Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1919-02-19
CHAP TER I.

carried him into the outer office OF Tod
Marshall. The usheling 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
and of the Sonora and Yaqui railroads
had stared ut Richard as he entered;
they followed his progress through the
room. He was newcomer in Tucson.
He had not yet acquired the apathetlc
habits OF its citizens. He wore belts,
instead of suspcnders. His white
trousers. duck on serge, carried new
ly pressed crease each morning.
The office had not reached II verdict
Oh the subject of X. c. Richard. The
shirt-sleeyed. collareSs clerks would
have been quick to dub him dandy
were 1t not for page of his history
that was pulling them. lie had he'd
chair Of engineering in ssmc eastern
city. He had resigned, the wiud-tossed
page said, 10 go on the road as n
fireman. His rapid promotion had
been Spectacular; the last move, q
few years ago, to fiji 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.
Won can wait here" suggested the
clerk, looking cOvertly at the shoes Of
the ,nan who few years before had
been shovelIng coal on Wyoming en-.
CINE. Mr.. Marshall said to wait
Ribbons, instead Of shoe lace" "
carped the human machine that must
ever write letters which other men
sign. And a blue pin to match his
tie! call that going some."
1t would never have occurred to
Rlckard, had he thought about it at
all that morning as he knotted his tie
of dark, brilliant blue silk. that the
selection of his larls pin was choice !;
1t was an in cyitab,c result, an instipl.
tive discretion Of his fling s. It
warped, however, the suspended judg.
ment Of Marshail's men. who had
never seen him shoveling coal, distig.
ured by denim jumper. They did
Stevens, ruined by the climate that
dulls vanity and willis collars.
"Give him year to change some Of
his fine habits" wasered Smythe, the
stoop-shouIdered clerk, as the door Of
the inner office closed.
"TO 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-interestcd
concern? Marshall's 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 Ills
on the board that escaped notice.
On the other side Of the door Rick.
ard was echUing the Office question
This play job, where did ii lead TOT
He had liked his w9k, under Stratt0n
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. It 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 OyerWOrk or rust
from underworld if he follows the cX-
ample Of the sun Richard had often
heard him eXpOund his fayorite the
DRY. ut 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
n sOliCitude of his Claudia, he was
coerced into regular perversion. His
office never saw him until the morn
ing was half gone.
A half-hour later Richard finished
reading a report on the diversion Of Il
great western river. The name Of
ThomaS Hardin had sent him off on
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 a noun
tain lily is like the coarse rock of its
background. Even half-siSter to
Hardin, as Marshall, their host at din
ner the week before, had explained
ft-no, even that did not explain it.
That any of the Hardin blood should
be shared by the veins of that girl,
why 1t was incredible! The name
"Hardn" suggested crudity, loud
mouthed Dragging; conceit. He could
understand the failure of the river
project since the sister had assured
him that it was the same Tom Hardin
who had gone to college at Lawrence;
had married Gerty Holmes. Queer
business, life, that he should cross,