Interest presently centered in the damage that had been done. Many window panes were shattered and the kitchen chimney of the hotel had toppled over; but no person had been injured and the damage could easily be repaired. While the excitement was at its height Thursday Smith returned to his room and went to bed; but long after the villagers had calmed down sufficiently to seek their homes Hetty Hewitt sat alone by the great pit, staring reflectively into its ragged depths. Quaint and curious were the thoughts that puzzled the solitary girl’s weary brain, but prominent and ever-recurring was the sentence that had trembled upon Thursday Smith’s lips: “It was a close call, dear!”
The “close call” didn’t worry Hetty a particle; it was the last word of the sentence that amazed her. That, and a new and wonderful respect for the manliness of Thursday Smith, filled her heart to overflowing.
CHAPTER XV
A CLEVER IDEA
Neither Thursday nor Hetty allowed a word to escape concerning the placing of the bomb in the Tribune office, but the explosion was public knowledge and many were bothering their heads to explain its meaning.
John Merrick, when he heard the news, looked very grave and glanced uneasily into the unconscious faces of his three beloved nieces. A man of much worldly experience, in spite of his simple, ingenuous nature, the little man began carefully piecing together parts of the puzzle. Thursday Smith’s defense of the girl journalists, whereby he had severely pounded some of the workmen who had insulted them, had caused the man to be denounced by the colony at Royal. Mr. Skeelty, the manager, had demanded that Smith be discharged by Mr. Mirrick, and being refused, had threatened to shut off the power from the newspaper plant. Skeelty dared not carry out this threat, for fear of a lawsuit, but his men, who had urged the matter of Smith’s discharge upon their manager, were of the class that seeks revenge at any cost. At this juncture Ojoy Boglin, Skeelty’s partner and the owner of all the pine forest around Royal, had become the enemy of the newspaper and was aware of the feeling among the workmen. A word from Boglin, backed by Skeelty’s tacit consent, would induce the men to go to any length in injuring the Millville Tribune and all concerned in its welfare.
Considering these facts, Mr. Merrick shrewdly suspected that the dynamite explosion had been the work of the mill hands, yet why it was harmlessly exploded in a field was a factor that puzzled him exceedingly. He concluded, from what information he possessed, that they had merely intended this as a warning, which if disregarded might be followed by a more serious catastrophe.
The idea that such a danger threatened his nieces made the old gentleman distinctly nervous.
There were ways to evade further molestation from the lawless element at the mill. The Hon. Ojoy could be conciliated; Thursday Smith discharged; or the girls could abandon their journalistic enterprise altogether. Such alternatives were mortifying to consider, but his girls must be protected from harm at any cost.
While he was still considering the problem, the girls and Arthur having driven to the office, as usual, Joe Wegg rode over from Thompson’s Crossing on his sorrel mare for a chat with his old friend and benefactor. It was this same young man — still a boy in years — who had once owned the Wegg Farm and disposed of it to Mr. Merrick.
Joe was something of a mechanical genius and, when his father died, longed to make his way in the great world. But after many vicissitudes and failures he returned to Chazy County to marry Ethel Thompson, his boyhood sweetheart, and to find that one of his father’s apparently foolish investments had made him rich.
Ethel was the great-granddaughter of the pioneer settler of Chazy County — Little Bill Thompson — from whom the Little Bill Creek and Little Bill Mountain had been named. It was he who first established the mill at Millville; so, in marrying a descendant of Little Bill Thompson, Joe Wegg had become quite the most important resident of Chazy County, and the young man was popular and well liked by all who knew him.
After the first interchange of greetings Joe questioned Mr. Merrick about the explosion of the night before, and Uncle John frankly stated his suspicions.
“I’m sorry,” said Joe, “they ever started that mill at Royal Falls. Most of the workmen are foreigners, and all of them rude and reckless. They have caused our quiet, law-abiding people no end of trouble and anxiety already. It is becoming a habit with them to haunt Millville on Saturday nights, when they are partly intoxicated, and they’ve even invaded some of the farmhouses and frightened the women and children. I’ve talked to Bob West about it and he has promised to swear in Lon Taft and Seth Davis as special constables, to preserve order; but he admits we are quite helpless to oppose such a gang of rowdies. I’ve also been to see Mr. Skeelty, to ask him to keep his men at home, but he answered gruffly that he had no authority over his employees except during working hours, and not much authority even then.”
