H. Irving Hancock

“ There were more than a hundred laborers in the cellar, while the stairs were blocked by a mob of enraged workmen.
“Stop it all, men!” Tom again urged, and this time there was silence, save for his own strong voice. “We don't want to prove ourselves to be as despicable as the enemy are. Bring 'em up to the street, but don't be brutal about it. We'll look the scoundrels over so that we'll know them to-morrow. Come along. Clear the stairs, if you please, men!”
Tom was now once more in control, as fully as though he had his force of toilers out on the desert at the Man-killer quicksand. ”

“ Tom Reade knew men well enough to recognize this fact. Moreover, Tom knew the plain, unvarnished, honest and deadly-in-earnest men of these south-western plains well enough to know the genuine fury of the crowd.
Arizona and New Mexico have long been held up as states where violence and lynch law prevail. The truth is that Arizona and New Mexico have no more lynchings than do many of the older states. An Arizona lynching can only follow an upheaval of public sentiment, when honest men are angered at having their fair fame sullied by the acts of blackguards. ”

“ Time and again he was swept back from reaching Tim Griggs, who was easily the center of this volcanic outburst of human passion.
“Boys!” roared Tim. “We'll want to know these coyotes to-morrow. Black the left eye of each rascal. I'll black both of Jim Duff's.”
Two heavy, sodden impacts sounded during a brief pause in the noise, attesting to the fact that the gambler had been decorated.
“Stop all this! Stop!” roared Tom Reade. “Men, we're not savages, just because these other fellows happen to be! Stop it, I tell you. Are there no foremen here?” ”

“ When the last name had been entered the same bull-necked spokesman flared up again.
“Have we no rights?” he demanded. “Is there no such thing as the right of appeal in this camp, or are we under a lot of domineering, petty tyrants like you?”
“I'm a poor specimen of tyrant,”' laughed Payson good-naturedly. “All I'm doing, Bellas, is following orders. Any man who feels that he was justified in being away, and that he ought to be kept on the pay rolls here, may make his appeal to Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Hazelton or Mr. Reade.” ”

“ Your hands are not tied.”
“Cut it out, Rafe! Quit it!” ordered one of the other men in the crowd. “We won't let this tenderfoot split our ranks. You're one of us, and you'll stand by us.”
“Not if there's going to be any more hitting of tied men,” retorted Bodson sulkily. “There's a limit to what a man can stand.”
“Thank you, my friend,” broke in Tom Reade mildly. “But don't go to any trouble on our account. There are few if any others in this crowd who can understand the meaning of fair play—the gambler least of all.”
“I'll take that out of you, Reade!” blazed Jim Duff. ”

“ Be a man, for once in your miserable career,” ordered Rafe Bodson. “Don't try to protect yourself by hiding behind the bodies of men who don't know any better than to follow your lead.”
Jim Duff didn't accept the challenge. Instead, he crouched behind two of his followers, taking deliberate aim with his revolver at Bodson.
But he never fired that cowardly shot. Like a flash from the sky came an interruption that created panic among the assembled scoundrels.
“Here we have 'em, gentlemen,” announced the steady voice of Superintendent Hawkins from the western end of the gully. ”

“ Down by the checker's hut the crowd of curious workmen gasped as they saw Tom Reade jogging along with this great load over one shoulder. Reaching the line, Tom gave another heave. Bellas rolled on the ground. He was conscious and could have gotten up, but he chose to lay where he had fallen and think matters over.
“Don't think I'm peevish, men,” Tom called pleasantly. “I wouldn't have done that if Bellas hadn't attacked me. I had to defend myself. Now, while I'm here, does any man wish to make a claim for justice? Does any man feel that he has been discharged unfairly?” ”

“ Let me through, I tell you!” insisted the voice of Harry Hazelton, as that young assistant engineer struggled with the crowd.
Then, on being recognized, Harry was allowed to reach the side of his chum.
“Mr. Reade!” called a husky-toned voice, “won't you order your men to let me through to see you? I want to talk with you about tonight's outrage.”
Tom recognized the speaker as a man named Beasley, one of Paloma's most upright and courageous citizens.
“Let Mr. Beasley through,” Tom called. “Don't block the streets, men. Remember, we've no right to do that.” ”

“ Where's Hazelton?”
“Who wants me?” demanded the other unrecognizable, smoke-blackened figure.
“They're both safe!”
“Oh—cut it out,” begged Tom good-humoredly. “You can't lose an engineer or even kill him. Doc, what's the report?”
“All three are alive,” replied Dr. Furniss, “but they'll need care and nursing. Here, help me place them in my car. Someone get in and ride with me—I'll need help. You, Reade!”
“No,” responded Tom with emphasis, as he looked down at his discolored self. “If the lady saw me when she opened her eyes, she'd faint again. I'd scare the kiddies into convulsions. ”

“ While Tom Reade spoke Foreman Mendoza had marshaled his Mexicans and was translating the young engineer's words into Spanish.
Nor was it long ere Tom's fine presentation of the matter caught the men in the nobler part of their feelings.
“Don't blame Duff so much,” Tom finally went on. “He may be a parasite, a vulture, a feeder on blood, but you and men just like you have helped to make the Duffs. You're not going to do so after this, are you, my friends? You're not going to keep the breath of life in monsters who drain you dry of life and manhood?” ”

“ You can't help Mr. Reade. Be cool, sir. Keep your head and direct us like a man of sense.”
“Be a man of sense, and see my chum going under the sands of the Man-killer?” flared Hazelton.
He made a bound, doubling his fists threateningly. Then three or four men, at a sign from Payson, seized the young assistant engineer and threw him to the ground.
“Tom,” called Harry, “order these fools to let me go.”
Reade, however, who had just pulled in all the slack of the rawhide lariat, and had made it fast about his own left arm, seemed wholly unaware of his own great peril. ”

