X
FLEMISTER AND OTHERS
The jocosely spectacular arrest of Barton Rufford, with its appeal tothe grim humor of the desert, was responsible for a brief lull in thestorm of antagonism evoked by Lidgerwood's attempt to bring order out ofthe chaos reigning in his small kingdom. For a time Angels was a-grinagain, and while the plaudits were chiefly for Judson, the figure of thecorrectly clothed superintendent who was courageous enough to appeal tothe law, loomed large in the reflected light of the red-headedengineer's cool daring.
For the space of a week there were no serious disasters, and Lidgerwood,with good help from McCloskey and Benson, continued to dig persistentlyinto the mystery of the wholesale robberies. With Benson's discoveriesfor a starting-point, the man Flemister was kept under surveillance, andit soon became evident to the three investigators that the owner of theWire-Silver mine had been profiting liberally at the expense of therailroad company in many ways. That there had been connivance on thepart of some one in authority in the railroad service, was also a factsafely assumable; and each added thread of evidence seemed more and moreto entangle the chief clerk.
But behind the mystery of the robberies, Lidgerwood began to getglimpses of a deeper mystery involving Flemister and Hallock. Angelictradition, never very clearly defined and always shot through withprejudice, spoke freely of a former friendship between the two men.Whether the friendship had been broken, or whether, for reasons bestknown to themselves, they had allowed the impression to go out that ithad been broken, Lidgerwood could not determine from the bits of gossipbrought in by the trainmaster. But one thing was certain: of all theminor officials in the railway service, Hallock was the one who was bestable to forward and to conceal Flemister's thieveries.
It was in the midst of these subterranean investigations that Lidgerwoodhad a call from the owner of the Wire-Silver. On the Saturday in theweek of surcease, Flemister came in on the noon train from the west, andit was McCloskey who ushered him into the superintendent's office.Lidgerwood looked up and saw a small man wearing the khaki of theengineers, with a soft felt hat to match. The snapping black eyes, withthe straight brows almost meeting over the nose, suggested Goethe's_Mephistopheles_, and Flemister shaved to fit the part, with curlingmustaches and a dagger-pointed imperial. Instantly Lidgerwood beganturning the memory pages in an effort to recall where he had seen theman before, but it was not until Flemister began to speak that heremembered his first day in authority, the wreck at Gloria Siding, andthe man who had driven up in a buckboard to hold converse with themaster-mechanic.
"I've been trying to find time for a month or more to come up and getacquainted with you, Mr. Lidgerwood," the visitor began, when Lidgerwoodhad waved him to a chair. "I hope you are not going to hold it againstme that I haven't done it sooner."
Lidgerwood's smile was meant to be no more than decently hospitable.
"We are not standing much upon ceremony in these days ofreorganization," he said. Then, to hold the interview down firmly to abusiness basis: "What can I do for you, Mr. Flemister?"
"Nothing--nothing on top of earth; it's the other way round. I came todo something for you--or, rather, for one of your subordinates. Hallocktells me that the ghost of the old Mesa Building and Loan Associationstill refuses to be laid, and he intimates that some of the survivorsare trying to make it unpleasant for him by accusing him to you."
"Yes," said Lidgerwood, studying his man shrewdly by the road of theeye, and without prejudice to the listening ear.
"As I understand it, the complaint of the survivors is based upon thefact that they think they ought to have had a cash dividend forthcomingon the closing up of the association's affairs," Flemister went on; andLidgerwood again said, "Yes."
"As Hallock has probably told you, I had the misfortune to be thepresident of the company. Perhaps it's only fair to say that it was alosing venture from the first for those of us who put the loaningcapital into it. As you probably know, the money in these mutual benefitcompanies is made on lapses, but when the lapses come all in abunch----"
"I am not particularly interested in the general subject, Mr.Flemister," Lidgerwood cut in. "As the matter has been presented to me,I understand there was a cash balance shown on the books, and that therewas no cash in the treasury to make it good. Since Hallock was thetreasurer, I can scarcely do less than I have done. I am merely askinghim--and you--to make some sort of an explanation which will satisfy thelosers."
"There is only one explanation to be made," said theex-building-and-loan president, brazenly. "A few of us who were theofficers of the company were the heaviest losers, and we felt that wewere entitled to the scraps and leavings."
"In other words, you looted the treasury among you," said Lidgerwoodcoldly. "Is that it, Mr. Flemister?"
The mine-owner laughed easily. "I'm not going to quarrel with you overthe word," he returned. "Possibly the proceeding was a little informal,if you measure it by some of the more highly civilized standards."
