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" You have saved the Railroad." Page 336. 
 
 A Captain in the Ranks. " 
 
H Captain 
 In tbc Ranke 
 
 A Romance of Affairs 
 
 By GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON 
 
 Author of "DOROTHY SOUTH," "RUNNING 
 
 THE RIVER," "THE MASTER OF 
 
 WARLOCK," Etc. 
 
 A. L. BURT COMPANY, # & # * 
 ,# & # PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK 
 
Copyright, 1904, 
 ' BY 
 
 A. S. Barnes & Co. 
 
 . • • 
 
 , •' i 
 
 
TO 
 
 &nblt 
 
 On her wedding day, I dedicate 
 this story with affection 
 
 September 8, 1904 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This story is intended to supplement the trilogy of 
 romances in which I have endeavored to show forth the 
 Virginian character under varying conditions. 
 
 " Dorothy South " dealt with Virginia life and char- 
 acter before the Confederate war. 
 
 "The Master of Warlock" had to do with the 
 Virginians during the early years of the war, when 
 their struggle seemed hopeful of success. 
 
 "Evelyn Byrd " was a study of the same people as 
 they confronted certain disaster and defeat. 
 
 The present story is meant to complete the picture. 
 It deals with that wonderful upbuilding of the great 
 West which immediately followed the war, and in 
 which the best of the young Virginians played an 
 important part. 
 
 The personages of the story are real, and its events 
 are mainly facts, thinly veiled. 
 
 vii 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGB 
 CHAPTER j 
 
 I The Final Fight 
 
 II Alone in the High Mountain 18 
 
 III The New Birth of Manhood 29 
 
 IV A Private in the Army of Work 38 
 
 V The Beginning of a Career 
 
 VI A Captain in the Army of Work * 8 
 
 VII The "Sizing Up" of Guilford Duncan . . . 59 
 
 ~ . • . 64 
 
 VIII On Duty 
 
 IX One Night's Work 
 
 X Alliance Offensive and Defensive .... 87 
 
 XI The Ways of Guilford Duncan 10 ° 
 
 XII Barbara Verne 
 
 11 Q 
 
 XIII A Battle and an Acquaintance 
 
 XIV A Social Advance 
 
 XV The Coming Out of Barbara 
 
 XVI A New Enemy 
 
 ~ n ... 160 
 
 XVII An Old Friend 
 
 XVIII Dick Temple's Plans 
 
 XIX Dick Temple's Story 
 
 XX In the Summer Time 
 
 XXI An Interview with Napper Tandy .... 
 
 XXII Under the Honeysuckles 
 
 XXIII Captain Will Hallam in the Gams . . . - 909 
 
x CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER pAGB 
 
 XXIV Barbara's Answer . 214 
 
 XXV Temple and Tandy 224 
 
 XXVI A Pact with Barbara 242 
 
 XXVII Mrs. Hallam Hears News 254 
 
 XXVIII The Birth of a Great Railroad 265 
 
 XXIX A Scrap of Paper # 274 
 
 XXX The Mystery of Tandy 285 
 
 XXXI Only a Woman 293 
 
 XXXII The Riddle Explained . 298 
 
 XXXIII At Crisis 304 
 
 XXXIV A Cheer for Little Missie 316 
 
 XXXV The End of a Struggle 323 
 
A CAPTAIN IN THE EANKS 
 
 I 
 
 The Final Fight 
 
 GHE slender remnant of Lee's artillery swung 
 slowly into position a few miles west of Appo- 
 mattox Court House. Wearily — but with 
 spirit still — the batteries parked their guns in a field 
 facing a strip of woodland. The guns were few in 
 number now, but they were all that was left of those 
 that had done battle on a score of historic fields. 
 
 Lee had been forced out of his works at Richmond 
 and Petersburg a week before. Ever since, with that 
 
2 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 calm courage which had sustained him throughout the 
 later and losing years of the war, he had struggled 
 and battled, in an effort; to retreat to the Roanoke 
 River. He had hoped, there ,to unite the remnant of 
 his arto'y\with what iw$S .left, of Johnston's force, and 
 to make there a final and desperate stand. 
 
 In this purpose he had been baffled. Grant's forces 
 were on his southern flank, and they had steadily 
 pressed him back toward the James River on the 
 north. In that direction there was no thoroughfare 
 for him. Neither was there now in any other. Con- 
 tinual battling had depleted his army until it num- 
 bered now scarcely more than ten thousand men all 
 told, and starvation had weakened these so greatly 
 that only the heroism of despair enabled them to fight 
 or to march at all. 
 
 The artillery that was parked out there in front 
 of Appomattox Court House was only a feeble rem- 
 nant of that which had fought so long and so de- 
 terminedly. Gun after gun had been captured. Gun 
 after gun had been dismounted in battle struggle. 
 Caisson after caisson had been blown up by the ex- 
 plosion of shells striking them. 
 
 Captain Guilford Duncan, at the head of eleven 
 mounted men, armed only with sword and pistols, 
 paused before entering the woodlands in front. He 
 looked about in every direction, and, with an eye edu- 
 cated by long experience in war, he observed the 
 absence of infantry support,. 
 
THE FINAL FIGHT S 
 
 He turned to Sergeant Garrett, who rode by his 
 side, and said sadly: 
 
 " Garrett, this means surrender. General Lee has 
 put his artillery here to be captured. The end has 
 come." 
 
 Then dismounting, he wearily threw himself upon 
 the ground, chewed and swallowed a few grains of 
 corn, — the only rations he had, — and sought a brief 
 respite of sleep. But before closing his eyes he 
 turned to Garrett and gave the command: 
 
 "Post a sentinel and order him to wake us when 
 Sheridan comes." 
 
 This command brought questions from the men 
 about him. They were privates and he was their 
 captain, it is true, but the Southern army was demo- 
 cratic, and these men were accustomed to speak with 
 their captain with eyes on a level with his own. 
 
 " Why do you say, ' when Sheridan comes' ? " asked 
 one of Duncan's command. 
 
 " Oh, he will come, of course — and quickly. That 
 is the program. This artillery has been posted 
 here to be captured. And it will be captured within 
 an hour or two at furthest, perhaps within a few min- 
 utes, for Sheridan is sleepless and his force is not only 
 on our flank, but in front of us. There is very little 
 left of the Army of Northern Virginia. It can fight 
 no more. It is going to surrender here, but in the 
 meantime there may be a tidy little scrimmage in this 
 .strip of woods, and I for one want to have my share 
 
4 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 in it. Now let me go to sleep and wake me when 
 Sheridan comes." 
 
 In a minute the captain was asleep. So were all 
 his men except the sentinel posted to do the necessary 
 waking. 
 
 That came all too quickly, for at this juncture in 
 the final proceedings of the war Sheridan was vigor- 
 ously carrying out Grant's laconic instruction to 
 "press things." When the sentinel waked the cap- 
 tain, Sheridan's lines were less than fifty yards in 
 front and were pouring heavy volleys into the un- 
 supported Confederate artillery park. 
 
 Guilford Duncan and his men were moved to no 
 excitement by this situation. Their nerves had been 
 schooled to steadiness and their minds to calm under 
 any conceivable circumstances by four years of vastly 
 varied fighting. Without the slightest hurry they 
 mounted their horses in obedience to Duncan's brief 
 command. He led them at once into the presence of 
 Colonel Cabell, whose battalion of artillery lay nearest 
 to him. As they sat upon their horses in the leaden 
 hailstorm, with countenances as calm as if they had 
 been entering a drawing room, Duncan touched his 
 cap to Colonel Cabell and said : 
 
 "Colonel, I am under nobody's orders here. I 
 have eleven men with me, all of them, as you know, 
 as good artillerymen as there are in the army. Can 
 you let us handle some guns for you? " 
 
 "No," answered Colonel Cabell; "I have lost so 
 
THE FINAL FIGHT 5 
 
 many guns already that I have twenty men to each 
 piece." Then, after a moment's pause, he added: 
 
 " You, Captain, cannot fail to understand what all 
 this means." 
 
 " I quite understand that, Colonel," answered Dun- 
 can, " but as I was in at the beginning of this war, I 
 have a strong desire to be in at the end of it." 
 
 The Colonel's cannon were firing vigorously by this 
 time at the rate of six or eight shots to the minute 
 from each gun, but he calmly looked over the little 
 party on horseback and responded: 
 
 "You have some good horses there, and this is 
 [April. You will need your horses in your farming 
 operations. You had better take them and your men 
 out of here. You can do no good by staying. This 
 fight is a formality pure and simple, a preliminary 
 to the final surrender." 
 
 "Then you order me to withdraw?" asked Dun- 
 can. 
 
 "Yes, certainly, and peremptorily if you wish, 
 though you are not under my command," answered 
 Colonel Cabell. " It is the best thing you can do for 
 yourself, for your men, for your horses, and for the 
 country." 
 
 Duncan immediately obeyed the order, in a degree 
 at least. He promptly withdrew his men to the top 
 of a little hillock in the rear and there watched the 
 progress of the final fight. His nerves were all 
 a-c[uiver. He was a young man, twenty-five years 
 
6 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 old perhaps, full of vigor, full of enthusiasm, full of 
 fight. He was a trifle less than six feet high, with a 
 lithe and symmetrical body, lean almost to emaciation 
 by reason of arduous service and long starvation. 
 He had a head that instantly attracted attention by 
 its unusual size and its statuesque shape. He was 
 bronzed almost to the complexion of a mulatto, but 
 without any touch of yellow in the bronze. He was 
 dark by nature, of intensely nervous temperament, 
 and obviously a man capable of enormous determina- 
 tion and unfaltering endurance. 
 
 He had not yet lost the instinct of battle, and it 
 galled him that he must sit idly there on his horse, 
 with his men awaiting his orders, simply observ- 
 ing a fight in which he strongly desired to partici- 
 pate. He could see the Federal lines gradually clos- 
 ing in upon both flanks of the artillery, with the 
 certainty that they must presently envelop and cap- 
 ture it. Seasoned soldier that he was, he could not 
 endure the thought of standing still while such a work 
 of war was going on. 
 
 Seeing the situation he turned to his men, who were 
 armed only with swords and pistols, and in a voice so 
 calm that it belied his impulse, he said to them : 
 
 "This is our last chance for a fight, boys. I am 
 going into the middle of that mix! Anybody who 
 chooses to follow me can come along!" 
 
 Every man in that little company of eleven had two 
 pistols in his saddle holsters and two upon his hips, 
 
THE PINAL FIGHT 1 
 
 and every man carried in addition a heavy cavalry 
 saber capable of doing execution at close quarters. 
 They were gentlemen soldiers, all. The cause for 
 which they had battled for four long years was as 
 dear to them now as it ever had been. More im- 
 portant still, their courage was as unflinching in 
 this obvious climax and catastrophe of the war they 
 had waged, as it had been at Bull Run in the begin- 
 ning of that struggle, or in the Seven Days' Fight, 
 or at Fredericksburg, or Chancellorsville, or Gettys- 
 burg, or Cold Harbor. Duncan had not doubted their 
 response for one moment, and he was not disappointed 
 in the vigor with which they followed him as he led 
 them into this final fight. As they dashed forward 
 their advance was quickly discovered by the alert 
 enemy, and a destructive fire of carbines was opened 
 upon them. At that moment they were at the trot. 
 Instantly Duncan gave the commands: 
 
 "Gallop! Charge!" 
 
 With that demoniacal huntsman's cry which is 
 known in history as the " Rebel Yell," the little squad 
 dashed forward and plunged into the far heavier lines 
 of the enemy. There was a detached Federal gun 
 there doing its work. It was a superb twelve-pounder, 
 and Duncan's men quickly captured it with its limber- 
 chest. Instantly dismounting, and without waiting 
 for orders from him, they turned it upon the enemy 
 with vigorous effect. But they were so fearfully over- 
 matched in numbers that their work endured for 
 
8 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 scarcely more than a minute. They fired a dozen 
 shots, perhaps, but they were speedily overwhelmed, 
 and in another instant Duncan ordered them to mount 
 and retire again, firing Parthian shots from their 
 pistols as they went. 
 
 When he again reached the little hill to which he 
 had retired at the beginning of the action, Duncan 
 looked around him and saw that only seven of his 
 eleven men remained. The other four had paid a 
 final tribute of their lives to what was now obviously 
 " The Lost Cause." 
 
 By this time the fight was over, and practically all 
 that remained of the artillery of the Army of North- 
 ern Virginia was in possession of the enemy. 
 
 But that enemy was a generous one, and, foresee- 
 ing as it did the surrender that must come with the 
 morning, it made no assault upon this wandering 
 squad of brave but beaten men, who were sadly looking 
 upon the disastrous end of the greatest war in human 
 history. 
 
 Captain Duncan's party were on a bald hill within 
 easy range of the carbines of Sheridan's men, but not 
 a shot was fired at them, and not so much as a squad 
 was sent out to demand their surrender. 
 
 Night was now near at hand and Guilford Duncan 
 turned to his men and said: 
 
 " The war is practically over, I suppose ; but I for 
 one intend to stick to the game as long as it lasts. 
 General Lee will surrender his army to-night or to- 
 
THE FINAL FIGHT 9 
 
 morrow morning, but General Johnston still has an 
 army in the field in North Carolina. It is barely pos- 
 sible that we may get to him. It is my purpose to 
 try. How many of you want to go with me? n 
 
 The response was instantaneous and unanimous. 
 
 "We'll all stick by you, Captain, Hill the cows 
 come home,'" they cried. 
 
 "Very well," he answered. "We must march to 
 James River to-night and cross it. We must make 
 our way into the mountains and through Lynchburg, 
 if possible, into North Carolina. We'll try, anyhow." 
 
 All night long they marched. They secured some 
 coarse food-stuffs at a mill which they passed on their 
 way up into the mountains. There for a week they 
 struggled to make their way southward, fighting now 
 and then, not with Federal troops, for there were none 
 there, but with marauders. These were the offscour- 
 ings of both armies, and of the negro population of 
 that region. They made themselves the pests of Vir- 
 ginia at that time. Their little bands consisted of 
 deserters from both armies, dissolute negroes, and all 
 other kinds of " lewd fellows of the baser sort." They 
 raided plantations. They stole horses. They terror- 
 ized women. They were a thorn in the flesh of Gen- 
 eral Grant's officers, who were placed in strategic 
 positions to prevent the possible occurrence of a 
 guerrilla warfare, and who therefore could not scatter 
 their forces for the policing of a land left desolate 
 and absolutely lawless. 
 
10 A CAPTAIN IN THE^ HANKS 
 
 In many parts of the country which were left with- 
 out troops to guard them, at a time when no civil 
 government existed, these marauders played havoc 
 in an extraordinary way. But the resoluteness of 
 General Grant's administration soon suppressed them. 
 Whenever he caught them he hanged or shot them 
 without mercy, and with small consideration for for- 
 malities. In the unprotected districts he authorized 
 the ex-Confederates, upon their promise to lend aid 
 against the inauguration of guerrilla warfare, to 
 suppress them on their own account, and they did so 
 relentlessly. 
 
 During the sojourn in the mountains, in his effort 
 to push his way through to Johnston, Guilford Dun- 
 can came upon a plantation where only women were 
 living in the mansion house, A company of these 
 marauders had taken possession of the plantation, oc- 
 cupying its negro cabins and terrorizing the popula- 
 tion of the place. When Duncan rode up with his 
 seven armed men he instantly took command and as- 
 sumed the role of protector. First of all he posted 
 his men as sentries for the protection of the planta- 
 tion homestead. Next he sent out scouts, including a 
 number of trusty negroes who belonged upon the 
 plantation, to find out where the marauders were lo- 
 cated, and what their numbers were, and what pur- 
 pose they might seem bent upon. From the reports 
 of these scouts he learned that the marauders exceeded 
 him in force by three to one, or more, but that fact 
 
THE FINAL FIGHT 11 
 
 in no way appalled him. During a long experience in 
 war he had learned well the lesson that numbers count 
 for less than morale, and that with skill and resolute- 
 ness a small force may easily overcome and destroy a 
 larger one. 
 
 He knew now that his career as a Confederate sol- 
 dier was at an end. Federal troops had occupied 
 Lynchburg and all the region round about, thus 
 completely cutting him off from any possibility of 
 reaching General Johnston in North Carolina. He 
 had no further mission as a military officer of the 
 Southern Confederacy, but as a mere man of courage 
 and vigor he had before him the duty of defending 
 the women and children of this Virginia plantation 
 against about the worst and most desperate type of 
 highwaymen who ever organized themselves into a 
 force for purposes of loot and outrage. 
 
 He sent at once for the best negroes on the planta- 
 tion — the negroes who had proved themselves loyal in 
 their affection for their mistresses throughout the 
 war. Having assembled these he inquired of the 
 women what arms and ammunition they had. There 
 were the usual number of shotguns belonging to a 
 plantation, and a considerable supply of powder and 
 buckshot. Duncan assembled the negroes in the great 
 hall of the plantation house and said to them : 
 
 " I have seven men here, all armed and all fighters.: 
 I have arms enough for you boys if you are willing to 
 join me in the defense of the ladies on this plantation 
 
12 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 against about the worst set of scoundrels that ever 
 lived on earth." 
 
 Johnny, the head dining-room servant, speaking 
 for all the rest, replied : 
 
 "In co'se we is. Jest you lead us, mahstah, and 
 you'll see how we'll do de wu'k." 
 
 Then Duncan armed the negroes, every one of 
 whom knew how to use a gun, so that he needed not 
 instruct them, and he led them forth with his own 
 seasoned soldiers at their head. 
 
 " Now then," he said, " we are going to attack these 
 fellows, and you know perfectly well that they are a 
 lot of cowards, and sneaks, and scoundrels. If we 
 are all resolute we can whip them out of their boots 
 within a few minutes. Either we must do that, or 
 they will whip us out of our boots and destroy us. I 
 do not think there is much doubt about which is 
 going to whip. Come along, boys." 
 
 The marauders had established themselves in four 
 or five of the negro quarters on the plantation, and in 
 a certain sense they were strongly fortified. That is 
 to say, they were housed in cabins built of logs too 
 thick for any bullet to penetrate them. Four of 
 these cabins were so placed that a fire from the door 
 and the windows of either of them would completely 
 command the entrance of each of the others. But to 
 offset that, and to offset also the superiority of num- 
 bers which the marauders enjoyed, Guilford Duncan 
 decided upon an attack by night. He knew that he 
 
THE FINAL FIGHT 13 
 
 was outnumbered by two or three to one, even if he 
 counted the willing but untrained negroes whom he 
 had enlisted in this service. But he did not despair of 
 success. It was his purpose to dislodge the marauders 
 in a night attack, when he knew that they could not 
 see to shoot with effect. He knew also that "He is 
 thrice armed who knows his quarrel just." 
 
 Cautioning his men to maintain silence, and to 
 advance as quickly as possible, he got them into posi- 
 tion and suddenly rushed upon the first of the four or 
 five negro quarters. Knowing that the door of this 
 house would be barricaded, he had instructed some of 
 the negroes to bring a pole with them which might be 
 used as a battering ram. With a rush but without 
 any hurrah, — for Duncan had ordered quiet as a part 
 of his plan of campaign, — the negroes carried the 
 great pole forward and instantly crushed in the door. 
 Within ten seconds afterwards Duncan's ex-Confed- 
 erate soldiers, with their pistols in use, were within 
 the house, and the company of marauders there sur- 
 rendered — those of them who had not fallen before 
 the pistol shots. This first flush of victory encour- 
 aged the negroes under his command so far that what 
 had been their enthusiasm became a positive battle- 
 madness. Without waiting for orders from him they 
 rushed with their battering ram upon the other houses 
 occupied by the marauders, as did also his men, who 
 were not accustomed to follow, but rather to lead, and 
 within a few minutes all of those negro huts were in 
 
U A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 his possession, and all their occupants were in effect 
 his prisoners. 
 
 At this moment Guilford Duncan, who had now no 
 legal or military authority over his men, lost control 
 of them. Both the negroes and the white men seemed 
 to go mad. They recognized in the marauders no 
 rights of a military kind, no title to be regarded as 
 fighting men, and no conceivable claim upon their 
 conquerors' consideration. Both the negroes and the 
 white men were merciless in their slaughter of the 
 marauding highwaymen. Once, in the melee, Guil- 
 ford Duncan endeavored to check their enthusiasm as 
 a barbarity, but his men responded in quick, bullet- 
 like words, indicating their idea that these men were 
 not soldiers entitled to be taken prisoners, but were 
 beasts of prey, rattlesnakes, mad dogs, enemies of the 
 human race, whose extermination it was the duty of 
 every honest man to seek and to accomplish as quickly 
 as possible. 
 
 This thought was conveyed rather in ejaculations 
 than in statements made, and Guilford Duncan saw 
 that there was neither time nor occasion for argu- 
 ment. The men under his command felt that they 
 were engaged in defending the lives and the honor of 
 women and children, and they were in no degree dis- 
 posed to hesitate at slaughter where so precious a 
 purpose inspired them. Their attitude of mind was 
 uncompromising. Their resolution was unalterable. 
 Their impulse was to kill, and their victims were 
 
THE FINAL FIGHT 15 
 
 men of so despicable a kind that after a moment's 
 thought Guilford Duncan's impulse was to let his men 
 
 alone. 
 
 The contest lasted for a very brief while. The 
 number of the slaughtered in proportion to the total 
 number of men engaged was appalling. But this was 
 not all. To it was immediately added the hasty hang- 
 ing of men to the nearest trees, and Guilford Dun- 
 can was powerless to prevent that. The negroes, 
 loyal to the mistresses whom they had served from 
 infancy, had gone wild in their enthusiasm of de- 
 fense. They ran amuck, and when the morning came 
 there was not one man of all those marauders left 
 alive to tell the story of the conflict. 
 
 • •••'• 
 
 In the meanwhile Guilford Duncan, by means of 
 his men, had gathered information in every direction. 
 He knew now that all hope was gone of his joining 
 Johnston's army, even if that army had not surren- 
 dered, as by this time it probably had done. He 
 therefore brought his men together. Most of them 
 lived in those mountains round about, or in the lower 
 country east of them, and so he said to them : 
 
 " Men, the war is over. Most of you, as I under- 
 stand it, live somewhere near here, or within fifty 
 miles of here. As the last order that I shall ever 
 issue as a captain, I direct you now to return to your 
 homes at once. My advice to you is to go to work 
 and rebuild your fortunes as best you can. We've 
 
16 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 had our last fight. We've done our duty like men. 
 We must now do the best that we can for ourselves 
 under extremely adverse circumstances. Go home. 
 Cultivate your fields. Take care of your families, 
 and be as good citizens in peace as you have been good 
 soldiers in war." 
 
 There was a hurried consultation among the men. 
 Presently Sergeant Garrett spoke for the rest and 
 said: 
 
 " We will not go home, Captain Duncan, until each 
 one of us has written orders from you to do so. Some 
 of us fellows have children in our homes, and the rest 
 of us may have children hereafter. We want them to 
 know, as the years go by, that we did not desert our 
 cause, even in its dying hours, that we did not quit 
 the army until we were ordered to quit. We ask of 
 you, for each of us, a written order to go home, or to 
 go wherever else you may order us to go." 
 
 The Captain fully understood the loyalty of feel- 
 ing which underlay this request, and he promptly 
 responded to it. Taking from his pocket a number 
 of old letters and envelopes, he searched out what- 
 ever scraps there might be of blank paper. Upon 
 these scraps he issued to each man of his little com- 
 pany a peremptory order to return to his home, with 
 an added statement in the case of each that he had 
 "served loyally, bravely, and well, even unto the 
 end." 
 
 That night, before their final parting, the little 
 
THE FINAL FIGHT 17 
 
 company slept together in the midst of a cluster of 
 pine trees, with only one sentry on duty. 
 
 The next day came the parting. The captain, 
 with tears dimming his vision, shook hands with each 
 of his men in turn, saying to each, with choking 
 utterance: "Good-by! God bless you!" 
 
 Then the spokesman of the men, Sergeant Garrett, 
 asked : 
 
 "Are you going home, Captain Duncan ? * 
 
 For twenty seconds the young Captain stared at 
 his men, making no answer. Then, mastering him- 
 self, and speaking as one dazed, he replied : 
 
 "Home? Home? On all God's earth I have no 
 home!" 
 
 Instantly he put spurs to his horse, half uncon- 
 sciously turning toward the sunset. 
 
 A moment later he vanished from view, over the 
 crest of a hill. 
 
II 
 
 Alone in the High Mountains 
 
 THE young man rode long and late that 
 night. His way lay always upward to- 
 ward the crests of the high mountains of 
 the Blue Ridge Range. 
 
 The roads he traversed were scarcely more than 
 trails — too steep in their ascent to have been traveled 
 by wagons that might wear them into thoroughfares. 
 During the many hours of his riding he saw no sign of 
 human habitation anywhere, and no prospect of find- 
 ing food for himself or his horse, though both were 
 famishing. 
 
 About midnight, however, he came upon a bit of 
 wild pasture land on a steep mountain side, where his 
 horse at least might crop the early grass of the spring. 
 There he halted, removed his saddle and bridle, and 
 turned the animal loose, saying: 
 
 "Poor beast! You will not stray far away. 
 There's half an acre of grass here, with bare rocks 
 all around it. Your appetite will be leash enough to 
 keep you from wandering." 
 
 Then the young man — no longer a captain now, but 
 18 
 
ALONE IN THE MOUNTAINS 19 
 
 a destitute, starving wanderer on the face of the earth 
 — threw himself upon a carpet of pine needles in a 
 little clump of timber, made a pillow of his saddle, 
 drew the saddle blanket over his shoulders to keep out 
 the night chill, loosened his belt, and straightway fell 
 asleep. 
 
 Before doing so, however, — faint with hunger as 
 he was, and weary to the verge of collapse, — he had 
 a little ceremony to perform, and he performed it — 
 in answer to a sentimental fancy. With the point 
 of his sword he found an earth-bank free of rock, and 
 dug a trench there. In it he placed his sword in its 
 scabbard and with its belt and sword-knot attached. 
 Then drawing the earth over it and stamping it down, 
 he said: 
 
 " That ends the soldier chapter of my life. I must 
 turn to the work of peace now. I have no fireplace 
 over which to hang the trusty blade. It is better to 
 bury it here in the mountains in the midst of desola- 
 tion, and forever to forget all that it suggests." 
 
 When he waked in the morning a soaking, per- 
 sistent, pitiless rain was falling. The young man's 
 clothing was so completely saturated that, as he stood 
 erect, the water streamed from his elbows, and he felt 
 it trickling down his body and his legs. 
 
 "This is a pretty good substitute for a bath," he 
 thought, as he removed his garments, and with strong, 
 nervous hands, wrung the water out of them as laun- 
 dresses do with linen. 
 
20 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 He had no means of kindling a fire, and there 
 was no time for that at any rate. Guilford Duncan 
 had begun to feel the pangs not of mere hunger, but 
 of actual starvation — the pains that mean collapse and 
 speedy death. He knew that he must find food for 
 himself and that quickly. Otherwise he must die 
 there, helpless and alone, on the desolate mountain 
 side. 
 
 He might, indeed, kill his horse and live for a few 
 days upon its flesh, until it should spoil. But such 
 relief would be only a postponing of the end, and with- 
 out the horse he doubted that he could travel far 
 toward that western land which he had half unwit- 
 tingly fixed upon as his goal. 
 
 He was well up in the mountains now, and near the 
 crest of the great range. The Valley lay beyond, and 
 he well knew that he would find no food supplies in 
 that region when he should come to cross it. Sheridan 
 had done a perfect work of war there, so devastating 
 one of the most fruitful regions on all God's earth 
 that in picturesque words he had said: "The crow 
 that flies over the Valley of Virginia must carry his 
 rations with him.' , 
 
 In the high mountains matters were not much bet- 
 ter. There had been no battling up there in the land 
 of the sky, but the scars and the desolation of war 
 were manifest even upon mountain sides and mountain 
 tops. 
 
 For four years the men who dwelt in the rude log 
 
ALONE IN THE MOUNTAINS 21 
 
 cabins of that frost-bitten and sterile region had been 
 serving as volunteers in the army, fighting for a cause 
 which was none of theirs and which they did not at 
 all understand or try to understand. They fought 
 upon instinct alone. It had always been the custom 
 of the mountain dwellers to shoulder their guns and 
 go into the thick of every fray which seemed to them 
 in any way to threaten their native land. They went 
 blindly, they fought desperately, and they endured 
 manfully. Ignorant, illiterate, abjectly poor, inured 
 to hardship through generations, they asked no ques- 
 tions the answers to which they could not understand. 
 It was enough for them to know that their native land 
 was invaded by an armed foe. Whenever that oc- 
 curred they were ready to meet force with force, and 
 to do their humble mightiest to drive that foe away 
 or to destroy him, without asking even who he was. 
 
 It had been so in all the Indian wars and in the 
 Revolutionary struggle, and it was so again in the 
 war between the States. As soon as the call to arms 
 was issued, these sturdy mountaineers almost to a 
 man abandoned their rocky and infertile fields to the 
 care of their womankind and went to war, utterly 
 regardless of consequences to themselves. 
 
 During this last absence of four years their homes 
 had fallen into fearful desolation. Those homes were 
 log cabins, chinked and daubed, mostly having earthen 
 floors and chimneys built of sticks thickly plastered 
 with mud. But humble as they were, they were homes 
 
n A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 and they held the wives and children whom these men 
 loved. 
 
 All that was primitive in American life survived 
 without change in the high mountains of Virginia and 
 the Carolinas. In the Piedmont country east of the 
 Blue Ridge, and in the tide-water country beyond, 
 until the war came there were great plantations, where 
 wealthy, or well-to-do, and highly educated planters 
 lived in state with multitudinous slaves to till their 
 fertile fields. 
 
 West of the Blue Ridge and between that range and 
 the Alleghenies lay the Valley of Virginia, a land as 
 fruitful as Canaan itself. 
 
 In that Valley there dwelt in simple but abundant 
 plenty the sturdy " Dutchmen," as they were improp- 
 erly called, — men of German descent, — who had 
 pushed their settlements southward from Pennsyl- 
 vania along the Valley, establishing themselves in the 
 midst of fertile fields, owning few slaves, and tilling 
 their own lands, planting orchards everywhere, and 
 building not only their houses, but their barns and all 
 their outbuildings stoutly of the native stone that 
 lay ready to their hands. 
 
 That region was now as barren as Sahara by 
 reason of the devastation that Sheridan had inflicted 
 upon it with the deliberate and merciless strategic 
 purpose of rendering it uninhabitable and in that 
 way making of it a no-thoroughfare for Confederate 
 armies on march toward the country north of the 
 
ALONE IN THE MOUNTAINS 2S 
 
 Potomac, or on the way to threaten Washington 
 City. 
 
 The little mountain homesteads had been spared 
 this devastation. But their case was not much better 
 than that of the more prosperous plantations on the 
 east, or that of the richly fruitful Valley farms on 
 the west. In war it is not "the enemy" alone who 
 lays waste. Such little cribs and granaries and smoke 
 houses as these poor mountain dwellers owned had 
 been despoiled of their stores to feed the armies in the 
 field. Their boys, even those as young as fourteen^ 
 had been drawn into the army. Their hogs, their 
 sheep, and the few milch cows they possessed, had been 
 taken away from them. Their scanty oxen had been 
 converted into army beef, and those of them who 
 owned a horse or a mule had been compelled to sur- 
 render the animal for military use, receiving in return 
 only Confederate treasury notes, now worth no more 
 than so much of waste paper. 
 
 Nevertheless Guilford Duncan perfectly under- 
 stood that he must look to the impoverished people of 
 the high mountains for a food supply in this? his sore 
 extremity. Therefore, instead of crossing the range 
 by way of any of the main-traveled passes, he pushed 
 his grass-refreshed steed straight up Mount Pleasant 
 to its topmost heights. 
 
 There, about noon, he came upon a lonely cabin 
 whose owner had reached home from the war only a 
 day or two earlier. 
 
U A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 There was an air of desolation and decay about the 
 place, but knowing the ways of the mountaineers the 
 young man did not despair of securing some food 
 there. For even when the mountaineer is most pros- 
 perous his fences are apt to be down, his roof out of 
 repair, and all his surroundings to wear the look of 
 abandonment in despair. 
 
 Duncan began by asking for dinner for himself 
 and his horse, and the response was what he expected 
 in that land of poverty-stricken but always generous 
 hospitality. 
 
 "Ain't got much to offer you, Cap'n'," said the 
 owner, " but sich as it is you're welcome." 
 
 Meanwhile he had given the horse a dozen ears of 
 corn, saying: 
 
 "Reckon 't won't hurt him. He don't look 's if 
 he'd been a feedin' any too hearty an' I reckon a 
 dozen ears won't founder him." 
 
 For dinner there was a scanty piece of bacon, 
 boiled with wild mustard plants for greens, and some 
 pones of corn bread. 
 
 To Guilford Duncan, in his starving condition, this 
 seemed a veritable feast. The eating of it so far re- 
 freshed him that he cheerfully answered all the ques- 
 tions put to him by his shirt-sleeved host. 
 
 It is a tradition in Virginia that nobody can ask 
 so many questions as a " Yankee," and yet there was 
 never a people so insistently given to asking questions 
 of a purely and impertinently personal character as 
 
ALONE IN THE MOUNTAINS 25 
 
 were the Virginians of anything less than the higher 
 and gentler class. They questioned a guest, not so 
 much because of any idle curiosity concerning his af- 
 fairs, as because of a friendly desire to manifest in- 
 terest in him and in what might concern him. 
 
 "What mout your name be, Cap'n?" the host be- 
 gan, as they sat at dinner. 
 
 " My name is Guilford Duncan," replied the young 
 man. " But I am not a Captain now. I'm only a 
 very poor young man — greatly poorer than you are, 
 for at least you own a home and a little piece of the 
 mountain top, while I own no inch of God's earth or 
 anything else except my horse, my four pistols, my; 
 saddle and bridle and the clothes I wear." 
 
 "What's your plan? Goin' to settie in the moun- 
 tings? They say there'll be big money in 'stillm* 
 whisky an' not a-payin' of the high tax on it. It's 
 a resky business, or will be, when the Yanks get their- 
 selves settled down into possession, like ; but I kin see 
 you're game fer resks, an' ef you want a workin' 
 pardner, I'm your man. There's a water power just 
 a little way down the mounting, in a valley that one 
 good man with a rifle kin defend." 
 
 "Thank you for your offer," answered Duncan. 
 " But I'm not thinking of settling in the mountains. 
 I'm going to the West, if I can get there. Now, to 
 do that, I must cross the Valley, and I must have some 
 provisions. Can you sell me a side of bacon, a little 
 bag of meal, and a little salt? " 
 
26 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 " What kin you pay with, Mister? " 
 " Well, I have no money, of course, except worthless 
 Confederate paper, but I have two pairs of Colt's 
 * Navy Six ' revolvers, and I'd be glad to give you one 
 pair of them for my dinner, my horse's feed, and the 
 provisions I have mentioned." 
 
 "Now look-a-here, Mister," broke in the moun- 
 taineer, rising and straightening himself to his full 
 height 6f six feet four. " When you come to my door 
 you was mighty hungry. You axed fer a dinner an' 
 a hoss feed, an' I've done give 'em to you, free, gratis, 
 an' fer nothin'. No man on the face o' God's yearth 
 kin say as how he ever come to Si Watkins's house 
 in need of a dinner an' a hoss feed 'thout a gittin' 
 both. An' no man kin say as how Si Watkins ever 
 took a cent o' pay fer a entertainin' of angels un- 
 awares as the preachers says. Them's my principles, 
 an' when you offer to pay fer a dinner an' a hoss 
 feed, you insults my principles." 
 
 " I sincerely beg your pardon," answered Duncan 
 hurriedly. " I am very grateful indeed for your hos- 
 pitality, and as a Virginian I heartily sympathize with 
 your sentiment about not taking pay for food and 
 
 lodging, but " 
 
 "That's all right, Mister. You meant fa'r an' 
 squa'r. But you know how it is. Chargin' fer a 
 dinner an' a hoss feed is low down Yankee business. 
 Tavern keepers does it, too, but Si Watkins ain't no 
 tavern keeper an' he ain't no Yankee, neither. So 
 
ALONE IN THE MOUNTAINS 27 
 
 that's the end o' that little skirmish. But when it 
 comes to furnishin' you with a side o' bacon an' some 
 meal an' salt, that's more differenter. That's busi- 
 ness. There's mighty little meal an' mighty few 
 sides o' bacon in these here parts, but I don't mind 
 a-tellin' you as how my wife's done managed to hide 
 a few sides o' bacon an' a little meal from the fellers 
 what come up here to collect the tax in kind. One of 
 'em found her hidin' place one day, an' was jest 
 a-goin' to confisticate the meat when, with the sperrit 
 of a woman, that's in her as big as a house, she drawed 
 a bead on him an' shot him. He was carried down 
 the mounting by his men, an' p'r'aps he's done got 
 well. I don't know an' I keers less. Anyhow, we's 
 done got a few sides o' bacon an' a big bag o' meal 
 an' a bushel o' salt. Ef you choose to take one o' 
 them sides o' bacon, an' a little meal an' salt, an' give 
 me one o' your pistols, I'm quite agreeable. The 
 gun mout come in handy when I git a little still 
 a-goin', down there in the holler." 
 
 " I'll do better than that," answered Duncan. " I'll 
 give you a pair of the pistols, as I said." 
 
 "Hold on! Go a leetle slow, Mister, an' don't 
 forgit nothin'. You preposed to gimme the p'ar o' 
 pistols fer the bacon an' meal an' salt, an* fer yer 
 dinner an' hoss feed. I've done tole you as how Si 
 Watkins don't never take no pay fer a dinner an' 
 a hoss feed. So you can't offer me the p'ar o' 
 pistols 'thout offerin' to pay fer yer entertain- 
 
28 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 merit of man an' beast, an' I won't have that, I tell 
 you." 
 
 "Very well," answered Duncan; "I didn't mean 
 that. I'll give you one of the pistols in payment for 
 the supply of provisions. That will end the business 
 part of the matter. Now, I'm going to do some- 
 thing else with the other pistol — the mate of that 
 one." 
 
 With that he opened his pocket knife and scratched 
 on the silver mounting of the pistol's butt the legend : 
 " To Si Watkins, in memory of a visit ; from Guilford 
 Duncan, Cairo, Illinois." 
 
 Then handing the inscribed weapon to his host he 
 said: 
 
 " I have a right to make you a little present, purely 
 in the way of friendship, and not as ' pay ' for any- 
 thing at all. I want to give you this pistol, and I 
 want you to keep it. I don't know where I am going 
 to live and work in the West, and I don't know why 
 I wrote ' Cairo, Illinois ' as my address. It simply 
 came to me to do it. Perhaps it's a good omen. Any- 
 how, I shall go to Cairo, and if I leave there I'll 
 arrange to have my letters forwarded to me, where- 
 ever I may be. So if you're in trouble at any time 
 you can write to me at Cairo. I am as poor as you 
 are now — yes, poorer. But I don't mean to stay poor. 
 If you're in trouble at any time, I'll do my best to 
 see you through, just as you have seen me through 
 this time." 
 
Ill 
 
 The New Birth of Manhood 
 
 HALF an hour later the young man resumed 
 his journey westward, passing down the 
 farther slopes of the mountain. 
 "Wonder why I wrote 'Cairo' as my address," he 
 thought, as his trusty horse carefully picked his way 
 among the rocks and down the steeps. "I hadn't 
 thought of Cairo before as even a possible destination. 
 I know nobody there. I know absolutely nothing 
 about the town, or the opportunities it may offer. 
 I'm not superstitious, I think, but somehow this thing 
 impresses me, and to Cairo I shall go— if only to re- 
 ceive Si Watkins's letter when it comes," he added 
 with a smile. 
 
 Then he began a more practical train of thought. 
 " I've food enough now," he reflected, " to last me 
 scantily for a few days. During that time I must 
 make my way as far as I can toward the Ohio River 
 at Pittsburg or Wheeling or Parkersburg. When I 
 reach the River I must have money enough to pay 
 steamboat fare to Cairo. There is no money in these 
 parts, but West Virginia is practically a Northern 
 
30 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 State, and there are greenbacks there. I'll sell my 
 remaining pistols there. A little later I'll sell my 
 horse, my saddle, and my bridle. The horse is a 
 good one, and so is the saddle. Surely I ought to get 
 enough for them to pay my way to Cairo." 
 Then came another and a questioning thought : 
 "And when I get to Cairo? What then? I've a 
 good university education, but I doubt that there 
 is a ready market for education in any bustling Mis- 
 sissippi River town, just now. I'm a graduate in 
 law, but Heaven knows I know very little about the 
 profession aside from the broad underlying principles. 
 Besides, I shall have no money with which to open an 
 office, and who is going to employ a wandering and 
 utterly destitute stranger to take charge of his legal 
 business ? " 
 
 For the moment discouragement dominated the 
 young man's mind. But presently there came to him 
 a reflection that gave new birth to his courage. 
 
 "I'm six feet high," he thought, "and broad in 
 proportion. I'm in perfect physical health. I have 
 muscles that nothing has ever yet tired. Between the 
 wilderness and Appomattox I have had an extensive 
 experience in shoveling earth and other hard work. 
 I'm in exceedingly good training — a trifle underfed, 
 perhaps, but at any rate I carry not one ounce of 
 superfluous fat on my person. I am perfectly 
 equipped for the hardest kind of physical work and in 
 a busy western town there is sure to be work enough 
 
NEW BIRTH OF MANHOOD SI 
 
 of that kind for a strong and willing man to do. I 
 can at the very least earn enough as a laborer to feed 
 me better than I've been fed for the four years of 
 war." 
 
 Curiously enough, this prospect of work as a day 
 laborer greatly cheered the young man. Instead of 
 depressing his spirits, it for the first time lifted from 
 his soul that incubus of melancholy with which every 
 Confederate soldier of his class was at first oppressed. 
 Ever since Grant had refused in the Wilderness — a 
 year before — to retire beyond the river after receiving 
 Lee's tremendous blows, Guilford Duncan and all 
 Confederates of like intelligence had foreseen the end 
 and had recognized its coming as inevitable. Never- 
 theless, when it came in fact, when the army of 
 Northern Virginia surrendered, and when the Con- 
 federacy ceased to be, the event was scarcely less 
 shocking and depressing to their minds than if it 
 had been an unforeseen and unexpected one. 
 
 The melancholy that instantly took possession of 
 such minds amounted to scarcely less than insanity, 
 and for a prolonged period it paralyzed energy and 
 made worse the ruin that war had wrought in the 
 South. 
 
 Fortunately Guilford Duncan, thrown at once and 
 absolutely upon his own resources, thus quickly 
 escaped from the overshadowing cloud. 
 
 And yet his case seemed worse than that of most of 
 his comrades. They, at least, had homes of some 
 
32 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 sort to go to; he had none. There was for them, 
 debt burdened as their plantations were, at least a 
 hope that some way out might ultimately be found. 
 For him there was no inch of ground upon which he 
 might rest even a hope. 
 
 Born of an old family he had been bred and edu- 
 cated as one to whom abundance was to come by in- 
 heritance, a man destined from birth to become in 
 time the master of a great patrimonial estate. 
 
 But that estate was honeycombed with hereditary 
 debt, the result of generations of lavish living, waste- 
 ful methods of agriculture, and over-generous hos- 
 pitality. About the time when war came there came 
 also a crisis in the affairs of Guilford Duncan's father. 
 Long before the war ended the elder man had sur- 
 rendered everything he had in the world to his 
 creditors. He had then enlisted in the army, though 
 he was more than sixty years old. He had been killed 
 in the trenches before Petersburg, leaving his only 
 son, Guilford, not only without a patrimony and 
 without a home, but also without any family connec- 
 tion closer than some distant half -theoretical cousin- 
 ships. The young man's mother had gently passed 
 from earth so long ago that he only dimly remembered 
 the sweet nobility of her character, and he had never 
 had either brother or sister. 
 
 He was thus absolutely alone in the world, and he 
 was penniless, too, as he rode down the mountain 
 steeps. But the impulse of work had come to him, 
 
NEW BIRTH OF MANHOOD 33 
 
 and he joyfully welcomed it as something vastly bet- 
 ter and worthier of his strong young manhood than 
 any brooding over misfortune could be, or any leading 
 of the old aristocratic, half -idle planter life, if that 
 had been possible. 
 
 In connection with this thought came another. 
 He had recently read Owen Meredith's "Lucille," 
 and as he journeyed he recalled the case there de- 
 scribed of the French nobleman who for a time wasted 
 his life and neglected his splendid opportunities in 
 brooding over the downfall of the Bourbon dynasty, 
 and in an obstinate refusal to reconcile himself to the 
 new order of things. Duncan remembered how, after 
 a while, when the new France became involved in the 
 Crimean war, the Frenchman saw a clearer light ; how 
 he learned to feel that, under one regime or another, 
 it was still France that he loved, and to France that 
 his best service was due. 
 
 "That," thought Guilford Duncan, "was a new 
 birth of patriotism. Why should not a similar new 
 birth come to those of us who have fought in the 
 Confederate Army? After all, the restored Union 
 will be the only representative left of those principles 
 for which we have so manfully battled during the 
 last four years — the principles of liberty and equal 
 rights and local self-government. We Confederates 
 believe, and will always believe, that our cause was 
 just and right, that it represented the fundamentals 
 of that American system which our forefathers sealed 
 
34 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 and cemented with their blood. But our effort has 
 failed. The Confederacy is eternally dead. The 
 Union survives. What choice is left to us who fol- 
 lowed Lee, except to reconcile ourselves with our new 
 environment, and help with all our might to preserve 
 and perpetuate within the Union and by means of it, 
 all of liberty and self-government, and human rights, 
 that we have tried to maintain by the establishment 
 of the Confederacy? We must either join heart and 
 soul in that work, or we must idly sulk, living in the 
 dead past and leaving it to our adversaries to do, 
 without our help, the great good that, if we do not 
 sulk, we can so mightily help in doing." 
 
 He paused in his thinking long enough to let his 
 emotions have their word of protest against a recon- 
 ciliation which sentiment resented as a surrender of 
 principle. 
 
 Then, with a resolute determination that was final, 
 he ended the debate in his own mind between futilely 
 reactionary sentiment and hopeful, constructive, com- 
 mon sense. 
 
 " I for one, shall live in the future and not in the 
 past. I shall make the best and not the worst of 
 things as they are. I have put the war and all its 
 issues completely behind me. For half a century to 
 come the men on either side will organize themselves, 
 I suppose, into societies whose purpose will be to 
 cherish and perpetuate the memory of the war, and 
 to make it a source of antagonism and bitterness. 
 
NEW BIRTH OF MANHOOD 35 
 
 Their work will hinder progress. I will have nothing 
 to do with it. I am no longer a Confederate soldier. 
 I am an American citizen. I shall endeavor to do 
 my duty as such, wholly uninfluenced and unbiased 
 by what has gone before. 
 
 " Surely there can be no abandonment of truth or 
 justice or principle in that! It is the obvious dic- 
 tate of common sense and patriotism. During the 
 war I freely offered my life to our cause. The cause 
 is dead, but I live. I have youth and strength. I 
 have brains, I think, and I have education. These I 
 shall devote to such work as I can find to do, such 
 help as I can render in that upbuilding of my native 
 land which must be the work of all Americans dur- 
 ing the next decade or longer! 
 
 " Good-bye, Confederacy ! Good-bye, Army ! 
 Good-bye, Lost Cause! I am young. I must 'look 
 forward and not backward — up and not down.' 
 Henceforth I shall live and breathe and act for the 
 future, not for the past! Repining is about the 
 most senseless and profitless occupation that the hu- 
 man mind can conceive." 
 
 At that moment the young man's horse encountered 
 a huge boulder that had rolled down from the moun- 
 tain side, completely blockading the path. With the 
 spirit and the training that war service had given 
 him, the animal stopped not nor stayed. He ap- 
 proached the obstacle with a leap or two, and then, 
 with mighty effort, vaulted over it. 
 
36 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "Good for you, Bob!" cried the young man. 
 "That's the way to meet obstacles, and that's the 
 way I am resolved to meet them." 
 
 But the poor horse did not respond. He hobbled 
 on three legs for a space. His master, dismounting, 
 found that he had torn loose a tendon of one leg in 
 the leap. 
 
 There was no choice but to drive a bullet into the 
 poor beast's brain by way of putting him out of his 
 agony. 
 
 Thus was Guilford Duncan left upon the mountain 
 side, more desolate and helpless than before, with no 
 possessions in all the world except a pair of pistols, a 
 saddle, a bridle, a side of bacon, a peck of corn meal, 
 and a few ounces of salt. 
 
 The Valley lay before him in all its barrenness. 
 Beyond that lay hundreds of miles of Allegheny 
 mountains and the region farther on. 
 
 All this expanse he must traverse on foot before 
 arriving at that great river highway, by means of 
 which he hoped to reach his destination, a thousand 
 miles and more farther still to the West. But the new 
 manhood had been born in Guilford Duncan's soul, 
 and he was no more appalled by the difficult problem 
 that he must now face than he had been by the fire of 
 the enemy when battle was on. "Hard work," he 
 reflected, "is the daily duty of the soldier of peace, 
 just as hard fighting as that of the warrior." 
 
 Strapping his saddle and bridle on his back he took 
 
NEW BIRTH OF MANHOOD 37 
 
 his bacon and his salt bag in one hand and his bag of 
 meal in the other. Thus heavily burdened he set out 
 on foot down the mountain. • 
 
 "At any rate my load will grow lighter," he 
 reflected, " every time I eat, and I'll sell the saddle 
 and bridle at the first opportunity. I'll make the 
 Ohio River in spite of all." 
 
IV 
 
 A Private in the Army of Work 
 
 IT was a truly terrible tramp that the young man 
 had before him, but he did not shrink. So long 
 as his provisions lasted he pushed forward, stop- 
 ping only in the woodlands or by the wayside for sleep 
 and for eating. By the time that his provisions were 
 exhausted he had passed the Valley and had crossed the 
 crest of the Alleghenies. 
 
 He was now in a country that had not been wasted 
 by war, a country in which men of every class seemed 
 to be reasonably prosperous and hard at work. 
 
 There, by way of replenishing his commissariat, he 
 sold the saddle he was carrying on his back, and thus 
 lightened his load. 
 
 Fortunately it was a specially good saddle, richly 
 mounted with silver, and otherwise decorated to please 
 the fancy of the dandy Federal officer from whose 
 dead horse Duncan had captured it after its owner 
 had been left stark upon the field in the Wilderness. 
 It brought him now a good price in money, and to 
 this the purchaser generously added a little store of 
 provisions, including, for immediate use, some fresh 
 
 38 
 
PRIVATE IN ARMY OF WORK 39 
 
 mea t — the first that had passed Duncan's lips for 
 more months past than he could count upon the fingers 
 of one hand. 
 
 A little later the young man sold his pistols, but as 
 he pushed onward toward the Ohio River he found 
 that both traveling and living in a prosperous country 
 were far more expensive than traveling and living in 
 war-desolated and still moneyless Virginia. 
 
 His little store of funds leaked out of his pockets 
 so fast that, economize as he might, he found it neces- 
 sary to ask for work here and there on his journey. 
 It was spring time, and the farmers were glad enough 
 to employ him for a day or two each. The wages 
 were meagre enough, but Duncan accepted them 
 gladly, the more so because the farmers in every case 
 gave him board besides. Now and then he secured 
 odd jobs as an assistant to mechanics. In one case he 
 stoked the furnaces of a coal mine for a week. 
 
 But he did not remain long in any employment. 
 As soon as he had a trifle of money or a little stock 
 of provisions to the good, he moved onward toward 
 the river. 
 
 His one dominating and ever-growing purpose was 
 to reach Cairo. What fortune might await him there 
 he knew not at all, but since he had scratched that 
 address on the butt of a pistol, the desire to reach 
 Cairo had daily and hourly grown upon him until it 
 was now almost a passion. The name " Cairo " in his 
 mind had become a synonym for " Opportunity." 
 
40 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 It was about the middle of May when the toilsome 
 foot journey ended at Wheeling. There Duncan, 
 still wearing his tattered uniform, made diligent in- 
 quiry as to steamboats going down the river. He 
 learned that one of the great coal-towing steamers 
 from Pittsburg was expected within a few hours, 
 pushing acres of coal-laden barges before her, and 
 he was encouraged by the information, volunteered on 
 every hand, that the work of " firing up " under the 
 boilers of these coal-towing boats was so severe that a 
 goodly number of the stokers always abandoned their 
 employment in disgust of it, and deserted the boat if 
 she made a landing at Wheeling, as this approaching 
 one must do for the reason that a number of coal-laden 
 barges had been left there for her to take in tow. 
 
