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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33761-8.txt b/33761-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a04bf46 --- /dev/null +++ b/33761-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10638 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Making Money, by Owen Johnson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Making Money + +Author: Owen Johnson + +Illustrator: James Montgomery Flagg + +Release Date: September 19, 2010 [EBook #33761] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAKING MONEY *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Book Cover] + + + + +MAKING MONEY + + + + +[Illustration: "'Bojo, you must marry Doris,' she said brokenly"] + + + + +MAKING MONEY + + +BY +OWEN JOHNSON + +AUTHOR OF "THE SALAMANDER," "STOVER AT YALE," +"THE SIXTY-FIRST SECOND," ETC. + + +_WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY_ +_JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG_ + + +[Illustration] + + +NEW YORK +FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY +PUBLISHERS + + +_Copyright, 1915, by_ +FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I THE ARRIVAL 1 + II FOUR AMBITIONS, AND THREE WAYS TO MAKE MONEY 16 + III ON THE TAIL OF A TERRIER 31 + IV BOJO'S FATHER 46 + V DANIEL DRAKE, THE MULTI-MILLIONAIRE 58 + VI BOJO OBEYS HIS GENERAL MANAGER 67 + VII UNDER THE TICKER'S TYRANNY 75 + VIII THE RETURN OF PATSIE 88 + IX THE WEDDING BALL 100 + X DRAKE'S GAME 111 + XI BOJO BUTTS IN 122 + XII SNOW MAGIC 133 + XIII BOJO MAKES A DECISION 147 + XIV THE CRASH 154 + XV SUDDEN WEALTH 165 + XVI BOJO BEGINS TO SPEND HIS QUARTER-MILLION 173 + XVII PAYING THE PIPER--PLUS 184 + XVIII BOJO FACES THE TRUTH 195 + XIX A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK 207 + XX BOJO HUNTS A JOB 213 + XXI BOJO IN OVERALLS 222 + XXII DORIS MEETS A CRISIS 234 + XXIII THE LETTER TO PATSIE 247 + XXIV PATSIE APPEALS FOR HELP 259 + XXV DRAKE ADMITS HIS DANGER 270 + XXVI A FIGHT IN MILLIONS 277 + XXVII PATSIE'S SCHEME 288 + XXVIII ONE LAST CHANCE 302 + XXIX THE DELUGE 309 + XXX THE AFTER-YEARS 323 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "'Bojo, you must marry Doris,' she said brokenly" _Frontispiece_ + FACING + PAGE + "'Say, you're a judge of muscle, aren't you?'" 40 + "'Just you wait; you're going to be one of the big men some + day!'" 104 + "'Drina, dear child,' he said in a whisper" 144 + "The message was the end of hope" 158 + "'What does all the rest amount to?' she said breathlessly. 'I + want you'" 208 + "'He wants to see you now,' she said" 268 + "'Your promise. No one is to know what I do'" 292 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ARRIVAL + + +Toward the close of a pleasant September afternoon, in one of the years +when the big stick of President Roosevelt was cudgeling the shoulders of +malefactors of great wealth, the feverish home-bound masses which poured +into upper Fifth Avenue with the awakening of the electric night were +greeted by the strangest of all spectacles which can astound a +metropolitan crowd harassed by the din of sounds, the fret and fury of +the daily struggle which is the tyranny of New York. A very young man, +of clean-cut limbs and boyish countenance, absolutely unhurried amidst +the press, without a trace of preoccupation, worry, or painful mental +concentration, was swinging easily up the Avenue as though he were +striding among green fields, head up, shoulders squared like a +grenadier, without a care in the world, so visibly delighted at the +novelty of gay crowds, of towering buildings decked in electric +garlands, of theatric shop-windows, that more than one perceiving this +open enthusiasm smiled with a tolerant amusement. + +Now when a young man appears thus on Fifth Avenue, undriven, without +preoccupation, without a contraction of the brows and particularly +without that strained metropolitan gaze of trying to decide something +of importance, either he is on his way to the station with a coveted +vacation ahead or he has been in the city less than twenty-four hours. +In the present instance the latter hypothesis was true. + +Tom Beauchamp Crocker, familiarly known as Bojo, had sent his baggage +ahead, eager to enjoy the delights one enjoys at twenty-four, which the +long apprenticeship of school and college is ended and the city is +waiting with all the mystery of that uncharted dominion--The World. He +went his way with long, swinging steps, smiling from the pure delight of +being alive, amazed at everything: at the tangled stream of nations +flowing past him; at the prodigious number of entrancing eyes which +glanced at him from under provoking brims; at the sheer flights of +blazing windows, shutting out the feeble stars; at the vigor and +vitality on the sidewalks; at the flooded lights from sparkling shop +windows; at the rolling procession of incalculable wealth on the Avenue. + +Everywhere was the stir of returning crowds, the end of the summer's hot +isolation, the reopening of gilded theaters, the thronging of hotels, +and the displays of radiant shop fronts, preparing for the winter's +campaign. In the crush of the Avenue was the note of home-coming, in +taxicabs and coupés piled high with luggage and brown-faced children +hanging at the windows, acclaiming familiar landmarks with piping cries. +Tradesmen and all the world of little business, all the world that must +prepare to feed, clothe, and amuse the winter metropolis, were pouring +in. + +And in the midst of this feverish awaking of luxury and pleasure one +felt at every turn a new generation of young men storming every avenue +with high imaginations, eager to pierce the multitudes and emerge as +masters. Bojo himself had not woven his way three blocks before he felt +this imperative need of a stimulating dream, a career to emulate--a +master of industry or a master of men--and, sublimely confident, he +imagined that some day, not too distant, he would take his place in the +luxurious flight of automobiles, a personage, a future Morgan or a +future Roosevelt, to be instantly recognized, to hear his name on a +thousand lips, never doubting that life was only a greater game than the +games he had played, ruled by the same spirit of fair play with the +ultimate prize to the best man. + +In the crowd he perceived a familiar figure, a college mate of the class +above him, and he hailed him with enthusiasm as though the most amazing +and delightful thing in the world was to be out of college on Fifth +Avenue and to meet a friend. + +"Foster! Hallo there!" + +At this greeting the young man stopped, shot out his hand, and rattled +off in business manner: "Why, Bojo, how are you? How's it going? Making +lots of money?" + +"I've just arrived," said Crocker, somewhat taken back. + +"That so? You're looking fine. I'm in the devil of a rush--call me up at +the club some time. Good luck." + +He was gone with purposeful steps, lost in the quick, nervous crowd +before Crocker with a thwarted sense of comradeship could recover +himself. A little later another acquaintance responded to his greeting, +hesitated, and offered his hand. + +"Hello, Bojo, how are things? You look prosperous; making lots of money, +I suppose. Glad to have seen you--so long." + +For a second time he felt a sense of disappointment. Every one seemed in +a hurry, oppressed by the hundred details to be crowded into the too +short day. He became aware of this haste in the air and in the street. +In this speed-driven world even the great stone flights seemed to have +risen with the hour. Dazzling electric signs flashed in and out, +transferring themselves into bewildering combinations with the necessity +of startling this wonder-surfeited city into an instant's recognition. +Electricity was in the vibrant air, in the scurrying throngs, in the +nervous craving of the crowd for excitement after drudgery, to be out, +to be seen in brilliant restaurants, to go with the rushing throngs, +keyed to a higher tension, avid of lights and thrumming sounds. + +Insensibly he felt the stimulus about him, his own gait adjusted itself +to the rush of those who jostled past him. He began to watch for +openings, to dart ahead, to slip through this group and that, weaving +his way as though there was something precious ahead, an object to be +gained by the first arrival. All at once he perceived how unconsciously +he had surrendered to the subtle spirit of contention about him, and +pulled himself up, laughing. At this moment an arm was slipped through +his and he turned to find a classmate, Bob Crowley, at his side. + +"Whither so fast? + +"Just in. I'm bound for the diggings." + +"Fred DeLancy's been asking about you for a week. I saw Marsh and old +Granny yesterday. The Big Four still keeping together? + +"Yes, we're going to stick together. How are you?" + +"Oh, so-so." + +"Making money?" + +The salutation came like a trick to his lips before he noticed the +adoption. Crowley looked rather pleased. + +"Thanks, I've got a pretty good thing. If you've got any loose change I +can put you on to a cinch. Step into the club a moment. You'll see a lot +of the crowd." + +At the club, an immense hotel filled with businesslike young men rushing +in and rushing out, thronging the grill-room with hats and coats on, an +eye to the clock, Bojo was acclaimed with that rapturous campus +enthusiasm which greets a returned hero. The tribute pleased him, after +the journey through the indifferent multitude. It was something to +return as even a moderate-sized frog to the small puddle. He wandered +from group to group, ensconced at round tables for a snatched moment +before the call of the evening. The vitality of these groups, the +conflict of sounds in the low room, bewildered him. Speculation was in +the air. The bonanza age of American finance was reaching its climax. +Immense corporations were being formed overnight and stocks were +mounting by bounds. All the talk in corners was of this tip and that +while in the jumble staccato sentences struck his ear. + +"A sure thing, Joe-- I'll tell you where I got it." + +"They say Harris cleaned up two thousand last week." + +"The amalgamation's bound to go through." + +"I'm in the bond business now; let me talk to you." + +"Two more years in the law school, worse luck." + +"At the P. and S." + +"They say the Chicago crowd made fifteen millions on the rise--" + +"I ran across Bozer last week." + +"Hello, Bill, you old scout, they tell me you're making money so fast--" + +All the talk was of business and opportunity, among these graduates of a +year or two, eager and restless, all keen, all confident of arriving, +all watching with vulture-like sharpness for an opportunity for a +killing: a stock that was bound to shoot up or to tumble down. Every one +seemed to be making money or certain to do so soon, cocksure of his +opinion, prognosticating the trend of industry with sure mastery. Bojo +was rather dazed by this academic fervor for material success; it gave +him the feeling that the world was after all only a postgraduate course. +He had left a group, with a beginning of critical amusement, when a hand +spun him around and he heard a well-known voice cry: + +"Bojo--you old sinner--you come right home!" + +It was Roscoe Marsh, chum of chums, rather slight, negligently dressed +among these young men of rather precise elegance, but dominating them +all by the shock of an aggressive personality that stood out against +their factoried types. Just as the generality of men incline to the +fashions of conduct, philosophy, and politics of the day, there are +certain individualities constituted by nature to be instinctively of the +opposition. Marsh, finding himself in a complacent society, became a +terrific radical, perhaps more from the necessity of dramatic sensations +which was inherent in his brilliant nature than from a profound +conviction. His features were irregular, the nose powerful and aquiline, +the eyebrows arched with a suggestion of eloquence and imagination, the +eyes gray and domineering, the mouth wide and expressive of every +changing thought, while the outstanding ears on the thin, curved head +completed an accent of oddity and obstinacy which he himself had +characterized good-humoredly when he had described himself as looking +like a poetical calf. Roscoe Marsh, the father--editor, politician, and +capitalist, one of the figures of the last generation--had died, leaving +him a fortune. + +"What the deuce are you wasting time in this collection of +fashion-plates and messenger-boys for?" said Marsh when the greetings +were over. "Come out into the air where we can talk sense. When did you +come?" + +"An hour ago." + +"Fred and Granny have been here all summer. You're a pampered darling, +Bojo, to get a summer off. What was it--heart interest?" + +"Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies," said Bojo with a half +laugh and a whirl of his cane. "By George, Roscy, it's good to be here!" + +"We'll get you to work." + +"Who could help it? I say, is every one making money in this place? I've +heard nothing else since I landed." + +"On paper, yes, but you don't make money till you hear it chink, as lots +will find out," said Marsh with a laugh. "However, this place's a +regular mining-camp--every one's speculating. I say, what are you going +to do?" + +"Oh, I'm going into Wall Street too, I suppose. I spent a month with Dan +Drake." + +"--And daughter." + +"And daughters," said Bojo, smiling. "I think I'll have a good opening +there--after I learn the ropes, of course." + +"Drake, eh," said Marsh reflectively, naming one of the boldest +manipulators of the day. "Well, you ought to get plenty of excitement +out of that. No use my tempting you with a newspaper job, then. But how +about your Governor?" + +Bojo became quiet, whistling to himself. "I've got a bad half-hour +there," he said solemnly. "I've got to fight it out with the old man as +soon as he arrives. You know what he thinks of Wall Street." + +"I like your Governor." + +"So do I. The trouble is we're too much alike." + +"So you've made up your mind?" + +"I have; no mills and drudgery for me." + +"Well, if you've made up your mind, you've made it up," said Marsh a +little anxiously. + +In college the saying was that Marsh would sputter but Crocker would +stick, and this byword expressed the difference between them. One +attacked and the other entrenched. Crocker had an intense admiration for +Marsh, for whom he believed all things possible. As they walked side by +side, Bojo was the more agreeable to the eye; there was an instinctive +sense of pleasing about him. He liked most men, so genuinely interested +in their problems and point of view that few could resist his good +nature. Mentally and in the knowledge of the world he was much the +younger. There was a boyishness and an unsophistication about him that +was in the clear forehead and laughing brown eyes, in the spontaneous +quality of his smile, the spring in his feet, the general enthusiasm for +all that was new or difficult. But underneath this easy manner there was +a dangerous obstinacy ready to flare up at an instant's provocation, +which showed in the lower jaw slightly undershot, which gave the lips a +look of being pugnaciously compressed. He was implacable in a hatred or +a fight, blind to the faults of a friend, and stubborn in his opinions. + +"What sort of quarters have we got?" asked Bojo, who had left the detail +to his three friends. + +"The queerest spot in New York--the cave of Ali Baba. Wait till you see +it--you'd never believe it. Hidden as safe as a needle in a haystack. No +more than a stone's throw from here, and you'd never guess it." + +He stopped, for at this moment they entered Times Square under the +shadow of the incredible tower, dazzled by the sudden ambuscade of +lights which flamed about them. Marsh, who could never brook waiting, +without having altered his pace made a wide detour amid a jam of +automobiles, dodged two surface cars and a file of trucks, and arrived +at the opposite curb considerably after Crocker, who had waited for the +direct route. Neither perceived how characteristic of their divergent +temperaments this incident had been. But Marsh, whose spirit was +irreverence, exclaimed contemptuously: + +"The Great White Way. What a sham!" He extended his arm with an +extravagant gesture, as much as to say, "I could change all that," and +continued: "Look at it. There are not ten buildings on it that will last +five years. Take away the electric advertisements and you'll see it as +it is--a main street in a mining town. All the rest is shanty +civilization, that will come tumbling down like a pack of cards. Look at +it; a few hidden theaters with an entrance squeezed between a +cigar-store and a haberdashery, restaurants on one floor, and the rest +advertisements." + +"Still it gives you quite a feeling," said Bojo in dissent, caught in +the surging currents of automobiles and the mingled throngs of late +workers and early pleasure-seekers. "There's an exhilaration about it +all. It does wake you up." + +"Think of a city of five thousand millionaires that can build a hundred +business cathedrals a year, that has an opera house with the front of a +warehouse and calls a row of squatty booths luxury. Well, never mind; +here we are. Rub your eyes." + +They had left the roar and brilliancy of the curiously blended mass +behind, plunging down a squalid side street with tenements in the dark +distances, when Marsh came to a stop before two green pillars, above +which a swaying sign announced-- + + WESTOVER COURT + BACHELOR APARTMENTS + +Before Bojo could recover from his astonishment, he found himself +conducted through a long, irregular monastic hall flooded with mellow +lights and sudden arches, and as bewilderingly introduced, in a sort of +Arabian Nights adventure, into an oasis of quiet and green things. They +were in an inner court shut in from the outer world by the rise of a +towering wall at one end and at the other by the blazing glass back of a +great restaurant. In the heart of the noisiest, vilest, most brutal +struggle of the city lay this little bit of the Old World, decked in +green plots, with vine-covered fountain and a stone Cupid perched on +tip-toe, and above a group of dream trees filling the lucent yellow and +green enclosure with a miraculous foliage. Lights blazed in a score of +windows above them, while at four medieval entrances, of curved doorways +under sloping green aprons, the suffused glow of iron lanterns seemed +like distant signals lost in a fog. Everything about them was so remote +from the stress and fury out of which they had stepped, that Bojo +exclaimed in astonishment: + +"Impossible!" + +"Isn't it bully?" said Marsh enthusiastically. "Ali Baba Court I call +it. That's what a touch of imagination can do in New York. I say, look +over here. What do you think of this for a quiet pipe at night?" + +He drew him under the trees, where a table and comfortable chairs were +waiting. Above the low roofs high against the blue-black sky the giant +city came peeping down upon them from the regimented globes of fire on +the Astor roof. A milky flag drifted lazily across an aigrette of steam. +To the right, the top of the Times Tower, divorced from all the ugliness +at its feet, rose like an historic campanile played about by timid +stars. Over the roof-tops the hum of the city, never stilled, turned +like a great wheel, incessantly, with faint, detached sounds pleasantly +audible: a bell; a truck moving like a shrieking shell; the impertinent +honk of taxis; urchins on wheels; the shattering rush of distant iron +bodies tearing through the air; an extra cried on a shriller note; the +ever-recurring pipe of a police whistle compelling order in the +confusion; fog horns from the river, and underneath something more +elusive and confused, the churning of great human masses passing and +repassing. + +Marsh gave a peculiar whistle and instantly at a window on the second +floor a shadowy figure appeared, the sash went up with a bang, and a +cheery voice exclaimed: + +"Hello, below there! Is that Bojo with you? Come up and show your +handsome map!" + +"Coming, Freddie, coming," said Bojo with a laugh, and, plunging into a +swinging entrance, he found himself in a cozy den, almost thrown off his +feet by the greetings of a little fellow who dived at him with the +frenzy of a faithful dog. + +"Well, old fashion-plate, how are you?" Bojo said at last, flinging him +across the room. "Been into any more trouble?" + +"Nope. That is, not lately," said DeLancy, picking himself up. "Haven't +a chance, living with two policemen. What kept you all this time? Fallen +in love?" + +"None of your damned business. By George, this looks homelike," said +Bojo to turn the conversation. On the walls were a hundred mementoes of +school and college, while a couple of lounges and several great chairs +were indolently grouped about the fireplace, where a fire was laid. "I +say, Roscy, has the infant really been behaving?" + +"Well, we haven't bailed, him out yet," said Marsh meditatingly. + +Fred DeLancy had been in trouble all his life and out of it as easily. +Trouble, as he himself expressed it, woke up the moment he went out. He +had been suspended and threatened with expulsion for one scrape after +another more times than he could remember. But there was something that +instantly disarmed anger in the odd star-pointing nose, the twinkly +eyes, and the wide mouth set at a perpetual grin. One way or another he +wriggled through regions where angels fear to tread, assisted by much +painful effort on the part of his friends. + +"I'm getting frightfully serious," he said with mock contrition. "I'm +getting to be an old man; the cares of life and all that sort of stuff." + +He broke off and flung himself at the piano, where he started an +improvisation: + + "The cares of life, + This dreadful strife, + I'll take a wife-- + No, change the rhyme + I haven't time + For matrimony--O! + Leave that to handsome Bojo + Bojo's in love, + Blush like a dove-- + +"No, doves don't blush," he said, swinging around. "Do they or don't +they? Anyhow, a dove in love might-- To continue: + + "Bojo's in love, + Blush like a dove, + Won't tell her name, + I'll guess the same--" + +But at this moment, just as a pillow came hurtling through the air, the +doorway was ruled with a great body and George Granning came crowding +into the room, hand out, a smile on his honest, open face. + +"Hello, Tom, it's good to see you again." + +"The government can go on," said DeLancy joyfully. "We're here!" + +As the four sat grouped about the room they presented one of those +strange combinations of friendship which could only result from the +process of American education. Four more dissimilar individualities +could not have been molded together except by the curious selective +processes of an academic society system. The Big Four, as they had been +dubbed (there is always a Big Four in every school and college), had +come from Andover linked by the closest ties, and this intimacy had +never relaxed, despite all the incongruous opposition of their +beginnings. + +Marsh was a New Yorker, an aristocrat by inheritance and by force of +fortune; Crocker a Yankee, son of a keen, self-made father, who had +fought his way up to a position of mastery in the woolen mills of New +England; DeLancy from Detroit, of more modest means, son of a small +business man, to whom his education had meant a genuine sacrifice; while +George Granning, older by many years than the rest, was evidence of that +genius for evolution that stirs in the American mass. They knew but +little of his history beyond what he had chosen to confide in his +silent, reserved way. + +He had the torso of a stevedore, the neck and hands of the laborer, +while the boulder-like head, though devoid of the lighter graces of +imagination and wit, had certain immovable qualities of persistence and +determination in the strongly hewn jaw and firm, high-cheekbones. He +was tow-headed and blue-eyed, of unfailing good humor, like most men of +great strength. Only once had he been known to lose his temper, and that +was in a football match in his first year in the varsity. His opponent, +doubtless hoping to intimidate the freshman, struck him a blow across +the face under cover of the first scrimmage. Before the half was over +the battering he had received from the enraged Granning was so terrific +that he had to be transferred to the other side of the line. + +Granning had worked his way through Andover by menial service at the +beginning, gradually advancing by acquiring the agencies for commercial +fields and doing occasional tutoring. His summers had been given over to +work in foundries and in preparation for the business career he had +chosen long ago. He was deeply religious in a quiet, unostentatious way. +That there had been stormy days in the beginning, tragedies perhaps, the +friends divined; besides, there were lines in his face, stern lines of +pain and hardship, that had been softened but could never disappear. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FOUR AMBITIONS, AND THREE WAYS TO MAKE MONEY + + +They dined that night on the top of the Astor roof, where in the midst +of aërial gardens one forgot that another city waited toiling below. +Their table was placed by an embrasure from which they could scan the +dark reaches toward the west where the tenements of the city, broken by +the occasional uprising of a blatant sign, mathematically divided into +squares by rows of sentinel lights, rolled somberly toward the river. To +the south, vaguely defined by the converging watery darkness, the city +ran down to flaming towers in the glistening haze that seemed a luminous +vapor rising from dazzling avenues. + +Wherever the eye could see myriad lights were twinkling: brooding and +fraught with the dark mystery of lonely, distant river banks; red, green +and golden on the rivers, crossing busily on a purposeful way; intruding +and bewildering in the service of industry from steel skeletons against +the sky; magic and dreamlike on the fairy spread of miraculous bridges; +winking and dancing with the spirit of gaiety from the theaters below +and the roof gardens above; that in the summer, suddenly spread a new +and brilliant city of the night above the tired metropolis of the day. +Looking down on these myriad points of light one seemed to have suddenly +come upon the nesting of the stars; where planets and constellations +germinated and took flight toward the swarming firmament. + +The incomparable drama of the spectacle affected the four young men on +the threshold of life in a different way. Bojo, to whom the sensation +was new, felt a sort of prophetic stimulation as though in the +glittering sweep below lay the jewel which he was to carry off. +Granning, who had broken into the monastic routine of his life to make +an exception of this gathering of the clans, looked out in reverence, +stirred to deeper questionings of the spirit. Marsh, more dramatically +attuned, felt a sensation of weakness, as though suddenly confronted +with the gigantic scheme of the multitude; he felt the impotence of +single effort. While DeLancy, who dined thus every night, seeing no +further than the festooned gardens, the brilliant splashes of color, the +faces of women flushed in the yellow glow of candle-lights, hearing only +the pleasant thrumming sounds of a hidden orchestra, rattled on in his +privileged way. + +"Well, now that the Big Four is together again, let's divide up the +city." He sent a sweeping gesture toward the stenciled stretch of blocks +below and continued: "Boscy, what'll you have? Take your choice. I'll +have a couple of hotels, a yacht and a box at the opera. Next bidder, +please!" + +But Bojo without attention to this chatter said: + +"Remember the night before we went to college and we picked out what we +intended to make. Came pretty close to it too, didn't we?" + +Marsh looked up quickly, seized by a sudden dramatic suggestion. + +"Well, here we are again. I'll tell you what we'll do. Let's tell the +truth--no buncombe--just what each expects to get out of life." + +"But will we tell the truth?" said Bojo doubtfully. + +"I will." + +"Of course we all want to make a million first," said Fred DeLancy, +laughing. "Roscy's got his, so I suppose he wants ten. First place, is +it admitted each of us wants a million? Every properly brought up young +American ought to believe in that, oughtn't he?" + +"Freddie, behave yourself," said Bojo severely. "Be serious." + +"Serious," said DeLancy, with an offended air. "I'll be more serious +than any of you and I'll tell more of the truth and when I do you won't +believe me." + +"Go on, Roscy, start first." + +"Freddie's right in one respect. I intend to treble what I've got in ten +years or go bankrupt," said Marsh instantly. He flung the stub of his +cigar out into the night, watched it a moment in earthbound descent, and +then leaned forward over the table, elbows down, hands clasped, the +lights laying deep shadows about the hollowed eyes, the outstanding ears +accentuating the irregularity and oddity of the head. "I'm not sure but +that would be the best thing for me. If I had to start at the bottom I +believe I'd do something. I mean something big." + +A half-concealed smile passed about the group, accustomed to the +speaker's dramatic instincts. + +"Well, I've got to start at life in a different way. The trouble is, in +this American scheme I have no natural place unless I make one. Abroad I +could settle down to genteel loafing and find a lot of other congenial +loafers, who would gamble, hunt, fish, race, globe-trot, beat up Africa +in search of big sport, or drift around fashionable capitals for a bit +of amusement; either that or if I wanted to develop along the line of +brains there's a career in politics or a chance at diplomacy. Here we +are developing millionaires as fast as we can turn them out and never +thinking how we can employ them. What's the result? The daughters of +great fortunes marry foreign titles as fast as they get the chance in +order to get the opportunity to enjoy their wealth to the fullest, +because here there is no class so limited and circumscribed without +national significance as our so-called Four Hundred; the sons either +become dissipated loafers, professional amateurs of sport, or are +condemned to piling more dollars on dollars, which is an absurdity." + +"I grieve for the millionaire," interjected DeLancy flippantly. + +"And yet you want to triple what you've got," said Bojo with a smile. + +"I'm coming to that--wait. Now the idea of money grubbing is distasteful +to me. What I want is a great opportunity which only money can give. I +have, I suppose, if a conservative estimate could be made, pretty close +to two million dollars--which means around one hundred thousand a year. +Now if I want to settle down and marry, that's a lot; but if I want to +go in and compete with other men, the leaders, that's nothing at all. +Now the principal interest I've got ahead is the _Morning Post_; it's +not all mine, but the controlling share is. It's a good conservative +nursery rocking-horse. It can go rocking on for another twenty years, +satisfied with its little rut. Now do you understand why I want more +money? I want a million clear to throw into it. I don't want it to be a +profitable high-class publication--I want it to be _the_ paper in New +York." + +"But are you willing to go slow, to learn every rope first?" said +Granning with a shake of his head. + +"You know I am," said Marsh impatiently. "I've plugged at it harder than +any one on the paper this summer and last too." + +"Yes, you work hard--and play hard too," Granning admitted. + +Marsh accepted the admission with a pleased smile and continued +enthusiastically: + +"Exactly. Win or lose, play the limit! That's my motto, and there's +something glorious in it. I'm going to work hard, but I'm going to play +just as hard. I want to live life to its fullest; I want to get every +sensation out of it. And when I'm ready I'm going to make the paper a +force, I'm going to make myself feared. I want to round myself out. I +want to touch everything that I can, but above all I want to be on the +fighting line. After this period of financial buccaneering there's going +to come a great period--a radical period, the period of young men." + +"Roscy, you want to be noticed," said DeLancy. + +"I admit it. If you had what I have, wouldn't you? I repeat, I want the +sensation of living in the big way. Granning shakes his head-- I know +what he's thinking." + +"Roscy, you're a gambler," said Granning, but without saying all he +thought. + +"I am, but I'm going to gamble for power, which is different, and that's +the first step to-day; that's what they all have done." + +"You haven't told us what your ambition is," said Bojo. + +"I want to make of the _Morning Post_ not simply a great paper but a +great institution," said Marsh seriously. "I believe the newspaper can +be made the force that the church once was. Now the church was dominant +only as it entered into every side of the life of the community; when it +was not simply the religious and political force, but greater still, the +social force. I believe the newspaper will become great as it satisfies +every need of the human imagination. There are papers that print a +Sunday sermon. I would have a religious page every day, just as you +print a woman's page and a children's page. I'd run a legal bureau free +or at nominal charges, and conduct aggressive campaigns against petty +abuses. I'd organize the financial department so as to make it personal +to every subscriber, with an investment bureau which would offer only a +carefully selected list for conservative investors and would refuse to +deal in seven per cent. bonds and fifteen per cent. shares. I would have +a great auditorium where concerts and plays would be given at no higher +price than fifty cents." + +"Hold up! How could you get plays on such conditions?" said DeLancy, who +had been held breathless by this Utopian scheme. + +"Any manager in the city with a sense of publicity would jump at the +chance of giving an afternoon performance, expenses paid, under such +conditions, especially as the list would be guaranteed. Then, above all, +I'd give the public fiction, the best I could get and first hand. What +do you think gives _Le Petit Parisien_ and _Le Petit Journal_ a +circulation of about a million each and all over France? Serial novels. +Do you know the circulation of papers in New York? There are only three +over a hundred thousand and the greatest has hardly a quarter of a +million. However, I won't go on. You see my ideas make an +institution--the modern institution, replacing and absorbing all past +institutions." + +"And what else do you want?" said Bojo, laughing. + +"I want that by the time I'm thirty-five. I want ten millions and I want +to be at forty either senator or ambassador to Paris or London. I want +to build a yacht that will defend the American cup and to own a horse +that will win the derby. + +"And will you marry?" + +"The most beautiful woman in America." + +The four burst into laughter simultaneously, none more heartily than +Marsh, who added: + +"Remember, we're to tell the truth, and that's what I'd like to do." He +concluded: "Win or lose, play the limit. Never mind, Granny; when I'm +broke, you'll give me a job. Up to you. Confess." + +Granning began diffidently, for he was always slow at speech and the +fluency of Marsh's recital intimidated him. + +"I don't know that there's anything so interesting in my future," he +began, turning the menu nervously in his hands and fixing a spot on the +tablecloth where a wine stain broke the white monotony. "You see, I'm +different from you fellows. You're facing life in a different sort of +way. I'm not sure but what there's more danger in it than you think, but +the fact is you're all looking for the gamble. You want what you want, +Roscy, by the time you're thirty-five. Bojo and Fred want a million by +the time they're thirty. You're looking for the easy way--the quick way. +You may get it and then you may not. You've got friends, +opportunities--perhaps you will." + +"That's where you'll never learn, you old fossil," said Marsh. "If you'd +get out and meet people, why, some time you'd strike a man with a nice +fat contract in his pocket looking for just the reliable--" he stopped, +not wishing to add, "old plodder that you are." + +Granning shook his head emphatically. Among these boyish types he seemed +of another generation, a rather roughly hewn type of a district leader +of fixed purpose and irresistible momentum. + +"Not for me," he said decisively. "There's one thing I've got strong, +where I have the start over you and a good thing it is, too: I know my +limitations. I'm not starting where you are. My son will; I'm not. Hold +up; it's the truth, and the truth is what we're telling. You can gamble +with life--you've got something to fall back on. I'm the fellow who's +got to build. Yes, I'll be honest. I want to make a million, too, I +suppose, as Fred said, like every American does. After all, if you're +out to make money, it's a good thing to try for something high. There +isn't much chance for romance in what I'm doing. I've got to go up step +by step, but it means more to me to get a fifty-dollar raise than that +next million can mean to you, Roscy. That's because I look back, because +I remember." + +He stopped and the memories of the existence out of which he had dragged +himself, of which he never spoke, threw thoughtful shadows over the +broad forehead. All at once, taking a knife, he drew a long straight +line on the table, inclining upward like the slope of a hill, with a +cross at the bottom and one at the top, while the others looked on, +puzzled. + +"You see there's not much banging of drums or dancing in what I've got +ahead and not much to tell until I get there. You know how a mole +travels; well, that's me." He laid his finger on the cross at the bottom +and then shifted it to the cross at the top. "Here's where I go in and +here's where I come out. In between doesn't count." + +"And what besides that?" said Bojo. + +"Well," said Granning simply, "I don't know what else. I'd like to get +off for a couple of months and see Europe and what they're doing over in +France and Germany in the steel line." + +"But all that'll happen. What would you really like to get out of life?" +said Marsh, smiling--"you old unimaginative bear!" + +"I'd like to go into politics in the right sort of way; I think every +man ought. Perhaps I'll marry, have a home and all that sort of thing +some day. I think what I'd like best would be to get a chance to run a +factory along certain lines I've thought out--a cooperative arrangement +in a way. There's so much to be worked out along the lines of +organization and efficiency." He thought over the situation a moment and +then concluded with sudden diffidence as though surprised at the daring +of his self-confession. "That's about all there is to it, I guess." + +When he had ended thus clumsily, DeLancy took up immediately, but +without that spirit of good-humored raillery which was characteristic. +When he spoke in matter-of-fact, direct phrases, the three friends +looked at him in astonishment, realizing all at once an undivined intent +underneath all the lightness of that attitude by which they had judged +him. + +"One thing Granning said strikes at me--knowing your limitations," he +said with a certain defiance, as though aware that he was going to shock +them. "I suppose you fellows think of me as a merry little jester, an +amusing loafer, happy-go-lucky and all that sort of stuff. Well, you're +mistaken. I know my limitations, I know what I can do and what I can't. +I'm just as anxious to get ahead as any of you, and you can bet I don't +fool myself. I don't sit down and say, 'Freddie, you've got railroads in +your head--you're an organizer--you'd shine at the bar--you'd push John +Rockefeller off the map,' or any of that rot. No, sir! I know where I +stand. On a straight out-and-out proposition I wouldn't be worth twenty +dollars a week to any one. But just the same I'm going to have my +million and my automobile in five years. Dine with me five years from +this date and you'll see." + +"Well, Fred, what's the secret? How are you going to do it?" said Bojo, +a little suspicious of his seriousness. + +But DeLancy as though still aware of the necessity of further +explanations before his pronouncement continued: + +"I said I didn't fool myself and I don't. I haven't got ability like +Granning over here, who's entirely too modest and who'll end by being an +old money-bags--see if he doesn't. I haven't got a bunch of greenbacks +left me or behind me like Roscy or Bojo. My old dad's a brick; he's +scraped and pinched to put me through college on the basis of you +fellows. Now it's up to me. I haven't got what you fellows have got, but +I've got some very valuable qualities, very valuable when you keep in +mind what you can do with them. I have a very fine pair of dancing legs, +I play a good game of bridge and a better at poker, I can ride other +men's horses and drive their automobiles in first-rate style, I wear +better clothes than my host with all his wad, and you bet that impresses +him. I know how to gather in friends as fast as you can drum up +circulation, I can liven up any party and save any dinner from going on +the rocks, I can amuse a bunch of old bores until they get to liking +themselves; in a word, I know how to make myself indispensable in +society and the society that counts." + +"What the deuce is he driving at?" Marsh broke in with a puzzled +expression. + +"Why am I sitting down in a broker's office drawing fifty dollars a +week, just to smoke long black cigars? Because I know a rap what's +going on? No. Because I know people, because I'm a cute little social +runner who brings custom into the office; because my capital is friends +and I capitalize my friends." + +"Oh, come now, Fred, that's rather hard," said Bojo, feeling the note of +bitterness in this cynical self-estimate. + +"It's the truth. What do you think that old fraud of a Runker, my boss, +said to me last week when I dropped in an hour late? 'Young man, what do +you come to the office for--for afternoon tea?' And what did I answer? I +said 'Boss, you know what you've got me here for, and do you want me to +tell you what you ought to say? You ought to say, "Mr. DeLancy, you've +been working very hard in our interest these nights and though we can't +give you an expense account, you must be more careful of your health. I +don't want to see you burning the candle at both ends. Sleep late of +mornings."' And what did he say, the old humbug? He burst out laughing +and raised my salary. He knew I was wise." + +"Well, what's the point of all this?" said Granning after the laugh. +"Never heard you take so long coming to the point before." + +"The point is this: there're three ways of making money and only three: +to have it left you like Roscy, to earn it like Granning, and to marry +it--" + +"Like you!" + +"Like me!" + +The others looked at him with constraint, for at that period there was +still a prejudice against an American man who made a marriage of +calculation. Finally Granning said: + +"You won't do that, Freddie!" + +"Indeed I will," said DeLancy, but with a nervous acceleration. "My +career is society. Oh, I don't say I'm going to marry for money and +nothing else. It's much easier than that. Besides, there's the patriotic +motive, you know. I'm saving an American fortune for American uses, +American heiresses for American men. Sounds like American styles for +American women," he added, trying to take the edge off the declaration +with a laugh. "After all, there's a lot of buncombe about it. A +broken-down foreigner comes over here with a reputation like a Sing-Sing +favorite, and because he calls himself Duke he's going to marry the +daughter of Dan Drake to pay up his debts and the Lord knows for what +purposes in the future--and do you fellows turn your back on him and +raise your eyebrows as you did a moment ago? Not at all. You're tickled +to death to go up and cling to his ducal finger. Am I right, Roscy?" + +"Yes, but--" + +"But I'm an American and will make a damned sight better husband, and +American children will inherit the money instead of its being swallowed +up by a rotten aristocracy. There's the answer." + +"It's the way you say it, Fred," said Bojo uneasily. + +"Because I have the nerve to say it. This is all I'm worth and this is +the only way to get what we all want." + +"You'll never do it," said Granning with decision; "not in the way you +say it." + +"Granning, you're a babe in the woods. You don't know what life is," +said DeLancy, laughing boisterously. "After all, what are you going to +do? You're going to put away the finest days of your life to come out +with a pile when you're middle-aged and then what good will it do you? I +knew I'd shock you. Still there it is--that's flat!" He drew back, +lighting a cigar to cover his retreat and said: "Bojo next. I dare you +to be as frank." + +Bojo, thus interrogated, took refuge in an evasive answer. The +revelations he had listened to gave him a keen sense of change. On this +very evening when they had come together for the purpose of celebrating +old friendship, it seemed to him that the parting of their ways lay +clearly before him. + +"I don't know what I shall do," he said at last. "No, I'm not dodging; I +don't know. Much depends on certain circumstances." He could not say how +vividly their different announced paths represented to him the +difficulties of his choice. "I'd like to do something more than just +make money, and yet that seems the most natural thing, I suppose. Well, +I'd like a chance to have a year or two to think things over, see all +kinds of men and activities--but I don't know, by next week I may be at +the bottom--striking out for myself and glad of a chance." + +He stopped and they did not urge him to continue. After DeLancy's flat +exposition each had a feeling of the danger of disillusionment. Besides, +Fred and Roscoe were impatient to be off, Fred to a roof garden, Marsh +to the newspaper. Bojo declined DeLancy's invitation, alleged the +necessity of unpacking, in reality rather desirous of being alone or of +a quieter talk with Granning in the new home. + +"Here's to us, then," said Marsh, raising his glass. "Whatever happens +the old combination sticks together." + +Bojo raised his glass thoughtfully, feeling underneath that there was +something irrevocably changed. The city was outside sparkling and black, +but there was a new feeling in the night below, and the more he felt the +multiplicity of its multifold expressions the more it came to him that +what he would do he would do alone. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ON THE TAIL OF A TERRIER + + +When he returned with Granning into the court and upstairs to their +quarters a telegram greeted him from the floor as he opened the door. It +was from his father, brief and businesslike. + + Arrive to-morrow. Wish to see you at three at office. + Important. + + J. B. CROCKER. + +He stood by the fireplace tearing it slowly to pieces, feeling the +approach of reality in his existence, a little frightened at its +imminence. + +"Not bad news," said Granning, settling his great bulk on the couch and +reaching for a pipe from the rack. But at this instant a smiling +Japanese valet ushered in the trunks. + +"This is Sweeney," said Granning with an introductory wave. "He's one of +four. We gave up trying to remember their names, so Fred rechristened +them. The others are Patsy, O'Rourke, and Houlahan. Sweeney speaks +perfect English, if you ask him for a telephone book he'll rush out and +bring you a taxicab. Understand, eh, Sweeney?" + +"Velly well, yes, sir," said Sweeney, smiling a pleased smile. + +"How the deuce do you work it then?" said Bojo, prying open his trunk. + +"Oh, it's quite simple. Fred discovered the combination. All you have to +remember is that no matter what you ask for Sweeney always gets a taxi, +Patsy brings in the breakfast, Houlahan starts for the tailor, and +O'Rourke produces the scrubwoman. Just remember that and you'll have no +trouble. But for the Lord's sake don't get em mixed up." He broke off. +"What's the matter? You look serious." + +"I'm wondering how I'll feel this time to-morrow," said Bojo with his +arms full of shirts and neckties. "I've got a pleasant little interview +with the Governor ahead." He filled a drawer of the bureau and returned +into the sitting-room, and as Granning, with his usual discretion, +ventured no question he added, looking out at the court where three +blazing windows of the restaurant were flinging pools of light across +the dark green plots: "He'll want me to chuck all this,--shoot up to a +hole in the mud; bury myself in a mill town for four or five years. +Pleasant prospect." + +It did seem a bleak prospect, indeed, standing there in the commodious +bay window, seeing the flooded sky, hearing all the distant mingled +songs of the city. From the near-by wall the orchestra of the theater +sent the gay beats of a musical comedy march feebly out through open +windows, while from the adjoining wall of the Times Annex, beyond the +brilliant busy windows, the linotype machines were clicking out the news +of the world that came throbbing in. The theater, the press, that world +of imagination and hourly sensation, the half-opened restaurant with +glimpses of gay tables and the beginnings of the nightly cabaret, the +blazing court itself filled with ardent young men at the happy period +of the first great ventures, all were brought so close to his own eager +curiosity that he turned back rebelliously: + +"By heavens, I won't do it, whatever happens! I won't be starved out for +the sake of more dollars. Well, would you in my place--now?" + +He took a pair of shoes and flung them scudding across the floor into +the room and then stood looking down at the noncommittal figure of his +friend. + +"Granning, you don't approve of us, do you? Stop looking like a sphinx. +Answer or I'll dump the tray over you. You don't approve, do you? +Besides, I watched your face to-night when Fred was spouting all that +ridiculous stuff." + +"He meant it." + +"Do you think so?" He sat down thoughtfully. "I wonder." + +"What worried you?" said Granning directly, with a sharp look. + +"I was sort of upset," Bojo admitted. "You know when you got through and +Fred got through, I thought after all you were right--we are gamblers. +We want things quick and easily. It's the excitement, the living on a +high tension." + +"I always sort of figured out you'd want to do something different," +said Granning slowly. + +"So I would," he said moodily. "I wish I had Roscy's brains. I wonder +what I could do if I had to shift for myself." + +"So that's the idea, is it?" + +He nodded. + +"The old Dad's stubborn as blazes. Had an up-and-down row with Jack, my +older brother, and turned him out. Lord knows what's become of him. +Dad's got as much love for the Wall Street game as your pesky old self. +Thinks they're a lot of loafers and confidence men." + +"I didn't say it," said Granning with a short laugh. + +"No, but you think it." + +Granning rose as the clock struck ten and shouldered off to his bedroom +according to his invariable custom. When Bojo finally turned in it was +to sleep by fits and starts. The weight of the decision which he would +have to make on the morrow oppressed him. It was all very well to +announce that he would start at the bottom rather than yield, but the +world had opened up to him in a different light since the dinner of +confidences. He saw the two ways clearly--the long, slow plodding way of +Granning, and the other way, the world of opportunities through friends, +the world of quick results to those privileged to be behind the scenes. +If the end were the same, why take the way of toil and deprivation? +Besides, there were other reasons, sentimental reasons, that urged him +to the easier choice. If he could only make his father see things +rationally--but he had slight hope of making an impression upon that +direct and adamant will. + +"Well, if everything goes smash, I'll make Roscy give me a job on the +paper," he thought as he turned restlessly in his bed. + +The white gleam of a shifting electric sign, high above the roofs, +played over the opposite wall. At midnight he heard dimly two sounds +which were destined from now on to dispute the turning of the night +with their contending notes of work and pleasure--the sound of great +presses beginning to rumble under the morning edition and from the +restaurant an inconscient chorus welcoming the midnight with jingling +rhythm. + + You want to cry, + You want to die, + But all you do is laugh, Hi! Hi! + You've got the High Jinks! That's why! + +When he awoke the next morning it was to the sound of Roscoe Marsh in +the adjoining sitting-room telephoning for breakfast. The sun was +pouring over his coverlet and the clock stood reproachfully at nine o +clock. He slipped into a dressing-gown and found Marsh yawning over the +papers. Granning had departed at seven o'clock to the works on the +Jersey shore. DeLancy presently staggered out, tousled and sleepy, +resplendent in a blazing red satin dressing-gown, announcing: + +"Lord, but this brokerage business is exacting work." + +"Late party, eh?" said Bojo, laughing. + +"Where the devil is the coffee?" said DeLancy for all answer. + +Marsh, too, had been of the party after the night work had been +completed, though he showed scarcely a trace of the double strain. +Breakfast over, Bojo finished unpacking, killing time until noon +arrived, when, after a solicitous selection of shirts and neckties, he +went off by appointment to meet Miss Doris Drake. + +To-day the thoughts of that other interview with his father were too +present in his imagination to permit of the usual zest such a meeting +usually drew forth. The attachment, for despite the insinuations of +DeLancy and Marsh it was hardly more than that, had been of long +standing. There had been a period toward the end of boarding-school when +he had been tremendously in love and had corresponded with extraordinary +faithfulness and treasured numerous tokens of feminine reciprocation +with a sentimental devotion. The infatuation had cooled, but the +devotion had remained as a necessary romantic outlet. She had been his +guest as a matter of course at all the numerous gala occasions of +college life, at the football match, the New London race, and the Prom. +He was tremendously proud to have her on his arm, so proud that at times +he temporarily felt a return of that bitter-sweet frenzy when at school +he turned hot and cold with the expectancy of her letters. At the bottom +he was perhaps playing at love, a little afraid of her with that spirit +of cautious deliberation which, had he but known it, abides not with +romance. + +During the month on the ranch he had spent in their house-party, he had +a hundred times tried to convince himself that the old ardor was there, +and when somehow in his own honesty he failed, he would often wonder +what was the subtle reason that prevented it. She was everything that +the eye could imagine, brilliant, perhaps a little too much so for a +young lady of twenty, and sought after by a score of men to whom she +remained completely indifferent. He was flattered and yet he remained +uneasy, forced to admit to himself that there was something lacking in +her to stir his pulses as they had once been stirred. When DeLancy had +so frankly announced his intention of making a favorable marriage, +something had uneasily stirred his conscience. Was there after all some +such unconscious instinct in him at the bottom of this continued +intimacy? + +When he reached the metropolitan castle of the Drakes on upper Fifth +Avenue, he found the salons still covered up in summer trappings, long +yellow linens over the furniture, the paintings on the walls still +wrapped in cheesecloth. As he was twirling his cane aimlessly before the +fireplace, wondering how long it would please Miss Doris to keep him +waiting, there came a breathless scamper and rush, accompanied by +delighted giggles, and the next moment an Irish terrier, growling and +snarling in mock fury, slid over the polished floor, pursued by a young +girl who had a firm grip on the stubby tail. The chase ended in the +center of the room with a sudden tumble. The dog, liberated, stood +quivering with delight at a safe distance, head on one side, tongue out, +ready for the next move of his tormenter who was camped in the middle of +the floor. But at this moment she perceived Bojo. + +"Oh, hello," she said with a start of surprise but no confusion. "Who +are you?" + +"I'm Crocker, Tom Crocker," he said, laughing back at the flushed oval +face, with mischievous eyes dancing somewhere in the golden hair that +tumbled in shocks to her shoulder. + +She sprang up brightly, advancing with outstretched hand. + +"Oh, you're Bojo," she said in correction. "You don't know me. I'm +Patsie, the terror of the family. Now don't say you thought I was a +child, I'm seventeen--going on eighteen in January." + +He shook the hand that was thrust out to him in a direct boyish grip, +surprised and a little bewildered at the irresistible youth and spirits +of the young lady who stood so naturally before him in short skirt and +in simple shirtwaist open at the tanned neck. + +"Of course they've told you I'm a terror," she said defiantly. He +nodded, which seemed to please her, for she rattled on: "Well, I am. +They had to keep me away until Dolly hooked the Duke. Have you seen him? +Well, if that's a duke all I've got to say is I think he's a mutt. Of +course you're waiting for Doris, aren't you?" + +The assumption of his vassalage somehow stirred a little antagonism, but +before he could answer she was off again. + +"Well, a jolly long wait you'll have, too. Doris is splashing around +among the rouge and powder like Romp in a puddle." + +Her own cheeks needed no such encouragement, he thought, laughing back +at her through the pure infection of her high spirits. + +"I like you; you're all right," she said, surveying him with her head on +one side like Romp, the terrier, who came sniffing up to him in the +friendliest way. "You're not like a lot of these fashion plates that +come in on tiptoes. Say, that was a bully tackle you made in that +Harvard game." + +He was down on one knee rubbing the shaggy coat of the terrier. He +looked up. + +"Oh you saw that, did you?" + +"Yep! I guess there wasn't much left of that fellow! Dad said that was +the finest tackle he ever saw." + +"It shook me up all right," he said, grinning. + +"Well, if Dad likes you and Romp likes you, you must be some account," +she continued, camping on the rug and seizing triumphantly the stubby +tail. "Dad's strong for you!" + +Bojo settled on the edge of the sofa, watching the furious encounter +which took place for the possession of the strategic point. + +"I suppose you're going to marry Doris," she said in a moment of calm, +while Romp made good his escape. + +Bojo felt himself flushing under the direct child-like gaze. + +"I should be very flattered if Doris--" + +"Oh, don't talk that way," she said with a fling of her shoulders. +"That's like all the others. Tell me, are all New York men such hopeless +ninnies? Lord, I'm going to have a dreary time of it." She looked at him +critically. "One thing I like about you; you don't wear spats." + +"I suppose you're home for the wedding," he asked curiously, "or are you +through with the boarding-school?" + +"Didn't you hear about this?" she said with a touch to her shortened +hair. "They wanted me to come out and I said I wouldn't come out. And +when they said I should come out, I said to myself, I'll just fix them +so I can't come out, and I hacked off all my hair. That's why they sent +me off to Coventry for the summer. I'd have hacked it off again, but +Dad cut up so I let it grow, and now the plaguey old fashion has gotten +around to bobbed hair. What do you think of that?" + +"So you don't want to come out?" he answered. + +"What for? To be nice to a lot of old frumps you don't like, to dress up +and drink tea and lean up against a wall and have a crowd of mechanical +toys tell you that your eyes are like evening stars and all that rot. I +should say _not_." + +"Well, what would you like to do?" + +"I'd like to go riding and hunting with Dad, live in a great country +house, with lots of snow in winter and tobogganing--" She broke off with +a sudden suspicion. "Say, am I boring you?" + +"You are not," he said with emphasis. + +[Illustration: "'Say, you're a judge of muscle, aren't you?'"] + +"You don't like that society flub-dub either, do you?" she continued +confidentially. "Lord, these dolled up women make me tired. I'd like to +jounce them ten miles over the hills. Say, you're a judge of muscle, +aren't you?" + +"In a way." + +"What do you think of that?" She held out a cool firm forearm for his +inspection and he was in this intimate position when Doris came down the +great stairway, with her willowy, trailing elegance. She gave a quick +glance of her dark eyes at the unconventional group, with Romp in the +middle an interested spectator, and said: + +"Have I been keeping you hours? I hope this child's been amusing you." + +The child, being at this moment perfectly screened, retorted by a +roguish wink which almost upset Bojo's equanimity. The two sisters +were an absolute contrast. In her two seasons Doris had been converted +into a complete woman of the world; she had the grace that was the grace +of art, yet undeniably effective; stunning was the term applied to her. +Her features were delicate, thinly turned, and a quality of precious +fragility was about her whole person, even to the conscious moods of her +smile, her enthusiasm, her serious poising for an instant of the eyes, +which were deep and black and lustrous as the artfully pleasing masses +of her hair. But the charm that was gone was the charm that looked up at +him from the unconscious twilight eyes of the younger sister! + +"Patsie, you terrible tomboy--will you ever grow up!" she said +reprovingly. "Look at your dress and your hair. I never saw such a +little rowdy. Now run along like a dear. Mother's waiting." + +But Patsie maliciously declined to hurry. She insisted that she had +promised to show off Romp and, abetted by Bojo in this deception, she +kept her sister waiting while she put the dog through his tricks and--to +cap the climax went off with a bombshell. + +"My, you two don't look a bit glad to see each other--you look as +conventional as Dolly and the Duke." + +"Heavens," said Doris with a sigh, "I shall have my hands full this +winter. What they'll think of her in society the Lord knows." + +"I wouldn't worry about her," said Bojo pensively. "I don't think she's +going to have as much trouble as you fear." + +"Oh, you think so?" said Doris, glancing up. Then she laid her hand over +his with a little pressure. "I'm awfully glad to see you, Bojo." + +"I'm awfully glad to see you," he returned with accented enthusiasm. + +"Just as glad as ever?" + +"Of course." + +"We shall have to use the Mercedes; Dolly's off with the Reynier. You +don't mind?" she said, flitting past the military footman. "Where are we +lunching?" + +He named a fashionable restaurant. + +"Oh, dear, no; you never see any one you know there. Let's go to the +Ritz." And without waiting for his answer she added: "Duncan, the Ritz." + +At the restaurant all the personelle seemed to know her. The head waiter +himself showed her to a favorite corner, and advised with her +solicitously as to the selection of the menu, while Bojo, who had still +to eat ten thousand such luncheons, furtively compared his elegant +companion with the brilliant women who were grouped about him like rare +hot-house plants in a perfumed conservatory. The little shell hat she +wore suited her admirably, concealing her forehead and half of her eyes +with the same provoking mystery that the eastern veil lends to the women +of the Orient. Everything about her dress was soft and beguilingly +luxurious. All at once she turned from a fluttered welcome to a distant +group and, assuming a serious air, said: + +"Have you seen Dad yet? Oh, of course not--you haven't had time. You +must right away. He's taken a real fancy to you, and he's promised me +to see that you make a lot of money--" she looked up in his eyes and +then down at the table with a shy smile, adding emphatically--"soon!" + +"So you've made up your mind to that?" + +"Yes, indeed. I'm going to make you!" + +She nodded, laughing and favoring him with a long contemplation. + +"You dress awfully well," she said approvingly. "Clothes seem to hang on +you just right--" + +"But--" he said, laughing. + +"Well, there are one or two things I'd like you to do," she admitted, a +little confused. "I wish you'd wear a mustache, just a little one like +the Duke. You'd look stunning." + +He laughed in a way that disconcerted her, and an impulse came into his +mind to try her, for he began to resent the assumption of possession +which she had assumed. + +"How do you think that would go in a mill town with overalls and a lunch +can?" + +"What do you mean? + +"In a week I expect to be shipped to New England, to a little town, with +ten thousand inhabitants; nice, cheery place with two moving-picture +houses and rows on rows of factory homes for society." + +"For how long?" + +"For four or five years." + +"Bojo, how horrible! You're not serious!" + +"I may be. How would you like to keep house up there?" He caught at the +disconsolate look in her face and added: "Don't worry, I know better +than to ask that of you. Now listen, Doris, we've been good chums too +long to fool ourselves. You've changed and you're going to change a lot +more. Do you really like this sort of life?" + +"I adore it!" + +"Dressing up, parading yourself, tearing around from one function to +another." She nodded, her face suddenly clouded over. "Then why in the +world do you want me? There are fifty--a hundred men you'll find will +play this game better than I can." + +He had dropped his tone of sarcasm and was looking at her earnestly, but +the questions he put were put to his own conscience. + +"Why do you act this way just when you've come back?" she said, +frightened at his sudden ascendency. + +"Because I sometimes think that we both know that nothing is going to +happen," he said directly; "only it's hard to face the truth. Isn't that +it?" + +"No, that isn't it. I love to be admired, I love pretty things and +society and all that. Why shouldn't I? But I do care for you, Bojo; +you've always brought out--" she was going to say, "the best in me," but +changed her mind and instead added: "I am very proud of you-- I always +would be. Don't look at me like that. What have I done?" + +"Nothing," he said, drawing a breath. "You can't help being what you +are. Really, Doris, in the whole room you're the loveliest here. No one +has your style or a smile as bewitching as yours. There is a fascination +about you." + +She was only half reassured. + +"Well, then, don't talk so idiotically." + +"Idiotic is exactly the word," he said with a laugh, and the +compliments he had paid her in a spirit of self-raillery awakened a +little feeling of tenderness after his teasing had shown him that, +according to her lights, she cared more than he had thought. + +All the same when he rose to hurry downtown, he was under no illusions: +if opportunity permitted him to fit into the social scheme of things, +well and good; if not-- His thoughts recurred to Fred DeLancy's words: + +"There are three ways of making money: to have it left to you, to earn +it, and to marry it." + +He broke off angrily, troubled with doubts, and for the hundredth time +he found himself asking: + +"Now why the deuce can't I be mad in love with a girl who cares for me, +who's a beauty and has everything in the world! What is it?" + +For he had once been very much in love when he was a schoolboy and Doris +had been just a schoolgirl, with open eyes and impulsive direct ways, +like a certain young lady, with breathless, laughing lips who had come +sliding into his life on the comical tail of a scampering terrier. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BOJO'S FATHER + + +The offices of the Associated Woolen Mills were on the sixteenth floor +of a modern office building in the lower city, which towered above the +surrounding squalid brownstone houses given over to pedlers and +delicatessen shops like a gleaming stork ankle deep in a pool of murky +water. + +Bojo wandered through long mathematical rooms with mathematical young +men perched high on desk stools all with the same mathematical curve of +the back, past squadrons of clicking typewriters, clicking endlessly as +though each human unit had been surrendered into the cogs of a universal +machine. He passed one by one a row of glassed-in rooms with names of +minor officers displayed, marking them solemnly as though already he saw +the long slow future ahead: Mr. Pelton, treasurer; Mr. Spinny, general +secretary; Mr. Colton, second vice-president; Mr. Horton, +vice-president; Mr. Rhoemer, general manager, until he arrived at the +outer waiting-room with its faded red leather sofas and polished brass +spittoons, where he had come first as a boy in need of money. + +Richardson, an old young man, who walked as though he had never been in +a hurry and spoke in a whisper, showed him into the inner office of +Jotham B. Crocker, explaining that his father would return presently. +Everything was in order; chairs precisely placed, the window shades at +the same level, bookcases with filed memoranda, even to the desk, where +letters to be read and letters to be signed were arranged in neat +packages side by side. + +On the wall was extended an immense oil painting fifteen feet by ten, of +Niagara Falls in frothy eruption, with a large and brilliant rainbow +lost in the mist and several figures in the foreground representing the +noble Indians gazing with feelings of awe upon the spectacle of nature. +Behind the desk hung a large black and white engraving of Abraham +Lincoln, with one hand resting on the Proclamation of Emancipation, +flanked by smaller portraits of Henry Ward Beecher and the author of the +McKinley tariff. Opposite was an old-time family group done in crayons, +representing Mr. and Mrs. Crocker standing side by side, with Jack in +long trousers and Tom in short, while on the shining desk amid the +papers was a daguerrotype mounted in a worn leather frame, of the wife +who had been dead fifteen years. + +Bojo selected a cigar from the visitors box and strode up and down, +rehearsing in his mind the arguments he would bring to bear against the +expected ultimatum. From the window the lower bay expanded below him +with its steam insects crawling across the blue-gray surface, its +wharf-crowded shores, beyond the ledges on ledges of factories trailing +cotton streamers against the brittle sky. Everywhere the empire of +industry extended its stone barracks without loveliness or pomp, +smoke-grimed, implacable prisons, where multitudes herded under +artificial light that humanity might live in terms of millions. + +As he looked, he seemed already to have surrendered his individuality, +swallowed up in the army of labor, and the revolt arose in him anew. +What was the use of money if it could not bring a wider horizon and +greater opportunities? And a sort of dull anger moved in him against the +parental ambition which limited him to unnecessary drudgery. + +Of all the persons he had met the greatest stranger to him was his +father. Since his mother's death, when he was but eight years of age, +his life had been spent in boarding school and college, in summer camps +or on visits to chums. Their relations had been formal. At the beginning +and end of each summer he had come down the long avenue of desks, past +the glass doors into the private office, to report, to receive money, +and to be sped with a few appropriate words of advice. Several times +during the year his father would appear on a short warning, stay a few +hours, and hurry off. On such occasions Tom had always felt that he was +being surveyed and estimated as a lumberman watches the growth of a +young forest. + +His father was always in a hurry, always in good health, matter of fact, +and generous. That his business had prospered and extended he knew, +though to what extent his father's activities had multiplied he still +was ignorant. Conversation between them had always been difficult in +those tours of inspection; but Bojo, instinctively, censored the +lithographs on the wall (harmless though they were) and the choice of +novels which his father would be sure to examine with a critical eye. + +Klondike, the sweep, arranged the room in military order and Fred +DeLancy was enjoined to observe a bread-and-milk diet. Bojo had an idea +that his father was very stern, rigid, and exact, with the unrelenting +attitude toward folly and leisure which had characterized the Crocker +family in the days of their seven celebrated divines. + +"How are you, Tom?" said a chest-voice behind him. "Turn around. You +look in first-class shape. Glad to see you." + +"Glad to see you, father," he said hastily, taking the stubby, powerful +hand. + +"Just a moment--go on with your cigar. Let me straighten out this desk. +Train was ten minutes late." + +"Now it comes," thought Bojo to himself as he gripped his hands and +assumed a determined frown. + +As they faced each other they were astonishingly alike and unlike. They +had the same squaring of the brows, the same obstinate rise of the head +at the back, and the prominent undershot jaw. Years had thickened the +frame of the father and written characteristic lines about the mouth and +the eyes. He had become so integral a part of the machine he had created +that in the process all the finer youthful shades of expression had +faded away. + +Concentration on a fixed idea, indomitable purpose, decision, +self-discipline were there in the strongly sculptured chin and maxillary +muscles, under the sparse, close-cropped beard shot with gray; courage +and tenacity in the deep eyes, which, like Bojo's, had the disconcerting +fixity of the mastiff's; but the quality of dreams which so keenly +qualified the tempestuous obstinacy of the son had been discarded as so +much superfluous baggage. Life to him was a succession of immediate +necessities, a military progress, and his imagination went with +difficulty beyond the demands of the hour. He dressed in a +pepper-and-salt business suit made of his own product, wore a made-up +tie and comfortable square-toed shoes, with a certain aggressive disdain +for the fashions as a quality of pretentiousness. + +He ran through his correspondence in five minutes while Bojo pricked up +his ears at the sums which he flung off without hesitation. Richardson +faded from the room, the father shifted a package of memoranda, turned +the face of his desk clock so he could follow the time, drew back in his +chair, and helped himself to a cigar, shooting a glance at the embattled +figure of the son. + +"You look all primed up--ready to jump in the ring," he said with a +smile, and without waiting for Bojo's embarrassed answer he continued, +caging his fingers and adopting a quick, incisive tone. + +"Well, Tom, you have now arrived at man's estate and it is right that I +should discuss with you your future course in life. But before we come +to that I wish to say several things. You've finished your college +course very creditably. You have engaged a good deal in different +sports, it is true; but you have not allowed it to interfere with your +serious work, and I believe on the whole your experience in athletics +has been valuable. It has taught you qualities of self-restraint and +discipline, and it has given you a sound body. Your record in your +studies, while it has not been brilliant, has been creditable. You've +kept out of bad company, chosen the right friends-- I am particularly +impressed with Mr. Granning--and you've not gone in for dissipation. +You've done well and I have no complaint. You've worked hard and you've +played hard. You will take a serious view of life." + +This discourse annoyed Bojo. It seemed to fling a barrier of +conventionality between them, driving them further apart. + +"Why the deuce doesn't he talk in a natural way?" he thought moodily. +And he felt with a sudden depression the futility of arguing his case. +"We're in for a row. There's no way out." + +"Now, Tom, lets talk about the future." + +"Here it comes," said Bojo to himself, bracing himself to resist. + +"What would you like to do?" + +"What would _I_ like?" said Tom, completely off his guard. + +"Yes, what are your ideas?" + +The turn was so unexpected that he could not for the moment assemble his +thoughts. He rose, making a pretext of seeking an ash-tray, and +returned. + +"Why, to tell the truth, sir, I came here expecting that you would +demand that I go into this--into the mills." + +"I see, and you don't want to do what your father's done. You want +something else, something better." + +The tone in which this was said aroused the obstinacy in the young man, +but he repressed the first answer. + +"Well?" + +"I don't know, sir, that there's any use of my explaining myself; I +don't know what good it'll do," he said slowly. + +"On the contrary, I am not making demands on you. I am here to discuss +with you." (Bojo repressed a smile at this.) "You've thought about this. +What do you suggest?" + +"I don't think you'll understand it at all, but I want time." + +"Time to do what?" + +"To get out and see the world, to meet men who are doing things, to get +a chance to develop, to get my ideas straightened out a bit." + +"Is that all?" + +"No, that's not quite honest," said Bojo suddenly. "The truth is, sir, I +don't see why I should begin all over again, the drudgery and the +isolation and all. If you wanted me to do only that why did you send me +to college? I've made friends and it's only right I should have the +opportunity to lead as big a life as they. Money isn't everything, it's +what you get out of life, and besides I've got opportunities, unusual +opportunities to get ahead here." + +"Have you made up your mind, Tom?" said the father slowly. + +"I'm afraid I have, sir." + +"Let me talk to you. You may see it in a different light. First you +speak of opportunities--what opportunities?" + +"Mr. Drake has been kind enough--" + +"That means Wall Street." + +"Yes, sir." + +The father thought a moment. + +"What is the situation between you and Miss Drake?" + +"We are very good friends." + +"Would you marry her if you didn't have a cent?" + +"I would not." + +"I am glad to hear you say that. Very glad. So you re going into Wall +Street," he said, after a moment. "Are you going into the banking +business?" + +"Why, no." + +"Or into railroads or any creative industry?" + +"Not exactly." + +"You're going into Wall Street," said Crocker, "like a great many young +men, who've been having an easy, luxurious time at college and who want +to go on with it. You're going there as a gambler, hoping to get the +inside track through some influence and make a hundred thousand dollars +of other people's money in a lucky year." + +"That's rather a hard way to put it, sir." + +"You don't pretend to be able to earn a hundred thousand dollars in one +year or in five, do you, Tom?" + +"Let me put it in another way," said Bojo after a moment's indecision. +"What you have made and what you have been able to give me have put me +in the way of acquiring friends that others can't make, and friends are +assets. The higher up you go in society the easier it is to make money; +isn't it so? Opportunities are assets also. If I have the opportunity to +make a lot of money in a short time, what is the sense of turning my +back on the easiest way and taking up the hardest?" + +"Tom, do you young fellows ever stop to think that there is such a thing +as your own country, and that if you've got advantages you've also got +responsibilities?" said Crocker, senior, shaking his head. "You want +money like all the rest. What good do you want to do in return? What +usefulness do you accomplish in the scheme of things here? You talk of +opportunity--you don't know what a real opportunity and a privilege is. +Now let me say my say." + +Richardson came sliding into the room at this moment and he paused to +deny the card, with a curt order against further interruptions. When he +resumed it was on a quieter note, with a touch of sadness. + +"The trouble is, our points of view are too far apart for us to come +together at present. You want something that isn't going to satisfy you +and I know isn't going to satisfy you. But I can't make you see it, +there's the pity of it. You've got to get your hard knocks yourself. +You've got real ambition in you. Now let me tell you something about the +mills and you think it over. There's some bigger things in this world +than you think, and the biggest is to create something, something useful +to the community; to make a monument of it and to pass it down for your +son to carry on--family pride. You think there's only drudgery in it. +Did you ever think there were thousands and thousands of people +depending on how you run your business? Do you realize that every great +business to-day means the protection of those thousands; that you've got +to study out how to protect them at every point in order to make them +efficient; that there's nothing unimportant? You've got to watch over +their health and their happiness, see that they get amusement, +relaxation; that they're encouraged to buy homes and taught to save +money. You've got to see that they get education to keep them out of the +hands of ignorant agitators. You've got to make them self-respecting and +able intelligently to understand your own business, so that they'll +perceive they're getting their just share. Add to that the other side, +the competition, the watching of every new invention, the calculating to +the last cent, the study of local and foreign conditions of supply and +demand, the habits and tastes of different communities. Add also the +biggest thing that you've got, a mixed population, that's got to be +turned into intelligent, useful American citizens, and you've got as big +an opportunity and responsibility as you can place before any young +fellow I know. What do you say?" + +Bojo had nothing to say--not that he had surrendered, but that his own +arguments seemed petty besides these. + +The father rose and laid his hands on his son's shoulders. + +"Why, Tom, don't you know it's been the dream of my life to hand you +down this thing that I've built myself? Don't you know there's a +sentiment about it? Why, it isn't dollars and cents: I've got ten times +what I want; it's pride. I'm proud of every bit of it. There isn't a new +turn, mechanical or social, has come up over the world but what I've +adopted it there. I haven't had a strike in fifteen years. I've done +things there would open your eyes. You'd be proud. Well, what are you +thinking?" + +"You make it very hard, sir," he said slowly. He had not expected this +sort of appeal. "If I were older, I don't know--but it's hard now." He +could not tell him all the surrender would mean, and though his deeper +nature had been reached he still fought on. "I'm not starting where you +started, sir; that's the trouble. You went to work when you were twelve. +It would be easier if I had, and, if you'll forgive me, it's your fault +too that I want what I want now. I suppose I do want to begin on top, +but I've been on top all these years, that's all. I couldn't do it now; +perhaps later--I don't know. If I went up to the mills now I should eat +my heart out. I'm sorry to have to say this to you, but it's the truth." + +The father left him abruptly and seated himself at his desk without +speaking. + +"If I insisted you would refuse," he said slowly. + +"I'm afraid I'd have to, sir," said Bojo, with a feeling of dread. + +There was another silence, at the end of which Mr. Crocker drew out his +check-book and looked at it solemnly. + +"Good! Now he's figuring how much he'll give me and cut me off!" thought +the son. + +"Tom, I don't want to lose you too," said the father slowly. "I'm going +to try a different way with you. You're sound and you ring true. The +only trouble is you don't know; you've got to learn your lesson. So you +think if you had a start you'd clean up a fortune, don't you?--and you +believe--" he paused--"in Wall Street friends. Very well; I'm going to +give you an opportunity to get your eyes open." + +He dipped his pen in the ink and wrote a check with deliberation, while +Bojo, puzzled, thought to himself: "What the deuce is he up to now?" + +"I'm not going to make a bargain with you. I'm going to trust to +experience and to the Crocker in you. I know the stuff you're made of. +You'll never make an idler, you'll never stand that life, but you want +to try it. Very well. I'm going to give you a check. It's yours. Play +with it all you want. You'll get it taken away from you in two years at +the most. When that happens come back to me, do you understand, where +you belong! Blood's thicker than water, my boy; there's something in +father and son sticking together, doing something that counts! Here, +take this." + +And he placed in his hand a check which read: + + Pay to the order of Thomas Beauchamp Crocker + Fifty thousand dollars + JOTHAM B. CROCKER. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +DANIEL DRAKE, THE MULTI-MILLIONAIRE + + +A week after his interview with his father, Tom Crocker entered the +great shadowy library of the Drakes in response to an invitation from +the father. At this time, when Wall Street was approaching that dramatic +phase which is inevitable in social transformations, when dominant and +outstanding individualities succumb to the obliterating rise of +bureaucracies, there was no more picturesque personality than Daniel +Drake. He had come to New York several years before, awaited as a +vaulting spirit who played the game recklessly and who would never cease +to aspire until he had forced his way to the top or been utterly broken +in the attempt. + +His career had bordered on the fantastic. As a boy the _Wanderlust_ had +driven him over the face of the globe. A shrewd capacity for making +money of anything to which he put his hand had carried him through +strange professions. He had been a pedler on the Mississippi, cook on a +tramp steamer to Australia, boxed in minor professional encounters, +exhibited as a trick bicycle rider, served as a soldier of fortune up +and down Central America, and returned to his native country to +establish a small fortune in the field of the country fairs. + +With the acquisition of capital, he became conservative and +industrious. Reconciled with his family, he had secured the necessary +funds to attempt an operation in the wheat market which, conducted on a +reasonable scale, netted him a handsome profit and enlarged his +activities. His genius for manipulation and trading, which was soon +recognized, brought him into the services of big industries. He made +money rapidly, and married impulsively against the advice of his friends +a woman of social prominence who cared absolutely nothing about him--a +fact which he was the last to perceive. + +He next undertook a daring operation, the buying up of the control of a +great industry in competition with an eastern group. A friend whom he +trusted betrayed the pool he had formed, and the loyalty of his +associates, which made him continue, completely bankrupted him. Before +the public had even an inkling of the extent of his catastrophe he had +mended his fortunes by the brilliant stroke, secured control of one of +the subsidiary companies destined for the steel trust, and realized a +couple of millions as his share. When he referred to this moment, which +he often did, he used to say frankly: + +"We went into the meeting bankrupt and came out seven millionaires." + +He became the leader of a group of young financiers who acquired and +developed with amazing success a chain of impoverished railroads. He +played the game, scrupulous to his word, merciless in a fight, generous +to a conquered enemy, for the love of the game itself. A big man with a +curious atmosphere of amused calm in the midst of the flurry and turmoil +he aroused, he enjoyed the turns and twists of fate with the zest of a +boy gray-eyed, imperturbable, and magnetic, winning even those who saw +in him an ethical and economical danger. + +Such was the man who was bending over a great oaken table engrossed in +the piecing together of an intricate picture puzzle, as Bojo came +through the heavy tapestry portières. Patsie, perched on a corner, was +looking on with approving interest at the happy solving of a perplexing +group. She sprang down, flung her arms about her father in an impulsive +farewell, and came prancing over to Bojo with a laughing warning: + +"Whatever you do, _never_ find a piece for him. It makes him madder than +a wet hen. He wants to do it all himself. Now I'm running off. Don't +worry! Go on, talk your old business." + +She went off like the flash of a golden bird while Bojo, slightly +intimidated, was wishing she might remain. + +"Tom--glad to see you--come in--just a moment--help yourself to a cigar. +Confound that piece, I knew it fitted in there!" Drake left the board +with a lingering regret, shook hands with a grip that seemed to envelop +the young man, and went to the mantel for a match, where a large +equestrian statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni rose threateningly from the +shadows. + +"Glad to see you, my boy--my orders are in from the General Manager, and +when the General Manager gives orders I know it means hustle!" By this +title he designated Doris, whose practical ambitions and perseverance he +satirized with an indulgent smile. "Far as I can make out, Doris has +determined to make you a millionaire in a couple of years or so, so I +suppose the best thing is to sit down and discuss it." + +As he stood there gaunt and alert against the bronze background, there +was something about him too of the old condottieri, a certain blunt and +hardened quality of the grizzled head, as though he too had just hung +back a steel helmet and emerged tense and victorious from a bruising +scramble. + +"Supposing he's figuring out that I'll cost him less than the Duke," +thought Tom, conscious of a certain proprietary estimation below all the +surface urbanity, and, squaring to the charge, he said: "I'm afraid, +sir, you've a pretty poor opinion of me." + +"What do you mean?" said Drake, with sudden interest. + +"May I talk to you plainly, sir?" said Tom, a little flustered. "I don't +know just how I feel about Doris or even just how she feels about me. I +certainly have no intention of marrying her until I know what I am worth +myself, and I certainly don't intend to come to you, her father, to make +money for me." + +He stopped with a little fear for his boldness, for this had not been +his intention on entering the room. In fact, he had come rather in a +state of indecision, after long discussions with Doris, and much serving +up of sophistries to his conscience; but Drake's greeting had struck at +his young independence, as perhaps it had been meant to do, and an +impulsive wave of indignation overruled his calculations. He stood a +little apprehensive, watching the older man, wondering how he would +receive the defiance. + +"That's talking," said Drake, with an approving smile. "Go on." + +"Mr. Drake, I can't help feeling that we're going to look at things more +and more from a different point of view. Doris cares for me--I suppose +so--if she can have me without sacrificing anything. I don't express it +very well, but I do feel at times that she's more interested in what she +can make out of me than in me, and I don't know if I'll work out the way +she wants; in fact, I'm not at all sure," he blurted out pugnaciously. +"But I want to work out that way, and if I don't there'll come a smashup +pretty soon." + +"There's something in what you say," said Drake, nodding, "and I like +your coming straight out with it. Now look here, my boy, I'm not going +to take hold of you because I expect you to marry Doris, but because I +_want_ you to marry her! Get that down. I can control lots of things, +but I can't control the women. They beat me every time. I'm pulp. I've +given in once, though Lord knows I hope my little girl won't regret it. +I've got one decayed foreign title dangling to the totem-pole, and +that's enough; that's got to satisfy the missus. I don't want another +and I don't want any high-stepping Fifth Avenue dude. I want a man, one +of my own kind who can talk my language." + +He arose, took a turn, and clapped him on the shoulder. "I want you. I +settled that in my own mind long ago. Now I'm going to talk as plain to +you. As you get on you'll look at people differently than you do. You'll +see how much is due to accident, the parting of the ways, going to the +left instead of to the right. Now I know Doris. I've watched her. She's +got two sides to her; you appeal to the best. I know it. She knows it. +She wouldn't marry you if you were a beggar--women are that way--but +she'll stick to you loyal, as a regular, if she marries you; and you're +not going to be a beggar." + +"Yes, if I consent to close my eyes and let you build--" + +"Now don't get huffy. I'm not going to tuck you under my wing," said +Drake, grinning. "Furthermore, I wouldn't want you in the family if I +didn't know you had stuff in you. Don't you think I want some one I can +trust in this cut-throat game? Don't worry, if you're the right sort I +can use you. Now quit thinking too much--let things work out. Doris is +the kind that belongs at the top; she's bound to be a leader, and we're +going to put her there, you and I. Now what do you want to do?" + +"I want to stand on my own feet," said Tom, with a last resistance. "I +want to see what I'm worth by myself." + +"Wall Street, of course," said Drake, grinning again. "Well, why not? +You'll learn quicker the things you've got to learn, even if it costs +you more." + +He flung down in a great armchair, and stared out at the raw recruit as +though for an instant rolling back the years to his own beginnings. + +"Tom, if you're going in," he said all at once, "go in with your eyes +open and make up your mind soon what you want; but when you've made up +your mind don't fool yourself. If you want to plod along safe and sane, +you can do it just as well in Wall Street as anywhere else. But I reckon +that's not what you're after." He chuckled at Bojo's confused +acknowledgment of the patness of his surmise and continued: + +"Well, then, recognize that what you're going into is war, nothing more +nor less. You see, we're a curious people; we haven't had the chance to +develop as others. And there's something instinctive about war; in a +growing nation it lets off a lot of wild energy. Now there's a group of +the big fellows here that ought to have had a chance at being field +marshals or admirals, and because they haven't the chance they've +developed a special little battlefield of their own to fight each other. +And, say, the big fellows don't fool themselves--they know what they're +doing! They're under no illusions. But there're a lot of big little men +down there who go around hugging delusions to their hearts, who'll sack +a railroad or lay siege to a corporation with the idea they're ordained +to grab the other fellow's property. Now I don't fool myself: that's my +strong point. I'm grabbing as fast as the other fellow, but I know the +time's coming when they won't let us grab any more. I do it because I +want to, because I love it and because we're founding aristocracies here +as the Old World did a couple of centuries ago. Well, to come back to +you. I'll see you start in a good firm--" + +"I'd rather do it myself." + +"As you wish. Got any money?" + +"Fifty thousand dollars," said Tom, who then related his father's +prediction. + +"Ordinarily he's a good guesser," said Drake, laughing. "But we may put +one over on him. There's a scheme I've been brewing over for a big +combine in the woolen industry that may give him a pleasant surprise. +Well, then, start in on your own feet, my boy. Learn all you can of men. +Study them--browse around in figures, if you want, but everlastingly +keep your eyes on men! It's the man and not the proposition that's +gilt-edged or empty. You've got to learn how the other fellow thinks, +what he'll do in a given situation, if you're going to think ahead of +him, and that's the quality that counts. That's where I've got them +guessing, every minute of the day; there isn't one of them can figure +out now if I'm twenty millions to the good or ten behind." + +"Why, Tom, there was a time when I was stone broke--by golly, even my +creditors were broke, which is an awful thing; and everything depended +on my getting the right backing on the proposition that saved me. Do you +think any one of those sleuth-hounds were on? Not on your life. I was +living at the biggest hotel, in the biggest suite, spilling money all +over the city--on tick, of course. And, say, in the critical week, when +I was dodging my own tailor, I sent the missus (she didn't know +anything, either) up to Fifth Avenue to buy a $100,000 necklace. That +settled it. The other fellows, the fellows whose brains wind up like +clocks, couldn't figure it out. I got my backing." + +"But supposing you hadn't," said Bojo involuntarily. He had been +listening to this recital open-eyed like a child at a circus. "What +would have happened?" + +Drake laughed contentedly. "There you are. That's all the other fellow +could figure on. Now don't imagine you can do what I did--you can't. I +suppose there's no use telling you not to speculate, because you're +going to, no matter what you think now. You will; because the young +fellow who goes into Wall Street and doesn't think he's a genius in the +first three months hasn't been born yet! But the first time it comes +over you, throw only a third of your capital out of the window. Do you +get me?" + +"I won't do that," said Bojo resolutely. + +"Go on. Do. You ought. It's cheap at that! I paid seven hundred thousand +for the same information," said Drake, giving him his hand. He caught +his shoulder in his powerful grip and added: "If you get in too much +trouble, come to me! Remember that and good luck!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BOJO OBEYS HIS GENERAL MANAGER + + +Three months after his entry into Wall Street, Bojo emerged from his +bedroom into the communal sitting-room in a state of tense excitement. +The day before he had taken his first plunge into the world of +speculation and bought a thousand shares of Indiana Smelter on a twenty +per cent. margin. This transaction, which represented to his mind the +inevitable challenge at the gates of fortune, had left him in a turmoil +through all the restless night. He had taken the decision which was to +decide his future only after a long wrestling with his conscience. + +At first he had imposed a limit, promising himself that he would not +touch a penny of his $50,000 capital until he should know of his own +knowledge. Gradually this time limit had contracted. Speculation was in +the air, triumphant and insidious. The whole market was sweeping up +irresistibly. The times were dramatic. Golden opportunity seemed within +every one's grasp. Expansion, development, amalgamation were on every +tongue. Roscoe Marsh had made a hundred thousand on paper. Even Fred +DeLancy had won several turns which had netted him handsome profits. + +Bojo had resisted stubbornly at first, turning heedless ears to the +excited arguments of his friends, but the fever of speculation had +entered his veins, he dreamed of nothing else, and gradually the thought +of his $50,000, so modestly invested in four per cent. bonds obsessed +him. What was worse was that each time he had refused to follow a tip of +Marsh or DeLancy or a dozen new-found friends, he secretly noted down +the speculation; and the thought of these dollars he had refused, which +could have been his for the asking, rose up before him in a constant +reproach. In the end it was Doris who decided him. + +That indefatigable schemer, whom even he now called the General Manager, +had a dozen times summoned him for an excited consultation on some rumor +which she had caught in passage. At first he had laughed her down, then +he had stubbornly refused such an alliance. But Doris, undaunted, +returned to the charge, amazing him at times with the pertinency of her +information, which she picked up from the wives and daughters, from +those who came as suitors, or as mere friends of the family, while just +as industriously and cleverly she commandeered her acquaintance and sent +Bojo a string of customers which had remarkably affected his progress in +the brokerage offices of Hauk, Flaspoller and Forshay. + +Finally he had yielded, because for weeks he had been longing to yield +as a spectator tires of watching inactive the spectacle of the shifting +golden combinations on the green cloth of the gambling table. She had +information of the most explicit sort. A great combination of Middle +Western Smelters had been held up for several weeks by the refusal of +two great companies to enter at the price offered--Indiana Smelter and +Rockland Foundry. She knew positively that the matter would be adjusted +in the next fortnight. + +"Did your father say so?" he asked, really impressed, for Drake was +reported as directly interested. + +"Not in the first place." + +"But where did you get your information?" + +"Oh, I have my ways," she said, delighted, "and I keep my secrets too. +Just remember if you'd taken my advice what you'd have made." + +"It is astounding how right you've been," he said doubtfully. + +"Listen, Bojo, this is absolutely correct. I know it. I can't tell you +now--I promised--but if I could you wouldn't have the slightest doubt. +Can't you trust me just this once? Don't you know that I'm working for +you? Oh, it's such an opportunity for us both. Listen, if you won't do +it, buy five hundred shares for me with my own money. Oh, how can I +convince you!" + +He looked away thoughtfully; tempted, convinced, suspecting the source +of her information, but wishing to remain ignorant. + +"You are determined to buy?" She nodded energetically. "What does your +father say?" + +She seized his idea, saving him the embarrassment of a direct +suggestion. + +"If Dad says yes, will that convince you? Wait." She thought a moment, +pacing up and down, humming brightly to herself. Suddenly she turned, +her eyes sparkling with the delight of her own machinations. "I'll tell +you how I'll do it. Next week's my birthday. I'll ask him to give me +the tip as a birthday present." She clapped her hands gleefully, adding: +"I'll tell him it's for my trousseau. If he says all right you won't +refuse." + +"No, I won't." + +She flung herself joyfully into his arms at this victory won, at this +prospect opened. + +"Bojo, I do love you and I do want to do so much for you!" she cried, +tightening her arms about his neck, with more genuine demonstration than +she had shown in months. + +"After all, I'd be a fool to refuse," he thought, excited too, and aloud +he said, "Yes, Miss General Manager." + +"Oh, call me anything you like if you'll only let me manage you!" she +said, laughing. "Now sit down and let me tell you all I've planned out +for you to do." + +That night she told him excitedly over the telephone that her little +scheme had succeeded, that her father had given his O. K., but of course +no one must know. The next day he had bought five hundred shares for +her, and after much hesitation a thousand for his own account at +104-1/2. It was a good risk; the stock had been stable for years; even +if the combination did not go through, there was little danger of a +rapid fall; and if it went up there was a chance at a thirty- or +forty-point rise. He kept the injunction of secrecy, as all such +injunctions are kept, to the point of telling only his closest friends, +Marsh and DeLancy, who bought at once. + +Nevertheless, no sooner had the transaction been completed than he had a +sudden revulsion. He had been long enough in Wall Street to have heard +a hundred tales of the methods of big manipulators. What if Dan Drake's +endorsement was only a clever ruse to conceal his real intentions, quits +for reimbursing Doris afterward with a check, according to a famous +precedent? Perhaps he even suspected that he, Bojo, had put Doris up to +it and was taking this method to read him the lesson that his methods +were not to be solved along such lines. At any rate, Tom passed a very +bad night, saying to himself that he had plunged ahead on the flimsiest +sort of evidence and fully deserved a shearing. + +A glorious December morning, with a touch of Indian summer, was pouring +through the half-opened window, bearing the distant sounds of steam +riveters. Marsh was busily culling half a dozen newspapers, while Fred +was yawning over the eggs and coffee, when the mail was brought in by +the grinning Oriental who had been dubbed Sweeney. DeLancy, who had the +curiosity of a girl, pounced upon the letters, slinging half a dozen at +Bojo with a grumbled comment. + +"Dog ding him if he isn't more popular than me! Important business +letters--Mr. Morgan and Mr. Rockefeller asking your advice--society +invitations--do honor our humble palace, pink envelope, heavily scented. +I say, Bojo, I've gone in deep on your precious stock, two hundred +shares--all I could scrape together. Hope you guess right. Anything I +hate is work, and 10 per cent. margin ought to be bolstered up by divine +revelation." + +"Wish the deuce you hadn't," said Bojo, sitting down and opening the +formal announcement of his broker's purchase, which struck his eyes +like a criminal warrant. + +"Cheer up," said Marsh, emerging from the litter of papers. "I've got a +tip from another angle, one of the lawyers involved. I'm going in for +another couple of thousand shares. Why so glum, Bojo?" + +"Wish I hadn't told you fellows." + +"Rats; that's all in the game!" said Marsh, but DeLancy did not look so +philosophical. + +Bojo opened several invitations, a notice from the tailor to call for a +fitting, two letters from clients, personal friends, and finally the +pink envelope, which was from Doris. + + Bojo dear: + + Whatever you do don't tell a soul. Dad questioned me + terrifically and I told a little fib. How many shares did + you buy? Dad made me promise to buy only five hundred, but I + know it's all right from the way he acted. Oh, Bojo, I hope + you make lots and lots of money! Wouldn't Dad be surprised? + He asked me to-night in the funny gruff way he puts on, + 'How's that young man of yours getting on? Have they got his + hide yet?' Won't it be a joke on him? By the way, I dined + with the Morrisons (she's an old school chum of mine) and + put in my clever little oar. Don't be surprised if some one + else calls you up soon to place a little order. I'm working + in another direction too. Don't fail to come up for tea. + + With much love, + DORIS. + + P.S. The Tremaines are _awfully_ influential. Be sure and go + to their dance. + +He placed the letter in his pocket thoughtfully, not entirely happy. It +was a fair sample of a score of letters--enthusiasm, solicitude, +ambition, and clever worldly advice, but lacking the one note that +something in him craved despite all the purely mental satisfaction the +prospect held for him. + +DeLancy continuing to loiter, he went out, alone, obsessed with the +thought of the opening of the market and the sound of the ticker, and +caught the subway for Wall Street, preoccupied and serious. + +It had been three months now since the day when he had first come +downtown to take up service as a broker's runner, and much had changed +within him during that time, much of which he himself was not aware. The +first days he had been rather bewildered and resentful of the menial +beginning. It did not seem quite a man's work--this messenger service, +and the contemplation of those above him, the men at the sheets and the +office clerks, inspired him with a distaste. Often he remembered his +conversation with his father and talks with Granning, the +matter-of-fact; comparing their outlook on the life with his associates +much to the disadvantage of the curiously inconsequential throng of +young men who, like himself, were willing to go scurrying in the rain +and dark on servants' quests, in order to get a peek into the intricate +mysteries of Wall Street that held sudden fortunes for those who could +see. + +He had come out of college with a love of manly qualities and the belief +that it was a man's privilege to face difficult and laborious tasks, and +the prevalent type among the beginners was not his type. Then, too, the +magnitude of the Street overpowered him, the skyscrapers without tops +dwarfed him, its jargon mystified him, as the colossal scale of the +operations he saw seemed to rob him of the sense of his own +individuality. But gradually, being possessed of shrewd native sense and +persistence, he began to distinguish in the mob types and among the +types figures that stood out in bold relief. He began to see those who +would pass and those who would persist. + +He began to meet the more rugged type, schooled in earlier tests, +shrewd, cautious, and resolved, self-made men who had abrupt ways of +speaking their thoughts, who frankly classed him with other fortunate +youths and assured him that they were there by right, to take away from +them what had been foolishly given and pay them back in experience. He +took their chaffing in good humor, seeking their companionship and their +points of view by preference, gradually disarming their criticism, +secretly resolved that whatever might be the common fate at least he +would not prove a foolish lamb for the shearing. + +Steeled in this resolution, he began by setting his face against +speculation, investing his money temporarily in irreproachable bonds, +refusing to listen to all the tips, whispered or openly proffered, which +assailed his ears from morning until night, until the day when he should +know of his own knowledge of men and things. He worked hard, following +Drake's advice, seeking information from men rather than from books, +checking up what each told him by what the next man had to say of his +last informant, mystified often by the glib psychology of finance, +slowly rating men at their just value, no longer lending credulous ear +to the frayed prophets of New Street or thrilling with the excitement of +a thrice confidential tip. + +He had advanced rapidly, but underneath all his delight there was an +abiding suspicion that his progress had not been entirely due to his own +glaring accomplishments, but that the name of Crocker, senior, his bank +account, and the magic touch of Daniel Drake had been for much. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +UNDER THE TICKER'S TYRANNY + + +During the last month he had had several tentative approaches from +Weldon Forshay, who was what DeLancy called the social scavenger of the +firm, a club man irreproachably connected, amiable and winning in his +ways, who received uptown clients in the outer office, went out to lunch +with the riding set, who lounged in toward midday for what they termed a +whack at the market. Forshay was a thoroughly good fellow who gave his +friends the best of advice, which was no advice at all, and left +business details to his partners, Heinrich Flaspoller and Silas T. Hauk, +shrewd, conservative, self-made men who exchanged one ceremonial family +dinner party a year with their brilliant associate. + +Forshay, who was no fool and neglected no detail of social connections, +had been keen to perceive the advantages of an alliance with the +prospective son-in-law of Daniel Drake, keeping in view the voluminous +transactions that flowed monthly from the keys of that daring +manipulator. The transactions of the last days had been noted with more +than usual interest, and Bojo's announcement of the amount of collateral +which he had to offer as security (he did not, naturally, give the +impression that this was the sum of his holdings) had further increased +the growing affection of the firm for an industrious young man, of such +excellent prospects. + +When Crocker arrived, excited and keyed to the whirring sound of the +ticker, Forshay, a splendid American imitation of an English aristocrat, +drew him affably into an inner room. + +"I say, Crocker," he said, "the firm's been thinking you over rather +seriously. It isn't often a young fellow comes down here and makes his +way as quickly as you. We like your methods, and I think we've been +quick to recognize them--haven't we?" + +"You certainly have," said Tom with real enthusiasm. + +"You've brought us business and you'll bring us more. Now some evening +soon I want you to come up to the club and sit down over a little dinner +and discuss the whole prospect." He looked at him benignly and added: "I +don't see why an ambitious man like you who has got what you have ahead +of you shouldn't fit into this firm before very long." + +"Provided I marry Miss Doris Drake," thought Bojo to himself. The cool +way in which he received the news made a distinct impression on Forshay, +who went a little further. "We realize that with the friends and backing +you've got you're not on the lookout to stay forever on a salary. What +you want is to get a fair share of the business you can swing, and the +only way is to join some firm. Well, I won't say any more now. You know +what we're thinking. We'll foregather later." + +"You're very kind, indeed, Mr. Forshay," said Bojo, delightfully +flustered. + +"Not at all. You're the kind that goes ahead. Oh, by the way, the firm +wants me to tell you that from next week your salary will be +seventy-five dollars." + +This time Bojo gulped down his surprise and shook hands in boyish +delight. + +"Mighty glad to give it to you," said Forshay, laughing. "I see you +think well of Indiana Smelter. Now I don't want you to betray any +confidences, but of course I know how you stand in certain quarters. +There is no harm in my saying that, is there? I've watched you. You +haven't been running after every rumor on the block. You're shrewd. +You're too conservative to invest without some pretty solid reason or to +let your friends in unless you're pretty sure." + +"I am pretty sure," said Crocker solemnly. + +"I thought so," said Forshay meditatively. "I'm rather tempted to try +the thing myself. I've sort of a hunch about you. I liked you, Tom, from +the first. Hope you hit it hard." He glanced in the direction of the +senior partners and lowered his voice confidentially. "Then it's good to +see one of our own kind make good--you understand?" + +In five minutes Bojo had told him in the strictest confidence all he +knew. Forshay received the news with thoughtful deliberation. + +"I'd like it better if Dan Drake had said it direct to you," he said, +frowning. "Still, it's valuable. There may be a good deal in it. I think +I can get a line on it myself. Jimmie Boskirk is a good pal of mine and +he'll know. You keep me informed and I'll let you know what I find out. +Go a little slow. Dan Drake is up to a good many tricks. He's fooled +the talent many a time before. Suppose we say Friday night for our +little confab. Good." + +The mention of Jimmie Boskirk cast a damper over the delights the +interview had brought Bojo. He did not at once realize how easily +Forshay had played him for the information he desired and how really +valuable he believed it. He was lost in a new irritation. Young Boskirk +had been conspicuously assiduous in his attentions to Doris; and, while +this fact aroused in him no jealousy, he had an uncomfortable feeling +that Boskirk was in fact the source of her information. + +But the opening of the market completely drove all other thoughts out of +his mind. For the first time he came under the poignant tyranny of the +flowing tape. Do what he would he could not keep away from it. Indiana +Smelter opened at 104-1/2, went off the fraction, and then advanced to +106 on moderate strength in buying orders. + +"A point and a half--$1500--I've made $1500--just like that," he said to +himself, stupefied. He went to his desk, but ten minutes later on the +pretext of getting a glass of water he returned to the tape to make sure +that his eyes had not deceived him. There it was again and no +mistake--200 Indiana Smelter, 106. He sat down at his desk in a turmoil. +Fifteen hundred dollars! Five times what he had made in three months. If +he had bought two thousand shares, as he could have easily, at a safe +twenty per cent. margin, he would have made three thousand. He felt +angry at himself, defrauded, and, drawing a paper before him, he began +to figure out his profits if the stock should go to 140 or 150, as +every one said it must if the combination went through. + +Then, in order to realize himself his colossal earnings, he called up +Doris on the telephone to hear the sound of such figures. At one, when +he went out to snatch a mouthful at a standing lunch, he consulted three +tickers, impatient that no further sales had been recorded. When +Ricketts, who was still on the sheets, came up to him with his daily +budget of gossip, he listened avidly. Every tip interested him, fraught +with a new dramatic significance. He felt like taking him aside and +whispering in his ear: + +"Listen, Ricketts, if you want a good thing buy Indiana Smelter: it'll +go to 140. I've made fifteen hundred dollars on it in a couple of +hours." + +But he did nothing of the sort. He looked very wise and bored, feeling +immensely superior as a capitalist and future member of the firm of +Hauk, Flaspoller and Forshay, over Ricketts, who had started when he had +started and was still on the sheets at fifteen dollars a week. +"Whispering Bill" Golightly, who had the hypnotic art of inducing +clients to buy and sell and buy again all in the same day, on artfully +fluctuating rumors (to no disparagement of his commission account), came +sidling up, and he hailed him regally. + +"Hello, Bill, what do you know?" + +"Buy Redding," said Golightly softly, with a confidential flutter of the +near eyelid. + +"You're 'way behind. I know something better than that. Come around next +week." + +He left Golightly smiling incredulously and ambled slowly through the +motley group of New Street, that tragic anteroom to Wall Street, where +fallen kings of finance retell the glories of the past and wager a few +miserable dollars on a fugitive whisper. + +"If they only knew what I know," he said to himself, smiling as he +passed on in confident youth, through these wearied old men who in their +misfortune still preferred to be last in the Street if only to be near +Rome. At the offices, high on Exchange Place, looking down on the +huddled group of the curb below in sheepskins and mufflers, flinging +fingered signals in the air to waiting figures in windows above, he +found a new order from Roscoe Marsh and hurriedly had it executed. He +felt like calling up all his friends and asking them to follow his lead +blindly. + +He wanted every one to be making money as easily as he could. Before the +market closed Indiana Smelter receded to 105-1/4 and he felt as though +some one had bodily lifted $500 from his pocket. Still he had made a +thousand dollars for the day. He caught the subway with the crowd of +stockbrokers who came romping out of the stock exchange like released +schoolboys after the day's tension, pommeling and shoving each other +with released glee. His first action was to turn to the financial +columns of his newspaper, to make sure there had been no error, to see +in cold print that he had actually made no mistake. During the week +Indiana Smelter climbed irregularly to 111-1/4, broke three points, and +ended at 109 amid a sudden concentration of public interest. + +On Saturday, when he came back to his blazing windows in the mellow +half-lights of the court, preparatory to dressing for a party in the +wake of Fred DeLancy, he took the flight two steps at a time, bursting +with the need of pouring out his tale of good fortune to responsive +ears. He found only George Granning, snug in the big armchair, sunk in +the beatific contemplation of an immense ledger. + +"What the deuce are you grinning at, you old rhinoceros?" said Bojo, +stopping surprised. + +"I'm casting up accounts," said Granning. "I'm twelve hundred and +forty-two dollars ahead of the game. To-morrow you can buy me my first +bond and make me a capitalist. Bojo, congratulate me. I've got my +raise--forty a week from now on--assistant superintendent! What do you +think of that?" + +"No!" exclaimed Bojo, who had been dreaming in hundreds of thousands. He +shook hands with all the enthusiasm he could force. Then a genuine pity +seized him for the inequalities of opportunity. He seized a chair and +drew it excitedly near his friend. "Granny, listen to me. Do you know +what I have made in ten days? Almost five thousand dollars! Now you know +nothing in this world would let me get you in wrong, unless I knew. +Well, Granny, I know! I'll guarantee you--do you understand--that if +you'll let me take your thousand and invest it as I want, I'll double +your capital in a month." + +"Thank you, no," said Granning in a way that admitted no discussion. +"The gilt-edged kind is my ambition. Look here, how much money have you +put up?" + +"Only twenty thousand." + +"Then give me the rest and let me bury it for you." + +"I tell you I can sell it now and make $4500. What do you say to that?" + +"I'm damned sorry to hear it." + +"You're a nice friend." + +"Lecturing isn't my strong point," said Granning imperturbably, "but +since you insist, the first lesson in life to my mind is a wholesome +respect for the difficulty of making money." + +"You act as though you think I've robbed some old widow, you anarchist!" + +"Twelve times 30 is 360, add 12 times 150 times 30," said Granning, +taking up his pencil. + +"What the deuce are you figuring out?" + +"I'm calculating that at the rate I'm living I can buy another bond in +about ten and three quarter months," said Granning blissfully. + +"Oh, go to the devil," said Bojo, retreating into his room. + +As he started to dress for the evening he began to moralize, glancing +out at Granning, who continued his figuring, a picture of rugged +happiness. + +"Suppose he's thinking of that forty-five dollar a year income now," +thought Bojo, who began to indulge in many worldly speculations of which +he would have been incapable three months before. After all, if some +people only knew it, it was just as easy to make a hundred thousand as a +thousand. All it required was to recognize that the world was unequal +and always would remain unequal, and toward the top of society, when one +had the opportunity of course, it was all a question of knowledge and +influence. + +"Poor old Granny," he said, shaking his head. "In four years I'll be +worth a million and he'll be plodding on, working like a slave, +gloating over a ten-dollar raise." But as he was withal honest in his +values he added: "And the old fellow's worth ten times what I am too!" +He remembered his own raise in salary, but for certain reasons +determined not to risk an ethical comparison. + +"Well, Capitalist, good night," he said, arrayed in top hat, fur coat, +and glowing linen. + +Granning grunted complacently and called him back as he was +disappearing. + +"Hi, there!" + +"What?" + +"Come over to the factory with me some day and see what real work is." + +Bojo slammed the door and went laughing down the stairs. + + * * * * * + +The buying orders multiplied in Indiana Smelter, the air was full of +rumors, the financial columns accepted as a fact that the combination +was decided, and the stock went soaring in the third week, despite one +day of horrible uncertainty, when the report was spread that all +negotiations were off and Indiana Smelter dropped twelve points. When +135 was reached, Bojo became bewildered. In less than a month he had +cleared over thirty thousand dollars. He could not believe his own +reason. Where had it come from? Did it actually exist or would he wake +up some morning and find it evaporated? + +The spinning tack-tack of the ticker was always in his ears. At night +when he started to go to sleep, the room was always full of diabolical +instruments, and great curling streams of thin paper fell over his bed +and Indiana Smelter was kiting up into impossible figures or abruptly +crumbling to nothing. One morning the necessity of actually holding in +his own hands these enormous sums which he had been incredulously +contemplating all these weeks was so imperious that he sold out as the +stock reached 138-1/4. + +For a day a feeling of sublime liberation came to him, as though the +clicking tyranny were forever vanished from his ears. In his pocket was +certainty, incredible but tangible, a check to his order for over +thirty-three thousand dollars. When once this certainty had impressed +itself upon him he had a quick revulsion. It seemed to him that what he +had done was grossly immoral, as though he had thrown his money on a +gambling table and won fabulously with a beginner's luck. Some +providence must have protected him, but he resolved firmly never to +repeat the test. + +He informed Granny of this decision, admitting frankly all the appetite +for gain, the reckless, dangerous excitement it had roused in him. He +spoke with such profound conviction, being for the moment convinced +himself, that Granny's skepticism was conquered, and they shook hands +upon Bojo's sudden enlightenment. + +But the next day, when he had gone up to the Drakes and exhibited the +check for the delectation of Doris, his good intentions began to waver +in the flush of triumph. + +"Now, aren't you glad you listened to a wise little person who is going +to make your fortune?" she said, thrilled at the sight of the check. + +"Who gave you the tip, Doris?" he said uneasily. "You can tell me now." + +"Ask me no questions--" + +"A man or a woman?" he persisted, seeking a subterfuge, for the thought +of asking pointblank if he owed his fortune to Boskirk was repugnant. + +She hesitated a moment, divining his qualms. + +"Promise to ask no more questions." + +"If you'll tell me." + +"A woman, then." + +He pretended to himself a great satisfaction, immensely relieved in his +pride, willing to be convinced. Dan Drake came in and Doris, glad of the +interruption, displayed the check in triumph. + +"So that's it, is it?" said Drake, glancing up at Bojo, who looked +sheepishly happy. And assuming an angry air, he caught Doris by the ear. +"A traitor in my own household, eh?" + +"What do you mean?" she said, defending herself. + +"I mean the next time you wheedle such inside information out, just +remember you've got a daddy." + +"Now, Dad, don't be horrid and take away all my fun. Isn't it glorious!" + +"Very," said Drake with a grimace. "I congratulate you, young scamps. +Your getting in and spreading the good news among the bosom friends--" +he glanced at Bojo, who flushed--"cost me a couple of hundred thousand +more than I intended to pay. I guess, young man, it'll be cheaper for me +to have you inside my office than out!" + +"I didn't realize, sir--" + +"No reason you should, but I want to tell you and your General Manager +so that you won't get any mistaken ideas of your Napoleonic talents, +that there was a moment ten days ago when the whole combination came +near a cropper, wherever you got your information." He stopped, looked +at his daughter severely, and said: "By the way, where _did_ you get +your information, young lady?" + +Doris laughed mischievously, not at all deceived by his assumed anger. + +"I have my own sources of information," she said, imitating his manner. + +The father looked at her shrewdly, amused at the intrigue he divined. + +"Well, this is my guess--" + +But Doris, flinging herself, laughing, at him, closed his lips with her +pretty hand. + +"She used Boskirk to help me," thought Bojo, perceiving her start of +fear and the shrewd smile on the face of the father. + +He did not pursue the matter, but the conviction remained with him. + +Despite his new-found resolutions he was surprised to find that the +obsession of the ticker still held him. With the announcement of the +completion of the Smelter merger, Indiana Smelter rose as high as +142-3/4, and the thought of these thousands which he might have had as +easily as not began to annoy him. He forgot that he had condemned +speculation in the contemplation of what might have been. + +Looking back, it seemed to him that what he had made was ridiculously +small. If he had played the stock as other resolute spirits conducting +such campaigns for fortune, he should have thrown the rest of his +capital behind the venture once he was playing on velvet. He figured out +a dozen ways by which he might have achieved a master stroke and +trebled, even quadrupled, his profits, and the more his mind dwelt upon +it the more eager he became to embark into a fresh venture. Dan Drake +had hinted at taking him into his office. He began to long for the time +when the proposition would be again offered to him, to accept, to be +privileged to play the game as others played it--with marked cards. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE RETURN OF PATSIE + + +During this time Bojo had seen much of life. Marsh was too busily +occupied in the detailed exploration of the machinery and organization +of his paper to be often available, and Bojo's time was pretty evenly +divided between the formal evenings in Doris's set and the excursions +with Fred DeLancy into regions not quite so orthodox. He began to see a +good deal behind the scenes, to marvel at the unbending of big men of a +certain suddenly enriched type, at their gullibility and curious +vanities of display. He himself had an innate love of refinement and an +olden touch of chivalry in his attitude toward women, and went through +what he saw without more harm than disillusionment, wiser for the +lesson. + +To his surprise he found, that what DeLancy had estimated of his social +values was quite true. Fred was in great demand at quiet dances in +discreet salons at Tenafly's and Lazare's, where curious elements +combined to distract the adventurer, rich at forty-five, who, after a +life of Spartan routine, awoke to the call of pleasure and curiosity at +an age when other men have solved their attitude. Fred was looked upon +as a sort of _enfant gâté_ to be rewarded after a gay night with an +easily tossed off order for a thousand shares of this or that to make +his commission. It did not take Bojo long to perceive the inherent +weakness in DeLancy's lovable but pleasure-running character, nor to +speculate upon his future with some apprehension, despite all Fred's +protestations that he was shrewd as they are made, and jolly well alive +to the main chance every minute of the day. + +Bojo had been admitted far enough into his confidence to know that there +was already some one in the practical background, a Miss Gladys Stone, +financially a prize who had been caught with the volatile gaiety and +amusing tricks of Fred DeLancy. DeLancy in fact, in moments of serious +intimacy, openly avowed his intention of settling down within a year or +two at the most, and Bojo, with the memory of riotous nights from which +he had with difficulty extracted the popular Fred, owned to himself that +the sooner this occurred the better he would be suited. + +He had met Gladys Stone once when he had dropped in on Doris, and he had +a blurred recollection of a thin, blond girl, who giggled and chattered +a great deal and spoke several times of being bored by this or that, by +the opera where there was nothing new, by dinner parties where it was +such a bore to talk bridge, by Palm Beach, which was getting to be a +bore because cheaper hotels had gone up and every one was being let in, +but who would go off into peals of laughter the moment Fred DeLancy +struck a chord on the piano and imitated a German ballade. + +"Gladys is a good soul at bottom. She's crazy about Fred and he can +marry her any day he wants her," said Doris, sitting in judgment. + +"Do you think it would turn out well?" he said. + +"Why not? Gladys hasn't a thought in her head. She'll be a splendid +audience for Fred. He isn't the sort of a person ever to fall +desperately in love." + +"I don't know about that," said Bojo, with an uneasy recollection of a +certain alluring but rather obvious little actress, respectable but +entirely too calculating to his way of thinking, whom Fred had been +seeing entirely too much. + +"Nonsense! That sort of person is always thinking of the crowd. Besides +Gladys is too stupid to be jealous. It's a splendid match. She'll get a +husband that'll save her house from being a bore, and he'll get a pile +of money: just what each needs." + +He saw Doris three or four times a week. She had become a very busy +lady, constantly complaining of the fatigues of a social season. Fred +DeLancy, who, with Marsh, had been admitted to intimacy, made fun of her +to her face in his impudent way, pretending a deep solicitude for the +overburdened rich. + +"But it's true," said Doris indignantly. "I haven't a minute to myself. +I'm going from morning to night. You haven't an idea how exacting our +lives are." + +"Tell me," said DeLancy, assuming a countenance of commiseration, while +Bojo laughed. + +"Horrid beast!" said Doris, pouting. "And then there's charity; you've +no idea how much time charity takes. I'm on three committees and we have +to meet once a week for luncheon. Then I'm in the show for the benefit +of some hospital or other, and now they want us to come to morning +rehearsals. Then there's the afternoon bridge class until four, and half +a dozen teas to go through, and back to be dressed and curled and start +out for dinner and a dance, night after night. And now there's Dolly's +wedding coming on, and the dressmaker and the shopping. I tell you I'm +beginning to look old already!" + +She glanced at the clock and went off with a sigh to be decked out for +another social struggle, as Mrs. Drake entered. The young men excused +themselves. Bojo never felt quite comfortable under the scrutiny of the +mother's menacing lorgnette. She was a frail, uneasy little woman, who +dressed too young for her age, whose ready tears had won down the +opposition of her husband, much as the steady drip of a tiny rivulet +bores its way through granite surfaces. She did not approve of Bojo--a +fact of which he was well aware--and was resolved when her first +ambition had been gratified by Dolly's coming marriage to turn her +forces on Doris. + +At present she was too much occupied, for there were weak moments when +Dolly, for all her foreign education, rose up in revolt, and others when +Mr. Drake, incensed at the cold-blooded conduct of the pre-nuptial +business arrangements, had threatened to send the whole pack of impudent +lawyers flying. Patsie had been packed off on a visit to a cousin after +a series of indiscretions, culminating in a demand to know from the Duke +what the French meant by a _mariage de convenance_--a request which fell +like a bombshell in a sudden silence of the family dinner. + +It was a week before the wedding, as Bojo was swinging up the Avenue +past the Park on his way to Doris, that he suddenly became aware of a +young lady in white fur cap and black velvets skipping toward him, +pursued by a terrier that had a familiar air, while from the attendant +automobile a tall and scrawny spinster was gesticulating violently and +unheeded. The next moment Patsie had run up to him, her arm through his, +Romp leaning against him in recognition, while she exclaimed: + +"Bojo, thank Heaven! Save me from this awful woman!" + +"What's wrong, what's the matter?" he said, laughing, feeling all at +once a delightful glow at the sight of her snapping eyes and breathless, +parted lips. + +"They've brought me back and tied a dragon to me," she cried +indignantly. "I won't stand it. I won't go parading up and down with a +keeper, just like an animal in a zoo. It's all mother's doings, and +Dolly's, because I miffed her old duke. Send the dragon away, please, +Bojo, please." + +"What's her name?" he said, with an eye to the approaching car. + +"Mlle. du Something or other--how do I know?" + +The frantic companion now bearing down, with the chauffeur set to a +grin, Bojo explained his right to act as Miss Drina's escort, and the +matter was adjusted by the _demoiselle de compagnie_ promising to keep a +block behind until they neared home. + +Patsie waxed indignant. "Wait till I get hold of Dad! I'll fix her! The +idea! I'm eighteen-- I guess I can take care of myself. I say, let's +give them the slip. No? Oh, dear, it would be such fun. I'm crazy to +slip off and get some skating. What do you think? Can't even do that. +Too vulgar!" + +"What did you say to the Duke that raised such a row?" said Bojo, +pleasantly conscious of the light weight on his arm. + +"Nothing at all," said Patsie, with an innocent face; but there was a +twinkle in the eyes. "I simply asked what this _mariage de convenance_ +was I heard them all talking about, and when he started in to make some +long-winded speech I cut in and asked him if it wasn't when people +didn't love each other but married to pay the bills. Then every one +talked out loud and mother looked at me through her telescope." + +"You knew, of course," said Bojo reprovingly. + +Drina laughed a guilty laugh. + +"I don't think Dolly wants to marry him a bit," she declared. "It's all +mother. Catch me marrying like that." + +"And how are you going to marry?" + +"When I marry, it'll be because I'm so doggoned in love I'd be sitting +out on the top step waiting for him to come round. If I were engaged to +a man I'd hook him tight and I wouldn't let go of him either, no matter +who was looking on. What sort of a love is it when you sit six feet +apart and try to look bored when some one rattles a door!" + +"Patsie--you're very romantic, I'm afraid." + +She nodded her head energetically, rattling on: "Moonlight, shifting +clouds, heavily scented flowers, and all that sort of thing. Never mind, +they'd better look out. I'm not going to stand this sort of treatment. +I'll elope." + +"You wouldn't do that, Patsie." + +"Yes, I would. I say, when you and Doris marry will you let me come and +stay with you?" + +"We certainly will," he said enthusiastically. + +"Then what are you waiting for?" + +"I'm waiting," said Bojo dryly, after a pause, "until I have made enough +money of my own." + +"Good for you," she said, as if immensely relieved. "I knew you were +that sort." + +"And when are you coming out?" he asked, to turn the conversation. + +"The night before the wedding. Isn't it awful?" + +"You'll have lots of men hanging about you--crazy about you," he said +abruptly. + +"Pooh!" + +"Never mind, I shall watch over you carefully and keep the wrong ones +away." + +"Will you?" + +He nodded, looking into her eyes. + +"Good for you. I'll come to you for advice." + +They were at the house, the lemon livery of the footmen showing behind +the glass doors. + +"I say," said Patsie, with a sudden mischievous smile, "meet me at the +corner to-morrow at four and we'll go off skating." + +He shook his head sternly. + +"Bojo, please--just for a lark!" + +"I will call for you in a proper social manner perhaps." + +"Will Doris have to be along?" she asked, thoughtfully. + +"I shall of course ask Doris." + +"On second thoughts, no, thank you. I think I shall go to my +dressmaker's," she said, with a perfect imitation of his formal +tone--and disappeared with a final burst of laughter. + + * * * * * + +He went in to see Doris with a sudden determination to clear up certain +matters which had been on his conscience. As luck would have it, as he +entered the great anteroom Mr. James Boskirk was departing. He was a +painstaking, rather obvious young man of irreproachable industry and +habits, a little over serious, rated already as one of the solid young +men of the younger generation of financiers, who made no secret of the +fact that he had arrived at a deliberate decision to invite Miss Doris +Drake into the new firm which he had determined to found for the +establishment of his home and the perpetuation of his name. + +It seemed to Bojo, in the perfunctory greeting which they exchanged as +civilized savages, that there was a look of derogatory accusation in +Boskirk's eyes, and, infuriated, he determined to bring up the subject +of Indiana Smelter again and force the truth from Doris. + +He came in with a well-assumed air of amusement, adopting a sarcastic +tone, which he knew she particularly dreaded. + +"See here, Miss General Manager, this'll never do," he said lightly. "I +thought you were cleverer than that." + +"What do you mean?" she said, instantly scenting danger. + +"Letting your visits overlap. I only hope you had time to manage all Mr. +Boskirk's affairs. Only, for Heaven's sake, Doris, now that you've got +him in hand, get him to change his style of collar and cuffs. He looks +like the head of an undertakers' trust." + +The idea that he might be jealous pleased her. + +"Poor Mr. Boskirk," she said, smiling. "He's a very straightforward, +simple fellow." + +"Very simple," he said dryly. "Well, what more information has he been +giving you?" + +"He does not give me any information." + +"You know perfectly well, Doris, that he gave you the tip on Indiana +Smelter," he said furiously, "and that you denied because you knew I +would never have approved." + +"You are perfectly horrid, Bojo," she said, going to the fireplace and +stirring up the logs. "I don't care to discuss it with you." + +"I'm sorry," he said, "but you've hurt my pride." + +"How?" + +"Good heavens, can't you see! Haven't you women any sense of fitness? +Don't you know that some things are done and some things are not done?" + +She came to him contritely and put her hands on his shoulders. + +"Bojo, why do you reproach me? Because I am only thinking of your +success, all the time, every day? Is that what you are angry about?" + +He felt like blurting out that there was something in that too, that he +wanted the privilege of feeling that he was winning his own way; but +instead he said: + +"So it was Boskirk." + +She looked at him, hesitated, and answered: + +"No, it wasn't. But if it had been why should you hold it against me? +Why don't you want me to help?--for you don't!" + +He resolved to be blunt. + +"If you would only do something that is not reasonable, not calculated, +Doris! But everything you do is so well considered. You didn't use to +be this way. I can't help thinking you care more about your life in +society than you do me. It's the worldly part of you I'm afraid about." + +She looked into his eyes steadily a moment and then turned her head away +and nodded, smiling in assent. + +"Heavens, Doris, if you want to do like Dolly, if you want a position, +or a title, say so and let's be honest." + +"But I don't-- I don't," she cried impetuously. "You don t know how I +have fought--" she stopped, not wishing to mention her mother and, +lifting her glance to him anxiously, said: "Bojo, what do you want me to +do?" + +"I want you to do something uncalculated," he burst out--"mad, +impulsive, as persons do who are wild in love with each other. I want +you to marry me now." + +"Now!" + +"Listen: With what I've got and my salary I can scrape up ten +thousand--no, don't spoil it-- I don't want any money from you. Will you +take your chances and marry me on my own basis now?" + +She caught her breath and finally said, marking each word: + +"Yes--I--will--marry--you--now!" + +He burst out laughing at the look of terror in her eyes at the thought +of facing life on ten thousand a year. + +"Don't worry, Doris," he said, taking her in his arms. "I wouldn't be so +cruel. I only wanted to hear you say it." + +"But I did--I will--if you ask it," she said quickly. + +He shook his head. + +"If you'd only said it differently. Don't mind me--I'm an idiot--and you +don't understand." + +What he meant was that he was an idiot, when he was getting so much that +other men coveted, to insist on what was not in her charming, facile +self to give him. An hour later, after an interview with Daniel Drake, +he was ready to wonder what had made him flare up so quickly--Boskirk's +presence perhaps, or something impulsive which had awakened within him +when Drina had flushed while describing her distinct ideas upon the +subject of the sentiments. + +But a new exhilaration effectively drove away all other emotions--the +delirious appetite for gain which had come irresistibly and tyrannically +into his life with the dramatic intensity of his first speculation. In +the interim in Daniel Drake's library, with Doris perched excitedly on +the arm of his chair, several things had been decided. A great operation +was under way which promised an unusual profit. Bojo was to place +$50,000 in the pool which was to be used to operate in the stocks of a +certain Southern railroad long suspected to be on the verge of a +receivership, at the end of which campaign he was to enter Mr. Drake's +service in the rôle of a private secretary. + +Meanwhile he was to continue in the employ of Hauk, Flaspoller and +Forshay, the better to figure in the mixed scheme of manipulation which +would be necessary. He was so seized with the drama of the opportunity, +so keen over the thought of being once more a part of all the whirling, +hurtling machinery of speculation that he did not remember even for a +passing thought, the horror which had come over him at his first +incredible success. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE WEDDING BALL + + +The wedding of Miss Dolly Drake to the Duke of Polin-Crecy was the event +of the season. It was preceded by a ball which marked the definite +surrender of the last recalcitrant members of New York society to the +ambitions of Mrs. Drake. Such events have a more or less public quality, +like a performance for charity or a private view at an important +auction. Every one who could wheedle an invitation by hook or crook, +arrived with the rolling crowd that blocked the avenue and side streets +and necessitated a special detachment of the police to prevent the mob +of enthusiastic democrats from precipitating themselves on the ducal +carriage and tearing the ducal garments in shreds in the quest of +souvenirs. + +The three young men from Ali Baba Court arrived together, abandoning +their taxicab and forcing their way on foot to the front. Marsh, who was +always moved to sarcasm by such occasions, kept up a running comment. + +"Marvelous exhibition! Every one who's gunning for Drake is here +to-night. There's old Borneman. He's been laying for a chance to catch +Daniel D. on the wrong side of the market ever since Drake trimmed him +in a wheat corner in Chicago. By Jove, the Fontaines and the Gunthers. +They're going to this as to a circus. Why the deuce didn't the cards +read Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Drake invite you to meet their enemies!" + +"Never mind," said Bojo, laughing. "It's Mrs. Drake's night--she'll be +in her glory, you can bet." + +"Oh, you'll be as bad as the rest," said Marsh, who spoke his mind. +"Tom, you're doomed. I can see that. You've got a feminine will to +contend with, so make your mind up to the inevitable. There's Haggerdy's +party now--every bandit in Wall Street'll be here figuring up how they +can get at their host. Well, Bojo, you're lost to us already." + +"How so?" + +"In this game, you never pay attention to your friends--you've got to +entertain those who dislike you, to make sure they'll have to invite you +to some function or other where everybody must be seen. Well, I know +what I'll do, I'll get hold of the youngest sister, who is a trump, and +play around with her." + +Bojo looked at him uneasily; even this casual interest in Patsie +affected him disagreeably. DeLancy had deserted them to rush over to the +assistance of the Stones, who were just arriving. + +"I hope he gets her," said Marsh, studying the blond profile of Miss +Gladys Stone. + +"I believe there's some sort of an understanding." + +"The sooner the better--for Freddie," said Marsh, with a shake of his +head. "The trouble with Fred is he thinks he's a cold thinking machine, +and he's putty in the hands of any woman who comes along." + +"I'm worried about a certain person myself," said Bojo. + +But at this moment Thornton, one of Mr. Drake's secretaries, touched him +on the arm. + +"Will you please come to the library, Mr. Crocker? Mr. Drake has been +asking for you to witness some papers." + +In the library off in a quiet wing he found a party of five gathered +about the table desk, lawyers verifying the securities for the marriage +settlement, Maître Vondin, a stubby, black-bearded Frenchman imported +for the occasion, coldly incredulous and suavely insistent, the storm +center of an excited group who had been arguing since dinner. Drake, by +the fireplace, was pacing up and down, swearing audibly. + +"Is the _gentleman_ now quite satisfied?" he said angrily. + +Maître Vondrin smiled in the affirmative. + +Drake sat down at the table with the gesture of brushing away a swarm of +flies and signed his name to a document that was placed before him, +nodding to Bojo to add his signature as a witness. + +"Pity some of our corporations couldn't employ Vondrin," said Drake, +rising angrily. "There wouldn't be enough money left to keep a savings +bank." + +Other signatures were attached and the party broke up, Maître Vondrin, +punctilious and unruffled, bowing to the master of the house and +departing with the rest. + +Drake's anger immediately burst forth. + +"Cussed little sharper! He was keen enough to save this until now. By +heavens, if he'd sprung these tactics on me a week ago, his little Duke +could have gone home on a borrowed ticket." + +Bojo learned afterward that the lawyer for the noble family had refused +to take Drake's word on a single item of the transfer of property, +insisting on having every security placed before his eyes, personally +examining them all, wrangling over values, compelling certain +substitutes, even demanding a personal guarantee in one debated issue of +bonds. + +"God grant she doesn't come to regret it," said Drake, thinking of his +wife. His anger made him careless of what he said. "Tom, mark my words, +if ever this precious Duke comes to me for money--as, mark my words, he +will--I'll make him get down on his knees for all his superciliousness, +and turn somersaults like a trick dog. Yes, by heaven, I will!" + +Bojo was silent, not knowing what to say, and Drake finally perceived +it. + +"It isn't Dolly's fault," he said apologetically. "She's a good sort. +This isn't her doing. There was a time when her mother-- Well, I'll say +no more. Nasty business! Tom, I'll bless the day when I see Doris safe +with you, married to a decent American." He took a turn or two and said +abruptly, trying to convey more than he expressed: "Don't wait too long. +It's a bad atmosphere, all this--there are influences--it isn't fair to +the girl, to Doris. Money be damned! I'll see you never have to ask your +wife for pocket money. No, I won't present it to you. We'll make it +together. There are a lot of buzzards sitting around here to-night, +calculating I'm loaded up to the brim and ready for a plucking. Well, +Tom, I'm going to fool them. I'm going to make them pay for the +wedding." + +The idea struck him. He burst out laughing. His eyes snapped with a +sudden project. + +"Here," he said, clapping Bojo on the shoulder. "Forget what you've +heard. Go in and take a look at Doris. She's a sight for tired eyes." He +held his hand. "Are you willing to risk your money with me--go it blind, +eh?" + +"Every cent I have, Mr. Drake," said Bojo, drawn to him by the dramatic +sympathies the older man knew how to arouse; "only I don't want any +favors. If we lose I lose." + +"We won't lose," said Drake and, drawing Bojo's arm under his, he added: +"Come on. I've got to get a smile on my face. So here goes." + +Bojo found Doris in the corner of the ballroom assiduously surrounded by +a black-coated hedge of young men. He had a moment's thrill at the sight +of her, radiant and dazzling with every art of dressmaker and +hairdresser, revealed in a sinuous arrangement of black chiffon with +mysterious sudden sheens of gold. She came to him at once, expectancy in +her eyes; and the thought that this prize was his, that hundreds would +watch them as they stood together, acknowledging his right, gave him a +sudden swift sense of power and conquest. + +"I was with your father," he said, in explanation, "to witness some +papers. Say, Doris, how every woman here must hate you to-night!" + +"It's all for you," she said, delighted. "Dance with me. Tell me what +happened. There's been a dreadful row, I know, for days. Mother and +father haven't spoken except in public, and Dolly's been moping." + +"It was something about the settlements. Your father was white-hot all +right." + +"We won't have more than a round or two," she said. "I've kept what I +could for you--the supper dance, of course. Every one is here!" + +"I should say so. Your mother is smiling all over. She even favored me. +Look out, though, Doris--she'll begin on you." + +[Illustration: "'Just you wait; you're going to be one of the big men +some day!'"] + +"Don't worry, Bojo," she said in a whisper, with a little pressure of +his arm. She was quite excited by the brilliance of the throng, at her +own personal triumph and the good looks of her partner. "I want +something I can make myself, and we'll do it too. Just you wait, you're +going to be one of the big men one of these days, and we'll have our +house and our parties--finer than this, too!" + +This time he fell into her mood, turning her over to another partner +with a confident smile, exhilarated with the thought of little +supremacies in regions of brilliant lights and dreamy music. Fred +DeLancy, back from a dance with Gladys Stone, stopped him with an +anecdote. + +"I say, Bojo, wish you could have seen some of the old hens inspecting +the palace. You know Mrs. Orchardson, Standard Oil? I was right back of +her when she wandered into some Louis or other room, and what did she +do? She ran her thumbnail into a partition and whispered to her +neighbor: 'Ours is real mahogany'! Don't they love one another, though?" + +By the buffet groups of men were smoking, glass in hand, Borneman and +Haggerdy talking business. In the ante-chamber where the great marble +staircase came winding down, he found Patsie at bay repelling a group +of admirers. She signaled him frantically. + +"Bojo; rescue me. They're even quoting poetry to me!" + +She sprang away and down the stairs to his side, hurrying him off. + +"Faster, faster! Isn't there any place we can hide? My ears are dropping +off." + +"Patsie, I never should have known you!" he said, amazed. + +"Well, I'm out!" she said, with an indignant pout. "How do you like me?" + +She stood away from him, a little malicious delight in her eyes at his +bewilderment, her chin saucily tilted, her profile turned, her little +hands balanced in the air. + +"This is the way the models pose. Well?" + +"I thought you were a child--" he said stupidly, troubled at the sudden +discovery of the woman. + +"Is that all?" she said, pretending displeasure. + +He checked an impulsive compliment and said a little angrily: + +"Oh, Patsie, you are going to make a terrible amount of trouble. I can +see that!" + +"Pooh!" + +"Yes, and you like the mischief you're causing too. Don t fib!" + +"Yes, I like it," she said, nodding her head. "Dolly and Doris stared at +me as if I were a ghost. Well, I'll show them I'm not such a savage." + +"I hope you won't change," he said. + +"Won't I?" she said, and to tease him she continued, "I'll show them!" + +He felt sentimentally moved to give her a lecture, but instead he said, +deeply moved: + +"I'd hate to think of your being different." + +"Oh, really?" she continued irrelevantly. "You didn't bother your soul +about me while you thought I was nothing but a tomboy and a terror! But +now when there are a lot of black flies buzzing around me--" + +"Now, Patsie, you know that isn't true!" + +She relented with a laugh. + +"Do you really like me like this? No, don't say anything mushy. I see +you do. Oh, dear, I knew this old money would find me," she said, +suddenly perceiving a plump youngster with a smirch of a mustache +bearing down. "Please, Bojo, come and dance with me--often." + +He more than shared the evening with her, quite unconscious of the +effect she had made on him, constantly following her in the confusion of +the dances, pleased when at a distance she saw his look and smiled back +at him. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, in the buffet, Haggerdy and Borneman, in the midst of a +group, discussed their host; that is, Borneman discussed and Haggerdy, +stolid as a buffalo, with his great emotionless mask, nodded +occasionally. + +"Well, Dan's at the top," said Marcus Stone. "Dukes come high. What do +you think it cost him?" + +"Dukes are no longer a novelty," said Borneman. He was rather out of +place in this formal gathering, having about him a curious air of +always being in his shirt-sleeves. A long, sliding nose, lips pursed +like a catfish, every feature seemed alert and pointed to catch the +furthest whisper. Stone nodded and moved off. Borneman drew Haggerdy +into a corner. + +"Jim, I have reason to believe Drake's overloaded," he said. + +Haggerdy scratched his chin, thoughtfully, as much as to say, "quite +possible," and Borneman continued: "He's stocked up with Indiana +Smelter, and a lot of other things too. I happen to know. He's +long--mighty long of the market. A little short flurry might worry him +considerable. Now, do you know how I've figured it?" + +"How?" + +"Dan Drake's a plunger, always was. This here duke has cost him +considerable--a million." He glanced at Haggerdy. "Two million +perhaps--and in securities, Jim; nothing speculative; gilt-edged bonds. +That's a million or two out of his reserve--do you get me?--and that's a +lot, when you're carrying a dozen deals at once." + +"Well?" + +"Well, Dan Drake's a plunger, remember that; he don't see one million +going out--without itching to see where another million's coming in--" + +Haggerdy nudged him quietly. At this moment Drake came through the crowd +and perceived them in consultation. A glance at their attitudes made him +divine the subject of their conversation. + +"Hello, boys," he said, coming up; "being properly attended to?" + +"Dan, that's a pretty fine duke you've got there. Darn sight more +intelligent looking than the one Fontaine picked up," said Borneman. +"Dukes are expensive articles though, Dan. Take more than a wheat corner +to settle up for this, I should say." + +"Been thinking so myself," said Drake cheerily. "Well, Al, if I made up +my mind to try a little flyer--just to pay for the wedding, you +understand--what would you recommend?" + +"What would _I_ recommend?" said Borneman, startled. + +"Exactly. What do you think about general conditions?" + +"My feelings are," said Borneman, watching him warily, "the market's +top-heavy. Values are 'way above where they ought to be. Prices are +coming tumbling sooner or later, and then, by golly, it's going hard +with a lot of you fellows." + +"You're inclined to be bearish, eh?" said Drake, as though struck by the +thought. + +"I most certainly am." + +"Shouldn't wonder if you're right, Al. I've a mind to follow your +advice. Sell one thousand Southern Pacific, one thousand Seaboard Air +Line, one thousand Pennsylvania, and one thousand Pittsburgh & New +Orleans. Just as a feeler, Al. Perhaps to-morrow I'll call you up and +increase that. Can't introduce you to any of the pretty girls--not +dancing? All right." + +Borneman caught his breath and looked at Haggerdy as Drake went off. If +there was one man he had fought persistently, at every turn biding his +time, it was Daniel Drake, who had thus come to him with an appearance +of frankness and exposed his game. + +"It's a bluff," he said excitedly. "He thinks he can fool me. He's in +the market, but he's in to buy." + +"Think so?" said Haggerdy profoundly. + +"Or he has the impudence to show me his game thinking I won't believe +him. Anyhow, Dan's got something started, and if I know the critter, +it's something big!" + +Haggerdy smiled and scratched his chin. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +DRAKE'S GAME + + +The evening was still at its height as Daniel Drake left Haggerdy and +Borneman with their heads together puzzling over the significance of his +selling orders. + +"Let them crack that nut," he said, chuckling grimly. "Borneman will +worry himself sick for fear I'll catch him again." He looked around for +further opportunities, anxious to avail himself of the seeming chance +which had played so well into his plans. Across the room through the +shift and sudden yield of gay colors he saw the low, heavy-shouldered +figure of Gunther, the banker, in conversation with Fontaine and Marcus +Stone. Gunther, the simplest of human beings, a genius of common sense, +had even at this time assumed a certain legendary equality in Wall +Street, due to the possession of the unhuman gift of silence, that had +magnified in the popular imagination the traits of tenacity, patience +and stability which in the delicately constructed mechanism of +confidence and credit had made him an indispensable balance wheel, +powerful in his own right, yet irresistible in the intermarried forces +of industry he could set in motion. Fontaine was of the old landed +aristocracy; Stone, a Middle-Westerner, floated to wealth on the +miraculous flood of oil. + +Aware that every conversation would be noted, Drake allowed several +minutes to pass before approaching the group and, profiting by a +movement of the crowd, contrived to carry off Gunther on the pretext of +showing him a new purchase of Chinese porcelains in the library. They +remained a full twenty minutes, engrossed in the examination of the +porcelains and Renaissance bronzes, of which Gunther was a connoisseur, +and returned without a mention of matters financial. But as Wall Street +men are as credulous as children, this interview made an immense +impression, for Gunther was of such power that no broker was unwilling +to concede that the slightest move of his could be without significance. + +To be again in the arena of manipulation awakened all the boyish +qualities of cunning and excitement in Drake. In the next hour he +conversed with a dozen men seemingly bending before their advice, +bullish or bearish, mixing up his orders so adroitly that had the entire +list been spread before one man, it would have been impossible to say +which was the principal point of attack. At two o'clock, as the party +began to thin out, Borneman and Haggerdy came up to shake hands. +Borneman restless and worried, Haggerdy impassive and brooding. + +"What, going already? Haven't they been treating you right?" said Drake +jovially. + +"Dan, you've a great poker face," said Borneman slyly. + +"In what way?" + +"That was quite a little bluff you threw into us--those selling orders. +Orders are cheap _before_ business hours." + +"So you think I'll call you up in the morning, bright and early, and +cancel?" + +Borneman nodded with a nervous, jerky motion of his head. + +"I suppose you've been sort of fretting over those orders all evening. +Trouble with you, Al, is _you_ don't play poker: great game. Teaches you +to size up a bluff from a stacked hand." + +"I've got your game figured out this time all right," said Borneman, +with his ferret's squint. + +"Have you told Haggerdy?" said Drake laughing. "You have. Want a little +bet on it? A thousand I'll tell you exactly what you've figured out." + +He took a bill from his pocketbook and held it out tauntingly. + +"Are you game?" + +Borneman hesitated and frowned. + +"Come on," said Drake, with a mischievous twinkle, "the information's +worth something." + +This last decided Borneman. He nodded to Haggerdy. + +"My check to-morrow if you win. What exactly have I figured your game to +be?" + +"You've figured out that I am long to the guzzle in the market and that +I'm putting up a bluff at running down values to get you fellows to run +stocks up on me while I unload. Credit that thousand to my account. I'm +going to use it!" + +Haggerdy smiled grimly and handed over the bill, while Borneman, +completely perplexed, stood staring at the manipulator like a startled +child. + +"Al, don't buck up against me," said Drake, serious all at once. "Of +course you will, but remember I warned you. Let bygones be bygones or +trim some other fellow." + +"I don't forget as easy as that," said Borneman sullenly. + +"Great mistake," said Drake, with a mocking smile. "You let your +personal feelings get into your business--bad, very bad. You ought to be +like Haggerdy and me--no friends and no enemies. Well, Al, you will have +a crack at me, I know. If you've figured it out, you've got me. I may +have told you the truth. It's all very simple--either you're right or +you're wrong. Flip up a coin." + +Borneman went off mumbling. Haggerdy loitered, ostensibly to shake +hands. + +"Drake, you and I ought to do something together," he said slowly, with +his cold, lantern stare. + +"Why not?" + +"Instead of taking a fling, suppose we work up something worth while. +The market's ready for it." + +"And Borneman?" + +"Use him," said Haggerdy, with a trace of a smile. + +"Why, yes, we might do something together," said Drake, pretending to +consider. "You might do me or I might do you." + +"I'm serious." + +"So am I." He shook hands and turned back for a final shot. "By the way, +Haggerdy, I'll tell you one thing. Your information's correct. That +federal suit is coming off. Didn't know I knew it? Lord bless you, I +passed it on to you!" + +He turned his back without waiting to watch the effect of this +disclosure and returned to the supper room, where he signaled Crocker +and drew him aside. + +"Tom, I'll have a little something for you to do to-morrow. It's about +time we started moving things. I'm going to put some orders in through +you and I'm going to operate some through one of my agents. Put this +away in your head--Joseph R. Skelly. Write it down when you get home. +Anything that comes through him, I stand behind. We won't do anything in +a rush, but we'll lay a few lines. To-morrow I want you to sell for +me--" He paused and deliberated, suddenly changing his mind. "No, do it +this way. Call me up from your office at twelve--no, eleven sharp. I've +got that wedding at three. Ask for me personally. Understand? All +right?" + +At half past three Fred DeLancy, Marsh and Bojo went out with the last +stragglers. Fred was in high spirits, keeping them in roars of laughter, +on the brisk walk home. He had been with Gladys Stone constantly all the +evening and the two friends had watched a whispered parting on the +stairs. + +"I believe it's a go," said Marsh, while DeLancy was passing the time of +day with the policeman at the corner. (Fred was assiduous in his +cultivation of the force; he called it "accident insurance.") + +"Something was settled," said Bojo nodding. "They've got an +understanding, I'll bet. I passed them once tucked in back of a palm and +they stopped talking like a shot. Wish we had the infant safely put +away, Fred." + +"So do I." + +The streets were unearthly stilled and inhuman as they came back to Ali +Baba Court, with all the windows black, and only the iron lanterns at +the entrances shining their foggy welcome. + +"Don't feel a bit like sleep," said Bojo. + +"Neither do I," said Marsh. He stood looking up at the incessantly +vigilant windows of the great newspaper office now in the charge of the +night watch. "Wonder what's filtering in there? I always feel guilty +when I cut a night. I suppose it's like the fascination of the tape. It +always gets me--the click of the telegraph." + +"How are things working out on the paper?" said Bojo. + +"Thanks, I'm getting into all sorts of trouble," said Marsh, rather +gloomily, he thought. "I'm finding out a lot of things I don't +know--sort of measles and mumps period. I had no right to be out +to-night. I say, if you get into any other good thing, let me know. I +may need it." + +Alone in his room, Bojo did not go to bed at once. He was nervously +awake, revolving in his mind too many new impressions, new ambitions and +strange philosophies. The evening at the Drakes had swept from him his +last prejudices against the adventurous life on which he had embarked. +There was something overpowering in the spectacle of society as he had +seen it, something so insolently triumphant and aloof from all plodding +standards, so dramatically enticing that he felt no longer compunctions +but only fierce desires. The appetite had entered his veins, infusing +its fever. The few words Drake had spoken to him had sent his hope +soaring. He was surprised, even a little alarmed, at the intensity which +awoke in him to risk the easy profits against a greater gamble. + +The market went off a shade the next morning, rallied and then weakened +under a steady stream of selling orders. Rumors filled the air of +possible causes known only to the inside group, a conflict of big +interests, a suit for dissolution by a federal investigation. Something +was up-- Drake's name was whispered about, along with Haggerdy's and a +western group. On the Exchange a hundred rumors came into existence like +newly hatched swarms of insects. Some one was steadily bearing eastern +railroads and some one as obstinately supporting them, but who remained +a mystery, eagerly discussed in little knots, fervently alive to a +firmer touch on the strings of speculation. + +At eleven o'clock, true to appointment, Bojo called up Daniel Drake on +his private wire and received an order to buy at once 500 shares of +Seaboard Air Line and sell 500 of Pittsburgh & New Orleans. He turned +the order over to Forshay, with the caution of secrecy that had been +transmitted to him. This transaction created quite a flurry, and after a +consultation Forshay was delegated to sound Bojo. + +"Personal order from the old man himself?" he said, when he had reported +to him the execution of the order. "Nothing confidential, of course. +Happened to hear you telephone." + +"Why, no," said Bojo, telephoning in his report. + +"Suppose you've an inkling what's up? Naturally you have," said Forshay. +"Now, I'm not going to beat around the bush or worm things out of you. +We're mighty grateful to you, Tom, for the shot at Indiana Smelter. If +you can let us in on anything, why do so. You understand. I've been +talking things over with Hauk and Flaspoller. If Drake's going into the +market, we don't see why we can't be of use. 'Course, on account of your +relations, he probably wouldn't want to do much openly here. Too many +eyes on us. But what we want you to put up to him is--we can cover +things up as well as any one else. Any orders to be placed quietly, we +can work through certain channels--you understand. By the way, doing +anything on your own account?" + +"Not yet." + +"Don't want to talk?" + +Bojo shrugged his shoulders. + +"I'm quite in the dark, Mr. Forshay," he said cautiously. + +Forshay took a few steps thoughtfully about the room, stopping curiously +to examine the tape and came back. + +"Look here, Tom, if there's anything on a big scale on, why shouldn't we +get a whack at it? You see, I'm putting my cards on the table. We +consider you a sort of a member of the firm. I made you a proposition +once. Perhaps we can better it now." He hesitated, rearranging the +sheets on the desk before him. "I'm trying to see how we could work this +out. It's not exactly etiquette to give commissions down here--though +why the Lord knows. Suppose I work out a scale of salary--to meet, say, +certain eventualities. Let me think that over. Meanwhile here's what +we'd be glad to do. You can't be calling up Drake out here where any one +can be pricking up his ears. Now it may fit in his plans or not, but +there's no harm trying. If he wants to operate through us, and have +things well covered up, it might be better for you to handle it from my +room on a special wire. We'll fix you up in there; glad to." He stopped, +considered Bojo thoughtfully, and added: "Tom, we want some of Drake's +business. No reason in the world why you shouldn't get it. You know us. +You know we can be trusted, and you know we are appreciative--understand? + +"I can try," said Bojo doubtfully. + +But to his surprise when he approached Drake on the following night he +found a receptive listener. + +"Don't know but what I could use your firm," said the operator +thoughtfully. "Not that I'm rushing matters too much, Tom. The market's +pretty strong at present. I want to feel it out. Maybe I could use +them--for what I want them to know. Get your raise, but keep out of the +firm--for the present, anyhow. Just now I'm holding back a little, Tom, +a little early to uncover my game--tell you, though, what you might do; +sell five hundred shares a day of Pittsburgh & New Orleans for me, but +tell them to break it up 50 here and 50 there. I don't mind telling you +one thing, but keep it under your belt; no confidences this time." He +looked up sharply at the young fellow, who twisted on his heel under the +look. "Confidences sometimes react and I don't want the cat out of the +bag. What's Pittsburgh & New Orleans quoted?" + +"47-1/8 Closing," said Bojo. + +"A month from to-day it'll sell below thirty. And another thing, Tom, +don't go trying any fliers on your own hook, without coming to me. You +had fool's luck once, don't try it again. Remember I'm manipulating this +pool and I have my ways!" + +This time Bojo was under no illusions. Despite his warning he knew in +the bottom of his heart that when the moment came he would operate for +himself. However, he resolved on two things: to share his secret with no +one and to watch the course of Pittsburgh and New Orleans for a week +before making up his mind. The first flurry had subsided. To the +surprise of every one the attack ceased over night. The list resumed its +normal position with the exception of several southern railroad stocks, +notably Pittsburgh & New Orleans, which remained heavy, declining +fractionally. + +During these days, Bojo resolutely stuck to his resolve, imparting no +information, keeping out of the market himself. On the announcement of +the first order for Drake, his salary was raised to $125 a week and the +affection of the firm showed itself in several invitations to enter the +consultation. Each day Forshay found opportunity to ask in a casual way: + +"Not doing anything on your own hook yet, eh? Sort of watching +developments?" + +Ten days after the first attack, another flurry arrived, but this time +the attack was from the open, from all the bear cohorts who for months +had been grumbling in vain, predicting disaster from inflation and the +panic that must follow inevitable readjustment. Borneman and his crowd +sold openly and viciously, raiding all stocks alike, particularly +industrials. That day, among other orders, Hauk, Flaspoller and Forshay +sold 10,000 shares of Pittsburgh & New Orleans which broke from 44 to +39-5/8 under savage pounding. Crocker resisted no longer and sold a +thousand for his own account. That day Forshay failed to make his usual +inquiry. + +After three days of convulsive advances and speedy falls, the attack +again slackened, but this time the whole list rallied with difficulty, +receding almost imperceptibly, but slowly yielding under a decided +change of public sentiment. When Pittsburgh & New Orleans touched 38, +Bojo squared his conscience to the extent of exacting the most solemn +promises of undying secrecy from Fred DeLancy before communicating to +them the information that had now become a conviction, that he had +placed $50,000 in a pool which Drake was engineering to sell the market +short and make a killing of Pittsburgh & New Orleans. He imparted the +confidence not simply because it had become an almost intolerable secret +to carry, but for deeper reasons. Fred DeLancy had sunk half of his +former profits in the purchase of an automobile and in free spending, +and Marsh was faced with serious losses on the paper from a strike of +compositors and a falling of advertising as the result of the new +radical policy of the editorial page. