The Depot Master

J >> Joseph C. Lincoln >> The Depot Master

THE DEPOT MASTER

By Joseph C. Lincoln




CONTENTS


CHAPTER

I.-- AT THE DEPOT

II.-- SUPPLY AND DEMAND

III.-- "STINGY GABE"

IV.-- THE MAJOR

V.-- A BABY AND A ROBBERY

VI.-- AVIATION AND AVARICE

VII.-- CAPTAIN SOL DECIDES TO MOVE

VIII.--THE OBLIGATIONS OF A GENTLEMAN

IX.-- THE WIDOW BASSETT

X.-- CAPTAIN JONADAB GOES

XI.-- THE GREAT METROPOLIS

XII.-- A VISION SENT

XIII.--DUSENBERRY'S BIRTHDAY

XIV.-- EFFIE'S FATE

XV.-- THE "HERO" AND THE COWBOY

XVI.-- THE CRUISE OF THE RED CAR

XVII.--ISSY'S REVENGE

XVIII. THE MOUNTAIN AND MAHOMET




THE DEPOT MASTER




CHAPTER I

AT THE DEPOT


Mr. Simeon Phinney emerged from the side door of his residence and
paused a moment to light his pipe in the lee of the lilac bushes. Mr.
Phinney was a man of various and sundry occupations, and his sign,
nailed to the big silver-leaf in the front yard, enumerated a few of
them. "Carpenter, Well Driver, Building Mover, Cranberry Bogs Seen to
with Care and Dispatch, etc., etc.," so read the sign. The house was
situated in "Phinney's Lane," the crooked little byway off "Cross
Street," between the "Shore Road" at the foot of the slope and the "Hill
Boulevard"--formerly "Higgins's Roost"--at the top. From the Phinney
gate the view was extensive and, for the most part, wet. The hill
descended sharply, past the "Shore Road," over the barren fields and
knolls covered with bayberry bushes and "poverty grass," to the yellow
sand of the beach and the gray, weather-beaten fish-houses scattered
along it. Beyond was the bay, a glimmer in the sunset light.

Mrs. Phinney, in the kitchen, was busy with the supper dishes. Her
husband, wheezing comfortably at his musical pipe, drew an ancient
silver watch from his pocket and looked at its dial. Quarter past six.
Time to be getting down to the depot and the post office. At least a
dozen male citizens of East Harniss were thinking that very thing at
that very moment. It was a community habit of long standing to see the
train come in and go after the mail. The facts that the train bore no
passengers in whom you were intimately interested, and that you expected
no mail made little difference. If you were a man of thirty or older,
you went to the depot or the "club," just as your wife or sisters went
to the sewing circle, for sociability and mild excitement. If you were
a single young man you went to the post office for the same reason that
you attended prayer meeting. If you were a single young lady you went
to the post office and prayer meeting to furnish a reason for the young
man.

Mr. Phinney, replacing his watch in his pocket, meandered to the
sidewalk and looked down the hill and along the length of the "Shore
Road." Beside the latter highway stood a little house, painted a
spotless white, its window blinds a vivid green. In that house dwelt,
and dwelt alone, Captain Solomon Berry, Sim Phinney's particular
friend. Captain Sol was the East Harniss depot master and, from long
acquaintance, Mr. Phinney knew that he should be through supper and
ready to return to the depot, by this time. The pair usually walked
thither together when the evening meal was over.

But, except for the smoke curling lazily from the kitchen chimney,
there was no sign of life about the Berry house. Either Captain Sol had
already gone, or he was not yet ready to go. So Mr. Phinney decided that
waiting was chancey, and set out alone.

He climbed Cross Street to where the "Hill Boulevard," abiding place of
East Harniss's summer aristocracy, bisected it, and there, standing on
the corner, and consciously patronizing the spot where he so stood, was
Mr. Ogden Hapworth Williams, no less.

