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www.linuxuser.co.uk 3
Contents
18 58
cover feature the future of
project
sputnik

64
Next-Gen

OpenSource Features Tutorials

06 News 18 Electronics for Pi Hackers 38 Essential Linux: GNU Make
Is Canonical collecting user data? Interface to your Raspberry Pi by building Use GNU Make for different purposes
published circuits on breadboard, or other than building projects
10 Letters designing your own circuits for construction
You let us know what’s what on a printed circuit board. Mike Bedford 42 Ansible
shows you how to get started  started with the tool that enables
Get
12 Interview you to update software remotely
 chat with Mycroft AI about its
We 58 The Future of Project Sputnik
follow-up to the first open source Dell’s Project Sputnik – an intiative to offer 44 Security: MITM attacks
personal assistant with voice control its flagship PCs with Linux out of the box, Learn how man-in-the-middle attacks
fully supported – has gone from strength work, and how to defend against them
16 Kernel Column to strength. So how does it work within the
Jon Masters on the latest happenings
 company, and what’s on the horizon? 48 Python: PyPy and Numba
Speed up your programs’ execution

InspireOS 64 Next-gen Distros

Which distributions will we be using in the
years to come? Paul O’Brien investigates
using these JIT compilers

52 Programming: Ada
32 Open source medical – and wonders if the growth of alternative An introduction to the venerable
The project which is saving lives in approaches to Linux mean the OS could language that boasts extremely strong
Gaza with cheap medical equipment feel very different in the future static typing, among other things

4
 Issue 190
April 2018
facebook.com/LinuxUserUK 94 Free downloads
Twitter: @linuxusermag We’ve uploaded a host of
new free and open source
software this month

72
62
74

76 88
Practical Pi Reviews Back page
72 Pi Project 62 Dell XPS 13 9370 96 Top open source projects
Designer and creative technologist Does Dell’s latest update deliver? What projects are tickling developers’
Peter Buczkowski explains his fancies this month?
Prosthetic Photographer project – 81 Group test: Python shells
a camera that physically shocks you We put four alternatives to the
into taking a picture when it deems a standard interactive Python shell
scene is good enough! to the test

74 Access a Raspberry Pi Zero 86 Raspberry Pi 3 B+

using a laptop Not the Pi 4, but a worthy addition
It’s easy to configure OS settings and
use the USB port to access both the 88 Calculate Linux 17.12.2
command line and GUI from another Based on Gentoo, this desktop-
computer – we’ll show you how orientated distro claims to make
it more approachable, but does it?
76 Stream to Twitch with a Pi SUBSCRIBE TODAY
Discover how to turn a Pi into a 90 Fresh FOSS Save up to 20% when you
dedicated streaming device, and LimeSurvey 3.4.1, uBlock Origin subscribe! Turn to page 30 for
interface with platforms such as 1.15.11b0, Zeal 0.6.0 and Rapid Photo more information
Twitch to broadcast your streams Downloader 0.9.8 – all reviewed

www.linuxuser.co.uk 5
 06 News & Opinion | 10 Letters | 12 Interview | 16 Kernel Column

hardware

Purism ups the

ante for laptop
security
Tamper-proof laptops and
encryption partnership
to secure laptops and
upcoming Librem 5 phone
Purism’s continued focus on producing
the most secure, private laptops has
resulted in a new partnership with
eclectic hacker Trammell Hudson.
His Heads security firmware
has been integrated into
Trusted Platform Module chips,
delivering enhanced protection for users of
Purism’s Linux hardware.
The result of 12 months’ development, To this end, Purism is leveraging GNU
the enhancement required some hardware Privacy Guard (GnuPG) and smart card
changes, coreboot modifications, and of technology to include encryption by default
course operating system updates. As Purism on all its devices. Privacy and cryptography
CEO Todd Weaver noted: “Your privacy is advocates might already know that it was
dependent on your freedom. We believe that Koch’s GnuPG encryption that enabled
having true privacy means your computer surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden
and data should be under your control, and to communicate with journalists.
not controlled by big tech corporations.” GnuPG was first developed in 1997 and
Librem laptop users can now take control made freely available; over the years it has
of the secure boot process, using Heads to amassed a large community of users and Above Purism’s laptops, including the Librem 13 and
establish if software has been tampered with developers. Importantly, GnuPG will be 15, are to become even more secure
at the boot level. “By activating Heads in our used in email and messaging using a new
TPM-enabled coreboot by default on all our process, Web Key Directory, which enables weren’t initially thought practical to develop
laptops, this critical piece combined with the the sender to specify recipient permissions by the Purism team.
rest of our security features will make Librem on encrypted messages. Todd Weaver considers having Werner
laptops the most secure laptop you can buy Says Werner Koch: “Purism’s goal of easy- Koch’s input an “ideal approach to protecting
where you hold the keys,” added Weaver. to-use cryptography built into its products users by default, without sacrificing
New Librem 13 and Librem 15 orders is the ideal approach to gain mass adoption convenience or usability.” The end game for
will feature the Heads-integrated TPM – Purism is manufacturing modern hardware this partnership is full-disk encryption plus
as a standard feature. There’s also designed to allow the users to have control of file encryption, with users or businesses
security-related news on the Librem 5 their own systems.” having the ability to protect their own digital
front, with the announcement that a new The Librem 5 smartphone, due in the files or data, while holding the keys to such
encrypted communication standard has later part of this year, was first announced protection themselves.
been developed with the assistance of in August 2017 and had a successful Ultimately, Purism aims to push the laptop
cryptography pioneer Werner Koch. This will crowdfunding that raised 155 per cent of the and smartphone industries towards greater
add hardware encryption to Purism’s laptops goal. Additional resources are being used protection for end-user devices. Who can
and forthcoming smartphone Librem 5. – as promised – to include features that argue with that?

6
distro top five
Five Ubuntu 18.04
Canonical installs data- LTS features
collection tool in Ubuntu 1 New default apps
Several new default apps are being
included with Ubuntu (or made available at
Upgraders can opt out of Ubuntu data the setup screen), following a community
consultation in 2017. VLC, LibreOffice and
collection, company says GIMP line up alongside Kdenlive, Mozilla
Thunderbird and Shotwell.
Paranoia has struck the Ubuntu community inspect. The results of this data would be
over the past few weeks following news made public.” Cooke explained that users
that a data-collection tool has been would be able to compare the percentage
placed in the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS installer by of people running Ubuntu in Germany
Canonical. While this only collects system compared to Zambia, for example, and on
hardware information, rather than the far what hardware: “The Ubuntu privacy policy
more intrusive usage data collected by would be updated to reflect this change.”
Microsoft in Windows 10, the decision has The collected data includes the Ubuntu
been met with controversy. flavour and version, the PC’s hardware (CPU,
In an announcement to the Ubuntu
development mailing list, Canonical’s Will
RAM, disk size, GPU vendor, display device),
a location based on the information provided
2 Xorg display server
Wayland remains the shape of future
Cooke explained that the data collected was by the user when installing (rather than an IP display servers, we’re reassured, but
not meant to be intrusive. address, which is not collected), installation thanks to the myriad applications and
“Information from the installation would duration, and whether third party tools and games that failed to run properly with it,
be sent over HTTPS to a service run by updates are downloaded during installation. Ubuntu 18.04 restores Xorg.
Canonical’s IS team. This would be saved Most discussion around the
to disk and sent on first boot once there is
a network connection. The file containing
announcement concerned a perceived
breach of privacy, and it doesn’t help that
3 Colour emoji are here
This is the feature you’ve really been
this data would be available for the user to Canonical has a spotty history in this regard, waiting for. In previous versions, emoji
such as the Ubuntu/Amazon integration were monochromatic; this is set to change
and leaky searches in Ubuntu 12.10. Of in 18.04 with the arrival of Android’s full-
course, the Android phone in most of the colour, open source versions.
complainant’s pockets offers a greater
privacy issue, and you can’t easily
opt out of that.
One of the aspects of this
announcement that has gone
largely unreported is that
anyone can opt out, while
upgraders from 16.04 LTS
can opt in if they choose.
As Will Cooke explains,
“Any user can simply opt
4 Minimal installation
Not a replacement for the Ubuntu
out by unchecking the Minimal ISO, but an actual feature in the
box […] There will be a installation screen, it’s possible to install
corresponding checkbox in Ubuntu 18.04 without all of the additional
the Privacy panel of GNOME software packages.
Settings to toggle the state
of this.” Given how vague
usage figures are for Linux,
5 New GNOME themes
Ubuntu 18.04 is the first LTS release to use
it makes sense that Canonical GNOME 3, and this is celebrated with a
should want to quantify Ubuntu in brand new GTK theme, which also includes
this way, but perhaps it could have the Suru icon theme by default. This new
approached things more openly. look will be the first thing you see!

