"And you wanted me to come and tell you all the whys and wherefores?" Kent suggested.
"I told the chief I"d bet a bub-blind horse to a broken-down mule you could do it if anybody could."
"All right; listen: something worse than an hour ago the governor, his private secretary, Guilford, Hawk and Halkett started out on a special train to go to Gaston."
"What for?" interrupted the editor.
"To meet Judge MacFarlane, Mr. Semple Falkland, and the Overland officials. You can guess what was to be done?"
"Sure. Your railroad was to be sold out, lock, stock and barrel; or leased to the Overland for ninety-nine years--which amounts to the same thing."
"Precisely. Well, by some unaccountable mishap the receiver"s special was switched over to the Western Division at yard limits, and the engineer seems to think he has orders to proceed westward. At all events, that is what he is doing. And the funny part of it is that he can"t stop to find out his blunder. The fast mail is right behind him, with the receiver"s order to smash anything that gets in its way; so you see--"
"That will do," said the night editor. "We don"t print fairy stories in the _Argus_."
"None the less, you are going to print this one to-morrow morning, just as I"m telling it to you," Kent a.s.serted confidently. "And when you get the epilogue you will say that it makes my little preface wearisome by contrast."
The light was slowly dawning in the editorial mind.
"My heaven!" he exclaimed. "Kent, you"re good for twenty years, at the very lul-least!"
"Am I? It occurs to me that the prosecuting attorney in the case will have a hard time proving anything. Doesn"t it look that way to you? At the worst, it is only an unhappy misunderstanding of orders. And if the end should happen to justify the means----"
Hildreth shook his head gravely.
"You don"t understand, David. If you could be sure of a fair-minded judge and an unbiased jury--you and those who are implicated with you: but you"ll get neither in this machine-ridden State."
"We are going to have both, after you have filled your two columns--by the way, you are still saving those two columns for me, aren"t you?--in to-morrow morning"s _Argus_. Or rather, I"m hoping there will be no need for either judge or jury."
The night editor shook his head again, and once more he said, "My heaven!"
adding: "What could you possibly hope to accomplish? You"ll get the receiver and his big boss out of the State for a few minutes, or possibly for a few hours, if your strike makes them hunt up another railroad to return on. But what will it amount to? Getting rid of the receiver doesn"t annul the decree of the court."
Kent fell back on his secretive habit yet once again.
"I don"t care to antic.i.p.ate the climax, Hildreth. By one o"clock one of two things will have happened: you"ll get a wire that will make your back hair sit up, or I"ll get one that will make me wish I"d never been born.
Let it rest at that for the present; you have work enough on hand to fill up the interval, and if you haven"t, you can distribute those affidavits I gave you among the compositors and get them into type. I want to see them in the paper to-morrow morning, along with the other news."
"Oh, we can"t do that, David! The time isn"t ripe. You know what I told you about----"
"If the time doesn"t ripen to-night, Hildreth, it never will. Do as I tell you, and get that stuff into type. Do more; write the hottest editorial you can think of, demanding to know if it isn"t time for the people to rise and clean out this stable once for all."
"By Jove! David, I"ve half a mum-mind to do it. If you"d only unb.u.t.ton yourself a little, and let me see what my backing is going to be----"
"All in good season," laughed Kent. "Your business for the present moment is to write; I"m going down to the Union Station."
"What for?" demanded the editor.
"To see if our crazy engineer is still mistaking his orders properly."
"Hold on a minute. How did the enemy get wind of your plot so quickly? You can tell me that, can"t you?"
"Oh, yes; I told you Hawk was one of the party in the private car. He fell off at the yard limits station and came back to town."
The night editor stood up and confronted his visitor.
"David, you are either the coolest plunger that ever drew breath--or the bub-biggest fool. I wouldn"t be standing in your shoes to-night for two such railroads as the T-W."
Kent laughed again and opened the door.
"I suppose not. But you know there is no accounting for the difference in tastes. I feel as if I had never really lived before this night; the only thing that troubles me is the fear that somebody or something will get in the way of my demented engineer."
He went out into the hall, but as Hildreth was closing the door he turned back.
"There is one other thing that I meant to say: when you get your two columns of sensation, you"ve got to be decent and share with the a.s.sociated Press."
"I"m dud-dashed if I do!" said Hildreth, fiercely.
"Oh, yes, you will; just the bare facts, you know. You"ll have all the exciting details for an "exclusive," to say nothing of the batch of affidavits in the oil scandal. And it is of the last importance to me that the facts shall be known to-morrow morning wherever the a.s.sociated has a wire."
"Go away!" said the editor, "and dud-don"t come back here till you can uncork yourself like a man and a Cuc-Christian! Go off, I say!"
It wanted but a few minutes of eleven when Kent mounted the stair to the despatcher"s room in the Union Station. He found M"Tosh sitting at Donohue"s elbow, and the sounders on the gla.s.s-topped table were crackling like overladen wires in an electric storm.
"Strike talk," said the train-master. "Every man on both divisions wants to know what"s doing. Got your newspaper string tied up all right?"
Kent made a sign of a.s.sent.
"We are waiting for Mr. Patrick Callahan. Any news from him?"
"Plenty of it. Patsy would have a story to tell, all right, if he could stop to put it on the wires. Durgan ought to have caught that blamed right-of-way man and chloroformed him."
"I found him messing, as I "phoned you. Anything come of it?"
"Nothing fatal, I guess, since Patsy is still humping along. But Hawk"s next biff was more to the purpose. He came down here with Halkett"s chief clerk, whom he had hauled out of bed, and two policemen. The plan was to fire Donohue and me, and put Bicknell in charge. It might have worked if Bicknell"d had the sand. But he weakened at the last minute; admitted that he wasn"t big enough to handle the despatcher"s trick. The way Hawk cursed him out was a caution to sinners."
"When was this?" Kent asked.
"Just a few minutes ago. Hawk went off ripping; swore he would find somebody who wasn"t afraid to take the wires. And, between us three, I"m scared stiff for fear he will."
"Can it be done?"
"Dead easy, if he knows how to go about it--and Bicknell will tell him.
The Overland people don"t love us any too well, and if they did, the lease deal would make them side with Guilford and the governor. If Hawk asks them to lend him a train despatcher for a few minutes, they"ll do it."
"But the union?" Kent objected.
"They have three or four non-union men."