Carroll County democrat. (Huntingdon, Tenn.) 188?-1971, 1921-07-15
CHAPTER xv-continued.

-13-
"But you said you had forgotten her
namel"
$50 l have-her married name. And
what's more, / mean to keep on for
getting it."
There was no mistake about the boss
frown this time.
''That won't do, Upton" he said,
kind Of warnlngly.
"It will do well enough for the
present. I'd marry her tomorrow, Ora
ham, If she were free, and there were
no other obstacles. Unhappily, there
are two-besides the small legal diff
ficulty; she doesn't care for my money
having a little Of her own; and
she happens to be in love with the
other fellow"
/ guess the boss was remembering
what Mrs. Shella had told him in that
confidence before the backparlor fire,
about It's being all off between her and
CoIlingwood, for he said: Il 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
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES a cinch. Where
fore, I'm advising you to quit walk
out, jump the job"
At that the boss took fresh brace,
Tighting his swing chair with 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. l have a 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 grinned. They're
discountlng the effect Of this little po-
Iitical deal-which will at least rope
your reform scheme down, If 1t doesn't
do anything else. What you need is
a good, old-fashioned cataclysm of
some sort; something that would fair
" 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 be
safely and profitably picked up by the
dear public. Unfortunately, those
things don't happen outside of the
story books. If they did, If the earth
quake should happen along our way
Just now l don't know but Id be dis
loyal enough to get out and help 1t
shake things up bit"
After Mr.. Van Britt had gone, the
boss put in the remainder Of the day
lIlOe 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 1t was we'll understood that
there had been a radical change in
the management of @. s. & W., and
that there was going to be a general
strike in answer to the slashlng cut In
wages. l slipped uptown to get a
bite, and / heard some of the talk.
1t was pretty straight, most OF it
which shows how useless 1t is to try
to keep any business secrets, nova
days.
For example: the three men at my
table In the Billiard grill-room-they
didn't know me or who was-knew
that q 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 hurrledly to provide
storage room for the wheat shippers
IN case Of a tie-up. and that we were
arranging to distribute railroad com
pany coal In case the tle-up should
bring on q 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
0uItting time. Word was brought in
during the afternoon by Tarbell that
the Hatch people were wiring the
Kansas City and Omaha employment
agencies and placing hurry orders fol-
strike-breakers. The boss answer tt
this was a peremptory wire to oul
passenger agents at both points t
make no rate concessions whatever, Of
any kind, for the transportation Of
laborers under contract 1t was q
shrewd little knock Labor of tha
kind is mighty hard to move unless
n can get free transportation or low
rate of fare, and / could see that Mr.
Norcross was hoping TO keep the strike
breakers away.
When six o'clock came, the bos'
asked May to stay and keep the Office
omen while | could go downstairs ant
get my dinner in the station restaurant
and he went off up-tOwn-to the club
suppose. After I'd had my bite,
let May 60. Everything was MOVING
all right, so far as anybody could see
We had FIVE extra fuel trains loading
at the company's chutes at Coalville
and the dispatcher was instructed t
work them out on the line during tn
night distributing them to the town
that had reported shortages. The,
were not to be turned over to the reg