The two men, secure in the big, lamp-lighted room, stared expectantly into one another’s eyes. Hooker was trembling, his face white, despite the tan. He attempted to roll a cigarette before beginning, but his fingers refused to obey. The other man appeared to be more annoyed than otherwise.
“Do you insist that you never before saw that man who was with me to-night?” the foreman asked.
“Never.”
“Then how did he happen to have a letter, signed by you, asking that I give him a position?”
“A letter from me?” The other man—it was Jim Sigsbee himself—allowed a frown to creep between his eyes.
“Yes, from you,” affirmed Hooker. “Of course, I didn’t ask questions. I put him to work. He was a clever man. He’s now in charge of the conduit construction.”
“What is his name?”
“Elliot Nash. At least, that’s what he wanted me to call him.”
“Well, what’s the excitement? You look as if you’d received a ten-year sentence to the pen!”
“Well,” returned Hooker, leaning nearer the politician, his face working strangely in the yellow lamplight, “that’s just what I want to avoid. That’s why I called up Martin a minute ago. I wanted to be on the safe side.”
Sigsbee’s interest increased.
“Well, come out with the whole story,” he said. “I can stand for it. What’s wrong?”
“The inspector—Boyer—was here last night. I was—was ill. Couldn’t see him as usual. Nash happened around and checked over the books with him.”
Sigsbee was breathing faster now.
“Well, well, go on!”
“This Nash is a systematic chap. Kept a memorandum of everything in his department. He’s wise to the pay-roll game.”
“You shouldn’t have allowed him to see——”
“Allowed him?” Hooker interrupted bitterly. “What else was I to do? Didn’t he have a letter from you? How was I to know? I thought of course you knew the man, and that he was wise to things. That’s why I trusted him in a dozen different ways.”
The politician was beginning to share the foreman’s uneasiness.
“Did he come to you after he found out about the pay-roll figures?” he asked.
“Yes. He said he thought at first it was a mistake in the bookkeeping. I imagined he was joking. When I found he was serious, I began to get worried.”
“Has he threatened?”
“Not exactly. But he intends to resign unless his department is run on the square. Handed me a bunch of stuff about being a native of Los Angeles, and how he dreaded to see its citizens get the little end of the deal.”
“Why not let him resign?” Sigsbee said, after a moment’s hesitation. “It’ll save explaining, and clear our minds a bit——”
Hooker broke in angrily: “Look here, Sigsbee, you’re a sensible man. Hasn’t it occurred to you that possibly some one suspects our game and has taken this method of getting the goods on us? We don’t know how Nash got that letter, but in all probability it was just a part of a well-laid scheme. It gave him the opportunity of working on the job and getting the proofs firsthand.”
“I hadn’t looked at it in that light,” Sigsbee said, plainly affected by the foreman’s statement. “But it sounds reasonable enough. I’ve been uneasy myself for the past month or so. There’s something in the air—that ominous calm before a storm possibly. Somehow, every time I step into the city hall I expect a hand to descend upon my shoulder. The evening papers are hinting about the amount of money being spent. I don’t know where it’ll all end.”
“I know,” vehemently declared Hooker. “It’ll be a change of clothes and a State boarding house—all without cost to us.”
“Things are looking serious, Hooker, but——” Sigsbee remained buried in thought for the time. Finally he resumed: “Are you satisfied that Nash is a city spotter?”
“Doesn’t all the evidence point that way?”
Sigsbee had to admit it did. “I’d like to know how he came in possession of my letter,” he went on. “If he found it and needed a job, and took that method of obtaining it—we’re still safe. But if it was all a cleverly worked-out scheme, such as you seem to believe—well, things look doubtful.”
“I don’t think the news has gone beyond this camp,” Hooker ventured to hint. “There’s some consolation in that, eh?”
Sigsbee’s eyes came up swiftly. “You mean we might prevent him from——” He broke off.
