5HBSTWI0NSOM0DES
f
CHAPTER XXIV Continued.
12
had climbed the steps of the
veranda when he heard his
alled softly from the depths of
lie great wictter lounging
ft hah Hifvien,,a the veranda
Adows. In a moment he had placed
another of the chairs ior mmseu.
dropping into it wearuy.
l Baw you at the gate, she said.
s The men a-6 still holding out ?"
) "v6fvare ioldlng out. The plant is
Closed, anf it will stay closed until
we can get another force of work
men." "There will bi tyts of suffering," she
ventured. ' '
" "It's no use," he said, answering her
thought. "There is nothing in me to
appeal to."
"There was yesterday, or the day be
fore," she suggested.
' "Perhaps. But yesterday was yes
terday, and today is today. As I told
Raymer a little while ago, I've changed
my mind."
"No," she denied, '"you only think
you have. But you didn't come here
to tell me that?"
"No; I came to ask a single ques
tion.' How is Mr. Galbraith?"
"He is a very sick man."
"You mean that there is a chance
that he may not recover?"
"More than a chance, I'm afraid."
After a moment of silence Griswold
said. "I did my best; you know I did
my best?"
Her answer puzzled him a little.
"I could almost find it In my heart
to hate you if you hadn't."
Silence again, broken only by the
whispering of the summer night
bree'ze rustling the leaves of the lawn
oaks and the lappings of tiny waves
on the lake beach. At the end of it,
Griswold got up and groped for his
hat. : t
"I'm going home," he said. "It has
been a pretty strenuous day, and there
is another one coming. But before I
go I want you to promise me one
thing. Will you let me know imme
diately, by phone or messenger, If Mr.
Galbraith takes a turn for the better?"
"Certainly," she said; and she let
him say good-night and get as far as
the Bteps before she called him back.
"There was another thing," she be
gan, with the sober gravity that he
could never be sure was not one or
her many poses, and not the least al
luring one. "Do you believe in God,
Kenneth?"
The query took him altogether by
surprise, but he made shift to answer
it with becoming seriousness.
"I suppose I do. Way?"
"It is a time to pray to him," she
said softly; "to pray very earnestly
that Mr. Galbraith's life may be
: spared."
He could not let that stand.
"Why should I concern myself, spe
cially?" he asked, adding: "Of course,
I'm sorry, and all that, but "
"Never mind," she interposed, and
the left her chair to walk beside him
3 the steps. "I've had a hard day,
too, Kenneth, boy, and I I guess it has
got on my nerves. But, all the same,
you ought to do it, you know."
He stopped and looked down into
the eyes whose depths he could never
wholly fathom.
"Why don't you do It?" he demand
ed. besides, I thought oh, well. It doesn't
matter what I thought. Good-night."
And before he could return the
leave-taKing word, sne was gone.
Raymer's prediction that the real
trouble would begin when the attempt
should" be made to start the plant with
Imported workmen was amply fulfilled
during the militant week which fol
lowed the opening of hostilities. Each
succeeding day saw the Inevitable In-
and abuse the Insurrectlonaries passed
easily to violence. Street fights, when
, the trampish place-takers came in any
rinKliifrnhlp numbers, were of dailv
occurrence, and the tale of the wound
ed grew like the returns from a bat
tle. By the middle of the week Ray
mer and Griswold were asking for a
sheriff's posse to maintain peace in
the neighborhood of the plant; and
were getting their, first definite hint
that someone higher up was playing
the game of politics against them.
"No, gentlemen; I've done all the
law requires and a little more," was
the sheriff's response to the plea for
i B64ter protection.
other words, Mr. , Bradford,
you got your orders from the men
higher, up, have you?" rasped Gris
wold, who was by this time lost to
all sense of expediency.
, "I don't have to reply to any such
charge as that," said the chief peace of
ficer, turning back to his desk; and so
the brittle little conference ended.