 It was Guilford Duncan's hope to secure a place 
 on her as a stoker or coal passer, to take the place of 
 some one of the deserters. This might enable him, 
 he thought, to earn a little money on the way down 
 the river, instead of depleting his slenderly stocked 
 purse by paying steamboat fare. 
 
 With such prospect in mind he ventured to go into 
 the town and purchase a pair of boots and a suit of 
 clothes fit for wear when he should reach Cairo. His 
 worn-out uniform would answer all his purposes 
 while serving as a stoker. 
 
 When the steamboat, with her vast fleet of barges, 
 .made a landing, Guilford Duncan was the first man 
 to leap aboard in search of work. Unfortunately for 
 
PRIVATE IN ARMY OF WORK 41 
 
 him there were few or no deserters from in front of 
 the furnaces on this trip. He could not secure em- 
 ployment as a stoker earning wages, but after some 
 persuasion the steamer's captain agreed to let him 
 "work his passage" to Cairo. That is to say, he 
 was to pay no fare, receive no wages, and do double 
 work in return for his passage down the river and for 
 the coarse and unsavory food necessary for the main- 
 tenance of his strength. 
 
 "All this is a valuable part of my education," he 
 reflected. " I am learning the important lesson that 
 in work as in warfare the man counts for nothing — 
 the service that can be got out of him is the only 
 thing considered by those in command. I must re- 
 member all that, if ever I am in a position to make 
 a bargain for the sale of my services." 
 
 It was in this spirit that the young ex-Captain 
 entered upon his new career in the army of those 
 that work. He was beginning at the bottom in the 
 new service, just as he had done in the old. "I set 
 out as a private in the army," he said to himself. " It 
 was only when I had learned enough to fit me for 
 the command of others that I was placed in authority. 
 Very well, I'm beginning as a private again. I must 
 learn all that I can, for I mean to command in that 
 army, too, some day." 
 
V 
 
 The Beginning of a Career 
 
 IT was a little after sunset on Decoration Day — 
 May 30, 1865 — when young Duncan went ashore 
 from the tow boat at Cairo. The town was ablaze 
 with fireworks, as he made his way up the slope of 
 the levee, through a narrow passage way that ran 
 between two mountainous piles of cotton bales. At 
 other points there were equally great piles of corn 
 and oats in sacks, pork in barrels, hams and bacon in 
 boxes, and finer goods of every kind in bales and 
 packing cases. For Cairo was just at that time the 
 busiest entrepot in all the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 The town was small, but its business was larger 
 than that of many great cities. The little city lay at 
 the point where the Ohio River runs into the Missis- 
 sippi. From up and down the Mississippi, from the 
 Ohio, from the Tennessee and the Cumberland, and 
 even from far up the Missouri, great fleets of steam- 
 boats were landing at Cairo every day to load and 
 unload cargoes representing a wealth as great as 
 that of the Indies. A double-headed railroad from 
 the North, carrying the produce of half a dozen 
 
 42 
 
THE BEGINNING OF A CAREER 43 
 
 States, and connecting by other roads with all the 
 great cities of the land, made its terminus at Cairo. 
 Two railroads from the South— traversing five States 
 —ended their lines at Columbus, a little farther down 
 the river, and were connected with the northern lines 
 by steamboats from Cairo. 
 
 Cairo was the meeting place of commerce between 
 the North and the South. Out of the upper rivers 
 came light-draught steamers. Plying the river below 
 were steamers of far different construction by reason 
 of the easier conditions of navigation there. At Cairo 
 every steamboat — whether from North or South — 
 unloaded its freight for reshipment up or down the 
 river, as the case might be, upon steamboats of a 
 different type, or by rail. And all the freight 
 brought North or South by rail must also be trans- 
 ferred at Cairo, either to river steamers or to railroad 
 cars. 
 
 The South was still thronged with Northern troops, 
 numbering hundreds of thousands, who must be fed 
 and clothed, and otherwise supplied, and so the gov- 
 ernment's own traffic through the town was in itself 
 a trade of vast proportions. But that was the 
 smallest part of the matter. Now that the war was 
 at an end, the South was setting to work to rebuild 
 itself. From the Cumberland and the Tennessee 
 rivers, from the lower Mississippi, from the Arkansas, 
 the Yazoo, the Red River, the White, the St. Francis, 
 and all the rest of the water-ways of the South, ener- 
 
44 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 getic men, of broken fortune, were hurrying to 
 market all the cotton that they had managed to grow 
 and to save during the war, in order that they might 
 get money with which to buy the supplies needed for 
 the cultivation of new crops. 
 
 Pretty nearly all this cotton came to Cairo, either 
 for sale to eager buyers there, or for shipment to 
 the East and a market. 
 
 In return the planters and the southern merchants 
 through whom they did business were clamorous for 
 such goods as they needed. Grain, hay, pork, 
 bacon, agricultural implements, seed potatoes, lime, 
 plaster, lumber, and everything else necessary to 
 the rebuilding of southern homes and industries, 
 were pouring into Cairo and out again by train loads 
 and steamboat cargoes, night and day. 
 
 Even that was not all. For four years no woman 
 in the South had possessed a new gown, or new hand- 
 kerchiefs, or a new toothbrush, or a new set of window 
 curtains, or a new comb, or new linen for her beds, or 
 new shoes of other than plantation make, or a new rib- 
 bon or bit of lace, or anything else new. Now that 
 the northern market was open for the sale of cotton 
 the country merchants of the South were besieged for 
 all these and a hundred other things, and their orders 
 for goods from the North added mightily to the 
 freight piles on the levee at Cairo. 
 
 As Guilford Duncan emerged from the alley-way 
 between the cotton bales and reached the street at top 
 
THE BEGINNING OF A CAREER 45 
 
 of the levee, a still burning fragment of the fireworks 
 fell upon a bale of which the bagging was badly 
 torn, exposing the lint cotton in a way very tempting 
 to fire. With the instinct of the soldier he instantly 
 climbed to the top of the pile, tore away the burn- 
 ing bunches of lint cotton, and threw them to the 
 ground, thus preventing further harm. 
 
 As he climbed down again a man confronted him. 
 
 " Are you a watchman ? " asked the man. 
 
 " No, I'm only a man in search of work." 
 
 "Why did you do that, then?" queried the 
 stranger, pointing to the still burning cotton scattered 
 on the ground. 
 
 " On general principles, I suppose," answered Dun- 
 can. "There would have been a terrible fire if I 
 hadn't." 
 
 "What's your name?" 
 
 " Guilford Duncan." 
 
 "Want work?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "What sort?" 
 
 "Any sort — for good wages." That last phrase 
 was the result of his stoker experience. 
 
 " Well, do you want to watch this cotton to-night 
 and see that no harm comes to it, either from fire, or — 
 what's worse — the cotton thieves that go down the 
 alleys, pulling out all the lint they can from the torn 
 bales?" 
 
 " Yes, if I can have fair wages." 
 
46 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "Will three dollars for the night be fair wages?" 
 
 "Yes — ample. How far does your freight ex- 
 tend up and down the levee ? " 
 
 "It's pretty nearly all mine, but I have other 
 watchmen on other parts of it. This is a new cargo. 
 
 Your beat will extend " and he gave the young 
 
 man his boundaries. 
 
 "You'll be off duty at sunrise. Come to me at 
 seven o'clock for your pay. I'm Captain Will Hal- 
 lam. Anybody in Cairo will tell you where my office 
 is. Good-night." 
 
 This was an excellent beginning, Duncan thought. 
 Three dollars was more money than he had carried 
 in his pocket at any time since he had bought his 
 suit of clothes at Wheeling. Better still, the prompti- 
 tude with which employment had thus come to him was 
 encouraging, although the employment was but for a 
 night. And when he reflected that he had won favor 
 by doing what seemed to him an act of ordinary duty, 
 he was disposed to regard the circumstance as another 
 lesson in the new service of work. 
 
 The night passed without event of consequence. 
 There were two or three little fires born of the holiday 
 celebration, but Guilford Duncan managed to sup- 
 press them without difficulty. Later in the night the 
 swarm of cotton thieves — mainly boys and girls — 
 invaded the levee, with bags conveniently slung over 
 their shoulders. As there were practically no police- 
 men in the town, and as his beat was a large one, 
 
THE BEGINNING OF A CAREER 47 
 
 young Duncan for a time had difficulty in dealing 
 with these marauders. But after he had arrested 
 half a dozen of them only to find that there were no 
 police officers to whom he could turn them over, he 
 adopted a new plan. He secured a heavy stick from 
 a bale of hay, and with that he clubbed every cotton 
 thief he could catch. As a soldier it was his habit 
 to adapt means to ends ; so he hit hard at heads, and 
 seized upon all the stolen goods. It was not long be- 
 fore word was passed among the marauders that 
 there was " a devil of a fellow " in charge of that part 
 of the levee, and for the rest of the night the pilferers 
 confined their operations to spaces where a less alert 
 watchfulness gave them better and safer oppor- 
 tunities. 
 
 Thus passed Guilford Duncan's first night as a 
 common soldier in the great army of industry. 
 
 In the morning, at the hour appointed, he 
 presented himself to Captain Will Hallam, and was 
 taken into that person's private office for an inter- 
 view. 
 
VI 
 
 A Captain in the Army of Work 
 
 CAPTAIN WILL HALLAM was a man of 
 the very shrewdest sense, fairly — though not 
 liberally — educated, whose life, from boy- 
 hood onward, had been devoted to the task of taking 
 quick advantage of every opportunity that the great 
 river traffic of the fifties had offered to men of enter- 
 prise and sound judgment. 
 
 Beginning as a barefoot boy — about 1850, or 
 earlier, he never mentioned the date — he had " run the 
 river" in all sorts of capacities until, when the war 
 came, temporarily paralyzing the river trade, he had 
 a comfortable little sum of money to the good. 
 
 Unable to foresee what the course and outcome of 
 the war might be, he determined, as a measure of 
 prudence, to indulge himself and his little hoard in 
 a period of safe waiting. He converted all his pos- 
 sessions into gold and deposited the whole of it in a 
 Canadian bank, where, while it earned no interest, it 
 was at any rate perfectly safe. 
 
 Then he sought and secured a clerkship in the com- 
 missary department of the army, living upon the scant 
 
 49 
 
CAPTAIN IN ARMY OF WORK 49 
 
 salary that the clerkship afforded, and meanwhile 
 acquainting himself in minute detail with the food 
 resources of every quarter of the country, the means 
 and methods of transportation and handling, and 
 everything else that could in any wise aid him in 
 making himself a master in commerce. 
 
 Then one day in 1863, when he had satisfied him- 
 self that the fortunes of war were definitely turning 
 and that in the end the Union cause was destined to 
 triumph, he made a change. 
 
 He resigned his clerkship. He recalled his money 
 from Canada, and considerably increased at least its 
 nominal amount by converting the gold into greatly 
 depreciated greenbacks. 
 
 With this capital he opened a commission and for- 
 warding house at Cairo, together with a coal yard, 
 a bank, five wharf boats, half a dozen tugs, an insur- 
 ance office, a flour mill, and other things. He sent 
 for his brothers to act as his clerks and presently to 
 become his partners. 
 
 From the beginning he made money rapidly, and 
 from the beginning he was eagerly on the lookout for 
 opportunities, which in that time of rapid change 
 were abundant. He quickly secured control of nearly 
 all the commission and forwarding business that 
 centered at Cairo. By underbidding the government 
 itself he presently had contracts for all the vast gov- 
 ernment business of that character. 
 
 He was always ready to take up a collateral enter- 
 
50 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 prise that promised results. When the Mississippi 
 River was reopened to commerce by the fall of Vicks- 
 burg and Port Hudson, Captain Will Hallam was 
 the first to see and seize the opportunity. He bought 
 everything he could lay his hands on in the way of 
 steamboats and barges, and sent them all upon trading 
 voyages — each under charge of a captain, but each 
 directed by his own masterful mind — up and down 
 the Mississippi, and up and down the Ohio, and up and 
 down every navigable tributary of those great rivers. 
 
 This field was quickly made his own, so far as he 
 cared to occupy it. If a rival attempted a com- 
 petition that might hurt his enterprises, Captain Hal- 
 lam quietly and quite without a ripple of anger in 
 his voice, dictated some letters to his secretary. Then 
 freight rates suddenly fell almost to the vanishing 
 point, and after a disastrous trip or two, his adver- 
 sary's steamboats became his own by purchase at low 
 prices, and freight rates went up again. He bore 
 no enmity to the men who thus antagonized him in 
 business and whom he thus conquered. His attitude 
 toward them was precisely that of a soldier toward 
 his enemy. So long as they antagonized him he 
 fought them mercilessly ; as soon as they fell into his 
 hands as wounded prisoners, he was ready and eager 
 to do what he could for them. 
 
 Those of them who knew the river, and had shown 
 capacity in business, were made steamboat captains 
 in his service, or steamboat clerks, or wharf -boat man- 
 
CAPTAIN IN ARMY OF WORK 51 
 
 agers, or agents, or something else — all at fair 
 salaries. 
 
 It was Captain Will Hallam's practice to make 
 partners of all men who might render him service in 
 that capacity. Thus when he saw how great a busi- 
 ness there must be at Cairo in supplying Pittsburg 
 steam coal to the government fleets on the Mississippi, 
 and to the thousands of other steamboats trafficking 
 in those waters, he went at once to Pittsburg and two 
 days later he had made a certain Captain Red his 
 partner in the control of that vastly rich trade. 
 
 Captain Red was the largest owner of the Pitts- 
 burg mines, and the pioneer in the business of carry- 
 ing coal-laden barges in acres and scores of acres 
 down the river, pushing them with stern-wheel 
 steamers of large power, but still of a power insuffi- 
 cient for the accomplishment of the best results. 
 
 Captain Red's fleet was unable to control the trade. 
 Captain Hallam pointed out to him the desirability 
 of making it adequate and dominant. Within two 
 days the two had formed a partnership which included 
 a number of New York bankers and investors as un- 
 known and silent stockholders in the enterprise, and 
 an abundant capital was provided. An order was 
 given for the hurried building of the Ajax, the Hec- 
 tor, the Agamemnon, the Hercules, and half a dozen 
 other stern-wheel steamers of power so great that they 
 could not carry the coal needed for their own fur- 
 naces, but must tow it in barges alongside. 
 
52 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 These powerful steamers were to push vast fleets of 
 coal-laden barges down the river all the way from 
 Pittsburg on the east to St. Louis on the west, and 
 New Orleans on the south. They were to supply, 
 through Hallam's agents, every town along the river 
 and every steamboat that trafficked to any part of it. 
 Hallam was master of it all. Cairo was to be the cen- 
 tral distributing point, and if anybody along the river 
 owned a coal mine in Kentucky or Indiana, or else- 
 where, he was quickly made to understand that his 
 best means of marketing his product at a profit was 
 to sell it through the Hallam yards at Cairo. 
 
 In the meanwhile, as one region after another in 
 the South was conquered by the Union arms, Captain 
 Hallam, whose long river service had brought him 
 into acquaintance with pretty nearly everybody 
 worth knowing south of Cairo, established agents of 
 his own at every point where there was cotton to be 
 bought at extravagant prices, payable in gold, even 
 while the war was going on. These agents bought the 
 cotton, the planters agreeing to deliver it upon the 
 banks of the rivers and leave it there at Hallam's risk. 
 Then Captain Hallam's steamboats, big and little, 
 would push their way up the little rivers, take the 
 cotton on board, and carry it to Cairo. 
 
 At Cairo, while the war lasted, there were difficulties 
 to be encountered. Military authority was supreme, 
 and just when the influx of cotton was greatest, mili- 
 tary authority arbitrarily decreed that no cotton 
 
CAPTAIN IN ARMY OF WORK 53 
 
 should be shipped from Cairo to the North or East 
 without a military permit. For a time this decree 
 seriously embarrassed trade. The warehouses in 
 Cairo were choked and glutted with cotton. New 
 ones were built only to be choked in the same way. 
 The levee was piled high with precious bales. Even 
 vacant lots and unoccupied blocks in the low-lying 
 town were rented and made storage places for cotton 
 bales, piled into veritable mountains of wealth. For 
 cotton was worth forty or fifty cents a pound, and 
 even more, at that time, and scores of mills were idle 
 for want of raw material, both in England and in 
 New England, while not a bale could be shipped be- 
 cause the military authorities would issue no permits. 
 
 Will Hallam one day set himself down to think this 
 thing out. "Why do the military authorities deny 
 us shipping permits?" he asked himself. "The 
 eastern buyers want the cotton, and we western 
 holders of it want to sell it to them. There is abso- 
 lutely no military or other good reason why the owner 
 of cotton in one northern city should not be allowed 
 to ship it to other northern cities where it is needed." 
 Then he saw a light. 
 
 " The military people, or some of them, want a slice 
 of the profit. That's what's the matter. I don't like 
 to pay a bribe, but in a military time like this, and 
 while Cairo is under martial law, I suppose I must 
 submit to conditions as they are. I'm no theorist or 
 moralist. I'm fairly honest, I think, but I'm a prac- 
 
54 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 tical business man. Besides, I've a dozen partners 
 interested in this cotton, and I owe it to them to get it 
 off to a market. If I don't, most of them will go to 
 the bowwows, financially. The military authorities 
 have no right to forbid shipment and ruin men in this 
 way, but they have the power and they are exercising 
 it. What's that the Bible says about ploughing with 
 the other fellow's heifer, and making friends with the 
 Mammon of unrighteousness? I always play the 
 game according to the rules, no matter whether I 
 like the rules or not. I'll play this hand in that 
 way." 
 
 Then turning to his secretary, he said: 
 
 " Call the main office cashier by telegraph and tell 
 him to come to me at once, here at the house." 
 
 There were no telephones in that day, but Captain 
 Will Hallam was accustomed to say that, living, as he 
 did, in the nineteenth century, he made free use of 
 nineteenth century conveniences in his business. He 
 had laced the little city with telegraph wires, con- 
 necting his house not only with his office, and many 
 warehouses, but with the houses of all the chief men 
 in his employ, even to the head drayman. And he 
 exacted of every one of his employees a reasonable 
 facility in the use of the Morse telegraph. 
 
 Captain Hallam had many rules for the governance 
 of his own conduct. Among them were these : 
 
 "Never be a fool — look at the practical side of 
 things. 
 
CAPTAIN IN ARMY OF WORK 55 
 
 "Never let anything run away with you — keep 
 cool. 
 
 " Never be in a hurry — make the other fellows do 
 the hustling. 
 
 " Never let the men you work with know what you 
 are doing — they might talk, or they might do a little 
 business on their own account. 
 
 " Never be satisfied with anything as it is — there 
 is always some way of bettering it. 
 
 " Never send good money after bad — it doesn't 
 pay. 
 
 " Never waste energy in regretting a loss — there's 
 a better use for energy. 
 
 " Never hesitate to pay for your education as you 
 get it — use the telegraph freely, and keep in close 
 communication with the men who are likely to know 
 what you want to know. 
 
 "When you want a man to keep still, make it 
 worth his while — but don't say anything to him about 
 it. That opens the way to blackmail. 
 
 " Never take a drink — it unbalances the judgment. 
 
 "Never get angry — that's worse than taking a 
 dozen drinks. 
 
 " Never do anything till you are ready to do it all 
 over and clear through." 
 
 In obedience to the spirit of these rules, Captain 
 Will Hallam, as soon as he had sent off his telegraphic 
 messages, went out into his garden and hoed a while. 
 Then he called John, his English gardener, and gave 
 
56 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 him some minute instructions respecting the care of 
 certain plants. John resented the impertinence of 
 course, but he obeyed the instructions, nevertheless. 
 It was the fixed habit of men who worked for Captain 
 Will Hallam to obey his commands. 
 
 Presently the cashier presented himself, with check 
 book in hand. 
 
 " Draw a check for five thousand dollars," com- 
 manded Captain Hallam, "payable 'to the King of 
 Holland or Bearer. Mind, I say ' bearer,' not ' order.' 
 Then draw another check for one hundred dollars, 
 payable to yourself." 
 
 Not another word was said. No explanation of the 
 gift to the cashier was offered or asked. The cashier 
 understood. He drew the checks and his employer 
 signed them. The smaller one he handed to his sub- 
 ordinate. The vastly larger one he thrust into his 
 vest pocket, as he moved around a corner of the piazza 
 to set his little girls swinging in a new contrivance 
 which he had purchased for their use. 
 
 Presently he returned to his secretary and said: 
 
 " Telegraph Mr. Kingsbury to make out an appli- 
 cation in proper form for a military permit to ship 
 five thousand bales of cotton to New York. Tell him 
 to have it ready for me at two o'clock at the main 
 office." 
 
 Two hours later Captain Hallam found the appli- 
 cation ready for him on his office desk. After look- 
 ing it over he signed and carefully folded it after the 
 
CAPTAIN IN ARMY OF WORK 57 
 
 fashion required for military documents, but as he 
 did so he slipped into it the check for five thousand 
 dollars, payable to the " King of Holland or Bearer." 
 
 No mention of the check was made in the document. 
 If the proceeding should be resented at headquarters, 
 the enclosure could be excused on the plea of accident. 
 
 Then the man of business bade his secretary envelop 
 the package and send it by messenger to military 
 headquarters. 
 
 It came back promptly with this endorsement on it : 
 
 "Application denied. The proposed shipment is 
 larger than this office regards as proper under existmg 
 circumstances" 
 
 The last three words were heavily and suggestively 
 underscored. Captain Hallam thought he under- 
 stood. He was in the habit of understanding quickly. 
 He called the cashier, handed him the check, first tear- 
 ing it into four pieces, and bade him cancel the stub 
 and draw a new check for ten thousand dollars, pay- 
 able as before, to " the King of Holland or Bearer." 
 
 Then he endorsed the application with the sentence : 
 
 "As conditions have somewhat changed since this 
 application was rejected, I venture to ask a recon- 
 sideration." 
 
 Half an hour later Captain Hallam was duly and 
 officially notified that his application for permission 
 to ship five thousand bales of cotton was granted. 
 
 The check — without endorsement — was cashed next 
 day — the bank teller would never say by whom. But 
 
58 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 in the meanwhile Captain Hallam had said to his 
 secretary : 
 
 "Telegraph the general freight agent at Chicago 
 for freight cars, as fast as he can let me have them. 
 Say I have five thousand bales of cotton awaiting 
 shipment, with more to come as fast as I can get per- 
 mits." 
 
 Then Captain Hallam mounted his horse and rode 
 away for a "constitutional." 
 
 All this occurred a year or two before the time of 
 Guilford Duncan's arrival in Cairo ; but it was pecu- 
 liarly characteristic of Captain Hallam's methods and 
 the story of it is illustrative of his ideas. 
 
VII 
 
 The " Sizing Up " of Guilford Duncan 
 
 CAPTAIN WILL HALLAM was quick to 
 make up his mind with regard to a man. He 
 was exceedingly accurate in his human judg- 
 ments, too, and his confidence in them had been 
 strengthened by experience in successfully acting 
 upon them. As he phrased it, he " knew how to size 
 a man up," and, as the employer of multitudes of 
 men in all parts of the country and in all sorts of 
 capacities, he had daily need of the skill he had 
 acquired in that art. It was as much a part of his 
 equipment for the conduct of his vast and varied 
 enterprises as was his money capital itself. 
 
 When young Duncan presented himself in the 
 private office after his night's vigil as a watchman, 
 Captain Hallam asked him to sit. That was a recog- 
 nition of his social status as something better than his 
 employment of the night before might have suggested. 
 Ordinarily a man employed as a levee watchman would 
 not have been told to come to the private office at all. 
 Nor would such a man have seen anybody higher than 
 a junior clerk in collecting his wages. 
 
 59 
 
60 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 But Captain Hallam had been impressed by this 
 newcomer, and he wanted to talk with him. 
 
 He broke at once into a catechism. 
 
 " Why did you do that little fire-extinguishing act 
 last night ? " 
 
 He asked the question precisely as he might have 
 done if he had resented the saving of his wealth of 
 cotton. 
 
 " Oh, it was simple enough. The fire meant dam- 
 age, and I was there. So, of course, I put it out." 
 
 "But why? The cotton wasn't yours, and you 
 hadn't been hired to watch it." 
 
 "No, of course not. But when a gentle I 
 
 mean when any decent man sees property afire 
 he doesn't ask whose it is before putting out the 
 blaze." 
 
 " You're a Virginian, I should say, from your voice 
 — late of the rebel army. What's your rank?" 
 
 "None now. I've put the war completely behind 
 me. I'm beginning life anew." 
 
 " Good ! I wish everybody, north and south, would 
 do the same. But fools won't, and men are mostly 
 fools, you know. When did you get to Cairo?" 
 
 "About Rye minutes before you saw me putting 
 out the fire. I came down the river on the big tow 
 boat." 
 
 " Where's your baggage? " 
 
 "On my back. I have no other clothes. I'll buy 
 some when I earn some money." 
 
"SIZING UP" OF DUNCAN 61 
 
 " Where have you been since the surrender? " 
 " Making my way West." 
 "How?" 
 
 " On foot to Wheeling. Then on the tow boat." 
 " What fare did they make you pay? " 
 "None. I worked my way as a stoker — fireman 
 they call it out here." 
 
 " No wages? Just passage and grub? " 
 " That was all." 
 
 " What have you got on your wheel house? " 
 " I fear I don't understand." 
 
 "Oh, that's river slang. You know every side- 
 wheel steamer has a statement of her destination 
 painted on her wheel house. I meant to ask what are 
 your plans ? " 
 
 " To find work and do it." 
 "What kind of work?" 
 " Any kind that's honest." 
 "You are educated, I suppose?" 
 " Yes, in a way. I'm an A. M. and a graduate in 
 law." 
 
 " Know anything about business ? " 
 " No, but I shall learn." 
 " If you can, you mean? " 
 
 " Oh, I can. A capable man can learn anything 
 if he really wants to." 
 
 "I don't know about that. But I'll gamble on 
 the proposition that you can." 
 " Thank you," 
 
62 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "No thanks are needed. I wasn't complimenting. 
 I was just expressing an opinion." 
 
 Scribbling a memorandum on a scrap of paper, 
 Captain Hallam handed it to Duncan, saying: 
 
 "Give that to the cashier as you go out, and get 
 your wages. Then you'd better get your breakfast. 
 I recommend you, while you're poor, to eat at the 
 little booths along the levee, where they sell very good 
 sandwiches and coffee cheap. After breakfast, if you 
 choose to come back here I'll try to find something for 
 you to do. Oh, I forgot. You were up all night, 
 so you'll want to sleep." 
 
 There was an interrogative note in the last sen- 
 tence. Captain Hallam was " sizing up " his man, 
 and he closely scrutinized Duncan's face as the an- 
 swer came. 
 
 "Oh, I'm used to night duty. I'm ready for a 
 day's work if you can give me one. As for break- 
 fast, I've had it." 
 
 " Then you had money ? " 
 
 "A very little; but I didn't spend any of it. I 
 sawed and split a load of wood for the keeper of a 
 booth, and he gave me some bread and ham and 
 coffee for my work." 
 
 "Oh, that's the way you managed it. Very well. 
 Come back here in two hours anyhow." 
 
 After the young man had passed out, Captain 
 Hallam said to one of his partner brothers: 
 
 "That fellow is a good sort. He has sand in his 
 
"SIZING UP" OF DUNCAN 63 
 
 gizzard. When he comes back set him at work at 
 something or other— several things in succession in 
 f ac t — and find out what he can do." 
 
 Such was Guilford Duncan's mustering into the 
 new service of work. 
 
VIII 
 
 On Duty 
 
 DURING the next four or five days Guil- 
 ford Duncan was kept busy with various 
 small employments, some of them out of 
 doors and some of them in the office. During this 
 time Captain Hallam did not again engage him in con- 
 versation, but Duncan knew that the man of business 
 was closely observing his work. He was not slow to 
 discover that he was giving satisfaction. He saw 
 that with each day the work assigned him was of a 
 kind that required a higher intelligence than that of 
 the day before. 
 
 Every evening the cashier paid him his day's wages, 
 thus reminding him that he was not a salaried em- 
 ployee of the house, but a man working for wages 
 from day to day. 
 
 Out of his first wages he had purchased a change of 
 very cheap underwear, a towel, and a cake of soap. 
 Every morning about daylight he went to a secluded 
 spot on the levee, for a scrub and a swim. Then he 
 washed out his towel and placed it with his other small 
 belongings, in a storage place he had discovered in a 
 great lumber pile. 
 
 64 
 
ON DUTY 65 
 
 One morning when he entered the office Captain 
 Hallam gave him several business letters to answer 
 from memoranda scribbled upon them by clerks or 
 others. He gave him also a memorandum in his own 
 handwriting, saying: 
 
 "Cut that down if you can and make a telegram 
 of it. I'll be back in half an hour or so. Have it 
 ready for me." 
 
 The case was this: A huge steamboat lay at the 
 levee, loaded almost to the water's edge with grain 
 which Captain Hallam was more than anxious to hurry 
 to New Orleans to meet a sudden temporary and very 
 marked advance in that market. That morning the 
 boat had been "tied up" — as the phrase went — that 
 is to say, she had been legally attached for debt, at 
 the suit of a firm in St. Louis. Until the attachment 
 should be removed the boat must lie at Cairo, in charge 
 of a sheriff's officer. Captain Hallam wished to secure 
 her immediate release, and to that end he purposed 
 sending the telegram. 
 
 When he returned to the office Duncan handed him 
 for inspection and signature the letters he had 
 written. 
 
 " Here is the telegram, also," he said, " but, if you 
 will pardon the impertinence, I think you had better 
 not send it — at least in the form you have given it." 
 
 " What's the matter ? " quickly snapped Hallam. 
 
 " It binds you to more than I think you intend." 
 
 "Goon! Explain!" 
 
66 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "Why, I cannot help seeing that if you send this 
 dispatch you will make yourself legally responsible, 
 not only for the claim for which the boat is now 
 attached, but also for every claim against her that 
 may exist anywhere. There may be none such, or 
 there may be many. In any case I do not think you 
 intend to assume them all." 
 
 " Go on 1 The boat must be got away. What do 
 you advise?" 
 
 " That you go on her bond for this claim — which 
 seems to me so clearly illegal that I think you can 
 never be held upon the bond — and " 
 
 "Remind me, when this is over, that you are to 
 come to my house to-night for consultation on that 
 point. Now go on." 
 
 " Well, by going on her bond for this claim, instead 
 of asking the creditors to release the boat on your 
 promise as made in the telegram, you can secure her 
 immediate release, making yourself liable, at worst, 
 for no more than the six hundred dollars claimed." 
 
 " But if I do that, what is to prevent another tie-up 
 at Memphis and another at Vicksburg and others 
 wherever the boat may happen to land. She's in debt 
 up to the top of her smokestacks, all along the river." 
 
 "As you own the cargo, and she can't carry 
 another ton, why should you let her stop at all ? I sup- 
 pose the captain would do as you desire in that matter. 
 You might request him to run through without any 
 landings." 
 
ON DUTY 67 
 
 " Request be hanged. I'll tell him what to do and 
 he'll do it. He knows where cargoes come from. Can 
 you get the papers ready?" 
 
 " I can, sir." 
 
 " All right. Do it at once." Then turning to a 
 shipping clerk he sent for the captain of the steamer, 
 to whom he said : 
 
 " Get up steam at once. You are to leave in less 
 than an hour. How much coal have you? " 
 
 The captain told him. 
 
 " Take two light barges of coal in tow, one on each 
 side, and draw on them for fuel. When they're 
 empty cast them loose with two men on each to land 
 them. You can pick them up on your return trip. 
 You are to steam to New Orleans without a landing 
 anywhere. You understand?" 
 
 The captain understood. By this time the papers 
 were ready and after half an hour spent in legal 
 formalities the released steamboat cast loose from the 
 wharf and backed out into the river. 
 
 Then Captain Hallam turned to Guilford Duncan 
 and said: 
 
 " I've an idea that you'll do. If you like I'll put 
 you at regular work at a monthly salary, and we'll 
 see how we get on together." 
 
 "I should like that." 
 
 " Very well. Now, where are you boarding? " 
 
 " Nowhere. I get what I want to eat at the booths 
 down along the levee." 
 
6S A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 " But where do you sleep?" 
 
 " Among the big lumber piles down there on Fourth 
 street." 
 
 Captain Hallam looked at the young man for a 
 moment with something like admiration in his eyes. 
 Presently he said : 
 
 "You'll do. You've got grit and you'll 'make 
 the riffle,' sure. But you must live more regularly, 
 now that you are to have a salary. I know what it 
 means to live as you've been doing. I used to do it 
 myself. I could tell to a cent the nutritive value of a 
 pegged pie or a sewed one, and at a single glance I 
 could guess the probable proportions of the dog and 
 cat in a sausage. That sort of thing's all right 
 for a little while, but not for long, and as for 
 the sleeping among lumber piles, it's risky. I used 
 to sleep in an empty sugar hogshead by preference, 
 but sleeping out of doors may give you rheumatism." 
 
 " I've been doing it for four years," answered Dun- 
 can, smiling, " and I still have the use of my limbs." 
 
 "Yes, of course. I didn't think of that. But 
 you must live better now. There's a well-furnished 
 room above the office. It was my brother's quarters 
 before he got married, and it is very comfortable. 
 You can take it for your own. Give Dutch John, the 
 scrub boy, half a dollar a week to take care of it for 
 you and that's all the rent you need pay. As for 
 your meals, most young men in Cairo feed their faces 
 at the hotel. But that's expensive and what the pro- 
 
ON DUTY 69 
 
 prietor calls his ' kuzene ' is distinctly bad. There's a 
 lady, however, — Mrs. Deming, — who furnishes very 
 good ' square meals,' I hear, over in Walnut street. 
 You'd better try there, I think. She's what you would 
 call a gentlewoman, but she needs all the money you'll 
 pay her." 
 
 Duncan wondered a little what a 'square meal' 
 might be, but he was getting somewhat used to the 
 prevalence in the West of those figurative forms of 
 expression which we call slang. So he took it fox 
 granted that " square meals " were for some reason 
 preferable to meals of any other geometrical form, 
 and answered simply that he would look up Mrs. 
 Deming's house after business hours should be over. 
 
 " Remember," said Captain Hallam as he passed out 
 of the office, " you are to see me at my house to-night. 
 Better come to supper — say at seven — and after sup- 
 per we'll talk over that law point you mentioned, and 
 other things." 
 
 Duncan wondered a little that Captain Hallam 
 should give him so intimate an invitation when he 
 knew so little of him. Everybody else in the office 
 understood. Captain Will was planning to " size up 
 his man" still further, in an evening's conversation. 
 
IX 
 
 One Night's Work 
 
 AS the weeks and months went on the results 
 of Gilford Duncan's work completely justi- 
 ^fied the confident assertion he had made to 
 Captain Hallam that a capable man can learn any- 
 thing if he really wants to. 
 
 He rapidly familiarized himself with the technicali- 
 ties, as well as with the methods and broad principles 
 of business. He sat up till midnight for many nights 
 in succession, in order to learn from the head book- 
 keeper the rather scant mysteries of bookkeeping. By 
 observing the gaugers who measured coal barges to 
 determine their contents, he quickly acquired skill in 
 doing that. 
 
 It was so with everything. He was determined to 
 master every art and mystery that in anywise per- 
 tained to business, whether the skill in question was 
 or was not one that he was ever likely to need or to 
 practice. 
 
 His diligence, his conscientiousness in work, his 
 readiness of resource, his alert intelligence, and his 
 sturdy integrity daily commended him more and more 
 
 70 
 
ONE NIGHT'S WORK 71 
 
 to the head of the firm, and not many months had 
 passed before everyone in the office tacitly recognized 
 the young Virginian as the confidential adviser and 
 assistant of Captain Hallam himself, though no formal 
 appointment of that kind had been made. 
 
 But no advance of salary came to the young man 
 as a result. It was one of Captain Hallam's rules 
 never to pay a man more for his services than he 
 must, and never to advance a man's salary until the 
 advance was asked for. 
 
 Captain Hallam was in no fibre of his being a miser, 
 but he acted always upon those cold-blooded pru- 
 dential principles that had brought him wealth. It 
 was not money that this great captain of commerce 
 worshiped, but success. Success was the one god of 
 his idolatry. Outside of his business he was liberal 
 in the extreme. Even in his business operations he 
 never hesitated at lavish expenditure where such ex- 
 penditure promised good results. But he regarded 
 all unnecessary spending as waste, of the kind that 
 imperils success. 
 
 In his cynical moments, indeed, he sometimes said 
 that "if you have a valuable man in your employ, 
 you must keep him poor; otherwise you'll lose him." 
 But in so saying he perhaps did himself an injustice. 
 He was apt to feign a heartless selfishness that he 
 did not feel. 
 
 Little by little Guilford Duncan had learned all this 
 as he had learned business methods. He had at first 
 
72 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 modestly proposed to himself nothing more in the 
 way of achievement than to make himself a valuable 
 subordinate — a private, or at most a corporal or a 
 sergeant — in the ranks of the great army of work. 
 But before many months had passed his modesty was 
 compelled to yield somewhat to an increasingly clear 
 understanding of conditions and possibilities. Some- 
 what to his own surprise he began to suspect himself 
 of possessing capacities superior to those of the men 
 about him, and even superior to those of many 
 men who had risen to high place in commerce and 
 finance. 
 
 As Captain Hallam came more and more to rely 
 upon the sagacity and character of this his most 
 trusted man, he more and more brought young Dun- 
 can into those confidential conferences with the lead- 
 ing men of affairs, which were frequently necessary in 
 the planning and execution of important enterprises, 
 or in the meeting of difficulties and obstacles. In that 
 way Duncan was brought into personal contact with 
 the recognized masters — big and little — with rail- 
 road presidents, financiers, bankers, capitalists, and 
 other men whose positions were in a greater or less 
 degree commanding. 
 
 At first he modestly held himself as nothing more 
 than the tool and servitor of these great men. But 
 presently he began to suspect that they were not very 
 great men after all — to see that it was usually he 
 himself who devised and suggested the enterprises that 
 
ONE NIGHT'S WORK 73 
 
 these men undertook, and he who saved them from mis- 
 takes in the execution of those enterprises. 
 
 Guilford Duncan had never in his life kept a diary. 
 He regarded that practice as a useless puerility and 
 usually an indulgence in morbid self-communing and 
 unwholesome self -consciousness. But it was his prac- 
 tice, sometimes, late at night, to set down upon paper 
 such thoughts as had interested him during the day, 
 for the sole sake of formulating them in his own mind. 
 Often he would in this way discuss with himself ques- 
 tions concerning which he had not yet matured his 
 opinion. 
 
 He found the practice conducive to clear thinking 
 and sound judgment. It served for him the same pur- 
 pose that the writing of intimate letters might have 
 done if he had had any intimates to whom to write 
 letters. 
 
 "I've been in conference this day," he wrote one 
 night, " with half a dozen nabobs — not great nabobs, 
 
 but second rate ones. Mr. M was the biggest 
 
 one. He's a railroad president, and he always talks 
 loftily of his ' system ' when he means the single rail- 
 road he presides over and its little branches. Then 
 
 there was D . He's a General Freight Agent, and 
 
 he never forgets the fact or lets anybody else forget 
 it. That's because he was a small shipping clerk 
 until less than two years ago. I don't think much 
 of his capacity. Yes, I do. He knows how to man- 
 age a big traffic fairly well, and he has had nous 
 
74 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 enough to climb out of his small clerkship into a posi- 
 tion of responsibility. What I mean is that he has 
 little education, no culture, and no intelligence out- 
 side of business. But I begin to see that except in 
 its very highest places, business does not require 
 anything better than good ordinary ability inspired 
 by inordinate selfishness. Perhaps that is the reason 
 that the novelists so rarely — I may say never — take 
 a man of business for the hero of a romantic story. 
 
 "All this has put a new thought into my mind. 
 Why should not I, Guilford Duncan, make myself a 
 leader, a captain, or even a commanding general of 
 affairs. I am far better educated than any of these 
 men. They hold that education is a hindrance rather 
 than a help in business, but in that they are mightily 
 wrong, as I intend presently to show them. Other 
 things being equal, a man of trained mind should 
 certainly achieve better results, even in business, 
 than a man of untrained mind. A man of trained 
 mind, if he has natural capacity and energy, can do 
 anything that he chooses to do, I must never forget 
 that. 
 
 " But the man who would do things of any conse- 
 quence in business ways must have money. The bank 
 account is his tool chest. * 
 
 "I suggested some combinations to-night to those 
 nabobs, and they are going to carry them out. They 
 would never have thought of the combinations but for 
 my suggestion. But they can and will carry them 
 
ONE NIGHT'S WORK 75 
 
 out, with great credit and profit to themselves, be- 
 cause they have command of money. J could not 
 even think of conducting such affairs, simply because 
 I have no command of money. 
 
 "Very well, then. I shall proceed to get money, 
 just as I should study to acquire skill in a profes- 
 sion, or just as I should read up the law pertaining 
 to a matter with which I must deal. 
 
 " I shall not learn to love money. That would de- 
 grade my soul. I shall regard money always as a 
 means — a mere tool with which to do such work as I 
 can in this great undeveloped country. 
 
 " That also is something to be remembered. The era 
 of development is just beginning. These men are 
 nation builders, though they don't know it, or intend 
 it, or care anything about that aspect of their activi- 
 ties. Their motives are the sordid impulses of greed 
 and selfish ambition alone. 
 
 " At least that is true of all of them except Captain 
 Hallam. He is a man apart. His attitude is a pecu- 
 liar one. He does not care for wealth in itself and 
 yet he scrambles for it as greedily and as hungrily as 
 the rest of them. Sometimes I think he regards the 
 whole thing as a game which he enjoys playing with 
 superior skill, just as one might with whist or chess. 
 He likes to win, not for the sake of the winnings, but 
 for the sake of the winning. 
 
 "I must go to bed now. To-morrow I'll begin 
 thinking out plans for getting money. One thing 
 
76 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 is sure. No man can get much money by working for 
 any other man. The man who gets rich is he who hires 
 other men to work for him for less than their work is 
 worth. But it is only by working for another man that 
 one can get the first little capital — the first rude but 
 handy tool with which to achieve success. I'll go on 
 working as a hired man till I get a little hoard to- 
 gether. After that — well, we shall see." 
 
 Duncan was greatly admired but little understood 
 by his fellows in the service of the Hallam firm,, or by 
 the similar people who thronged the town. His fel- 
 lows, in and out of the office, were commonplace young 
 men, all looking to the main chance alone and pursuing 
 it with only such honesty of conduct as business pru- 
 dence required. They felt no further interest in their 
 work than such as was necessary to enable them to 
 retain their places and their salaries. 
 
 Therefore they did not understand Guilford Dun- 
 can. Neither could they. They regarded with amaze- 
 ment and almost with incredulity his manifestations 
 of sensitive honor and of unselfish loyalty to duty. 
 They thought of him as a sort of freak, or what we 
 should nowadays call a crank. 
 
 Of course they could not fail to recognize his abil- 
 ity, but they thought him a good deal of a fool, 
 nevertheless, for not taking selfish advantage of the 
 opportunities that so frequently came to him. They 
 could not understand why he should go out of his way, 
 as he very often did, to render services to the firm 
 
ONE NIGHT'S WORK 77 
 
 which were in no way required or expected of him. 
 Especially they could not understand why, when he 
 had rendered such services in a way to attract Captain 
 Hallam's pleased attention he didn't "strike for 
 something better," as they phrased their thought. 
 
 In one especial case, their amazement over his neg- 
 lect of an opportunity bred something like contempt 
 of him in their minds. It was the practice of the 
 Hallams to keep a fleet of heavily laden coal barges 
 in a bend of the river above the town, bringing them 
 down one by one to the coalyards at "The Point" be- 
 low the city as they were needed. One day in the early 
 winter, a coal gauger being off duty, Duncan volun- 
 teered to go up to the bend in his stead, and measure 
 the coal in a great fleet of barges that had just 
 arrived. 
 
 He found the barges unsafely bestowed, and sug- 
 gested to the captain of the Hallam yard tug boat 
 that he should tow them into a securer anchorage. 
 As night was at hand the captain of the tug refused, 
 saying that he would attend to the matter on the 
 morrow. 
 
 That night the first storm of the winter broke upon 
 the river, lashing it to fury, and threatening with 
 destruction every species of craft that might venture 
 away from moorings. 
 
 About midnight one of Duncan's bedroom windows 
 was blown in, scattering glass and fragments of 
 sash over his bed, and startling him out of sleep. 
 
78 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 Instantly the thought of the exposed coal barges 
 flashed into his mind. He knew that they were utterly 
 unfit to ride out a storm, being nothing more than 
 great oblong boxes, loaded nearly to their gunwales 
 with coal. He remembered, too, the exposed position 
 in which they had been left for the night. 
 
 Hastily drawing on his clothing he hurried to the 
 landing place of the yard tug. He found no prepa- 
 rations making there for any attempt to save the 
 barges and their enormously rich cargoes, or even to 
 rescue the helpless men who had been left on board of 
 them. The engineer of the tug, who always slept on 
 board, was there, and so were the two deck hands and 
 the fireman, but the fires were banked, and the cap- 
 tain had not responded to the duty call of the 
 tempest. 
 
 As the immediate representative and chief lieuten- 
 ant of Captain Hallam, Guilford Duncan was recog- 
 nized as a man somewhat entitled to give orders. 
 On this occasion he promptly assumed so much 
 more of authority as did not strictly belong to 
 him. 
 
 He instantly ordered the engineer to get up steam. 
 He directed one of the two deck hands to go hurriedly 
 to the tug captain's bedroom and order him to come 
 to the tug at once. 
 
 As he rattled off his orders for putting cable coils 
 aboard, placing all fenders in position, battening down 
 the hatches, and doing all else that might render 
 
ONE NIGHT'S WORK 79 
 
 the tug fitter for the perilous service that he intended 
 to exact of her, his voice took on the old ring of 
 battle, and his commands came quick, sharp, and 
 penetrating from his set lips, like those of an officer 
 placing guns in position for a desperate fight. 
 
 The captain, who was also sole pilot of the tug, so 
 far obeyed the order sent to him as to come to the tug 
 landing. But when he looked out upon the storm- 
 lashed river, he positively refused to obey Duncan's 
 order to go to the wheel. 
 
 "I'll never take the tug out in such a storm as 
 this," he said doggedly. 
 
 " But think, man ! There are twenty men or more 
 up there on those coal barges, whose lives simply must 
 be saved. And there is a hundred thousand dollars' 
 worth of coal there that may go to the bottom any 
 minute." 
 
 " I can't help that. I tell you the tug couldn't live 
 a minute in such a storm." 
 
 " In other words," answered Duncan with measure- 
 less contempt in his tone, "you are a miserable cow- 
 ard, a white-livered wretch, whose life wouldn't be 
 worth saving if it were in danger. Go back to your 
 bed! Go to sleep! or go to hell, damn you, for the 
 cowardly whelp that you are ! " 
 
 Then turning to the engineer and the two deck 
 hands, he asked hoarsely : 
 
 "Will you men stand to your duty while I go to 
 the wheel? " 
 
80 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 " We're with you while she floats, cap'n," said the 
 engineer. " I always did hate a coward." 
 
 " Hare you got steam enough? " 
 
 " Yes, a hundred and fifty pounds pressure to the 
 square inch, and she'll need it all." 
 
 " All right. Cast her off," commanded Duncan as 
 he stepped to his post in the pilot house. 
 
 He knew, of course, that he was taking terrible 
 risks. Having no pilot's license he had no legal 
 right to be at the wheel. Should disaster overtake 
 the tug he would be personally liable for the insur- 
 ance forfeited by his act in taking her out in con- 
 travention of the judgment of her captain and pilot. 
 Worse still, should any life be lost in the adventure, 
 Guilford Duncan would be held to answer for man- 
 slaughter. 
 
 Well-educated lawyer that he was, he knew all these 
 facts. He perfectly understood the fearful responsi- 
 bilities he was taking upon himself. Yet he faltered 
 not nor failed. There was no moment's hesitation in 
 his mind. There were lives in peril up there in the 
 bend, and a vast property exposed to destruction. 
 There was a chance that by taking these risks he 
 might save both. All that is best in the soul-impulse 
 of the soldier was his inspiration. He would do his 
 duty — though that duty was in no wise his except as 
 he had made it his — and let consequences look out for 
 themselves. 
 
 This young fellow had often sniffed the breath of 
 
ONE NIGHT'S WORK 81 
 
 battle in his nostrils. He had many times done and 
 dared things that only a brave and self -regardless 
 man could have done and dared. To-night the old 
 enthusiasm of war came back to his soul, but with 
 a difference. He had often fought to destroy. He 
 was facing danger now with saving and the rescue 
 of imperiled human lives for his purpose. 
 
 As the tug quitted her moorings and began her 
 voyage up the river, Duncan caught a glimpse of 
 Captain Hallam's form hurrying toward the landing. 
 Almost immediately the tug began to plunge in 
 perilous fashion, thrusting her head under the waves, 
 and shipping water enough to dampen the fires and 
 diminish steam pressure in a way that threatened 
 failure to the enterprise. 
 
 Failure in the work of rescue was the only thing 
 that Guilford Duncan feared. 
 
 He had already had the hatches securely battened 
 down so that no water could find its way into the 
 hold. But when he saw that water was rapidly rush- 
 ing with every sea into the furnace room, threaten- 
 ing with extinction the fires that could alone give 
 power to the vessel, he called one of the deck hands 
 to the wheel, and instructing him as to the course to 
 be laid, himself hurriedly inspected ship. With the 
 aid of the other deck hand he quickly removed from 
 bow to stern everything that had weight. Then he 
 and the deck hand and the fireman, with some aid from 
 the engineer, proceeded to shovel the coal supply from 
 
82 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 its bunkers forward of the fire room into the captain's 
 cabin aft of the furnaces. 
 
 This done, the tug no longer ran her prow into 
 and under the tremendous seas, but rode over them 
 instead, shipping no further water. 
 
 Then Duncan returned to the pilot house, and a 
 few minutes later reached the imperiled fleet of coal 
 barges. 
 
 There havoc had already begun. Three barges 
 had gone down and two men had been drowned. The 
 rest of the barges were riding so uneasily that their 
 seams were opening, and the water that must presently 
 swamp them was finding its insidious way through 
 their sides and bottoms. 
 
 When the tug appeared, all the men on hoard the 
 coal barges clamored piteously to be taken off at 
 once. 
 
 " Stand to your duty, men ! " shouted Duncan. 
 "Don't be cowards. Do your part of the work 
 and we'll save all of you and all the coal. Only obey 
 orders promptly and I'll be responsible for the rest. 
 Go to the pumps and answer every command 
 promptly." 
 
 He then ordered flaming torches kindled on every 
 barge, and in the light thus created he was able to 
 tow one after another of the coal boats into that har- 
 bor of safety in which the tug captain should have 
 moored them during the day before, the men mean- 
 while pumping to keep the water down. 
 
ONE NIGHT'S WORK 83 
 
 Then with his clothing drenched and frozen stiff 
 upon him, he steered the tug back to her landing 
 place, through the now receding storm. 
 
 Kennedy, the tug captain, was there, waiting. As 
 Duncan came ashore Kennedy said menacingly : 
 
 " If I get my discharge for this I'll prosecute you 
 for piloting without a license." 
 
 The ice-encased and half -frozen young man made 
 no reply. He simply hurried ashore. 
 
 As he mounted to the top of the levee, though it 
 was only a little after daylight, Duncan encountered 
 Captain Will Hallam, who stood there waiting for 
 him. 
 
 "Go to the hotel," said the employer. "I've 
 ordered a piping hot bath for you there, and a blazing 
 wood fire. There's nothing like a wood fire after a 
 chilling such as you've had. When you get good 
 and warm, go to bed. When you wake naturally, 
 telegraph to the office for me, and we'll breakfast to- 
 gether. I've ordered the breakfast — the hotel keeper 
 thinks it will bankrupt him or make his fortune to 
 furnish it, but that doesn't matter. Get warm and 
 get some sleep. Sleep as long as you can." 
 
 " I don't think I care for sleep," answered the half- 
 frozen and wholly exhausted young man. "But 
 would you mind sending Dutch John to me at the 
 hotel? I'd like to have him rub me down with some 
 Turkish towels after my hot bath. Tell him I have a 
 dollar for him if he rubs me well." 
 
84 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "That fellow is certainly a new brand," muttered 
 Captain Hallam to himself as he walked away up the 
 levee. " But he's % triple X ' for endurance and mod- 
 esty and courage, and all the rest of it. What a 
 fighter he must have been! I'd like to see him in a 
 hot battle, if I were bullet proof myself. I'll bet 
 bonds to brickbats he got all the fight there was in 
 them out of his men. But why doesn't he look out for 
 his own interests, I wonder? I'm still paying him the 
 salary on which he began. Any other man in my 
 employ who could have done one-tenth of what he has 
 done, would have made me pay three times as much 
 by this time. But then, that's the reason. It's just 
 because he is that sort that he hasn't bothered about 
 an increase of salary. By George ! I'll give it to him 
 without the asking ! I never did such a thing before 
 in all my life. It will startle the office people out of 
 their wits, but they need startling, and as for their 
 wits — well " 
 
 He didn't complete the sentence; for just then he 
 met Dutch John. 
 
