THE SPOTTER

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 14, 8 April 1909, Page 523

THE SPOTTER

_ ' Travel seems to be steadily increasing on our Neustro Heights Branch, Ferris,' Mr. Goodwin, superintendent of the Grand Pacific Electric Railway, said to his assistant one morning as he came into the office. ' Bentley's car's almost always crowded. I rode down .on twenty-seven , and it was scarcely half full, on the average. We crossed Bentley'at the^corner of Pacheco avenue and Ninth sereut. and there didn't seem to be standing room left on his car.', 'That's about how it most always is, Mr. Goodwin. Ferris glanced up in the big man's smooth, suave face as he spoke. ' But Bentley's cash-in turns don't tally up with the travel, Ferris. Needs looking into closer. See to it please.' ' Bontley's the best conductor we've got, Mr. Goodwin. Five years without an off day or scratch to a passenger is our record-breaker, sir.' Goodwin wriggled in his chair. 'He's had Monahan at his grip morn half that time, Ferris, an' you know veil that it's the gripman quite as much as the conductor that prevents accidents.' ' They must work together, sir. Monahan and Bently make as bang-up a team as you can scare up. Any fresh orders this morning, Mr. Goodwin ? ' The question nettled the stout, ruddy superintendent. ' If you can't conjure up some way of discovering the leakago on Bently's car, I must take the matter in hand myself Ferris.' ' ' His daily cash inturn in the office averages fully five per cent, more than any other conductor's on our road^ sir, which you know without my telling you.' Goodwin's absorption in a communication from the chairman of the Board of Directors of the road, which he was noAv reading, se-emed to Ferris to make him oblivious of his reply. Tucking the letter as he finished it on top of the file which he had already gone through, under the paper-weight, he swung his revolving chair ti'fl he faced his tall, lank-featured sssistant. ' See here, Ferris,' lie retorted, ' you ain't such an overgrown easy as to s'p.\se that a man can build a four thousand dollar house on' the savings of five years' conductor's wages of a dollar and ol^hty-five cents a day? ' ' Hardly, sir ; hardly. But Bently is a steady, sober, f elf- respecting young man, aiming to better himself. Tho Building and Loan Association helps him to build that homo for his invalid mother ,whom he supports. The rent of half the house will more than p>ay interest and taxes, and the property will increase in value all the time.' ' M-m-m, quite good financiers, you and Bently, Ferris,' Goodwin snapped sardonically. ' But if I may hope that the interests of the Grand Pacific has any of your attention, sir, I shall henceforth look to see you aid our spotters in every possible way in scenting out the leaks — especially on Bently's car.' . f Something hitherto unseen in his chief's look, as he delivered these sinister orders, alarmed Ferris. What if Mr. Goodwin should suspect him of being in secret league with Bently in defrauding the company? 'Your instructions will be carried out to the letter, sir,' he replied in palliating voice. ' I did not mean to be obtrusive, Mr. Goodwin.' 'Of course not, Ferris. Henceforth, however, your remembering that this company is in business for other than benevolent purposes will simplify matters and" obviate misunderstandings. I look to see tltfs leakage feretted onb very soon. If no pertinent discoveries are made within the next week , shift Bently on to the Ruralton ran. That will t-ell the story in a nutshell, though it won't be sufficient to convict anyone. That's all this morning, Ferris.' It was about 11 o'clock, the slackest time of travel on Bently's run, whon Ferris boarded his car at the corner of Pacheco and Twelfth. Bently, with the thumb and forefinger of his right liand on tho bell strap, felt the cracked ring in Ferris' voice as he bid him ' Good morning,' boarding the car. ' You ain't feelin' quite yourself this mornin', Ferry. Hope nothing's off the track so soon,' Bently bantered as Ferris got beside him between the two after-end outside seats. ' Running smooth as cotton seed with me, Ben. How's the crowd this morning ? ' 'Bigger'n- ever. .That Mothers' Club convention down at Stanton's Pavilion is drawin' 'em all out. I was packed on my three last down trips.'

