XX
STORM SIGNALS
Though Lidgerwood had been up for the better part of two nights, and theday intervening, it was apparent to at least one member of thehead-quarters force that he did not go to bed immediately after thearrival of the service-car from the west; the proof being a freshlytyped telegram which Operator Dix found impaled upon his sending-hookwhen he came on duty in the despatcher's office at seven o'clock in themorning.
The message was addressed to Leckhard, superintendent of the PannikinDivision of the Pacific Southwestern system, at Copah. It was in cipher,and it contained two uncodified words--"Fort" and "McCook," which smallcircumstance set Dix to thinking--Fort McCook being the army post,twelve miles as the crow flies, down the Pannikin from Copah.
Now Dix was not one of the rebels. On the contrary, he was one of thefew loyal telegraphers who had promised McCloskey to stand by theLidgerwood management in case the rebellion grew into an organizedattempt to tie up the road. But the young man had, for his chiefweakness, a prying curiosity which had led him, in times past, toexperiment with the private office code until he had finally discoveredthe key to it.
Hence, a little while after the sending of the Leckhard message,Callahan, the train despatcher, hearing an emphatic "Gee whiz!" fromDix's' corner, looked up from his train-sheet to say, "What hit you,brother?"
"Nothing," said Dix shortly, but Callahan observed that he was hastilyfolding and pocketing the top sheet of the pad upon which he had beenwriting. Dix went off duty at eleven, his second trick beginning atthree in the afternoon. It was between three and four when McCloskey,having strengthened his defenses in every way he could devise, rapped atthe door of his chief's sleeping-room. Fifteen minutes later Lidgerwoodjoined the trainmaster in the private office.
"I couldn't let you sleep any longer," McCloskey began apologetically,"and I don't know but you'll give me what-for as it is. Things arethickening up pretty fast."
"Put me in touch," was the command.
"All right. I'll begin at the front end. Along about ten o'clock thismorning Davidson, the manager of the Copperette, came down to see Mr.Brewster. He gave the president a long song and dance about the toughtrail and the poor accommodations for a pleasure-party up at the mine,and the upshot of it was that Mr. Brewster went out to the mine with himalone, leaving the party in the _Nadia_ here."
Lidgerwood said "Damn!" and let it go at that for the moment. The thingwas done, and it could not be undone. McCloskey went on with his report,his hat tilted to the bridge of his nose.
"Taking it for granted that you mean to fight this thing to a coldfinish, I've done everything I could think of. Thanks to Williams andBradford, and a few others like them, we can count on a good third ofthe trainmen; and I've got about the same proportion of the operators inline for us. Taking advantage of the twenty-four-hour notice thestrikers gave us, I've scattered these men of ours east and west on theday trains to the points where the trouble will hit us at twelve o'clockto-night."
"Good!" said Lidgerwood briefly. "How will you handle it?"
"It will handle itself, barring too many broken heads. At midnight, inevery important office where a striker throws down his pen and groundshis wire, one of our men will walk in and keep the ball rolling. And onevery train in transit at that time, manned by men we're not sure of,there will be a relief crew of some sort, deadheading over the road andready to fall in line and keep it coming when the other fellows fallout."
Again the superintendent nodded his approval. The trainmaster wasshowing himself at his loyal best.
"That brings us down to Angels and the present, Mac. How do we standhere?"
"That's what I'd give all my old shoes to know," said McCloskey, hishomely face emphasizing his perplexity. "They say the shopmen areagainst us, and if that's so we're outnumbered here, six to one. I can'tfind out anything for certain. Gridley is still away, and Dawson hasn'tgot back, and nobody else knows anything about the shop force."
"You say Dawson isn't in? He didn't have more than five or six hours'work on that wreck. What is the matter?"
"He had a bit of bad luck. He got the main line cleared early thismorning, but in shifting his train and the 'cripples' on the abandonedspur, a culvert broke and let the big crane off. He has been all daygetting it on again, but he'll be in before dark--so Goodloe says."
"And how about Benson?" queried Lidgerwood.
"He's on 203. I caught him on the other side of Crosswater, and took theliberty of signing your name to a wire calling him in."
"That was right. With this private-car party on our hands, we may needevery man we can depend upon. I wish Gridley were here. He could handlethe shop outfit. I'm rather surprised that he should be away. He musthave known that the volcano was about ready to spout."
"Gridley's a law to himself," said the trainmaster. "Sometimes I thinkhe's all right, and at other times I catch myself wondering if hewouldn't tread on me like I was a cockroach, if I happened to be in hisway."
Having had exactly the same feeling, and quite without reason,Lidgerwood generously defended the absent master-mechanic.
