The Meridian Tribune (Meridian, Tex.), Vol. 27, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, June 10, 1921 Page: 3 of 10
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THE MERIDIAN TRIBUNE
THE WRECKERS
By FRANCIS LYNDE
Copyright fey CharJes Scrlbner's Sons
CHAPTER XIV—Continued.
—12—
"You made the inference perfectly
,?lain," she countered. "I have a rea-
«iO:ijing mind, Graham; haven't you
- -discovered it before this?"
The boss nodded soberly. "I ■ have
discovered a good many tilings about
you during the past six months: one
®f them is that there was never an-
other woman like you since the world
Sbegan."
Knowing, as I did, that she had a
tiusband alive and kicking around
somewhere, it seemed as if 1 just
couldn't stay there and listen to what
a break of that kind on the boss' part
was likely to lead up to. But Maisie
Ann gripped my wrist until she hurt.
"You must listen!" she whispered
fiercely. "You're taking care «f him,
and you've got to know!"
As on many other earlier occasions,
Mrs. Sheila slid away from the senti-
mental side of things just as easy as
ilurning your hand over.
•"You are too big a man to let an
todded difficulty defeat you now," she
remarked calmly, going back to the
business field. "You are really mak-
ing a miraculous success. I have just
(spent two weeks in the capital, as
■you know, and everybody is talking
•about you. They say you are in a
fair way to solve the big problem—the
problem of bringing the railroads and
the people together in a peaceable and
profitable partnership—which is as it
should be."
"It can be done; and I could do It
■right here on the Pioneer Short Line
If 1 didn't have to fight so many dif-
ferent kinds of devils at the same
time," said the boss, scowling down at
the fire in the grate. And then with
a quick jerk of his head to face her:
"Y^ou sent the major a wire from the
capital last night, telling him to per-
suade me not to go to Strathcona.
Why did you do it? And how did you
ktfbw I was thinking of going?"
For the first time in the whole six
■months I saw Mrs. Sheila get a little
.flustered, though she didn't show it
much, only a little more color in her
•cheeks.
"Some day, perhaps, I may tell you,
but I can't now," she said sort of hur-
riedly. And then: "You mustn't ask
me."
"But you did send the wire?"
"Yes."
"And you also sent another to Upton
Van Britt?"
"I did."
The boss smiled. "That second mes-
sage was an after-thought. You were
fraid I'd be stubborn and go, any-
fay. That was some more of your
irvelous innner reasoning. Teii iiie,
jeila, did you know that there was
|ng to be a broken rail-joint set to
Tl me on that trip?"
pThat got her in spite of her heaven-
calm and I could see her press her
petty lips together hard.
'Was that what they did?" she
Jsked, a bit trembly.
He nodded. "Van Britt was on the
Jilot engine ahead of my car, and he
lound it. There was no harm done,
[t was bad enough, God knows, to
let a trap that would have killed ev-
erybody on my train; but this other
[thing that has been pulled off tonight
js even worse. Mr. Dunton and his
inprincipled followers have set a thing
jn foot here which is due to grind
[lis all to powder. Past that, they have
contrived to handcuff me. so that I
can't make a move without pulling
|down consequences of a personal na-
ture upon President Dunton, himself."
"Now my 'marvelous inner reason-
ing' has gone quite blind," she said,
|vith a queer little smile. "You'll have
to explain."
'It's simple enough," said the boss
shortly. "If Mr. Dunton had sent only
lii^ed emissaries out—here ^to bribe the
members- of the legislature—but lie
didn't; he included a member of his
own family."
I was looking straight at Mrs. Sheila
as he spoke, and I saw a sudden
frightened shock jump into the slate-
gray eyes. Just for a second. Be-
fore you could count one, it was gone
and she was saying quietly:
"A member of his own family? That
is very singular, isn't it? Was there—
was this thing that was done actually
■criminal?" she asked, just breathing
it at him.
"It was, indeed. The election laws
of this state have teeth. It is a peni-
tentiary offense to bribe either the
electorate or the lawmakers."
