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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (June 14, 1903)
t How Barrows Made Good Short Story by Bert Foster (Copyright. 1903, by W. Bert Foster.) L KNKRAL AL.1'11 KL'S COMITON f I swore steadily u 11 the way from 1 the gate to tho terraced approach Is(l to the broad plaxza. Then the 1 BlKht of hlit daughter and Har rows smothered the audible sounds of his wiath, but his face was like a thunder cloud when he halted before them. "My I how hot you must be, general," aid Harrows, as though Ms own appear ance of coolness in clean linen and a straw bat was not enough to madden any ordi narily warm man "I am," Bald the old gentleman, convinc ingly. "Something must have happened, papa," aid Mary, wonderlrigly. "I've niado a discovery!" ejaculated the general, vigorously. "I've found out that you might as well try to make a seven holed Hutu out of u pig's tail as to depend upon a confounded whlppersnupper of a college graduate to possess any common atnsc." "Oh, pupa!" exclaimed Mary, springing up and looking from her wrathful parent to llariows. Tho latter did not change color. "I'd. not expect It, then, general," he drawled, most exasperatlngly. At tlii t (ho old rr.an almost suffocated. "Go- ro into the house, Mary," he Blara tnered. "Mr. narrows and I have soma business to discuss." The girl turned pleading eyes on Har rows. And as that young man was red hot at the brutality of her father's speech, he continued to .smile most sweetly. "There is but one thing keeping me from breaking your head and then inquiring into tbe meaning of your late remark after ward, general," he said, Ills voice low. "And thut Is your age. I'm sorry you haven't a ton." "Hut I Bee you're turning my daughter's bead, Jim Harrows!" snapped the other. "I tell you, "right from this hour, you'll keep away from here. And now we'll talk business you an' I. And we won't talk long." "No, not long," said Harrows, getting up and looking down upon the angry old gen tleman from his height of six feet one. Tho old man drew a letter from his pocket and, unfolding it, placed it In Harrows' hand. "You read that condemn ye! I S'poKe you remember that ou sent that load o lumber and Lady Bird down there to Kusibe on your own responsi bility?" "1 did. There was a sale for tho lumber there. And you had told me to use my own Judgment if anything turned up," finished Barrows, in his unshaken voice. "That lutr.!er's wuth seven thousand five hundred," stuttered the old man, dropping back Into familiar idioms of speech, "f say Botiiin' of Lady Hlrd. You you " "If I've made u mistake, I'm prepared to snake good," Bald Harrows, proudly. "llow'll you make good?" demanded the general. "You'll never earn so much money La your whole buy, dawdling oh, d n! Bead that letter and seo what Hpero says!" lie stamped up and down the walk. Har rows looked at the letter received that very afternoon by the Central American mall. "Tho fat's all in the lire," read Harrows, With uuwrlnkled brow. "You ordered Lady Bird to Eusibe and Its captain would take it there, despite my advice. Now Gen eral l,aguerro has sprung his mine and holds Kusibe and all the surrounding coun try. As we got our franchise from Presi dent Dlo Ulanco und paid him a good round price for it, too we've got to slick to him, and that means that Lady Hlrd aud lis cargo is worth about 30 cents In confederate money. Some of you people up there in New Orleans had better wake up." Harrows knew that the agent of the com pany was a man not given to crying "Wolf! Wolf!" when there was no danger. "Isn't there a steamer Bailing in the morning?" he asked. "Terre. What do you wunt to do?" "I'll go down myself." "Not at my expense! Not at my ex pense!" cried the general. "Sir!" exclaimed the young man, wheel ing on him at last. "You haven't money enough to pay my passage down there Bor to pay me for another day's work! Hut I'll make good for this mistake of mine and then the company and you c in go hang." "Tut, tut!" exclaimed the old man, more mildly. "You don't mean to do anything foolish?" "You can apologize after I have come hack and your boat and Its cargo are sifo," raid Barrows, shortly. "Apologise!" shouted Compton. "Why, rou you condemn you! You'll get Into fell down there or be shot against the 'doba wall." "I'm not asking you to go my ball," re turned