"That is prejudice, Mac, and you mustn't give it room. Gridley's allright. We mustn't forget that his department, thus far, is the only onethat hasn't given us trouble and doesn't seem likely to give us trouble.I wish I could say as much for the force here in the Crows' Nest."
"With a single exception, you can--to-day," said McCloskey quickly."I've cleaned house. There is only one man under this roof at thisminute who won't fight for you at the drop of the hat."
"And that one is----?"
The trainmaster jerked his head toward the outer office. "It's the manout there--or who was out there when I came through; the one you and Ihaven't been agreeing on."
"Hallock? Is he here?"
"Sure; he's been here since early this morning."
"But how--" Lidgerwood's thought went swiftly backward over the eventsof the preceding night. Judson's story had left Hallock somewhere in thevicinity of the Wire-Silver mine and the wreck at some time aboutmidnight, or a little past, and there had been no train in from thattime on until the regular passenger, reaching Angels at noon. It wasMcCloskey who relieved the strain of bewilderment.
"How did he get here? you were going to say. You brought him fromsomewhere down the road on your special. He rode on the engine withWilliams."
Lidgerwood pushed his chair back and got up. It was high time for areckoning of some sort with the chief clerk.
"Is there anything else, Mac?" he asked, closing his desk.
"Yes; one more thing. The grievance committee is in session up at theCelestial. Tryon, who is heading it, sent word down a little while agothat the men would wreck every dollar's worth of company property inAngels if you didn't countermand your wire of this morning toSuperintendent Leckhard."
"I haven't wired Leckhard."
"They say you did; and when I asked 'em what about it, they said you'dknow."
The superintendent's hand was on the knob of the corridor door.
"Look it up in Callahan's office," he said. "If any message has gone toLeckhard to-day, I didn't write it."
When he closed the door of his private office behind him, Lidgerwood'spurpose was to go immediately to the _Nadia_ to warn the members of thepleasure-party, and to convince them, if possible, of the advisabilityof a prompt retreat to Copah. But there was another matter which waseven more urgent. After the events of the night, it had not beenunreasonable to suppose that Hallock would scarcely be foolhardy enoughto come back and take his place as if nothing had happened. Since hehad come back, there was only one thing to be done, and the safety ofall demanded it.
Lidgerwood left the Crow's Nest and walked quickly uptown. Contrary tohis expectations, he found the avenue quiet and almost deserted, thoughthere was a little knot of loungers on the porch of the Celestial, andBiggs's bar-room, and Red-Light Sammy's, were full to overflowing.Crossing to the corner opposite the hotel, the superintendent enteredthe open
door of Schleisinger's "Emporium." At the moment there was adearth of trade, and the round-faced little German who had weathered allthe Angelic storms was discovered shaving himself before a triangularbit of looking-glass, stuck up on the packing-box which served him byturns as a desk and a dressing-case.
"How you vas, Mr. Litchervood?" was his greeting, offered while therazor was on the upward sweep. "Don'd tell me you vas come aboud somemore of dose chustice businesses. Me, I make oud no more of demwarrants, _nichts_. Dot _teufel_ Rufford iss come back again, alretty,and----"
Lidgerwood broke the refusal in the midst.
"You are an officer of the law, Schleisinger--more is the pity, both foryou and the law--and you must do your duty. I have come to swear outanother warrant. Get your blank and fill it in."
The German shopkeeper put down his razor with only one side of his faceshaven. "Oh, _mein Gott!_" was his protest; but he rummaged in thecatch-all packing-box and found the pad of blank warrants. Lidgerwooddictated slowly, in charity for the trembling fingers that held the pen.Knowing his own weakness, he could sympathize with others. When it cameto the filling in of Hallock's name, Schleisinger stopped, open-mouthed.
"_Donnerwetter!_" he gasped, "you don'd mean dot, Mr. Litchervood; youdon'd neffer mean dot?"
"I am sorry to say that I do; sorrier than you or any one else canpossibly be."
"Bud--bud----"
"I know what you would say," interrupted Lidgerwood hastily. "You areafraid of Hallock's friends--as you were afraid of Rufford and hisfriends. But you must do your sworn duty."
"_Nein, nein_, dot ain'd it," was the earnest denial. "Bud--bud nobodyvould serve a warrant on Mr. Hallock, Mr. Litchervood! I----"
"I'll find some one to serve it," said the complainant curtly, andSchleisinger made no further objections.