www.linuxuser.co.uk 7
OpenSource Your source of Linux news & views

android

‘Linux on Galaxy’ demonstrated

Convergence-like tool aimed primarily at developers, for now
The idea of turning a smartphone into a
PC is nothing new; it’s already been seen
in Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile with
Continuum, Ubuntu Touch’s Convergence,
and the inclusion of Debian in Maru OS.
But it hasn’t quite caught on. Realising that
most people probably don’t want an actual
PC in their pockets, Samsung has been busy
working on a new approach. Unofficially
known as ‘Linux on Galaxy’, Samsung DeX
is currently aimed at high-end Samsung
Galaxy smartphones (typically with octa-core
processors), and a small section of users:
programmers.
Based on the idea that developers have
notepads and other coding tools installed on
their phones for downtime work, Samsung
has created a new Linux experience. Above Will developers want to code on a PC/smartphone hybrid?
“Developing applications on a mobile device
has never been easier,” the company says. experience, complete with drag-and- kernel at the heart of the Android operating
“The full Linux stack is now accessible drop functionality and multiple, resizable system. The result is a desktop PC you can
using Samsung DeX – a rich desktop-like windows. This solution, when paired with take and use anywhere. Most important of all
Linux, allows developers to take their apps is that the same apps and files are available

Linux shares the and programs and code on the go.”

Packaged as an app, Linux launches when
within both environments. This means that
you might work on code on the train to work,
same kernel at the the host phone is connected to a custom DeX
dock. Rather than being a totally separate
and seamlessly continue the project in the
office. It’s clearly an exciting proposition,
heart of Android OS installation, however, Linux shares the same but as yet there is no release date.

windows
Ubuntu is a ‘first class’ guest under Hyper-V
Enhanced Session Mode makes running Ubuntu VM seamless
Microsoft’s accommodation of Ubuntu is out of the box. Hyper-V’s Quick Create VM is expected when Ubuntu 18.04 is ready.
either pleasing or desperate, depending on gallery is the perfect vehicle to deliver such Facilitating this enhanced mode is the RDP
how you look at it. Regardless, it’s set an experience.” protocol implemented by the team behind
to continue, following the release of plans to The implication is that the “VM experience xrdp, an open source RDP server (www.
make it a ‘first-class’ guest under the is tightly integrated with the host […]. With xrdp.org). This streams data “over Hyper-V
Hyper-V virtualisation platform available in only three mouse clicks, users will be able sockets to light up all the great features
Windows. Under Enhanced Session Mode, to get an Ubuntu VM running that offers that give the VM an integrated feel,” Wilhite
Ubuntu 18.04 will be ready to run at any time. clipboard functionality, drive redirection, says. Hyper-V sockets supply “a byte-stream
In a blog post, Microsoft’s Craig Wilhite, a and much more.” based communication mechanism between
program manager, explains how his team is Wilhite’s tutorial, which you can read the host partition and the guest VM”.
“partnering with Canonical on the upcoming at http://bit.ly/lud_vm, demonstrates him The feature should be ready for Ubuntu
Ubuntu 18.04 release to make this experience running the previous LTS of Ubuntu 16.04 in 18.04 LTS’s April release, via the VM Gallery
a reality […] to provide a solution that works Enhanced Session Mode, as a taster for what in Hyper-V.

8
chrome os Distro feed

Chrome OS to support Top 10

(Average hits per day, 30 days to 9 March 2018)

Linux virtual machines?

1. Mint 2804

2. Manjaro 2315

3. Debian ■ 1666

Evidence seems to suggest it’s on the way 4. Ubuntu 1625

5. Solus 1285
Chrome OS is based on Linux (Gentoo,
specifically), so you might expect 6. Antergos 1160

installation of Linux apps to be 7. elementary 1059

straightforward. Unfortunately, that’s not
currently popular, leading to the use of some
8. Fedora ■ 960

hacky workarounds. 9. TrueOS 930

Anyone wanting to run Linux on a 10. openSUSE 825
Chromebook has two choices: installing
ChrUbuntu, or running the Crouton script.
The first option requires a new partition a number of factors suggest that the release This month
(and can be time-consuming to switch to), of Chromium Gerrit is likely to provide VM
while the second introduces a considerable support for Linux. First is a commit called ■ In development (7)
security risk. So what’s the answer? “New device policy to allow Linux VMs on ■ Stable releases (2)
Various indicators suggest that Chrome Chrome OS”, which adds a new menu and a The march of Manjaro
OS will soon provide support for Linux virtual switch for administrators to enable or disable continues, breaking
machines. After all, having an official option the feature. One line of code suggests up the Debian family’s
for running Linux is preferable to relying on inclusion in Chrome OS 66, which is due for previous hold on
a third-party project such as Crouton. Then May release. the top three spots.
there’s the problem of having to activate Meanwhile, a dialogue box reads “Develop Meanwhile, Kali and
Developer Mode, exposing yourself to on your Chromebook. You can run your Linux Lite maintain
potential hacks. It’s a risk no computer owner favorite Linux apps and command-line tools their positions.
should take, but it’s the only option if you seamlessly and securely.” So, fancy installing
want to install Linux apps on a Chromebook. LibreOffice, popular Linux-compatible Steam Highlights
As noted by the Android Police blog games or even software supported by Wine?
(https://www.androidpolice.com), It could happen… Fedora
Red Hat’s ‘free’ version, supported
hardware by a massive community, Fedora
uses GNOME and aims to introduce new

Nintendo Switch runs Linux technologies before other distros.

Kali Linux
But no one’s sharing the secret of how… Based on Debian, Kali Linux is
intended as a security-focused
Has the Nintendo Switch has been hacked desktop, information on how to run this distribution and sports a collection of security,
to run Linux? It would seem so, thanks to a exploit at home has yet to materialise. The network-monitoring and forensic tools.
hardware bug. A tweet from hacking group lack of performance information, meanwhile,
fail0verflow on 15 January said: “In case it doesn’t make it clear whether you would even Linux Lite
wasn’t obvious, our Switch coldboot exploit: want to install Linux on the Nintendo Switch. With the primary aim of introducing
* Is a bootrom bug * Can’t be patched (in The Switch is built on ARM architecture, so Windows switchers to Linux, this
currently released Switches) * Doesn’t it’s not as if it could run many desktop games distro is built on Ubuntu LTS and features the
require a modchip to pull off”. under Linux. On the other hand, a working Xfce desktop, office suite, and other software.
Plenty of information there… but that’s version of Android isn’t out of the question,
as deep as it gets. Although it followed given that it already features some code
up with a video appearing to confirm the from Google’s mobile OS. After all, Android Latest distros
exploit, showing someone using the Switch’s is the OS that Nintendo is rumoured to have available:
touchscreen to browse the web in a Linux originally wanted on the Switch.
filesilo.co.uk