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +BOJO BUTTS IN + + +Sunday the four were accustomed to lounge through the morning and +saunter down the Avenue for a late luncheon at the Brevoort. On the +present date, Granning was stretched on the window-seat re-reading a +favorite novel of Dumas, Bojo and Marsh pulling at their pipes in a deep +discussion of an important rumor which might considerably affect the +downward progress of Pittsburgh & New Orleans--a possible investigation +by certain Southern States which was the talk of the office--while Fred +at the piano was replaying by ear melodies from last night's comic +opera, when the telephone rang. + +"You answer it, Bojo," said DeLancy, "and hist, be cautious!" + +Bojo did as commanded, saying almost immediately: + +"Party for you, Freddie." + +"Male or female voice?" + +"Male." + +DeLancy rose with a look of relief and tripped over to the receiver. But +almost immediately he crumpled up with a simulation of despair. Bojo and +Marsh exchanged a glance, and Granning ceased reading, at muffled sounds +of explanation which reached them from the other room. + +"Pinched," said DeLancy, returning gloomy and, flopping on the piano +stool, he struck an angry chord. + +The three friends, according to male etiquette, maintained an attitude +of correct incomprehension while Fred marched lugubriously up and down +the keyboard. "Holy cats, now I am in for it!" + +"Louise Varney?" said Bojo. + +"Louise! And I swore on my grandmother's knuckles I was going up country +this afternoon. Beautiful--beautiful prospect! I say, Bojo, you got me +into this--you've got to stick by me!" + +"What's that mean?" + +"Shooting off in the car with us for luncheon. For the love of me, stand +by a fellow, will you?" + +Bojo hesitated. + +"Go on," said Marsh with a wary look. "If you don't, the infant'll come +back married!" + +"Quite possible," said DeLancy, disconsolately. + +"I'll go if you'll stand for the lecture," said Bojo severely, for +DeLancy had become a matter of serious deliberation. + +"Anything. You can't rub it in too hard," said Fred, who went to the +mirror to see if his hair was turning gray. "And say, for Mike's sake, +think up a new lie-- I'm down to dentist's appointments and mother's +come to town." + +Delighted at Bojo's adherence that saved him from the prospects of a +difficult tête-à-tête, he began to recover his spirits; but Bojo, +assuming a severe countenance, awaited his opportunity. + +"I say, don't look at me with that pulpit expression," said DeLancy an +hour later as they streaked through the Park on their way to upper +Riverside. "What have I done?" + +"Fred, you're getting in deep!" + +"Don't I know it?" said that impressionable young man, jerking the car +ahead. "Well, get me out." + +"I'm not sure you want to get out," said Bojo. + +DeLancy confessed; in fact, confession was a pleasant and +well-established habit with him. + +"Bojo, it's no use. When I'm away from her, I can call myself a fool in +six languages. I _am_ a fool. I know I have no business hanging round; +but, say, the moment she turns up I'm ready to lie down and roll over." + +"It's puppy love." + +"I admit it." + +"She's just going to keep you dangling, Fred. You know as well as I do +you haven't a chance even if you were idiotic enough to think of +marrying her. She's not losing her head, you can bet on that. That's why +the mother is on deck." + +"Oh, there are half a dozen Yaps with a wad she could have, and any time +she wants to whistle," said Fred pugnaciously. + +Bojo decided to change his tactics. + +"I thought you were cleverer. Thought you'd planned out your whole +career; remember the night up on the Astor roof--you weren't going to +make any mistakes, oh no! You were going to marry a million. You weren't +going to get caught!" + +"Shut up, Bojo. Can't you see how rotten I'm in it? I'm doing my best to +break away." + +"Get up a row then and stay away." + +"I've tried, but she's too clever for that. Honest, Tom, I think she's +fond of me." + +Bojo groaned. + +"She thinks you're a millionaire with your confounded style, and your +confounded car--that's all!" + +"Well, maybe I will be," said DeLancy with a sudden revulsion to +cheerfulness, "if Pittsburgh & New Orleans keeps a-sliding." + +"Suppose we get caught." + +"I say, there's no danger of that?" said Fred, alarmed. "I'm in deep." + +"No, not much, but there's always the chance of a slip," said Bojo, who +began to wonder if a successful issue would not further complicate +Fred's sentimental entanglements. + +At this moment they came to a stop, and Fred said in a comforting tone: + +"Louise'll be furious because I brought you." + +"You old humbug," said Bojo, perceiving the eagerness in Mr. Fred's +eyes. "You're just tickled to death." + +"Well, perhaps I am," said Fred, laughing at his friend's serious face. +"Say, she has a way with her--hasn't she now?" + +Miss Louise Varney did not seem over-delighted at the spectacle of a +guest in the party as she came running out, backed by the vigilant +dowager figure of Mrs. Varney, who never let her daughter out of her +charge. But whatever irritation she might have felt she concealed under +a charming smile, while Mrs. Varney, accustomed to swinging in solitary +dignity in the back seat, welcomed him with genuine enthusiasm. + +"Well, Mr. Crocker, isn't this grand! You and me can sit here flirting +on the back seat and let them whisper sweet nothings." She tapped him on +the arm, saying in a half voice: "Say, they certainly are a good looking +team now, ain't they?" + +The old Grenadier, as she was affectionately termed by her daughter's +admirers, was out in her war paint, dressed like a débutante, fatly +complacent and smiling with the prospect of a delicious lunch at the end +of the drive. + +"Say, I think Fred's the sweetest feller," she began, beaming on Bojo, +"and so smart too. Louise says he could make a forchin in vaudeville. I +think he's much cleverer than that Pinkle feller who gets two-fifty a +week for giving imitations on the pianner. Why haven't you been around, +Mr. Crocker?" She nudged him again, her maternal gaze fondly fixed on +her daughter. "Isn't she a dream in that cute little hat? My Lord, I +should think all the men would be just crazy about her." + +"Most of them are, I should say," said Bojo, and, smiling, he nodded in +the direction of Fred DeLancy, who was at that moment in the throes of a +difficult explanation. + +Mrs. Varney gave a huge sigh and proceeded confidentially. + +"'Course Louise's got a great future, every one says, and vaudeville +does pay high when you get to be a top notcher; but, my sakes, Mr. +Crocker, money isn't everything in this world, as I often told her--" + +"Mother, be quiet--you're talking too much," said Miss Louise Varney +abruptly, whose alert little ear was always trained for maternal +indiscretions. Mrs. Varney, as was her habit, withdrew into an attitude +of sulky aloofness, not to relax until they were cozily ensconced at a +corner table in a wayside inn for luncheon. By this time Miss Varney had +evidently decided to accept the protestations of DeLancy, and peace +having been declared and the old Grenadier mollified by her favorite +broiled lobster and a carafe of beer, the party proceeded gaily. Fred +DeLancy, in defiance of Bojo's presence, beaming and fascinated, +exchanged confidential whispers and smiles with the girl which each +fondly believed unperceived. + +"Good Lord," thought Bojo to himself, now quite alarmed, "this is a +pickle! He's in for it fair this time and no mistake. She can have him +any time she wants to. Of course she thinks he's loaded with diamonds." + +Mr. Fred's attitude, in fact, would have deceived a princess of the +royal blood. + +"Louis, get up something tasty," he said to the bending _maître +d'hôtel_. "You know what I like. Don't bother me with the menu. Louis," +he added confidentially, "is a jewel--the one man in New York you can +trust." He initialed the check without examining it and laid down a +gorgeous tip with a careless flip of the finger. + +"The little idiot," thought Bojo. "I wonder what bills he's run up. +Decidedly I must get a chance at the girl and open her eyes." + +Chance favored him, or rather Miss Varney herself. Luncheon over, while +Fred went out for the car, she said abruptly: + +"Let's run out in the garden. I want to talk to you. Don't worry, mamma. +It's all right." And as Mrs. Varney, true to her grenadierial instincts, +prepared to object, she added with a shrug of her shoulders: "Now just +doze away like a dear. We can't elope, you know!" + +"What can she want to say to me?" thought Bojo curiously, suffering her +to lead him laughing out through the glass doors into the pebbled paths. +Despite his growing alarm, Bojo was forced to admit that Miss Varney, +with her quick Japanese eyes and bubbling humor, was a most fascinating +person, particularly when she exerted herself to please in little +intimate ways. + +"Mr. Crocker, you don't like me," she said abruptly. He defended himself +badly. "Don't fib--you are against me. Why? On account of Fred?" + +"I don't dislike you--no one could," he said, yielding to the persuasion +of her smile, "but if you want to know, I am worried over Fred. He is +head over heels in love with you, young lady." + +"And why not?" + +"Do you care for him?" + +"Yes--very much," she said quietly, "and I want you to be our friend." + +"Good heavens, I really believe she does," he thought, panic-stricken. +Aloud he said abruptly: "If that is what you want, let me ask you a +question. Please forgive me for being direct. Do you know that Fred +hasn't a cent in the world but what he makes? You can judge yourself how +he spends that." + +"But Fred told me he had made a lot lately and I know he expects to make +ten times that in something--" she stopped hastily at a look in Bojo's +face. "Why, what's wrong?" + +"Miss Varney--you haven't put anything into it, have you? + +"Yes, I have," she said after a moment's hesitation. "Why, he told me +you yourself told him he couldn't lose. You don't mean to say there's +any--any danger?" + +"I'm sorry. He shouldn't have told you! There's always a risk. I'm sorry +he let you do that." + +"Oh, I oughtn't to have let it out," she said contritely. "Promise not +to tell him. I didn't mean to! Besides--it's not much really." + +Bojo shook his head. + +"Mr. Crocker-- Tom," she said, laying her hand on his arm, "don't turn +him against me. I'm being square with you. I do care for Fred. I don't +care if he hasn't a cent in the world; really I'm not that sort, +honest." + +"And your mother?" + +She was silent, and he seized the advantage. + +"Why get into something that'll only hurt you both? Suppose things turn +out all right. He'll spend every cent he'll make in a few months. Now +listen, Louise. You're not made for life in a flat; neither is he. It +would be a miserable disaster. I'm sorry," he said, seeing her eyes +fill. "But what I say is true. You've got a career, a brilliant career +with money and fame ahead; don't spoil your chances and don't spoil +his." + +"What do you mean?" she said, flaring up. "Then there is some one else! +I knew it! That's where he's going this afternoon!" + +"There is no one else," he said, lying outrageously. "I've warned you. +I've told you the real situation. That's all." + +"Let's go back," she said abruptly, and she went in silence as far as +the house, where she turned on him. "I don't believe what you've told +me. I know he is not poor or a beggar as you say. Would he be going +around with the crowd he does? No!" With an upspurt of rage of which he +had not believed her capable, she added: "Now I warn you. What we do is +our affair. Don't butt in or there'll be trouble!" + +On the return, doubtless for several reasons, she elected to send her +mother in front, and to keep Bojo company on the back seat, where as +though regretting her one revealing flash of temper, she sought to be as +gracious and entertaining as possible. Despite a last whispered appeal +accompanied by a soft pressure of the arm and a troubled glance of the +eyes, no sooner had they deposited mother and daughter than Bojo broke +out: + +"Fred, what in the name of heaven possessed you to put Louise Varney's +money in a speculation? How many others have you told?" + +"Only a few--very few." + +"But, Fred, think of the responsibility! Now look here, straight from +the shoulder--do you know what's going to happen? Before you know it, +you're going to wake up and find yourself married to Louise Varney!" + +"Don't jump on me, Bojo," said Fred, miserably. "I'm scared to death +myself." + +"But, Fred, you can't do such a thing. Louise is pretty--attractive +enough--I'll admit it--and straight; but the mother, Fred--you can't do +it, you'll just drop out. It'll be the end of you. Man, can't you see +it? I thought you prided yourself on being a man of the world. Look at +your friends. There's Gladys Stone--crazy about you. You know it. Are +you going to throw all that away!" + +"If I was sure of a hundred thousand dollars I believe I'd marry Louise +to-morrow!" said Fred with a long breath. "Call me crazy--I am crazy--a +raving, tearing fool, but that doesn't help. Lord, nothing helps!" + +"Fred, answer me one question. We all thought, the night of the ball, +you and Gladys Stone had come to an understanding. Is that true?" + +Fred turned his head and groaned. + +"I'm a cad, a horrible, beastly little cad!" + +"Good Lord, is it as bad as that!" said Bojo. "But, Fred, old boy, how +did it happen? How did you ever get in so deep!" + +"How do I know?" said DeLancy miserably. "It was just playing around. +Other men were crazy over her. I never meant to be serious in the +beginning--and then--then I was caught." + +"Fred, old fellow, you've got to get hold of yourself. Will you let me +butt in?" + +"I wish to God you would." + +That night Bojo sent a long letter off to Doris, who was staying in the +Berkshires with Gladys Stone as a guest. As a result the two young men +departed for a week-end of winter sports. On the Pullman they stowed +their valises and wandered back into the smoker where the first person +Bojo saw, bound for the same destination, was young Boskirk. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SNOW MAGIC + + +Boskirk and Bojo greeted each other with that excessive cordiality which +the conventions of society impose upon two men who hate each other +cordially but are debarred from the primeval instincts to slay. + +"He wouldn't gamble, he wouldn't take a risk! Oh no, nothing human about +him," said Bojo to Fred, sending a look of antagonism at Boskirk, who +was adjusting his glasses and spreading the contents of a satchel on the +table before him. + +"The human cash-register!" said DeLancy. "Born at the age of forty-two, +middle names Caution, Conservatism, and the Constitution. Favorite +romance--Statistics." + +"Thank you!" said Bojo, somewhat mollified. + + "There was a young man named Boskirk + Who never his duty would shirk,--" + +began DeLancy--and forthwith retired into intellectual seclusion to +complete the limerick. + +The spectacle of Boskirk immersed in business detail irritated Bojo +immeasurably. The feeling it aroused in him was not jealousy but rather +a sense that some one was threatening his right and his property. + +A complete and insidious change had been worked in his moral fiber. The +hazardous speculation to which he was now committed, which was nothing +but the sheerest and most vicious form of gambling, the wrecking of +property, would have been impossible to him six months before. But he +had lived too long in the atmosphere of luxury, and too close to the +master adventurers of that speculative day. Luxury had become a second +nature to him; contact with men who could sell him out twenty times over +had brought him the parching hunger for money. All other ideals had +yielded before a new ideal--force. To impose one's self, making one's +own laws, brushing aside weak scruples, planning above ridiculously +simple and obvious schemes of legal conduct for the ordering of the +multitude, silencing criticism by the magnitude of the operation--a +master where a weak man ended a criminal:--this was the new scheme of +life which he was gradually absorbing. + +He had become worldly with the confidence of succeeding. Whatever +compunctions he had formerly felt about a marriage with Doris he had +dismissed as pure sentimentality. There remained only a certain pride, a +desire to know his worth by some master stroke. In this fierce need, he +had lost moderation and caution. With the steady decline of Pittsburgh & +New Orleans, his appetite had increased. It was no longer a fair profit +he wanted, but something miraculous. He had sold hundreds of shares, +placing always a limit, vowing to be satisfied, and always going beyond +it. He had plunged first to the amount of thirty odd thousand, reserving +the fifty thousand which was pledged to the pool, but which he had not +been called on to deliver. But this fifty thousand remained a horrible +ever-present temptation. He resisted at first, borrowing five thousand +from Marsh when the rage of selling drove him deeper in; then finally, +absolutely confident, he had yielded, without much shock to his +conscience, and drawn each day until on this morning he had drawn on the +last ten thousand as collateral. + +And still Pittsburgh & New Orleans receded, heaping up before his mind +fantastic profits. + + "When asked, 'Don't you tire,' + He said, 'Di diddledee dire-- + I never can get enough work.'" + +finished Fred with a grimace. "That's pretty bad--but so's the subject." + +"Look here, Fred," said Bojo, thus recalled from the tyranny of figures +which kept swirling before his eyes. "I want to talk to you. I'm worried +about your letting Louise Varney in on Pittsburgh & New Orleans; besides +I suspect you've plunged a darned sight deeper than you ought." + +And from the moral superiority of a man of force, he read him a lecture +on the danger to the mere outsider of risking all on one hazard--a +sensible pointed warning which DeLancy accepted contritely, in utter +ignorance of the preacher's own perilous position. + +It was well after seven when they stepped out on the icy station amid +the gay crowd of week-enders. Patsie, at the reins, halloed to them from +a rakish cutter, and the next moment they were off over the crackling +snow with long, luminous, purple shadows at their sides, racing past +other sleighs with jingling bells and shrieks of recognition. + +"Heavens, Patsie, you're worse than Fred with his car! I say, look +out--you missed that cutter by a foot," said Bojo, who had taken the +seat beside the young Eskimo at an imperious command. + +"Pooh, that's nothing!" said that reckless person. "Watch this." With a +sudden swerve she drew past a contending sleigh and gained the head of +the road by a margin so narrow that the occupants of the back seat broke +into many cries. + +"Here, let me out-- Murder!-- Police!" + +"Don't worry, the snow's lovely and soft!" Patsie shouted back, +delighted. "Turned over myself yesterday--doesn't hurt a bit." + +This encouraging information was received with frantic cries and demands +on Bojo to take the reins. + +"Don't you dare," said the gay lady indignantly, setting her feet firmly +and flinging all the weight of her shoulders against a sudden break of +the spirited team. + +"Pulling pretty hard," said Bojo, watching askance the riotous struggle +that whirled past cottage and evergreen and filled the air with a snowy +bombardment from the scurrying hoofs. "Say when, if you need me." + +"I _won't_! Tell the back seat to jump if I shout!" + +"Holy murder!" exclaimed Fred DeLancy, who so far forgot his animosities +as to cling to Boskirk, possibly with the idea of providing himself a +cushion in case of need. + +"Are they awfully scared?" said Patsie in a delighted whisper. "Yes? +Just you wait till we get to the gate. That will make them howl! How's +your nose--frozen? + +"Glorious!" + +"Too cold for Doris and the rest. Catch them getting chapped up. Their +idea of winter sports is popping popcorn by the fire. Thank heaven +you've arrived, Bojo! I'm suffocating. Hold tight!" + +"Hold tight!" sang out Bojo, not without some apprehension as the +sleigh, without slackening speed, approached the sudden swerve which led +through massive stone columns into the Drake estate. The quick turn +raised them on edge, skidding over the beaten snow so that the sleigh +came up with a bump against the farther pillar and then shot forward up +the long hill crowned with blazing porches and to a stop at last, +saluted by the riotous acclaim of a dozen dogs of all sizes and breeds. + +"Scared--honor-bright?" said Patsie, leaping out as a groom came up to +take the horses. + +"Never again!" said DeLancy, springing to terra firma with a groan of +relief, while Boskirk looked at the reckless girl with a disapproving +shake of his head. + +They went stamping into the great hall to the warmth of a great log +blaze, Patsie dancing ahead, shedding toboggan cap and muffler riotously +on the way, for a dignified footman to gather in. + +"Don't look so disappointed!" she cried, laughing, as the three young +men looked about expectantly. "The parlor beauties are upstairs +splashing in paint and powder, getting ready for the grand entrance!" + +Boskirk and DeLancy went off to their rooms while Bojo, at a sign from +Patsie, remained behind. + +"Well?" he said. + +"Bojo, do me a favor--a great favor," she said instantly, seizing the +lapels of his coat. "It's moonlight to-night and we've got the most +glorious coast for a toboggan and, Bojo, I'm just crazy to go. After +dinner, won't you? Please say yes." + +"Why, we'll get up a party," said Bojo, hesitating and tempted. + +"Party? Catch those mollycoddles getting away from the steam-heaters! +Now, Bojo, be a dear. You're the only real being I've had here in weeks. +Besides, if you have any spunk you'll do it," she added artfully. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just let Doris get her fill of that old fossil of a Boskirk. Show your +independence. Bojo, please do it for me!" + +She clung to him, coquetting with her eyes and smile with the dangerous +inconscient coquetry of a child, and this radiance and rosy youth, so +close to him, so intimately offered, brought him a disturbing emotion. +He turned away so as not to meet the sparkling, pleading glance. + +"Young lady," he said with assumed gruffness, "I see you are learning +entirely too fast. I believe you are actually flirting with me." + +"Then you will!" she cried gleefully. "Hooray!" She flung her arms about +him in a rapturous squeeze and fled like a wild animal in light, +graceful bounds up the stairs, before he could qualify his +acquiescence. + +When he came down dressed for dinner, Doris was flitting about the +library, waiting his coming. She glanced correctly around to forestall +eavesdroppers, and offered him her cheek. + +"Is this a skating costume?" he said, glancing quizzically at the +trailing, mysterious silken ballgown of lavender and gold, which +enfolded her graceful figure like fragrant petals. "By the way, why +didn't you let me know I was to have a rival?" + +"Don't be silly," she said, brushing the powder from his sleeve. "I was +furious. It was all mother's doings." + +"Yes, you look furious!" he said to tease her. "Never mind, Doris, +General Managers must calculate on all possibilities." + +She closed his lips with an indignant movement of her scented fingers, +looking at him reproachfully. + +"Bojo, don't be horrid. Marry Boskirk? I'd just as soon marry a mummy. I +should be petrified with boredom in a week." + +"He's in love with you." + +"He? He couldn't love anything. How ridiculous! Heavens, just to think +I'll have to talk his dreary talk sends creeping things up and down my +back." + +Bojo professed to be unconvinced, playing the offended and jealous +lover, not perhaps without an ulterior motive, and they were in the +midst of a little tiff when the others arrived. Mrs. Drake did not dare +to isolate him completely, but she placed Boskirk on Doris's right, and +to carry out his assumed irritation Bojo devoted himself to Patsie, who +rattled away heedless of where her chatter hit. + +Dinner over, Bojo, relenting a little, sought to organize a general +party, but meeting with no success went off, heedless of reproachful +glances, to array himself in sweater and boots. + +Twenty minutes later they were on the toboggan, Patsie tucked in front, +laughing back at him over her shoulder with the glee of the escapade. +Below them the banked track ran over the dim, white slopes glowing in +the moonlight. + +"All you have to do is to keep it from wobbling off the track with your +foot," said Patsie. + +"How are you--warm enough? Wrap up tight!" he said, pushing the toboggan +forward until it tilted on the iced crest. "Ready?" + +"Let her go!" + +He flung himself down on his side, her back against his shoulder, and +with a shout they were off, whistling into the frosty night, shooting +down the steep incline, faster and faster, rocking perilously, as the +smooth, flat toboggan rose from the trough and tilted against the +inclined sides, swerving back into place at a touch of his foot, rising +and falling with the curved slopes, shooting past clustered trees that +rushed by them like inky storm-clouds, flashing smoothly at last on to +the level. + +"Lean to the left!" she called to him, as they reached a banked curve. + +"When?" + +"Now!" Her laugh rang out as they rose almost on the side and sped into +the bend. "Hold tight, there's a jump in a minute-- Now!" + +Their bodies stiffened against each other, her hair sweeping into his +eyes, blinding him as the toboggan rose fractionally from the ground +and fell again. + +"Gorgeous!" + +"Wonderful!" + +They glided on smoothly, with slacking speed, a part of the stillness +that lay like the soft fall of snow over the luminous stretches and the +clustered mysterious shadows; without a word exchanged, held by the +witchery of the night, and the soft, fairylike crackling voyage. Then +gradually, imperceptibly, at last the journey ended. The toboggan came +to a stop in a glittering region of white with a river bank and elfish +bushes somewhere at their side, and ahead a dark rise against the +horizon with lights like pin-pricks far off, and on the air, from +nowhere, the tinkle of sleigh-bells, but faint, shaken by some +will-o'-the-wisp perhaps. + +"Are you glad you came?" she said at last, without moving. + +"Very glad." + +"Think of sitting around talking society when you can get out here," she +said indignantly. "Oh, Bojo, I'm never going to stand it. I think I'll +take the veil." + +He laughed, but softly, with the feeling of one who understands, as +though in that steep plunge the icy air had cleansed his brain of all +the hot, fierce worldly desires for money, power, and vanities which had +possessed it like a fever. + +"I wish we could sit here like this for hours," she said, unconsciously +resting against his shoulder. + +"I wish we could, too, Drina," he answered, meditating. + +She glanced back at him. + +"I like you to call me Drina," she said. + +"Drina when you are serious, Patsie when you are trying to upset +sleighs." + +"Yes, there are two sides of me, but no one knows the other." She sat a +moment as though hesitating on a confidence, and suddenly sprang up. +"Game for another?" + +"A dozen others!" + +They caught up the rope together, but suddenly serious she stopped. + +"Bojo?" + +"What?" + +"Sometimes I think you and Doris are not a bit in love." + +"What makes you think that?" he said, startled. + +"I don't know--you don't act--not as I would act--not as I should think +people would act in love. Am I awfully impertinent?" + +Troubled, he made no answer. + +"Nothing is decided, of course," he said at last, rather surprised at +the avowal. + +They tramped up the hill, averting their heads occasionally as truant +gusts of wind whirled snow-sprays in their eyes, chatting confidentially +on less intimate subjects. + +"Let's go softly and peek in," she said, returning into her mischievous +self as the great gabled house afire with lights loomed before them. +They stood, shoulder to shoulder, peeping about a protecting tree at the +group in the drawing-room. Mr. Drake was reading under the lamp, Fred +and Gladys ensconced in the bay window, while Doris at the phonograph +had resorted to Caruso. + +"Heavens, what an orgy!-- Sh-h. Hurry now." + +A second time they went plunging into the night, close together, more +sober, the silence cut only by the hissing rush and an occasional +warning from Drina, as each obstacle sprang past. But her voice was no +longer hilarious with the glee of a child; it was attuned to the hush +and slumber of the countryside. + +"I hate the city!" she said rebelliously when again they had come to a +stop. "I hate the life they want me to lead." + +All at once a quick resentment came to him, at the thought that she +should change and be turned into worldly ways. + +"I'm afraid you're not made for a social career, Patsie," he said +slowly. "I would hate to think of your being different." + +"You can't say what you want, or do what you want, or let people know +what you feel," she said in an outburst. "Just let them try to marry me +off to any old duke or count and see what'll happen!" + +"Why, no one wants to marry you off yet, Patsie," he said in dismay. + +"I'm not so sure." She was silent a moment. "Do you think it's awful to +hate your family--not Dad, but all the rest--to want to run away, and be +yourself--be natural? Well, that's just the way I feel!" + +"Is that the way you feel?" he said slowly. + +She nodded, looking away. + +"I want to be real, Bojo." She shuddered. "I know Dolly's +unhappy--there was some one she did care for-- I know. It must be +terrible to marry like that--terrible! It would kill me--oh, I know it!" + +They were silent; come to that moment where secret carriers are near, +she still a little shy, he afraid of himself. + +"We must go back now," he said after a long pause. "We must, Drina." + +"Oh, must we!" + +"Yes." + +"Will you come out to-morrow night?" + +"I don't know," he said confusedly. + +He held out his hand and raised her to her feet. + +"Come." + +"I don't want to go back," she said, yielding reluctantly. She threw out +her arms, drawing a long breath, her head flung back in the path of the +moonbeams with the unconscious instinct of the young girl for enchanting +the male. "You don't want to go either. Now do you?" + +He made no reply, fidgeting with the rope. + +"Now be nice and say you don't!" + +"No, I don't," he said abruptly. + +"Drina?" + +"Drina." + +She took his arm, laughing a low, pleased laugh, quite unconscious of +all the havoc she was causing, never analyzing the moods of the night +and the soul which were stealing over her too in an uncomprehended +happiness. + +"I think I could tell you anything, Bojo," she said gently. "You seem +to understand, and so much that I don't say too!" + +All at once she slipped and flung back against him to avoid falling. He +held her thus--his arm around her. + +"Turn your ankle? Hurt?" + +"No, no--ouf!" + +A galloping gust came tearing over the snow, whirling white spirals, +showering them with a myriad of tiny, pointed crystal sparks, stinging +their cheeks and blinding their eyes. With a laugh she turned her head +away and shrank up close to him, still in the protection of his arms. +The gust fled romping away and still they stood, suddenly hushed, +clinging with half-closed eyes. She sought to free herself, felt his +arms retaining her, glanced up frightened, and then yielded, swaying +against him. + +[Illustration: "'Drina, dear child,' he said in a whisper"] + +"Drina--dear child," he said in a whisper that was wrenched from his +soul. Such a sensation of warmth and gladness, of life and joy, entered +his being that all other thoughts disappeared tumultuously, as he held +her thus in his arms, there alone in the silence and the luminous night, +reveling wildly in the knowledge that the same inevitable impulse had +drawn her also to him. + +"Oh, Bojo, we mustn't, we can't!" + +The cry had so much young sorrow in it as he drew away that a pain went +through his heart to have brought this suffering. + +"Drina, forgive me. I wouldn't hurt you-- I couldn't help it-- I didn't +know what happened," he said brokenly. + +"Don't--you couldn't help it--or I either. I don't blame you--no, no, I +don't blame you," she said impulsively, her eyes wet, her hands +fervently clasped. He did not dare meet her glance, his brain in a riot. + +"We must go back," he said hastily, and they went in silence. + +When they returned Patsie disappeared. He entered the drawing-room and, +though for the first time he felt how false his position was, even with +a feeling of guilt, he was surprised at the sudden wave of kindliness +and sympathy that swept over him as he took his place by Doris. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BOJO MAKES A DECISION + + +The next morning Patsie persistently avoided him. Instead of joining the +skaters on the pond, she went off for a long excursion across country on +her skis, followed by her faithful bodyguard of Romp and three different +varieties of terrier. Bojo came upon her suddenly quite by accident on +her return. She was coming up the great winding stairway, not like a +whirlwind, but heavily, her head down and thoughtful, heedless of the +dogs that tumbled over each other for the privilege of reaching her +hand. At the sight of him she stopped instinctively, blushing red before +she could master her emotions. + +He came to her directly, holding out his hand, overcome by the thought +of the pain he had unwittingly caused her, seeking the proper words, +quite helpless and embarrassed. She took his hand and looked away, her +lips trembling. + +"I'm so glad to see you," he said stupidly. "We're pals, good pals, you +know, and nothing can change that." + +She nodded without looking at him, slowly withdrawing her hand. He +rushed on heedlessly, imbued with only one idea--to let her know at all +costs how much her opinion of him mattered. + +"Don't think badly of me, Patsie. I wouldn't bring you any sorrow for +all the world. What you think means an awful lot to me." He hesitated, +fearing to say too much, and then blurted out: "Don't turn against me, +Drina, whatever you do." + +She turned quickly at the name, looked at him steadily a moment, and +shook her head, trying to smile. + +"Never, Bojo--never that-- I couldn't," she said, and hurriedly went up +the stairs. + +A lump came to his throat; something wildly, savagely delirious, seemed +to be pumping inside of him. He could not go back to the others at once. +He felt suffocated, in a whirl, with the need of mastering himself, of +bringing all the unruly, triumphant impulses that were rioting through +his brain back to calm and discipline. + +At luncheon, Patsie proposed an excursion in cutters, claiming Mr. +Boskirk as her partner, and with a feeling almost of guilt he seconded +the proposal, understanding her desire to throw him with Doris. DeLancy +and Gladys Stone started first, after taking careful instructions for +the way to their rendezvous at Simpson's cider-mill--instructions which +every one knew they had not the slightest intention of following. +Boskirk, with the best face he could muster, went off with Patsie, who +disappeared like a runaway engine, chased by a howling brigade of dogs, +while Bojo and Doris followed presently at a sane pace. + +"We sha'n't see Gladys and Fred," said Doris, laughing. "No matter. +They're engaged!" + +"As though that were news to me." + +"Did he tell you?" + +"I guessed. Last night in the conservatory." He added with a sudden +feeling of good will: "Gladys is much nicer than I thought, really." + +"She's awfully in love. I'm so glad." + +"When will it be announced?" + +"Next week." + +"Heaven be praised!" + +In a desire to come to a more intimate sharing of confidences he told +her of his fears. + +"Louise Varney, a vaudeville actress!" said Doris, with a figurative +drawing in of her skirts. + +"Oh, there's nothing against her," he protested, "excepting perhaps her +chaperone! Only Fred's susceptible, you know--terribly so--and easily +led." + +"Yes, but people don't marry such persons--you can get infatuated and +all that--but you don't marry them!" she said indignantly. She shrugged +her shoulders. "It's all right to be--to be a man of the world, but not +that!" + +He hesitated, afraid of going further, of finding a sudden +disillusionment in the worldly attitude her words implied. A certain +remorse, a feeling of loyalty betrayed impelled him on, as though all +danger could be avoided by forever settling his future. Their +conversation by degrees assumed a more intimate turn, until at length +they came to speak of themselves. + +"Doris, I have something to ask you," he said, plunging in miserably. +"We have never really--formally been engaged, have we?" + +"The idea! Of course we have," she said, laughing. "It's only you who +wouldn't have it announced because--because you were too proud or some +other ridiculous reason!" + +"Well, now I want it announced." He met her glance and added: "And I +want you to announce at the same time the date of the wedding." + +He had said it--irrevocably decided for the path of conscience and +loyalty, and it seemed to him as though a great load had shifted from +his shoulders. + +"Bojo! Do you mean--now, soon!" + +"Just that. Doris, when this deal is settled up--and I'll know this +week--I'm going to have close on to two hundred thousand--on my own +hook, not counting what I'll get from the pool. I've plunged. I've put +every cent I had in it or could borrow," he said hastily, avoiding an +explanation of just what he had done. "I've risked everything on the +turn--" + +"But supposing something went wrong?" + +"It won't! This week, we're going to hammer Pittsburgh & New Orleans +down below thirty: I know. The point is now--when that's all safe--I +want you to marry me." + +"I have a quarter of a million in my own name. Father gave us each that +three years ago." + +He hesitated. + +"Do you need that very much? I'd rather you'd start--" + +"Oh, Bojo, why? If you've got that, why shouldn't I?" + +He wavered before this argument. + +"I would rather, Doris, we started on less, on what I myself have got. +I've thought it over a good deal. I think it would mean a great deal to +us to start out that way--to have me feel you were by my side, helping +me. It _is_ pride, but pride means all to a man, Doris." + +"If I only used it for dresses and jewels--just for myself?" she said +after a moment. "You want me to look as beautiful as the other women, +and we aren't going to drop out of society, are we?" + +"No. Keep it then," he said abruptly. + +"I won't take a cent from father," she said virtuously, and was furious +when he laughed. + +"And you are willing to give up all the rest, now, and be just plain +Mrs. Crocker?" + +She nodded, watching him askance. + +"When?" + +"In May at the close of the social season--butterfly." + +He had begun with a hunger in his heart to reach depths in hers, and he +ended with laughter, with a feeling of being defrauded. + +They stopped at Simpson's for a cool drink of cider and were on again, +passing through wintry forests, with green Christmas trees against the +creamy stretches where rabbit paths ran into dark entanglements. All at +once they were in the open again, sweeping through a sudden factory +village, Jenkinstown, stagnant with the exhaustion of the Sunday's rest. + +"There, aren't you glad you didn't begin there?" she said gaily, with a +nick of the whip toward the grim gray line of barracks that crowded +against the street. + +"You never would have married me then," he said. + +"Oh, ask me anything but to be _poor_!" she said, shuddering. + +"She might at least have lied," he thought grimly. He gazed with +curiosity at this glimpse of factory life, at the dulled faces of women, +wrapped in gay shawls, staring at them; at the sluggish loiterers on the +corners, and the uncleanly hordes of children, who cried impertinently +after them, recalling his father's words:--"a great mixed horde to be +turned into intelligent, useful American citizens!" Squalid and +hopelessly commonplace it seemed to him, cruelly devoid of pleasure or +joy in the living. But such as these had placed him where he was, with +an opportunity to turn in a year what in the lifetime of generations +they could never approach. + +The spectacle affected Doris like a disagreeable smell. + +"I hate to think such people exist," she said, frowning. + +"But they do exist," he said slowly. + +"Yes, but I don't want to think of it. Heavens, to be poor like that!" + +"It's late; we'd better be going back," he said. + +They came back enveloped in the falling dusk, Doris running on gaily, +quite delighted now at the prospect of their coming marriage, making a +hundred plans for the ordering of the establishment, debating the +question of an electric or an open car to start with, the proper quarter +to seek an apartment, and the number of servants, while Bojo, silently, +rather grim, listened, thinking of the look which would come into some +one's eyes when their decision was told. + +At the porte-cochère Gladys and Patsie came rushing out with frightened +faces. Fred had caught the last train home after a call from New York. +Bojo, with a sinking feeling, seized the note he had left for him. + + Roscy telephoned. There's a rumor that a group have been + cornering Pittsburgh & New Orleans all this while. If so + there'll be the devil to pay in the morning. Forshay's been + wild to get you. Get back somehow. If in time get the Harlem + 6:42 at Jenkinstown. In haste. + + FRED. + +"Can I make the 6:42 at Jenkinstown?" he cried to the groom. + +"Just about, sir." + +"Jump in." + +"I'm so frightened! Telephone at once!" He heard Doris cry, and, hardly +heeding her he looked about vacantly. Then something was pressed in his +hand, and Patsie's voice was sounding in his ears. "Here's your bag. I +packed it. Keep up your courage, Bojo!" + +"Patsie, you're a dear. Thank you. All right now!" He took her hands, +met her clear brave eyes, and sprang into the sleigh. A terrible +sickening dread came over him, an unreasoning superstitious dread. He +felt ruin and worse, cold and damp in the air about him, ruin inevitable +from the first, the bubble's collapse as he waved a hasty farewell and +shot away in the race across the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE CRASH + + +"What has happened?" he asked himself a hundred times during the +headlong drive. A corner in Pittsburgh & New Orleans--that was possible +but hardly probable. But if a corner had taken place it meant ruin, +absolute ruin--and worse. The thought was too appalling to be seized at +once. He reassured himself with specious explanations. There might be a +flurry; Gunther and his crowd, who were in control of the system, might +have attempted a division to support their property; but the final +attack at which Joseph Skelly had hinted more than once as timed for the +coming week, the throwing on the market of 100,000 shares--200,000 if +necessary--must overwhelm this support, must overwhelm it. What was +terrible, though, was the unknown--to be hours from New York, cut off +from communication, and not to know what was this shapeless dread. + +When they swung into Jenkinstown, orange lights from the windows cut up +the snowbound streets in checkerboard patterns of light and shade: an +organ was beginning in mournful bass from a shanty church; a cheap +phonograph in a flickering ice-cream parlor was grinding out a ragged +march. Through the windows, heavy parties still at the Sunday newspapers +were gathered under swinging lamps. The cutter drew up by the hovel of +a station and departed, leaving him alone in the semi-darkness, a prey +to his thoughts. A group returning after a day's visit trudged past him, +laughing uproariously, Slavic and brutish in type, the women in imitated +finery, gazing at him in insolent curiosity. He began to walk to escape +the dismal sense of unlovely existence they brought him. Beyond were the +mathematical rows of barracks--other brutish lives, the bleak ice-cream +parlor, the melancholy of the evening service. It was all so one-sided, +obsessed by the one idea of labor, lacking in the simplest direction +toward any comprehension of the enjoyment of life. + +The crisis he had reached, the threatened descent from the sublime to +the ridiculous, brought with it that contrition which in men is a +superstitious seeking for the secret of their own failures in some +transgressed moral law. His own life all at once seemed cruelly selfish +and gluttonous before this bleak view of the groping world and, +profoundly stirred to self-analysis, he said to himself: + +"After all--why am I here--to try and change all this a little for the +better or to pass on and out without significance?" And at the thought +that year in and year out these hundreds would go on, doomed to this +stagnation, there woke in him a horror, a horror of what it must mean to +fall back and slip beneath the surface of society. + +He arrived in New York at three in the morning, after an interminable +ride in the jolting, wheezing train, fervently awake in the dim and +draughty smoking-car where strange human beings huddled over a greasy +pack of cards or slept in drunken slumber. And all during the lagging +return one thought kept beating against his brain: + +"Why didn't I close up yesterday--yesterday I could have made--" He +closed his eyes, dizzy with the thought of what he could have netted +yesterday. He said to himself that he would wind up everything in the +morning. And there would still be a profit, there was still time ... +knowing in his heart that disaster had already laid its clutching hand +upon his arm. The city was quiet with an unearthly, brooding quiet as he +reached the Court, where one light still shone in the window of a +returned reveler. Marsh and DeLancy came hurriedly out at the sound of +his entrance. + +"What's wrong?" he cried at the sight of Fred's drawn face. + +"Everything. The city's full of it," said Marsh. "It leaked out this +afternoon, or rather the Gunther crowd let it leak out. Pittsburgh & New +Orleans will declare an additional quarterly dividend to-morrow." + +"It's the end of us," said Fred. "The stock will go kiting up." + +"We've got to cover," said Bojo. + +"In a crazy market? If we can!" + +"It may not be true." + +"I've got it as direct as I could get it," said Marsh, shaking his head. + +"Suppose there is a corner and we have to settle around 100 or 150?" +said DeLancy, staring nervously away. + +There was no need for Bojo to ask how deeply involved they were. He +knew. + +"Some one's been buying large blocks of it. That's known," said Marsh, +calmer than the rest. "Ten to one it's Gunther's crowd. They had the +advance information. Ten to one they've laid the trap and sprung a +corner." + +"No, nonsense! It's not as bad as that. If they're putting out an extra +dividend, the stock's going to jump up--for a while. That's all. And +then some one else may have a card up his sleeve," said Bojo, fighting +against conviction. + +"Call up Drake," said Fred. + +Bojo hesitated. The situation called for any measure. He went to the +telephone, after long minutes getting a response. Mr. Drake was out of +town on a hunting trip; was not expected back until the following night. +There remained Drake's agent Skelly, but a quick search of the book +revealed no home telephone. + +"Can you put up more margin?" asked Bojo. + +DeLancy shook his head. + +"I can, but it may be better to take the loss," said Marsh. "We'll have +to wait and see. Quick work to-morrow! By the way, there's a call for +you from Forshay to be at the office by eight o'clock to-morrow. Well, +let's get a few winks of sleep if we can. Luck of the game!" + +"I'm sorry," said Bojo desperately. + +"Shut up. We're over age," said Marsh, thumping him on the back, but +DeLancy went to his room, staring. The moment he was gone Marsh turned +to Bojo. "Look here, whatever we do we've got to save Fred. You and I +can stand a mauling. Fred's caught." + +"If we can," said Bojo, without letting him know how serious the +situation was for him. "How deep in is he?" + +"Close to 2,000 shares." + +"Good heavens, where did he get the money?" + +Marsh looked serious, shook his head, and made no further reply. + +At seven o'clock, when Bojo was struggling up from a sleepless night, +Granning came into his room, awkwardly sympathetic. + +"Look here, Bojo, is it as bad as the fellows feared?" + +"Can't tell, Granny. Looks nasty." + +"You in trouble too?" + +Bojo nodded. + +"I say, I've got that bond for a thousand tucked away," said Granning +slowly. "Use it if it'll help any." + +"Bless your heart," said Bojo, really touched. "It's not a thousand, +Granny, that'll help now. You were right--gambler's luck!" + +"Cut that out," said Granning, shifting from foot to foot. "I'm damned +sorry--tough luck, damned tough luck. I wish I could help!" + +"You can't--no use of throwing good money after bad. Mighty white of you +all the same!" + + * * * * * + +When he reached the offices, he learned for the first time how deeply +the firm had speculated on the information of Drake's intentions. +Forshay was cool, with the calm of the sportsman game in the face of +ruin, but Flaspoller and Hauk were frantic in their denunciations. It +was a trick, a stock-jobbing device of an inner circle. Nothing could +justify an additional dividend. The common stock had not been on a two +per cent. basis more than three years. Nothing justified it. Some one +would go behind the bars for it! Forshay smoked on, shrugging his +shoulders, rather contemptuous. + +"Hit you hard?" he said to Bojo. + +"Looks so. And you?" + +"Rather." + +"You call up Drake. Maybe he come back," said Flaspoller, ungrammatical +in his wrath. + +"He won't be in," said Bojo, and for the twentieth time he received the +invariable answer. + +[Illustration: "The message was the end of hope"] + +At nine o'clock Skelly's office called up. A clerk gave the message, Mr. +Skelly being too occupied. Bojo listened, hoping desperately against +hope, believing in the possibility of salvation in an enormous block to +be thrown on the market. The message was the end of hope! + +"Cancel selling orders. Buy Pittsburgh & New Orleans at the market up to +20,000 shares." + +He tried ineffectively to reach Skelly personally and then communicated +the order to the others, who were waiting in silence. + +"If Drake's out, good-by," said Forshay, who went to the window, +whistling. "Well, let's save what we can!" + +The realization of the situation brought a sudden calm. Hauk departed +for the floor of the Stock Exchange. The others prepared to wait. + +"Match you quarters," said Forshay with a laugh. He came back, glancing +over Bojo's shoulder at a few figures jotted down on a pad, reading off +the total: "12,350 shares. I thought you were in only ten thousand." + +"Twenty-three fifty Saturday," said Bojo, staring at the pad. "At 5 per +cent. margin too." + +"Lovely. What cleans you out?" + +Bojo figured a moment, frowned, consulted his list, and finally +announced: "Thirty-seven and one-half wipes me out nice and clean." + +"I'm good for a point higher. I say, there's rather a rush on this +office; have you got buying orders elsewhere?" Bojo nodded. "Good. Take +every chance. What did we close at Saturday, thirty-one and one-half?" + +"Thirty-two." + +"Oh well, there's a chance." He looked serious a moment, turning a coin +over and over on his hand, thinking of others. "No fool like an old +fool, Tom. If I've been stung once I've been stung a dozen times! It's +winning the first time that's bad. You can't forget it--the sensation of +winning. Sort of your case too, eh? Well, come on. I'm matching you!" + +An hour later, with the announcement of the additional dividend, they +stood together by the tape and watched Pittsburgh & New Orleans mount by +jerks and starts--5000 at 33--2,000 at 35-1/2--1,000 at 34-1/2--4,000 at +35-3/4--500 at 34. + +"Having a great time, isn't it? Jumping all over the place. Orders must +be thick as huckleberries. Selling all over the place so fast they can't +keep track of it." + +Flaspoller came in with the first purchase by Hauk, who was having a +frantic time executing his orders. + +"I've bought 2,000 at 34, thank God," said Bojo, returning from the +telephone. "What's it now?" + +"Touched 36: 10,000 at 35-1/2--big orders are coming in. Thirty-six +again. Lovelier and lovelier." + +Back and forth from telephone to ticker they went without time for +luncheon, elated at the thought of shares purchased at any price, grimly +watching the ominous figures creep up and up, mute, paralyzing +indications of the struggle and frenzy on the floor, where brokers flung +themselves hoarse and screaming into knotted, swaying groups and +telephone-boys swarmed back and forth from the booths like myriad angry +ants trampled out of their ant-hills. + +At two o'clock Pittsburgh & New Orleans had reached 42. An hour before +Bojo had left the ticker, waiting breathlessly at the telephone for the +announcement of purchases that meant precious thousands. At two-thirty +the final dock of 500 shares came in at 42-1/2. Mechanically he added +the new figures to the waiting list. Of the $83,000 in the bank and the +$95,000 which yesterday summed up his winnings on paper, he had to his +credit when all accounts were squared hardly $15,000. The rest had +collapsed in a morning, like a soap bubble. + +"Save anything?" said Forshay, struck by the wildness in the young man's +look. + +"I can settle my account here, I'm glad to say," said Bojo with +difficulty. "That's something. I think I'll pull out with around fifteen +thousand. Hope you did better." + +"Thanks, awfully." + +"Cleaned out?" said Bojo, startled. + +"Beautiful. Clean. Well, good-by, Tom, and--better luck next time." + +Bojo looked up hastily, aghast. But Forshay was smiling. He nodded and +went out. + +Bojo reached the court still in a daze, unable to comprehend where it +had all gone--this fortune that was on his fingers yesterday. Yesterday! +If he had only closed up yesterday! Then through the haze of his numbed +sense of loss came a poignant, terrifying recall to actuality. He stood +pledged to Drake for the amount of $50,000, and he could not make good +even a third! If the pool had been wiped out--and he had slight hopes of +saving anything there--he would have to procure $35,000 somewhere, +somehow, or face to Drake and his own self-respect that he could not +redeem his own word. What could he say, what excuse offer! If the pool +had collapsed--he was dishonored. + +The realization came slowly. For a long while, sitting in the embrasure +of the bay window--his forehead against the cold panes, it seemed to him +incredible the way he had gone these last six months; as though it had +all been a fever that had peopled his horizon with unreal figures, +phantasies of hot dreams. + +But the unblinkable, waking fact was there. His word had been pledged +for $50,000 to Drake, to the father of the girl he was to marry. Marry! +At the thought he laughed aloud bitterly. That, too, was a thing that +had vanished in the bubble of dreams. He thought of his father, to whom +he would have to go; but his pride recoiled. He would never go to him +for aid--a failure and a bankrupt. Rather beg Drake on his knees for +time to work out the debt than that! + +"How did I do it? What possessed me! What madness possessed me!" he said +wearily again and again. + +At eight o clock, when all the high electric lights had come out about +the blazing window of the court, recalled by the sounds of music from +the glass-paneled restaurant he went out for dinner, wondering why his +friends had not returned. At ten when he came back after long tramping +of the streets, a note was on the table, in Granning's broad +handwriting. + + Hoped to catch you. Fred's gone off on a tear; God knows + where he is. Roscy and I have been trying to locate him all + day. Hope you pulled through, old boy. + + GRANNING. + +At twelve o clock, still miserably alone, tortured by remorse and the +thought of the wreck he had unwittingly brought his chums, he could bear +the suspense of evasion no longer. He went up to Drake's to learn the +worst, steeled to a full confession. + +In the hall, as he waited chafing and miserable, Fontaine, Gunther's +right-hand partner, passed out hurriedly, jaws set, oblivious. Drake was +in the library in loose dressing-gown and slippers, a cigar in his +mouth, immersed in the usual contemplation of the picture puzzle. + +"By George, he bears it well," Bojo thought to himself, moved to +admiration by the calm of that impassive figure. + +"Hello, Tom," he said, looking up, "what's brought you here at this time +of night? Anything wrong?" + +"Wrong?" said Bojo faintly. "Haven't you heard about Pittsburgh & New +Orleans?" + +"Well, what about it?" + +Bojo gulped down something that was in his throat, steadying himself +against the awful truth that meant ruin and dishonor to him. + +"Mr. Drake--tell me what I owe you? I want to know what I owe you," he +said desperately. + +"Owe? Nothing." + +"But the pool?" + +"Well, what about the pool?" said Drake, eyeing him closely. + +"The pool to sell Pittsburgh & New Orleans." + +"Who said anything about selling!" said Drake sharply. "The pool's all +right." He looked at him a long moment, and the boyish triumph, +suppressed too long, broke out with the memory of Fontaine's visit. "I +bought control of Pittsburgh & New Orleans at eleven o'clock this +morning and sold it ten minutes ago, for what I paid for it, plus--plus +a little profit of ten million dollars." He paused long enough to let +this sink into the consciousness of the reeling young man and added, +smiling: "On a pro rata basis, Tom, your fifty thousand stands you in +just a quarter of a million. I congratulate you." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SUDDEN WEALTH + + +"Your fifty thousand stands you in just a quarter of a million." + +The words came to him faintly as though shouted from an incredible +distance. The shock was too acute for his nerves. He sought to mumble +over the fantastic news and sank into a chair, sick with giddiness. The +next thing he knew clearly was Drake's powerful arm about him and a +glass forced to his lips. + +"Here, get this down. Then steady up. Good luck doesn't kill." + +"I thought they'd caught us--thought I was cleaned out," he said +incoherently. + +"You did, eh?" said Drake, laughing. "You haven't much faith in the old +man." + +Bojo steadied himself, standing alone. The room seemed to race about him +and in his ears were strange unfixed sounds. One thought rapped upon his +brain--he was not disgraced, not dishonored; no one would ever +know--Drake would never need to know; that is if he were careful, if he +could somehow dissimulate before that penetrating glance. + +"I thought we were to sell Pittsburgh & New Orleans," he said vacantly, +leaning against the mantelpiece. + +"So did a good many others," said Drake shrewdly. "Sit down, till I tell +you about it. Head clearin' up?" + +"It's rather a shock," said Bojo, trying to smile. "I'm sorry to be such +a baby." + +"I warned you not to jump to conclusions or try any flyers," said Drake, +watching him. "Of course you did?" + +Bojo nodded, his glance on the floor. + +"Well, write it off against your profits and charge it up to +experience," said Drake, smiling. "Store this away for the future and +use it if you ever need it, if you're ever running a pool of your +own--which I hope you won't. It's been my golden rule and I paid a lot +to learn it. It's this: If you want a secret kept, keep it yourself." He +burst into a round, hearty laugh, gazing contentedly into the fire. +"Wish I could see Borneman's face. Helped me a lot, Borneman did. You +see, Tom," he said, with the human need of boasting a little, which +allies such men rather to the child on an adventure than to the +criminal, between whom they occupy an indefinable middle position, +"you've come in on the drop of the curtain. You've seen the finale of +something that'll set Wall Street stewing for years to come. Yes, by +George, it's the biggest bit of manipulation by a single operator yet! +And look at the crowd I tricked--the inner gang, the crême de la crême, +Tom--exactly that!" + +"I don't understand it," said Bojo, as Drake began to smile, reflecting +over remembered details. He himself understood only confusedly the +events which had been whirling about him. + +"Tom, the crowd had figured me out for a trimming," said Drake, +gleefully, caressing his chin. "They thought the time had come to trim +old Drake. You see, they calculated I was loaded up with stocks, crowded +to busting and ready to squeal at the slightest squeeze. Now getting +rich on paper is one thing and getting rich in the bank's another. Any +one can corner anything--but it's all-fired different to get Mr. Fly to +come down to your parlor and take some stock after you've got it where +you want it. That's what they figured. Dan Drake was loaded to the sky +with stocks that looked almighty good on the quotation column, but +darned hard to swap for cold, hard cash. That's what they figured, and +the strange part about it is they were right. + +"But--there's always a but--they hadn't reckoned on the fact that Mr. Me +was expecting just what they'd figured out. That's what I told you was +the secret of the game--any game--think the way the other man thinks, +and then think two jumps ahead of him. Now if I was reasonably sure a +certain powerful gang was going to put stocks down, and put them down +hard, I might look around to see how that could benefit me at one end +while it was annoying me, almightily annoying me, at the other. Now when +them coyotes get to juggling stocks they always like to juggle stock +they know about--something with a nice little pink ribbon to it, with a +president and board of directors on the other end, that'll wriggle in +the right direction when the coyotes pull the string. + +"Now I'd been particularly hankering after Pittsburgh & New Orleans for +quite a while. It was good in their old Southern system, but it looked +mighty better outside of it. In independent hands it could stir up a +lot of trouble; sort of like a plain daughter in a rich man's house--no +one notices her until she runs off with the chauffeur. That was my idea. +Only Pittsburgh was high. But--again the but--if some particular breed +of coyote would be obliging enough to run it down along with a lot of +other properties on the market, I might pitch in and help them force it +down to where I could pick up what I wanted from the bargain counter. +See?" + +"But you sold openly," said Bojo, amazed. + +"Exactly. Sold it where they could see it and bought it back twice over, +ten times over, where they couldn't. Very simple process. All great +processes are simple, and it never dawned on those monumental +intelligences that they were fetchin' and carryin' for yours truly until +they woke up at six o'clock to-day to find while they were scrambling in +the dark, the chauffeur had run off with Miss Pittsburgh!" + +He turned and walked to the table desk, motioning to Bojo. + +"Come over here, look at it." He held out a check for ten million +dollars. "You don't see one of those fellows very often. Great man, +Gunther. When he's got to act he doesn't waste time. Right to the point. +'We are satisfied you have control. What's your terms?' 'Ten millions +and what the stock cost me.' 'We accept your terms,' Great man, Gunther. +Suppose I might have added another million, but it wouldn't have sounded +as well, would it? Something rather nice about costs and ten million!" + +As he spoke, he had drawn out his check-book and filled out a check to +Bojo. + +"Well, Tom, this isn't ten millions, but it's some pin money, and I +guess to you it looks bigger than the other. There you are--take it." + +Bojo took it quite stupidly, saying: + +"Thank you, thank you, sir!" + +Drake watched the young man's emotion with tolerant amusement. + +"Don't wonder you're a bit shaken up, Tom. Supposing you call up a +certain young lady on long distance. Rather please her, I reckon." + +"Why, yes. I wanted to do it. I--I will, of course." + +"So you thought I was going to sell short Pittsburgh & New Orleans," +said Drake with a roguish humor. + +Bojo nodded, at loss for words, biding the moment to escape into the +outer air. + +"But, of course, Tom," said Drake slowly, with smiling eyes, "_you_ +didn't tell any one, did you?" + +Bojo mumbled something incoherent and went out, clutching the check, +which lay in his hand with the heaviness of lead. + +In the open air he tried to readjust the events of the night. He had a +confused idea of rushing through the great hall, past the mechanical +footman, of hearing Thompson cry, "Get you a taxi, sir!" and of being +far down resounding pavements in the lovely night with something still +clutched in his hand. + +"Two hundred and fifty thousand," he said to himself. He repeated it +again and again as a sort of dull drum-beat accompaniment, resounding in +his ears, even as his cane tapped out its sharp metallic punctuation. + +"Two hundred _and_ fifty!" he said for the hundredth time, utterly +unable to comprehend what had in one hour changed the face of his world. +He stopped, drew his hand from his pocket, took the crumpled check and +placed it in his wallet, buttoned his coat carefully, and then +unbuttoned it to make sure it had not slipped from his pocket. + +Drake had not asked him the vital question. He had not had to answer +him, to tell him what he had lost, to own that he had gambled beyond his +right. The issue he had gone to meet, resolved on a clean confession, +had been evaded, and in his pocket was the check--a fortune! Certain +facts did not at once focus in his mind, perhaps because he did not want +to contemplate them, perhaps because he was too bewildered with his own +sensations to perceive clearly what a rôle he had been made to play. + +But as he swung down the Avenue past the Plaza with its Argus-eyed +windows still awake, past a few great mansions with cars and grouped +footmen in wait for revelers, at the thought of the quiet Court, of +Roscoe and Granning, at the sudden startled recollection of DeLancy, the +cold fact forced itself upon him; they had lost and he had won. He had +won because they had lost, and how many others! + +"How could I help it?" he said to himself uneasily, and answered it +immediately with another question "But will they believe me?" + +Suddenly Drake's last question flashed across him with a new +significance. "Of course you didn't tell any one, did you?" + +Why had he not asked him then and there what he had meant? Because he +had been afraid, because he did not wish to know the answer, just as he +had evaded the knowledge that Doris in the first speculation had made +use of Boskirk. Even now he did not wish to force the ugly fact--seeking +to put it from him with plausible reasonings. After all, what had Drake +done? Told him a lie? No. He had specially cautioned him not to jump to +conclusions, warned him against doing anything on his own initiative. + +"Yes, that's true," he said with a sigh of relief, as though a great +ethical question had been disposed of. "He played square, absolutely +square. There's nothing wrong in it." + +Yet somehow the conviction brought no joy with it; there was something +stolen about the sensation of sudden wealth which possessed him. He +seemed to be scurrying through the shadowy city almost like a thief +afraid of confrontation. + +Yet there was the home-coming, the friends to be faced. What answer +could he make them, how announce the stroke of fortune which had come to +him! On one thing at least he was resolved, and the resolution seemed to +lighten the weight of many problems which would not slip from his +shoulders. He was responsible for Roscy and Fred--at least they should +suffer no loss for having taken his advice. The others--Forshay, the +firm, one or two acquaintances he had tipped off in the last days, the +outsiders; they were different, and besides he did not want to think of +them. His friends should not suffer loss--not even a dollar. They were a +part of the pool, in a way. Of course they had had their friends, though +he had sworn them to secrecy. At this point he stopped in his mental +turnings, faced by a sudden barrier. + +Had Drake knowingly used him to convey a false impression of his +intentions, made him the instrument of ruining others in order to carry +through his stupendous coup de force? + +"If I thought that," he said hotly, "I wouldn't touch a cent of it!" But +after a moment, uneasily and in doubt, he added, "I wonder?" + +He came to the Court and hurried in. Lights were blazing in the +bay-window, black silhouettes across the panes. + +"Good God, supposing anything has happened to Fred!" he thought, +suddenly remembering Granning's note. He burst upstairs and into the +room. Roscoe Marsh was by the fireplace, gravely examining a pocket +revolver, which lay in his hand. Granning was on the edge of the couch +staring at Fred DeLancy, who was sunk in a great chair, disheveled and +dirt-stained, a sodden, cold-drunk mass. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +BOJO BEGINS TO SPEND HIS QUARTER-MILLION + + +At the sight of Fred DeLancy, Bojo checked himself. A glance from +Granning apprised him of the seriousness of the situation. He walked +over to the huddled figure and laid his hand on his shoulder. + +"Hello there, Fred. It's Bojo." + +DeLancy raised his head, looked out through glazed eyes, and slowly +withdrew his stare to the vacant fireplace, where a smoldering flicker +drew his mind. + +"Found him an hour ago in a hell over in Eighth Avenue," said Marsh. +"Bad." + +Granning beckoned him, and together they went into the bedroom, closing +the door. + +"All right now. Guess he'll stay quiet. Pretty violent when we came +back," said Granning. "Wanted to throw himself out of the window." + +"And the pistol," said Bojo, sick at the thought of what might have +been. + +"Yes, we found that on him," said Granning gravely. "Lucky he got drunk +so quick, or that might have been serious." He hesitated and added: "He +swears he'll kill himself first chance. Guess I'd better keep my eye on +him to-night." + +At this moment there was the sound of a scuffle from the den and a shout +from Marsh. They rushed in to find him grappling with Fred, who was +striving frantically to reach the window. For a moment the air was full +of shouts and sudden scurrying. + +"Look out, he's got that paper-cutter!" + +"In his right hand." + +"All right, I've got him." + +"Throw him over on the couch. Sit on him. That's it." + +Under their combined weights, DeLancy was flung, hoarse and screaming +maledictions, to the couch, where despite objurgations and ravings +Granning secured his arms behind his back with a strap and hobbled his +legs. For half an hour Fred twisted and strove, raving and swearing or +suddenly weakly remorseful, bursting into tears, cursing himself and his +folly. The three sat silently, faces sternly masked, looking unwilling +on the ugly spectacle of human frenzy in the raw. At the end of this +time DeLancy became suddenly quiet and dropped off into sodden sleep. + +"At last," said Granning, rising. "Best thing for him. Oh, he won't hear +us--talk all you like." + +"How hard is he hit?" said Bojo anxiously. + +Marsh shrugged his shoulder and swore. + +"How hard, Granning?" + +"Twenty thousand or more," said Granning gravely, "and there are some +bad sides to it." He shook his head, glanced at DeLancy, and added: +"Then there's the girl." + +"Louise Varney?" + +"The same--mother has been camping on the telephone all day. Not a very +calm person, mother--ugh--nasty business!" + +"Rotten business," said Bojo, remorsefully. He went to the bay-window +and stood there gazing out into the sickly night, paling before the +first grays of the morning. He was subdued by this spectacle of the +other side of speculation, wondering how many similar scenes were taking +place in sleepless rooms somewhere in the dusky flight of roof-tops. +Marsh, misunderstanding his mood, said: + +"How did it hurt you? You pulled through all right, didn't you?" + +Bojo came back thoughtfully, evading the question with another. + +"And you?" + +"Oh, better than I expected," said Marsh with a wry face. "I say, you're +not--not cleaned out?" + +Granning rose and with his heavy hand turned him around solicitously. +"How about it, son?" + +For hours Bojo had been debating his answer to this inevitable question +without finding a solution. He drew his pocketbook and slowly extracted +the check. "Gaze on that," he said solemnly. + +Granning took it, stared at it, and passed it to Marsh, who looked up +with an exclamation: "For God's sake, what does that mean?" + +"It means," said Bojo slowly, "that I can tell you the truth now. We +haven't lost a cent; on the contrary--" he paused and emphasized the +next word--"_we_ have made a killing. We means you, Fred, and myself." + +"I don't get it," said Marsh, frowning. + +"The real object of the pool was not to bear Pittsburgh & New Orleans, +but to buy it. If I let you sell short, it was only to get others to +sell short. To-morrow I'll settle up with you and Fred, every cent +you've lost, plus--" + +"Bojo, you're lying," said Marsh abruptly. + +"I'm not, I--" + +"And you're lying badly!" + +"What about that check?" + +"That's all right; Drake may have done what you said, but you never +knew--" + +"Roscy, I swear." + +"Hold up and answer this. Do you want me to believe, Tom Crocker, that +you deliberately told me and Fred DeLancy, your closest friends, a lie, +in order to get us to spread false information to _our_ friends, to ruin +our friends in order to make a killing for you? Well, a straight +answer." + +Bojo was silent. + +"No, no, Bojo; don't come to me with any cock-and-bull story like +that--" + +"Roscy, it _is_ a lie. I was completely in the dark myself; but I won't +touch a cent of it until your losses are squared, every dollar of them!" + +"So that's the game, eh?" said Marsh, laughing. "Well you go plump to +the devil! + +"Roscy!" said Bojo, jumping up and seizing his arm. "At least let me +square up what you lost. Hold up. Wait a second, don t go off +half-cocked! Fred's got to be hauled out of this; it's not only +bankruptcy, it's a darned sight worse--it's his word, his honor--a +woman's money, too. You know him--he's weak, he won't stand up under it. +Good God, you don't want me to have his life on my conscience?" + +"What do you want to do?" + +"I want to make Fred believe what I told you--it's the only way. If you +play into the game he'll believe it. Good Lord, Roscy, this thing's bad +enough as it is. You don't think I could profit one cent while you +fellows were cleaned out by my own fault?" + +"Look here," said Marsh, sitting down, "it isn't your fault. I gambled, +that's all, and lost. I gambled before on your advice and won. +Fifty-fifty, that's all. Now Fred's different. I'll admit it. You can do +what you please with him; that's between you two. If you've got to make +him believe I'm doing the same, to make him take the money--all right; +but if you come around again to me with any such insulting proposition, +Tom Crocker, there'll be trouble." + +Bojo clasped and unclasped his hands in utter helplessness. Then he +glanced at Granning. + +"You've done what you could," said Granning, shaking his head. + +"A rotten mess. I feel rotten," said Bojo slowly. + +Marsh, relenting, clapped him on the shoulder affectionately. "Mighty +white of you, Bojo--and don't think for a moment any one's blaming you!" + +"I'm not sure how I feel myself," said Bojo slowly. + +"Drake used you, Tom," said Granning quietly. "He'd figured out you'd be +watched--the old decoy game." + +"No, no," said Bojo warmly. "He did not, I'm sure of that. He +particularly warned me not to do anything on my own hook without +consulting him. It was my fault-- I jumped at conclusions!" + +Granning and Marsh laughed. + +"By George, if I thought that!" said Bojo, rising up. + +"Don't think anything," said Marsh quietly. "It's all in the game +anyhow!" Suddenly he stopped and, the journalistic instinct awakening, +said: "You say Drake bought Pittsburgh & New Orleans--what do you mean?" + +"Bought control, of course, and sold it back at midnight to Gunther & +Co. for a profit of ten millions." + +"Repeat that," said Marsh, aghast. "Good Lord! What? When? Where was the +sale? For God's sake, Bojo, don't you know you've got the biggest story +of the year? Three-twenty now. It's 'good-night' to our composing-room +at half past. Talk it fast and I can make it." + +Hastily, under his prompting, Bojo recalled details and scraps of +information. Three minutes later Marsh was at the telephone and they +heard the shouted frantic orders. + +"_Morning Post?_ Who's on the long wait? Hill? Give him to me--on the +jump. Damn it, this is Marsh! Hello, Ed? Hold your press men for an +extra. We've got a smashing beat. Front page and the biggest head you +can put on! Play it up for all you're worth. Ready: Dan Drake bought +control...." The outlines in staccato, dramatic sentences, followed, +then directions to get Gunther, Drake, Fontaine, and others on the wire. +Then silence, and Marsh burst through the room and down the stairs in a +racket that threatened to wake the house. + +Granning and Bojo sat on, watching the restless, heavy figure on the +couch, too feverishly awake for sleep, talking in broken phrases, while +the white mists came into the room and the city began to wake. At four +o'clock Doris called up from long distance. Bojo had completely +forgotten her in the tension of the night and rather guiltily hastened +to reassure her. Gladys was at her side, anxious to hear from Fred, to +learn if she might come to his assistance, wondering why he had not sent +her word--alarmed. + +He invented a lie to clear the situation--a friend who was in desperate +straits--with whom Fred was watching out the night. + +At six o'clock DeLancy rose up suddenly, disheveled and haggard, staring +at them, bewildered at the pressure of the straps. "What the devil's +happened?" + +Granning rose and released him. "You were rather obstreperous last +night, young man," he said quietly. "We were afraid you might dent the +fire-escape or carry off the mantel. How are you?" + +"Oh, good God!" said DeLancy, sinking his head in his hands with a +groan, suddenly recalling the pool. + +"If you hadn't gone off like a bad Indian," said Bojo sternly, "you'd be +celebrating in a different way." Then, as Fred without interest +continued oblivious, he went over and struck him a resounding blow +between the shoulders. "Wake up there. I've been trying to beat it into +you all night. We haven't lost a cent. The pool went through like a +charm. Drake fooled the whole bunch!" + +"What--what do you mean?" said DeLancy, staring up. + +"The running down was only the first step; the real game was to buy up +the control. All our selling short was just bluff, charged up to the +expense account and nothing else." + +"All bluff," repeated Fred in a daze. "I don't seem to understand. I +can't get it." + +"Well, get this then--feast your eyes on it," said Bojo, sitting beside +him, his arm about his shoulder and the check held before his eyes. +"That's profit--my part out of ten millions Drake cleaned up by selling +out to the Gunther crowd. Listen." He repeated in detail the story of +the night, adding: "Now do you see it? Every cent we lost bearing the +stock goes to expenses--that's understood." + +"You mean--" DeLancy rose, steadied himself, and lurched against a +chair. "You mean what I lost--what I--" + +"What you've lost and Louise's losses, too," said Bojo quickly--"every +cent is paid by the pool. There wasn't the slightest question about +that!" + +"Is that the truth?" + +"Yes." + +Fred's sunken eyes rested on Bojo's an interminable moment, and the +agony written on that fevered face steeled Crocker in his resolve. +Presently DeLancy, as though convinced, turned away. + +"Good Lord, I thought I was done for!" he said in a whisper. His lip +trembled, he caught at his throat, and the next moment his racked body +was shaken with convulsive sobs. + +"Let yourself go, Fred; it's all right--everything's all right," said +Bojo hastily. He left the den, nodding to Granning, and went to his +bedroom. His bag was still on the bed, where he had thrown it unopened. +He took out his clothes mechanically, feeling the weariness of the +wasted night, and suddenly on the top of a folded jacket he found a +card, in Patsie's writing; a few words only, timidly offered. + +"I hope, oh, I do hope everything will come all right," and below these +two lines that started reveries in his eyes, the signature was not +Patsie, but Drina. + +When he came into the den again after a hasty toilet, DeLancy had got +hold of himself again. + +"Better, old boy?" said Bojo, pulling his ear. + +"If you knew--if you knew what I'd been through," said Fred with a quick +breath. + +"I know," said Bojo, shuddering instinctively. "Now let's get to +business. You'll feel a lot better when you tidy up your bank account. +What did you lose?" + +"I say, Bojo," said DeLancy, avoiding his glance, "on your honor +straight this is all right, isn't it?" + +"Sure!" + +"I ought to take it--there's no reason why--you're not telling me a fake +story?" + +"I certainly am not," said Bojo cheerily, taking up his check-book at +the desk. "Come on now." + +But DeLancy, unconvinced, still wavered. + +"How about Roscy?" he said slowly, his eyes fixed, his mouth parted as +though hanging on the answer. + +"The same thing goes with Roscy, naturally," said Bojo, carelessly. + +DeLancy drew a long breath and approached. + +"How much? Confess up!" + +"Twenty-seven thousand eight hundred." + +Bojo restrained a start of amazement. + +"Say twenty-eight flat," he said carefully. "Does that include Louise +Varney's account?" + +"Yes, everything," said DeLancy slowly. He stood at the desk, staring, +while Bojo wrote a check, watching the traveling pen as though still +incredulous. + +"There you are, old rooster, and good luck," said Bojo. + +"Here, I say, you've made it out for thirty-eight thousand, said +DeLancy, taking the check. + +"Ten thousand is profits, sure." + +"Here, I say, that's not right. I couldn't take that--no, never, Bojo!" + +"Shut up and be off with you!" said Bojo. "You don't think for a moment +I'd use my friends and not see they got a share of the winnings, do +you?" + +"It doesn't seem right," said DeLancy again. He gazed at the check, a +prey to conflicting desires. + +"Rats!" + +"I don't feel as though I ought to." + +Bojo, watching his struggle with his conscience a moment, perceived the +inherent weakness at the bottom of his nature, suddenly feeling a sense +of distance intervening in the old friendship, sadly disillusioned. When +he spoke, it was abruptly, as a superior: + +"Shut up, Fred--you're going to take it, and that's all! + +"How can I thank you? + +"Don't." + +He turned on his heel and went back to his room to hide the flash of +scorn that came to his eyes. "Great Heavens," he thought, "is that the +way men behave under great tests?" + +But all at once he added, "And myself?" + +For at the bottom there was an uneasy stirring feeling, awakened by the +sudden incredulous laugh of his friends that had greeted his assertion +of Drake's innocence, which was bringing him to a realization that he +was to face a decision more profoundly significant to his own +self-esteem than any he had yet confronted. + +"Thank heaven for one thing--nothing happened to Fred! That's settled. I +have nothing on my conscience," he said with a sigh. The ten thousand he +had added represented in a confused way a tribute to that conscience, to +those others, unknown and unvisualized, whom unwittingly he might have +caused to suffer. + +"Bojo!" + +"Hello! What is it?" + +He came out hurriedly at the sound of Granning's voice. + +"Roscy on the 'phone.... What?... Good God!" + +"What's that? What's happened?" he cried, as Fred came rushing out. + +"Forshay--committed suicide--this morning--at his club--cut his +throat!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +PAYING THE PIPER--PLUS + + +To go down to the office with the pall of disaster and tragedy over it, +to face the accusatory looks of Hauk and Flaspoller with the dread +consciousness of his own personal responsibility, was the hardest thing +Bojo had ever had to do. Several times in the subway, filled with the +Wall Street crowd excitedly discussing the sudden turn of yesterday, +alarmed for the future, he had a wild impulse toward flight. Before him +were the startling scare-heads of the _Morning Post_, the sole paper to +have the story. + + DRAKE BUYS AND SELLS PITTSBURGH AND NEW ORLEANS + + SECURED CONTROL AT 6 MONDAY. SOLD AT MIDNIGHT. PROFIT IN + MILLIONS. BROKERS HARD HIT. THREE FIRMS SUSPEND. CLIMAX OF + DRAMATIC DAY. + +He saw only dimly what every one else was poring over frantically. He +was reading over for the twentieth time the ugly story of Forshay's +suicide. + + WELL-KNOWN BROKER ENDS LIFE AT CLUB + + W. O. FORSHAY THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IN DRAKE'S CLEAN + UP + +The bare facts followed, with a history of Forshay's career, his social +connections, an account of his marriage, city house, and country house. + +"But after all am I responsible?" he said to himself miserably, and +though he returned always to the premise that he had been an innocent +participant, he began to be obsessed with the spreading sense of ruin +which such victories could occasion. + +Forshay would not have blamed him, perhaps, for Forshay had played the +game to the limit of the law and asked no favors. It was not that which +profoundly troubled him and awoke the long dormant ethical sense. Had +Drake figured out just what his conclusions would be and the effect on +the public from allowing him to proceed blindly on a wrong start? In a +word, had Drake deliberately used him to mislead others, knowing that +after the success of Indiana Smelter his prospective son-in-law would be +credited with inside information? + +He did not as yet answer these questions in the affirmative; to do so +meant a decision subversive of all his newly acquired sense of success. +But though he still denied the accusations, they would not be thus +answered, constantly returning. + +At the offices it was as though the dead man were lying in wait. A sense +of fright possessed him with the opening of the door. The girl at the +telephone greeted him with swollen eyes, swollen with hysterical +weeping; the stenographers moved noiselessly, hushed by the indefinable +sense of the supernatural. The brass plate on the door--W. O. +Forshay--seemed to him something inexpressibly grim and horrible. He had +the feeling which the others showed in their roving glances, as though +that plate hid something, as though there was something behind his door, +waiting. + +He went into the inner offices, at a sudden summons. Hauk was at the +table, gazing out of the window; Flaspoller worrying and fussing in the +center of the rug, switching aimlessly back and forth. + +Bojo nodded silently on entering. + +"You saw?" said Hauk with a jerk of his head. + +"Yes. Horrible!" + +Flaspoller broke out: "Not a cent in the world. God knows how much the +firm will have to make good. Thirty-five, forty, forty-five thousand, +maybe more. Oh, we're stuck all right." + +"Do you mean to say," said Bojo slowly, "that he left nothing--no +property?" + +"Oh, a house perhaps--mortgaged, of course; and then do we know what +else he owes? No. A hell of a hole we've got in with your Pittsburgh & +New Orleans." + +"That's not quite fair," said Bojo quietly. "I did give you a tip on +Indiana Smelter and you made money on that. I never said anything about +Pittsburgh & New Orleans. I distinctly refused to. You drew your own +conclusions." + +"That's a good joke," said Flaspoller with a contemptuous laugh. + +"What do you mean?" said Bojo, flushing angrily. + +"Well, I'll tell you what I mean," said Flaspoller, discretion to the +winds. "When you come into a firm that has treated you generously as we +have, put up your salary without waiting to be asked, and you bring in +orders, confidential orders, to sell five hundred shares to-day, a +thousand to-morrow, like you sell yourself, and your friends sell +too--if you let your firm go on selling and don't know what's up, you're +either one big jackass or a--" + +"Or a what?" said Bojo, advancing. + +Something in the menacing eye caused the little broker to halt abruptly +with a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders. + +"I wouldn't go too far, Flaspoller," said Bojo coldly. "If this was a +mistake, I paid for it too, as you know. You know what I dropped." + +"I know nothing," said Flaspoller, recovering his courage with his +anger, and planting himself defiantly in the young fellow's path. "I +know only what you lost--here, and I know too what _we_ lose." + +"Good heavens, do you mean to insinuate that I did anything _crooked_?" +said Bojo loudly, yet at the bottom ill at ease. + +"Shut up now," said Hauk, as Flaspoller started on another angry tirade. +"Look here, Mr. Crocker, there's no use wasting words. The milk's spilt. +Well, what then?" + +"I'm sorry, of course," said Bojo, frowning. + +"Of course you understand after what's happened," said Hauk quietly, "it +would be impossible for us to make use of your services any more." + +Much as he himself had contemplated breaking off relations, it gave him +quite a shock to hear that he was being dismissed. He caught his breath, +looked from one to another and said: + +"Quite right. There I agree with you. I shall be very glad to leave your +office to-day." + +He went to his desk in a towering rage, went through his papers blindly, +and rose shortly to go out where he could get hold of himself and decide +on a course of action. The fact was that for the first time he had a +feeling of guilt. He again assured himself that he was perfectly +innocent, that there was nothing in his whole course which could be +objected to. Yet how many would have believed him if they knew that this +very morning he had deposited a check for a quarter of a million? What +would Hauk and Flaspoller have said at the bare announcement? + +He wandered into familiar groups, tarrying a moment and then passing on, +parrying the questions that were showered on him by those who knew the +intimacy of his relations with the successful manipulator. In all their +conversations Drake appeared like a demigod. Men went back to the famous +corners of Commodore Vanderbilt for a comparison with the skill and +boldness of the late manipulator. It was freely said that there was no +other man in Wall Street who would have dared so openly to defy the +great powers of the day and force them to terms. + +In this chorus of admiration there was no note of censure. He had played +the game as they played it. No one held him responsible for the tragedy +of Forshay and the unwritten losses of those who had been caught. + +Yet Bojo was not convinced. He knew that he had not been able to meet +the partners openly; that despite all the injustice of their attitude, +he had withheld the knowledge of his ultimate winnings, and that he had +withheld it because he would have been at a loss to explain it. More +potent than the stoic indifference of Wall Street was the memory of the +chance acquaintance, wrecked by the accident of this meeting; of +Forshay, calmly matching quarters with him before the opening of the +market, calculating the fatal point beyond which a rise meant to him the +end. And as he examined it from this intimate outlook, he wondered more +and more how free from responsibility and cruelty, from the echoes of +agony, could be any fortune of ten millions made over night, because of +others who had been led recklessly to gamble beyond their means. + +Forshay recalled DeLancy, and he shuddered at the thought of how close +the line of disaster had passed to him. Again and again he remembered +with distaste the look in DeLancy's face when at the end he had +persuaded him to take the check. What sat most heavily upon his +conscience was that now, with the ranging of events in clearer +perspective, he began to compare his own attitude with Drake's, with +DeLancy's weak submission to his explanation. If DeLancy had taken money +that Marsh had indignantly rejected, what had he himself done? + +At twelve, making a sudden resolve, he went up to the offices. The +partners were still there, brooding over the rout, favoring him with +dark looks at his interruption. + +"Mr. Hauk, will you give me the total of Mr. Forshay's indebtedness to +your firm?" + +Flaspoller wheeled with an insolent dismissal on his lips, but Hauk +forestalled him. "What business is that of yours?" + +"You stated that his losses might amount to forty or forty-five +thousand. Is that correct?" + +"That's our affair!" + +"You don't understand," said Bojo quietly, "but I think it will be to +your interest to listen to me. Do I understand that you intend to +exercise your claim on whatever property may still be left to Mr. +Forshay's widow?" + +"What nonsense is he talking?" said Flaspoller, turning to his partner +in amazement. + +"I thought so," said Bojo, taking his answer from their attitude. "I +repeat, kindly give me the exact figures, in detail, of the total +indebtedness of Mr. Forshay to your firm." + +"I suppose you want to pay it, eh?" said Flaspoller contemptuously. + +"Exactly." + +"What!" + +The reply came almost in a shout. Hauk, keener than his partner, +perceiving from the exalted calm of the young man that the matter was +serious, caught Flaspoller by the arm and shot him into a chair. + +"You sit down and be quiet." He approached Bojo, studying him keenly. +"You want to pay up for Forshay--am I right?" + +"You are. + +"When?" + +"Now." + +Hauk himself was not proof against the shock the announcement brought. +He sat down, stupidly rubbing his hand across his forehead, glancing +suspiciously at Bojo. Finally he recovered himself sufficiently to say: + +"For what reason do you want to do this?" + +"That is my business," said Bojo, "and besides you would not understand +in the least." + +"Well, well," said Flaspoller, recovering his eagerness with his +cupidity. + +"You're not going to refuse, are you?" + +"That's very noble, very generous," said Hauk slowly. "We were a little +hasty, Mr. Crocker. We've lost a good deal of money. We sometimes say +things a little more than we mean at such times. You mustn't think too +much of that. We are very much upset--we thought the world of Mr. +Forshay--" + +"All this is quite unnecessary," said Bojo with quiet scorn. "We are +dealing with figures. Have you the account ready--now?" + +"Yes, yes--we can have it ready in a moment--look it over--take just a +few moments," said Flaspoller eagerly. "Sit down, Mr. Crocker, while we +look it up." + +"Thanks, I prefer to wait outside. Remember I want a complete and minute +statement." + +He wheeled and went out with disgust, taking his seat by his old place +at the window, without removing his hat and coat. He waited thus, long +minutes, staring out at the dirt-stained walls of the opposite +skyscraper that, five hundred feet in the air, shut them out from a +glimpse of the sky, oblivious to whispered conversations, curious +glances, or the nervous bustling to and fro of the partners. Presently +the telephone buzzed at his side. + +"Mr. Hauk would like you to step into his office, sir." + +"Tell him to come to me." + +It was bravado, but a revenge that was precious to him. Almost +immediately Hauk came sliding to his desk, laying a paper before him. + +"This is it, Mr. Crocker." + +"Every claim you have against the estate--every one?" said Bojo, +examining carefully the items. + +"Perfectly." + +But at this moment Flaspoller arrived hastily and alarmed. + +"We forgot the share in the expense of the office," he said hurriedly. + +"Put it down," said Bojo, with a wave of his hand. At the point of +bitter scorn at which he had arrived, it seemed to him a sublime thing +to accept all figures without condescending to enter into discussion. +"Anything more, gentlemen?" + +Flaspoller in vain tortured his memory at this last summons. Hauk, +misunderstanding the frown and the stare with which Bojo continued to +gaze at the paper, began to explain: "This item here is calculated on a +third share in--" + +"I don't want any explanations," said Bojo, cutting him short. "You +will, of course, furnish complete details to the executor of the estate. +Now if this is complete, kindly give me a written acknowledgment of a +payment in full of every claim you hold against the estate of W. O. +Forshay, and likewise an attestation that this is in every respect a +just and true bill of Mr. Forshay's debts." He drew out his check-book. +"Fifty-two thousand, seven hundred--" + +"And forty-six dollars," said Flaspoller, who followed the strokes of +the pen with incredulous eyes as though unable to believe in Providence. + +Bojo rose, took the acquittals and the bill of items, and handed them +the check, saying: "This closes the matter, I believe." + +An immense struggle was going on in the minds of the two +partners--curiosity, cupidity, and a new sense of the financial strength +of the man who could thus toss off checks, plainly written in their +startled expressions. + +"Mr. Crocker, Tom, we should be very glad if you forgot what we said +this morning," said Flaspoller hurriedly. "You've been very handsome, +very handsome indeed. You can always have a desk in our offices. Mr. +Crocker, I apologize for mistaking you. Shake hands!" + +"Good-by, gentlemen!" said Bojo, lifting his hat with the utmost +punctiliousness. + +He took a hasty luncheon and went uptown to the Court, where Della, the +pretty little Irish girl at the telephone desk, opened her eyes in +surprise at this unusual appearance. + +"Why, Mr. Crocker, what's wrong?" + +"I'm changing my habits, Della," he said with an attempted laugh. + +He went to his room and sat a long while before the fireplace, pulling +at a pipe. At length he rose, went to the desk, and wrote: + + Dear Doris: + + A good many things have come up since I left you. I think it + is better that no announcement be made until we have had a + chance to talk matters over very seriously. I hope that can + be soon. + + BOJO. + + P.S. Please thank Patsie for packing my bag. I went off in + such a rush I think I forgot. + + P.P.S. Tell Gladys that Fred came out all right--shouldn't + be surprised if he'd made a little too. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +BOJO FACES THE TRUTH + + +The next days he spent aimlessly. He had a great decision to make, and +he acted as though he had not a thought in the world but to drift +indolently through life. He idled through breakfast, reading the morning +papers laboriously, and was amazed to find that with all his delay it +was only eleven o'clock, with an interminable interval to be filled in +before lunch. He began a dozen novels, seeking to lose himself in the +spell of other lands and other times; but as soon as he sallied out to +his club he had the feeling that the world had been turned inside out. + +After luncheon he tried vainly to inveigle some acquaintance into an +afternoon's loafing, only to receive again that impression of strange +loneliness in a foreign land, as one after the other disappeared before +the call of work. He had nothing to do except the one thing which in the +end he knew had to be done, and the more he sought to put it from him, +idling in moving-picture halls or consuming long stretches of pavement +in exploring tramps, the more he felt something always back of his +shoulder, not to be denied. + +He avoided the company of his chums, seeking other acquaintances with +whom to dine and take in a show. Something had fallen into the midst of +the old intimacy of Westover Court. There was a feeling of unease and +impending disruption. The passion for gain had passed among them at last +and the trail of disillusionment it had left could not be effaced. The +boyish delight, the frolicking with life had passed. They seemed to have +aged and sobered in a night. The morning breakfasts were constrained, +hurried affairs. There was not the old give-and-take spirit of horse +play. DeLancy was moody and evasive, Marsh silent, and Granning grim. +Bojo could not meet DeLancy's eyes, and with the others he felt that +though they would never express it, he had disappointed them, that in +some way they held him responsible for the changes which had come and +the loss of that complete and free spirit of comradeship which would +never return. + +He had reached the point where he had decided on a full confession to +Drake and a certain restitution. But here he met the rock of his +indecision. What should he restore? After deducting the sums paid to +DeLancy and to the estate of Forshay, he had still almost one hundred +and sixty thousand dollars. Why should he not deduct his own losses, +amounting to over seventy thousand dollars incurred in the service of a +campaign which had netted millions? + +His conscience, tortured by the tragic memory of Forshay and the feeling +of the spreading circles of panic and losses which had started from his +unwitting agency, had finally recoiled before the thought of making +profit of the desolation of others. But if he renounced the gain, was +there any reason why he should suffer loss; why Drake should not +reimburse him as he had reimbursed others? To accept this view meant +that he would still remain in possession of upwards of eighty-five +thousand dollars, producing a tidy income, able to hold up his own in +the society to which he had grown accustomed. To renounce the payment of +his losses meant not simply a blow to his pride in the acknowledgment +that in the first six months he had already lost two-thirds of what his +father had given him, but that his whole scheme of living would have to +be changed, while marriage with Doris became an impossibility. + +Beyond the first letter he had written her in the first tragic reaction +on his return from the office, he had sent Doris no further word. What +he had to say was yet too undefined to express on paper. Too much +depended on her attitude when they met at last face to face. Her +letters, full of anxiety and demand for information, remained +unanswered. One afternoon on returning after a day's tramp on the East +Side, he found a telegram, which had been waiting hours. + + Return this afternoon four-thirty most anxious meet me + station. + + DORIS. + +It was then almost six. Without waiting to telephone explanations he +jumped in a taxi and shot off uptown. At the Drakes' he sent up his name +by Thompson, learning with a sudden tightening of the heart that Drake +himself was home. He went into the quiet reception room, nervously +excited by the approaching crisis, resolved now that it was up, to push +it to its ultimate conclusion. As he whipped back and forth, fingering +impatiently the shining green leaves of the waxed rubber plant, all at +once, to his amazement, Patsie stood before him. + +"You here?" he said, stopping short. + +She nodded, red in her cheeks, looking quickly at him and away. + +"Doris is changing her dress; she'll be down right away. Didn't you get +the telegram?" + +"I'm sorry-- I was out all day." + +He stopped and she was silent, both awkwardly conscious of the other. +Finally he stammered: "I asked Doris to thank you--for getting my bag +ready and--and your message." + +"Oh, Bojo," she said impulsively and the spots of red on her cheek +spread like names, "I want to speak to you so much. I have been thinking +over so many things that I ought to say." + +"You can say anything," he said gently. + +"Bojo, you must marry Doris!" she said brokenly, joining her hands. + +"Why?" he said, too startled to notice the absurdity of the question. + +"She needs you. She loves you. If you could have seen her all Sunday +night when we--when she was afraid you had been ruined. You don't know +how she cares. I didn't. I was terribly mistaken--unjust. You mustn't +let her go off and marry some one she doesn't care about, like Boskirk, +the way Dolly did." + +"But I must do what is right for me too," he said desperately, moved by +the radiance in her eyes that seemed to flow out and envelope him +irresistibly. "I have a right to love too, to find a woman who knows +what love means--" + +"Don't--don't," she said, turning away miserably, too young to make the +pretense of not understanding him. + +"Listen, Drina," he said, catching her hand. "I am up against a +decision, the greatest decision in my life, which means whether I am to +have the right to my own self-respect and yours and others. One way +means money, an easy way to everything people want in this world, and no +blame attached except what I myself might feel. The other means standing +on my own feet, no favors, taking a loss of thousands of dollars, and a +fight of perhaps five, ten years to get where I am now. Which would you +do? No, you don't even need to answer," he said joyfully, carried away +by the look in her eyes as she swung fearlessly around. "I know you." + +In his fervor he caught her hand and pressed it against his heart. +"Drina dear, you ring true, true as a bell. You, I know, will understand +whatever I do." He was rushing on when suddenly a thought stopped him. +If he did what he had planned, what right would he have to hope of +marrying her even after years of toil? He dropped her hands, his face +going so blank that, forgetting the mingled joy and terror his words had +brought her, she cried: + +"Bojo--what's wrong--what are you thinking of?" + +He turned away, shaking his head, drawing a deep breath. + +But at this moment, before Patsie could escape, Doris came down the +stairs and directly to him. + +"Bojo--I've been so worried--why didn't you answer my letters? And _why_ +didn't you meet me?" + +She threw her arms about his neck, gazing anxiously into his eyes. He +had a blurred vision of Patsie, shrinking and white, turning from the +sight of the embrace, as he stammered explanations. Luckily Drake +himself broke the tension with an unexpected appearance and a bluff-- + +"Hello, Tom. Where have you been keeping yourself? Now that you're a +millionaire I expected you to come sailing in on a steam yacht! Well, +Doris, what do you think of your financier?" + +"Mr. Drake, I've got something important I must talk over with you. Can +you see me for a few minutes now? It's very important. If you could--" + +The tone in which he said these words, staring past them into the vista +of the salons, impressed each with the feeling of a crisis. Drake +halted, shot a quick glance from the young fellow to Doris, and said, as +he went out: + +"Why, yes--of course. Come in now. Soon as you're ready. The +library--glad to see you." + +At the same moment, with a last appealing glance, Patsie disappeared +behind the curtains. Doris came to him, startled and alarmed. + +"You're not in trouble?" she said, wonder in her look. "Dad told me +you'd made a quarter of a million and that everything was all right. +That is true, isn't it?" + +"Doris, everything is not all right," he said solemnly. "Whether I am to +keep my share or not depends on what answer your father gives to one +question I am going to ask him." + +"What do you mean? You mean you would not accept--" + +"Under certain circumstances I _can't_ accept this money--exactly that." + +"But, Bojo, don't do anything rash--hastily," she said hurriedly. "Talk +it over with me first. Let me know." + +"No," he said firmly. "This is my decision." + +"At least let me come with you--let me hear!" + +He shook his head. "No, Doris--not even that. This is between your +father and me." + +"But our marriage," she said in desperation, following him to the door. + +"Afterward--when I have seen your father, then we must talk of that." + +The new decision in his voice and movement surprised and controlled her. +She raised her hand as though to speak, and found no word to utter in +her amazement. He went quickly through the salons, knocked, and went +into the library. Drake, with a premonition perhaps of what was coming, +was waiting impatiently, spinning the chain of his watch. + +"Well, Tom, to the point. What is it?" he said imperiously. + +"Mr. Drake," Bojo began carefully, "I have not been in to see you +because--because I did not know just what to say. Mr. Drake, I've been +terribly upset by this Pittsburgh & New Orleans deal!" + +"What, upset by making a cool quarter of a million?" + +"Yes, that's it," he said firmly, never losing an expression on the +older man's face. "You know, of course, that Forshay, who committed +suicide, was in my office." + +"What, in your office?" said Drake, with a start. "No, I didn't know +that!" + +"That's rather shaken me up. He ruined himself on Pittsburgh & New +Orleans. And then that night--when I got home one of my chums was pretty +close to the same thing." + +"I told you not to take any one into your confidence, Tom," said Drake +quietly. + +"That's true, you _told_ me that. Mr. Drake, answer me this, didn't you +expect me to tell--some one?" + +Drake looked at him quickly, then down, drumming with his fingers. + +"What's the point?" + +Bojo had no longer any doubts. The transaction had been as he had +finally divined. Yet the words had not been spoken that meant to him the +renunciation of all the luxury and opportunity that surrounded him in +the tapestried wealth of the great room. He hesitated so long that Drake +looked up at him and frowned, repeating the question: + +"What's the point, Tom?" + +"Mr. Drake, you knew I would tell others to sell Pittsburgh & New +Orleans--you _intended_ I should, didn't you? That was part of your +plan--a necessary part, wasn't it?" + +"Tom, I expressly told you not to jump to conclusions," said Drake, +rising and raising his voice. "I expressly told you not to let the cat +out of the bag." + +"Won't you answer my question? Yes or no?" said the young fellow, very +quiet and quite colorless. + +"I have answered that." + +"Yes, you have answered," said Bojo slowly. "Now, Mr. Drake, I won't +press you any further. I know. I can't accept that money. It is not +mine." + +"Can't accept? What's this nonsense?" said Drake, stopping short. + +"I can't make money off the losings of my friends, whom I have ruined to +make your deal succeed." + +"That's a hard word!" + +"And there's another reason," said Bojo, ignoring his flash of anger. "I +was not honest with you. The night I came here I was ruined myself." + +"I knew that." + +"But you didn't know that I had used the fifty thousand dollars pledged +to your pool and that if you had been operating as I thought and wiped +out, I should have owed you thirty-five thousand dollars--pledged to +you--a debt which would mean dishonor to me." + +"I didn't know that. No. How did that happen?" said Drake, sitting down +and gazing anxiously at him. + +"I lost my head--absolutely--completely. I did just what Forshay and +DeLancy did--gambled with money that didn't belong to me. I lived in a +nightmare. Mr. Drake, I lost my bearings. Now I'm going to get them +back." He paused, drew breath, and continued earnestly: "Now you +understand why I don't deserve a cent of that money even if you could +swear to me you didn't use me purposely, which you can't! I pretty +nearly went over the line, Mr. Drake, and it wasn't my fault I didn't, +either. I guess I'm not built right for this sort of life--that's the +short of it." + +"You are young, very young, Tom," said Drake slowly. "Young people look +at things through their emotions. That's what you're doing!" + +"Thank God," said Bojo, and it seemed to him for the first time a +feeling of peace returned. + +"What do you want to do?" said Drake, frowning and rising. + +"I can not return you the two hundred thousand dollars," said Bojo +slowly. "I paid one friend thirty-eight thousand to cover his losses, to +save him from disgrace and dishonor in the eyes of a woman; another +friend refused to accept a cent. I paid to the estate of Forshay every +cent of indebtedness he owed the firm--fifty-two odd thousand dollars. +Forshay gambled because he thought I knew. That makes over ninety +thousand dollars. The rest--one hundred and fifty-nine thousand--I will +return to you." + +"Good heavens, Tom, you did that?" said Drake, taking out his +handkerchief. He sat down in his chair, overcome. For a long interval no +one spoke, and then from the chair a voice came out that sounded not +like Drake but something bodiless. "That's awful--awful. From my point +of view I have played the game as others, as square as the squarest. I +have lost thousands of thousands sticking to a friend, thousands in +keeping to my word. This is not business, this is war. Those who go in, +who intend to gamble with life, to fight with thousands and millions, +must go in to take the consequences. If they ever get me it'll be +because some one has turned traitor, not because I've sold out or done +anything disreputable. If others were ruined in Pittsburgh & New +Orleans, that's because they were willing to make money by smashing up +some other person's property. It was their fault, not mine. If a man +can't control himself--his fault. If a man goes bankrupt and won't face +the world and work back instead of blowing his brains out--his fault. + +"You think of the individual--men, friends, death. They move you, +they're closer to you than the big perspective. They don't count, no one +counts. If a man kills himself, he dies quicker than he would and is not +worth living, that's all. Sounds cold-blooded to you. Yes. But we're +dealing in movements, armies! Poverty, sorrow, disaster, death, they are +life--you can't get away from them. A great bridge is more important +than the lives of the men who build it, a great railroad is necessary, +not the question whether a few thousand people lose their fortunes, in +the operation which makes a great amalgamation possible. That's my point +of view. It's not yours. You're set on what you've made up your mind to +do. Your emotions have got you. Ten years from now you'll regret it." + +"I hope not," said Bojo simply. + +"What are you going to do? Well, come in here as my private secretary," +said Drake, placing his hand on the young man's shoulder, and adding, +with that burst of human understanding which gave him a magnetic power +over men: "Tom, you're a ---- fool to do what you're doing, but, by +heaven, I love you for it!" + +"Thank you," said Bojo, controlling his voice with difficulty. + +"Will you come here?" + +"No." + +"Why not?" + +"Frankly, I want to do something by myself," said Bojo stubbornly. "I +don't want some one to take me by the collar and jack me up into +success." + +"Think it over!" + +"No, I'll stick to that. I want to get into a rational life. To live the +way I've been living is torture." + +Drake hesitated, as though loathe to let him go, seeking some way out. + +"Won't you let me make good your losses--at least that?" + +"Not after the hole I got into, no." + +"Damn it, Tom, won't you let me do something to help out?" + +"No, not a thing." He went up and shook hands. "You don't know what it +means to be able to look you in the eyes again, sir. That's everything!" + +"And Doris?" said Drake slowly, beaten at every point. + +"Doris I am going to see now," he said. + +He went to the door hastily to avoid sentimentalities, and on the other +side of the curtain, where she had been listening, he found Doris, +wide-eyed and thrilled, her finger on her lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK + + +"What, you were there! You heard!" he said, astounded. + +She nodded her head, incapable of speech, her finger still on her lips, +drawing him by the hand into the little sitting-room where they were in +a measure free from other eyes. + +"Now for a torrent of reproaches," he thought grimly. + +But instead the next moment tears were on her cheeks, her arms about +him, and her head on his shoulder. Seeing her thus shaken, he thought +bitterly that all this grief was but for the material loss, the blow to +her ambitions. All at once she raised her head, took him firmly by the +shoulder, and said: + +"Bojo, I've never loved you before--but I do now, oh, yes, now I know!" + +He shook his head, unable to believe her capable of great emotions. + +"Doris, you are carried away--this is not what you'll say to-morrow!" + +"Yes, yes, it is!" she cried fervently. "I'll sacrifice anything +now--nothing will ever make me give you up!" + +"Luckily for you," he said, his look darkening, "you'll have time enough +to come to your senses. If you heard all, you know what this +means--starting at the beginning." + +"I heard-- I understand," she said, close to him, her eyes shining with +a light that blotted out the world in confused shadow. He looked at her, +thrilled by her feeling, by the thought that it belonged to him, that he +was the master of it, and yet unconvinced. + +"It's just your imagination," he said quietly, "that's all. Doris, I +know you too well--what you've lived with and what you must have." He +added, with a doubting smile: "You remember what you said to me that day +on our ride, when we passed through that factory village--'ask me +anything but to be _poor_.'" + +"Bojo," she said, desperately, "you don't understand what a woman is. +That was true--then. There's all that you say in me, but there's +something else which you've never called out before, which can come when +I love, when I really love." She clung to him, fighting for him, feeling +how close she had been to losing him. "Bojo, believe in me, give me one +more chance!" + +"To-morrow you'll come to me with some new scheme for making money!" + +"No, no." + +"You'll try to persuade me that I should marry you on your money, take +the opportunities your father can shove in my way. Oh, Doris, I know you +too well!" + +"No, no, I won't. I don't want--don't you see I don't want to make you +do anything? I want to follow you!" + +"That has been the trouble," he said, abruptly. + +He turned, walked away, and sat down, gazing out through the window, +feeling something dark and enveloping closing about him without his +being able to slip away. She came impulsively to his side, flinging +herself on the floor at his knees, carried away with the intensity of +her emotion. + +[Illustration: "'What does all the rest amount to?' she said +breathlessly. 'I want you'"] + +"What does all the rest amount to!" she said breathlessly. "I want you! +I want a man, not a dummy, in my life. I want some one to look up to, +bigger, stronger than I am, that can make me do things." + +He put his hand on hers, thrilling as he bent quickly and kissed it. + +"The trouble has been," he said slowly, "all this time I've been trying +to come to your ways of living, to reach you. Doris, I can't promise; +I'm not sure of myself, of what I think--" + +"Oh, it would be such a dreadful thing if you were to let me go now," +she said suddenly, covering her face. "Now, when I know what I could +do!" + +"Yes," he assented, feeling too the power he had suddenly acquired to +make or mar a life, and with that power the responsibility. + +"You can do anything with me," she said in a whisper. + +He felt a lump in his throat, a sense of being blocked at every turn, a +horror of doing harm, and a wild pride in the thought that at the last +this girl, whom he had rebelled against so often for being without +emotion or passion, was at his feet, without reserve, a warm, adoring +woman. + +"Doris, you have got to come to me on my footing," he said firmly at +last. + +She accepted it as the answer she had longed for, raising her face +suffused with joy, pressing his hand to her heart, her eyes swimming +with tears, inarticulate. + +"Try me--anything! I'm happy--so happy--so afraid-- I was so afraid-- +Oh, Bojo, to think I might never have known you--lost you!" + +When a little calm had been reestablished, she wished to marry him at +once, to live in one room in a boarding-house, if necessary, to prove +her sincerity. He answered her evasively, pretending to laugh at her, +feeling the while the leaden load of what by a trick of fate he had +assumed at the moment when he had expected the completest freedom. Yet +there was something so genuine, so uncalculated in her contrition, +something so helpless and appealing to his strength in her surrender to +his will and decision, that he felt stirred to a poignant pity, and +shrank before the brutality of inflicting pain. + +When he left, quiet and brooding, turning the corner of the Avenue his +glance happened to go to a window on the second floor, and he saw Patsie +looking down. He stopped, stumbling in his progress, and then, +recovering himself, lifted his hat solemnly. She did not move nor make +an answering gesture. He saw her only immobile, looking down at him. + + * * * * * + +When he returned to the Court and stopped mechanically at the desk for +his mail, Della, with her welcoming smile, chided him. + +"My, but you look awful serious, Mr. Crocker!" + +"Am I?-- Yes, I suppose so," he said absent-mindedly. + +He went through into the inner court that yesterday had seemed to him +such a constricted little spot in the great city which had responded to +his fortunate touch. Now, in the falling dusk, with the lights +blossoming out, the court seemed very big, crowded with human beings in +the battle of life, and he himself small and without significance. + +"Well, I've gone and done it," he said to himself with a half laugh. "I +wonder--" + +He wondered, now that it was all over, now that the curtain had dropped +on the drama of it, whether after all Drake had been right--whether he +was seeing life through his emotions, and what the point of view of +thirty-five and forty would be in retrospection. + +"Well, I've chucked it all," he said, lingering in the quiet and the +suffused half lights. "I took the bit in my teeth. There's no turning +back now." He remembered his father and the old battling look of +defiance in his eyes as he had exhorted his son. + +"Guess, after all," he said grimly, feeling all at once drawn closer to +his own, "I must be a chip of the old block." + +Granning alone was in the study as he came in, spinning his hat on to +the sofa. + +"Well, Granning, I've up and done it," he said shortly. + +"Eh, what?" said Granning, looking up rather alarmed. + +He told him. + +"And so, Granning, I'm a horny-handed son of labor from this time +forth," he said in conclusion. "You'll have to find me a job!" The laugh +failed. It seemed out of place at that moment with Granning staring at +him. He added quietly: "Guess self-respect is worth more than I +thought!" + +"God, I'm glad!" said Granning, bringing down his great fist. + +He had never in all the long friendship seen Granning so stirred! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BOJO HUNTS A JOB + + +"Well, now to hunt a job!" + +He woke up the next morning with this one idea dominant, dressed to a +whistling accompaniment, and came gaily to breakfast. A load seemed to +have been suddenly lifted from his mind, the day fair and the future +keen with the zest of a good fight without favors. The breakfast was +delicious and the air alive with energy. + +"Seems to me you're looking rather cocky," said Marsh, studying him with +surprise. + +"Never felt fitter in my life," said Bojo, stealing a roll from DeLancy, +who had completely lost his good spirits. + +"What's up? Going to trim the market again?" + +Bojo laughed, a free and triumphant laugh. + +"Never again for me!" He added quickly, remembering the attitude they +had assumed for DeLancy's benefit: "Luck's been with me long enough-- +I'm not going to bank on luck any more!" + +Fred pushed his plate from him and went into the outer room without +meeting their glances. + +"I say, Bojo, one thing we ought to do," said Marsh under his breath: +"get after the infant and give him a solemn dressing-down." + +"You don't suppose he's fool enough to try the market again?" + +"Who knows what he'll do?" said Marsh gloomily. "Sometimes I think it +would have kept him out of more trouble if you'd let him be cleaned out! + +"You mean Louise Varney-- Good Lord!" + +"Exactly!" + +"Do you think he suspects?" said Bojo, after a moment's hesitation--"I +mean about his taking a profit?" + +"Of course," said Marsh quietly. + +"Poor devil! Well, heavens, I can't criticize him," said Bojo, moodily. +"I pretty near did the same thing." + +"What are you going to do now?" said Marsh, to keep the conversation +clear of disturbing memories. + +"Going to start in on a new job." + +"What?" said Marsh, surprised. + +"Oh, I'm going to look around," said Bojo in an offhand sort of way. "I +want something solid and real--constructive is the word. Well, Roscy, +wish me good luck-- I'm starting to look over the field this morning." +He rose confident and happy, slapping his friend on the shoulder, with +the old boyish exhilaration. "By Jove, I'm glad to have it over and to +begin a real life!" + +"Give you a try at reporting," said Marsh. + +"Not on your life. I'm going out for something myself! Hello there, old +Freddie-boy! Got your hair on straight? Well, then, come on and tell +Wall Street what to do." + +An hour later, still full of confidence, he took the bull by the horns +and entered the offices of Stoughton and Bird. Young Stoughton was of +his social crowd, and the father had been particularly agreeable to him +on the several occasions on which he had dined at their home. The house +was known for its conservatism, dealing in solid investments. + +"Hello, Skeeter," said Bojo, giving young Stoughton his college +nickname. "Is the Governor busy--could he see me ten minutes?" + +They were in a vast outer chamber with junior members installed at +distant desks, the telephone ringing at every moment. + +"I think you've caught him right," said Stoughton, shaking his hand +cordially. "Wait a moment-- I'll 'phone in." He nodded presently. "Sure +enough--go right in." + +Stoughton, senior, a short, well-groomed man, club-man and whip, pumped +his hand affably with the smiling relaxation of one who throws off +momentarily the professional manner. + +"Glad to see you, Tom. I was asking Jo yesterday what had become of you. +Well, what have you got up your sleeve? You look mighty important. Want +to sell me a railroad in Mexico or half of a Western State?" + +"Nothing like that," said Tom, laughing and at his ease at once. "What +I'm looking for is a job." + +"You don't mean it," said Stoughton in surprise. + +"I want to get experience along solid lines," said Bojo confidentially. +"In conservative financing and investments. I don't know whether you've +got anything open, but if you have I'd like to apply." + +"I see." Stoughton nodded, plainly perplexed. "Does that mean you've +left--" + +"Hauk and Flaspoller--yes." + +Stoughton frowned. + +"That's poor Charlie Forshay's firm, isn't it?" + +"Yes." + +"They were caught pretty hard in Pittsburgh & New Orleans," said +Stoughton meditatively. "Yes, I remember. Were you caught too?" + +"I was." + +"What were you getting there?" + +"Of course I don't expect to get what I was making there--not just at +present," said Bojo magnanimously. "I was getting as much as one hundred +and twenty-five a week at the end." + +"No," said Stoughton, without the flicker of a smile, "you can't expect +that." The social affability had faded. Gradually he had withdrawn into +a quiet defensive attitude, tinged with curiosity. "By the way, you +don't mind my asking a discreet question? Why don't you try Drake?" + +Bojo could not give an answer which would reveal too much, but he +contented himself with saying frankly: + +"Why, Mr. Stoughton, I'd rather not ask favors. I'd like to work this +out for myself." + +"Right," said Stoughton, brightening. Still beaming, he added: "Wish we +had a place for you here. Unfortunately, our system is rather complex +and we start a man at the bottom. Of course we wouldn't offer you +anything like that. You're out of the ten-dollar-a-week class. Besides, +you've got friends--good connections. Lots of firms would be glad to get +you." + +"I want to get into something sound. I want to keep away from just +brokers," said Bojo, much cheered. + +"And you're right," said Stoughton, nodding. He drew out a card and +penciled it. "You know Harding and Stonebach? Harding's a good friend of +mine--give him this card. They're what you want--make a specialty of +development, electric plants, street railways, and that sort of thing. +Big future for a young fellow who's got a talent for constructive +organization." + +"That's just what I want," said Bojo, delighted. He shook hands, +thanking him effusively. + +Mr. Harding was in but asked him to call after lunch. He wandered about +the Wall Street district, stopping to chat with several acquaintances on +the curb, and ate lunch, finding it hard to kill time. Back at the +appointment, he was forced to sit, shifting restlessly, watching the +clock hands make a slow full revolution before his name was called. This +enforced wait, stealing glances at the flitting procession of purposeful +visitors and the two or three oldish men, neither impatient nor very +hopeful, who came after him, biding their turn, somehow robbed him of +all his confidence. His head was weary with the click of typewriters and +the fire of his assurance out. He tried to state his case concisely and +promptly, and felt hurried and embarrassed. + +In two minutes he was out in the hall again, the interview for which he +had waited a day, over. Mr. Harding, with incisive, businesslike +despatch, had taken his card and noted his address, promising to notify +him if occasion arose. He understood it was a dismissal. As he went out, +one of the oldish men arose without emotion at the new summons, folding +his newspaper and pocketing his spectacles. Bojo returned to the Court, +essaying to laugh down his disappointment, yielding already to the +subtle depression of being a straggler and watching the army sweep by. + +The next day he continued his quest, the next and all of that week. +Sometimes he met with curt refusal that left a scar on his pride; +sometimes he seemed to gain headway and have opportunity almost on his +fingers until somehow, sooner or later, in the categorical questioning +it transpired that his last venture had been with a firm of speculative +brokers who had been caught and squeezed. Gradually it dawned upon him +that there was something strange in the resulting sudden shift of +attitude, a superstition of the Street itself, a gambler's dread of +failure, an instinctive horror of any one who had been touched with +misfortune, as the living hurry from the dead. The feeling of loneliness +began to creep over him. Alarmed, he steadfastly refused all week-end +invitations. + +One Sunday his father turned up suddenly in the Court, shook hands with +Granning, who alone kept him company, and passed a few perfunctory +remarks with his son. + +"How is it you haven't been to me for money?" he said gruffly. + +Bojo answered with a lightness he was far from feeling: + +"Well, they haven't taken it away from me yet, Dad." + +"Mighty sorry to hear it." He looked him over critically. "In good +shape?" + +"Fine." + +"Get enough sleep and don't do much sitting up and counting the stars?" + +"Hardly. How've you been?" + +"Sound as a drum." + +"How's the business, father?" + +The question brought them perilously near what each had in mind. Perhaps +one word of daring would have broken down the pride of their mutual +obstinacy. Mr. Crocker growled out: + +"Business is mighty shaky. Your precious Wall Street and politics have +got every one scared to death. Mighty lucky we'll be if a crash doesn't +hit us." + +Had Bojo defended himself, the father might have reopened the question +of his entering the mills; but he didn't, and after a few minutes of +indefinite seeking for an opening Mr. Crocker went off as abruptly as he +had come. + +The next morning Bojo, to end this depressing period of inactivity, made +a resolve to accept any opportunity, no matter how humble the salary, +and went down to see Mr. Stoughton to ask him for the chance to start at +the bottom. Skeeter received him with the same cordiality as before, but +access to the father was not to be had that day. In desperation he sat +down and wrote his request. Two days later he received his answer in the +evening mail. + + Mr. Thomas Crocker. + + Dear Tom: + + Please forgive any delay due to press of business. Just at + present there is no vacancy, and frankly I would not advise + you to take the step even if there were. I know you are + young and impatient to be at work again, but I can not but + feel that you would not be happy in making such a radical + move, particularly when at any moment the opportunity you + are looking for may turn up. + + Cordially yours, + J. N. STOUGHTON. + +Granning came in as he was sitting by the wastebasket and slowly tearing +this letter into minute shreds. + +"Hello, young fellow--what luck?" + +"I think I'm on," said Bojo, slowly, feeling all at once shelved and +abandoned. "The last thing people downtown have any use for, Granning, +is a busted broker!" + +"You have found that out, have you?" said Granning quickly. + +Bojo nodded. + +"Well, you're right." He sat down. "See here, old sport, why don't you +do the thing you ought to do?" + +"What's that?" + +"Go down and see the old man and tell him you're ready to start for the +mills to-morrow!" + +"No, no, I can't do that." + +"You want to do it, at heart. It's only pride that's keeping you." + +"Perhaps, but that pride means a lot to me," said Bojo doggedly. "Never! +I'm not going to him a failure. So shut up about that." + +"Well, what are you going to do?" + +Bojo began to whistle, looking out the window. + +"Suppose I were to offer you a job over at the factory?" + +"Would you?" said Bojo, looking up with a leaping heart. + +"That means starting in on rock bottom--as I did. Up at six, there at +seven--beginning as a day laborer on a beautifully oily and smudgy +blanking machine among a bunch of Polacks." + +"Will you give me a chance?" said Bojo breathlessly. + +"Will you stick it out?" + +"You bet I will!" + +"Done!" + +And they shook hands with a resounding smack that seemed to explode all +Bojo's pent-up feelings. + +"All right, young fellow," said Granning with a grin. "To-morrow we'll +find out what sort of stuff you're made of!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +BOJO IN OVERALLS + + +The day he entered the employ of the Dyer-Garnett Caster and Foundry +Company was like an open door into the wonderland of industry. The sun, +red and wrapped in dull mists, came stolidly out of the east as they +crossed the river in the unearthly grays, with electric lights showing +in wan ferry-boats. When they entered the factory a few minutes before +seven, the laborers were passing the time-clocks, punching their +tickets, Polack and Saxon, Hun and American, Irish and Italian, the men +a mixture of slouchy, unskilled laborers and keen, strong mechanics, +home-owners and thinkers, the women of rather a higher class, +bright-eyed, deft, with a prevailing instinct for coquetry. + +In the offices Dyer, lanky New Englander, engineer and inventor, and +Garnett, the president, self-made, simple and shrewd, both in their +shirt sleeves, gave him a cordial welcome. Unbeknown to Bojo, Granning +had given a flattering picture of his future destination as heir +apparent to the famous Crocker mills and his progressive desire for +preliminary experience in factories that were handling problems of +labor-saving along modern lines. + +"Glad to meet you," said Garnett, gripping his hand. "Mr. Granning tells +me you want to see the whole scheme from the bottom up. It's not +playing football, Mr. Crocker." + +"Hope not," said Bojo with a smile. "It's very good of you to give me an +opportunity." + +"Don't know how you'll feel about it after a couple of weeks. I'll get +Davy--that's my son--to show you around. We're doing some things here +you'll be interested in. Mr. Dyer's just installed some very pretty +machines. Davy'll put you onto the ropes--he's just been through it. +That's a great plant of your father's--went through it last year. +Nothing finer in the country." + +He found young Garnett a boy of twenty, just out of high-school, alert, +eager, and stocked with practical knowledge. The morning he spent in +exploration was a revelation. In his old prejudice against what he had +confusedly termed business he had always recoiled as before a leveling +process, stultifying to the imagination, a thing of mechanical movements +and disciplined drudgery. He found instead his imagination leaping +forward before the spectacle of each succeeding regiment of machines, +before the teeming of progress, of the constant advance toward the +harnessing of iron and steel things to the bidding of the human mind. + +Cars were being switched at the sidings, unloading their cargoes of +coiled steel; other cars were receiving the completed article, product +of a score of intricate processes, stamped, turned, assembled, and +hammered together, plated, lacquered, burnished, and packed for +distribution. He had but a confused impression at first of these rooms +of tireless wheels, automatic feeders and monstrous weights that sliced +solid steel like paper. The noises deafened him: the sandy, grinding +whirl of the tumbling room, the colliding shock of the blanking +machines, the steel hiss of the burnishers--deafening voices that in the +ensuing months were to become articulate utterances to his informed +ears, songs of triumph, prophetic of a coming age. + +In the burnishing-room grotesque human and inhuman arms reached down +from a central pipe to the poisonous gases of the miniature furnaces. + +"Granning's idea," said young Garnett. "Carries off the fumes. This room +was a hell before. Now it's clean and safe as a garden. Here's a machine +the Governor's just installed--does the work of six women. Isn't it a +beauty?" + +Bojo looked beyond it to the clustered groups of women by long counters +piled with steel parts, working rapidly at slow, intricate processes of +assembling. + +"I suppose you'll get a machine some day to do all that too," he said. + +"Sure. Wherever you see more than two at a job there's something to be +done. Look here." They stood by a couple of swarthy Polack women, who +were placing tiny plugs in grooves on round surfaces to be covered and +fastened with ball-bearing casters. "Looks pretty tough proposition to +get out of those fingers. We've worked two years at it, but we'll get +them yet. It's the slug shape that makes it hard; the simple +ball-bearings were a cinch. Here's how we worked that out." + +A machine was under Bojo's eyes that caught the open roller and plunged +it into a circular arena, where from six converging gates steel balls +were released and fell instantly into place, a fraction of a second +before the upper cover, descending, was fixed and hammered down. + +"One hundred and fifty a minute against thirty to forty, and two +operations made into one." + +"But you can't do the same thing with an irregular slug," said Bojo, +amazed. + +"There's a way somehow," said Garnett, smiling at the tribute of his +astonishment. "If you want to see what a machine can do, look at this, +the pride of the shop." + +"Who's watching it?" said Bojo, surprised to see no one in attendance. + +"Not a soul. It's a wise old machine. All we do is to fill up the hamper +once an hour, and it goes ahead, feeds itself, juggles a bit, hammers on +a head, and fills up its can, two hundred a minute." + +In a large feeding-box, a tangled mass of small steel pins, banded at +one end, were rising and falling, settling and readjusting themselves. A +thin grooved plate rose and fell into the mass, sucking into its groove, +or catching in its upward progress, from one to six of the pins, which, +perpendicularly arranged, slid down to a new crisis. Steel fingers +caught each pin as released, threw it with a half turn into another +groove, where it was again passed forward and fixed in shape for the +crushing hammer blow that was to flatten the head. A safety-device based +on exact tension stopped the machine instantly in case of accident. + +"Suffering Moses, is it possible!" said Bojo, staring like a schoolboy. +"Never saw anything like it." + +"Gives you an idea what can be done, doesn't it?" + +"It does!" + +Then he began to see these strangely human machines and these mechanical +human beings in a larger perspective, in a constant warfare, each +ceaselessly struggling with the other, each unconsciously being +fashioned in the likeness of his enemy. + +"When we've got the human element down to the lowest terms, then we'll +fight machines with machinery, I suppose," said Garnett. + +"Makes you sort of wonder what'll be done fifty years from now," said +Bojo. + +"Doesn't it?" said Garnett. "I wouldn't dare tell you what the Governor +talks about. You'd think he's plum crazy." + +"By George, I feel like starting now." + +"Same way I did," said Garnett, nodding. "I suppose what you'll want +will be to follow the whole process from the beginning. It gives you a +general idea. I say, that's a great machine your father's just +installed." + +He began to expatiate enthusiastically on an article he had read in a +technical paper, assuming full knowledge on Bojo's part, who listened in +wonder, already beginning to feel, beyond the horizon of these animated +iron shapes, the mysterious realms of human invention he had so long +misunderstood. + +The next morning, in overalls and flannels, he took his place in the +moving throngs and found his own time-card, a numbered part of a great +industrial battalion. He was apprenticed to Mike Monahan, a grizzled, +good-humored veteran, whose early attitude of suspicion disappeared with +Bojo's plunge into grime and grease. He was himself conscious of a +strange bashfulness which he had never experienced in his contact with +Wall Street men. It seemed to him that these earnest, life-giving hordes +of labor must look down on him as a useless, unimportant specimen. When +he came to take his place in the early morning, sorting out his +time-card, he was conscious of their glances and always felt awkward as +he passed from room to room. Gradually, being essentially simple and +manly in his instincts, he won his way into the friendly comprehension +of his associates, living on their terms, seeking their company, talking +their talk, with a dawning avid curiosity in their points of view, their +needs, and their opinions of his own class. + +Garnett had not exaggerated when he had said that the work was not +playing football. There were days at first when the constant mental +application and the mechanical iteration amid the dinning shocks in the +air left him completely fagged in mind and body. When he returned home +it was with no thought of theater or restaurant, but with the joy of +repose. Moreover, to his surprise, he found that he awaited the arrival +of Sunday eagerly for the opportunity of reading along the lines where +his imagination had been stirred. As he studied the factory closer, his +pleasure lay in long discussions with Granning over such subjects as the +utilization of refuse, the possible saving of time in the weekly +cleanings by some process of construction which might permit of quicker +concentration, or the possibility of further safety-devices. + +He saw Doris every Sunday, in the afternoon, often staying for the +dinner and departing soon after. Patsie was never present at these +meals. A month later, he heard that she had left on a round of visits. +Mr. Drake often made humorous allusions to his enforced servitude, but +never attempted to sway his course, being too good a judge of human +nature to underestimate the intensity of the young man's convictions. +Doris had completely changed in her attitude toward him. She no longer +sought to direct, but seemed content to accept his views in quiet +submission. He found her simple and straightforward, patiently resigned +to wait his decisions. He could not honestly say to himself that he was +madly in love, yet he owned to a feeling of growing respect and genuine +affection. + +Matters went on according to the routine of the day without much change +while the spring passed into the hot stretches of summer. The exigencies +of the life of discipline he had enforced on himself had withdrawn him +more and more from the intimate knowledge of the every-day life of +Marsh, whose hours did not coincide with his, and of DeLancy, who, since +the episode of the speculation in Pittsburgh & New Orleans, had, from a +feeling of unease, seemed to avoid his old friends. Occasionally in her +letters from the country Doris mentioned the fact that Gladys had been +to visit her and that she thought Fred was rather neglectful; but beyond +that he was completely ignorant of his friend's sentimental standing +either with Gladys or with Louise Varney, so that what happened came to +him like a bolt out of the blue. + +Toward the end of July Fred DeLancy married Louise Varney. + +It was on a Friday night when Marsh, after an unusual tarrying in the +den, was preparing to return to the office, that DeLancy, to their +surprise, came into the room. In response to their chorused welcome, he +flung back a curt acknowledgment, looked around gravely in momentary +hesitation, and finally installed himself on the edge of a chair, +bending forward, his hat between his knees, turning in his hands. The +others exchanged glances of interrogation, for such seriousness on +Fred's part usually presaged a scrape or disaster. + +"Well, infant, why so solemn?" said Marsh. "Been getting into trouble +lately?" + +DeLancy looked up and down. + +"Nope." + +"There's not much information in that," said Marsh cheerily. "Well, +what's the secret sorrow? Out with it!" + +"There's nothing wrong," said DeLancy quietly. He began to whistle, +staring at the floor. + +"Oh, very well," said Marsh in an offended tone. + +They sat, watching him, for quite a moment, in silence. Finally DeLancy +spoke, slowly and monotonously: + +"I have made up my mind to a serious decision!" + +Again they waited without questioning him, while he frowned and seemed +to choose his words. + +"You will think I have gone out of my head, I suppose. Well--I am going +to be married--to-night--at eleven." + +"Louise Varney?" said Marsh, jumping up, while Granning and Bojo stared +at each other blankly. + +"Yes." + +"You damned fool!" + +At this Fred started up wildly with an oath, but Granning interposed +with a warning cry. + +"You fool--you idiot!" cried Marsh, furiously. "Shoot yourself--cut your +throat--but don't--don't do that!" + +"Shut up, Roscy, that does no good!" said Bojo quickly. He seized Fred +by the wrist: "Fred, honestly--you're going to marry her to-night?" + +DeLancy nodded, his mouth grim. + +"Oh, Fred, you don't know what you're doing!" + +"Yes, I do," he said, sitting down. "It's nothing hasty. It's been +coming for months. I know what I'm doing." + +"But--but the other--Fred, you can't--in decency you can't--not like +this." + +"Shut up!" said DeLancy, wincing. + +"No, no, you can't like this," said Bojo indignantly. + +"By heavens, he sha'n't," said Marsh angrily. "If we have to tie him up +and keep him here--he's not going to ruin two lives like this, the +lunatic!" + +"Go easy," said Granning, with a warning glance. + +But, contrary to expectation, Fred did not resent the attack. When he +spoke, it was with a shrug of his shoulders, in a tired, unresisting +voice: + +"It's no use, Roscy. It's settled and done for." + +"Why, Fred, old boy, can't you see clear?" said Roscy, coming to him +with a changed tone. "Don't you know what this means? You're not a fool. +Think! I'm not saying a word against Louise." + +"You'd better not!" said Fred, flushing. + +"Her character's as good as any one else's--granted that. But, Fred, +that's not all. She's not of your world, her mother's not--her friends +are not. If you marry her, Fred, as sure as there's a sun in heaven, +you're ended, done for; you're dropped out of the world and you'll never +get back!" + +"Well, I'm going to do it," said DeLancy, stubbornly. + +"You're going to do it and deliberately throw over every friend and +every attachment you've got in life?" + +"I don't admit that." + +"What are you going to live on?" said Granning. + +"I've got the money I made and what I make." + +"What you make now," said Marsh, seizing the opening, "what you make +because you know people and bring down customers! You yourself said it. +But when you drop out of society you'll drop out of business. You know +it." + +"I may fool you yet," said Fred angrily. + +"You think you can play the Wall Street game and beat it," said Bojo, +divining his thought. "Fred, if you marry, whatever else you do--quit +gambling." Knowing more than the others, he had from the first known the +hopelessness of argument. Still he persisted blindly. "Fred, can't you +wait and think it over--let us talk it over with you?" + +"I can't, Bojo, I can't. I've given my word!" + +"Good God!" said Marsh, raising his hands to heaven in fury. + +"Fred, can't you see what Roscy says is true?" said Granning, quieter +than the rest. + +"Even so, I'm going to do it," said Fred, in a low voice. + +"But why?" + +"Because I'm crazy, mad in love," said Fred, jumping up and pacing +around. "Infatuated?--Yes!--Mad?--Yes! But there it is. I can't do +without her. I've been like a wild man all these months. Whether it +ruins me or not, I can't help it-- I've got to have her, and that's all +there is to it!" + +"Then I guess that's all there is to it," repeated Granning solemnly. + +Marsh swore a fearful oath and went out. + +"I want to talk to him a moment," said Bojo, turning to Granning with a +nod. Granning went into the bedroom, while Bojo drew nearer to DeLancy. +"Fred, let's talk this over quietly." + +"Oh, I know what you're going to fling at me," said Fred miserably. +"Gladys and all that. I know I'm a beast, I've no excuse. But, Bojo, I'm +half wild! I don't know what I'm doing--honest I don't!" + +"Is it as bad as all that, old fellow?" said Bojo, shaking his head. + +"It's awful--awful." He sat down, burying his head in his hands. + +"Fred, answer me--do you yourself _want_ to do this?" + +"How do I know what I want!" he said breathlessly. He raised his head, +staring in front. "I suppose it will end me with the crowd. I suppose +that's true. Bojo, I know everything that it will do to me--everything. +I know it's suicide. But, Bojo, that doesn't do any good. Reasoning +doesn't do any good--what's got to be has got to be! Now I've told you. +You'll see it's no use." + +"I hope it will work out better than we think," said Bojo, solemnly. +"And Gladys?" + +"I wrote to her." + +"When?" + +"Yesterday." He hesitated. "Her letters and one or two things--they're +done up in a pile." + +"I'll get them to her." + +"Thank you." He turned. "I say, Bojo, stand by me in this, won't you? +I've got to have some one. Will you?" + +"All right. I'll come." + + * * * * * + +At eleven o'clock in a little church up in Harlem he stood by DeLancy's +side while the words were said that he knew meant the end of all things +for him in the worldly world he had chosen for his own. It was more like +an execution, and Bojo had a guilty, horribly guilty, feeling, as though +he were participating in a crime. + +"Louise looks beautiful," he found the heart to whisper. + +"Yes, doesn't she?" said Fred gratefully, with such a sudden leap in the +eyes that Bojo felt something choking in his throat. + +He waved them good-by after he had put them in the automobile, and took +Mrs. Varney and a Miss Dingler, the maid of honor, home in a taxi. It +was all very gloomy, shoddy, and depressing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DORIS MEETS A CRISIS + + +It was toward the end of August, when the dry exhaustion of the summer +had begun to be touched with the healing cool of delicious nights, that +Bojo and Granning were lolling on the window-seat, busy at their pipes. +Below in the Court foggy shapes were sunk in cozy chairs under the +spread of the great cotton umbrella, and the languid echoes of +wandering, contented conversation came to them like the pleasant closing +sounds of the day across twilight fields--the homing jingle of cattle, +the returning creak of laden wagons seeking the barns, or a tiny distant +welcome from a barking throat. + +"Ouf! It's good to get a lung-full of cool air again," said Bojo, +turning gratefully to an easier position. + +"Well, how do you like being a horny-handed son of toil?" said Granning. + +"I like it." + +"You're through the worst of it now." + +"It's sort of like being in training again," said Bojo reminiscently. +"Jove, how they used to drive us in the fall--the old slave drivers! +It's great, though, to feel you've earned the right to rest. I say, +Granning, it's a funny thing, but you know that first raise, ten dollars +a week, thrilled me more than making thirty thousand in a clip. Come to +think of it, I don't believe I ever really made that money." + +"You didn't." + +Bojo laughed. "Well, this is a man's life," he said evasively. Then +suddenly: "What precious idiots we were that first night, prophesying +our lives. Poor old Freddie, who was going to marry a million and all +that--and weren't we indignant, though, at him! A fine grave he's dug +for himself now. Queer." + +"I like him better than if he'd married the other girl in cold blood." + +"Yes, I suppose I do too. Still--" He broke off. "Do you believe he's +had the sense to get out of the market?" + +"No," said Granning shortly. + +"Good Lord, if I thought that, I'd--" + +"You'd do nothing. You can't help him--neither can I or any one. After +all--don't think I'm hard, but what does it matter what happens to +fellows like Fred DeLancy? What's important is what happens to men +who've got power and energy and are trying to force their way up. Men +you and I know--" + +"That's rather cruel." + +"Well, life is cruel. My sympathy is with the fellow that's knocking for +opportunity, not the fellow who's throwing it away. Bojo, the salvation +of this country isn't in making sinecures for good-natured, lovable +chaps of the second generation, but in sorting 'em out and letting the +weak ones fall behind. Keep open the doors to those who are coming up." + +"I don't think you've ever forgiven Fred for taking that money," said +Bojo reluctantly. "You don't like him." + +"I did like him--but I've grown beyond him--and so have you," said +Granning bluntly. In the last few months he had come to speak his mind +directly to Bojo, with results that sometimes shocked the younger man. + +At this moment the telephone rang. + +"Shuffle over to it," said Granning, withdrawing his legs. "No one ever +telephones for me." + +"It may be from Fred--perhaps they're back," said Bojo, departing. + +He came back in a few moments rather excited. + +"That's queer--it's from Doris." + +"Been rather neglectful, haven't you?" + +"It wasn't long distance. She's here!" + +"Here--in town?" + +"Yes. Funny she didn't warn me," said Bojo, mystified. He dug out his +hat from the crowded desk and halted before the reclining figure. "Well, +I'm summoned. Sorry to leave you. Felt just like rambling along." + +"Well, be firm." + +"What?" + +"Be firm." + +"Now just what did he mean by that?" he said to himself as he tripped +down the stairs and out. He puzzled more over this advice as he hastened +uptown. Why had Doris come, abruptly and without notification? The more +he thought of it, the more he believed he understood the reason of +Granning's warning. Doris had come to him with some new proposition, an +investment for quick returns or an opening along lines of increasing +salaries. The open surface-car with its cargo of coatless men and +shirt-waisted women went pounding up the Avenue, hurrying him toward +Doris. + +He would have been at loss to define to himself his real feelings. +Despite the sudden awakening in her, the delirious quality of romance +had not returned to him. Memories of another face and other hours had +ended that. Yet there was a solid feeling of doing the right thing, of +playing square by Doris, and of a responsibility well performed. In the +long, crowded, heated weeks there were long intervals when he forgot her +entirely. Yet when he saw her or opened her letters, poignant with +solicitude and faith, he felt his imagination kindle, if but for the +moment. + +He had reached the self-conscious stage in youth when he looked upon +himself as supernaturally old and tried in the furnace of experience. He +quieted the dormant longings in his heart by assuring himself that he +now took a different view of marriage, a more significant one as a grave +social step. The less he felt the romance of their relations, the more +he acknowledged the solid supplementary qualities which Doris would +bring him as his companion, as associate and organizer of the home. + +That he could not give her all that she now poured out unreservedly to +him, gave him at times a twinge of pity and compassion. She was so keen +to progress, to broaden the outlook of her views, to be of real service +to him. There were moments in her letters of inner revelations that +stirred him almost with the guilty feeling of surprising what was not +his to see. The idea of an early marriage would have been unbearable, +yet as a possibility of the future it seemed to him an eminently wise +and just procedure. + +At the Drake mansion his ring was answered by a caretaker, who came +doubtfully to let him in, pausing to search for the electric buttons. In +the anteroom and down the vistas of the salons, everything was bare and +draped in dust-clothes; there was a feeling of abandonment and +loneliness in the bared arches, as on his first visit a year before. + +"Bojo--is it you?" + +He heard her voice descending somewhere from the upper flights of the +great stone stairway, and answered cheerily. The caretaker disappeared, +satisfied, and he waited at the foot while she came rushing down and +hung herself in his arms. + +"Why, Doris!" he exclaimed, surprised at her emotion and the tenseness +of the figure that clung to him. "Doris, why, what's wrong?" + +"Wait, wait," she said breathlessly, burying her head on his shoulder +and tightening the grip of her arms. + +She led him, still clinging to his side, through the ballroom and the +little salon into the great library, where he had gone for his decisive +interview with Drake. They stood a moment in filtered obscurity, groping +for the buttons, until suddenly the room sprang out of the night. Then +he saw that she had been weeping. Before he could exclaim, the tears +sprang to her eyes and she flung herself in his arms again, sheltering +her head against his shoulder, clinging to his protection as though +reeling before the sudden down swoop of a storm. His first thought was +of death, a catastrophe in the family--father, mother--Patsie! At this +thought his heart seemed to stop and he said brokenly: + +"Doris, what is it--nothing has happened--no one is--is in danger?" + +"No, no," she said in a whisper. "Oh, don't make me speak--not just yet. +Keep your arms about me. Tighter so that I can never, never get away." + +He obeyed, wondering, his mind alert, seeking a reason for this strange +emotion. Suddenly she raised her head and, seizing his in her hands with +such tenacity that he felt the cut of her sharp little fingers, kissed +him with the poignant agony of a great separation. + +"Bojo, remember this," she cried through her tears, "whatever +happens--whatever comes--it is you--you! I shall love only you all my +life--no one else!" + +"Whatever happens?" he said, frowning, but beginning to have a glimmer +of the truth. "What do you mean?" + +She moved from him, standing, with head slightly down, staring at him +silently for a long moment. Then she said, shaking her head slowly: + +"Oh, how you will hate me!" + +He went to her quickly and, taking her by the wrist, led her to the big +sofa. + +"Now sit down. Tell me just what this all means!" + +His tone was harsh, and she glanced at him, frightened. + +"It means," she said at last, "that I am not what you thought--what I +thought I could be. I am not strong. I've tried and I've failed! I am +very, very weak, very selfish. I can't give up what I'm used to--luxury! +I can't, Bojo, I can't--it's beyond me!" She turned away, her +handkerchief to her eyes, while he sat without a word, compelling her to +go on. At last she turned, stealing a look at his set face. "Of course +you'll say you told me--but I tried-- I did try!" + +"I am saying nothing at all," he said quietly. "So you wish to end the +engagement, that is all, isn't it?" + +"All!" she said indignantly with a flood of tears. "Oh, how can you look +at me so brutally? I am miserable, absolutely miserable. I am throwing +away my life, my whole chance of loving, of being happy, and you look at +me as though you were sending me to the gallows!" + +If her distress was intended to weaken him in his attitude of quiet, +critical contemplation, it failed. Nevertheless he modified his tone +somewhat. + +"I am quite in the dark. I understand you have come to break off the +engagement--that is not perhaps the shock you believe it--but I am +curious to know what are your reasons." + +Her tears stopped abruptly. She faced his glance. + +"I said you would hate me," she said slowly. + +"No, I do not think so." + +"Yes, yes, you will hate me," she said breathlessly, "and you should. +Oh, I'm not excusing myself. I hate myself. I despise myself. If you +hated me you would only be right. Yes, you have every right." + +"Are you engaged to any one else, Doris?" he said with a smile. + +She sprang up indignantly. + +"Oh, how could you say such a thing! Bojo!" + +"If I have offended you I beg your pardon." + +"You beg my pardon," she said, her lip trembling. She came and knelt at +his side. "Bojo, look at me. You believe that I love you, don't +you?--that you are the only thing, the only person in my life that I +have ever loved, and that if I give you up it is because I must, because +I can't help it, because--because I know myself so well that I know I +haven't the strength to do what other women do--to be--poor! There you +have it!" + +"But you knew all this six months ago," he said, scenting some mystery. +"Something else must have happened--what?" + +She nodded. + +"Yes." + +He waited a moment. + +"Well?" + +She rose, listened a moment and glanced carefully about the room. +Afterward he remembered this glance. + +"You must give me your word of honor not to mention--not to breathe one +word I say to you," she said in a lower voice. + +"That is hardly necessary," he said quickly, on his dignity. + +"No, no. This is not my secret. Your word of honor. I must have your +word of honor." + +"Very well," he said, carried away by his curiosity. + +"Before the end of the year, in a few months even, Dad may lose every +cent he has!" + +"He told you?" he said incredulously. "Or is this some trick of your +mother's?" + +"No, no, it is no trick. Dad told us himself." + +"Us? Whom?" + +"Mother and me!" + +"And Patsie?" + +"No, Patsie is away." + +"When did he tell you?" + +"Just a week ago." + +"But why?-- That doesn't seem like him to tell you," said Bojo, +frowning. "Perhaps you've exaggerated." + +"No, no. He is in a bad way. He is caught," she said hurriedly. "Times +have been hard, the market has gone down steadily--all summer--way, way +down--and Dad is carrying enormous blocks of stock--must carry them or +admit defeat--and you know Dad! I don't know exactly what's wrong. He +didn't go into the matter; but he has enemies, tremendous enemies that +are trying to put him out, and it's a question of credit. Oh, if you'd +seen his face when he told us, you'd know just how serious it was!" + +"Just what did he say?" + +"He told us--I can't remember the words--that if times continued as they +had been, he stood a chance of losing every cent he had, that he was in +a fight for existence and that he couldn't tell how it would come out." +She hesitated a moment and added: "He thought the situation so critical +that we should know of it." + +This last and the halting before saying it, suddenly gave him the light +he had been seeking during all this interview. + +"In other words, Doris," he said quickly, "frankly and honestly, since +we are going to be honest now that we have come to the parting of the +ways--your father let you understand so that you might know how critical +the situation was and take your measures accordingly. That's it--isn't +it?" + +"Yes, I suppose so." + +"I hope at least that you haven't concealed anything from Boskirk," he +said quietly. + +"Why should I tell him?"--she started to burst out, and caught her +breath, trapped. + +"So you are already to be congratulated?" he said, looking at her with a +smile. + +"That isn't true," she said hastily. "You know and I know that Mr. +Boskirk wants to marry me, that I can have him any day--" + +"Don't," he said gravely. "You know there is an understanding--" + +"Oh, an understanding--" she began. + +"True," he interrupted. "At this moment, Doris, you know that Boskirk +has proposed and you have accepted him. Why deny it? It is quite plain. +You made up your mind that you would marry him the moment you learned +you might be a pauper. Come, be honest--be square." + +She went away from him and stood by the fireplace, her back to him. + +"That is true--all of it," she said. A shudder passed over her. "I hate +him!" + +"What!" he cried, advancing toward her in amazement. "You hate him and +yet you will marry him?" + +"Yes. Because I can't bear to give up anything--because I am a weak, +selfish woman." + +In a flash he saw her as she would be--this woman who now stood before +him twisting and turning in half-sincere outbursts, seeking to excuse or +accuse herself before his eyes from the need of dramatic sensations. + +"You will be," he said quietly. "So you are going to marry Boskirk?" + +She nodded. + +"Soon, _very_ soon?" + +She winced under the note of sarcasm in his voice and turned +breathlessly: + +"Oh, Bojo--you despise me!" + +"No--" he said indifferently. He held out his hand. "Well, we have said +all we have to say, haven't we?" + +Before he could prevent her or divine her intentions, she had flung +herself on his shoulder, clinging to him despite his efforts to tear her +from him. + +"Please, no scenes," he said hastily. "Quite unnecessary." + +She wished him to kiss her once--a last kiss; but he refused. Then she +began to cry hysterically, vowing again and again, between her torrents +of self-accusation, that no matter what the future brought she would +never love any one else but him. It was not until she grew exhausted +from the very storm of her emotion that he was able to loosen her arms +and force her from him. + +"Oh, you don't love me--you don't care!" she cried, when at last she +felt herself alone and her arms empty. + +"If that can be any consolation--if your grief is real--if you really do +care for me," he said, "that is true. I do not love you, Doris, and I +never have. That is why I do not hate you or despise you. I am sorry, +awfully sorry. You could have been such an awfully good sort." + +At this she caught her throat and, afraid of another paroxysm, he went +out quickly. + +Before the curb the touring-car was waiting. An idea came to him, +remembering the glance Doris had sent about the room. + +"Going back to-night, Carver?" he said to the chauffeur. "Much of a +run?" + +"Two hours and a half, sir." + +"Mrs. Drake came down with you?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"That's the answer," he thought to himself, wondering how much she might +have overheard. "Poor Doris." + +He thought of her already as some one distantly removed, amazed to +realize how quickly with the snapping of the artificial bond their true +relationship had readjusted itself. He thought of her only with a great +wonder, recognizing now all the possibilities which had lain in her for +good, saddened, and shuddering in his young imagination at the price she +had elected to pay. + +He turned the corner with a last look at the turreted and gabled roof of +the great Drake mansion, faint unreal shadows against the starlit sky, +as though, in his newly acquired knowledge of the tremendous +catastrophe impending, it lay against the crowded silhouette of the city +like a thing of dreams to vanish with the awakening reality. + +Before the next month was over, Doris had married young Boskirk--a quiet +country wedding whose simplicity excited much comment. Before another +fortnight the market, which had been slowly receding before the rising +wrath of a great financial panic, broke violently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE LETTER TO PATSIE + + +Two days after the breaking of his engagement to Doris, Bojo wrote to +Patsie. His letter--the first he had written her--he was two days in +composing, tearing up several drafts. He was afraid to say too much, and +to discuss trivial matters seemed to him insincere. Finally he sent this +letter: + + Dear Drina: + + I suppose by now Doris has told you of what has happened. + There are a great many things I want you to know about these + trying months, that I've wanted you to know and have been + hurt that you didn't know. Now that it's over I realize what + a tragedy it would have been, and yet I would have gone on + believing it was the right thing to do, trying to make + myself believe in what I was doing. During all this time I + have never forgotten certain things you said to me, your + message the day of the panic, the look in your eyes that + afternoon before I went in to see your father and--other + memories. I want to see you. Where are you? When will you be + back in New York? + + Faithfully yours, + BOJO. + +Having written this he carried it around in his pocket for another day +before posting it. No sooner was it irrevocably beyond his hands than he +had the feeling that he had committed an irretrievable blunder. The next +moment it seemed to him that he had done the direct and courageous +thing, that she would understand and be grateful to him for his +frankness. Each morning he heard the rustle of the mail slipping under +the door with a sudden cold foreboding, certain that her letter had +come. Each evening, back from the grind of the factory, he came into the +monastic corridors of Westover Court and turned the corner of the desk +with a hot-and-cold hope that in the letter-box there, under the number +51, would be a letter waiting for him. When after a week no word had +come, he began to make excuses. She was away on a visit, her mail had to +be forwarded or more probably held for her return. But one day, +happening to glance at the social column, in a report of the Berkshires +he found her name as a contender in a tennis tournament. He wrote a +second note: + + Dear Patsie: + + Did you get my letter of ten days ago, and won't you write + me? + + Yours, + BOJO. + +Perhaps his first had miscarried. Such accidents were rare but yet they +did occur. He calculated the shortest time she could receive his letter +and answer it and waited expectantly all that day. Again a week passed +and no word from her. What had happened? Had he really blundered in +sending the first letter? Was her pride hurt, or what? A feeling of +despair began to settle over him. He did not attempt a third letter, +sick at heart. The thought that he might have wounded her--he always +imagined her as a child--was unbearable. It hurt him as it had hurt him +with a haunting sadness, the day after their wild toboggan ride, when he +had seen the pain in her eyes--eyes that were yet too young for the +knowledge of the sorrow and ugliness of the world. Finally, through a +chance remark one day when he had dropped in to his club, he learned +that she was to be present at a house party at Skeeter Stoughton's on +Long Island. Overlooking the incident of his unsuccessful attempt to +enter their employ, he took his friend into a half confidence and begged +him to secure him an invitation for over Sunday. + +When he was once on the train and he knew for certain that in a short +two hours he would look into her eyes again, a feeling almost of panic +seized him. When they were in the motor rushing over smooth white roads +and he felt the lost distances melting away beneath him, this feeling +became one of the acutest misery. All that he had carefully planned and +rehearsed to say to her, suddenly deserted his mind. + +"What shall I say? What shall I do?" he said to himself, cold with +horror. There seemed to be nothing he could say or do. His very presence +was an impertinence, which she must resent. + +Luckily no one was in the house except their hostess and he had a short +moment to reassemble his thoughts before they strolled down to join the +party at the tennis courts. He was known to most of the crowd who +greeted his appearance as the return of the prodigal. Patsie was on the +courts, her back to him as they came up, Gladys Stone on the opposite +side of the net. Some one called out joyfully, "Bojo Crocker!" and she +turned with an involuntarily startled movement, then hastily controlling +herself at the cry of her partner, drove the ball into the net for the +loss of the point. + +When next, ensconced under a red-and-white awning among the array of +cool flannels and summery dresses, he sought her, she was seriously +intent on Hieher game, a little frown on her young forehead, her lips +rebelliously set, the swirling white silk collar open at the browned +throat, the sleeve rolled up above the firm slender forearm. She moved +lightly as a young animal in slow, well calculated tripping movements or +in rapid shifting springs. Her partner, a younger brother of Skeeter's, +home on vacation, gathered in the balls and offered them to her with a +solicitude that was quite evident. Bojo felt an instinctive antipathy +watching their laughing intimacy. It seemed to him that they excluded +him, that she was still a child unable to distinguish between a +stripling and a man, still without need of any deeper emotions than a +light-hearted romping comradeship. + +With the ending of the set, greetings could no longer be avoided. As +she came to him directly, holding out her hand in the most natural way, +he felt as though he were going red to the ears, that every one must +perceive his embarrassment before this girl still in her teens. He said +stupidly, pretending amazement, + +"You here? Well, this is a surprise!" + +"Yes, isn't it?" she said with seeming unconsciousness. + +That was all. The next moment she was in some new group, arranging +another match. Short and circumstantial as her greeting had been, it +left him with a sinking despair. He had hurt her irrevocably, she +resented his presence--that was evident. His whole coming had been a +dreadful mistake. Depressed, he turned to Gladys Stone to attempt the +concealment from strange eyes of the disorder within himself. He was yet +too inexperienced in the ways of the women of the world to even suspect +the depth of resentment that could lie in her tortured heart. + +"I'm awfully glad to see you--awfully," he said, committing the blunder +of giving to his voice a note of discreet sympathy. It had been his +distressing duty to bring her personally the little baggage of her +sentimental voyage--letters, a token or two, several photographs--to +witness with clouding eyes the spectacle of her complete breakdown. + +She drew a little away at his words, straightening up and looking from +him. + +"Have you heard the date of the wedding, Doris's wedding?" she said +coldly. + +It was his time to wince, but he was incapable of returning the feminine +attack. + +"You should know better than I," he said quietly. + +She looked at him with a perfect simulation of ignorance: + +"You were rather well interested, weren't you?" + +"More than that, as you know, Gladys," he said, looking directly in her +eyes. A certain look she saw there caused her to make a sudden retreat +into banality-- + +"Do you play?" + +"Sometimes." + +Miss Stoughton and others impatient of the rôle of spectators were +organizing tables of auction inside the house. His reason told him that +the best thing for him to do would be to join them and show a certain +indifference, but the longing, miserable and unreasoning, within him to +stay, to be where he could see her, filling his eyes, after all the long +vacant summer, was too strong. He hesitated and remained, saying to +himself-- + +"Suppose I am a fool. She'll think I haven't the nerve of a mouse." + +He wanted to chatter, to laugh at the slightest pretext, to maintain an +attitude of light inconsequential amusement, but the attempt failed. He +remained moody and taciturn, his eyes irresistibly fastened on the young +figure, so free and untamed, reveling in the excitement and hazards of +the game, wondering to himself that this girl, who now seemed so calmly +steeled against the display of the slightest interest in him, had once +swayed against his shoulder, yielding to the enveloping sense of a +moonlight night, loneliness and the invisible, inexplicable impulse +toward each other. What had come to end all this and how was it possible +for her to dissemble the emotion that she must feel, with the knowledge +of his eyes steadily and moodily fixed upon her? + +He was resolved to find a moment's isolation in which to speak to her +directly and she just as determined to prevent it. As a consequence he +felt himself circumvented at every move, without being able to say to +himself that it had been done deliberately. The others who perhaps +perceived his intention sought an instinctive distance, with that innate +sympathy which goes out to lovers, but Patsie with a foreseeing eye +called young Stoughton to her side and pretending a slightly wrenched +ankle, leaned heavily on his arm. In which fashion they regained the +house without Bojo having been able by hook or crook to have gained a +moment for a private word. + +At dinner, where he had hoped that Skeeter Stoughton, in return for his +half confidence, would have arranged so that he should sit next to her, +he found Patsie on the opposite side of the table. An accusatory glance +towards Skeeter was answered by one of mystification. Then he understood +that she must have rearranged the cards herself. He was unskilled in the +knowledge of the ways of young girls and their instinctive cruelty to +those who love them and even those whom they themselves love. He was +hurt, embarrassed, prey to idiotic suppositions that left him miserable +and self-conscious. He was even ready to believe that she had taken the +others into her confidence, that every one must be watching, smiling +behind their correct masks. The dinner seemed interminable. He was too +wretched to conceal his emotions, neglecting his neighbors shamefully +until one, a débutante of the year, rallied him maliciously. + +"Mr. Crocker, I believe you're in love!" + +He glanced at Patsie, frightened lest the remark might have carried, but +from her attitude he could divine nothing. She was rattling away, +answering some lightly flung remark from down the table. He began to +talk desperately in idiotic, meaningless sentences, aware that his +neighbor was watching him with a mischievous smile. + +"Are you really in love?" she said delightedly when he had run out of +ideas. + +He was struck by a sudden inspiration. + +"If I confess will you help me?" he said in a whisper. Miss Hunter, +enraptured with the idea of anything that bordered on the romantic, +bobbed her head in enthusiastic response. + +"Very well, after dinner," he said in the same low tone. He had a +feeling that Patsie had been trying to listen and began to talk with a +gaiety for which he found no reason in himself. Several times he glanced +across the table and he felt--though their eyes never met--that her +glance had but just left him, was on him the moment he turned away. He +found her much changed. She was not yet a woman, by a certain veil of +fragility and inconscient shyness, but the child was gone. Her glance +was more sobered and more thoughtful as though the touch of some sadness +had stolen the bubbling spirits of childhood and left a comprehension of +deeper trials approaching. At times she assumed an attitude of great +dignity, la grande manière, which was yet but assumed and made him +smile. + +Dinner over, dancing began. He made no attempt to seek out Patsie, +putting off Miss Hunter too with evasive answers. He danced once or +twice, but without enjoyment and finally, not to witness the spectacle +of her dancing with other men, made the pretext of an evening cigar to +seek the obliterating darkness of the verandah. Safely hidden in a +favoring corner, he sat, moodily watching the occasional flitting of +laughing couples silhouetted against the starry night. He was totally at +loss to account for the reception. At times a suspicion passed through +his mind that Doris might have given a different account of their +parting scene than the facts warranted. At others, remembering details +of romantic novels, he had devoured, he was willing to believe that his +letter had not reached her, had been intercepted perhaps by Mrs. Drake. +At the end of an hour, fearing to have made his absence too noticeable, +he rose unwillingly to join the gay party within. Suddenly as he rounded +the corner he came upon a couple separating, the man returning to the +dance, the girl leaning against a pillar, plucking at invisible vines. +Then she too turned, coming into a momentary reflection. It was Patsie. + +She stopped short, divining who it was, and the instinctive step +backward which she made brought an angry outburst to his lips. + +"I beg your pardon," he said stiffly. "I didn't mean to annoy you. I had +been finishing my smoke. I--" He paused, at his wits' end. At this +moment if he had been called upon to recognize his true feelings, he +would have sworn that he hated her bitterly with a fierce, unreasoning +hatred. + +"You do not annoy me," she said quietly. + +"I was afraid so." + +"No." + +He hesitated a moment. + +"Did you get my letters?