Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1921-04-15

I'VE Must Stand by Him and Defend
Him."
night, before going up to his rooms.
Past that, the trace was completely
lost. The conductor on the Fast Mail,
eastbound, OH the night in question,
swOre by all that was good and great
that Mr.. NOrcross hadn't been
passenger on his train. And he would
certainly have known 1t If he had been
carrying his general manager.
Over in the other field there was
absolutely nothing 70 incriminate the
Hatch people. So far from it, Hatch
had turned up at the railroad Office,
bright and early the morning after
Mr.. Norcross had gone. He had asked
fer The boss. and failing to find him.
he had hunted up Mr.. Van Britt. What
he wanted, it seemed, was a chance
to reopen the proposition that had
been made to him the day before
the offer of the new Citizens Storage
& Warehouse company to purchase the
various Red Tower equipments and
plants.
Mr.. Van Britt had referred him TO
Mr.. Ripley, and to our lawyer Hatch
had made what purpOrted to be an
open confession, admitting that he had
gone to Mr.. Norcross the night be-
fore, determined to fight the new COM
pany to finish, and that there had
been good many things said that
would better be forgotten. Now, how
ever, he was willing to talk straight
business and a compromise. He had
called his board of directors together,
and they had voted to sell their track
bordering plants to Citizens Storage
4 Warehouse if price could be ami
cably agreed upon.
| With Mr. NOrcrOSs gone and a new
general manager coming, Mr.. Ripley
was afraid to make a move, and Hatch
was pressing him TO get busy on the
bargain and sale proposition was APP
parently as anxious now to sell and
withdraw as he had at first been to
fight everything in sight.
BY the morning came on the scene
the man Grimmer had, as they say,
| just about done his do. He was only
a sort of journeyman detective, and
had run out of clues. When he came
in and talked to Mr.. Van Britt and
Mr.. Ripley, l could see that he fully
believed in the drOp-out theory, and
even the lawyer and Mr.. Van Britt
had to admit that the facts were with
him. The boss had written letter
saying definitely that he was quitting;
he had paid his hotel bill and his
| grips were gone and two days later
President Dunton had appointed
new general manager, which was proof
positive, you'd say, that the boss had
resigned and had so notified the New
York office.
| When the noon hour came along,
Fred May took me out to luncheon,
and we went to the Billiard cafe. 1t
was pretty rich for our blood at two
dollars per, but guess Fred thought
his job was gone, anyway, and felt
reckless. Over the good things at our
corner table we did a little threshing
on our own accountant got a lot
more chaff and no grain.
| Fred didn't want to agree with
Grimmer and the facts, but there
didn't seem to be any help for it. And
| as for me- I had other things I'm mind
all the time-the big scary fear that
somebody had got to the boss after
he had left Ripley on the night of
/ Chnnkinuc hoI S,,ot hoo Cd hin, m
the face with the story of Mrs. Sheila's
sham widowhoOd.
BY and by we got around to my
burned hand, and Fred told me Grim
mer had at least succeeded in clearing
up whatever mystery there was about
that. The wall switch for the electric
light in the lower hall at the head
quarters was right beside the outer
door jamb-as knew. 1t had burned
out In some way, and that was why
there was no light on when I went
downstairs. And in burning out II
had shOrt-circuited itself with the
brass lock Of the door; Fred didn't
know just how, but Grimmer had ex-
| planned IL. l asked him IL Grimmer
had explained how 10 volt light cur
rent could cook me like fried potato.
and he said he hadn't
The afternoon at the Office was a
sort of cut-and-come-again repeat Of
the morning, with lots of people mill
ing around and things, going crooked
and cross-ways, as they were bound
to with the boss gone and new boss
coming. Nobody had any heart for
anything, and along late in the after
noon when word came OF n freight
wreck at Cross Greek Gulch, Mr.. Van
Britt threw up both hands and yipped
and swore like pirate. II just showed
what raw edge the headquarters
nerves were taking on.
! Though II WASN'T his business. Mr..