10
THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, MARCH 26, 1916.
A Message
ttie
JLi
(Continued from Page 7)
Once on-the sidewalk, however, he stopped
and laughed to think how easy It would
be for a man of hi physique to. twist the
chief's meager neck, and how near he had
been to committing that precise madnew.
Across the river the white towers of Man
hattan reared themselves crisply in the
cheerful sunshine.
"Plenty of -room over there," he confi
dently assured himself.
in.
IT WAS some weeks later when he next
saw Mary Oilman, and his experiences
during the interval had completely al
tered his opinion as to the amount of room
on Manhattan Island. Waylaying Mary
on her way home from work, he Intimated
that business was going headlong to the
dogs, and that he was personally several
Jumps in advance of it In the same direc
tion. "I thought you were dead," Miss Gll-7
man said reproachfully. "It wouldn't
have hurt you to wait and say good-by."
"It hurt even to think of It. But If a
got to be done, anyway. I'm not dead,
yet. but I'm dead beat, and that's the
next thing to it. Every place I try it's
the same women doing men's work and
a rawing- their pay. Why, at one omce
the chief was a woman! A sense of in
justice threw a rasp Into his voice.. "You
girls can't see how you're spoiling things
for yourselves. Whan' you've grabbed all
the Jobs, and all the men are tramping
the streets, who do you expect to save' you
from a lonely old age? At the last, you
depend on us." :
"Oh. but there's plenty of work In the
world .for everybody," Mary protested.
"There used to be plenty, when women
stayed at home where they belong."
"Why, Cliff. if 1 was to stay at home
I woujdn't have a home to stay in so very
long. My folks can't get by without the
help I give them. - And there's a lot more
In the same fix. For every girl that spends
her salary on clothes and candy,' I guess
you'll find two with widowed mothers or
orphan brothers or tired -out fathers to
help. What are we to do?"
"Proper women's work, of course; ' or
get married." . . :
"Well, we used to knit all day. At
least I've heard so. If there's any work
that's really a woman's, it certainly Is
knitting. Now there's the Remson fac
tory, full of big machines that can turn
out more knitting in an hour than a worn
an could finish in a Week; and they do It
better and cheaper athat As to getting
married, all the men I've known . seem
content to be keeping a roof over their
own heads."
"That's not fair. Ton know X was only
, waiting for a raise to ask you again.
From where Fm standins now T ma mm
".- what a nine dream it was. We're cam.
, petltora. In a. way, we're natural en
emies. You can't be fond of people when
. you are beating them out of their bread;
- Mary turned a pitying glance on him.
"Cliff, where are you going?" she de
manded angrily. "I didn't dream you
were I mean, you never told me it was
so bad as that."
"It's worse than that. I don't know
where I shall go. To the dogs, I expect!"
Mary put her hand on his arm, and
her voice thrilled with sympathy.
"Listen,, Cliff. If you hadn't shot all
your money taking me around nights, you
wouldn't be in such a fix now. I don't
forget that Won't you shake hands for
luck?"
Gloomily he complied.' When Mary
had disappeared he felt in his pockets for1
a residuary cigaret. He did not find one.
but he came upon a crumpled ball of pa
per that unfolded under the. lamp into a
$20 bill.
So that was why Mary had pursued
steam hammers that remorselessly, bat
tered long spikes of steel .into the earth.
The sight had afflicted him, at first,
with something of the awe of a surgical
operation. Jt seemed that the poor old
earth could not long survive this constant
merciless trepanning. Latterly, however,
he had drawn fresh courage and inspira
tion from the victorious onslaught of the
machines of these pygmy men In the pit.
He had felt his own powerful- muscles
twitch with his longing to join them In
their fight with the forces of nature.
It was a horrid sound of splintering
wood, ending in a t mighty crash and a
chorus of shouts, that now caused him to
break Into a run as he approached. Gain
ing the team-road that led into the pit, he
saw that one of the towering pile-drivers
had torn through Its trestle bridge of
Mm, coming so confidentially close to his timber and now lay prone, with 'a queer
side! A fellow could never tell what sort
of stuff a .woman , would pull on him. Of
course he would have to give the money
right back to her. The ' poor little kid
couldn't afford to lose half of It.