 "Go down to the hotel at once," he commanded. 
 " Go on the run. Go to Mr. Duncan's room and 
 rub all the skin off his body. He'll give you a dollar 
 for a good rub. I'll give you iixe dollars more if he 
 is satisfied." 
 
 " I must milk your cows first," answered the stolid 
 German boy, whose occupations were varied and some- 
 times conflicting. 
 
ONE NIGHT'S WORK 85 
 
 " Oh, let the cows go hang ! Or let the half-dozen 
 accomplished young ladies whom my wife employs to 
 keep her establishment in order, milk them ! You go 
 to the hotel and rub that man into condition. Damn 
 the cows!" 
 
 Obviously, young Duncan's performance of that 
 stormy night had awakened Captain Hallam to en- 
 thusiasm. He was not much given to enthusiasms, 
 but this one was thoroughly genuine. 
 
 "Yes, by George!" he said between his clenched 
 teeth, " I'll multiply that fellow's salary by three and 
 let the office people wonder! Perhaps it will give 
 them a hint. No, it won't. Or at least they won't 
 take the hint. But anyhow, I'll do it, if only for 
 what the newspapers call * dramatic effect.' " 
 
 Entering the office, where, at this hour, the clerks 
 were assembling, Captain Hallam said, in his figura- 
 tive fashion: 
 
 "That fellow Duncan has got more cogs in his 
 gearing wheels than all the rest of you put together. 
 You call him a freak ; you call him eccentric, because 
 he isn't like you. Now let me tell you that that's a 
 sort of eccentricity that you'll do well to cultivate. 
 The less you are like yourselves and the more you're 
 like him, the better it will be for you. He thinks. 
 You don't. He does all he can. You do as little as 
 you can. He shall have his reward. He shall have a 
 salary three times that of the best man in the office. 
 And more than that, he shall have the right to com- 
 
86 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 mand here. Whatever orders he gives shall be obeyed, 
 just as if they were my own. He is your model to 
 imitate, so far as you can. But most of you can't. 
 Most of you care only to get through a day's work 
 for a day's wages. You have no loyalty, no concern 
 for the business. Not a man jack of you thought 
 of the storm last night as a circumstance that im- 
 periled human life and my property. He did. You 
 lay still in your beds listening to the rain on the roof, 
 and sinking into sweet slumbers to the tune of its 
 pattering. He was up and out, and risking his 
 life to meet the emergency. Can't you see that that 
 makes all the difference between a successful man and 
 an unsuccessful one? Can't you understand that — 
 oh, pshaw ! What's the use of talking to stumps ? " 
 
 That was the very longest speech that Captain Will 
 Hallam had ever made in his life. It was not without 
 effect. It did not inspire any of the clerks to fresh 
 endeavor, or to a more conscientious service. But it 
 made every one of them an implacable enemy of 
 Guilford Duncan, and inflamed every one of them 
 with an insatiable desire to injure him whenever 
 occasion might offer. 
 
 Thus, by his night's heroic endeavor, Guilford 
 Duncan had succeeded not only in making an enemy 
 of Captain Kennedy, but in making himself anathema 
 maranatha in the Hallam office besides. 
 
 He was taking a bath, however, at that time, and 
 not thinking of these matters. 
 
X 
 
 Alliance, Offensive and Defensive 
 
 HOW did you come to do that? " 
 That was the first question Captain Hallam 
 fired at Duncan after the hotel waiter had 
 quitted the room to bring a further supply of coffee 
 and broiled bacon. 
 
 "Why, it's simple enough," answered Duncan, 
 with a touch of embarrassment in his tone. "You 
 see, I was up there yesterday gauging coal. I knew 
 the barges were anchored in a dangerous position, 
 and so when the storm broke, there wasn't anything 
 else to do but get into my clothes and send the tug 
 up there to the rescue." 
 
 " But it wasn't your business to look after the coal 
 up in the bend?" 
 
 Duncan slowly drank three sips of coffee before 
 answering that eagerly questioning remark. Then 
 he leant forward and said, slowly and with em- 
 phasis : 
 
 "I conceive it to be my business, and my duty as 
 well as my pleasure, to do all that I can to promote 
 the interest of the man who employs me." 
 
 87 
 
88 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 " But that was a risky thing to do. You took your 
 life in your hands, you know?" 
 
 " I suppose I did, but that's a small matter. There 
 were twenty other lives in danger. And what is one 
 man's life when there is a duty to be done? We've 
 all got to die sometime." 
 
 Captain Hallam did not utter the thought that was 
 in him. That thought was : 
 
 "Well, of all the queer men I have ever had to 
 deal with, you are certainly the queerest! Still, I 
 think I understand you, and that's queerer still." 
 
 Instead of speaking he sipped his coffee. Then he 
 rose and "tickled the denunciator." That was his 
 phrase for ringing for a servant. 
 
 "Put some more wood on the fire," he commanded 
 when the servant came. 
 
 " I've put it all on, a'ready," answered the man. 
 
 "Well, bring some more." 
 
 " It'll be extry charge, sir." 
 
 " Never mind that," said Captain Hallam. " Do as 
 you are told, and when the thing is over I'll issue a 
 loan, raise some money, and pay the bill. You know 
 who I am, don't you?" 
 
 "No, sir. You see, I've just come to Cairo." 
 
 "Very well, then. Go to the office of the hotel 
 and tell the people there that Captain Will Hallam 
 is ordering more wood than you think he can pay 
 for. They'll tell you what to do. In the meantime, 
 here's a quarter for you." 
 
ALLIANCE 89 
 
 This by-play with the serving man relieved Captain 
 Hallam of a sense of embarrassment which he felt in 
 approaching the next thing he had in mind. 
 
 "What do you want, Duncan, for last night's 
 work?" 
 
 Duncan looked at his companion for half a minute 
 before answering. Then he said: 
 
 " I want that tug captain of yours discharged." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because he's a coward and an utterly unfit man. 
 Human life may depend upon his courage at any 
 moment, and he has no courage." 
 
 " Is that all you want? " 
 
 "Yes. That's all." 
 
 "Why don't you demand an increase in your 
 salary? Anybody else would. But, perhaps you 
 don't care for a bigger salary? You're a queer sort, 
 you know." 
 
 " Oh, yes ; I care very much for an increase," an- 
 swered Duncan. 
 
 " Then why didn't you seize upon the opportunity 
 to ask for it?" 
 
 "Must I tell you, frankly?" 
 
 "I wish you would. It might help me to under- 
 stand you." 
 
 " Well, it is simple enough. You gave me employ- 
 ment when I was desperately in need of it. I should 
 be an ingrate if I did not consider your interests in all 
 that I do. I think I ought to have a larger salary 
 
90 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 than you are now paying me. I think I earn it, and 
 it has been my purpose to ask for it when the proper 
 time should come." 
 
 "Then why haven't you been in a hurry to ask 
 for it now? There couldn't be a better time." 
 
 " Pardon me, but I cannot agree with you. It so 
 happens that just at this moment I have several very 
 important matters of yours in my charge. You have 
 entrusted them to me, and they have come so ex- 
 clusively under my control that nobody else — not even 
 you — could conduct them to a successful issue so well 
 as I can. Under such circumstances, of course, I 
 cannot make any personal demand upon you, without 
 indecency. To do so would be to take advantage of 
 your necessities. It would amount to a threat that, 
 if you refused my demands, I would abandon these 
 enterprises and leave you to get out of all their diffi- 
 culties as best you could. Don't you see, Captain 
 Hallam, that under such circumstances, I simply 
 could not make a demand upon you for more salary, 
 or for anything else of personal advantage to my- 
 self?" 
 
 " No, I don't see it at all. And yet, somehow, I 
 seem to understand you. If I were in your place I'd 
 regard these circumstances as trump cards, and I'd 
 lead them for all they are worth. So would any other 
 man in the Mississippi Valley — or anywhere else, I 
 think." 
 
 "That may perhaps be so, and I suppose I am 
 
ALLIANCE 91 
 
 ■ queer,' as you say. But to me it would seem a de- 
 spicable thing to take advantage of the fact that you 
 need me in these affairs of yours. You have bidden 
 me be frank. I will be so. When I came to Cairo I 
 sought work of the hard, physical kind, at the small 
 wages that such work commands. You quickly gave 
 me better work and larger pay than I had expected 
 to earn for months to come. Little by little you have 
 advanced me in your regard until now I seem to enjoy 
 your confidence. When you first brought me into 
 contact with the big men of affairs — more or less 
 big — I was oppressed with an exaggerated sense of 
 their greatness. Presently, I discovered that while 
 you are always deferential toward them, you are dis- 
 tinctly their superior in intellect and in your grasp of 
 affairs. You allow them to think that they are your 
 masters, while in fact you never fail to have your way, 
 and to compel them and the many millions of other 
 people's money whose use they control, to your own 
 purposes." 
 
 At this point Hallam uttered a low chuckle. 
 
 "A little later I discovered another fact," con- 
 tinued Duncan. "It slowly dawned upon my mind 
 that you put me forward in your conferences with 
 them, because you valued my suggestions and my 
 initiative more than you did theirs. Thinking of 
 that I came at last to the conclusion that I must, in 
 fact, be superior to these men in those qualities that 
 originate, execute, achieve. Otherwise, with your 
 
92 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 genius for affairs, you would have suppressed me and 
 listened to them." 
 
 Again Hallam chuckled. 
 
 " Then another thought occurred to me. The only 
 reason why they can execute plans that I conceive, 
 while I cannot, is that they have considerable money 
 of their own and command of much greater sums not 
 their own, while I have neither. They have the 
 tools and the materials. I have neither. The clum- 
 siest mechanic, who has tools and materials to 
 work with, can do things that the most skillful me- 
 chanic who has neither tools nor materials, cannot 
 do. 
 
 "I have decided, therefore, to possess myself of 
 tools and materials, in order that I may make my- 
 self a master workman, and do my part in the 
 great nation-building enterprises of the time and 
 country." 
 
 "Would you mind explaining what you mean by 
 that ? " interrupted Hallam, whose eagerness in listen- 
 ing had caused him to let his second cup of coffee 
 grow cold. 
 
 Duncan arose, without answering, crossed the room, 
 pressed the button, and then said: 
 
 "It is a subject that I very much wish to talk 
 with you about. But your coffee is cold. When you 
 get a fresh cup, I'll explain." 
 
 He said no more till the waiter came, served the 
 coffee and left the room. Then he began: 
 
ALLIANCE 93 
 
 "People who live all their lives in the mountains 
 have no adequate conception or perception of the 
 grandeur of the scenery that surrounds them. We 
 never any of us fully understand the things against 
 which we c rub our eyes,' as a witty Frenchman has put 
 it. It is for that reason, perhaps, that what is going 
 on here in the West does not impress you in the same 
 way in which it impresses me. You men of affairs are 
 just now beginning to do the very greatest work of na- 
 tion building that has ever been done since time began. 
 But you are so close to your work that you do not 
 appreciate its collossal proportions. You have no 
 perspective. In that I have the advantage of you. 
 Coming, as I do, out of the dead past, contemplating 
 the present as I do, and looking to the future as I 
 must, I see the grandeur to which your detailed work 
 is tending, with a clearness of vision impossible to 
 you because of your nearness to it. May I go on 
 and set forth the whole of my thought ? " 
 
 "Yes, certainly. I want to hear. Go on!" 
 " Well, then, let me explain and illustrate. A little 
 while ago, in going over your accounts, I discovered 
 that the cotton and grain you shipped from Cairo to 
 New York must be five times transferred from one 
 car to another. That entailed enormous and need- 
 less expense in addition to the delay. A few weeks 
 ago I suggested to a conference of railroad nabobs 
 at your house that you should organize a line of 
 through freight cars, which should be loaded at Cairo, 
 
94 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 St. Louis, Chicago, or anywhere else in the West, and 
 hauled through to New York, Boston, or anywhere 
 else in the East, without breaking bulk. The saving 
 of expense was so obvious that you put a hundred 
 thousand dollars into the line and the railroad mag- 
 nates made specially good terms for the hauling of 
 the car. You expect and will get dividends from 
 your investment. The railroad men see profit for 
 their companies in the operation of the line. That 
 is all that you and they foresee of advantage. In 
 my view that is the very smallest part of the 
 matter." 
 
 "How do you mean?" 
 
 " Why, taking cotton as a basis of reckoning, this 
 through-line system of transportation, owned inde- 
 pendently of the railroads, will make an important 
 saving in the cost of raw materials to the owners of 
 New England mills. They will run more spindles 
 and set more looms agoing than they would have done 
 without the through line's cheapening of raw ma- 
 terial. They will pay better wages and reap larger 
 profits. They will produce more goods, and they 
 will sell them at a smaller price. The farmer in the 
 West will pay less for his cotton goods and get more 
 for his grain because of the through line's cheapen- 
 ing of transportation. He and his wife and his 
 children will dress better at less cost than they other- 
 wise could do. Bear in mind that the line's cars will 
 carry other things than cotton. The people of the 
 
ALLIANCE 95 
 
 East will get their breadstuff's and their bacon and 
 their beef far cheaper because of its existence than 
 they otherwise could. 
 
 "That is one step in advance, and it is only one. 
 The success of this line is now assured. A dozen or 
 a score of other through freight lines will be organ- 
 ized and operated in competition with it. The present 
 line's rate of one and a half cents per ton per mile 
 will presently be cut down by competition to half a 
 cent per ton per mile, or even less. I shall not be 
 surprised if, with the improvement of railroads and 
 with their closer co-operation the freight rate shall 
 ultimately be reduced even to one-fifth or one-tenth 
 of a cent per ton per mile. 
 
 " Now, again. A little while ago you were in Wash- 
 ington. You found it necessary to execute certain 
 papers and to file them in Chicot County, Arkansas, 
 before a certain fixed date. You ordered me by tele- 
 graph to prepare the papers and bring them to you 
 in Washington in the speediest way possible, in order 
 that I might carry them, within the time limit, to 
 their destination. I started for Washington within 
 five minutes, by the quickest possible route, preparing 
 the papers on the train. I had to change cars five 
 times between Cairo and Washington, and seven times 
 more between Washington and Memphis. All that 
 will presently be changed. In our conference the 
 other day with the railroad men, I suggested some- 
 thing to the car builder, George M. Pullman, which 
 
96 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 will some day bear fruit. At present every railroad 
 runs its own sleeping cars and runs them at a loss. 
 Some of them have quit running them because they 
 lost money. The trouble is that the passenger must 
 get up in the middle of the night and transfer from 
 one sleeping car to another. Therefore he takes no 
 sleeping car. I have suggested to the car builder, 
 Pullman, that he shall take the sleeping car service 
 into his own hands and run his cars through from 
 every western to every eastern city without change, 
 he paying the railroads for hauling his cars and he 
 collecting the revenue that men will be willing to pay 
 for the comfort of through transportation. 
 
 " Now, all this is merely a beginning. The railroads 
 of this country, together with the new ones now build- 
 ing, will presently be consolidated into great systems. 
 Transportation, both as to freight and as to passen- 
 gers, is now done at retail, and the cost is enormous. 
 It will, after a while, be done at wholesale, and at a 
 proportionate reduction in cost. 
 
 " Now the thought that is in my mind is this : We 
 have got to build this great nation anew upon lines 
 marked out by the events of the last few years. The 
 war has been costly — enormously costly. It has 
 saddled the country with a debt of about three 
 billions of dollars, besides the incalculable waste. 
 But it has awakened a great national self conscious- 
 ness which will speedily pay off the debt, and, inci- 
 dentally, develop the resources of the country in a 
 
ALLIANCE 97 
 
 way never dreamed of before. Those resources, so 
 far as they are undeveloped, or only partially de- 
 veloped, lie mainly in the West and South. It is our 
 duty to develop them. 
 
 " The government is building a railroad to the Pa- 
 cific coast. That, when it is done, will annex a vast 
 and singularly fruitful country to the Union. The 
 fertility of the soil there, and the favorable climatic 
 conditions, promise results that must presently 
 astonish mankind. But in the meanwhile it is our 
 part of the nation-building work to develop the 
 resources of what we now call the West. Minnesota, 
 in its eastern part, is already producing wheat in an 
 abundance that discourages all eastern farmers and 
 sets them to the culture of small fruits and to truck 
 gardening for the supply of the great cities there. 
 There is great gain even in that. Presently the Min- 
 nesota wheat farmers will extend their limitless fields 
 into the Dakotah country as soon as railroads are 
 built there — and a new era of development will 
 begin." 
 
 "Why do you not include the South in your 
 reckoning ? " asked Hallam. 
 
 "I do. Under the new conditions the South will 
 produce more cotton than it ever did, and its coal 
 and iron resources will be enormously developed. But 
 the South is, for the present, handicapped by dis- 
 turbed conditions and a disorganized labor system. 
 It will be long before that region shall take its full 
 
98 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 share in national development — in what I call ' nation 
 building.' 
 
 "Pardon me for wandering so far afield. I have 
 meant only to show you what I regard as the true 
 character of the work that you and your associates 
 are doing. Now, I wish and intend to do my share 
 in that work. To that end, I must have money of 
 my own, and that control of other people's money 
 which comes only to men who have money of their 
 own. I don't care a fig for money for its own sake. 
 I want it as a tool with which I may do my work." 
 
 "I think I understand you," answered Hallam, 
 after a few minutes' reflection. " You shall have the 
 tools. You have already put away two-thirds of your 
 salary from month to month. I have to-day multi- 
 plied that salary by three. You'll soon have * grub 
 stakes' for any enterprise you may choose to enter 
 upon. But that isn't all. If it were, it would mean 
 that I am to lose you presently. I don't mean to do 
 that. You are too good a man for a clerk. I pro- 
 pose to make of you a partner in all my outside enter- 
 prises. I must go now. I've five people to meet at 
 ten o'clock. Come to me after that hour, if you're 
 sufficiently rested, and we'll talk business." 
 
 "Oh, I'm sufficiently rested already. I'll join you 
 at ten or a little later, as I suppose you won't be free 
 till then." 
 
 Captain Will Hallam rose, grasped the hand of his 
 companion, and, after a look into his eyes, said: 
 
ALLIANCE 99 
 
 "You're the right sort. You have vim, force, 
 pathos, and energy. You and I, working together, 
 will salivate things in a way that will make Calomel 
 ashamed of itself." 
 
 "But how about Kennedy and his discharge?" 
 asked Duncan. 
 
 "Oh, that's settled. I've sent him his quittance 
 papers, and he's your enemy for all time. You can 
 stand that." 
 
 " Yes, so long as you are my friend." 
 
XI 
 
 The Ways of Guilford Duncan 
 
 DURING all this time Guilford Duncan had 
 been taking his meals at the little boarding 
 house of Mrs. Deming. The other boarders — 
 a dozen in all, perhaps — did not interest him at first, 
 and for a time he took his meals in silence, except for 
 courteous "good-mornings" and "good-evenings." 
 His table companions were mainly young clerks of 
 various grades, with whose ideas and aspirations 
 young Duncan was very slightly in sympathy. 
 
 After a time, however, he decided that it was his 
 duty to cultivate acquaintance with these table com- 
 panions, in whom he recognized private soldiers in 
 the great army of work — the men upon whom the 
 commanders of all degrees must rely for the execution 
 of their plans. 
 
 Accordingly, Duncan began to take an active part 
 in the conversations going on about him, and little by 
 little he injected so much of interest into them that 
 whenever he spoke he was listened to with special at- 
 tention. Without assuming superiority of any kind, 
 he came to be recognized as in fact superior. He 
 
 100 
 
THE WAYS OF DUNCAN 101 
 
 came to be a sort of Autocrat of th'e'fSreakf as£ Table, 
 directing the conversations there into new channels 
 and better ones. 
 
 It was his practice to buy and read all the maga- 
 zines as they appeared, including the particularly 
 interesting eclectic periodicals of that time, in which 
 the best European thought was fairly represented. 
 
 His reading furnished him many interesting themes 
 for table talk, and presently the brightest ones among 
 his companions there began to question him further 
 concerning the subjects he thus mentioned. After 
 a little while some of them occasionally borrowed read- 
 ing matter of him, by way of still further satisfying 
 their interest in the matters of which he talked at 
 table. 
 
 A little later still, these brighter young men, one by 
 one, began to visit Duncan's room in the evenings. 
 In the free and easy fashion of that time and region, 
 he made them welcome without permitting their 
 coming or going to disturb his own evening occupa- 
 tions in any serious way. His room was very large, 
 well warmed, and abundantly lighted, for he had 
 almost a passion for light. There was always a litter 
 of new magazines, weekly periodicals, and the like 
 on the big table in the centre of the room, and there 
 were always piles of older ones in the big closet. Still 
 further there was a stand of bookshelves which was 
 beginning to be crowded with books bought one by 
 one as they came out, or as Duncan felt the need of 
 
102 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 tl dp. Literature was the young man' only extrava- 
 gance, and that was not a very expensive one. 
 
 "Welcome! Help yourself! Read what you like 
 and you won't disturb me." That was the spirit of 
 his greeting to all these his friends whenever they 
 entered his door, and it was not long before the room 
 of the young Virginian became a center of good in- 
 fluence among the young men of the town. 
 
 How greatly such an influence was needed the 
 bank officers and other " solid " men of the city well 
 knew and strongly felt. Few of them ever thought 
 of reading anything themselves except the com- 
 mercial columns of the newspapers, but they had rea- 
 sons of their own for recognizing the good work 
 Guilford Duncan was quietly doing, by cultivating 
 the reading habit among their clerks. 
 
 Cairo was an ill-organized community at that time. 
 The great majority of its people were "newcomers," 
 from all quarters of the country, who had as yet 
 scarcely learned to know each other. War operations 
 had filled the town for several years past with shift- 
 ing crowds of adventurers of all sorts, who found in 
 disturbed conditions their opportunity to live by prey. 
 There were gambling houses and other evil resorts 
 in dangerous numbers, where soldiers and discharged 
 soldiers on their way through the place were tempted 
 to their ruin by every lure of vice and every ease of 
 opportunity to go astray. 
 
 The solid men deplored these conditions, but were 
 
THE WAYS OF DUNCAN 103 
 
 as yet powerless to better them. After the rush of 
 discharged soldiers through the town ceased, the evil 
 influences began to operate more directly upon the 
 clerks and other young men of the city itself. Some 
 who had begun life there with every prospect of 
 worthy careers had sunk into degradation through 
 vicious indulgence. Others who still managed to hold 
 their places in business and to do their work tolerably 
 were manifestly falling into habits that darkened 
 their futures. In two or three instances young men 
 of good bringing up, who had earned enviable repu- 
 tations for diligence and good conduct, were lured 
 into the gambling dens, robbed there, and at last were 
 tempted to defalcations and even sheer robberies of 
 the employers who trusted them. In one conspicuous 
 case a youth who had won special regard among the 
 better people by the tender care he was taking of 
 his mother, and by diligence and faithfulness in his 
 work, fell a victim to the passion of gambling, robbed 
 money packages that passed through his hands as a 
 cashier in an express office, was caught, convicted, and 
 sentenced to prison as a common felon, to the sad- 
 dening of all the town. 
 
 Under such circumstances even the least cultivated 
 of the hard-headed business men could not fail to 
 regard with special pleasure the silent work that Dun- 
 can was doing for the salvation of at least a consid- 
 erable group of young men who might otherwise have 
 fallen victims to the evil conditions that beset them. 
 
104 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 Apart from his association with the young men 
 who frequented his room, Duncan had no social life 
 at all. He never visited at any house, except that 
 Captain Hallam frequently had him to a meal over 
 which the two might "talk business," or where he 
 might meet and help entertain prominent men of 
 affairs from other cities, whose visits were inspired 
 by commercial purposes far more than by considera- 
 tions of a social nature. 
 
 It created some little astonishment, therefore, when 
 one day at the boarding house table, Duncan said 
 to those about him: 
 
 " I hear that you fellows are organizing some sort 
 of club for social purposes. Why haven't you given 
 me a chance to join?" 
 
 " We didn't think you would care for such things. 
 You never go out, you know, and " 
 
 "What is the purpose of your organization, if 
 you don't mind my asking?" 
 
 "Oh, certainly not. We're simply making up a 
 little group, which we call 'The Coterie,' to have a 
 few dancing parties and amateur concerts, and the 
 like, in the big hotel dining room, during the winter. 
 We've a notion that the young people of Cairo ought 
 to know each other better. Our idea is to promote 
 social intercourse and so we're all chipping in to pay 
 the cost, which won't be much." 
 
 "Well, may I chip in with the rest?" 
 
 Seeing glad assent in every countenance, he held 
 
THE WAYS OF DUNCAN 105 
 
 out his hand for the subscription paper, and put down 
 his name for just double the largest subscription on 
 it. Then passing it back he said: 
 
 " I think I may be able to secure some support for 
 so good an undertaking, from the business men of the 
 city and from others — the lawyers, doctors, and the 
 like. Your entertainments certainly ought to have 
 the benefit of their countenance. At any rate, I'll 
 see what I can do. I don't know that I shall myself 
 be able to attend the dances and the like — in fact, I'm 
 sure I shall not — but I'll do what I can to help the 
 cause along." 
 
 He did what he could, and what he could was much. 
 The solid men, when he brought the subject to their 
 attention, felt that this was an extension of that 
 work of Duncan's for the betterment of the town, 
 which they so heartily approved. They subscribed 
 freely to the expense, and better still, they lent per- 
 sonal countenance to the entertainments. 
 
 Guilford Duncan also attended one of the enter- 
 tainments, though it had been his fixed purpose not to 
 do so. The reason was that Guilford Duncan was 
 altogether human and a full-blooded young man. 
 From the time of his arrival at Cairo until now, he had 
 not had any association with women. When such 
 association came to him he accepted it as a boon, 
 without relaxing, in any degree, his devotion to 
 affairs. 
 
 It was the old story, related in a thousand forms, 
 
106 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 but always with the same purport, since ever the 
 foundations of the world were laid. 
 
 "Male and female created he them." "And God 
 saw that it was good." 
 
 All of human history is comprehended in those 
 two sentences quoted from the earliest history of man- 
 kind. 
 
XII 
 
 Barbara Verne 
 
 THE person who had originated and who con- 
 ducted Mrs. Deming's boarding house — fa- 
 mous for its fare — was, in fact, not Mrs. 
 Deming at all. That good lady would pretty cer- 
 tainly have scored a failure if she had tried actively to 
 manage such an establishment. She had never in her 
 life known necessity for work of any kind, or acquired 
 the least skill in its doing. She had been bred in 
 luxury and had never known any other way of living 
 until a few months before Guilford Duncan went to 
 take his meals at what was known as her "table." 
 
 She had lived in a spacious and sumptuously fur- 
 nished suburban house near an eastern city, until two 
 years or so before the time of this story. 
 
 When Barbara Verne, her only sister's child, was 
 born and orphaned within a single day, and under 
 peculiarly saddening circumstances, the aunt had 
 adopted her quite as a matter of course. 
 
 No sooner had Barbara ceased to be an infant in 
 arms than she began to manifest strong and peculiar 
 traits of character. Even as a little child she was 
 wondered at as "so queer — so old fashioned, don't 
 you know?" 
 
 107 
 
108 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 She had a healthy child's love for her dolls, and 
 though the persons around her had not enough clear- 
 ness of vision to see that she was fruitfully and crea- 
 tively imaginative in her peculiar way, her dolls' 
 nursery was full of wonderful stories, known only to 
 herself and the dolls. Every doll there had a per- 
 sonality, a history, and a character of its own. Bar- 
 bara was the intimate of all of them — the confidential 
 friend and companion, who listened to their imagined 
 recitals of griefs and joys with a sympathetic soul, 
 counseled them in a prematurely old way, chided them 
 gently but firmly for their mistakes, commended good 
 conduct whenever she discovered it in them, and almost 
 mercilessly rebuked such shortcomings as common 
 sense should have spared them. For common sense 
 was Barbara's dominant characteristic. 
 
 She never told their stories to anybody. That, she 
 felt, would have been to betray their confidence shame- 
 fully. It was only by eavesdropping on the part of 
 her nursery maid, and by casual overhearings of her 
 talk with her dolls that their life stories became known 
 to anybody except herself. 
 
 And Barbara quickly put an end to the eavesdrop- 
 ping when she discovered it. She had a French 
 nursery governess, Mathilde, whose double function it 
 was to look after the child and to teach her French by 
 talking to her only in that tongue. The maid, in 
 fact, made the child teach her English, by talking 
 with her chiefly in that language. 
 
BARBARA VERNE 109 
 
 That, however, was an offense the child did not con- 
 sider. She did not greatly value instruction in French 
 — "Engli&h is so much better," she used to say to 
 her aunt. " And besides, nobody ever talks in French. 
 So why should we bother about it? Of course, I like 
 to have La Fontaine's Fables read to me, and I like 
 to read them to my dolls, because the dolls always 
 enjoy them." 
 
 "How do you know that, Barbara?" 
 "Why, because they never interrupt. When I 
 tell them 'make up' stories of my own, they often 
 interrupt me. They 'want to know,' and sometimes 
 I can't tell them. But with La Fontaine's stories it 
 is never so. Still I don't think French is of much 
 consequence." 
 
 That was the ill-informed and immature judgment 
 of a child of seven or eight years. Perhaps the other 
 judgment with which that same child coupled it in 
 the lectures she sometimes gave her French nursery 
 governess was sounder. 
 
 ^ " Mathilde, you are an eavesdropper," she solemnly 
 said to the girl one night. "You hide behind the 
 door and listen while Phillida tells me about the way 
 Corydon treats her. And you listen while I tell 
 Phillida not to be foolish, and while I talk to Corydon 
 about his behavior. I shouldn't mind that so much, 
 Mathilde, if you didn't laugh at the dolls and their 
 troubles. I don't like that." 
 
 But, notwithstanding the child's imaginative gift, 
 
110 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 she was intensely practical, in a quick-witted way that 
 often astonished those about her. She had an eager 
 desire to learn domestic arts, and her peculiar con- 
 scientiousness in the doing of whatever she undertook 
 to do, usually resulted in a skill superior to that of her 
 teachers. 
 
 She loved to haunt the kitchen, where her courtesy 
 won even the cantankerous cook for a friend, and from 
 her the girl learned so much of her art that the cook 
 could teach her no more. In the laundry the good- 
 natured Irish woman who presided over that depart- 
 ment of household economy gave her always so warm 
 a welcome that the child came to think of the faithful 
 woman as one of her choicest friends. Working with 
 her over a little ironing board, Barbara quickly 
 became expert in all the finer and more delicate 
 operation of her art, or as the laundress herself 
 said: 
 
 " Shure, the blissed choild puts the raal Oirish ac- 
 cint into the doin' up of a pretty frock." 
 
 When she grew a little older, Barbara's French 
 nursery governess left her, and from that hour, almost 
 without knowing it, the child took her education 
 largely into her own hands, and her aunt stood too 
 much in awe of her almost preternatural resoluteness, 
 to interfere in any serious way. She provided mas- 
 ters for the child, but it was the girl herself and not 
 the masters who decided what she should learn. 
 
 In that early time it was not generally thought 
 
BARBARA VERNE 111 
 
 necessary, or even desirable, to send girls away from 
 home to study in colleges in company with boys — to 
 learn Latin, Greek, mathematics, and basketball — to 
 read the indecencies of classic literature — and to 
 mould themselves into an unlovely similitude to 
 men. But there were frivolities in the education of 
 women then which were almost as conspicuous as are 
 the masculinities that have since taken their place. 
 
 In Barbara's case neither of these influences was 
 felt. Without quite knowing what her own thought 
 was, the girl early made up her mind that she would 
 learn thoroughly all things that a woman must prac- 
 tice in life, that she would make herself fit to do a 
 woman's part in the world without any pretense what- 
 ever. 
 
 She was set at one time to learn the piano, as in 
 that day every girl was, to the saddening of human 
 existence and the torturing of human nerves. After 
 taking a few lessons Barbara was shrewd enough to 
 discover that she had no musical gifts worth cultivat- 
 ing. She therefore promptly requested her aunt to 
 dismiss her music master. 
 
 " Oh, but you must learn to play, you know, dear." 
 
 "Why must I, auntie?" 
 
 " Oh, well, every girl must, you know." 
 
 "But why, auntie?" persisted the little female 
 Socrates. 
 
 " Why, it's a necessary part of every girl's educa- 
 tion, you know." 
 
112 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 " Oh, I know they all do it," answered the girl, " but 
 most of them would do better to leave it alone. You 
 often say that it tortures you to hear girls ■ pound the 
 piano ' when they want to show off. Now, I haven't 
 the gift for music, and I don't want to show off. Why 
 should I learn to ■ pound the piano ' and make other 
 people miserable?" 
 
 So the argument went on, and it ended at last, as 
 it was predestined to end, in the abandonment of the 
 piano lessons, leaving Barbara to grow up in com- 
 plete ignorance of an art which, in that half-barbaric 
 time, was deemed a necessary "accomplishment" of 
 every young woman who had fingers, whether she had 
 any perception of music or not. 
 
 For the rest, Barbara educated herself upon lines 
 which she deemed 'womanly. There was no art of 
 kitchen or laundry or sewing room in which, as she 
 grew older, she did not make herself the superior of 
 the highly paid servitors whose skill her aunt em- 
 ployed to perform such functions. For explanation 
 she said only: 
 
 " I am to be a woman. I must know how to do all 
 womanly things. If I don't know all that better 
 than the servants do, I must always be dependent 
 upon servants. I think that would be humiliating." 
 
 In the same spirit she took up such school studies 
 as she deemed proper to her womanhood and only such. 
 But she gave to each a degree of conscience that al- 
 ways surprised her teachers. She had not the gift of 
 
BARBARA VERNE 113 
 
 learning easily, but her devotion was such that she 
 learned thoroughly in spite of all the difficulties. She 
 early conceived the notion that she must know her 
 own language well— how to spell it, how to pronounce 
 it, and, still more, how to use it simply, honestly, and 
 effectively in the expression of her thought. Her 
 over-mastering devotion to truth would not let her 
 rest content with any loose or inaccurate expression. 
 " No," she would say, " that isn't the word I want. 
 It doesn't say just what I mean," and she would never 
 be satisfied until she found the word she did want. 
 
 The handwriting to wliich she schooled herself was 
 in like manner scrupulously truthful. The writing 
 masters of that time cared far more for ornateness 
 than for verity, or even legibility. They laboriously 
 taught their pupils to make " hair " lines for upstrokes 
 and heavily "shaded" ones for down. They deco- 
 rated their capital letters with meaningless flourishes, 
 and they did many other things equally useless and 
 unworthy. 
 
 Barbara would have nothing to do with such insin- 
 cerities. She would not even try to learn them. She 
 studied the essential form of each letter, and, dis- 
 carding everything else, she wrote, as she herself said, 
 " so that other people might read easily." The result 
 was a dainty little round-lettered text, which had truth 
 for its basis and uncompromising sincerity for its 
 inspiration. 
 
 Arithmetic gave her a good deal of trouble. Had 
 
114 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 the mastery of that science been an "accomplish- 
 ment," she would have put it aside as one for which 
 she had no gift, as she had done with music. But 
 she realized that one must acquire a certain facility 
 in calculation, and she did all the work necessary to 
 acquire that facility. She puckered her pretty fore- 
 head over the "sums" that she had to do, and she 
 often, all her life, employed roundabout methods in 
 doing them. But in the end she got the " answers " 
 right, and that was all that the little truth wor- 
 shiper cared for in the case. 
 
 She early became fond of reading such books as 
 appealed to her. She would never consent to believe 
 that she ought to read books that did not find a re- 
 sponse in her mind, merely on the ground that their 
 reading was deemed a proper part of every young 
 person's education. 
 
 "All that sort of thing is 'show off,'" she used to 
 say. "It is a false pretense;" and she scorned all 
 false pretenses. 
 
 Yet she was by no means an idly self-indulgent 
 reader. She diligently mastered some books that did 
 not particularly interest her, because she believed 
 them to contain information or instruction or counsel 
 that might benefit her. 
 
 When she was only a dozen years old or so, the little 
 woman took upon herself the duties of housekeeper in 
 her aunt's mansion, and kept order there in a way 
 that won something like local fame for herself. It 
 
BARBARA VERNE 115 
 
 was not art, or intuition, or rule that inspired her. It 
 was temperament. 
 
 Absolute cleanliness was to her a religion, and the 
 servant who fell in the remotest way short of that 
 was quickly made to think of herself as an unre- 
 generate sinner. Absolute neatness was another 
 requirement which the budding little woman inisted 
 upon with relentless persistence. Then again it 
 seemed to her that there was no possible excuse for 
 any cooking short of the best. 
 
 "Why should a beefsteak be scorched?" she would 
 ask protestingly. " It is only a question of attention 
 and honesty. Why should the aroma be boiled out 
 of a pot of coffee? Again, it is only a matter of 
 attention and honesty." That was her attitude al- 
 ways, and the servant who hoped to please her must 
 ceaselessly recognize it. 
 
 Sometimes her aunt would plead for a little lenity 
 in these matters, but the girl would grant none. 
 " The servants are employed to do things right. Why 
 should I let them do things wrong? They profess 
 to have skill in such work. Surely, they ought to 
 do it as well as I can, who have no skill. And besides, 
 it wouldn't be good for them to let them off with less 
 than the best. They would degenerate. They have 
 their living to make by work, and the better work they 
 do the better work they can do." 
 
 A few years later the aunt's husband met with mis- 
 fortune and went to the W^est. Presently he died, 
 
116 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 and Barbara's aunt was widowed and impoverished 
 at one and the same time. 
 
 Then it was that Barbara rose in the strength of 
 her practical wisdom, and met the emergency with all 
 of character that she had built up. Her aunt was 
 helpless, so Barbara took matters into her own hands. 
 She was nearly twenty years old then, and her capaci- 
 ties as a housekeeper had ripened through use until 
 she felt modestly confident of herself. " Besides," 
 she argued, "there is nobody else to do things if I 
 don't." 
 
 She persuaded her aunt to take a little house with 
 a big sunny dining room, and there she offered to the 
 young bachelors of the town — in her aunt's name — 
 better meals than they could get at the pretentious 
 hotel, and she charged them scarcely more than half 
 the hotel rate. 
 
 One by one the best of the young men in the town 
 were drawn to Barbara's table until the dining room 
 was filled. After that anyone who wished to join 
 the circle must put his name upon a waiting list, and 
 bide his time till there should be a vacancy. For Bar- 
 bara held that it would be unjust to crowd present 
 boarders in order to take new ones, and she hated all 
 injustice. The waiting list was always long, for the 
 fame of Barbara's table was great. 
 
 When her friends suggested an increase in her 
 charges, she promptly said them nay. " I'm 
 charging enough," she answered. "The gentlemen 
 
BARBARA VERNE 117 
 
 pay us enough to keep auntie and me comfortable. 
 They have to work hard for their money, and it would 
 be very mean to charge them more, merely because 
 they'll pay it rather than get their meals anywhere 
 else." 
 
 " Perhaps so," answered Captain Will Hallam, who 
 had pressed this advice upon the girl. "But it's 
 always good business, you know, to get what you 
 can. A thing is worth what it will sell for, and your 
 good dinners, Miss Barbara, would sell for a good 
 deal more than you are charging for them." 
 
 But Barbara would not listen to the wisdom of 
 "business." Hers was the wisdom of a white soul, 
 and it controlled her absolutely. 
 
 And it really was her own skill that made her table 
 famous. She hired a cook, of course, after her little 
 business became prosperous, and sometimes for a brief 
 while she trusted to the cook's skill. Then her con- 
 science beset her because the breakfasts and dinners 
 and suppers were not prepared in that perfection 
 which alone could satisfy this conscientious little 
 woman's soul. " You see, it isn't honest, aunty," she 
 would say in explanation whenever she returned to 
 the kitchen and gave personal attention to every detail. 
 "We are charging these young gentlemen for their 
 meals, and it seems to me dishonest if we give them 
 less than the best that we can. They come to us be- 
 cause they have heard that we serve the best meals 
 that can be had in Cairo. How mean and wrong it 
 
118 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 would be for us to trade upon that reputation and give 
 them meals of an inferior quality! I simply can't 
 get a cook who will do things at their best, and so I 
 must do most of the cooking myself, and then I'll 
 know it is well done." 
 
 She hired a "neat-handed Phyllis," in a cambric 
 gown — which Barbara insisted must be fresh and clean 
 every day— to wait upon the table. She hired a 
 handy negro boy to wash dishes, scrub, and prepare 
 vegetables under her own direction. She did all the 
 more important part of the cooking herself, and the 
 negro boy, Bob, simply worshiped the girl whom he 
 always addressed as "Little Missie." 
 
XIII 
 
 A Battle and an Acquaintance 
 
 THERE were boys in Cairo, of course, and 
 equally of course some of them were bad. 
 The bad ones used to do things to annoy 
 Robert's "Little Missie." Robert proceeded to 
 thrash them upon every proper occasion, and he did 
 it with a thoroughness that left nothing to be desired 
 thereafter. When Robert had thrashed a boy, that 
 boy went to bed for repairs. And he was apt to be 
 reticent as to where and how he had received his 
 bruises. That was because Robert always ended a 
 fist encounter with a warning. 
 
 " Ef you don't want a double dose o' dis here you'll 
 prehaps obstain f'um mentionin' de name o' de culled 
 gentleman wot gib it ter you." 
 
 And the victim usually " obstained." If he didn't 
 it was presently the worse for him. 
 
 Robert had been born in the South. He had lived 
 there till his fourteenth year. He had there imbibed 
 certain doctrines of pugnacious chivalry. There had 
 been bred in his bone the conviction that it was every 
 
 119 
 
120 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 strong man's duty to protect every woman, and to 
 punish any disrespect shown to her. 
 
 In Robert's view there was only one gentlewoman 
 in Cairo — his " Little Missie " — and it seemed to him 
 as clearly a matter of duty to protect her against 
 annoyance as it was to scrub the kitchen floor or to 
 wash the dishes. 
 
 It was through one of Robert's battles that Guil- 
 ford Duncan became acquainted with his hostess, Bar- 
 bara Verne. That young woman very rarely ap- 
 peared in the dining room, and so the young Virginian 
 had scarcely more than met her, when one morning on 
 his way to breakfast he came upon a battle between 
 Robert — " free man of color," as he loved to call him- 
 self — and three Cairo boys who had waylaid him in 
 order to avenge the punishment he had given a few 
 days before to one of them who had playfully hurled 
 half a brick through Barbara's kitchen window. 
 
 When Duncan came upon the battlefield, Robert 
 was backed up against a dead wall. Two of his ad- 
 versaries had gone to grass, and the third was hesi- 
 tating to prosecute the attack alone. Seeing his 
 hesitation, Bob — great stategist that he was — 
 instantly decided to convert his successful defense into 
 a successful offense, without delay. Quitting his 
 defensive position against the wall, he rushed upon his 
 remaining adversary, who promptly retreated with- 
 out waiting to reckon up the casualties. 
 
 Then Bob jumped upon his other and slowly rising 
 
BATTLE AND ACQUAINTANCE 121 
 
 antagonists, knocked them down again and hurriedly 
 exacted of each a " wish-I-may-die " promise to let 
 "Little Missie" alone from that day forth. 
 
 "Good for you, Bob!" exclaimed young Duncan. 
 " But we'll make that promise more binding. Help me 
 and I'll take these young ruffians before Judge Gross 
 and compel them to give bonds for good behavior." 
 
 It didn't take long to arraign the culprits, prove 
 that they had thrown a brickbat through Barbara's 
 window, and secure an order of the court requiring 
 them to give considerable bonds for good behavior in 
 future. 
 
 This brought their parents into court and subjected 
 them to a good deal of annoyance and trouble. They 
 had to give bonds, and more troublesome still, they 
 had to control their boys. Then again the news- 
 papers published the facts. 
 
 In this way Guilford Duncan multiplied his enemies 
 in Cairo. But he had a deep-seated conviction that 
 it is worth a man's while to make enemies by doing 
 right. In this matter he had done only right. He 
 had invoked the law for the protection of a woman, 
 and he had completely accomplished his purpose. He 
 cared nothing for the revilings that ensued, but Ober, 
 the man of brains and character who edited the prin- 
 cipal newspaper of the town, took the matter up and 
 made much of k. 
 
 " This town is barbaric," he wrote in his editorial 
 columns, "It owes sincere thanks to Mr. Guilford 
 
122 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 Duncan for teaching it that law is supreme, that it 
 is to the law we should appeal in every case of wrong 
 doing. The parents of the young hoodlums who have 
 been bound over to keep the peace have long needed 
 this lesson. This newspaper rejoices that the lesson 
 has been given in so emphatic and conspicuous a 
 manner. It congratulates its young fellow citizen, 
 Mr. Duncan, upon the quality of his citizenship, and 
 upon the results of its activity." 
 
 Within an hour after that editorial appeared, three 
 columns of advertisements were angrily withdrawn 
 from Ober's newspaper. 
 
 Within the next hour Captain Will Hallam quietly 
 sent in nineteen columns of advertisements, and wrote 
 to Ober : " Stand by your guns and I'll stand by you. 
 If the damned fools think they can squelch you or 
 Duncan in such a case as this, we'll teach them better. 
 Spread my advertisements all over the paper and send 
 bills to me. Keep it up. We'll make Cairo a better 
 town to live in, or we'll know why. The thing to do 
 now is to make a systematic campaign against abuses. 
 Do it with all your might, and I'll stand by you. 
 
 "I'll get Duncan to help you. He's a queer 
 fellow, but he knows how to use vitriol instead of ink, 
 and it's vitriol we need just now." 
 
 In the meanwhile the entire talk of the little city 
 was of Duncan's activity in haling the hoodlum sons 
 of highly " respectable " parents before a magistrate, 
 as a consequence of their battle with a " nigger." On 
 
BATTLE AND ACQUAINTANCE 123 
 
 that subject tongues wagged busily, pro and con. 
 The friends of the aggrieved parents who had been 
 forced to give bonds for the good behavior of their 
 ill-regulated offspring, indignantly made a "race 
 issue" of a matter which had nothing whatever to 
 do with race prejudice. 
 
 They could not understand how a southerner and 
 an ex-Confederate soldier could thus have taken the 
 part of a " nigger " against " respectable white boys." 
 Others who were clamorous for the "rights of the 
 negro," rejoiced in Duncan as a convert to their doc- 
 trine. 
 
 Both were wrong, of course. Neither in the re- 
 motest way recognized the real impulses of his act, 
 namely, the impulse to protect a woman and the im- 
 pulse of a law-loving citizen to insist upon the equal 
 enforcement of the law, for the sake of good order 
 in the community. But Duncan concerned himself 
 with none of these things. He had done his simple 
 duty as a man and as a citizen, and he had no care 
 whatever for consequences. 
 
 And yet the consequences were such as vitally 
 affected his entire career in more ways than one. His 
 performance brought him, for one thing, into close 
 acquaintance with a certain young woman whom he 
 had scarcely known before, and whose destiny it was 
 to influence the entire future course of his life. 
 
 It was Duncan's habit to sit long and smoke over 
 his final cup of coffee at the evening meal. The 
 
124 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 other table boarders were accustomed to hurry away 
 as soon as they had swallowed their supper, leaving 
 him in sole possession of the dining room. 
 
 On the evening of the day on which the events 
 already related occurred, he sat as usual, smoking, 
 sipping his coffee, and reading Ober's evening news- 
 paper. Presently Barbara Verne entered, and with 
 a manner in which extreme shyness was mingled with 
 a resolute determination to do the duty that lay before 
 her, approached young Duncan and held out her 
 hand. As he rose deferentially to greet her, taking 
 her proffered hand in his, the girl said : 
 
 "I've come to thank you, Mr. Duncan. It was 
 very kind of you — to protect Robert, you know — and 
 me. I'm Barbara Verne. Thank you, ever so much." 
 
 As she made her little speech the brave but timid 
 girl looked him in the eyes with the embarrassed front 
 of a child set to do a duty, mingled with the calm 
 composure of a woman who knows and cherishes the 
 dignity of her womanhood. 
 
 Duncan protested that no thanks were due him for 
 doing his simple duty, and, after a word or two more, 
 the girl quitted the room, while Duncan, gallantly 
 bowing, held the door open for her. 
 
 The little interview lasted for less than two minutes, 
 and not an unnecessary word was spoken on either 
 side. Yet it seemed to Duncan an event of conse- 
 quence, as indeed, it proved to be. 
 
 Something in the girl's voice, or manner, or some- 
 
BATTLE AND ACQUAINTANCE 125 
 
 thing in her eyes, or something in her grace of move- 
 ment, her bearing, her mingled simplicity and dignity 
 
 or something in all these combined — had mightily 
 
 impressed him. He had seen little of women in any 
 intimate way, and while he honored womanhood and 
 deferred to it, as every sound-souled man must, he had 
 thought himself quite indifferent to women in their 
 individual personality. But somehow he could not 
 feel so with Barbara Verne, and later in the evening 
 he scourged himself for his folly in continuing to think 
 of her to the interruption of the reading he had set 
 himself to do. 
 
 "What's the matter with me?" he asked himself 
 almost with irritation, as at last he laid down the 
 volume of Herbert Spencer's Social Statics, over 
 which he had been laboring in vain. " I can't read 
 a single paragraph with understanding. I can't 
 keep my attention upon the lines as I read them. I 
 must be tired out — though I don't know what has 
 tired me. Fortunately I've no visitors to-night. 
 They have all gone to hear the Swiss Bell Ringers at 
 the Athenaeum. I wonder if anybody took Barbara 
 Verne?" 
 
 Thus his thought came back again to the girl and 
 he was annoyed with himself for having permitted 
 that. 
 
 " I do not know the girl at all," he reflected. " Ex- 
 cept to bow a distant * good-morning ' or * good-even- 
 ing ' at infrequent intervals, I never spoke to her until 
 
126 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 this evening, and then the interview was one of purely 
 formal courtesy. And yet here I am thinking about 
 her so persistently that even Herbert Spencer cannot 
 win my attention." 
 
 Then he sat for a time trying to think of some- 
 thing else, or trying, with renewed resolution, to con- 
 centrate his attention upon his book. 
 
 The effort was a dismal failure. Barbara Verne's 
 eyes gazed softly at him out of the page, her gentle 
 voice echoed in his ears, and the simple, straightfor- 
 ward words of thanks that she had spoken thrust out 
 of his mind the words of the great philosopher, as 
 the youth endeavored to read them. 
 
 He was sitting, in his dressing gown, with his slip- 
 pered feet resting upon a stool. In the large grate 
 a mass of Pittsburg coal blazed and flickered rest- 
 fully. At his elbow softly burned a shaded student 
 lamp, on a table covered with a scarlet and black 
 cloth, and littered with books. The curtains — inex- 
 pensive, but heavy — were closely drawn to shut out 
 every suggestion of the wintry night outside. 
 
 " Confound it," muttered the young man aloud, as 
 he again threw down the book, this time without mark- 
 ing his place ; " if I weren't so supremely comfortable 
 here, I'd get myself into my clothes again and go out 
 to fight the night for a while. That would be the 
 right thing to do, but I'm too self-indulgent to do it. 
 Wonder if Barbara Verne ever shirked a duty for 
 the sake of comfort? " 
 
BATTLE AND ACQUAINTANCE 127 
 
 Thus he began again to think of the girl. 
 
 " She's a new type to me," he thought, as he gazed 
 into the fire. "She seems almost a child, and yet 
 altogether a woman. Wonder what her life has been. 
 I fancy she felt, when she came in to thank me, like 
 a child who has been naughty and is required to make 
 a proper apology. There was certainly a sugges- 
 tion of that sort of thing in her manner, just at 
 first. Then the strong woman in her mastered the 
 child, and she carried out her determination resolutely. 
 It is very charming, that combination of shy child- 
 likeness, with the self-control of a strong woman." 
 
 At this point Guilford Duncan impatiently kicked 
 over his footrest, rose to his feet and began dressing 
 for the out of doors. "What an idiot I am!" he 
 thought. "Here I am presuming to analyze the 
 moods and motives of a young woman of whose life 
 and character I know nothing whatever, and with 
 whom I have exchanged not more than a dozen or 
 twenty sentences in all my life. You need a drench- 
 ing in the storm, Guilford Duncan, and you shall have 
 it, in the interest of your sanity." 
 
 Donning his boots and overcoat, and pulling his 
 slouch hat well down over his eyes and ears, the young 
 man strode out into the storm. 
 