There was silence for a little time,
and she was no longer looking at him;
she was staring into the heart of the
glowing coals in the grate basket. By
and by she said: "You haven't told me
'this man's name—the one who did the
bribing; may I know it?"
I knew just what the boss was go-
ing to do, and he did it; took the slip
of paper that Dedmon had written on
from his pocket and passed it across
to her. If there was another shock
for her none of us could see it. She
Shad her face turned away when she
looked at the name on the paper.
Pretty soon she said, sort of drearily:
"Once you told pie, that the true
test of any human being came when
lie was asked to eliminate per-
sonal factor; to efface himself com-
pletely in order that his cause might
prosper. Do you still believe that?"
"Of course. It's all in the day's
work. Any cause worth while is vast-
ly bigger than any man who is trying
to advance it."
"Than any man, yes; but for a
woman, Graham; wouldn't you allow
something for the woman?"
"I thought we had agreed long ago
that there Is no double standard, either
in morals or ethics—one thing for the
man and another for the woman. That
is your own attitude, isn't it?"
She didn't say whether it was or
not. She was holding the bit of paper
he had given her so that the light
from the fire fell upon it when she
said : "I suppose your duty is quite
clear. In the slang of the street, you
must 'beat Mr. Hatch to it.' You must
be the first to denounce this bribery,
clearing yourself and letting the ax
fall where it will."
The boss was shaking his head a
bit doubtfully.
"It isn't quite so simple as that,"
he objected. "I don't know that I'd
have any compunctions about sending
Collingwood to the dump. If the half
of what they say of him is true, he
is a spineless degenerate and hardly
worth saving. But to do as you sug-
gest would be open rebellion, you
know; while Dunton remains presi-
dent, I am' his subordinate, and if I
should expose him and his nephew,
the situation here would become sim-
ply impossible."
"Well?" she prompted.
"Such a move would rightly and
properly bring a wire demand for my
resignation, of a nature that couldn't
be Ignored—only it wouldn't, because
I should anticipate it by resigning
first. That is a small matter, intro-
ducing the personal element. But the
results to others; to the men of my
staff and the rank and file, and to the
public, which, as you say, is just be-
ginning to realize some of the bene-
fits of a real partnership with its
principal railroad; these things can't
be so easily ignored."
"You have thought of some other
expedient?"
"No; I haven't got that far yet. But
I am determined that Hatch shall not
be allowed to work his graft a second
time upon the people who are trust-
ing me. I believe in the new policy
we are trying out. I'd fling my own
fortune into the gaf> if I had one, and,
more than that, I'd pull in every friend
1 have in the world if by so doing I
could stand the Pioneer Short Line
upon a solid foundation of honest own-
ership. That is all that is needed in
the present crisis—absolutely all."
He was on his feet now and tramp-
ing back and forth on the hearth rug.
At one of this back-turnings I saw
Mrs. Sheila reach out quickly and lay
the bit of paper with its accusing
scrawl on the glowing coals. Then she
said, quite calm again:
"In time to come you will accom-
plish even that, Graham—this change
of ownership that we have talked of
and dreamed about. It is the true
solution of the problem; not govern-
ment ownership, but ownership by the
people who have the most at stake—
the public and the workers. You are
He Is My Husband."
a strong man, and you will bring it
about. But this other man—Who is
not strong; the nian whose name was
vr-rttten upon the bit of paper I have
just, thrown into the fire . . ."
He wheeled quickly, and what he
said made me feel as if a cold wind
were blowing up the back of my neck,
because I hadn't dreamed that he
would remember Collingwood well
enough to recognize him in that pass-
ing moment on the sidewalk.
"That man," he muttered, sort of
gratingly: "I had completely forgot-
ten. He was here Just a little while
ago. I met him as I was coming in.
Did he come to see your cousin—the
major?"
"No," she said, matching his low
tone; "he camc to see me."
"You?"
"Yes. Finding himself in a pitfall
which he has digged with his own
hands, he is like other men of his kind ;
he would be very glad to climb out
upon the shoulders of a woman."
I guess the boss saw red for a min-
ute, but the question he asked had
to come.
"By what right did he come to you,
Sheila?"
"By what he doubtless thinks is
the best right in the world. He is my
husband."
