"That is not all," said Muller: "not only will we be penniless, but we may have to go to jail and we will never be able to show our faces in reputable business circles again. Who was the last to go over that building?"
"I sent Teddy Jenks. He is a cub and is swell headed and too big for his pants, but I would bank my life on his judgment. He has the judgment of a much older man and I would also bank my life and reputation on his engineering skill and knowledge. He p.r.o.nounced the building positively O.K.--100 per cent."
"Where is Jenks?"
"He will be here as soon as his car can drive down from Tarrytown. He should be here now."
As they talked Jenks, the youngest member of the engineering force, entered. He entered like a whirlwind. He threw his hat on the floor and drew out a drawer of a cabinet. He pulled out the plans for the Colossus, big blue prints, some of them yards in extent, and threw them on the floor. Then he dropped to his knees and began poring over them.
"This is a h.e.l.l of a time for you to begin getting around," exploded Muller. "What were you doing, cabareting all night?"
"It sure is terrible--awful," said Jenks, half to himself.
"Answer me," thundered Muller.
"Oh yes," said Jenks, looking up. He saw the look of anguish on his boss"s face and forgot his own excitement in sympathy. He jumped to his feet, placed his arm about the shoulders of the older man and led him to a chair. Linane only scowled at the young man.
"I was delayed because I stopped by to see the wreck. My G.o.d, Mr.
Muller, it is awful." Jenks drew his hand across his eye as if to erase the scene of the wrecked building. Then patting the older man affectionately on the back he said:
"Buck up. I"m on the job, as usual. I"ll find out about it. It could not have been our fault. Why man, that building was as strong as Gibraltar itself!"
"You were the last to inspect it," accused Muller, with a break in his voice.
"n.o.body knows that better than I, and I can swear by all that"s square and honest that it was no fault of the material or the construction. It must have been--"
"Must have been what?"
"I"ll be d.a.m.ned if I know."
"That"s like him," said Linane, who, while really kindly intentioned, had always rather enjoyed prodding the young engineer.
"Like me, like the devil," shouted Jenks, glaring at Linane. "I suppose you know all about it, you"re so blamed wise."
"No, I don"t know," admitted Linane. "But I do know that you don"t like me to tell you anything. Nevertheless, I am going to tell you that you had better get busy and find out what caused it, or--"
"That"s just what I"m doing," said Jenks, and he dived for his plans on the floor.
Newspaper reporters, many of them, were fighting outside to get in.
Muller looked at Linane when a stenographer had announced the reporters for the tenth time.
"We had better let them in," he said, "it looks bad to crawl for cover."
"What are you going to tell them?" asked Linane.
"G.o.d only knows," said Muller.
"Let me handle them," said Jenks, looking up confidently.
The newspapermen had rushed the office. They came in like a wild wave.
Questions flew like feathers at a c.o.c.k-fight.
Muller held up his hand and there was something in his grief-stricken eyes that held the gentlemen of the press in silence. They had time to look around. They saw the handsome, dark-haired, brown-eyed Jenks poring over the plans. Dust from the carpet smudged his knees, and he had rubbed some of it over a sweating forehead, but he still looked the picture of self-confident efficiency.
"Gentlemen," said Muller slowly, "I can answer all your questions at once. Our firm is one of the oldest and staunchest in the trade. Our buildings stand as monuments to our integrity--"
"All but one," said a young Irishman.
"You are right. All but one," confessed Muller. "But that one, believe me, has been visited by an act of G.o.d. Some form of earthquake or some unlooked for, uncontrolled, almost unbelievable catastrophe has happened. The Muller company stands back of its work to its last dollar.
Gentlemen, you know as much as we do. Mr. Jenks there, whose reputation as an engineer is quite st.u.r.dy, I a.s.sure you, was the last to inspect the building. He pa.s.sed upon it when it was finished. He is at your service."
Jenks arose, brushed some dust from his knees.
"You look like you"d been praying," bandied the Irishman.
"Maybe I have. Now let me talk. Don"t broadside me with questions. I know what you want to know. Let me talk."
The newspapermen were silent.
"There has been talk of probing this disaster, naturally," began Jenks.
"You all know, gentlemen, that we will aid any inquiry to our utmost.
You want to know what we have to say about it--who is responsible. In a reasonable time I will have a statement to make that will be startling in the extreme. I am not sure of my ground now."
"How about the ground under the Colossus?" said the Irishman.
"Don"t let"s kid each other," pleaded Jenks. "Look at Mr. Muller: it is as if he had lost his whole family. We are good people. I am doing all I can. Mr. Linane, who had charge of the construction, is doing all he can. We believe we are blameless. If it is proven otherwise we will acknowledge our fault, a.s.sume financial responsibility, and take our medicine. Believe me, that building was perfection plus, like all our buildings. That covers the entire situation."
Hundreds of questions were parried and answered by the three engineers, and the reporters left convinced that if the Muller Construction Company was responsible, it was not through any fault of its own.
The fact that Jenks and Linane were not strong for each other, except to recognize each other"s ability as engineers, was due to an incident of the past. This incident had caused a ripple of mirth in engineering circles when it happened, and the laugh was on the older man, Linane.
It was when radio was new. Linane, a structural engineer, had paid little attention to radio. Jenks was the kind of an engineer who dabbled in all sciences. He knew his radio.
When Jenks first came to work with a technical sheepskin and a few tons of bra.s.s, Linane accorded him only pa.s.sing notice. Jenks craved the plaudits of the older man and his palship. Linane treated him as a son, but did not warm to his social advances.
"I"m as good an engineer as he is," mused Jenks, "and if he is going to high-hat me, I"ll just put a swift one over on him and compel his notice."
The next day Jenks approached Linane in conference and said:
"I"ve got a curious bet on, Mr. Linane. I am betting sound can travel a mile quicker than it travels a quarter of a mile."
"What?" said Linane.