Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1919-02-19
CHAPTER /.

Marshall Sends for Richard.
The large round clock was striking
nine as Casey" Richards dancing step
carried him into the outer office of Tod
Marshall. The ushering clerk, coat
less and vestless in expectation of the
third hot spring day, made a critical
.appraisement of the engineers get-up
? before he spoke. Then he stated that
Mr.. Marshall had not yet come.
For London tie and white silk
shirt belted into white serge trousers
were smart for Tucson. The clerks
in the employ of the Overland Pacific
and of the Sonora and Yaqui railroads
had stared at Richard as he entered;
they followed his progress through the
room. He was a newcomer in Tucson.
He had not yet acquired the apathetic
habits of its citizens. He wore belts,
instead of suspenders. His white
trousers, duck or serge, carried new
~ pressed crease each morning.
The office had not reached a verdict
on the subject of X. c. Richard. The
sshirt-sleeved, collarless clerks would
have been quick to dub him a dandy
were it not for a page of his history
that was puzzling them. He had held
chair of engineering in some eastern
city. He had resigned, the wind-toSSed
page said, to go on the road as a
fireman. His rapid promotion had
been spectacular; the last move,
few years ago, to fill an Office position
in Tucson. The summons had found
him on the west coast of Mexico,
where the Overland Pacific was push
ing its tracks.
You can wait here" suggested the
clerk. looking c0vertly at the shoes of
the man who few years before had
been shoveling coal on Wyoming en-
CINE. Mr. Marshall said to wait"
Ribbons, instead of shoe laces ~
.carped the human machine that must
ever write letters which other men
sign. "And a blue pin to match his
tie! I call that going some! J"
1t would never have occurred to
Richard, had he thought about 1t at
all that morning as he knOtted his tie
of dark, brilliant blue silk, that the
selection of his lapis pin was choice;
it was an inevitable result, an instine-
tive discretion of his fingers. 1t
warped, however, the suspended judg-
ment of Marshall's men, who had
never seen him shoveling coal, disfig-
ured by denim jumper. They did
not know that they themselves were
2slovens, ruined by the climate that
dulls vanity and willis collars.
Give him a year to change some of
his fine habits! % wagered Smythe the
stoop-shouldered clerk. as the door of
the inner office closed
ITO change his habits less !" amend
ed the office wit. And then they fell
to specializing what Marshall was go
ing to do with him. What pawn was
he in the game that everyone in Tue
son followed with eager self-interested
concern? Marshall's was the control
ling hand IN Arizona politics; the
maker of governors, the arbiter of big
corporations; president of a half
dozen railroads. Not a move of his
on the board that escaped notice.
On the other side of the door Rick
ard was echoing the office question.
This play job. where did it lead to?
He had liked his work, under Stratton.
There had been some pretty problems
to meet-what did Marshall mean TO
do with him?
The note had set the appointment
for nine Richard glanced at his
watch and took out his Engineering
Review. 1t would be ten before that
door opened on Tod Marshall!
He knew that, on the road, Mar
shall's work began at dawn. "a man
won't break from overworx or rust
from underworld if he follows the ex-
ample of the sum-" Richard had often
heard him expound his favorite the
DRY. at is only the. players, the syba
rites, who can afford to pervert the
arrangement nature intended for us"
But in Tucson. controlled by the wife
ly solicitude of his Claudia, he was
coerced into a regular perversion. His
office never saw him until the morn
ing was half gone.
A half-hour later RicIard finished
reading a report ON the diversion of a
great western river. The name OF
Thomas Hardin had sent him off on
tangent of memory. The Thomas
ERrdin whose efforts to bring water
10 the desert of the Colorado had been
50 spectacularly unsuccessful was the
Tom Hardin he had known The sis
ter had told him so. the girl with the
odd bronze eyes: opal matrix they
were with glints of gold, or was it
green? She herself was as unlike the
raw boOr Of his memory as a noun
tain lily is like the coarse rock Of its
background. Even a half-sister TO
Hardin. as Marshall. their host at din |
ner the week before. had explained /
it-no. even that did not explain it. !
That any Of the Hardin blood should !
be shared by the veins Of that girl. |
whv II was incredible The name /
Hardin" suggested erudity. loud /
mouthed Dragging; conceit. He could I
understand the failure Of the river /
project since the sister had assured I