| Show A novel by THOMAS W LAWSON author of frenzied finance copyright 1 doubleday Doubled ty pago A co continued from last week then lien again jim lie he continued in a tone of great seriousness theres a little secret I 1 have never let even you into the truth is I 1 am not safe yet not safe to speak for the old house of randolph randolph yes you may laugh you who are aie and always have been as staunch and steady as the old bronze john harvard in the yard you who know monday mornings just what you are going to do saturday nights and all the days and nights in between and who always do it jim I 1 have found since I 1 have been over on the floor that the southern souther rf gambling blood that made by grandfather on one of his trips back from new york though he had more land and slaves than lie he could use stake ills his land and slaves yes and grandmothers too on a card game and lose and change the whole face of the brownley destiny those same gambling microbes mic robes are in my illy blood and when they begin to claw and gnaw I 1 want to do some thing and jim and the big brown eyes suddenly shot 11 it those microbes mic robes ever get unleashed therell be mischief to pay on tile the floor sure there will bobs handsome head was thrown back his thin nostrils dilated as though there was in them the breath ot of conflict the lips were drawn a cross across the white teeth with just p part t enough to show their edges aad and in the depths of the eyes was a dark red blaze that somehow gave the impression one gets in looking down some long avenue of black at the instant a locomotive headlight rounds a curve at night t iv i v twice before way back in our college days I 1 had had a peep at this gambling tempter of bobs once in a poker game in our rooms when a crowd of new york classmates tried 0 to o run him out of a hand by the sheer weight of coin and again at the pequot house at new london on the five eve ot of a varsity boat race when a yale crowd shook a big wad of money and taunts at bob until with a yell he left his usually well leaded feet and frightened me edns whis 1 1 allowance was d dollars 0 r s fa to 13 robs 0 b s je cents 11 t g a at t alio llio SUM mim tota tola of 0 the bet cards he sigred signed before he cleared the room ig Q yale money add came to vill with a hite face streaming with cold perspiration these benti had passed out of my memory as the ordinary student breaks that any hot blooded youth Is liable to make in like cir cuM stances As I 1 looked at bob that day while he be tried to tell me that the ahe business of 11 randolph andolph randolph would not be safe in his keeping I 1 had to admit to myself that I 1 was puzzled I 1 had regarded my old college churn chum not only as the best mentally har lessed man I 1 had ever met but I 1 knew iun as the soul of ef honor that honor of the M d story books and I 1 could not credit his pe being ing tempted to jeopardize unfairly the rights of property ot of another but it was habit with me to let bob have his bis way vay and I 1 did not press pi ess him to come into our firm as a full partner five bears ears later during time affairs business and social had been slipping along as well as either bob or I 1 could have asked I 1 was preparing for another sit down to show my chum that the time had now come for him to help me in earnest when a queer thing happened one of oe those unaccountable incidents that god some times sees fit to drop across the life paths of his children paths heretofore as straight and f far ar ahead visible as highways along which one has never to look twice to see where he Is traveling one of those events that looked at retrospectively are beyond all human understanding it was a beautiful july saturday noon and rob bob and I 1 had just packed up tor for the day preparatory to joining mrs randolph on my yacht tor for a run down to our place at newport As aa we stopped stepped out of 0 ills his office domce one cue ot of the clerks announced that a lady had come in and had particularly asked to see mr brownley who the deuce can she be corning coming in at this time on oil saturday just when all alive men are aie lit in a rush to shake the heal and ot of business for or food and the good air ot or all outdoors growled bob then lie he said show her in i another minute and he had his an awer A lady entered mr Bro wriley she waited an instant to in make ake sure he was NAs tile vir ghilan bob bowed 1 I aro am beulah lieu lili sands of santis sands landing virginia your people know our people mr brownley Browl leY probably well enough tor for you to place me of the judge loe lee sands asked bob as lie he held out his hantl hand 1 I am judge lee sands oldest daughter said the sweetest voice I 1 had ever heard one of those mellow rippling lippling lip pling pillig voices that start the imagination on a chase for a mocking bird only to bring it up P at the pool beneath the brook fall in of tile the harp of moss and watercress es that sends a bubbling cadence into its eddies and swirls perhaps it was the southern accent that nibbled off the corners and edges of certain words and languidly let others mist themselves together that gave gage it its luscious penetration however may be it was the most no esterday no to morrow voice I 1 had ever heard before I 1 grew