Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1906 — The Manager Of the B. & A. [ARTICLE]

The Manager Of the B. & A.

By VAUGHAN KESTER.

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. I—Dan Oakley, Manager of the Buckhorn and Antlocb railroad (known aa the “Huckleberry”), receives two letters, one telling him that his convict father, Roger Oakley, has been pardoned, and the other that General Corniah, the owuer of the B. & A., Is about to viait Antioch. ll—Oakley visit* Dr. Emory and meets Constance Emory. Other visitors are Griff Ryder, owner of the Antioch Herald, and Turner Joice,the local artist. Ill—Oakley tells General Corniah that in order to keep the car shops running a cut in wages is necessary. IV--Oakley tells Holt, bis assistant treasurer, of the proposed cuts. V—Roger Oakley appears In Antioch. He it a worthy old man, who killed an enemy in self defence and was unjustly convicted of murder. VI Roger Oakley goes to work in the car shops. Griff Ryder tries to induce Dan to keep a friend at work. Oakley refuses. Vl\— Oakley and Ryder are rivals for Constance Emory a favor. Vlll—Through Kenyon, candidate for congress, whose cousin Is warden of the prison in which Roger Oakley was confined. Ryder learnt the old man’s history. IX—Oakley cuts wages in the car shops. He is attacked by the Herald.

CHAPTER X. IN the course of the next few days Dan decided that there was no danger of trouble from the hands. Things settled back Into their accustomed rnt. He was only a little less popular, perhaps. He was Indebted to Clarence for the first warning he received as to what was In store for him. It came about in this way. Clarence had retired to the yards, where, secure from observation, he was indulging in a quiet smoke, furtively keeping an eye open for McClintock, whose movements were uncertain, as he knew from sad experience. A high board fence was in front of him, shutting off the yards from the lower end of the town. At his back was a freight car, back of that again were the interlacing tracks and beyond them a cornfield and Billup’s Fork, with Its Inviting shade of sycamores and willows and its tempting swimming holes. Suddenly he heard a scrambling on the opposite side of the fence, and ten brown fingers clutched the tops of the boards, then a battered straw hat came on a level with the fingers, at the same Instant a bare foot and leg were thrown over the fence, and the owner of the battered straw hat swung himself Into view. All this while a dog whined and yelped; then followed a vigorous scratching sound, and presently a small, dilapidated looking yellow cur squeezed Itself beneath the fence. Clarence recoguized the intruders. It was Branyon’s boy, Augustus, commonly called “Spide,” because of bis exceeding slimness and the length of Ids legs, and his dog IMnk. As soon as Branyon’s boy saw Clarence he balanced himself deftly on the top of the fence with one hand and shaded his eyes elaborately with the other. An amiable, If toothless, smile curled bis lips. When be spoke it was with deep facetiousness. “Hi, come out from behind that roll of paper!” But Clarence said not a word. He puffed away at bis cigarette, apparently oblivious of everything save the contentment it gave him, and as he puffed Spide’s mouth worked and watered symiwthcticafly. His secret ad"mlration was tremendous. Here was Clarence In actual and undisturbed possession of a whole cigarette. He had to purchase his cigarettes In partnership with some other boy and go halves ou the smoking of them. It made him feel cheap and common. “Say. got one of them coffin tacks that ain't working?” he Inquired. Clarence guzed off up the tracks. Ignoring the question and the questioner. Splde's presence was halm to his soul. But as one of the office force of the Buckhorn and Antioch lie felt a certain lofty reserve to be Incumbent upon him. Besides, he and Spids had been engaged iu a recent rivalry for Susie I’oppleton's affections. It is true he had achieved a brilliant success over his rival, hut that a mere schoolboy should have ventured to oppose him, a salaried mau, had struck him as an unpardonable piece of impertinence for which there could be no excuse.

Spide, however, had taken the matter most philosophically. He had recognized that he could hot hope to compete with a youth who possessed unlimited wealth, which he was willing to lay out on chewing gum and candy, his experience being that the sex was strictly mercenary and incapable of a disinterested love.’ Of course he had much admired Miss Poppleton. From the crown of her small dark head, with Its tightly braided “pigtails,” down to her trim little foot he had esteemed her as wholly adorable; but, after all, bis affair of the heart had been an affair of the winter only. With the coming of summer he bad found more serious things to think of. He was learning to swim and to chew tobacco. The mastering of these accomplishments pretty well occupied his time. “Say,” he repeated, “got another?” Still Clarence blinked at the fierce sunlight which danced on the rails and said nothing. Spide slid skillfully down from his perch, but his manner had undergone a change. “Who throwed that snipe away anyhow?” he asked disdainfully. Clarence turned his eyes slowly in his direction. “Lookee here. You fellows got to keep out of these yards or I’ll tell McCllntock. First we know some of you kids will be 'getting run over, and then your folks will set up a lively howl. Get on out! It ain't no place for little boY«r

He put the cigarette between his Ups and took a deep and tantalizing pull at It Spide kept to his own side of the ditch that ran between the fence and the tracks. “Huh!” with infinite scorn. “Who’s a kid? You won’t be happy till I come over there and lick you!” “First thing I know you’ll be stealing scrap Iron!” “My gosh! The Huckleberry’d have to stop running if I swiped a coupling pin!” Clarence had recourse to the cigarette, and again Spide was consumed with torturing jealousies. “Where did you shoot that snipe anyhow?” he inquired Insultingly. Once more Clarence allowed his glance to stray off up the tracks.

