The Yazoo Mystery Part 13

"Taylor, you are just the man I want to see," said he. "Come to lunch with me." It was the chief's a.s.sistant who grabbed me by the arm and led me into a nearby restaurant.

"I have just left the chief," the a.s.sistant continued, after we had seated ourselves, "and he has given me a hard nut to crack; complaints have piled up from wholesale and retail dealers that bad meat, hams and lard--even horse-meat--have appeared in this market, which bear the genuine stamps and tags of the Bureau of Animal Industry, and it has started a devil of a row," he whispered across the table. "You are still working on that car robbery case, and I thought you might pick up something for me. Who is Becker & Co.?" He ended by asking this question so suddenly that I could scarcely conceal my astonishment.

"I know there is a concern by that name, with a plant up the river somewhere. They are quite heavy shippers," I replied easily.

"You can get the freight records and perhaps give me a line on their operations, can't you?"

I knew then that Becker & Co. had been mentioned in some of the complaints. Before parting I promised to have some information for him by the next morning.

I spent the rest of the afternoon obtaining commercial reports on them and making arrangements to have their mail censored, and I did not reach my room until dinner time.

The door was open as usual between our rooms. Glancing into the other room, I saw Hiram lying on his bed asleep, which was something unusual for him, and there was something about his color that drew my attention at once. He did not stir when I came alongside the bed.

He was lying on his back with his head comfortably pillowed and his arms relaxed at his sides like a corpse. His face was bloodless, and his high, wavy black hair intensified by the white pillow. It reminded me of the time I saw him in the hospital at Hampton, Virginia, after his fearful experience in firing on the steamer; but his body had now filled out and was even athletic.

He was either very tired or--or had he lapsed into drink again--or was it drugs?

Though usually a light sleeper, my touch on his wrist did not arouse him; his pulse was regular, and bending low, I could not detect the fumes of liquor. No, Hiram Strong, Jr., was just tired out--worried into fatigue that called for sleep. He was going through the fire that either refines or destroys. Would he stand it? That was my anxiety as I returned to my room to prepare for dinner.

"Ben, is that you?" he called presently in a sleepy voice.

For answer I came to the door, wiping my hands and looking interested.

"I fell asleep waiting for you to come, Ben. I want to tell you that I acted the d.a.m.ned cad this morning." Then coming over, he put two strong hands on my shoulders and looked straight at me with clear eyes.

"Ben," he continued, as though suddenly realizing he was taking himself too seriously, "I know you are on the square with me, I know you are doing everything you can for me, but your movements are maddeningly deliberate. You act as though you were an old-stager at the game and was going sure. But I feel like I was bound hand and foot with these fellows darting javelins into my skin every time they look at me; and you know I can't see Anna Bell Morgan until----" He dropped his hands from my shoulders and looked out of the window. "Perhaps I am expecting too much--you cleaned up that Quarryville matter so----"

"But, Hiram, this is a big matter, reaching G.o.d only knows how far. It involves a number of men, clever in crookedness, and perhaps women.

There's more to it than a bone-headed, love-sick German and a case of dynamite. The amounts involved are big, and it must move slowly. I know how you feel, but you've got to grin and bear it. But about Anna Bell Morgan, I think you are foolish. If she is the kind of girl you should marry she would want very much to stand by you. But if you adopt a drastic code of your own and insist on living up to it, how can she or any one help you in that respect?"

"Ben," he began deliberately, after taking a chair and c.o.c.king himself back against the window-sill, "I know that Anna Bell Morgan wants to help me. I am nursing the delusion, perhaps, that she would give one of her hands--make any sacrifice--but I don't believe a real man, under similar circ.u.mstances, would bid for help from the woman whom he really loves. If this thought proves a delusion I must stand it somehow, but I don't believe I will ever have faith in a woman again. I am beginning to see things differently now. I can see more and more why the Gold-Beater was given that name by friend and enemy. He fought fair and in the open and took punishment without a whimper. Ben, he made a mistake with me, but he gave me a decent sense of honor, and lately I realize he has given me a good-sized body that will stand real punishment. No, sir, my 'drastic code,' as you call it, has got to go. And now, with that out of my system, I am going to give you a real shock."

Then, with exasperating deliberation, he lighted his pipe, drew his feet up on the lower front rungs of his chair, meanwhile watching me as I walked back and forth before him intensely interested.

"I am going to quit the railroad and----"

"No, you are not--not now----" I warned. But he interrupted me as I paused in front of him, pointing a finger at him, and I soon saw that I might as well have raised my arm to stay the flood of Niagara.

