John Steele

“ Now that the immediate tension of the crisis had relaxed, John Steele found himself very close to a mental and physical collapse. It was true that the great Peter Berrington was dead, but the elation which that startling piece of news had first caused subsided long before he reached the city. Men die, but systems remain. Had the shadow of Peter Berrington been lifted, after all, even though Peter himself was now a shadow? The grotesque uncertainty of the situation was making rags of John Steele's nerves. ”

“ At three o’clock the ex-station-master of Slocum Junction was shown into John Steele’s private office. His face was so gaunt and haggard that for a moment Steele felt sorry for him; but business is business, and sympathy has no place in the wheat-pit. ”

“ Manson was a born master, who had risen step by step into the position of division superintendent. Added to this, he was quiet, taciturn and unemotional. John Steele, on the other hand, was the embodiment of good-fellowship; talkative, humourous, genial; who believed every one around him as honest and whole-hearted as himself. But there were those beneath him who had regarded themselves quite properly in the line of promotion, and whose ambitions had been stirred when it became known that Philip Manson was about to retire. ”

“ John Steele lifted up his voice and gave utterance to a piercing scream that rent the silence like the soul-scattering screech of a locomotive.
“Bless us and keep us!” cried Constance Berrington, covering her small ears with her small hands, “is that an Indian war-whoop, that once used to resound in this wilderness?’
“No, it’s the acme of civilisation; merely a college yell. If any of your people are graduates of Chicago University they’ll recognise it.”
The people who were not graduates of anything, except the college of hard labour, hurried to meet them with anxious faces. ”

“ The man for whom every reporter in Chicago is searching, and whom I am most desirous to meet, walks right into my office. How many million bushels of wheat did you buy to-day, Mr. Steele?”
John Steele was a much more genial person than this man from New York. He threw back his head and laughed.
“Mr. Nicholson, I am delighted to have made your acquaintance. Your wild guess that I am the buyer of wheat is really flattering to me. Yet your own reference to my little contest with Rockervelt should have reminded you that I deal in railways, and not in grain.” ”

“ Steele laughed heartily.
“Oh, yes, I know. Why don’t you advise me to go to some sanitarium and consult a physician on mental aberration? I want to fish, but it is to fish out the secrets of John Steele. By this time to-morrow I shall be kissing the tips of my fingers to the statue of Liberty.”
“John,” said Manson, solemnly, “you are taking a false step. If you go to Europe in this frame of mind you are making a grave mistake which may not be easily remedied. Opportunities come once, twice, thrice, but they don’t come always, and if they find a man persistently not at home, they pass on. ”

“ John’s own conscience was not supersensitive on this point, and his private opinion would have been that a man was a fool not to take all he could get. So, before they returned to Chicago, he had quite made up his mind to become a partner with William Metcalfe in forming the Consolidated Beet Sugar Company, Metcalfe having no domicile in Chicago, the headquarters of the new trust was the private office of John Steele and the apartments adjoining. ”

“ Telegraph all those people that Rockervelt was to meet at Tobasco to-morrow morning to take the midnight train for Portandit and meet him there.”
“Steele, are you out of your senses?”
“No. It’s all as I say. Nothing can stop us.”
“I haven’t the list of the men that——”
“Then call up Blair. He’s in his private car on Number Three, which of course you know. You must get the list.”
“John Steele, I implore you to stop before it is too late. This is an outrage. It’s kidnapping—brigand’s work. You are breaking laws that will——”
“I know, I know. Good night, Mr. Manson.” ”

“ He was commonly rated as being worth anywhere from six to ten millions, and the world looked upon him as the most fortunate of men. It did him no harm to be thought to enjoy the backing of the powerful Peter Berrington, and probably not more than half-a-dozen men knew that such was far from being the case. He did not bask in Peter’s smile, but, on the contrary, shivered in his shadow.
The one man who had no delusions on the subject was John Steele himself. For the second time he had been entirely victorious over Nicholson and the gigantic coterie behind him ”