"AH of which means that we shall
lose the plant guard of deputies that
Bradford has been maintaining," com
mented Raymer, as they were de
scending the courthouse stairs; and
again his prediction came true. Later
In the day the guard was withdrawn;
and Griswold, savagely reluctant, was
oaYrcr PYCMfitrj scfitBfctt sons
forced to make a concession repeated
ly urged and argued for by the older
men among the strikers, namely, that
the guarding of the company's prop
erty be entrusted to a picked squad of
the ex-employees themselves.
During these days of turmoil and
rioting the transformed idealist passed
through many stages of the journey
down a certain dark and mephltic val
ley not of amelioration. Fairness was
gone, and in'its place stood angry re
sentment, ready to rend and tear. Pity
and truth were going; the daily re
port from Margery told of the lessen
ing chance of life for Andrew Gal
braith, and the stirrings evoked were
neither regretful nor compassionate.
On the contrary, he knew very well
that the .news of Galbraith's death
would be a relief for which, in his
heart of hearts, he was secretly thirst
ing. CHAPTER XXV.
Margery's Answer.
"Well, it has come at last," said
Raymer next morning, passing a new
ly opened letter of the morning de
livery over to Griswold. "The , rail
road people are taking their work
away from us. I've been looking for
that in every mall."
Griswold glanced at the letter and
handed it back. The burden was lying
heavily upon him, and his only com
ment was a questioning, "Well?"
At this, Raymer let go again.
"What's the use?" he said deject
edly. . "We're down, and everything
we do merely prolongs the agony. Do
you know that they tried to burn the
plant last night?"
"No; I hadn't heard.",
"They did. . They had everything
fixed; a pile of kindlings laid In the
corner back of the machine shop an
nex and the whole thing saturated
with kerosene." .
"Well, why didn't they do It?"
queried Griswold, half-heartedly. After
the heavens have fallen, no mere ter
restrial cataclysm can evoke a thrill.
"That's a mystery. Something hap
pened; just what, the watchman who
had the machine shop beat couldn't
tell. He says there was a flash of light
bright enough to bile . him, and then a
scrap of some kind. When he got out
of the shop and around to the place,
there was no one there; nothing but
the pile of kindlings."
Griswold took up the letter from
the railway people and read it again.
When he faced it down on Raymer's
desk, he had closed with the conclu
sion which had. been thrusting itself
upon him since ( he early morning hour
when he had picked his way among
the sidewalk pools to the plant from
upper Shawnee street.
"You can still save yourself, Ed
ward," he said, still with the colorless
note in his voice. And he added;
"You know the way."
Rayir.er jerked his head out of his
desk and swung around in the pivot
chair. "See here, Griswold; the less said
about that at this stage of the game,
the better it will be for both of us!"
he exploded. "I'm going to do as I
said I should, but not until this fight is
settled, one way or the other!"
Griswold did not retort in kind.
"The condition has already expired
by limitation; the fight is as good as
settled now," he said, placably. "We
are only making a hopeless bluff. We
can hold our forty or fifty tramp work
men just as long as we pay their board
over in town, and don't ask them to re-
port for. work. But the day the shop
whistle is blown, four out of every five
will vanish. We both know that."
"Then there is nothing for it but a
receivership," was Raymer's gloomy
decision.
"Not without a miracle," Griswold
admitted. "And the day of miracles is
past."
Thus the idealist, out of a depth of
wretchedness and self-exprobratlon
hitherto un plumbed. But if he could
have had even a momentary gift of
telepathic vision he might have seen
a miracle at that moment In the pre
liminary stage of its outworking.
The time was half -past nine; the
place a grottolike summer house on
the Mereside lawn. The miracle work
ers were two; Margery Grierson, radi
ant in the daintiest of morning house
gowns, and the man who had taken
her retainer. Miss Grierson was curi
ously examining a photographic print;
the pictured scene was a well-littered
foundry yard with buildings forming
an angle in the near background.
Against the buildings a pile of shav
ings with kindlings showed quite clear
ly; and, stooping to Ignite the pile,
was a man who had evidently looked
up at, or just before, the instant of
camera-snapping. There was no mis
taking the identity of the man. He
had a round, pig-jowl, face; his bris
tling mustaches stood out stiffly as if in
sudden horror; and his hat was on the
back of his head.