 When he came back at midnight, drenched and 
 chilled, his fire had burned itself out. After he had 
 rubbed his damp skin into a healthful glow, he extin- 
 guished the lamp and crawled into bed. 
 
128 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 In spite of all, however, Guilford Duncan was still 
 thinking of Barbara Verne, when, at last, he sank to 
 sleep. His final thought of her took the form of a 
 resolution : 
 
 " I will call upon her, and become really acquainted 
 with her. That will cure me of this strange and ut- 
 terly absurd fascination. Of course the girl must 
 be commonplace in the main, and when I come to 
 realize that, the glamour will fade away." 
 
XIV 
 
 A Social Advance 
 
 GUILFORD DUNCAN carried out his pur- 
 •pose, as he thought, with a good deal of 
 tact. He began by calling, not upon Bar- 
 bara, but upon three or four other young women — 
 a thing he had never done before. He thought in 
 this way to make his call upon Barbara, when it should 
 come, an inconspicuous event. To his surprise, 
 his entrance thus into society created something of 
 a flutter among the women-folk, especially the mar- 
 ried women who had marriageable daughters, or 
 who were matchmakingly interested in other young 
 women, not their daughters. 
 
 For Guilford Duncan, the moment he was thought 
 of as a social factor, and a matrimonial possibility, 
 was seen to be the " best catch " in the little city, the 
 most desirable young man in the town. He was 
 young and distinctly handsome. He was a man of 
 education, culture, and superior intelligence. His 
 manners were easy, polished, and very winning, 
 Especially he treated women with a certain chiv- 
 
 129 
 
130 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 alric deference, that pleased them even more than 
 they knew. Captain Will Hallam's wife, who was the 
 social leader of the city, said to him one day : 
 
 " You must be careful what you do in the way of 
 paying attention to young women. A very little at- 
 tention on your part is apt to mean a great deal to 
 a girl — and still more to her mamma." 
 
 " But why should it? " asked Duncan, in unfeigned 
 astonishment. "Why should ordinary social cour- 
 tesy on my part mean more than the same thing 
 means in the case of any other young man ? " 
 
 " I don't know that I can tell you," she answered. 
 " At least, I don't know that I can make you under- 
 stand." 
 
 "I sincerely wish you would try. I certainly do 
 not want to " He hesitated, and did not com- 
 plete the sentence. 
 
 "Oh, I know all that. I know what you mean, 
 because it is what I mean. I tell you that if you pay 
 more than just a little, and a very casual, attention 
 to any girl, the girl, and, worse still, all her elderly 
 female relatives, are likely to misconstrue your mo- 
 tives. You are in serious danger of breaking some 
 tender hearts, and winning for yourself the reputa- 
 tion of being that most detestable thing — a male 
 flirt." 
 
 "But really, Mrs. Hallam," interrupted the per- 
 plexed young man, " I don't understand " 
 
 " Of course you don't, and of course I'm glad you 
 
A SOCIAL ADVANCE 131 
 
 don't. You'd be a detestably conceited popinjay if 
 you did. But I do, and in a strictly limited way 
 I'm going to explain it to you for your own good, 
 and as a warning. I can't explain it fully without 
 treason to my own sex. But I'll tell you this much: 
 you have a singularly pleasing, soothing, caressing, 
 and most winning manner with women — all women. 
 You are respectful — no, that isn't the word. You 
 are courteously gentle and deferential, and solicitous 
 to give pleasure. Anyhow, you please women. Then, 
 again, you have made yourself the most conspicuous 
 young man in Cairo, and everybody counts upon 
 your success as certain. There, I'm not going to 
 explain further ; I only warn you." 
 
 "But, Mrs. Hallam, I have not called more than 
 twice upon any one girl, and " 
 
 "Well, don't. That's all I've got to say." 
 
 Duncan went away puzzled. He had intended to 
 be very shrewd and circumspect in this matter. He 
 had intended, by calling once or twice upon each of 
 several young women, to deprive the calls he in- 
 tended to make upon Barbara of any look of signifi- 
 cance, and now, before he had even begun to culti- 
 vate acquaintance with Barbara, he found his small 
 preparatory callings the subject of curiosity and 
 gossip. 
 
 He was resolved not to be balked of his purpose, 
 however. He saw no reason to permit that. He 
 would go that very evening to see Barbara, and he 
 
132 r A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 would repeat the visit from time to time, until a 
 fuller acquaintance with the girl should cure him of 
 his fascination. Acquaintance must do that, he was 
 persuaded. 
 
 He carried out his part of the program reso- 
 lutely. If the results were not precisely what 
 he expected, and intended, the fault was not his 
 
 own. 
 
 Barbara Verne was not accustomed to receive visits 
 from young men. She was almost too young, for one 
 thing, or, at least, she had been almost too young until 
 about this time. Moreover, her life was unusually 
 secluded. She devoted all her time to her exacting 
 household duties. Except that she attended church 
 once each Sunday, she was never seen in any public 
 place, or anywhere else, outside of her aunt's house, 
 or the house of her single friend — Mrs. Richards — a 
 retiring matron, who neither received company nor 
 went out anywhere. These two — the young girl and 
 the middle-aged matron — were somewhat more than 
 intimate in their affection, but apart from this one 
 friend, Barbara visited nobody. The young women 
 of the town did not think of her, therefore, as one of 
 themselves at all. They regarded her rather as a 
 child than as a young woman, though if they had 
 troubled to think about the matter, they would have 
 remembered that she was as old as some of them- 
 selves. 
 
 When Guilford Duncan made his first call upon 
 
A SOCIAL ADVANCE 133 
 
 Barbara, therefore, that young person was very 
 greatly astonished, but she was in no way embar- 
 rassed. It was her nature to meet all circumstances 
 and all events frankly, and to do with conscientious 
 faithfulness whatsoever she conceived to be her duty. 
 So when Guilford Duncan called upon her, she 
 promptly put away her surprise, and entered the little 
 parlor to greet him. 
 
 She did not keep him waiting, and he specially 
 liked that. He was apt to be impatient of waiting. 
 She did not think it necessary to change her gown. 
 It was her habit to dress with exceeding simplicity and 
 extreme neatness. She could not afford anything 
 pretentious in dress, and she would make no false 
 pretense. Besides, she owned no better gown than 
 the one of French calico, which she was already 
 wearing. 
 
 So, without a minute's wait, Barbara walked into the 
 parlor and greeted her visitor, not without some lin- 
 gering trace of surprise at the honor done her, but 
 with no touch of foolish embarrassment in her man- 
 ner. Barbara was simply her own sweet, natural 
 self, and when Duncan went away, after his call, the 
 glamour of her personality was more strongly upon 
 him than ever. 
 
 "She, at least," he thought as he walked toward 
 the levee, " will not misconstrue my call, as Mrs. Hal- 
 lam suggests. She is too womanly, too sincere, too 
 genuine for that. I shall call again very soon, 
 
134 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 though, now that I think of it, she forgot to ask me 
 to do so. Never mind. I'll manufacture some ex- 
 cuse — oh, by Jove, I have it! 'The Coterie' is to 
 give a fancy dress dance a week from to-night. I'll 
 invite her to go. I wonder if she will accept. I hope 
 so, but even if she doesn't, the invitation will give me 
 ample excuse for calling. I'll do it to-morrow evening. 
 I suppose women need a little time to get ready for 
 such functions. Anyhow, I'll call on her to-morrow 
 evening and invite her. I wonder if anybody else has 
 anticipated me in that ? No, I'll wager not. I never 
 heard of her going out, or even of anybody calling 
 upon her. Still," he reflected, as he mounted to his 
 room and lighted his lamp and his fire, " that sort 
 of thing might happen." Then, after a pause : " I 
 reckon I'd better send her a note to prepare her. 
 I'll write it to-night, and leave it at breakfast in the 
 morning. She never quits the kitchen regions while 
 breakfast is on. I wonder if she's as neat, and trim, 
 and pretty when she's making coffee, or doing what- 
 ever it is that they do to ham, as she always is when 
 she visits other parts of the house? " 
 
 Turning, he locked his door. That was a very 
 unusual proceeding on his part, as it was well under- 
 stood that his " latchstring was always out " of an 
 evening, and the young men, who were in the habit of 
 reading in his room, were accustomed to open and 
 enter at will, without the formality of knocking. 
 
 A moment later, some one confidently turned the 
 
A SOCIAL ADVANCE 135 
 
 door-knob. Instantly Duncan realized the situation 
 and came to his senses. He abandoned his purpose 
 of writing to Barbara, as an absurdity, and promptly 
 unlocked the door to the visitor, making some sort of 
 excuse for his forgetfulness in having fastened it. 
 
 When he called upon Barbara the next evening, and 
 asked her to attend the dance under his escort, her 
 astonishment was manifest, in spite of her best en- 
 deavors to conceal it. She had never before been 
 invited to such a function, and she had not dreamed 
 of this. That, however, was not her greatest 
 occasion for surprise. In her modesty she had never 
 thought of herself as in any way the fellow or equal of 
 the other girls in town, who were eagerly invited to 
 attend everything in the way of entertainments. If 
 any other young man in town had asked her to be his 
 partner on this occasion, she would have regarded 
 the occurrence as a surprising one; to be asked by 
 Guilford Duncan was more astonishing than all. She 
 knew the high place he had won for himself in Cairo. 
 She knew that he was everywhere regarded as alto- 
 gether the superior of all the other young men in- 
 tellectually, morally, socially, and in all other ways. 
 She regarded him as an aristocrat among men, a 
 man who had always held aloof from the society 
 around him, as if it were quite unworthy of his 
 attention. She had woman's instinct enough, too, to 
 know how greatly honored any other girl in the city 
 would feel if asked by him to any function. The 
 
136 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 fact that he had asked her instead of some other, puz- 
 zled her almost to bewilderment. 
 
 At first she gave him no answer. She was obviously 
 thinking, and Duncan let her think on. He thought 
 she looked exceedingly pretty while thinking. He 
 observed a slight puckering of her forehead at the 
 time, which seemed to him to add interest to her face. 
 After a little she aid: 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Duncan, for your invitation. I 
 am more pleased with it than I can say. But I think 
 I must ask you to excuse me. I think I can't possi- 
 bly go to the dance." 
 
 "May I ask why not? Do you not care for 
 dancing and society ? " 
 
 "Oh, I care very much — or, rather," she added, 
 with scrupulous fidelity to truth — " I should care 
 very much to attend this party — I should enjoy it 
 more than anything, but " 
 
 "Will you think me impertinent," Duncan asked, 
 when she thus stopped in the middle of her sentence, 
 "will you think me impertinent if I ask you what 
 comes after that word c but ? ' " 
 
 " Oh, I think you mustn't ask me that. At least, I 
 think I mustn't answer you." 
 
 "Very well," replied the young man, pleased with 
 the girl's manner, in spite of his disappointment over 
 her hesitation. " May I make a suggestion ? If you 
 had simply said ' no * to my invitation, of course I 
 should not think of urging it upon you. But what 
 
A SOCIAL ADVANCE 137 
 
 you have said shows me that you would welcome it, if 
 there were not something in the way. Perhaps you 
 can overcome the difficulty. Will you not try ? Will 
 you not take a little time to think, and perhaps to 
 consult with your friends?" 
 
 " I should like to, but that would be unfair to you. 
 It might deprive you of an opportunity to ask some- 
 one else." 
 
 "I shall ask no one else. I shall not attend 
 the affair at all, unless I am privileged to escort you. 
 If I may, I will call to-morrow evening, and 
 every evening, until you can give me your de- 
 
 cision." 
 
 There was a certain masterfulness in his manner 
 and utterance, which seemed to leave no chance for 
 further discussion. So Barbara simply said: 
 
 " Very well. I'll be ready to answer you to-morrow 
 evening. I suppose I am ready now, but you wish 
 me to wait, and it shall be so." 
 
 Duncan hurriedly took his leave. Perhaps he 
 feared that if he stayed longer, the girl might make 
 her " no " a final one. Otherwise he hoped for a bet- 
 ter outcome. 
 
 When he had gone, poor little Bab sat for a time 
 in bewilderment. She still could not understand why 
 such a man as Guilford Duncan — whom everybody re- 
 garded as the " coming man " in Cairo — should have 
 chosen her, instead of some other, as the recipient of 
 his invitation. She could not still a certain fluttering 
 
138 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 about her heart. She was full of joy, and yet she 
 was sorely grieved that she must put aside what 
 seemed to her a supreme opportunity to be happy for 
 a time. 
 
 It was always her way, when any emotion pleased 
 or troubled her, to go to her friend, Mrs. Richards, 
 for strength and soothing. So, now she suddenly 
 sprang up, put on her hat and wraps, and hurried to 
 her one friend's home. The distance was so small 
 that she needed no escort, particularly as Robert, who 
 happened to be at the gate, could see her throughout 
 the little journey. And she knew that the faithful 
 negro boy would wait there until her return. 
 
 " You are all in a flurry, child," said her friend, for 
 greeting. "What is it about? Do you come to me 
 for advice, or sympathy, or consolation?" 
 
 For Mrs. Richards knew of Duncan's visit, and 
 with a shrewd woman's wit she guessed that Barbara's 
 disturbance of mind was in some way connected with 
 that event. 
 
 " No," answered the girl. " I didn't come to con- 
 sult you — at least I think I didn't — it is only that 
 something has happened, and I want to tell you 
 about it." 
 
 "Very well, dear. Go on." 
 
 "Oh, it's nothing very important. I don't know 
 why I feel about it as I do, but " 
 
 " Perhaps if you tell me what it is, I may help you 
 to solve your riddles. What is it?" 
 
A SOCIAL ADVANCE 139 
 
 " Why, only that Mr. Guilford Duncan has asked 
 me to go with him to the party next week." 
 
 " Well, go on. I see nothing strange in that." 
 
 "Why — don't you understand, it is Mr. Duncan, 
 and he has asked me" 
 
 "I see nothing yet to wonder at," calmly replied 
 her friend. " Indeed, it seems to be quite natural. I 
 have understood Mr. Duncan to be a gentleman of un- 
 commonly good taste. If he has made up his mind 
 to attend the dance, why shouldn't he choose for his 
 partner, the best, the dearest, and most charming 
 girl in the city ? Of course you are going ? " 
 
 "Why, no, of course I can't. I told him so, but 
 he urged me to postpone a final decision till to-mor- 
 row evening. I thought that would be useless, and 
 that the delay might make him miss a chance to en- 
 gage some other girl; but he insisted that he wasn't 
 going at all unless I would go with him, so just 
 because he seemed to wish it, I promised to wait till 
 to-morrow evening before saying a final ' no.' Some- 
 how you simply have to do what Mr. Duncan wants 
 you to do, you know." 
 
 " Mr. Guilford Duncan is rising rapidly in my esti- 
 mation," answered Barbara's friend. "I have un- 
 derstood that he is a man of good sense and good 
 taste. Obviously he deserves that high repute. 
 Your * no * must be * yes,' Bab." 
 "Oh, but that's impossible!" 
 "I don't see it." 
 
140 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "Why, you know I can't afford a gown." 
 
 " I still don't see it. It's to be a fancy dress affair, 
 I believe ? " 
 
 " Yes, of course." 
 
 "Then you can go in any character you like. 
 You've your drab-gray dress, and it's as fresh as new. 
 I'll go over to your house and alter it for you. Thert 
 with a white cape of Bishop's lawn, and a white cap 
 and apron, we'll make you into the most charming 
 little Quaker maiden imaginable. The character will 
 just suit you, because you suit it. That matter is 
 settled. Go home now and go to bed, and you 
 mustn't dream of anything but • yes.' " 
 
 So the good woman fended off thanks, and sent 
 the happy girl home with an enhanced sense of the 
 value of friendship. 
 
XV 
 
 The Coming Out of Barbara: 
 
 THERE was a flutter throughout the ball- 
 room when Guilford Duncan, in the costume 
 of Hamlet, ushered in Barbara Verne, in her 
 Quaker-maid's dress. The impulses behind the flut- 
 ter were various, but surprise was the dominant 
 one. 
 
 Nobody had expected the reserved young Virginian 
 to attend the function. Nobody had dreamed of see- 
 ing Barbara Verne there. Still more certainly, no- 
 body had expected Duncan to escort " the daughter of 
 his landlady,'" as one of the chattering mammas 
 spitefully called Barbara. 
 
 "Upon my word, the girl is pretty, when she's 
 made up that way," said another. 
 
 " She is more than pretty," quietly interposed Mrs. 
 Will Hallam ; " she Is the most beautiful girl in the 
 room. And she is far less * made up ' than any of the 
 rest. Her costume is simplicity itself. I'm glad the 
 dear girl is here." 
 
 The gracious lady presently beckoned to Duncan, 
 who promptly responded. Then taking some pains 
 
 141 
 
142 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 that those about her should hear every word, she 
 said: 
 
 " Thank you, Duncan, for bringing Barbara, and 
 my sincerest congratulations on your good taste. I 
 was just saying, when I caught your eye, that she is 
 the most beautiful girl in the room, and certainly she 
 is the most charming. You must bring her to me 
 for a greeting and congratulations, when the first set 
 is over. There goes the music, now. Don't stop to 
 answer me." 
 
 Mrs. Hallam's little speech, and the marked favor 
 she showed to Barbara throughout the evening, rather 
 stimulated, than checked, the malicious chatter of the 
 half dozen women who were disposed, on behalf of 
 their daughters, to feel jealous of Bab. But they 
 were at pains that Mrs. Hallam should not hear them. 
 For that lady was conspicuously the social queen of 
 the city and, gracious as she was, she had a certain 
 clever way of making even her politest speeches sting 
 like a whip-lash when she was moved to rebuke petty 
 meanness of spirit. 
 
 "What on earth can young Duncan mean?" asked 
 one of them when the group had placed distance 
 between themselves and Mrs. Hallam, "by bringing 
 that girl here? She isn't in society at all." 
 
 " I should say not. And Duncan is such an aristo- 
 crat, too." 
 
 "Perhaps that's it. Maybe he has done this by 
 way of showing his contempt for Cairo society." 
 
THE COMING OUT OF BARBARA 143 
 
 " Oh, no," answered another. " He's simply amus- 
 ing himself, like the male flirt that he is. He has 
 paid marked attention to half a dozen lovely girls in 
 succession, and now he brings Barbara Verne here 
 just to show them how completely he has dropped 
 them." 
 
 In the mean while Duncan was behaving with the 
 utmost discretion. After the first set was over, he 
 danced with one after another of the young women 
 upon whom he had lavished so much of " marked at- 
 tention " as may be implied from one, or at most two, 
 formal calls upon each. 
 
 But this circumspection did not stop the chatter. 
 
 "Wonder if Mrs. Hallam means to take the girl 
 up? It would be just like her to do that, she's so 
 fond of Duncan, you know ; if she does " 
 
 "Pardon me, but unless Mrs. Hallam has placed 
 her character in your hands for dissection, ladies, I 
 must ask you not to discuss it further." 
 
 That utterance came from Captain Will Hallam, 
 who happened to be standing by the wall, very near 
 the woman who had last spoken. It was like a thun- 
 derbolt in its effect, for there was not one of the gos- 
 sips whose husband's prosperity was not in some more 
 or less direct way in Will Hallam's hands. 
 
 Instantly he turned and walked away to where 
 Barbara shyly sat in a corner, while half a dozen 
 young men stood and talked with her. For what- 
 ever the matrons might think, the young men all 
 
144 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 seemed eager for Barbara's favor, and were making 
 of her the belle of the evening by their attentions. 
 
 To the astonishment of all of them, Hallam asked 
 Barbara for her dancing card. Nobody had ever 
 heard of the great man of business dancing. He 
 was middle-aged, absorbed in affairs, and positively 
 contemptuous of all frivolities. He had come to the 
 party only to bring his wife. He had quickly gone 
 away again, and he had now returned only to escort 
 Mrs. Hallam home. Nevertheless, he asked Barbara 
 for her card and, finding it full, he turned to Dun- 
 can, saying: 
 
 " I see that the next set is yours, Duncan. Won't 
 you give it up to me, if Miss Barbara permits? " 
 
 Half a minute later the music began again and, 
 to the astonishment of the whole company, Captain 
 Will Hallam led out the demure little Quakeress, and 
 managed to walk through a cotillion with her, with- 
 out once treading on her toes. 
 
 That was Captain Will Hallam's way of emphasiz- 
 ing his displeasure with the gossips, and marking his 
 appreciation of Barbara. It was so effective as to 
 set the whole feminine part of the community talking 
 for a week to come. But of this the secluded girl 
 heard not a word. The only change the events of 
 the evening made in the quiet routine of her life was 
 that all the best young men in the town became fre- 
 quent callers upon her, and that thereafter she was 
 sure to receive more than one invitation to every con- 
 
THE COMING OUT OF BARBARA 145 
 
 cert, dance, or other entertainment, as soon as its 
 occurrence was announced. 
 
 But enough of the gossip reached Guilford Dun- 
 can's ears to induce angry resentment and self-asser- 
 tion on his part. 
 
 " I told you how it would be, Duncan," said Mrs. 
 Will Hallam to him not long afterwards. " But I'm 
 glad you did it. It was the manly, as well as the 
 kindly thing to do." 
 
 "Thank you," the young man answered. "I 
 mean to do more of the same sort." 
 
 He did not explain. Mrs. Hallam was in need of 
 no explanation. 
 
XVI 
 
 I 
 
 A New Enemy 
 
 IT was about this time that Guilford Duncan 
 managed to make a new enemy, and one more 
 powerful to work him harm, upon occasion, than 
 all the rest whom he had offended. 
 
 Napoleon Tandy, president of the X National 
 Bank, — whose name had been first popularly short- 
 ened to "Nap Tandy" and afterwards extended 
 again into " Napper Tandy," — was the only man 
 in Cairo who had enough of financial strength or 
 of creative business capacity to be reckoned a rival 
 of Captain Will Hallam, or his competitor in com- 
 mercial enterprises. 
 
 He had several times tried conclusions with Hallam 
 in such affairs, but always with results distinctly un- 
 satisfactory to himself. Or, as Hallam one day ex- 
 plained to Duncan, "He has got a good deal of 
 education at my hands, and he has paid his tuition 
 fees." 
 
 Tandy was not yet past middle age, but he was 
 always called " Old Napper Tandy," chiefly because 
 
 U6 
 
A NEW ENEMY 147 
 
 of certain objectionable traits of character that he 
 possessed. He was reputed to be the " meanest man 
 in Southern Illinois." He was certainly the hardest 
 in driving a bargain, the most merciless in its en- 
 forcement. He was cordially hated and very greatly 
 feared. Cold, self-possessed, shrewd, and utterly 
 selfish, his attitude toward his fellow men, and toward 
 himself, was altogether different from that of his 
 greater competitor, Hallam. He felt none of Hal- 
 lam's " sporting interest," as Duncan called it, in 
 playing the game of commerce and finance. He was 
 quick to see opportunities, and somewhat bold in 
 seizing upon them, but no thought of popular or 
 public benefit to accrue from his enterprises ever 
 found lodgment in his mind. He had put a large 
 sum of money into the Through Line of freight cars, 
 but he had done so with an eye single to his own ad- 
 vantage, with no thought of anything but dividends. 
 He had contemptuously called Duncan "a rainbow 
 chaser," because that young man had spoken with 
 some enthusiasm of the benefits which the cheapening 
 of freight rates must bring to the people East and 
 West. 
 
 "Well, he has a mighty good knack of catching 
 his rainbows, anyhow," answered Hallam ; " and you'd 
 better not let the idea get away with you that he 
 isn't a force to be reckoned with. He's young yet, 
 and very new to business, but you remember it was 
 he who first suggested the Through Line, and worked 
 it out." 
 
148 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 In brief, Napper Tandy was a very greedy money- 
 getter, and nothing else. He hated Hallam with 
 all that he had of heart, because Hallam was his su- 
 perior in the conduct of affairs, and because Hallam 
 had so badly beaten him in every case of competitive 
 effort, and perhaps because of some other things. 
 
 On his part, Will Hallam, without hating, cordially 
 detested the man whom he had thus beaten and made 
 afraid. 
 
 Nevertheless, these two never quarreled. Each of 
 them was too worldly wise to make an open breach 
 with one whose co-operation in great affairs he might 
 at any time need. 
 
 "I never quarrel with a man," said Hallam to 
 Duncan, by way of explaining the situation. "I 
 never quarrel with a man till he is in the poor-house. 
 So long as he's at large I may need him any day. It 
 doesn't pay for a man to cut off his own fingers." 
 
 So between these two there was always an outward 
 semblance of peace, even when war was on between 
 them, and it frequently happened that they were 
 closely associated in enterprises too large for either 
 to conduct so well alone. 
 
 On the night of the ball, Hallam took Duncan aside 
 and said to him : 
 
 "I wish you'd take the seven o'clock train this 
 morning and go up to the mines for a few days. 
 Everything there seems to be at sixes and sevens. I 
 can't make head or tail out of it all. All I know is, 
 
A NEW ENEMY 149 
 
 that the confounded mine is losing a good many 
 thousands of my dollars every month. I want you to 
 go up and make a thorough investigation. If you 
 ean't find a way out I'll shut up the hole in the ground 
 and quit." 
 
 Captain Hallam knew, of course, that Duncan 
 could not get much sleep that night, but he had long 
 ago learned that Guilford Duncan utterly disregarded 
 personal comfort whenever duty called, and so he 
 had no hesitation in thus ordering his young lieu- 
 tenant to take an early morning train on the heels 
 of a night of dancing. 
 
 "Perhaps you'd better go up there with me," sug- 
 gested Duncan. 
 
 "No, that would embarrass matters. I've been 
 up several times, and I want you to bring a fresh 
 mind to bear upon the trouble. I'll telegraph the 
 people there to put everything at your command. I 
 want you to study the situation and make up your 
 mind, just as if the whole thing belonged to you. 
 Part of it does, you know, and more of it shall, if you 
 find a way out. If the thing can be made to go, 
 I'll give you ten more of the hundred shares, in addi- 
 tion to the five you already own. Good-night, and 
 good-bye till you're ready to report." 
 
 Captain Will Hallam had recently bought this coal 
 mine on a little branch railroad in the interior of 
 Illinois. He had not wanted to buy it, but had 
 done so by way of saving a debt. The mine had been 
 
150 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 badly constructed at the beginning, and latterly it 
 had been a good deal neglected. There were other 
 difficulties, as Duncan soon discovered, and the coal 
 resources of the property had never been half 
 developed. In recognition of his services in examin- 
 ing titles and other matters connected with the pur- 
 chase, Hallam had given the young man five per 
 cent, of the company's stock. He was thus, for the 
 first time, working in part for himself, when he was 
 sent to study the situation. 
 
 Quietly, but insistently, in face of the surly oppo- 
 sition of the superintendent, who was also styled chief 
 engineer, Duncan looked into things. It was true, 
 as the superintendent sullenly said, that this young 
 man knew nothing of coal mining; but it was also 
 true, as Duncan answered, that he knew how to learn. 
 
 And he did learn. He learned so much that after 
 three or four days, he sent a telegram to Captain 
 Will Hallam, saying: 
 
 Give me a perfectly free hand here or call me home. I 
 must have all the authority you possess or I can be of no use. 
 Answer by telegraph. 
 
 For response, Will Hallam telegraphed: 
 
 Consider yourself the whole thing. I give you complete and 
 absolute authority. Hire or discharge men at will. Order 
 all improvements you think best. Draw on the bank here for 
 any sum you need. Only make the thing go if you can. 
 
 Telegraphing was much more expensive in those 
 
A NEW ENEMY 151 
 
 days — forty years ago — than it is now. And yet in 
 neither of these dispatches was there any seeming 
 effort to spare words. That was Captain Will Hal- 
 lam's rule and practice. His frequent instruction to 
 all his subordinates ran somewhat in this wise: 
 
 ' " Never save a word in telegraphing at the risk of 
 being misunderstood. Mistakes are the most costly 
 luxuries that a man can indulge in. Never forget 
 that we live in the Nineteenth Century." 
 
 In that spirit Captain Will sent a dozen other 
 telegrams that day, addressed to all the different men 
 at the mines who had even the mallest pretension to 
 authority. In each of them he said : 
 
 Guilford Duncan represents me fully and absolutely. His 
 authority is unlimited. Obey him or quit. Obey him with 
 all good will. Help him if you can, and in every way you can. 
 There must be no interference, no kicking, no withholding of 
 information. These are orders. 
 
 Thus armed, Duncan set to work in earnest. 
 
 "Why isn't your output of coal larger than it is?" 
 he asked of Davidson, the superintendent. 
 
 " I can't make it larger under the circumstances." 
 
 "What are the circumstances? What difficulties 
 are there in the way? You have miners enough, 
 surely." 
 
 " Well, for one thing, the mine is badly ventilated. 
 Many of the best galleries are filled with choke-damp, 
 and must be kept closed." 
 
 "Why don't you improve the ventilation? As 
 
152 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 an engineer you ought to know how to do that 
 much." 
 
 " It isn't feasible, as you would know, Mr. Duncan, 
 if you knew anything about mining." 
 
 " Oh, never mind my ignorance. It is your knowl- 
 edge that I'm concerned about just now. Do I 
 understand you to say that a mine lying only seventy- 
 five feet or so below the surface cannot be ven- 
 tilated?" 
 
 " I suppose it might be if the business could afford 
 the expense." 
 
 "The business can and will afford any expense 
 that may be necessary to make it pay. If you know 
 enough of engineering to devise a practicable plan 
 for ventilating the mine, I'll furnish you all the 
 money you need to carry it out." 
 
 He had it in mind to add : " If you don't know 
 enough for that, I'll find a more competent engineer," 
 but he kept his temper and refrained. 
 
 " Twouldn't be of any use," answered Davidson, 
 after a moment. "We're producing more coal now 
 than we can market." 
 
 "How is that? I don't understand. Your order 
 book — which I looked over to-day — shows orders a full 
 month ahead of shipments, besides many canceled 
 orders, countermanded because not filled promptly 
 enough to satisfy the customers. You're superin- 
 tendent as well as engineer. I wish you'd try to clear 
 up this puzzle." 
 
A NEW ENEMY 153 
 
 "Oh, it's simple enough. The railroad people 
 won't furnish us cars enough. I could ship a hundred 
 carloads to-morrow if I had the cars, but I haven't 
 got 'em, and I can't get 'em." 
 
 " Do you mean that you are offering coal as freight 
 to this railroad, and the road is refusing it?" 
 
 "Yes, that's about it. I've asked for cars and 
 can't get 'em, except a few each day." 
 
 "Do the other mines along this little branch rail- 
 road have the same trouble?" 
 
 " There is only one other mine on this line." 
 
 " Well, does it encounter the same difficulty in mar- 
 keting its coal?" 
 
 "No — at least not to so great an extent. You 
 see somebody there is standing in with the railroad 
 people. I suppose they've had a little block of stock 
 given to them — the railroad people, I mean. So the 
 Quentin mines get all the cars they want, and we get 
 only their leavings." 
 
 "Well, now, Mr. Davidson, I give you this order: 
 Set to work at once and bring out every ton of coal 
 you've got ready in the mine. There'll be cars here 
 to haul it when you get it ready. Good-night, Mr. 
 Davidson. I'll talk with you another time about the 
 other matters. I have a good deal to do to-night, so 
 I can't talk further with you now." 
 
 Davidson went out after a grudging " good-night." 
 Duncan did not yet know or suspect, though he was 
 presently to find out, that to Davidson, also, the pro- 
 
154 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 prietors of the rival mine were paying a little tribute, 
 as a reward for silence and for making trouble. 
 
 Duncan sat for an hour writing letters. The type- 
 writing machine had not been invented at that time, 
 and even if it had been Duncan would have preferred 
 to write these letters himself. 
 
 One of them was addressed to the General Freight 
 Agent of the little railroad on which the mine was 
 situated. It read as follows : 
 
 Within six days I shall have one hundred car loads of coal 
 at the mouth of this mine, ready for shipment upon orders. 
 After that time I shall have about sixty car loads ready for 
 shipment each day. Please see to it that an adequate supply 
 of cars to move this freight are side-tracked here on time. 
 
 Duncan signed that letter with all needed circum- 
 spection. The signature read : 
 
 For the Redwood Coal and Iron Company; Guilford Dun- 
 can, Manager and Attorney at Law and in Fact for the 
 Company. 
 
 That subscription was intended as an intimation. 
 
 When on the next afternoon the General Freight 
 Agent, who had several times met Duncan at Captain 
 Hallam's house, read the letter, his attention was at 
 once attracted — precisely as Guilford Duncan had in- 
 tended that it should be, by the elaborate formality 
 of the signature. 
 
 " So Hallam's got that smart young man of his at 
 work, has he ? " the Freight Agent muttered. " Well, 
 
A NEW ENEMY 155 
 
 we'll see what we can do with him " But he deliber- 
 ately waited till nine o'clock that night before 
 responding. Then opening the telegraph key at his 
 elbow, he called Duncan, and Duncan, who had 
 learned telegraphing, as he had learned many other 
 things, as a part of his equipment for work, promptly 
 went to his key and answered the call. The General 
 Freight Agent spelled but this message : 
 
 "Simply impossible to furnish cars you ask. 
 Haven't got them." 
 
 Duncan responded: 
 
 " The Quentin mine gets all cars needed. We de- 
 mand our share and I shall insist upon the demand." 
 
 The reply came : 
 
 " I tell you we can't do it. I'll run down to your 
 place to-morrow or next day and explain." 
 
 " Don't want explanations," answered Duncan. " I 
 want the cars." 
 
 " But we simply can't furnish them." 
 
 " But you simply must." 
 
 "What if I refuse?" 
 
 " Then I'll adopt other measures. But you won't 
 refuse." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Because I know too much," answered Duncan. 
 " I shall send to you by special messenger, on the train 
 that will pass here within an hour, a letter making a 
 formal tender of the freight. I make that tender by 
 telegraph now, and you may as well accept it in that 
 
156 r A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 way. Your road is a chartered common carrier. 
 Your lawyers will advise you that you cannot refuse 
 freight formally tendered to you for carriage, un- 
 less you can show an actual inability; in that case 
 you must show that you are doing your best by all 
 shippers alike; that you are treating them with an 
 equal hand. You perfectly well know you are not 
 doing that. You know you have cars in plenty. You 
 know you are deliberately discriminating against this 
 mine, and in favor of its rival. I make formal 
 demand, on behalf of the company I represent, for 
 all cars needed for the shipment of this freight. If 
 they are not forthcoming, as you say they will not 
 be, I give notice that I will dump the coal by the side 
 of your loading side-track and leave it there at your 
 risk. Good-night." And Duncan shut off the tele- 
 graph instrument and devoted himself to the prepara- 
 tion of his letter of demand. 
 
 It should be explained that the young man was not 
 " making a bluff " — in the figurative phrase of that 
 time and country — when he telegraphed in this way 
 to the General Freight Agent. He had his facts well 
 in hand. As soon as Davidson's intimation had come 
 to him to the effect that the railroad officials were 
 " standing in " with the proprietors of the Quentin 
 mine, he had telegraphed for Joe Arnold to come to 
 him by a train that would arrive at midnight. Joe 
 Arnold was a detective of rare gifts and, incidentally, 
 a reporter on a Chicago newspaper. Captain Will 
 
A NEW ENEMY 157 
 
 Hallam often had occasion to employ Joe, and thus 
 Duncan had come into acquaintance with the young 
 man's peculiar abilities for finding out things. Joe 
 Arnold had an innocent, incurious, almost stupid 
 countenance that suggested a chronic desire for sleep 
 rather than any more alert characteristic. He had 
 a dull, uninterested way of asking questions which 
 suggested the impulse of a vacuous mind to "keep 
 the talk going," rather than any desire to secure the 
 information asked for. Indeed, when he asked a 
 question and it was not promptly answered, he 
 always hastened to say : 
 
 " Oh, it's of no consequence, and it's none of my 
 
 business." 
 
 But before he quitted the presence of the man to 
 whom the question had been put, Joe Arnold usually 
 had his answer. 
 
 To this man, when he came by the midnight train, 
 
 Duncan said: 
 
 " I must know who are the stockholders in the Quen- 
 tin mine— both those of record and those whose names 
 do not appear on the stock books. If possible I must 
 know also what each stockholder actually paid for his 
 shares. You must hurry. I must have this infor- 
 mation by noon to-morrow. You'll need to use money 
 perhaps. Here's stake for expenses. Come back on 
 the noon train to-morrow." 
 
 And Joe Arnold came back, bringing with him quite 
 all the information that Guilford Duncan wanted, and 
 
158 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 considerably more. For he brought with him trans- 
 cripts of all the correspondence that had passed be- 
 tween the railroad people and the mine proprietors, 
 including a dispatch which the General Freight Agent 
 had sent a little after midnight that morning to 
 Napoleon Tandy, saying: 
 
 Hallam has got that sharp young fellow Duncan at work and, 
 as you are aware, he knows his business and his rights. I'm 
 afraid he'll make a formal proffer of freight and a demand 
 for cars. I wish you could come here, but of course you can't 
 so long as you wish your stockholdings in that mine down there 
 and your relations with us to be kept secret. Please telegraph 
 any instructions you may wish. 
 
 That dispatch, of course, had been sent not from 
 the mines, but from the General Freight Agent's office 
 in another town. But there were always men in those 
 days who were deeply interested to learn what was 
 going on among the masters of finance, and one of 
 these over-curious ones was a certain telegraph 
 operator. It was his practice to take off the wires 
 whatever dispatches there might be passing between 
 Napper Tandy and the railroad people. 
 
 Thus it came about that Joe Arnold brought to 
 Guilford Duncan a mass of accurate and detailed 
 information which enabled him to take the high hand 
 in his telegraphic controversy with the General 
 Freight Agent, when that person, late in the even- 
 ing, called him up on the wire in answer to his letter, 
 received the night before. Thus was Duncan armed, 
 
A NEW ENEMY 159 
 
 cap-a-pie, for the telegraphic controversy. And thus 
 it came about that during the next six days there were 
 a hundred cars shunted to Redwood side-tracks, where 
 they were rapidly loaded with the coal output of the 
 Redwood mine. 
 
XVII 
 
 An Old Friend 
 
 FROM that hour forth the Redwood mine became 
 a paying property and, as Guilford Duncan 
 liked to think, one which was contributing its 
 share to the public benefit and the welfare of the 
 people. 
 
 But Duncan's work there had only begun. Having 
 solved the problem of shipping coal as fast as the 
 miners could dig it, he gave his attention next to the 
 equally pressing problem of increasing output. In 
 the solution of that a great help unexpectedly came 
 to him. 
 
 He was sitting late one night over the books and 
 correspondence, when, near midnight, a miner sought 
 speech with him. 
 
 He bade the man enter and, without looking up 
 from the papers he was studying, asked him to take 
 a seat. Still without taking his eyes from the papers, 
 he presently asked of the man, who had not accepted 
 the invitation to sit: 
 
 "Well, sir, what can I do for you?" 
 
 160 
 
AN OLD FRIEND 161 
 
 "Nothing," answered the man. "I came to serve 
 you, not to ask service." 
 
 The voice seemed familiar to Duncan — almost 
 startlingly familiar. He instantly looked up and 
 exclaimed : 
 
 "Why, it's Dick Temple!" 
 
 "Yes," answered the other. "You and I quar- 
 reled very bitterly once. The quarrel was a very 
 foolish one — on my side." 
 
 " And on mine, too ! " responded Duncan, grasping 
 his former enemy's hand. " Let us forget it, and be 
 friends." 
 
 " With all my heart. . It was in that spirit that I 
 came hither to-night — I want to render you a ser- 
 vice." 
 
 Meanwhile Duncan had almost forced the miner 
 into a chair. 
 
 " Tell me," he said, " how is it that you * 
 
 "That I'm a miner? You think of me as an 
 educated engineer, eh? Well, that's a long story and 
 not at all so sad a one as you might suppose. I'll tell 
 you all about it at another time. But it can wait, 
 while there are some other things that should be said 
 now — things that vitally affect the affairs you have 
 in charge." 
 
 "It is very good of you to come to me with sug- 
 gestions, and they will be very welcome, I assure you, 
 and very helpful, I've no doubt. For I have faith in 
 your skill as an engineer." 
 
162 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "My skill still remains to be proved," answered 
 the other with the merest touch of sadness in his utter- 
 ance. " But, at any rate, I've had the very best en- 
 gineering education that the schools can give. Never 
 mind that — and never mind me. I didn't come here 
 to talk of myself. I want to talk to you about this 
 mine." 
 
 " Good. That is what I am here for. Go on." 
 "Well, everything here is wrong. With your 
 readiness of perception you must have seen that for 
 yourself. With the general management I have 
 nothing to do. I'm only one of the miners. But 
 there is a problem of ventilation here that ought 
 to be solved, and I have come simply to offer a solu- 
 tion, in the interest of the company that pays my 
 wages and still more in the interest of the miners. 
 Two of them were killed by choke-damp a little while 
 ago, four of them are now ill from the same cause, 
 while all of them are earning less than they should 
 because the best and most easily accessible headings 
 are closed." 
 
 " Is there any very serious difficulty involved in the 
 problem of ventilating the mine?" 
 
 "None whatever — at least no engineering diffi- 
 culty." 
 
 "Just what do you mean?" 
 
 " I prefer not to say." 
 
 "Perhaps I can guess," said Duncan. - "I have 
 myself discovered a very serious difficulty in the per- 
 
AN OLD FRIEND 163 
 
 sonal equation of Mr. Davidson. He does not want 
 to ventilate the mine — he has his own reasons, of 
 course. That difficulty shall no longer stand in the 
 way. I shall eliminate it at once. Go on, please, 
 and tell me of the engineering problem." 
 
 " It scarcely amounts to a problem. The mine lies 
 only about seventy-five feet below the surface. At its 
 extreme extension the depth is considerably less, be- 
 cause of a surface depression there. What I sug- 
 gest is this: Dig a shaft at the extreme end, thus 
 making a second opening, and pass air freely through 
 the mine from the one opening to the other. The 
 cost will be a mere trifle." 
 
 " But will the air pass through in that way ? " 
 "Not without help. But we can easily give it 
 help." 
 
 "How? Go on. Explain your plan fully." 
 "Well, we have here three or four of those big 
 fans that the government had made for the purpose 
 of ventilating the engine rooms and stoke holes of its 
 ironclads. They utterly failed and were sold as 
 junk. Captain Hallam bought a lot of them at the 
 price of scrap iron, and sent them out here. David- 
 son tried one of them and reported utter failure as a 
 result. The failure was natural enough, both in the 
 case of the ironclads and in that of the mine." 
 "How so?" 
 
 " Why, in both cases an attempt was made to force 
 air down into spaces already filled with an atmosphere 
 
164 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 denser than that above. That was absurdly impossi- 
 ble, as any engineer not an idiot should have known." 
 
 "And yet you think you can use these fans suc- 
 cessfully in ventilating the mine?" 
 
 "I do not think — I know. If Mr. Davidson will 
 permit me to explain " 
 
 "Never mind Davidson. If this experiment is to 
 be tried you shall yourself be the man to try it. Go 
 on, please." 
 
 " But, Duncan, I simply mustn't be known in the 
 matter at all." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " I have a wife to care for. I can't afford to be 
 discharged. Besides, the miners like me and they 
 think they have grievances against Davidson. If he 
 were to discharge me — as he certainly would if I were 
 to appear in this matter — the whole force would go on 
 strike, no matter how earnestly I might plead with 
 them not to do so. I don't want that to happen. It 
 would be an ill return to the company that gave me 
 wages when it was a question of wages or starvation 
 with me. Worse still, it would mean poverty and suf- 
 fering to all the miners and all their helpless wives and 
 children. No, Duncan, I must not be known in this 
 matter, or have anything to do with the execution of 
 the plans I suggest. I want you to treat them as 
 your own; suggest them to Davidson, and persuade 
 him to carry them out. In that way all of good and 
 nothing of harm will be done." 
 
AN OLD FRIEND 165 
 
 " Why, then, haven't you suggested your plans to 
 Davidson ? " 
 
 "I have, and he has scornfully rejected them. 
 Coming from you he may treat them with a greater 
 respect." 
 
 " Now, before we go any further, Dick — for I like 
 to call you by the old nickname that alone I knew 
 before our foolish quarrel came to separate us — be- 
 fore we go any further, let me explain to you that I 
 am absolute master here. My word is law, to Mr. 
 Davidson as completely and as absolutely as to the 
 old fellow who scrubs out this office — or doesn't scrub 
 it, for it's inexcusably dirty. Davidson can no more 
 discharge you than he can discharge me. I don't 
 know yet what I shall do with Davidson. But at 
 any rate he has no longer the power to discharge you, 
 so you need have no fear in that direction. Go on, 
 now, and tell me how you purpose to ventilate the 
 mine. I'm mightily interested." 
 
 "Thank you," said Temple. "My plan is per- 
 fectly simple. You can't force air down into a mine 
 with any pump that was ever invented, or any pump 
 that ever will be devised by human ingenuity. But 
 you can easily and certainly draw air out of a mine. 
 And when there are two openings to the mine — one at 
 either end — if you draw air out at one end fresh air 
 will of itself rush in at the other end to take its place. 
 My plan is to sink a shaft at the farther end of the 
 mine, and to build an air-tight box at the surface 
 
166 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 opening, completely closing it, except for an out- 
 flow pipe. Then I shall put one of the big ironclad 
 fans into that box upside down. When it is set spin- 
 ing it will suck air out of the mine, and fresh air will 
 rush in at the main shaft to take the place of the 
 air removed." 
 
 Duncan was intensely interested. Very eagerly he 
 bent forward as he asked: 
 
 " You are confident of success in this ? " 
 
 " More than confident. I'm sure. " 
 
 "Quite sure?" 
 
 "More than quite sure; I'm absolutely certain. 
 I've tried it." 
 
 "Tried it? How?" 
 
 "I've reconstructed the mine in miniature. I've 
 made a little fan whose suction capacity is in exact 
 proportion to that of the big fan which I propose 
 to use in the mine. I have fully experimented, and 
 I tell you now, Guilford Duncan, that if you permit 
 me to carry out the plan, I'll create a breeze in that 
 mine which will compel you to hold on to your hat 
 whenever you go into the galleries." 
 
 Duncan rarely showed excitement. When he did 
 so, it was in ways peculiar to himself. At this point 
 he rose to his feet, and with an unusually slow and 
 careful enunciation, said: 
 
 "Go to work at this job early to-morrow morning, 
 Dick — or this morning, rather, for it is now one 
 o'clock. Your wife is Mary, of course?" 
 
AN OLD FRIEND 167 
 
 There was a choking sound in Duncan's voice as 
 he uttered the words. 
 
 " Yes, of course," answered the other, instinctively 
 grasping Duncan's hand and pressing it in warm 
 sympathy. 
 
 "Will you bear her a message from me?" 
 
 " Yes, any message you are moved to send." 
 
 "Tell her that Guilford Duncan has appointed 
 you sole engineer of these mines, with full salary, and 
 that if you succeed in the task you have undertaken, 
 a far better salary awaits you." 
 
 Temple hesitated a moment and at last resumed his 
 seat before answering. Then he said: 
 
 " This is very generous of you. I will go to her 
 now, and deliver your message. She will be very 
 glad. She was in doubt as to how you would receive 
 me. But may I come back? Late as it is, I have a 
 good deal more to say to you — about the mine, of 
 course. You and I used often to talk all night, in the 
 old days, long ago, before — well before we quarreled." 
 
 "Go!" answered Duncan with emotion. "Go! 
 Tell Mary what I have* said. Then come back. One 
 night's sleep, more or less, doesn't matter much to 
 healthy men like you and me." 
 
XVIII 
 
 Dick Temple's Plans 
 
 WHEN Richard Temple returned to the office 
 of the mining company, his always cheerful 
 face was rippling with a certain look of 
 gladness that told its own story of love and devotion. 
 Had he not borne good tidings to Mary? Had he 
 not, for the first time in months, been able to stand 
 before her in another character than that of a work- 
 ing miner, and to offer her some better promise of the 
 future than she had known before ? 
 
 Not that Mary ever thought of her position as one 
 unworthy of her womanhood, not that she had ever 
 in her innermost heart allowed herself to lament the 
 poverty she shared with him, or to reproach him with 
 the obscurity into which her life with him had brought 
 her. Richard Temple knew perfectly that no shadow 
 of disloyalty had ever fallen upon Mary Temple's 
 soul. He knew her for a wife of perfect type who, 
 having married him "for better or for worse," had 
 only rejoicing in her loving heart that she had been 
 able to accept the " worse " when it came, to make the 
 
DICK TEMPLE'S PLANS 169 
 
 " better " of it, and to help him with her devotion at a 
 time when he had most sorely needed help. 
 
 He knew that his Mary was not only content, but 
 happy in the miner's hut which had been her only 
 home since her marriage, and which, with loving 
 hands, she had glorified into something better to the 
 soul than any palace is where love is not. 
 
 O, good women! All of you! How shall men 
 celebrate enough your devotion, your helpfulness, 
 your loyalty, and your love? How shall men ever 
 repay the debt they owe to wifehood and motherhood? 
 How shall civilization itself sufficiently honor the 
 womanhood that alone has made it possible? 
 
 But while Richard Temple knew that there was 
 never a murmur at her lot in Mary's heart any more 
 than there was complaining upon her lips, he knew 
 also how earnestly she longed for a better place in the 
 world for him, how intensely ambitious she was that 
 he should find fit opportunity and make the most of 
 it in the way of winning that recognition at the hands 
 of men which her loving soul knew to be his right and 
 his due. 
 
 It was with gladness, therefore, that he had gone 
 to her after midnight with his news. It was with joy 
 that he had wakened her out of her sleep and told her 
 of the good that had come to him. 
 
 She wept as she sat there on the side of her bed 
 and listened while the moonlight, sifting through the 
 vines that she had trained up over the window of the 
 
170 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 miner's hut, cast a soft fleecy veil over her person, in 
 which Temple thought an angel might rejoice. But 
 her tears were not born of sorrow. They were tears 
 of exceeding joy, and if a drop or two slipped in 
 sympathy from the strong man's eyes and trickled 
 down his cheeks, he had no cause to be ashamed. 
 
 When he re-entered the company's office, Temple 
 stood for a moment, unable to control the emotion he 
 had brought away from Mary's bedside. When at 
 last he regained mastery of himself, he took Dun- 
 can's hand and, pressing it warmly, delivered Mary's 
 message : 
 
 " Mary bids me say, God bless you, Guilford Dun- 
 can. She bids me say that two weeks ago to-night a 
 son was born to us; that he has been nameless hith- 
 erto; but that to-night, before I left, she took him 
 from his cradle and named him Guilford Duncan 
 Temple." 
 
 It is very hard for two American men to meet an 
 emotional situation with propriety. They cannot 
 embrace each other as women, and Frenchmen, and 
 Germans do, and weep; a handclasp is all of demon- 
 stration that they permit themselves. For the rest, 
 they are under bond to propriety to maintain as com- 
 monplace and as unruffled a front as stoicism can 
 command. So, after Guilford Duncan had choked 
 out the words : " Thank you, old fellow, and thank 
 Mary," he turned to the table, pushed forward the 
 pipes and tobacco, and said : 
 
DICK TEMPLE'S PLANS 171 
 
 " Let's have a smoke." 
 
 • «i • • ■• 
 
 " Now tell me the rest of it," said Duncan, after the 
 pipes were set going. " About the mine, I mean." 
 
 " Well, it all seems simple. There are two hundred 
 and seventy blind mules in the mine " 
 
 " Blind? What do you mean? " 
 
 " Blind ; yes. Not one of them has seen the light 
 of day since he entered the mine, and some of them 
 have been there for more than a dozen years. Living 
 always in the dark, they have lost the power to see." 
 
 " Go on. What were you going to say ? " 
 
 "Why, that those mules represent an investment 
 of twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars, all abso- 
 lutely needless. Their use involves also a wholly un- 
 necessary expense for stablemen, feed, and general 
 care, while the yearly deaths among them add heavily 
 to the profit and loss account, on the loss side. Not 
 one of those mules is needed in the mine. The work 
 they do can be better' done at one-tenth the cost — yes, 
 it can be done at no cost at all; while if the mules 
 are brought out and sold, they will bring from 
 twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars." 
 