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you answer them?" he said, with a last hope of some possible +misunderstanding. + +She shook her head. + +He waited a moment for some explanation and as none came, he started to +leave, saying, + +"I don't understand at all--but--I don't suppose that matters--" + +He went toward the door. Then stopped. He thought he had heard her +calling his name. He returned slowly. + +"Did you call me?" + +"No, no." + +All at once he came to her tempestuously, catching her arm as he would a +naughty child's. + +"Drina, I won't be turned away like this. In heaven's name what have I +done that you should treat me like this? At least tell me!" + +She did not struggle against his hold, but turned away her head without +answer. + +"Was it my first letter? You didn't like me to write that way--so +soon--so soon after breaking the engagement? Was that it? It was, wasn't +it?" + +It seemed to him, though he could not be sure, that her head made a +little affirmative nod. + +"But what was wrong?" he cried in dismay. "You wouldn't have me be +insincere. You know and I know what you meant to me, you know that if I +went on with Doris after--after that night, it was only from a sense of +duty, of loyalty. Yes, because you yourself came to me and begged me to. +If that's true, why not be open about--" + +"Hush," she said hastily. "Some one will hear." + +"I don't care if they all hear," he said recklessly. "Drina, what's the +use of pretending. You know I've been in love with you, you and only +you, from the first day I saw you." + +She drew her arm from his grasp and turned on him defiantly-- + +"Thanks-- I don't care to be second fiddle!" she said spitefully. + +"Good heavens, that is it!" + +"Yes, that is it," she cried out and breaking from him she fled around +the corner of the verandah and it seemed to him that he had caught the +sound of a sob. + +He entered the house, a prey to conflicting emotions, perplexed, angry, +inclined to laugh, with alternate flashes of hope and as sudden relapses +into despair. Just as he had made up his mind that she had left for the +night, she reappeared without a trace of concern. But try as he might he +did not succeed in getting another opportunity to speak to her. She +avoided him with a settled cold antagonism. The next day it was the +same. It seemed that everything she did was calculated to wound him and +display her hostility. He had neither the strength nor the wisdom to +respond with indifference, suffering openly. At ten o'clock that night +as he was miserably preparing to enter the automobile that was to take +him to the station, Patsie came hurriedly down the steps, something +white in her hand. + +"Please do something for me," she said breathlessly. + +"What is it?" + +"A letter-- I want you to mail this letter--it's important." + +He turned, taking the letter and putting it in his pocket without +noticing it. + +She held out her hand. Surprised, he took it, yet without relenting. + +"Good-by, Bojo," she said softly. + +The next moment he was whirled away. When he reached the Court he +remembered for the first time his commission and, stopping at the desk, +he handed the letter absent-mindedly to Della, saying, + +"If you're going out, Della, mail this." + +She burst out laughing, with her irresistible Irish smile. + +"What are you laughing at?" he said, surprised. + +"You're always up to tricks, Mr. Crocker," she said, looking at the +inscription. + +"What do you mean?" he asked, puzzled, and, perceiving the cause of her +merriment, he snatched the envelope and glanced at it. It was addressed +to him. Covered with confusion he fled up to his room in a fever of +anticipation and wild hope. + + Dear Bojo: + + Forgive me for being a horrid, spiteful little cat. I am + sorry but you are very stupid--_very_! Please forgive me. + + PATSIE. + + P.S. As soon as the wedding is over, we come to New York. + Will you come and see me there--and I'll promise to behave. + + DRINA. + +He went to bed in the seventh heaven of delight, repeating to himself a +hundred times every word of this letter, turning each phrase over and +over for favorable interpretation. It seemed to him that never had he +spent such deliciously happy days as the last two. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +PATSIE APPEALS FOR HELP + + +Meanwhile Fred and Louise returned. He went to see them at a fashionable +hotel where they were staying temporarily. The great rooms and the large +salon on the corner, overlooking the serried flight of houses and +factories toward the river must have cost at least fifteen dollars a +day. Louise went into the bedroom presently to her hairdresser, closing +the door. + +"Congratulations, Prince," said Bojo laughing, but with a certain +intention to approach serious matters. "The royal suite is charming." + +"Remember I'm a married man," said DeLancy, the incorrigible, with a +laugh. "Aren't you ashamed to try and lecture me?" + +"Have you discovered a gold mine?" said Bojo. + +"Oh! I got in on two or three good things last Summer," said Fred, who +broke off in some confusion at perceiving that he had just divulged to +his friend that he had been trying his fortune again in Wall Street. + +"So that's it," said Bojo grimly. "Thought you'd sworn off." + +"I never did," said DeLancy obstinately. + +"It's not my affair, Fred," said Bojo finally. "Only do go slow, old +fellow; we're neither of us great manipulators and what comes slowly, +goes with a rush." + +"Honest, Bojo, I am careful," said Fred with a show of conviction. "No +more ten per cent. margins and no more wild-cat chances. If I buy, it's +on good information, no plunging." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Oh, absolutely! I take the solemn oath!" said Fred with a face to +convince a meeting of theologians. + +"And no margins?" + +"Oh, conservative margins!" + +"What do you call conservative?" + +"Twenty-five points--twenty points naturally." + +Bojo shook his head. + +"What are you going to do, live here?" + +"Of course not. We are looking around for an apartment for the Winter." + +Bojo wanted to know what Louise intended, whether she had made up her +mind to leave the stage or not, but he did not know quite how to +approach the subject. As he studied DeLancy, he thought he looked +irrepressibly happy and indifferent to what lay ahead. He wondered if +Fred had made any approaches to his old friends with a view to their +accepting his wife. + +"Will Louise stay here too?" he asked finally. + +"Naturally." + +"Is--is she giving up her career?" he said hesitatingly. + +DeLancy looked rather embarrassed. He did not reply at first. + +"I have left that to Louise herself. It's her decision. For the present +nothing is settled, not as yet." + +Bojo felt the embarrassment that possessed him. He had come to ask a +score of questions. He started to leave with the feeling that he had +found out nothing. At the noise of his going, Louise came out of the +room with her hair down. Probably she had been listening. She said +good-by to him with extra cordiality, with an ironical look in her eyes. + +"Mind you look us up after." + +"Yes, yes." + +Fred accompanied him to the elevator. + +"As soon as we are settled we'll have a spree," he said with an attempt +at the old gaiety. + +"Of course." + +Bojo went off shrugging his shoulders, saying to himself, "Where will it +all end?" + +During the Summer a marked change had come over industrial conditions, a +feeling of something ominous was in the air, a vague and undefined +threat impending. At the factory a fifth of the machines were idle and +Garnett was moodily contemplating a general reduction in salaries. Bojo +scarcely paid any attention to Wall Street matters now, but he knew that +the movement downward of values had been slow and gradual and that +prophecies of dark days were current. Matters with Marsh were going +badly. Advertisers were deserting the paper, there had been several +minor strikes with costly readjustments. Roscoe seemed to have lost his +early enthusiasm, to be increasingly moody, impatient and quick to take +offense. The reasons given for the business depression were many, over +capitalization, timidity of the small investors due to the exposure of +great corporations, distrust of radical political reforms. Whatever the +causes, the receding tide had come. People were apprehensive, +dispirited, talking poverty. Granning held that the country was paying +for the sins of the great financial adventurers and the cost of the +giddy structures they had thrown up. Marsh from the knowledge of his +newspaper world, held that below all was the coalescing power of great +banking systems, arrayed against the government on one side and on the +other, waiting their opportunity to crush the new-risen financial idea +of the Trust Company organized to deal in speculative ventures denied to +them. When Bojo in his simplicity asked why in a great growing nation of +boundless resources, a panic should ever be necessary, each sought to +explain with confusing logic which did not convince at all. Only from it +he gathered that above the great productive mechanism of the nation was +an artificial structure, in the possession of powerful groups able to +control the sources of credit on which the sources of production depend. + +Four days after he had read in the newspapers the account of Doris's +wedding to Boskirk, about seven o'clock in the evening, while he was +waiting for Roscoe to call for him to go out to dinner, Sweeney, the +Jap, brought him a card. + +It was from Patsie, hastily scribbled across, "I am outside. Can you +come and see me?" + +"Where is she? Outside?" he said all in a flutter. Sweeney informed him +that she was waiting in an automobile. + +He guessed that something serious must have happened and hurried down. +Patsie's face was at the window, watching impatiently. When she saw him +she relaxed momentarily with a sigh of relief. + +"Why, Patsie, what's wrong?" he said instantly, taking her hand. + +"You can come? It's important." + +"Of course." + +He jumped in and the car made off. + +"Tell him to drive through the Park." + +He transmitted the order. And then turned to look at her. + +"I am so worried!" she said at once, gazing into his eyes, with eyes +that held an indefinable fear. + +He had not relinquished her hand since he had seated himself. He pressed +it strongly, fighting back the desire to take her in his arms, that came +to him with the spectacle of her misery. There flashed through his mind +the details of his final parting with Doris and her ominous declaration +of the ruin impending over her father. He had only half believed it then +but now it flashed across his memory with instant conviction. + +"Your father is in trouble--financial trouble!" he said suddenly. + +"How do you know?" she said amazed. + +"Doris told me." + +"Doris? When?" she said. She stiffened at the name, though he did not +notice the action. + +"The last time I saw her--why, Drina, didn't you know? Why she came +down, why she saw me and asked to be released--didn't you know her +reason?" + +"I know nothing. Do you mean to say that she--" she paused as though +overwhelmed at the thought, "that then she knew Dad was facing ruin?" + +"Knew? Why, your father told her!-- Doris and your mother! You didn't +know?" + +"No." + +"You weren't told afterward?" + +"No, no--not a word." + +Rapidly he recounted the details of the scene, failing in his excitement +to notice how divided was her interest, between the knowledge of what +was threatening her father, and what bore upon the situation between +Doris and himself. + +"Then it was Doris who broke it!" she said suddenly and a shudder went +through her body. + +He checked himself, saw clear and answered impetuously. + +"Yes, she did--that's true. But let me tell the truth also. I never +would have married her--never--never! I never in all my life felt such +relief--yes, such absolute happiness as that night when I walked away +free. I did not love her. I had not for a long, long time. I pitied her. +I believed that through her love for me a great change was coming in +her--for the best. And so it had. I pitied her. I was afraid of doing +harm. That was all. She knew it, Drina. You can't believe I cared--you +must have known!" + +"And yet--yet," she began, hesitatingly, and stopped. + +"Don't hold anything back," he said impulsively. "We mustn't let +anything stand between us. Say anything you want. Better that." + +"What I couldn't understand," she said at last, with an effort, in which +her hurt pride was evident--"that afternoon--when you gave back the +money to Dad--after what you said to me-- Oh! how can I say it." + +"You thought that I was going to tell the truth to Doris and break the +engagement. That was it, wasn't it?" + +"Yes," she said, covering her face, in terror that she could have said +such a thing, and yet her whole being hanging on his answer--"I couldn't +understand--afterwards." + +"I came out of the library to make an end of everything and before I +knew it, it was Doris who had changed everything. She had listened. She +had heard all. She imagined she was in love for the first time. She +begged me not to turn from her, to give her another chance. I was +caught, what was I to do?" + +"She loves you," she said breathlessly. + +"She only imagines it. She only plays with that idea." + +"No, no! she loves you," she said in a tone of great suffering. + +"But, Drina," he said, aghast at her inconsistency, "it was you who came +to me--who begged me to marry Doris--how can you forget that?" + +She burst into tears. + +"What! You are jealous!--jealous of her!" he cried with a great hope in +his voice, his hand going out to her. + +She stiffened suddenly and drew back, frightened into her corner. + +"No, I'm not jealous," she said furiously. "Only hurt--terribly hurt." + +This sudden change left him bewildered. He felt it unjustified, +inconsistent and a reproach was on his lips. + +In the end he quieted himself and said, forcing himself to speak like a +stranger: + +"This, I suppose, is not what you wanted to say to me?" + +Instantly her alarm overcame her defiant attitude. + +"No, no. I am terribly worried. I want your help, oh! so much." + +She extended her hand timidly as though in apology, but still offended, +he withdrew his, saying: + +"Anything I can do and you need not fear that I'll take advantage of +it!" + +"Oh!" she shrank back and then in a moment said, "Bojo, forgive me-- I +am very cruel-- I know it. Will you forgive me?" + +"I forgive you," he said at last, trembling at the sweetness of her +voice, resolved whatever the temptation, to show her that he could +control himself. + +"Bojo, everything is going against Dad--everything. Doris must come back +and we must get word to Dolly. He needs all the help we can give him." + +"Are you sure?" he said, amazed. + +"Oh! I know." + +"But your father has millions and in the Pittsburgh & New Orleans he +made at least ten more. How can it be?" + +"I overheard-- I listened and then--then mother told me." + +"When?" + +"The night after the wedding--that in another month we might be +ruined--that I--I ought to look to the future." + +"Oh, like Doris!" he cried. + +"Yes, that was what she meant," she said with a shudder. "Think of it, +my mother, my own mother. Then I went to him--to Dad--but he would tell +me nothing--only laughed and said everything was all right, but I knew! +I don't know how or why, but I knew from the look in his eyes." + +"Yet I can't believe it," he said incredulously. + +"Oh! I feel so alone and so helpless," she cried, twisting her hands. +"Something must be done and I don't know how to do it. Bojo, you must +help me--you must tell me. It's money--he can't get money-- I believe no +one will lend it to him." Suddenly she turned on him, caught his +arm,--"You say Doris knew, Dad told her--before the wedding!" + +"Yes--because she told me." + +"Oh! that is too terrible," she cried, "and knowing it she allowed him +to make her a gift of half a million." + +"He did that? You are certain?" + +"Absolutely. I saw the bonds." + +"But then that proves everything is all right," he cried joyfully. + +"You don't know Dad," she said, shaking her head mournfully. "Bojo, we +must get Doris back, she may do things for you that she won't do for any +one else-- Oh! yes, you don't know. Then I have something--a quarter of +a million. I want to turn it into cash. He won't take it from me if he +knew. But you might deposit it to his credit, make him believe some one +did it anonymously--couldn't that be done?" + +He raised her hand with a sudden swelling in his throat and kissed it, +murmuring something incoherent. + +"That is nothing to do, nothing," she said, shaking her head. + +"I wish I could go to him," he said doubtfully. + +"You can. You can. I know Dad believes you, trusts you. Oh! if you +would. + +"Of course I will and at once," he said joyfully. He leaned out the +window and gave the order. "Heavens, child, we've forgotten all about +dinner. I shall have to invite myself." He took her hand, patting it as +though to calm her. "It may not be so bad as you imagine. We'll +telegraph Doris to-night, the Boskirks can do a lot. Of course they'll +help. Then there's your mother--she has money of her own, I know." + +"That's what I'm afraid of--mother," she said in a whisper. + +"What do you mean?" + +She shook her head. + +"Don't ask me. I shouldn't have said it. And yet--and yet--" + +"We are almost there," he said hurriedly. He wanted to say something to +her, revolting at the discipline he had imposed on himself, something +from the heart and yet something at which she would not take offense. He +hesitated and stammered--"Thank you for coming to me. You know--you +understand, don't you?" + +She turned, her glance rested on his a long moment, she started as +though to say something, stopped and turned hurriedly away, but brief as +the moment had been, a feeling of meltable content came over him. The +next moment they came to a stop. In the vestibule she bade him wait in +the little parlor and went in ahead to the library. He had picked up a +paper and paced up and down, scanning it anxiously, with brief glances +down the wide luxurious salons and at the liveried servants who seemed +to move nervously, all eyes and ears, scenting danger in the air. The +accent of fear was in the headlines even. He was staring at a caption +telling of rumored suspensions and prophecies of ill when Patsie came +tripping back. + +[Illustration: "'He wants to see you now' she said"] + +"It's all right. He wants to see you now," she said, happiness in her +eyes, holding out her hand to lead him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DRAKE ADMITS HIS DANGER + + +Drake was before the fireplace, moving or rather switching back and +forth, and this unwonted nervousness seemed an evil augury to Bojo. +However, at the slight rustle of the portières, Drake came forward with +energetic strides, his hand flung out-- + +"Well, stranger, almost thought you'd fled the country. How are you? +Glad, mighty glad, to see you." He stood with a smile, patting the +shoulder of Patsie, who leaned against his side. "Let's see your hands, +Tom. They tell me you've become quite a horny-handed son of toil." + +"I'm mighty glad to see _you_," said Bojo, studying him anxiously. At +first he felt reassured, the old self-possession and careless confidence +were there in tone and gesture. It was only when he examined him more +closely that his forebodings returned. About the eyes, not perceptible +at first, but lurking in the depths was a hunted, restless look, which +struck the young man at once. + +"I wanted Bojo so to come," said Patsie breathlessly. "I thought--in +some way--somehow he might be of help." + +"I only wish I could," said Bojo instantly. "You know you can trust me." + +"Yes, I know that," said Drake briefly with a sudden clouding over of +his face. He added stubbornly, pulling his daughter's ear with a kindly +look, "This young lady is all in a panic over nothing. Comes from +talking business before them." + +"Oh, Daddy, why not be truthful? Whatever comes we can face it. Only let +us know," said Patsie with her large eyes fixed sadly on his face in +unbelief. + +"I'm in a fight--a big fight, Tom, that's all, a little tougher than +other fights," he said loudly as though talking to himself. "If you want +to see some ructions and learn a few things that may help you in dealing +with certain brands of coyotes later, why come in--just possible you +might fit in handy." + +"Thank you, sir," said Bojo gratefully, exalted to the seventh Heaven by +this permission, which seemed to bring him back the old intimacy. Patsie +was looking at him with shining eyes. + +"Yes, but how about your work--the factory?" said Drake. + +"The factory be damned," said Bojo fervidly, with the American instinct +for the fitness of the direct word. All broke out laughing at his +impetuosity. + +"Well, Tom, I always did want you in the family," said Drake, clapping +him on the shoulder with a sly look at Patsie. "Have it as you wish. +I'll be mighty glad to have you, though you did give me a pretty stiff +lesson!" + +At this moment when Patsie and Bojo did not dare to look at each other, +the situation was luckily saved by the announcement of dinner. + +In the dining-room they waited several moments for Mrs. Drake to appear +until finally a footman brought the news that the mistress of the house +was indisposed and begged them to sit down without her. Drake looked +rather startled at this and went off into a moody abstraction for quite +a while, during which Patsie exchanged solicitous glances with Bojo. + +"It is more serious than he will admit," he thought. "I must get a +chance to speak to him alone. He will never tell the truth before +Drina." + +Dinner over, a rather anxious meal partaken of in long silences with +occasional bursts of forced conversation, Bojo found opportunity to +whisper to Patsie as they returned towards the library. + +"Make some excuse and leave us as soon as you can. I'll see you before I +go." + +She gave him a slight movement of her eyes to show she comprehended and +went dancing in ahead. + +"Now before you begin on business, let me make you both comfortable," +she cried. She indicated chairs and pushed them into their seats, +laughing. She brought the cigars and insisted on serving them with +lights, while each watched her, charmed and soothed by the grace and +youth of her spirits, though each knew the reason of her assuming. She +camped finally on the arm of her father's chair, with a final enveloping +hug, which under the appearance of exuberance, conveyed a deep +solicitude. + +"Shall I stay or do you want to talk alone?" + +"Stay." Drake caught the hand which had stolen about his neck and patted +it with rough tenderness. "Besides I want you to get certain false ideas +out of your head. Well, Tom, I'll tell you the situation." He stopped a +moment as though considering, before beginning again with an appearance +of frankness which almost convinced the young man, though it failed +before the alarmed instinct of his daughter. "Miss Patsie here is taking +entirely too seriously something her mother repeated to her. I won't +attempt to deny that the times are shaky. They are. They may become +suddenly worse. That depends entirely on a certain group of men. But the +strong point as well as the weak point in the present situation is that +it can depend on a certain group. There will be no panic for the simple +reason that in a panic this group will lose in the tens of millions +where others lose thousands. Now this group in the past through their +control direct or inter-related has been able to dominate the centers of +credit, the money loaning institutions, such as the great banks and +insurance companies. By this means they have been in a measure able to +keep to themselves the great industrial exploitations dependent on the +ability to finance in the hundreds of millions. More, they have been +able to limit to narrow fields such men as myself and other newcomers, +who wish to rise to the same financial advantage. Lately this supremacy +has been threatened by the rise of a new financial idea, the Trust +company. This new form of banking, due to the scope permitted under the +present law, has been able to deal in business and to make loans on +collateral which, while valid, is forbidden a bank under the statutes. +The Trust companies, able to deal in more profitable business and to pay +good interest consequently on deposits, have developed so enormously as +to threaten to overshadow the banks. Back of all this the Trust +companies have been developed and purchased by the younger generation of +financiers in order to acquire the means of providing themselves with +the credit necessary to develop their large schemes of industrial +expansion, without being at the mercy of influences which can be +controlled by others. From the moment the dominant group perceived this +phase of the development of the Trust company, war was certain. That's +where I come in. Pretty dry stuff. Can you get it?" + +Patsie nodded, more interested perhaps in her father's manner than in +what he said. Bojo listened with painful concentration. + +"After my deal in Indiana Smelters and the turn in Pittsburgh & New +Orleans I knew that the knives were out against me. I tried to make +peace with Gunther but I might just as well have tried to sleep with the +tiger. I saw that. There were several things I wanted to do--big things. +I had to have credit. Where could I get it--dare to get it? So I went +into the Trust companies. They want to get me and they want to get +them." He stopped, rubbed his chin and said with a grin, "Perhaps they +may sting me--good and hard--but at the worst we could worry along on +eight or nine millions, couldn't we, living economically, Patsie?" + +"Is that the worst it could mean?" she said, drawing off to look in his +eyes. + +He nodded, adding: + +"Oh, it isn't pleasant to have fifteen to twenty millions clipped from +your fleece, but still we can live--live comfortably." + +She pretended to believe him, throwing herself in his arms. + +"Oh! I'm so relieved." + +His hand ran over her golden head in a gentle caress and his face, as +Bojo saw it, was strained and grim, though his words were light: + +"But I'm not going to lose those twenty millions, not if I can help it!" + +Patsie sprang up laughing, caught Bojo's signal and ran out crying: + +"Back in a moment. Must see how mother is." + +When the curtains, billowing out at her tumultuous exit, had fluttered +back to rest, Bojo said quietly: + +"Mr. Drake, is that what you wish me to believe?" + +"Eh, what's that?" said Drake, looking up. + +"Am I to believe what you've just told?" + +There was a long moment between them, while each studied the other. + +"How far can I trust you?" said Drake slowly. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Can I have your word that you will not tell Patsie--or any one?" + +Bojo reflected a moment, frowning. + +"Is that absolutely necessary?" + +"That's the condition." + +"Very well, I shall tell her nothing more than she knows. Will that +satisfy you?" + +Drake nodded slowly, his eyes still on the young man as though finally +considering the advisability of a confidence. + +"That was partly true," he said slowly; "only partly. There's more to +it. It's not a question _yet_ of being wiped out, but it may be a +question. Tom, I'm not sure but what they've got me. It all depends on +the Atlantic Trust. If they dare let it go to the wall--" He grinned, +took a long whistle and threw up his arms. + +"But surely not all--you don't mean wiped out?" said Bojo, aghast. "You +must be worth twenty, twenty-two million." + +"I am worth that and more," said Drake quietly. "On paper and not only +on paper, under any other system of banking in the world, I would be +worth twenty-seven millions of dollars. Every cent of it. Remember that +afterward, Tom. You'll never see anything funnier. Twenty-seven millions +and to-day I can't borrow five hundred thousand dollars on collateral +worth forty times that. You don't understand it. I'll tell you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A FIGHT IN MILLIONS + + +Drake did not immediately proceed. Having impulsively expressed his +intention to reveal his financial crisis, he hesitated as though +regretting that impulse. He left the fireplace and went from door to +door as though to assure himself against listeners, but aimlessly, +rather from indecision than from any precaution. Returning, he flung +away his cigar, though it was but half consumed, and took a fresh one, +offering the box to Bojo without perceiving that he was in no need. So +apparent was his disinclination, that Bojo felt impelled to say: + +"Perhaps you would rather not tell me, sir!" + +"I'd only be telling you what my enemies know," said Drake sharply, +flinging himself down. "They know to a dollar what I've pledged and what +I can draw on-- Oh! trust them." + +"Mr. Drake," said Bojo slowly, "I don't need to tell you, do I, that I +would do anything in this world for Patsie, and that without knowing in +the slightest what she feels toward me--believe me. I say this to +you--because I want you to know that I've come only in the wildest hope +that I might help in some way--some little way." + +Drake shook his head. + +"You can't, and yet--" He hesitated a last time and then said, in a +dreamy, indecisive way, so foreign to his nature that it showed the +extent of the mental struggle through which he had passed, "and yet +there are some things I'd be glad to have you know--to remember, Tom, +after it's all over, particularly if you come into the family. For I +don't think you quite understand my ways of fighting. You took a rather +harsh view of certain things from your standpoint-- I admit you had some +cause." + +"I didn't judge you," said Bojo hastily, blushing with embarrassment. "I +was only judging myself, my own responsibility." + +"Well, you judged me too," said Drake, smiling. "Yes--and I felt it, and +I'll say now that I felt uncomfortable--damned uncomfortable. That's why +I'm going to let you see that according to my ways of looking at things +I play the game square. I'm going to let you overhear a certain very +interesting little meeting that is going to take place" (he glanced at +the clock) "in about half an hour. Mr. James H. Haggerdy is coming to +make me a proposition from Gunther and Co. It'll interest you." + +"Thank you," said Bojo simply. + +"Now, here's the situation in a nutshell. If I could weather this +depression a year, six months, or if there had been no depression, but +normal times, I would be able to swing a deal and clear out at over one +hundred millions-- I gambled big. It was in me--fated-- I had to sink or +swim on a big stake. If I'd have won out, I'd have been among the kings +of the country. That's what I wanted--not money. It's the poker in my +blood. However. Here's the case: I made money, as you know--a great +deal of money. I was worth considerable after the Indiana Smelters got +going. I was worth ten millions more when I had sold back Pittsburgh & +New Orleans. That was the crisis. I wanted to get in with the inner +crowd--not simply to be a buccaneer, for that's about what I'd been. +That's why they bought their old railroad back. I was rated a dangerous +man. I was. So is every man dangerous till he gets what he wants. I went +to Gunther and laid my cards on the table. Gunther's a big man, the only +man I'd have done it to, but he has one fault--he can hate. The ideal +master ought to have no friends and no enemies. I said to Gunther: + +"'Gunther, let's talk straight. I want to come into the field--on your +level--you know what that means. Your word and I'll be satisfied. Am I +big enough yet? Do you want me inside or outside the breastworks? Say +the word.' + +"He sat there smiling, listening, gazing out the window. + +"'I know what I'm asking's a big thing, to forget what I've cost you. It +_is_ a lot to ask. But you're big enough to see beyond it. Say the word +and I'm yours, through thick and thin, from now on, and I'll lay before +you now a campaign as big as anything you handled so far. All I want is +your word--is it peace or war!' + +"That's where he played square. + +"'I don't forget easily,' he said. + +"'So that's the answer?' I said. + +"He nodded. + +"'I'm sorry. I came to you because you're the only man down here I'm +willing to look up to,' I said, for I knew there was no use going on, +but as I went out I plumped in a last shot: 'In a year from now I'm +going to put the same offer to you, and when I do I'll carry a few more +guns.' + +"I went out and I got to work. As a matter of fact, I had already begun. +I went in with Majendie of the Atlantic Trust, Ryerson of the Columbian, +and Dryser of the Seaboard Trust. I bought my way in. I'd got a say in +institutions able to lend millions on good collateral without having to +duck at a bell pressed downtown. Then I started with a group of +Middle-Westerners to make myself felt. There was only one big field left +and it was a question how long that would be left alone. They had +organized their steel industries and their railroads, they'd knocked out +or digested competitors, controlled the field of production and had +things sailing along gloriously, but they'd forgotten, or almost +forgotten, one thing which they ought to have controlled the first, the +iron to pour into their furnaces and the coke to keep them going. When +they woke up, they found me in control of the Eastern Coke and Iron +Company, holding about eighty million dollars worth of land in West +Virginia and Virginia which they had to have sooner or later. Then they +woke up with a vengeance. The first thing they did was to send word to +me through Haggerdy to get out of the Seaboard Trust and be a good +little boy and they'd let me come around and play. I laughed at that, +though I knew it meant war to the knife. About ten weeks ago I got a +taste of what they could do. Of course, to carry what I was carrying, I +had need of big sums, and I had large blocks of Eastern Coke and Iron +hypothecated not only among my Trust Company connections, but in banks +around town, where it was upon good strong margins. Ten weeks ago, when +I dropped in at a certain bank to renew my loan, I was told that they +had decided on account of the business outlook, the downward trend of +prices and what not, to call in their loans and proceed on a very +conservative basis. Of course, under that rigamarole I knew what was +doing--orders from headquarters--and more to follow. I placed the loan +with the Atlantic Trust and waited. Last week another refusal. This time +the warning was a little more pointed. The president himself looked with +grave concern--that's always the expression--on the amount of Eastern +C. and I. stock hypothecated at present. A collapse in the stock, which +had been declining steadily, might seriously upset financial conditions +all over the country, etc. Well, I weathered that and a couple others +until I've got where I'm stumped. A bank has got the right to decide for +itself what it wants to lend money on; it can decline a loan on any +security or all securities offered, and what are you going to do about +it? The trust companies are carrying all they can and besides they're +being squeezed themselves. As a matter of fact, with solid properties +worth to-day in the market from fifty-five to fifty-seven millions, of +which we own sixty per cent., there isn't a bank in town will lend us a +hundred thousand dollars. The word has been passed around and those who +are independent don't dare. I need two million cash by day after +to-morrow, absolutely must have it, and they know it and Haggerdy's +coming here to look me over, examine my pocketbook and say, 'What have +you got that we want!'" + +At this moment the butler came with a card. + +"Did you say any one was here?" said Drake, studying the card. + +"No, sir." + +"Show Mr. Haggerdy in when I ring," said Drake, with a nod of dismissal. +He rose and beckoning Bojo placed him in the embrosine of the window, +where a slight recess hid him completely from the rest of the room. + +"No need of a record; take it in just for your own curiosity," he said, +returning to his desk. + +Mr. James H. Haggerdy came in like a bulky animal emerging from a cage +and blinking at the sun. He was not the man to beat about the bush, and +in his own long and varied experience in Wall Street he had been called +many names, but he had never been branded with anything petty, a fact +which made a certain bond of sympathy between the two men. + +"Hello, Dan!" + +"Hello, Jim!" + +Haggerdy moved to a chair, refused a cigar, and said directly: + +"Well, Jim, I suppose you know what I've come for." + +"Sure, to carry off the furniture and the silverware," said Drake, +laughing. + +"That's about it!" said Haggerdy, nodding with a grim twist of his lips. +He had a sense of humor, though he seldom laughed. "Dan, they've got +you." + +"So they seem to think." + +"And they want your Eastern C. and I. stock." + +"That's quite evident. Will they accept it as a present or do they want +me to pay them for taking it?" said Drake grimly. + +"What's the use of faking," said Haggerdy. "Gunther wants the stock and +is going to have it. Do you want to sell now or hand it over. You're a +sensible man, Dan; you ought to know when you're beaten." + +"I'm not sure I am a sensible man," said Drake facetiously. + +"It's all in the game. You're not kicking because you've been caught, +are you?" said Haggerdy, as though in surprise. + +"No. If I were in Gunther's place I should do just what he's doing. +Quite right. Only I'm not sure, Jim, he'd do what I do were conditions +reversed." + +"You paid around 79 for the stock. You've got a million shares you're +carrying. The stock's to-day at 54. We'll buy you out at 55. Take it, +Dan." + +"Thanks for the advice, but my answer's No." + +"Why?" + +"That stock's going to be worth 150 in two years." + +"Two years isn't to-day. You're facing conditions." He looked at him as +though trying to understand his motive. "The old man isn't bargaining +when he says 55; he means 55 and no more." + +"I know that." + +"Where are you going to raise two million dollars cash in forty-eight +hours? You see, we are well informed." + +Drake smiled as though this were the easiest matter in the world. + +"Suppose the Clearing House refuses to clear for the Atlantic Trust +to-morrow. What'll that mean?" + +"A panic." + +"And where would your Eastern Coke and Iron go then?" + +"To 40 or 35, wherever you wanted it to go--possibly." + +"And can't you take a hint?" + +"Not when I know a stock that's worth over a hundred has been pushed +down on purpose to freeze me out." + +"You're not talking morality, Dan?" + +"Oh, no! You think I'm beaten. I know I'm not." + +"You're bluffing, Dan." + +"Find out." + +"To-morrow'll be too late." + +"Possibly, but if Gunther can buy it at 40 or 35, why should he pay 55 +to me?" + +"I think he likes you, Dan," said Haggerdy slowly. + +"No. He wants to make sure of getting the stock. He doesn't want a +scramble for it," said Drake. "I'm surprised to hear you talking such +nonsense." + +Haggerdy rose, shaking his head impressively. + +"A mistake, Dan--a mistake." He waited a moment and then played his last +card. "Of course, if you sell out in this, it's understood Gunther'll +see you through on the rest. And that may mean the question of the roof +over your head." + +"That means credit at the bank--that I'll be allowed to put up good +collateral like a respectable member of the crowd?" + +"Phrase it as you will, that's it. Gunther will buy out your Trust +Company holdings for what you paid for them and he'll see you through on +Indiana Smelters--that means something saved out of the wreck--and, Dan, +there's a big smash up just over the horizon." + +"I thought that was the proposition," said Drake, ruminating. "Well, +Jim, it's more than ever no." + +"Why more than ever?" + +"Because this in good old-fashioned English means just one +thing--getting out, saving my skin at the expense of others." + +"Quite so--every man for himself." + +"Not with me. I've given my word on the Coke and Iron deal. I'll see it +through. Tell Gunther I'll sell out at 80 all or nothing, and give him +twenty-four hours." + +Haggerdy stretched out his hand in farewell. + +"Are you sure of the other fellows, Dan?" he said slyly. + +"I don't give a damn what the other fellows may do. I've given my word +and I stand by that." + +"I'm sorry for you, Dan," said Haggerdy, shaking his head ominously. +"Telephone me if you change your mind." + +"Thanks for your wishes, but don't lose any sleep--expecting," said +Drake, laughing. + +Bojo came out aghast. + +"You don't mean to say the Atlantic Trust is in danger," he cried, +foreseeing all in a glance the structures that would go toppling. + +"It's in danger, all right," said Drake moodily, "but they won't--they +don't dare let it close--impossible!" + +"And if you can't raise two million?" + +Drake shrugged his shoulders. + +"But surely there's some way," Bojo cried helplessly, "some +friends--there must be a way to raise it. This house surely is worth +twice that--it isn't mortgaged, is it?" + +"No, it's quite clear, but it belongs to my wife," said Drake, and again +there came into his face that shadow of broken despair which Bojo had +noticed a score of times. + +"But then--does she realize--" + +"Yes, she knows," said Drake to himself. It was easy to see that the +interview with Haggerdy had profoundly convinced him. "Mrs. Drake's +fortune outside of that is fully three millions, which I have given +her--" + +"But why haven't you told her and your daughter--they ought--" Suddenly +he stopped short, his eyes met Drake's and a suspicion of the truth +struck him. "You don't mean--" + +"Don't," said Drake helplessly, and for the first time he caught a +glimpse of the vastness of his inner suffering. The next minute he had +hurriedly recovered his mask, saying: "Don't ask me about that-- I +can't-- I must not tell you." + +"Mrs. Drake has refused to help you!" exclaimed Bojo, carried away. "She +has--she has. I see it by your face." + +Drake walked to the fireplace and stood gazing down. Presently he +nodded as though talking to himself. + +"Yes; my wife could come to my assistance. I have been forced to ask +her. She won't. I have been living in a fool's paradise. That's what +hurts!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +PATSIE'S SCHEME + + +When Bojo returned home after a brief stolen interview with Patsie, he +could hardly believe what he had himself witnessed. It seemed incredible +that all that magnificence and luxury might be dissipated in a night, +could depend upon the wavering of an hour in a mad exchange. But deeper +than the feeling of impending disaster--which he even now could not +realize--was the disclosure of the true state of affairs in the Drake +household. Without telling Patsie the extent of her father's danger, he +had told of Drake's applying to his wife for assistance and her refusal. +Then Patsie brokenly had told her part, how she had pled with her mother +and sought in vain to place before her the true seriousness of the +situation, her father's peril and his instant need. To entreaties and +remonstrances Mrs. Drake remained deaf, sheltering herself behind an +invariable answer. Why should she throw good money after bad? What was +to be gained by it? If he had thrown away the family fortune, all the +more reason for her to save what she had. The worst was that Dolly was +abroad and Doris and her husband were cruising off Palm Beach and the +telegram they sent might not reach them in time. + +The next morning Bojo waited fitfully for the opening of the Stock +Exchange, with the dreaded memories of Haggerdy's prophecies running in +his head. It took him back to the days when he himself had been a part +of the vast maelstrom of speculation. He breakfasted with one eye on the +clock waiting for the hands to advance to the fatal hour of ten. At five +minutes past that hour he went feverishly across the way to the ticker +in the neighboring hotel brokerage. He had a feeling as though he were +being sucked back into the old life of violent emotions and unreal +theatrical upsets. He remembered the day before the drop in Pittsburgh & +New Orleans when he had waited in the Hauk and Flaspoller offices +matching quarters with Forshay to endure the last few intervening +minutes before the crisis which was to sweep away their fortunes as a +tidal wave obliterates a valley. He had not understood then the ironical +laughter in Forshay's eyes, but as he came back again to the old +associations he felt himself living over with a new poignant +understanding the final act of that tragedy. + +Between the Tom Crocker of those breathless days and the ordered self +which he had built up during these last months of discipline there +seemed to intervene unreal worlds. + +The group gathered in the hotel branch of Pitt & Sanderson were +indolently interested rather than excited. They were of the flitting and +superficial gambling type, youngsters still new to the excitement of the +game and old men who could not tear themselves away from their +established habit. They formed quite a little coterie in which the +differences of age and wealth were obliterated by the common bond of +the daily hazard. He knew the type well, the reckless plunger risking +thousands on shallow margins, determined to make or lose all at one +killing; the rodent, sharp-eyed, close-fisted veteran, wary from many +failures, who was content to play for half a point rise and take his +instant profit. The lounging group studied him with a moment's +curiosity, seeking in which category to place the intruder, whether +among the shifting truant crowd stopping for the moment's information or +among that harried occasional group of lost souls who came expectant of +nothing but complete disaster. + +Bojo went to the tape with almost the feeling with which a reformed +drunkard closes his hand over the glass that had once been his +destruction. His mind, excited by the memories of the night before, was +prepared for a shock. To his surprise the clicking procession of +values--Reading, Union Pacific, Amalgamated Copper, Northern +Pacific--showed but fractional declines. The break he had come to +witness did not develop. He waited a quarter of an hour, half an hour, +an hour. The market continued weak but heavy. + +"Nothing much doing," he said, turning to his neighbor, a financial rail +bird of a rather horsy type, grisled and bald. + +"Playing it short?" + +"Haven't yet made up my mind. What do you think?" he said, to draw the +other on. + +"Think?" said the other with the enthusiasm of the gambler's conviction. +"Lord, there's only one thing to think. This market's touched bottom +two weeks ago. When it starts to rise watch things go kiting." + +"You think so?" said Bojo, with the instinctive tendency to seek hope in +the slightest straws that is the strangest part of all the strange +acquaintanceships of the moment which speculation engenders. He had to +listen for five minutes to impassioned oratory, to hearing all the +reasons recounted why the long depression was nothing but psychological +and an upward turn a certainty. He slipped away presently, rather +relieved at this confidence from a shallow prophet, and when he met +Patsie by appointment, the news he brought her dispelled the feelings of +foreboding under which she had been suffering the last week. + +"After all, perhaps we have been rather panicky," he said, with a new +assumption of cheerfulness. "Remember one thing, your father knows this +game and when he says that the big group does not intend to have a +panic, because they themselves have too much to lose, Patsie, he must +know what he is talking about." + +"If Doris were only here," she said, her woman's instinct unconvinced. + +"You sent the telegram?" + +"Last night. I should have had the answer this morning. That's what +worries me. Perhaps it won't reach them in time and even if it does it +will be over two days before they can get back." + +"It would help a good deal," he admitted. The prospect of going to Doris +for help after what had happened was one from which he shrank, yet he +was resolved to stop at nothing, willing to sacrifice his pride if only +to secure the aid which, knowing their connections, he knew Boskirk +could bring the imperilled financier. + +"At least I shall do what I can do," she said, with a determined shake +of her head. + +He looked at her doubtfully. "I am afraid, Patsie, that a few hundred +thousands will not help much--but if your mind is made up." + +"It is made up." + +"Very well, what address shall I give them?" He leaned forward and +repeated the number. + +Twenty minutes later they were in the office of Swift and Carlson, in +the inner room, talking to the senior partner. Thaddeus C. Swift was one +of the innumerable agents through whom Daniel Drake operated in the +placing of his more serious enterprises, of the older generation of Wall +Street, conservative, seemingly unruffled by the swirling tide of +strident young men which churned about him. He had known Patsie since +her childhood and received her as he would his own daughter, with +perhaps a quizzical and searching glance at the young man who waited a +little uncomfortably in the background. Patsie opened the conversation +directly without the slightest hesitation. + +"Mr. Swift," she said imperiously, "you must give me your word that you +will keep my confidence." And as this caused the old gentleman to stare +at her with a startled look, she added insistently: "You must not say a +word of my coming here or whatever I may ask you to do. Promise." + +"Sounds quite terrible," said Mr. Swift, smiling indulgently. In his +mind he decided that the visit meant a demand for a few hundred dollars +for some girlish fancy. "Well, how shall I swear? Cross my heart and all +that sort of thing?" + +"Mr. Swift, I am serious, awfully serious," stamping her foot with +annoyance, "and please do not treat me as a child." + +He saw that the matter was of some importance, and scenting perhaps +complications, withdrew into a defensive attitude. + +"Suppose you tell me a little of what you want of me," he said +carefully, "before I give such a promise." + +Patsie, who for her reasons did not wish her father to have the +slightest suspicion of this visit, hesitated, looked from Mr. Swift to +Bojo, and turned away nervously, seeking some new method to gain her +end. + +"Miss Drake is coming to you as a client," said Bojo, deciding to speak, +"to consult you about her interests. So long as it is about her business +affairs, it seems quite natural, doesn't it, that you should keep her +confidence?" + +"Eh, what?" said Mr. Swift, frowning. He seemed to repeat the question +to himself, and answered grudgingly: "Of course, of course, that's all +right, that's true. If it is only to consult me about your business +affairs--" + +[Illustration: "'Your promise. No one is to know what I do'"] + +"It is absolutely that," said Patsie hastily. She stood beside him, +holding out her hand obstinately. "Your promise. No one is to know what +I do." + +Mr. Swift made a mental reservation and nodded his head. The three sat +down. + +"How much have I deposited in stocks and bonds to my account?" asked +Patsie. + +"Do you wish a list?" said Mr. Swift, preparing to touch a button. + +"No, no, not now; only the value--in a general way." + +"Of course," said Mr. Swift, caging his fingers and looking over their +heads to the depths of the ceiling, "of course, it depends somewhat on +the state of the market. While what you have is the best of securities, +still, as you must know, even the best will not bring to-day what it +would a year ago." + +"Yes, but in a general way," she insisted. + +"In a general way," he said carefully, "I should say what you have would +represent a capital of $500,000 to $510,000. Possibly, under favorable +conditions, a little more." + +Patsie and Bojo looked at him in astonishment. + +"You said $500,000?" she said incredulously. + +He nodded. + +"You are thinking of Doris," she said, bewildered. + +"Not at all. That is approximately the value of your holding. Your +father deposited with me securities to the value of $260,000 on your +coming of age last January." + +"Yes, yes; I know that, but--" + +"And securities of the par value of $250,000 on the occasion of your +sister's marriage." + +"He did that?" exclaimed Patsie, her heart in her throat; "he really did +that?" Her eyes filled with tears and she turned away hastily with an +emotion quite inexplicable to the older man. Bojo himself was much moved +at the thought of how the father in the face of a supreme conflict had +been willing to risk his reserves to provide for the future of his +daughters. + +Patsie came back, her emotion in a measure controlled. She placed her +hand upon the shoulder of Mr. Swift, who continued to gaze at her +without comprehension. + +"I know you don't understand; you will later. Mr. Swift, I want you to +sell every one of my securities, now, immediately. I want everything in +cash." + +Mr. Swift looked at her as though he had seen a ghost and then rapidly +at Bojo. In his mind perhaps was working some fantastic idea of an +elopement. Perhaps Patsie guessed something of this, for she blushed +slightly and said: + +"My father needs it. I want to give it to him." + +Her words cleared the atmosphere, though they left Mr. Swift obstinately +determined. + +"But, Patsie," he said, as a father might to a child, "this is a +bombshell. I can't allow you on my own responsibility to do a thing like +this on impulse. You should not ask me. How do you know your father is +in need? He has not sent you here?" + +"No, no; never. Don't you know him better than that? If he knew he never +would permit it. That's the difficulty, don't you see? He must never +know of it and you must arrange some way so he will never guess it is +coming from me." + +Mr. Swift stared at her utterly amazed. At length he turned and, +addressing Bojo, said: + +"You are in the confidence of Miss Drake? If so, perhaps you can help me +out. Does she know what she is doing, and is it possible that she has +any valid reason for believing that her father can possibly be in need +of such heroic assistance as this?" + +His face expressed so much amazement mingled with consternation at the +thought that Daniel Drake could possibly be in difficulties that Bojo +for the first time perceived what he should have foreseen, the direct +danger to the financier from the suspicion of his true situation which +must come from the revelation of Patsie's intentions. + +"Mr. Swift," he said, in great perturbation, "I do not know whether we +have done wisely in speaking to you so frankly. You will perhaps +understand now why Miss Drake insisted on a promise of secrecy." + +"What! Daniel Drake in need of money?" said Mr. Swift, staring at him or +rather through him, and already perceiving the tremendous significance +of this disclosure upon the distraught times. + +"At least Miss Drake believes so," said Bojo carefully. "She may +exaggerate the necessity. What she is doing she is doing because she has +made up her mind herself to do it and not because I have advised her or +suggested it in the slightest. You are too good a friend of the family I +know, sir, to speak of what has occurred." + +"Oh, Mr. Swift," said Patsie, breaking in and seizing his hand +impulsively, "you _will_ help me, won't you?" + +Mr. Swift gazed at her blankly, a hundred thoughts racing through his +mind; still too upset by the news he had just received, which could not +fail to be full of significance to his own fortunes, to be able to +focus for the moment on the immediate decision. + +Patsie repeated her demand with a quivering lip. He came out of his +abstraction and began to think, arranging and rearranging a pile of +letters before him, convinced at last that the situation was of the +highest seriousness. + +"Wait, wait a moment; I must think it over," he said slowly. "This is an +unusually serious decision you have put up to me. My dear Patsie, you +know nothing about such matters; you're a child." + +"I am eighteen and I have a right to dispose of what belongs to me." + +"Yes, yes, you have the right, but I have the right also to advise you +and to make you see the situation as it exists." His manner changed +immediately and he said simply and frankly, "Since you have trusted me, +you must give me your full confidence. I shan't abuse it. Mr. Crocker, I +can see by your manner and your attempt at caution that this matter is +not a trifle. Do you know from your own knowledge how serious it is? +Please do not hide anything from me." + +"I won't," said Bojo. "I know of my personal knowledge and I believe it +to be as serious as it can possibly be." + +The two men exchanged a glance and the look in both their eyes told +Swift even more than his words revealed, more than he wished Patsie +herself to suspect. + +"Suppose the very worst were true," said Mr. Swift after a moment's +thought, "that your father was in danger of complete failure? I am +merely supposing this extreme case to show you the difficulty of my +position. Your father has placed these securities to your account with +the distinct intention that whatever happens to him you shall be +provided for as his other daughters are provided for, and undoubtedly +his wife is taken care of. If I should allow you to do this, even as a +matter of sentiment it is possible in an extreme case everything you +have as well as everything your father possesses might be wiped away. Do +you realize that?" + +"And that's just what I am afraid may happen," she exclaimed, worried +beyond the thought of caution by her forebodings. + +"And you are willing to take the risk of losing everything?" he said +slowly; "for after all there is no reason why you should sacrifice what +belongs to you rightfully and legally even if your father should fail +completely." + +"No reason?" she cried. "Do you think for a moment that money means +anything to me when he, my father, the one who has given it to me, needs +it?" + +"But if even this won't save him?" he persisted, shaking his head. + +"What has that got to do with the question?" she said impatiently, +almost angrily. "Everything I have I want him to have. That's all there +is to it." + +He gazed at her fresh and ardent face a moment and then laid his hand +over hers, muttering something underneath his breath which Bojo did not +catch, although he divined its reverence. + +"Then you will do as I wish?" she cried joyfully, guessing his +surrender. + +He nodded, gave a helpless glance to Bojo and cleared his throat +huskily. "As you wish, my dear," he said very gently. + +"And you will sell everything at once?" she cried. + +"I can't promise that," he said quietly. "Such a block of securities +can't be thrown on the market all at once. But I will do my best." + +"But how long will it take?" she said in dismay. + +"Four days, possibly five." + +"But that will be too late. I must have it all the day after to-morrow." + +"That will mean a serious sacrifice," he said. + +"What do I care? I must have it by to-morrow night." + +"You are determined?" + +"Absolutely." + +"It will have to be so then." + +"And when that is done," she cried joyfully, clapping her hands in +delight, "you will help me to send it to him so he will never suspect +it?" + +He nodded, yielding every point, perhaps more moved than he cared to +show. + +They left the office after Patsie had signed the formal order. + +At the house they found a telegram from Doris. + + Dear Patsie, your telegram has thrown us into the greatest + anxiety. Jim and I are leaving at once. Will be in New York + day after to-morrow. Courage. We will do everything to help. + + DORIS. + +This news and their success of the morning restored their spirits +immeasurably. It seemed as though clouds had suddenly cleared away and +left everything with a promise of sunshine and fair weather. They +lunched almost gaily. Mrs. Drake still kept her room and Patsie was +impatient for the day to pass and the next one to have the certainty +that the sale was achieved. Confident from her first success she +declared once Doris was back she would go with her sister to her mother +and shame her if they could not persuade her into a realization of the +gravity of the situation. When Bojo left they had even forgotten for the +space of half an hour that such bugbears as Wall Street, loans and banks +could exist. The realization of the seriousness of human disasters had +somehow left them simple and devoid of artifices or coquetry before each +other. He found again in her the Patsie of earlier days. He comprehended +that she loved him, had always loved him, that the slight +misunderstanding that had momentarily arisen between them had come from +the long summer renunciation and the passionate jealousy of one sister +for the other. He comprehended this all, but did not take advantage of +his knowledge. On leaving her he held her a moment, his hands on her +shoulders, gazing earnestly into her eyes. From this intensity of his +look she turned away a little frightened, not quite reconciled. Already +his, but still hesitating before the final avowal. The knowledge of how +indispensable he was to her in these moments of trial restrained him in +the impulsive movement towards her. He took her hand and bowed over it a +deep bow, a little quixotic perhaps, and hurried away without trusting +himself to speak. Outside he went rushing along as though the blocks +were mere steps, swinging his cane and humming to himself gloriously. He +was so happy that the thought that any one else could be unhappy, that +any disaster could threaten her or any one who belonged to her, seemed +incredible. + +"Everything is going to turn out all right," he repeated to himself +confidently. "Everything; I feel it." + +He went back to the Court radiant and gay and dressed for dinner, +surprising Granning, who came in preoccupied and anxious, with the flow +of animal spirits. At the sight of his contagious happiness Granning +looked at him with a knowing smile. + +"Well, things aren't so black after all, then?" + +"You bet they're not!" + +"Glad to hear it. You had me scared last night. My guess is that +something besides stocks and bonds must have cheered you up," he added +suspiciously with a wise nod of his head. "Glad to see it, old fellow. +You've been mum and gloomy as a hippopotamus long enough." + +"Have I?" said Bojo, laughing with a little confusion. "Well, I'm not +going to be any longer. You're an old hippopotamus yourself." He got him +around the knees and flung him with an old time tackle on the couch, and +they were scrambling and laughing thus when the telephone rang. It was +Patsie's voice, very faint and pitiful. + +"Have you heard? The Clearing House has refused to clear for the +Atlantic Trust. Oh, Bojo, what does it mean?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +ONE LAST CHANCE + + +Bojo came away from the telephone with a face so grave that Granning +greeted him with an involuntary exclamation: + +"Good heavens, Bojo, what's wrong?" + +"The Atlantic Trust has gone under. The Clearing House refused to clear. +You know what that means." + +"But, I say, you're not affected. You've been out of the market for +months. I say, you didn't have anything up." + +"No, no," said Bojo grimly. He went and sat down, his head in his hands. +"I'm not thinking of myself. Some one else. I can't tell you; you must +guess. It will probably all be out soon enough. By George, this is a +cropper." + +"I think I understand," said Granning slowly. He sat down in turn, +kicking his toes against the twisted andirons on the hearth. "The +Atlantic Trust--and a billion--who knows, a billion and a half deposits! +What the deuce are we coming to? It will hit us all--bad times!" + +Bojo got up heavily and went out. Hardly had he stepped from the leafy +isolation of the Court into the strident conflict of Times Square when +he felt the instant alarm that great disasters instantaneously convey +to a metropolitan crowd. Newspaper trucks were screaming past, halting +to fling out great bunches of the latest extras to fighting, scrambling +groups of street urchins who dispersed, screaming their shrill evil in +high-pitched, contagion-spreading voices. Every one was devouring the +last panic-ridden sheet, some hurrying home, others stopping in their +tracks spellbound to read to the end. He bought an extra hastily from a +strident newsboy who thrust it in his face. The worst was true. The +great Atlantic Trust had been refused clearance. Darkest suspicions were +thrown upon its solvency. The names of other banks, colossal +institutions, were linked under the same awful rumors. The morrow would +see a run on a dozen banks such as the generation had not witnessed. He +hailed a taxicab and hurried uptown. Drake had told him that everything +depended upon the Atlantic Trust. Now that this had gone under did this +mean his absolute ruin? Patsie was already waiting for him as he drew up +before the great gray stone mansion. She flung herself in his arms, +trembling and physically unnerved. He was afraid that she was going to +collapse completely and began solicitously to whisper in her ear many +deceptive words of hope and comfort. + +"It may not be so bad. Your father--have you seen your father? How do +you know what he has done? Perhaps he has come to some agreement this +afternoon. Perhaps he has saved himself by some bold stroke. I believe +him capable of anything." + +She stopped the futile flow of words with her fingers across his lips. + +"Oh, how happy we were this afternoon," she said, for the moment almost +breaking down. But immediately the Spartan courage which was at the +bottom of her character prevailed. She drew herself up, saying so +quietly that he was surprised: + +"Bojo, we mustn't deceive ourselves. This is the end, I know it. +Whatever is to come we must help immediately." + +"Yet I still feel, I can't help it, that something may have happened. He +may have been able to do something to-day." + +"I wish I could feel so," she said sadly. + +With her hand still in his she led the way into the great library, which +seemed a region of mystifying and gloomy things, lit only by the lights +of the desk lamps. + +"All we can do is to wait," she said. + +"Have you seen your mother?" he said at last. + +She shook her head. "It is useless. I have no influence over her. Doris +perhaps, or Doris' husband; she might do something for fear of what +others might think of her, but she wouldn't do it for me." + +"I can't understand it at all," he said, shaking his head. + +"I can," she said quietly. "My mother doesn't love him. She has never +loved him. She married him just as Doris and Dolly married, for money, +for position." + +"But even then--" + +"Yes, even then," she took up with a laugh that had tears in it. +"Wouldn't you think that for the sake of the family name and honor, out +of just simple ordinary gratitude for what had been given her, she would +part with the half, even a third of her fortune? But you do not know my +mother. When she has made up her mind nothing will ever change it." + +"Let us hope you are wrong." + +She laughed again and began walking up and down, her hands clenched, +trying to think of some way out. + +"Poor Dad, just when he needs all his courage to go on fighting! This, +too, has broken him up. That's the only sort of a blow he couldn't get +over." + +The butler came in at this moment, announcing dinner. + +"No, no; not for me," she said. "I couldn't; but you, perhaps?" + +"No, not until your father comes back." + +The butler went out. Bojo held out his hand to her, saying: "Come here; +sit down by me." Worn out by the strain of emotions, she obeyed quietly. +She came to take a seat on the sofa beside him, looked a moment into his +eyes, saw the depths of tenderness and sympathy there and with a tired, +fleeting smile laid her head gratefully on his shoulder. + +It was almost eleven o'clock before Drake came wearily in. They were +exhausted with the long tensity of their vigil, waiting for every sound +that would announce his arrival, but at his entrance they stood up, +vibrantly alert. One glance at Drake, at the hunted and harassed look +across his forehead told Bojo that the worst had happened. Patsie went +to her father bravely with a steady smile that never wavered and put her +arms around his neck. + +"Pretty bad, isn't it, Dad?" she said. + +He nodded, incapable for the moment of speech. + +"I am so sorry. Never mind, even if we have to begin at the bottom we +will win out again." + +Bojo had come up and taken his free hand, looking in his eyes anxiously +for the answer. + +"I guess the game is up," said Drake at last. "There is only one chance, +and though I swore I never would do it--" he stopped a moment, running +his hand over Patsie's golden curls, "I guess I'll have to swallow my +pride," he said. + +"You're going to her," said the daughter, shuddering. + +"Once more," he said, grimly. + +Leaving her he went to the little table by the desk and poured out a +stiff drink. + +"Whew, what a day! Two hours more and I might have pulled through; I +thought I had it all fixed up, but that Clearing House mess ended that! +You can't sell men eggs at five cents a piece when they know to-morrow +they can get the same at three cents." + +He tried to smile, but back of it all Bojo was alarmed to see the +disorder in the physical and moral man which had gained over him since +yesterday. Despite Drake's determination to assume a stoic attitude he +felt the biting bitterness and revolt that was gnawing at his soul. + +Patsie wanted him to sit down to rest a moment, to have something, if +only a morsel, brought in, but he refused absent-mindedly. + +"No, no, I must get it over with. I must know where I stand." + +Still he delayed his departure, evidently revolting against the rôle +which he had determined to play. + +"Your mother is home?" he said abruptly. + +"She is home--in her room," said Patsie. + +He took a final turn before at last making up his mind, then he gave a +short gesture of his hand towards them, saying: + +"Wait." + +The next moment he went out, not with the old accustomed swinging gait, +but with a lagging step as though already convinced of the futility of +his errand. + +"He is doing it for his daughters," thought Bojo; "only that would make +him so humble himself." He felt with a little compunction that he had +judged Drake rather harshly, for in these last interviews it had seemed +to him at times that there had been an absence of that gameness which in +his mind he would like to have associated with the romantic figure of +the manipulator. Now with the secrets of the household laid bare to him +he felt strongly the inner vulnerability of such men. Able outwardly to +defy the great turns of fortune and present a smiling front to +adversity, yet unable to resist the mortal blow which strikes at the +vital regions in their sentiments and their affections. Implacable as he +had been, neither giving nor asking quarter in his struggles with his +own kind, Bojo at length realized the tenderness and pride amounting +almost to a weakness with which he idolized his own. What he had seen +working in the soul of the man in this last half hour made him feel more +than simply the ruin of his worldly possessions. The moment was too +tense for words, the issue too tremendous. They sat side by side, his +hand over hers, staring ahead, waiting. + +Ten minutes, half an hour elapsed without a sound. He pictured to +himself to what arguments and entreaties the desperate father must +resort, trying through his inexperience to visualize the drama in one of +these domestic scenes which pass unguessed. + +Patsie heard him first. She sprang up with a sharp intaking of her +breath. He rose less precipitately, hearing at last the sound of +returning footsteps. The next moment Drake came into the room and stood +gazing at the two erect figures of the young man and the young girl. +Then he tried to smile and couldn't. Her instinct guessed on the instant +what had happened. She went to him swiftly and put her arms about his +shoulders as though to support him. + +"Never mind, Dad," she said bravely. "Don't you care, money isn't +everything in this world. Whatever happens, you've got me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE DELUGE + + +The next day the deluge broke. + +On leaving Patsie and her father he had gone down the Avenue in a vain +hope that his father might be in town, hoping to catch him at his hotel. +On his way to his amazement he perceived a long line of curious shapes +stretched along the sidewalk. As he came nearer he saw a file of men and +women, some standing, some seated, camped out for the night. Then he +noticed above all the great white columns of the Atlantic Trust and he +realized that these were the first frightened outposts of the army of +despair and panic which would come storming at the doors on the morrow. +By the morning a dozen banks scattered over the city were besieged by +frantic hordes of depositors, a dozen others hastily preparing against +the impending tide of evil rumor and disaster. + +With the opening of the Stock Exchange the havoc began, for with the +threatened collapse of gigantic banking systems orders came pouring in +from all over the country to sell at any price. In the wild hours that +ensued holdings were thrown on the market in such quantities that the +machinery of the Stock Exchange was momentarily paralyzed. Stocks were +selling at half a dozen figures simultaneously, until it became a human +impossibility for the frantic brokers to fulfil the demands that came +pouring in on them to sell at any price. Any rumor was believed and +shouted frantically: receivers were to be appointed for a dozen +institutions: the State Superintendent's investigation was showing +incredible defalcations and misuses of funds. Indictments were to be +returned against the most prominent men in the financial world, and at +the close of the day on top of the wildest fabrications of the +imagination came the supreme horror of fact. Majendie, the president of +the Atlantic Trust, was dead, slain by his own hand. But what happened +this day would be nothing to the morrow. + +At Patsie's frantic request Bojo went down in the late forenoon to see +Mr. Swift. He had to wait almost an hour in the outer offices, watching +breathless, frantic men, men of fifty and sixty as panic-stricken as +youngsters of twenty-five, breaking under the strain of their first +knowledge of overwhelming ruin, an indiscriminate convulsive mass +pouring in and out. Then a door opened and a secretary issued him in. +Mr. Swift received him with an agitated clutch of the hand, and valuing +the precious seconds, without waiting for his questions, burst out: + +"Mr. Crocker, it's absolutely humanly impossible for me to do what Miss +Drake requested. We disposed yesterday of over forty thousand dollars. +To sell now would be a financial slaughter to which I simply will not +give my permission. Moreover, it's all very well to talk of selling, but +who's going to buy?" + +"If you can't sell," said Bojo, gloomily, "Miss Drake would like to +know what you could raise on her holdings as security." + +"She wants to know?" said Mr. Swift, on edge with the anxiety of twenty +operations to be safe-guarded, "I'll tell you. Not a hundred thousand +dollars, nor ten thousand. There isn't an institution that would dare +weaken its cash supply to-day on any security offered. Mr. Crocker, say +for me that I absolutely and completely refuse to offer a single +security." A door opened and back of the secretary the faces of two new +visitors were already to be seen. Mr. Swift with scant ceremony seized +his hand and dismissed him. "It can't be done, that's all; it can't be +done." + +Bojo went out and telephoned the result. He even tried, though he knew +the futility of the attempt, to place a loan at two banks where he was +known, one his own and the other the depository for the Crocker Mills. +At the first he got no further than a subordinate, who threw up his +hands at the first mention of his plan. At the latter he gained a +moment's opportunity to state his demand to the vice-president, who had +known him from childhood. The refusal was as instantaneous. The banks +were coming to the aid of no one, frightened for their own security. He +even attempted to call up his father on long distance, but after long, +tedious waits he was unable to locate him. What he would have asked of +him he did not quite know, only that he was seeking frantically some +means, some way, to come to the assistance of the girl he loved, even +though in his heart he knew the futility of her attempt; perhaps even +despite his admiration for her unselfishness, glad that the sacrifice +could not be made. He went up later in the afternoon to explain to her +all he had tried to do, to get her to go for a short ride up the river +in order to snatch a little rest and calm, but Patsie refused +obstinately. She was afraid that at any moment her father might return +and call for her, declaring that she must be ready to go to him. Perhaps +she had fears that she did not express even to him, but she remained as +she had remained all day, waiting feverishly. Drake did not come back +until long after midnight. Then there were conferences to be held in his +library far into the gray morning. Everything seemed topsy-turvy. The +night was like the daytime. At every hour an automobile came rustling +up, a hurried ring of the bell followed by a ghostly flitting passage +into the library of strange, hurrying figures. Drake was no longer the +dejected, resigned man, broken in pride and courage, of the night +before. He put them aside hastily with a swift, convulsive hug for his +daughter and a welcoming handshake for Bojo. He would say nothing and +they could guess nothing of all the desperate remedies that were being +discussed and acted upon in the shifting conference within the library. +It was after four o'clock when Bojo left, after persuading Patsie of the +uselessness of further vigil. He felt too tremulously awake for need of +sleep. He went down the Avenue and in the convalescing gray of the weak +and sickly dawn passed the growing lines of depositors still obstinately +clinging to their posts, feeling as though he were walking a world of +nightmares and alarms. About seven o'clock he came back to the Court for +a tub and a cup of coffee. There he received news of Fred DeLancy, who +had been in frantically the night before begging for loans to back up +his disappearing margins. Neither Marsh nor Granning could come to his +assistance and he had left absolutely unnerved, vowing that he would be +wiped out if he could not raise only ten thousand dollars before the +morrow. Bojo shook his head. He had no desire to help him. The few +thousands he still retained seemed to him something miraculously solid +and precious in the whirling evaporation of fictitious values. There was +nothing he could do before the arrival of Doris and her husband, if +anything could be done then. He went down again to Wall Street merely as +a matter of curiosity and entered the spectators' gallery in the Stock +Exchange. The panic there had become a delirium. He stood leaning over +the railing gazing profoundly down into this frenzy which had once been +his life. Removed from its peril--judging it. What he saw was ugly to +look upon. A few figures stood out grim, game and defiant to the last, +meeting the crisis as sportsmen facing the last chance. But for the +rest, the element of the human seemed to have disappeared in the animal +madness of beasts trapped awaiting destruction. These shifting, +struggling, contending clumps of men, shrieking and hoarse, all strength +cast to the winds, fighting for the last disappearing rung of financial +security, gave him a last final distaste of the life he had renounced. +He went out and passed another howling group of savages on the curb, +feeling all at once the high note of tragedy that lies in the +manifestation of obliterating rage of a great people disposing finally +of all the shallow horde of petty parasites that are eliminated by the +cleansing force of a great panic. + +Doris arrived in the late afternoon and there was a family consultation, +at which he was not present. Whatever might have been done the week +before the issue had been decided. Drake's fate was in the hands of +Gunther, to whose house he had been summoned that night to learn the +terms which would be accorded him by the group of financial leaders who +had been hastily organized to save the country from the convulsion which +now threatened to overwhelm every industry and every institution. + +At midnight Drake returned a ruined man, stripped of every possession, a +bankrupt. Only Patsie and Bojo were there when he came in. A certain +calm seemed to have replaced the unnatural febrile activity of the last +forty-eight hours, the calm of accepted defeat, the end of hopes, the +certainty of failure. + +"It's over," he said with a nod of recognition. "They got me. I'm rather +hungry; let's have something to eat." + +"What do you mean by it's over?" said Patsie, coming towards him. "You +lost?" He nodded. "How much?" + +"Stripped clean." + +"You mean that there's nothing left, not a cent?" + +For the first time the old hunted look came back to his eyes. "It's +worse than that," he said. "It's what's got to be made good. Your Daddy +is a bankrupt, Patsie, one million and a half to the bad." + +"You owe that?" + +"Pretty close to it." + +"But what will you do? They can't put you to prison." + +"Oh, no," he said grimly, "there's nothing to be ashamed of in it; that +is, so far." He stopped a moment and watching him closely they both +divined that he was thinking of his wife. "If worse comes to worse," he +added moodily, "I've got to find some way of paying that over, every +cent of it." + +"But, Mr. Drake," said Bojo hastily, "surely there is no reason why you +should feel that way. Others have met misfortune--been forced into +bankruptcy. Every one will know that it could not be helped, that +conditions were against you, that you were forced into it." + +"And every one," he said quickly, speaking without reserve for the first +time, "will say that Dan Drake knew how to fail at the right time and in +the right way." He gave a wave of his hand as though to indicate the +great house of which he was thinking, and added bitterly: "What will +they think of this, when this goes on? They'll think just one +thing--that I worked a crooked, double-crossing game and salted away my +fortune behind a petticoat! By God, that's what hurts!" He brought down +his fist with an outburst of anger such as they had never seen in him +before and sprang up trembling and heavy. "No, by Heavens, if I fail she +can't go on with her millions." The rage that possessed him made him +seemingly oblivious to their presence. "Oh, what a fool, a blind, +contemptible fool I've been! If she is worth a cent she is worth four +millions to-day, and every cent I made for her, I gave to her. Talk +about business heads, there is not a one of us can touch her. Oh, she's +known all right what she has been doing all these years. She took no +chances. She knew when to work me and how to work me. Clever? Yes, she's +clever and as cold as they make 'em. Under all her pretense of being +weak and sickly, tears and hysterics, you can't beat her." + +"Oh, Daddy, Daddy," said Patsie, laying her hand on his arm to calm him, +"she can't, she won't refuse to come to your help now when it's a +question of honor, our honor and her honor. I know, I promise you, we +will pay over every cent of what you owe." + +"You think so? Try!" + +"Daddy," said Patsie quietly, "I have $500,000 you gave me. Bojo and I +tried our best to sell them and raise money for you. If you had only let +me know sooner perhaps we could have. Every cent of that will go to you. +Doris, too, I know, will give her third. We will only ask my mother for +what we are giving ourselves. That she will not refuse, she cannot, she +won't dare. Daddy, there is one thing you must not worry about. We won't +let any one say a single word against you. Every cent you owe shall be +paid. I'll promise you that." + +At the first mention of what she had done, Drake turned and stared at +her, deaf to what had followed. When she ended tears were in his eyes. +For a moment he could not control his voice. + +"You did that?" he said at last. "You would have done that?" + +"Why, Dad," she said, smiling, "I couldn't do anything else." + +He took her suddenly in his arms and the touch of kindness broke him +down where everything else had failed. Bojo turned hastily away, not to +intrude on the sanctity of the scene. When a long moment afterwards +Patsie called him back from the window where he had been standing Drake +seemed to have grown suddenly old and feeble. + +"I want you to wait here, Bojo dear," she said as determined as her +father seemed without will or energy. "I am going to settle this now. I +am going to see my mother. Don't worry." + +She went out after bending lightly for a last kiss and a touch of her +hand, over the weak shoulders. + +Left alone, there was a long silence. Finally Drake arose and began to +pace the floor, talking to himself, stopping from time to time with +sudden contractions of the arms, clutches of the fists, to take a long +breath and shake his head. When Bojo was least expecting it, he came to +him abruptly and said: + +"Tom, I tell you this, and you may believe I mean it--that it's going to +be. Not one cent will I take from that child. With all that I provided +for the others she's not going to be left a pauper. It's got to be my +wife who stands by me in this." In his excitement he seized the young +man by the wrist so that the fingers cut into his flesh. "It's got to be +her and only her, do you understand, or else--" He stopped with a wild +glance, with a disorder that left Bojo cold with apprehension, and +suddenly as though afraid to say too much Drake dropped the young man's +wrist roughly and went and sat down, covering his face with his hands. + +"I mean it," he said, and several times he repeated the phrase as though +to himself. + +They spoke no more. Bojo on the edge of his chair sat staring at the +older man, turning over what he had heard, not daring to think. At the +end of a long wait a maid knocked and came in. + +"Mr. Crocker, please. Miss Drake would like you to come to her mother's +room." + +Bojo, startled, sprang up hastily, saying: "All right, right away." He +turned, striving to find a word of encouragement, hesitated, and went +out. + +When he came into the little sitting room which gave on to Mrs. Drake's +private apartments he found the two confronting each other, Patsie erect +and scornful, with flashing, angry eyes, and her mother, in a hastily +donned wrapper and bedroom cap, clutching a sort of blue lace quilt, +sunk hysterically in the depths of a great armchair. At the first glance +he guessed the scene of cries and reproaches which had just ended. At +his entrance Mrs. Drake burst out furiously: + +"I won't have it; I won't be insulted like this. Mr. Crocker, I desire +you, I command you, to leave the room. It's enough that my daughter +should take advantage of me. I will not be shamed before strangers." + +"Lock the door," said Patsie quietly, "and keep the key." + +He did so and came back to her side. + +"Don't mind what she says," said Patsie scornfully. "She's not ill, +she's not hysterical, it's all put on: she knows just what she's doing." + +At this Mrs. Drake burst into exaggerated sobs and shrank down into the +chair, covering her face with the quilt she clung to, without +perception of the grotesqueness of her act. + +"Now, you're going to listen to me," said Patsie, striving to remain +calm through her anger. "You don't fool me the least bit, so you might +just as well listen quietly. I know just how much money you have and +every cent of it has been given to you by my father. You are worth over +four million dollars, I know that." + +"It's not true, that's a lie," said Mrs. Drake with a scream. + +"It is true," continued Patsie calmly, "and you know it's true. This +house is yours and everything in it. Do you want me to tell you exactly +what stocks and bonds you have at the present moment? Shall I have my +father come in, too, and tell us in detail just what he has given you +all these years? Do you want that?" She waited a moment and added +scornfully: "No, I rather guess that is not what you want. I asked you +before to help raise a loan to save him from losing what he had. You +could have done it: you refused. Now I am asking you to give exactly +what I shall give and what Doris will give, $500,000, so there will be +nothing, not the slightest reproach against his good name, against the +name you bear and I bear. Will you do it or not?" + +"You don't know what you are talking about," cried the mother wildly. +"It's $500,000 now, it's $500,000 to-morrow and then it's everything. +You want me to ruin myself. You think just because he's gone on risking +everything, just because he never could be satisfied, that I should +suffer, too. You want me to make a pauper of myself. Well, I won't. +What right had he to risk money that didn't belong to him? What right +have you to reproach me, abuse me?" + +Bojo attempted to burst in on the stream of meaninglessness and repeated +phrases. He, too, saw through the assumption of hysteria, shielding +behind a cloak of weakness a cold and covetous woman. + +"My dear Mrs. Drake," he said icily, "you are proud of your position in +society. Let me put this to you. Don't you realize that if your husband +fails for a million and a half and you continue living as you have lived +that it will be a public scandal? Don't you realize what people will +say?" + +"No, I don't," she cried: "I don't admit any such ridiculous nonsense. I +know that I have a right to my life, to my existence. I know what is +mine is mine. If he has lost money, other people have lost money in the +same way who gamble just as he has. They should take their losses, too, +without coming to people who are not responsible, who don't believe in +such things. And then what good will it do? The money's mine. Why throw +good money after bad? I tell you that he has never had a thought about +the duties and responsibilities to his family; I have. I won't +impoverish myself, I won't impoverish my family, I won't, I won't, and I +won't be badgered and brow-beaten in this brutal way. You're a bad +daughter, you've always been a disobedient, wicked daughter. You've +always been this way to me from the first. Now you think you can force +me into this, but you shan't." + +"Mother," started Patsie stonily, but she was interrupted by a fresh +torrent of words. + +"No, no, I can't, I won't, I'm ill, I have been ill for days. Do you +want to kill me? I suppose that's what you want. Go on. Put me down, +make me ill. Oh, my God, my God, I can't stand it, I can't stand it. I +can't. Ring for the doctor, the doctor or some one." + +"Come away," said Bojo, taking Patsie by the arm as Mrs. Drake went into +the paroxysm which she knew was perfectly assumed. "It's useless trying +to say anything more to her. To-morrow perhaps Doris and her husband may +have more effect." + +They went out without even looking back. + +Patsie was in such a rage of indignation, shaking from head to foot, +that he had to take her in his arms and quiet her. + +"What shall we say to Daddy?" she said at last in despair. + +"Lie," he said. "Tell him that it will be done." + +But when they came back into the library Drake was gone. He didn't +return all that night. Afterwards from what they learned he must have +spent the night hours in wandering about the city. + +The next morning Mrs. Drake locked her doors, sent word by a doctor that +she was too ill to see any one, that seeing them might have disastrous +effects. Despite which they forced an entrance and with Doris and her +husband present went over again the same shameful and degrading scene of +the night before. Nothing could shake Mrs. Drake, neither remonstrances +nor scorn nor tears. Drake returned haggard and wild-eyed towards noon +to learn the result, which they were unable to conceal from him. He went +out immediately. At five o'clock he was taken to a hospital, having been +run over by an autobus. Various stories as to how this happened were +circulated. The insurance company which carried his life insurance +attempted to prove suicide in vain. The testimony of witnesses all +seemed to point to an accident. He had started across the street, had +lost his hat and in stooping to pick it up slipped and fallen underneath +the wheels. + +Death resulted a few hours later. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE AFTER-YEARS + + +When Daniel Drake's affairs were wound up it was found that with the +sums derived from his life insurance there remained a deficit of a +little over $400,000. In this crisis the old loyal and generous spirit +of Doris returned for perhaps the last time. She wished to take upon +herself the total indebtedness, but Patsie would not listen to this. She +would have preferred perhaps in her devotion to the name of her father +to have shouldered all the responsibility with a certain fierce pride. +In the end the sum was divided. The younger sister left the house of her +mother and went to stay for a short while at Doris's. + +It was given out officially that Mrs. Drake's health had been wrecked by +the family catastrophes. She left shortly for Paris, Rome and the +Italian Riviera, where her health speedily improved and she passed the +remainder of her life as an exile with a pronounced aversion to anything +American. + +The panic which swept over the country, leveling the poor and rich +alike, gradually subsided into a long period of depression. Fred DeLancy +lost every cent he had and became dependent upon his wife's career. He +dropped completely out of society. A few of his friends saw him at rare +moments, but whenever he could he avoided such encounters, for they +recalled to him the expectations of his earlier days. Fate, which had +played him several rude turns, had however a compensation in store. With +the arrival of the dance craze several years later Mr. and Mrs. Fred +DeLancy, who were of the first to seize its possibilities, became +suddenly the rage of society, and in the letting down of barriers that +followed the frantic rush from boredom among our most conservative sets +the DeLancys regained curiously enough a certain social position. +Adversity had taught him the value of making money. Guided by the hands +of one of those remarkable and adroit personages that instigate and +expand popularity, the press agent, Fernando Wiskin, a genius of +diplomacy, the DeLancy craze overran the country. They had their own +restaurant, with dancing studios attached, and an after midnight dancing +club. They appeared in the movies, made trips to Europe. They set a +dozen fashions, they inspired sculptors, illustrators and caricaturists, +and raised up a host of imitators, some better and some worse. Properly +coached, they received fees for instruction a surgeon might envy, but as +once a gambler always a gambler, what they made miraculously they spent +hugely, and despite all warnings it would surprise no one if with the +turning of the fickle public from one fad to another the DeLancys, after +spending $50,000 a year, would end just as poor as they began. + +Roscoe Marsh, hard hit by the panic, after steady reverses consequent +upon a rather visionary adventure into journalism, found himself +compelled to part with his newspaper to a syndicate organized by his +own city editor, a man who had come up from the ranks, who had long +bided his opportunity, a self-made American of the type that looks +complacently upon the arrival in the arena of the sons of great fortunes +with a belief that an equalizing Providence has sent them into the world +to be properly sheared. Marsh, despite these reverses, still retained a +considerable fortune, constantly augmented by a large family of uncles, +aunts and cousins whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to die at +opportune moments. He became interested in many radical movements, +rather from the need of dramatic excitement than love of publicity or +any deep conviction. At the bottom, however, he believed himself the +most sincere man in the world, and for a long time continued to believe +that he had a mission to perform. + +George Granning became one of the solid men of the steel trade. Of the +four young men who had met that night on the Astor roof and prophesied +their futures he was the only one to fulfil his program to the minutest +detail. He married, rose to the managership of the Garnett foundries, +left them to become general manager of a subsidiary to the steel +corporation at a salary of which he had never dreamed. He became a close +student of industrial conditions and outside of his business career +found time to serve on many boards of arbitration and industrial +investigation. Though his intellectual growth had been slower than his +more gifted companions he had never relinquished a single fact acquired. +At thirty-five he was constantly broadening, constantly curious for new +interests. He went into politics and became more and more a power in +party councils, and though not aspiring to office himself was speedily +appointed to offices of social research and usefulness. + +The panic extended its paralyzing influence over the histories of +industries of the nation. A month after the events recorded in the last +chapter Bojo was still deliberating on his course of action when he +learnt by accident the serious crisis confronting the Crocker Mills. +With the knowledge that his father needed him he hesitated no longer, +and taking the train by impulse one morning arrived as his father was +sitting down to breakfast with the announcement that he had come to +stay. + +Before the year was over he had married Patsie, settled down in the +little mill town to face the arduous struggle for the survival of the +fabric which his father had so painfully erected. For three years he +worked without respite, more arduously than he believed it was possible +for any man to work. Due to this devotion the Crocker Mills weathered +the financial depression and emerged triumphantly with added strength as +a leader and model among factory communities of the world. Despite the +sacrifices and extraordinary demands made upon his knowledge and his +youth, he found these years the best in his life, with a realization +that his leadership had its significance in the welfare and growth of +thousands of employees. When, the battle won, he removed with his family +to New York and larger interests, there were times when he confided to +his wife that life seemed to be robbed of half its incentive. In +connection with Granning, to whom he had grown closer in bonds of +friendship, he devoted his time and money more and more to the problems +of Americanizing the great alien industrial populations of this country +with such enthusiasm that he in more than one quarter was suspected of +believing in the most radical socialistic ideas. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Making Money, by Owen Johnson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAKING MONEY *** + +***** This file should be named 33761-8.txt or 33761-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/7/6/33761/ + +Produced by Annie McGuire + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Making Money + +Author: Owen Johnson + +Illustrator: James Montgomery Flagg + +Release Date: September 19, 2010 [EBook #33761] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAKING MONEY *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 386px;"> +<img src="images/ill_001.jpg" width="386" height="600" alt="Book Cover" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>MAKING MONEY</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 403px;"><a name="ILL_002" id="ILL_002"></a> +<img src="images/ill_002.jpg" width="403" height="600" alt=""'Bojo, you must marry Doris,' she said brokenly"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'Bojo, you must marry Doris,' she said brokenly"</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>MAKING MONEY</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>OWEN JOHNSON</h2> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF "THE SALAMANDER," "STOVER AT YALE,"</p> + +<p class="center">"THE SIXTY-FIRST SECOND," ETC.</p> + +<h3><i>WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY</i></h3> + +<h3><i>JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 79px;"> +<img src="images/ill_003.jpg" width="79" height="100" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h4>NEW YORK</h4> + +<h4>FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY</h4> + +<h4>PUBLISHERS</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1915, by</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Frederick A. Stokes Company</span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='right'>I</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b><span class="smcap">The Arrival</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b><span class="smcap">Four Ambitions, and Three Ways to Make Money</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b><span class="smcap">On the Tail of a Terrier</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b><span class="smcap">Bojo's Father</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b><span class="smcap">Daniel Drake, the Multi-Millionaire</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b><span class="smcap">Bojo Obeys His General Manager</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b><span class="smcap">Under the Ticker's Tyranny</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b><span class="smcap">The Return of Patsie</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b><span class="smcap">The Wedding Ball</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b><span class="smcap">Drake's Game</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XI</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b><span class="smcap">Bojo Butts In</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XII</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b><span class="smcap">Snow Magic</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIII</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b><span class="smcap">Bojo Makes a Decision</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIV</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b><span class="smcap">The Crash</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XV</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b><span class="smcap">Sudden Wealth</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XVI</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b><span class="smcap">Bojo Begins to Spend His Quarter-Million</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XVII</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b><span class="smcap">Paying the Piper—Plus</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XVIII</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b><span class="smcap">Bojo Faces the Truth</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIX</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b><span class="smcap">A Chip of the Old Block</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XX</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b><span class="smcap">Bojo Hunts a Job</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXI</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b><span class="smcap">Bojo in Overalls</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXII</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b><span class="smcap">Doris Meets a Crisis</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXIII</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b><span class="smcap">The Letter to Patsie</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXIV</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b><span class="smcap">Patsie Appeals for Help</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXV</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b><span class="smcap">Drake Admits His Danger</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXVI</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b><span class="smcap">A Fight in Millions</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXVII</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b><span class="smcap">Patsie's Scheme</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXVIII</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b><span class="smcap">One Last Chance</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXIX</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b><span class="smcap">The Deluge</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXX</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b><span class="smcap">The After-Years</span></b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_002"><b>"'Bojo, you must marry Doris,' she said brokenly"</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_004"><b>"'Say, you're a judge of muscle, aren't you?'"</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_005"><b>"'Just you wait; you're going to be one of the big men some day!'"</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_006"><b>"'Drina, dear child,' he said in a whisper"</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_007"><b>"The message was the end of hope"</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_008"><b>"'What does all the rest amount to?' she said breathlessly. 'I want you'"</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_009"><b>"'He wants to see you now,' she said"</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_010"><b>"'Your promise. No one is to know what I do'"</b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE ARRIVAL</h3> + +<p>Toward the close of a pleasant September afternoon, in one of the years +when the big stick of President Roosevelt was cudgeling the shoulders of +malefactors of great wealth, the feverish home-bound masses which poured +into upper Fifth Avenue with the awakening of the electric night were +greeted by the strangest of all spectacles which can astound a +metropolitan crowd harassed by the din of sounds, the fret and fury of +the daily struggle which is the tyranny of New York. A very young man, +of clean-cut limbs and boyish countenance, absolutely unhurried amidst +the press, without a trace of preoccupation, worry, or painful mental +concentration, was swinging easily up the Avenue as though he were +striding among green fields, head up, shoulders squared like a +grenadier, without a care in the world, so visibly delighted at the +novelty of gay crowds, of towering buildings decked in electric +garlands, of theatric shop-windows, that more than one perceiving this +open enthusiasm smiled with a tolerant amusement.</p> + +<p>Now when a young man appears thus on Fifth Avenue, undriven, without +preoccupation, without a contraction of the brows and particularly +without that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> strained metropolitan gaze of trying to decide something +of importance, either he is on his way to the station with a coveted +vacation ahead or he has been in the city less than twenty-four hours. +In the present instance the latter hypothesis was true.</p> + +<p>Tom Beauchamp Crocker, familiarly known as Bojo, had sent his baggage +ahead, eager to enjoy the delights one enjoys at twenty-four, which the +long apprenticeship of school and college is ended and the city is +waiting with all the mystery of that uncharted dominion—The World. He +went his way with long, swinging steps, smiling from the pure delight of +being alive, amazed at everything: at the tangled stream of nations +flowing past him; at the prodigious number of entrancing eyes which +glanced at him from under provoking brims; at the sheer flights of +blazing windows, shutting out the feeble stars; at the vigor and +vitality on the sidewalks; at the flooded lights from sparkling shop +windows; at the rolling procession of incalculable wealth on the Avenue.</p> + +<p>Everywhere was the stir of returning crowds, the end of the summer's hot +isolation, the reopening of gilded theaters, the thronging of hotels, +and the displays of radiant shop fronts, preparing for the winter's +campaign. In the crush of the Avenue was the note of home-coming, in +taxicabs and coupés piled high with luggage and brown-faced children +hanging at the windows, acclaiming familiar landmarks with piping cries. +Tradesmen and all the world of little business, all the world that must +prepare to feed, clothe, and amuse the winter metropolis, were pouring +in.</p> + +<p>And in the midst of this feverish awaking of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> luxury and pleasure one +felt at every turn a new generation of young men storming every avenue +with high imaginations, eager to pierce the multitudes and emerge as +masters. Bojo himself had not woven his way three blocks before he felt +this imperative need of a stimulating dream, a career to emulate—a +master of industry or a master of men—and, sublimely confident, he +imagined that some day, not too distant, he would take his place in the +luxurious flight of automobiles, a personage, a future Morgan or a +future Roosevelt, to be instantly recognized, to hear his name on a +thousand lips, never doubting that life was only a greater game than the +games he had played, ruled by the same spirit of fair play with the +ultimate prize to the best man.</p> + +<p>In the crowd he perceived a familiar figure, a college mate of the class +above him, and he hailed him with enthusiasm as though the most amazing +and delightful thing in the world was to be out of college on Fifth +Avenue and to meet a friend.</p> + +<p>"Foster! Hallo there!"</p> + +<p>At this greeting the young man stopped, shot out his hand, and rattled +off in business manner: "Why, Bojo, how are you? How's it going? Making +lots of money?"</p> + +<p>"I've just arrived," said Crocker, somewhat taken back.</p> + +<p>"That so? You're looking fine. I'm in the devil of a rush—call me up at +the club some time. Good luck."</p> + +<p>He was gone with purposeful steps, lost in the quick, nervous crowd +before Crocker with a thwarted sense of comradeship could recover +himself. A little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> later another acquaintance responded to his greeting, +hesitated, and offered his hand.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Bojo, how are things? You look prosperous; making lots of money, +I suppose. Glad to have seen you—so long."</p> + +<p>For a second time he felt a sense of disappointment. Every one seemed in +a hurry, oppressed by the hundred details to be crowded into the too +short day. He became aware of this haste in the air and in the street. +In this speed-driven world even the great stone flights seemed to have +risen with the hour. Dazzling electric signs flashed in and out, +transferring themselves into bewildering combinations with the necessity +of startling this wonder-surfeited city into an instant's recognition. +Electricity was in the vibrant air, in the scurrying throngs, in the +nervous craving of the crowd for excitement after drudgery, to be out, +to be seen in brilliant restaurants, to go with the rushing throngs, +keyed to a higher tension, avid of lights and thrumming sounds.</p> + +<p>Insensibly he felt the stimulus about him, his own gait adjusted itself +to the rush of those who jostled past him. He began to watch for +openings, to dart ahead, to slip through this group and that, weaving +his way as though there was something precious ahead, an object to be +gained by the first arrival. All at once he perceived how unconsciously +he had surrendered to the subtle spirit of contention about him, and +pulled himself up, laughing. At this moment an arm was slipped through +his and he turned to find a classmate, Bob Crowley, at his side.</p> + +<p>"Whither so fast?</p> + +<p>"Just in. I'm bound for the diggings."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Fred DeLancy's been asking about you for a week. I saw Marsh and old +Granny yesterday. The Big Four still keeping together?</p> + +<p>"Yes, we're going to stick together. How are you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, so-so."</p> + +<p>"Making money?"</p> + +<p>The salutation came like a trick to his lips before he noticed the +adoption. Crowley looked rather pleased.</p> + +<p>"Thanks, I've got a pretty good thing. If you've got any loose change I +can put you on to a cinch. Step into the club a moment. You'll see a lot +of the crowd."</p> + +<p>At the club, an immense hotel filled with businesslike young men rushing +in and rushing out, thronging the grill-room with hats and coats on, an +eye to the clock, Bojo was acclaimed with that rapturous campus +enthusiasm which greets a returned hero. The tribute pleased him, after +the journey through the indifferent multitude. It was something to +return as even a moderate-sized frog to the small puddle. He wandered +from group to group, ensconced at round tables for a snatched moment +before the call of the evening. The vitality of these groups, the +conflict of sounds in the low room, bewildered him. Speculation was in +the air. The bonanza age of American finance was reaching its climax. +Immense corporations were being formed overnight and stocks were +mounting by bounds. All the talk in corners was of this tip and that +while in the jumble staccato sentences struck his ear.</p> + +<p>"A sure thing, Joe— I'll tell you where I got it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<p>"They say Harris cleaned up two thousand last week."</p> + +<p>"The amalgamation's bound to go through."</p> + +<p>"I'm in the bond business now; let me talk to you."</p> + +<p>"Two more years in the law school, worse luck."</p> + +<p>"At the P. and S."</p> + +<p>"They say the Chicago crowd made fifteen millions on the rise—"</p> + +<p>"I ran across Bozer last week."</p> + +<p>"Hello, Bill, you old scout, they tell me you're making money so fast—"</p> + +<p>All the talk was of business and opportunity, among these graduates of a +year or two, eager and restless, all keen, all confident of arriving, +all watching with vulture-like sharpness for an opportunity for a +killing: a stock that was bound to shoot up or to tumble down. Every one +seemed to be making money or certain to do so soon, cocksure of his +opinion, prognosticating the trend of industry with sure mastery. Bojo +was rather dazed by this academic fervor for material success; it gave +him the feeling that the world was after all only a postgraduate course. +He had left a group, with a beginning of critical amusement, when a hand +spun him around and he heard a well-known voice cry:</p> + +<p>"Bojo—you old sinner—you come right home!"</p> + +<p>It was Roscoe Marsh, chum of chums, rather slight, negligently dressed +among these young men of rather precise elegance, but dominating them +all by the shock of an aggressive personality that stood out against +their factoried types. Just as the generality of men incline to the +fashions of conduct, philosophy, and politics of the day, there are +certain individualities constituted by nature to be instinctively of the +opposition.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> Marsh, finding himself in a complacent society, became a +terrific radical, perhaps more from the necessity of dramatic sensations +which was inherent in his brilliant nature than from a profound +conviction. His features were irregular, the nose powerful and aquiline, +the eyebrows arched with a suggestion of eloquence and imagination, the +eyes gray and domineering, the mouth wide and expressive of every +changing thought, while the outstanding ears on the thin, curved head +completed an accent of oddity and obstinacy which he himself had +characterized good-humoredly when he had described himself as looking +like a poetical calf. Roscoe Marsh, the father—editor, politician, and +capitalist, one of the figures of the last generation—had died, leaving +him a fortune.</p> + +<p>"What the deuce are you wasting time in this collection of +fashion-plates and messenger-boys for?" said Marsh when the greetings +were over. "Come out into the air where we can talk sense. When did you +come?"</p> + +<p>"An hour ago."</p> + +<p>"Fred and Granny have been here all summer. You're a pampered darling, +Bojo, to get a summer off. What was it—heart interest?"</p> + +<p>"Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies," said Bojo with a half +laugh and a whirl of his cane. "By George, Roscy, it's good to be here!"</p> + +<p>"We'll get you to work."</p> + +<p>"Who could help it? I say, is every one making money in this place? I've +heard nothing else since I landed."</p> + +<p>"On paper, yes, but you don't make money till you hear it chink, as lots +will find out," said Marsh with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> a laugh. "However, this place's a +regular mining-camp—every one's speculating. I say, what are you going +to do?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm going into Wall Street too, I suppose. I spent a month with Dan +Drake."</p> + +<p>"—And daughter."</p> + +<p>"And daughters," said Bojo, smiling. "I think I'll have a good opening +there—after I learn the ropes, of course."</p> + +<p>"Drake, eh," said Marsh reflectively, naming one of the boldest +manipulators of the day. "Well, you ought to get plenty of excitement +out of that. No use my tempting you with a newspaper job, then. But how +about your Governor?"</p> + +<p>Bojo became quiet, whistling to himself. "I've got a bad half-hour +there," he said solemnly. "I've got to fight it out with the old man as +soon as he arrives. You know what he thinks of Wall Street."</p> + +<p>"I like your Governor."</p> + +<p>"So do I. The trouble is we're too much alike."</p> + +<p>"So you've made up your mind?"</p> + +<p>"I have; no mills and drudgery for me."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you've made up your mind, you've made it up," said Marsh a +little anxiously.</p> + +<p>In college the saying was that Marsh would sputter but Crocker would +stick, and this byword expressed the difference between them. One +attacked and the other entrenched. Crocker had an intense admiration for +Marsh, for whom he believed all things possible. As they walked side by +side, Bojo was the more agreeable to the eye; there was an instinctive +sense of pleasing about him. He liked most men, so genuinely interested +in their problems and point of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> view that few could resist his good +nature. Mentally and in the knowledge of the world he was much the +younger. There was a boyishness and an unsophistication about him that +was in the clear forehead and laughing brown eyes, in the spontaneous +quality of his smile, the spring in his feet, the general enthusiasm for +all that was new or difficult. But underneath this easy manner there was +a dangerous obstinacy ready to flare up at an instant's provocation, +which showed in the lower jaw slightly undershot, which gave the lips a +look of being pugnaciously compressed. He was implacable in a hatred or +a fight, blind to the faults of a friend, and stubborn in his opinions.</p> + +<p>"What sort of quarters have we got?" asked Bojo, who had left the detail +to his three friends.</p> + +<p>"The queerest spot in New York—the cave of Ali Baba. Wait till you see +it—you'd never believe it. Hidden as safe as a needle in a haystack. No +more than a stone's throw from here, and you'd never guess it."</p> + +<p>He stopped, for at this moment they entered Times Square under the +shadow of the incredible tower, dazzled by the sudden ambuscade of +lights which flamed about them. Marsh, who could never brook waiting, +without having altered his pace made a wide detour amid a jam of +automobiles, dodged two surface cars and a file of trucks, and arrived +at the opposite curb considerably after Crocker, who had waited for the +direct route. Neither perceived how characteristic of their divergent +temperaments this incident had been. But Marsh, whose spirit was +irreverence, exclaimed contemptuously:</p> + +<p>"The Great White Way. What a sham!" He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> extended his arm with an +extravagant gesture, as much as to say, "I could change all that," and +continued: "Look at it. There are not ten buildings on it that will last +five years. Take away the electric advertisements and you'll see it as +it is—a main street in a mining town. All the rest is shanty +civilization, that will come tumbling down like a pack of cards. Look at +it; a few hidden theaters with an entrance squeezed between a +cigar-store and a haberdashery, restaurants on one floor, and the rest +advertisements."</p> + +<p>"Still it gives you quite a feeling," said Bojo in dissent, caught in +the surging currents of automobiles and the mingled throngs of late +workers and early pleasure-seekers. "There's an exhilaration about it +all. It does wake you up."</p> + +<p>"Think of a city of five thousand millionaires that can build a hundred +business cathedrals a year, that has an opera house with the front of a +warehouse and calls a row of squatty booths luxury. Well, never mind; +here we are. Rub your eyes."</p> + +<p>They had left the roar and brilliancy of the curiously blended mass +behind, plunging down a squalid side street with tenements in the dark +distances, when Marsh came to a stop before two green pillars, above +which a swaying sign announced—</p> + +<h4>WESTOVER COURT</h4> + +<h4>BACHELOR APARTMENTS</h4> + +<p>Before Bojo could recover from his astonishment, he found himself +conducted through a long, irregular monastic hall flooded with mellow +lights and sudden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> arches, and as bewilderingly introduced, in a sort of +Arabian Nights adventure, into an oasis of quiet and green things. They +were in an inner court shut in from the outer world by the rise of a +towering wall at one end and at the other by the blazing glass back of a +great restaurant. In the heart of the noisiest, vilest, most brutal +struggle of the city lay this little bit of the Old World, decked in +green plots, with vine-covered fountain and a stone Cupid perched on +tip-toe, and above a group of dream trees filling the lucent yellow and +green enclosure with a miraculous foliage. Lights blazed in a score of +windows above them, while at four medieval entrances, of curved doorways +under sloping green aprons, the suffused glow of iron lanterns seemed +like distant signals lost in a fog. Everything about them was so remote +from the stress and fury out of which they had stepped, that Bojo +exclaimed in astonishment:</p> + +<p>"Impossible!"</p> + +<p>"Isn't it bully?" said Marsh enthusiastically. "Ali Baba Court I call +it. That's what a touch of imagination can do in New York. I say, look +over here. What do you think of this for a quiet pipe at night?"</p> + +<p>He drew him under the trees, where a table and comfortable chairs were +waiting. Above the low roofs high against the blue-black sky the giant +city came peeping down upon them from the regimented globes of fire on +the Astor roof. A milky flag drifted lazily across an aigrette of steam. +To the right, the top of the Times Tower, divorced from all the ugliness +at its feet, rose like an historic campanile played about by timid +stars. Over the roof-tops the hum of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> city, never stilled, turned +like a great wheel, incessantly, with faint, detached sounds pleasantly +audible: a bell; a truck moving like a shrieking shell; the impertinent +honk of taxis; urchins on wheels; the shattering rush of distant iron +bodies tearing through the air; an extra cried on a shriller note; the +ever-recurring pipe of a police whistle compelling order in the +confusion; fog horns from the river, and underneath something more +elusive and confused, the churning of great human masses passing and +repassing.</p> + +<p>Marsh gave a peculiar whistle and instantly at a window on the second +floor a shadowy figure appeared, the sash went up with a bang, and a +cheery voice exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Hello, below there! Is that Bojo with you? Come up and show your +handsome map!"</p> + +<p>"Coming, Freddie, coming," said Bojo with a laugh, and, plunging into a +swinging entrance, he found himself in a cozy den, almost thrown off his +feet by the greetings of a little fellow who dived at him with the +frenzy of a faithful dog.</p> + +<p>"Well, old fashion-plate, how are you?" Bojo said at last, flinging him +across the room. "Been into any more trouble?"</p> + +<p>"Nope. That is, not lately," said DeLancy, picking himself up. "Haven't +a chance, living with two policemen. What kept you all this time? Fallen +in love?"</p> + +<p>"None of your damned business. By George, this looks homelike," said +Bojo to turn the conversation. On the walls were a hundred mementoes of +school and college, while a couple of lounges and several great chairs +were indolently grouped about the fireplace,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> where a fire was laid. "I +say, Roscy, has the infant really been behaving?"</p> + +<p>"Well, we haven't bailed, him out yet," said Marsh meditatingly.</p> + +<p>Fred DeLancy had been in trouble all his life and out of it as easily. +Trouble, as he himself expressed it, woke up the moment he went out. He +had been suspended and threatened with expulsion for one scrape after +another more times than he could remember. But there was something that +instantly disarmed anger in the odd star-pointing nose, the twinkly +eyes, and the wide mouth set at a perpetual grin. One way or another he +wriggled through regions where angels fear to tread, assisted by much +painful effort on the part of his friends.</p> + +<p>"I'm getting frightfully serious," he said with mock contrition. "I'm +getting to be an old man; the cares of life and all that sort of stuff."</p> + +<p>He broke off and flung himself at the piano, where he started an +improvisation:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">"The cares of life,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">This dreadful strife,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">I'll take a wife—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">No, change the rhyme</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">I haven't time</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">For matrimony—O!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Leave that to handsome Bojo</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Bojo's in love,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Blush like a dove—</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"No, doves don't blush," he said, swinging around. "Do they or don't +they? Anyhow, a dove in love might— To continue:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">"Bojo's in love,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Blush like a dove,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Won't tell her name,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">I'll guess the same—"</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>But at this moment, just as a pillow came hurtling through the air, the +doorway was ruled with a great body and George Granning came crowding +into the room, hand out, a smile on his honest, open face.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Tom, it's good to see you again."</p> + +<p>"The government can go on," said DeLancy joyfully. "We're here!"</p> + +<p>As the four sat grouped about the room they presented one of those +strange combinations of friendship which could only result from the +process of American education. Four more dissimilar individualities +could not have been molded together except by the curious selective +processes of an academic society system. The Big Four, as they had been +dubbed (there is always a Big Four in every school and college), had +come from Andover linked by the closest ties, and this intimacy had +never relaxed, despite all the incongruous opposition of their +beginnings.</p> + +<p>Marsh was a New Yorker, an aristocrat by inheritance and by force of +fortune; Crocker a Yankee, son of a keen, self-made father, who had +fought his way up to a position of mastery in the woolen mills of New +England; DeLancy from Detroit, of more modest means, son of a small +business man, to whom his education had meant a genuine sacrifice; while +George Granning, older by many years than the rest, was evidence of that +genius for evolution that stirs in the American mass. They knew but +little of his history beyond what he had chosen to confide in his +silent, reserved way.</p> + +<p>He had the torso of a stevedore, the neck and hands of the laborer, +while the boulder-like head, though devoid of the lighter graces of +imagination and wit, had certain immovable qualities of persistence and +determination<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> in the strongly hewn jaw and firm, high-cheekbones. He +was tow-headed and blue-eyed, of unfailing good humor, like most men of +great strength. Only once had he been known to lose his temper, and that +was in a football match in his first year in the varsity. His opponent, +doubtless hoping to intimidate the freshman, struck him a blow across +the face under cover of the first scrimmage. Before the half was over +the battering he had received from the enraged Granning was so terrific +that he had to be transferred to the other side of the line.</p> + +<p>Granning had worked his way through Andover by menial service at the +beginning, gradually advancing by acquiring the agencies for commercial +fields and doing occasional tutoring. His summers had been given over to +work in foundries and in preparation for the business career he had +chosen long ago. He was deeply religious in a quiet, unostentatious way. +That there had been stormy days in the beginning, tragedies perhaps, the +friends divined; besides, there were lines in his face, stern lines of +pain and hardship, that had been softened but could never disappear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>FOUR AMBITIONS, AND THREE WAYS TO MAKE MONEY</h3> + +<p>They dined that night on the top of the Astor roof, where in the midst +of aërial gardens one forgot that another city waited toiling below. +Their table was placed by an embrasure from which they could scan the +dark reaches toward the west where the tenements of the city, broken by +the occasional uprising of a blatant sign, mathematically divided into +squares by rows of sentinel lights, rolled somberly toward the river. To +the south, vaguely defined by the converging watery darkness, the city +ran down to flaming towers in the glistening haze that seemed a luminous +vapor rising from dazzling avenues.</p> + +<p>Wherever the eye could see myriad lights were twinkling: brooding and +fraught with the dark mystery of lonely, distant river banks; red, green +and golden on the rivers, crossing busily on a purposeful way; intruding +and bewildering in the service of industry from steel skeletons against +the sky; magic and dreamlike on the fairy spread of miraculous bridges; +winking and dancing with the spirit of gaiety from the theaters below +and the roof gardens above; that in the summer, suddenly spread a new +and brilliant city of the night above the tired metropolis of the day. +Looking down on these myriad points of light one seemed to have suddenly +come upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> nesting of the stars; where planets and constellations +germinated and took flight toward the swarming firmament.</p> + +<p>The incomparable drama of the spectacle affected the four young men on +the threshold of life in a different way. Bojo, to whom the sensation +was new, felt a sort of prophetic stimulation as though in the +glittering sweep below lay the jewel which he was to carry off. +Granning, who had broken into the monastic routine of his life to make +an exception of this gathering of the clans, looked out in reverence, +stirred to deeper questionings of the spirit. Marsh, more dramatically +attuned, felt a sensation of weakness, as though suddenly confronted +with the gigantic scheme of the multitude; he felt the impotence of +single effort. While DeLancy, who dined thus every night, seeing no +further than the festooned gardens, the brilliant splashes of color, the +faces of women flushed in the yellow glow of candle-lights, hearing only +the pleasant thrumming sounds of a hidden orchestra, rattled on in his +privileged way.</p> + +<p>"Well, now that the Big Four is together again, let's divide up the +city." He sent a sweeping gesture toward the stenciled stretch of blocks +below and continued: "Boscy, what'll you have? Take your choice. I'll +have a couple of hotels, a yacht and a box at the opera. Next bidder, +please!"</p> + +<p>But Bojo without attention to this chatter said:</p> + +<p>"Remember the night before we went to college and we picked out what we +intended to make. Came pretty close to it too, didn't we?"</p> + +<p>Marsh looked up quickly, seized by a sudden dramatic suggestion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, here we are again. I'll tell you what we'll do. Let's tell the +truth—no buncombe—just what each expects to get out of life."</p> + +<p>"But will we tell the truth?" said Bojo doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"I will."</p> + +<p>"Of course we all want to make a million first," said Fred DeLancy, +laughing. "Roscy's got his, so I suppose he wants ten. First place, is it +admitted each of us wants a million? Every properly brought up young +American ought to believe in that, oughtn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Freddie, behave yourself," said Bojo severely. "Be serious."</p> + +<p>"Serious," said DeLancy, with an offended air. "I'll be more serious +than any of you and I'll tell more of the truth and when I do you won't +believe me."</p> + +<p>"Go on, Roscy, start first."</p> + +<p>"Freddie's right in one respect. I intend to treble what I've got in ten +years or go bankrupt," said Marsh instantly. He flung the stub of his +cigar out into the night, watched it a moment in earthbound descent, and +then leaned forward over the table, elbows down, hands clasped, the +lights laying deep shadows about the hollowed eyes, the outstanding ears +accentuating the irregularity and oddity of the head. "I'm not sure but +that would be the best thing for me. If I had to start at the bottom I +believe I'd do something. I mean something big."</p> + +<p>A half-concealed smile passed about the group, accustomed to the +speaker's dramatic instincts.</p> + +<p>"Well, I've got to start at life in a different way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> The trouble is, in +this American scheme I have no natural place unless I make one. Abroad I +could settle down to genteel loafing and find a lot of other congenial +loafers, who would gamble, hunt, fish, race, globe-trot, beat up Africa +in search of big sport, or drift around fashionable capitals for a bit +of amusement; either that or if I wanted to develop along the line of +brains there's a career in politics or a chance at diplomacy. Here we +are developing millionaires as fast as we can turn them out and never +thinking how we can employ them. What's the result? The daughters of +great fortunes marry foreign titles as fast as they get the chance in +order to get the opportunity to enjoy their wealth to the fullest, +because here there is no class so limited and circumscribed without +national significance as our so-called Four Hundred; the sons either +become dissipated loafers, professional amateurs of sport, or are +condemned to piling more dollars on dollars, which is an absurdity."</p> + +<p>"I grieve for the millionaire," interjected DeLancy flippantly.</p> + +<p>"And yet you want to triple what you've got," said Bojo with a smile.</p> + +<p>"I'm coming to that—wait. Now the idea of money grubbing is distasteful +to me. What I want is a great opportunity which only money can give. I +have, I suppose, if a conservative estimate could be made, pretty close +to two million dollars—which means around one hundred thousand a year. +Now if I want to settle down and marry, that's a lot; but if I want to +go in and compete with other men, the leaders, that's nothing at all. +Now the principal interest I've got ahead is the <i>Morning Post</i>; it's +not all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> mine, but the controlling share is. It's a good conservative +nursery rocking-horse. It can go rocking on for another twenty years, +satisfied with its little rut. Now do you understand why I want more +money? I want a million clear to throw into it. I don't want it to be a +profitable high-class publication—I want it to be <i>the</i> paper in New +York."</p> + +<p>"But are you willing to go slow, to learn every rope first?" said +Granning with a shake of his head.</p> + +<p>"You know I am," said Marsh impatiently. "I've plugged at it harder than +any one on the paper this summer and last too."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you work hard—and play hard too," Granning admitted.</p> + +<p>Marsh accepted the admission with a pleased smile and continued +enthusiastically:</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Win or lose, play the limit! That's my motto, and there's +something glorious in it. I'm going to work hard, but I'm going to play +just as hard. I want to live life to its fullest; I want to get every +sensation out of it. And when I'm ready I'm going to make the paper a +force, I'm going to make myself feared. I want to round myself out. I +want to touch everything that I can, but above all I want to be on the +fighting line. After this period of financial buccaneering there's going +to come a great period—a radical period, the period of young men."</p> + +<p>"Roscy, you want to be noticed," said DeLancy.</p> + +<p>"I admit it. If you had what I have, wouldn't you? I repeat, I want the +sensation of living in the big way. Granning shakes his head— I know +what he's thinking."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Roscy, you're a gambler," said Granning, but without saying all he +thought.</p> + +<p>"I am, but I'm going to gamble for power, which is different, and that's +the first step to-day; that's what they all have done."</p> + +<p>"You haven't told us what your ambition is," said Bojo.</p> + +<p>"I want to make of the <i>Morning Post</i> not simply a great paper but a +great institution," said Marsh seriously. "I believe the newspaper can +be made the force that the church once was. Now the church was dominant +only as it entered into every side of the life of the community; when it +was not simply the religious and political force, but greater still, the +social force. I believe the newspaper will become great as it satisfies +every need of the human imagination. There are papers that print a +Sunday sermon. I would have a religious page every day, just as you +print a woman's page and a children's page. I'd run a legal bureau free +or at nominal charges, and conduct aggressive campaigns against petty +abuses. I'd organize the financial department so as to make it personal +to every subscriber, with an investment bureau which would offer only a +carefully selected list for conservative investors and would refuse to +deal in seven per cent. bonds and fifteen per cent. shares. I would have +a great auditorium where concerts and plays would be given at no higher +price than fifty cents."</p> + +<p>"Hold up! How could you get plays on such conditions?" said DeLancy, who +had been held breathless by this Utopian scheme.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Any manager in the city with a sense of publicity would jump at the +chance of giving an afternoon performance, expenses paid, under such +conditions, especially as the list would be guaranteed. Then, above all, +I'd give the public fiction, the best I could get and first hand. What +do you think gives <i>Le Petit Parisien</i> and <i>Le Petit Journal</i> a +circulation of about a million each and all over France? Serial novels. +Do you know the circulation of papers in New York? There are only three +over a hundred thousand and the greatest has hardly a quarter of a +million. However, I won't go on. You see my ideas make an +institution—the modern institution, replacing and absorbing all past +institutions."</p> + +<p>"And what else do you want?" said Bojo, laughing.</p> + +<p>"I want that by the time I'm thirty-five. I want ten millions and I want +to be at forty either senator or ambassador to Paris or London. I want +to build a yacht that will defend the American cup and to own a horse +that will win the derby.</p> + +<p>"And will you marry?"</p> + +<p>"The most beautiful woman in America."</p> + +<p>The four burst into laughter simultaneously, none more heartily than +Marsh, who added:</p> + +<p>"Remember, we're to tell the truth, and that's what I'd like to do." He +concluded: "Win or lose, play the limit. Never mind, Granny; when I'm +broke, you'll give me a job. Up to you. Confess."</p> + +<p>Granning began diffidently, for he was always slow at speech and the +fluency of Marsh's recital intimidated him.</p> + +<p>"I don't know that there's anything so interesting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> in my future," he +began, turning the menu nervously in his hands and fixing a spot on the +tablecloth where a wine stain broke the white monotony. "You see, I'm +different from you fellows. You're facing life in a different sort of +way. I'm not sure but what there's more danger in it than you think, but +the fact is you're all looking for the gamble. You want what you want, +Roscy, by the time you're thirty-five. Bojo and Fred want a million by +the time they're thirty. You're looking for the easy way—the quick way. +You may get it and then you may not. You've got friends, +opportunities—perhaps you will."</p> + +<p>"That's where you'll never learn, you old fossil," said Marsh. "If you'd +get out and meet people, why, some time you'd strike a man with a nice +fat contract in his pocket looking for just the reliable—" he stopped, +not wishing to add, "old plodder that you are."</p> + +<p>Granning shook his head emphatically. Among these boyish types he seemed +of another generation, a rather roughly hewn type of a district leader +of fixed purpose and irresistible momentum.</p> + +<p>"Not for me," he said decisively. "There's one thing I've got strong, +where I have the start over you and a good thing it is, too: I know my +limitations. I'm not starting where you are. My son will; I'm not. Hold +up; it's the truth, and the truth is what we're telling. You can gamble +with life—you've got something to fall back on. I'm the fellow who's +got to build. Yes, I'll be honest. I want to make a million, too, I +suppose, as Fred said, like every American does. After all, if you're +out to make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> money, it's a good thing to try for something high. There +isn't much chance for romance in what I'm doing. I've got to go up step +by step, but it means more to me to get a fifty-dollar raise than that +next million can mean to you, Roscy. That's because I look back, because +I remember."</p> + +<p>He stopped and the memories of the existence out of which he had dragged +himself, of which he never spoke, threw thoughtful shadows over the +broad forehead. All at once, taking a knife, he drew a long straight +line on the table, inclining upward like the slope of a hill, with a +cross at the bottom and one at the top, while the others looked on, +puzzled.</p> + +<p>"You see there's not much banging of drums or dancing in what I've got +ahead and not much to tell until I get there. You know how a mole +travels; well, that's me." He laid his finger on the cross at the bottom +and then shifted it to the cross at the top. "Here's where I go in and +here's where I come out. In between doesn't count."</p> + +<p>"And what besides that?" said Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Granning simply, "I don't know what else. I'd like to get +off for a couple of months and see Europe and what they're doing over in +France and Germany in the steel line."</p> + +<p>"But all that'll happen. What would you really like to get out of life?" +said Marsh, smiling—"you old unimaginative bear!"</p> + +<p>"I'd like to go into politics in the right sort of way; I think every +man ought. Perhaps I'll marry, have a home and all that sort of thing +some day. I think what I'd like best would be to get a chance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> to run a +factory along certain lines I've thought out—a cooperative arrangement +in a way. There's so much to be worked out along the lines of +organization and efficiency." He thought over the situation a moment and +then concluded with sudden diffidence as though surprised at the daring +of his self-confession. "That's about all there is to it, I guess."</p> + +<p>When he had ended thus clumsily, DeLancy took up immediately, but +without that spirit of good-humored raillery which was characteristic. +When he spoke in matter-of-fact, direct phrases, the three friends +looked at him in astonishment, realizing all at once an undivined intent +underneath all the lightness of that attitude by which they had judged +him.</p> + +<p>"One thing Granning said strikes at me—knowing your limitations," he +said with a certain defiance, as though aware that he was going to shock +them. "I suppose you fellows think of me as a merry little jester, an +amusing loafer, happy-go-lucky and all that sort of stuff. Well, you're +mistaken. I know my limitations, I know what I can do and what I can't. +I'm just as anxious to get ahead as any of you, and you can bet I don't +fool myself. I don't sit down and say, 'Freddie, you've got railroads in +your head—you're an organizer—you'd shine at the bar—you'd push John +Rockefeller off the map,' or any of that rot. No, sir! I know where I +stand. On a straight out-and-out proposition I wouldn't be worth twenty +dollars a week to any one. But just the same I'm going to have my +million and my automobile in five years. Dine with me five years from +this date and you'll see."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, Fred, what's the secret? How are you going to do it?" said Bojo, +a little suspicious of his seriousness.</p> + +<p>But DeLancy as though still aware of the necessity of further +explanations before his pronouncement continued:</p> + +<p>"I said I didn't fool myself and I don't. I haven't got ability like +Granning over here, who's entirely too modest and who'll end by being an +old money-bags—see if he doesn't. I haven't got a bunch of greenbacks +left me or behind me like Roscy or Bojo. My old dad's a brick; he's +scraped and pinched to put me through college on the basis of you +fellows. Now it's up to me. I haven't got what you fellows have got, but +I've got some very valuable qualities, very valuable when you keep in +mind what you can do with them. I have a very fine pair of dancing legs, +I play a good game of bridge and a better at poker, I can ride other +men's horses and drive their automobiles in first-rate style, I wear +better clothes than my host with all his wad, and you bet that impresses +him. I know how to gather in friends as fast as you can drum up +circulation, I can liven up any party and save any dinner from going on +the rocks, I can amuse a bunch of old bores until they get to liking +themselves; in a word, I know how to make myself indispensable in +society and the society that counts."</p> + +<p>"What the deuce is he driving at?" Marsh broke in with a puzzled +expression.</p> + +<p>"Why am I sitting down in a broker's office drawing fifty dollars a +week, just to smoke long black<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> cigars? Because I know a rap what's +going on? No. Because I know people, because I'm a cute little social +runner who brings custom into the office; because my capital is friends +and I capitalize my friends."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come now, Fred, that's rather hard," said Bojo, feeling the note of +bitterness in this cynical self-estimate.</p> + +<p>"It's the truth. What do you think that old fraud of a Runker, my boss, +said to me last week when I dropped in an hour late? 'Young man, what do +you come to the office for—for afternoon tea?' And what did I answer? I +said 'Boss, you know what you've got me here for, and do you want me to +tell you what you ought to say? You ought to say, "Mr. DeLancy, you've +been working very hard in our interest these nights and though we can't +give you an expense account, you must be more careful of your health. I +don't want to see you burning the candle at both ends. Sleep late of +mornings."' And what did he say, the old humbug? He burst out laughing +and raised my salary. He knew I was wise."</p> + +<p>"Well, what's the point of all this?" said Granning after the laugh. +"Never heard you take so long coming to the point before."</p> + +<p>"The point is this: there're three ways of making money and only three: +to have it left you like Roscy, to earn it like Granning, and to marry +it—"</p> + +<p>"Like you!"</p> + +<p>"Like me!"</p> + +<p>The others looked at him with constraint, for at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> that period there was +still a prejudice against an American man who made a marriage of +calculation. Finally Granning said:</p> + +<p>"You won't do that, Freddie!"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I will," said DeLancy, but with a nervous acceleration. "My +career is society. Oh, I don't say I'm going to marry for money and +nothing else. It's much easier than that. Besides, there's the patriotic +motive, you know. I'm saving an American fortune for American uses, +American heiresses for American men. Sounds like American styles for +American women," he added, trying to take the edge off the declaration +with a laugh. "After all, there's a lot of buncombe about it. A +broken-down foreigner comes over here with a reputation like a Sing-Sing +favorite, and because he calls himself Duke he's going to marry the +daughter of Dan Drake to pay up his debts and the Lord knows for what +purposes in the future—and do you fellows turn your back on him and +raise your eyebrows as you did a moment ago? Not at all. You're tickled +to death to go up and cling to his ducal finger. Am I right, Roscy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but—"</p> + +<p>"But I'm an American and will make a damned sight better husband, and +American children will inherit the money instead of its being swallowed +up by a rotten aristocracy. There's the answer."</p> + +<p>"It's the way you say it, Fred," said Bojo uneasily.</p> + +<p>"Because I have the nerve to say it. This is all I'm worth and this is +the only way to get what we all want."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You'll never do it," said Granning with decision; "not in the way you +say it."</p> + +<p>"Granning, you're a babe in the woods. You don't know what life is," +said DeLancy, laughing boisterously. "After all, what are you going to +do? You're going to put away the finest days of your life to come out +with a pile when you're middle-aged and then what good will it do you? I +knew I'd shock you. Still there it is—that's flat!" He drew back, +lighting a cigar to cover his retreat and said: "Bojo next. I dare you +to be as frank."</p> + +<p>Bojo, thus interrogated, took refuge in an evasive answer. The +revelations he had listened to gave him a keen sense of change. On this +very evening when they had come together for the purpose of celebrating +old friendship, it seemed to him that the parting of their ways lay +clearly before him.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what I shall do," he said at last. "No, I'm not dodging; I +don't know. Much depends on certain circumstances." He could not say how +vividly their different announced paths represented to him the +difficulties of his choice. "I'd like to do something more than just +make money, and yet that seems the most natural thing, I suppose. Well, +I'd like a chance to have a year or two to think things over, see all +kinds of men and activities—but I don't know, by next week I may be at +the bottom—striking out for myself and glad of a chance."</p> + +<p>He stopped and they did not urge him to continue. After DeLancy's flat +exposition each had a feeling of the danger of disillusionment. Besides, +Fred and Roscoe were impatient to be off, Fred to a roof garden, Marsh +to the newspaper. Bojo declined DeLancy's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> invitation, alleged the +necessity of unpacking, in reality rather desirous of being alone or of +a quieter talk with Granning in the new home.</p> + +<p>"Here's to us, then," said Marsh, raising his glass. "Whatever happens +the old combination sticks together."</p> + +<p>Bojo raised his glass thoughtfully, feeling underneath that there was +something irrevocably changed. The city was outside sparkling and black, +but there was a new feeling in the night below, and the more he felt the +multiplicity of its multifold expressions the more it came to him that +what he would do he would do alone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>ON THE TAIL OF A TERRIER</h3> + +<p>When he returned with Granning into the court and upstairs to their +quarters a telegram greeted him from the floor as he opened the door. It +was from his father, brief and businesslike.</p> + +<p class="center">Arrive to-morrow. Wish to see you at three at office. +Important.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">J. B. Crocker</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>He stood by the fireplace tearing it slowly to pieces, feeling the +approach of reality in his existence, a little frightened at its +imminence.</p> + +<p>"Not bad news," said Granning, settling his great bulk on the couch and +reaching for a pipe from the rack. But at this instant a smiling +Japanese valet ushered in the trunks.</p> + +<p>"This is Sweeney," said Granning with an introductory wave. "He's one of +four. We gave up trying to remember their names, so Fred rechristened +them. The others are Patsy, O'Rourke, and Houlahan. Sweeney speaks +perfect English, if you ask him for a telephone book he'll rush out and +bring you a taxicab. Understand, eh, Sweeney?"</p> + +<p>"Velly well, yes, sir," said Sweeney, smiling a pleased smile.</p> + +<p>"How the deuce do you work it then?" said Bojo, prying open his trunk.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, it's quite simple. Fred discovered the combination. All you have to +remember is that no matter what you ask for Sweeney always gets a taxi, +Patsy brings in the breakfast, Houlahan starts for the tailor, and +O'Rourke produces the scrubwoman. Just remember that and you'll have no +trouble. But for the Lord's sake don't get em mixed up." He broke off. +"What's the matter? You look serious."</p> + +<p>"I'm wondering how I'll feel this time to-morrow," said Bojo with his +arms full of shirts and neckties. "I've got a pleasant little interview +with the Governor ahead." He filled a drawer of the bureau and returned +into the sitting-room, and as Granning, with his usual discretion, +ventured no question he added, looking out at the court where three +blazing windows of the restaurant were flinging pools of light across +the dark green plots: "He'll want me to chuck all this,—shoot up to a +hole in the mud; bury myself in a mill town for four or five years. +Pleasant prospect."</p> + +<p>It did seem a bleak prospect, indeed, standing there in the commodious +bay window, seeing the flooded sky, hearing all the distant mingled +songs of the city. From the near-by wall the orchestra of the theater +sent the gay beats of a musical comedy march feebly out through open +windows, while from the adjoining wall of the Times Annex, beyond the +brilliant busy windows, the linotype machines were clicking out the news +of the world that came throbbing in. The theater, the press, that world +of imagination and hourly sensation, the half-opened restaurant with +glimpses of gay tables and the beginnings of the nightly cabaret, the +blazing court itself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> filled with ardent young men at the happy period +of the first great ventures, all were brought so close to his own eager +curiosity that he turned back rebelliously:</p> + +<p>"By heavens, I won't do it, whatever happens! I won't be starved out for +the sake of more dollars. Well, would you in my place—now?"</p> + +<p>He took a pair of shoes and flung them scudding across the floor into +the room and then stood looking down at the noncommittal figure of his +friend.</p> + +<p>"Granning, you don't approve of us, do you? Stop looking like a sphinx. +Answer or I'll dump the tray over you. You don't approve, do you? +Besides, I watched your face to-night when Fred was spouting all that +ridiculous stuff."</p> + +<p>"He meant it."</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?" He sat down thoughtfully. "I wonder."</p> + +<p>"What worried you?" said Granning directly, with a sharp look.</p> + +<p>"I was sort of upset," Bojo admitted. "You know when you got through and +Fred got through, I thought after all you were right—we are gamblers. +We want things quick and easily. It's the excitement, the living on a +high tension."</p> + +<p>"I always sort of figured out you'd want to do something different," +said Granning slowly.</p> + +<p>"So I would," he said moodily. "I wish I had Roscy's brains. I wonder +what I could do if I had to shift for myself."</p> + +<p>"So that's the idea, is it?"</p> + +<p>He nodded.</p> + +<p>"The old Dad's stubborn as blazes. Had an up-and-down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> row with Jack, my +older brother, and turned him out. Lord knows what's become of him. +Dad's got as much love for the Wall Street game as your pesky old self. +Thinks they're a lot of loafers and confidence men."</p> + +<p>"I didn't say it," said Granning with a short laugh.</p> + +<p>"No, but you think it."</p> + +<p>Granning rose as the clock struck ten and shouldered off to his bedroom +according to his invariable custom. When Bojo finally turned in it was +to sleep by fits and starts. The weight of the decision which he would +have to make on the morrow oppressed him. It was all very well to +announce that he would start at the bottom rather than yield, but the +world had opened up to him in a different light since the dinner of +confidences. He saw the two ways clearly—the long, slow plodding way of +Granning, and the other way, the world of opportunities through friends, +the world of quick results to those privileged to be behind the scenes. +If the end were the same, why take the way of toil and deprivation? +Besides, there were other reasons, sentimental reasons, that urged him +to the easier choice. If he could only make his father see things +rationally—but he had slight hope of making an impression upon that +direct and adamant will.</p> + +<p>"Well, if everything goes smash, I'll make Roscy give me a job on the +paper," he thought as he turned restlessly in his bed.</p> + +<p>The white gleam of a shifting electric sign, high above the roofs, +played over the opposite wall. At midnight he heard dimly two sounds +which were destined from now on to dispute the turning of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> night +with their contending notes of work and pleasure—the sound of great +presses beginning to rumble under the morning edition and from the +restaurant an inconscient chorus welcoming the midnight with jingling +rhythm.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">You want to cry,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">You want to die,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">But all you do is laugh, Hi! Hi!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">You've got the High Jinks! That's why!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>When he awoke the next morning it was to the sound of Roscoe Marsh in +the adjoining sitting-room telephoning for breakfast. The sun was +pouring over his coverlet and the clock stood reproachfully at nine o +clock. He slipped into a dressing-gown and found Marsh yawning over the +papers. Granning had departed at seven o'clock to the works on the +Jersey shore. DeLancy presently staggered out, tousled and sleepy, +resplendent in a blazing red satin dressing-gown, announcing:</p> + +<p>"Lord, but this brokerage business is exacting work."</p> + +<p>"Late party, eh?" said Bojo, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Where the devil is the coffee?" said DeLancy for all answer.</p> + +<p>Marsh, too, had been of the party after the night work had been +completed, though he showed scarcely a trace of the double strain. +Breakfast over, Bojo finished unpacking, killing time until noon +arrived, when, after a solicitous selection of shirts and neckties, he +went off by appointment to meet Miss Doris Drake.</p> + +<p>To-day the thoughts of that other interview with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> his father were too +present in his imagination to permit of the usual zest such a meeting +usually drew forth. The attachment, for despite the insinuations of +DeLancy and Marsh it was hardly more than that, had been of long +standing. There had been a period toward the end of boarding-school when +he had been tremendously in love and had corresponded with extraordinary +faithfulness and treasured numerous tokens of feminine reciprocation +with a sentimental devotion. The infatuation had cooled, but the +devotion had remained as a necessary romantic outlet. She had been his +guest as a matter of course at all the numerous gala occasions of +college life, at the football match, the New London race, and the Prom. +He was tremendously proud to have her on his arm, so proud that at times +he temporarily felt a return of that bitter-sweet frenzy when at school +he turned hot and cold with the expectancy of her letters. At the bottom +he was perhaps playing at love, a little afraid of her with that spirit +of cautious deliberation which, had he but known it, abides not with +romance.</p> + +<p>During the month on the ranch he had spent in their house-party, he had +a hundred times tried to convince himself that the old ardor was there, +and when somehow in his own honesty he failed, he would often wonder +what was the subtle reason that prevented it. She was everything that +the eye could imagine, brilliant, perhaps a little too much so for a +young lady of twenty, and sought after by a score of men to whom she +remained completely indifferent. He was flattered and yet he remained +uneasy, forced to admit to himself that there was something lacking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> in +her to stir his pulses as they had once been stirred. When DeLancy had +so frankly announced his intention of making a favorable marriage, +something had uneasily stirred his conscience. Was there after all some +such unconscious instinct in him at the bottom of this continued +intimacy?</p> + +<p>When he reached the metropolitan castle of the Drakes on upper Fifth +Avenue, he found the salons still covered up in summer trappings, long +yellow linens over the furniture, the paintings on the walls still +wrapped in cheesecloth. As he was twirling his cane aimlessly before the +fireplace, wondering how long it would please Miss Doris to keep him +waiting, there came a breathless scamper and rush, accompanied by +delighted giggles, and the next moment an Irish terrier, growling and +snarling in mock fury, slid over the polished floor, pursued by a young +girl who had a firm grip on the stubby tail. The chase ended in the +center of the room with a sudden tumble. The dog, liberated, stood +quivering with delight at a safe distance, head on one side, tongue out, +ready for the next move of his tormenter who was camped in the middle of +the floor. But at this moment she perceived Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Oh, hello," she said with a start of surprise but no confusion. "Who +are you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm Crocker, Tom Crocker," he said, laughing back at the flushed oval +face, with mischievous eyes dancing somewhere in the golden hair that +tumbled in shocks to her shoulder.</p> + +<p>She sprang up brightly, advancing with outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're Bojo," she said in correction. "You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> don't know me. I'm +Patsie, the terror of the family. Now don't say you thought I was a +child, I'm seventeen—going on eighteen in January."</p> + +<p>He shook the hand that was thrust out to him in a direct boyish grip, +surprised and a little bewildered at the irresistible youth and spirits +of the young lady who stood so naturally before him in short skirt and +in simple shirtwaist open at the tanned neck.</p> + +<p>"Of course they've told you I'm a terror," she said defiantly. He +nodded, which seemed to please her, for she rattled on: "Well, I am. +They had to keep me away until Dolly hooked the Duke. Have you seen him? +Well, if that's a duke all I've got to say is I think he's a mutt. Of +course you're waiting for Doris, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>The assumption of his vassalage somehow stirred a little antagonism, but +before he could answer she was off again.</p> + +<p>"Well, a jolly long wait you'll have, too. Doris is splashing around +among the rouge and powder like Romp in a puddle."</p> + +<p>Her own cheeks needed no such encouragement, he thought, laughing back +at her through the pure infection of her high spirits.</p> + +<p>"I like you; you're all right," she said, surveying him with her head on +one side like Romp, the terrier, who came sniffing up to him in the +friendliest way. "You're not like a lot of these fashion plates that +come in on tiptoes. Say, that was a bully tackle you made in that +Harvard game."</p> + +<p>He was down on one knee rubbing the shaggy coat of the terrier. He +looked up.</p> + +<p>"Oh you saw that, did you?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yep! I guess there wasn't much left of that fellow! Dad said that was +the finest tackle he ever saw."</p> + +<p>"It shook me up all right," he said, grinning.</p> + +<p>"Well, if Dad likes you and Romp likes you, you must be some account," +she continued, camping on the rug and seizing triumphantly the stubby +tail. "Dad's strong for you!"</p> + +<p>Bojo settled on the edge of the sofa, watching the furious encounter +which took place for the possession of the strategic point.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you're going to marry Doris," she said in a moment of calm, +while Romp made good his escape.</p> + +<p>Bojo felt himself flushing under the direct child-like gaze.</p> + +<p>"I should be very flattered if Doris—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't talk that way," she said with a fling of her shoulders. +"That's like all the others. Tell me, are all New York men such hopeless +ninnies? Lord, I'm going to have a dreary time of it." She looked at him +critically. "One thing I like about you; you don't wear spats."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you're home for the wedding," he asked curiously, "or are you +through with the boarding-school?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you hear about this?" she said with a touch to her shortened +hair. "They wanted me to come out and I said I wouldn't come out. And +when they said I should come out, I said to myself, I'll just fix them +so I can't come out, and I hacked off all my hair. That's why they sent +me off to Coventry for the summer. I'd have hacked it off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> again, but +Dad cut up so I let it grow, and now the plaguey old fashion has gotten +around to bobbed hair. What do you think of that?"</p> + +<p>"So you don't want to come out?" he answered.</p> + +<p>"What for? To be nice to a lot of old frumps you don't like, to dress up +and drink tea and lean up against a wall and have a crowd of mechanical +toys tell you that your eyes are like evening stars and all that rot. I +should say <i>not</i>."</p> + +<p>"Well, what would you like to do?"</p> + +<p>"I'd like to go riding and hunting with Dad, live in a great country +house, with lots of snow in winter and tobogganing—" She broke off with +a sudden suspicion. "Say, am I boring you?"</p> + +<p>"You are not," he said with emphasis.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 323px;"><a name="ILL_004" id="ILL_004"></a> +<img src="images/ill_004.jpg" width="323" height="500" alt=""'Say, you're a judge of muscle, aren't you?'"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'Say, you're a judge of muscle, aren't you?'"</span> +</div> + +<p>"You don't like that society flub-dub either, do you?" she continued +confidentially. "Lord, these dolled up women make me tired. I'd like to +jounce them ten miles over the hills. Say, you're a judge of muscle, +aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"In a way."</p> + +<p>"What do you think of that?" She held out a cool firm forearm for his +inspection and he was in this intimate position when Doris came down the +great stairway, with her willowy, trailing elegance. She gave a quick +glance of her dark eyes at the unconventional group, with Romp in the +middle an interested spectator, and said:</p> + +<p>"Have I been keeping you hours? I hope this child's been amusing you."</p> + +<p>The child, being at this moment perfectly screened, retorted by a +roguish wink which almost upset Bojo's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> equanimity. The two sisters +were an absolute contrast. In her two seasons Doris had been converted +into a complete woman of the world; she had the grace that was the grace +of art, yet undeniably effective; stunning was the term applied to her. +Her features were delicate, thinly turned, and a quality of precious +fragility was about her whole person, even to the conscious moods of her +smile, her enthusiasm, her serious poising for an instant of the eyes, +which were deep and black and lustrous as the artfully pleasing masses +of her hair. But the charm that was gone was the charm that looked up at +him from the unconscious twilight eyes of the younger sister!</p> + +<p>"Patsie, you terrible tomboy—will you ever grow up!" she said +reprovingly. "Look at your dress and your hair. I never saw such a +little rowdy. Now run along like a dear. Mother's waiting."</p> + +<p>But Patsie maliciously declined to hurry. She insisted that she had +promised to show off Romp and, abetted by Bojo in this deception, she +kept her sister waiting while she put the dog through his tricks and—to +cap the climax went off with a bombshell.</p> + +<p>"My, you two don't look a bit glad to see each other—you look as +conventional as Dolly and the Duke."</p> + +<p>"Heavens," said Doris with a sigh, "I shall have my hands full this +winter. What they'll think of her in society the Lord knows."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't worry about her," said Bojo pensively. "I don't think she's +going to have as much trouble as you fear."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, you think so?" said Doris, glancing up. Then she laid her hand over +his with a little pressure. "I'm awfully glad to see you, Bojo."</p> + +<p>"I'm awfully glad to see you," he returned with accented enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"Just as glad as ever?"</p> + +<p>"Of course."</p> + +<p>"We shall have to use the Mercedes; Dolly's off with the Reynier. You +don't mind?" she said, flitting past the military footman. "Where are we +lunching?"</p> + +<p>He named a fashionable restaurant.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, no; you never see any one you know there. Let's go to the +Ritz." And without waiting for his answer she added: "Duncan, the Ritz."</p> + +<p>At the restaurant all the personelle seemed to know her. The head waiter +himself showed her to a favorite corner, and advised with her +solicitously as to the selection of the menu, while Bojo, who had still +to eat ten thousand such luncheons, furtively compared his elegant +companion with the brilliant women who were grouped about him like rare +hot-house plants in a perfumed conservatory. The little shell hat she +wore suited her admirably, concealing her forehead and half of her eyes +with the same provoking mystery that the eastern veil lends to the women +of the Orient. Everything about her dress was soft and beguilingly +luxurious. All at once she turned from a fluttered welcome to a distant +group and, assuming a serious air, said:</p> + +<p>"Have you seen Dad yet? Oh, of course not—you haven't had time. You +must right away. He's taken a real fancy to you, and he's promised me +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> see that you make a lot of money—" she looked up in his eyes and +then down at the table with a shy smile, adding emphatically—"soon!"</p> + +<p>"So you've made up your mind to that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed. I'm going to make you!"</p> + +<p>She nodded, laughing and favoring him with a long contemplation.</p> + +<p>"You dress awfully well," she said approvingly. "Clothes seem to hang on +you just right—"</p> + +<p>"But—" he said, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Well, there are one or two things I'd like you to do," she admitted, a +little confused. "I wish you'd wear a mustache, just a little one like +the Duke. You'd look stunning."</p> + +<p>He laughed in a way that disconcerted her, and an impulse came into his +mind to try her, for he began to resent the assumption of possession +which she had assumed.</p> + +<p>"How do you think that would go in a mill town with overalls and a lunch +can?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?</p> + +<p>"In a week I expect to be shipped to New England, to a little town, with +ten thousand inhabitants; nice, cheery place with two moving-picture +houses and rows on rows of factory homes for society."</p> + +<p>"For how long?"</p> + +<p>"For four or five years."</p> + +<p>"Bojo, how horrible! You're not serious!"