The Wrangell sentinel., 1909-10-07
CHAPTER II.

company's docks, had arrived in &Y response to the presidents sum- mons, conveyed to him by the tele- phone. Smith, known to his familiars as Jimsy. was a tall, gaunt. angular man, bearing all over him the stamp of westerner. He was, in fact, from Colorado, where he began his active career by engaging in mining. Scant success attended his efforts in this di- rection, however, and after working with the dogged determination that was one of his traits until even his patience was exhausted he finally en- tered the employ of the steamship company in whose service he had risen to his present position, with headquarters in New York.
 There was something about Smith that caused men, and women also, for that matter, to take to him on sight. The unbounded good nature, big heart edness and unselfshness beaming in his blue eyes and in his whimsical smile were written in every line of his clean shaven face. Another thing that made him remarked by all who came in contact with him was his absolute imperturbability. In all his thirty seven years of existence he never had been known to "get a move on," not even when premature blast in mine had sent the diGgers helter skel- ter for safety and carried death and suffering to many. Smith had walked fpa TpI1il1v- n yr-ov 0nNi1 tIn pain nf pnG1r and earth until it was all over. Then he had returned and organized the work of rescue, his placidity causing the others instinctiYely to look to him for direction. Nor was bis speech more hurried than were his move ments. He spoke but little, and then his words came in a quiet, even, dis tinct drawl. But he "got there" as quickly as most men, and a good deal quicker than some whose nerves were highly strung and with whom rapidity of action was as necessary as breath ing. for he was possessed of keen pow CTS of observation and common sense, an earnestness of purpose that gave ais utterances weight and an integrity BIS unshakable as the rock of Gibral tar. As a fitting, almost necessary, complement of such a nature he WAS endowed with a sense of humOr that added not a little to the attraction he exercised for those who knew him sufficiently well to be able to appre- ciate his qualities of heart and mind.
 He took calm, all embracing survey of the office as he entered, looked over to Brooks desk and sG!uted him with 3 cordial motion of the hand and in- structed boy to notify Captain Will Hams of his arrival. He was ushered immediately into the chiefs presence.
 That worthy, who, like his superin- tendent, was clean shayen, was seated at his desk in hls shirt sleeves, and the whole room, despite the wide open windows, was thick from the smoke from an old blackened corncob pipe at which he was pufiing vigorously. He was a burly man, and the short, thick neck, the broad shoulders. the power ful. big jointed fingers and the mus cles that stood out in punches on the hairy arms disclosed by his rolled up shirt sleeves denoted that he possessed unusual physical strength. An ugly man to get into an argument with was Williams, one who, 1t needed no mind reader to judge, would be capable of following the word with a blow that would crush an ordinary opponent. For years, as Brooks had intimated. he had led the toughest life a man can lead, hammering by sheer brute strength way to wealth by ways in which scruple had counted for nothing at all and expediency for a good deal, and his entrance upon a higher plane of civilization had not imparted much polish to his appearance, habits or speech, which were those of the old time sailing ship mariner, although of late years he had striyen to conform more closely to the examples of re- fnement he witnessed in the only po- lite society he cared for, which was that of the family of his dead friend, Stanley Harris, who was general man. ager of the Latin-American line when he obtained control of it He had a way of glarlng at a person from un- der his bushy eyebrows with a scru- tiny that seemed to read through and up and down him and made him most i'll at ease under it.
 He made his decisions promptly, au- thorftatively, after the manner of a man accustomed to command and to be obeyed without question, and he