 "Go on. Explain. What do the mules do, and 
 how is their work to be done without them? " 
 
 "They do just two things; they haul coal to the 
 bottom of the inclined shaft, where it must be reloaded 
 — at wholly unnecessary expense — in order to be hauled 
 by machinery up the incline to the surface. Half the 
 
in A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 time they are employed in hauling water. The mine, 
 you must understand, declines from the foot of the 
 shaft to the end of the main heading. The very lowest 
 level of all is there, where I propose to put in a 
 ventilating shaft, with a fan; all the water flows to 
 that point, flooding it. Under the antediluvian 
 methods in use in this mine, all this water must be 
 pumped into leaky cars and hauled by mules to the 
 bottom of the the sloping shaft, whence it is drawn up 
 by the engine, spilling half of it before it reaches 
 the surface. Now, when I sink that ventilating shaft 
 out there on the prairie, I must have an engine to 
 turn the fan. Very well, I've got it. Among the 
 junk that Captain Hallam bought when the war 
 ended and the river navy went out of commission, 
 there are parts of many little steam engines. I've 
 busied myself at night in measuring these and fitting 
 part of one to parts of another. The result is that 
 I have made an engine out of this rubbish, which 
 will not only drive the ventilating fan, but will also 
 pump all the water out of the mine." 
 
 " But will not the mules be needed for hauling coal 
 to the bottom of the shaft ? " 
 
 "Not at all, if you are willing to spend a little 
 money in an improvement — say a fourth or a third of 
 what the mules will bring in the market — or consid- 
 erably less than it costs to feed and curry them for 
 a year." 
 
 "What is the nature of the improvement?" 
 
DICK TEMPLE'S PLANS 173 
 
 "Why, simply an extension to every part of the 
 mine of the cable system by which the engine now 
 hauls the coal and water up the slope." 
 
 " But where are we to get power? " 
 
 "By using what we already have. Our great 
 engine is a double one. We are using only one of 
 its cylinders. We have only to connect the other in 
 order to have all the power we need." 
 
 "But what about steam?" 
 
 "That's easy to make. We have several unused 
 boilers, and as we burn nothing under our boilers but 
 culm— the finely slaked coal for which there isn't a 
 market, even at a tenth of a cent a ton — it will cost 
 us absolutely not one cent to make all the steam we 
 need." 
 
 " You seem to have thought it all out." 
 
 "I have done more than that. I have worked it 
 all out. I must work all day in a heading, of course, 
 in order to make bread and butter. I have worked at 
 night over these problems." 
 
 " And you are sure you've got the right answers?" 
 
 "Greatly more than sure — absolutely certain!" 
 
 " Very well. You are now chief engineer, or any- 
 thing else you please, at a chief engineer's salary. 
 You are to go to work at once digging the new venti- 
 lating and pumping shaft. You are to proceed at 
 once to install your other improvements, and, when 
 you report to me that there is no longer any use 
 for the mules in the mine, I'll bring them all out and 
 
174 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 sell them. I'll look to the payments incidental to 
 your work. My mission here is to make this mine a 
 paying property. To that end, you are to bear in 
 mind, I have an entirely free hand, and all the money 
 needed is at my command. Now let that finish busi- 
 ness for to-night. I want you to spend the rest of 
 the dark hours in telling me your story and Mary's. 
 I want to know all that has happened to both of you 
 since— well, since she told me she loved you and not — 
 me. You don't mind sitting up for the rest of the 
 night?" 
 
 "Certainly not. I've sat up with you on far 
 smaller provocation." 
 
 " But how about Mary? " 
 
 " She will sleep, or, if she doesn't — and I suppose 
 she won't — she is entirely happy. She will be glad to 
 have me spend the night with you." 
 
 " Very well, then. Tell me the story of what has 
 happened to you and Mary since the day when we 
 quarreled like a pair of idiots, and — like men of 
 sense — decided not to fight. I want to hear it all." 
 
 " I'll tell it all," said the other. And he did. 
 
XIX 
 
 Dick Temple's Story 
 
 THIS is the story that Richard Temple told 
 to his friend in the small hours of that 
 night's morning. Let us dispense with 
 quotation marks to cover it. 
 
 You know what my education was. My uncle, 
 whose heir I was supposed to be, spared no expense to 
 equip me for my life's work. He sent me to the best 
 schools in the North, and afterwards to the best 
 schools in Europe. Just at the beginning of the 
 war, and because of it, I returned to Virginia. I se- 
 cured a commission in the engineer corps, but I soon 
 resigned it, because at the beginning of the war there 
 was no earnest work for the engineer corps to do, 
 and I foolishly thought there never would be. I en- 
 listed as a private in the artillery, and before the end 
 of the war I was a captain. 
 
 A few months before the war ended, I married 
 Mary. You, of course, understand. Mary was the 
 daughter of an ancient and honorable house, but she 
 was living as a dependent in the family of a very 
 
 175 
 
176 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 remote relative — so remote that the kinship was 
 rather mythical than real. 
 
 At that time I owned, or was supposed to own, my 
 ancestral plantation, Robinet. My uncle at his death 
 had left it to me. 
 
 As a man abundantly able to provide for a wife, I 
 asked Mary to marry me, and to become the mistress 
 of Robinet. 
 
 We were married about the time Fort Harrison fell 
 into the enemy's hands. I remember that I had to 
 delay the wedding in order to bombard Fort Harrison 
 with my mortars, in preparation for the infantry 
 assault, which it was hoped might recover the works. 
 
 When that affair was over, and our lines were re- 
 constructed, I got leave of absence, and Mary and I 
 were married. 
 
 I was foolish enough to believe, even in the autumn 
 and winter of 1864, that we of the South were cer- 
 tain to win the war. As I look back now and con- 
 sider the conditions then existing, I wonder at my 
 own stupidity in not seeing what the end must be. 
 However, that would have made no difference in any 
 case. I must take Mary out of her condition of 
 dependence, by marrying her, and I did so. 
 
 When the end came, I went home for a little while. 
 My uncle had died in hopeless despondency. His 
 estate, when I inherited it, was buried in debt, and 
 with the negroes no longer mine, the creditors clearly 
 saw that I could never pay out. They descended 
 
DICK TEMPLE'S STORY 177 
 
 upon me in a swarm. There was nothing for me to 
 do but make complete surrender of my possessions to 
 them. These were sufficient to pay about forty cents 
 on the dollar of the hereditary debt. 
 
 As soon as disaster thus came upon me, I set out 
 to find employment in my profession, promising my- 
 self that I should soon be able to pay all the debts of 
 which I had been acquitted as a bankrupt. 
 
 I knew that I had as much of skill in my pro- 
 fession as a young man with little practical experience 
 could have. I saw that there must be a world of work 
 done by way of developing the resources of the coun- 
 try after four years of paralyzing war. I thought 
 there was pressing need of my services and my skill, 
 and I confidently counted upon quickly achieving 
 place and pay for myself. 
 
 I didn't know the ways of men then, but I soon 
 found them out. Wherever there seemed to be an 
 opening for me, I found that Somebody's son got the 
 place, because Somebody could influence its bestowal. 
 
 Once I did get employment. There was a little 
 stretch of railroad to be built, by way of connecting 
 one line with others. I applied for the place of 
 engineer, and was promptly informed that John 
 Harbin had already been appointed to it. You know 
 John. You know what a blockhead he is. I was 
 graduated in the same class with him — he simply 
 cheating his way through. When I heard of his ap- 
 pointment, I was dumbfounded. I knew that he 
 
178 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 simply could not do the work. He could not 
 calculate a curvature to save his life. As for the 
 more difficult operations of engineering, he was as 
 helpless as a child. 
 
 I was curious to learn how he intended to get 
 through with his task. I soon found out. He sent 
 for me and asked me to become his " assistant." The 
 pay he offered was barely sufficient to keep me alive. 
 In brief, the arrangement was that I should do the 
 work while he drew the pay and got the credit. That 
 was because John Harbin's father was president of the 
 railroad that was making the extension, and John 
 Harbin's father had no purpose to let any good thing 
 go out of the family. 
 
 I was rapidly getting my education in the ways of 
 the world, and I was paying a high price for it. For 
 a few months I did the work of a competent engineer 
 on a salary that paid me less than a laborer's wage. 
 Finally I resigned in disgust and set out to find some- 
 thing better. I tramped across country to every mine 
 I could hear of — for in my studies I had specialized 
 in mining — but nowhere could I secure employment. 
 There was always some man with influence, where I 
 had none, and always the man with the influence got- 
 the place. 
 
 At last I tramped my way out here. I had made 
 up my mind to ask no longer for employment as an 
 engineer. I applied to Davidson for a miner's place 
 only. At first he refused, after looking at my hands 
 
DICK TEMPLE'S STORY 179 
 
 and satisfying himself that I had had no experience 
 in practical mining. But, as they pay miners here 
 only by output — a certain price per ton for the coal 
 a miner gets out — I persuaded him at last to let me 
 go into a heading with a pick and a shovel, and a 
 package of blasting powder. 
 
 Then I wrote to Mary, telling her of my situation, 
 and charging her that she must from that day forth 
 pay the cost of her living out of such money as I 
 could send her. In order that I might send her 
 enough — for I was determined that she should not 
 be in any remotest way a dependent — I instantly cut 
 off all my personal expenses. I had my soldier 
 blanket, and my overalls. I needed no other clothes, 
 for in the mine I always go barefoot. I was well 
 used to sleeping out of doors, so I slept on the ground 
 under the coal chutes. I took the job of cooking for 
 a gang of bachelor miners, who gave me my board for 
 my services. 
 
 In that way I planned to send all of my wages to 
 Mary. But I didn't really know Mary. I thought 
 of her always as a tenderly nurtured girl, who must 
 be shielded at all hazards against hardship of every 
 kind; and I meant so to shield her. But presently 
 she revealed herself in another character. You know 
 how it was in the army. The gentlemen soldiers, the 
 men of good breeding, the men who had lived in 
 luxury from childhood, with servants to anticipate 
 every need, real or fancied, were the readiest to meet 
 
180 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 hardship, and to do hard work. You and I have seen 
 such men drudging, willingly and cheerfully, in the 
 half -frozen mud of the trenches, while other men, who 
 had never known anything better than a log cabin for 
 a home, bacon and greens for dinner, and a bed of 
 straw to sleep upon, were almost in mutiny because of 
 the hardships they must endure as soldiers. 
 
 It is true that " Blood will tell," and it is as true 
 with women as with men. Blood asserted itself in 
 Mary's case. Her answer was prompt to my letter 
 telling her I had taken work as a miner. She utterly 
 repudiated the thought that she was to go on living 
 in idleness, while I should go on toiling to furnish her 
 the means of living so. I shall never forget her 
 words : 
 
 " I am coming to you quickly, Richard, to convert 
 your miner's cabin into a home. Where the husband 
 is, the wife should be with all she knows of helpful- 
 ness and cheer." 
 
 And she came. From that hour to this I have 
 known what the word " home " means, far better than 
 I ever did in my life before. We have two rooms — 
 she built one of them, a little lean-to, with her own 
 hands. And her presence glorifies both of them. 
 
 " I am very glad, Dick." 
 
 That was all that Duncan could say. It was all 
 there was need for him to say. 
 
XX 
 
 In the Summer Time 
 
 SIX months came and went before Duncan's 
 work at the mine was done. Then, in mid- 
 July, he returned to Cairo and gave an account 
 of his stewardship. With Temple in control as 
 superintendent and engineer, the mine had become a 
 richly paying property, and with Temple there, 
 there was no further need for Duncan's presence. 
 
 During that half year, Duncan had lived chiefly 
 with the Temples in the superintendent's house, which 
 Mary Temple had quickly converted from a barn- 
 like structure, standing alone upon the face of the 
 bald prairie, into a home in the midst of a garden of 
 flowers. 
 
 During his long stay at the mine, Duncan had 
 made frequent visits to Cairo. These were brief in 
 duration, usually covering a Sunday, but each visit 
 gave Guilford Duncan two opportunities that he de- 
 sired. He could sit late on Saturday evening, dis- 
 cussing his plans with Captain Will Hallam, and on 
 Sunday he had opportunity to become more and more 
 closely acquainted with Barbara. 
 
 181 
 
182 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 He made no formal calls upon her, and none were 
 necessary. He simply adopted the plan of remain- 
 ing after the one o'clock Sunday dinner and, little 
 by little, Barbara came to feel that he expected her to 
 join him in the little parlor, after his cigar was 
 finished. He seemed to like the quiet conversations 
 with her, while she regarded the opportunity to talk 
 with a man so superior in education, culture, and 
 intellect, to any other that she had known, as a privi- 
 lege to be prized. 
 
 Their attitude toward each other at this time was 
 peculiar. They were good friends, fond of each 
 other's society, and seemingly, at least, they were 
 nothing more. The fascination that Duncan had 
 from the first felt in Barbara's presence was still 
 upon him, but he accepted it more calmly now, and 
 it soothed his natural restlessness, where at first it 
 had excited it. 
 
 To Barbara, Guilford Duncan's attitude seemed a 
 gracious condescension, which she did not dream that 
 she deserved. She sometimes wondered that this 
 young man of rare quality, who was sure of a welcome 
 wherever he might go, should be content to sit with 
 her throughout the Sunday afternoons, instead of 
 seeking company better fit to entertain him. There 
 were young women in Cairo who had been much more 
 conventionally educated than she — young women who 
 had mingled in society in Chicago, and in eastern 
 cities. A few of them had even traveled in Europe — 
 
IN THE SUMMER TIME 183 
 
 a thing very rare among Americans, and especially 
 among Western Americans in the sixties. These 
 young women knew all about operas and theaters. 
 They had heard great musicians play and great 
 singers sing. They had seen all the notable actors. 
 They read the current literature of the time — the 
 lighter part of it at least — and above all, they were 
 mistresses of the "patter," which passes for brilliancy 
 and sometimes even for wit in fashionable life. 
 
 Guilford Duncan visited none of these, and Bar- 
 bara could not understand. 
 
 " He is too tired, I suppose," was her reflection, 
 " when he runs down to Cairo for a Sunday rest. He 
 doesn't want to see anybody or talk to anybody. I 
 can easily understand that. So he just sits here 
 instead of going out." 
 
 Barbara's explanation was obviously defective at 
 one point. If Duncan did not care to see people, if he 
 was too weary for conversation, how came it about 
 that he stayed and talked gently, but constantly, with 
 her, instead of going to the rooms he had fitted up for 
 himself since prosperity had come to him? She had 
 heard much of those rooms, of the multitude of books 
 that he had put into them, of the bric-a-brac with 
 which he had rendered them homelike and beautiful. 
 They were in fact very simple rooms, inexpensively 
 furnished. But Duncan had devoted a good deal of 
 attention and an unfailing good taste to their furnish- 
 ing and adornment, and thus, by the expenditure 
 
184 r A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 of a very little money he had managed to create a 
 bachelor apartment which was the talk of the 
 town. 
 
 "He is alone when he goes there," the girl ex- 
 plained to herself, when at last this question arose 
 in her mind. " And I suppose he feels lonely. But 
 why doesn't he go somewhere, instead of just sitting 
 here in our little parlor or out in the porch ? " 
 
 It was a riddle that she could not read, and for the 
 present, at least, Duncan would not offer her any 
 help in solving it. He knew now that Barbara Verne 
 was the woman he loved — the only woman in all the 
 world who could be to him what a wife must be to 
 a man of his temperament, if two souls are to be 
 satisfied. 
 
 But he saw clearly that Barbara Verne had no 
 thought of that kind in her mind — or, at least, no such 
 conscious thought. She was accustomed to think of 
 herself as a very commonplace young woman, not at 
 all the equal of this very superior man, to whom 
 everybody in Cairo paid a marked deference. He 
 understood Barbara as she did not at all understand 
 herself. He had looked upon her white soul and 
 bowed his head in worship of its purity, its nobility, 
 its utter truthfulness. He knew the qualities of a 
 mind that had no just self -appreciation. He felt, 
 rather than knew, that no thought of his loving her — 
 otherwise than as an elder brother might love a little 
 sister — had ever crossed her consciousness. He felt 
 
IN THE SUMMER TIME 185 
 
 that the abrupt suggestion of that thought would only 
 shock and distress her. 
 
 " I'll find a way of making others suggest it, after 
 
 a while," he resolved. " In the meanwhile " He 
 
 didn't finish the sentence, even in his own mind. But 
 what he did in that " meanwhile " was to see as much 
 as possible of Barbara, to talk with her impersonally, 
 gently, and interestingly, to win her perfect trust 
 and confidence, and, so far as possible, to make his 
 presence a necessary thing to her. He paid her no 
 public attention of any kind. But he paid no public 
 or private attention to any other young woman. It 
 was well understood that for a time he was living at 
 the mine and coming to Cairo only for brief visits of 
 a business character, at infrequent intervals. His 
 neglect of society, therefore, seemed in need of no 
 explanation, while his unostentatious intimacy with 
 Barbara attracted no attention. The only person 
 who ever spoke to him about it was Mrs. Will Hallam. 
 
 "You are going to marry Barbara Verne, of 
 course ? " she half said, half asked one day. 
 
 " If I can, yes," he answered. 
 
 " I'm very glad of that," and she said no more. 
 
 On his final return to Cairo, however, Duncan 
 found himself expected in what is called society. 
 Society was destined to disappointment, for Duncan 
 went nowhere — except that he usually sat for some 
 hours every Sunday afternoon in the vine-clad porch 
 of the house in which he took his meals. Barbara's 
 
186 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 aunt often sat there with him. Barbara always did 
 so, in answer to what seemed to be his wish. He made 
 no calls. He declined all invitations to the little 
 excursions on the river, which constituted the chief 
 social activities of the summer time. He gave it out 
 that he was too busily engaged with affairs to have 
 time for anything else, and that explanation seemed 
 for a time to satisfy public curiosity. 
 
 And that explanation was true. Guilford Dun- 
 can had begun to take upon himself the duties of 
 a leader — in an important way — in the work of up- 
 building which at that time was engaging the atten- 
 tion of all men of affairs. He had accumulated some 
 money, partly by saving, but more by the profits of 
 his little investments, and by being "let in on the 
 ground floor" of many large enterprises, in the con- 
 ception and conduct of which his abilities were prop- 
 erly appreciated by the capitalists who undertook 
 them. 
 
 Except as a legal adviser, he was no longer a man 
 employed by other men now. His relations with Will 
 Hallam were closer than ever, but they were no longer 
 those of secretary, or clerk, or employee in any other 
 capacity. In many enterprises he was Hallam's part- 
 ner. In all, he was his legal adviser, besides being 
 employed in a like capacity by one or two railroad 
 companies and the like. He had offices of his own, 
 and while he was still not at all rich, or a man 
 who was reckoned a capitalist, he was everywhere 
 
IN THE SUMMER TIME 187 
 
 recognized as a young man of power and influence, 
 whose brains had brought him into close association 
 with the greater men of affairs, not only in Cairo, but 
 in all parts of the country, and especially in New 
 York. For that great city had by this time made 
 itself completely the financial capital of the country, 
 and its controlling hand was felt in every enterprise 
 of large moment throughout the land. 
 
XXI 
 
 'An Interview with Napper Tandy 
 
 FOR more than a year now Guilford Duncan 
 had been diligently studying those processes of 
 upbuilding which were so rapidly converting 
 the West into an empire of extraordinary wealth and 
 power. He had made many suggestions that had 
 commended themselves for immediate execution, to- 
 gether with some that must wait for years to come. 
 He had condemned some projects that seemed hopeful 
 to others, and he had induced modifications in many. 
 
 All these things had been done mainly in his let- 
 ters and reports to Captain Will Hallam, but the sub- 
 stance of those letters and reports had been promptly 
 laid before others, especially before those great finan- 
 ciers of the East, upon whom all enterprises of mo- 
 ment throughout the country depended for the means 
 of their accomplishment. In that way Guilford 
 Duncan had become known to the " master builders " 
 as he called these men, and had won a goodly share of 
 their confidence. He was regarded as a young man 
 of unusual gifts in the way of constructive enterprise 
 — a trifle overbold, some thought, overconfident, 
 even visionary, but, in the main, sound in his calcu- 
 
 188 
 
INTERVIEW WITH NAPPER TANDY 189 
 
 lations, as results had shown when his plans were 
 adopted. On the other hand, some projectors, whose 
 enterprises he had discouraged as unsound or prema- 
 ture, complained that so far from being a visionary, 
 he was in fact a pessimist, a discouraging force that 
 stood in the way of that " development of the coun- 
 try" from which they hoped for personal gain of 
 one kind or another. There were little towns that 
 aspired to become larger towns, and stretches of unde- 
 veloped country in which Guilford Duncan was re- 
 garded as an arch enemy of progress — almost as a 
 public enemy. The reason for this was the fact that 
 he had advised against the construction of railroads, 
 from which the little towns concerned, and the 
 stretches of thinly peopled country between, had hoped 
 to benefit, and his advice had been accepted as sound 
 by the financiers to whom the projectors looked for 
 the means of securing what they wanted. 
 
 Napper Tandy was Guilford Duncan's enemy from 
 the hour in which Duncan had forced that little branch 
 railroad in the coal regions to haul Hallam's coal 
 on equal terms with his own. But Tandy had said 
 nothing whatever about that. He never published 
 his enmities till the time came. About the time of 
 Duncan's return to Cairo, he added another to his 
 offenses against Tandy, in a way to intensify that 
 malignant person's hostility. 
 
 Tandy was scheming to secure a costly extension 
 of this branch railroad through a sparsely settled 
 
190 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 and thin-soiled region, in a way that would greatly 
 enrich himself, because of his vast property holdings 
 there. He had well-nigh persuaded a group of capi- 
 talists to undertake the extension when, acting cau- 
 tiously as financiers must, they decided to ask Dun- 
 can to study the situation and make a report upon 
 the project. He had already studied the question 
 thoroughly during his stay at the mines, and was con- 
 vinced that nothing but loss could come of the at- 
 tempt. The region through which the line must run 
 was too poor in agricultural and other resources to 
 afford even a hope of a paying traffic. The line itself 
 must be a costly one because of certain topographical 
 features, and finally another and shorter line, closely 
 paralleling this proposed extension, but running 
 through a much richer country, was already in course 
 of construction. 
 
 Tandy knew all these things quite as well as Guil- 
 ford Duncan did. But Tandy also knew many meth- 
 ods in business with which Duncan was not familiar. 
 
 As soon as he was notified by the capitalists with 
 whom he was negotiating that they had employed 
 Duncan to examine and report, and that their final 
 decision would be largely influenced by his judgment, 
 Tandy, with special politeness, wrote to Duncan, ask- 
 ing him to call at his house that evening " for a little 
 consultation on business affairs that may interest both 
 of us." 
 
 Duncan well knew that he had offended Tandy in 
 
INTERVIEW WITH NAPPER TANDY 191 
 
 the matter of the coal cars, but as Tandy had made 
 no sign, he could see no possible reason for refusing 
 this request for a business consultation. Moreover, 
 Guilford Duncan felt himself under a double responsi- 
 bility. He felt that he must not only guard and 
 promote the interests of those who had employed him 
 to study this question, but that he was also under obli- 
 gations "to consider carefully the interests involved on 
 the other side. His function, he felt, was essentially 
 a judicial one. He knew one side of the case. It 
 was his duty to hear the other, and Tandy was the 
 spokesman of that other. 
 
 Duncan's reception at Tandy's house was most gra- 
 cious. The gentlewomen of the family were present 
 to greet him, and Mrs. Tandy said, in welcoming him: 
 " Sometimes I feel like hating business — it so dread- 
 fully occupies you men. But just now I am in love 
 with business because it brings you to us in our home. 
 We have never before had the honor of even a call 
 from you, Mr. Duncan." 
 
 " I have given little attention to social duties, Mrs. 
 Tandy," Duncan began apologetically. "I have 
 
 done next to no calling. You see " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I know how it is. Mr. Tandy says you 
 are the most ' earnest ' young man in Cairo, and of 
 course we poor women folk understand that you 
 are too much engaged with what Mr. Tandy calls 
 6 affairs,' to give any time to us. But I am glad to 
 greet you now, and to welcome you to our home. 
 
i92 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 Perhaps, some day, when you and Mr. Tandy and — . 
 and Captain Hallam — have got all the things done 
 that you want done, you will have more time for social 
 duties. Mr. Tandy tells me you have achieved a re- 
 markable success. He says you will soon be reckoned 
 a rich man, and that you are already a man of very 
 great influence. Now, I shouldn't say these things 
 if I had any daughters to marry off. As I haven't 
 any daughters, of course I am privileged. But I 
 seriously want to say that you have won Mr. Tandy's 
 regard in so great a degree that he is planning to 
 make you his partner and associate in all his enter- 
 prises. He says you are to become one of our 'great 
 men of affairs,' and that he means to have you ' with 
 him' in all his undertakings for the development of 
 our splendid western country." 
 
 When the voluble woman ceased, Guilford Duncan 
 wondered whence she had got her speech. 
 
 "Tandy could never have composed it," he was 
 sure. "She must have done it herself. But, of 
 course, Tandy gave her the ' points.' She is a very 
 clever woman. I remember it was she who invited 
 [Barbara as a guest of honor at some sort of a func- 
 tion three days after Barbara appeared at the fancy 
 dress ball. She had never noticed her before. That 
 woman is of a superior kind — in her way. I can't 
 imagine a wife better * fit ' for a man like Tandy. All 
 the same I don't mean to let her ' take up ' Barbara. 
 She's far too ' smart.' She isn't Barbara's sort." 
 
INTERVIEW WITH NAPPER TANDY 193 
 
 "Now, I've ordered coffee and cigars for you gentle- 
 men," said Mrs. Tandy, as she arose to leave. " Of 
 course you want to ' talk business,' and when business 
 is on the tapis we women folk must retire to our rooms. 
 Business is our greatest rival and enemy, Mr. Duncan. 
 On this occasion I not only take myself out of the 
 way, but I have bidden my two sisters remain in 
 the dining room until you two gentlemen shall have 
 finished your talk. After that— perhaps ten o'clock 
 will suit you — you are to come into the dining room, 
 if you are gracious enough, and have a little supper." 
 
 Duncan bowed, in implication of a promise, which 
 he was not destined to fulfill. 
 
 When the gracious gentlewoman had left the room, 
 Napper Tandy came at once to the subject in hand. 
 
 " I'm more than glad, Duncan," he lyingly said, 
 "that these financial people have asked you to ex- 
 amine and report upon this scheme of extension. You 
 are so heartily in sympathy with every enterprise 
 that looks to the development of our western country, 
 and your intelligence is so superbly well informed that 
 of course a project like this appeals to you." 
 
 "It does not appeal to me at all, Mr. Tandy," 
 answered Duncan with a frankness that was the more 
 brutal because it was his first word after Mrs. Tandy's 
 flattering appeal. 
 
 " I do not think well of the extension. It " 
 
 " Pardon me for interrupting," interposed Tandy, 
 in fear that Duncan might commit himself beyond 
 
194 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 recall against the scheme. "Pardon me for inter- 
 rupting, but you must see that the Redwood mines, 
 in which, I understand, you own fifteen per cent. " 
 
 "I own twenty-five per cent., for I have put my 
 savings into that enterprise," answered Duncan. 
 
 " Well, so much the better. You must see that the 
 Redwood mines, in which you own twenty-five per 
 cent., will benefit as much as the Quentin mines do, 
 by this extension of the railroad. It will give us two 
 markets for our coal instead of one. We can play 
 one market against the other, you see, and " 
 
 " That isn't the question that I am employed and 
 paid to answer," interrupted Duncan. "You have 
 other and vastly greater interests than those of the 
 mines, that would be served by the extension of the 
 railroad. But the financiers who are asked to put 
 their money into this project will be in nowise bene- 
 fited, either by the increased earnings of your coal 
 mine and ours, or by the development of your other 
 and far greater interests that are dependent upon this 
 extension. So when they employ me to report upon 
 the project, I am not free to consider any of these 
 things. I must consider only their interests. I must 
 ask myself whether or not it will ' pay ' them to under- 
 take this extension. I know that it will not. I know 
 that the extended line cannot, within a generation to 
 come, pay even operating expenses, to say nothing 
 of interest on the cost of construction. I am bound 
 to set forth those facts in my report. They pay me 
 
INTERVIEW WITH NAPPER TANDY 195 
 
 to tell them what the facts are. Of course, I shall 
 tell them truly. Otherwise I should not be an honest 
 man. I should be a swindler, taking their money as 
 pay for deceiving them and inducing them to under- 
 take a losing enterprise." 
 
 " Now wait a while, Duncan. Listen to me. Your 
 worst fault, and, in business, your worst handicap, is 
 a tendency to go off at half-cock. You've learned 
 a lot about business since you came to the West, but 
 you still have your old Southern notions, and they 
 embarrass you. Let me explain. I'm a business 
 man, pure and simple. I haven't any ideas, or preju- 
 dices, or foolishnesses of any kind. Neither have 
 those fellows in New York who have employed you 
 to report on this scheme. They are playing the 
 game, to win or lose as the case may be. Generally, 
 they win, but now and then, in a little matter like 
 this, they lose. Of course, they don't mind. They 
 take their losses and their winnings together, and if 
 the total result is on the right side they don't bother 
 about the times they have put their money on the 
 wrong card. It's all a gamble with them, you know." 
 
 "Is it? Then why do they pay me a large fee to 
 find out the facts and report? " 
 
 " Oh, well " 
 
 "Hear me out," interrupted Duncan. "These 
 gentlemen have asked me for an opinion, and they 
 are paying me for it. Of course I must, as an 
 honest man, give them an honest judgment." 
 
196 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "Oh, that's all right. But you might be mis- 
 taken, you know. You've formed a judgment after 
 a brief trip through the country. That country 
 seems poverty stricken just now, but that's because 
 it hasn't enjoyed the stimulating influence of a rail- 
 road. It is a better country than you think, as I 
 can convince you, if you'll let me take you through 
 it in a carriage. We can start at once — to-morrow 
 morning — run out to the mines by rail, and there take 
 a carriage and drive through the country. I've 
 ordered the carriage, with abundant supplies, from 
 Chicago. I want to show you the resources of the 
 country. I'll convince you, before we get back, that 
 the country will build up as soon as the railroad pene- 
 trates it, and that there will be an abundant traffic 
 for the road." 
 
 "Pardon me," answered Duncan. "I've already 
 been through that region. I've questioned every 
 farmer as to his crops. I've questioned every mer- 
 chant in every village as to his possible shipments by 
 the railroad, and as to the amount of goods he hopes 
 to sell if the railroad is built. Their replies are hope- 
 lessly discouraging. Taking their outside estimates 
 as certain, there cannot be enough traffic over such a 
 line for twenty years to come, to pay operating ex- 
 penses. In the meantime the men whom you are ask- 
 ing to build the road must lose not only the interest 
 on their investment, but the investment itself. I 
 know all the facts that bear upon the case." 
 
INTERVIEW WITH NAPPER TANDY 197 
 
 " All but one," answered Tandy. 
 
 "What is that one?" 
 
 " That a favorable report from you means a check, 
 right now and here, to-night, payable to ' Bearer,' for 
 ten thousand dollars. My check is supposed to be 
 good for all it calls for. You can have it now 
 and it will be cashed to-morrow morning. Here it 
 is. Payable to bearer as it is, you needn't endorse it, 
 and you need not be known in the matter in any way. 
 I'm talking ' business ' now." 
 
 Duncan scanned the face of his interlocutor for an 
 instant. Then he rose from his seat, and with utter- 
 ance choked by emotion managed to say : 
 
 "I quite understand. You would bribe me with 
 that check. You would hire me to betray the con- 
 fidence of the men who are paying me a very much 
 smaller sum than ten thousand dollars. You pro- 
 pose to buy my integrity, my honor, my soul. Very 
 well. My integrity, my honor, and my soul are not 
 for sale at any price. I shall make an honest report 
 in this matter. Good-night, sir! Perhaps you will 
 make my excuses to the ladies for not joining them 
 at supper as I promised to do. As for the rest, you 
 may explain to them that I am not such a scoundrel 
 as you hoped I might be." 
 
 And with that Guilford Duncan stalked out of the 
 house, helping himself to his hat as he passed the rack 
 in the entry way. 
 
XXII 
 
 Under the Honeysuckles 
 
 IF Guilford Duncan had been a little more worldly 
 wise than he was, he would have gone at once to 
 Captain Will Hallam. He would have told that 
 shrewdest of shrewd men of the world all that had 
 passed between himself and Tandy, and he would have 
 asked Will Hallam's advice as to what course to 
 pursue. 
 
 Instead of that Guilford Duncan went at once to 
 Barbara. He felt a need of sympathy rather than a 
 need of advice, and he had learned to look to Barbara, 
 above all other people in the world, for sympathy. 
 
 He was still a good deal disturbed in his emotions 
 when Barbara greeted him in the little porch, and it 
 was a rather confused account that he gave her of 
 what had happened. 
 
 " I don't quite understand," said Barbara at last. 
 " Perhaps if you have a cup of tea you can make the 
 matter clearer," and without waiting for assent or 
 dissent, she glided out to the kitchen, whence she pres- 
 ently returned bearing a fragrant cup of Oolong. 
 
 " Now," she said, after he had sipped the tea, " tell 
 me again just what has happened. You were too 
 
 198 
 
UNDER THE HONEYSUCKLES 199 
 
 much excited, when you told me before, to tell me 
 clearly." 
 
 "Well, it amounts to this," answered Duncan. 
 " That scoundrel Tandy " 
 
 " Stop ! " said Barbara, in an authoritative tone. 
 " Never mind Tandy's character. If you go off on 
 that you'll never make me understand." 
 
 In spite of his agitation, Duncan laughed. " How 
 you do order me about ! " 
 
 "Oh, pardon me!" exclaimed the girl in manifest 
 alarm. " I didn't mean to do that. I would never 
 think of doing such a thing. I only meant " 
 
 "My dear Miss Barbara, I fully understand. I 
 need ordering about to-night, and I heartily wish you 
 would take me in hand." 
 
 " Oh, but I could never presume to do that ! " 
 
 "I don't see why," answered Duncan. "You are 
 my good angel, and it is the business of my good 
 angel to regulate me and make me behave as I 
 should." 
 
 " But, Mr. Duncan " 
 
 " But, Barbara " — it was the first time he had ever 
 addressed her by her given name and without the 
 "Miss" — "you know I love you — or you ought to 
 know it. You know I want you to be my wife. Say 
 that you will, and then I shall be free to tell you all 
 my troubles and to take your advice in all of them. 
 Say that you love me, Barbara! Say that you will 
 marry me!" 
 
200 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 All this was in contravention of Guilford Duncan's 
 carefully laid plans, as a declaration of love is apt 
 to be, so long as women are fascinating and men are 
 human. He had intended to put the thought of his 
 love for Barbara into her unsuspecting mind by in- 
 genious "trick and device." It had been his plan 
 presently to escort her to church, to the concerts that 
 now and then held forth at the Athenaeum, to Mrs. 
 Hallam's for a game of croquet, to Mrs. Galagher's 
 for the little dances that that gracious gentlewoman 
 gave now and then, even in the heat of a southern Illi- 
 nois summer. He had even chartered a steamboat, and 
 planned to give a picnic in the Kentucky woodlands 
 below Cairo, to which he should escort Barbara. He 
 had thought in these ways to set the tongues of all 
 the gossips wagging, and thus to force upon Barbara 
 the thought of his love for her. 
 
 All was now spoiled, as he thought, when he so 
 precipitately declared his love there in the vine-clad 
 porch. 
 
 Barbara was obviously surprised. Duncan could 
 not quite make out whether she was shocked or not, 
 whether his declaration of love pleased or distressed 
 her. 
 
 For she made no answer whatever. Instead she 
 nervously plucked honeysuckles and still more nerv- 
 ously let them fall from her hands. 
 
 Duncan was standing now, and in torture lest he 
 had spoiled all by his precipitancy. He waited, as 
 
UNDER THE HONEYSUCKLES 201 
 
 patiently as he could, for the girl's answer, but it 
 came not. Her silence seemed ominous to him. It 
 seemed to mean that she was shocked and offended by 
 a declaration of love, for which he had not in any 
 wise prepared her. 
 
 But Duncan was a man of action. It was not his 
 habit to accept defeat without challenging it and 
 demanding its reasons. So presently he advanced, 
 passed his arm around Barbara's waist, and gently 
 caressed her forehead, as a father or an older brother 
 might have done. 
 
 She accepted the caress in that spirit, seemingly, 
 and then she turned toward the hall door, saying : 
 
 "Good-night!" 
 
 But Duncan was not to be so baffled. He had 
 blundered upon a declaration of love — as most men 
 do who really love — and he did not intend to go away 
 without his answer. 
 
 " Don't say ' good-night ' yet," he pleaded, again 
 passing his arm around her waist. " Tell me first, 
 is it yes or no ? Will you be my wife ? " 
 
 The girl turned and faced him. There was that in 
 her eyes which he had never seen there before, and 
 which he could not interpret. At last her lips parted, 
 and she said : 
 
 " I cannot tell, yet. You must wait." 
 
 And with that she slipped through the door, leaving 
 him no recourse but to take his leave without other 
 formality that the closing of the front gate. 
 
XXIII 
 
 Captain Will Hallam in the Game 
 
 THE next morning, very early, Guilford Dun- 
 can's negro servant — for he kept one now — 
 brought him a note from Barbara. It read 
 in this wise: 
 
 I wish you would take your meals at the hotel for a few 
 days, or a week or two — till you hear from me again. 
 
 There was no address written at top of the sheet, 
 and no signature at the bottom. There was nothing 
 that could afford even a ground for conjectural ex- 
 planation. There was nothing that could call for a 
 reply — perhaps there was nothing that could war- 
 rant a reply or excuse its impertinence. Neverthe- 
 less Guilford Duncan sent, by the hands of his negro 
 servitor, an answer to the strange note. In it he 
 wrote : 
 
 I have told you of my love. I- tell you that again, with all 
 of emphasis that I can give to the telling. I have asked you 
 to be my wife. I ask it again with all of earnestness and sin- 
 cerity, with all of supplication, that I can put into the asking. 
 
 202 
 
CAPT. HALLAM IN THE GAME 
 
 Oh, Barbara, you can never know or dream or remotely imagine 
 how much these things mean to me and to my life. 
 
 I shall take my meals at the hotel— or not at all— until yott 
 bid me come to you for my answer. 
 
 Then, with resolute and self -controlled mind, Guil- 
 ford Duncan set himself to work. He prepared his 
 report upon the proposed railroad extension, con- 
 demning it and giving adequate reasons for his 
 condemnation. 
 
 He was still indignant that Napper Tandy should 
 have offered him a bribe, and in the first draft of his 
 report he had mude a statement of that fact as an 
 additional reason for his adverse judgment. But 
 upon reflection he rewrote the report, omitting all 
 mention of the bribe offer. Then he wrote to Tandy 
 — a grievous mistake — telling him that he had senE 
 in an adverse report, and that he had omitted to men- 
 tion Tandy's offer in it. 
 
 This gave Tandy the opportunity he wanted and 
 Guilford Duncan was not long in discovering the fact. 
 A week later Captain Will Hallam said to him : 
 
 " So you've been quarreling with Napper Tandy?" 
 
 "Yes," answered Duncan. "He offered to bribe 
 me to make a false report in the railroad extension 
 matter." 
 
 "Why didn't you tell me about it?" 
 
 " Oh, I didn't want to bother you with a whining. 
 I rejected the bribe, of course, and told him what I 
 thought of him, and that seemed to me enough." 
 
204 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "Well, it wasn't. You ought to have told me. 
 Then we could have made him put his offer into 
 writing, or make it in my presence. As it is, he's 
 got you where the hair is uncommonly short." 
 
 " How do you mean ? " 
 
 " Why, he has written to the financiers, telling them 
 that as soon as they employed you, you went to him 
 and demanded a payment of ten thousand dollars as 
 an inducement to you to make a favorable report; 
 that he refused, and that consequently your report 
 was adverse. They will refuse to build the rail- 
 road, but they have written to ask me as to your 
 integrity." 
 
 " The infernal scoundrel ! How " 
 
 " It doesn't pay to call him names. We must think 
 out a way to meet this thing." 
 
 " I'll horsewhip him on the street ! " exclaimed Dun- 
 can. 
 
 " No, don't ! That would only advertise the matter 
 and do no good. A man of your physique has no 
 occasion for fear in horsewhipping a man like Napper 
 Tandy, and can show no courage by doing it. The 
 only result would be that people would say there must 
 be something in his accusation, else you wouldn't be 
 so mad about it. You have made a good many ene- 
 mies, you know, and they will take pleasure in repeat- 
 ing Tandy's accusations. Really, Duncan, you ought 
 to have been more discreet. You ought to have taken 
 a witness with you, when you went to his house for 
 
CAPT. HALLAM IN THE GAME 205 
 
 consultation. As it is, the financiers have so far be- 
 lieved in you as to reject his scheme on your report, 
 and in face of his accusation, but he'll do you a 
 mighty lot of damage in Cairo and elsewhere. I don't 
 know what to do." 
 
 "I do," answered Guilford Duncan resolutely. 
 " A year ago you and Ober wanted to make me mayor 
 of this town. I explained to you that I was ineligible 
 then, not having been long enough a resident of the 
 State. I am eligible now, and I shall announce my- 
 self to-day as a candidate." 
 "What good will that do?" 
 
 "It will give the people of the city a chance to 
 pass upon my integrity — to say by their ballots what 
 they think of me; and, incidentally, it may give me 
 an opportunity to say what I think and know of 
 Napper Tandy." 
 
 " I don't know so well about that. You see, people 
 don't always express their opinions by their votes. 
 They let their politics and their prejudices have a say, 
 and you know you have made a good many enemies. 
 Then again, what good will it do you to tell the public 
 what you think of Tandy? That won't convince a 
 living soul who isn't convinced already. The rest will 
 say that you are naturally very angry with the man 
 who found you out — the man from whom you un- 
 successfully tried to extort a bribe. You see there 
 were no witnesses present when your interview with 
 Tandy occurred. That was a capital mistake on your 
 
206 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 part. Then, too, you went to his house for this busi- 
 ness, and people will say that that, too, looks bad. 
 You have destroyed the invitation he sent you, and 
 so you have nothing to show that you didn't go to 
 his house, as he says you did, without invitation, in 
 order to extort a bribe. It's a bad mix-up, but for 
 you to go into politics would only make it worse. We 
 must find another way out. Keep perfectly still, and 
 leave the matter to me. I'll plan something." Then 
 suddenly a thought flashed into Captain Will Hal- 
 lam's mind. 
 
 " By Jove ! I've got it, I believe. Go down to our 
 bank and ask the cashier, Mr. Stafford, how many 
 shares we can control in the X National — Tandy's 
 bank ; he's president, you know." 
 
 Without at all understanding Captain Hallam's 
 purpose, Duncan went upon this mission, returning 
 presently with the information that in one way and 
 another the Hallam bank controlled forty-eight shares 
 of the X National's stock — or three shares less than a 
 majority of the whole. He brought also the message 
 from Stafford that as Tandy himself controlled the 
 remaining fifty-two shares it would probably be im- 
 possible at present to buy any more. 
 
 "I don't know so well about that," said Hallam 
 reflectively. "I've managed in my time to get a good 
 many impossible things done. I'm not a very firm 
 believer in the impossible." Then suddenly he turned 
 to Duncan and fired a question at him; 
 
CAPT. HALLAM IN THE GAME 207 
 
 " Have you a friend anywhere whom you can trust 
 — one not known in Cairo? " 
 
 "Yes, one." 
 
 "You are sure you can trust him?" 
 
 " Yes, absolutely." 
 
 " You wouldn't hesitate to put a pile of money into 
 his hands without a scrap of paper to show that the 
 money was yours, not his ? " 
 
 " I would trust him as absolutely as I would trust 
 you, or you me." 
 
 "All right, who is he?" 
 
 "Dick Temple — the mining engineer and superin- 
 tendent." 
 
 "Telegraph him at once. Ask him to come down 
 on the evening train. Tell him to say nothing about 
 knowing you or me, but to come to your rooms this 
 evening. I'll see him there." 
 
 Duncan took up a pad of telegraph blanks and 
 a pencil. He had scarcely begun to write when Hal- 
 lam stopped him. 
 
 " Never do that," he exclaimed. " Never write a 
 message on a pad, especially with a pencil." 
 
 "But why not?" 
 
 " See ! " answered Hallam, tearing off the blank on 
 which Duncan had begun to write, and directing 
 attention to the blank that lay beneath. "The im- 
 pression made by the pencil on the under sheet is as 
 legible as the writing above. It would be awkward 
 if Tandy should pick up that pad and find out what 
 
208 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 you had telegraphed. Always tear the top blank off 
 the pad and lay it on the desk before you write 
 on it." 
 
 "Thank you! That's another of your wise pre- 
 cepts. I wonder I didn't think of it before." 
 
 "Oh, hardly anybody ever does think of such 
 things, but they make trouble." 
 
 That night Hallam, Duncan, and Temple met in 
 Duncan's rooms. Hallam promptly took possession 
 by requesting Duncan to " go away somewhere, while 
 I explain matters to Temple." 
 
 When Duncan had taken his leave Hallam plunged 
 at once into the heart of things. 
 
 " Duncan tells me you're his friend — one who will 
 stand by him?" 
 
 "I am all that, you may be sure, Captain 
 Hallam." 
 
 "Very good. Now is the time to show yourself 
 such. Duncan has got himself into something worse 
 than a hole, and his whole career, to say nothing of 
 his honorable reputation, is in danger. You and I 
 can save him." 
 
 "Would you mind telling me the exact situation? 
 Not that I need to know it in order to do anything you 
 think would be helpful, but if I fully understand the 
 matter, I shall know better what to do in any little 
 emergency that may come about." 
 
 "Of course, of course. It's simply this way. 
 Duncan is so straight himself that it never occurs to 
 
CAPT. HALLAM IN THE GAME 209 
 
 him that other people are different. There are some 
 things so utterly mean that he simply can't imagine 
 any man capable of doing them. So he doesn't take 
 necessary precautions. It was all right for him to 
 offend Napper Tandy by doing his own best up there 
 at the mines. But he ought to have known enough 
 of human nature not to put himself in old Napper's 
 power when he felt bound to offend him worse than 
 
 ever." 
 
 Then Captain Will told in detail the story of the 
 visit to Tandy, the bribe offer, the adverse report, 
 and the way in which Tandy had made the whole affair 
 appear to have been an effort on Duncan's part to ex- 
 tort a bribe and betray those who had employed him. 
 Temple readily grasped the situation. 
 
 " The worst of it is," he said, " Duncan can't even 
 sue the old scoundrel for libel without making matters 
 worse. Tandy would stick to his story, and as there 
 were no witnesses that story would seem probable to 
 people who don't know Duncan. What are we to 
 do, Captain Hallam?" 
 
 "Well, it all depends upon your shrewdness and 
 circumspection. Tandy is president of the X Na- 
 tional Bank, you know. That's his club to fight me 
 with. So, little by little, I've bought in there- 
 through other people, you understand — so that now 
 Stafford and I own forty-eight of the bank's hun- 
 dred shares of stock, though on the books our names 
 do not appear at all. Tandy owns the other fifty-two 
 
210 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 shares, I suppose, or at least he controls them. In- 
 deed, whenever a stockholder's meeting occurs he votes 
 practically all the stock, for it has been my policy to 
 hide my hand by having the men who hold stock for 
 me, give him their proxies as a blind. 
 
 "Now, what I propose is, that you shall manage 
 somehow to get hold of a little block of the stock — 
 three shares will be enough to give me the majority, 
 but I'd rather make it four or five shares. If we can 
 get the stock I'll surprise Tandy out of a year's 
 growth by going into the stockholders' meeting, which 
 occurs about ten days from now, and proceeding to 
 elect a board of directors for the bank. I'll select the 
 men I want for directors, and the board will at once 
 make Guilford Duncan president of the bank, leaving 
 old Napper a good deal of leisure in which to enjoy 
 life. He'll need it all to convince anybody that 
 there's anything shady in Guilford Duncan's char- 
 acter after it is known that Will Hallam has made 
 him president of a bank." 
 
 Hallam chuckled audibly. He was enjoying the 
 game, as he always did. 
 
 " Indeed, he will. But everything, as I understand 
 it, depends upon my ability to secure the necessary 
 shares of stock ? " 
 
 " Yes, it all hangs on that, and it will be a ticklish 
 job. Tandy is as wily as any old fox. You're sure 
 he doesn't know you?" 
 
 " Neither by sight nor by name." 
 
CAPT. HALLAM IN THE GAME 211 
 
 "You're sure nobody in his bank knows you and 
 your relations with me?" , 
 
 " Yes, I am certain. I was never in this town be- 
 fore, and as for my relations with you, why they 
 have existed for so brief a time, at such a distance 
 from Cairo, and are so obscure in themselves, that I 
 think nobody knows them. Besides, you might dis- 
 charge me, you know, if that should become neces- 
 sary." 
 
 "We won't consider that as even possible. Now, 
 as to ways and means. You see I depend upon you 
 alone, and of course you must have a free hand. 
 You mustn't consult me, or Stafford, or Duncan, or 
 anybody else. You are to act on your own judgment, 
 furnish your own supply of sagacity, and get that 
 stock in your own way." 
 
 " I'll do it, even if I have to resign from your ser- 
 vice and hunt another job. But I must have some 
 money." 
 
 "Of course. How much?" 
 
 " Well, the stock will cost a trCfle over par, I sup- 
 pose — somewhat more than a thousand dollars a share. 
 I should be prepared to buy a block of ten shares. 
 You see, I might find a block of that kind which the 
 owner would sell 'all or none.' I should have, say, 
 eleven or twelve thousand dollars at instant com- 
 mand." 
 
 "All right. I'll have Stafford open an account 
 with you in our bank to-morrow morning, with a 
 
212 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 credit balance of twelve thousand, and you can 
 check " 
 
 "Pardon me, but if I offer checks on your bank 
 Tandy will suspect our alliance." 
 
 " That is true. You must have the greenbacks 
 themselves. I'll send for Stafford now and have him 
 give you the money in large bills to-night." 
 
 "Pardon me," answered Temple, "but if I go to 
 him with so great a sum in actual " 
 
 "Yes, I see. That would certainly arouse sus- 
 picion. What have you in mind? " 
 
 " Why, you or your bank must have banks in cor- 
 respondence with you, banks in Chicago, or better 
 still, New York?" 
 
 "Yes, of course." 
 
 " Can you not telegraph to one of them and 
 arrrange to have them say in response to a dispatch 
 of inquiry from Tandy's bank, that my credit with 
 them is good for twelve thousand dollars, and that if 
 I wish to make use of some money in Cairo, they will 
 pay my drafts up to that amount ?" 
 
 "That's it. That will be the best plan in every 
 way. You'll need identification, and I'll arrange that. 
 You're stopping at the hotel, of course?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Very well. I'll call by there on my way home, 
 and tell the proprietor, Jewett, to go to the bank and 
 identify you whenever called upon." 
 
 "Will he not talk?" 
 
CAPT. HALLAM IN THE GAME 213 
 
 " No. I'll tell him not to, and — well, you know, Fm 
 just now arranging a heavy loan for him. He is 
 paying off the remaining purchase money for the 
 hotel in installments. That's all, I think. I'll send 
 the Fourth National Bank of New York a night mes- 
 sage. It will be delivered before banking hours to- 
 morrow morning, but for fear of slips, you'd better 
 wait till noon before giving that bank as your refer- 
 ence. Good-night. Remember that everything de- 
 pends on you — including Guilford Duncan's reputa- 
 tion for integrity." 
 
 Temple sat for half an hour thinking and planning. 
 He was determined to make no mistakes that might 
 imperil success. To that end he was trying to im- 
 agine, in advance, every difficulty and every emer- 
 gency that might arise. At last he rose, took his 
 hat, turned the lamp out, and left the room. 
 
 " This is the very toughest bit of engineering," he 
 reflected, "that ever I undertook. Well, so much 
 the greater the credit if I succeed. But I don't care 
 for the credit. I care only for Guilford Duncan in 
 this case." 
 
XXIV 
 
 Barbara's Answer 
 
 WHEN Duncan left his room on the evening 
 of Temple's conference with Will Hallam, 
 he passed down the stairs and into the Hal- 
 lam offices, where he still had a little working den of 
 his own, for use when he did not care to see the people 
 who sought him at his law office. 
 
 As he entered he found a little note upon his desk, 
 and he recognized Barbara's small round hand in the 
 superscription. Opening the envelope eagerly he 
 read the few lines within: 
 
 - You may come for your answer whenever it is convenient — 
 any evening, I mean, for I am at leisure only in the evenings. 
 There is a great deal for me to tell you, and it is going to be 
 very hard for me to tell it. But it is my duty,- and I must do 
 it, of course. I'm afraid it won't be a pleasant evening for 
 either of us. 
 
 There was no address, but Duncan observed with 
 pleasure, as a hopeful sign, that the little missive was 
 signed " Barbara." 
 
