"Yes, he"s been working the man. I never saw such a change in my life.
He just sat up there in bed and swore at me, and said I needn"t think I could buy him off with this stuff"--he looked down and Hilda saw that the bowl in his hand was not empty--"and raised a row generally."
"Why?" she asked.
"Give it up. From what he said, I"m sure Grady"s behind it."
"Did he give his name?"
"No, but he did a lot of talking about justice to the down-trodden and the power of the unions, and that kind of stuff. I couldn"t understand all he said--he"s got a funny lingo, you know; I guess it"s Polack--but I got enough to know what he meant, and more, too."
"Can he do anything?"
"I don"t think so. If we get after him, it"ll just set him worse"n pig"s bristles. A man like that"ll lose his head over nothing. He may be all right in the morning."
But Hilda, after Max had given her the whole conversation as nearly as he could remember it, thought differently. She did not speak her mind out to Max, because she was not yet certain what was the best course to take. The man could easily make trouble, she saw that. But if Max were to lay the matter before Bannon, he would be likely to glide over some of the details that she had got only by close questioning. And a blunder in handling it might be fatal to the elevator, so far as getting it done in December was concerned. Perhaps she took it too seriously; for she was beginning, in spite of herself, to give a great deal of thought to the work and to Bannon. At any rate, she lay awake later than usual that night, going over the problem, and she brought it up, the next morning, the first time that Bannon came into the office after Max had gone out.
"Mr. Bannon," she said, when he had finished dictating a letter to the office, "I want to tell you about that man that was hurt."
Bannon tried not to smile at the nervous, almost breathless way in which she opened the conversation. He saw that, whatever it was, it seemed to her very important, and he settled comfortably on the table, leaning back against the wall with his legs stretched out before him. She had turned on her stool.
"You mean the hoist man?" he asked.
She nodded. "Max goes over to see him sometimes. We"ve been trying to help make him comfortable----"
"Oh," said Bannon; "it"s you that"s been sending those things around to him."
She looked at him with surprise.
"Why, how did you know?"
"I heard about it."
Hilda hesitated. She did not know exactly how to begin. It occurred to her that perhaps Bannon was smiling at her eager manner.
"Max was there last night and he said the man had changed all around.
He"s been friendly, you know, and grateful"--she had forgotten herself again, in thinking of her talk with Max--"and he"s said all the time that he wasn"t going to make trouble----" She paused.
"Yes, I know something about that," said Bannon. "The lawyers always get after a man that"s hurt, you know."
"But last night he had changed all around. He said he was going to have you arrested. He thinks Max has been trying to buy him off with the things we"ve sent him."
Bannon whistled.
"So our Mr. Grady"s got his hands on him!"
"That"s what Max and I thought, but he didn"t give any names. He wouldn"t take the jelly."
"I"m glad you told me," said Bannon, swinging his legs around and sitting up. "It"s just as well to know about these things. Grady"s made him think he can make a good haul by going after me, poor fool--he isn"t the man that"ll get it."
"Can he really stop the work?" Hilda asked anxiously.
"Not likely. He"ll probably try to make out a case of criminal carelessness against me, and get me jerked up. He ought to have more sense, though. I know how many sticks were on that hoist when it broke.
I"ll drop around there to-night after dinner and have a talk with him.
I"d like to find Grady there--but that"s too good to expect."
Hilda had stepped down from the stool, and was looking out through the half-cleaned window at a long train of freight cars that was clanking in on the Belt Line.
"That"s what I wanted to see you about most," she said slowly. "Max says he"s been warned that you"ll come around and try to buy him off, and it won"t go, because he can make more by standing out."
"Well," said Bannon, easily, amused at her unconscious drop into Max"s language, "there"s usually a way of getting after these fellows. We"ll do anything within reason, but we won"t be robbed. I"ll throw Mr. Grady into the river first, and hang him up on the hoist to dry."