“Skeelty doesn’t seem the right man to handle those fellows,” observed Mr. Merrick thoughtfully; “but as he owns the controlling interest in his company, and Boglin is fully as unreasonable, we cannot possibly oust him from control. If the men determined to blow up all Millville with dynamite I’m sure Skeelty would not lift a finger to prevent it.”
“No; he’s deathly afraid of them, and that’s a fact,” said Joe.
They sat in silence a while.
“Your report of Skeelty’s threat to cut off your electric power,” said young Wegg, “reminds me of a plan I’ve had in mind for some time. I find I’ve too much time on my hands, Mr. Merrick, and I cannot be thoroughly happy unless I’m occupied. Ethel’s farms are let on shares and I’m a drone in the world’s busy hive. But we’re anchored here at Millville, so I’ve been wondering what I could do to improve the place and keep myself busy. It has seemed to me that the same rush of water in Little Bill Creek that runs the dynamos at Royal is in evidence — to a lesser extent — at the old milldam. What would you think of my putting in an electric plant at the mill, and lighting both Millville and Huntingdon, as well as all the farmhouses?”
“Not a bad idea, Joe,” said Uncle John approvingly.
“Electric lights have a civilizing influence,” continued the young man. “I’m quite sure all the farmers between here and Huntingdon would use them, at a reasonable price. I can also run a line to Hooker’s Falls, and one to Chazy Junction. Plenty of poles can be cut from our pine forests and the wires will be the chief expense. I may not make money, at first, but I’ll play pretty nearly even and have something to do.”
“Do you think you could furnish enough power for our printing office?” asked Mr. Merrick.
“Yes; and a dozen factories, besides. I’ve an idea the thing may bring factories to Millville.”
“Then get at it, Joe, and build it quick. I’ve a notion we shall have an open rupture with Skeelty before long.”
Joe Wegg smiled.
“You’re going to accuse me, sir, of asking advice after I’ve made up my mind,” said he; “but the fact is, I have bought the mill of Silas Caldwell already. He’s been wanting to dispose of the property for some time.”
“Good!” exclaimed Uncle John.
“Also I — I’ve ordered a dynamo and machinery. It all ought to be here in a few days.”
“Better yet!” cried Mr. Merrick. “You’ve relieved my mind of a great weight, Joe.”
“Now about Thursday Smith,” said the young man. “Don’t you think it would be policy for you to let him go, Mr. Merrick?”
“No.”
“He’s a clever fellow. I can use him at my lighting plant.”
“Thank you, Joe; but that wouldn’t help any. As long as he’s in Millville he will be an object of vengeance to those anarchistic mill hands. The only way to satisfy them in to drive Smith out of town, and — I’ll be hanged if I’ll do it! He hasn’t done anything wrong, and I’m interested in the fellow’s curious history. I’ve put his case in the hands of a famous New York detective — Fogerty — with instructions to discover who he is, and I can’t let a lot of rowdies f
orce me to abandon the man for no reasonable cause.”
“Don’t blame you, sir,” said Joe. “If it wasn’t this Thursday Smith, some other would incur the hatred of the Royal workmen, and as they’re disposed to terrorize us we may as well fight it out on this line as any other. The whole county will stand by you, sir.”
“The only thing I dread is possible danger to my girls.”
“Keep ‘em away from the office evenings,” advised Joe. “During the day they are perfectly safe. If anything happens, it will be at night, and while the newspaper office may some time go flying skyward the girls will run no personal danger whatever.”
“Maybe so, Joe. How queer it is that such a condition should exist in Millville — a little forgotten spot in the very heart of civilization and the last place where one might expect excitement of this sort. But I won’t be cowed; I won’t be driven or bullied by a pack of foreign hounds, I assure you! If Skeelty can’t discipline his men, I will.”
