OCR Text |
Show If & tf ' & u tt n n uu u u n n ffl & The Master ? - ? U I Mechanic's I fraSk h. 11 Story I SPEARMAN J f D LAROO I 2 Mcaure o. . . H y 6 s $$ 3: 5: tt n tt tt t n M i -w y-10U lcl1 lfc x can't toll ,t'" B"wlcl Neighbor. J "Oh, no. No. Tlmt'a JH your Htory, Neighbor." jlS ",l ttMt m Btory tcl1" "Just nn nblo jawed S Hur," suggested Cnllnlmn through n be- nerolont bluish haze. flj "Delnroo's story wasn't any Jlc, though," muttered Neighbor, "But a V fellow would think It was to hear It. Now, he would, for a fact, wouldn't he?" K H If you want him, quick and short. It H would be whiskers, secret societies, Jt. statistics nnd plug tobacco, the latter T mostly worked up. That was Mnje Sampson. Bluntly, a wind bag; 270 pounds of atmosphere, up on benevolent frntcr- nltles, up on politics, up on tho money question, up on everything. The soven flnanclal conspiracies engaged Majo m Sampson's attention pretty continual-I continual-I ly and had for him n practical nppll- iB cation. There were never less than seven conspiracies afoot in Medlclno Bend to ninkc- Mnje Sampson pay up. l'ay? Indeed, he did pay. Ho was If nlwnys paying. It was not n question V of paying; not nt all. It was a qucs-I qucs-I tlon of paying up, which is different. I Tho children they were brickbats, M- tow headed, putty faced, wash eyed youngsters of all sizes nnd conditions. j About Mnje Sampson's children there f " was but one distinguishing character- , istlc they were all boys, nothing but boys, nnd they spread all over town. ! Was there n baby run over? It was Maje Snrnpspii'.s. Was there a. child ' ' Jost? Miije Sampson's. Vns there n "violently large headed, coarse featured, hangdog, clattering sort of a chap auy- whero around in tho street, station, roundhouse, yards, stock pens? It was .n brickbat, sure one of Maja Samp- 'jjftou's brickbat boys. , ' HBThe Sampsons were at tho end of the -pli"?inxx"nanTitrcirat)rTio atreet'. was F up tho mountain. Majo Sampson's lot I "ralred," as Neighbor put it stood on I its hind legs. Ills house had a startling I tumble over aspect as you approached VV it. The back end of his lot ran up Into p the sheer, but he marked the lino sharp- I I ly by a kind of horizontal fence, be-1 be-1 1 cause the cliff just above belonged to ( I the corporation that owned everything I else on earth around Medicine Bend. It Majo Sampson did not propose to let II any grasping corporation encroach on 1 1 his Hues, so ho built, and added to from 11 , time to time, a cluster of things on tho li hind end of his lot au eruption of small buildings like pimples on a boy's ' ! nose, running down in size from thn barn to the last drygoods box the boys had heaved up the slope for a doghouse. "v To odd to tho variety some one of the I structures was always getting away in tho wind, and if anything smaller than a hotel was seen careening across lots in a Medlclno Bend breezo it was spot-. spot-. ted without further Investigation as Muje Sampson's. When the gale abated Joe MeBracken, who conducted tho local lo-cal dray line, was pretty sure to be i neeu with n henhouse or u wood shed, or something likewise, loaded on his trucks headed for Majo Sampson's. i Once tho whole lean-to of the house blow off, but Joo MeBracken stood ready for any emergency. He met the maverick mav-erick addition at the foot of tho grade, loaded it on his house moving truck, hitched on four bronchos, crawled inside in-side tho structure nnd, getting the lines through the front window, drove up Main street before the wind hod gone down. Joo was photographed in the act, nnd afterward used tne exhibit iu getting Judgment against Muje Samp-sou Samp-sou for his bill. Now, a man like Mnje wouldn't bo likely to havo very much of a run nor I very much of nn engine. Ho hod tho 20 1, an old pop bottle, with a stack like a tepee turned upsido down. For a run ho had alwuys trains Nos. 20 nnd 30, . ' tho local froights, with nn accommoda- j tlon coacli cast of Anderson. There I were times of stress frequently on tho 1 West End, times when everybody ran I ilrst in first out, except Mojo Sampson. I Ho always ran Nos. 29 and 80 west to I Silver River and back. A pettifogging, II cheap, Jerk water run with no rights to Y speak of, not even against respectable I handcars. I 1 Tho only things Mnjo Sampson did I 1 not have to dodgo wro tramps, blanket 1 Indians and telegraph poles; everything 1 else side tracked Nos. 20 and 30 nnd Majo 1 Sampson. Almost everybody on through 3i trains must nt some time havo seen iff Maje Sampson putting on a siding as J Moore or Mullen shdt by on Np. l.or I through tho window you couldn't seo I very much of, the cab forshouldcra and VT TV W "TV W TT TT winnorb iiiiu unlKf. rniui uic cm window ho looked like a fourteen-year-old boy springing out of a ten-year-old Jacket. Threo things only made Maje tolerable. First, tho