The Yazoo Mystery Part 9

"My information will not be available to the railroad through me, but if you will dismiss your clerk, I will give you, as man to man, enough information to ease your mind." In saying this I was thinking only of Hiram.

After some hesitation, he nodded to the expectant clerk, who rose instantly and left the apartment.

"Mr. Taylor--I believe you said your name was Taylor--this matter has upset me, and I may have been rude," he apologized, and lapsed into the att.i.tude of a very decent fellow with troubles of his own. I then gave him enough details to put Hiram right. He was immensely relieved and pleased to gain such valuable information.

"You seem to know something of this young Strong?" he queried. My reply was that I thought I had a very good line on Hiram Strong, Jr.

"His cash and station records are as clean and straight as a pin--he seems to be rather under-cla.s.sed and is capable of better things. What are his antecedents?" The superintendent's interest was aroused.

"My knowledge does not extend beyond his father, a Southerner, now a prominent financier in New York. It appears he decided that the only way to make something of this boy was to throw him out entirely on his own resources, and apparently the old gentleman's reasoning was good."

"I believe you are right; there is good blood in him. Our big trouble is in making good railroad men from material without any blood base. We frequently have to make 'a silk purse from a sow's ear,' which is generally considered impossible--but we do it. Now the case of this other fellow--can you conceive of a full grown man with no better sense than to take a fifty-pound case of dynamite, drive nails into it, and then use it as a chair? But I am greatly relieved to know just how it happened, and if I can ever be of any service to you, don't fail to make it known--will you?" he asked, rising formally, to end the audience.

When I came out Hiram glanced at me searchingly, as though he would learn something from my att.i.tude. He had been absorbing information from the train conductor. Hiram had developed a penchant for burrowing into the confidence of every one and getting inside knowledge of their difficulties.

At this time we succeeded in running around a freight train that had been holding us back, and entered New Orleans so fast that conversation was quite impossible.

Before we reached the station the clerk came out and told Hiram and Gus to report at the office at nine the next morning, at which Hiram became thoughtful, but not downcast.

He was able to get his old room next to mine, which pleased him, and after opening the connecting door and cleaning up a bit, he came in and gave me one of his strenuous whacks between my shoulders.

"Old man Ben, what do I draw to-morrow morning at nine?"

"Hiram, I don't know," I truthfully replied, working my shoulders where he had hit me, "but I think you will be drawn and quartered and made into good fertilizer; that's all you're fit for." At this he began to cavort and caper about like a colt.

"Well, I don't mind telling you how I feel--I don't give a Continental sou Marquis what I draw. I feel like fighting wild cats and buzz-saws.

Now that Anna Bell Morgan has promised to marry me, nothing else matters."

CHAPTER XI

HIRAM and I were soon ready for the next thing in order--something to eat.

"I suppose now you will want a porterhouse as big as Rhode Island----"

"And as thick as a London fog, with enough mushrooms to choke an alligator," he broke in joyously. "Ben--I want you to know right now that I think you are an infernal scoundrel. You know why my brand-new typewriter blew up this morning and started the whole of Quarrytown over into the river, incidentally putting the main line on the b.u.m--and won't tell me!" he added, squaring himself in front of me.

"You'd better wait until to-morrow and see what your sentence is before you begin to accuse me," I replied, with a solemn wink which he couldn't quite fathom.

"Oh, I suppose the 'Sauerkraut' and I will get bounced incontinently.

But what do I care? Had it not been for what happened this morning I wouldn't know that a perfectly sweet and innocent girl really loves me.

I don't care if this part of the world comes to an end, you can't get me into the doldrums. Besides, I know my hands are clean, and I have done nothing for which they should blame me, but they may be looking for a horrible example--a railroad is a railroad--eh, Ben?"

Then, a.s.suming a more serious att.i.tude, he continued:

"I've got a trade now--a way of making a living. I can walk up the street and look any man or woman in the eye, as one who can account for himself, who can do something useful, and at the same time possess the love of a good girl--it's great, Ben! Do you know anything about such things? I shall be no man's dog in the future. Already I've kicked the can off of my tail, to use a figure of speech."

"I don't quite understand you, Hiram," said I, recalling the fact that this was the second time he had referred to some such handicap.

