"Oh, no; there is no occasion for threats. But if you don"t make me that statement, fully exonerating Hallock, I shall feel at liberty to make one of my own, embodying what you have just told me. And if I am compelled to do this, you must not blame me if I am not able to place the matter in the most favorable light for you."
This time the visitor"s smile was a mere baring of the teeth.
"Is it worth your while to make it a personal quarrel with me, Mr.
Lidgerwood?" he asked, with a thinly veiled menace in his tone.
"I am not looking for quarrelsome occasions with you or with any one,"
was the placable rejoinder. "And I hope you are not going to force me to show you up. Is there anything else? If not, I"m afraid I shall have to ask you to excuse me. This is one of my many busy days."
After Flemister had gone, Lidgerwood was almost sorry that he had not struck at once into the matter of the thieveries. But as yet he had no proof upon which to base an open accusation. One thing he did do, however, and that was to summon McCloskey and give instructions pointing to a bit of experimental observation with the mine-owner as the subject.
"He can"t get away from here before the evening train, and I should like to know where he goes and what be does with himself," was the form the instructions took. "When we find out who his accomplices are, I shall have something more to say to him."
"I"ll have him tagged," promised the trainmaster; and a few minutes later, when the Wire-Silver visitor sauntered up Mesa Avenue in quest of diversion wherewith to fill the hours of waiting for his train, a small man, red-haired, and with a mechanic"s cap pulled down over his eyes, kept even step with him from dive to dive.
Judson"s report, made to the trainmaster that evening after the westbound train had left, was short and concise.
"He went up and sat in Sammy"s game and didn"t come out until it was time to make a break for his train. I didn"t see him talking to anybody after he left here." This was the wording of the report.
"You are sure of that, are you, John?" questioned McCloskey.
Judson hung his head. "Maybe I ain"t as sure as I ought to be. I saw him go into Sammy"s, and saw him come out again, and I know he didn"t stay in the bar-room. I didn"t go in where they keep the tiger. Sammy don"t love me any more since I held Bart Rufford up with an S-wrench, and I was afraid I might disturb the game if I went b.u.t.tin" in to make sure that Flemister was there. But I guess there ain"t no doubt about it."
Thus Judson, who was still sober, and who meant to be faithful according to his gifts. He was scarcely blameworthy for not knowing of the existence of a small back room in the rear of the gambling-den; or for the further unknowledge of the fact that the man in search of diversion had pa.s.sed on into this back room after placing a few bets at the silent game, appearing no more until he had come out through the gambling-room on his way to the train. If Judson had dared to press his espial, he might have been the poorer by the loss of blood, or possibly of his life; but, living to get away with it, he would have been the richer for an important bit of information. For one thing, he would have known that Flemister had not spent the afternoon losing his money across the faro-table; and for another, he might have made sure, by listening to the subdued voices beyond the closed door, that the man he was shadowing was not alone in the back room to which he had retreated.
XI
NEMESIS
On the second day following Flemister"s visit to Angels, Lidgerwood was called again to Red b.u.t.te to another conference with the mine-owners. On his return, early in the afternoon, his special was slowed and stopped at a point a few miles east of the "Y" spur at Silver Switch, and upon looking out he saw that Benson"s bridge-builders were once more at work on the wooden trestle spanning the Gloria. Benson himself was in command, but he turned the placing of the string-timbers over to his foreman and climbed to the platform of the superintendent"s service-car.
"I won"t hold you more than a few minutes," he began, but the superintendent pointed to one of the camp-chairs and sat down, saying: "There"s no hurry. We have time orders against 73 at Timanyoni, and we would have to wait there, anyhow. What do you know now?--more than you knew the last time we talked?"
Benson shook his head. "Nothing that would do us any good in a jury trial," he admitted reluctantly. "We are not going to find out anything more until you send somebody up to Flemister"s mine with a search-warrant."
Lidgerwood was gazing absently out over the low hills intervening between his point of view and the wooded summit of Little b.u.t.te.
"Whom am I to send, Jack?" he asked. "I have just come from Red b.u.t.te, and I took occasion to make a few inquiries. Flemister is evidently prepared at all points. From what I learned to-day, I am inclined to believe that the sheriff of Timanyoni County would probably refuse to serve a warrant against him, if we could find a magistrate who would issue one. Nice state of affairs, isn"t it?"
"Beautiful," Benson agreed, adding: "But you don"t want Flemister half as bad as you want the man who is working with him. Are you still trying to believe that it isn"t Hallock?"
"I am still trying to be fair and just. McCloskey says that the two used to be friends--Hallock and Flemister. I don"t believe they are now.
Hallock didn"t want to go to Flemister about that building-and-loan business, and I couldn"t make out whether he was afraid, or whether it was just a plain case of dislike."
"It would doubtless be Hallock"s policy--and Flemister"s, too, for that matter--to make you believe they are not friends. You"ll have to admit they are together a great deal."
"I"ll admit it if you say so, but I didn"t know it before. How do you know it?"
