Aladdin and Company Part 14

We saw the yellowing groves and brown fields of our first autumn; we heard the long-drawn, wavering, mounting, falling, persistent howl of the thresher among the settings of hive-shaped stacks; we saw the loads of red and yellow corn at the corn-cribs,--as men at the board of the green cloth hear the striking of the hours. And we heeded them as little. The cries of southing wild-fowl heralded the snow; winter came for an hour or so, and melted into spring; and some of us looked up from our hands for a moment, to note the fact that it was the anniversary of that aguish day when three of us had first taken our seats at the table: and before we knew it, the dust and heat and summer clouds, like that which lightened over the fete in the park, admonished us that we were far into our second year. And still shuffle, cut, deal, trick, and hand followed each other, and with draw and bluff and showdown we played the World and Destiny, and playing won, and saw our stacks of chips grow higher and higher, as our great and absorbing game went on.

Moreover, while we won and won, n.o.body seemed to lose. Josie spoke that night of fortunes which people had not earned; but surely they were created somehow; and as the universe, when the divine fiat had formed the world, was richer, rather than poorer, so, we felt, must these values so magically growing into our fortunes be good, rather than evil, and honestly ours, so far as we might be able to secure them to ourselves. I said as much to Jim one day, at which he smiled, and remarked that if we got to monkeying with the ethics of the trade, piracy would soon be a ruined business.

"Better, far better keep the lookout sweeping the horizon for sails,"

said he, "and when one appears, serve out the rum and gunpowder to the crew, and stand by to lower away the boats for a boarding-party!"

I am afraid I have given the impression that our life at this time was solely given over to cupidity and sordidness; and that idea I may not be able to remove. Yet I must try to do so. We were in the game to win; but our winnings, present and prospective, were not in wealth only. To surmount obstacles; to drive difficulties before us like scattering sparrows; to see a town marching before us into cityhood; to feel ourselves the forces working through human ma.s.ses so mightily that, for hundreds of miles about us, social and industrial factors were compelled to readjust themselves with reference to us; to be masters; to create--all these things went into our beings in thrilling and dizzying pulsations of a pleasure which was not ign.o.ble.

For instance, let us take the building of the Lattimore & Great Western Railway. Before Mr. Elkins went to Lattimore this line had been surveyed by the cooperation of Mr. Hinckley, Mr. Ballard, the president of the opposition bank, and some others. It was felt that there was little real compet.i.tion among the railways centering there, and the L. & G.W. was designed as a hint to them of a Lattimore-built connection with the Halliday system, then a free-lance in the transportation field, and ready to make rates in an independent and compet.i.tive way. The Angus Falls extension brought this system in, but too late to do the good expected; for Mr. Halliday, in his dealings with us, convinced us of the truth of the rumors that he had brought the other roads to terms, and was a free-lance no longer. Month by month the need of real compet.i.tion in our carrying trade grew upon us. Rates accorded to other cities on our commercial fighting line we could not get, in spite of the most persistent efforts. In the offices of presidents and general managers, in St. Louis, Chicago, St. Paul and Minneapolis, Kansas City, Omaha and New York we were received by suave princes of the highways, who each blandly a.s.sured us that his road looked with especial favor upon our town, and that our representations should receive the most solicitous attention. But the word of promise was ever broken to the hope.

After one of these emba.s.sies the syndicate held a meeting in Cornish's elegant offices on the ground-floor of the new "Hotel Elkins" building.

We sent Giddings away to prepare an optimistic news-story for to-morrow's _Herald_, and an editorial leader based upon it, both of which had been formulated among us before going into executive session on the state of the nation. Hinckley, who had an admirable power of seeing the crux of a situation, was making a rather grave prognosis for us.

"If we can't get rates which will let us into a broader territory, we may as well prepare for reverses," said he. "Foreign cement comes almost to our doors, in compet.i.tion with ours. Wheat and live-stock go from within twenty miles to points five hundred miles away. Who is furnis.h.i.+ng the brick and stone for the new Fairchild court-house and the big normal-school buildings at Angus Falls? Not our quarries and kilns, but others five times as far away. If you want to figure out the reason of this, you will find it in nothing else in the world but the freight rates."