Barrows, and walked away with his shoulders very square and his head high, But out of the tall of his eye he saw a white dress and a whiter hand at the end window of the house. n. They flowed him ashore at Euslbe. The aptaia of Terre would cot come in loo near, for several vessels had already been seized by the redoubtable Laguerre. "I'll stop for you on our way back In a week," said the commander, good natur cdly. "If you keep your mouth shut you may be alive then." "You needn't bother," said Barrows, lightly. "I'll have steam up on Lady Bird yonder by that time and will bring it out myself." As he drew near the shore he studied the town itself. It looked like an egg naiad a background of green, adobe houses setting about like hard-lolled eggs. "There's the consul's office, sir," said the petty officer, when the boat's nose grated seat and addressed himself to his writing. Barrows marched to the door which evi dently led to the stairway. The clerk did not move. But when be flung oped the door Barrows found, stand ing in the entry, a big. grinning, barefooted negro, with a secondhand Remington on his shoulder. "Massa can't pass here," he said, in bet ter English than the yellow boy possessed. "Oov'ment set me bore to guard 'Merlean consul." Barrows said things and flung himself out of the place. He wanted to think the matter over and adjust himself to these new discoveries. Euslbe was evidently not New Orleans. when you've got such a little scoundrel as this Jennings to look to. If it ain't Imperti nent I'd like to ask what brought you down here at this time sir?" "Why, our Mr. Spero wrote us of the revolution, and that Lady Bird would likely get into trouble. So I came down to see about It." "You came down!" gasped the purser. "Why, yes. The general was mad because I had put the ship In jeopardy, and I told him I'd make good. Fact, Is, I'm here on my own hook." "You go home, Mr. Barrows," said the other, solemnly. "You're no more able to do anything here than I am." "But both of us together?" suggested "MR BARROWS AND I HAVE SOME BUSINESS TO DISCUSS." on the strand. "But If he's like most of them along here " His remark ended In a grunt of contempt. Barrows tossed him a silver dollar. "You and the two men drink to my good luck when you get to Blueflelds," he said. "I'll beat you home to New Orleans." Nobody disturbed him as he walked up to the street fronting the water. He even had hard work rousing a particularly ragged specimen of negro to carry his bag. He drew out of this individual, in lingering dialect, the fact that Laguerre was nomi nally In control of the town and coast. "Are the ships really held In the harbor?" asked Barrows. The darkey looked a litt'e frightened and shook his head vigorously. Oh, no! There was nothing of the kind. Only none of the "capitans" cared to take their vessels out at present Barrows looked across at El Moro, with its guns frowning from every port, and something like a shiver traversed his spine. Now, Barrows had come down hero with no more real Idea of what it meant to be up against a Central American revolution than he had of the tenets of the Talmud. "There can't be really anything serious the matter if our man Is still here," he told hlmse!f. "The senor must send In his card," said a haughty little yellow boy with a pen be hind his ear, who occupied the lower room in the consul's office. "You tell the consul what's his name?" "Senor Jennings." "All right. You tell Mr. Jennings 1 want to speak to him." He passed over his cird fortunately a plain visiting card. He cou'.d thank bis luck afterward that one of the company's pasteboards had not come to lleht first. "Meester Ballows ve-ree well," said the yellow kid, proud to flaunt his knowledge of English. He trotted up stairs. He trotted down Bfnln. "Meester Ballows will tell hees business to me," he said, smiling and bow In "You go to well, I guess not! 8ee here, you little monkey, is Jennings in?" The boy nodded, su'lenly. He knew enough English to be Insulted. "I want to see him understand? You tell- him I'm an American Just off a steamer that sent me ashore. I've come to Euslbe on business private business." 