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Show MUM feOM RANDOLPH CIOllL and LILLIAN CHESTER r . . 'U-USTiaTrDC.D.PnODES1 I I. SYNOP3I3. 13 At a veatry nii--tliiK of thn Markit "'H'lir.. i.iin-li ;.iil KarK-m t.-lls l(-v. Hmiili I . v ! lime MMih.il s.iiui-i- rlinr.li Im 'lpl;u.-ti'lv a lii.iitliv.; (him I ii.-s rnl.-r-prW A 1 1 1.-, in l:i k.-M liinl ruling In Ills ni'itur cj.c. i,,, 1JlrjH r.0,j (i.s:1(,,rijv:il in III.- .,y.. r :v. Smilh i,.v.l. Alllm.ll bi.u-Im a en rniii i-n fur L-iiiiMiilKlnttnn unil '..nli-,,( f,l lt. f.,,ir.; t i n n.s.i .11 n I n hi svh-"' svh-"' "" world. Oiiil ..in. M popiilnr. KHlna ciiitnil .if lr:in.s..iilln'iil:il """ mi. I n ill ii k.-h t" iiI.miiIi tli.- V...I-2"'' V...I-2"'' .-fiurt I. mi. in. -HI ii ..,.-ri v nf Mnrki't f-'l'lni'.- i-hin. Ii. Hull I, -II., l:,,v.i II. m the '.n ..-.!r;il M.-nk.il S.n;ir.- rhun-h ir....is to liuil.l W . ,JU ,,f pr.iinn ,,.,. rr,,,n "il.H.ir. At a 11 tuiK of tin! si-v.mi (linin- r""l miiKiiali'n of tl oiiiilrv. Allison nr- Kiinlz.-ti tlm Iiit.-riiiilloinil 'l'riiiis,.,rl:illnn (..mimny. rt.-v. Kinlih I lovil un.l. rtnk. a Lull a aplrllmil liiMlrii.-llon un.l Cull un-r-oiiMrl.niHiy Kivps Alli.s.ni n hint Ih.'.l sol v.-s tlif i-.I.I,t court prolilfin for lilm. On no liiKi.-, Hon trip In Allison. s n.-w suli-vny suli-vny tho tunm-l mvi-s In. Cull ko.-s lni. k jo Iiit lionn. i tins WrHt, llcr rricnils lnr Jier ami Ally hack to New York. In the t'llilst of a striiKKlo wllh the .Irons of humanity hu-manity In V.d.lor court R.-v. Smith Hi.y.l ii.l.lunly nn, Is that he Is a risnl li vine "till luvliiK-man. I prnnow-s to flail tint, on the vniK,i of iLrci'iitancB. she rft-ni.-niliTs their r.-llKlniin (llffcrenccs. and reriisiia. Throuuli Allison's connivance Willi the political boss Vender court Is condemned hy the city im unsanitary. Jtov. Smith IJoyd propnseB to the vestry to replace the old Vedder court bullditifjs With model tenuinenta. CHAPTER XVIII Continued. "I attend a vestry meeting now and then," he replied, and then he laughed Bhortly. "I'd rather do business with forty corporations than with one vestry. ves-try. A church always expects to con-Suet con-Suet its share of the negotiations on a strictly commercial basis, while it Bxpects you to mingle a little charity kith your end of the transactions." "The Vedder court property," she guessed, with a slight contraction of her brows. "Slill after it." said Allison, and talked of other matters, Jim Sargent returned, and glancing Into the little reception tete-a-tete as he passed, saw Allison and came back. "I didn't expect to see you so soon," wondered Allison. "We brolte up in a row," laughed Jim Sargent. "Clark and Chisholm were willing to accept your price, but the rest of us listened to Doctor Boyd and Nicholas Van Ploon, and fell. We Insist on our cathedral, and Doctor Boyd's plan seems the best way to get It, though even that may necessi- i tate a four or five years' delay." "What's his plan?" asked Allison. "Rebuilding," returned Sargent. "We can put up tenements good enough to pass the building inspectors and to last tirteen years. With the same rents we are now receiving, we can offer them better quarters, and, as Doctor Boyd suggested, redeem our- - selves from some of the disgrace of this whole proceeding. Clever, sensible sen-sible idea. 1 think." Gail was leaning forward, with her lingers clasped around her knee; her brown eyes had widened, and a little red spot had appeared in either cheek; her red lips were half parted, as she looked up in wonder at ber Uncle Jim. "Is that the plan upon which they have decided?" and Allison looked at his watch. "Well, hardly," frowned Sargent. "We couldn't swing Clark and Chis-holm. Chis-holm. At the last minute they suggested sug-gested that we might build lofts, and the impending fracas seemed too seri ous to take up just now, so we've tabled the whole thing." Allison smiled, and slipped his watch back in his pocket. "It's fairly definite, however, that you won't sell," he concluded. "Not at your figure," laughed Sargent. Sar-gent. "If we took your money, Doctor Boyd wouid be too old to preach in the new cathedral." "He'll pull it through some way," declared de-clared Allison. "He's as smart as a whip." Neither gentleman had noticed Gail She had settled back in her chair during dur-ing these last speeches, weary and listless, and overcome with a sense of some humiliation too evasive to be properly framed even in thought. She had a sense that she had given away something vastly