With the warrant in his pocket, a magistrate's order calling for thearrest and detention of Rankin Hallock on the double charge oftrain-wrecking and murder, Lidgerwood left Schleisinger's, meaning to goback to the Crow's Nest and have McCloskey put the warrant in Judson'shands. But there was a thing to come between; a thing not whollyunlooked for, but none the less destructive of whatever small hope ofregeneration the victim of unreadiness had been cherishing.
When the superintendent recrossed to the Celestial corner, Mesa Avenuewas still practically deserted, though the group on the hotel porch hadincreased its numbers. Three doors below, in front of Biggs's, a bunchof saddled cow-ponies gave notice of a fresh accession to the bar-roomcrowd which was now overflowing upon the steps and the plank sidewalk.Lidgerwood's thoughts shuttled swiftly. He argued that a brave man wouldneither hurry nor loiter in passing the danger nucleus, and he strovewith what determination there was in him to keep even step with thereasoned-out resolution.
But once more his weakness tricked him. When the determined stride hadbrought him fairly opposite Biggs's door, a man stepped out of thesidewalk group and calmly pushed him to a stand with the flat of hishand. It was Rufford, and he was saying quite coolly: "Hold up aminute, pardner; I'm going to cut your heart out and feed it to that pupo Schleisinger's that's follerin' you. He looks mighty hungry."
With reason assuring him that the gambler was merely making agrand-stand play for the benefit of the bar-room crowd wedging itself inBiggs's doorway, Lidgerwood's lips went dry, and he knew that thehaunting terror was slipping its humiliating mask over his face. Butbefore he could say or do any fear-prompted thing a diversion came. Atthe halting moment a small man, red-haired, and with his cap pulled downover his eyes, had separated himself from the group of loungers on theCelestial porch to make a swift detour through the hotel bar, around therear of Biggs's, and so to the street and the sidewalk in front. As oncebefore, and under somewhat less hazardous conditions, he came up behindRufford, and again the gambler felt the pressure of cold metal againsthis spine.
"It ain't an S-wrench this time, Bart," he said gently, and the crowd onBiggs's doorstep roared its appreciation of the joke. Then: "Keep yourhands right where they are, and side-step out o' Mr. Lidgerwood'sway--that's business." And when the superintendent had gone on: "That'sall for the present, Bart. After I get a little more time and ain't sodanged busy I'll borrow another pair o' clamps from Hepburn and take youback to Copah. So long."
By all the laws of Angelic procedure, Judson should have been promptlyshot in the back when he turned and walked swiftly down the avenue toovertake the superintendent. But for once the onlookers weredisappointed. Rufford was calmly relighting his cigar, and when he hadsufficiently cursed the bar-room audience for not being game enough tostop the interference, he kicked Schleisinger's dog, and turned his backupon Biggs's and its company.
It was a bit of common human perverseness that kept Lidgerwood fromthanking Judson when the engineer overtook him at the corner of theplaza. Uppermost in his thoughts at the moment was the keen sense ofhumiliation arising upon the conviction that the plucky little man hadsurprised his secret and would despise him accordingly. Hence his firstword to Judson was the word of authority.
"Go back to Schleisinger and have him swear you in as a deputyconstable," he directed tersely. "When you are sworn in, come down hereand serve this," and he gave Judson the warrant for Hallock's arrest.
The engineer glanced at the name in the body of the warrant and nodded.
"So you've made up your mind?" he said.
Lidgerwood was frowning abstractedly up at the windows of Hallock'soffice in the head-quarters building.
"I don't know," he said, half hesitantly. "But he is implicated in thatmurderous business of last night--that we both know--and now he is backhere. McCloskey told you that, didn't he?"
Judson nodded again, and Lidgerwood went on, irresistibly impelled tojustify his own action.
"It would be something worse than folly to leave him at liberty when weare on the ragged edge of a fight. Arrest him wherever you can find him,and take him over to Copah on the first train that serves. He'll have toclear himself, if he can; that's all."
When Judson, with his huge cow-boy pistol sagging at his hip, had turnedback to do the first part of his errand, Lidgerwood went on around theCrow's Nest and presented himself at the door of the _Nadia_. Happily,for his purpose, he found only Mrs. Brewster and Judge Holcombe inpossession, the young people having gone to climb one of the bare mesahills behind the town for an unobstructed view of the Timanyonis.
The superintendent left Judge Holcombe out of the proposal which heurged earnestly upon Mrs. Brewster. Telling her briefly of thethreatened strike and its promise of violence and rioting, he tried toshow her that the presence of the private-car party was a menace, aliketo its own members and to him. The run to Copah could be made on aspecial schedule and the party might be well outside of the danger zonebefore the armistice expired. Would she not defer to his judgment andlet him send the _Nadia_ back to safety while there was yet time?
