THE ROAD-BUILDERS
[Illustration: The M M Co]
[Illustration: “‘there,’ he cried, ... ‘there, boys! that means
red hills or bust.’” _Frontispiece_]
The Road-Builders
BY
SAMUEL MERWIN
AUTHOR OF “THE MERRY ANNE,” JOINT AUTHOR OF
“CALUMET ‘K,’” “THE SHORT LINE WAR,” ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
F. B. MASTERS
TORONTO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
1910
COPYRIGHT, 1905,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1905. Reprinted
April, 1906.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
_TO MY LITTLE SON_
NOTE
A part of this story was printed serially in _The Saturday
Evening Post_ under the title, “A Link in the Girdle.”
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. YOUNG VAN ENGAGES A COOK 1
II. WHERE THE MONEY CAME FROM 22
III. AT MR. CARHART’S CAMP 37
IV. JACK FLAGG SEES STARS 66
V. WHAT THEY FOUND AT THE WATER-HOLE 97
VI. THE ROAD TO TOTAL WRECK 138
VII. THE SPIRIT OF THE JOB 185
VIII. SHOTS--AND A SCOUTING PARTY 219
IX. A SHOW-DOWN 246
X. WHAT TOOK PLACE AT RED HILLS 293
ILLUSTRATIONS
“‘There,’ he cried, ... ‘there, boys! That means Red Hills
or bust’” _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
“‘It’s all I have a right to give anybody’” 74
“‘Eighty cents,’ he muttered, ‘and for how much work?’” 80
“‘Well,’ began the boss, looking him over, ‘what kind of a
cook are you?’” 98
“Wonderfully they held the pace” 114
“They went on in this way for nearly an hour” 120
“‘Look here, Tiffany,’ Carhart began, ‘something’s going to
happen to this man Peet’” 142
“‘You go back to your quarters’” 208
“... this trestle structure which was slowly crawling, like
some monster centipede, across the sands of the La Paz” 240
“The cigarette dropped from Antonio’s unnerved fingers” 244
“Charlie had not raised his revolver,--the muzzle still
rested easily on the sill,--but it was pointing straight
at Jack Flagg’s heart” 310
THE ROAD-BUILDERS
CHAPTER I
YOUNG VAN ENGAGES A COOK
The S. & W. was hoping some day to build a large station with a steel
and glass trainshed at Sherman. Indeed, a side elevation of the
structure, drawn to scale and framed in black walnut, had hung for a
number of years in the private office, away down east, of President
Daniel De Reamer. But that was to come in the day when Sherman should
be a metropolis; at present the steel of which it was to be
constructed still lay deep in the earth, unblasted, unsmelted, and
unconverted; and the long, very dirty train which, at the time this
narrative opens, was waiting to begin its westward journey, lay
exposed to the rays of what promised to be, by noon, the hottest sun
the spring had so far known. The cars were of an old, ill-ventilated
sort, and the laborers, who were packed within them like cattle in a
box-car, had shed coats and even shirts, and now sat back, and gasped
and grumbled and fanned themselves with their caps, and steadily lost
interest in life.
Apparently there was some uncertainty back in the office of the
superintendent. A red-faced man, with a handkerchief around his neck,
ran out with an order; whereupon an engine backed in, coupled up to
the first car, and whistled impatiently. But they did not go. Half an
hour passed, and the red-faced man ran out again, and the engine
uncoupled, snorted, rang its bell, and disappeared whence it had come.
At length two men--Peet, the superintendent, and Tiffany, chief
engineer of the railroad--walked down the platform together, and
addressed a stocky man with a close-cut gray mustache and a fixed
frown, who stood beside the rear car.
“Peet says he can’t wait any longer, Mr. Vandervelt,” said Tiffany.
“Can’t help that,” replied Vandervelt.
“But you’ve got to help it!” cried Peet. “What are you waiting for,
anyway?”
“If you think we’re starting without Paul Carhart, you’re mistaken.”
