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Show ?jr DAVID GRAHAM PUTT J IRS, Author of "THECQSTMe I CHAPTER III. Continued. i "Weil ilx It tip later, Hlaeklock," said ho. "All right." said I. And from that minute I was almost silent. It was something In her tone and manner thnt silenced me. I suddenly realized that I wasn't making as good nn lm-, lm-, pressiou as I had been tlattcrlng my-When my-When a man has money and Is willing will-ing to spend It, ho can readily fool himself Into Imagining he gets on grandly with women. Hut I hnd hotter hot-ter grounds than that for thinking myself not unattractive to them, ns n rule. Women had liked me when I Uad nothing; women had liked mo when they didn't know who I was. I felt that this woman did not llko mo. And yet, by tho way 'sho looked ut mo In splto of her efforts not to do so, I could tell thnt I had some nort of unusual lntorest for hor. Why didn't sho llko mo? Sho made mo feel . ho reason. I didn't belong to her world. My ways nnd my looks offended offend-ed her. Sho disliked mo a good deal; sh feared mo u little. Sho would havo felt safer if sho had been gratifying grati-fying her curiosity, gazing In nt mo through tho bars of a cage. Sara not without hesitation, ns I recaed afterward loft mo with hor, when I sent him to bring her brough-tm brough-tm up to tho Hroadway entrance. As iho and I were standing thero alone, ' raiting In silence, I turned on her luddenly, and blurted out; "You don't llko mo." Sho reddened n little, smiled slightly. slight-ly. "What n quaint remark!" said I looked straight at hor. "But you thall." Our oyes mot. Hor chin enmo out a little, her eyebrows lifted. Then, in scorn of herself ns woll as of mo, she locked herself In behind a frozen linughtlness that Ignored mo. "Ah, hero is tho carriage," sho said. I followed fol-lowed her to tho curb; sho Just touched my hand, just nodded her fascinating little head, "Seo you Saturday, old man," called . lior brother frlondllly. My loworlng l Xaco had alarmed him. $ "That party is off," said I, curtly. And I lifted my hat and strode nway. As I had formed tho habit of dismissing dis-missing tho dlsagiceable, I soon put her out of my mind. Hut sho tool: I -with hor my Joy In tho tasto of things. I 1 couldn't got back my former keen i nntlsfnctlon In nil I had dono nnd I wns doing. Tho luxury, tho tnnglblo I evidences of my achievement, no long- I or gave mo plensuro; they seemed to I add to my Irritation. I , I worked myself up, or rather, down, I to such a mood that when my olllco I boy told mo Mr. Lungdnn would like I . mo to como to his olllco as soon as v. It was convenient, I snapped out; ' "Tho hell ho does! Tell Mr. Lnngdon I'll bo glad lo see him hero whenover lie calls." Thnt was stupidity, n pre-mature pre-mature assertion of my right to ho treatod as an equal. I had always oiio to Lnngdon, nnd to any other of tho rulers of finance, whenover I liad got n summons. For. whllo I wns rich nnd powerful, 1 hold both wealth nnd power, In a sense, nn suf-forance; suf-forance; I know thnt. so long ns I liad no absolute control of any great lopartmaut of Industry, theso rulers ' could destroy mo should they decide j, that thoy needed my holdings or were yl not satisfied with my use of my , power. I was surprised when Lang- lon appeared in my olllco a few minutes min-utes later. aa Ho was a talllsh, .snip man, care- HK fully dressed, with n' bored, weary HI look and a slow, bored way of talk- HI lug. I had nlways said that if I had H not beon myself I should have wished HI to b Laugdon. HI Ills expression, ns he enmo Into my HI -olllce, was one of cynical amusem'ent, HI ns If he wuro saying to hliviaulf: "Our HH friend lllacklock has caught tho swoll- HH mi head nt last.' Not a suggestion of III humor, or resentment nt my lm-HH lm-HH pertinence for, In tho clreuiustnncos, I had been gu.'ity or nn luipurtluonce. j Just languid, amused pntleuco with the frailty of u friend. "1 see," snld HBj he, "that you havo got Textile up to HH He was tho head of the Textile trust, which hud been built by his brother-in-law mid hnu fallen to him HHJ In the confusion following his broth- HH or In law's death. As he was just then HH needing some money for his share In the Nntlounl Coal undertaking, he hail HH din-' ted mo to push Textile up toward HH par and unload him of two or three HH i liundrod thousand shares he, of HH Pf course, to repurehaso the shares after HH f ho had taken proIUs nnd Text Ho had HH dropped back to Its nornml CO. HH "I'll have It up to ttS by tho middle ' HH of next month," said I. "And there HH I think we'd better Mop." I HH "Stop at about !I0," said he. "That J HH will glvo mo all I find I'll need for 1 HH this Coal business. 