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Show By DAVID GRAHAM PHUURS, Author of "7KFCUSZ&Jc JSCS' iytf SOSBS'SSBCXO: CQK&VYK) I XXXII. ."MY RIGHT EYE OFFENDS ME.". Next day Lungdon'a stocks wavered, going up a llttlo.'golug down a little, closing at practically the same flgures at which they had opened. Then I sprang my sensation that Langdon and his particular clique, though they controlled tho Textile Trust, did not own so much as ono-flftlcth of Its voting vot-ing stock, Truo "cuptnlns of Industry" Indus-try" that thoy wore, they made their profits not out of dividends, but out or aide schemes that absorbed about two-thirds of tho earnings of tho Trust, and out of gambling In its bonds and stocks. I said in conclu-"The conclu-"The largest owner of tho stock Is Waller G. Kdmunds, of Chicago an honest man. Send your voting proxies to him, nnd ho can tako tho Textile company away from those now plun-dering plun-dering tt." f As the annual election of the Trust was only six weeks away, Langdon and his cllquo wero in n pnnlc. They rushed Into tho market and bought frantically, tho public bidding agalnBt them. Langdon hlniBelf went to Chicago Chi-cago to reason with Kdmunds that Is, to try to And out ,at what figure ho could be bought And so on, day after day, I faithfully reporting to tho public tho main occurrences behind be-hind the scenes. Tho Langdon attempt at-tempt to regain control by purchases of stock failed. He and his allies made what must have been to them appalling sacrifices; but even at the high prices they offered, comparative- ly little of tho stock appoarcd. H "I've caught them," said I to Joe the first time, and tho last, during that campaign that I Indulged In a BJ bousl. BJ "If Kdmunds sticks to you," re- BJ plied cautious Joo. Hut Kdmunds did not I do not J know at what prlco ho sold him-J him-J iseir. Probably It was pitifully small; I cupidity usually snatches tho Instant bait tlcklos Its nose. Hut I do know M that my faith In human nature got Its severest shock. . Fortunutoly, Kdmunds had held out, M I or, rather, Langdon had delayed ap-I ap-I 1 proachlng him, long enough for mo to J gain my main jiolnt. The uproar over I tho Textile Trust had bucomo so great that tho national department of com-fl com-fl morco dared not refuse an Investlgu- J Hon; und 1 straightway began to spread out in my dally letters tho B facts of tho trust's enormous earnings B ami of the shumetul sources ot those B eahilngs. HH In the midst of tho adulntlon, of Bl tho blares upon tho trumpets of fame Bm that saluted my waking ami were Bg . wuftcd to mo as I foil asleep at night BVc In tho midst of all the turmoil, I was IT often in a great and brooding silence, El longing for her, now with tho lm- perlous energy of passion, and now U with tho sad ache of lovo. What was sho doing? What was sho thinking? I Now thnt Langdon had ngaln played I hor false for tho old price, with what eyes was she looking Into tho future? Alva, settled In a West Sldo apart- BJ ment not far from tho ancestral whlto BJ elephant, tolcphoned, asking mo to come. I went, because she could nnd would glvo mo news of Anita. Hut us I entored her little drawing-room, I said: "It was curiosity that brought Bfl f ft me. I wished to sou how you were In-Bl In-Bl r stalled." Bl "Isn't it nice and small?' cried sho. "Hilly and I haven't tho slightest dim-BH dim-BH culty In finding each other as people B so ofton havo In tho big houses," And BB It was Hilly this and Hilly that, and B what Hilly said und thought and felt BH and beforu they wore married, sho had called him William, und had declared Bfl "Hilly" to be the most ofTensIvo com- blnatlon of letters that evor fell from HI human lips, Bl "I needn't ask If you are happy," paid I presently, with a dismal failure fl at looking cheerful. "I can't stay but B n moment," I added, and If 1 had B oboyed my feollngs, I'd have risen up B and taken myself and my pain away B from surroundlnL'H as hateful to me B as a summor suiii Iko in a deuth-cham- BB BB "Oh!" she exclaimed, In some can- B fusion. "Then excuse mo," And she BB hastened from the room. BB I thought sho hud gouu to order, or B perhaps to bring, tho toa. Tim long B minutes dragged uway until ten had fl passed. Hearing n rustling In the hall, B I rose, Intending to take leavo tho In- BB Btnnt uhe appeared. The rustling stopped Just outsldo. I waited a few BI BecoiidR, Cried: "Well, I'm off. Next z time 1 want to bo ulono, I'll know m ,,t whoro to romo," and advaured to tho J door. It wus not Alva hosltntlng BJ thero: It was Anita, "I beg your pardon," Raid I, coldly. If thoro hail boon room to puss I should havo gone, What dovil pos- sossed me? Cortnlnly In all our rola- tlons I had found hor direct and frnnk, if anything, too frank. Doubtless It B was tho Inttiionco of my associations down town, whoro for ao niaiiy months I I had been dealing with tho "short-I "short-I card" crowd of high Ilnntico, who would hardly play tho game straight B oven when that was tho easy way to H I win. My long, steady stretch In that stealthy and sinuous company had put me In the stuto of mind In which It Is lmposslblo to credit any human bolng with a motlvo thnt Is decent or nn action ac-tion that Is not a dead fall. Thus tho obvious transformation In her made no Impression on me. Her haughtiness, haughti-ness, hor coldness, wero gone, und with them had gone nil that had been least llko her natural Belf, most like the repellent conventional pattern to which her mother nnd her associates had molded her. Hut I was saying to myself: "A trap! Lnngdon hus gone back to his wire. She turns to uie." Anil I- loved her nnd hated her. "Nover," thought I, "has she shown so poor an opinion of mo as now." "My uncle told mo day before yesterday yes-terday that It was not ho but you," sho said, lifting her eyes to mine. It Is Inconceivable to mo now that I could havo misread their honest story; yet I did. "I had no Idea your uncle's notion of honor was also eccentric," said I, with a satirical smile that made tho blood rush to her face. "That Is unjust to him," sho replied, re-plied, earnestly. "Ho says he made you no promise of secrecy. And ho confessed to me only becauso ho wished to convince mo that ho had good reason for his high opinion of you." "Heallyl" said I, Ironically. "And no doubt ho found you open wldo to conviction now." This a subtlety to me. Sho camo Into tho room and seated herself. "Won't you s.op. please, for a momont longer?" sho snld. "I hopo that, at, least, wo can part without bitterness. I understand now that everything Is over between us. A woman's vanity mnkes her bo-llcf bo-llcf thnt a mnn cares for her dlo hard. 1 am convinced now I nssuro you, I am. I shall trouble you no more about tho past. Hut I havo the right to ask you to hear me when I say that Langdon camo, and that I myself sent him uway; sent him back to his wife." "Touching self-sacrifice," said I, ironically. "No," she replied. "I cannot claim any credit. I sent him away only becauso be-causo you and Alva had taught mo how to Judge him better. I do not despise him as do you; I know too well what has made him what ho is. Hut I had to aond him away." My comment wus on tncrodulous look and shrug. "1 must bo going," I said. "You do not bcllove me?" sho asked. "In ray place, would you holiovo?" ropllod I. "You say 1 havo taught you. Well, you havo taught me, too for Instance, In-stance, that the years you'vo spent on your kiiees In the musty templo of conventionality before fnlso gods havo made you fit only for tho Langdon sort of thlug. You can't learn how to Btnnd erect, nnd your oyes cannot bear tho light." "1 am sorry," she said, slowly, hesitatingly, hesi-tatingly, "that your faith In mo died Just when I might, perhaps, havo Justified Justi-fied It. Ours has been a pitiful sorlos of mlsundoi'Htandlngs." "A trnp! A trap!" I was warning myself. "You'vo been a fool long enough, Dlackloclt." And aloud I said: "Well, Anita, the series Is ended now. Thero's no longer any occuslon for our lying opposing to each other. Any arrangements ar-rangements your uncle's lawyers suggest sug-gest will be made." I was bowing, to leavo without shaking hands with her. Hut sho would not have it so. "Plcaso!" she said, stretching out her long, slender arm and offering mo her hand. What a dovll possessed mo that day! With ovory atom of mo longing for her, I yet was ablo to tako hor hand and say, with a smile, that was, I doubt not, as mocking as ray tono: "Hy all "'YOU DO NOT IJKLIKVE ME?' SI1I3 ABKKD." - let her know that I undortsood why sho was seeking mo. "No," r.ho nnswered, lowering hor eyes. "I knew better than ho." For an InBtnnt this, spoken in u voice 1 had long given up hopo of ever hearing from her, ilur.