“Why not? Desperate cases demand desperate measures. It doesn’t seem right that one man should deprive us of all our reward. Now, if he was only out of the way——”
“We’re in too deep right now,” the politician broke in. “What you suggest would only bring the police and the reporters about us.”
Hooker laughed mirthlessly. “What did I suggest?”
“Why, you said——” the other began.
“Don’t you know, on jobs of this kind, Sigsbee, that a dozen accidents happen every day? Do you know that we’ll average a dozen deaths a month right here in this camp? A steam shovel breaks, or some chain slips, or maybe there’s a rock slide. If you say the word, I’m sure Martin could arrange everything.”
“That would be very well,” Sigsbee said, weighing the matter calmly, “if we were positive of two things: That Nash is not a spotter, and that he alone knows of our affairs.”
Hooker walked slowly up and down the room, his hands clenched at his sides. Sigsbee, huddled in a chair before the table, watched him narrowly.
“We’ve had smooth sailing for three years,” the foreman said, at length. “And at the best we could only have one more year—possibly eighteen months. I’d like to wash my hands of the whole affair.”
“I’m with you there,” responded Sigsbee. “I’d like to drop the game—drop it before we’re shown up.”
“Well, what’s to prevent it?” asked Hooker, pausing beside the other’s chair. “Why can’t we?”
“We’re in deep—infernally deep,” Sigsbee said gravely. “I’m afraid they’d trace it back. You know, I haven’t the best of reputations since that affair in Chinatown. Once let the rumor get out, and have the newspaper fellows nosing around——” He paused and shrugged. “I’ve a family to consider, too. If Nash should meet with an accident, such as you’ve suggested, how do we know but there might be a dozen others—friends, possibly, who’d out with the story? If he’s a spotter, he’s no fool.”
“Why not pass a little of the long green before his eyes?” the foreman spoke up swiftly. “Most of us fall for that.”
But Sigsbee shook his head. For some time he was steeped in thought, staring across at the opposite wall, his fat white fingers toying with his watch chain.
“Do you suppose this man would visit me in the city?” he asked, at length.
“I suppose so,” moodily responded Hooker. “Why?”
“Will you ask him to call to-morrow at my office?”
“If you insist. But I tell you, Sigsbee, it’s playing with fire. One little word from him, and the whole town would be up in arms. We’ve got him safe as it is. Martin won’t let him get out of camp. I don’t see why we want to——”
“I’ll see him at my office to-morrow at two o’clock,” Sigsbee interrupted, heedless of the other’s protests. “And as for you, Hooker, maybe I’ll give you the vacation you wanted.”
TO BE CONTINUED.
Mr. Boyle says that it is one of the amusements of West Africa to show strangers how a Fantee boy can sleep. A friend of his wishing to rouse some servants and send them to close the shutters and lock the doors, said to him:
“I’ll show you something which you wouldn’t believe on hearsay.”
Thereon he grasped a boy by the heels, dragged him a yard or so, turned him over, and roughly lifted him to a sitting posture; the youth sat up, rubbed his eyes, scratched his head, and went to sleep again. To another he did the same, with a like result.
Having thus got the two alongside, fast asleep, he dragged one on top of the other, and left them a moment; they slumbered placidly in that position. He then ran amuck at them, being in slippers, and upset the pair, and ordered them loudly to close the shutters. They both got up, eyes wide open, and apparently conscious; one walked gravely downstairs, the other retired, with all semblance of reason, to the pantry alongside.
The one who went down came up again in two minutes, still with his eyes wide open, and leisurely lay down to sleep again; the other we found fast snoozing in the pantry on a stool. We took them up, and shook them violently; they rubbed themselves, and went to sleep again.
Dragging them into the dining room, without a word, they silently set about their work, fastening shutters and doors.
“Do you think they are awake?” asked my friend. “Tell them to get you something.”
I did so. No response. I repeated the order. They quietly went back, their work completed, and dropped asleep upon their mats. Fast stupefied with sleep all the time!