The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Short Line War, by Merwin-WebsterCopyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloadingor redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do notchange or edit the header without written permission.Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of thisfile. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can alsofind out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971*******These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****Title: The Short Line WarAuthor: Merwin-WebsterRelease Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8385] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first postedon July 5, 2003]Edition: 10Language: English*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHORT LINE WAR ***Produced by Eric Eldred, Beth Trapaga and the Online Distributed Proofreading TeamTHE SHORT LINE WARByMERWIN-WEBSTER[Samuel Merwin]CHAPTERI. JIM WEEKS II. MR. MCNALLY GOES TO TILLMAN CITY III. POLITICS AND OTHER THINGS IV. JIM WEEKS CLOSES IN V. TUESDAY EVENING VI. ...
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Short Line War, by Merwin-Webster
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**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: The Short Line War
Author: Merwin-Webster
Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8385] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted
on July 5, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHORT LINE WAR ***
Produced by Eric Eldred, Beth Trapaga and the Online Distributed Proofreading TeamTHE SHORT LINE WAR
By
MERWIN-WEBSTER
[Samuel Merwin]
CHAPTER
I. JIM WEEKS II. MR. MCNALLY GOES TO TILLMAN CITY III. POLITICS AND OTHER THINGS IV. JIM WEEKS CLOSES IN V. TUESDAY EVENING VI. JUDGE
BLACK VII. BETWEEN THE LINES VIII. JUDGE GREY IX. THE MATTER OF POSSESSION X. SOMEBODY LOSES THE BOOKS XI. A POLITICIAN XII.
KATHERINE XIII. TRAIN NO. 14 XIV. A CAPTURE AT BRUSHINGHAM XV. DEUS EX MACHINA XVI. MCNALLY'S EXPEDIENT XVII. IN THE DARK XVIII. THE
COMING OF DAWN XIX. KATHERINE DECIDES XX. HARVEY XXI. THE TILLMAN CITY STOCK XXII. THE WINNING OF THE ROAD XXIII. THE SURRENDERCHAPTER I
JIM WEEKS
James Weeks came of a fighting stock.
His great-grandfather, Ashbel Weeks, was born in Connecticut in 1748; he migrated to New York in '70, and settled
among the Oneida Indians on the Upper Mohawk. It was the kind of life he was built for; he sniffed at danger like a young
horse catching a breath off the meadows. He did not take the war fever until St. Leger came up the valley, when he fought
beside Herkimer in the ambush on Oriskany Creek. He joined the army of the North, and remained with it through the
long three years that ended at Yorktown; then he married, and returned to his home among the half-civilized Oneidas.
His oldest son, Jonathan, was born in '90. He grew like his father in physique and temperament, and his migrating
disposition led him to Kentucky. The commercial instinct, which had never appeared in his father, was strong in him, so
that he turned naturally to trading. He began in a small way, but he succeeded at it, and amassed what was then
considered a large fortune.
In 1823 he moved to Louisville, and interested himself in promoting the steamboat traffic on the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers. As the business developed, Jonathan Weeks's fortune grew with it. His only son, who was born in 1815, was sent
to Harvard; he spent a very merry four years there, and a good deal of money. He fell in love in the meantime, and
married immediately after his graduation. Not many months after his marriage he was killed by the accidental discharge
of a rifle, and, shortly after this, his widow died in giving birth to a son.
The care of the child devolved entirely upon Jonathan, the grandfather. He assumed it gladly, even eagerly, and his whole
existence soon centred about the boy, and James—for so they had named him—became more to him than his son had
ever been. It grew evident that he would have the Weeks build, and, by the time he was fifteen, he was as lean, big-
boned, awkward a hobbledehoy as the old man could wish. His grandfather's wealth did not spoil him in the least; he was
the kind of a boy it would have been difficult to spoil.
He had no fondness for books, but it is to be doubted if that was much of a grief to his grandfather. He was good at
mathematics,—he used to work out problems for fun,—and an excellent memory for certain kinds of details enabled him
to master geography without difficulty. The great passion of his boyhood was for the big, roaring, pounding steamboats
that went down to New Orleans. His ambition, like that of nearly every boy who lived in sight of those packets, was to be a
river pilot, and he was nearing his majority before he outgrew it.
He was twenty-two years old when he fell in love with Ethel Harvey. She was nineteen when she came home from the
Eastern school where she had spent the past five years, and she burst upon Jim in the first glory of her womanhood.
When she had grown an old woman the young girls still envied her beauty, and wondered what it must have been in its
first bloom. Small wonder that Jim fell in love with her; it was inevitable.
He first saw her, after her return, on a bright June morning as he was strolling down the path from his grandfather's house
to the street. She was riding her big bay mare at a smart gallop, but she pulled up short at sight of him, and drawing off a
riding gauntlet held out her hand. From that moment Jim loved her. The old man was coming down the path, but seeing
them there together, he paused, for they made a striking picture. Her little silk hat sat daintily on her hair, which would be
rebellious and fluffy; the dark green riding habit with its tight sleeves revealed the perfect lines of her lithe figure, which
swayed gracefully as the mare pawed and backed and plunged, impatient for the morning gallop. She seemed quite
indifferent to the protests of the big brute, and talked merrily to Jim, who stood looking up at her in bewildered
admiration. At last she shook hands again and rode away, and Jonathan Weeks walked back into the house with a
satisfied smile. "They'll do," he said.
It looked as though they would. Through the short happy weeks that followed, Ethel did not ride alone. Together they
explored the country lanes or left them for a dash straight across the fields, taking anything that chanced to be in the way.
In their impromptu races, which were frequent, Ethel almost always won; for racer though he was, Jim's sorrel found the
two hundred and eight pounds he carried too much of a handicap. So the days went by, and though nothing was said
about it, they talked to each other, and thought of each other, as lovers do.
But all the while there was growing in Ethel's mind an intuition that something was wrong.