THERE was little trouble getting the assignment; in fact, the
authorities were glad some one was willing to tackle the case, for it
had become a nightmare and a stench, but it was a case of "don't begin
unless you can finish it." Others had given it up, perhaps because of
the press of other work. I was amply warned that it was a hard nut to
crack, and I had a fair chance of making a failure of it. Yes, the
railroad and packing-house people would coöperate and do all they could.
I was told to go over and see Mr. Powell, the New Orleans agent, who all
but went crazy over it, and work out a plan with him.
Before night I was on the payroll of the Yazoo, with a private office
and a sub-title of some sort under the auditor, having decided to begin
on the perishable freight records, or rather it was necessary for me to
have them under my hand, as they were set down each day, though with
little confidence that they would yield results.
"I don't know what kind of a clerk I can give you, for the whole system
is short of help, but I will do the best I can," Mr. Powell assured me,
placing at my disposal the voluminous reports on the cases settled, and
those that were still pending, unsettled, with the shippers.
There was hardly room for the female clerk and myself to move about in
the room after the perishable records were all in there--big volumes of
yellow tissue made it look like a storehouse, though they only extended
back to the time of the first loss.
In addition to this arrangement it was generally given out that the
night business on the wharf tracks had been so largely increased by the
heavy movement of fruit that an extra man was to be put on to work
opposite Hiram, who went on at four a. m., and came off at three p. m.
As the general office was uptown, more than a mile from the dock tracks,
it was unlikely that I would be noticed working in the dual capacity of
night clerk on the wharf and something or other under the auditor in the
general offices. But in this we soon found we had miscalculated.
When Hiram learned the arrangement he was jubilant. In an incredibly
short time he had come to look on my capacity to clear up a mystery as
unlimited. The joy of anticipation supplanted fear, but he did not fully
recover his old, buoyant, optimistic self.
He never mentioned Anna Bell Morgan, but I was sure he thought of her
about all the time he was not busy.
"Ben," he began one night, laughing, "did you send your friend in New
York another sample of those steel filings on which we are paying
storage? I believe you will soon graduate into the 'Prince of conmen,'
or a second-story worker. I tell you it takes a pretty good man to stop
me in the middle of the street and subtract three-fifty from my jeans
for a half-interest in a barrel of junk."
"No, not yet, but I expect to soon."
But after I had been working in the dual rôle of wharf night clerk and
assistant auditor for a week and nothing happened, he began to get
uneasy, but somehow did not doubt the final outcome.
We usually ate dinner together, then we would come down to his little
office in the corner of the wharf and he would stay with me until his
early bed-time.
"How long are you going to stand this night-and-day business? I don't
see when you get any sleep?" he asked, evidently edging over for some
information, not volunteered.
"One doesn't need much sleep on a loafing job like this. You see, there
is little to do here nights, and less in the day time, so I manage
pretty well." I had told him little about my office work.
"Why can't I stay here every other night for you, so that you can get
more sleep? I can stand it."
"I don't look as though I was getting thin, do I? By the way, who is
that fat party I notice about here occasionally, who seems to be
interested in loading for Becker & Co.?"
"You mean that fellow whose face looks like over-ripe cow's liver, and
waddles, and whose clothes are smelly?"
"Yes, I think that is the man," I replied, smiling.
"That is Becker himself. He buys all the rejects of the city's provision
inspectors and almost anything that's got grease or fertilizer in it. He
used to load that stuff during the day, but they got to making a fuss
about his taking it through the street and made him handle it at night,
when graveyards hold their noses. Gad, I always hate to see him coming."
"Becker & Co., fertilizer works?"
"Yes, somewhere up the river."
The next morning I was late and was hurrying into the building occupied
by the auditor, in which I had my office. It contained more than four
stories, was about two hundred feet long, with a wide hall through the
center of each floor. The room assigned to me was on the third floor,
and was reached by narrow stairs.
When I passed the second floor I saw Becker at the far end of the hall
talking to a young woman clerk, and I was sure I saw him pinch her
cheek, and furthermore, I was absolutely certain that the object of his
frolicsome caress was my clerk, who entered the office immediately after
me. She appeared to be somewhat flustered, and her cheeks flamed with
color.
The incident was not particularly significant, but enough to make me
want to know all about Mr. Becker, of Becker & Co., fertilizer
manufacturers, and also about the young woman who compiled my data and
wrote my letters.
