LAFFIE PLAYS--BLAKE TRUMPS
After an evening at poker with one of the new bridge-workers, Ashton
had retired at midnight. He had not heard of Blake's coming, for McGraw
had presumed that the Assistant Engineer had reported to the office
before turning in to sleep.
When he awoke, the sun was half way up the eastern sky. He yawned,
glanced at the sun, and rang for his breakfast. It was presently
brought in to him by his English valet, who, like the chef, was not
unused to the city social hours of his employer. Ashton did not trouble
to go into his elegant little dining-room, but ordered the meal served
at his bedside.
Sometime later, Blake, over in the bunkhouse, opened his eyes, yawned,
and sprang out into the middle of McGraw's unaesthetic room. He had
slept eighteen hours without a break. He awoke still stiff and sore,
but brimming over with energy, and hungry as a shark. He gave himself a
cold rubdown, jumped into his new clothes, and ran to the cookhouse for
a hearty meal.
When he came out again, he headed straight across the tracks for the
office of the Resident Engineer. He smiled ironically as he noted the
green and white paint and the trimmings of the verandahs with which
Ashton had endeavored to give a bungalow effect to the shack-like
structure. But as he swung up the steps into the front verandah, the
grimness of his look increased and the humor vanished. His heavy tread
through the weather vestibule announced his entrance into the office.
He took no pains to walk softly.
Ashton, attired in a lounging-robe of scarlet silk, was half reclining
in an easy chair. The big desk beside him was littered with engineering
journals, reports, and blueprints of bridge plans, topped with detail
drawings in ink of the long central span. The Resident Engineer was not
studying the plans. He was reading a French novel of the variety seldom
translated.
At Blake's entrance, he looked up, his delicate high-arched eyebrows
gathered in a frown of annoyance. Almost in the same moment he
recognized the intruder, and started to his feet in open alarm.
"How!--why!" he stammered. "You here? I thought you--that after--"
"Too bad, eh?" bantered Blake. "But you mustn't blame yourself. You did
your best. But accidents will happen."
"Then you're--you're not--Yet you look--"
"Appearances often deceive," quoted Blake lightly. "You gave me a great
start-off--had me going South. So I went."
"Going South?"
"Yes. But that's all by-the-bye, as my friend, the Right Honorable the
Earl of Avondale, would say. I'm here now for you to enter my
acceptance of the standing offer of the Assistant Engineership."
"You--you agree to take it--under me?" cried Ashton in astonishment.
"Why not?" asked Blake with well-feigned surprise.
"Why, of course if--You see, it's--it's rather unexpected," Ashton
sought to explain as he regained assurance. "Old Griffith wrote me
about the way you had put through the Zariba Dam. After that I never
dreamed you'd accept any position as Assistant."
"Well, I like to please Grif," was Blake's easy reply. "He's been
worrying because office work uses me up. Nothing suits me better than
an outdoor job, and I happened to take a fancy to your bridge the other
time I came. It's a good deal like those plans of mine that got
mislaid. Of course you can't know that."
"No, of course not!" assented Ashton, moistening his lower lip.
"Course not," repeated Blake. "So I can't blame you if you find it hard
to believe that my plans would have been accepted before you drew yours
if they hadn't been mislaid."
"Then you--no longer accuse Mr. Leslie of--having taken them?" Ashton
ventured to ask.
"Couldn't prove it on him, could I? No use _baa-ing_ over spilt milk.
Well, you understand I'm on the job now; I've accepted the offer."
"Ye-es," reluctantly admitted Ashton. "Not that I see the use. There's
no need for another engineer."
"That's no lie. One engineer is enough," said Blake dryly. "You sure
proved yourself one when you planned this little old cantilever.
However, I'm short of cash. I'll hang around and do what I can. May be
able to save you bother by carrying orders out to McGraw or checking
over reports for you."
