PARTNERS AND VICTORIES
"What time is it, miss?"
Marian put down the gallon tin with which she had bailed steadily, and
looked at her watch.
"Almost midnight."
"Only midnight!"
The steersman gave a weary yawn and turned back to his wheel. Inwardly
Marian echoed his discouraged word. It seemed to her that she had
crouched for years in the stern of the crazy little motor-boat. Rain
and spray had drenched her to the skin. She ached in every half-frozen
bone. Yet she sat, wide awake and alert, watching her pilot keenly.
He was a poor helmsman, she thought. However, an expert would have
found trouble in taking an overloaded launch up-stream against that
swollen current and in pitch darkness. Worse, the weight of the heavy
dredge-bail weighed the launch down almost to water level. Every tiny
wave splashed over the gunwale. Marian bailed on mechanically.
She had had hard work to bribe the owner to risk the trip up-stream.
The men at Grafton had warned her, moreover, that she was running a
narrow chance of swamping the launch, and thus of losing her precious
piece of machinery, to say nothing of the danger to her own life. But
all Marian's old timidity had fled, forgotten. Nothing else mattered
if just she might serve her brother in his supreme need.
Through these four dreary hours the old commodore's quaint, frank
words had echoed in her mind. And the commodore had been right, she
owned, with a quiver of shame. Always, since their mud-pie days, Rod
had done his part by her in full measure, generously, lovingly. Never,
until these last days, had she even realized what doing her own part
by Roderick might mean.
"Although I have been slower than my blessed old Slow-Coach himself in
realizing what my life ought to count for. Well, as the commodore
said, I have waked up at last. And mind this, Marian Hallowell! _You
stay awake!_ Never, never let me catch you dozing off again!"
"There's the camp light yonder," the steersman spoke at last, with a
sigh of satisfaction.
Marian peered ahead through the cold, blinding mist. Away up-stream
shone a feeble glimmer, then a second light; a third.
"Good! And--there are the dredge search-lights! Only a minute more and
we'll be there."
Only a minute it seemed till the launch wheezed up to the landing and
swung with a thud against the posts. Marian stumbled ashore.
"Mulcahy!" she called to the dark figure standing on the dredge deck.
"Send two men to unload the bail for us."
"Marian Hallowell! Where under the shining sun did you come from?"
Roderick leaped from the deck to the shore and confronted his sister.
Then, in his horrified surprise at her daring risk, he pounced upon
her and administered a scolding of such vigor that it fairly made her
gasp.
"Of all the outrageous, reckless----"
"There, there, Rod! Look!"
Still breathing threatenings and slaughter, Roderick turned. Then he
saw the huge new bail which the men were hoisting ashore.
"So that's what it all means! That's why you came up on the early
train! You brought that bail yourself, all the way. You risked your
life in that groggy little boat! All on purpose to help us out! Marian
Hallowell, I'd like to shake you hard. And for two cents I'd kiss you
right here and now. You--you _peach_!"
Burford, awakened by the launch whistle, was hurrying down the bank.
Reaching the landing his eye fell on the precious new bail.
Utterly silent, he stared at it for a long rapt minute. Then, rubbing
his sleepy eyes, he turned to Marian and Rod with a grin that fairly
lighted up the dock.
"Now," he said, with slow exultation, "now--we've got our chance to
win."
And win they did.
True, the water had already risen close to the dreaded three-foot
danger-mark. True, neither of the boys had had half a dozen hours of
sleep in three days. As for the laborers, they were fagged and
overworked to the limit of their endurance. But not one of these
things counted. Not a grumbling word was spoken. This was their
company's one chance. Not a man held back from seizing that chance and
making good. Not a man but felt himself one with the company, a living
vital element of that splendid struggling whole.
