers on the expensive carpet, much the same as
+he acted at the first signs of good luck, months before.
+
+"Ben, you are a mascot--you have been one to me, anyhow--now in another
+month--before this deal can be closed--I can pay the railroad claim for
+the motor and the sawmill, and every other stiver we owe. And we'll have
+at least ten thousand more to bring our balance up to fifty thousand.
+Now, how can we raise fifty thousand more?" he asked, fairly excited--he
+pronounced _fifty thousand_ as though he was used to dealing in those
+figures all his life--as though it was no more than the price of one of
+those famous beefsteaks he liked so well. He must have inherited it from
+the Gold-Beater--as he did the love for new, clean lumber and the lumber
+business. Hiram admitted he knew so little of his father that he was
+unaware I knew he was a Lumber King.
+
+I took out cigars, thinking hard, and offered him one.
+
+"No, thank you, I prefer a pipe," said he producing one at once as
+something he had overlooked.
+
+"Hiram, give me a little time--you say you leave this afternoon?"
+
+"Yes, I ought to be on the dock now," said he, blowing a cloud of smoke
+and scanning me as though to learn just what I was thinking. "I will be
+back day after to-morrow," he added, anticipating the question.
+
+"I'll see"--I said, moving back a little in my big chair and
+contemplating the end of my cigar--"perhaps when you get back I may have
+something--maybe there is a way----"
+
+"Don't say maybe--say you will do it," he prodded.
+
+"Hiram, I still say _maybe_," I answered firmly, wondering whether the
+Gold-Beater was still down the river shooting ducks, and if I could get
+into touch with him before Hiram returned.
+
+Early on the morning he was due back, a messenger came to say I was
+wanted on the telephone by some one at Lake Borgne Locks. I knew it was
+Hiram--he had probably been calling Anna Bell Morgan to tell her of his
+arrival and knew he would catch me in my room.
+
+"What news?" he asked as though tired of waiting, and more, as though
+he expected it to be favorable.
+
+"The news is all right."
+
+"Oh, I knew it would be," he broke in, not waiting for me to finish.
+"Say, I will be up to the docks at eight, and be at the office at
+ten--meet me there," and he hung up abruptly.
+
+This suited me exactly. I was through and had made reservation on a
+train leaving for the North--for home and a little rest.
+
+I had cleaned up everything except a little writing and was doing that
+in the office that had been so generously provided for me, when I heard
+Hiram enter his adjoining room. The door between was not tightly closed,
+and I was aware at once he was not alone. He had evidently made an
+engagement also with Anna Bell Morgan. I could hear his voice easily,
+and as I was aroused from the preoccupation of my writing, I could hear
+her voice, and as I listened closely there came a shock, a slow, leaden,
+enervating, numbing shock on recognizing the voice of Miss Bascom, my
+clerk. The whole thing swam slowly before me. I knew now why she had
+acted her rôle with such intensity and risk. I felt an impulse to grab
+my grip and bolt through the door into the hall and take my train
+without meeting them together, but I didn't have time before he came
+bursting through the door leading her proudly to me.
+
+"Mr. Taylor, I introduce my wife. I forgot to tell you we were to be
+married at nine." I arose, took her extended hand as she looked at me
+squarely, radiantly, but with a plea. I got her message, but I think I
+made a failure of the greeting and congratulations. I was afraid Hiram
+noticed it. In fact, I felt sheepish that I had not discovered that she
+had assumed a name and underwent the disgusting experiences with Becker
+and Burrell to help him.
+
+"Not going away, Ben?" Hiram asked, noticing my grip--he never
+overlooked anything.
+
+"Yes, Hiram, I am going to leave you now--I am through here."
+
+"You--you don't mean--when will you be back, Ben?" he asked, glancing in
+alarm first at me and then at his bride of an hour.
+
+"I don't know when I will return, Hiram. Just now I have to answer the
+call of others. I may come back to testify at the trial."
+
+"You don't mean you are not going to stay here with me--when things are
+just getting started right?" he began, coming over and placing one hand
+on the back of my chair and bending forward to look in my face to see if
+I was ill.
+
+"Sit down--both of you," I interrupted, looking at Anna Bell's radiance
+changing to disappointment too, as he brought chairs up near me. "I have
+a confession to make, and I like to do the unpleasant things first and
+have them over with."