It was out at last, and the boss'
poor little house of cards that I knew-
he had been building all these months
had got its knock-down in just those
four quietly spoken words. As well as
I knew him, I couldn't begin to guess
what he would do or say. But he was
such a splendid fighter that I might
have known.
"I heard, no longer ago than this
afternoon, that you were not—that
your husband was still living," he
said, speaking very gently. "I didn't
believe it—not fully—though I saw
that there might easily be room for
the belief. It makes no difference,
Sheila. You are my friend, and you
are blameless. But before we go any
farther I want you to believe that
I wouldn-t have been brutal enough
to give you that bit of paper if I had
remotely suspected that Collingwood
was the man."
She didn't make any answer to that,
and after a while he said: "Having
told me so much, can't you tell me a
little more?"
"There isn't much to tell, and even
the little is commonplace and—and
disgraceful," she replied, with a touch
of weariness that was fairly heart-
breaking. "Don't ask me why we were
married; I can't explain that, simply
because I don't know, myself. It was
arranged between the two families,
and I suppose flowie and I always
took it for granted. I can't even plead
ignorance, for I have known him all
my life."
"Go on," said the boss, still speak-
ing as gently as a brother might have.
"Howie, was a spoiled child, an only
son, and he is a spoiled man. I stood
It as long as I could—I hope you will
believe that. But there are some
things that a woman cannot stand,
and "
"I know," he broke in. "So you
came out here to be free."
"It is four years since we have
lived together," she went on, "and for
a long time I hoped he would never
find out where I was. There was no
divorce. I had taken my mother's
name, and only Cousin Basil and his
wife knew that I was not what per-
haps every one else took me to be,—
a widow with a dead husband instead
of a living one."
"Did Collingwood try to find you?"
"No, I think not. But when he was
here last spring with his Uncle Breck-
enridge he saw me and found out that
I was living here with Cousin Basil."
"Did he try to persecute you?"
"No, not then. I was afraid of only
one thing: that he might drink too
much and—and talk. Part of the fear
was realized. He saw me that Sun-
day night in the Bullard. That was
why he was trying to fight the hotel
people—because they wouldn't let him
come up-stairs. I saw what you did,
and I was sorry. I couldn't help feel-
ing that in some way it would prove
to be the beginning of a tragedy."
"You saw no more of him then?"
"No; I neither saw him nor heard
of him until about a month ago when
he came west with a man named
Bullock—a New York attorney. I
didn't know why he came, but I thought
it was to annoy me."
"And he has annoyed you?"
"Until this niglit he has never missed
an opportunity of doing so when he
couid dodge Cousin Basil. It was his
taunting boast yesterday at the capital
that led me to telegraph Cousin Basil
and Upton Van Britt about your trip
to Strathcona. He knew that you were
going to the gold camp, and he declared
to me that you'd never come back
alive."
"But tonight," the boss persisted.
"What did he want tonight?"
"He wanted to—to use me. He said
that he had 'put something across'
for his uncle, that he had gotten into
trouble for it, and that—to use his
own phrase again, you were the man
who would try to 'get his goat.'"
"And his object is telling you this?"
"Was entirely worthy of the man.
He asked roe, or rather I should say,
commanded me, to 'choke you off.'
And, of course, he added the insult.
He said I was the one who could
do it."
"Without Intending to, you have
tied my hands," the boss said gravely.
"I wasn't meaning to spare Colling-
wood if there were any way in which
I could use him as a club to knock
Hatch out of the game."
"I haven't asked you to spare him."
"No, I know you haven't. But the
fact remains that he Is your hus-
band. I *
The Interruption was the opening
and closing of the front door and the
heavy tread of the major In the liall.
In a flash Mrs. Sheila was up and
getting ready to vanish through the
door that led to the dining room. With
her hand on the door-knob she shot a
quick question at the boss.
"How much will you tell Cousin
Basil?"
'Nothing of what you have told
me."
"Thank you," she whispered back;
you are as big in your friendship as
you are in other ways." And with
that she was gone.
