The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-06-02
Continued from page threeJ


don't know. If you had money enough
to buy the, voting control. In p s.. L.
you might get somewhere; but as 1t
! Is, you're like cat in Hades without
claws" -tg .5s \ ~ 49,
"Tell me-" said Mr.. Norcross, after
little pause: You're a native New
Yorker: do YOU know this man Cox
lingwood2".- sa sae ~
i "Only by hearsay. He is what our
English friends call blooming
bounder'-fast yachts. fast motor-cars.
the fast set generally. It's a pretty
bad case of money-spoil. fancy. They
say he wasn't always a total loss"
did you ever hear that hesswas
married1'' ~ srl ~ skr
"Oh, yes: he married Kentucky
girl some years ago: l don't remeip-
ber her name. They say sne stood
dropped out. suppose he needs kill
Ing for that" ~. 3s &Ss ~.
At this the boss went step farther,
saying: 'He does. indeed. Upton.
happen to know the young woman"
That was when Mr.. Van Britt fired
his own little bomb-sheil. $50 do. L..
he. answered quietly a.. a. sa
.'But you said you had forgotten her
namev" - '.i.s t.la9 av
| $50 have-her married name. And
what's more. mean to keep on for,
getting it." srt
| There was no mistake about the boss
frown this time.
"That won't do. Upton" he said.
kind of warningly.
at will do well enough for the
present I'd marry her tomorrow. Gra-
ham. If she were free, and there were
sno other obstacles. Unhappily. there
are two-besides the small legal diff
ficulty: she doesn't care for my money
having little of her own; and
she happens to be in love with the
other fellow" h
1 guess the boss was remembering
what Mrs. Sheila had told him In that
confidence before the back-parlor fire,
about its being all off between her and
Collingwood for he said: II think you
are mistaken as to that last"
mo. I'm not mistaken. But that's
neither here nor there. Neither you
nor l can send Collingwood to the
penitentiary-that's cinch. Where
fore, I'm advising you to quit, walk
out, jump the job"
At that the boss took fresh brace,
righting his swing chair witn snap.
"You know very little about me,
Upton, If you think I'm going to throw
up my hands now, when the real pinch
has come. / have scheme-if 1t
could only be worked. But 1t can't be
worked on rising market. BY some
trick or other, the Dunton people are
boosting the, stock again. 1t went up
three points yesterday"
Mr.. Van Britt grlnned. ''They're
discounting the effect of this little po-
iitical deal-which will at least rope
your reform scheme down. II 1t doesn't
do anything else. What you need Is
good. old-fashioned cataclysm Of
some sort; something that would fair
ly knock the tar out of p. s. L. secur-
tiles and send them skittering down
the toboggan slide In spite of anything
Uncle Breckenridge could do to stop
them; down TO where they could he
safely and protitably picked up by. the
dear public. Unfortunately those
things don't happen outside Of the
story books If they did. II the earth
quake should happen along our way
just now, I don't know but I'd be dis
loyal enoush to get out and help II
shake things up bit"
After Mr.. Van Britt had gone. the
boss put in the remainder of the day
Ike a workingman. skipping the noon
luncheon as he sometimes did when
the work drive was extra heavy. Mean
while. as you'd suppose. rumor was
plentifully busy. on the railroad, and
also in town.
BY noon IT was well understood that
there had been radical change in
the management of C. S. & W.. and
that there was going to be general
strike in answer TO the slashing cut In
wages. I slipped uptown to get
bite, and heard some of the talk.
1t was pretty straight. most of 1t
which shows how useless 1t is to try
1rto7 keep any business Secrets, nova
days.
For example: the three men at my
table In the Bullard grill-room-they
didn't know me or who was-knew
that council of war had been called
in the railroad headquarters, and that
Ripley had been pulled In by wire
from Lesterburg, and that we were
rushing along hurriedly to provide
storage room for the wheat shippers
In case Of tie-up. and that we were
arranging to distribute railroad COM
pany coal in case the tie-up should
bring on fuel famine-knew all these
things and talked about them.
They were facts, as far as they
went-these things. The boss hadn't
been idle during the forenoon. and he
kept up the drive straight through to
quitting time. Word was brought in
; during the afternoon by Tarbell that
the Hatch people were wiring the