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Show $mm mndolph cioiil and LILLIAN CHESTER r T T ST I 4 C.D.RHODES I . COTPOAATlOti I practically all the world, outside the United States, was here as E. E. Chalmers, prince Nito of Japan, Yu-Hip-Lun c-1 China and Count Cassioni of Rccie were here at the same time; and they all called on Edward E. Allison. Alli-son. . "Furthermore, gentlemen, I will give you now the names of the eight financiers, finan-ciers, who, with Edward E. Allison, are interested in the formation of the International In-ternational Transportation company, which proposes to control the commerce com-merce of the world. These gentlemen are Joseph G. Clark, Eldridge Babbitt, W. T. Chisholm, Richard Haverman, Arthur Grandin, Robert E. Taylor, A. L. Vance. I would suggest that, If you disturb these gentlemen In the manner man-ner which I have understood you to be quite capable of doing, you might secure from some one of them a trace of corroboration of the things 1 have said. This is all." He paused and bowed stiffly. "Gentlemen, I wish to add one word. I thank you for your kind attention, and I desire to say that, while I have violated tonight several sev-eral of the rules which 1 had believed that I would always hold unbroken, I have done so in the interest of a justice jus-tice which is greater than all other considerations. Gentlemen, goodnight." good-night." "Have you a good photograph handy?" asked the squib, awakening from his trance. Nine young gentlemen put the squib right about that photograph. Hickey was lost in the fields of Elysian phan- stiff bow, "but an errand of such importance im-portance that it cannot be delayed, causes Mrs. Fosland and myself to return to the city immediately for an hour or so. I am sincerely apologetic, and I trust that you will have a jolly dinner." "Is Gail going with you?" Inquired the alert Mrs. Helen Davies, observing observ-ing Gail in the gangway adjusting 2er furs. "She has to chaperon me, wJlle Gerald Ger-ald Is busy," Arly glibly explained. "You're it, Aunt Grac.rf. You and Uncle Jim have to be host3. Good-by!" and she sailed out to the deck, followed fol-lowed by the st'.'i troubled Gail, who managed to accomplish the laughing adieus for which Arly had set the precedent. A swift ride in the launch, In the cool night air, to the landing; a brisk walk to the street; then Gerald, having hav-ing seen the ladies safe under shelter, even if it were but the roof of a night-haw night-haw taxi, stopped at the first saloon. There he phoned half a dozen messages. mes-sages. There were four eager young men waiting in the reception room of the Fosland house, when Gerald's party arrived, and three more followed them up the steps. Gerald aided in divesting the ladies of their wraps, and slipped his own big top coat into the bands of William, and saw to his tie and the set of his waistcoat and the smoothness of his hair, before he stalked into the reception recep-tion panlor and bowed stiffly. "Gentlemen," he observed, giving his mustache one last smoothing, "first of all, have you brought with you the written guaranties which I required from your respect'ive chiefs, that, in whatsoever comes from the information informa-tion I am about to give you, ths names of your informants shall, under no circumstances, cir-cumstances, appear in print?" One luckless young man, a fat-cheeked fat-cheeked one, with a pucker in the cor ner of his lips where his cigar should have been, was unable to produce the necessary document, and he was under un-der a scrutiny too close to give him a chance to write it. "Sorry," announced Gerald, with polite po-lite contrition. "As this is a very strict condition, I must ask you to leave the room while 1 address the remaining re-maining gentlemen." The nemninine eentlemen. of whom a depresslngly caim eye, and he prob-bably prob-bably exercised twenty minutes every morning by an open window, after his cold plunge, and took a horseback ride, and walked a lot, and played polo, and a few other effete things like that. Hickey sat down and waited, and, though the night was cold, he mopped hir.brow until the messenger came! CHAPTER XXVII. Chicken, or Steak? On the outbreak of a bygone rudeness rude-ness between the United States and Spain, one free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan paper, unable to adequately ade-quately express its violent emotions on the subject, utilized its whole front page with the one word "War!" printed print-ed in red ink. Now, however, the free and entirely uncurbed, having risen most gloriously in the past to every emergency, no matter how great, positively floundered floun-dered in the very wealth of its opportunities. oppor-tunities. Saturday night, however, saw no late extras. The "story" was too big to touch without something more tangible tan-gible than the word of even so substantial sub-stantial a man as Gerald Fosland; and long before any of the twelve eager young gentlemen had reached the office, of-fice, the scout brigade, hundreds strong, were sniffing over every trail and yelping over every scent. Until three o'clock in the morning every newspaper office in New York was a scene of violent gloom. The world's biggest sensation was in those offices, and they couldn't touch it with : a pair of tongs! The deterrent was that the interests involved were so large that one might as well sit on a keg of gunpowder and light it, as to make the slightest error. The gentlemen gentle-men mentioned as the organizers of the International Transportation company