“My plans for leaving town?” repeated Tom pleasantly. “Why, gentlemen,
I'll meet your question frankly by saying that I haven't made any such
plans.”
“You're going to do so, aren't?” inquired Duff casually.
“By the time that my partner and I have finished our work for the road,
Mr. Duff, I imagine that we shall be making definite plans to go away,
unless the railroad officials decide to keep us here with Paloma as
headquarters for other work.”
“We believe that it would be much better for your health if you went
away at once,” Duff insisted, with a mildness that did not disguise his
meaning in the least.
Tom deemed it not worth while to pretend any longer that he did not
understand.
“Oh, then it's a case of 'Here's your hat. What's your hurry?'” asked
Reade smilingly.
“Something in that line,” assented Jim Duff. “I venture to assure
you that we are quite in earnest in our anxiety for your welfare, Mr.
Reade.”
“Whom do you men represent?” asked Tom.
“The citizens of Paloma,” returned Duff.
“All of them?” Reade insisted.
“All of them--with few exceptions.”
“I understand you, of course,” Tom nodded.
“Now, Mr. Duff, I'll tell you what I propose. I'm curious to know just
how many there are on your side of the fence. Pardon me, but I really
can't quite believe that the better citizens of this town are behind
you. I know too many Arizona men, and I have too good an opinion of
them. Your kind of crowd makes a lot of noise at times, and the other
kind of Arizona crowd rarely makes any noise. I know, of course, the
element in the town that your committee represents, but I don't believe
that your element is by any means in the majority here.”
“I assure you that we represent the sentiment of the town,” Duff
retorted steadily.
“Much as I regret the necessity for seeming to slight your opinion,” Tom
went on with as pleasant a smile as at first, “I call for a showing of
hands or a count of noses. I'll tell you what we'll do, Mr. Duff, if it
meets with your approval. We'll hire a hall, sharing the expense. We'll
state the question fairly in the local newspaper, and we'll invite
all good citizens to turn out, meet in the hall, hear the case on both
sides, and then decide for themselves whether they want the railroad
engineers to leave the town or--”
“They do want you to leave town!” the gambler insisted.
“Or whether they want Jim Duff and some of his friends to leave town,”
Tom Reade continued good-humoredly.
Jim Duff turned, gazing back at the men with him. They represented the
roughest element in the town.
“No use arguing with a mule, Jim!” growled a red-faced man at the rear
of the crowd. “Get a rail, boys, and we'll start the procession right
now.”
“Bring a rope along, too!” called another man hoarsely.
“Get two rails and one rope!” proposed a third bad character. “The other
kid doesn't seem to be sassy enough to need a rope.”
“Gentlemen,” broke in Harry Hazelton gravely, “if anyone of you imagines
that I'm holding my tongue because I disapprove of my partner's course,
let me assure you that I back every word he says.”
“Make it two ropes, then!” jeered another voice.
“Reade,” continued Jim Duff, “we all try to be decent men here, and the
friends with me are a good and sensible lot of men. You have carried
matters just a little too far. Think over what you've heard and noticed
here, and then tell me again about your plans, for quitting Paloma.”
As he spoke Jim made a gesture that kept some of the men near him from
rushing forward. Tom did not appear to notice the demonstration at all.
Certainly he did not flinch.
“I haven't any such plans,” Tom laughed. “I'm hungry and I'm going
inside to eat.”
With that, he turned his back on the crowd, with Harry behind him, both
making for the steps of the hotel. Superintendent Hawkins stepped in
after the boys.
“Gentlemen, I can't do anything more,” spoke up Jim Duff, with an air of
resignation.
“But we can!” roared some of the roughs in the crowd. A dozen of them
surged forward. The first of them swung a lariat to slip it over Tom
Reade's neck.
Bump! Hawkins's sledge-hammer right hand shot out, landing on that
fellow's face. With a moan the fellow collapsed on the sidewalk, his jaw
broken.