"It's a confounded outrage," said Cornish. "Can't we get help from the legislature?"

"I understand that some action is expected next winter," said I; "Senator Conley had in here the other day a bill he has drawn; and it seems to me we should send a strong lobby down at the proper time in support of it."

"Ye-e-s," drawled Jim, "but I believe in still stronger measures; and rather than bother with the legislature, owned as it is by the roads, I'd favor writing cuss-words on the water-tanks, or going up the track a piece and makin' faces at one of their confounded whistling-posts or cattle-guards--or something real drastic like that!"

Cornish, galled, as was I, by this irony, flushed crimson, and rose.

"The situation," said he, "instead of being a serious one, as I have believed, seems merely funny. This conference may as well end. Having taken on things here under the impression that this was to be a city; it seems that we are to stay a village. It occurs to me that it's time to stand from under! Good-evening!"

"Wait!" said Hinckley. "Don't go, Cornish; it isn't as bad as that!"

As he spoke he laid his hand on Cornish's arm, and I saw that he was pale. He felt more keenly than did I the danger of division and strife among us.

"Yes, Mr. Hinckley," said Jim, as Cornish sat down again, "it _is_ as bad as that! This thing amounts to a crisis. For one, I don't propose to adopt the 'stand-from-under' tactics. They make an unnecessary disaster as certain as death; but if we all stand under and lift, we can win more than we've ever thought. In the legislature they hold the cards and can beat us. It's no use fooling with that unless we seek martyrs' deaths in the bankruptcy courts. But there is a way to meet these men, and that is by bringing to our aid their greatest rival."

"Do you mean--" said Hinckley.

"I mean Avery Pendleton and the Pendleton system," replied Elkins. "I mean that we've got to meet them on their own ground. Pendleton won't declare war on the Halliday combination by building in here, but there is no reason why we can't build to him, and that's what I propose to do.

We'll take the L. & G. W., swing it over to the east from the Elk Fork up, make a junction with Pendleton's Pacific Division, and, in one week after we get trains running, we'll have the freight combine here shot so full of holes that it won't hold corn-stalks! That's what we'll do: we'll do a little rate-making ourselves; and we'll make this danger the best thing that ever happened to us. Do you see?"

Cornish saw, sooner than any one else. As he spoke, Jim had unrolled a map, and pointed out the places as he referred to them, like a general, as he was, outlining the plan of a battle. He began this speech in that quiet, convincing way of his, only a little elevated above the sarcasm of a moment before. As he went on, his voice deepened, his eye gleamed, and in spite of his colloquialisms, which we could not notice, his words began to thrill us like potent oratory. We felt all that ecstasy of buoyant and auspicious rebellion which animated Hotspur the night he could have plucked bright honor from the pale-faced moon. At Jim's final question, Cornish, forgetting his pique, sprang to the map, swept his finger along the line Elkins had described, followed the main ribs of Pendleton's great gridiron, on which the fat of half a dozen states lay frying, on to terminals on lakes and rivers; and as he turned his black eyes upon us, we knew from the fire in them that he saw.

"By heavens!" he cried, "you've hit it, Elkins! And it can be done! From to-night, no more paper railroads for us; it must be grading-gangs and ties, and steel rails!"

So, also, there was good fighting when Cornish wired from New York for Elkins and me to come to his aid in placing our Lattimore & Great Western bonds. Of course, we never expected to build this railway with our own funds. For two reasons, at least: it is bad form to do eccentric things, and we lacked a million or two of having the money. The line with buildings and rolling stock would cost, say, twelve thousand dollars per mile. Before it could be built we must find some one who would agree to take its bonds for at least that sum. As no one would pay quite par for bonds of a new and independent road, we must add, say, three thousand dollars per mile for discount. Moreover, while the building of the line was undertaken from motives of self-preservation, there seemed to be no good reason why we should not organize a construction company to do the actual work of building, and that at a profit. That this profit might be a.s.sured, something like three thousand dollars per mile more must go in. Of course, whoever placed the bonds would be asked to guarantee the interest for two or three years; hence, with two thousand more for that and good measure, we made up our proposed issue of twenty thousand dollars per mile of first-mortgage bonds, to dispose of which "the former member of the firm of Lusch, Carskaddan & Mayer" was revisiting the glimpses of Wall Street, and testing the strength of that mighty influence which the _Herald_ had attributed to him.

