The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1919-04-03

was chatting, FESTIVE. after n few
| getting here? Adding what scrap of
experience to the rounding of his pro-
fession?
Retrospectiyely engineering could
hardly be said to be the work Of his
choice. Rather had Ii appeared to
choose him. From boyhood engineers
had always been, to him, the soldiers
of modern civilization. To conquer
and subdue mountains, to shackle wild
rivers, to suspend treStles yer dizzy
heights, to throw the tracks Of an adj
vnnCing civilization along a newly
blazed trail, there would always be a
thrill in 1t for him. 1t had changed
the best quarterback of his high school
into the primmest of students at col
lege. Only for q short time had he let
his vanity sidetrack him. when the
honor Of teaching what he had learned
stopped his own progress. A rut!-
He remembered the day when it had
burst on him, the realization OF the
renee schOolrOom, could see yet the
face under the red-halred mop belong
ing 10 Jerry MatsOn-queer he remem-
bered the name after all those years
lie could picture the look of cOnster-
nation when he threw down his book
! ,,I nana,,na,l LG. InnnnsA,
He had handed in his resignation
the next day. A month later and he
was shoveIlng coal on the steep grades
Of Wyoming.
Marshall keeps his men with him !"
Fhe engineers glance travelled around
The fieckless Office. A stranger to Mar.
I'shall would get a wrong idea of the
man who worked in it'll Those precise
files, the desk, orderly and polished,
the cleaning linoleum-and then the
man who made the negro jauitor's life
IA proud burden! His clothes always
crumpled-spots, too, unless his Clau'
dia had had n chance at them! Black
string tie askew, all the outward Wis,
lille signs of the southern gentleman
of assured ancestry. Not even a valet
would eve keep Tod Marshall up tc
the standard of that Office. What did
he have servants for, he had demand
ed Of Richard, if it were not TO jump
after him, picking up the loose ends
he dropped? .
Curious thing, magnetism. That
mans step on the stair, and every
man-jac1 Of them would jump TO at
tCntion, from Ben, the colored janitor
who would not swap his post for a 81
necure so long as Tod Mashnll's one
lung kept Tim in Arizona, to Smythe
the stoHp-Saouldered clerk, who haC
followed Durshall's cough from SaI
Francisco. 1t was said In Arizona
he himrelf had met the statement In
T~ucson.-tbat any man who had evel
worked for Tod Marshall would rather
greatness than be given posts Of per
sonal distinction.
Was il Office routine Marshall In
tended Inn for? He admired without
stint Tod Marshall, but he preferred
to work by the side of the other kind
the str"ng men, without physical han
dicap, The men who take risks, the
men WHO live the life of soldiers. That
was the life he wanted. He would
wait lolg enough to get Marshall's in
tention and then, If it meant-this
he would breal- loose. He would &C
back tG TIE front where lie belonged
back to the firing line.
AS tie hands of the round clock In
the outer Office were pointing to ter
the door opened and Marshall entered
His clothes, of indefinite blackish hue
would haye disgraced an eastern man
His string tie had a %starboard list
and his hat was ready for a rummage
sale. But few would have looked al
his clothes. The latent energy of The
dynamic spirit that would frequently
turn that quiet office into a mael
strom cleaned In those Indian-blacl
eyes. Beneath the shabby cloth on
suspected the daily polished skin; un
der the old SLOUGH hat was the moutf
of purpose, the lips that no woman
even his Claudia, had kissed without
the thrill of fear.
Marshall glanced back at the clock
and then toward his visitor.
son time !" he observed.
Richard. smiling. put his book II
his pocket.