The L'Anse sentinel., 1919-03-21
CHAPTER !.
Marshall Sends for Rickard.


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 critical
appraisement of the engineers get-up
before he spoke. Then he stated that
Mr.. Marshall had not yet come.
For a 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 Rickard as he entered !;
they followed his progress through the
room. He was 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
ly pressed crease each morning.
The Office had not reached verdict
on the subject of X. G. Rickard. The
shirt-sleeved, collarless clerks would
have been quick to dub him dandy
were 1t not for page of his history
that was puzzling them. He had held
q 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, a
few years ago, to fill an office position
Nm Tucson. The summons had found
hlm on the west coast Of Mexico,
where the Overland Pacific was push
Ing It's tracks.
"You can wait here" suggested the
clerk, looking covertly at the shoes Of
the man who a few years before had
been shoveling coal on a Wyoming en-
,gine. 'Mr. Marshall said to wait"
Ribbons, instead of shoe laces I"
"carped the human machine that must
sever write letters which other men
sign. "And a blue pin to match his
tie! / call that going some!"
1t would never have occurred to
Rickard, had he thought about 1t ut
all that morning as he knotted his tie
of dark, brilliant blue silk, that the
selection of his lapis pin was a choice;
1t was an inevitable result, an instinc-
tive discretion of his fingers. 1t
warped, however, the suspended judg-
ment Of Marshall's men, who haG
never seen him shoveling coal, disfig-
ared by denim jumper. They did
not know that they themselves were
slovens, ruined by the climate that
dulls vanity and willis collars.
"Glve him year to change some Of
fnls fine habitsw wagered Smythe, the
stoop-shouldered clerk, as the door of
the inner Office closed.
ITO change his habits less! 7" amend
ed the Office wit. And then they fell
to specializing what Marshall was 60
Ing to do with him. What pawn was
lle In the game that everyone in Tue
son followed with eager self-interested
concern? Marshalls was the control
ling hand In Arizona politics.; the
dnaker of governors, the arbiter Of big
corporations; president of q half
dozen railroads. Not 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 1t lead to?
He had liked his work, under Stratton.
There had been some pretty problems
to meet-what did Marshall mean TO
do with him7
The note had set the appointment
for nine. Rickard glanced at his
watch and took out his Engineering
Review. II would be ten before that
door opened on Tod Mnrshalll
He knew that, on the road, Mar
shall's work began at dawn. "A man
won't break from overwork or rust
from underworld IL he follows the ex-
ample Of the sum-" Richard had often
heard him expound his favorite the
ory. "It is only the players. the syba-
rites, who car afford to pervert the
arrangement nature intended for u.s."
But In Tucson, controlled by the wife
sy solicitude of his Claudia. he was
coerced into a regular perytrdon. His
Office never saw. him until the morn
Ing was half gone.
A half-hour later Rlcknrd finished
reading q report on the diversion Of
great western river. The name of
tDkomns Hardin had. sent him on on
n tangent Of memory. The Thomas
0Inrdln whose efforts to bring water
TO the desert of the Colorado had been
80 spectacuiariy unsuccessful was the
Tom Hardin he had knowni u -