www.linuxuser.co.uk 9
OpenSource Your source of Linux news & views

Comment

Your letters
Questions and opinions about the mag, Linux and open source
top tweet Secure my penguin distros go, but if you’re paranoid it’s a good option. It has
From @Pepulani7: Dear LU&D, I would be very interested in a future issue tonnes of other features as well, and links in with Tor and
Quite informative perhaps covering the top secure OS distro options others, including Whonix.
albeit brief available in Linux, and accompanying articles about how Another option is Pure OS; if you combine Purism’s OS
introduction to to tweak and lock them down even further. If there is with the company’s laptops, it makes for a very privacy-
Metasploit in already an issue covering this I wouldn’t mind information conscious setup. There’s also Subgraph which goes down
@LinuxUserMag on what the issue number it was in. the route of hardening the Linux kernel (that’s the core
issue 188. Could Richard W components of the Linux operating system, essentially).
you please do That distro is still in alpha.
more like this Chris: Thanks for your email! Richard actually felt he If any readers have thoughts on specific security
for the different didn’t have much to offer being a new user of Linux but projects or topics they’d like to understand better,
payloads as his comment seems bang on topic. Security and privacy please email us on [email protected].
well as different concerns just keep growing, and it’s a trend we’ve
encoding types
and tutorials
highlighted in our Next Gen Distros feature this issue
(p64). We also had a guide to Qubes OS in the last issue NAS to meet you
in your [future] (LU&D189) that you can buy as a single issue at http:// Dear LU&D, I thought you might be interested to know
issues? bit.ly/LUD189BackIssue. Essentially, Qubes OS separates about a Linux distribution that I use called VortexBox.
everything into domains using bare-metal hypervisors. This is a full media server and think it might be something
This mean that you can compartmentalise your work life that would interest your readers.
from personal life and avoid any malware you do catch Phil Anderson
spreading across your system. It’s unusual as Linux
Chris: Thanks, Phil. We’d not heard of this distro so
we took a quick look. For those similarly in the dark,
VortexBox turns your Linux box into a jukebox music
server/player. It’s based on Fedora and once installed it’s
capable of automatically ripping CDs to FLAC and MP3
files. Apparently, it also ID3-tags the files and downloads
any cover art that’s available.
We’ve not tried it ourselves yet, but Vortexbox
supports network media players such as Linn, Logitech
Squeezebox and Sonos. The project also states that
you can play files directly to a USB-attached DAC. In all
it sounds like a brilliant distro, but it also appears that

Above Our sister website TechRadar actually reviewed the

Vortexbox NAS appliance back in 2010 and gave it five stars.
Above Security has become a mainstream topic in recent years; it’s no surprise that Linux Clearly it was a great product, so it’s a shame that it has fallen
is leading the way with distributions that attempt to keep you safe and respect your privacy into obscurity in recent years

10
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
 “I wish you'd show Mr. Oakley what you are doing now, Turner. He
may give you some valuable criticisms.”
For, by that unique, intuitive process of reasoning peculiar to
women, she had decided that Oakley's judgment must be as
remarkable as his generosity.
His words roused Joyce, who had stood all this while with misty
eyes blinking at Oakley. He turned and took a fresh canvas from
among those leaning against the wall and rested it on the easel.
“This is a portrait I'm doing of Jared Thome's daughter. I haven't
painted in the eyes yet. That's a point they can't agree upon. You
see, there's a slight cast—”
“She's cross-eyed, Turner,” interjected Mrs. Joyce, positively.
“Jared wants them the way they'll be after she's been to Chicago
to be operated on, and his wife wants them as they are now. They
are to settle it between them before she comes for the final sitting
on Saturday.”
“That is a complication,” observed Oakley, but he did not laugh. It
was not that he lacked a sense of humor. It was that he was more
impressed by something else.
The little artist blinked affectionately at his work.
“Yes, it's going to be a good likeness, quite as good as any I ever
got. I was lucky in my flesh tints there on the cheek,” he added,
tilting his head critically on one side.
“What do you think of Mr. Joyce's work?” asked Mrs. Joyce, bent
on committing their visitor to an opinion.
“It is very good, indeed, and perhaps he is doing a greater service
in educating us here at Antioch than if he had made a name for
himself abroad. Perhaps, too, he'll be remembered just as long.”
“Do you really think so, Mr. Oakley?” said the little artist,
delighted. “It may sound egotistical, but I have sometimes thought
that myself—that these portraits of mine, bad as I know they must
be, give a great deal of pleasure and happiness to their owners, and
it's a great pleasure for me to do them, and we don't get much
beyond that in this world, do we?”
 CHAPTER IV