"But if he really means to stand out," she said, "wouldn"t it hurt us for you to go around there?"
"Why?" He was openly smiling now. Then, of a sudden, he looked at her with a shrewd, close gaze, and repeated, "Why?"
"Maybe I don"t understand it." she said nervously. "Max doesn"t think I see things very clearly. But I thought perhaps you would be willing for me to see him this evening. I could go with Max, and----"
She faltered, when she saw how closely he was watching her, but he nodded, and said, "Go on."
"Why, I don"t know that I could do much, but--no"--she tossed her head back and looked at him--"I won"t say that. If you"ll let me go, I"ll fix it. I know I can."
Bannon was thinking partly of her--of her slight, graceful figure that leaned against the window frame, and of her eyes, usually quiet, but now snapping with determination--and partly of certain other jobs that had been imperiled by the efforts of injured workingmen to get heavy damages. One of the things his experience in railroad and engineering work had taught him was that men will take every opportunity to bleed a corporation. No matter how slight the accident, or how temporary in its effects, the stupidest workman has it in his power to make trouble. It was frankly not a matter of sentiment to Bannon. He would do all that he could, would gladly make the man"s sickness actually profit him, so far as money would go; but he did not see justice in the great sums which the average jury will grant. As he sat there, he recognized what Hilda had seen at a flash, that this was a case for delicate handling.
She was looking at him, tremendously in earnest, yet all the while wondering at her own boldness. He slowly nodded.
"You"re right," he said. "You"re the one to do the talking. I won"t ask you what you"re going to say. I guess you understand it as well as anybody."
"I don"t know yet, myself," she answered. "It isn"t that, it isn"t that there"s something particular to say, but he"s a poor man, and they"ve been telling him that the company is cheating him and stealing from him--I wouldn"t like it myself, if I were in his place and didn"t know any more than he does. And maybe I can show him that we"ll be a good deal fairer to him before we get through than Mr. Grady will."
"Yes," said Bannon, "I think you can. And if you can keep this out of the courts I"ll write Brown that there"s a young lady down here that"s come nearer to earning a big salary than I ever did to deserving a silk hat."
"Oh," she said, the earnest expression skipping abruptly out of her eyes; "did your hat come?"
"Not a sign of it. I"d clean forgotten. I"ll give Brown one more warning--a long "collect" telegram, about forty words--and then if he doesn"t toe up, I"ll get one and send him the bill.
"There was a man that looked some like Grady worked for me on the Galveston house. He was a carpenter, and thought he stood for the whole Federation of Labor. He got gay one day. I warned him once, and then I threw him off the distributing floor."
Hilda thought he was joking until she looked up and saw his face.
"Didn"t it--didn"t it kill him?" she asked.
"I don"t remember exactly. I think there were some shavings there." He stood looking at her for a moment. "Do you know," he said, "if Grady comes up on the job again, I believe I"ll tell him that story? I wonder if he"d know what I meant."
The spouting house, or "river house," was a long, narrow structure, one hundred feet by thirty-six, built on piles at the edge of the wharf. It would form, with the connecting belt gallery that was to reach out over the tracks, a T-shaped addition to the elevator. The river house was no higher than was necessary for the spouts that would drop the grain through the hatchways of the big lake steamers, twenty thousand bushels an hour--it reached between sixty and seventy feet above the water. The marine tower that was to be built, twenty-four feet square, up through the centre of the house, would be more than twice as high. A careful examination convinced Bannon that the pile foundations would prove strong enough to support this heavier structure, and that the only changes necessary would be in the frame of the spouting house. On the same day that the plans arrived, work on the tower commenced.
Peterson had about got to the point where startling developments no longer alarmed him. He had seen the telegram the day before, but his first information that a marine tower was actually under way came when Bannon called off a group of laborers late in the afternoon to rig the "trolley" for carrying timber across the track.
"What are you going to do, Charlie?" he called. "Got to slide them timbers back again?"