The Taming of Red Butte Western

by Francis Lynde

  XXI

  THE BOSS MACHINIST

  Miss Brewster evidently obeyed her instructions precisely, since Van Lewcame almost immediately to tap on the door of the superintendent'sprivate room.

  "Miss Eleanor said you wanted to see me," he began, when Lidgerwood hadadmitted him; adding: "I was just about to chase out to see what hadbecome of her."

  The frank confession of solicitude was not thrown away upon Lidgerwood,and it cost him an effort to put the athlete on a plane of brotherlyequality as a comrade in arms. But he compassed it.

  "Yes, I asked her to send you up," he replied. Then: "I suppose you knowwhat we are confronting, Mr. Van Lew?"

  "Mrs. Brewster told us as soon as we came back from the hills. Is itlikely to be serious?"

  "Yes. I wish I could have persuaded Mrs. Brewster to order the _Nadia_out of it. But she has refused to go and leave Mr. Brewster behind."

  "I know," said Van Lew; "we have all refused."

  "So Miss Brewster has just told me," frowned Lidgerwood. "That being thecase, we must make the best of it. How are you fixed for arms in thepresident's car?"

  "I have a hunting rifle--a forty-four magazine; and Jefferis has a smallarmory of revolvers--boy-like."

  "Good! The defense of the car, if a riot materializes, will fall uponyou two. Judge Holcombe can't be counted in. I'll give you all the helpI can spare, but you'll have to furnish the brains. I suppose I don'tneed to tell you not to take any chances?"

  Van Lew shook his head and smiled.

  "Not while the dear girl whom, God willing, I'm going to marry, is amember of our car-party. I'm more likely to be over-cautious thanreckless, Mr. Lidgerwood."

  Here, in terms unmistakable, was a deep grave in which to bury any poorphantom of hope which might have survived, but Lidgerwood did notadvertise the funeral.

  "She is altogether worthy of the most that you can do for her, and thebest that you can give her, Mr. Van Lew," he said gravely. Then hepassed quickly to the more vital matter. "The _Nadia_ will be placed onthe short spur track at this end of the building, close in, where youcan step from the rear platform of the car to the station platform. I'lltry to keep watch for you, but you must also keep watch for yourself. Ifany firing begins, get your people out quietly and bring them up here.Of course, none of you will have anything worse than a stray bullet tofear, but the side walls of the _Nadia_ would offer no protectionagainst that."

  Van Lew nodded understandingly.

  "Call it settled," he said. "Shall I use my own judgment as to theproper moment to make the break, or will you pass us the word?"

  Lidgerwood took time to consider. Conditions might arise under which theCrow's Nest would be the most unsafe place in Angels to which to fleefor shelter.

  "Perhaps you would better sit tight until I give the word," he directed,after the reflective pause. Then, in a lighter vein: "All of thesecareful prefigurings may be entirely beside the mark, Mr. Van Lew; Ihope the event may prove that they were. And until the thing actuallyhits us, we may as well keep up appearances. Don't let the women worryany more than they have to."

  "You can trust me for that," laughed the athlete, and he went his wayto begin the keeping up of appearances.

  At seven o'clock, just as Lidgerwood was finishing the luncheon whichhad been sent up to his office from the station kitchen, Train 203pulled in from the east; and a little later Dawson's belatedwrecking-train trailed up from the west, bringing the "cripples" fromthe Little Butte disaster. Not to leave anything undone, Lidgerwoodsummoned McCloskey by a touch of the buzzer-push connecting with thetrainmaster's office.

  "No word from Judson yet?" he asked, when McCloskey's homely faceappeared in the doorway.

  "No, not yet," was the reply.

  "Let me know when you hear from him; and in the meantime I wish youwould go downstairs and see if Gridley came in on 203. If he did, bringhim and Benson up here and we'll hold a council of war. If you seeDawson, send him home to his mother and sister. He can report to melater, if he finds it safe to leave his womankind."

  The door of the outer office had barely closed behind McCloskey whenthat opening into the corridor swung upon its hinges to admit themaster-mechanic. He was dusty and travel-stained, but nothing seemed tostale his genial good-humor.

  "Well, well, Mr. Lidgerwood! so the hoboes have asked to see your hand,at last, have they?" he began sympathetically. "I heard of it over inCopah, just in good time to let me catch 203. You're not going to letthem make you show down, are you?"

  "No," said Lidgerwood.

  "That's right; that's precisely the way to stack it up. Of course, youknow you can count on me. I've got a beautiful lot of pirates over inthe shops, but we'll try to hold them level." Then, in the same eventone: "They tell me we went into the hole again last night, over atLittle Butte. Pretty bad?"

  "Very bad; six killed outright, and as many more to bury later on, I amtold by the Red Butte doctors."

  "Heavens and earth! The men are calling it a broken rail; was it?"

  "A loosened rail," corrected Lidgerwood.

  The master-mechanic's eyes narrowed.

  "Natural?" he asked.

  "No, artificial."

  Gridley swore savagely.

  "This thing's got to stop, Lidgerwood! Sift it, sift it to the bottom!Whom do you suspect?"

  It was a plain truth, though an unintentionally misleading one, that thesuperintendent put into his reply.

  "I don't suspect any one, Gridley," he began, and he was going on to saythat suspicion had grown to certainty, when the latch of the dooropening from the outer office clicked again and McCloskey came in withBenson. The master-mechanic excused himself abruptly when he saw who thetrainmaster's follower was.

  "I'll go and get something to eat," he said hurriedly; "after which I'llpick up a few men whom we can depend upon and garrison the shops. Sendover for me if you need me."