I recalled that our association had been so perfunctory that I failed to
remember her name. She took dictation well, was a good typist and her
records were neat. Withal she worked hard. Like good oil on bearings,
she made the wheels go round without attracting my attention.
Ideal office assistants try to make themselves into humanized machines.
Miss Bascom had accomplished this so well that I had to inquire about
her name even after a week's service.
My desk was near the hall entrance, while hers was over near the window,
partially obscured by stacks of records. She was, on closer inspection,
more than comely, and the way she punched the keys of the typewriter
indicated she was purposeful--not an accident. That she could allow a
greasy, uncouth man like Becker to make up to her seemed absurd. More to
amuse Hiram, I mentioned the matter to him that night.
"My Heavens," said he, holding his nose between finger and thumb, "it
would take a pretty strong stomach to stand for that fellow--but you
can't tell! Maybe there are enough dollar signs on his face to make up
for his smelly clothes and age. But, even in my palmiest days of riot,
the 'beauty and beast' idea was a shock--too much 'bargain and sale' to
suit me"--and I believe he was wondering if Anna Bell Morgan would ever
succumb to such a love for the sake of money.
"Hiram, I don't quite sympathize with your attitude toward Miss Morgan.
Are you sure you are doing the right thing?"
"Perhaps not," he replied, thoughtfully, as we walked down the wharf.
"It may be the pendulum has swung the other way and I am at the farthest
point away from her. But after all, that is something one must settle
for himself. She promised to wait in absolute silence until I had the
matter straightened. And again, perhaps you don't understand--they have
a different code here."
I waited for him to continue, looking westward across the shipping in
the river at the setting sun, now enlarged into a great ball of dull red
fire. Another moment and it would perish from sight behind the waters of
the Gulf.
"You see, Ben, down here they have a way of making a man feel he is
either something or nothing. If something, he respects women, and must
protect them. Women are either good or bad. If good they receive every
consideration; it is expected--demanded. The ways of New York would not
be tolerated here, and it is perfectly right they should not be.
"Mormonism, and other degeneracy, usually dubbed 'Bohemianism,' doesn't
go here. Fathers, big brothers, or next of male kin stand guard for the
women of the South. When they put a bullet through a licentious
scoundrel the judge shakes hands with them. And it's the same way about
honor. If a man's honesty is in question he has no business to
compromise a good woman's name by forcing his attentions upon her. When
he has cleared himself it is time enough to straighten things out. So,
if our love will not stand the strain of waiting it's no good--not love,
at all."
The next day at the noon hour I saw my female clerk in a certain
situation that led me into all sorts of information. Miss Bascom of the
golden locks was openly dangling her feminine charms before Chief Clerk
Burrell.
I had only to glance through an open door from the hall on my floor into
a long room occupied by a lot of clerks of which he had charge as chief.
Evidently he was a married man, and of a species easily susceptible.
I would have continued to think it was a case of old-fashioned man
hunting to win free board and a little credit at the stores, had it not
been reported by a man detailed at my request to see just what kind of
smoke Mr. Becker was making during his stay in New Orleans. There was a
lengthy conference that night between Burrell and Becker, of Becker &
Company, with liberal quantities of gin fizz on the side, in a private
room back of a prominent hotel bar.
This was exceedingly interesting and filled with possibilities--a party
of three, two men and a woman, an unusually attractive young woman at
that, and all were interested in the movement of freight, with this
difference, that Becker might be the chief beneficiary, and both men
might be rising to the lure of beauty.
I spent most of that night looking up the antecedents of this
interesting trio and did not go down to the wharf, but went to bed just
before Hiram arose to go to work. Burrell, I found, lived with his wife
and two children and was inclined to be sporty; Becker was a rounder,
and the girl was just a clerk before she came to me.
I heard Hiram leaving the house and had not been sleeping long before a
messenger came from him, requesting me to hurry down to the wharf. I had
asked him to send for me the instant the next irregularity was observed.
He was very much excited when I got there, as were also the Government
meat inspector and the packing-house representative. The three of them,
together as usual, had broken the seals of a Kansas City car of fresh
sausages in ten-pound cartons, and about half of it, from the center of
the car, was gone. This could be seen at a glance.