Marian and Sally Lou stood on the shore watching the dredge as the
great dipper crunched its way through the last submerged barrier. The
canal rolled bank full. Little waves swashed over the platform on
which they stood. Pools of seep-water already gathered behind the mud
embankment, which was crumbling into miry avalanches with every sweep
of rising water against it. Not by any chance could the levee stand
another hour. But even as the dredge cut that narrow passage, the
heavy overflow boiled outward into the river beyond. Minute by minute
the rough surface of the canal was sinking before their watching eyes.
Now it had fallen from six inches above to high-water mark; now to
three inches below; now to mid-stage--and safety.
As the freed stream rolled out into the river, a great cheer rose from
the laborers crowded alongshore. Roderick and Burford stayed aboard
the dredge until it was warped alongside the dock and safely moored.
Then they crossed to land and joined the girls. Neither of the boys
spoke one word. They did not seem to hear the shouts and cheers behind
them. There was no glow of success on their sober faces. Perhaps their
relief was so great that they were a little stunned before its wonder.
Victory was theirs; but victory won in the face of so great a danger
that they could not yield and feel assured of their escape.
"We cannot reach head-quarters on the telephone, of course. But, by
hook or crook, one of you boys must get a despatch through to Mr.
Breckenridge. Think of being able to tell him that you have deepened
the canal straight through to the river, so that the whole lower half
of the district is safe from overflow! And that you have moved all
these costly, treacherous machines down-stream without one serious
accident, without so much as a broken bolt! It is too good to be
true."
"I'll take a launch and sprint down to Grafton and wire our report
from there," said Burford. His tense face relaxed; he broke into a
delighted chuckle. "Think of it: this once I can actually enjoy
sending in my report to head-quarters! I'd like to write it out
instead of wiring it. I'd put red-ink curlycues and scroll-work
dewdabs all over the page. Think, Hallowell, you solemn wooden Indian!
The crest of this flood is only two hours away. By noon the highest
level will reach our canal. But it can't flood our district for us,
for--for we got there first!"
His rosy face one glow of contentment, he started toward the pier. But
as he was about to step aboard the duty-launch, Roderick hailed him
sharply.
"Wait, Burford. Somebody is coming up the big ditch. A large gray
launch, with a little dark-blue flag."
"What!"
Burford sprang back. He shaded his eyes and looked down the canal.
Then, to Rod's amazement, he sat down on a pile of two-by-fours and
rocked to and fro.
"Whatever ails you, Burford?"
"Whatever ails me, indeed!" Burford choked it out. His ears were
scarlet. His eyes were fairly popping from his head with delight. "Oh,
I reckon I won't bother to send that report to head-quarters, after
all. I'll just let the whole thing slide."
Rod gaped at him.
"Have you lost your last wit, Ned?"
"Not quite. I'm going to give my report to my superior officer by word
of mouth. That big gray power-boat is one of our own company's
launches. That small blue flag is the company ensign. And that big
gray man standing 'midships is--Breckenridge! Breck the Great, his
very self."
"Breckenridge!"
"Breckenridge. All there, too--every splendid inch of him. Talk about
luck! Our levee is saved. Our dredges are all anchored, right yonder,
trim as a gimlet. Our schedule is put through up to the minute. And
here, precisely on the psychological moment, comes our chief on his
tour of inspection. Can you beat that?"
Roderick merely stared down the canal.
Close behind the launch pilot, scanning the bank intently as they
steamed by, towered a broad-shouldered, heavily built man,
gray-headed, yet powerful and alert in every movement. He was well
splashed with mud; his broad, heavily featured face was colorless with
fatigue. Yet as he stood there, with his big tense body, his tired,
eager face, he seemed like some magnificent natural force imprisoned
in human flesh.
"Isn't he sumptuous, though?" said Burford, under his breath. "Look at
those shoulders! What a half-back he would make!"
"Half-back? Why, he could make the All-American," Rod whispered back.
His eyes were glued to that tall approaching figure. His heart was
pounding in his breast. So this was Breckenridge the Great, his hero!
And, marvel of marvels, he looked the hero of all Rod's farthest
dreams.