Then Tom and Harry wheeled like a flash, eyeing the idlers and roughs
sternly.
“Don't go any further,” proposed Tom, his eyes growing steely, “unless
you mean it.”
Something in the attitude of the trio of athletic figures standing ready
before them disquieted the crowd of roughs. There were armed men in that
crowd, but all felt that they had been put in the wrong, so far, and
none of them dared draw the first weapon or fire the first shot.
“Take that injured man to a surgeon and have his jaw set,” spoke Tom
quietly. “Let the surgeon send me the bill. I'm sorry for the fellow,
for I'm indirectly the cause of his being hurt. The main cause of his
misfortune was due to his being in bad company.”
“Come out of that hotel,” ordered Jim Duff, his eyes blazing as he
stepped forward, though with Hawkins's cold, hard eyes on him the
gambler was careful to keep his hands at his sides. “You can't get
anything to eat in there!”
“Do you own the hotel?” Tom inquired coolly.
“No; but you can't eat there.”
“Join us at lunch, Mr. Hawkins!” Tom invited, turning away from the
gambler. The superintendent nodded, for he had no intention of leaving
the young engineers for the present.
All three entered the hotel, while the small mob outside hooted and
jeered. Tom led the way to a table in the dining room, signing to one of
the waiters.
Hardly had the waiter reached them when Jim Duff and the proprietor of
the Mansion House came in. Jim, after saying a few words in a low tone,
halted, while the proprietor came forward.
“Good morning, Mr. Ashby,” nodded Tom, when he saw the proprietor headed
their way. The latter looked rather embarrassed, but he moved a hand to
signal the waiter to withdraw.
“I'm sorry, Mr. Reade, but I can't have you any longer at this hotel,”
began Ashby.
“Any particular reason?” Tom inquired, looking the man straight in the
eye.
“Yes; some of my other guests object to your presence here.”
“Meaning Jim Duff?” questioned Reade coolly.
“I don't care to discuss the matter with you, Mr. Reade, but I can't
entertain you here any longer.”
“Does that apply even to this meal, Mr. Ashby?”
“It does.”
“Very good,” nodded Tom, rising. Harry and Hawkins shoved their chairs
back, too, and stood up.
“Say, but I don't like the looks of that!” announced a voice
from another table. There were five men seated there, all of them
well-dressed and prosperous-looking traveling salesmen, who had arrived
that morning.
“This is a very regrettable necessity on my part, gentlemen,” began
Proprietor Ashby hurriedly, and plainly ill at ease. “Some of my regular
guests object to the presence of these young men, and so--”
“These young gentlemen have gotten in bad by objecting to having their
men fleeced here in town, haven't they?” inquired the boldest of the
drummers. “I heard something about it this morning.”
“Perhaps you haven't heard all the circumstances,” suggested Ashby in
growing embarrassment.
“We've heard enough, anyway,” replied the same drummer briskly. “So
these young men, who are a credit to their profession and to their home
towns, are ordered to leave here? Boys, I guess we leave, too, don't
we?”
The other traveling salesmen assented emphatically.
Now Proprietor Ashby felt dismal, indeed. These five men were occupying
the best quarters in his hotel, outside of those occupied by Jim Duff.
It was not the loss of patronage from these men alone that troubled
Ashby. Traveling salesmen have their own ways of “passing around the
word” and downing any hotel that depends largely on their patronage.
“You can have all our rooms, then, Mr. Ashby,” proposed the same
drummer. “We'll have our things out and be ready for our bills within
twenty minutes.”
“But, gentlemen, be calm about this,” begged Ashby. “Finish your meals
first. There may be some way of arranging--”
“There is,” returned the drummer, with a smile that was a fine
duplicate of Tom's own. “We know just where to arrange for the kind of
accommodations that we want. Mr. Reade,” turning to Tom and Harry, “will
you allow me to introduce ourselves. We are aching to shake hands with
you, for we've heard all about you.”