"It ain't very good," Broffin apolo
gized. "The sun ain't high enough yet
to make a clear print. But you said
'hurry, and I reckon It will do."
Miss Grierson nodded. "You caught
him in the very act, didn't you?" she
said coolly. "What did be hope to ac
complish by setting fire to the works?"
"It was a frameup to capture public
sympathy. There's been a report cir
culating 'round that Raymer and Gris
wold was goin to put some o' the ring
leaders in jail, if they had to make a
case against 'em. Clancy had it fig
ured Cut that the fire'd be charged up
to the owners, themselves."
Miss Grierson was still examining
the picture. "You made two of these
prints?" she asked.
"Yes; here's the other one and the
film."
"And you have the papers to make
them effective?"
Broffin handed her a large envelope,
unsealed. "You'll find 'em in there.
That part of it was a cinch. Your gov;
ernor ought to fire that man Murray.
He was payin Clancy in checks!"
Again Miss Grierson nodded.
"About the other matter?" she in
quired. "Have you heard from your
messenger?"
Broffin produced another envelope.
It had been through the mails and bore
the Duluth postmark.
"Affidavits was the best we could
do there," he said. "My man worked
it to go with MacFarland as the driver
of the rig. They saw some mighty
fine timber, but it happened to be on
the wrong side of the St. Louis county
line. He's a tolerably careful man,
and he verified the landmarks."
"Affidavits will do," was the even
toned rejoinder. Then: "These pa
pers are all in duplicate?"
"Everything in pairs just as you or
dered." Miss Grierson took an embroidered
chamois-skin money book from her
bosom and began to open it. Broffin
raised his hand.
"Not any more," he objected. "You
overpaid me that first evening In front
of the Winnebago."
"You needn't hesitate," she urged.
"It's my own money."
"I've had a-plenty;" "
"Then I can only thank you," she
said, rising. '
He .knew that he was being dis
missed, but the one chance in a thou
sand had yet to be tested.
"Just a minute, Miss Grierson," he
begged. "I've done you right in this
business, haven't I?" .
"You have." '
"I said I didn't want any more
money, and don't. But there's one
other thing. Do you know what I'm
here in this little jay town of yours
for?"
"Yes-I have known it for a long
time.' .
"I thought so. You knew it that day
out at the De Soto, when you was
tellin' Mr. Raymer a little story that
was partly true and partly made up
what?"
"Every word of the story about Mr.
Griswold the story that you over
heard, you know was true; every sin-
Mis Grierson Was Curiously Examin
ing a Photographic Print.
gle word of it. Do you suppose I
should have dared to embroider it the
least little bit with you sitting right
there at my back?"
Broffin got up and took a half-burned
cigar from the ledge of the summer
house where he had. carefully laid it
at the beginning of the interview.
"You've got me down," he confessed,
with a good-natured , grin. "The man
that plays a winnin' hand against you
has got to get up before sun in the
morning and hold all trumps, Miss
Grierson to say nothin' of being a
mighty good bluffer, on the side." Then
he switched suddenly. "How's Mr.
Galbraith this morning?"
"He is very low, but he is conscious
again. He has asked us to wire for the
cashier of his bank to come up."
Broffin's eyes narrowed.
"The cashier is sick and can't come,"
he said.
"Well, someone In authority will
come, I suppose."
Once more Broffin was thinking in
terms of speed. Johnson, the paying
teller, was next in rank to the cashier.
If he should be the one to come to
Wahaska ...
"If you haven't anything else for me
to do, I reckon I'll be going," he said,
hastily, and forthwith made his es
cape. The telegraph office was a good
ten minutes' walk from the lake front,
and in the light of what Miss Grierson
had just told him, the minutes were
precious.