It was right along in the same half-
minirte, while the boss was standing
with tiis back to the fire and the ma-
jor w?v3 going in to talk to him, that
I lost Maisie Ann. I don't know where
she went, or how. She had let go of
my wrist, and when I groped for her
she was gone. Since I didn't see any
good reason why I should stay and
spy upon the boss and the major, I
slipped out to 'the hall and curled up
on the big settee beyond the coat
rack; curled up, and after listening
a while to the drone of voices in the
farther room, went to sleep.
It was away deep in the night when
the boss took hold of me and shook me
awake. The long talk was just get-
ting itself finished, and the major had
come to the door with his guest.
"We must manage to pull Colling-
wood out of it in some way," the ma-
jor was saying. "I don't love the
d—n' scoundrel any betteh than you
do, Graham; but that's a reason—a
fam'ly reason, as you might say."
Then he switched off quickly. "You
haven't asked me yet why I ran away
from home this evenin' when I wras
expecting you."
"No," said the boss. "Sheila told
me that you had a telephone call to
the Bullard."
The old Kentuckian chuckled.
"Yes, suh; and you'd neveh guess
in a thousand yeahs who eent the
call, or what was wanted. It was ouh
friend Hatch, and no otheh. And he
had the face to offeh me ten thousand
dollahs a yeah to act as consulting
counsel for him against the railroad
company I"
"Of course you accepted," said the
boss, meaning just the opposite.
The major chuckled again. "I
talked with him long enough to find
out about where he stood. He thinks
he's got you by the neck, but, like
most men or his breed, he's a paltry
coward, suh, at heart."
The boss laughed. "What is he
afraid of?"
"He is afraid of his life. He told
me, with his eyes buggin' out, that
thah wTas one man heah in Portal
City who would kill him to get pos-
session of certain papehs that were
locked up in the cash vault of the
Security National."
The boss was pulling on his gloves.
"I didnt give him any reason to
think that I was anxious to murder
him," he said.
"Oh, no, my deah boy; it isn't you,
at all. It's Howie Collingwood. That's
where we land afteh all is said and
done. Youh hands are tied, and we've
got this heah young maniac to deal
with. If Collingwood gets about three
fingehs of red likkeh under his belt,
why, thah's one murder in prospect.
And if Hatch has any reason to think
that you can still get the underholt
on him, why, thah's another. I'm glad
you've seen fit to take Ilipley's advice
at last, and got you a bodyguard.'
"What's that?" queried the boss.
But the query was answered a minute
later when we hit the sidewalk for
the tramp back to town and Tarhell
fell in to walk three steps behind us
all the way to the door of the rail-
road club.
It sure did look as if things were
just about as bad as they could ever
be, now. Hatch once more on top,
the whole bottom knocked out of the
railroad experiment, our good name
for political honesty gone glimmering,
and, worst of all, perhaps, the boss'
•big heart broken right in two over
those four little words that nothing
could ever rub out—"he is my hus-
band." I didn't wonder that the boss
said never a word in all that long
walk down-town, or that he forgot to
tell me good-night when he locked
himself up in his room at the club.
CHAPTER XV
The Dipsomaniac
In a day when bunched money, how-
ever arrogant it may be, has been
taught to go sort of softly, the Hatch
people were careful not to make any
public announcement of the things
they were doing or going to do. But
bad news has wings of its own. Mr.
NorcrosR was still in the midst of his
mail dictation to me the morning after
the bottom—all the different bottoms—
fell out, when Mr. Hornack came
bulging in.
"What's all this fire-8iarm that's
been sprung about a new elevator
trust?" he demanded, chewing on his
cigar as if it were something he were
trying to eat. "It's all over town that
C. S. & W. has been secretly reorgan-
ized, with the Hatch crowd In control.
I'm having a perfect cyclone of tele-
phone calls asking what, and how,
and why."
The boss' reply Ignored the details.
"We're In for it again," he announced
briefly. "The local companies couldn't
hold on to a good thing when they had
It. The stock has been swept up,
first into little heaps, and then into
big ones, and now the Hatch people
have forced a practical consolidation."
"Is that the fact?—or only the way
you are doping it out?" queried the
traffic manager.