</p> + +<p>"I may be. How would you like to keep house up there?" He caught at the +disconsolate look in her face and added: "Don't worry, I know better +than to ask that of you. Now listen, Doris, we've been good chums too +long to fool ourselves. You've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> changed and you're going to change a lot +more. Do you really like this sort of life?"</p> + +<p>"I adore it!"</p> + +<p>"Dressing up, parading yourself, tearing around from one function to +another." She nodded, her face suddenly clouded over. "Then why in the +world do you want me? There are fifty—a hundred men you'll find will +play this game better than I can."</p> + +<p>He had dropped his tone of sarcasm and was looking at her earnestly, but +the questions he put were put to his own conscience.</p> + +<p>"Why do you act this way just when you've come back?" she said, +frightened at his sudden ascendency.</p> + +<p>"Because I sometimes think that we both know that nothing is going to +happen," he said directly; "only it's hard to face the truth. Isn't that +it?"</p> + +<p>"No, that isn't it. I love to be admired, I love pretty things and +society and all that. Why shouldn't I? But I do care for you, Bojo; +you've always brought out—" she was going to say, "the best in me," but +changed her mind and instead added: "I am very proud of you— I always +would be. Don't look at me like that. What have I done?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing," he said, drawing a breath. "You can't help being what you +are. Really, Doris, in the whole room you're the loveliest here. No one +has your style or a smile as bewitching as yours. There is a fascination +about you."</p> + +<p>She was only half reassured.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, don't talk so idiotically."</p> + +<p>"Idiotic is exactly the word," he said with a laugh,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> and the +compliments he had paid her in a spirit of self-raillery awakened a +little feeling of tenderness after his teasing had shown him that, +according to her lights, she cared more than he had thought.</p> + +<p>All the same when he rose to hurry downtown, he was under no illusions: +if opportunity permitted him to fit into the social scheme of things, +well and good; if not— His thoughts recurred to Fred DeLancy's words:</p> + +<p>"There are three ways of making money: to have it left to you, to earn +it, and to marry it."</p> + +<p>He broke off angrily, troubled with doubts, and for the hundredth time +he found himself asking:</p> + +<p>"Now why the deuce can't I be mad in love with a girl who cares for me, +who's a beauty and has everything in the world! What is it?"</p> + +<p>For he had once been very much in love when he was a schoolboy and Doris +had been just a schoolgirl, with open eyes and impulsive direct ways, +like a certain young lady, with breathless, laughing lips who had come +sliding into his life on the comical tail of a scampering terrier.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>BOJO'S FATHER</h3> + +<p>The offices of the Associated Woolen Mills were on the sixteenth floor +of a modern office building in the lower city, which towered above the +surrounding squalid brownstone houses given over to pedlers and +delicatessen shops like a gleaming stork ankle deep in a pool of murky +water.</p> + +<p>Bojo wandered through long mathematical rooms with mathematical young +men perched high on desk stools all with the same mathematical curve of +the back, past squadrons of clicking typewriters, clicking endlessly as +though each human unit had been surrendered into the cogs of a universal +machine. He passed one by one a row of glassed-in rooms with names of +minor officers displayed, marking them solemnly as though already he saw +the long slow future ahead: Mr. Pelton, treasurer; Mr. Spinny, general +secretary; Mr. Colton, second vice-president; Mr. Horton, +vice-president; Mr. Rhoemer, general manager, until he arrived at the +outer waiting-room with its faded red leather sofas and polished brass +spittoons, where he had come first as a boy in need of money.</p> + +<p>Richardson, an old young man, who walked as though he had never been in +a hurry and spoke in a whisper, showed him into the inner office of +Jotham B. Crocker, explaining that his father would return presently. +Everything was in order; chairs precisely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> placed, the window shades at +the same level, bookcases with filed memoranda, even to the desk, where +letters to be read and letters to be signed were arranged in neat +packages side by side.</p> + +<p>On the wall was extended an immense oil painting fifteen feet by ten, of +Niagara Falls in frothy eruption, with a large and brilliant rainbow +lost in the mist and several figures in the foreground representing the +noble Indians gazing with feelings of awe upon the spectacle of nature. +Behind the desk hung a large black and white engraving of Abraham +Lincoln, with one hand resting on the Proclamation of Emancipation, +flanked by smaller portraits of Henry Ward Beecher and the author of the +McKinley tariff. Opposite was an old-time family group done in crayons, +representing Mr. and Mrs. Crocker standing side by side, with Jack in +long trousers and Tom in short, while on the shining desk amid the +papers was a daguerrotype mounted in a worn leather frame, of the wife +who had been dead fifteen years.</p> + +<p>Bojo selected a cigar from the visitors box and strode up and down, +rehearsing in his mind the arguments he would bring to bear against the +expected ultimatum. From the window the lower bay expanded below him +with its steam insects crawling across the blue-gray surface, its +wharf-crowded shores, beyond the ledges on ledges of factories trailing +cotton streamers against the brittle sky. Everywhere the empire of +industry extended its stone barracks without loveliness or pomp, +smoke-grimed, implacable prisons, where multitudes herded under +artificial light that humanity might live in terms of millions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<p>As he looked, he seemed already to have surrendered his individuality, +swallowed up in the army of labor, and the revolt arose in him anew. +What was the use of money if it could not bring a wider horizon and +greater opportunities? And a sort of dull anger moved in him against the +parental ambition which limited him to unnecessary drudgery.</p> + +<p>Of all the persons he had met the greatest stranger to him was his +father. Since his mother's death, when he was but eight years of age, +his life had been spent in boarding school and college, in summer camps +or on visits to chums. Their relations had been formal. At the beginning +and end of each summer he had come down the long avenue of desks, past +the glass doors into the private office, to report, to receive money, +and to be sped with a few appropriate words of advice. Several times +during the year his father would appear on a short warning, stay a few +hours, and hurry off. On such occasions Tom had always felt that he was +being surveyed and estimated as a lumberman watches the growth of a +young forest.</p> + +<p>His father was always in a hurry, always in good health, matter of fact, +and generous. That his business had prospered and extended he knew, +though to what extent his father's activities had multiplied he still +was ignorant. Conversation between them had always been difficult in +those tours of inspection; but Bojo, instinctively, censored the +lithographs on the wall (harmless though they were) and the choice of +novels which his father would be sure to examine with a critical eye.</p> + +<p>Klondike, the sweep, arranged the room in military<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> order and Fred +DeLancy was enjoined to observe a bread-and-milk diet. Bojo had an idea +that his father was very stern, rigid, and exact, with the unrelenting +attitude toward folly and leisure which had characterized the Crocker +family in the days of their seven celebrated divines.</p> + +<p>"How are you, Tom?" said a chest-voice behind him. "Turn around. You +look in first-class shape. Glad to see you."</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you, father," he said hastily, taking the stubby, powerful +hand.</p> + +<p>"Just a moment—go on with your cigar. Let me straighten out this desk. +Train was ten minutes late."</p> + +<p>"Now it comes," thought Bojo to himself as he gripped his hands and +assumed a determined frown.</p> + +<p>As they faced each other they were astonishingly alike and unlike. They +had the same squaring of the brows, the same obstinate rise of the head +at the back, and the prominent undershot jaw. Years had thickened the +frame of the father and written characteristic lines about the mouth and +the eyes. He had become so integral a part of the machine he had created +that in the process all the finer youthful shades of expression had +faded away.</p> + +<p>Concentration on a fixed idea, indomitable purpose, decision, +self-discipline were there in the strongly sculptured chin and maxillary +muscles, under the sparse, close-cropped beard shot with gray; courage +and tenacity in the deep eyes, which, like Bojo's, had the disconcerting +fixity of the mastiff's; but the quality of dreams which so keenly +qualified the tempestuous obstinacy of the son had been discarded as so +much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> superfluous baggage. Life to him was a succession of immediate +necessities, a military progress, and his imagination went with +difficulty beyond the demands of the hour. He dressed in a +pepper-and-salt business suit made of his own product, wore a made-up +tie and comfortable square-toed shoes, with a certain aggressive disdain +for the fashions as a quality of pretentiousness.</p> + +<p>He ran through his correspondence in five minutes while Bojo pricked up +his ears at the sums which he flung off without hesitation. Richardson +faded from the room, the father shifted a package of memoranda, turned +the face of his desk clock so he could follow the time, drew back in his +chair, and helped himself to a cigar, shooting a glance at the embattled +figure of the son.</p> + +<p>"You look all primed up—ready to jump in the ring," he said with a +smile, and without waiting for Bojo's embarrassed answer he continued, +caging his fingers and adopting a quick, incisive tone.</p> + +<p>"Well, Tom, you have now arrived at man's estate and it is right that I +should discuss with you your future course in life. But before we come +to that I wish to say several things. You've finished your college +course very creditably. You have engaged a good deal in different +sports, it is true; but you have not allowed it to interfere with your +serious work, and I believe on the whole your experience in athletics +has been valuable. It has taught you qualities of self-restraint and +discipline, and it has given you a sound body. Your record in your +studies, while it has not been brilliant, has been creditable. You've +kept out of bad company, chosen the right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> friends— I am particularly +impressed with Mr. Granning—and you've not gone in for dissipation. +You've done well and I have no complaint. You've worked hard and you've +played hard. You will take a serious view of life."</p> + +<p>This discourse annoyed Bojo. It seemed to fling a barrier of +conventionality between them, driving them further apart.</p> + +<p>"Why the deuce doesn't he talk in a natural way?" he thought moodily. +And he felt with a sudden depression the futility of arguing his case. +"We're in for a row. There's no way out."</p> + +<p>"Now, Tom, lets talk about the future."</p> + +<p>"Here it comes," said Bojo to himself, bracing himself to resist.</p> + +<p>"What would you like to do?"</p> + +<p>"What would <i>I</i> like?" said Tom, completely off his guard.</p> + +<p>"Yes, what are your ideas?"</p> + +<p>The turn was so unexpected that he could not for the moment assemble his +thoughts. He rose, making a pretext of seeking an ash-tray, and +returned.</p> + +<p>"Why, to tell the truth, sir, I came here expecting that you would +demand that I go into this—into the mills."</p> + +<p>"I see, and you don't want to do what your father's done. You want +something else, something better."</p> + +<p>The tone in which this was said aroused the obstinacy in the young man, +but he repressed the first answer.</p> + +<p>"Well?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir, that there's any use of my explaining myself; I +don't know what good it'll do," he said slowly.</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, I am not making demands on you. I am here to discuss +with you." (Bojo repressed a smile at this.) "You've thought about this. +What do you suggest?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think you'll understand it at all, but I want time."</p> + +<p>"Time to do what?"</p> + +<p>"To get out and see the world, to meet men who are doing things, to get +a chance to develop, to get my ideas straightened out a bit."</p> + +<p>"Is that all?"</p> + +<p>"No, that's not quite honest," said Bojo suddenly. "The truth is, sir, I +don't see why I should begin all over again, the drudgery and the +isolation and all. If you wanted me to do only that why did you send me +to college? I've made friends and it's only right I should have the +opportunity to lead as big a life as they. Money isn't everything, it's +what you get out of life, and besides I've got opportunities, unusual +opportunities to get ahead here."</p> + +<p>"Have you made up your mind, Tom?" said the father slowly.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I have, sir."</p> + +<p>"Let me talk to you. You may see it in a different light. First you +speak of opportunities—what opportunities?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Drake has been kind enough—"</p> + +<p>"That means Wall Street."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>The father thought a moment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What is the situation between you and Miss Drake?"</p> + +<p>"We are very good friends."</p> + +<p>"Would you marry her if you didn't have a cent?"</p> + +<p>"I would not."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear you say that. Very glad. So you re going into Wall +Street," he said, after a moment. "Are you going into the banking +business?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no."</p> + +<p>"Or into railroads or any creative industry?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly."</p> + +<p>"You're going into Wall Street," said Crocker, "like a great many young +men, who've been having an easy, luxurious time at college and who want +to go on with it. You're going there as a gambler, hoping to get the +inside track through some influence and make a hundred thousand dollars +of other people's money in a lucky year."</p> + +<p>"That's rather a hard way to put it, sir."</p> + +<p>"You don't pretend to be able to earn a hundred thousand dollars in one +year or in five, do you, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"Let me put it in another way," said Bojo after a moment's indecision. +"What you have made and what you have been able to give me have put me +in the way of acquiring friends that others can't make, and friends are +assets. The higher up you go in society the easier it is to make money; +isn't it so? Opportunities are assets also. If I have the opportunity to +make a lot of money in a short time, what is the sense of turning my +back on the easiest way and taking up the hardest?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Tom, do you young fellows ever stop to think that there is such a thing +as your own country, and that if you've got advantages you've also got +responsibilities?" said Crocker, senior, shaking his head. "You want +money like all the rest. What good do you want to do in return? What +usefulness do you accomplish in the scheme of things here? You talk of +opportunity—you don't know what a real opportunity and a privilege is. +Now let me say my say."</p> + +<p>Richardson came sliding into the room at this moment and he paused to +deny the card, with a curt order against further interruptions. When he +resumed it was on a quieter note, with a touch of sadness.</p> + +<p>"The trouble is, our points of view are too far apart for us to come +together at present. You want something that isn't going to satisfy you +and I know isn't going to satisfy you. But I can't make you see it, +there's the pity of it. You've got to get your hard knocks yourself. +You've got real ambition in you. Now let me tell you something about the +mills and you think it over. There's some bigger things in this world +than you think, and the biggest is to create something, something useful +to the community; to make a monument of it and to pass it down for your +son to carry on—family pride. You think there's only drudgery in it. +Did you ever think there were thousands and thousands of people +depending on how you run your business? Do you realize that every great +business to-day means the protection of those thousands; that you've got +to study out how to protect them at every point in order to make them +efficient; that there's nothing unimportant?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> You've got to watch over +their health and their happiness, see that they get amusement, +relaxation; that they're encouraged to buy homes and taught to save +money. You've got to see that they get education to keep them out of the +hands of ignorant agitators. You've got to make them self-respecting and +able intelligently to understand your own business, so that they'll +perceive they're getting their just share. Add to that the other side, +the competition, the watching of every new invention, the calculating to +the last cent, the study of local and foreign conditions of supply and +demand, the habits and tastes of different communities. Add also the +biggest thing that you've got, a mixed population, that's got to be +turned into intelligent, useful American citizens, and you've got as big +an opportunity and responsibility as you can place before any young +fellow I know. What do you say?"</p> + +<p>Bojo had nothing to say—not that he had surrendered, but that his own +arguments seemed petty besides these.</p> + +<p>The father rose and laid his hands on his son's shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Why, Tom, don't you know it's been the dream of my life to hand you +down this thing that I've built myself? Don't you know there's a +sentiment about it? Why, it isn't dollars and cents: I've got ten times +what I want; it's pride. I'm proud of every bit of it. There isn't a new +turn, mechanical or social, has come up over the world but what I've +adopted it there. I haven't had a strike in fifteen years. I've done +things there would open your eyes. You'd be proud. Well, what are you +thinking?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You make it very hard, sir," he said slowly. He had not expected this +sort of appeal. "If I were older, I don't know—but it's hard now." He +could not tell him all the surrender would mean, and though his deeper +nature had been reached he still fought on. "I'm not starting where you +started, sir; that's the trouble. You went to work when you were twelve. +It would be easier if I had, and, if you'll forgive me, it's your fault +too that I want what I want now. I suppose I do want to begin on top, +but I've been on top all these years, that's all. I couldn't do it now; +perhaps later—I don't know. If I went up to the mills now I should eat +my heart out. I'm sorry to have to say this to you, but it's the truth."</p> + +<p>The father left him abruptly and seated himself at his desk without +speaking.</p> + +<p>"If I insisted you would refuse," he said slowly.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I'd have to, sir," said Bojo, with a feeling of dread.</p> + +<p>There was another silence, at the end of which Mr. Crocker drew out his +check-book and looked at it solemnly.</p> + +<p>"Good! Now he's figuring how much he'll give me and cut me off!" thought +the son.</p> + +<p>"Tom, I don't want to lose you too," said the father slowly. "I'm going +to try a different way with you. You're sound and you ring true. The +only trouble is you don't know; you've got to learn your lesson. So you +think if you had a start you'd clean up a fortune, don't you?—and you +believe—" he paused—"in Wall Street friends. Very well; I'm going to +give you an opportunity to get your eyes open."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>He dipped his pen in the ink and wrote a check with deliberation, while +Bojo, puzzled, thought to himself: "What the deuce is he up to now?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to make a bargain with you. I'm going to trust to +experience and to the Crocker in you. I know the stuff you're made of. +You'll never make an idler, you'll never stand that life, but you want +to try it. Very well. I'm going to give you a check. It's yours. Play +with it all you want. You'll get it taken away from you in two years at +the most. When that happens come back to me, do you understand, where +you belong! Blood's thicker than water, my boy; there's something in +father and son sticking together, doing something that counts! Here, +take this."</p> + +<p>And he placed in his hand a check which read:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">Pay to the order of Thomas Beauchamp Crocker</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 28em;">Fifty thousand dollars</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Jotham B. Crocker</span>.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>DANIEL DRAKE, THE MULTI-MILLIONAIRE</h3> + +<p>A week after his interview with his father, Tom Crocker entered the +great shadowy library of the Drakes in response to an invitation from +the father. At this time, when Wall Street was approaching that dramatic +phase which is inevitable in social transformations, when dominant and +outstanding individualities succumb to the obliterating rise of +bureaucracies, there was no more picturesque personality than Daniel +Drake. He had come to New York several years before, awaited as a +vaulting spirit who played the game recklessly and who would never cease +to aspire until he had forced his way to the top or been utterly broken +in the attempt.</p> + +<p>His career had bordered on the fantastic. As a boy the <i>Wanderlust</i> had +driven him over the face of the globe. A shrewd capacity for making +money of anything to which he put his hand had carried him through +strange professions. He had been a pedler on the Mississippi, cook on a +tramp steamer to Australia, boxed in minor professional encounters, +exhibited as a trick bicycle rider, served as a soldier of fortune up +and down Central America, and returned to his native country to +establish a small fortune in the field of the country fairs.</p> + +<p>With the acquisition of capital, he became conservative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> and +industrious. Reconciled with his family, he had secured the necessary +funds to attempt an operation in the wheat market which, conducted on a +reasonable scale, netted him a handsome profit and enlarged his +activities. His genius for manipulation and trading, which was soon +recognized, brought him into the services of big industries. He made +money rapidly, and married impulsively against the advice of his friends +a woman of social prominence who cared absolutely nothing about him—a +fact which he was the last to perceive.</p> + +<p>He next undertook a daring operation, the buying up of the control of a +great industry in competition with an eastern group. A friend whom he +trusted betrayed the pool he had formed, and the loyalty of his +associates, which made him continue, completely bankrupted him. Before +the public had even an inkling of the extent of his catastrophe he had +mended his fortunes by the brilliant stroke, secured control of one of +the subsidiary companies destined for the steel trust, and realized a +couple of millions as his share. When he referred to this moment, which +he often did, he used to say frankly:</p> + +<p>"We went into the meeting bankrupt and came out seven millionaires."</p> + +<p>He became the leader of a group of young financiers who acquired and +developed with amazing success a chain of impoverished railroads. He +played the game, scrupulous to his word, merciless in a fight, generous +to a conquered enemy, for the love of the game itself. A big man with a +curious atmosphere of amused calm in the midst of the flurry and turmoil +he aroused, he enjoyed the turns and twists of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> fate with the zest of a +boy gray-eyed, imperturbable, and magnetic, winning even those who saw +in him an ethical and economical danger.</p> + +<p>Such was the man who was bending over a great oaken table engrossed in +the piecing together of an intricate picture puzzle, as Bojo came +through the heavy tapestry portières. Patsie, perched on a corner, was +looking on with approving interest at the happy solving of a perplexing +group. She sprang down, flung her arms about her father in an impulsive +farewell, and came prancing over to Bojo with a laughing warning:</p> + +<p>"Whatever you do, <i>never</i> find a piece for him. It makes him madder than +a wet hen. He wants to do it all himself. Now I'm running off. Don't +worry! Go on, talk your old business."</p> + +<p>She went off like the flash of a golden bird while Bojo, slightly +intimidated, was wishing she might remain.</p> + +<p>"Tom—glad to see you—come in—just a moment—help yourself to a cigar. +Confound that piece, I knew it fitted in there!" Drake left the board +with a lingering regret, shook hands with a grip that seemed to envelop +the young man, and went to the mantel for a match, where a large +equestrian statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni rose threateningly from the +shadows.</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you, my boy—my orders are in from the General Manager, and +when the General Manager gives orders I know it means hustle!" By this +title he designated Doris, whose practical ambitions and perseverance he +satirized with an indulgent smile. "Far as I can make out, Doris has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +determined to make you a millionaire in a couple of years or so, so I +suppose the best thing is to sit down and discuss it."</p> + +<p>As he stood there gaunt and alert against the bronze background, there +was something about him too of the old condottieri, a certain blunt and +hardened quality of the grizzled head, as though he too had just hung +back a steel helmet and emerged tense and victorious from a bruising +scramble.</p> + +<p>"Supposing he's figuring out that I'll cost him less than the Duke," +thought Tom, conscious of a certain proprietary estimation below all the +surface urbanity, and, squaring to the charge, he said: "I'm afraid, +sir, you've a pretty poor opinion of me."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" said Drake, with sudden interest.</p> + +<p>"May I talk to you plainly, sir?" said Tom, a little flustered. "I don't +know just how I feel about Doris or even just how she feels about me. I +certainly have no intention of marrying her until I know what I am worth +myself, and I certainly don't intend to come to you, her father, to make +money for me."</p> + +<p>He stopped with a little fear for his boldness, for this had not been +his intention on entering the room. In fact, he had come rather in a +state of indecision, after long discussions with Doris, and much serving +up of sophistries to his conscience; but Drake's greeting had struck at +his young independence, as perhaps it had been meant to do, and an +impulsive wave of indignation overruled his calculations. He stood a +little apprehensive, watching the older man, wondering how he would +receive the defiance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's talking," said Drake, with an approving smile. "Go on."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Drake, I can't help feeling that we're going to look at things more +and more from a different point of view. Doris cares for me—I suppose +so—if she can have me without sacrificing anything. I don't express it +very well, but I do feel at times that she's more interested in what she +can make out of me than in me, and I don't know if I'll work out the way +she wants; in fact, I'm not at all sure," he blurted out pugnaciously. +"But I want to work out that way, and if I don't there'll come a smashup +pretty soon."</p> + +<p>"There's something in what you say," said Drake, nodding, "and I like +your coming straight out with it. Now look here, my boy, I'm not going +to take hold of you because I expect you to marry Doris, but because I +<i>want</i> you to marry her! Get that down. I can control lots of things, +but I can't control the women. They beat me every time. I'm pulp. I've +given in once, though Lord knows I hope my little girl won't regret it. +I've got one decayed foreign title dangling to the totem-pole, and +that's enough; that's got to satisfy the missus. I don't want another +and I don't want any high-stepping Fifth Avenue dude. I want a man, one +of my own kind who can talk my language."</p> + +<p>He arose, took a turn, and clapped him on the shoulder. "I want you. I +settled that in my own mind long ago. Now I'm going to talk as plain to +you. As you get on you'll look at people differently than you do. You'll +see how much is due to accident, the parting of the ways, going to the +left instead of to the right. Now I know Doris. I've watched her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> She's +got two sides to her; you appeal to the best. I know it. She knows it. +She wouldn't marry you if you were a beggar—women are that way—but +she'll stick to you loyal, as a regular, if she marries you; and you're +not going to be a beggar."</p> + +<p>"Yes, if I consent to close my eyes and let you build—"</p> + +<p>"Now don't get huffy. I'm not going to tuck you under my wing," said +Drake, grinning. "Furthermore, I wouldn't want you in the family if I +didn't know you had stuff in you. Don't you think I want some one I can +trust in this cut-throat game? Don't worry, if you're the right sort I +can use you. Now quit thinking too much—let things work out. Doris is +the kind that belongs at the top; she's bound to be a leader, and we're +going to put her there, you and I. Now what do you want to do?"</p> + +<p>"I want to stand on my own feet," said Tom, with a last resistance. "I +want to see what I'm worth by myself."</p> + +<p>"Wall Street, of course," said Drake, grinning again. "Well, why not? +You'll learn quicker the things you've got to learn, even if it costs +you more."</p> + +<p>He flung down in a great armchair, and stared out at the raw recruit as +though for an instant rolling back the years to his own beginnings.</p> + +<p>"Tom, if you're going in," he said all at once, "go in with your eyes +open and make up your mind soon what you want; but when you've made up +your mind don't fool yourself. If you want to plod along safe and sane, +you can do it just as well in Wall Street as anywhere else. But I reckon +that's not what you're after." He chuckled at Bojo's confused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +acknowledgment of the patness of his surmise and continued:</p> + +<p>"Well, then, recognize that what you're going into is war, nothing more +nor less. You see, we're a curious people; we haven't had the chance to +develop as others. And there's something instinctive about war; in a +growing nation it lets off a lot of wild energy. Now there's a group of +the big fellows here that ought to have had a chance at being field +marshals or admirals, and because they haven't the chance they've +developed a special little battlefield of their own to fight each other. +And, say, the big fellows don't fool themselves—they know what they're +doing! They're under no illusions. But there're a lot of big little men +down there who go around hugging delusions to their hearts, who'll sack +a railroad or lay siege to a corporation with the idea they're ordained +to grab the other fellow's property. Now I don't fool myself: that's my +strong point. I'm grabbing as fast as the other fellow, but I know the +time's coming when they won't let us grab any more. I do it because I +want to, because I love it and because we're founding aristocracies here +as the Old World did a couple of centuries ago. Well, to come back to +you. I'll see you start in a good firm—"</p> + +<p>"I'd rather do it myself."</p> + +<p>"As you wish. Got any money?"</p> + +<p>"Fifty thousand dollars," said Tom, who then related his father's +prediction.</p> + +<p>"Ordinarily he's a good guesser," said Drake, laughing. "But we may put +one over on him. There's a scheme I've been brewing over for a big<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +combine in the woolen industry that may give him a pleasant surprise. +Well, then, start in on your own feet, my boy. Learn all you can of men. +Study them—browse around in figures, if you want, but everlastingly +keep your eyes on men! It's the man and not the proposition that's +gilt-edged or empty. You've got to learn how the other fellow thinks, +what he'll do in a given situation, if you're going to think ahead of +him, and that's the quality that counts. That's where I've got them +guessing, every minute of the day; there isn't one of them can figure +out now if I'm twenty millions to the good or ten behind."</p> + +<p>"Why, Tom, there was a time when I was stone broke—by golly, even my +creditors were broke, which is an awful thing; and everything depended +on my getting the right backing on the proposition that saved me. Do you +think any one of those sleuth-hounds were on? Not on your life. I was +living at the biggest hotel, in the biggest suite, spilling money all +over the city—on tick, of course. And, say, in the critical week, when +I was dodging my own tailor, I sent the missus (she didn't know +anything, either) up to Fifth Avenue to buy a $100,000 necklace. That +settled it. The other fellows, the fellows whose brains wind up like +clocks, couldn't figure it out. I got my backing."</p> + +<p>"But supposing you hadn't," said Bojo involuntarily. He had been +listening to this recital open-eyed like a child at a circus. "What +would have happened?"</p> + +<p>Drake laughed contentedly. "There you are. That's all the other fellow +could figure on. Now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> don't imagine you can do what I did—you can't. I +suppose there's no use telling you not to speculate, because you're +going to, no matter what you think now. You will; because the young +fellow who goes into Wall Street and doesn't think he's a genius in the +first three months hasn't been born yet! But the first time it comes +over you, throw only a third of your capital out of the window. Do you +get me?"</p> + +<p>"I won't do that," said Bojo resolutely.</p> + +<p>"Go on. Do. You ought. It's cheap at that! I paid seven hundred thousand +for the same information," said Drake, giving him his hand. He caught +his shoulder in his powerful grip and added: "If you get in too much +trouble, come to me! Remember that and good luck!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>BOJO OBEYS HIS GENERAL MANAGER</h3> + +<p>Three months after his entry into Wall Street, Bojo emerged from his +bedroom into the communal sitting-room in a state of tense excitement. +The day before he had taken his first plunge into the world of +speculation and bought a thousand shares of Indiana Smelter on a twenty +per cent. margin. This transaction, which represented to his mind the +inevitable challenge at the gates of fortune, had left him in a turmoil +through all the restless night. He had taken the decision which was to +decide his future only after a long wrestling with his conscience.</p> + +<p>At first he had imposed a limit, promising himself that he would not +touch a penny of his $50,000 capital until he should know of his own +knowledge. Gradually this time limit had contracted. Speculation was in +the air, triumphant and insidious. The whole market was sweeping up +irresistibly. The times were dramatic. Golden opportunity seemed within +every one's grasp. Expansion, development, amalgamation were on every +tongue. Roscoe Marsh had made a hundred thousand on paper. Even Fred +DeLancy had won several turns which had netted him handsome profits.</p> + +<p>Bojo had resisted stubbornly at first, turning heedless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> ears to the +excited arguments of his friends, but the fever of speculation had +entered his veins, he dreamed of nothing else, and gradually the thought +of his $50,000, so modestly invested in four per cent. bonds obsessed +him. What was worse was that each time he had refused to follow a tip of +Marsh or DeLancy or a dozen new-found friends, he secretly noted down +the speculation; and the thought of these dollars he had refused, which +could have been his for the asking, rose up before him in a constant +reproach. In the end it was Doris who decided him.</p> + +<p>That indefatigable schemer, whom even he now called the General Manager, +had a dozen times summoned him for an excited consultation on some rumor +which she had caught in passage. At first he had laughed her down, then +he had stubbornly refused such an alliance. But Doris, undaunted, +returned to the charge, amazing him at times with the pertinency of her +information, which she picked up from the wives and daughters, from +those who came as suitors, or as mere friends of the family, while just +as industriously and cleverly she commandeered her acquaintance and sent +Bojo a string of customers which had remarkably affected his progress in +the brokerage offices of Hauk, Flaspoller and Forshay.</p> + +<p>Finally he had yielded, because for weeks he had been longing to yield +as a spectator tires of watching inactive the spectacle of the shifting +golden combinations on the green cloth of the gambling table. She had +information of the most explicit sort. A great combination of Middle +Western Smelters had been held up for several weeks by the refusal of +two great companies to enter at the price offered—Indiana<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> Smelter and +Rockland Foundry. She knew positively that the matter would be adjusted +in the next fortnight.</p> + +<p>"Did your father say so?" he asked, really impressed, for Drake was +reported as directly interested.</p> + +<p>"Not in the first place."</p> + +<p>"But where did you get your information?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I have my ways," she said, delighted, "and I keep my secrets too. +Just remember if you'd taken my advice what you'd have made."</p> + +<p>"It is astounding how right you've been," he said doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Listen, Bojo, this is absolutely correct. I know it. I can't tell you +now—I promised—but if I could you wouldn't have the slightest doubt. +Can't you trust me just this once? Don't you know that I'm working for +you? Oh, it's such an opportunity for us both. Listen, if you won't do +it, buy five hundred shares for me with my own money. Oh, how can I +convince you!"</p> + +<p>He looked away thoughtfully; tempted, convinced, suspecting the source +of her information, but wishing to remain ignorant.</p> + +<p>"You are determined to buy?" She nodded energetically. "What does your +father say?"</p> + +<p>She seized his idea, saving him the embarrassment of a direct +suggestion.</p> + +<p>"If Dad says yes, will that convince you? Wait." She thought a moment, +pacing up and down, humming brightly to herself. Suddenly she turned, +her eyes sparkling with the delight of her own machinations. "I'll tell +you how I'll do it. Next week's my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> birthday. I'll ask him to give me +the tip as a birthday present." She clapped her hands gleefully, adding: +"I'll tell him it's for my trousseau. If he says all right you won't +refuse."</p> + +<p>"No, I won't."</p> + +<p>She flung herself joyfully into his arms at this victory won, at this +prospect opened.</p> + +<p>"Bojo, I do love you and I do want to do so much for you!" she cried, +tightening her arms about his neck, with more genuine demonstration than +she had shown in months.</p> + +<p>"After all, I'd be a fool to refuse," he thought, excited too, and aloud +he said, "Yes, Miss General Manager."</p> + +<p>"Oh, call me anything you like if you'll only let me manage you!" she +said, laughing. "Now sit down and let me tell you all I've planned out +for you to do."</p> + +<p>That night she told him excitedly over the telephone that her little +scheme had succeeded, that her father had given his O. K., but of course +no one must know. The next day he had bought five hundred shares for +her, and after much hesitation a thousand for his own account at +104½. It was a good risk; the stock had been stable for years; even +if the combination did not go through, there was little danger of a +rapid fall; and if it went up there was a chance at a thirty- or +forty-point rise. He kept the injunction of secrecy, as all such +injunctions are kept, to the point of telling only his closest friends, +Marsh and DeLancy, who bought at once.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, no sooner had the transaction been completed than he had a +sudden revulsion. He had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> been long enough in Wall Street to have heard +a hundred tales of the methods of big manipulators. What if Dan Drake's +endorsement was only a clever ruse to conceal his real intentions, quits +for reimbursing Doris afterward with a check, according to a famous +precedent? Perhaps he even suspected that he, Bojo, had put Doris up to +it and was taking this method to read him the lesson that his methods +were not to be solved along such lines. At any rate, Tom passed a very +bad night, saying to himself that he had plunged ahead on the flimsiest +sort of evidence and fully deserved a shearing.</p> + +<p>A glorious December morning, with a touch of Indian summer, was pouring +through the half-opened window, bearing the distant sounds of steam +riveters. Marsh was busily culling half a dozen newspapers, while Fred +was yawning over the eggs and coffee, when the mail was brought in by +the grinning Oriental who had been dubbed Sweeney. DeLancy, who had the +curiosity of a girl, pounced upon the letters, slinging half a dozen at +Bojo with a grumbled comment.</p> + +<p>"Dog ding him if he isn't more popular than me! Important business +letters—Mr. Morgan and Mr. Rockefeller asking your advice—society +invitations—do honor our humble palace, pink envelope, heavily scented. +I say, Bojo, I've gone in deep on your precious stock, two hundred +shares—all I could scrape together. Hope you guess right. Anything I +hate is work, and 10 per cent. margin ought to be bolstered up by divine +revelation."</p> + +<p>"Wish the deuce you hadn't," said Bojo, sitting down and opening the +formal announcement of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> broker's purchase, which struck his eyes +like a criminal warrant.</p> + +<p>"Cheer up," said Marsh, emerging from the litter of papers. "I've got a +tip from another angle, one of the lawyers involved. I'm going in for +another couple of thousand shares. Why so glum, Bojo?"</p> + +<p>"Wish I hadn't told you fellows."</p> + +<p>"Rats; that's all in the game!" said Marsh, but DeLancy did not look so +philosophical.</p> + +<p>Bojo opened several invitations, a notice from the tailor to call for a +fitting, two letters from clients, personal friends, and finally the +pink envelope, which was from Doris.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Bojo dear:</p> + +<p>Whatever you do don't tell a soul. Dad questioned me +terrifically and I told a little fib. How many shares did +you buy? Dad made me promise to buy only five hundred, but I +know it's all right from the way he acted. Oh, Bojo, I hope +you make lots and lots of money! Wouldn't Dad be surprised? +He asked me to-night in the funny gruff way he puts on, +'How's that young man of yours getting on? Have they got his +hide yet?' Won't it be a joke on him? By the way, I dined +with the Morrisons (she's an old school chum of mine) and +put in my clever little oar. Don't be surprised if some one +else calls you up soon to place a little order. I'm working +in another direction too. Don't fail to come up for tea.</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 30em;">With much love,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Doris</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>P.S. The Tremaines are <i>awfully</i> influential. Be sure and go +to their dance.</p></div> + +<p>He placed the letter in his pocket thoughtfully, not entirely happy. It +was a fair sample of a score of letters—enthusiasm, solicitude, +ambition, and clever worldly advice, but lacking the one note that +something in him craved despite all the purely mental satisfaction the +prospect held for him.</p> + +<p>DeLancy continuing to loiter, he went out, alone, obsessed with the +thought of the opening of the market<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> and the sound of the ticker, and +caught the subway for Wall Street, preoccupied and serious.</p> + +<p>It had been three months now since the day when he had first come +downtown to take up service as a broker's runner, and much had changed +within him during that time, much of which he himself was not aware. The +first days he had been rather bewildered and resentful of the menial +beginning. It did not seem quite a man's work—this messenger service, +and the contemplation of those above him, the men at the sheets and the +office clerks, inspired him with a distaste. Often he remembered his +conversation with his father and talks with Granning, the +matter-of-fact; comparing their outlook on the life with his associates +much to the disadvantage of the curiously inconsequential throng of +young men who, like himself, were willing to go scurrying in the rain +and dark on servants' quests, in order to get a peek into the intricate +mysteries of Wall Street that held sudden fortunes for those who could +see.</p> + +<p>He had come out of college with a love of manly qualities and the belief +that it was a man's privilege to face difficult and laborious tasks, and +the prevalent type among the beginners was not his type. Then, too, the +magnitude of the Street overpowered him, the skyscrapers without tops +dwarfed him, its jargon mystified him, as the colossal scale of the +operations he saw seemed to rob him of the sense of his own +individuality. But gradually, being possessed of shrewd native sense and +persistence, he began to distinguish in the mob types and among the +types figures that stood out in bold relief. He began to see those who +would pass and those who would persist.</p> + +<p>He began to meet the more rugged type, schooled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> in earlier tests, +shrewd, cautious, and resolved, self-made men who had abrupt ways of +speaking their thoughts, who frankly classed him with other fortunate +youths and assured him that they were there by right, to take away from +them what had been foolishly given and pay them back in experience. He +took their chaffing in good humor, seeking their companionship and their +points of view by preference, gradually disarming their criticism, +secretly resolved that whatever might be the common fate at least he +would not prove a foolish lamb for the shearing.</p> + +<p>Steeled in this resolution, he began by setting his face against +speculation, investing his money temporarily in irreproachable bonds, +refusing to listen to all the tips, whispered or openly proffered, which +assailed his ears from morning until night, until the day when he should +know of his own knowledge of men and things. He worked hard, following +Drake's advice, seeking information from men rather than from books, +checking up what each told him by what the next man had to say of his +last informant, mystified often by the glib psychology of finance, +slowly rating men at their just value, no longer lending credulous ear +to the frayed prophets of New Street or thrilling with the excitement of +a thrice confidential tip.</p> + +<p>He had advanced rapidly, but underneath all his delight there was an +abiding suspicion that his progress had not been entirely due to his own +glaring accomplishments, but that the name of Crocker, senior, his bank +account, and the magic touch of Daniel Drake had been for much.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>UNDER THE TICKER'S TYRANNY</h3> + +<p>During the last month he had had several tentative approaches from +Weldon Forshay, who was what DeLancy called the social scavenger of the +firm, a club man irreproachably connected, amiable and winning in his +ways, who received uptown clients in the outer office, went out to lunch +with the riding set, who lounged in toward midday for what they termed a +whack at the market. Forshay was a thoroughly good fellow who gave his +friends the best of advice, which was no advice at all, and left +business details to his partners, Heinrich Flaspoller and Silas T. Hauk, +shrewd, conservative, self-made men who exchanged one ceremonial family +dinner party a year with their brilliant associate.</p> + +<p>Forshay, who was no fool and neglected no detail of social connections, +had been keen to perceive the advantages of an alliance with the +prospective son-in-law of Daniel Drake, keeping in view the voluminous +transactions that flowed monthly from the keys of that daring +manipulator. The transactions of the last days had been noted with more +than usual interest, and Bojo's announcement of the amount of collateral +which he had to offer as security (he did not, naturally, give the +impression that this was the sum of his holdings) had further increased +the growing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> affection of the firm for an industrious young man, of such +excellent prospects.</p> + +<p>When Crocker arrived, excited and keyed to the whirring sound of the +ticker, Forshay, a splendid American imitation of an English aristocrat, +drew him affably into an inner room.</p> + +<p>"I say, Crocker," he said, "the firm's been thinking you over rather +seriously. It isn't often a young fellow comes down here and makes his +way as quickly as you. We like your methods, and I think we've been +quick to recognize them—haven't we?"</p> + +<p>"You certainly have," said Tom with real enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"You've brought us business and you'll bring us more. Now some evening +soon I want you to come up to the club and sit down over a little dinner +and discuss the whole prospect." He looked at him benignly and added: "I +don't see why an ambitious man like you who has got what you have ahead +of you shouldn't fit into this firm before very long."</p> + +<p>"Provided I marry Miss Doris Drake," thought Bojo to himself. The cool +way in which he received the news made a distinct impression on Forshay, +who went a little further. "We realize that with the friends and backing +you've got you're not on the lookout to stay forever on a salary. What +you want is to get a fair share of the business you can swing, and the +only way is to join some firm. Well, I won't say any more now. You know +what we're thinking. We'll foregather later."</p> + +<p>"You're very kind, indeed, Mr. Forshay," said Bojo, delightfully +flustered.</p> + +<p>"Not at all. You're the kind that goes ahead.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> Oh, by the way, the firm +wants me to tell you that from next week your salary will be +seventy-five dollars."</p> + +<p>This time Bojo gulped down his surprise and shook hands in boyish +delight.</p> + +<p>"Mighty glad to give it to you," said Forshay, laughing. "I see you +think well of Indiana Smelter. Now I don't want you to betray any +confidences, but of course I know how you stand in certain quarters. +There is no harm in my saying that, is there? I've watched you. You +haven't been running after every rumor on the block. You're shrewd. +You're too conservative to invest without some pretty solid reason or to +let your friends in unless you're pretty sure."</p> + +<p>"I am pretty sure," said Crocker solemnly.</p> + +<p>"I thought so," said Forshay meditatively. "I'm rather tempted to try +the thing myself. I've sort of a hunch about you. I liked you, Tom, from +the first. Hope you hit it hard." He glanced in the direction of the +senior partners and lowered his voice confidentially. "Then it's good to +see one of our own kind make good—you understand?"</p> + +<p>In five minutes Bojo had told him in the strictest confidence all he +knew. Forshay received the news with thoughtful deliberation.</p> + +<p>"I'd like it better if Dan Drake had said it direct to you," he said, +frowning. "Still, it's valuable. There may be a good deal in it. I think +I can get a line on it myself. Jimmie Boskirk is a good pal of mine and +he'll know. You keep me informed and I'll let you know what I find out. +Go a little slow. Dan Drake is up to a good many tricks. He's fooled +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> talent many a time before. Suppose we say Friday night for our +little confab. Good."</p> + +<p>The mention of Jimmie Boskirk cast a damper over the delights the +interview had brought Bojo. He did not at once realize how easily +Forshay had played him for the information he desired and how really +valuable he believed it. He was lost in a new irritation. Young Boskirk +had been conspicuously assiduous in his attentions to Doris; and, while +this fact aroused in him no jealousy, he had an uncomfortable feeling +that Boskirk was in fact the source of her information.</p> + +<p>But the opening of the market completely drove all other thoughts out of +his mind. For the first time he came under the poignant tyranny of the +flowing tape. Do what he would he could not keep away from it. Indiana +Smelter opened at 104½, went off the fraction, and then advanced to +106 on moderate strength in buying orders.</p> + +<p>"A point and a half—$1500—I've made $1500—just like that," he said to +himself, stupefied. He went to his desk, but ten minutes later on the +pretext of getting a glass of water he returned to the tape to make sure +that his eyes had not deceived him. There it was again and no +mistake—200 Indiana Smelter, 106. He sat down at his desk in a turmoil. +Fifteen hundred dollars! Five times what he had made in three months. If +he had bought two thousand shares, as he could have easily, at a safe +twenty per cent. margin, he would have made three thousand. He felt +angry at himself, defrauded, and, drawing a paper before him, he began +to figure out his profits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> if the stock should go to 140 or 150, as +every one said it must if the combination went through.</p> + +<p>Then, in order to realize himself his colossal earnings, he called up +Doris on the telephone to hear the sound of such figures. At one, when +he went out to snatch a mouthful at a standing lunch, he consulted three +tickers, impatient that no further sales had been recorded. When +Ricketts, who was still on the sheets, came up to him with his daily +budget of gossip, he listened avidly. Every tip interested him, fraught +with a new dramatic significance. He felt like taking him aside and +whispering in his ear:</p> + +<p>"Listen, Ricketts, if you want a good thing buy Indiana Smelter: it'll +go to 140. I've made fifteen hundred dollars on it in a couple of +hours."</p> + +<p>But he did nothing of the sort. He looked very wise and bored, feeling +immensely superior as a capitalist and future member of the firm of +Hauk, Flaspoller and Forshay, over Ricketts, who had started when he had +started and was still on the sheets at fifteen dollars a week. +"Whispering Bill" Golightly, who had the hypnotic art of inducing +clients to buy and sell and buy again all in the same day, on artfully +fluctuating rumors (to no disparagement of his commission account), came +sidling up, and he hailed him regally.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Bill, what do you know?"</p> + +<p>"Buy Redding," said Golightly softly, with a confidential flutter of the +near eyelid.</p> + +<p>"You're 'way behind. I know something better than that. Come around next +week."</p> + +<p>He left Golightly smiling incredulously and ambled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> slowly through the +motley group of New Street, that tragic anteroom to Wall Street, where +fallen kings of finance retell the glories of the past and wager a few +miserable dollars on a fugitive whisper.</p> + +<p>"If they only knew what I know," he said to himself, smiling as he +passed on in confident youth, through these wearied old men who in their +misfortune still preferred to be last in the Street if only to be near +Rome. At the offices, high on Exchange Place, looking down on the +huddled group of the curb below in sheepskins and mufflers, flinging +fingered signals in the air to waiting figures in windows above, he +found a new order from Roscoe Marsh and hurriedly had it executed. He +felt like calling up all his friends and asking them to follow his lead +blindly.</p> + +<p>He wanted every one to be making money as easily as he could. Before the +market closed Indiana Smelter receded to 105¼ and he felt as though +some one had bodily lifted $500 from his pocket. Still he had made a +thousand dollars for the day. He caught the subway with the crowd of +stockbrokers who came romping out of the stock exchange like released +schoolboys after the day's tension, pommeling and shoving each other +with released glee. His first action was to turn to the financial +columns of his newspaper, to make sure there had been no error, to see +in cold print that he had actually made no mistake. During the week +Indiana Smelter climbed irregularly to 111¼, broke three points, and +ended at 109 amid a sudden concentration of public interest.</p> + +<p>On Saturday, when he came back to his blazing windows in the mellow +half-lights of the court, preparatory to dressing for a party in the +wake of Fred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> DeLancy, he took the flight two steps at a time, bursting +with the need of pouring out his tale of good fortune to responsive +ears. He found only George Granning, snug in the big armchair, sunk in +the beatific contemplation of an immense ledger.</p> + +<p>"What the deuce are you grinning at, you old rhinoceros?" said Bojo, +stopping surprised.</p> + +<p>"I'm casting up accounts," said Granning. "I'm twelve hundred and +forty-two dollars ahead of the game. To-morrow you can buy me my first +bond and make me a capitalist. Bojo, congratulate me. I've got my +raise—forty a week from now on—assistant superintendent! What do you +think of that?"</p> + +<p>"No!" exclaimed Bojo, who had been dreaming in hundreds of thousands. He +shook hands with all the enthusiasm he could force. Then a genuine pity +seized him for the inequalities of opportunity. He seized a chair and +drew it excitedly near his friend. "Granny, listen to me. Do you know +what I have made in ten days? Almost five thousand dollars! Now you know +nothing in this world would let me get you in wrong, unless I knew. +Well, Granny, I know! I'll guarantee you—do you understand—that if +you'll let me take your thousand and invest it as I want, I'll double +your capital in a month."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, no," said Granning in a way that admitted no discussion. +"The gilt-edged kind is my ambition. Look here, how much money have you +put up?"</p> + +<p>"Only twenty thousand."</p> + +<p>"Then give me the rest and let me bury it for you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I tell you I can sell it now and make $4500. What do you say to that?"</p> + +<p>"I'm damned sorry to hear it."</p> + +<p>"You're a nice friend."</p> + +<p>"Lecturing isn't my strong point," said Granning imperturbably, "but +since you insist, the first lesson in life to my mind is a wholesome +respect for the difficulty of making money."</p> + +<p>"You act as though you think I've robbed some old widow, you anarchist!"</p> + +<p>"Twelve times 30 is 360, add 12 times 150 times 30," said Granning, +taking up his pencil.</p> + +<p>"What the deuce are you figuring out?"</p> + +<p>"I'm calculating that at the rate I'm living I can buy another bond in +about ten and three quarter months," said Granning blissfully.</p> + +<p>"Oh, go to the devil," said Bojo, retreating into his room.</p> + +<p>As he started to dress for the evening he began to moralize, glancing +out at Granning, who continued his figuring, a picture of rugged +happiness.</p> + +<p>"Suppose he's thinking of that forty-five dollar a year income now," +thought Bojo, who began to indulge in many worldly speculations of which +he would have been incapable three months before. After all, if some +people only knew it, it was just as easy to make a hundred thousand as a +thousand. All it required was to recognize that the world was unequal +and always would remain unequal, and toward the top of society, when one +had the opportunity of course, it was all a question of knowledge and +influence.</p> + +<p>"Poor old Granny," he said, shaking his head. "In four years I'll be +worth a million and he'll be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> plodding on, working like a slave, +gloating over a ten-dollar raise." But as he was withal honest in his +values he added: "And the old fellow's worth ten times what I am too!" +He remembered his own raise in salary, but for certain reasons +determined not to risk an ethical comparison.</p> + +<p>"Well, Capitalist, good night," he said, arrayed in top hat, fur coat, +and glowing linen.</p> + +<p>Granning grunted complacently and called him back as he was +disappearing.</p> + +<p>"Hi, there!"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Come over to the factory with me some day and see what real work is."</p> + +<p>Bojo slammed the door and went laughing down the stairs.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The buying orders multiplied in Indiana Smelter, the air was full of +rumors, the financial columns accepted as a fact that the combination +was decided, and the stock went soaring in the third week, despite one +day of horrible uncertainty, when the report was spread that all +negotiations were off and Indiana Smelter dropped twelve points. When +135 was reached, Bojo became bewildered. In less than a month he had +cleared over thirty thousand dollars. He could not believe his own +reason. Where had it come from? Did it actually exist or would he wake +up some morning and find it evaporated?</p> + +<p>The spinning tack-tack of the ticker was always in his ears. At night +when he started to go to sleep, the room was always full of diabolical +instruments, and great curling streams of thin paper fell over his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> bed +and Indiana Smelter was kiting up into impossible figures or abruptly +crumbling to nothing. One morning the necessity of actually holding in +his own hands these enormous sums which he had been incredulously +contemplating all these weeks was so imperious that he sold out as the +stock reached 138¼.</p> + +<p>For a day a feeling of sublime liberation came to him, as though the +clicking tyranny were forever vanished from his ears. In his pocket was +certainty, incredible but tangible, a check to his order for over +thirty-three thousand dollars. When once this certainty had impressed +itself upon him he had a quick revulsion. It seemed to him that what he +had done was grossly immoral, as though he had thrown his money on a +gambling table and won fabulously with a beginner's luck. Some +providence must have protected him, but he resolved firmly never to +repeat the test.</p> + +<p>He informed Granny of this decision, admitting frankly all the appetite +for gain, the reckless, dangerous excitement it had roused in him. He +spoke with such profound conviction, being for the moment convinced +himself, that Granny's skepticism was conquered, and they shook hands +upon Bojo's sudden enlightenment.</p> + +<p>But the next day, when he had gone up to the Drakes and exhibited the +check for the delectation of Doris, his good intentions began to waver +in the flush of triumph.</p> + +<p>"Now, aren't you glad you listened to a wise little person who is going +to make your fortune?" she said, thrilled at the sight of the check.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Who gave you the tip, Doris?" he said uneasily. "You can tell me now."</p> + +<p>"Ask me no questions—"</p> + +<p>"A man or a woman?" he persisted, seeking a subterfuge, for the thought +of asking pointblank if he owed his fortune to Boskirk was repugnant.</p> + +<p>She hesitated a moment, divining his qualms.</p> + +<p>"Promise to ask no more questions."</p> + +<p>"If you'll tell me."</p> + +<p>"A woman, then."</p> + +<p>He pretended to himself a great satisfaction, immensely relieved in his +pride, willing to be convinced. Dan Drake came in and Doris, glad of the +interruption, displayed the check in triumph.</p> + +<p>"So that's it, is it?" said Drake, glancing up at Bojo, who looked +sheepishly happy. And assuming an angry air, he caught Doris by the ear. +"A traitor in my own household, eh?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" she said, defending herself.</p> + +<p>"I mean the next time you wheedle such inside information out, just +remember you've got a daddy."</p> + +<p>"Now, Dad, don't be horrid and take away all my fun. Isn't it glorious!"</p> + +<p>"Very," said Drake with a grimace. "I congratulate you, young scamps. +Your getting in and spreading the good news among the bosom friends—" +he glanced at Bojo, who flushed—"cost me a couple of hundred thousand +more than I intended to pay. I guess, young man, it'll be cheaper for me +to have you inside my office than out!"</p> + +<p>"I didn't realize, sir—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No reason you should, but I want to tell you and your General Manager +so that you won't get any mistaken ideas of your Napoleonic talents, +that there was a moment ten days ago when the whole combination came +near a cropper, wherever you got your information." He stopped, looked +at his daughter severely, and said: "By the way, where <i>did</i> you get +your information, young lady?"</p> + +<p>Doris laughed mischievously, not at all deceived by his assumed anger.</p> + +<p>"I have my own sources of information," she said, imitating his manner.</p> + +<p>The father looked at her shrewdly, amused at the intrigue he divined.</p> + +<p>"Well, this is my guess—"</p> + +<p>But Doris, flinging herself, laughing, at him, closed his lips with her +pretty hand.</p> + +<p>"She used Boskirk to help me," thought Bojo, perceiving her start of +fear and the shrewd smile on the face of the father.</p> + +<p>He did not pursue the matter, but the conviction remained with him.</p> + +<p>Despite his new-found resolutions he was surprised to find that the +obsession of the ticker still held him. With the announcement of the +completion of the Smelter merger, Indiana Smelter rose as high as +142¾, and the thought of these thousands which he might have had as +easily as not began to annoy him. He forgot that he had condemned +speculation in the contemplation of what might have been.</p> + +<p>Looking back, it seemed to him that what he had made was ridiculously +small. If he had played the stock as other resolute spirits conducting +such campaigns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> for fortune, he should have thrown the rest of his +capital behind the venture once he was playing on velvet. He figured out +a dozen ways by which he might have achieved a master stroke and +trebled, even quadrupled, his profits, and the more his mind dwelt upon +it the more eager he became to embark into a fresh venture. Dan Drake +had hinted at taking him into his office. He began to long for the time +when the proposition would be again offered to him, to accept, to be +privileged to play the game as others played it—with marked cards.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE RETURN OF PATSIE</h3> + +<p>During this time Bojo had seen much of life. Marsh was too busily +occupied in the detailed exploration of the machinery and organization +of his paper to be often available, and Bojo's time was pretty evenly +divided between the formal evenings in Doris's set and the excursions +with Fred DeLancy into regions not quite so orthodox. He began to see a +good deal behind the scenes, to marvel at the unbending of big men of a +certain suddenly enriched type, at their gullibility and curious +vanities of display. He himself had an innate love of refinement and an +olden touch of chivalry in his attitude toward women, and went through +what he saw without more harm than disillusionment, wiser for the +lesson.</p> + +<p>To his surprise he found, that what DeLancy had estimated of his social +values was quite true. Fred was in great demand at quiet dances in +discreet salons at Tenafly's and Lazare's, where curious elements +combined to distract the adventurer, rich at forty-five, who, after a +life of Spartan routine, awoke to the call of pleasure and curiosity at +an age when other men have solved their attitude. Fred was looked upon +as a sort of <i>enfant gâté</i> to be rewarded after a gay night with an +easily tossed off order for a thousand shares of this or that to make +his commission. It did not take Bojo long to perceive the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> inherent +weakness in DeLancy's lovable but pleasure-running character, nor to +speculate upon his future with some apprehension, despite all Fred's +protestations that he was shrewd as they are made, and jolly well alive +to the main chance every minute of the day.</p> + +<p>Bojo had been admitted far enough into his confidence to know that there +was already some one in the practical background, a Miss Gladys Stone, +financially a prize who had been caught with the volatile gaiety and +amusing tricks of Fred DeLancy. DeLancy in fact, in moments of serious +intimacy, openly avowed his intention of settling down within a year or +two at the most, and Bojo, with the memory of riotous nights from which +he had with difficulty extracted the popular Fred, owned to himself that +the sooner this occurred the better he would be suited.</p> + +<p>He had met Gladys Stone once when he had dropped in on Doris, and he had +a blurred recollection of a thin, blond girl, who giggled and chattered +a great deal and spoke several times of being bored by this or that, by +the opera where there was nothing new, by dinner parties where it was +such a bore to talk bridge, by Palm Beach, which was getting to be a +bore because cheaper hotels had gone up and every one was being let in, +but who would go off into peals of laughter the moment Fred DeLancy +struck a chord on the piano and imitated a German ballade.</p> + +<p>"Gladys is a good soul at bottom. She's crazy about Fred and he can +marry her any day he wants her," said Doris, sitting in judgment.</p> + +<p>"Do you think it would turn out well?" he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why not? Gladys hasn't a thought in her head. She'll be a splendid +audience for Fred. He isn't the sort of a person ever to fall +desperately in love."</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that," said Bojo, with an uneasy recollection of a +certain alluring but rather obvious little actress, respectable but +entirely too calculating to his way of thinking, whom Fred had been +seeing entirely too much.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! That sort of person is always thinking of the crowd. Besides +Gladys is too stupid to be jealous. It's a splendid match. She'll get a +husband that'll save her house from being a bore, and he'll get a pile +of money: just what each needs."</p> + +<p>He saw Doris three or four times a week. She had become a very busy +lady, constantly complaining of the fatigues of a social season. Fred +DeLancy, who, with Marsh, had been admitted to intimacy, made fun of her +to her face in his impudent way, pretending a deep solicitude for the +overburdened rich.</p> + +<p>"But it's true," said Doris indignantly. "I haven't a minute to myself. +I'm going from morning to night. You haven't an idea how exacting our +lives are."</p> + +<p>"Tell me," said DeLancy, assuming a countenance of commiseration, while +Bojo laughed.</p> + +<p>"Horrid beast!" said Doris, pouting. "And then there's charity; you've +no idea how much time charity takes. I'm on three committees and we have +to meet once a week for luncheon. Then I'm in the show for the benefit +of some hospital or other, and now they want us to come to morning +rehearsals. Then there's the afternoon bridge class until four, and half +a dozen teas to go through, and back to be dressed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> and curled and start +out for dinner and a dance, night after night. And now there's Dolly's +wedding coming on, and the dressmaker and the shopping. I tell you I'm +beginning to look old already!"</p> + +<p>She glanced at the clock and went off with a sigh to be decked out for +another social struggle, as Mrs. Drake entered. The young men excused +themselves. Bojo never felt quite comfortable under the scrutiny of the +mother's menacing lorgnette. She was a frail, uneasy little woman, who +dressed too young for her age, whose ready tears had won down the +opposition of her husband, much as the steady drip of a tiny rivulet +bores its way through granite surfaces. She did not approve of Bojo—a +fact of which he was well aware—and was resolved when her first +ambition had been gratified by Dolly's coming marriage to turn her +forces on Doris.</p> + +<p>At present she was too much occupied, for there were weak moments when +Dolly, for all her foreign education, rose up in revolt, and others when +Mr. Drake, incensed at the cold-blooded conduct of the pre-nuptial +business arrangements, had threatened to send the whole pack of impudent +lawyers flying. Patsie had been packed off on a visit to a cousin after +a series of indiscretions, culminating in a demand to know from the Duke +what the French meant by a <i>mariage de convenance</i>—a request which fell +like a bombshell in a sudden silence of the family dinner.</p> + +<p>It was a week before the wedding, as Bojo was swinging up the Avenue +past the Park on his way to Doris, that he suddenly became aware of a +young lady in white fur cap and black velvets skipping toward him, +pursued by a terrier that had a familiar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> air, while from the attendant +automobile a tall and scrawny spinster was gesticulating violently and +unheeded. The next moment Patsie had run up to him, her arm through his, +Romp leaning against him in recognition, while she exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Bojo, thank Heaven! Save me from this awful woman!"</p> + +<p>"What's wrong, what's the matter?" he said, laughing, feeling all at +once a delightful glow at the sight of her snapping eyes and breathless, +parted lips.</p> + +<p>"They've brought me back and tied a dragon to me," she cried +indignantly. "I won't stand it. I won't go parading up and down with a +keeper, just like an animal in a zoo. It's all mother's doings, and +Dolly's, because I miffed her old duke. Send the dragon away, please, +Bojo, please."</p> + +<p>"What's her name?" he said, with an eye to the approaching car.</p> + +<p>"Mlle. du Something or other—how do I know?"</p> + +<p>The frantic companion now bearing down, with the chauffeur set to a +grin, Bojo explained his right to act as Miss Drina's escort, and the +matter was adjusted by the <i>demoiselle de compagnie</i> promising to keep a +block behind until they neared home.</p> + +<p>Patsie waxed indignant. "Wait till I get hold of Dad! I'll fix her! The +idea! I'm eighteen— I guess I can take care of myself. I say, let's +give them the slip. No? Oh, dear, it would be such fun. I'm crazy to +slip off and get some skating. What do you think? Can't even do that. +Too vulgar!"</p> + +<p>"What did you say to the Duke that raised such a row?" said Bojo, +pleasantly conscious of the light weight on his arm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nothing at all," said Patsie, with an innocent face; but there was a +twinkle in the eyes. "I simply asked what this <i>mariage de convenance</i> +was I heard them all talking about, and when he started in to make some +long-winded speech I cut in and asked him if it wasn't when people +didn't love each other but married to pay the bills. Then every one +talked out loud and mother looked at me through her telescope."</p> + +<p>"You knew, of course," said Bojo reprovingly.</p> + +<p>Drina laughed a guilty laugh.</p> + +<p>"I don't think Dolly wants to marry him a bit," she declared. "It's all +mother. Catch me marrying like that."</p> + +<p>"And how are you going to marry?"</p> + +<p>"When I marry, it'll be because I'm so doggoned in love I'd be sitting +out on the top step waiting for him to come round. If I were engaged to +a man I'd hook him tight and I wouldn't let go of him either, no matter +who was looking on. What sort of a love is it when you sit six feet +apart and try to look bored when some one rattles a door!"</p> + +<p>"Patsie—you're very romantic, I'm afraid."</p> + +<p>She nodded her head energetically, rattling on: "Moonlight, shifting +clouds, heavily scented flowers, and all that sort of thing. Never mind, +they'd better look out. I'm not going to stand this sort of treatment. +I'll elope."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't do that, Patsie."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I would. I say, when you and Doris marry will you let me come and +stay with you?"</p> + +<p>"We certainly will," he said enthusiastically.</p> + +<p>"Then what are you waiting for?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'm waiting," said Bojo dryly, after a pause, "until I have made enough +money of my own."</p> + +<p>"Good for you," she said, as if immensely relieved. "I knew you were +that sort."</p> + +<p>"And when are you coming out?" he asked, to turn the conversation.</p> + +<p>"The night before the wedding. Isn't it awful?"</p> + +<p>"You'll have lots of men hanging about you—crazy about you," he said +abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Pooh!"</p> + +<p>"Never mind, I shall watch over you carefully and keep the wrong ones +away."</p> + +<p>"Will you?"</p> + +<p>He nodded, looking into her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Good for you. I'll come to you for advice."</p> + +<p>They were at the house, the lemon livery of the footmen showing behind +the glass doors.</p> + +<p>"I say," said Patsie, with a sudden mischievous smile, "meet me at the +corner to-morrow at four and we'll go off skating."</p> + +<p>He shook his head sternly.</p> + +<p>"Bojo, please—just for a lark!"</p> + +<p>"I will call for you in a proper social manner perhaps."</p> + +<p>"Will Doris have to be along?" she asked, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"I shall of course ask Doris."</p> + +<p>"On second thoughts, no, thank you. I think I shall go to my +dressmaker's," she said, with a perfect imitation of his formal +tone—and disappeared with a final burst of laughter.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He went in to see Doris with a sudden determination<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> to clear up certain +matters which had been on his conscience. As luck would have it, as he +entered the great anteroom Mr. James Boskirk was departing. He was a +painstaking, rather obvious young man of irreproachable industry and +habits, a little over serious, rated already as one of the solid young +men of the younger generation of financiers, who made no secret of the +fact that he had arrived at a deliberate decision to invite Miss Doris +Drake into the new firm which he had determined to found for the +establishment of his home and the perpetuation of his name.</p> + +<p>It seemed to Bojo, in the perfunctory greeting which they exchanged as +civilized savages, that there was a look of derogatory accusation in +Boskirk's eyes, and, infuriated, he determined to bring up the subject +of Indiana Smelter again and force the truth from Doris.</p> + +<p>He came in with a well-assumed air of amusement, adopting a sarcastic +tone, which he knew she particularly dreaded.</p> + +<p>"See here, Miss General Manager, this'll never do," he said lightly. "I +thought you were cleverer than that."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" she said, instantly scenting danger.</p> + +<p>"Letting your visits overlap. I only hope you had time to manage all Mr. +Boskirk's affairs. Only, for Heaven's sake, Doris, now that you've got +him in hand, get him to change his style of collar and cuffs. He looks +like the head of an undertakers' trust."</p> + +<p>The idea that he might be jealous pleased her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Poor Mr. Boskirk," she said, smiling. "He's a very straightforward, +simple fellow."</p> + +<p>"Very simple," he said dryly. "Well, what more information has he been +giving you?"</p> + +<p>"He does not give me any information."</p> + +<p>"You know perfectly well, Doris, that he gave you the tip on Indiana +Smelter," he said furiously, "and that you denied because you knew I +would never have approved."</p> + +<p>"You are perfectly horrid, Bojo," she said, going to the fireplace and +stirring up the logs. "I don't care to discuss it with you."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry," he said, "but you've hurt my pride."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, can't you see! Haven't you women any sense of fitness? +Don't you know that some things are done and some things are not done?"</p> + +<p>She came to him contritely and put her hands on his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Bojo, why do you reproach me? Because I am only thinking of your +success, all the time, every day? Is that what you are angry about?"</p> + +<p>He felt like blurting out that there was something in that too, that he +wanted the privilege of feeling that he was winning his own way; but +instead he said:</p> + +<p>"So it was Boskirk."</p> + +<p>She looked at him, hesitated, and answered:</p> + +<p>"No, it wasn't. But if it had been why should you hold it against me? +Why don't you want me to help?—for you don't!"</p> + +<p>He resolved to be blunt.</p> + +<p>"If you would only do something that is not reasonable, not calculated, +Doris! But everything you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> do is so well considered. You didn't use to +be this way. I can't help thinking you care more about your life in +society than you do me. It's the worldly part of you I'm afraid about."</p> + +<p>She looked into his eyes steadily a moment and then turned her head away +and nodded, smiling in assent.</p> + +<p>"Heavens, Doris, if you want to do like Dolly, if you want a position, +or a title, say so and let's be honest."</p> + +<p>"But I don't— I don't," she cried impetuously. "You don t know how I +have fought—" she stopped, not wishing to mention her mother and, +lifting her glance to him anxiously, said: "Bojo, what do you want me to +do?"</p> + +<p>"I want you to do something uncalculated," he burst out—"mad, +impulsive, as persons do who are wild in love with each other. I want +you to marry me now."</p> + +<p>"Now!"</p> + +<p>"Listen: With what I've got and my salary I can scrape up ten +thousand—no, don't spoil it— I don't want any money from you. Will you +take your chances and marry me on my own basis now?"</p> + +<p>She caught her breath and finally said, marking each word:</p> + +<p>"Yes—I—will—marry—you—now!"</p> + +<p>He burst out laughing at the look of terror in her eyes at the thought +of facing life on ten thousand a year.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, Doris," he said, taking her in his arms. "I wouldn't be so +cruel. I only wanted to hear you say it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But I did—I will—if you ask it," she said quickly.</p> + +<p>He shook his head.</p> + +<p>"If you'd only said it differently. Don't mind me—I'm an idiot—and you +don't understand."</p> + +<p>What he meant was that he was an idiot, when he was getting so much that +other men coveted, to insist on what was not in her charming, facile +self to give him. An hour later, after an interview with Daniel Drake, +he was ready to wonder what had made him flare up so quickly—Boskirk's +presence perhaps, or something impulsive which had awakened within him +when Drina had flushed while describing her distinct ideas upon the +subject of the sentiments.</p> + +<p>But a new exhilaration effectively drove away all other emotions—the +delirious appetite for gain which had come irresistibly and tyrannically +into his life with the dramatic intensity of his first speculation. In +the interim in Daniel Drake's library, with Doris perched excitedly on +the arm of his chair, several things had been decided. A great operation +was under way which promised an unusual profit. Bojo was to place +$50,000 in the pool which was to be used to operate in the stocks of a +certain Southern railroad long suspected to be on the verge of a +receivership, at the end of which campaign he was to enter Mr. Drake's +service in the rôle of a private secretary.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he was to continue in the employ of Hauk, Flaspoller and +Forshay, the better to figure in the mixed scheme of manipulation which +would be necessary. He was so seized with the drama of the opportunity, +so keen over the thought of being once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> more a part of all the whirling, +hurtling machinery of speculation that he did not remember even for a +passing thought, the horror which had come over him at his first +incredible success.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE WEDDING BALL</h3> + +<p>The wedding of Miss Dolly Drake to the Duke of Polin-Crecy was the event +of the season. It was preceded by a ball which marked the definite +surrender of the last recalcitrant members of New York society to the +ambitions of Mrs. Drake. Such events have a more or less public quality, +like a performance for charity or a private view at an important +auction. Every one who could wheedle an invitation by hook or crook, +arrived with the rolling crowd that blocked the avenue and side streets +and necessitated a special detachment of the police to prevent the mob +of enthusiastic democrats from precipitating themselves on the ducal +carriage and tearing the ducal garments in shreds in the quest of +souvenirs.</p> + +<p>The three young men from Ali Baba Court arrived together, abandoning +their taxicab and forcing their way on foot to the front. Marsh, who was +always moved to sarcasm by such occasions, kept up a running comment.</p> + +<p>"Marvelous exhibition! Every one who's gunning for Drake is here +to-night. There's old Borneman. He's been laying for a chance to catch +Daniel D. on the wrong side of the market ever since Drake trimmed him +in a wheat corner in Chicago. By Jove, the Fontaines and the Gunthers. +They're going to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> this as to a circus. Why the deuce didn't the cards +read Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Drake invite you to meet their enemies!"</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Bojo, laughing. "It's Mrs. Drake's night—she'll be in +her glory, you can bet."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you'll be as bad as the rest," said Marsh, who spoke his mind. +"Tom, you're doomed. I can see that. You've got a feminine will to +contend with, so make your mind up to the inevitable. There's Haggerdy's +party now—every bandit in Wall Street'll be here figuring up how they +can get at their host. Well, Bojo, you're lost to us already."</p> + +<p>"How so?"</p> + +<p>"In this game, you never pay attention to your friends—you've got to +entertain those who dislike you, to make sure they'll have to invite you +to some function or other where everybody must be seen. Well, I know +what I'll do, I'll get hold of the youngest sister, who is a trump, and +play around with her."</p> + +<p>Bojo looked at him uneasily; even this casual interest in Patsie +affected him disagreeably. DeLancy had deserted them to rush over to the +assistance of the Stones, who were just arriving.</p> + +<p>"I hope he gets her," said Marsh, studying the blond profile of Miss +Gladys Stone.</p> + +<p>"I believe there's some sort of an understanding."</p> + +<p>"The sooner the better—for Freddie," said Marsh, with a shake of his +head. "The trouble with Fred is he thinks he's a cold thinking machine, +and he's putty in the hands of any woman who comes along."</p> + +<p>"I'm worried about a certain person myself," said Bojo.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + +<p>But at this moment Thornton, one of Mr. Drake's secretaries, touched him +on the arm.</p> + +<p>"Will you please come to the library, Mr. Crocker? Mr. Drake has been +asking for you to witness some papers."</p> + +<p>In the library off in a quiet wing he found a party of five gathered +about the table desk, lawyers verifying the securities for the marriage +settlement, Maître Vondin, a stubby, black-bearded Frenchman imported +for the occasion, coldly incredulous and suavely insistent, the storm +center of an excited group who had been arguing since dinner. Drake, by +the fireplace, was pacing up and down, swearing audibly.</p> + +<p>"Is the <i>gentleman</i> now quite satisfied?" he said angrily.</p> + +<p>Maître Vondrin smiled in the affirmative.</p> + +<p>Drake sat down at the table with the gesture of brushing away a swarm of +flies and signed his name to a document that was placed before him, +nodding to Bojo to add his signature as a witness.</p> + +<p>"Pity some of our corporations couldn't employ Vondrin," said Drake, +rising angrily. "There wouldn't be enough money left to keep a savings +bank."</p> + +<p>Other signatures were attached and the party broke up, Maître Vondrin, +punctilious and unruffled, bowing to the master of the house and +departing with the rest.</p> + +<p>Drake's anger immediately burst forth.</p> + +<p>"Cussed little sharper! He was keen enough to save this until now. By +heavens, if he'd sprung these tactics on me a week ago, his little Duke +could have gone home on a borrowed ticket."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bojo learned afterward that the lawyer for the noble family had refused +to take Drake's word on a single item of the transfer of property, +insisting on having every security placed before his eyes, personally +examining them all, wrangling over values, compelling certain +substitutes, even demanding a personal guarantee in one debated issue of +bonds.</p> + +<p>"God grant she doesn't come to regret it," said Drake, thinking of his +wife. His anger made him careless of what he said. "Tom, mark my words, +if ever this precious Duke comes to me for money—as, mark my words, he +will—I'll make him get down on his knees for all his superciliousness, +and turn somersaults like a trick dog. Yes, by heaven, I will!"</p> + +<p>Bojo was silent, not knowing what to say, and Drake finally perceived +it.</p> + +<p>"It isn't Dolly's fault," he said apologetically. "She's a good sort. +This isn't her doing. There was a time when her mother— Well, I'll say +no more. Nasty business! Tom, I'll bless the day when I see Doris safe +with you, married to a decent American." He took a turn or two and said +abruptly, trying to convey more than he expressed: "Don't wait too long. +It's a bad atmosphere, all this—there are influences—it isn't fair to +the girl, to Doris. Money be damned! I'll see you never have to ask your +wife for pocket money. No, I won't present it to you. We'll make it +together. There are a lot of buzzards sitting around here to-night, +calculating I'm loaded up to the brim and ready for a plucking. Well, +Tom, I'm going to fool them. I'm going to make them pay for the +wedding."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>The idea struck him. He burst out laughing. His eyes snapped with a +sudden project.</p> + +<p>"Here," he said, clapping Bojo on the shoulder. "Forget what you've +heard. Go in and take a look at Doris. She's a sight for tired eyes." He +held his hand. "Are you willing to risk your money with me—go it blind, +eh?"</p> + +<p>"Every cent I have, Mr. Drake," said Bojo, drawn to him by the dramatic +sympathies the older man knew how to arouse; "only I don't want any +favors. If we lose I lose."</p> + +<p>"We won't lose," said Drake and, drawing Bojo's arm under his, he added: +"Come on. I've got to get a smile on my face. So here goes."</p> + +<p>Bojo found Doris in the corner of the ballroom assiduously surrounded by +a black-coated hedge of young men. He had a moment's thrill at the sight +of her, radiant and dazzling with every art of dressmaker and +hairdresser, revealed in a sinuous arrangement of black chiffon with +mysterious sudden sheens of gold. She came to him at once, expectancy in +her eyes; and the thought that this prize was his, that hundreds would +watch them as they stood together, acknowledging his right, gave him a +sudden swift sense of power and conquest.</p> + +<p>"I was with your father," he said, in explanation, "to witness some +papers. Say, Doris, how every woman here must hate you to-night!"</p> + +<p>"It's all for you," she said, delighted. "Dance with me. Tell me what +happened. There's been a dreadful row, I know, for days. Mother and +father haven't spoken except in public, and Dolly's been moping."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It was something about the settlements. Your father was white-hot all +right."</p> + +<p>"We won't have more than a round or two," she said. "I've kept what I +could for you—the supper dance, of course. Every one is here!"</p> + +<p>"I should say so. Your mother is smiling all over. She even favored me. +Look out, though, Doris—she'll begin on you."</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 357px;"><a name="ILL_005" id="ILL_005"></a> +<img src="images/ill_005.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt=""'Just you wait; you're going to be one of the big men +some day!'"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'Just you wait; you're going to be one of the big men +some day!'"</span> +</div> + +<p>"Don't worry, Bojo," she said in a whisper, with a little pressure of +his arm. She was quite excited by the brilliance of the throng, at her +own personal triumph and the good looks of her partner. "I want +something I can make myself, and we'll do it too. Just you wait, you're +going to be one of the big men one of these days, and we'll have our +house and our parties—finer than this, too!"</p> + +<p>This time he fell into her mood, turning her over to another partner +with a confident smile, exhilarated with the thought of little +supremacies in regions of brilliant lights and dreamy music. Fred +DeLancy, back from a dance with Gladys Stone, stopped him with an +anecdote.</p> + +<p>"I say, Bojo, wish you could have seen some of the old hens inspecting +the palace. You know Mrs. Orchardson, Standard Oil? I was right back of +her when she wandered into some Louis or other room, and what did she +do? She ran her thumbnail into a partition and whispered to her +neighbor: 'Ours is real mahogany'! Don't they love one another, though?"</p> + +<p>By the buffet groups of men were smoking, glass in hand, Borneman and +Haggerdy talking business. In the ante-chamber where the great marble +staircase<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> came winding down, he found Patsie at bay repelling a group +of admirers. She signaled him frantically.</p> + +<p>"Bojo; rescue me. They're even quoting poetry to me!"</p> + +<p>She sprang away and down the stairs to his side, hurrying him off.</p> + +<p>"Faster, faster! Isn't there any place we can hide? My ears are dropping +off."</p> + +<p>"Patsie, I never should have known you!" he said, amazed.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm out!" she said, with an indignant pout. "How do you like me?"</p> + +<p>She stood away from him, a little malicious delight in her eyes at his +bewilderment, her chin saucily tilted, her profile turned, her little +hands balanced in the air.</p> + +<p>"This is the way the models pose. Well?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you were a child—" he said stupidly, troubled at the sudden +discovery of the woman.</p> + +<p>"Is that all?" she said, pretending displeasure.</p> + +<p>He checked an impulsive compliment and said a little angrily:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Patsie, you are going to make a terrible amount of trouble. I can +see that!"</p> + +<p>"Pooh!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and you like the mischief you're causing too. Don t fib!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I like it," she said, nodding her head. "Dolly and Doris stared at +me as if I were a ghost. Well, I'll show them I'm not such a savage."</p> + +<p>"I hope you won't change," he said.</p> + +<p>"Won't I?" she said, and to tease him she continued, "I'll show them!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> + +<p>He felt sentimentally moved to give her a lecture, but instead he said, +deeply moved:</p> + +<p>"I'd hate to think of your being different."</p> + +<p>"Oh, really?" she continued irrelevantly. "You didn't bother your soul +about me while you thought I was nothing but a tomboy and a terror! But +now when there are a lot of black flies buzzing around me—"</p> + +<p>"Now, Patsie, you know that isn't true!"</p> + +<p>She relented with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Do you really like me like this? No, don't say anything mushy. I see +you do. Oh, dear, I knew this old money would find me," she said, +suddenly perceiving a plump youngster with a smirch of a mustache +bearing down. "Please, Bojo, come and dance with me—often."</p> + +<p>He more than shared the evening with her, quite unconscious of the +effect she had made on him, constantly following her in the confusion of +the dances, pleased when at a distance she saw his look and smiled back +at him.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Meanwhile, in the buffet, Haggerdy and Borneman, in the midst of a +group, discussed their host; that is, Borneman discussed and Haggerdy, +stolid as a buffalo, with his great emotionless mask, nodded +occasionally.</p> + +<p>"Well, Dan's at the top," said Marcus Stone. "Dukes come high. What do +you think it cost him?"</p> + +<p>"Dukes are no longer a novelty," said Borneman. He was rather out of +place in this formal gathering,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> having about him a curious air of +always being in his shirt-sleeves. A long, sliding nose, lips pursed +like a catfish, every feature seemed alert and pointed to catch the +furthest whisper. Stone nodded and moved off. Borneman drew Haggerdy +into a corner.</p> + +<p>"Jim, I have reason to believe Drake's overloaded," he said.</p> + +<p>Haggerdy scratched his chin, thoughtfully, as much as to say, "quite +possible," and Borneman continued: "He's stocked up with Indiana +Smelter, and a lot of other things too. I happen to know. He's +long—mighty long of the market. A little short flurry might worry him +considerable. Now, do you know how I've figured it?"</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Dan Drake's a plunger, always was. This here duke has cost him +considerable—a million." He glanced at Haggerdy. "Two million +perhaps—and in securities, Jim; nothing speculative; gilt-edged bonds. +That's a million or two out of his reserve—do you get me?—and that's a +lot, when you're carrying a dozen deals at once."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Dan Drake's a plunger, remember that; he don't see one million +going out—without itching to see where another million's coming in—"</p> + +<p>Haggerdy nudged him quietly. At this moment Drake came through the crowd +and perceived them in consultation. A glance at their attitudes made him +divine the subject of their conversation.</p> + +<p>"Hello, boys," he said, coming up; "being properly attended to?"</p> + +<p>"Dan, that's a pretty fine duke you've got there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Darn sight more +intelligent looking than the one Fontaine picked up," said Borneman. +"Dukes are expensive articles though, Dan. Take more than a wheat corner +to settle up for this, I should say."</p> + +<p>"Been thinking so myself," said Drake cheerily. "Well, Al, if I made up +my mind to try a little flyer—just to pay for the wedding, you +understand—what would you recommend?"</p> + +<p>"What would <i>I</i> recommend?" said Borneman, startled.</p> + +<p>"Exactly. What do you think about general conditions?"</p> + +<p>"My feelings are," said Borneman, watching him warily, "the market's +top-heavy. Values are 'way above where they ought to be. Prices are +coming tumbling sooner or later, and then, by golly, it's going hard +with a lot of you fellows."</p> + +<p>"You're inclined to be bearish, eh?" said Drake, as though struck by the +thought.</p> + +<p>"I most certainly am."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't wonder if you're right, Al. I've a mind to follow your +advice. Sell one thousand Southern Pacific, one thousand Seaboard Air +Line, one thousand Pennsylvania, and one thousand Pittsburgh & New +Orleans. Just as a feeler, Al. Perhaps to-morrow I'll call you up and +increase that. Can't introduce you to any of the pretty girls—not +dancing? All right."</p> + +<p>Borneman caught his breath and looked at Haggerdy as Drake went off. If +there was one man he had fought persistently, at every turn biding his +time, it was Daniel Drake, who had thus come to him with an appearance +of frankness and exposed his game.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It's a bluff," he said excitedly. "He thinks he can fool me. He's in +the market, but he's in to buy."</p> + +<p>"Think so?" said Haggerdy profoundly.</p> + +<p>"Or he has the impudence to show me his game thinking I won't believe +him. Anyhow, Dan's got something started, and if I know the critter, +it's something big!"</p> + +<p>Haggerdy smiled and scratched his chin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>DRAKE'S GAME</h3> + +<p>The evening was still at its height as Daniel Drake left Haggerdy and +Borneman with their heads together puzzling over the significance of his +selling orders.</p> + +<p>"Let them crack that nut," he said, chuckling grimly. "Borneman will +worry himself sick for fear I'll catch him again." He looked around for +further opportunities, anxious to avail himself of the seeming chance +which had played so well into his plans. Across the room through the +shift and sudden yield of gay colors he saw the low, heavy-shouldered +figure of Gunther, the banker, in conversation with Fontaine and Marcus +Stone. Gunther, the simplest of human beings, a genius of common sense, +had even at this time assumed a certain legendary equality in Wall +Street, due to the possession of the unhuman gift of silence, that had +magnified in the popular imagination the traits of tenacity, patience +and stability which in the delicately constructed mechanism of +confidence and credit had made him an indispensable balance wheel, +powerful in his own right, yet irresistible in the intermarried forces +of industry he could set in motion. Fontaine was of the old landed +aristocracy; Stone, a Middle-Westerner, floated to wealth on the +miraculous flood of oil.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + +<p>Aware that every conversation would be noted, Drake allowed several +minutes to pass before approaching the group and, profiting by a +movement of the crowd, contrived to carry off Gunther on the pretext of +showing him a new purchase of Chinese porcelains in the library. They +remained a full twenty minutes, engrossed in the examination of the +porcelains and Renaissance bronzes, of which Gunther was a connoisseur, +and returned without a mention of matters financial. But as Wall Street +men are as credulous as children, this interview made an immense +impression, for Gunther was of such power that no broker was unwilling +to concede that the slightest move of his could be without significance.</p> + +<p>To be again in the arena of manipulation awakened all the boyish +qualities of cunning and excitement in Drake. In the next hour he +conversed with a dozen men seemingly bending before their advice, +bullish or bearish, mixing up his orders so adroitly that had the entire +list been spread before one man, it would have been impossible to say +which was the principal point of attack. At two o'clock, as the party +began to thin out, Borneman and Haggerdy came up to shake hands. +Borneman restless and worried, Haggerdy impassive and brooding.</p> + +<p>"What, going already? Haven't they been treating you right?" said Drake +jovially.</p> + +<p>"Dan, you've a great poker face," said Borneman slyly.</p> + +<p>"In what way?"</p> + +<p>"That was quite a little bluff you threw into us—those selling orders. +Orders are cheap <i>before</i> business hours."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p> + +<p>"So you think I'll call you up in the morning, bright and early, and +cancel?"</p> + +<p>Borneman nodded with a nervous, jerky motion of his head.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you've been sort of fretting over those orders all evening. +Trouble with you, Al, is <i>you</i> don't play poker: great game. Teaches you +to size up a bluff from a stacked hand."</p> + +<p>"I've got your game figured out this time all right," said Borneman, +with his ferret's squint.</p> + +<p>"Have you told Haggerdy?" said Drake laughing. "You have. Want a little +bet on it? A thousand I'll tell you exactly what you've figured out."</p> + +<p>He took a bill from his pocketbook and held it out tauntingly.</p> + +<p>"Are you game?"</p> + +<p>Borneman hesitated and frowned.</p> + +<p>"Come on," said Drake, with a mischievous twinkle, "the information's +worth something."</p> + +<p>This last decided Borneman. He nodded to Haggerdy.</p> + +<p>"My check to-morrow if you win. What exactly have I figured your game to +be?"</p> + +<p>"You've figured out that I am long to the guzzle in the market and that +I'm putting up a bluff at running down values to get you fellows to run +stocks up on me while I unload. Credit that thousand to my account. I'm +going to use it!"</p> + +<p>Haggerdy smiled grimly and handed over the bill, while Borneman, +completely perplexed, stood staring at the manipulator like a startled +child.</p> + +<p>"Al, don't buck up against me," said Drake, serious all at once. "Of +course you will, but remember I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> warned you. Let bygones be bygones or +trim some other fellow."</p> + +<p>"I don't forget as easy as that," said Borneman sullenly.</p> + +<p>"Great mistake," said Drake, with a mocking smile. "You let your +personal feelings get into your business—bad, very bad. You ought to be +like Haggerdy and me—no friends and no enemies. Well, Al, you will have +a crack at me, I know. If you've figured it out, you've got me. I may +have told you the truth. It's all very simple—either you're right or +you're wrong. Flip up a coin."</p> + +<p>Borneman went off mumbling. Haggerdy loitered, ostensibly to shake +hands.</p> + +<p>"Drake, you and I ought to do something together," he said slowly, with +his cold, lantern stare.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Instead of taking a fling, suppose we work up something worth while. +The market's ready for it."</p> + +<p>"And Borneman?"</p> + +<p>"Use him," said Haggerdy, with a trace of a smile.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, we might do something together," said Drake, pretending to +consider. "You might do me or I might do you."</p> + +<p>"I'm serious."</p> + +<p>"So am I." He shook hands and turned back for a final shot. "By the way, +Haggerdy, I'll tell you one thing. Your information's correct. That +federal suit is coming off. Didn't know I knew it? Lord bless you, I +passed it on to you!"</p> + +<p>He turned his back without waiting to watch the effect of this +disclosure and returned to the supper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> room, where he signaled Crocker +and drew him aside.</p> + +<p>"Tom, I'll have a little something for you to do to-morrow. It's about +time we started moving things. I'm going to put some orders in through +you and I'm going to operate some through one of my agents. Put this +away in your head—Joseph R. Skelly. Write it down when you get home. +Anything that comes through him, I stand behind. We won't do anything in +a rush, but we'll lay a few lines. To-morrow I want you to sell for +me—" He paused and deliberated, suddenly changing his mind. "No, do it +this way. Call me up from your office at twelve—no, eleven sharp. I've +got that wedding at three. Ask for me personally. Understand? All +right?"</p> + +<p>At half past three Fred DeLancy, Marsh and Bojo went out with the last +stragglers. Fred was in high spirits, keeping them in roars of laughter, +on the brisk walk home. He had been with Gladys Stone constantly all the +evening and the two friends had watched a whispered parting on the +stairs.</p> + +<p>"I believe it's a go," said Marsh, while DeLancy was passing the time of +day with the policeman at the corner. (Fred was assiduous in his +cultivation of the force; he called it "accident insurance.")</p> + +<p>"Something was settled," said Bojo nodding. "They've got an +understanding, I'll bet. I passed them once tucked in back of a palm and +they stopped talking like a shot. Wish we had the infant safely put +away, Fred."</p> + +<p>"So do I."</p> + +<p>The streets were unearthly stilled and inhuman as they came back to Ali +Baba Court, with all the windows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> black, and only the iron lanterns at +the entrances shining their foggy welcome.</p> + +<p>"Don't feel a bit like sleep," said Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Neither do I," said Marsh. He stood looking up at the incessantly +vigilant windows of the great newspaper office now in the charge of the +night watch. "Wonder what's filtering in there? I always feel guilty +when I cut a night. I suppose it's like the fascination of the tape. It +always gets me—the click of the telegraph."</p> + +<p>"How are things working out on the paper?" said Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Thanks, I'm getting into all sorts of trouble," said Marsh, rather +gloomily, he thought. "I'm finding out a lot of things I don't +know—sort of measles and mumps period. I had no right to be out +to-night. I say, if you get into any other good thing, let me know. I +may need it."</p> + +<p>Alone in his room, Bojo did not go to bed at once. He was nervously +awake, revolving in his mind too many new impressions, new ambitions and +strange philosophies. The evening at the Drakes had swept from him his +last prejudices against the adventurous life on which he had embarked. +There was something overpowering in the spectacle of society as he had +seen it, something so insolently triumphant and aloof from all plodding +standards, so dramatically enticing that he felt no longer compunctions +but only fierce desires. The appetite had entered his veins, infusing +its fever. The few words Drake had spoken to him had sent his hope +soaring. He was surprised, even a little alarmed, at the intensity which +awoke in him to risk the easy profits against a greater gamble.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p>The market went off a shade the next morning, rallied and then weakened +under a steady stream of selling orders. Rumors filled the air of +possible causes known only to the inside group, a conflict of big +interests, a suit for dissolution by a federal investigation. Something +was up— Drake's name was whispered about, along with Haggerdy's and a +western group. On the Exchange a hundred rumors came into existence like +newly hatched swarms of insects. Some one was steadily bearing eastern +railroads and some one as obstinately supporting them, but who remained +a mystery, eagerly discussed in little knots, fervently alive to a +firmer touch on the strings of speculation.</p> + +<p>At eleven o'clock, true to appointment, Bojo called up Daniel Drake on +his private wire and received an order to buy at once 500 shares of +Seaboard Air Line and sell 500 of Pittsburgh & New Orleans. He turned +the order over to Forshay, with the caution of secrecy that had been +transmitted to him. This transaction created quite a flurry, and after a +consultation Forshay was delegated to sound Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Personal order from the old man himself?" he said, when he had reported +to him the execution of the order. "Nothing confidential, of course. +Happened to hear you telephone."</p> + +<p>"Why, no," said Bojo, telephoning in his report.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you've an inkling what's up? Naturally you have," said Forshay. +"Now, I'm not going to beat around the bush or worm things out of you. +We're mighty grateful to you, Tom, for the shot at Indiana Smelter. If +you can let us in on anything, why do so. You understand. I've been +talking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> things over with Hauk and Flaspoller. If Drake's going into the +market, we don't see why we can't be of use. 'Course, on account of your +relations, he probably wouldn't want to do much openly here. Too many +eyes on us. But what we want you to put up to him is—we can cover +things up as well as any one else. Any orders to be placed quietly, we +can work through certain channels—you understand. By the way, doing +anything on your own account?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet."</p> + +<p>"Don't want to talk?"</p> + +<p>Bojo shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I'm quite in the dark, Mr. Forshay," he said cautiously.</p> + +<p>Forshay took a few steps thoughtfully about the room, stopping curiously +to examine the tape and came back.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Tom, if there's anything on a big scale on, why shouldn't we +get a whack at it? You see, I'm putting my cards on the table. We +consider you a sort of a member of the firm. I made you a proposition +once. Perhaps we can better it now." He hesitated, rearranging the +sheets on the desk before him. "I'm trying to see how we could work this +out. It's not exactly etiquette to give commissions down here—though +why the Lord knows. Suppose I work out a scale of salary—to meet, say, +certain eventualities. Let me think that over. Meanwhile here's what +we'd be glad to do. You can't be calling up Drake out here where any one +can be pricking up his ears. Now it may fit in his plans or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> not, but +there's no harm trying. If he wants to operate through us, and have +things well covered up, it might be better for you to handle it from my +room on a special wire. We'll fix you up in there; glad to." He stopped, +considered Bojo thoughtfully, and added: "Tom, we want some of Drake's +business. No reason in the world why you shouldn't get it. You know us. +You know we can be trusted, and you know we are appreciative—understand?</p> + +<p>"I can try," said Bojo doubtfully.</p> + +<p>But to his surprise when he approached Drake on the following night he +found a receptive listener.</p> + +<p>"Don't know but what I could use your firm," said the operator +thoughtfully. "Not that I'm rushing matters too much, Tom. The market's +pretty strong at present. I want to feel it out. Maybe I could use +them—for what I want them to know. Get your raise, but keep out of the +firm—for the present, anyhow. Just now I'm holding back a little, Tom, +a little early to uncover my game—tell you, though, what you might do; +sell five hundred shares a day of Pittsburgh & New Orleans for me, but +tell them to break it up 50 here and 50 there. I don't mind telling you +one thing, but keep it under your belt; no confidences this time." He +looked up sharply at the young fellow, who twisted on his heel under the +look. "Confidences sometimes react and I don't want the cat out of the +bag. What's Pittsburgh & New Orleans quoted?"</p> + +<p>"47-1/8 Closing," said Bojo.</p> + +<p>"A month from to-day it'll sell below thirty. And another thing, Tom, +don't go trying any fliers on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> your own hook, without coming to me. You +had fool's luck once, don't try it again. Remember I'm manipulating this +pool and I have my ways!"</p> + +<p>This time Bojo was under no illusions. Despite his warning he knew in +the bottom of his heart that when the moment came he would operate for +himself. However, he resolved on two things: to share his secret with no +one and to watch the course of Pittsburgh and New Orleans for a week +before making up his mind. The first flurry had subsided. To the +surprise of every one the attack ceased over night. The list resumed its +normal position with the exception of several southern railroad stocks, +notably Pittsburgh & New Orleans, which remained heavy, declining +fractionally.</p> + +<p>During these days, Bojo resolutely stuck to his resolve, imparting no +information, keeping out of the market himself. On the announcement of +the first order for Drake, his salary was raised to $125 a week and the +affection of the firm showed itself in several invitations to enter the +consultation. Each day Forshay found opportunity to ask in a casual way:</p> + +<p>"Not doing anything on your own hook yet, eh? Sort of watching +developments?"</p> + +<p>Ten days after the first attack, another flurry arrived, but this time +the attack was from the open, from all the bear cohorts who for months +had been grumbling in vain, predicting disaster from inflation and the +panic that must follow inevitable readjustment. Borneman and his crowd +sold openly and viciously, raiding all stocks alike, particularly +industrials. That day, among other orders, Hauk, Flaspoller<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> and Forshay +sold 10,000 shares of Pittsburgh & New Orleans which broke from 44 to +39-5/8 under savage pounding. Crocker resisted no longer and sold a +thousand for his own account. That day Forshay failed to make his usual +inquiry.</p> + +<p>After three days of convulsive advances and speedy falls, the attack +again slackened, but this time the whole list rallied with difficulty, +receding almost imperceptibly, but slowly yielding under a decided +change of public sentiment. When Pittsburgh & New Orleans touched 38, +Bojo squared his conscience to the extent of exacting the most solemn +promises of undying secrecy from Fred DeLancy before communicating to +them the information that had now become a conviction, that he had +placed $50,000 in a pool which Drake was engineering to sell the market +short and make a killing of Pittsburgh & New Orleans. He imparted the +confidence not simply because it had become an almost intolerable secret +to carry, but for deeper reasons. Fred DeLancy had sunk half of his +former profits in the purchase of an automobile and in free spending, +and Marsh was faced with serious losses on the paper from a strike of +compositors and a falling of advertising as the result of the new +radical policy of the editorial page.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>BOJO BUTTS IN</h3> + +<p>Sunday the four were accustomed to lounge through the morning and +saunter down the Avenue for a late luncheon at the Brevoort. On the +present date, Granning was stretched on the window-seat re-reading a +favorite novel of Dumas, Bojo and Marsh pulling at their pipes in a deep +discussion of an important rumor which might considerably affect the +downward progress of Pittsburgh & New Orleans—a possible investigation +by certain Southern States which was the talk of the office—while Fred +at the piano was replaying by ear melodies from last night's comic +opera, when the telephone rang.</p> + +<p>"You answer it, Bojo," said DeLancy, "and hist, be cautious!"</p> + +<p>Bojo did as commanded, saying almost immediately:</p> + +<p>"Party for you, Freddie."</p> + +<p>"Male or female voice?"</p> + +<p>"Male."</p> + +<p>DeLancy rose with a look of relief and tripped over to the receiver. But +almost immediately he crumpled up with a simulation of despair. Bojo and +Marsh exchanged a glance, and Granning ceased reading, at muffled sounds +of explanation which reached them from the other room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Pinched," said DeLancy, returning gloomy and, flopping on the piano +stool, he struck an angry chord.</p> + +<p>The three friends, according to male etiquette, maintained an attitude +of correct incomprehension while Fred marched lugubriously up and down +the keyboard. "Holy cats, now I am in for it!"</p> + +<p>"Louise Varney?" said Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Louise! And I swore on my grandmother's knuckles I was going up country +this afternoon. Beautiful—beautiful prospect! I say, Bojo, you got me +into this—you've got to stick by me!"</p> + +<p>"What's that mean?"</p> + +<p>"Shooting off in the car with us for luncheon. For the love of me, stand +by a fellow, will you?"</p> + +<p>Bojo hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Marsh with a wary look. "If you don't, the infant'll come +back married!"</p> + +<p>"Quite possible," said DeLancy, disconsolately.</p> + +<p>"I'll go if you'll stand for the lecture," said Bojo severely, for +DeLancy had become a matter of serious deliberation.</p> + +<p>"Anything. You can't rub it in too hard," said Fred, who went to the +mirror to see if his hair was turning gray. "And say, for Mike's sake, +think up a new lie— I'm down to dentist's appointments and mother's +come to town."</p> + +<p>Delighted at Bojo's adherence that saved him from the prospects of a +difficult tête-à-tête, he began to recover his spirits; but Bojo, +assuming a severe countenance, awaited his opportunity.</p> + +<p>"I say, don't look at me with that pulpit expression," said DeLancy an +hour later as they streaked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> through the Park on their way to upper +Riverside. "What have I done?"</p> + +<p>"Fred, you're getting in deep!"</p> + +<p>"Don't I know it?" said that impressionable young man, jerking the car +ahead. "Well, get me out."</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure you want to get out," said Bojo.</p> + +<p>DeLancy confessed; in fact, confession was a pleasant and +well-established habit with him.</p> + +<p>"Bojo, it's no use. When I'm away from her, I can call myself a fool in +six languages. I <i>am</i> a fool. I know I have no business hanging round; +but, say, the moment she turns up I'm ready to lie down and roll over."</p> + +<p>"It's puppy love."</p> + +<p>"I admit it."</p> + +<p>"She's just going to keep you dangling, Fred. You know as well as I do +you haven't a chance even if you were idiotic enough to think of +marrying her. She's not losing her head, you can bet on that. That's why +the mother is on deck."</p> + +<p>"Oh, there are half a dozen Yaps with a wad she could have, and any time +she wants to whistle," said Fred pugnaciously.</p> + +<p>Bojo decided to change his tactics.</p> + +<p>"I thought you were cleverer. Thought you'd planned out your whole +career; remember the night up on the Astor roof—you weren't going to +make any mistakes, oh no! You were going to marry a million. You weren't +going to get caught!"</p> + +<p>"Shut up, Bojo. Can't you see how rotten I'm in it? I'm doing my best to +break away."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Get up a row then and stay away."</p> + +<p>"I've tried, but she's too clever for that. Honest, Tom, I think she's +fond of me."</p> + +<p>Bojo groaned.</p> + +<p>"She thinks you're a millionaire with your confounded style, and your +confounded car—that's all!"</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe I will be," said DeLancy with a sudden revulsion to +cheerfulness, "if Pittsburgh & New Orleans keeps a-sliding."</p> + +<p>"Suppose we get caught."</p> + +<p>"I say, there's no danger of that?" said Fred, alarmed. "I'm in deep."</p> + +<p>"No, not much, but there's always the chance of a slip," said Bojo, who +began to wonder if a successful issue would not further complicate +Fred's sentimental entanglements.</p> + +<p>At this moment they came to a stop, and Fred said in a comforting tone:</p> + +<p>"Louise'll be furious because I brought you."</p> + +<p>"You old humbug," said Bojo, perceiving the eagerness in Mr. Fred's +eyes. "You're just tickled to death."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps I am," said Fred, laughing at his friend's serious face. +"Say, she has a way with her—hasn't she now?"</p> + +<p>Miss Louise Varney did not seem over-delighted at the spectacle of a +guest in the party as she came running out, backed by the vigilant +dowager figure of Mrs. Varney, who never let her daughter out of her +charge. But whatever irritation she might have felt she concealed under +a charming smile, while Mrs. Varney, accustomed to swinging in solitary +dignity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> in the back seat, welcomed him with genuine enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Crocker, isn't this grand! You and me can sit here flirting +on the back seat and let them whisper sweet nothings." She tapped him on +the arm, saying in a half voice: "Say, they certainly are a good looking +team now, ain't they?"</p> + +<p>The old Grenadier, as she was affectionately termed by her daughter's +admirers, was out in her war paint, dressed like a débutante, fatly +complacent and smiling with the prospect of a delicious lunch at the end +of the drive.</p> + +<p>"Say, I think Fred's the sweetest feller," she began, beaming on Bojo, +"and so smart too. Louise says he could make a forchin in vaudeville. I +think he's much cleverer than that Pinkle feller who gets two-fifty a +week for giving imitations on the pianner. Why haven't you been around, +Mr. Crocker?" She nudged him again, her maternal gaze fondly fixed on +her daughter. "Isn't she a dream in that cute little hat? My Lord, I +should think all the men would be just crazy about her."</p> + +<p>"Most of them are, I should say," said Bojo, and, smiling, he nodded in +the direction of Fred DeLancy, who was at that moment in the throes of a +difficult explanation.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Varney gave a huge sigh and proceeded confidentially.</p> + +<p>"'Course Louise's got a great future, every one says, and vaudeville +does pay high when you get to be a top notcher; but, my sakes, Mr. +Crocker, money isn't everything in this world, as I often told her—"</p> + +<p>"Mother, be quiet—you're talking too much,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> said Miss Louise Varney +abruptly, whose alert little ear was always trained for maternal +indiscretions. Mrs. Varney, as was her habit, withdrew into an attitude +of sulky aloofness, not to relax until they were cozily ensconced at a +corner table in a wayside inn for luncheon. By this time Miss Varney had +evidently decided to accept the protestations of DeLancy, and peace +having been declared and the old Grenadier mollified by her favorite +broiled lobster and a carafe of beer, the party proceeded gaily. Fred +DeLancy, in defiance of Bojo's presence, beaming and fascinated, +exchanged confidential whispers and smiles with the girl which each +fondly believed unperceived.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord," thought Bojo to himself, now quite alarmed, "this is a +pickle! He's in for it fair this time and no mistake. She can have him +any time she wants to. Of course she thinks he's loaded with diamonds."</p> + +<p>Mr. Fred's attitude, in fact, would have deceived a princess of the +royal blood.</p> + +<p>"Louis, get up something tasty," he said to the bending <i>maître +d'hôtel</i>. "You know what I like. Don't bother me with the menu. Louis," +he added confidentially, "is a jewel—the one man in New York you can +trust." He initialed the check without examining it and laid down a +gorgeous tip with a careless flip of the finger.</p> + +<p>"The little idiot," thought Bojo. "I wonder what bills he's run up. +Decidedly I must get a chance at the girl and open her eyes."</p> + +<p>Chance favored him, or rather Miss Varney herself. Luncheon over, while +Fred went out for the car, she said abruptly:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Let's run out in the garden. I want to talk to you. Don't worry, mamma. +It's all right." And as Mrs. Varney, true to her grenadierial instincts, +prepared to object, she added with a shrug of her shoulders: "Now just +doze away like a dear. We can't elope, you know!"</p> + +<p>"What can she want to say to me?" thought Bojo curiously, suffering her +to lead him laughing out through the glass doors into the pebbled paths. +Despite his growing alarm, Bojo was forced to admit that Miss Varney, +with her quick Japanese eyes and bubbling humor, was a most fascinating +person, particularly when she exerted herself to please in little +intimate ways.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Crocker, you don't like me," she said abruptly. He defended himself +badly. "Don't fib—you are against me. Why? On account of Fred?"</p> + +<p>"I don't dislike you—no one could," he said, yielding to the persuasion +of her smile, "but if you want to know, I am worried over Fred. He is +head over heels in love with you, young lady."</p> + +<p>"And why not?"</p> + +<p>"Do you care for him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—very much," she said quietly, "and I want you to be our friend."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, I really believe she does," he thought, panic-stricken. +Aloud he said abruptly: "If that is what you want, let me ask you a +question. Please forgive me for being direct. Do you know that Fred +hasn't a cent in the world but what he makes? You can judge yourself how +he spends that."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But Fred told me he had made a lot lately and I know he expects to make +ten times that in something—" she stopped hastily at a look in Bojo's +face. "Why, what's wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Varney—you haven't put anything into it, have you?</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have," she said after a moment's hesitation. "Why, he told me +you yourself told him he couldn't lose. You don't mean to say there's +any—any danger?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry. He shouldn't have told you! There's always a risk. I'm sorry +he let you do that."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I oughtn't to have let it out," she said contritely. "Promise not +to tell him. I didn't mean to! Besides—it's not much really."</p> + +<p>Bojo shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Crocker— Tom," she said, laying her hand on his arm, "don't turn +him against me. I'm being square with you. I do care for Fred. I don't +care if he hasn't a cent in the world; really I'm not that sort, +honest."</p> + +<p>"And your mother?"</p> + +<p>She was silent, and he seized the advantage.</p> + +<p>"Why get into something that'll only hurt you both? Suppose things turn +out all right. He'll spend every cent he'll make in a few months. Now +listen, Louise. You're not made for life in a flat; neither is he. It +would be a miserable disaster. I'm sorry," he said, seeing her eyes +fill. "But what I say is true. You've got a career, a brilliant career +with money and fame ahead; don't spoil your chances and don't spoil +his."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" she said, flaring up. "Then there is some one else! +I knew it! That's where he's going this afternoon!"</p> + +<p>"There is no one else," he said, lying outrageously. "I've warned you. +I've told you the real situation. That's all."</p> + +<p>"Let's go back," she said abruptly, and she went in silence as far as +the house, where she turned on him. "I don't believe what you've told +me. I know he is not poor or a beggar as you say. Would he be going +around with the crowd he does? No!" With an upspurt of rage of which he +had not believed her capable, she added: "Now I warn you. What we do is +our affair. Don't butt in or there'll be trouble!"</p> + +<p>On the return, doubtless for several reasons, she elected to send her +mother in front, and to keep Bojo company on the back seat, where as +though regretting her one revealing flash of temper, she sought to be as +gracious and entertaining as possible. Despite a last whispered appeal +accompanied by a soft pressure of the arm and a troubled glance of the +eyes, no sooner had they deposited mother and daughter than Bojo broke +out:</p> + +<p>"Fred, what in the name of heaven possessed you to put Louise Varney's +money in a speculation? How many others have you told?"</p> + +<p>"Only a few—very few."</p> + +<p>"But, Fred, think of the responsibility! Now look here, straight from +the shoulder—do you know what's going to happen? Before you know it, +you're going to wake up and find yourself married to Louise Varney!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Don't jump on me, Bojo," said Fred, miserably. "I'm scared to death +myself."</p> + +<p>"But, Fred, you can't do such a thing. Louise is pretty—attractive +enough—I'll admit it—and straight; but the mother, Fred—you can't do +it, you'll just drop out. It'll be the end of you. Man, can't you see +it? I thought you prided yourself on being a man of the world. Look at +your friends. There's Gladys Stone—crazy about you. You know it. Are +you going to throw all that away!"</p> + +<p>"If I was sure of a hundred thousand dollars I believe I'd marry Louise +to-morrow!" said Fred with a long breath. "Call me crazy—I am crazy—a +raving, tearing fool, but that doesn't help. Lord, nothing helps!"</p> + +<p>"Fred, answer me one question. We all thought, the night of the ball, +you and Gladys Stone had come to an understanding. Is that true?"</p> + +<p>Fred turned his head and groaned.</p> + +<p>"I'm a cad, a horrible, beastly little cad!"</p> + +<p>"Good Lord, is it as bad as that!" said Bojo. "But, Fred, old boy, how +did it happen? How did you ever get in so deep!"</p> + +<p>"How do I know?" said DeLancy miserably. "It was just playing around. +Other men were crazy over her. I never meant to be serious in the +beginning—and then—then I was caught."</p> + +<p>"Fred, old fellow, you've got to get hold of yourself. Will you let me +butt in?"</p> + +<p>"I wish to God you would."</p> + +<p>That night Bojo sent a long letter off to Doris, who was staying in the +Berkshires with Gladys Stone as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> guest. As a result the two young men +departed for a week-end of winter sports. On the Pullman they stowed +their valises and wandered back into the smoker where the first person +Bojo saw, bound for the same destination, was young Boskirk.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>SNOW MAGIC</h3> + +<p>Boskirk and Bojo greeted each other with that excessive cordiality which +the conventions of society impose upon two men who hate each other +cordially but are debarred from the primeval instincts to slay.</p> + +<p>"He wouldn't gamble, he wouldn't take a risk! Oh no, nothing human about +him," said Bojo to Fred, sending a look of antagonism at Boskirk, who +was adjusting his glasses and spreading the contents of a satchel on the +table before him.</p> + +<p>"The human cash-register!" said DeLancy. "Born at the age of forty-two, +middle names Caution, Conservatism, and the Constitution. Favorite +romance—Statistics."</p> + +<p>"Thank you!" said Bojo, somewhat mollified.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">"There was a young man named Boskirk</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Who never his duty would shirk,—"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>began DeLancy—and forthwith retired into intellectual seclusion to +complete the limerick.</p> + +<p>The spectacle of Boskirk immersed in business detail irritated Bojo +immeasurably. The feeling it aroused in him was not jealousy but rather +a sense that some one was threatening his right and his property.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>A complete and insidious change had been worked in his moral fiber. The +hazardous speculation to which he was now committed, which was nothing +but the sheerest and most vicious form of gambling, the wrecking of +property, would have been impossible to him six months before. But he +had lived too long in the atmosphere of luxury, and too close to the +master adventurers of that speculative day. Luxury had become a second +nature to him; contact with men who could sell him out twenty times over +had brought him the parching hunger for money. All other ideals had +yielded before a new ideal—force. To impose one's self, making one's +own laws, brushing aside weak scruples, planning above ridiculously +simple and obvious schemes of legal conduct for the ordering of the +multitude, silencing criticism by the magnitude of the operation—a +master where a weak man ended a criminal:—this was the new scheme of +life which he was gradually absorbing.</p> + +<p>He had become worldly with the confidence of succeeding. Whatever +compunctions he had formerly felt about a marriage with Doris he had +dismissed as pure sentimentality. There remained only a certain pride, a +desire to know his worth by some master stroke. In this fierce need, he +had lost moderation and caution. With the steady decline of Pittsburgh & +New Orleans, his appetite had increased. It was no longer a fair profit +he wanted, but something miraculous. He had sold hundreds of shares, +placing always a limit, vowing to be satisfied, and always going beyond +it. He had plunged first to the amount of thirty odd thousand, reserving +the fifty thousand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> which was pledged to the pool, but which he had not +been called on to deliver. But this fifty thousand remained a horrible +ever-present temptation. He resisted at first, borrowing five thousand +from Marsh when the rage of selling drove him deeper in; then finally, +absolutely confident, he had yielded, without much shock to his +conscience, and drawn each day until on this morning he had drawn on the +last ten thousand as collateral.</p> + +<p>And still Pittsburgh & New Orleans receded, heaping up before his mind +fantastic profits.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">"When asked, 'Don't you tire,'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">He said, 'Di diddledee dire—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">I never can get enough work.'"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>finished Fred with a grimace. "That's pretty bad—but so's the subject."</p> + +<p>"Look here, Fred," said Bojo, thus recalled from the tyranny of figures +which kept swirling before his eyes. "I want to talk to you. I'm worried +about your letting Louise Varney in on Pittsburgh & New Orleans; besides +I suspect you've plunged a darned sight deeper than you ought."</p> + +<p>And from the moral superiority of a man of force, he read him a lecture +on the danger to the mere outsider of risking all on one hazard—a +sensible pointed warning which DeLancy accepted contritely, in utter +ignorance of the preacher's own perilous position.</p> + +<p>It was well after seven when they stepped out on the icy station amid +the gay crowd of week-enders. Patsie, at the reins, halloed to them from +a rakish cutter, and the next moment they were off over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> crackling +snow with long, luminous, purple shadows at their sides, racing past +other sleighs with jingling bells and shrieks of recognition.</p> + +<p>"Heavens, Patsie, you're worse than Fred with his car! I say, look +out—you missed that cutter by a foot," said Bojo, who had taken the +seat beside the young Eskimo at an imperious command.</p> + +<p>"Pooh, that's nothing!" said that reckless person. "Watch this." With a +sudden swerve she drew past a contending sleigh and gained the head of +the road by a margin so narrow that the occupants of the back seat broke +into many cries.</p> + +<p>"Here, let me out— Murder!— Police!"</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, the snow's lovely and soft!" Patsie shouted back, +delighted. "Turned over myself yesterday—doesn't hurt a bit."</p> + +<p>This encouraging information was received with frantic cries and demands +on Bojo to take the reins.</p> + +<p>"Don't you dare," said the gay lady indignantly, setting her feet firmly +and flinging all the weight of her shoulders against a sudden break of +the spirited team.</p> + +<p>"Pulling pretty hard," said Bojo, watching askance the riotous struggle +that whirled past cottage and evergreen and filled the air with a snowy +bombardment from the scurrying hoofs. "Say when, if you need me."</p> + +<p>"I <i>won't</i>! Tell the back seat to jump if I shout!"</p> + +<p>"Holy murder!" exclaimed Fred DeLancy, who so far forgot his animosities +as to cling to Boskirk, possibly with the idea of providing himself a +cushion in case of need.</p> + +<p>"Are they awfully scared?" said Patsie in a delighted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> whisper. "Yes? +Just you wait till we get to the gate. That will make them howl! How's +your nose—frozen?</p> + +<p>"Glorious!"</p> + +<p>"Too cold for Doris and the rest. Catch them getting chapped up. Their +idea of winter sports is popping popcorn by the fire. Thank heaven +you've arrived, Bojo! I'm suffocating. Hold tight!"</p> + +<p>"Hold tight!" sang out Bojo, not without some apprehension as the +sleigh, without slackening speed, approached the sudden swerve which led +through massive stone columns into the Drake estate. The quick turn +raised them on edge, skidding over the beaten snow so that the sleigh +came up with a bump against the farther pillar and then shot forward up +the long hill crowned with blazing porches and to a stop at last, +saluted by the riotous acclaim of a dozen dogs of all sizes and breeds.</p> + +<p>"Scared—honor-bright?" said Patsie, leaping out as a groom came up to +take the horses.</p> + +<p>"Never again!" said DeLancy, springing to terra firma with a groan of +relief, while Boskirk looked at the reckless girl with a disapproving +shake of his head.</p> + +<p>They went stamping into the great hall to the warmth of a great log +blaze, Patsie dancing ahead, shedding toboggan cap and muffler riotously +on the way, for a dignified footman to gather in.</p> + +<p>"Don't look so disappointed!" she cried, laughing, as the three young +men looked about expectantly. "The parlor beauties are upstairs +splashing in paint and powder, getting ready for the grand entrance!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + +<p>Boskirk and DeLancy went off to their rooms while Bojo, at a sign from +Patsie, remained behind.</p> + +<p>"Well?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Bojo, do me a favor—a great favor," she said instantly, seizing the +lapels of his coat. "It's moonlight to-night and we've got the most +glorious coast for a toboggan and, Bojo, I'm just crazy to go. After +dinner, won't you? Please say yes."</p> + +<p>"Why, we'll get up a party," said Bojo, hesitating and tempted.</p> + +<p>"Party? Catch those mollycoddles getting away from the steam-heaters! +Now, Bojo, be a dear. You're the only real being I've had here in weeks. +Besides, if you have any spunk you'll do it," she added artfully.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Just let Doris get her fill of that old fossil of a Boskirk. Show your +independence. Bojo, please do it for me!"</p> + +<p>She clung to him, coquetting with her eyes and smile with the dangerous +inconscient coquetry of a child, and this radiance and rosy youth, so +close to him, so intimately offered, brought him a disturbing emotion. +He turned away so as not to meet the sparkling, pleading glance.</p> + +<p>"Young lady," he said with assumed gruffness, "I see you are learning +entirely too fast. I believe you are actually flirting with me."</p> + +<p>"Then you will!" she cried gleefully. "Hooray!" She flung her arms about +him in a rapturous squeeze and fled like a wild animal in light, +graceful bounds up the stairs, before he could qualify his +acquiescence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + +<p>When he came down dressed for dinner, Doris was flitting about the +library, waiting his coming. She glanced correctly around to forestall +eavesdroppers, and offered him her cheek.</p> + +<p>"Is this a skating costume?" he said, glancing quizzically at the +trailing, mysterious silken ballgown of lavender and gold, which +enfolded her graceful figure like fragrant petals. "By the way, why +didn't you let me know I was to have a rival?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be silly," she said, brushing the powder from his sleeve. "I was +furious. It was all mother's doings."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you look furious!" he said to tease her. "Never mind, Doris, +General Managers must calculate on all possibilities."</p> + +<p>She closed his lips with an indignant movement of her scented fingers, +looking at him reproachfully.</p> + +<p>"Bojo, don't be horrid. Marry Boskirk? I'd just as soon marry a mummy. I +should be petrified with boredom in a week."</p> + +<p>"He's in love with you."</p> + +<p>"He? He couldn't love anything. How ridiculous! Heavens, just to think +I'll have to talk his dreary talk sends creeping things up and down my +back."</p> + +<p>Bojo professed to be unconvinced, playing the offended and jealous +lover, not perhaps without an ulterior motive, and they were in the +midst of a little tiff when the others arrived. Mrs. Drake did not dare +to isolate him completely, but she placed Boskirk on Doris's right, and +to carry out his assumed irritation Bojo devoted himself to Patsie, who +rattled away heedless of where her chatter hit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dinner over, Bojo, relenting a little, sought to organize a general +party, but meeting with no success went off, heedless of reproachful +glances, to array himself in sweater and boots.</p> + +<p>Twenty minutes later they were on the toboggan, Patsie tucked in front, +laughing back at him over her shoulder with the glee of the escapade. +Below them the banked track ran over the dim, white slopes glowing in +the moonlight.</p> + +<p>"All you have to do is to keep it from wobbling off the track with your +foot," said Patsie.</p> + +<p>"How are you—warm enough? Wrap up tight!" he said, pushing the toboggan +forward until it tilted on the iced crest. "Ready?"</p> + +<p>"Let her go!"</p> + +<p>He flung himself down on his side, her back against his shoulder, and +with a shout they were off, whistling into the frosty night, shooting +down the steep incline, faster and faster, rocking perilously, as the +smooth, flat toboggan rose from the trough and tilted against the +inclined sides, swerving back into place at a touch of his foot, rising +and falling with the curved slopes, shooting past clustered trees that +rushed by them like inky storm-clouds, flashing smoothly at last on to +the level.</p> + +<p>"Lean to the left!" she called to him, as they reached a banked curve.</p> + +<p>"When?"</p> + +<p>"Now!" Her laugh rang out as they rose almost on the side and sped into +the bend. "Hold tight, there's a jump in a minute— Now!"</p> + +<p>Their bodies stiffened against each other, her hair sweeping into his +eyes, blinding him as the toboggan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> rose fractionally from the ground +and fell again.</p> + +<p>"Gorgeous!"</p> + +<p>"Wonderful!"</p> + +<p>They glided on smoothly, with slacking speed, a part of the stillness +that lay like the soft fall of snow over the luminous stretches and the +clustered mysterious shadows; without a word exchanged, held by the +witchery of the night, and the soft, fairylike crackling voyage. Then +gradually, imperceptibly, at last the journey ended. The toboggan came +to a stop in a glittering region of white with a river bank and elfish +bushes somewhere at their side, and ahead a dark rise against the +horizon with lights like pin-pricks far off, and on the air, from +nowhere, the tinkle of sleigh-bells, but faint, shaken by some +will-o'-the-wisp perhaps.</p> + +<p>"Are you glad you came?" she said at last, without moving.</p> + +<p>"Very glad."</p> + +<p>"Think of sitting around talking society when you can get out here," she +said indignantly. "Oh, Bojo, I'm never going to stand it. I think I'll +take the veil."</p> + +<p>He laughed, but softly, with the feeling of one who understands, as +though in that steep plunge the icy air had cleansed his brain of all +the hot, fierce worldly desires for money, power, and vanities which had +possessed it like a fever.</p> + +<p>"I wish we could sit here like this for hours," she said, unconsciously +resting against his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I wish we could, too, Drina," he answered, meditating.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<p>She glanced back at him.</p> + +<p>"I like you to call me Drina," she said.</p> + +<p>"Drina when you are serious, Patsie when you are trying to upset +sleighs."</p> + +<p>"Yes, there are two sides of me, but no one knows the other." She sat a +moment as though hesitating on a confidence, and suddenly sprang up. +"Game for another?"</p> + +<p>"A dozen others!"</p> + +<p>They caught up the rope together, but suddenly serious she stopped.</p> + +<p>"Bojo?"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Sometimes I think you and Doris are not a bit in love."</p> + +<p>"What makes you think that?" he said, startled.</p> + +<p>"I don't know—you don't act—not as I would act—not as I should think +people would act in love. Am I awfully impertinent?"</p> + +<p>Troubled, he made no answer.</p> + +<p>"Nothing is decided, of course," he said at last, rather surprised at +the avowal.</p> + +<p>They tramped up the hill, averting their heads occasionally as truant +gusts of wind whirled snow-sprays in their eyes, chatting confidentially +on less intimate subjects.</p> + +<p>"Let's go softly and peek in," she said, returning into her mischievous +self as the great gabled house afire with lights loomed before them. +They stood, shoulder to shoulder, peeping about a protecting tree at the +group in the drawing-room. Mr. Drake was reading under the lamp, Fred +and Gladys ensconced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> in the bay window, while Doris at the phonograph +had resorted to Caruso.</p> + +<p>"Heavens, what an orgy!— Sh-h. Hurry now."</p> + +<p>A second time they went plunging into the night, close together, more +sober, the silence cut only by the hissing rush and an occasional +warning from Drina, as each obstacle sprang past. But her voice was no +longer hilarious with the glee of a child; it was attuned to the hush +and slumber of the countryside.</p> + +<p>"I hate the city!" she said rebelliously when again they had come to a +stop. "I hate the life they want me to lead."</p> + +<p>All at once a quick resentment came to him, at the thought that she +should change and be turned into worldly ways.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you're not made for a social career, Patsie," he said +slowly. "I would hate to think of your being different."</p> + +<p>"You can't say what you want, or do what you want, or let people know +what you feel," she said in an outburst. "Just let them try to marry me +off to any old duke or count and see what'll happen!"</p> + +<p>"Why, no one wants to marry you off yet, Patsie," he said in dismay.</p> + +<p>"I'm not so sure." She was silent a moment. "Do you think it's awful to +hate your family—not Dad, but all the rest—to want to run away, and be +yourself—be natural? Well, that's just the way I feel!"</p> + +<p>"Is that the way you feel?" he said slowly.</p> + +<p>She nodded, looking away.</p> + +<p>"I want to be real, Bojo." She shuddered. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> know Dolly's +unhappy—there was some one she did care for— I know. It must be +terrible to marry like that—terrible! It would kill me—oh, I know it!"</p> + +<p>They were silent; come to that moment where secret carriers are near, +she still a little shy, he afraid of himself.</p> + +<p>"We must go back now," he said after a long pause. "We must, Drina."</p> + +<p>"Oh, must we!"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Will you come out to-morrow night?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he said confusedly.</p> + +<p>He held out his hand and raised her to her feet.</p> + +<p>"Come."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to go back," she said, yielding reluctantly. She threw out +her arms, drawing a long breath, her head flung back in the path of the +moonbeams with the unconscious instinct of the young girl for enchanting +the male. "You don't want to go either. Now do you?"</p> + +<p>He made no reply, fidgeting with the rope.</p> + +<p>"Now be nice and say you don't!"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't," he said abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Drina?"</p> + +<p>"Drina."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 235px;"><a name="ILL_006" id="ILL_006"></a> +<img src="images/ill_006.jpg" width="235" height="500" alt=""'Drina, dear child,' he said in a whisper"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'Drina, dear child,' he said in a whisper"</span> +</div> + +<p>She took his arm, laughing a low, pleased laugh, quite unconscious of +all the havoc she was causing, never analyzing the moods of the night +and the soul which were stealing over her too in an uncomprehended +happiness.</p> + +<p>"I think I could tell you anything, Bojo," she said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> gently. "You seem +to understand, and so much that I don't say too!"</p> + +<p>All at once she slipped and flung back against him to avoid falling. He +held her thus—his arm around her.</p> + +<p>"Turn your ankle? Hurt?"</p> + +<p>"No, no—ouf!"</p> + +<p>A galloping gust came tearing over the snow, whirling white spirals, +showering them with a myriad of tiny, pointed crystal sparks, stinging +their cheeks and blinding their eyes. With a laugh she turned her head +away and shrank up close to him, still in the protection of his arms. +The gust fled romping away and still they stood, suddenly hushed, +clinging with half-closed eyes. She sought to free herself, felt his +arms retaining her, glanced up frightened, and then yielded, swaying +against him.</p> + +<p>"Drina—dear child," he said in a whisper that was wrenched from his +soul. Such a sensation of warmth and gladness, of life and joy, entered +his being that all other thoughts disappeared tumultuously, as he held +her thus in his arms, there alone in the silence and the luminous night, +reveling wildly in the knowledge that the same inevitable impulse had +drawn her also to him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bojo, we mustn't, we can't!"</p> + +<p>The cry had so much young sorrow in it as he drew away that a pain went +through his heart to have brought this suffering.</p> + +<p>"Drina, forgive me. I wouldn't hurt you— I couldn't help it— I didn't +know what happened," he said brokenly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Don't—you couldn't help it—or I either. I don't blame you—no, no, I +don't blame you," she said impulsively, her eyes wet, her hands +fervently clasped. He did not dare meet her glance, his brain in a riot.</p> + +<p>"We must go back," he said hastily, and they went in silence.</p> + +<p>When they returned Patsie disappeared. He entered the drawing-room and, +though for the first time he felt how false his position was, even with +a feeling of guilt, he was surprised at the sudden wave of kindliness +and sympathy that swept over him as he took his place by Doris.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>BOJO MAKES A DECISION</h3> + +<p>The next morning Patsie persistently avoided him. Instead of joining the +skaters on the pond, she went off for a long excursion across country on +her skis, followed by her faithful bodyguard of Romp and three different +varieties of terrier. Bojo came upon her suddenly quite by accident on +her return. She was coming up the great winding stairway, not like a +whirlwind, but heavily, her head down and thoughtful, heedless of the +dogs that tumbled over each other for the privilege of reaching her +hand. At the sight of him she stopped instinctively, blushing red before +she could master her emotions.</p> + +<p>He came to her directly, holding out his hand, overcome by the thought +of the pain he had unwittingly caused her, seeking the proper words, +quite helpless and embarrassed. She took his hand and looked away, her +lips trembling.</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad to see you," he said stupidly. "We're pals, good pals, you +know, and nothing can change that."</p> + +<p>She nodded without looking at him, slowly withdrawing her hand. He +rushed on heedlessly, imbued with only one idea—to let her know at all +costs how much her opinion of him mattered.</p> + +<p>"Don't think badly of me, Patsie. I wouldn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> bring you any sorrow for +all the world. What you think means an awful lot to me." He hesitated, +fearing to say too much, and then blurted out: "Don't turn against me, +Drina, whatever you do."</p> + +<p>She turned quickly at the name, looked at him steadily a moment, and +shook her head, trying to smile.</p> + +<p>"Never, Bojo—never that— I couldn't," she said, and hurriedly went up +the stairs.</p> + +<p>A lump came to his throat; something wildly, savagely delirious, seemed +to be pumping inside of him. He could not go back to the others at once. +He felt suffocated, in a whirl, with the need of mastering himself, of +bringing all the unruly, triumphant impulses that were rioting through +his brain back to calm and discipline.</p> + +<p>At luncheon, Patsie proposed an excursion in cutters, claiming Mr. +Boskirk as her partner, and with a feeling almost of guilt he seconded +the proposal, understanding her desire to throw him with Doris. DeLancy +and Gladys Stone started first, after taking careful instructions for +the way to their rendezvous at Simpson's cider-mill—instructions which +every one knew they had not the slightest intention of following. +Boskirk, with the best face he could muster, went off with Patsie, who +disappeared like a runaway engine, chased by a howling brigade of dogs, +while Bojo and Doris followed presently at a sane pace.</p> + +<p>"We sha'n't see Gladys and Fred," said Doris, laughing. "No matter. +They're engaged!"</p> + +<p>"As though that were news to me."</p> + +<p>"Did he tell you?"</p> + +<p>"I guessed. Last night in the conservatory." He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> added with a sudden +feeling of good will: "Gladys is much nicer than I thought, really."</p> + +<p>"She's awfully in love. I'm so glad."</p> + +<p>"When will it be announced?"</p> + +<p>"Next week."</p> + +<p>"Heaven be praised!"</p> + +<p>In a desire to come to a more intimate sharing of confidences he told +her of his fears.</p> + +<p>"Louise Varney, a vaudeville actress!" said Doris, with a figurative +drawing in of her skirts.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's nothing against her," he protested, "excepting perhaps her +chaperone! Only Fred's susceptible, you know—terribly so—and easily +led."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but people don't marry such persons—you can get infatuated and +all that—but you don't marry them!" she said indignantly. She shrugged +her shoulders. "It's all right to be—to be a man of the world, but not +that!"</p> + +<p>He hesitated, afraid of going further, of finding a sudden +disillusionment in the worldly attitude her words implied. A certain +remorse, a feeling of loyalty betrayed impelled him on, as though all +danger could be avoided by forever settling his future. Their +conversation by degrees assumed a more intimate turn, until at length +they came to speak of themselves.</p> + +<p>"Doris, I have something to ask you," he said, plunging in miserably. +"We have never really—formally been engaged, have we?"</p> + +<p>"The idea! Of course we have," she said, laughing. "It's only you who +wouldn't have it announced because—because you were too proud or some +other ridiculous reason!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, now I want it announced." He met her glance and added: "And I +want you to announce at the same time the date of the wedding."</p> + +<p>He had said it—irrevocably decided for the path of conscience and +loyalty, and it seemed to him as though a great load had shifted from +his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Bojo! Do you mean—now, soon!"</p> + +<p>"Just that. Doris, when this deal is settled up—and I'll know this +week—I'm going to have close on to two hundred thousand—on my own +hook, not counting what I'll get from the pool. I've plunged. I've put +every cent I had in it or could borrow," he said hastily, avoiding an +explanation of just what he had done. "I've risked everything on the +turn—"</p> + +<p>"But supposing something went wrong?"</p> + +<p>"It won't! This week, we're going to hammer Pittsburgh & New Orleans +down below thirty: I know. The point is now—when that's all safe—I +want you to marry me."</p> + +<p>"I have a quarter of a million in my own name. Father gave us each that +three years ago."</p> + +<p>He hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Do you need that very much? I'd rather you'd start—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bojo, why? If you've got that, why shouldn't I?"</p> + +<p>He wavered before this argument.</p> + +<p>"I would rather, Doris, we started on less, on what I myself have got. +I've thought it over a good deal. I think it would mean a great deal to +us to start out that way—to have me feel you were by my side, helping +me. It <i>is</i> pride, but pride means all to a man, Doris."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If I only used it for dresses and jewels—just for myself?" she said +after a moment. "You want me to look as beautiful as the other women, +and we aren't going to drop out of society, are we?"</p> + +<p>"No. Keep it then," he said abruptly.</p> + +<p>"I won't take a cent from father," she said virtuously, and was furious +when he laughed.</p> + +<p>"And you are willing to give up all the rest, now, and be just plain +Mrs. Crocker?"</p> + +<p>She nodded, watching him askance.</p> + +<p>"When?"</p> + +<p>"In May at the close of the social season—butterfly."</p> + +<p>He had begun with a hunger in his heart to reach depths in hers, and he +ended with laughter, with a feeling of being defrauded.</p> + +<p>They stopped at Simpson's for a cool drink of cider and were on again, +passing through wintry forests, with green Christmas trees against the +creamy stretches where rabbit paths ran into dark entanglements. All at +once they were in the open again, sweeping through a sudden factory +village, Jenkinstown, stagnant with the exhaustion of the Sunday's rest.</p> + +<p>"There, aren't you glad you didn't begin there?" she said gaily, with a +nick of the whip toward the grim gray line of barracks that crowded +against the street.</p> + +<p>"You never would have married me then," he said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ask me anything but to be <i>poor</i>!" she said, shuddering.</p> + +<p>"She might at least have lied," he thought grimly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> He gazed with +curiosity at this glimpse of factory life, at the dulled faces of women, +wrapped in gay shawls, staring at them; at the sluggish loiterers on the +corners, and the uncleanly hordes of children, who cried impertinently +after them, recalling his father's words:—"a great mixed horde to be +turned into intelligent, useful American citizens!" Squalid and +hopelessly commonplace it seemed to him, cruelly devoid of pleasure or +joy in the living. But such as these had placed him where he was, with +an opportunity to turn in a year what in the lifetime of generations +they could never approach.</p> + +<p>The spectacle affected Doris like a disagreeable smell.</p> + +<p>"I hate to think such people exist," she said, frowning.</p> + +<p>"But they do exist," he said slowly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I don't want to think of it. Heavens, to be poor like that!"</p> + +<p>"It's late; we'd better be going back," he said.</p> + +<p>They came back enveloped in the falling dusk, Doris running on gaily, +quite delighted now at the prospect of their coming marriage, making a +hundred plans for the ordering of the establishment, debating the +question of an electric or an open car to start with, the proper quarter +to seek an apartment, and the number of servants, while Bojo, silently, +rather grim, listened, thinking of the look which would come into some +one's eyes when their decision was told.</p> + +<p>At the porte-cochère Gladys and Patsie came rushing out with frightened +faces. Fred had caught the last train home after a call from New York. +Bojo,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> with a sinking feeling, seized the note he had left for him.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Roscy telephoned. There's a rumor that a group have been +cornering Pittsburgh & New Orleans all this while. If so +there'll be the devil to pay in the morning. Forshay's been +wild to get you. Get back somehow. If in time get the Harlem +6:42 at Jenkinstown. In haste.</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Fred</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"Can I make the 6:42 at Jenkinstown?" he cried to the groom.</p> + +<p>"Just about, sir."</p> + +<p>"Jump in."</p> + +<p>"I'm so frightened! Telephone at once!" He heard Doris cry, and, hardly +heeding her he looked about vacantly. Then something was pressed in his +hand, and Patsie's voice was sounding in his ears. "Here's your bag. I +packed it. Keep up your courage, Bojo!"</p> + +<p>"Patsie, you're a dear. Thank you. All right now!" He took her hands, +met her clear brave eyes, and sprang into the sleigh. A terrible +sickening dread came over him, an unreasoning superstitious dread. He +felt ruin and worse, cold and damp in the air about him, ruin inevitable +from the first, the bubble's collapse as he waved a hasty farewell and +shot away in the race across the night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>THE CRASH</h3> + +<p>"What has happened?" he asked himself a hundred times during the +headlong drive. A corner in Pittsburgh & New Orleans—that was possible +but hardly probable. But if a corner had taken place it meant ruin, +absolute ruin—and worse. The thought was too appalling to be seized at +once. He reassured himself with specious explanations. There might be a +flurry; Gunther and his crowd, who were in control of the system, might +have attempted a division to support their property; but the final +attack at which Joseph Skelly had hinted more than once as timed for the +coming week, the throwing on the market of 100,000 shares—200,000 if +necessary—must overwhelm this support, must overwhelm it. What was +terrible, though, was the unknown—to be hours from New York, cut off +from communication, and not to know what was this shapeless dread.</p> + +<p>When they swung into Jenkinstown, orange lights from the windows cut up +the snowbound streets in checkerboard patterns of light and shade: an +organ was beginning in mournful bass from a shanty church; a cheap +phonograph in a flickering ice-cream parlor was grinding out a ragged +march. Through the windows, heavy parties still at the Sunday newspapers +were gathered under swinging lamps. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> cutter drew up by the hovel of +a station and departed, leaving him alone in the semi-darkness, a prey +to his thoughts. A group returning after a day's visit trudged past him, +laughing uproariously, Slavic and brutish in type, the women in imitated +finery, gazing at him in insolent curiosity. He began to walk to escape +the dismal sense of unlovely existence they brought him. Beyond were the +mathematical rows of barracks—other brutish lives, the bleak ice-cream +parlor, the melancholy of the evening service. It was all so one-sided, +obsessed by the one idea of labor, lacking in the simplest direction +toward any comprehension of the enjoyment of life.</p> + +<p>The crisis he had reached, the threatened descent from the sublime to +the ridiculous, brought with it that contrition which in men is a +superstitious seeking for the secret of their own failures in some +transgressed moral law. His own life all at once seemed cruelly selfish +and gluttonous before this bleak view of the groping world and, +profoundly stirred to self-analysis, he said to himself:</p> + +<p>"After all—why am I here—to try and change all this a little for the +better or to pass on and out without significance?" And at the thought +that year in and year out these hundreds would go on, doomed to this +stagnation, there woke in him a horror, a horror of what it must mean to +fall back and slip beneath the surface of society.</p> + +<p>He arrived in New York at three in the morning, after an interminable +ride in the jolting, wheezing train, fervently awake in the dim and +draughty smoking-car where strange human beings huddled over a greasy +pack of cards or slept in drunken slumber.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> And all during the lagging +return one thought kept beating against his brain:</p> + +<p>"Why didn't I close up yesterday—yesterday I could have made—" He +closed his eyes, dizzy with the thought of what he could have netted +yesterday. He said to himself that he would wind up everything in the +morning. And there would still be a profit, there was still time ... +knowing in his heart that disaster had already laid its clutching hand +upon his arm. The city was quiet with an unearthly, brooding quiet as he +reached the Court, where one light still shone in the window of a +returned reveler. Marsh and DeLancy came hurriedly out at the sound of +his entrance.</p> + +<p>"What's wrong?" he cried at the sight of Fred's drawn face.</p> + +<p>"Everything. The city's full of it," said Marsh. "It leaked out this +afternoon, or rather the Gunther crowd let it leak out. Pittsburgh & New +Orleans will declare an additional quarterly dividend to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"It's the end of us," said Fred. "The stock will go kiting up."</p> + +<p>"We've got to cover," said Bojo.</p> + +<p>"In a crazy market? If we can!"</p> + +<p>"It may not be true."</p> + +<p>"I've got it as direct as I could get it," said Marsh, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"Suppose there is a corner and we have to settle around 100 or 150?" +said DeLancy, staring nervously away.</p> + +<p>There was no need for Bojo to ask how deeply involved they were. He +knew.</p> + +<p>"Some one's been buying large blocks of it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> That's known," said Marsh, +calmer than the rest. "Ten to one it's Gunther's crowd. They had the +advance information. Ten to one they've laid the trap and sprung a +corner."</p> + +<p>"No, nonsense! It's not as bad as that. If they're putting out an extra +dividend, the stock's going to jump up—for a while. That's all. And +then some one else may have a card up his sleeve," said Bojo, fighting +against conviction.</p> + +<p>"Call up Drake," said Fred.</p> + +<p>Bojo hesitated. The situation called for any measure. He went to the +telephone, after long minutes getting a response. Mr. Drake was out of +town on a hunting trip; was not expected back until the following night. +There remained Drake's agent Skelly, but a quick search of the book +revealed no home telephone.</p> + +<p>"Can you put up more margin?" asked Bojo.</p> + +<p>DeLancy shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I can, but it may be better to take the loss," said Marsh. "We'll have +to wait and see. Quick work to-morrow! By the way, there's a call for +you from Forshay to be at the office by eight o'clock to-morrow. Well, +let's get a few winks of sleep if we can. Luck of the game!"</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry," said Bojo desperately.</p> + +<p>"Shut up. We're over age," said Marsh, thumping him on the back, but +DeLancy went to his room, staring. The moment he was gone Marsh turned +to Bojo. "Look here, whatever we do we've got to save Fred. You and I +can stand a mauling. Fred's caught."</p> + +<p>"If we can," said Bojo, without letting him know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> how serious the +situation was for him. "How deep in is he?"</p> + +<p>"Close to 2,000 shares."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, where did he get the money?"</p> + +<p>Marsh looked serious, shook his head, and made no further reply.</p> + +<p>At seven o'clock, when Bojo was struggling up from a sleepless night, +Granning came into his room, awkwardly sympathetic.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Bojo, is it as bad as the fellows feared?"</p> + +<p>"Can't tell, Granny. Looks nasty."</p> + +<p>"You in trouble too?"</p> + +<p>Bojo nodded.</p> + +<p>"I say, I've got that bond for a thousand tucked away," said Granning +slowly. "Use it if it'll help any."</p> + +<p>"Bless your heart," said Bojo, really touched. "It's not a thousand, +Granny, that'll help now. You were right—gambler's luck!"</p> + +<p>"Cut that out," said Granning, shifting from foot to foot. "I'm damned +sorry—tough luck, damned tough luck. I wish I could help!"</p> + +<p>"You can't—no use of throwing good money after bad. Mighty white of you +all the same!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When he reached the offices, he learned for the first time how deeply +the firm had speculated on the information of Drake's intentions. +Forshay was cool, with the calm of the sportsman game in the face of +ruin, but Flaspoller and Hauk were frantic in their denunciations. It +was a trick, a stock-jobbing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> device of an inner circle. Nothing could +justify an additional dividend. The common stock had not been on a two +per cent. basis more than three years. Nothing justified it. Some one +would go behind the bars for it! Forshay smoked on, shrugging his +shoulders, rather contemptuous.</p> + +<p>"Hit you hard?" he said to Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Looks so. And you?"</p> + +<p>"Rather."</p> + +<p>"You call up Drake. Maybe he come back," said Flaspoller, ungrammatical +in his wrath.</p> + +<p>"He won't be in," said Bojo, and for the twentieth time he received the +invariable answer.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 262px;"><a name="ILL_007" id="ILL_007"></a> +<img src="images/ill_007.jpg" width="262" height="500" alt=""The message was the end of hope"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"The message was the end of hope"</span> +</div> + +<p>At nine o'clock Skelly's office called up. A clerk gave the message, Mr. +Skelly being too occupied. Bojo listened, hoping desperately against +hope, believing in the possibility of salvation in an enormous block to +be thrown on the market. The message was the end of hope!</p> + +<p>"Cancel selling orders. Buy Pittsburgh & New Orleans at the market up to +20,000 shares."</p> + +<p>He tried ineffectively to reach Skelly personally and then communicated +the order to the others, who were waiting in silence.</p> + +<p>"If Drake's out, good-by," said Forshay, who went to the window, +whistling. "Well, let's save what we can!"</p> + +<p>The realization of the situation brought a sudden calm. Hauk departed +for the floor of the Stock Exchange. The others prepared to wait.</p> + +<p>"Match you quarters," said Forshay with a laugh. He came back, glancing +over Bojo's shoulder at a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> few figures jotted down on a pad, reading off +the total: "12,350 shares. I thought you were in only ten thousand."</p> + +<p>"Twenty-three fifty Saturday," said Bojo, staring at the pad. "At 5 per +cent. margin too."</p> + +<p>"Lovely. What cleans you out?"</p> + +<p>Bojo figured a moment, frowned, consulted his list, and finally +announced: "Thirty-seven and one-half wipes me out nice and clean."</p> + +<p>"I'm good for a point higher. I say, there's rather a rush on this +office; have you got buying orders elsewhere?" Bojo nodded. "Good. Take +every chance. What did we close at Saturday, thirty-one and one-half?"