“ I’ll take it like a shot, and raise the freight rates on soap if Philip will let me.”
He seized a telegraph blank and wrote:
Heartiest congratulations. The right man in right place. You need not come to New York, as I am leaving for home to-night. I shall accept your opening, whatever it is.
Before two days were past, John Steele was closeted with Manson in the president’s room of the huge Wheat Belt building. The great, flat table in the centre was covered with broad maps taken from the civil engineer’s department, maps unknown to the general public. ”

“ The hands of the financial group in the tall building on Broadway were clean. No band of Quakers were more set against violence than these mild-mannered men in New York. If John Steele had told the story of the attempted lynching among the Black Hills, the incredulous public would have looked upon the affair as a practical joke played by humourous mountaineers on a tenderfoot from the East. No one knew better than John Steele that to connect Dakota Bill of the Black Hills with Nicholson of New York was an impossibility. ”

“ Thus Steele always received his discouragement from his own chief, and with most people this would ultimately have dampened enthusiasm; but John was ever optimistic and a believer in his work. One day he rushed into the club, his hat on the back of his head, and his eyes ablaze with excitement.
“Mr. Rogers, I’ve solved the problem at last!” he cried. “I tell you, well make the Burdock the greatest line in this country.” ”

“ We shall want two or three men to look after the mules, and you must give me a week at least to get this cavalcade together. Sometimes there are neither animals nor men at Pickaxe Gulch, but I intend to telegraph at once and secure whatever transport is available.”
John Steele smiled his appreciation of the capability displayed by the fearless young woman, opened his drawer, and took out a cheque-book.
“Shall we say five hundred dollars?” he asked, looking across the desk at her. “You must leave some money with your father, you know.” ”

“ John Steele laughed.
“Bravo, Tom,” he said; “that’s quite your Slocum Junction manner. I supposed you were up a tree—that you had bought a million bushels of wheat, spent thirty thousand dollars odd upon margins, and that now you couldn’t carry it any longer. Am I right?”
“Quite right. That’s exactly the situation. Now, are you in the frame of mind to listen to the biggest thing that there is in America to-day? Are you in a financial position to take advantage of an opportunity that may not recur for years? If you are, I’ll talk to you. ”

“ It was at this interesting juncture that Miss Alice Fuller called to see him. Now, John Steele was the most susceptible of men, and one reason he had for not mixing in society was because he knew he would surely fall a victim to the first designing pretty girl who laid a trap for him—if, indeed, pretty girls ever do lay traps for men said to possess from six to ten millions. ”

“ It certainly wouldn’t do you any harm with Rockervelt, and there’s no better security on the market.”
The newspapers had made much of John Steele’s luck in falling heir to a considerable sum of money. The circumstances and unexpected nature of the legacy gave the item a semi-sensational value which was not neglected by the reporters, and even if the amount was in many cases exaggerated, the reputation of being a wealthy man revealed an entirely new world to the young superintendent—the world of social life. ”

“ His resentment turned more against the apparently honest Metcalfe than toward even Nicholson or Peter Berrington. He would have liked to throttle that man, but he knew that, whatever the outcome, he must retain his grip on himself and present an impassive exterior to his colleague and the world.
Next morning John Steele met his partner as usual with a smile on his face. ”

“ WHEN John Steele stepped down from the sleeping-car in the early morning at Pickaxe Gulch, he found Alice Fuller the sole occupant of the platform. She welcomed him with the cordiality of good comradeship. Her costume differed rather strikingly from the apparel she wore in his office. She reminded him of one of those reckless female riders he had seen at Buffalo Bilks Wild West Show, and he was forced to confess that the outfit suited her to perfection. She was even more attractive than when he had first seen her, and he could hardly have believed that possible. ”

