The Octopus : A Story of California

“He will go with you, then,” Presley said, “that will be some comfort to you at least.”

“I don’t know,” she said slowly, “you have not seen Magnus lately.”

“Is he—how do you mean? Isn’t he any better?”

“Would you like to see him? He is in the office. You can go right in.”

Presley rose. He hesitated a moment, then:

“Mrs. Annixter,” he asked, “Hilma—is she still with you? I should like to see her before I go.” “Go in and see Magnus,” said Mrs. Derrick. “I will tell her you are here.”

Presley stepped across the stone-paved hallway with the glass roof, and after knocking three times at the office door pushed it open and entered.

Magnus sat in the chair before the desk and did not look up as Presley entered. He had the appearance of a man nearer eighty than sixty. All the old-time erectness was broken and bent. It was as though the muscles that once had held the back rigid, the chin high, had softened and stretched. A certain fatness, the obesity of inertia, hung heavy around the hips and abdomen, the eye was watery and vague, the cheeks and chin unshaven and unkempt, the grey hair had lost its forward curl towards the temples and hung thin and ragged around the ears. The hawk-like nose seemed hooked to meet the chin; the lips were slack, the mouth half-opened.

Where once the Governor had been a model of neatness in his dress, the frock coat buttoned, the linen clean, he now sat in his shirt sleeves, the waistcoat open and showing the soiled shirt. His hands were stained with ink, and these, the only members of his body that yet appeared to retain their activity, were busy with a great pile of papers,—oblong, legal documents, that littered the table before him. Without a moment’s cessation, these hands of the Governor’s came and went among the papers, deft, nimble, dexterous.

Magnus was sorting papers. From the heap upon his left hand he selected a document, opened it, glanced over it, then tied it carefully, and laid it away upon a second pile on his right hand. When all the papers were in one pile, he reversed the process, taking from his right hand to place upon his left, then back from left to right again, then once more from right to left. He spoke no word, he sat absolutely still, even his eyes did not move, only his hands, swift, nervous, agitated, seemed alive.

“Why, how are you, Governor?” said Presley, coming forward. Magnus turned slowly about and looked at him and at the hand in which he shook his own.

“Ah,” he said at length, “Presley…yes.”

Then his glance fell, and he looked aimlessly about upon the floor. “I’ve come to say good-bye, Governor,” continued Presley, “I’m going away.”

“Going away…yes, why it’s Presley. Good-day, Presley.”

“Good-day, Governor. I’m going away. I’ve come to say good-bye.”

“Good-bye?” Magnus bent his brows, “what are you saying good-bye for?”

“I’m going away, sir.”

The Governor did not answer. Staring at the ledge of the desk, he seemed lost in thought. There was a long silence. Then, at length, Presley said:

“How are you getting on, Governor?”

Magnus looked up slowly.

“Why it’s Presley,” he said. “How do you do, Presley.”

“Are you getting on all right, sir?”

“Yes,” said Magnus after a while, “yes, all right. I am going away. I’ve come to say good-bye. No—” He interrupted himself with a deprecatory smile, “YOU said THAT, didn’t you?”

“Well, you are going away, too, your wife tells me.”

“Yes, I’m going away. I can’t stay on…” he hesitated a long time, groping for the right word, “I can’t stay on—on—what’s the name of this place?”

“Los Muertos,” put in Presley.

“No, it isn’t. Yes, it is, too, that’s right, Los Muertos. I don’t know where my memory has gone to of late.”

“Well, I hope you will be better soon, Governor.”

As Presley spoke the words, S. Behrman entered the room, and the Governor sprang up with unexpected agility and stood against the wall, drawing one long breath after another, watching the railroad agent with intent eyes.

S. Behrman saluted both men affably and sat down near the desk, drawing the links of his heavy watch chain through his fat fingers.

“There wasn’t anybody outside when I knocked, but I heard your voice in here, Governor, so I came right in. I wanted to ask you, Governor, if my carpenters can begin work in here day after to-morrow. I want to take down that partition there, and throw this room and the next into one. I guess that will be O. K., won’t it? You’ll be out of here by then, won’t you?”

There was no vagueness about Magnus’s speech or manner now. There was that same alertness in his demeanour that one sees in a tamed lion in the presence of its trainer.

“Yes, yes,” he said quickly, “you can send your men here. I will be gone by to-morrow.”

“I don’t want to seem to hurry you, Governor.” “No, you will not hurry me. I am ready to go now.”

“Anything I can do for you, Governor?”

“Nothing.”

“Yes, there is, Governor,” insisted S. Behrman. “I think now that all is over we ought to be good friends. I think I can do something for you. We still want an assistant in the local freight manager’s office. Now, what do you say to having a try at it? There’s a salary of fifty a month goes with it. I guess you must be in need of money now, and there’s always the wife to support; what do you say? Will you try the place?”

Presley could only stare at the man in speechless wonder. What was he driving at? What reason was there back of this new move, and why should it be made thus openly and in his hearing? An explanation occurred to him. Was this merely a pleasantry on the part of S. Behrman, a way of enjoying to the full his triumph; was he testing the completeness of his victory, trying to see just how far he could go, how far beneath his feet he could push his old-time enemy?

“What do you say?” he repeated. “Will you try the place?”

“You—you INSIST?” inquired the Governor.

“Oh, I’m not insisting on anything,” cried S. Behrman. “I’m offering you a place, that’s all. Will you take it?”

“Yes, yes, I’ll take it.”

“You’ll come over to our side?”

“Yes, I’ll come over.”

“You’ll have to turn ‘railroad,’ understand?”

“I’ll turn railroad.”

“Guess there may be times when you’ll have to take orders from me.”

“I’ll take orders from you.”

“You’ll have to be loyal to railroad, you know. No funny business.”

“I’ll be loyal to the railroad.”