Proprietor Ashby fidgeted at the side, while the eight departing guests
paused long enough to make their names known to each other.
Jim Duff had vanished early, leaving the hotel man to his own
humiliation.
The introductions concluded, Hawkins followed the young engineers to
their room while the drummers went to their own more costly quarters and
hastily packed their belongings.
Fifteen minutes later the party stood in the office and porters were
bringing down trunks. Tom and Harry, keeping most of their belongings at
camp, had only suit cases to carry.
“Gentlemen, I think you are making a mistake,” began Mr. Ashby, as he
met the salesmen in the lobby near the clerk's desk.
“We made a mistake in coming here,” retorted the leader of the salesmen,
pleasantly as to tone, “but we're rectifying it now. Are our bills
ready?”
The proprietor went behind the desk to make change, while the clerk
receipted seven bills. Ashby's hands shook as he manipulated the money.
“Dobson,” he said, in a low tone to one of the drummers, “I had intended
ordering a ton of hams from you. Now, of course, I can't--”
“Quite right,” nodded Mr. Dobson cheerfully. “You couldn't get them from
our house at four times the market price. We wouldn't want our brand
served here.”
The last bill was paid. Proprietor Ashby stiffened, his backbone, trying
to look game.
“Gentlemen,” he inquired, “where are you going from here? Won't you let
me call the 'bus to take you?”
“Never mind the 'bus, Ash,” smilingly replied the leader of the
drummers, a man named Pritchard. “If you'll send the 'bus over to the
Cactus House with our trunks we'll be greatly obliged.”
“Certainly, gentlemen, it's a pleasure to oblige you,” murmured Ashby,
with a ghastly effort to look pleasant. He watched the eight men step
outside. Duff and his crowd had vanished. It would never do to try
any mob tricks on so many strangers who had done nothing. The most
easy-going citizens of an Arizona town would turn out to punish such a
mob.
The three railroad men had their horses brought around, but they rode
slowly, chatting with the salesmen on the sidewalk.
In this order they reached the Cactus House, which, thirty years ago,
had been famous in and around the old Paloma of the frontier days. The
proprietor, a young man named Carter, had succeeded his father in the
ownership of the property. It was a neat hotel, but a small one. The
elder Carter had lost a good deal of money before his death, and the son
was now trying to build up the property with hardly any reserve capital.
At the Cactus there was a great flurry when five such important guests
arrived and the young railroad engineers were also most heartily
welcomed.
“Our meal time is nearly over, but I'll have something special cooked
for you right away, gentlemen,” cried young Carter, bustling about, his
eyes aglow.
“Before you get that meal ready,” said Pritchard, drawing young Carter
aside, “I want to ask you whether any man can ever be driven from this
hotel, just for being decent?”
“He certainly cannot,” replied Proprietor Carter with emphasis.
“Live up to that, son,” advised the drummer, “and I half suspect that
you'll prosper.”
The meal finished, the three men from the railroad camp took leave of
their new salesmen friends, mounted and rode back to camp.
“The snakes are not all dead yet,” mused Tom quizzically, as, in riding
through the “tough” street again they heard hisses from open windows at
which no heads appeared.
“There's a letter here for you, Mr. Reade,” announced Foreman Payson,
who was sitting alone in the office.
“Who brought it?”
“I don't know his name. Never saw him before. He rode out here on
horseback.”
The envelope, though a good one as to quality, was dirty on the outside.
Tom Reade hastily broke the seal and read:
“If you don't get away from Paloma pretty soon your presence will hold
the railroad up for a longtime to come! Get out, if you're wise, or the
railroad will suffer with you!”
“I reckon the fellow who wrote that was sincere enough,” said Tom, as he
passed the letter over to his chum. “However, I don't like to feel that
I can be seared by any man who's too cowardly to sign his name to a
letter.”