Show A Monopoly of Mules Br E l F STEARNS Author of Tie Girl from Jeimns The Suprr and tbo Signs Etc 6 < X XX4X > Copyright by Joseph D Uowlei Hardheaded Irongray Abner Green foreman of tho areorMcrrlll Machine companys smaller finishing room scowled at the landscape His heart was as sore as the heart of man may be for the hope ot 20 goody good-y ars was gone now the under super Inten enc of the works BO long his goarand so well merited had been vacant va-cant at lastand had not been tilled by him as had been expected Pull pure and simple had brought young Burgess from the east and given him the place and there ho was settled and selfsatisfied Ho was startled by the voice of the youngest apprentice 0eonl Barker wants you Bar ker was the superintendent Barker did not appear inordinately sweet that day Lets see Your room Is working on the smaller parts of the machines for Champlin Mills Yes Green that order or-der must start on tho first week In April not three weeks from now Well come near making It Hang 111 Near wont do any good Weve got to male ill Why Green that contract Is worth a million to GreerMerrillIts one of the biggest big-gest private orders of machinery on record I Weve guaranteed to set up their plant and have it running on the first of May that means that every blessed piece must bo out of hero before be-fore the sixth of next month If we slip up Barker paused Impressive Iylt in ns a penalty of fifteen hundred hun-dred dollars for every day of delay The foreman of the finishing room returned to his domain and transmitted transmit-ted orders Days passed rapidly after that days of pellmell scurrying work On a certain Friday however the Friday before tho week of the Cham plln Mills shipmentthe foremans department de-partment came momentarily to a standstill pending the arrival of rough pieces from the foundry An hour would have to elapse and Abner struck oft for a walk Off to the right some halfdozen paces Little Feather creek rippled noisily downhill muddy and exultant in 1U new release from the ico prison I Yes hardly half a dozen paces from the track and the snowshed I And slowly a great conviction came I to Abner Green A mighty thaw was under way andtho Chicago engineers who constructed that spur of railroad had overlooked something It seemed incredible and yet was not for they had taken the only path for the road possible without endless expensive grading and still Abnor slapped his thigh Its as sartln as the crack o doom he informed the rocks above Shortly past seven that evening when Caseys engine ran down to Broadbury to hook up tho first empty car Abner rodo in the cab From there his actions are hazy It Is said that he went directly to Raymond president of Broadburys little lit-tle bank and requested the cashing of a check which would practically wipe out his savings that Raymond obligingly oblig-ingly opened the institution the same being on the ground floor of his residence resi-dence and complied that Green emerged later with some one thousand dollars in small bills Whatever truth may be in the above one fact stands out with beautiful certainty cer-tainty at dawn next morning a herd of 40 sturdy mules wended their way by tho back road to the hillside homo of Abner Green led by that person himself and trailed by a sleepy wondering won-dering Droadbury boy The colony of workers below was not within an hour of being astir Mules were tethered in the barn in dangerous danger-ous proximity mules were jammed unfeelingly into the toolshed mules were tied In the patch of woods behind the housegood mules and bad mules plump mules and bony mules mules that had been bought for next to nothIng noth-ing and mules that had seemed much too dear But there they were and the countryside from Broadbury to Greorvlllc was reasonably free from superfluous mules Barker kept them hard at it until midnight Saturday and with the first hour of Sunday came the blessed certainty cer-tainty that the Champlin Mills order could start on time That morning on every hand water was running snow disappearing the ground was an ooze Little Feathers chatter had swelled to a faint roar Through the afternoon the shippers pulled and tugged the string of cars was loaded at lust and the machinery of the first lot had been settled for its eastward ride Twilight came and a warm drizzle of rain set In Toward eight oclock Casey and his fireman pulled out slowly and a long sigh of relief rose The days work was done the men began to scatter Then abruptly there came from the west a dull booming a heavy subdued noise as of mullled thunder Barker hurried into tho works and through to the opposite side Ho opened a window and thrust his head out into the rain seeking to penetrate the darkness coward the brook he could see nothing but very distinctly very unmistakably through the gloom came to his ears the gathering clamoring clam-oring roar of a recordbreaking freshet fresh-et etlWould Would it get to the tracks Darker bit