STANDING in the middle of the floor Hiram read the missive several
times. He seemed amazed as well as incredulous. Finally, as he read it
with evident desire to grasp its meaning thoroughly, his face lighted up
with joy. "Bully stuff!" he exclaimed. Then he read it aloud:
"The larger sample of color received. The market just now is
particularly bare of this grade. Can get you unusual price of a
dollar a pound. If satisfactory ship Morgan Line, send memo. of
weight and will forward check at once.
"MORGENSTEIN & BRUN."
"Then it's not steel filings--you never told me," he said finally,
laughingly grasping my shoulders.
"You insisted it was filings, your railroad insisted it was junk, and
you sold it for junk as instructed, so why the argument?"
"No argument at all, Ben; the Morgan Line steamer sails to-morrow. Sell
the stuff and buy a boat. I've saved some money, but boats are scarce
and high. I haven't enough--what d'ye say, eh?"
"You haven't found a boat to buy yet, and maybe you will not need
one--besides, if Morgenstein & Brun offer a dollar a pound and are in a
hurry, it may be worth more--I only asked them for an analysis to know
for certain what it was. I didn't ask for a market," I insisted
formally.
"But you may miss the only chance--and--we need the money. We've got to
have a boat," he said, visibly disappointed.
"So far we are out less than a ten-dollar bill and can afford to take a
chance--as I say, we must first decide definitely that a boat is
necessary, and then the hardest part comes--everything from a row-boat
up is working overtime now."
"Maybe you are right, but if it was up to me I would sell it so
infernally quick it would make 'em dizzy," he replied, manifestly
consumed with the single idea of releasing himself from suspicion.
"Don't resign, Hiram," I said, hesitating, before going out of the room
to dine, "until I have had a chance to speak to the Super to-morrow. I
think I will be able to arrange it so that you can be released to
devote all of your time to clearing up this matter and remain in the
employ of the company. You will see the decided advantage of the plan,
later."
"All right, Ben--but bear in mind that as soon as I get out of this I am
going to quit 'em for good; there's something else for me to do in this
town. The railroad game is too strenuous at best for the returns. It's
good drill and I'm glad to get the experience and discipline, but the
returns are a minus quantity."
During the meal he mentioned his father several times, to whom he always
referred as "the Gold-Beater," but he more frequently mentioned Anna
Bell Morgan. In fact, had I not purposely changed the subject he would
have talked of her constantly. I could not tell him I thought it a great
error for him to completely suspend communication with her. A big city
offers enticements that a country-bred girl does not always understand
at first. I could see he writhed under the stigma of being thought a
member of a gang of crooks, and was most powerfully propelled by two
most laudable motives. He wanted to redeem himself in his father's eyes,
but most compelling was his desire to be able to go back to Anna Bell
Morgan with clean hands. His affection for her was deep and sincere, a
mighty thing to him, accounted for in his prominent, broad, round chin,
but difficult to harmonize with his conduct during his first score of
years.
He seemed to sense my perplexity.
"Ben," he began, with every evidence of chastened bigness, "I have been
trying to discover one single good reason why I should impose my
personal affairs on you, unless it is because you let me. So far, I have
been unable to reciprocate in a single instance. I feel at times as
though I am a great care and trial to you--a responsibility the
Gold-Beater would assume if things were right. I feel as though I were
on my way but with some one else at the wheel and compass, with a
disturbing and perhaps ungrateful feeling that the navigator is on
uncharted waters, and is himself in doubt. I think I must have a yellow
streak up my back as broad as the moral law."
At this I chose to assume a lighter attitude. Scanning him smilingly, I
replied, "Can't you see that just now, at least, my professional
reputation is at stake?"
"That's so, Ben. You take to investigation as a duck to water and I
believe you are much better suited for that than sea life. But, my dear
fellow, you move so maddeningly slow and deliberate," said he; but I
made no reply. I could have said:
"Real genius and cleverness apparently do move so slow and deliberate
that most any one would feel as though he could do much better." But I
merely laughed as we arose to leave the little French restaurant where
we had dined.
There was no difficulty in arranging for Hiram's release and also for
transportation good on any passenger, freight or work train of the
entire system, in order to work out a solution of the robberies that had
spread over the entire system from Kansas City and St. Louis to Chicago,
where the consignments originated.
His first suggestion was that he should take a look at Becker & Co.'s
plant, and he purposely boarded a train that had a car for delivery to
them.
After he left I went to my office in the main building to find both an
extended report and a short one from a man assigned to watch Becker's
movements while in New Orleans, and as I began to read I could feel my
hair rigidly standing on end.
My clerk, Miss Bascom, had met Becker in a private room, known to but
few, back of the bar of a prominent hotel. For the purpose of detecting
enemy aliens many dictaphones had been installed by the Government in
such places and with a certainty, almost uncanny, the Government
possessed itself of information that could not have been gained in any
other way.
As soon as I reached Miss Bascom's name in the report I stopped short
and looked at her at work over by the window, less than twenty feet
away. If she was conscious of my undisguised wonder she gave no sign of
it. She worked so fast and dexterously as to give the impression that
she fully lived up to the axiom promulgated by well governed
corporations:
"If you never do more than you are paid for, you will never get
paid for more than you do."
As I looked upon her I decided that although Becker was exceedingly
ambitious, his taste was discriminating, indeed. Miss Bascom in a good
light revealed a velvety skin and a neck, rising column-like from her
plump chest and shoulders as though chiseled from rare white marble. A
tiny ear peeped from under a plethora of wonderful hair, tastefully
arranged, and I noticed that her nose, chin and lips were perfect. I
wondered why I had overlooked these points of feminine charm when she
first came to me. Seemingly oblivious to everything but the work she was
doing, I wondered how she could maintain the attitude after such an
affair as had occurred the night before. There was no evidence of
fatigue or loss of sleep, or over-indulgence of any kind. I was
astounded that a woman of her general charm could fall for the Becker
type, and I shuddered at the knowledge that she had gone with him to
such a place. My next thought was that she might have given out some
very confidential information. There was but one thing to do, and at
once--find out how she came to be sent to me.
I rushed through the several pages of close typing, then began again for
detail and analysis.
She drank nothing intoxicating according to the report. His brutal
proposal, that came in due course, she met with astonishing diplomacy
and succeeded in staving off time and place. But the details, recorded
minutely, indicated that she was compelled to submit to his embrace. The
record revealed that the young woman had exclaimed, "Don't--don't, Mr.
Becker," indicating that the fossilized degenerate of fifty years was
trying to caress her. It required little tax on the imagination to know
that his big, greasy hands were drawing her tightly to his huge frame.
Why had she laid herself liable to his advances? What kind of a game was
she playing? I was on the point of calling her over and demanding an
explanation, but there was the second report to analyze--concerning
Burrell, the chief clerk. I decided to wait.
When Miss Bascom left Becker the night before at the side door of the
hotel, he entered the lobby and joined Burrell in a pretty wet dinner,
spending several hours thereafter at a questionable resort. Evidently
Miss Bascom knew something of their whereabouts, for here she was
standing at Burrell's desk in close conversation with him, occasionally
laughing as though recalling some ludicrous incident. There was nothing
to do but await events. She was up to something and I determined I would
lose no time in arriving at the facts.