O
AKLEY took the satchel from General Cornish's hand as the
latter stepped from his private car.
“You got my note, I see,” he said. “I think I'll go to the
hotel for the rest of the night.”
He glanced back over his shoulder, as he turned with Dan towards
the bus which was waiting for them at the end of the platform.
“I guess no one else got off here. It's not much of a railroad
centre.”
“No,” agreed Oakley, impartially; “there are towns where the
traffic is heavier.”
Arrived at the hotel, Oakley led the way up-stairs to the general's
room. It adjoined his own. Cornish paused on the threshold until he
had lighted the gas.
“Light the other burner, will you?” he requested. “There, thanks,
that's better.”
He was a portly man of sixty, with a large head and heavy face.
His father had been a Vermont farmer, a man of position and means,
according to the easy standard of his times. When the Civil War
broke out, young Cornish, who was just commencing the practice of
the law, had enlisted as a private in one of the first regiments raised
by his State. Prior to this he had overflowed with fervid oratory, and
had tried hard to look like Daniel Webster, but a skirmish or two
opened his eyes to the fact that the waging of war was a sober
business, and the polishing off of his sentences not nearly as
important as the polishing off of the enemy. He was still willing to
die for the Union, if there was need of it, but while his life was
spared it was well to get on. The numerical importance of number
one was a belief too firmly implanted in his nature to be overthrown
by any patriotic aberration.
 His own merits, which he was among the first to recognize, and
the solid backing his father was able to give, won him promotion. He
had risen to the command of a regiment, and when the war ended
was brevetted a brigadier-general of volunteers, along with a score
of other anxious warriors who wished to carry the title of general
back into civil life, for he was an amiable sort of a Shylock, who
seldom overlooked his pound of flesh, and he usually got all, and a
little more, than was coming to him.
After the war he married and went West, where he resumed the
practice of his profession, but he soon abandoned it for a
commercial career. It was not long until he was ranked as one of the
rich men of his State. Then he turned his attention to politics, He
was twice elected to Congress, and served one term as governor.
One of his daughters had married an Italian prince, a meek, prosaic
little creature, exactly five feet three inches tall: another was
engaged to an English earl, whose debts were a remarkable
achievement for so young a man. His wife now divided her time
between Paris and London. She didn't think much of New York,
which had thought even less of her. He managed to see her once or
twice a year. Any oftener would have been superfluous. But it
interested him to read of her in the papers, and to feel a sense of
proprietorship for this woman, who was spending his money and
carrying his name into the centres of elegance and fashion.
Personally he disliked fashion, and was rather shy of elegance.
There were moments, however, when he felt his life to be wholly
unsatisfactory. He derived very little pleasure from all the luxury that
had accumulated about him, and which he accepted with a curious
placid indifference. He would have liked the affection of his children,
to have had them at home, and there was a remote period in his
past when his wife had inspired him with a sentiment at which he
could only wonder. He held it against her that she had not
understood.
He lurched down solidly into the chair Oakley placed for him. “I
hope you are comfortable here,” he said, kindly.
“Oh yes.” He still stood.
 “Sit down,” said Cornish. “I don't, as a rule, believe in staying up
after midnight to talk business, but I must start East to-morrow.”
He slipped out of his chair and began to pace the floor, with his
hands thrust deep in his trousers-pockets. “I want to talk over the
situation here. I don't see that the road is ever going to make a
dollar. I've an opportunity to sell it to the M. & W. Of course this is
extremely confidential. It must not go any further. I am told they will
discontinue it beyond this point, and of course they will either move
the shops away or close them.” He paused in his rapid walk. “It's too
bad it never paid. It was the first thing I did when I came West. I
thought it a pretty big thing then. I have always hoped it would
justify my judgment, and it promised to for a while until the lumber
interests played out. Now, what do you advise, Oakley? I want to get
your ideas. You understand, if I sell I won't lose much. The price
offered will just about meet the mortgage I hold, but I guess the
stockholders will come out at the little end of the horn.”
Oakley understood exactly what was ahead of the stockholders if
the road changed hands. Perhaps his face showed that he was
thinking of this, for the general observed, charitably:
“It's unfortunate, but you can't mix sentiment in a transaction of
this sort. I'd like to see them all get their money back, and more,
too.”
His mental attitude towards the world was one of generous
liberality, but he had such excellent control over his impulses that,
while he always seemed about to embark in some large
philanthropy, he had never been known to take even the first step in
that direction. In short, he was hard and unemotional, but with a
deceptive, unswerving kindliness of manner, which, while it had
probably never involved a dollar of his riches, had at divers times
cost the unwary and the indiscreet much money.
No man presided at the board meetings of a charity with an air of
larger benevolence, and no man drove closer or more conscienceless
bargains. His friends knew better than to trust him—a precaution
they observed in common with his enemies.
 “I am sure the road could be put on a paying basis,” said Oakley.
“Certain quite possible economies would do that. Of course we can't
create business, there is just so much of it, and we get it all as it is.
But the shops might be made very profitable. I have secured a good
deal of work for them, and I shall secure more. I had intended to
propose a number of reforms, but if you are going to sell, why,
there's no use of going into the matter—” he paused.
The general meditated in silence for a moment. “I'd hate to
sacrifice my interests if I thought you could even make the road pay
expenses. Now, just what do you intend to do?”
“I'll get my order-book and show you what's been done for the
shops,” said Oakley, rising with alacrity. “I have figured out the
changes, too, and you can see at a glance just what I propose
doing.”
The road and the shops employed some five hundred men, most
of whom had their homes in Antioch. Oakley knew that if the
property was sold it would practically wipe the town out of
existence. The situation was full of interest for him. If Cornish
approved, and told him to go ahead with his reforms, it would be an
opportunity such as he had never known.
He went into his own room, which opened off Cornish's, and got
his order-book and table of figures, which he had carried up from
the office that afternoon.
They lay on the stand with a pile of trade journals. For the first
time in his life he viewed these latter with an unfriendly eye. He
thought of Constance Emory, and realized that he should never
again read and digest the annual report of the Joint Traffic
Managers' Association with the same sense of intellectual fulness it
had hitherto given him. No, clearly, that was a pleasure he had
outgrown.
He had taken a great deal of pains with his figures, and they
seemed to satisfy Cornish that the road, if properly managed, was
not such a hopeless proposition, after all. Something might be done
with it.
 Oakley rose in his good esteem; he had liked him, and he was
justifying his good opinion. He beamed benevolently on the young
man, and thawed out of his habitual reserve into a genial,
ponderous frankness.
“You have done well,” he said, glancing through the order-book
with evident satisfaction.
“Of course,” explained Oakley, “I am going to make a cut in wages
this spring, if you agree to it, but I haven't the figures for this yet.”
The general nodded. He approved of cuts on principle.
“That's always a wise move,” he said. “Will they stand it?”
“They'll have to.” And Oakley laughed rather nervously. He
appreciated that his reforms were likely to make him very unpopular
in Antioch. “They shouldn't object. If the road changes hands it will
kill their town.”
“I suppose so,” agreed Cornish, indifferently.
“And half a loaf is lots better than no loaf,” added Oakley. Again
the general nodded his approval. That was the very pith and Gospel
of his financial code, and he held it as greatly to his own credit that
he had always been perfectly willing to offer halfloaves.
“What sort of shape is the shop in?” he asked, after a moment's
silence.
“Very good on the whole.”
“I am glad to hear you say so. I spent over a hundred thousand
dollars on the plant originally.”
“Of course, the equipment can hardly be called modern, but it will
do for the sort of work for which I am bidding,” Oakley explained.
“Well, it will be an interesting problem for a young man, Oakley. If
you pull the property up it will be greatly to your credit. I was going
to offer you another position, but we will let that go over for the
present. I am very much pleased, though, with all you have done,
very much pleased, indeed. I go abroad in about two weeks. My
youngest daughter is to be married in London to the Earl of
Minchester.”
 The title rolled glibly from the great man's lips. “So you'll have the
fight, if it is a fight, all to yourself. I'll see that Holloway does what
you say. He's the only one you'll have to look to in my absence, but
you won't be able to count on him for anything; he gets limp in a
crisis. Just don't make the mistake of asking his advice.”
“I'd rather have no advice,” interrupted Dan, hastily, “unless it's
yours,” he added.
“I'll see that you are not bothered. You are the sort of fellow who
will do better with a free hand, and that is what I intend you shall
have.”
“Thank you,” said Oakley, his heart warming with the other's
praise.
“I shall be back in three months, and then, if your schemes have
worked out at all as we expect, why, we can consider putting the
property in better shape.”—A part of Oakley's plan.—“As you say, it's
gone down so there won't be much but the right of way presently.”
“I hope that eventually there'll be profits,” said Oakley, whose
mind was beginning to reach out into the future.
“I guess the stockholders will drop dead if we ever earn a
dividend. That's the last thing they are looking forward to,” remarked
Cornish, dryly. “Will you leave a six-thirty call at the office for me? I
forgot, and I must take the first train.”
Oakley had gathered up his order-book and papers. The general
was already fumbling with his cravat and collar.
“I am very well satisfied with your plan, and I believe you have
the ability to carry it out.”
He threw aside his coat and vest and sat down to take off his
shoes. “Don't saddle yourself with too much work. Keep enough of
an office force to save yourself wherever you can. I think, if orders
continue to come in as they have been doing, the shops promise
well. It just shows what a little energy will accomplish.”
“With judicious nursing in the start, there should be plenty of work
for us, and we are well equipped to handle it.”
 “Yes,” agreed Cornish. “A lot of money was spent on the plant. I
wanted it just right.”
“I can't understand why more hasn't been done with the
opportunity here.”
“I've never been able to find the proper man to take hold, until I
found you, Oakley. You have given me a better insight into
conditions than I have had at any time since I built the road, and it
ain't such a bad proposition, after all, especially the shops.” The
general turned out the gas as he spoke, and Oakley, as he stood in
the doorway of his own room, saw dimly a white figure moving in
the direction of the bed.
“I'd figure close on all repair work. The thing is to get them into
the habit of coming to us. Don't forget the call, please. Six-thirty
sharp.”
The slats creaked and groaned beneath his weight. “Good-night.”
 CHAPTER V