“ No gambler ever uses any real honor. Men of honor work for the money that they need or want. Duff had a smooth way of talking, an agreeable manner with his profitable victims, but he never had a shred of honor. It isn't possible to be a gambler and a man of honor. If you've seven hundred dollars that you lost to Duff at cards, put it in your pocket and get out of Paloma as soon as you can. Duff won't need the money, anyway. He's down at the Mansion House, dying of a bullet wound that he got through his last piece of trickery. ”

“ General Manager Ellsworth gazed down at the sleeping form, and a new light of admiration dawned in his eyes.
“So that's the young man whom they're talking of shooting, poisoning or blowing into the next world with dynamite?” he thought. “A lot this young man appears to think about his enemies! There's real courage in this young man. Reade, wake up—if you can spare the time.”
Tom opened his eyes, rubbed them, then sat up, next springing to his feet. ”

“ Tom replied in a voice of surprise. “It is still hard for me to believe. How can any man be square and honorable when he won't work, but fattens on the earnings of others? Has that idea any connection with honor?”
“Stop that line of talk, you young hound!” ordered Duff, striding up to this bold young enemy. All the slight veneer of polish that Duff usually affected had vanished now. His eyes blazed with rage as he doubled his fist and struck Reade full in the face, knocking him down. One of the bystanders jerked Tom to his feet. ”

“ The man who has been much about the world soon learns to understand that the really honest and “square” gambler is a creature of the imagination. The gambler makes his living by his wits, and he who lives by anything so intangible speedily finds the road to cheating and trickery.
Jim Duff had been no exception. His reputation was such that he could find few men among the residents of this part of Arizona who would meet him at the gaming table. He plied his trade mostly among simple-minded tourists from the east—the class of men who are known in Arizona as “tenderfeet.” ”

“ By this time every man in the barber shop was secretly watching the young engineers, a fact that was plain to Harry Hazelton, as he glanced up from a magazine.
“Yee, sir,” Tom answered again. “In a way I'm at the head of it, but my friend, Hazelton, is really as much at the head as I am. We are partners, and we work together in everything.”
“Do you think, Reade, that you're going to win out on the job?” inquired another man. ”

“ Reade counseled. “I tell you, Harry, we've proved that our principle is sound. Now, we will go ahead and finish the job. When we go away from here I, for one, shall feel certain that the Man-killer must behave for all time to come. Harry, there's a limit to the shifting tendency of a quicksand, and to-day's test proves to me that we've found it. We've won. I wish I were as sure of a dozen other things as I am that we've won out here to-day.”
“All right, then,” smiled Hazelton. “You're a smarter engineer than I am, Tom, old fellow. ”

“ Tom urged, riding forward.
“Yes; we ought to be gentle with every rattlesnake,” came an answer from the crowd.
Ashby laughed harshly.
“You can't hurt me, neighbors,” declared the hotel man. “I'm bullet proof. Any man who fires at me will find that the bullet will rebound and bit him. Tie me up to a tree, if you like. You'll find that I won't choke. I'll just slide back to earth as often as you tie me up.”
“Just what I thought,” murmured Tom.
“What do you think?” demanded Mr. Ellsworth from the car.
“The man's as mad as a March hare,” replied Reade. ”

“ Tom remarked to Superintendent Hawkins. “However, I think you had better dock the missing men for time off. If you find that any missing man has been gone on a proper errand of rest or enjoyment, and has not been making a beast of himself, you can restore his docked pay on the lists.”
“That's a very good idea,” nodded Hawkins. “It always angers me to see these poor, hardworking fellows go away and make fools of themselves just as soon as they get a bit of pay in their pockets. Still, you can't change the whole face of human nature, Mr. Reade.” ”

“ Paloma, here, is one of the towns. So the road has to come here.”
“But couldn't the road shift, just after it leaves here?” insisted Clarence.
“Oh, certainly. Yet, if the road shifted enough to avoid any possibility of resting on the big Man-killer, then it would have to go through the range beyond here—would have to tunnel under the hills for a distance of three miles. That would cost millions of dollars. No, sir; the railroad will have to lay tracks across the Man-killer, or else it will have to stand a loss so great as to cripple the road.” ”

“ Hawkins,” directed Tom. “I'm not afraid of him. Duff, I wish to apologize to you for striking you in the face. I wouldn't allow any man to do that to me. But your action in reaching for a pistol was so childish—or cowardly, whichever you prefer to call it—that I admit I forgot myself for a moment. Now, you are not going to erect any tents for gambling or other unworthy purposes on the railroad's property. It's bad business to let you do anything of the sort. I trust that there will be no hard feeling between us.” ”

“ Then why should you be so eager to get into one of his tents and let him take your money away from you?
“It is true that, once in a while, a solitary player gets a few dollars away from a gambler. Yet, in the end, the gambler has every dollar of the crowd that patronizes him. You men have been out in the hot sun for weeks, working hard to earn the money that the pay train is bringing you. Has Jim Duff done any work in the last few weeks? While you men have been toiling and sweating, what has Duff been doing? ”

“ Tom answered pleasantly, though firmly. “The gamblers over in Paloma are leagued with the dive keepers against us, Bellas. You know what they did out at the big sink of the Man-killer last night. Any man who goes away from camp and 'enjoys' himself for hours among those who are trying to put us out of business shows himself to be a friend to the enemies of this camp. Therefore the man who does that shows himself to be one of our enemies, in sympathy if not in fact.” ”