  Benson looked hard at the door which was still quivering under Gridley'soutgoing slam. And when the master-mechanic's tread was no longeraudible in the upper corridor, the young engineer turned to the man atthe desk to say: "What tickled the boss machinist, Lidgerwood?"

  "I don't know. Why?"

  Benson looked at McCloskey.

  "Just as we came in, he was standing over you with a look in his eyes asif he were about to murder you, and couldn't quite make up his mind asto the simplest way of doing it. Then the look changed to his usualcast-iron smile in the flirt of a flea's hind leg--at some joke you weretelling, I took it."

  Being careful and troubled about many things, Lidgerwood missed thepoint of Benson's remark; could not remember, when he tried, just whatit was that he had been saying to Gridley when the interruption came.But the matter was easily dismissed. Having his two chief lieutenantsbefore him, the superintendent seized the opportunity to outline theplan of campaign for the night. McCloskey was to stay by the wires, withCallahan to share his watch. Dawson, when he should come down, was topick up a few of the loyal enginemen and guard the roundhouse. Bensonwas to take charge of the yards, keeping his eye on the _Nadia_. At thefirst indication of an outbreak, he was to pass the word to Van Lew, whowould immediately transfer the private-car party to the second-flooroffices in the head-quarters building.

  "That is all," was Lidgerwood's summing up, when he had made hisdispositions like a careful commander-in-chief; "all but one thing. Mac,have you seen anything of Hallock?"

  "Not since the middle of the afternoon," was the prompt reply.

  "And Judson has not yet reported?"

  "No."

  "Well--this is for you, Benson--Mac already knows it: Judson is outlooking for Hallock. He has a warrant for Hallock's arrest."

  Benson's eyes narrowed.

  "Then you have found the ringleader at last, have you?" he asked.

  "I am sorry to say that there doesn't seem to be any doubt of Hallock'sguilt. The arrest will be made quietly. Judson understands that. Thereis another man that we've got to have, and there is no time jus
t now togo after him."

  "Who is the other man?" asked Benson.

  "It is Flemister; the man who has the stolen switching-engine boxed upin a power-house built out of planks sawed from your Gloriabridge-timbers."

  "I told you so!" exclaimed the young engineer. "By Jove! I'll neverforgive you if you don't send him to the rock-pile for that,Lidgerwood!"

  "I have promised to hang him," said the superintendent soberly--"him andthe man who has been working with him."

  "And that's Rankin Hallock!" cut in the trainmaster vindictively, andhis scowl was grotesquely hideous. "Can you hang them, Mr. Lidgerwood?"

  "Yes. Flemister, and a man whom Judson has identified as Hallock, werethe two who ditched 204 at Silver Switch last night. The charge inJudson's warrant reads,'train-wrecking and murder.'"

  The trainmaster smote the desk with his fist.

  "I'll add one more strand to the rope--Hallock's rope," he grittedferociously. "You remember what I told you about that loosened rail thatcaused the wreck in the Crosswater Hills? You said Hallock had gone toNavajo to see Cruikshanks; he did go to Navajo, but he got there justexactly four hours after 202 had gone on past Navajo, and he came onfoot, walking down the track from the Hills!"

  "Where did you get that?" asked Lidgerwood quickly.

  "From the agent at Navajo. I wasn't satisfied with the way it shaped up,and I did a little investigating on my own hook."

  "Pass him up," said Benson briefly, "and let's go over this lay-out forto-night again. I shall be out of touch down in the yards, and I want toget it straight in my head."

  Lidgerwood went carefully over the details again, and again cautionedBenson about the _Nadia_ and its party. From that the talk ran upon theill luck which had projected the pleasure-party into the thick ofthings; upon Mrs. Brewster's obstinacy--which Lidgerwood mostinconsistently defended--and upon the probability of the president'sreturn from the Copperette--also in the thick of things, and it wasclose upon eight o'clock when the two lieutenants went to theirrespective posts.

  It was fully an hour farther along, and the tense strain of suspense wasbeginning to tell upon the man who sat thoughtful and alone in thesecond-floor office of the Crow's Nest, when Benson ran up to report thesituation in the yards.

  "Everything quiet so far," was the news he brought. "We've got the Nadiaon the east spur, where the folks can slip out and make their get-away,if they have to. There are several little squads of the discharged menhanging around, but not many more than usual. The east and west yardsare clear, and the three sections of the mid-night freight are crewedand ready to pull out when the time comes. The folkses are playing dummywhist in the Nadia; and Gridley is holding the fort at the shops withthe toughest-looking lot of myrmidons you ever laid your eyes on."

  Once again Lidgerwood was making tiny squares on his desk blotter.

  "I'm thankful that the news of the strike got to Copah in time to bringGridley over on 203," he said.

  Benson's boyish eyes opened to their widest angle.

  "Did he say he came in on Two-three?" he asked.

  "He did."

  "Well, that's odd--devilish odd! I was on that train, and I rambled itfrom one end to the other--which is a bad habit I have when I'm tryingto kill travel-time. Gridley isn't a man to be easily overlooked. Reckonhe was riding on the brake-beams? He was dirty enough to make the guessgood. Hello, Fred"--this to Dawson, who had at that moment let himselfin through the deserted outer office--"we were just talking about yourboss, and wondering how he got here from Copah on Two-three without myseeing him."

  "He didn't come from Copah," said the draftsman briefly. "He came inwith me from the west, on the wrecking-train. He was in Red Butte, andhe had an engine bring him down to Silver Switch, where he caught usjust as we were pulling out."