He took one or two hesitating steps in
the direction in which .Mary -had van
ished. Then he stopped for a fatal mo
ment, on realizing that the chances were
ten to one against his overtaking her. A
pang of hunger transfixed him ' like a
treacherous arrow. Two or three blocks
away a flash sign - said, suggestively,
"Eat." He had a sudden mental picture,
vivid and detailed, of a small steak, me
dium, with French fried potatoes. It
proved too strong for his debilitated in
dependence. . When at last he left the obscure res
taurant for the ferry it was with $19 and
some odd cents in his hand, and in his
face a shame that burned. On the boat
he found himself guiltily face to face with
the skyscrapers, black and stern against
the moonlit clouds stark monuments, as
Mary Oilman said, to the courage and
strength of manhood.
"Thunder.'" he exclaimed. "I ; won't
take any girl's money Mary's least of
all."
A chill night wind blew on the river,
. but he removed his overcoat on the way
across, folding it carefully. On the West
street water front he had little difficulty
In discovering .a man who was willing to
give him & for it. Then, before his reso
lution had a chance to weaken, he had
changed his money back into a $20 bill,
had Inclosed it In an envelope addressed
to- Mary Oilman, and had heard It' fan
with a definite flop into the inaccessible
depths of a mall box.
It was with a sigh almost of relief that
ha set out to tramp home through the de
sorted streets of the business quarter. He
possessed, at least, a presentable suit of
clothes, and in his pocket there still Jin
gled a few odd coins remaining from the
sale of his overcoat. '
' Tomorrow the luck might turn.
' '
- rv. ' .
WAS a sufficiently reasonable hope
indulge, bavins regard to the well-
effect of helplessness, on the uneven bed
of the excavation. Its, giant, frame still
trembled from the shock of the fall, and
from the escape pipe of its boiler shot a
roaring plume of steam.
JT
1 to
Beyond it lay several of the great roll
ers on which it had been moved. They
were chewed up and twisted by the pon
derous steel bed-plate as If they had been
toothpicks. . .
The engineer had been hurled from his
post and struck by a shower of glowing
coals from the furnace. Ryan saw him
crawl painfully to a hollow and collapse
there In the mud. The other workmen,
apparently, had not seen him. Ryan ran
down the incline to -the injured man and
extinguished his smoldering clothing.
When he looked up again he saw the
gang gathered round the prone pile-driver.
Some of them ran to and fro in vague ac
tivity. Others, with strained faces,' were
peering into the shadows beneath. He
joined them, demanding the foreman. For
answer one of them pointed down into
the shadows.
Ryan thrust his head among the steel
girders of the wrecked machine uritil he
could see the figure of the man lying In
the gloom. Near him lay the end of a
six-inch roller that . appeared . to have
struck him to earth. A bar of light from
one of the flare lamps slanted across his
face, and showed that it was ashy gray.
- Ryan drew back. The workmen, were
still darting here and there, amid much
jabbering of some foreign and Incompre
hensible tongue. For a moment he stared -at
them, slowly realising that they were
panic-stricken to helplessness. Then he
jumped at a couple who were nearest,
swearing at .them explosively above the
roaring of the steam.
"Get a jack ! he shouted. "Don't you
knew what a jack Is? Can't you -see that -.he'll
be crushed to death if the thing set
tles?" With a forcible, unceremonious push
he started the two men on a quest for
jacks; " but the general confusion con
tinued, and the pile-driver showed signs'
of collapsing. The baleful not of escap
ing steam became deafening. Presently'
and the fallen machine trembled and rose
another, fraction of an inch.
As Ryan dodged from point to point, to
watch for signs of a backslip, a police
man appeared in the circle illumined by
the flares. With him was a small, stout
man with a masterful manner, who pres
ently showed a disposition to ask ques
tions. But Ryan could not take his eyes
from the shadows beneath the machine.
"Can't talk now," he snapped. "I'm
going under!"
He dropped on hands and knees and
crawled into a hollow beneath one of the
great girders. Around him the frame of ,
the pile-driver groaned and trembled on
the jacks, threatening momentarily to slip
side wise from its supports.. Somewhere
above him the end of a heavy steel chain
slid noisily off a crossbeam, striking him
heavily on the head as it lashed round.
From behind came vague, warning shouts
that seemed to be. curiously distant.
Gathering all his energies, Ryan crept
forward. to the shadows where the figure
of the foreman lay crumpled and Still. A
moment more and he had wrapped his
strong arms round the injured man, and
with feet that slipped in the moist earth
and limbs abraded by the jagged debris of
the pit, he was dragging him Inch by inch
to safety.
At the last, as he stood erect once more
in the light of the flare lamps, the great
steel machine slipped from the jacks and
crashed downward.
He became aware that the stout, little
man who had asked questions was slap
ping him heartily on the back.
