Emmons County record., 1921-04-14

CHAPTER I.-Graham Norcross, rail-
road manager, and his secretary, Jimmie
Ing with young lady, sheila Macrae.
ana her small cousin. Unseen, they wit
ness a peculiar train holdup, in which
special car Is carried off.
CHAPTER II.-Norcross recognizes the
car stolen as John ChadWick's, financial
magnate, whom he was to meet at Portal
City. He and Dodds rescue Chadwick.
The The latter offers Norcross the manager
in the hands of eastern Spectators.
headed by breckenridge Dunton, presi-
denpof the line. Norcross, learning that
sheila Macrae Is stopping at Portal City.
accepts
CHAPTER III.-Dodds overhears con-
versation between Rufus Hatch and Gus
tave Henckel, Portal City tinancers. in
kidnapping. their object being to keep
Chadwick from attending q meeting of
directors to reorganize the Pioneer Short
eStS.
Naturally, few little talks like
this, face to face with the men them
selves, soon began to put new life into
the rank and file. Mr.. Norcross' old
pet name of "Hell-and-repeat" had
followed him down from Oregon, as
1t was bound to, but now It began to
be used in the sense that most rail-
road men use the phrase, 1.-THE Old
Man, In speaking Of big boss that
they like.
There was so much crowded into
these first few weeks that I've for
gotten half of 1t. The work we did,
pulling and hauling things into shape,
was fright, and my end of the job
got so big that the boss had to give
me help. Following out his own policy,
he let me pick my man, and after I'd
had little talk with Mr.. Van Britt,
picked Fred May, Il young fellow
who had been under Van Burgh. He
was all right; little too tonguey,
perhaps, but q worker from away
back, and that was what we were
looking for.
T. Out Of this frantic hustle to get
things started and moving right. any,
body could have pulled couple of
conclusions that stuck up higher than
any of the rest. The boss and MIR.
Van Britt were steadily winning the
rank and file over to something like
loyalty on the one hand and on the
other. wherever we went, we found
the people who were paying the freight
a solid unit against us. hating us like
blazes and entirely unwilling to be-
lieve that any good thing could come
out Of the Nazareth Of the Pioneer
Short Line.
AS soon as we returned from our
first inspection trip. the boss pulled Off
his coat-figuratively speaking--and
rolled up his sleeves. 1t wasn't his
way to talk much about what he was
going to do: he'd jump in and do it
first, and then talk about 1t after
ward-if anybody insisted on knowing
the reason why.
There were long private conferences
with Mr.. Ripley, the bright young law
yer Mr.. Chadwick had sent us from
Chicago, and with young fellow
named Juneman. an ex-newsEaper man
who was on the pay-rolls as "Adver-
tising Manager" but whose real bust
ness seemed to be to keep the Short
Line public fully and accurately in
formed of everything that most rail-
road companies try to keep to them
selves.
The next innovation that came along
was another young Chicago man named
Billoughby, and mis- title on the pay.
roll was Especial Agent" l, who was
as close to the boss as anybody in our
outfit, never once suspected the true
nature Of Billoughby's job until the
day he came In to make his final re-
portland Mr.. Norcross let him make
1t without sending me out on an erraDd.
"Well, I think I'm ready to talk
johnson, now," was the way Billough-
by began. "Red Tower is tire one
outfit we'll have to kill of and put out
of business. Under one name or an
other, 1t is engineering every graft in
this country; It is even backing the
fake mining boom at Saw Horse-to
which, by the way, this railroad COM
pany is now building branch line"
Mr.. Norcross turned to me-:
Jimmie, make q note to tell Mr..
Van Britt to have the work stopped
at once on the Saw Horse branch,
and all the equipment brought In"
And then to Billoughby: "Go on"
'"The main graft Of course, is In
the grain elevators, the fruit pack
cries. the coal and lumber yards and
the stock yards and handling corrals.
In these public, or quasi-public, util-
tiles the railroad has given them-in
fee simple, 1t seems-all the yard
room, switches, track facilities, and
the like. Wherever local competition
has tried to break in. the railroad
company has given It the cold should
er and It has been either forced out
or frozen OUT
"Exactly." said the boss. "Now tell
me how far you have gone In the
other neid..
We .re pretty ven shaped Up and