He picked up the vellum-cloth drawings of the central span and some of
the blueprints, and began in a matter-of-fact manner to roll them up.
"Hold on!" sharply interposed Ashton. "What are you about?"
"I'm going to bunk with McGraw. Thought I'd take these over and try to
get in touch with the work."
"No, you sha'n't! I can't allow you to take those. They're the original
drawings. They must not be taken out of my office."
"Original drawings?" repeated Blake in a tone of perfect innocence.
"Excuse me. I took them for copies."
"C-copies!" stuttered Ashton, turning white even to his lips.
"Yes. Hasn't Grif the originals?" asked Blake in a careless tone that
was barely touched with surprise.
Ashton rallied from his fright. "No, you're mistaken, completely
mistaken! These are the originals. I drew them myself. I couldn't trust
to a draughtsman."
"Sure not, such important work as this span of yours. Grif tells me
there's never before been anything built like this suspension span,"
agreed Blake, bending over to study the drawings. "But you'll admit
some of these figures are rather slipshod for work on original drawings
put in to win a competition."
"But I--I didn't compete. The idea came to me too late for that. I
tried my utmost to be in time for the contest. I was working fast to
get my plans drawn. That's why I made some errors--which you may have
noticed."
Blake looked up with an ironical smile.
Ashton moistened his lips, hesitated, and asked in an uneasy tone:
"About--about how long do you expect to stay? I suppose you will stay,
won't you?"
"Well, three or four days, maybe. As you probably know, Grif screwed
the company up to offer me a stiff salary--on the strength of that
Zariba work, I suppose. I didn't intend to take the offer at all, but
my clothes were--they got rather out of repair on my Southern tour, and
I came on up here without stopping at my tailor's. Happened to leave my
checkbook, too, and it's a long walk to town."
"Oh, if it's only that you're strapped," Ashton hastened to reply;
"I'll be pleased to draw you a check--little loan, you know--anything
from a hundred to a thousand. No hurry about paying it back. I'm flush."
"You're too kind!" said Blake dryly.
"It's nothing--nothing--a mere trifle!" assured Ashton, with a touch of
condescension. "You know I'll have scads of money to burn some day." He
opened a drawer of his desk and took out a checkbook. "I know you can't
be anxious to hang around a dreary hole like this. Suppose I make it
five thousand? You can keep the money as long as you wish. There's just
time for you to catch the extra train we're sending down to the
junction for more steel."
"Thanks. But I need a good rest," said Blake.
"I'll think it over, and let you know. Maybe I'll decide to loaf around
with you a few days and save borrowing."
"Oh, well, if you can stand this jumping-off place," replied Ashton,
visibly disappointed.
He glanced down into the open drawer, and his eyes narrowed with a look
of furtive eagerness that did not escape Blake. In a corner of the
drawer was a squat black bottle and a tumbler. Ashton lifted them out
and poured a half-glassful of whiskey that was thick and oily with age.
"The real stuff!" he said, holding out the tumbler to Blake. "Older
than your grandmother. Let's wet your welcome to Michamac!"
"Here's how!" replied Blake, with a geniality of tone and manner that
diverted the other's attention from the glint in his eyes. He took the
glass and deliberately twisted his hand backward so that the whiskey
poured out on the bare floor in front of the desk.
"Look out! You're spilling it!" exclaimed Ashton.
"No, just pouring it," explained Blake. "German custom. Next time
you're in a beer-garden do it, and they'll let you know what it means."
"Means?" echoed Ashton.
"In this case, it means I never drink when I'm on a job. One of my
rules. Told you I had accepted that standing offer, didn't I?"
"Yes. But I didn't know that you--"
"Well, you know now. I'm on this job."
Ashton shot a covert glance at his square-jawed opponent.
"Then it's a mistake--the report that you refused to accept any
position from Mr. Leslie," he murmured.
"Mistake? No," curtly answered Blake. "Needn't try to fool me. Mr.