+
+"But say, old fellow, you can't leave me now--I need you in so many
+ways--you see, we have been through so much together----" began Hiram,
+leaning well forward in his chair.
+
+"It cannot be--just now anyhow--and perhaps you will not want me to do
+so when I admit to a certain sort of duplicity--but at which I hope in
+the course of time you will look upon tolerantly, forgivingly--I don't
+want you to think badly of me--as I have in the last few months become
+deeply attached to you."
+
+"What are you getting at, Ben--I will never believe you have
+deceived----"
+
+"Wait till I tell you why I came here--left New York with you, was paid
+a definite sum and expenses for doing so for a definite purpose, and
+that purpose is now accomplished, and the Government, engaged in a
+gigantic war, calls me to other activities. I must----"
+
+"I don't care what you have done or been, though I don't quite
+understand," he began, his voice almost failing; "we are doing work for
+the Government just as important as any--and I need you."
+
+"You may have needed me, Hiram, but you don't now--you are nicely
+started and you have better help now than I can give," I broke in,
+looking at Anna Bell, who was as much affected as Hiram. "She is
+courageous, a natural diplomat and wonderful at plans, and besides, you
+can now stand alone and must learn to rely on yourself, and besides,
+more than two in a firm often complicates matters."
+
+"I know--I know--I can see--but you don't explain--what is this you are
+hinting----?"
+
+"Hiram, it may be better for it to come to you gradually. Now let us
+talk about money for my train goes soon and I find I need some money,
+and I must give you the big check necessary to pay for the timber land.
+First of all, will you cash these checks for me? These are my salary
+checks I have never used," I explained as I took them out, turned to the
+desk and endorsed them, aware that Hiram and Anna Bell were looking at
+each other and trying to understand.
+
+"Ben, I am sure this is only a misconception--a feeling of
+delicacy--that you may be interfering----"
+
+"No, Hiram, my plans are definite; I cannot change them if I would,"
+said I, handing him the checks as soberly as though not anticipating his
+astonishment when he saw them.
+
+At first he did not look at them, but laid them on his knee as a mere
+matter of detail. He was too busy trying to divine what was going on in
+my mind; finally glancing down at them, he became aware there was
+something familiar about them, and then his excitement knew no bounds.
+
+"How the devil"--he began, raising half out of his chair, tapping the
+checks wildly--"how did you get these? Why, these are like the ones I
+used to--now I understand," he said, subsiding, quite overcome. "Ben,
+were you paid by my father? My God, is it possible--then he didn't kick
+me out--it was just his way----"
+
+"Just his way to teach you to work and make amends for his neglect, and
+here is another one, the big one for fifty thousand signed by him,
+too--you may be surprised to know he is now down in the lower reaches of
+the river, duck-shooting. When I saw him yesterday, I had no difficulty;
+everything seemed to be prepared for the proposition," I said; looking
+quizzically at Anna Bell. Mixed with her delight was a shade of fear and
+apprehension. I tried to make her understand that she must tell him
+herself about her captivating the Gold-Beater, securing his approval and
+further support, of the Becker episode, her assumed name--and all to
+help Hiram. In fact, I did not have the courage to do it.
+
+"I can hardly conceive my father----" Here his voice broke completely.
+
+"And you can hardly credit that the _Fearsome_ might have been placed
+conveniently in the canal----"
+
+"Oh, heavens, and I thought we were doing it--and did he plan all that
+trouble in the river--did his men, the lawyers, take her from----?"
+
+"Yes, I guess he did, Hiram; he wanted to try you out--a last real
+trial----"
+
+"And the barrel, Ben, did he have anything----?"
+
+"No, Hiram, that was a piece of just dumb luck that will always be with
+you--send me a check for half of it when you get things straightened
+out," I said, grabbing my grip and bolting. As I rounded the corner of
+the hall for the elevator, I glanced back. They stood out in the hall,
+their arms around each other, watching me go.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+Corrections
+
+The first line indicates the original, the second the correction.
+
+p. 196:
+
+  an anxiliary gasoline tank
+  an auxiliary gasoline tank
+
+p. 295:
+
+  before Him returned
+  before Hiram returned
+
+p. 299:
+
+  and expenses for dong so
+  and expenses for doing so
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yazoo Mystery, by Irving Craddock
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41483 ***