 * She wouldn't have signed it in that informal way, 
 
 214 
 
BARBARA'S ANSWER 215 
 
 with only her first name, if she meant to break off the 
 acquaintance," he argued with himself. And yet the 
 substance of the note was discouraging in the extreme, 
 so that Guilford Duncan was a very apprehensive and 
 unhappy man as he hurried to Barbara's home. He 
 still held her note crushed in his hand as he entered 
 the house, and he read it over twice while waiting for 
 her to appear. For this time — the first in his ac- 
 quaintance with her — Barbara kept him waiting. 
 She had not meant to do that, but found it necessary 
 because of her own agitation in anticipation of the 
 grievous task that was hers to do. She must reso- 
 lutely bring herself under control, she felt, before 
 meeting this crisis. She even tried in vain to " think 
 out" the first sentences that she must speak. Find- 
 ing this impossible she gave it up at last, and with 
 all of composure that she could command, she entered 
 the parlor and stood face to face with Guilford 
 Duncan. 
 
 She could say no word as he stood looking eagerly 
 into her eyes, as if questioning them. He, too, was 
 silent for perhaps a minute, when at last, realizing 
 the girl's distressing agitation, he gently took her 
 hand, saying in his soft, winning voice : 
 
 " You are not well. You must sit down." 
 
 " Oh, it isn't that," she answered, as she seated her- 
 self bolt upright upon the least easy chair in the 
 room. " It is what I must tell you." 
 
 "What is it? I am waiting anxiously to hear." 
 
£16 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "You must be very patient then," she answered 
 with difficulty. " It is hard to say, and I don't know 
 where to begin. Oh, yes, I know now. I must 
 begin where we left off when — well, that other time." 
 
 Duncan saw that she needed assistance, and he gave 
 it by speaking soothingly to her, saying : 
 
 "You are to begin wherever you find it easiest to 
 begin, and you are to tell me nothing that it dis- 
 tresses you to tell." 
 
 " Oh, but all of it distresses me, and I must tell it — 
 all of it." 
 
 Again Duncan spoke soothingly, and presently the 
 girl began again. 
 
 "Well, first, I can never — I mean I mustn't — I 
 mustn't say ' yes ' to the questions you asked me that 
 other time." 
 
 "You mean when I asked if you would be my 
 wife?" 
 
 "Yes. That's it. Thank you very much. That's 
 the first thing I am to tell you." 
 
 "Who bade you tell me that?" 
 
 "Oh, nobody — or rather — I mean nobody told me 
 I mustn't say 'yes,' but after I had made up my 
 mind that I mustn't, then auntie said I was bound to 
 tell you about it all. I wanted to write it, but she 
 said that wouldn't be fair, and that I must tell you 
 myself." 
 
 " But why did you make up your mind that you 
 mustn't say * yes ' ? Can you not love me, Barbara ? " 
 
BARBARA'S ANSWER 217 
 
 " Oh, yes — I mean no — or rather — I mustn't." 
 " But if you can, why is it that you mustn't?" 
 That question at last gave Barbara courage to 
 speak. It seemed to nerve her for the ordeal, and, at 
 the same time, to point a way for the telling. 
 
 "Why, I mustn't love you, Mr. Duncan, because 
 I cannot marry you. You see, that would be very 
 wrong. When you — well, when you asked me those 
 questions, it startled me, and I didn't know what to 
 say, but after you had gone away that night I saw 
 clearly that I mustn't think of such a thing. It 
 would be so unfair to you." 
 
 " But how would it be unfair? It would be doing 
 the one thing in the world that I want you to do. It 
 would be giving me the one woman in the world whom 
 I want for my wife, the only woman I shall ever think 
 of marrying." 
 
 "But you mustn't think of that any more. You 
 see, Mr. Duncan, I am not fit to be your wife. I 
 should be a terrible drag upon you. You are already 
 a man of prominence and everybody says you are soon 
 to become a man of great distinction. You must 
 have a wife worthy of such a man, a wife who can 
 help him and do him credit in society. Now you 
 know I could never become that sort of woman. I 
 am only an obscure girl. I don't know how. I can 
 not talk brilliantly. I couldn't impress people as 
 your wife must. I am not even educated in any 
 regular way, I've just grown up in my own fashion 
 
218 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 — in the shade as it were — and the strong sunlight 
 would only emphasize my insignificance." 
 
 Duncan tried to interrupt, but she quickly cut him 
 short. 
 
 "Let me go on, please. You are very generous, 
 and you want to persuade me that I undervalue my- 
 self. You would convince me, if you could, that I 
 am a great deal worthier than I think myself. I 
 know better. You are very modest, and you would 
 like to make me believe that you will never be a much 
 more distinguished man than you are already, but 
 again I know better. Probably you wouldn't become 
 much more than you are, if you were to marry me, 
 but that is because I should be a clog upon your 
 life." 
 
 "Will you let me say one word at this point, Bar- 
 bara?" broke in Duncan, in spite of her effort to 
 prevent. 
 
 " You are wronging yourself and you are wronging 
 me. As God lives I tell you there is no woman in the 
 world so fit to be my wife as you are. My only wish 
 is that I were worthy to have such a wife ! I intend, 
 of course, to achieve all that I can — to make the best 
 use I can of such faculties as I possess, but nothing 
 imaginable could so greatly help me to do that as the 
 inspiration of your love, and the stimulus of knowing 
 that you were to be always by my side, to share in 
 all the good that might come to me, to cheer me in 
 disappointment, to help me endure, and above all, to 
 
BARBARA'S ANSWER 219 
 
 strengthen me for my work in the world by your 
 wise and loving counsel. For you are a very wise 
 woman, Barbara, though you do not know it. You 
 look things squarely in the face. You think soundly 
 because you think with absolute and fearless sincerity. 
 You are shy and timid, and self -distrustful. Thank 
 God, you will never grow completely out of that, as so 
 many women do. Your modesty wiH always remain 
 a crown of glory to your character. But as you grow 
 older, retaining your instinctive impulse to do well 
 every duty that may tie before you, you will acquire 
 enough of self-confidence to equip you for all emer- 
 gencies. You are very young yet — even younger in 
 feeling than in years. You will grow with every year 
 into a more perfect womanhood." 
 
 An occasional tear was by this time trickling down 
 the girl's cheeks. How could it be otherwise when 
 the man she loved and honored above all others was 
 so tenderly saying such things of her, and to her, with 
 a sincerity too greatly passionate to be open to any 
 doubt? How could it be otherwise when she knew 
 I that she must put aside the love of this man, her hero 
 — the only love, as she knew in her inmost soul, that 
 she could ever think of with rejoicing so long as she 
 should live ? 
 
 She would have interrupted the passionate plead- 
 ing if her voice had been under control. As it was 
 she sat silent, while he went on. 
 
 " I have spoken of my ambitions first, and of your 
 
220 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 capacity to help them, not because such things are 
 first in my estimation, but because you have treated 
 them as worthy of being put first. There are much 
 higher things to be thought of. What a man 
 achieves is of far less consequence than what a man is. 
 That which I ask of you is to help me be the best that 
 I am capable of being, and for you to be it with me. 
 I want to make the most, the best, the happiest life for 
 you that is possible. If I am permitted to do that, 
 with you to help me do it, it will be an achievement 
 of far greater benefit to the world than any possible 
 external success can be. The home is immeasurably 
 more important, as a factor in human life, and in na- 
 tional life, than the mart, or the senate, or the pulpit, 
 or any other influence can be. It is in happy homes 
 that the saving virtues of humanity are born and 
 nourished. From such homes, more than from all the 
 pulpits, and all the institutions of learning, there 
 flows an influence for good that sweetens all life, pre- 
 serves morality, and keeps us human beings fit to live. 
 Oh, Barbara, you will never know how longingly I 
 dream of such a home with you at its head! You 
 cannot know how absolutely the worthiness of my life 
 depends upon such a linking of it with yours." 
 
 The girl had completely given way to her emotions 
 now, but with that resolute self-mastery which was 
 a dominant note in her nature, she presently con- 
 trolled herself. The picture that his words had cre- 
 ated in her imagination was alluring in the extreme. 
 
BARBARA'S ANSWER 221 
 
 But she was strong enough to put the dream of hap- 
 piness aside. 
 
 " You do not know all," she said. " You have not 
 heard all I have to tell you. You haven't heard the 
 most important part of it. I have only told you what 
 I thought on that evening when — when you asked — 
 questions. I still think that ought to settle the mat- 
 ter, but you seem to think — perhaps you might have 
 convinced me, or at least — oh, you don't know! 
 There are other reasons — stronger reasons, reasons 
 that nothing can remove." 
 
 " Tell me of them. I can imagine no reason what- 
 ever that could satisfy me." 
 
 " It is very hard to tell. You know I never knew 
 my parents. Both my mother and my father died on 
 the day I was born. I seem to know my mother, be- 
 cause auntie loved her so much, and has talked to me 
 so much about her all my life. But she never talked 
 to me much about my father. His family was a good 
 one — his father having been a banker, with some repu- 
 tation as an artist also, and my father was his partner 
 in business. But that is all I know of my father — 
 no, that isn't what I meant to say. I meant to say 
 that that is all my aunt ever told me about him, and 
 all I knew until the night when you asked me — ques- 
 tions. After you went away that evening, I went to 
 my room and thought the matter out. I have already 
 told you what conclusions I reached. When I had 
 decided, I went to auntie's room and sat on the side 
 
£2* A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 of her bed and told her everything. She cried very 
 bitterly — I didn't understand why at first. After 
 a while she said she didn't at all agree with me in my 
 conclusions, and added: 
 
 " ? If the things you mention were all, Bab, I should 
 tell you to stop thinking of them, and let Mr. Dun- 
 can judge for himself. But there is something else, 
 Bab — something very dreadful. I never intended to 
 tell you of it, but now I must. You would find it 
 out very soon, for Tandy's wife knows it, and if she 
 heard that there was anything between you and Mr. 
 Duncan, she would make haste to talk of it — particu- 
 larly after what has happened between Tandy and 
 Mr. Duncan. Then you would never forgive me for 
 not telling you.' 
 
 " She went on then, and told me what I must tell 
 you. She told me, Mr. Duncan, that I am the 
 daughter of a Thief!" 
 
 The girl paused, unable to go on. Duncan saw 
 that she was suffering acutely, and he determined to 
 spare her. 
 
 "You must stop now, Barbara," he said in a ca- 
 ressing tone. "You are overwrought. I will hear 
 the rest another time — when you feel stronger and 
 send for me. I am going to say good-night now, so 
 that you may rest. But before I go I want to say 
 that nothing you have told me can make the least 
 difference in my feelings, or my desires, or my pur- 
 poses. You are what you are. Nothing else mat- 
 
BARBARA'S ANSWER 
 
 ters. When you feel strong enough, I will come 
 again and persuade you to be my wife. Good- 
 night!" 
 
 As she stood facing him, with unutterable distress 
 in every line of her face, he leaned forward impul- 
 sively, but with extreme gentleness, and reverently 
 kissed her. 
 
XXV 
 
 Temple and Tandy 
 
 ON the morning after his consultation with 
 Captain Will Hallam, Richard Temple had 
 his first interview with Tandy. Jewett, the 
 hotel proprietor, walked with him to the X National 
 Bank, took him into the bank parlor, and introduced 
 him to the president, intimating that he would prob- 
 ably wish to do some business with the bank, and 
 assuring Tandy that the young man was "as square 
 as they make 'em." 
 
 Tandy welcomed the visitor cordially, and when 
 Jewett had bowed himself out, Temple opened nego- 
 tiations, very cautiously and with every seeming of 
 indecision, as to what he might ultimately decide 
 to do. 
 
 " I have a little money, Mr. Tandy, that I may want 
 to invest. I'm rather a stranger in Cairo. I wonder 
 if you, as a banker, would mind advising me. Of 
 course, if I make any investments, I shall do so 
 through your bank." 
 
 " It is my business to advise investors, Mr. Temple, 
 224 
 
TEMPLE AND TANDY 225 
 
 and in your case it is also a pleasure, if I may be 
 permitted to say so. What are your ideas — in a 
 general way, I mean ? " 
 
 " It would be somewhat difficult for me to " 
 
 "Oh, I quite understand. You haven't yet made 
 up your mind. You want to look about you, eh? 
 Well, that's right. There's more harm done by haste 
 in making investments than by anything else. There 
 are lots of 'cats and dogs' on the market. Of 
 course they're a good buy sometimes, if a man wants 
 to take long chances for the sake of big profits, and 
 if he is in a position to watch the market. But it's 
 awfully risky. Still " 
 
 Tandy hesitated and did not complete his sentence 
 for a time. He was wondering just "how much of 
 a sucker" this young man might be. Tandy him- 
 self held some small blocks of securities which might 
 very properly be reckoned in the feline and canine 
 class. He wondered if it might not be possible to 
 "work off" some of these, in company with some 
 better stocks, on this young man. He was closely 
 scrutinizing Temple's visage, trying to " size him 
 up." After seeming to meditate for a brief space, 
 he resumed: 
 
 " It is risky, of course. Still, if a man is in posi- 
 tion to watch the market closely, and sell out at the 
 proper time, it sometimes turns out well to buy a few 
 inferior stocks, when buying a lot of better ones. 
 I've known it to happen that a lucky turn in the 
 
Z26 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 market enabled a man to sell out his inferior stocks 
 at a profit big enough to pay for the good ones. You 
 see the inferior stocks can be bought for so little on 
 a dull market, such as we have at present, that there 
 can't be a very great risk in buying them in moderate 
 quantities, while buying better securities in the main. 
 And there's always a chance of a lucky turn in the 
 market, and with it a chance of great profits." 
 
 Temple did not interrupt the flow of Tandy's finan- 
 cial exposition. He had three reasons — all of them 
 good — for wishing Tandy to talk on. In the first 
 place he was waiting for noonday, before mentioning 
 his credit in the Fourth National Bank of New York. 
 In the second place it was his " cue " to sit reverently 
 at the feet of this great financier, and to make as lit- 
 tle display as possible of his own sagacity. Finally, 
 he was studying Tandy — "sizing him up" — finding 
 out, for future use, all that he needed to know about 
 the man with, whom he had to deal. This was the 
 result of the "sizing up," as it formulated itself in 
 what might be called a "first draft," in Temple's 
 mind : 
 
 " He's a smooth, plausible, conscienceless scoundrel ; 
 
 "He's so far filled with self-conceit that it some- 
 times blinds him ; 
 
 "He would gladly swindle me out of my eyes, if 
 he could do so without being caught ; but if he can't 
 swindle me, he will be glad to do business with me * on 
 the square,' as he would put it." 
 
TEMPLE AND TANDY 227 
 
 But Temple wanted to complete and revise and, if 
 necessary, correct this first draft of his " sizing up," 
 and so he wanted Tandy to go on talking. 
 
 " I am not much disposed to speculate in doubtful 
 securities," he said. "I can't afford it, for one 
 thing, and, of course, I am not in position to watch 
 the market, as you say. What I would like is to put 
 a few thousands into some good, safe, dividend-pay- 
 ing security. Of course " 
 
 "You're right, of course. Still, if you choose to 
 take some small risk, I could watch the market for 
 you. I often do that for customers of the bank. 
 I'm naturally in a position to know what's going on. 
 By the way, how much money have you to invest? " 
 
 " I have twelve thousand dollars in New York " 
 
 "Where the interest rates are small," interrupted 
 Tandy. " You want to bring it West, where it will 
 earn more. I understand. You're right in that. The 
 West is the place for men and money to do the best 
 they can for themselves. This part of the country 
 is growing like Jack's beanstalk. You must have 
 noticed it." 
 
 " I certainly have. Indeed, I suppose that never 
 before in all history did any region grow so fast or 
 so solidly." 
 
 "There! You've hit the nail on the head," said 
 Tandy. "Solidly! And that accounts for many 
 things. The conservative people of the East never 
 saw anything like it, and they can't quite believe it. 
 
228 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 They don't realize the wonderful soundness of things 
 out here. They have learned to think that high in- 
 terest means poor security. In the East, where there 
 is plenty of money and very little development going 
 on, it does. But here in the West the case is differ- 
 ent. Here, interest is high and dividends large, 
 simply because the country is growing so rapidly, and 
 developing its resources so wonderfully fast. Let me 
 illustrate. My friend, Captain Hallam, recently 
 bought a mine up the State. It hadn't been properly 
 developed, so he bought it at a low price and capi- 
 talized it at cost, adding a trifle for improvements. 
 That mine is now paying twenty per cent, dividends 
 on its stock, in addition to a large expenditure every 
 month for improvements. Then, again, Captain 
 Hallam is selling off the farms on the surface at a 
 price that will presently pay the whole first cost of 
 the mine. When that is done, the mine will stand him 
 in just nothing at all, and all the dividends the stock- 
 holders get will be just like so much money found — 
 picked up from the prairie grass, I might say. Is 
 there any danger in that sort of thing? Is a share 
 of that stock a doubtful security to the man who 
 has already got back the entire purchase price? 
 True, it pays twenty per cent, dividends on its face, 
 and that scares the conservative galoots in New York. 
 That's just because they have got it ground into their 
 minds that high interest always means poor security. 
 But, come, I want to take you for a drive around 
 
TEMPLE AND TANDY 229 
 
 Cairo, to show you what we are doing here and what 
 we are planning to do. I think when you see it 
 you'll know for yourself where to put your money. 
 Can you go with me for a drive?" 
 
 "Very gladly. But first, I want to arrange to 
 bring to Cairo what money I have. I may not want 
 to invest it all here, but it will be handy to have it 
 here. I should like to put it into your bank as a 
 deposit. But I must draw on New York for it, and 
 get you to take my draft. Won't you direct your 
 cashier to telegraph the Fourth National Bank of 
 New York, asking for what amount my drafts on that 
 institution will be honored? Then, when we get back 
 from our drive, I'll draw for the money and place it 
 on deposit with your bank, where I can put my hands 
 upon it when necessary." 
 
 The telegram was sent, and then Tandy took Tem- 
 ple in his carriage — one of the best in Cairo at that 
 time — and showed him all there was of resource in 
 the town, lecturing, meanwhile, on the prospects of 
 Cairo as a future great commercial and manufactur- 
 ing center. He showed him all there was to be shown, 
 and then said to him : 
 
 " Now, I'm an apostle of Western development, but 
 still more I'm an apostle of the development of Cairo. 
 I'm a bull on the country, and a bull on this city. 
 There is much to be done, and it will require the in- 
 vestment of a great deal of money. But the invest- 
 ments will pay as nothing else promises to do. We 
 
230 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 must have grain elevators, and mills, and all the rest 
 of it. We've two big flour mills already, and there 
 will be two or three more within a year. They must 
 have barrels by thousands and tens of thousands. 
 Now a man of your intelligence must see that empty 
 barrels, being bulky, are costly things to transport 
 over long distances, while the mills must buy them 
 at the lowest possible price. Otherwise they can't 
 sell flour in competition with the mills of other 
 cities. So the necessity of having a big barrel fac- 
 tory here is obvious, and so is the profit. I am just 
 forming a company for that purpose. We have 
 abundant timber right at hand, just across the two 
 rivers, in Missouri and Kentucky. We can make 
 barrels at less cost than they can be had for in any 
 other city, while we have a local market tl^k will be 
 unfailing. The company is capitalized at twenty- 
 five thousand dollars, and a good part of it is already 
 subscribed." 
 
 He did not say that none of it had been paid for 
 yet, and that he was unsuccessfully trying to find 
 buyers for it. 
 
 " It's a sure thing. The profits will be large from 
 the beginning, and the stock, as soon as the factory is 
 in operation, will jump up fifty per cent, at least. 
 If you want a thousand or so of it, I'll let you in on 
 the ground floor. Otherwise, I'll take it myself." 
 
 "That impresses me very favorably," answered 
 Temple truthfully. " It is an enterprise based upon 
 
TEMPLE AND TANDY 231 
 
 sound principles — one that offers a supply in direct 
 answer to a demand. I shall probably decide to take 
 a little of that stock, if I can get some other securi- 
 ties to go with it. But for a part of the money I 
 have to invest, I must get stock in some already es- 
 tablished and assured business — I should especially 
 like bank stock, either in your bank or Captain Hal- 
 lam's. You see " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I see. You want a nest-egg that will 
 certainly hatch out a chicken. I'll find it for you. 
 Let's leave that till to-morrow. Anyhow, I'm an ad- 
 vocate of local investments. I'm putting every spare 
 dollar I've got into them, and I always advise investors 
 to go into them. We're planning — Hallam and I — 
 to set up a gas plant here. The city needs it, and it'll 
 pay from the word go. I'll tell you about that to- 
 morrow. You see, I want you f ,o know just what 
 we're doing and planning, and then we'll find the best 
 places for you to put your money into. It's getting 
 late now, so we'll drive back to the bank. I told the 
 cashier to wait for us, though of course it's after 
 banking hours." 
 
 On their return to the bank each of these men 
 felt that he had " put in a good day's work." Tandy 
 was sure that by letting the young man have a few 
 shares in firmly established enterprises, he could " rope 
 him in," as he phrased it in his mind, for the purchase 
 of some more doubtful things. Temple, in his turn, 
 was convinced that by buying into some of Tandy's 
 
232 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 more speculative enterprises, he could ultimately se- 
 cure the shares he had been set to buy in the X Na- 
 tional. 
 
 The telegraphic reply from the New York Bank 
 had been received and was altogether satisfactory. 
 So, late as it was, Temple drew on New York for 
 twelve thousand dollars, and with the draft, opened 
 a deposit account for that amount in Tandy's bank. 
 
 Then he went to his hotel. His first impulse was 
 to send a message to Captain Will Hallam, asking 
 whether he might take the barrel-factory stock, and 
 perhaps some other things of like kind, in aid of 
 success in his mission, but upon reflection he decided 
 to act upon his own judgment, without consultation 
 or advice. Hallam had given him a free hand, leav- 
 ing him to work out the problem in his own way. Any 
 communication between him and Hallam, or between 
 him and Duncan, would involve something of risk. 
 So he sat alone in his hotel room, thinking and 
 planning. 
 
 He did not know or dream how anxious Tandy was 
 to draw him into some of his schemes. He did not 
 know that both the barrel factory and the gas enter- 
 prise had recently become veritable white elephants on 
 Tandy's hands. He did not know that Tandy — in 
 his eagerness to overreach Hallam — had "stretched 
 himself out like a string," as Hallam picturesquely 
 put it — by investing more money in these two com- 
 panies, and several others, than he could just then 
 
TEMPLE AND TANDY 233 
 
 spare. Especially, he did not know that Hallam had 
 himself completely organized and capitalized both a 
 gas company and a barrel company, and that Tandy's 
 two companies represented an unsuccessful attempt to 
 rival enterprises into which Hallam had "breathed 
 the breath of life." 
 
 He was surprised, therefore, when a bell boy 
 brought him Tandy's card, as he sat there in his lonely 
 hotel room, planning the morrow's campaign. 
 
 " I thought you might be lonely," said the banker, 
 as he was ushered into the room, " seeing that you're 
 a stranger in town. So I have dropped in for a chat." 
 
 The "chat" very quickly fell into financial chan- 
 nels, and it did not proceed far before shrewd Richard 
 Temple discovered some things of advantage to him- 
 self. Among the things discovered was the fact that 
 Tandy was somewhat over anxious to hasten the busi- 
 ness in hand. Apparently he feared that Temple 
 might fall in with other advisers. He seemed anxious 
 to arrive at conclusions in a hurry, Temple thought, 
 and the thought served at once to put him on his 
 guard and to give him his opportunity. He listened 
 with every indication of interest to all that Tandy 
 had to say concerning the two still unlaunched enter- 
 prizes — the barrel factory and the gas company. He 
 asked interested questions concerning them, and ven- 
 tured the suggestion that the proposed capitalization 
 of the gas company was too small to admit of the best 
 results. 
 
234 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 " As an engineer," he said, " I know something of 
 the cost of digging trenches and laying mains, and 
 it seems to me that in order to equip itself for busi- 
 ness this company will need a good deal more money 
 than you plan to put into it as capital stock." 
 
 " I see your point," Tandy answered quickly, " and 
 in any ordinary case it would be sound enough, though 
 of course a company of that kind doesn't depend 
 upon its subscribed capital alone, or even chiefly for 
 its working capital. It is the practice in establishing 
 such companies to issue and sell bonds enough to cover 
 the cost of the plant, or very nearly that. The 
 profits are so certain and so great that the bonds — 
 even at so low a figure as five per cent, interest — go 
 off like hot cakes. But that isn't all. Here in Cairo 
 we shall hardly have to bond the company at all. 
 You see we shall have almost no engineering work to 
 do. In other cities a gas company must dig deep 
 trenches — often through solid rock — in which to lay 
 its mains. Here in Cairo we shall have no digging 
 at all to do. You observed, as we drove to-day, that 
 the city is built upon a tongue of very low-lying 
 ground. A levee, forty-five feet high, has been built 
 around it, and contractors are now busily filling in 
 the streets so as to raise them nearly, though not 
 quite, to the grade of the levee. Every street is a 
 long embankment. Now, when we come to lay our 
 mains, we shall put them along the sides of these em- 
 bankments, with no cost at all for digging." 
 
TEMPLE AND TANDY 235 
 
 So Tandy went on for an hour. At the end of that 
 time Temple felt himself sufficiently sure of his 
 ground to venture a little further: 
 
 "I am inclined to think," he said, "that I shall 
 want to take at least a little of the barrel-factory stock 
 to-morrow, and possibly I may subscribe for some of 
 the gas stock also ; of that I am not yet sure. But 
 before I take either, I must invest four or five thousand 
 dollars in something absolutely secure. I have been 
 going over the latest reports of your bank, and the 
 other one — Hallam's — and they have impressed me 
 with the conviction that the very best and safest in- 
 vestment a man of small means, like myself, can make 
 in this town, is in bank stock. This city is a point at 
 which so many lines of travel and traffic converge, that 
 the exchange business itself must be sufficient to pay 
 a bank's expenses. In fact it pays more, as the re- 
 ports show. And then there is the larger business — 
 lending money on sound enterprises, financing indus- 
 trial companies, and especially advancing money on 
 bills of lading for goods in transit. In view of all this 
 it surprises me to learn that the stock in the two 
 banks here stands only a trifle above par." 
 
 "Oh, that's because of two things. People here 
 have got it into their heads that anything less than 
 ten or twelve per cent., as a return for money invested, 
 is ridiculously small. So they don't want bank stocks. 
 On the other hand, the eastern capitalists have got 
 it into their heads that anything which pays more 
 
236 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 than four or five per cent, must be risky, and so they 
 don't set up banks here, as they surely would do but 
 for their foolish timidity. The prospect of a big re- 
 turn for their money simply scares them out of their 
 seven senses. So Hallam's bank and mine have a 
 monopoly of as pretty a business as you'll find in a 
 day's walk. Why, when the rush was on last winter, 
 and twenty steamboats a day were leaving Cairo with 
 full cargoes — to say nothing of great fleets of grain 
 barges — Hallam and I both went to New York with 
 our pockets full of government bonds, and borrowed 
 money on them for sixty or ninety days. We paid 
 six per cent, per annum for the money, and got from 
 one-half to one per cent, a day on most of it by ad- 
 vancing on grain drafts, with bills of lading attached. 
 It was as easy as falling off a log, and as safe as 
 insuring pig-iron under water." 
 
 " I have some notion of all that," answered Temple, 
 "and that's the sort of investment I'm looking for. 
 I might take in some more speculative things, but I 
 greatly want to invest a few thousand dollars in the 
 stock of one or other of these two national banks. 
 Could you find somebody willing to sell? " 
 
 Tandy had expected this, and had prepared him- 
 self for it. But he pretended to think for a moment 
 before replying. Then he said : 
 
 " As to Hallam's bank, it's useless to try. Hallam 
 and Stafford own the whole thing, except that they 
 have put a share or two into the hands of members of 
 
TEMPLE AND TANDY 237 
 
 their own families, just by way of qualifying them 
 to serve as directors, as the law requires. Neither one 
 of them would sell a share for twice its market price. 
 The same thing is true, in a general way at least, of 
 our bank. The stock is so good a thing that nobody 
 who has got any of it ever wants to part with it. 
 But it has always been our policy to interest the 
 people in the bank by letting them hold some of its 
 stock. So a good deal of it is held in small lots 
 around town, and now and then one of these is put 
 into my hands for sale. I have four shares now to 
 sell. It belongs to a tug captain who is down on his 
 luck just now, and must sell. He wants more than 
 the market price, but the bank has lent him money 
 on it nearly up to its face value, and so I can do 
 pretty much as I please with it. Ordinarily I should 
 buy it myself, but I'm in so many things just now, 
 and besides, I'd like to have you with us." 
 
 Tandy did not say that since he had seen Temple 
 in the afternoon, he had taken in these four shares of 
 stock for debt, at three per cent, below par, with the 
 fixed purpose of selling them to Temple at three per 
 cent, above par. 
 
 "How many shares did you say there are of it?" 
 asked Temple. 
 
 "Four, if I remember right. I really oughtn't 
 to let it slip through my fingers, but — well, I'll tell 
 you what I'll do — if you care to subscribe for a few 
 shares of the barrel company — say one or two thou- 
 
238 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 sand dollars' worth— I'll let you have the bank stock 
 at a hundred and three. 
 
 Temple was eager to close the bargain, but he reso- 
 lutely repressed his eagerness. He asked a score of 
 questions, as if in doubt, and at last he hesitatingly 
 agreed to make the purchase. The details were to be 
 arranged on the next day, and so Tandy took his 
 leave, and Temple lay awake all night, as he had 
 done on the night before. 
 
 At four o'clock the next afternoon Temple 
 strolled into the Hallam office to report results. 
 He threw the papers upon a desk and sank into a 
 chair like one exhausted. He was in fact almost in 
 a state of collapse. He had not been conscious of 
 strain at any time during his negotiations. He had, 
 indeed, rather enjoyed the playing of such a game of 
 wits with so wily an adversary as Tandy was. But 
 all the while his anxiety to succeed in what he had 
 undertaken had kept his nerves so tense that his mind 
 had known no rest. All the time he had been pain- 
 fully conscious that the smallest slip on his part, 
 the smallest indiscretion, the slightest mistake in look, 
 or tone, or act, would bring failure as a consequence. 
 And he had all the time been agonizingly conscious of 
 the fact that no less a thing than Guilford Duncan's 
 reputation was the stake he played for — that Guilford 
 Duncan's entire future was in his hands. There were 
 reasons more vital to him than his friendship for Dun- 
 can, for regarding success in this matter as an end 
 
TEMPLE AND TANDY 239 
 
 that must be achieved at all hazards, and at all costs. 
 For years ago these two had quarreled as rivals in love, 
 after being friends of the closest sort from infancy, 
 and only Duncan's great generosity of mind had made 
 forgiveness and reconciliation possible. Dick Tem- 
 ple knew that in the matter out of which the quarrel 
 grew, he had grievously wronged his friend, and that 
 knowledge had been to him a veritable thorn in the 
 flesh, robbing even such happiness as had come to 
 him of half its quality of joy. He had longed 
 above all other things for an opportunity to make 
 atonement, and that longing had been intensified 
 since the meeting at the mine, by the generous treat- 
 ment he had received at Duncan's hands. His Mary 
 shared it in full measure, too, as she shared every 
 worthy impulse of his soul. It had been a grief to 
 the gently generous wife that the man she loved must 
 live always under so distressing an obligation to the 
 friend who had so magnanimously forgiven. 
 
 When this opportunity of repayment came to him, 
 therefore, his first thought was of Mary. He wrote 
 to her immediately after his first conference with Hal- 
 lam, telling her of the matter in a way that filled her 
 soul with gladness and fear — gladness that the oppor- 
 tunity was his at last, and sleepless fear lest he should 
 be baffled and beaten. So when at last success was 
 his, when he received from Tandy's hands the papers 
 that secured his purpose, his first act was to telegraph 
 to Mary the message : 
 
240 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 Glory to God in the highest! I have paid my debt to 
 Guilford Duncan. 
 
 It was five minutes later when he entered the Hal- 
 lam offices and laid the papers before the head of the 
 house, saying only: 
 
 " I've secured the stock." When he sank into the 
 chair, Hallam was quick to see his condition. 
 
 "Go up to Duncan's rooms and go to bed," he 
 urged. "You've not been sleeping." 
 
 Recovering himself quickly, Temple answered: 
 
 "No, I think I'd rather not. If you've no fur- 
 ther use for me, I think I'll go home by the train that 
 starts an hour hence. There'll be time enough be- 
 tween now and then for me to render you an account 
 of money spent, and give you my check for the bal- 
 ance in Tandy's bank. I don't want to see Duncan 
 just now." 
 
 Hallam understood. "Very well," he answered, 
 as Temple turned to a desk. " You've saved Duncan, 
 and there's nothing more for you to do here. But 
 you must come back for the final grand tableau just 
 a week hence. I'll leave this stock in your name till 
 then, and you shall walk with me into the stockholders' 
 meeting and help me salivate old Napper Tandy. 
 We'll teach him not to play tricks." 
 
 Captain Hallam spoke no word of commendation 
 for the way in which Temple had done his work. 
 Words were unnecessary. 
 
 " I hope I made no mistake in subscribing for that 
 
TEMPLE AND TANDY 241 
 
 barrel company stock," said Temple as he passed the 
 completed papers over to Hallam. " At any rate, I'd 
 like to keep that myself, if I may, whether it ever 
 proves to be worth anything or not. I've accumu- 
 lated enough money to pay for it." 
 
 "Oh, as to that," answered Hallam lightly, "the 
 stock will be good enough. I'll make it so by taking 
 a majority interest in the company and consolidating 
 it with my own. You see, we simply must do some- 
 thing for Old Napper Tandy." 
 
XXVI 
 
 A Pact With Barbara 
 
 THAT evening Guilford Duncan was sum- 
 moned to Hallam's house for supper. With 
 only Mrs. Hallam for auditor, Hallam wished 
 to tell the young man all that had occurred, for 
 Duncan had not been permitted to know aught of it, 
 since Hallam had turned him out of his room, in order 
 that the conference with Dick Temple might be a 
 strictly private one. 
 
 Nor had Duncan seemed very greatly concerned 
 to inquire. He had not expected Hallam and Temple 
 to succeed in accomplishing anything, and at this 
 time his fate was at crisis in another and, to him, a 
 dearer way. His interview with Barbara had been 
 held, as we know, at the precise time when Hallam 
 and Temple were in consultation with regard to the 
 matter of Tandy's accusation. In some degree, at 
 least, the painful character of that interview with 
 Barbara, and its unsatisfactory result, had dulled 
 his mind to the other trouble. In view of Barbara's 
 seemingly final rejection of his wooing, he was not 
 sure that he greatly cared what might become of his 
 
 242 
 
A PACT WITH BARBARA 
 
 reputation, or his career. He was too strong a man 
 in his moral character, however, to remain long in a 
 state of such indifference, but for the time being he 
 found it impossible to regard his future as a matter 
 of much consequence, now that Barbara refused to 
 share that future with him. 
 
 " There is still one more chance," he reflected, " one 
 more interview with Barbara, one more hope that I 
 may win her. If that fails, the other thing won't 
 matter much. I'll horsewhip Tandy and then go 
 away. No, I won't go away. I won't desert in the 
 presence of the enemy. I won't — oh, I don't know 
 what I will or won't do. All that must wait till I 
 know my fate with Barbara." 
 
 This was on the morning after his evening with 
 Barbara — the morning on which Temple first made 
 acquaintance with Tandy. Duncan was sitting idly 
 in his office, mechanically toying with a paper cutter. 
 Presently he overturned the inkstand, spilling its 
 contents over some legal papers that he had drawn 
 upon the day before. 
 
 "That's fortunate!" he ejaculated, as with blot- 
 ting pads he sought to save what he could of the docu- 
 ments. " It gives me something better to do than 
 sit here idly mooning. Those papers must go off by 
 the afternoon mail, and I must rewrite them first." 
 
 He set to work at once, and close application to the 
 task for several hours brought him into a healthier 
 condition of mind. When he had finished the task 
 
244 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 and had taken the papers to the postoffice he realized 
 that his state of mind had been a morbid one. He 
 realized, too, that he must end the suspense as quickly 
 as possible, in order that he might take up work and 
 grow sound of soul again. 
 
 Returning to his office he sent a note to Barbara : 
 
 I shall go to see you to-night, unless you forbid. I must 
 hear what more you have to tell me, and I must in my turn tell 
 you something of myself. When that is done, I shall renew 
 my efforts to win you to myself. Please send me word that I 
 may come. 
 
 For answer, he got the single word " Come," writ- 
 ten in the middle of a page, without address or signa- 
 ture. Thus it came about that while Temple was sit- 
 ting in his hotel room, in negotiation with Tandy- 
 over a matter that involved Duncan's future more 
 vitally than any other event had ever done, Duncan 
 himself sat with Barbara, trying to adjust another 
 matter which seemed to him of even greater conse- 
 quence. 
 
 Barbara had her emotions in leash, now. Without 
 hesitation, and with a bravely controlled utterance, 
 she went at once to the marrow of the matter. 
 
 " I told you," she began, " that I am the daughter 
 of a Thief. My father was trusted absolutely by my 
 grandfather. He betrayed the trust. He made use 
 of his authority as a member of the banking house, 
 not only to wreck it in speculation, but also to rob all 
 the people who had entrusted their money to it. I 
 
A PACT WITH BARBARA 245 
 
 don't understand such matters very well, but, at any 
 rate, my father ruined the firm and robbed its cus- 
 tomers. At a single stroke he reduced his father to 
 poverty and forever disgraced his honorable name. 
 When he found that the facts must become known 
 at once, my father went home and blew his brains 
 out. I was born that day, and my mother died of 
 shock and grief within the hour. My poor grand- 
 father lived for a month, without speaking a word to 
 anybody. Then he quit living." 
 
 " It is a terribly sad story," said Duncan. " I 
 should not have let you tell it, poor child." 
 
 " Oh, but I was obliged to tell you," she interrupted. 
 " It was my duty. You see — well, you have been so 
 good to me, and I am obliged to say ' no ' to what you 
 asked me before you knew this horrible thing. It 
 wouldn't have been fair just to say * no,' and not tell 
 you of a thing that explains, a thing that must make 
 you wish you hadn't asked me that." 
 
 "But it does not make me wish anything of the 
 kind, Barbara. It makes me more eager than ever to 
 win you, in order that I may devote my life to the 
 loving task of making you forget the horror of this 
 thing. Oh, Barbara! I never loved you half so 
 madly as I love you now. And you love me. I 
 know it, but you must say it. You love me, Barbara ! 
 Say it! Say it— now!" 
 
 The girl hesitated for no more than a moment, 
 while her whole body quivered. 
 
246 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "God help me!" she said then, "I do love you! 
 I love you too well to let you link your life with mine, 
 to let you take upon yourself the shadow of my 
 disgrace." 
 
 "But you have no disgrace. You are innocent. 
 The fault is not yours that your father betrayed his 
 trust a score of years ago — before you were born." 
 
 " Listen ! " she interrupted with passionate determi- 
 nation. " If you were to marry me I should become 
 the mother of your children. That would make them 
 the grandchildren of a Thief." 
 
 The two were standing now. 
 
 " I want you to sit down while I answer you, Bar- 
 bara," said Duncan, with almost unimaginable ten- 
 derness in his tone. " No, not in that straight-backed 
 chair, for I want you to listen to all I have to say, and 
 to be at ease while you listen. Sit here," pushing an 
 easy chair forward, "sit here where you can see my 
 face as I speak. I want you to see in my eyes the 
 sincerity of my soul." 
 
 Barbara obeyed and listened. 
 
 " I was born and brought up," he said, " in a region 
 where all the old traditions had full sway over the 
 minds of men and women, enslaving them. During 
 four years of war I learned much, but I unlearned far 
 more. I learned to look facts in the face, and to ac- 
 cept them at their just value. I learned to judge of 
 others and of their worth by what they are, not by 
 what their fathers or grandfathers may have been. 
 
A PACT WITH BARBARA 247 
 
 I unlearned the false teaching of tradition that 
 aught else than personal character and personal con- 
 duct goes to the making up of any human being's 
 account with his fellow man. I had a true democracy 
 forced upon me when I saw men of the humblest ex- 
 traction winning high place for themselves, and being 
 set to command men of the loftiest lineage — all be- 
 cause of personal character and fitness, and in spite 
 of their lack of caste. No sane man can contemplate 
 the character and career of Mr. Lincoln, for example, 
 without finding in it an object lesson in democracy 
 which should make a very laughing-stock of all the 
 fables of aristocratic tradition. I tell you truly that 
 I have put all those things behind me, as all Ameri- 
 cans must who truly believe in the fundamental 
 principles of our Republic. Every man must be ac- 
 cepted for what he is, not for what his father or his 
 grandfather may have been. We read that lesson in 
 the lives of such men as Ben Franklin, and Abraham 
 Lincoln, and Grant, and a score of other notables. 
 We read it even more clearly in everyday life. No 
 banker extends credit to a worthless man on the 
 ground that he was born to high social repute. No 
 banker withholds credit from a man of integrity be- 
 cause his father was not to be trusted. All day, 
 every day, men everywhere are acting upon a clear 
 perception of the truth that each human being must 
 be judged by what he is, and not by what some other 
 person has been* 
 
248 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 " Now I know you, Barbara, for what you are, and 
 I love you for that alone. What your father may 
 have done or been, twenty years ago, is to me a 
 matter of entire indifference, except that the knowl- 
 edge of it gives you pain and sorrow. It makes no 
 difference to me; it in no way alters or lessens my 
 love for you, and it never will. Knowing it all, I 
 am more earnest than ever in my purpose to make 
 you my wife if I can persuade you to that after I 
 have told you something about myself that may very 
 justly seem to you a real bar to my hopes." 
 
 "Go on, please," said the girl. "Tell me what 
 you will, but I shall never believe anything ill of 
 you. I know better." 
 
 " Thank you for saying that, dear," he responded 
 with a tremor in his tone. "But unhappily others 
 may believe it. If they do, then the career you have 
 expected for me must be at an end at once. My 
 reputation for integrity will be gone for good, and 
 I must be content to surrender all my ambitions. 
 That is why I must tell you of this ugly thing before 
 again asking you to be my wife." 
 
 "Go on," she said again. "But I shall believe 
 nothing bad of you, even though an angel should tell 
 me." 
 
 " I told you the other night," he said, " that I had 
 quarreled with Napper Tandy; that he had tried 
 to tempt me with a money bribe to do an infamous 
 thing. He now gives it out that it was I who pro- 
 
A PACT WITH BARBARA U9 
 
 posed the bribe; that I went to him with an offer to 
 do that infamous thing for hire, and that he indig- 
 nantly rejected the offer." 
 
 " He lies ! " broke in the girl. 
 
 "Yes, he lies, of course," answered Duncan, "but 
 I have no way of proving it. He and I were alone 
 and in his house. There were no witnesses. How, 
 then, am I ever to clear my name of so foul an ac- 
 cusation ? " 
 
 " There is no need," answered the girl. M Nobody 
 who knows you will ever believe the story. Captain 
 Hallam would not think it worth asking a question 
 about." 
 
 "No, Captain Hallam would not for a moment 
 think of such a thing as even possible. But that is 
 because he knows me as few other men do or ever will. 
 But the accusation troubles him, because he knows 
 that other people will believe it. He and Richard 
 Temple are at this moment busy trying to find some 
 way of clearing my name of the foul slander. They 
 will do all that two loyal and sagacious friends can 
 do to accomplish that purpose. But I cannot im- 
 agine any way in which they can succeed." 
 
 " What is it they are doing ? " 
 
 " I do not know ; they have refused to tell me. I 
 only know that they can never succeed." 
 
 "Oh, you must not think that. You don't know 
 what wonders Captain Hallam can work when he is 
 in earnest. You must have hope and confidence. 
 
250 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 Besides, nobody who knows you will ever believe such 
 a story as that. Your enemies will pretend to be- 
 lieve it, and for a time the people who love to gossip 
 will repeat it to each other. But you will live it 
 down. Every act of your life will contradict the lie, 
 and Tandy's reputation is not of a kind to lead 
 sensible people to believe his falsehood when you have 
 set the truth against it. You are depressed and 
 despondent now. The mood is unworthy of you." 
 
 " Tell me what I should do." 
 
 "First of all you should act like the brave, strong 
 man that you are. You should either take this slander 
 by the throat and strangle it by publishing a simple, 
 direct statement of the facts, or you should ignore 
 it altogether, as a thing too absurd to need even a 
 denial. Wait till you see what Captain Hallam and 
 Mr. Temple succeed in doing, and then act as seems 
 best. But in any case, you must be strong and 
 courageous. No other mood belongs to such a man 
 as you." i 
 
 Duncan looked her full in the face for a space 
 before speaking. Then he said : 
 
 " And yet you say you have no gift to help me — 
 that if you were my wife you would be a drag upon 
 me! Oh, Barbara, you cannot know how greatly I 
 need the strength that the sympathy and counsel of 
 such a woman as you are must give to the man who 
 loves and wins her. You have in this hour rescued me 
 from despondency; you have made me strong again; 
 
A PACT WITH BARBARA 251 
 
 you have shown me my duty, and inspired me with 
 resolution to do it manfully." 
 
 " I am very glad," she answered. 
 
 " Then promise me that you will stand by my side 
 always. Let me give you the right to help. Say 
 that you will be my wife ! " 
 
 His voice was full of tender pleading and for a 
 moment the girl hesitated. Finally she said: 
 
 "I think I know how to answer now, but you 
 mustn't interrupt. I feel as though I couldn't stand 
 much this evening." 
 
 " I will not interrupt. I am too eager to hear." 
 
 " I think I have a plan — for you and me. I still 
 think what I thought before — when I said 'no.' I 
 still think you ought to have some better woman for 
 your wife, some woman more nearly your equal, some 
 woman who could help you to win a great place for 
 yourself in the world and could herself fill the place 
 of a great man's wife with dignity. You ought to 
 marry a woman who knows, oh, ever so much that I 
 shall never know — a woman that you need never be 
 ashamed to introduce as your wife. No, don't inter- 
 rupt ! " she exclaimed, seeing that he was on the point 
 of doing so. " I know what you would say, and that 
 is the only thing that makes me doubt my own con- 
 viction about these matters. It seems to me a wonder- 
 ful thing that such a man as you should care for 
 such a woman as I am, but the fact that you do care 
 for me almost makes me think sometimes that maybe 
 
252 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 after all I misjudge myself, and that you are right. 
 It seems so hard to believe you wrong. Now, I must 
 be perfectly frank, because I know no other way of 
 saying what I must. I have confessed that I love 
 you. You compelled me to do that. If I were sure 
 of my capacity to make you happy, not just for a 
 little while, but throughout all your life, I would say 
 1 yes ' to the questions you have asked. But I mustn't 
 make any mistake that might spoil your life, and so 
 I must not say 'yes' just now, at least, and you will 
 not let me say 'no.' I am still very young, as you 
 know. You, too, are young enough to wait. So I 
 think we'll leave both the * yes ' and the ' no ' unsaid 
 for a long time to come — for a year, perhaps — long 
 enough, at any rate, for both of us to find out which 
 of us is right. During that time we must be the 
 very best of friends. You must tell me everything 
 that concerns you, so that I may practice helping you, 
 and find out whether I can really do it or not. If 
 you find that I can't you shall be perfectly free to 
 go away from me. If I find that I can't, then I'll 
 say ' no ' and stick to it." 
 
 Duncan was disposed to plead for better terms, but 
 the little lady had fully made up her mind and would 
 accept no modification of the treaty. Duncan had 
 no choice but to accept an arrangement which, 
 after all, had much of joy and still more of promise 
 in it. 
 
 As they were on the point of parting, Barbara — 
 
A PACT WITH BARBARA 253 
 
 with something like a struggle — made an addition to 
 the compact. 
 
 " If that slander sticks to you, Guilford, I'll marry 
 you at once and give it the lie." 
 
 What could the warm-blooded young man do but 
 kiss her with fervor? 
 
 " Surely you will forgive me," he began in fear, 
 lest he had offended. 
 
 " I don't mind — for once. But you mustn't do 
 that again till — well, while we continue to be just 
 friends." 
 
XXVII 
 
 Mrs. Hallam Hears News 
 
 AS Guilford Duncan sat late that night, re- 
 calling the events of the evening, he felt him- 
 ^self more and more nearly satisfied with the 
 outcome of his wooing. It was true, of course, that 
 Barbara had not promised to become his wife, as he 
 had hoped that she might do, but at any rate she had 
 confessed her love for him in a way that left nothing 
 to conjecture. With such a woman, he reflected, love 
 is never lightly given, and once given it can never 
 be withdrawn. 
 
 Moreover, as he reflected upon the compact, he saw 
 how certainly the close and intimate friendship for 
 which it provided must daily and hourly draw the two 
 lovers closer and closer together, making each of them 
 more and more necessary to the other. In brief, 
 there was so much that was satisfactory in the com- 
 pact that he put aside all the rest as "not worth 
 worrying over." 
 
 As he realized the extent of his success in his woo- 
 ing he planned to perfect it in a hundred ways. He 
 
 254 
 
MRS. HALLAM HEARS NEWS 255 
 
 resolved to make every possible opportunity for Bar- 
 bara to help him, in order that she might learn how 
 helpful she could be. He determined to acquaint 
 her with all his affairs, in the utmost detail, in order 
 that she might make herself more and more a part of 
 his life. His first thought was that he would with- 
 hold from her knowledge everything that annoyed or 
 distressed him, thus sparing her all that he could of 
 pain, while telling her freely of every joyous thing. 
 But he quickly saw how unfair that would be, and how 
 unlike what such a woman would desire. He had 
 begun to catch something of Barbara's own spirit, 
 and to know that any reserves with her now would be 
 a cruel wrong to her loving desire for a helpful share 
 in his life. 
 
 " I will be as frank with her," he resolved, " as if 
 she were already my wife. She shall share my sor- 
 rows as well as my joys. And what a comfort her 
 sympathy will be!" 
 
 He slept little that night, yet on the morrow he 
 went to his work with a buoyancy of spirit such as he 
 had not known since that evening when he had first 
 declared his love. 
 
 It was in this mood of elation and hopefulness that 
 he went to the Hallams' an hour before the supper 
 time. He did not yet know what Hallam and Temple 
 had been trying to do, and of course he knew nothing 
 of the success they had achieved. But in his present 
 mood he was optimistic enough to hope for some good 
 
256 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 result. He thought he might meet Temple at supper 
 if his work, whatever it was, had been finished, and 
 when he found that his friend was neither present nor 
 expected, he satisfied himself with the reflection that 
 the task Temple had undertaken was very probably 
 one requiring a good deal more time than had elapsed 
 since he began it. A little later he got more definite 
 information. 
 
 "Temple isn't to be with us," he half said, half 
 asked, after the greetings were over. 
 
 "No," answered Captain Will. "He has gone 
 back to the mines. He is rather done up with the 
 work and anxiety and loss of sleep. I tried to make 
 him take possession of your rooms this afternoon, for 
 a straight-away sleep, but he thought he'd rather go 
 back to his wife till the tenth. He'll be here, how- 
 ever, in time to assist at the grand finale, as the show 
 people call it." 
 
 " I'm afraid I don't understand," said Duncan with 
 a look of inquiry. 
 
 "Why, there's to be a meeting of the stockholders 
 of the X National on the tenth, you know." 
 
 "I didn't know. But what of it?" 
 
 " Why, only that your friend Temple wants to be 
 there, when he and I march into the meeting con- 
 trolling a majority interest and elect a board of 
 directors for old Napper Tandy, leaving him com- 
 pletely out of it. Not a word about that, however, 
 to anybody, till the time comes. We want to add to 
 
MRS. HALLAM HEARS NEWS 257 
 the dramatic effect by making the thing a complete 
 surprise." 
 
 If Captain Will Hallam had been a robust boy of 
 ten, chewing upon a particularly toothsome morsel, 
 he could not have shown a greater relish for what was 
 in his mouth than he did for these sentences as he 
 uttered them. His manner had all of active satis- 
 faction in it that an eager card player manifests when 
 he saves a doubtful game by throwing down a final 
 and unsuspected trump at the end of a hand that has 
 seemed to be lost. 
 
 But Duncan was still mystified, and in answer to 
 his questions Captain Hallam explained. 
 