T
HE next morning Oakley saw General Cornish off on the 7.15
train, and then went back to his hotel for breakfast
Afterwards, on his way to the office he mailed a check to Ezra
Hart for his father. The money was intended to meet his expenses in
coming West.
He was very busy all that day making out his new schedules, and
in figuring the cuts and just what they would amount to. He
approached his task with a certain reluctance, for it was as
unpleasant to him personally as it was necessary to the future of the
road, and he knew that no half-way measures would suffice. He
must cut, as a surgeon cuts, to save. By lopping away a man here
and there, giving his work to some other man, or dividing it up
among two or three men, he managed to peel off two thousand
dollars on the year. He counted that a very fair day's work.
He would start his reform with no particular aggressiveness. He
would retire the men he intended to dismiss from the road one at a
time. He hoped they would take the hint and hunt other positions. At
any rate, they could not get back until he was ready to take them
back, as Cornish had assured him he would not be interfered with.
He concluded not to hand the notices and orders to Miss Walton, the
typewriter, to copy. She might let drop some word that would give
his victims an inkling of what was in store for them. He knew there
were unpleasant scenes ahead of him, but there was no need to
anticipate. When at last his figures for the cuts were complete he
would have been grateful for some one with whom to discuss the
situation. All at once his responsibilities seemed rather heavier than
he had bargained for.
There were only two men in the office besides himself—Philip Kerr,
the treasurer, and Byron Holt, his assistant. They were both busy
with the payroll, as it was the sixth of the month, and they
commenced to pay off in the shops on the tenth.
He had little or no use for Kerr, who still showed, where he dared,
in small things his displeasure that an outsider had been appointed
manager of the road. He had counted on the place for himself for a
number of years, but a succession of managers had come and gone
apparently without its ever having occurred to General Cornish that
an excellent executive was literally spoiling in the big, bare, general
offices of the line.
This singular indifference on the part of Cornish to his real
interests had soured a disposition that at its best had more of acid in
it than anything else. As there was no way in which he could make
his resentment known to the general, even if he had deemed such a
course expedient, he took it out of Oakley, and kept his feeling for
him on ice. Meanwhile he hided his time, hoping for Oakley's
downfall and his own eventual recognition.
With the assistant treasurer, Dan's relations were entirely cordial.
Holt was a much younger man than Kerr, as frank and open as the
other was secret and reserved. When the six-o'clock whistle blew he
glanced up from his work and said:
“I wish you'd wait a moment, Holt. I want to see you.”
Kerr had already gone home, and Miss Walton was adjusting her
hat before a bit of a mirror that hung on the wall back of her desk.
“All right,” responded Holt, cheerfully.
“Just draw up your chair,” said Oakley, handing his papers to him.
At first Holt did not understand; then he began to whistle softly, and
fell to checking off the various cuts with his forefinger.
“What do you think of the job, Byron?” inquired Oakley.
“Well, I'm glad I don't get laid off, that's sure. Say, just bear in
mind that I'm going to be married this summer.”
“You needn't worry; only I didn't know that.”
“Well, please don't forget it, Mr. Oakley.”
Holt ran over the cuts again. Then he asked:
 “Who's going to stand for this? You or the old man? I hear he was
in town last night.”
“I stand for it, but of course he approves.”
“I'll bet he approves,” and the assistant treasurer grinned. “This is
the sort of thing that suits him right down to the ground.”
“How about the hands? Do you know if they are members of any
union?”
“No, but there'll be lively times ahead for you. They are a great lot
of kickers here.”
“Wait until I get through. I haven't touched the shops yet; that's
to come later. I'll skin closer before I'm done.” Oakley got up and lit
his pipe. “The plant must make some sort of a showing. We can't
continue at the rate we have been going. I suppose you know what
sort of shape it would leave the town in if the shops were closed.”
“Damn poor shape, I should say. Why, it's the money that goes in
and out of this office twice a month that keeps the town alive. It
couldn't exist a day without that.”
“Then it behooves us to see to it that nothing happens to the
shops or road. I am sorry for the men I am laying off, but it can't be
helped.”
“I see you are going to chuck Hoadley out of his good thing at the
Junction. If he was half white he'd a gone long ago. He must lay
awake nights figuring how he can keep decently busy.”
“Is the list all right?”
“Yes. No, it's not, either. You've marked off Joe Percell at Harrison.
He used to brake for the Huckleberry until he lost an arm. His is a
pension job.”
“Put his name back, then. How do you think it's going to work?”
“Oh, it will work all right, because it has to, but they'll all be
cussing you,” with great good humor. “What's the matter, anyhow?
Did the old man throw a fit at the size of the pay-roll?”
“Not exactly, but he came down here with his mind made up to
sell the road to the M. & W.”
 “You don't say so!”
“I talked him out of that, but we must make a showing, for he's
good and tired, and may dump the whole business any day.”
“Well, if he does that there'll be no marrying or giving in marriage
for me this summer. It will be just like a Shaker settlement where I
am concerned.”
Dan laughed. “Oh, you'd be all right, Holt. You'd get something
else, or the M. & W. would keep you on.”
“I don't know about that. A new management generally means a
clean sweep all round, and my berth's a pretty good one.”
In some manner a rumor of the changes Oakley proposed making
did get abroad, and he was promptly made aware that his popularity
in Antioch was a thing of the past. He was regarded as an oppressor
from whom some elaborate and wanton tyranny might be expected.
While General Cornish suffered their inefficiency, his easy-going
predecessors had been content to draw their salaries and let it go at
that, a line of conduct which Antioch held to be entirely proper. This
new man, however, was clearly an upstart, cursed with an insane
and destructive ambition to earn money from the road.
Suppose it did not pay. Cornish could go down into his pocket for
the difference, just as he had always done.
What the town did not know, and what it would not have believed
even if it had been told, was that the general had been on the point
of selling—a change that would have brought hardship to every one.
The majority of the men in the shops owned their own homes, and
these homes represented the savings of years. The sudden exodus
of two or three hundred families meant of necessity widespread ruin.
Those who were forced to go away would have to sacrifice
everything they possessed to get away, while those who remained
would be scarcely better off. But Antioch never considered such a
radical move as even remotely possible. It counted the shops a
fixture; they had always been there, and for this sufficient reason
they would always remain.
 The days wore on, one very like another, with their spring heat
and lethargy. Occasionally, Oakley saw Miss Emory on the street to
bow to, but not to speak with; while he was grateful for these
escapes, he found himself thinking of her very often. He fancied—
and he was not far wrong—that she was finding Antioch very dull.
He wondered, too, if she was seeing much of Ryder. He imagined
that she was; and here again he was not far wrong. Now and then
he was seized with what he felt to be a weak desire to call, but he
always thought better of it in time, and was always grateful he had
not succumbed to the impulse. But her mere presence in Antioch
seemed to make him dissatisfied and resentful of its limitations.
Ordinarily he was not critical of his surroundings. Until she came,
that he was without companionship and that the town was given
over to a deadly inertia which expressed itself in the collapsed
ambition of nearly every man and woman he knew, had scarcely
affected him beyond giving him a sense of mild wonder.
He had heard nothing of his father, and in the pressure of his work
and freshened interest in the fortunes of the Huckleberry, had hardly
given him a second thought. He felt that, since he had sent money
to him, he was in a measure relieved of all further responsibility. If
his father did not wish to come to him, that was his own affair. He
had placed no obstacle in his way.
He had gone through life without any demand having been made
on his affections. On those rare occasions that he devoted to self-
analysis he seriously questioned if he possessed any large capacity
in that direction. The one touch of sentiment to which he was alive
was the feeling he centred about the few square feet of turf where
his mother lay under the sweet-briar and the old elms in the
burying-plot of the little Eastern village. The sexton was instructed to
see that the spot was not neglected, and that there were always
flowers on the grave. She had loved flowers. It was somehow a
satisfaction to Dan to overpay him for this care. But he had his
moments of remorse, because he was unable to go back there. Once
or twice he had started East, fully intending to do so, but had
weakened at the last moment. Perhaps he recognized that while it
was possible to return to a place, it was not possible to return to an
emotion.
Oakley fell into the habit of working at the office after the others
left in the evening. He liked the quiet of the great bare room and the
solitude of the silent, empty shops. Sometimes Holt remained, too,
and discussed his matrimonial intentions, or entertained his superior
with an account of his previous love affairs, for the experiences were
far beyond his years. He had exhausted the possibilities of Antioch
quite early in life. At one time or another he had either been
engaged, or almost engaged, to every pretty girl in the place. He
explained his seeming inconsistency, however, by saying he was
naturally of a very affectionate disposition.
 CHAPTER VI