number of benevolent benevo-lent orders ho belonged to; second, Do-laroo; Do-laroo; third, Martle. Majo Sampson was n Joiner nnd n sitter up. He would Join anything on the West End that had a ritual, a grip and a password, and ho would sit up night after night with anybody that had n broken leg or n fever, nnd, If nothing better offered, Mnje. rather than go to bed, would tackle a man with the stomnch ncho. This kind of took the cuss off, but ho was that peculiar pe-culiar he would sit up nil night with a sick mnn nnd next day make everybody sick talking the money question nt least everybody but Delaroo. If IX-laroo IX-laroo was bored he never showed It. As long ns Majo would talk Delaroo would listen. That single word was. In fact, tho key to Delaroo. Delaroo was n listener; for that reason nobody knew much about him. He wasn't a railroad man by birth, but by ndoptlon. Delaroo came from the mountains; he was just 41 plain mountain mnn. Some said his father was a trapper; if so. It explained everythingthe every-thingthe quiet, the head bent Inquiringly Inquir-ingly forward, the mpdett unobstruslvc-nesa unobstruslvc-nesa of a man deaf. Of a size nnd shnpo nothing remarkable, Delaroo but n-great listener, for though he looked like a deaf man ho hoard like a dispatcher dis-patcher nnd snw marvelously from out ,the ends of his silent eyes. Dolnroo for all tho world was a trapper. no came Into tho service ns a roundhouse round-house sweeper; then Neighbor, nfter a long time, put him qt wiping. Delaroo snld nolnlng, but wiped for'ycnrfi And years nnd was In a fair way to become be-come liked when Instond he became one morning pitted with umblllcnl vesicles, ves-icles, and tho doctors, with Delnroo's brevity, sold smallpox. Tho boarding houso kcepcxihrow him o.ut bodily nnd at ouco. Having no better place to go, Delaroo wandered Into Steve Boycr's snloon,. where he was generally welcome. wel-come. Steve, however, pointed n hospitable hos-pitable gun nt him and suggested his getting nwny Immediately from the front end of It. Delaroo went from there to the roundhouse with his urn-blllcals urn-blllcals and asked Neighbor what a mail with the smallpox ought to do with it. Neighbor wouldn't run, not even from tho smallpox, but he told Delaroo what it mount to get the smallpox stnrtcd in the roundhouse, and Delaroo wandered quietly nwny from the depot grounds, n pretty sick man then, staggered up the yards and crawled stupid Into a box car to die without embarrassing anybody. By somo hook or crook, nobody to this day knows how, that car was switched on to Mnje Sampson's train when it wns made up thnt day for the west. Maybe it wqs done ns a trick to scare tho windbag engineer. If so, the Idea was successful. When tho hind end brnkemnu nt the second stop came forward and reported a tramp with the smallpox in the empty box car Majo was angry, but his curiosity gradunlly got tho upper hand. This man might bo by some distant chance, ho reflected, a 1. Q. W. of A., or n frater, or a fellow, or a knight or something like, nnd when they stopped again o throw off crackers and beer and cntchup, Mojo went back nud entered en-tered the infected car like a Hon tamer to try lodgo signals nnd things on 1dm. Majo advanced and gave tho countersign. counter-sign. It was not cordlnlly received. He tried nnothcr nnd another and another; an-other; his passes wero lost In tho air. The smallpox man appeared totally unnblo to couio back at Maje with anything. Ho was not only delirious, but by this tlmo so frightfully broken out that Mnje couldn't have touched a sound spot with a Masonic signal of distress. Finally tho venturesome engineer en-gineer walked closer Into tho dark corner whero tho Blck man lay and, by heaven, It wns tho Indian wiper, Delaroo! When Maje Sampson got back into tho cab he could not speak at least not for publication. He was tearing mad and sputtered llko a safety. Ho gathered gath-ered up his cushion and a wnrfer bottle and n bottlo that would explode If water wa-ter touched it and crawled with his plunder lntd tho box car. Jlc straightened straight-ened Delaroo up and out nnd gave him a drink and by way of sanitary precaution pre-caution took one personally, for; ho him-spit him-spit , bad never had tho smallpox but once. When he had) done this little for Delaroo ho llnlshcd his run and came bnck'to thellcnd hauling his peat houiic box car. i'lio tlrcman quit tho cnb immediately im-mediately nfter Majo exposed himself. The conductor communicated with him only bv slgijnls, Tlic Andwaon opor- utor wireiKT&a "umfjuije Bumps-jo was bringing back It man with smallpox small-pox on 30. and wlien Muje. bulging out of the 2iH cnb, pulled Into the dlrwlon yard nobody would come within a mile of him. He set out the box car below the stock pens, cross lots from his house up on tho hill, nnd, not being able to