In furtherance of which assertion, Mr. Merrick went to town and wired a message to the great Fogerty.
CHAPTER XVI
LOCAL CONTRIBUTION
We hear considerable of the “conventional people” of this world, but seldom meet with them; for, as soon as we begin to know a person, we discover peculiarities that quite remove him from the ranks of the conventional — if such ranks exist at all. The remark of the old Scotch divine to his good wife: “Everybody’s queer but thee and me, Nancy, and sometimes I think thee a little queer,” sums up human nature admirably. We seldom recognize our own queerness, but are prone to mark the erratic temperaments of others, and this is rather more comfortable than to be annoyed by a consciousness of our personal deficits.
The inhabitants of a country town are so limited in their experiences that we generally find their personal characteristics very amusing. No amount of scholastic learning could have rendered the Millville people sophisticated, for contact with the world and humanity is the only true educator; but, as a matter of fact, there was little scholastic learning among them, with one or two exceptions, and the villagers as a rule were of limited intelligence. Every one was really a “character,” and Uncle John’s nieces, who all possessed a keen sense of humor, enjoyed the oddities of the Millvillites immensely.
A humorous situation occurred through a seemingly innocent editorial of Beth on authorship. In the course of her remarks she said: “A prominent author is stated to have accumulated a large fortune by writing short stories for the newspapers and magazines. He is said to receive ten cents a word, and this unusual price is warranted by the eager demand for his stories, of which the reading public is very fond. However, the unknown author does not fare so badly. The sum of from thirty to fifty dollars usually remitted for a short story pays the beginner a better recompense, for the actual time he is engaged upon the work, than any other occupation he might undertake.”
This was seriously considered the morning it appeared in the Tribune by Peggy McNutt and Skim Clark, as they sat in the sunshine on the former’s little front porch. Peggy had read it aloud in his laborious, halting way, and Skim listened with growing amazement.
“Thirty dollars!” he cried; “thirty to fifty fer a short story! Great
Snakes, Peggy, I’m goin’ into it.”
“Heh? Goin’ into what?” asked Peggy, raising his eyes from the paper.
“I kin write a story,” declared Skim confidently.
“Ye kin, Skim?”
“It’s a cinch, Peggy. Mother keeps all the magazines an’ paper novils, an’ we allus reads ‘em afore we sells ‘em. I’ve read the gol-durndest lot o’ truck ye ever heard of, so I’m posted on stories in gen’ral. I’ll write one an’ sell it to the Millville Tribune. Do ye s’pose they’ll give me the thirty, er the fifty, Peggy?”
“Anywheres between, they says. But one feller gits ten cents a word.
Whew!”
“I know; but he’s a big one, which I ain’t — just now. I’ll take even the thirty, if I hev to.”
“I would, Skim,” advised Peggy, nodding approval. “But make ‘em put yer photygraf in the paper, besides. Say, it’ll be a big thing fer Millville to turn out a author. I didn’t think it were in you, Skim.”
“Why, it hadn’t struck me afore,” replied the youth, modestly. “I’ve ben hankerin’ to make money, without knowin’ how to do it. I tell ye, Peggy, it pays to read the newspapers. This one’s give me a hint how to carve out a future career, an’ I’ll write a story as’ll make them girl edyturs set up an’ take notice.”
“Make it someth’n’ ‘bout Injuns,” suggested Peggy. “I ain’t read a Injun story fer years.”
“No; they’re out o’ fashion,” observed Skim loftily. “What folks want now is a detective story. Feller sees a hole in a fence an’ says, ‘Ha! there’s ben a murder!’ Somebody asks what makes him think so, an’ the detective feller says, takin’ out a magnifie-in’ glass, ‘Thet hole’s a bullet-hole, an’ the traces o’ blood aroun’ the edges shows the bullet went through a human body afore it went through the fence.’ ‘Then,’ says some one, ‘where’s the body?’ ‘That,’ says the detective, ‘is what we mus’ diskiver.’ So the story goes on to show how the body were diskivered an’ who did the murderin’.”