his lips Pshaw I It couldnt He understood little of railroading and It did seem risky having the rails so near the brook and they had squeezed every penny that went into the road But tho engineers must havo kjowuj their business tho tracks wero aafa enough And then came his answer emphatic and final Out in the yards rising faintly above the voice of Little Feather Feath-er Hurtled shouts were audible the heavy pulling of a locomotive a thud a scream ot escaping steam Casey left by one door his flremim by tho other Another roar as water found the lirebox a great crashing splash then silence The rails had spread and the road was effectually out of commission com-mission now Engineers came ui dawn The drizzle driz-zle of the night had settled to u steady soaking downpour when their buckboard buck-board drew up Lesldo tho GreerMerrlli works Tuny went with Barker and looked over tho disaster A quartcrmllo ot more hud Little Feather taken to tin tracks It whirled along cheerily Hit Irons bootdeep below the surface They prodded at the submerged milt and smiled dryly The private spur was a wreck Could they repair It Immediately Inn In-n weak perhaps or ti month 1ha proposition was absolutely utterly ut-terly unfeasible the fact that Greor Merrills shipments positively must gout g-out did not alter that a particle Tht very best one could hope for was some spot down tho line where n tomporarj platform could be knocked togethet and cars run in from Broadbury to take aboard tho Champlln Mills machinery ma-chinery They found that spot five miles below be-low the works and Barker with a sigh halt relief half anger accepted tho situation It meant at least ft days delay for ho would havo to drag out the discarded trucks and beg buy borrow or steal mules to haul them which meant more expense Naturally he came face to face with the mule problem Barker sent for half a dozen of his minor executives and Instructed them to sally forth and gather such mules and work horses rare things in that localityas mlgBt be obtained on any terms One of the six was Abner Green and as they filed out Barker detained him ErGreen The superintendent snapped his fingers Impatiently See here somebody or other said that youve got two or three mules Few All right We want to hire em How many are there Abner braced himself Sixtyone sir Hey How many Green Barkers Bar-kers chair whirled about Sixtyone Sixtyone mules t Yes sir Six Barker stopped and shrugged his shoulders Well its rather n happy chance Green although I didnt know you hal gone in for mulo ranching How much do you want to hire them out by the day 11 aint anxious to hire em Mr Barker Theyre for sale For sale eh Wellhow much for the lot then Three thousand dollars What Three thousand dollars sir You want too much altogether Green Barker stiffened Wo dont I need them Thats all I Abner departed Tho seekers ol mules were already gone The day wore onward rapidly the first of those fifteen hundred dollar days At eventide the five returned five men three mules and an anaemic horse They had scoured Broadbury they had descended upon Red Eagle they had searched the country in between It was rather a staggerer for Darker Dar-ker Doubtless there Were more mules in tho state But the price seemed to be racing along with the demand and 60 or 70 mules would total a tremendous tremen-dous figure Meanwhile tho fifteen hundred per day Barker choked down his feelings and sent for Green who was working In the finishing room I find that It Is going to take a good deal of time to buy the mules we need Green We have decided to take yours But you know said Abner mules have rlz since mornln Eh You can have em for five thousand sir Barker was on his feet Dull purple surged into his cheeks Infrequent as such an occurrence was the general superintendent was losing his temper Green you go to the devil shouted shout-ed the other I wont be bled and 1 wont allow this firm to be bled by any such trick of an employe as that Get nut of here Abner trudged homeward through the rain serene and elated Barker had been wiring details Intermittently In-termittently to the home office A message from there overtook Merrill himself In his parlor car as he sped westward on a little unannounced visit to Greervlllo to superintend in person the monster Champlin Mills delivery He arrived at two oclock on Tuesday Tues-day morning and listened silently to Barkers full report He took pencil and paper and figured for some 15 minutes min-utes Arrived nt a result he looked up and said dryly Send for this man Green Barker The foreman returned with the messenger mes-senger Merrill looked him over quizzically What is the current quotation on your mules Mr Green he inquired Abner glanced fittingly at Barker Six thousand dollars sir Merrill turned Imperturbably to th e superintendent Got that much banked at Broad buryNot Not a hundred dollars more certainly cer-tainly Give Mr Green his check And send somebody no for tho mules Barker j |