“For half a’ cent I’d come across and do what I say!” added Spide, stooping down to roll up his trousers leg and then easing an unelastic “gallus” that cut his shoulders. This elicited a short and contemptuous grunt from Clarence. He was well pleased with himself. He felt Splde’s envy. It was sweet and satisfying. “Say!” with sudden animation. “You fellers will be going around on your uppers in a day or so. I’ll bet you’d give a heap to know what I know!” “I wouldn’t give a darned cent to know all you know or ever will know!” retorted Clarence promptly. “Some people’s easily upset here in the cupola,” tapping his brim less covering. “I wouldn’t want to give you brain fever. I don’t hate you bad enough.” “Well, move on. You ain’t wanted around here. It may get me into trouble if I’m seen fooling away my time on you.” “I hope It will,” remarked Branyon’s boy, Augustus, with cordial ill will. He was literally bursting with the Importance of the facts which he possessed, and Clarence’s indifference gave him no opening. “What will you bet there ain’t a strike?”

“I ain’t betting this morning,” said Clarence blandly, “but if there is one we are ready for it You bet the hands won’t catch us napping. We are ready for ’em any time and all the time.” This, delivered with a large air, impressed Spide exceedingly. “Have you sent for the militia a’ready?” he asked anxiously. “That’s saying,” noting the effect of his words. “I can’t go blabbing about, telling what the road’s up to, but we are awake, and the hands will get it In the neck if they tackle the boss.” To Clarence, Oakley was the most august person he had ever known. He religiously believed his position to be only second In point of importance and power to that of the president of the United States. He was wont to invest him with purely imaginary attributes and to lie about him at a great rate among his comrades, who were ready to credit any report touching a man who was reputed to be able to ride on the cars without a ticket Human grandeur had no limits beyond this. “There was a meeting last night I bet you didn’t know that,” said Spide. “I heard something of it. Was your father at the meeting, Spide?” he asked, dropping Ills tone of hostility for one of gracious familiarity. The urchin profit ly crossed the ditch and stood at his side. “Of course the old man wns. You don't suppose he wouldn’t be in it?” “Oh, well, let ’em kick. You see the boss is reudy for ’em," remarked Clarence indifferently. He wanted to know what Spide knew, but he didn’t feel that he could afford to show any special Interest. “Where you going— swimming V” he added. “Yep.” But Spide was not ready to drop the fascinating subject of the strike. He wished to astonish Clarence, who was altogether too knowing. “The meeting was in the room over Jack Britt’s saloon,” he volunteered. “I suppose you think we didn’t know up at the office. We got our spies out. There ain’t nothing the hands can do we ain’t on to.”

Spide wrote his initials In the soft bank of the ditch with his big toe while be meditated on what he could tell next. “Well, sir, you’d ’a’ been surprised if you’d ’a* been there.” “Was you there, Spide?” “Yep.” “Oh, come off; you can’t stuff me.” “I was, too, there. The old lady sent me down to fetch pap home. She was afraid he’d get full. Joe Stokes was there, and Ix>u Bentlck and a whole slew of others, and Griff Ryder.” Clarence gasped with astonishment “Why, he ain’t one of the hands.” “Well, he’s on their side.” “What you giving us?” “Say, they are going to make a stiff kick on old m&n Oakley working in the shops. They got it in for him good and strong.” Ho paused to weigh the effect of this and then went on rapidly: “He’s done something. Ryder knows about it He told my old man and Joe Stokes. They say he’s got to get out. What’s a convicted criminal anyhow?” "What do you want to know that for, Spide?” questioned the artful Clarence, with great presence of mind. “Well, that’s what old man Oakley is. I beard Ryder say so myself, and pap and. Joe a.tQkejt JML k|cke<Uhem«elveß

Because they hadn’t noticed It before, 1 suppose. My, but they were hot! Sky, you’ll see fun tomorrow. I should not be surprised If they sent you all a-kitlng” V> Clarence was swelling with the desire to tell Oakley what he had beard. He took the part of a pack of cigarettes from hi 3 pocket. “Have one?” he said. Spide promptly availed himself of his companion’s liberality. “Well, so long,” the latter added: “I got to get back,” And a moment later he might have bean seen making his way cautiously In the direction of the office, while Spide, his battered hat under his arm and the cigarette clutched In one hand, was skipping gayly across the cornfield toward the creek, followed by Pink. He was bound for the “Slidy,” a swimming hole his mother had charged him on no account to visit Under these peculiar circumstances it was quite impossible for him to consider any other spot [TO BE CONTINUED)