Something less than a half-hour aft
er Broffin's hurried departure, Miss
Grierson dro by quieter thorough
fares into the street upon which th
Raymer property fronted. Smoke wa
pouring from the tall central stack q
the plant, and it had evidently pH
voked a sudden and wrathful gathe
ins of the clans. The sidewalks werj
filled with angry workmen, and an e
cited argument was going forward a
one of the barred gates between thtj
locked-out men and a watchman insidq
of the yard.
The crowd let the trap pas3 without!
hindrance. Though it was the first!
time she had been in the new offices,
she seemed to know where to find
what she sought; and when Raymer
took his face out of his desk, she was
standing on the threshold of the open
door and smiling across at him.
"May I come in?" she asked; and
when he fairly bubbled over in the ef
fort to make her understand how wel
come she was: "No; I mustn't sit
down, because if I do, I shall stay too
long and this is a business call.
Where is Mr. Griswold ?"
"He went up town a little, while ago,
and I wish to goodness he'd come
back."
"You have been having a great deal
of trouble, haven't you?" she said,
sympathetically. "I'm sorry, and I've
come to help you cure it."
Raymer shook his head despond
ently. "I'm afraid it has gone past the cur
ing point," he said.
"Oh, no, It hasn't. I have discov
ered the remedy and I've brought it
with me." She took a sealed envelope
from the inside pocket of her driving
coat and laid it on the desk before him.
"I'm going to ask you to lock that up
in your office safe for a little while,
just as it is," she went on. "If there
are no signs of improvement in the
sick situation by three o'clock, you are
to open it you and Mr. Griswold and
read the contents. Then you will know
exactly what to do, and how to go
about it."
Her Hps were trembling when she
got through, and he saw it. She was
going then, but he got before her and
shut the door and put his back against
it.
"I don't know what you have done,
but I can guess," he said, lost now to
everything save the intoxicating Joy of
the barrier-breakers. "You have a
heart of gold, Margery, and I "
"Please don't," she said, trying to
stop him; but he would not listen.
"No; before that envelope Is opened,
before I can possibly know what it con
tains, I'm going to ask you one ques
tion in spite of your prohibition; and
I'm going to ask it now because, after
ward, I may not you may not that
is, perhaps it won't be possible for me
to ask, or for you to listen. I love
you, Margery; I"
She was looking up at him with the
faintest shadow of a smile lurking in
the depths of the alluring eyes. And
her lips were no longer tremulous
when she said: "Oh, no, you don't
If I were as mean as some people think
I am, I might take advantage of all
this, mightn't I? But I sha'n't. Won't
you open the door and let me go? It
is very important."
"Heavens, Margery! Don't make a
joke of it!" he burst out. "Can't you
see that I mean it? Girl, girl, I want
you I need you!"
This time she laughed outright. Then
she grew suddenly grave.
"My dear friend, you don't know
what you are saying. The gate that
you are trying to break down opens
upon nothing but misery and wretched
ness. If I loved you as a woman ought
to love her lover, for your sake and
for my own I should still say no a
thousand . times no! Now will you
open the door and let me go?"
116 opened the door and she slipped
past him. But in the corridor she
turned and laughed at him again.
"I am going to cure you you, per
sonally, as well as the sick situation
Mr. Raymer," she said flippantly.
Then, . mimicking him as a spoiled
child might have done: "I might pos
sibly learn to think of you in that
way after a while. But I could never,
never, never learn to love your mother
and your sister."
And with that spiteful thrust she left
him.
CHAPTER XXVI.
The Gray Wolf.
As it chanced, Jasper Grierson was
in the act of concluding a long and ap
parently satisfactory telephone conver
sation with his agent in Duluth at the
moment when the door of his private
room opened and his daughter en
tered. He hung the receiver on its hook
and was pushing the bracketed tele:
phone set aside when Margery crossed
the room swiftly and placed an en
velope, the counterpart of the one left
with Raymer, on the desk.
"There is your notice to quit," she
said calmly. "You threw me down
and gave me the double-cross the other
day, and now I've come back at you."