precious, and which would never be valued. Neither did they notice that she changed suddenly to relief She had been justified in ber decision. She took the reins of conversation herself after Cucle Jim had left, and entertained Allison so brightly that he left with impatience at the tea party which monopolized her. Later, when Rev. Smith Boyd dropped in. he met with a surprising and discnnccrfitiR vivacity. In his eyes there were pain and suffering, and Inexpressible In-expressible hunger, but in hers there was only dancing frivolity; a little too ebullient, perhaps, if he had been wise enough to know; but he was not The study door was open when late that evening Houston Van Ploon sedately se-dately escorted Mrs. Davies and ('.ail Into the library, one of those rooms which appoint themselves the instinctive instinc-tive lounging places of all family intimates inti-mates Gail turned up her big eyes In iparkling acknowledgment as the punctilious punc-tilious Van Ploon took her cloak, and. at that moment, as she stood gracefully grace-fully poised, she caught the gaze or rev Smith Boyd fixed on her with ..,: h infinite longing that i! distressed vi .. -in not want him to suffer. Uncle Jim strode out with a hearty greeting, and, at the sound of the t voices or no one but Gail and Mrs. Da-; Da-; vies and Houston Van I'loon, old - "Daddy" .Manning appeared in the I doorway, followed by the rector ' "The sweetest flower that blows in . any dale," quoted "Daddy" Manning. patting Gail's hand affectionately. The rector stood by, wailing to greet t her, alter Manning had monopolized her a selfish moment, and the newly i amused eye for color in him seized ; upon the gold and blue and red of her i straight Egyptian costume, and rero'-'-! nizi'd In them a part of her endless i variety. The black on her lashes. He was close enough to see that; and he : marveled at himself that he could not I disapprove. Gail was most uncomfortably aware , of him in this nearness; but sin i turned to him with a frank smile or j friendship. ' "This looks like a conspiracy." she commented, glancing towards the ' study, which was thick with smoke. "It's an offensively Innocent one," returned Manning, giving the rector but small chance. "We're discussing plans for the new Vedder court teue-' teue-' ments." ' "Oh!" observed Gail, and radiated 1 a distinct chill, whereupon Rev. Smith Boyd, divesting himself of some courteous cour-teous compliment, exchanged inane 1 adieus with Mrs. Davies and young Van Ploon, and took his committee back into the study. Mrs. Davies remained but a moment , or so. She even seemed eager to retire, and as she left the library, she cast a hopeful backward glance at the dancing-eyed Gail and the correct young Van Ploon. ivho. with his Dutch com- plexion and his blonde English mus-' mus-' tache and his stalwart American body, to say nothing of his being a Van I Ploon, represented to her the ideal of masculine perfection. He was an eligible eli-gible who never did anything a second too early or a second too late, or deviated de-viated by one syllable from the exact things he should say. i If the anxious Aunt Helen had ' counted ou any important results from this evening's opportunities, she had not taken into her calculations the adroitness of Gail. In precisely five minutes Van Ploon was on the doorstep, door-step, with his Inverness on his shoulders shoul-ders and his silk hat in his hand, without with-out even having approached the elaborate elabo-rate introduction to certain important remarks he had definitely decided to make. Gail might not have been able to rid herself of him so easily, for he was a person of considerable momentum, momen-tum, but he had rather planned to make a more deliberate ceremony of the matter, impulsive opportunities not being in his line of thought A tall young man in an Inverness walked rapidly past the door while Van Ploon was saying the correctly clever things in the way of adieu; and before she had closed the door on Van Ploon, Dick Rodley walked into the house with careless assurance. "Gracious, Dicky, you can't come in!" protested Gail, with half frowning, frown-ing, half laughing remonstrance. "It's a fearful hour for calls." "I'm a friend of the family," insisted in-sisted Dick, calmly closing the door beliind them and hanging his hat on the rack. "I guess you've forgotten the program." "Oh. yes, the proposal. Weil, have it over with." "All right." he agreed, and taking her arm and tucking her shoulder comfortably close to him, he walked