“Carhart! Who is Carhart?”
“That’s all right,” Tiffany put in. “He’s in charge of the
construction.”
“I don’t care what he is! This train--”
He was interrupted by a sudden uproar in the car just ahead. A number
of Italians had chosen to enliven the occasion by attacking the
Mexicans, some of whom had unavoidably been assigned to this car.
Vandervelt left the railroad men without a word, bounded up the car
steps, and plunged through the door. The confusion continued for a
moment, then died down. Another moment, and Vandervelt reappeared on
the platform.
Meanwhile Tiffany was talking to the superintendent.
“You’ve simply got to wait, Peet,” said he. “The old man says that
Carhart must have a free hand. If he’s late, there’s a reason for
it.”
“The old man didn’t say that to me,” growled Peet; but he waited.
* * * * *
It would perhaps be difficult to find, in the history of American
enterprise, an undertaking which demanded greater promptness in
execution than the present one; yet, absurdly enough, the cause of the
delay was a person so insignificant that, even for the purposes of
this narrative, his name hardly matters. The name happened to be,
however, Purple Finn, and he had been engaged for chief cook to the
first division.
There was but one real hotel in the “city,” which is to be known here
as Sherman, the half-dozen other places that bore the title of hotel
being rather in the nature of a side line to the saloon and gambling
industry. At this one, which was indicated by a projecting sign and
the words “Eagle, House,” Carhart and his engineers were stopping.
“The Comma House,” as the instrument men and stake men had promptly
dubbed it, was not very large and not very clean, and the “razor back”
hogs and their progeny had a way of sleeping in rows on and about the
low piazza. But it was, nevertheless, the best hotel in that
particular part of the Southwest.
Finn, on the other hand, made his headquarters at one of the half
dozen, that one which was known to the submerged seven-eighths as
“Murphy’s.” That Finn should be an enthusiastic patron of the poor
man’s club was not surprising, considering that he was an Irish
plainsman of a culinary turn, and considering, too, that he was now
winding up one of those periods between jobs, which begin in spacious
hilarity and conclude with a taste of ashes in the mouth.
It was late afternoon. The chief was sitting in his room, before a
table which was piled high with maps, blue-prints, invoices, and
letters. All day long he had been sitting at this table, going over
the details of the work in hand. Old Vandervelt had reported that the
rails and bolts and ties and other necessaries were on the cars;
Flint and Scribner had reported for their divisions; the statements of
the various railroad officials had been examined, to make sure that no
details were overlooked, for these would, sooner or later, bob up in
the form of misunderstandings; the thousand and one things which must
be considered before the expedition should take the plunge into the
desert had apparently been disposed of. And finally, when the large
clock down in the office was announcing, with a preliminary rattle and
click, that it intended very shortly to strike the half-hour between
five and six, the chief pushed back his chair and looked up at his
engineers, who were seated about him--Old Van before him on a trunk;
Scribner and Young Van beside him on the bed; John Flint, a thin,
sallow man, astride the other chair, and Haddon on the floor with his
back against the wall.
“All accounted for, Paul, I guess,” said Flint.
Carhart replied with a question, “How about those iron rods, John?”
“All checked off and packed on the train.”
“Did you accept Doble and Dean’s estimate for your oats?”
“Not much. Cut it down a third. It was altogether too much to carry.
You see, I shall be only thirty-odd miles from Red Hills, once I get
out there, and I don’t look for any trouble keeping in touch.”
“It’s just as well,” said Carhart. “The less you carry, the more room
for us.”
“Did those pots and kettles come, Gus?” Carhart asked, turning to the
younger Vandervelt, who was to act as his secretary and general
assistant.
“Yes; just before noon. They had been carried on to Paradise by
mistake. I got them right aboard.”
“And you were going to keep an eye on that cook. Where is he?”
Young Van hesitated, and an expression of chagrin came into his face.
“I’ll look him up. He promised me last night that he wouldn’t touch
another drop.”