The four of us went into Hiram's little office at the corner of the
wharf. He was so furious that he had become stoical, even sullen, which
was promptly misunderstood by the Government inspector and the
packing-house agent as proof of guilt. In order to protect him and get
a full expression from them I took the attitude of favoring their view.
He did not quite understand this and felt it keenly.
Each of them was ready, like dogs held in leash, to spring at his
throat. But it might have been a sorry leap: Hiram was magnificent under
such fire. Surely the Gold-Beater had given him good blood and a
fighting spirit if nothing else.
"Strong," I began, in a somewhat authoritative manner, "have you
preserved the railroad's seal that was on this car?"
"Yes--here it is--I have been saving and marking every one."
Then it developed that the Government inspector and the packing-house
agent had been doing the same thing, and all three were handed to me.
After that, at my suggestion, we went out and removed the seals from the
unopened door on the other side of the car, which I took charge of after
they had been carefully marked. I then suggested they go about their
duties and routine as though nothing had happened.
I had decided on a secret, drastic inquisition. The ax must fall now
and cut where it would, the details of which shall be avoided, only so
far as they concern this son of a man who was given the credit of
beating gold--who owned the gold instead of it owning him.
I could still feel Hiram's flesh quiver under my touch when I tried to
assure him, by a pressure on his arm, as I was leaving.
Notwithstanding the fact that it was four o'clock in the morning, I
began the job by summoning by telephone the rotund and hairless
Superintendent Kitchell from his bed, and reminding him of his promise
to help me at any time. Besides, this was his funeral anyhow, that was
to be held at ten o'clock that morning in Hiram's little office on the
wharf.
I then demanded the presence of every man who had handled that car--the
loaders, the icers, weighmasters, conductors, dispatchers and the
yard-men between Kansas City and New Orleans, something over a thousand
miles of road. Those who could not be there in so short a time must
telegraph a transcript of their records, in affidavit form. The sworn
records were finally decided on as the only thing possible in so short a
time.
"I will come down to the general office and start the necessary
machinery, but the time, less than six hours, is too short--it can't be
done," he said, evidently lashing himself out of the drowse and
comprehending the magnitude of the order.
"The iron is hot and now is the time to strike," I warned.
"All right, we will do the best we can. I'll get the agent and be there
anyhow."
"No; that's just what I don't want. This investigation must not attract
attention. Your presence there would only advertise it. After we are
through you can have all the data, and do as you wish," I insisted,
having in mind to assume an attitude that would allow Hiram to work out
his own salvation if possible. The only way is to expose a weak or
yellow spot, so that he would see it for himself.
Superintendent Kitchell again demonstrated that he was not an accident.
Before ten o'clock that morning he had accomplished almost the
impossible. The wire that Hiram worked for a while was soon hot with
sworn statements from every man who had anything to do with that car,
from its loading until it landed on the wharf. It remained for Hiram,
the Agent of the Bureau of Animal Industry, and the local packing-house
agent to open the car.
I glanced over the mass of stuff before handing it to Hiram.
The shipping clerk of the packing-house swore that there was put in the
car six thousand cartons, each ten pounds net weight, of prime loose
sausages. This was verified by the affidavit of a checker, then a second
and third checker, before the doors were sealed by agents of the
Government, packing-house and railroad agents. The railroad
weighmaster's figures on the track scale verified that. It was loaded
and iced in zero weather, so that no delay was necessary for re-icing
all the way to New Orleans.
A verified transcript of train sheets of all the train dispatchers of
both roads showed that the car came in a solid train of perishable
provisions, over the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad to Memphis,
without longer pause than to change engines at the end of each division,
where it was delivered to the Yazoo and weighed again--which weight
tallied with the Kansas City weight--and traveled into New Orleans on
passenger time. All this without incident or delay of any kind, and
delivered on the unloading wharf track at 2:30 a. m.
When I took the records to Hiram and told him what they were, I found
him going about his work as usual. His attitude was disconcerting. Were
his hands clean? One could have taken him for a man who had been caught
with the goods. If guilty, I had little chance to shield him.
He carried his head erect, his stride was sure and determined, but he
had a glitter that indicated a tumult inside, with an attitude of
suspicious aloofness. The erstwhile mirthful smile on his lips was now
supplanted by one of sarcastic severity, but a smile that evidently
meant much. I would have given the world just then to know what.
However, all he would say was: "Ben, this is a devil of a mess and I am
in the center of it."