L
ATE one afternoon, as Oakley sat at his desk in the broad
streak of yellow light that the sun sent in through the west
windows, he heard a step on the narrow board-walk that ran
between the building and the tracks. The last shrill shriek of No. 7,
as usual, half an hour late, had just died out in the distance, and the
informal committee of town loafers which met each train was
plodding up Main Street to the post-office in solemn silence.
He glanced around as the door into the yards opened, expecting
to see either Holt or Kerr. Instead he saw a tall, gaunt man of sixty-
five, a little stoop-shouldered, and carrying his weight heavily and
solidly. His large head was sunk between broad shoulders. It was
covered by a wonderful growth of iron-gray hair. The face was clean-
shaven and had the look of a placid mask. There was a curious
repose in the man's attitude as he stood with a big hand—the hand
of an artisan—resting loosely on the knob of the door.
“Is it you. Dannie?”
The smile that accompanied the words was at once anxious,
hesitating, and inquiring. He closed the door with awkward care and
coming a step nearer, put out his hand. Oakley, breathing hard, rose
hastily from his chair, and stood leaning against the corner of his
desk as if he needed its support. He was white to the lips.
There was a long pause while the two men looked into each
other's eyes.
“Don't you know me, Dannie?” wistfully. Dan said nothing, but he
extended his hand, and his father's fingers closed about it with a
mighty pressure. Then, quite abruptly, Roger Oakley turned and
walked over to the window. Once more there was absolute silence in
the room, save for the ticking of the clock and the buzzing of a
solitary fly high up on the ceiling.
 The old convict was the first to break the tense stillness.
“I had about made up my mind I should never see you again,
Dannie. When your mother died and you came West it sort of wiped
out the little there was between me and the living. In fact, I really
didn't know you would care to see me, and when Hart told me you
wished me to come to you and had sent the money, I could hardly
believe it.”
Here the words failed him utterly. He turned slowly and looked
into his son's face long and lovingly. “I've thought of you as a little
boy for all these years, Dannie—as no higher than that,” dropping
his hand to his hip. “And here you are a man grown. But you got
your mother's look—I'd have known you by it among a thousand.”
If Dan had felt any fear of his father it had left him the instant he
entered the room. Whatever he might have done, whatever he
might have been, there was no question as to the manner of man he
had become. He stepped to his son's side and took his hand in one
of his own.
“You've made a man of yourself. I can see that. What do you do
here for a living?”
Dan laughed, queerly. “I am the general manager of the railroad,
father,” nodding towards the station and the yards. “But it's not
much to brag about. It's only a one-horse line,” he added.
“No, you don't mean it, Dannie!” And he could see that his father
was profoundly impressed. He put up his free hand and gently
patted Dan's head as though he were indeed the little boy he
remembered.
“Did you have an easy trip West, father?” Oakley asked. “You must
be tired.”
“Not a bit, Dannie. It was wonderful. I'd been shut off from it all
for more than twenty years, and each mile was taking me nearer
you.”
The warm yellow light was beginning to fade from the room. It
was growing late.
 “I guess we'd better go up-town to the hotel and have our supper.
Where is your trunk? At the station?”
“I've got nothing but a bundle. It's at the door.”
Dan locked his desk, and they left the office.
“Is it all yours?” Roger Oakley asked, pausing as they crossed the
yards, to glance up and down the curving tracks.
“It's part of the property I manage. It belongs to General Cornish,
who holds most of the stock.”
“And the train I came on, Dannie, who owned that?”
“At Buckhorn Junction, where you changed cars for the last time,
you caught our local express. It runs through to a place called
Harrison—the terminus of the line. This is only a branch road, you
know.”
But the explanation was lost on his father. His son's relation to the
road was a magnificent fact which he pondered with simple
pleasure.
After their supper at the hotel they went up-stairs. Roger Oakley
had been given a room next his son's. It was the same room General
Cornish had occupied when he was in Antioch.
“Would you like to put away your things now?” asked Dan, as he
placed his father's bundle, which he had carried up-town from the
office, on the bed.
“I'll do that by and by. There ain't much there—just a few little
things I've managed to keep, or that have been given me.”
Dan pushed two chairs before an open window that overlooked
the square. His father had taken a huge blackened meerschaum
from its case and was carefully filling it from a leather pouch.
“You don't mind if I light my pipe?” he inquired.
“Not a bit. I've one in my pocket, but it's not nearly as fine as
yours.”
“Our warden gave it to me one Christmas, and I've smoked it ever
since. He was a very good man, Dannie. It's the old warden I'm
speaking of, not Kenyon, the new one, though he's a good man,
too.”
Dan wondered where he had heard the name of Kenyon before;
then he remembered—it was at the Emorys'.
“Try some of my tobacco, Dannie,” passing the pouch.
For a time the two men sat in silence, blowing clouds of white
smoke out into the night. Under the trees, just bursting into leaf, the
street-lamps flickered in a long, dim perspective, and now and then
a stray word floated up to them, coming from a group of idlers on
the corner below the window.
Roger Oakley hitched his chair nearer his son's, and rested a
heavy hand on his knee. “I like it here,” he said.
“Do you? I am glad.”
“What will be the chances of my finding work? You know I'm a
cabinet-maker by trade.”
“There's no need of your working; so don't worry about that.”
“But I must work, Dannie. I ain't used to sitting still and doing
nothing.”
“Well,” said Oakley, willing to humor him, “there are the car
shops.”
“Can you get me in?”
“Oh yes, when you are ready to start. I'll have McClintock, the
master mechanic, find something in your line for you to do.”
“I'll need to get a kit of tools.”
“I guess McClintock can arrange that, too. I'll see him about it
when you are ready.”
“Then that's settled. I'll begin in the morning,” with quiet
determination.
“But don't you want to look around first?”
“I'll have my Sundays for that.” And Dan saw that there was no
use in arguing the point with him. He was bent on having his own
way.
 The old convict filled his lungs with a deep, free breath. “Yes, I'm
going to like it. I always did like a small town, anyhow. Tell me about
yourself, Dannie. How do you happen to be here?”
Dan roused himself. “I don't know. It's chance, I suppose. After
mother's death—”
“Twenty years ago last March,” breaking in upon him, softly; then,
nodding at the starlit heavens, “She's up yonder now, watching us.
Nothing's hidden or secret. It's all plain to her.”
“Do you really think that, father?”
“I know it, Dannie.” And his tone was one of settled conviction.
Dan had already discovered that his father was deeply religious. It
was a faith the like of which had not descended to his own day and
generation.
“Well, I had it rather hard for a while,” going back to his story.
“Yes,” with keen sympathy. “You were nothing but a little boy.”
“Finally, I was lucky enough to get a place as a newsboy on a
train. I sold papers until I was sixteen, and then began braking. I
wanted to be an engineer, but I guess my ability lay in another
direction. At any rate, they took me off the road and gave me an
office position instead. I got to be a division superintendent, and
then I met General Cornish. He is one of the directors of the line I
was with at the time. Three months ago he made me an offer to
take hold here, and so here I am.”
“And you've never been back home, Dannie?”
“Never once. I've wanted to go, but I couldn't.” He hoped his
father would understand.
“Well, there ain't much to take you there but her grave. I wish she
might have lived, you'd have been a great happiness to her, and she
got very little happiness for her portion any ways you look at it. We
were only just married when the war came, and I was gone four
years. Then there was about eleven years When we were getting on
nicely. We had money put by, and owned our own home. Can you
remember it, Dannie? The old brick place on the corner across from
the post-office. A new Methodist church stands there now. It was
sold to get money for my lawyer when the big trouble came.
Afterwards, when everything was spent, she must have found it very
hard to make a living for herself and you.”
“She did,” said Dan, gently. “But she managed somehow to keep a
roof over our heads.”
“When the law sets out to punish it don't stop with the guilty only.
When I went to her grave and saw there were flowers growing on it,
and that it was being cared for, it told me what you were. She was a
very brave woman, Dannie.”
“Yes,” pityingly, “she was.”
“Few women have had the sorrow she had, and few women could
have borne up under it as she did. You know that was an awful thing
about Sharp.”
He put up his hand and wiped the great drops of perspiration from
his forehead.
Dan turned towards him quickly.
“Why do you speak of it? It's all past now.”
“I'd sort of like to tell you about it.”
There was a long pause, and he continued:
“Sharp and I had been enemies for a long time. It started back
before the war, when he wanted to marry your mother. We both
enlisted in the same regiment, and somehow the trouble kept alive.
He was a bit of a bully, and I was counted a handy man with my
fists, too. The regiment was always trying to get us into the ring
together, but we knew it was dangerous. We had sense enough for
that. I won't say he would have done it, but I never felt safe when
there was a fight on in all those four years. It's easy enough to
shoot the man in front of you and no one be the wiser. Many a
score's been settled that way. When we got home again we didn't
get along any better. He was a drinking man, and had no control
over himself when liquor got the best of him. I did my share in
keeping the feud alive. What he said of me and what I said of him
generally reached both of us in time, as you can fancy.
“At last, when I joined the church, I concluded it wasn't right to
hate a man the way I hated Sharp, for, you see, he'd never really
done anything to me.
“One day I stopped in at the smithy—he was a blacksmith—to
have a talk with him and see if we couldn't patch it up somehow and
be friends. It was a Saturday afternoon, and he'd been drinking
more than was good for him.
“I hadn't hardly got the first words out when he came at me with
a big sledge in his hand, all in a rage, and swearing he'd have my
life. I pushed him off and started for the door. I saw it was no use to
try to reason with him, but he came at me again, and this time he
struck me with his sledge. It did no harm, though it hurt, and I
pushed him out of my way and backed off towards the door. The
lock was caught, and before I could open it, he was within striking
distance again, and I had to turn to defend myself. I snatched up a
bar of iron perhaps a foot long. I had kept my temper down until
then, but the moment I had a weapon in my hand it got clean away
from me, and in an instant I was fighting—just as he was fighting—
to kill.”
Roger Oakley had told the story of the murder in a hard,
emotionless voice, but Dan saw in the half-light that his face was
pale and drawn. Dan found it difficult to associate the thought of
violence with the man at his side, whose whole manner spoke of an
unusual restraint and control. That he had killed a man, even in self-
defence, seemed preposterous and inconceivable.
There was a part of the story Roger Oakley could not tell, and
which his son had no desire to hear.
“People said afterwards that I'd gone there purposely to pick a
quarrel with Sharp, and his helper, who, it seems, was in the yard
back of the smithy setting a wagon tire, swore he saw me through a
window as I entered, and that I struck the first blow. He may have
seen only the end of it, and really believed I did begin it, but that's a
sample of how things got twisted. Nobody believed my motive was
what I said it was. The jury found me guilty of murder, and the
judge gave me a life sentence. A good deal of a fuss was made over
what I did at the fire last winter. Hart told me he'd sent you the
papers.”
Dan nodded, and his father continued:
“Some ladies who were interested in mission work at the prison
took the matter up and got me my pardon. It's a fearful and a
wicked thing for a man to lose his temper, Dannie. At first I was
bitter against every one who had a hand in sending me to prison,
but I've put that all from my heart. It was right I should be
punished.”
He rose from his chair, striking the ashes from his pipe.
“Ain't it very late, Dannie? I'll just put away my things, and then
we can go to bed. I didn't mean to keep you up.”
Oakley watched his precise and orderly arrangement of his few
belongings. He could see that it was a part of the prison discipline
under which he had lived for almost a quarter of a century. When
the contents of his bundle were disposed of to his satisfaction, he
put on a pair of steel-rimmed spectacles, with large, round glasses,
and took up a well-thumbed Bible, which he had placed at one side.
“I hope you haven't forgotten this book, Dannie,” tapping it softly
with a heavy forefinger.
 CHAPTER VII

