The Road Builders.

by Samuel Merwin.

CHAPTER I

YOUNG VAN ENGAGES A COOK

The S. & W. was hoping some day to build a large station with a steel and gla.s.s trainshed at Sherman. Indeed, a side elevation of the structure, drawn to scale and framed in black walnut, had hung for a number of years in the private office, away down east, of President Daniel De Reamer. But that was to come in the day when Sherman should be a metropolis; at present the steel of which it was to be constructed still lay deep in the earth, unblasted, unsmelted, and unconverted; and the long, very dirty train which, at the time this narrative opens, was waiting to begin its westward journey, lay exposed to the rays of what promised to be, by noon, the hottest sun the spring had so far known. The cars were of an old, ill-ventilated sort, and the laborers, who were packed within them like cattle in a box-car, had shed coats and even shirts, and now sat back, and gasped and grumbled and fanned themselves with their caps, and steadily lost interest in life.

Apparently there was some uncertainty back in the office of the superintendent. A red-faced man, with a handkerchief around his neck, ran out with an order; whereupon an engine backed in, coupled up to the first car, and whistled impatiently. But they did not go. Half an hour pa.s.sed, and the red-faced man ran out again, and the engine uncoupled, snorted, rang its bell, and disappeared whence it had come.

At length two men--Peet, the superintendent, and Tiffany, chief engineer of the railroad--walked down the platform together, and addressed a stocky man with a close-cut gray mustache and a fixed frown, who stood beside the rear car.

"Peet says he can't wait any longer, Mr. Vandervelt," said Tiffany.

"Can't help that," replied Vandervelt.

"But you've got to help it!" cried Peet. "What are you waiting for, anyway?"

"If you think we're starting without Paul Carhart, you're mistaken."

"Carhart! Who is Carhart?"

"That's all right," Tiffany put in. "He's in charge of the construction."

"I don't care what he is! This train--"

He was interrupted by a sudden uproar in the car just ahead. A number of Italians had chosen to enliven the occasion by attacking the Mexicans, some of whom had unavoidably been a.s.signed to this car.

Vandervelt left the railroad men without a word, bounded up the car steps, and plunged through the door. The confusion continued for a moment, then died down. Another moment, and Vandervelt reappeared on the platform.

Meanwhile Tiffany was talking to the superintendent.

"You've simply got to wait, Peet," said he. "The old man says that Carhart must have a free hand. If he's late, there's a reason for it."

"The old man didn't say that to me," growled Peet; but he waited.

It would perhaps be difficult to find, in the history of American enterprise, an undertaking which demanded greater promptness in execution than the present one; yet, absurdly enough, the cause of the delay was a person so insignificant that, even for the purposes of this narrative, his name hardly matters. The name happened to be, however, Purple Finn, and he had been engaged for chief cook to the first division.

There was but one real hotel in the "city," which is to be known here as Sherman, the half-dozen other places that bore the t.i.tle of hotel being rather in the nature of a side line to the saloon and gambling industry. At this one, which was indicated by a projecting sign and the words "Eagle, House," Carhart and his engineers were stopping.

"The Comma House," as the instrument men and stake men had promptly dubbed it, was not very large and not very clean, and the "razor back"

hogs and their progeny had a way of sleeping in rows on and about the low piazza. But it was, nevertheless, the best hotel in that particular part of the Southwest.

Finn, on the other hand, made his headquarters at one of the half dozen, that one which was known to the submerged seven-eighths as "Murphy's." That Finn should be an enthusiastic patron of the poor man's club was not surprising, considering that he was an Irish plainsman of a culinary turn, and considering, too, that he was now winding up one of those periods between jobs, which begin in s.p.a.cious hilarity and conclude with a taste of ashes in the mouth.

It was late afternoon. The chief was sitting in his room, before a table which was piled high with maps, blue-prints, invoices, and letters. All day long he had been sitting at this table, going over the details of the work in hand. Old Vandervelt had reported that the rails and bolts and ties and other necessaries were on the cars; Flint and Scribner had reported for their divisions; the statements of the various railroad officials had been examined, to make sure that no details were overlooked, for these would, sooner or later, bob up in the form of misunderstandings; the thousand and one things which must be considered before the expedition should take the plunge into the desert had apparently been disposed of. And finally, when the large clock down in the office was announcing, with a preliminary rattle and click, that it intended very shortly to strike the half-hour between five and six, the chief pushed back his chair and looked up at his engineers, who were seated about him--Old Van before him on a trunk; Scribner and Young Van beside him on the bed; John Flint, a thin, sallow man, astride the other chair, and Haddon on the floor with his back against the wall.

