The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1921-07-28
CHAPTER Xxx
p. ST. Ceres He-e

so.o1 as I'd swallowed q kurTied bite
q ore4kfss; IN the griIl-roorn ! swiped
q ezDp-siool and q magazine out o.
the lo-cnge and trotted upstairs TO
plant myself before the bc.ss' door. de-
tsrnined that nobody should disturb
hin Until be Was good aud ready to
get Up.
He turned out little before twelve.
looking sort Of hagzard and drawn. OF
course, and having some pretty bad
burns on the side Of his neck and on
the backs Of b0ih hands But be was
all there, ss usual. and be laid q good.
brOthsrly hand on ny shoulder when
be saw what / was doing.
They cont make many OF them Ike
yOu. Jimmie he said. And then:
Have you any newsT-
had. q little. and gave Il to him
Fred May had come tip-toeing up into
my sentry corridor about ten O'Clock
TO tell me that Mr. Perkins had ar
ranged with the strikers TO have q spe-
cial 90 east with the major and Mrs.
Sheila and ColllngwoOd's body to
catch the Overland at Sedgwick; and I
told the boss this. and that the train
had been gone for an hour or more.
Also, ] gave him a sealed package
that a strange boy had brought up
Just a little while after May went
away. We took the elevator 10 the
grill-roOm for something TO eat, and
at table Mr.. NOrcross opened the pack
age. II contained a bunch Of affida-
Wits, eleven Of them In all, and there
was no letter or anything to tell where
they had come from.
He handed the papers over to me,
after he had seen what they were
sort Of frOwned across the table at me
and said: "Do you know what II
means-this surrender Of those bribe
afiidavlts, JlmmieT"
| said / guessed / did; that Hatch
being dead, and Collingwood. too, there
wasn't nerve enough left in the Red
Tower outfit to keep up the fight; that
the surrender of the affidavits was a
kind Of a plea for a let-up on our
part.
wen begin to show them. in Just
about fifteen minutes, Jimmie" was
the short comment. Reach over and
get that telephone and tell Mr.. Ripley
and Mr.. Bllloughby that want them
TO meet me at my Office at half-past
twelve. Any news frop the striker
Nothing" told him. while "Cen-
tral" was getting me Ar. Ripley's num-
ber. Fred May said II was going on
just the same; everything quiet and
nothing doing. except that the wreck
ing train had gone out to pick up the
scraps at Timber Mountain ~ Kir-
gan is bosslng IT, and the strikers
manned It for him"
Nothing more was said until after I
had sent the two phone messages, and
then the boss broke out in new spot.
HAS anything been heard from Mr..
Van BrittT he asked.
'Not that / know Of"
Again he gave me that queer little
scowl across the table.
Jimmie, have you found out yet
why Mr.. Van Britt insisted on quit
ting the servlce7"
l guess I grinned a little, though
/ tried not to.
"Mr. Van Britt Is one OF the best
friends you've got" said. HE thought
you needed this strike. and he wanted
TO go out among the payroll men and
sort Of help 1t along, He couldn't do
a thing like that while he was an Of
ficer Of the company and drawing his
pay like the rest Of u.s."
IL might have known-he as good as
told me-" was the reply, made kind
of half-absently; ana then, short and
quick: "How's the stock marketf Have
you seen paperT
/ had seen both papers, at break
fast-time, but OF course they had moth
ing startling In them except a last
minute account OF the wreck at Tim
Der mountain "Y," grabbed off Just
before they went to press. They
couldn't have anything later from New
York than the day before. But Fred
May had tipped me of when he came
up to tell me about the Major Ken.
drick special. The newspaper Offices
were putting out bulletins by that
time.
/ told Mr.. Norcross about the bul.
letins and was brash enough to add
"We're headed for the receivership all
right, ! guess; our stock has tumbled
to twenty-nine, and there's q regular
dog-flght going on over II at the rail-
road post In the Exchange. Wall
Streets afire and burning up, so they
say"
The chief hadn't eaten enough to
keep cat alive, but at that he pushed
his chair back and reached for his
hat.
''Come on Jimmie" he snapped
"We've got to get busy. And there
isn't going TO be any receivership."
We reached the railroad headquar.
ters-whlch were as dead and quiet as
a graveyard-a little before Mr.. Rip
ley and Billoughby got down. But
Mr.. Editor Cantrell was there, waiting
TO shoot an anxious question at the