K
ERR and Holt were at Buckhom Junction with the pay-car, a
decrepit caboose that complained in every wheel as the
engine jerked it over the rails. Holt said that its motion was
good for Kerr's dyspepsia. He called it the pay-car cure, and
professed to believe it a subtle manifestation of the general's
benevolence.
Miss Walton was having a holiday. This left Oakley the sole tenant
of the office.
He had returned from Chicago the day before, where he had gone
to drum up work.
It was a hot, breathless morning in May. The machinery in the
shops droned on and on, with the lazy, softened hum of revolving
wheels, or the swish of swiftly passing belts. A freight was cutting
out cars in the yards. It was rather noisy and bumped discordantly in
and out of the sidings.
Beyond the tracks and a narrow field, where the young corn stood
in fresh green rows, was a line of stately sycamores and vivid
willows that bordered Billup's Fork. Tradition had it that an early
settler by the name of Billup had been drowned there—a feat that
must have required considerable ingenuity on his part, as the stream
was nothing but a series of shallow riffles, with an occasional deep
hole. Once Jeffy, generously drunk, had attempted to end his life in
the fork. He had waded in above his shoe-tops, only to decide that
the water was too cold, and had waded out again, to the keen
disappointment of six small boys on the bank, who would have been
grateful for any little excitement. He said he wanted to live to invent
a drink that tasted as good coming up as it did going down; there
was all kinds of money in such a drink. But the boys felt they had
been swindled, and threw stones at him. It is sometimes difficult to
satisfy an audience. Nearer at hand, but invisible, Clarence was
practising an elusive dance-step in an empty coal-car. He was
inspired by a lofty ambition to equal—he dared not hope to excel—a
gentleman he had seen at a recent minstrel performance.
McClintock, passing, had inquired sarcastically if it was his busy
day, but Clarence had ignored the question. He felt that he had
nothing in common with one who possessed such a slavish respect
for mere industry.
Presently McClintock wandered in from the hot out-of-doors to talk
over certain repairs he wished undertaken in the shops. He was a
typical American mechanic, and Oakley liked him, as he always liked
the man who knew his business and earned his pay.
They discussed the repairs, and then Oakley asked, “How's my
father getting along, Milt?”
“Oh, all right. He's a little slow, that's all.”
“What's he on now?”
“Those blue-line cars that came in last month.”
“There isn't much in that batch. I had to figure close to get the
work. Keep the men moving.”
“They are about done. I'll put the painters on the job to-morrow.”
“That's good.”
McClintock went over to the water-cooler in the corner and filled a
stemless tumbler with ice-water.
“We'll be ready to send them up to Buckhorn the last of next
week. Is there anything else in sight?”
He gulped down the water at a single swallow. “No, not at
present, but there are one or two pretty fair orders coming in next
month that I was lucky enough to pick up in Chicago. Isn't there any
work of our own we can go at while things are slack?”
“Lots of it,” wiping his hands on the legs of his greasy overalls. “All
our day coaches need paint, and some want new upholstery.”
“We'd better go at that, then.”
 “All right. I'll take a look at the cars in the yards, and see what I
can put out in place of those we call in. There's no use talking, Mr.
Oakley, you've done big things for the shops,” he added.
“Well, I am getting some work for them, and while there isn't
much profit in it, perhaps, it's a great deal better than being idle.”
“Just a whole lot,” agreed McClintock.
“I think I can pick up contracts enough to keep us busy through
the summer. I understand you've always had to shut down.”
“Yes, or half-time,” disgustedly.
“I guess we can worry through without that; at any rate, I want
to,” observed Oakley.
“I'll go see how I can manage about our own repairs,” said
McClintock.
He went out, and from the window Oakley saw him with a bunch
of keys in his hand going in the direction of a line of battered day
coaches on one of the sidings. The door opened again almost
immediately to admit Griff Ryder. This was almost the last person in
Antioch from whom Dan was expecting a call. The editor's cordiality
as he greeted him made him instantly suspect that some favor was
wanted. Most people who came to the office wanted favors. Usually
it was either a pass or a concession on freight.
As a rule, Kerr met all such applicants. His manner fitted him for
just such interviews, and he had no gift for popularity, which
suffered in consequence.
Ryder pushed a chair over beside Oakley's and seated himself. By
sliding well down on his spine he managed to reach the low sill of
the window with his feet. He seemed to admire the effect, for he
studied them in silence for a moment.
“There's a little matter I want to speak to you about, Oakley. I've
been intending to run in for the past week, but I have been so busy
I couldn't.”
Oakley nodded for him to go on.
 “In the first place, I'd like to feel that you were for Kenyon. You
can be of a great deal of use to us this election. It's going to be
close, and Kenyon's a pretty decent sort of a chap to have come out
of these parts. You ought to take an interest in seeing him re-
elected.”
Oakley surmised that this was the merest flattery intended to
tickle his vanity. He answered promptly that he didn't feel the
slightest interest in politics one way or the other.
“Well, but one good fellow ought to wish to see another good
fellow get what he's after, and you can help us if you've a mind to;
but this isn't what I've come for. It's about Hoadley.”
“What about Hoadley?” quickly.
“He's got the idea that his days with the Huckleberry are about
numbered.”
“I haven't said so.”
“I know you haven't.”
“Then what is he kicking about? When he's to go, he'll hear of it
from me.”
“But, just the same, it's in the air that there's to be a shake-up,
and that a number of men, and Hoad-ly among them, are going to
be laid off. Now, he's another good fellow, and he's a friend of mine,
and I told him I'd come in and fix it up with you.”
“I don't think you can fix it up with me, Mr. Ryder. Just the same,
I'd like to know how this got out.”
“Then there is to be a shake-up?”
Oakley bit his lips. “You seem to take it for granted there is to be.”
“I guess there's something back of the rumor.”
“I may as well tell you why Hoadley's got to go.”
“Oh, he is to go, then? I thought my information was correct.”
“In the first place, he's not needed, and in the second place, he's
a lazy loafer. The road must earn its keep. General Cornish is sick of
putting his hand in his pocket every six months to keep it out of
bankruptcy. You are enough of a business man to know he won't
stand that sort of thing forever. Of course I am sorry for Hoadley if
he needs the money, but some one's got to suffer, and he happens
to be the one. I'll take on his work myself. I can do it, and that's a
salary saved. I haven't any personal feeling in the matter. The fact
that I don't like him, as it happens, has nothing to do with it. If he
were my own brother he'd have to get out.”
“I can't see that one man, more or less, is going to make such a
hell of a difference, Oakley,” Ryder urged, with what he intended
should be an air of frank good-fellowship.
“Can't you?” with chilly dignity. Oakley was slow to anger, but he
had always fought stubbornly for what he felt was due him, and he
wished the editor to understand that the management of the B. & A.
was distinctly not his province.
Ryder's eyes were half closed, and only a narrow slit of color
showed between the lids.
“I am very much afraid we won't hit it off. I begin to see we aren't
going to get on. I want you to keep Hoadley as a personal favor to
me. Just wait until I finish. If you are going in for reform, I may have
it in my power to be of some service to you. You will need some
backing here, and even a country newspaper can manufacture public
sentiment. Now if we aren't to be friends you will find me on the
other side, and working just as hard against you as I am willing to
work for you if you let Hoadley stay.”
Oakley jumped up.
“I don't allow anybody to talk like that to me. I am running this for
Cornish. They are his interests, not mine, and you can start in and
manufacture all the public sentiment you damn please.” Then he
cooled down a bit and felt ashamed of himself for the outburst.
“I am not going to be unfair to any one if I can help it. But if the
road's earnings don't meet the operating expenses the general will
sell it to the M. & W. Do you understand what that means? It will
knock Antioch higher than a kite, for the shops will be closed. I
guess when all hands get that through their heads they will take it
easier.”
“That's just the point I made. Who is going to enlighten them if it
isn't me? I don't suppose you will care to go around telling
everybody what a fine fellow you are, and how thankful they should
be that you have stopped their wages. We can work double, Oakley.
I want Hoadley kept because he's promised me his influence for
Kenyon if I'd exert myself in his behalf. He's of importance up at the
Junction. Of course we know he's a drunken beast, but that's got
nothing to do with it.”
“I am sorry, but he's got to go,” said Oakley, doggedly. “A one-
horse railroad can't carry dead timber.”
“Very well.” And Ryder pulled in his legs and rose slowly from his
chair. “If you can't and won't see it as I do it's your lookout.”
Oakley laughed, shortly.
“I guess I'll be able to meet the situation, Mr. Ryder.”
“Perhaps you will, and perhaps you won't. We'll see about that
when the time comes.”
“You heard what I said about the M. & W.?”
“Well, what about that?”
“You understand what it means—the closing of the shops?”
“Oh, I guess that's a long ways off.”
He stalked over to the door with his head in the air. He was mad
clear through. At the door he turned. Hoadley's retention meant
more to him than he would have admitted. It was not that he cared
a rap for Hoadley. On the contrary, he detested him, but the fellow
was a power in country politics.
“If you should think better of it—” and he was conscious his
manner was weak with the weakness of the man who has asked and
failed.
“I sha'n't,” retorted Oakley, laconically.
He scouted the idea that Ryder, with his little country newspaper
could either help or harm him.
 CHAPTER VIII