com-pany collectively owned about all the money and all the power and all the law in the gloriously Independent United States of America; and if they got together on any one subject, such as the squashing of a newspaper, for instance, something calm and impressive impres-sive was likely to happen. On the other hand, if the interesting story the free and entirely uncurbed bad in its possession were true, the squashing squash-ing would be reversed, and the free-ness free-ness and entirelv uncurbedness w-ould CHAPTER XXV. 17 Gail Breaks a Promise. The Whitecap would have been under un-der way except for the delay of the gay little Mrs. Babbitt and her admiring admir-ing husband, who sent word that they could not arrive until after dinner, so the yacht, long and low and slender and glistening white, lay in the middle of the Hudson river, while her guests, bundled warmly against the crisp breeze, gathered in the forward shelter deck and watched the beginnings of the early sunset. "I like Doctor Boyd in his yachting cap," commented Lucile, as that young man joined them, with a happy mother on his arm. "It takes away that deadly clerical effect," laughed Arly. "His long coat mates him look like the captain, and he's ever so much more handsome." "I don't mind being the topic of discussion dis-cussion so long as I'm present," commented com-mented Rev. Smith Boyd, glancing around the group as if in search of Bomeohe. "It rather restricts the conversation," conversa-tion," Mrs. Helen Davies observed. The cherub-cheeked Marion Kenneth Ken-neth glanced wistfully over at the rail where Dick Rodley, vying with the sunset in splendor, stood chatting witn easy Ted Teasdale and the stiff Gerald Ger-ald Fosland. "Where's Gail?" demanded the cherub-cheeked one. "It's time that young lady was up on deck," decided Arly, and rose. "She's probably taking advantage of the opportunity to dress for dinner," swiftly place him last. Her Uncle Jim? Too hot-headed. Her Aunt Grace? Too inexperienced. Her Aunt Helen? Too conventional. Lucile, Ted, Dick? She laughed. Arly? There was a knock at the door, and Arly herself appeared. "Selfish," chided Arly. "We're all wanting you." "That's comforting," smiled Gail. "I have just been being all alone in the world, on the most absolutely deserted de-serted Island of which you can conceive. con-ceive. Arly, sit down. I want to tell you something." The black hair and the brown hair cuddled close together, while Gail, her tongue once loosened, poured out in a torrent all the pent-up misery which had been accumulating within her for the past tempestuous weeks; and Arly, her eyes glistening with the excitement ex-citement of it all, kept her exclamations exclama-tions of surprise and fright and indignation indig-nation and horror, and everything else, strictly to such low monosyllables monosyl-lables as would not impede the gasping gasp-ing narration. "I'd like to kill him!" said Arly, in a low voice of startling intensity, and jumping to her feet she paced up and down the confines of the little stateroom. Among all the other smr-prises smr-prises of recent events, there was none more striking than this vast change in the usually cool and sarcastic Arly,. who had not, until her return from Gail's home, permitted herself an emotion emo-tion in two years. "The only way in which that person can be prevented from attacking your Uncle Jim, which would be his first sten. Is to attack him before he can j I Irwin g Til m be still more firmly seated than ever, which is the palladium of our national liberties; and heaven be good to us. (TO BE CONTINUED.) surmised Mrs. Davies. "In fact, I think it's a good idea for all of us," but the sunset was too potent to leave for a few moments, and she sat still. Where indeed was Gail? In her beautiful little curly maple bed, and digging two small fists into the maple-brown maple-brown coverlet. The pallor of the morning had not yet left her face, and there were circles around the brown eyes which gave them a wan pathos; there was a crease of pain and worry, too, in the white brow. Gail had come to the greatest crisis In her life. So far she had told no ' one of what had occurred that morn- ' Ing. When she had rushed into the rector's study he had sprung up, and, seeing the fright in her face and that she was tottering and ready to fall, he do anything," said Arly, paoing up and down, her, fingers clasped behind her slender back, her black brows knotted, her graceful head bent toward the floor. "He is too powerful," protested Gail. "That makes him weak," returned Arly quickly. "In every great power there is one point of great weakness. Tell me again about this tremendously big world monopoly." Patiently, and searching her memory mem-ory for details, Gail recited over again all which Allison had told her about his wonderful plan of empire; and even now, angry and humiliated and terror-stricken as she was, Gail could not repress a feeling of admiration for the bigness of it. It was that which had imnrpsspd hpr in flip hpp-innlnc there were now eleven, grinned appreciatively. appre-ciatively. Hickey wou,ld have been the best newspaper man in New York If he were not such a careless slob. He was so good that he was the only man from the Planet. The others had sent two and three, for Gerald's message, mes-sage, while very simple, had been most effective. He had merely an nounced that he was prepared to provide pro-vide them with an international sensation, sensa-tion, involving some hundreds of billions bil-lions of dollars and he had