fully conscious of tile the exquisite beauty ot of the girl this voice of liers hers spelled its way into my brain like tire the breath of some bewitching oriental essence nature en envision vilon ment the se cuilty of a perfect marriage have ever combined to constitute me loyal to my illy chosen one yet as I stood silent like one dumb absorbing pie the details of the loveliness of 0 this young stranger who had so suddenly swept into my office it came over me that here was a woman intended to enlighten men who could not understand that shaft which in all agea ge has without warning pierce pierced d mens hearts and souls love at first sight had there not been katherine Kather lne blair biair wife and mother katherine blair randolph who filled my love world as the noonday august sun still fills the old fashioned well nith with nestling warmth and shade after this interval looking back at the past I 1 dare ask the question who knows but that I 1 too might have drifted from tile the secure anchorage of my slow yankee blood and floated into the deep waters beauty the cynics scoff is in the eye of the beholder or in an angle of vision mere product of limelight lime light point of 0 view desire but beulah X 1 e J jim i in if those microbes Mic robes ever get unleashed lea shed therell be mischief to r 1 pay on the floor c sands was wag beauty beyond cavil superior to all analysis as definite as the evening star against the twilight sky in height med medium lurn girlish gl ilish but with a figure maturely modeled charmingly full and bounded loun ded yet by very perfection of proportion escaping suggestion ot of plumpness the head surrounded and crowned with a wealth of dark golden hair tested on a neck that would have seemed short had its slender column sprung less graciously from the lovely lines of the breast and shoulders beneath it was on tire the face however and finally on the eyck that ones glances inevitably lingered the face rose tinted with dimples in either of the full cheeks entering laughing protest against tile the sad droop that brought slightly town down the corners of 0 a mouth too large perhaps tor for beauty it if tire the coral curve of the lips had been less exquisitely perfect the straight thin nose the broad forehead the square full jaw almost as low at the points where they come beneath the ears as at the chin suggested dignity and high resolve coupled with a power of purpose rare in ia woman the combination of 0 forehead jaw and nose was seldom seen had it been possessed by a man it would surely su r ely have ir 1 e driven him to the tented fie field ld f for or ai his 1 profession but the greatest Ls glory ol of beulah sands was her aies 3 large irge f full ill very gray very blue vivid with all the glamour ol of her personality sona lity full of smiles and tears koars and spirituality and passion one instant frankly innocent they illuminated the face of a blonde madonna the next seen through the extraordinary long jet black eyelashes underneath all the finely penciled black brows they caressed coquetted allured I 1 afterward found much ot of this girls purely physical fascination lay in this strange blending ot of english fairness fai iness with da tints though the abiding quality ot of her charm was surely in an air exaltation ot of spirit ot of which she might make the dullest conscious As she stood looking at bob in my office that long ago noon gracefully at ease in a suit ot of gray with a gray feathered turban on her head bead and tiny lace bands at neck and wrist she wasly was vry pry exquisite exceedingly dainty an and d though southerner herner ot of southerners very unlike the typical brunette girl who comes out of dixie land this girl gill who came into our oil ollace ce that july Satu saturday iday lay just in time to in with the outing cob bob brodu Brow iiley and I 1 had laid out and who was destined to divert my illy chums hereto tore fore smooth flo flow iNing ins river of existence and turn it into an alternation of roa roaring r rushes and deadly calms was truly the most exquisite creature one could conceive of I 1 know my illy thought must hai have e been dobs bobs too for ills his eyes were ilveen on oil her face she dropped the blade black lashes like a veil as she went on mr air brownley I 1 have just come me from sands landing I 1 am verj anxious to talk with you on a business matter I 1 have brought a letter to 30 iou u from my father it if you have other engagements I 1 can wait until monday although and the black velling veiling lashes lifted showing the half laughing half ha if pathetic pat betic eyes 1 I wanted much to lay my business before you at the earliest minute possible there was a taint faint touch of 0 appeal in the charming voice na as she spoke that was I and we were both willing to forget we vve hail had lunch waiting 1 ng us on tho the tribesman step into my office miss sands and all my time is yours said bob as lie he opened the door between ills his office and mine after I 1 had sent a note to I 1 my wife saying we deia fei yeii ayea for an hour or two I 1 settled down to wait for dob bob in the general office and it was a long ions wait thirty minutes went into an hour and an hour into two before bob and miss sands came out afterlife Af after terlie he had put her in a cab f