'I act for heem," said the clerk. "Well, you'll not act in my affairs. I'm going to see Jennln.es himself and he'll hear from this through the Stat depart ment, too." The yellow boy went calmly Kick to his His porter, who had gone to sleep out side, was shaken into a moro wakeful state, and showed him the way to a tavern where he was given a room and bed with out question. These people were too lazy to be Inquisitive; or else Laguerre felt his Btrength so great that he feared nobody. Yet, the longer he stayed the more cau tious he grew. He posed as a traveling agent before the day was over. And he never as much as glanced toward Lady Bird. He knew Captain Egbert. He had met hlrn and his two officers. He wandered about the town In the evening, hoping to find them in some one of the cafes. But there were few white men. So few that his own presence attracted attention and he finally went to the hotel and up to his room, to get away from staring black eyes. There he hauled out his big meerschaum and fired up. It reminded him of the col lege gang, who had given the pipe to him, and he wondered what they'd say if they knew ho was so far away from God's country. And as he knocked the ashes from the pipe after his smoke by the window, there came a rap at the door, which opened be fore he could speak. He sat up straight, the warm pipe bowl gripped in bis hand. "What's the trouble? What do you want?" "By gosh, it is! was the relieved reply. "Thought I couldn't have been mistaken. Remember me, Mr. Barrows?" "Ah the purser. So it la. Mr. er " 'I'eckham." "Just so. Saw you before Iady Bird sailed. How's everybody aboard It?" "Ev'rybody aboard it is pretty blanked Well, 1 reckon," snarled I'eckham, "Least ways, they look so the dirty, yaller trash!" "What!" "Niggers. Laguerre' men. I'm the only one outside o' jail." "What!" That startled exclamation be came tiresome before the purser's story was finished. There you have it, sir," he said, at lust. "Just sheer luck took me ashore before Lady Bird was gobbled up. And I've been keeping rattier close to cover ever since. The consul Is sold out body and soul to I.aguorre. You see, he represents n gun manufactory up north, and he's sold the revolutionists their weapons. Only hopa he doesn't know you are connected with tho company. I've seen men shot for less." "American citizens!" quoth Barrows, In horror. "Yes. That don't mean much, especially Barrows. "Don't you count on me. I'm going to sneak away and get another Job." Barrows looked at him. He felt Just how little the tall man was. "The boys will get out of Jail in time, Laguerre is no fool neither Is his man in Euslbe, Calllstro. He's a devil they say a butcher. But he's no fool. As for the ship, she's a dead loss. Laguerre is going to win here sure. You take my advice. You can't do anything for Egbert or for the ship." Harrows again denied blmjelf the pleas ure of telling Peckham what be was. "I've come here to make good." he said, having filled his pipe once more and now Ighting It. "Guess 1 11 (puff) stay (puff) awhile (puff) longer!" III. The next day he absorbed gossip like a sponge. There were plenty of people to talk all he had to do was to listen to bad Spanish and worse English. He learned that the captain and crew of I,ady Bird had been shut up as "filibusters." It was claimed arms were found in the cargo of the steamship, but the rest of the cargo had not been touched. He was told by one party that Laguerre (to whom the ignorant already looked as president or dictator, vice Dlo Blanco, put out) proposed to build a fine new palace at Serra Garda, farther along the coast and that the expensive lumber which m ide up Lady Bird's cargo would go Into that new official residence. "Not if I see It first," mutterej Barrows, and he sat down and smoked again. And as he smoked he saw a l.'ght-haJred, pasty-faced, youngish man ccmo out of the dobe house over the doorway of which floated tho tattered-demalion American Hag and approach a nearby cafe. Ho heard one or two of the d igoes address i.lm as "Senor Jennings," "Guess It's up to me to know, Jennings," muttered Barrows, rising and slipping his empty pipe into the side pocket of his coat. "Anyway. I've got about tired of this Euslbe. There must be a change." He strolled into the cafe after his fellow countryman. Jennings was sitting at a table in the rear of the cafe, but be was not alone. Barrows selected a table at which he could sit with bis own back to tho light. He watched Jennings and his friend, who was a dark little man. eager, (Continued on Tags Fifteen.) 0