' That's- good, Ben,' with a suggestive look that half bewildered him. 'Don't forget your tally strap in the push.' - - While Bently was helping out a stout old" lady at the next corner, Ferris slipped off the car on the other side. He boarded the next Sixteenth street car passing and rode over to the power house to fill out his order blanks for tomorrow. ■ ■ ' : Tom „ Bently was meantime brooding sorrowfully over " Ferris' suggestive, 'Don't forget your tally strap in the push. It was the first reflection, direct or indirect, upon his own honesty that he had ever heard from man or woman. Coming from his friend Ferris, whom be would trust with uncounted millions were they his, and whom he had hitherto believed would trust him likewise, the sting of the poisoned hint became momentarily more painfWhat in the world's happened, Tom?' questioned Miss Leisurely, one of his regular patrons, as he helped her gallantly on the car. ' Mother ain't seriously ' ill again, I hope? Never saw you looking so woebegone like.' * ' She's real well just now, thank you. Miss Leisurely,' he almost whispered; his mouth close "to her ear, as he handed her up the top step and rang his car ahead. 'Fact is, I put in an extra hour last night at my Correspondence University studies, and it was a bit too much for me.' ' Musn't burn the candle too long at both ends, Tom/ she corrected jocularly, sitting down on an outside seat near his usual stand. ' Only way to get any light out of the candle in my fix, Miss Leisurely,' was his rejoinder. The lady spotter, in ' salvation Army ' uniform and a bundle of Far Cries under her arm, sitting inside, had a sharp casual eye on the pair. It had been hinted by Goodwin that an occasional free ride to some of his most admiring lady passengers might account for somewhat of Bently's popularity. So there was a reward in sight for the spotter first detecting him in the act of bestowing such favors. But, to their increasing chagrin, Bentlv collected and rung in his fares from the fairest and 'most intimate of his passengers with unerring alacrity. For months together they had watched Bently as cats watch mice without being able to pick a flaw in his work. Nothing could convince Mr. Goodwin that there was not a big leak there somewhere, and he at last told Ferris that he would take a hand in the business himself. He could scarcely support a family decently on his own salary, yet some of their conductors were laying up money hand over fist on one-tenbh his wages and building big houses at that. 'I rather like to see a man getting on, Mr. Goodwin, oven though I can't — shows he's not losing his rest in carousing away his wages, an' he comes on duty clearheaded and with a steady nerve.' ' Better get right in and join the Purity Loao-uo, Ferris,' stepping abruptly into his private office "and shutting himself in. Next morning Mr. Goodwin gave Ferris orders to shift Bently on to the Ruralton run, car forty-nine, and to put Snider in his place. The change, instead of being a discomfiture or loss to Bently, was, on the contrary, a benefit in more ways than one. His new run took him well out of town over a pleasant stretch of open country, dotted with mostly fine homes, half hidden in tall palm, camphor, magnolia, rubber, blossoming acacia, and other trees. In this fresher fragrant air he began to brace up and take on flesh almost immediately. There were not one-quarter the fares to collect, and he found most of his passengers agreeable and pleasant people to meet. So Bently's popularity soon followed him to his new ground of activity. Mr. Goodwin, in a month's time, began to mar.vel at the increase of travel on their Ruralton branch. The attractive residence suburb was, of course growing fast, but that was not all. Nor did the returns of Bently quite come up to the travel on his car, though it was 10 per cent, more than that of the other conductor on that run. Goodwin had kept his own counsel of late regarding this matter, and was doing a bit of private spotting on his own account. He had, in fact, come to almost suspect Ferris of being in some sort of league with Bently in cozening the company. One .afternoon about half -past 5, when Bently came, on his in-run, a little distance within the city ''limits, a rather delicate-looking young .woman with a feeble child in her arms got on the car. Her woebegone look and generally careworn, pinched aspect, seen at closer range, attracted the attention of the other passengers. The frequent long-drawn sobs of the poor child told 1 of its suffering. Mother* and child were rather poorly clothed, and ' the poor maternal heart seemed to be almost breaking in the fruitless effort to soothe and quiet it. There were a score or more of other passengers on the car, and eyos

