Part 11 (1/2)

”Real porterhouse steaks,” he interrupted, laughing as though they had become only a memory.

”Give me a few moments to glance over this mail before we go--here, this ought to interest you, Hiram,” I said, discovering one from the chemist to whom I had sent a sample from our partners.h.i.+p barrel in storage.

”Why--how?” he asked, looking sharp as though expecting a joke.

I tore open the letter, first noticing it was nearly three months old.

The chemist had replied promptly. I read aloud:

”Your sample suffered a little in the mail and is too small. Will you oblige me by forwarding a larger one by parcel post? If my guess is right, the market is particularly bare of this cla.s.s of goods, and I can a.s.sure a prompt sale at fancy prices.”

”You mean that old barrel of junk--those filings you made me pay three-fifty for a half interest in your foolishness?” he asked, with an incredulous smile.

”Hiram,” I began jestingly, ”that barrel will make us rich some day; but seriously, I do know it is not castings nor junk. However, this letter is now three months old, and perhaps our best chance has gone.”

That night I wired a certain person a code message to the effect that I was willing to handle the New Orleans case. It was either that or some day I'd miss being made best man at Anna Bell's wedding.

CHAPTER XIII

THERE was little trouble getting the a.s.signment; in fact, the authorities were glad some one was willing to tackle the case, for it had become a nightmare and a stench, but it was a case of ”don't begin unless you can finish it.” Others had given it up, perhaps because of the press of other work. I was amply warned that it was a hard nut to crack, and I had a fair chance of making a failure of it. Yes, the railroad and packing-house people would cooperate and do all they could.

I was told to go over and see Mr. Powell, the New Orleans agent, who all but went crazy over it, and work out a plan with him.

Before night I was on the payroll of the Yazoo, with a private office and a sub-t.i.tle of some sort under the auditor, having decided to begin on the perishable freight records, or rather it was necessary for me to have them under my hand, as they were set down each day, though with little confidence that they would yield results.

”I don't know what kind of a clerk I can give you, for the whole system is short of help, but I will do the best I can,” Mr. Powell a.s.sured me, placing at my disposal the voluminous reports on the cases settled, and those that were still pending, unsettled, with the s.h.i.+ppers.

There was hardly room for the female clerk and myself to move about in the room after the perishable records were all in there--big volumes of yellow tissue made it look like a storehouse, though they only extended back to the time of the first loss.

In addition to this arrangement it was generally given out that the night business on the wharf tracks had been so largely increased by the heavy movement of fruit that an extra man was to be put on to work opposite Hiram, who went on at four a. m., and came off at three p. m.

As the general office was uptown, more than a mile from the dock tracks, it was unlikely that I would be noticed working in the dual capacity of night clerk on the wharf and something or other under the auditor in the general offices. But in this we soon found we had miscalculated.

When Hiram learned the arrangement he was jubilant. In an incredibly short time he had come to look on my capacity to clear up a mystery as unlimited. The joy of antic.i.p.ation supplanted fear, but he did not fully recover his old, buoyant, optimistic self.

He never mentioned Anna Bell Morgan, but I was sure he thought of her about all the time he was not busy.

”Ben,” he began one night, laughing, ”did you send your friend in New York another sample of those steel filings on which we are paying storage? I believe you will soon graduate into the 'Prince of conmen,'

or a second-story worker. I tell you it takes a pretty good man to stop me in the middle of the street and subtract three-fifty from my jeans for a half-interest in a barrel of junk.”

”No, not yet, but I expect to soon.”

But after I had been working in the dual role of wharf night clerk and a.s.sistant auditor for a week and nothing happened, he began to get uneasy, but somehow did not doubt the final outcome.

We usually ate dinner together, then we would come down to his little office in the corner of the wharf and he would stay with me until his early bed-time.

”How long are you going to stand this night-and-day business? I don't see when you get any sleep?” he asked, evidently edging over for some information, not volunteered.

”One doesn't need much sleep on a loafing job like this. You see, there is little to do here nights, and less in the day time, so I manage pretty well.” I had told him little about my office work.

”Why can't I stay here every other night for you, so that you can get more sleep? I can stand it.”