given his right name! "Hold the stuff till I telephone," begged Hickey. "Say, if I get that written guaranty up here in fifteen minutes, min-utes, will it do?" Gerald looked him speculatively in the eye. There He Phoned Half a Dozen Messages. Mes-sages. tasy, and the red-headed reporter was still writing and stuffing loose pages in' his pocket, and the one with the beard was making a surreptitious sketch of Gerald Fosland, to use on had caught her in his strong arms, and ihe had clung trustfully to him, half Taint, until wild sobs had come to her relief. Even in her Incoherence, however, how-ever, even in her wild disorder of emotion, emo-tion, she realized that there was danger, dan-ger, not only to her but to everyone she loved, in the man from whom she had run away; and she could not tell the young rector any' more than that she had been frightened. It was strange how instinctively she had headed for Rev. Smith Boyd's study; strange then, but not now. In that moment of flying straight to the protection of his arms, she knew something about herself, her-self, and about Rev. Smith Boyd, too. She knew why she had refused those others who had wooed her; Willis Cunningham and Houston Van Ploon and Dick Rodley; poor Dick! and Allison Al-lison and all the others. She frankly and complacently admitted to herself that she loved Rev. Smith Boyd, but she put that additional worry into the background. It could be fought out later. She would have been very happy hap-py about It If she had had time, although al-though she could see no end to that situation but unhapplness. Where could she turn for advice, or whom could she get to share In the burden which she felt must surely crush her. There was no one. It was a burden she must bear alone, unless she could .devise some plan of effective action, and the sense of how far she had been respon-, respon-, Bible for this condition of affairs was ! one which oppressed her, and humbled her, and deepened the circles about her woe-smitten eyes. Gail took her fists from their pressure pres-sure Into the brown coverlet, and held her temples between the finger tips of either hand; and the brown hair, springing Into wayward ringlets from the salt breeze which blew In at the half-opened window, rippled' down over her slender hands, fas if to soothe and comfort them. Sh had been wasting her time in Introspection and self-analysis self-analysis when there was need for decisive action! Fortunately she had respite until Monday morning. In the past few days of huge commercial movements which so vitally interested her, she had become acquainted with business methods, to a certain extent, and sht Vmw that nothing could be done Saturday afternoon or Sunday; Sun-day; therefore Uncle Jim was safe for two nights and a day. Then Allison would den? the connection of her Uncle Jim'd road with the A.-P., and the beginning of the destruction of the SarjeStit family would be thoroughly thor-oughly accomplished! She had been given thorough grasp of bow easily that could be done. What could she do In. two nights and a day? It was past her ingenuity to conceive. She must have help! But from hom could she receive It? Tod Boyd? The same reason which made her think of him first made her "It's wonderful," commented Arly, catching a trace of that spirit of the exultation which hangs upon the unfolding un-folding of fairyland; and she began to pace the floor again. "Why, Gail, it is the most colossal piece of thievery the world has ever known!" And she walked in silence for a time. "That Is the thing upon which we can attack him. We are going to stop it." Gail rose, too. "How?" she asked. "Arly, we couldn't, just we two girls!" "Why not?" demanded Arly, stopping stop-ping in front of her. "Any plan like that must be so full of criminal crookedness crook-edness that exposure alone is enough to put an end to it." "Exposure," faltered Gail, and struggled automatically with a lifelong life-long principle. "It was told to me in confidence." Arly looked at her in astonishment. "I could shake you," she declared, and Instead put her arm around Gail. "Did that person betray no confidence when he came to your uncle's house this morning! Moreover, he told you this merely to overawe you with the glitter of what he had done. He made that take the place of love! Confidence! Confi-dence! I'll never do anything with so much pleasure In my life as to betray be-tray yours right now! If you don't expose that person, I will! If there's any way we can damage him, 1 intend in-tend to see that it is done; and if there's any way after that to damage him again and again, 1 want to do It!" For the first time In that miserable day, Gail felt a thrill of hope, and Arly, at that moment, had, to her, the aspect of a colossal figure, an angel of brightness In the night of her despair! de-spair! She felt that she could afford to sob now, and she did it. "Do you suppose that would save Uncle Jim?" she asked, when they had both finished a highly comforting time together. "It will save everybody," declared Arly. "I hope so." pondered Gail. "But we can't do it ourselves. Arly. Whom shall we get to help us?" The smile on Arly's face was a positive posi-tive illumination for a moment and then she laughed. "Gerald." she replied. "You don't know what a dear he is!" and she rang for a cabin boy. CHAPTER XXVI. Gerald Fosland Makes a Speech. Gerald Fosland, known to be so for- j mal that he had once dressed to an- j swer an emergency call from a friend at the hospital, because the message came In at six o'clock, surprised