"I've been up there on the river where it's so quiet that one's own thoughts are as loud as grand opera, and I have figured it out," he began, inserting his thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest and moving over to look out of the window. "Of course, you understand, I used the word dog as a figure of speech, but what I mean is that the Gold-Beater, instead of making me work and learn something at the right time, gave me money to spend, and then, along with old women and maidens, old men, and gentry in general, he winked knowingly, indulgently, as I was toboganning to Hades; then of a sudden, inside of a day, I am kicked out, and told to go to work or--Blazes--he didn't care which--me with my head as empty as a base drum and muscles as soft as a jelly fish. Oh, I'm not exactly sore on the Gold-Beater--he did no worse than a million others, but it's all wrong, Ben," he emphasized, turning his eyes upon me.

I preferred not to take him seriously.

"Hiram, there's a store on the corner where we can get a soap box, and I'll try to arrange with the police for a place in the square----"

"Oh, I see you are like the rest of them; your head is like a cocoanut--a sh.e.l.l that you have to open with a hatchet; then some soft, indigestible stuff, and real brains no more than the milk s.p.a.ce inside.

Come on, let's get some food," he sneered, grabbing me by the arm, and fairly rus.h.i.+ng me out on the street.

He spent most of the evening talking about Anna Bell Morgan and his plans. Like every man in love, he gave me a poor idea of her--but I inferred she was about twenty-two, and from my distant view of her I knew she did not run to flesh. I was ready to give her a high mark on that score.

"Suppose you'll marry her at once?" said I, arching my brows knowingly.

"Oh, no; not yet; she says I must make good before she will marry me,"

he replied in answer to my query, "and besides, she has plans. She wants to learn something, too. She is coming down to New Orleans to go to school--her father has promised her that for a long time. Perhaps that mule team going through the front of the store may delay things, but not long. Anna Bell has been helping with his books and knows a lot for one who has always been shut in."

The next evening when I heard him coming up the stairs four steps at a time I backed into a corner. When he felt that way I knew I would get a thump on my back equal to being kicked by an ox.

"Ben, you scoundrel, come out of there; I want to hit you. I've got it--I've got it this time right!" he began, reaching for me excitedly, and playful as a young lion. "I believe it's all your work--I'm promoted--I didn't get bounced; the big chief did the handsome thing--right here in New Orleans!" This was as coherent as he was able to make himself.

"Sit down, Hiram;--what is he going to give you?"

"Going to give me? I've already got it; been at work all day. Four tracks on the wharf. Got charge of all the perishable freight--meat incoming and fruit outgoing--office to myself on the dock. First thing I did was to wire Anna Bell--then went to it. Great job, Ben, and I'm going to like it. Got a new typewriter to replace the one I lost. Beats Quarrytown, and twice the money. Why don't you warm up and congratulate me?" he almost shouted, rising quickly from the chair and reaching for my shoulders again, but I dodged him.

"Already received a wire from Anna Bell," he continued. "She's a great girl; the best ever. You sly old dog, you knew it was the box we were using for a stool; I can see it now, but do you know, I somehow feel sorry for Gus; he was just love-sick--he didn't know half the time what he was doing. He was not so much to blame, but Anna Bell wasn't to blame, either, for she never led him on."

"What did they do for him?" I interrupted, fearful that he would lose his breath entirely.

"I did all I could to save him, and they didn't fire him. They gave him another night station somewhere in the swamps. But say, I've got to step pretty lively to keep up with this job--however, it won't be so bad when I get things straightened out," he bubbled. At first I was afraid he had been drinking, but it was just Hiram Strong, Jr., finding himself.

I had something special on for that night, or I think he would have talked me to sleep. He made me promise to come around the next day and see his layout. As I left him, he began writing to Anna Bell, telling her all about everything.

When I saw him the next afternoon, he had on a hickory jumper and cap, and was bossing the final cleaning of a long, roofed-over wharf, strewn with broken cases, trash and dirt--the acc.u.mulation of years.

As soon as he saw me he began to smile. He was full of energy, urging the negro laborers to take away the last load, so that he could leave on time. He pointed out how he had charge of the tracks on the wharf. The worst feature of the situation was that he had to be there at 4.30 a. m.

with Government meat inspectors, to let the packing-house people have their meat early, but he was through about the middle of the afternoon, as soon as the north-bound fruit was loaded.

"That means you must get out about four in the morning?"

"Yes, but I don't mind that."

"Hiram, it is not so long ago that you did not think seriously of going to bed until that time."

"Yes, that's a fact--but," said he, sobering, "it seems an age and appears to me now like a nightmare. Say, do you want to make an investment?" he asked, changing the subject abruptly, and a.s.suming the air of good-natured bargaining that seemed so natural with him.

"Yes, what is it?"