were focussed on Bently when he stepped up to the woman to collect lier fare. The appeal in her look up into his face was somethingthat would ' pierce the heart of a stone.' ~ " ' J haven't'a' penny in the world, conductor,' she wailed. Me poor husband is dead six months "gone, an' ye see the state the poor child is in and ' ' We're not running a benevolent society on this line madam. Fare,, please.' - " I'm on my way to the dispensary for some me.dicine for the poor, dyin' crachure, an 3 God's me judge, I'm not able to walk.' She saw that Bently's words belied his feelings. 'And if ye put me off the car, we'll both perhaps die on the heartless street.' , * The other passengers had by this become deeply interested, as Bontly s bopped his car to help on a young couple beaming wibh the pleasure of being in one another's company. ' Come, my good woman,' he continued, on ringing in the two fares, 'you pay your fare or get off at the next corner.' The woman broke completely clown in a fit of lamentation. Bently looked suggestively around at the commiseratiug passengers as lie rang to stop the car. There being no practical response to the cries of mother or child, he was about to take hold of her to eject her from the car when a faint scream from the child unnerved his arm from such inhuman act. ' I can't do it,' he told -himself inaudibly. ' I'll turn in her fare myself first. I could never look a woman or child square in the face again if I did.' In the engrossing watchfulness of the rest of that run through the heart of the turbulent city Bently forgot the poor woman and her woes. He was, however, presently reminded of them on coming near the end of his run, when there were only a couple of other passengers left on his car, yet there seemed to be less sorrow in the woman's face and the child rested and breathed easier. Then his heart thrilled with a great joy at having had the manhood to break for once the iron rule of the company. Both might have died in the street, as she said, had he put her off. He shifted a nickel of his own from his vest pocket to his jacket pouch with the trip's fares and rung it in. He was now coming close to the power house, and was presently amazed at seeing the feeble woman brace herself up in the seat to an erect, vigorous posture. Her eyes, too, after wiping them a bit with lier' handkerchief, darted a luminous look of perplexing inquiry at him, as much. as to say, 'Now. then, my smart conductor, what do you think of yourself?' What under heaven could it all mean? Had he been sold? He had somewhere, sometime seen those strangely-bright eyes before. But ere he had time to answer himself the gripman stopped the car in front of the power-house and the woman got off, spry as a kitten, hastening into the office with the child in her arms. Bently, steadying himself, followed her into empty his pocket of the trip's fares. But she had disappeared with Goodwin into the private oifice ere he reached tho door of the front one. ' Nothing new, Bently. You can start out on time,' Ferris directed, wondering what new strange incident had befallen him on that last trip. On his next forenoon's run Bently, from the start, found himself the target of the sinister remark and oblique look of every conductor and gripman he passed. Such painful change in the attitude of his fellow-workmen, among whom he had hitherto been something of a hero, half maddened him. Something terribly damaging to his name must have happened quite unknown to himself. He could not even think clearly on what it could possibly be. Yet he somehow could not get rid of the notion that the woman and sick child of last night had , something to do with it. ' What's the matter with you, Jim?' he demanded sharply of his gripman as he jumped on the forward platform with the bar af ber shifting a switch. ' What ye staring so at me for?' _ . 'Dun know, Ben,' curtly. "The cat can look at theking, I guess, can't he ?' , At 1 o'clock, when" they were relieved by the afternoon crew, Bently was summoned to appear in the main up-town-office at 3 o'clock. Mr. Goodwin -wished to see him. ' Do try and eat something, son,' the mother urged, as Bently sat with her at the little kitchen dinner table. ' You ain't been yourself since last night. Your eyes are swollen as if you hadn't slept none for a week.' i Nothing but a slight bilious attack, mother. I'll be all over it in a day or two.' Ferris was in the office waiting when Bently went in. The certainty of his innocence of any violation of the company's rules or other of duty nerved Bently up arid gave his countenance a look of fearless innocence.^ Ferris met this look with an almost pitiful sympathy, which was far from pleasing to Bently.

