Argosy, Vol. 112, No. 2 — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Bese Then came the strange caper of his a imagination. He laughed at these difficul- = ties. They would never arise. His bride would not endure qualms of fear over their first téte-a-téte meal—because the meal would not take place. ~~ A presentiment! All his hard-headed, aoe highly trained, experienced thinking failed : to down it. He despised presentiments, as a sane man should. He could not overcome this one. The truth was that Grout had paid, and paid high, for whatever might come of his dream of happiness. The money he had given Norma and spent on the bungalow cut deep into the resources of a man who had been practically unsalaried for two years of war work. Still more had he paid in worry and work, cutting far into his sleep. That touch of nervousness about step- ping over openings in high places was a symptom of the price he had paid. It might in an instant turn to the giant fear that would put an end to his doing business on his present method of close personal contact, Another index of the price he had paid was in a slacking off of the morale of his men. Partly it was due to some cutting down of personal supervision to which he had accustomed them. Partly it was be- cause the personal supervision lacked some of that magnetic, magnificently dynamic force which made him the success he was in handling men of undeveloped minds. That outbreak of temper which had given to two blackmailers under thin disguise of labor unionism their due, but had been too furious to stop and wring from them the identity of the real arch-plotter of their scheme, was due to cost him dearly. It had warned a really clever crook to more cau- é tion. = oe Three serious blunders had occurred on 3 the other side of the canon since then. They might be only blunders. Hogan was an°unusually capable superintendent with an enviable record. He did not let blunders pass without investigation. He could not place responsibility for these blunders. But he could detect the subtle symptoms of growing insubordination that showed in the Sa ee Pee eS Se see oe ee eS, alien “ 3 i | {i f i a a ta ee gee te eal <= THE ARGOSY. men’s indifference to the blunders and a growing carelessness. Hogan was handicapped by his lack of Spanish. He had to investigate through an interpreter. He used Manuel Perro, who generally translated his orders for him when they got beyond the point where he and the other foremen could understand each other. Manuel Perro was, possibly owing to the loss of one eye, a villainous-locking, half-breed Mexican. But he was the best and most generously efficient native fore- man on the whole job, and his fluent English made him indispensable. The suspicious fact about the mistakes lay in that, after each of them, a mysterious telephone call had come to Grout by night, apparently from Machala. The calling party identified himself only as the treas- urer of the Union General de Alarifes de Hierro de Ecuador. Each time he inquired whether the Senor Ingeniero Superinten- dente General preferred another blunder to treating with the representatives of the union. If there was a way to bring him out into the open, Grout had it yet to discover with more careful thought and effort than he had been able to give it. There had been grounds for presentiment. The possibility of his own sudden suc- cumbing to irresistible, ruinous fear still threatened. The danger still impended that the present restlessness and mild insubor- dination of the men might leap up into flame, and burst forth in a strike marked by rioting and general disaster to the whole bridge project. But this morning began a holiday in which they could not strike nor he go to places perilous to his balance. The Reina de Barbados had been spoken in a calm sea six hours ago, and nothing indicated any prospective break in her schedule. There was not a reason in the world for the pre- sentiment that harrowed him now, the feel- ing, amounting to conviction, that his mar- riage was not going through; that to-night would find him only a badly burned wreck in the ashes of his dreams. ~ And then the thing happened. Science has found means to gather some intimation of impending bad weather. Man has learned GComichboo