1 don't want to bo ! HH bothered with hunting up nn Invest-1 HI HI I Rhook my head. "I must put It up Hm to within n point or two of par," I do-' HJ clared. "In ny public letter I've been H saying it would ku above 05, and I uuvei doiu i iu iintilte." He smiled my notion of honesty always nmused him. "As you please," ho said, with n shrug. Then I saw a serious look Just a fleeting Hash of warning behind his smiling mask; and ho added carelessly: "lie careful about your own personal play. I doubt If Tcxtllo can bo put any higher." It must have been my mood that prevented thoso .words from making tho Impression on mo thoy should have made. Instead of appreciating at once nnd nt Its full value this characteristic char-acteristic and amazingly friendly slg-nal slg-nal of caution, I showed how stupidly Inattentive 1 wa3 by saying: "Something "Some-thing doing? Something now?" Hut ho had nl ready gono further than his notion of friendship warranted. war-ranted. So he ropllcd: "Oh, no. Simply thnt everything's uncertain nowadays." My mind had been nil this tlmo on thoso Mnnnsqunlo mining properties. I now said; "Has Itocbuck told you that 1 had to buy. thoso mines on my own account?" "Yes," ho said. Ho hesitated, and again ho gnvo mo a look whoso meaning mean-ing camo to ma only when It was too late. "I think, Hlucklock, you'd better bet-ter turn them over to me." "I can't," I answered. "I gavo my word." . ' "As you please," said he. Apparently tho matter didn't Interest Inter-est him. Ho began to talk of tho performances per-formances of my llttlo two-year-old Beachcomber; and after 20 minutes or so, ho drifted nway. "I envy you your enthusiasm," ho said,' pausing in my doorway. "Wherever 1 am, I wish I wero somowhoro olso. Whatovcr I'm doing, I wish 1 wore doing some thing else. Whom do you get all this Joy of tho light? What tho dovll are you lighting for?" Ho didn't wnlt for a reply. I thought over my situation steadily for several days. I wont down to my country placo. I looked ovorywhoro among nil my belongings, searching, : searching, restless, Impatient. At lust I know what ailed mo what tho lack was that yawned so gloomily from everything I had onco thought beautiful, beauti-ful, had onco found sufllcleut. 1 was In tho midst of tho splendid, terraced pansy buds my gardeners had Just sot nut; I stopped short and slapjicd my thigh. "A woniun!" I exclaimed, "That's what I need. A woman tho right sort of woman a wife!"' IV. A CANDIDATE FOR "RESPECTABILITY." "RESPECTA-BILITY." To handlo this now business propor-ly propor-ly I must put myself In position to look tho whole Hold over. I must got In lino and In touch with "respecta-, "respecta-, blllty." When Snm Ellorsly enmo In I for his "rations," I said: "Sam, I want you to put mo up at tho Trnv-i Trnv-i olors Club." I "Tho Travelers!" echoed ho, with 1 a blank look. j "Tho Trnvolors," said I. "It's about tho best of tho big clubs, Isn't It? I Anil It has as members most of the men I do business with nnd most of hoso 1 want to get Into touch with." Ho lnuQhml 'It enn't bo dono." Why not?" I asked. "Oh I don't know. You see tho fact ' well, they're a lot of old fogies ui) there. You don't want to bother with that push, Matt. Take my ndvlce. Do business, with them, but avoid them socially." "I want to go In there," I Insisted. "I huvo my own reasons. You put mo up." "I tell you, lt'd bo no use," lie replied, re-plied, In n tone that implied he wished to hear no more of the matter. "You put mo up," 1 repented. "And If you do your best, I'll gut In all right. I've got lots of friends there. And you've got