SNYDER APPLEBY'S JEALOUSY.
Bill Miner, the tramp, underwent some novel mental experiences on the day
that Rod obtained his position. In the first place the young fellow, whom
he had treated so badly, came to him while the superintendent was
interviewing Conductor Tobin, and said:
"Look here, Bill, you and I suffered a good deal together last night, and
you know it was mostly your fault that we did so; but I'll forgive you for
my share of the suffering if you'll only confess the whole business to the
superintendent. He is bound to find out all about it anyway; for he finds
out everything; but he'll think a good deal more of you if you own up
like a man. I would like to be your friend; but my friends must be honest
fellows, who are willing to work for a living, not tramps and thieves. Now
shake hands, and make up your mind to do what I have asked you."
Mr. Hill's return interrupted the conversation at this point; but it left
Bill in an unusually reflective state of mind. No gentleman, such as his
late companion in captivity evidently was, had ever shaken hands with, or
asked a favor of him before. In all his hard young life no one had ever
proposed that he should try honesty and hard work. Ever since he could
remember anything, his associates had advised dishonesty, and the shirking
of work in every possible way. Yet, now that he thought of it, he had
worked hard, all his life, at being dishonest. Now what had he to show for
it? Nothing but rags, and poverty, and a bad reputation. He wondered how
it would seem to be honest, and do honest work, and associate only with
honest people. He had half a mind to try it, just out of curiosity. The
idea of he, Bill the tramp, being an honest workman, and perhaps, even
getting to be called "Honest Bill," struck him as so odd that he chuckled
hoarsely over it.
"What are you laughing at?" demanded the brakeman who stood on the rear
platform of the car to prevent his escape, and who looked suspiciously in
at the door to discover the meaning of this novel sound from his
prisoner.
"Nothing," replied Bill.
"Well, I wish I could get so much fun out of nothing as you seem able to,"
said the brakeman, who was particularly down on tramps. "I reckon the
super'll give you something to laugh about directly that won't seem so
funny," he added significantly.
But Bill did not mind this. He was too busy with his own thoughts. Besides
he was used to such speeches, and was also listening to something else
just at that moment. He was listening to the conversation between Rod and
the superintendent. It certainly was a fine thing for a boy to be talked
to as the greatest man he had ever known was now talking to his one honest
friend, and to be offered such a position too. How he would like to be a
brakeman; and, if he were one, how well he would know how to deal with
tramps. He wondered what Mr. Hill meant by being "on time." Perhaps it
meant being honest.
Then Rod left the car, giving him a nod and a smile as he did so. A moment
later it was again whirling away toward New York, and the superintendent,
coming to where the young tramp was sitting, said: "Now, sir, I'm ready to
attend to your case. Are you willing to tell me what you know about this
business of robbing our freight trains? Or do you prefer to stick to your
lying story and go to prison for it?"
"I'll tell you all I know, if you'll give me a job for it," answered Bill,
with a sudden resolution to try for Rod Blake's friendship, and at the
same time to make a good bargain for himself if he could.
Regarding him keenly, the superintendent said: "So you want to be paid for
being honest, do you? Well, I don't know but what you are right. Honesty
is well worth paying for. So, if you will tell me, truthfully, all you
know of this business I promise you a job that will earn you an honest
living, and that you can keep just so long as you work faithfully at it."
"Honesty again. How often these gentlemen use the word, and how much
they seem to think of it," thought Bill. However, as it seemed to promise
something different from anything he had ever known, he determined to try
it, and see what it would do for him. So he told, in his awkward fashion,
all that he knew of the gang of tramp thieves, who had been for some time
systematically robbing freight trains at several points along the road,
and Mr. Hill listened to him with the deepest interest.
As a speedy result of this confession a freight clerk in the main office
of the company, who had been giving secret information to the thieves,
was discharged the very next day. Brown, the chief of the company's
detectives, learned where and how he could discover the places where the
stolen goods were hidden, and was thus enabled to recover a large portion
of them. And Bill Miner, no longer Bill the tramp, found himself doing
honest work, as a locomotive wiper and assistant hostler, in a round
house, at a salary of one dollar and twenty-nine cents per day.
Certainly Rod Blake's influence was being felt on the New York and Western
railroad.
After his conversation with Bill, the busy superintendent found time to
stop his flying car at the station where Brakeman Joe lay suffering from
his wounds, to speak a few kindly words to the faithful fellow, praise his
bravery, and assure him that his full pay should be continued until he
had entirely recovered from his injuries and was able to resume duty.
Late that afternoon the private car finished its long journey in the
station at the terminus of the road, and Mr. Hill hastened to his own
office. The moment he opened the door of the inner room a cloud of
cigarette smoke issued from it, and a frown settled on his face as he
hesitated a moment on the threshold. His private secretary, who had been
comfortably tilted back in the superintendent's own easy chair, puffing
wreathes of smoke from a cigarette, started to his feet. "We did not
expect you to return so soon, sir"--he began.
"Evidently not," interrupted Mr. Hill dryly; "You are the young man
recommended to me by President Vanderveer, I believe?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, sir, you will please to remember for the future, that neither in
this office, nor in any other belonging to the company, is cigarette
smoking among the qualifications required of our employees. If you must
smoke during business hours, I will endeavor to fill your position with
somebody who is not under that necessity."
For the next half hour Snyder Appleby sat at his own desk, for once in
his life hard at work, and feeling that he had been decidedly snubbed if
not actually insulted. He was even meditating the handing in of his
resignation, when the superintendent again addressed him, but this time
in a much more friendly tone.
"You are from Euston, I believe?"
"Yes, sir."
"Do you happen to know a young man from there named Rodman Blake?"
"Yes, sir. I have an acquaintance there of that name," replied Snyder
hesitatingly, and wondering what possible interest the "super" could have
in Rod Blake. "The fact is," he added with an assumed air of frankness,
"the young person in question is a sort of adopted cousin of my own; but
circumstances have arisen that lead me to consider him an undesirable
acquaintance."
"What are they?" inquired the superintendent bluntly.
"It would hardly be becoming in me to state them," replied Snyder, wishing
he knew why the other was making these inquiries. "I should be very sorry
to say anything that might injure the young man's future prospects."
"Had they anything to do with his leaving Euston, and seeking employment
on this road?"
"Yes, sir; I think they had," admitted Snyder with apparent reluctance.
"Then I consider it your duty to tell me what they are," said Mr. Hill;
"for I have just given young Blake the position of brakeman, and if there
is any reason why he is unfit for it I should like to know it."
This aroused all the jealousy in Snyder's nature and he answered: "Well,
sir, if you put it in that light, I suppose I must tell you that Blake's
uncle, with whom he lived, turned him from the house without a penny in
his pocket on account of his connection with a most infamous piece of
rascality. But I beg that you will not question me any further on the
subject. It is most painful to me to speak of even a distant connection
in the terms I should be obliged to use in referring to Rodman Blake.
President Vanderveer knows the whole history of the affair, and can give
you full information regarding it."
"The President has gone West on a business trip that will occupy some
weeks," replied Mr. Hill, "so I could not ask him even if I were inclined
to trouble him with so trifling a matter. I shall certainly investigate
it, however, and if I find this young Blake to be a person of such a
character as you intimate, I shall as certainly discharge him."