Breckenridge stepped from the launch and shook hands heartily with the
radiant and stammering Burford. He looked at Roderick with steady dark
eyes. He hardly spoke in reply to Burford's introduction. But the grip
of his big, muscular hand was warmly cordial.
He asked a few brief questions. Then he listened, his heavy head bent,
his heavy-lidded eyes half closed, to Burford's eager account of
their struggles and their triumphs. Almost without speaking he
clambered into the launch again and motioned the boys to follow.
For four consecutive hours the three went up and down the rough miry
channels. Roderick steered the launch. Burford answered Breckenridge's
occasional questions. Breckenridge stood, field-glass in hand,
sweeping first one bank, then another with tireless eyes. He made
almost no comment on Burford's explanations; but the slow occasional
nod of his massive head was eloquent.
Finally they retraced the last lateral and brought the launch up to
the main landing.
"No, I'll not stop to dine with you, much as I should enjoy it. I must
be getting on to the next contract. They're seeing heavy weather too."
Breckenridge stood up, stretching his big, cramped body. As he stood
there, brushing the clay from his coat, he seemed to loom.
"I have nothing much to say to you fellows," he went on in his quiet,
casual voice, "only to remark that you must have worked like Trojans.
You have made a far larger yardage record than we had dared to
expect. You've put brains into your work, too. Can't say I'm surprised
at your success, by the way. I was pretty certain from what Crosby
said that you two would swing this contract, all right. Crosby and I
had a talk in Chicago a week or so ago. We were in Tech together.
Naturally he's quite a pal of mine, though nowadays we're opponents in
a business way. But his opinion weighs heavily with me. And now that I
have gone over the ground for myself, I am inclined to think that
Crosby rather--well, that he underestimated your services to the
company." Again his big head bent with that queer slow nod. For a
moment Breck himself, the real man, alert, just, keenly understanding,
flashed a glance from behind that heavy mask of splendid, impassive
flesh. "Later you will probably receive a more detailed explanation of
my opinion on your work. Good luck to you both, and good-by."
He stepped into the launch. The powerful boat dashed away down the
rough yellow canal.
The boys stood and looked after him. Burford was wildly exultant. But
Roderick was silent. A curious, deep satisfaction lighted his stolid,
boyish face. Every word that Breckenridge had spoken was tingling in
his blood. At last he had met his hero face to face, man to man. And
his hero had proven all that heart could ask.
"I wish I knew what he meant by saying that you'd hear further as to
his opinion on your work," pondered Marian.
Just two days later her wish was gratified.
* * * * *
It was a rainy, dreary day. Rod had spent the morning up the laterals
and had come home dripping. Marian was trying to dry his soaked
clothes before the smoky little oil-stove, but without much success.
Just before noon she heard a welcome whistle. She ran down the bank to
meet the rural delivery-man in his little spider-launch. The roads
were long since impassable; the mail and all the camp supplies must
come by water.
"Stacks of letters, Rod. A fat official one for the Burfords and a
still fatter, more official one for you. Do read it and tell me your
news."
"All right, Sis." Rod pushed aside his blueprints and set to opening
his mail.
Marian looked over her own letters. They were all of a sort: pleasant,
affectionate notes from her friends at home. All, with one accord,
besought her to hurry back to college for commencement. All earnestly
pitied her for the tedious weeks that she was spending "in that rough,
dreadful western country."
Marian's eyes twinkled as she read. At the bottom of the pile lay a
note from her good friend Isabel, begging her for the twentieth time
to spend August with her in her beautiful home at Beverly Farms.
Marian read that letter twice. Her dark brows narrowed.
Before her eyes gleamed Isabel's home, the great beautiful house, set
on a terraced emerald-green hill. Behind it, dark, cool, mysterious,
lay the pine woods; before it flashed and gleamed the sea. She could
see its wide, stately rooms, its soft-hued, luxurious furnishings. She
could feel the atmosphere of quiet contentment, of assured ease, which
was to Isabel and her mother the very air they breathed.