"All accounted for, Paul, I guess," said Flint.

Carhart replied with a question, "How about those iron rods, John?"

"All checked off and packed on the train."

"Did you accept Doble and Dean's estimate for your oats?"

"Not much. Cut it down a third. It was altogether too much to carry.

You see, I shall be only thirty-odd miles from Red Hills, once I get out there, and I don't look for any trouble keeping in touch."

"It's just as well," said Carhart. "The less you carry, the more room for us."

"Did those pots and kettles come, Gus?" Carhart asked, turning to the younger Vandervelt, who was to act as his secretary and general a.s.sistant.

"Yes; just before noon. They had been carried on to Paradise by mistake. I got them right aboard."

"And you were going to keep an eye on that cook. Where is he?"

Young Van hesitated, and an expression of chagrin came into his face.

"I'll look him up. He promised me last night that he wouldn't touch another drop."

"Well--get your hands on him, and don't let go again."

Young Van left the room, and as he drew the door to after him he could hear the chief saying: "Haddon, I wish you would find Tiffany and remind him that I'm counting on his getting around early to-night. I'm not altogether satisfied with their scheme for supplying us." And hearing this, he was more than ever conscious of his own small part in this undertaking, and more than ever chagrined that he should prove unequal to the very small matter of keeping an eye on the cook. At least, it seemed a small matter, in view of the hundreds of problems concerning men and things which Paul Carhart was solving on this day.

The barkeeper at Murphy's, who served also in the capacity of night clerk, proved secretive on the subject of Purple Finn--hadn't seen him all day--didn't know when he would be in. The young engineer thought he had better sit down to digest the situation. This suggested supper, and he ordered the best of Murphy's fare, and ate slowly and pondered. Seven o'clock came, but brought no hint of the cook's whereabouts. Young Van gathered from the barroom talk that a big outfit had come into town from Paradise within the past hour or so, and incidentally that one of the outfit, Jack Flagg, was on the warpath--whoever Jack Flagg might be. As he sat in a rear corner, watching, with an a.s.sumption of carelessness, the loafers and plainsmen and gamblers who were pa.s.sing in and out, or were, like himself, sitting at the round tables, it occurred to him to go up to Finn's room. He knew, from former calls, where it was. But he learned nothing more than that the cook's door was ajar, and that a half-packed valise lay open on the bed.

At half-past ten, after a tour of the most likely haunts, Young Van returned to Murphy's and resumed his seat in the rear corner. He had no notion of returning to the Eagle House without the cook. It was now close on the hour when Sherman was used to rouse itself for the revelry of the night, and that Finn would take some part in this revelry, and that he would, sooner or later, reappear at his favorite hostelry, seemed probable.

The lamps in this room were suspended from the ceiling at such a height that their light entered the eye at the hypnotic angle; and so it was not long before Young Van, weary from the strain of the week, began to nod. The bar with its line of booted figures, and the quartets of card-players, and the one waiter moving about in his spotted white ap.r.o.n, were beginning to blur and run together. The clink of gla.s.ses and the laughter came to his ears as if from a great distance. Once he nearly recovered his faculties. A group of new arrivals were looking toward his corner. "Waiting for Purple Finn, eh?" said one. "Well, I guess he's got a nice long wait in front of him, poor fool!" Then they all laughed. And Young Van himself, with half-open eyes, had to smile over the poor fool in the corner who was waiting for Purple Finn.

"I hear Jack Flagg's in town," said the barkeeper. "I wonder if he is!" replied the first speaker. "I wonder if Jack Flagg is in town!"

Again they laughed. And again Young Van smiled. How odd that Jack Flagg should be in town!

He was awakened by a sound of hammering. There was little change in the room: the card games were going steadily on; the bar still had its line of thirsty plainsmen; two men were wrangling in a corner. Then he made out a group of newcomers who were tacking a placard to the wall, and chuckling as they did so.

And now, for the first time, Young Van became conscious that he was no longer alone at his table. Opposite him, smiling genially, and returning his gaze with benevolent watery eyes, sat a big Texan. This individual wore his cowboy hat on the back of his head, and made no effort to conceal the two revolvers and the knife at his belt.

"D'ye know," said the Texan, "I like you. What's your name?"

"Vandervelt. What is yours?"

"Charlie--that's my name." Then his smile faded, and he shook his head. "But you won't find Purple Finn here."

"Why not?"