Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1921-04-07
CHAPTER III
The Directory Meeting

ne OiFectotS' meeting
! was up bright and early the mex
morning, and after breakfast | too!
little sashay down Nevada avenue
to have a look at our railroad. o.
course. knew. after what the hos.
had said to Mr.. Chadwick the nigh,
before just before we went to bed
that we weren't ever going to see
Canada. or even Illinois.
III have to admit that the look I GOT
didn't make me feel as if we'd found a
Cullinan diamond. Down in the yards
everything seemed to be at the loosest
kind of loose ends. A switching crew
was making up a freight, and the way
they slammed the boxes together re-
CARELESS of broken drawheads and the
like, was sin and shame.
After a while. after I'd Ioafed
through the shops and around the
yard and got few more whiffs of
the decay, strolled on back to the
hotel.
was wondering little what had
become Of the boss-whO was general
~ the earliest riser on the job
when two men came bullying through
the screen doors of the cafe. picking
their teeth and feeling in their pockets
for cigars. Right on the dot, and III
the face of knowing that it couldn't
reasonably be so. l had feeling that
I'd seen those men before. One Of
them was short and rather stocky,
and his face had sort OF hard, hum
CRY look; and the other was big and
barrel-bodied. The short one was clean.
shaven, but the other had a reddish
gray beard clipped close on his fat
jaws and trimmed to a point at the
chin.
After they had lighted up they came
along and sat down three or four
chairs away from me. They paid no
attention to me, but for fear they
might. tried to look as sleepy as an
all-night bell-hop in busy hotel.
1.-THE Dunton bunch got together in
one Of the committee rooms upstairs
little after eight O'clock" said the
short man, in low, rasplng voice that
went through you like a buzz-saw.
''Thanks to those internal blunderers
Clanahan sent us last night, Chadwick
was with Them"
II think that was choost So" said
the big man, speaking slowly and with
something more than hint of Ger.
man accent. "Beckler was choost what
| you call him-a tam blundtrer."
Like flash 1t came over me tina,
was listening In" to talk between
the same two men who had sat In the
auto at Sand Creek siding and smoked
while they were waiting for the actual
kidnapers to return. You can bet higt
that I made myself mighty small ani
unObtrusive.
After while the big man spok'
again.
"What has Uncle Chon Chadwick VI
his sleeve got, do you think1"
II don't think-I known was tn
snappy reply. "1t's one Of two things
receivership-which will knock q
into cooked hat because we can
fool with an officer Of the Unite
States court-or new deal all aroun
In the management"
"Vich of the two will It be that wi
, come out of that commiddee room VI
stairs?"
"A new management. Dunton can
stand for receivership, and Cha,
wick knows 1t. The securities woul
be knocked out and the majority hol,
ers-Dunton and his bunch-couldn
unload. Chadwick will name the ma
who is to take Shaffer's place as gel
eral manager Of the railroad outfl
We might have stood it of for
while, just as said yesterday, IL "
could have kept Chadwick from q
tending this meeting"
? "But now we don't could stand
on-what them"
"We'll have to wait and see. ar
size up the new man when he blow
in. He'll be only human. Henckel. An
II we get right down to It we ca
pull him over to our side-or NAL
him wish he'd never been born"
4 The big man got up ponderousl
and brushed the cigar ashes of Of h
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