-.eicd my cyn-leal cyn-leal conviction. Hut "Possibly sho thinks Hhu Is sincere)," reasoned my head wlt'a my heart; "even tho Blncer-est Blncer-est women, bruught up as was sho, always al-ways havd tho calculator undorneath; thoy deny It. they don't know It often, but thero It Is; with them, calculation is us Involuntary and automatic us their pulse." So, I suld to her, mockingly: mock-ingly: "Doubtless your opinion of nie has been Improving steadily over since you heard that Mrs. Langdon had recovered re-covered her husband." Sho winced, as If I had struck her. "Oh!", sho murmured. If sho had been tho ordinary woman, who In every crisis with man Instinctively rosorts to weakness' strongest weakness, tears, I might havo u different Btory to toll. Hut sho rought back tho tears In which hor oyes wero swimming nnd gathered horBoir together. "That Is brutal," she salif, with not u touch or Haughtiness, hut not humbly, either. "Hut ,1 deserve II." "Thoro was i time," I wont on, swept In a swlf mrrent of cold rage, "thoro was a tlmo when I would lmvo taken you on almost any terms. A nmn nover mnkes n complete fool of himself about n woman but onco In his llfo, they say. 1 havo dono my stretch nnd It Ib over." Sho sighed wearily. "Langdon camo to hco mo soon after I left your house, ami went to my uuclo," alio said. "I will toll you what happened." "I do uot wish to hoar," ropllod I, addltg pointedly, "I havo bean waiting over since you loft for nows of your plans." Hho grow whlto, nnd my heart smote moans lot us bo friends. And I trust you will not think mo discourteous If I say that I shall feel safer In our friendship when wo aro both on neutral ground." As I was turning away, her look, ray own heart, made mo turn again. I caught hor by tho shoulders. I gazed Into her eyes. "If I could only trust you, could only bellevo you!" I crlod. "You cared for rae when I wasn't worth It," Bho said. "Now that I am more like what you onco Imagined mo, you do not care." Up botween us roso Laugdon's faco cynical, mocking, contemptuous. "Your heart is his! You told mo so! Don't Ho to me!" I exclaimed. And boforo she could reply, I was gone. Out from under tho spell of her presence, back among tho tricksters and assassins, tho traps und ambushes of Wall stroot, I believed again; believed be-lieved firmly tho promptings of tho dovll that possessed mo. "Sho would havo given you a brlof fool's paradlso," said that dovll. "Then what a hideous awakonlng!" And I cursed tho day when New York's Insidious snobbish-ncss snobbish-ncss had tempted my vanity Into starting start-ing me on that degrading chnso aftor "respectability." "If she does not move to freo herself her-self soon," suld 1 to myself. "I will put my own lawyer to work. My right oyo offonds me. 1 will pluck It out." CHAPTICR XXXIII. "WILD WEEK," "The Savon" mudo tholr fatal movo on Updogrnft's advice, I suspect. Hut thoy would not havo adopted' his suggestion sug-gestion had It not boon bo exactly congenial to their own tonipor of nr' rogance und tyranny nnd contempt for tho people who meekly, your after year, presontod tnomselvos for tho tho shoaring with fatuous bleats cf enthusiasm, "Tho SoTwn," or courso, controlled directly, or Indirectly, nil but a foir of tho nowspapors with which I had advertising ad-vertising contracts. They nlso controlled con-trolled tho main sources through which tho press was supplied with nows and ofton and woll thoy had used this control, nnd su'.prlslngly cautious had they been not so to abuse It that tho editors and tho public pub-lic would become suspicious. When my war was at Its height, when I was beginning to congratulate niysclf that tho lingo magazines of "Tho Seven" wero empty almost to the point nt which they must sue for peaco on my own torniB, all In four days 43 of my 67 nowBpapers and thoy tho most Importantnotified Im-portantnotified 'mo that they would no longor carry out their contracts to publish my daily lettor. They gave as tholr reason, not tho real one, fear of "Tho Sovcn," but fear that 1 would lnvolvo them In ruinous libel suits. I who had legal proof for every Btato-mont Btato-mont I made; I who was always careful care-ful to understate! Next, ono press association aftor another ceased to send out my letter as nows, though they had been doing so regularly for months. Tho public hnd grown tired of tho "sensation," they said. I countered with a telegram to ono or more nowspapors In every city and largo town In the United States: "'The