Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1919-02-18
CHAPTER |.
Marshall Sends for Richard.

tdStA VI > hliitiiE N't
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 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 aud 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 rsuspcnders. His white
trousers, duck OF serge, carried "A new
ly pressed crease each morning.
The office had not reached a verdict
on the subject Of X. c. Richard. The
hirt-sleeycd, CollnrlcsS clerks would
have been quick to dub him Il dandy
were it not for page Of his history
that was puZZling them. He had held
a chair Of engineering in scme eastern
city. He hud resigned, the Wind-tossed
page said, to go on the road as Il
fireman His rapid promotion had
been spectacular; the last move, Il
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 covcrtIy at the shoes Of
the man who a few years before had
been shOyeing coal on a 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 Il blue pin to match his
tiel | eau that going some!"
1t would never have occurred to
Richard, had he thought about it at
all that morning as he knotted his tie
OF dark, brilliant blue silk, that the
selection Of his laps pin was choice /;
II was an in yitable result, III instinc.
tive discretion OF his fingers. Il
warped, however, the suspended judg
ment of Marshalrs men, who had
never seen him shoyeling coal, dstig
ured by q denim jumper. They did
not know that they themselves were
Stevens, ruined by the climate that
J,tllS nifty and willis Collars
"Give him 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 60
ing to do with him. What pawn was
he in the game that everyone in Tue
son followed with eager self-inteIested
concern? Marshalls was the control
ling hand in Arizona .politics; the
maker Of governors, The arbiter of big
corporations; president of half
dozen railroads. Not move of his
on the board that escaped notice.
On the other side Of the door Rick
ard was eehoing the Office question.
This play job, where did it lead to?
Tie had liked his wo>k, 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 he ten before that
door opened on Tod Marshall!
He knew that, on the road, Mar
shall's work. hegan ut dawn. "A man
won't break frem oyerwork or rust
from underworld he follows the cx-
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 pcrvcrt the
arrangement nature intended for us"
But in Tucson, controlled by the wife
c0erced into a regular perversion. His
Office never saw him until the morn
ing was half gone.
A half-hour later Richard finished
reading Il report on the diversion OF a
great western river. The name Of
Thomas Hardin had sent him off on
q tangent of memory. The Thomas
Hardin whose efforts to bring water
to the desert of the Colorado had been
so 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 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,
why it was incredible! The name
"Hardin" suggested crudity, loud
mouthed Dragging; conceit. He could
understand the failure of the river
project since the sister had assured /
him that 1t was the same Tom Hardin |
who had gone to college at Lawrence;
had married Gerty Holmes. Queer |
business, life, that he should cross, |