Mr. Williams was the village millionaire, patron, and, in a gentlemanly
way, "boomer." His estate on the Boulevard was the finest in the county,
and he, more than any one else, was responsible for the "buying up"
by wealthy people from the city of the town's best building sites, the
spots commanding "fine marine sea views," to quote from Abner Payne,
local real estate and insurance agent. His own estate was fine enough to
be talked about from one end of the Cape to the other and he had bought
the empty lot opposite and made it into a miniature park, with flower
beds and gravel walks, though no one but he or his might pick the
flowers or tread the walks. He had brought on a wealthy friend from New
York and a cousin from Chicago, and they, too, had bought acres on the
Boulevard and erected palatial "cottages" where once were the houses of
country people. Local cynics suggested that the sign on the East Harniss
railroad station should be changed to read "Williamsburg." "He owns the
place, body and soul," said they.

As Sim Phinney climbed the hill the magnate, pompous, portly, and
imposing, held up a signaling finger. "Just as if he was hailin' a horse
car," described Simeon afterward.

"Phinney," he said, "come here, I want to speak to you."

The man of many trades obediently approached.

"Good evenin', Mr. Williams," he ventured.

"Phinney," went on the great man briskly, "I want you to give me your
figures on a house moving deal. I have bought a house on the Shore Road,
the one that used to belong to the--er--Smalleys, I believe."

Simeon was surprised. "What, the old Smalley house?" he exclaimed. "You
don't tell me!"

"Yes, it's a fine specimen--so my wife says--of the pure Colonial,
whatever that is, and I intend moving it to the Boulevard. I want your
figures for the job."

The building mover looked puzzled. "To the Boulevard?" he said. "Why, I
didn't know there was a vacant lot on the Boulevard, Mr. Williams."

"There isn't now, but there will be soon. I have got hold of the hundred
feet left from the old Seabury estate."

Mr. Phinney drew a long breath. "Why!" he stammered, "that's where Olive
Edwards--her that was Olive Seabury--lives, ain't it?"

"Yes," was the rather impatient answer. "She has been living there. But
the place was mortgaged up to the handle and--ahem--the mortgage is mine
now."

For an instant Simeon did not reply. He was gazing, not up the Boulevard
in the direction of the "Seabury place" but across the slope of the
hill toward the home of Captain Sol Berry, the depot master. There was a
troubled look on his face.

"Well?" inquired Williams briskly, "when can you give me the figures?
They must be low, mind. No country skin games, you understand."

"Hey?" Phinney came out of his momentary trance. "Yes, yes, Mr.
Williams. They'll be low enough. Times is kind of dull now and I'd
like a movin' job first-rate. I'll give 'em to you to-morrer. But--but
Olive'll have to move, won't she? And where's she goin'?"

"She'll have to move, sure. And the eyesore on that lot now will come
down."

The "eyesore" was the four room building, combined dwelling and shop of
Mrs. Olive Edwards, widow of "Bill Edwards," once a promising young man,
later town drunkard and ne'er-do-well, dead these five years, luckily
for himself and luckier--in a way--for the wife who had stuck by him
while he wasted her inheritance in a losing battle with John Barleycorn.
At his death the fine old Seabury place had dwindled to a lone hundred
feet of land, the little house, and a mortgage on both. Olive had opened
a "notion store" in her front parlor and had fought on, proudly refusing
aid and trying to earn a living. She had failed. Again Phinney stared
thoughtfully at the distant house of Captain Sol.

"But Olive," he said, slowly. "She ain't got no folks, has she? What'll
become of her? Where'll she move to?"

"That," said Mr. Williams, with a wave of a fat hand, "is not my
business. I am sorry for her, if she's hard up. But I can't be
responsible if men will drink up their wives' money. Look out for number
one; that's business. I sha'n't be unreasonable with her. She can stay
where she is until the new house I've bought is moved to that lot. Then
she must clear out. I've told her that. She knows all about it. Well,
good-by, Phinney. I shall expect your bid to-morrow. And, mind, don't
try to get the best of me, because you can't do it."