"It is the fact. Hatch came here
last night to tell me about it; also,
to tell me where we were to get off."
Hornack bit off a piece of the chewed
cigar and took a fresh hold on it.
"Does he think for one holy half
minute that we're going to sit down
quietly and let him undo all the good
work that's been done?" he rasped.
"He does—just that. He's putting
us in the nine-hole, Hornack, and up
to the present moment I haven't found
the way to climb out of it."
"But the ground leases?" Horpack
began. "Why can't we pull them on
h i m ?"
"We might, If we hadn't been shot
dead in our tracks by the very men
who ought to be backing us to win,"
said the boss soberly. And then he
went on to tell about the new grip
Hatch had on us.
Of course, Hornack blew up at that,
and what he said wasn't for publica-
tion. For a minute or so the air of
the office was blue. When he got
"A General Strike of All C. S. & W,
Employees Will Go On at Noon To-
morrow."
down to common, ordinary English
again he was saying, between cusses:
"But you can't let it stand at that,
Norcross; you simply can't!"
"I don't intend to," was the even-
toned rejoinder. "But anything we
can do will always lack the element
of finality, Hornack, while Wall Street
owns us. I've said it a hundred times
and I'll say it again: the only hope
for the public service corporation to-
day lies in a distribution of its securi
ties among the people it actually
serves."
Hornack's teeth met in the middle
of the chewed cigar.
"That's excellent logic—bully good
logic, if anybody should ask you! But
we're fighting a condition, not a theory.
Nobody wants P. S. L. Common even
at thirty-two. You wouldn't advise
your worst enemy to buy it at that
figure."
"I don't know," said the boss, kind
of musingly. "You're forgetting the
water that's been put into it from time
to time by the speculators and reor-
ganizes; there has been a good deal
of that, first and last. Nevertheless,
value for value, you know, and I know,
that the property is worth more than
thirty-two, including the bonds. What
I mean is that if anybody would buy
the control at that figure,—the con
trol, mind you, and not merely a minor-
ity—and handle the road purely as a
dividend-earning business proposition,
he wouldn't lose money; he'd make
money—a lot of it."
"All of which doesn't get us any-
where in the present pinch," returned
the traffic manager. "I suppose we'll
have to wait until Hatch makes his
first move, and I've still got fight
enough left in me to hope that he'll
make it suddenly. Punch the button
for me if anything new develops. I'm
going back to swing on to my tele
phone."
Following this talk with Hornack
there was a try-out with Billoughby
and Juneman, but as this three-cor
nered conference was held in the pri-
vate room of the suite, I don't know
what was said. A little farther along,
when the boss was once more whittling
at the dictation, Mr. Van Britt strolled
in. Mr. Norcross toW me to take my
bunch of notes to May and then he
gave Mr. Van Britt his inning, start-
ing off with: "Well, how is the gen-
eral superintendent this fine morn-
ing?"
Mr. Van Britt wrinfcled his .lose.
"The general superintendent Is
wondering, one more time, why under
the starry heavens he is out here In
this country that G&d has forgotten,
scrapping for a living on this one-
horse railroad of yours when he might
be In good little old New York, lin-
ing easy and clipping coupons In the
safety-deposit room of a Broad stree*
bank."
The boss laughed at that, and I'm
telling you right now that I was glad
to know that he was still able to laugh.
"You've never seen the day when
you wanted to renege, Upton, and you
know it," he hit back. "Think of the
perfectly good technical education you
were wasting wuen I took hold of you
and jerked you out here."
'Hull!" said our millionaire; "I've
just had two enginemen on the carpet
for running over an old ranchman's
pet cow. They said they couldn't
help it; but I told them that under
the 'public-be-pleased' policy, they'd
got to help it."
The boss chuckled. "I believe you'd
joke at your own funeral, Upton. - You
didn't come here to tell me about the
ranchman's pet cow."
