Charlevoix county herald., 1921-05-06
CHAPTER X
The Man at the Window

nc mdn TIC WlUoOW
OF course, the first thing l did, the
morning after that adventure in the
coal yard, was to tell the boss all
about it, and / was just foxy enough
to do it when Mr.. Ripley was present.
Mr.. NOrcross didn't say much; and,
for that matter, neither did the law
yer, though he did ask the boss
question or two about the real facts
in the Midland right-of-way squabble.
But / noticed, after that, that cur
man Tarbell was continually turning
up at all sorts of times, and in all
sorts of odd places, so l took 1t that
Ripley had given him his tip, and
that he was sort of safeguarding Mr.
NOrcrOss on the quiet, though l am
sure the boss didn't know anything
about that part of it--he was such
square fighter himself that he prob
ably wouldn't have stood for it II he
had.
Meanwhile, things grew warmer and
warmer in the tussle we were making
to pull the old Short Line out of the
mud; warmer In a number of ways,
because, in addition to the fight for
the public confidence, we began just
then TO have a perfect epidemic of
wrecks.
The boss turned the material trou-
BILE over to Mr.. Van Britt and devoted
himself pretty strictly to the public
side of things. Everywhere, and on
every occasional dinners at the diff
ferent chambers of commerce, and
public banquets given to this, that, or
the other visiting big-wig-he was al
ways ready to get on his feet and tell
the people that the true prosperity Of
the country carried with ii the pros
perity of the railroads; that the two
things were one and inseparable; and
that, when 1t came right down to basic
facts, the railroads were really part
Of the progress machinery of the coun-
try at large and should be regarded,
not as alien tax-collectors, but as con-
tributors to the general prosperity and
welfare.
BY this time, also, Red Tower Con-
solidated was beginning to ird out
what Ii meant to have active COM
petition. The c. S. & w. people were
hammering their new plants into work
ing shape, and they were getting the
patronage, both of the producers and
consumers, hand over fist. Track facil-
tiles and yard service were granted
freely; and while no discrimination
was permitted as against the Red
Tower people. the friendly attitude Of
the road counted for something, as 1t
was bound to.
During those few prediction weeks
the New York end of us seemed to
have petered out completely. We heard
nothing more from President Dunton,
worse than an occasional wire COM
plant about the number of wrecks
we were having, though the stock
was still going down, point by point,
and, so far as a man up tree could
see, we were making no attempt to
show net earnings-were turning all
our money into betterments as fast as
IL came In. l knew that couldn't go
on. without furry of some sort, the
New Workers would never be able to
break even, to say nothing Of profit,
and l looked every day for howl
that would tear things straight up the
back.
While all these threads were weav-
ing along, I'm sorry to say that /
hadn't yet drummed up the courage
to tell the boss the truth about Mrs.
Sheila. He kept on going to the
majors every chance he had, and
Maisie Ann was making life miserable
for me because / hadn't told him
calling me coward and everything
under the sun. / told her to tell him
herself, and she retorted that / knew
she couldn't: that Ii was my Job and