R
OGER OAKLEY had gone to work in the car-shops the day
following his arrival in Antioch. Dan had sought to dissuade
him, but he was stubbornness itself, and the latter realized
that the only thing to do was to let him alone, and not seek to
control him.
After all, if he would be happier at work, it was no one's affair but
his own.
It never occurred to the old convict that pride might have to do
with the stand Dan took in the matter.
He was wonderfully gentle and affectionate, with a quaint,
unworldly simplicity that was rather pathetic. His one anxiety was to
please Dan, but, in spite of this anxiety, once a conviction took
possession of him he clung to it with unshaken tenacity in the face
of every argument his son could bring to bear.
Under the inspiration of his newly acquired freedom, he developed
in unexpected ways. As soon as he felt that his place in the shops
was secure and that he was not to be interfered with, he joined the
Methodist Church. Its services occupied most of his spare time.
Every Thursday night found him at prayer-meeting. Twice each
Sunday he went to church, and by missing his dinner he managed to
take part in the Sunday-school exercises. A social threw him into a
flutter of pleased expectancy. Not content with what his church
offered, irrespective of creed, he joined every society in the place of
a religious or temperance nature, and was a zealous and active
worker among such of the heathen as flourished in Antioch. There
was a stern Old Testament flavor to his faith. He would have
dragged the erring from their peril by main strength, and have
regulated their morals by legal enactments. Those of the men with
whom he came in contact in the shops treated him with the utmost
respect, partly on his own account, and partly because of Dan.
McClintock always addressed him as “The Deacon,” and soon
ceased to overflow with cheerful profanity in his presence. The old
man had early taken occasion to point out to him the error of his
ways and to hint at what was probably in store for him unless he
curbed the utterances of his tongue. He was not the only professing
Christian in the car-shops, but he was the only one who had
ventured to “call down” the master-mechanic.
Half of all he earned he gave to the church. The remainder of his
slender income he divided again into two equal parts. One of these
he used for his personal needs, the other disappeared mysteriously.
He was putting it by for “Dannie.”
It was a disappointment to him that his son took only the most
casual interest in religious matters. He comforted himself, however,
with the remembrance that at his age his own interest had been
merely traditional. It was only after his great trouble that the
awakening came. He was quite certain “Dannie” would experience
this awakening, too, some day.
Finally he undertook the regeneration of Jeffy. Every new-comer in
Antioch of a philanthropic turn of mind was sure sooner or later to
fall foul of the outcast, who was usually willing to drop whatever he
was doing to be reformed. It pleased him and interested him.
He was firmly grounded in the belief, however, that in his case the
reformation that would really reform would have to be applied
externally, and without inconvenience to himself, but until the
spiritual genius turned up who could work this miracle, he was
perfectly willing to be experimented upon by any one who had a
taste for what he called good works.
After Mrs. Bentick's funeral he had found the means, derived in
part from the sale of Turner Joyce's wardrobe, to go on a highly
sensational drunk, which comprehended what was known in Antioch
as “The Snakes.”
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