</p> + +<p>"Thirty-two."</p> + +<p>"Oh well, there's a chance." He looked serious a moment, turning a coin +over and over on his hand, thinking of others. "No fool like an old +fool, Tom. If I've been stung once I've been stung a dozen times! It's +winning the first time that's bad. You can't forget it—the sensation of +winning. Sort of your case too, eh? Well, come on. I'm matching you!"</p> + +<p>An hour later, with the announcement of the additional dividend, they +stood together by the tape and watched Pittsburgh & New Orleans mount by +jerks and starts—5000 at 33—2,000 at 35½—1,000 at 34½—4,000 at +35¾—500 at 34.</p> + +<p>"Having a great time, isn't it? Jumping all over the place. Orders must +be thick as huckleberries. Selling all over the place so fast they can't +keep track of it."</p> + +<p>Flaspoller came in with the first purchase by Hauk, who was having a +frantic time executing his orders.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I've bought 2,000 at 34, thank God," said Bojo, returning from the +telephone. "What's it now?"</p> + +<p>"Touched 36: 10,000 at 35½—big orders are coming in. Thirty-six +again. Lovelier and lovelier."</p> + +<p>Back and forth from telephone to ticker they went without time for +luncheon, elated at the thought of shares purchased at any price, grimly +watching the ominous figures creep up and up, mute, paralyzing +indications of the struggle and frenzy on the floor, where brokers flung +themselves hoarse and screaming into knotted, swaying groups and +telephone-boys swarmed back and forth from the booths like myriad angry +ants trampled out of their ant-hills.</p> + +<p>At two o'clock Pittsburgh & New Orleans had reached 42. An hour before +Bojo had left the ticker, waiting breathlessly at the telephone for the +announcement of purchases that meant precious thousands. At two-thirty +the final dock of 500 shares came in at 42½. Mechanically he added +the new figures to the waiting list. Of the $83,000 in the bank and the +$95,000 which yesterday summed up his winnings on paper, he had to his +credit when all accounts were squared hardly $15,000. The rest had +collapsed in a morning, like a soap bubble.</p> + +<p>"Save anything?" said Forshay, struck by the wildness in the young man's +look.</p> + +<p>"I can settle my account here, I'm glad to say," said Bojo with +difficulty. "That's something. I think I'll pull out with around fifteen +thousand. Hope you did better."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, awfully."</p> + +<p>"Cleaned out?" said Bojo, startled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Beautiful. Clean. Well, good-by, Tom, and—better luck next time."</p> + +<p>Bojo looked up hastily, aghast. But Forshay was smiling. He nodded and +went out.</p> + +<p>Bojo reached the court still in a daze, unable to comprehend where it +had all gone—this fortune that was on his fingers yesterday. Yesterday! +If he had only closed up yesterday! Then through the haze of his numbed +sense of loss came a poignant, terrifying recall to actuality. He stood +pledged to Drake for the amount of $50,000, and he could not make good +even a third! If the pool had been wiped out—and he had slight hopes of +saving anything there—he would have to procure $35,000 somewhere, +somehow, or face to Drake and his own self-respect that he could not +redeem his own word. What could he say, what excuse offer! If the pool +had collapsed—he was dishonored.</p> + +<p>The realization came slowly. For a long while, sitting in the embrasure +of the bay window—his forehead against the cold panes, it seemed to him +incredible the way he had gone these last six months; as though it had +all been a fever that had peopled his horizon with unreal figures, +phantasies of hot dreams.</p> + +<p>But the unblinkable, waking fact was there. His word had been pledged +for $50,000 to Drake, to the father of the girl he was to marry. Marry! +At the thought he laughed aloud bitterly. That, too, was a thing that +had vanished in the bubble of dreams. He thought of his father, to whom +he would have to go; but his pride recoiled. He would never go to him +for aid—a failure and a bankrupt. Rather beg<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> Drake on his knees for +time to work out the debt than that!</p> + +<p>"How did I do it? What possessed me! What madness possessed me!" he said +wearily again and again.</p> + +<p>At eight o clock, when all the high electric lights had come out about +the blazing window of the court, recalled by the sounds of music from +the glass-paneled restaurant he went out for dinner, wondering why his +friends had not returned. At ten when he came back after long tramping +of the streets, a note was on the table, in Granning's broad +handwriting.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Hoped to catch you. Fred's gone off on a tear; God knows +where he is. Roscy and I have been trying to locate him all +day. Hope you pulled through, old boy.</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Granning</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>At twelve o clock, still miserably alone, tortured by remorse and the +thought of the wreck he had unwittingly brought his chums, he could bear +the suspense of evasion no longer. He went up to Drake's to learn the +worst, steeled to a full confession.</p> + +<p>In the hall, as he waited chafing and miserable, Fontaine, Gunther's +right-hand partner, passed out hurriedly, jaws set, oblivious. Drake was +in the library in loose dressing-gown and slippers, a cigar in his +mouth, immersed in the usual contemplation of the picture puzzle.</p> + +<p>"By George, he bears it well," Bojo thought to himself, moved to +admiration by the calm of that impassive figure.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Tom," he said, looking up, "what's brought you here at this time +of night? Anything wrong?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Wrong?" said Bojo faintly. "Haven't you heard about Pittsburgh & New +Orleans?"</p> + +<p>"Well, what about it?"</p> + +<p>Bojo gulped down something that was in his throat, steadying himself +against the awful truth that meant ruin and dishonor to him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Drake—tell me what I owe you? I want to know what I owe you," he +said desperately.</p> + +<p>"Owe? Nothing."</p> + +<p>"But the pool?"</p> + +<p>"Well, what about the pool?" said Drake, eyeing him closely.</p> + +<p>"The pool to sell Pittsburgh & New Orleans."</p> + +<p>"Who said anything about selling!" said Drake sharply. "The pool's all +right." He looked at him a long moment, and the boyish triumph, +suppressed too long, broke out with the memory of Fontaine's visit. "I +bought control of Pittsburgh & New Orleans at eleven o'clock this +morning and sold it ten minutes ago, for what I paid for it, plus—plus +a little profit of ten million dollars." He paused long enough to let +this sink into the consciousness of the reeling young man and added, +smiling: "On a pro rata basis, Tom, your fifty thousand stands you in +just a quarter of a million. I congratulate you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>SUDDEN WEALTH</h3> + +<p>"Your fifty thousand stands you in just a quarter of a million."</p> + +<p>The words came to him faintly as though shouted from an incredible +distance. The shock was too acute for his nerves. He sought to mumble +over the fantastic news and sank into a chair, sick with giddiness. The +next thing he knew clearly was Drake's powerful arm about him and a +glass forced to his lips.</p> + +<p>"Here, get this down. Then steady up. Good luck doesn't kill."</p> + +<p>"I thought they'd caught us—thought I was cleaned out," he said +incoherently.</p> + +<p>"You did, eh?" said Drake, laughing. "You haven't much faith in the old +man."</p> + +<p>Bojo steadied himself, standing alone. The room seemed to race about him +and in his ears were strange unfixed sounds. One thought rapped upon his +brain—he was not disgraced, not dishonored; no one would ever +know—Drake would never need to know; that is if he were careful, if he +could somehow dissimulate before that penetrating glance.</p> + +<p>"I thought we were to sell Pittsburgh & New Orleans," he said vacantly, +leaning against the mantelpiece.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>"So did a good many others," said Drake shrewdly. "Sit down, till I tell +you about it. Head clearin' up?"</p> + +<p>"It's rather a shock," said Bojo, trying to smile. "I'm sorry to be such +a baby."</p> + +<p>"I warned you not to jump to conclusions or try any flyers," said Drake, +watching him. "Of course you did?"</p> + +<p>Bojo nodded, his glance on the floor.</p> + +<p>"Well, write it off against your profits and charge it up to +experience," said Drake, smiling. "Store this away for the future and +use it if you ever need it, if you're ever running a pool of your +own—which I hope you won't. It's been my golden rule and I paid a lot +to learn it. It's this: If you want a secret kept, keep it yourself." He +burst into a round, hearty laugh, gazing contentedly into the fire. +"Wish I could see Borneman's face. Helped me a lot, Borneman did. You +see, Tom," he said, with the human need of boasting a little, which +allies such men rather to the child on an adventure than to the +criminal, between whom they occupy an indefinable middle position, +"you've come in on the drop of the curtain. You've seen the finale of +something that'll set Wall Street stewing for years to come. Yes, by +George, it's the biggest bit of manipulation by a single operator yet! +And look at the crowd I tricked—the inner gang, the crême de la crême, +Tom—exactly that!"</p> + +<p>"I don't understand it," said Bojo, as Drake began to smile, reflecting +over remembered details. He himself understood only confusedly the +events which had been whirling about him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Tom, the crowd had figured me out for a trimming," said Drake, +gleefully, caressing his chin. "They thought the time had come to trim +old Drake. You see, they calculated I was loaded up with stocks, crowded +to busting and ready to squeal at the slightest squeeze. Now getting +rich on paper is one thing and getting rich in the bank's another. Any +one can corner anything—but it's all-fired different to get Mr. Fly to +come down to your parlor and take some stock after you've got it where +you want it. That's what they figured. Dan Drake was loaded to the sky +with stocks that looked almighty good on the quotation column, but +darned hard to swap for cold, hard cash. That's what they figured, and +the strange part about it is they were right.</p> + +<p>"But—there's always a but—they hadn't reckoned on the fact that Mr. Me +was expecting just what they'd figured out. That's what I told you was +the secret of the game—any game—think the way the other man thinks, +and then think two jumps ahead of him. Now if I was reasonably sure a +certain powerful gang was going to put stocks down, and put them down +hard, I might look around to see how that could benefit me at one end +while it was annoying me, almightily annoying me, at the other. Now when +them coyotes get to juggling stocks they always like to juggle stock +they know about—something with a nice little pink ribbon to it, with a +president and board of directors on the other end, that'll wriggle in +the right direction when the coyotes pull the string.</p> + +<p>"Now I'd been particularly hankering after Pittsburgh & New Orleans for +quite a while. It was good in their old Southern system, but it looked +mighty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> better outside of it. In independent hands it could stir up a +lot of trouble; sort of like a plain daughter in a rich man's house—no +one notices her until she runs off with the chauffeur. That was my idea. +Only Pittsburgh was high. But—again the but—if some particular breed +of coyote would be obliging enough to run it down along with a lot of +other properties on the market, I might pitch in and help them force it +down to where I could pick up what I wanted from the bargain counter. +See?"</p> + +<p>"But you sold openly," said Bojo, amazed.</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Sold it where they could see it and bought it back twice over, +ten times over, where they couldn't. Very simple process. All great +processes are simple, and it never dawned on those monumental +intelligences that they were fetchin' and carryin' for yours truly until +they woke up at six o'clock to-day to find while they were scrambling in +the dark, the chauffeur had run off with Miss Pittsburgh!"</p> + +<p>He turned and walked to the table desk, motioning to Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Come over here, look at it." He held out a check for ten million +dollars. "You don't see one of those fellows very often. Great man, +Gunther. When he's got to act he doesn't waste time. Right to the point. +'We are satisfied you have control. What's your terms?' 'Ten millions +and what the stock cost me.' 'We accept your terms,' Great man, Gunther. +Suppose I might have added another million, but it wouldn't have sounded +as well, would it? Something rather nice about costs and ten million!"</p> + +<p>As he spoke, he had drawn out his check-book and filled out a check to +Bojo.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, Tom, this isn't ten millions, but it's some pin money, and I +guess to you it looks bigger than the other. There you are—take it."</p> + +<p>Bojo took it quite stupidly, saying:</p> + +<p>"Thank you, thank you, sir!"</p> + +<p>Drake watched the young man's emotion with tolerant amusement.</p> + +<p>"Don't wonder you're a bit shaken up, Tom. Supposing you call up a +certain young lady on long distance. Rather please her, I reckon."</p> + +<p>"Why, yes. I wanted to do it. I—I will, of course."</p> + +<p>"So you thought I was going to sell short Pittsburgh & New Orleans," +said Drake with a roguish humor.</p> + +<p>Bojo nodded, at loss for words, biding the moment to escape into the +outer air.</p> + +<p>"But, of course, Tom," said Drake slowly, with smiling eyes, "<i>you</i> +didn't tell any one, did you?"</p> + +<p>Bojo mumbled something incoherent and went out, clutching the check, +which lay in his hand with the heaviness of lead.</p> + +<p>In the open air he tried to readjust the events of the night. He had a +confused idea of rushing through the great hall, past the mechanical +footman, of hearing Thompson cry, "Get you a taxi, sir!" and of being +far down resounding pavements in the lovely night with something still +clutched in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Two hundred and fifty thousand," he said to himself. He repeated it +again and again as a sort of dull drum-beat accompaniment, resounding in +his ears, even as his cane tapped out its sharp metallic punctuation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Two hundred <i>and</i> fifty!" he said for the hundredth time, utterly +unable to comprehend what had in one hour changed the face of his world. +He stopped, drew his hand from his pocket, took the crumpled check and +placed it in his wallet, buttoned his coat carefully, and then +unbuttoned it to make sure it had not slipped from his pocket.</p> + +<p>Drake had not asked him the vital question. He had not had to answer +him, to tell him what he had lost, to own that he had gambled beyond his +right. The issue he had gone to meet, resolved on a clean confession, +had been evaded, and in his pocket was the check—a fortune! Certain +facts did not at once focus in his mind, perhaps because he did not want +to contemplate them, perhaps because he was too bewildered with his own +sensations to perceive clearly what a rôle he had been made to play.</p> + +<p>But as he swung down the Avenue past the Plaza with its Argus-eyed +windows still awake, past a few great mansions with cars and grouped +footmen in wait for revelers, at the thought of the quiet Court, of +Roscoe and Granning, at the sudden startled recollection of DeLancy, the +cold fact forced itself upon him; they had lost and he had won. He had +won because they had lost, and how many others!</p> + +<p>"How could I help it?" he said to himself uneasily, and answered it +immediately with another question "But will they believe me?"</p> + +<p>Suddenly Drake's last question flashed across him with a new +significance. "Of course you didn't tell any one, did you?"</p> + +<p>Why had he not asked him then and there what he had meant? Because he +had been afraid, because he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> did not wish to know the answer, just as he +had evaded the knowledge that Doris in the first speculation had made +use of Boskirk. Even now he did not wish to force the ugly fact—seeking +to put it from him with plausible reasonings. After all, what had Drake +done? Told him a lie? No. He had specially cautioned him not to jump to +conclusions, warned him against doing anything on his own initiative.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's true," he said with a sigh of relief, as though a great +ethical question had been disposed of. "He played square, absolutely +square. There's nothing wrong in it."</p> + +<p>Yet somehow the conviction brought no joy with it; there was something +stolen about the sensation of sudden wealth which possessed him. He +seemed to be scurrying through the shadowy city almost like a thief +afraid of confrontation.</p> + +<p>Yet there was the home-coming, the friends to be faced. What answer +could he make them, how announce the stroke of fortune which had come to +him! On one thing at least he was resolved, and the resolution seemed to +lighten the weight of many problems which would not slip from his +shoulders. He was responsible for Roscy and Fred—at least they should +suffer no loss for having taken his advice. The others—Forshay, the +firm, one or two acquaintances he had tipped off in the last days, the +outsiders; they were different, and besides he did not want to think of +them. His friends should not suffer loss—not even a dollar. They were a +part of the pool, in a way. Of course they had had their friends, though +he had sworn them to secrecy. At this point he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> stopped in his mental +turnings, faced by a sudden barrier.</p> + +<p>Had Drake knowingly used him to convey a false impression of his +intentions, made him the instrument of ruining others in order to carry +through his stupendous coup de force?</p> + +<p>"If I thought that," he said hotly, "I wouldn't touch a cent of it!" But +after a moment, uneasily and in doubt, he added, "I wonder?"</p> + +<p>He came to the Court and hurried in. Lights were blazing in the +bay-window, black silhouettes across the panes.</p> + +<p>"Good God, supposing anything has happened to Fred!" he thought, +suddenly remembering Granning's note. He burst upstairs and into the +room. Roscoe Marsh was by the fireplace, gravely examining a pocket +revolver, which lay in his hand. Granning was on the edge of the couch +staring at Fred DeLancy, who was sunk in a great chair, disheveled and +dirt-stained, a sodden, cold-drunk mass.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>BOJO BEGINS TO SPEND HIS QUARTER-MILLION</h3> + +<p>At the sight of Fred DeLancy, Bojo checked himself. A glance from +Granning apprised him of the seriousness of the situation. He walked +over to the huddled figure and laid his hand on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Hello there, Fred. It's Bojo."</p> + +<p>DeLancy raised his head, looked out through glazed eyes, and slowly +withdrew his stare to the vacant fireplace, where a smoldering flicker +drew his mind.</p> + +<p>"Found him an hour ago in a hell over in Eighth Avenue," said Marsh. +"Bad."</p> + +<p>Granning beckoned him, and together they went into the bedroom, closing +the door.</p> + +<p>"All right now. Guess he'll stay quiet. Pretty violent when we came +back," said Granning. "Wanted to throw himself out of the window."</p> + +<p>"And the pistol," said Bojo, sick at the thought of what might have +been.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we found that on him," said Granning gravely. "Lucky he got drunk +so quick, or that might have been serious." He hesitated and added: "He +swears he'll kill himself first chance. Guess I'd better keep my eye on +him to-night."</p> + +<p>At this moment there was the sound of a scuffle from the den and a shout +from Marsh. They rushed in to find him grappling with Fred, who was +striving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> frantically to reach the window. For a moment the air was full +of shouts and sudden scurrying.</p> + +<p>"Look out, he's got that paper-cutter!"</p> + +<p>"In his right hand."</p> + +<p>"All right, I've got him."</p> + +<p>"Throw him over on the couch. Sit on him. That's it."</p> + +<p>Under their combined weights, DeLancy was flung, hoarse and screaming +maledictions, to the couch, where despite objurgations and ravings +Granning secured his arms behind his back with a strap and hobbled his +legs. For half an hour Fred twisted and strove, raving and swearing or +suddenly weakly remorseful, bursting into tears, cursing himself and his +folly. The three sat silently, faces sternly masked, looking unwilling +on the ugly spectacle of human frenzy in the raw. At the end of this +time DeLancy became suddenly quiet and dropped off into sodden sleep.</p> + +<p>"At last," said Granning, rising. "Best thing for him. Oh, he won't hear +us—talk all you like."</p> + +<p>"How hard is he hit?" said Bojo anxiously.</p> + +<p>Marsh shrugged his shoulder and swore.</p> + +<p>"How hard, Granning?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty thousand or more," said Granning gravely, "and there are some +bad sides to it." He shook his head, glanced at DeLancy, and added: +"Then there's the girl."</p> + +<p>"Louise Varney?"</p> + +<p>"The same—mother has been camping on the telephone all day. Not a very +calm person, mother—ugh—nasty business!"</p> + +<p>"Rotten business," said Bojo, remorsefully. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> went to the bay-window +and stood there gazing out into the sickly night, paling before the +first grays of the morning. He was subdued by this spectacle of the +other side of speculation, wondering how many similar scenes were taking +place in sleepless rooms somewhere in the dusky flight of roof-tops. +Marsh, misunderstanding his mood, said:</p> + +<p>"How did it hurt you? You pulled through all right, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>Bojo came back thoughtfully, evading the question with another.</p> + +<p>"And you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, better than I expected," said Marsh with a wry face. "I say, you're +not—not cleaned out?"</p> + +<p>Granning rose and with his heavy hand turned him around solicitously. +"How about it, son?"</p> + +<p>For hours Bojo had been debating his answer to this inevitable question +without finding a solution. He drew his pocketbook and slowly extracted +the check. "Gaze on that," he said solemnly.</p> + +<p>Granning took it, stared at it, and passed it to Marsh, who looked up +with an exclamation: "For God's sake, what does that mean?"</p> + +<p>"It means," said Bojo slowly, "that I can tell you the truth now. We +haven't lost a cent; on the contrary—" he paused and emphasized the +next word—"<i>we</i> have made a killing. We means you, Fred, and myself."</p> + +<p>"I don't get it," said Marsh, frowning.</p> + +<p>"The real object of the pool was not to bear Pittsburgh & New Orleans, +but to buy it. If I let you sell short, it was only to get others to +sell short. To-morrow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> I'll settle up with you and Fred, every cent +you've lost, plus—"</p> + +<p>"Bojo, you're lying," said Marsh abruptly.</p> + +<p>"I'm not, I—"</p> + +<p>"And you're lying badly!"</p> + +<p>"What about that check?"</p> + +<p>"That's all right; Drake may have done what you said, but you never +knew—"</p> + +<p>"Roscy, I swear."</p> + +<p>"Hold up and answer this. Do you want me to believe, Tom Crocker, that +you deliberately told me and Fred DeLancy, your closest friends, a lie, +in order to get us to spread false information to <i>our</i> friends, to ruin +our friends in order to make a killing for you? Well, a straight +answer."</p> + +<p>Bojo was silent.</p> + +<p>"No, no, Bojo; don't come to me with any cock-and-bull story like +that—"</p> + +<p>"Roscy, it <i>is</i> a lie. I was completely in the dark myself; but I won't +touch a cent of it until your losses are squared, every dollar of them!"</p> + +<p>"So that's the game, eh?" said Marsh, laughing. "Well you go plump to +the devil!</p> + +<p>"Roscy!" said Bojo, jumping up and seizing his arm. "At least let me +square up what you lost. Hold up. Wait a second, don t go off +half-cocked! Fred's got to be hauled out of this; it's not only +bankruptcy, it's a darned sight worse—it's his word, his honor—a +woman's money, too. You know him—he's weak, he won't stand up under it. +Good God, you don't want me to have his life on my conscience?"</p> + +<p>"What do you want to do?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I want to make Fred believe what I told you—it's the only way. If you +play into the game he'll believe it. Good Lord, Roscy, this thing's bad +enough as it is. You don't think I could profit one cent while you +fellows were cleaned out by my own fault?"</p> + +<p>"Look here," said Marsh, sitting down, "it isn't your fault. I gambled, +that's all, and lost. I gambled before on your advice and won. +Fifty-fifty, that's all. Now Fred's different. I'll admit it. You can do +what you please with him; that's between you two. If you've got to make +him believe I'm doing the same, to make him take the money—all right; +but if you come around again to me with any such insulting proposition, +Tom Crocker, there'll be trouble."</p> + +<p>Bojo clasped and unclasped his hands in utter helplessness. Then he +glanced at Granning.</p> + +<p>"You've done what you could," said Granning, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"A rotten mess. I feel rotten," said Bojo slowly.</p> + +<p>Marsh, relenting, clapped him on the shoulder affectionately. "Mighty +white of you, Bojo—and don't think for a moment any one's blaming you!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure how I feel myself," said Bojo slowly.</p> + +<p>"Drake used you, Tom," said Granning quietly. "He'd figured out you'd be +watched—the old decoy game."</p> + +<p>"No, no," said Bojo warmly. "He did not, I'm sure of that. He +particularly warned me not to do anything on my own hook without +consulting him. It was my fault— I jumped at conclusions!"</p> + +<p>Granning and Marsh laughed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> + +<p>"By George, if I thought that!" said Bojo, rising up.</p> + +<p>"Don't think anything," said Marsh quietly. "It's all in the game +anyhow!" Suddenly he stopped and, the journalistic instinct awakening, +said: "You say Drake bought Pittsburgh & New Orleans—what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Bought control, of course, and sold it back at midnight to Gunther & +Co. for a profit of ten millions."</p> + +<p>"Repeat that," said Marsh, aghast. "Good Lord! What? When? Where was the +sale? For God's sake, Bojo, don't you know you've got the biggest story +of the year? Three-twenty now. It's 'good-night' to our composing-room +at half past. Talk it fast and I can make it."</p> + +<p>Hastily, under his prompting, Bojo recalled details and scraps of +information. Three minutes later Marsh was at the telephone and they +heard the shouted frantic orders.</p> + +<p>"<i>Morning Post?</i> Who's on the long wait? Hill? Give him to me—on the +jump. Damn it, this is Marsh! Hello, Ed? Hold your press men for an +extra. We've got a smashing beat. Front page and the biggest head you +can put on! Play it up for all you're worth. Ready: Dan Drake bought +control...." The outlines in staccato, dramatic sentences, followed, +then directions to get Gunther, Drake, Fontaine, and others on the wire. +Then silence, and Marsh burst through the room and down the stairs in a +racket that threatened to wake the house.</p> + +<p>Granning and Bojo sat on, watching the restless, heavy figure on the +couch, too feverishly awake for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> sleep, talking in broken phrases, while +the white mists came into the room and the city began to wake. At four +o'clock Doris called up from long distance. Bojo had completely +forgotten her in the tension of the night and rather guiltily hastened +to reassure her. Gladys was at her side, anxious to hear from Fred, to +learn if she might come to his assistance, wondering why he had not sent +her word—alarmed.</p> + +<p>He invented a lie to clear the situation—a friend who was in desperate +straits—with whom Fred was watching out the night.</p> + +<p>At six o'clock DeLancy rose up suddenly, disheveled and haggard, staring +at them, bewildered at the pressure of the straps. "What the devil's +happened?"</p> + +<p>Granning rose and released him. "You were rather obstreperous last +night, young man," he said quietly. "We were afraid you might dent the +fire-escape or carry off the mantel. How are you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, good God!" said DeLancy, sinking his head in his hands with a +groan, suddenly recalling the pool.</p> + +<p>"If you hadn't gone off like a bad Indian," said Bojo sternly, "you'd be +celebrating in a different way." Then, as Fred without interest +continued oblivious, he went over and struck him a resounding blow +between the shoulders. "Wake up there. I've been trying to beat it into +you all night. We haven't lost a cent. The pool went through like a +charm. Drake fooled the whole bunch!"</p> + +<p>"What—what do you mean?" said DeLancy, staring up.</p> + +<p>"The running down was only the first step; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> real game was to buy up +the control. All our selling short was just bluff, charged up to the +expense account and nothing else."</p> + +<p>"All bluff," repeated Fred in a daze. "I don't seem to understand. I +can't get it."</p> + +<p>"Well, get this then—feast your eyes on it," said Bojo, sitting beside +him, his arm about his shoulder and the check held before his eyes. +"That's profit—my part out of ten millions Drake cleaned up by selling +out to the Gunther crowd. Listen." He repeated in detail the story of +the night, adding: "Now do you see it? Every cent we lost bearing the +stock goes to expenses—that's understood."</p> + +<p>"You mean—" DeLancy rose, steadied himself, and lurched against a +chair. "You mean what I lost—what I—"</p> + +<p>"What you've lost and Louise's losses, too," said Bojo quickly—"every +cent is paid by the pool. There wasn't the slightest question about +that!"</p> + +<p>"Is that the truth?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Fred's sunken eyes rested on Bojo's an interminable moment, and the +agony written on that fevered face steeled Crocker in his resolve. +Presently DeLancy, as though convinced, turned away.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord, I thought I was done for!" he said in a whisper. His lip +trembled, he caught at his throat, and the next moment his racked body +was shaken with convulsive sobs.</p> + +<p>"Let yourself go, Fred; it's all right—everything's all right," said +Bojo hastily. He left the den, nodding to Granning, and went to his +bedroom. His bag was still on the bed, where he had thrown it unopened.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +He took out his clothes mechanically, feeling the weariness of the +wasted night, and suddenly on the top of a folded jacket he found a +card, in Patsie's writing; a few words only, timidly offered.</p> + +<p>"I hope, oh, I do hope everything will come all right," and below these +two lines that started reveries in his eyes, the signature was not +Patsie, but Drina.</p> + +<p>When he came into the den again after a hasty toilet, DeLancy had got +hold of himself again.</p> + +<p>"Better, old boy?" said Bojo, pulling his ear.</p> + +<p>"If you knew—if you knew what I'd been through," said Fred with a quick +breath.</p> + +<p>"I know," said Bojo, shuddering instinctively. "Now let's get to +business. You'll feel a lot better when you tidy up your bank account. +What did you lose?"</p> + +<p>"I say, Bojo," said DeLancy, avoiding his glance, "on your honor +straight this is all right, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Sure!"</p> + +<p>"I ought to take it—there's no reason why—you're not telling me a fake +story?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly am not," said Bojo cheerily, taking up his check-book at +the desk. "Come on now."</p> + +<p>But DeLancy, unconvinced, still wavered.</p> + +<p>"How about Roscy?" he said slowly, his eyes fixed, his mouth parted as +though hanging on the answer.</p> + +<p>"The same thing goes with Roscy, naturally," said Bojo, carelessly.</p> + +<p>DeLancy drew a long breath and approached.</p> + +<p>"How much? Confess up!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Twenty-seven thousand eight hundred."</p> + +<p>Bojo restrained a start of amazement.</p> + +<p>"Say twenty-eight flat," he said carefully. "Does that include Louise +Varney's account?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, everything," said DeLancy slowly. He stood at the desk, staring, +while Bojo wrote a check, watching the traveling pen as though still +incredulous.</p> + +<p>"There you are, old rooster, and good luck," said Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Here, I say, you've made it out for thirty-eight thousand, said +DeLancy, taking the check.</p> + +<p>"Ten thousand is profits, sure."</p> + +<p>"Here, I say, that's not right. I couldn't take that—no, never, Bojo!"</p> + +<p>"Shut up and be off with you!" said Bojo. "You don't think for a moment +I'd use my friends and not see they got a share of the winnings, do +you?"</p> + +<p>"It doesn't seem right," said DeLancy again. He gazed at the check, a +prey to conflicting desires.</p> + +<p>"Rats!"</p> + +<p>"I don't feel as though I ought to."</p> + +<p>Bojo, watching his struggle with his conscience a moment, perceived the +inherent weakness at the bottom of his nature, suddenly feeling a sense +of distance intervening in the old friendship, sadly disillusioned. When +he spoke, it was abruptly, as a superior:</p> + +<p>"Shut up, Fred—you're going to take it, and that's all!</p> + +<p>"How can I thank you?</p> + +<p>"Don't."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> + +<p>He turned on his heel and went back to his room to hide the flash of +scorn that came to his eyes. "Great Heavens," he thought, "is that the +way men behave under great tests?"</p> + +<p>But all at once he added, "And myself?"</p> + +<p>For at the bottom there was an uneasy stirring feeling, awakened by the +sudden incredulous laugh of his friends that had greeted his assertion +of Drake's innocence, which was bringing him to a realization that he +was to face a decision more profoundly significant to his own +self-esteem than any he had yet confronted.</p> + +<p>"Thank heaven for one thing—nothing happened to Fred! That's settled. I +have nothing on my conscience," he said with a sigh. The ten thousand he +had added represented in a confused way a tribute to that conscience, to +those others, unknown and unvisualized, whom unwittingly he might have +caused to suffer.</p> + +<p>"Bojo!"</p> + +<p>"Hello! What is it?"</p> + +<p>He came out hurriedly at the sound of Granning's voice.</p> + +<p>"Roscy on the 'phone.... What?... Good God!"</p> + +<p>"What's that? What's happened?" he cried, as Fred came rushing out.</p> + +<p>"Forshay—committed suicide—this morning—at his club—cut his +throat!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>PAYING THE PIPER—PLUS</h3> + +<p>To go down to the office with the pall of disaster and tragedy over it, +to face the accusatory looks of Hauk and Flaspoller with the dread +consciousness of his own personal responsibility, was the hardest thing +Bojo had ever had to do. Several times in the subway, filled with the +Wall Street crowd excitedly discussing the sudden turn of yesterday, +alarmed for the future, he had a wild impulse toward flight. Before him +were the startling scare-heads of the <i>Morning Post</i>, the sole paper to +have the story.</p> + +<h3>DRAKE BUYS AND SELLS PITTSBURGH AND NEW ORLEANS</h3> + +<h4>SECURED CONTROL AT 6 MONDAY. SOLD AT MIDNIGHT. PROFIT IN +MILLIONS. BROKERS HARD HIT. THREE FIRMS SUSPEND. CLIMAX OF +DRAMATIC DAY.</h4> + +<p>He saw only dimly what every one else was poring over frantically. He +was reading over for the twentieth time the ugly story of Forshay's +suicide.</p> + +<h3>WELL-KNOWN BROKER ENDS LIFE AT CLUB</h3> + +<h4>W. O. FORSHAY THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IN DRAKE'S CLEAN +UP</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<p>The bare facts followed, with a history of Forshay's career, his social +connections, an account of his marriage, city house, and country house.</p> + +<p>"But after all am I responsible?" he said to himself miserably, and +though he returned always to the premise that he had been an innocent +participant, he began to be obsessed with the spreading sense of ruin +which such victories could occasion.</p> + +<p>Forshay would not have blamed him, perhaps, for Forshay had played the +game to the limit of the law and asked no favors. It was not that which +profoundly troubled him and awoke the long dormant ethical sense. Had +Drake figured out just what his conclusions would be and the effect on +the public from allowing him to proceed blindly on a wrong start? In a +word, had Drake deliberately used him to mislead others, knowing that +after the success of Indiana Smelter his prospective son-in-law would be +credited with inside information?</p> + +<p>He did not as yet answer these questions in the affirmative; to do so +meant a decision subversive of all his newly acquired sense of success. +But though he still denied the accusations, they would not be thus +answered, constantly returning.</p> + +<p>At the offices it was as though the dead man were lying in wait. A sense +of fright possessed him with the opening of the door. The girl at the +telephone greeted him with swollen eyes, swollen with hysterical +weeping; the stenographers moved noiselessly, hushed by the indefinable +sense of the supernatural. The brass plate on the door—W. O. +Forshay—seemed to him something inexpressibly grim and horrible. He had +the feeling which the others showed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> in their roving glances, as though +that plate hid something, as though there was something behind his door, +waiting.</p> + +<p>He went into the inner offices, at a sudden summons. Hauk was at the +table, gazing out of the window; Flaspoller worrying and fussing in the +center of the rug, switching aimlessly back and forth.</p> + +<p>Bojo nodded silently on entering.</p> + +<p>"You saw?" said Hauk with a jerk of his head.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Horrible!"</p> + +<p>Flaspoller broke out: "Not a cent in the world. God knows how much the +firm will have to make good. Thirty-five, forty, forty-five thousand, +maybe more. Oh, we're stuck all right."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say," said Bojo slowly, "that he left nothing—no +property?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, a house perhaps—mortgaged, of course; and then do we know what +else he owes? No. A hell of a hole we've got in with your Pittsburgh & +New Orleans."</p> + +<p>"That's not quite fair," said Bojo quietly. "I did give you a tip on +Indiana Smelter and you made money on that. I never said anything about +Pittsburgh & New Orleans. I distinctly refused to. You drew your own +conclusions."</p> + +<p>"That's a good joke," said Flaspoller with a contemptuous laugh.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" said Bojo, flushing angrily.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll tell you what I mean," said Flaspoller, discretion to the +winds. "When you come into a firm that has treated you generously as we +have, put up your salary without waiting to be asked, and you bring in +orders, confidential orders, to sell five hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> shares to-day, a +thousand to-morrow, like you sell yourself, and your friends sell +too—if you let your firm go on selling and don't know what's up, you're +either one big jackass or a—"</p> + +<p>"Or a what?" said Bojo, advancing.</p> + +<p>Something in the menacing eye caused the little broker to halt abruptly +with a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't go too far, Flaspoller," said Bojo coldly. "If this was a +mistake, I paid for it too, as you know. You know what I dropped."</p> + +<p>"I know nothing," said Flaspoller, recovering his courage with his +anger, and planting himself defiantly in the young fellow's path. "I +know only what you lost—here, and I know too what <i>we</i> lose."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, do you mean to insinuate that I did anything <i>crooked</i>?" +said Bojo loudly, yet at the bottom ill at ease.</p> + +<p>"Shut up now," said Hauk, as Flaspoller started on another angry tirade. +"Look here, Mr. Crocker, there's no use wasting words. The milk's spilt. +Well, what then?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, of course," said Bojo, frowning.</p> + +<p>"Of course you understand after what's happened," said Hauk quietly, "it +would be impossible for us to make use of your services any more."</p> + +<p>Much as he himself had contemplated breaking off relations, it gave him +quite a shock to hear that he was being dismissed. He caught his breath, +looked from one to another and said:</p> + +<p>"Quite right. There I agree with you. I shall be very glad to leave your +office to-day."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> + +<p>He went to his desk in a towering rage, went through his papers blindly, +and rose shortly to go out where he could get hold of himself and decide +on a course of action. The fact was that for the first time he had a +feeling of guilt. He again assured himself that he was perfectly +innocent, that there was nothing in his whole course which could be +objected to. Yet how many would have believed him if they knew that this +very morning he had deposited a check for a quarter of a million? What +would Hauk and Flaspoller have said at the bare announcement?</p> + +<p>He wandered into familiar groups, tarrying a moment and then passing on, +parrying the questions that were showered on him by those who knew the +intimacy of his relations with the successful manipulator. In all their +conversations Drake appeared like a demigod. Men went back to the famous +corners of Commodore Vanderbilt for a comparison with the skill and +boldness of the late manipulator. It was freely said that there was no +other man in Wall Street who would have dared so openly to defy the +great powers of the day and force them to terms.</p> + +<p>In this chorus of admiration there was no note of censure. He had played +the game as they played it. No one held him responsible for the tragedy +of Forshay and the unwritten losses of those who had been caught.</p> + +<p>Yet Bojo was not convinced. He knew that he had not been able to meet +the partners openly; that despite all the injustice of their attitude, +he had withheld the knowledge of his ultimate winnings, and that he had +withheld it because he would have been at a loss to explain it. More +potent than the stoic indifference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> of Wall Street was the memory of the +chance acquaintance, wrecked by the accident of this meeting; of +Forshay, calmly matching quarters with him before the opening of the +market, calculating the fatal point beyond which a rise meant to him the +end. And as he examined it from this intimate outlook, he wondered more +and more how free from responsibility and cruelty, from the echoes of +agony, could be any fortune of ten millions made over night, because of +others who had been led recklessly to gamble beyond their means.</p> + +<p>Forshay recalled DeLancy, and he shuddered at the thought of how close +the line of disaster had passed to him. Again and again he remembered +with distaste the look in DeLancy's face when at the end he had +persuaded him to take the check. What sat most heavily upon his +conscience was that now, with the ranging of events in clearer +perspective, he began to compare his own attitude with Drake's, with +DeLancy's weak submission to his explanation. If DeLancy had taken money +that Marsh had indignantly rejected, what had he himself done?</p> + +<p>At twelve, making a sudden resolve, he went up to the offices. The +partners were still there, brooding over the rout, favoring him with +dark looks at his interruption.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hauk, will you give me the total of Mr. Forshay's indebtedness to +your firm?"</p> + +<p>Flaspoller wheeled with an insolent dismissal on his lips, but Hauk +forestalled him. "What business is that of yours?"</p> + +<p>"You stated that his losses might amount to forty or forty-five +thousand. Is that correct?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's our affair!"</p> + +<p>"You don't understand," said Bojo quietly, "but I think it will be to +your interest to listen to me. Do I understand that you intend to +exercise your claim on whatever property may still be left to Mr. +Forshay's widow?"</p> + +<p>"What nonsense is he talking?" said Flaspoller, turning to his partner +in amazement.</p> + +<p>"I thought so," said Bojo, taking his answer from their attitude. "I +repeat, kindly give me the exact figures, in detail, of the total +indebtedness of Mr. Forshay to your firm."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you want to pay it, eh?" said Flaspoller contemptuously.</p> + +<p>"Exactly."</p> + +<p>"What!"</p> + +<p>The reply came almost in a shout. Hauk, keener than his partner, +perceiving from the exalted calm of the young man that the matter was +serious, caught Flaspoller by the arm and shot him into a chair.</p> + +<p>"You sit down and be quiet." He approached Bojo, studying him keenly. +"You want to pay up for Forshay—am I right?"</p> + +<p>"You are.</p> + +<p>"When?"</p> + +<p>"Now."</p> + +<p>Hauk himself was not proof against the shock the announcement brought. +He sat down, stupidly rubbing his hand across his forehead, glancing +suspiciously at Bojo. Finally he recovered himself sufficiently to say:</p> + +<p>"For what reason do you want to do this?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That is my business," said Bojo, "and besides you would not understand +in the least."</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said Flaspoller, recovering his eagerness with his +cupidity.</p> + +<p>"You're not going to refuse, are you?"</p> + +<p>"That's very noble, very generous," said Hauk slowly. "We were a little +hasty, Mr. Crocker. We've lost a good deal of money. We sometimes say +things a little more than we mean at such times. You mustn't think too +much of that. We are very much upset—we thought the world of Mr. +Forshay—"</p> + +<p>"All this is quite unnecessary," said Bojo with quiet scorn. "We are +dealing with figures. Have you the account ready—now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes—we can have it ready in a moment—look it over—take just a +few moments," said Flaspoller eagerly. "Sit down, Mr. Crocker, while we +look it up."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, I prefer to wait outside. Remember I want a complete and minute +statement."</p> + +<p>He wheeled and went out with disgust, taking his seat by his old place +at the window, without removing his hat and coat. He waited thus, long +minutes, staring out at the dirt-stained walls of the opposite +skyscraper that, five hundred feet in the air, shut them out from a +glimpse of the sky, oblivious to whispered conversations, curious +glances, or the nervous bustling to and fro of the partners. Presently +the telephone buzzed at his side.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hauk would like you to step into his office, sir."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Tell him to come to me."</p> + +<p>It was bravado, but a revenge that was precious to him. Almost +immediately Hauk came sliding to his desk, laying a paper before him.</p> + +<p>"This is it, Mr. Crocker."</p> + +<p>"Every claim you have against the estate—every one?" said Bojo, +examining carefully the items.</p> + +<p>"Perfectly."</p> + +<p>But at this moment Flaspoller arrived hastily and alarmed.</p> + +<p>"We forgot the share in the expense of the office," he said hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"Put it down," said Bojo, with a wave of his hand. At the point of +bitter scorn at which he had arrived, it seemed to him a sublime thing +to accept all figures without condescending to enter into discussion. +"Anything more, gentlemen?"</p> + +<p>Flaspoller in vain tortured his memory at this last summons. Hauk, +misunderstanding the frown and the stare with which Bojo continued to +gaze at the paper, began to explain: "This item here is calculated on a +third share in—"</p> + +<p>"I don't want any explanations," said Bojo, cutting him short. "You +will, of course, furnish complete details to the executor of the estate. +Now if this is complete, kindly give me a written acknowledgment of a +payment in full of every claim you hold against the estate of W. O. +Forshay, and likewise an attestation that this is in every respect a +just and true bill of Mr. Forshay's debts." He drew out his check-book. +"Fifty-two thousand, seven hundred—"</p> + +<p>"And forty-six dollars," said Flaspoller, who followed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> the strokes of +the pen with incredulous eyes as though unable to believe in Providence.</p> + +<p>Bojo rose, took the acquittals and the bill of items, and handed them +the check, saying: "This closes the matter, I believe."</p> + +<p>An immense struggle was going on in the minds of the two +partners—curiosity, cupidity, and a new sense of the financial strength +of the man who could thus toss off checks, plainly written in their +startled expressions.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Crocker, Tom, we should be very glad if you forgot what we said +this morning," said Flaspoller hurriedly. "You've been very handsome, +very handsome indeed. You can always have a desk in our offices. Mr. +Crocker, I apologize for mistaking you. Shake hands!"</p> + +<p>"Good-by, gentlemen!" said Bojo, lifting his hat with the utmost +punctiliousness.</p> + +<p>He took a hasty luncheon and went uptown to the Court, where Della, the +pretty little Irish girl at the telephone desk, opened her eyes in +surprise at this unusual appearance.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Crocker, what's wrong?"</p> + +<p>"I'm changing my habits, Della," he said with an attempted laugh.</p> + +<p>He went to his room and sat a long while before the fireplace, pulling +at a pipe. At length he rose, went to the desk, and wrote:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Doris:</p> + +<p>A good many things have come up since I left you. I think it +is better that no announcement be made until we have had a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +chance to talk matters over very seriously. I hope that can +be soon.</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Bojo</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>P.S. Please thank Patsie for packing my bag. I went off in +such a rush I think I forgot.</p> + +<p>P.P.S. Tell Gladys that Fred came out all right—shouldn't +be surprised if he'd made a little too.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>BOJO FACES THE TRUTH</h3> + +<p>The next days he spent aimlessly. He had a great decision to make, and +he acted as though he had not a thought in the world but to drift +indolently through life. He idled through breakfast, reading the morning +papers laboriously, and was amazed to find that with all his delay it +was only eleven o'clock, with an interminable interval to be filled in +before lunch. He began a dozen novels, seeking to lose himself in the +spell of other lands and other times; but as soon as he sallied out to +his club he had the feeling that the world had been turned inside out.</p> + +<p>After luncheon he tried vainly to inveigle some acquaintance into an +afternoon's loafing, only to receive again that impression of strange +loneliness in a foreign land, as one after the other disappeared before +the call of work. He had nothing to do except the one thing which in the +end he knew had to be done, and the more he sought to put it from him, +idling in moving-picture halls or consuming long stretches of pavement +in exploring tramps, the more he felt something always back of his +shoulder, not to be denied.</p> + +<p>He avoided the company of his chums, seeking other acquaintances with +whom to dine and take in a show. Something had fallen into the midst of +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> old intimacy of Westover Court. There was a feeling of unease and +impending disruption. The passion for gain had passed among them at last +and the trail of disillusionment it had left could not be effaced. The +boyish delight, the frolicking with life had passed. They seemed to have +aged and sobered in a night. The morning breakfasts were constrained, +hurried affairs. There was not the old give-and-take spirit of horse +play. DeLancy was moody and evasive, Marsh silent, and Granning grim. +Bojo could not meet DeLancy's eyes, and with the others he felt that +though they would never express it, he had disappointed them, that in +some way they held him responsible for the changes which had come and +the loss of that complete and free spirit of comradeship which would +never return.</p> + +<p>He had reached the point where he had decided on a full confession to +Drake and a certain restitution. But here he met the rock of his +indecision. What should he restore? After deducting the sums paid to +DeLancy and to the estate of Forshay, he had still almost one hundred +and sixty thousand dollars. Why should he not deduct his own losses, +amounting to over seventy thousand dollars incurred in the service of a +campaign which had netted millions?</p> + +<p>His conscience, tortured by the tragic memory of Forshay and the feeling +of the spreading circles of panic and losses which had started from his +unwitting agency, had finally recoiled before the thought of making +profit of the desolation of others. But if he renounced the gain, was +there any reason why he should suffer loss; why Drake should not +reimburse him as he had reimbursed others? To accept this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> view meant +that he would still remain in possession of upwards of eighty-five +thousand dollars, producing a tidy income, able to hold up his own in +the society to which he had grown accustomed. To renounce the payment of +his losses meant not simply a blow to his pride in the acknowledgment +that in the first six months he had already lost two-thirds of what his +father had given him, but that his whole scheme of living would have to +be changed, while marriage with Doris became an impossibility.</p> + +<p>Beyond the first letter he had written her in the first tragic reaction +on his return from the office, he had sent Doris no further word. What +he had to say was yet too undefined to express on paper. Too much +depended on her attitude when they met at last face to face. Her +letters, full of anxiety and demand for information, remained +unanswered. One afternoon on returning after a day's tramp on the East +Side, he found a telegram, which had been waiting hours.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Return this afternoon four-thirty most anxious meet me +station.</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Doris</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>It was then almost six. Without waiting to telephone explanations he +jumped in a taxi and shot off uptown. At the Drakes' he sent up his name +by Thompson, learning with a sudden tightening of the heart that Drake +himself was home. He went into the quiet reception room, nervously +excited by the approaching crisis, resolved now that it was up, to push +it to its ultimate conclusion. As he whipped back and forth, fingering +impatiently the shining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> green leaves of the waxed rubber plant, all at +once, to his amazement, Patsie stood before him.</p> + +<p>"You here?" he said, stopping short.</p> + +<p>She nodded, red in her cheeks, looking quickly at him and away.</p> + +<p>"Doris is changing her dress; she'll be down right away. Didn't you get +the telegram?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry— I was out all day."</p> + +<p>He stopped and she was silent, both awkwardly conscious of the other. +Finally he stammered: "I asked Doris to thank you—for getting my bag +ready and—and your message."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bojo," she said impulsively and the spots of red on her cheek +spread like names, "I want to speak to you so much. I have been thinking +over so many things that I ought to say."</p> + +<p>"You can say anything," he said gently.</p> + +<p>"Bojo, you must marry Doris!" she said brokenly, joining her hands.</p> + +<p>"Why?" he said, too startled to notice the absurdity of the question.</p> + +<p>"She needs you. She loves you. If you could have seen her all Sunday +night when we—when she was afraid you had been ruined. You don't know +how she cares. I didn't. I was terribly mistaken—unjust. You mustn't +let her go off and marry some one she doesn't care about, like Boskirk, +the way Dolly did."</p> + +<p>"But I must do what is right for me too," he said desperately, moved by +the radiance in her eyes that seemed to flow out and envelope him +irresistibly. "I have a right to love too, to find a woman who knows +what love means—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Don't—don't," she said, turning away miserably, too young to make the +pretense of not understanding him.</p> + +<p>"Listen, Drina," he said, catching her hand. "I am up against a +decision, the greatest decision in my life, which means whether I am to +have the right to my own self-respect and yours and others. One way +means money, an easy way to everything people want in this world, and no +blame attached except what I myself might feel. The other means standing +on my own feet, no favors, taking a loss of thousands of dollars, and a +fight of perhaps five, ten years to get where I am now. Which would you +do? No, you don't even need to answer," he said joyfully, carried away +by the look in her eyes as she swung fearlessly around. "I know you."</p> + +<p>In his fervor he caught her hand and pressed it against his heart. +"Drina dear, you ring true, true as a bell. You, I know, will understand +whatever I do." He was rushing on when suddenly a thought stopped him. +If he did what he had planned, what right would he have to hope of +marrying her even after years of toil? He dropped her hands, his face +going so blank that, forgetting the mingled joy and terror his words had +brought her, she cried:</p> + +<p>"Bojo—what's wrong—what are you thinking of?"</p> + +<p>He turned away, shaking his head, drawing a deep breath.</p> + +<p>But at this moment, before Patsie could escape, Doris came down the +stairs and directly to him.</p> + +<p>"Bojo—I've been so worried—why didn't you answer my letters? And <i>why</i> +didn't you meet me?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + +<p>She threw her arms about his neck, gazing anxiously into his eyes. He +had a blurred vision of Patsie, shrinking and white, turning from the +sight of the embrace, as he stammered explanations. Luckily Drake +himself broke the tension with an unexpected appearance and a bluff—</p> + +<p>"Hello, Tom. Where have you been keeping yourself? Now that you're a +millionaire I expected you to come sailing in on a steam yacht! Well, +Doris, what do you think of your financier?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Drake, I've got something important I must talk over with you. Can +you see me for a few minutes now? It's very important. If you could—"</p> + +<p>The tone in which he said these words, staring past them into the vista +of the salons, impressed each with the feeling of a crisis. Drake +halted, shot a quick glance from the young fellow to Doris, and said, as +he went out:</p> + +<p>"Why, yes—of course. Come in now. Soon as you're ready. The +library—glad to see you."</p> + +<p>At the same moment, with a last appealing glance, Patsie disappeared +behind the curtains. Doris came to him, startled and alarmed.</p> + +<p>"You're not in trouble?" she said, wonder in her look. "Dad told me +you'd made a quarter of a million and that everything was all right. +That is true, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Doris, everything is not all right," he said solemnly. "Whether I am to +keep my share or not depends on what answer your father gives to one +question I am going to ask him."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean? You mean you would not accept—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Under certain circumstances I <i>can't</i> accept this money—exactly that."</p> + +<p>"But, Bojo, don't do anything rash—hastily," she said hurriedly. "Talk +it over with me first. Let me know."</p> + +<p>"No," he said firmly. "This is my decision."</p> + +<p>"At least let me come with you—let me hear!"</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "No, Doris—not even that. This is between your +father and me."</p> + +<p>"But our marriage," she said in desperation, following him to the door.</p> + +<p>"Afterward—when I have seen your father, then we must talk of that."</p> + +<p>The new decision in his voice and movement surprised and controlled her. +She raised her hand as though to speak, and found no word to utter in +her amazement. He went quickly through the salons, knocked, and went +into the library. Drake, with a premonition perhaps of what was coming, +was waiting impatiently, spinning the chain of his watch.</p> + +<p>"Well, Tom, to the point. What is it?" he said imperiously.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Drake," Bojo began carefully, "I have not been in to see you +because—because I did not know just what to say. Mr. Drake, I've been +terribly upset by this Pittsburgh & New Orleans deal!"</p> + +<p>"What, upset by making a cool quarter of a million?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's it," he said firmly, never losing an expression on the +older man's face. "You know, of course, that Forshay, who committed +suicide, was in my office."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What, in your office?" said Drake, with a start. "No, I didn't know +that!"</p> + +<p>"That's rather shaken me up. He ruined himself on Pittsburgh & New +Orleans. And then that night—when I got home one of my chums was pretty +close to the same thing."</p> + +<p>"I told you not to take any one into your confidence, Tom," said Drake +quietly.</p> + +<p>"That's true, you <i>told</i> me that. Mr. Drake, answer me this, didn't you +expect me to tell—some one?"</p> + +<p>Drake looked at him quickly, then down, drumming with his fingers.</p> + +<p>"What's the point?"</p> + +<p>Bojo had no longer any doubts. The transaction had been as he had +finally divined. Yet the words had not been spoken that meant to him the +renunciation of all the luxury and opportunity that surrounded him in +the tapestried wealth of the great room. He hesitated so long that Drake +looked up at him and frowned, repeating the question:</p> + +<p>"What's the point, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Drake, you knew I would tell others to sell Pittsburgh & New +Orleans—you <i>intended</i> I should, didn't you? That was part of your +plan—a necessary part, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Tom, I expressly told you not to jump to conclusions," said Drake, +rising and raising his voice. "I expressly told you not to let the cat +out of the bag."</p> + +<p>"Won't you answer my question? Yes or no?" said the young fellow, very +quiet and quite colorless.</p> + +<p>"I have answered that."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, you have answered," said Bojo slowly. "Now, Mr. Drake, I won't +press you any further. I know. I can't accept that money. It is not +mine."</p> + +<p>"Can't accept? What's this nonsense?" said Drake, stopping short.</p> + +<p>"I can't make money off the losings of my friends, whom I have ruined to +make your deal succeed."</p> + +<p>"That's a hard word!"</p> + +<p>"And there's another reason," said Bojo, ignoring his flash of anger. "I +was not honest with you. The night I came here I was ruined myself."</p> + +<p>"I knew that."</p> + +<p>"But you didn't know that I had used the fifty thousand dollars pledged +to your pool and that if you had been operating as I thought and wiped +out, I should have owed you thirty-five thousand dollars—pledged to +you—a debt which would mean dishonor to me."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know that. No. How did that happen?" said Drake, sitting down +and gazing anxiously at him.</p> + +<p>"I lost my head—absolutely—completely. I did just what Forshay and +DeLancy did—gambled with money that didn't belong to me. I lived in a +nightmare. Mr. Drake, I lost my bearings. Now I'm going to get them +back." He paused, drew breath, and continued earnestly: "Now you +understand why I don't deserve a cent of that money even if you could +swear to me you didn't use me purposely, which you can't! I pretty +nearly went over the line, Mr. Drake, and it wasn't my fault I didn't, +either. I guess I'm not built right for this sort of life—that's the +short of it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You are young, very young, Tom," said Drake slowly. "Young people look +at things through their emotions. That's what you're doing!"</p> + +<p>"Thank God," said Bojo, and it seemed to him for the first time a +feeling of peace returned.</p> + +<p>"What do you want to do?" said Drake, frowning and rising.</p> + +<p>"I can not return you the two hundred thousand dollars," said Bojo +slowly. "I paid one friend thirty-eight thousand to cover his losses, to +save him from disgrace and dishonor in the eyes of a woman; another +friend refused to accept a cent. I paid to the estate of Forshay every +cent of indebtedness he owed the firm—fifty-two odd thousand dollars. +Forshay gambled because he thought I knew. That makes over ninety +thousand dollars. The rest—one hundred and fifty-nine thousand—I will +return to you."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, Tom, you did that?" said Drake, taking out his +handkerchief. He sat down in his chair, overcome. For a long interval no +one spoke, and then from the chair a voice came out that sounded not +like Drake but something bodiless. "That's awful—awful. From my point +of view I have played the game as others, as square as the squarest. I +have lost thousands of thousands sticking to a friend, thousands in +keeping to my word. This is not business, this is war. Those who go in, +who intend to gamble with life, to fight with thousands and millions, +must go in to take the consequences. If they ever get me it'll be +because some one has turned traitor, not because I've sold out or done +anything disreputable. If others were ruined in Pittsburgh & New +Orleans, that's because they were willing to make money by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> smashing up +some other person's property. It was their fault, not mine. If a man +can't control himself—his fault. If a man goes bankrupt and won't face +the world and work back instead of blowing his brains out—his fault.</p> + +<p>"You think of the individual—men, friends, death. They move you, +they're closer to you than the big perspective. They don't count, no one +counts. If a man kills himself, he dies quicker than he would and is not +worth living, that's all. Sounds cold-blooded to you. Yes. But we're +dealing in movements, armies! Poverty, sorrow, disaster, death, they are +life—you can't get away from them. A great bridge is more important +than the lives of the men who build it, a great railroad is necessary, +not the question whether a few thousand people lose their fortunes, in +the operation which makes a great amalgamation possible. That's my point +of view. It's not yours. You're set on what you've made up your mind to +do. Your emotions have got you. Ten years from now you'll regret it."</p> + +<p>"I hope not," said Bojo simply.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do? Well, come in here as my private secretary," +said Drake, placing his hand on the young man's shoulder, and adding, +with that burst of human understanding which gave him a magnetic power +over men: "Tom, you're a —— fool to do what you're doing, but, by +heaven, I love you for it!"</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Bojo, controlling his voice with difficulty.</p> + +<p>"Will you come here?"</p> + +<p>"No."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Frankly, I want to do something by myself," said Bojo stubbornly. "I +don't want some one to take me by the collar and jack me up into +success."</p> + +<p>"Think it over!"</p> + +<p>"No, I'll stick to that. I want to get into a rational life. To live the +way I've been living is torture."</p> + +<p>Drake hesitated, as though loathe to let him go, seeking some way out.</p> + +<p>"Won't you let me make good your losses—at least that?"</p> + +<p>"Not after the hole I got into, no."</p> + +<p>"Damn it, Tom, won't you let me do something to help out?"</p> + +<p>"No, not a thing." He went up and shook hands. "You don't know what it +means to be able to look you in the eyes again, sir. That's everything!"</p> + +<p>"And Doris?" said Drake slowly, beaten at every point.</p> + +<p>"Doris I am going to see now," he said.</p> + +<p>He went to the door hastily to avoid sentimentalities, and on the other +side of the curtain, where she had been listening, he found Doris, +wide-eyed and thrilled, her finger on her lips.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK</h3> + +<p>"What, you were there! You heard!" he said, astounded.</p> + +<p>She nodded her head, incapable of speech, her finger still on her lips, +drawing him by the hand into the little sitting-room where they were in +a measure free from other eyes.</p> + +<p>"Now for a torrent of reproaches," he thought grimly.</p> + +<p>But instead the next moment tears were on her cheeks, her arms about +him, and her head on his shoulder. Seeing her thus shaken, he thought +bitterly that all this grief was but for the material loss, the blow to +her ambitions. All at once she raised her head, took him firmly by the +shoulder, and said:</p> + +<p>"Bojo, I've never loved you before—but I do now, oh, yes, now I know!"</p> + +<p>He shook his head, unable to believe her capable of great emotions.</p> + +<p>"Doris, you are carried away—this is not what you'll say to-morrow!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, it is!" she cried fervently. "I'll sacrifice anything +now—nothing will ever make me give you up!"</p> + +<p>"Luckily for you," he said, his look darkening, "you'll have time enough +to come to your senses.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> If you heard all, you know what this +means—starting at the beginning."</p> + +<p>"I heard— I understand," she said, close to him, her eyes shining with +a light that blotted out the world in confused shadow. He looked at her, +thrilled by her feeling, by the thought that it belonged to him, that he +was the master of it, and yet unconvinced.</p> + +<p>"It's just your imagination," he said quietly, "that's all. Doris, I +know you too well—what you've lived with and what you must have." He +added, with a doubting smile: "You remember what you said to me that day +on our ride, when we passed through that factory village—'ask me +anything but to be <i>poor</i>.'"</p> + +<p>"Bojo," she said, desperately, "you don't understand what a woman is. +That was true—then. There's all that you say in me, but there's +something else which you've never called out before, which can come when +I love, when I really love." She clung to him, fighting for him, feeling +how close she had been to losing him. "Bojo, believe in me, give me one +more chance!"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow you'll come to me with some new scheme for making money!"</p> + +<p>"No, no."</p> + +<p>"You'll try to persuade me that I should marry you on your money, take +the opportunities your father can shove in my way. Oh, Doris, I know you +too well!"</p> + +<p>"No, no, I won't. I don't want—don't you see I don't want to make you +do anything? I want to follow you!"</p> + +<p>"That has been the trouble," he said, abruptly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<p>He turned, walked away, and sat down, gazing out through the window, +feeling something dark and enveloping closing about him without his +being able to slip away. She came impulsively to his side, flinging +herself on the floor at his knees, carried away with the intensity of +her emotion.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 333px;"><a name="ILL_008" id="ILL_008"></a> +<img src="images/ill_008.jpg" width="333" height="400" alt=""'What does all the rest amount to?' she said +breathlessly. 'I want you'"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'What does all the rest amount to?' she said +breathlessly. 'I want you'"</span> +</div> + +<p>"What does all the rest amount to!" she said breathlessly. "I want you! +I want a man, not a dummy, in my life. I want some one to look up to, +bigger, stronger than I am, that can make me do things."</p> + +<p>He put his hand on hers, thrilling as he bent quickly and kissed it.</p> + +<p>"The trouble has been," he said slowly, "all this time I've been trying +to come to your ways of living, to reach you. Doris, I can't promise; +I'm not sure of myself, of what I think—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it would be such a dreadful thing if you were to let me go now," +she said suddenly, covering her face. "Now, when I know what I could +do!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he assented, feeling too the power he had suddenly acquired to +make or mar a life, and with that power the responsibility.</p> + +<p>"You can do anything with me," she said in a whisper.</p> + +<p>He felt a lump in his throat, a sense of being blocked at every turn, a +horror of doing harm, and a wild pride in the thought that at the last +this girl, whom he had rebelled against so often for being without +emotion or passion, was at his feet, without reserve, a warm, adoring +woman.</p> + +<p>"Doris, you have got to come to me on my footing," he said firmly at +last.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> + +<p>She accepted it as the answer she had longed for, raising her face +suffused with joy, pressing his hand to her heart, her eyes swimming +with tears, inarticulate.</p> + +<p>"Try me—anything! I'm happy—so happy—so afraid— I was so afraid— +Oh, Bojo, to think I might never have known you—lost you!"</p> + +<p>When a little calm had been reestablished, she wished to marry him at +once, to live in one room in a boarding-house, if necessary, to prove +her sincerity. He answered her evasively, pretending to laugh at her, +feeling the while the leaden load of what by a trick of fate he had +assumed at the moment when he had expected the completest freedom. Yet +there was something so genuine, so uncalculated in her contrition, +something so helpless and appealing to his strength in her surrender to +his will and decision, that he felt stirred to a poignant pity, and +shrank before the brutality of inflicting pain.</p> + +<p>When he left, quiet and brooding, turning the corner of the Avenue his +glance happened to go to a window on the second floor, and he saw Patsie +looking down. He stopped, stumbling in his progress, and then, +recovering himself, lifted his hat solemnly. She did not move nor make +an answering gesture. He saw her only immobile, looking down at him.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When he returned to the Court and stopped mechanically at the desk for +his mail, Della, with her welcoming smile, chided him.</p> + +<p>"My, but you look awful serious, Mr. Crocker!"</p> + +<p>"Am I?— Yes, I suppose so," he said absent-mindedly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> + +<p>He went through into the inner court that yesterday had seemed to him +such a constricted little spot in the great city which had responded to +his fortunate touch. Now, in the falling dusk, with the lights +blossoming out, the court seemed very big, crowded with human beings in +the battle of life, and he himself small and without significance.</p> + +<p>"Well, I've gone and done it," he said to himself with a half laugh. "I +wonder—"</p> + +<p>He wondered, now that it was all over, now that the curtain had dropped +on the drama of it, whether after all Drake had been right—whether he +was seeing life through his emotions, and what the point of view of +thirty-five and forty would be in retrospection.</p> + +<p>"Well, I've chucked it all," he said, lingering in the quiet and the +suffused half lights. "I took the bit in my teeth. There's no turning +back now." He remembered his father and the old battling look of +defiance in his eyes as he had exhorted his son.</p> + +<p>"Guess, after all," he said grimly, feeling all at once drawn closer to +his own, "I must be a chip of the old block."</p> + +<p>Granning alone was in the study as he came in, spinning his hat on to +the sofa.</p> + +<p>"Well, Granning, I've up and done it," he said shortly.</p> + +<p>"Eh, what?" said Granning, looking up rather alarmed.</p> + +<p>He told him.</p> + +<p>"And so, Granning, I'm a horny-handed son of labor from this time +forth," he said in conclusion. "You'll have to find me a job!" The laugh +failed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> It seemed out of place at that moment with Granning staring at +him. He added quietly: "Guess self-respect is worth more than I +thought!"</p> + +<p>"God, I'm glad!" said Granning, bringing down his great fist.</p> + +<p>He had never in all the long friendship seen Granning so stirred!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>BOJO HUNTS A JOB</h3> + +<p>"Well, now to hunt a job!"</p> + +<p>He woke up the next morning with this one idea dominant, dressed to a +whistling accompaniment, and came gaily to breakfast. A load seemed to +have been suddenly lifted from his mind, the day fair and the future +keen with the zest of a good fight without favors. The breakfast was +delicious and the air alive with energy.</p> + +<p>"Seems to me you're looking rather cocky," said Marsh, studying him with +surprise.</p> + +<p>"Never felt fitter in my life," said Bojo, stealing a roll from DeLancy, +who had completely lost his good spirits.</p> + +<p>"What's up? Going to trim the market again?"</p> + +<p>Bojo laughed, a free and triumphant laugh.</p> + +<p>"Never again for me!" He added quickly, remembering the attitude they +had assumed for DeLancy's benefit: "Luck's been with me long enough— +I'm not going to bank on luck any more!"</p> + +<p>Fred pushed his plate from him and went into the outer room without +meeting their glances.</p> + +<p>"I say, Bojo, one thing we ought to do," said Marsh under his breath: +"get after the infant and give him a solemn dressing-down."</p> + +<p>"You don't suppose he's fool enough to try the market again?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Who knows what he'll do?" said Marsh gloomily. "Sometimes I think it +would have kept him out of more trouble if you'd let him be cleaned out!</p> + +<p>"You mean Louise Varney— Good Lord!"</p> + +<p>"Exactly!"</p> + +<p>"Do you think he suspects?" said Bojo, after a moment's hesitation—"I +mean about his taking a profit?"</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Marsh quietly.</p> + +<p>"Poor devil! Well, heavens, I can't criticize him," said Bojo, moodily. +"I pretty near did the same thing."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do now?" said Marsh, to keep the conversation +clear of disturbing memories.</p> + +<p>"Going to start in on a new job."</p> + +<p>"What?" said Marsh, surprised.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm going to look around," said Bojo in an offhand sort of way. "I +want something solid and real—constructive is the word. Well, Roscy, +wish me good luck— I'm starting to look over the field this morning." +He rose confident and happy, slapping his friend on the shoulder, with +the old boyish exhilaration. "By Jove, I'm glad to have it over and to +begin a real life!"</p> + +<p>"Give you a try at reporting," said Marsh.</p> + +<p>"Not on your life. I'm going out for something myself! Hello there, old +Freddie-boy! Got your hair on straight? Well, then, come on and tell +Wall Street what to do."</p> + +<p>An hour later, still full of confidence, he took the bull by the horns +and entered the offices of Stoughton and Bird. Young Stoughton was of +his social crowd, and the father had been particularly agreeable to him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +on the several occasions on which he had dined at their home. The house +was known for its conservatism, dealing in solid investments.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Skeeter," said Bojo, giving young Stoughton his college +nickname. "Is the Governor busy—could he see me ten minutes?"</p> + +<p>They were in a vast outer chamber with junior members installed at +distant desks, the telephone ringing at every moment.</p> + +<p>"I think you've caught him right," said Stoughton, shaking his hand +cordially. "Wait a moment— I'll 'phone in." He nodded presently. "Sure +enough—go right in."</p> + +<p>Stoughton, senior, a short, well-groomed man, club-man and whip, pumped +his hand affably with the smiling relaxation of one who throws off +momentarily the professional manner.</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you, Tom. I was asking Jo yesterday what had become of you. +Well, what have you got up your sleeve? You look mighty important. Want +to sell me a railroad in Mexico or half of a Western State?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing like that," said Tom, laughing and at his ease at once. "What +I'm looking for is a job."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean it," said Stoughton in surprise.</p> + +<p>"I want to get experience along solid lines," said Bojo confidentially. +"In conservative financing and investments. I don't know whether you've +got anything open, but if you have I'd like to apply."</p> + +<p>"I see." Stoughton nodded, plainly perplexed. "Does that mean you've +left—"</p> + +<p>"Hauk and Flaspoller—yes."</p> + +<p>Stoughton frowned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's poor Charlie Forshay's firm, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"They were caught pretty hard in Pittsburgh & New Orleans," said +Stoughton meditatively. "Yes, I remember. Were you caught too?"</p> + +<p>"I was."</p> + +<p>"What were you getting there?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I don't expect to get what I was making there—not just at +present," said Bojo magnanimously. "I was getting as much as one hundred +and twenty-five a week at the end."</p> + +<p>"No," said Stoughton, without the flicker of a smile, "you can't expect +that." The social affability had faded. Gradually he had withdrawn into +a quiet defensive attitude, tinged with curiosity. "By the way, you +don't mind my asking a discreet question? Why don't you try Drake?"</p> + +<p>Bojo could not give an answer which would reveal too much, but he +contented himself with saying frankly:</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Stoughton, I'd rather not ask favors. I'd like to work this +out for myself."</p> + +<p>"Right," said Stoughton, brightening. Still beaming, he added: "Wish we +had a place for you here. Unfortunately, our system is rather complex +and we start a man at the bottom. Of course we wouldn't offer you +anything like that. You're out of the ten-dollar-a-week class. Besides, +you've got friends—good connections. Lots of firms would be glad to get +you."</p> + +<p>"I want to get into something sound. I want to keep away from just +brokers," said Bojo, much cheered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And you're right," said Stoughton, nodding. He drew out a card and +penciled it. "You know Harding and Stonebach? Harding's a good friend of +mine—give him this card. They're what you want—make a specialty of +development, electric plants, street railways, and that sort of thing. +Big future for a young fellow who's got a talent for constructive +organization."</p> + +<p>"That's just what I want," said Bojo, delighted. He shook hands, +thanking him effusively.</p> + +<p>Mr. Harding was in but asked him to call after lunch. He wandered about +the Wall Street district, stopping to chat with several acquaintances on +the curb, and ate lunch, finding it hard to kill time. Back at the +appointment, he was forced to sit, shifting restlessly, watching the +clock hands make a slow full revolution before his name was called. This +enforced wait, stealing glances at the flitting procession of purposeful +visitors and the two or three oldish men, neither impatient nor very +hopeful, who came after him, biding their turn, somehow robbed him of +all his confidence. His head was weary with the click of typewriters and +the fire of his assurance out. He tried to state his case concisely and +promptly, and felt hurried and embarrassed.</p> + +<p>In two minutes he was out in the hall again, the interview for which he +had waited a day, over. Mr. Harding, with incisive, businesslike +despatch, had taken his card and noted his address, promising to notify +him if occasion arose. He understood it was a dismissal. As he went out, +one of the oldish men arose without emotion at the new summons, folding +his newspaper and pocketing his spectacles. Bojo returned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> to the Court, +essaying to laugh down his disappointment, yielding already to the +subtle depression of being a straggler and watching the army sweep by.</p> + +<p>The next day he continued his quest, the next and all of that week. +Sometimes he met with curt refusal that left a scar on his pride; +sometimes he seemed to gain headway and have opportunity almost on his +fingers until somehow, sooner or later, in the categorical questioning +it transpired that his last venture had been with a firm of speculative +brokers who had been caught and squeezed. Gradually it dawned upon him +that there was something strange in the resulting sudden shift of +attitude, a superstition of the Street itself, a gambler's dread of +failure, an instinctive horror of any one who had been touched with +misfortune, as the living hurry from the dead. The feeling of loneliness +began to creep over him. Alarmed, he steadfastly refused all week-end +invitations.</p> + +<p>One Sunday his father turned up suddenly in the Court, shook hands with +Granning, who alone kept him company, and passed a few perfunctory +remarks with his son.</p> + +<p>"How is it you haven't been to me for money?" he said gruffly.</p> + +<p>Bojo answered with a lightness he was far from feeling:</p> + +<p>"Well, they haven't taken it away from me yet, Dad."</p> + +<p>"Mighty sorry to hear it." He looked him over critically. "In good +shape?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Fine."</p> + +<p>"Get enough sleep and don't do much sitting up and counting the stars?"</p> + +<p>"Hardly. How've you been?"</p> + +<p>"Sound as a drum."</p> + +<p>"How's the business, father?"</p> + +<p>The question brought them perilously near what each had in mind. Perhaps +one word of daring would have broken down the pride of their mutual +obstinacy. Mr. Crocker growled out:</p> + +<p>"Business is mighty shaky. Your precious Wall Street and politics have +got every one scared to death. Mighty lucky we'll be if a crash doesn't +hit us."</p> + +<p>Had Bojo defended himself, the father might have reopened the question +of his entering the mills; but he didn't, and after a few minutes of +indefinite seeking for an opening Mr. Crocker went off as abruptly as he +had come.</p> + +<p>The next morning Bojo, to end this depressing period of inactivity, made +a resolve to accept any opportunity, no matter how humble the salary, +and went down to see Mr. Stoughton to ask him for the chance to start at +the bottom. Skeeter received him with the same cordiality as before, but +access to the father was not to be had that day. In desperation he sat +down and wrote his request. Two days later he received his answer in the +evening mail.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Thomas Crocker.</span><br /> +</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Tom:</p> + +<p>Please forgive any delay due to press of business. Just at +present there is no vacancy, and frankly I would not advise +you to take the step even if there were. I know you are +young and impatient to be at work again, but I can not but +feel that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> you would not be happy in making such a radical +move, particularly when at any moment the opportunity you +are looking for may turn up.</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 30em;">Cordially yours,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">J. N. Stoughton</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Granning came in as he was sitting by the wastebasket and slowly tearing +this letter into minute shreds.</p> + +<p>"Hello, young fellow—what luck?"</p> + +<p>"I think I'm on," said Bojo, slowly, feeling all at once shelved and +abandoned. "The last thing people downtown have any use for, Granning, +is a busted broker!"</p> + +<p>"You have found that out, have you?" said Granning quickly.</p> + +<p>Bojo nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, you're right." He sat down. "See here, old sport, why don't you +do the thing you ought to do?"</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"Go down and see the old man and tell him you're ready to start for the +mills to-morrow!"</p> + +<p>"No, no, I can't do that."</p> + +<p>"You want to do it, at heart. It's only pride that's keeping you."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, but that pride means a lot to me," said Bojo doggedly. "Never! +I'm not going to him a failure. So shut up about that."</p> + +<p>"Well, what are you going to do?"</p> + +<p>Bojo began to whistle, looking out the window.</p> + +<p>"Suppose I were to offer you a job over at the factory?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Would you?" said Bojo, looking up with a leaping heart.</p> + +<p>"That means starting in on rock bottom—as I did. Up at six, there at +seven—beginning as a day laborer on a beautifully oily and smudgy +blanking machine among a bunch of Polacks."</p> + +<p>"Will you give me a chance?" said Bojo breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Will you stick it out?"</p> + +<p>"You bet I will!"</p> + +<p>"Done!"</p> + +<p>And they shook hands with a resounding smack that seemed to explode all +Bojo's pent-up feelings.</p> + +<p>"All right, young fellow," said Granning with a grin. "To-morrow we'll +find out what sort of stuff you're made of!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>BOJO IN OVERALLS</h3> + +<p>The day he entered the employ of the Dyer-Garnett Caster and Foundry +Company was like an open door into the wonderland of industry. The sun, +red and wrapped in dull mists, came stolidly out of the east as they +crossed the river in the unearthly grays, with electric lights showing +in wan ferry-boats. When they entered the factory a few minutes before +seven, the laborers were passing the time-clocks, punching their +tickets, Polack and Saxon, Hun and American, Irish and Italian, the men +a mixture of slouchy, unskilled laborers and keen, strong mechanics, +home-owners and thinkers, the women of rather a higher class, +bright-eyed, deft, with a prevailing instinct for coquetry.</p> + +<p>In the offices Dyer, lanky New Englander, engineer and inventor, and +Garnett, the president, self-made, simple and shrewd, both in their +shirt sleeves, gave him a cordial welcome. Unbeknown to Bojo, Granning +had given a flattering picture of his future destination as heir +apparent to the famous Crocker mills and his progressive desire for +preliminary experience in factories that were handling problems of +labor-saving along modern lines.</p> + +<p>"Glad to meet you," said Garnett, gripping his hand. "Mr. Granning tells +me you want to see the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> whole scheme from the bottom up. It's not +playing football, Mr. Crocker."</p> + +<p>"Hope not," said Bojo with a smile. "It's very good of you to give me an +opportunity."</p> + +<p>"Don't know how you'll feel about it after a couple of weeks. I'll get +Davy—that's my son—to show you around. We're doing some things here +you'll be interested in. Mr. Dyer's just installed some very pretty +machines. Davy'll put you onto the ropes—he's just been through it. +That's a great plant of your father's—went through it last year. +Nothing finer in the country."</p> + +<p>He found young Garnett a boy of twenty, just out of high-school, alert, +eager, and stocked with practical knowledge. The morning he spent in +exploration was a revelation. In his old prejudice against what he had +confusedly termed business he had always recoiled as before a leveling +process, stultifying to the imagination, a thing of mechanical movements +and disciplined drudgery. He found instead his imagination leaping +forward before the spectacle of each succeeding regiment of machines, +before the teeming of progress, of the constant advance toward the +harnessing of iron and steel things to the bidding of the human mind.</p> + +<p>Cars were being switched at the sidings, unloading their cargoes of +coiled steel; other cars were receiving the completed article, product +of a score of intricate processes, stamped, turned, assembled, and +hammered together, plated, lacquered, burnished, and packed for +distribution. He had but a confused impression at first of these rooms +of tireless wheels, automatic feeders and monstrous weights that sliced +solid steel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> like paper. The noises deafened him: the sandy, grinding +whirl of the tumbling room, the colliding shock of the blanking +machines, the steel hiss of the burnishers—deafening voices that in the +ensuing months were to become articulate utterances to his informed +ears, songs of triumph, prophetic of a coming age.</p> + +<p>In the burnishing-room grotesque human and inhuman arms reached down +from a central pipe to the poisonous gases of the miniature furnaces.</p> + +<p>"Granning's idea," said young Garnett. "Carries off the fumes. This room +was a hell before. Now it's clean and safe as a garden. Here's a machine +the Governor's just installed—does the work of six women. Isn't it a +beauty?"</p> + +<p>Bojo looked beyond it to the clustered groups of women by long counters +piled with steel parts, working rapidly at slow, intricate processes of +assembling.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you'll get a machine some day to do all that too," he said.</p> + +<p>"Sure. Wherever you see more than two at a job there's something to be +done. Look here." They stood by a couple of swarthy Polack women, who +were placing tiny plugs in grooves on round surfaces to be covered and +fastened with ball-bearing casters. "Looks pretty tough proposition to +get out of those fingers. We've worked two years at it, but we'll get +them yet. It's the slug shape that makes it hard; the simple +ball-bearings were a cinch. Here's how we worked that out."</p> + +<p>A machine was under Bojo's eyes that caught the open roller and plunged +it into a circular arena, where from six converging gates steel balls +were released and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> fell instantly into place, a fraction of a second +before the upper cover, descending, was fixed and hammered down.</p> + +<p>"One hundred and fifty a minute against thirty to forty, and two +operations made into one."</p> + +<p>"But you can't do the same thing with an irregular slug," said Bojo, +amazed.</p> + +<p>"There's a way somehow," said Garnett, smiling at the tribute of his +astonishment. "If you want to see what a machine can do, look at this, +the pride of the shop."</p> + +<p>"Who's watching it?" said Bojo, surprised to see no one in attendance.</p> + +<p>"Not a soul. It's a wise old machine. All we do is to fill up the hamper +once an hour, and it goes ahead, feeds itself, juggles a bit, hammers on +a head, and fills up its can, two hundred a minute."</p> + +<p>In a large feeding-box, a tangled mass of small steel pins, banded at +one end, were rising and falling, settling and readjusting themselves. A +thin grooved plate rose and fell into the mass, sucking into its groove, +or catching in its upward progress, from one to six of the pins, which, +perpendicularly arranged, slid down to a new crisis. Steel fingers +caught each pin as released, threw it with a half turn into another +groove, where it was again passed forward and fixed in shape for the +crushing hammer blow that was to flatten the head. A safety-device based +on exact tension stopped the machine instantly in case of accident.</p> + +<p>"Suffering Moses, is it possible!" said Bojo, staring like a schoolboy. +"Never saw anything like it."</p> + +<p>"Gives you an idea what can be done, doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>"It does!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then he began to see these strangely human machines and these mechanical +human beings in a larger perspective, in a constant warfare, each +ceaselessly struggling with the other, each unconsciously being +fashioned in the likeness of his enemy.</p> + +<p>"When we've got the human element down to the lowest terms, then we'll +fight machines with machinery, I suppose," said Garnett.</p> + +<p>"Makes you sort of wonder what'll be done fifty years from now," said +Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't it?" said Garnett. "I wouldn't dare tell you what the Governor +talks about. You'd think he's plum crazy."</p> + +<p>"By George, I feel like starting now."</p> + +<p>"Same way I did," said Garnett, nodding. "I suppose what you'll want +will be to follow the whole process from the beginning. It gives you a +general idea. I say, that's a great machine your father's just +installed."</p> + +<p>He began to expatiate enthusiastically on an article he had read in a +technical paper, assuming full knowledge on Bojo's part, who listened in +wonder, already beginning to feel, beyond the horizon of these animated +iron shapes, the mysterious realms of human invention he had so long +misunderstood.</p> + +<p>The next morning, in overalls and flannels, he took his place in the +moving throngs and found his own time-card, a numbered part of a great +industrial battalion. He was apprenticed to Mike Monahan, a grizzled, +good-humored veteran, whose early attitude of suspicion disappeared with +Bojo's plunge into grime and grease. He was himself conscious of a +strange bashfulness which he had never experienced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> in his contact with +Wall Street men. It seemed to him that these earnest, life-giving hordes +of labor must look down on him as a useless, unimportant specimen. When +he came to take his place in the early morning, sorting out his +time-card, he was conscious of their glances and always felt awkward as +he passed from room to room. Gradually, being essentially simple and +manly in his instincts, he won his way into the friendly comprehension +of his associates, living on their terms, seeking their company, talking +their talk, with a dawning avid curiosity in their points of view, their +needs, and their opinions of his own class.</p> + +<p>Garnett had not exaggerated when he had said that the work was not +playing football. There were days at first when the constant mental +application and the mechanical iteration amid the dinning shocks in the +air left him completely fagged in mind and body. When he returned home +it was with no thought of theater or restaurant, but with the joy of +repose. Moreover, to his surprise, he found that he awaited the arrival +of Sunday eagerly for the opportunity of reading along the lines where +his imagination had been stirred. As he studied the factory closer, his +pleasure lay in long discussions with Granning over such subjects as the +utilization of refuse, the possible saving of time in the weekly +cleanings by some process of construction which might permit of quicker +concentration, or the possibility of further safety-devices.</p> + +<p>He saw Doris every Sunday, in the afternoon, often staying for the +dinner and departing soon after. Patsie was never present at these +meals. A month<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> later, he heard that she had left on a round of visits. +Mr. Drake often made humorous allusions to his enforced servitude, but +never attempted to sway his course, being too good a judge of human +nature to underestimate the intensity of the young man's convictions. +Doris had completely changed in her attitude toward him. She no longer +sought to direct, but seemed content to accept his views in quiet +submission. He found her simple and straightforward, patiently resigned +to wait his decisions. He could not honestly say to himself that he was +madly in love, yet he owned to a feeling of growing respect and genuine +affection.</p> + +<p>Matters went on according to the routine of the day without much change +while the spring passed into the hot stretches of summer. The exigencies +of the life of discipline he had enforced on himself had withdrawn him +more and more from the intimate knowledge of the every-day life of +Marsh, whose hours did not coincide with his, and of DeLancy, who, since +the episode of the speculation in Pittsburgh & New Orleans, had, from a +feeling of unease, seemed to avoid his old friends. Occasionally in her +letters from the country Doris mentioned the fact that Gladys had been +to visit her and that she thought Fred was rather neglectful; but beyond +that he was completely ignorant of his friend's sentimental standing +either with Gladys or with Louise Varney, so that what happened came to +him like a bolt out of the blue.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of July Fred DeLancy married Louise Varney.</p> + +<p>It was on a Friday night when Marsh, after an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> unusual tarrying in the +den, was preparing to return to the office, that DeLancy, to their +surprise, came into the room. In response to their chorused welcome, he +flung back a curt acknowledgment, looked around gravely in momentary +hesitation, and finally installed himself on the edge of a chair, +bending forward, his hat between his knees, turning in his hands. The +others exchanged glances of interrogation, for such seriousness on +Fred's part usually presaged a scrape or disaster.</p> + +<p>"Well, infant, why so solemn?" said Marsh. "Been getting into trouble +lately?"</p> + +<p>DeLancy looked up and down.</p> + +<p>"Nope."</p> + +<p>"There's not much information in that," said Marsh cheerily. "Well, +what's the secret sorrow? Out with it!"</p> + +<p>"There's nothing wrong," said DeLancy quietly. He began to whistle, +staring at the floor.</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well," said Marsh in an offended tone.</p> + +<p>They sat, watching him, for quite a moment, in silence. Finally DeLancy +spoke, slowly and monotonously:</p> + +<p>"I have made up my mind to a serious decision!"</p> + +<p>Again they waited without questioning him, while he frowned and seemed +to choose his words.</p> + +<p>"You will think I have gone out of my head, I suppose. Well—I am going +to be married—to-night—at eleven."</p> + +<p>"Louise Varney?" said Marsh, jumping up, while Granning and Bojo stared +at each other blankly.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You damned fool!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p> + +<p>At this Fred started up wildly with an oath, but Granning interposed +with a warning cry.</p> + +<p>"You fool—you idiot!" cried Marsh, furiously. "Shoot yourself—cut your +throat—but don't—don't do that!"</p> + +<p>"Shut up, Roscy, that does no good!" said Bojo quickly. He seized Fred +by the wrist: "Fred, honestly—you're going to marry her to-night?"</p> + +<p>DeLancy nodded, his mouth grim.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Fred, you don't know what you're doing!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do," he said, sitting down. "It's nothing hasty. It's been +coming for months. I know what I'm doing."</p> + +<p>"But—but the other—Fred, you can't—in decency you can't—not like +this."</p> + +<p>"Shut up!" said DeLancy, wincing.</p> + +<p>"No, no, you can't like this," said Bojo indignantly.</p> + +<p>"By heavens, he sha'n't," said Marsh angrily. "If we have to tie him up +and keep him here—he's not going to ruin two lives like this, the +lunatic!"</p> + +<p>"Go easy," said Granning, with a warning glance.</p> + +<p>But, contrary to expectation, Fred did not resent the attack. When he +spoke, it was with a shrug of his shoulders, in a tired, unresisting +voice:</p> + +<p>"It's no use, Roscy. It's settled and done for."</p> + +<p>"Why, Fred, old boy, can't you see clear?" said Roscy, coming to him +with a changed tone. "Don't you know what this means? You're not a fool. +Think! I'm not saying a word against Louise."</p> + +<p>"You'd better not!" said Fred, flushing.</p> + +<p>"Her character's as good as any one else's—granted that. But, Fred, +that's not all. She's not of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> your world, her mother's not—her friends +are not. If you marry her, Fred, as sure as there's a sun in heaven, +you're ended, done for; you're dropped out of the world and you'll never +get back!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm going to do it," said DeLancy, stubbornly.</p> + +<p>"You're going to do it and deliberately throw over every friend and +every attachment you've got in life?"</p> + +<p>"I don't admit that."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to live on?" said Granning.</p> + +<p>"I've got the money I made and what I make."</p> + +<p>"What you make now," said Marsh, seizing the opening, "what you make +because you know people and bring down customers! You yourself said it. +But when you drop out of society you'll drop out of business. You know +it."</p> + +<p>"I may fool you yet," said Fred angrily.</p> + +<p>"You think you can play the Wall Street game and beat it," said Bojo, +divining his thought. "Fred, if you marry, whatever else you do—quit +gambling." Knowing more than the others, he had from the first known the +hopelessness of argument. Still he persisted blindly. "Fred, can't you +wait and think it over—let us talk it over with you?"</p> + +<p>"I can't, Bojo, I can't. I've given my word!"</p> + +<p>"Good God!" said Marsh, raising his hands to heaven in fury.</p> + +<p>"Fred, can't you see what Roscy says is true?" said Granning, quieter +than the rest.</p> + +<p>"Even so, I'm going to do it," said Fred, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"But why?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Because I'm crazy, mad in love," said Fred, jumping up and pacing +around. "Infatuated?—Yes!—Mad?—Yes! But there it is. I can't do +without her. I've been like a wild man all these months. Whether it +ruins me or not, I can't help it— I've got to have her, and that's all +there is to it!"</p> + +<p>"Then I guess that's all there is to it," repeated Granning solemnly.</p> + +<p>Marsh swore a fearful oath and went out.</p> + +<p>"I want to talk to him a moment," said Bojo, turning to Granning with a +nod. Granning went into the bedroom, while Bojo drew nearer to DeLancy. +"Fred, let's talk this over quietly."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know what you're going to fling at me," said Fred miserably. +"Gladys and all that. I know I'm a beast, I've no excuse. But, Bojo, I'm +half wild! I don't know what I'm doing—honest I don't!"</p> + +<p>"Is it as bad as all that, old fellow?" said Bojo, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"It's awful—awful." He sat down, burying his head in his hands.</p> + +<p>"Fred, answer me—do you yourself <i>want</i> to do this?"</p> + +<p>"How do I know what I want!" he said breathlessly. He raised his head, +staring in front. "I suppose it will end me with the crowd. I suppose +that's true. Bojo, I know everything that it will do to me—everything. +I know it's suicide. But, Bojo, that doesn't do any good. Reasoning +doesn't do any good—what's got to be has got to be! Now I've told you. +You'll see it's no use."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I hope it will work out better than we think," said Bojo, solemnly. +"And Gladys?"</p> + +<p>"I wrote to her."</p> + +<p>"When?"</p> + +<p>"Yesterday." He hesitated. "Her letters and one or two things—they're +done up in a pile."</p> + +<p>"I'll get them to her."</p> + +<p>"Thank you." He turned. "I say, Bojo, stand by me in this, won't you? +I've got to have some one. Will you?"</p> + +<p>"All right. I'll come."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At eleven o'clock in a little church up in Harlem he stood by DeLancy's +side while the words were said that he knew meant the end of all things +for him in the worldly world he had chosen for his own. It was more like +an execution, and Bojo had a guilty, horribly guilty, feeling, as though +he were participating in a crime.</p> + +<p>"Louise looks beautiful," he found the heart to whisper.</p> + +<p>"Yes, doesn't she?" said Fred gratefully, with such a sudden leap in the +eyes that Bojo felt something choking in his throat.</p> + +<p>He waved them good-by after he had put them in the automobile, and took +Mrs. Varney and a Miss Dingler, the maid of honor, home in a taxi. It +was all very gloomy, shoddy, and depressing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>DORIS MEETS A CRISIS</h3> + +<p>It was toward the end of August, when the dry exhaustion of the summer +had begun to be touched with the healing cool of delicious nights, that +Bojo and Granning were lolling on the window-seat, busy at their pipes. +Below in the Court foggy shapes were sunk in cozy chairs under the +spread of the great cotton umbrella, and the languid echoes of +wandering, contented conversation came to them like the pleasant closing +sounds of the day across twilight fields—the homing jingle of cattle, +the returning creak of laden wagons seeking the barns, or a tiny distant +welcome from a barking throat.</p> + +<p>"Ouf! It's good to get a lung-full of cool air again," said Bojo, +turning gratefully to an easier position.</p> + +<p>"Well, how do you like being a horny-handed son of toil?" said Granning.</p> + +<p>"I like it."</p> + +<p>"You're through the worst of it now."</p> + +<p>"It's sort of like being in training again," said Bojo reminiscently. +"Jove, how they used to drive us in the fall—the old slave drivers! +It's great, though, to feel you've earned the right to rest. I say, +Granning, it's a funny thing, but you know that first raise, ten dollars +a week, thrilled me more than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> making thirty thousand in a clip. Come to +think of it, I don't believe I ever really made that money."</p> + +<p>"You didn't."</p> + +<p>Bojo laughed. "Well, this is a man's life," he said evasively. Then +suddenly: "What precious idiots we were that first night, prophesying +our lives. Poor old Freddie, who was going to marry a million and all +that—and weren't we indignant, though, at him! A fine grave he's dug +for himself now. Queer."</p> + +<p>"I like him better than if he'd married the other girl in cold blood."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose I do too. Still—" He broke off. "Do you believe he's +had the sense to get out of the market?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Granning shortly.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord, if I thought that, I'd—"</p> + +<p>"You'd do nothing. You can't help him—neither can I or any one. After +all—don't think I'm hard, but what does it matter what happens to +fellows like Fred DeLancy? What's important is what happens to men +who've got power and energy and are trying to force their way up. Men +you and I know—"</p> + +<p>"That's rather cruel."</p> + +<p>"Well, life is cruel. My sympathy is with the fellow that's knocking for +opportunity, not the fellow who's throwing it away. Bojo, the salvation +of this country isn't in making sinecures for good-natured, lovable +chaps of the second generation, but in sorting 'em out and letting the +weak ones fall behind. Keep open the doors to those who are coming up."</p> + +<p>"I don't think you've ever forgiven Fred for taking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> that money," said +Bojo reluctantly. "You don't like him."</p> + +<p>"I did like him—but I've grown beyond him—and so have you," said +Granning bluntly. In the last few months he had come to speak his mind +directly to Bojo, with results that sometimes shocked the younger man.</p> + +<p>At this moment the telephone rang.</p> + +<p>"Shuffle over to it," said Granning, withdrawing his legs. "No one ever +telephones for me."</p> + +<p>"It may be from Fred—perhaps they're back," said Bojo, departing.</p> + +<p>He came back in a few moments rather excited.</p> + +<p>"That's queer—it's from Doris."</p> + +<p>"Been rather neglectful, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"It wasn't long distance. She's here!"</p> + +<p>"Here—in town?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Funny she didn't warn me," said Bojo, mystified. He dug out his +hat from the crowded desk and halted before the reclining figure. "Well, +I'm summoned. Sorry to leave you. Felt just like rambling along."</p> + +<p>"Well, be firm."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Be firm."</p> + +<p>"Now just what did he mean by that?" he said to himself as he tripped +down the stairs and out. He puzzled more over this advice as he hastened +uptown. Why had Doris come, abruptly and without notification? The more +he thought of it, the more he believed he understood the reason of +Granning's warning. Doris had come to him with some new proposition, an +investment for quick returns or an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> opening along lines of increasing +salaries. The open surface-car with its cargo of coatless men and +shirt-waisted women went pounding up the Avenue, hurrying him toward +Doris.</p> + +<p>He would have been at loss to define to himself his real feelings. +Despite the sudden awakening in her, the delirious quality of romance +had not returned to him. Memories of another face and other hours had +ended that. Yet there was a solid feeling of doing the right thing, of +playing square by Doris, and of a responsibility well performed. In the +long, crowded, heated weeks there were long intervals when he forgot her +entirely. Yet when he saw her or opened her letters, poignant with +solicitude and faith, he felt his imagination kindle, if but for the +moment.</p> + +<p>He had reached the self-conscious stage in youth when he looked upon +himself as supernaturally old and tried in the furnace of experience. He +quieted the dormant longings in his heart by assuring himself that he +now took a different view of marriage, a more significant one as a grave +social step. The less he felt the romance of their relations, the more +he acknowledged the solid supplementary qualities which Doris would +bring him as his companion, as associate and organizer of the home.</p> + +<p>That he could not give her all that she now poured out unreservedly to +him, gave him at times a twinge of pity and compassion. She was so keen +to progress, to broaden the outlook of her views, to be of real service +to him. There were moments in her letters of inner revelations that +stirred him almost with the guilty feeling of surprising what was not +his to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> see. The idea of an early marriage would have been unbearable, +yet as a possibility of the future it seemed to him an eminently wise +and just procedure.</p> + +<p>At the Drake mansion his ring was answered by a caretaker, who came +doubtfully to let him in, pausing to search for the electric buttons. In +the anteroom and down the vistas of the salons, everything was bare and +draped in dust-clothes; there was a feeling of abandonment and +loneliness in the bared arches, as on his first visit a year before.</p> + +<p>"Bojo—is it you?"</p> + +<p>He heard her voice descending somewhere from the upper flights of the +great stone stairway, and answered cheerily. The caretaker disappeared, +satisfied, and he waited at the foot while she came rushing down and +hung herself in his arms.</p> + +<p>"Why, Doris!" he exclaimed, surprised at her emotion and the tenseness +of the figure that clung to him. "Doris, why, what's wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Wait, wait," she said breathlessly, burying her head on his shoulder +and tightening the grip of her arms.</p> + +<p>She led him, still clinging to his side, through the ballroom and the +little salon into the great library, where he had gone for his decisive +interview with Drake. They stood a moment in filtered obscurity, groping +for the buttons, until suddenly the room sprang out of the night. Then +he saw that she had been weeping. Before he could exclaim, the tears +sprang to her eyes and she flung herself in his arms again, sheltering +her head against his shoulder, clinging to his protection as though +reeling before the sudden down swoop of a storm. His first thought was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +of death, a catastrophe in the family—father, mother—Patsie! At this +thought his heart seemed to stop and he said brokenly:</p> + +<p>"Doris, what is it—nothing has happened—no one is—is in danger?"</p> + +<p>"No, no," she said in a whisper. "Oh, don't make me speak—not just yet. +Keep your arms about me. Tighter so that I can never, never get away."</p> + +<p>He obeyed, wondering, his mind alert, seeking a reason for this strange +emotion. Suddenly she raised her head and, seizing his in her hands with +such tenacity that he felt the cut of her sharp little fingers, kissed +him with the poignant agony of a great separation.</p> + +<p>"Bojo, remember this," she cried through her tears, "whatever +happens—whatever comes—it is you—you! I shall love only you all my +life—no one else!"</p> + +<p>"Whatever happens?" he said, frowning, but beginning to have a glimmer +of the truth. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>She moved from him, standing, with head slightly down, staring at him +silently for a long moment. Then she said, shaking her head slowly:</p> + +<p>"Oh, how you will hate me!"</p> + +<p>He went to her quickly and, taking her by the wrist, led her to the big +sofa.</p> + +<p>"Now sit down. Tell me just what this all means!"</p> + +<p>His tone was harsh, and she glanced at him, frightened.</p> + +<p>"It means," she said at last, "that I am not what you thought—what I +thought I could be. I am not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> strong. I've tried and I've failed! I am +very, very weak, very selfish. I can't give up what I'm used to—luxury! +I can't, Bojo, I can't—it's beyond me!" She turned away, her +handkerchief to her eyes, while he sat without a word, compelling her to +go on. At last she turned, stealing a look at his set face. "Of course +you'll say you told me—but I tried— I did try!"</p> + +<p>"I am saying nothing at all," he said quietly. "So you wish to end the +engagement, that is all, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"All!" she said indignantly with a flood of tears. "Oh, how can you look +at me so brutally? I am miserable, absolutely miserable. I am throwing +away my life, my whole chance of loving, of being happy, and you look at +me as though you were sending me to the gallows!"</p> + +<p>If her distress was intended to weaken him in his attitude of quiet, +critical contemplation, it failed. Nevertheless he modified his tone +somewhat.</p> + +<p>"I am quite in the dark. I understand you have come to break off the +engagement—that is not perhaps the shock you believe it—but I am +curious to know what are your reasons."</p> + +<p>Her tears stopped abruptly. She faced his glance.</p> + +<p>"I said you would hate me," she said slowly.</p> + +<p>"No, I do not think so."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, you will hate me," she said breathlessly, "and you should. +Oh, I'm not excusing myself. I hate myself. I despise myself. If you +hated me you would only be right. Yes, you have every right."</p> + +<p>"Are you engaged to any one else, Doris?" he said with a smile.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> + +<p>She sprang up indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how could you say such a thing! Bojo!"</p> + +<p>"If I have offended you I beg your pardon."</p> + +<p>"You beg my pardon," she said, her lip trembling. She came and knelt at +his side. "Bojo, look at me. You believe that I love you, don't +you?—that you are the only thing, the only person in my life that I +have ever loved, and that if I give you up it is because I must, because +I can't help it, because—because I know myself so well that I know I +haven't the strength to do what other women do—to be—poor! There you +have it!"</p> + +<p>"But you knew all this six months ago," he said, scenting some mystery. +"Something else must have happened—what?"</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>He waited a moment.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>She rose, listened a moment and glanced carefully about the room. +Afterward he remembered this glance.</p> + +<p>"You must give me your word of honor not to mention—not to breathe one +word I say to you," she said in a lower voice.</p> + +<p>"That is hardly necessary," he said quickly, on his dignity.</p> + +<p>"No, no. This is not my secret. Your word of honor. I must have your +word of honor."</p> + +<p>"Very well," he said, carried away by his curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Before the end of the year, in a few months even, Dad may lose every +cent he has!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He told you?" he said incredulously. "Or is this some trick of your +mother's?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, it is no trick. Dad told us himself."</p> + +<p>"Us? Whom?"</p> + +<p>"Mother and me!"</p> + +<p>"And Patsie?"</p> + +<p>"No, Patsie is away."</p> + +<p>"When did he tell you?"</p> + +<p>"Just a week ago."</p> + +<p>"But why?— That doesn't seem like him to tell you," said Bojo, +frowning. "Perhaps you've exaggerated."</p> + +<p>"No, no. He is in a bad way. He is caught," she said hurriedly. "Times +have been hard, the market has gone down steadily—all summer—way, way +down—and Dad is carrying enormous blocks of stock—must carry them or +admit defeat—and you know Dad! I don't know exactly what's wrong. He +didn't go into the matter; but he has enemies, tremendous enemies that +are trying to put him out, and it's a question of credit. Oh, if you'd +seen his face when he told us, you'd know just how serious it was!"</p> + +<p>"Just what did he say?"</p> + +<p>"He told us—I can't remember the words—that if times continued as they +had been, he stood a chance of losing every cent he had, that he was in +a fight for existence and that he couldn't tell how it would come out." +She hesitated a moment and added: "He thought the situation so critical +that we should know of it."</p> + +<p>This last and the halting before saying it, suddenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> gave him the light +he had been seeking during all this interview.</p> + +<p>"In other words, Doris," he said quickly, "frankly and honestly, since +we are going to be honest now that we have come to the parting of the +ways—your father let you understand so that you might know how critical +the situation was and take your measures accordingly. That's it—isn't +it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose so."</p> + +<p>"I hope at least that you haven't concealed anything from Boskirk," he +said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Why should I tell him?"—she started to burst out, and caught her +breath, trapped.</p> + +<p>"So you are already to be congratulated?" he said, looking at her with a +smile.</p> + +<p>"That isn't true," she said hastily. "You know and I know that Mr. +Boskirk wants to marry me, that I can have him any day—"</p> + +<p>"Don't," he said gravely. "You know there is an understanding—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, an understanding—" she began.</p> + +<p>"True," he interrupted. "At this moment, Doris, you know that Boskirk +has proposed and you have accepted him. Why deny it? It is quite plain. +You made up your mind that you would marry him the moment you learned +you might be a pauper. Come, be honest—be square."</p> + +<p>She went away from him and stood by the fireplace, her back to him.</p> + +<p>"That is true—all of it," she said. A shudder passed over her. "I hate +him!"</p> + +<p>"What!" he cried, advancing toward her in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> amazement. "You hate him and +yet you will marry him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Because I can't bear to give up anything—because I am a weak, +selfish woman."</p> + +<p>In a flash he saw her as she would be—this woman who now stood before +him twisting and turning in half-sincere outbursts, seeking to excuse or +accuse herself before his eyes from the need of dramatic sensations.</p> + +<p>"You will be," he said quietly. "So you are going to marry Boskirk?"</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>"Soon, <i>very</i> soon?"</p> + +<p>She winced under the note of sarcasm in his voice and turned +breathlessly:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bojo—you despise me!"</p> + +<p>"No—" he said indifferently. He held out his hand. "Well, we have said +all we have to say, haven't we?"</p> + +<p>Before he could prevent her or divine her intentions, she had flung +herself on his shoulder, clinging to him despite his efforts to tear her +from him.</p> + +<p>"Please, no scenes," he said hastily. "Quite unnecessary."</p> + +<p>She wished him to kiss her once—a last kiss; but he refused. Then she +began to cry hysterically, vowing again and again, between her torrents +of self-accusation, that no matter what the future brought she would +never love any one else but him. It was not until she grew exhausted +from the very storm of her emotion that he was able to loosen her arms +and force her from him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you don't love me—you don't care!" she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> cried, when at last she +felt herself alone and her arms empty.</p> + +<p>"If that can be any consolation—if your grief is real—if you really do +care for me," he said, "that is true. I do not love you, Doris, and I +never have. That is why I do not hate you or despise you. I am sorry, +awfully sorry. You could have been such an awfully good sort."</p> + +<p>At this she caught her throat and, afraid of another paroxysm, he went +out quickly.</p> + +<p>Before the curb the touring-car was waiting. An idea came to him, +remembering the glance Doris had sent about the room.</p> + +<p>"Going back to-night, Carver?" he said to the chauffeur. "Much of a +run?"</p> + +<p>"Two hours and a half, sir."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Drake came down with you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"That's the answer," he thought to himself, wondering how much she might +have overheard. "Poor Doris."</p> + +<p>He thought of her already as some one distantly removed, amazed to +realize how quickly with the snapping of the artificial bond their true +relationship had readjusted itself. He thought of her only with a great +wonder, recognizing now all the possibilities which had lain in her for +good, saddened, and shuddering in his young imagination at the price she +had elected to pay.</p> + +<p>He turned the corner with a last look at the turreted and gabled roof of +the great Drake mansion, faint unreal shadows against the starlit sky, +as though, in his newly acquired knowledge of the tremendous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +catastrophe impending, it lay against the crowded silhouette of the city +like a thing of dreams to vanish with the awakening reality.</p> + +<p>Before the next month was over, Doris had married young Boskirk—a quiet +country wedding whose simplicity excited much comment. Before another +fortnight the market, which had been slowly receding before the rising +wrath of a great financial panic, broke violently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>THE LETTER TO PATSIE</h3> + +<p>Two days after the breaking of his engagement to Doris, Bojo wrote to +Patsie. His letter—the first he had written her—he was two days in +composing, tearing up several drafts. He was afraid to say too much, and +to discuss trivial matters seemed to him insincere. Finally he sent this +letter:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Drina:</p> + +<p>I suppose by now Doris has told you of what has happened. +There are a great many things I want you to know about these +trying months, that I've wanted you to know and have been +hurt that you didn't know. Now that it's over I realize what +a tragedy it would have been, and yet I would have gone on +believing it was the right thing to do, trying to make +myself believe in what I was doing. During all this time I +have never forgotten certain things you said to me, your +message the day of the panic, the look in your eyes that +afternoon before I went in to see your father and—other +memories. I want to see you. Where are you? When will you be +back in New York?</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 30em;">Faithfully yours,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Bojo</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Having written this he carried it around in his pocket for another day +before posting it. No sooner was it irrevocably beyond his hands than he +had the feeling that he had committed an irretrievable blunder. The next +moment it seemed to him that he had done the direct and courageous +thing, that she would understand and be grateful to him for his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +frankness. Each morning he heard the rustle of the mail slipping under +the door with a sudden cold foreboding, certain that her letter had +come. Each evening, back from the grind of the factory, he came into the +monastic corridors of Westover Court and turned the corner of the desk +with a hot-and-cold hope that in the letter-box there, under the number +51, would be a letter waiting for him. When after a week no word had +come, he began to make excuses. She was away on a visit, her mail had to +be forwarded or more probably held for her return. But one day, +happening to glance at the social column, in a report of the Berkshires +he found her name as a contender in a tennis tournament. He wrote a +second note:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Patsie:</p> + +<p>Did you get my letter of ten days ago, and won't you write +me?</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 30em;">Yours,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Bojo</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Perhaps his first had miscarried. Such accidents were rare but yet they +did occur. He calculated the shortest time she could receive his letter +and answer it and waited expectantly all that day. Again a week passed +and no word from her. What had happened? Had he really blundered in +sending the first letter? Was her pride hurt, or what? A feeling of +despair began to settle over him. He did not attempt a third letter, +sick at heart. The thought that he might have wounded her—he always +imagined her as a child—was unbearable. It hurt him as it had hurt him +with a haunting sadness, the day after their wild toboggan ride, when he +had seen the pain in her eyes—eyes that were yet too young for the +knowledge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> the sorrow and ugliness of the world. Finally, through a +chance remark one day when he had dropped in to his club, he learned +that she was to be present at a house party at Skeeter Stoughton's on +Long Island. Overlooking the incident of his unsuccessful attempt to +enter their employ, he took his friend into a half confidence and begged +him to secure him an invitation for over Sunday.</p> + +<p>When he was once on the train and he knew for certain that in a short +two hours he would look into her eyes again, a feeling almost of panic +seized him. When they were in the motor rushing over smooth white roads +and he felt the lost distances melting away beneath him, this feeling +became one of the acutest misery. All that he had carefully planned and +rehearsed to say to her, suddenly deserted his mind.</p> + +<p>"What shall I say? What shall I do?" he said to himself, cold with +horror. There seemed to be nothing he could say or do. His very presence +was an impertinence, which she must resent.</p> + +<p>Luckily no one was in the house except their hostess and he had a short +moment to reassemble his thoughts before they strolled down to join the +party at the tennis courts. He was known to most of the crowd who +greeted his appearance as the return of the prodigal. Patsie was on the +courts, her back to him as they came up, Gladys Stone on the opposite +side of the net. Some one called out joyfully, "Bojo Crocker!" and she +turned with an involuntarily startled movement, then hastily controlling +herself at the cry of her partner, drove the ball into the net for the +loss of the point.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p> + +<p>When next, ensconced under a red-and-white awning among the array of +cool flannels and summery dresses, he sought her, she was seriously +intent on her game, a little frown on her young forehead, her lips +rebelliously set, the swirling white silk collar open at the browned +throat, the sleeve rolled up above the firm slender forearm. She moved +lightly as a young animal in slow, well calculated tripping movements or +in rapid shifting springs. Her partner, a younger brother of Skeeter's, +home on vacation, gathered in the balls and offered them to her with a +solicitude that was quite evident. Bojo felt an instinctive antipathy +watching their laughing intimacy. It seemed to him that they excluded +him, that she was still a child unable to distinguish between a +stripling and a man, still without need of any deeper emotions than a +light-hearted romping comradeship.</p> + +<p>With the ending of the set, greetings could no longer be avoided. As +she came to him directly, holding out her hand in the most natural way, +he felt as though he were going red to the ears, that every one must +perceive his embarrassment before this girl still in her teens. He said +stupidly, pretending amazement,</p> + +<p>"You here? Well, this is a surprise!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, isn't it?" she said with seeming unconsciousness.</p> + +<p>That was all. The next moment she was in some new group, arranging +another match. Short and circumstantial as her greeting had been, it +left him with a sinking despair. He had hurt her irrevocably, she +resented his presence—that was evident. His whole coming had been a +dreadful mistake. Depressed, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> turned to Gladys Stone to attempt the +concealment from strange eyes of the disorder within himself. He was yet +too inexperienced in the ways of the women of the world to even suspect +the depth of resentment that could lie in her tortured heart.</p> + +<p>"I'm awfully glad to see you—awfully," he said, committing the blunder +of giving to his voice a note of discreet sympathy. It had been his +distressing duty to bring her personally the little baggage of her +sentimental voyage—letters, a token or two, several photographs—to +witness with clouding eyes the spectacle of her complete breakdown.</p> + +<p>She drew a little away at his words, straightening up and looking from +him.</p> + +<p>"Have you heard the date of the wedding, Doris's wedding?" she said +coldly.</p> + +<p>It was his time to wince, but he was incapable of returning the feminine +attack.</p> + +<p>"You should know better than I," he said quietly.</p> + +<p>She looked at him with a perfect simulation of ignorance:</p> + +<p>"You were rather well interested, weren't you?"</p> + +<p>"More than that, as you know, Gladys," he said, looking directly in her +eyes. A certain look she saw there caused her to make a sudden retreat +into banality—</p> + +<p>"Do you play?"</p> + +<p>"Sometimes."</p> + +<p>Miss Stoughton and others impatient of the rôle of spectators were +organizing tables of auction inside the house. His reason told him that +the best thing for him to do would be to join them and show a certain +indifference, but the longing, miserable and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> unreasoning, within him to +stay, to be where he could see her, filling his eyes, after all the long +vacant summer, was too strong. He hesitated and remained, saying to +himself—</p> + +<p>"Suppose I am a fool. She'll think I haven't the nerve of a mouse."</p> + +<p>He wanted to chatter, to laugh at the slightest pretext, to maintain an +attitude of light inconsequential amusement, but the attempt failed. He +remained moody and taciturn, his eyes irresistibly fastened on the young +figure, so free and untamed, reveling in the excitement and hazards of +the game, wondering to himself that this girl, who now seemed so calmly +steeled against the display of the slightest interest in him, had once +swayed against his shoulder, yielding to the enveloping sense of a +moonlight night, loneliness and the invisible, inexplicable impulse +toward each other. What had come to end all this and how was it possible +for her to dissemble the emotion that she must feel, with the knowledge +of his eyes steadily and moodily fixed upon her?</p> + +<p>He was resolved to find a moment's isolation in which to speak to her +directly and she just as determined to prevent it. As a consequence he +felt himself circumvented at every move, without being able to say to +himself that it had been done deliberately. The others who perhaps +perceived his intention sought an instinctive distance, with that innate +sympathy which goes out to lovers, but Patsie with a foreseeing eye +called young Stoughton to her side and pretending a slightly wrenched +ankle, leaned heavily on his arm. In which fashion they regained the +house without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> Bojo having been able by hook or crook to have gained a +moment for a private word.</p> + +<p>At dinner, where he had hoped that Skeeter Stoughton, in return for his +half confidence, would have arranged so that he should sit next to her, +he found Patsie on the opposite side of the table. An accusatory glance +towards Skeeter was answered by one of mystification. Then he understood +that she must have rearranged the cards herself. He was unskilled in the +knowledge of the ways of young girls and their instinctive cruelty to +those who love them and even those whom they themselves love. He was +hurt, embarrassed, prey to idiotic suppositions that left him miserable +and self-conscious. He was even ready to believe that she had taken the +others into her confidence, that every one must be watching, smiling +behind their correct masks. The dinner seemed interminable. He was too +wretched to conceal his emotions, neglecting his neighbors shamefully +until one, a débutante of the year, rallied him maliciously.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Crocker, I believe you're in love!"</p> + +<p>He glanced at Patsie, frightened lest the remark might have carried, but +from her attitude he could divine nothing. She was rattling away, +answering some lightly flung remark from down the table. He began to +talk desperately in idiotic, meaningless sentences, aware that his +neighbor was watching him with a mischievous smile.</p> + +<p>"Are you really in love?" she said delightedly when he had run out of +ideas.</p> + +<p>He was struck by a sudden inspiration.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If I confess will you help me?" he said in a whisper. Miss Hunter, +enraptured with the idea of anything that bordered on the romantic, +bobbed her head in enthusiastic response.</p> + +<p>"Very well, after dinner," he said in the same low tone. He had a +feeling that Patsie had been trying to listen and began to talk with a +gaiety for which he found no reason in himself. Several times he glanced +across the table and he felt—though their eyes never met—that her +glance had but just left him, was on him the moment he turned away. He +found her much changed. She was not yet a woman, by a certain veil of +fragility and inconscient shyness, but the child was gone. Her glance +was more sobered and more thoughtful as though the touch of some sadness +had stolen the bubbling spirits of childhood and left a comprehension of +deeper trials approaching. At times she assumed an attitude of great +dignity, la grande manière, which was yet but assumed and made him +smile.</p> + +<p>Dinner over, dancing began. He made no attempt to seek out Patsie, +putting off Miss Hunter too with evasive answers. He danced once or +twice, but without enjoyment and finally, not to witness the spectacle +of her dancing with other men, made the pretext of an evening cigar to +seek the obliterating darkness of the verandah. Safely hidden in a +favoring corner, he sat, moodily watching the occasional flitting of +laughing couples silhouetted against the starry night. He was totally at +loss to account for the reception. At times a suspicion passed through +his mind that Doris might have given a different account of their +parting scene than the facts warranted. At<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> others, remembering details +of romantic novels, he had devoured, he was willing to believe that his +letter had not reached her, had been intercepted perhaps by Mrs. Drake. +At the end of an hour, fearing to have made his absence too noticeable, +he rose unwillingly to join the gay party within. Suddenly as he rounded +the corner he came upon a couple separating, the man returning to the +dance, the girl leaning against a pillar, plucking at invisible vines. +Then she too turned, coming into a momentary reflection. It was Patsie.</p> + +<p>She stopped short, divining who it was, and the instinctive step +backward which she made brought an angry outburst to his lips.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," he said stiffly. "I didn't mean to annoy you. I had +been finishing my smoke. I—" He paused, at his wits' end. At this +moment if he had been called upon to recognize his true feelings, he +would have sworn that he hated her bitterly with a fierce, unreasoning +hatred.</p> + +<p>"You do not annoy me," she said quietly.</p> + +<p>"I was afraid so."</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>He hesitated a moment.</p> + +<p>"Did you get my letters?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Did you answer them?" he said, with a last hope of some possible +misunderstanding.</p> + +<p>She shook her head.</p> + +<p>He waited a moment for some explanation and as none came, he started to +leave, saying,</p> + +<p>"I don't understand at all—but—I don't suppose that matters—"</p> + +<p>He went toward the door. Then stopped. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> thought he had heard her +calling his name. He returned slowly.</p> + +<p>"Did you call me?"</p> + +<p>"No, no."</p> + +<p>All at once he came to her tempestuously, catching her arm as he would a +naughty child's.</p> + +<p>"Drina, I won't be turned away like this. In heaven's name what have I +done that you should treat me like this? At least tell me!"</p> + +<p>She did not struggle against his hold, but turned away her head without +answer.</p> + +<p>"Was it my first letter? You didn't like me to write that way—so +soon—so soon after breaking the engagement? Was that it? It was, wasn't +it?"</p> + +<p>It seemed to him, though he could not be sure, that her head made a +little affirmative nod.</p> + +<p>"But what was wrong?" he cried in dismay. "You wouldn't have me be +insincere. You know and I know what you meant to me, you know that if I +went on with Doris after—after that night, it was only from a sense of +duty, of loyalty. Yes, because you yourself came to me and begged me to. +If that's true, why not be open about—"</p> + +<p>"Hush," she said hastily. "Some one will hear."</p> + +<p>"I don't care if they all hear," he said recklessly. "Drina, what's the +use of pretending. You know I've been in love with you, you and only +you, from the first day I saw you."</p> + +<p>She drew her arm from his grasp and turned on him defiantly—</p> + +<p>"Thanks— I don't care to be second fiddle!" she said spitefully.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Good heavens, that is it!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is it," she cried out and breaking from him she fled around +the corner of the verandah and it seemed to him that he had caught the +sound of a sob.</p> + +<p>He entered the house, a prey to conflicting emotions, perplexed, angry, +inclined to laugh, with alternate flashes of hope and as sudden relapses +into despair. Just as he had made up his mind that she had left for the +night, she reappeared without a trace of concern. But try as he might he +did not succeed in getting another opportunity to speak to her. She +avoided him with a settled cold antagonism. The next day it was the +same. It seemed that everything she did was calculated to wound him and +display her hostility. He had neither the strength nor the wisdom to +respond with indifference, suffering openly. At ten o'clock that night +as he was miserably preparing to enter the automobile that was to take +him to the station, Patsie came hurriedly down the steps, something +white in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Please do something for me," she said breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"What is it?"</p> + +<p>"A letter— I want you to mail this letter—it's important."</p> + +<p>He turned, taking the letter and putting it in his pocket without +noticing it.</p> + +<p>She held out her hand. Surprised, he took it, yet without relenting.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Bojo," she said softly.</p> + +<p>The next moment he was whirled away. When he reached the Court he +remembered for the first time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> his commission and, stopping at the desk, +he handed the letter absent-mindedly to Della, saying,</p> + +<p>"If you're going out, Della, mail this."</p> + +<p>She burst out laughing, with her irresistible Irish smile.</p> + +<p>"What are you laughing at?" he said, surprised.</p> + +<p>"You're always up to tricks, Mr. Crocker," she said, looking at the +inscription.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" he asked, puzzled, and, perceiving the cause of her +merriment, he snatched the envelope and glanced at it. It was addressed +to him. Covered with confusion he fled up to his room in a fever of +anticipation and wild hope.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Bojo:</p> + +<p>Forgive me for being a horrid, spiteful little cat. I am +sorry but you are very stupid—<i>very</i>! Please forgive me.</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Patsie</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>P.S. As soon as the wedding is over, we come to New York. +Will you come and see me there—and I'll promise to behave.</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Drina</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>He went to bed in the seventh heaven of delight, repeating to himself a +hundred times every word of this letter, turning each phrase over and +over for favorable interpretation. It seemed to him that never had he +spent such deliciously happy days as the last two.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3>PATSIE APPEALS FOR HELP</h3> + +<p>Meanwhile Fred and Louise returned. He went to see them at a fashionable +hotel where they were staying temporarily. The great rooms and the large +salon on the corner, overlooking the serried flight of houses and +factories toward the river must have cost at least fifteen dollars a +day. Louise went into the bedroom presently to her hairdresser, closing +the door.</p> + +<p>"Congratulations, Prince," said Bojo laughing, but with a certain +intention to approach serious matters. "The royal suite is charming."</p> + +<p>"Remember I'm a married man," said DeLancy, the incorrigible, with a +laugh. "Aren't you ashamed to try and lecture me?"</p> + +<p>"Have you discovered a gold mine?" said Bojo.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I got in on two or three good things last Summer," said Fred, who +broke off in some confusion at perceiving that he had just divulged to +his friend that he had been trying his fortune again in Wall Street.</p> + +<p>"So that's it," said Bojo grimly. "Thought you'd sworn off."</p> + +<p>"I never did," said DeLancy obstinately.</p> + +<p>"It's not my affair, Fred," said Bojo finally. "Only do go slow, old +fellow; we're neither of us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> great manipulators and what comes slowly, +goes with a rush."</p> + +<p>"Honest, Bojo, I am careful," said Fred with a show of conviction. "No +more ten per cent. margins and no more wild-cat chances. If I buy, it's +on good information, no plunging."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, absolutely! I take the solemn oath!" said Fred with a face to +convince a meeting of theologians.</p> + +<p>"And no margins?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, conservative margins!"</p> + +<p>"What do you call conservative?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty-five points—twenty points naturally."</p> + +<p>Bojo shook his head.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do, live here?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not. We are looking around for an apartment for the Winter."</p> + +<p>Bojo wanted to know what Louise intended, whether she had made up her +mind to leave the stage or not, but he did not know quite how to +approach the subject. As he studied DeLancy, he thought he looked +irrepressibly happy and indifferent to what lay ahead. He wondered if +Fred had made any approaches to his old friends with a view to their +accepting his wife.</p> + +<p>"Will Louise stay here too?" he asked finally.</p> + +<p>"Naturally."</p> + +<p>"Is—is she giving up her career?" he said hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>DeLancy looked rather embarrassed. He did not reply at first.</p> + +<p>"I have left that to Louise herself. It's her decision. For the present +nothing is settled, not as yet."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bojo felt the embarrassment that possessed him. He had come to ask a +score of questions. He started to leave with the feeling that he had +found out nothing. At the noise of his going, Louise came out of the +room with her hair down. Probably she had been listening. She said +good-by to him with extra cordiality, with an ironical look in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Mind you look us up after."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes."</p> + +<p>Fred accompanied him to the elevator.</p> + +<p>"As soon as we are settled we'll have a spree," he said with an attempt +at the old gaiety.</p> + +<p>"Of course."</p> + +<p>Bojo went off shrugging his shoulders, saying to himself, "Where will it +all end?"</p> + +<p>During the Summer a marked change had come over industrial conditions, a +feeling of something ominous was in the air, a vague and undefined +threat impending. At the factory a fifth of the machines were idle and +Garnett was moodily contemplating a general reduction in salaries. Bojo +scarcely paid any attention to Wall Street matters now, but he knew that +the movement downward of values had been slow and gradual and that +prophecies of dark days were current. Matters with Marsh were going +badly. Advertisers were deserting the paper, there had been several +minor strikes with costly readjustments. Roscoe seemed to have lost his +early enthusiasm, to be increasingly moody, impatient and quick to take +offense. The reasons given for the business depression were many, over +capitalization, timidity of the small investors due to the exposure of +great corporations, distrust of radical political reforms. Whatever the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +causes, the receding tide had come. People were apprehensive, +dispirited, talking poverty. Granning held that the country was paying +for the sins of the great financial adventurers and the cost of the +giddy structures they had thrown up. Marsh from the knowledge of his +newspaper world, held that below all was the coalescing power of great +banking systems, arrayed against the government on one side and on the +other, waiting their opportunity to crush the new-risen financial idea +of the Trust Company organized to deal in speculative ventures denied to +them. When Bojo in his simplicity asked why in a great growing nation of +boundless resources, a panic should ever be necessary, each sought to +explain with confusing logic which did not convince at all. Only from it +he gathered that above the great productive mechanism of the nation was +an artificial structure, in the possession of powerful groups able to +control the sources of credit on which the sources of production depend.</p> + +<p>Four days after he had read in the newspapers the account of Doris's +wedding to Boskirk, about seven o'clock in the evening, while he was +waiting for Roscoe to call for him to go out to dinner, Sweeney, the +Jap, brought him a card.</p> + +<p>It was from Patsie, hastily scribbled across, "I am outside. Can you +come and see me?"</p> + +<p>"Where is she? Outside?" he said all in a flutter. Sweeney informed him +that she was waiting in an automobile.</p> + +<p>He guessed that something serious must have happened and hurried down. +Patsie's face was at the window, watching impatiently. When she saw him +she relaxed momentarily with a sigh of relief.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, Patsie, what's wrong?" he said instantly, taking her hand.</p> + +<p>"You can come? It's important."</p> + +<p>"Of course."</p> + +<p>He jumped in and the car made off.</p> + +<p>"Tell him to drive through the Park."</p> + +<p>He transmitted the order. And then turned to look at her.</p> + +<p>"I am so worried!" she said at once, gazing into his eyes, with eyes +that held an indefinable fear.</p> + +<p>He had not relinquished her hand since he had seated himself. He pressed +it strongly, fighting back the desire to take her in his arms, that came +to him with the spectacle of her misery. There flashed through his mind +the details of his final parting with Doris and her ominous declaration +of the ruin impending over her father. He had only half believed it then +but now it flashed across his memory with instant conviction.</p> + +<p>"Your father is in trouble—financial trouble!" he said suddenly.</p> + +<p>"How do you know?" she said amazed.</p> + +<p>"Doris told me."</p> + +<p>"Doris? When?" she said. She stiffened at the name, though he did not +notice the action.</p> + +<p>"The last time I saw her—why, Drina, didn't you know? Why she came +down, why she saw me and asked to be released—didn't you know her +reason?"</p> + +<p>"I know nothing. Do you mean to say that she—" she paused as though +overwhelmed at the thought, "that then she knew Dad was facing ruin?"</p> + +<p>"Knew? Why, your father told her!— Doris and your mother! You didn't +know?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"You weren't told afterward?"</p> + +<p>"No, no—not a word."</p> + +<p>Rapidly he recounted the details of the scene, failing in his excitement +to notice how divided was her interest, between the knowledge of what +was threatening her father, and what bore upon the situation between +Doris and himself.</p> + +<p>"Then it was Doris who broke it!" she said suddenly and a shudder went +through her body.</p> + +<p>He checked himself, saw clear and answered impetuously.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she did—that's true. But let me tell the truth also. I never +would have married her—never—never! I never in all my life felt such +relief—yes, such absolute happiness as that night when I walked away +free. I did not love her. I had not for a long, long time. I pitied her. +I believed that through her love for me a great change was coming in +her—for the best. And so it had. I pitied her. I was afraid of doing +harm. That was all. She knew it, Drina. You can't believe I cared—you +must have known!"</p> + +<p>"And yet—yet," she began, hesitatingly, and stopped.</p> + +<p>"Don't hold anything back," he said impulsively. "We mustn't let +anything stand between us. Say anything you want. Better that."</p> + +<p>"What I couldn't understand," she said at last, with an effort, in which +her hurt pride was evident—"that afternoon—when you gave back the +money to Dad—after what you said to me— Oh! how can I say it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You thought that I was going to tell the truth to Doris and break the +engagement. That was it, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, covering her face, in terror that she could have said +such a thing, and yet her whole being hanging on his answer—"I couldn't +understand—afterwards."</p> + +<p>"I came out of the library to make an end of everything and before I +knew it, it was Doris who had changed everything. She had listened. She +had heard all. She imagined she was in love for the first time. She +begged me not to turn from her, to give her another chance. I was +caught, what was I to do?"</p> + +<p>"She loves you," she said breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"She only imagines it. She only plays with that idea."</p> + +<p>"No, no! she loves you," she said in a tone of great suffering.</p> + +<p>"But, Drina," he said, aghast at her inconsistency, "it was you who came +to me—who begged me to marry Doris—how can you forget that?"</p> + +<p>She burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"What! You are jealous!—jealous of her!" he cried with a great hope in +his voice, his hand going out to her.</p> + +<p>She stiffened suddenly and drew back, frightened into her corner.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not jealous," she said furiously. "Only hurt—terribly hurt."</p> + +<p>This sudden change left him bewildered. He felt it unjustified, +inconsistent and a reproach was on his lips.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the end he quieted himself and said, forcing himself to speak like a +stranger:</p> + +<p>"This, I suppose, is not what you wanted to say to me?"</p> + +<p>Instantly her alarm overcame her defiant attitude.</p> + +<p>"No, no. I am terribly worried. I want your help, oh! so much."</p> + +<p>She extended her hand timidly as though in apology, but still offended, +he withdrew his, saying:</p> + +<p>"Anything I can do and you need not fear that I'll take advantage of +it!"</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she shrank back and then in a moment said, "Bojo, forgive me— I +am very cruel— I know it. Will you forgive me?"</p> + +<p>"I forgive you," he said at last, trembling at the sweetness of her +voice, resolved whatever the temptation, to show her that he could +control himself.</p> + +<p>"Bojo, everything is going against Dad—everything. Doris must come back +and we must get word to Dolly. He needs all the help we can give him."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" he said, amazed.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I know."</p> + +<p>"But your father has millions and in the Pittsburgh & New Orleans he +made at least ten more. How can it be?"</p> + +<p>"I overheard— I listened and then—then mother told me."</p> + +<p>"When?"</p> + +<p>"The night after the wedding—that in another month we might be +ruined—that I—I ought to look to the future."</p> + +<p>"Oh, like Doris!" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that was what she meant," she said with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> shudder. "Think of it, +my mother, my own mother. Then I went to him—to Dad—but he would tell +me nothing—only laughed and said everything was all right, but I knew! +I don't know how or why, but I knew from the look in his eyes."</p> + +<p>"Yet I can't believe it," he said incredulously.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I feel so alone and so helpless," she cried, twisting her hands. +"Something must be done and I don't know how to do it. Bojo, you must +help me—you must tell me. It's money—he can't get money— I believe no +one will lend it to him." Suddenly she turned on him, caught his +arm,—"You say Doris knew, Dad told her—before the wedding!"</p> + +<p>"Yes—because she told me."</p> + +<p>"Oh! that is too terrible," she cried, "and knowing it she allowed him +to make her a gift of half a million."</p> + +<p>"He did that? You are certain?"</p> + +<p>"Absolutely. I saw the bonds."</p> + +<p>"But then that proves everything is all right," he cried joyfully.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 409px;"><a name="ILL_009" id="ILL_009"></a> +<img src="images/ill_009.jpg" width="409" height="500" alt=""'He wants to see you now' she said"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'He wants to see you now' she said"</span> +</div> + +<p>"You don't know Dad," she said, shaking her head mournfully. "Bojo, we +must get Doris back, she may do things for you that she won't do for any +one else— Oh! yes, you don't know. Then I have something—a quarter of +a million. I want to turn it into cash. He won't take it from me if he +knew. But you might deposit it to his credit, make him believe some one +did it anonymously—couldn't that be done?"</p> + +<p>He raised her hand with a sudden swelling in his throat and kissed it, +murmuring something incoherent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That is nothing to do, nothing," she said, shaking her head.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could go to him," he said doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"You can. You can. I know Dad believes you, trusts you. Oh! if you +would.</p> + +<p>"Of course I will and at once," he said joyfully. He leaned out the +window and gave the order. "Heavens, child, we've forgotten all about +dinner. I shall have to invite myself." He took her hand, patting it as +though to calm her. "It may not be so bad as you imagine. We'll +telegraph Doris to-night, the Boskirks can do a lot. Of course they'll +help. Then there's your mother—she has money of her own, I know."</p> + +<p>"That's what I'm afraid of—mother," she said in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Don't ask me. I shouldn't have said it. And yet—and yet—"</p> + +<p>"We are almost there," he said hurriedly. He wanted to say something to +her, revolting at the discipline he had imposed on himself, something +from the heart and yet something at which she would not take offense. He +hesitated and stammered—"Thank you for coming to me. You know—you +understand, don't you?"</p> + +<p>She turned, her glance rested on his a long moment, she started as +though to say something, stopped and turned hurriedly away, but brief as +the moment had been, a feeling of meltable content came over him. The +next moment they came to a stop. In the vestibule she bade him wait in +the little parlor and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> went in ahead to the library. He had picked up a +paper and paced up and down, scanning it anxiously, with brief glances +down the wide luxurious salons and at the liveried servants who seemed +to move nervously, all eyes and ears, scenting danger in the air. The +accent of fear was in the headlines even. He was staring at a caption +telling of rumored suspensions and prophecies of ill when Patsie came +tripping back.</p> + +<p>"It's all right. He wants to see you now," she said, happiness in her +eyes, holding out her hand to lead him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>DRAKE ADMITS HIS DANGER</h3> + +<p>Drake was before the fireplace, moving or rather switching back and +forth, and this unwonted nervousness seemed an evil augury to Bojo. +However, at the slight rustle of the portières, Drake came forward with +energetic strides, his hand flung out—</p> + +<p>"Well, stranger, almost thought you'd fled the country. How are you? +Glad, mighty glad, to see you." He stood with a smile, patting the +shoulder of Patsie, who leaned against his side. "Let's see your hands, +Tom. They tell me you've become quite a horny-handed son of toil."</p> + +<p>"I'm mighty glad to see <i>you</i>," said Bojo, studying him anxiously. At +first he felt reassured, the old self-possession and careless confidence +were there in tone and gesture. It was only when he examined him more +closely that his forebodings returned. About the eyes, not perceptible +at first, but lurking in the depths was a hunted, restless look, which +struck the young man at once.</p> + +<p>"I wanted Bojo so to come," said Patsie breathlessly. "I thought—in +some way—somehow he might be of help."</p> + +<p>"I only wish I could," said Bojo instantly. "You know you can trust me."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know that," said Drake briefly with a sudden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> clouding over of +his face. He added stubbornly, pulling his daughter's ear with a kindly +look, "This young lady is all in a panic over nothing. Comes from +talking business before them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Daddy, why not be truthful? Whatever comes we can face it. Only let +us know," said Patsie with her large eyes fixed sadly on his face in +unbelief.</p> + +<p>"I'm in a fight—a big fight, Tom, that's all, a little tougher than +other fights," he said loudly as though talking to himself. "If you want +to see some ructions and learn a few things that may help you in dealing +with certain brands of coyotes later, why come in—just possible you +might fit in handy."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," said Bojo gratefully, exalted to the seventh Heaven by +this permission, which seemed to bring him back the old intimacy. Patsie +was looking at him with shining eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but how about your work—the factory?" said Drake.</p> + +<p>"The factory be damned," said Bojo fervidly, with the American instinct +for the fitness of the direct word. All broke out laughing at his +impetuosity.</p> + +<p>"Well, Tom, I always did want you in the family," said Drake, clapping +him on the shoulder with a sly look at Patsie. "Have it as you wish. +I'll be mighty glad to have you, though you did give me a pretty stiff +lesson!"</p> + +<p>At this moment when Patsie and Bojo did not dare to look at each other, +the situation was luckily saved by the announcement of dinner.</p> + +<p>In the dining-room they waited several moments for Mrs. Drake to appear +until finally a footman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> brought the news that the mistress of the house +was indisposed and begged them to sit down without her. Drake looked +rather startled at this and went off into a moody abstraction for quite +a while, during which Patsie exchanged solicitous glances with Bojo.</p> + +<p>"It is more serious than he will admit," he thought. "I must get a +chance to speak to him alone. He will never tell the truth before +Drina."</p> + +<p>Dinner over, a rather anxious meal partaken of in long silences with +occasional bursts of forced conversation, Bojo found opportunity to +whisper to Patsie as they returned towards the library.</p> + +<p>"Make some excuse and leave us as soon as you can. I'll see you before I +go."</p> + +<p>She gave him a slight movement of her eyes to show she comprehended and +went dancing in ahead.</p> + +<p>"Now before you begin on business, let me make you both comfortable," +she cried. She indicated chairs and pushed them into their seats, +laughing. She brought the cigars and insisted on serving them with +lights, while each watched her, charmed and soothed by the grace and +youth of her spirits, though each knew the reason of her assuming. She +camped finally on the arm of her father's chair, with a final enveloping +hug, which under the appearance of exuberance, conveyed a deep +solicitude.</p> + +<p>"Shall I stay or do you want to talk alone?"</p> + +<p>"Stay." Drake caught the hand which had stolen about his neck and patted +it with rough tenderness. "Besides I want you to get certain false ideas +out of your head. Well, Tom, I'll tell you the situation." He stopped a +moment as though considering, before beginning again with an appearance +of frankness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> which almost convinced the young man, though it failed +before the alarmed instinct of his daughter. "Miss Patsie here is taking +entirely too seriously something her mother repeated to her. I won't +attempt to deny that the times are shaky. They are. They may become +suddenly worse. That depends entirely on a certain group of men. But the +strong point as well as the weak point in the present situation is that +it can depend on a certain group. There will be no panic for the simple +reason that in a panic this group will lose in the tens of millions +where others lose thousands. Now this group in the past through their +control direct or inter-related has been able to dominate the centers of +credit, the money loaning institutions, such as the great banks and +insurance companies. By this means they have been in a measure able to +keep to themselves the great industrial exploitations dependent on the +ability to finance in the hundreds of millions. More, they have been +able to limit to narrow fields such men as myself and other newcomers, +who wish to rise to the same financial advantage. Lately this supremacy +has been threatened by the rise of a new financial idea, the Trust +company. This new form of banking, due to the scope permitted under the +present law, has been able to deal in business and to make loans on +collateral which, while valid, is forbidden a bank under the statutes. +The Trust companies, able to deal in more profitable business and to pay +good interest consequently on deposits, have developed so enormously as +to threaten to overshadow the banks. Back of all this the Trust +companies have been developed and purchased by the younger generation of +financiers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> in order to acquire the means of providing themselves with +the credit necessary to develop their large schemes of industrial +expansion, without being at the mercy of influences which can be +controlled by others. From the moment the dominant group perceived this +phase of the development of the Trust company, war was certain. That's +where I come in. Pretty dry stuff. Can you get it?"</p> + +<p>Patsie nodded, more interested perhaps in her father's manner than in +what he said. Bojo listened with painful concentration.</p> + +<p>"After my deal in Indiana Smelters and the turn in Pittsburgh & New +Orleans I knew that the knives were out against me. I tried to make +peace with Gunther but I might just as well have tried to sleep with the +tiger. I saw that. There were several things I wanted to do—big things. +I had to have credit. Where could I get it—dare to get it? So I went +into the Trust companies. They want to get me and they want to get +them." He stopped, rubbed his chin and said with a grin, "Perhaps they +may sting me—good and hard—but at the worst we could worry along on +eight or nine millions, couldn't we, living economically, Patsie?"</p> + +<p>"Is that the worst it could mean?" she said, drawing off to look in his +eyes.</p> + +<p>He nodded, adding:</p> + +<p>"Oh, it isn't pleasant to have fifteen to twenty millions clipped from +your fleece, but still we can live—live comfortably."</p> + +<p>She pretended to believe him, throwing herself in his arms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh! I'm so relieved."</p> + +<p>His hand ran over her golden head in a gentle caress and his face, as +Bojo saw it, was strained and grim, though his words were light:</p> + +<p>"But I'm not going to lose those twenty millions, not if I can help it!"</p> + +<p>Patsie sprang up laughing, caught Bojo's signal and ran out crying:</p> + +<p>"Back in a moment. Must see how mother is."</p> + +<p>When the curtains, billowing out at her tumultuous exit, had fluttered +back to rest, Bojo said quietly:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Drake, is that what you wish me to believe?"</p> + +<p>"Eh, what's that?" said Drake, looking up.</p> + +<p>"Am I to believe what you've just told?"</p> + +<p>There was a long moment between them, while each studied the other.</p> + +<p>"How far can I trust you?" said Drake slowly.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Can I have your word that you will not tell Patsie—or any one?"</p> + +<p>Bojo reflected a moment, frowning.</p> + +<p>"Is that absolutely necessary?"</p> + +<p>"That's the condition."</p> + +<p>"Very well, I shall tell her nothing more than she knows. Will that +satisfy you?"</p> + +<p>Drake nodded slowly, his eyes still on the young man as though finally +considering the advisability of a confidence.</p> + +<p>"That was partly true," he said slowly; "only partly. There's more to +it. It's not a question <i>yet</i> of being wiped out, but it may be a +question. Tom, I'm not sure but what they've got me. It all depends<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> on +the Atlantic Trust. If they dare let it go to the wall—" He grinned, +took a long whistle and threw up his arms.</p> + +<p>"But surely not all—you don't mean wiped out?" said Bojo, aghast. "You +must be worth twenty, twenty-two million."</p> + +<p>"I am worth that and more," said Drake quietly. "On paper and not only +on paper, under any other system of banking in the world, I would be +worth twenty-seven millions of dollars. Every cent of it. Remember that +afterward, Tom. You'll never see anything funnier. Twenty-seven millions +and to-day I can't borrow five hundred thousand dollars on collateral +worth forty times that. You don't understand it. I'll tell you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>A FIGHT IN MILLIONS</h3> + +<p>Drake did not immediately proceed. Having impulsively expressed his +intention to reveal his financial crisis, he hesitated as though +regretting that impulse. He left the fireplace and went from door to +door as though to assure himself against listeners, but aimlessly, +rather from indecision than from any precaution. Returning, he flung +away his cigar, though it was but half consumed, and took a fresh one, +offering the box to Bojo without perceiving that he was in no need. So +apparent was his disinclination, that Bojo felt impelled to say:</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you would rather not tell me, sir!"</p> + +<p>"I'd only be telling you what my enemies know," said Drake sharply, +flinging himself down. "They know to a dollar what I've pledged and what +I can draw on— Oh! trust them."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Drake," said Bojo slowly, "I don't need to tell you, do I, that I +would do anything in this world for Patsie, and that without knowing in +the slightest what she feels toward me—believe me. I say this to +you—because I want you to know that I've come only in the wildest hope +that I might help in some way—some little way."</p> + +<p>Drake shook his head.</p> + +<p>"You can't, and yet—" He hesitated a last time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> and then said, in a +dreamy, indecisive way, so foreign to his nature that it showed the +extent of the mental struggle through which he had passed, "and yet +there are some things I'd be glad to have you know—to remember, Tom, +after it's all over, particularly if you come into the family. For I +don't think you quite understand my ways of fighting. You took a rather +harsh view of certain things from your standpoint— I admit you had some +cause."