“By Jupe, thet’s great!” cried Peggy admiringly. “Skim, ye’re a wonder!”
“Ma allus said I were good fer somethin’, but she couldn’t tell what.”
“It’s story-writin’,” declared Peggy “Say, Skim, I put ye onter this deal; don’t I git a rake-off on thet fifty dollars?”
“Not a cent!” said Skim indignantly. “Ye didn’t tell me to write a story; I said myself as I could do it. An’ I know where to use the money, Peggy, ev’ry dollar of it, whether it’s thirty er fifty.”
Peggy sighed.
“I writ a pome once,” he said. “Wonder ef they’d pay fer a pome?”
“What were it like?” asked Skim curiously.
“It went someth’n’ this way,” said Peggy:
”I sigh
Ter fly
Up high
In the sky.
But my
Wings is shy,
So I mus’ cry
Good-bye
Ter fly-
in’.”
“Shoo!” said Skim disdainfully. “Thet ain’t no real pome, Peggy.”
“It makes rhymes, don’t it? All but the las’ line.”
“Mebbe it does,” replied Skim, with assumption of superior wisdom; “but it don’t mean nuth’n’.”
“It would ef I got paid fer it,” observed Peggy.
Skim went home to his mother’s tiny “Emporium,” took some note paper out of stock, opened a new bottle of ink and sat down at the sitting room table to write his story. The Widow Clark looked in and asked what he meant by “squanderin’ profits that way.”
“Shet up, mar. Gi’ me elbow room,” said her dutiful son. “I’m writin’ a fifty dollar story fer the Tribune.”
“Fifty dollars!”
“Thirty, anyhow; mebbe fifty,” replied Skim. “What’s a good name fer a detective, mar?”
The widow sat down and wiped her damp hands on her apron, looking upon her hopeful with an expression of mingled awe and pride.
“Kin ye do it, Skim?” she asked softly.
“I s’pose I kin turn out one a day, by hard work,” he said confidently. “At thirty a day, the lowes’ price, thet’s a hunderd ‘n’ eighty a week, seven hunderd ‘n’ twenty a month, or over eight thousan’ dollars a year. I got it all figgered out. It’s lucky fer me the nabobs is rich, or they couldn’t stan’ the strain. Now, mar, ef ye want to see yer son a nabob hisself, some day, jes’ think up a good name fer a detective.”
“Sherholmes Locke,” she said after some reflection.
“No; this ‘ere story’s got ter be original. I thought o’ callin’ him
Suspectin’ Algernon. Detectives is allus suspectin’ something.”
“Al
gernon’s high-toned,” mused the widow. “Let it go at that, Skim.”
All that day and far into the evening he sat at his task, pausing now and then for inspiration, but most of the time diligently pushing his pen over the strongly lined note paper and hopelessly straying from the lines. Meantime, Mrs. Clark walked around on tiptoe, so as not to disturb him, and was reluctant even to call him to his meals in the kitchen. When Skim went to bed his story had got into an aggravating muddle, but during the next forenoon he managed to bring it to a triumphant ending.
“When I git used to the thing, mar,” he said, “I kin do one a day, easy.
I had to be pertickler over this one, it bein’ the first.”
The widow read the story carefully, guessing at the words that were hopelessly indistinct.
“My! but it’s a thriller, Skim,” she said with maternal enthusiasm; “but ye don’t say why he killed the girl.”
“That don’t matter, so long’s he did it.”
“The spellin’ don’t allus seem quite right,” she added doubtfully.
“I guess the spellin’s as good as the readin’ll be,” he retorted, with evident irritation. “I bet I spell as well as any o’ the folks thet takes the paper.”
“And some words I can’t make out.”
“Oh, the edytur’ll fix that. Say, air ye tryin’ to queer my story, mar?
Do ye set up to know more’n I do about story writin’?”
“No,” she said; “I ain’t talented, Skim, an’ you be.”
“What I orter hev,” he continued, reflectively, “is a typewriter. When I git two er three hunderd ahead perhaps I’ll buy one — secondhand.”
Complete Works of L. Frank Baum Page 485