threo relatives In tho committee com-mittee on membership." At this he gavo mo a queer, sharp glance a llttlo fright In It. I Inughcd. "You see, I've been looking look-ing Into It, Sam. I nevur tnko n Jump till I've measured It." "You'do better wait a fow yenrs, until " ho began, then stepped nnd turned red. "Until whnt?" said I. "I want you to speak frankly." "Well, you've got n lot of enemies a lot of follows who've lost money In deals you've engineered. And they'd say all sorts of things." "I'll tako enro of that," said I, qulto easy In mind. "Mowbray Lnngdon's president, Isn't ho? Well, he's my closest friend." I spoke qulto honestly. hon-estly. It shows how simple-minded I was in certain ways that I had never onco noted tho Important clrcum-stnnco clrcum-stnnco that this "closest friend" hod novcr invited mo to his house, or any-whero any-whero whuro I'd meet his up-town associates as-sociates at Introducing dlstanco. Sam looked surprised. "Oh, In that case," ho said, "I'll seo what can bo done." Hut his tone was not qulto cordial cor-dial enough to satisfy me. To stimulate him nnd to glvo him nn earnest of what I Intended to do for him, when our llttlo social deal had been put through, I showed him how ho could win $10,000 in the next threo days. "And you needn't bother about putting up mnrglns," said I, as I ofton hnd before. "I'll take caro of that." Ho stammered a rcfuBnl and went out; but ho camo back within an hour, nnd, In n strained sort of way, accepted accept-ed my tip and offer. "That's sensible. said I. "Whon "VOU'ItK HOUND TO WIN AND I'M. SICK THAT YOU DON'T LOSU." will you nttond to tho mnttor at tho rrnvulors? I want to bo warned so I can pull my own set of wires In concert." con-cert." "I'll lot you know," ho nnswored, hanging his bend. I didn't understand his queor actions ac-tions then. Though I was tin expert In finance, I hadn't yet mndo a study of that other gnmo tho gamo of "gontloman." And I didn't know how sorlously tho frauds nnd fakirs who piny It take It and themselves. I attributed his confusion to a ridiculous ridicu-lous mock modesty he hnd about accepting ac-cepting fuvors; It struck mo as being particularly Billy on this occnslon. be-cniiBo be-cniiBo for onco ho was to glvo as woll us to tako. Ho didn't cnll for his profits, but wroto nsklng mo to malt him tho check for thorn. I did so, putting In the euvolop with It n llttlo Jog to his memory on the club mnttor. I didn't seo him ,ngaln for nearly a month; and though I searched and sent, I couldn't got his trail. On open-Intf open-Intf day nt Morris Park, I was going nlnng the passage behind tho boxos In tho grand stand, on my way to tho paddock. I wanted to seo my horse that was nbout to run for 'the Sal-maginidl Sal-maginidl Sweepstakes, and to toll my Jockey thnt I'd glvo him $15,000, Instead In-stead of 110.000. If ho won for I hud put qulto n bunch down. In one of tho boxes I splod my shy friend, Sammy. Ho was looking bettor bet-tor than I Jind over seen him. Less heavy-eyed,' less pallid nnd pasty, loss llko n man who had been shirking hod nnd keeping up on cocktails ami cold baths. Ho was at tho rear of tho box, talking with a luU nnd a gentleman. As sot.n ns I saw that lady, 1 know what It was that had been hiding nt tho bottom of my mind and ruikllng there. .iuklly 1 wus alone; ever sineo that lunch 1 had been cutting looso from tho old crowd from all its women, md from all Its men except two or ihreo real friend, who wuro good follows fol-lows straight through, In spite of their having made the mistake of crossing tho dead lino between nmatour "sport" nnd professional. I leaned over nnd tapped Sammy on tho shoulder. shoul-der. Ho glance;! round, and when ho saw mo, looked ns If I were u pollccmnn who had caught hint In tho net. "Howdy, Sam?" said I. "It's been so long sliice l'vo seen you that 1 couldn't resist tho tomptntlon to Interrupt. In-terrupt. Hopo your frlend'll oxcuso mo. Howdy do, Miss Ellorsly?" And I put out my hand. Sho took It rcluctuntly. Sho was giving mo n very unpleasant look as If sho wero seeing, not somebody, but some thing sho didn't enro to seo. or wero seeing nothing nt all. I liked