Mrs. Brewster, the placid, let him say his say without interruption. Butwhen he finished, the placidity became active opposition. Thepresident's wife would not listen for a moment to an expedient which didnot--could not--include the president himself.
"I know, Howard, you're nervous--you can't help being nervous," shesaid, cutting him to the quick when nothing was farther from herintention. "But you haven't stopped to think what you're asking. Ifthere is any real danger for us--which I can't believe--that is all themore reason why we shouldn't run away and leave your cousin Ned behind.I wouldn't think of it for an instant, and neither would any of theothers."
Being hurt again in his tenderest part by the quite unconscious gibe,Lidgerwood did not press his proposal further.
"I merely wished to state the case and to give you a chance to get outand away from the trouble while we could get you out," he said, a littlestiffly. Then: "It is barely possible that the others may agree with meinstead of with you: will you tell them about it when they come back tothe car, and send word to my office after you have decided in opencouncil what you wish to do? Only don't let i
t be very late; a delay oftwo or three hours may make it impossible for us to get the _Nadia_ overthe Desert Division."
Mrs. Brewster promised, and the superintendent went upstairs to hisoffice. A glance into Hallock's room in passing showed him the chiefclerk's box-like desk untenanted, and he wondered if Judson would findhis man somewhere in the town. He hoped so. It would be better for allconcerned if the arrest could be made without too many witnesses. True,Hallock had few friends in the railroad service, at least among thosewho professed loyalty to the management, but with explosives lying abouteverywhere underfoot, one could not be too careful of matches and fire.
The superintendent had scarcely closed the door upon his entrance intohis own room when it was opened again with McCloskey's hand on thelatch. The trainmaster came to report that a careful search ofCallahan's files had not disclosed any message to Leckhard. Also, headded that Dix, who should have come on duty at three o'clock, was stillabsent.
"What do you make out of that?" queried Lidgerwood.
McCloskey's scowl was grotesquely horrible.
"Bullying or bribery," he said shortly. "They've got Dix hid away uptownsomewhere. But there was a message, all right, and with your name signedto it. Callahan saw it on Dix's hook this morning before the boy camedown. It was in code, your private code."
"Call up the Copah offices and have it repeated back," ordered thesuperintendent. "Let's find out what somebody has been signing my nameto."
McCloskey shook his grizzled head. "You won't mind if I say that I beatyou to it, this time, will you? I got Orton, a little while ago, on theCopah wire and pumped him. He says there was a code message, and thatDix sent it. But when I asked him to repeat it back here, he said hecouldn't--that Mr. Leckhard had taken it with him somewhere down themain line."
Lidgerwood's exclamation was profane. The perversity of things, animateand inanimate, was beginning to wear upon him.
"Go and tell Callahan to keep after Orton until he gets word that Mr.Leckhard has returned. Then have him get Leckhard himself at the otherend of the wire and call me," he directed. "Since there is only one manbesides myself in Angels who knows the private-office code, I'd like toknow what that message said."
McCloskey nodded. "You mean Hallock?"
"Yes."
The trainmaster was half-way to the door when he turned suddenly to say:"You can fire me if you want to, Mr. Lidgerwood, but I've got to say mysay. You're going to let that yellow dog run loose until he bites you."
"No, I am not."
"By gravies! I'd have him safe under lock and key before the shindybegins to-night, if it was my job."
Lidgerwood had turned to his desk and was opening it.
"He will be," he announced quietly. "I have sworn out a warrant for hisarrest, and Judson has it and is looking for his man."
McCloskey smote fist into palm and gritted out an oath ofcongratulation. "That's where you hit the proper nail on the head!" heexclaimed. "He's the king-pin of the whole machine, and if you can pullhim out, the machine will fall to pieces. What charge did you put in thewarrant? I only hope it's big enough to hold him."
"Train-wrecking and murder," said Lidgerwood, without looking around;and a moment later McCloskey went out, treading softly as one who findshimself a trespasser on forbidden ground.
The afternoon sun was poising for its plunge behind the western barrierrange and Lidgerwood had sent Grady, the stenographer, up to the cottageon the second mesa to tell Mrs. Dawson that he would not be up fordinner, when the door opened to admit Miss Brewster.
"'And the way into my parlor is up a winding stair,'" she quotedblithely and quite as if the air were not thick with threateningpossibilities. "So this is where you live, is it? What a dreary, bleak,blank place!"
"It was, a moment ago; but it isn't, now," he said, and his sobernessmade the saying something more than a bit of commonplace gallantry. Thenhe gave her his swing-chair as the only comfortable one in the bareroom, adding, "I hope you have come to tell me that your mother haschanged her mind."