Then she looked around her.
Here she sat in a tiny canvas shack with a rough board floor. She
looked at its mended chairs, its rag-tag rug, and stringy curtains;
Rod's wet clothes, dripping before the little oil-stove; Rod's
battered desk, heaped with papers and blue-prints, a mass of
accumulated work. Then she looked through the tent-flap. Neither blue
ocean nor deep, still forest met her eyes. Only a narrow, muddy ditch;
a row of wind-torn willows; a dark, swollen river, hurrying on beneath
a dark, sinister sky.
An exclamation from Rod startled her. He stooped to her, his tired
face burning. With unsteady fingers he put a letter into her hand.
"Read that, Sis. No, I'll not read it aloud to you. Look at it with
your own eyes."
THE BRECKENRIDGE ENGINEERING COMPANY.
OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT.
RODERICK T. HALLOWELL, C. E.,
_c/o Contract Camp, Grafton, Illinois._
SIR: I beg to state that certain changes in the engineering force of
the company have brought about a change in the position occupied by
yourself with our firm. Beginning upon the first day of June, 1912,
you will be transferred to the post of assistant superintendent on a
large drainage contract in northern Iowa. While your position will be
second to that of Mr. McPherson, our supervising engineer, yet you
will be given entire charge of the assembling of the plant and its
construction. Your salary will be two thousand dollars. Payment
quarterly, as is our custom.
Some objections to this promotion have been raised by members of our
company on the score of your limited experience. Mr. Breckenridge,
however, considers from his observation of your methods that you will
prove fully equal to this exacting and responsible position.
I am, very respectfully,
THE BRECKENRIDGE ENGINEERING COMPANY.
_Per_ R. W. AUSTIN, _Sec'y_.
Silent, wide-eyed, Marian read this amazing document. Then, with a cry
of surprise and delight, she turned to her brother. But before she
could speak, a storm of eager feet dashed up the cabin steps. In burst
Sally Lou and Ned, headlong. Ned, breathless with excitement, waved a
long official envelope. But Sally Lou, close at his heels with Thomas
Tucker crowing on her arm, poured out the wild tale.
"Oh, Marian! Oh, Roderick! Oh, it's too good and grand and glorious to
be true! We're going home, home, straight back to Virginia!"
"Yes, we're going home, we're fired," puffed Ned, as Sally Lou paused
for breath. He sank down on the bench with a sigh of ecstasy. "Don't
look so dazed, Hallowell. There is more news coming. We're ordered off
this contract. But we're not ordered out of the Breckenridge
Engineering Company. Not quite yet. Instead, I'm directed to report on
the Dismal Swamp Canal the first of the month. My position will be
practically the same as the one that I'm now holding. But we can live
at home. _At home_, I say! Right in Norfolk, right in the midst of all
Sally Lou's own home-folks, right around the corner from my own
father's house. Won't we have a glorious year of it! And won't Edward
Junior and Thomas Tucker be good and spoiled, though!"
"We're so happy we can't even say it to each other!" Sally Lou sat
down suddenly, hiding her April face in Thomas Tucker's small
pinafore. "It took Mammy Easter to express our feelings for us. 'Land,
honey,' said she, 'I cert'n'y am thankful that we's goin' back to
civilization. I want to climb on a real street-car again. I want to
ride in an elevator. I don't care if I never sets foot in one of dem
slippery little launches again, long's I live. But most of all I want
to tote dese lambs out of this swamp and on to de dry land before dey
grows up plumb web-footed.'"
In the midst of the laugh that followed, a launch whistled from down
the canal.
"There's Mulcahy now. Hurry, Ned. Go down to Grafton and send your
telegram to head-quarters. Good-by, folks! Come over to the martin-box
to-night and we'll hold one last celebration."
Sally Lou tossed her baby to her shoulder. Away she sped beside her
husband. Marian looked after the gay, hurrying figures. Then, still
bewildered, she turned to Roderick.