"You've just _got_ to win," said Giddings, who was admitted to the secret of Cornish's emba.s.sy, "not only because Lattimore and all the citizens thereof will be squashed in the event of your slipping up; but, what is of much more importance, the _Herald_ will be laid in a lie about your Wall Street pull. Remember that when foes surround thee!"

When we joined him, Cornish admitted that he was fairly well "surrounded." He had failed to secure the aid of Barr-Smith's friends, who said that, with the street-car system and the cement works, they had quite eggs enough in the Lattimore basket for their present purposes. In fact, he had felt out to blind ends nearly all the promising burrows supposedly leading to the strong boxes of the investing public, of which he had told us. He accounted for this lack of success on the very natural theory that the Halliday combination had found out about his mission, and was fighting him through its influence with the banks and trust companies. So he had done at last what Jim had advised him to do at first--secured an appointment with the mighty Mr. Pendleton; and, somewhat humbled by unsuccess, had telegraphed for us to come on and help in presenting the thing to that magnate.

Whom, being fenced off by all sorts of guards, messengers, clerks, and secretaries, we saw after a pilgrimage through a maze of offices. He had not the usual features which make up an imposing appearance; but command flowed from him, and authority covered him as with a mantle. We knew that he possessed and exerted the power to send prosperity in this channel, or inject adversity into that, as a gardener directs water through his trenches, and this knowledge impressed us. He was rather thin; but not so much so as his sharp, high nose, his deep-set eyes, and his bony chin at first sight seemed to indicate. Whenever he spoke, his nostrils dilated, and his gray eyes said more than his lips uttered. He was courteous, with a sort of condensed courtesy--the shorthand of ceremoniousness. He turned full upon us from his desk as we entered, rose and met us as his clerk introduced us.

"Mr. Barslow, I'm happy to meet you; and you also, Mr. Cornish. Mr.

Wilson 'phoned about your enterprise just now. Mr. Elkins," as he took Jim's hand, "I have heard of you also. Be seated, gentlemen. I have given you a time appropriation of thirty minutes. I hope you will excuse me for mentioning that at the end of that period my time will be no longer my own. Kindly explain what it is you desire of me, and why you think that I can have any interest in your project."

And, with a judgment trained in the valuing of men, he turned to Jim as our leader.

"If our enterprise doesn't commend itself to your judgment in twenty minutes," said Jim, with a little smile, and in much the same tone that he would have used in discussing a cigar, "there'll be no need of wasting the other ten; for it's perfectly plain. I'll expedite matters by skipping what we desire, for the most part, and telling you why we think the Pendleton system ought to desire the same thing. Our plan, in a word, is to build a hundred and fifty miles of line, and from it deliver two full train-loads of through east-bound freight per day to your road, and take from you a like amount of west-bound tonnage, not one pound of which can be routed over your lines at present."

Mr. Pendleton smiled.

"A very interesting proposition, Mr. Elkins," said he; "my business is railroading, and I am always glad to perfect myself in the knowledge of it. Make it plain just how this can be done, and I shall consider my half-hour well expended."

Then began the fateful conversation out of which grew the building of the Lattimore & Great Western Railway. Jim walked to the map which covered one wall of the room, and dropped statement after statement into the mind of Pendleton like round, compact bullets of fact. It was the best piece of expository art imaginable. Every foot of the road was described as to gradients, curves, cuts, fills, trestles, bridges, and local traffic. Then he began with Lattimore; and we who breathed in nothing but knowledge of that city and its resources were given new light as to its s.h.i.+pments and possibilities of growth. He showed how the products of our factories, the grain from our elevators, the live-stock from our yards, and the meats from our packing-houses could be sent streaming over the new road and the lines of Pendleton.

Then he turned to our Commercial Club, and showed that the merchants, both wholesale and retail, of Lattimore were welded together in its members.h.i.+p, in such wise that their merchandise might be routed from the great cities over the proposed track. He piled argument on argument. He hammered down objection after objection before they could be suggested.