Another man might have hastened
to meet the crisis. But the gray wolf
was of a different mettle. He let the
envelope lie untouched until after he
had pulled out a drawer In the desk,
found his box of cigars, and had lei
surely selected and lighted one of the
fat black monstrosities. When he tore
the envelope across, the photographic
print fell out, and he studied it care
fully for many seconds before he read
the accompanying documents. For a lit
tle time after he had tossed the pa
pers aside there was a silence that
bit. Then he said, slowly:
"So that's your raise, is it? Where
doos the game stand, right now?"
"Ycu stand to lose."
Again the biting silence; and then:
"You don't think I'm fool enough to
give you back your ammunition so
that you can use it on me. do you?"
'.rarBWWrfmlToaThs. She shrank
from the crude and 6avage upbraid
ings as if the words had been hot irons
to touch the bare flesh, but at the end
of it she was still facing him hardily.
"Calling me bad names doesn't
change anything," she pointed out, and
her tone reflected something of his
own elemental contempt for the eu
phemisms. "You have five hours in
which to make Mr. Raymer under
stand that you have stopped trying to
smaBh him. Wouldn't it be better to
begin on that? You can curse me out
any time, you know."
Jasper Grierson's rage fit, or the
mud-volcano manifestation of it,
passed as suddenly as it had broken
out. Swinging heavily in his chair he
took up the papers again, reread them
thoughtfully, and then swung slowly
to face the situation.
"Let's see what you want show up
your hand."
"I have shown it. Take the prop of
your backing from behind this labor
trouble, and let Mr. Raymer settle
with his men on a basis of good-will
and fair dealing."
"Is that all?"
"No. You must cancel this pine
land deal. You have broken bread
with Mr. Galbraith as a friend, and
I'm not going to let you be worse than
an Arab."
Grierson's shaggy brows met in a
reflective frown, and when he spoke
the bestial temper was rising again.
"When this is all over, and you've
gone to live with Raymer, I'll kill him,"
he said, with an outthrust of the hard
jaw; adding: "You know me, Madge."
"I thought I did," was the swift re
tort. "But it was a mistake. And as
for taking it out on Mr. Raymer, you'd
better wait until I go 'to live with him,'
as you put it. Besides, this isn't Yellow
Dog gulch. They hang people here."
"You little she-devil! If .youpush
me into this thing, you'd better get
Raymer, or somebody, to take you in.
You'll be out in the street!"
"I have thought of that, too," she
said, coolly; "about quitting you. I'm
sick of It all the getting and the
spending and the crookedness. , I'd
put the money yours and mine In a
pile and set fire to it, if some decent
man would give me a calico dress and
a chance to cook for two."
"Raymer, for instance?" the father
cut In, in heavy mockery.
"Mr. Raymer has asked me to mar
ry him, if you care to know," she
struck back.
"Oho! So that's the milk in the
cocoanut, Is It? You sold me out to
buy in with him!"
"You may put it that way, if you
like; I don't care." She was drawing
on her driving , gloves . methodically
and working the fingers into place,
and there were sullen fires in the
brooding eyes.
"I've been thinking it was the other
one the book writer," said the father.
Then, without warning: "He's a
damned crook."
The daughter went on smoothing
the wrinkles out of the fingers of her
gloves. "What makes you think so7"
she inquired, with indifference, real or
skillfully assumed.
"He's got too much money to be
straight. I've been keeping cases on
him."
"Never mind Mr. Griswold," she in
terposed. "He is my friend, and I
suppose that is enough to make you
hate him. About this other matter
ten minutes before three o'clock this
afternoon I shall go back to Mr. Ray
mer. If he tells me that his troubles
are straightening themselves out, I'll
get the papers."
"You'll bring 'em here to me?"
"Some day; after I'm Bure that you
have broken off the deal with Mr. Gal
braith." Jasper Grierson let his daughter get
as far as the door before he stopped
her with a blunt-pointed arrow of con
tempt. "I suppose you've fixed It up to
marry that college-sharp dub so that
his mother and sister can rub it Into
you right?" he sneered.
"You can suppose again," she re
turned, shortly. "If I should marry
him, it would be out of pure spite to
those women. Because, when he
asked me, I told him No. You weren't
counting on that, were you?" And
having fired this final shot of contra
diction she departed.
