Part 8 (1/2)

This address was delivered within thirty seconds of the time of our arrival at our old rooms in the Centropolis. The Captain saluted us in a manner extravagantly polite, mysteriously enthusiastic. The air of mystery was deepened when he called again to see Mr. Elkins in the evening and was invited in.

”Did you-all notice that distinguished and opulent-looking gentleman who got off the train this evening?” said he in a stage whisper. ”Mahk my words, the coming of such men, _his_ coming, is fraught with the deepest significance to us all. All my holdin's ah withdrawn from mahket until fu'the' developments!”

”Seems to travel in style,” said Jim; ”all sorts of good clothes, colored body-servant, closed carriage ordered by wire--it does look juicy, don't it, now?”

”He has the entiah second flo' front suite. The n.i.g.g.ah has already sent out fo' a bahbah,” said the Captain. ”Lattimore has at last attracted the notice of adequate capital, and will now a.s.sume huh true place in the bright galaxy of American cities. Mr. Barslow, I shall ask puhmission to call upon you in the mo'nin' with reference to a project which will make the fo'tunes of a dozen men, and that within the next ninety days. Good evenin', suh; good evenin', Madam. I feel that you have come among us at a propitious moment!”

”The Captain merely hints at the truth which struggles in him for utterance,” said Jim. ”I prove this by informing you that I couldn't get you a house. This shows, too, that the census returns are a calumny upon Lattimore. You'll have to stay at the Centropolis until something turns up or you can build.”

”Oh, dear!” said Alice. ”Hotel life isn't living at all. I hope it won't be long.”

”It will have its advantages for Al,” said Mr. Elkins. ”This financial maelstrom, which will draw everything to Lattimore, will have its core right in this hotel--a mighty good place to be. Things of all kinds have been floating about in the air for months; the precipitation is beginning now. The psychological moment has arrived--you have brought it with you, Mrs. Barslow. The moon-flower of Lattimore's 'gradual, healthy growth' is going to burst, and that right soon.”

”Has Captain Tolliver infected you?” inquired Alice. ”He told us the same thing, with less of tropes and figures.”

”On any still morning,” said Jim, ”you can hear the wheels go round in the Captain's head; but his instinct for real-estate conditions is as accurate as a pocket-gopher's. The Captain, in a hysterical sort of way, is right: I consider that a cinch. Good-night, friends, and pleasant dreams. I expect to see you at breakfast; but if I shouldn't, Al, you'll come aboard at nine, won't you, and help run up the Jolly Roger? I think I smell pieces-of-eight in the air! And, by the way, Miss Trescott says for me to a.s.sure you that her vertigo, which she had for the first time in her life, is gone, and she never felt better.”

As Mr. Elkins pa.s.sed from our parlor, he let in a bell-boy with the card of Mr. Clifford Giddings, representing the Lattimore Morning _Herald_.

”See him down in the lobby,” said Alice.

”I want a story,” said he as we met, ”on the city and its future. The _Herald_ readers will be glad of anything from Mr. Barslow, whose coming they have so long looked forward to, as intimately connected with the city's development.”

”My dear sir,” I replied, somewhat astonished at the importance which he was pleased to attach to my arrival, ”abstractly, my removal to Lattimore is my best testimony on that; concretely, I ought to ask information of you.”

We sat down in a corner of the lobby, our chairs side by side, facing opposite ways. He lighted a cigar, and gave me one. In looks he was young; in behavior he had the self-possession and poise of maturity. He wore a long mackintosh which sparkled with mist. His slouch hat looked new and was carefully dinted. His dress was almost natty in an unconventional way, and his manners accorded with his garb. He acted as if for years we had casually met daily. His tone and att.i.tude evinced respect, was entirely free from presumption, equally devoid of reserve, carried with it no hint of familiarity, but a.s.sumed a perfect understanding. The barrier which usually keeps strangers apart he neither broke down, which must have been offensive, nor overleaped, which would have been presumptuous. He covered it with that demeanor of his, and together we sat down upon it.

”I thought the _Herald_ was an evening paper,” said I.

”It was, in the days of yore,” he replied; ”but Mr. Elkins happened to see me in Chicago one day, and advised me to come out and look the old thing over with a view to purchasing the plant. You observe the result.

As fellow immigrants, I hope there will be a bond of sympathy between us. You think, of course, that Lattimore is a coming city?”

”Yes.”

”Its geographical situation seems to render its development inevitable, doesn't it? And,” he went on, ”the railway conditions seem peculiarly promising just now?”

”Yes,” said I, ”but the natural resources of the city and the surrounding country appeal most strongly to me.”

”They are certainly very exceptional, aren't they?” said he, as if the matter had never occurred to him before. Then he went on telling me things, more than asking questions, about the jobbing trades, the brick and tile and a.s.sociated industries, the cement factory, which he spoke of as if actually _in esse_, the projected elevators, the flouring-mills, and finally returned to railway matters.

”What is your opinion of the Lattimore & Great Western, Mr. Barslow?” he asked.

”I cannot say that I have any,” I answered, ”except that its construction would bring great good to Lattimore.”

”It could scarcely fail,” said he, ”to bring in two or three systems which we now lack, could it?”

I very sincerely said that I did not know. After a few more questions concerning our plans for the future, Mr. Giddings vanished into the night, silently, as an autumn leaf parting from its bough. I thought of him no more until I unfolded the _Herald_ in the morning as we sat at breakfast, and saw that my interview was made a feature of the day's news.

”Mr. Albert F. Barslow,” it read, ”of the firm of Elkins & Barslow, is stopping at the Centropolis. He arrived by the 6:15 train last evening, and with his family has taken a suite of rooms pending the erection of a residence. They have not definitely decided as to the location of their new home; but it may confidently be stated that they will build something which will be a notable addition to the architectural beauties of Lattimore--already proud of her t.i.tle, the City of Homes.”