"Well! What will happen next! Ned and Sally Lou ordered to Virginia;
you promoted--it takes my breath away! But, Rod!" Her voice rose with
a startled note. She looked up keenly at her brother's grave face.
"You--you dear, cold-blooded old slow-coach! How can you look so
pensive and perplexed? Of all the splendid, splendid news! How could
you keep still and not tell the Burfords? How can you keep still now?
If I wasn't so tired, I'd dance a jig right here on your desk!"
"I ought to be dancing jigs myself," Roderick answered. "I don't half
deserve this magnificent chance, I know that. But I--I don't know what
to say. I'm facing a dead wall."
"Rod, what do you mean? Of course you will accept this promotion. You
must. There can't be any question!" Marian was on her knees by his
chair now, clasping his cold hands in her own. Her voice rang sharp
with angry affection. "Don't halt and fumble so, brother! Don't you
remember, three months ago, how you fretted and hesitated about taking
the position that you are holding to-day? See how you have succeeded
in it! Yet look at you! To-day you are wavering and boggling and
hanging back, just as you did then."
"I'm hanging back, yes. But not for the same reason." Roderick looked
down at her with dark, troubled eyes. "That time, I hesitated to
accept on your account. This time, I'm hesitating on my own."
"Why, Roderick Hallowell! You are not afraid of hard work, nor of
taking chances, either. Rod, tell me this minute. Are you ill? What is
it, dear?"
"Nonsense. I'm perfectly well. But I am tired out. I don't know how to
tell you what I mean. So tired that I dread the mere thought of going
on a new contract, and taking charge of a new crew, and breaking
myself in to a new piece of work. Yes, it does sound cowardly. But I
cannot see my way clear. I don't believe I dare take it up."
Marian looked at him closely.
"Sleep on this, Rod. A night's rest will give you a different light on
the matter."
"A night's rest won't make any difference in the facts, Sis. The
position is too complicated for a greenhorn like me. I believe I could
assemble the plant, all right. And I think I could handle the
laborers. But the endless outside detail is what I'm afraid of. That,
and the responsibility, too. For instance, on a contract like this one
in Iowa, the engineers must act as paymasters, each for his division.
That means, reckon the men's time daily; make out their checks; handle
their wages for them; and so on. Then there are my tabulated
reports for the head office. Then my supplies. You have seen with your
own eyes how much time and work just the buying of coal and machinery
can demand. Then there would be a thousand smaller matters to look
after. Taking it all in all, I don't want to make a try at this offer,
then fail. So the sensible thing to do is, meekly to ask the company
for a less impressive post."
"All that you would need for the extra work that you describe would be
a competent book-keeper, Rod."
"Exactly!" Rod laughed shortly. "But a 'competent' book-keeper is the
last employé that one can find for such hard, isolated work as this.
What I need is not just a man to add columns for me. I need another
brain, an extra pair of hands. I need the sort of first-aid that you
have been giving me all these weeks, Sis. That's the sort of help that
you can't buy for love nor money. That's all."
[Illustration: MARIAN WAS ON HER KNEES BY HIS CHAIR, CLASPING HIS
COLD HANDS IN HER OWN.]
Marian studied her brother's face. When she spoke, her voice was very
gentle and low.
"All right, Rod. Telegraph head-quarters that you will accept."
"Why?"
"Because--I am going to take that position as book-keeper. There,
now!"
Roderick sat up with some vehemence.
"Marian Hallowell, I think I see myself letting you do any more of my
work. You're going back to college next week, for commencement. Then
you may come West again, if you're determined to stay somewhere near
me. I'm mighty glad to have you within reach, I must admit that. But
you are not to live down in the woods any longer. And not another
stroke of my work shall you do."
"Why not? Am I such a poor stenographer?"
Roderick laughed at her injured tone. Pride and affection mingled in
that laugh.
"You have been invaluable, Sis. You know that perfectly well. I'd
never have pulled through this month without you. You have been of
more real use than any three ordinary stenographers rolled together.