get advice from anybody else, went home to consult Mnrtle. Though there were n great many women wo-men In Medicine Bend, Mnje Sninpson-looked Sninpson-looked to but one. Mnjtle. tho ltio washed out woman up itt Sampson 8-wlfe, 8-wlfe, mother, nurse, coot slnve-Mnr-tle. I . No particular color hall! no particular particu-lar color eyes; no patlqular color gown; no particular cut t it. A plain bit of n WQinnn, mother of six boys, largo and smnll, and wl s of n great big wind bag englnecr-b r ns threo or. her by actual measuremen By tho tlmo Mnje had taken counsel and walked downtown prominent b dncss men were fending off his nAronch wltn shotguns. Tho city mnnl from behind be-hind n bomb proof nskedfhnt ho was going to do with hW patlrtt. and Mojo retorted ho was going b take hh; home. He wasn't a M. jt. of A. nor n I S. a. of W. E.. Jit uo was a roundhouse mnn. nnd bet en Mnje ana a railroad man. a wiper efn, there was a bond stronger than grljor password or Jolly business of nnyind. The other oth-er thlng.4 Mnje, witboJ realizing It. merely ployed at, but n'o the railroad lay, if a railroad mnrfwns tho right sort he could borrow rfythlng the big fellow hnd-monoy. M tobacco, pipe, water bottle, strong btlc-lt made no odds what. And, oiho other hnud, Mojo wouldn't licsltni to borrow any or nil of these thlnrfln return. The railroad man who fA ahead of Maje Sampson Iu tills resct had claims to bo considered a rft grand in the business. I The doughty erflncor lifted nnd dragged nnd haulojpcluroo homo with him. If there whhJo hospital, Mnrtle had sold, no pcsfiouse, no nothing, j Just bring him In. They had nil bad ; the smallpox up j Sampson's except ; tho baby, and doctor had said j lately the baby i&nred to need some- ( thing. They hndplly everything up . at Sampson's soc ir or later measles, diphtheria, croui Everything dn earth except nioucy. d Mnrtle Sampson, with tho wnshl I nnd mending and scrubbing and cling, nursed the outcast out-cast wiper thro his smallpox. The Laby took It, dcourse, and Martle nursed the babjirough nnd went on Just the snmels before washing, mending, cooklj scrubbing. Delaroo when ho got wefvent to tiring; Neighbor Neigh-bor offered 1 thjili p.n a jjjfffe solntlou prize, al he wwimornrlng' ; on the 204 for M Sampson. Itwas thou thaMaJe took Delaroo fairly in hnnd nl showed hlni tho unspeakable foil of trying to get "" through the wc-rh without the comradeship com-radeship and benes of tho 11. S. L.'s of U. nnd the frnrs of tho order of tho double barrclcstar of MncDuff. Dolnroo caught a ood deal of It on tho sidings, wherethcy lay most of their time dodglngflrst class trains, nnd evenings whenthev got In from their runs Delaroo having nowhere else to go, usedfto nivler nfter supper sup-per up to Samps n's.At Sampson's he would sit in the ihad of the lamp nnd fiinoko while Mn i, iitils shirt sleeves, held forth on tjio Lnevolent orders nnd 0110 boy trnwM through the bowels of tho organ nn nnothcr pulled off the tablecloth! Delnoo always saving sav-ing tho lamp, and n thil harassed the dog nnd n fourth tuck Jns Iu a unhand unh-and Martle, sitting on to dim side of tho shade, so tho operatm would not nppear too glaring, menod nt MaJe's mnmmnh trousers. Delnroo would sit and llten to Maje nnd wntch the heave of tlnorgan with tho boy, nnd tho current d tho tablecloth table-cloth with tho lamp, nnd tin quarter In which tho dog was chewln&the baby, nnd wntch Mnrtlo's perpetul motion Angers for n whole cvcnlni nnd go back to tho boarding hous( without I passing n word with nnybodyon earth, ho wns thnt silent. In this way tho big, bludlnt engineer gradually worked Delaroo ino all the secret benevolent orders In Medicine Bend. Thnt meant pretty imch every 0110 on enrth. Thero arose nlwnys, how-over, how-over, In connection with tho iiltlatiom of Delnroo 0:10 bitch. Ho neicr seemed seem-ed qulto to know whom ho vnnted to leave his Insurance money to. Ho could go the most complicated atcehlsm without n hitch everv time, for Mnje spent weeks on tho sidings drlling him, until It enmo to naming the bmcflclnry. Thero ho stuck. Nobody couli get out of him to whom ho wanted bU money to go. Had ho no relations back In the mountnlna? Nobody up In the 8plder country? No wives or daughters or fathers fa-thers or mothers or friend or anything? any-thing? Dolnroo always shook his head. If they persisted, he shook bis bead. Majo Sampson, sitting after supper, would ask, and Martle, when tho dishes Wero sldo tracked, would begin to sew and listen, and Delnroo, of course, .would llston, but never by any chance would ho answer, not oven when Maje trlbd to explain how It bore on 10 to 1. Ho' declined to discuss any ratio or to namo nny bcncflclnry whatsoever. The right honorablo ' recording secretaries fumed and denounced it ns irregulnr, and Mnjp Sampson wore holes In bis To bo continued.) |