The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-06-09
Continued from page -three1

49,.
You 0en dcn't want to let your
synpathies carry you too fkr.s'
he cautioned. "When you take Up
another fellows quarrel you want to
te pretty sure that you're not going
to hit your friends in the scrap"
Hoskins grinned understandingly.
and guess the boss was little pux-
zied by the mods and wfnks that went
around among the silent members Of
the delegation; at least. know was
That's all right" Hoskins said. "Be-
In the big boss. you've got to talk
that way. But what I was aimin' to
say is that there'u be a train-load r
two Of strike-breakers a-careerin' along
here In a day r so. and we amt fig-
urin' on lettin' 'em get past Portal
City, II that far"
That's up to you," said Mr.. Nor
cross brusquely. "If you start any
thing In the way Of a riot"
Excuse me. There ain't goin' to
be no riotin'. and no company prop
erty mashed up. Mr.. Van Britt, he"
1t was right here that an odd thing
happened. Con Corrigan. big two
listed freight engineer standing direct
ly behind Hoskins. reached an arm
around the speakers neck and choked
him SO suddenly that Hoskins' sentence
ended In a gasping chuckle. When the
garroting arm was withdrawn the con-
ductor looked around sort of foolishly
and said: I'm thinking that's about all
we wanted to say. amt 1t. boys?" and
the deputation filed out as solemnly
as 1t had come in.
guess Mr. Norcross wasn't left
wholly in the dark when the tramp
ing footballs of the committee died
away in the corridor. That uninten-
tional mention of Mr. Van Britt's name
looked as if 1t might open up some
more possibilities. though what they
were I couldn't imagine, and / don't
believe the general manager could,
either.
After that, things rocked along pret-
ty easy until after dinner. Instead Of
going right back to the Office from
the club. Mr.. Norcross drifted into
the smoking-room and filed pipe.
In the course of few minutes, Major
Kendrick dropped in and pulled up
chair. l don't know what they talked
about. but after little while, when
the boss got up to go. heard him
say something that gave the key to
the most of what had gone before, I
guess.
Have you seen or heard anything
Of Collingwood since yesterday"
The good old major shook his head.
They're tellin' me that he's oveh in
his rooms at the Bullard. drinkin' him
self to death. II he wasn't altogether
past redemption. sub, he would have
had the decency to get out of town
befo' he turned loose all holts that
way; he would. for fact, Graham"
At that, Mr. Norcross explained in
just few words why Collingwood
hadn't gOne-why he couldn't CO.
Whereupon the old Kentuckian looked
graver than ever.
"That thah spells trouble, Graham.
Hatch is simply invitin' the unde'-
takeh. Howie isn't what you'd call
dangerous man, but he is totally ir-
responsible. even when he's sobeh."
"We ought to get him away from
here" was the boss decision. HE
is an added menace while he stays"
I didn't hear what the major said
to that. because little Rags. Mr.. Per-
kins' Office boy. had just come In with
note which he was asking me to
give to Mr.. Norcross. did 1t; and
after the note had been glanced at, the
chief said. kind of bitterly. to the
major:
you can never fall SO far that you
can't fall little farther: have you
ever remarked that, major?" And then
he went on to explain: perkins, our
Desert Division superintendent, says
that the locals of the various rail-
road labor unions have Just notified
him of the unanimous passage of a
strike vOte-the strike to go into ef-
feet at midnight"
"a strike?-on the railroad? why,
Graham. son. you don't mean It'll"
"The men seem to mean lt-which
is much more to the purpose. They
are striking in sympathy with the
G. S. &. W. employees. l fancy that
settles our little experiment in good
railroading definitely. major Dunton
doesn't want receivership. but he'll
have to take one now. The bottom
will drop out of the stock and break
the market when this strike news gets
on the wire. and that will end 1t.
wish to God there were some way in
which I could save Mr.. Chadwick: he
has trusted me. major, and 1--we
failed him!"
CHAPTER XVIII