He turned and strutted back up the Boulevard. Sim Phinney, pondering
deeply and very grave, continued on his way, down Cross Street
to Main--naming the village roads was another of the Williams'
"improvements"--and along that to the crossing, East Harniss's business
and social center at train times.

The station--everyone called it "deepo," of course--was then a small red
building, old and out of date, but scrupulously neat because of Captain
Berry's rigid surveillance. Close beside it was the "Boston Grocery,
Dry Goods and General Store," Mr. Beriah Higgins, proprietor. Beriah
was postmaster and the post office was in his store. The male citizen
of middle age or over, seeking opportunity for companionship and chat,
usually went first to the depot, sat about in the waiting room until the
train came in, superintended that function, then sojourned to the post
office until the mail was sorted, returning later, if he happened to be
a particular friend of the depot master, to sit and smoke and yarn until
Captain Sol announced that it was time to "turn in."

When Mr. Phinney entered the little waiting room he found it already
tenanted. Captain Sol had not yet arrived, but official authority was
represented by "Issy" McKay--his full name was Issachar Ulysses Grant
McKay--a long-legged, freckled-faced, tow-headed youth of twenty, who,
as usual, was sprawled along the settee by the wall, engrossed in
a paper covered dime novel. "Issy" was a lover of certain kinds of
literature and reveled in lurid fiction. As a youngster he had, at
the age of thirteen, after a course of reading in the "Deadwood Dick
Library," started on a pedestrian journey to the Far West, where,
being armed with home-made tomahawk and scalping knife, he contemplated
extermination of the noble red man. A wrathful pursuing parent had
collared the exterminator at the Bayport station, to the huge delight of
East Harniss, young and old. Since this adventure Issy had been famous,
in a way.

He was Captain Sol Berry's assistant at the depot. Why an assistant
was needed was a much discussed question. Why Captain Sol, a retired
seafaring man with money in the bank, should care to be depot master
at ten dollars a week was another. The Captain himself said he took the
place because he wanted to do something that was "half way between a
loaf and a job." He employed an assistant at his own expense because
he "might want to stretch the loafin' half." And he hired Issy
because--well, because "most folks in East Harniss are alike and you can
always tell about what they'll say or do. Now Issy's different. The Lord
only knows what HE'S likely to do, and that makes him interestin' as a
conundrum, to guess at. He kind of keeps my sense of responsibility from
gettin' mossy, Issy does."

"Issy," hailed Mr. Phinney, "has the Cap'n got here yet?"

Issy answered not. The villainous floorwalker had just proffered
matrimony or summary discharge to "Flora, the Beautiful Shop Girl," and
pending her answer, the McKay mind had no room for trifles.

"Issy!" shouted Simeon. "I say, Is', Wake up, you foolhead! Has Cap'n
Sol--"

"No, he ain't, Sim," volunteered Ed Crocker. He and his chum, Cornelius
Rowe, were seated in two of the waiting room chairs, their feet on two
others. "He ain't got here yet. We was just talkin' about him. You've
heard about Olive Edwards, I s'pose likely, ain't you?"

Phinney nodded gloomily.

"Yes," he said, "I've heard."

"Well, it's too bad," continued Crocker. "But, after all, it's Olive's
own fault. She'd ought to have married Sol Berry when she had the
chance. What she ever gave him the go-by for, after the years they was
keepin' comp'ny, is more'n I can understand."

Cornelius Rowe shook his head, with an air of wisdom. Captain Sol,
himself, remarked once: "I wonder sometimes the Almighty ain't jealous
of Cornelius, he knows so much and is so responsible for the runnin' of
all creation."

"Humph!" grunted Mr. Rowe. "There's more to that business than you folks
think. Olive didn't notice Bill Edwards till Sol went off to sea and
stayed two years and over. How do you know she shook Sol? You might just
as well say he shook her. He always was stubborn as an off ox and cranky
as a windlass. I wonder how he feels now, when she's lost her last red
and is goin' to be drove out of house and home. And all on account of
that fool 'mountain and Mahomet' business."