that look; lg liked tho woman who hnd It In hor to glvo' it. Sho made mo feel that sho was difficult nnd therefore worth while, nnd Jhat's what nil we human beings nro In business busi-ness for to make each other feel thnt we're worth whllo. "Just a moment," snld Sam, red as a cranberry nnd stuttering. And ho mndo a motion to como out of tho box nnd Join me. At tho samo tlmo Miss Anita nnd tho other fellow began to turn nway. Hut I was not tho mnn to bo cheated In that fashion. I wanted to seo hor, nnd I compelled her to seo It nnd to fool It. "Don't let mo tako you from your friends," said I to Snmmy. "Perhaps "Per-haps they'd llko to como with you and mo down to look nt my horse. I can glvo you a good tip ho'a bound to win. l'vo hud my boys out on tho rails overy morning nt tho trials of all tho other possibilities. Nono of 'em's In It with Mowghll." "Mowghlll" snld tho young lady sho had begun to turn toward mo as soon as I spoko tho magic word "tip." There may be men who can resist thnt word "tip" nt tho raco track, but thero nover wns a woman. "Mowghll!" said Miss Ellorsly. "What n quaint nnmo!" "My trainer gavo It," said I, "l'vo got a second son of ono of tho'so broken-down English noblemen at the head of my stables. Ho'a trying to got money enough togethor to no ablo to show up at Newport nnd tako a shy at an heiress." At this tho fellow who wns fourth in our party, and who had been giving giv-ing mo a nasty, glassy stare, got as red as was Sammy. Then I noticed that ho was an Englishman, and I all but chuckled with delight. Howovor, I said: "No offenso Intended," nnd clapped him on the shoulder with a friendly smile. "Ho's a good follow, my man Monson, and knows n lot about horses." Miss Ellersly bit hor lip nnd colored, col-ored, but I noticed nlso that her eyes wero dancing. Sam Introduced tho Englishman to mo Lord Somobody-or-other, I forget what, as I novor saw him ngoln. I turned llko a bulldog from n toy tor-rlor tor-rlor and was at Miss Ellorsly again. "Let mo imt a llttlo somothlng on Mowghll for you," snld I. "You're bound to win and I'll seo that you don't lose. I know how you ladles hato to loso." That was n bit stiff, ns I know woll enough now. Indeed, my Instinct would have told mo bettor thon, If 1 hadn't been so used to tho sort ol women thnt Jump nt such an offer, and If I hadn't been casting about sc desperately and In such confusion foi Bomo way to pleaso hor. At any rate, hardly deserved hor sudden frozon look. "I beg pnrdon," I stammered, ind I think my look at hor must have beon vory humblo for mo. Tho otbors in tho box woro staring round at us. "Como on," cried Sam, dragging at my arm, "lot's go." "Won't you como?" I said to his sis-tor. sis-tor. I shouldn't havo been ublo to keep my Btnto of mind out of my volco, II I had tried. And I didn't try. Trust tho right nort of woman to see tho right sort of thing In n man through any nnd nil kinds of barriers of casto and mnnnors nnd breeding Hor volco wns much softer ns sho said: "I think I must Btny horo Thank you, just tho snmo." As soon ns Sam and I woro nlono, 1 npologlzod. "I hopo you'll toll your slstor I'm sorry for that break," said I. I "Oh, that's all right," ho onsworcdi j onsy ngnln, now that wo woro away from tho others. "You meant woll and motive's tho thing." I "Motive hell!" cried I In my nngor I at mysolf. "Nobody but n man's Clod knows his motives; ho doesn't .evon know thorn himself. I Judgo others by what thoy do, und I oxpect to u ' Judged In tho samo wny. I seo l'vo 1 got n lot to learn." Thon I suddenly ! remoniborcd tho Travelers Club, and asked him whnt ho'd dono about "I l'vo been thinking It ovor." snld ho. "Aro you Btiro you want tc run tho risk of nn ugly croppor, Matt?" I turned him round so that wo woro facing eueh othor. "Do you want tc do mo that favor, or don't you?" I demanded. "I'll do whatever you sny," ho replied. re-plied. "I'm thinking only of your In terests." "Let mo tnko caro of thorn." Raid I, I "You put -mo up nt that club to-moc row. I'll send you tho naino of u secoudor not later than noon." "Up goes your nnmo," ho said. "Hut don't blame me for the cons; quonces." (To be Continued.) |