The Short Line War

The Short Line War, by
Merwin-Webster

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Title: The Short Line War
Author: Merwin-Webster
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THE 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 SURRENDER
CHAPTER 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