"WHICH?" asked Mr. Crocker.

"Never mind that, Cornelius," put in Phinney, sharply. "Why don't you
let other folks' affairs alone? That was a secret that Olive told your
sister and you've got no right to go blabbin'."

"Aw, hush up, Sim! I ain't tellin' no secrets to anybody but Ed here,
and he ain't lived in East Harniss long or he'd know it already. The
mountain and Mahomet? Why, them was the last words Sol and Olive had.
'Twas Sol's stubbornness that was most to blame. That was his one bad
fault. He would have his own way and he wouldn't change. Olive had set
her heart on goin' to Washin'ton for their weddin' tower. Sol wanted
to go to Niagara. They argued a long time, and finally Olive says, 'No,
Solomon, I'm not goin' to give in this time. I have all the others, but
it's not fair and it's not right, and no married life can be happy where
one does all the sacrificin'. If you care for me you'll do as I want
now.'

"And he laughs and says, 'All right, I'll sacrifice after this, but you
and me must see Niagara.' And she was sot and he was sotter, and at last
they quarreled. He marches out of the door and says: 'Very good. When
you're ready to be sensible and change your mind, you can come to me.
And says Olive, pretty white but firm: 'No, Solomon, I'm right and
you're not. I'm afraid this time the mountain must come to Mahomet.'
That ended it. He went away and never come back, and after a long spell
she give in to her dad and married Bill Edwards. Foolish? 'Well, now,
WA'N'T it!"

"Humph!" grunted Crocker. "She must have been a born gump to let a smart
man like him get away just for that."

"There's a good many born gumps not so far from here as her house,"
interjected Phinney. "You remember that next time you look in the glass,
Ed Crocker. And--and--well, there's no better friend of Sol Berry's on
earth than I am, but, so fur as their quarrel was concerned, if you ask
me I'd have to say Olive was pretty nigh right."

"Maybe--maybe," declared the allwise Cornelius, "but just the same if I
was Sol Berry, and knew my old girl was likely to go to the poorhouse,
I'll bet my conscience--"

"S-ssh!" hissed Crocker, frantically. Cornelius stopped in the middle
of his sentence, whirled in his chair, and looked up. Behind him in the
doorway of the station stood Captain Sol himself. The blue cap he always
wore was set back on his head, a cigar tipped upward from the corner
of his mouth, and there was a grim look in his eye and about the smooth
shaven lips above the short, grayish-brown beard.

"Issy" sprang from his settee and jammed the paper novel into his
pocket. Ed Crocker's sunburned face turned redder yet. Sim Phinney
grinned at Mr. Rowe, who was very much embarrassed.

"Er--er--evenin', Cap'n Sol," he stammered. "Nice, seasonable weather,
ain't it? Been a nice day."

"Um," grunted the depot master, knocking the ashes from his cigar.

"Just right for workin' outdoor," continued Cornelius.

"I guess it must be. I saw your wife rakin' the yard this mornin'."

Phinney doubled up with a chuckle. Mr. Rowe swallowed hard. "I--I TOLD
her I'd rake it myself soon's I got time," he sputtered.

"Um. Well, I s'pose she realized your time was precious. Evenin', Sim,
glad to see you."

He held out his hand and Phinney grasped it.

"Issy," said Captain Sol, "you'd better get busy with the broom, hadn't
you. It's standin' over in that corner and I wouldn't wonder if it
needed exercise. Sim, the train ain't due for twenty minutes yet. That
gives us at least three quarters of an hour afore it gets here. Come
outside a spell. I want to talk to you."

He led the way to the platform, around the corner of the station, and
seated himself on the baggage truck. That side of the building, being
furthest from the street, was out of view from the post office and
"general store."

"What was it you wanted to talk about, Sol?" asked Simeon, sitting down
beside his friend on the truck.

The Captain smoked in silence for a moment. Then he asked a question in
return.

"Sim," he said, "have you heard anything about Williams buying the
Smalley house? Is it true?"

