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Show il&h RECLUSE IP, FIFTH MARTYN - -C'A"nI,T,EGDHItatE5 Squire CHAPTER IX Continued 18 "Because exhibit 'B' will cause you considerable distress, and I b'nVe known men of your type to see red in such moments." linxon balanced a square envelope in Ms thin hands. "If It's blackmail you are thinking of in connection with me," said Mc-Kimber Mc-Kimber scornfully, "you are wasting time. It's you who are using 0ld-fnshloned 0ld-fnshloned stupid stuff, not me. I tell you, my life is an open book." "With one uncut page," Raxon remarked. re-marked. "I've cut that page. It cost time and money, but it was the best investment I ever made. Think back a bit over this life of yours that is an open book. Is there anything in It that might hurt you If It "got out?" "Not a thing," cried McKImber defiantly. de-fiantly. But there was lacking that ring of confidence he had previously shown. Fear was mastering him. There was no madness about this steady-eyed man opposite. "Very well," said Rnxon briskly. "You force me to speak. You talk of yourself as a self-made man who rose from being a machinist to the ownership owner-ship of a vast organization. That's true. In Who's Who It's written for all the world to see. But there are certain omissions. I can supply them. That's why you are here, McKImber, to listen to the writing between the lines. When you were twenty you left Utica for St. Louis and got a job in the Davis foundry. There you studied drafting, and three years later, having made good, entered the employ of William Graham, Mrs. McKimber's uncle, who owned the Rochester Steel and Iron mills. Later you married his niece." "Well," said McKImber, His throat constricting, "what about it?" "Your employer singled her out of all his relatives and left his fortune to her on condition she married you. He bad confidence in you. He had read the open book and liked the contents. con-tents. If he had had access to that uncut page, he would have known that jour first wife was still living." "I divorced her," McKimber cried. "I can prove it." "The decree was not made absolute until three months after you married your employer's niece. It's a nice legal point, and I've no doubt his other nephews and nieces would be quite ready to fight it. If the condition of getting the fortune was your marriage to Graham's niece, you did not fullfil It, because you did not marry her. A bigamous union is not marriage In the eyes of the law. You must have known that, or you wouldn't have gone through a second ceremony. The first marriage was by a justice of the peace. The second was at a New York church. You obtained Graham's fortune under false pretenses, and you were a bigamist. It's no good denying deny-ing it." "It was all done innocently," McKimber Mc-Kimber protested. "As God is my witness, wit-ness, I thought I was free to marry. In the divorce suit there was nothing that reflected on me personally." "What has that to do with it?" Uaxon asked cynically. "It may be that you thought you were free to marry. But that makes no difference. The world won't think that. Westfield won't think that. Nor will the big papers that are supporting him. You're through, McKimber, that's all. You'll never hold- public office again if this gets out. That's not all. You are going go-ing to help me Into the senate, and your friends are going to help. If your friends try and knife me, you are the one who will bleed." McKimber sat motionless. Raxon cared nothing about his innocence. Guilty or Innocent, McKimber was the loser. He turned dull eyes toward the envelope Raxon held up. "In this Is the entry of your first marriage. Someone cut a page out of the register and offered it to me for sale. I bought it. There are also some letters you wrote to your first wife when you found she was a secret drinker. Her son by a second marriage mar-riage sold them to my agent. Tathetlc letters In their way, but you know how the modern yellow newspaper laughs at pathetic things, especially when they affect political opponents. ' I hope the need for publication may never come. Some day they may be Jours." "What do you want for that en-Telope, en-Telope, If it contains what you say?" "You'll never have half enough money to buy it. Why do you persist in underestimating me? Realize here and now that you are beaten. You will never go to the senate. If I don't So. then Westfield wins, and you will oe the traitor to your party. No further fur-ther discussion Is necessary. What is 11 be? Absolute obedience, or do tbes things go to Westfield?" AicKimber's head dropped. There ws a consciousness of physical feeble-less feeble-less about him, a devitalization which e had. never before experienced. It BWMWWWMW'J'IIW,lMM was curious, he reflected, that the sense of anger had left him. It was the measure of his defeat. "I can't talk now. Tomorrow my brain will be clearer." Unsteadily he rose to his feet and walked to the door. Paul Raxon watched him go out a broken man. Oriental In his absence of pity, he enjoyed humiliating one of McKimber's domineering sort. To bring low such gave him an Increased sense of power. He disliked big, arrogant ar-rogant men with loud voices and assured as-sured gestures. Raxon was aroused from his pleasing pleas-ing reflections by a noise on the door. It was Alfred, the dark footman, who entered and told him that he' was wanted on the long-distance telephone. Raxon shut the precious envelope In his wall-safe and passed oov, not even glancing at the man who stood respectfully re-spectfully at the door. When Fleming Bradney was assured that Raxon had gone, he hurried back Into the room. Then he did a curious thing. He kneeled down by one of the i "Nita's as Good as Fired," Said Barnes. bookcases and pried back a board with a screw-driver. Then, he peered into the