“Well--get your hands on him, and don’t let go again.”
Young Van left the room, and as he drew the door to after him he could
hear the chief saying: “Haddon, I wish you would find Tiffany and
remind him that I’m counting on his getting around early to-night. I’m
not altogether satisfied with their scheme for supplying us.” And
hearing this, he was more than ever conscious of his own small part in
this undertaking, and more than ever chagrined that he should prove
unequal to the very small matter of keeping an eye on the cook. At
least, it seemed a small matter, in view of the hundreds of problems
concerning men and things which Paul Carhart was solving on this day.
The barkeeper at Murphy’s, who served also in the capacity of night
clerk, proved secretive on the subject of Purple Finn--hadn’t seen him
all day--didn’t know when he would be in. The young engineer thought
he had better sit down to digest the situation. This suggested supper,
and he ordered the best of Murphy’s fare, and ate slowly and
pondered. Seven o’clock came, but brought no hint of the cook’s
whereabouts. Young Van gathered from the barroom talk that a big
outfit had come into town from Paradise within the past hour or so,
and incidentally that one of the outfit, Jack Flagg, was on the
warpath--whoever Jack Flagg might be. As he sat in a rear corner,
watching, with an assumption of carelessness, the loafers and
plainsmen and gamblers who were passing in and out, or were, like
himself, sitting at the round tables, it occurred to him to go up to
Finn’s room. He knew, from former calls, where it was. But he learned
nothing more than that the cook’s door was ajar, and that a
half-packed valise lay open on the bed.
At half-past ten, after a tour of the most likely haunts, Young Van
returned to Murphy’s and resumed his seat in the rear corner. He had
no notion of returning to the Eagle House without the cook. It was now
close on the hour when Sherman was used to rouse itself for the
revelry of the night, and that Finn would take some part in this
revelry, and that he would, sooner or later, reappear at his favorite
hostelry, seemed probable.
The lamps in this room were suspended from the ceiling at such a
height that their light entered the eye at the hypnotic angle; and so
it was not long before Young Van, weary from the strain of the week,
began to nod. The bar with its line of booted figures, and the
quartets of card-players, and the one waiter moving about in his
spotted white apron, were beginning to blur and run together. The
clink of glasses and the laughter came to his ears as if from a great
distance. Once he nearly recovered his faculties. A group of new
arrivals were looking toward his corner. “Waiting for Purple Finn,
eh?” said one. “Well, I guess he’s got a nice long wait in front of
him, poor fool!” Then they all laughed. And Young Van himself, with
half-open eyes, had to smile over the poor fool in the corner who was
waiting for Purple Finn.
“I hear Jack Flagg’s in town,” said the barkeeper. “I wonder if he
is!” replied the first speaker. “I wonder if Jack Flagg is in town!”
Again they laughed. And again Young Van smiled. How odd that Jack
Flagg should be in town!
He was awakened by a sound of hammering. There was little change in
the room: the card games were going steadily on; the bar still had its
line of thirsty plainsmen; two men were wrangling in a corner. Then he
made out a group of newcomers who were tacking a placard to the wall,
and chuckling as they did so.
And now, for the first time, Young Van became conscious that he was no
longer alone at his table. Opposite him, smiling genially, and
returning his gaze with benevolent watery eyes, sat a big Texan. This
individual wore his cowboy hat on the back of his head, and made no
effort to conceal the two revolvers and the knife at his belt.
“D’ye know,” said the Texan, “I like you. What’s your name?”
“Vandervelt. What is yours?”
“Charlie--that’s my name.” Then his smile faded, and he shook his
head. “But you won’t find Purple Finn here.”
“Why not?”
“Ain’t that funny! You don’t know ’bout Purple Finn. It’s b’cause Jack
Flagg’s in town. They ain’t friendly--I know Jack Flagg. I’ve been
workin’ with ’im--down Paradise way.”
Young Van was nearly awake. “You don’t happen to be a cook, do you?”
said he.