Phinney nodded. "Yup," he answered, "it's true. Williams was just
talkin' to me and I know all about his buyin' it and where it's goin'."

He repeated the conversation with the great man. Captain Sol did
not interrupt. He smoked on, and a frown gathered and deepened as he
listened.

"Humph!" he said, when his friend had concluded. "Humph! Sim, do you
have any idea what--what Olive Seabury will do when she has to go?"

Phinney glanced at him. It was the first time in twenty years that he
had heard Solomon Berry mention the name of his former sweetheart. And
even now he did not call her by her married name, the name of her late
husband.

"No," replied Simeon. "No, Sol, I ain't got the least idea. Poor thing!"

Another interval. Then: "Well, Sim, find out if you can, and let me
know. And," turning his head and speaking quietly but firmly, "don't let
anybody ELSE know I asked."

"Course I won't, Sol, you know that. But don't it seem awful mean
turnin' her out so? I wouldn't think Mr. Williams would do such a
thing."

His companion smiled grimly; "I would," he said. "'Business is
business,' that's his motto. That and 'Look out for number one.'"

"Yes, he said somethin' to me about lookin' out for number one."

"Did he? Humph!" The Captain's smile lost a little of its bitterness
and broadened. He seemed to be thinking and to find amusement in the
process.

"What you grinnin' at?" demanded Phinney.

"Oh, I was just rememberin' how he looked out for number one the
first--no, the second time I met him. I don't believe he's forgot it.
Maybe that's why he ain't quite so high and mighty to me as he is to the
rest of you fellers. Ha! ha! He tried to patronize me when I first came
back here and took this depot and I just smiled and asked him what the
market price of johnny-cake was these days. He got red clear up to the
brim of his tall hat. Humph! 'TWAS funny."

"The market price of JOHNNY-CAKE! He must have thought you was loony."

"No. I'm the last man he'd think was loony. You see I met him a fore he
came here to live at all."

"You did? Where?"

"Oh, over to Wellmouth. 'Twas the year afore I come back to East
Harniss, myself, after my long stretch away from it. I never intended to
see the Cape again, but I couldn't stay away somehow. I've told you
that much--how I went over to Wellmouth and boarded a spell, got sick
of that, and, just to be doin' somethin' and not for the money, bought
a catboat and took out sailin' parties from Wixon and Wingate's summer
hotel."

"And you met Mr. Williams? Well, I snum! Was he at the hotel?"

"No, not exactly. I met him sort of casual this second time."

"SECOND time? Had you met him afore that?"

"Don't get ahead of the yarn, Sim. It happened this way: You see, I was
comin' along the road between East Wellmouth and the Center when I run
afoul of him. He was fat and shiny, and drivin' a skittish horse hitched
to a fancy buggy. When he sighted me he hove to and hailed.

"'Here you!' says he, in a voice as fat as the rest of him. 'Your name's
Berry, ain't it.'

"'Yup,' says I.

"'Methusalum Berry or Jehoshaphat Berry or Sheba Berry, or somethin'
like that? Hey?' he says.

"'Well,' says I, 'the last shot you fired comes nighest the bull's eye.
They christened me Solomon, but 'twa'n't my fault; I was young at the
time and they took advantage.'

"He grinned a kind of lopsided grin, like he had a lemon in his mouth,
and commenced to cuss the horse for tryin' to climb a pine tree.

"'I knew 'twas some Bible outrage or other,' he says. 'There's more
Bible names in this forsaken sand heap than there is Christians, a good
sight. When I meet a man with a Bible name and chin whiskers I hang on
to my watch. The feller that sets out to do me has got to have a better
make up than that, you bet your life. 'Well, see here, King Sol; can you
run a gasoline launch?'

"'Why, yes, I guess I can run 'most any of the everyday kinds,' says
I, pullin' thoughtful at my own chin whiskers. This fat man had got me
interested. He was so polite and folksy in his remarks. Didn't seem to
stand on no ceremony, as you might say. Likewise there was a kind of
familiar somethin' about his face. I knew mighty well I'd never met him
afore, and yet I seemed to have a floatin' memory of him, same as a chap
remembers the taste of the senna and salts his ma made him take when he
was little.