Leslie turned the bridge over to the Coville Company months ago."
"Fool you?" sneered Ashton. "You're too easy! The Coville Company is
only another name for Papa Leslie."
"Look here," warned Blake. "You're apt to learn soon that some lies
aren't healthy."
"It's the truth," replied Ashton, giving back a little, but insistent
on the facts. "It's a way he avoids responsibility. But he owns
ninety-nine per cent of the stock. Griffith must have told you that. He
knows all about it."
This obstinate insistence, despite the young fellow's evident fear,
convinced Blake. He half raised his clenched fist.
"And I fell to it!" he muttered. "Let him bunco me into putting through
that dam for him! Scheme to make me take his money!"
"You as good as put half a million into his pocket," jeered Ashton.
"What do I care about that?" rejoined Blake.
"It's that fifty thousand bonus. He'll be trying to force it on me."
Ashton thought he had misunderstood. "Don't fear he'll not pay up. He's
good pay when you have it in black and white. There's still time to
catch the train. You'll find your check waiting you at the offices of
the company."
Blake did not reply. One of the dimensional figures on a blueprint of
the south cantilever had caught his glance, and he had bent over to
peer at it. A sudden stillness seemed to have fallen upon him.
After a perceptible pause, he asked in a tone that was very low and
quiet and deliberate: "Would you mind telling me if this blueprint was
made direct from your originals--from the original drawings used in
ordering the structural steel?"
"Yes, of course," answered Ashton. "Why?"
"You are sure?"
"I'm certain. You don't think I'd let any one with a pen fool around my
drawings, do you?"
"Lord, no! Might correct your damn errors!" cried Blake, all his stony
calm fluxing to lava before an outflare of volcanic excitement. "You
fool!--Lord! Wasting time! Sit down--scratch off an order. That
cantilever must be relieved P.D.Q.--every ounce skinned off it!"
"What--what's that?" asked Ashton, staring blankly. He had never before
seen Blake agitated.
"You fool!" shouted Blake. "You've got that outer arm loaded down with
material 'way beyond the margin of safety. You damned fool, you made an
error here in the figures--over the bottom-chords and posts. They'll
hold anything, once the suspension span is completed, but now! Lord!
McGraw is a mule--he'll insist on a written order. Weather report says
wind. And another train loading to run out on the overhang, when we
ought to be hauling steel off!"
"Oh, we ought, ought we?" blustered Ashton, venturing bravado in view
of Blake's agitation. "Who d' you think is running this bridge, you
barrel-house bum? I'll give you to understand I'm the engineer in
charge here. You're my Assistant--my Assistant! D'you hear?"
"Yes, yes!" urged Blake. "Only scratch off an order! There's no time to
lose! I'll do the work. For God's sake, hurry! You've a hundred men out
there on that deadfall--a million dollars' worth of steel-work! Those
bottom-chords may buckle any second!"
From eager pleading, Blake burst out in an angry roar: "Damn you! Get
busy! Write that order!"
Seized with desperate fear of the big form that leaned menacingly
toward him over the desk, Ashton snatched an automatic pistol from the
top drawer, and thrust it out toward Blake.
"Stand back! Stand back! Keep away!" he cried shrilly.
Blake hastily stepped back. It was not the first time he had seen a
panic-stricken fool with a pistol. The quick retreat instantly restored
Ashton's assurance. He rebounded from fear to contempt.
"You big bluff!" he jeered. "Good thing you hopped lively. I'll show
you! Thought I wasn't armed, did you?"
"You doughhead!" rejoined Blake. "Can't you understand? I tell you that
bridge--"
"_Bah!_ You knocker! I see your game. You know now that it's Papa
Leslie's job; you want to get in charge--knock out my work--spoil the
record I'm making. That's it! You think you'll get my place, and try to
smooth things up with Genevieve."
"Shut up!" commanded Blake, raising his fist.