 "When you got yourself into trouble by monkey- 
 ing with the accentuations of a buzz saw," he said, 
 "I could see only one way out, and that was to put 
 you into a position where even the disembodied spirit 
 of Calumny itself could not pretend to believe old 
 Napper Tandy's yarn. You know Tandy is fond of 
 playing tricks, especially upon me, and as the presi- 
 dent and controlling spirit of a rather strong bank, 
 he has been able to give me a good deal of trouble 
 now and then. A year ago Stafford and I decided 
 that it might some day be handy for us to control 
 a majority of the stock in Tandy's bank. There was 
 a good deal of it lying about loose — that is to say, 
 a number of people held little blocks of it, ranging 
 from one share to five. All of these people were more 
 or less under Tandy's influence, and all of them were 
 
258 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 in the habit of giving him proxies to vote their stock 
 or else themselves going into the stockholders' meet- 
 ing and voting as he desired. Stafford and I quietly 
 set about buying up this loose stock — through other 
 people, of course, so that we shouldn't appear in the 
 matter. We had got forty-eight per cent, of it, when 
 you got yourself into trouble with Tandy. It 
 occurred to me that if we could get three or four more 
 shares and emphasize our confidence in you by making 
 you president of Tandy's own bank, and turning him 
 out to grass, he might see the point and stop his lies. 
 I flatter myself that Stafford and I are pretty well 
 known all over the West and among bankers in the 
 East. We are not at all generally regarded as a 
 pair of sublimated idiots — which same we should cer- 
 tainly be if we deliberately made a bank president 
 out of a young man whose integrity was open to any 
 possibility of suspicion. Now, don't be in a hurry ! " 
 — seeing that Duncan was eager to ask questions, or 
 to express his appreciation of Captain Hallam's in- 
 terest in himself — "don't be in a hurry and don't 
 interrupt. Let me tell you the whole story. At first 
 I didn't see any possible way in which to secure the 
 three shares, without which I could do nothing. I 
 took pains to have the stock register of the bank ex- 
 amined. I found that Tandy himself and the mem- 
 bers of his immediate family owned forty-eight shares, 
 and that four more belonged to Kennedy, the tug 
 captain whom you discharged after calling him by a 
 
MRS. HALLAM HEARS NEWS 259 
 
 picturesque variety of pet names. Of course it was of 
 no use to approach Kennedy, even through an out- 
 sider, as he is in Tandy's employ now, and very deeply 
 in Tandy's debt. I must explain that, as Stafford 
 and I had bought stock through agents of our own, 
 we had kept our hands concealed by leaving the sev- 
 eral shares nominally in the hands of the men we had 
 employed to buy them and instructing those men 
 to go on voting the stock in whatever way Tandy 
 wished. This made Tandy feel perfectly secure 
 of his control of the bank. Even if he had sold out 
 half his own interest he would have felt secure, 
 seeing that all the floating stock was within his voting 
 control. You see I'm a rather good-natured man, on 
 the whole, and I never like to make a man feel un- 
 comfortable unless I must. When your trouble arose 
 I thought I saw that there was nothing for it but 
 to make a strike for some of Tandy's own stock. I 
 didn't much believe the thing could be done, but I've 
 seen so many miracles worked in my time that I 
 believe in them. You sent for Temple — and by the 
 way, he's a fellow that's built from the ground up — 
 and I set him at work. I told him what we wanted 
 done and why, but I couldn't tell him how to do it, 
 because I didn't know. I gave him a free hand, and 
 left him to use his own wits. As they happened to 
 be particularly good wits, he did the trick within less 
 than two days. He managed to buy Kennedy's four 
 shares, not from Kennedy, but from Tandy himself. 
 
260 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 so that now when the stockholders' meeting comes, I'll 
 march in, representing the two shares that I'm known 
 to own, and Temple will be with me, holding proxies 
 for all the rest of mine and Stafford's stock. We'll 
 vote fifty-two against forty-eight. We'll name all the 
 directors, and they will make you president at once. 
 I'll put some shares in your hands to qualify you, 
 but you ought actually to own at least ten shares in 
 your own right. Have you got any money loose? " 
 
 Captain Hallam knew very well that Duncan had 
 a sufficient deposit balance in the Hallam bank to 
 cover the suggested purchase, but he wanted to fore- 
 stall and prevent the expression of Duncan's thanks. 
 Hence his question, and hence, also, the look he cast 
 in Mrs. Hallam's direction, in obedience to which 
 that gracious and sagacious gentlewoman broke at 
 once and insistently into the conversation. 
 
 "Now, if you two men have quite finished with 
 business," she said, " I want a small share of attention 
 on my own part." 
 
 "Will you excuse me for a little while, Duncan," 
 interrupted Captain Will, " while I give some orders 
 at the stables and in the garden? I very nearly 
 forgot them. Mrs. Hallam will entertain you in my 
 absence, I'm sure." 
 
 As soon as the head of the house had made his 
 escape through the door, Mrs. Hallam — whose friend- 
 ship for Duncan had won all that is possible of privi- 
 lege for itself — turned to him and asked: 
 
MRS. HALLAM HEARS NEWS 261 
 
 "Why haven't you been taking Barbara to places? 
 Why didn't you tell me to invite her here for supper 
 to-night? You know I have had her here a dozen 
 times, and you know how welcome she always is." 
 
 " Your last question is easily answered," he replied. 
 " I did not think of asking you to invite her to supper 
 this evening for the reason that Captain Will sent 
 me word that he had business affairs to talk over with 
 me." 
 
 Mrs. Hallam's face was wreathed in smiles. 
 " I wonder," she said, " if there ever was a young 
 man clever enough to hold his own with a woman at 
 word fence. And I wonder if there was ever one who 
 didn't think he could." 
 
 " I confess," he said quickly, " that I'm not clever 
 enough to know what you mean by those two wonder- 
 ings of yours." 
 
 "Oh, yes you do. You deliberately tried to shy 
 off my first question" — at this point she touched a 
 bell — " by answering the second first, and then omit- 
 ting to answer the first at all." 
 
 At this moift^t a servant appeared in answer to 
 her ring. 
 
 " Send word to John," she commanded, " to bring 
 the carriage at once — the open one with the bays. 
 Now, Guilford Duncan, I have no time to talk with 
 you except the ten minutes before the carriage comes. 
 For I'm going to put on a hat and go after Barbara. 
 Perhaps, between us, she and I can prevent you 
 
262 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 two men from talking business at supper. Tell 
 me " 
 
 "But can Barbara come on so short a notice?" 
 
 " What sort of blunderer do you take me to be? I 
 sent her a note two hours ago saying I should go 
 after her, and she sent me for reply, a note saying 
 she would be more than glad to come. But you 
 mustn't grow conceited over that. I didn't tell her 
 you were to be here, or that I meant to put you into 
 the carriage to escort her home. It is quite possible 
 that if I had told her that she would have declined the 
 invitation. Now, answer my first question. Why 
 haven't you been taking Barbara to places — to church 
 and all the rest of it?" 
 
 "Must I tell you the truth?" 
 
 " Yes, certainly. What would be the use of telling 
 me anything else ? I should know if your fibbed." 
 
 " I really believe you would." 
 
 "Why, of course I should. What are a woman's 
 wits for, anyhow ? " 
 
 " The carriage is at the door," said a servant, enter- 
 ing. 
 
 " Very well. Let it wait. Now, Guilford Duncan, 
 go on and tell me." 
 
 " Well, the fact is, that I have not been in a posi- 
 tion to ask Barbara to accept my escort to public 
 places." 
 
 " Why not? Is it because of this Tandy affair? " 
 
 "No." 
 
MRS. HALLAM HEARS NEWS 263 
 
 "Then what? Go on, and don't make me pump 
 the information out of you, as if you were a well or 
 a leaky barge." 
 
 "The fact is," Duncan spoke very seriously now, 
 " that a little while ago I was betrayed by own emo- 
 tions into declaring my love for Barbara, much sooner 
 than I had intended — before she was prepared to 
 hear it." 
 
 " Oh, nonsense ! As if a girl ever needed prepara- 
 tion for a declaration of that sort from — well, from 
 the right sort of man. But go on, you know the 
 carriage is waiting. Tell me. Has she accepted 
 you?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Has she rejected you?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 Here Mrs. Duncan again rang the bell, and a 
 servant appeared so promptly as to suggest that she 
 had been listening just outside the door. 
 
 " Tell my maid to get into the carriage and go and 
 fetch Miss Barbara Verne. Tell her to say that I 
 am detained here, and am forced to send my maid 
 in my stead." 
 
 The servant said, "Yes'm," and withdrew. Then 
 Mrs. Duncan resumed her questioning with manifest 
 eagerness, but with as much of seriousness as Duncan 
 himself had shown. There was no touch of flippancy, 
 or even of lightness in either her words or her tone. 
 For Mrs. Will Hallam was a woman of deep and 
 
264 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 tender feeling, a woman to whom all holy things were 
 sacred. 
 
 " Tell me about it all, Guilford. I do not under- 
 stand, and I must know. I need not tell you that 
 my interest is not prompted by curiosity. I hold you 
 as my brother, and I love Barbara. Tell me." 
 
 And Duncan did. As he outlined the compact that 
 Barbara had insisted upon, the smiles replaced solemn 
 apprehension on Mrs. Hallam's face, as though she 
 foresaw all she desired as the outcome of such an 
 arrangement. 
 
 But all that she said was : 
 
 " I am greatly relieved." 
 
XXVIII 
 
 The Birth of a Great Railroad 
 
 UPON becoming president of a strong bank, 
 and the close associate of Hallam and Staf- 
 ford in all their undertakings, Guilford Dun- 
 can became at once a factor to be recognized and 
 reckoned with in all enterprises with which he had to 
 do. He had brains, character, and indomitable 
 energy, and these had already won for him the respect 
 of the men of affairs. Now that he had control of 
 money also, his power and influence were multiplied 
 many fold. 
 
 The time was one of expansion. The flood of irre- 
 deemable and heavily depreciated paper currency 
 which had been issued under stress of war necessities, 
 was producing the usual effect of inflation. It gave 
 a false seeming of value to every purchasable thing. 
 It caused rapid and great fluctuations in all markets. 
 It lured men everywhere into speculation. It danger- 
 ously expanded credits and prompted men to under- 
 take enterprises far beyond their means. 
 
 Very early in his career as a banker, Guilford Dun- 
 265 
 
266 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 can discovered that half the merchants in Cairo were 
 young men of little capital and small capacity, who 
 ought to have remained salaried clerks. These had 
 grown ambitious, set up for themselves, and were 
 carrying large stocks of goods almost wholly upon 
 credit. They were staggering under loads of debt 
 on which they were paying ruinous rates of interest. 
 
 It was easy enough for him to protect his bank by 
 gradually reducing its loans to such men as these, 
 but the prudence thus exercised added to the num- 
 ber of his enemies. He cared little for that, so long 
 as he knew his course to be right. 
 
 Looking further afield he saw that a like condition 
 of things existed all over the West, and was the 
 inspiration of much greater undertakings than those 
 of the merchants and shopkeepers. 
 
 He used often to talk of these thiu^s with 
 Hallam. 
 
 " You're quite right," said that sagacious financier. 
 " The country has gone on a big financial drunk, and 
 of course the headache will come when the spree is 
 over. But it won't be over for a considerable time 
 to come, and in the meanwhile the country is getting 
 a good deal of benefit from it. 
 
 " Fortunately, it is taking a better course than such 
 sprees usually do. Ordinarily the existence of an 
 inflated, superabundant, and depreciated currency 
 results in a wild orgy of stock gambling, grain gam- 
 bling, cotton gambling, and all the rest of it. There 
 
BIRTH OF A GREAT RAILROAD 267 
 
 is no more of good in that — in fact, there is far more 
 of harm in it to the country — than there would be 
 if everybody went to betting at roulette or faro. It 
 makes the lucky gamblers rich and the unlucky ones 
 poor, but it produces nothing, even incidentally. 
 This time the gambling is taking a more productive 
 form. Instead of betting on market fluctuations, 
 men are putting money into factories, mines, mills, 
 and railroads — especially railroads. They are enor- 
 mously overdoing the thing, but whenever they build 
 a railroad, even unwisely, the railroad will remain as 
 something to show for the money when the spree is 
 over." 
 
 "That is true enough," said Duncan, "and of 
 course all this railroad and other building is, inci- 
 dentally, giving work and wages to great multitudes 
 of men. But are we not paying too high a price for 
 the good we get? We are building debts about forty 
 per cent, faster than we are building railroads. Every 
 mile of track is constructed with borrowed money, 
 worth only about sixty cents on the dollar. Yet every 
 dollar of these borrowings must some day be paid 
 off in gold. And in the meantime the roads must pay 
 a high interest rate on a dollar for every sixty cents' 
 worth of money borrowed. I do not see how the 
 country can stand it." 
 
 " It can't, permanently, and you haven't mentioned 
 the worst feature of the matter." 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
£68 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "Why, in the craze for building railroads, men 
 are projecting and building many lines that are not 
 needed at all. In some cases two, or even three, 
 parallel roads are being built through regions that 
 can never support more than one. It is sheer waste, 
 and of course it means collapse sooner or later. But 
 there is another side to the matter. The country is 
 growing enormously in wealth, and still more enor- 
 mously in productive capacity. Nothing helps such 
 growth like the multiplication and extension of rail- 
 roads. They bring men near to their markets. They 
 make farming profitable where before it would have 
 been a waste of labor. They multiply farms and 
 towns, swell the population, and in that way make 
 a market for manufactures. If we could cut out the 
 parallel lines and other foolishly projected roads, 
 I firmly believe the growth of the country in conse- 
 quence of railroad building would more than com- 
 pensate for the extra cost entailed upon us by 
 borrowing at a time of depreciation in the currency. 
 But we can't prevent fool projectors from building 
 foolishly, and some day the country's sound business 
 must shoulder all that load of bad investments. When 
 a boy eats green apples he is in for a colic, but he 
 generally gets over the colic. It will be so with the 
 country." 
 
 Then the talk turned into a more practical channel. 
 
 "You feel sure, then," asked Duncan, "that we are 
 making no mistake and doing no harm in carrying 
 
BIRTH OF A GREAT RAILROAD 269 
 
 out our project of a railroad that shall bring Cairo 
 closer to New York in the matter of railroad mile- 
 age?" 
 
 "Perfectly sure. That railroad is imperatively 
 needed. It will develop a very rich agricultural 
 region which has been practically shut off from the 
 world. There is traffic enough for the road already 
 within sight to make it pay. When it is built, it will 
 compel a cheapening of freight rates to the ad- 
 vantage of the whole country." 
 
 "You are right, of course," answered Duncan re- 
 flectively. "I have gone over that subject very 
 conscientiously. I am convinced that the road can 
 carry the debt that must be incurred in building it, 
 and that it will pay its way. If I had any serious 
 doubt of that, I should have nothing to do with the 
 thing." 
 
 "As it is," responded Hallam, "you've got the 
 heavy end of the log to carry, so far as work is con- 
 cerned. When are you going to begin your cam- 
 paign ? " 
 
 " Almost immediately. I've got everything in the 
 bank into satisfactory shape now, and three days 
 hence I shall begin a speaking tour in the interior 
 counties. I'll make it even more a talking tour than 
 a speaking one. For while a public speech, if it is 
 persuasive enough, may influence many, it is the 
 quieter talking to individuals and small groups that 
 does most to win votes. I've already secured the 
 
270 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 co-operation of all the country editors, biit they need 
 stirring up, and worse still they need somebody to 
 tell them what to say and how to say it in their news- 
 papers. Of course you and Stafford and Tandy will 
 take care of Cairo and Alexander county." 
 
 This proposed railroad was one clearly destined to 
 be of the utmost consequence to Cairo and to the 
 region through which the line must run. The method 
 by which it was planned to secure its construction, was 
 the one then in general use throughout the West. It 
 may be simply explained. Everybody concerned was 
 asked to subscribe to what might properly have been 
 called an inducement fund. The subscriptions were 
 meant to be gifts made to secure the benefit of the 
 railroad's construction. More important than these 
 personal subscriptions, and vastly greater in amount, 
 were the subscriptions of counties, cities, and towns. 
 Under the law as it then existed each county, city, or 
 town, if its people so voted, could "lend its credit" 
 to an enterprise of this kind by issuing its own bonds. 
 When a sufficient sum was raised in this way, an effort 
 was made, usually in New York, to secure the form- 
 ing of a construction company. The whole volume 
 of the subscriptions was offered as an inducement to 
 such a construction company to undertake the build- 
 ing of the road. Usually the construction com- 
 pany was to have in addition a considerable share 
 of the stock of the road when completed. The city, 
 county, and town subscriptions, of course, depended 
 
BIRTH OF A GREAT RAILROAD 271 
 
 upon the results of special elections held for that 
 sole purpose. 
 
 In this case the personal subscriptions had been 
 satisfactory, and there was no doubt that the two 
 terminal cities, and the counties in which they lay, 
 would vote the bonds asked of them. But there was 
 grave doubt as to results in the rural counties, in 
 each of which a special election was to be held a 
 month or two later. It was Guilford Duncan's task 
 to remove that doubt, to persuade the voters to favor 
 the proposed subscriptions, and incidentally to secure 
 rights of way, station sites, etc., by gift from the 
 land owners. 
 
 During the next two months he toiled ceaselessly at 
 this task, going to Cairo only once a week to keep in 
 touch with his bank, and to pass the Sundays with 
 Barbara. 
 
 Tandy also worked in the county towns, where he 
 had a good deal of influence. He had been made 
 president of the proposed railroad, and was supposed 
 to be very earnestly interested in it. He was so — in 
 his own way, and with purposes of his own. 
 
 Duncan's campaign was a tireless one, and it 
 proved successful. When the elections occurred 
 every county and every town voted in favor of the 
 proposed subscription, but some of them did so by 
 majorities so narrow as to show clearly how great 
 the need of Duncan's work had been. 
 
 "Worse still," he said to Hallam, a few weeks 
 
272 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 later, "the smallness of the majorities in two or three 
 counties is a threat to us and a warning. The county 
 authorities are putting all sorts of absurd provisions 
 into their subscriptions, and they will give us trouble 
 if our construction company fails in the smallest par- 
 ticular to meet these requirements." 
 
 "Just what are the conditions?" 
 
 "Oh, every sort of thing. In every county it is 
 provided that we shall somewhere break ground 
 for construction before the last of January — less 
 than two months hence — or forfeit the subscrip- 
 tion. That gives us too little time for organization, 
 but we can meet that requirement by sending a gang 
 of men at our own expense to do a day's work some- 
 where on the line. In two of the counties there is a 
 peculiarly absurd provision. There are rival villages 
 there, one in each county, and the authorities have 
 stipulated that "a track shall be laid across the 
 county line and a car shall pass over said track from 
 one county to the other" before the fifteenth of 
 March. Curiously enough, I learn that Tandy him- 
 self suggested that stipulation to the county authori- 
 ties. I hear he is giving it out that he had to do so 
 to save the election, but that's nonsense, just as the 
 provision itself is. Such a requirement will greatly 
 embarrass us in our negotiations with capitalists. For 
 the line will not be fully surveyed by that time, and 
 nobody can tell, till that is done, precisely where the 
 road ought to cross that countv line, or at what 
 
BIRTH OF A GREAT RAILROAD 27S 
 
 grade. I can't imagine what Tandy meant by get- 
 ting such a provision inserted." 
 
 "Neither can I," answered Hallam; "but we'll find 
 out some fine morning, and we must be prepared to 
 meet whatever comes. He's up to some trick of 
 course." 
 
XXIX 
 
 A Scrap of Paper 
 
 WHEN Duncan assumed control of the 
 bank as its president, his first care was to 
 acquaint himself minutely with its condi- 
 tion. In general he found its affairs in excellent 
 shape, for Tandy was a skillful banker and, on the 
 whole, a prudent one. There were many small loans 
 to local shopkeepers which Duncan could not approve, 
 and these he called in as they fell due, refusing to 
 renew them. Beyond such matters he found nothing 
 wrong till he came to examine the record of Tandy's 
 own dealings with the bank. 
 
 There he found that in carrying on his multifa- 
 rious enterprises, Tandy had been in the habit of 
 borrowing and using the bank's funds in ways for- 
 bidden by the law of national banking. Had Tandy 
 anticipated his own removal from control he would 
 doubtless have set his account in order so that no 
 complaint could be made. As it was, Duncan found 
 that he was at that very time heavily in debt to the 
 institution for borrowings made in evasion though 
 
 274 
 
A SCRAP OF PAPER 275 
 
 possibly not in direct violation of a law carefully 
 framed for the protection of stockholders and 
 depositors. 
 
 The matter troubled Duncan sorely, and acting 
 upon the resolution he had formed with regard to 
 his relations with Barbara, he told her of it. 
 
 "I really don't know what to do," he said in a 
 troubled tone. "Of course the money is perfectly 
 safe. Tandy is good for two or three times the 
 amount. And I learn that it is a practice among bank 
 officers sometimes to stretch their authority and bor- 
 row their own bank's funds in this way." 
 
 "You say the thing is a violation of the law?" 
 asked Barbara, going straight to the marrow of the 
 matter after her uniform fashion. 
 
 "In effect, yes. I am not sure that it could be 
 called a positive violation of law — it is so well hedged 
 about with little fictions and pretenses — but it is 
 plainly an evasion, and one which might get the bank 
 into trouble with the authorities at Washington." 
 
 "You mean that it is something which the law 
 intends to forbid?" 
 
 " Yes. It is in violation of the spirit of the law." 
 
 " Then I don't see why you should have any doubt 
 as to what you ought to do." 
 
 " It is only that under the circumstances, if I press 
 Tandy and call in these loans, it might look like an 
 unworthy indulgence in spite on my part." 
 
 "I think you have no right to consider that. You 
 
276 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 have taken an oath to obey the law in the conduct of 
 
 the bank, and " 
 
 " How did you know that, Barbara? " 
 The girl flushed and hesitated. At last she said: 
 " I've been reading the national banking laws." 
 "What in the world did you do that for?" 
 "Why, I'm to help, you know. So as soon as I 
 heard you were to be president of the bank I asked 
 Mrs. Hallam to get Captain Hallam to lend me the 
 books." 
 
 Duncan smiled and kept silence for a while. 
 "Was that wrong, or very foolish, Guilford? I 
 can really understand the book." 
 
 " Of course you can, and it was neither wrong nor 
 rery foolish in you to try. It was only very loyal 
 and very loving. But there was no occasion for you 
 to do anything of the sort." 
 
 " But how can I help you if I don't try my best to 
 understand the things you are dealing with?" 
 
 "As I said before," he answered tenderly, "it is 
 very loyal and very loving of you to think in that 
 way, and I thank you for it. But that isn't what I 
 have had in mind when we have talked of your helping 
 me. I have never had a thought of burdening you 
 with my affairs except to ask for your sympathy 
 when things trouble me, and your counsel on all 
 points of right and wrong, and all that. You see, 
 you have two things that I need." 
 "What are they?" 
 
A SCRAP OF PAPER <OT 
 
 "A singularly clear insight into all matters of 
 duty, and a conscience as white as snow. In this 
 matter of Tandy's account, for example, you have 
 helped me more than you imagine. You have seen 
 my duty clearly, where I was in doubt about it, and 
 you have prompted me to the resolute doing of it, 
 regardless of my own feelings, or Tandy's, or of any 
 other consideration whatever. Moreover, it is an im- 
 measurable help to me simply to sit in your presence 
 and feel that you want me to do right always. I 
 think association with you would keep any man in 
 the straight road. I know that your love would 
 do so." 
 
 "I am very, very glad," the girl answered with 
 misty eyes, " but I must help in practical ways, too — 
 in all ways. So I must do my best to understand all 
 the things that you have to manage." 
 
 " God bless you ! " 
 
 That was all he said. It seemed to him quite all 
 there was to say. But early the next morning he sent 
 a courteous note to Tandy, calling his attention to 
 the "irregularity" of his relations with the bank, 
 and asking him to call at once to set the matter 
 right. 
 
 After he had sent off the note he continued his ex- 
 amination of the details of the bank's affairs. He 
 had gone over the books very carefully. He had ex- 
 amined the notes held for collection and the like. It 
 remained only for him to make a personal inspection 
 
278 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 of the cash and securities held by the bank, and that 
 was his task this morning. 
 
 He had not gone far with it when he came upon a 
 small three-cornered slip of paper, with a memoran- 
 dum penciled upon it. It lay in the midst of a bun- 
 dle of greenbacks. 
 
 Looking at it carefully, Duncan turned sharply 
 upon the teller who had charge of the currency, and 
 demanded : 
 
 "What does this mean? Why did you not bring 
 that to my attention sooner?" 
 
 Before the teller could reply with an excuse or ex- 
 planation, Tandy was announced as waiting in the 
 bank parlor to see Mr. Duncan. 
 
 Duncan slipped the scrap of paper into his vest 
 pocket, saying to the teller : 
 
 "Make a memorandum that I have possession of 
 this." 
 
 Then he walked into the parlor. 
 
 There he received Tandy with cold dignity and 
 marked reserve — more of coldness, more of dignity, 
 and far more of reserve than he would have thought 
 necessary if he had not found that scrap of paper. 
 
 Before seating himself, he called in one of the 
 bookkeepers, saying: 
 
 "Mr. Leftwich, I desire you to remain with 
 Mr. Tandy and me, during the whole of our inter- 
 view." 
 
 " Surely that is unnecessary, Duncan," said Tandy 
 
A SCRAP OF PAPER 279 
 
 hastily. "I don't care to discuss my private affairs 
 in the presence of a clerk." 
 
 "I have no intention to discuss your private 
 affairs at all, Mr. Tandy," Duncan replied. "The 
 matter concerning which I have asked you to call 
 here, is not a private affair of yours or mine. It is 
 a matter connected with the administration of the 
 bank. Be seated, Mr. Leftwich." 
 
 " But I insist," said Tandy, with a good deal more 
 of heat than he was accustomed to permit himself to 
 show, " I insist upon a confidential interview." 
 
 " You cannot have it. I do not regard myself as 
 upon confidential terms with you, nor do I think of 
 you as a man with whom I desire to establish confi- 
 dential relations." 
 
 " Do you mean to insult me in my own — in a bank 
 that I founded, and in which I am still a large 
 stockholder?" 
 
 " Perhaps you had better not press me to explain 
 myself," answered Duncan with a calmness that em- 
 phasized his determination. "I might feel it neces- 
 sary to mention some facts that otherwise there is no 
 occasion for Mr. Leftwich to know." 
 
 "Oh, very well. I ought not to have expected 
 courtesy at your hands." 
 
 " I think I must agree with you in that," answered 
 Duncan. "In view of the circumstances — which, I 
 may remind you, are of your own making — I really 
 think you ought not to have expected courtesy at 
 
280 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 my hands. Suppose we get down to business instead. 
 What have you to suggest by way of arranging your 
 affairs with the bank?" 
 
 " I don't know. I came here hoping and expecting 
 that in view of all the circumstances you might be 
 willing to let this matter of my loans from the bank 
 rest between ourselves for a time." 
 
 Duncan was outwardly calm now, but inwardly he 
 was in a towering rage, for Tandy's presence re- 
 minded him bitterly of the way in which the ex-banker 
 had tried first to corrupt him and then to blast his 
 reputation with a lie; and Tandy's manner clearly 
 enough indicated that he had come to the bank in full 
 expectation of warping him to his will in another 
 matter involving his duty and his honor. 
 
 "How do you mean to 'let it rest'?" he asked, 
 carefully controlling his voice. 
 
 "Oh, you understand, or you would if you knew 
 anything of banking." 
 
 "I will trouble you to omit all discussion of my 
 knowledge or my ignorance. Your account with this 
 bank is at present in a shape forbidden by law. It 
 must be adjusted at once. That is all that concerns 
 me in the case. Please confine yourself to that." 
 
 Tandy became placative and apologetic. 
 
 "You must really pardon me, Mr. Duncan. This 
 thing has knocked me out a good deal — it came upon 
 me so suddenly and unexpectedly. I make my apolo- 
 gies if I have said anything to offend. But is there 
 
A SCRAP OF PAPER 281 
 
 nothing I can do to fix the thing up — so that the 
 bank can carry it for me till I can turn around? You 
 see these things are so customary in banks that it 
 never occurred to me that you would insist upon the 
 strict letter of the law." 
 
 "I have taken an oath," answered Duncan, "to 
 obey and enforce the strict letter of the law in the 
 administration of this bank's affairs — just as you did 
 when you were president here. /, at least, intend to 
 respect my oath." 
 
 "What do you require of me?" 
 
 "For one thing, that you shall put your account 
 into a shape permitted by law and warranted by pru- 
 dence. In doing that, you shall have all the help the 
 bank can properly lend you." 
 
 " Tell me your exact terms," said Tandy, " and I 
 will endeavor to comply with them." 
 
 " You must comply with them, as they will be only 
 such as it is my duty to insist upon." 
 
 "What are they?" 
 
 " First of all, you must to-day deposit fifteen thou- 
 sand dollars, in cash or securities, to make good that 
 bit of paper," said Duncan, holding up the three- 
 cornered fragment of a letter sheet, on which there 
 was written in Tandy's hand: 
 
 Good for $15,000— count this as cash. N. T., Pres't 
 
 "I found that in our cash assets only this morn- 
 ing, Mr. Tandy. Until it turned up I had cherished 
 
282 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 the belief that your irregularities were only such as 
 you say are customary with bank officers. I believe 
 it is not customary, however, for the president of a 
 bank to abstract fifteen thousand dollars of the bank's 
 cash and substitute for it a mere pencil scribbling on 
 a scrap of paper, signed with initials." 
 
 Tandy sat gazing vacantly at Duncan, with livid 
 lips and contorted features. He had so long been 
 accustomed to administer the bank's affairs as suited 
 his personal convenience that he had quite forgotten 
 this little transaction. Recovering himself, he said 
 presently : 
 
 " That was an oversight on my part, Mr. Duncan. 
 It was merely a matter of temporary convenience. 
 You see, one evening after hours, I happened suddenly 
 to need that amount in currency. I came here to the 
 bank and got it, putting the mem. into the cash box 
 in its stead, as there were none of the bank's officers 
 or clerks here to take my check. Besides, I hadn't 
 my check-book with me. I fully intended to arrange 
 the matter before the bank opened the next morning, 
 but somehow I forgot it. It was only an oversight, 
 I assure you." 
 
 " It was a felony," answered Duncan, in a tone as 
 free from stress as if he had merely said, " It is rain- 
 ing." Then he added : 
 
 " Will you make a deposit now to clear that matter 
 up? After you do so we can go on and adjust the 
 other matters." 
 
A SCRAP OF PAPER 28S 
 
 " Have mercy on me, Duncan! Give me a day or 
 two to look about me ! I've been investing very heav- 
 ily of late, and really I can't raise fifteen thousand 
 at a moment's notice. You know I am good for ten 
 times the sum. Why not let it rest for a week, say ? " 
 " Mr. Tandy," replied Duncan, enunciating every 
 syllable as precisely as if he had been reciting a lesson 
 in a foreign tongue, " let me remind you of something. 
 Some time ago you offered to pay me a high price to 
 commit a crime. You remember the circumstance, I 
 Lave no doubt. You remember that I refused, and 
 that you sought revenge by lying to the men who 
 were then employing me. You told an infamous lie 
 that, if it had been believed, would have blasted my 
 good name forever. No, don't interrupt. I had not 
 intended to mention this matter, especially in Mr. 
 Lef twich's presence," bowing toward the bookkeeper, 
 whose jaw had relaxed in astonishment. " I had not 
 intended to mention that matter, but you have forced 
 me to remind you of it, by trying now to persuade me 
 to commit a crime without any inducement whatever 
 except such as may be implied in my concern for your 
 convenience. Until now I have been prepared to con- 
 sider your convenience so far as I could do so con- 
 sistently with my duty to the bank. I am now not 
 disposed to consider it at all. You must bring fifteen 
 thousand dollars here within an hour, and redeem that 
 piece of paper, or I shall proceed against you crimi- 
 nally. After you shall have done that, you must 
 
284 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 make such other deposits of cash or acceptable securi- 
 ties as may be necessary to set your general account 
 in order. That is all I have to say. I give you one 
 hour in which to take up this paper, and I give you 
 the rest of the day in which to adjust the other mat- 
 ter. That ends our conference, and I must excuse 
 myself. You know your way out." 
 
XXX 
 
 The Mystery of Tandy 
 
 TANDY quitted the bank in very serious dis- 
 tress of mind. He was a capitalist of large 
 means, but even a great capitalist — and he 
 could not be reckoned as quite that — may sometimes 
 find it inconvenient to raise money in considerable 
 sums upon the instant. It so happened that just at 
 this time Tandy's means were all employed and his 
 credit stretched almost to the point of breaking, by 
 reason of his excessive and largely concealed invest- 
 ments in a number of enterprises. 
 
 On the moral side, it would have been difficult even 
 for Tandy himself to say just what measure of suf- 
 fering he endured. His conscience was casehard- 
 ened, but his financial reputation was not only a valu- 
 able, but an absolutely necessary part of his equip- 
 ment for the businesses in which he was engaged. That 
 reputation was now in great danger. He wondered 
 if Duncan would tell the story of that scrap of paper. 
 He wondered still more, whether Duncan might not 
 report the matter to the comptroller of the currency 
 
286 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 at Washington, and thus bring about a criminal pros- 
 ecution, even after the sum irregularly borrowed had 
 been repaid. Then he remembered, with something 
 like a spasm round his heart, that the bookkeeper, 
 Leftwich, had heard the whole conversation, and he 
 remembered also that he had been, as he put it, " rather 
 hard on Leftwich" upon several occasions in the past. 
 If Leftwich cherished resentment on that account, his 
 malice now had its opportunity. 
 
 On the whole, Napper Tandy could not recall 
 another day in all his life on which he had suffered so 
 much in spirit as he did now. But there was no time 
 for brooding or lamenting. He felt that he was in 
 Guilford Duncan's clutches, and, while he knew little 
 of conscientious scruples by virtue of any soul experi- 
 ences of that kind on his own part, he had so far 
 learned to understand Duncan as to know that he 
 would, as a matter of conscience alone, enforce the 
 strict letter of his demand. 
 
 He hastened to find Captain Will Hallam, and to 
 him he made almost a piteous appeal for a loan 
 of fifteen thousand dollars through the Hallam 
 bank. 
 
 "So Duncan carries too many guns for you, eh?" 
 was the flippant remark with which Captain Hallam 
 received the appeal. 
 
 "Will you let me have the money?" almost fran- 
 tically pleaded the now thoroughly frightened man. 
 " You see time is precious. I've less than an hour in 
 
THE MYSTERY OF TANDY 287 
 
 which to raise the sum. You must help me out, 
 Hallam." 
 
 "I really don't know whether I can arrange it or 
 not. I'll see Stafford and find out how far our loans 
 are extended. What security can you give? You 
 know Stafford is very exacting as to the character of 
 the security on which he lends the bank's funds." 
 
 " Yes, I know — and that is very awkward just now. 
 I'm a good deal tied up, you know. I've been buying 
 property along the line of our proposed railroad. I've 
 bought rather heavily, and as I hadn't expected to be 
 called upon to raise money just now, I have gone in 
 pretty deep on credit. You know how impossible it 
 is to realize on such property, even at a loss, when a 
 man must have money at once." 
 
 " Then what can you offer? " 
 
 "Well, I've a pretty large block of stock in the 
 Memphis and Ohio River Railroad " 
 
 " Not good collateral till the road is finished. You 
 know we couldn't touch that." 
 
 Tandy mentioned some other securities that Hal- 
 lam deemed insecure, and by this time Hallam had 
 begun to wonder what was the matter with Tandy. 
 He knew, or thought he knew, that the man must 
 have greatly more money invested somewhere than 
 these things represented. He had a great curiosity 
 to know what the other investments were, but he did 
 not find out, for at last, within a brief while of the 
 end of his hour of grace, the troubled man said: 
 
288 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 " There is nothing for it but to hypothecate a part 
 of my stock in the X National. You know that is 
 good." 
 
 "Oh, yes, that's good. Stafford will accept that 
 as collateral if the bank is in a position to extend its 
 loans. I'll go and see." 
 
 When he told Stafford what the situation was, that 
 astute banker — who had been in many a financial 
 fisticuff with Tandy — quietly said: 
 
 " I don't see why we should make the loan. Why 
 not refuse it, and then have you offer to buy the stock 
 outright at about par? He must sell, for if I have 
 correctly sized up our friend Duncan, he'll never let 
 up on his demand in this case. A man with a con- 
 science like his simply can't let up in such a matter." 
 
 "That's the way we'll fix it," answered Hallam, 
 with an amused twinkle in his eye. " He's obviously 
 in need of a little more education at my hands, and 
 he can afford to pay for it. I'll buy the stock at par 
 — not a cent more. I suppose it's worth a hundred 
 and three?" 
 
 " Yes — all of that, and it will be worth more pres- 
 ently under Duncan's management. What a fellow 
 that is, anyhow!" 
 
 " I imagine Tandy thinks so by this time." 
 
 As there was no other bank in Cairo, and nobody 
 else who could make a loan such as Tandy must have 
 on the instant, he was simply compelled to make the 
 sale on Hallam's own terms, 
 
THE MYSTERY OF TANDY 289 
 
 With Hallam's check in hand, he hurried to the X 
 National, arriving there just in time to meet Guilford 
 Duncan's demand. 
 
 Duncan received the check in the bank parlor, 
 again insisting that Leftwich should be present at the 
 interview. 
 
 " I'll take that paper, if you please," Tandy said, 
 holding out his hand for it. 
 
 " Not until you shall have adjusted the other mat- 
 ter. The bank's books show that, while you were still 
 president of the institution, you made a loan of thirty 
 thousand dollars to yourself, on your unsecured note, 
 without even an endorsement. You know that in 
 doing so, you violated the law you were sworn to obey 
 and enforce. With that I do not now concern my- 
 self. What I ask is that you secure the bank for that 
 loan, which still stands. When that is done, Mr. Left- 
 wich will return this paper to you. In the meanwhile, 
 I place it in his hands." 
 
 "Really, Mr. Duncan" — for since the early part 
 of that morning's interview, Tandy had not ventured 
 again upon the familiarity of addressing Duncan 
 without the "Mr." — "really, Mr. Duncan, you are 
 pressing me too hard. You must give me a few 
 days " 
 
 "How can I? The law would hold me at fault if 
 I should allow the bank to close to-day with that loan 
 unsecured.- I have no right to give you time." 
 
 " You are persecuting me ! " 
 
290 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "No, I am not. If I were minded to do that, I 
 should call the loan in at once. As it is, I only ask 
 you — as I must — to secure it as the law requires. I 
 will accept any fairly good collateral you may have 
 to offer. There is surely no hardship in that — no 
 persecution in demanding that you shall temporarily 
 leave with the bank enough of the bonds or stock cer- 
 tificates that you hold in plenty, to comply with the 
 law concerning loans by national banks. I have 
 simply no choice but to insist upon that." 
 
 " But I tell you," answered Tandy, " that at pres- 
 ent I have no bonds or stocks conveniently available 
 for such a purpose." 
 
 "I will accept your insurance stock." 
 
 " I've parted with that." 
 
 "Well, as I certainly have no disposition to be 
 hard upon you, I'll accept your stock in the Atlantic 
 and Mississippi Steamship Company, or even your 
 Mississippi Valley Transportation Company stock, 
 though neither can be reckoned a first-class security." 
 
 "I've sold out of both companies," answered 
 Tandy. 
 
 By this time Duncan began to wonder what had 
 happened to Tandy, in a financial way, just as Hal- 
 lam had done. 
 
 "Wonder where he has been putting his money," 
 he thought. " For surely he had plenty of it a little 
 while ago. He's been buying property along the 
 new railroad, but that isn't sufficient to tie up a man 
 
THE MYSTERY OF TANDY 291 
 
 of Tandy's wealth. Something must be the matter. 
 I must be cautious." 
 
 " I'll put up a hundred thousand in Memphis and 
 Ohio River stock " began Tandy. 
 
 "You know I can't consider that," said Duncan; 
 " no sane banker could. But if you choose, the bank 
 will accept stock in your coal mine! — reckoned at fifty 
 cents on the dollar — as security." 
 
 "That's out of the question. I'm negotiating a 
 sale of my interests there, and it would embarrass me 
 to have the stock hypothecated just now." 
 
 "Very well, then. What do you propose to do? 
 Of course you have a large block of stock in this 
 bank. Why not put that up as security, and give 
 yourself all the time you need? Or if you don't want 
 to hypothecate the stock with this bank, you can 
 arrange a loan on it with Stafford or Hallam." 
 
 Tandy hesitated for a time before answering. At 
 last he said: 
 
 " I've only thirty-three shares left. Why shouldn't 
 the bank buy it outright, putting the loan in as a 
 principal part of the purchase money?" 
 
 "At what price will you sell?" 
 
 " At 103. It's worth that and more. 
 
 " I'll consider the offer. Come back in an hour for 
 your answer." 
 
 Duncan sent at once for Hallam and Stafford, as 
 the principal stockholders in the bank, other than 
 Tandy, and told them all that had happened. They 
 
292 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 advised the purchase, but suggested 102 as the price, 
 and an hour later Napper Tandy ceased to be a stock- 
 holder in the X National Bank. 
 
 A day or two later Stafford learned that by this 
 sale of his bank stock, Tandy had practically parted 
 with the last investment he had in any Cairo enterprise. 
 
 He greatly wondered at that, and as he sat with 
 Duncan and HallaTn in Hallam's parlor that night, 
 the three indulged in many conjectures concerning 
 Tandy and his plans. The only conclusion they 
 arrived at was expressed by Captain Will : 
 
 " He's up to mischief of some sort. We must watch 
 him." 
 
XXXI 
 
 Only a Woman 
 
 IN accordance with his custom, Duncan told Bar- 
 bara the whole story of the bank's dealings with 
 Tandy, and explained to her his reasons for sus- 
 pecting, as Captain Hallam had said, that Tandy 
 was " up to mischief " of some kind and needed close 
 watching. 
 
 "Perhaps he has lost money heavily," suggested 
 Barbara, " and is struggling to keep his head above 
 water." 
 
 " That is extremely unlikely," answered Duncan, 
 "particularly as his standing at Bradstreet's is un- 
 impaired. I asked Bradstreet's yesterday for a special 
 report on him, and they gave him four A's. That 
 means that he has ample capital and abundant re- 
 sources somewhere within the knowledge of Brad- 
 street's agents. I imagine that he is going quietly 
 into some big enterprise, and has so far invested his 
 capital in it that he was sorely embarrassed for ready 
 money when suddenly called upon to raise it. I 
 would give a tidy little sum to find out what he is 
 up to." 
 
 m 
 
294 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 But neither Duncan nor Hallam was destined to 
 make that discovery as yet. Soon after the bank 
 matter was settled, Tandy seemed quite at ease again 
 financially. He resumed his purchases of property 
 along the line of the proposed railway, but only along 
 the eastern half of it. He bought none in Cairo or 
 within fifty miles of that city. 
 
 Two months later, after Duncan's campaign was 
 over, and the elections had been held, he and Barbara 
 came back to the subject. Duncan told Barbara of 
 the queer provision that Tandy had persuaded the 
 authorities of two counties to put into their bond 
 appropriation, and expressed his curiosity to know 
 the motive. 
 
 "He didn't do that thing just for fun, Guilford," 
 the girl said, after she had thought the matter over 
 for twenty-four hours. "He has some interest to 
 serve." 
 
 " Of course. I'm very sure of that." 
 
 " We must find out what it is," said the girl, whose 
 apprehension was strongly aroused. 
 
 "But how, Barbara?" 
 
 " I don't know how, at present, but I'm trying to 
 find out a way. I don't know enough about the facts 
 as yet to make a good guess. You must tell me some 
 things." 
 
 "Anything you like." 
 
 " Is there any other railroad that might be injured 
 by this one? Any road, I mean, that he might be 
 
ONLY A WOMAN 295 
 
 interested in enough to make him want this project 
 defeated?" 
 
 "No, certainly not. On the contrary, he has a 
 tremendous interest in the building of our road. Of 
 course his interests here in Cairo are comparatively 
 small, now that he is out of the bank, but as you know, 
 he has been buying property very heavily along our 
 proposed line. Of course, when the road is finished 
 the towns along the line will grow, and property there 
 will go up. In view of that, he has been buying lots, 
 houses, and business buildings at all the places where 
 principal stations are likely to be located." 
 
 It was two or three days later when Barbara re- 
 turned to the subject by a somewhat indirect route. 
 
 "Tell me about Paducah, Guilford," she said to 
 him suddenly. 
 
 He laughingly answered: 
 
 " Paducah is a thriving town in northwestern Ken- 
 tucky. It lies on the Ohio River about fifty miles 
 above the mouth of that stream. It has a small but 
 ambitious population, and is a considerable market for 
 the sale of tobacco. That's about all I remember of 
 what the gazeteer says about the interesting burg." 
 
 " And you know that isn't what I want you to tell 
 me. Are there any railroads there?" 
 
 " One small one, running from the south, ends there, 
 I believe, and the Paducah people are trying to induce 
 the company which is building the Memphis and Ohio 
 River Railroad to make its northern terminus there 
 
296 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 instead of at Cairo. They are trying, too, to get a 
 bridge built across the Ohio at that point. They are 
 unlikely to succeed in either project, for the reason 
 that they have no railroad connection north or east. 
 Railroads from the south running into Paducah would 
 find no outlet except by the river." 
 
 Barbara was silent for some time. Then she asked : 
 " Is Mr. Tandy interested in any business at Padu- 
 cah?" 
 
 " I really don't know. He's in all sorts of things, 
 you know. But why do you ask ? " 
 
 Instead of answering, she asked another question: 
 
 " Is he interested in the company you spoke of, 
 that is building a line from Memphis to the Ohio 
 River?" 
 
 "Yes. He's heavily in that. Indeed, he is presi- 
 dent of it, I believe, or something like that, just as he 
 is of our company — well, no, the parallel doesn't hold, 
 for ours is only a projecting company, as yet, while 
 that is a full-fledged railroad company actually en- 
 gaged in building. I suppose that is one of the 
 things that tied Tandy up at the time of the bank 
 trouble. He had put a pot of money into it, and he 
 could neither sell his stock nor raise money on it till 
 the road should be finished and in operation. But 
 why do you ask about that, Barbara ? " 
 
 For answer, she crossed the room, and returning, 
 spread out a map on a table. 
 
 "Look!" she said, putting her finger on the map. 
 
ONLY A WOMAN 297 
 
 " At a point only a little east of that county line con- 
 cerning which Tandy got the strange stipulation 
 made, our proposed line will be much nearer to 
 Paducah than the distance from that point to Cairo. 
 May it not be possible " 
 
 "By Jove, Barbara!" Duncan exclaimed, as he 
 bent over the map, " you've solved the riddle. " What 
 a splendid combination it is! And how we must 
 hustle to defeat it!" 
 
 "You must be calm, then, and let us work it all 
 out, and be sure of everything before you tell Captain 
 Will about it. I want you to have full credit for 
 the timely discovery." 
 
 " Me? Why, it is all yours, Barbara, and you are 
 to have all the credit of it." 
 
 " Oh, no. You told me the things that enabled me 
 to guess it out, and I've only been trying to help you. 
 I'm glad if I have helped, but positively my name 
 mustn't be mentioned. I'm only a woman! " 
 
 "Only a woman!" Duncan echoed. "Only a 
 woman! Barbara, God's wisdom was never so wise 
 as when he created ' only a woman ' to be a ' helpmeet 
 for man.' " 
 
XXXII 
 
 The Riddle Explained 
 
 THE next half hour was spent, as Barbara 
 expressed it, in " perfecting the guess " she 
 had made. 
 
 "Tandy has gone into that Memphis and Ohio 
 River enterprise up to his eyes," said Duncan. 
 " Naturally, he has got his controlling interest in 
 it at an extremely low price, as compared with the face 
 value of the stock and bonds, for the reason that the 
 road ends at Paducah, which is much the same thing 
 as ending nowhere. 
 
 " But if he can succeed in diverting our line to 
 Paducah instead of Cairo, thus securing an entirely 
 satisfactory connection north and east, his Memphis 
 and Ohio road will become part of one of the greatest 
 trunk lines in this part of the country, and the 
 advance in his stock and bond holdings will make him 
 one of the richest men in the West." 
 
 "That is what I was thinking, Guilford, but I 
 hardly dared suggest it — I know so little. I didn't 
 know that it would be possible to change our line. I 
 
 298 
 
THE RIDDLE EXPLAINED 299 
 
 thought that maybe its charter compelled it to run 
 to Cairo." 
 
 "No, unfortunately, it doesn't. Tandy secured 
 the charter in the first place, before Hallam and 
 Stafford went into the project. I wonder," he added 
 with a puzzled look, " I wonder if the old schemer was 
 looking this far ahead. At any rate, the charter, as 
 Tandy had it drawn, requires only that the line shall 
 be so located and constructed as to connect the rail- 
 roads running east from its eastern terminus with 
 the Mississippi River — it doesn't say at what point. 
 That requirement would be fully met, of course, if the 
 road should be diverted to Paducah, connecting there 
 with the line to Memphis." 
 
 " But why did Tandy want that county line pro- 
 vision put into the bond subscription?" 
 
 " Look at the map again. Those two counties lie 
 west of the point at which the road must be turned 
 south if it is to be diverted to Paducah. If we fail 
 to build across that county line by noon of the fifteenth 
 of next March, the subscriptions of both those 
 counties will be forfeited. Then Tandy will step in 
 and offer the company that is building the line a 
 much larger subscription of some sort from Paducah 
 and from his Memphis road, as an inducement to 
 shorten the line by taking it to Paducah instead of 
 Cairo." 
 
 "That would ruin Cairo?" the girl asked, anx- 
 iously. 
 
300 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 " It would be a terrible blow to the city's prosperity. 
 But," looking at his watch, " I must lay this matter 
 before Hallam and Stafford to-night, late as it is." 
 
 Then, going to the little telegraph instrument 
 which, for his own convenience, he had installed in 
 Barbara's house, he called Captain Hallam out of 
 bed and clicked off the message: 
 
 The milk in the cocoanut is accounted for. I must see 
 you and Stafford to-night, without fail. Summon him. I'll 
 go up to your house at once. 
 
 It did not require much time or many words for 
 Duncan to explain the situation as he now understood 
 it. Nor was there the slightest ground for doubt 
 that the solution reached was altogether the correct 
 one. 
 
 "It's a deep game he's been playing," said 
 Hallam. 
 
 " It is one of the finest combinations I ever heard 
 of," responded Stafford. "You've a mighty long 
 head, Duncan, to work out such a puzzle." 
 
 " Don't be too complimentary to my head. I didn't 
 work it out," responded the younger man. 
 
 " You didn't ? Who did, then ? " 
 
 " Barbara Verne ! She forbade me to mention her 
 name, but I will not sail under false colors." 
 
 " Well, now, I want to say," said Stafford, " that 
 you've a mighty long head, anyhow, to make a coun- 
 selor of such a girl as Barbara Verne. It's the very 
 
THE RIDDLE EXPLAINED 301 
 
 wisest thing you ever did in your life, and the 
 wisest you ever will do till you make her your wife. 
 Of course, that will come in due time? " 
 
 "I hope so, but I am not sure I can accomplish 
 that." 
 
 "Really?" 
 
 "Really." 
 
 " Why, I had supposed it was all arranged. Why 
 
 haven't you " 
 
 " Perhaps I have. At any rate, the doubt I spoke 
 of is not due to any neglect of opportunity on my 
 part. But we must get to business. It is two 
 o'clock in the morning. We've found out old 
 Napper's game. Now, what are we going to do 
 about it?" 
 
 During this little side conversation, Hallam had 
 been pacing the floor, thinking. He now began 
 issuing his orders, like shots from a rapid-fire gun. 
 
 "Go to the instrument there, Duncan, and tele- 
 graph Temple to come to Cairo by the first train. 
 Tell him to give instructions to his assistant as to the 
 running of the mine during a long absence on his 
 part." 
 
 When Duncan had finished the work of telegraph- 
 ing, Hallam turned to him, saying: 
 
 " You, Duncan, are to start for New York on the 
 seven o'clock train this morning. Leave your proxy 
 with Stafford to vote your stock in the present com- 
 pany, and " 
 
302 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 "What's jour plan, Hallam?" interrupted Staf- 
 ford. 
 
 "To give old Napper Tandy the very hardest 
 lesson he's ever had to learn at my hands. You and 
 I will call a meeting of the company immediately, and 
 make Duncan president." 
 
 " But how are we to get rid of Tandy ? " 
 " Ask him to resign, and kick him out if he doesn't. 
 But listen ! We've no time to waste. We'll reorgan- 
 ize this company — making it a real railroad company 
 to build the road, instead of being the mere project- 
 ing company it is now. You and I and Duncan will 
 put all the money we can spare into it, and we'll make 
 every man in Cairo who's got anything beyond funeral 
 expenses put it in. All the subscriptions already made 
 to the inducement fund we'll convert into perma- 
 nent stock subscriptions. Then, with the county, 
 city, and town subscriptions in hand, we'll have about 
 four millions of our stock subscribed. We must have 
 twelve millions of stock in all. It is for you, Duncan, 
 to find the rest in New York. You must see capi- 
 talists and persuade them to go in with us, as sub- 
 scribers, either to the stock or to the construction 
 bonds that we'll issue. You are to use your own 
 judgment and we'll back you up." 
 
