The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1921-07-29
The
Wreck:e',rts
BY
FRANCIS
LYNDE
Copyright by chas. scribner's Sons
CHAPTER xvlI-continusd.

joking with me it's going to cost you
something. How far do you want your
train to run?'
"Oh, I don't know; anywhere the
notion prods me-say to the west end
and back. with as many stops as !
see fit to make, and perhaps a run
over the branches
/ saw the boss make a few figures
on pad under his hand.
at would cost anybody else, rough
~, something like five hundred dol
lars. On account of your little joke
it's going to cost you a cold thou
sand"
Mr.. Van Britt took out his check
book and a fountain pen and solemn
ly made out the check.
"Here you are" he said, Tipping the
check over to the boss desk. "Now
shell out that receipt, so that I'll have
it to show if anybody wants to know
hew much you've gouged me. Since
you're making the accommodation cost
me dollar minute, how long have
/ got to waltz"
Mr.. Norcross said something that
sounded like ''d-n," scrubbed mem
Orandum OF the thousand-dollar pay
ment on a sheet of the scratch-pad
and handed it over, saying: "The or
der for the car includes my cook and
porter, and something to eat; well
throw these in with the transpOrta-
ton. and if the car is ditched and
you sue for damages, We'll file a cross
bill for hotel accommodations. Now
go away and work off your little at
tack Of lunacy. I'm busy"
The c. S. & w. strike-as our wires
told us-went into effect promptly on
the stroke Of noon, and q train from
the west, arriving late 10 the after
noon. brought Ripley.
.9The conditions all along the line
are almost revolutionary" was Rip
ley's surnming-up of the situation.
Generally speaking, the public is not
holding US responsible as yet, though
of course there are croakers who are
saying that it is entirely railroad
move, and predicting that we won't
do anything to interfere with the new
graft
"Cantrell says the public sentiment
is altogether on the side of the G. s..
& w. strikers" the boss put in.
1T is: angrily so. There is hot
talk of boycott to be extended to
everything sold or handled by the
Hatch syndicate. hope there won't
be any effort made to introduce strike
breakers. In the present state of af-'
fairs that would mean arson and riot
ing and bloody murder"
II wired you because l wanted to
consult you once more about those
ground leases, Ripley. Do you still
think you can made them hold?'
"If Hatch breaks the conditions,
we'll give him the fight of his life"
was the confident rejoinder.
'But that will mean long contest
ia the courts. The Supreme court is
full year behind its docket, and the
delay will inevitably multiply your
few 'croakers by many thousands.
But that isn't the worst of it. Hatch
has a better hold on us than the laws
delay" And to this third member OF
his staff Mr.. Norcross told the story
of the political trap into which Col
lingwood and the New York stock
johbers had betrayed the railroad man
agement.
Ripley compent was little like
Hornack's; less prOfane, perhaps, but
also less hopeful.
"G0od Lord !" he calculated. $50
that is what Hatch has had up his
sleeve? don't know how you feel
about 1t, but / should say that 1t is
all over but the shouting. If the Dun
ton crowd had been deliberately try
ing to wreck the property, they couldn't
have gone about it in any surer way"
"That lis the way it looked to me,
Ripley, at first; but I've had chance
to sleep on it-as you haven't. The
gun that. can't be spiked in some way
has never yet been built have the
names Of the eleven men who were
bribed. Hatch was daring enough to
give them to me. Holding the affi-
davits which they were foolish enough
to give him, Hatch can make them
swear to anything he pleases. But If
/ could get those affidayits I'd go to
these men separately and make each
one tell me how much he had been
paid by Bullock for his vote"
swell. what then?"
'Then l should make every mothers
son of them come across with the full
amount OF the bride. on pain Of an
exposure which the dirtiest politician
in this state couldn't afford to face.
That would settle it. Hatch couldn't
work the same game second time"
We were closing our desks to go to
dinner when Fred May came in to say
that a delegation of the payroll men
was outside and. wanting to have a
word with the big Boss" Mr.. Nor
cross stopped with his desk curtain