' There's a charge of failure to collect *a fare standing against you, Bently,' ho said ; ' that of a feeble woman with a sick child on your last trip in yesterday afternoon.' ' The cliargc is false, sir. I paid that fare myself and rung it in rather than put her off tlie car to die in the street, as she said she must. The register and cash will show the fare was paid and rung in, sir.' ' You'll have a cliance to prove that to her, Ben. She's the spotter ' (opqniug tho private office door). ' Stop in here, please, Miss Dascomb.' Bontly's start, as the rather comely girl with the soft brown eyes came in, was the next moment quieted, and had no special meaning for Ferris, who, in the depth of his sympathy for his friend, scarcely noticed it. Nor did he note the quick, significant glance of her eyes into Bently's. ' You are quite sure Mr. Bently didn't collect your fare on his last trip in last night, Miss Dascomb?' Ferris questioned, motioning her to a seat. ' Sure as one can l)e of anything, sir,' was her prompt answer, as she sat down. ' I was awaj' in the forward end of the car where she couldn't see me when I paid and rung in her fare, sir. I wasn't showin' up my business to her. I had a sort of half-presentiment she was a spotter, and took tho precaution of having witness to my paying in her fare.' Ferris looked bewildered. ' Rather a mixed-up affair this — a mistake somewhere. We've got implicit confidence in Miss Dascomb, Bently.' ' Yes, but you'll give a man a chance to defend himself. You may fire me from, the company, of course, but I shall insist upon my right to prove my innocence of this thing, if it takes the last cent I've got, Mr. Ferris.' Mr. Goodwin, who had been listening in his private office, now stepped in in season to see Miss Dascomb wiping the tell-tale moisture from her eyes. ' You'd better let this go over till to-morrow, Ferris,' ho said, with a sharp glance from Miss Dascomb to Bently. Then he invited the girl into his private office. What passed between them during that half-hour Ferris never knew. But he did know that thero had come a marked change over Goodwin as he came out with her into the front office again. ' Give Miss Dascomb Bently's address, Ferris,' he ordered softly. ' Here you are, Miss Dascomb,' Ferris said, noting down the address on a slip — ' 972 Poplar street. The Nuestro Heights car goes right by it.' Bently's mother, who answered Miss Dascomb's ring at the small four-roomed flat door, looked askance first at the card which Miss Dascomb handed her, and then at the girl herself. Tom had gone on an errand for her to the grocer's just down the street. He would be back in ten minutes, if she would step into the parlor and wait. ' It seems hardly possible that you could have forgotten mo in seven years, Mrs. Bently,' the girl said, looking wistfully up into the wrinkled pale face. A glow of recognition presently lit up the wrinkles as she gazed. ' Sakes alive, you ain't the Pauline Dascomb that went way off from Lakeville soon after graduating from the high school, to make a c'reer for yourself?' ' The same Pauline, Mrs. Bently.' She stood xip v to receive and return the fervid embrace. ' Oh, you pretty dear, you come within an ace of breaking poor Tom's heart,' the mother went on. 'He never done no good to home after you went, an' dragged me way out West here six months after you'd gone.' ' 1 ain't quite so ambitious now as I was then, Mrs. Bently, and I ;' Tom, coming in tlie door lively, broke up the discourse. " Come in the parlor and sco who's here, son,' the mother called to him. ' I knew it was you the minute I got on your car, Tom,' Miss Dascomb explained, after tlie thrill of meeting was partially over ; c but the poor play Kad to go on to tho finish/ ' Your disguiso was complete, Pauline,' he complimented admiringly. ' I doubt if your mother would have recognised you. Yet something in the one brief glance. of your eyes -which I caught haunted me like the remembrance of a delightful dream. Where did you get that poor sick child ?' ' Oh, the company get \is those from the Day Nursery for such occasions, Tom. They sat and talked of the past late yito the night. She was startled at the lateness when she came to a clear sens© of time. He accompanied her home to the three rooms which she occupied with a girl friend who wrote the weekly society page for the great city newspaper. Bently called around about 9 next morning. He begged her go with him to the office of the gontleman who had seen him pay hi her fare, before they went to the Grand Pacific office.

c Don't, please, Tom/ she pleaded, with that girlish sweetness which she knew to have such power over him. I'd as soon go hunting for proof of — where you were born.' 'Then I shall have to go alone, Pauline,' he almost murmured, 'and bring Mr. Goodwin indubitable proof that I paid it. I must not lot such a charge stand against mo; whether I am fired or not.' 'It is quite needless to go to all that trouble, Tom. I can convince him of my mistake fully enough. We'd best be going; I am due at the office at half-past 9.' Ferris almost laughed out loud at sight of the late accuser and accused walking into the office arm in arm, like a pair of sweethearts. ' Mr. Goodwin's waiting for you in his private office. Miss Dascomb. Just take a seac, Bently, 5 he said demurely as he could under the circumstances. 1 In a fever of distrust and anxiety, Bent]y .wondered what possible thing could be keeping the girl so long occupied in Goodwin's private office. 'Morning paper is over there on that other desk, Bently,' Ferris said, on looking up from the pile of papers in which he had been buried. * Tell Bently to come in here a minute, Ferris,' Goodwin ordered, opening the door a crack. ' I'm very sorry this thing has happened, Bently, 3 Goodwin said apologetically, ' but I couldn't see how Miss Dascomb could have been mistaken till she explained matters herself. You know as well as we do that we haze to be on the look-out for grafts, and we must have ironclad rules to protect the company against them.' 'Of course, Mr. Goodwin,' Bently assented, 'I'd be tho - last man to kick against the enforcement of any rule which I had bound myself by on entering the employ of your company.' ' It's all right" now, Bcntly. We'll consider it a decided gain to the company to have you continue with us as if the thing had never happened. There will be a change all around at tho end of the year. lam going up to vice-president, Ferris takes my place, and wo expect you to take his.' This unexpected turn in his favor for the moment put words past Bently's xitterance. ' Let me thank you very much for this, Mr. Goodwin,' Miss Dascomb said, getting on her feet, her face glowing with pleasure. 'We came very near doing an irreparable injustice to an honest man.' ' Don't mention it. Seems to have been my own fault mostly. Call in to-morrow, Miss Dascomb; you and Mr. Bently will have old times to talk over.' ' Thank you very much, sir,' Bently managed to say huskily as he went out after Miss Dascomb. Ferris sat bolt upright, eyeing them capriciously. c Don't forget us when the cards are oiit, Bently,' he bantered under his breath, so that Goodwin might not hear. ' You'll be first on my invitation list, Ferris,' Bently rejoined, going out of the door.

Miss Dascomb flung him back a significant look over her shoulder as she took Bently's arm. — The Monitor.