tor or her hotel lie he said in a tone curiously intent jim I 1 hane got to talk with you got to get some of your good advice suppose we hustle along to the yacht and after lunch ou on tell kate we have some business to go over I 1 dont want to keep that girl waiting any longer 1 e r than possible for an answer I 1 cannot give until I 1 get your ideas after lunch on the bow end of the upper tipper deck bob relieved himself re he lieven is the word tor for from the minute he had put miss hiss sands lato into the carriage until then it was evident even to my illy wife that his thoughts were anywhere but upon out outing jim he began in a voice that shook in spite of his efforts to make it sound calm there is no the tact fact that I 1 am mightily worked up about this matter and I 1 want to do everything possible tor for this girl gli L vo no aled of 0 my telling you how sacred we have got to keep what she has just let me into see as I 1 go along that it is sacred and I 1 know you will look at it as I 1 do miss rai c ands must be helped out of her judge Leer lee sands her father Is the head of the old sands himely of virginia the virginia sands dont take oft off their bonnets to another family in tills this country or elsewhere for that matter for anything that really counts they have had brains learning money and fixed position since virginia virgin la was first settled they are the best people of our state it Is a crossroad cross road saying in in virginia that a sands of saud sands 9 landing can go to the bench the united states senate the house or the governors chair for to the starting and nearly all of the men folks have held one or all of these honors boilers for generations the present judge has held them all I 1 dont know him personally although my people and his have been thick from away backs back sands landing on the james is some 50 miles above ou our home the judge beulah sands father is close on to TO 70 and I 1 have heard mother and father say is a stalwart a virginia stalwart stal wait being rich that is what bat we virginians call rich a 2 million or so lie he has been very active in affairs and I 1 knew before his daughter told me that lie he was the trustee tor for about all the best estates in our part of 0 the country it seems from what she tells that of late he has been very active in de developing eloping our coal mines and railroads and that particularly ticul arly he took a prominent hand in the seaboard air line you know the road for or your was a and ami I 1 think the house has been prominent lit in its banking affairs now jim chils poor girls girl who it seems has recently been acting as the judges secretary has just learned that that coup of reinhart and liia crowd has completely ruined her father the decline has swamped his own fortune and what Is worse ai a million to a million and a halt half ot of ills his trust funds as well and the old judge well you and I 1 oan can understand his position yet I 1 do tot not know that you just can either tor for you do not quite understand our virginia life and the kind of reveled position a man mail like judge sands occupies you would have to know that to un der stand fully his present purgatory and the terrible position of 0 this dauger ter tor for it seems that since he ha began to pet get into deep water lip lift has been relying upon haffor her for c courage and ideas from our talk I 1 gather she has a wonderful store of up to date business notions and I 1 am convinced from what she lays out that the judges affairs are aie hopeless and jim when nhen that old man goes down it will be a smash that will shake our state in more ways than one urt U to now the girl has stood up to the blow like a man and has been able to steady tile the judge until lie he presents an exterior that holds down suspicion as to his real financial condition although she says reinhart and ills his baltimore lawyer from the ruthless way they put on the screws to shake out his holdings in the air line must have a line on oil it that the judge la Is overboard the old gentleman can keep things going for six six months longer without jeopardizing any of the remaining trust funds of 0 which he has some two minions millio ns and while his bis wife who is an inalle inal ld knows tile the judge is la im some siame trouble she does dees not suspect his real position his daughter says tint that when the blow came that day 0 of thal mhd panic reinhart jammed the out of sight and scuttled let her fathers fat bers bankers banke is and partners I 1 ast 1st the road the watsons rons of baltimore Badt imore she had a frightful fright fur struggle to keep her father frony from going she sn told me mat luat tor for three days ami nighta she kept I 1 him im locked lin m their rooms at al davir hotel hold in to prevent him from rimming fin reinhart and ills hla lailyer er and them both but thal thai at last she got him calmed dawn and together sether to they lime been jira A it was tough to sit there and listen tn ta tile schemes ernes to tat recoup that this ofal and this 9 girl arz for she is ordy only 21 larave bava tried to tn hatch ll 11 ip the tears actually rolled down clown my cheeks as I 1 listened I 1 help it you yoe either jim but at last out of all the plans they farind only orie one that had a tint of 0 |