easily with her back to the library. Arrived there, he seated her on her favorite chair, and drew up another one squarely in front of her. "I'm going to shock ycu to death," he told her. "I'm going to propose seriously se-riously to you." Some laughing retort was on ber lips, but she caught a look in his eyes which suddenly stopped her. "I am very mucn in earnest about it, Gail." and his voice bore the stamp of deep sincerity. "1 love you. I want you to be my wife." "Dick." protested Gail, and it was she who reached out and placed her hand in his. The action was too confidingly con-fidingly frank for him to mistake it. "1 was afraid you'd think that way about it." he said, his voice full of a pain of which they neither one had believed him capable. "This is the first time I ever proposed, except in fun, and I want to make you take nie seriously. Gail, I've said so many pretty things to you, that now. when 1 am in such desperate earnest, there's nothing left but just to try to tell you ' how much I love you; how much 1 want you!" He stopped, and. holding her hand, patting it gently with unconscious uncon-scious tenderness, he gazed earnestly into her eyes. His own were entirely without that burning glow which he had. for so long, bestowed on all the young and beautiful. They were almost al-most somber now, and in their depth was a humble wistfulness which made Gail's heart flow out to him. "I can't Dick," she told him. smiling affectionately at him. "You're the dearest boy in the world. aLd I want you for my friend as long as we live; for my very dear friend!" He studied her In silence tor a mn-mei:t, mn-mei:t, ai-d tlit-n he put h:s hatiCs on her cheeks, a.".d drew her gt-ntlv towards him. Still smiling into c.s eyes, she held up her tits, and he kissed her. "I d like to say something jolly before be-fore I ;:;o." he said as he rose; "but 1 can't seem to think of it." Gail laughed, but there was a trace of moisture in her eyes as she took his arm. "I'd like to help you out, Dicky, but I can't think of it either," she re-turned. re-turned. .She was crying a little when she went up the stairs, and her mood was not even interrupted by the fact that Aunt Helen's door was ajar, and that Aunt Helen stood just beyond the crack. "Why, child, that Egyptian black is running," v,as Aunt Helen's Erst observation. ob-servation. Gail dabbed hastily at the two tiny rivulets which had hesitated at the curve of her pink cheeks, and then she put her head on Aunt Helen's shoulder, shoul-der, and wept softly. "Poor Dicky," she explained, and then turning, disappeared into her own room. Mrs. Helen Davies looked after her speculatively for a moment; but she decided not to follow. CHAPTER XIX. The Maker of Maps. There began to be strange new stirrings in the world. Money! From the land which was its home and place of abode it leaned over across the wide seas, and made potent whisperings whisper-ings in the ears of the countries where money is despised and held vulgar They all listened. The particular potency po-tency lay in the fact that the money was so big, which took away tremen dously from its despicableness and its vulgarity. A black-bearded grand duke, from the wide land of the frozen seas humbled hum-bled himself to plain Ivan Strolesky at the sound of that whisper, and hurried hur-ried westward. A high dignitary of an empire upon which the sun never sets hid his title under a plebeian nom de plume, and stalked stolidly away westward west-ward to that whisper of despised American money. From the land of fashion, from the land of toys, from the laud of art and music, from the land of cherry blossoms, from the land or the drowsing drug, from the land ot the flashing jewels, from the lands of the burning sands and the lands of the midnight sun, there came the highest of power; and they all, light and swarth. and bearded and smooth, and PHtl f i mm "Poor Dicky," She Explained, and Walked Into Her Own Room. large and sidsu, and robed and trousered, trou-sered, centered toward the city of strong men, and, one by one, presented themselves, in turn, to a grave and silent, kinky-haired old darky by the name of Ephraim. One motive alone had dragged them over sterile plains and snowy mountains moun-tains and bounding seas; the magic whisper of Money! Through Ephraim they came to the stocky, square-standing, square-faced chess player who was called Allison They found him pleasant, agreeable, but hardly of their class. He was so forceful as to be necessarily more or less crude, and