"You re lucky to have got out
you did, young fellow," he said.' "We
couldn't have held her off you much
longer."
Ryan turned and stared at him foolish
ly, trying to think of some appropriate re
ply. The small man grabbed him by the
arm.
"Steady, man don't fall," he said.
"Why didn't you say you got hurt?"
"It's my head," Ryan replied. "I guess
I can walk all right.""'
He walked between the small man and
the policeman. A little later, badly dazed
and wondering if he were .going to faint,
he found himself speeding uptown in the
small man's auto.
It was not until Ryan reclined on the
couch of a West Side surgery that the
small man revealed his identity.
-' "Name's Ryan, hey? Sounds like, a
good name to me. Mine's Hennessy John
A. Hennessy. Where do you come in on
this job?"
"I don't come in on it," replied Ryan.
Tve been watching it. that's all. I just
butted in."
"The butting was good. You've saved
me a foreman, to say nothing of a burned-
out fire box. What's your firm?"
"I've got no firm. Firms aren't looking
for men these days. If I was a girl,
maybe I'd have a chance."
Hehnessy grunted.
:.
when
"Toa can't be fond of people that are, known fickleness of Dame Fortune; but Ryan was aware of a red-headed . man
so .easily beaten, either," she returned, that lady. In addition to her fickleness,
"You were a perfectly : adorable; beau,- possesses ' a sense of - humor. Unfortu
CilflVand rva missed you a lot. rv been nately 1t occurred to her at that moment
glad to stare oft many a girt who looked that the spectacle of T Ryan with his
as if aha wanted to" hesitate with you. clothes rant and mud-stained, and a bad
But you seem to lack something of being gash in his head, would be too diverting
way at a gap la the huge, clifflike build
ings, where flara lamp shone out of a
deep- pit to . transform the blank, jagged
walla on each aide into Inflamed patches
of light. . . , -
Dally for weeks ha had been aecus-
with a ttoHaf loose enough to pry. off and tomed to - relievo4; his hopeless tramping
lad to a pal la nard tuck. I guess! TU try : or th streets by euvioo coatempUtton the w and the ensuing mln-
tt a see Oood-by, hooey., ."of tb scene of bustling actrrtty in the utes resolved themselves Into a frenzied
He turned sharply on his heel, making 'depths, where men UbondL mightily am!4 battle a battlo ' waged . against time. In
tor tho fwTT Wh he had covered hatt huge bulks of
the distance he bMtmt ivm oT Uarf mv BkyKntpor. H btd intdwd vita Umber and sledge-hammers and herculean
again at his sMo, reathleas with haste, fasrlnatioa the operation - of the great jacks. Several men at on time swung 6a
tear gtlttered on her eyelashes when pile-drivers that reared their heads above the long levers, jerking their legs la the
they halted under a lamp. . tha streets-heads which were to reality air uatil their weight slowly conquered.
"You're a clerk, or a steno, I guess.
Accounts? Well, I've got room in my of
fice for. another, clerk. . What would you
say to that?" . .
,Tm on, if you want me," he said.
"Yes, and I'd fire you In the first week.
tb sort of husband they would Us awake
-and cry fur. " -
Ryan's mouth twitched helplessly.
"Maybe, if I'd had a square meal In
the last .- tew days, ha remarked,
wouldn't ' reel ao beaten. But that s the
way It la." . When I. can find - somebody
who plucked him by the sleeve and shout
ed In his ear: j
Kln Oi do annythlng at all?" he made
fat. . .; - .
Something fired up in Ryan's brain. The sight of a big fellow-like 'you sitting
Clearly these men were looking for some In a line of boys and girls at a desk would
to miss, - So she caused him to halt on his one in authority to tell them what to do. get my goat until I canned you. No, lie
With a fierce joy. born of weeks of painful; down. I'm an older man than you, and
Inactivity, be tore off bis coat and flung you've, got to listen to what I say. What
it behind him. . ' v. 1 - ; ; ." does a .big stiff like you want in an office,
3mjuu can!" be yelled back. "Send anyway? If I. had a sob your size, and he .
for an ambulance and then go ahead and let. a woman chase him out of his job, I'd
draw-that fire!
disinheait U. hoob Look at that hole
The man lumbered away at a trot over -where you dragged Out my foreman to-
night. You know what's going. to go up'
there? Thirty stories of steel and stone,
sir and very- story will , probably, have
cost a- man's life or a man's limb before
ifs finished.- '. "y- y; -
He stopped for breath. ' Ryan shifted '
uncomfortably.
-: "And -you are content. snorted' Hen---