The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1919-02-18
Marshall Sends for Rickard.
cHAPT Err !.

Marshall. line uSnerlnS CLERK, CoaC-
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 q London tie and a 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 it's 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 K. G. Rickard. The
shirt-sleeved, collarless clerks would
have been quick to dub him a dandy
were it not for page of his history
that was puzzling them. He had held
a chair Of engineering in some eastern
city. He had resigned, the wind-tossed
! page said, to go on the road as
fireman. His rapid promotion had
been spectacular; the last move,
few, years ago, to fill an office position
J 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 covertly at the shoes of
the man who a few years before had
been shoveling coal on Wyoming en-
3 :gine. "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
s tiel I call that going some!"
It would never have occurred to
\ Rickard. had he thought about it at
Z all that morning as he knotted his tie
Z Of dark. brilliant blue silk, that the
selection of his lapis pin was 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 had
never seen him shoveling coal, disig-
I ured by denim jumper. They did
not know that they themselves were
slovens, ruined BY the climate that
dulls vanity and willis collars,
"Give him year to change some Of
his fine habitsr' wagered Smythe, the
,stoop-shouldered clerk, as the door of
the inner Office closed.
l'To change his habits less" amend
ed the Office wit. And then they fell
to speculating, 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
5 dozen railroads. Not q 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. Rickard glanced at his
watch and took out his Engineering
Review. It would be ten before that
door opened on Tod Marshalll
He knew that, on the road, Mar
shall's work began at dawn. "A man
won't fbreak from overwork or rust
from underworld If he follows the e1-
ample Of the sum-" Rickard had often
heard him expound his favorite the
ory. at is only the players, the syba-
rites, who can afford to pervert the
arrangement nature intended for u.s."
But In Tucson, controlled by the wife
ly solicitude Of his Claudia, he was
coerced into q regular perversion. His
Office never saw him until the morn
tng was half gone.
A half-hour later Rickard finished
reading a report On the diversion Of
great western river. The name OF
Thomas Hardin had sent him OF 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 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 stla- d by the veins Of that girl,
why it was Incredible! The name