Fighting Byng: A Novel of Mystery, Intrigue and Adventure

by A. Stone

  CHAPTER V

  I won't try to account for Byng's impression that I, though far away,was flogging him along to achievement. Such influence is more commonthan might be supposed, so common, in fact, that the wonder is that itis not labeled and tagged by everyone, instead of remaining a part ofthe equipment of first-class secret-service men, and accomplishedscoundrels.

  Criminologists understand it. It is the libertine's long suit. Powerto obsess through concentrated thought. Now that is as substantial asrailroad spikes and can nail its victims to the flooring of thebottomless pits, or carry them safely, chastely through a life wellspent.

  Aaron Burr was a most notable disciple of thought transference. Heprepared his victim's mind at safe distance, so that the finish was amere matter of his own convenience, and it is written he never failed.Women of all classes, well-meaning and virtuous, are unable tounderstand this phenomena, until too late, in many cases. Earlytraining and intuition are the safe-guards. But good influences aremore powerful and account for more wonderful occurrences. Power ofanalysis, derived from education and experience, enable men, andespecially women, to overcome their impulses; to keep their minds openand cautious, thus enabling them to unconsciously shield themselvesagainst auto-suggestion from cunning rascals. I would not offer thisif it did not have a great deal to do with the life of Howard Byng.

  When I awakened next morning I could have imagined myself in afirst-class hotel. The room furnishings were of the best, with agenerous bath and every convenience. But I had only to look out of thecabin window at the river and the great cut-over land beyond, withits blackened stumps grinning above the stunted growth, like numerousoutpost sentinels of the infernal regions, to readjust myself to myexact location. I was surprised to see a small private yacht anchored,amid-stream, just off the mill.

  What Byng called his guest cabin was a good-sized bungalow, on higherground some distance below the plant along the river. It had the openhall of the Southern type and a veranda all around, every room beingprivate, with entrance from either hall or veranda. While the olddarkey prepared breakfast I looked out over the one-story concretemill and the smoking plant below, still in full blast, runningtwenty-four hours a day, as all paper mills must. Farther back werecomfortable cabins for the negro help.

  Byng soon came up and was thoroughly elated. He took me by the arm andled me to the other side of the cabin and pointed out the yacht in theriver. "I'm mighty glad he has come while you are here," he said."Somehow I feel safe now. That yacht belongs to a Mr. Purdue. Did youever hear of the Purdues of New York?" he paused to inquire anxiously.

  I thought I could recall a Purdue, once a prominent railroad man.

  "That's him, that's what he wrote. He's got twenty thousand acres ofstump land, mostly pine, a little gum and chestnut, joinin' mine onthe north and up the river, and wants to sell out to me. It's a bigdeal and I want your advice. We've been dickering by mail for sometime and finally he promised to run down, but I never expected hewould. His boat isn't very big, but she's deep and I don't see how heever got up the river. Must have caught the ebb and had luck," he wenton, still excited. "He seems to have his family, too. I saw two orthree wimmen moving about," he added, as if that was an addedresponsibility, or an important event. Outside of negroes, women wereseldom seen in that desolate country.

  "You see," continued Byng, as we sat down to breakfast, "I've got tobe careful. As near as I can figure, I am the only one who knows howto make enough out of my turpentine and rosin from pine stumps so thatmy paper product is all velvet. They know I do it and are trying theirheads off to find out my method. But they never will. I'll tell youand that's all. Just as you said, years ago, the soil goes clear downand'll never stop raisin' cotton. I'm going to take you out to-day andshow you the class of cotton I'm raisin' where I pulled the stumpsout. I've got a lot of stump land, that'll last a long time the wayI'm going now, but I'd like to have enough to last all my life, andthis old codger has got it joinin' me, and it ain't worth a damn centto anyone else. Now do you see why I'm a little excited?" he asked,with a broad, cordial smile, "and do you see the fight me and thisfeller is goin' to have if he really wants to get rid of payin'non-resident taxes? Of course, he's a business man and sharp, muchsharper than me. That's why I am so glad you're here to sort of watchover me in the deal, and see when I'm going wrong. What do you thinkI'd better do?"

  "Well, I don't know; if you have written----"

  "No, I ain't. I got bit once writin' letters. And once is enough forme," he interrupted sharply.

  "Then the only way is to let things take a natural course. Let himraise the trade question. Invite them ashore, for they have probablybeen cruising for some time and are tired of their cramped quarters inthe small yacht. Let them occupy this bungalow all to themselves. Youcan find some other place for----"

  "Find another place for you!" he interrupted, dropping his knife andfork. "Hell's Bells! Me find another place for you! Not if he had allof Southern Georgia to sell for a penny. You are in my best guestchamber and you're goin' to stay there, suh. You can stay on the restof your life and have Uncle George do nuthin' but wait on you all thetime. That's my orders," he added, with perfect sincerity, and withsuch grace as only a Southern man knows how to extend to a trustedfriend. "Besides, unless he's got a big family, there's room tospare."

  "Well, you get the idea. Be nice to him, but wait for him to talktrade. You know how much more chesty and louder a rooster crows whenhe is in his own barnyard and among his own hens?"

  "Yes--yes, I've seen 'em at it, they're right laughable," he replied,quite able to see the application.

  "Well, you are on your own ground, in your own plant, and while youneedn't crow so loud, you can keep your chest away out."

  "Do you think I have done so much? It has come so slow, mighty hard,so much plannin'. Machinery is hard to learn, but I got it down finenow--engines, dynamos, and all."

  "Yes--you have astonished me, Howard; your all-around progress isamazing, and in another five years you will be the most prominent manin Southern Georgia."

  "You can't ever know what it means to me to hear you say that,for"--he hesitated again to control himself--"for I would still be aGeorgia Cracker if it wasn't for you," and unashamed he looked at mesquarely with moistened eyes.

  "An'--an'"--he halted again, contemplating as anyone might the onething apparently unattainable. His lips quivered as he looked out pastthe plant and cabins to the growing cotton, the stump land and swampwhich his genius had converted into a garden of usefulness and beauty.Then, with even voice under control, he went on, "I ain't much more'na Cracker yit. I talk Cracker an' I think Cracker, that's why I ain'tno match for Purdue even when it comes to tradin'. I ain't got time togo to college. What can I do? There's no livin' being I'd take adviceof that kind from 'cept you. My dad and mam, I suppose, did the bestthey could, but they didn't give me much but life and an appetite formoonshine. We come from good English stock, but it's run down. I'masking you what I can do for myself, 'cause I know you kin tell me,can't yer?"

  "Howard," I began, delighted that he could see himself, and that hewas ready and willing to struggle for better things. "Are you makingmoney now?"

  "Yes, I'm making money. Every roll of paper that drops off thatmachine is clear profit, worth around fifty dollars, and you know theycome off pretty fast, but, shuckins!--ye soon find money don't git yemuch. It's more fun to see the black stumps turn into white paper andthe cotton grow where they cum from!"

  "You are better off now than most college graduates," I replied, "butyou do need better English. It will help you to think better. Write toa northern college to send you a sort of tutor secretary, give himsome work about the office, watch him, and learn to talk as he does.Insist that he corrects you every time you make a mistake. Get thebest dictionary, learn how to use it, and keep it handy all the time.Also an encyclopedia, and an atlas. It strikes me that you arealready long on arithmetic." He laughed at this thought.

  "An' I'll git rid of my
Cracker talk, will I?" he asked, his facebrightening in delightful anticipation.

  "Yes, in a year."

  "I knew there was a way, an' you could tell me," said he. Then helinked his arm in mine and dragged me out in the open for a littlelook around the place.