</p> + +<p>"I didn't judge you," said Bojo hastily, blushing with embarrassment. "I +was only judging myself, my own responsibility."</p> + +<p>"Well, you judged me too," said Drake, smiling. "Yes—and I felt it, and +I'll say now that I felt uncomfortable—damned uncomfortable. That's why +I'm going to let you see that according to my ways of looking at things +I play the game square. I'm going to let you overhear a certain very +interesting little meeting that is going to take place" (he glanced at +the clock) "in about half an hour. Mr. James H. Haggerdy is coming to +make me a proposition from Gunther and Co. It'll interest you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Bojo simply.</p> + +<p>"Now, here's the situation in a nutshell. If I could weather this +depression a year, six months, or if there had been no depression, but +normal times, I would be able to swing a deal and clear out at over one +hundred millions— I gambled big. It was in me—fated— I had to sink or +swim on a big stake. If I'd have won out, I'd have been among the kings +of the country. That's what I wanted—not money. It's the poker in my +blood. However. Here's the case: I made money, as you know—a great +deal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> of money. I was worth considerable after the Indiana Smelters got +going. I was worth ten millions more when I had sold back Pittsburgh & +New Orleans. That was the crisis. I wanted to get in with the inner +crowd—not simply to be a buccaneer, for that's about what I'd been. +That's why they bought their old railroad back. I was rated a dangerous +man. I was. So is every man dangerous till he gets what he wants. I went +to Gunther and laid my cards on the table. Gunther's a big man, the only +man I'd have done it to, but he has one fault—he can hate. The ideal +master ought to have no friends and no enemies. I said to Gunther:</p> + +<p>"'Gunther, let's talk straight. I want to come into the field—on your +level—you know what that means. Your word and I'll be satisfied. Am I +big enough yet? Do you want me inside or outside the breastworks? Say +the word.'</p> + +<p>"He sat there smiling, listening, gazing out the window.</p> + +<p>"'I know what I'm asking's a big thing, to forget what I've cost you. It +<i>is</i> a lot to ask. But you're big enough to see beyond it. Say the word +and I'm yours, through thick and thin, from now on, and I'll lay before +you now a campaign as big as anything you handled so far. All I want is +your word—is it peace or war!'</p> + +<p>"That's where he played square.</p> + +<p>"'I don't forget easily,' he said.</p> + +<p>"'So that's the answer?' I said.</p> + +<p>"He nodded.</p> + +<p>"'I'm sorry. I came to you because you're the only man down here I'm +willing to look up to,' I said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> for I knew there was no use going on, +but as I went out I plumped in a last shot: 'In a year from now I'm +going to put the same offer to you, and when I do I'll carry a few more +guns.'</p> + +<p>"I went out and I got to work. As a matter of fact, I had already begun. +I went in with Majendie of the Atlantic Trust, Ryerson of the Columbian, +and Dryser of the Seaboard Trust. I bought my way in. I'd got a say in +institutions able to lend millions on good collateral without having to +duck at a bell pressed downtown. Then I started with a group of +Middle-Westerners to make myself felt. There was only one big field left +and it was a question how long that would be left alone. They had +organized their steel industries and their railroads, they'd knocked out +or digested competitors, controlled the field of production and had +things sailing along gloriously, but they'd forgotten, or almost +forgotten, one thing which they ought to have controlled the first, the +iron to pour into their furnaces and the coke to keep them going. When +they woke up, they found me in control of the Eastern Coke and Iron +Company, holding about eighty million dollars worth of land in West +Virginia and Virginia which they had to have sooner or later. Then they +woke up with a vengeance. The first thing they did was to send word to +me through Haggerdy to get out of the Seaboard Trust and be a good +little boy and they'd let me come around and play. I laughed at that, +though I knew it meant war to the knife. About ten weeks ago I got a +taste of what they could do. Of course, to carry what I was carrying, I +had need of big sums, and I had large blocks of Eastern Coke and Iron<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +hypothecated not only among my Trust Company connections, but in banks +around town, where it was upon good strong margins. Ten weeks ago, when +I dropped in at a certain bank to renew my loan, I was told that they +had decided on account of the business outlook, the downward trend of +prices and what not, to call in their loans and proceed on a very +conservative basis. Of course, under that rigamarole I knew what was +doing—orders from headquarters—and more to follow. I placed the loan +with the Atlantic Trust and waited. Last week another refusal. This time +the warning was a little more pointed. The president himself looked with +grave concern—that's always the expression—on the amount of Eastern C. and I. +stock hypothecated at present. A collapse in the stock, which had +been declining steadily, might seriously upset financial conditions all +over the country, etc. Well, I weathered that and a couple others until +I've got where I'm stumped. A bank has got the right to decide for +itself what it wants to lend money on; it can decline a loan on any +security or all securities offered, and what are you going to do about +it? The trust companies are carrying all they can and besides they're +being squeezed themselves. As a matter of fact, with solid properties +worth to-day in the market from fifty-five to fifty-seven millions, of +which we own sixty per cent., there isn't a bank in town will lend us a +hundred thousand dollars. The word has been passed around and those who +are independent don't dare. I need two million cash by day after +to-morrow, absolutely must have it, and they know it and Haggerdy's +coming here to look me over, examine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> my pocketbook and say, 'What have +you got that we want!'"</p> + +<p>At this moment the butler came with a card.</p> + +<p>"Did you say any one was here?" said Drake, studying the card.</p> + +<p>"No, sir."</p> + +<p>"Show Mr. Haggerdy in when I ring," said Drake, with a nod of dismissal. +He rose and beckoning Bojo placed him in the embrosine of the window, +where a slight recess hid him completely from the rest of the room.</p> + +<p>"No need of a record; take it in just for your own curiosity," he said, +returning to his desk.</p> + +<p>Mr. James H. Haggerdy came in like a bulky animal emerging from a cage +and blinking at the sun. He was not the man to beat about the bush, and +in his own long and varied experience in Wall Street he had been called +many names, but he had never been branded with anything petty, a fact +which made a certain bond of sympathy between the two men.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Dan!"</p> + +<p>"Hello, Jim!"</p> + +<p>Haggerdy moved to a chair, refused a cigar, and said directly:</p> + +<p>"Well, Jim, I suppose you know what I've come for."</p> + +<p>"Sure, to carry off the furniture and the silverware," said Drake, +laughing.</p> + +<p>"That's about it!" said Haggerdy, nodding with a grim twist of his lips. +He had a sense of humor, though he seldom laughed. "Dan, they've got +you."</p> + +<p>"So they seem to think."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And they want your Eastern C. and I. stock."</p> + +<p>"That's quite evident. Will they accept it as a present or do they want +me to pay them for taking it?" said Drake grimly.</p> + +<p>"What's the use of faking," said Haggerdy. "Gunther wants the stock and +is going to have it. Do you want to sell now or hand it over. You're a +sensible man, Dan; you ought to know when you're beaten."</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure I am a sensible man," said Drake facetiously.</p> + +<p>"It's all in the game. You're not kicking because you've been caught, +are you?" said Haggerdy, as though in surprise.</p> + +<p>"No. If I were in Gunther's place I should do just what he's doing. +Quite right. Only I'm not sure, Jim, he'd do what I do were conditions +reversed."</p> + +<p>"You paid around 79 for the stock. You've got a million shares you're +carrying. The stock's to-day at 54. We'll buy you out at 55. Take it, +Dan."</p> + +<p>"Thanks for the advice, but my answer's No."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"That stock's going to be worth 150 in two years."</p> + +<p>"Two years isn't to-day. You're facing conditions." He looked at him as +though trying to understand his motive. "The old man isn't bargaining +when he says 55; he means 55 and no more."</p> + +<p>"I know that."</p> + +<p>"Where are you going to raise two million dollars cash in forty-eight +hours? You see, we are well informed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p> + +<p>Drake smiled as though this were the easiest matter in the world.</p> + +<p>"Suppose the Clearing House refuses to clear for the Atlantic Trust +to-morrow. What'll that mean?"</p> + +<p>"A panic."</p> + +<p>"And where would your Eastern Coke and Iron go then?"</p> + +<p>"To 40 or 35, wherever you wanted it to go—possibly."</p> + +<p>"And can't you take a hint?"</p> + +<p>"Not when I know a stock that's worth over a hundred has been pushed +down on purpose to freeze me out."</p> + +<p>"You're not talking morality, Dan?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! You think I'm beaten. I know I'm not."</p> + +<p>"You're bluffing, Dan."</p> + +<p>"Find out."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow'll be too late."</p> + +<p>"Possibly, but if Gunther can buy it at 40 or 35, why should he pay 55 +to me?"</p> + +<p>"I think he likes you, Dan," said Haggerdy slowly.</p> + +<p>"No. He wants to make sure of getting the stock. He doesn't want a +scramble for it," said Drake. "I'm surprised to hear you talking such +nonsense."</p> + +<p>Haggerdy rose, shaking his head impressively.</p> + +<p>"A mistake, Dan—a mistake." He waited a moment and then played his last +card. "Of course, if you sell out in this, it's understood Gunther'll +see you through on the rest. And that may mean the question of the roof +over your head."</p> + +<p>"That means credit at the bank—that I'll be allowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> to put up good +collateral like a respectable member of the crowd?"</p> + +<p>"Phrase it as you will, that's it. Gunther will buy out your Trust +Company holdings for what you paid for them and he'll see you through on +Indiana Smelters—that means something saved out of the wreck—and, Dan, +there's a big smash up just over the horizon."</p> + +<p>"I thought that was the proposition," said Drake, ruminating. "Well, +Jim, it's more than ever no."</p> + +<p>"Why more than ever?"</p> + +<p>"Because this in good old-fashioned English means just one +thing—getting out, saving my skin at the expense of others."</p> + +<p>"Quite so—every man for himself."</p> + +<p>"Not with me. I've given my word on the Coke and Iron deal. I'll see it +through. Tell Gunther I'll sell out at 80 all or nothing, and give him +twenty-four hours."</p> + +<p>Haggerdy stretched out his hand in farewell.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure of the other fellows, Dan?" he said slyly.</p> + +<p>"I don't give a damn what the other fellows may do. I've given my word +and I stand by that."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry for you, Dan," said Haggerdy, shaking his head ominously. +"Telephone me if you change your mind."</p> + +<p>"Thanks for your wishes, but don't lose any sleep—expecting," said +Drake, laughing.</p> + +<p>Bojo came out aghast.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say the Atlantic Trust is in danger," he cried, +foreseeing all in a glance the structures that would go toppling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It's in danger, all right," said Drake moodily, "but they won't—they +don't dare let it close—impossible!"</p> + +<p>"And if you can't raise two million?"</p> + +<p>Drake shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"But surely there's some way," Bojo cried helplessly, "some +friends—there must be a way to raise it. This house surely is worth +twice that—it isn't mortgaged, is it?"</p> + +<p>"No, it's quite clear, but it belongs to my wife," said Drake, and again +there came into his face that shadow of broken despair which Bojo had +noticed a score of times.</p> + +<p>"But then—does she realize—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she knows," said Drake to himself. It was easy to see that the +interview with Haggerdy had profoundly convinced him. "Mrs. Drake's +fortune outside of that is fully three millions, which I have given +her—"</p> + +<p>"But why haven't you told her and your daughter—they ought—" Suddenly +he stopped short, his eyes met Drake's and a suspicion of the truth +struck him. "You don't mean—"</p> + +<p>"Don't," said Drake helplessly, and for the first time he caught a +glimpse of the vastness of his inner suffering. The next minute he had +hurriedly recovered his mask, saying: "Don't ask me about that— I +can't— I must not tell you."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Drake has refused to help you!" exclaimed Bojo, carried away. "She +has—she has. I see it by your face."</p> + +<p>Drake walked to the fireplace and stood gazing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> down. Presently he +nodded as though talking to himself.</p> + +<p>"Yes; my wife could come to my assistance. I have been forced to ask +her. She won't. I have been living in a fool's paradise. That's what +hurts!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>PATSIE'S SCHEME</h3> + +<p>When Bojo returned home after a brief stolen interview with Patsie, he +could hardly believe what he had himself witnessed. It seemed incredible +that all that magnificence and luxury might be dissipated in a night, +could depend upon the wavering of an hour in a mad exchange. But deeper +than the feeling of impending disaster—which he even now could not +realize—was the disclosure of the true state of affairs in the Drake +household. Without telling Patsie the extent of her father's danger, he +had told of Drake's applying to his wife for assistance and her refusal. +Then Patsie brokenly had told her part, how she had pled with her mother +and sought in vain to place before her the true seriousness of the +situation, her father's peril and his instant need. To entreaties and +remonstrances Mrs. Drake remained deaf, sheltering herself behind an +invariable answer. Why should she throw good money after bad? What was +to be gained by it? If he had thrown away the family fortune, all the +more reason for her to save what she had. The worst was that Dolly was +abroad and Doris and her husband were cruising off Palm Beach and the +telegram they sent might not reach them in time.</p> + +<p>The next morning Bojo waited fitfully for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> opening of the Stock +Exchange, with the dreaded memories of Haggerdy's prophecies running in +his head. It took him back to the days when he himself had been a part +of the vast maelstrom of speculation. He breakfasted with one eye on the +clock waiting for the hands to advance to the fatal hour of ten. At five +minutes past that hour he went feverishly across the way to the ticker +in the neighboring hotel brokerage. He had a feeling as though he were +being sucked back into the old life of violent emotions and unreal +theatrical upsets. He remembered the day before the drop in Pittsburgh & +New Orleans when he had waited in the Hauk and Flaspoller offices +matching quarters with Forshay to endure the last few intervening +minutes before the crisis which was to sweep away their fortunes as a +tidal wave obliterates a valley. He had not understood then the ironical +laughter in Forshay's eyes, but as he came back again to the old +associations he felt himself living over with a new poignant +understanding the final act of that tragedy.</p> + +<p>Between the Tom Crocker of those breathless days and the ordered self +which he had built up during these last months of discipline there +seemed to intervene unreal worlds.</p> + +<p>The group gathered in the hotel branch of Pitt & Sanderson were +indolently interested rather than excited. They were of the flitting and +superficial gambling type, youngsters still new to the excitement of the +game and old men who could not tear themselves away from their +established habit. They formed quite a little coterie in which the +differences of age and wealth were obliterated by the common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> bond of +the daily hazard. He knew the type well, the reckless plunger risking +thousands on shallow margins, determined to make or lose all at one +killing; the rodent, sharp-eyed, close-fisted veteran, wary from many +failures, who was content to play for half a point rise and take his +instant profit. The lounging group studied him with a moment's +curiosity, seeking in which category to place the intruder, whether +among the shifting truant crowd stopping for the moment's information or +among that harried occasional group of lost souls who came expectant of +nothing but complete disaster.</p> + +<p>Bojo went to the tape with almost the feeling with which a reformed +drunkard closes his hand over the glass that had once been his +destruction. His mind, excited by the memories of the night before, was +prepared for a shock. To his surprise the clicking procession of +values—Reading, Union Pacific, Amalgamated Copper, Northern +Pacific—showed but fractional declines. The break he had come to +witness did not develop. He waited a quarter of an hour, half an hour, +an hour. The market continued weak but heavy.</p> + +<p>"Nothing much doing," he said, turning to his neighbor, a financial rail +bird of a rather horsy type, grisled and bald.</p> + +<p>"Playing it short?"</p> + +<p>"Haven't yet made up my mind. What do you think?" he said, to draw the +other on.</p> + +<p>"Think?" said the other with the enthusiasm of the gambler's conviction. +"Lord, there's only one thing to think. This market's touched bottom +two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> weeks ago. When it starts to rise watch things go kiting."</p> + +<p>"You think so?" said Bojo, with the instinctive tendency to seek hope in +the slightest straws that is the strangest part of all the strange +acquaintanceships of the moment which speculation engenders. He had to +listen for five minutes to impassioned oratory, to hearing all the +reasons recounted why the long depression was nothing but psychological +and an upward turn a certainty. He slipped away presently, rather +relieved at this confidence from a shallow prophet, and when he met +Patsie by appointment, the news he brought her dispelled the feelings of +foreboding under which she had been suffering the last week.</p> + +<p>"After all, perhaps we have been rather panicky," he said, with a new +assumption of cheerfulness. "Remember one thing, your father knows this +game and when he says that the big group does not intend to have a +panic, because they themselves have too much to lose, Patsie, he must +know what he is talking about."</p> + +<p>"If Doris were only here," she said, her woman's instinct unconvinced.</p> + +<p>"You sent the telegram?"</p> + +<p>"Last night. I should have had the answer this morning. That's what +worries me. Perhaps it won't reach them in time and even if it does it +will be over two days before they can get back."</p> + +<p>"It would help a good deal," he admitted. The prospect of going to Doris +for help after what had happened was one from which he shrank, yet he +was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> resolved to stop at nothing, willing to sacrifice his pride if only +to secure the aid which, knowing their connections, he knew Boskirk +could bring the imperilled financier.</p> + +<p>"At least I shall do what I can do," she said, with a determined shake +of her head.</p> + +<p>He looked at her doubtfully. "I am afraid, Patsie, that a few hundred +thousands will not help much—but if your mind is made up."</p> + +<p>"It is made up."</p> + +<p>"Very well, what address shall I give them?" He leaned forward and +repeated the number.</p> + +<p>Twenty minutes later they were in the office of Swift and Carlson, in +the inner room, talking to the senior partner. Thaddeus C. Swift was one +of the innumerable agents through whom Daniel Drake operated in the +placing of his more serious enterprises, of the older generation of Wall +Street, conservative, seemingly unruffled by the swirling tide of +strident young men which churned about him. He had known Patsie since +her childhood and received her as he would his own daughter, with +perhaps a quizzical and searching glance at the young man who waited a +little uncomfortably in the background. Patsie opened the conversation +directly without the slightest hesitation.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Swift," she said imperiously, "you must give me your word that you +will keep my confidence." And as this caused the old gentleman to stare +at her with a startled look, she added insistently: "You must not say a +word of my coming here or whatever I may ask you to do. Promise."</p> + +<p>"Sounds quite terrible," said Mr. Swift, smiling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> indulgently. In his +mind he decided that the visit meant a demand for a few hundred dollars +for some girlish fancy. "Well, how shall I swear? Cross my heart and all +that sort of thing?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Swift, I am serious, awfully serious," stamping her foot with +annoyance, "and please do not treat me as a child."</p> + +<p>He saw that the matter was of some importance, and scenting perhaps +complications, withdrew into a defensive attitude.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you tell me a little of what you want of me," he said +carefully, "before I give such a promise."</p> + +<p>Patsie, who for her reasons did not wish her father to have the +slightest suspicion of this visit, hesitated, looked from Mr. Swift to +Bojo, and turned away nervously, seeking some new method to gain her +end.</p> + +<p>"Miss Drake is coming to you as a client," said Bojo, deciding to speak, +"to consult you about her interests. So long as it is about her business +affairs, it seems quite natural, doesn't it, that you should keep her +confidence?"</p> + +<p>"Eh, what?" said Mr. Swift, frowning. He seemed to repeat the question +to himself, and answered grudgingly: "Of course, of course, that's all +right, that's true. If it is only to consult me about your business +affairs—"</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 381px;"><a name="ILL_010" id="ILL_010"></a> +<img src="images/ill_010.jpg" width="381" height="500" alt=""'Your promise. No one is to know what I do'"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'Your promise. No one is to know what I do'"</span> +</div> + +<p>"It is absolutely that," said Patsie hastily. She stood beside him, +holding out her hand obstinately. "Your promise. No one is to know what +I do."</p> + +<p>Mr. Swift made a mental reservation and nodded his head. The three sat +down.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How much have I deposited in stocks and bonds to my account?" asked +Patsie.</p> + +<p>"Do you wish a list?" said Mr. Swift, preparing to touch a button.</p> + +<p>"No, no, not now; only the value—in a general way."</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Mr. Swift, caging his fingers and looking over their +heads to the depths of the ceiling, "of course, it depends somewhat on +the state of the market. While what you have is the best of securities, +still, as you must know, even the best will not bring to-day what it +would a year ago."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but in a general way," she insisted.</p> + +<p>"In a general way," he said carefully, "I should say what you have would +represent a capital of $500,000 to $510,000. Possibly, under favorable +conditions, a little more."</p> + +<p>Patsie and Bojo looked at him in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"You said $500,000?" she said incredulously.</p> + +<p>He nodded.</p> + +<p>"You are thinking of Doris," she said, bewildered.</p> + +<p>"Not at all. That is approximately the value of your holding. Your +father deposited with me securities to the value of $260,000 on your +coming of age last January."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; I know that, but—"</p> + +<p>"And securities of the par value of $250,000 on the occasion of your +sister's marriage."</p> + +<p>"He did that?" exclaimed Patsie, her heart in her throat; "he really did +that?" Her eyes filled with tears and she turned away hastily with an +emotion quite inexplicable to the older man. Bojo himself was much moved +at the thought of how the father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> in the face of a supreme conflict had +been willing to risk his reserves to provide for the future of his +daughters.</p> + +<p>Patsie came back, her emotion in a measure controlled. She placed her +hand upon the shoulder of Mr. Swift, who continued to gaze at her +without comprehension.</p> + +<p>"I know you don't understand; you will later. Mr. Swift, I want you to +sell every one of my securities, now, immediately. I want everything in +cash."</p> + +<p>Mr. Swift looked at her as though he had seen a ghost and then rapidly +at Bojo. In his mind perhaps was working some fantastic idea of an +elopement. Perhaps Patsie guessed something of this, for she blushed +slightly and said:</p> + +<p>"My father needs it. I want to give it to him."</p> + +<p>Her words cleared the atmosphere, though they left Mr. Swift obstinately +determined.</p> + +<p>"But, Patsie," he said, as a father might to a child, "this is a +bombshell. I can't allow you on my own responsibility to do a thing like +this on impulse. You should not ask me. How do you know your father is +in need? He has not sent you here?"</p> + +<p>"No, no; never. Don't you know him better than that? If he knew he never +would permit it. That's the difficulty, don't you see? He must never +know of it and you must arrange some way so he will never guess it is +coming from me."</p> + +<p>Mr. Swift stared at her utterly amazed. At length he turned and, +addressing Bojo, said:</p> + +<p>"You are in the confidence of Miss Drake? If so, perhaps you can help me +out. Does she know what she is doing, and is it possible that she has +any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> valid reason for believing that her father can possibly be in need +of such heroic assistance as this?"</p> + +<p>His face expressed so much amazement mingled with consternation at the +thought that Daniel Drake could possibly be in difficulties that Bojo +for the first time perceived what he should have foreseen, the direct +danger to the financier from the suspicion of his true situation which +must come from the revelation of Patsie's intentions.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Swift," he said, in great perturbation, "I do not know whether we +have done wisely in speaking to you so frankly. You will perhaps +understand now why Miss Drake insisted on a promise of secrecy."</p> + +<p>"What! Daniel Drake in need of money?" said Mr. Swift, staring at him or +rather through him, and already perceiving the tremendous significance +of this disclosure upon the distraught times.</p> + +<p>"At least Miss Drake believes so," said Bojo carefully. "She may +exaggerate the necessity. What she is doing she is doing because she has +made up her mind herself to do it and not because I have advised her or +suggested it in the slightest. You are too good a friend of the family I +know, sir, to speak of what has occurred."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Swift," said Patsie, breaking in and seizing his hand +impulsively, "you <i>will</i> help me, won't you?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Swift gazed at her blankly, a hundred thoughts racing through his +mind; still too upset by the news he had just received, which could not +fail to be full of significance to his own fortunes, to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> able to +focus for the moment on the immediate decision.</p> + +<p>Patsie repeated her demand with a quivering lip. He came out of his +abstraction and began to think, arranging and rearranging a pile of +letters before him, convinced at last that the situation was of the +highest seriousness.</p> + +<p>"Wait, wait a moment; I must think it over," he said slowly. "This is an +unusually serious decision you have put up to me. My dear Patsie, you +know nothing about such matters; you're a child."</p> + +<p>"I am eighteen and I have a right to dispose of what belongs to me."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, you have the right, but I have the right also to advise you +and to make you see the situation as it exists." His manner changed +immediately and he said simply and frankly, "Since you have trusted me, +you must give me your full confidence. I shan't abuse it. Mr. Crocker, I +can see by your manner and your attempt at caution that this matter is +not a trifle. Do you know from your own knowledge how serious it is? +Please do not hide anything from me."</p> + +<p>"I won't," said Bojo. "I know of my personal knowledge and I believe it +to be as serious as it can possibly be."</p> + +<p>The two men exchanged a glance and the look in both their eyes told +Swift even more than his words revealed, more than he wished Patsie +herself to suspect.</p> + +<p>"Suppose the very worst were true," said Mr. Swift after a moment's +thought, "that your father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> was in danger of complete failure? I am +merely supposing this extreme case to show you the difficulty of my +position. Your father has placed these securities to your account with +the distinct intention that whatever happens to him you shall be +provided for as his other daughters are provided for, and undoubtedly +his wife is taken care of. If I should allow you to do this, even as a +matter of sentiment it is possible in an extreme case everything you +have as well as everything your father possesses might be wiped away. Do +you realize that?"</p> + +<p>"And that's just what I am afraid may happen," she exclaimed, worried +beyond the thought of caution by her forebodings.</p> + +<p>"And you are willing to take the risk of losing everything?" he said +slowly; "for after all there is no reason why you should sacrifice what +belongs to you rightfully and legally even if your father should fail +completely."</p> + +<p>"No reason?" she cried. "Do you think for a moment that money means +anything to me when he, my father, the one who has given it to me, needs +it?"</p> + +<p>"But if even this won't save him?" he persisted, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"What has that got to do with the question?" she said impatiently, +almost angrily. "Everything I have I want him to have. That's all there +is to it."</p> + +<p>He gazed at her fresh and ardent face a moment and then laid his hand +over hers, muttering something underneath his breath which Bojo did not +catch, although he divined its reverence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then you will do as I wish?" she cried joyfully, guessing his +surrender.</p> + +<p>He nodded, gave a helpless glance to Bojo and cleared his throat +huskily. "As you wish, my dear," he said very gently.</p> + +<p>"And you will sell everything at once?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"I can't promise that," he said quietly. "Such a block of securities +can't be thrown on the market all at once. But I will do my best."</p> + +<p>"But how long will it take?" she said in dismay.</p> + +<p>"Four days, possibly five."</p> + +<p>"But that will be too late. I must have it all the day after to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"That will mean a serious sacrifice," he said.</p> + +<p>"What do I care? I must have it by to-morrow night."</p> + +<p>"You are determined?"</p> + +<p>"Absolutely."</p> + +<p>"It will have to be so then."</p> + +<p>"And when that is done," she cried joyfully, clapping her hands in +delight, "you will help me to send it to him so he will never suspect +it?"</p> + +<p>He nodded, yielding every point, perhaps more moved than he cared to +show.</p> + +<p>They left the office after Patsie had signed the formal order.</p> + +<p>At the house they found a telegram from Doris.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Patsie, your telegram has thrown us into the greatest +anxiety. Jim and I are leaving at once. Will be in New York +day after to-morrow. Courage. We will do everything to help.</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Doris</span>.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p> + +<p>This news and their success of the morning restored their spirits +immeasurably. It seemed as though clouds had suddenly cleared away and +left everything with a promise of sunshine and fair weather. They +lunched almost gaily. Mrs. Drake still kept her room and Patsie was +impatient for the day to pass and the next one to have the certainty +that the sale was achieved. Confident from her first success she +declared once Doris was back she would go with her sister to her mother +and shame her if they could not persuade her into a realization of the +gravity of the situation. When Bojo left they had even forgotten for the +space of half an hour that such bugbears as Wall Street, loans and banks +could exist. The realization of the seriousness of human disasters had +somehow left them simple and devoid of artifices or coquetry before each +other. He found again in her the Patsie of earlier days. He comprehended +that she loved him, had always loved him, that the slight +misunderstanding that had momentarily arisen between them had come from +the long summer renunciation and the passionate jealousy of one sister +for the other. He comprehended this all, but did not take advantage of +his knowledge. On leaving her he held her a moment, his hands on her +shoulders, gazing earnestly into her eyes. From this intensity of his +look she turned away a little frightened, not quite reconciled. Already +his, but still hesitating before the final avowal. The knowledge of how +indispensable he was to her in these moments of trial restrained him in +the impulsive movement towards her. He took her hand and bowed over it a +deep bow, a little quixotic perhaps, and hurried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> away without trusting +himself to speak. Outside he went rushing along as though the blocks +were mere steps, swinging his cane and humming to himself gloriously. He +was so happy that the thought that any one else could be unhappy, that +any disaster could threaten her or any one who belonged to her, seemed +incredible.</p> + +<p>"Everything is going to turn out all right," he repeated to himself +confidently. "Everything; I feel it."</p> + +<p>He went back to the Court radiant and gay and dressed for dinner, +surprising Granning, who came in preoccupied and anxious, with the flow +of animal spirits. At the sight of his contagious happiness Granning +looked at him with a knowing smile.</p> + +<p>"Well, things aren't so black after all, then?"</p> + +<p>"You bet they're not!"</p> + +<p>"Glad to hear it. You had me scared last night. My guess is that +something besides stocks and bonds must have cheered you up," he added +suspiciously with a wise nod of his head. "Glad to see it, old fellow. +You've been mum and gloomy as a hippopotamus long enough."</p> + +<p>"Have I?" said Bojo, laughing with a little confusion. "Well, I'm not +going to be any longer. You're an old hippopotamus yourself." He got him +around the knees and flung him with an old time tackle on the couch, and +they were scrambling and laughing thus when the telephone rang. It was +Patsie's voice, very faint and pitiful.</p> + +<p>"Have you heard? The Clearing House has refused to clear for the +Atlantic Trust. Oh, Bojo, what does it mean?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>ONE LAST CHANCE</h3> + +<p>Bojo came away from the telephone with a face so grave that Granning +greeted him with an involuntary exclamation:</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, Bojo, what's wrong?"</p> + +<p>"The Atlantic Trust has gone under. The Clearing House refused to clear. +You know what that means."</p> + +<p>"But, I say, you're not affected. You've been out of the market for +months. I say, you didn't have anything up."</p> + +<p>"No, no," said Bojo grimly. He went and sat down, his head in his hands. +"I'm not thinking of myself. Some one else. I can't tell you; you must +guess. It will probably all be out soon enough. By George, this is a +cropper."</p> + +<p>"I think I understand," said Granning slowly. He sat down in turn, +kicking his toes against the twisted andirons on the hearth. "The +Atlantic Trust—and a billion—who knows, a billion and a half deposits! +What the deuce are we coming to? It will hit us all—bad times!"</p> + +<p>Bojo got up heavily and went out. Hardly had he stepped from the leafy +isolation of the Court into the strident conflict of Times Square when +he felt the instant alarm that great disasters instantaneously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> convey +to a metropolitan crowd. Newspaper trucks were screaming past, halting +to fling out great bunches of the latest extras to fighting, scrambling +groups of street urchins who dispersed, screaming their shrill evil in +high-pitched, contagion-spreading voices. Every one was devouring the +last panic-ridden sheet, some hurrying home, others stopping in their +tracks spellbound to read to the end. He bought an extra hastily from a +strident newsboy who thrust it in his face. The worst was true. The +great Atlantic Trust had been refused clearance. Darkest suspicions were +thrown upon its solvency. The names of other banks, colossal +institutions, were linked under the same awful rumors. The morrow would +see a run on a dozen banks such as the generation had not witnessed. He +hailed a taxicab and hurried uptown. Drake had told him that everything +depended upon the Atlantic Trust. Now that this had gone under did this +mean his absolute ruin? Patsie was already waiting for him as he drew up +before the great gray stone mansion. She flung herself in his arms, +trembling and physically unnerved. He was afraid that she was going to +collapse completely and began solicitously to whisper in her ear many +deceptive words of hope and comfort.</p> + +<p>"It may not be so bad. Your father—have you seen your father? How do +you know what he has done? Perhaps he has come to some agreement this +afternoon. Perhaps he has saved himself by some bold stroke. I believe +him capable of anything."</p> + +<p>She stopped the futile flow of words with her fingers across his lips.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, how happy we were this afternoon," she said, for the moment almost +breaking down. But immediately the Spartan courage which was at the +bottom of her character prevailed. She drew herself up, saying so +quietly that he was surprised:</p> + +<p>"Bojo, we mustn't deceive ourselves. This is the end, I know it. +Whatever is to come we must help immediately."</p> + +<p>"Yet I still feel, I can't help it, that something may have happened. He +may have been able to do something to-day."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could feel so," she said sadly.</p> + +<p>With her hand still in his she led the way into the great library, which +seemed a region of mystifying and gloomy things, lit only by the lights +of the desk lamps.</p> + +<p>"All we can do is to wait," she said.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen your mother?" he said at last.</p> + +<p>She shook her head. "It is useless. I have no influence over her. Doris +perhaps, or Doris' husband; she might do something for fear of what +others might think of her, but she wouldn't do it for me."</p> + +<p>"I can't understand it at all," he said, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"I can," she said quietly. "My mother doesn't love him. She has never +loved him. She married him just as Doris and Dolly married, for money, +for position."</p> + +<p>"But even then—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, even then," she took up with a laugh that had tears in it. +"Wouldn't you think that for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> sake of the family name and honor, out +of just simple ordinary gratitude for what had been given her, she would +part with the half, even a third of her fortune? But you do not know my +mother. When she has made up her mind nothing will ever change it."</p> + +<p>"Let us hope you are wrong."</p> + +<p>She laughed again and began walking up and down, her hands clenched, +trying to think of some way out.</p> + +<p>"Poor Dad, just when he needs all his courage to go on fighting! This, +too, has broken him up. That's the only sort of a blow he couldn't get +over."</p> + +<p>The butler came in at this moment, announcing dinner.</p> + +<p>"No, no; not for me," she said. "I couldn't; but you, perhaps?"</p> + +<p>"No, not until your father comes back."</p> + +<p>The butler went out. Bojo held out his hand to her, saying: "Come here; +sit down by me." Worn out by the strain of emotions, she obeyed quietly. +She came to take a seat on the sofa beside him, looked a moment into his +eyes, saw the depths of tenderness and sympathy there and with a tired, +fleeting smile laid her head gratefully on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>It was almost eleven o'clock before Drake came wearily in. They were +exhausted with the long tensity of their vigil, waiting for every sound +that would announce his arrival, but at his entrance they stood up, +vibrantly alert. One glance at Drake, at the hunted and harassed look +across his forehead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> told Bojo that the worst had happened. Patsie went +to her father bravely with a steady smile that never wavered and put her +arms around his neck.</p> + +<p>"Pretty bad, isn't it, Dad?" she said.</p> + +<p>He nodded, incapable for the moment of speech.</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry. Never mind, even if we have to begin at the bottom we +will win out again."</p> + +<p>Bojo had come up and taken his free hand, looking in his eyes anxiously +for the answer.</p> + +<p>"I guess the game is up," said Drake at last. "There is only one chance, +and though I swore I never would do it—" he stopped a moment, running +his hand over Patsie's golden curls, "I guess I'll have to swallow my +pride," he said.</p> + +<p>"You're going to her," said the daughter, shuddering.</p> + +<p>"Once more," he said, grimly.</p> + +<p>Leaving her he went to the little table by the desk and poured out a +stiff drink.</p> + +<p>"Whew, what a day! Two hours more and I might have pulled through; I +thought I had it all fixed up, but that Clearing House mess ended that! +You can't sell men eggs at five cents a piece when they know to-morrow +they can get the same at three cents."</p> + +<p>He tried to smile, but back of it all Bojo was alarmed to see the +disorder in the physical and moral man which had gained over him since +yesterday. Despite Drake's determination to assume a stoic attitude he +felt the biting bitterness and revolt that was gnawing at his soul.</p> + +<p>Patsie wanted him to sit down to rest a moment,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> to have something, if +only a morsel, brought in, but he refused absent-mindedly.</p> + +<p>"No, no, I must get it over with. I must know where I stand."</p> + +<p>Still he delayed his departure, evidently revolting against the rôle +which he had determined to play.</p> + +<p>"Your mother is home?" he said abruptly.</p> + +<p>"She is home—in her room," said Patsie.</p> + +<p>He took a final turn before at last making up his mind, then he gave a +short gesture of his hand towards them, saying:</p> + +<p>"Wait."</p> + +<p>The next moment he went out, not with the old accustomed swinging gait, +but with a lagging step as though already convinced of the futility of +his errand.</p> + +<p>"He is doing it for his daughters," thought Bojo; "only that would make +him so humble himself." He felt with a little compunction that he had +judged Drake rather harshly, for in these last interviews it had seemed +to him at times that there had been an absence of that gameness which in +his mind he would like to have associated with the romantic figure of +the manipulator. Now with the secrets of the household laid bare to him +he felt strongly the inner vulnerability of such men. Able outwardly to +defy the great turns of fortune and present a smiling front to +adversity, yet unable to resist the mortal blow which strikes at the +vital regions in their sentiments and their affections. Implacable as he +had been, neither giving nor asking quarter in his struggles with his +own kind, Bojo at length realized the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> tenderness and pride amounting +almost to a weakness with which he idolized his own. What he had seen +working in the soul of the man in this last half hour made him feel more +than simply the ruin of his worldly possessions. The moment was too +tense for words, the issue too tremendous. They sat side by side, his +hand over hers, staring ahead, waiting.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes, half an hour elapsed without a sound. He pictured to +himself to what arguments and entreaties the desperate father must +resort, trying through his inexperience to visualize the drama in one of +these domestic scenes which pass unguessed.</p> + +<p>Patsie heard him first. She sprang up with a sharp intaking of her +breath. He rose less precipitately, hearing at last the sound of +returning footsteps. The next moment Drake came into the room and stood +gazing at the two erect figures of the young man and the young girl. +Then he tried to smile and couldn't. Her instinct guessed on the instant +what had happened. She went to him swiftly and put her arms about his +shoulders as though to support him.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Dad," she said bravely. "Don't you care, money isn't +everything in this world. Whatever happens, you've got me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<h3>THE DELUGE</h3> + +<p>The next day the deluge broke.</p> + +<p>On leaving Patsie and her father he had gone down the Avenue in a vain +hope that his father might be in town, hoping to catch him at his hotel. +On his way to his amazement he perceived a long line of curious shapes +stretched along the sidewalk. As he came nearer he saw a file of men and +women, some standing, some seated, camped out for the night. Then he +noticed above all the great white columns of the Atlantic Trust and he +realized that these were the first frightened outposts of the army of +despair and panic which would come storming at the doors on the morrow. +By the morning a dozen banks scattered over the city were besieged by +frantic hordes of depositors, a dozen others hastily preparing against +the impending tide of evil rumor and disaster.</p> + +<p>With the opening of the Stock Exchange the havoc began, for with the +threatened collapse of gigantic banking systems orders came pouring in +from all over the country to sell at any price. In the wild hours that +ensued holdings were thrown on the market in such quantities that the +machinery of the Stock Exchange was momentarily paralyzed. Stocks were +selling at half a dozen figures simultaneously, until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> it became a human +impossibility for the frantic brokers to fulfil the demands that came +pouring in on them to sell at any price. Any rumor was believed and +shouted frantically: receivers were to be appointed for a dozen +institutions: the State Superintendent's investigation was showing +incredible defalcations and misuses of funds. Indictments were to be +returned against the most prominent men in the financial world, and at +the close of the day on top of the wildest fabrications of the +imagination came the supreme horror of fact. Majendie, the president of +the Atlantic Trust, was dead, slain by his own hand. But what happened +this day would be nothing to the morrow.</p> + +<p>At Patsie's frantic request Bojo went down in the late forenoon to see +Mr. Swift. He had to wait almost an hour in the outer offices, watching +breathless, frantic men, men of fifty and sixty as panic-stricken as +youngsters of twenty-five, breaking under the strain of their first +knowledge of overwhelming ruin, an indiscriminate convulsive mass +pouring in and out. Then a door opened and a secretary issued him in. +Mr. Swift received him with an agitated clutch of the hand, and valuing +the precious seconds, without waiting for his questions, burst out:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Crocker, it's absolutely humanly impossible for me to do what Miss +Drake requested. We disposed yesterday of over forty thousand dollars. +To sell now would be a financial slaughter to which I simply will not +give my permission. Moreover, it's all very well to talk of selling, but +who's going to buy?"</p> + +<p>"If you can't sell," said Bojo, gloomily, "Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> Drake would like to +know what you could raise on her holdings as security."</p> + +<p>"She wants to know?" said Mr. Swift, on edge with the anxiety of twenty +operations to be safe-guarded, "I'll tell you. Not a hundred thousand +dollars, nor ten thousand. There isn't an institution that would dare +weaken its cash supply to-day on any security offered. Mr. Crocker, say +for me that I absolutely and completely refuse to offer a single +security." A door opened and back of the secretary the faces of two new +visitors were already to be seen. Mr. Swift with scant ceremony seized +his hand and dismissed him. "It can't be done, that's all; it can't be +done."</p> + +<p>Bojo went out and telephoned the result. He even tried, though he knew +the futility of the attempt, to place a loan at two banks where he was +known, one his own and the other the depository for the Crocker Mills. +At the first he got no further than a subordinate, who threw up his +hands at the first mention of his plan. At the latter he gained a +moment's opportunity to state his demand to the vice-president, who had +known him from childhood. The refusal was as instantaneous. The banks +were coming to the aid of no one, frightened for their own security. He +even attempted to call up his father on long distance, but after long, +tedious waits he was unable to locate him. What he would have asked of +him he did not quite know, only that he was seeking frantically some +means, some way, to come to the assistance of the girl he loved, even +though in his heart he knew the futility of her attempt; perhaps even +despite his admiration for her unselfishness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> glad that the sacrifice +could not be made. He went up later in the afternoon to explain to her +all he had tried to do, to get her to go for a short ride up the river +in order to snatch a little rest and calm, but Patsie refused +obstinately. She was afraid that at any moment her father might return +and call for her, declaring that she must be ready to go to him. Perhaps +she had fears that she did not express even to him, but she remained as +she had remained all day, waiting feverishly. Drake did not come back +until long after midnight. Then there were conferences to be held in his +library far into the gray morning. Everything seemed topsy-turvy. The +night was like the daytime. At every hour an automobile came rustling +up, a hurried ring of the bell followed by a ghostly flitting passage +into the library of strange, hurrying figures. Drake was no longer the +dejected, resigned man, broken in pride and courage, of the night +before. He put them aside hastily with a swift, convulsive hug for his +daughter and a welcoming handshake for Bojo. He would say nothing and +they could guess nothing of all the desperate remedies that were being +discussed and acted upon in the shifting conference within the library. +It was after four o'clock when Bojo left, after persuading Patsie of the +uselessness of further vigil. He felt too tremulously awake for need of +sleep. He went down the Avenue and in the convalescing gray of the weak +and sickly dawn passed the growing lines of depositors still obstinately +clinging to their posts, feeling as though he were walking a world of +nightmares and alarms. About seven o'clock he came back to the Court for +a tub and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> cup of coffee. There he received news of Fred DeLancy, who +had been in frantically the night before begging for loans to back up +his disappearing margins. Neither Marsh nor Granning could come to his +assistance and he had left absolutely unnerved, vowing that he would be +wiped out if he could not raise only ten thousand dollars before the +morrow. Bojo shook his head. He had no desire to help him. The few +thousands he still retained seemed to him something miraculously solid +and precious in the whirling evaporation of fictitious values. There was +nothing he could do before the arrival of Doris and her husband, if +anything could be done then. He went down again to Wall Street merely as +a matter of curiosity and entered the spectators' gallery in the Stock +Exchange. The panic there had become a delirium. He stood leaning over +the railing gazing profoundly down into this frenzy which had once been +his life. Removed from its peril—judging it. What he saw was ugly to +look upon. A few figures stood out grim, game and defiant to the last, +meeting the crisis as sportsmen facing the last chance. But for the +rest, the element of the human seemed to have disappeared in the animal +madness of beasts trapped awaiting destruction. These shifting, +struggling, contending clumps of men, shrieking and hoarse, all strength +cast to the winds, fighting for the last disappearing rung of financial +security, gave him a last final distaste of the life he had renounced. +He went out and passed another howling group of savages on the curb, +feeling all at once the high note of tragedy that lies in the +manifestation of obliterating rage of a great people disposing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> finally +of all the shallow horde of petty parasites that are eliminated by the +cleansing force of a great panic.</p> + +<p>Doris arrived in the late afternoon and there was a family consultation, +at which he was not present. Whatever might have been done the week +before the issue had been decided. Drake's fate was in the hands of +Gunther, to whose house he had been summoned that night to learn the +terms which would be accorded him by the group of financial leaders who +had been hastily organized to save the country from the convulsion which +now threatened to overwhelm every industry and every institution.</p> + +<p>At midnight Drake returned a ruined man, stripped of every possession, a +bankrupt. Only Patsie and Bojo were there when he came in. A certain +calm seemed to have replaced the unnatural febrile activity of the last +forty-eight hours, the calm of accepted defeat, the end of hopes, the +certainty of failure.</p> + +<p>"It's over," he said with a nod of recognition. "They got me. I'm rather +hungry; let's have something to eat."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by it's over?" said Patsie, coming towards him. "You +lost?" He nodded. "How much?"</p> + +<p>"Stripped clean."</p> + +<p>"You mean that there's nothing left, not a cent?"</p> + +<p>For the first time the old hunted look came back to his eyes. "It's +worse than that," he said. "It's what's got to be made good. Your Daddy +is a bankrupt, Patsie, one million and a half to the bad."</p> + +<p>"You owe that?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty close to it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But what will you do? They can't put you to prison."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," he said grimly, "there's nothing to be ashamed of in it; that +is, so far." He stopped a moment and watching him closely they both +divined that he was thinking of his wife. "If worse comes to worse," he +added moodily, "I've got to find some way of paying that over, every +cent of it."</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Drake," said Bojo hastily, "surely there is no reason why you +should feel that way. Others have met misfortune—been forced into +bankruptcy. Every one will know that it could not be helped, that +conditions were against you, that you were forced into it."</p> + +<p>"And every one," he said quickly, speaking without reserve for the first +time, "will say that Dan Drake knew how to fail at the right time and in +the right way." He gave a wave of his hand as though to indicate the +great house of which he was thinking, and added bitterly: "What will +they think of this, when this goes on? They'll think just one +thing—that I worked a crooked, double-crossing game and salted away my +fortune behind a petticoat! By God, that's what hurts!" He brought down +his fist with an outburst of anger such as they had never seen in him +before and sprang up trembling and heavy. "No, by Heavens, if I fail she +can't go on with her millions." The rage that possessed him made him +seemingly oblivious to their presence. "Oh, what a fool, a blind, +contemptible fool I've been! If she is worth a cent she is worth four +millions to-day, and every cent I made for her, I gave to her. Talk +about business heads, there is not a one of us can touch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> her. Oh, she's +known all right what she has been doing all these years. She took no +chances. She knew when to work me and how to work me. Clever? Yes, she's +clever and as cold as they make 'em. Under all her pretense of being +weak and sickly, tears and hysterics, you can't beat her."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Daddy, Daddy," said Patsie, laying her hand on his arm to calm him, +"she can't, she won't refuse to come to your help now when it's a +question of honor, our honor and her honor. I know, I promise you, we +will pay over every cent of what you owe."</p> + +<p>"You think so? Try!"</p> + +<p>"Daddy," said Patsie quietly, "I have $500,000 you gave me. Bojo and I +tried our best to sell them and raise money for you. If you had only let +me know sooner perhaps we could have. Every cent of that will go to you. +Doris, too, I know, will give her third. We will only ask my mother for +what we are giving ourselves. That she will not refuse, she cannot, she +won't dare. Daddy, there is one thing you must not worry about. We won't +let any one say a single word against you. Every cent you owe shall be +paid. I'll promise you that."</p> + +<p>At the first mention of what she had done, Drake turned and stared at +her, deaf to what had followed. When she ended tears were in his eyes. +For a moment he could not control his voice.</p> + +<p>"You did that?" he said at last. "You would have done that?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Dad," she said, smiling, "I couldn't do anything else."</p> + +<p>He took her suddenly in his arms and the touch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> of kindness broke him +down where everything else had failed. Bojo turned hastily away, not to +intrude on the sanctity of the scene. When a long moment afterwards +Patsie called him back from the window where he had been standing Drake +seemed to have grown suddenly old and feeble.</p> + +<p>"I want you to wait here, Bojo dear," she said as determined as her +father seemed without will or energy. "I am going to settle this now. I +am going to see my mother. Don't worry."</p> + +<p>She went out after bending lightly for a last kiss and a touch of her +hand, over the weak shoulders.</p> + +<p>Left alone, there was a long silence. Finally Drake arose and began to +pace the floor, talking to himself, stopping from time to time with +sudden contractions of the arms, clutches of the fists, to take a long +breath and shake his head. When Bojo was least expecting it, he came to +him abruptly and said:</p> + +<p>"Tom, I tell you this, and you may believe I mean it—that it's going to +be. Not one cent will I take from that child. With all that I provided +for the others she's not going to be left a pauper. It's got to be my +wife who stands by me in this." In his excitement he seized the young +man by the wrist so that the fingers cut into his flesh. "It's got to be +her and only her, do you understand, or else—" He stopped with a wild +glance, with a disorder that left Bojo cold with apprehension, and +suddenly as though afraid to say too much Drake dropped the young man's +wrist roughly and went and sat down, covering his face with his hands.</p> + +<p>"I mean it," he said, and several times he repeated the phrase as though +to himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p> + +<p>They spoke no more. Bojo on the edge of his chair sat staring at the +older man, turning over what he had heard, not daring to think. At the +end of a long wait a maid knocked and came in.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Crocker, please. Miss Drake would like you to come to her mother's +room."</p> + +<p>Bojo, startled, sprang up hastily, saying: "All right, right away." He +turned, striving to find a word of encouragement, hesitated, and went +out.</p> + +<p>When he came into the little sitting room which gave on to Mrs. Drake's +private apartments he found the two confronting each other, Patsie erect +and scornful, with flashing, angry eyes, and her mother, in a hastily +donned wrapper and bedroom cap, clutching a sort of blue lace quilt, +sunk hysterically in the depths of a great armchair. At the first glance +he guessed the scene of cries and reproaches which had just ended. At +his entrance Mrs. Drake burst out furiously:</p> + +<p>"I won't have it; I won't be insulted like this. Mr. Crocker, I desire +you, I command you, to leave the room. It's enough that my daughter +should take advantage of me. I will not be shamed before strangers."</p> + +<p>"Lock the door," said Patsie quietly, "and keep the key."</p> + +<p>He did so and came back to her side.</p> + +<p>"Don't mind what she says," said Patsie scornfully. "She's not ill, +she's not hysterical, it's all put on: she knows just what she's doing."</p> + +<p>At this Mrs. Drake burst into exaggerated sobs and shrank down into the +chair, covering her face<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> with the quilt she clung to, without +perception of the grotesqueness of her act.</p> + +<p>"Now, you're going to listen to me," said Patsie, striving to remain +calm through her anger. "You don't fool me the least bit, so you might +just as well listen quietly. I know just how much money you have and +every cent of it has been given to you by my father. You are worth over +four million dollars, I know that."</p> + +<p>"It's not true, that's a lie," said Mrs. Drake with a scream.</p> + +<p>"It is true," continued Patsie calmly, "and you know it's true. This +house is yours and everything in it. Do you want me to tell you exactly +what stocks and bonds you have at the present moment? Shall I have my +father come in, too, and tell us in detail just what he has given you +all these years? Do you want that?" She waited a moment and added +scornfully: "No, I rather guess that is not what you want. I asked you +before to help raise a loan to save him from losing what he had. You +could have done it: you refused. Now I am asking you to give exactly +what I shall give and what Doris will give, $500,000, so there will be +nothing, not the slightest reproach against his good name, against the +name you bear and I bear. Will you do it or not?"</p> + +<p>"You don't know what you are talking about," cried the mother wildly. +"It's $500,000 now, it's $500,000 to-morrow and then it's everything. +You want me to ruin myself. You think just because he's gone on risking +everything, just because he never could be satisfied, that I should +suffer, too. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> want me to make a pauper of myself. Well, I won't. +What right had he to risk money that didn't belong to him? What right +have you to reproach me, abuse me?"</p> + +<p>Bojo attempted to burst in on the stream of meaninglessness and repeated +phrases. He, too, saw through the assumption of hysteria, shielding +behind a cloak of weakness a cold and covetous woman.</p> + +<p>"My dear Mrs. Drake," he said icily, "you are proud of your position in +society. Let me put this to you. Don't you realize that if your husband +fails for a million and a half and you continue living as you have lived +that it will be a public scandal? Don't you realize what people will +say?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't," she cried: "I don't admit any such ridiculous nonsense. I +know that I have a right to my life, to my existence. I know what is +mine is mine. If he has lost money, other people have lost money in the +same way who gamble just as he has. They should take their losses, too, +without coming to people who are not responsible, who don't believe in +such things. And then what good will it do? The money's mine. Why throw +good money after bad? I tell you that he has never had a thought about +the duties and responsibilities to his family; I have. I won't +impoverish myself, I won't impoverish my family, I won't, I won't, and I +won't be badgered and brow-beaten in this brutal way. You're a bad +daughter, you've always been a disobedient, wicked daughter. You've +always been this way to me from the first. Now you think you can force +me into this, but you shan't."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mother," started Patsie stonily, but she was interrupted by a fresh +torrent of words.</p> + +<p>"No, no, I can't, I won't, I'm ill, I have been ill for days. Do you +want to kill me? I suppose that's what you want. Go on. Put me down, +make me ill. Oh, my God, my God, I can't stand it, I can't stand it. I +can't. Ring for the doctor, the doctor or some one."</p> + +<p>"Come away," said Bojo, taking Patsie by the arm as Mrs. Drake went into +the paroxysm which she knew was perfectly assumed. "It's useless trying +to say anything more to her. To-morrow perhaps Doris and her husband may +have more effect."</p> + +<p>They went out without even looking back.</p> + +<p>Patsie was in such a rage of indignation, shaking from head to foot, +that he had to take her in his arms and quiet her.</p> + +<p>"What shall we say to Daddy?" she said at last in despair.</p> + +<p>"Lie," he said. "Tell him that it will be done."</p> + +<p>But when they came back into the library Drake was gone. He didn't +return all that night. Afterwards from what they learned he must have +spent the night hours in wandering about the city.</p> + +<p>The next morning Mrs. Drake locked her doors, sent word by a doctor that +she was too ill to see any one, that seeing them might have disastrous +effects. Despite which they forced an entrance and with Doris and her +husband present went over again the same shameful and degrading scene of +the night before. Nothing could shake Mrs. Drake, neither remonstrances +nor scorn nor tears. Drake returned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> haggard and wild-eyed towards noon +to learn the result, which they were unable to conceal from him. He went +out immediately. At five o'clock he was taken to a hospital, having been +run over by an autobus. Various stories as to how this happened were +circulated. The insurance company which carried his life insurance +attempted to prove suicide in vain. The testimony of witnesses all +seemed to point to an accident. He had started across the street, had +lost his hat and in stooping to pick it up slipped and fallen underneath +the wheels.</p> + +<p>Death resulted a few hours later.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<h3>THE AFTER-YEARS</h3> + +<p>When Daniel Drake's affairs were wound up it was found that with the +sums derived from his life insurance there remained a deficit of a +little over $400,000. In this crisis the old loyal and generous spirit +of Doris returned for perhaps the last time. She wished to take upon +herself the total indebtedness, but Patsie would not listen to this. She +would have preferred perhaps in her devotion to the name of her father +to have shouldered all the responsibility with a certain fierce pride. +In the end the sum was divided. The younger sister left the house of her +mother and went to stay for a short while at Doris's.</p> + +<p>It was given out officially that Mrs. Drake's health had been wrecked by +the family catastrophes. She left shortly for Paris, Rome and the +Italian Riviera, where her health speedily improved and she passed the +remainder of her life as an exile with a pronounced aversion to anything +American.</p> + +<p>The panic which swept over the country, leveling the poor and rich +alike, gradually subsided into a long period of depression. Fred DeLancy +lost every cent he had and became dependent upon his wife's career. He +dropped completely out of society. A few of his friends saw him at rare +moments, but whenever he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> could he avoided such encounters, for they +recalled to him the expectations of his earlier days. Fate, which had +played him several rude turns, had however a compensation in store. With +the arrival of the dance craze several years later Mr. and Mrs. Fred +DeLancy, who were of the first to seize its possibilities, became +suddenly the rage of society, and in the letting down of barriers that +followed the frantic rush from boredom among our most conservative sets +the DeLancys regained curiously enough a certain social position. +Adversity had taught him the value of making money. Guided by the hands +of one of those remarkable and adroit personages that instigate and +expand popularity, the press agent, Fernando Wiskin, a genius of +diplomacy, the DeLancy craze overran the country. They had their own +restaurant, with dancing studios attached, and an after midnight dancing +club. They appeared in the movies, made trips to Europe. They set a +dozen fashions, they inspired sculptors, illustrators and caricaturists, +and raised up a host of imitators, some better and some worse. Properly +coached, they received fees for instruction a surgeon might envy, but as +once a gambler always a gambler, what they made miraculously they spent +hugely, and despite all warnings it would surprise no one if with the +turning of the fickle public from one fad to another the DeLancys, after +spending $50,000 a year, would end just as poor as they began.</p> + +<p>Roscoe Marsh, hard hit by the panic, after steady reverses consequent +upon a rather visionary adventure into journalism, found himself +compelled to part with his newspaper to a syndicate organized by his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +own city editor, a man who had come up from the ranks, who had long +bided his opportunity, a self-made American of the type that looks +complacently upon the arrival in the arena of the sons of great fortunes +with a belief that an equalizing Providence has sent them into the world +to be properly sheared. Marsh, despite these reverses, still retained a +considerable fortune, constantly augmented by a large family of uncles, +aunts and cousins whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to die at +opportune moments. He became interested in many radical movements, +rather from the need of dramatic excitement than love of publicity or +any deep conviction. At the bottom, however, he believed himself the +most sincere man in the world, and for a long time continued to believe +that he had a mission to perform.</p> + +<p>George Granning became one of the solid men of the steel trade. Of the +four young men who had met that night on the Astor roof and prophesied +their futures he was the only one to fulfil his program to the minutest +detail. He married, rose to the managership of the Garnett foundries, +left them to become general manager of a subsidiary to the steel +corporation at a salary of which he had never dreamed. He became a close +student of industrial conditions and outside of his business career +found time to serve on many boards of arbitration and industrial +investigation. Though his intellectual growth had been slower than his +more gifted companions he had never relinquished a single fact acquired. +At thirty-five he was constantly broadening, constantly curious for new +interests. He went into politics and became more and more a power in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> +party councils, and though not aspiring to office himself was speedily +appointed to offices of social research and usefulness.</p> + +<p>The panic extended its paralyzing influence over the histories of +industries of the nation. A month after the events recorded in the last +chapter Bojo was still deliberating on his course of action when he +learnt by accident the serious crisis confronting the Crocker Mills. +With the knowledge that his father needed him he hesitated no longer, +and taking the train by impulse one morning arrived as his father was +sitting down to breakfast with the announcement that he had come to +stay.</p> + +<p>Before the year was over he had married Patsie, settled down in the +little mill town to face the arduous struggle for the survival of the +fabric which his father had so painfully erected. For three years he +worked without respite, more arduously than he believed it was possible +for any man to work. Due to this devotion the Crocker Mills weathered +the financial depression and emerged triumphantly with added strength as +a leader and model among factory communities of the world. Despite the +sacrifices and extraordinary demands made upon his knowledge and his +youth, he found these years the best in his life, with a realization +that his leadership had its significance in the welfare and growth of +thousands of employees. When, the battle won, he removed with his family +to New York and larger interests, there were times when he confided to +his wife that life seemed to be robbed of half its incentive. In +connection with Granning, to whom he had grown closer in bonds of +friendship, he devoted his time and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> money more and more to the problems +of Americanizing the great alien industrial populations of this country +with such enthusiasm that he in more than one quarter was suspected of +believing in the most radical socialistic ideas.</p> + +<h4>THE END</h4> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Making Money, by Owen Johnson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAKING MONEY *** + +***** This file should be named 33761-h.htm or 33761-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/7/6/33761/ + +Produced by Annie McGuire + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Making Money + +Author: Owen Johnson + +Illustrator: James Montgomery Flagg + +Release Date: September 19, 2010 [EBook #33761] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAKING MONEY *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Book Cover] + + + + +MAKING MONEY + + + + +[Illustration: "'Bojo, you must marry Doris,' she said brokenly"] + + + + +MAKING MONEY + + +BY +OWEN JOHNSON + +AUTHOR OF "THE SALAMANDER," "STOVER AT YALE," +"THE SIXTY-FIRST SECOND," ETC. + + +_WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY_ +_JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG_ + + +[Illustration] + + +NEW YORK +FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY +PUBLISHERS + + +_Copyright, 1915, by_ +FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I THE ARRIVAL 1 + II FOUR AMBITIONS, AND THREE WAYS TO MAKE MONEY 16 + III ON THE TAIL OF A TERRIER 31 + IV BOJO'S FATHER 46 + V DANIEL DRAKE, THE MULTI-MILLIONAIRE 58 + VI BOJO OBEYS HIS GENERAL MANAGER 67 + VII UNDER THE TICKER'S TYRANNY 75 + VIII THE RETURN OF PATSIE 88 + IX THE WEDDING BALL 100 + X DRAKE'S GAME 111 + XI BOJO BUTTS IN 122 + XII SNOW MAGIC 133 + XIII BOJO MAKES A DECISION 147 + XIV THE CRASH 154 + XV SUDDEN WEALTH 165 + XVI BOJO BEGINS TO SPEND HIS QUARTER-MILLION 173 + XVII PAYING THE PIPER--PLUS 184 + XVIII BOJO FACES THE TRUTH 195 + XIX A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK 207 + XX BOJO HUNTS A JOB 213 + XXI BOJO IN OVERALLS 222 + XXII DORIS MEETS A CRISIS 234 + XXIII THE LETTER TO PATSIE 247 + XXIV PATSIE APPEALS FOR HELP 259 + XXV DRAKE ADMITS HIS DANGER 270 + XXVI A FIGHT IN MILLIONS 277 + XXVII PATSIE'S SCHEME 288 + XXVIII ONE LAST CHANCE 302 + XXIX THE DELUGE 309 + XXX THE AFTER-YEARS 323 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "'Bojo, you must marry Doris,' she said brokenly" _Frontispiece_ + FACING + PAGE + "'Say, you're a judge of muscle, aren't you?'" 40 + "'Just you wait; you're going to be one of the big men some + day!'" 104 + "'Drina, dear child,' he said in a whisper" 144 + "The message was the end of hope" 158 + "'What does all the rest amount to?' she said breathlessly. 'I + want you'" 208 + "'He wants to see you now,' she said" 268 + "'Your promise. No one is to know what I do'" 292 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ARRIVAL + + +Toward the close of a pleasant September afternoon, in one of the years +when the big stick of President Roosevelt was cudgeling the shoulders of +malefactors of great wealth, the feverish home-bound masses which poured +into upper Fifth Avenue with the awakening of the electric night were +greeted by the strangest of all spectacles which can astound a +metropolitan crowd harassed by the din of sounds, the fret and fury of +the daily struggle which is the tyranny of New York. A very young man, +of clean-cut limbs and boyish countenance, absolutely unhurried amidst +the press, without a trace of preoccupation, worry, or painful mental +concentration, was swinging easily up the Avenue as though he were +striding among green fields, head up, shoulders squared like a +grenadier, without a care in the world, so visibly delighted at the +novelty of gay crowds, of towering buildings decked in electric +garlands, of theatric shop-windows, that more than one perceiving this +open enthusiasm smiled with a tolerant amusement. + +Now when a young man appears thus on Fifth Avenue, undriven, without +preoccupation, without a contraction of the brows and particularly +without that strained metropolitan gaze of trying to decide something +of importance, either he is on his way to the station with a coveted +vacation ahead or he has been in the city less than twenty-four hours. +In the present instance the latter hypothesis was true. + +Tom Beauchamp Crocker, familiarly known as Bojo, had sent his baggage +ahead, eager to enjoy the delights one enjoys at twenty-four, which the +long apprenticeship of school and college is ended and the city is +waiting with all the mystery of that uncharted dominion--The World. He +went his way with long, swinging steps, smiling from the pure delight of +being alive, amazed at everything: at the tangled stream of nations +flowing past him; at the prodigious number of entrancing eyes which +glanced at him from under provoking brims; at the sheer flights of +blazing windows, shutting out the feeble stars; at the vigor and +vitality on the sidewalks; at the flooded lights from sparkling shop +windows; at the rolling procession of incalculable wealth on the Avenue. + +Everywhere was the stir of returning crowds, the end of the summer's hot +isolation, the reopening of gilded theaters, the thronging of hotels, +and the displays of radiant shop fronts, preparing for the winter's +campaign. In the crush of the Avenue was the note of home-coming, in +taxicabs and coupes piled high with luggage and brown-faced children +hanging at the windows, acclaiming familiar landmarks with piping cries. +Tradesmen and all the world of little business, all the world that must +prepare to feed, clothe, and amuse the winter metropolis, were pouring +in. + +And in the midst of this feverish awaking of luxury and pleasure one +felt at every turn a new generation of young men storming every avenue +with high imaginations, eager to pierce the multitudes and emerge as +masters. Bojo himself had not woven his way three blocks before he felt +this imperative need of a stimulating dream, a career to emulate--a +master of industry or a master of men--and, sublimely confident, he +imagined that some day, not too distant, he would take his place in the +luxurious flight of automobiles, a personage, a future Morgan or a +future Roosevelt, to be instantly recognized, to hear his name on a +thousand lips, never doubting that life was only a greater game than the +games he had played, ruled by the same spirit of fair play with the +ultimate prize to the best man. + +In the crowd he perceived a familiar figure, a college mate of the class +above him, and he hailed him with enthusiasm as though the most amazing +and delightful thing in the world was to be out of college on Fifth +Avenue and to meet a friend. + +"Foster! Hallo there!" + +At this greeting the young man stopped, shot out his hand, and rattled +off in business manner: "Why, Bojo, how are you? How's it going? Making +lots of money?" + +"I've just arrived," said Crocker, somewhat taken back. + +"That so? You're looking fine. I'm in the devil of a rush--call me up at +the club some time. Good luck." + +He was gone with purposeful steps, lost in the quick, nervous crowd +before Crocker with a thwarted sense of comradeship could recover +himself. A little later another acquaintance responded to his greeting, +hesitated, and offered his hand. + +"Hello, Bojo, how are things? You look prosperous; making lots of money, +I suppose. Glad to have seen you--so long." + +For a second time he felt a sense of disappointment. Every one seemed in +a hurry, oppressed by the hundred details to be crowded into the too +short day. He became aware of this haste in the air and in the street. +In this speed-driven world even the great stone flights seemed to have +risen with the hour. Dazzling electric signs flashed in and out, +transferring themselves into bewildering combinations with the necessity +of startling this wonder-surfeited city into an instant's recognition. +Electricity was in the vibrant air, in the scurrying throngs, in the +nervous craving of the crowd for excitement after drudgery, to be out, +to be seen in brilliant restaurants, to go with the rushing throngs, +keyed to a higher tension, avid of lights and thrumming sounds. + +Insensibly he felt the stimulus about him, his own gait adjusted itself +to the rush of those who jostled past him. He began to watch for +openings, to dart ahead, to slip through this group and that, weaving +his way as though there was something precious ahead, an object to be +gained by the first arrival. All at once he perceived how unconsciously +he had surrendered to the subtle spirit of contention about him, and +pulled himself up, laughing. At this moment an arm was slipped through +his and he turned to find a classmate, Bob Crowley, at his side. + +"Whither so fast? + +"Just in. I'm bound for the diggings." + +"Fred DeLancy's been asking about you for a week. I saw Marsh and old +Granny yesterday. The Big Four still keeping together? + +"Yes, we're going to stick together. How are you?" + +"Oh, so-so." + +"Making money?" + +The salutation came like a trick to his lips before he noticed the +adoption. Crowley looked rather pleased. + +"Thanks, I've got a pretty good thing. If you've got any loose change I +can put you on to a cinch. Step into the club a moment. You'll see a lot +of the crowd." + +At the club, an immense hotel filled with businesslike young men rushing +in and rushing out, thronging the grill-room with hats and coats on, an +eye to the clock, Bojo was acclaimed with that rapturous campus +enthusiasm which greets a returned hero. The tribute pleased him, after +the journey through the indifferent multitude. It was something to +return as even a moderate-sized frog to the small puddle. He wandered +from group to group, ensconced at round tables for a snatched moment +before the call of the evening. The vitality of these groups, the +conflict of sounds in the low room, bewildered him. Speculation was in +the air. The bonanza age of American finance was reaching its climax. +Immense corporations were being formed overnight and stocks were +mounting by bounds. All the talk in corners was of this tip and that +while in the jumble staccato sentences struck his ear. + +"A sure thing, Joe-- I'll tell you where I got it." + +"They say Harris cleaned up two thousand last week." + +"The amalgamation's bound to go through." + +"I'm in the bond business now; let me talk to you." + +"Two more years in the law school, worse luck." + +"At the P. and S." + +"They say the Chicago crowd made fifteen millions on the rise--" + +"I ran across Bozer last week." + +"Hello, Bill, you old scout, they tell me you're making money so fast--" + +All the talk was of business and opportunity, among these graduates of a +year or two, eager and restless, all keen, all confident of arriving, +all watching with vulture-like sharpness for an opportunity for a +killing: a stock that was bound to shoot up or to tumble down. Every one +seemed to be making money or certain to do so soon, cocksure of his +opinion, prognosticating the trend of industry with sure mastery. Bojo +was rather dazed by this academic fervor for material success; it gave +him the feeling that the world was after all only a postgraduate course. +He had left a group, with a beginning of critical amusement, when a hand +spun him around and he heard a well-known voice cry: + +"Bojo--you old sinner--you come right home!" + +It was Roscoe Marsh, chum of chums, rather slight, negligently dressed +among these young men of rather precise elegance, but dominating them +all by the shock of an aggressive personality that stood out against +their factoried types. Just as the generality of men incline to the +fashions of conduct, philosophy, and politics of the day, there are +certain individualities constituted by nature to be instinctively of the +opposition. Marsh, finding himself in a complacent society, became a +terrific radical, perhaps more from the necessity of dramatic sensations +which was inherent in his brilliant nature than from a profound +conviction. His features were irregular, the nose powerful and aquiline, +the eyebrows arched with a suggestion of eloquence and imagination, the +eyes gray and domineering, the mouth wide and expressive of every +changing thought, while the outstanding ears on the thin, curved head +completed an accent of oddity and obstinacy which he himself had +characterized good-humoredly when he had described himself as looking +like a poetical calf. Roscoe Marsh, the father--editor, politician, and +capitalist, one of the figures of the last generation--had died, leaving +him a fortune. + +"What the deuce are you wasting time in this collection of +fashion-plates and messenger-boys for?" said Marsh when the greetings +were over. "Come out into the air where we can talk sense. When did you +come?" + +"An hour ago." + +"Fred and Granny have been here all summer. You're a pampered darling, +Bojo, to get a summer off. What was it--heart interest?" + +"Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies," said Bojo with a half +laugh and a whirl of his cane. "By George, Roscy, it's good to be here!" + +"We'll get you to work." + +"Who could help it? I say, is every one making money in this place? I've +heard nothing else since I landed." + +"On paper, yes, but you don't make money till you hear it chink, as lots +will find out," said Marsh with a laugh. "However, this place's a +regular mining-camp--every one's speculating. I say, what are you going +to do?" + +"Oh, I'm going into Wall Street too, I suppose. I spent a month with Dan +Drake." + +"--And daughter." + +"And daughters," said Bojo, smiling. "I think I'll have a good opening +there--after I learn the ropes, of course." + +"Drake, eh," said Marsh reflectively, naming one of the boldest +manipulators of the day. "Well, you ought to get plenty of excitement +out of that. No use my tempting you with a newspaper job, then. But how +about your Governor?" + +Bojo became quiet, whistling to himself. "I've got a bad half-hour +there," he said solemnly. "I've got to fight it out with the old man as +soon as he arrives. You know what he thinks of Wall Street." + +"I like your Governor." + +"So do I. The trouble is we're too much alike." + +"So you've made up your mind?" + +"I have; no mills and drudgery for me." + +"Well, if you've made up your mind, you've made it up," said Marsh a +little anxiously. + +In college the saying was that Marsh would sputter but Crocker would +stick, and this byword expressed the difference between them. One +attacked and the other entrenched. Crocker had an intense admiration for +Marsh, for whom he believed all things possible. As they walked side by +side, Bojo was the more agreeable to the eye; there was an instinctive +sense of pleasing about him. He liked most men, so genuinely interested +in their problems and point of view that few could resist his good +nature. Mentally and in the knowledge of the world he was much the +younger. There was a boyishness and an unsophistication about him that +was in the clear forehead and laughing brown eyes, in the spontaneous +quality of his smile, the spring in his feet, the general enthusiasm for +all that was new or difficult. But underneath this easy manner there was +a dangerous obstinacy ready to flare up at an instant's provocation, +which showed in the lower jaw slightly undershot, which gave the lips a +look of being pugnaciously compressed. He was implacable in a hatred or +a fight, blind to the faults of a friend, and stubborn in his opinions. + +"What sort of quarters have we got?" asked Bojo, who had left the detail +to his three friends. + +"The queerest spot in New York--the cave of Ali Baba. Wait till you see +it--you'd never believe it. Hidden as safe as a needle in a haystack. No +more than a stone's throw from here, and you'd never guess it." + +He stopped, for at this moment they entered Times Square under the +shadow of the incredible tower, dazzled by the sudden ambuscade of +lights which flamed about them. Marsh, who could never brook waiting, +without having altered his pace made a wide detour amid a jam of +automobiles, dodged two surface cars and a file of trucks, and arrived +at the opposite curb considerably after Crocker, who had waited for the +direct route. Neither perceived how characteristic of their divergent +temperaments this incident had been. But Marsh, whose spirit was +irreverence, exclaimed contemptuously: + +"The Great White Way. What a sham!" He extended his arm with an +extravagant gesture, as much as to say, "I could change all that," and +continued: "Look at it. There are not ten buildings on it that will last +five years. Take away the electric advertisements and you'll see it as +it is--a main street in a mining town. All the rest is shanty +civilization, that will come tumbling down like a pack of cards. Look at +it; a few hidden theaters with an entrance squeezed between a +cigar-store and a haberdashery, restaurants on one floor, and the rest +advertisements." + +"Still it gives you quite a feeling," said Bojo in dissent, caught in +the surging currents of automobiles and the mingled throngs of late +workers and early pleasure-seekers. "There's an exhilaration about it +all. It does wake you up." + +"Think of a city of five thousand millionaires that can build a hundred +business cathedrals a year, that has an opera house with the front of a +warehouse and calls a row of squatty booths luxury. Well, never mind; +here we are. Rub your eyes." + +They had left the roar and brilliancy of the curiously blended mass +behind, plunging down a squalid side street with tenements in the dark +distances, when Marsh came to a stop before two green pillars, above +which a swaying sign announced-- + + WESTOVER COURT + BACHELOR APARTMENTS + +Before Bojo could recover from his astonishment, he found himself +conducted through a long, irregular monastic hall flooded with mellow +lights and sudden arches, and as bewilderingly introduced, in a sort of +Arabian Nights adventure, into an oasis of quiet and green things. They +were in an inner court shut in from the outer world by the rise of a +towering wall at one end and at the other by the blazing glass back of a +great restaurant. In the heart of the noisiest, vilest, most brutal +struggle of the city lay this little bit of the Old World, decked in +green plots, with vine-covered fountain and a stone Cupid perched on +tip-toe, and above a group of dream trees filling the lucent yellow and +green enclosure with a miraculous foliage. Lights blazed in a score of +windows above them, while at four medieval entrances, of curved doorways +under sloping green aprons, the suffused glow of iron lanterns seemed +like distant signals lost in a fog. Everything about them was so remote +from the stress and fury out of which they had stepped, that Bojo +exclaimed in astonishment: + +"Impossible!" + +"Isn't it bully?" said Marsh enthusiastically. "Ali Baba Court I call +it. That's what a touch of imagination can do in New York. I say, look +over here. What do you think of this for a quiet pipe at night?" + +He drew him under the trees, where a table and comfortable chairs were +waiting. Above the low roofs high against the blue-black sky the giant +city came peeping down upon them from the regimented globes of fire on +the Astor roof. A milky flag drifted lazily across an aigrette of steam. +To the right, the top of the Times Tower, divorced from all the ugliness +at its feet, rose like an historic campanile played about by timid +stars. Over the roof-tops the hum of the city, never stilled, turned +like a great wheel, incessantly, with faint, detached sounds pleasantly +audible: a bell; a truck moving like a shrieking shell; the impertinent +honk of taxis; urchins on wheels; the shattering rush of distant iron +bodies tearing through the air; an extra cried on a shriller note; the +ever-recurring pipe of a police whistle compelling order in the +confusion; fog horns from the river, and underneath something more +elusive and confused, the churning of great human masses passing and +repassing. + +Marsh gave a peculiar whistle and instantly at a window on the second +floor a shadowy figure appeared, the sash went up with a bang, and a +cheery voice exclaimed: + +"Hello, below there! Is that Bojo with you? Come up and show your +handsome map!" + +"Coming, Freddie, coming," said Bojo with a laugh, and, plunging into a +swinging entrance, he found himself in a cozy den, almost thrown off his +feet by the greetings of a little fellow who dived at him with the +frenzy of a faithful dog. + +"Well, old fashion-plate, how are you?" Bojo said at last, flinging him +across the room. "Been into any more trouble?" + +"Nope. That is, not lately," said DeLancy, picking himself up. "Haven't +a chance, living with two policemen. What kept you all this time? Fallen +in love?" + +"None of your damned business. By George, this looks homelike," said +Bojo to turn the conversation. On the walls were a hundred mementoes of +school and college, while a couple of lounges and several great chairs +were indolently grouped about the fireplace, where a fire was laid. "I +say, Roscy, has the infant really been behaving?" + +"Well, we haven't bailed, him out yet," said Marsh meditatingly. + +Fred DeLancy had been in trouble all his life and out of it as easily. +Trouble, as he himself expressed it, woke up the moment he went out. He +had been suspended and threatened with expulsion for one scrape after +another more times than he could remember. But there was something that +instantly disarmed anger in the odd star-pointing nose, the twinkly +eyes, and the wide mouth set at a perpetual grin. One way or another he +wriggled through regions where angels fear to tread, assisted by much +painful effort on the part of his friends. + +"I'm getting frightfully serious," he said with mock contrition. "I'm +getting to be an old man; the cares of life and all that sort of stuff." + +He broke off and flung himself at the piano, where he started an +improvisation: + + "The cares of life, + This dreadful strife, + I'll take a wife-- + No, change the rhyme + I haven't time + For matrimony--O! + Leave that to handsome Bojo + Bojo's in love, + Blush like a dove-- + +"No, doves don't blush," he said, swinging around. "Do they or don't +they? Anyhow, a dove in love might-- To continue: + + "Bojo's in love, + Blush like a dove, + Won't tell her name, + I'll guess the same--" + +But at this moment, just as a pillow came hurtling through the air, the +doorway was ruled with a great body and George Granning came crowding +into the room, hand out, a smile on his honest, open face. + +"Hello, Tom, it's good to see you again." + +"The government can go on," said DeLancy joyfully. "We're here!" + +As the four sat grouped about the room they presented one of those +strange combinations of friendship which could only result from the +process of American education. Four more dissimilar individualities +could not have been molded together except by the curious selective +processes of an academic society system. The Big Four, as they had been +dubbed (there is always a Big Four in every school and college), had +come from Andover linked by the closest ties, and this intimacy had +never relaxed, despite all the incongruous opposition of their +beginnings. + +Marsh was a New Yorker, an aristocrat by inheritance and by force of +fortune; Crocker a Yankee, son of a keen, self-made father, who had +fought his way up to a position of mastery in the woolen mills of New +England; DeLancy from Detroit, of more modest means, son of a small +business man, to whom his education had meant a genuine sacrifice; while +George Granning, older by many years than the rest, was evidence of that +genius for evolution that stirs in the American mass. They knew but +little of his history beyond what he had chosen to confide in his +silent, reserved way. + +He had the torso of a stevedore, the neck and hands of the laborer, +while the boulder-like head, though devoid of the lighter graces of +imagination and wit, had certain immovable qualities of persistence and +determination in the strongly hewn jaw and firm, high-cheekbones. He +was tow-headed and blue-eyed, of unfailing good humor, like most men of +great strength. Only once had he been known to lose his temper, and that +was in a football match in his first year in the varsity. His opponent, +doubtless hoping to intimidate the freshman, struck him a blow across +the face under cover of the first scrimmage. Before the half was over +the battering he had received from the enraged Granning was so terrific +that he had to be transferred to the other side of the line. + +Granning had worked his way through Andover by menial service at the +beginning, gradually advancing by acquiring the agencies for commercial +fields and doing occasional tutoring. His summers had been given over to +work in foundries and in preparation for the business career he had +chosen long ago. He was deeply religious in a quiet, unostentatious way. +That there had been stormy days in the beginning, tragedies perhaps, the +friends divined; besides, there were lines in his face, stern lines of +pain and hardship, that had been softened but could never disappear. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FOUR AMBITIONS, AND THREE WAYS TO MAKE MONEY + + +They dined that night on the top of the Astor roof, where in the midst +of aerial gardens one forgot that another city waited toiling below. +Their table was placed by an embrasure from which they could scan the +dark reaches toward the west where the tenements of the city, broken by +the occasional uprising of a blatant sign, mathematically divided into +squares by rows of sentinel lights, rolled somberly toward the river. To +the south, vaguely defined by the converging watery darkness, the city +ran down to flaming towers in the glistening haze that seemed a luminous +vapor rising from dazzling avenues. + +Wherever the eye could see myriad lights were twinkling: brooding and +fraught with the dark mystery of lonely, distant river banks; red, green +and golden on the rivers, crossing busily on a purposeful way; intruding +and bewildering in the service of industry from steel skeletons against +the sky; magic and dreamlike on the fairy spread of miraculous bridges; +winking and dancing with the spirit of gaiety from the theaters below +and the roof gardens above; that in the summer, suddenly spread a new +and brilliant city of the night above the tired metropolis of the day. +Looking down on these myriad points of light one seemed to have suddenly +come upon the nesting of the stars; where planets and constellations +germinated and took flight toward the swarming firmament. + +The incomparable drama of the spectacle affected the four young men on +the threshold of life in a different way. Bojo, to whom the sensation +was new, felt a sort of prophetic stimulation as though in the +glittering sweep below lay the jewel which he was to carry off. +Granning, who had broken into the monastic routine of his life to make +an exception of this gathering of the clans, looked out in reverence, +stirred to deeper questionings of the spirit. Marsh, more dramatically +attuned, felt a sensation of weakness, as though suddenly confronted +with the gigantic scheme of the multitude; he felt the impotence of +single effort. While DeLancy, who dined thus every night, seeing no +further than the festooned gardens, the brilliant splashes of color, the +faces of women flushed in the yellow glow of candle-lights, hearing only +the pleasant thrumming sounds of a hidden orchestra, rattled on in his +privileged way. + +"Well, now that the Big Four is together again, let's divide up the +city." He sent a sweeping gesture toward the stenciled stretch of blocks +below and continued: "Boscy, what'll you have? Take your choice. I'll +have a couple of hotels, a yacht and a box at the opera. Next bidder, +please!" + +But Bojo without attention to this chatter said: + +"Remember the night before we went to college and we picked out what we +intended to make. Came pretty close to it too, didn't we?" + +Marsh looked up quickly, seized by a sudden dramatic suggestion. + +"Well, here we are again. I'll tell you what we'll do. Let's tell the +truth--no buncombe--just what each expects to get out of life." + +"But will we tell the truth?" said Bojo doubtfully. + +"I will." + +"Of course we all want to make a million first," said Fred DeLancy, +laughing. "Roscy's got his, so I suppose he wants ten. First place, is +it admitted each of us wants a million? Every properly brought up young +American ought to believe in that, oughtn't he?" + +"Freddie, behave yourself," said Bojo severely. "Be serious." + +"Serious," said DeLancy, with an offended air. "I'll be more serious +than any of you and I'll tell more of the truth and when I do you won't +believe me." + +"Go on, Roscy, start first." + +"Freddie's right in one respect. I intend to treble what I've got in ten +years or go bankrupt," said Marsh instantly. He flung the stub of his +cigar out into the night, watched it a moment in earthbound descent, and +then leaned forward over the table, elbows down, hands clasped, the +lights laying deep shadows about the hollowed eyes, the outstanding ears +accentuating the irregularity and oddity of the head. "I'm not sure but +that would be the best thing for me. If I had to start at the bottom I +believe I'd do something. I mean something big." + +A half-concealed smile passed about the group, accustomed to the +speaker's dramatic instincts. + +"Well, I've got to start at life in a different way. The trouble is, in +this American scheme I have no natural place unless I make one. Abroad I +could settle down to genteel loafing and find a lot of other congenial +loafers, who would gamble, hunt, fish, race, globe-trot, beat up Africa +in search of big sport, or drift around fashionable capitals for a bit +of amusement; either that or if I wanted to develop along the line of +brains there's a career in politics or a chance at diplomacy. Here we +are developing millionaires as fast as we can turn them out and never +thinking how we can employ them. What's the result? The daughters of +great fortunes marry foreign titles as fast as they get the chance in +order to get the opportunity to enjoy their wealth to the fullest, +because here there is no class so limited and circumscribed without +national significance as our so-called Four Hundred; the sons either +become dissipated loafers, professional amateurs of sport, or are +condemned to piling more dollars on dollars, which is an absurdity." + +"I grieve for the millionaire," interjected DeLancy flippantly. + +"And yet you want to triple what you've got," said Bojo with a smile. + +"I'm coming to that--wait. Now the idea of money grubbing is distasteful +to me. What I want is a great opportunity which only money can give. I +have, I suppose, if a conservative estimate could be made, pretty close +to two million dollars--which means around one hundred thousand a year. +Now if I want to settle down and marry, that's a lot; but if I want to +go in and compete with other men, the leaders, that's nothing at all. +Now the principal interest I've got ahead is the _Morning Post_; it's +not all mine, but the controlling share is. It's a good conservative +nursery rocking-horse. It can go rocking on for another twenty years, +satisfied with its little rut. Now do you understand why I want more +money? I want a million clear to throw into it. I don't want it to be a +profitable high-class publication--I want it to be _the_ paper in New +York." + +"But are you willing to go slow, to learn every rope first?" said +Granning with a shake of his head. + +"You know I am," said Marsh impatiently. "I've plugged at it harder than +any one on the paper this summer and last too." + +"Yes, you work hard--and play hard too," Granning admitted. + +Marsh accepted the admission with a pleased smile and continued +enthusiastically: + +"Exactly. Win or lose, play the limit! That's my motto, and there's +something glorious in it. I'm going to work hard, but I'm going to play +just as hard. I want to live life to its fullest; I want to get every +sensation out of it. And when I'm ready I'm going to make the paper a +force, I'm going to make myself feared. I want to round myself out. I +want to touch everything that I can, but above all I want to be on the +fighting line. After this period of financial buccaneering there's going +to come a great period--a radical period, the period of young men." + +"Roscy, you want to be noticed," said DeLancy. + +"I admit it. If you had what I have, wouldn't you? I repeat, I want the +sensation of living in the big way. Granning shakes his head-- I know +what he's thinking." + +"Roscy, you're a gambler," said Granning, but without saying all he +thought. + +"I am, but I'm going to gamble for power, which is different, and that's +the first step to-day; that's what they all have done." + +"You haven't told us what your ambition is," said Bojo. + +"I want to make of the _Morning Post_ not simply a great paper but a +great institution," said Marsh seriously. "I believe the newspaper can +be made the force that the church once was. Now the church was dominant +only as it entered into every side of the life of the community; when it +was not simply the religious and political force, but greater still, the +social force. I believe the newspaper will become great as it satisfies +every need of the human imagination. There are papers that print a +Sunday sermon. I would have a religious page every day, just as you +print a woman's page and a children's page. I'd run a legal bureau free +or at nominal charges, and conduct aggressive campaigns against petty +abuses. I'd organize the financial department so as to make it personal +to every subscriber, with an investment bureau which would offer only a +carefully selected list for conservative investors and would refuse to +deal in seven per cent. bonds and fifteen per cent. shares. I would have +a great auditorium where concerts and plays would be given at no higher +price than fifty cents." + +"Hold up! How could you get plays on such conditions?" said DeLancy, who +had been held breathless by this Utopian scheme. + +"Any manager in the city with a sense of publicity would jump at the +chance of giving an afternoon performance, expenses paid, under such +conditions, especially as the list would be guaranteed. Then, above all, +I'd give the public fiction, the best I could get and first hand. What +do you think gives _Le Petit Parisien_ and _Le Petit Journal_ a +circulation of about a million each and all over France? Serial novels. +Do you know the circulation of papers in New York? There are only three +over a hundred thousand and the greatest has hardly a quarter of a +million. However, I won't go on. You see my ideas make an +institution--the modern institution, replacing and absorbing all past +institutions." + +"And what else do you want?" said Bojo, laughing. + +"I want that by the time I'm thirty-five. I want ten millions and I want +to be at forty either senator or ambassador to Paris or London. I want +to build a yacht that will defend the American cup and to own a horse +that will win the derby. + +"And will you marry?" + +"The most beautiful woman in America." + +The four burst into laughter simultaneously, none more heartily than +Marsh, who added: + +"Remember, we're to tell the truth, and that's what I'd like to do." He +concluded: "Win or lose, play the limit. Never mind, Granny; when I'm +broke, you'll give me a job. Up to you. Confess." + +Granning began diffidently, for he was always slow at speech and the +fluency of Marsh's recital intimidated him. + +"I don't know that there's anything so interesting in my future," he +began, turning the menu nervously in his hands and fixing a spot on the +tablecloth where a wine stain broke the white monotony. "You see, I'm +different from you fellows. You're facing life in a different sort of +way. I'm not sure but what there's more danger in it than you think, but +the fact is you're all looking for the gamble. You want what you want, +Roscy, by the time you're thirty-five. Bojo and Fred want a million by +the time they're thirty. You're looking for the easy way--the quick way. +You may get it and then you may not. You've got friends, +opportunities--perhaps you will." + +"That's where you'll never learn, you old fossil," said Marsh. "If you'd +get out and meet people, why, some time you'd strike a man with a nice +fat contract in his pocket looking for just the reliable--" he stopped, +not wishing to add, "old plodder that you are." + +Granning shook his head emphatically. Among these boyish types he seemed +of another generation, a rather roughly hewn type of a district leader +of fixed purpose and irresistible momentum. + +"Not for me," he said decisively. "There's one thing I've got strong, +where I have the start over you and a good thing it is, too: I know my +limitations. I'm not starting where you are. My son will; I'm not. Hold +up; it's the truth, and the truth is what we're telling. You can gamble +with life--you've got something to fall back on. I'm the fellow who's +got to build. Yes, I'll be honest. I want to make a million, too, I +suppose, as Fred said, like every American does. After all, if you're +out to make money, it's a good thing to try for something high. There +isn't much chance for romance in what I'm doing. I've got to go up step +by step, but it means more to me to get a fifty-dollar raise than that +next million can mean to you, Roscy. That's because I look back, because +I remember." + +He stopped and the memories of the existence out of which he had dragged +himself, of which he never spoke, threw thoughtful shadows over the +broad forehead. All at once, taking a knife, he drew a long straight +line on the table, inclining upward like the slope of a hill, with a +cross at the bottom and one at the top, while the others looked on, +puzzled. + +"You see there's not much banging of drums or dancing in what I've got +ahead and not much to tell until I get there. You know how a mole +travels; well, that's me." He laid his finger on the cross at the bottom +and then shifted it to the cross at the top. "Here's where I go in and +here's where I come out. In between doesn't count." + +"And what besides that?" said Bojo. + +"Well," said Granning simply, "I don't know what else. I'd like to get +off for a couple of months and see Europe and what they're doing over in +France and Germany in the steel line." + +"But all that'll happen. What would you really like to get out of life?" +said Marsh, smiling--"you old unimaginative bear!" + +"I'd like to go into politics in the right sort of way; I think every +man ought. Perhaps I'll marry, have a home and all that sort of thing +some day. I think what I'd like best would be to get a chance to run a +factory along certain lines I've thought out--a cooperative arrangement +in a way. There's so much to be worked out along the lines of +organization and efficiency." He thought over the situation a moment and +then concluded with sudden diffidence as though surprised at the daring +of his self-confession. "That's about all there is to it, I guess." + +When he had ended thus clumsily, DeLancy took up immediately, but +without that spirit of good-humored raillery which was characteristic. +When he spoke in matter-of-fact, direct phrases, the three friends +looked at him in astonishment, realizing all at once an undivined intent +underneath all the lightness of that attitude by which they had judged +him. + +"One thing Granning said strikes at me--knowing your limitations," he +said with a certain defiance, as though aware that he was going to shock +them. "I suppose you fellows think of me as a merry little jester, an +amusing loafer, happy-go-lucky and all that sort of stuff. Well, you're +mistaken. I know my limitations, I know what I can do and what I can't. +I'm just as anxious to get ahead as any of you, and you can bet I don't +fool myself. I don't sit down and say, 'Freddie, you've got railroads in +your head--you're an organizer--you'd shine at the bar--you'd push John +Rockefeller off the map,' or any of that rot. No, sir! I know where I +stand. On a straight out-and-out proposition I wouldn't be worth twenty +dollars a week to any one. But just the same I'm going to have my +million and my automobile in five years. Dine with me five years from +this date and you'll see." + +"Well, Fred, what's the secret? How are you going to do it?" said Bojo, +a little suspicious of his seriousness. + +But DeLancy as though still aware of the necessity of further +explanations before his pronouncement continued: + +"I said I didn't fool myself and I don't. I haven't got ability like +Granning over here, who's entirely too modest and who'll end by being an +old money-bags--see if he doesn't. I haven't got a bunch of greenbacks +left me or behind me like Roscy or Bojo. My old dad's a brick; he's +scraped and pinched to put me through college on the basis of you +fellows. Now it's up to me. I haven't got what you fellows have got, but +I've got some very valuable qualities, very valuable when you keep in +mind what you can do with them. I have a very fine pair of dancing legs, +I play a good game of bridge and a better at poker, I can ride other +men's horses and drive their automobiles in first-rate style, I wear +better clothes than my host with all his wad, and you bet that impresses +him. I know how to gather in friends as fast as you can drum up +circulation, I can liven up any party and save any dinner from going on +the rocks, I can amuse a bunch of old bores until they get to liking +themselves; in a word, I know how to make myself indispensable in +society and the society that counts." + +"What the deuce is he driving at?" Marsh broke in with a puzzled +expression. + +"Why am I sitting down in a broker's office drawing fifty dollars a +week, just to smoke long black cigars? Because I know a rap what's +going on? No. Because I know people, because I'm a cute little social +runner who brings custom into the office; because my capital is friends +and I capitalize my friends." + +"Oh, come now, Fred, that's rather hard," said Bojo, feeling the note of +bitterness in this cynical self-estimate. + +"It's the truth. What do you think that old fraud of a Runker, my boss, +said to me last week when I dropped in an hour late? 'Young man, what do +you come to the office for--for afternoon tea?' And what did I answer? I +said 'Boss, you know what you've got me here for, and do you want me to +tell you what you ought to say? You ought to say, "Mr. DeLancy, you've +been working very hard in our interest these nights and though we can't +give you an expense account, you must be more careful of your health. I +don't want to see you burning the candle at both ends. Sleep late of +mornings."' And what did he say, the old humbug? He burst out laughing +and raised my salary. He knew I was wise." + +"Well, what's the point of all this?" said Granning after the laugh. +"Never heard you take so long coming to the point before." + +"The point is this: there're three ways of making money and only three: +to have it left you like Roscy, to earn it like Granning, and to marry +it--" + +"Like you!" + +"Like me!" + +The others looked at him with constraint, for at that period there was +still a prejudice against an American man who made a marriage of +calculation. Finally Granning said: + +"You won't do that, Freddie!" + +"Indeed I will," said DeLancy, but with a nervous acceleration. "My +career is society. Oh, I don't say I'm going to marry for money and +nothing else. It's much easier than that. Besides, there's the patriotic +motive, you know. I'm saving an American fortune for American uses, +American heiresses for American men. Sounds like American styles for +American women," he added, trying to take the edge off the declaration +with a laugh. "After all, there's a lot of buncombe about it. A +broken-down foreigner comes over here with a reputation like a Sing-Sing +favorite, and because he calls himself Duke he's going to marry the +daughter of Dan Drake to pay up his debts and the Lord knows for what +purposes in the future--and do you fellows turn your back on him and +raise your eyebrows as you did a moment ago? Not at all. You're tickled +to death to go up and cling to his ducal finger. Am I right, Roscy?" + +"Yes, but--" + +"But I'm an American and will make a damned sight better husband, and +American children will inherit the money instead of its being swallowed +up by a rotten aristocracy. There's the answer." + +"It's the way you say it, Fred," said Bojo uneasily. + +"Because I have the nerve to say it. This is all I'm worth and this is +the only way to get what we all want." + +"You'll never do it," said Granning with decision; "not in the way you +say it." + +"Granning, you're a babe in the woods. You don't know what life is," +said DeLancy, laughing boisterously. "After all, what are you going to +do? You're going to put away the finest days of your life to come out +with a pile when you're middle-aged and then what good will it do you? I +knew I'd shock you. Still there it is--that's flat!" He drew back, +lighting a cigar to cover his retreat and said: "Bojo next. I dare you +to be as frank." + +Bojo, thus interrogated, took refuge in an evasive answer. The +revelations he had listened to gave him a keen sense of change. On this +very evening when they had come together for the purpose of celebrating +old friendship, it seemed to him that the parting of their ways lay +clearly before him. + +"I don't know what I shall do," he said at last. "No, I'm not dodging; I +don't know. Much depends on certain circumstances." He could not say how +vividly their different announced paths represented to him the +difficulties of his choice. "I'd like to do something more than just +make money, and yet that seems the most natural thing, I suppose. Well, +I'd like a chance to have a year or two to think things over, see all +kinds of men and activities--but I don't know, by next week I may be at +the bottom--striking out for myself and glad of a chance." + +He stopped and they did not urge him to continue. After DeLancy's flat +exposition each had a feeling of the danger of disillusionment. Besides, +Fred and Roscoe were impatient to be off, Fred to a roof garden, Marsh +to the newspaper. Bojo declined DeLancy's invitation, alleged the +necessity of unpacking, in reality rather desirous of being alone or of +a quieter talk with Granning in the new home. + +"Here's to us, then," said Marsh, raising his glass. "Whatever happens +the old combination sticks together." + +Bojo raised his glass thoughtfully, feeling underneath that there was +something irrevocably changed. The city was outside sparkling and black, +but there was a new feeling in the night below, and the more he felt the +multiplicity of its multifold expressions the more it came to him that +what he would do he would do alone. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ON THE TAIL OF A TERRIER + + +When he returned with Granning into the court and upstairs to their +quarters a telegram greeted him from the floor as he opened the door. It +was from his father, brief and businesslike. + + Arrive to-morrow. Wish to see you at three at office. + Important. + + J. B. CROCKER. + +He stood by the fireplace tearing it slowly to pieces, feeling the +approach of reality in his existence, a little frightened at its +imminence. + +"Not bad news," said Granning, settling his great bulk on the couch and +reaching for a pipe from the rack. But at this instant a smiling +Japanese valet ushered in the trunks. + +"This is Sweeney," said Granning with an introductory wave. "He's one of +four. We gave up trying to remember their names, so Fred rechristened +them. The others are Patsy, O'Rourke, and Houlahan. Sweeney speaks +perfect English, if you ask him for a telephone book he'll rush out and +bring you a taxicab. Understand, eh, Sweeney?" + +"Velly well, yes, sir," said Sweeney, smiling a pleased smile. + +"How the deuce do you work it then?" said Bojo, prying open his trunk. + +"Oh, it's quite simple. Fred discovered the combination. All you have to +remember is that no matter what you ask for Sweeney always gets a taxi, +Patsy brings in the breakfast, Houlahan starts for the tailor, and +O'Rourke produces the scrubwoman. Just remember that and you'll have no +trouble. But for the Lord's sake don't get em mixed up." He broke off. +"What's the matter? You look serious." + +"I'm wondering how I'll feel this time to-morrow," said Bojo with his +arms full of shirts and neckties. "I've got a pleasant little interview +with the Governor ahead." He filled a drawer of the bureau and returned +into the sitting-room, and as Granning, with his usual discretion, +ventured no question he added, looking out at the court where three +blazing windows of the restaurant were flinging pools of light across +the dark green plots: "He'll want me to chuck all this,--shoot up to a +hole in the mud; bury myself in a mill town for four or five years. +Pleasant prospect." + +It did seem a bleak prospect, indeed, standing there in the commodious +bay window, seeing the flooded sky, hearing all the distant mingled +songs of the city. From the near-by wall the orchestra of the theater +sent the gay beats of a musical comedy march feebly out through open +windows, while from the adjoining wall of the Times Annex, beyond the +brilliant busy windows, the linotype machines were clicking out the news +of the world that came throbbing in. The theater, the press, that world +of imagination and hourly sensation, the half-opened restaurant with +glimpses of gay tables and the beginnings of the nightly cabaret, the +blazing court itself filled with ardent young men at the happy period +of the first great ventures, all were brought so close to his own eager +curiosity that he turned back rebelliously: + +"By heavens, I won't do it, whatever happens! I won't be starved out for +the sake of more dollars. Well, would you in my place--now?" + +He took a pair of shoes and flung them scudding across the floor into +the room and then stood looking down at the noncommittal figure of his +friend. + +"Granning, you don't approve of us, do you? Stop looking like a sphinx. +Answer or I'll dump the tray over you. You don't approve, do you? +Besides, I watched your face to-night when Fred was spouting all that +ridiculous stuff." + +"He meant it." + +"Do you think so?" He sat down thoughtfully. "I wonder." + +"What worried you?" said Granning directly, with a sharp look. + +"I was sort of upset," Bojo admitted. "You know when you got through and +Fred got through, I thought after all you were right--we are gamblers. +We want things quick and easily. It's the excitement, the living on a +high tension." + +"I always sort of figured out you'd want to do something different," +said Granning slowly. + +"So I would," he said moodily. "I wish I had Roscy's brains. I wonder +what I could do if I had to shift for myself." + +"So that's the idea, is it?" + +He nodded. + +"The old Dad's stubborn as blazes. Had an up-and-down row with Jack, my +older brother, and turned him out. Lord knows what's become of him. +Dad's got as much love for the Wall Street game as your pesky old self. +Thinks they're a lot of loafers and confidence men." + +"I didn't say it," said Granning with a short laugh. + +"No, but you think it." + +Granning rose as the clock struck ten and shouldered off to his bedroom +according to his invariable custom. When Bojo finally turned in it was +to sleep by fits and starts. The weight of the decision which he would +have to make on the morrow oppressed him. It was all very well to +announce that he would start at the bottom rather than yield, but the +world had opened up to him in a different light since the dinner of +confidences. He saw the two ways clearly--the long, slow plodding way of +Granning, and the other way, the world of opportunities through friends, +the world of quick results to those privileged to be behind the scenes. +If the end were the same, why take the way of toil and deprivation? +Besides, there were other reasons, sentimental reasons, that urged him +to the easier choice. If he could only make his father see things +rationally--but he had slight hope of making an impression upon that +direct and adamant will. + +"Well, if everything goes smash, I'll make Roscy give me a job on the +paper," he thought as he turned restlessly in his bed. + +The white gleam of a shifting electric sign, high above the roofs, +played over the opposite wall. At midnight he heard dimly two sounds +which were destined from now on to dispute the turning of the night +with their contending notes of work and pleasure--the sound of great +presses beginning to rumble under the morning edition and from the +restaurant an inconscient chorus welcoming the midnight with jingling +rhythm. + + You want to cry, + You want to die, + But all you do is laugh, Hi! Hi! + You've got the High Jinks! That's why! + +When he awoke the next morning it was to the sound of Roscoe Marsh in +the adjoining sitting-room telephoning for breakfast. The sun was +pouring over his coverlet and the clock stood reproachfully at nine o +clock. He slipped into a dressing-gown and found Marsh yawning over the +papers. Granning had departed at seven o'clock to the works on the +Jersey shore. DeLancy presently staggered out, tousled and sleepy, +resplendent in a blazing red satin dressing-gown, announcing: + +"Lord, but this brokerage business is exacting work." + +"Late party, eh?" said Bojo, laughing. + +"Where the devil is the coffee?" said DeLancy for all answer. + +Marsh, too, had been of the party after the night work had been +completed, though he showed scarcely a trace of the double strain. +Breakfast over, Bojo finished unpacking, killing time until noon +arrived, when, after a solicitous selection of shirts and neckties, he +went off by appointment to meet Miss Doris Drake. + +To-day the thoughts of that other interview with his father were too +present in his imagination to permit of the usual zest such a meeting +usually drew forth. The attachment, for despite the insinuations of +DeLancy and Marsh it was hardly more than that, had been of long +standing. There had been a period toward the end of boarding-school when +he had been tremendously in love and had corresponded with extraordinary +faithfulness and treasured numerous tokens of feminine reciprocation +with a sentimental devotion. The infatuation had cooled, but the +devotion had remained as a necessary romantic outlet. She had been his +guest as a matter of course at all the numerous gala occasions of +college life, at the football match, the New London race, and the Prom. +He was tremendously proud to have her on his arm, so proud that at times +he temporarily felt a return of that bitter-sweet frenzy when at school +he turned hot and cold with the expectancy of her letters. At the bottom +he was perhaps playing at love, a little afraid of her with that spirit +of cautious deliberation which, had he but known it, abides not with +romance. + +During the month on the ranch he had spent in their house-party, he had +a hundred times tried to convince himself that the old ardor was there, +and when somehow in his own honesty he failed, he would often wonder +what was the subtle reason that prevented it. She was everything that +the eye could imagine, brilliant, perhaps a little too much so for a +young lady of twenty, and sought after by a score of men to whom she +remained completely indifferent. He was flattered and yet he remained +uneasy, forced to admit to himself that there was something lacking in +her to stir his pulses as they had once been stirred. When DeLancy had +so frankly announced his intention of making a favorable marriage, +something had uneasily stirred his conscience. Was there after all some +such unconscious instinct in him at the bottom of this continued +intimacy? + +When he reached the metropolitan castle of the Drakes on upper Fifth +Avenue, he found the salons still covered up in summer trappings, long +yellow linens over the furniture, the paintings on the walls still +wrapped in cheesecloth. As he was twirling his cane aimlessly before the +fireplace, wondering how long it would please Miss Doris to keep him +waiting, there came a breathless scamper and rush, accompanied by +delighted giggles, and the next moment an Irish terrier, growling and +snarling in mock fury, slid over the polished floor, pursued by a young +girl who had a firm grip on the stubby tail. The chase ended in the +center of the room with a sudden tumble. The dog, liberated, stood +quivering with delight at a safe distance, head on one side, tongue out, +ready for the next move of his tormenter who was camped in the middle of +the floor. But at this moment she perceived Bojo. + +"Oh, hello," she said with a start of surprise but no confusion. "Who +are you?" + +"I'm Crocker, Tom Crocker," he said, laughing back at the flushed oval +face, with mischievous eyes dancing somewhere in the golden hair that +tumbled in shocks to her shoulder. + +She sprang up brightly, advancing with outstretched hand. + +"Oh, you're Bojo," she said in correction. "You don't know me. I'm +Patsie, the terror of the family. Now don't say you thought I was a +child, I'm seventeen--going on eighteen in January." + +He shook the hand that was thrust out to him in a direct boyish grip, +surprised and a little bewildered at the irresistible youth and spirits +of the young lady who stood so naturally before him in short skirt and +in simple shirtwaist open at the tanned neck. + +"Of course they've told you I'm a terror," she said defiantly. He +nodded, which seemed to please her, for she rattled on: "Well, I am. +They had to keep me away until Dolly hooked the Duke. Have you seen him? +Well, if that's a duke all I've got to say is I think he's a mutt. Of +course you're waiting for Doris, aren't you?" + +The assumption of his vassalage somehow stirred a little antagonism, but +before he could answer she was off again. + +"Well, a jolly long wait you'll have, too. Doris is splashing around +among the rouge and powder like Romp in a puddle." + +Her own cheeks needed no such encouragement, he thought, laughing back +at her through the pure infection of her high spirits. + +"I like you; you're all right," she said, surveying him with her head on +one side like Romp, the terrier, who came sniffing up to him in the +friendliest way. "You're not like a lot of these fashion plates that +come in on tiptoes. Say, that was a bully tackle you made in that +Harvard game." + +He was down on one knee rubbing the shaggy coat of the terrier. He +looked up. + +"Oh you saw that, did you?" + +"Yep! I guess there wasn't much left of that fellow! Dad said that was +the finest tackle he ever saw." + +"It shook me up all right," he said, grinning. + +"Well, if Dad likes you and Romp likes you, you must be some account," +she continued, camping on the rug and seizing triumphantly the stubby +tail. "Dad's strong for you!" + +Bojo settled on the edge of the sofa, watching the furious encounter +which took place for the possession of the strategic point. + +"I suppose you're going to marry Doris," she said in a moment of calm, +while Romp made good his escape. + +Bojo felt himself flushing under the direct child-like gaze. + +"I should be very flattered if Doris--" + +"Oh, don't talk that way," she said with a fling of her shoulders. +"That's like all the others. Tell me, are all New York men such hopeless +ninnies? Lord, I'm going to have a dreary time of it." She looked at him +critically. "One thing I like about you; you don't wear spats." + +"I suppose you're home for the wedding," he asked curiously, "or are you +through with the boarding-school?" + +"Didn't you hear about this?" she said with a touch to her shortened +hair. "They wanted me to come out and I said I wouldn't come out. And +when they said I should come out, I said to myself, I'll just fix them +so I can't come out, and I hacked off all my hair. That's why they sent +me off to Coventry for the summer. I'd have hacked it off again, but +Dad cut up so I let it grow, and now the plaguey old fashion has gotten +around to bobbed hair. What do you think of that?" + +"So you don't want to come out?" he answered. + +"What for? To be nice to a lot of old frumps you don't like, to dress up +and drink tea and lean up against a wall and have a crowd of mechanical +toys tell you that your eyes are like evening stars and all that rot. I +should say _not_." + +"Well, what would you like to do?" + +"I'd like to go riding and hunting with Dad, live in a great country +house, with lots of snow in winter and tobogganing--" She broke off with +a sudden suspicion. "Say, am I boring you?" + +"You are not," he said with emphasis. + +[Illustration: "'Say, you're a judge of muscle, aren't you?'"] + +"You don't like that society flub-dub either, do you?" she continued +confidentially. "Lord, these dolled up women make me tired. I'd like to +jounce them ten miles over the hills. Say, you're a judge of muscle, +aren't you?" + +"In a way." + +"What do you think of that?" She held out a cool firm forearm for his +inspection and he was in this intimate position when Doris came down the +great stairway, with her willowy, trailing elegance. She gave a quick +glance of her dark eyes at the unconventional group, with Romp in the +middle an interested spectator, and said: + +"Have I been keeping you hours? I hope this child's been amusing you." + +The child, being at this moment perfectly screened, retorted by a +roguish wink which almost upset Bojo's equanimity. The two sisters +were an absolute contrast. In her two seasons Doris had been converted +into a complete woman of the world; she had the grace that was the grace +of art, yet undeniably effective; stunning was the term applied to her. +Her features were delicate, thinly turned, and a quality of precious +fragility was about her whole person, even to the conscious moods of her +smile, her enthusiasm, her serious poising for an instant of the eyes, +which were deep and black and lustrous as the artfully pleasing masses +of her hair. But the charm that was gone was the charm that looked up at +him from the unconscious twilight eyes of the younger sister! + +"Patsie, you terrible tomboy--will you ever grow up!" she said +reprovingly. "Look at your dress and your hair. I never saw such a +little rowdy. Now run along like a dear. Mother's waiting." + +But Patsie maliciously declined to hurry. She insisted that she had +promised to show off Romp and, abetted by Bojo in this deception, she +kept her sister waiting while she put the dog through his tricks and--to +cap the climax went off with a bombshell. + +"My, you two don't look a bit glad to see each other--you look as +conventional as Dolly and the Duke." + +"Heavens," said Doris with a sigh, "I shall have my hands full this +winter. What they'll think of her in society the Lord knows." + +"I wouldn't worry about her," said Bojo pensively. "I don't think she's +going to have as much trouble as you fear." + +"Oh, you think so?" said Doris, glancing up. Then she laid her hand over +his with a little pressure. "I'm awfully glad to see you, Bojo." + +"I'm awfully glad to see you," he returned with accented enthusiasm. + +"Just as glad as ever?" + +"Of course." + +"We shall have to use the Mercedes; Dolly's off with the Reynier. You +don't mind?" she said, flitting past the military footman. "Where are we +lunching?" + +He named a fashionable restaurant. + +"Oh, dear, no; you never see any one you know there. Let's go to the +Ritz." And without waiting for his answer she added: "Duncan, the Ritz." + +At the restaurant all the personelle seemed to know her. The head waiter +himself showed her to a favorite corner, and advised with her +solicitously as to the selection of the menu, while Bojo, who had still +to eat ten thousand such luncheons, furtively compared his elegant +companion with the brilliant women who were grouped about him like rare +hot-house plants in a perfumed conservatory. The little shell hat she +wore suited her admirably, concealing her forehead and half of her eyes +with the same provoking mystery that the eastern veil lends to the women +of the Orient. Everything about her dress was soft and beguilingly +luxurious. All at once she turned from a fluttered welcome to a distant +group and, assuming a serious air, said: + +"Have you seen Dad yet? Oh, of course not--you haven't had time. You +must right away. He's taken a real fancy to you, and he's promised me +to see that you make a lot of money--" she looked up in his eyes and +then down at the table with a shy smile, adding emphatically--"soon!" + +"So you've made up your mind to that?" + +"Yes, indeed. I'm going to make you!" + +She nodded, laughing and favoring him with a long contemplation. + +"You dress awfully well," she said approvingly. "Clothes seem to hang on +you just right--" + +"But--" he said, laughing. + +"Well, there are one or two things I'd like you to do," she admitted, a +little confused. "I wish you'd wear a mustache, just a little one like +the Duke. You'd look stunning." + +He laughed in a way that disconcerted her, and an impulse came into his +mind to try her, for he began to resent the assumption of possession +which she had assumed. + +"How do you think that would go in a mill town with overalls and a lunch +can?" + +"What do you mean? + +"In a week I expect to be shipped to New England, to a little town, with +ten thousand inhabitants; nice, cheery place with two moving-picture +houses and rows on rows of factory homes for society." + +"For how long?" + +"For four or five years." + +"Bojo, how horrible! You're not serious!" + +"I may be. How would you like to keep house up there?" He caught at the +disconsolate look in her face and added: "Don't worry, I know better +than to ask that of you. Now listen, Doris, we've been good chums too +long to fool ourselves. You've changed and you're going to change a lot +more. Do you really like this sort of life?" + +"I adore it!" + +"Dressing up, parading yourself, tearing around from one function to +another." She nodded, her face suddenly clouded over. "Then why in the +world do you want me? There are fifty--a hundred men you'll find will +play this game better than I can." + +He had dropped his tone of sarcasm and was looking at her earnestly, but +the questions he put were put to his own conscience. + +"Why do you act this way just when you've come back?" she said, +frightened at his sudden ascendency. + +"Because I sometimes think that we both know that nothing is going to +happen," he said directly; "only it's hard to face the truth. Isn't that +it?" + +"No, that isn't it. I love to be admired, I love pretty things and +society and all that. Why shouldn't I? But I do care for you, Bojo; +you've always brought out--" she was going to say, "the best in me," but +changed her mind and instead added: "I am very proud of you-- I always +would be. Don't look at me like that. What have I done?" + +"Nothing," he said, drawing a breath. "You can't help being what you +are. Really, Doris, in the whole room you're the loveliest here. No one +has your style or a smile as bewitching as yours. There is a fascination +about you." + +She was only half reassured. + +"Well, then, don't talk so idiotically." + +"Idiotic is exactly the word," he said with a laugh, and the +compliments he had paid her in a spirit of self-raillery awakened a +little feeling of tenderness after his teasing had shown him that, +according to her lights, she cared more than he had thought. + +All the same when he rose to hurry downtown, he was under no illusions: +if opportunity permitted him to fit into the social scheme of things, +well and good; if not-- His thoughts recurred to Fred DeLancy's words: + +"There are three ways of making money: to have it left to you, to earn +it, and to marry it." + +He broke off angrily, troubled with doubts, and for the hundredth time +he found himself asking: + +"Now why the deuce can't I be mad in love with a girl who cares for me, +who's a beauty and has everything in the world! What is it?" + +For he had once been very much in love when he was a schoolboy and Doris +had been just a schoolgirl, with open eyes and impulsive direct ways, +like a certain young lady, with breathless, laughing lips who had come +sliding into his life on the comical tail of a scampering terrier. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BOJO'S FATHER + + +The offices of the Associated Woolen Mills were on the sixteenth floor +of a modern office building in the lower city, which towered above the +surrounding squalid brownstone houses given over to pedlers and +delicatessen shops like a gleaming stork ankle deep in a pool of murky +water. + +Bojo wandered through long mathematical rooms with mathematical young +men perched high on desk stools all with the same mathematical curve of +the back, past squadrons of clicking typewriters, clicking endlessly as +though each human unit had been surrendered into the cogs of a universal +machine. He passed one by one a row of glassed-in rooms with names of +minor officers displayed, marking them solemnly as though already he saw +the long slow future ahead: Mr. Pelton, treasurer; Mr. Spinny, general +secretary; Mr. Colton, second vice-president; Mr. Horton, +vice-president; Mr. Rhoemer, general manager, until he arrived at the +outer waiting-room with its faded red leather sofas and polished brass +spittoons, where he had come first as a boy in need of money. + +Richardson, an old young man, who walked as though he had never been in +a hurry and spoke in a whisper, showed him into the inner office of +Jotham B. Crocker, explaining that his father would return presently. +Everything was in order; chairs precisely placed, the window shades at +the same level, bookcases with filed memoranda, even to the desk, where +letters to be read and letters to be signed were arranged in neat +packages side by side. + +On the wall was extended an immense oil painting fifteen feet by ten, of +Niagara Falls in frothy eruption, with a large and brilliant rainbow +lost in the mist and several figures in the foreground representing the +noble Indians gazing with feelings of awe upon the spectacle of nature. +Behind the desk hung a large black and white engraving of Abraham +Lincoln, with one hand resting on the Proclamation of Emancipation, +flanked by smaller portraits of Henry Ward Beecher and the author of the +McKinley tariff. Opposite was an old-time family group done in crayons, +representing Mr. and Mrs. Crocker standing side by side, with Jack in +long trousers and Tom in short, while on the shining desk amid the +papers was a daguerrotype mounted in a worn leather frame, of the wife +who had been dead fifteen years. + +Bojo selected a cigar from the visitors box and strode up and down, +rehearsing in his mind the arguments he would bring to bear against the +expected ultimatum. From the window the lower bay expanded below him +with its steam insects crawling across the blue-gray surface, its +wharf-crowded shores, beyond the ledges on ledges of factories trailing +cotton streamers against the brittle sky. Everywhere the empire of +industry extended its stone barracks without loveliness or pomp, +smoke-grimed, implacable prisons, where multitudes herded under +artificial light that humanity might live in terms of millions. + +As he looked, he seemed already to have surrendered his individuality, +swallowed up in the army of labor, and the revolt arose in him anew. +What was the use of money if it could not bring a wider horizon and +greater opportunities? And a sort of dull anger moved in him against the +parental ambition which limited him to unnecessary drudgery. + +Of all the persons he had met the greatest stranger to him was his +father. Since his mother's death, when he was but eight years of age, +his life had been spent in boarding school and college, in summer camps +or on visits to chums. Their relations had been formal. At the beginning +and end of each summer he had come down the long avenue of desks, past +the glass doors into the private office, to report, to receive money, +and to be sped with a few appropriate words of advice. Several times +during the year his father would appear on a short warning, stay a few +hours, and hurry off. On such occasions Tom had always felt that he was +being surveyed and estimated as a lumberman watches the growth of a +young forest. + +His father was always in a hurry, always in good health, matter of fact, +and generous. That his business had prospered and extended he knew, +though to what extent his father's activities had multiplied he still +was ignorant. Conversation between them had always been difficult in +those tours of inspection; but Bojo, instinctively, censored the +lithographs on the wall (harmless though they were) and the choice of +novels which his father would be sure to examine with a critical eye. + +Klondike, the sweep, arranged the room in military order and Fred +DeLancy was enjoined to observe a bread-and-milk diet. Bojo had an idea +that his father was very stern, rigid, and exact, with the unrelenting +attitude toward folly and leisure which had characterized the Crocker +family in the days of their seven celebrated divines. + +"How are you, Tom?" said a chest-voice behind him. "Turn around. You +look in first-class shape. Glad to see you." + +"Glad to see you, father," he said hastily, taking the stubby, powerful +hand. + +"Just a moment--go on with your cigar. Let me straighten out this desk. +Train was ten minutes late." + +"Now it comes," thought Bojo to himself as he gripped his hands and +assumed a determined frown. + +As they faced each other they were astonishingly alike and unlike. They +had the same squaring of the brows, the same obstinate rise of the head +at the back, and the prominent undershot jaw. Years had thickened the +frame of the father and written characteristic lines about the mouth and +the eyes. He had become so integral a part of the machine he had created +that in the process all the finer youthful shades of expression had +faded away. + +Concentration on a fixed idea, indomitable purpose, decision, +self-discipline were there in the strongly sculptured chin and maxillary +muscles, under the sparse, close-cropped beard shot with gray; courage +and tenacity in the deep eyes, which, like Bojo's, had the disconcerting +fixity of the mastiff's; but the quality of dreams which so keenly +qualified the tempestuous obstinacy of the son had been discarded as so +much superfluous baggage. Life to him was a succession of immediate +necessities, a military progress, and his imagination went with +difficulty beyond the demands of the hour. He dressed in a +pepper-and-salt business suit made of his own product, wore a made-up +tie and comfortable square-toed shoes, with a certain aggressive disdain +for the fashions as a quality of pretentiousness. + +He ran through his correspondence in five minutes while Bojo pricked up +his ears at the sums which he flung off without hesitation. Richardson +faded from the room, the father shifted a package of memoranda, turned +the face of his desk clock so he could follow the time, drew back in his +chair, and helped himself to a cigar, shooting a glance at the embattled +figure of the son. + +"You look all primed up--ready to jump in the ring," he said with a +smile, and without waiting for Bojo's embarrassed answer he continued, +caging his fingers and adopting a quick, incisive tone. + +"Well, Tom, you have now arrived at man's estate and it is right that I +should discuss with you your future course in life. But before we come +to that I wish to say several things. You've finished your college +course very creditably. You have engaged a good deal in different +sports, it is true; but you have not allowed it to interfere with your +serious work, and I believe on the whole your experience in athletics +has been valuable. It has taught you qualities of self-restraint and +discipline, and it has given you a sound body. Your record in your +studies, while it has not been brilliant, has been creditable. You've +kept out of bad company, chosen the right friends-- I am particularly +impressed with Mr. Granning--and you've not gone in for dissipation. +You've done well and I have no complaint. You've worked hard and you've +played hard. You will take a serious view of life." + +This discourse annoyed Bojo. It seemed to fling a barrier of +conventionality between them, driving them further apart. + +"Why the deuce doesn't he talk in a natural way?" he thought moodily. +And he felt with a sudden depression the futility of arguing his case. +"We're in for a row. There's no way out." + +"Now, Tom, lets talk about the future." + +"Here it comes," said Bojo to himself, bracing himself to resist. + +"What would you like to do?" + +"What would _I_ like?" said Tom, completely off his guard. + +"Yes, what are your ideas?" + +The turn was so unexpected that he could not for the moment assemble his +thoughts. He rose, making a pretext of seeking an ash-tray, and +returned. + +"Why, to tell the truth, sir, I came here expecting that you would +demand that I go into this--into the mills." + +"I see, and you don't want to do what your father's done. You want +something else, something better." + +The tone in which this was said aroused the obstinacy in the young man, +but he repressed the first answer. + +"Well?" + +"I don't know, sir, that there's any use of my explaining myself; I +don't know what good it'll do," he said slowly. + +"On the contrary, I am not making demands on you. I am here to discuss +with you." (Bojo repressed a smile at this.) "You've thought about this. +What do you suggest?" + +"I don't think you'll understand it at all, but I want time." + +"Time to do what?" + +"To get out and see the world, to meet men who are doing things, to get +a chance to develop, to get my ideas straightened out a bit." + +"Is that all?" + +"No, that's not quite honest," said Bojo suddenly. "The truth is, sir, I +don't see why I should begin all over again, the drudgery and the +isolation and all. If you wanted me to do only that why did you send me +to college? I've made friends and it's only right I should have the +opportunity to lead as big a life as they. Money isn't everything, it's +what you get out of life, and besides I've got opportunities, unusual +opportunities to get ahead here." + +"Have you made up your mind, Tom?" said the father slowly. + +"I'm afraid I have, sir." + +"Let me talk to you. You may see it in a different light. First you +speak of opportunities--what opportunities?" + +"Mr. Drake has been kind enough--" + +"That means Wall Street." + +"Yes, sir." + +The father thought a moment. + +"What is the situation between you and Miss Drake?" + +"We are very good friends." + +"Would you marry her if you didn't have a cent?" + +"I would not." + +"I am glad to hear you say that. Very glad. So you re going into Wall +Street," he said, after a moment. "Are you going into the banking +business?" + +"Why, no." + +"Or into railroads or any creative industry?" + +"Not exactly." + +"You're going into Wall Street," said Crocker, "like a great many young +men, who've been having an easy, luxurious time at college and who want +to go on with it. You're going there as a gambler, hoping to get the +inside track through some influence and make a hundred thousand dollars +of other people's money in a lucky year." + +"That's rather a hard way to put it, sir." + +"You don't pretend to be able to earn a hundred thousand dollars in one +year or in five, do you, Tom?" + +"Let me put it in another way," said Bojo after a moment's indecision. +"What you have made and what you have been able to give me have put me +in the way of acquiring friends that others can't make, and friends are +assets. The higher up you go in society the easier it is to make money; +isn't it so? Opportunities are assets also. If I have the opportunity to +make a lot of money in a short time, what is the sense of turning my +back on the easiest way and taking up the hardest?" + +"Tom, do you young fellows ever stop to think that there is such a thing +as your own country, and that if you've got advantages you've also got +responsibilities?" said Crocker, senior, shaking his head. "You want +money like all the rest. What good do you want to do in return? What +usefulness do you accomplish in the scheme of things here? You talk of +opportunity--you don't know what a real opportunity and a privilege is. +Now let me say my say." + +Richardson came sliding into the room at this moment and he paused to +deny the card, with a curt order against further interruptions. When he +resumed it was on a quieter note, with a touch of sadness. + +"The trouble is, our points of view are too far apart for us to come +together at present. You want something that isn't going to satisfy you +and I know isn't going to satisfy you. But I can't make you see it, +there's the pity of it. You've got to get your hard knocks yourself. +You've got real ambition in you. Now let me tell you something about the +mills and you think it over. There's some bigger things in this world +than you think, and the biggest is to create something, something useful +to the community; to make a monument of it and to pass it down for your +son to carry on--family pride. You think there's only drudgery in it. +Did you ever think there were thousands and thousands of people +depending on how you run your business? Do you realize that every great +business to-day means the protection of those thousands; that you've got +to study out how to protect them at every point in order to make them +efficient; that there's nothing unimportant? You've got to watch over +their health and their happiness, see that they get amusement, +relaxation; that they're encouraged to buy homes and taught to save +money. You've got to see that they get education to keep them out of the +hands of ignorant agitators. You've got to make them self-respecting and +able intelligently to understand your own business, so that they'll +perceive they're getting their just share. Add to that the other side, +the competition, the watching of every new invention, the calculating to +the last cent, the study of local and foreign conditions of supply and +demand, the habits and tastes of different communities. Add also the +biggest thing that you've got, a mixed population, that's got to be +turned into intelligent, useful American citizens, and you've got as big +an opportunity and responsibility as you can place before any young +fellow I know. What do you say?" + +Bojo had nothing to say--not that he had surrendered, but that his own +arguments seemed petty besides these. + +The father rose and laid his hands on his son's shoulders. + +"Why, Tom, don't you know it's been the dream of my life to hand you +down this thing that I've built myself? Don't you know there's a +sentiment about it? Why, it isn't dollars and cents: I've got ten times +what I want; it's pride. I'm proud of every bit of it. There isn't a new +turn, mechanical or social, has come up over the world but what I've +adopted it there. I haven't had a strike in fifteen years. I've done +things there would open your eyes. You'd be proud. Well, what are you +thinking?" + +"You make it very hard, sir," he said slowly. He had not expected this +sort of appeal. "If I were older, I don't know--but it's hard now." He +could not tell him all the surrender would mean, and though his deeper +nature had been reached he still fought on. "I'm not starting where you +started, sir; that's the trouble. You went to work when you were twelve. +It would be easier if I had, and, if you'll forgive me, it's your fault +too that I want what I want now. I suppose I do want to begin on top, +but I've been on top all these years, that's all. I couldn't do it now; +perhaps later--I don't know. If I went up to the mills now I should eat +my heart out. I'm sorry to have to say this to you, but it's the truth." + +The father left him abruptly and seated himself at his desk without +speaking. + +"If I insisted you would refuse," he said slowly. + +"I'm afraid I'd have to, sir," said Bojo, with a feeling of dread. + +There was another silence, at the end of which Mr. Crocker drew out his +check-book and looked at it solemnly. + +"Good! Now he's figuring how much he'll give me and cut me off!" thought +the son. + +"Tom, I don't want to lose you too," said the father slowly. "I'm going +to try a different way with you. You're sound and you ring true. The +only trouble is you don't know; you've got to learn your lesson. So you +think if you had a start you'd clean up a fortune, don't you?--and you +believe--" he paused--"in Wall Street friends. Very well; I'm going to +give you an opportunity to get your eyes open." + +He dipped his pen in the ink and wrote a check with deliberation, while +Bojo, puzzled, thought to himself: "What the deuce is he up to now?" + +"I'm not going to make a bargain with you. I'm going to trust to +experience and to the Crocker in you. I know the stuff you're made of. +You'll never make an idler, you'll never stand that life, but you want +to try it. Very well. I'm going to give you a check. It's yours. Play +with it all you want. You'll get it taken away from you in two years at +the most. When that happens come back to me, do you understand, where +you belong! Blood's thicker than water, my boy; there's something in +father and son sticking together, doing something that counts! Here, +take this." + +And he placed in his hand a check which read: + + Pay to the order of Thomas Beauchamp Crocker + Fifty thousand dollars + JOTHAM B. CROCKER. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +DANIEL DRAKE, THE MULTI-MILLIONAIRE + + +A week after his interview with his father, Tom Crocker entered the +great shadowy library of the Drakes in response to an invitation from +the father. At this time, when Wall Street was approaching that dramatic +phase which is inevitable in social transformations, when dominant and +outstanding individualities succumb to the obliterating rise of +bureaucracies, there was no more picturesque personality than Daniel +Drake. He had come to New York several years before, awaited as a +vaulting spirit who played the game recklessly and who would never cease +to aspire until he had forced his way to the top or been utterly broken +in the attempt. + +His career had bordered on the fantastic. As a boy the _Wanderlust_ had +driven him over the face of the globe. A shrewd capacity for making +money of anything to which he put his hand had carried him through +strange professions. He had been a pedler on the Mississippi, cook on a +tramp steamer to Australia, boxed in minor professional encounters, +exhibited as a trick bicycle rider, served as a soldier of fortune up +and down Central America, and returned to his native country to +establish a small fortune in the field of the country fairs. + +With the acquisition of capital, he became conservative and +industrious. Reconciled with his family, he had secured the necessary +funds to attempt an operation in the wheat market which, conducted on a +reasonable scale, netted him a handsome profit and enlarged his +activities. His genius for manipulation and trading, which was soon +recognized, brought him into the services of big industries. He made +money rapidly, and married impulsively against the advice of his friends +a woman of social prominence who cared absolutely nothing about him--a +fact which he was the last to perceive. + +He next undertook a daring operation, the buying up of the control of a +great industry in competition with an eastern group. A friend whom he +trusted betrayed the pool he had formed, and the loyalty of his +associates, which made him continue, completely bankrupted him. Before +the public had even an inkling of the extent of his catastrophe he had +mended his fortunes by the brilliant stroke, secured control of one of +the subsidiary companies destined for the steel trust, and realized a +couple of millions as his share. When he referred to this moment, which +he often did, he used to say frankly: + +"We went into the meeting bankrupt and came out seven millionaires." + +He became the leader of a group of young financiers who acquired and +developed with amazing success a chain of impoverished railroads. He +played the game, scrupulous to his word, merciless in a fight, generous +to a conquered enemy, for the love of the game itself. A big man with a +curious atmosphere of amused calm in the midst of the flurry and turmoil +he aroused, he enjoyed the turns and twists of fate with the zest of a +boy gray-eyed, imperturbable, and magnetic, winning even those who saw +in him an ethical and economical danger. + +Such was the man who was bending over a great oaken table engrossed in +the piecing together of an intricate picture puzzle, as Bojo came +through the heavy tapestry portieres. Patsie, perched on a corner, was +looking on with approving interest at the happy solving of a perplexing +group. She sprang down, flung her arms about her father in an impulsive +farewell, and came prancing over to Bojo with a laughing warning: + +"Whatever you do, _never_ find a piece for him. It makes him madder than +a wet hen. He wants to do it all himself. Now I'm running off. Don't +worry! Go on, talk your old business." + +She went off like the flash of a golden bird while Bojo, slightly +intimidated, was wishing she might remain. + +"Tom--glad to see you--come in--just a moment--help yourself to a cigar. +Confound that piece, I knew it fitted in there!" Drake left the board +with a lingering regret, shook hands with a grip that seemed to envelop +the young man, and went to the mantel for a match, where a large +equestrian statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni rose threateningly from the +shadows. + +"Glad to see you, my boy--my orders are in from the General Manager, and +when the General Manager gives orders I know it means hustle!" By this +title he designated Doris, whose practical ambitions and perseverance he +satirized with an indulgent smile. "Far as I can make out, Doris has +determined to make you a millionaire in a couple of years or so, so I +suppose the best thing is to sit down and discuss it." + +As he stood there gaunt and alert against the bronze background, there +was something about him too of the old condottieri, a certain blunt and +hardened quality of the grizzled head, as though he too had just hung +back a steel helmet and emerged tense and victorious from a bruising +scramble. + +"Supposing he's figuring out that I'll cost him less than the Duke," +thought Tom, conscious of a certain proprietary estimation below all the +surface urbanity, and, squaring to the charge, he said: "I'm afraid, +sir, you've a pretty poor opinion of me." + +"What do you mean?" said Drake, with sudden interest. + +"May I talk to you plainly, sir?" said Tom, a little flustered. "I don't +know just how I feel about Doris or even just how she feels about me. I +certainly have no intention of marrying her until I know what I am worth +myself, and I certainly don't intend to come to you, her father, to make +money for me." + +He stopped with a little fear for his boldness, for this had not been +his intention on entering the room. In fact, he had come rather in a +state of indecision, after long discussions with Doris, and much serving +up of sophistries to his conscience; but Drake's greeting had struck at +his young independence, as perhaps it had been meant to do, and an +impulsive wave of indignation overruled his calculations. He stood a +little apprehensive, watching the older man, wondering how he would +receive the defiance. + +"That's talking," said Drake, with an approving smile. "Go on." + +"Mr. Drake, I can't help feeling that we're going to look at things more +and more from a different point of view. Doris cares for me--I suppose +so--if she can have me without sacrificing anything. I don't express it +very well, but I do feel at times that she's more interested in what she +can make out of me than in me, and I don't know if I'll work out the way +she wants; in fact, I'm not at all sure," he blurted out pugnaciously. +"But I want to work out that way, and if I don't there'll come a smashup +pretty soon." + +"There's something in what you say," said Drake, nodding, "and I like +your coming straight out with it. Now look here, my boy, I'm not going +to take hold of you because I expect you to marry Doris, but because I +_want_ you to marry her! Get that down. I can control lots of things, +but I can't control the women. They beat me every time. I'm pulp. I've +given in once, though Lord knows I hope my little girl won't regret it. +I've got one decayed foreign title dangling to the totem-pole, and +that's enough; that's got to satisfy the missus. I don't want another +and I don't want any high-stepping Fifth Avenue dude. I want a man, one +of my own kind who can talk my language." + +He arose, took a turn, and clapped him on the shoulder. "I want you. I +settled that in my own mind long ago. Now I'm going to talk as plain to +you. As you get on you'll look at people differently than you do. You'll +see how much is due to accident, the parting of the ways, going to the +left instead of to the right. Now I know Doris. I've watched her. She's +got two sides to her; you appeal to the best. I know it. She knows it. +She wouldn't marry you if you were a beggar--women are that way--but +she'll stick to you loyal, as a regular, if she marries you; and you're +not going to be a beggar." + +"Yes, if I consent to close my eyes and let you build--" + +"Now don't get huffy. I'm not going to tuck you under my wing," said +Drake, grinning. "Furthermore, I wouldn't want you in the family if I +didn't know you had stuff in you. Don't you think I want some one I can +trust in this cut-throat game? Don't worry, if you're the right sort I +can use you. Now quit thinking too much--let things work out. Doris is +the kind that belongs at the top; she's bound to be a leader, and we're +going to put her there, you and I. Now what do you want to do?" + +"I want to stand on my own feet," said Tom, with a last resistance. "I +want to see what I'm worth by myself." + +"Wall Street, of course," said Drake, grinning again. "Well, why not? +You'll learn quicker the things you've got to learn, even if it costs +you more." + +He flung down in a great armchair, and stared out at the raw recruit as +though for an instant rolling back the years to his own beginnings. + +"Tom, if you're going in," he said all at once, "go in with your eyes +open and make up your mind soon what you want; but when you've made up +your mind don't fool yourself. If you want to plod along safe and sane, +you can do it just as well in Wall Street as anywhere else. But I reckon +that's not what you're after." He chuckled at Bojo's confused +acknowledgment of the patness of his surmise and continued: + +"Well, then, recognize that what you're going into is war, nothing more +nor less. You see, we're a curious people; we haven't had the chance to +develop as others. And there's something instinctive about war; in a +growing nation it lets off a lot of wild energy. Now there's a group of +the big fellows here that ought to have had a chance at being field +marshals or admirals, and because they haven't the chance they've +developed a special little battlefield of their own to fight each other. +And, say, the big fellows don't fool themselves--they know what they're +doing! They're under no illusions. But there're a lot of big little men +down there who go around hugging delusions to their hearts, who'll sack +a railroad or lay siege to a corporation with the idea they're ordained +to grab the other fellow's property. Now I don't fool myself: that's my +strong point. I'm grabbing as fast as the other fellow, but I know the +time's coming when they won't let us grab any more. I do it because I +want to, because I love it and because we're founding aristocracies here +as the Old World did a couple of centuries ago. Well, to come back to +you. I'll see you start in a good firm--" + +"I'd rather do it myself." + +"As you wish. Got any money?" + +"Fifty thousand dollars," said Tom, who then related his father's +prediction. + +"Ordinarily he's a good guesser," said Drake, laughing. "But we may put +one over on him. There's a scheme I've been brewing over for a big +combine in the woolen industry that may give him a pleasant surprise. +Well, then, start in on your own feet, my boy. Learn all you can of men. +Study them--browse around in figures, if you want, but everlastingly +keep your eyes on men! It's the man and not the proposition that's +gilt-edged or empty. You've got to learn how the other fellow thinks, +what he'll do in a given situation, if you're going to think ahead of +him, and that's the quality that counts. That's where I've got them +guessing, every minute of the day; there isn't one of them can figure +out now if I'm twenty millions to the good or ten behind." + +"Why, Tom, there was a time when I was stone broke--by golly, even my +creditors were broke, which is an awful thing; and everything depended +on my getting the right backing on the proposition that saved me. Do you +think any one of those sleuth-hounds were on? Not on your life. I was +living at the biggest hotel, in the biggest suite, spilling money all +over the city--on tick, of course. And, say, in the critical week, when +I was dodging my own tailor, I sent the missus (she didn't know +anything, either) up to Fifth Avenue to buy a $100,000 necklace. That +settled it. The other fellows, the fellows whose brains wind up like +clocks, couldn't figure it out. I got my backing." + +"But supposing you hadn't," said Bojo involuntarily. He had been +listening to this recital open-eyed like a child at a circus. "What +would have happened?" + +Drake laughed contentedly. "There you are. That's all the other fellow +could figure on. Now don't imagine you can do what I did--you can't. I +suppose there's no use telling you not to speculate, because you're +going to, no matter what you think now. You will; because the young +fellow who goes into Wall Street and doesn't think he's a genius in the +first three months hasn't been born yet! But the first time it comes +over you, throw only a third of your capital out of the window. Do you +get me?" + +"I won't do that," said Bojo resolutely. + +"Go on. Do. You ought. It's cheap at that! I paid seven hundred thousand +for the same information," said Drake, giving him his hand. He caught +his shoulder in his powerful grip and added: "If you get in too much +trouble, come to me! Remember that and good luck!