bis guests by appearing before them, in the salon just before dinner, In his driving coat and with his motor cap in his hand. "Sorry," he Informed them, with a "If you telephone, and can then assure as-sure me, on your word of honor, that the document I require shall be in the house before you leave, 1 shall permit you to remain," he decreed; and Hickey looked him quite soberly in the eye for half a minute. "I'll have it here all right," he decided, de-cided, and sprang for the telephone, and came back in three minutes with his word of honor. They could hear him, from the library, yelling, from the time he gave the number until he hung up the receiver, and if there was ever urgency in a man's voice, it was in the voice of Hickey. Gerald Fosland took a commanding position in the corner of the room, where he could see the countenances of each of the eager young gentlemen present. He stood behind a chair, with bis hands on the back of it, in his favorite position for responding to a toast. "Gentlemen: Edward E. Allison is about to complete a transportation system encircling the globe. The acquisition ac-quisition of th6 foreign railroads will be made possible only by a war, which is already arranged. The war, which will be between Germany and France, will begin within a month. France, unable to raise a war fund otherwise, will sell her railroads. The Russian line is already being taken from its present managers, and will be turned over to Allison's world syndicate within with-in a week. The important steamship lines will become involved in financial difficulties, which have already been set afoot in England. Following these events will come a successful rebellion rebel-lion in India, and the independence of all the British colonies. "You will probably require 6ome tangible tan-gible evidence that these large plans are on the way to fulfillment. I call your attention to the fact that, last week, the Russian duma began a violent vio-lent agitation over the removal of Olaf Petrovy, who was the controller of the entire Russian railroad system. Day before yesterday Petrovy was unfortunately unfortu-nately assassinated, and the agitation in the duma subsided. This morning morn-ing I read that France is greatly in censed .over a diplomatic breach in the German war office; and it is com mented that the breach is one which cannot possibly be healed. Kindly take note of the following facts: From the first to the eighth of this month. Baron von Slachten, who is directly responsible for Germany's foreign relations, re-lations, was seen in this city at the Fencing club, under the incognito of Henry Brokaw. Chevalier Ducham-beau, Ducham-beau, director of the combined bank ing interests cf France, was here In that same week, and was seen at the Montparnasse Cercle. He bore the name of Andre Tirez. The Grand Duke Jan of Russia was here as Ivan Strolesky. James Wellington Hodge the master of the banking system o; the first plausible occasion. He had in mind a special article on wealthy clubmen at home. "Company incorporated?" inquired Hickey, who was the most practical poet of his time. "I should consider that a pertinent question," granted Gerald. "Gentlemen, "Gentle-men, you will pardon me for a moment," mo-ment," and he bowed himself from the room. He had meant to ask that one simple question and return, but, in Arlene's blue room, where sat two young women, wom-en, in a high state of quiver, he had to make his speech all over again, verbatim, ver-batim, and detail each interruption, and describe how they received the news, and answer, several times, the variously couched question, if he really thought their names would not be mentioned. It was fifteen minutes before he returned, and he found the twelve young gentlemen suffering with an intolerable itch to be gone. Five of the young men were in the library, quarreling, in decently low voices, over the use of the phone. The imperturbable im-perturbable Hickey, however, had it, and he held on, handing in a story, embellished em-bellished and colored and frilled and beribboned as he went, which would make the cylinders on the presses curl up. "I am sorry to advise you, gentlemen, gentle-men, that I am unable to tell you If the International Transportation company com-pany is, or is about to be, incorporated," incorpo-rated," reported Gerald gravely, and he signaled to William to open the front door. As the rapt and enchanted Hickey passed out of the door, a grip like a pair of ice tongs caught him by the arm, and drew him gently but firmly back. "Sorry," observed Gerald, "but you don't go." "Hasn't that d d boy got here yet?" demanded Hickey, in an immediate imme-diate mood for assassination. He was a large young man, and defective messenger mes-senger boys were the bane of bis existence. "William says not," replied Gerald. "For the love of Mike, let me go!" pleaded Hickey. "This stuff has to be handled while it's still sizzling! It's the biggest story of the century! That boy 'II be here any minute." "Sorry," regretfully observed Gerald; Ger-ald; "but I shall be compelled to detain de-tain you until he arrives." "Can't do it!" returned the desperate desper-ate Hickey. "1 have to go!" and be made a dash for the door. Once more the ice tongs clutched him by the shoulder and sank into the flesh. "If you try that again, young man, 1 shall be compelled to thrash you," stated the host, again mildly. Hickey looked at him, very thoughtfully. thought-fully. Gerald was a slim-waisted gentleman, gen-tleman, but he had broad shoulders and |