"Hallock is over here every day or two; I have seen him three or four times since that day when he and Flemister were walking down the new spur together and turned back at sight of me," said Benson. "Of course, I don"t know what other business Hallock may have over here, but one thing I do know, he has been across the river, digging into the inner consciousness of my old prospector. And that isn"t all. After he had got the story of the timber stealing out of the old man, he tried to bribe him not to tell it to any one else; tried the bribe first and a scare afterward--told him that something would happen to him if he didn"t keep a still tongue in his head."
Lidgerwood shook his head slowly. "That looks pretty bad. Why should he want to silence the old man?"
"That"s just what I"ve been asking myself. But right on the heels of that, another little mystery developed. Hallock asked the old man if he would be willing to swear in court to the truth of his story. The old man said he would."
"Well?" said Lidgerwood.
"A night or two later the old prospector"s shack burned down, and the next morning he found a notice pinned to a tree near one of his sluice-boxes. It was a polite invitation for him to put distance between him and the Timanyoni district. I suppose you can put two and two together, as I did."
Again Lidgerwood said: "It looks pretty bad for Hallock. No one but the thieves themselves could have any possible reason for driving the old man out of the country. Did he go?"
"Not much; he isn"t built that way. That same day he went to work building him a new shack; and he swears that the next man who gets near enough to set it afire won"t live to get away and brag about it. Two days afterward Hallock showed up again, and the old fellow ran him off with a gun."
Just then the bridge-foreman came up to say that the timbers were in place, and Benson swung off to give Lidgerwood"s engineer instructions to run carefully. As the service-car platform came along, Lidgerwood leaned over the railing for a final word with Benson. "Keep in touch with your old man, and tell him to count on us for protection," he said; and Benson nodded acquiescence as the one-car train crept out upon the dismantled bridge.
Having an appointment with Leckhard, of the main line, timed for an early hour the following morning, Lidgerwood gave his conductor instructions to stop at Angels only long enough to get orders for the eastern division.
When the division station was reached, McCloskey met the service-car in accordance with wire instructions sent from Timanyoni, bringing an armful of mail, which Lidgerwood purposed to work through on the run to Copah.
"Nothing new, Mac?" he asked, when the trainmaster came aboard.
"Nothing much, only the operators have notified me that there"ll be trouble, _p.r.o.nto_, if we don"t put Hannegan and d.i.c.kson back on the wires. The grievance committee intimated pretty broadly that they could swing the trainmen into line if they had to make a fight."
"We put no man back who has been discharged for cause," said the superintendent firmly. "Did you tell them that?"
"I did. I have been saying that so often that it mighty nearly says itself now, when I hear my office door open."
"Well, there is nothing to do but to go on saying it. We shall either make a spoon or spoil a horn. How would you be fixed in the event of a telegraphers" strike?"
"I"ve been figuring on that. It may seem like tempting the good Lord to say it, but I believe we could hold about half of the men."
"That is decidedly encouraging," said the man who needed to find encouragement where he could. "Two weeks ago, if you had said one in ten, I should have thought you were overestimating. We shall win out yet."
But now McCloskey was shaking his head dubiously. "I don"t know. Andy Bradford has been giving me an idea of how the trainmen stand, and he says there is a good deal of strike talk. Williams adds a word about the shop force: he says that Gridley"s men are not saying anything, but they"ll be likely to go out in a body unless Gridley wakes up at the last minute and takes a club to them."
Lidgerwood"s conductor was coming down the platform of the Crow"s Nest with his orders in his hand, and McCloskey made ready to swing off. "I can reach you care of Mr. Leckhard, at Copah, I suppose?" he asked.
"Yes. I shall be back some time to-morrow; in the meantime there is nothing to do but to sit tight in the boat. Use my private code if you want to wire me. I don"t more than half trust that young fellow, Dix, Callahan"s day operator. And, by the way, Mr. Frisbie is sending me a stenographer from Denver. If the young man turns up while I am away, see if you can"t get Mrs. Williams to board him."
McCloskey promised and dropped off, and the one-car special presently clanked out over the eastern switches. Lidgerwood went at once to his desk and promptly became deaf and blind to everything but his work. The long desert run had been accomplished, and the service-car train was climbing the Crosswater grades, when Tadasu Matsuwari began to lay the table for dinner. Lidgerwood glanced at his watch, and ran his finger down the line of figures on the framed time-table hanging over his desk.
"Humph!" he muttered; "Acheson"s making better time with me than he ever has before. I wonder if Williams has succeeded in talking him over to our side? He is certainly running like a gentleman to-day, at all events."
The superintendent sat down to Tadasu"s table and took his time to Tadasu"s excellent dinner, indulging himself so far as to smoke a leisurely cigar with his black coffee before plunging again into the sea of work. Not to spoil his improving record, Engineer Acheson continued to make good time, and it was only a little after eleven o"clock when Lidgerwood, looking up from his work at the final slowing of the wheels, saw the masthead lights of the Copah yards.