"I expected you to protest until----"

"But they will think----"

"I don't care a d.a.m.n what they think now. I've got to do it and you've got to help me," he said with set jaw.

"But just now that would be suicide----"

"No--not after I explain--I don't intend to run away--I am going to stay right here the remainder of my life if necessary and clear this thing up; I've got to. But I can't do it working all day until I'm woozy. Now, you have got to help me."

"But I think you are hasty----"

"You won't think so after I have stated my case. I am going to const.i.tute you the court, attorney for the prosecution and defense, and the jury; in fact, give you all const.i.tutional rights except my right of appeal; that will enable a quick decision and that's what I'm after right now--before we go to dinner," he ended with his wonderfully contagious smile that seemed impossible only a few minutes ago.

He continued to sit c.o.c.ked back in his chair against the window-sill with his legs drawn up so his feet rested on the lower rungs, blowing smoke at me, as I paced back and forth before him across the room.

"Well--go ahead," I said finally.

"First let me tell you why you've got to help me. You have the know-how and more general experience, and can do it. I take it you are 'in right'

in New Orleans. You can help me when you are helping yourself. I believe in you thoroughly--except--except perhaps when you go off on a little tangent, like you did when you put that barrel of iron filings in storage, and made me pay half----" He hesitated, smiling broadly. I did not reply, and he continued, "but even that has its advantages, because it makes me smile whenever I think of it and that's worth something. And that brings me to the second reason why you must help me. There is something about your long nose that seems to smell out things pretty well, your general att.i.tude toward me and everything, that awakens a sense of humor. If they put me in jail, and you come to see me, I believe I could see the humorous side of that, even. Now do you understand?" he asked, relieved and confident.

"I am waiting to hear why you propose to resign," I insisted, ignoring his complimentary terms as directed toward me.

"I'll make that short enough--as long as I stay at work there I don't have time or ginger to do anything else. I believe that Becker is the head of the stealing--I have got several tips lately and I believe he's the man. Several train-men, who learned I was in trouble, informed me that his place up the river is queer. In ordinary water it is an island, between the track and the river, the switch running to it over piles, and several times when they rode cars into his unloading doors they have seen things they believe will bear investigation. But it's going to be hard to get into the old fox's place. He receives by rail from here and the north, too, but ships out everything by an old boat on the river."

"Now"--hesitated Hiram shrewdly--"that car of sausage that was short the other night sat on track One--exactly opposite two cars that were loaded for him on track Two. The s.p.a.ce between cars on those two tracks is so narrow that I was nearly killed one day between them; the time between the arrival of the sausage car and the departure of his cars was only a little more than half an hour, but it was between 2:30 and 3:30 a. m., when no one was there, and I believe the transfer was made in that time--do you follow me?"

"Yes--go ahead. But what about the three seals being intact when you opened the car?"

"I knew you would ask that--but I believe, with help from those 'higher up,' and the seals could be had--stolen of course. There are two hard nuts to crack; one is the seals, and the other is to get into his place--and that's where you must help."

"Now here is another funny thing." Hiram hesitated to bring from his hip pocket an envelope. "Some one who knew my full name sent this to me, care of the office," and he read from a typewritten slip of paper,

"Why does Becker & Co. get freight by rail and ship out only by water?"

I stopped in front of him and reached for the slip to examine it critically.

"Hiram--let me keep this?" It looked like railroad stationery.

"Yes--help yourself."

"Have you any plan to get into Becker & Co.'s plant?" I asked, recalling that I had not mentioned that I suspected them, and that this was the third definite lead in that direction.

"He is a foxy old rat and would take any ordinary bait off a trap and send it to you by mail. The only thing I can think of is a boat--maybe I didn't tell you it is a fertilizer plant and uses lots of dead animals.

With a boat to take him some of this stock, one might finally get to carrying his river freight at a cut price and that would open the door wide."

"But boats that will carry even a little freight are scarce now."

"Yes, I know that--but we've got to have a boat. Buy it, build it, or dig one out of the mud somewhere."

"You have made out a pretty good case, Hiram. I will think it over--in the meantime this may interest you," I said, handing him the telegram I had received from the chemist. Though half fearing it a joke, he sprang from his chair and took it eagerly.

CHAPTER XVI

STANDING in the middle of the floor Hiram read the missive several times. He seemed amazed as well as incredulous. Finally, as he read it with evident desire to grasp its meaning thoroughly, his face lighted up with joy. "Bully stuff!" he exclaimed. Then he read it aloud:

"The larger sample of color received. The market just now is particularly bare of this grade. Can get you unusual price of a dollar a pound. If satisfactory ship Morgan Line, send memo. of weight and will forward check at once.