he had an unpleasant fashion of waving aside all the decent little pretenses about money. That was the fault of this whole rude country, coun-try, where luxury had been brought to the greatest refinement ever known in the history of the world; it was so devoted to money, and the cultured gentlemen did their best to get all they could. To Ivan Strolesky Allison was frank and friendly, for there was something in the big Russian which was different from these others, so he hastened to have business out of the way. "Here are your lines," he said, spreading down a map which had been brought up to date by hand "The ones 1 want are checked in blue. The others I do not care for." The grand duke looked them over with a keen eye. "I am rather disappointed," he con t'essed in excellent English. "1 bad understood that you wished to control our entire railway system." "1 do," assented Allison; "bst I don't wish to pay out money for them all. If 1 can acquire the lines- I have marked, the others will be controlled quite easily from the fact that 1 shall have the only outlet." The grand duke. v. ho had played pc kir in America and tan-tan in China rnd roulette in Monte Carlo, and a! '.lie other sanies throughout the world smiled with his impressive big eyes, and i ut his hand up under his beard. "The matter then seems to resolve itself into a question of price." he commented. "No; protection, " responded Allison "If I were buying these railroads out right, I should expect my property interests in-terests to be guarded, even if I had to appeal to international equity; but 1 am not." "No," admitted the grand duke. "They cannot be purchased." "The proposition resolves itself then into a matter of virtual commercial seizure," Allison pointed out. The grand duke, still with his hand in his beard, chuckled, as he regarded Allison amusedly. "I shall not mind if you call it pi racy," he observed. "We. in Russia, must collect our revenues as we can, and we are as frank as Americans about it. Returning to your matter of protection, I shall admit that the only agreement upon which we can secure what you want, would not hold in international equity; and, in consequence, conse-quence, the only protection I can give you is my personal word that you will not be molested in anything which you wish to do, providing it is pleasant to myself and those I represent." "Then we'll make it an annual payment," pay-ment," decided Allison, putting away some figures he had prepared. "We'll make it a sliding scale, increasing each year with the earnings." The grand duke considered that proposition gravely, and offered an amendment. "After the first year," he said. "Wo shall begin with a large bonus, however." how-ever." Allison again put out of his mind certain figures he had prepared to suggest. sug-gest. Apparently the grand duke needed need-ed a large supply of immediate cash, and the annual payments thereafter would need to be decreased accordingly, accord-ingly, with still another percentage deducted de-ducted for profit on the duke's necessities. neces-sities. "Let us first discuss the bonus," proposed pro-posed Allison, and quite amicably they went into the arrangement, whereby Ivan Strolesky filched the only valuable valu-able railroad lines in his country from the control of its present graft-ridden possessors, and handed it over to the International Transportation company. "By the way," said Allison. "How soon can we obtain possession?" Ivan Strolesky put his hand in his beard again, and reflected. "There is only one man who stands in the way," he calculated. "He will be removed immediately upon my return." re-turn." There was something so uncanny about this that even the practical Allison was shocked for an instant, and then he laughed. "We have still much to learn from your country," he courteously con fessed. When Ivan Strolesky had gone, Allison Alli-son went to his globe and drew a bright red line across the land of the frozen seas. There came a famous diplomat, a heavy blond man with a red face and big spectacles and a high, wide, round forehead. "1 do not know what you want" said the visitor, regarding Allison with a stolid stare. "I have come to see." "I merely wish to chat international politics," returned Allison. "There is an old-time feud between you and your neighbors to the west." "That is history," replied the visitor noncommittally. "We are now at peace." "Never peace," denied Allison. "There will never be friendship between be-tween phlegmatism and mercurialism. You might