"Indeed I haven't! What do you take us for, Howard?"
"For an exceedingly rash party of pleasure-hunters--if you have decidedto stay here through what is likely to happen before to-morrow morning.Besides, you are making it desperately hard for me."
She laughed lightly. "If you can't be afraid for yourself, you'll beafraid for other people, won't you? It seems to be one of yournecessities."
He let the taunt go unanswered.
"I can't believe that you know what you are facing, any of you, Eleanor.I'll tell you what I told your mother: there will be battle, murder, andsudden death let loose here in Angels before to-morrow morning. And it isso utterly unnecessary for any of you to be involved."
She rose and stood before him, putting a comradely hand on his shoulder,and looking him fairly in the eyes.
"There was a ring of sincerity in that, Howard. Do you really mean thatthere is likely to be violence?"
"I do; it is almost certain to come. The trouble has been brewing for along time--ever since I came here, in fact. And there is nothing we cando to prevent it. All we can do is to meet it when it does come, andfight it out."
"'We,' you say; who else besides yourself, Howard?" she asked.
"A little handful of loyal ones."
"Then you will be outnumbered?"
"Six to one here in town if the shopmen go out. They have alreadythreatened to burn the company's buildings if I don't comply with theirdemands, and I know the temper of the outfit well enough to give it fullcredit for any violence it promises. Won't you go and persuade theothers to consent to run for it, Eleanor? It is simply the height offolly for you to hold the _Nadia_ here. If I could have had ten wordswith your father this morning before he went out to the mine, you wouldall have been in Copah, long ago. Even now, if I could get word to him,I'm sure he would order the car out at once."
She nodded.
"Perhaps he would; quite likely he would--and he would stay herehimself." Then, suddenly: "You may send the _Nadia_ back to Copah on onecondition--that you go with it."
At first he thought it was a deliberate insult; the cruelest indignityshe had ever put upon him. Knowing his weakness, she was good-naturedenough, or solicitous enough, to try to get him out of harm's way. Thenthe steadfast look in her eyes made him uncertain.
"If I thought you could say that, realizing what it means--" he began,and then he looked away.
"Well?" she prompted, and the hand slipped from his shoulder.
His eyes were coming back to hers. "If I thought you meant that," herepeated; "if I believed that you could despise me so utterly as tothink for a moment that I would deliberately turn my back upon myresponsibilities here--go away and hunt safety for myself, leaving themen who have stood by me to whatever----"
"You are making it a matter of duty," she interrupted quite gravely. "Isuppose that is right and proper. But isn't your first duty to yourselfand to those who--" She paused, and then went on in the same steadytone: "I have been hearing some things to-day--some of the things yousaid I would hear. You are well hated in the Red Desert, Howard--hatedso fiercely that this quarrel with your men will be almost a personalone."
"I know," he said.
"They will kill you, if you stay here and let them do it."
"Quite possibly."
"Howard! Do you tell me you can stay here and face all this withoutflinching?"
"Oh, no; I didn't say that."
"But you are facing it!"
He smiled.
"As I told you yesterday--that is one of the things for which I draw mysalary. Don't mistake me; there is nothing heroic about it--the heroicsare due to come to-night. That is another thing, Eleanor--another reasonwhy I want you to go away. When the real pinch comes, I shall probablydisgrace myself and everybody remotely connected with me. I'd a good bitrather be torn into little pieces, privately, than have you here to bemade ashamed--again."
She turned away.
"Tell me, in s
o many words, what you think will be done to-night--whatare you expecting?"
"I told you a few moments ago, in the words of the Prayer Book: battle,and murder, and sudden death. A strike has been planned, and it willfail. Five minutes after the first strike-abandoned train arrives, thetown will go mad."
She had come close to him again.
"Mother won't go and leave father; that is settled. You must do the bestyou can, with us for a handicap. What will you do with us, Howard?"
"I have been thinking about that. The farther you can get away from theshops and the yard, which will be the storm-centre, the safer you willbe. I can have the _Nadia_ set out on the Copperette switch, which is agood half-mile below the town, with Van Lew and Jefferis to standguard----"
"They will both be here, with you," she interrupted.
"Then the alternative is to place the car as near as possible to thisbuilding, which will be defended. If there is a riot, you can all comeup here and be out of the way of chance pistol-shots, at least."
"Ugh!" she shivered. "Is this really civilized America?"
"It's America--without much of the civilization. Now, will you go andtell the others what to expect, and send Van Lew to me? I want to tellhim just what to do and how to do it, while there is time and anundisturbed chance."
The Taming of Red Butte Western Page 20