“ Very well, go to the Black Hills; there you will find the air pure and bracing; there are wild mountains and sparkling streams, and everything that a tired city man could desire. I want you to camp near our mine and investigate it thoroughly. If you are so satisfied with it as to justify the risk, I ask you to be prepared to buy a half share for three hundred thousand dollars.”
John Steele drew a long breath.
“My purpose in going to the mountains is to get away from business, and not to take upon myself a new anxiety; to fish and shoot, not to pore over gold-bearing ore.” ”

“ CHAPTER VII—THE FIRST CAST OF THE DICE NEXT morning John Steele was startled to receive a rather peremptory message from Colonel Beck requesting him to call at once at his residence. The young man instantly obeyed, and mounted the steps with some trepidation, wondering whether Sadie had made a confidant of her uncle, and fearing that the uncle’s designs for his niece excluded a division superintendent from any discussion regarding her future. ”

“ Blair, I have come to bid you good-bye, and I venture to predict that I’ll have more fun out of that thirty thousand dollars than I had out of the three hundred thousand. Wealth isn’t everything here below. Meanwhile keep on living a virtuous life, and you will reap your reward by and by. Never become discouraged in well-doing. Ta-ta.”
With that John Steele took his departure from the Grand Union Station, packed up his traps, and took train for Detroit, where he lifted his money from the bank, and left on the night express for New York. ”

“ The inhabitants of Stumpville learned next morning that an old man had died in one of their most ruinous shanties who could have bought and sold each of them, and all of them combined.
When the telegram came announcing his uncle’s death John Steele rose from his desk, locked the door, and paced up and down the room with bent head. He had not expected this outcome, for although his uncle was old, he had weathered so many gales, it had not occurred to the young man that there must come one storm which would lay the gnarled old oak level with the ground. ”

“ I’ve discharged John Steele. I’m going in now to Mr. Blair, and I’ll apologise and resign. I’ll tell him you warned me to quit rushing round, and that I didn’t quit. I’m sorry I telescoped him, but not half so sorry as that I’ve disappointed you.”
“Nonsense!” said Manson severely. “Go back to your desk; and let this rest for a day or two. I’ll see the manager about it later on.” He noticed the moisture in the younger man’s eyes, and the quiver of his nether lip, so he spoke coldly. Emotion has no place in the railway business. ”

“ Nicholson; I shall bear your kind invitation in mind. However, I may inform you that I have entirely dropped out of all speculative business. I am one of the few men who knows when he has had enough. I have accumulated all the money I shall need during my lifetime, and I intend to take care of it."
"A most sensible resolution, Mr. Steele; and once more good-bye, with many thanks for the visit."
John Steele walked up Broadway the most depressed man in New York. ”

“ It will be the cheapest bit of road to build in America; no embankments, no cuttings, no grade at all. Why, just dump the rails down, and they’d form a line of themselves! Once the Burdock taps the C. P. & N., there is our route clear through to tide-water, independent of the Rockervelt System.”
Steele, his face aglow, looked up at the veteran, but the indulgent smile had taken on a cynical touch. Mr. Rogers placed his hand on John’s shoulder in kindly fashion and said slowly:
“If that were possible it would have been done long since. You could not get your charter. ”

“ Nevertheless, the telegram showed that the uncle had kept the letter, or remembered the address, for the despatch had been sent to Hitchen’s Siding, and from there forwarded to John Steele’s office in Warmington.
However, there was little profit in bemoaning a state of things he could not remedy. It was certain that Blair would carry out his threat, if Steele left his place without permission, so there was nothing for it but to sit tight. ”

“ Steele sat down with his face in his hands, thoroughly discouraged for the first time in his life. He felt a boyish desire to cry, and a mannish desire to curse, but did neither. The old gentleman rambled on amiably: “You are a ten-thousand dollar man, John, but your line of progress is on some road with a future. Follow my advice and take your charter to that old thief Rocker-velt himself. ”