rest for centuries with your neighbors to the west, but rest is not peace." "Excuse me, but what do you mean?" and the visitor stared stolidly. "In your affairs of mutual relationship relation-ship with the land to the west, there are not less than a dozen causes upon which war could be started without difficulty," went on Allison. "In fact, you require perpetual diplomacy to prevent war with that country." The visitor locked his thick fingers quietly together and kept on stolidly staring. "You are about to have a war," Allison Alli-son advised him. "No. it is not true." and the visitor went so far, in his emphasis, aa to unlock un-lock his fingers and rest one hand on the back of the other. "I think I am a very fair prophet." said Allisdn easily. "I have made money by my prophecy. I have more money at my command at the present time than any man in the world, than any government; wealth beyond handling han-dling in mere currency. It can only be conveyed by means of checks. Let me show how easy it is to write them," and. drawing a blank book to him he wrote a check, and signed his name, and filled out the stub, and tore it out. and handed it to the visitor for inspection. inspec-tion. The visitor was properly pleased with Allison's ease in penmanship. "1 see." was the comment, and the check was handed back. He drew his straight-cru'-vned derby towards him. "1 have made a mistake." said Allison. Alli-son. "I have left off a cipher," and correcting this omission with a new check, he tore up the first one. "I see," commented the visitor, and put the second check in his pocket That had required considerable outlay, out-lay, but when Allison was alone, he went ovsr to his globe and casde another an-other long, red mark. A neat-waisted man, with a goatee of carefully selected hairs and a luxuriant lux-uriant black mustache, called on Allison, Alli-son, and laid down his hat and his nick and his gloves, In a neat Uttla pile, witn separate Jerks. He jerked iut a cigarette, he jei ked out a match. .;nd jerkily lit the former with the latter. "I am here," he said. "I am able to give you some important impor-tant diplomatic news." Allison advised him. "Your country is about to have a war with your ancient enemy to the east. It will be declared within a month." "It will be finished in a . week." prophesied the neat-waisted caller, bis active eyes lighting with pleasure. "Possibly," admitted Allison. "1 understand un-derstand that your country is not in the best of financial conditions to undertake un-dertake a war, particularly with that ancient enemy." "The banking system ot my country is patriotic." returned the caller. "Its only important banks are controlled under one system I am the head ot that system. 1 am a patriot!" and he tapped himself upon the breast with deep and sincere feeling. "How much revenue does our position po-sition yield you personally?" A shade of sadness crossed the brow of the neat-waisted caller. "It does not yield you this much," and Allison pushed toward him a little lit-tle slip of paper on which were inscribed in-scribed some figures. The caller's eyes widened as tney read the sum. He smiled. He shrugged his shoulders. He pushed back the slip of paper. "If your banking system found rt impossible to be patriotic, your government gov-ernment would be compelled to raise money through other means. It would not withdraw from the war." "Never!" and the neat-waister caller once more touched himself on the breast. "It would be compelled to negotiate a loan. If other governments, through some understanding among their bankers, found it difficult to provide this loan, your government would find it necessary to release its ownership, or at least its control of its most valuable valu-able commercial possession." The caller, who had followed Allison's Al-lison's progressive statement with interest, in-terest, gave a quick little nod of his head. "That most valuable commercial possession," went on Allison, "is the state railways. You were convinced by my agent that there is a new and powerful force in the world, or you would not be here. Suppose I point out that it is possible to so cramp your banking system that you could not help your country, if you would; suppose I show you that, in the end, your ancient enemy will lose his identity, iden-tity, while your country remains Intact; In-tact; suppose I show you that the course I have proposed is the only way open which will save your country coun-try from annihilation? What then?" (TO BE CONTINUED.) |