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BOJO OBEYS HIS GENERAL MANAGER + + +Three months after his entry into Wall Street, Bojo emerged from his +bedroom into the communal sitting-room in a state of tense excitement. +The day before he had taken his first plunge into the world of +speculation and bought a thousand shares of Indiana Smelter on a twenty +per cent. margin. This transaction, which represented to his mind the +inevitable challenge at the gates of fortune, had left him in a turmoil +through all the restless night. He had taken the decision which was to +decide his future only after a long wrestling with his conscience. + +At first he had imposed a limit, promising himself that he would not +touch a penny of his $50,000 capital until he should know of his own +knowledge. Gradually this time limit had contracted. Speculation was in +the air, triumphant and insidious. The whole market was sweeping up +irresistibly. The times were dramatic. Golden opportunity seemed within +every one's grasp. Expansion, development, amalgamation were on every +tongue. Roscoe Marsh had made a hundred thousand on paper. Even Fred +DeLancy had won several turns which had netted him handsome profits. + +Bojo had resisted stubbornly at first, turning heedless ears to the +excited arguments of his friends, but the fever of speculation had +entered his veins, he dreamed of nothing else, and gradually the thought +of his $50,000, so modestly invested in four per cent. bonds obsessed +him. What was worse was that each time he had refused to follow a tip of +Marsh or DeLancy or a dozen new-found friends, he secretly noted down +the speculation; and the thought of these dollars he had refused, which +could have been his for the asking, rose up before him in a constant +reproach. In the end it was Doris who decided him. + +That indefatigable schemer, whom even he now called the General Manager, +had a dozen times summoned him for an excited consultation on some rumor +which she had caught in passage. At first he had laughed her down, then +he had stubbornly refused such an alliance. But Doris, undaunted, +returned to the charge, amazing him at times with the pertinency of her +information, which she picked up from the wives and daughters, from +those who came as suitors, or as mere friends of the family, while just +as industriously and cleverly she commandeered her acquaintance and sent +Bojo a string of customers which had remarkably affected his progress in +the brokerage offices of Hauk, Flaspoller and Forshay. + +Finally he had yielded, because for weeks he had been longing to yield +as a spectator tires of watching inactive the spectacle of the shifting +golden combinations on the green cloth of the gambling table. She had +information of the most explicit sort. A great combination of Middle +Western Smelters had been held up for several weeks by the refusal of +two great companies to enter at the price offered--Indiana Smelter and +Rockland Foundry. She knew positively that the matter would be adjusted +in the next fortnight. + +"Did your father say so?" he asked, really impressed, for Drake was +reported as directly interested. + +"Not in the first place." + +"But where did you get your information?" + +"Oh, I have my ways," she said, delighted, "and I keep my secrets too. +Just remember if you'd taken my advice what you'd have made." + +"It is astounding how right you've been," he said doubtfully. + +"Listen, Bojo, this is absolutely correct. I know it. I can't tell you +now--I promised--but if I could you wouldn't have the slightest doubt. +Can't you trust me just this once? Don't you know that I'm working for +you? Oh, it's such an opportunity for us both. Listen, if you won't do +it, buy five hundred shares for me with my own money. Oh, how can I +convince you!" + +He looked away thoughtfully; tempted, convinced, suspecting the source +of her information, but wishing to remain ignorant. + +"You are determined to buy?" She nodded energetically. "What does your +father say?" + +She seized his idea, saving him the embarrassment of a direct +suggestion. + +"If Dad says yes, will that convince you? Wait." She thought a moment, +pacing up and down, humming brightly to herself. Suddenly she turned, +her eyes sparkling with the delight of her own machinations. "I'll tell +you how I'll do it. Next week's my birthday. I'll ask him to give me +the tip as a birthday present." She clapped her hands gleefully, adding: +"I'll tell him it's for my trousseau. If he says all right you won't +refuse." + +"No, I won't." + +She flung herself joyfully into his arms at this victory won, at this +prospect opened. + +"Bojo, I do love you and I do want to do so much for you!" she cried, +tightening her arms about his neck, with more genuine demonstration than +she had shown in months. + +"After all, I'd be a fool to refuse," he thought, excited too, and aloud +he said, "Yes, Miss General Manager." + +"Oh, call me anything you like if you'll only let me manage you!" she +said, laughing. "Now sit down and let me tell you all I've planned out +for you to do." + +That night she told him excitedly over the telephone that her little +scheme had succeeded, that her father had given his O. K., but of course +no one must know. The next day he had bought five hundred shares for +her, and after much hesitation a thousand for his own account at +104-1/2. It was a good risk; the stock had been stable for years; even +if the combination did not go through, there was little danger of a +rapid fall; and if it went up there was a chance at a thirty- or +forty-point rise. He kept the injunction of secrecy, as all such +injunctions are kept, to the point of telling only his closest friends, +Marsh and DeLancy, who bought at once. + +Nevertheless, no sooner had the transaction been completed than he had a +sudden revulsion. He had been long enough in Wall Street to have heard +a hundred tales of the methods of big manipulators. What if Dan Drake's +endorsement was only a clever ruse to conceal his real intentions, quits +for reimbursing Doris afterward with a check, according to a famous +precedent? Perhaps he even suspected that he, Bojo, had put Doris up to +it and was taking this method to read him the lesson that his methods +were not to be solved along such lines. At any rate, Tom passed a very +bad night, saying to himself that he had plunged ahead on the flimsiest +sort of evidence and fully deserved a shearing. + +A glorious December morning, with a touch of Indian summer, was pouring +through the half-opened window, bearing the distant sounds of steam +riveters. Marsh was busily culling half a dozen newspapers, while Fred +was yawning over the eggs and coffee, when the mail was brought in by +the grinning Oriental who had been dubbed Sweeney. DeLancy, who had the +curiosity of a girl, pounced upon the letters, slinging half a dozen at +Bojo with a grumbled comment. + +"Dog ding him if he isn't more popular than me! Important business +letters--Mr. Morgan and Mr. Rockefeller asking your advice--society +invitations--do honor our humble palace, pink envelope, heavily scented. +I say, Bojo, I've gone in deep on your precious stock, two hundred +shares--all I could scrape together. Hope you guess right. Anything I +hate is work, and 10 per cent. margin ought to be bolstered up by divine +revelation." + +"Wish the deuce you hadn't," said Bojo, sitting down and opening the +formal announcement of his broker's purchase, which struck his eyes +like a criminal warrant. + +"Cheer up," said Marsh, emerging from the litter of papers. "I've got a +tip from another angle, one of the lawyers involved. I'm going in for +another couple of thousand shares. Why so glum, Bojo?" + +"Wish I hadn't told you fellows." + +"Rats; that's all in the game!" said Marsh, but DeLancy did not look so +philosophical. + +Bojo opened several invitations, a notice from the tailor to call for a +fitting, two letters from clients, personal friends, and finally the +pink envelope, which was from Doris. + + Bojo dear: + + Whatever you do don't tell a soul. Dad questioned me + terrifically and I told a little fib. How many shares did + you buy? Dad made me promise to buy only five hundred, but I + know it's all right from the way he acted. Oh, Bojo, I hope + you make lots and lots of money! Wouldn't Dad be surprised? + He asked me to-night in the funny gruff way he puts on, + 'How's that young man of yours getting on? Have they got his + hide yet?' Won't it be a joke on him? By the way, I dined + with the Morrisons (she's an old school chum of mine) and + put in my clever little oar. Don't be surprised if some one + else calls you up soon to place a little order. I'm working + in another direction too. Don't fail to come up for tea. + + With much love, + DORIS. + + P.S. The Tremaines are _awfully_ influential. Be sure and go + to their dance. + +He placed the letter in his pocket thoughtfully, not entirely happy. It +was a fair sample of a score of letters--enthusiasm, solicitude, +ambition, and clever worldly advice, but lacking the one note that +something in him craved despite all the purely mental satisfaction the +prospect held for him. + +DeLancy continuing to loiter, he went out, alone, obsessed with the +thought of the opening of the market and the sound of the ticker, and +caught the subway for Wall Street, preoccupied and serious. + +It had been three months now since the day when he had first come +downtown to take up service as a broker's runner, and much had changed +within him during that time, much of which he himself was not aware. The +first days he had been rather bewildered and resentful of the menial +beginning. It did not seem quite a man's work--this messenger service, +and the contemplation of those above him, the men at the sheets and the +office clerks, inspired him with a distaste. Often he remembered his +conversation with his father and talks with Granning, the +matter-of-fact; comparing their outlook on the life with his associates +much to the disadvantage of the curiously inconsequential throng of +young men who, like himself, were willing to go scurrying in the rain +and dark on servants' quests, in order to get a peek into the intricate +mysteries of Wall Street that held sudden fortunes for those who could +see. + +He had come out of college with a love of manly qualities and the belief +that it was a man's privilege to face difficult and laborious tasks, and +the prevalent type among the beginners was not his type. Then, too, the +magnitude of the Street overpowered him, the skyscrapers without tops +dwarfed him, its jargon mystified him, as the colossal scale of the +operations he saw seemed to rob him of the sense of his own +individuality. But gradually, being possessed of shrewd native sense and +persistence, he began to distinguish in the mob types and among the +types figures that stood out in bold relief. He began to see those who +would pass and those who would persist. + +He began to meet the more rugged type, schooled in earlier tests, +shrewd, cautious, and resolved, self-made men who had abrupt ways of +speaking their thoughts, who frankly classed him with other fortunate +youths and assured him that they were there by right, to take away from +them what had been foolishly given and pay them back in experience. He +took their chaffing in good humor, seeking their companionship and their +points of view by preference, gradually disarming their criticism, +secretly resolved that whatever might be the common fate at least he +would not prove a foolish lamb for the shearing. + +Steeled in this resolution, he began by setting his face against +speculation, investing his money temporarily in irreproachable bonds, +refusing to listen to all the tips, whispered or openly proffered, which +assailed his ears from morning until night, until the day when he should +know of his own knowledge of men and things. He worked hard, following +Drake's advice, seeking information from men rather than from books, +checking up what each told him by what the next man had to say of his +last informant, mystified often by the glib psychology of finance, +slowly rating men at their just value, no longer lending credulous ear +to the frayed prophets of New Street or thrilling with the excitement of +a thrice confidential tip. + +He had advanced rapidly, but underneath all his delight there was an +abiding suspicion that his progress had not been entirely due to his own +glaring accomplishments, but that the name of Crocker, senior, his bank +account, and the magic touch of Daniel Drake had been for much. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +UNDER THE TICKER'S TYRANNY + + +During the last month he had had several tentative approaches from +Weldon Forshay, who was what DeLancy called the social scavenger of the +firm, a club man irreproachably connected, amiable and winning in his +ways, who received uptown clients in the outer office, went out to lunch +with the riding set, who lounged in toward midday for what they termed a +whack at the market. Forshay was a thoroughly good fellow who gave his +friends the best of advice, which was no advice at all, and left +business details to his partners, Heinrich Flaspoller and Silas T. Hauk, +shrewd, conservative, self-made men who exchanged one ceremonial family +dinner party a year with their brilliant associate. + +Forshay, who was no fool and neglected no detail of social connections, +had been keen to perceive the advantages of an alliance with the +prospective son-in-law of Daniel Drake, keeping in view the voluminous +transactions that flowed monthly from the keys of that daring +manipulator. The transactions of the last days had been noted with more +than usual interest, and Bojo's announcement of the amount of collateral +which he had to offer as security (he did not, naturally, give the +impression that this was the sum of his holdings) had further increased +the growing affection of the firm for an industrious young man, of such +excellent prospects. + +When Crocker arrived, excited and keyed to the whirring sound of the +ticker, Forshay, a splendid American imitation of an English aristocrat, +drew him affably into an inner room. + +"I say, Crocker," he said, "the firm's been thinking you over rather +seriously. It isn't often a young fellow comes down here and makes his +way as quickly as you. We like your methods, and I think we've been +quick to recognize them--haven't we?" + +"You certainly have," said Tom with real enthusiasm. + +"You've brought us business and you'll bring us more. Now some evening +soon I want you to come up to the club and sit down over a little dinner +and discuss the whole prospect." He looked at him benignly and added: "I +don't see why an ambitious man like you who has got what you have ahead +of you shouldn't fit into this firm before very long." + +"Provided I marry Miss Doris Drake," thought Bojo to himself. The cool +way in which he received the news made a distinct impression on Forshay, +who went a little further. "We realize that with the friends and backing +you've got you're not on the lookout to stay forever on a salary. What +you want is to get a fair share of the business you can swing, and the +only way is to join some firm. Well, I won't say any more now. You know +what we're thinking. We'll foregather later." + +"You're very kind, indeed, Mr. Forshay," said Bojo, delightfully +flustered. + +"Not at all. You're the kind that goes ahead. Oh, by the way, the firm +wants me to tell you that from next week your salary will be +seventy-five dollars." + +This time Bojo gulped down his surprise and shook hands in boyish +delight. + +"Mighty glad to give it to you," said Forshay, laughing. "I see you +think well of Indiana Smelter. Now I don't want you to betray any +confidences, but of course I know how you stand in certain quarters. +There is no harm in my saying that, is there? I've watched you. You +haven't been running after every rumor on the block. You're shrewd. +You're too conservative to invest without some pretty solid reason or to +let your friends in unless you're pretty sure." + +"I am pretty sure," said Crocker solemnly. + +"I thought so," said Forshay meditatively. "I'm rather tempted to try +the thing myself. I've sort of a hunch about you. I liked you, Tom, from +the first. Hope you hit it hard." He glanced in the direction of the +senior partners and lowered his voice confidentially. "Then it's good to +see one of our own kind make good--you understand?" + +In five minutes Bojo had told him in the strictest confidence all he +knew. Forshay received the news with thoughtful deliberation. + +"I'd like it better if Dan Drake had said it direct to you," he said, +frowning. "Still, it's valuable. There may be a good deal in it. I think +I can get a line on it myself. Jimmie Boskirk is a good pal of mine and +he'll know. You keep me informed and I'll let you know what I find out. +Go a little slow. Dan Drake is up to a good many tricks. He's fooled +the talent many a time before. Suppose we say Friday night for our +little confab. Good." + +The mention of Jimmie Boskirk cast a damper over the delights the +interview had brought Bojo. He did not at once realize how easily +Forshay had played him for the information he desired and how really +valuable he believed it. He was lost in a new irritation. Young Boskirk +had been conspicuously assiduous in his attentions to Doris; and, while +this fact aroused in him no jealousy, he had an uncomfortable feeling +that Boskirk was in fact the source of her information. + +But the opening of the market completely drove all other thoughts out of +his mind. For the first time he came under the poignant tyranny of the +flowing tape. Do what he would he could not keep away from it. Indiana +Smelter opened at 104-1/2, went off the fraction, and then advanced to +106 on moderate strength in buying orders. + +"A point and a half--$1500--I've made $1500--just like that," he said to +himself, stupefied. He went to his desk, but ten minutes later on the +pretext of getting a glass of water he returned to the tape to make sure +that his eyes had not deceived him. There it was again and no +mistake--200 Indiana Smelter, 106. He sat down at his desk in a turmoil. +Fifteen hundred dollars! Five times what he had made in three months. If +he had bought two thousand shares, as he could have easily, at a safe +twenty per cent. margin, he would have made three thousand. He felt +angry at himself, defrauded, and, drawing a paper before him, he began +to figure out his profits if the stock should go to 140 or 150, as +every one said it must if the combination went through. + +Then, in order to realize himself his colossal earnings, he called up +Doris on the telephone to hear the sound of such figures. At one, when +he went out to snatch a mouthful at a standing lunch, he consulted three +tickers, impatient that no further sales had been recorded. When +Ricketts, who was still on the sheets, came up to him with his daily +budget of gossip, he listened avidly. Every tip interested him, fraught +with a new dramatic significance. He felt like taking him aside and +whispering in his ear: + +"Listen, Ricketts, if you want a good thing buy Indiana Smelter: it'll +go to 140. I've made fifteen hundred dollars on it in a couple of +hours." + +But he did nothing of the sort. He looked very wise and bored, feeling +immensely superior as a capitalist and future member of the firm of +Hauk, Flaspoller and Forshay, over Ricketts, who had started when he had +started and was still on the sheets at fifteen dollars a week. +"Whispering Bill" Golightly, who had the hypnotic art of inducing +clients to buy and sell and buy again all in the same day, on artfully +fluctuating rumors (to no disparagement of his commission account), came +sidling up, and he hailed him regally. + +"Hello, Bill, what do you know?" + +"Buy Redding," said Golightly softly, with a confidential flutter of the +near eyelid. + +"You're 'way behind. I know something better than that. Come around next +week." + +He left Golightly smiling incredulously and ambled slowly through the +motley group of New Street, that tragic anteroom to Wall Street, where +fallen kings of finance retell the glories of the past and wager a few +miserable dollars on a fugitive whisper. + +"If they only knew what I know," he said to himself, smiling as he +passed on in confident youth, through these wearied old men who in their +misfortune still preferred to be last in the Street if only to be near +Rome. At the offices, high on Exchange Place, looking down on the +huddled group of the curb below in sheepskins and mufflers, flinging +fingered signals in the air to waiting figures in windows above, he +found a new order from Roscoe Marsh and hurriedly had it executed. He +felt like calling up all his friends and asking them to follow his lead +blindly. + +He wanted every one to be making money as easily as he could. Before the +market closed Indiana Smelter receded to 105-1/4 and he felt as though +some one had bodily lifted $500 from his pocket. Still he had made a +thousand dollars for the day. He caught the subway with the crowd of +stockbrokers who came romping out of the stock exchange like released +schoolboys after the day's tension, pommeling and shoving each other +with released glee. His first action was to turn to the financial +columns of his newspaper, to make sure there had been no error, to see +in cold print that he had actually made no mistake. During the week +Indiana Smelter climbed irregularly to 111-1/4, broke three points, and +ended at 109 amid a sudden concentration of public interest. + +On Saturday, when he came back to his blazing windows in the mellow +half-lights of the court, preparatory to dressing for a party in the +wake of Fred DeLancy, he took the flight two steps at a time, bursting +with the need of pouring out his tale of good fortune to responsive +ears. He found only George Granning, snug in the big armchair, sunk in +the beatific contemplation of an immense ledger. + +"What the deuce are you grinning at, you old rhinoceros?" said Bojo, +stopping surprised. + +"I'm casting up accounts," said Granning. "I'm twelve hundred and +forty-two dollars ahead of the game. To-morrow you can buy me my first +bond and make me a capitalist. Bojo, congratulate me. I've got my +raise--forty a week from now on--assistant superintendent! What do you +think of that?" + +"No!" exclaimed Bojo, who had been dreaming in hundreds of thousands. He +shook hands with all the enthusiasm he could force. Then a genuine pity +seized him for the inequalities of opportunity. He seized a chair and +drew it excitedly near his friend. "Granny, listen to me. Do you know +what I have made in ten days? Almost five thousand dollars! Now you know +nothing in this world would let me get you in wrong, unless I knew. +Well, Granny, I know! I'll guarantee you--do you understand--that if +you'll let me take your thousand and invest it as I want, I'll double +your capital in a month." + +"Thank you, no," said Granning in a way that admitted no discussion. +"The gilt-edged kind is my ambition. Look here, how much money have you +put up?" + +"Only twenty thousand." + +"Then give me the rest and let me bury it for you." + +"I tell you I can sell it now and make $4500. What do you say to that?" + +"I'm damned sorry to hear it." + +"You're a nice friend." + +"Lecturing isn't my strong point," said Granning imperturbably, "but +since you insist, the first lesson in life to my mind is a wholesome +respect for the difficulty of making money." + +"You act as though you think I've robbed some old widow, you anarchist!" + +"Twelve times 30 is 360, add 12 times 150 times 30," said Granning, +taking up his pencil. + +"What the deuce are you figuring out?" + +"I'm calculating that at the rate I'm living I can buy another bond in +about ten and three quarter months," said Granning blissfully. + +"Oh, go to the devil," said Bojo, retreating into his room. + +As he started to dress for the evening he began to moralize, glancing +out at Granning, who continued his figuring, a picture of rugged +happiness. + +"Suppose he's thinking of that forty-five dollar a year income now," +thought Bojo, who began to indulge in many worldly speculations of which +he would have been incapable three months before. After all, if some +people only knew it, it was just as easy to make a hundred thousand as a +thousand. All it required was to recognize that the world was unequal +and always would remain unequal, and toward the top of society, when one +had the opportunity of course, it was all a question of knowledge and +influence. + +"Poor old Granny," he said, shaking his head. "In four years I'll be +worth a million and he'll be plodding on, working like a slave, +gloating over a ten-dollar raise." But as he was withal honest in his +values he added: "And the old fellow's worth ten times what I am too!" +He remembered his own raise in salary, but for certain reasons +determined not to risk an ethical comparison. + +"Well, Capitalist, good night," he said, arrayed in top hat, fur coat, +and glowing linen. + +Granning grunted complacently and called him back as he was +disappearing. + +"Hi, there!" + +"What?" + +"Come over to the factory with me some day and see what real work is." + +Bojo slammed the door and went laughing down the stairs. + + * * * * * + +The buying orders multiplied in Indiana Smelter, the air was full of +rumors, the financial columns accepted as a fact that the combination +was decided, and the stock went soaring in the third week, despite one +day of horrible uncertainty, when the report was spread that all +negotiations were off and Indiana Smelter dropped twelve points. When +135 was reached, Bojo became bewildered. In less than a month he had +cleared over thirty thousand dollars. He could not believe his own +reason. Where had it come from? Did it actually exist or would he wake +up some morning and find it evaporated? + +The spinning tack-tack of the ticker was always in his ears. At night +when he started to go to sleep, the room was always full of diabolical +instruments, and great curling streams of thin paper fell over his bed +and Indiana Smelter was kiting up into impossible figures or abruptly +crumbling to nothing. One morning the necessity of actually holding in +his own hands these enormous sums which he had been incredulously +contemplating all these weeks was so imperious that he sold out as the +stock reached 138-1/4. + +For a day a feeling of sublime liberation came to him, as though the +clicking tyranny were forever vanished from his ears. In his pocket was +certainty, incredible but tangible, a check to his order for over +thirty-three thousand dollars. When once this certainty had impressed +itself upon him he had a quick revulsion. It seemed to him that what he +had done was grossly immoral, as though he had thrown his money on a +gambling table and won fabulously with a beginner's luck. Some +providence must have protected him, but he resolved firmly never to +repeat the test. + +He informed Granny of this decision, admitting frankly all the appetite +for gain, the reckless, dangerous excitement it had roused in him. He +spoke with such profound conviction, being for the moment convinced +himself, that Granny's skepticism was conquered, and they shook hands +upon Bojo's sudden enlightenment. + +But the next day, when he had gone up to the Drakes and exhibited the +check for the delectation of Doris, his good intentions began to waver +in the flush of triumph. + +"Now, aren't you glad you listened to a wise little person who is going +to make your fortune?" she said, thrilled at the sight of the check. + +"Who gave you the tip, Doris?" he said uneasily. "You can tell me now." + +"Ask me no questions--" + +"A man or a woman?" he persisted, seeking a subterfuge, for the thought +of asking pointblank if he owed his fortune to Boskirk was repugnant. + +She hesitated a moment, divining his qualms. + +"Promise to ask no more questions." + +"If you'll tell me." + +"A woman, then." + +He pretended to himself a great satisfaction, immensely relieved in his +pride, willing to be convinced. Dan Drake came in and Doris, glad of the +interruption, displayed the check in triumph. + +"So that's it, is it?" said Drake, glancing up at Bojo, who looked +sheepishly happy. And assuming an angry air, he caught Doris by the ear. +"A traitor in my own household, eh?" + +"What do you mean?" she said, defending herself. + +"I mean the next time you wheedle such inside information out, just +remember you've got a daddy." + +"Now, Dad, don't be horrid and take away all my fun. Isn't it glorious!" + +"Very," said Drake with a grimace. "I congratulate you, young scamps. +Your getting in and spreading the good news among the bosom friends--" +he glanced at Bojo, who flushed--"cost me a couple of hundred thousand +more than I intended to pay. I guess, young man, it'll be cheaper for me +to have you inside my office than out!" + +"I didn't realize, sir--" + +"No reason you should, but I want to tell you and your General Manager +so that you won't get any mistaken ideas of your Napoleonic talents, +that there was a moment ten days ago when the whole combination came +near a cropper, wherever you got your information." He stopped, looked +at his daughter severely, and said: "By the way, where _did_ you get +your information, young lady?" + +Doris laughed mischievously, not at all deceived by his assumed anger. + +"I have my own sources of information," she said, imitating his manner. + +The father looked at her shrewdly, amused at the intrigue he divined. + +"Well, this is my guess--" + +But Doris, flinging herself, laughing, at him, closed his lips with her +pretty hand. + +"She used Boskirk to help me," thought Bojo, perceiving her start of +fear and the shrewd smile on the face of the father. + +He did not pursue the matter, but the conviction remained with him. + +Despite his new-found resolutions he was surprised to find that the +obsession of the ticker still held him. With the announcement of the +completion of the Smelter merger, Indiana Smelter rose as high as +142-3/4, and the thought of these thousands which he might have had as +easily as not began to annoy him. He forgot that he had condemned +speculation in the contemplation of what might have been. + +Looking back, it seemed to him that what he had made was ridiculously +small. If he had played the stock as other resolute spirits conducting +such campaigns for fortune, he should have thrown the rest of his +capital behind the venture once he was playing on velvet. He figured out +a dozen ways by which he might have achieved a master stroke and +trebled, even quadrupled, his profits, and the more his mind dwelt upon +it the more eager he became to embark into a fresh venture. Dan Drake +had hinted at taking him into his office. He began to long for the time +when the proposition would be again offered to him, to accept, to be +privileged to play the game as others played it--with marked cards. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE RETURN OF PATSIE + + +During this time Bojo had seen much of life. Marsh was too busily +occupied in the detailed exploration of the machinery and organization +of his paper to be often available, and Bojo's time was pretty evenly +divided between the formal evenings in Doris's set and the excursions +with Fred DeLancy into regions not quite so orthodox. He began to see a +good deal behind the scenes, to marvel at the unbending of big men of a +certain suddenly enriched type, at their gullibility and curious +vanities of display. He himself had an innate love of refinement and an +olden touch of chivalry in his attitude toward women, and went through +what he saw without more harm than disillusionment, wiser for the +lesson. + +To his surprise he found, that what DeLancy had estimated of his social +values was quite true. Fred was in great demand at quiet dances in +discreet salons at Tenafly's and Lazare's, where curious elements +combined to distract the adventurer, rich at forty-five, who, after a +life of Spartan routine, awoke to the call of pleasure and curiosity at +an age when other men have solved their attitude. Fred was looked upon +as a sort of _enfant gate_ to be rewarded after a gay night with an +easily tossed off order for a thousand shares of this or that to make +his commission. It did not take Bojo long to perceive the inherent +weakness in DeLancy's lovable but pleasure-running character, nor to +speculate upon his future with some apprehension, despite all Fred's +protestations that he was shrewd as they are made, and jolly well alive +to the main chance every minute of the day. + +Bojo had been admitted far enough into his confidence to know that there +was already some one in the practical background, a Miss Gladys Stone, +financially a prize who had been caught with the volatile gaiety and +amusing tricks of Fred DeLancy. DeLancy in fact, in moments of serious +intimacy, openly avowed his intention of settling down within a year or +two at the most, and Bojo, with the memory of riotous nights from which +he had with difficulty extracted the popular Fred, owned to himself that +the sooner this occurred the better he would be suited. + +He had met Gladys Stone once when he had dropped in on Doris, and he had +a blurred recollection of a thin, blond girl, who giggled and chattered +a great deal and spoke several times of being bored by this or that, by +the opera where there was nothing new, by dinner parties where it was +such a bore to talk bridge, by Palm Beach, which was getting to be a +bore because cheaper hotels had gone up and every one was being let in, +but who would go off into peals of laughter the moment Fred DeLancy +struck a chord on the piano and imitated a German ballade. + +"Gladys is a good soul at bottom. She's crazy about Fred and he can +marry her any day he wants her," said Doris, sitting in judgment. + +"Do you think it would turn out well?" he said. + +"Why not? Gladys hasn't a thought in her head. She'll be a splendid +audience for Fred. He isn't the sort of a person ever to fall +desperately in love." + +"I don't know about that," said Bojo, with an uneasy recollection of a +certain alluring but rather obvious little actress, respectable but +entirely too calculating to his way of thinking, whom Fred had been +seeing entirely too much. + +"Nonsense! That sort of person is always thinking of the crowd. Besides +Gladys is too stupid to be jealous. It's a splendid match. She'll get a +husband that'll save her house from being a bore, and he'll get a pile +of money: just what each needs." + +He saw Doris three or four times a week. She had become a very busy +lady, constantly complaining of the fatigues of a social season. Fred +DeLancy, who, with Marsh, had been admitted to intimacy, made fun of her +to her face in his impudent way, pretending a deep solicitude for the +overburdened rich. + +"But it's true," said Doris indignantly. "I haven't a minute to myself. +I'm going from morning to night. You haven't an idea how exacting our +lives are." + +"Tell me," said DeLancy, assuming a countenance of commiseration, while +Bojo laughed. + +"Horrid beast!" said Doris, pouting. "And then there's charity; you've +no idea how much time charity takes. I'm on three committees and we have +to meet once a week for luncheon. Then I'm in the show for the benefit +of some hospital or other, and now they want us to come to morning +rehearsals. Then there's the afternoon bridge class until four, and half +a dozen teas to go through, and back to be dressed and curled and start +out for dinner and a dance, night after night. And now there's Dolly's +wedding coming on, and the dressmaker and the shopping. I tell you I'm +beginning to look old already!" + +She glanced at the clock and went off with a sigh to be decked out for +another social struggle, as Mrs. Drake entered. The young men excused +themselves. Bojo never felt quite comfortable under the scrutiny of the +mother's menacing lorgnette. She was a frail, uneasy little woman, who +dressed too young for her age, whose ready tears had won down the +opposition of her husband, much as the steady drip of a tiny rivulet +bores its way through granite surfaces. She did not approve of Bojo--a +fact of which he was well aware--and was resolved when her first +ambition had been gratified by Dolly's coming marriage to turn her +forces on Doris. + +At present she was too much occupied, for there were weak moments when +Dolly, for all her foreign education, rose up in revolt, and others when +Mr. Drake, incensed at the cold-blooded conduct of the pre-nuptial +business arrangements, had threatened to send the whole pack of impudent +lawyers flying. Patsie had been packed off on a visit to a cousin after +a series of indiscretions, culminating in a demand to know from the Duke +what the French meant by a _mariage de convenance_--a request which fell +like a bombshell in a sudden silence of the family dinner. + +It was a week before the wedding, as Bojo was swinging up the Avenue +past the Park on his way to Doris, that he suddenly became aware of a +young lady in white fur cap and black velvets skipping toward him, +pursued by a terrier that had a familiar air, while from the attendant +automobile a tall and scrawny spinster was gesticulating violently and +unheeded. The next moment Patsie had run up to him, her arm through his, +Romp leaning against him in recognition, while she exclaimed: + +"Bojo, thank Heaven! Save me from this awful woman!" + +"What's wrong, what's the matter?" he said, laughing, feeling all at +once a delightful glow at the sight of her snapping eyes and breathless, +parted lips. + +"They've brought me back and tied a dragon to me," she cried +indignantly. "I won't stand it. I won't go parading up and down with a +keeper, just like an animal in a zoo. It's all mother's doings, and +Dolly's, because I miffed her old duke. Send the dragon away, please, +Bojo, please." + +"What's her name?" he said, with an eye to the approaching car. + +"Mlle. du Something or other--how do I know?" + +The frantic companion now bearing down, with the chauffeur set to a +grin, Bojo explained his right to act as Miss Drina's escort, and the +matter was adjusted by the _demoiselle de compagnie_ promising to keep a +block behind until they neared home. + +Patsie waxed indignant. "Wait till I get hold of Dad! I'll fix her! The +idea! I'm eighteen-- I guess I can take care of myself. I say, let's +give them the slip. No? Oh, dear, it would be such fun. I'm crazy to +slip off and get some skating. What do you think? Can't even do that. +Too vulgar!" + +"What did you say to the Duke that raised such a row?" said Bojo, +pleasantly conscious of the light weight on his arm. + +"Nothing at all," said Patsie, with an innocent face; but there was a +twinkle in the eyes. "I simply asked what this _mariage de convenance_ +was I heard them all talking about, and when he started in to make some +long-winded speech I cut in and asked him if it wasn't when people +didn't love each other but married to pay the bills. Then every one +talked out loud and mother looked at me through her telescope." + +"You knew, of course," said Bojo reprovingly. + +Drina laughed a guilty laugh. + +"I don't think Dolly wants to marry him a bit," she declared. "It's all +mother. Catch me marrying like that." + +"And how are you going to marry?" + +"When I marry, it'll be because I'm so doggoned in love I'd be sitting +out on the top step waiting for him to come round. If I were engaged to +a man I'd hook him tight and I wouldn't let go of him either, no matter +who was looking on. What sort of a love is it when you sit six feet +apart and try to look bored when some one rattles a door!" + +"Patsie--you're very romantic, I'm afraid." + +She nodded her head energetically, rattling on: "Moonlight, shifting +clouds, heavily scented flowers, and all that sort of thing. Never mind, +they'd better look out. I'm not going to stand this sort of treatment. +I'll elope." + +"You wouldn't do that, Patsie." + +"Yes, I would. I say, when you and Doris marry will you let me come and +stay with you?" + +"We certainly will," he said enthusiastically. + +"Then what are you waiting for?" + +"I'm waiting," said Bojo dryly, after a pause, "until I have made enough +money of my own." + +"Good for you," she said, as if immensely relieved. "I knew you were +that sort." + +"And when are you coming out?" he asked, to turn the conversation. + +"The night before the wedding. Isn't it awful?" + +"You'll have lots of men hanging about you--crazy about you," he said +abruptly. + +"Pooh!" + +"Never mind, I shall watch over you carefully and keep the wrong ones +away." + +"Will you?" + +He nodded, looking into her eyes. + +"Good for you. I'll come to you for advice." + +They were at the house, the lemon livery of the footmen showing behind +the glass doors. + +"I say," said Patsie, with a sudden mischievous smile, "meet me at the +corner to-morrow at four and we'll go off skating." + +He shook his head sternly. + +"Bojo, please--just for a lark!" + +"I will call for you in a proper social manner perhaps." + +"Will Doris have to be along?" she asked, thoughtfully. + +"I shall of course ask Doris." + +"On second thoughts, no, thank you. I think I shall go to my +dressmaker's," she said, with a perfect imitation of his formal +tone--and disappeared with a final burst of laughter. + + * * * * * + +He went in to see Doris with a sudden determination to clear up certain +matters which had been on his conscience. As luck would have it, as he +entered the great anteroom Mr. James Boskirk was departing. He was a +painstaking, rather obvious young man of irreproachable industry and +habits, a little over serious, rated already as one of the solid young +men of the younger generation of financiers, who made no secret of the +fact that he had arrived at a deliberate decision to invite Miss Doris +Drake into the new firm which he had determined to found for the +establishment of his home and the perpetuation of his name. + +It seemed to Bojo, in the perfunctory greeting which they exchanged as +civilized savages, that there was a look of derogatory accusation in +Boskirk's eyes, and, infuriated, he determined to bring up the subject +of Indiana Smelter again and force the truth from Doris. + +He came in with a well-assumed air of amusement, adopting a sarcastic +tone, which he knew she particularly dreaded. + +"See here, Miss General Manager, this'll never do," he said lightly. "I +thought you were cleverer than that." + +"What do you mean?" she said, instantly scenting danger. + +"Letting your visits overlap. I only hope you had time to manage all Mr. +Boskirk's affairs. Only, for Heaven's sake, Doris, now that you've got +him in hand, get him to change his style of collar and cuffs. He looks +like the head of an undertakers' trust." + +The idea that he might be jealous pleased her. + +"Poor Mr. Boskirk," she said, smiling. "He's a very straightforward, +simple fellow." + +"Very simple," he said dryly. "Well, what more information has he been +giving you?" + +"He does not give me any information." + +"You know perfectly well, Doris, that he gave you the tip on Indiana +Smelter," he said furiously, "and that you denied because you knew I +would never have approved." + +"You are perfectly horrid, Bojo," she said, going to the fireplace and +stirring up the logs. "I don't care to discuss it with you." + +"I'm sorry," he said, "but you've hurt my pride." + +"How?" + +"Good heavens, can't you see! Haven't you women any sense of fitness? +Don't you know that some things are done and some things are not done?" + +She came to him contritely and put her hands on his shoulders. + +"Bojo, why do you reproach me? Because I am only thinking of your +success, all the time, every day? Is that what you are angry about?" + +He felt like blurting out that there was something in that too, that he +wanted the privilege of feeling that he was winning his own way; but +instead he said: + +"So it was Boskirk." + +She looked at him, hesitated, and answered: + +"No, it wasn't. But if it had been why should you hold it against me? +Why don't you want me to help?--for you don't!" + +He resolved to be blunt. + +"If you would only do something that is not reasonable, not calculated, +Doris! But everything you do is so well considered. You didn't use to +be this way. I can't help thinking you care more about your life in +society than you do me. It's the worldly part of you I'm afraid about." + +She looked into his eyes steadily a moment and then turned her head away +and nodded, smiling in assent. + +"Heavens, Doris, if you want to do like Dolly, if you want a position, +or a title, say so and let's be honest." + +"But I don't-- I don't," she cried impetuously. "You don t know how I +have fought--" she stopped, not wishing to mention her mother and, +lifting her glance to him anxiously, said: "Bojo, what do you want me to +do?" + +"I want you to do something uncalculated," he burst out--"mad, +impulsive, as persons do who are wild in love with each other. I want +you to marry me now." + +"Now!" + +"Listen: With what I've got and my salary I can scrape up ten +thousand--no, don't spoil it-- I don't want any money from you. Will you +take your chances and marry me on my own basis now?" + +She caught her breath and finally said, marking each word: + +"Yes--I--will--marry--you--now!" + +He burst out laughing at the look of terror in her eyes at the thought +of facing life on ten thousand a year. + +"Don't worry, Doris," he said, taking her in his arms. "I wouldn't be so +cruel. I only wanted to hear you say it." + +"But I did--I will--if you ask it," she said quickly. + +He shook his head. + +"If you'd only said it differently. Don't mind me--I'm an idiot--and you +don't understand." + +What he meant was that he was an idiot, when he was getting so much that +other men coveted, to insist on what was not in her charming, facile +self to give him. An hour later, after an interview with Daniel Drake, +he was ready to wonder what had made him flare up so quickly--Boskirk's +presence perhaps, or something impulsive which had awakened within him +when Drina had flushed while describing her distinct ideas upon the +subject of the sentiments. + +But a new exhilaration effectively drove away all other emotions--the +delirious appetite for gain which had come irresistibly and tyrannically +into his life with the dramatic intensity of his first speculation. In +the interim in Daniel Drake's library, with Doris perched excitedly on +the arm of his chair, several things had been decided. A great operation +was under way which promised an unusual profit. Bojo was to place +$50,000 in the pool which was to be used to operate in the stocks of a +certain Southern railroad long suspected to be on the verge of a +receivership, at the end of which campaign he was to enter Mr. Drake's +service in the role of a private secretary. + +Meanwhile he was to continue in the employ of Hauk, Flaspoller and +Forshay, the better to figure in the mixed scheme of manipulation which +would be necessary. He was so seized with the drama of the opportunity, +so keen over the thought of being once more a part of all the whirling, +hurtling machinery of speculation that he did not remember even for a +passing thought, the horror which had come over him at his first +incredible success. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE WEDDING BALL + + +The wedding of Miss Dolly Drake to the Duke of Polin-Crecy was the event +of the season. It was preceded by a ball which marked the definite +surrender of the last recalcitrant members of New York society to the +ambitions of Mrs. Drake. Such events have a more or less public quality, +like a performance for charity or a private view at an important +auction. Every one who could wheedle an invitation by hook or crook, +arrived with the rolling crowd that blocked the avenue and side streets +and necessitated a special detachment of the police to prevent the mob +of enthusiastic democrats from precipitating themselves on the ducal +carriage and tearing the ducal garments in shreds in the quest of +souvenirs. + +The three young men from Ali Baba Court arrived together, abandoning +their taxicab and forcing their way on foot to the front. Marsh, who was +always moved to sarcasm by such occasions, kept up a running comment. + +"Marvelous exhibition! Every one who's gunning for Drake is here +to-night. There's old Borneman. He's been laying for a chance to catch +Daniel D. on the wrong side of the market ever since Drake trimmed him +in a wheat corner in Chicago. By Jove, the Fontaines and the Gunthers. +They're going to this as to a circus. Why the deuce didn't the cards +read Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Drake invite you to meet their enemies!" + +"Never mind," said Bojo, laughing. "It's Mrs. Drake's night--she'll be +in her glory, you can bet." + +"Oh, you'll be as bad as the rest," said Marsh, who spoke his mind. +"Tom, you're doomed. I can see that. You've got a feminine will to +contend with, so make your mind up to the inevitable. There's Haggerdy's +party now--every bandit in Wall Street'll be here figuring up how they +can get at their host. Well, Bojo, you're lost to us already." + +"How so?" + +"In this game, you never pay attention to your friends--you've got to +entertain those who dislike you, to make sure they'll have to invite you +to some function or other where everybody must be seen. Well, I know +what I'll do, I'll get hold of the youngest sister, who is a trump, and +play around with her." + +Bojo looked at him uneasily; even this casual interest in Patsie +affected him disagreeably. DeLancy had deserted them to rush over to the +assistance of the Stones, who were just arriving. + +"I hope he gets her," said Marsh, studying the blond profile of Miss +Gladys Stone. + +"I believe there's some sort of an understanding." + +"The sooner the better--for Freddie," said Marsh, with a shake of his +head. "The trouble with Fred is he thinks he's a cold thinking machine, +and he's putty in the hands of any woman who comes along." + +"I'm worried about a certain person myself," said Bojo. + +But at this moment Thornton, one of Mr. Drake's secretaries, touched him +on the arm. + +"Will you please come to the library, Mr. Crocker? Mr. Drake has been +asking for you to witness some papers." + +In the library off in a quiet wing he found a party of five gathered +about the table desk, lawyers verifying the securities for the marriage +settlement, Maitre Vondin, a stubby, black-bearded Frenchman imported +for the occasion, coldly incredulous and suavely insistent, the storm +center of an excited group who had been arguing since dinner. Drake, by +the fireplace, was pacing up and down, swearing audibly. + +"Is the _gentleman_ now quite satisfied?" he said angrily. + +Maitre Vondrin smiled in the affirmative. + +Drake sat down at the table with the gesture of brushing away a swarm of +flies and signed his name to a document that was placed before him, +nodding to Bojo to add his signature as a witness. + +"Pity some of our corporations couldn't employ Vondrin," said Drake, +rising angrily. "There wouldn't be enough money left to keep a savings +bank." + +Other signatures were attached and the party broke up, Maitre Vondrin, +punctilious and unruffled, bowing to the master of the house and +departing with the rest. + +Drake's anger immediately burst forth. + +"Cussed little sharper! He was keen enough to save this until now. By +heavens, if he'd sprung these tactics on me a week ago, his little Duke +could have gone home on a borrowed ticket." + +Bojo learned afterward that the lawyer for the noble family had refused +to take Drake's word on a single item of the transfer of property, +insisting on having every security placed before his eyes, personally +examining them all, wrangling over values, compelling certain +substitutes, even demanding a personal guarantee in one debated issue of +bonds. + +"God grant she doesn't come to regret it," said Drake, thinking of his +wife. His anger made him careless of what he said. "Tom, mark my words, +if ever this precious Duke comes to me for money--as, mark my words, he +will--I'll make him get down on his knees for all his superciliousness, +and turn somersaults like a trick dog. Yes, by heaven, I will!" + +Bojo was silent, not knowing what to say, and Drake finally perceived +it. + +"It isn't Dolly's fault," he said apologetically. "She's a good sort. +This isn't her doing. There was a time when her mother-- Well, I'll say +no more. Nasty business! Tom, I'll bless the day when I see Doris safe +with you, married to a decent American." He took a turn or two and said +abruptly, trying to convey more than he expressed: "Don't wait too long. +It's a bad atmosphere, all this--there are influences--it isn't fair to +the girl, to Doris. Money be damned! I'll see you never have to ask your +wife for pocket money. No, I won't present it to you. We'll make it +together. There are a lot of buzzards sitting around here to-night, +calculating I'm loaded up to the brim and ready for a plucking. Well, +Tom, I'm going to fool them. I'm going to make them pay for the +wedding." + +The idea struck him. He burst out laughing. His eyes snapped with a +sudden project. + +"Here," he said, clapping Bojo on the shoulder. "Forget what you've +heard. Go in and take a look at Doris. She's a sight for tired eyes." He +held his hand. "Are you willing to risk your money with me--go it blind, +eh?" + +"Every cent I have, Mr. Drake," said Bojo, drawn to him by the dramatic +sympathies the older man knew how to arouse; "only I don't want any +favors. If we lose I lose." + +"We won't lose," said Drake and, drawing Bojo's arm under his, he added: +"Come on. I've got to get a smile on my face. So here goes." + +Bojo found Doris in the corner of the ballroom assiduously surrounded by +a black-coated hedge of young men. He had a moment's thrill at the sight +of her, radiant and dazzling with every art of dressmaker and +hairdresser, revealed in a sinuous arrangement of black chiffon with +mysterious sudden sheens of gold. She came to him at once, expectancy in +her eyes; and the thought that this prize was his, that hundreds would +watch them as they stood together, acknowledging his right, gave him a +sudden swift sense of power and conquest. + +"I was with your father," he said, in explanation, "to witness some +papers. Say, Doris, how every woman here must hate you to-night!" + +"It's all for you," she said, delighted. "Dance with me. Tell me what +happened. There's been a dreadful row, I know, for days. Mother and +father haven't spoken except in public, and Dolly's been moping." + +"It was something about the settlements. Your father was white-hot all +right." + +"We won't have more than a round or two," she said. "I've kept what I +could for you--the supper dance, of course. Every one is here!" + +"I should say so. Your mother is smiling all over. She even favored me. +Look out, though, Doris--she'll begin on you." + +[Illustration: "'Just you wait; you're going to be one of the big men +some day!'"] + +"Don't worry, Bojo," she said in a whisper, with a little pressure of +his arm. She was quite excited by the brilliance of the throng, at her +own personal triumph and the good looks of her partner. "I want +something I can make myself, and we'll do it too. Just you wait, you're +going to be one of the big men one of these days, and we'll have our +house and our parties--finer than this, too!" + +This time he fell into her mood, turning her over to another partner +with a confident smile, exhilarated with the thought of little +supremacies in regions of brilliant lights and dreamy music. Fred +DeLancy, back from a dance with Gladys Stone, stopped him with an +anecdote. + +"I say, Bojo, wish you could have seen some of the old hens inspecting +the palace. You know Mrs. Orchardson, Standard Oil? I was right back of +her when she wandered into some Louis or other room, and what did she +do? She ran her thumbnail into a partition and whispered to her +neighbor: 'Ours is real mahogany'! Don't they love one another, though?" + +By the buffet groups of men were smoking, glass in hand, Borneman and +Haggerdy talking business. In the ante-chamber where the great marble +staircase came winding down, he found Patsie at bay repelling a group +of admirers. She signaled him frantically. + +"Bojo; rescue me. They're even quoting poetry to me!" + +She sprang away and down the stairs to his side, hurrying him off. + +"Faster, faster! Isn't there any place we can hide? My ears are dropping +off." + +"Patsie, I never should have known you!" he said, amazed. + +"Well, I'm out!" she said, with an indignant pout. "How do you like me?" + +She stood away from him, a little malicious delight in her eyes at his +bewilderment, her chin saucily tilted, her profile turned, her little +hands balanced in the air. + +"This is the way the models pose. Well?" + +"I thought you were a child--" he said stupidly, troubled at the sudden +discovery of the woman. + +"Is that all?" she said, pretending displeasure. + +He checked an impulsive compliment and said a little angrily: + +"Oh, Patsie, you are going to make a terrible amount of trouble. I can +see that!" + +"Pooh!" + +"Yes, and you like the mischief you're causing too. Don t fib!" + +"Yes, I like it," she said, nodding her head. "Dolly and Doris stared at +me as if I were a ghost. Well, I'll show them I'm not such a savage." + +"I hope you won't change," he said. + +"Won't I?" she said, and to tease him she continued, "I'll show them!" + +He felt sentimentally moved to give her a lecture, but instead he said, +deeply moved: + +"I'd hate to think of your being different." + +"Oh, really?" she continued irrelevantly. "You didn't bother your soul +about me while you thought I was nothing but a tomboy and a terror! But +now when there are a lot of black flies buzzing around me--" + +"Now, Patsie, you know that isn't true!" + +She relented with a laugh. + +"Do you really like me like this? No, don't say anything mushy. I see +you do. Oh, dear, I knew this old money would find me," she said, +suddenly perceiving a plump youngster with a smirch of a mustache +bearing down. "Please, Bojo, come and dance with me--often." + +He more than shared the evening with her, quite unconscious of the +effect she had made on him, constantly following her in the confusion of +the dances, pleased when at a distance she saw his look and smiled back +at him. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, in the buffet, Haggerdy and Borneman, in the midst of a +group, discussed their host; that is, Borneman discussed and Haggerdy, +stolid as a buffalo, with his great emotionless mask, nodded +occasionally. + +"Well, Dan's at the top," said Marcus Stone. "Dukes come high. What do +you think it cost him?" + +"Dukes are no longer a novelty," said Borneman. He was rather out of +place in this formal gathering, having about him a curious air of +always being in his shirt-sleeves. A long, sliding nose, lips pursed +like a catfish, every feature seemed alert and pointed to catch the +furthest whisper. Stone nodded and moved off. Borneman drew Haggerdy +into a corner. + +"Jim, I have reason to believe Drake's overloaded," he said. + +Haggerdy scratched his chin, thoughtfully, as much as to say, "quite +possible," and Borneman continued: "He's stocked up with Indiana +Smelter, and a lot of other things too. I happen to know. He's +long--mighty long of the market. A little short flurry might worry him +considerable. Now, do you know how I've figured it?" + +"How?" + +"Dan Drake's a plunger, always was. This here duke has cost him +considerable--a million." He glanced at Haggerdy. "Two million +perhaps--and in securities, Jim; nothing speculative; gilt-edged bonds. +That's a million or two out of his reserve--do you get me?--and that's a +lot, when you're carrying a dozen deals at once." + +"Well?" + +"Well, Dan Drake's a plunger, remember that; he don't see one million +going out--without itching to see where another million's coming in--" + +Haggerdy nudged him quietly. At this moment Drake came through the crowd +and perceived them in consultation. A glance at their attitudes made him +divine the subject of their conversation. + +"Hello, boys," he said, coming up; "being properly attended to?" + +"Dan, that's a pretty fine duke you've got there. Darn sight more +intelligent looking than the one Fontaine picked up," said Borneman. +"Dukes are expensive articles though, Dan. Take more than a wheat corner +to settle up for this, I should say." + +"Been thinking so myself," said Drake cheerily. "Well, Al, if I made up +my mind to try a little flyer--just to pay for the wedding, you +understand--what would you recommend?" + +"What would _I_ recommend?" said Borneman, startled. + +"Exactly. What do you think about general conditions?" + +"My feelings are," said Borneman, watching him warily, "the market's +top-heavy. Values are 'way above where they ought to be. Prices are +coming tumbling sooner or later, and then, by golly, it's going hard +with a lot of you fellows." + +"You're inclined to be bearish, eh?" said Drake, as though struck by the +thought. + +"I most certainly am." + +"Shouldn't wonder if you're right, Al. I've a mind to follow your +advice. Sell one thousand Southern Pacific, one thousand Seaboard Air +Line, one thousand Pennsylvania, and one thousand Pittsburgh & New +Orleans. Just as a feeler, Al. Perhaps to-morrow I'll call you up and +increase that. Can't introduce you to any of the pretty girls--not +dancing? All right." + +Borneman caught his breath and looked at Haggerdy as Drake went off. If +there was one man he had fought persistently, at every turn biding his +time, it was Daniel Drake, who had thus come to him with an appearance +of frankness and exposed his game. + +"It's a bluff," he said excitedly. "He thinks he can fool me. He's in +the market, but he's in to buy." + +"Think so?" said Haggerdy profoundly. + +"Or he has the impudence to show me his game thinking I won't believe +him. Anyhow, Dan's got something started, and if I know the critter, +it's something big!" + +Haggerdy smiled and scratched his chin. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +DRAKE'S GAME + + +The evening was still at its height as Daniel Drake left Haggerdy and +Borneman with their heads together puzzling over the significance of his +selling orders. + +"Let them crack that nut," he said, chuckling grimly. "Borneman will +worry himself sick for fear I'll catch him again." He looked around for +further opportunities, anxious to avail himself of the seeming chance +which had played so well into his plans. Across the room through the +shift and sudden yield of gay colors he saw the low, heavy-shouldered +figure of Gunther, the banker, in conversation with Fontaine and Marcus +Stone. Gunther, the simplest of human beings, a genius of common sense, +had even at this time assumed a certain legendary equality in Wall +Street, due to the possession of the unhuman gift of silence, that had +magnified in the popular imagination the traits of tenacity, patience +and stability which in the delicately constructed mechanism of +confidence and credit had made him an indispensable balance wheel, +powerful in his own right, yet irresistible in the intermarried forces +of industry he could set in motion. Fontaine was of the old landed +aristocracy; Stone, a Middle-Westerner, floated to wealth on the +miraculous flood of oil. + +Aware that every conversation would be noted, Drake allowed several +minutes to pass before approaching the group and, profiting by a +movement of the crowd, contrived to carry off Gunther on the pretext of +showing him a new purchase of Chinese porcelains in the library. They +remained a full twenty minutes, engrossed in the examination of the +porcelains and Renaissance bronzes, of which Gunther was a connoisseur, +and returned without a mention of matters financial. But as Wall Street +men are as credulous as children, this interview made an immense +impression, for Gunther was of such power that no broker was unwilling +to concede that the slightest move of his could be without significance. + +To be again in the arena of manipulation awakened all the boyish +qualities of cunning and excitement in Drake. In the next hour he +conversed with a dozen men seemingly bending before their advice, +bullish or bearish, mixing up his orders so adroitly that had the entire +list been spread before one man, it would have been impossible to say +which was the principal point of attack. At two o'clock, as the party +began to thin out, Borneman and Haggerdy came up to shake hands. +Borneman restless and worried, Haggerdy impassive and brooding. + +"What, going already? Haven't they been treating you right?" said Drake +jovially. + +"Dan, you've a great poker face," said Borneman slyly. + +"In what way?" + +"That was quite a little bluff you threw into us--those selling orders. +Orders are cheap _before_ business hours." + +"So you think I'll call you up in the morning, bright and early, and +cancel?" + +Borneman nodded with a nervous, jerky motion of his head. + +"I suppose you've been sort of fretting over those orders all evening. +Trouble with you, Al, is _you_ don't play poker: great game. Teaches you +to size up a bluff from a stacked hand." + +"I've got your game figured out this time all right," said Borneman, +with his ferret's squint. + +"Have you told Haggerdy?" said Drake laughing. "You have. Want a little +bet on it? A thousand I'll tell you exactly what you've figured out." + +He took a bill from his pocketbook and held it out tauntingly. + +"Are you game?" + +Borneman hesitated and frowned. + +"Come on," said Drake, with a mischievous twinkle, "the information's +worth something." + +This last decided Borneman. He nodded to Haggerdy. + +"My check to-morrow if you win. What exactly have I figured your game to +be?" + +"You've figured out that I am long to the guzzle in the market and that +I'm putting up a bluff at running down values to get you fellows to run +stocks up on me while I unload. Credit that thousand to my account. I'm +going to use it!" + +Haggerdy smiled grimly and handed over the bill, while Borneman, +completely perplexed, stood staring at the manipulator like a startled +child. + +"Al, don't buck up against me," said Drake, serious all at once. "Of +course you will, but remember I warned you. Let bygones be bygones or +trim some other fellow." + +"I don't forget as easy as that," said Borneman sullenly. + +"Great mistake," said Drake, with a mocking smile. "You let your +personal feelings get into your business--bad, very bad. You ought to be +like Haggerdy and me--no friends and no enemies. Well, Al, you will have +a crack at me, I know. If you've figured it out, you've got me. I may +have told you the truth. It's all very simple--either you're right or +you're wrong. Flip up a coin." + +Borneman went off mumbling. Haggerdy loitered, ostensibly to shake +hands. + +"Drake, you and I ought to do something together," he said slowly, with +his cold, lantern stare. + +"Why not?" + +"Instead of taking a fling, suppose we work up something worth while. +The market's ready for it." + +"And Borneman?" + +"Use him," said Haggerdy, with a trace of a smile. + +"Why, yes, we might do something together," said Drake, pretending to +consider. "You might do me or I might do you." + +"I'm serious." + +"So am I." He shook hands and turned back for a final shot. "By the way, +Haggerdy, I'll tell you one thing. Your information's correct. That +federal suit is coming off. Didn't know I knew it? Lord bless you, I +passed it on to you!" + +He turned his back without waiting to watch the effect of this +disclosure and returned to the supper room, where he signaled Crocker +and drew him aside. + +"Tom, I'll have a little something for you to do to-morrow. It's about +time we started moving things. I'm going to put some orders in through +you and I'm going to operate some through one of my agents. Put this +away in your head--Joseph R. Skelly. Write it down when you get home. +Anything that comes through him, I stand behind. We won't do anything in +a rush, but we'll lay a few lines. To-morrow I want you to sell for +me--" He paused and deliberated, suddenly changing his mind. "No, do it +this way. Call me up from your office at twelve--no, eleven sharp. I've +got that wedding at three. Ask for me personally. Understand? All +right?" + +At half past three Fred DeLancy, Marsh and Bojo went out with the last +stragglers. Fred was in high spirits, keeping them in roars of laughter, +on the brisk walk home. He had been with Gladys Stone constantly all the +evening and the two friends had watched a whispered parting on the +stairs. + +"I believe it's a go," said Marsh, while DeLancy was passing the time of +day with the policeman at the corner. (Fred was assiduous in his +cultivation of the force; he called it "accident insurance.") + +"Something was settled," said Bojo nodding. "They've got an +understanding, I'll bet. I passed them once tucked in back of a palm and +they stopped talking like a shot. Wish we had the infant safely put +away, Fred." + +"So do I." + +The streets were unearthly stilled and inhuman as they came back to Ali +Baba Court, with all the windows black, and only the iron lanterns at +the entrances shining their foggy welcome. + +"Don't feel a bit like sleep," said Bojo. + +"Neither do I," said Marsh. He stood looking up at the incessantly +vigilant windows of the great newspaper office now in the charge of the +night watch. "Wonder what's filtering in there? I always feel guilty +when I cut a night. I suppose it's like the fascination of the tape. It +always gets me--the click of the telegraph." + +"How are things working out on the paper?" said Bojo. + +"Thanks, I'm getting into all sorts of trouble," said Marsh, rather +gloomily, he thought. "I'm finding out a lot of things I don't +know--sort of measles and mumps period. I had no right to be out +to-night. I say, if you get into any other good thing, let me know. I +may need it." + +Alone in his room, Bojo did not go to bed at once. He was nervously +awake, revolving in his mind too many new impressions, new ambitions and +strange philosophies. The evening at the Drakes had swept from him his +last prejudices against the adventurous life on which he had embarked. +There was something overpowering in the spectacle of society as he had +seen it, something so insolently triumphant and aloof from all plodding +standards, so dramatically enticing that he felt no longer compunctions +but only fierce desires. The appetite had entered his veins, infusing +its fever. The few words Drake had spoken to him had sent his hope +soaring. He was surprised, even a little alarmed, at the intensity which +awoke in him to risk the easy profits against a greater gamble. + +The market went off a shade the next morning, rallied and then weakened +under a steady stream of selling orders. Rumors filled the air of +possible causes known only to the inside group, a conflict of big +interests, a suit for dissolution by a federal investigation. Something +was up-- Drake's name was whispered about, along with Haggerdy's and a +western group. On the Exchange a hundred rumors came into existence like +newly hatched swarms of insects. Some one was steadily bearing eastern +railroads and some one as obstinately supporting them, but who remained +a mystery, eagerly discussed in little knots, fervently alive to a +firmer touch on the strings of speculation. + +At eleven o'clock, true to appointment, Bojo called up Daniel Drake on +his private wire and received an order to buy at once 500 shares of +Seaboard Air Line and sell 500 of Pittsburgh & New Orleans. He turned +the order over to Forshay, with the caution of secrecy that had been +transmitted to him. This transaction created quite a flurry, and after a +consultation Forshay was delegated to sound Bojo. + +"Personal order from the old man himself?" he said, when he had reported +to him the execution of the order. "Nothing confidential, of course. +Happened to hear you telephone." + +"Why, no," said Bojo, telephoning in his report. + +"Suppose you've an inkling what's up? Naturally you have," said Forshay. +"Now, I'm not going to beat around the bush or worm things out of you. +We're mighty grateful to you, Tom, for the shot at Indiana Smelter. If +you can let us in on anything, why do so. You understand. I've been +talking things over with Hauk and Flaspoller. If Drake's going into the +market, we don't see why we can't be of use. 'Course, on account of your +relations, he probably wouldn't want to do much openly here. Too many +eyes on us. But what we want you to put up to him is--we can cover +things up as well as any one else. Any orders to be placed quietly, we +can work through certain channels--you understand. By the way, doing +anything on your own account?" + +"Not yet." + +"Don't want to talk?" + +Bojo shrugged his shoulders. + +"I'm quite in the dark, Mr. Forshay," he said cautiously. + +Forshay took a few steps thoughtfully about the room, stopping curiously +to examine the tape and came back. + +"Look here, Tom, if there's anything on a big scale on, why shouldn't we +get a whack at it? You see, I'm putting my cards on the table. We +consider you a sort of a member of the firm. I made you a proposition +once. Perhaps we can better it now." He hesitated, rearranging the +sheets on the desk before him. "I'm trying to see how we could work this +out. It's not exactly etiquette to give commissions down here--though +why the Lord knows. Suppose I work out a scale of salary--to meet, say, +certain eventualities. Let me think that over. Meanwhile here's what +we'd be glad to do. You can't be calling up Drake out here where any one +can be pricking up his ears. Now it may fit in his plans or not, but +there's no harm trying. If he wants to operate through us, and have +things well covered up, it might be better for you to handle it from my +room on a special wire. We'll fix you up in there; glad to." He stopped, +considered Bojo thoughtfully, and added: "Tom, we want some of Drake's +business. No reason in the world why you shouldn't get it. You know us. +You know we can be trusted, and you know we are appreciative--understand? + +"I can try," said Bojo doubtfully. + +But to his surprise when he approached Drake on the following night he +found a receptive listener. + +"Don't know but what I could use your firm," said the operator +thoughtfully. "Not that I'm rushing matters too much, Tom. The market's +pretty strong at present. I want to feel it out. Maybe I could use +them--for what I want them to know. Get your raise, but keep out of the +firm--for the present, anyhow. Just now I'm holding back a little, Tom, +a little early to uncover my game--tell you, though, what you might do; +sell five hundred shares a day of Pittsburgh & New Orleans for me, but +tell them to break it up 50 here and 50 there. I don't mind telling you +one thing, but keep it under your belt; no confidences this time." He +looked up sharply at the young fellow, who twisted on his heel under the +look. "Confidences sometimes react and I don't want the cat out of the +bag. What's Pittsburgh & New Orleans quoted?" + +"47-1/8 Closing," said Bojo. + +"A month from to-day it'll sell below thirty. And another thing, Tom, +don't go trying any fliers on your own hook, without coming to me. You +had fool's luck once, don't try it again. Remember I'm manipulating this +pool and I have my ways!" + +This time Bojo was under no illusions. Despite his warning he knew in +the bottom of his heart that when the moment came he would operate for +himself. However, he resolved on two things: to share his secret with no +one and to watch the course of Pittsburgh and New Orleans for a week +before making up his mind. The first flurry had subsided. To the +surprise of every one the attack ceased over night. The list resumed its +normal position with the exception of several southern railroad stocks, +notably Pittsburgh & New Orleans, which remained heavy, declining +fractionally. + +During these days, Bojo resolutely stuck to his resolve, imparting no +information, keeping out of the market himself. On the announcement of +the first order for Drake, his salary was raised to $125 a week and the +affection of the firm showed itself in several invitations to enter the +consultation. Each day Forshay found opportunity to ask in a casual way: + +"Not doing anything on your own hook yet, eh? Sort of watching +developments?" + +Ten days after the first attack, another flurry arrived, but this time +the attack was from the open, from all the bear cohorts who for months +had been grumbling in vain, predicting disaster from inflation and the +panic that must follow inevitable readjustment. Borneman and his crowd +sold openly and viciously, raiding all stocks alike, particularly +industrials. That day, among other orders, Hauk, Flaspoller and Forshay +sold 10,000 shares of Pittsburgh & New Orleans which broke from 44 to +39-5/8 under savage pounding. Crocker resisted no longer and sold a +thousand for his own account. That day Forshay failed to make his usual +inquiry. + +After three days of convulsive advances and speedy falls, the attack +again slackened, but this time the whole list rallied with difficulty, +receding almost imperceptibly, but slowly yielding under a decided +change of public sentiment. When Pittsburgh & New Orleans touched 38, +Bojo squared his conscience to the extent of exacting the most solemn +promises of undying secrecy from Fred DeLancy before communicating to +them the information that had now become a conviction, that he had +placed $50,000 in a pool which Drake was engineering to sell the market +short and make a killing of Pittsburgh & New Orleans. He imparted the +confidence not simply because it had become an almost intolerable secret +to carry, but for deeper reasons. Fred DeLancy had sunk half of his +former profits in the purchase of an automobile and in free spending, +and Marsh was faced with serious losses on the paper from a strike of +compositors and a falling of advertising as the result of the new +radical policy of the editorial page. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +BOJO BUTTS IN + + +Sunday the four were accustomed to lounge through the morning and +saunter down the Avenue for a late luncheon at the Brevoort. On the +present date, Granning was stretched on the window-seat re-reading a +favorite novel of Dumas, Bojo and Marsh pulling at their pipes in a deep +discussion of an important rumor which might considerably affect the +downward progress of Pittsburgh & New Orleans--a possible investigation +by certain Southern States which was the talk of the office--while Fred +at the piano was replaying by ear melodies from last night's comic +opera, when the telephone rang. + +"You answer it, Bojo," said DeLancy, "and hist, be cautious!" + +Bojo did as commanded, saying almost immediately: + +"Party for you, Freddie." + +"Male or female voice?" + +"Male." + +DeLancy rose with a look of relief and tripped over to the receiver. But +almost immediately he crumpled up with a simulation of despair. Bojo and +Marsh exchanged a glance, and Granning ceased reading, at muffled sounds +of explanation which reached them from the other room. + +"Pinched," said DeLancy, returning gloomy and, flopping on the piano +stool, he struck an angry chord. + +The three friends, according to male etiquette, maintained an attitude +of correct incomprehension while Fred marched lugubriously up and down +the keyboard. "Holy cats, now I am in for it!" + +"Louise Varney?" said Bojo. + +"Louise! And I swore on my grandmother's knuckles I was going up country +this afternoon. Beautiful--beautiful prospect! I say, Bojo, you got me +into this--you've got to stick by me!" + +"What's that mean?" + +"Shooting off in the car with us for luncheon. For the love of me, stand +by a fellow, will you?" + +Bojo hesitated. + +"Go on," said Marsh with a wary look. "If you don't, the infant'll come +back married!" + +"Quite possible," said DeLancy, disconsolately. + +"I'll go if you'll stand for the lecture," said Bojo severely, for +DeLancy had become a matter of serious deliberation. + +"Anything. You can't rub it in too hard," said Fred, who went to the +mirror to see if his hair was turning gray. "And say, for Mike's sake, +think up a new lie-- I'm down to dentist's appointments and mother's +come to town." + +Delighted at Bojo's adherence that saved him from the prospects of a +difficult tete-a-tete, he began to recover his spirits; but Bojo, +assuming a severe countenance, awaited his opportunity. + +"I say, don't look at me with that pulpit expression," said DeLancy an +hour later as they streaked through the Park on their way to upper +Riverside. "What have I done?" + +"Fred, you're getting in deep!" + +"Don't I know it?" said that impressionable young man, jerking the car +ahead. "Well, get me out." + +"I'm not sure you want to get out," said Bojo. + +DeLancy confessed; in fact, confession was a pleasant and +well-established habit with him. + +"Bojo, it's no use. When I'm away from her, I can call myself a fool in +six languages. I _am_ a fool. I know I have no business hanging round; +but, say, the moment she turns up I'm ready to lie down and roll over." + +"It's puppy love." + +"I admit it." + +"She's just going to keep you dangling, Fred. You know as well as I do +you haven't a chance even if you were idiotic enough to think of +marrying her. She's not losing her head, you can bet on that. That's why +the mother is on deck." + +"Oh, there are half a dozen Yaps with a wad she could have, and any time +she wants to whistle," said Fred pugnaciously. + +Bojo decided to change his tactics. + +"I thought you were cleverer. Thought you'd planned out your whole +career; remember the night up on the Astor roof--you weren't going to +make any mistakes, oh no! You were going to marry a million. You weren't +going to get caught!" + +"Shut up, Bojo. Can't you see how rotten I'm in it? I'm doing my best to +break away." + +"Get up a row then and stay away." + +"I've tried, but she's too clever for that. Honest, Tom, I think she's +fond of me." + +Bojo groaned. + +"She thinks you're a millionaire with your confounded style, and your +confounded car--that's all!" + +"Well, maybe I will be," said DeLancy with a sudden revulsion to +cheerfulness, "if Pittsburgh & New Orleans keeps a-sliding." + +"Suppose we get caught." + +"I say, there's no danger of that?" said Fred, alarmed. "I'm in deep." + +"No, not much, but there's always the chance of a slip," said Bojo, who +began to wonder if a successful issue would not further complicate +Fred's sentimental entanglements. + +At this moment they came to a stop, and Fred said in a comforting tone: + +"Louise'll be furious because I brought you." + +"You old humbug," said Bojo, perceiving the eagerness in Mr. Fred's +eyes. "You're just tickled to death." + +"Well, perhaps I am," said Fred, laughing at his friend's serious face. +"Say, she has a way with her--hasn't she now?" + +Miss Louise Varney did not seem over-delighted at the spectacle of a +guest in the party as she came running out, backed by the vigilant +dowager figure of Mrs. Varney, who never let her daughter out of her +charge. But whatever irritation she might have felt she concealed under +a charming smile, while Mrs. Varney, accustomed to swinging in solitary +dignity in the back seat, welcomed him with genuine enthusiasm. + +"Well, Mr. Crocker, isn't this grand! You and me can sit here flirting +on the back seat and let them whisper sweet nothings." She tapped him on +the arm, saying in a half voice: "Say, they certainly are a good looking +team now, ain't they?" + +The old Grenadier, as she was affectionately termed by her daughter's +admirers, was out in her war paint, dressed like a debutante, fatly +complacent and smiling with the prospect of a delicious lunch at the end +of the drive. + +"Say, I think Fred's the sweetest feller," she began, beaming on Bojo, +"and so smart too. Louise says he could make a forchin in vaudeville. I +think he's much cleverer than that Pinkle feller who gets two-fifty a +week for giving imitations on the pianner. Why haven't you been around, +Mr. Crocker?" She nudged him again, her maternal gaze fondly fixed on +her daughter. "Isn't she a dream in that cute little hat? My Lord, I +should think all the men would be just crazy about her." + +"Most of them are, I should say," said Bojo, and, smiling, he nodded in +the direction of Fred DeLancy, who was at that moment in the throes of a +difficult explanation. + +Mrs. Varney gave a huge sigh and proceeded confidentially. + +"'Course Louise's got a great future, every one says, and vaudeville +does pay high when you get to be a top notcher; but, my sakes, Mr. +Crocker, money isn't everything in this world, as I often told her--" + +"Mother, be quiet--you're talking too much," said Miss Louise Varney +abruptly, whose alert little ear was always trained for maternal +indiscretions. Mrs. Varney, as was her habit, withdrew into an attitude +of sulky aloofness, not to relax until they were cozily ensconced at a +corner table in a wayside inn for luncheon. By this time Miss Varney had +evidently decided to accept the protestations of DeLancy, and peace +having been declared and the old Grenadier mollified by her favorite +broiled lobster and a carafe of beer, the party proceeded gaily. Fred +DeLancy, in defiance of Bojo's presence, beaming and fascinated, +exchanged confidential whispers and smiles with the girl which each +fondly believed unperceived. + +"Good Lord," thought Bojo to himself, now quite alarmed, "this is a +pickle! He's in for it fair this time and no mistake. She can have him +any time she wants to. Of course she thinks he's loaded with diamonds." + +Mr. Fred's attitude, in fact, would have deceived a princess of the +royal blood. + +"Louis, get up something tasty," he said to the bending _maitre +d'hotel_. "You know what I like. Don't bother me with the menu. Louis," +he added confidentially, "is a jewel--the one man in New York you can +trust." He initialed the check without examining it and laid down a +gorgeous tip with a careless flip of the finger. + +"The little idiot," thought Bojo. "I wonder what bills he's run up. +Decidedly I must get a chance at the girl and open her eyes." + +Chance favored him, or rather Miss Varney herself. Luncheon over, while +Fred went out for the car, she said abruptly: + +"Let's run out in the garden. I want to talk to you. Don't worry, mamma. +It's all right." And as Mrs. Varney, true to her grenadierial instincts, +prepared to object, she added with a shrug of her shoulders: "Now just +doze away like a dear. We can't elope, you know!" + +"What can she want to say to me?" thought Bojo curiously, suffering her +to lead him laughing out through the glass doors into the pebbled paths. +Despite his growing alarm, Bojo was forced to admit that Miss Varney, +with her quick Japanese eyes and bubbling humor, was a most fascinating +person, particularly when she exerted herself to please in little +intimate ways. + +"Mr. Crocker, you don't like me," she said abruptly. He defended himself +badly. "Don't fib--you are against me. Why? On account of Fred?" + +"I don't dislike you--no one could," he said, yielding to the persuasion +of her smile, "but if you want to know, I am worried over Fred. He is +head over heels in love with you, young lady." + +"And why not?" + +"Do you care for him?" + +"Yes--very much," she said quietly, "and I want you to be our friend." + +"Good heavens, I really believe she does," he thought, panic-stricken. +Aloud he said abruptly: "If that is what you want, let me ask you a +question. Please forgive me for being direct. Do you know that Fred +hasn't a cent in the world but what he makes? You can judge yourself how +he spends that." + +"But Fred told me he had made a lot lately and I know he expects to make +ten times that in something--" she stopped hastily at a look in Bojo's +face. "Why, what's wrong?" + +"Miss Varney--you haven't put anything into it, have you? + +"Yes, I have," she said after a moment's hesitation. "Why, he told me +you yourself told him he couldn't lose. You don't mean to say there's +any--any danger?" + +"I'm sorry. He shouldn't have told you! There's always a risk. I'm sorry +he let you do that." + +"Oh, I oughtn't to have let it out," she said contritely. "Promise not +to tell him. I didn't mean to! Besides--it's not much really." + +Bojo shook his head. + +"Mr. Crocker-- Tom," she said, laying her hand on his arm, "don't turn +him against me. I'm being square with you. I do care for Fred. I don't +care if he hasn't a cent in the world; really I'm not that sort, +honest." + +"And your mother?" + +She was silent, and he seized the advantage. + +"Why get into something that'll only hurt you both? Suppose things turn +out all right. He'll spend every cent he'll make in a few months. Now +listen, Louise. You're not made for life in a flat; neither is he. It +would be a miserable disaster. I'm sorry," he said, seeing her eyes +fill. "But what I say is true. You've got a career, a brilliant career +with money and fame ahead; don't spoil your chances and don't spoil +his." + +"What do you mean?" she said, flaring up. "Then there is some one else! +I knew it! That's where he's going this afternoon!" + +"There is no one else," he said, lying outrageously. "I've warned you. +I've told you the real situation. That's all." + +"Let's go back," she said abruptly, and she went in silence as far as +the house, where she turned on him. "I don't believe what you've told +me. I know he is not poor or a beggar as you say. Would he be going +around with the crowd he does? No!" With an upspurt of rage of which he +had not believed her capable, she added: "Now I warn you. What we do is +our affair. Don't butt in or there'll be trouble!" + +On the return, doubtless for several reasons, she elected to send her +mother in front, and to keep Bojo company on the back seat, where as +though regretting her one revealing flash of temper, she sought to be as +gracious and entertaining as possible. Despite a last whispered appeal +accompanied by a soft pressure of the arm and a troubled glance of the +eyes, no sooner had they deposited mother and daughter than Bojo broke +out: + +"Fred, what in the name of heaven possessed you to put Louise Varney's +money in a speculation? How many others have you told?" + +"Only a few--very few." + +"But, Fred, think of the responsibility! Now look here, straight from +the shoulder--do you know what's going to happen? Before you know it, +you're going to wake up and find yourself married to Louise Varney!" + +"Don't jump on me, Bojo," said Fred, miserably. "I'm scared to death +myself." + +"But, Fred, you can't do such a thing. Louise is pretty--attractive +enough--I'll admit it--and straight; but the mother, Fred--you can't do +it, you'll just drop out. It'll be the end of you. Man, can't you see +it? I thought you prided yourself on being a man of the world. Look at +your friends. There's Gladys Stone--crazy about you. You know it. Are +you going to throw all that away!" + +"If I was sure of a hundred thousand dollars I believe I'd marry Louise +to-morrow!" said Fred with a long breath. "Call me crazy--I am crazy--a +raving, tearing fool, but that doesn't help. Lord, nothing helps!" + +"Fred, answer me one question. We all thought, the night of the ball, +you and Gladys Stone had come to an understanding. Is that true?" + +Fred turned his head and groaned. + +"I'm a cad, a horrible, beastly little cad!" + +"Good Lord, is it as bad as that!" said Bojo. "But, Fred, old boy, how +did it happen? How did you ever get in so deep!" + +"How do I know?" said DeLancy miserably. "It was just playing around. +Other men were crazy over her. I never meant to be serious in the +beginning--and then--then I was caught." + +"Fred, old fellow, you've got to get hold of yourself. Will you let me +butt in?" + +"I wish to God you would." + +That night Bojo sent a long letter off to Doris, who was staying in the +Berkshires with Gladys Stone as a guest. As a result the two young men +departed for a week-end of winter sports. On the Pullman they stowed +their valises and wandered back into the smoker where the first person +Bojo saw, bound for the same destination, was young Boskirk. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SNOW MAGIC + + +Boskirk and Bojo greeted each other with that excessive cordiality which +the conventions of society impose upon two men who hate each other +cordially but are debarred from the primeval instincts to slay. + +"He wouldn't gamble, he wouldn't take a risk! Oh no, nothing human about +him," said Bojo to Fred, sending a look of antagonism at Boskirk, who +was adjusting his glasses and spreading the contents of a satchel on the +table before him. + +"The human cash-register!" said DeLancy. "Born at the age of forty-two, +middle names Caution, Conservatism, and the Constitution. Favorite +romance--Statistics." + +"Thank you!" said Bojo, somewhat mollified. + + "There was a young man named Boskirk + Who never his duty would shirk,--" + +began DeLancy--and forthwith retired into intellectual seclusion to +complete the limerick. + +The spectacle of Boskirk immersed in business detail irritated Bojo +immeasurably. The feeling it aroused in him was not jealousy but rather +a sense that some one was threatening his right and his property. + +A complete and insidious change had been worked in his moral fiber. The +hazardous speculation to which he was now committed, which was nothing +but the sheerest and most vicious form of gambling, the wrecking of +property, would have been impossible to him six months before. But he +had lived too long in the atmosphere of luxury, and too close to the +master adventurers of that speculative day. Luxury had become a second +nature to him; contact with men who could sell him out twenty times over +had brought him the parching hunger for money. All other ideals had +yielded before a new ideal--force. To impose one's self, making one's +own laws, brushing aside weak scruples, planning above ridiculously +simple and obvious schemes of legal conduct for the ordering of the +multitude, silencing criticism by the magnitude of the operation--a +master where a weak man ended a criminal:--this was the new scheme of +life which he was gradually absorbing. + +He had become worldly with the confidence of succeeding. Whatever +compunctions he had formerly felt about a marriage with Doris he had +dismissed as pure sentimentality. There remained only a certain pride, a +desire to know his worth by some master stroke. In this fierce need, he +had lost moderation and caution. With the steady decline of Pittsburgh & +New Orleans, his appetite had increased. It was no longer a fair profit +he wanted, but something miraculous. He had sold hundreds of shares, +placing always a limit, vowing to be satisfied, and always going beyond +it. He had plunged first to the amount of thirty odd thousand, reserving +the fifty thousand which was pledged to the pool, but which he had not +been called on to deliver. But this fifty thousand remained a horrible +ever-present temptation. He resisted at first, borrowing five thousand +from Marsh when the rage of selling drove him deeper in; then finally, +absolutely confident, he had yielded, without much shock to his +conscience, and drawn each day until on this morning he had drawn on the +last ten thousand as collateral. + +And still Pittsburgh & New Orleans receded, heaping up before his mind +fantastic profits. + + "When asked, 'Don't you tire,' + He said, 'Di diddledee dire-- + I never can get enough work.'" + +finished Fred with a grimace. "That's pretty bad--but so's the subject." + +"Look here, Fred," said Bojo, thus recalled from the tyranny of figures +which kept swirling before his eyes. "I want to talk to you. I'm worried +about your letting Louise Varney in on Pittsburgh & New Orleans; besides +I suspect you've plunged a darned sight deeper than you ought." + +And from the moral superiority of a man of force, he read him a lecture +on the danger to the mere outsider of risking all on one hazard--a +sensible pointed warning which DeLancy accepted contritely, in utter +ignorance of the preacher's own perilous position. + +It was well after seven when they stepped out on the icy station amid +the gay crowd of week-enders. Patsie, at the reins, halloed to them from +a rakish cutter, and the next moment they were off over the crackling +snow with long, luminous, purple shadows at their sides, racing past +other sleighs with jingling bells and shrieks of recognition. + +"Heavens, Patsie, you're worse than Fred with his car! I say, look +out--you missed that cutter by a foot," said Bojo, who had taken the +seat beside the young Eskimo at an imperious command. + +"Pooh, that's nothing!" said that reckless person. "Watch this." With a +sudden swerve she drew past a contending sleigh and gained the head of +the road by a margin so narrow that the occupants of the back seat broke +into many cries. + +"Here, let me out-- Murder!-- Police!" + +"Don't worry, the snow's lovely and soft!" Patsie shouted back, +delighted. "Turned over myself yesterday--doesn't hurt a bit." + +This encouraging information was received with frantic cries and demands +on Bojo to take the reins. + +"Don't you dare," said the gay lady indignantly, setting her feet firmly +and flinging all the weight of her shoulders against a sudden break of +the spirited team. + +"Pulling pretty hard," said Bojo, watching askance the riotous struggle +that whirled past cottage and evergreen and filled the air with a snowy +bombardment from the scurrying hoofs. "Say when, if you need me." + +"I _won't_! Tell the back seat to jump if I shout!" + +"Holy murder!" exclaimed Fred DeLancy, who so far forgot his animosities +as to cling to Boskirk, possibly with the idea of providing himself a +cushion in case of need. + +"Are they awfully scared?" said Patsie in a delighted whisper. "Yes? +Just you wait till we get to the gate. That will make them howl! How's +your nose--frozen? + +"Glorious!" + +"Too cold for Doris and the rest. Catch them getting chapped up. Their +idea of winter sports is popping popcorn by the fire. Thank heaven +you've arrived, Bojo! I'm suffocating. Hold tight!" + +"Hold tight!" sang out Bojo, not without some apprehension as the +sleigh, without slackening speed, approached the sudden swerve which led +through massive stone columns into the Drake estate. The quick turn +raised them on edge, skidding over the beaten snow so that the sleigh +came up with a bump against the farther pillar and then shot forward up +the long hill crowned with blazing porches and to a stop at last, +saluted by the riotous acclaim of a dozen dogs of all sizes and breeds. + +"Scared--honor-bright?" said Patsie, leaping out as a groom came up to +take the horses. + +"Never again!" said DeLancy, springing to terra firma with a groan of +relief, while Boskirk looked at the reckless girl with a disapproving +shake of his head. + +They went stamping into the great hall to the warmth of a great log +blaze, Patsie dancing ahead, shedding toboggan cap and muffler riotously +on the way, for a dignified footman to gather in. + +"Don't look so disappointed!" she cried, laughing, as the three young +men looked about expectantly. "The parlor beauties are upstairs +splashing in paint and powder, getting ready for the grand entrance!" + +Boskirk and DeLancy went off to their rooms while Bojo, at a sign from +Patsie, remained behind. + +"Well?" he said. + +"Bojo, do me a favor--a great favor," she said instantly, seizing the +lapels of his coat. "It's moonlight to-night and we've got the most +glorious coast for a toboggan and, Bojo, I'm just crazy to go. After +dinner, won't you? Please say yes." + +"Why, we'll get up a party," said Bojo, hesitating and tempted. + +"Party? Catch those mollycoddles getting away from the steam-heaters! +Now, Bojo, be a dear. You're the only real being I've had here in weeks. +Besides, if you have any spunk you'll do it," she added artfully. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just let Doris get her fill of that old fossil of a Boskirk. Show your +independence. Bojo, please do it for me!" + +She clung to him, coquetting with her eyes and smile with the dangerous +inconscient coquetry of a child, and this radiance and rosy youth, so +close to him, so intimately offered, brought him a disturbing emotion. +He turned away so as not to meet the sparkling, pleading glance. + +"Young lady," he said with assumed gruffness, "I see you are learning +entirely too fast. I believe you are actually flirting with me." + +"Then you will!" she cried gleefully. "Hooray!" She flung her arms about +him in a rapturous squeeze and fled like a wild animal in light, +graceful bounds up the stairs, before he could qualify his +acquiescence. + +When he came down dressed for dinner, Doris was flitting about the +library, waiting his coming. She glanced correctly around to forestall +eavesdroppers, and offered him her cheek. + +"Is this a skating costume?" he said, glancing quizzically at the +trailing, mysterious silken ballgown of lavender and gold, which +enfolded her graceful figure like fragrant petals. "By the way, why +didn't you let me know I was to have a rival?" + +"Don't be silly," she said, brushing the powder from his sleeve. "I was +furious. It was all mother's doings." + +"Yes, you look furious!" he said to tease her. "Never mind, Doris, +General Managers must calculate on all possibilities." + +She closed his lips with an indignant movement of her scented fingers, +looking at him reproachfully. + +"Bojo, don't be horrid. Marry Boskirk? I'd just as soon marry a mummy. I +should be petrified with boredom in a week." + +"He's in love with you." + +"He? He couldn't love anything. How ridiculous! Heavens, just to think +I'll have to talk his dreary talk sends creeping things up and down my +back." + +Bojo professed to be unconvinced, playing the offended and jealous +lover, not perhaps without an ulterior motive, and they were in the +midst of a little tiff when the others arrived. Mrs. Drake did not dare +to isolate him completely, but she placed Boskirk on Doris's right, and +to carry out his assumed irritation Bojo devoted himself to Patsie, who +rattled away heedless of where her chatter hit. + +Dinner over, Bojo, relenting a little, sought to organize a general +party, but meeting with no success went off, heedless of reproachful +glances, to array himself in sweater and boots. + +Twenty minutes later they were on the toboggan, Patsie tucked in front, +laughing back at him over her shoulder with the glee of the escapade. +Below them the banked track ran over the dim, white slopes glowing in +the moonlight. + +"All you have to do is to keep it from wobbling off the track with your +foot," said Patsie. + +"How are you--warm enough? Wrap up tight!" he said, pushing the toboggan +forward until it tilted on the iced crest. "Ready?" + +"Let her go!" + +He flung himself down on his side, her back against his shoulder, and +with a shout they were off, whistling into the frosty night, shooting +down the steep incline, faster and faster, rocking perilously, as the +smooth, flat toboggan rose from the trough and tilted against the +inclined sides, swerving back into place at a touch of his foot, rising +and falling with the curved slopes, shooting past clustered trees that +rushed by them like inky storm-clouds, flashing smoothly at last on to +the level. + +"Lean to the left!" she called to him, as they reached a banked curve. + +"When?" + +"Now!" Her laugh rang out as they rose almost on the side and sped into +the bend. "Hold tight, there's a jump in a minute-- Now!" + +Their bodies stiffened against each other, her hair sweeping into his +eyes, blinding him as the toboggan rose fractionally from the ground +and fell again. + +"Gorgeous!" + +"Wonderful!" + +They glided on smoothly, with slacking speed, a part of the stillness +that lay like the soft fall of snow over the luminous stretches and the +clustered mysterious shadows; without a word exchanged, held by the +witchery of the night, and the soft, fairylike crackling voyage. Then +gradually, imperceptibly, at last the journey ended. The toboggan came +to a stop in a glittering region of white with a river bank and elfish +bushes somewhere at their side, and ahead a dark rise against the +horizon with lights like pin-pricks far off, and on the air, from +nowhere, the tinkle of sleigh-bells, but faint, shaken by some +will-o'-the-wisp perhaps. + +"Are you glad you came?" she said at last, without moving. + +"Very glad." + +"Think of sitting around talking society when you can get out here," she +said indignantly. "Oh, Bojo, I'm never going to stand it. I think I'll +take the veil." + +He laughed, but softly, with the feeling of one who understands, as +though in that steep plunge the icy air had cleansed his brain of all +the hot, fierce worldly desires for money, power, and vanities which had +possessed it like a fever. + +"I wish we could sit here like this for hours," she said, unconsciously +resting against his shoulder. + +"I wish we could, too, Drina," he answered, meditating. + +She glanced back at him. + +"I like you to call me Drina," she said. + +"Drina when you are serious, Patsie when you are trying to upset +sleighs." + +"Yes, there are two sides of me, but no one knows the other." She sat a +moment as though hesitating on a confidence, and suddenly sprang up. +"Game for another?" + +"A dozen others!" + +They caught up the rope together, but suddenly serious she stopped. + +"Bojo?" + +"What?" + +"Sometimes I think you and Doris are not a bit in love." + +"What makes you think that?" he said, startled. + +"I don't know--you don't act--not as I would act--not as I should think +people would act in love. Am I awfully impertinent?" + +Troubled, he made no answer. + +"Nothing is decided, of course," he said at last, rather surprised at +the avowal. + +They tramped up the hill, averting their heads occasionally as truant +gusts of wind whirled snow-sprays in their eyes, chatting confidentially +on less intimate subjects. + +"Let's go softly and peek in," she said, returning into her mischievous +self as the great gabled house afire with lights loomed before them. +They stood, shoulder to shoulder, peeping about a protecting tree at the +group in the drawing-room. Mr. Drake was reading under the lamp, Fred +and Gladys ensconced in the bay window, while Doris at the phonograph +had resorted to Caruso. + +"Heavens, what an orgy!-- Sh-h. Hurry now." + +A second time they went plunging into the night, close together, more +sober, the silence cut only by the hissing rush and an occasional +warning from Drina, as each obstacle sprang past. But her voice was no +longer hilarious with the glee of a child; it was attuned to the hush +and slumber of the countryside. + +"I hate the city!" she said rebelliously when again they had come to a +stop. "I hate the life they want me to lead." + +All at once a quick resentment came to him, at the thought that she +should change and be turned into worldly ways. + +"I'm afraid you're not made for a social career, Patsie," he said +slowly. "I would hate to think of your being different." + +"You can't say what you want, or do what you want, or let people know +what you feel," she said in an outburst. "Just let them try to marry me +off to any old duke or count and see what'll happen!" + +"Why, no one wants to marry you off yet, Patsie," he said in dismay. + +"I'm not so sure." She was silent a moment. "Do you think it's awful to +hate your family--not Dad, but all the rest--to want to run away, and be +yourself--be natural? Well, that's just the way I feel!" + +"Is that the way you feel?" he said slowly. + +She nodded, looking away. + +"I want to be real, Bojo." She shuddered. "I know Dolly's +unhappy--there was some one she did care for-- I know. It must be +terrible to marry like that--terrible! It would kill me--oh, I know it!" + +They were silent; come to that moment where secret carriers are near, +she still a little shy, he afraid of himself. + +"We must go back now," he said after a long pause. "We must, Drina." + +"Oh, must we!" + +"Yes." + +"Will you come out to-morrow night?" + +"I don't know," he said confusedly. + +He held out his hand and raised her to her feet. + +"Come." + +"I don't want to go back," she said, yielding reluctantly. She threw out +her arms, drawing a long breath, her head flung back in the path of the +moonbeams with the unconscious instinct of the young girl for enchanting +the male. "You don't want to go either. Now do you?" + +He made no reply, fidgeting with the rope. + +"Now be nice and say you don't!" + +"No, I don't," he said abruptly. + +"Drina?" + +"Drina." + +She took his arm, laughing a low, pleased laugh, quite unconscious of +all the havoc she was causing, never analyzing the moods of the night +and the soul which were stealing over her too in an uncomprehended +happiness. + +"I think I could tell you anything, Bojo," she said gently. "You seem +to understand, and so much that I don't say too!" + +All at once she slipped and flung back against him to avoid falling. He +held her thus--his arm around her. + +"Turn your ankle? Hurt?" + +"No, no--ouf!" + +A galloping gust came tearing over the snow, whirling white spirals, +showering them with a myriad of tiny, pointed crystal sparks, stinging +their cheeks and blinding their eyes. With a laugh she turned her head +away and shrank up close to him, still in the protection of his arms. +The gust fled romping away and still they stood, suddenly hushed, +clinging with half-closed eyes. She sought to free herself, felt his +arms retaining her, glanced up frightened, and then yielded, swaying +against him. + +[Illustration: "'Drina, dear child,' he said in a whisper"] + +"Drina--dear child," he said in a whisper that was wrenched from his +soul. Such a sensation of warmth and gladness, of life and joy, entered +his being that all other thoughts disappeared tumultuously, as he held +her thus in his arms, there alone in the silence and the luminous night, +reveling wildly in the knowledge that the same inevitable impulse had +drawn her also to him. + +"Oh, Bojo, we mustn't, we can't!" + +The cry had so much young sorrow in it as he drew away that a pain went +through his heart to have brought this suffering. + +"Drina, forgive me. I wouldn't hurt you-- I couldn't help it-- I didn't +know what happened," he said brokenly. + +"Don't--you couldn't help it--or I either. I don't blame you--no, no, I +don't blame you," she said impulsively, her eyes wet, her hands +fervently clasped. He did not dare meet her glance, his brain in a riot. + +"We must go back," he said hastily, and they went in silence. + +When they returned Patsie disappeared. He entered the drawing-room and, +though for the first time he felt how false his position was, even with +a feeling of guilt, he was surprised at the sudden wave of kindliness +and sympathy that swept over him as he took his place by Doris. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BOJO MAKES A DECISION + + +The next morning Patsie persistently avoided him. Instead of joining the +skaters on the pond, she went off for a long excursion across country on +her skis, followed by her faithful bodyguard of Romp and three different +varieties of terrier. Bojo came upon her suddenly quite by accident on +her return. She was coming up the great winding stairway, not like a +whirlwind, but heavily, her head down and thoughtful, heedless of the +dogs that tumbled over each other for the privilege of reaching her +hand. At the sight of him she stopped instinctively, blushing red before +she could master her emotions. + +He came to her directly, holding out his hand, overcome by the thought +of the pain he had unwittingly caused her, seeking the proper words, +quite helpless and embarrassed. She took his hand and looked away, her +lips trembling. + +"I'm so glad to see you," he said stupidly. "We're pals, good pals, you +know, and nothing can change that." + +She nodded without looking at him, slowly withdrawing her hand. He +rushed on heedlessly, imbued with only one idea--to let her know at all +costs how much her opinion of him mattered. + +"Don't think badly of me, Patsie. I wouldn't bring you any sorrow for +all the world. What you think means an awful lot to me." He hesitated, +fearing to say too much, and then blurted out: "Don't turn against me, +Drina, whatever you do." + +She turned quickly at the name, looked at him steadily a moment, and +shook her head, trying to smile. + +"Never, Bojo--never that-- I couldn't," she said, and hurriedly went up +the stairs. + +A lump came to his throat; something wildly, savagely delirious, seemed +to be pumping inside of him. He could not go back to the others at once. +He felt suffocated, in a whirl, with the need of mastering himself, of +bringing all the unruly, triumphant impulses that were rioting through +his brain back to calm and discipline. + +At luncheon, Patsie proposed an excursion in cutters, claiming Mr. +Boskirk as her partner, and with a feeling almost of guilt he seconded +the proposal, understanding her desire to throw him with Doris. DeLancy +and Gladys Stone started first, after taking careful instructions for +the way to their rendezvous at Simpson's cider-mill--instructions which +every one knew they had not the slightest intention of following. +Boskirk, with the best face he could muster, went off with Patsie, who +disappeared like a runaway engine, chased by a howling brigade of dogs, +while Bojo and Doris followed presently at a sane pace. + +"We sha'n't see Gladys and Fred," said Doris, laughing. "No matter. +They're engaged!" + +"As though that were news to me." + +"Did he tell you?" + +"I guessed. Last night in the conservatory." He added with a sudden +feeling of good will: "Gladys is much nicer than I thought, really." + +"She's awfully in love. I'm so glad." + +"When will it be announced?" + +"Next week." + +"Heaven be praised!" + +In a desire to come to a more intimate sharing of confidences he told +her of his fears. + +"Louise Varney, a vaudeville actress!" said Doris, with a figurative +drawing in of her skirts. + +"Oh, there's nothing against her," he protested, "excepting perhaps her +chaperone! Only Fred's susceptible, you know--terribly so--and easily +led." + +"Yes, but people don't marry such persons--you can get infatuated and +all that--but you don't marry them!" she said indignantly. She shrugged +her shoulders. "It's all right to be--to be a man of the world, but not +that!" + +He hesitated, afraid of going further, of finding a sudden +disillusionment in the worldly attitude her words implied. A certain +remorse, a feeling of loyalty betrayed impelled him on, as though all +danger could be avoided by forever settling his future. Their +conversation by degrees assumed a more intimate turn, until at length +they came to speak of themselves. + +"Doris, I have something to ask you," he said, plunging in miserably. +"We have never really--formally been engaged, have we?" + +"The idea! Of course we have," she said, laughing. "It's only you who +wouldn't have it announced because--because you were too proud or some +other ridiculous reason!" + +"Well, now I want it announced." He met her glance and added: "And I +want you to announce at the same time the date of the wedding." + +He had said it--irrevocably decided for the path of conscience and +loyalty, and it seemed to him as though a great load had shifted from +his shoulders. + +"Bojo! Do you mean--now, soon!" + +"Just that. Doris, when this deal is settled up--and I'll know this +week--I'm going to have close on to two hundred thousand--on my own +hook, not counting what I'll get from the pool. I've plunged. I've put +every cent I had in it or could borrow," he said hastily, avoiding an +explanation of just what he had done. "I've risked everything on the +turn--" + +"But supposing something went wrong?" + +"It won't! This week, we're going to hammer Pittsburgh & New Orleans +down below thirty: I know. The point is now--when that's all safe--I +want you to marry me." + +"I have a quarter of a million in my own name. Father gave us each that +three years ago." + +He hesitated. + +"Do you need that very much? I'd rather you'd start--" + +"Oh, Bojo, why? If you've got that, why shouldn't I?" + +He wavered before this argument. + +"I would rather, Doris, we started on less, on what I myself have got. +I've thought it over a good deal. I think it would mean a great deal to +us to start out that way--to have me feel you were by my side, helping +me. It _is_ pride, but pride means all to a man, Doris." + +"If I only used it for dresses and jewels--just for myself?" she said +after a moment. "You want me to look as beautiful as the other women, +and we aren't going to drop out of society, are we?" + +"No. Keep it then," he said abruptly. + +"I won't take a cent from father," she said virtuously, and was furious +when he laughed. + +"And you are willing to give up all the rest, now, and be just plain +Mrs. Crocker?" + +She nodded, watching him askance. + +"When?" + +"In May at the close of the social season--butterfly." + +He had begun with a hunger in his heart to reach depths in hers, and he +ended with laughter, with a feeling of being defrauded. + +They stopped at Simpson's for a cool drink of cider and were on again, +passing through wintry forests, with green Christmas trees against the +creamy stretches where rabbit paths ran into dark entanglements. All at +once they were in the open again, sweeping through a sudden factory +village, Jenkinstown, stagnant with the exhaustion of the Sunday's rest. + +"There, aren't you glad you didn't begin there?" she said gaily, with a +nick of the whip toward the grim gray line of barracks that crowded +against the street. + +"You never would have married me then," he said. + +"Oh, ask me anything but to be _poor_!" she said, shuddering. + +"She might at least have lied," he thought grimly. He gazed with +curiosity at this glimpse of factory life, at the dulled faces of women, +wrapped in gay shawls, staring at them; at the sluggish loiterers on the +corners, and the uncleanly hordes of children, who cried impertinently +after them, recalling his father's words:--"a great mixed horde to be +turned into intelligent, useful American citizens!" Squalid and +hopelessly commonplace it seemed to him, cruelly devoid of pleasure or +joy in the living. But such as these had placed him where he was, with +an opportunity to turn in a year what in the lifetime of generations +they could never approach. + +The spectacle affected Doris like a disagreeable smell. + +"I hate to think such people exist," she said, frowning. + +"But they do exist," he said slowly. + +"Yes, but I don't want to think of it. Heavens, to be poor like that!" + +"It's late; we'd better be going back," he said. + +They came back enveloped in the falling dusk, Doris running on gaily, +quite delighted now at the prospect of their coming marriage, making a +hundred plans for the ordering of the establishment, debating the +question of an electric or an open car to start with, the proper quarter +to seek an apartment, and the number of servants, while Bojo, silently, +rather grim, listened, thinking of the look which would come into some +one's eyes when their decision was told. + +At the porte-cochere Gladys and Patsie came rushing out with frightened +faces. Fred had caught the last train home after a call from New York. +Bojo, with a sinking feeling, seized the note he had left for him. + + Roscy telephoned. There's a rumor that a group have been + cornering Pittsburgh & New Orleans all this while. If so + there'll be the devil to pay in the morning. Forshay's been + wild to get you. Get back somehow. If in time get the Harlem + 6:42 at Jenkinstown. In haste. + + FRED. + +"Can I make the 6:42 at Jenkinstown?" he cried to the groom. + +"Just about, sir." + +"Jump in." + +"I'm so frightened! Telephone at once!" He heard Doris cry, and, hardly +heeding her he looked about vacantly. Then something was pressed in his +hand, and Patsie's voice was sounding in his ears. "Here's your bag. I +packed it. Keep up your courage, Bojo!" + +"Patsie, you're a dear. Thank you. All right now!" He took her hands, +met her clear brave eyes, and sprang into the sleigh. A terrible +sickening dread came over him, an unreasoning superstitious dread. He +felt ruin and worse, cold and damp in the air about him, ruin inevitable +from the first, the bubble's collapse as he waved a hasty farewell and +shot away in the race across the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE CRASH + + +"What has happened?" he asked himself a hundred times during the +headlong drive. A corner in Pittsburgh & New Orleans--that was possible +but hardly probable. But if a corner had taken place it meant ruin, +absolute ruin--and worse. The thought was too appalling to be seized at +once. He reassured himself with specious explanations. There might be a +flurry; Gunther and his crowd, who were in control of the system, might +have attempted a division to support their property; but the final +attack at which Joseph Skelly had hinted more than once as timed for the +coming week, the throwing on the market of 100,000 shares--200,000 if +necessary--must overwhelm this support, must overwhelm it. What was +terrible, though, was the unknown--to be hours from New York, cut off +from communication, and not to know what was this shapeless dread. + +When they swung into Jenkinstown, orange lights from the windows cut up +the snowbound streets in checkerboard patterns of light and shade: an +organ was beginning in mournful bass from a shanty church; a cheap +phonograph in a flickering ice-cream parlor was grinding out a ragged +march. Through the windows, heavy parties still at the Sunday newspapers +were gathered under swinging lamps. The cutter drew up by the hovel of +a station and departed, leaving him alone in the semi-darkness, a prey +to his thoughts. A group returning after a day's visit trudged past him, +laughing uproariously, Slavic and brutish in type, the women in imitated +finery, gazing at him in insolent curiosity. He began to walk to escape +the dismal sense of unlovely existence they brought him. Beyond were the +mathematical rows of barracks--other brutish lives, the bleak ice-cream +parlor, the melancholy of the evening service. It was all so one-sided, +obsessed by the one idea of labor, lacking in the simplest direction +toward any comprehension of the enjoyment of life. + +The crisis he had reached, the threatened descent from the sublime to +the ridiculous, brought with it that contrition which in men is a +superstitious seeking for the secret of their own failures in some +transgressed moral law. His own life all at once seemed cruelly selfish +and gluttonous before this bleak view of the groping world and, +profoundly stirred to self-analysis, he said to himself: + +"After all--why am I here--to try and change all this a little for the +better or to pass on and out without significance?" And at the thought +that year in and year out these hundreds would go on, doomed to this +stagnation, there woke in him a horror, a horror of what it must mean to +fall back and slip beneath the surface of society. + +He arrived in New York at three in the morning, after an interminable +ride in the jolting, wheezing train, fervently awake in the dim and +draughty smoking-car where strange human beings huddled over a greasy +pack of cards or slept in drunken slumber. And all during the lagging +return one thought kept beating against his brain: + +"Why didn't I close up yesterday--yesterday I could have made--" He +closed his eyes, dizzy with the thought of what he could have netted +yesterday. He said to himself that he would wind up everything in the +morning. And there would still be a profit, there was still time ... +knowing in his heart that disaster had already laid its clutching hand +upon his arm. The city was quiet with an unearthly, brooding quiet as he +reached the Court, where one light still shone in the window of a +returned reveler. Marsh and DeLancy came hurriedly out at the sound of +his entrance. + +"What's wrong?" he cried at the sight of Fred's drawn face. + +"Everything. The city's full of it," said Marsh. "It leaked out this +afternoon, or rather the Gunther crowd let it leak out. Pittsburgh & New +Orleans will declare an additional quarterly dividend to-morrow." + +"It's the end of us," said Fred. "The stock will go kiting up." + +"We've got to cover," said Bojo. + +"In a crazy market? If we can!" + +"It may not be true." + +"I've got it as direct as I could get it," said Marsh, shaking his head. + +"Suppose there is a corner and we have to settle around 100 or 150?" +said DeLancy, staring nervously away. + +There was no need for Bojo to ask how deeply involved they were. He +knew. + +"Some one's been buying large blocks of it. That's known," said Marsh, +calmer than the rest. "Ten to one it's Gunther's crowd. They had the +advance information. Ten to one they've laid the trap and sprung a +corner." + +"No, nonsense! It's not as bad as that. If they're putting out an extra +dividend, the stock's going to jump up--for a while. That's all. And +then some one else may have a card up his sleeve," said Bojo, fighting +against conviction. + +"Call up Drake," said Fred. + +Bojo hesitated. The situation called for any measure. He went to the +telephone, after long minutes getting a response. Mr. Drake was out of +town on a hunting trip; was not expected back until the following night. +There remained Drake's agent Skelly, but a quick search of the book +revealed no home telephone. + +"Can you put up more margin?" asked Bojo. + +DeLancy shook his head. + +"I can, but it may be better to take the loss," said Marsh. "We'll have +to wait and see. Quick work to-morrow! By the way, there's a call for +you from Forshay to be at the office by eight o'clock to-morrow. Well, +let's get a few winks of sleep if we can. Luck of the game!" + +"I'm sorry," said Bojo desperately. + +"Shut up. We're over age," said Marsh, thumping him on the back, but +DeLancy went to his room, staring. The moment he was gone Marsh turned +to Bojo. "Look here, whatever we do we've got to save Fred. You and I +can stand a mauling. Fred's caught." + +"If we can," said Bojo, without letting him know how serious the +situation was for him. "How deep in is he?" + +"Close to 2,000 shares." + +"Good heavens, where did he get the money?" + +Marsh looked serious, shook his head, and made no further reply. + +At seven o'clock, when Bojo was struggling up from a sleepless night, +Granning came into his room, awkwardly sympathetic. + +"Look here, Bojo, is it as bad as the fellows feared?" + +"Can't tell, Granny. Looks nasty." + +"You in trouble too?" + +Bojo nodded. + +"I say, I've got that bond for a thousand tucked away," said Granning +slowly. "Use it if it'll help any." + +"Bless your heart," said Bojo, really touched. "It's not a thousand, +Granny, that'll help now. You were right--gambler's luck!" + +"Cut that out," said Granning, shifting from foot to foot. "I'm damned +sorry--tough luck, damned tough luck. I wish I could help!" + +"You can't--no use of throwing good money after bad. Mighty white of you +all the same!" + + * * * * * + +When he reached the offices, he learned for the first time how deeply +the firm had speculated on the information of Drake's intentions. +Forshay was cool, with the calm of the sportsman game in the face of +ruin, but Flaspoller and Hauk were frantic in their denunciations. It +was a trick, a stock-jobbing device of an inner circle. Nothing could +justify an additional dividend. The common stock had not been on a two +per cent. basis more than three years. Nothing justified it. Some one +would go behind the bars for it! Forshay smoked on, shrugging his +shoulders, rather contemptuous. + +"Hit you hard?" he said to Bojo. + +"Looks so. And you?" + +"Rather." + +"You call up Drake. Maybe he come back," said Flaspoller, ungrammatical +in his wrath. + +"He won't be in," said Bojo, and for the twentieth time he received the +invariable answer. + +[Illustration: "The message was the end of hope"] + +At nine o'clock Skelly's office called up. A clerk gave the message, Mr. +Skelly being too occupied. Bojo listened, hoping desperately against +hope, believing in the possibility of salvation in an enormous block to +be thrown on the market. The message was the end of hope! + +"Cancel selling orders. Buy Pittsburgh & New Orleans at the market up to +20,000 shares." + +He tried ineffectively to reach Skelly personally and then communicated +the order to the others, who were waiting in silence. + +"If Drake's out, good-by," said Forshay, who went to the window, +whistling. "Well, let's save what we can!" + +The realization of the situation brought a sudden calm. Hauk departed +for the floor of the Stock Exchange. The others prepared to wait. + +"Match you quarters," said Forshay with a laugh. He came back, glancing +over Bojo's shoulder at a few figures jotted down on a pad, reading off +the total: "12,350 shares. I thought you were in only ten thousand." + +"Twenty-three fifty Saturday," said Bojo, staring at the pad. "At 5 per +cent. margin too." + +"Lovely. What cleans you out?" + +Bojo figured a moment, frowned, consulted his list, and finally +announced: "Thirty-seven and one-half wipes me out nice and clean." + +"I'm good for a point higher. I say, there's rather a rush on this +office; have you got buying orders elsewhere?" Bojo nodded. "Good. Take +every chance. What did we close at Saturday, thirty-one and one-half?" + +"Thirty-two." + +"Oh well, there's a chance." He looked serious a moment, turning a coin +over and over on his hand, thinking of others. "No fool like an old +fool, Tom. If I've been stung once I've been stung a dozen times! It's +winning the first time that's bad. You can't forget it--the sensation of +winning. Sort of your case too, eh? Well, come on. I'm matching you!" + +An hour later, with the announcement of the additional dividend, they +stood together by the tape and watched Pittsburgh & New Orleans mount by +jerks and starts--5000 at 33--2,000 at 35-1/2--1,000 at 34-1/2--4,000 at +35-3/4--500 at 34. + +"Having a great time, isn't it? Jumping all over the place. Orders must +be thick as huckleberries. Selling all over the place so fast they can't +keep track of it." + +Flaspoller came in with the first purchase by Hauk, who was having a +frantic time executing his orders. + +"I've bought 2,000 at 34, thank God," said Bojo, returning from the +telephone. "What's it now?" + +"Touched 36: 10,000 at 35-1/2--big orders are coming in. Thirty-six +again. Lovelier and lovelier." + +Back and forth from telephone to ticker they went without time for +luncheon, elated at the thought of shares purchased at any price, grimly +watching the ominous figures creep up and up, mute, paralyzing +indications of the struggle and frenzy on the floor, where brokers flung +themselves hoarse and screaming into knotted, swaying groups and +telephone-boys swarmed back and forth from the booths like myriad angry +ants trampled out of their ant-hills. + +At two o'clock Pittsburgh & New Orleans had reached 42. An hour before +Bojo had left the ticker, waiting breathlessly at the telephone for the +announcement of purchases that meant precious thousands. At two-thirty +the final dock of 500 shares came in at 42-1/2. Mechanically he added +the new figures to the waiting list. Of the $83,000 in the bank and the +$95,000 which yesterday summed up his winnings on paper, he had to his +credit when all accounts were squared hardly $15,000. The rest had +collapsed in a morning, like a soap bubble. + +"Save anything?" said Forshay, struck by the wildness in the young man's +look. + +"I can settle my account here, I'm glad to say," said Bojo with +difficulty. "That's something. I think I'll pull out with around fifteen +thousand. Hope you did better." + +"Thanks, awfully." + +"Cleaned out?" said Bojo, startled. + +"Beautiful. Clean. Well, good-by, Tom, and--better luck next time." + +Bojo looked up hastily, aghast. But Forshay was smiling. He nodded and +went out. + +Bojo reached the court still in a daze, unable to comprehend where it +had all gone--this fortune that was on his fingers yesterday. Yesterday! +If he had only closed up yesterday! Then through the haze of his numbed +sense of loss came a poignant, terrifying recall to actuality. He stood +pledged to Drake for the amount of $50,000, and he could not make good +even a third! If the pool had been wiped out--and he had slight hopes of +saving anything there--he would have to procure $35,000 somewhere, +somehow, or face to Drake and his own self-respect that he could not +redeem his own word. What could he say, what excuse offer! If the pool +had collapsed--he was dishonored. + +The realization came slowly. For a long while, sitting in the embrasure +of the bay window--his forehead against the cold panes, it seemed to him +incredible the way he had gone these last six months; as though it had +all been a fever that had peopled his horizon with unreal figures, +phantasies of hot dreams. + +But the unblinkable, waking fact was there. His word had been pledged +for $50,000 to Drake, to the father of the girl he was to marry. Marry! +At the thought he laughed aloud bitterly. That, too, was a thing that +had vanished in the bubble of dreams. He thought of his father, to whom +he would have to go; but his pride recoiled. He would never go to him +for aid--a failure and a bankrupt. Rather beg Drake on his knees for +time to work out the debt than that! + +"How did I do it? What possessed me! What madness possessed me!" he said +wearily again and again. + +At eight o clock, when all the high electric lights had come out about +the blazing window of the court, recalled by the sounds of music from +the glass-paneled restaurant he went out for dinner, wondering why his +friends had not returned. At ten when he came back after long tramping +of the streets, a note was on the table, in Granning's broad +handwriting. + + Hoped to catch you. Fred's gone off on a tear; God knows + where he is. Roscy and I have been trying to locate him all + day. Hope you pulled through, old boy. + + GRANNING. + +At twelve o clock, still miserably alone, tortured by remorse and the +thought of the wreck he had unwittingly brought his chums, he could bear +the suspense of evasion no longer. He went up to Drake's to learn the +worst, steeled to a full confession. + +In the hall, as he waited chafing and miserable, Fontaine, Gunther's +right-hand partner, passed out hurriedly, jaws set, oblivious. Drake was +in the library in loose dressing-gown and slippers, a cigar in his +mouth, immersed in the usual contemplation of the picture puzzle. + +"By George, he bears it well," Bojo thought to himself, moved to +admiration by the calm of that impassive figure. + +"Hello, Tom," he said, looking up, "what's brought you here at this time +of night? Anything wrong?" + +"Wrong?" said Bojo faintly. "Haven't you heard about Pittsburgh & New +Orleans?" + +"Well, what about it?" + +Bojo gulped down something that was in his throat, steadying himself +against the awful truth that meant ruin and dishonor to him. + +"Mr. Drake--tell me what I owe you? I want to know what I owe you," he +said desperately. + +"Owe? Nothing." + +"But the pool?" + +"Well, what about the pool?" said Drake, eyeing him closely. + +"The pool to sell Pittsburgh & New Orleans." + +"Who said anything about selling!" said Drake sharply. "The pool's all +right." He looked at him a long moment, and the boyish triumph, +suppressed too long, broke out with the memory of Fontaine's visit. "I +bought control of Pittsburgh & New Orleans at eleven o'clock this +morning and sold it ten minutes ago, for what I paid for it, plus--plus +a little profit of ten million dollars." He paused long enough to let +this sink into the consciousness of the reeling young man and added, +smiling: "On a pro rata basis, Tom, your fifty thousand stands you in +just a quarter of a million. I congratulate you." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SUDDEN WEALTH + + +"Your fifty thousand stands you in just a quarter of a million." + +The words came to him faintly as though shouted from an incredible +distance. The shock was too acute for his nerves. He sought to mumble +over the fantastic news and sank into a chair, sick with giddiness. The +next thing he knew clearly was Drake's powerful arm about him and a +glass forced to his lips. + +"Here, get this down. Then steady up. Good luck doesn't kill." + +"I thought they'd caught us--thought I was cleaned out," he said +incoherently. + +"You did, eh?" said Drake, laughing. "You haven't much faith in the old +man." + +Bojo steadied himself, standing alone. The room seemed to race about him +and in his ears were strange unfixed sounds. One thought rapped upon his +brain--he was not disgraced, not dishonored; no one would ever +know--Drake would never need to know; that is if he were careful, if he +could somehow dissimulate before that penetrating glance. + +"I thought we were to sell Pittsburgh & New Orleans," he said vacantly, +leaning against the mantelpiece. + +"So did a good many others," said Drake shrewdly. "Sit down, till I tell +you about it. Head clearin' up?" + +"It's rather a shock," said Bojo, trying to smile. "I'm sorry to be such +a baby." + +"I warned you not to jump to conclusions or try any flyers," said Drake, +watching him. "Of course you did?" + +Bojo nodded, his glance on the floor. + +"Well, write it off against your profits and charge it up to +experience," said Drake, smiling. "Store this away for the future and +use it if you ever need it, if you're ever running a pool of your +own--which I hope you won't. It's been my golden rule and I paid a lot +to learn it. It's this: If you want a secret kept, keep it yourself." He +burst into a round, hearty laugh, gazing contentedly into the fire. +"Wish I could see Borneman's face. Helped me a lot, Borneman did. You +see, Tom," he said, with the human need of boasting a little, which +allies such men rather to the child on an adventure than to the +criminal, between whom they occupy an indefinable middle position, +"you've come in on the drop of the curtain. You've seen the finale of +something that'll set Wall Street stewing for years to come. Yes, by +George, it's the biggest bit of manipulation by a single operator yet! +And look at the crowd I tricked--the inner gang, the creme de la creme, +Tom--exactly that!" + +"I don't understand it," said Bojo, as Drake began to smile, reflecting +over remembered details. He himself understood only confusedly the +events which had been whirling about him. + +"Tom, the crowd had figured me out for a trimming," said Drake, +gleefully, caressing his chin. "They thought the time had come to trim +old Drake. You see, they calculated I was loaded up with stocks, crowded +to busting and ready to squeal at the slightest squeeze. Now getting +rich on paper is one thing and getting rich in the bank's another. Any +one can corner anything--but it's all-fired different to get Mr. Fly to +come down to your parlor and take some stock after you've got it where +you want it. That's what they figured. Dan Drake was loaded to the sky +with stocks that looked almighty good on the quotation column, but +darned hard to swap for cold, hard cash. That's what they figured, and +the strange part about it is they were right. + +"But--there's always a but--they hadn't reckoned on the fact that Mr. Me +was expecting just what they'd figured out. That's what I told you was +the secret of the game--any game--think the way the other man thinks, +and then think two jumps ahead of him. Now if I was reasonably sure a +certain powerful gang was going to put stocks down, and put them down +hard, I might look around to see how that could benefit me at one end +while it was annoying me, almightily annoying me, at the other. Now when +them coyotes get to juggling stocks they always like to juggle stock +they know about--something with a nice little pink ribbon to it, with a +president and board of directors on the other end, that'll wriggle in +the right direction when the coyotes pull the string. + +"Now I'd been particularly hankering after Pittsburgh & New Orleans for +quite a while. It was good in their old Southern system, but it looked +mighty better outside of it. In independent hands it could stir up a +lot of trouble; sort of like a plain daughter in a rich man's house--no +one notices her until she runs off with the chauffeur. That was my idea. +Only Pittsburgh was high. But--again the but--if some particular breed +of coyote would be obliging enough to run it down along with a lot of +other properties on the market, I might pitch in and help them force it +down to where I could pick up what I wanted from the bargain counter. +See?" + +"But you sold openly," said Bojo, amazed. + +"Exactly. Sold it where they could see it and bought it back twice over, +ten times over, where they couldn't. Very simple process. All great +processes are simple, and it never dawned on those monumental +intelligences that they were fetchin' and carryin' for yours truly until +they woke up at six o'clock to-day to find while they were scrambling in +the dark, the chauffeur had run off with Miss Pittsburgh!" + +He turned and walked to the table desk, motioning to Bojo. + +"Come over here, look at it." He held out a check for ten million +dollars. "You don't see one of those fellows very often. Great man, +Gunther. When he's got to act he doesn't waste time. Right to the point. +'We are satisfied you have control. What's your terms?' 'Ten millions +and what the stock cost me.' 'We accept your terms,' Great man, Gunther. +Suppose I might have added another million, but it wouldn't have sounded +as well, would it? Something rather nice about costs and ten million!" + +As he spoke, he had drawn out his check-book and filled out a check to +Bojo. + +"Well, Tom, this isn't ten millions, but it's some pin money, and I +guess to you it looks bigger than the other. There you are--take it." + +Bojo took it quite stupidly, saying: + +"Thank you, thank you, sir!" + +Drake watched the young man's emotion with tolerant amusement. + +"Don't wonder you're a bit shaken up, Tom. Supposing you call up a +certain young lady on long distance. Rather please her, I reckon." + +"Why, yes. I wanted to do it. I--I will, of course." + +"So you thought I was going to sell short Pittsburgh & New Orleans," +said Drake with a roguish humor. + +Bojo nodded, at loss for words, biding the moment to escape into the +outer air. + +"But, of course, Tom," said Drake slowly, with smiling eyes, "_you_ +didn't tell any one, did you?" + +Bojo mumbled something incoherent and went out, clutching the check, +which lay in his hand with the heaviness of lead. + +In the open air he tried to readjust the events of the night. He had a +confused idea of rushing through the great hall, past the mechanical +footman, of hearing Thompson cry, "Get you a taxi, sir!" and of being +far down resounding pavements in the lovely night with something still +clutched in his hand. + +"Two hundred and fifty thousand," he said to himself. He repeated it +again and again as a sort of dull drum-beat accompaniment, resounding in +his ears, even as his cane tapped out its sharp metallic punctuation. + +"Two hundred _and_ fifty!" he said for the hundredth time, utterly +unable to comprehend what had in one hour changed the face of his world. +He stopped, drew his hand from his pocket, took the crumpled check and +placed it in his wallet, buttoned his coat carefully, and then +unbuttoned it to make sure it had not slipped from his pocket. + +Drake had not asked him the vital question. He had not had to answer +him, to tell him what he had lost, to own that he had gambled beyond his +right. The issue he had gone to meet, resolved on a clean confession, +had been evaded, and in his pocket was the check--a fortune! Certain +facts did not at once focus in his mind, perhaps because he did not want +to contemplate them, perhaps because he was too bewildered with his own +sensations to perceive clearly what a role he had been made to play. + +But as he swung down the Avenue past the Plaza with its Argus-eyed +windows still awake, past a few great mansions with cars and grouped +footmen in wait for revelers, at the thought of the quiet Court, of +Roscoe and Granning, at the sudden startled recollection of DeLancy, the +cold fact forced itself upon him; they had lost and he had won. He had +won because they had lost, and how many others! + +"How could I help it?" he said to himself uneasily, and answered it +immediately with another question "But will they believe me?" + +Suddenly Drake's last question flashed across him with a new +significance. "Of course you didn't tell any one, did you?" + +Why had he not asked him then and there what he had meant? Because he +had been afraid, because he did not wish to know the answer, just as he +had evaded the knowledge that Doris in the first speculation had made +use of Boskirk. Even now he did not wish to force the ugly fact--seeking +to put it from him with plausible reasonings. After all, what had Drake +done? Told him a lie? No. He had specially cautioned him not to jump to +conclusions, warned him against doing anything on his own initiative. + +"Yes, that's true," he said with a sigh of relief, as though a great +ethical question had been disposed of. "He played square, absolutely +square. There's nothing wrong in it." + +Yet somehow the conviction brought no joy with it; there was something +stolen about the sensation of sudden wealth which possessed him. He +seemed to be scurrying through the shadowy city almost like a thief +afraid of confrontation. + +Yet there was the home-coming, the friends to be faced. What answer +could he make them, how announce the stroke of fortune which had come to +him! On one thing at least he was resolved, and the resolution seemed to +lighten the weight of many problems which would not slip from his +shoulders. He was responsible for Roscy and Fred--at least they should +suffer no loss for having taken his advice. The others--Forshay, the +firm, one or two acquaintances he had tipped off in the last days, the +outsiders; they were different, and besides he did not want to think of +them. His friends should not suffer loss--not even a dollar. They were a +part of the pool, in a way. Of course they had had their friends, though +he had sworn them to secrecy. At this point he stopped in his mental +turnings, faced by a sudden barrier. + +Had Drake knowingly used him to convey a false impression of his +intentions, made him the instrument of ruining others in order to carry +through his stupendous coup de force? + +"If I thought that," he said hotly, "I wouldn't touch a cent of it!" But +after a moment, uneasily and in doubt, he added, "I wonder?" + +He came to the Court and hurried in. Lights were blazing in the +bay-window, black silhouettes across the panes. + +"Good God, supposing anything has happened to Fred!" he thought, +suddenly remembering Granning's note. He burst upstairs and into the +room. Roscoe Marsh was by the fireplace, gravely examining a pocket +revolver, which lay in his hand. Granning was on the edge of the couch +staring at Fred DeLancy, who was sunk in a great chair, disheveled and +dirt-stained, a sodden, cold-drunk mass. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +BOJO BEGINS TO SPEND HIS QUARTER-MILLION + + +At the sight of Fred DeLancy, Bojo checked himself. A glance from +Granning apprised him of the seriousness of the situation. He walked +over to the huddled figure and laid his hand on his shoulder. + +"Hello there, Fred. It's Bojo." + +DeLancy raised his head, looked out through glazed eyes, and slowly +withdrew his stare to the vacant fireplace, where a smoldering flicker +drew his mind. + +"Found him an hour ago in a hell over in Eighth Avenue," said Marsh. +"Bad." + +Granning beckoned him, and together they went into the bedroom, closing +the door. + +"All right now. Guess he'll stay quiet. Pretty violent when we came +back," said Granning. "Wanted to throw himself out of the window." + +"And the pistol," said Bojo, sick at the thought of what might have +been. + +"Yes, we found that on him," said Granning gravely. "Lucky he got drunk +so quick, or that might have been serious." He hesitated and added: "He +swears he'll kill himself first chance. Guess I'd better keep my eye on +him to-night." + +At this moment there was the sound of a scuffle from the den and a shout +from Marsh. They rushed in to find him grappling with Fred, who was +striving frantically to reach the window. For a moment the air was full +of shouts and sudden scurrying. + +"Look out, he's got that paper-cutter!" + +"In his right hand." + +"All right, I've got him." + +"Throw him over on the couch. Sit on him. That's it." + +Under their combined weights, DeLancy was flung, hoarse and screaming +maledictions, to the couch, where despite objurgations and ravings +Granning secured his arms behind his back with a strap and hobbled his +legs. For half an hour Fred twisted and strove, raving and swearing or +suddenly weakly remorseful, bursting into tears, cursing himself and his +folly. The three sat silently, faces sternly masked, looking unwilling +on the ugly spectacle of human frenzy in the raw. At the end of this +time DeLancy became suddenly quiet and dropped off into sodden sleep. + +"At last," said Granning, rising. "Best thing for him. Oh, he won't hear +us--talk all you like." + +"How hard is he hit?" said Bojo anxiously. + +Marsh shrugged his shoulder and swore. + +"How hard, Granning?" + +"Twenty thousand or more," said Granning gravely, "and there are some +bad sides to it." He shook his head, glanced at DeLancy, and added: +"Then there's the girl." + +"Louise Varney?" + +"The same--mother has been camping on the telephone all day. Not a very +calm person, mother--ugh--nasty business!" + +"Rotten business," said Bojo, remorsefully. He went to the bay-window +and stood there gazing out into the sickly night, paling before the +first grays of the morning. He was subdued by this spectacle of the +other side of speculation, wondering how many similar scenes were taking +place in sleepless rooms somewhere in the dusky flight of roof-tops. +Marsh, misunderstanding his mood, said: + +"How did it hurt you? You pulled through all right, didn't you?" + +Bojo came back thoughtfully, evading the question with another. + +"And you?" + +"Oh, better than I expected," said Marsh with a wry face. "I say, you're +not--not cleaned out?" + +Granning rose and with his heavy hand turned him around solicitously. +"How about it, son?" + +For hours Bojo had been debating his answer to this inevitable question +without finding a solution. He drew his pocketbook and slowly extracted +the check. "Gaze on that," he said solemnly. + +Granning took it, stared at it, and passed it to Marsh, who looked up +with an exclamation: "For God's sake, what does that mean?" + +"It means," said Bojo slowly, "that I can tell you the truth now. We +haven't lost a cent; on the contrary--" he paused and emphasized the +next word--"_we_ have made a killing. We means you, Fred, and myself." + +"I don't get it," said Marsh, frowning. + +"The real object of the pool was not to bear Pittsburgh & New Orleans, +but to buy it. If I let you sell short, it was only to get others to +sell short. To-morrow I'll settle up with you and Fred, every cent +you've lost, plus--" + +"Bojo, you're lying," said Marsh abruptly. + +"I'm not, I--" + +"And you're lying badly!" + +"What about that check?" + +"That's all right; Drake may have done what you said, but you never +knew--" + +"Roscy, I swear." + +"Hold up and answer this. Do you want me to believe, Tom Crocker, that +you deliberately told me and Fred DeLancy, your closest friends, a lie, +in order to get us to spread false information to _our_ friends, to ruin +our friends in order to make a killing for you? Well, a straight +answer." + +Bojo was silent. + +"No, no, Bojo; don't come to me with any cock-and-bull story like +that--" + +"Roscy, it _is_ a lie. I was completely in the dark myself; but I won't +touch a cent of it until your losses are squared, every dollar of them!" + +"So that's the game, eh?" said Marsh, laughing. "Well you go plump to +the devil! + +"Roscy!" said Bojo, jumping up and seizing his arm. "At least let me +square up what you lost. Hold up. Wait a second, don t go off +half-cocked! Fred's got to be hauled out of this; it's not only +bankruptcy, it's a darned sight worse--it's his word, his honor--a +woman's money, too. You know him--he's weak, he won't stand up under it. +Good God, you don't want me to have his life on my conscience?" + +"What do you want to do?" + +"I want to make Fred believe what I told you--it's the only way. If you +play into the game he'll believe it. Good Lord, Roscy, this thing's bad +enough as it is. You don't think I could profit one cent while you +fellows were cleaned out by my own fault?" + +"Look here," said Marsh, sitting down, "it isn't your fault. I gambled, +that's all, and lost. I gambled before on your advice and won. +Fifty-fifty, that's all. Now Fred's different. I'll admit it. You can do +what you please with him; that's between you two. If you've got to make +him believe I'm doing the same, to make him take the money--all right; +but if you come around again to me with any such insulting proposition, +Tom Crocker, there'll be trouble." + +Bojo clasped and unclasped his hands in utter helplessness. Then he +glanced at Granning. + +"You've done what you could," said Granning, shaking his head. + +"A rotten mess. I feel rotten," said Bojo slowly. + +Marsh, relenting, clapped him on the shoulder affectionately. "Mighty +white of you, Bojo--and don't think for a moment any one's blaming you!" + +"I'm not sure how I feel myself," said Bojo slowly. + +"Drake used you, Tom," said Granning quietly. "He'd figured out you'd be +watched--the old decoy game." + +"No, no," said Bojo warmly. "He did not, I'm sure of that. He +particularly warned me not to do anything on my own hook without +consulting him. It was my fault-- I jumped at conclusions!" + +Granning and Marsh laughed. + +"By George, if I thought that!" said Bojo, rising up. + +"Don't think anything," said Marsh quietly. "It's all in the game +anyhow!" Suddenly he stopped and, the journalistic instinct awakening, +said: "You say Drake bought Pittsburgh & New Orleans--what do you mean?" + +"Bought control, of course, and sold it back at midnight to Gunther & +Co. for a profit of ten millions." + +"Repeat that," said Marsh, aghast. "Good Lord! What? When? Where was the +sale? For God's sake, Bojo, don't you know you've got the biggest story +of the year? Three-twenty now. It's 'good-night' to our composing-room +at half past. Talk it fast and I can make it." + +Hastily, under his prompting, Bojo recalled details and scraps of +information. Three minutes later Marsh was at the telephone and they +heard the shouted frantic orders. + +"_Morning Post?_ Who's on the long wait? Hill? Give him to me--on the +jump. Damn it, this is Marsh! Hello, Ed? Hold your press men for an +extra. We've got a smashing beat. Front page and the biggest head you +can put on! Play it up for all you're worth. Ready: Dan Drake bought +control...." The outlines in staccato, dramatic sentences, followed, +then directions to get Gunther, Drake, Fontaine, and others on the wire. +Then silence, and Marsh burst through the room and down the stairs in a +racket that threatened to wake the house. + +Granning and Bojo sat on, watching the restless, heavy figure on the +couch, too feverishly awake for sleep, talking in broken phrases, while +the white mists came into the room and the city began to wake. At four +o'clock Doris called up from long distance. Bojo had completely +forgotten her in the tension of the night and rather guiltily hastened +to reassure her. Gladys was at her side, anxious to hear from Fred, to +learn if she might come to his assistance, wondering why he had not sent +her word--alarmed. + +He invented a lie to clear the situation--a friend who was in desperate +straits--with whom Fred was watching out the night. + +At six o'clock DeLancy rose up suddenly, disheveled and haggard, staring +at them, bewildered at the pressure of the straps. "What the devil's +happened?" + +Granning rose and released him. "You were rather obstreperous last +night, young man," he said quietly. "We were afraid you might dent the +fire-escape or carry off the mantel. How are you?" + +"Oh, good God!" said DeLancy, sinking his head in his hands with a +groan, suddenly recalling the pool. + +"If you hadn't gone off like a bad Indian," said Bojo sternly, "you'd be +celebrating in a different way." Then, as Fred without interest +continued oblivious, he went over and struck him a resounding blow +between the shoulders. "Wake up there. I've been trying to beat it into +you all night. We haven't lost a cent. The pool went through like a +charm. Drake fooled the whole bunch!" + +"What--what do you mean?" said DeLancy, staring up. + +"The running down was only the first step; the real game was to buy up +the control. All our selling short was just bluff, charged up to the +expense account and nothing else." + +"All bluff," repeated Fred in a daze. "I don't seem to understand. I +can't get it." + +"Well, get this then--feast your eyes on it," said Bojo, sitting beside +him, his arm about his shoulder and the check held before his eyes. +"That's profit--my part out of ten millions Drake cleaned up by selling +out to the Gunther crowd. Listen." He repeated in detail the story of +the night, adding: "Now do you see it? Every cent we lost bearing the +stock goes to expenses--that's understood." + +"You mean--" DeLancy rose, steadied himself, and lurched against a +chair. "You mean what I lost--what I--" + +"What you've lost and Louise's losses, too," said Bojo quickly--"every +cent is paid by the pool. There wasn't the slightest question about +that!" + +"Is that the truth?" + +"Yes." + +Fred's sunken eyes rested on Bojo's an interminable moment, and the +agony written on that fevered face steeled Crocker in his resolve. +Presently DeLancy, as though convinced, turned away. + +"Good Lord, I thought I was done for!" he said in a whisper. His lip +trembled, he caught at his throat, and the next moment his racked body +was shaken with convulsive sobs. + +"Let yourself go, Fred; it's all right--everything's all right," said +Bojo hastily. He left the den, nodding to Granning, and went to his +bedroom. His bag was still on the bed, where he had thrown it unopened. +He took out his clothes mechanically, feeling the weariness of the +wasted night, and suddenly on the top of a folded jacket he found a +card, in Patsie's writing; a few words only, timidly offered. + +"I hope, oh, I do hope everything will come all right," and below these +two lines that started reveries in his eyes, the signature was not +Patsie, but Drina. + +When he came into the den again after a hasty toilet, DeLancy had got +hold of himself again. + +"Better, old boy?" said Bojo, pulling his ear. + +"If you knew--if you knew what I'd been through," said Fred with a quick +breath. + +"I know," said Bojo, shuddering instinctively. "Now let's get to +business. You'll feel a lot better when you tidy up your bank account. +What did you lose?" + +"I say, Bojo," said DeLancy, avoiding his glance, "on your honor +straight this is all right, isn't it?" + +"Sure!" + +"I ought to take it--there's no reason why--you're not telling me a fake +story?" + +"I certainly am not," said Bojo cheerily, taking up his check-book at +the desk. "Come on now." + +But DeLancy, unconvinced, still wavered. + +"How about Roscy?" he said slowly, his eyes fixed, his mouth parted as +though hanging on the answer. + +"The same thing goes with Roscy, naturally," said Bojo, carelessly. + +DeLancy drew a long breath and approached. + +"How much? Confess up!" + +"Twenty-seven thousand eight hundred." + +Bojo restrained a start of amazement. + +"Say twenty-eight flat," he said carefully. "Does that include Louise +Varney's account?" + +"Yes, everything," said DeLancy slowly. He stood at the desk, staring, +while Bojo wrote a check, watching the traveling pen as though still +incredulous. + +"There you are, old rooster, and good luck," said Bojo. + +"Here, I say, you've made it out for thirty-eight thousand, said +DeLancy, taking the check. + +"Ten thousand is profits, sure." + +"Here, I say, that's not right. I couldn't take that--no, never, Bojo!" + +"Shut up and be off with you!" said Bojo. "You don't think for a moment +I'd use my friends and not see they got a share of the winnings, do +you?" + +"It doesn't seem right," said DeLancy again. He gazed at the check, a +prey to conflicting desires. + +"Rats!" + +"I don't feel as though I ought to." + +Bojo, watching his struggle with his conscience a moment, perceived the +inherent weakness at the bottom of his nature, suddenly feeling a sense +of distance intervening in the old friendship, sadly disillusioned. When +he spoke, it was abruptly, as a superior: + +"Shut up, Fred--you're going to take it, and that's all! + +"How can I thank you? + +"Don't." + +He turned on his heel and went back to his room to hide the flash of +scorn that came to his eyes. "Great Heavens," he thought, "is that the +way men behave under great tests?" + +But all at once he added, "And myself?" + +For at the bottom there was an uneasy stirring feeling, awakened by the +sudden incredulous laugh of his friends that had greeted his assertion +of Drake's innocence, which was bringing him to a realization that he +was to face a decision more profoundly significant to his own +self-esteem than any he had yet confronted. + +"Thank heaven for one thing--nothing happened to Fred! That's settled. I +have nothing on my conscience," he said with a sigh. The ten thousand he +had added represented in a confused way a tribute to that conscience, to +those others, unknown and unvisualized, whom unwittingly he might have +caused to suffer. + +"Bojo!" + +"Hello! What is it?" + +He came out hurriedly at the sound of Granning's voice. + +"Roscy on the 'phone.... What?... Good God!" + +"What's that? What's happened?" he cried, as Fred came rushing out. + +"Forshay--committed suicide--this morning--at his club--cut his +throat!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +PAYING THE PIPER--PLUS + + +To go down to the office with the pall of disaster and tragedy over it, +to face the accusatory looks of Hauk and Flaspoller with the dread +consciousness of his own personal responsibility, was the hardest thing +Bojo had ever had to do. Several times in the subway, filled with the +Wall Street crowd excitedly discussing the sudden turn of yesterday, +alarmed for the future, he had a wild impulse toward flight. Before him +were the startling scare-heads of the _Morning Post_, the sole paper to +have the story. + + DRAKE BUYS AND SELLS PITTSBURGH AND NEW ORLEANS + + SECURED CONTROL AT 6 MONDAY. SOLD AT MIDNIGHT. PROFIT IN + MILLIONS. BROKERS HARD HIT. THREE FIRMS SUSPEND. CLIMAX OF + DRAMATIC DAY. + +He saw only dimly what every one else was poring over frantically. He +was reading over for the twentieth time the ugly story of Forshay's +suicide. + + WELL-KNOWN BROKER ENDS LIFE AT CLUB + + W. O. FORSHAY THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IN DRAKE'S CLEAN + UP + +The bare facts followed, with a history of Forshay's career, his social +connections, an account of his marriage, city house, and country house. + +"But after all am I responsible?" he said to himself miserably, and +though he returned always to the premise that he had been an innocent +participant, he began to be obsessed with the spreading sense of ruin +which such victories could occasion. + +Forshay would not have blamed him, perhaps, for Forshay had played the +game to the limit of the law and asked no favors. It was not that which +profoundly troubled him and awoke the long dormant ethical sense. Had +Drake figured out just what his conclusions would be and the effect on +the public from allowing him to proceed blindly on a wrong start? In a +word, had Drake deliberately used him to mislead others, knowing that +after the success of Indiana Smelter his prospective son-in-law would be +credited with inside information? + +He did not as yet answer these questions in the affirmative; to do so +meant a decision subversive of all his newly acquired sense of success. +But though he still denied the accusations, they would not be thus +answered, constantly returning. + +At the offices it was as though the dead man were lying in wait. A sense +of fright possessed him with the opening of the door. The girl at the +telephone greeted him with swollen eyes, swollen with hysterical +weeping; the stenographers moved noiselessly, hushed by the indefinable +sense of the supernatural. The brass plate on the door--W. O. +Forshay--seemed to him something inexpressibly grim and horrible. He had +the feeling which the others showed in their roving glances, as though +that plate hid something, as though there was something behind his door, +waiting. + +He went into the inner offices, at a sudden summons. Hauk was at the +table, gazing out of the window; Flaspoller worrying and fussing in the +center of the rug, switching aimlessly back and forth. + +Bojo nodded silently on entering. + +"You saw?" said Hauk with a jerk of his head. + +"Yes. Horrible!" + +Flaspoller broke out: "Not a cent in the world. God knows how much the +firm will have to make good. Thirty-five, forty, forty-five thousand, +maybe more. Oh, we're stuck all right." + +"Do you mean to say," said Bojo slowly, "that he left nothing--no +property?" + +"Oh, a house perhaps--mortgaged, of course; and then do we know what +else he owes? No. A hell of a hole we've got in with your Pittsburgh & +New Orleans." + +"That's not quite fair," said Bojo quietly. "I did give you a tip on +Indiana Smelter and you made money on that. I never said anything about +Pittsburgh & New Orleans. I distinctly refused to. You drew your own +conclusions." + +"That's a good joke," said Flaspoller with a contemptuous laugh. + +"What do you mean?" said Bojo, flushing angrily. + +"Well, I'll tell you what I mean," said Flaspoller, discretion to the +winds. "When you come into a firm that has treated you generously as we +have, put up your salary without waiting to be asked, and you bring in +orders, confidential orders, to sell five hundred shares to-day, a +thousand to-morrow, like you sell yourself, and your friends sell +too--if you let your firm go on selling and don't know what's up, you're +either one big jackass or a--" + +"Or a what?" said Bojo, advancing. + +Something in the menacing eye caused the little broker to halt abruptly +with a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders. + +"I wouldn't go too far, Flaspoller," said Bojo coldly. "If this was a +mistake, I paid for it too, as you know. You know what I dropped." + +"I know nothing," said Flaspoller, recovering his courage with his +anger, and planting himself defiantly in the young fellow's path. "I +know only what you lost--here, and I know too what _we_ lose." + +"Good heavens, do you mean to insinuate that I did anything _crooked_?" +said Bojo loudly, yet at the bottom ill at ease. + +"Shut up now," said Hauk, as Flaspoller started on another angry tirade. +"Look here, Mr. Crocker, there's no use wasting words. The milk's spilt. +Well, what then?" + +"I'm sorry, of course," said Bojo, frowning. + +"Of course you understand after what's happened," said Hauk quietly, "it +would be impossible for us to make use of your services any more." + +Much as he himself had contemplated breaking off relations, it gave him +quite a shock to hear that he was being dismissed. He caught his breath, +looked from one to another and said: + +"Quite right. There I agree with you. I shall be very glad to leave your +office to-day." + +He went to his desk in a towering rage, went through his papers blindly, +and rose shortly to go out where he could get hold of himself and decide +on a course of action. The fact was that for the first time he had a +feeling of guilt. He again assured himself that he was perfectly +innocent, that there was nothing in his whole course which could be +objected to. Yet how many would have believed him if they knew that this +very morning he had deposited a check for a quarter of a million? What +would Hauk and Flaspoller have said at the bare announcement? + +He wandered into familiar groups, tarrying a moment and then passing on, +parrying the questions that were showered on him by those who knew the +intimacy of his relations with the successful manipulator. In all their +conversations Drake appeared like a demigod. Men went back to the famous +corners of Commodore Vanderbilt for a comparison with the skill and +boldness of the late manipulator. It was freely said that there was no +other man in Wall Street who would have dared so openly to defy the +great powers of the day and force them to terms. + +In this chorus of admiration there was no note of censure. He had played +the game as they played it. No one held him responsible for the tragedy +of Forshay and the unwritten losses of those who had been caught. + +Yet Bojo was not convinced. He knew that he had not been able to meet +the partners openly; that despite all the injustice of their attitude, +he had withheld the knowledge of his ultimate winnings, and that he had +withheld it because he would have been at a loss to explain it. More +potent than the stoic indifference of Wall Street was the memory of the +chance acquaintance, wrecked by the accident of this meeting; of +Forshay, calmly matching quarters with him before the opening of the +market, calculating the fatal point beyond which a rise meant to him the +end. And as he examined it from this intimate outlook, he wondered more +and more how free from responsibility and cruelty, from the echoes of +agony, could be any fortune of ten millions made over night, because of +others who had been led recklessly to gamble beyond their means. + +Forshay recalled DeLancy, and he shuddered at the thought of how close +the line of disaster had passed to him. Again and again he remembered +with distaste the look in DeLancy's face when at the end he had +persuaded him to take the check. What sat most heavily upon his +conscience was that now, with the ranging of events in clearer +perspective, he began to compare his own attitude with Drake's, with +DeLancy's weak submission to his explanation. If DeLancy had taken money +that Marsh had indignantly rejected, what had he himself done? + +At twelve, making a sudden resolve, he went up to the offices. The +partners were still there, brooding over the rout, favoring him with +dark looks at his interruption. + +"Mr. Hauk, will you give me the total of Mr. Forshay's indebtedness to +your firm?" + +Flaspoller wheeled with an insolent dismissal on his lips, but Hauk +forestalled him. "What business is that of yours?" + +"You stated that his losses might amount to forty or forty-five +thousand. Is that correct?" + +"That's our affair!" + +"You don't understand," said Bojo quietly, "but I think it will be to +your interest to listen to me. Do I understand that you intend to +exercise your claim on whatever property may still be left to Mr. +Forshay's widow?" + +"What nonsense is he talking?" said Flaspoller, turning to his partner +in amazement. + +"I thought so," said Bojo, taking his answer from their attitude. "I +repeat, kindly give me the exact figures, in detail, of the total +indebtedness of Mr. Forshay to your firm." + +"I suppose you want to pay it, eh?" said Flaspoller contemptuously. + +"Exactly." + +"What!" + +The reply came almost in a shout. Hauk, keener than his partner, +perceiving from the exalted calm of the young man that the matter was +serious, caught Flaspoller by the arm and shot him into a chair. + +"You sit down and be quiet." He approached Bojo, studying him keenly. +"You want to pay up for Forshay--am I right?" + +"You are. + +"When?" + +"Now." + +Hauk himself was not proof against the shock the announcement brought. +He sat down, stupidly rubbing his hand across his forehead, glancing +suspiciously at Bojo. Finally he recovered himself sufficiently to say: + +"For what reason do you want to do this?" + +"That is my business," said Bojo, "and besides you would not understand +in the least." + +"Well, well," said Flaspoller, recovering his eagerness with his +cupidity. + +"You're not going to refuse, are you?" + +"That's very noble, very generous," said Hauk slowly. "We were a little +hasty, Mr. Crocker. We've lost a good deal of money. We sometimes say +things a little more than we mean at such times. You mustn't think too +much of that. We are very much upset--we thought the world of Mr. +Forshay--" + +"All this is quite unnecessary," said Bojo with quiet scorn. "We are +dealing with figures. Have you the account ready--now?" + +"Yes, yes--we can have it ready in a moment--look it over--take just a +few moments," said Flaspoller eagerly. "Sit down, Mr. Crocker, while we +look it up." + +"Thanks, I prefer to wait outside. Remember I want a complete and minute +statement." + +He wheeled and went out with disgust, taking his seat by his old place +at the window, without removing his hat and coat. He waited thus, long +minutes, staring out at the dirt-stained walls of the opposite +skyscraper that, five hundred feet in the air, shut them out from a +glimpse of the sky, oblivious to whispered conversations, curious +glances, or the nervous bustling to and fro of the partners. Presently +the telephone buzzed at his side. + +"Mr. Hauk would like you to step into his office, sir." + +"Tell him to come to me." + +It was bravado, but a revenge that was precious to him. Almost +immediately Hauk came sliding to his desk, laying a paper before him. + +"This is it, Mr. Crocker." + +"Every claim you have against the estate--every one?" said Bojo, +examining carefully the items. + +"Perfectly." + +But at this moment Flaspoller arrived hastily and alarmed. + +"We forgot the share in the expense of the office," he said hurriedly. + +"Put it down," said Bojo, with a wave of his hand. At the point of +bitter scorn at which he had arrived, it seemed to him a sublime thing +to accept all figures without condescending to enter into discussion. +"Anything more, gentlemen?" + +Flaspoller in vain tortured his memory at this last summons. Hauk, +misunderstanding the frown and the stare with which Bojo continued to +gaze at the paper, began to explain: "This item here is calculated on a +third share in--" + +"I don't want any explanations," said Bojo, cutting him short. "You +will, of course, furnish complete details to the executor of the estate. +Now if this is complete, kindly give me a written acknowledgment of a +payment in full of every claim you hold against the estate of W. O. +Forshay, and likewise an attestation that this is in every respect a +just and true bill of Mr. Forshay's debts." He drew out his check-book. +"Fifty-two thousand, seven hundred--" + +"And forty-six dollars," said Flaspoller, who followed the strokes of +the pen with incredulous eyes as though unable to believe in Providence. + +Bojo rose, took the acquittals and the bill of items, and handed them +the check, saying: "This closes the matter, I believe." + +An immense struggle was going on in the minds of the two +partners--curiosity, cupidity, and a new sense of the financial strength +of the man who could thus toss off checks, plainly written in their +startled expressions. + +"Mr. Crocker, Tom, we should be very glad if you forgot what we said +this morning," said Flaspoller hurriedly. "You've been very handsome, +very handsome indeed. You can always have a desk in our offices. Mr. +Crocker, I apologize for mistaking you. Shake hands!" + +"Good-by, gentlemen!" said Bojo, lifting his hat with the utmost +punctiliousness. + +He took a hasty luncheon and went uptown to the Court, where Della, the +pretty little Irish girl at the telephone desk, opened her eyes in +surprise at this unusual appearance. + +"Why, Mr. Crocker, what's wrong?" + +"I'm changing my habits, Della," he said with an attempted laugh. + +He went to his room and sat a long while before the fireplace, pulling +at a pipe. At length he rose, went to the desk, and wrote: + + Dear Doris: + + A good many things have come up since I left you. I think it + is better that no announcement be made until we have had a + chance to talk matters over very seriously. I hope that can + be soon. + + BOJO. + + P.S. Please thank Patsie for packing my bag. I went off in + such a rush I think I forgot. + + P.P.S. Tell Gladys that Fred came out all right--shouldn't + be surprised if he'd made a little too. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +BOJO FACES THE TRUTH + + +The next days he spent aimlessly. He had a great decision to make, and +he acted as though he had not a thought in the world but to drift +indolently through life. He idled through breakfast, reading the morning +papers laboriously, and was amazed to find that with all his delay it +was only eleven o'clock, with an interminable interval to be filled in +before lunch. He began a dozen novels, seeking to lose himself in the +spell of other lands and other times; but as soon as he sallied out to +his club he had the feeling that the world had been turned inside out. + +After luncheon he tried vainly to inveigle some acquaintance into an +afternoon's loafing, only to receive again that impression of strange +loneliness in a foreign land, as one after the other disappeared before +the call of work. He had nothing to do except the one thing which in the +end he knew had to be done, and the more he sought to put it from him, +idling in moving-picture halls or consuming long stretches of pavement +in exploring tramps, the more he felt something always back of his +shoulder, not to be denied. + +He avoided the company of his chums, seeking other acquaintances with +whom to dine and take in a show. Something had fallen into the midst of +the old intimacy of Westover Court. There was a feeling of unease and +impending disruption. The passion for gain had passed among them at last +and the trail of disillusionment it had left could not be effaced. The +boyish delight, the frolicking with life had passed. They seemed to have +aged and sobered in a night. The morning breakfasts were constrained, +hurried affairs. There was not the old give-and-take spirit of horse +play. DeLancy was moody and evasive, Marsh silent, and Granning grim. +Bojo could not meet DeLancy's eyes, and with the others he felt that +though they would never express it, he had disappointed them, that in +some way they held him responsible for the changes which had come and +the loss of that complete and free spirit of comradeship which would +never return. + +He had reached the point where he had decided on a full confession to +Drake and a certain restitution. But here he met the rock of his +indecision. What should he restore? After deducting the sums paid to +DeLancy and to the estate of Forshay, he had still almost one hundred +and sixty thousand dollars. Why should he not deduct his own losses, +amounting to over seventy thousand dollars incurred in the service of a +campaign which had netted millions? + +His conscience, tortured by the tragic memory of Forshay and the feeling +of the spreading circles of panic and losses which had started from his +unwitting agency, had finally recoiled before the thought of making +profit of the desolation of others. But if he renounced the gain, was +there any reason why he should suffer loss; why Drake should not +reimburse him as he had reimbursed others? To accept this view meant +that he would still remain in possession of upwards of eighty-five +thousand dollars, producing a tidy income, able to hold up his own in +the society to which he had grown accustomed. To renounce the payment of +his losses meant not simply a blow to his pride in the acknowledgment +that in the first six months he had already lost two-thirds of what his +father had given him, but that his whole scheme of living would have to +be changed, while marriage with Doris became an impossibility. + +Beyond the first letter he had written her in the first tragic reaction +on his return from the office, he had sent Doris no further word. What +he had to say was yet too undefined to express on paper. Too much +depended on her attitude when they met at last face to face. Her +letters, full of anxiety and demand for information, remained +unanswered. One afternoon on returning after a day's tramp on the East +Side, he found a telegram, which had been waiting hours. + + Return this afternoon four-thirty most anxious meet me + station. + + DORIS. + +It was then almost six. Without waiting to telephone explanations he +jumped in a taxi and shot off uptown. At the Drakes' he sent up his name +by Thompson, learning with a sudden tightening of the heart that Drake +himself was home. He went into the quiet reception room, nervously +excited by the approaching crisis, resolved now that it was up, to push +it to its ultimate conclusion. As he whipped back and forth, fingering +impatiently the shining green leaves of the waxed rubber plant, all at +once, to his amazement, Patsie stood before him. + +"You here?" he said, stopping short. + +She nodded, red in her cheeks, looking quickly at him and away. + +"Doris is changing her dress; she'll be down right away. Didn't you get +the telegram?" + +"I'm sorry-- I was out all day." + +He stopped and she was silent, both awkwardly conscious of the other. +Finally he stammered: "I asked Doris to thank you--for getting my bag +ready and--and your message." + +"Oh, Bojo," she said impulsively and the spots of red on her cheek +spread like names, "I want to speak to you so much. I have been thinking +over so many things that I ought to say." + +"You can say anything," he said gently. + +"Bojo, you must marry Doris!" she said brokenly, joining her hands. + +"Why?" he said, too startled to notice the absurdity of the question. + +"She needs you. She loves you. If you could have seen her all Sunday +night when we--when she was afraid you had been ruined. You don't know +how she cares. I didn't. I was terribly mistaken--unjust. You mustn't +let her go off and marry some one she doesn't care about, like Boskirk, +the way Dolly did." + +"But I must do what is right for me too," he said desperately, moved by +the radiance in her eyes that seemed to flow out and envelope him +irresistibly. "I have a right to love too, to find a woman who knows +what love means--" + +"Don't--don't," she said, turning away miserably, too young to make the +pretense of not understanding him. + +"Listen, Drina," he said, catching her hand. "I am up against a +decision, the greatest decision in my life, which means whether I am to +have the right to my own self-respect and yours and others. One way +means money, an easy way to everything people want in this world, and no +blame attached except what I myself might feel. The other means standing +on my own feet, no favors, taking a loss of thousands of dollars, and a +fight of perhaps five, ten years to get where I am now. Which would you +do? No, you don't even need to answer," he said joyfully, carried away +by the look in her eyes as she swung fearlessly around. "I know you." + +In his fervor he caught her hand and pressed it against his heart. +"Drina dear, you ring true, true as a bell. You, I know, will understand +whatever I do." He was rushing on when suddenly a thought stopped him. +If he did what he had planned, what right would he have to hope of +marrying her even after years of toil? He dropped her hands, his face +going so blank that, forgetting the mingled joy and terror his words had +brought her, she cried: + +"Bojo--what's wrong--what are you thinking of?" + +He turned away, shaking his head, drawing a deep breath. + +But at this moment, before Patsie could escape, Doris came down the +stairs and directly to him. + +"Bojo--I've been so worried--why didn't you answer my letters? And _why_ +didn't you meet me?" + +She threw her arms about his neck, gazing anxiously into his eyes. He +had a blurred vision of Patsie, shrinking and white, turning from the +sight of the embrace, as he stammered explanations. Luckily Drake +himself broke the tension with an unexpected appearance and a bluff-- + +"Hello, Tom. Where have you been keeping yourself? Now that you're a +millionaire I expected you to come sailing in on a steam yacht! Well, +Doris, what do you think of your financier?" + +"Mr. Drake, I've got something important I must talk over with you. Can +you see me for a few minutes now? It's very important. If you could--" + +The tone in which he said these words, staring past them into the vista +of the salons, impressed each with the feeling of a crisis. Drake +halted, shot a quick glance from the young fellow to Doris, and said, as +he went out: + +"Why, yes--of course. Come in now. Soon as you're ready. The +library--glad to see you." + +At the same moment, with a last appealing glance, Patsie disappeared +behind the curtains. Doris came to him, startled and alarmed. + +"You're not in trouble?" she said, wonder in her look. "Dad told me +you'd made a quarter of a million and that everything was all right. +That is true, isn't it?" + +"Doris, everything is not all right," he said solemnly. "Whether I am to +keep my share or not depends on what answer your father gives to one +question I am going to ask him." + +"What do you mean? You mean you would not accept--" + +"Under certain circumstances I _can't_ accept this money--exactly that." + +"But, Bojo, don't do anything rash--hastily," she said hurriedly. "Talk +it over with me first. Let me know." + +"No," he said firmly. "This is my decision." + +"At least let me come with you--let me hear!" + +He shook his head. "No, Doris--not even that. This is between your +father and me." + +"But our marriage," she said in desperation, following him to the door. + +"Afterward--when I have seen your father, then we must talk of that." + +The new decision in his voice and movement surprised and controlled her. +She raised her hand as though to speak, and found no word to utter in +her amazement. He went quickly through the salons, knocked, and went +into the library. Drake, with a premonition perhaps of what was coming, +was waiting impatiently, spinning the chain of his watch. + +"Well, Tom, to the point. What is it?" he said imperiously. + +"Mr. Drake," Bojo began carefully, "I have not been in to see you +because--because I did not know just what to say. Mr. Drake, I've been +terribly upset by this Pittsburgh & New Orleans deal!" + +"What, upset by making a cool quarter of a million?" + +"Yes, that's it," he said firmly, never losing an expression on the +older man's face. "You know, of course, that Forshay, who committed +suicide, was in my office." + +"What, in your office?" said Drake, with a start. "No, I didn't know +that!" + +"That's rather shaken me up. He ruined himself on Pittsburgh & New +Orleans. And then that night--when I got home one of my chums was pretty +close to the same thing." + +"I told you not to take any one into your confidence, Tom," said Drake +quietly. + +"That's true, you _told_ me that. Mr. Drake, answer me this, didn't you +expect me to tell--some one?" + +Drake looked at him quickly, then down, drumming with his fingers. + +"What's the point?" + +Bojo had no longer any doubts. The transaction had been as he had +finally divined. Yet the words had not been spoken that meant to him the +renunciation of all the luxury and opportunity that surrounded him in +the tapestried wealth of the great room. He hesitated so long that Drake +looked up at him and frowned, repeating the question: + +"What's the point, Tom?" + +"Mr. Drake, you knew I would tell others to sell Pittsburgh & New +Orleans--you _intended_ I should, didn't you? That was part of your +plan--a necessary part, wasn't it?" + +"Tom, I expressly told you not to jump to conclusions," said Drake, +rising and raising his voice. "I expressly told you not to let the cat +out of the bag." + +"Won't you answer my question? Yes or no?" said the young fellow, very +quiet and quite colorless. + +"I have answered that." + +"Yes, you have answered," said Bojo slowly. "Now, Mr. Drake, I won't +press you any further. I know. I can't accept that money. It is not +mine." + +"Can't accept? What's this nonsense?" said Drake, stopping short. + +"I can't make money off the losings of my friends, whom I have ruined to +make your deal succeed." + +"That's a hard word!" + +"And there's another reason," said Bojo, ignoring his flash of anger. "I +was not honest with you. The night I came here I was ruined myself." + +"I knew that." + +"But you didn't know that I had used the fifty thousand dollars pledged +to your pool and that if you had been operating as I thought and wiped +out, I should have owed you thirty-five thousand dollars--pledged to +you--a debt which would mean dishonor to me." + +"I didn't know that. No. How did that happen?" said Drake, sitting down +and gazing anxiously at him. + +"I lost my head--absolutely--completely. I did just what Forshay and +DeLancy did--gambled with money that didn't belong to me. I lived in a +nightmare. Mr. Drake, I lost my bearings. Now I'm going to get them +back." He paused, drew breath, and continued earnestly: "Now you +understand why I don't deserve a cent of that money even if you could +swear to me you didn't use me purposely, which you can't! I pretty +nearly went over the line, Mr. Drake, and it wasn't my fault I didn't, +either. I guess I'm not built right for this sort of life--that's the +short of it." + +"You are young, very young, Tom," said Drake slowly. "Young people look +at things through their emotions. That's what you're doing!" + +"Thank God," said Bojo, and it seemed to him for the first time a +feeling of peace returned. + +"What do you want to do?" said Drake, frowning and rising. + +"I can not return you the two hundred thousand dollars," said Bojo +slowly. "I paid one friend thirty-eight thousand to cover his losses, to +save him from disgrace and dishonor in the eyes of a woman; another +friend refused to accept a cent. I paid to the estate of Forshay every +cent of indebtedness he owed the firm--fifty-two odd thousand dollars. +Forshay gambled because he thought I knew. That makes over ninety +thousand dollars. The rest--one hundred and fifty-nine thousand--I will +return to you." + +"Good heavens, Tom, you did that?" said Drake, taking out his +handkerchief. He sat down in his chair, overcome. For a long interval no +one spoke, and then from the chair a voice came out that sounded not +like Drake but something bodiless. "That's awful--awful. From my point +of view I have played the game as others, as square as the squarest. I +have lost thousands of thousands sticking to a friend, thousands in +keeping to my word. This is not business, this is war. Those who go in, +who intend to gamble with life, to fight with thousands and millions, +must go in to take the consequences. If they ever get me it'll be +because some one has turned traitor, not because I've sold out or done +anything disreputable. If others were ruined in Pittsburgh & New +Orleans, that's because they were willing to make money by smashing up +some other person's property. It was their fault, not mine. If a man +can't control himself--his fault. If a man goes bankrupt and won't face +the world and work back instead of blowing his brains out--his fault. + +"You think of the individual--men, friends, death. They move you, +they're closer to you than the big perspective. They don't count, no one +counts. If a man kills himself, he dies quicker than he would and is not +worth living, that's all. Sounds cold-blooded to you. Yes. But we're +dealing in movements, armies! Poverty, sorrow, disaster, death, they are +life--you can't get away from them. A great bridge is more important +than the lives of the men who build it, a great railroad is necessary, +not the question whether a few thousand people lose their fortunes, in +the operation which makes a great amalgamation possible. That's my point +of view. It's not yours. You're set on what you've made up your mind to +do. Your emotions have got you. Ten years from now you'll regret it." + +"I hope not," said Bojo simply. + +"What are you going to do? Well, come in here as my private secretary," +said Drake, placing his hand on the young man's shoulder, and adding, +with that burst of human understanding which gave him a magnetic power +over men: "Tom, you're a ---- fool to do what you're doing, but, by +heaven, I love you for it!" + +"Thank you," said Bojo, controlling his voice with difficulty. + +"Will you come here?" + +"No." + +"Why not?" + +"Frankly, I want to do something by myself," said Bojo stubbornly. "I +don't want some one to take me by the collar and jack me up into +success." + +"Think it over!" + +"No, I'll stick to that. I want to get into a rational life. To live the +way I've been living is torture." + +Drake hesitated, as though loathe to let him go, seeking some way out. + +"Won't you let me make good your losses--at least that?" + +"Not after the hole I got into, no." + +"Damn it, Tom, won't you let me do something to help out?" + +"No, not a thing." He went up and shook hands. "You don't know what it +means to be able to look you in the eyes again, sir. That's everything!" + +"And Doris?" said Drake slowly, beaten at every point. + +"Doris I am going to see now," he said. + +He went to the door hastily to avoid sentimentalities, and on the other +side of the curtain, where she had been listening, he found Doris, +wide-eyed and thrilled, her finger on her lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK + + +"What, you were there! You heard!" he said, astounded. + +She nodded her head, incapable of speech, her finger still on her lips, +drawing him by the hand into the little sitting-room where they were in +a measure free from other eyes. + +"Now for a torrent of reproaches," he thought grimly. + +But instead the next moment tears were on her cheeks, her arms about +him, and her head on his shoulder. Seeing her thus shaken, he thought +bitterly that all this grief was but for the material loss, the blow to +her ambitions. All at once she raised her head, took him firmly by the +shoulder, and said: + +"Bojo, I've never loved you before--but I do now, oh, yes, now I know!" + +He shook his head, unable to believe her capable of great emotions. + +"Doris, you are carried away--this is not what you'll say to-morrow!" + +"Yes, yes, it is!" she cried fervently. "I'll sacrifice anything +now--nothing will ever make me give you up!" + +"Luckily for you," he said, his look darkening, "you'll have time enough +to come to your senses. If you heard all, you know what this +means--starting at the beginning." + +"I heard-- I understand," she said, close to him, her eyes shining with +a light that blotted out the world in confused shadow. He looked at her, +thrilled by her feeling, by the thought that it belonged to him, that he +was the master of it, and yet unconvinced. + +"It's just your imagination," he said quietly, "that's all. Doris, I +know you too well--what you've lived with and what you must have." He +added, with a doubting smile: "You remember what you said to me that day +on our ride, when we passed through that factory village--'ask me +anything but to be _poor_.'" + +"Bojo," she said, desperately, "you don't understand what a woman is. +That was true--then. There's all that you say in me, but there's +something else which you've never called out before, which can come when +I love, when I really love." She clung to him, fighting for him, feeling +how close she had been to losing him. "Bojo, believe in me, give me one +more chance!" + +"To-morrow you'll come to me with some new scheme for making money!" + +"No, no." + +"You'll try to persuade me that I should marry you on your money, take +the opportunities your father can shove in my way. Oh, Doris, I know you +too well!" + +"No, no, I won't. I don't want--don't you see I don't want to make you +do anything? I want to follow you!" + +"That has been the trouble," he said, abruptly. + +He turned, walked away, and sat down, gazing out through the window, +feeling something dark and enveloping closing about him without his +being able to slip away. She came impulsively to his side, flinging +herself on the floor at his knees, carried away with the intensity of +her emotion. + +[Illustration: "'What does all the rest amount to?' she said +breathlessly. 'I want you'"] + +"What does all the rest amount to!" she said breathlessly. "I want you! +I want a man, not a dummy, in my life. I want some one to look up to, +bigger, stronger than I am, that can make me do things." + +He put his hand on hers, thrilling as he bent quickly and kissed it. + +"The trouble has been," he said slowly, "all this time I've been trying +to come to your ways of living, to reach you. Doris, I can't promise; +I'm not sure of myself, of what I think--" + +"Oh, it would be such a dreadful thing if you were to let me go now," +she said suddenly, covering her face. "Now, when I know what I could +do!" + +"Yes," he assented, feeling too the power he had suddenly acquired to +make or mar a life, and with that power the responsibility. + +"You can do anything with me," she said in a whisper. + +He felt a lump in his throat, a sense of being blocked at every turn, a +horror of doing harm, and a wild pride in the thought that at the last +this girl, whom he had rebelled against so often for being without +emotion or passion, was at his feet, without reserve, a warm, adoring +woman. + +"Doris, you have got to come to me on my footing," he said firmly at +last. + +She accepted it as the answer she had longed for, raising her face +suffused with joy, pressing his hand to her heart, her eyes swimming +with tears, inarticulate. + +"Try me--anything! I'm happy--so happy--so afraid-- I was so afraid-- +Oh, Bojo, to think I might never have known you--lost you!" + +When a little calm had been reestablished, she wished to marry him at +once, to live in one room in a boarding-house, if necessary, to prove +her sincerity. He answered her evasively, pretending to laugh at her, +feeling the while the leaden load of what by a trick of fate he had +assumed at the moment when he had expected the completest freedom. Yet +there was something so genuine, so uncalculated in her contrition, +something so helpless and appealing to his strength in her surrender to +his will and decision, that he felt stirred to a poignant pity, and +shrank before the brutality of inflicting pain. + +When he left, quiet and brooding, turning the corner of the Avenue his +glance happened to go to a window on the second floor, and he saw Patsie +looking down. He stopped, stumbling in his progress, and then, +recovering himself, lifted his hat solemnly. She did not move nor make +an answering gesture. He saw her only immobile, looking down at him. + + * * * * * + +When he returned to the Court and stopped mechanically at the desk for +his mail, Della, with her welcoming smile, chided him. + +"My, but you look awful serious, Mr. Crocker!" + +"Am I?-- Yes, I suppose so," he said absent-mindedly. + +He went through into the inner court that yesterday had seemed to him +such a constricted little spot in the great city which had responded to +his fortunate touch. Now, in the falling dusk, with the lights +blossoming out, the court seemed very big, crowded with human beings in +the battle of life, and he himself small and without significance. + +"Well, I've gone and done it," he said to himself with a half laugh. "I +wonder--" + +He wondered, now that it was all over, now that the curtain had dropped +on the drama of it, whether after all Drake had been right--whether he +was seeing life through his emotions, and what the point of view of +thirty-five and forty would be in retrospection. + +"Well, I've chucked it all," he said, lingering in the quiet and the +suffused half lights. "I took the bit in my teeth. There's no turning +back now." He remembered his father and the old battling look of +defiance in his eyes as he had exhorted his son. + +"Guess, after all," he said grimly, feeling all at once drawn closer to +his own, "I must be a chip of the old block." + +Granning alone was in the study as he came in, spinning his hat on to +the sofa. + +"Well, Granning, I've up and done it," he said shortly. + +"Eh, what?" said Granning, looking up rather alarmed. + +He told him. + +"And so, Granning, I'm a horny-handed son of labor from this time +forth," he said in conclusion. "You'll have to find me a job!" The laugh +failed. It seemed out of place at that moment with Granning staring at +him. He added quietly: "Guess self-respect is worth more than I +thought!" + +"God, I'm glad!" said Granning, bringing down his great fist. + +He had never in all the long friendship seen Granning so stirred! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BOJO HUNTS A JOB + + +"Well, now to hunt a job!" + +He woke up the next morning with this one idea dominant, dressed to a +whistling accompaniment, and came gaily to breakfast. A load seemed to +have been suddenly lifted from his mind, the day fair and the future +keen with the zest of a good fight without favors. The breakfast was +delicious and the air alive with energy. + +"Seems to me you're looking rather cocky," said Marsh, studying him with +surprise. + +"Never felt fitter in my life," said Bojo, stealing a roll from DeLancy, +who had completely lost his good spirits. + +"What's up? Going to trim the market again?" + +Bojo laughed, a free and triumphant laugh. + +"Never again for me!" He added quickly, remembering the attitude they +had assumed for DeLancy's benefit: "Luck's been with me long enough-- +I'm not going to bank on luck any more!" + +Fred pushed his plate from him and went into the outer room without +meeting their glances. + +"I say, Bojo, one thing we ought to do," said Marsh under his breath: +"get after the infant and give him a solemn dressing-down." + +"You don't suppose he's fool enough to try the market again?" + +"Who knows what he'll do?" said Marsh gloomily. "Sometimes I think it +would have kept him out of more trouble if you'd let him be cleaned out! + +"You mean Louise Varney-- Good Lord!" + +"Exactly!" + +"Do you think he suspects?" said Bojo, after a moment's hesitation--"I +mean about his taking a profit?" + +"Of course," said Marsh quietly. + +"Poor devil! Well, heavens, I can't criticize him," said Bojo, moodily. +"I pretty near did the same thing." + +"What are you going to do now?" said Marsh, to keep the conversation +clear of disturbing memories. + +"Going to start in on a new job." + +"What?" said Marsh, surprised. + +"Oh, I'm going to look around," said Bojo in an offhand sort of way. "I +want something solid and real--constructive is the word. Well, Roscy, +wish me good luck-- I'm starting to look over the field this morning." +He rose confident and happy, slapping his friend on the shoulder, with +the old boyish exhilaration. "By Jove, I'm glad to have it over and to +begin a real life!" + +"Give you a try at reporting," said Marsh. + +"Not on your life. I'm going out for something myself! Hello there, old +Freddie-boy! Got your hair on straight? Well, then, come on and tell +Wall Street what to do." + +An hour later, still full of confidence, he took the bull by the horns +and entered the offices of Stoughton and Bird. Young Stoughton was of +his social crowd, and the father had been particularly agreeable to him +on the several occasions on which he had dined at their home. The house +was known for its conservatism, dealing in solid investments. + +"Hello, Skeeter," said Bojo, giving young Stoughton his college +nickname. "Is the Governor busy--could he see me ten minutes?" + +They were in a vast outer chamber with junior members installed at +distant desks, the telephone ringing at every moment. + +"I think you've caught him right," said Stoughton, shaking his hand +cordially. "Wait a moment-- I'll 'phone in." He nodded presently. "Sure +enough--go right in." + +Stoughton, senior, a short, well-groomed man, club-man and whip, pumped +his hand affably with the smiling relaxation of one who throws off +momentarily the professional manner. + +"Glad to see you, Tom. I was asking Jo yesterday what had become of you. +Well, what have you got up your sleeve? You look mighty important. Want +to sell me a railroad in Mexico or half of a Western State?" + +"Nothing like that," said Tom, laughing and at his ease at once. "What +I'm looking for is a job." + +"You don't mean it," said Stoughton in surprise. + +"I want to get experience along solid lines," said Bojo confidentially. +"In conservative financing and investments. I don't know whether you've +got anything open, but if you have I'd like to apply." + +"I see." Stoughton nodded, plainly perplexed. "Does that mean you've +left--" + +"Hauk and Flaspoller--yes." + +Stoughton frowned. + +"That's poor Charlie Forshay's firm, isn't it?" + +"Yes." + +"They were caught pretty hard in Pittsburgh & New Orleans," said +Stoughton meditatively. "Yes, I remember. Were you caught too?" + +"I was." + +"What were you getting there?" + +"Of course I don't expect to get what I was making there--not just at +present," said Bojo magnanimously. "I was getting as much as one hundred +and twenty-five a week at the end." + +"No," said Stoughton, without the flicker of a smile, "you can't expect +that." The social affability had faded. Gradually he had withdrawn into +a quiet defensive attitude, tinged with curiosity. "By the way, you +don't mind my asking a discreet question? Why don't you try Drake?" + +Bojo could not give an answer which would reveal too much, but he +contented himself with saying frankly: + +"Why, Mr. Stoughton, I'd rather not ask favors. I'd like to work this +out for myself." + +"Right," said Stoughton, brightening. Still beaming, he added: "Wish we +had a place for you here. Unfortunately, our system is rather complex +and we start a man at the bottom. Of course we wouldn't offer you +anything like that. You're out of the ten-dollar-a-week class. Besides, +you've got friends--good connections. Lots of firms would be glad to get +you." + +"I want to get into something sound. I want to keep away from just +brokers," said Bojo, much cheered. + +"And you're right," said Stoughton, nodding. He drew out a card and +penciled it. "You know Harding and Stonebach? Harding's a good friend of +mine--give him this card. They're what you want--make a specialty of +development, electric plants, street railways, and that sort of thing. +Big future for a young fellow who's got a talent for constructive +organization." + +"That's just what I want," said Bojo, delighted. He shook hands, +thanking him effusively. + +Mr. Harding was in but asked him to call after lunch. He wandered about +the Wall Street district, stopping to chat with several acquaintances on +the curb, and ate lunch, finding it hard to kill time. Back at the +appointment, he was forced to sit, shifting restlessly, watching the +clock hands make a slow full revolution before his name was called. This +enforced wait, stealing glances at the flitting procession of purposeful +visitors and the two or three oldish men, neither impatient nor very +hopeful, who came after him, biding their turn, somehow robbed him of +all his confidence. His head was weary with the click of typewriters and +the fire of his assurance out. He tried to state his case concisely and +promptly, and felt hurried and embarrassed. + +In two minutes he was out in the hall again, the interview for which he +had waited a day, over. Mr. Harding, with incisive, businesslike +despatch, had taken his card and noted his address, promising to notify +him if occasion arose. He understood it was a dismissal. As he went out, +one of the oldish men arose without emotion at the new summons, folding +his newspaper and pocketing his spectacles. Bojo returned to the Court, +essaying to laugh down his disappointment, yielding already to the +subtle depression of being a straggler and watching the army sweep by. + +The next day he continued his quest, the next and all of that week. +Sometimes he met with curt refusal that left a scar on his pride; +sometimes he seemed to gain headway and have opportunity almost on his +fingers until somehow, sooner or later, in the categorical questioning +it transpired that his last venture had been with a firm of speculative +brokers who had been caught and squeezed. Gradually it dawned upon him +that there was something strange in the resulting sudden shift of +attitude, a superstition of the Street itself, a gambler's dread of +failure, an instinctive horror of any one who had been touched with +misfortune, as the living hurry from the dead. The feeling of loneliness +began to creep over him. Alarmed, he steadfastly refused all week-end +invitations. + +One Sunday his father turned up suddenly in the Court, shook hands with +Granning, who alone kept him company, and passed a few perfunctory +remarks with his son. + +"How is it you haven't been to me for money?" he said gruffly. + +Bojo answered with a lightness he was far from feeling: + +"Well, they haven't taken it away from me yet, Dad." + +"Mighty sorry to hear it." He looked him over critically. "In good +shape?" + +"Fine." + +"Get enough sleep and don't do much sitting up and counting the stars?" + +"Hardly. How've you been?" + +"Sound as a drum." + +"How's the business, father?" + +The question brought them perilously near what each had in mind. Perhaps +one word of daring would have broken down the pride of their mutual +obstinacy. Mr. Crocker growled out: + +"Business is mighty shaky. Your precious Wall Street and politics have +got every one scared to death. Mighty lucky we'll be if a crash doesn't +hit us." + +Had Bojo defended himself, the father might have reopened the question +of his entering the mills; but he didn't, and after a few minutes of +indefinite seeking for an opening Mr. Crocker went off as abruptly as he +had come. + +The next morning Bojo, to end this depressing period of inactivity, made +a resolve to accept any opportunity, no matter how humble the salary, +and went down to see Mr. Stoughton to ask him for the chance to start at +the bottom. Skeeter received him with the same cordiality as before, but +access to the father was not to be had that day. In desperation he sat +down and wrote his request. Two days later he received his answer in the +evening mail. + + Mr. Thomas Crocker. + + Dear Tom: + + Please forgive any delay due to press of business. Just at + present there is no vacancy, and frankly I would not advise + you to take the step even if there were. I know you are + young and impatient to be at work again, but I can not but + feel that you would not be happy in making such a radical + move, particularly when at any moment the opportunity you + are looking for may turn up. + + Cordially yours, + J. N. STOUGHTON. + +Granning came in as he was sitting by the wastebasket and slowly tearing +this letter into minute shreds. + +"Hello, young fellow--what luck?" + +"I think I'm on," said Bojo, slowly, feeling all at once shelved and +abandoned. "The last thing people downtown have any use for, Granning, +is a busted broker!" + +"You have found that out, have you?" said Granning quickly. + +Bojo nodded. + +"Well, you're right." He sat down. "See here, old sport, why don't you +do the thing you ought to do?" + +"What's that?" + +"Go down and see the old man and tell him you're ready to start for the +mills to-morrow!" + +"No, no, I can't do that." + +"You want to do it, at heart. It's only pride that's keeping you." + +"Perhaps, but that pride means a lot to me," said Bojo doggedly. "Never! +I'm not going to him a failure. So shut up about that." + +"Well, what are you going to do?" + +Bojo began to whistle, looking out the window. + +"Suppose I were to offer you a job over at the factory?" + +"Would you?" said Bojo, looking up with a leaping heart. + +"That means starting in on rock bottom--as I did. Up at six, there at +seven--beginning as a day laborer on a beautifully oily and smudgy +blanking machine among a bunch of Polacks." + +"Will you give me a chance?" said Bojo breathlessly. + +"Will you stick it out?" + +"You bet I will!" + +"Done!" + +And they shook hands with a resounding smack that seemed to explode all +Bojo's pent-up feelings. + +"All right, young fellow," said Granning with a grin. "To-morrow we'll +find out what sort of stuff you're made of!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +BOJO IN OVERALLS + + +The day he entered the employ of the Dyer-Garnett Caster and Foundry +Company was like an open door into the wonderland of industry. The sun, +red and wrapped in dull mists, came stolidly out of the east as they +crossed the river in the unearthly grays, with electric lights showing +in wan ferry-boats. When they entered the factory a few minutes before +seven, the laborers were passing the time-clocks, punching their +tickets, Polack and Saxon, Hun and American, Irish and Italian, the men +a mixture of slouchy, unskilled laborers and keen, strong mechanics, +home-owners and thinkers, the women of rather a higher class, +bright-eyed, deft, with a prevailing instinct for coquetry. + +In the offices Dyer, lanky New Englander, engineer and inventor, and +Garnett, the president, self-made, simple and shrewd, both in their +shirt sleeves, gave him a cordial welcome. Unbeknown to Bojo, Granning +had given a flattering picture of his future destination as heir +apparent to the famous Crocker mills and his progressive desire for +preliminary experience in factories that were handling problems of +labor-saving along modern lines. + +"Glad to meet you," said Garnett, gripping his hand. "Mr. Granning tells +me you want to see the whole scheme from the bottom up. It's not +playing football, Mr. Crocker." + +"Hope not," said Bojo with a smile. "It's very good of you to give me an +opportunity." + +"Don't know how you'll feel about it after a couple of weeks. I'll get +Davy--that's my son--to show you around. We're doing some things here +you'll be interested in. Mr. Dyer's just installed some very pretty +machines. Davy'll put you onto the ropes--he's just been through it. +That's a great plant of your father's--went through it last year. +Nothing finer in the country." + +He found young Garnett a boy of twenty, just out of high-school, alert, +eager, and stocked with practical knowledge. The morning he spent in +exploration was a revelation. In his old prejudice against what he had +confusedly termed business he had always recoiled as before a leveling +process, stultifying to the imagination, a thing of mechanical movements +and disciplined drudgery. He found instead his imagination leaping +forward before the spectacle of each succeeding regiment of machines, +before the teeming of progress, of the constant advance toward the +harnessing of iron and steel things to the bidding of the human mind. + +Cars were being switched at the sidings, unloading their cargoes of +coiled steel; other cars were receiving the completed article, product +of a score of intricate processes, stamped, turned, assembled, and +hammered together, plated, lacquered, burnished, and packed for +distribution. He had but a confused impression at first of these rooms +of tireless wheels, automatic feeders and monstrous weights that sliced +solid steel like paper. The noises deafened him: the sandy, grinding +whirl of the tumbling room, the colliding shock of the blanking +machines, the steel hiss of the burnishers--deafening voices that in the +ensuing months were to become articulate utterances to his informed +ears, songs of triumph, prophetic of a coming age. + +In the burnishing-room grotesque human and inhuman arms reached down +from a central pipe to the poisonous gases of the miniature furnaces. + +"Granning's idea," said young Garnett. "Carries off the fumes. This room +was a hell before. Now it's clean and safe as a garden. Here's a machine +the Governor's just installed--does the work of six women. Isn't it a +beauty?" + +Bojo looked beyond it to the clustered groups of women by long counters +piled with steel parts, working rapidly at slow, intricate processes of +assembling. + +"I suppose you'll get a machine some day to do all that too," he said. + +"Sure. Wherever you see more than two at a job there's something to be +done. Look here." They stood by a couple of swarthy Polack women, who +were placing tiny plugs in grooves on round surfaces to be covered and +fastened with ball-bearing casters. "Looks pretty tough proposition to +get out of those fingers. We've worked two years at it, but we'll get +them yet. It's the slug shape that makes it hard; the simple +ball-bearings were a cinch. Here's how we worked that out." + +A machine was under Bojo's eyes that caught the open roller and plunged +it into a circular arena, where from six converging gates steel balls +were released and fell instantly into place, a fraction of a second +before the upper cover, descending, was fixed and hammered down. + +"One hundred and fifty a minute against thirty to forty, and two +operations made into one." + +"But you can't do the same thing with an irregular slug," said Bojo, +amazed. + +"There's a way somehow," said Garnett, smiling at the tribute of his +astonishment. "If you want to see what a machine can do, look at this, +the pride of the shop." + +"Who's watching it?" said Bojo, surprised to see no one in attendance. + +"Not a soul. It's a wise old machine. All we do is to fill up the hamper +once an hour, and it goes ahead, feeds itself, juggles a bit, hammers on +a head, and fills up its can, two hundred a minute." + +In a large feeding-box, a tangled mass of small steel pins, banded at +one end, were rising and falling, settling and readjusting themselves. A +thin grooved plate rose and fell into the mass, sucking into its groove, +or catching in its upward progress, from one to six of the pins, which, +perpendicularly arranged, slid down to a new crisis. Steel fingers +caught each pin as released, threw it with a half turn into another +groove, where it was again passed forward and fixed in shape for the +crushing hammer blow that was to flatten the head. A safety-device based +on exact tension stopped the machine instantly in case of accident. + +"Suffering Moses, is it possible!" said Bojo, staring like a schoolboy. +"Never saw anything like it." + +"Gives you an idea what can be done, doesn't it?" + +"It does!" + +Then he began to see these strangely human machines and these mechanical +human beings in a larger perspective, in a constant warfare, each +ceaselessly struggling with the other, each unconsciously being +fashioned in the likeness of his enemy. + +"When we've got the human element down to the lowest terms, then we'll +fight machines with machinery, I suppose," said Garnett. + +"Makes you sort of wonder what'll be done fifty years from now," said +Bojo. + +"Doesn't it?" said Garnett. "I wouldn't dare tell you what the Governor +talks about. You'd think he's plum crazy." + +"By George, I feel like starting now." + +"Same way I did," said Garnett, nodding. "I suppose what you'll want +will be to follow the whole process from the beginning. It gives you a +general idea. I say, that's a great machine your father's just +installed." + +He began to expatiate enthusiastically on an article he had read in a +technical paper, assuming full knowledge on Bojo's part, who listened in +wonder, already beginning to feel, beyond the horizon of these animated +iron shapes, the mysterious realms of human invention he had so long +misunderstood. + +The next morning, in overalls and flannels, he took his place in the +moving throngs and found his own time-card, a numbered part of a great +industrial battalion. He was apprenticed to Mike Monahan, a grizzled, +good-humored veteran, whose early attitude of suspicion disappeared with +Bojo's plunge into grime and grease. He was himself conscious of a +strange bashfulness which he had never experienced in his contact with +Wall Street men. It seemed to him that these earnest, life-giving hordes +of labor must look down on him as a useless, unimportant specimen. When +he came to take his place in the early morning, sorting out his +time-card, he was conscious of their glances and always felt awkward as +he passed from room to room. Gradually, being essentially simple and +manly in his instincts, he won his way into the friendly comprehension +of his associates, living on their terms, seeking their company, talking +their talk, with a dawning avid curiosity in their points of view, their +needs, and their opinions of his own class. + +Garnett had not exaggerated when he had said that the work was not +playing football. There were days at first when the constant mental +application and the mechanical iteration amid the dinning shocks in the +air left him completely fagged in mind and body. When he returned home +it was with no thought of theater or restaurant, but with the joy of +repose. Moreover, to his surprise, he found that he awaited the arrival +of Sunday eagerly for the opportunity of reading along the lines where +his imagination had been stirred. As he studied the factory closer, his +pleasure lay in long discussions with Granning over such subjects as the +utilization of refuse, the possible saving of time in the weekly +cleanings by some process of construction which might permit of quicker +concentration, or the possibility of further safety-devices. + +He saw Doris every Sunday, in the afternoon, often staying for the +dinner and departing soon after. Patsie was never present at these +meals. A month later, he heard that she had left on a round of visits. +Mr. Drake often made humorous allusions to his enforced servitude, but +never attempted to sway his course, being too good a judge of human +nature to underestimate the intensity of the young man's convictions. +Doris had completely changed in her attitude toward him. She no longer +sought to direct, but seemed content to accept his views in quiet +submission. He found her simple and straightforward, patiently resigned +to wait his decisions. He could not honestly say to himself that he was +madly in love, yet he owned to a feeling of growing respect and genuine +affection. + +Matters went on according to the routine of the day without much change +while the spring passed into the hot stretches of summer. The exigencies +of the life of discipline he had enforced on himself had withdrawn him +more and more from the intimate knowledge of the every-day life of +Marsh, whose hours did not coincide with his, and of DeLancy, who, since +the episode of the speculation in Pittsburgh & New Orleans, had, from a +feeling of unease, seemed to avoid his old friends. Occasionally in her +letters from the country Doris mentioned the fact that Gladys had been +to visit her and that she thought Fred was rather neglectful; but beyond +that he was completely ignorant of his friend's sentimental standing +either with Gladys or with Louise Varney, so that what happened came to +him like a bolt out of the blue. + +Toward the end of July Fred DeLancy married Louise Varney. + +It was on a Friday night when Marsh, after an unusual tarrying in the +den, was preparing to return to the office, that DeLancy, to their +surprise, came into the room. In response to their chorused welcome, he +flung back a curt acknowledgment, looked around gravely in momentary +hesitation, and finally installed himself on the edge of a chair, +bending forward, his hat between his knees, turning in his hands. The +others exchanged glances of interrogation, for such seriousness on +Fred's part usually presaged a scrape or disaster. + +"Well, infant, why so solemn?" said Marsh. "Been getting into trouble +lately?" + +DeLancy looked up and down. + +"Nope." + +"There's not much information in that," said Marsh cheerily. "Well, +what's the secret sorrow? Out with it!" + +"There's nothing wrong," said DeLancy quietly. He began to whistle, +staring at the floor. + +"Oh, very well," said Marsh in an offended tone. + +They sat, watching him, for quite a moment, in silence. Finally DeLancy +spoke, slowly and monotonously: + +"I have made up my mind to a serious decision!" + +Again they waited without questioning him, while he frowned and seemed +to choose his words. + +"You will think I have gone out of my head, I suppose. Well--I am going +to be married--to-night--at eleven." + +"Louise Varney?" said Marsh, jumping up, while Granning and Bojo stared +at each other blankly. + +"Yes." + +"You damned fool!" + +At this Fred started up wildly with an oath, but Granning interposed +with a warning cry. + +"You fool--you idiot!" cried Marsh, furiously. "Shoot yourself--cut your +throat--but don't--don't do that!" + +"Shut up, Roscy, that does no good!" said Bojo quickly. He seized Fred +by the wrist: "Fred, honestly--you're going to marry her to-night?" + +DeLancy nodded, his mouth grim. + +"Oh, Fred, you don't know what you're doing!" + +"Yes, I do," he said, sitting down. "It's nothing hasty. It's been +coming for months. I know what I'm doing." + +"But--but the other--Fred, you can't--in decency you can't--not like +this." + +"Shut up!" said DeLancy, wincing. + +"No, no, you can't like this," said Bojo indignantly. + +"By heavens, he sha'n't," said Marsh angrily. "If we have to tie him up +and keep him here--he's not going to ruin two lives like this, the +lunatic!" + +"Go easy," said Granning, with a warning glance. + +But, contrary to expectation, Fred did not resent the attack. When he +spoke, it was with a shrug of his shoulders, in a tired, unresisting +voice: + +"It's no use, Roscy. It's settled and done for." + +"Why, Fred, old boy, can't you see clear?" said Roscy, coming to him +with a changed tone. "Don't you know what this means? You're not a fool. +Think! I'm not saying a word against Louise." + +"You'd better not!" said Fred, flushing. + +"Her character's as good as any one else's--granted that. But, Fred, +that's not all. She's not of your world, her mother's not--her friends +are not. If you marry her, Fred, as sure as there's a sun in heaven, +you're ended, done for; you're dropped out of the world and you'll never +get back!" + +"Well, I'm going to do it," said DeLancy, stubbornly. + +"You're going to do it and deliberately throw over every friend and +every attachment you've got in life?" + +"I don't admit that." + +"What are you going to live on?" said Granning. + +"I've got the money I made and what I make." + +"What you make now," said Marsh, seizing the opening, "what you make +because you know people and bring down customers! You yourself said it. +But when you drop out of society you'll drop out of business. You know +it." + +"I may fool you yet," said Fred angrily. + +"You think you can play the Wall Street game and beat it," said Bojo, +divining his thought. "Fred, if you marry, whatever else you do--quit +gambling." Knowing more than the others, he had from the first known the +hopelessness of argument. Still he persisted blindly. "Fred, can't you +wait and think it over--let us talk it over with you?" + +"I can't, Bojo, I can't. I've given my word!" + +"Good God!" said Marsh, raising his hands to heaven in fury. + +"Fred, can't you see what Roscy says is true?" said Granning, quieter +than the rest. + +"Even so, I'm going to do it," said Fred, in a low voice. + +"But why?" + +"Because I'm crazy, mad in love," said Fred, jumping up and pacing +around. "Infatuated?--Yes!--Mad?--Yes! But there it is. I can't do +without her. I've been like a wild man all these months. Whether it +ruins me or not, I can't help it-- I've got to have her, and that's all +there is to it!" + +"Then I guess that's all there is to it," repeated Granning solemnly. + +Marsh swore a fearful oath and went out. + +"I want to talk to him a moment," said Bojo, turning to Granning with a +nod. Granning went into the bedroom, while Bojo drew nearer to DeLancy. +"Fred, let's talk this over quietly." + +"Oh, I know what you're going to fling at me," said Fred miserably. +"Gladys and all that. I know I'm a beast, I've no excuse. But, Bojo, I'm +half wild! I don't know what I'm doing--honest I don't!" + +"Is it as bad as all that, old fellow?" said Bojo, shaking his head. + +"It's awful--awful." He sat down, burying his head in his hands. + +"Fred, answer me--do you yourself _want_ to do this?" + +"How do I know what I want!" he said breathlessly. He raised his head, +staring in front. "I suppose it will end me with the crowd. I suppose +that's true. Bojo, I know everything that it will do to me--everything. +I know it's suicide. But, Bojo, that doesn't do any good. Reasoning +doesn't do any good--what's got to be has got to be! Now I've told you. +You'll see it's no use." + +"I hope it will work out better than we think," said Bojo, solemnly. +"And Gladys?" + +"I wrote to her." + +"When?" + +"Yesterday." He hesitated. "Her letters and one or two things--they're +done up in a pile." + +"I'll get them to her." + +"Thank you." He turned. "I say, Bojo, stand by me in this, won't you? +I've got to have some one. Will you?" + +"All right. I'll come." + + * * * * * + +At eleven o'clock in a little church up in Harlem he stood by DeLancy's +side while the words were said that he knew meant the end of all things +for him in the worldly world he had chosen for his own. It was more like +an execution, and Bojo had a guilty, horribly guilty, feeling, as though +he were participating in a crime. + +"Louise looks beautiful," he found the heart to whisper. + +"Yes, doesn't she?" said Fred gratefully, with such a sudden leap in the +eyes that Bojo felt something choking in his throat. + +He waved them good-by after he had put them in the automobile, and took +Mrs. Varney and a Miss Dingler, the maid of honor, home in a taxi. It +was all very gloomy, shoddy, and depressing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DORIS MEETS A CRISIS + + +It was toward the end of August, when the dry exhaustion of the summer +had begun to be touched with the healing cool of delicious nights, that +Bojo and Granning were lolling on the window-seat, busy at their pipes. +Below in the Court foggy shapes were sunk in cozy chairs under the +spread of the great cotton umbrella, and the languid echoes of +wandering, contented conversation came to them like the pleasant closing +sounds of the day across twilight fields--the homing jingle of cattle, +the returning creak of laden wagons seeking the barns, or a tiny distant +welcome from a barking throat. + +"Ouf! It's good to get a lung-full of cool air again," said Bojo, +turning gratefully to an easier position. + +"Well, how do you like being a horny-handed son of toil?" said Granning. + +"I like it." + +"You're through the worst of it now." + +"It's sort of like being in training again," said Bojo reminiscently. +"Jove, how they used to drive us in the fall--the old slave drivers! +It's great, though, to feel you've earned the right to rest. I say, +Granning, it's a funny thing, but you know that first raise, ten dollars +a week, thrilled me more than making thirty thousand in a clip. Come to +think of it, I don't believe I ever really made that money." + +"You didn't." + +Bojo laughed. "Well, this is a man's life," he said evasively. Then +suddenly: "What precious idiots we were that first night, prophesying +our lives. Poor old Freddie, who was going to marry a million and all +that--and weren't we indignant, though, at him! A fine grave he's dug +for himself now. Queer." + +"I like him better than if he'd married the other girl in cold blood." + +"Yes, I suppose I do too. Still--" He broke off. "Do you believe he's +had the sense to get out of the market?" + +"No," said Granning shortly. + +"Good Lord, if I thought that, I'd--" + +"You'd do nothing. You can't help him--neither can I or any one. After +all--don't think I'm hard, but what does it matter what happens to +fellows like Fred DeLancy? What's important is what happens to men +who've got power and energy and are trying to force their way up. Men +you and I know--" + +"That's rather cruel." + +"Well, life is cruel. My sympathy is with the fellow that's knocking for +opportunity, not the fellow who's throwing it away. Bojo, the salvation +of this country isn't in making sinecures for good-natured, lovable +chaps of the second generation, but in sorting 'em out and letting the +weak ones fall behind. Keep open the doors to those who are coming up." + +"I don't think you've ever forgiven Fred for taking that money," said +Bojo reluctantly. "You don't like him." + +"I did like him--but I've grown beyond him--and so have you," said +Granning bluntly. In the last few months he had come to speak his mind +directly to Bojo, with results that sometimes shocked the younger man. + +At this moment the telephone rang. + +"Shuffle over to it," said Granning, withdrawing his legs. "No one ever +telephones for me." + +"It may be from Fred--perhaps they're back," said Bojo, departing. + +He came back in a few moments rather excited. + +"That's queer--it's from Doris." + +"Been rather neglectful, haven't you?" + +"It wasn't long distance. She's here!" + +"Here--in town?" + +"Yes. Funny she didn't warn me," said Bojo, mystified. He dug out his +hat from the crowded desk and halted before the reclining figure. "Well, +I'm summoned. Sorry to leave you. Felt just like rambling along." + +"Well, be firm." + +"What?" + +"Be firm." + +"Now just what did he mean by that?" he said to himself as he tripped +down the stairs and out. He puzzled more over this advice as he hastened +uptown. Why had Doris come, abruptly and without notification? The more +he thought of it, the more he believed he understood the reason of +Granning's warning. Doris had come to him with some new proposition, an +investment for quick returns or an opening along lines of increasing +salaries. The open surface-car with its cargo of coatless men and +shirt-waisted women went pounding up the Avenue, hurrying him toward +Doris. + +He would have been at loss to define to himself his real feelings. +Despite the sudden awakening in her, the delirious quality of romance +had not returned to him. Memories of another face and other hours had +ended that. Yet there was a solid feeling of doing the right thing, of +playing square by Doris, and of a responsibility well performed. In the +long, crowded, heated weeks there were long intervals when he forgot her +entirely. Yet when he saw her or opened her letters, poignant with +solicitude and faith, he felt his imagination kindle, if but for the +moment. + +He had reached the self-conscious stage in youth when he looked upon +himself as supernaturally old and tried in the furnace of experience. He +quieted the dormant longings in his heart by assuring himself that he +now took a different view of marriage, a more significant one as a grave +social step. The less he felt the romance of their relations, the more +he acknowledged the solid supplementary qualities which Doris would +bring him as his companion, as associate and organizer of the home. + +That he could not give her all that she now poured out unreservedly to +him, gave him at times a twinge of pity and compassion. She was so keen +to progress, to broaden the outlook of her views, to be of real service +to him. There were moments in her letters of inner revelations that +stirred him almost with the guilty feeling of surprising what was not +his to see. The idea of an early marriage would have been unbearable, +yet as a possibility of the future it seemed to him an eminently wise +and just procedure. + +At the Drake mansion his ring was answered by a caretaker, who came +doubtfully to let him in, pausing to search for the electric buttons. In +the anteroom and down the vistas of the salons, everything was bare and +draped in dust-clothes; there was a feeling of abandonment and +loneliness in the bared arches, as on his first visit a year before. + +"Bojo--is it you?" + +He heard her voice descending somewhere from the upper flights of the +great stone stairway, and answered cheerily. The caretaker disappeared, +satisfied, and he waited at the foot while she came rushing down and +hung herself in his arms. + +"Why, Doris!" he exclaimed, surprised at her emotion and the tenseness +of the figure that clung to him. "Doris, why, what's wrong?" + +"Wait, wait," she said breathlessly, burying her head on his shoulder +and tightening the grip of her arms. + +She led him, still clinging to his side, through the ballroom and the +little salon into the great library, where he had gone for his decisive +interview with Drake. They stood a moment in filtered obscurity, groping +for the buttons, until suddenly the room sprang out of the night. Then +he saw that she had been weeping. Before he could exclaim, the tears +sprang to her eyes and she flung herself in his arms again, sheltering +her head against his shoulder, clinging to his protection as though +reeling before the sudden down swoop of a storm. His first thought was +of death, a catastrophe in the family--father, mother--Patsie! At this +thought his heart seemed to stop and he said brokenly: + +"Doris, what is it--nothing has happened--no one is--is in danger?" + +"No, no," she said in a whisper. "Oh, don't make me speak--not just yet. +Keep your arms about me. Tighter so that I can never, never get away." + +He obeyed, wondering, his mind alert, seeking a reason for this strange +emotion. Suddenly she raised her head and, seizing his in her hands with +such tenacity that he felt the cut of her sharp little fingers, kissed +him with the poignant agony of a great separation. + +"Bojo, remember this," she cried through her tears, "whatever +happens--whatever comes--it is you--you! I shall love only you all my +life--no one else!" + +"Whatever happens?" he said, frowning, but beginning to have a glimmer +of the truth. "What do you mean?" + +She moved from him, standing, with head slightly down, staring at him +silently for a long moment. Then she said, shaking her head slowly: + +"Oh, how you will hate me!" + +He went to her quickly and, taking her by the wrist, led her to the big +sofa. + +"Now sit down. Tell me just what this all means!" + +His tone was harsh, and she glanced at him, frightened. + +"It means," she said at last, "that I am not what you thought--what I +thought I could be. I am not strong. I've tried and I've failed! I am +very, very weak, very selfish. I can't give up what I'm used to--luxury! +I can't, Bojo, I can't--it's beyond me!" She turned away, her +handkerchief to her eyes, while he sat without a word, compelling her to +go on. At last she turned, stealing a look at his set face. "Of course +you'll say you told me--but I tried-- I did try!" + +"I am saying nothing at all," he said quietly. "So you wish to end the +engagement, that is all, isn't it?" + +"All!" she said indignantly with a flood of tears. "Oh, how can you look +at me so brutally? I am miserable, absolutely miserable. I am throwing +away my life, my whole chance of loving, of being happy, and you look at +me as though you were sending me to the gallows!" + +If her distress was intended to weaken him in his attitude of quiet, +critical contemplation, it failed. Nevertheless he modified his tone +somewhat. + +"I am quite in the dark. I understand you have come to break off the +engagement--that is not perhaps the shock you believe it--but I am +curious to know what are your reasons." + +Her tears stopped abruptly. She faced his glance. + +"I said you would hate me," she said slowly. + +"No, I do not think so." + +"Yes, yes, you will hate me," she said breathlessly, "and you should. +Oh, I'm not excusing myself. I hate myself. I despise myself. If you +hated me you would only be right. Yes, you have every right." + +"Are you engaged to any one else, Doris?" he said with a smile. + +She sprang up indignantly. + +"Oh, how could you say such a thing! Bojo!" + +"If I have offended you I beg your pardon." + +"You beg my pardon," she said, her lip trembling. She came and knelt at +his side. "Bojo, look at me. You believe that I love you, don't +you?--that you are the only thing, the only person in my life that I +have ever loved, and that if I give you up it is because I must, because +I can't help it, because--because I know myself so well that I know I +haven't the strength to do what other women do--to be--poor! There you +have it!" + +"But you knew all this six months ago," he said, scenting some mystery. +"Something else must have happened--what?" + +She nodded. + +"Yes." + +He waited a moment. + +"Well?" + +She rose, listened a moment and glanced carefully about the room. +Afterward he remembered this glance. + +"You must give me your word of honor not to mention--not to breathe one +word I say to you," she said in a lower voice. + +"That is hardly necessary," he said quickly, on his dignity. + +"No, no. This is not my secret. Your word of honor. I must have your +word of honor." + +"Very well," he said, carried away by his curiosity. + +"Before the end of the year, in a few months even, Dad may lose every +cent he has!" + +"He told you?" he said incredulously. "Or is this some trick of your +mother's?" + +"No, no, it is no trick. Dad told us himself." + +"Us? Whom?" + +"Mother and me!" + +"And Patsie?" + +"No, Patsie is away." + +"When did he tell you?" + +"Just a week ago." + +"But why?-- That doesn't seem like him to tell you," said Bojo, +frowning. "Perhaps you've exaggerated." + +"No, no. He is in a bad way. He is caught," she said hurriedly. "Times +have been hard, the market has gone down steadily--all summer--way, way +down--and Dad is carrying enormous blocks of stock--must carry them or +admit defeat--and you know Dad! I don't know exactly what's wrong. He +didn't go into the matter; but he has enemies, tremendous enemies that +are trying to put him out, and it's a question of credit. Oh, if you'd +seen his face when he told us, you'd know just how serious it was!" + +"Just what did he say?" + +"He told us--I can't remember the words--that if times continued as they +had been, he stood a chance of losing every cent he had, that he was in +a fight for existence and that he couldn't tell how it would come out." +She hesitated a moment and added: "He thought the situation so critical +that we should know of it." + +This last and the halting before saying it, suddenly gave him the light +he had been seeking during all this interview. + +"In other words, Doris," he said quickly, "frankly and honestly, since +we are going to be honest now that we have come to the parting of the +ways--your father let you understand so that you might know how critical +the situation was and take your measures accordingly. That's it--isn't +it?" + +"Yes, I suppose so." + +"I hope at least that you haven't concealed anything from Boskirk," he +said quietly. + +"Why should I tell him?"--she started to burst out, and caught her +breath, trapped. + +"So you are already to be congratulated?" he said, looking at her with a +smile. + +"That isn't true," she said hastily. "You know and I know that Mr. +Boskirk wants to marry me, that I can have him any day--" + +"Don't," he said gravely. "You know there is an understanding--" + +"Oh, an understanding--" she began. + +"True," he interrupted. "At this moment, Doris, you know that Boskirk +has proposed and you have accepted him. Why deny it? It is quite plain. +You made up your mind that you would marry him the moment you learned +you might be a pauper. Come, be honest--be square." + +She went away from him and stood by the fireplace, her back to him. + +"That is true--all of it," she said. A shudder passed over her. "I hate +him!" + +"What!" he cried, advancing toward her in amazement. "You hate him and +yet you will marry him?" + +"Yes. Because I can't bear to give up anything--because I am a weak, +selfish woman." + +In a flash he saw her as she would be--this woman who now stood before +him twisting and turning in half-sincere outbursts, seeking to excuse or +accuse herself before his eyes from the need of dramatic sensations. + +"You will be," he said quietly. "So you are going to marry Boskirk?" + +She nodded. + +"Soon, _very_ soon?" + +She winced under the note of sarcasm in his voice and turned +breathlessly: + +"Oh, Bojo--you despise me!" + +"No--" he said indifferently. He held out his hand. "Well, we have said +all we have to say, haven't we?" + +Before he could prevent her or divine her intentions, she had flung +herself on his shoulder, clinging to him despite his efforts to tear her +from him. + +"Please, no scenes," he said hastily. "Quite unnecessary." + +She wished him to kiss her once--a last kiss; but he refused. Then she +began to cry hysterically, vowing again and again, between her torrents +of self-accusation, that no matter what the future brought she would +never love any one else but him. It was not until she grew exhausted +from the very storm of her emotion that he was able to loosen her arms +and force her from him. + +"Oh, you don't love me--you don't care!" she cried, when at last she +felt herself alone and her arms empty. + +"If that can be any consolation--if your grief is real--if you really do +care for me," he said, "that is true. I do not love you, Doris, and I +never have. That is why I do not hate you or despise you. I am sorry, +awfully sorry. You could have been such an awfully good sort." + +At this she caught her throat and, afraid of another paroxysm, he went +out quickly. + +Before the curb the touring-car was waiting. An idea came to him, +remembering the glance Doris had sent about the room. + +"Going back to-night, Carver?" he said to the chauffeur. "Much of a +run?" + +"Two hours and a half, sir." + +"Mrs. Drake came down with you?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"That's the answer," he thought to himself, wondering how much she might +have overheard. "Poor Doris." + +He thought of her already as some one distantly removed, amazed to +realize how quickly with the snapping of the artificial bond their true +relationship had readjusted itself. He thought of her only with a great +wonder, recognizing now all the possibilities which had lain in her for +good, saddened, and shuddering in his young imagination at the price she +had elected to pay. + +He turned the corner with a last look at the turreted and gabled roof of +the great Drake mansion, faint unreal shadows against the starlit sky, +as though, in his newly acquired knowledge of the tremendous +catastrophe impending, it lay against the crowded silhouette of the city +like a thing of dreams to vanish with the awakening reality. + +Before the next month was over, Doris had married young Boskirk--a quiet +country wedding whose simplicity excited much comment. Before another +fortnight the market, which had been slowly receding before the rising +wrath of a great financial panic, broke violently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE LETTER TO PATSIE + + +Two days after the breaking of his engagement to Doris, Bojo wrote to +Patsie. His letter--the first he had written her--he was two days in +composing, tearing up several drafts. He was afraid to say too much, and +to discuss trivial matters seemed to him insincere. Finally he sent this +letter: + + Dear Drina: + + I suppose by now Doris has told you of what has happened. + There are a great many things I want you to know about these + trying months, that I've wanted you to know and have been + hurt that you didn't know. Now that it's over I realize what + a tragedy it would have been, and yet I would have gone on + believing it was the right thing to do, trying to make + myself believe in what I was doing. During all this time I + have never forgotten certain things you said to me, your + message the day of the panic, the look in your eyes that + afternoon before I went in to see your father and--other + memories. I want to see you. Where are you? When will you be + back in New York? + + Faithfully yours, + BOJO. + +Having written this he carried it around in his pocket for another day +before posting it. No sooner was it irrevocably beyond his hands than he +had the feeling that he had committed an irretrievable blunder. The next +moment it seemed to him that he had done the direct and courageous +thing, that she would understand and be grateful to him for his +frankness. Each morning he heard the rustle of the mail slipping under +the door with a sudden cold foreboding, certain that her letter had +come. Each evening, back from the grind of the factory, he came into the +monastic corridors of Westover Court and turned the corner of the desk +with a hot-and-cold hope that in the letter-box there, under the number +51, would be a letter waiting for him. When after a week no word had +come, he began to make excuses. She was away on a visit, her mail had to +be forwarded or more probably held for her return. But one day, +happening to glance at the social column, in a report of the Berkshires +he found her name as a contender in a tennis tournament. He wrote a +second note: + + Dear Patsie: + + Did you get my letter of ten days ago, and won't you write + me? + + Yours, + BOJO. + +Perhaps his first had miscarried. Such accidents were rare but yet they +did occur. He calculated the shortest time she could receive his letter +and answer it and waited expectantly all that day. Again a week passed +and no word from her. What had happened? Had he really blundered in +sending the first letter? Was her pride hurt, or what? A feeling of +despair began to settle over him. He did not attempt a third letter, +sick at heart. The thought that he might have wounded her--he always +imagined her as a child--was unbearable. It hurt him as it had hurt him +with a haunting sadness, the day after their wild toboggan ride, when he +had seen the pain in her eyes--eyes that were yet too young for the +knowledge of the sorrow and ugliness of the world. Finally, through a +chance remark one day when he had dropped in to his club, he learned +that she was to be present at a house party at Skeeter Stoughton's on +Long Island. Overlooking the incident of his unsuccessful attempt to +enter their employ, he took his friend into a half confidence and begged +him to secure him an invitation for over Sunday. + +When he was once on the train and he knew for certain that in a short +two hours he would look into her eyes again, a feeling almost of panic +seized him. When they were in the motor rushing over smooth white roads +and he felt the lost distances melting away beneath him, this feeling +became one of the acutest misery. All that he had carefully planned and +rehearsed to say to her, suddenly deserted his mind. + +"What shall I say? What shall I do?" he said to himself, cold with +horror. There seemed to be nothing he could say or do. His very presence +was an impertinence, which she must resent. + +Luckily no one was in the house except their hostess and he had a short +moment to reassemble his thoughts before they strolled down to join the +party at the tennis courts. He was known to most of the crowd who +greeted his appearance as the return of the prodigal. Patsie was on the +courts, her back to him as they came up, Gladys Stone on the opposite +side of the net. Some one called out joyfully, "Bojo Crocker!" and she +turned with an involuntarily startled movement, then hastily controlling +herself at the cry of her partner, drove the ball into the net for the +loss of the point. + +When next, ensconced under a red-and-white awning among the array of +cool flannels and summery dresses, he sought her, she was seriously +intent on Hieher game, a little frown on her young forehead, her lips +rebelliously set, the swirling white silk collar open at the browned +throat, the sleeve rolled up above the firm slender forearm. She moved +lightly as a young animal in slow, well calculated tripping movements or +in rapid shifting springs. Her partner, a younger brother of Skeeter's, +home on vacation, gathered in the balls and offered them to her with a +solicitude that was quite evident. Bojo felt an instinctive antipathy +watching their laughing intimacy. It seemed to him that they excluded +him, that she was still a child unable to distinguish between a +stripling and a man, still without need of any deeper emotions than a +light-hearted romping comradeship. + +With the ending of the set, greetings could no longer be avoided. As +she came to him directly, holding out her hand in the most natural way, +he felt as though he were going red to the ears, that every one must +perceive his embarrassment before this girl still in her teens. He said +stupidly, pretending amazement, + +"You here? Well, this is a surprise!" + +"Yes, isn't it?" she said with seeming unconsciousness. + +That was all. The next moment she was in some new group, arranging +another match. Short and circumstantial as her greeting had been, it +left him with a sinking despair. He had hurt her irrevocably, she +resented his presence--that was evident. His whole coming had been a +dreadful mistake. Depressed, he turned to Gladys Stone to attempt the +concealment from strange eyes of the disorder within himself. He was yet +too inexperienced in the ways of the women of the world to even suspect +the depth of resentment that could lie in her tortured heart. + +"I'm awfully glad to see you--awfully," he said, committing the blunder +of giving to his voice a note of discreet sympathy. It had been his +distressing duty to bring her personally the little baggage of her +sentimental voyage--letters, a token or two, several photographs--to +witness with clouding eyes the spectacle of her complete breakdown. + +She drew a little away at his words, straightening up and looking from +him. + +"Have you heard the date of the wedding, Doris's wedding?" she said +coldly. + +It was his time to wince, but he was incapable of returning the feminine +attack. + +"You should know better than I," he said quietly. + +She looked at him with a perfect simulation of ignorance: + +"You were rather well interested, weren't you?" + +"More than that, as you know, Gladys," he said, looking directly in her +eyes. A certain look she saw there caused her to make a sudden retreat +into banality-- + +"Do you play?" + +"Sometimes." + +Miss Stoughton and others impatient of the role of spectators were +organizing tables of auction inside the house. His reason told him that +the best thing for him to do would be to join them and show a certain +indifference, but the longing, miserable and unreasoning, within him to +stay, to be where he could see her, filling his eyes, after all the long +vacant summer, was too strong. He hesitated and remained, saying to +himself-- + +"Suppose I am a fool. She'll think I haven't the nerve of a mouse." + +He wanted to chatter, to laugh at the slightest pretext, to maintain an +attitude of light inconsequential amusement, but the attempt failed. He +remained moody and taciturn, his eyes irresistibly fastened on the young +figure, so free and untamed, reveling in the excitement and hazards of +the game, wondering to himself that this girl, who now seemed so calmly +steeled against the display of the slightest interest in him, had once +swayed against his shoulder, yielding to the enveloping sense of a +moonlight night, loneliness and the invisible, inexplicable impulse +toward each other. What had come to end all this and how was it possible +for her to dissemble the emotion that she must feel, with the knowledge +of his eyes steadily and moodily fixed upon her? + +He was resolved to find a moment's isolation in which to speak to her +directly and she just as determined to prevent it. As a consequence he +felt himself circumvented at every move, without being able to say to +himself that it had been done deliberately. The others who perhaps +perceived his intention sought an instinctive distance, with that innate +sympathy which goes out to lovers, but Patsie with a foreseeing eye +called young Stoughton to her side and pretending a slightly wrenched +ankle, leaned heavily on his arm. In which fashion they regained the +house without Bojo having been able by hook or crook to have gained a +moment for a private word. + +At dinner, where he had hoped that Skeeter Stoughton, in return for his +half confidence, would have arranged so that he should sit next to her, +he found Patsie on the opposite side of the table. An accusatory glance +towards Skeeter was answered by one of mystification. Then he understood +that she must have rearranged the cards herself. He was unskilled in the +knowledge of the ways of young girls and their instinctive cruelty to +those who love them and even those whom they themselves love. He was +hurt, embarrassed, prey to idiotic suppositions that left him miserable +and self-conscious. He was even ready to believe that she had taken the +others into her confidence, that every one must be watching, smiling +behind their correct masks. The dinner seemed interminable. He was too +wretched to conceal his emotions, neglecting his neighbors shamefully +until one, a debutante of the year, rallied him maliciously. + +"Mr. Crocker, I believe you're in love!" + +He glanced at Patsie, frightened lest the remark might have carried, but +from her attitude he could divine nothing. She was rattling away, +answering some lightly flung remark from down the table. He began to +talk desperately in idiotic, meaningless sentences, aware that his +neighbor was watching him with a mischievous smile. + +"Are you really in love?" she said delightedly when he had run out of +ideas. + +He was struck by a sudden inspiration. + +"If I confess will you help me?" he said in a whisper. Miss Hunter, +enraptured with the idea of anything that bordered on the romantic, +bobbed her head in enthusiastic response. + +"Very well, after dinner," he said in the same low tone. He had a +feeling that Patsie had been trying to listen and began to talk with a +gaiety for which he found no reason in himself. Several times he glanced +across the table and he felt--though their eyes never met--that her +glance had but just left him, was on him the moment he turned away. He +found her much changed. She was not yet a woman, by a certain veil of +fragility and inconscient shyness, but the child was gone. Her glance +was more sobered and more thoughtful as though the touch of some sadness +had stolen the bubbling spirits of childhood and left a comprehension of +deeper trials approaching. At times she assumed an attitude of great +dignity, la grande maniere, which was yet but assumed and made him +smile. + +Dinner over, dancing began. He made no attempt to seek out Patsie, +putting off Miss Hunter too with evasive answers. He danced once or +twice, but without enjoyment and finally, not to witness the spectacle +of her dancing with other men, made the pretext of an evening cigar to +seek the obliterating darkness of the verandah. Safely hidden in a +favoring corner, he sat, moodily watching the occasional flitting of +laughing couples silhouetted against the starry night. He was totally at +loss to account for the reception. At times a suspicion passed through +his mind that Doris might have given a different account of their +parting scene than the facts warranted. At others, remembering details +of romantic novels, he had devoured, he was willing to believe that his +letter had not reached her, had been intercepted perhaps by Mrs. Drake. +At the end of an hour, fearing to have made his absence too noticeable, +he rose unwillingly to join the gay party within. Suddenly as he rounded +the corner he came upon a couple separating, the man returning to the +dance, the girl leaning against a pillar, plucking at invisible vines. +Then she too turned, coming into a momentary reflection. It was Patsie. + +She stopped short, divining who it was, and the instinctive step +backward which she made brought an angry outburst to his lips. + +"I beg your pardon," he said stiffly. "I didn't mean to annoy you. I had +been finishing my smoke. I--" He paused, at his wits' end. At this +moment if he had been called upon to recognize his true feelings, he +would have sworn that he hated her bitterly with a fierce, unreasoning +hatred. + +"You do not annoy me," she said quietly. + +"I was afraid so." + +"No." + +He hesitated a moment. + +"Did you get my letters?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you answer them?" he said, with a last hope of some possible +misunderstanding. + +She shook her head. + +He waited a moment for some explanation and as none came, he started to +leave, saying, + +"I don't understand at all--but--I don't suppose that matters--" + +He went toward the door. Then stopped. He thought he had heard her +calling his name. He returned slowly. + +"Did you call me?" + +"No, no." + +All at once he came to her tempestuously, catching her arm as he would a +naughty child's. + +"Drina, I won't be turned away like this. In heaven's name what have I +done that you should treat me like this? At least tell me!" + +She did not struggle against his hold, but turned away her head without +answer. + +"Was it my first letter? You didn't like me to write that way--so +soon--so soon after breaking the engagement? Was that it? It was, wasn't +it?" + +It seemed to him, though he could not be sure, that her head made a +little affirmative nod. + +"But what was wrong?" he cried in dismay. "You wouldn't have me be +insincere. You know and I know what you meant to me, you know that if I +went on with Doris after--after that night, it was only from a sense of +duty, of loyalty. Yes, because you yourself came to me and begged me to. +If that's true, why not be open about--" + +"Hush," she said hastily. "Some one will hear." + +"I don't care if they all hear," he said recklessly. "Drina, what's the +use of pretending. You know I've been in love with you, you and only +you, from the first day I saw you." + +She drew her arm from his grasp and turned on him defiantly-- + +"Thanks-- I don't care to be second fiddle!" she said spitefully. + +"Good heavens, that is it!" + +"Yes, that is it," she cried out and breaking from him she fled around +the corner of the verandah and it seemed to him that he had caught the +sound of a sob. + +He entered the house, a prey to conflicting emotions, perplexed, angry, +inclined to laugh, with alternate flashes of hope and as sudden relapses +into despair. Just as he had made up his mind that she had left for the +night, she reappeared without a trace of concern. But try as he might he +did not succeed in getting another opportunity to speak to her. She +avoided him with a settled cold antagonism. The next day it was the +same. It seemed that everything she did was calculated to wound him and +display her hostility. He had neither the strength nor the wisdom to +respond with indifference, suffering openly. At ten o'clock that night +as he was miserably preparing to enter the automobile that was to take +him to the station, Patsie came hurriedly down the steps, something +white in her hand. + +"Please do something for me," she said breathlessly. + +"What is it?" + +"A letter-- I want you to mail this letter--it's important." + +He turned, taking the letter and putting it in his pocket without +noticing it. + +She held out her hand. Surprised, he took it, yet without relenting. + +"Good-by, Bojo," she said softly. + +The next moment he was whirled away. When he reached the Court he +remembered for the first time his commission and, stopping at the desk, +he handed the letter absent-mindedly to Della, saying, + +"If you're going out, Della, mail this." + +She burst out laughing, with her irresistible Irish smile. + +"What are you laughing at?" he said, surprised. + +"You're always up to tricks, Mr. Crocker," she said, looking at the +inscription. + +"What do you mean?" he asked, puzzled, and, perceiving the cause of her +merriment, he snatched the envelope and glanced at it. It was addressed +to him. Covered with confusion he fled up to his room in a fever of +anticipation and wild hope. + + Dear Bojo: + + Forgive me for being a horrid, spiteful little cat. I am + sorry but you are very stupid--_very_! Please forgive me. + + PATSIE. + + P.S. As soon as the wedding is over, we come to New York. + Will you come and see me there--and I'll promise to behave. + + DRINA. + +He went to bed in the seventh heaven of delight, repeating to himself a +hundred times every word of this letter, turning each phrase over and +over for favorable interpretation. It seemed to him that never had he +spent such deliciously happy days as the last two. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +PATSIE APPEALS FOR HELP + + +Meanwhile Fred and Louise returned. He went to see them at a fashionable +hotel where they were staying temporarily. The great rooms and the large +salon on the corner, overlooking the serried flight of houses and +factories toward the river must have cost at least fifteen dollars a +day. Louise went into the bedroom presently to her hairdresser, closing +the door. + +"Congratulations, Prince," said Bojo laughing, but with a certain +intention to approach serious matters. "The royal suite is charming." + +"Remember I'm a married man," said DeLancy, the incorrigible, with a +laugh. "Aren't you ashamed to try and lecture me?" + +"Have you discovered a gold mine?" said Bojo. + +"Oh! I got in on two or three good things last Summer," said Fred, who +broke off in some confusion at perceiving that he had just divulged to +his friend that he had been trying his fortune again in Wall Street. + +"So that's it," said Bojo grimly. "Thought you'd sworn off." + +"I never did," said DeLancy obstinately. + +"It's not my affair, Fred," said Bojo finally. "Only do go slow, old +fellow; we're neither of us great manipulators and what comes slowly, +goes with a rush." + +"Honest, Bojo, I am careful," said Fred with a show of conviction. "No +more ten per cent. margins and no more wild-cat chances. If I buy, it's +on good information, no plunging." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Oh, absolutely! I take the solemn oath!" said Fred with a face to +convince a meeting of theologians. + +"And no margins?" + +"Oh, conservative margins!" + +"What do you call conservative?" + +"Twenty-five points--twenty points naturally." + +Bojo shook his head. + +"What are you going to do, live here?" + +"Of course not. We are looking around for an apartment for the Winter." + +Bojo wanted to know what Louise intended, whether she had made up her +mind to leave the stage or not, but he did not know quite how to +approach the subject. As he studied DeLancy, he thought he looked +irrepressibly happy and indifferent to what lay ahead. He wondered if +Fred had made any approaches to his old friends with a view to their +accepting his wife. + +"Will Louise stay here too?" he asked finally. + +"Naturally." + +"Is--is she giving up her career?" he said hesitatingly. + +DeLancy looked rather embarrassed. He did not reply at first. + +"I have left that to Louise herself. It's her decision. For the present +nothing is settled, not as yet." + +Bojo felt the embarrassment that possessed him. He had come to ask a +score of questions. He started to leave with the feeling that he had +found out nothing. At the noise of his going, Louise came out of the +room with her hair down. Probably she had been listening. She said +good-by to him with extra cordiality, with an ironical look in her eyes. + +"Mind you look us up after." + +"Yes, yes." + +Fred accompanied him to the elevator. + +"As soon as we are settled we'll have a spree," he said with an attempt +at the old gaiety. + +"Of course." + +Bojo went off shrugging his shoulders, saying to himself, "Where will it +all end?" + +During the Summer a marked change had come over industrial conditions, a +feeling of something ominous was in the air, a vague and undefined +threat impending. At the factory a fifth of the machines were idle and +Garnett was moodily contemplating a general reduction in salaries. Bojo +scarcely paid any attention to Wall Street matters now, but he knew that +the movement downward of values had been slow and gradual and that +prophecies of dark days were current. Matters with Marsh were going +badly. Advertisers were deserting the paper, there had been several +minor strikes with costly readjustments. Roscoe seemed to have lost his +early enthusiasm, to be increasingly moody, impatient and quick to take +offense. The reasons given for the business depression were many, over +capitalization, timidity of the small investors due to the exposure of +great corporations, distrust of radical political reforms. Whatever the +causes, the receding tide had come. People were apprehensive, +dispirited, talking poverty. Granning held that the country was paying +for the sins of the great financial adventurers and the cost of the +giddy structures they had thrown up. Marsh from the knowledge of his +newspaper world, held that below all was the coalescing power of great +banking systems, arrayed against the government on one side and on the +other, waiting their opportunity to crush the new-risen financial idea +of the Trust Company organized to deal in speculative ventures denied to +them. When Bojo in his simplicity asked why in a great growing nation of +boundless resources, a panic should ever be necessary, each sought to +explain with confusing logic which did not convince at all. Only from it +he gathered that above the great productive mechanism of the nation was +an artificial structure, in the possession of powerful groups able to +control the sources of credit on which the sources of production depend. + +Four days after he had read in the newspapers the account of Doris's +wedding to Boskirk, about seven o'clock in the evening, while he was +waiting for Roscoe to call for him to go out to dinner, Sweeney, the +Jap, brought him a card. + +It was from Patsie, hastily scribbled across, "I am outside. Can you +come and see me?" + +"Where is she? Outside?" he said all in a flutter. Sweeney informed him +that she was waiting in an automobile. + +He guessed that something serious must have happened and hurried down. +Patsie's face was at the window, watching impatiently. When she saw him +she relaxed momentarily with a sigh of relief. + +"Why, Patsie, what's wrong?" he said instantly, taking her hand. + +"You can come? It's important." + +"Of course." + +He jumped in and the car made off. + +"Tell him to drive through the Park." + +He transmitted the order. And then turned to look at her. + +"I am so worried!" she said at once, gazing into his eyes, with eyes +that held an indefinable fear. + +He had not relinquished her hand since he had seated himself. He pressed +it strongly, fighting back the desire to take her in his arms, that came +to him with the spectacle of her misery. There flashed through his mind +the details of his final parting with Doris and her ominous declaration +of the ruin impending over her father. He had only half believed it then +but now it flashed across his memory with instant conviction. + +"Your father is in trouble--financial trouble!" he said suddenly. + +"How do you know?" she said amazed. + +"Doris told me." + +"Doris? When?" she said. She stiffened at the name, though he did not +notice the action. + +"The last time I saw her--why, Drina, didn't you know? Why she came +down, why she saw me and asked to be released--didn't you know her +reason?" + +"I know nothing. Do you mean to say that she--" she paused as though +overwhelmed at the thought, "that then she knew Dad was facing ruin?" + +"Knew? Why, your father told her!-- Doris and your mother! You didn't +know?" + +"No." + +"You weren't told afterward?" + +"No, no--not a word." + +Rapidly he recounted the details of the scene, failing in his excitement +to notice how divided was her interest, between the knowledge of what +was threatening her father, and what bore upon the situation between +Doris and himself. + +"Then it was Doris who broke it!" she said suddenly and a shudder went +through her body. + +He checked himself, saw clear and answered impetuously. + +"Yes, she did--that's true. But let me tell the truth also. I never +would have married her--never--never! I never in all my life felt such +relief--yes, such absolute happiness as that night when I walked away +free. I did not love her. I had not for a long, long time. I pitied her. +I believed that through her love for me a great change was coming in +her--for the best. And so it had. I pitied her. I was afraid of doing +harm. That was all. She knew it, Drina. You can't believe I cared--you +must have known!" + +"And yet--yet," she began, hesitatingly, and stopped. + +"Don't hold anything back," he said impulsively. "We mustn't let +anything stand between us. Say anything you want. Better that." + +"What I couldn't understand," she said at last, with an effort, in which +her hurt pride was evident--"that afternoon--when you gave back the +money to Dad--after what you said to me-- Oh! how can I say it." + +"You thought that I was going to tell the truth to Doris and break the +engagement. That was it, wasn't it?" + +"Yes," she said, covering her face, in terror that she could have said +such a thing, and yet her whole being hanging on his answer--"I couldn't +understand--afterwards." + +"I came out of the library to make an end of everything and before I +knew it, it was Doris who had changed everything. She had listened. She +had heard all. She imagined she was in love for the first time. She +begged me not to turn from her, to give her another chance. I was +caught, what was I to do?" + +"She loves you," she said breathlessly. + +"She only imagines it. She only plays with that idea." + +"No, no! she loves you," she said in a tone of great suffering. + +"But, Drina," he said, aghast at her inconsistency, "it was you who came +to me--who begged me to marry Doris--how can you forget that?" + +She burst into tears. + +"What! You are jealous!--jealous of her!" he cried with a great hope in +his voice, his hand going out to her. + +She stiffened suddenly and drew back, frightened into her corner. + +"No, I'm not jealous," she said furiously. "Only hurt--terribly hurt." + +This sudden change left him bewildered. He felt it unjustified, +inconsistent and a reproach was on his lips. + +In the end he quieted himself and said, forcing himself to speak like a +stranger: + +"This, I suppose, is not what you wanted to say to me?" + +Instantly her alarm overcame her defiant attitude. + +"No, no. I am terribly worried. I want your help, oh! so much." + +She extended her hand timidly as though in apology, but still offended, +he withdrew his, saying: + +"Anything I can do and you need not fear that I'll take advantage of +it!" + +"Oh!" she shrank back and then in a moment said, "Bojo, forgive me-- I +am very cruel-- I know it. Will you forgive me?" + +"I forgive you," he said at last, trembling at the sweetness of her +voice, resolved whatever the temptation, to show her that he could +control himself. + +"Bojo, everything is going against Dad--everything. Doris must come back +and we must get word to Dolly. He needs all the help we can give him." + +"Are you sure?" he said, amazed. + +"Oh! I know." + +"But your father has millions and in the Pittsburgh & New Orleans he +made at least ten more. How can it be?" + +"I overheard-- I listened and then--then mother told me." + +"When?" + +"The night after the wedding--that in another month we might be +ruined--that I--I ought to look to the future." + +"Oh, like Doris!" he cried. + +"Yes, that was what she meant," she said with a shudder. "Think of it, +my mother, my own mother. Then I went to him--to Dad--but he would tell +me nothing--only laughed and said everything was all right, but I knew! +I don't know how or why, but I knew from the look in his eyes." + +"Yet I can't believe it," he said incredulously. + +"Oh! I feel so alone and so helpless," she cried, twisting her hands. +"Something must be done and I don't know how to do it. Bojo, you must +help me--you must tell me. It's money--he can't get money-- I believe no +one will lend it to him." Suddenly she turned on him, caught his +arm,--"You say Doris knew, Dad told her--before the wedding!" + +"Yes--because she told me." + +"Oh! that is too terrible," she cried, "and knowing it she allowed him +to make her a gift of half a million." + +"He did that? You are certain?" + +"Absolutely. I saw the bonds." + +"But then that proves everything is all right," he cried joyfully. + +"You don't know Dad," she said, shaking her head mournfully. "Bojo, we +must get Doris back, she may do things for you that she won't do for any +one else-- Oh! yes, you don't know. Then I have something--a quarter of +a million. I want to turn it into cash. He won't take it from me if he +knew. But you might deposit it to his credit, make him believe some one +did it anonymously--couldn't that be done?" + +He raised her hand with a sudden swelling in his throat and kissed it, +murmuring something incoherent. + +"That is nothing to do, nothing," she said, shaking her head. + +"I wish I could go to him," he said doubtfully. + +"You can. You can. I know Dad believes you, trusts you. Oh! if you +would. + +"Of course I will and at once," he said joyfully. He leaned out the +window and gave the order. "Heavens, child, we've forgotten all about +dinner. I shall have to invite myself." He took her hand, patting it as +though to calm her. "It may not be so bad as you imagine. We'll +telegraph Doris to-night, the Boskirks can do a lot. Of course they'll +help. Then there's your mother--she has money of her own, I know." + +"That's what I'm afraid of--mother," she said in a whisper. + +"What do you mean?" + +She shook her head. + +"Don't ask me. I shouldn't have said it. And yet--and yet--" + +"We are almost there," he said hurriedly. He wanted to say something to +her, revolting at the discipline he had imposed on himself, something +from the heart and yet something at which she would not take offense. He +hesitated and stammered--"Thank you for coming to me. You know--you +understand, don't you?" + +She turned, her glance rested on his a long moment, she started as +though to say something, stopped and turned hurriedly away, but brief as +the moment had been, a feeling of meltable content came over him. The +next moment they came to a stop. In the vestibule she bade him wait in +the little parlor and went in ahead to the library. He had picked up a +paper and paced up and down, scanning it anxiously, with brief glances +down the wide luxurious salons and at the liveried servants who seemed +to move nervously, all eyes and ears, scenting danger in the air. The +accent of fear was in the headlines even. He was staring at a caption +telling of rumored suspensions and prophecies of ill when Patsie came +tripping back. + +[Illustration: "'He wants to see you now' she said"] + +"It's all right. He wants to see you now," she said, happiness in her +eyes, holding out her hand to lead him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DRAKE ADMITS HIS DANGER + + +Drake was before the fireplace, moving or rather switching back and +forth, and this unwonted nervousness seemed an evil augury to Bojo. +However, at the slight rustle of the portieres, Drake came forward with +energetic strides, his hand flung out-- + +"Well, stranger, almost thought you'd fled the country. How are you? +Glad, mighty glad, to see you." He stood with a smile, patting the +shoulder of Patsie, who leaned against his side. "Let's see your hands, +Tom. They tell me you've become quite a horny-handed son of toil." + +"I'm mighty glad to see _you_," said Bojo, studying him anxiously. At +first he felt reassured, the old self-possession and careless confidence +were there in tone and gesture. It was only when he examined him more +closely that his forebodings returned. About the eyes, not perceptible +at first, but lurking in the depths was a hunted, restless look, which +struck the young man at once. + +"I wanted Bojo so to come," said Patsie breathlessly. "I thought--in +some way--somehow he might be of help." + +"I only wish I could," said Bojo instantly. "You know you can trust me." + +"Yes, I know that," said Drake briefly with a sudden clouding over of +his face. He added stubbornly, pulling his daughter's ear with a kindly +look, "This young lady is all in a panic over nothing. Comes from +talking business before them." + +"Oh, Daddy, why not be truthful? Whatever comes we can face it. Only let +us know," said Patsie with her large eyes fixed sadly on his face in +unbelief. + +"I'm in a fight--a big fight, Tom, that's all, a little tougher than +other fights," he said loudly as though talking to himself. "If you want +to see some ructions and learn a few things that may help you in dealing +with certain brands of coyotes later, why come in--just possible you +might fit in handy." + +"Thank you, sir," said Bojo gratefully, exalted to the seventh Heaven by +this permission, which seemed to bring him back the old intimacy. Patsie +was looking at him with shining eyes. + +"Yes, but how about your work--the factory?" said Drake. + +"The factory be damned," said Bojo fervidly, with the American instinct +for the fitness of the direct word. All broke out laughing at his +impetuosity. + +"Well, Tom, I always did want you in the family," said Drake, clapping +him on the shoulder with a sly look at Patsie. "Have it as you wish. +I'll be mighty glad to have you, though you did give me a pretty stiff +lesson!" + +At this moment when Patsie and Bojo did not dare to look at each other, +the situation was luckily saved by the announcement of dinner. + +In the dining-room they waited several moments for Mrs. Drake to appear +until finally a footman brought the news that the mistress of the house +was indisposed and begged them to sit down without her. Drake looked +rather startled at this and went off into a moody abstraction for quite +a while, during which Patsie exchanged solicitous glances with Bojo. + +"It is more serious than he will admit," he thought. "I must get a +chance to speak to him alone. He will never tell the truth before +Drina." + +Dinner over, a rather anxious meal partaken of in long silences with +occasional bursts of forced conversation, Bojo found opportunity to +whisper to Patsie as they returned towards the library. + +"Make some excuse and leave us as soon as you can. I'll see you before I +go." + +She gave him a slight movement of her eyes to show she comprehended and +went dancing in ahead. + +"Now before you begin on business, let me make you both comfortable," +she cried. She indicated chairs and pushed them into their seats, +laughing. She brought the cigars and insisted on serving them with +lights, while each watched her, charmed and soothed by the grace and +youth of her spirits, though each knew the reason of her assuming. She +camped finally on the arm of her father's chair, with a final enveloping +hug, which under the appearance of exuberance, conveyed a deep +solicitude. + +"Shall I stay or do you want to talk alone?" + +"Stay." Drake caught the hand which had stolen about his neck and patted +it with rough tenderness. "Besides I want you to get certain false ideas +out of your head. Well, Tom, I'll tell you the situation." He stopped a +moment as though considering, before beginning again with an appearance +of frankness which almost convinced the young man, though it failed +before the alarmed instinct of his daughter. "Miss Patsie here is taking +entirely too seriously something her mother repeated to her. I won't +attempt to deny that the times are shaky. They are. They may become +suddenly worse. That depends entirely on a certain group of men. But the +strong point as well as the weak point in the present situation is that +it can depend on a certain group. There will be no panic for the simple +reason that in a panic this group will lose in the tens of millions +where others lose thousands. Now this group in the past through their +control direct or inter-related has been able to dominate the centers of +credit, the money loaning institutions, such as the great banks and +insurance companies. By this means they have been in a measure able to +keep to themselves the great industrial exploitations dependent on the +ability to finance in the hundreds of millions. More, they have been +able to limit to narrow fields such men as myself and other newcomers, +who wish to rise to the same financial advantage. Lately this supremacy +has been threatened by the rise of a new financial idea, the Trust +company. This new form of banking, due to the scope permitted under the +present law, has been able to deal in business and to make loans on +collateral which, while valid, is forbidden a bank under the statutes. +The Trust companies, able to deal in more profitable business and to pay +good interest consequently on deposits, have developed so enormously as +to threaten to overshadow the banks. Back of all this the Trust +companies have been developed and purchased by the younger generation of +financiers in order to acquire the means of providing themselves with +the credit necessary to develop their large schemes of industrial +expansion, without being at the mercy of influences which can be +controlled by others. From the moment the dominant group perceived this +phase of the development of the Trust company, war was certain. That's +where I come in. Pretty dry stuff. Can you get it?" + +Patsie nodded, more interested perhaps in her father's manner than in +what he said. Bojo listened with painful concentration. + +"After my deal in Indiana Smelters and the turn in Pittsburgh & New +Orleans I knew that the knives were out against me. I tried to make +peace with Gunther but I might just as well have tried to sleep with the +tiger. I saw that. There were several things I wanted to do--big things. +I had to have credit. Where could I get it--dare to get it? So I went +into the Trust companies. They want to get me and they want to get +them." He stopped, rubbed his chin and said with a grin, "Perhaps they +may sting me--good and hard--but at the worst we could worry along on +eight or nine millions, couldn't we, living economically, Patsie?" + +"Is that the worst it could mean?" she said, drawing off to look in his +eyes. + +He nodded, adding: + +"Oh, it isn't pleasant to have fifteen to twenty millions clipped from +your fleece, but still we can live--live comfortably." + +She pretended to believe him, throwing herself in his arms. + +"Oh! I'm so relieved." + +His hand ran over her golden head in a gentle caress and his face, as +Bojo saw it, was strained and grim, though his words were light: + +"But I'm not going to lose those twenty millions, not if I can help it!" + +Patsie sprang up laughing, caught Bojo's signal and ran out crying: + +"Back in a moment. Must see how mother is." + +When the curtains, billowing out at her tumultuous exit, had fluttered +back to rest, Bojo said quietly: + +"Mr. Drake, is that what you wish me to believe?" + +"Eh, what's that?" said Drake, looking up. + +"Am I to believe what you've just told?" + +There was a long moment between them, while each studied the other. + +"How far can I trust you?" said Drake slowly. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Can I have your word that you will not tell Patsie--or any one?" + +Bojo reflected a moment, frowning. + +"Is that absolutely necessary?" + +"That's the condition." + +"Very well, I shall tell her nothing more than she knows. Will that +satisfy you?" + +Drake nodded slowly, his eyes still on the young man as though finally +considering the advisability of a confidence. + +"That was partly true," he said slowly; "only partly. There's more to +it. It's not a question _yet_ of being wiped out, but it may be a +question. Tom, I'm not sure but what they've got me. It all depends on +the Atlantic Trust. If they dare let it go to the wall--" He grinned, +took a long whistle and threw up his arms. + +"But surely not all--you don't mean wiped out?" said Bojo, aghast. "You +must be worth twenty, twenty-two million." + +"I am worth that and more," said Drake quietly. "On paper and not only +on paper, under any other system of banking in the world, I would be +worth twenty-seven millions of dollars. Every cent of it. Remember that +afterward, Tom. You'll never see anything funnier. Twenty-seven millions +and to-day I can't borrow five hundred thousand dollars on collateral +worth forty times that. You don't understand it. I'll tell you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A FIGHT IN MILLIONS + + +Drake did not immediately proceed. Having impulsively expressed his +intention to reveal his financial crisis, he hesitated as though +regretting that impulse. He left the fireplace and went from door to +door as though to assure himself against listeners, but aimlessly, +rather from indecision than from any precaution. Returning, he flung +away his cigar, though it was but half consumed, and took a fresh one, +offering the box to Bojo without perceiving that he was in no need. So +apparent was his disinclination, that Bojo felt impelled to say: + +"Perhaps you would rather not tell me, sir!" + +"I'd only be telling you what my enemies know," said Drake sharply, +flinging himself down. "They know to a dollar what I've pledged and what +I can draw on-- Oh! trust them." + +"Mr. Drake," said Bojo slowly, "I don't need to tell you, do I, that I +would do anything in this world for Patsie, and that without knowing in +the slightest what she feels toward me--believe me. I say this to +you--because I want you to know that I've come only in the wildest hope +that I might help in some way--some little way." + +Drake shook his head. + +"You can't, and yet--" He hesitated a last time and then said, in a +dreamy, indecisive way, so foreign to his nature that it showed the +extent of the mental struggle through which he had passed, "and yet +there are some things I'd be glad to have you know--to remember, Tom, +after it's all over, particularly if you come into the family. For I +don't think you quite understand my ways of fighting. You took a rather +harsh view of certain things from your standpoint-- I admit you had some +cause." + +"I didn't judge you," said Bojo hastily, blushing with embarrassment. "I +was only judging myself, my own responsibility." + +"Well, you judged me too," said Drake, smiling. "Yes--and I felt it, and +I'll say now that I felt uncomfortable--damned uncomfortable. That's why +I'm going to let you see that according to my ways of looking at things +I play the game square. I'm going to let you overhear a certain very +interesting little meeting that is going to take place" (he glanced at +the clock) "in about half an hour. Mr. James H. Haggerdy is coming to +make me a proposition from Gunther and Co. It'll interest you." + +"Thank you," said Bojo simply. + +"Now, here's the situation in a nutshell. If I could weather this +depression a year, six months, or if there had been no depression, but +normal times, I would be able to swing a deal and clear out at over one +hundred millions-- I gambled big. It was in me--fated-- I had to sink or +swim on a big stake. If I'd have won out, I'd have been among the kings +of the country. That's what I wanted--not money. It's the poker in my +blood. However. Here's the case: I made money, as you know--a great +deal of money. I was worth considerable after the Indiana Smelters got +going. I was worth ten millions more when I had sold back Pittsburgh & +New Orleans. That was the crisis. I wanted to get in with the inner +crowd--not simply to be a buccaneer, for that's about what I'd been. +That's why they bought their old railroad back. I was rated a dangerous +man. I was. So is every man dangerous till he gets what he wants. I went +to Gunther and laid my cards on the table. Gunther's a big man, the only +man I'd have done it to, but he has one fault--he can hate. The ideal +master ought to have no friends and no enemies. I said to Gunther: + +"'Gunther, let's talk straight. I want to come into the field--on your +level--you know what that means. Your word and I'll be satisfied. Am I +big enough yet? Do you want me inside or outside the breastworks? Say +the word.' + +"He sat there smiling, listening, gazing out the window. + +"'I know what I'm asking's a big thing, to forget what I've cost you. It +_is_ a lot to ask. But you're big enough to see beyond it. Say the word +and I'm yours, through thick and thin, from now on, and I'll lay before +you now a campaign as big as anything you handled so far. All I want is +your word--is it peace or war!' + +"That's where he played square. + +"'I don't forget easily,' he said. + +"'So that's the answer?' I said. + +"He nodded. + +"'I'm sorry. I came to you because you're the only man down here I'm +willing to look up to,' I said, for I knew there was no use going on, +but as I went out I plumped in a last shot: 'In a year from now I'm +going to put the same offer to you, and when I do I'll carry a few more +guns.' + +"I went out and I got to work. As a matter of fact, I had already begun. +I went in with Majendie of the Atlantic Trust, Ryerson of the Columbian, +and Dryser of the Seaboard Trust. I bought my way in. I'd got a say in +institutions able to lend millions on good collateral without having to +duck at a bell pressed downtown. Then I started with a group of +Middle-Westerners to make myself felt. There was only one big field left +and it was a question how long that would be left alone. They had +organized their steel industries and their railroads, they'd knocked out +or digested competitors, controlled the field of production and had +things sailing along gloriously, but they'd forgotten, or almost +forgotten, one thing which they ought to have controlled the first, the +iron to pour into their furnaces and the coke to keep them going. When +they woke up, they found me in control of the Eastern Coke and Iron +Company, holding about eighty million dollars worth of land in West +Virginia and Virginia which they had to have sooner or later. Then they +woke up with a vengeance. The first thing they did was to send word to +me through Haggerdy to get out of the Seaboard Trust and be a good +little boy and they'd let me come around and play. I laughed at that, +though I knew it meant war to the knife. About ten weeks ago I got a +taste of what they could do. Of course, to carry what I was carrying, I +had need of big sums, and I had large blocks of Eastern Coke and Iron +hypothecated not only among my Trust Company connections, but in banks +around town, where it was upon good strong margins. Ten weeks ago, when +I dropped in at a certain bank to renew my loan, I was told that they +had decided on account of the business outlook, the downward trend of +prices and what not, to call in their loans and proceed on a very +conservative basis. Of course, under that rigamarole I knew what was +doing--orders from headquarters--and more to follow. I placed the loan +with the Atlantic Trust and waited. Last week another refusal. This time +the warning was a little more pointed. The president himself looked with +grave concern--that's always the expression--on the amount of Eastern +C. and I. stock hypothecated at present. A collapse in the stock, which +had been declining steadily, might seriously upset financial conditions +all over the country, etc. Well, I weathered that and a couple others +until I've got where I'm stumped. A bank has got the right to decide for +itself what it wants to lend money on; it can decline a loan on any +security or all securities offered, and what are you going to do about +it? The trust companies are carrying all they can and besides they're +being squeezed themselves. As a matter of fact, with solid properties +worth to-day in the market from fifty-five to fifty-seven millions, of +which we own sixty per cent., there isn't a bank in town will lend us a +hundred thousand dollars. The word has been passed around and those who +are independent don't dare. I need two million cash by day after +to-morrow, absolutely must have it, and they know it and Haggerdy's +coming here to look me over, examine my pocketbook and say, 'What have +you got that we want!'" + +At this moment the butler came with a card. + +"Did you say any one was here?" said Drake, studying the card. + +"No, sir." + +"Show Mr. Haggerdy in when I ring," said Drake, with a nod of dismissal. +He rose and beckoning Bojo placed him in the embrosine of the window, +where a slight recess hid him completely from the rest of the room. + +"No need of a record; take it in just for your own curiosity," he said, +returning to his desk. + +Mr. James H. Haggerdy came in like a bulky animal emerging from a cage +and blinking at the sun. He was not the man to beat about the bush, and +in his own long and varied experience in Wall Street he had been called +many names, but he had never been branded with anything petty, a fact +which made a certain bond of sympathy between the two men. + +"Hello, Dan!" + +"Hello, Jim!" + +Haggerdy moved to a chair, refused a cigar, and said directly: + +"Well, Jim, I suppose you know what I've come for." + +"Sure, to carry off the furniture and the silverware," said Drake, +laughing. + +"That's about it!" said Haggerdy, nodding with a grim twist of his lips. +He had a sense of humor, though he seldom laughed. "Dan, they've got +you." + +"So they seem to think." + +"And they want your Eastern C. and I. stock." + +"That's quite evident. Will they accept it as a present or do they want +me to pay them for taking it?" said Drake grimly. + +"What's the use of faking," said Haggerdy. "Gunther wants the stock and +is going to have it. Do you want to sell now or hand it over. You're a +sensible man, Dan; you ought to know when you're beaten." + +"I'm not sure I am a sensible man," said Drake facetiously. + +"It's all in the game. You're not kicking because you've been caught, +are you?" said Haggerdy, as though in surprise. + +"No. If I were in Gunther's place I should do just what he's doing. +Quite right. Only I'm not sure, Jim, he'd do what I do were conditions +reversed." + +"You paid around 79 for the stock. You've got a million shares you're +carrying. The stock's to-day at 54. We'll buy you out at 55. Take it, +Dan." + +"Thanks for the advice, but my answer's No." + +"Why?" + +"That stock's going to be worth 150 in two years." + +"Two years isn't to-day. You're facing conditions." He looked at him as +though trying to understand his motive. "The old man isn't bargaining +when he says 55; he means 55 and no more." + +"I know that." + +"Where are you going to raise two million dollars cash in forty-eight +hours? You see, we are well informed." + +Drake smiled as though this were the easiest matter in the world. + +"Suppose the Clearing House refuses to clear for the Atlantic Trust +to-morrow. What'll that mean?" + +"A panic." + +"And where would your Eastern Coke and Iron go then?" + +"To 40 or 35, wherever you wanted it to go--possibly." + +"And can't you take a hint?" + +"Not when I know a stock that's worth over a hundred has been pushed +down on purpose to freeze me out." + +"You're not talking morality, Dan?" + +"Oh, no! You think I'm beaten. I know I'm not." + +"You're bluffing, Dan." + +"Find out." + +"To-morrow'll be too late." + +"Possibly, but if Gunther can buy it at 40 or 35, why should he pay 55 +to me?" + +"I think he likes you, Dan," said Haggerdy slowly. + +"No. He wants to make sure of getting the stock. He doesn't want a +scramble for it," said Drake. "I'm surprised to hear you talking such +nonsense." + +Haggerdy rose, shaking his head impressively. + +"A mistake, Dan--a mistake." He waited a moment and then played his last +card. "Of course, if you sell out in this, it's understood Gunther'll +see you through on the rest. And that may mean the question of the roof +over your head." + +"That means credit at the bank--that I'll be allowed to put up good +collateral like a respectable member of the crowd?" + +"Phrase it as you will, that's it. Gunther will buy out your Trust +Company holdings for what you paid for them and he'll see you through on +Indiana Smelters--that means something saved out of the wreck--and, Dan, +there's a big smash up just over the horizon." + +"I thought that was the proposition," said Drake, ruminating. "Well, +Jim, it's more than ever no." + +"Why more than ever?" + +"Because this in good old-fashioned English means just one +thing--getting out, saving my skin at the expense of others." + +"Quite so--every man for himself." + +"Not with me. I've given my word on the Coke and Iron deal. I'll see it +through. Tell Gunther I'll sell out at 80 all or nothing, and give him +twenty-four hours." + +Haggerdy stretched out his hand in farewell. + +"Are you sure of the other fellows, Dan?" he said slyly. + +"I don't give a damn what the other fellows may do. I've given my word +and I stand by that." + +"I'm sorry for you, Dan," said Haggerdy, shaking his head ominously. +"Telephone me if you change your mind." + +"Thanks for your wishes, but don't lose any sleep--expecting," said +Drake, laughing. + +Bojo came out aghast. + +"You don't mean to say the Atlantic Trust is in danger," he cried, +foreseeing all in a glance the structures that would go toppling. + +"It's in danger, all right," said Drake moodily, "but they won't--they +don't dare let it close--impossible!" + +"And if you can't raise two million?" + +Drake shrugged his shoulders. + +"But surely there's some way," Bojo cried helplessly, "some +friends--there must be a way to raise it. This house surely is worth +twice that--it isn't mortgaged, is it?" + +"No, it's quite clear, but it belongs to my wife," said Drake, and again +there came into his face that shadow of broken despair which Bojo had +noticed a score of times. + +"But then--does she realize--" + +"Yes, she knows," said Drake to himself. It was easy to see that the +interview with Haggerdy had profoundly convinced him. "Mrs. Drake's +fortune outside of that is fully three millions, which I have given +her--" + +"But why haven't you told her and your daughter--they ought--" Suddenly +he stopped short, his eyes met Drake's and a suspicion of the truth +struck him. "You don't mean--" + +"Don't," said Drake helplessly, and for the first time he caught a +glimpse of the vastness of his inner suffering. The next minute he had +hurriedly recovered his mask, saying: "Don't ask me about that-- I +can't-- I must not tell you." + +"Mrs. Drake has refused to help you!" exclaimed Bojo, carried away. "She +has--she has. I see it by your face." + +Drake walked to the fireplace and stood gazing down. Presently he +nodded as though talking to himself. + +"Yes; my wife could come to my assistance. I have been forced to ask +her. She won't. I have been living in a fool's paradise. That's what +hurts!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +PATSIE'S SCHEME + + +When Bojo returned home after a brief stolen interview with Patsie, he +could hardly believe what he had himself witnessed. It seemed incredible +that all that magnificence and luxury might be dissipated in a night, +could depend upon the wavering of an hour in a mad exchange. But deeper +than the feeling of impending disaster--which he even now could not +realize--was the disclosure of the true state of affairs in the Drake +household. Without telling Patsie the extent of her father's danger, he +had told of Drake's applying to his wife for assistance and her refusal. +Then Patsie brokenly had told her part, how she had pled with her mother +and sought in vain to place before her the true seriousness of the +situation, her father's peril and his instant need. To entreaties and +remonstrances Mrs. Drake remained deaf, sheltering herself behind an +invariable answer. Why should she throw good money after bad? What was +to be gained by it? If he had thrown away the family fortune, all the +more reason for her to save what she had. The worst was that Dolly was +abroad and Doris and her husband were cruising off Palm Beach and the +telegram they sent might not reach them in time. + +The next morning Bojo waited fitfully for the opening of the Stock +Exchange, with the dreaded memories of Haggerdy's prophecies running in +his head. It took him back to the days when he himself had been a part +of the vast maelstrom of speculation. He breakfasted with one eye on the +clock waiting for the hands to advance to the fatal hour of ten. At five +minutes past that hour he went feverishly across the way to the ticker +in the neighboring hotel brokerage. He had a feeling as though he were +being sucked back into the old life of violent emotions and unreal +theatrical upsets. He remembered the day before the drop in Pittsburgh & +New Orleans when he had waited in the Hauk and Flaspoller offices +matching quarters with Forshay to endure the last few intervening +minutes before the crisis which was to sweep away their fortunes as a +tidal wave obliterates a valley. He had not understood then the ironical +laughter in Forshay's eyes, but as he came back again to the old +associations he felt himself living over with a new poignant +understanding the final act of that tragedy. + +Between the Tom Crocker of those breathless days and the ordered self +which he had built up during these last months of discipline there +seemed to intervene unreal worlds. + +The group gathered in the hotel branch of Pitt & Sanderson were +indolently interested rather than excited. They were of the flitting and +superficial gambling type, youngsters still new to the excitement of the +game and old men who could not tear themselves away from their +established habit. They formed quite a little coterie in which the +differences of age and wealth were obliterated by the common bond of +the daily hazard. He knew the type well, the reckless plunger risking +thousands on shallow margins, determined to make or lose all at one +killing; the rodent, sharp-eyed, close-fisted veteran, wary from many +failures, who was content to play for half a point rise and take his +instant profit. The lounging group studied him with a moment's +curiosity, seeking in which category to place the intruder, whether +among the shifting truant crowd stopping for the moment's information or +among that harried occasional group of lost souls who came expectant of +nothing but complete disaster. + +Bojo went to the tape with almost the feeling with which a reformed +drunkard closes his hand over the glass that had once been his +destruction. His mind, excited by the memories of the night before, was +prepared for a shock. To his surprise the clicking procession of +values--Reading, Union Pacific, Amalgamated Copper, Northern +Pacific--showed but fractional declines. The break he had come to +witness did not develop. He waited a quarter of an hour, half an hour, +an hour. The market continued weak but heavy. + +"Nothing much doing," he said, turning to his neighbor, a financial rail +bird of a rather horsy type, grisled and bald. + +"Playing it short?" + +"Haven't yet made up my mind. What do you think?" he said, to draw the +other on. + +"Think?" said the other with the enthusiasm of the gambler's conviction. +"Lord, there's only one thing to think. This market's touched bottom +two weeks ago. When it starts to rise watch things go kiting." + +"You think so?" said Bojo, with the instinctive tendency to seek hope in +the slightest straws that is the strangest part of all the strange +acquaintanceships of the moment which speculation engenders. He had to +listen for five minutes to impassioned oratory, to hearing all the +reasons recounted why the long depression was nothing but psychological +and an upward turn a certainty. He slipped away presently, rather +relieved at this confidence from a shallow prophet, and when he met +Patsie by appointment, the news he brought her dispelled the feelings of +foreboding under which she had been suffering the last week. + +"After all, perhaps we have been rather panicky," he said, with a new +assumption of cheerfulness. "Remember one thing, your father knows this +game and when he says that the big group does not intend to have a +panic, because they themselves have too much to lose, Patsie, he must +know what he is talking about." + +"If Doris were only here," she said, her woman's instinct unconvinced. + +"You sent the telegram?" + +"Last night. I should have had the answer this morning. That's what +worries me. Perhaps it won't reach them in time and even if it does it +will be over two days before they can get back." + +"It would help a good deal," he admitted. The prospect of going to Doris +for help after what had happened was one from which he shrank, yet he +was resolved to stop at nothing, willing to sacrifice his pride if only +to secure the aid which, knowing their connections, he knew Boskirk +could bring the imperilled financier. + +"At least I shall do what I can do," she said, with a determined shake +of her head. + +He looked at her doubtfully. "I am afraid, Patsie, that a few hundred +thousands will not help much--but if your mind is made up." + +"It is made up." + +"Very well, what address shall I give them?" He leaned forward and +repeated the number. + +Twenty minutes later they were in the office of Swift and Carlson, in +the inner room, talking to the senior partner. Thaddeus C. Swift was one +of the innumerable agents through whom Daniel Drake operated in the +placing of his more serious enterprises, of the older generation of Wall +Street, conservative, seemingly unruffled by the swirling tide of +strident young men which churned about him. He had known Patsie since +her childhood and received her as he would his own daughter, with +perhaps a quizzical and searching glance at the young man who waited a +little uncomfortably in the background. Patsie opened the conversation +directly without the slightest hesitation. + +"Mr. Swift," she said imperiously, "you must give me your word that you +will keep my confidence." And as this caused the old gentleman to stare +at her with a startled look, she added insistently: "You must not say a +word of my coming here or whatever I may ask you to do. Promise." + +"Sounds quite terrible," said Mr. Swift, smiling indulgently. In his +mind he decided that the visit meant a demand for a few hundred dollars +for some girlish fancy. "Well, how shall I swear? Cross my heart and all +that sort of thing?" + +"Mr. Swift, I am serious, awfully serious," stamping her foot with +annoyance, "and please do not treat me as a child." + +He saw that the matter was of some importance, and scenting perhaps +complications, withdrew into a defensive attitude. + +"Suppose you tell me a little of what you want of me," he said +carefully, "before I give such a promise." + +Patsie, who for her reasons did not wish her father to have the +slightest suspicion of this visit, hesitated, looked from Mr. Swift to +Bojo, and turned away nervously, seeking some new method to gain her +end. + +"Miss Drake is coming to you as a client," said Bojo, deciding to speak, +"to consult you about her interests. So long as it is about her business +affairs, it seems quite natural, doesn't it, that you should keep her +confidence?" + +"Eh, what?" said Mr. Swift, frowning. He seemed to repeat the question +to himself, and answered grudgingly: "Of course, of course, that's all +right, that's true. If it is only to consult me about your business +affairs--" + +[Illustration: "'Your promise. No one is to know what I do'"] + +"It is absolutely that," said Patsie hastily. She stood beside him, +holding out her hand obstinately. "Your promise. No one is to know what +I do." + +Mr. Swift made a mental reservation and nodded his head. The three sat +down. + +"How much have I deposited in stocks and bonds to my account?" asked +Patsie. + +"Do you wish a list?" said Mr. Swift, preparing to touch a button. + +"No, no, not now; only the value--in a general way." + +"Of course," said Mr. Swift, caging his fingers and looking over their +heads to the depths of the ceiling, "of course, it depends somewhat on +the state of the market. While what you have is the best of securities, +still, as you must know, even the best will not bring to-day what it +would a year ago." + +"Yes, but in a general way," she insisted. + +"In a general way," he said carefully, "I should say what you have would +represent a capital of $500,000 to $510,000. Possibly, under favorable +conditions, a little more." + +Patsie and Bojo looked at him in astonishment. + +"You said $500,000?" she said incredulously. + +He nodded. + +"You are thinking of Doris," she said, bewildered. + +"Not at all. That is approximately the value of your holding. Your +father deposited with me securities to the value of $260,000 on your +coming of age last January." + +"Yes, yes; I know that, but--" + +"And securities of the par value of $250,000 on the occasion of your +sister's marriage." + +"He did that?" exclaimed Patsie, her heart in her throat; "he really did +that?" Her eyes filled with tears and she turned away hastily with an +emotion quite inexplicable to the older man. Bojo himself was much moved +at the thought of how the father in the face of a supreme conflict had +been willing to risk his reserves to provide for the future of his +daughters. + +Patsie came back, her emotion in a measure controlled. She placed her +hand upon the shoulder of Mr. Swift, who continued to gaze at her +without comprehension. + +"I know you don't understand; you will later. Mr. Swift, I want you to +sell every one of my securities, now, immediately. I want everything in +cash." + +Mr. Swift looked at her as though he had seen a ghost and then rapidly +at Bojo. In his mind perhaps was working some fantastic idea of an +elopement. Perhaps Patsie guessed something of this, for she blushed +slightly and said: + +"My father needs it. I want to give it to him." + +Her words cleared the atmosphere, though they left Mr. Swift obstinately +determined. + +"But, Patsie," he said, as a father might to a child, "this is a +bombshell. I can't allow you on my own responsibility to do a thing like +this on impulse. You should not ask me. How do you know your father is +in need? He has not sent you here?" + +"No, no; never. Don't you know him better than that? If he knew he never +would permit it. That's the difficulty, don't you see? He must never +know of it and you must arrange some way so he will never guess it is +coming from me." + +Mr. Swift stared at her utterly amazed. At length he turned and, +addressing Bojo, said: + +"You are in the confidence of Miss Drake? If so, perhaps you can help me +out. Does she know what she is doing, and is it possible that she has +any valid reason for believing that her father can possibly be in need +of such heroic assistance as this?" + +His face expressed so much amazement mingled with consternation at the +thought that Daniel Drake could possibly be in difficulties that Bojo +for the first time perceived what he should have foreseen, the direct +danger to the financier from the suspicion of his true situation which +must come from the revelation of Patsie's intentions. + +"Mr. Swift," he said, in great perturbation, "I do not know whether we +have done wisely in speaking to you so frankly. You will perhaps +understand now why Miss Drake insisted on a promise of secrecy." + +"What! Daniel Drake in need of money?" said Mr. Swift, staring at him or +rather through him, and already perceiving the tremendous significance +of this disclosure upon the distraught times. + +"At least Miss Drake believes so," said Bojo carefully. "She may +exaggerate the necessity. What she is doing she is doing because she has +made up her mind herself to do it and not because I have advised her or +suggested it in the slightest. You are too good a friend of the family I +know, sir, to speak of what has occurred." + +"Oh, Mr. Swift," said Patsie, breaking in and seizing his hand +impulsively, "you _will_ help me, won't you?" + +Mr. Swift gazed at her blankly, a hundred thoughts racing through his +mind; still too upset by the news he had just received, which could not +fail to be full of significance to his own fortunes, to be able to +focus for the moment on the immediate decision. + +Patsie repeated her demand with a quivering lip. He came out of his +abstraction and began to think, arranging and rearranging a pile of +letters before him, convinced at last that the situation was of the +highest seriousness. + +"Wait, wait a moment; I must think it over," he said slowly. "This is an +unusually serious decision you have put up to me. My dear Patsie, you +know nothing about such matters; you're a child." + +"I am eighteen and I have a right to dispose of what belongs to me." + +"Yes, yes, you have the right, but I have the right also to advise you +and to make you see the situation as it exists." His manner changed +immediately and he said simply and frankly, "Since you have trusted me, +you must give me your full confidence. I shan't abuse it. Mr. Crocker, I +can see by your manner and your attempt at caution that this matter is +not a trifle. Do you know from your own knowledge how serious it is? +Please do not hide anything from me." + +"I won't," said Bojo. "I know of my personal knowledge and I believe it +to be as serious as it can possibly be." + +The two men exchanged a glance and the look in both their eyes told +Swift even more than his words revealed, more than he wished Patsie +herself to suspect. + +"Suppose the very worst were true," said Mr. Swift after a moment's +thought, "that your father was in danger of complete failure? I am +merely supposing this extreme case to show you the difficulty of my +position. Your father has placed these securities to your account with +the distinct intention that whatever happens to him you shall be +provided for as his other daughters are provided for, and undoubtedly +his wife is taken care of. If I should allow you to do this, even as a +matter of sentiment it is possible in an extreme case everything you +have as well as everything your father possesses might be wiped away. Do +you realize that?" + +"And that's just what I am afraid may happen," she exclaimed, worried +beyond the thought of caution by her forebodings. + +"And you are willing to take the risk of losing everything?" he said +slowly; "for after all there is no reason why you should sacrifice what +belongs to you rightfully and legally even if your father should fail +completely." + +"No reason?" she cried. "Do you think for a moment that money means +anything to me when he, my father, the one who has given it to me, needs +it?" + +"But if even this won't save him?" he persisted, shaking his head. + +"What has that got to do with the question?" she said impatiently, +almost angrily. "Everything I have I want him to have. That's all there +is to it." + +He gazed at her fresh and ardent face a moment and then laid his hand +over hers, muttering something underneath his breath which Bojo did not +catch, although he divined its reverence. + +"Then you will do as I wish?" she cried joyfully, guessing his +surrender. + +He nodded, gave a helpless glance to Bojo and cleared his throat +huskily. "As you wish, my dear," he said very gently. + +"And you will sell everything at once?" she cried. + +"I can't promise that," he said quietly. "Such a block of securities +can't be thrown on the market all at once. But I will do my best." + +"But how long will it take?" she said in dismay. + +"Four days, possibly five." + +"But that will be too late. I must have it all the day after to-morrow." + +"That will mean a serious sacrifice," he said. + +"What do I care? I must have it by to-morrow night." + +"You are determined?" + +"Absolutely." + +"It will have to be so then." + +"And when that is done," she cried joyfully, clapping her hands in +delight, "you will help me to send it to him so he will never suspect +it?" + +He nodded, yielding every point, perhaps more moved than he cared to +show. + +They left the office after Patsie had signed the formal order. + +At the house they found a telegram from Doris. + + Dear Patsie, your telegram has thrown us into the greatest + anxiety. Jim and I are leaving at once. Will be in New York + day after to-morrow. Courage. We will do everything to help. + + DORIS. + +This news and their success of the morning restored their spirits +immeasurably. It seemed as though clouds had suddenly cleared away and +left everything with a promise of sunshine and fair weather. They +lunched almost gaily. Mrs. Drake still kept her room and Patsie was +impatient for the day to pass and the next one to have the certainty +that the sale was achieved. Confident from her first success she +declared once Doris was back she would go with her sister to her mother +and shame her if they could not persuade her into a realization of the +gravity of the situation. When Bojo left they had even forgotten for the +space of half an hour that such bugbears as Wall Street, loans and banks +could exist. The realization of the seriousness of human disasters had +somehow left them simple and devoid of artifices or coquetry before each +other. He found again in her the Patsie of earlier days. He comprehended +that she loved him, had always loved him, that the slight +misunderstanding that had momentarily arisen between them had come from +the long summer renunciation and the passionate jealousy of one sister +for the other. He comprehended this all, but did not take advantage of +his knowledge. On leaving her he held her a moment, his hands on her +shoulders, gazing earnestly into her eyes. From this intensity of his +look she turned away a little frightened, not quite reconciled. Already +his, but still hesitating before the final avowal. The knowledge of how +indispensable he was to her in these moments of trial restrained him in +the impulsive movement towards her. He took her hand and bowed over it a +deep bow, a little quixotic perhaps, and hurried away without trusting +himself to speak. Outside he went rushing along as though the blocks +were mere steps, swinging his cane and humming to himself gloriously. He +was so happy that the thought that any one else could be unhappy, that +any disaster could threaten her or any one who belonged to her, seemed +incredible. + +"Everything is going to turn out all right," he repeated to himself +confidently. "Everything; I feel it." + +He went back to the Court radiant and gay and dressed for dinner, +surprising Granning, who came in preoccupied and anxious, with the flow +of animal spirits. At the sight of his contagious happiness Granning +looked at him with a knowing smile. + +"Well, things aren't so black after all, then?" + +"You bet they're not!" + +"Glad to hear it. You had me scared last night. My guess is that +something besides stocks and bonds must have cheered you up," he added +suspiciously with a wise nod of his head. "Glad to see it, old fellow. +You've been mum and gloomy as a hippopotamus long enough." + +"Have I?" said Bojo, laughing with a little confusion. "Well, I'm not +going to be any longer. You're an old hippopotamus yourself." He got him +around the knees and flung him with an old time tackle on the couch, and +they were scrambling and laughing thus when the telephone rang. It was +Patsie's voice, very faint and pitiful. + +"Have you heard? The Clearing House has refused to clear for the +Atlantic Trust. Oh, Bojo, what does it mean?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +ONE LAST CHANCE + + +Bojo came away from the telephone with a face so grave that Granning +greeted him with an involuntary exclamation: + +"Good heavens, Bojo, what's wrong?" + +"The Atlantic Trust has gone under. The Clearing House refused to clear. +You know what that means." + +"But, I say, you're not affected. You've been out of the market for +months. I say, you didn't have anything up." + +"No, no," said Bojo grimly. He went and sat down, his head in his hands. +"I'm not thinking of myself. Some one else. I can't tell you; you must +guess. It will probably all be out soon enough. By George, this is a +cropper." + +"I think I understand," said Granning slowly. He sat down in turn, +kicking his toes against the twisted andirons on the hearth. "The +Atlantic Trust--and a billion--who knows, a billion and a half deposits! +What the deuce are we coming to? It will hit us all--bad times!" + +Bojo got up heavily and went out. Hardly had he stepped from the leafy +isolation of the Court into the strident conflict of Times Square when +he felt the instant alarm that great disasters instantaneously convey +to a metropolitan crowd. Newspaper trucks were screaming past, halting +to fling out great bunches of the latest extras to fighting, scrambling +groups of street urchins who dispersed, screaming their shrill evil in +high-pitched, contagion-spreading voices. Every one was devouring the +last panic-ridden sheet, some hurrying home, others stopping in their +tracks spellbound to read to the end. He bought an extra hastily from a +strident newsboy who thrust it in his face. The worst was true. The +great Atlantic Trust had been refused clearance. Darkest suspicions were +thrown upon its solvency. The names of other banks, colossal +institutions, were linked under the same awful rumors. The morrow would +see a run on a dozen banks such as the generation had not witnessed. He +hailed a taxicab and hurried uptown. Drake had told him that everything +depended upon the Atlantic Trust. Now that this had gone under did this +mean his absolute ruin? Patsie was already waiting for him as he drew up +before the great gray stone mansion. She flung herself in his arms, +trembling and physically unnerved. He was afraid that she was going to +collapse completely and began solicitously to whisper in her ear many +deceptive words of hope and comfort. + +"It may not be so bad. Your father--have you seen your father? How do +you know what he has done? Perhaps he has come to some agreement this +afternoon. Perhaps he has saved himself by some bold stroke. I believe +him capable of anything." + +She stopped the futile flow of words with her fingers across his lips. + +"Oh, how happy we were this afternoon," she said, for the moment almost +breaking down. But immediately the Spartan courage which was at the +bottom of her character prevailed. She drew herself up, saying so +quietly that he was surprised: + +"Bojo, we mustn't deceive ourselves. This is the end, I know it. +Whatever is to come we must help immediately." + +"Yet I still feel, I can't help it, that something may have happened. He +may have been able to do something to-day." + +"I wish I could feel so," she said sadly. + +With her hand still in his she led the way into the great library, which +seemed a region of mystifying and gloomy things, lit only by the lights +of the desk lamps. + +"All we can do is to wait," she said. + +"Have you seen your mother?" he said at last. + +She shook her head. "It is useless. I have no influence over her. Doris +perhaps, or Doris' husband; she might do something for fear of what +others might think of her, but she wouldn't do it for me." + +"I can't understand it at all," he said, shaking his head. + +"I can," she said quietly. "My mother doesn't love him. She has never +loved him. She married him just as Doris and Dolly married, for money, +for position." + +"But even then--" + +"Yes, even then," she took up with a laugh that had tears in it. +"Wouldn't you think that for the sake of the family name and honor, out +of just simple ordinary gratitude for what had been given her, she would +part with the half, even a third of her fortune? But you do not know my +mother. When she has made up her mind nothing will ever change it." + +"Let us hope you are wrong." + +She laughed again and began walking up and down, her hands clenched, +trying to think of some way out. + +"Poor Dad, just when he needs all his courage to go on fighting! This, +too, has broken him up. That's the only sort of a blow he couldn't get +over." + +The butler came in at this moment, announcing dinner. + +"No, no; not for me," she said. "I couldn't; but you, perhaps?" + +"No, not until your father comes back." + +The butler went out. Bojo held out his hand to her, saying: "Come here; +sit down by me." Worn out by the strain of emotions, she obeyed quietly. +She came to take a seat on the sofa beside him, looked a moment into his +eyes, saw the depths of tenderness and sympathy there and with a tired, +fleeting smile laid her head gratefully on his shoulder. + +It was almost eleven o'clock before Drake came wearily in. They were +exhausted with the long tensity of their vigil, waiting for every sound +that would announce his arrival, but at his entrance they stood up, +vibrantly alert. One glance at Drake, at the hunted and harassed look +across his forehead told Bojo that the worst had happened. Patsie went +to her father bravely with a steady smile that never wavered and put her +arms around his neck. + +"Pretty bad, isn't it, Dad?" she said. + +He nodded, incapable for the moment of speech. + +"I am so sorry. Never mind, even if we have to begin at the bottom we +will win out again." + +Bojo had come up and taken his free hand, looking in his eyes anxiously +for the answer. + +"I guess the game is up," said Drake at last. "There is only one chance, +and though I swore I never would do it--" he stopped a moment, running +his hand over Patsie's golden curls, "I guess I'll have to swallow my +pride," he said. + +"You're going to her," said the daughter, shuddering. + +"Once more," he said, grimly. + +Leaving her he went to the little table by the desk and poured out a +stiff drink. + +"Whew, what a day! Two hours more and I might have pulled through; I +thought I had it all fixed up, but that Clearing House mess ended that! +You can't sell men eggs at five cents a piece when they know to-morrow +they can get the same at three cents." + +He tried to smile, but back of it all Bojo was alarmed to see the +disorder in the physical and moral man which had gained over him since +yesterday. Despite Drake's determination to assume a stoic attitude he +felt the biting bitterness and revolt that was gnawing at his soul. + +Patsie wanted him to sit down to rest a moment, to have something, if +only a morsel, brought in, but he refused absent-mindedly. + +"No, no, I must get it over with. I must know where I stand." + +Still he delayed his departure, evidently revolting against the role +which he had determined to play. + +"Your mother is home?" he said abruptly. + +"She is home--in her room," said Patsie. + +He took a final turn before at last making up his mind, then he gave a +short gesture of his hand towards them, saying: + +"Wait." + +The next moment he went out, not with the old accustomed swinging gait, +but with a lagging step as though already convinced of the futility of +his errand. + +"He is doing it for his daughters," thought Bojo; "only that would make +him so humble himself." He felt with a little compunction that he had +judged Drake rather harshly, for in these last interviews it had seemed +to him at times that there had been an absence of that gameness which in +his mind he would like to have associated with the romantic figure of +the manipulator. Now with the secrets of the household laid bare to him +he felt strongly the inner vulnerability of such men. Able outwardly to +defy the great turns of fortune and present a smiling front to +adversity, yet unable to resist the mortal blow which strikes at the +vital regions in their sentiments and their affections. Implacable as he +had been, neither giving nor asking quarter in his struggles with his +own kind, Bojo at length realized the tenderness and pride amounting +almost to a weakness with which he idolized his own. What he had seen +working in the soul of the man in this last half hour made him feel more +than simply the ruin of his worldly possessions. The moment was too +tense for words, the issue too tremendous. They sat side by side, his +hand over hers, staring ahead, waiting. + +Ten minutes, half an hour elapsed without a sound. He pictured to +himself to what arguments and entreaties the desperate father must +resort, trying through his inexperience to visualize the drama in one of +these domestic scenes which pass unguessed. + +Patsie heard him first. She sprang up with a sharp intaking of her +breath. He rose less precipitately, hearing at last the sound of +returning footsteps. The next moment Drake came into the room and stood +gazing at the two erect figures of the young man and the young girl. +Then he tried to smile and couldn't. Her instinct guessed on the instant +what had happened. She went to him swiftly and put her arms about his +shoulders as though to support him. + +"Never mind, Dad," she said bravely. "Don't you care, money isn't +everything in this world. Whatever happens, you've got me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE DELUGE + + +The next day the deluge broke. + +On leaving Patsie and her father he had gone down the Avenue in a vain +hope that his father might be in town, hoping to catch him at his hotel. +On his way to his amazement he perceived a long line of curious shapes +stretched along the sidewalk. As he came nearer he saw a file of men and +women, some standing, some seated, camped out for the night. Then he +noticed above all the great white columns of the Atlantic Trust and he +realized that these were the first frightened outposts of the army of +despair and panic which would come storming at the doors on the morrow. +By the morning a dozen banks scattered over the city were besieged by +frantic hordes of depositors, a dozen others hastily preparing against +the impending tide of evil rumor and disaster. + +With the opening of the Stock Exchange the havoc began, for with the +threatened collapse of gigantic banking systems orders came pouring in +from all over the country to sell at any price. In the wild hours that +ensued holdings were thrown on the market in such quantities that the +machinery of the Stock Exchange was momentarily paralyzed. Stocks were +selling at half a dozen figures simultaneously, until it became a human +impossibility for the frantic brokers to fulfil the demands that came +pouring in on them to sell at any price. Any rumor was believed and +shouted frantically: receivers were to be appointed for a dozen +institutions: the State Superintendent's investigation was showing +incredible defalcations and misuses of funds. Indictments were to be +returned against the most prominent men in the financial world, and at +the close of the day on top of the wildest fabrications of the +imagination came the supreme horror of fact. Majendie, the president of +the Atlantic Trust, was dead, slain by his own hand. But what happened +this day would be nothing to the morrow. + +At Patsie's frantic request Bojo went down in the late forenoon to see +Mr. Swift. He had to wait almost an hour in the outer offices, watching +breathless, frantic men, men of fifty and sixty as panic-stricken as +youngsters of twenty-five, breaking under the strain of their first +knowledge of overwhelming ruin, an indiscriminate convulsive mass +pouring in and out. Then a door opened and a secretary issued him in. +Mr. Swift received him with an agitated clutch of the hand, and valuing +the precious seconds, without waiting for his questions, burst out: + +"Mr. Crocker, it's absolutely humanly impossible for me to do what Miss +Drake requested. We disposed yesterday of over forty thousand dollars. +To sell now would be a financial slaughter to which I simply will not +give my permission. Moreover, it's all very well to talk of selling, but +who's going to buy?" + +"If you can't sell," said Bojo, gloomily, "Miss Drake would like to +know what you could raise on her holdings as security." + +"She wants to know?" said Mr. Swift, on edge with the anxiety of twenty +operations to be safe-guarded, "I'll tell you. Not a hundred thousand +dollars, nor ten thousand. There isn't an institution that would dare +weaken its cash supply to-day on any security offered. Mr. Crocker, say +for me that I absolutely and completely refuse to offer a single +security." A door opened and back of the secretary the faces of two new +visitors were already to be seen. Mr. Swift with scant ceremony seized +his hand and dismissed him. "It can't be done, that's all; it can't be +done." + +Bojo went out and telephoned the result. He even tried, though he knew +the futility of the attempt, to place a loan at two banks where he was +known, one his own and the other the depository for the Crocker Mills. +At the first he got no further than a subordinate, who threw up his +hands at the first mention of his plan. At the latter he gained a +moment's opportunity to state his demand to the vice-president, who had +known him from childhood. The refusal was as instantaneous. The banks +were coming to the aid of no one, frightened for their own security. He +even attempted to call up his father on long distance, but after long, +tedious waits he was unable to locate him. What he would have asked of +him he did not quite know, only that he was seeking frantically some +means, some way, to come to the assistance of the girl he loved, even +though in his heart he knew the futility of her attempt; perhaps even +despite his admiration for her unselfishness, glad that the sacrifice +could not be made. He went up later in the afternoon to explain to her +all he had tried to do, to get her to go for a short ride up the river +in order to snatch a little rest and calm, but Patsie refused +obstinately. She was afraid that at any moment her father might return +and call for her, declaring that she must be ready to go to him. Perhaps +she had fears that she did not express even to him, but she remained as +she had remained all day, waiting feverishly. Drake did not come back +until long after midnight. Then there were conferences to be held in his +library far into the gray morning. Everything seemed topsy-turvy. The +night was like the daytime. At every hour an automobile came rustling +up, a hurried ring of the bell followed by a ghostly flitting passage +into the library of strange, hurrying figures. Drake was no longer the +dejected, resigned man, broken in pride and courage, of the night +before. He put them aside hastily with a swift, convulsive hug for his +daughter and a welcoming handshake for Bojo. He would say nothing and +they could guess nothing of all the desperate remedies that were being +discussed and acted upon in the shifting conference within the library. +It was after four o'clock when Bojo left, after persuading Patsie of the +uselessness of further vigil. He felt too tremulously awake for need of +sleep. He went down the Avenue and in the convalescing gray of the weak +and sickly dawn passed the growing lines of depositors still obstinately +clinging to their posts, feeling as though he were walking a world of +nightmares and alarms. About seven o'clock he came back to the Court for +a tub and a cup of coffee. There he received news of Fred DeLancy, who +had been in frantically the night before begging for loans to back up +his disappearing margins. Neither Marsh nor Granning could come to his +assistance and he had left absolutely unnerved, vowing that he would be +wiped out if he could not raise only ten thousand dollars before the +morrow. Bojo shook his head. He had no desire to help him. The few +thousands he still retained seemed to him something miraculously solid +and precious in the whirling evaporation of fictitious values. There was +nothing he could do before the arrival of Doris and her husband, if +anything could be done then. He went down again to Wall Street merely as +a matter of curiosity and entered the spectators' gallery in the Stock +Exchange. The panic there had become a delirium. He stood leaning over +the railing gazing profoundly down into this frenzy which had once been +his life. Removed from its peril--judging it. What he saw was ugly to +look upon. A few figures stood out grim, game and defiant to the last, +meeting the crisis as sportsmen facing the last chance. But for the +rest, the element of the human seemed to have disappeared in the animal +madness of beasts trapped awaiting destruction. These shifting, +struggling, contending clumps of men, shrieking and hoarse, all strength +cast to the winds, fighting for the last disappearing rung of financial +security, gave him a last final distaste of the life he had renounced. +He went out and passed another howling group of savages on the curb, +feeling all at once the high note of tragedy that lies in the +manifestation of obliterating rage of a great people disposing finally +of all the shallow horde of petty parasites that are eliminated by the +cleansing force of a great panic. + +Doris arrived in the late afternoon and there was a family consultation, +at which he was not present. Whatever might have been done the week +before the issue had been decided. Drake's fate was in the hands of +Gunther, to whose house he had been summoned that night to learn the +terms which would be accorded him by the group of financial leaders who +had been hastily organized to save the country from the convulsion which +now threatened to overwhelm every industry and every institution. + +At midnight Drake returned a ruined man, stripped of every possession, a +bankrupt. Only Patsie and Bojo were there when he came in. A certain +calm seemed to have replaced the unnatural febrile activity of the last +forty-eight hours, the calm of accepted defeat, the end of hopes, the +certainty of failure. + +"It's over," he said with a nod of recognition. "They got me. I'm rather +hungry; let's have something to eat." + +"What do you mean by it's over?" said Patsie, coming towards him. "You +lost?" He nodded. "How much?" + +"Stripped clean." + +"You mean that there's nothing left, not a cent?" + +For the first time the old hunted look came back to his eyes. "It's +worse than that," he said. "It's what's got to be made good. Your Daddy +is a bankrupt, Patsie, one million and a half to the bad." + +"You owe that?" + +"Pretty close to it." + +"But what will you do? They can't put you to prison." + +"Oh, no," he said grimly, "there's nothing to be ashamed of in it; that +is, so far." He stopped a moment and watching him closely they both +divined that he was thinking of his wife. "If worse comes to worse," he +added moodily, "I've got to find some way of paying that over, every +cent of it." + +"But, Mr. Drake," said Bojo hastily, "surely there is no reason why you +should feel that way. Others have met misfortune--been forced into +bankruptcy. Every one will know that it could not be helped, that +conditions were against you, that you were forced into it." + +"And every one," he said quickly, speaking without reserve for the first +time, "will say that Dan Drake knew how to fail at the right time and in +the right way." He gave a wave of his hand as though to indicate the +great house of which he was thinking, and added bitterly: "What will +they think of this, when this goes on? They'll think just one +thing--that I worked a crooked, double-crossing game and salted away my +fortune behind a petticoat! By God, that's what hurts!" He brought down +his fist with an outburst of anger such as they had never seen in him +before and sprang up trembling and heavy. "No, by Heavens, if I fail she +can't go on with her millions." The rage that possessed him made him +seemingly oblivious to their presence. "Oh, what a fool, a blind, +contemptible fool I've been! If she is worth a cent she is worth four +millions to-day, and every cent I made for her, I gave to her. Talk +about business heads, there is not a one of us can touch her. Oh, she's +known all right what she has been doing all these years. She took no +chances. She knew when to work me and how to work me. Clever? Yes, she's +clever and as cold as they make 'em. Under all her pretense of being +weak and sickly, tears and hysterics, you can't beat her." + +"Oh, Daddy, Daddy," said Patsie, laying her hand on his arm to calm him, +"she can't, she won't refuse to come to your help now when it's a +question of honor, our honor and her honor. I know, I promise you, we +will pay over every cent of what you owe." + +"You think so? Try!" + +"Daddy," said Patsie quietly, "I have $500,000 you gave me. Bojo and I +tried our best to sell them and raise money for you. If you had only let +me know sooner perhaps we could have. Every cent of that will go to you. +Doris, too, I know, will give her third. We will only ask my mother for +what we are giving ourselves. That she will not refuse, she cannot, she +won't dare. Daddy, there is one thing you must not worry about. We won't +let any one say a single word against you. Every cent you owe shall be +paid. I'll promise you that." + +At the first mention of what she had done, Drake turned and stared at +her, deaf to what had followed. When she ended tears were in his eyes. +For a moment he could not control his voice. + +"You did that?" he said at last. "You would have done that?" + +"Why, Dad," she said, smiling, "I couldn't do anything else." + +He took her suddenly in his arms and the touch of kindness broke him +down where everything else had failed. Bojo turned hastily away, not to +intrude on the sanctity of the scene. When a long moment afterwards +Patsie called him back from the window where he had been standing Drake +seemed to have grown suddenly old and feeble. + +"I want you to wait here, Bojo dear," she said as determined as her +father seemed without will or energy. "I am going to settle this now. I +am going to see my mother. Don't worry." + +She went out after bending lightly for a last kiss and a touch of her +hand, over the weak shoulders. + +Left alone, there was a long silence. Finally Drake arose and began to +pace the floor, talking to himself, stopping from time to time with +sudden contractions of the arms, clutches of the fists, to take a long +breath and shake his head. When Bojo was least expecting it, he came to +him abruptly and said: + +"Tom, I tell you this, and you may believe I mean it--that it's going to +be. Not one cent will I take from that child. With all that I provided +for the others she's not going to be left a pauper. It's got to be my +wife who stands by me in this." In his excitement he seized the young +man by the wrist so that the fingers cut into his flesh. "It's got to be +her and only her, do you understand, or else--" He stopped with a wild +glance, with a disorder that left Bojo cold with apprehension, and +suddenly as though afraid to say too much Drake dropped the young man's +wrist roughly and went and sat down, covering his face with his hands. + +"I mean it," he said, and several times he repeated the phrase as though +to himself. + +They spoke no more. Bojo on the edge of his chair sat staring at the +older man, turning over what he had heard, not daring to think. At the +end of a long wait a maid knocked and came in. + +"Mr. Crocker, please. Miss Drake would like you to come to her mother's +room." + +Bojo, startled, sprang up hastily, saying: "All right, right away." He +turned, striving to find a word of encouragement, hesitated, and went +out. + +When he came into the little sitting room which gave on to Mrs. Drake's +private apartments he found the two confronting each other, Patsie erect +and scornful, with flashing, angry eyes, and her mother, in a hastily +donned wrapper and bedroom cap, clutching a sort of blue lace quilt, +sunk hysterically in the depths of a great armchair. At the first glance +he guessed the scene of cries and reproaches which had just ended. At +his entrance Mrs. Drake burst out furiously: + +"I won't have it; I won't be insulted like this. Mr. Crocker, I desire +you, I command you, to leave the room. It's enough that my daughter +should take advantage of me. I will not be shamed before strangers." + +"Lock the door," said Patsie quietly, "and keep the key." + +He did so and came back to her side. + +"Don't mind what she says," said Patsie scornfully. "She's not ill, +she's not hysterical, it's all put on: she knows just what she's doing." + +At this Mrs. Drake burst into exaggerated sobs and shrank down into the +chair, covering her face with the quilt she clung to, without +perception of the grotesqueness of her act. + +"Now, you're going to listen to me," said Patsie, striving to remain +calm through her anger. "You don't fool me the least bit, so you might +just as well listen quietly. I know just how much money you have and +every cent of it has been given to you by my father. You are worth over +four million dollars, I know that." + +"It's not true, that's a lie," said Mrs. Drake with a scream. + +"It is true," continued Patsie calmly, "and you know it's true. This +house is yours and everything in it. Do you want me to tell you exactly +what stocks and bonds you have at the present moment? Shall I have my +father come in, too, and tell us in detail just what he has given you +all these years? Do you want that?" She waited a moment and added +scornfully: "No, I rather guess that is not what you want. I asked you +before to help raise a loan to save him from losing what he had. You +could have done it: you refused. Now I am asking you to give exactly +what I shall give and what Doris will give, $500,000, so there will be +nothing, not the slightest reproach against his good name, against the +name you bear and I bear. Will you do it or not?" + +"You don't know what you are talking about," cried the mother wildly. +"It's $500,000 now, it's $500,000 to-morrow and then it's everything. +You want me to ruin myself. You think just because he's gone on risking +everything, just because he never could be satisfied, that I should +suffer, too. You want me to make a pauper of myself. Well, I won't. +What right had he to risk money that didn't belong to him? What right +have you to reproach me, abuse me?" + +Bojo attempted to burst in on the stream of meaninglessness and repeated +phrases. He, too, saw through the assumption of hysteria, shielding +behind a cloak of weakness a cold and covetous woman. + +"My dear Mrs. Drake," he said icily, "you are proud of your position in +society. Let me put this to you. Don't you realize that if your husband +fails for a million and a half and you continue living as you have lived +that it will be a public scandal? Don't you realize what people will +say?" + +"No, I don't," she cried: "I don't admit any such ridiculous nonsense. I +know that I have a right to my life, to my existence. I know what is +mine is mine. If he has lost money, other people have lost money in the +same way who gamble just as he has. They should take their losses, too, +without coming to people who are not responsible, who don't believe in +such things. And then what good will it do? The money's mine. Why throw +good money after bad? I tell you that he has never had a thought about +the duties and responsibilities to his family; I have. I won't +impoverish myself, I won't impoverish my family, I won't, I won't, and I +won't be badgered and brow-beaten in this brutal way. You're a bad +daughter, you've always been a disobedient, wicked daughter. You've +always been this way to me from the first. Now you think you can force +me into this, but you shan't." + +"Mother," started Patsie stonily, but she was interrupted by a fresh +torrent of words. + +"No, no, I can't, I won't, I'm ill, I have been ill for days. Do you +want to kill me? I suppose that's what you want. Go on. Put me down, +make me ill. Oh, my God, my God, I can't stand it, I can't stand it. I +can't. Ring for the doctor, the doctor or some one." + +"Come away," said Bojo, taking Patsie by the arm as Mrs. Drake went into +the paroxysm which she knew was perfectly assumed. "It's useless trying +to say anything more to her. To-morrow perhaps Doris and her husband may +have more effect." + +They went out without even looking back. + +Patsie was in such a rage of indignation, shaking from head to foot, +that he had to take her in his arms and quiet her. + +"What shall we say to Daddy?" she said at last in despair. + +"Lie," he said. "Tell him that it will be done." + +But when they came back into the library Drake was gone. He didn't +return all that night. Afterwards from what they learned he must have +spent the night hours in wandering about the city. + +The next morning Mrs. Drake locked her doors, sent word by a doctor that +she was too ill to see any one, that seeing them might have disastrous +effects. Despite which they forced an entrance and with Doris and her +husband present went over again the same shameful and degrading scene of +the night before. Nothing could shake Mrs. Drake, neither remonstrances +nor scorn nor tears. Drake returned haggard and wild-eyed towards noon +to learn the result, which they were unable to conceal from him. He went +out immediately. At five o'clock he was taken to a hospital, having been +run over by an autobus. Various stories as to how this happened were +circulated. The insurance company which carried his life insurance +attempted to prove suicide in vain. The testimony of witnesses all +seemed to point to an accident. He had started across the street, had +lost his hat and in stooping to pick it up slipped and fallen underneath +the wheels. + +Death resulted a few hours later. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE AFTER-YEARS + + +When Daniel Drake's affairs were wound up it was found that with the +sums derived from his life insurance there remained a deficit of a +little over $400,000. In this crisis the old loyal and generous spirit +of Doris returned for perhaps the last time. She wished to take upon +herself the total indebtedness, but Patsie would not listen to this. She +would have preferred perhaps in her devotion to the name of her father +to have shouldered all the responsibility with a certain fierce pride. +In the end the sum was divided. The younger sister left the house of her +mother and went to stay for a short while at Doris's. + +It was given out officially that Mrs. Drake's health had been wrecked by +the family catastrophes. She left shortly for Paris, Rome and the +Italian Riviera, where her health speedily improved and she passed the +remainder of her life as an exile with a pronounced aversion to anything +American. + +The panic which swept over the country, leveling the poor and rich +alike, gradually subsided into a long period of depression. Fred DeLancy +lost every cent he had and became dependent upon his wife's career. He +dropped completely out of society. A few of his friends saw him at rare +moments, but whenever he could he avoided such encounters, for they +recalled to him the expectations of his earlier days. Fate, which had +played him several rude turns, had however a compensation in store. With +the arrival of the dance craze several years later Mr. and Mrs. Fred +DeLancy, who were of the first to seize its possibilities, became +suddenly the rage of society, and in the letting down of barriers that +followed the frantic rush from boredom among our most conservative sets +the DeLancys regained curiously enough a certain social position. +Adversity had taught him the value of making money. Guided by the hands +of one of those remarkable and adroit personages that instigate and +expand popularity, the press agent, Fernando Wiskin, a genius of +diplomacy, the DeLancy craze overran the country. They had their own +restaurant, with dancing studios attached, and an after midnight dancing +club. They appeared in the movies, made trips to Europe. They set a +dozen fashions, they inspired sculptors, illustrators and caricaturists, +and raised up a host of imitators, some better and some worse. Properly +coached, they received fees for instruction a surgeon might envy, but as +once a gambler always a gambler, what they made miraculously they spent +hugely, and despite all warnings it would surprise no one if with the +turning of the fickle public from one fad to another the DeLancys, after +spending $50,000 a year, would end just as poor as they began. + +Roscoe Marsh, hard hit by the panic, after steady reverses consequent +upon a rather visionary adventure into journalism, found himself +compelled to part with his newspaper to a syndicate organized by his +own city editor, a man who had come up from the ranks, who had long +bided his opportunity, a self-made American of the type that looks +complacently upon the arrival in the arena of the sons of great fortunes +with a belief that an equalizing Providence has sent them into the world +to be properly sheared. Marsh, despite these reverses, still retained a +considerable fortune, constantly augmented by a large family of uncles, +aunts and cousins whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to die at +opportune moments. He became interested in many radical movements, +rather from the need of dramatic excitement than love of publicity or +any deep conviction. At the bottom, however, he believed himself the +most sincere man in the world, and for a long time continued to believe +that he had a mission to perform. + +George Granning became one of the solid men of the steel trade. Of the +four young men who had met that night on the Astor roof and prophesied +their futures he was the only one to fulfil his program to the minutest +detail. He married, rose to the managership of the Garnett foundries, +left them to become general manager of a subsidiary to the steel +corporation at a salary of which he had never dreamed. He became a close +student of industrial conditions and outside of his business career +found time to serve on many boards of arbitration and industrial +investigation. Though his intellectual growth had been slower than his +more gifted companions he had never relinquished a single fact acquired. +At thirty-five he was constantly broadening, constantly curious for new +interests. He went into politics and became more and more a power in +party councils, and though not aspiring to office himself was speedily +appointed to offices of social research and usefulness. + +The panic extended its paralyzing influence over the histories of +industries of the nation. A month after the events recorded in the last +chapter Bojo was still deliberating on his course of action when he +learnt by accident the serious crisis confronting the Crocker Mills. +With the knowledge that his father needed him he hesitated no longer, +and taking the train by impulse one morning arrived as his father was +sitting down to breakfast with the announcement that he had come to +stay. + +Before the year was over he had married Patsie, settled down in the +little mill town to face the arduous struggle for the survival of the +fabric which his father had so painfully erected. For three years he +worked without respite, more arduously than he believed it was possible +for any man to work. Due to this devotion the Crocker Mills weathered +the financial depression and emerged triumphantly with added strength as +a leader and model among factory communities of the world. Despite the +sacrifices and extraordinary demands made upon his knowledge and his +youth, he found these years the best in his life, with a realization +that his leadership had its significance in the welfare and growth of +thousands of employees. When, the battle won, he removed with his family +to New York and larger interests, there were times when he confided to +his wife that life seemed to be robbed of half its incentive. In +connection with Granning, to whom he had grown closer in bonds of +friendship, he devoted his time and money more and more to the problems +of Americanizing the great alien industrial populations of this country +with such enthusiasm that he in more than one quarter was suspected of +believing in the most radical socialistic ideas. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Making Money, by Owen Johnson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAKING MONEY *** + +***** This file should be named 33761.txt or 33761.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/7/6/33761/ + +Produced by Annie McGuire + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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