Seven' nro trying to cut tho wires between tho truth and thn public. pub-lic. If you wish my dally letter, telegraph tele-graph mo direct and I will send It at my oxpenso." ' Tho responso should havo warned "Tho Seven." Hut It did not. Under tholr ordors tho tolcgruph companies rofused to transmit tho lettor. I got an Injunction. It was oboyed In typical, typi-cal, corrupt corporation fashion thoy sent my matter, but so garbled that It was unintelligible. I appealed to tho courts. In vain. To mo, It was clear, as sun In cloud-loss cloud-loss noonday sky that thoro could bo but one result of this Insolent and despotic denial or my rlghtB and tho rights of tho poople, this public confession con-fession of tho truth of my charges. I turned everything salablo or mortgageable mort-gageable Into cash, locked tho cash up In my private vaults, and waited for tho cataclysm. Thursday Friday Saturday. Apparently Ap-parently all was tranquil; apparently tho peoplo accepted tho Wall streot theory that I was an "oxploded aonsa-Hon." aonsa-Hon." "The Sovon" began to preen themselves; tho strain upon 'them to maintain prices, If no less than tor thrco months past, was not notably greator; tho crisis would pass, I and my exposures would bo forgotten, tho routlno of reaping tho harvests and leaving only tho gleanings for tho sowers would soon bo placidly re-sumod. re-sumod. Sunday. Roebuck, taken 111 ns ho was passing tho basket In tho church of which ho was tho slilnlntf light, died at midnight a beautiful, peaceful death, thoy say, with his daughter reading tho Hlblo aloud, and his Hps moving In prayor. Somo hold that, had ho lived, tho tranquillity would havo continued; but this Is tho view ot thoso who cannot realize that tho tldo of affairs Is no more controlled by tho "great mon" than is the river led down to tho sea by its surfaco flotsam, by which wo measure tho speed nnd direction di-rection of Its current Under that terrific ter-rific tonslon, which to tho shallow seoncd a calm, something had to glvo way. It tho dam had not yielded whoro Roebuck Btood guard, It must havo yieldod somewhero elso, or might havo gono all In ono grand crash. Monday. You know tho Btory of tho artist and his Statue of Grief how ho molded tho features a hundred times, always falling, always rotting an anticlimax, anti-climax, until at last In c.ospalr ho gavo up tho ImpoBslblo nnd finished tho statue with a veil over tho faco. I lmvo tried again and again to assom-bio assom-bio words that would glvo somo not too Inadoquato impression of that tro-mondoiiB tro-mondoiiB wook In which, with n succession succes-sion of explosions, each llko tho crack of doom, tho financial structuro that housed 80,000,000 of pooplo burst, collapsed, col-lapsed, waB engulfod. I cannot. I must leave It to your memory or your Imagination. For years tho financial leaders, crazed by tho excess of powor which tho peoplo had in Igtiornuco nnd over-confldonco over-confldonco and slovenly good-naturo pormltted them to acquire, had boon tearing out tho honest foundations on which alone so vast a structuro can hopo to rost solid and secure They had boon substituting rotten beams painted to look llko Btono and iron. The crash had to como! tho sooner, tho bettor when a thing Is wrong, each day'B delay compounds tho cost ot righting tt. So, with all tho horrors or "Wild Week" in mind, nil Its physical phys-ical nnd montal suffering, all its ruin nnd rioting and bloodshel, I still can Insist that I am Justly proud of my sharo In bringing it about, Tho ulanio nnd tho shamo aro wholly upon thoso who inndo "Wild Weok" necessary and lnovl table. In catastrophos, tho cry Is "Kach for hlniRolt!" nut In a cntaclysm, tho obvious wlso solflshncsa Is generosity, and tho cry la: "Stand together, for, singly, wo perish." This was a cataclysm. cata-clysm. No ono could savo himself, oxcopt tho fow who, taking my often-urged often-urged advico and following my example, exam-ple, had entered tho ark of ready money. Fanner and artisan and pro fessional man and laborer owed mor-1 chant; morchnut owod bankor; banker owod doposltor. No ono could pay becauso be-causo no ono could got what was duo him or could realize upon his property. Tho endless chain of credit thnt binds togothor tho whole of modern socloty hnd simpped In a thousand plncos. It must bo ropalrod. Instantly anil so-curoly. so-curoly. Hut how and by whom? (To bo Continued.) |