The Tomahawk., 1925-01-29
HAD A
SUPPLY OF
NERVE
By N. K. BUCK
20 by Short Story Pub. Coz

!
him has got to work up much nerve.
Take Black Tom there, the nerviest
man in these hills. How did he get
his nerve, do you suppose? Out of
books. Nix. He just naturally made
! it by being in thousand tight places
| in his time and pullin' out of every one
with little mite more experience and
nerve than he had before. Course the
kid is all right-nothin' against him,
but it just amt natural for kid just
out of knee pants to have a mans size
supply of nerve"
Just then the kid" young min
ing engineer, came into the swing
room. In looking at him you might
easily give him the same rating as
was given him by Shorty Long. Then
again, you might differ with that au-
thority. Young he was slight he was;
light-haired and blue-eyed, with a
pleasant smile. Yet there was some
thing in his eye which might lead
you to ask If, after all, there wasn't
considerable STUFF behind there which
could be brought out when occasion de-
manded.
One year out from graduation, with
only such experience as he could &C
quire in that year plus such additional
time as he had spent in vacations dur
kid certainly looked young-younger
by reason of his light complexion,
than he really was.
He had for three months been in
sole charge Of the mine, operating I'M
| der the supervision of the general man.
ager in control of group of mines
scattered over so miles. The work
was getting on well, but evidences of
insubordination were not lacking. Dur
ing the last visit Of the general man.
ager, this air of unrest among the men
had been apparent and had been the
subject of consultation between the
two men.
"Wellington," said his superior,
"this spirit of devilment among the
men Is something you will have to cure
yourself. There Is no real help I can
give you and mighty little advice that
will serve you. These things come now
and then to every man in control Of
men and especially to young fellow
just getting his pace. There's some
thing in the average miner or mucker
that calls for trial of strength
strength Of character, not Of muscle
with the boss, and they won't be happy
until they get it. When the test comes
the result will mean success or failure
for the bOss-especially the young
boss. Go to it and handle it your own
way"
Wellington walked into the swing
room where the men were waiting to
60 on shift; twenty of them, miners,
muckers and helpers. "Where's Black
Tom?" he asked.
"Not here yet. Be here by the time
the other boys come up, 1 guess" re-
piled one of the muckers.
Turning to one Of the men, Yelling
! ton said, go tell Tom to come in,
please. 1 want to see him."
The man reappeared a moment later
followed by Black Tom.
"Tom," began Wellington, there's
one or two things I want to speak to
you about. In the first place, you know
the rules-the entire shift are expected
| to be in the swing room ten minutes
before the hour for going to work. 1t
doesn't look very we'll for you, the
| shift foreman, to be the only one not
been booze taken down into the mine
and you know what that means. Now
how about it"
Black Tom stood few feet from the
engineer during this talk, half smile
half sneer on his face. r
"Well, boss" he began in reply, "as
| for bein' trifie late: / take it that
| rule is meant just to get us all here
! plenty early and you nor no other man
ever knew me not to be on hand when
the cage went down. Then for the
balance of your kick: do you mean that
| I've been taking the booze down? II
so, I'll just say you can wait till the
| big boss comes around next trip and
you can prefer charges against me If
you want to. In the meantime I'll just
say don't like this balling out process
before the boys. 1t don't sound nice.
| But We'll pass all that and leave 1t to
the big boss"
well not leave it to the big boss,
as you call him." returned Wellington.
"Pm in charge of this mine and am
boss. You'll do one of two things:
answer my questions in regard to these
things or turn your shift over to
Burns" ..... ..
"You mean to say I'm fired?"
"You are not fired yet. You are
| given a chance to answer about the
booze and will be given one more
chance t" be in the swing room on
| time.' -. N .
"Who said I knew anything about
the BOOZE" declared Tom. -/-
"The booze went down during your
shift and you knew or should have
known it." -. ..l....
you're dreaming, kid, you're dream
ing. No booze went into this mine on
Y GA -