After Miss Grierson had driven
home from the bank between ten
and eleven in the morning, an admir
ing public saw her no more until just
before bank-closing hours in the after
noon. As she passed in the basket
phaeton between half-past two and
three through the overcrossing suburb
there were signs of an armistice ap
parent, even before the battlefield was
reached. Pottery Flat was populated
again, and the groups of men bunched
on the street corners arguing peace
fully. Miss Grierson pulled up at one
of the. corners and beckoned to a
young lron-molder.
"Anything new, Malcolm?" she
asked.
"You bet your sweet life!" said the
young molder, meeting her, as most
men did, on a plane of perfect equality
and frankness. "We was hoodooed to
beat the band, and Mr. Raymer's got
us. comin' and goin. There wasn't no
orders from the big federation, at all;
snd that crooked guy, Clancy, was a
fzkeV
hitching post of the clerk who went
out to see what she wanted. A mo
ment later she came down the corri
dor to stand In the open doorway of
the manager's room.
"You are still alone?" she asked. ,
"Yes; Griswold hasn't shown up
since morning. I don't know what has
become of him."
"And the labor trouble, Is that going
to be settled?"
He looked away and ran his fingers
through his hair as one still puzzled
and bewildered. "Some sort of a mir
acle has been wrought," he said. "A
little while ago a committee came to
talk over terms of surrender. It
seems that the whole thing was the
result of a of a mistake."
"Yes," she returned quietly, "it was
just that a mistake." And then: "You
are going to take them back?"
"Certainly. The plant will start up
again in the morning." Then his cu
riosity broke bounds. "I can't under
stand it. How did you work the mir
acle?" "Perhaps I didn't work It."
"I know well enough you did, in
some way."
She dismissed the matter with a
toss of the pretty head. "What dif
ference does it make so long as you
r Mm
.. . ' i
Mb
0P
"You Can Wade Ashore Now, Can't
You?"
are out of the deep water and in a
place where you can wade ashore T
You can wade ashore now, can't you?"
He nodded. "This morning I should
have said that we couldn't; but
now " he reached over to his desk
and handed her a letter to which wai
pinned a telegram less than an hour
old.
She read the letter first. It wa a
curt announcement of the withdrawal
of the Pineboro railroad's repair work.
The telegram was still briefer: "Du
re gard my letter of yesterday;" this,
and the signature, "Atherton." The
smaller plotter returned the corre
spondence with a little sigh of relief.
It had been worse than she had
thought, and it was now better than
she had dared hope.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
SWISS HOTELS WONDROUS
Stand In Solitary Grandeur, But Lak
Nothing That Makes for Comfort
of Traveler.
You may climb up. the heights ttj
the aid of railways, funiculars, racke-and-pinions,
diligences and sledges,
and when nothing but your own feet
will take you any further you will see
In Switzerland a grand hotel, .magic
ally and incredibly raised aloft in the
mountains.
, It Is solitary no town, no houses,
nothing but this hotel hemmed in on
all sides by snowy crags and made
Impregnable by precipices and treach
erous snow and ice. '
At the great redrawing of the map
of Europe, when the lesser national
ities are to disappear, the Switzer
will take armed refuge In their far
thest grand hotels and there defy the
mandates of the concert.
For the hotel, no matter how remote
it be, lacks nothing that is mentioned
in the dictionary of comfort. Beyond
its walls your life is not worth twelve
hours' purchase.
You would not die of hunger, be
cause you would perish of cold.
At best ' you might hit on some
peasant's cottage in which the stand
ards of existence had not changed for
a century.
But once pass within the portals ni
the grand hotel, and you become t)
spoiled darling of an intricate organi
zation that laughs at mountains, ava
lanches and frost.
Tent for the Children,
A tent In the back yard is a great
joy to children; it helps to keep house
and yard lookint, neat, for the children
can be expected and required to keep
their playthin-s in the tent when they
are told that it is their exclusive
playroom and that they must con fin
any untidiness to that particular spot.
Today