darkness where he had recently re-cently been mistaken for a rat. Bradney Brad-ney reached into this space and pulled out Nita, head first. She wore riding breeches and golf stockings, and at first could hardly stand upright. The constraint of the position had become torture. In Nita's hands was a notebook, sever.il pencils, and a flashlight. Every word which had passed was taken down. It was her task now to go to her room and transcribe it for Peter Milman's benefit. bene-fit. It was not until the two had passed the danger zone that they spoke. "Well." Bradney demanded, "did you get anything?" "I got everything." she answered. He wondered why there was no exultation exulta-tion in her voice. Bradney resumed his duties, which consisted mainly in handing refreshments refresh-ments to thirsty dancers. For a little while he stood by Barnes. "It's all right," Bradney whispered ; "she says she has everything." "She must be tickled to death at getting get-ting It eh?" "On the contrary, she looked depressed. de-pressed. I didn't understand it at the time. Of course, there was physical discomfort and constraint, and the possibility of being found out." "She'll be all right tomorrow," said Barnes gleefully. Later he had the opportunity to talk-it talk-it over with Viscount de Guillain. "Well?" said the sculptor eagerly. "What happened?" I-le listened to what Barnes had to say. TTV...T.-.-r.r.T.:.T-:-x-:-x-x-:-x-M-x "Has Nlta shown you anything yet?" "No. None of us can go to her room because she's supposed to be out for the evening, and it's locked. Bradney says she wasn't as cheerful as she might have been. I wonder why." "She might have heard something damaging to McKimber." "Why should that distress her?" "Haven't you yet seen that your girl and Robin are In love with one another? anoth-er? My God," Malet went on passionately, pas-sionately, to Barnes' extreme surprise, "are you so blind?" Floyd Malet had " witnessed the whole affair. He was more sensitive to It than his companions, because he had fallen hopelessly in love with her himself. It was one of those charming and romantic attachments which come to men of middle years and bring them at first an agony that time transmutes to the truest of friendships, never wholly separated from the love which brought it to flower. "Nita would do nothing to upset our plans." Barnes said. "If she has one quality above others that I admire, It is loyalty. She'll stick by. us." "I didn't doubt her loyalty," Malet said quietly. "There is something which brings in Its train great suffering. suffer-ing. I leave tomorrow. I'm afraid 1 have not been much use." "Nita's as good as fired," said Barnes "Gertrude Raxon fights her all the time. I shall be glad' to get out of it. I've been talking to the Swedish maids about it. They seem certain she's going and don't want her generous wage-scale to be cut down.'' Barnes was presently called into Mr. Raxon's presence. "It appears," said Raxon, "that you told the other man to fetch me to the telephone for a long-distance call. Central tells me there have been no long-distance calls since luncheon. How did that happen?" He looked keenly at 'Enry. "Central !" said 'Enry with lofty scorn. "If I was you, sir, I'd complain about that young woman. I've 'ad to speak to her very severe myself, but she don't care. With your permission, I'd like to call 'er up and give 'er a piece of my mind." "It would not be a valuable present," pres-ent," Raxon said. "I' will see that this does not occur again." "Anything else, sir?" 'Enry asked, a trace of insolence in his voice. CHAPTER X Mrs. McKimber was only concerned that the girl her son chose should be sufficiently in love with him. She loved beauty, and had been attracted to Agatha at first sight. Mrs. McKimber McKim-ber was prepared to help her son. She realized that it would not be easy o bring her husband to agree with her. McKimber had learned that a senator, even from the Empire state, does not ex officio find the doors open to him that shelter the great names in American Amer-ican society. He wished Robin to marry into a family which had entree to the best. When Robin had gladly made the sacrifice, he found the girl put obstacles ob-stacles in the way. She did not flutter to his arms. She was no beggarmaid to his King Cophetua. Gloomily he wondered if she was fond of some other man. The viscount was good looking; he had poise and breeding. Agatha had been brought up in Europe, Eu-rope, where disparity in age. is less a bar to marriage than in the United States. They had met before. They had common acquaintances, and the De Guillains, he was told, were all rich. Robin smoked many cigarettes over the problem. He was surprised to hear a knock at his door. It was his father who came in. "Why, father," he cried, "is there anything the matter?" Mr. McKimber was stooped. His bold, resolute car-iiage car-iiage was gone. He looked as one might who had undergone severe mental or physical strain. "Not a tiling," said the elder, with on effort at smiling. "I've been thinking, think-ing, Robbie, and I see I have made a great many mistakes in my life." Robin listened in silence. Never before be-fore had he heard his father in anything any-thing but an assured and contented mood. "I tried to dictate to you awhile ago," said McKimber, "and 1 tried to dictate to the girl you're fond of. I told you if you didn't marry a girl I approved of we should pull apart. I told her that if anyone knowing what money you would Inherit thought she could get it by marrying you without my consent, there wouldn't be any money." ! Robin's face hardened. ! "You had no right to do that. We I may as well understand one another.' I've asked Miss Brown to marry me. I haven't your social ambitions. If she won't marry me, nobody else will be asked." (TO BE CONTIN'UED.) :.xx-:-xaxxxxXvXxxi |