“Yes,” Charlie replied dreamily. “I’m a cook. But I’m nothin’ to Jack
Flagg. He’s won’erful--won’erful!”
The engineer got up to stretch his legs, and incidentally took
occasion to read the placard. It ran as follows:--
PURPLE FINN: I heard you was looking for me. Well, I’ll be
around to Murphy’s to-morrow because I want to tell you you’re
talking too much.
JACK FLAGG.
He returned to his table, and amused himself listening to Charlie’s
talk. Then he looked at his watch and found that it was nearly two
hours after midnight. Within six or seven hours the train would be
starting. He wondered what his friends would say if they could see
him. He was afraid that if he should drop off again, he might sleep
too late, and so he determined to keep awake. He communicated this
plan to Charlie, who nodded approval. But he was not equal to it.
Within a very short time his chin was reposing on his breast, and
Charlie was looking at him and chuckling. “Awful good joke,” murmured
Charlie.
Young Van fell to dreaming. He thought that the doors suddenly swung
in, and that Purple Finn himself entered the room. The noise seemed,
at the instant, to die down; the barkeeper paused and gazed; the
card-players turned and sat motionless in their chairs. Finn, thought
Young Van, nodded in a general way, and laughed, and his laugh had no
humor in it. He walked toward the bar, but halfway his roving eye
rested on the placard, and he stood motionless. The blue tobacco haze
curled around him and dimmed the outlines of his figure. In the dream
he seemed to grow a little smaller while he stood there. Then he
walked across and read the placard, taking a long time about it, as if
he found it difficult to grasp the meaning. When he finally turned and
faced the crowd, his expression was weak and uncertain. He seemed
about to say something but whatever it was he wished to say, the words
did not come. Instead, he walked to the bar, ordered a drink, put it
down with a shaking hand, and left the room as he had entered it,
silently. The door swung shut, and somebody laughed; then all returned
to their cards.
When Young Van awoke, the room was flooded with sunlight from the side
windows. He straightened up in his chair and looked around. Charlie
was still at the table. Here and there along the side bench men were
sleeping. The card-players, with seamed faces and cold eyes, were
still at their business. A new set of players had come in, one of them
a giant of a man, dressed like a cowboy, with a hard eye, a heavy
mustache, and a tuft of hair below his under lip.
The engineer was almost afraid to look at his watch. It was half-past
eight. He turned to the still smiling Charlie. “See here,” he said,
“did Finn come in here last night?”
Charlie nodded. “You didn’t wake up.”
Young Van almost groaned aloud. “Where is he? Where did he go?”
“Listen to ’im!” Charlie was indicating a lank stranger who was
leaning on the bar, and talking to a dozen men who had gathered about
him.
“... And when I got off the train,” the lank man was saying, “there
was Purple Finn a-standin’ on the platform. I thought he looked sort
o’ caved in. ‘Hello, Purple,’ says I, ‘what you doin’ up so early in
the mornin’?’ But he never answers a word; just climbs on the train
and sits down in the smoker and looks out the window as if he thought
somebody was after ’im.”
A laugh went up at this, and all the group turned and looked at the
big man with the mustache. But this individual went on fingering his
cards without the twitch of an eyelid.
“So Finn has left town,” said Young Van, addressing his vis-a-vis.
“Yes,” Charlie replied humorously. “He had to see a man down to
Paradise.”
“Who is that big man over there?”
“Him?” Charlie’s voice dropped. “Why, that’s him--Jack Flagg.”
“Did you tell me last night that he was a cook?”
Charlie nodded. “He’s won’erful--won’erful! I know ’im. I’ve been
workin’--”
Young Van pushed back his chair and got up. For a moment he stood
looking at the forbidding face and mighty frame of the man who was now
the central figure in the room; then he crossed over and touched him
on the shoulder. “How are you?” said he, painfully conscious, as every
waking eye in the room was turned on him, that he did not know how to
talk to these men.
Flagg looked up.