"I don't care to go into that," was Lidgerwood's comment, "but I cannotevade my responsibility for the one member of your official staff who isstill on my pay-roll. How far was Hallock implicated?"
"He was not implicated at all, save in a clerical way."
"You mean that he did not share in the distribution of the money?"
"He did not."
"Then it is only fair that you should set him straight with the others,Mr. Flemister."
The ex-president did not reply at once. He took time to roll acigarette leisurely, to light it, and to take one or two deepinhalations, before he said: "It's a rather disagreeable thing to do,this digging into old graveyards, don't you think? I can understand whyyou should wish to be assured of Hallock's non-complicity, and I haveassured you of that; but as for these kickers, really I don't know whatyou can do with them unless you send them to me. And if you do that, Iam afraid some of them may come back on hospital stretchers. I haven'tany time to fool with them at this late day."
Lidgerwood felt his gorge rising, and a great contempt for Flemister wasmingled with a manful desire to pitch him out into the corridor. It wasa concession to his unexplainable pity for Hallock that made himtemporize.
"As I said before, you needn't go into the ethics of the matter with me,Mr. Flemister," he said. "But in justice to Hallock, I think you oughtto make a statement of some kind that I can show to these men who, verynaturally, look to me for redress. Will you do that?"
"I'll think about it," returned the mine-owner shortly; but Lidgerwoodwas not to be put off so easily.
"You must think of it to some good purpose," he insisted. "If youdon't, I shall be obliged to put my own construction upon your failureto do so, and to act accordingly."
Flemister's smile showed his teeth.
"You're not threatening me, are you, Mr. Lidgerwood?"
"Oh, no; there is no occasion for threats. But if you don't make me thatstatement, fully exonerating Hallock, I shall feel at liberty to makeone of my own, embodying what you have just told me. And if I amcompelled to do this, you must not blame me if I am not able to placethe matter in the most favorable light for you."
This time the visitor's smile was a mere baring of the teeth.
"Is it worth your while to make it a personal quarrel with me, Mr.Lidgerwood?" he asked, with a thinly veiled menace in his tone.
"I am not looking for quarrelsome occasions with you or with any one,"was the placable rejoinder. "And I hope you are not going to force me toshow you up. Is there anything else? If not, I'm afraid I shall have toask you to excuse me. This is one of my many busy days."
After Flemister had gone, Lidgerwood was almost sorry that he had notstruck at once into the matter of the thieveries. But as yet he had noproof upon which to base an open accusation. One thing he did do,however, and that was to summon McCloskey and give instructions pointingto a bit of experimental observation with the mine-owner as the subject.
"He can't get away from here before the evening train, and I shoul
d liketo know where he goes and what be does with himself," was the form theinstructions took. "When we find out who his accomplices are, I shallhave something more to say to him."
"I'll have him tagged," promised the trainmaster; and a few minuteslater, when the Wire-Silver visitor sauntered up Mesa Avenue in quest ofdiversion wherewith to fill the hours of waiting for his train, a smallman, red-haired, and with a mechanic's cap pulled down over his eyes,kept even step with him from dive to dive.
Judson's report, made to the trainmaster that evening after thewestbound train had left, was short and concise.
"He went up and sat in Sammy's game and didn't come out until it wastime to make a break for his train. I didn't see him talking to anybodyafter he left here." This was the wording of the report.
"You are sure of that, are you, John?" questioned McCloskey.
Judson hung his head. "Maybe I ain't as sure as I ought to be. I saw himgo into Sammy's, and saw him come out again, and I know he didn't stayin the bar-room. I didn't go in where they keep the tiger. Sammy don'tlove me any more since I held Bart Rufford up with an S-wrench, and Iwas afraid I might disturb the game if I went buttin' in to make surethat Flemister was there. But I guess there ain't no doubt about it."
Thus Judson, who was still sober, and who meant to be faithful accordingto his gifts. He was scarcely blameworthy for not knowing of theexistence of a small back room in the rear of the gambling-den; or forthe further unknowledge of the fact that the man in search of diversionhad passed on into this back room after placing a few bets at the silentgame, appearing no more until he had come out through the gambling-roomon his way to the train. If Judson had dared to press his espial, hemight have been the poorer by the loss of blood, or possibly of hislife; but, living to get away with it, he would have been the richer foran important bit of information. For one thing, he would have known thatFlemister had not spent the afternoon losing his money across thefaro-table; and for another, he might have made sure, by listening tothe subdued voices beyond the closed door, that the man he was shadowingwas not alone in the back room to which he had retreated.
The Taming of Red Butte Western Page 10