Ashton hastily sighted the pistol, which he had half lowered.
"You--you--don't you threaten me! I'll shoot!" As Blake made no attempt
to attack, he went on viciously: "You'd better not! I'll show you! I'm
the boss here--get out of here! You're fired! Get out; keep off my
bridge; leave the grounds, or I'll have you kicked off!"
"You fool!" said Blake. He swung around and started off with stern
determination. But within three strides he faced about again. "You
dotty fool! I had intended to let you down easy."
He came back toward the desk, grim-faced and very quiet. Ashton was
puzzled and disconcerted by this sudden change of front. The pistol
wavered in his trembling hand.
"Keep away! Don't you touch me! Don't you come near me!" he half
whimpered.
Blake advanced to the opposite side of the desk, and spoke in a tone of
cool raillery: "You're rattled. Better put up that gun. It might go
off."
"It will in half a second!" snapped Ashton.
Blake leaned forward and transfixed him with a stare of cold contempt.
"You thief!" he said. "Your game is up. You sneak thief!"
Ashton lowered his pistol and cowered as though Blake had struck him.
"No, no! I'm not--I'm not! You haven't any proof--you can't prove it!"
"Proof?" growled Blake. "When I've known it ever since I came up
before--knew it the first look. My bridge from shoe to peak--every
girder, every rivet--and my truss! Not another bridge in the world has
that truss. You dirty sneak thief!--_Huh!_ you would, would you?"
Ashton had sought to raise and aim the pistol. This time Blake did not
step back. Instead, he flung himself forward, and his hand closed in an
iron grip on the wrist of the hand that held the pistol. The weapon
fell from the paralyzed fingers.
Ashton made a frantic clutch with his left hand to regain the pistol,
but he was jerked violently forward, up and over the desk. As he
floundered across in a flurry of rustling, tearing maps and papers, he
swore in shrill anger. Blake's left hand gripped his throat, His anger
gave place to terror. He sought to scream, but the fingers tightened
and throttled him. He was dragged across and down upon the floor,
choking and gurgling. Blake bent lower.
"Lie still!" he ordered. "I'm going to let go your throat. If you
squawk, I'll break your neck!"
He removed his grip alike of wrist and throat, and Ashton, gasping and
panting, felt gingerly of his throat with his soft fingers. He could
not see the dark marks left by Blake's terrible clutch, but he could
feel the bruises. He glared up, terror-stricken, into the pale hard
eyes that blazed down into his own with a light like that of molten
steel.
"You--you'll not--not murder me!" he panted.
"I'll break your neck if you don't keep quiet and mind," menaced Blake.
He sprang erect. "Get up to your desk--quick!"
Ashton needed no urging. As lie scrambled around to the chair, Blake
picked up the automatic pistol and tested its mechanism with expert
swiftness.
"Don't! Don't!" implored Ashton, dodging down.
"_Bah!_ Take that pen--write!" commanded Blake. Ashton clutched at his
pen and an order pad. "Steady, you fool! Now write, _'Bridge in danger.
Strip bare. Blake in charge.'_" Ashton scribbled with frantic
swiftness. "Got that? Sign your name in full as Resident Engineer."
The moment Ashton obeyed, Blake reached over and snatched up the order
pad and an indelible pencil. In his other hand he thrust out the pistol
to press its muzzle against Ashton's temple.
"Oh!--oh!--don't!" whimpered the coward.
"You skunk!" growled Blake. "Keep your mouth shut, or I'll smash you
like a rattlesnake. I'm going to save my bridge. Don't get in my way!"
He pointed with the pistol toward the rear door of the room. "What's in
there?"
"My--my quarters."
"Get in there! Stay in! No yawping!" The terse orders ended in a flash
of grim humor. "You're sick. Mind you don't get worse."
Ashton was already slinking into his apartment.
There was a rumble of freight cars outside. Blake spun about on his
heel and rushed out through the vestibule.