“They tell me you can cook,” said the engineer.
“What’s that to you?” said Flagg.
“Do you want a job?”
“This is Mr. Van’ervelt,” put in Charlie, who had followed; “Mr.
Van’ervelt, of the railroad.”
“What’ll you pay?” asked Flagg.
Young Van named the amount.
“When do you want to start?”
“Now.”
“Charlie,”--Flagg was sweeping in a heap of chips,--“go down to Jim’s
and get my things and fetch ’em here.” And with this he turned back to
the game.
Young Van looked uncertainly at Charlie, whose condition was hardly
such that he could be trusted to make the trip without a series of
stops in the numerous havens of refuge along the way. The thing to do
was perhaps to go with him; at any rate, that is what Young Van did.
“Won’erful man!” murmured Charlie, when they reached the sidewalk.
Then, “Say, Mr. Van’ervelt, come over here a minute--jus’ over to Bill
White’s. Wanna see a man,--jus’ minute.”
But Young Van was not in a tolerant mood. “Stiffen up, Charlie,” he
said sharply. “No more of this sort of thing--not if you’re going with
us.”
Charlie was meekly obedient, and even tried to hurry; but at the best
it took considerable time to get together the clothing of the cook and
his assistant, pay their bill, and return to Murphy’s. This much
accomplished, it became necessary to use some tact with Flagg, who was
bent on winning a little more before stopping. And as Flagg could
easily have tossed the engineer out of the window, and had, besides,
the strategical advantage, Young Van was unable to see much choice for
himself in the matter. And standing there, waiting on the pleasure of
his cook, he passed the time in wondering where he had made his
mistake. Paul Carhart, or John Flint, he thought, would never have
found it necessary to take the undignified measures to which he had
been reduced. But what was the difference? What would they have done?
In trying to answer these questions he hit on every reason but the
right one. He forgot that he was a young man.
* * * * *
Carhart and Flint, after waiting a long time at the “Eagle, House,”
went down to the station, arriving there some time after the outburst
of Peet, which was noted at the beginning of the chapter. Tiffany saw
them coming, and communicated the news to the superintendent. The
engine reappeared, and again coupled up to the forward car.
“Everything all right?” called Tiffany.
“No,” replied Carhart; “don’t start yet.”
The three walked on and joined Old Van by the steps of the rear car.
“Well,” growled the veteran, “how much longer are we going to wait,
Paul?”
“Until Gus comes.”
“Gus? I thought he was aboard here.”
“No,” said John Flint, with a wink; “he went out last night to see the
wheels go round. Here he comes now. But what in--”
They all gazed without a word. Three men were walking abreast down the
platform, Gus Vandervelt, with a white face and ringed eyes, in the
middle. The youngest engineer of the outfit was not a small man, but
between the two cooks he looked like a child.
“Would you look at that!” said Flint, at length. “Neither of those two
Jesse Jameses will ever see six-foot-three again. Makes Gus look like
a nick in a wall.”
Young Van met Carhart’s questioning gaze almost defiantly. “The cook,”
he said, indicating Flagg.
“All right. Get aboard.”
“Rear car,” cried Old Van, who had charge of the arrangements on the
train.
This time the bell did not ring in vain. The train moved slowly out
toward the unpeopled West, and the engineers threw off coats and
collars, and made themselves as nearly comfortable as they could under
the circumstances.
A few minutes after the start Paul Carhart, who was writing a letter
in pencil, looked up and saw Young Van beside him, and tried not to
smile at his sorry appearance.
“I think I owe you an explanation, Mr. Carhart,” began the young man,
in embarrassment which took the form of stiffness.
But the chief shook his head. “I’m not asking any questions, Gus,” he
replied. Then the smile escaped him, and he turned it off by adding,
“I’m writing to Mrs. Carhart.” He held up the letter and glanced over
the first few lines with a twinkle in his eyes. “I was just telling
her,” he went on, “that the cook problem in Chicago is in its
infancy.”