He met Mr. Pendleton in the domain of railroad construction and management, and showed himself familiar with the relative values of Pendleton's own lines.

"Your Pacific Division," said he, "must have disappointed some of the expectations with which it was built. Its earnings cannot, in view of the distance they fall below those of your other lines, be quite satisfactory to you. Give us the traffic agreement we ask; and your next report after we have finished our line will show the Pacific Division doing more than its share in the great showing of revenue per mile which the Pendleton system always makes. I see that my twenty minutes is about up. I hope I have made good our promises as to showing cause for coming to you with our project."

Mr. Pendleton, after a moment's thought, said: "Have you made an engagement for lunch?"

We had not. He turned to the telephone, and called for a number.

"Is this Mr. Wade's office?... Yes, if you please.... Is this Mr.

Wade?... This is Pendleton talking to you.... Yes, Pendleton.... There are some gentlemen in my office, Mr. Wade, whom I want you to meet, and I should be glad if you could join us at lunch at the club.... Well, can't you call that off, now?... Say, at one-thirty.... Yes.... Very kind of you.... Thanks! Good-by."

Having made his arrangements with Mr. Wade, he hung up the telephone, and pushed an electric b.u.t.ton. A young man from an outer office responded.

"Tell Mr. Moore," said Pendleton to him, "that he will have to see the gentlemen who will call at twelve--on that lake terminal matter--he will understand. And see that I am not disturbed until after lunch.... And, say, Frank! See if Mr. Adams can come in here--at once, please."

Mr. Adams, who turned out to be some sort of a freight expert, came in, and the rest of the interview was a bombardment of questions, in which we all took turns as targets. When we went to lunch we felt that Mr.

Pendleton had possessed himself of all we knew about our enterprise, and filed the information away in some vast pigeon-hole case with his own great stock of knowledge.

We met Mr. Wade over an elaborate lunch. He said, as he shook hands with Cornish, that he believed they had met somewhere, to which Cornish bowed a frigid a.s.sent. Mr. Wade was the head of The Allen G. Wade Trust Company, and seemed in a semi-comatose condition, save when cakes, wine, or securities were under discussion. He addressed me as "Mr.

Corning," and called Cornish "Atkins," and once in a while opened his mouth to address Jim by name, but halted, with a distressful look, at the realization of the fact that he could not remember names enough to go around. He made an appointment with me for the party for the next morning.

"If you will come to my office before you call on Mr. Wade," said Mr.

Pendleton, "I will have a memorandum prepared of what we will do with you in the way of a traffic agreement: it may be of some use in determining the desirability of your bonds. I'm very glad to have met you, gentlemen. When Lattimore gets into my world--by which I mean our system and connections--I hope to visit the little city which has so strong a business community as to be able to send out such a committee as yourselves; good-afternoon!"

"Well," said I, as we went toward our hotel, "this looks like progress, doesn't it?"

"I sha'n't feel dead sure," said Jim, "until the money is in bank, subject to the check of the construction company. But doesn't it look juicy, right now! Why, boys, with that traffic agreement we can get the money anywhere--on the prairie, out at sea--anywhere under the s.h.i.+ning sun! They can't beat us. What do you say, Cornish? Will, your friend Wade jar loose, or shall we have to seek further?"

"He'll snap at your bonds now," said Cornish, rather glumly, I thought, considering the circ.u.mstances; "but don't call him a friend of mine!

Why, d.a.m.n him, not a week ago he turned me out of his office, saying that he didn't want to look into any more Western railway schemes! And now he says he believes we've met before!"

This seemed to strike Mr. Elkins as the best practical joke he had ever heard of; and Cornish suggested that for a man to stop in Homeric laughter on Broadway might be pleasant for him, but was embarra.s.sing to his companions. By this time Cornish himself was better-natured. Jim took charge of our movements, and commanded us to a dinner with him, in the nature of a celebration, with a theater-party afterward.

"Let us," said he, "hear the chimes at midnight, or even after, if we get buncoed doing it. Who cares if we wind up in the police court! We've done the deed; we've made our bluff good with Halliday and his gang of highwaymen; and I feel like taking the limit off, if it lifts the roof!

Al, hold your hand over my mouth or I shall yell!"