"Not exactly. I came to tell you
that Citizens' Storage & Warehouse is
due to have a strike on its hands. The
management—which seems to have
got itself consolidated in some way-
shot out a lot of new bosses all along
the line on the through train last
night, and this morning the entire
works, elevators, pickeries, coal yards,
lumber mills, and everything, are
posted with notices of a blanket cut
in wages; twenty per cent, flat, for
everybody. The news has been trickling
in over the wires all morning; and the
last word is that a general strike of
all C. S. & W. employees will go on at
noon tomorrow."
"That is move number ^-ne," said
the boss. And then: "You have heard
that the Hatch people have reached
out and taken in the C. S. & W.?"
"Hornack was telling me something
about it; yes."
"It is true; and the flgfit is on. You
see what Hatch is doing. At. one
stroke he gets rid of all the local em-
ployees of C. S. & W., who have been
drawing good pay arid who might make
trouble for him a little later on, and
fills their places with strike-breakers
who have no local sympathizers."
"But there will he another result
which he may not have counted upon,4*
Mr. Van Britt put in. "The blanket
cut serves notice upon everybody that
once more the old strong-arm monopoly-
is in the saddle. The newspapers will
tell us about It tomorrow morning.
Also, a good many of them will b*
asking us what we are going to d*
about it; whether we are going te
fight the new monopoly as we did
the old, or stand in with the graft, as
our predecessors did."
"We needn't go over that ground
again—you and I, Upton," said Mr.
Norcross. "You know where I stand.
But the conditions have changed. We
have been knifed in the back." And
with that he gave the stocky little
operating chief a crisp outline of the
new situation precipitated by the
Dunton-Collingwood political bribery,
Mr. Van Britt took it quietly, as he
did most things, sitting with his hands
in his pockets and smiling blandly
where Hornack had exploded in wrath-
ful profanity. At the wind-up he said:
"Old Uncle Breckenridge is one to®
many for you, Graham. You can't
stand the gaff—this new gaff of
Hatch's; and neither can you go be-
fore the people as the accuser of your
president—and hope to hold your job
The one thing for you to do is to lock
up your office and walk out."
"Upton, if I thought you meant
that—but I never know when to take
you seriously."
"The two enginemen who ran over
the ranchman's pet cow had no such
difficulty, I assure you. And isn't it
good advice? You know, as well as I
do, that Chadwick is holding you her*
by main strength; that you can never
accomplish anything permanent while
Dunton and his cronies are at the steerw
ing-wheel. It might be different if you
had the local backing of your con.
stituency—the people served by the
Short Line. But you haven't that; up
to date, the people are merely inter-
ested spectators."
"Go on," said the boss, frowning
again.
"They have a stake in the game—
the biggest of the stakes, as a matte*
of fact—but it isn't sufficiently ap-
parent to make them climb in and
fight for you. They are saying, with
a good bit of reason, that, after all
is said and done, Big Money—Wall
Street—still has the call, and any
twenty-four hours may see the whole
thing slump back into graft and
crooked politics."
"It is so true that you might be
reading it out of a book," was the boss*
comment. And then: "What's the an-
swer?"
Mr. Van Britt shook his head. "I
don't know. If you had money enough
to buy the voting control in P. S. L.
you might get somewhere; but as it
is, you're like a cat in Hades without
claws."
"Tell me," said Mr. Norcross, after
a little pause: "You're a native New
Yorker: do you know this man Col-
lingwood?"
"Only by hearsay. He is what our
English friends call a 'bloomings
bounder'—fast yachts, fast motor-cars,
the fast set generally. It's a pretty
bad case of money-spoil, I fancy. They
say he wasn't always a total loss."
"Did you ever hear that he was
married?"
"Oh, yes; he married a Kentucky
girl some years ago: I don't remem-
ber her name. They say sue stood
him for about six months and the®
dropped out. I suppose he needs kill-
ing for that."
At this the boss went a step farther,
saying: "He does, indeed, Upton. 1
happen to know the young woman.'*
That was whe* Mr. Van Britt flred<
his own little M»mb-shell. *So do V
he answered quietly.
(TO UJO CONTINUED*
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Dunlap, Levi A. The Meridian Tribune (Meridian, Tex.), Vol. 27, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, June 10, 1921, newspaper, June 10, 1921; Meridian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth415419/m1/3/?q=%22~1~1~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Meridian Public Library.