WE spent two hours examining the remotest part of the refrigerating
plant, piloted and aided at first by Becker. As it grew darker he
furnished us with a torch. By this time we had made certain adjustments
to the engine, the necessity of which we had noted on first inspection,
and left it running merrily away with its load like a horse relieved of
a choking collar. Becker saw this, gave five dollars to each of us, and
after the fashion of a boor, tried to appear grateful. Then he paid cash
for all the lumber now stacked on the bank, with the understanding we
were to bring as much more, after which he left us to go, as he thought,
to our beds. But that was not our plan; we had work ahead of too much
importance to think of sleep.
While we were making the examination of a large part of Becker's plant,
for that is what it amounted to, Hiram controlled himself and behaved
like a veteran, but at times I think he shrewdly guessed that I
displayed more skill than an amateur. In fact, I was so mightily
interested in the outcome that I made no attempt to disguise the fact
that under the guise of gasfitter, steamfitter, electrician, or
refrigeration expert, I had gained access to the very bowels of
buildings and manufacturing plants for a similar purpose.
When Becker had gone Hiram presented a curious combination--elation and
disappointment. He fairly trembled now with suppressed excitement. He
turned fiercely upon me and whispered hoarsely:
"Ben, we got a lot, but not the most important. We didn't find the
seals, did we?" He asked this in a suppressed tone, but not until he had
gone forward to make sure all the crew were on deck and asleep. Captain
Marianna was snoring loudly in the pilot house.
"No--but all those hams, dried meat--horse-meat--and tubs of
lard--renderings from dead animals--were freshly stamped, 'Inspected and
passed,' with a Government stamp, and with Government ink."
"But the stamps and seals we want, Ben." I could not see his face in the
dark, but his tone indicated that the day's hard work had not abated
his tremendous energy one whit.
"No, Hiram, but we have everything but the stamps and seals--we can
convict him with what we now know--I mean with the addition of what we
saw to-night--but that would not make a clean job. We have got to get
the rest of the men with whom he must have been working, and who are
most likely in the railroad service," I replied, rapidly analyzing.
"Where can we go?--what can we do to get them?--the nearer I get to the
end of this thing, I feel almost as though I would go insane," he
whispered, at the same time grabbing me by the shoulder as would a
petulant child, and shook me until I thought his last statement was
conservative.
"The old fox is very sly--doesn't trust any of his help--the stamps are
not so important--the seals he keeps in or about his office in New
Orleans--our next move is there. Hiram, can you stand a run to New
Orleans to-night?" I replied, as though thinking aloud.
He sprang to his feet like a cat and leaned over me.
"I can stand to do anything, without eating or sleeping, if it takes a
whole week," he replied with set jaws.
The next morning we tied up at the wharf in New Orleans. During the
night I had worked out a plan. There are times when cunning and
strategical violations of the law must be matched in order to secure and
convict criminals and the courts have uniformly justified it. I was
going to take a big chance and finish the job quickly.
I left Hiram on the boat and went to our rooms for the mail, and to get
other bearings. When I returned he was walking up and down the wharf
like a caged hyena, almost frothing at the mouth.
"We are up against it again--it does beat the devil--why can't they
leave us alone for a little while, anyhow?" he demanded, his eyes
shooting fire as he stopped stolidly in front of me.
"What is it now, Hiram?"
"It's these damned shipping people--they say we can make two round trips
a week to gulf ports for lumber, and if we don't do it willingly they
will make us--just take the boat, that's all," he exploded in righteous
wrath.
"That pays, doesn't it?" I asked with a smile, more to arouse his sense
of humor.
"Yes, of course it pays, but haven't we got something more important--at
that, it won't pay half as much as sawing logs from the river--and we
can let the Government have the lumber," he replied--somewhat mollified.
"Hiram, you will have to go--but let's get some breakfast while we talk
it over there."
We went below to where a darky was frying two big slabs of ham and a
dozen eggs, also watching a large coffee pot steaming on a three-dollar
gasoline stove. He prepared to serve the breakfast on a table made of
the head of a tobacco tierce, with three square sticks for legs, placed
in an open space back of the engine. The chairs were a four-inch cut-off
from the end of a log, accoutered with legs as was the table, but all
cleaned and trimmed, with good rustic effect. The entire hold of the
boat had been washed, cleaned, and put in perfect order, and the men at
that moment were scrubbing the upper deck. He must have everything clean
and orderly.
Hiram sat down opposite me at this rustic round table, and placed two
bare arms upon it. A deep pink rim about his eyelids was the only
evidence of fatigue after twenty-four hours of continuous work without
sleep, and while he had combed his hair with his fingers, and still
needed a shave, a novice could see in him a big man, with tremendous
energy that chafed at delays.
"Well----?" He looked eagerly the question as if to save words.
"Hiram, have you stopped to take stock lately? Don't you think we have
made pretty good progress in the last ten days?"
"Indeed we have, Ben--don't think I am finding fault--what bothers me
is--could we have done more?--have we worked up to the limit?--and it
does worry me to think we have not done away with this man Becker, and
squared away to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities, and--and
you know the other thing--perhaps you cannot understand how fearfully
anxious I am to go back to Anna Bell, clean--and successful."
"I do believe I understand. We--well, I'd rather say you--you have done
it pretty much yourself--you have been successful."
"Heavens, yes--a month ago I was working for a hundred and twenty-five
per, and no immediate prospects--and I would have been there yet, unless
railroaded to prison as a goat for this crowd that you have----"
"No more of that, Hiram," I interrupted, raising my hand in
protest--"let us talk of our immediate movements--the way matters stand
now. You are so near out of the woods you can easily see the clearing,
but there is more work getting through the underbrush--where there may
be some snakes or other reptiles--but that ought not to worry you.
Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait."
"But you have done the most----"
"Never mind now who has done the most--we can talk of that later. The
way the case now stands, we have been to the butcher, the baker and the
grocer for the goods to provide a sumptuous meal for Becker and his
crowd, and perhaps we have the cook, but to make 'em eat will require
just a little more time and strategy. As far as your being clear of
implication, every one knows it now--it remains only to make it a matter
of record.
"My plan for the next move may take a week or more, but doesn't require
your presence, and as long as you are compelled to go anyhow, make a
virtue of the necessity. Get away for Gulfport as soon as possible
and--temper your anxiety and impatience by making money. Fifteen hundred
a trip--two trips a week--is not so bad, is it?" I asked, smiling, as I
saw a shade of old-time exuberance creeping about his mouth. He had
followed my review with rising spirits. It may be that the great piece
of ham and the half dozen eggs and steaming coffee set before him helped
a little.