 "What are you going to do with Temple? " 
 "Make him chief engineer to the company, and 
 set him at work surveying and locating the line at 
 once. It's now three o'clock. You must go and 
 
THE RIDDLE EXPLAINED 
 
 pack your trunk, Duncan. I'll telegraph you in 
 New York, telling you everything you need to know. 
 Take your copy of our private cipher code with you, 
 in case we should have confidential communications 
 to make. Go, now. I'll smooth your way by tele- 
 graphing our correspondents in New York, and the 
 officers of the Fourth National, asking them to help 
 you. Stafford, you'd better go home, now. You're 
 getting along in life, you know, and need your 
 sleep." Stafford was about ten years younger than 
 Hallam. 
 
 So ended a conference that was destined, by the 
 success or failure of its purpose, to decide the fate 
 of a great enterprise and the future of a thriving city 
 —to say nothing of the career of a brilliant young 
 man. 
 
XXXIII 
 
 At Crisis 
 
 IT was December now, and winter had set in 
 early. Temple found it exceedingly difficult to 
 secure the assistant surveyors, rodmen, chainmen, 
 and the rest, whose services were absolutely necessary, 
 but by dint of hard work, he at last completed the 
 organization of his several engineering corps, and set 
 to work surveying the line, locating it, establishing 
 grades, and the like. 
 
 Hurry it as he might, the work was very slow, be- 
 cause of the bad weather, but at least it went forward, 
 and early in January gangs of men were sent into 
 each county to make a show, at least, of construction 
 work, and thus to avoid all possibility of the for- 
 feiture of the county and town subscriptions. 
 
 The greatest difficulty encountered was in meeting 
 the requirement that a car should actually cross the 
 line between the two counties by noon of the fifteenth 
 of March. That part of the line was peculiarly diffi- 
 cult of access. It could be reached only by a twenty- 
 five mile journey across country, over roads which, 
 
 304 
 
AT CRISIS 305 
 
 in the winter, were well-nigh impassable. In order to 
 build any sort of railroad line at the point involved, 
 it was necessary to carry across country all the tools, 
 earth cars, and construction materials, together with 
 a large company of workmen. Huts must be built to 
 shield the men from the severity of the weather, and 
 provisions for them must be hauled over twenty-five 
 miles of swamp roads. In order to do so, streams must 
 be bridged for the wagons, and in many places the 
 road must be "corduroyed" for many miles of its 
 extent. That is to say, it must be paved with un- 
 hewn logs, laid side by side across it. 
 
 It was near the end of February, therefore, before 
 anything like systematic construction at that point 
 could be got under way. 
 
 Meanwhile, Duncan's mission to New York had 
 been successful, though it was attended by much of 
 difficulty. He had secured the necessary stock sub- 
 scriptions, and better still, he had succeeded in 
 inducing one of the great trunk lines of the East to 
 guarantee a considerable bond issue on the part of 
 the new road, under an agreement that when com- 
 pleted it should be made, in effect, an extension of the 
 eastern company's lines. 
 
 The only problem now was to prevent that diversion 
 of the proposed line which Tandy was openly 
 trying to bring about. The New York capitalists 
 whom Duncan had secured as stockholders in the 
 enterprise, were, many of them, disposed to look upon 
 
306 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 the proposed change of terminus from Cairo to the 
 rival city with a good deal of favor. Such a change 
 would considerably shorten the line to be built, and 
 the connection southwest from Paducah to Memphis 
 was in some respects a more desirable one than that 
 from Cairo. 
 
 But Duncan had secured from the capitalists a 
 trustworthy promise that the line should be built to 
 Cairo, as originally planned, provided the Cairo 
 people, with Duncan, Hallam, and Stafford at their 
 head, should protect the subscriptions of the two 
 hesitating counties by meeting the requirement im- 
 posed at Tandy's suggestion. Thus everything de- 
 pended upon the completion of a track across that 
 county line before noon on the fifteenth day of March. 
 
 Temple had succeeded in getting the work started, 
 but the task was a Herculean one. Duncan hurried 
 to the scene of action as soon as he returned from 
 New York to Cairo. He found that the space to be 
 built over was very low-lying, and that the nearest 
 source of supply for earth with which to build the 
 high embankment required was nearly two miles 
 distant. 
 
 Temple had begun work at that point. He was 
 extending an embankment thence toward the point 
 where the county line must be crossed. On this he 
 was laying a temporary track as fast as it was ex- 
 tended, in order that his earth cars might be pushed 
 over it with their loads of filling material. 
 
AT CRISIS 307 
 
 Duncan's first look at the progress- of the work con- 
 vinced him that it could not be completed within the 
 time allowed, unless a much larger working force 
 could be secured. 
 
 He instantly telegraphed to Hallam: 
 
 Must have more men immediately. If you can send two 
 hundred at once there is a bare possibility of success, pro- 
 vided weather conditions do not grow worse. But without 
 that many men failure is inevitable. Why not send all your 
 miners here? 
 
 Hallam, in his habitual way, acted promptly and 
 with vigor. Leaving Stafford to hire all the men 
 who could be secured in Cairo, he himself hurried to 
 the mines, and by promising double wages, induced 
 most of the men there to go for the time being into 
 the work of railroad construction. Within two or 
 three days the total force at Duncan's command num- 
 bered somewhat more than two hundred men. 
 
 "We ought to have fifty or a hundred more," he 
 said, " particularly as the miners are new to this sort 
 of work ; but, as we can't get them, we must do our 
 best with the force we have." 
 
 After consultation with Temple, he divided the 
 force into three shifts, and kept the work going night 
 and day, without cessation. For a time the rapid 
 progress made gave Duncan confidence in his ultimate 
 success. In that confidence Temple shared, but with 
 a reservation. 
 
 " I'm afraid we're in for a freshet," he said. " The 
 
A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 rivers are all rising, and the rain is almost continuous 
 now. All this region, except a hill here and there, 
 lies lower than the flood levels of the Ohio River on 
 one side, and the Mississippi on the other. If the 
 rise continues, we shall have both rivers on us within 
 a few days." 
 
 "Is there any way in which to meet that diffi- 
 culty?" asked Duncan anxiously. 
 
 "Yes—possibly," Temple responded, slowly and 
 hesitatingly. "We might build a crib across the 
 space still to be filled in, and make it serve the pur- 
 poses of a coffer dam in some degree. By doing that, 
 we can keep the work going, even if the overflow from 
 the rivers comes upon us. But the building of the 
 crib will take time, and we've no time to waste, you 
 know." 
 
 " Yes, I know that. Still, if it becomes necessary, 
 we must build it. I'll tell you this evening what is 
 to be done." 
 
 For convenience and quickness of communication, 
 Duncan had strung a telegraph wire from tree to 
 tree through the woods to the point where the work 
 was in progress. He instantly telegraphed Hallam, 
 saying: 
 
 Find out and telegraph flood prospect. How long before 
 the rise in rivers will drown us out here? Everything depends 
 on early and accurate information as to that. 
 
 The answer came back within half an hour. Hal- 
 lam telegraphed: 
 
AT CRISIS 309 
 
 Have already made telegraphic inquiries at all points on all 
 the rivers. Reports very discouraging. Probability is you'll be 
 flooded within three days. I'll be with you to-morrow. 
 
 The space to be cribbed, so that the work of filling 
 might go on in spite of floods, was comparatively 
 small, but the task of cribbing it, even in the rudest 
 fashion, occupied nearly the whole working force dur- 
 ing three precious days and nights. Worse still, in 
 order to hurry it, Temple made the mistake of work- 
 ing the men overtime. As an inducement, Hallam 
 promised to increase the double wage per hour, which 
 the men were already receiving, to triple wages, on 
 condition that they should work in two, instead of 
 three shifts. As the work was exhausting in its 
 nature, and must be done under a deluge of bone- 
 chilling rain, this overtasking of the men quickly 
 showed itself in their loss of energy and courage. 
 Some of them threw up the employment and made 
 their way homeward. All of them were suffering and 
 discouraged. But at the end of the three days, the 
 rude crib was so far finished that even should the 
 floods come, it would still be possible to continue 
 the work of filling in by running the dirt cars to the 
 slowly advancing end of the temporary track and 
 dropping their contents into the crib. 
 
 Thus the work went slowly on. The men daily 
 showed, more and more, the effects of their overwork — 
 for each was working for twelve hours of each twenty- 
 four now. They grew sullen and moody of mind, and 
 
310 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 slow of movement and of response. Every day a 
 few more of them gave up the task and Duncan began 
 seriously to fear that a wholesale quitting would 
 occur in spite of the enormous wages he was paying. 
 With his soldier experience, he knew the symptoms 
 of demoralization from overstrain, and he began now 
 to recognize them in the conduct and countenances of 
 the men. His soldier life had taught him, also, how 
 large a part feeding plays in such a case as this. He, 
 therefore, minutely inspected the out-of-door mess 
 kitchen, and found it in charge of careless and in- 
 competent negro women, who knew neither how to 
 cook nor how to make food attractive in appearance. 
 "The men eat a good deal," he said to Temple, 
 "but they are not properly nourished. I must 
 remedy that. We simply must win this struggle, 
 Dick, and we've only six days more. If we can keep 
 the men at work for six days and nights more, we'll 
 either finish or finally fail." 
 
 It was Duncan's habit every evening to call up 
 Barbara's house on the telegraph and hold a little 
 conversation with her over the wire. She was thus 
 kept minutely informed of how matters were going 
 with him, and she was well-nigh sleepless with anxiety 
 lest he fail in this crowning undertaking of his 
 career. 
 
 Turning away from Temple, he went to the tele- 
 graphic instrument, opened the circuit and called 
 Barbara. He explained his new difficulty to her, and 
 
AT CRISIS 811 
 
 the vital importance of providing better and more 
 abundant food, better cooked. 
 
 " The men have been living on mess pork and * salt- 
 horse' for weeks, and both the meat and the half- 
 baked dough served to them for bread are enough to 
 break the spirit even of veteran soldiers. Now, I want 
 your help in earnest. If we can keep the men at work 
 for six days more, we shall have a chance, at least, of 
 success. If we can't, failure is inevitable. I want 
 you to buy a lot of the best fresh provisions you can 
 get in Cairo, and send them here early to-morrow 
 morning, in charge of somebody who knows how to 
 hustle. Send one of my bank clerks if you can't do 
 better. Send some molasses, too, in kegs, not barrels 
 — barrels take too long to handle. Send eggs, butter, 
 rice, macaroni, onions, turnips, cheese, and above all, 
 some really good coffee. The calcined peas we've 
 been using for coffee would discourage even Captain 
 Hallam if he dared drink the decoction. 
 
 " Then, if possible, I want you to send me one or 
 two cooks who really know what cooking means. 
 Don't hesitate about wages. We'll pay any price if 
 you can only find two cooks who know the difference 
 between broiling beef and burning it. Till your cooks 
 come, I'm going to take charge of the cooking my- 
 self. I have at least such culinary skill as we old 
 rebel soldiers could acquire when we had next to 
 nothing to cook." 
 u Aiid he did. Guilford Duncan, distinguished man 
 
312 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 of affairs, associate of financial nabobs, bank presi- 
 dent, and president of this railroad company, sat hour 
 after hour on a log, or squatted before an out-door 
 fire, doing his best to make palatable such foodstuffs 
 as were to be found in the camp. 
 
 "It's a sorry task," he said to Temple. "The 
 stuff isn't fit to eat at best. I wonder who bought it. 
 God help the commissary who should have issued it 
 as rations, even in the starvation days of the Army 
 of Northern Virginia. The men would have made 
 meat of him. But I can at least make it look a little 
 more palatable, and perhaps improve its flavor a 
 little in the .cooking, till Barbara sends fresh sup- 
 plies and some capable cooks." 
 
 " What answer did she make to you when you 
 telegraphed ? " 
 
 "Hardly any at all," he answered. She clicked 
 out — * I'll do my best,' and then shut off the circuit, 
 without even a word of encouragement or sympathy. 
 I'm seriously afraid she is ill. You know she shares 
 our anxiety, and she hasn't been sleeping much, I 
 imagine, since our troubles here reached a crisis." 
 
 "That's your fault," said Temple. "You've told 
 her too much of detail. My Mary would be sleepless, 
 too, if I had kept her minutely informed of matters 
 here. So I've only telegraphed her now and then, 
 saying : ' Doing our best, and hopeful. Love to the 
 baby,' and she has responded: 'Your best is always 
 good. Go on doing it. Baby well,' or something like 
 
AT CRISIS 313 
 
 that. If you ever get married, Duncan, you'll learn 
 to practice certain reserves with your wife — for her 
 sake." 
 
 " No I won't." 
 
 " But why so sure?" 
 
 " Because, if I ever marry, my wife will be a cer- 
 tain little woman whose fixed determination it will be 
 to share both my triumphs and my perplexities — 
 especially the perplexities. She will permit no 
 reserves — God bless her for the most supremely un- 
 selfish and heroically helpful woman that He ever 
 made!" 
 
 " How women do differ in their ways ! " said Tem- 
 ple, half musingly. 
 
 "Yes, and how stupidly men blunder in not ade- 
 quately recognizing and respecting their varying 
 attitudes and temperaments! Do you know, Dick, I 
 think life is fearfully hard upon women and very 
 unjust to them, even at its best; and it is my con- 
 viction that the hardship might be very largely re- 
 lieved and the injustice remedied, if men only had 
 sense enough to discover and grace enough to recog- 
 nize the individualities and idiosyncracies of the 
 women with whom they are associated? " 
 
 " I think the trouble is not there," responded Tem- 
 ple. "Most men understand their womankind fairly 
 well. The trouble is that instead of respecting the 
 individualities of women as something to which they 
 have a right, most men conceitedly assume that it is 
 
314 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 their duty to repress those individualities, to mould 
 their wives and daughters to a model of their own 
 shaping. The process is a cruel one when it suc- 
 ceeds. When it fails, it means wretchedness all 
 around. Indeed, I think that absolutely all there is 
 of human disagreement of an unpleasant sort, 
 whether between men and women, or between persons 
 of the same sex, is ultimately traceable to a failure 
 duly to recognize and respect the rights of indi- 
 viduality." 
 
 "I'm inclined to agree with you," answered Dun- 
 can; "but now I've got to dish up and carve this 
 kettleful of corned beef, and you, I imagine, might 
 somewhat expedite the work of the earth shovelers 
 by lending them the light of your countenance for a 
 time." 
 
 Duncan had scarcely finished the dishing up of the 
 unsavory corned beef, the only merit of which was 
 that it was sufficiently cooked, when a dispatch came 
 to him from the New York bankers whom he had left 
 in charge of the company's interests in the financial 
 capital. They telegraphed: 
 
 Tandy reports that you have completely failed to build 
 across county line. The others give notice that if so, they will 
 deflect road to Paducah. Tandy offers subscriptions of vast 
 sum from counties, towns, Paducah, and his Memphis and 
 Ohio road. What answer shall we give? Answer by telegraph. 
 
 This message acted like an electric shock. It 
 quickened every pulse of Duncan's being. It nerved 
 
AT CRISIS 3*5 
 
 him to new endeavor and renewed determination. He 
 promptly replied: 
 
 Tell them to wait till time is up. They have given their 
 promise and I have given mine. I will keep mine. They 
 must keep theirs. Remind them I'm not dead yet. 
 
 Then Duncan went to inspect the progress of the 
 work. 
 
XXXIV 
 
 A Cheer for Little Missie 
 
 IT was after seven o'clock, and darkness had 
 completely fallen, when Barbara received Guil- 
 ford Duncan's telegraphic appeal for help "in 
 earnest." She wasted no time — slow operator that 
 she was on the telegraph — in sending messages of 
 sympathy and reassurance. She laboriously spelled 
 out the words : " I'll do my best," and closed the instru- 
 ment in order that she might attend to more pressing 
 things than telegraphic chatting. 
 
 She summoned Bob to serve as her protector, and 
 promptly sallied forth into the night. The great 
 groceries, known as "boat stores," were accustomed 
 to be open very late at night, and often all night, for 
 the accommodation of the stewards of steamboats 
 landing at the levee. At seven or eight in the even- 
 ing they were sure to be open, with business in 
 unabated activity. But the clerks were full of curi- 
 osity when Barbara, escorted only by the negro 
 serving boy, presented herself and began rattling off 
 orders greater in volume than any they had ever re- 
 
 3i6 
 
A CHEER FOR LITTLE MISSIE 317 
 
 ceived, even from the steward of an overcrowded pas- 
 senger steamer. She began by ordering forty sugar 
 cured hams and four hindquarters of beef. She fol- 
 lowed up these purchases with orders for four kegs of 
 molasses, six boxes of macaroni, a barrel of rice, and 
 so on through her list. Still more to the astonish- 
 ment of the clerks, she gave scarcely a moment to 
 the pricing of the several articles, and seemed to 
 treat her purchases as matters of ordinary detail. 
 They began to understand, however, when she ordered 
 the goods sent that night by express, to that station 
 on the Illinois Central Railroad whic^ lay nearest the 
 scene of Guilford Duncan's operations, and directed 
 that the bill be sent to him at the X National Bank 
 for payment. 
 
 Barbara made short work of her buying. When it 
 was done she hurried home and packed a small trunk 
 with some simple belongings of her own. At seven 
 o'clock the next morning, accompanied by the negro 
 boy Robert, she took the train and before noon found 
 herself at the little station to which she had ordered 
 the freight sent. She was disappointed to find that 
 although she had ordered the goods sent by express, 
 they had not come by the train on which she had 
 traveled. 
 
 The railroad was run by telegraphic orders in 
 those days, and so, even at this small station, there 
 was an instrument and an operator. Making use of 
 these, Barbara inquired concerning the freight, and 
 
318 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 was assured of its arrival by a train due at four 
 o'clock. 
 
 She spent the intervening time in securing two 
 wagons with four stout horses to each, and when the 
 freight came it was loaded upon these with particular 
 care, so that no accidents might occur to delay the 
 journey. If the roads had been even tolerably good, 
 one of the wagons might have carried the load, per- 
 haps, but the roads were execrably bad and Barbara 
 was not minded to take any risks. 
 
 When the loading was done, it was nearly night- 
 fall, but the eager girl insisted upon starting im- 
 mediately, to the profound disgust of her drivers. 
 The first ten miles of road was the best ten miles, as 
 the drivers assured her, and by insisting upon a start 
 that evening instead of waiting for morning, she 
 managed to cover that part of the distance by eleven 
 o'clock. Then she established a camp, saw the 
 horses fed, gave the drivers a hot and savory supper, 
 and ordered them to be ready to start again at sun- 
 rise. 
 
 On resuming the journey in the morning, Barbara 
 urged the teamsters to their best endeavors, rein- 
 forcing her plea for haste with a promise of a tempt- 
 ing money reward for each of them if they should 
 complete the journey that day. 
 
 The drivers did their mightiest to earn the reward, 
 but the difficulties in the way proved to be much 
 greater than even they had anticipated. For the 
 
A CHEER FOR LITTLE MISSIE 319. 
 
 two great rivers had at last broken over their banks 
 and their waters were already spreading over the face 
 of the land. The country through which the road 
 ran was slightly rolling. The small hillocks were 
 secure from overflow at any time, but the low-lying 
 spaces between them were already under water, the 
 depth of which varied from a few inches to two or 
 three feet. The soft earth of the roadbed was now a 
 mere quagmire, through which the horses laboriously 
 dragged the wagons hub deep in mud. 
 
 Worse still were those stretches of road which had 
 been corduroyed with logs. For there some of the 
 logs were floating out of place, and some were piled 
 on top of those that were still held fast in the 
 mud. 
 
 In dragging the wagons through the mud reaches, 
 it was necessary to stop every few minutes to give the 
 horses a breathing spell. On the corduroy stretches 
 it was often necessary to stop for half an hour or more 
 at a time, while the drivers and Bob, wading knee 
 deep, made such repairs as were possible and abso- 
 lutely necessary. 
 
 Bob, with his habitual exuberance of spirit, en- 
 joyed all this mightily. The drivers did not enjoy 
 it at all. Several times, indeed, they wanted to aban- 
 don the attempt, declaring that it was impossible to 
 go farther. But for Barbara's persuasive urgency, 
 they would have unhitched the horses and gone home, 
 leaving the wagons to such fate as might overtake 
 
A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 them. As it was, the caravan moved slowly onward, 
 with many haltings and much of weariness. 
 
 It was midnight when, at last, the flare of the 
 torches told Barbara that the journey was done. Not 
 knowing whither the wagons should be taken, Bar- 
 bara bade Bob go and find Duncan. 
 
 When the young man heard of Barbara's arrival, 
 he and Dick Temple hurried to her, full of appre- 
 hension lest the journey and the exposure should have 
 made her ill, and fuller still of fear that the conditions 
 of life in the camp might prove to involve more of 
 hardship than she could bear. For the first time in 
 his life, Guilford Duncan felt like scolding. 
 
 "What on earth are you doing here, Barbara?" 
 he asked, and before he could add anything to the 
 question, she playfully answered: 
 
 "Just now, I'm waiting for you to tell the team- 
 sters where to drive the wagons." 
 
 "But Barbara " 
 
 " Never mind the rest of your scolding. I've 
 already rehearsed it in my imagination till I know 
 it all by heart — forwards and backwards. Tell the 
 men where the cooking place is." 
 
 " But what are we to do with you, in all this flood 
 and mud, and in the incessant rain ? " 
 
 " Just let me alone while I ' help in earnest,' as you 
 said in your dispatch that you wanted me to do. You 
 telegraphed me that you wanted two good cooks, so 
 here we are, Bob and I. For, really, Bob has learned 
 
A CHEER FOR LITTLE MISSIE S21 
 
 to cook as well as I can. I only wonder you didn't 
 send for us sooner. Now, we mustn't waste any more 
 time talking. I've got to set to work if the men are 
 to have their breakfast on time, and there's a lot of 
 unloading to do before I can get at the things." 
 
 The girl's voice was strained and her manner not 
 quite natural. The long anxiety and the cold and 
 the weariness had begun to tell upon her. She was 
 strong and resolute still, and ready for any physical 
 effort or endurance that might be required of her. 
 But she felt that she could stand no more of emotional 
 strain. So, speaking low to Duncan, in order that 
 his friend might not hear, she said: 
 
 "Please, Guilford, don't say anything more that 
 your tenderness suggests. I can't stand it. Be just 
 commonplace and practical. Show the teamsters 
 the way and let me get to work. I'll be happier then 
 and better." 
 
 Duncan understood and was wise enough to obey. 
 Half an hour later he and Temple had gone back to 
 the crib, leaving Barbara to direct the unloading of 
 the wagons. A little later still, Bob and the two 
 negro women who had hitherto done the cooking 
 went out among the men at work, bearing great ket- 
 tles of steaming coffee for the refreshment of the 
 well-nigh exhausted toilers. Bob accompanied his 
 share of the coffee distribution by a little speech of 
 his own devising: 
 
 "Dar, now! Dat's coffee as is, an' it's hot an' 
 
A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 strong, too. Little Missie done mek it wif her own 
 han's and she's de lady wot sen's it to you. She's 
 done come out inter de wilderness, jes to cook victuals 
 fer you men, and you jes bet yer bottom dollar you'll 
 git a breakf as' in the mawnin'." 
 
 Realizing the situation, and stimulated by their 
 deep draughts of coffee, the men set up a cheer for 
 "Little Missie," though they knew not who she was, 
 and thought of her chiefly as a source of food sup- 
 ply. But they worked the better for the coffee, and 
 for the promise it held out of good things to come. 
 
XXXV 
 
 The End of a Struggle 
 
 WHEN Duncan and Temple went to Bar- 
 bara's fire for their breakfast, after the 
 workmen had been served, both were quick- 
 witted enough to see that the little lady was in no 
 condition to endure emotion of any kind. She had 
 slept little on the night before leaving Cairo, very 
 little more at the night camp during the journey, 
 and not at all on the night of her arrival. Her first 
 words indicated a purpose on her part to fend off all 
 talk that might touch upon personal matters. 
 
 "Good-morning, gentlemen," she said. "I'm 
 very well, thank you, so you needn't ask me about 
 that, especially as there are more important things 
 to be discussed. I brought all the supplies I could, 
 but after seeing the men eat, I realize that we shall 
 run short of food very soon. How many more days 
 are there?" 
 
 "Four more — including to-day." 
 
 "Then you must telegraph at once to Cairo for 
 more beef, or we shall run short. Please go and tele- 
 
 323 
 
A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 graph at once, Guilford. Then come back and your 
 breakfast will be ready." 
 
 When he had gone, the girl turned to Temple and 
 said: 
 
 " Everything is ready for you two. Bob will serve 
 it. I think I'll go and sleep a little, now. Don't fail 
 to wake me at ten o'clock, Bob, and have the roasts 
 cut and ready to hang over the fire when I get up." 
 
 With that, she tripped away to the canvas-covered 
 wagon, which Duncan had detained at the camp to 
 serve her as sleeping quarters. 
 
 Late in the evening of that day, the two teamsters, 
 who had started early in the morning on their return 
 journey with the other wagon, rode back into camp 
 on their horses. They reported the water as rising 
 everywhere. In addition to the incoming flood from 
 the swollen rivers, the nearly ceaseless rain had made 
 raging torrents of all the creeks, and lakes of all the 
 valleys. The teamsters had been obliged to abandon 
 their wagon, wholly unable to make their way fur- 
 ther. 
 
 " Then we shall get no more provisions," said Bar- < 
 bara, in a sadly troubled voice. 
 
 " And that's a pity," answered Temple. " For the 
 men's spirits have greatly revived under the stimulus 
 of your improved commissariat, Miss Barbara. How 
 long will your supplies last?" 
 
 "I've enough coffee, flour, and molasses," she an- 
 swered, "to last through. But the fresh meat will 
 
THE END OF A STRUGGLE 325 
 
 be exhausted by to-morrow night. The hams will 
 help out, for breakfasts, but they won't go far among 
 two hundred men. I'm sorry I couldn't have brought 
 more." 
 
 "You could not have got through at all if your 
 loads had been heavier," said Duncan. "We must 
 simply do the best we can with what we've got. The 
 coffee alone will go far to sustain the men, and the 
 molasses will be a valuable substitute for meat. I 
 still have hopes that we shall win." 
 
 " Oh, we must win, you know. You mustn't allow 
 yourself to think of anything else." 
 
 " We'll try, at any rate, and with your superb 
 courage to help us, I think we shall win." 
 
 It was six o'clock on the morning of the last day, 
 when the night gave its first intimation of a purpose 
 to come to an end. In the slow-coming gray of the 
 dawn, the torches still flared, casting long and dis- 
 torted shadows of the work-weary men, as they con- 
 tinued their toil. During that last night the entire 
 company had been kept at work in a last desperate 
 effort to accomplish the end so vitally necessary. All 
 night long Duncan had done what he could to en- 
 courage the toilers, while Temple had given his at- 
 tention to such devices as might shorten the task, or 
 otherwise facilitate its doing. All night long Bar- 
 bara had busied herself furnishing limitless coffee as 
 an atonement for the insufficient food the men had 
 
326 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 had since her supplies of meat ran out, two days 
 before. 
 
 During the last half hour the rain had almost 
 ceased, and Guilford Duncan had indulged an 
 anxious hope that the skies might clear away with 
 the sunrise, but just as the gray of morning began 
 to give light enough for the workmen to see without 
 the aid of the torches, the downpour began again, 
 more pitilessly than ever. 
 
 Its discouraging effect upon the already exhausted 
 men was instantly apparent. A dozen of them at 
 once quitted work and doggedly sat down in the mud 
 of the embankment. Two or three others, reckless of 
 everything but their own suffering, stretched them- 
 selves at full length to sleep where they were — too 
 weary and hopeless, now, even to seek the less uncom- 
 fortable spots in which to rest their worn-out bodies. 
 
 "Six hours more," said Duncan, looking at his 
 watch. "Only six hours between us and triumph. 
 Only six hours — and we must lose all, simply because 
 the men are done up." 
 
 " We'll do it yet," answered young Temple. 
 
 " We never can. Those fellows are done for, I tell 
 you. I know the symptoms. They've lost their 
 morale, lost the ambition for success. I've seen sol- 
 diers fall in precisely that way, too far gone even to 
 shelter themselves from a cannonade." 
 
 For the first time in his life, Guilford Duncan 
 realized that there is such a thing as the Impossible. 
 
THE END OF A STRUGGLE $Z1 
 
 For the first time, he recognized the fact that there 
 may be things which even courage and determination 
 cannot achieve. 
 
 The simple fact was that the long strain had 
 at last begun to tell, even upon his resolute spirit. 
 For three days and nights now he had not slept 
 For three days and nights he had not sat down. For 
 three days and nights he had been wading in water 
 and struggling in mud, and exhausting all his re- 
 sources of mind and character in efforts to stimulate 
 the men to continued endeavor. 
 
 He was playing for a tremendous stake, as we 
 know. His career, his future, all that he had ever 
 dreamed of of ambition, hung upon success or failure 
 in this undertaking, and now at last, and in spite of 
 his heroic struggle, failure stared him in the face. 
 
 And apart from these considerations of self-inter- 
 est, there were other and higher things to be thought 
 of. If he failed now, an enterprise must be lost in 
 which he had labored for a year to induce others to 
 invest millions. If he failed, the diversion of this rail- 
 road from its original course must become an accom- 
 plished fact, to the ruin of his adopted city and 
 the paralysis of growth in all that region, for perhaps 
 ten years to come. Thus his own career, the millions 
 of other men's money, which had been risked upon 
 faith in his power to achieve, and, worst of all, the 
 development of all this fair, but very backward region 
 — all of good to others, of which he had dreamed, and 
 
A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 for which he had hoped and toiled — depended upon 
 his success or failure in keeping two hundred utterly 
 worn-out men at work in the rain, the water, and the 
 mud, for six hours more. 
 
 At last, this resolute man, whose courage had seemed 
 unconquerable, was discouraged. 
 
 "Might as well give it up," said Will Hallam. 
 " The men simply will not work any longer." 
 
 " It isn't a case of will not, but of cannot," an- 
 swered Duncan. 
 
 Barbara heard all, as she hovered over the fire of 
 logs, and busied herself with her tasks, regardless of 
 rain and weariness, regardless of every consideration 
 of self. She wore no wraps or protection of any 
 kind against the torrents of rain. " They would 
 simply bother me," she said, when urged to protect 
 her person. Her face was flushed by the heat of the 
 fire, but otherwise she was very pale, and her tightly 
 compressed lips were livid as she straightened herself 
 up to answer Duncan's despairing words. 
 
 "You are wrong," she said. "They can work a 
 little longer if they will. It is for us to put will into 
 them. Call them to the fire, a dozen or twenty at a 
 time, for breakfast. I've something new and tempt- 
 ing for them — something that will renew their 
 strength. You and Captain Hallam and Mr. Tem- 
 ple must do the rest." 
 
 A dozen of the men had already come with their tin 
 cups to drink again of the strong coffee that Barbara 
 
THE END OF A STRUGGLE 329 
 
 had been serving to them at intervals throughout the 
 night. She had something more substantial for them 
 now. 
 
 She had by her a barrel full of batter, and she and 
 the negro boy, Bob, each with two large frying pans, 
 were making griddle cakes with astonishing rapidity. 
 To each of the men she gave one of the tin plates, with 
 half a dozen of the hot cakes upon it, bidding each 
 help himself to molasses from the half barrel, from 
 which, for convenience of ladling, Bob had removed 
 the head. 
 
 "This is breakfast," she said to the men, as they 
 refreshed themselves. "There'll be dinner, and a 
 good one, ready for all of you at noon, when the work 
 is done." 
 
 The men were too far exhausted to greet her sug- 
 gestion with enthusiasm. The few words they spoke 
 in response were words of discouragement, and even 
 of despair. They did not tell her that they had 
 decided to work no more, but she saw clearly that they 
 were on the point of such decision. The breakfast 
 she was serving comforted them and gave them 
 some small measure of fresh strength, but it did not 
 give them courage enough to overcome their wear- 
 iness. The girl saw clearly that something more 
 effective must be devised and done. 
 
 She puckered her forehead quizzically — after her 
 manner when working out a problem in arithmetic. 
 After a little the wrinkles passed away, and lifting 
 
A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 her eyes for a moment from her frying pans, she 
 called to Captain Hallam : 
 
 "Would you mind coming here a minute?" she 
 asked. 
 
 The man of affairs responded, wearily, but 
 promptly. 
 
 "What is it, Barbara?" 
 
 "May I spend two thousand dollars, if I get this 
 job done by noon? — that's the last minute, Mr. Dun- 
 can tells me." 
 
 " But how can you " 
 
 " Never mind how. May I have the two thousand 
 dollars?" 
 
 "Yes — twenty thousand — any amount, if only we 
 succeed in pushing that car on rails across the county 
 line before the clock strikes twelve." 
 
 " Very well. I'll see what I can do. Mr. Duncan, 
 can you cook griddle cakes ? " 
 
 " Happily, yes," answered he. " I'm an old soldier, 
 you know." 
 
 " Very well, then. Please come here and cook for 
 a little while — just till I get back. I won't be long." 
 
 Duncan took command of her two frying pans. A 
 little amused smile appeared on his face as he did so, 
 in spite of his discouragement and melancholy. But 
 to the common sense and sincerity of the girl, there 
 seemed nothing ludicrous in setting him thus to the 
 undignified work. Intent upon her scheme, she 
 darted away to where the several gangs of men were 
 
THE END OF A STRUGGLE 331 
 
 still making some pretense of working. To each 
 gang, she said: 
 
 " I've got two thousand dollars for you men, if you 
 stick to your work and finish it before noon to-day. 
 I'll divide the money equally among all the men who 
 stick. It will be ten dollars apiece, or more. Of 
 course, you'll get your triple wages besides. Will 
 you keep it up? It's only for a few hours more." 
 
 Her tone was eager, and her manner almost pite- 
 ously pleading. Without the persuasiveness of her 
 personal appeal, it is doubtful that the men would 
 have yielded to the temptation of the extra earning. 
 Even with her influence added, more than a third of 
 them — those who had already cast their tools aside 
 and surrendered to exhaustion — refused to go on 
 again with a task to which they felt themselves hope- 
 lessly unequal. But in every gang she addressed, 
 there was a majority of men who braced themselves 
 anew, and responded. The very last of the gangs to 
 whom she made her appeal put their response into the 
 form of a cheer, and instantly the other gangs 
 echoed it. 
 
 "What on earth has that girl said or done to the 
 men to fetch a cheer from them!" ejaculated Will 
 Hallam. 
 
 "Reckon Little Missie's jest done bewitched 'em," 
 responded Bob, as he poured batter into his pans. 
 
 A moment later Barbara, with a face that had not 
 yet relaxed its look of intense earnestness, returned 
 
332 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 to the fire, and resumed her work over the frying 
 pans. 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Duncan," was all she said in 
 recognition of his service as a maker of griddle cakes. 
 But she added: 
 
 "The men will stick to work, now, I think — or 
 most of them, at any rate. Perhaps you and Mr. 
 Temple can do something to shorten it — to lessen the 
 amount." 
 
 Then, turning to Bob, she issued her orders: 
 
 " Bring the hog, Bob, as quickly as you can. 
 There's barely time to roast it, before noon." 
 
 The men had nearly all had their breakfasts now, 
 so that the making of griddle cakes had about ceased. 
 Hallam, Duncan, and the young engineer, Temple, 
 taking new courage from Barbara's report concern- 
 ing the disposition of the men, were going about 
 among the gangs, wading knee deep in water and 
 mud, and giving such directions as were needed. 
 
 Duncan, especially, was rendering service. As an 
 old soldier, who had had varied experience in the hur- 
 ried construction of earthworks under difficulties, he 
 was able in many ways to hasten the present work. 
 One thing he hit upon which went far to make success 
 possible. That end of the crib which reached and 
 crossed the county line offered a cavernous space to 
 be filled in. It was thickly surrounded by trees, and 
 Duncan ordered all these felled, directing the chop- 
 ping so that the trunks and branches should fall into 
 
THE END OF A STRUGGLE 3B3 
 
 the crib. Then setting men to chop off such of the 
 branches as protruded above the proposed embankment 
 level, and let them fall into the unoccupied spaces, he 
 presently had that part of the crib loosely filled in with 
 a tangled mass of timber and tree tops. 
 
 Gangs of men were meanwhile pushing cars along 
 the temporary track, and dumping their loads of 
 earth among the felled trees. Duncan, with a small 
 gang, was extending these temporary tracks along 
 the crib as fast as the earth dumped in provided a 
 sufficient bed. 
 
 This work of filling was very slow, of course, and 
 when Duncan's watch showed ten o'clock, he was well- 
 nigh ready to despair. Under the strain of his 
 anxiety he had forgotten to take any breakfast, and 
 the prolonged exposure to water and rain had so far 
 depressed his vitality that he now found a chill creep- 
 ing over him. He hurried to Barbara's fire for some 
 coffee and a few mouthfuls of greatly needed food. 
 There for the first time he saw what Barbara's 
 promised dinner was to be. The two separated halves 
 of a dressed hog hung before and partly over the fire, 
 roasting. 
 
 "Where on earth did you get that?" he asked in 
 astonishment. 
 
 "Bob got it last night," she answered, "and 
 dressed it himself." 
 
 " But where, and how ? " 
 
 "I don't know yet. He laughs when I ask ques- 
 
334 A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 tions. I'm sorely afraid Bob stole the hog from some 
 farmer. I sent him out with some money to buy what- 
 ever meat he could find, for I saw that the men must 
 have substantial food. He came back about daylight, 
 and told me he had a dressed hog 'out dar in de 
 bushes. 9 He gave me back all the money I had given 
 him, and, as I say, he simply laughs when I ask ques- 
 tions. I'll make him tell me all about it this afternoon. 
 If he stole the hog, we can pay for it. And mean- 
 while the men shall have their dinner. How is the 
 work getting on ? " 
 
 "Rapidly— but not rapidly enough, I fear. I 
 must hurry back now." 
 
 " I'll go with you," said the girl. " Bob can watch 
 the roasting," for Bob had reappeared at the fire. 
 
 "But you can't go with me," replied Duncan. 
 " The water's knee deep, and more, between here and 
 the crib." 
 
 "It can't make me any wetter than I am now," 
 replied the resolute girl, as she set off in Duncan's 
 company. 
 
 At the crib she studied the situation critically. 
 She knew nothing of engineering, of course, but she 
 had an abundance of practical common sense, and in 
 most of the affairs of this life, common sense goes a 
 long way as a substitute for skill. 
 
 "What time is it now?" she asked, after she had 
 watched the slow progress of the work long enough to 
 estimate the prospect. 
 
THE END OF A STRUGGLE 335 
 
 " Half past ten." 
 
 "Then we've only an hour and a half more. It 
 isn't enough. You can never fill that hole in time." 
 
 " I'm afraid we can't. I'm afraid we've lost in the 
 struggle." 
 
 "Oh, no, you mustn't feel that way. We simply 
 must win this battle. If we can't do it in one way, 
 we must find another." 
 
 Duncan made no answer. There seemed to him no 
 answer to be made. The girl continued to look about 
 her. After a while she asked: 
 
 "Is the end of the crib at the county line?" 
 
 " Yes — or rather the line lies a little way this side 
 of the end of the crib." 
 
 Again she remained silent for a time, before 
 saying: 
 
 "There are two big tree trunks lying longways 
 there in the crib. They extend across the county line. 
 Why can't you jack them up into place, and lay your 
 rails along them, without filling the space, and without 
 using any ties ? " 
 
 For half a minute the young man did not answer. 
 At last he exclaimed: 
 
 "That's an inspiration!" 
 
 Without pausing to say another word Duncan 
 started at a run through the water till he reached 
 the mud embankment. Then he ran along that to 
 the point where Temple was superintending the earth- 
 diggers. 
 
A CAPTAIN IN THE RANKS 
 
 " Quit this quick \ " he cried, " and hurry the whole 
 force to the crib. I see a way out. Order all the 
 jack-screws brought, Dick, and come yourself in a 
 hurry ! " 
 
 The two great tree trunks were quickly cleared of 
 their remaining branches by the axmen. Then 
 Temple placed the jack-screws under them, and set 
 to work to raise them into the desired position, so 
 that they should lie parallel with each other, at the 
 track level, with a space of about four and a half 
 feet between their centers. 
 
 As the jack-screws slowly brought them into posi- 
 tion, Will Hallam and Duncan, one at either end of 
 the logs — directed men in the work of placing log 
 supports under them. 
 
 At half past eleven Temple announced that the 
 great tree trunks were in place. Instantly twenty 
 axmen were set at work hewing a flat place for rails 
 along the top of each log, while other men, as fast 
 as the hewing advanced, laid and spiked down the iron 
 rails. 
 
 At five minutes before noon, a gang of men, with 
 shouts of enthusiastic triumph, seized upon the dump- 
 ing car, which stood waiting, and pushed it across the 
 line! As this last act in the drama began, Guilford 
 Duncan seized Barbara by the elbows, kissed her in 
 the presence of all, lifted her off her feet, and placed 
 her in the moving car. 
 
 " You have saved the railroad ! " he said with emp- 
 
THE END OF A STRUGGLE 3ST 
 
 tion in his voice, "and you shall be its first 
 passenger. 55 
 
 • • * • • 
 
 It was ten days later when Barbara reached home 
 again, after a wearisome journey through the flooded 
 district, under the escort of Duncan and Captain 
 Will Hallam, and with the assistance of Temple, at 
 the head of a gang of his ready-witted miners. 
 
 That evening Duncan stood face to face with her 
 in the little parlor. Without preface, he asked: 
 
 " Will you now say * yes, 5 Barbara, to the question 
 I asked you so long ago? 55 
 
 "I suppose I must, 55 she answered, "after — after 
 what you did when you set me in the car that last 
 day of the struggle. 55 
 
 THE END 
 
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 that you will sit up far into the night to finish it. As a love romance 
 It is charming. 
 
 GARTHOWEN. A story of a Welsh Homestead. By Allen Raine. Cloth, 
 
 i2mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00. 
 
 "This is a little idyl of humble life and enduring love, laid bare before 
 us, very real and pure, which in its telling shows us some strong points of 
 Welsh character— the pride, the hasty temper, the quick dying out of wrath. 
 . . . We call this a well-written story, interesting alike through ita 
 romance and its glimpses into another life than ours. A delightful and 
 clever picture of Welsh village life. The result is excellent."— Detroit Free 
 Press. 
 
 MIFANWY. The story of a Welsh Singer. By Allan Raine. Cloth, 
 umo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00. 
 
 "This is a love story, simple, tender and pretty as one would care to 
 read. The action throughout is brisk and pleasing; the characters, it is ap- 
 parent at once, are as true to life as though the author had known them 
 all personally. Simple in all its situations, the story is worked up in that 
 touching and quaint strain which never grows wearisome, no matter how 
 often the lights and shadows of love are introduced. It rings true, and 
 does not tax the imagination."— Boston Herald. 
 
 For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the pub* 
 listers, A, b, BURT COMPANY, 53.58 Duaac St., New York. 
 
Good Fiction Worth Reading, 
 
 A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the field 
 of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and diplomacy 
 that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest. 
 
 DARNLEY. A Romance of the times of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey. 
 By G. P. R. James. Cloth, i2tno. with four illustrations by J. Watsor Davis. 
 Price, $i. oo. 
 
 In point of publication, "Darnley" is that work by Mr. James which 
 follows "Richelieu," and, if rumor can be credited, it was owing to the ad- 
 vice and insistence of our own Washington Irving that we are indebted 
 primarily for the story, the young author questioning whether he could 
 properly paint the difference in the characters of the two great cardinals. 
 And it is not surprising that James should have hesitated; he had been 
 eminently successful in giving to the world the portrait of Richelieu as a 
 man, and by attempting a similar task with Wolsey as the theme, was 
 much like tempting fortune. Irving insisted that "Darnley" came natur- 
 ally in sequence, and this opinion being supported by Sir Walter Scott* 
 the author set about the work. 
 
 As a historical romance "Darnley" is a book that can be taken wp 
 pleasurably again and again, for there is about it that subtle charm which 
 those who are strangers to the works of G. P. R. James have claimed was 
 only to be imparted by Dumas. 
 
 If there was nothing more about the work to attract especial attention,, 
 the account of the meeting of the kings on the historic "field of the cloth off 
 gold" would entitle the story to the most favorable consideration of every 
 reader. 
 
 There is really but little pure romance in this story, for the author ha« 
 taken care to imagine love passages only between those whom history has 
 credited with having entertained the tender passion one for another, and 
 he succeeds in making such lovers as all the world must love. 
 
 CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE SCHOONER CENTIPEDE. By I<ieut. 
 
 Henry A. Wise, U. S. N. (Harry Gringo). Cloth, i2mo. with four illustra- 
 tions by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00. 
 
 The re-publication of this story will please those lovers of sea yarn* 
 who delight in so much of the salty flavor of the ocean as can come through 
 the medium of a printed page, for never has a story of the sea and those 
 "who go down in ships" been written by one more familiar with the scene* 
 depicted. 
 
 The one book of this gifted author which is best remembered, and which 
 will be read with pleasure for many years to come, is "Captain Brand," 
 who, as the author states on his title page, was a "pirate of eminence in 
 the West Indies." As a sea story pure and simple, "Captain Brand" has 
 never been excelled,, and as a story of piratical life, told without the usual 
 embellishments of blood and thunder, it has no equal. 
 
 NICK OF THE WOODS. A story of the Early Settlers of Kentucky. By 
 Robert Montgomery Bird. Cloth, i2mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson 
 Davis. Price, |i.oo. 
 
 This most popular novel and thrilling story of early frontier life in 
 Kentucky was originally published in the year 1837. The novel, long out off 
 print, had in its day a phenomenal sale, for its realistic presentation off 
 Indian and frontier life in the early days of settlement in the South, nar- 
 rated in the tale with all the art of a practiced writer. A very charmingf 
 love romance runs through the stery. This new and tasteful edition off 
 "Nick of the Woods" will be certain to make many new admirers for 
 this enchanting story from Dr. Bird's clever and versatile pen. 
 
 For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid ©n receipt of price by the pub* 
 Hshers, A. L, BURT COMPANY, 53-58 Duane St., New York. 
 
Good Fiction Worth Reading. 
 
 > ' -■ ■ ' ■ ■ ' — «^— ^— 
 
 A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the field 
 of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and diplomacy 
 that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest. 
 
 GUY FAWKES. A Romance of the Gunpowder Treason. By Wm. Harri- 
 son Ainsworth. Cloth, i2mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank. 
 Price, $1.00. 
 
 The "Gunpowder Plot" was a modest attempt to blow up Parliament, 
 the King and his Counsellors. James of Scotland, then King of England, 
 was weak-minded and extravagant. He hit upon the efficient scheme of 
 extorting money from the people by imposing taxes on the Catholics. In 
 their natural resentment to this extortion, a handful of bold spirits con- 
 cluded to overthrow the government. Finally the plotters were arrested, 
 and the King put to torture Guy Fawkes and the other prisoners witli 
 royal vigor. A very intense love story runs through the entire romance. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OP THE BORDER. A Romance of the Early Settlers in the 
 Ohio Valley. By Zane Grey. Cloth. i2mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson 
 Davis. Price, |i . oo. 
 
 A book rather out of the ordinary is this "Spirit of the Border." The 
 main thread of the story has to do with the work of the Moravian mia- 
 sionaries in the Ohio Valley. Incidentally the reader is given details of the 
 frontier life of those hardy pioneers who broke the wilderness for the plant- 
 ing of this great nation. Chief among these, as a matter of course, is 
 Lewis Wetzel, one of the most peculiar, and at the same time the most 
 admirable of all the brave men who spent thetr lives battling with the 
 savage foe, that others might dwell in comparative security. 
 
 Details of the establishment and destruction of the Moravian "Village 
 of Peace" are given at some length, and with minute description. The 
 efforts to Christianize the Indians are described as they never have been 
 before, and the author has depicted the characters of the leaders of the 
 several Indian tribes with great care, which of itself will be of interest to> 
 the student. 
 
 By no means least among the charms of the story are the vivfd word- 
 pictures of the thrilling adventures, and the intense paintings of the beau- 
 ties of nature, as seen in the almost unbroken forests. 
 
 It is the spirit of the frontier which is described, and one can by it, 
 perhaps, the better understand why men, and women, too, willingly braved 
 every privation and danger that the westward progress of the star of em- 
 pire might be the more certain and rapid. A love story, simple and tender, 
 runs through the book. 
 
 RICHELIEU. A tale of France in the reign of King Louis XIII. By G. P. 
 R. James. Cloth, i2mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, £1.00. 
 
 In 1829 Mr. James published his first romance, "Richelieu," and was 
 recognized at once as one of the masters of the craft. 
 
 In this book he laid the story during those later days of the great car- 
 dinal's life, when his power was beginning to wane, but while it was 
 yet sufficiently strong to permit now and then of volcanic outbursts which 
 overwhelmed foes and carried friends to the topmost wave of prosperity. 
 One of the most striking portions of the story is that of Cinq Mar's conspir- 
 acy; the method of conducting criminal cases, and the political trickery 
 resorted to by royal favorites, affording a better insight into the state- 
 craft of that day than can be had even by an exhaustive study of history;. 
 It is a powerful romance of love and diplomacy, and in point of thrilling 
 and absorbing interest has never been excelled. 
 
 For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the pub- 
 lishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-38 Duaae St., New York. 
 
Good Fiction Worth Reading. 
 
 A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the field 
 of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and diplomacy 
 that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest. 
 
 WINDSOR CASTLE. A Historical Romance of the Reign of Henry vni. ; 
 Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth. Cloth, 
 i2mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00. 
 
 "Windsor Castle" is the story of Henry VIII., Catharine, and Anne 
 Boleyn. "Bluff King Hal," although a well-loved monarch, was none too 
 good a one in many ways. Of all his selfishness and unwarrantable acts, 
 none was more discreditable than his divorce from Catharine, and his mar- 
 riage to the beautiful Anne Boleyn. The King's love was as brief as it 
 was vehement. Jane Seymour, waiting maid on the Queen, attracted him, 
 and Anne Boleyn was forced to the block to make room for her successor. 
 This romance is one of extreme interest to all readers. 
 
 HORSESHOE ROBINSON. A tale of the Tory Ascendency in South Caro- 
 lina in 1780. By John P. Kennedy. Cloth, i2mo. with four illustrations by J» 
 "Watson Davis. Price, $1.00. 
 
 Among the old favorites In the field of what is known as historical fic- 
 tion, there are none which appeal to a larger number of Americans than 
 Horseshoe Robinson, and this because it is the only story which depicts 
 with fidelity to the facts the heroic efforts of the colonists in South Caro- 
 lina to defend their homes against the brutal oppression of the British 
 under such leaders as Cornwallis and Tarleton. 
 
 The reader is charmed with the story of love which forms the thread 
 of the tale, and then impressed with the wealth of detail concerning those 
 times. The picture of the manifold sufferings of the people, is never over- 
 drawn, but patnted faithfully and honestly by one who spared neither 
 time nor labor in his efforts to present in this charming love story all that 
 price in blood and tears which the Carolinians paid as their share in the 
 winning of the republic 
 
 Take it all in all, "Horseshoe Robinson" is a work which should be 
 found on every book-shelf, not only because it is a most entertaining 
 story, but because of the wealth of valuable information concerning the 
 colonists which it contains. That it has been brought out once more, well 
 Illustrated, is something which will give pleasure to thousands who have 
 long desired an opportunity to read the story again, and to the many who 
 have tried vainly in these latter days to procure a copy that they might 
 read it for the first time. 
 
 THE PEARL OP ORR'S ISLAND. A story of the Coast of Maine. By 
 Harriet Beecher Stowe. Cloth, i2tno. Illustrated. Price, $1.00. 
 
 Written prior to 1862, the "Pearl of Orr's Island" is ever new; a book 
 filled with delicate fancies, such as seemingly array themselves anew each 
 time one reads them. One sees the "sea like an unbroken mirror all 
 around the pine-girt, lonely shores of Orr's Island," and straightway 
 comes "the heavy, hollow moan of the surf on the beach, like the wild 
 angry howl of some savage animal." 
 
 Who can read of the beginning of that sweet life, named Mara, which 
 came into this world under the very shadow of the Death angel's wings, 
 without having an intense desire to know how the premature bud blos- 
 somed? Again and again one lingers over the descriptions of the char- 
 acter of that baby boy Moses, who came through the tempest, amid the 
 angry billows, pillowed on his dead mother's breast. 
 
 There is no more faithful portrayal of New England life than that 
 Which Mrs. Stowe gives in "The Pearl of Orr's Island." 
 
 For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the p«b« 
 Usher*, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 53-58 Duanc St., New York. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 
 
 DEC 23 194 ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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ID / vJM£.U 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY