The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1904-10-16

EuDrnerSlNe DaItllnSS IN 4 S6d VI WI NJ
while the fierce toll Of the buffeting
NAV be good for the swimmers soul, it
necessarily narrows his horizon, mas
much as q man with his head in the
sea smother lacks the viewpoint Of the
captain who fights his ship from the
coming tower.
So il befell that while the newly APP
pointed general counsel Of the reorgan-
lied Western Pacific was boiling his
meals and clipping the nights at both
ends in q strenuous endeaVor to clear
the decks for a possible battle royal
at the capital, events OF a minatory
nature were shaping themselves else
where.
To bring these events down TO their
focusing point in the period Of transi-
tion, II is needful 10 go back little;
TO a term of the Circuit Court held in
the third year Of Castor the prosper
Gus.
Who Mrs. Melissa Varnum was; now
she came 10 be travelling from Mlolano
City TO the end of the track on a scaIp-
er's ticket and in what manner she
was given her choice Of paying rare
10 the conductor or leaving the train
at Gaston-these are details with whlch
we need not concern ourselves. sufnce
il TO say that Kent, then local attor-
ney for the company, mastered thenl'
and when Mrs. Varnum, through
Hawk. her counsel, sued for five thou
sand dollars damages, he was able to
get a continuance, knowing from long
experience that the jury would certain
" find for the plaintiff If the case
were then allowed to go trial
And at the succeeding term Of court,
which was the one that adjourned on
the day OF Kent's transfer to the capt.
tai, two OF the company's witnesses
had disappeared; and the one bit OK
conpauv business Kent had been sue
cessful in doing that day was 10 post
pone, for a second time, the coming to
trial Of the Varnum case.
It was while Kent's head was deep
est in the food Of reorganization that
a letter came from one Biashneld
Hunnicott his successor in the local
attorneyship at Castor, asking for in
structions in the Varnum matter
Judge MacFarlane's court would con-
Vene in a week. Was he, Hunnicott,
TO let the case come to trial? Or
should he-the witnesses still being
unproducible-move for further
continuance?
Kent took his head out of the cross
seas long enough TO answer. By all
means Hunnicott was to obtain an
other continuance. if possible. And
if before the case were called, there
should be any new developments, he
was TO wire at once TO the general Of
sue.
II was about this time, or, to be
strictly accurate. on the day preced-
ing the converting Of Judge MacFar-
lanes court in Castor, that Governor
Bucks took a short vacation-his first
since the adjournment of the Assem-
bly,
One of the mysteries of this man
the only one for which his friends
could not always account plausibly-
was his habit of dropping out for
day or a week at irregular intervals,
leaving no clew by which he could be
traced. While he was merely a pri-
vate citizen these disaD appearances fig
ured in the local notes of the CASTOR
Clarion as business trips" object and
objective point unknown or at least
unstated; but since his election the
newspapers were usually more def
mite On this occasion the public was
duly Informed that Governor Bucks,
with one or two intimate friends. was
taking a few days recreation with rod
and gun on the headwaters of Jump
Creek statement which the Gov
ernor's private secretary stood ready
TO corroborate to all and sundry call
ing at the gubernatorial rooms on the
second floor Of the Capitol
Now IL CHANGED that. like all gos-
sip. this statement was subject TO cor
rection as 10 details in favor of the
exact fact. II is true that the Gov
ernor his gigantic figure clad in
sportsmanlike brown duck, might
have been seen boarding the train on
the Monday evening: and in addition
TO the ample handbag there were rod
and gun cases 10 bear out the newspa-
per notices. None the less. il was
equally true that the keeper of the
Gun Club shooting box at the termi-
nus of the Transwestern' Jump Creek
branch was not called upon TO enter
tain so distinguished a guest as the
State executive. Also, ii might have
been remarked that the Governor
Travelled alone.
Hawk was keeping a rather
olscomforting vigil with a visitor
in the best suite of rooms the
Mid-Continental Hotel in CASTOR af-
forded. The guest of honor was a
brother lawyer-though he might
have refused TO acknowledge the re
lationship with the eX-district attor-
ney-a keen-eyed, businesslike gentle
man, whose name as an organizer of
vast capitalistic ventures had Travelled
Tar, and whose present attitude was
one Of undisguised and angry con-
tempt for CASTOR and all things Gas
tonian.
How much longer have we TO
waltz he demanded inipatiently.
when the hands Of his watch pointed
TO the Quarter-hour after 10. You've
made me travel two thousand miles
TO see this thing through: why didn't
you make sure of having your man
here?"
Hawk wriggled uneasily in his chair
He was used to being bullied, not only
by the good and great, but by the
little and evil rs well. Yet there was
q rasp TO the great mans impatience
that irritated him.
i've been trying to tell you all the
evening that Pm only the hired man
in this business, Mr.. Falkland. ]
can't compel the attendance Of the
other parties
Well. its damned bndly managed,
as far as we've gone was the ungra-
cious comment You say the Judge
refuses TO confer with me-"
Absolutely
And the train-the last train the
other man can come on; is that in
YETI"