For you have used your own brains and will and courage. You have not
stood gracefully by and waited for orders. You have marched right on,
and you have done a man's work straight through. But our long pull is
over now. And you are well and strong again, I'm thankful to say. So
back to the East you go, old lady. No more contract jobs for you."
Marian's eyes narrowed ominously. Deliberately she seated herself on
the arm of her brother's chair. Gently but firmly she seized him by
both ears.
"Now, Roderick Hallowell, listen to me. Three months ago the company
offered you this position. I wanted you to accept it. But, of all
things, I did _not_ want to go West with you. I teased and coaxed and
whined. Much good my whining did me. For you just set that
Rock-o'-Gibraltar chin of yours, and took me firmly by the collar and
marched me along.
"Now, Roderick Hallowell, look at me!"
Chuckling and shamefaced, Roderick struggled to turn his face away;
but Marian's fingers gripped mercilessly tight.
"Look at me, I say. Answer. Didn't you bully me into giving up to your
wishes, by threatening to refuse this position unless I'd come West
with you? Didn't you drag me out here willy-nilly? Very well. You have
had your way. You have brought me here, and--_you can't send me back_.
There now."
"Marian, this is not fair." Roderick freed one ear and looked sternly
at his sister. "You must finish your education. I have no right to
keep you trailing around the country with me, wasting your time and
cutting you off from your friends and denying you any home comfort.
You shall not sacrifice yourself----"
"Sacrifice myself, indeed!" Marian took a fresh grip. "All I ask is to
stay with you until next February. Then I'll go back and take up my
college work at the exact point where I laid it down. I cannot
graduate with my class, no matter how hard I try. My illness last
winter took too much time. So I may as well join the class following,
at mid-years'. In the mean time, we will have eight splendid months
together. No, I have waked up, Rod. You can't hush me off to my
selfish doze again."
"But, Marian, I can't possibly permit----"
"Yes, you can. And you will. As to home comforts--isn't it home,
wherever we two are together? As to being cut off from my
friends--aren't you the best chum I ever had? How do you suppose I
like being cut off from you, brother?"
Rod did not answer. At last he looked up. The sober gratitude in his
eyes brought an answering radiance to Marian's own.
"I give up, Sis. You shall stay with me for the summer, anyway. Then
we'll see. Now run away, you blessed old partner!" His big hands shut
on her shoulders with an eloquent grip. "I'm going to write to
head-quarters and accept that position before I have time to turn
coward again and change my mind."
Marian gave him a vigorous hug of satisfaction, and ran away. Letter
in hand, Roderick went to his desk.
Carefully he set down his formal, courteous acceptance. He read the
finished letter with critical care. Something was lacking. Yet he had
taken all possible pains. What more could his reply need?
Suddenly his face brightened. He took up his pen. Slowly and
carefully he added a final paragraph:
"In accepting this promotion, I wish to do so with the understanding
that my sister, Miss Hallowell, who has acted as my assistant during
the past month, shall continue to hold that position under the new
contract. As her work is to be counted as a part of my own, I will
request that my quarterly checks shall be made out, not to R. T.
Hallowell, but to 'Hallowell & Hallowell,' as the salary is to be
drawn by us on a basis of equal partnership."
* * * * *
He put down the finished sheet. His boyish face lighted with a slow,
triumphant glow. He looked out across the gray wet country, the
fog-banked river. To his eyes the dull scene was illumined. For his
steady vision could see past that gray dreariness, far up the broad
high-road of work and success that he had now set foot upon. These
three months of heavy toil had proven him. He had seized his fighting
chance, and he had made good. And now all the royal chances of his
profession were waiting at his call.
"Though I never could have put it through without Marian," he said
under his breath. "My splendid, plucky little old Sis! No wonder I
made good, with such a partner. And from now on she shall be my real
partner, bless her heart. 'Hallowell & Hallowell,' now and forever!"