The Wreckers

ing of t

tion platform and I turned myself into a messenger-boy escort for the lady and the little girl w

n out of the "Flyer" Pullman and sent back to Portal City on a local, and I was in the baggage-room, digging up the put-off stuff, at the good-by minute. But I guess they didn't quarrel any-the boss and Mrs. Sheila. She was laughing a

hing more, and then she gave that quiet little laugh again and said, "Your Mr. Norcross amuses m

I'd ever been in New York, and I felt sort of small when I had to tell her that I had never been east of Omaha in all my

ound like a little slam on the boss, and o

oss will make good wherever he goes

s of such qualities. And I agree with you that your Mr. Norcross is likely to succeed; more t

was slamming the boss, and I meant to get

Mr. Norcross," I said. "Hasn't he been right

ator was open, you know, until Maisie Ann got up and shut it, and we couldn't very well help hearing what

r it?" I asked, blu

just a wee little hint. If you are not well enough acquainted with Mr. Chadwick to ask him yourself, you might tell Mr. Norcross to ask him if there isn't s

g out the letters to spell "Hotel Bullard," and I was b

ething more than I did, and more t

told me I must learn not to be rude and masterful, li

the auto and smoked while they were wa

m very well; couldn't, with nothi

re in Portal City. One of them, the smaller one with the derby hat and the short overcoat, was either Mr. Rufus Hatch or his

o I didn't have a chance to ask any more questions; and after I had paid the porter for lugging the grips, Mrs. Shei

e asked, when she was telling me good-by and t

came around to the kidnapping b

drag me into it. I couldn't be positively certain, you know, that the two men were really Mr. Hatch and Mr. Henckel. B

side. I'll tell the boss, when I get a good chance, and you can bet your

while, after he has forgotten all about it, you may tell him from me-" She stopped and gave me that funny little laugh again that made her look so pretty, and said: "No, I guess you needn't

r and look on at the people coming and going. You can tell pretty well how a town stacks up for business if you hit it between ten and eleven o'clock of a Sunday night and hang around its best hotel. If the town

rd crew had side-tracked it on a spur down by the freight-house, and when I h

iced me when I blew in and sat down a little to one side. I had known well enough, when Mr. Norcross had turned the new offer down, that Mr. Chadw

ped up and began to pace back and forth bef

ield: to demonstrate, on this rotten corpse of a railroad, the solution of a problem that has the entire country guessing at the present time; namely, the winning of success, and public-and industrial-ap

"That is about the

ne the qualities of a pretty brutal slugger with those of a fine-haired, all-things-to-all-men, diplomatic peacemaker. I can do the slugging; I've proved it a t

ached out and picked you for the job. There will be a good bit of the slugging needed

freight wreck at Widner, I got off to see what we were in for. The conductor of our train had spotted me from seeing my pass, and I happened to hear him docketing

our Oregon Midland president, says you need humanizing, and wonders why you haven't m

of yours. I should probably mix up with some of these grafters you've been telling me about and get a knife in my back. That would be all in the day's work, of course, but it would leave you ri

f the hiring-and-firing side won't be given any option in the matter. You may call it Utopian if you please, and add that I'm growing old an

far with you, off-hand; and if I could, I should sti

n't know Mr. Chadwick very well. The big wheat king j

y of the difficulties and the responsibilities, Graham; but there is another side to it. I

it," said the

dn't have the enmity of everybody it serves; needn't be the prey of a lot of disloyal and dissatisfied employees who are interested only in the figure of the pay-day check; needn't be shot at as a wolf with a bounty on its scalp. Let it rest at that for the present

iving her away. So I said the little end of nothing, just as hard as I could; and when we got out of the car, Mr. Norcross told

ted down to make it seem a little more like Sunday night, but an automobile party had just come in, and some of the

last, all but one-a young swell who would have been handsome if he hadn't had the eyes of a maniac and a color that was sort of corpse-li

caught a glimpse of somebody he knew-a woman, I took it, because he said "she"-looking down from the rail of the mezzanine, and

he ear of the clerk for a second or so between cusses, he asked what was the matter with the lunatic. I caught only broken bits o

f around the corner of the counter to get at the clerk again, an

re to do that," he chittered. "He's one of the New York crowd-t

ng things up as he came with a lot more language. The boss said, right short and sharp, to the clerk, "Get his room key and give it to a boy who

ho happened to see it-but not me. It was just like the boss.

m?" asked the clerk, kin

urn the cold water on him. That'll take the whiskey out of him. N

he three elevators. He was smiling sort of grim, as if he'd made a killing of some sort with Mr. Dunton, and in

g private, so I sat down just beyond them, so sleepy that I could hardly see straight. Mr. Chadwick was telling about his early experiences in

he street and crossed to the elevators; a mighty handsome, stately old gentleman, w

dwick was saying. "Old-school Southern 'quality,' and as fine as they make 'em. He is a lawyer, but n

ee little private guesses of my own together, when one of the elevators came down and here came our two, the young lady and the chunky little girl, with the major chuckling and smiling and giving an arm to each. They had apparently st

to stay in Portal City and get acquainted with him," Mr. Chadwick was going on; and by that time

at them. Then he said: "That's Mrs. Macrae

e at the major's house out in the northern suburb last summer, and that's how I

d we heard their taxi speed up and trundle off before h

'd already forgotten the three

as been married. But there isn

Chadwick let him alone, being busy, I guess, with his own little scrap that lay just ahead of him in the c

w to where the major's taxi had been standing. "If you can pull me into that deal to-morr