"'All right,' says he, sharp. 'Then you come around to my landin'
to-morrer mornin' at eight o'clock prompt and take me out in my launch
to the cod-fishin' grounds. I'll give you ten dollars to take me out
there and back.'

"'Well,' says I, 'ten dollars is a good price enough. Do I furnish--'

"'You furnish nothin' except your grub,' he interrupts. 'The launch'll
be ready and the lines and hooks and bait'll be ready. My own man was to
do the job, but he and I had a heart-to-heart talk just now and I told
him where he could go and go quick. No smart Alec gets the best of me,
even if he has got a month's contract. You run that launch and put me on
the fishin' grounds. I pay you for that and bringin' me back again. And
I furnish my own extras and you can furnish yours. I don't want any of
your Yankee bargainin'. See?'

"I saw. There wa'n't no real reason why I couldn't take the job. 'Twas
well along into September; the hotel was closed for the season; and
about all I had on my hands just then was time.

"'All right,' says I, 'it's a deal. If you'll guarantee to have your
launch ready, I--'

"'That's my business,' he says. 'It'll be ready. If it ain't you'll get
your pay just the same. To-morrer mornin' at eight o'clock. And don't
you forget and be late. Gid-dap, you blackguard!' says he to the horse.

"'Hold on, just a minute,' I hollers, runnin' after him. 'I don't want
to be curious nor nosey, you understand, but seems 's if it might help
me to be on time if I knew where your launch was goin' to be and what
your name was.'

"He pulled up then. 'Humph!' he says, 'if you don't know my name and
more about my private affairs than I do myself, you're the only one in
this county that don't. My name's Williams, and I live in what you folks
call the Lathrop place over here toward Trumet. The launch is at my
landin' down in front of the house.'

"He drove off then and I walked along thinkin'. I knew who he was
now, of course. There was consider'ble talk when the Lathrop place was
rented, and I gathered that the feller who hired it answered to the hail
of Williams and was a retired banker, sufferin' from an enlarged income
and the diseases that go along with it. He lived alone up there in the
big house, except for a cranky housekeeper and two or three servants.
This was afore he got married, Sim; his wife's tamed him a little. Then
the yarns about his temper and language would have filled a log book.

"But all this was way to one side of the mark-buoy, so fur as I was
concerned. I'd cruised with cranks afore and I thought I could stand
this one--ten dollars' worth of him, anyhow. Bluster and big talk may
scare some folks, but to me they're like Aunt Hepsy Parker's false
teeth, the further off you be from 'em the more real they look. So the
next mornin' I was up bright and early and on my way over to the Lathrop
landin'.

"The launch was there, made fast alongside the little wharf. Nice,
slick-lookin' craft she was, too, all varnish and gilt gorgeousness. I'd
liked her better if she'd carried a sail, for it's my experience that
canvas is a handy thing to have aboard in case of need; but she looked
seaworthy enough and built for speed.

"While I was standin' on the pier lookin' down at her I heard footsteps
and brisk remarks from behind the bushes on the bank, and here comes
Williams, puffin' and blowin', followed by a sulky-lookin' hired man
totin' a deckload of sweaters and ileskins, with a lunch basket on top.
Williams himself wan't carryin' anything but his temper, but he hadn't
forgot none of that.

"'Hello, Berry,' says he to me. 'You are on time, ain't you. Blessed if
it ain't a comfort to find somebody who'll do what I tell 'em. Now you,'
he says to the servant, 'put them things aboard and clear out as quick
as you've a mind to. You and I are through; understand? Don't let me
find you hangin' around the place when I get back. Cast off, Sol.'

"The man dumped the dunnage into the launch, pretty average ugly, and me
and the boss climbed aboard. I cast off.

"'Mr. Williams,' says the man, kind of pleadin', 'ain't you goin' to pay
me the rest of my month's wages?'